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THE CONSERVATISM which has blighted heavyweight boxing’s higher echelons this year was not in evidence last night

By admin
for Better World Eevents

Published: July 31, 2010

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THE CONSERVATISM which has blighted heavyweight boxing’s higher echelons this year was not in evidence last night. With all but one of their combined 56 fights having ended by knockout, the World Boxing Organisation heavyweight title match between Herbie Hide and the 6ft 8in Ukrainian giant Vitali Klitschko was never likely to end in an uninspiring points decision, and neither did it – Hide was flattened in the second round

Hide hung himself with his own words. Earlier in the week, the Norfolk- based champion had declared: “If I’m stupid enough to stand in front of a man that big and let him hit me, I deserve to lose” He did and he did – quickly. He was dropped twice by right hands in the second round and the fight was waved off after 1min 14sec of the round.
Timing has never been Hide’s strong point and a terrific opportunity has ended disastrously. Indeed, it is hard to imagine he has any future left in the sport following this defeat, for which he only has himself to blame.The distraught 27-year old left the Arena without attending the post- fight press conference but his bitterly disappointed promoter Frank Warren, said: “That was not the way to fight someone of Klitschko’s size Herbie just stood in front of him with his head held up. He was asking for it and he got it.”If ever there was an apt moment for a heavyweight to state his case, this was it. The March unification fight between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield achieved nothing, and last weekend in New York, the much touted contender Michael Grant, with a shot at Lewis’s World Boxing Council title promised to him, allowed the veteran Lou Savarece to last the full 10 rounds.

Like the recently retired Joe Bugner, Grant has the firepower but appears to lack to fire that makes great fighters.Hide has always appeared a man who was born to fight and relishes each opportunity to do so. He had knocked out a string of sparring partners, some might say unprofessionally, in preparation for this fight. And the ugly incidents at two press conferences in the week, with Hide needing to be restrained from attacking Klitschko and a former sparring partner, Danny Williams, most definitely were not hype.Klitschko’s record, now 25-0, all by KO, might have suggested he has a similarly fiery nature And at 6ft 8in and 18st he is a sight to behold. But any comparisons between the Kiev native’s chiselled physique and those of the statutes of ancient Greece must hint at a lack of mobility. Luckily for him, Hide played straight into his hands.This was Hide’s third defence of the title he regained two years ago. An earlier, one-year reign came to an end in March, 1995, when he was battered into submission by Riddick Bowe in Las Vegas There were excuses then. Bowe was regarded as the world’s best heavyweight at the time and Hide had at least shown willing, clambering to his feet several times after being knocked down before finally accepting defeat amidst a flood of tears.

Now he will have to embrace the concept that his career at this level is all but over.. RUBENS BARRICHELLO and the Stewart-Ford team threw a spanner in the dampened works of Formula One’s major leaguers yesterday, with some canny strategic thinking that saw the Brazilian secure his second pole position and the team’s first. As most others chose to await better weather that clearly would not arrive within the next 60 minutes, the Stewart- Ford and Sauber Petronas teams sent out Barrichello and Jean Alesi to make the best of the prevailing conditions

The Frenchman initially set the pace. “I was cautious on my first lap, and saw that Jean was a second and a half faster than me,” Barrichello admitted.

“That was the incentive I needed and I really pushed hard to do a good time on my second lap It paid off. I knew that the weather was probably going to get worse, and that this could be it, and that was how it worked out. Just fabulous!”
Alesi, who had survived unscathed a heavy accident the previous day, was delighted to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his F1 debut – in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in 1989 – by securing the other front row position. “Yesterday I had been telling a journalist that the thing I had improved most in my 10 years of F1 was my car control,” Alesi said. “The accident was my fault and I was thinking about that as I climbed out of the upturned wreckage.”This is the best-ever starting position I have had for my home Grand Prix and probably my best-ever chance to do well here. My team did a fantastic job to finish off building up another car for me after yesterday, so this is a present for them too.”The conditions promoted Olivier Panis to a similarly opportunist third place in the Prost-Peugeot, but left rainmaster Michael Schumacher only sixth and the World Championship leader Mika Hakkinen a dramatic 14th.”The point that you guys have missed,” Ron Dennis said here on Friday, “is just how Mika is able to dig deep.

