text:
Category: Start / Festival/Workshops/Summer Schools/Conferences / Europe
- Sites currently sorted by: Title (A to Z)
- Sort links by: Title ( + | - ) Date ( + | - ) Popularity ( + | - )
Bach Festival in Combrailles.
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jun 12, 2010 | Hits: 1442
"From September 13 to October 19, 2008, the 23rd edition of the Festival of Baroque Pontoise offers a rich programme of twenty concerts and performances investing some of the greatest heritage sites in the Val d'Oise. Attached to its artistic ethics, the Festival promotes once again the dialogue of music with other arts, supporting those already involved with theatre, dance and film at previous editions. ..." (Google translation) Visit Festival Baroque de Pontoise website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 12, 2008 | Hits: 1715
"Festival Sablé celebrates its 30 years in 2008
30 years in the service of music and baroque dance, listening to all research, 30 years accompanying artists. And also 30 years of the International Academy of Ancient Music and Dance: thousands of artists for hundreds of concerts, students from all continents. A faithful public coming from upt to 75 french regions and 20 foreign countries.
Since 1979, the Festival de Sablé has contributed to the revival of music and dance old. Today he took part in the construction of Europe by increasing cultural exchanges initiatives, research, development and training with the countries of Central Europe. ... " (Google translation) Visit Festival Baroque de Sablé website for more information and concert programme. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 13, 2008 | Hits: 1386
"For over 20 years, we have programmed the festival within the walls of the prestigious baroque churches of Tarentaise. The " Festival Baroque de Tarentaise" is organised by the music and heritage association of Tarentaise."
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Sep 30, 2011 | Hits: 1500
Each year, at the start of the month of June, the Festival de Musique A Maguelone takes place at the Cathédrale de Maguelone. Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 12, 2008 | Hits: 1902
Early music festival in Callas (FR)
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Feb 25, 2012 | Hits: 1555
Summer Festival held by the "(FR) Académie Bach"
"A summer festival, occuring during the last week of August, offering a few days bathed in early music. With the nerve center being the beautiful Gothic church of Arques la Bataille, shining along other historic places among the most remarkable of the Dieppe area, the churches of Colmesnil-Manneville, Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer, Varengeville sur-Mer, the floral park of the Bois des Moutiers, Bosmelet castle, the Saint-Remy de Dieppe, ..."
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Feb 03, 2012 | Hits: 1240
Early music festival in Reveauvillé, France.
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Feb 25, 2012 | Hits: 1175
"Year after year, the Music Festival du Haut-Jura traces its path "Early Music" through its architectural heritage. Early Music and Baroque vocal art, remain the guiding principle of this cultural event enabling music lovers to find enchantment with a musical repertoire a little forgotten. ... " (Google translation) Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 13, 2008 | Hits: 1665
Festival of early music held in Lourdes FR
Added on: Mar 25, 2012 | Hits: 1331
"Founded in Nantes in 1984 by the director Philippe Lénaël, the Spring Festival des Arts de Nantes et des Pays de la Loire fixed its focus on the artistic period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, feeding on the current rebirth of ancient music ... The Festival du Printemps uses each year vocal ensembles and orchestras while working actively to the promotion of young artists ... " Visit wesite for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 13, 2008 | Hits: 1692
International Festival of Toulouse les Orgues. Concerts from various ages being performed in the "organ-rich" area of Toulouse FR. Held in various locations. Website: http://www.toulouse-les-orgues.org
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jan 30, 2012 | Hits: 1392
Early music festival in Rennes
Added on: Oct 01, 2011 | Hits: 1448
"Music on Chabotterie is a baroque music festival held every summer since 1997, and has a backdrop of Le Logis Chabotterie. Hugo Reyne is the artistic director.
Since 2006, the Music Chabotterie is also the name of a record label, a label whose interest is to share with all music lovers of wonderful musical moments experienced during the festival. To date, six albums have been published, recorded by Hugo Reyne and The Simphonie Marais, and already critically acclaimed. …"
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 20, 2011 | Hits: 1242
"Instrument-Makers, concerts, folk dances and a unique atmosphere, the festival has become THE meeting place of traditional music in Europe.
A unique show of instrument makers which welcomes 130 instrument makers from the whole world presenting and selling their instruments: bagpipes, hurdy-gurdies, accordions, wind instrument, percussion and many more…
30 concerts and folk dances are proposed, providing an opportunity to hear the variety and the wealth of traditional music.
Some animations are proposed in the day : initiations folk dances, presentation of instruments, competition, , folk dances for children, Apérosol, meetings with the musicians …"
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Apr 23, 2010 | Hits: 3967
Festival held in Montauban, France.
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Oct 18, 2011 | Hits: 1303
"Home to the famous Jean de Boizard organ (1714) the Saint-Michel abbey has welcomed for the last several years, the most sought after artists of ancient music. The music coproduced by radio France MUSIQUE with the choreographic collection called TEMPERAMENTS, confirms the baroque destiny of the abbey in harmony with the site. The ancient and baroque music festival The festival has its roots in the restoration of the prestigious historical organ (1714) of the abbey church and the artistic activity that followed as a result since1984. The festival was started in 1987 with the important decision by Radio France and the Conseil General of the Aisne departement : Every Whit Monday the train of FRANCE MUSIQUE radio would, for a whole day of music, take several hundred Parisian music lovers to attend two concerts transmitted live on radio. "
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Feb 23, 2008 | Hits: 2295
Sarrebourg Festival. Visit website for more details. (ed.)
Added on: Apr 22, 2009 | Hits: 1183
"The objective of the Association is to promote classical music, and more particularly baroque music, in Valloire and its area. It is meant to develop people's interest for this music by means of a Festival which will take advantage of the rich baroque architecture in Valloire and its area."
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Nov 08, 2012 | Hits: 1356
Early music festival in Asfeld (FR). The Asfeld church is said to have been build along the lines of a viola da gamba.
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Tags: Société française de viole, Viola da Gamba Society of France.
Added on: Feb 25, 2012 | Hits: 1498
Instruction for early music enthusiasts and modern instrumentalists with an interest in Baroque and Renaissance music. All baroque instruments welcome!
* Viola da gamba, baroque Violin & Violoncello
* Baroque flute
* Harpsichord, basso continuo and improvisation
* All other baroque instruments welcome
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Apr 14, 2011 | Hits: 1329
"Marnaves Summer Baroque, a summer course in baroque period string-playing with the international violinist MARGARET FAULTLESS with Lucy Robinson (viola da gamba) and Andrew Wilson-Dickson (harpsichord and organ."
Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Apr 22, 2008 | Hits: 1616
"It all started in 1981.
François Mayrand met Jean-Louis Sajot, well known
clarinetist of
the Orchestre National de France in Paris.
They shared an idea : there must be many amateur musicians who would like to meet and play chamber music for a week during their summer holidays.
So it proved to be: and after only a few years , the non-profit making organisation Musique en Vacances hads become established actor on the French summer course market.
Over the years, thousands of musicians have enjoyed making
music together and, at the same time, visiting the beautiful spots
chosen as venues by the Association.
Gradually these summer weeks have become truly international. Musicians from 12 countries came to play their instrument in Loches in August 2004."
See the website for more information.
Added descriptor: Summer workshop
Added on: Jul 22, 2005 | Hits: 1578
"Since its foundation, the Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay Festival has been constructed each year around a central theme, presented in music by illustrious ensembles, always including Arsys Bourgogne, conducted by Pierre Cao. ... " Visit Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay website for more information. (ed.)
Added on: Jul 13, 2008 | Hits: 1731
"The Korkyra Baroque Festival is a recently-established international music festival. The Festival offers a rich baroque experience in impressive culture heritage venues on the island of Korčula. ...
The Korkyra Baroque Festival was declared a success both in Croatia and abroad when it was held for the first time in 2012. ...
The Festival has not only artistic importance but is also valuable in that it helps to promote Croatian tourism. The Korkyra Baroque Festival offers music of an exceptional standard, attracting tourists from all over the world and enriching the cultural offering of Korčula for tourists. The concerts promote Korčula's churches as cultural heritage, as well as the entire island as a unique architectural complex. ..."
Visit the "Korkyra Baroque Festival" website for more information.
Added on: Jun 18, 2013 | Hits: 2044


