Stone of Folca
Chris Murphy
Monday, June 4, 2012
1:17 PM
Horse trained by Maidstone’s John Best romps to victory at Epsom Derby Day
A Kent racehorse has become the world’s fastest over five furlongs - with the Queen looking on as she kicked off her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The incredible performance of Stone of Folca, from the original name of Folkestone, saw him take the world record over that distance in front of the Queen.
He is trained by John Best at Detling near Maidstone, who could not be happier, as the horse’s value has just soared.
Anyone with around £400,000 to spare and fancies owning an animal with more horse power than any other can get in touch.
Stone of Folca is owned by people holding 120 shares, which were originally bought for £555 each.
But then the horse won the Investec Specialist Bank Dash during the Epsom Derby Day meeting on Saturday in front of the monarch.
He was a 50-1 long shot, ridden by Luke Morris, but it left the rest of the 20-strong field in his wake win in a time of 53.69 seconds. That is 0.09 seconds faster than Indigenous did 52 years ago using a handheld stopwatch which was wildly inaccurate, especially when hundredths of seconds count.
The £46,000 prize money is now paid out to the shareholders at around £380 per share, almost paying the owners back in one race.
Mr Best said: “We do sell horses from here when they run well so we make a profit. I would say this horse is now worth something between £300,000 and £400,000. Many go to Hong Kong.”
The Epsom course is slightly downhill, so the record is unlikely to be broken at any other track, and Stone of Folca just happened to be on his best form that day.
Mr Best said: “He is four this year. He was a fine two-year-old, then had last year whichg wasn’t too great, and now this.
“And he did it from stall two. At Epsom no one wins from under stall nine out of the 20 or so. A high stall number is vital to win. So if Stone of Folca had one of the higher stalls, he would have shattered all the records.
“I’ve always known he was quick but sometimes he can be very hard to handle. This time though every thing went like a dream.
“I believe not only was it the first time the race has been won from a stall lower than nine, but also the fastest time recorded electronically for any five furlong race. We will almost certainly take our chances at Royal Ascot, in June although that will be a huge step up.”
Source: www.kentnews.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Britain's greatest badminton player Nathan Robertson retires after missing selection for the Games - Daily Telegraph
But he had no qualms in admitting that Adcock and Bankier had simply been the best mixed doubles pair over the last 12 months.
“For neutral fans, it has been entertaining to see how the rivalry played out,” he said. “We had expectations going into qualifying but we didn’t just miss out in the end, we missed out by a long way.
“They fully deserved their place and I have already offered my support to the players and coaches in the build-up to the Games.”
Adrian Christy, Badminton England’s chief executive, said: “It is a sad day for the sport as he is arguably our greatest ever player, a one-off, super-talented individual.
“He is an infectious character and a brilliant role model. Our pool of talented players now need to aspire to his heights.”
Keeping in line with Christy’s view that former players should be rewarded for their services, Robertson is now likely to take up an ambassadorial role within the sport.
Robertson competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 before winning silver with long-time partner Gail Emms at the Athens Games in 2004.
Two years later, the pair won Commonwealth gold in Melbourne and then the world title in Madrid. He forged a partnership with Wallwork following Emms’ retirement at the last Olympics in Beijing.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Diamond Jubilee: Hundreds of Kent beacons to be lit - BBC News
Nearly 200 beacons have been lit across Kent as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
More than 4,000 beacons were lit across the Commonwealth and beacons around the UK were set off on landmarks and hills.
Kent saw more beacons lit than any other county, with 182 applications made to the event organisers.
The South Foreland Lighthouse on the Kent coast was lit for first time in over 20 years as part of the event.
'Community spirit'The National Trust, which owns the lighthouse, said it would be the largest and brightest of the beacons, with its beam able to reach almost 40 miles.
In Gravesend, members of the Windmill Hill Residents Association have prepared a beacon which overlooks the Thames Estuary.
Beacons have been lit on Windmill Hill throughout history when they were first used to warn of the approach of invading forces coming up the Thames.
