Saturday, December 4, 2010

Coronation Street turns 50 !!!!

Happy birthday, chuck! Fifty years of a Northern TV legend

For 50 years, it has enthralled a nation with its hotpot of tears, drama and laughs. Tony Livesey salutes Coronation Street

Sunday, 5 December 2010

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Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix): 'The sexiest thing on television', according to James Callaghan

ENLARGE

Marilyn Monroe never came to Nelson, Lancashire in the early 1970s. Neither did Dietrich, Princess Grace or any of Pan's People, despite the obvious lure of one of the first Arndale Centres. But it didn't matter. Because one summer's day at the dilapidated, corrugated home of Nelson FC – and part-time stock car track – she arrived.

She who must be lusted after, gossiped about, fought over and have her fags lit by every local handsome stud; the Northern amalgam of those Hollywood or capital creations not fit to strap on her slingbacks.

Two thousand of us – mostly unwashed – at the opening of Nelson Gala almost 40 years ago craned our necks to see. There she was. Waving. Just behind Jimmy Clitheroe. Clad, neck to toe, in fur. Her, not him. A gasp erupted as Elsie Tanner arrived centre stage. Where she belonged. The Queen would not have been more wanted at that point.

Like Our Brian, Our Ashley, Our Gail and Our Vera, this was Our Royalty. Pat Phoenix, for it was she, had been subsumed by a character she played so precisely and bitchily that her real name had little impact on us. It was Elsie, not Pat, who was alive and well... and among us. The true, Wagner-walloping power of Coronation Street came home to me that afternoon, a power and influence way beyond the reach of today's fame-craving X Factor generation.

These people are legends, ladies and gentlemen, legends. All of them. From Ray Langton, whose devotion to duty included seducing Deirdre while she wore spectacles that even Ted Moult would not have been able to draughtproof, to the extra in the hairdressers who reads Hello with tin foil in her hair while Audrey plots a £5-an-hour tryst with a gigolo.

Hail the blushing bride....

Brides blush at names

5:30 AM Sunday Dec 5, 2010

Photo / Getty Images

LONDON: When it comes to taking a married name, it really is for worse and not for better for some women, a new UK database has found.

Records show more than 50 women became Mary Christmas after their wedding. Other wives who married into unfortunate surnames included Holly Oakes, Eileen Dover and Hazel Nut, according to archives on family history website findmypast.co.uk.

The website, which has launched marriage search system MarriageMatchTM, also found women who became Queenie King, Mona Lott and Jean Pool.

Joy Rider, Lily Pond, Anita Bath, Candy Barr and Kerry Oakey were others among the embarrassing names.

The website also found a real-life Romeo and Juliet, who married in Lambeth, London in 1971.

India's Nicole Faria is Miss Earth 2010.

India's Nicole Faria is Miss Earth 2010

RITU V SINGH, TNN, Dec 4, 2010, 09.02pm IST

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Newly crowned Miss Earth 2010 Nicole Faria (2nd L) of India poses with Miss Earth Air of Ecuador Jennifer Pazmino (1st L), Miss Earth Water of Thailand's Watsaporn Wattanakoon (2nd R) and Miss Earth Fire of Puerto Rico's Yeidy Bosquez, during the final of the Miss Earth 2010 contest held in Vietnam. (AFP Photo)

Miss India Earth 2010 Nicole Faria has made India proud by winning the 2010 Miss Earth crown. The 10th edition of the Miss Earth beauty pageant was held in Vinpearl Land, Nha Trang, Vietnamon December 4, 2010.

Miss Puerto Rico Yeidy Bosquez was announced Miss Earth Fire and Miss Ecuador Jennifer Pazmino won the Miss Earth Air title. Miss Thailand Watsaporn Wattanakoon grabbed the Miss Earth Water crown.

Nicole also won the 2010 Miss Earth Talent Competition.

Talking about Nicole, Miss India World 2010, Manasvi Mamgai said, "I feel very happy for her. This is the only title India has won this year, so it's great. Nicole has got the looks, so we all had expectations that she would win."

During an interview, Nicole said, "I want to make friends and enjoy my time in Vietnam. It's not about winning or losing, but how you play the game." She has played her game right indeed!

Top 7 finalists...
India: Nicole Faria
Venezuela: Mariangela Bonanni
Ecuador: Jennifer Stephanie Pazmino
Puerto Rico: Yeidy Bosques
Thailand : Watsaporn Wattanakoon
Japan: Marina Kishira
South Africa: Nondyebo Dzingwa

Frenchman shocks art world with 271 Picassos....