text:
Across the country, the rape kit backlog is making headlines. Journalists are uncovering backlogs, jurisdictions are implementing reforms to track and test rape kits and citizens are taking action. In the Media Center, you'll find the latest information about the backlog, including: commentary from the END THE BACKLOG staff and backlog reformers, first-person testimonials from those impacted by the backlog, an archive of news articles, op-eds, investigative reports, legislation and government publications we've identified, and more.
END THE BACKLOGJune 29, 2016
New External Resources
A summary of new resources on the rape kit backlog now available.
THE BACKLOG BLOGJanuary 22, 2014
Rape Kit Backlogs Discovered in Utah
Earlier this month, The Salt Lake Tribune reported backlogs in several jurisdictions in Utah and at the state crime lab.
ENDTHEBACKLOGNovember 7, 2013
Introducing our new website
Joyful Heart is proud to share with you the new ENDTHEBACKLOG.org, our website dedicated to shining a light on and ending the rape kit backlog—hundreds of thousands of rape kits collected in the aftermath of a sexual assault, sitting untested in police and crime lab storage facilities.

subset: commoncrawl


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CCNG and partner DTSI discuss contact center soltuions
Introduction of new partner DTSI and their approach to hosted contact center solutions.
Apr 15 2010
12 mins
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Contact Center & Customer Care Best Practices
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CCNG member topics for contact center& customer care professionals
CCNG receives ongoing feedback from our management members in contact center and customer care about the relative hot issues they are most interested in discussing with peers. We bring these Hot Topics to you with regular webcast content provided by our members and partners.
Managing your contact center operations to achieve exceptional customer care in your organization requires access to information about the technology, processes, human capital management, and peer knowledge & experiences. CCNG members share their experience and best practices in how they manage customer care in their enterprise contact center operations to improve the overall customer experience.
This channel features webcast presentations by thought leaders and award-winning operations who cover the key topic areas in this increasingly changing and dynamic field.
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Title: CCNG and partner DTSI discuss contact center soltuions
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A777 Imperial Cobalt Jobber Drill Bits have a heavy-duty, 135° split point for use when greater heat is generated during drilling, e.g on higher tensile tougher materials and in particular the Aerospace Industry.
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Fifth-grader Bianca Cardenas sniffed the air, searching for the musty smell she'd always associated with school, as she walked into Thurgood Marshall Elementary. She inhaled the stinging aroma, a mix of fresh paint and cleaning supplies, while her seven-year-old sister Ceanna gaped at the gleaming mural of storybook characters splashed on the wall across from the main office. The campus, built by North Forest Independent School District in 2000, had been completely renovated since Houston Independent School District took it over 56 days earlier in a merger ordered by the Texas Education Agency.
Standing against the wall of the gymnasium, Bianca and her mother and sister watched as HISD Superintendent Terry Grier strode past them, immediately surrounded by cameras and reporters there to capture the moment. North Forest was declared legally dead on July 1, but the district's true end came on the morning of August 26 when Grier walked into the school, owning the place, a campus shined up to be the crown jewel of the North Forest acquisition.
North Forest was a long-troubled district with a litany of problems and classes filled by mostly poor, minority students. Officially, HISD never wanted North Forest but was just there to do the right thing, though opponents of the merger argue that HISD, a district with its own troubles, had everything to gain from taking over the school district.
When TEA first announced North Forest would be closed in 2011, the remarks by members of the HISD school board were polite and innocuous. After the state education agency made the final call that North Forest would be annexed by HISD in 2013, HISD trustees discussed how they might go about taking control of the small district. It seemed as if all nine of them were choosing their words carefully, making it clear they were only following state orders.
HISD officials couldn't openly go after North Forest or reject it, said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, but Grier and company were ready once they got it. "There was no correct public statement. If you don't want them, you're a racist, and if you do, you're greedy. It was the administration and the school board, though. They saw an advantage for HISD, and that advantage was economic," Fallon said.
In the final days of North Forest's existence, Michael Feinberg, creator of the Knowledge Is Power Program, also known as KIPP, proposed setting up a board composed of charter schools to run the district. There was also talk of inviting a university to help run North Forest, or perhaps splitting the school district among neighboring districts, including HISD, Humble and Aldine.
Under Feinberg's plan, the new board would take possession of North Forest and work with different charter schools to try out various educational ideas, but he never got much traction with TEA, he said. "It seemed the state had a priority in getting rid of a dysfunctional school system at all costs," Feinberg said. "The state was in Nightmare on Elm Street X, and they didn't want to see Freddy Krueger come back to life again."
TEA officials seemed to have made up their minds long before they closed the district, Feinberg said. The TEA solution was one that state officials had been locked onto since 2011 — slipping North Forest's 7,000 academically underperforming African-American and Hispanic students into the ocean of more than 200,000 students spread out over 283 campuses in HISD.
After years of struggling, North Forest was swallowed up by HISD, the largest district in the state and the seventh-largest in the nation. The formal mission is to ensure that North Forest students get a better education, presumably one that will be reflected in higher test scores, but HISD administrators will have the option of applying for exemptions for the next couple of years, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said. Low scores from North Forest won't affect HISD's academic rating with the state. Whether it succeeds or fails in turning around North Forest schools, this is a win-win for HISD. The school district is so large that 7,000 students being dropped in barely creates a ripple in overall results, Culbertson said.
TEA Commissioner Michael Williams said the merger was the best thing for the students of North Forest. This despite the fact that HISD has had its share of challenges — critics would call them scandals — in the past few years. The accusations of cheating on standardized tests, falsification of attendance rates, a contractor system allegedly riddled with corruption — including the allegation that school board member Larry Marshall, who has been embroiled in a civil lawsuit since 2010 for an alleged bribery and kickback scheme, set his friends up with contracts and accepted bribes — the uncompleted 2007 bond program that was found to be behind schedule and over budget in 2010, all contributed to a long list that doesn't get brought up in TEA documents discussing why HISD was the perfect solution to the agency's North Forest problem.
With constant budget shortfalls, including a gap of more than $70 million for the 2013-14 school year, HISD, though it has a larger and more diverse tax base, isn't without its own financial problems. Like every other district around the state, HISD suffered from the state budget cuts in education funding made in the wake of the Great Recession. In fact, it highlighted its own deficiencies just last year when Grier, administrators and school board members urged voters to approve a $2 billion bond election. HISD schools lacked air conditioning and were in a state of disrepair that could be solved only by an infusion of millions of dollars from taxpayers, they said.
Dick Lavine, senior fiscal analyst of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, based in Austin, said that education funding is still well below where it was before 2008 and that state funding will never return to the level it was at then for HISD and other Texas school districts.
But HISD didn't have to look for extra money to fix up North Forest, thanks to TEA funding. Crews moved in the day Grier took possession of the campuses, and reports came out about the sorry state of North Forest's classrooms and buses. Officials recounted how rats and bugs were found in Fonwood Elementary, the school Bianca and her sister attended last year, never mentioning the fact that the school was slated for closure by North Forest.
The state of North Forest's campuses was trumpeted by HISD officials as further proof that they were the solution to the smaller district's troubles. The picture painted was one of a rotting school district that HISD was courageously swooping in to save, despite the fact that HISD has aging schools in similar states of disrepair, according to former HISD general construction manager Issa Dadoush.
By taking on North Forest, HISD gets all the real estate attached to it, including a high school and sports facility slated to be built in North Forest with $80 million from the state, according to state Rep. Senfronia Thompson. HISD will most likely sell any North Forest property not repurposed, according to district policy, HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said. The district will also receive an injection of funds from the state to cover the cost of renovations and the rapid annexation — HISD has spent about $25 million so far — and an additional $35 million in funding for at least the next five years, Spencer said. HISD must assume North Forest's $60 million in general obligation and maintenance tax debt, Spencer said, but TEA spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said the state agency officials will do all they can to ensure they aren't placing too great a burden on HISD.
