Azərbaycan təbrik! (Congratulations
Azerbaijan!)
Were you among the 100 million viewers who tuned
in to see the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday
night?
The winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011
If so you will know all about Azerbaijan, the small country with a
big song.
Well okay, the song was written by Swedish songwriters and one
of the singers actually lives in London, but hey! what an
achievement for a country that has only entered the contest four
times.
Its football team is ranked 107th in the world and until Saturday
night most people would have assumed its pop music was even
less likely to beat Italy, Germany and Sweden in a major European
competition.
But that was before Azerbaijan scooped the Eurovision title and
put the tiny Caucasian country firmly on the musical map.
The winning song was performed by Eldar Gasimov and Nigar
Jamal appearing as Ell/Nikki. Nikki lives in London with her
husband and two daughters.
The song's title was Running Scared, though few people were
running scared when the singers first had their slightly wobbly
sounding performance on stage at Dusseldorf's massive Esprit
Arena.
Jedward, appearing for Ireland, and the UK's Blue were feeling full
of confidence at that point. But as the different countries' judging
panels started to call in with their results Ell/Nikki climbed steadily
up the leader board.
Soon it became clear Azerbaijan was going to improve on last
year's fifth-place finish. In the end Ell/Nikki won the competition
with 221 points, well ahead of second-placed Raphael Gualazzi of
Italy who had 189. Sweden were third, Jedward were eighth and
Blue came 11th.
The winning song was written by the same trio of Swedish
songwriters who penned the 2010 entry, Drip Drop. But that did
not upset the thousands cheering in the rain in the Azerbaijani
capital Baku, watching the competition on big screens and
cheering wildly at the result.
Article source: http://www.dailywhat.org.uk/2011/05/congratulations-azerbaijan.aspx
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First Scottish conviction for illegally
downloading music
Copying music has always been a problem for the music
industry.
Even from the days of producing sheet music - the earliest forms
of 'recorded' music - there have been disputes over licensing and
copyright.
When cassette tape recorders first appeared almost every vinyl
album sold was emblazoned with a notice warning that taping
music would kill music. But music continued to grow, to spread and
to enthrall reaching ever larger audiences because the taped copy
was never as good as the original.
But the ease with which small digital files can be copied - almost
perfectly - and downloaded has meant that illegal copying and
distribution is now on an unprecedented scale.
Music fans illegally downloaded more than a billion tracks in 2010,
according to official figures.
In the UK the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) has the job of
trying to protect artists from having their work copied and
distributed illegally.
A report published by industry body the British Recorded Music
Industry (BPI) found 7.7 million people illegally downloaded music
worth almost £1 billion.
BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor compared the practise of illegal
downloading to having "a parasite" on the industry.
The figures, outlines in a report called Digital Music Nation 2010,
found 1.2 billion tracks were illegally downloaded in 2010.
Mr Taylor said: "Illegal downloading continues to rise in the UK. It
is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented
young people of their chance to make a career in music and is
holding back investment in the fledgling digital entertainment
sector."
This loss of revenue is why the BPI has started to pursue some of
the worst offenders, such as Anne Muir, who this week became
the first person in Scotland to be charged with illegally sharing
music files online.
She had thousands of digital music files worth more than £50,000
on a computer at her home in Ayr. In a couple of weeks the court
will decide her sentence.
But legal downloads are on the increase, with digital tracks now
accounting for 24.5% of recorded music revenue, up from 19.2%
last year.
I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas became the first single
track download to sell more than a million copies. The BPI
predicted sales of digital singles could top 160 million this year.
Mr Taylor said: "Digital music is now mainstream in the UK, with
much to be proud of - there are nearly 70 legal services and a
further increase in the numbers of digital singles and albums sold
online.
"Yet this growth is a fraction of what it ought to be."
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Keeping an eye on the masterpieces
On the day that it was announced that Street View will be
offering the public even greater access to art galleries in the
Google Art Project, Glasgow's museums and galleries have
admitted that hundreds of items are missing from their
collections.
Tate Britain, one of the galleries now open online through Google
Although none of the Glasgow museums have been chosen to
take part in art project, Google's Street View, which does cover the
city, has been branded a 'burglars' charter' in the past as it
provides detailed views of properties as well as the streets and
lanes surrounding them.