Picasso discovery: 'I wanted to sell the paintings for my children'

The Frenchman who shocked the art world with his collection of 271 Picassos has told how he travelled across France with the £50 million collection in his suitcase, and wanted to sell them for his children.

Pierre Le Guennec and his wife Photo: PHOTOPQR/MAXPPP

By Ian Sparks in Mouans Sartoux 3:17PM GMT 04 Dec 2010

3 Comments

The retired French electrician who claims Pablo Picasso gave him 271 works of art has told how he travelled six hours across France by train with the canvases and sketches worth at least £50 million stashed in an unlocked suitcase.

Pierre Le Guennec said he kept the vast treasure trove of previously unknown works stored in his garage for almost 40 years before he finally decided to take them to the artist's administrators in Paris to have them authenticated.

The 71-year-old pensioner shocked the art world last week when he revealed Picasso and his wife Jacqueline regularly offered him paintings while he was installing alarm systems and carrying out daily electrical repairs at the artist's south of France homes in the three years until his death in 1973.

He said on one occasion Picasso's wife handed him a cardboard box crammed with sketches and said simply, "Here, this is for you."

But within days of art experts proving the works were genuine, police swooped on Le Guennec and his wife at their home in Mouans Sartoux, near Cannes, in October and arrested them on suspicion of receiving stolen goods.

Police held them both in custody for 24 hours before releasing them without charge, and said an investigation was now under way to establish exactly how the elderly couple came by the paintings.

At his modest, whitewashed villa in the south of France, Mr Le Guennec continued to insist this weekend that he had not stolen the artworks from his former employer.

He said: "I worked for Monsieur and Madame from 1970 to 1973, and for Madame for another three years until 1976 after Monsieur died.

"They both gave me paintings, and on one occasion she gave me a box containing lots of sketches and canvases, perhaps 100 of them, saying 'Here, this is for you.'

"Perhaps they were happy with my work as their electrician and wanted to show their kindness. I don't know.

"I didn't steal them, and am horrified that people think I could of done.

"I didn't really think about what they might be worth. I just put them in a box in the garage and that's where they sat.

"It was only when we were sorting through our things in the summer that I looked through them and thought I'd take them to the Picasso people in Paris and let them know I had them.

"I didn't want my sons arguing over the inheritance and because Picasso was a famous artist I thought they would be better off with his family."

Mr Le Guennec's wife Jacqueline added: "We never intended to sell them, and we wouldn't be living in a house like this if we had intended to make money from these paintings."

The couple's lawyer Evelyne Rees said: "The police thought about charging them with harbouring stolen goods, but they have not done so, because clearly to harbour stolen goods means something must have been stolen. And nothing has been stolen."

Christine Pinault, spokeswoman for Picasso's son Claude, told of the "astonishment" at the Picasso Foundation offices in Paris when Le Guennec arrived with the haul of artworks in a suitcase.

She said: "He made an appointment to come and see us and arrived on September 9 with an unlocked suitcase full of paintings and sketches. We could hardly believe he had simply got on a train with something so valuable.

"He first claimed it was Picasso himself that had given them to him, but he didn't seem to be describe a single occasion when a painting was handed to him.

"When we asked him why he thought Picasso had been so generous, he told us simply that the artist must have thought he deserved them for all his hard work."

Picasso's son Claude and five other relatives of the Spanish-born artist have dismissed Le Guennec's claim that he could have received the paintings as gifts.

Claude Picasso insisted his father would "never" have given such a large quantity of works to anyone.

He told French daily Liberation: "That doesn't stand up. These works were part of his life."

Picasso family lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer added: "Claude Picasso was astounded. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Just about everybody has felt that way. When you have 271 Picasso works that were never seen, never inventoried, that's just unprecedented.

"The most important thing is rediscovering important artworks for the good of art history as a whole."

A spokesman for France's Central Office for the Fight against Traffic in Cultural Goods, part of the Interior Ministry, confirmed the paintings had now been seized and were being held in a secure location.

A source told Liberation newspaper: "One mystery among many in this affair is why Mr Le Guennec kept these artworks hidden for such a long time and has only come forward now.

