Consumer group warns music and sports fans against buying tickets for sold out events on the secondary ticket market Music fans looking to book tickets for one of the European summer festivals and sporting events are being warned to take care in the secondary ticket market. The resale of tickets for sold out events is big business, and with the annual festival season almost underway there are fears that hundreds of UK consumers could, as in 2010, hand over their money but end up with no ticket. The UK European Consumer Centre (UKECC) said today that it received 288 complaints and enquiries from UK consumers during 2010 relating to EU traders under its “recreational and cultural services” category, which includes ticket problems – an increase of more than a third (34%) on the 2009 figure of 215. Hungary and the Netherlands were the countries which attracted the most complaints from Britons. The UKECC is co-funded by the European commission and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , and provides advice for consumers buying goods and services. It also deals with cross-border complaints and grievances from European consumers based in other EU countries regarding UK festivals. It singled out the following as the main areas of complaint: • Tickets failing to be delivered. Most terms and conditions state that tickets will arrive just before the event, but if this doesn’t happen the seller may be long gone. • Cancellation of an event after the consumer has purchased a ticket. The original seller’s terms and conditions usually only allow for a refund of the ticket’s face value, but secondary ticket sellers may have a huge mark-up, so a consumer may only get back a fraction of what he or she paid. • Consumers turning up at a venue only to find their ticket is declined for being void. • Valid tickets are provided, but problems at the event on the day may lead to the consumer being refused admittance to some areas. Jed Mayatt, UKECC manager, said: “We want consumers to be cautious when buying tickets, particularly if an event is sold out. But the temptation of a website still offering tickets is too great for some people, even if it is at inflated prices.” An example highlighted by the UKECC was a UK consumer who bought a pair of tickets to a top-flight football game from an online ticketing company in Spain, for which she paid €381.92. The tickets were not sent to her home as promised, and although the trader promised these would be hand delivered before the game this failed to happen. She sought a refund, as well as damages for consequential losses, amounting to €627.23. After liaising with European Consumer Centre in Spain she was advised to go to the police as it was thought likely to be a scam. The UK ECC’s leaflet, Can you rely on your festival tickets? , outlines how consumers could be caught out, offers advice for purchasers, and addresses the question of legal protection. Music fans are also advised to contact the European Consumer Centre for Services for more information. Consumer affairs Scams Ticket prices Rebecca Smithers guardian.co.uk
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UK’s biggest art charity increases its grant to galleries by more than 50% and launches a new free admissions scheme The UK’s biggest art charity, the Art Fund , intends to increase the amount it makes available for galleries to buy works of art by more than 50% by 2014 – warning that at a time of government spending cuts, museum collections risk being “fatally undermined”. The charity also launched a new National Art Pass, which will give members of the charity free entry to over 200 museums and half-price admittance to temporary shows. The pass has been dubbed “the aesthete’s Oyster” by Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum – a museum’s equivalent of the card that regulars use on the London transport network. Annually, the Art Fund will hand out £7m, rather than the £4.5m it grants currently. According to the Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar: “In the past six months, as I have been talking to museum directors … about how we can help them, I’ve been struck by growing worries that as belts tighten, and national and local funding diminishes severely, that acquisitions of major works of art may not be possible and all past progress in creating world-class collections may be fatally undermined.” Museums and galleries, he said, could not continue as lively and vital institutions reflecting the society around them without renewing their collections. “We can’t just stop collecting,” he said. “It would be like a theatre not saying it wasn’t going to mount any more new productions or a library saying they weren’t going to buy any new books.” The Art Fund, formally the National Art Collections Fund, is the UK’s largest art charity. Founded in 1903, it exists to help museums and galleries buy works of art that would otherwise be lost from public view. It is largely funded by the £35 annual fee paid by its 80,000 members and has mounted many successful fundraising campaigns to save artworks for the nation, including, last year, the fundraising effort to buy the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasures and Pieter Bruegel the Younger’s The Procession to Calvary . The uplift in available cash will partly come from a fundraising effort among the existing membership of the Art Fund, and partly from a recruitment drive motored by the introduction of the new National Art Pass. For £35 per year, members will be able to use the National Art Pass to get free access to 208 museums and galleries nationwide. The card will also allow half-price entry to charging exhibitions at national museums, including the Joan Miró exhibition that opens at Tate Modern on 14 April and the current Heracles to Alexander the Great exhibition at the Ashmolean, Oxford. Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, said that the difficulty museums and galleries had in renewing their collections was a long-term problem. “I am always struck when I visit Manchester, Leeds or Nottingham that until the 1960s regional museums were able to make acquisitions on a par with the national collections. Until the 1960s they were equal to Tate; but from then things began to slide when funding began to fall away.” He welcomed the Art Fund’s uplift in funding, saying: “It will I am sure make a big difference. I hope it will renew the culture of collecting across the country.” The National Art Pass, he said, was “simple, clear, I’m sure it’s going to be very effective – and it’s cheap.” Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, also welcomed the Art Fund’s announcement, saying: “Some people wondered whether philanthropy would continue in tough times. This demonstrates that it can.” Speaking about the importance of acquisitions, he said, “We have long-term plans to help people build endowments [in order to be able to buy works of art] but we recognise this won’t happen overnight. This will make a really big difference in the next four years.” He said that the Art Fund’s move showed that “philanthropy was not just about rich individuals; there is also a way in which we can harness a lot of small donations. And with the National Art Pass people will really feel that they are getting something back.” Arts funding Museums Art Arts policy Philanthropy Charities Charlotte Higgins guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A bill effectively banning late-term abortions in Kansas has been signed into law by Gov. Sam Brownback. The bill bans abortions after 22 weeks gestation except where necessary to save the mother from death or serious injury, based on the controversial belief that fetuses can feel pain, Politico reports. Similar…
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A lot of portable PC power cells last for only four or five hours, after which you’ll find yourself chained to a wall socket. Good thing there are external batteries to keep us in current when a plug’s nowhere to be found, and Tom’s Hardware has done some benchmarking on a slew of such devices so you’ll know which one’s suited for you. A Dell Vostro 3300 and an Inspiron Mini 10 running Windows 7 were used to put packs from Amstron, Brunton, Digipower, Electrovaya, Energizer , Lenmar, PowerTraveller and Tekkeon through some real-world paces — we’re talking word processing and web surfing, not fragging and film editing. So if you’re in the market for a mobile power unit, hit the source link and get the down and dirty on which external battery’s best. External batteries benchmarked, the portable juice is loose originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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OV-3.avi OV-2B.avi Who_is_WHO_Video.mp4 Make: Online | RIP Flip Camera: Hey Cisco Open Source The Camera Think of all the science, art, robotics and educational applications we could all gain by this – Cisco, you could be the first to release an open source camera for the world. Cisco, this would the best news in the world of making, … Open Source ? » NUSEA | National University of Singapore … The first thing we have to realize is that open source is different from free software. Let’s take Internet browsers for example, all of them are free, but only about one and a half are open source . IE and Safari are free to use, … The Soul – Created or Eternal? – Open Source Religion … In the discussion The meaning of the statement of Jesus, ‘I and My father are one and the same’ – by dattaswami, debate shifted to the topic of soul. This f… Ebookhorn | Download Choosing an Open Source CMS: Beginner's Guide … MEgaupload . Mediafire . Hotfile . Filesonic Our … Read the original: . Download Choosing an Open Source CMS: Beginner’s Guide …”> Ebookhorn . Download Choosing an Open Source CMS: Beginner’s Guide … Share on Facebook … Maqetta – Open Source & Web-Based WYSIWYG Editor For Creating … Maqetta is a web-based WYSIWYG application which focuses on easing the process of creating HTML5 web pages. The project is open source , does not require any plugins to run and can be used as a hosted service or by installing locally. … priyankadhupia says: imediasolutions.in Drupal Development by Open Source Web Development: We provide Custom Drupal Designing and Development Services whi…
