CNN’s Holmes: More Divorces Are ‘a Sign That the Economy Is Getting Better’
April 30, 2011 No Comment
Economic growth in the first quarter was an abysmal 1.8 percent.
Continue reading …Montana Rep Denny Rehberg is "Cash Poor" and "Struggling" With A Net Worth of $31M
April 30, 2011 No CommentFrom the GOP-Is-Out-Of-Touch-With-Real-America Department: more proof that the Republicans cannot comprehend what life is like for most Americans, Montana Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg told a town hall audience that he feels their pain, because he is “cash poor” and “struggling” as a small businessman, just like they are. Except : While Rehberg calls himself poor and complains that he’s struggling, the fact is that he is, as of 2009 records, the 14th richest member of the House of Representatives. Opensecrets.org estimates that his average net worth in 2009 was $31 million . If he’s struggling on that, one has to wonder if he’s really a good arbiter of what’s fair for Main Street America. No kidding. A net worth of $31 million? No wonder he thinks Medicare is unnecessary.
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Anne Enright on life after winning the Booker, the appeal of flawed women and why her latest novel is a ‘less uneasy’ read I am having lunch with Anne Enright in a restaurant in Dun Laoghaire, which lies between the city of Dublin, where she was born and brought up, and the seaside town of Bray, where she now lives with her husband, Martin Murphy, a theatre director, and her two children. Inevitably, we are talking about Ireland’s ongoing economic crisis. “One thing the crash did was show up just how much blather, both written and spoken, that there is in this country,” she says, laughing. “The national conversation has been going on forever and now it just bores the pants off everyone. And you know what, the people who talk for a living don’t actually do a damn thing except talk. I think that recently there was almost a collective realisation that this was the case and, you know, I was kind of delighted by that.” Enright cackles into her soup and looks slightly guilty at the same time. She has the air of a mischievous and unruly child and her thoughts flow into words with a kind of lateral logic you have to concentrate hard on to keep up. Her irreverence and her easygoing, though often caustic, wit are present in her fiction, particularly in the voices of her female characters. In her new novel, The Forgotten Waltz , the narrator, Gina Moynihan, is a young woman who has tasted, but is now in furious retreat from, everything that is expected of her: early marriage, house, family, the slow erosion of spontaneity for routine. Like her creator, she has an eye for the absurdities of modern Irish life and a gift for describing them with a gleeful attention to detail. Early on in the book, Gina attends “the kind of party where no one ate the chicken skin” and surveys the room with the withering gaze of the natural
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Our critics pick the season’s highlights: From Lady Gaga to Harry Potter, Coppélia to Tony Cragg, this summer has something for all MAY 4 FILM The Tree of Life The much-delayed fifth feature from director Terrence Malick, snapped up by Icon for UK release ahead of its Cannes showing, is a multi-generational drama featuring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn – and, reportedly, dinosaurs. 5 CLASSICAL From the House of the Dead Opera North’s production of Janáek’s final work, directed by John Fulljames and conducted by Richard Farnes. Stars Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Alan Oke and Roderick Williams. Leeds and touring DANCE By Singing Light/Romance Inverse National Dance Company of Wales bring Stephen Petronio and Itzik Galili’s arresting double bill to Dance City in Newcastle, with the former set to the poetry of Dylan Thomas. 6 THEATRE Shrek Nigel Lindsay plays the lime-coloured, lovelorn ogre, with Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona and Nigel Harman as Lord Farquaad, in this Anglo-American production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. CLASSICAL The Damnation of Faust Ex-Python Terry Gilliam takes on the devil as director of this ENO staging of Berlioz’s masterpiece, conducted by Edward Gardner and starring Peter Hoare, Christine Rice and Christopher Purves. 7 CLASSICAL Steve Reich at 75 UK premiere of Steve Reich’s WTC 9/11, part of the two-day Reverberations festival at the Barbican. Then toured by the Kronos Quartet in Glasgow (13 May) and Norwich (17 May). 10 THEATRE The Cherry Orchard Zoe Wanamaker stars; Howard Davies, who has excelled in the staging of Russian drama, directs in the National’s Olivier, with a design by Bunny Christie and a translation by Andrew Upton. 11 FILM Cannes film festival Robert De Niro heads the jury at Cannes this year, casting his eye over eagerly awaited films by Lars von Trier, Pedro Almodóvar, Lynne Ramsay and Woody Allen, whose Midnight in Paris opens the competition. 