The Jubilee beacon was originally erected in 1988 for celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and is lit by residents every New Year's Eve.
David Draper, of Windmill Hill Residents Association said: "We've got a great community spirit on the hill.
"I have had loads of people phoning me up saying 'we want to give you a hand' even though it's raining."
See all the latest Diamond Jubilee news and features at bbc.co.uk/diamondjubilee
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
London loses in sale of app firm - lfpress.com
Toronto will reap the rewards of a promising hi-tech business developed in London.
And the sale of the company called Carbyn is a warning that the city needs to build a stronger tech community or it will lose more companies, a startup expert says.
Carbyn is working on cloud-based software for apps carried on mobile devices.
Owner Jaafer Haidar sold Carbyn to Synacor of Buffalo for $1.1 million. Synacor is shifting the core function of the business to a Carbyn office in Toronto. Carbyn’s London office that employs eight people will remain open.
Carbyn has had difficulty finding employees in London.
“We have not seen a lot of quality resumes here in London,” Haidar said. “It pains me to say it, but we may not be able to do it here.”
But Haidar said he plans to stay in London and invest the proceeds from the sale in new software he’s developing.
For technology observers, the loss of Carbyn is a blow, but the most important thing is that Haidar, forging a reputation as one of London’s most innovative software executives, is staying.
“It’s a concern, but with Jaafer the thrill is in the chase and in building. The most important thing is we still have a person like Jaafer here,” said John Pollock, director of BizInc, the technology incubator at Western University.
Jaafer also sold digital scrapbooking software to the craft company Michael’s for $1.5 million in 2010.
norman.debono@sunmedia.ca
Source: www.lfpress.com
London Symphony to pretend to play for Olympics ceremony - Los Angeles Times
Reports from Britain state that the orchestra will mimic playing to prerecorded music due to concerns about the weather and the shape of the performing venue -- a large, oval-shaped arena whose scale would apparently make a live-music performance tricky.
The ceremony, which is set to take place at the new Olympic Stadium, is being overseen by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, who serves as artistic director for the massive event.
The London Symphony has reportedly recorded the music that is scheduled to be played during the July 27 ceremony. The Daily Mail reports that Boyle wanted the orchestra to perform live, but that he was overruled by the organizing committee for the Games.
When viewers around the world tune in for the ceremony, they can expect to see the conductor and musicians from the renowned orchestra going through the motions while a soundtrack plays.
This wouldn't be the first time that the mimicking of live music was used at an Olympics ceremony. In 2008, a mini-controversy developed during the Beijing Games when it was revealed that a 9-year-old singer lip-synced to the voice of another young girl whom officials had deemed less telegenic.
Similarly, at President Obama's inauguration, the musical performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill played, unamplified, to a recording. The decision to use a recording was made over fears that the cold weather that day could damage the instruments.
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Britain's Globe caught in conflict over Israeli theater company
Source: www.latimes.com
Amber Kent, Congress Heights stabbing victim, dies - ABC 27
The suspect in the killing of Amber Kent, who was stabbed several times and killed in Congress Heights Monday morning, has been arrested, ABC 7 has learned.
The suspect is identified as 31-year-old Cydrisse Alvin.
MPD spokesperson Tisha Gant says the stabbing happened in the 3400 block of 13th Place SE just after 9 a.m. Police found Kent, who had been stabbed repeatedly, unconscious on the scene. She later died at a local hospital.
ABC7’s cameras were there when Alvin, suspected of killing her best friend just hours before, showed up at Malcolm X Elementary Monday afternoon while on the run from police.
Alvin's daughter attends the school and police were ready in case she showed up. Alvin's own mother was desperate after the arrest and learning her granddaughter would be placed in protective custody.
Sources suspect Alvin was under the influence of PCP and was mad that Kent wanted to end their friendship.
Sadly, Kent's own 6-year-old daughter was home when, police say, Alvin stabbed Kent.
The two women lived across the hall from each other on the 3rd floor.