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Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude Ashley Tisdale poses nude on Allure Magasine ( April 2011 ) PHOTOS: Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude | Radar Online High School Musical actress Ashley Tisdale bares it all for a new photo shoot and RadarOnline.com has the sexy photo of the former teen star all-grown-up. Ashley Tisdale poses nude for Allure magazine's annual nude issue … Ashley Tisdale poses nude for Allure magazine’s annual nude issue. Ashley Tisdale poses nude for Allure magazine's annual nude issue … Ashley Tisdale is among the stars who appear in Allure magazine’s annual nude issue. ADVERTISEMENT Tisdale is best known for her work in Disney’s. PHOTOS: Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude | Hot Daily News High School Musical actress Ashley Tisdale bares it all for a new photo shoot and RadarOnline.com has the sexy photo of the former teen star all-grown-up…. PHOTOS: Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude | Bikini Photo Shoot High School Musical actress Ashley Tisdale bares it all for a new photo shoot and RadarOnline.com has the sexy photo of the former teen star. mailtomerrick says: Ashley Tisdale Poses Nude for Allure: Showing Fans She's a Woman: Not only does she follow a low-carb, high-prot… http://bit.ly/fk0Vfr
Continue reading …If there’s one thing that Fox News cannot abide, it’s pink nail polish on a little boy. Now he and the nation are apparently in for a world of psychological pain and years of therapy. And it’s all because a J. Crew email ad featured a tender moment with a…
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Obamas, Oprah in Olympic Bid Barack Obama on Ending the War Barack Obama on leading by principle Obamas Sitting Down With Oprah April 27 Possibly the only person in America that he hasn’t yet pissed off. TCBGP: Possibly the only person in America that he hasn’t yet. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/TCBGP/ obamas-oprah -april-27_n_848255_84269847.html … Obama's To Tape Final “Oprah” Interview | Celebrity DownLow Posted in CelebrityDownLow | Tags: final, interview, Obamas, Oprah , Tape. Recent Posts. Jesse J Dishes About Her Debut Album · Obama’s To Tape Final “Oprah” Interview · Cottage by the Sea · Kate Upton’s Sexy Guess Lingerie Shoot … Dermorae All Buzzing Information » Gossip news: Obama's To Tape … This entry was posted in Entertainment and tagged ‘Gossip, Final, Interview, News, obamas, Oprah , Tape. Bookmark the permalink. « Sports: Red Cards Being Shown At Record Pace In MLS · Gossip news: Jesse J Dishes About Her Debut Album » … Obamas return to Oprah, as TV chat show winds down | chennaifm dot … Tagged: barack obama, chennai fm, content summary, madras blog, Obamas, oprah winfrey, oprah winfrey show, queen, reign, return, Reuters, songs, tamil movies, wife michelle. « Film claims discovery of nails from Jesus’s cross … Obamas to Tape Final Oprah Interview | Obamas-Oprah -Winfrey. Returning to his hometown of Chicago, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are set to tape Oprah Winfrey’s farewell show on April 27. The President will stay in the “Chi-Town” for two days to … Carolbaut says: President and Michelle Obama appearing on Oprah next month http://huff.to/dM0vCW via @huffingtonpost
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Michael McIntyre and David Hasselhoff join Amanda Holden on judging panel – while show’s creator is just a phone call away ITV had its first glimpse of a future without Simon Cowell at the launch of the new series of Britain’s Got Talent, which will return on Saturday without the man who created it. Cowell, who is busy making a US version of his other ITV1 hit, The X Factor, will not appear on Britain’s Got Talent until its final week. Such are his US commitments that doubts remain whether he will appear on ITV1′s The X Factor at all , and it was a reflection of the broadcaster’s sensitivity, perhaps, that at the Britain’s Got Talent press launch on Wednesday there was a blanket ban on any question not relating to that show. But fans can rest assured that with or without Cowell the fifth series of the reality talent show has a familiar feel, with singers who can’t sing, dancers who can’t dance, and ordinary-looking folk who turn out to have extraordinary talent. Cowell’s fellow judge Piers Morgan does not feature in the new show – he is busy in the US as well making his CNN chatshow – so there are two new judges, comedian Michael McIntyre and former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, joining Amanda Holden. The three revealed that Cowell had watched early footage of the new series and telephoned them each individually to give them his seal of approval. “Simon phones every day,” joked McIntyre. Hasselhoff said the new lineup of judges was “not better or worse, just different”. Also a judge on the US version, which airs on NBC as America’s Got Talent, Hasselhoff said the UK shows were more fun to make. “Each city and each town sort of had their own spirit. At a drop of the hat the audience just wants to sing. They are so into it and