Tag: <span>england</span>

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Will England be playing in a ‘Winter World Cup’ come 2022?

Through the entire furore that Sepp Blatter has created with his obtuse comments about homosexuality in Qatar, a very important message was missed – Sepp Blatter has given his backing to host the tournament during the winter months after Qatar won the 2022 bid.

This is mainly due to the intense heat during the summer months for the Middle East country. Traditionally the tournament has taken normally taken place between June and July, but in Qatar the heat at this time can reach up to 50c.

Former World Cup winning captain and coach of the German side Franz Beckenbauer had previously raised concerns over the health risk posed by extreme temperatures.

Qatar were shock winners to host the 2022 World Cup and the decision was met with open disapproval. This issue is sure to raise more criticism.

Many will ask if the issue was raised during the bidding process and if so, was it overlooked?

Qatar did indeed mention the climate but pushed it to the background, dismissing it as a non-issue.

The idea was to build air-conditioned stadiums, and the proposal of a ‘Winter World Cup’ was never raised.

The question now asked must surely be: Did Qatar give misleading information during their bid, or were the bidding committee aware of the implications all along?

If the committee were aware of the health and safety risk posed to players, this would only add further fuel to the fire that money played a part in the bidding process. Whispers of corruption have surrounded the bidding process; dismissed as bitterness on England’s part due to losing the 2018 bid.

It should be noted here that England’s free media was said to have cost the World Cup bid. Fundamentally FIFA didn’t award England the tournament because they don’t like being investigated, but that’s a point for another time.

Although there are no regulations that say the World Cup has to be played during the summer months, the potential disruption to the domestic leagues a Winter World Cup could cause are staggering.

Many top players and managers, including Sir Alex Ferguson, have called for a winter break in the past to help England in their World Cup chances, but news of a potential Winter World Cup would be met with anger.

Top clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal would be required to release their players for up to 7 weeks to allow them participation in the tournament.

Upon their return they would be thrown into the deep end of the season with Champions League knockout stages and FA Cup latter stages.

It would also have a knock-on effect, as players would potentially only have 4 weeks to recuperate during the summer months before having to begin pre-season training.

Sponsorship for tournaments such as the Champions League would suffer from having a Winter World Cup, having to have a two-month gap between the group stages and the knockout stages. Then there would be a major sporting clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics which receives a healthy TV following.

Other questions were raised over the Qatar bid, such as the carbon footprint left by the proposed air-conditioned stadiums, and the laws that the country enforces.

FIFA also stated that it was bringing football to a country where it could make a social and cultural impact. Qatar, and Australia who were vying for the bid too, have never hosted the World Cup. Qatar has a population of 1.7 million. Australia – 22.6 million. Football (soccer) is on the rise in Australia, becoming more popular.

If FIFA wanted to make a social and cultural impact, surely Australia was the better option?

As it stands, the impression given by FIFA’s actions is that the bid was granted to Qatar with a view of making all the pieces fall into place after the acceptance. It’s understandable that many Football fans are calling for the withdrawal of our national team.

As one German newspaper said, World Cup 2022 could be Qatarstrophic.

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Source by Ben Malkin

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The book Angel Gabriel by Warren C. Riess contains information of interest to the descendants of the three Burnham boys, John, Thomas, and Robert, who traveled from England to the New World on the ship Angel Gabriel.

On August 15, 1635 the Bristol Merchantman Angel Gabriel, conveying settlers and supplies to the New World, wrecked near the Pemaquid settlement in present-day Bristol, Maine. Settlements like this one were founded, supplied, and protected with early seventeenth-century armed merchant ships. Most of the ships were three-masted, high-sided vessels, today referred to as ship-rigged English galleons. One such ship was the Angel Gabriel that wrecked during the devastating hurricane of 1635 at the Pemaquid settlement in Maine.

Three distinct ships named Angel Gabriel were noted in English records from the 1600s. The first definite reference to the Angel Gabriel that wrecked at Pemaquid is found in the Bristol Port Records of 1619. But evidence indicates that she was originally named Starre, renamed Jason by Sir Walter Raleigh, and finally purchased by two merchants from Bristol, England, who subsequently changed her name to Angel Gabriel.

As the ship named Jason sailed with Raleigh’s second expedition to Guiana, in 1617 she was described as a ship of 240 tons. Sources describe the Angel Gabriel as a 240 ton ship which was particularly large in the early 1600s. In 1629 the age of Angel Gabriel was given as fourteen years, which leads to a construction date of approximately 1615. Accumulation of circumstantial evidence implies that these three ships were one and the same. No located information contradicts this theory.

In the early 1600s, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was convinced by John Smith’s arguments, that colonization of New England would be a successful venture. The settlements could be financed by a fishing and timber industry that would fill returning emigrant and supply ships with valuable cargoes of dried cod and great timbers. From the Council for New England, Gorges secured a patent from King James in 1620 for the land between the St. Lawrence River and present day Philadelphia. In turn, Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge received a patent in 1632 from Gorges’s Council (which administered the New England Company) for 1,200 acres around their trading settlement at Pemaquid, in what is now Bristol, Maine.

