Victorian writer Ada J Graves’s granddaughter believes pivotal scene was ‘lifted’ from The House by the Railway It is arguably the single most memorable episode of E Nesbit ‘s much-loved children’s book The Railway Children. The three children, Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis, playing close to the railway line, witness a landslide on to the tracks, and bravely save a train from crashing into it by waving warning flags made from the girls’ red flannel petticoats. And when they succeed in stopping the train – in the nick of time – Bobbie falls down in a dead faint. But it has now emerged that the dramatic episode may not have been purely the result of Nesbit’s imagination. Another children’s book – published in 1896, nine years before The Railway Children appeared – includes an episode seemingly too similar for coincidence alone. In The House by the Railway by little-known writer Ada J Graves, middle-class children from the suburbs move to the countryside with their mother, just as Bobbie and her siblings do, and save a train from crashing into an obstacle on the line by waving a red jacket to halt it in its tracks. And, just as in The Railway Children (as seen on our TV screens each Christmas in the classic 1970 film ), they are presented with engraved watches as a reward for their courage. Other similarities connect the two novels. Both books include an episode in which someone the children befriend on a passing train turns out to have a connection to somebody else in their story, and both end with an emotional family reunion. However, the particularly heart-wringing theme of The Railway Children, in which the children’s father is absent because he has been wrongly imprisoned for spying, only to be dramatically freed at the end of the novel, is Nesbit’s alone. Ada Graves’s 64-year-old granddaughter Anne Hall-Williams, who found a copy of The House by the Railway in her late father’s house, is convinced that the pivotal near-crash scene was “lifted” by Nesbit from her grandmother’s book. “It is quite blatant really, the plagiarism,” she says. “It is pretty obvious that Nesbit had read the earlier book. I realise that lots of authors operate in this way, but it seems a bit naughty of her. Poor Ada deserves a bit of credit.” However, Kate Agnew of the Children’s Bookshop, Muswell Hill, north London, was sceptical about the connection. “There was a huge sweep of railways spreading across Britain from the 1830s and it had a profound effect on the whole country, so it was inevitable that there would be children’s fiction about railways,” she says. “And it’s a classic trope of children’s adventure that the children do something crucial that saves the day. In a book about railways, that’s likely to be something to do with saving a train, and red has always been the colour of danger. I don’t think it’s enough of a coincidence to be certain.” Nesbit, born in 1858, wrote about 40 children’s books in all, and had already published many of the books that would become classics – including The Wouldbegoods, Five Children and It and the Phoenix and the Carpet – by the time The Railway Children appeared in 1906. She was also a writer and lecturer on socialism, co-founding the Fabian Society alongside her husband Hubert Bland – although thanks to Bland’s philandering and her own penchant for relationships with younger men, her own family life was far from the cosy ideal often presented in her novels. Agnew says Nesbit’s books remain very popular with today’s young readers. “She has very contemporary heroes and heroines, though they have a strong Victorian sense of duty,” she says. “They have very realistic adventures, even when they are magical ones – you enter the world of magic from a shop in Kensington, for example – and children love that.” Children and teenagers Benedicte Page guardian.co.uk
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In ‘Source Code,’ Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man who is able to jump back into another person’s body in order to stop a huge catastrophe from happening. The actor reveals how it is strange to be promoting the film during a real disaster in Japan. (March 21)
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Operators evacuated workers from Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant Monday after gray smoke rose from one of its reactor units, the latest of persistent troubles in stabilizing the complex. (March 21)
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24,000 adders, common lizards and other species moved from oil refinery site to reserves to make way for London Gateway They had lived peacefully in their tens of thousands on an old refinery site in Essex. Now after what is thought to be the UK’s biggest artificial movement of animals, 24,000 adders, grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms are settling well into new homes 140 miles away. The reptiles were transported from the east of England to reserves in Wiltshire to make way for the £1.5bn London Gateway container port and logistics park. Since 1998 the creatures have been captured by hand and moved in vans – early in the morning so they did not dry out – around the M25 and down the M4 before being released into their new homes. The reserves in Wiltshire have now been declared full and this year the relatively few remaining reptiles at the Essex site will be rehoused closer to another reserve closer to home. Marcus Pearson, environmental manager for DP World, said the move seemed to have been successful. Reptiles that had been moved and then recaptured to check their wellbeing seemed healthy and doing well in their new home. Construction is under way at London Gateway, 25 miles to the east of central London. Once complete the development will allow the world’s biggest