H.R.Giger

Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer Hans Rudolf “Ruedi” Giger sadly passed away 12 May 2014. He was born 5 February 1940 in Chur, capital city of Graubünden, the largest and easternmost Swiss canton. His father, a chemist, viewed art as a “breadless profession” and strongly encouraged him to enter pharmaceutics, Giger recalls. Yet he moved in 1962 to Zürich, where he studied Architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970. Giger Started with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings. For most of his career, Giger has worked predominantly in airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nightmarish dreamscapes.

Gradually he abandoned large airbrush works and Stated working with pastels, markers or inks. His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship, he described as “biomechanical”. His paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs, Salvador Dalí and the American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, particularly his first compendium of images Necronomicon, he was also a personal friend of Timothy Leary. Giger suffered from night terrors and his paintings are all to some extent inspired by his experiences with that particular sleep disorder. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich (from 1962 to 1965) and made his first paintings as a means of art therapy.

Giger’s style and thematic execution have been influential. His design for the Alien was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II (1985) and the frequent appearance of his art in Omni magazine continued his rise to international prominence. Giger is also well known for artwork on several music recording albums.In 1998 Giger acquired the Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland, and it now houses the H. R. Giger Museum, a permanent repository of his work and was inducted to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013. During the 1960s and 1970s, Giger directed a number of films, including Swiss Made (1968),Tagtraum (1973), Giger’s Necronomicon (1975) and Giger’s Alien (1979). Giger has created furniture designs, particularly the Harkonnen Capo Chair for a movie of the novel Dune. Many years later, David Lynch directed the film, using only rough concepts by Giger. Giger had wished to work with Lynch. Giger has also applied his biomechanical style to interior design and a “Giger Bar” sprang up in Tokyo, Sadly though Within a few years, the establishment was out of business. However two more Giger Bars were built in Gruyères and Chur, under Giger’s close personal supervision and reflect his original concepts for them accurately.

At The Limelight in Manhattan, Giger’s artwork also decorates the VIP room, the uppermost chapel of the landmarked church, but it was never intended to be a permanent installation and As of 2009 only the two authentic Swiss Giger Bars remain. His art has greatly influenced tattooists and fetishists worldwide. Under a licensing deal Ibanez guitars released an H. R. Giger signature series: the Ibanez ICHRG2, an Ibanez Iceman, features “NY City VI”, the Ibanez RGTHRG1 has “NY City XI” printed on it, the S Series SHRG1Z has a metal-coated engraving of “Biomechanical Matrix” on it, and a 4-string SRX bass, SRXHRG1, has “N.Y. City X” on it. Giger is often referred to in pop culture, especially in science fiction and cyberpunk. William Gibson (who wrote an early script for Alien 3) seems particularly fascinated: a minor character in Virtual Light, Lowell, is described as having New York XXIV tattooed across his back, and in Idoru a secondary character, Yamazaki, describes the buildings of nanotech Japan as Giger-esque. Giger’s artwork continues to inspire film makers and artists alike and his work can be seen at the Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland, which houses the H. R. Giger Museum, a permanent repository of his work. Giger was also inducted to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013.

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Prolific American songwriter, record producer, pianist, singer and Composer Burt Bacharach was born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City Missouri. He grew up in the Forest Hills section of New York City, graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1946. Bacharach showed a keen interest in jazz as a teenager, disliking his classical piano lessons, and often using fake id to gain admission into 52nd Street nightclubs such as Spotlite, and listened avidly to bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Bacharach studied music (Bachelor of Music, 1948) at Montreal’s McGill University, under Helmut Blume, at the Mannes School of Music, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California where he studied a range of music, including jazz harmony. His composition teachers included Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, and Bohuslav Martinů.

Following a tour of duty in the United States Army, Bacharach worked as a pianist, both as a soloist and as an accompanist for singers such as Vic Damone, Polly Bergen, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Paula Stewart (who became his first wife). For some years, he was musical arranger for Marlene Dietrich, as well as touring as her musical director. In 1957, Bacharach and lyricist Hal David met each other while at the Brill Building.Almost a year later, they received a significant career breakthrough when their song “The Story of My Life” was recorded by Marty Robbins for Columbia Records, becoming a number 1 hit on the U.S. country music chart and reaching #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1957. Soon afterwards, “Magic Moments” was recorded by Perry Como for RCA Records, and became a number 4 U.S. hit in February of that year. These two songs were back-to-back No. 1 singles in the UK (“The Story of My Life” in a version by Michael Holliday). Bacharach also worked with other lyricists at first, including Bob Hilliard and Hal David’s brother, Mack David. Bacharach’s career was boosted when Calvin Carter,the chief of A&R at Vee-Jay Records, called saying that Jerry Butler wanted to do his song Make it Easy on Yourself.

During the 1960s, Bacharach wrote well over a hundred songs with David. He produced a number of songs on New York soul singer Lou Johnson, including the original recordings of “Always Something There To Remind Me”, “Kentucky Bluebird (Message To Martha)” and “Reach Out For Me”, but the two were mainly associated throughout the decade with Dionne Warwick, a conservatory-trained vocalist. Bacharach and David started writing a large portion of their work with Warwick in mind, leading to one of the most successful teams in popular music history. He also composed duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, The Carpenters, among numerous other artists. Over a 20-year period, Warwick charted 38 singles co-written or produced by Bacharach and David, including 22 Top 40, 12 Top 20 and nine Top 10 hits on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts. During the early 1960s, Bacharach also collaborated with Bob Hilliard on a number of songs, including “Please Stay” and “Mexican Divorce” for The Drifters, “Any Day Now” for Chuck Jackson, “Tower of Strength” for Gene McDaniels, and “Dreamin’ All the Time” and “Pick Up the Pieces” for Jack Jones. In 1965 Bacharach released his first solo album in 1965 . “Hit Maker! Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits” which included his version of “Trains and Boats and Planes”.