13 DANCE Royal Ballet The season’s penultimate triple bill at the ROH includes the Royal Ballet premiere of Balanchine’s Ballo della regina and a new work, Live Fire Exercise, from Wayne McGregor, set to a score by Sir Michael Tippett. FILM Attack the Block The debut feature from Joe Cornish, of Adam and Joe fame. A “hoodie horror” about aliens landing in south London and teenage gangs uniting to fight them. 14 ART Tate St Ives Treats at the Cornish gallery’s Summer Exhibition include late paintings by Agnes Martin, installations by Martin Creed and sculpture by Naum Gabo. 16 POP Kate Bush: Director’s Cut While fans await an album of new material, the fabulously eccentric Bush has chosen to rework a selection of older songs: “The Sensual World” gains a new title and lyrics from Ulysses. THEATRE Much Ado About Nothing Hotly anticipated. David Tennant and Catherine Tate play the sparring lovers at Wyndham’s in London. They are directed by Josie Rourke, who takes over as artistic director of the Donmar next year. 18 ART Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want Tracey Emin needs no introduction, and quite possibly no huge solo retrospective, but this show of sculptures, photographs, films and drawings at the South Bank’s Hayward Gallery will no doubt thrill her fans and infuriate her detractors alike. 19 THEATRE Lord of the Flies William Golding’s savage fable, adapted by Nigel Williams, plays in the open air until 18 June at Regent’s Park theatre, which is enjoying its most imaginative era for decades. 21 ARCHITECTURE The Hepworth Gallery The second David Chipperfield-designed gallery in two months. The Hepworth promises to be as good as the first, the Turner Contemporary in Margate. No beach in Wakefield, but a fine permanent collection of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture. 23 POP Lady Gaga: Born This Way Two taster tracks have overtly recalled Madonna, both musically (“Born This Way”) and irreligiously (“Judas”). But the proper follow-up to Monster remains this year’s most eagerly awaited pop release. 27 POP Take That Britain’s best-loved manband have sold out 27 nights at the UK’s vastest stadiums, with the Pet Shop Boys supporting. JUNE 2 DANCE Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde! Dave St-Pierre is the enfant terrible of Canadian dance and has provoked comparisons with Pina Bausch. In this production at Sadler’s Wells, his 20 performers are literally and figuratively stripped naked. 3 ART The Government Art Collection Discover which works of art your government owns; which Lowrys, Turners and Bridget Rileys hang in Downing Street. All is revealed at the Whitechapel Gallery. 4 ART Venice Biennale Quite simply the most important international art event in the world; 82 artists in the official Giardini pavilions, with many more off site at the Arsenale. Until 27 November. 7 ARCHITECTURE Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Usually less stuffy than its art counterpart; curated this year by a stylistic odd couple of the flamboyant postmodernist Piers Gough and the more restrained Alan Stanton. 8 DANCE Coppélia Peter Wright’s production of Coppélia with the Birmingham Royal Ballet is a funny, occasionally spooky, family ballet, set to Delibes’s irresistible score. At the Lowry, Manchester, and touring. 10 POP Meltdown Former Kink Ray Davies is this year’s curator at the South Bank, recreating 60s TV show Ready Steady Go!, and springing surprises such as the Fugs. But will the Kinks reform? CLASSICAL Aldeburgh festival Opens with Simon Rattle and the CBSO. Premieres by Elliott Carter and Harrison Birtwistle , as well as Netia Jones’s site-specific Everlasting Light, set in Sizewell. Runs until 26 June. 15 FILM Edinburgh film festival Instead of an artistic director, EIFF has appointed guest curators, including Isabella Rossellini and Gus van Sant, who should make this year’s event particularly interesting. 21 ARCHITECTURE Transport Museum Glasgow Zaha Hadid now has several UK works to her name, but this will be her biggest public work to date, pending completion of the Olympic aquatic centre. 22 THEATRE Ghost: the musical Matthew Warchus’s production of the 1990 movie moves from Manchester to London’s Piccadilly, with music by Dave Stewart. Stars Richard Fleeshman. POP Glastonbury festival Barring any mishaps, U2 finally lead the charge at Worthy Farm, with Beyoncé, Coldplay, the Chemical Brothers and Morrissey providing backup. NB: Dengue Fever are a band on the bill, not this year’s health scare. 24 CLASSICAL Two Boys ENO premiere of Nico Muhly’s co-production with the New York Metropolitan Opera about a teenage stabbing. With a libretto by Craig Lucas, directed by Bartlett Sher and conducted by Rumon Gamba. FILM The First Grader When the Kenyan government introduces free primary schooling, a former Mau Mau fighter, now in his 80s, applies for an education. Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) directs, Naomie Harris co-stars in this British film which won an audience award at Tribeca. ART Magritte: The Pleasure Principle Still the best of the surrealists, with this first show in a generation focusing on eroticism, visual revelation and the influence of commercial design. More than 100 paintings at Tate Liverpool. FILM Bridesmaids In this female riposte to the stag-party-gone-wrong subgenre, produced by Judd Apatow, Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig (who co-wrote the script) plays a lovelorn maid of honour ill-equipped to organise her best friend’s pre-wedding rituals. 29 POP Arcade Fire First, the Texan/Haitian/Canadian indie wunderkinder took London’s O2 Arena. Now, they are taking Hyde Park, with help from Mumford & Sons, Beirut and the Vaccines. 30 ART Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography Brassaï, Robert Capa, André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy: more than 200 works showing the astonishing impact of this single country on photojournalism, documentary, fashion and art photography. At the Royal Academy until 2 October. THEATRE Manchester international festival The flourishing festival will include Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramović and Victoria Wood’s The Day We Sang, inspired by Manchester Children’s Choir. Runs until 17 July. JULY 1 ARCHITECTURE Serpentine Gallery Pavilion Every year the Serpentine asks a famous architect to design the gallery a temporary pavilion. This year it has lured Peter Zumthor out of his Alpine lair. 3 POP Ke$ha America’s second-most outrageous starlet is back on our shores. Ke$ha’s Get $leazy world tour is oversexed and over here until 13 July. 5 DANCE Sylvie Guillem New contemporary works by William Forsythe, Mats Ek and Jiří Kylián performed by the celebrated ballerina. Essential. To 9 July at Sadler’s Wells. 6 ART Thomas Struth One of Germany’s most praised photo artists comes to Whitechapel Art Gallery. Includes the celebrated Museum series and recent installations of Cape Canavarel and the Korean shipyards. 7 ART Glamour of the Gods Hollywood portraiture from the industry’s golden age, 1920-60. From Greta Garbo to Audrey Hepburn, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe: portraits that transformed actors into international style icons. At the National Portrait Gallery. 8 THEATRE Double Feature Four new plays by Sam Holcroft, DC Moore, Prasanna Puwanarajah and Tom Basden – all writers new to the National Theatre – are staged by a new ensemble in the Cottesloe. FILM Jack Goes Boating Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directorial debut and stars in this tale of lost souls and confused love lives in snow-bound New York. It’s based on a 2007 play in which he also appeared. 12 THEATRE A Woman Killed With Kindness In what promises to be a radical production, Katie Mitchell directs Thomas Heywood’s celebrated but rarely seen play. The domestic tragedy, written in 1603, will be staged in the National’s Lyttelton. 15 FILM The Deathly Hallows: Part Two After 10 years the Harry Potter franchise reaches its denouement with a film set to keep box-offices busy. CLASSICAL The Proms The BBC Proms opening fortnight includes Havergal Brian’s mammoth “Gothic” symphony, new conductor Juanjo Mena, soloist Steven Osborne and pianist Lang Lang. To 10 September. POP POP Latitude The headliners may be iffy – the National and Paolo Nutini – but Latitude in Suffolk is a sublime antidote to the mud and mayhem of other festivals. And Alan Hollinghurst is in the Lit Tent. POP Snoop Dogg The lazy drawl of Calvin Broadus has long been eclipsed by the rapper’s multiplatform media career. It’s worth savouring, as he performs 1993′s Doggystyle at Manchester international festival and Lovebox Weekender. 20 DANCE Roland Petit Triple bill of works by the French choreographer, Margot Fonteyn’s lover and husband of Zizi Jeanmaire. Includes the sexy, existentialist Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. ENB at the Coliseum. FILM Nader and Simin, A Separation Winner of the Golden Bear award at Berlin in February, Asghar Farhadi’s fine film explores class tensions in present-day Iran as a middle-class couple on the verge of separation battle over the care of an elderly relative. 26 CLASSICAL St Endellion festival An ambitious festival in north Cornwall (stars perform for no fee). Includes Wagner’s Die Walkure with Susan Bullock (30 July), which then goes to Truro’s Hall for Cornwall (2 Aug). POP Womad Womad’s organisers are on solid ground with headliners such as Baaba Maal and Rodrigo y Gabriela, but the splendour of Womad is always in the discovering. 29 FILM Horrid Henry The popular series of children’s books about a troublesome pre-teen gets the 3D treatment, with Theo Stevenson as Henry, and Anjelica Huston and Richard E Grant among the adults. 30 ART Tony Cragg Huge retrospective for Tony Cragg, senior British sculptor, with an emphasis on the cast-art of the last decade. At the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to 6 November. To see a PDF of the page as it appeared in the print edition click here Pop and rock Lady Gaga Exhibitions Classical music Theatre Dance Architecture guardian.co.uk