Spencer said Grier never initiated the move to consolidate the districts. After assuring the Houston Press that an interview with Grier on North Forest would be no problem, the HISD communications office subsequently said that Grier was unavailable for comment. Questions for this story were answered by Spencer via e-mail or telephone.
After the district was formally closed, North Forest's 58,000 registered voters were split between HISD board trustees representing two existing districts. The voters were placed in either District 8, represented by Juliet Stipeche, or District 2, represented by Rhonda Skillern-Jones. Neither is up for re-election until 2015, meaning the voters of North Forest have gone from having an entire board elected directly by them to a situation in which they won't have any say in who represents them for the next three years.
A push from North Forest residents to add two seats and give them their own HISD representatives was ignored, former North Forest board member Silvia Brooks Williams said. All of North Forest's estimated 1,000 employees were fired when HISD took over. The employees were invited to re-apply for their jobs, but with no guarantees. Only 74 of approximately 500 teachers working at North Forest when it closed were rehired, Spencer said.
The move also works out for Grier, who has been at the helm of HISD since 2009 and is not seeing the results promised from his school turnaround program, Apollo 20, according to former HISD school board member Carol Mims Galloway. North Forest schools could provide a welcome distraction and a way to burnish Grier's record at a time when he needs it, she said.
On the first day of school, Hilarion Martinez, the new principal of Thurgood Marshall, who was overseeing a staff hired in less than two months, had a strained smile on his face as he speed-walked through the halls to make sure everything was in order. Martinez never stopped smiling as he rattled off the changes they were making — a longer school day, reading programs, access to new gadgetry including computers and iPads, any incentive he could dream up to get kids excited about coming to school — repeating the usual party line about how happy he and his new staff were to meet these challenges.
As the media event for the first day of school rolled along, Martinez stood in the doorway of a classroom as Grier handed out school supplies donated by energy companies. One little girl, her long black hair swept into a pony tail and topped with a yellow bow, looked up as Grier handed her the supplies. Her brown eyes went from Grier to the bank of cameras behind him and down to the supplies, and she burst into tears. Grier and the cameras edged away as her sobs continued and she dropped her head to her desk. There would be nothing but smiles recorded on the first day of school.
North Forest was one of TEA's "problem child" districts years before its demise. The district started as a single school serving mostly poor white rural children in northeast Houston about 90 years ago. By the time desegregation rolled around, the area had blossomed into a pocket of white suburbia along US 59. When all Texas schools were ordered to integrate in the 1970s, African Americans began moving into the area, attracted by the excellent schools. As they moved in, the whites moved out. By the end of the decade, the community was predominantly African American, as it is today.
The African-American community gained control of the school board in the late 1970s, making North Forest one of the largest African-American-run districts in Texas.
Former HISD superintendent Billy Reagan said he watched North Forest during those early years and thought of trying to make the district a part of HISD then. He put out feelers to TEA as early as the late 1970s, he said, but was told it would never be allowed to happen because desegregation laws prohibited two primarily minority-populated districts from merging.
Reagan proposed that the Humble superintendent — whom he competed with to see whose district could get the better test scores — step in and see if the state would allow Humble to annex the school district, but the Humble superintendent never made a move, he said. None of the neighboring districts seemed interested either, Reagan said.
North Forest ran into problems in the mid-1980s when North Forest administrators and teachers had the lowest TECAT (Texas Examination of Current Administrators and Teachers) scores in the state. In 1988, financial issues began to surface. Questions were raised about how the school board and the administration were managing finances, drawing TEA attention. However, that was also the year Carrol Thomas was hired as the latest superintendent.
Thomas said he came in with a clear plan for North Forest. He said he made sure to treat everyone, from trustees to staff and students, equally, something he said had not always been the case with other superintendents. He looked for ways to connect with the community and help schools provide what the community needed, such as WIC-sponsored clinics that would provide birth control and that were run in the schools, he said.
He raised test scores, improved the graduation rate and cleaned up the district's financial record-keeping in just a few years, winning awards for his time as superintendent, according to state records. State support was as much a key to his success as was connecting with the school board and the community, Thomas said. "The TEA wanted the school district to succeed. It was their mission, and they sponsored me and helped me make it happen," he said. When Thomas left to become the superintendent of Beaumont ISD in 1996, North Forest began to founder again.
In the early 2000s, state laws were changed to make it easier for TEA to close underperforming districts, said Thompson, one of the representatives of the North Forest area.
Wilmer-Hutchins ISD, a district that was almost a mirror image of North Forest in both demographics and history, was closed in 2005 and merged with Dallas ISD. Kendleton, another district run primarily by African Americans, was annexed to Lamar in 2010. A handful of underperforming school districts were intensively reviewed, but annexation seemed to happen only with black schools, Chris Tritico, the Houston lawyer representing North Forest, said.
The beginning of the end for North Forest started in 2007 when TEA installed financial and academic conservators, Tritico said. A more drastic takeover was announced in a coolly worded letter from then-TEA commissioner Robert Scott in 2008 firing the superintendent and board and replacing them with a board of three state-appointed managers. "In the intervening years, progress has been sporadic and regression has been frequent," Scott wrote. "School governance is unstable in North Forest ISD and has been so for quite some time."
The agency took that step just after the board fired the previous superintendent, James Simpson, for allegedly attempting to investigate board members and administrators, according to the TEA report. He was given a $233,000 buyout, but then the board repeatedly tried to rehire him, a decision Scott mentioned in his letter firing the board as a symptom of what was wrong with North Forest.
The district's financial hijinks hit a new low when the state found that officials had used bond money to cover shortfalls in payrolls. The school district's bonds were downgraded to junk status, district accounts were negative, North Forest couldn't get approved for any loans to bridge the gap in funds, and district accounts were constantly in the red. In 2008, Ruth Watson, the head of special education, was found to have awarded federal grants to her own family, a development that led to more scrutiny by the state. Even the state-appointed managers couldn't get a handle on things.
George McShan, one of those state-appointed managers, said he thought North Forest board members and administrators were so focused on grappling for power that they lost sight of priorities. Everything McShan and the other managers tried to do was met with obstinacy from North Forest officials, he said.
Adding to the difficulties, the managers were dealing with a chronically underfunded school district, McShan said. The school finance reforms in the 1980s and 1990s still left North Forest short on funding, Thompson said. Enrollment dropped from about 13,000 students in 2000 to around 8,000, when the board of managers took over. The numbers continued to slip as parents chose to put their children in area charter schools, meaning there was even less state funding. The district couldn't offer competitive salaries. Teachers received almost no extra training, and there was no money for campus repairs, McShan said.
By state law, the board of managers could be in charge for only two years. When it turned the district back over to the community board, the problems remained. "We wanted to do new things and they wanted to do things the way it had always been done, and we could never make the transition," McShan said.
The disorder in North Forest was making it easy to build a case for closure. The state emphasized the district's low test scores, though Robert Wimpelberg, the dean of education at the University of Houston, noted that test scores are a difficult barometer to use in measuring student achievement because, he said, the tests are driven as much by politics as by a real desire to assess education quality. To really understand the educational issues in a troubled district like North Forest, you need to look past the data, Wimpelberg said. "We use data as a hammer. We use data to prove something when we should be using it as a flashlight," he said.
TEA warnings came to a head in 2011 when North Forest officials were told the district would lose its accreditation and close the following year, along with Premont ISD, a small district of about 500 students near Corpus Christi.
