It’s a short and lovely boat trip from the Caleta to this tiny isle located south of Tortel’s Bay. You’ll be immersed within a dreamy landscape that includes the turquoise waters of the Baker River Delta, the intense greens of the native forests, snowy peaks, giant waterfalls, and hanging glaciers. Perhaps the serenity of the landscape makes the isle’s chilling monument that much more surreal; 59 worn wooden crosses peeking out from between giant ferns and nalca leaves, quietly memorializing a tragedy, that was anything but “serene”.
For years the events that led to the 59 crosses on the isle were shrouded in mystery.
There was talk of famine, accidental poisoning and even a premeditated mass-murder. But, everything was a matter of legend and rumor, until social anthropologist, Mauricio Osorio, uncovered new evidence that has helped to reveal true events that led to the catastrophe.
All of the excursions to the Isle of the Dead pass through the Bajo Pisagua Sector, where there is an incredible waterfall that pours down into the fjord. This sector is the scene for the drama that was to unfold. At the end of 1905, the Explotadora del Baker Company contracted around 200 workers from Chiloe and Puerto Montt, to come to the Bajo Pisagua sector and work, building roads, logging and working in construction of new infrastructure. Work moved forward during the spring and summer months and workers began to anticipate the winter break, when they would return home to their families.
A ship would arrive to transport the workers back north in June of that year; their contract stipulated a break during the winter months when the climate included sub-zero temperatures, strong winds and rains. Accommodations were not adequate for housing so many people during the harsh conditions of winter when clearly, the weather prevented work from moving forward. So, rations were provided through the end of May when the ship would arrive. But, it didn’t arrive on the indicated day, or the next.
The ship scheduled to transport the workers never arrived; they had been abandoned!
It was almost four months later, on September 27, 1906, when the Araucanía Steamer, from Punta Arenas, picked up the 157 survivors of the Bajo Pisagua tragedy. Fifty-nine workers had died during the harsh Patagonian winter, due to lack of food and an outbreak of scurvy, and their remains rest under the worn wooden crosses on the isle. Eight more victims died aboard the Araucanía on the way back. It’s especially sad to notice the short lives memorialized by many of the crosses on the isle, whose dates reveal that many of the workers were young men, some only 15 years old.
Today, thanks to the efforts of Don Osorio’s research, the mystery of their deaths can finally be shared and the forgotten, remembered. So, as you walk through the isle surrounded by such incredible beauty, take a moment to remember a few of the names that are hand written onto the crosses. Then, as you make your way back to the comforts of Caleta Tortel, take a few minutes to remember the names of those forgotten for so long.


Cinegear News/ Fauer
A CELEBRATION OF A UNIQUE ARTFORM
Sunday will be a busy day for Jon Fauer, ASC, who is conducting an afternoon master class
on the evolving art and craft of Super 16 filmmaking. His 90-minute documentary,
Cinematographer Style, will premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Sunday evening.
The film is a collage of commentaries by 110 cinematographers who are literally thinking
aloud about the universal art of visual story-telling.
The cinematographers who Fauer corralled have roots in 15 countries and experience in diverse
sectors of the industry, including narrative films for both television and the cinema, documentaries,
music videos and commercials. Several interviews are with visual effects artists and one is with
an editor who offers interesting perspectives.
Fauer asked everyone the same questions: Why did they choose to become a cinematographer?
How did they get started? Who influenced them? How do they decide on the right looks? How
has the evolution of technology affected cinematography?
Those are the primary threads weaved into the fabric of the film, but the dialogues also meander
into other areas and common themes emerge. For instance, many of the cinematographers
interviewed by Fauer initially set out to be painters, architects and graphic designers.
There are also a number of writers and a few former actors.
Fauer says that some cinematographers were shy about being on the other side of the lens.
He also observes, “They were all incredibly articulate. They drew pictures with words that are
so vivid I could see the images. The lesson that this film teaches is that there are no textbooks
or rules. Cinematography is like writing literature or composing music. No two people do it in
exactly the same way, but it’s a global language that everyone understands.”
Fauer is a kind of renaissance man, though he would never describe himself that way.
He studied art and filmmaking at Dartmouth University and has subsequently compiled
a diverse list of documentary, independent feature and commercial credits as both
a cinematographer and director.
Fauer is also a prolific writer. He has authored 10 books about ARRI cameras and other
technical topics involving cinematography .
The idea for Cinematographer Style traces back to a discussion Fauer had with ARRI Inc.
President Volker Bahnemann in March, 2003. Fauer was updating the ARRICAM Book
that he had authored. Bahnemann suggested that he augment the updated edition with
a DVD consisting of interviews with cinematographers discussing how the evolution of
technology and techniques have influenced them and their work.
By May, the idea took root. Fauer believed it was important to produce the documentary
on 35mm film. ARRI pledged both funding and equipment, John W. Johnston guaranteed
that Kodak would provide a sufficient supply of Kodak Vision 2 color negative film where
and when it was needed, and Charlie Herzfeld offered assurances that Technicolor would
donate front-end lab, telecine and release print services.
“Cinematographers talking about art ought to be recorded on film that audiences can experience
projected on big cinema screens,” Fauer says. “I also felt that it was important to conduct these
interviews on a proven, archival form of media that will be accessible to future filmmakers
and historians decades and hundreds of years from now.”
Fauer filmed and interviewed cinematographers and edited that footage into a 10-minute DVD,
titled The Digital Age of Film, which premiered in the book store that was part of the American
Society of Cinematographers exhibit at CineGear in June 2004.
By then, what had begun as a relatively modest project had shifted into high gear. The way Fauer
tells it, various people were urging him to film interviews with additional cinematographers. ARRI,
Kodak, Technicolor , people at other companies and individuals offered to provide both practical
and moral support. The reality is that he couldn’t have done it without their support, but Fauer
was on a mission. He organized and incorporated T-Stop Productions, Inc. in New York as
the official producer of Cinematographer Style. Fauer explains that the title of the film was
derived from a casual observation he made during a visit to a bookstore while researching
background information for shooting a high fashion commercial. A section of the bookstore
was dedicated to prevailing styles in different places. Fauer subsequently filmed interviews with cinematographers at the CineGear 2005 Conference on soundstages at Paramount, Culver City
and Universal Studios in Los Angeles and at Leavesden UK Studios in London, and while he
was shooting commercials in various cities. He shot some 200,000' feet of 35mm film.
“Our goal from the beginning, and a key to the structure of the film, was to string together
comments made by the various cinematographers offering opinions about the same topics,”
Fauer says. “Vittorio Storaro (ASC, AIC) talks about lighting faces. Then, we cut to
commentaries by Haskell Wexler (ASC) and Gordon Willis (ASC) discussing the same subject.
You hear Gordon tell the gaffer who is lighting his face to turn a key light off. Then he turns
back towards the camera with his face in partial shadows and asks, ‘do you see what I mean?’
Gordon made an eloquent statement by using images to punctuate his words. He wasn’t acting
for the camera. It was second nature.”
That type of spontaneous visual grammar is weaved throughout the fabric of the film. There are
no talking head shots. Fauer’s subjects augment their words with body language, facial expressions
and their eyes. His cinematography is also interpretative. Fauer intuitively used light and shadows,
camera angles, composition and focus the way he thought his subjects would film interviews
“I asked everyone how they wanted to be lit,” Fauer relates, “and they all said they trusted me.
I’ll be honest. That was a pretty nerve-wracking experience.”
The moment of truth came when some 33 hours of filmed interviews had to be culled down to
90 minutes. That comes out to an average of almost 50 seconds of commentary by each
cinematographer. Fauer assigns ample credit to editor Matt Blute, who was his collaborator
on this aspect of the project. The conformed negative was scanned and converted to a digital
file with an ARRISCAN.
Fauer put final painterly touches on the look in addition to timing the film for continuity at
Goldcrest Post, in Manhattan, in collaboration with senior colorist John Dowdell, who was involved
in various other aspects of the project from the beginning.
The final cut was rendered onto film with an ARRILASER recorder. Technicolor produced the release
print on Kodak Vision Premiere film.
Fauer concludes that Cinematographer Style is a celebration of a unique form of artistic expression
that tends to be a mystery to film critics and fans. The film will also be released as a DVD and a book.
Fauer says that a substantial part of the profits will be donated to the American Society of
Cinematographers education and museum funds.
“My only regret is that despite our best efforts, scheduling conflicts and the random nature of
this business prevented us from interviewing many cinematographers who should have been
a part of this film,” he says. “I hope to rectify those omissions in the future when we begin
working on Cinematographer Style, Part 2.”
In addition to ARRI, Kodak and Technicolor, Fauer says various companies and individuals
made important contributions, including Clairmont Camera, Illumination Dynamics, Avid Technology,
Facilis Technology, Taylor and Taylor Insurance, Fisher Dollies, Quixote Expendables and others.
All of them are listed in the end credits.


