Oxford Cuts Ties With Tories
Oxford University has severed links with its Conservative association after some members were caught in a race row. The Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) has been asked to change its name, in order to lose the reference to “university.”
It follows complaints that electoral candidates were asked to tell “inappropriate” jokes during hustings. One OUCA committee member resigned. Two students were suspended from the Tory party.
An Oxford university spokesman said: 'Following an investigation about complaints of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by members of the Oxford University Conservative Association, the university has taken the decision to withdraw the university name from the association and withdraw their right to appear at the Fresher's Fair for the coming academic year.
The university would like to reiterate that this behaviour does not reflect the way the overwhelming majority of our students think or behave, and the individuals concerned have resigned from the association.”
Oldest Book Prize Winners Named
Acclaimed novelist Sebastian Barry and leading biographer Michael Holroyd have been named the recipients of Britain's oldest literary prize. The James
Tait Black Memorial awards are given to one work of fiction and one work of biography each year.
Barry's The Secret Scripture won for fiction, and Holroyd's A Strange Eventful History won for biography. Former winners of the £10,000 prize include DH Lawrence and EM Forster.
Mr Barry, whose novel has already won the Costa Book of the Year award and is a contender for this year’s Man Booker prize, said he was overjoyed to
win his award.
He said: 'The James Tait Black not only unfurls a great tail of eternally shining writers, but the body of the comet in the present time contains mighty names. A signal moment of unalloyed joy.”
The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes have been awarded by the University of Edinburgh since 1919.
Top Authors Contribute To Human Rights Anthology
Authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Henning Mankell and Ariel Dorfman have contributed stories to a new collection marking 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each story is inspired by one of
the declaration's 30 articles.
Some of the writers taking part, who also include Paulo Coelho, have experienced human rights violations first hand: all have written their stories for free, with royalties going to Amnesty International. Coelho’s story is inspired by article 19, that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Titled In the Prison of Repose, it is drawn from personal experience.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in a foreword, writes “we are made for the sublime and for freedom: it is my hope that these stories will help us to achieve it.”
The anthology, titled Freedom, was launched on 27 August by Amnesty, at the Edinburgh International book festival, in conjunction with Mainstream Publishing.
Asda Launches Asian Clothing Range
Supermarket chain Asda is to introduce a range of traditional Asian clothing in 21 of its stores. This is a response to demand from customers for affordable authentic Asian clothes.
The range has been designed in conjunction with a team in India and is made with authentic Indian material. It includes sequinned embellished Salwaar Kameez (traditional suits), Khurtas (tunics), Dapata (scarves) and Churidar (slim trousers).
Asda says the range has been not designed solely for Asian customers. They hope it will appeal to Western shoppers too. The clothes are part of the George at Asda line. Prices start at £7, with a complete suit costing £26.
Brianna Ragel, editor of Asian Woman magazine, said: 'It is exciting to see a well known High Street retailer embracing ethnic cultures, and offering goodquality authentic outfits at affordable prices.
“This definitely marks a turning point for ethnic clothing on the High Street.”
Tammy Wynette To Enter Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame
The late country star Tammy Wynette is to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters' Hall of Fame in October, organisers have said.
The singer, who died in 1998 aged 55, was best remembered for her hit song Stand By Your Man. She will be inducted alongside writers Kye Fleming and
Mark D Sanders.
Awards will also be handed out for the year's best song, songwriter and songwriter/artist at the ceremony to be held on 18 October.
“Kye, Mark and Tammy have made many poignant and enduring contributions to the music world and certainly deserve to take their places among their gifted peers,” said Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation Chairman Roger Murrah.
'It's an honour for us to recognise them for their outstanding accomplishments.”
Wynette, who dominated the country charts throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame shortly after her death.
Dan Brown Named Oxfam’s Most Donated Author
He may have sold more than 80 million copies of The Da Vinci Code but Dan Brown’s works are being offloaded to second-hand shops faster than anyone’s.
Oxfam named him the “most donated” author at its chain of charity shops. John Grisham, Ian Rankin, Danielle Steel and Helen Fielding were the other highprofile authors to make the top five.