President Obama mixed policy discussion with personal reflections on his daughters and, yes, a few jokes in an appearance on CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman,” taped Monday afternoon.

That victory opened the door for the Jets to squeak in to where they are now.There are even sports radio geeks in New York who buy into the theory the Jets were lucky Caldwell passed on a shot at a perfect season by resting his starters and making sure none of them got injured in a meaningless game for them.I don’t buy into that theory at all. Apart from games against Arsenal, Everton, Birmingham, and Liverpool, Hull will face the rest of their remaining schedule dueling with teams who, like them, are keen to avoid relegationHull’s ability to avoid the drop will depend on Brown’s key figures. There are some tough decisions we have to make.” Tomlinson is under contract for the next two seasons with the Chargers, but a $2 million roster bonus this March and a $3 million base salary in 2010 could be a big reason to keep Tomlinson off the roster.Source: CBSSports This article is also featured on GridironFans . Now that the Road to Wrestlemania has officially gotten underway I thought it would be a good time to see what possible storylines emerged from Sunday’s Royal Rumble match.

He is also in the top 10 in both minutes played and assists.He holds the team record for most rebounds in a game with 37, which he accomplished against the Phoenix Suns in 1970.Boerwinkle was known for his solid passing as he averaged 3.2 assists per game for his career. By not changing things, our play became predictable and Mourinho had the time to easily prepare to thwart it.In addition, by not changing things around Leo clearly did not attempt to expose Inter?s weaknesses and in the end we paid for this.In the end, Leo was completely outmatched by Mourinho and it showed. You will just have to see it to believe it.But it can be said that Whitney’s unbelievable charge will not only be remembered as a bright spot in a dark, gloomy season for Carolina, but perhaps also as the gamebreaker that earned the ‘Canes a scarce win.However, it’s not the only time that Whitney has shown brilliance in the toughest of situations. They?ve got an easy win against Colorado on Wednesday, but their last three: KSU, ISU, v Kansas.

When you think Kansas basketball, what comes to mind? Top seniors Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich? Maybe you’re thinking about freshman phenomenon Xavier Henry. Semyon Varlamov, who shined in the early 2009 playoffs before completely imploding appears to be doing more of the same in the regular season. Purdue’s returning floor general Lewis Jackson may even get a few minutes to match quickness for quickness with Lucious.Whoever gets charged with slowing down Kalin Lucas’s understudy, the pressure will still be palpable as Lucious tries to repair the goodwill lost with his six-turnover, 1-for-5 shooting performance from Saturday night.. As a military veteran, I look at the offensive line of the Oakland Raiders and compare it to the ground troops in any combat situation.

He has also achieved his lifetime ambitions of buying a custom-built MG and his own racehorse. “Of course I want to see it win, so that’s another reason to keep on living,” he says.Tony and his partner, Nick, are used to people assuming he has Aids because he is homosexual and terminally ill, but he is actually dying of leukaemia. “You get about five years with leukaemia from diagnosis until you go,” he says “I’ve had four of them. It’s like a timebomb.”In fact the growing industry, known as “viatical” investment, owes its origins to the Eighties Aids epidemic in the United States. It has since branched into many other forms of terminal illness, particularly cancer, although 50 per cent of its clients in Britain today are people with Aids. The name comes from the Latin “viaticum” which was money or supplies given to emissaries sent to the far-flung corners of the Roman Empire and not expected to return alive.Investors buy up the life insurance of people certified as terminally ill and pay them a percentage, usually about 75 per cent. When the person dies, the investor benefits from the policy.The viatical industry may be fulfilling the needs and dreams of the dying, but the “die now, pay later” investment is not to everybody’s taste.