Madden 24 has brought a wave of excitement to the gaming community, particularly with the influx of new quarterbacks. The landscape of the game is constantly evolving, and with the addition of quarterback discounts, the top 10 quarterback list has seen a significant shakeup. In this article, we'll delve into the rankings, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each quarterback, and explore the ever-important realm of Madden Ultimate Team.
The Game-Changing FC 24 Patch: A Revolution in FIFA Gameplay
In the ever-evolving world of FIFA, EA Sports has unleashed a monumental update in FC 24, setting a new standard for gameplay changes that might redefine how players approach the beautiful game. This update, titled Pitch Notes Title Update six, introduces four main features that promise to revolutionize the way we play FIFA. From reduced midfield congestion to changes in offensive wing backs, the gaming community is abuzz with anticipation for the transformative impact of these modifications.
Unleashing Maximum Damage: The Top 3 DPS Builds in New World
New World, Amazon Game Studios' latest MMORPG, has captivated gamers with its immersive world, rich lore, and dynamic combat system. Among the diverse playstyles available, DPS (Damage Per Second) builds are favored by those who relish the thrill of dealing massive damage while contributing to the team's success. In this article, we'll explore the three best DPS builds in New World, each designed to maximize damage output and ensure you stand out on the battlefield.


In 2019, the inaugural #DoingItForJarrod campaign was launched in honour of our dear friend and ambassador, Jarrod Lyle, who sadly passed away from cancer in August 2018.
#DoingItForJarrod continues Jarrod’s vision of helping Challenge provide practical support to children and families living with cancer and beyond.
Challenge and the PGA of Australia united to create an annual fundraising campaign that the entire golf community could enjoy to keep Jarrod’s legacy alive.
In conjunction with #DoingItForJarrod, the PGA of Australia wanted to acknowledge Jarrod’s life, so they created “Yellow Day”, now an annual event held at the Australian PGA Championship.
Follow us on social media for the latest news!


Cross of Christ Lutheran Church - Welch Minnesota
Before I started to write anything, I went back and re-read what I had written for the Country Chronicles last March. I was talking about spring and how the world comes alive. The grass turns green, the leaves sprout, the weather warms… So much optimism and excitement!
And ohh, how things have changed…
Don’t get me wrong, we really did have a nice spring with green grass and leaves and all that… Unfortunately, it also came with a novel coronavirus. We weren’t sure what to expect and we were pretty much expecting the worst. So, schools closed, restaurants closed, churches closed…
And if there was any silver lining at all, at least we all felt like we were in this thing together. It felt like there was some social agreement on what to do. But now, even that is pretty much gone.
Then we had the death of George Floyd. What was already a cranky situation exploded in ways we could never have imagined. Spawning still more violence and destruction and who knows what… If you’re like me, you’re wondering, “What’s going on with the world?”
As I write, the virus continues to spread… Over 140,000 people have died, hospitals in parts of Florida and Texas have maxed out their ICUs. Researchers have better information, but depending on where you get your news, it’s either really, really bad-- or not a problem.
And of course, we’re in an election year, so all manner of spinning is happening. So, we’re not only fearful, we don’t know who to listen to.
It feels like danger and chaos is everywhere. I go through periods when I can’t watch the news. It not only makes me cynical; it makes me paralyzed. There’s so much badness out there! And that’s certainly no way to live…
On August ninth, our gospel reading will be about Jesus walking on water. In biblical stories, water is often associated with danger and chaos. We have Noah and the flood, we have the Israelites crossing through the Red Sea on dry land (it didn’t turn out well for the Egyptians!), we have Jonah and the whale, and even in the New Testament we have the story of Apostle Paul being shipwrecked.
When Jesus walks on water, he is not only walking on water, he’s walking across all the danger and chaos that humanity can possibly muster—and that gives me comfort. Jesus is the master of our disaster.
So, especially when the seas of danger and chaos rage and foam, take the hand of Jesus and you can walk over anything.
Take good care, my friends…
Church Phone: 651-388-3464
Pastors Email: [email protected]


Trei Brundrett has been making things on the internet with smart people for 30 years, starting with the first website for Texas Monthly.
He’s a co-founder and former COO of Vox Media, where he now serves as Senior Advisor. He created the Vox Product team in 2008, a pioneering cross-functional news product team that launched and/or redesigned SB Nation, The Verge, Polygon, Vox, Eater, Curbed, Recode and NY Mag. This same team designed and built one of the most loved content management systems in the media business, Chorus, to power those brands.
Previously, he directed technology and product teams at technology startups and as the principal of the design firm, Handwire, in Austin, Texas. Now Trei works as an advisor to news startups and as a consultant to the American Journalism Project, Aspen Digital, and SXSW.
A seventh generation Texan, he serves as the Chair of The Texas Tribune and on the philanthropic committee for The McDonald Observatory in West Texas. He’s also on the board of his adopted hometown Montclair Local nonprofit newsroom, Open News, and The Guardian.
He lives in Montclair, NJ with his family of six and their dog, Lucy.


The wrecking ball has met the Church of the Transfiguration, on 56th and Cedar Sts. in West Philadelphia. Built in 1905, the church has been vacant for almost a decade. See the Philadelphia Church Project blog (here) for the sad images of demolition. The interior furnishings of the church were stripped last month and can be found at Provenance, the architectural salvage store on 1610 Fairmount Ave. This Catholic church, convent, school and complex was sold by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to Boy's Latin, a charter school that opened in 2007. The school is an interesting, albeit controversial, experiment, see St. John Bard-Smith, "Latin Lovers," Philadelphia Weekly (June 11, 2008). The school will presumably expand in the plot that housed the Transfiguration.
Many thanks to the Necessity of Ruins for recording the processes of Philadelphia's own ruination. I was also deeply saddened to see the wrecking ball meet another West Philadelphia monument, the Drexel Shaft on 30th Street. The demolition took place on Sunday (Nov. 16); for more information, see, Eulogy for a Shaft and Drexel Shaft Implosion (Necessity of Ruins, Nov. 12 & 16). The smoke stack was designed for the 30th Street Station Steam Heating Plane by the office of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1929. This Chicago firm was the successor of Daniel Burnham's office and their ambitious urbanism is legendary. Their plans for Philadelphia's 30th Street resembled the Terminal Tower project in Cleveland. Unexpectedly, the Great Depression kept the full urban scheme from materializing. The smoke stack was an orphan, a monument to a lost moment. The boiler was last used in 1964 and, I agree with The Necessity of Ruins, it was an icon of West Philadelphia. Crossing the Schuylkill River or entering the city by train was always marked by this vertical monument rising over its cubic base.


Broadcast on 10 April Lesley talks to Steve Gilbey about Mapping Suffolk’s Stories project. This project recognises the national and international relevance of the Record Office’s collections. It will use the engaging nature of historic maps as a starting point for uncovering the unique stories about the people, places and events of our county, often hidden in the archives.
The programme will see the Record Office, aided by the University of Suffolk and a group of teachers, working alongside communities to explore and promote their local heritage to new regional and national audiences.
Some groups will focus on the initial stimulus of historic maps; others in the same locality (including schools) will use the maps and new research to learn more about where they live and create contemporary responses to it.
The project’s results will be available to national audiences through an exciting, interactive mapping feature.
Mapping Suffolk’s Stories will act as the template for a new way of working for the Record Office – delivering outreach and education “out there” in communities, rather than just relying on activities delivered in branches.
It is hoped that the Hold will play a pivotal role in this project.
Broadcast on 13 March with Bridget and Louise joining Lesley in the studio. Louise talked about a seven year old boy who was an African slave given into the care of a vicar in Lowestoft. Bridget spoke about the Ipswich office with its nine miles of shelving. Bridget also identified some records held that were relevant to women’s history month, and managed to slip in a mention of The Hold.
We are thrilled to confirm that Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch has agreed to be patron of the Suffolk Archives Foundation. Diarmaid grew up in Suffolk and is one of the world’s leading religious historians. He is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford and a prize-winning author, having written extensively on Tudor England. He has presented a number of popular history programmes on the BBC and received a knighthood in January 2012 for services to scholarship. We are very grateful to Diarmaid for lending his support to the Foundation, and look forward to working with him as our campaign takes shape.
On Monday 13th February Suffolk Record Office’s Bridget Hanley and project coordinator Amy Rushton took part in the first instalment of a monthly feature about ‘The Hold’ and Suffolk Record Office on Lesley Dolphin’s afternoon show; broadcast on BBC Radio Suffolk.
They talked animatedly with Lesley about the Record Office, Mapping Suffolk’s Stories, ‘The Hold’ and the Suffolk Archives Foundation.
This is to become a regular feature at 1.30pm on the second Monday of every month.