container ships to berth close to the capital. But one of the challenges the developers faced was rehousing the animals that had moved on to the site after an oil refinery ceased operating in 1999. Homes were found nearby for the carefully protected great crested newts. But no new local habitat could be found for the reptiles so the decision was taken to move them to reserves managed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust . DP World also bought a chunk of land to link areas owned by the trust. It has moved 290 adders, 400 grass snakes, 17,000 common lizards and 6,000 slow worms. Pearson said finding a new home was tricky because they could not be moved to places where they were already large populations of a particular creature. The Wiltshire reserves are now judged to be full and the remaining reptiles found on the Gateway site this year will be moved to the RSPB reserve, West Canvey Marsh . Wildlife Animals Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Supporters of rival Alassane Ouattara and human rights campaigners claim Gbagbo should be charged with war crimes Thousands of young men could be seen enlisting on Monday to fight for the incumbent president of Ivory Coast, stoking fears of an imminent civil war. Chanting slogans such as “We will kill them now” and “The rebels will die”, prospective recruits gathered at a stadium at the army headquarters in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The show of strength underlines the growing influence of Young Patriot leader Charles Blé Goudé, who called on about 10,000 supporters at a rally on Saturday to sign up and “liberate” the country. It could also be aimed at deterring supporters of Alassane Ouattara, the rival to president Laurent Gbagbo , who have argued that Gbagbo’s support base is shrinking and cannot prop him up much longer. Ouattara is the internationally recognised winner of last November’s presidential election. Gbagbo’s refusal to step down has sparked a humanitarian emergency and possible renewal of the 2002-03 civil war . His security forces fired six mortars on a crowded marketplace in the volatile Abobo surburb of Abidjan last week, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens more. The attack, for which the military denied responsibility, has fuelled calls for Gbagbo to be charged with war crimes. The United Nations mission in Ivory Coast said: “Such an act, perpetrated against civilians, could constitute a crime against humanity.” Supporters of Ouattara demanded on Monday that Gbagbo should stand trial at the Hague-based international criminal court (ICC), following the example of neighbouring Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor. Sindou Cisse of the rebel New Forces , which control the country’s north and backs Ouattara, said the Abobo mortar attack was “a war crime”. He said: “What happened is beyond anything imaginable. It is out of order. As soon as possible, Mr Gbagbo should be trapped by the ICC. They should come and get him right now, not only for justice but to put an end to the suffering of the population.” He urged the international community to take action. “They have gone after Gaddafi but we are still waiting,” he said. Human Rights Watch said last week it believed Gbagbo and several of his close allies were now implicated in crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome statute, which created the ICC. “The targeted killings, enforced disappearances, politically motivated rapes and persecution of west African nationals over a three-month period demonstrate a policy of systematic violence by security forces under the control of Gbagbo and militias long loyal to him,” it said. The watchdog claimed the killing of civilians by pro-Ouattara forces, at times with apparent ethnic or political motivation, could also be a crime against humanity if the slaughter became widespread or systematic. Gbagbo’s government has accused Nigeria of transporting 500 mercenaries to join the New Forces, based in the northern town of Bouaké. The social and economic meltdown in the former west African powerhouse continued over the weekend as thousands gathered in Abidjan’s main bus station, carrying suitcases full of belongings they had salvaged to head to the countryside. Men pushed, shoved and sometimes fought to get on to packed buses, while exhausted children sat or tried to sleep on piles of luggage at the station in Adjame, the scene of fierce fighting in the past week. Adama Diawara, a civil servant, told Reuters: “We’re getting out of Abidjan. Bullets were falling on us day and night. We don’t know what to do. We are so tired of this. We want the international community to come and help us.” Aicha Diabate, sitting in the station with her children, said: “Since the day before yesterday, we’ve been here but we only managed to get a ticket at 2am this morning.” Touts were buying all the tickets and charging double, she added, as a young man arrived at the station with his sick father in a wheelbarrow. The UN says 435 people have been killed and another 450,000 forced from their homes since the crisis began. The Ouattara camp puts the death toll at 720. An African Union mediation panel has given Gbagbo until Thursday to sit down with Ouattara to negotiate a transfer of power. Ivory Coast David Smith guardian.co.uk
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Wyclef Jean says bullet grazed hand in Haiti’s capital; Cameras roll on ‘The Hobbit’ films in New Zealand; ‘Limitless’ tops US box office with $19M. (March 21)
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Prince William got a warm reception as he finished his tour of Australia and New Zealand with stops in communities in the state of Victoria that had been hit hard by flooding earlier in the year. (March 2011)