Postcards, however touching, are not always enough – a viatical company needs to contact its clients regularly to see if they are still alive. LBR employees never meet their clients so they don’t get too attached to them, although Mr Legg says they do develop “close relationships” over the phone.Meanwhile, the percentage of the policy that clients get depends on how long they are likely to live: the bigger the lump sum, the less time you’ve got to spend it. While Brenda was overjoyed at the pounds 21,425 that took her round the world, her brother Brian, a financial adviser who introduced her to the idea, explains that the “maximum payout means the consultant has painted the blackest picture”.Critics are dismayed at investors making capital out of the dying. In 1995 the BMA ordered doctors not to promote viatical services. Dr Stella Lowry, its assistant secretary, said: “General practitioners are not trained as financial advisers. They are giving tacit approval to the scheme by displaying literature in their surgeries.”Whether viatical salespeople are modern champions of the terminally ill or a cynical new breed of Nineties ambulance-chasers, Brenda Ward is having the time of her life. “I’m happy, really happy,” she says, visiting relatives in Australia “I keep thinking I’m dreaming all this.

I keep saying to Steve [her husband]: ‘Am I really here?’ I feel better now than I have felt for years, probably because I’m more relaxed. I don’t feel sad about any of it.”But Steve says quietly: “The whole holiday is about the fact that Brenda’s dying. I feel very sad because the Brenda we’re seeing now is not my Brenda. My Brenda could walk for miles – she could walk the legs off me She’s happy in her own little way but I’m very sad. I don’t know what’s round the corner for me and Brenda and I just feel so angry that I can’t do more for her We don’t talk about the future much … we have got to get the good times out of the way first.”For Steve, these good times of white sands and cloudless skies are overshadowed by the very shortness of time that has bought them their place in the sun.For Nick, Tony Wright’s dying days in their Queensland idyll are simply a just return for Tony’s suffering.”It’s his money,” he says.

Bullying and noise are common problems in Bury, but there is little in the way of drugs. Leeds had drugs and violence in mind, while Lewisham has a racial harassment problem Everywhere there are noise and nuisance complaints. John Craggs, assistant director of housing at Sunderland, says more than 100 councils have shown an interest.The problems facing private investigators vary with the territory. So far five have followed Sunderland – Salford, Manchester, Southwark, Lewisham and Stoke.

Blyth Valley ran a pilot in April last year, and Bury, Leeds and Coventry have just given the go-ahead, but have yet to allocate their first cases.Newcastle under Lyme is inviting tenders and Wirral is talking to investigation agencies Knowsley and Merton are considering the idea. But the court believed the detective, reinforcing the belief that a “professional witness” is an impartial witness.An increasing number of local authorities are using private investigators as professional witnesses. “They didn’t know if the detective was lying or we were,” he says. A month later, they became the first tenants in England to be turfed out by a council on the evidence of private detectives.Gavin Raine claims the private investigator lied or gave incorrect evidence in court, although he says some of the allegations were true. He says the court had just the word of the private detective against his and that of Claire Mendonca. On the estate’s Cockermouth Road, three households were alleged to be causing a nuisance – rowdiness, abuse, threatening behaviour.

Nothing serious, but enough to make the lives of some tenants a misery.The council moved investigators into the street and used their testimony to win an eviction order on 13 September 1993 against Claire Mendonca, then 19, her then four-year-old daughter, and her boyfriend, Gavin Raine, also 19. The area has its problems – car theft, domestic disputes, general disorder and unemployment. To stop antisocial behaviour quickly, the council usually seeks injunctions, which take only a few days to a fortnight to obtain, while evictions can take up to a year.Sunderland council’s housing committee pioneered the use of private detectives to act as “professional witnesses” in the Hylton Castle part of the city in 1993. “I’ve been smacked a few times,” he says.So far Salford has had 12 courtroom successes.

“A very close friend” of a woman killed at a Cancun, Mexico, resort sold e-mails purportedly exchanged between the dead woman, her husband and his alleged mistress to a gossip website, the website said.

Remember! Remember! Remember! Remember!