After Kent died at the hospital, the situation turned chaotic at the apartment building when neighbors and family say Kent's boyfriend attacked the father of Alvin's daughter.
While Kent's family comes together to grieve, their only piece of comfort is that the woman suspected of killing her is behind bars.
Source: www.wjla.com
Surviving Divorce: Three Essential Steps to Start Your Path - Patch
Going through divorce and surviving divorce are a true challenge.
When we live through divorce, we begin to experience a multitude of emotions.
But surviving divorce is an action… It is a proactive step to deal with these turbulent emotions, the legal challenges and our day-to-day lives that are in deep transition.
Surviving means putting the pieces together that will start to shape our progress into the future. Surviving is the start of reflection.
Divorce is a confusing and a difficult time. You may be asking yourself, "Where do I begin?" Surviving divorce involves a Movement of Choice. A choice to take small steps to move into your future and not to dwell on the past, the decision to live your best life!
The decision can seem insurmountable, even daunting. Here are 3 Steps that will help guide you:
1. Begin to Get to Know YOU: Often when we are in a relationship we lose ourselves to the other. In order to begin to get to know YOU, start by trying new things, experiencing what you may have put on hold. Begin relearning what makes you happy. Then you begin to understand what you like and dislike. Give yourself the freedom to explore new things that will begin to bring you joy in your life.
2. Look Inward: Take the time to look inward and begin to understand yourself. Divorce is a huge change and is scary. Devote time to better understand what is important to you. Often we are so busy living life we forget to think about what does give us pleasure. Review and begin to discard any unwanted habits and embrace your new life.
3. It’s Okay to Grieve, But Then It's Time to Let Go: Allow yourself to grieve the loss and demise of your relationship. Look at treasured photos and listen to "your" songs; give yourself the right to grieve the loss. Give yourself a set grieving period and resolve to move forward. Commit to letting go of the negative thoughts and begin to look toward your future, a brighter day.
While going through these steps remember your progress is personal. This chapter in your life is difficult, and surviving divorce takes time and a willingness to move forward. You can do it! My Divorce Path and My Friends Connect, Inc. are right here with you helping you to find your new future.
Cece Shatz,
My Divorce Path, http://www.mydivorcepath.com
Radio Host of Going Solo – Life After Divorce, http://rhinoonair.com
My Friends Connect, Inc.
http://www.meetup.com/tampadivorcesupportsocial
http://www.meetup.com/Friends-Connect-Tampa-Bay-Area
http://www.meetup.com/SingleParents4DatingTampaBay
http://www.meetup.com/Relationship-Seeking-Middle-Aged-Singles-Tampa
Source: pinellasbeaches.patch.com
London exhibit in DC opened tonight, timed to Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Olympics - Examiner
The whole world is watching London during Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, and soon the Olympics, so it's a perfect time to see "Open City: London, 1500-1700", which opened tonight at Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library.
The free exhibit foreshadows the current fab four-day Diamond Jubilee in many ways, including centuries-old depictions and descriptions of St. Paul's Cathedral, where Queen Elizabeth will conclude her Diamond Jubilee celebrations on June 5.
Some comparisons can be made with the 1547 coronation of 9-year-old King Edward VI, who rode under a "golden canopy, dressed in silver and white velvet, amply garnished with rubies, diamonds, and pearls" to St. Paul's -- where "an acrobat slid down a rope anchored to the steeple...and performed tumbling exercises..."
An itemized bill from Great Britain's Office of the Revels shows charges for 46 tailors, some working "daies" and "nyghtes", to make elaborate garments for that royal event 465 years ago.
"We could have done this exhibition at any time, but we knew people would be paying particular attention to London this summer, and we wanted to show them 'our' London," said exhibition curator Kathleen Lynch, executive director of the Folger Institute.
"Their" London during the 200 year period between 1500 and 1700 experienced "explosive growth from a small, medieval city of 50,000 people, all within the city walls, to almost 500,000 people, one-quarter outside the walls," Lynch said in a walk-through today. She curated the show with Elizabeth (Betsy) Walsh, the Folger's head of reader services.
