Women in media: Why still the gender gap?

Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer in The Newsroom

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Research carried out by lecturers at City University who studied the output of mainstream TV and radio stations show that there are three times as many male as female reporters. It also revealed that when an 'expert' voice is used it's far more likely to be male than female. Flora Neve looks into why we still seem to be so far behind when it comes to gender and the media.

Two years after a campaign was launched to increase the number of women heard on TV and radio, a report has revealed that the number of men working as reporters in the UK still vastly exceeds the number of women. City University have carried out a study which looked at all the main news programmes including Radio 4’s Todayprogramme, as well as four of the main TV news bulletins. It’s found there are 3 times more men working as reporters than women, and that reporting teams are dominated by men aged between 30 and 50. We spoke to Lis Howells, Director of Broadcasting at City University, who carried out the research. "It’s very strange there is such a big gap. Particularly since about 70 percent of entry journalists are women and many want to go on air. I think there is a deep-seated resistance to change which means women don’t get the opportunities." The Today programme has fewer female interviewees and presenters than any of the other programmes monitored. 'Expertise' and confidence: As well as analysing who was doing the reporting on the main news services, the report also looked at what ‘expert’ voices were being used by TV and radio stations, and found that they too were overwhelmingly male. The report found that of the women experts who were used, many felt unsure about identifying themselves as an expert in their field – suggesting that confidence can be an issue. In the interviews carried out many said they were anxious about being thought to be ‘pushy’ – a pejorative word almost exclusively used against women in the work place. Suzanne Franks is a Professor in the Department of Journalism at City. As well as lack of confidence women often feel to speak up, she says lack of imagination on the part of broadcasters is another issue. "The fact that we still have such an overwhelming proportion of male experts shows people are unimaginative – they don’t use their contact books the way they should, they just go back to the tried, familiar faces. And women are more hesitant to come forward, they often say no, and unless a bit more effort is made to doing something about that, nothing is going to change." Journalism schools in the UK often have a higher number of female than male students, but these ratios aren’t translating to the work place. Previous research has found that political reporting in particular - from Whitehall or the Houses of Parliament - is more often than not by men, as is investigative journalism, whereas women are still more likely to cover soft stories like lifestyle and arts features. Eastern Europe does better: This contrasts with Eastern European countries like Estonia and Bulgaria, where research has found women journalists are better represented. This has been attributed to the Soviet-era practice of educating women and moving them into the work force in great numbers. Having a lack of females reporting on the news, some say, directly impacts how women engage with current affairs. Last year, research by Goldsmiths University and the Economic and Social Research Council revealed that in so-called advanced democracies like the UK, women know less about politics than men. One of the academics who worked on the report was quick to point out that many political news stories don’t feature women and this can make them feel disconnected. Risk of alienation: Helen Goodman MP is the shadow media secretary. She says that if this issue of female representation is not tackled, then it risks alienating women audiences and creating apathy amongst voters. "We’ve got a situation in England when younger people are less likely to vote than old age pensioners. If we want to have a proper functioning democracy, everyone has to feel connected with the debate. One way to feel connected is to see people like yourself represented in the discussions." Social media has often been heralded as an alternative space where diverse voices can raise opinions without being subject to the hierarchy that clearly still operates in traditional media channels. However, according to Franks, new technology hasn’t made much of a difference to things. "Everybody said it was going to be different. But the evidence is things are not changing as much as you think . you get a lot of women talking and writing about the so-called ‘pink ghetto’ areas but you don’t get many women talking outside those topics- not in the proportions you should be getting." City University is planning to carry out more research into issues of gender and the media. (VoR). Source: Voice of Russia - UK Edition

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Book Review: Curiosity

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(image by Andre Martins de Barros)

