I was excited to come across this page on N24.de, the website of one of Germany's two main 24-hour news channels. (The other one's n-tv). It looks like a selection of BBC-style blogs by the people we see on the box.How wrong I was. The whole point of blogs, as I hope to be demonstrating with this series, is that they need to be frequently updated and timely. So why haven't the 24ers added any posts to the "Reporters" section since August? They seem to have got some good catches there – Katrin Sandmann, as her online CV proudly tells us, has been a correspondent in Jerusalem, Amman and Baghdad. So why aren't we hearing from her? The only real blog on the site that seems to be active is Political Editor Michaela May's May Blog, but it reads like a few rushed pieces of incoherent smalltalk.The blogosphere has been a huge plus for the media in Britain and revolutionised the way some of us approach the press. How long's it going to take for N24 to realise its importance?
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A Professor of Diabetic Medicine at Oxford has been recognised in Japan for his research into the medical condition.

Professor Rury Holman, founder of the Diabetics Trial Unit, was awarded the ‘Outstanding Foreign Investigation Award’ by the Japan Society of Diabetic Complications after launching two major studies: the ongoing

4-T trial compares the safety of insulin treatments for those suffering from Type 2 diabetes, whilst the UK Prospective Diabetes Study assessed over 5000 patients, with its findings providing more insight into how the condition can be controlled. Professor Holman said that he was ‘delighted’ on receiving his award. 

by Katherine Hall
 

A drug prescribed for decades to help reduce blood pressure may develop into an important treatment for MS, say researchers at Oxford University. 

Amiloride was found to reduce degeneration of nerve tissue in mice by limiting the amount of calcium entering cells and the research team are now planning a trial in MS patients.  However, Professor Lars Fugger from the Medical Research Council Human Immunology Unit said that progress will be slow. 
“To develop a drug from scratch takes 10-15 years and a billion dollars and some of them are abruptly halted by unexpected side effects”, he warned.by Joshua Harris 

A new Centre for Early Modern Studies was launched this week at a reception in Jesus College. 
The Centre, based in the English faculty, brings together specialists in a range of disciplines including English, history, theology, music and oriental studies to promote research and study in the Early Modern period.  A conference on ‘Rethinking the Early Modern’ is planned for Trinity term and the Centre is keen to develop greater graduate involvement. 
Dr Paulina Kewes, Fellow in English Literature at Jesus, said that the Centre offers “significant intellectual as well as career-development opportunities” for students.
 
by Joshua Harris
 

The Universities of Oxford and Bangor have together launched a million pound study into a new therapy designed to help prevent patients relapsing into suicidal depression. Rebecca Crane, of the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice, said that the team was “optimistic” of establishing a new preventative approach to tackling depression. The treatment, based on ‘mindfulness’, encourages individuals to accept emotions and to approach experiences with openness in order to reduce stress. The therapy is to be trialled in both Oxford and North Wales.

by Rob Pomfret
 

By Jay Alexander Hilton Butler

The Dutchess of Malfi is truly a study in disintegration. By the play’s end we have witnessed no less than seven gruesome murders through means as fantastical as a poisoned Bible, and the play’s central sibling trio (the Duchess and her two brothers) are finished off in an odd mix of madness, maniacal scheming, and revenge. It is this tremendous sense of decay that seems best to encapsulate the present production. It starts strong and ends farcically.

The first half is excellent. Scene changes are fast and maintain dramatic momentum. Titas Halder’s direction displays a keen sense for blocking that never leaves the large stage of the Playhouse feeling too empty and the musical effects are well chosen. Mention must also be made of the Duchess herself. Sian Robins-Grace is stunning. She produces an emotional range unmatched by anyone else on stage. And her carriage commands our attention even when Webster has nothing for her to say. Owen Findlay also bears note as the strongest male actor in the cast for his charming and yet complex Bosola.

However, these two performances hid faults that began to increasingly detract from the production as it proceeded. Brian McMahon’s Ferdinand is abysmal. Always agitated, he blunders through many of the most sensuous lines in the play and does little to convey the romantic interest in his twin sister (the Duchess) that fuels his jealous and yet self-destructive rage against her. Unfortunately, his final lunacy was hardly shocking, since the only contrast in his delivery throughout the play was one of volume rather than tone, cadence, or manner.