The North Forest TEA accreditation review for the 2011-12 school year noted that despite the state of the district's finances, the trustees had failed to hire a chief financial officer for almost a year. District officials argued that they couldn't find a qualified replacement at the salary they could offer, but that was no excuse, according to the TEA report.
The TEA report explicitly stated that agency officials are not supposed to consider a district's entire history when reviewing that district, but that in this case doing so was relevant. The report then recounted the many missteps, failings and transgressions in North Forest since the 1980s. The report argued that HISD needed to take control because of North Forest's long and lackluster history, bluntly stating that HISD offered a better education, based on overall district test scores, graduation rates and other district-wide indicators.
Premont ISD was given one more chance after the superintendent appealed to the TEA and then made the drastic — in Texas, land of Friday Night Lights — and national-news-making move of cutting the district's football program to get the funding needed to make the TEA improvements. Having given Premont another chance, TEA gave North Forest a final reprieve in the spring of 2012.
But in December 2012, Tritico said, he realized from his interactions with TEA lawyers that state officials had already made up their minds about North Forest. "The TEA clearly decided over four years ago that they were going to close North Forest, and every decision they made moving forward was in line toward closing the district," Tritico said.
The next semester's test scores wouldn't matter. The fact that North Forest High School had come within less than a percentage point — just two students — of meeting the required improvements in the graduation rate in 2011-12 was moot. In February 2013, TEA announced that the school district would lose accreditation and close on July 1.
"The district's troubled performance history spans multiple boards and multiple superintendents. While the extended performance history is not relevant in determining the assignment of accreditation status, it is clearly relevant to rebut the notion that all of the district's problems would be solved if they just had the right superintendent and the right board," stated the final TEA report, issued last April.
When Carrol Thomas heard the agency's pronouncement that it would be impossible for the right superintendent and board to save the district, he laughed at the claim. He knew North Forest could be saved, because he'd done it himself 20 years earlier. In his work with the district, he also became convinced that it was worth saving, because the institution was the heartbeat of the community.
Every North Forest official you talk to will acknowledge the school district had problems, but North Forest proponents argue the district still had potential. Many continued to fight the takeover even after it was made official, saying that HISD had similar problems but had hid them better.
After a last-ditch attempt to stop the merger under the Voting Rights Act was killed by the Supreme Court's ruling in June that struck down the pre-clearance requirement — which had meant that the U.S. Justice Department would have to sign off on any consolidation involving a minority school district — it was over, Tritico said.
Some critics argued that even if North Forest had to be absorbed by another school district, HISD wasn't necessarily the right choice.
Pedro Noguera, a professor of sociology at New York University and executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education who worked with North Forest administrators in the final attempt to turn the district around, said his research and other studies have shown that academically struggling students do not benefit from being put into larger school districts. Studies by researchers at the University of Chicago and Texas Southern University indicate the same thing.
A long-term study of Maryland schools published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis in 2002 found that even when a school district gutted an urban school, replacing the entire administrative and teaching staff and starting everything new, the social stability and climate of the school changed for the worse, while student performance didn't get any better.
After a slew of closings in Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2006, the University of Chicago looked at how the closings affected students. Just announcing a school was closing had a negative impact on student performance for the final school year, according to the report. Once students moved to a different school, academic performance didn't change either way.
To get an underperforming student up to his or her grade level, UH education dean Robert Wimpelberg said, he has found that much depends on teachers themselves. Students who start the school year already behind need extra time and attention and perhaps different approaches to the material to help them catch up. If you have many students performing at different levels, it takes a skilled educator to balance the needs of all those students, he said.
If students get teachers who, through either experience or talent, know how to pull off that balancing act, it makes all the difference in the world, Wimpelberg said. However, a bad teacher can have as much influence as a good one. "If those students who are trying to catch up get two ineffective teachers in a row, they're doomed," he said.
The TSU study said HISD looked like a better option only when you compared district numbers. When you lined North Forest schools up next to those with similar student populations in HISD, the numbers were less impressive, showing populations HISD has a history of underserving, according to the report.
Carol Mims Galloway, who represented the HISD district adjacent to North Forest, opposed taking on North Forest, saying there were already issues not being dealt with in HISD schools similar to those in North Forest. "If you haven't fixed the problems in your own district, how are you going to get it done by taking on more schools with the same problems?" she asked.
Even in 2011, when North Forest had not yet officially been annexed by HISD, Grier was certain enough of getting North Forest that he put Issa Dadoush, then general manager of facilities for HISD, to work making plans on the logistics that would be required to get North Forest schools cleaned up.
At the same time, HISD was as guilty of neglect as North Forest or any other school district working to juggle budget cuts with educational needs and the maintenance that keeps district buildings in good condition, Dadoush said. "When there is a budget reduction in any facility anywhere, the very first thing they'll attack is the maintenance budget," Dadoush said. "Before you know it, there's a tidal wave of problems and facilities in desperate need of attention." Dadoush left HISD in 2012 because he was frustrated by the lack of transparency in a system that was both time-consuming and inefficient and was tired of the cost-cutting that continually sliced deep into his department budget, he said.
Grier presented the news to the HISD board that HISD would be taking in North Forest as an unalterable fact, Galloway said. TEA officials never met with the school board, instead going directly to Grier. "They told us HISD would be getting North Forest and that was it," she said. "I'm sure they could have opposed it if they'd wanted. They've opposed anything else they've wanted to."
Those issues may have been part of the appeal for HISD in accepting North Forest, Galloway said. Grier's much vaunted Apollo 20 turnaround program hasn't been the unqualified success he'd hoped it would be three years in, Galloway said. Pouring money and focus into the funding-starved schools of North Forest should provide fast, discernible results that will give Grier something to show off in place of the program that Galloway and other critics say is turning out to be a bust, she said. "We'll probably see some changes over there just because everyone is watching," she said.
And the changes will have to be more than just academic or financial.
At a teleconference town hall held by HISD officials, a mother told how her son had been bullied last year but that her complaints were ignored by the teachers and administration. Another mother asked about safety at Forest Brook Middle School for the coming year. Last year, her nephew's lunch money and shoes were stolen repeatedly on the Forest Brook campus. Now, with her daughter starting sixth grade there, she wanted to know what HISD planned to do about safety.
Rick Fernandez, the new principal, reassured her, telling her the district had just installed a security system that would provide surveillance over the entire campus. The school would also be staffed with two HISD police officers who would be provided with all-terrain vehicles so they could move around the campus quickly. "That way they'll be able to go from putting out one fire to putting out the next," Fernandez said.
Thirteen-year-old Damond Wiggins and his brothers had warned their sister Jasmine, 12, about the fights at Forest Brook, about how quickly things could get violent at the school.
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When the pair arrived for the first day of school, the incoming seventh grader could only repeat their mantra: to keep her head down and pay attention in class.
She'd be in an even rougher environment once she got to North Forest High School, her brothers said, so she'd better get focused and learn how to stay out of trouble now. "You can get an education, or you can get in a fight. You've got to choose," Damond said.
It won't be immediately clear if the merger is what everyone, on both sides of the line, has said they want — a better education for North Forest students. The students seemed excited about the spruced-up campuses, but the real proof — test scores, campus safety and graduation rates — will take longer to surface. Now we'll have to wait and see if bigger really is better.