Other singers of Bacharach songs in the ’60s and ’70s included Bobby Vinton (“Blue on Blue”); Dusty Springfield (“The Look of Love” from Casino Royale), (a cover of Dionne Warwick’s “Wishin’ and Hopin’”); Cilla Black (a cover of Dionne Warwick’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart”), the Delfonics, and Cher (“Alfie” – originally recorded by Cilla Black); The Shirelles, The Beatles (“Baby, It’s You”); The Carpenters (“(They Long to Be Close to You”); Aretha Franklin (“I Say a Little Prayer”); Isaac Hayes (“Walk on By”, from the Hot Buttered Soul album); B. J. Thomas (“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”, “Everybody’s Out of Town”); Tom Jones (“What’s New Pussycat?”); Engelbert Humperdinck (“I’m a Better Man”); Sandie Shaw (“Always Something There to Remind Me”); Jack Jones (“Wives and Lovers”); Jackie DeShannon (“What the World Needs Now Is Love”); Gene Pitney (“Only Love Can Break a Heart”, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, “24 Hours from Tulsa” and “True Love Never Runs Smooth”); Herb Alpert, (“This Guy’s in Love with You”);[8] Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 (“The Look of Love”); The Stylistics, (“You’ll Never Get To Heaven If you Break My Heart”); Jerry Butler, the Walker Brothers (“Make It Easy on Yourself”); and the Fifth Dimension (“One Less Bell to Answer”).

Many Bacherach songs have been adapted by jazz artists, such as Stan Getz, Cal Tjader and Wes Montgomery. The Bacharach/ David composition “My Little Red Book”, originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What’s New Pussycat?, was promptly covered by Love in 1966. Bacharach composed and arranged the soundtrack of the 1967 film Casino Royale, which included “The Look of Love”, performed by Dusty Springfield, and the title song, an instrumental Top 40 single for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Bacharach and David also collaborated with Broadway producer David Merrick on the 1968 musical Promises, Promises, on the songs Promises Promises and I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”, for Dionne Warwick. In 1969 Bacharach-David collaborated on, the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”, from the acclaimed film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The two were awarded a Grammy for Best Cast album of the year for “Promises, Promises” and the score was also nominated for a Tony award. There were other Oscar nominations for Best Song for “The Look Of Love”, “What’s New Pussycat” and “Alfie”. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Bacharach continued to write and produce for artists, compose for stage, TV, and film, and release his own albums. In 1973, Bacharach and David were commissioned to score the disastrous revival of the 1937 film, Lost Horizon and Bacherach and David split acrimoniously. 

Bacharach tried several solo projects (including the 1977 album Futures). He and David reunited briefly in 1975 to write and produce Stephanie Mills’s second album For the First Time released on Motown Records.
By the early 1980s, Bacharach’s marriage to Angie Dickinson had ended, but a new partnership with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager He collaborated on several major hits during the decade, including “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (Christopher Cross); “Heartlight” (Neil Diamond); “Making Love” (Roberta Flack); “On My Own” (Patti LaBelle with Michael McDonald), and That’s What Friends Are For” in 1985, which reunited Bacharach and singer Warwick. The profits for the latter song were given to AIDS research. Other artists continued to revive Bacharach’s earlier hits in the 1980s and 1990s such as Luther Vandross’ recording of “A House is Not a Home”; Naked Eyes’ 1983 pop hit version of “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me”, and Ronnie Milsap’s 1982 country version of “Any Day Now”. Bacharach continued a concert career, appearing at auditoriums throughout the world, often with large orchestras. He occasionally joined Warwick for sold-out concerts in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

In 1990, Deacon Blue released an EP entitled “Four Bacharach & David Songs”, contains the song, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” . In 1996, jazz pianist McCoy Tyner recorded an album of nine Bacharach standards that featured Tyner’s trio with an orchestra arranged and conducted by John Clayton. In 1998, Bacharach co-wrote and recorded a Grammy-winning album with Elvis Costello, Painted from Memory, In 2006, he recorded a jazz album with Trijntje Oosterhuis and the Metropole Orchestra called The Look of Love (Burt Bacharach Songbook) Bacharach collaborated with Cathy Dennis in 2002 to write an original song for the Pop Idol winner Will Young. This was “What’s in Goodbye”, and it appears on Young’s debut album From Now On. In 2002, Young was a guest vocalist at two of Bacharach’s concerts, one at the Hammersmith Apollo and the other at Liverpool Pops.In 2003, he teamed with Ronald Isley to release the album Here I Am, Bacharach also released his 2005 solo album At This Time , Guest stars on the album included Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, and hip-hop producer Dr. Dre. In 2008 Bacharach opened the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse in London, performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra accompanied by guest vocalists Adele, Beth Rowley and Jamie Cullum. The concert was a retrospective look back at his six-decade career, including classics such as “Walk On By”, “The Look of Love”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, “What the World Needs Now Is Love”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa” and “Make It Easy on Yourself”, featuring Jamie Cullum. In early 2009, Bacharach worked with Italian soul singer Karima Ammar and produced her debut single Come In Ogni Ora.