Curiosity by Joan Thomas. If you know anything about the history of earth science, you will know the name Lyme Regis, neither as English beach resort, nor as the set of Persuasion but as cliffs which were key to early 19th century understanding of the very nature of fossils, and the beginning of paleontology.Curiosity is a novel based on the life of Mary Anning, "fossilist", dealer and paleontologist. Anning was an outsider in every way - a working class woman, a religious dissenter, whose natural intelligence, insight, sense of injustice and largely self-taught knowledge set her apart. At a time when women were not even allowed to attend the meetings of the Geological Society of London, let alone belong to the Society, some upper class gentlemen-scientists seemed barely capable of acknowledging the daughter of a cabinet maker as a fellow human being (citing the gentlemen who purchased her fossil finds, rather than name her), most of her siblings did not even survive childhood and geologists were still trying to explain dinosaur fossils in terms of the Biblical flood story, Anning single-handedly found, identified and excavated dinosaur, fish and marine fossils (the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified, the first two plesiosaur skeletons ever found, the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany). Other real-life characters appear in the novel, including, Henry De la Beche, William Buckland, William Conybeare and Elizabath Philpot - all of whom owe certainly their fossil collections, and some of their fame and success in science to the discoveries of Anning. This is a novel, and a love story. Joan Thomas relied on primary sources which allude to a secret of Anning's, possibly thwarted love. She takes the liberty to interpret this as a love between Mary and Anning's great supporter and friend, who eulogized her to the Geological Society, Henry De la Beche. De la Beche was a bit of an iconoclast himself - expelled from military college for insubordination, willing to question received wisdom and be an actual scientist, rather than a theological apologist, and able to recognize genius in a woman, and a working-class woman at that. Nontheless, he also was a plantation -and slave-owner in Jamaica, for all his otherwise progressive beliefs. It makes for a rich story, of memorable, rounded characters, in a time of change and discovery. Source: Maqpie And Whiskeyjack

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Get ready for Singularity: it’s closer to reality than we think

By: Edie Lush, I HAVE spent a lot of the past week checking out Ray Kurzweil’s world after reading Carole Cadwalladr’s interview with him in The Observer. It is a pretty eye-opening experience. Google’s new director of engineering estimates that computers will gain ‘consciousness’ by 2029 - i.e. when the machines have learned to make their own decisions. Kurzweil

is one of the poster boys of Singularity, defined by Wikipedia as the "moment in time when artificial  intelligence will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence”. Associated with this are the concepts of Human 2.0 or Transhumanism, which are when humans begin to augment or replace parts of themselves with robots or computers. Kurzweil has a great deal to say about a future in which we have reverse-engineered the brain - i.e. figured out what every bit of our grey matter does, how and why. According to Kurzweil, "By 2030, reverse-engineering of the human brain will have been completed and non-biological intelligence will merge with our biological brains.” (He wrote this in 2003 by the way.) What does this even mean? Well, it means we’ll have connected our brains to computers. They’ll be able to monitor everything we hear, see and think, plus everything in our email box and answer our questions before we’ve thought of them. Asked recently ‘why would we do this?', Kurzweil responded: “Our search engines will… watch everything we're reading and writing and saying and hearing, and then they'll be like an assistant. It'll say... ‘You were wondering who the actor was in that movie with the robot that can speak six million languages and here she is and here's background about her.’  “Since that helps you through the day, we'll answer your questions before you ask them or even before you realise you have a question, and you'll just get used to this information popping up that you wanted and you'll be frustrated if you're thinking about something and it doesn't immediately pop up without you even having to ask for it.” Does that sound far-fetched? In fact, we’re already connecting our minds and bodies to computers. I recently met Olivier Oullier , Professor of Behavioral and Brain Science at Aix-Marseille University, who uses wearable technology and neurofeedback to train people out of cigarette addiction and obesity. With the help of some special glasses (see picture below) which monitor where you are looking, a brain monitor that senses and records what parts of your brain are being activated and your mobile phone, he can train your brain to better control food or cigarette craving in a video-game like setting. Outlier? No. Scientists in Malta have developed software that allows you to control your music (play, fast forward, turn it up to 11) with your brain. Researchers in Washington connected two people’s brains together - allowing one person to control another’s hand movements by thought. The FDA in the US has granted pre-market approval to Neuropace, a company whose brain implant reduces seizures in epileptic patients by identifying dangerous patterns of brain activity. Meanwhile Braingate has implanted sensors in your brain which allow a woman with tetraplegia to use her thoughts to steer a robot arm to grasp a bottle of coffee and lift it to her lips. The scientists at Proteus combine wearable and ingestible sensors to gather information about medication-taking, activity and rest patterns. Can’t remember if you took your last dose of heart medication? Sensors in the pills will send the information to your phone alerting you to rest easy. Most of us with an iPhone have experienced Siri’s (in)ability to translate your voice into simple commands. In my experience its better at calling my mother than finding directions to a restaurant, but while there are numerous, humorous examples of #Sirifails you can bet each version will be better.  And with life-blogging devices like Narrative which capture your every move in pictures (a "searchable and shareable photographic memory”) you can see how we might not be too far away from Kurzweil’s vision of predictive search. #Scaredyet? Edie Lush tweets at @edielush, Source: The Week UK