With the arrival in Massachusetts Bay of more than 1,000 settlers, the Great Migration began in earnest. It was a decade of ship after ship of English families leaving overcrowded, socially rigid England for the land and relative freedoms of New England. Most of them emigrated to what is now Massachusetts, but others settled in towns farther south and north.

During the summer of 1635 Elbridge sent Angel Gabriel to Pemaquid with settlers and supplies. Unfortunately, the merchants’ records and the Bristol port records cannot be located for this time period, but Richard Mather’s journal and genealogical records of immigrants give many details of the voyage and aftermath. Richard Mather, was a devout Puritan minister who suffered religious persecution in Anglican England. In 1635 he planned to emigrate from Bristol to Massachusetts on the smaller merchant ship James. Richard Mather became the minister of Dorchester in the Colony of Massachusetts, his son the Reverend Increase Mather, D. D., the future President of Harvard College, and the grandfather of Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, minister of Boston. On May 26, 1635, while waiting on board James at Kings Road, just down the Avon River from Bristol, he wrote, “The Tuesday morning… another ship, also bound for New-England, came unto us; which other ship was called the Angel Gabriel.”

Three other ships joined Angel Gabriel and James at Kings Road for the Atlantic crossing. They set sail on June 4, but a contrary wind forced them to anchor in the lee of Lundy Island, at the entrance to the Bristol Channel, for four days. They then proceeded to Milford Haven, an excellent harbor in Wales, to await favorable winds, which finally came on June 22. The five ships sailed together from Milford Haven on that Monday morning before a strong east wind, keeping close together for the first day in fear of “Turkish” pirates who were raiding Bristol shipping at the time.

Quoting from Richard Mather’s journal:

This day, at evening, we lost sight of the three ships bound for Newfoundland, which had been in company with us from Kings Road: and our master thought it best for us to stay for the Angel Gabriel, being bound for New England, as we were, rather than leave her and go with the other three. The Angel Gabriel is a strong ship, and well furnished with fourteen and sixteen pieces of ordnance, and therefore our seamen rather desired her company, but yet she is slow in sailing, and therefore we went sometimes with three sails less than we might have done, so that we might not over go her.

Passengers to the New World paid a hefty sum for the crossing, but most had no better quarters than the crew. The voyage typically cost five or six pounds per adult, which included very basic food. This was a large amount of money, possibly representing years of saving for an average Englishman. There were no special cabins built for them, so to sleep they would find room between decks where they could between the guns, cargo, and other passengers. If there were only a few passengers, they might be berthed in the great cabin or one deck below near the tiller (therefore the term in steerage).

In the 1630s several books were in print to advise settlers what clothes, food, tools, and weapons to bring for their voyage and their farms in America. Writers suggested that emigrants bring extra, better food for the voyage, including live animals when possible (and provisions for the same) to eat on the trip and to start their farms in America. For the latter, live animals were available in the established American settlements, but at a steep price. They advised bringing a year’s supply of such staples as flour, peas, oil, vinegar, oatmeal, gun powder, and musket shot. All manner of farming tools and kitchen utensils were necessary and upper body armor was suggested. Together, these might cost between ten and fifteen pounds, plus shipping charges of between one and two pounds.

Soon after June 29, those on James decided that it was safe enough to leave the slower Angel Gabriel behind and, taking advantage of a strong wind, parted company. However, once they reached America, contrary winds along “the main” cost them a week of hard sailing to proceed a hundred miles. On Friday, August 14 James sailed into the harbor at the Isles of Shoals, a group of small islands off Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. Approximately eighty miles to the northeast, on the same day, Angel Gabriel sailed north into John’s Bay between Pemaquid Point on the east and Thrumcap Island on the west. The Passengers would have seen the Pemaquid Peninsula mostly covered with tall trees and lined by a steep, rocky shore for two miles. Then they would have seen a small Pemaquid Indian encampment near a sandy beach. Just beyond that, at the northeast corner of John’s Bay, was Pemaquid Harbor, protected by small islands and ledges. Elbridge’s small settlement lay at the shores of the harbor. In 1635 Pemaquid was the northeastern-most English settlement in America.

Along the northern New England coast that evening everything seemed normal; but as the crews of the two ships anchored for the night, to their southwest a deadly storm was moving up the coast. This was not a typical summer storm, but a powerful early-season hurricane, possibly the most powerful hurricane to hit New England in recorded time. It struck southern New England in the evening, causing a storm surge in Narragansett Bay fourteen feet above the normal high tide line.

In Plymouth, William Bradford later recorded:

This year, the 14th or 15th of August was such a mighty storm of wind and rain as none living in these parts, either English or Indians, ever saw. It began in the morning a little before day, and grew not by degrees but came with violence in the beginning, to the great amazement of many. It blew down sundry houses and uncovered others. Divers vessels were lost at sea and many more in extreme danger. It blew down many hundred thousands of trees, turning up the stronger by the roots and breaking the higher pine trees off in the middle.