This week it was revealed by Glasgow Life, which runs the
museums, that hundreds of works of art are currently listed as
"unlocated to date."
The city's museums and galleries admitted some items had been
stolen and that poor storage systems led to items vanishing
sometime over the past 80 years.
Paintings, sculptures, military items, Roman artefacts, Egyptian
weapons and letters from the First World War are among 634
items currently unaccounted for.
But museum bosses are hopeful a fresh inventory will turn up
some of the missing items. Staff also said there had been
significant investment in more secure storage and better
cataloguing systems so they were confident that the collections
were now safe.
A spokesman for Glasgow Life said: "An internal audit in 1996
revealed that storage and inventory were far from satisfactory. The
city then prioritised the security and inventory of the collection,
moving from 147 stores in 14 buildings to three secure stores,
including the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.
"We remain hopeful that further inventory work will identify some of
the missing items. We will work with other agencies and the police
to track any objects taken from our stores.
"Some of these losses date back to the 1920s and the number is
0.05% of our entire collection of 1.4 million items.
Missing pieces include glass beads and arrowheads from Egypt,
weapons, paintings, geology exhibits, letters from the First World
War and even a snuff box.
Also gone are natural history items such as a great-spotted
woodpecker, a fossilised bird, a New Guinea fish spear, flints,
Roman nails and numerous small items such as napkin rings and
ceramic items.
Pauline McNeill, the Glasgow Kelvin MSP, who is Labour's
Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Europe, External Affairs and
Culture, said: "Glasgow houses some great national treasures and
this shows that it was wise to invest in the new storage facilities.
"Art thieves can be cunning and many items are stolen to order.
Proper storage of historical artefacts is not cheap but essential if
we want to pass them down to the next generation."
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Red faces as Olympics get a false start
Two embarrassing computer glitches hit the opening day of
London Olympics ticket sales yesterday.
The official countdown clock stopped and the ticket sales website
locked out thousands of sports fans.
As some events are very popular, supporters have to enter a
ballot to have a chance of being selected for seats. This is thought
to be a more fair way of allocating seats than simply selling them
on a first-come-first-served basis.
But thousands of fans were unable enter the ballot for tickets
because their credit cards were due to expire this summer.
The fault kicked in just hours after the tickets went on sale, leaving
anyone trying to book with a Visa credit card due to expire before
the end of June discovering that the London 2012 website could
not process their orders.
The credit and debit card giant Visa is sponsoring the Games.
Using a Visa card is the only way to pay online for one of the 6.6
million tickets available.
Prices range from £20 to almost a £1000 for a seat at the opening
ceremony and tickets are only available online through the London
2012 website.
Special prices are available for young people aged 16 and under in
a special 'pay your age' scheme. So, for example, for anyone aged
12 on July 27, 2012, the cost of their ticket will be £12. Special
prices are also available for seniors aged 60 and over, who will
pay £16 for their ticket.
All applications for tickets must be in by 11.59pm on April 26,
2011.
The difficulty in buying tickets has led to widespread fears of
professional sellers bulk buying seats and then selling them, either
at the events or online through auction sites such as eBay. This
week eBay said that it would be cracking down on anyone trying to
resell tickets.
Some events will be held outside London. Hampden Park in
Glasgow will host the Olympic football games. As Hampden holds
thousands of fans the best chance of being "at the Olympics" may
be to attend one of the matches being held there.
The full list of Olympic sports from - archery to wrestling - along
with details of the venues, can be found on the official website.
As each Games is held, the Olympic Committee has to ensure all
the events are still appropriate for the world stage.
Some of the more unusual events have long gone. In the early 20th
century tug of war was an official event, as was vertical rope
climbing and live pigeon shooting has now been replaced by clay
pigeon shooting.
London 2012 supporters will also be unable to see the sports of
pistol duelling and long jump … for horses.
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Football pundit sacked after sexist
comments
Women claim comments are out of touch
Women in football yesterday defended the game from charges of
widespread sexism despite the comments made about assistant
referee Sian Massey by Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and
Andy Gray.
Donna Cullen, a director of Tottenham Hotspur, said Massey had
been selected as an official during Saturday's match between
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool "on merit".
"She would have come up through the system and her superiors
would have thought she was the right person for the job. Why
would they doubt her?" Cullen said.