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Could asthma and eczema in children be caused by fast food?

Photo: SXC

Children and teenagers who eat fast food three times a week are more likely to experience asthma, eczema, and severe symptoms such as wheezing, runny nose and eyes, and itchy skin, according to researchers who have looked at global disease and dietary patterns.

For the study, researchers looked at data on more than 181,000 children between the ages of 6 and 7 from 31 countries, along with the data on 319,000 children between 13 and 14 years of age collected from 51 countries. They were all enrolled in a study that tracked asthma and allergies in children. According to the study, children in their early teens who ate three or more weekly servings of fast food had a 39% increased risk of severe asthma. Six- and seven-year-olds had a 27% increased risk. Eating three or more portions of fruit a week cut the risk of severe asthma, eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis by between 11 and 14 percent. Fast food, such as burgers, pizza and hot-dogs, often contains high levels of saturated- and trans-fatty acids, which are known to affect immunity, while fruit is rich in antioxidants and other beneficial compounds, researchers added. The authors of the study, Prof. Innes Asher, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and Prof. Hywel Williams, from the University of Nottingham in the UK, said, "If the associations between fast foods and the symptom prevalence of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema is causal, then the findings have major public health significance owing to the rising consumption of fast foods globally." However, it is not clear whether the extra risk is caused by junk foods or a relative lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in the diet, which are known to reduce the chances of breathing problems. Source: Voice of Russia

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Two thirds of wi-fi users face service problems

Nearly two thirds (62 per cent) of wi-fi users in the UK are experiencing problems with their wi-fi signal, with 63 per cent suffering from slow speeds, according to new research from Ofcom-accredited comparison site Broadbandchoices.co.uk. In a study that questioned over 2,000 Brits, a further 32 per cent complained that their connection keeps dropping out. Certain activities were more likely to cause these problems than others. When asked what they were doing when the problems occurred, online TV viewing, social networking and music streaming were found to be the most likely culprits: Twenty-one per cent of respondents said they experienced problems whilst using online catch-up or on-demand TV services and 16 per cent said they experienced wi-fi troubles when watching a movie online. Source: Advanced Television

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The Mind-Boggling Numbers Behind India's Election

By The Associated Press: With more than 800 million eligible voters and close to a million polling stations across the country, everything about India's general elections promises to be huge. For six weeks beginning Monday, Indians will head to the polls in nine phases for parliamentary elections in the world's biggest democracy.

Some of the mind-boggling numbers:

• 1.2 billion: India's population.
• 814.5 million: Eligible voters.
• 543: Constituencies where elections are being held.
• 11 million: Election officials, paramilitary officers and police who will preside over the voting process.
• 1.4 million: Electronic voting machines set up for the election.
• $600 million: What the government will spend to conduct the election.
• $72,800 to $113,250: What each political candidate is allowed to spend on his or her election campaign.
• 935,000: Polling stations.
• 28,000: Transgender voters who registered. For the first time, India offered a third gender choice — "other" on voter registration forms.

