Tag Archives: News

The Boston Marathon

  By BathKnight | April 16, 2013 - 10:16 AM | ,
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News broke yesterday evening in the UK of the Boston Marathon explosion at the finish line and reports have continued this morning providing regular updates into the investigation.

This is utterly devastating and shocking news and I hope the American government can conclude their investigations as soon as possible.

So far, it has been confirmed that there have been three fatalities, including an eight-year-old boy and over 140 people injured. I cannot imagine the level of fear, grief and heartache the loved ones of the runners have been facing these last few hours and my thoughts are with them at this painful time.

Image | BBC News
The shocking images from yesterday’s Boston Marathon.

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The Academy Awards 2013

  By BathKnight | February 25, 2013 - 11:36 AM | , ,
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Last night, well early this morning if you’re in the UK, was the 85th Academy Awards and while I didn’t stay up late to watch, this morning I have been catching up on the news, videos and pictures of the event.

Image | The Guardian

The actors, actresses, directors, producers and production teams all looked incredibly smart and some of the gowns were beautiful and it was a night for history making. Daniel Day-Lewis had won his third Oscar for Best Actor, this time for Spielberg directed biopic Lincoln making him the first person to win Best Actor three times.

Image | The Guardian

Another history maker was Emmanuelle Riva, not only was she celebrating her 86th birthday last night but she is also the oldest nominated actor of all time. She starred in Austrian film Amour which won Best Foreign Language film. Emmanuelle missed out on Best Actress to 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence but only a couple of weeks earlier, she won Best Actress at the BAFTAs and Amour also won Best Foreign Language film there too.

Dame Shirley Bassey also took to the stage to pay homage to the Bond films by performing Gold Finger almost 50 years after it was first recorded and Adele performed Skyfall which won Best Original Score this year.

Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Fantine in Les Miserables, I have adored Anne since she played Andrea in The Devil Wears Prada and she deserved her award as Les Mis is one of my favourite films so far this year!

Other winners included Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, films Argo, Brave and Anna Karenina.

Congratulations to all the winners, and the runners up, I’m sure the after parties and goody-bags made up for a lot!

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Richard Briers Passes Away Aged 79

  By BathKnight | February 18, 2013 - 12:50 PM | ,
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It has been reported that British actor, Richard Briers has passed away aged 79.

Image | Huffington Post

The actor best known for his role in The Good Life was diagnosed with emphysema in 2008 and in 2003 had given up smoking after he had admitted to smoking half a million cigarettes in his lifetime.

As well as The Good Life, Briers had appeared in Monarch of the Glen, Dr Who, Inspector Morse and has also starred in stage productions of Hamlet and provided his voice to animations such as 1978 film Watership Down.

My thoughts are with Richard’s family at this time and I’m sure many of us will remember his work.

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A Breakthrough in Dementia Treatment

  By BathKnight | January 31, 2013 - 9:44 AM | ,
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I was reading the Daily Mail this morning and a certain article had caught my attention. Dementia sufferers may benefit from a ‘promising’ new treatment made from pigs’ brains.
I have previously blogged about dementia, the affects it has on sufferers, their friends, family and carers and I know that it can be a devastating illness which brings a lot of emotional and physical stress.

The new drug – called cerebrolysin – improves concentration, memory processing and mood in patients with a certain kind of dementia known as vascular dementia, which affects up to 200,000 Britons. This is the first time any treatment has been specifically developed for vascular dementia. Cerebrolysin is a drug made from pig brain proteins that has produced some positive results from small vascular dementia trials.

But the new drug is licensed in some countries for dementia, stroke and traumatic brain injury – although not yet here or in the US. Of course, we have health guidelines in the UK and all medicines must be fully tested before they can become available to anyone of us.

Larger trials are currently under way and I really do hope that this is will lead to a breakthrough in research and treatment for dementia as we do not currently have a prevention or cure for these types of illnesses. We may also see a great increase in independent living if these drugs can cure or postpone the symptoms of dementia.

Medical research moves so quickly these days and it is reassuring to know that serious illness is being combated. What are your thoughts on this drug and the research into dementia, do you think it will help elderly people keep their independence?

