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How bizarre!
by Thanos Kalamidas
2011-10-02 09:25:51 |
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'Lost' Beethoven work to be aired
 A "lost" Beethoven movement is to be performed for the first time in more than 200 years, after being pieced together from early drafts. Beethoven wrote the slow movement for his string quartet Opus 18 Number Two in 1799 before discarding it and composing another version a year later. The original has not survived, but has now been reconstructed by Prof Barry Cooper of Manchester University.
He has reassembled the surviving sketches, filling in any gaps himself. Prof Cooper, one of the world's leading experts on the composer, said preliminary sketches from Beethoven's notebooks had survived for all 74 bars of the movement. But half of the bars were written for just one instrument, meaning Prof Cooper has completed the missing instrument parts himself.
"You've got a pretty good idea of what the music is like," he said. "The movement will certainly be strikingly similar to what Beethoven wrote. Obviously it can't possibly be exactly the same." The original movement was delivered to Beethoven's patron Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz in 1799 before being replaced with a revised version.
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$500 reward offered in 35 Georgia road signs turned upside down
 Oconee County authorities on Friday announced a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest in any case in which 35 road signs were turned upside down, creating a potentially deadly situation for northeast Georgia drivers. "We take this matter very seriously due to the potential devastating consequences such actions might cause," the sheriff's office said in an emailed statement. Oconee sheriff's officials say the signs were turned upside down and rebolted in place.
Oconee Roads Superintendent Michael Weathers tells the Athens Banner-Herald that the situation was "a mess" and created danger for drivers on Ruth Jackson Road in the Bogart area. "You have a 90-degree curve there, and with those signs facing the opposite way, instead of the direction they're supposed to be, if anyone came through and was not familiar with the road at night, they could have driven off an embankment and gone into a lake or the cemetery," he said.
Authorities say the vandalism happened during the late-night hours Sunday or early Monday. Sheriff Scott Berry said no suspects had been identified, "but we've got people working on it." "It's not funny. It's ridiculous," Berry said. "Those signs are there to save lives and reduce car crashes. It's not a joke."
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Travel firm bans over-80s in case they ‘spoil’ the fun for everyone else by being too slow
A holiday firm has banned anyone over 80 from joining its tours – because they ‘spoil’ the fun for everyone else. Martin Randall Travel said some clients had complained of how slow octogenarians were, holding up visits to sites and demanding too much help. The firm’s founder and owner, Martin Randall, admitted the ban was harsh but insisted it would stay in place – even if it meant the Queen, who is 85, and Sir Bruce Forsyth, 83, were among those left out. The 57-year-old said that, before the ban, three or four luxury trips a year were spoilt by customers unable to cope with the demands of travel.
‘It would take a long time to walk to the museums or archaeological sites because someone was so slow, and time at the attractions would be reduced,’ he added. ‘And tour leaders would find an unfair quantity of their time consumed by them.’ He said the only alternative to the ban would be asking people to come to the firm’s offices in Fulham, West London, and climb the stairs three times in five minutes. This, he said, would be inhumane and humiliating.
Last night Age UK said the ban seemed to be against the spirit of age discrimination laws and travellers should decide their capabilities themselves. Martin Randall Travel takes 3,500 clients a year on guided tours of cities and archaeological sites. Four nights abroad can cost as much as £2,700. Mr Randall, of Fulham in London, told the Daily Mail: ‘The suggestion that our policy is mindless discrimination really does anger me – it was introduced after 20 years of experience without a ban. ‘Before the ban, which started 14 years ago, three or four trips a year were spoilt by the presence of one or two people – the majority in their 80s - unable to cope with the demands of the tour. ‘We have had threats to take us to court as a result, because we failed to provide all of the visits promised in our brochure after adjusting the itinerary because someone was too slow.’
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Bridgewater state radio station allegedly threatened for not playing song requested by ex-student
 An angry ex-deejay jonesing for a specific tune took his aural frustration too far when he allegedly threatened to "shoot up" a Massachusetts college station if it didn't spin the record he wanted to hear.
Programmers at Bridgewater State University's campus station WBIM said a man called multiple times on Monday requesting a song that wasn't in their catalogue, according to the university police department.
After getting turned down for the last time, the mystery caller warned that he'd "bring a gun and shoot up the station" if they didn't broadcast a song by punk rockers Rufio, university police said in a statement. (Watch a music video of the band rocking out in an elevator below.) Cops checked the call logs and traced the cellular phone number to Alex Finnegan, a former disc jockey at WBIM who graduated in May,
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