Courtesy: http://abcnews.go.com/, Source: flickr.com

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Pac-Man breaks projection mapping record

Interactive agency Running In The Halls (RITH) has laid claim to hosting the world’s largest playable projection on a historic industrial building in London, UK. The agency teamed up with AV equipment provider Blitz Communications to achieve the feat which saw the classic video game Pac-Man projected across a 2,219 square metre area, as witnessed by the Guinness Book of Records. TV programme the Gadget Show and Pac-Man creator Namco Bandai commissioned the event to celebrate the 2014 launch of Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures game. The feat is said to have doubled the previously held record for a playable game on a projection mapped building surface. “The game maps were entirely designed around the building,” explained Shay Moradi, a partner in RITH. “The only really tricky part was doing multiple variations of the map so that we could find one that was playable. Ultimately we wanted genuine reactions from the people playing it, we wanted it to be a fun game.” The crew set up outside the ExCel building, which hosted the Plasa show earlier in the year, and projected onto the 1930s Millenium Mills building across the Royal Victoria Docks waterway. A surveyor had measured the whole building down to the centimetre beforehand. Six Barco FLM-HD20 projectors and the company’s ImagePRO video scaler were used for the project, as well as Extron DVI DA 8 Plus distribution amplifiers and Lightware Fiber TX110-RX 110 DVI fibre extenders. RITH describes itself as an interactive agency that designs and develops apps, websites and large scale interactive installations. The firm found itself tasked with a similar projection mapping project on the same building last year, so the territory was not unfamiliar. “The only thing we changed was some the colours to make them suitable for projection,” Moradi said. “For instance the original Pac-Man uses a very deep blue which would have been suitable for CRTs back in the day but we went for a lighter blue to make it really shine and stand out. It looked like it was lasered onto the building, it was that bright.” After putting all this hard work in, the crew had a nail-biting wait for the giant controller to arrive which was to operate the game. It was delivered with just minutes to spare before the record attempt began. The feat will be shown on UK TV Channel 5’s The Gadget Show on 9th December at 8pm. Source: Article, Image: flickr.com

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Is the Queen spending too much?

For the diamond jubilee year the Queen received 31 million pounds of public money. This year she'll have 36.1 million to maintain her palaces, pay her footman and travel to official engagements. Amid heavy government rhetoric about austerity the extra 5 million has angered many. Graham Smith leads the lobby group Republic.

"It is a change in the way they're being funded, but that is still resulting in large amounts of money going to the monarchy that they don't need." But others say the money is justified and it shouldn't be seen as a paycheck made out to Queen Elizabeth II. Thomas Mace Archer Mills is the Chairman of the British Monarchist Society. "The Queen is not being paid. This is how the official expense of Buckingham Palace is funded. This money is no way in shape or form going to her Majesty herself." He says, when it comes to austerity, the Queen has been leading the way. "The Queen has been one of the most frugal people over the decades. These are times of austerity for a lot of people. However, the Queen has been under austerity for going on a decade without any sort of rise for over a decade. And that stems from Labor governments and even from the Conservatives government under John Major when he decommissioned Britannia, which was a Royal yacht, to save money. So Her Majesty has been doing an awful lot to reduce expenditure of the palace." The views on the streets of London were mixed. "I think the work that she does promoting the Commonwealth and the county – yeah, that's well worth within what's being granted to her." "Considering the situation we're in and how many people are getting their benefits cuts, realistically speaking, it's not fair that one person should get a pay rise, when everyone else is suffering." "She’s representing the country. It's probably ok." "I don't agree." The sovereign grant will see the Queen paid 15% of the profit brought in by the Crown Estate, a property portfolio worth more than 8 billion pounds. It includes historic holdings like Regent Street and Ascot Racecourse, as well as commercial assets like shopping centers and agricultural land and about half of the U.K.'s foreshore. Last year profits were up to 214 million pounds, thanks in part to an increase in seabed rental from new wind farm developers. But who owns the Crown Estate? Technically, the reigning monarch does, but all management rights belong to the Crown Estate Commissioners who act like a company board and all profits get fed directly to HM Treasury. So the Crown Estate is like a big property business that aims to make money for the nation. But Graham Smith says many people wrongly believe the Queen owns the Crown Estate and she has a right to the profits it makes. "It's owned by the Crown and the Crown is now owned by the Royal Family. The Crown is part of the state. It's in the gift to Parliament. So you know, the key test is – if you get rid of the monarchy, what happens to the Crown Estate? The answer is nothing. It would stay where it is and money will continue to flow to the state. So there's no payback. The monarchy, the Royal Family aren't given the Crown Estate money. They are simply taking money off us. And we're not getting anything in return." He says there's no justification for spending so much money on the Queen, especially at a time when so many public departments are facing cuts. "I mean any other part of the public sector has to budget each year, has to justify how much money they need and what they want. With the monarchy they just given money arbitrarily, based on some arbitrary figure from the Crown Estate. There's no logic to it. They're simply trying to ensure that the monarchy can get as much money as they can get their hands on and not bother how they spend it." Thomas Mace Archer Mills from the British Monarchist Society takes the opposite view. "This woman is working on behalf of the nation in whole. She's the personification of the state. Any head of state costs money and, unfortunately, Her Majesty is one of the most underfunded government departments in our country. And that's not fair for all that she does." The funding will be up to debate next year, when the government’s watch dog, the Public Accounts Committee, will, for the first time, investigate the way the Queen's income is spent. Labor MP Austin Mitchell will be among those on the committee. "We're there to see how tax fare gets value for money. It is public money that and it's right to look at how it's spent." A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said the 36.1 million pounds, which the Queen will receive this financial year is 15% less in real terms than the Royal household's expenditure 5 years ago. Source: Voice of Russia