Bacharach and David were awarded the 2011 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song bestowed by the Library of Congress, the first time that a songwriting team has been given the honor.David died the following year on September 1 at age 91. In 2015, Bacharach performed at the Glastonbury Festival UK and appeared on stage at the Menier Chocolate Factory to launch ‘What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined’. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bacharach was featured in a dozen TV musical and variety specials videotaped in the UK for ITC, several were nominated for Emmy awards for direction (by Dwight Hemion). The guests included artists such as Joel Grey, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, and Barbra Streisand. Bacharach and David did the score for an original musical for ABC-TV titled On the Flip Side, starring Ricky Nelson as a faded pop star trying for a comeback. In 1969, Harry Betts arranged Bacharach’s instrumental composition “Nikki” (named after Bacharach’s daughter) into a new theme for the ABC Movie of the Week, a TV series which ran on the U.S. network until 1976.During the 1970s, Bacharach and then-wife Angie Dickinson appeared in several TV commercials for Martini & Rossi beverages, Bacharach also occasionally appeared on TV/variety shows, such as The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and many others.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Bacharach had cameo roles in Hollywood movies, including all three Austin Powers movies. His music is credited as providing inspiration for these movies, partially stemming from Bacharach’s score for the 1967 James Bond parody film Casino Royale. During subsequent Bacharach concert tours, each show would open with a very brief video clip from the movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, with Mike Myers (as Austin Powers) uttering “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach.” Bacharach appeared as a celebrity performer and guest vocal coach for contestants on the television show, “American Idol” during the 2006 season. In late 2006, Bacharach appeared as the celebrity in a Geico auto insurance commercial. In 2008, Bacharach featured in the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse with the BBC Concert Orchestra and performed similar shows at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. As of 2014, Bacharach had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. His autobiography, Anyone Who Had a Heart, was published in 2013. Burt bacharach sadly died, On 8 February 2023 at the age of 93 but left a rich legacy.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

English Poet, illustrator and translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti was Born 12 May 1828 Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended King’s College School, in its original location near the Strand. He also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. He studied at Henry Sass’s Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845 when he enrolled at the Antique School of the Royal Academy, leaving in 1848. After leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life. Following the exhibition of William Holman Hunt’s painting The Eve of St. Agnes, which illustrated a poem by John Keats, he Became friends with Hunt and together with John Everett Millais, they developed the artistic philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood whose intention it was to reform English art by rejecting what they considered to be the mechanistic approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo and the formal training regime introduced by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art. For the first issue of the brotherhood’s magazine, The Germ, published early in 1850, Rossetti contributed a poem, “The Blessed Damozel”, and a story about a fictional early Italian artist inspired by a vision of a woman who bids him combine the human and the divine in his art.

Rossetti was always more interested in the medieval than in the modern side of the movement, working on translations of Dante and other medieval Italian poets, and adopting the stylistic characteristics of the early Italians. He started out painting in oils with water-colour brushes, as thinly as in water-colour, on canvas which he had primed with white till the surface was a smooth as cardboard, and every tint remained transparent. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, but acting purely from the aesthetic motive. The mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity.

After recieving criticism for his second major painting, Ecce Ancilla Domini, exhibited in 1850, Rossetti turned to watercolours. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin. For many years, Rossetti worked on English translations of Italian poetry including Dante Alighieri’s La Vita Nuova . These and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur inspired his art of the 1850s. He created a method of painting in watercolours, using thick pigments mixed with gum to give rich effects similar to medieval illuminations. He also developed a novel drawing technique in pen-and-ink. His first published illustration was “The Maids of Elfen-Mere” (1855), for a poem by his friend William Allingham. Rossetti also painted the upper wall of the Oxford Union debating-hall with scenes from Le Morte d’Arthur and to decorate the roof between the open timbers. Seven artists were recruited,and the work was hastily begun and they are now barely visible. Rossetti also contributed two illustrations to the 1857 edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Poems and illustrations for works by his sister Christina Rossetti.His visions of Arthurian romance and medieval design also inspired William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones who were much influenced by his works, and met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their Oxford and Cambridge Magazine which Promoted his ideas about art and poetry.

Around 1860, Rossetti returned to oil painting, abandoning the dense medieval of the 1850s in favour of powerful close-up images of women in flat pictorial spaces characterised by dense colour. These paintings became a major influence on the development of the European Symbolist movement. Rossetti’s depiction of women became almost obsessively stylised. He portrayed his new lover Fanny Cornforth as the epitome of physical eroticism, whilst Jane Burden, the wife of his business partner William Morris, was glamorised as an ethereal goddess. “As in Rossetti’s previous reforms, the new kind of subject appeared, These new works were based on the Italian High Renaissance artists of Venice, Titian and Veronese.In 1861, Rossetti became a founding partner in the decorative arts firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. with Morris, Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, Philip Webb, Charles Faulkner and Peter Paul Marshall.

Rossetti contributed designs for stained glass and other decorative objects. Sadly Rossetti’s wife Elizabeth Siddal died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn child. Rossetti became increasingly depressed, and on the death of his beloved Lizzie, buried the bulk of his unpublished poems with her at Highgate Cemetery, though he later had them dug up. He idealised her image as Dante’s Beatrice in a number of paintings, such as Beata Beatrix. Rossetti lived in Chelsea for 20 years surrounded by extravagant furnishings and a parade of exotic birds and animals and was fascinated with wombats, frequently visiting the “Wombat’s Lair” at the London Zoo in Regent’s Park. In September 1869 he acquired the first of two pet wombats, which he named “Top”. Rossetti’s fascination with exotic animals continued throughout his life, culminating in the purchase of a llama and a toucan.