Recently, Apple announced it will demand its privacy icons in all apps offered in App Store (meaning – if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to implement Apple’s requirements ASAP – otherwise, your users may have trouble using your app).
Why am I mentioning this? Because Apple – as one of the largest (market cap) companies in the world – noticed that privacy is becoming more and more important for its customers. This fact has become so obvious that Apple started to use it as its market advantage (it even got in conflict with the FBI for not allowing a back door to its operating system). As opposed to Google which is yet to follow.
If you watched the movie Margin Call (I recommend watching it since it shows the start of the 2008 financial crisis), the owner of the company (played by Jeremy Irons) said: “There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat. Well, I don’t cheat.” Apple wanted to be the first among the biggest market players (which in this case also means smarter) to be recognized as a privacy-friendly company. Others will follow (and always be second).
Sure, I am not saying Apple is spotless and without a privacy sin. What am I trying to say is, be first in privacy and get customers’ attention. It is not that hard – I just don’t recommend listening to all the rumors which spread around, that GDPR is ruining businesses. It really isn’t. After the initial investment (mostly time), this topic (if implemented correctly) may almost run on autopilot.
So, this is one way to look at privacy. The other way is from your perspective. Besides Margin Call, I also recommend watching a Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma and you will get to know why i.e. Facebook’s author of the Like button left Facebook. Maybe, you will notice the importance of privacy from other (personal) perspective. And then, you will also understand how your customers feel about their privacy.
A hint instead of a conclusion
One last thing – part of the GDPR requirements is also in line with information security best practices. The highest cost of a hacker’s attack in Slovenia is 2.4 million EUR. Do you want to pay such an enormous price for an attack? Well, if you want to protect your organization from hacking attacks, you need a person who is properly educated in information security (the “average IT guy” is usually not equipt with the (proper) information security knowledge). In the US, the average salary of a Chief Information Security Manager (CISM) has already reached $150.000 and it’s rising. In Europe, we are a step or two behind. Right now, it is the best time to hire a CISM or educate one or two employees to become CISM, before it gets really expensive – just note that there will be a defficit of 3.5 million information security experts in 2021 solely. So get one now, while you can, for a normal (Slovenian) price.


People are distracted more than ever.
Use video to make your story impossible to ignore.
Videos done right.
Nothing cuts through the noise like video. It is the most effective way to communicate your message. No other media takes the viewer on such an effortless journey of discovery. People would much rather watch your message than read it.
Video captures and holds attention better than any other media.
Videos that call viewers to action, get a response. There is a higher engagement rate with video than text or image posts.
Through video, schools are able to express the heart that drives their mission.
In a video – sound, text, and body language all come together to communicate your message.
Are you ready to start telling your school's story?
01 Schedule a Videoshoot
We’ll have a quick discussion about your vision and goals for the video campaign.
02 We’ll Visit Your Campus
Prepare your students and staff for a day of interviews, b-roll, and a whole lot of fun! Want drone footage? We can grab that too.
03 Premiere it!
Let’s premiere your story! Share your videos on your website, social channels, and more.
What does each package include?
- Identity BrandScript
- Equipment and Travel
- Effects, Motion Graphics, and Music
- Professional Voiceover
- Up to 4K Resolution
- Drone Footage
- Unlimited Revisions
Want to hear more?
Send us your contact info, a little bit about your project, and a couple of dates that would work for you to schedule a discovery meeting.
Get it on the calendar now.
Alternatively, you can add us to your calendar and we’ll call you when it works best!


As a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, Sheryl Lyons served as an expert on a recent panel and offered one of the “Six Ways to Encourage Leaders to Better Embrace Diversity”.
Celebrate Behaviors that Promote Diversity
Behavior that is recognized gets repeated, so the key is to celebrate desired behavior as soon as you see it. For leaders to embrace diversity, they have to see it from their own leader, believe in its benefits, be equipped to succeed and be held accountable for their results.
— Sheryl Lyons, MBA, CMC
Culture Spark Founder & President
This month, Sheryl is expanding on the Benefits of Creating a Diverse Workforce with a full length article. Here are the key takeaways:
“Culture is the sum of our collective behaviors. It’s how we treat one another. It is how leaders treat each other and their people. So the innovative and financial benefits of diversity start with a company mindset and commitment to day-to-day behaviors that foster diversity and cultivate a culture where team members feel respected, valued and confident in their contributions.”
Click here to read the full article and to better understand the role company leaders play in fostering diversity and inclusivity within their corporate cultures.
The best workforce is a diverse workforce.
— Ted Colbert, Boening’s CIO


Strength Outside the Box is a podcast hosted by Amy Hester and Lauren Corl based out of Huntsville, Alabama. It is all about two girls getting to the heart of how a community of CrossFit athletes is changing each other's lives one WOD at a time, while digging deep to understand how the lessons learned within the gym can provide strength for obstacles outside the box. Grab a cup of coffee and get ready to make two new gym besties as they chat with members of their own gym, neighboring gyms, and beyond. With each interview comes more laughter and a true sense of community, family, and what it means to have strength outside the box. Find them now wherever you love to listen to podcasts and on Instagram @strengthoutsidethebox. The ladies are currently accepting suggestions for new boxes to visit and feature on their show. If you would like to nominate your awesome gym, email them at firstname.lastname@example.org.


In 2012, there were several other fatal school shootings, including the February 27 shooting in Chardon, Ohio, where alleged gunman T.J. Lane shot five people, killing three. On April 2, former Oikos University student One L. Goh returned to his Korean Christian college and shot dead seven people. A massacre at a movie megaplex at the Aurora Century 16 cinema in July left 12 dead and wounded 58 others.
Virginia Tech - 32 dead plus the shooter, 16 April 2007, Blacksburg, Virginia
Student Seung-Hui Cho, 23, killed two students in a dorm and then went through building of classrooms armed with two handguns, shooting at random before killing himself. Seventeen others were wounded.
Sandy Hook Elementary School – 26 dead plus the shooter, 14 December 2012, Newtown, Connecticut
The most recent mass shooting occurred mere weeks ago in a quiet town in Connecticut. Shooter Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot his mother in the face before driving to the school, where he gunned down 20 children and six educators in a matter of minutes before turning the gun on himself.
University of Texas - 16 dead plus shooter, 1 August 1966, Austin, Texas
Former Marine sniper Charles Whitman, 25, armed with an arsenal of weapons, shot victims from the observation deck of the campus bell tower and later shot himself.
Columbine High School - 13 dead plus two shooters, 20 April 1999, Littleton, Colorado
Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire outside the school killing students and one teacher before shooting themselves in the library. Another 21 people were injured. Many victims, such as Richard Castaldo, sustained life-altering injuries. Castaldo was paralyzed by a bullet and lives his life in a wheelchair.
Red Lake High School - Nine dead plus shooter, 21 March 2005, Red Lake, Minnesota
Jeffrey Weise, 17, shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend on an Indian reservation, before going on a shooting spree at Red Lake High School killing nine people. He then turned the gun on himself.
Oikos University – Seven dead and three wounded, 2 April, 2012, Oakland, California
Former Oikos University student One L. Goh, 42, allegedly planned the massacre at the Northern California university following a tuition dispute. He shot seven people A judge ruled earlier this month that Goh was not mentally fit for trial and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
California State University, Fullerton – Seven dead, three wounded, 12 July, 1976
Gunman Edward Charles Allaway, 37, worked as a custodian at the university’s library. He used a rifle purchased at a local K-Mart to shoot dead a librarian, two custodians, a photographer, and other staffers. Following the shootings, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and remains at a state hospital in San Bernardino.
Nickle Mines schoolhouse - six dead plus shooter, 2 October 2, 2006, Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania
Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, executes five girls aged 7 to 13 before killing himself in a one-room Amish schoolhouse; ten girls were shot in total, one of the victims was removed from life support in 2006; other survivors suffered brain injuries and vision problems
University of Iowa - five dead plus shooter, 1 November 1991, Iowa City, Iowa
Gang Lu, 27, a graduate student from China, killed five with a .38-caliber revolver. He was apparently angry because his doctoral dissertation had not been nominated for an academic award
Northern Illinois University – five dead plus shooter, 14 February 2008, DeKalb, Illinois
Shooter Steven Kazmierczak, 27, a former student of the university, entered a lecture hall on the campus around 3pm on Valentine’s Day and opened fire. In total, five people were killed and 20 more were wounded. The gunman committed suicide.
Westside Middle School - five dead, 24 March 1998, Jonesboro, Arkansas
Mitchell Johnson, 10, and Andrew Golden, 8, took seven guns to school and pulled the fire alarm and shot students as they headed for the exits. Four female students died, as well as a teacher; nine students and an additional teacher were wounded. The pair were sent to a juvenile detention center and released in 2005.
Cleveland Elementary School - five dead plus shooter, 17 January 1989, Stockton, California
Patrick Edward Purdy entered a schoolyard and opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at Cleveland Elementary School. Five children died and 30 others were wounded including one teacher. He then shot himself.
Kent State University – four dead, 4 May 1970, Kent, Ohio
National Guard troops killed four students who were protesting the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. The gunman fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds. Nine additional students were wounded and one was permanently paralyzed.
Contrary to popular belief, the deadliest attack on a school in the United States was not because of gun violence. Rather, it happened when a school board treasurer blew up the Bath Schoolhouse in Michigan. Andrew Kehoe, 55, spent several months rigging bombs to the Bath Schoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan. The May 18, 1927 disaster killed 43 people, including 38 children. Kehoe also murdered his wife, and committed suicide by detonating his vehicle