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Joe Biden runs up $1Million bill for just Two Nights in London and Paris (and the taxpayer picks up the tab)

Vice President Joe Biden spent more than $1 million for two nights in hotels in London and Paris, according to government documents. Biden and his hefty entourage spent the night at two five-star hotels in early February - one night at the Hyatt Regency London for a total of $459,338.65 and another night at the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand for $585,000.50, Source: The Coming Crisis

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Beckham to promote football in China: will he keep the fee?

AS IF David Beckham has not got enough on his plate what with learning French, the former England captain may also have to take Mandarin classes after becoming China's first global soccer ambassador. The curious appointment will see the veteran midfielder attend league matches in China and visit clubs in the country to promote the game to children, while at the same time playing for Paris Saint-Germain in the French league. The 37-year-old seemed undaunted by the challenge and declared that he was "honoured to have been asked to play such an important role at this special time in Chinese football history". The Chinese Football Association [CFA] said it hoped that Beckham would "attract global attention to Chinese football and the CSL [Chinese Super League]". The appointment comes on the eve of the 10th CSL season and 20 years after the game turned professional in China. However, things have not gone smoothly for the sport in recent times. Former Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka were lured to the country but failed to make an impression. Both players are now back in Europe. Last month the country's top referee, who took charge of a game at the 2002 World Cup, was jailed for five-and-a-half years for taking bribes to fix matches. He was one of nine people convicted after a widespread corruption probe. The CFA also handed out 33 lifetime bans and 25 five-year bans to other players and officials caught up in the scandal. "With the rot so widespread in Chinese football, little wonder the CFA opted for an outsider – someone with clean hands (and feet) – as its ambassador," said the Financial Times. "Chinese officials expect his popularity and influence to restore the game's credibility in their country," reported the Daily Mail. However, there are questions over how much Beckham, who is donating his salary from PSG to charity, will be paid in his new job. Italian sports paper Gazzetta Dello Sport claims the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star could be paid as much as £50m over five years for promoting Chinese football. That claim has been angrily denied in the Chinese media. A CSL spokesman told the People's Daily newspaper that the fee was around £1.7m and would be paid by a "partner company of the International Management Group". Whatever the fee, it is not yet clear whether Beckham will keep the money or donate that too. ISource: The Week UK