But Brown can take comfort in knowing Oxfam's survey also revealed him to be its second most purchased author. And his next novel, The Lost Symbol, is expected to break global sales records when it is released next month. Topping the best-seller list at Oxfam’s 700 branches was Rankin, known for his hugely popular Inspector Rebus series.
He said: 'It's always good for an author to know that their books are popular. With Oxfam, it’s also heartening to realise that each book donated and bought is helping such a worthwhile organisation.”
Eight Year Old Boy Achieves A* in Maths GCSE
An eight-year-old boy from West Sussex is celebrating after gaining an A* in his maths GCSE. Xavier Gordon-Brown, from Haywards Heath, said he found the subject easy despite taking the exam at half the age of most other students.
He knew his times tables before the age of four and could do double-digit mental maths before starting school. His parents, Erica and Michael Gordon- Brown, said he passed the Key Stage tests in maths before taking the GCSE.
Mrs Gordon-Brown said: 'I didn't think it was healthy to skip any steps. The teachers started by giving him a few harder questions. Whatever he does he just does it quickly. He can just pick stuff up very fast.”
Xavier took his GCSE with Ryde Teaching Services and hopes to do his maths A-level at the Hemel Hempstead centre next term in addition to his normal schooling at Blackthorns Primary School in Lindfield.
UK’s Oldest Computer Restored
Britain's oldest computer is being sent to the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley to be restored to working order. The Harwell first ran in 1951 and lasted until 1973.
When first built the 2.4m x 5m computer was stateof-the-art, although it was superseded by transistorbased systems. The restoration project is expected to take a year. The system was built and used by staff at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Oxfordshire.
Dick Barnes, who helped build the original Harwell computer, said the research was - officially at least - for civilian nuclear power projects.
“Officially it was to help with general background atomic theory and to assist in the development of civilian power. Of course, it [the Atomic Energy Research Establishment] had connections to the nuclear weapons programme,” he explains.
Although not the first computer built in the UK, the Harwell had one of the longest service lives.
Galaxy’s Cannibalism Revealed
The vast Andromeda galaxy appears to have expanded by digesting stars from other galaxies, researchers say. When an international team of scientists mapped Andromeda, they discovered stars that they said were
“remnants of dwarf galaxies.”
The astronomers report their findings in the journal Nature. This consumption of stars has been suggested previously, but the team’s ultra-deep survey has provided detailed images to show that it took place.
This shows the “hierarchical model” of galaxy formation in action. The model predicts that large galaxies should be surrounded by relics of smaller galaxies they have consumed.
The scientists charted the outskirts of Andromeda in detail for the first time. They discovered stars that could not have formed within the galaxy itself and also saw a “stream of stars” of a nearby galaxy called Triangulum “stretching” towards Andromeda.
Andromeda, which is approximately 2.5 million lightyears from Earth, is still expanding, say the scientists.
British Library Opens Music Vault
The British Library has made 28,000 rare recordings available free online. The collection focuses on both traditional English music and recordings gathered from across the globe. Janet Topp Fargion, the curator of world and traditional music, says there is a unique historical and cultural importance to the archive.
She said: “It’s more than putting the flesh on the bones, there are recordings that don’t exist in any other form. They give you sound, they give actual events.”
She thinks that such recordings have a special ability “to transport you to a time and a place.” “We are being transported all over the world, back in time to different places, different cultures, different peoples,” she added.
The archive also provides a record of specific genres that are now extinct, she said. Examples include recordings of royal Ugandan musicians, whose craft was lost when the African country's king was exiled in 1966.
Walliams Nominated For Book Prize
Little Britain star David Walliams, known for playing the part of Emily Howard in the series, has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which honours humorous books for children.Walliams is nominated for his debut novel, The Boy in the Dress, which was illustrated by Quentin Blake.
He faces stiff competition from five established children’s authors, including Alan Ahlberg and Anne Fine.Michael Rosen founded the £2,500 prize last year as part of his children's laureateship.