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Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Gadsden plant in November had its first layoff in 13 years, according to plant officials.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Gadsden plant in November had its first layoff in 13 years, according to plant officials.
Fifty-three employees were laid off, retiring Plant Manager Jim Davis said last week.
Davis, whose last day was Monday, blamed the poor economy for the layoffs. He said the plant, which instituted a hiring freeze early in 2012, had to cut 101 positions during the year. Forty-eight positions were eliminated through attrition, the rest through layoffs.
"The economy has been our biggest enemy," he said.
Davis said the plant went through a difficult time in 2008 and again this year, and that the last nine months have been the most difficult and challenging during his tenure as manager.
"The plant did everything it could," he said. "I'm disappointed that the downturn in the economy finally caught up with us and we had to reduce head count in the plant."
A two-week reduction in tire production in late September and October, designed to balance tire inventories, affected about a fourth of the plant's employees, but Davis said additional cost saving measures were needed.
Communications Manager Jackie Brehm Edmondson said this was the plant's first layoffs since 1999, when Goodyear announced the facility was closing except for the mix center. That decision later was reversed.
Edmondson said she understood other Goodyear plants had layoffs.


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Oh that IS a shame. Thanks for the info.
Thanks! The reduce costs part may not be so good though....
Is anyone able to help me work out which team members are which? I'm adding this version to the timelines I'm working on, now that I've got a copy of the whole season, and I can't figure out who's who in any of the teams. (It doesn't help that the only name of any co-ed team member I've heard before is one that's applicable to both men and women.) Just screenshots with English-language labels would help immensely.
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I've already been brainstorming toons I want to roll as soon as the game goes live, and with me being a huge x-men fan most of my ideas come from a single super power. My favorite char of all time being The Incredible Nightctawler! My only problem is coh teleport sucked the animation was horrible the sound sucked and there was no instantaneous teleport. The only true practical use it had was to drag dead guys to the start of the map to be res'ed by the healer. Here's my idea for a teleport set:
1. Teleport- ranged location. (basic movement power)
2. Targeted teleport- ranged targeted (same as above just to a target ex. bad guy, or you're buddy whatever)
3. Escape- ranged random (teleport to a random location away from you're target)
4. Return- toggle (toggle on return teleports you to target, return once toggle is shut off)
5. Long range teleport- teleport across city zones to certain landmarks ect.
In coh it was nearly impossible for me to use teleport as a combat option with a set like this it would give us the ability to use teleport as a viable combat movement. So whattaya think?


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The Society was founded in 1949 when a small group of enthusiasts, particularly interested in the Siamese Cat, met and discussed the idea of laying down a standard for the breed, based on that existing overseas, and the holding of shows to encourage breeders to improve local standards and foster a better understanding of the care and management of cats in general.
The founder members of the Society were Gladys Haswell, Rosemary Harte and the Rev. and Mrs. Oliver. A stimulus was given to the activities of the Society when the late Mrs. Stewart and Dr. F.G. Stewart joined the committee and their intimate knowledge of show procedure was made available to the Society
The Siamese Cat Society of SA changed its name on 27 February 1984 to become the Transvaal Cat Society. Their first show was held in the Norwegian Hall in de Villiers Street, Johannesburg, in 1950 and apparently attracted "long queues of people". Dr and Mrs Stewart, who had not long since immigrated from England where they were very involved with the cat fancy, were essential to the show, as they were the "only people in Johannesburg… who knew anything about shows or how to run them." (RCC newsletter, reprinted in Cats Calling August 1961). Both were judges, but on this occasion, Dr Stewart had to run the show, so Mrs Stewart judged every exhibit.
These two also undertook the judges' training in Johannesburg. At the time of the Society's establishment, Siamese were by far the most popular breed in South Africa, with some 1 400 being registered countrywide by 1955. The Siamese Cat Society was one of the first members of the Associated Cat Clubs of SA, the forerunner of SACC, along with the Rand Cat Club, Natal Cat Club, and Western Province Cat Club. Rosemary Harte moved to Cape Town, where she was very well known for many years. Mr John Oliver remained a Siamese enthusiast and passed away only recently.


text: Google can be an excellent source for finding research materials. While it is not a replacement for searching in the Library's subscription article databases, Google can be an effective tool for finding scholarly materials that will help your research. Did you know that you can set up Google Scholar to link to the U of I Library's electronic journal subscriptions? Or that you can use Google Books to explore a book before you Interlibrary Loan it? We will share our strategies for using Google Scholar, Google Books, and other Google tools to supplement your research. http://guides.library.illinois.edu/google


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OVERVIEW: It has long been a strategic priority for the California Fire Safe Council to promote the development of new Fire Safe Councils in California communities. We are working with funding from State Farm Insurance Company to develop a new program, to run for two years, which would enable a number of new Community Fire Safe Councils.
OBJECTIVES: These new organizations will be educated in fire safety, informed of the risks in their own community, and be provided full body harness in perth with tools. The aim is for the new Fire Safe Councils to become self-sufficient organizations able to plan and manage fire safety projects and be able to acquire grant funding to accomplish their objectives. In case of accidents and injuries you can visit truck accident attorneys for quality services.
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES: The new program will be based on the highly successful model developed in Napa County which has enabled nine new Fire Safe Councils. The current California Fire Safe Council Executive Director is the former President of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, who developed and implemented the Napa program. Each individual community project will include:
1. A "Community Home Ignition Zone Workshop", covering:
- California/area fire history
- Defensible Space concepts
- Structure survivability — protecting and hardening structures
- Fire Safe Councils — what they do, how they work – Project planning and funding
2. An expert Community risk assessment, describing 10-15 likely mitigation projects
3. Assistance in developing a baseline Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)
4. Assistance in developing mitigation project priorities
5. Assistance in developing of a Community Communications Plan to inform the public
6. Basic training on how to acquire grant funds.
Community selection will be done using a number of measures, including: SRA Fire Hazard Severity Zones, local agency input including: local CAL FIRE districts, volunteer fire departments, Resource Conservation Districts, etc. Other considerations will include area population, number of homes and critical infrastructure: schools, water/sewer districts, etc. Items 1 and 2 above will be conducted in person in the community, items 3-6 will be done with video conferencing and webinars (internet seminars).
STATE FARM CONNECTION: State Farm as a supporter of this program will receive acknowledgement of their help in every new community meeting and throughout the program. Additionally, credit will be given to State Farm in local press coverage, PSAs and on the web site of the California Fire Safe Council.
COMMUNITY LEADERS: Local Fire Departments, regional CAL FIRE units, local mayors, city councils and county supervisors will all be made aware of these programs. They will be encouraged to participate, and will be positioned to review and approve the Community Wildfire Protection Plans developed by the new Fire Safe Councils.
Please download the form below and return to firstname.lastname@example.com