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BBC Red Tape war

The BBC is holding a Simplicity Week at its £1 billion Salford base culminating in a simplicity “brainstorm” as the broadcaster seeks to identify “60 fixes” in the next six months. Staff have also been invited to make suggestions to a “simplicity hotline” with an as-yet unidentified prize on offer for the best suggestion. An email address is complemented by a more old-fashioned alternative – a suggestion box in the 5 Live kitchen – with business cards left on people’s desks to encourage their most creative thinking. Various BBC director generals have tried to rein in bureaucracy, but it was Greg Dyke’s yellow card scheme in 2002 that was most memorable. Employees were handed the cards, saying “cut the crap and make it happen”, which were meant to be brandished at meetings to prevent ideas being stifled. The latest efficiency drive – begun by former director general Mark Thompson under the title Delivering Quality First – is part of the BBC’s ongoing effort to save £700 million across the corporation after the licence fee was frozen until 2016, in which the publicly funded broadcaster has promised to reduce the number of tiers of management from nine to seven. The BBC, which employs nearly 22,000 people and spent £4.3bn in the UK in 2011-12, has become renowned for its multi-layered, colourfully titled hierarchy, with job titles such as “thematic adviser, governance”.Source: Advanced-Television

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BBC to screen Rowling's new novel

The BBC will present the screen version of Joanne Rowling’s new book The Casual Vacancy, which came out in September. The premiere of the new TV series is scheduled to take place in 2014, the BBC press service reports. The scene is set in a small provincial town which experiences the aftermath of the death of a local councilor. The book explores challenges facing contemporary society, including class stratification and drug addiction. 125,000 copies were sold in the first week following the publication – the best three-year result of the British book market. J.K.Rowling earned worldwide acclaim thanks to her Harry Potter stories which have all been screened. The Casual Vacancy is deemed Rowling’s first ‘adult’ book. Voice of Russia, Vesti, Image © Collage: Voice of Russia, Source: Voice of Russia

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Growth won't just happen: so when will George Osborne get a grip?

By: RICHARD EHRMAN, IT IS NOT surprising George Osborne looked so nervous when he got up to deliver his Autumn Statement in the Commons yesterday. On virtually every measure, things have turned out worse than he expected even nine months ago, at the time of his "omnishambles" Budget, and they were hardly looking rosy then. To be fair to the Chancellor, he is right when he claims that many of his problems are not of his own making. Whatever his shadow Ed Balls may say (and his performance yesterday was far from impressive), Labour left the public finances in a truly shocking mess. Even if everything else was going swimmingly, recovering from the Gordon Brown years would have been long and arduous. And, of course, everything else is not going swimmingly – far from it. No one dreamt when the coalition took over, that the eurozone would get itself into such an intractable tangle. The inexorable upward pressure on energy and commodity prices, caused by demand from China et al, is another factor that cannot be laid at Osborne's door. But it is not just excuses that have characterised his tenure at the Treasury. He has also been relentlessly over-optimistic. Again, he can argue in his defence that he has not been alone. Back in 2010 he set up the independent Office for Budget Responsibility and gave it the task of preparing the official forecasts. Its forecast at the time was that the economy would now be growing by 2.8 per cent, a figure it has been downgrading ever since. In March the OBR prediction was that this year growth would be just 0.8 per cent. Now it is minus 0.1 per cent. You might think once bitten twice shy. Yesterday, however, the Chancellor assured us, on the authority of the OBR, that growth will indeed return to 2.8 per cent. It's just that we will now have to wait until 2017 for it to happen. In the meantime, he intends to trundle along much as at present. A little more spending on some things will be paid for by smallish cuts elsewhere, and while some taxes will go up a bit, others will go down a little. And so it will go on, apparently, until the economy somehow sparks back into life. The question Osborne and the OBR never seem to ask themselves is - what if it doesn't? What if today's stagnant conditions are the new normal? The danger in the coalition's approach is that, if ministers think that growth will resume largely of its own accord, the temptation to fudge difficult but necessary decisions can easily become overwhelming. We can see this with the banks, which still won't lend despite the Treasury's threats and the Bank of England's blandishments. We can see it with public expenditure, and the way current spending continues to rise despite the rhetoric about cuts, while capital spending is down despite the grandiose talk of investment. And we can see it in the absence of supply side reform, on matters like planning and employment law, which has been endlessly promised but never seems to happen. The longer the recession drags on, the clearer it becomes that until someone can really get a grip on issues like these the economy will struggle to regain its mojo. The problem, of course, is that along the way a lot of powerful interests would be upset, ranging from the City to the National Trust. With the government in low water, perhaps it is understandable that embattled ministers think they have got enough on their plates to be going on with. It is plain, however, that we can't rely on help from elsewhere. Even the OBR can't be so optimistic as to think that the eurozone is going to sort itself out any time soon, or, for that matter, that the Chinese are suddenly going to moderate their demand for oil. Contrary to what the OBR and the Chancellor still appear to believe, growth is not just going to happen. It is going to have to be down to our own efforts, and especially the government's. At the moment, unfortunately, there is little sign the government gets this. Looking beyond the heated but rather esoteric debate about debt and borrowing targets, the economy, like the Chancellor, is stuck in a rut. On yesterday's showing it is hard to see how either is going to get out of it.  Source: The Week UK