By Stephen Unwin
Anyone who has ever run a cultural institution—a theatre, a museum, a concert hall—is familiar with the problem: you can’t please everyone all of the time. But, by God, the demands come thick and fast: the accountants want a bigger income and a smaller cost base; the press would prefer things to be more chic and make a better story; the statutory funders expect you to fulfil whatever their latest policy statement insists on; and corporate supporters insist on high profile events which support their brand. Meanwhile, parents ask for more work suitable for their children; intellectuals expect art which is more radical and cutting-edge; and the local authority explains that their council tax players should be getting popular, accessible work which is value for money.
What’s more, behind the scenes, one board member insists that if only we charged another 25p on every Flat White sold our financial problems would be over, a founder attacks you for having betrayed the institution’s guiding principles, and a young trainee mutters that you’re a terrible ‘sell out’.
The whole thing is utterly exhausting, and you regularly stagger home at the end of an exhausting day and want to flop down on the sofa and say: ‘Oh, please, leave me alone, I’m just trying to keep the bloody doors open.’
Help is at hand, however, and it comes from a surprising place.
One day you get an e-mail from the new head teacher at a special school in your area. She’s trying to find ways of involving her pupils in the local community, giving them a chance to see how the outside world works, develop some skills, make new friends, and breathe a different air. ‘Oh Christ,’ you think, ‘not another bloody person wanting a bit of the action; I’ve got that nightmare meeting this afternoon with the insolvency lawyers, and an emergency session of the Finance and Audit Committee. And they expect me to care about disabled kids?’
Of course, you know you shouldn’t think like that, but the horrible fact is you do. And you hate yourself for it. But then you notice something at the bottom: Nancy Turner (Mrs) has typed the following: ‘Although this would be good for the children, I think it might be good for you and your institution too.’ You’re struck by this, and so you fire off a short email: ‘Are you free for coffee at 11.00 tomorrow? It would be good to talk.’
The next day Nancy Turner turns up a couple of minutes early, with a big, warm smile on her face and a real aura of competence and positivity. And she’s brought with her two of her pupils: one, a young Asian lad called Harry with Down’s Syndrome, who comes bounding into the café, full of energy and laughter, big and solid and with a big smile; the other a fragile-looking girl, Marie, very quiet, very tender, very shy. They’ve come with Gail, a support teacher: she’s got bags of energy, and is as bold as brass.
Nancy introduces everyone and insists on paying for your coffee, and Harry’s infectious laugh quickly distracts you, and he shows you a trick that he does with his glasses that makes you smile, and you notice Marie sipping her herbal tea ever so gently and realise that she’s not said a word since she’s arrived. Nancy explains that she’s almost entirely nonverbal, but she does notice everything going on around her. And you see how Gail is such a friend to these kids: helping them out, chivvying them along, making things work. And all done with such energy and a defiant, optimistic laugh.
Soon Nancy starts to explain her proposal: she wants to help you make your institution more welcoming for the kind of children who go to her school. She doesn’t blame you for what you’ve not got right yet, nor does she sit there angry and expectant. Instead, she has some ideas. The kids could be involved in taking tickets on a Saturday afternoon, she says. Some of them, especially the ones with Down’s Syndrome, but other ones too, are so welcoming and friendly and your visitors will love being greeted by them. And she also explains how brilliantly tidy and organised Marie is: maybe she could help out in the bookshop or the kitchen? And there are so many other kids with different skills. They all need work experience, but they can help you too.
Nancy gives you the statistics of the number of families with disabled children in the region. You’re amazed at how many of them there are: why hadn’t marketing told you about this? She also tells you about the challenges they face in securing even the simplest things: education, holidays, transport, care support, even access to an adventure playground. Everything seems to be so difficult for these families and you realise that you had no idea. It’s certainly a world away from the lives of your two non-disabled teenagers at the local grammar school.
Gail starts talking about the families of the kids at their special school. And you start to sense what an amazing community this is: full of energy, laughter and love, but also commitment, hard work and endurance. She also tells you about the new hydrotherapy pool at the school that’s just been built, paid for by a charitable trust, and you start to wonder what the hell your development department has been up to: it seems that these kids are not just good at jobs, and have committed families and connections but, bloody hell, there’s money attached if you play it right.
And then you remember the last funding report, droning on endlessly about reaching new audiences, and that desperate meeting when you foolishly insisted that your figures for non-white attendees were a direct result of just how white your area is, or certainly the kind of people who seem to want to come. You feel guilty, but don’t know how to address the problem. But you suddenly realise that you had completely forgotten about this minority group, and think that, maybe, just maybe, it would be a clever idea to champion a minority so often forgotten. Are you being cynical? Not entirely, but you are being practical.
Nancy then talks about some brilliant initiatives out there: arts companies doing creative artistic work for, by and about young disabled people, and you Google their names, and you quickly see what she’s talking about. It’s clear that there’s so much interesting work going on which you’ve somehow forgotten about, and you realise you’d be crazy not to involve these amazingly creative, positive and dynamic people. It’s good for everybody.
You soon say goodbye to your visitors, and watch them leaving the café: big Harry is dancing around, singing and larking around with Gail, making your front of house people laugh, while sweet Marie picks her way carefully to the exit, one thin arm laced into Nancy’s, elegant and tender to the end.
And as they leave you start to realise something else. This is why, all those years ago, you got interested in the arts. This is why you’ve become the director of an arts institution instead of being the lawyer your dad wanted you to be. This is what you’re fighting for, this is why you go to all those endless meetings, this is what it’s all about. You want to run an open public place where everyone is welcome, where all people’s voices are heard, where all the usual divisions of a sick society evaporate. Isn’t that what art centres and museums are meant to be: a celebration of all of humanity, whatever shape they take? Isn’t that what Rembrandt and Shakespeare are about; isn’t that what Alice Walker and Pina Bausch engage with; isn’t that what great art, great theatres, great museums should be doing?
What’s more, you realise to your horror that so many institutions like yours have turned their backs on this essential group, a group that over the centuries has been neglected, segregated, abused, and worse. That such treatment has deep roots in the dreadful attitudes of so many mighty intellectuals towards people who they think are inferior. And then you remember that documentary you watched years ago about the way the Nazis murdered people like Harry and Marie, and you can feel the tears welling up. Things must change.
For if culture has any real social role, isn’t it to challenge such prejudices in the most fundamental way imaginable? Welcoming Harry and Marie and giving them a place is the very least you can do.
It might even help you satisfy the Finance and Audit Committee. Who knows?
Stephen Unwin was the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Rose Theatre, Kingston (2008-2013), having spent 15 years as Director of English Touring Theatre (1993-2008). He is the father of a young man with profound learning disabilities and is Chairman of KIDS, a charity providing services to a range of disabled children, young people and their families.