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Online dating has become big business over the last decade. But does this mean we’re looking for love in a different way? Maybe it’s the sunshine; maybe it’s the royal wedding, but last week the nation fell in love with love again. There’s been a lot of it about; I’ve “accidentally” cycled over my fair share of lovers snogging in the shade in sun-drenched parks. But is love different today than when William’s mum and dad were hitched in 1981? Sure, last Friday’s regal nuptials were livestreamed on YouTube, but Charles and Diana’s was broadcast live around the world on TV. How different is falling in love in the age of the internet? Personally, the modern, technologically mediated pursuit of love feels different. I was in a relationship for 13 years. It started in early 1997, before the web had inextricably woven itself into the fabric of society, and it ended in early 2010. I fell in love the first time in the age of email, not always-on, technologically mediated hyperlinked social media. I didn’t even have a mobile phone. My instincts, based on this Rip van Winkle perspective, say that web technology has affected our practice of falling in love. “Online dating used to be something that people turned to when they were giving up on offline dating,” says Sam Yagan, CEO and co-founder of OKCupid, a site that has the largest registered user-base of 18- to 34-year-olds in the US. “It is now a tool that people are turning to, to complement their offline dating, to meet other people you might not meet in your day-to-day life.” Research from the Oxford Internet Institute’s “Me, My Spouse and the Internet: Meeting, Dating and Marriage in the Digital Age” project corroborates Yagan’s argument, reporting that 22.6% of current relationships in the UK that began since my ex and I began courting, began online. According to Professor Monica Whitty, author of Cyberspace Romance , our current concept of romantic love is based on a mid-19th-century evolution from strategic partnerships into the roses and white wedding dresses promulgated by magazines, soap operas and Disney movies. The latter invokes images of presenting a true self to a single lover who accepts us, warts and all; the former, the exchange of properties. Yagan thinks relationships that come from online dating are more likely to stick: instead of settling for one person out of a pool of 200, he argues, you’ll be assured that the one you’ve chosen out of two million is the best fit. So what we’re after hasn’t changed conceptually, we’ve just become a bit more businesslike about it. Is it paradoxical that a cold, logical machine has become an important mediator for the most warm and fuzzy of human emotions? Social scientists and lay observers have been describing the bonds that develop through technology since the telegraph, around the time that our modern concept of romance first emerged; Tom Standage wrote about love over the wires in the late 1800s in his book The Victorian Internet . He also notes that the first “on-line” wedding took place between a bride in Boston and a groom in New York in 1848. Julian Dibbell’s descriptions of his personal infatuations in the text-based community LambdaMOO in the early 1990s orient attraction as a product of semantics and idealisation: “Well-rounded, colourful sentences start to do the work of big, brown, soulful eyes; too many typos in a character’s description can have about the same effect as dandruff flakes on a black sweater.” The rules haven’t changed. Well, not much. We do still pay heed to first impressions. Writing a profile for an online dating site or for an online community is an exercise in balancing personal marketing and reality. This can potentially backfire; if, as Dibbell says, “in [virtual reality], it’s the best writers who get laid”, it should pay to get a skilled ghostwriter. But, as a friend with an enormously successful profile for a dating site discovered, you have to live up to the prose. You can be too awesome; it pays to include a few warts and all. “People cannot lie about constitutive personal features, such as a sense of humour, wittiness, and personal interests, all of which emerge during lengthy online conversations,” says Professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, whose research has explored openness and honesty between people in online environments. “Online relationships encourage many people to present a more accurate picture of their true self,” he says. When it comes to online services outside the dating websites that feed the love bug, social networks are great at providing a context for a potential match. They expose similarity based on the number of shared connections, or the types of things users like. Status updates on social networks give the impression of being in a place at the same time, even when one or the other person is away from the computer. And participation in subject-specific online communities gives people something to talk about. But there is one thing