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Figure of the Day: Columbine, 1950

Columbine Glazed Porcelain Flatback, Venice, Italy, 1950-60, The Victoria & Albert Museum

Stalking the Belle Époque, By Joseph Crisalli: Though this Italian glazed porcelain figurine is undated, we can tell by the style of its costume with its impossibly tiny waist, that it was probably made in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Yes, that’s right—1950’s. I’m writing about something from the last century. This figure was most likely created with the tourist market in mind, designed to catch the eye of visitors to Venice who were looking for something pretty to bring home and put on their pianos or mantelpieces. The figurine depicts the character of Columbine standing in front of a Venetian gondola post. It is essentially a Twentieth Century flatback-- designed on one plane to be seen only from the front. This was made as part of a pair with the other figure depicting. Columbine was a character from the Italian traditional panto comedy known as the Commedia dell'Arte which flourished throughout Europe from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth centuries and from which developed our Mr. Punch. Columbina, as she was known in Italy, was a lady's maid who was soon called “Columbine” in France and England. In her native country, Columbine had been called by a series of other names before settling on the one which still carries today. These names included Franceschina, Smeraldina, Oliva, Nespola, Spinetta, Ricciolina, Corallina, Diamantina and Lisetta. Columbine’s relationship with Harlequin was the central romantic interest in Commedia dell’Arte plays. She was portrayed as being in love with the rascally Harlequin. However, she was always shown as being aware of Harlequin’s foibles and much of the comedy came from her attempts to change him. Typically, Columbine was costumed to match Harlequin's attire in a gown of a patchwork of multi-colored diamond shapes. Here, Columbine is depicted as a blonde dancer wearing a black mask and a multi-colored, calf-length, flared skirt with fitted jacket and sleeves. The figure sports underglaze decoration in blue, pink, green, yellow, orange and purple, and an overglaze with gilt detail for edging and around the lozenge shapes on the dress. Source: Stalking the Belle Époque

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World’s most expensive coin exhibited in London

Collectors all over the world have the opportunity to see the most expensive coin ever sold at auction. Minted in 1933, the American $20 denomination gold "double eagle" is on display at London's Goldsmiths' hall.The coin was sold at auction in 2002 for $ 7.5 million to a private collector. Generally, no more than a dozen such ‘eagles’ have survived to date. In 1933 almost 450,000 gold coins were minted. However, what with the severe economic crisis, the U.S. abandoned the gold coin standard. They were withdrawn from circulation, and almost all melted down. Tags: coins, London, gold, auction, News, Society, World, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia. 

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World's Biggest School Assembly by BBC

Sam Daily Times: BBC is holding a unique event for the schools worldwide. In this online school assembly, schools around the world with share what matters to them. Schools from Burma, Ghana, China, Papua NewGuinea, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, Ukraine, Indonesia, UK, and Spain participated in the assembly.The environment, the credit crunch, education, social media, whaling, drugs, poverty, families and Nicki Minaj got young people around the world talking. Source: Sam Daily Times ***

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BBC World News launches a new seven-part series Collaboration Culture