Rossetti also maintained Fanny Cornforth (described delicately by William Allington as Rossetti’s “housekeeper” inher own establishment nearby in Chelsea, and painted many voluptuous images of her. In 1865 he discovered auburn-haired Alexa Wilding, a dressmaker and would-be actress who was engaged to model for him on a full-time basis and sat for The Blessed Damozel and other paintings. Rossetti also used Jane Morris, as a model for the Oxford Union murals he painted with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857, and she also sat for him during these years, she “consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life”. Rossetti was requested by Charles Augustus Howell, to exhume his poems from his wife’s grave which he did, collating and publishing them in 1870 in the volume Poems by D. G. Rossetti. This included the poems Nuptial Sleep, the House of Life and The Ballad of Dead Ladies which all created offence and controversy With their eroticism and sensuality but became Rossetti’s most substantial literary achievement. In 1881, Rossetti published a second volume of poems, Ballads and Sonnets, which included the remaining sonnets from The House of Life sequence. Unfortunately The savage reaction of critics to Rossetti’s first collection of poetry contributed to a mental breakdown in June 1872.

After he recovered he began creating a soulful series of dream-like portraits featuring Alexa Wilding and Jane Morris. He spent his last days at Cheyne Walk battling depression , exacerbated by his drug addiction to chloral hydrate and increasing mental instability, until finally On Easter Sunday, 1882, he died at the country house of a friend, where he had gone in a vain attempt to recover his health, which had been destroyed by chloral as his wife’s had been destroyed by laudanum. Rossetti sadly passed away 9 April 1882 of Brights Disease, a disease of the kidneys from which he had been suffering for some time. He is buried at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England. His work influenced went on to influence many including the European Symbolists and the Aesthetic movement. Rossetti’s art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats. Among his most famous paintings are he Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849) and Astarte Syriaca (1877). He also created art to illustrate poems such as Goblin Market by his sister, the celebrated poet Christina Rossetti.

International nurses day

International Nurses’ Day is celebrated annually on 12 May to mark the contributions nurses make to society, in addition International Nurses’ week (IND) is also celebrated around the world in early May of each year. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has celebrated this day since 1965. In 1953 Dorothy Sutherland, an official with the US. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, proposed that President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaim a “Nurses’ Day”; he did not approve it.In January 1974, 12 May was chosen to celebrate the day as it is the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, who is widely considered the founder of modern nursing. Each year, ICN prepares and distributes the International Nurses’ Day Kit.

The kit contains educational and public information materials, for use by nurses everywhere.In 1999 the British public sector union UNISON voted to ask the ICN to transfer this day to another date, saying Nightingale does not represent modern nursing. As of 1998, 8 May was designated as annual National Student Nurses’ Day. As of 2003, the Wednesday within National Nurses Week, between 6 and 12 May, is National School Nurse Day. Each year a service is held in Westminster Abbey in London. During the Service, a symbolic lamp is taken from the Nurses’ Chapel in the Abbey and handed from one nurse to another, thence to the Dean, who places it on the High Altar. This signifies the passing of knowledge from one nurse to another. At St Margaret’s Church at East Wellow in Hampshire, where Florence Nightingale is buried, a service is also held on the Sunday after her birthday.

ME/CFS Fibromyalgia International awareness day

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day takes place annually on May 12. The purpose of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day is to educate the public and healthcare professionals concerning the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of ME/CFS, as well as the need for a better understanding of this complex illness. This date was chosen because it is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who had a disease with an infection-associated onset that could have been a neuroimmune disease such as ME/CF

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/ myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), is a medical condition characterized by long-term fatigue and other persistent symptoms that limit a person’s ability to carry out ordinary daily activities. Although the cause is not understood, causes may include biological, genetic, infectious, and psychological. Diagnosis is based on a person’s symptoms because there is no confirmed diagnostic test. The fatigue in CFS is not due to strenuous ongoing exertion, is not much relieved by rest and is not due to a previous medical condition. Fatigue is a common symptom in many illnesses, but the unexplained fatigue and severity of functional impairment in CFS is comparatively rare. The symptoms of CFS may include:

• Reduced ability to participate in activities that were routine before the onset of the condition,
• Increased Difficulty with Physical or mental activity
• Sleep problems
• Difficulty with thinking and remembering
• Difficulty standing or sitting
• Muscle pain, joint pain, and headache
• Tender lymph nodes in the neck or armpits
• Sore throat
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Night sweats
• Sensitivities to foods, odors, chemicals, or noise.

The functional capacity of individuals with CFS varies greatly. Some persons with CFS lead relatively normal lives; others are totally bed-ridden and unable to care for themselves, work, school, and family activities can be significantly reduced for extended periods of time with many people experiencing strongly disabling chronic pain leading to critical reductions in levels of physical activities. Symptoms are comparable to other fatiguing medical conditions including late-stage AIDS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and end-stage kidney disease. CFS may also affect a person’s functional status and well-being more than major medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis, congestive heart failure, or type II diabetes mellitus. Often, People may feel better for a period and may overextend their activities, and the result can be a worsening of their symptoms with a relapse of the illness. People with CFS have decreased quality of life, with regard to vitality, physical functioning, general health, physical role and social functioning. Mental agility, Memory, reactions and cognitive functions may also be effected.