in this online love battlefield that does make it feel awfully different from my first courtship: our proclivity for sharing personal things with virtual strangers – whether because of a heightened sense of anonymity or reduced social presence – leads to intensely electric interactions. These “hyper-personal” relationships, as Whitty describes them, can create problems for people already in a committed pair. “Online seduction is just a click away,” says Professor Ben-Ze’ev. Great for cheap thrills, but potentially destructive for long-term relationships. I’m reassured that the process of falling in love has remained generally the same, but wonder how, in the long term, our strategic pursuit of The One will affect what we expect from a relationship. Are we placing too much hope on technology to provide us with an unattainable romantic ideal, or will we be satisfied that we have found Mr or Ms Right out of the potential population of lovers? Online dating Dating Relationships Internet Aleks Krotoski guardian.co.uk
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Danny Cohen, BBC1′s new controller, admits he is under pressure to keep salaries down just as Channel 4 looks to lure talent away BBC1 is struggling to find and hang on to the kind of talent that will give the channel distinctive appeal for viewers, according to Danny Cohen, the channel’s incoming controller. Speaking last week for the first time about the likely impact of looming budget cuts, Cohen said: “We have already lost people to Channel 4, for instance; talent who we couldn’t compete with the deals for.” He added: “It is getting much harder and there’s an ongoing battle with that.” Following the outcry over the large deals offered to Jonathan Ross and Anne Robinson, pressure grew on the BBC to pay less for its major contracted stars. Cohen, 37, said that pressure would only grow once the corporation had announced the results of its Delivering Quality First cost-saving plan this summer. The loss to C4 of Jimmy Doherty, the presenter of Jimmy’s Food Factory on BBC1, has underlined the problem, but Cohen, who handles a budget of £1.3bn, said he felt that top performers could still be attracted by the BBC’s public service ethos and would not always demand the highest rates going. “Why shouldn’t stars have an interest in working for the BBC?” he asked. “A lot of them are very proud to appear on BBC1 because of what it stands for.” Cohen’s implication that he was working with one hand tied behind his back in his attempts to retain leading talent came the day after Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC, told parliament that it was becoming difficult to attract suitable candidates to executive positions because of the new cash constraints. He told the House of Lords communications committee that it was “not true to say there are a long queue of people” lining up to apply for senior jobs at the corporation. Cohen, who was talking to the Broadcasting Press Guild and who has a salary of around £250,000 a year, could not say whether competitive pay for backroom staff or for on-screen talent was more important for the future success of the BBC. “The public want the best on the BBC because they pay for it. They want the best on-screen talent and programmes, and presumably the best people making them. That creates a conundrum when there’s pressure on salaries,” he said. When Cohen’s predecessor, Jay Hunt, spoke to the same organisation while head of BBC1, she also underlined the importance of identifying and nurturing new faces. Hunt is now head of programming at C4, where the powerful roster of younger, big-name presenters, from Doherty to Jamie Oliver, Jimmy Carr and Kirstie Allsopp, is arguably dwarfing those of its rivals. Traditionally, BBC1 has allowed shows and stars to establish an audience on BBC2 before poaching them. MasterChef, the comedy quiz QI and, most recently, the sitcom Miranda , starring Miranda Hart, have all followed this route. But Cohen optimistically suggests that budget cuts may allow him to concentrate on bringing on his own new stars: “There’s an opportunity in that, because one of the things we know we can do is bring through new talent. But, as I say, the public expect us to have the best talent, so we’re trying to square that circle.” The BBC is to build up the TV careers of physicist Brian Cox, chef Simon Hopkinson and stand-up comic Lee Mack (who is to host a new Saturday night show), but some pundits criticise BBC1 for failing to secure exclusive rights to new faces such as Lauren Laverne, who is still a DJ on BBC 6Music, but presents on C4′s Ten O’Clock Live . Her co-presenters on the show, David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker, are also regarded as lost BBC1 material. Handling talent will be a priority for the BBC’s new head of vision, George Entwistle. It is unfortunate then that he is suspected of being behind a leaked document that rated on-screen talent in often brutal terms when at BBC Knowledge. Delia Smith, Michael Palin and Sophie Raworth were all described