The Boy in the Dress, which is nominated in the seven to 14 age group, tells the story of Dennis, whose life changes “dramatically” after he discovers he enjoys wearing a dress.
The shortlist for the awards, which also has an undersix category, was selected by judges including Rosen, comedian Bill Bailey and last year’s winning author, Andy Stanton. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 10 November.
WW2 Prisoners Published Magazine
They were behind barbed wire in cramped wooden huts hundreds of miles from home during World War II, but some Welsh prisoners of war overcame adversity with a remarkable series of morale-boosting magazines about their homeland called Cymro (Welshman).
They stole medicine to make ink, while their meagre rations were used to stick illustrations onto pages from school exercise books. It featured snippets of news from home taken from letters sent by loved ones, and was handwritten in English and Welsh between 1943 and 1944.
Now, as the 70th anniversary of the start of the war is commemorated, the National Library of Wales in Aberysytwyth has published its collection of the magazines online. Experts at the library explained how prisoners went to extraordinary lengths to produce Cymro.
Stories carried by the magazine were designed to boost the morale of hundreds of inmates exposed to the deteriorating conditions in the camp.
Pupils Not Reading WithTeachers
A quarter of primary school children read just one book a year with their teacher, research suggests. One in eight have never read an entire book in class. The survey, involving 516 teachers in 500 schools in the UK, and 1,000 parents of school-aged children, suggests children mainly study extracts from books. It suggests many teachers and parents fear pupils are
less interested in reading as a result.
Former children’s laureate Michael Rosen said: “I think it will shock the public that so few whole books are being taught in class.
'There are going to be children who will only be taught about three or four books as part of their literacy education in the whole of their primary careers.
'For the thousands of children who don't read books at home, it is a travesty. That’s three books they might have come across in the whole of their infant lives.”
Car Made of Cashew Shells
Many people’s first vehicle costs peanuts, but a team of Northern Ireland researchers have helped take that a step further by building a racing car using cashew nut shells.
The Formula Three vehicle, which is the world’s first sustainable racing car, has been constructed using sustainable and recycled products - including hemp, soybean oil, potato starch and recycled bottles.
It runs on bio-diesel and has a top speed of 130mph. The car has already appeared at this year's Goodwood's Festival of Speed and was driven by A1 Grand Prix champion racing driver Adam Carroll.
Dr Julie Soden, a researcher at the University of Ulster (UU), helped make a barge board which is positioned behind the front wheels. 'It is exciting and refreshing to see an actual product coming out of the research lab,” she said.
The project was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Warwick’s Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre.
DJ Moyles Breaks Record
Chris Moyles has now become the longest-serving breakfast DJ on BBC Radio 1, overtaking the record set by Tony Blackburn more than 30 years ago.
The 35-year-old began the flagship radio role on January 5 2004. Blackburn was in the post of Breakfast DJ from September 30 1967 to June 1 1973. He served a total of 2,072 days.
Moyles' team celebrated his achievement with a tour of Britain, which kicked off with the show airing live from Plymouth.They went on to travel to Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow and London, hosting karaoke events called A Night With The Chris Moyles Show in each city.
Moyles said: 'By going out on the road for a week we are trying to thank as many people as we can.”
Blackburn gave the breakfast show up aged 29, and some have wondered whether Moyles may now be too old to appeal to young listeners.
Pardon For Football Fan Shields
Liverpool fan Michael Shields has walked free after being pardoned of the attempted murder of a barman in Bulgaria. The 22-year-old student, from Liverpool, was convicted of carrying out the attack after his team’s win in the 2005 Champions League final.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw issued the royal pardon, saying that Mr Shields was "morally and technically innocent.”
Mr Shields has now been reunited with his family, who have campaigned for his release since he was convicted of the attack against barman Martin Georgiev in Varna. His solicitor, John Weate, said his client’s amily were informed of the pardon by Mr Straw over the telephone.
Mr Weate said: “At first he couldn’t believe it after all these years and knock-backs.
"But now he is absolutely ecstatic and so are his family.”
A Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Gordon Brown was “very supportive” of the decision to pardon Mr Shields.