There is no cure, with treatment being symptomatic. No medications or procedures have been approved in the United States. Evidence suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a gradual increase in activity suited to individual capacity can be beneficial in some cases. In a systematic review of exercise therapy, no evidence of serious adverse effects was found, however data was insufficient to form a conclusion Some patient support groups have criticized the use of CBT and graded exercise therapy (GET). Tentative evidence supports the use of the medication rintatolimod. This evidence, however, was deemed insufficient to approve sales for CFS treatment in the United States. CFS has a negative effect on health, happiness and productivity, but there is also controversy over many aspects of the disorder. Physicians, researchers and patient advocates promote different names and diagnostic criteria, while evidence for proposed causes and treatments is often contradictory or of low quality.

Florence Nightingale OM RRC

Celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was born 12 May 1820 at the Villa Colombaia, near the Porta Romana at Bellosguardo in Florence, Italy, and was named after the city of her birth. Inspired by a call from God she announced her decision to enter nursing in 1844, and rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, .In Rome she met Sidney Herbert, a brilliant politician who was instrumental in facilitating Nightingale’s nursing work in the Crimea, and she became a key adviser to him in his political career. Later in 1850, she visited a Lutheran religious community where she observed The Pastor and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. , based on this experience She published her first book The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, and also received four months of medical training at the institute which formed the basis for her later career.

Florence Nightingale’s most famous contribution came during the Crimean War, which became her central focus in changing the horrific conditions present. On 21 October 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, were sent to the Ottoman Empire, approx. 546 km (339 miles) across the Black Sea from Balaklava in the Crimea, where the main British camp was based. She arrived early in November 1854 and found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medicines were in short supply, hygiene was neglected, conditions were unsanitory, and there was no equipment to process food for the patients.This prompted Nightingale to send a plea to The Times for the government to produce a solution to the poor conditions, the British Government commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to design a prefabricated hospital, which could be built in England and shipped to the Dardanelles. The result was Renkioi Hospital, a civilian facility which under the management of Dr Edmund Alexander Parkes had a death rate less than 1/10th that of Scutari. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was asserted that Nightingale reduced the death rate from 42% to 2% either by making improvements in hygiene herself or by calling for the Sanitary Commission. .

During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds.Conditions at the temporary barracks hospital were so fatal because of overcrowding, defective sewers and lack of ventilation. A Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March 1855, and effected flushing out the sewers and improvements to ventilation. Death rates were sharply reduced. During the war she did not recognise hygiene as the predominant cause of death, and she never claimed credit for helping to reduce the death rate. Nightingale continued believing the death rates were due to poor nutrition and supplies and overworking of the soldiers. It was not until after she returned to Britain and began collecting evidence before the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army that she realised most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions and advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced deaths in the army during peacetime and turned attention to the sanitary design of hospitals. During the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale gained the nickname “The Lady with the Lamp”, deriving from a phrase in a report in The Times and The phrase was further popularised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1857 poem “Santa Filomena”.

While she was in the Crimea, the Nightingale Fund for the training of nurses was established. Nightingale pioneered medical tourism as well, and wrote of spas in the Ottoman Empire, and directed less well off patients there (where treatment was cheaper than in Switzerland). Nightingale also set up the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital. (Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London.) and campaigned for the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury. She also wrote Notes on Nursing, a slim 136-page book that served as the cornerstone of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other nursing schools,and though written specifically for the education of those nursing at home, it sold well to the general reading public and is considered a classic introduction to nursing.

Nightingale was an advocate for the improvement of care and conditions in the military and civilian hospitals in Britain. One of her biggest achievements was the introduction of trained nurses into the workhouse system from the 1860s onwards. This meant that sick paupers were now being cared for by properly trained nursing staff and was the forerunner of the National Health Service in Britain. By 1882, Nightingale nurses had a growing and influential presence in the embryonic nursing profession. Some had become matrons at leading hospitals, including, in London, St Mary’s Hospital, Westminster Hospital, St Marylebone Workhouse Infirmary and the Hospital for Incurables at Putney, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; Cumberland Infirmary and Liverpool Royal Infirmary, as well as at Sydney Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. In 1883, Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria. In 1904, she was appointed a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John (LGStJ) and in 1907, she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. In 1908, she was given the Honorary Freedom of the City of London.

Florence Nightingale sadly Passed away on 13th August 1910, however She laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, the first nursing school in the world, now part of King’s College London and her contributions to medical science, nursing care and sanitary conditions have improved hospitals the world over and are still in use today and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday which is also celebrated as International CFS Awareness Day.

Edward Lear

Renowned for humourous poetry, prose and limericks, the British artist, illustrator, author, and poet Edward Lear was born 12 May 1812 in the village of Holloway, and was raised by his eldest sister, 21 years his senior. Due to the family’s failing financial fortune, at age four he and his sister had to leave the family home and set up house together. Ann doted on Edward and continued to mother him until her death, when he was almost 50 years of age. Lear suffered from health problems. From the age of six he suffered frequent grand mal epileptic seizures, and bronchitis, asthma, and in later life, partial blindness. Lear experienced his first seizure at a fair near Highgate with his father this event scared and embarrassed him. Lear felt lifelong guilt and shame for his epileptic condition. His adult diaries indicate that he always sensed the onset of a seizure in time to remove himself from public view. How Lear was able to anticipate them is not known, but many people with epilepsy report a ringing in their ears (tinnitus) or an aura before the onset of a seizure. In Lear’s time epilepsy was believed to be associated with demonic possession, which contributed to his feelings of guilt and loneliness. When Lear was about seven he began to show signs of depression, possibly due to the constant instability of his childhood. He suffered from periods of severe depression which he referred to as “the Morbids.