"The works have all been preserved in good condition. They range from notebooks to drawings and completed paintings, including nine cubist paintings which alone are worth some 40 million euros according to experts."

The newly discovered Picassos include a watercolour from his Blue Period, and experts believe nine cubist works in Mr Le Guennec's possession are worth £33 million alone.

Also in the collection are portraits of his first wife Olga, as well as a number of gouaches and lithographs, Liberation reported.

Seven trapped in pub for 8 days....

The ultimate lock-in: Seven trapped in Yorkshire pub for last EIGHT days as forecasters warn Big Freeze will go on for at least another week

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 7:09 PM on 4th December 2010

Snow death toll up to seven, after two men killed in motorway crash

Temperatures rise but ice and snow warnings remain
Host of sporting fixtures called off in England, Scotland and Wales
Government urges Britons not to panic buy
Cash machines running out of money as snows hamper delivery vans
Limits on truckers' working hours relaxed to help transport of vital supplies
Rail networks still facing delays

While thousands braved the cold to begin their Christmas shopping, seven people in North Yorkshire are praying for better weather after being snowed into a pub for eight days and counting.

Heavy snow showers and strong winds have left the group stuck in the Lion Inn pub in Blakey Ridge, Kirkbymoorside since last Friday, with little chance of an escape.

Drifts of up to 16ft blocked the inn's doors and windows, with the surrounding roads impassable, and to make matters worse, the stranded seven's cars are buried under nine foot of snow.

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Snowed inn: The Lion Inn pub in Blakey Ridge, North Yorkshire, where seven people have been trapped for eight days

The group's predicament in the fourth highest pub in England continues as forecasters warned Britons to expect icy conditions for at least another week, with temperatures falling as low as -10C in the South East of England overnight.

Katie Underwood, 18, who has been a waitress at the Lion Inn for four years, said: 'It was really novel at first, and quite exciting.

'The snow is immense. Most of the windows in here are blocked up, but we've got a door open at the back to get some air when we need to.'

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Blocked: A window at the Lion Inn pub is barely visible after huge snow drifts

She added: 'The boys that are here have been skiing on trays down the massive slopes, and we've made snow angels but the novelty is definitely starting to wear off.'

WEEKEND FORECAST

SATURDAY EVENING

Snow showers or long spells of snow pushing southwards across Scotland

Night-time lows of -7C in Tayside and Fife and highs of 8C in Dover

SUNDAY

Many areas dry and bright with snow showers continuing further north. Very cold, frosty and icy.

Daytime lows of -5C in Perth, highs of 8C in Newquay

Night-time lows of -8C in Tayside and Fife, with highs of 1C in Wick

MONDAY

Snow and coastal rain pushing into northern England and Wales

Bitterly cold, temperatures to hover around freezing

'Now they're all out trying to dig their cars out of the deep snow. It's been absolutely freezing, but we've been lucky that it's a pub and B&B we're trapped in.'

As the seven people stuck in the Lion Inn hope for improved conditions, England and Wales are predicted to have some respite from the snow today as rain showers move in bringing temperatures up to 7C in some areas.

But that will not be enough to melt the ice which is expected to be worsened by rain freezing on top.

In England, severe warnings of widespread icy roads remain in London and the South East, the South West, the East the East and West Midlands and the North West where there are also warnings of heavy snow.

The Met Office also issued ice and snow warnings in Wales and Northern Ireland and in the North and North West of Scotland. Temperatures fell to around -10C in Charlwood, in the South East of England last night.

The snows have also prevented security vans tasked with delivery notes to cash machines from completing their deliveries across the country.

Friday, December 3, 2010

1461 battlefield graves found with earliest bronze bullets.... UK

First bullets ever fired in battle found in Yorkshire

Evidence of the first use of firearms on a British battlefield nearly 550 years ago has been uncovered.

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Related Tags:: Europe; history; discovery; battle; towton

Discovery: The remains of troops found in a mass grave near Towton

Bronze barrel fragments and very early lead shot were unearthed by a metal detectorist at the site of the 1461 battle of Towton in Yorkshire.

The clash between Lancastrian king Henry VI and England’s first Yorkist king, Edward IV, during the Wars of the Roses, has gone down in history as one of the bloodiest ever fought.

The fragments belonged to two crudely cast, pole-supported guns which exploded because of the cold as the battle raged in a snowstorm, lab tests confirmed.

The discovery of a lead ball with an iron core was also highly significant because it is the earliest composite lead bullet known in Europe.