as of limited significance, while Brooker, Laverne and Jeremy Paxman had strong ratings. BBC1 BBC Television industry Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Vanessa Thorpe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ketamine’s popularity is surging after mephedrone ban, say drug experts Addiction charities are reporting a sharp rise in the number of young people who say they are worried about their use of ketamine. Addaction , one of the UK’s largest charities helping people with drug problems, says it has seen a 68% increase in the last year in the number of inquiries from teenagers using ketamine, up from 151 to 254. The charity believes a surge in the drug’s popularity is down to people switching from mephedrone after it was made illegal in April last year. Laurie Yearley, who works with young people at an Addaction clinic in Buckinghamshire, said that last year he was seeing two or three people a week using ketamine as a “secondary drug”. He is now seeing six or seven a week for whom it is their main drug. “People started using ketamine because it was cheap, but then they went on to mephedrone, which was legal,” Yearley said. “But when mephedrone was made illegal they went back to ketamine because they said it was like a milder form of mephedrone, which has pretty harsh side effects.” Yearley said price was a major reason for ketamine’s popularity. “It can cost as little as £6 a gram. If you split it between four people, that’s less than a pint. Because it’s class C – less than cannabis – there’s a feeling among young people that it can’t be that bad.” But Yearley said he was concerned that heavy ketamine users were trebling or even quadrupling their intake in barely a week to achieve the same effects. “A lot of youngsters are snorting the drug because they think they are down there with the big boys who are doing coke. Part of it is an image thing. But if you start using it a bit on Monday and on Tuesday, your tolerance disappears quickly and by Thursday you need to spend £10 to get the same effect and the following week it’s £20.” An anaesthetic that was used in Vietnam to sedate wounded troops, ketamine is still used to anaesthetise children. It is also used in veterinary circles as a horse anaesthetic. The drug is also a hallucinogen with users drawn to its “disassociative effects”. Many claim it can give them a feeling of being detached from their bodies. But as it is an anaesthetic, experts warn it is dangerous when mixed with depressants, such as alcohol, combining to slow or shut down the central nervous system. Health workers report that users experience a range of physical side-effects including blood in their urine, as the drug crystallises in their bladders. Users also refer to “K-Cramps”, described as “terrible period pains”, and to terrifying comedowns. Harry Shapiro, of Drugscope , said he was aware that agencies were reporting increased numbers of young people coming forward to say they were experiencing problems with the drug. “Ketamine was considered a party drug because it emerged in the 90s, but it’s not really when you consider the effects. Accounts suggest it’s anything but a benign drug, with physical and psychological impacts. It’s an anaesthetic, and people have had accidents while under its effect and not realised they were injured.” Experts suggest it is too soon to confirm whether claims that its use is on the increase among young people indicate the start of a trend. According to the British Crime Survey, in 2007, 0.3% of 16-to 24-year-olds used ketamine within the last month, compared with 0.9% last year. But these numbers are extremely low and not considered statistically significant by experts. However, Yearley said it was definitely the case more youngsters were doing it. “I’d say it was split down the middle in terms of use, but young girls seemed to get messed up more on it,” he said. Jane, who is 19 and has sought help from Addaction, said she was doing six or seven grams a day at one stage. “It’s like mentally addictive when you’ve done it for some time; life is not normal unless you’ve sniffed a line of K.” Drugs Health Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ketamine’s popularity is surging after mephedrone ban, say drug experts Addiction charities are reporting a sharp rise in the number of young people who say they are worried about their use of ketamine. Addaction , one of the UK’s largest charities helping people with drug problems, says it has seen a 68% increase in the last year in the number of inquiries from teenagers using ketamine, up from 151 to 254. The charity believes a surge in the drug’s popularity is down to people switching from mephedrone after it was made illegal in April last year. Laurie Yearley, who works with young people at an Addaction clinic in Buckinghamshire, said that last year he was seeing two or three people a week using ketamine as a “secondary drug”. He is now seeing six or seven a week for whom it is their main drug. “People started using ketamine because it was cheap, but then