Lear was already drawing by the time he was aged 16 and soon developed into a serious “ornithological draughtsman” employed by the Zoological Society and then from 1832 to 1836 by the Earl of Derby, who kept a private menagerie at his estate Knowsley Hall. Lear’s first publication, published when he was 19 years old, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830.His paintings were well received and he was compared favourably with the naturalist John James Audubon.He was also widely travelled and visited Greece and Egypt during 1848–49, and toured India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during 1873–75. While travelling he produced large quantities of coloured wash drawings in a distinctive style, which he converted later in his studio into oil and watercolour paintings, as well as prints for his books.His landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour. Throughout his life he continued to paint seriously. He had a lifelong ambition to illustrate Tennyson’s poems; near the end of his life a volume with a small number of illustrations was published

In 1846 Lear published A Book of Nonsense, a volume of limericks that went through three editions and helped popularize the form. In 1865 The History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipple-Popple was published, and in 1867 his most famous piece of nonsense, The Owl and the Pussycat, which he wrote for the children of his patron Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Many other works followed. Lear’s nonsense books were quite popular during his lifetime, but a rumor developed that “Edward Lear” was merely a pseudonym, and the books’ true author was the man to whom Lear had dedicated the works, his patron the Earl of Derby. Promoters of this rumour offered as evidence the facts that both men were named Edward, and that “Lear” is an anagram of “Earl.” Lear travelled widely throughout his life and eventually settled in Sanremo, on his beloved Mediterranean coast, in the 1870s, at a villa he named “Villa Tennyson.” The closest he came to marriage was two proposals, both to the same woman 46 years his junior, which were not accepted. For companions he relied instead on a circle of friends and correspondents, and especially, in later life, on his Albanian Souliote chef, Giorgis, a faithful friend and, as Lear complained, a thoroughly unsatisfactory chef. Another trusted companion in Sanremo was his cat, Foss, who died in 1886 and was buried with some ceremony in a garden at Villa Tennyson.

Lear’s most fervent and painful friendship involved Franklin Lushington, a young barrister he met in Malta in 1849 Before touring southern Greece with him. Lear developed an undoubtedly homosexual passion for him that Lushington did not reciprocate. Although they remained friends for almost forty years, until Lear’s death, the disparity of their feelings for one another constantly tormented Lear. Indeed, none of Lear’s attempts at male companionship were successful; the very intensity of Lear’s affections seemingly doomed the relationships. The closest he came to marriage with a woman was two proposals, both to the same person 46 years his junior, which were not accepted. For companions he relied instead on friends and correspondents, and especially, during later life, on his Albanian Souliote chef, Giorgis, a faithful friend and, as Lear complained, a thoroughly unsatisfactory chef. Another trusted companion in Sanremo was his cat, Foss, who died in 1886 and was buried with some ceremony in a garden at Villa Tennyson.

Lear eventually settled in San Remo, on his beloved Mediterranean coast, in the 1870s, at a villa he named “Villa Tennyson.” Lear was known to introduce himself with a long pseudonym: “Mr Abebika kratoponoko Prizzikalo Kattefello Ablegorabalus Ableborinto phashyph” or “Chakonoton the Cozovex Dossi Fossi Sini Tomentilla Coronilla Polentilla Battledore & Shuttlecock Derry down Derry Dumps” which he based on Aldiborontiphoskyphorniostikos. Sadly After a long decline in his health, Lear died at his villa on 29 January 1888, of heart disease. Lear’s funeral was said to be a sad, lonely affair by the wife of Dr. Hassall, Lear’s physician, with none of Lear’s many lifelong friends being able to attend. Lear is buried in the Cemetery Foce in San Remo. The centenary of his death was marked in Britain with a set of Royal Mail stamps in 1988 and an exhibition at the Royal Academy. Lear’s birthplace area is now marked with a plaque at Bowman’s Mews, Islington, in London

BAFTA 2024

The TV BAFTA award ceremony take place on May 12. 2024. Hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan at the London’s Royal Festival Hall. The sixth series of royal drama The Crown has received eight nominations across the board, after the concluding series focused on the death of Princess Diana. Black Mirror has been awarded seven nominations for its episode Demon 79, Meanwhile, Happy Valley, Slow Horses and The Sixth Commandment have all received six nods each. tars in the running for the Leading Actress gong include Anjana Vasan for Black Mirror, Anne Reid in the Sixth Commandment, Bella Ramsey for The Last Of Us, Helena Bonham Carter for Nolly, Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley and Sharon Horgan for her role in Best Interests. In the Leading Actor category, Brian Cox has been nominated for Succession, Dominic West for The Crown, Kane Robinson for Top Boy, Paapa Essiedu for The Lazarus, Steve Coogan for The Reckoning and Timothy Spall in The Sixth Commandment. Meanwhile Amit Shaah (Happy Valley) Eanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment), Harris Dickinson (A Murder at the End of the World, Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), Matthew Macfadyen (Succession), Salim Daw (The Crown) have all been nominated for best supporting actor