"In a male-dominated sport you are always going to get the odd
remark, but in more than 20 years of working in football, I cannot
say sexist remarks like that have ever been an issue for me.
"Twenty years ago some clubs did not find it acceptable to have
female directors in the boardroom, but that has changed
enormously."
Although Massey is one of only three female officials at the top
level, more than 20,000 women have successfully attained FA
coaching qualifications and are regularly involved in games.
Samantha Lee, a football writer for 17 years, said Keys and Gray
were "ridiculous" to judge Massey "just because she was female".
"When I started in my career I was very aware that being a female
made it much tougher and you could never make a mistake
because if you did, you were accused of making it because you
were female," she said.
"Times have changed. Boys and girls play football together now
growing up and attitudes are totally different than those of the older
generation - and Richard Keys and Andy Gray."
FIFA has tried hard to encourage both men and women into the
game. Later this year Germany will host the Women's World Cup
in Germany staging matches in nine venues across the country.
There have been huge changes in the women's game in England,
one of the 16 finalists who will be travelling to the world stage in
Germany. According to FA statistics, the number of women playing
organised football in clubs and leagues has increased to more
than 150,000.
It seems that Gray and his colleagues are truly out of touch not
just with the game itself but also with the way it is now run. The
pair were also recorded mocking Karren Brady, the West Ham FC
vice-chair who has become a prominent figure after appearing on
The Apprentice.
But on the matter of the offside decision, Ms Massey had the last
laugh in correctly calling a difficult borderline offside decision in the
run-up to the opening goal.
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Brazilian footballers? We taught them
everything they know
At the age of just 29, Tom Donohue packed a trunk and set
off from Scotland with his wife Mary, to a small industrial
town outside Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
The dye worker had been an excellent footballer who played for
Busby near Glasgow. It is known that on Saturday, March 2, 1889,
he played for Busby against Cartvale, a village derby, scoring in
the 5-2 defeat.
So when he arrived in Brazil he was keen to continue his
association with the game he loved.
He believed that football equipment would be available in such a
vast country and was dismayed when he found that not only was
the game unknown, but there was not even a football to be found.
"He travelled into the centre of Rio de Janeiro to buy a football for
his fellow workers and was astonished that there was not even a
ball in the country," said Richard McBrearty - the curator of the
Scottish Football Museum.
McBrearty discovered the story of Donohue while researching a
friendly match between the football team in Bangu and the west of
Scotland team, Kilmarnock.
The young Scottish enthusiast, Donohue was desperate to give
the factory workers a game. He approached a colleague, Henry
Bennet, and asked him to bring a ball back from Britain when he
went back for a business trip.
Bennet did indeed buy the ball, but Donohue then had to wait six
months for his friend to return by ship with the precious gift. But
then he has another setback … although Bennet had bought the
ball, he had left it in his hotel room - in London!
Undaunted, Donohue engineered a business trip back home
country for himself and bought football equipment that he then
shipped to the factory in large crates.
"He was highly enthusiastic about the game," said McBrearty.
"Once the ball and boots had arrived, he immediately arranged a
game for his fellow workers. He paced off an area of land next to
the factory and drove in four stakes to constitute goalposts."
He went around the homes of workers and gathered 10 players.
The first match in Brazil was played as five-a-side in April 1894.
"The significance of Donohue extends beyond the considerable
achievement of bringing the game to Brazil, Donohue brought the
game to labourers and they constituted the first black players in
the country," said McBrearty.
The legacy of Donohue was crucial to the development of the
game in Brazil.
McBrearty believes the Scotsman can be viewed as instrumental
in the development of the black players. "Brazil could have made
football a middle-class sport, but Donohue's influence meant it
became highly popular among the black population. His legacy is
that there has been a line of great black Brazilians, from
Garrincha, through Pele to Ronaldo," he said.
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SNP wins historic election victory
While Alex Salmond's SNP swept to power in Holyrood,
pupils at Bellahouston Academy also went to the polls as
they took part in their own national election.
The election gave the whole school the opportunity to mirror real
life and to vote for their favourite party, led by school pupils who
have been campaigning over the last few weeks.
Genuine Glasgow City Council polling booths, ballot boxes and
ballot papers were delivered to the school and the school hall was
set up to resemble a polling station.