The crew and terrified passengers on James were helpless in the face of the storm, except to go below deck and pray for deliverance, which they did. After being tossed and beaten by the storm for hours, they survived and eventually made it to shore with their extra sails. Things were worse at the next settlement, Pemaquid. There the storm probably hit just after sunrise taking the inhabitants and new arrivals, as everywhere else, entirely by surprise. Mather wrote:

And the Angel Gabriel, being then at anchor at Pemaquid, was burst in pieces and cast away in this storm, and most of the cattle and other goods, with one seaman and three or four passengers, did also perish therein.

Some local lore maintains that most of the passengers and crew came ashore over rocks in the eye of the storm, when Angel Gabriel wrecked on either Fish Point or on the rocks by the remains of Fort William Henry. Mather and Trelawny reported the ship at anchor at the Pemaquid settlement when the hurricane struck. Being Elbridge’s ship she was most likely bringing supplies to their trading settlement. This could mean at least a few days of unloading, and many passengers and most of the crew may therefore have been ashore for the night when the storm struck early in the morning of August 15, 1635.

A list of crew or passengers aboard Angel Gabriel has not been located, but a combination of archival records and recorded family lore indicate twenty-six of those aboard – twenty-five passengers and the captain. While Mather mentions a hundred passengers aboard the James, the assumption should not be made that the 240 ton Angel Gabriel had a similar number of passengers. Elbridge had a growing trade settlement to supply at Pemaquid, and may have found transporting his own goods more profitable than shipping settlers’ belongings and supplies. In addition, the space required for fourteen or sixteen guns and their equipment would have been a major consideration on the main deck, where passengers normally were berthed. Elbridge may have transported only a few passengers with their belongings as space permitted. Today, primary archival records support only the presence of the Cogswell family, William Furber, and Samuel Haines.

Others listed are derived from material in family genealogies.

Andrews, possibly Robert Andrews

John Bailey

John Jr.

Joanna

Ralph Blaesdell (42)

Elizabeth (wife)

Henry (3)

Thomas Bradbury

John Burnham

Thomas Burnham (16)

Robert Burnham (11)

John Cogswell

Elizabeth Cogswell (wife)

William (16)

John Jr. (12)

Edward (6)

Mary (16)

Abigail

Hannah

Sarah

Elizabeth

William Furber (21)

Samuel Haines (33)

Henry Simpson

John Tuttle (17)

Brief Information about Some of the Passengers

Andrews

I could not find archival material about the ship’s master (captain), but a secondary source claims that Robert Andrews, uncle of John and Thomas Burnham was master of the ship when she was lost. Robert Andrews was born in Norwich, England and was married to an Elizabeth. However, the same Robert Andrews already was living at Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1635, was granted freeman status (one who could vote and hold office) in May 1635, and was given a license to run an inn on his farm in September 1635. It is possible, that this Andrews was Angel Gabriel’s master. He may have been living in Ipswich and made a round trip to England, returning as the ship’s master.

Bailey

Family genealogies, but no primary archival records, relate that John Bailey, a weaver from Chippenham, left his wife Elizabeth and three children in England and took passage aboard Angel Gabriel with his son John Jr. and daughter Joanna. They lived in what became Newbury, Massachusetts for two years after the wreck. In 1637 they settled on a fifty-acre plot on the banks of the Merrimac River in Salisbury where John fished and farmed. John Jr. And Joanna eventually left Salisbury and moved back across the river to Newbury. John Jr. married Eleanor Emery and Joanna married William Harrington or Huntington. Elizabeth, John Sr.’s wife who had stayed in England, never came to America. Family lore relates that the family was so terrified by the hurricane experience that neither group would cross the Atlantic to be with the other. Patricia Bailey, a present-day member of the family and singer, has composed a touching ballad of the family’s terrible ordeal.

Cogswell

Information from the Cogswell’s account of their journey provides some interesting insights. Mr. Cogswell took with him besides his wife and eight sons and daughters, several farm and household servants, an amount of valuable furniture, farming implements, housekeeping utensils, and a considerable sum of money. He noted in his writings, “the Angel Gabriel became a total wreck, passengers, cattle, and goods were all cast upon the angry waves.” Mr. Cogswell and his family reached the shore with their lives, but well drenched by the sea and despoiled of valuables to the amount of five thousand pounds sterling. They were more fortunate than some who sailed with them, whom the angry waves gathered to a watery grave. On leaving England Mr. Cogswell had taken along with him a large tent, which now came into good service. This they pitched, and into it they gathered themselves and such stores as they could rescue from the waves. The darkness of that first night of the Cogswells in America found them housed beneath a tent on the beach. The next day they picked up what more of their goods they could, which had come ashore during the night or lay floating about upon the water. As soon as possible Mr. Cogswell, leaving his family, took passage for Boston. He there made a contract with a certain Capt. Gallup, who commanded a small barque, to sail for Pemaquid and transport his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts.