they went on to mephedrone, which was legal,” Yearley said. “But when mephedrone was made illegal they went back to ketamine because they said it was like a milder form of mephedrone, which has pretty harsh side effects.” Yearley said price was a major reason for ketamine’s popularity. “It can cost as little as £6 a gram. If you split it between four people, that’s less than a pint. Because it’s class C – less than cannabis – there’s a feeling among young people that it can’t be that bad.” But Yearley said he was concerned that heavy ketamine users were trebling or even quadrupling their intake in barely a week to achieve the same effects. “A lot of youngsters are snorting the drug because they think they are down there with the big boys who are doing coke. Part of it is an image thing. But if you start using it a bit on Monday and on Tuesday, your tolerance disappears quickly and by Thursday you need to spend £10 to get the same effect and the following week it’s £20.” An anaesthetic that was used in Vietnam to sedate wounded troops, ketamine is still used to anaesthetise children. It is also used in veterinary circles as a horse anaesthetic. The drug is also a hallucinogen with users drawn to its “disassociative effects”. Many claim it can give them a feeling of being detached from their bodies. But as it is an anaesthetic, experts warn it is dangerous when mixed with depressants, such as alcohol, combining to slow or shut down the central nervous system. Health workers report that users experience a range of physical side-effects including blood in their urine, as the drug crystallises in their bladders. Users also refer to “K-Cramps”, described as “terrible period pains”, and to terrifying comedowns. Harry Shapiro, of Drugscope , said he was aware that agencies were reporting increased numbers of young people coming forward to say they were experiencing problems with the drug. “Ketamine was considered a party drug because it emerged in the 90s, but it’s not really when you consider the effects. Accounts suggest it’s anything but a benign drug, with physical and psychological impacts. It’s an anaesthetic, and people have had accidents while under its effect and not realised they were injured.” Experts suggest it is too soon to confirm whether claims that its use is on the increase among young people indicate the start of a trend. According to the British Crime Survey, in 2007, 0.3% of 16-to 24-year-olds used ketamine within the last month, compared with 0.9% last year. But these numbers are extremely low and not considered statistically significant by experts. However, Yearley said it was definitely the case more youngsters were doing it. “I’d say it was split down the middle in terms of use, but young girls seemed to get messed up more on it,” he said. Jane, who is 19 and has sought help from Addaction, said she was doing six or seven grams a day at one stage. “It’s like mentally addictive when you’ve done it for some time; life is not normal unless you’ve sniffed a line of K.” Drugs Health Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Bordeaux prices are soaring as buyers in Hong Kong develop a taste for the famed French wine It is one of the most hotly debated topics in the world of wine: is the Bordeaux bubble about to burst? The price of one of France’s most celebrated wines has soared over the last 12 months as British buyers compete with an increasing number of Chinese oenophiles to snap up the all too precious cases of claret. With the likes of Chris de Burgh and Sir David Frost recently selling their Bordeaux collections for six-figure sums, attention has focused on the top-tier wines such as Château Lafite, cases of which are going for as much as £15,000. At the start of the year, Lord Lloyd-Webber sold off a large part of his cellar, including a 12-bottle lot of Château Pétrus 1982 for $77,564 (around £48,500). Berry Brothers recently sold three cases of the same vintage for £58,000 a case. A dozen bottles of a typical second-tier Bordeaux was selling for around £600 a year ago, according to Berry Brothers, the wine merchants, but is now going for anything up to £2,000. But experts say the demand for Bordeaux is now so great that even wines from less well known producers have seen prices rocket. A decision by the Hong Kong government to abolish wine and beer duties has fuelled the demand. Berry Brothers estimates that last year, of the £110m of Bordeaux it sold “en primeur” – while still in the barrel – some £30m worth went through Hong Kong, compared with just £10m the year before. With en primeur sales of the 2010 vintage, which was apparently a fantastic year, soon to take place, the company is anticipating substantial demand from Chinese buyers. “We’ve got fewer than 100 customers in China, so you can imagine what happens if more Chinese people get a thirst for Bordeaux,” said Simon Staples, sales and marketing director at Berry Brothers. Intriguingly, the demand among Chinese buyers is only for red wine and only for Bordeaux. “Burgundy is much more complicated, the