Most Romanians do not agree with the military intervention in Libya and 40% think that Romania could be affected by the recent events in this country.However, Romanians do not know Romania’s official standpoint concerning the events in Libya.
According to the survey conducted by Institutul Român pentru Evaluare şi Strategie – IRES (The Romanian Institute for Assessment and Strategy), included in the program „Public Agenda”, 90% of the respondents declare to have heard about the events currently taking place in Libya and 68% of them admit to not being up to date on the military intervention in this country.
The control over oil reserves (51%) and the protection of the civilians from the Libyan army’s attacks (42%) are identified as the main reasons for the international military forces’ intervention in Libya.
40% of the interviewees think that Romania could be affected by the current events in Libya. In this context, 66% of the respondents think that Romania should abstain from expressing an official standpoint concerning the military intervention in this country. Moreover, the study indicates the fact that Romania’s official standpoint in this matter is not known by 57% of its citizens. Out of the remaining 41% (excluding non-responses) who say that they know what Romania’s standpoint is, 65% say that this standpoint is unclear, while 23% think that Romania supports the military intervention and 10% think that it is opposed to it.
When asked about Romania’s decision to wait for the NATO decision before taking an official position concerning the conflict in Libya, 65% have a good or very good opinion concerning this attitude, while 26% tend to evaluate it negatively.
Concerning Russia and China’s attitudes regarding the military intervention in Libya, opinions differ among the respondents: 41% think that the two countries’ critiques are not justified, while 42% think the opposite.
73% of the participants in the IRES survey think that Germany’s attitude of abstaining at the Security Council vote concerning the military intervention in Libya is right, while only 16% have an opposite opinion.
84% of the respondents use the television to get informed concerning the evolution of events in Libya. The second source of information used is the internet (by 7%).
When it comes to information about the evolution of events in Libya, 32% of the interviewees prefer to watch PRO TV, 29% watch Realitatea TV, while 18% watch Antena 3. The three networks are followed by TVR and Antena 1, which are each watched by 7% of the respondents.
74% of the respondents believe that the media presented the conflict in Libya objectively. The IRES survey was conducted nationally, using a sample of 1118 respondents, using the CATI method of administering questionnaires.
For more information, you are invited to view the research report.
Enjoy your reading!
Institutul Român pentru Evaluare și Strategie – IRES
(The Romanian Institute for Assessment and Strategy)


The Annual Dinner of Chester Motor Club was held on September 21st 2017 in the Long Room, Eaton Estate, Ecccleston, A good night was had by all who attended , despite the interruption of the fire alarm which caused an evacuation during the dinner, This was the first time that the fire alarm had activated during an event, and the Staff at Eaton Estate where very complimentary about the way the attendees evacuated, Robin Parker (Chairman) would like to express his thanks to the team of Richard Jones, Nick Venables, Geoff Ingram, Steve Walker and Matthew Jones without whom the event would not have happened
Dinner Report (Edmund Waterhouse)
The Chester Motor Club held its annual reception and dinner on 21 September 2017. Once again members and their guests were indebted to His Grace the Duke of Westminster for his hospitality at Eaton Park, where we were made to feel most welcome.
We gathered on a dry but slightly chilly evening. As we made our way through the courtyard to the Long Room we were offered a glass of champagne or orange juice. With glasses charged, several of us were distracted by the armoured car whose machine gun was aimed only a little above our heads. One of the company was seen entering the car – no mean feat for a pensioner – but failed to cause either the gun or the engine to fire. Even in repose the beautiful Rolls Royce engine drew much admiration.
Progress was further held up by the Delage standing next to the armoured car. An engine and chassis dating from 1924 had been mated to a coachbuilt body some 60 years older (possibly more), providing enclosed seating for six or more people behind the driver. Both vehicles were in superb well-maintained condition.
Many of the ladies, perhaps slightly less enthralled by the charms of these vehicles, had already found their way to the warmth of the Long Room. From there members and their guests progressed into the Wolf Room where our tables awaited us, already adorned with a variety of delightful wines generously provided by Dean Butler, Robin Parker and Nick Venables. The room was further adorned by the flowers provided by Margaret Measures.
The grace was said and Stephen Walker proposed the Loyal Toast. Table by table we were invited to load our plates from the excellent array of dishes laid out by the caterers. Enjoyment of the meal was however interrupted by the sound of the fire alarm. Having already been informed that no fire drill was planned, we understood that we needed to leave the room promptly. The large doors of the Wolf Room were swiftly opened and all left in prompt and orderly fashion, moving to the collecting point where a roll call was begun. News of a false alarm came swiftly and the company returned to their dining tables.
Nothing sharpens the appetite more than to be separated in mid-forkful from one’s meal. Accordingly, once reunited with our plates, the buzz of conversation was quietened while we all savoured the delights of the table. This took a little time.
The Toast Master, Richard Jones, then called us to order as he invited Dean Butler, the Club’s Vice President, to propose a toast to the guests, a service which he performed handsomely. He was followed to the microphone by Dr Craig Horner, Senior Lecturer of Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Horner spoke engagingly about his research into early cycling and motoring in the UK and in particular summarised the life of Selwyn Francis Edge, former cycling and motoring champion. Born in Australia in 1868, Edge is now perhaps best known for winning the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup in a Napier. Edge and Napier had become friends through their shared love of cycling and carried their friendship through into motor car manufacture. Edge sold his business to Napier in 1912 on condition that he (Edge) did not involve himself in motor car manufacture for seven years. After that time, Edge took a controlling interest in AC cars and was on the boards of other car companies.
Replying to Dr Horner, local boy Charlie Williams described his experiences as a motor bike racer over his long and distinguished career. His accounts of the Isle of Man TT races vividly conveyed the excitement of racing – for example, when finding the one line through a corner which could be taken at full throttle. The frustrations of sponsorship were also well covered: missing his position at the start of a TT race because of travel difficulties. We felt we were with him on that journey from Italy.
Finally, Rachel Ingram spoke from the heart about the work of the St Rocco’s Hospice which has provided dignified care for so many people over the years including our own Peter Evans, who died there. Last year’s charity collection raised nearly £700 for the Hospice.
The announcement that the table collections for this year’s charity, Cancer Research UK, exceeded £700 earned a round of applause.
As we said our farewells we reflected again on a delightful evening spent in the company of good friends, and were conscious again of our gratitude to His Grace the Duke for hosting our annual dinner. Already we look forward to the next – on 27 September 2018.
Planning is going ahead for a scatter rally to be held date to be confirmed, covering map 117 only, further details to be confirmed, but planning to start and finish at a local hostelry
Chester Motor Club has an experienced rally timing crew, running all rally timing controls for stage and classic events and are being invited to provide this service at more events each year, If you want to join the team please let Richard Jones know, Full training provided with an experienced crew , watch this space for further information
NEW WEB SITE
The Chester Motor Club web site www.chestermotorclub.co.uk is currently undergoing total rewrite using new software and new content, hopefully the new site will launch in the near future, any content photographs etc welcomed, please sent to Richard Jones
Click here to download the full newsletter.


Jianying Zha to Present at Global Speaker Series on November 16
Jianying Zha, a Chinese-American journalist and non-fiction writer, is the second Global Speaker of the series and will give a presentation on November 16, 2016, entitled, "An Insider's View of China's Current Sociopolitical Landscape."
Zha is the author of two nonfiction books in English, “Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China” and “China Pop: How Soap Operas, Tabloids, and Bestsellers Are Transforming a Culture,” and five books of fiction and nonfiction in Chinese. “Tide Players” first appeared as a series of essays in The New Yorker and was chosen as one of the best books of 2011 by The Economist.
Born and raised in Beijing, Zha was educated in China and later in the United States. She has received degrees from Peking University, University of South Carolina and Columbia University.
The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in non-fiction, she is also a regular commentator on current events on Chinese television and has worked for the India China Institute at The New School in New York. Her work has appeared widely in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Dushu, and Wanxiang.