This deficiency was not particularly noticeable in the first half because the play worked so well as a whole. However, such faults became increasingly apparent after the intermission with the breakdown of its other positive elements. Scene changes were slower, music was not used as skilfully, and the play dragged. It seemed almost as though there had not been as much time devoted to rehearsing the latter half since many of the interactions between characters were unnecessarily awkward.

The dramatic climax was certainly the execution of the Duchess (a tremendously gripping scene) and yet the play carried on for quite some time afterward with little character development apart from Ferdinand’s transformation into a werewolf. This is largely, of course, a fault of the play as Webster’s crude love of needless gore is aired fully. Yet, a bolder director might well have simply ended the play immediately after the Duchess’ death or played the final scenes with more subtlety. Instead, what followed was something of a comic circus with bodies splayed across the stage. After Bosola stabbed the scheming Cardinal, for instance, the latter fell awkwardly at the top of a staircase and was forced thereafter to prop himself up (so as not to fall down the stairs entirely) while chiming in occasional lines.

In short, the play was perhaps forty-five minutes too long. Some more insightful cuts and a more polished second half would not so disappointingly have detracted from the production’s many commendable attributes.

Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr John Hood, has announced today that he will be leaving his post at the end of his five-year term in September 2009.In a statement made earlier, Hood said: "I continue to believe that five years is the right period. That was the commitment I made on my appointment as vice-chancellor and it remains my view today… "Oxford is making huge progress on so many fronts and I look forward immensely to helping it to make further substantial advances over the next two years."Hood came into the role in 2004, after leaving the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Considered the first "outsider" to take the position, his tenure has been marked by controversy as he worked to change the way in which the university was governed.Chancellor of the university, Lord Patten, praised Hood's clarity of vision and strength of commitment during his years, commending his "remarkable job" as vice-chancellor.

by Hannah Nepil

 
It would seem that the Oxford Studio Orchestra hit the proverbial jack-pot on Saturday, when they performed three works by some of the hottest personalities in Russian showbiz:  Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. From the cartoon depiction of the Kremlin emblazoned on the programme's front cover, to the notable absence of a single empty seat contained in the entire expanse of Mansfield Chapel, it was clear that every ounce of potential offered by this winning formula had been diligently realised. One might argue that such credentials sufficed to ensure the concert's success; as one nameless member of the audience remarked: “It doesn't really matter how they play because you can kind of hear what it's meant to sound like in your head anyway”. The performers themselves could have done with some of this assurance. Their timid appeal, “We hope that the audience will appreciate the end result of our labours, even if tempi and nuances do not always match those to be found in their CD libraries” was endearing but did not cast an auspicious light over the entertainment to come. 

A little more optimism would not have been misplaced. The opening to Shostakovich's Festive Overture was carried by the brass with real verve which continued to gather momentum. The players' energy was infectious, even if it did radiate predominantly from the percussion and brass section, who proceeded to bull-doze the strings. With hindsight  this effect could be cast however, not as a misjudgement of acoustics but as an appropriate reappraisal of timbral balance, for example at the beginning of Stravinsky's Firebird where the absence of the brass was mourned. Although the eerie muttering of the strings evoked the right atmosphere, they overshot the mark, to the detriment of clarity. The mood was  adeptly controlled by the conductor, Christopher Fletcher-Campbell who subtly bent the tempo to convey Stravinsky's quirky manipulation of rhythm, nevertheless, the poignancy of certain moments, such as the folk song of the finale was lost in an apologetic fumble.

The cold-blooded sabotage of Rachmaninov's decadent tribute to self-indulgence, his Second Piano Concerto, might have been hard to forgive. Luckily, the pianist, Tallis Barker's masterfully controlled emotion and technical dexterity seemed to kick start the strings into action, and infused the first movement with a sense of drive and excitement, testified by a lone, swiftly stifled clap from somewhere in the auditorium, which punctuated the gap between the first and second movements. With such a promising beginning, the second movement was eagerly anticipated: If the first movement were to be described as a little cheesy, then the second would be more of a gorgonzola bonanza, which has been deemed worthy of hijacking for many a worthy contemporary cause. If one tried very hard, they could even imagine Celine Dion herself being majestically elevated from the back of the percussion section at the end of the movement before breaking into a rendition of “All By Myself”. Sadly, any such illusion was dispelled by the grinding of the strings, which was heightened by the slow tempo. They however, could not distract from Tallis Barker's sensitive rendition of the movement, set off by his assured technical finesse. Happily, with the last movement returned the exuberance of the first, and it was mainly with this impression that the audience was left.