knowledge among Chinese buyers isn’t there yet, whereas Bordeaux is much easier to understand,” Staples said. “They want red wine; it’s a male thing, it’s good for the heart, good for the libido.” Staples has remortgaged his home three times in the last 10 years (in 2000, 2005 and 2009) to buy Bordeaux. Last year he recommended that his mother-in-law buy five cases of a particular Bordeaux at £2,400. These are now selling for £7,800. Chateaux producing the wine have responded to the surge in interest, investing in sophisticated machinery and a more rigorous selection policy for their grapes. A taste among a new generation of drinkers to consume Bordeaux much earlier than their predecessors has been driven by an earlier ripening of the grapes, in part down to longer, hotter summers in France. Vineyards have also started to strip leaves to give grapes more sun while leaving them longer on the vine so they are softer and sweeter. “It’s coincided with a new style of Bordeaux,” said Adam Lechmere, the news editor at Decanter magazine. “The vintages are drinkable much younger. You used to have to lay them down for 15 years or so, but now they’re softer and don’t have such harsh tannins.” Staples is confident heightened global demand means Bordeaux prices will not fall even if the UK economy enters a double dip. But others are wary. “People who work in the City tell me this has all the hallmarks of a Bordeaux bubble,” Lechmere said. Wine China France Europe Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bordeaux prices are soaring as buyers in Hong Kong develop a taste for the famed French wine It is one of the most hotly debated topics in the world of wine: is the Bordeaux bubble about to burst? The price of one of France’s most celebrated wines has soared over the last 12 months as British buyers compete with an increasing number of Chinese oenophiles to snap up the all too precious cases of claret. With the likes of Chris de Burgh and Sir David Frost recently selling their Bordeaux collections for six-figure sums, attention has focused on the top-tier wines such as Château Lafite, cases of which are going for as much as £15,000. At the start of the year, Lord Lloyd-Webber sold off a large part of his cellar, including a 12-bottle lot of Château Pétrus 1982 for $77,564 (around £48,500). Berry Brothers recently sold three cases of the same vintage for £58,000 a case. A dozen bottles of a typical second-tier Bordeaux was selling for around £600 a year ago, according to Berry Brothers, the wine merchants, but is now going for anything up to £2,000. But experts say the demand for Bordeaux is now so great that even wines from less well known producers have seen prices rocket. A decision by the Hong Kong government to abolish wine and beer duties has fuelled the demand. Berry Brothers estimates that last year, of the £110m of Bordeaux it sold “en primeur” – while still in the barrel – some £30m worth went through Hong Kong, compared with just £10m the year before. With en primeur sales of the 2010 vintage, which was apparently a fantastic year, soon to take place, the company is anticipating substantial demand from Chinese buyers. “We’ve got fewer than 100 customers in China, so you can imagine what happens if more Chinese people get a thirst for Bordeaux,” said Simon Staples, sales and marketing director at Berry Brothers. Intriguingly, the demand among Chinese buyers is only for red wine and only for Bordeaux. “Burgundy is much more complicated, the knowledge among Chinese buyers isn’t there yet, whereas Bordeaux is much easier to understand,” Staples said. “They want red wine; it’s a male thing, it’s good for the heart, good for the libido.” Staples has remortgaged his home three times in the last 10 years (in 2000, 2005 and 2009) to buy Bordeaux. Last year he recommended that his mother-in-law buy five cases of a particular Bordeaux at £2,400. These are now selling for £7,800. Chateaux producing the wine have responded to the surge in interest, investing in sophisticated machinery and a more rigorous selection policy for their grapes. A taste among a new generation of drinkers to consume Bordeaux much earlier than their predecessors has been driven by an earlier ripening of the grapes, in part down to longer, hotter summers in France. Vineyards have also started to strip leaves to give grapes more sun while leaving them longer on the vine so they are softer and sweeter. “It’s coincided with a new style of Bordeaux,” said Adam Lechmere, the news editor at Decanter magazine. “The vintages are drinkable much younger. You used to have to lay them down for 15 years or so, but now they’re softer and don’t have such harsh tannins.” Staples is confident heightened global demand means Bordeaux prices will not fall even if the UK economy enters a double dip. But others are wary. “People who work in the City tell me this has all the hallmarks of a Bordeaux bubble,” Lechmere said. Wine China France Europe Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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