Pupils had to register beforehand - just as adult members of the
electorate have to do - and were allowed to vote from 7am until
5pm. The ballot papers - marked with the word 'sample' so they
would not get mixed up with the adult ones - were then taken to
the official count at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.
The 'real' school election, thought to be the first of its kind in
Scotland, was the brainchild of the school's Faculty Head of
Humanities, Murdo MacDonald.
He told DWN: "This was so that the pupils could replicate what
their parents were going through. It was not about teachers
explaining about the parties as it was left up to the pupils to find
out about that for themselves.
"Last night some of them came on a field trip to the count at the
SECC, which is one of the biggest in Britain. They found it very
exciting. There were hundreds of people counting and so many
photographers and reporters. You could really sense something
exciting was happening."
Almost 400 pupils registered to vote with the city council and the
result in the parliamentary elections reflected what happened in
the Glasgow Southside constituency. The SNP won the seat by
246 votes to Labour's 109, the Liberal Democrats came third with
21 and the Conservatives received 12 votes.
However, in contrast to the national picture, the school voted to
change the UK's voting system in their referendum.
Pupils decided by 200 votes to 162 to ditch the 'first past the post'
system and adopt the 'alternative vote' system used in some other
countries such as Australia.
Mr MacDonald said: "Some of the pupils studying Modern Studies
will know about the advantages and disadvantages of the first past
the post system. But some of them just turned up without much
knowledge - just as a lot of adults did.
"I think the difference from the national picture in the referendum
vote may be because young people are more likely to vote for
change than older people. What would be really interesting would
be to track how they vote in future to see if they change as they
get older."
The school election was made possible because of support from
the city council. Glasgow's Returning Officer, George Black, who is
responsible for running elections, said: "It's crucial that we enrich
every young person with a comprehensive and as rounded an
education as possible and this includes learning about the
important issue of democracy and elections."
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New Year celebrations begin amid calls for
Chinese lantern ban
All over Scotland Chinese families have been gathering to
welcome in the New Year of the Rabbit.
The 15 days of festivities started last night with the traditional
reunion dinner, where members of the family gather to start the
year together.
And throughout the coming days Chinese groups will be gathering
for celebratory feasts and to join in traditional entertainments,
games and songs.
Among the events planned this week in Scotland are the Hip In
Chinese New Year Family Day at the Woodside Library in
Glasgow and the annual Edinburgh Chinese Community School
(ECCS) party at Liberton High School.
The days will involve a lot of singing and dancing, and usually
feature Lion Dancing, a traditional and noisy dance in which pairs
of dancers dress in ornate lion costumes and perform athletic
leaps and acrobatics.
Speaking exclusively to Daily What News, headteacher of the
ECCS, Hui McCulloch said: "This is our biggest festival of the year.
It is like Hogmanay or Christmas and it is our most important
festival.
"If we didn't have a party it would be like the Grinch cancelling
Christmas."
Partygoers are offered the chance to learn about Chinese culture
by joining in workshops in calligraphy and paper cutting as well as
the traditional craft of Chinese knotting in which silk threads are
tied and woven to create creatures and patterns - some of which
even resemble ancient Celtic patterns.
The annual celebration also shows children studying at the
Chinese schools in Scotland some of the rewards that can be
gained from finding out about their culture.
"It is important for our children born in Scotland to see these
traditions. They often object to giving up their Saturday to study the
Chinese language -because it is very hard!
Each Chinese year is named after one of 12 animals in the order
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey,
Cockerel, Dog, and Pig. They are similar to horoscopes in that
each one has different characteristics so you can work out your
own personality from the year you were born in.
One of many legends on the origin of the Chinese calendar says
that Buddha once commanded all the animals to race across a
river to determine the order in which they would be celebrated. The
Ox was clearly the fastest but the Rat, according to one story,
tricked the Ox into coming close to him so he could climb on his
back. Then at the riverbank her jumped off first, beating him and all
the other animals.
The Chinese horoscope is different to the Western horoscope as
the year itself is said to take on the characteristics of the animal.
This year people are hoping that 2011, the year of the rabbit, will
be a peaceful one. Headteacher Mrs McCulloch added: "I think it
will be a calmer year with no disasters. Hopefully the Rabbit will
bring its gentleness back to Earth."
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