Dreaming Big: A Reflection on the 2024 NEA Summit
Last week, CRNY Executive Director Sarah Calderon and I participated in a first-of-its-kind national convening hosted by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The event, “Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities,” brought together leaders from across sectors including government officials and policymakers, artists and arts advocates, academics, philanthropic and community leaders, and the public via livestream.
It was exciting not only to get the chance to showcase CRNY’s Artist Employment Program (AEP) to these audiences, but also to witness the deep integration—and celebration—of arts and culture across federal agencies. From U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy to the U.S Department of Labor’s Chief Diversity and Equity Officer Alaysia Black Hackett, our nation’s top leaders and policymakers shared powerful testimony and understanding of the importance of artists to our health, wellbeing, economy, and democracy. Citing President Biden’s description of artists at the 2023 National Medal of Arts ceremony, NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson said, “I can’t think of an area of policy or practice that wouldn’t benefit from ‘truth tellers, bridge builders, and change seekers.’ We need arts and humanities more than ever.”
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy went on to describe the importance of artists to healing, and to mitigating the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that plagues our country. “We don’t need medical and nursing degrees to be healers… we can all be part of creating a more connected world,” he said. The CRNY team has seen firsthand how AEP artists are healing communities across New York State, addressing issues like climate change, Indigenous sovereignty, discrimination, gentrification, and more.
Dozens of artists contributed to the convening as performers, panelists, and audience members.When asked what would most support her work, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, multidisciplinary artist, educator, and member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities responded: “Please pay us fairly and help us sustain our practices. Invest in our humanity and our lives and our artistry, not just in our outputs. That would really open up a lot of possibilities so we don’t have to choose between our heart work, our community work, and what pays the bills.”
On a personal note, I was particularly thrilled to celebrate the announcement made by Radhika Fox, Assistant Administrator, Office of Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In collaboration with the NEA, the EPA is launching the first federal artist-in-residence program in six historically important watersheds to “boost engagement, awareness and participation in critical water challenges ranging from aging infrastructure to climate impacts like flooding and storm surge to investment in safe drinking water.”
Fox shared that her deep commitment to the arts traces back to a partnership between the U.S. Water Alliance and ArtPlace America, where she and I collaborated with artists and environmental leaders across the country to articulate the roles that artists can play in moving the needle on climate and water justice. To have her spread those ideas to the highest levels of government sets the bar not only for other federal agencies, but for state and local governments to follow. What if Governor Hochul’s Arts Pluribus Unum initiative included artists working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation?
NEA Chair Jackson urged us last week “to take this moment to dream. To suspend what we’re used to, what’s standard, what’s typical, and to stand in the space of possibility. What if we included arts and humanities in all policies and programs intended to help us deliver on the promise of our nation?” The convening affirmed how the arts can fuel our democracy and create equitable outcomes for our communities in New York and across the country—and perhaps most importantly, that we should dream big.
Click here to watch the archived webcast of the NEA event, “Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities.”