It is hard for us to imagine the scene of the storm. It was not unusual for people on the shore to watch a ship break into many pieces and crew and passengers thrown into the wild sea as they were helpless to offer any form of rescue. Traces of this storm remained for years. In wondering how Robert Andrews and his three nephews reached Ipswich, one descendant living presently in Essex stated that they walked all the way. What an introduction to America and their new adventure for these three English boys!

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Source by Dr. Lee Burnham

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In the years following the fall of Camelot the continued struggle to unite England waged on. To the north in Scotland warring factions of Vikings continued their brutal and savage pillaging of local inhabitants. For over three hundred years up until the 9th century both England and Scotland were so divided wars and bloodshed was a fact of life. So little time for peace and prosperity and what little there was of both swiftly came to a violent and savage end. Out of this period rode a man who would change the landscape of England and Scotland. Silas Moore a Saxon noble whose own linage can be traced to the court of Charlemagne arrived in Southern England at a time when the English Saxons were constantly being threatened by Danish invaders from the East.

Silas a tall fair skinned man with flowing reddish hair, bearing a scar across his left cheek knew the ways of war as very few men of his time knew. From the time he was born in 850 AD Silas was groomed for combat. By the age of 10 he already was an excellent marksman and at full gallop could shoot an arrow straight through a standing target. When he turned 19 he was in the court and at the right side of Charles King of Aquitane because of his bravely in fighting the invading Vikings. When Charles died in 877 Silas took leave and headed across the channel. After all he was very well suited to serve Alfred the Great in a time when they both needed each other.

In 877 with his loyal followers he and his men made their way to Wessex. With the Danish invading all along the east coast of Britain it was Silas that eventually came to the aid of the new Saxon King. For the next 9 years Silas and his men fought the Vikings. Battle after battle the savagery only continued. Where ever Silas went he was met by invading Norsemen. By 885 Silas Moore that noble Saxon who single handily defeated many of the Vikings attacks now aligned himself with Alfred The Great. It was Silas after all that secured Alfred The Great’s future success in defeating the Dames at the Battle of Ashdowners. In doing so Silas Moore earned his place at the side of Alfred the Great. It had been almost ten long years since Silas was again at the service of a King. Although the victory at Ashcowners was short lived for the next two years the Danes continued to wage war. Soon the battles reached Alfred’s court in Wessex and it was Silas who convinced Alfred retreat to the marches that surrounded the town. Silas then used his military training to usher in tactics that have become known as Guerrilla warfare. With Silas’s help Alfred finally defeated the invading Danes.

It was Silas whose own military skill that helped secure the last remaining independent Saxon stronghold in Wessex England. By 886 with the aid of Silas Alfred forged a treaty with the Danes leaving a divided England. The North and East of England between the Thames and the Tess rivers was to be Danish territory while Alfred gained control to the West and South. Now that peace had finally been achieved Silas turned his attention to the North, Scotland awaits. With his band of brothers ever so loyal to Silas they made their way into the highlands of Scotland. It was at this time the Vikings landed in the Orkneys and Northern Scotland. This was around 888 A.D. under their chief, Stirgud the Stout. When Silas reached the Roman Antonine Wall he was greeted by Hugh McGreggor. The McGreggors’ were the military arm of Donald II.

It was some 400 years earlier that the Romans in their attempt to conquer Scotland built the Antoine wall in the center of Scotland in a vain attempt to contain the northern tribes of Picts and Celts. After the Romans left and for the next 400 years Scotland continued to be brutally and savagely attacked by invading Norsemen. By 887 the Norsemen were only continuing their attacks. The savagery of the Vikings was only matched by the brutality of the McGreggor’s and even Silas. In the fall of 887 it was up to the McGreggors to come from the east and his band of fighters to try again to stop the Vikings. But, when Hugh McGreggor met up with the arriving Silas he now knew that the two combined forces could mount a counter offensive in driving the marauding Vikings back into the North Sea.

The mission to unite Scotland and drive the Vikings back across the North Sea seemed realistic now that Silas and his men arrived. It was just like old times when Silas arrived in Scotland. For it was just a few years ago Silas arrived in the nick of time to help Alfred The Great. When the Vikings attacked and destroyed the village of Dumbarton Silas and Hugh McGreggor mounted the counter offensive that would seal the fate of Scotland. With stealth and cunning Silas and his men managed to trick the Vikings into thinking that the McGreggors were going to attack from the North when they were actually going to sneak up from the south in the cover of darkness.

On the night of October 13th the McGreggor’s men slowly moved in while Silas came from the West. With his band of men they inched closer to the Viking encampment with their horses in tow. Just when they say the flames of their fires they quickly mounted and charged into the slumbering Viking camp. Riding tall in his saddle with Broad Sword in hand red hair flowing Silas was the first to swoop down severing the heads of Vikings as he and his men galloped on through the now awakening Vikings. Soon panic spread and blood spilled covering the ground red. The McGreggor’s army galloping through the encampment using bows and arrows, swords and spears as they managed a bloody and savage retaliation upon the Norsemen. One by one the Vikings fell. The battle was over in less the three hours. Stirgud the Stout was captured when he fell of his horse just as Silas was about to strike.