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March 21, 2011 No CommentI wonder how many people drained their savings to cover COBRA payments because they thought they’d soon find a new job. That’s why the new healthcare law, as flawed as it is, is a big step toward building a safety net: The millions of Americans who lost their jobs and their health benefits during the recession often had no way to regain affordable health coverage, leaving them and their families at risk of financial ruin, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund. The spate of layoffs during the recession catapulted 9 million more Americans — or 57% of those who had had health insurance in a job that evaporated over the last two years — into the ranks of the millions already uninsured. In addition, 19 million people anxiously seeking private coverage over the last three years were either turned down or could not find a plan that was affordable and met their needs, the report found. The Biennial Health Insurance Survey also found a whopping 60% increase in skipped care due to cost in the past decade. The survey reported that medical debt problems and out-of-pocket spending costs were on the rise as well, with 29 million Americans using up their entire life savings to pay for medical bills and millions more unable to afford food, heat and rent due to medical payments. “The report tells the story of the continuing deterioration of health care accessibility, efficiency, safety and affordability over the past decade,” Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis said during a noon press conference Tuesday. All this despite the fact that the United States spends more than any other country on health care, she added. “Most recently it has failed the millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the recession and lost health benefits as well, leaving them with no place to turn for affordable health care coverage,” Davis said. The Commonwealth Fund report focused on the struggles of the 43 million adults under 65 who have lost their health insurance along with their job over the past two years. “The silver lining is that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has already begun to bring relief to families,” Davis added. “Once the new law is fully implemented, we can be confident that no future recession will have the power to strip so many Americans of their health security.”
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Victoria Jackson may have earned her fame as a comedian, but her recent comments on “Glee” are no laughing matter. The former “Saturday Night Live” star, now an outspoken political conservative, hit out at the high school choir dramedy in a homophobic rant in her new column for the conservative WorldNetDaily.com. Jackson wrote: Did you see “Glee” this week? Sickening! And, besides shoving the gay thing down our throats, they made a mockery of Christians – again! I wonder what their agenda is? Hey, producers of “Glee” – what’s your agenda? One-way tolerance? In the most recent episode of the show, there was a long awaited kiss between two gay characters, Kurt (played by Golden Globe winner Chris Colfer) and Blaine, and Kathy Griffin played a religious, tea party political candidate, modeled after Sarah Palin. Jackson’s comments came after a string of anti-Muslim and Arab diatribe, and immediately following her saying: This new al-Qaida magazine for women has beauty tips and suicide-bomber tips! Gimme a break! That is as ridiculous as two men kissing on the mouth! And I don’t care what is politically correct. Everyone knows that two men on a wedding cake is a comedy skit, not an “alternate lifestyle”! There I said it! Ridiculous! Jackson has become known for her outspoken, and often controversial, conservative political statements. In 2009, on a Fox News panel, she said, “My motivation is gone, because [Obama] will punish me if I’m successful. That’s how you start communism, is just take — Cuba. Obama wants to be Castro.” That appearance followed a 2008 onslaught from Jackson, who went after both a campaigning Obama and former “SNL” cast mate Al Franken, who was running for Senate in Minnesota at the time. Writing about Obama, Jackson said that Obama, “bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ.” She also accused him of close friendships with “Communists, domestic and Muslim terrorists, racists and convicted felons.”
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The Hobbit Filming Begins 1 Official Look! The Hobbit | Peter Jackson is back to County! Mikael Persbrandt practices for his role in The Hobbit! (hidden found footage) The Hobbit Begins Filming, First Photo From The New Zealand Set … Filming on the first of The Hobbit films began today in New Zealand. To celebrate the production has not only released a first look at director Peter Jackson climbing back into his Hobbit hole, but they’ve also launched an official … Peter Jackson The Hobbit : Teaser Trailer The Hobbit follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard … Two Official Photos Unveiled of Peter Jackson on ' The Hobbit ' Set … There and Back Again… Peter Jackson’s Tale! Oh is it great to see Jackson back in Middle Earth again. With filming on the epic two-part adaptation of The. First Official Set Photos From ' The Hobbit ' Unleashed The images are released as the two-part movie has started taking principal photography in Wellington, New Zealand. Production Actually Begins On ' The Hobbit ' | News | Screen Junkies Check out Production Actually Begins On ‘ The Hobbit ‘ in Movies News and more entertainment news for guys at Screen Junkies. adamjely says: Execution of large eyes was WAY better than Gollum's. Just in how they opened and closed. We'll see how the new Gollum fairs in the Hobbit .
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