1in the telecommunications industry on FORTUNE(R) Magazine’s lists of theWorld’s Most Admired Companies and America’s Most Admired Companies.Additional information about AT&T Inc. For e-mail updates andinformation regarding RCA Red Seal, Sony Classical, RCA deutsche harmoniamundi, Masterworks Broadway and Masterworks Jazz artists, promotions, toursand repertoire, please visit MasterworksSusan Schiffer of Sony Masterworks, +1-212-833-4763,. It is a world in which computers and humans willsomeday interact with one another much as two humans interact today — and notjust through overt actions like speech and gesticulation but also throughintuition.”Like all of our programs at ATL and even throughout Lockheed MartinCorporation, the TUI program underscores the fundamental importance ofeducation, creativity and hard work,” said James Marsh, director ATL Other demonstrations at ATL’s Cherry Hill, N.J. Sync Files across PC, Mac & Linux Computers & Peripherals;More Flexibility & Security Than Other Sync Services at Half the Cost CHICAGO, April 14 /PRNewswire/ — Online data manager SpiderOak todayintroduced a new service for owners of multiple computers with SpiderOak Sync,the first synchronization solution that combines easy setup with no changes tothe user’s existing folder structure, cross-platform PC/Mac/Linux computer andperipheral support, and ‘zero knowledge’ encryption to ensure privacy.Documents, music, photos, movies and other files can be sync’d automaticallyand continuously to ensure that changes in designated folders on a givenmachine are replicated across all devices. Overview of Autoimmune Disorders and Mechanisms of Tolerance 14 Myasthenia Gravis (Angela Vincent and John Radcliffe) 15 Multiple Sclerosis (Roland Martin) 16 Diabetes Mellitus (Kristina Rother) 17 Celiac Disease (Warren Strober) 18 Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Peter Mannon) 19 Psoriasis (Bruce Strober) 20 IgA Nephropathy and Kidney Transplantation (Roz Mannon) 21 Rheumatoid Arthritis (Barbara Mittleman) 22 Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Gabor Illei) 23 Scleroderma (Atsushi Kitani) IV MALIGNANCIES OF THE LYMPHOID SYSTEM Classification of Lymphoid Malignancies 24.

Stephen Jackson – G|FVersatile performer can give you a combination of points, steals, rebounds and assist. government would create and run a bad bank.Douglas Elmendorf, the new head of the Congressional Budget Office, said on Wednesday that a bad bank plan would be fraught with challenges as policymakers try to pay the right price.”Pricing should give financial institutions an incentive to solve their problems on their own if they are in a position to do so and should mean shuttering institutions that have little prospect of recovery,” he told the Senate Budget Committee.U.S. The Criminology and Justice Studies specialization was developed for studentsinterested in pursuing careers in criminology, law enforcement, probation,corrections, government, public policy or public administration careers.Tolearn more or to apply, students may visit: http:// or call866-821-0124.About University of the RockiesUniversity of the Rockies is a graduate school specializing in psychologyprograms at the master’s and doctoral levels at its campus in ColoradoSprings, Colorado. Russell Simmons Calls Out to Bill O’ Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Stanley Crouchto Open Lines of Communication With the Hip-Hop Community on GlobalGrind SIMMONS ASKS FOR NOTED HIP-HOP CRITICS TO SPEAK DIRECTLY TO ARTISTS, COMMUNITYAND CULTURAL LEADERS NEW YORK, Feb. In line with the Company`s contingency plans and in light ofthe current economic conditions, the Company continued to apply variouscost-containment measures to maintain expenses in line with its business needs.While total operating expenses were reduced as compared with the prior-yearperiod, the dramatic and greater-than-expected decline in net sales during thecurrent-year quarter ultimately had a negative impact on operating expensemargin. BankAmerica Institutional Capital A, B –Trust preferred securities downgraded to ‘BB’ from ‘BBB’.

In addition, the company was also notified that it currently didnot meet its requirement of maintaining three independent directors, due to therecent resignation of two of its independent Directors located in the UnitedKingdom. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Raghu Tadepalli has beennamed Murata Dean of the F.W Olin Graduate School of Business at BabsonCollege. Let’s start over shall we?Disclaimer: I don’t give a hootnanny (my substitute for the word cr p) if this article gets deleted It wouldn’t be the first time. Haasstormed to a 2-0 lead over King Roger, and in the third set, was five points away from ending the Swiss star’s dream.Not to be outdone, Roger roared back and took the third set from Haas. He was a skinny, goofy-looking white kid with long arms and a bad haircut.