The captured Viking chief was begging for his freedom promising never to return if he was let free. Upon their return to Dumbarton Castle where Hugh knew King Donald was held captive it was Silas that negotiated an exchange for their chief if the rest of the Vikings relinquish their hold of the Castle and release Donald II. In this exchange Silas would grant the remaining Norseman safe passage back to the east coast where they were free to sail back across the north sea. The exchange was met and on a dark late October day both Stirgud and King Donald II were set free.

This peace though came at a high price thousands of Vikings lay dead in the Highlands just a few miles from Dumbarton Castle and too many Scott’s gave their lives in defense of their homeland. As for Silas the bloody years of fighting took its toll. As he watched the last Viking ship set sail the sun had already set on the life and times of one of histories long forgotten knights in a time known as the Dark Ages.

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Source by Dr. Tim G Williams

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Homeopathy has grow in most every country around the world. However, homeopathy has grown under significant attack.

The National Health Care system in England has made it difficult to fund homeopathy due to pressure from some doctors in England. Other European countries are also following England’s lead. Doctors say that there is no scientific evidence the homeopathy works and the NHS of England should not fund this type of operation. Homeopathic doctor referrals in England from general doctors has dropped significantly.

Most researchers point to very little evidence of homeopathy working. The war against homeopathy has intensified in the United Kingdom. Professor Edward Ernst and Simon Singh has challenged anyone to show homeopathy works for any condition. If someone show that it works, they will give the person $10,000 pounds. No one has yet to take the challenge. Most homeopaths think of this as a publicity stunt.

A Lancet trial done in 2005 titled the ” End of Homeopathy” is what some people have used as their evidence against homeopathy. The trials showed that homeopathy is pretty much the same as a placebo. 110 trials were compared. The researchers found the larger higher quality trials to show that homeopathy is the same as a placebo. These trials were used as proof for the NHS to cut homeopathy from their system.

However, many other researchers found this trial had many issues including publication bias. The trial was not suitable for any medical journal to put into their publications. The conclusion of the Homeopathy Lancet trials is that this data is totally unreliable. Researchers manipulated the data to reach a preconceived conclusion about these trials. Conventional medicine showing a greater effect than a placebo or homeopathy was actually not true either.

Many people point to the attack on homeopathy in England as a good thing. If skeptics, scientists and medical doctors did not perceive you to be a threat, the attacks will not occur. Lancet trials where data was manipulated is also shameful. If you are going to use scientific trials against homeopathy, make sure you do them correctly. People will certainly analyze these trials to verify results and figures.

The question becomes have the attacks on homeopathy worked. That is hard to say. Homeopathy is still growing in England and everyone including medical doctors say this trend will continue. The attacks may have shunned some people away from homeopathy in the short term. There is really no evidence that the media coverage or the Lancet trials has prevented anyone from using homeopathy. Dwindling homeopathic referrals has not seen less homeopathic usage. Many people are simply buying the medicine without getting a prescription.

In summary, homeopathy continues to grow in every country every year. The attacks on homeopathy has not had significant effect on homeopathic usage. It is difficult to say whether these attacks have stinted the growth of homeopathy. The attacks certainly has not ended homeopathy popularity.

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Source by Sanjib S Sarkar

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If there isn’t enough to think of already when buying a new home, I don’t expect that you have considered the danger of Radon. Neither had I, until my solicitor brought it to my attention and I began to look into the matter in some detail.

So what is Radon, and where is it prevalent? Radon is a radio active gas that does occur naturally and is surprisingly the second biggest cause of lung cancer deaths in Great Britain, after cigarettes.

Large areas of the south-west of England are based on rock formations that contain and generate unusually large amounts of Radon. This can mean that the gas poses a potential hazard for property owners in many areas of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. So it makes sense if you are buying a house in these areas that you take precautions and consequently the problem can be eliminated.

Radon occurs naturally and it derives from decaying radium, which is itself a product of decaying uranium in the rocks and soil itself. In the south-west of England there is a band of rock that runs from near Taunton in Somerset, right down to Penzance in the west and beyond, but there are also many other areas at high risk in the south-west of England.

The gas can build up in houses to amounts in excess of what is called the “action level”, namely 200 Becquerels per cubic metre.

The good news is that there are ways to eliminate the Radon problem in domestic properties and it doesn’t cost a fortune to do so. These include inserting an underfloor sump from which the gas is then pumped away from the house. The average cost of this is around £1,000, or $1,750, and also by improving the ventilation under the floors, usual costs around £500 or $875. A simple Radon test pack costs around fifty quid. If you are considering buying a new house, or indeed an older property in the south-west of England it is a good idea to check whether these anti Radon measures are already built in. They often are in these areas, though you should still check to be safe.

And if you are selling a property in these areas it is as well to have checks carried out too, because high levels can hold up house sales, or you may be faced with a proportion of the sales total deducted and held in trust, until a result is known, and the problem rectified.