A new seven part series on BBC  World  News,  Collaboration  ulture  pairs fourteen creative and celebrated figures from the world of fashion, dance, music, food and art and invites them to collaborate on a new, innovative project. In the second episode of the series, scheduled to air on July 7, British artist Bob and Roberta Smith – real name Patrick Brill – leaves his hometown of London to meet Paa Joe, a renowned coffin sculptor, in his native Accra in Ghana. Both artists will join forces to create a piece of art that fuses together their own cultures along with their shared love of raw materials, colour and alternative style. Known by his two art pseudonyms, despite being one person, Bob and Roberta Smith is famed for his hand-painted signs on wooden panels. He borrows influences from folk, punk and alternative protest movements, merging art and politics to provide a humorous take on contemporary Britain and popular culture. His personal expression dominates his art, challenging orthodox and authority. Paa Joe is a renowned Ghanaian coffin sculptor whose eccentric and colourful coffin designs have been exhibited all over the world. Taking inspiration from everyday objects, Paa Joe’s work is embedded in the Ghanaian tradition to honour the dead and is reminiscent of the extravagance of ancient Egyptian royal tombs. From aeroplanes to mobiles, sharks to beer bottles, each coffin has its own personal stamp to reflect and celebrate the character of the deceased. The episode gives viewers unprecedented insight as they follow Bob and Roberta Smith and Paa Joe’s journey to find inspiration for their collaborative masterpiece. We’ll see how both individuals have used their own areas of expertise to implement their on-going love affair for timber, paint and scale that will culminate in a grand reveal at a special burial ceremony. “I paint the first thing that comes into my head on bits of old floorboards and timber that I find in people’s front gardens,” said Bob and Roberta Smith. “The style of my work is all sorts of things really, but it’s quite ramshackle. I do knock things together quite quickly. I like the idea that most of it has been made by me, and painted by me.”Speaking about the lion-shaped coffin that he made during the period of collaboration with Bob and Roberta Smith, Paa Joe explained: “This lion, it’s a very fantastic lion. It’s very beautiful. But you know, even if you’re beautiful, you end up in the grave.” Collaboration Culture, broadcast in association with Emirates, will TX weekly on BBC World News from 30 June on Saturdays at 6.00am & 1.00pm and Sundays at 6.00pm & 12.00am. Source: Media News Line

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BBC America joins Verizon FiOS

Verizon has confirmed the addition of BBC Worldwide’s US channel BBC America to its FiOS IPTV service. The HD feed, which sits at slot number 689 on the EPG, is available to subscribers of FiOS TV’s Extreme HD and Ultimate HD packages. Verizon also plans to add BBC America HD to its video-on-demand offering. Source: Advanced Television

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Hoy claims fifth gold

Sir Chris Hoy claimed his fifth Olympic gold as Great Britain's men's team sprint squad romped to victory inside the London Velodrome. After witnessing Team GB's men's team pursuit quartet set a world record in their qualifying heat, Hoy, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny progressed to the final of the three-man, three-lap team sprint in a world record time of 42.747 seconds. If that wasn't enough though, the British trio then clocked another world record in a stunning finale, finishing in 42.600secs. In a repeat of the final four years ago in Beijing, France's Gregory Bauge, Michael D'Almeida and Kevin Sireau had to settle for silver, finishing in 43.013. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were part of the capacity crowd, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who witnessed Hoy's historic achievement. The 36-year-old from Edinburgh, competing in his fourth Games, won one-kilometre time-trial gold in Athens in 2004, three titles in Beijing and has now drawn level with Sir Steve Redgrave as the Briton with the most Games golds. Source: Sam Daily Times

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17m use BBC Red Button for Olympics

The BBC Sport website has seen an 80 per cent rise in users, with Olympics webpages attracting a peak of nearly 8 million readers natively and 10.4 million globally. The website has received 29 million requests for its Olympics interactive video streams, with a clip of Bradley Wiggins winning his gold medal seeing 729,000 requests – the biggest so far. Each of the BBC’s 24 Red Button streams drew 100,000 viewers at some point during week one of the Olympic games, with 17 million accessing the Red Button features so far. The biggest event on the Red Button so far was the Men’s Cycling Road Race featuring GB favourite Mark Cavendish, which drew an audience of 1.3 million. BBC Olympic content accessed on mobile devices has also rose significantly. A peak of 2.3 million mobile users accessed content on Wednesday, with around 1.5 million having downloaded the BBC Olympics smartphone app.Source: Advanced Television

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