The exhibit traces the dramatic political, religious, and economic changes that reshaped London, from the dissolution of the monasteries, to plagues, civil wars, economic upheavals, to the rebuilding of the city after the Great Fire of 1666. The changes are tracked through three main gathering places—churches, theaters, and markets.
The earliest item is a 1493 edition of the "Nuremberg Chronicle", a world history, showing a woodcut of a "generic city", which the tome used to depict not only London, but at least three other cities.
"London wasn't worth its own woodcut," Lynch said with a smile, and then guided me to the exhibit's final map, showing "amazing growth in area, wealth, and power by 1690 when London is on the verge of creating a new empire."
The exhibit's story really begins when King Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in the 1530s and began the dissolution of the monasteries, most of which were headquartered in London. "Henry claims all wealth and property and doles it out to his cronies," Lynch commented, "while the City of London takes over charitable aspects like hospitals and orphanages."
Blackfriars, a Dominican monastery on the western side of the walled city, was turned into an "upscale residential community", with a renowned theater, and even the headquarters and warehouse for the Office of Revels, in charge of floats and other pomp for royal processions.
A mid-16th century Revels list of “moneye payd for stuf” cleared from a Blackfriars religious site, notes carting away “the great altar stone..." When Queen Mary, a Catholic, came to the throne, parishioners forced the Revels office to make restitution for the desecration.
Far more positive happenings in Blackfriars included performances of Shakespeare's "Othello", although written for the (less expensive and less intimate) Globe Theatre which opened in 1599, and Ben Jonson's "The Alchemist", among other major plays of the time.
One of the exhibit's most exciting items is Shakespeare's copy of the deed for a townhouse he purchased in Blackfriars. "We know that Shakespeare would have touched this; it's his copy, signed by the seller." Lynch said. The copy signed by Shakespeare, who was "known as a shrewd investor", is in London's Guild Hall Library.
Back then, both the seller's and the buyer's copy were made on one long piece of paper, and after the signing, the document would have been cut in two in wavy indentations. For verification of authenticity in any future transactions, the two copies would have to mesh exactly.
That explains the wavy indentures on the top of Shakespeare's deed, and on top of a much smaller contract near it, for a 9-year apprenticeship. Thus, the origin of "indentured", as in servitude. Would-be apprentices were "streaming into London, immigrants mainly from all parts of England," Lynch said, a main reason for the city's population explosion.
An exquisite engraving shows the coats of arms of all 60 chief trade and craft companies in London in 1596. At least half the men in London belonged to these companies through the 17th century.
Other highlights among the exhibition's some 100 items -- maps, diaries, books, letters, drawings, almost all from the Folger collection:
- A panoramic view of 1647 London by Wenceslaus Hollar, showing a flotilla along the Thames much like the June 3 Diamond Jubilee flotilla. Two decades after the etching was made, many of the buildings were destroyed by the 1666 Great Fire. The Hollar work has never before been exhibited.
- "Tittle-Tattle; Or, the several Branches of Gossipping", woodcut, circa1560–1600, depicts working women in the marketplace as mere "scolding sluts" in a derogatory poem and images.
- "Bills of Mortality" and other writings about the ravaging plague in 1965 and the Great Fire in 1966, which destroyed the greater part of London with the city walls. During 1665, there were 97,306 burials -- 68,596 due to the plague, "London's Dreadful Visitation".
- John Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration", 1689. Locke wrote, "Why are assemblies less sufferable in a church than in a theatre or market?" The Folger notes, however, that "Locke was not ahead of his time: he excluded Catholics and atheists from toleration."
One of the final items is the favorite of both curators Lynch and Walsh. A 1690 list of orphans and poor children -- educated for the British Navy at a math school built at the former Greyfriars monastery -- and their destinations, including New England, Virginia, and far beyond.
For more info: "Open City: London, 1500-1700". Free. On view from June 5 through September 30. Series of free talks on Mondays at 7 P.M., followed by a reception and viewing of the exhibition. Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC, 202- 544-4600.
Source: www.examiner.com
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