In Great Britain you can find further information of the Radon problem from the Health Protection Agency who publish a booklet entitled “Radon, a guide for homebuyers and sellers”, and you can obtain further information of this booklet at their website which is www. hpa.org.uk/radiation

This problem occurs in many parts of the world of course, and in many areas it is little thought of, never mind investigated and dealt with, so if you are buying a second property in an unusual area or country, it might be a good idea to ask your legal team to investigate the problem thoroughly before contracts are signed.

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Source by David Carter

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The upcoming rugby world cup will be the best one yet! The question on everyone’s mind at the moment is, “who’s going to win it?” The competition this year is fierce with top sides like; New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, France and England competing but you also can’t rule out other powerful sides like; Italy, Wales and Ireland who will definitely give the top sides a run for their money!

This year’s group pools are as follows.

Group A: England, South Africa, Samoa, Tonga, USA

Group B: Australia, Canada, Fiji, Japan, Wales

Group C: Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Scotland

Group D: Argentina, France, Georgia, Ireland, Namibia

Previous winners:

1987 – New Zealand

1991 – Australia

1995 – South Africa

1999 – Australia

2003 – England

Looking at the stats and current betting it says to us that the competition is limited to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and France. But will the little weaknesses in the teams lead to their downfall? Like New Zealand’s playing away from home record, Australia’s trying to be too clever resulting in only fooling themselves, South Africa’s poor stamina in the last ten minutes, England’s new youthful teams inexperience and France’s erratic performance stats? You never now until the day which is why this is going to be such a brilliant rugby world cup!

For more news like; Why New Zealand are sending a women’s side, Why Australia are giving huge cash incentives to their players and Why South Africa are hiring Aussie coaches? Visit http://rugby-2007.blogspot.com

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Source by Dane Fouche

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Serious collectors and dealers of antique Victorian furniture are inevitably familiar with the Rococo style of design. The furniture style of Victorian Rococo, sometimes referred to as Victorian Louis XV or Louis Quinze, started gaining its enormous popularity in England during the 1840s.

Rococo style in general, which went well beyond furniture into architecture, painting and other forms of art, originated in France during the previous century and spread from there to other parts of Europe. In England during the 18th century, Rococo was considered “French taste” and did not take hold as an architectural style. However, the incomparable Thomas Chippendale adapted and refined the style for furniture and brought about a transformation of design in English furniture. Some link the development of Rococo in England to the revived interest in Gothic architecture.

As it developed in the Victorian era of the 19th century, it is often called neo-Rococo or Rococo revival, since it was a style revived from the previous century. In furniture it became hugely popular and proved to be the longest lasting influence on the furniture design of the Victorian era. In the 1840s and especially in the decades to follow, almost every furniture manufacturer in England was making Rococo pieces.

The furniture was both visually appealing and comfortable. Carvings and scrolled lines were delicate but typically not overstated or overbearing. Characteristics of the furniture included curved legs, cartouche backs with scrolled rounded contours, and carvings of flowers, leaves, grapes and birds.

The naturalistic carvings are a predominant feature, and anyone who gets involved with the furniture of this era becomes intimately familiar with them. I just recently saw a Rococo sofa that had birds and a birds’ nest filled with eggs carved into its gorgeous wooden frame. Like Victorian literature, this may not be for everybody. But for those of us who are taken by it, there’s no explaining our admiration.

The makers of the furniture bent and shaped the wood. Favored woods included mahogany and rosewood. Side chairs were prevalent, and antique Victorian furniture collectors today who are looking in particular for Victorian chairs consider Rococo side chairs to be among the most desirable — attractive, comfortable, and collectible.

Sofas were of various lengths. One popular style of sofa had a rounded medallion in the center of the back, with a carving at the top repeated on either side farther down the frame. Graceful love seats had upholstered wooden frames and were serpentine in shape with the characteristic natural carvings on the back and the arms. Also popular during the Victorian Rococo era were the upholstered husband and wife chairs. The husband chair had arms and a high back. The wife chair was a bit lower and armless.

A famous American cabinetmaker who worked in the Victorian Rococo style was John Henry Belter. Belter perfected lamination techniques and became famous for a number of design features, including his preference for rosewood, his foliage, fruit and flowers worked into the intricate details of his designs, his skill in bending wood into serpentine and rounded contours, and his beds with headboards that rose well above the height of the footboards. Belter’s shop was in New York City, but he shipped his work to all parts of the country. So keep your eye out for Belter’s exquisite work, no matter where you are.

Here’s a last bit of information. The word Rococo is a combination of the French word rocaille, which some translate as shell but also contains the sense of loose rock. It indicates the curve characteristic of Rococo style. The word also contains the Italian word barocco, which is our Baroque. The Baroque period was known for its intricacy and elaboration.

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Source by David Mehl

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Revolting peasants were nothing new in England, but there did seem to be more of them these days since the British Union of Revolutionary Peasantry (BURP) had been formed by Thomas Belcher. BURP rallies were sometimes supported by the League for Improved Coinage in England (LICE) with banners calling for, ‘Golden Heads on Golden Coins.’ King Freddie decided to do something to make himself more popular so he called his Prime Minister, Merlin the Whirlin, for a consultation. Merlin suggested that it might be a good idea to hold a referendum as people liked to feel that they were being consulted on an important national issue.