In an article in TES, “Schools’ best hope lies in real freedom”, Dale Bassett, research director at the Reform think-tank, argues that “The end of state control would give rise to a self-improving system”.
“As the evidence shows, giving schools greater autonomy can boost pupils’ results.”
The key word here is “can“. In his recent evidence to the Commons Education Select Committee, Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, a former academy head, indicated that academies are not the be-all and end-all some perform well, others less so. He also raised the interesting question of who should be responsible for failing academies.
Ofsted has also concluded that teaching in many small independent schools is rarely better than “competent”. In its annual report published in November, it said that lessons were not good enough in a third of fee-paying schools it inspected and only seven per cent of teaching was regularly outstanding.
“Successive governments have responded to this by introducing policies that promote independence, from grant-maintained schools to academies. Under the coalition, more schools have been given more freedoms than ever before.
“Yet despite acknowledging the benefits of autonomy, governments have insisted on tempering schools’ freedoms with national prescription, making it hard for academies to use their flexibilities.”
This is an interesting point. In “Are schools being forced to be free?“, we point out that:
The whole concept of “freedom” has entangled government thinking, causing it to tie itself in knots with various doublethink policies. It seems that some ‘free schools’ will be more ‘free’ than others. As Steve Richards pointed out in The Independent:
“The schools are not ‘free’ because they cannot be if a government has a sense of society, as this one claims to do. The activities of one school are bound to impact on another and to some extent on the wider community too. Not surprisingly therefore, free schools are accountable to the centre. Here are some of the constraints outlined on the Department of Education website. Groups running free schools cannot make a profit. They will be subject to the same Ofsted inspections as all state schools and will be expected to maintain the same rigorous standards. The admissions arrangements must be fair and transparent. Free schools are expected to be open to pupils of all abilities from the area and cannot be academically selective.”
Voice has said many times that changing the way schools are organised and governed is not a guarantee of success or better education, and the mixed results from the academies established so far supports this.
Voice has also challenged to notion that school improvement should depend on competition.
“The continued existence of national pay and conditions creates difficulties for schools who wish to vary their staff’s salaries.”
Voice has always supported the concept of national pay and conditions for teachers in maintained schools. We believe that local, regional or school-based pay and conditions for teachers in state schools would be harmful and divisive for the profession and undermine equal pay. Large variations between areas or schools would cause an imbalance in employment.
There is also the risk of creating a stagnant pool of teachers who stay within the same school or chain because of a localised/parochialised pay/pensions system and are unable to refresh and renew as is the case in Scotland.
National pay and conditions are a benchmark for both employers and employees. In the current economic climate, it is unlikely that many state-funded schools will be able to pay considerably more than they do now. Schools that offer less than current national pay and conditions are unlikely to attract many recruits. Individual schools cannot realistically offer their own pension schemes, as pension schemes need large numbers of people to contribute over time to create the funds necessary to pay their pensioners. Schools offering to contribute to individuals’ own pension plans are, again, not likely to attract many high quality job applicants.
As The Economist points out:
“Dale Bassett of Reform, a think-tank that generally supports the government’s education reforms, points out that many schools may have quit local-authority control not because they seek the freedom to innovate in the classroom but to get more money. Schools that control their own budgets receive extra cash to commission services that the local authority used to provide. Few have departed much from the national curriculum or changed the length of the school day.”
This analysis of schools’ motivation and behaviour seems to be correct. There is evidence that the academy programme is draining resources from other schools.
In previous posts on academies, Voice has expressed its concern about the long-term provision of support that was previously provided by local authorities to pupils with special needs and emotional and behavioural problems and those excluded from school, and about how school transport and psychology, cultural and sports services will be affected.
Early attempts to accelerate the academies programme smacked of desperation as a response to lack of interest. At first it was “outstanding schools” that could apply for academy status, then “struggling schools” could become “sponsored academies”, then “good schools with outstanding features” were eligible to apply, followed by primaries and secondaries able to team up with a school classed as outstanding by Ofsted. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools Lord Hill even wrote to governors of outstanding schools in attempt to cajole them to take up academy status, followed by pleas to Church of England schools.
If academy status is so wonderful, why does the Government have to work so hard to sell the idea to schools?
Rates of conversion were also accompanied by much use of the spin doctors’ art.
“Ofsted’s framework discourages academies from deviating from the national curriculum for fear of falling foul of inspectors.”
Voice has long maintained that the whole inspection process should be far more supportive and advice-driven and far less judgemental.
How do we allow teachers to be creative and inspirational in a politically-enforced regime that encourages teaching to the test and ticking targets?
As Graham Stuart MP, at a House of Commons Education Committee session with the Education Secretary, pointed out, it is “naÃ¯ve” to believe that schools are not incentivised to follow the “framework” forced on them by the Government, as a “driver of behaviour”, citing an example of a school that had abandoned a popular and successful history & geography course in order to meet the constraints of the narrow and pointless EBacc.
Ofsted has been heavily criticised over the years for its methods and practice by everyone from educationalists to MPs and Plymouth’s Local Safeguarding Children Board. It has even been described as ‘not fit for purpose’.
It does suffer from a tediously repetitive habit of pandering to the Government and the media by being negative, instead of accentuating the many positives in education. This approach creates the impression of a culture of failure and gives a negative impression to parents. Voice General Secretary Philip Parkin has commented before that “Ofsted has become too broad and unwieldy and has lost its focus.”
Stephen Twigg’s idea of an Office for Educational Improvement is certainly worthy of very serious consideration if it could help to re-establish the trust and confidence between teachers and politicians that has been lost because of the confrontational and morale-sapping style adopted by Ofsted and the current Secretary of State for Education.
“This is a problem because central prescription doesn’t work. The mere existence of centrally set rules, regulations and guidance takes responsibility for the quality of what schools do away from the schools themselves and gives it to the state. If pupils leave ill-equipped for work or university, it’s the fault of the exam system or the national curriculum. If teachers underperform, blame the Department for Education’s training plan and teacher standards. If a school is failing, it’s Ofsted’s job to step in and sort it out.
“Is there an alternative to a nationally guided system? How about a state school system without the state? School autonomy implies and requires school responsibility. In the current system, responsibility and accountability lie with the state. How about giving responsibility for the quality of education to schools and teachers and the real lever of accountability choice to parents?”
Voice favours taking politics out of education as much as possible.
In the post “Time to take party politics out of education”, we floated the idea (for discussion and not current Voice policy) of:
“politicians (DfE and BIS) handing over to an independent Board of Education, a bit like the Bank of England an independent public organisation with independence in setting policy? Responsible for policy and curriculum, the Board’s (elected) members could include the Secretary of State, but also teachers, academics, parents, business leaders, and further & higher education students to give a real insight into what education should be for, what the curriculum should be, and the range and type of qualifications studied not just for the next four or five years but the next decade and beyond ”
Party politics costs education a great deal. What schools need is stability and long-term planning. What they get is chop and change, with politicians desperately falling over themselves, and frequently making mistakes in the process, to make tomorrow’s headlines and their mark before the next general election.
On the one hand, the Government wants schools’ ’success’ to be measured through a test-based accountability regime, conforming to a vision based on a national curriculum and exam results and a ‘Baccalaureate’ of certain subjects, while on the other hand it desires a diverse system of academies and ‘free’ schools that, in theory, have more freedom and do not have to conform to a national curriculum. Although how free free schools actually are is another matter.
As we’ve said before, what’s the point of a national curriculum if academies don’t have to follow it? Or is the fact that schools have been reluctant to depart from it an indication that it is necessary, after all? The Government wants schools to have “greater freedom over the curriculum” but do they want it?
Voice has long maintained that school league tables have always been a crude indicator of a school’s performance. Statistics don’t tell us about the circumstances affecting individual schools, such as pupil intake, social and community issues, the age of the buildings and their impact on running costs, staff recruitment issues and so forth. Pete Henshaw, Editor of SecEd, is right to describe the publication of school league tables in England as “the annual circus”.
The Welsh have tried an alternative model banding but this attempt at a system that was intentionally “not about labelling, naming or shaming schools, or creating a league table”, according to Minister Leighton Andrews, has been seriously undermined by the league-table obsessed BBC Wales and its ‘revelation’ of schools’ actual “scores” and which had the “best” and “worst”. In other words, where the prescriptive state model of accountability is removed or modified, it is re-imposed by the media.
“The coalition is moving in this direction. More schools are getting academy freedoms. Chains and federations, as well as new initiatives like Teaching Schools, are putting more responsibility and accountability in the hands of schools. The publication of more data is improving accountability. Yet the national framework governing the operation of the school system persists.
“What would real freedom look like? It would involve a radical change to where responsibilities lie in the education system, with government no longer determining what schools do and how they do it. This would mean the end of government dictating the size, shape and pay of the teaching workforce. The end of government setting the curriculum and the number, frequency, content and structure of exams. The end of inspections, targets and floor standards. An end to allocating places and decreeing which schools should be built where and who can go to them. No more “strategic” commissioning by local authorities, which has succeeded only in ensuring a shortage of good schools “
“The challenge is to spread this activity from the few pioneers throughout the whole system. Ultimately, the school system responds to incentives, so the incentives must exist in the system to make schools seek support, engage in networks and collaborate to improve the quality of what they do. The driver of genuine school choice is needed to make it in every school’s interest to work in this way. Whether it happens depends on whether government is willing to give parents the power to demand it.”
It is true that the assessment system does need to be reformed, with fewer exams and tests and greater use of ongoing teacher assessment, a greater range and type of subjects on offer to inspire pupils, parity between vocational and academic and an end to the constraints of the narrow and pointless EBacc.
The current system of exam-based ‘accountability’ encourages teaching to the test rather than the teaching of a broad and balanced education. It is for the benefit of the government, rather than for providing information for parents and taxpayers, and teachers’ professional judgment would provide a better and more cost-effective measure of pupils’ progress.
However, where is the evidence that “’strategic’ commissioning by local authorities”, has “succeeded only in ensuring a shortage of good schools”?
As Voice’s John Till pointed out in his “History for heads” article for SecEd:
“Greater freedom is said to be what is on offer, but freedom from what and freedom to do what? Freedom, it seems, from local authority ‘guidance and interference’ . Really? What is there left for local authorities to control, even if they were so minded? Delegated budgets are protected, so the only money retained is for support services for special needs, transport and such corporate provision as school music and library services and outdoor education centres. Are these what determine the character of a school? Or is it local authority responsibility for providing school places, and removing them, and for admissions which is really resented?
“And what do these headteachers wish to do with the greater freedom they advocate? Introduce their own, more flexible curriculum, it seems, and have a greater choice of examinations. How ironic that escape from the rigidities of a National Curriculum imposed by central government should have to be by abandoning the partnership with local government.
“And, of course, there is the attraction of more money that bit of the schools’ budget retained by local authorities. But what happens then to the support services and those whose need for them is greatest?
“Or is it, despite assurances to the contrary, admissions that are the prize control over who can enter and remain in a school? Is it this that brings some heads and politicians together the right to decide who can be admitted and, by doing so, appease those who wish to keep out the ‘wrong’ kind of children?
“To whom will heads be accountable for these new freedoms? Governors? They are likely to be at one with the headteacher. Parents? Which parents? And to whom are governors and parents accountable? What if there are concerns in the communities these schools are meant to serve?
“Whatever the reasoning, the proposals do nothing to promote a fairer and more equal society. What they will lead to is an enhanced pecking order locally which will exacerbate social divisions and tensions. They are an encouragement to self-interest, status seeking and indifference to those less well-placed.
“But, as so often, there is a warning in history. In the days when schools were ‘controlled’ by LEAs, heads had, what seems in retrospect, a remarkable amount of freedom. They could determine what was taught, how it was taught and by whom it was taught. They could ‘expel’ pupils without facing elaborate appeals procedures and decide which examinations should be taken. In short, before 1988, they controlled the essential character of a school.
“And what happened? By the mid 1970s concerns about schools were such that they prompted the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, to question what was going on and whether this ’secret garden’ should remain beyond public scrutiny and accountability. So, in time, we had the Education Reform Act and with it, not a clarification of LEA responsibilities, but all the apparatus and impositions of central government about which heads now complain.
“But, of course, headteachers and most politicians are too young to remember this a case, perhaps, for including a course on contemporary history for those aspiring to ‘headship’.”
The rush to create academies, and the unplanned, haphazard free schools, risks creating a fragmented education system. Such a two-tier education system risks plunging our education system into chaos, as does the scrapping of planning permission for free schools.
Some advocates of free schools see them as an escape route for parents to “deliver the outcomes they want”, away from the damaging presence of those who do not share the same aspirations, but that does not address the issues of those Joe Nutt in describes in The TES.
Yes, schools and individual teachers can and do ‘make a difference’ but the attitude of certain pupils and their parents can have a destructive effect on those pupils’ welfare and learning and have a negative impact on those of other pupils and their school. How we provide for these young people is arguably the most serious challenge facing our education system.
“The inevitable objection is: ‘If government doesn’t do these things, who will?” In fact, some trailblazing schools and headteachers are already showing what is possible. These schools are networking and collaborating on an unprecedented scale sharing best practice, working together on teacher development and assessing one another’s performance. This points the way to the real prize: a genuinely self-led, self-improving school system in which schools replace government activity in these areas themselves. This kind of inter-school support will become increasingly important in breaching the limits of what can be achieved through government prescription.
“These ideas would take teaching as a profession to a new level. Rather than Ofsted determining that a school is under-performing, its peers will identify areas for improvement. Rather than Whitehall laying out minimum standards for teachers, clusters of schools will decide for themselves what is important and work to ensure that their teachers meet those goals. Rather than the local authority imposing support for struggling headteachers, the best heads in their network will help them to address their weaknesses.”
What is the difference between a “local authority imposing support for struggling headteachers” and “the best heads in their network will help them to address their weaknesses”? Why is the LA’s support the pejorative “imposing” while the “best heads’” support is “helping them to address their weaknesses”?
“…many schools may have quit local-authority control not because they seek the freedom to innovate in the classroom but to get more money”.
Sir Michael Wilshaw has floated the idea of local “commissioners” to decide whether to close or merge academies, or replace head teachers or governing bodies where standards were unacceptably low. Although based on American commissioners, they would be accountable to central government rather than to city mayors and local councils as they are in the US.
It seems that local authorities’ roles and responsibilities are being dismantled by central government policy to be replaced because, it is then discovered that they are necessary after all and someone has to undertake them by either the Secretary of State and is agents directly (the Gove model), or by alternative individuals accountable either to central government (the Wilshaw model) or to small local communes (the Bassett model).
Why not allow local authorities to continue “strategic commissioning” and to have a role in refreshing and renewing the supply of staff as they do in Scotland?
Who would regulate the profession in the Bassett model? The GTCE was far from popular but it did have an important function and its demise raises concerns north of the border, too.
In the end, state-funded schools must have some form of democratic accountability to those who pay for and use it taxpayers and parents. Without it, and with the demise of democratically elected and accountable local authorities, it seems there will either be central control, vested in the person of the Secretary of State, overseeing a supposedly ‘free’ system that is often anything but, or the anarchy of the Bassett model the theoretically attractive anarchy of stability and improvement resulting from freedom from government control that would end in chaos and the imposition of outside control the fate of the Þjóðveldið, the medieval Icelandic Commonwealth.
Perhaps the answer lies in another Scandinavian country, Finland, where:
“National testing, school ranking lists and inspection systems do not exist education is appreciated and there is a broad political consensus on education policy”. Where “the education system is flexible and the administration based on the principal of ‘Centralised steering local implementation’. Steering is conducted through legislation and norms, core curricula, government planning and information steering. Municipalities are responsible for the provision of education and the implementation. Schools and teachers enjoy large autonomy.”
Your comments would be welcome .