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BBC Breakfast celebrate 30 years on air

  By BathKnight | January 17, 2013 - 2:05 PM | ,
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Today BBC Breakfast is celebrating 30 years on air making it the longest running national breakfast show in British television history.

I’ve watched Breakfast, or Breakfast Time as it was known in the early days, for many, many years and tuning in to the show has become part of my everyday routine so it’s quite special to see the programme reach its 30th anniversary.

bbc breakfast original line up

Image | Original BBC Breakfast Time Line Up

Today’s special anniversary show looked back on some of Breakfast’s most memorable moments and featured guest appearances from former presenters. I managed to catch an interview with Diana Moran or ‘The Green Goddess’ as she become known in the 80’s when she worked alongside news readers Selina Scott and Nick Ross, before I left for the office this morning.

The fitness guru’s job was to encourage the nation to get up and get active. This relaxed approach to broadcasting was the shows initial structure with presenters sat on the famous red sofa chatting about soft new issues along with reporting hard hitting headline news.

bbc breakfast 2013

Image | BBC Breakfast Team

Since first airing on 17th January 1983 the show has had several re-launches. The red sofa was once replaced with a news desk in the late 80’s when Nicholas Witchell and the late Jill Dando were at the helm of reporting. But it returned in the year 2000 with a more relaxed style of reporting which we see on Breakfast today with Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid.

However, the best thing about BBC Breakfast is the enormous amount of inspiration I get for the Bath-Knight Blog. Breakfast features a wide variety of news story with everything from serious news reports that are gripping the world to more low key, national events that my readers might find interesting or useful.

Happy Birthday BBC Breakfast, here’s to many more years of breakfast broadcasting!

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Food Waste – Half of the world’s food goes to waste

  By BathKnight | January 10, 2013 - 2:20 PM | ,
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Today a new study, ‘Global Food- Waste Not, Want Not’ has been published, revealing that almost half of the world’s food is wasted each year. In the UK alone its thought that three quarters of harvested veg never gets eaten.

As someone who makes a conscious effort to make use of all the products that I purchase, I find it difficult to understand how so much food can go to waste. Especially when so many people are going hungry; food banks are popping up across the UK at an incredibly high rate, proving that hunger is no longer a problem isolated to poor countries.

So why are we wasting so much food? Reports suggest that we as consumers are too fussy. I was shocked to hear that lots of fruit and veg are automatically binned for being the wrong size, shape or colour. Strict sell-by-dates also contribute to enormous household waste along with supermarkets encouraging us to buy more than we need with special offers.

Avoid waste with simple recipes

winter vegetable casserole recipe

The simple answer to reducing food waste seems to be reducing the amount of food we busy and planning how to use ingredients. I always take a look at what I’ve got left from my previous shop before going to the supermarket or grocery stall as it stops doubling up on produce.

It’s also worth remembering that lots of things can be frozen, especially soups and broths which are a great way to use up veggies. So instead of buying excessive amounts of ingredients invest in freezer containers, which you can store meals in then defrost at your convenience.

Lots of people hate the thought of ‘left overs’ so I’m calling this a ‘Savers Winter Vegetable Casserole’ because it saves perfectly good food from going in the bin and saves you money!

Check out Love Food, Hate Waste for more recipe ideas.

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Reg Dean, Britain’s oldest man dies aged 110.

  By BathKnight | January 7, 2013 - 1:17 PM |
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Today it has been reported that Britain’s oldest man, Reg Dean has died aged 110.

Reg was born in November 1902 in Bath-Knight’s hometown of Stoke-On-Trent. However, he later relocated to Derbyshire where he spent much of his adult life and where he passed away surrounded by family and friends.

Reg Dean’s life was quite astonishing as the 110 year old, who was named Britain’s oldest man in June 2010 after the death of Stanley Lucas, lived through two World Wars, 24 British Prime Ministers and even remembered the day that the Titanic sank.

reg dean 110 - daily mail

Image | Daily Mail | Britain’s oldest man, Reg Dean has died aged 100. 