Archaeologist Tim Sutherland, who has been working on the site since 1996, said it was an exciting discovery that marked the start of modern warfare.

‘There are no parallels for any such finds, on certainly a British medieval battlefield but probably a European one as well,’ he added.

University of York lecturer Mr Sutherland may yet rewrite the battle’s history as the site yields more of its secrets.

The ten-hour clash is thought to have killed 28,000 men but Mr Sutherland believes the figure is closer to 4,000.

However, he agrees it changed the course of English history. ‘Everybody has heard of King Richard III and if it hadn’t been for Towton... he would not have taken the throne,’ he said.

Man marries pet dog - Australia

Australia

Australian man marries

pet dog Honey

An Australian man has "married" his best friend – a golden labrador

called Honey.

Mr Guiso said while he loves his dog, it is purely 'platonic'

1:05PM GMT 03 Dec 2010

Joe Guiso, 20, married his 5-year-old pet, who was dressed in a white cape, in an elaborate ceremony in his local park in the Queensland town of Toowoomba.

"This was just an event for my friends and I to get together," he said. "It really was fun. We all dressed up in suits and everything.

"But you can't actually marry a dog."

Mr Guiso said while he loves his dog, it is purely "platonic", adding that he hoped no one was offended by the unconventional union

He admitted however that it is not all going smoothly for the new couple.

"I think [Honey's] a bit angry about all the publicity; she's been giving me the silent treatment," he said.

Sorry, you are too good looking to work here !! Pretty females turned down..

Sorry, you're too pretty: Good-looking women more likely to be turned down for a job (and jealous females in HR might be the reason why)

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:45 PM on 3rd December 2010

Good looking women are twice as likely to be turned down for a job interview than unattractive ones, claims a study.

And female staff in HR departments jealous of potential rivals could be the reason why, researchers believe.

But in men the reverse is true, and an ugly man would have to send twice as many CVs as a handsome counterpart to secure a response.

The team from Ben Gurion university in Israel sent more than 5,000 CVs to advertised jobs in what they believe is the first study of beauty and the hiring process in the real world as opposed to under test conditions in a lab.

Still waiting to hear back about a job interview? Good looking women are twice as likely to be turned down

Good looking women are twice as likely to be turned down for a job. Researchers believe female staff in HR departments jealous of potential rivals could be the reason why. However for men the reverse is true, and an ugly man would have to send twice as many CVs as a handsome counterpart to secure a response

In Israel it is common for applicants to attach photographs of themselves on their CVs, so economists sent pairs of applications to 2,656 jobs.

Although identical in content, one CV had no headshot, and the other a headshot of either an attractive or unattractive man or woman.

They then analysed the numbers called back for an interview.

Attractive males received a 19.9 per cent callback rate, almost 50 per cent higher than the 13.7 per cent response for plain men and more than twice the 9.2 per cent response to those with no photo.

But with women the reverse was true. Those with no photo had the highest call back rate, which was 22 per cent higher than plain women and 30 per cent higher than attractive women.

Researcher Ze'ev Shtudiner said: ‘It follows that an attractive male needs to send on average five CVs in order to obtain one response, whereas a plain-looking male needs to send 11 for a single response.

‘But among female candidates, no-picture females have the highest response rate, 22 percent higher than plain females and 30 percent higher than attractive females.

‘Our findings on penalisation of attractive women contradict current psychology and organisational behaviour literature on beauty that associate attractiveness, male and female alike, with almost every conceivable positive trait and disposition.’

Economist Dr Bradley Ruffle added: ‘To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore beauty discrimination in the hiring process of an actual labor market, rather than a laboratory market or hypothetical decision scenario.’

The researchers found that the discrimination against attractive women varied on who was hiring them. With employment agencies, where the candidate would not be working directly for the company, looks made no difference.

But where she would be working directly for the firm, attractive women had a call back rate half that of plain women.

‘This is likely due to the high number of women in human resources staffing positions’, the researchers said. Following the experiment, they contacted the person at the company who screen the applications, and found that in 96 per cent of the case they were women.

They were typically single, and had an average age of 29 – ‘qualities more likely to be associated with a jealous response when confronted with a young, attractive competitor in the workplace’, say the team.

Dr Ruffle said: ‘Indeed, the evidence points to female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace as a primary reason for their penalisation in recruitment.’

The Quirky Globe

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