Section 10(22B) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, exempts the income of a specified news agency from tax. To be eligible for this exemption, the news agency must be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette.
The income of a specified news agency includes income from all sources, such as:
- Subscription fees
- Advertising revenue
- News syndication fees
- Grants from the government or other organizations
- Income from investments
The exemption under Section 10(22B) is available only if the income of the news agency is used for news gathering and dissemination purposes. If the income is used for any other purpose, it will be taxable.
Here are some examples of news agencies that may be eligible for the exemption under Section 10(22B):
- Press Trust of India (PTI)
- United News of India (UNI)
- Asian News International (ANI)
- Associated Press (AP)
Conditions for Exemption:
In order to avail the exemption under Section 10(22B), a specified news agency must fulfill certain conditions. These conditions include:
- The agency must be registered as a company under the Companies Act, 1956.
- The main object of the agency must be the collection and distribution of news.
- The agency must not be engaged in any other business.
- The agency must apply its income and profits solely for the purpose of collection and distribution of news.
- The agency must not distribute any income or profits to its members, shareholders, or contributors.
Examples of Incomes:
Examples of income that is exempt from income tax under Section 10(22B) include:
- Subscription fees received from newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets for the news agency’s services.
- Advertising revenue received for displaying advertisements on the news agency’s website or other platforms.
- Income from investments made by the news agency.
- Income from grants and donations received from the Central Government, State Government, or other institutions for the purpose of collection and distribution of news.
Specified news agencies are required to comply with certain reporting and compliance requirements in order to avail the exemption under Section 10(22B). These requirements include maintaining proper books of accounts, getting the accounts audited by a chartered accountant, and filing the income tax return within the specified due date.
The exemption of income under Section 10(22B) has a positive impact on independent journalism in the country. It provides financial relief to news agencies, enabling them to invest in quality journalism and investigative reporting.
Independent news agencies play a crucial role in a democratic society. They provide unbiased and objective news coverage, holding those in power accountable. By exempting their income, the government recognizes the importance of their work and supports their contribution to the society.
Section 10(22B) of the Income Tax Act is a beneficial provision for specified news agencies. It exempts their income from tax, allowing them to focus on their core activities and contribute to independent journalism. This provision promotes a free and independent press, ensuring the availability of unbiased news coverage in the country.


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Daphne Hellman's life and music were both marked by a blithe disregard for convention, and if anything, she deserves a mention here as much for her story as her music. Born into a healthy banking family, Hellman first took up the harp at the age of 12. Always one for experiments, though, she tried a variety of other interests, including modelling (for the artist Man Ray, among others), acting, and marriage, before returning to it.
Her first marriage,to Harry Bull, then the editor of Town and Country magazine, (which produced her first son, the equally innovative musician Sandy Bull) ended in a splashy divorce in 1941. Hellman's patrician good looks and her marriage in Reno to writer Geoffrey Hellman just hours after the divorce was finalized made for great newspaper fodder. At around the same time, she made her professional musical debut with a concert at Carnegie Hall.
Concert halls would be infrequent venues during her career, though. Instead, she plunged into the New York City nightclub scene, playing hot spots such as Le Ruban Bleu, the Hotel New Yorker, Upstairs at the Downstairs, Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, the Versailles, Le Perroquet, and, for a record thirty-year run, at the Village Gate. But she was just as happy to perform in New York subways, where she could regularly be seen and heard throughout the 1980s, in Sri Lankan hospitals, and at Paris street fairs. "She was just the antisnob, that's what she was," said Art D'Lugoff, owner of the Village Gate. In the midst of the punk revolution, she once played the legendary CBGB's club alongside Mr. Spoons, a tableware percussionist.
Her home was something of a lost-and-found for people. She and Hellman divorced after a decade together, and Hellman filled the void with a variety of dogs, birds, gerbils, and transient geniuses. Mr. Spoons spent a few years there, as did her third husband, Hsio-Wen Shih, a Chinese-American architect and writer, who walked out of the brownstone one day in 1965 and vanished without a trace. Her ability to get along with anyone was astonishing, and one was as likely to find a bum as Norman Mailer or Arthur Schlesinger sitting down with her for tea. She and Richard Johnson, for many years the wind player in her combo, Hellman's Angels, met when she was out roller blading with her dog and it took off after the cat Johnson was walking.
Hellman never let convention keep her from getting where she wanted to go. During the Vietnam War, she traveled to the war-torn country just to see for herself what was going on. "She traveled around with an Instamatic camera and slightly bogus press credentials, which upset the news people to no end," her daughter recalled. Her musical tastes were just as wide-ranging. A typical set from the 1980s might include a Gershwin lullaby, Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," a couple of rock numbers, and her adaptation of Flatt and Scrugg's "Foggy Mountain Breakdown."
Although she gave up playing in the subway in her last years when her pack-a-day smoking habit wore down her stamina and the 85-pound harp proved too heavy to lug up and down the escalator, Hellman was on the go until the end. In the last year of her life, she performed in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, France, and places around New York City that ranged from the Firebird Cafe to the patient's lounge of Mount Hope Hospital.
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Blog What Does Real-Time Marketing Really Mean?
We’ve all seen the tweet from Oreo for the 2013 Super Bowl. Within minutes of the stadium being plunged into darkness due to a power cut, Oreo had capitalised by tweeting a message and accompanying image that was retweeted over 10,000 times in less than an hour. Their quick actions boosted their marketing cred, gaining them coverage in traditional and online media outlets.
There have been many other real-time social media success stories - but outside of social media, real-time marketing is still largely undefined. What does it actually mean for marketers today and how can it help?
What does real-time marketing mean?
Real-time marketing (RTM) is the ability to engage with your customers or fans instantly based on real-time information - like their actions and behavior, changes to your own data or external news or events.
Real-time marketing is instant
According to Econsultancy’s Real-Time Marketing Survey Report, there’s a narrow window for capitalising on real-time behaviour. 80% of businesses think real-time marketing happens within two minutes or less.
Real-time marketing is (mostly) automated
In many cases, humans are just too slow to react quickly at scale. Marketers need to use marketing tools that help them react with minimal delay.
Real-time marketing is targeted
It’s no longer enough to treat your customers as one homogenous mass with the same interests or motivations. Real-time marketing – in fact, your marketing in general - needs to be relevant and timely to every individual customer.
Why is real-time marketing so important right now?
Real-time marketing could be the answer to one of today’s biggest problems – how do businesses reach and engage the always connected consumer? Not only does marketing need to cut through the noise, it needs to connect with the right person at the right time, in the right place, with the right message.
Real-time marketing enables marketers to adapt their messages to a specific context, and the benefits go way beyond just improving brand perception. In fact, there are very real, measurable and positive impacts on revenue and other key metrics.
Econsultancy found that 84% of businesses see a better customer experience as a key benefit of real-time marketing. In turn, better customer experiences lead to increased sales (a key benefit of RTM for 72% of businesses) and loyalty (a key benefit of RTM for 47% of businesses).
Real-time marketing also presents a wider opportunity to rethink customer interactions, to be more personal and relevant, and to engage customers with highly targeted, relevant and timely messages that convert.
How can marketers use real-time marketing successfully?
Econsultancy’s survey found that whilst the majority (71%) of companies employ some element of real-time marketing in their digital and social marketing, 29% of marketers are yet to investigate how it can work for them.
To be successful, marketers need to think about five aspects: the trigger, the audience, the method and the outcome:
Triggers – what data, information or events present opportunities for real-time messages?
- Examples: social media trends; weather forecasts; product stock updates
- Audience – what customer groups, fans or followers can be engaged with certain messages?
- Examples: customers who are waiting for a product to come back into stock; customers in specific locations or regions; customers who are searching for a specific keyword
- Method – what’s the best way to communicate the message?
- Examples: social media, email, SMS, web, PPC
- Outcome – what do you want the message to do?
- Examples: build brand awareness, drive revenue, generate engagement
Your experiences of real-time marketing
Have you used real-time marketing to drive sales or generate buzz? Or maybe you’ve been the recipient of some timely, personalized marketing that caught your interest? Let us know in the comments.