‘A referendum about what?’ asked Freddie.

‘Oh I don’t know; let’s say about whose head should be on our coins. That should be acceptable to LICE.’

‘You mean my head might not be on the coins anymore?’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll put out loads of government propaganda, swamp the news media with spin and get all the town criers on our side.’

‘Do you think we can win?’

‘No, but we can give it a good try.’

‘I don’t want to lose.’

‘No, but you want to be popular. Losing your head could be the most popular thing you’ve done since you sacked Cuthbert as patron saint.’

‘I still don’t think I want a referendum that could lose me my head.’

‘How about if we keep your head but put another head on the other side of the coin?’

‘The side you call tails at cricket?’

‘That’s right, then we could hold a national vote on whose head we should use.’

‘Harold of Monmouth would win.’

‘Not necessarily, we have a few other handsome men in England and Wales; George’s man Jack quite fancies his chances, and then there’s Cuthbert. We could draw up a shortlist and let the whole population vote in the final selection.’

‘How will we let the people see the different heads?’

‘Let’s say we have a shortlist of six. We will design six gold coins, each with your head on one side and one of the six different heads on the other. Then we will mint one hundred of each of the six coins and put them on display in all the major towns and cities.’

‘How will they be displayed?’

‘At each location, people will see a row of six coins showing the six different heads.’

‘My head won’t be shown?’

‘Your head doesn’t need to be shown, and if it was, nobody would come to see the coins.’

‘So how do we select a shortlist?’

‘I suggest that we ask each town and city to hold a handsome head contest and select the best to go forward to regional contests. Then the winners of the regional contests will come to London for the final selection of the super six.’

‘What a splendid idea, I am sure the contest will raise morale and boost my popularity,’ said Freddie.

‘Yes, I think it will raise morale,’ said Merlin.

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Source by John Powell

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As you probably know, soccer is the most played, watched and televised sport in the history of mankind. According to FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) there are currently 270 million people that are actively involved in the game of football. (That is about 4% of the world population) So why has this sport become such a grand interest for me and people alike? What is the history behind this widely spectated event?

Soccer which is referred as “football association” in Wikipedia is a sport that has roots dating back to the 2nd and 3rd century. The earliest form is said to have originated in China; a game called “cuju”. FIFA, the governing body of football, officially stated that China was the birthplace of its game in 2004.

In the latter decades, many other forms of the sport have been spotted in other regions of the world, such as “Harpastum” (Roman), “Kemari” (Japan), and “Knattleikr”. (Iceland) These games were of course a lot different from what modern football is all about. It was not until the 19th century that various forms of football became somewhat an organized event played mostly by prestigious public schools in England. There was much improvement in the course of the sport when Thomas Arnold (head of the ‘Rugby School’ helped to establish the first standardized rules of Rugby.

In Rugby, they allowed players to kick opponents legs below the knees (which was banned in the later years), handling the ball was also permitted. Following this development, football and rugby split on December, 1863. The modern game of football was born in England with the formation of the F.A. (Football Association) which is the governing body of football in England. Ebenezer Cobb Morley was a founding member of the Football Association in which he stressed out the importance of a governing body for football. After the F.A. was established he laid down the “Laws of football” that implemented the rules the game is played today. On January 9th, 1864, the first exhibition football game was played at the Battersea Park. In only eight years, the F.A. had 50 member clubs and grew rapidly allowing a competition to emerge in 1972. The F.A. Cup is the first football competition and in England regarded as the most prestigious one. The ‘Wanderers’ were the first team to win the cup, beating the ‘Royal Engineers’ 1-0.

Football popularized slowly in other countries with the help of British influence. It was not until 1889, other countries (Netherlands and Denmark) would embrace this wonderful game. Football started growing rapidly with the following countries; New Zealand (1891), Argentina (1893), Chile, Switzerland, Belgium (1895), Italy (1898), Germany, Uruguay (1900), and Hungary (1901) adopting football associations of their own.

In 1904, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) was formed in Paris to regulate international fixtures and there were seven founding members (France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). The first international football competition was introduced at the 1908 London Summer Olympics with Great Britain winning gold, Denmark silver and the Netherlands bronze. The emergence of World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) brought the growing sport to a halt resuming years after the war. By 1950, FIFA had 51 member countries. Before the creation of the World Cup (the most prestigious football competition), FIFA organized a football competition within the Summer Olympics. In 1930, FIFA would manage their own tournament in Uruguay; the host nation to be the first football team to have won the cup that would be the most spectated than any other professional tournament today.

Football today, is a much growing sport with 208 national teams recognized by FIFA, in addition there are thousands of club teams competing with each other in various leagues and cups for global dominance. The sport has become an addiction for many people around the world, helping nations and people get together as they cheer their team away hoping one day, their team will bring home a trophy. The future of football always has room for improvement and hopefully will grow interest in the U.S. as elsewhere. “Fair-play” is the name of the game.