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We can't stand Christmas for very long.
For the brief 36 hours or so starting around dusk on December 24, we slow down long enough to let the Christmas mystery settle on us. If we don't kneel at the manger, at least we pause before it. Our hearts tell us in our Christmas Eve services to take the sweet glow of candles and communion with us throughout the week and into the new year. We know it would be right and lovely to do so.
But come the morning of the 26th, and we are ready to get busy again. I have observed this back-to-business compulsion in three busy airports this week—Dallas, Atlanta and Frankfurt (where we are visiting our son Cliff who is stationed nearby). Our highly frenetic society simply can't stay in Christmas very long. The liturgical calendar calls for us to rejoice in Christmas for a spell, but the vaunted Twelve Days of Christmas is something we experience only in song and never in actual celebration.
We start gearing up for Christmas absurdly early. By Halloween, the American retail machine is in full crank, indoctrinating us on the catechism of materialism, the real American religion. That is, we spend money we don't have on stuff we don't need, didn't know existed shortly before the time of purchase, and will soon no longer want. Our cathedrals are empty and our malls are teeming, thus confirming where our real temples are located. It takes a certain kind of altered state to engage in this orgy of acquisition-- this temple sacrifice-- which is why those saccharine carols play over and over again until we are sufficiently stupefied.
The irony is thick: two months preparing for a feast we hardly take a day to enjoy. It is no surprise that many folks are depressed this time of year. How can any normal human aspire to the ridiculous level of holiday cheer and consumption the popular culture calls us to?
American theologian Howard Thurman wrote something years ago entitled, "Work of Christmas Begins."
When the song of the angels is stilled,
Then the work of Christmas begins.
That's the kind of Christmas we can celebrate for twelve days. And a whole lot longer.


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New Mexico Tech Student Nominated for Biehl Award, May 8, 2006
by Shawna Carter
SOCORRO, N.M., May 8, 2006 — New Mexico Tech student Ronadel Ronquillo was recently nominated for the Amy Biehl Youth Spirit Award, a prestigious service award founded in 1993 to recognize New Mexico's young volunteers.
Ronquillo was active in a number of organizations at her alma mater, Rio Rancho High School, including National Honor Society and Key Club. As Key Club president, she organized several clean-up and beautification events, as well as book, food, and fund drives for UNICEF.
Currently at New Mexico Tech, Ronquillo, a freshman majoring in biology, is the President-Elect at the Society of Women Engineers at New Mexico Tech. As an active member, she helps organize the club's many events both on and off-campus.
"Volunteering is my life," she said. "I have volunteered through Girl Scouts, church, school, and on my own."
As a former member of the Girl Scouts organization, Ronquillo recently set up an overnight sleep-over at New Mexico Tech for scouts ages 8-11. During the sleep-over, hosted and sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers, the scouts earned their science badges through a series of supervised science experiments, which included making invisible ink, putty, and ice-cream.
"The invisible ink experiment was fun and a big learning experience for all of us," she said. "One of the ingredients reacts with starch and makes the ink visible. We didn't realize that the paper we were using had starch in it until it was too late. I kept having to run back and forth to my dorm room to get different paper in order to make the ink work properly."
Despite the invisible ink incident, according to Ronquillo, the scout sleep-over was a success. Everyone learned a lesson about science, while having fun, and she says having fun while making a difference in the lives of community members is what volunteering is all about.
Ronquillo was honored for her recent nomination for the Amy Biehl Award at the Amy Biehl Youth Spirit Awards ceremony in Albuquerque earlier this year.


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Howdy from California!
Hi All,
I'm new here. I feel very fortunate to be living in Sonoma County! The original stomping grounds of Mr Peter Reinhart himself. I have been "trying" to bake bread for the last 6 months or so. I'm on a quest to learning how to make good bread. On a consistant basis
I need some help tho. If someone can point me to the "Trouble Shooting" section I will read, absorb and apply as much as I can.
I have Peter Reinharts Baker's Apprentice, Crust and Crumb and Juniper Brothers Books. I have also tryed a few Amish bread recipes. My biggest frustration is that I get a great first rise, but when I put the dough in the bread pans I get maybe half a rise then it stops and/or it deflats. I hand knead for a good 10-15 mins and I got my wt measurements right. But I can't figure out for the life of me what the heck I'm doing wrong.
If anyone can point me in the right direction I would truly be greatful. Cuz the tasty bricks are getting a little old.
Thanks in advance!
GI Jane


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- Available as fresh cells or cryopreserved plateable or suspension lots
- Viabilities routinely >80%
- Characterized for phase I and phase II enzyme activities
Our dog hepatocytes are prepared using the same careful isolation and cryopreservation techniques as our human lots. Characterization methods of cryopreserved hepatocytes include ECOD, 7-HCG and 7-HCS for phase I and phase II enzyme activities. We also closely monitor cell morphology, attachment efficiency, monolayer confluency (plateable cells) and viability stability over time for both fresh and cryopreserved hepatocytes.
Fresh Hepatocytes Availability and Ordering
Animal (North America only): Regularly scheduled isolations are detailed on our Animal Isolation Calendar. Standard isolations are from male animals, unless otherwise requested. Upon request, custom isolations can be scheduled.
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March 6, 2005
After three days of competition at the EISL Championships, the Yale men's swimming and diving team finished in fourth out of nine teams. It's the second straight fourth-place finish for the Bulldogs, who also took fourth in 2004. The Bulldogs finished behind Harvard, Princeton and Columbia, who took first, second and third, respectively.
The Bulldogs' strongest swimmer on Saturday was Ben Dzialo, who placed fourth in the 200 Butterfly. John Atkinson also had a strong day, taking 6th in the 1650 Freestyle.
Freshman Doug Scott was Yale's top diver of the meet, taking 9th place in the 3 meter event.
Yale ended competition with a seventh place finish by its 400 Freestyle relay team of Kieran Locke, Quinn Fitzgerald, Morgan Locke and Andrew Foss.


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This double live album - made up of four tracks over an astounding 148 minutes of trance and dance-inducing bedlam - opens with a speech by the late Nigerian Afro-beat rebel. "In my country," he says, "things happen just like that. You mind your business, you don't do shit, you don't do nothing, next thing man, you are in prison, man, just like that."
And with that Kuti and his band Egypt 80 ease gently into Just Like That, before it blasts open with brass and then settles into an Afro-jazz groove for, oh, the next 20 minutes.
His speech is even more poignant given this was recorded soon after his release from prison for "currency smuggling", though the common belief is that his imprisonment was politically motivated.
The second disc opens with the brassy blasts and clap-along lather of Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense which, while taking your mind, body and soul to many different places during its beautifully rambling, often intense 40 minutes, saves the best for last with a wooden drum outburst that's like Cook Island drums only more dead and desperate. The dour and agitating Beasts of No Nation brings the set to a close as it escalates into a squally, all-in finale.
Though this recording doesn't quite take you back to Kuti's live heyday it was a heady time nonetheless. And the mix of celebration and revelry with volatility and righteousness comes through in everything from the crowd's lippy interjections to the music that brims and boils before eventually blowing up.
Stars: 4/5


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Hand dyed clear acrylic earrings with a yellow to pink ombre effect – the colour is subtle when viewed straight on, but comes alive from the side!
Sterling silver stud earring posts with silver plated butterfly backs.
Each earring measures 6.5cm in length – shown on a business card for scale.
PLEASE NOTE: This item is dyed to order, so please allow 7 days processing time before your order is shipped. Do let me know if you'd like to request them in a different colour combination!