Leading actress

Anjana Vasan, Demon 79 (Black Mirror) – Netflix

Anne Reid, The Sixth Commandment – BBC One

Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us – Sky Atlantic

Helena Bonham Carter, Nolly – ITVX

Sarah Lancashire, Happy Valley – BBC One

Sharon Horgan, Best Interests – BBC One

Leading actor

Brian Cox, Succession – Sky Atlantic

Dominic West, The Crown – Netflix

Kane Robinson, Top Boy – Netflix

Paapa Essiedu, The Lazarus Project – Sky Max

Steve Coogan, The Reckoning – BBC One

Timothy Spall, The Sixth Commandment – BBC One

Supporting actress

Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown – Netflix

Harriet Walter, Succession – Sky Atlantic

Jasmine Jobson, Top Boy – Netflix

Lesley Manville, The Crown – Netflix

Nico Parker, The Last of Us – Sky Atlantic

Siobhan Finneran, Happy Valley – BBC One

Supporting actor

Amit Shah, Happy Valley – BBC One

Éanna Hardwicke, The Sixth Commandment – BBC One

Harris Dickinson, A Murder at the End of the World – Disney+

Jack Lowden, Slow Horses – Apple TV+

Matthew Macfadyen, Succession – Sky Atlantic

Salim Daw, The Crown – Netflix

Female performance in a comedy

Bridget Christie, The Change – Channel 4

Gbemisola Ikumelo, Black Ops – BBC One

Máiréad Tyers, Extraordinary – Disney+

Roisin Gallagher, The Lovers – Sky Atlantic

Sofia Oxenham, Extraordinary – Disney+

Taj Atwal, Hullraisers – Channel 4

Male performance in a comedy

Adjani Salmon, Dreaming Whilst Black – BBC Three

David Tennant, Good Omens – Prime Video

Hammed Animashaun, Black Ops – BBC One

Jamie Demetriou, A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou – Netflix

Joseph Gilgun, Brassic – Sky Max

Mawaan Rizwan, Juice – BBC Three

Drama series

The Gold – BBC One

Happy Valley – BBC One

Slow Horses – Apple TV+

Top Boy – Netflix

Limited drama

Best Interests – BBC One

Demon 79 (Black Mirror) – Netflix

The Long Shadow – ITV1

The Sixth Commandment – BBC One

Scripted comedy

Big Boys – Channel 4

Dreaming Whilst Black – BBC Three

Extraordinary – Disney+

Such Brave Girls – BBC Three

Soap

Casualty – BBC One

EastEnders – BBC One

Emmerdale – ITV1

Entertainment programme

Hannah Waddingham: Home For Christmas – Apple TV+

Later… With Jools Holland – BBC Two

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show – BBC One

Strictly Come Dancing – BBC One

Entertainment performance

Anthony McPartlin & Declan Donnelly, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – ITV1

Big Zuu, Big Zuu’s Big Eats – Dave

Graham Norton, The Graham Norton Show – BBC One

Hannah Waddingham, Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – BBC One

Joe Lycett, Late Night Lycett – Channel 4

Rob Beckett & Romesh Ranganathan, Rob & Romesh Vs – Sky Max

Comedy entertainment programme

The Graham Norton Show – BBC One

Late Night Lycett – Channel 4

Rob & Romesh Vs – Sky Max

Would I Lie To You? – BBC One

Factual entertainment

Celebrity Race Across The World – BBC One

The Dog House – Channel 4

Endurance: Race To The Pole – Channel 5

Portrait Artist of the Year – Sky Arts

Reality

Banged Up – Channel 4

Married At First Sight UK – E4

My Mum, Your Dad – ITV1

Squid Game: The Challenge – Netflix

Daytime

Loose Women and Men – ITV1

Lorraine – ITV1

Make It At Market – BBC One

Scam Interceptors – BBC One

International

The Bear – Disney+

Beef – Netflix

Class Act – Netflix

The Last of Us – Sky Atlantic

Love & Death – ITVX

Succession – Sky Atlantic

Live event coverage

The Coronation Concert – BBC One

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – BBC One

Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance – BBC One

Current affairs

Inside Russia: Traitors And Heroes (Storyville) – BBC Four

Putin Vs The West – BBC Two

Russell Brand: In Plain Sight (Dispatches) – Channel 4

The Shamima Begum Story (This World) – BBC Two

Single documentary

David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived – Sky Documentaries

Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family – ITV1

Hatton – Sky Crime

Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris – Netflix

Factual series

Dublin Narcos – Sky Documentaries

Evacuation – Channel 4

Lockerbie – Sky Documentaries

Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland – BBC Two

Specialist factual

Chimp Empire – Netflix

The Enfield Poltergeist – Apple TV+

Forced Out – Sky Documentaries

White Nanny, Black Child – Channel 5

News coverage

Inside Gaza: Israel And Hamas At War – Channel 4 News

Inside Myanmar – The Hidden War – Sky News

Israel-Hamas War – Sky News

Sports coverage

Cheltenham Festival Day One – ITV1

MOTD Live: Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 – BBC One

Wimbledon 2023 Men’s Final – BBC One

Memorable moment

Beckham, David teases Victoria about her ‘working class’ upbringing – Netflix

Doctor Who, Ncuti Gatwa revealed as the 15th Doctor – BBC One

Happy Valley, Catherine Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce’s final kitchen showdown – BBC One

The Last of Us, Bill and Frank’s Story – Sky Atlantic

The Piano, 13-year-old Lucy stuns commuters with jaw dropping piano performance – Channel 4

Succession, Logan Roy’s death – Sky Atlantic

Short form

Mobility – BBC Three

The Skewer: Three Twisted Years – BBC iPlayer

Stealing Ukraine’s Children: Inside Russia’s Camps – Vice News

Where It Ends – BBC Three

Writer: Comedy

Jack Rooke, Big Boys – Channel 4

Jamie Demetriou, A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou – Netflix