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Source by Selim Ozbabacan

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The village of Eziama was like England

From early morning people would troop in, some from far away, to hear him sing— ‘Eziama is a village like the rural areas of England—‘

Occasionally, when he felt kindness in his heart, he would shout out to his son, Lazarus, ‘Bring kola nut and alligator pepper.’ Laz knew where to find kola nut and alligator pepper, and how to bring them. Then Papa would invoke the ancestors, speak a few sentences in idioms, break the kola nuts and pass them around.

He never minded when the visitors challenged him, or even when they pointedly said, ‘Our elder, Papa Sylvester Ughere, you sing about England even though you have not set foot in it.’

‘Just because I haven’t been to England does not mean I can’t imagine England; how many times must I tell you’ and he would point fingers at the withdrawn faces of his visitors, ‘that an old man knows nearly as much as God?’

With their mouths busy chewing nuts and pepper, the visitors would back off and continue to listen to the song of how the village of Eziama is so beautiful, and how Eziama shall stay beautiful forever.

It wasn’t like anybody doubted how serene Eziama village was. Though the houses were clustered, small, dense shrubs separated one cluster from another. Mango, pear, and cashew occupied Eziama like vagabonds, their branches and their leaves crossing over to lean and kiss without permission.

Palm trees, coconut trees and breadfruit trees towered overhead. Kola nut trees, groundnut plants, cassava leaves, cocoyam and other creeping plants occupied the ground and the spaces above.

Now and then tall, majestic trees called ‘orji’ would shoot off into the heavens, adults calling on children to watch as their top branches swayed with the gentle movements of the rarely seen African eagles.

Still, there were many places in Eziama where termites found spaces to build hillocks, from where they sent out soldiers to roam freely.

From Papa Ughere’s living room, if the visitors looked, even casually, through one of the wooden side windows, past a few trees, they would see Kamsi Udumiri.

Kamsi was the man who married a woman so beautiful the people of Eziama wondered if such a being had any need to sit on the toilet. Together, Kamsi and the beauty had one daughter and four sons. Idoh was the first of the sons, and Gilbert the last.

Before the war, Eziama had generous soil, and every man and women knew how to use hoes, machetes and sickles. Men who did not farm still did something practical; they healed with herbs, they set the broken bones of children who had fallen from palm trees, and some became rainmakers.

A few years later, once a single strand of hairs showed up under Idoh’s chin, Kamsi summoned him. ‘My son, this land is no longer as productive as it once was; besides, “nobody stands still to watch a masquerade.”‘

With that understood, Idoh packed and left Eziama. He settled fifty miles away, in the town of Onitsha. Soon he had achieved enough to do what every father in Eziama could be proud of. He married, had children and built a house, whose front gate was guarded by two ornamental creatures. With their mouths open and blood dripping from the corners, people quickened their pace when they walked by.

Lazarus knew his days in the village were over when Idoh left. ‘You are growing so rapidly, like a weed, that this house can no longer contain father and son,’ Ughere told him one night, after the last guest had gone and his voice was hoarse from admiring Eziama.

A week or so passed, and Ughere sent Lazarus to a missionary school. From there he later went to the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where he learned the mysteries of European healing.

July 1967: Everything changed for Lazarus. Nsukka came under artillery bombardment by an infantry battalion of the Nigerian armed forces. Doctor Laz was among the last to leave, only departing when the town was under the daily barrage of artillery shells and vultures began to descend from the sky.

October 1967: On the rumor that Nigerian armed forces were shooting their way from the town of Asaba and would attempt to enter Onitsha via the Niger Bridge, Idoh first sent his wife and his children home. Days went by and it occurred to him that he too must leave for Eziama.

Suddenly Eziama became a melting point. Many years had passed since Idoh and Laz saw each other. Like friends do under unusual circumstances, they were eager to reach back to the past. Initially they met very often, but later less frequently as the war moved closer, from the towns to the villages.

For many months after the war began, the young men who were the only perfect fit for battle had bled and died. In the absence of any more young men, the recruiters began conscripting teenage boys before they could grow a single strand of hair under the armpit. A few days later they also began conscripting old men, already constrained by arthritis.

Every day they spent hiding from recruiters. Certain nights Idoh would take the backyard bush path to meet Lazarus. They would talk about Eziama when they were kids. How they would wrestle in the woods; how they would peel the back of coconuts and take turns to slam them on a dug-out hole in the ground, looking to see who was strong enough to crack it open first; how they would walk the narrow street in front of Idoh’s house, which twisted like a long, curled snake, and how their mission to reach the two low stone platforms that marked the end of the narrow road seemed interminable.

Laz would remember how, on the low platform, they would sit side by side trying to figure out where next to wander, whether to go down to Orie Market or to go to Iyiba stream, but still not deciding until darkness enveloped them. They would only react with a dash home when a long cane at the end of an invisible hand whacked first Idoh across the head, and then Lazarus.

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Source by Anselm Anyoha