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Sprint delays Galaxy S4 launch in stores, citing inventory
Sprint is delaying shipments of Samsung's latest flagship phone, citing "unexpected inventory challenges."
The company did not say whether it had encountered supply disruptions or heavier-than-expected demand with the Galaxy S4.
Sprint's launch was scheduled for Saturday. Sprint Nextel Corp. says it still expects to sell the device over the Internet and by phone, but retail stores and other distribution channels won't get them until later. The company didn't say when.
The S4 has a slightly larger screen than its predecessor, the Galaxy S III, but it's lighter and smaller. The S4 sports new camera tools, an optical-reader app and the ability to perform tasks by waving a finger over a sensor.
Sprint charges $250 for the base model, or $150 if the buyer is coming over from another carrier.


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Story highlights
- "Iron Man 3" has already surpassed the $300 million mark at the international box office
- The $200 million Disney/Marvel release is only getting started
- Driven by a $65.6 million Wednesday gross, "Iron Man 3's" international total climbed to $307.7 million
After only eight days of release, Iron Man 3 has already surpassed the $300 million mark at the international box office — and the $200 million Disney/Marvel release is only getting started.
Driven by a $65.6 million Wednesday gross, Iron Man 3's international total climbed to $307.7 million. For reference, Iron Man 2 earned a $311.5 million international TOTAL back in 2010, and Iron Man 3 will soar right past that figure today. Though the threequel, which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, got off to a faster start than The Avengers overseas (Iron Man 3 opened to $198.4 million; The Avengers bowed with $185.1 million), it will be very tough or Iron Man 3 to match that film's $888.4 million international total. We'll have to wait and see!
Iron Man 3's huge Wednesday at the box office was driven by incredible business in China, where the film earned an estimated $21.5 million yesterday — the best opening day in box office history. Looks like Disney's plan to court favor with Chinese audiences is already paying off. Here's the country-by-country breakdown of how the film is doing so far:
Gross-to-date by country
Korea -- $27.6M
Mexico -- $26.8M
United Kingdom -- $26.8M
France -- $22.6M
Australia -- $21.6M
*China -- $21.5M
Brazil -- $20.4M
Italy -- $14.5M


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Damar Resin
by Jacquard
These crystals are resin from a tree found in the East Indies. It is used for hardening beeswax by raising its melting temperature when used in encaustic applications. To make your own encaustic medium: Because the damar is in its raw state (it comes from the tree), it must be melted with the beeswax and strained to remove impurities.
Melting point 200° F
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Blakney Surpasses Miller as All-Time Leading Scorer
Farmingdale State - 72, Purchase College - 56
Purchase, N.Y. - Junior guard Kimberly Blakney (Brooklyn, N.Y./Benjamin Banneker) surpassed her former teammate Mercedes Miller's All-Time scoring record last night, as she scored 26 points in the Rams 72-56 victory over Purchase. Blakney, who joined Farmingdale's roster halfway through her rookie season, now stands atop the Rams' career scoring list with 1,064 points to date. Miller finished her three-year career in 2008 with 1,046 points.
Purchase led at the half 30-28, as Farmingdale struggled shooting just 35-percent in the first, but the Rams came through in the second to take the conference victory. Blakney's 26 was a game-high, while freshman guard Shemique Hooks (Westbury, N.Y./Westbury) scored 12 points. Freshman center Dominique Cunningham (Amityville, N.Y./Copiague) finished with nine points.
The Panthers were led by senior forward Jennifer Danio (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Peter's) with 24 points and senior forward Patricia Orellana (New York, N.Y./Economics and Finance) with 15 points.
The Rams will now play at Old Westbury on Saturday, January 24th in a Skyline Conference game at 2:00 p.m.


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Mica Tiles
by US Art Quest
Perfect FX Tiles are natural mica which is heat resistant, acid free and lightfast. Each Tile is distinctly different from the other. They can be delaminated and relaminated making them perfect for preserving photos, pressed flowers and mementos. Uses include jewelry making, painting, embossing, collage art, card making, and ornamentation. Archival, lightfast, acid free, heat resistant. Tiles vary in shape and size. Sizes listed below are approximate.
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5 6
janette9 from Erie, PA says:
Lovely, high-quality mica. The only problem I had was in the sizing. I needed a piece that was 4" X 6" and out of all the pieces in the packet, not one of them was big enough. (I ordered the 5" X 6"...[more]
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British Broadcasting CorporationHome
Hollywood Voices | Interviews with stars of the Golden Age of American Cinema
CHANNEL | Home Service
FIRST BROADCAST | 01 September 1959
DURATION | 3 minutes 16 seconds
In this light-hearted interview, swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn talks with John Ellison about the filming of his current movie, which recounts the story of folk hero William Tell, and explains that he is in London to see whether anyone can lend him the £50,000 he needs to complete it.
Flynn was unable to raise the money he needed for his William Tell project and the film was never finished.
A 'round table' interview with a reluctant genius.
A glimpse into the lives of two stars of the silent screen.
Rita Hayworth is interviewed about her latest film.
In conversation with the director of 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941).
Errol Flynn tries to persuade John Ellison to get his cheque book out.
Gary Cooper explains why acting is not as easy as it looks.
The ground-breaking actor on his life and work.
A conversation with the dead-pan comedian of the silent-movie era.
The Hollywood 'heavy' describes his love for beautiful things.
In conversation with Hollywood's most feisty star.
What makes a good Western?
The Marx Brother keeps the laughs coming during a London press conference.
Playing cinema's most iconic monster.
How a screen legend regards her adoring fans.
'It's better to be remembered as Tarzan's mate than not be remembered at all.'
The director, writer and actor answers a few questions.
Veronica Lake talks about old-school Hollywood glamour.
The varied career of the all-round entertainer.
A chat with the cool crooner.
The elegant dancer appraises Vincente Minnelli.
How the master of suspense applies music to his pictures.
Getting to know Yul Brynner.
The actor and dancer describes his journey to box-office success.
Fred Astaire's most celebrated co-star talks about their world-famous partnership.
The director discusses his films and working with Samuel Goldwyn.
A trail-blazing career from the Harlem stage to Hollywood.
The director and choreographer describes working with Fred Astaire.
Behind the scenes on 'Wuthering Heights'.
The early career of the funny man.
How 'From Here to Eternity' was just the beginning.
How they 'lived a lifetime' on 'Singin' in the Rain'.
The energetic dancer on revolutionising the Hollywood musical.
The rugged star of iconic Hollywood musicals speaks frankly about his career.
The 'tough broad' singer of 'Remember My Forgotten Man' recalls the early days of Hollywood.
The star of 'The Wizard of Oz' talks about the early days of Hollywood.
Ruby Keeler talks about a career that began in the 1920s.
In conversation with the legendary father of an acting dynasty.
It was hard work, but it was fun.
A brief interview with the actor about his latest film, 'The Big Sleep'.
From 'The Seven Year Itch' to 'Sunset Boulevard'.
The original 'sarong girl' talks about her Hollywood heyday.
The director of 'Show Boat' talks about getting Hollywood singing and dancing.
Memories of working at Columbia Studios under Harry Cohn.
One of Hollywood's most enduring stars defends the 'studio system'.
The star of 'Rebecca' recalls the moguls of Hollywood.
The director of 'All About Eve' (1950) compares old and new Hollywood.
Pioneer film director King Vidor looks back on his Hollywood career.
Mickey Rooney reflects on the movie moguls who influenced his career.
The Oscar-winning composer and lyricist remembers some of the great studio bosses.
Walter Pidgeon remembers Louis B Mayer.
Life without Bogart and a new career on Broadway.
The star of 'Casablanca' recalls her life in movies and on the stage.
On Cecil B DeMille and working the 'studio system'.
From 'The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952) to independent pictures.
Hollywood the hard way for the legendary film-maker.
Directing Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Errol Flynn.
It's a wonderful life for a movie director.
The famous 'woman's director' talks about his leading ladies.
Acting: 'It's just a job.'
The silent-movie queen talks about acting.
The double Oscar-winner in conversation about his career in films.
In conversation with the prolific cinematic composer.
Why do men always have to be 'macho'?
Dimples, dancing lessons and J Edgar Hoover's very comfortable lap.
The actor and humanitarian recalls his most famous roles.
Stewart Granger in conversation with Gloria Hunniford.
Why is 'King Kong' still so popular?
Corinne Julius meets Hollywood's 'independent woman'.
The irrepressible Tony Curtis in conversation with Nicky Campbell.
A career in romance and the recovery of a lost album.
Catching up with the 'Singin' in the Rain' star.
Some of cinema's biggest stars visit the BBC.
Later visits by Hollywood stars to the BBC.
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News & Events
For the Media
Clarkson University Team Receives Grant for Electrolarynx Research
A team of Clarkson faculty and student researchers is developing a cost-effective way to give a voice to the voiceless.
Janine Amell '13 and Professors Byron Erath, Laurel Kuxhaus and Kevin Fite have received a $5,000 grant from the Academic Success Program to Improve Retention and Education (ASPIRE) to create a modified electrolarynx. The project is also one of six finalists in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2013 Undergraduate Design Project Competition in Rehabilitation and Assistive Devices.
For decades, individuals whose larynx was removed due to cancer or other diseases have used the handheld medical device to restore speech. When pressed against the neck, the vibrating electrolarynx serves as a substitute for the surgically removed vocal folds, acoustically exciting the vocal tract.
But the average electrolarynx typically costs between $500 and $700 and is too expensive for much of the global population, according to Erath, an assistant professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering whose research focuses on the aerodynamics of speech. The team is trying to design a more reasonably priced alternative while also improving the sound quality and ease of use of the electrolarynx.
"To me, it comes down to trying to improve a person's quality of life," Erath said. "We'd like to keep the cost low enough that it would be distributed worldwide."
The research is being conducted by a five-member senior class design team of mechanical engineering majors, including Amell from Schenectady, N.Y.; Robert Griffin from Hyde Park, N.Y.; Madison Malfa of Airmont, N.Y.; Allen Osaheni from Clifton Park, N.Y.; and Chris Nycz of Walkill, N.Y. The $5,000 is allowing Amell to stay at Clarkson through the summer to further develop the device.
"It's a nice way to generate a little more support than would otherwise be available for a senior design project," said Fite, an associate professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
"This is a really unique opportunity for Janine to make a second generation prototype," added Kuxhaus, Amell's advisor and an assistant professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
As one of six national finalists, the team will present its research the 2013 ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference, June 26-29 in Sun River, Ore.
Amell said the experience has proven invaluable as she prepares for a career in biomedical engineering. She has seen first-hand how engineering can improve someone's life; her father lost half of his leg in a 2007 motorcycle accident and a prosthetic device has since improved his mobility.
"It's something exciting that it could go places," Amell said of the research project. "It's definitely a step in the right direction for getting experience for graduate school."
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in five alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.
Photo caption: A team of Clarkson University student and faculty researchers, including Janine Amell '13 (front) and Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering Professors Kevin Fite, Laurel Kuxhaus and Byron Erathhave received a $5,000 grant to create a modified electrolarynx.
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/ASPIRE-2013.jpg .]