Kat Sadler, Such Brave Girls – BBC Three

Mawaan Rizwan, Juice – BBC Three

Writer: Drama

Charlie Brooker & Bisha K Ali, Demon 79 (Black Mirror) – Netflix

Jesse Armstrong, Succession – Sky Atlantic

Sally Wainwright, Happy Valley – BBC One

Sarah Phelps, The Sixth Commandment – BBC One

Eurovision Song Contest 2024

The grand final of the camp glittery Eurovision song contest takes place in Malmö Sweden, on 11 May 2024, Twenty-five countries will compete to win. Hosted live from the Malmö Arena by Swedish-American actor Malin Åkerman and Eurovision veteran Petra Mede. Plus Narration by Graham Norton., Netherlands contestant Joost Klein, has been disqualified from the competition following an “incident” that occurred after Thursday’s semi-final after a complaint of threatening behaviour was made by a female member of the show’s production crew towards Klein. Anti-Israel sentiment is also high with Israeli competitor Eden Golan receiving threats and  thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in Malmö, to protest.

Cork-born, London-based singer Bambie Thug, is one of the favourites to win, with the electro-metal song “Doomsday Blue”. The current favourite Baby Lasagna will perform his outlandish “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” on behalf of Croatia, while Finnish entrant Windows95Man will sing the song “No Rules!” Ukraine’s duo Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil will perform their moving anthem “Teresa & Maria” Nemo will perform Switzerland’s operatic song “The Code”

1. Sweden | Marcus & Martinus – “Unforgettable”

2. Ukraine | alyona alyona & Jerry Heil – “Teresa & Maria”

3. Germany | ISAAK – “Always On The Run”

4. Luxembourg | TALI – “Fighter”

5. Netherlands | Joost – EuropApa” DISQUALIFIED

6. Israel | Eden Golan – “Hurricane”

7. Lithuania | Silvester Belt – “Luktelk”

8. Spain | Nebulossa – “ZORRA”

9. Estonia | 5MIINUST x Puuluup – “(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi”

10. Ireland | Bambie Thug – “Doomsday Blue”

11. Latvia | Dons – “Hollow”

12. Greece | Marina Satti – “ZARI”

13. United Kingdom | Olly Alexander – “Dizzy”

14. Norway | Gåte – “Ulveham”

15. Italy | Angelina Mango – “La Noia”

16. Serbia | TEYA DORA – “RAMONDA”

17. Finland | Windows95man – “No Rules!”

18. Portugal | iolanda – “Grito”

19. Armenia | LADANIVA – “Jako”

20. Cyprus | Silia Kapsis – “Liar”

21. Switzerland | Nemo – “The Code”

22. Slovenia | Raven – “Veronika”

23. Croatia | Baby Lasagne – Rim-tim-tagi-digi

24. Georgia | Nutsa Buzaladze – Firefighter

25. France | Slimane – Mon Amore

Doctor Who -Space Babies

The latest Doctor Who episode Space Babies begins at the end of “The Church on Ruby Road,” with the Doctor’s latest companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), entering the TARDIS for the first time. The Doctor introduces himself as an alien, adopted by the Time Lords of Gallifrey, quasi-immortal time travelers who can go anywhere in the universe. 

The Doctor’s takes Ruby to a space station in the far future, where they find themselves being chased by something sinister in the bowels of the Space Station. They Discover that they are on a baby making Space station, which has apparently been abandoned due to a financial crisis, after The government of the planet below pulled funding for the stations and ordered the adults to leave. however Because the planet is anti-abortion, they won’t terminate the as-yet unborn babies, preferring to let them die slowly from external factors while leaving the Station operational.

They discover that the Space station is now being run by talking space babies with the minds of preschoolers and the mouths of adults. They are growing babies  on the space station for colony projects by using an ingenious system of pulleys and cables letting them control specific onboard functions, and smart strollers to carry them around. The only other presence on the ship is an AI, NAN-E, which acts as a comforting voice for the kids. who turns out to be a person. Jocelyn Sancerre (Golda Rosheuvel) is the last adult crew member, who stayed on the station to care for the children.

However the Doctor and Ruby Discover that The bowels of the vessel are being stalked by an eyeless, teeth-heavy and rather disgusting monster called The Bogeyman. So The Doctor and Ruby hatch a plan to save the babies, by taking them to another planet in the system. However Eric, one of the, space babies takes matters into his own hands and decides to head down to the lower level to tackle this terrifying bogeyman himself…..

Dr Who – The Devil’s Chord

The Devils Chord Begins in a concert hall in 1925 as a teacher outlines the basics of music theory for a young child. He shows off that he has “discovered” The Devil’s Chord unfortunately by playing it, he unwittingly unleashes the evil Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon),  godlike elemental force who is the embodiment of music, who After praising the musician for their genius, sucks the music out of their heart and eats it.

The pair sneak into George Martin’s producer’s booth in 1963 to watch The Beatles  rehearsing but quickly spot something is wrong when The Beatles do not play any of Please Please Me. Next door, famous British singer / TV presenter, Cilla Black is similarly stricken, as is a concert orchestra. After investigating further The Doctor uncovers a sinister individual, called The Maestro who has spent the last few decades swallowing all of the music out of people’s hearts. So The Doctor and Ruby set about luring the Maestro into a trap. Ruby plays a tune she wrote to help a friend get over a breakup. Maestro arrives and causes chaos before outlining a diabolical plan to rid the universe of music. so the Doctor and Ruby confront Maestro but find the walls of reality collapsing around them….