so positive, it’s actually more fun than it is in the States,” he added. Holden said: “He loves it, he does love it. He phoned us all and said he loves it. We were all drunk when we got the call. I was on my way back from dinner. I don’t really know what he said but he sounded pleased.” McIntyre added: “I was in Venice for my wife’s birthday [when he rang]. I have worked out I had drunk 917 Bellinis. “It adds to the show that he has such a presence. It’s his show – for me he makes the best shows on TV – I felt him there all the time. “It was a huge moment when he said he watched it and he absolutely loved it. I’m thrilled for that, and I’m thrilled that he’s coming back. I think it will be really good fun.” Britain’s Got Talent, which propelled west Lothian-born Susan Boyle to global superstardom , although she came second in the 2009 series to dance act Diversity, is one of ITV’s biggest shows, along with The X Factor, I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and Coronation Street. Last year’s final, won by acrobatic troupe Spellbound, averaged 12.4 million viewers, according to overnight figures . It was well down on the 17.3 million who saw Boyle pipped to the post in 2009, but was nonetheless one of ITV’s highest-rating shows of the year. The broadcaster will hope it does similarly good business this time around. Elaine Bedell, ITV’s director of entertainment and comedy, said: “Britain’s amateur talent has come out in force this year. “We all feel this has been one of the best audition tours for Britain’s Got Talent that we’ve had, with slightly fewer dance groups, more singing and dance groups and of course some fantastic performing dogs.” She described McIntyre and Hasselhoff as “the most unlikely showbusiness double act”. “Simon as you know is with us for the live shows but did not do the audition tour,” she added. “If nothing else, Britain’s Got Talent has taught David something about the geography of the British Isles. He does now know where Glasgow is – and it’s not in Ireland.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Britain’s Got Talent Simon Cowell ITV ITV1 Michael McIntyre Television industry Television Entertainment John Plunkett guardian.co.uk
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MPs have recommended criminalising clients of sex workers, saying 80% of prostitutes are victims of slavery and trafficking France is to consider making it illegal to pay for sex, in a rethink of prostitution laws. A cross-party commission of French MPs have recommended criminalising all clients of sex workers, meaning anyone who buys sex from any kind of prostitute would face prison and a fine. If a law is introduced, France would join only a handful of European countries where clients of sex workers face prison. In 1999 Sweden became the first, followed by Norway and Iceland. The Socialist Danielle Bousquet and Guy Geoffroy of Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP said clients must understand that any visit to a prostitute encouraged slavery and trafficking – which 80% of the estimated 20,000 sex-workers in France were victims of. Roselyne Bachelot, the social affairs minister, favours criminalising clients. She told the commission inquiry: “There is no such thing as freely chosen and consenting prostitution. The sale of sexual acts means women’s bodies are made available for men, independently of the wishes of those women.” Proposals for a law could be drawn up this month but it would not be debated in parliament before 2012. In France prostitution is not illegal, but activities around it are. Brothels, once the subject of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, were outlawed in 1946. Pimping is illegal, as is paying for sex from a minor. In 2003 a controversial law against soliciting was introduced by Sarkozy, then interior minister, making it illegal to stand in a public place known for prostitution dressed in revealing clothes. Sex-workers’ groups in France have long campaigned for legal status and rights. The French actor, Philippe Caubère, famous for playing Molière, is open about regularly paying sex-workers €200 for sex. He said the government was playing politics in the runup to next year’s presidential election. “First it was immigrants, now it’s prostitutes. This is plain populism and shows a disdain for individual liberties,” he said. He told Le Parisien the government was not doing enough under existing laws to help exploited and trafficked women. “As for the other women, leave them alone. They take care of men who mostly live in sexual misery and terrible solitude. They are remarkable women.” Mouvement du Nid, a French group campaigning to end prostitution, published a study in 2004 which found 41% of male clients of sex workers said they were married and 57% were fathers. The French justice minister, Michel Mercier, supports criminalising clients, but the interior minister, Claude Guéant, said it would be difficult to make buying sex a crime when prostitution itself was not illegal. France Europe Prostitution Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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