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I met Kate Gosselin the other night and she was pretty with her new hair. It's blonde and long and flat-ironed. I liked the other hair too but she is very glamorous these days. She asked me how I will deal with the criticism I might get from being on "Dancing With The Stars" and I said "I don't care about it!" and I really don't. Why does anyone care what anyone says about them? And also about whether you can dance or not, if you are not known to be a dancer? Especially when it's people who don't know you and don't know what you are about? Everyone who knows me knows I am NOT a ballroom dancer and would probably be better off on "Dancing With The Whores" which is a spin off of yesterday's pilot for "Dancing With The Stoners."
I told Kate that she shouldn't listen to the mean things people say about her and she said she wouldn't. That made her smile a lot, which I think is nice. She has a nice smile, which is a special secret. I don't know much about her, except that she seems to be a soft spoken lady with a lot of children and an Asian Adjacent ex-husband. She also says she was not a good dancer but I think that if anyone can get through a moment of the "Dancing With The Stars" experience – they've got to have some rhythm somewhere. She did not fall – which I have done several times already!! I feel like if I fall a bunch now, I won't fall later. It's like if you have a bad rehearsal you have a great performance!! That is how it has been in my experience. You should always shoot to have a terrible rehearsal so that the show shines. It's kind of like the 'break a leg' thing. You don't want to actually break a leg, but you want to 'break a leg.' This whole thing is so different from anything I have done, and I am looking forward to bringing my stripper moves to it, as well as busting my humps.
The paparazzi seem to weirdly care about me today, but I think it is because no one else is at the dance studio rehearsing as early as I am there and they are bored. They asked me, kind of in a shitty way, if I was learning anything – as in "how to dance" and I said "yes" all confident and then immediately tripped on a parking divider. It was real stupid. I feel bad for them because it's hot in that real 'Hollywood concrete and asphalt' way and really pee smelling in the alley they are waiting in and I hope they are drinking enough water. That has to suck – waiting around in deep Hollywood to take pictures of people. I wouldn't want to do it, just like I don't think anyone wants to come inside and do abs with me!
I cannot wait to ask The Situation if I am a grenade or a landmine. I hope that the rest of The Jersey Shore cast comes and cheers him on because I have a crush on Snooki. I think she looks exactly like Elizabeth Taylor from Cleopatra – really gorgeous.


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|Regulatory Story
|Go to market news section
17 July 2017
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited ("the Company" or "VOF")
Estimated weekly net asset value ("NAV")
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited, a London Stock Exchange Main Market traded investment company established to target key growth segments in Vietnam, and managed by VinaCapital Group (the "Manager"), announces that, as at its close of business on 14 July 2017, its unaudited, estimated net asset value was USD980.1 million or USD4.90 per share (Sterling equivalent at that date was GBP749.1 million or GBP3.75 per share). On a per share basis, this figure represents a week-over-week increase of 2.9% in USD terms and a year-to-date increase of 17.2% in USD terms for the 2017 calendar year.
The estimated weekly NAV stated in this announcement has been produced by the Manager based on estimated valuations and accordingly the Company accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of the estimated weekly NAV figure given, and neither is any responsibility implied. The actual month end NAV in any month may vary from the estimated weekly NAV's provided in the relevant month. Accordingly, no reliance should be placed on the estimated weekly NAV and it has been provided for indicative purposes only. The Company's unaudited Net Asset Value as at the end of each month will continue to be published on or around the 10th of each month.
The estimated weekly NAV is prepared by the Manager based on the following valuation guidelines:
More information on the Company is available at vof-fund.com.
Jonathan Viet Luu / Joel Weiden
VinaCapital Investment Management Limited
+84 28 3821 9930
firstname.lastname@example.com / email@example.com
David Benda / Hugh Jonathan
Numis Securities Limited, Broker
+44 20 7260 1000
Franczeska Hanford
Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited, Company Secretary
+44 1481 745001
Edward Gascoigne-Pees
Camarco, Public Relations (London)
+44 20 3757 4980
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