He dedicated much of his life to the church working as a church minister until he retired aged 80. During the Second World War Reg was stationed in Burma where he worked as an Army Chaplin, upon returning home Reg spent 10 year working as a teacher.

In a recent interview Reg said the secret to his longevity was “the love of friends, doing things for joy and not prize, always looking for the best in people and not the worst, having a religion you can trust and becoming a vegetarian”.

However, his family once said that Reg’s old age was down to a potion which he one drank in India, after a local Indian man promised him that the mystery drink would make him live until he was at least 10. A fantastic story that I’m sure Reg told to many people once he became a centenarian.

It has not yet been revealed who will take Reg’s title as Britain’s oldest man. However, I’m interested to see how old that person is and how they live as one of Britain’s oldest people. Do they live in a residential care home like Reg, use mobility aids to help improve their ability to get around or enjoy the simple pleasures of later life?

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Pope Benedict XVI joins Twitter aged 85

  By BathKnight | December 12, 2012 - 1:04 PM |
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Earlier this month an official Twitter account was set up for Pope Benedict XVI and today the Pope, or @Pontifex  as he will be known on Twitter, sent his first ever tweet thanking his ‘Dear Friends’ for their ‘generous response’.

I have to admit that I was quite surprised when I first heard that the Pope was joining the social networking site. However, it’s refreshing to think that the 85 year old, who is the leader of the Catholic Church, is using a social media to connect with a wider audience.

Pope on Twitter

Image | Pope Benedict XVI’s twitter profile from Twitter

The Pope’s tweets, which will be typed by one of his closest aids but in his own words, will discuss topical and religious issues including world events, Church holidays and blessings. However the main purpose of the Pope joining Twitter is to enable his thoughts and feelings to be more widely accessible and to send spiritual messages to catholic followers.

On his first day of tweeting, the Pope (@Pontifex) already has 700,000 followers, which is extraordinary and it’s expected that he will become one of the most high profile Twitter users of all time- incredible considering that the currently top spots belong to pop stars Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.

pope on ipad

Image | The Pope and his aids using social networking site from Time World

When asked about this new venture into the digital world, Pope Benedict XVI described it as a ‘great opportunity’ and the perfect chance to spread faith to a much wider and diverse audience. Many hope that the Pope’s arrival on Twitter will encourage younger people to take interest in religion. However, I’m hopeful that his presence online will encourage more elderly people to join social networking sites too.

Follow Pope Benedict XVI on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@Pontifex

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Coronation Street’s star Bill Tarmey has died aged 71

  By BathKnight | November 9, 2012 - 2:39 PM |
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This afternoon brings the terribly sad news that Bill Tarmey, the actor who played Coronation Street‘s iconic character Jack Duckworth has died aged 71.

Bill first appeared in Coronation Street in 1979 before becoming a regular on the cobbles in 1983, where his relationship with onscreen wife Vera Duckworth, played by Liz Dawn, made the pair one of soap world’s most loveable couples.

bill tarmey

Image : liverpoolecho.co.uk

However, after 30 years on Coronation Street Bill said farewell in November 2010 in an emotional final scene which saw him reunited with Vera; a favourite scene of many Corrie fans including me.  News reports suggest that Bill passed away whilst on holiday with his family in Tenerife earlier this week.

Bill was a superb actor who successfully created a character that was so well loved by the audience. I’m sure that he will be remember with great fondness and missed dearly.

Bill Tarmey 1941-2012

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Barack Obama re-elected as President

  By BathKnight | November 7, 2012 - 11:11 AM |
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Yesterday the people of America took to the polling stations to vote in a presidential election that had proved difficult to predict. The US election campaigns saw both the Democrats and Republicans spend billions of dollars on drumming up support from undecided voters. Many people suggested that they we’re struggling to decide on whom to vote for because the past four years have been incredibly tough economically.

President Obama and the First Family remain in the White House

President Obama and first familyImage : Telegraph.co.uk

However, I woke up this morning to the news that President Barack Obama had successfully been re-elected by the people of America, and there seems to be a great sense of relief from all over the world. David Cameron and other leading British politicians have offered their congratulations to President Obama who today promised the American people that “the best is yet to come”.

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