“They all read mybooks, of course.” Her daily routine includes walking or doing Pilates at 6a.m and then writing for three to four hours before noon. has affirmed the financial strength ratings (FSR) of B++ (Good)and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “bbb+” of Oxford Life Insurance Company(Oxford Life) (Phoenix, AZ), Christian Fidelity Life Insurance Company(Christian Fidelity) and Dallas General Life Insurance Company (DallasGeneral)(both of Dallas, TX) A.M. Poor DefenseWith Manny Ramirez, you will get a poor arm out in left field. It wasn’t until the Boston College game that the Tigers finally settled on a starting five.Nebraska has the 12th-ranked offense in the country for a reason.

On a proforma basis, Strauss — whose brands includeDonCafe, Cosant and R&G — recorded a 5 percent fall in profitto 56.1 million shekels, compared with an expected 55.2 millionaccording to the average of forecasts from four analysts polledby Reuters. Oh, and stay out of the front office. This article is also featured on SkinsTalk:Washington Redskins Football Blog. Leading the way? in California real estate for more than 100 years, theCALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS () is one of the largest statetrade organizations in the United States, with nearly 180,000 members dedicatedto the advancement of professionalism in real estate C.A.R is headquartered inLos Angeles. Both the City of London police and London’s Metropolitan Police declined to comment.(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Matthew Jones) Barack Obama Crisis in Credit France. BP(BP.L), BG Group (BG.L) and Total (TOTF.PA) were 0.5-0.9 percentlower Capgemini (CAPP.PA) slipped 7.5 percent after U.S. But for now it is tipped to extend the maximum loanterm for its liquidity operations, potentially lending banksfunds for 12 months or more, compared with six months now.

He won three majors to Sampras’ two, and yet ’97 is considered one of the Pistol’s best seasons, whereas ’07 was a slightly off year for the Fed.Sampras, for all his greatness, never created a standard that high Sampras never won three majors in a season. OTP Chairman and Chief Executive Sandor Csanyi earlier saidthe bank was in talks over a role for the EBRD within OTP. Dare we counter this move by signing yet another guard?Well, apparently the Pistons are ?excited? about Kwame Brown?s potential. The running game never got going either Mark Ingram had 11carries for 63 yards and one touchdown. Deffense: B Rolando McClain led the defense with 15 tackles. It would go to a tiebreaker and by set’s end, Venus had 10 sets points She converted none. is a publicly traded master limited partnership thatowns natural gas gathering, transportation, processing and treating assetsserving regions where producers require large scale and highly reliableservices, including the Gulf of Mexico, the San Juan Basin in New Mexico andColorado, and the Washakie Basin in Wyoming. I counted several running plays he stymied last night, just by occupying the correct gap.

McGwire has been actively teaching a number of Major League players the finer technique of hitting for several off-seasons now. Westin Hotels & Resorts expects to open11 hotels this year in dynamic international cities including Montreal, Mumbai,Shanghai, Mexico City and Houston. Management and field crewscan closely collaborate by viewing the same information in near real-time.With Trimble Access, productivity and efficiency can be significantly improvedon projects.”Minimizing rework and improving productivity is the basis for Trimble’songoing focus on Connected Site solutions. I would like to see all of this come to an end before it becomes a major problem. I apologize if am coming off as trying to preach to all of you I am just simply trying to keep peace amongst us all. Now he walks this empty rooms looking for something to blame, you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames” Adam Raised a Cain  Next:  vs. As a result, many of theevents that occur in a developing tumor act as a kind of perfect storm tosupport the production of ever-larger amounts of CCN2, which then supportadditional tumor growth and metastasis. Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Level 3 commonstock during the Class Period (the “Class”).

Clearly this change has been pivotal to the beating the Yankees bestow on opposing teams Hughes has been practically un-hittable. By no means do I hear predictions that Ohio State will dominate, but some believe that the Buckeyes could nonetheless pull off the upset or at least be competitive. Netanyahu is cooler on ceding occupied territory to Palestinians and is more likely to resist U.S demands to curb settlement expansion in the West Bank. MWC 2009: Nokia Puts Enhanced Internet Experiences and Efficiency at the Heartof New SolutionsBARCELONA, February 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nokia (NYSE: NOK) todayunveiled the Ovi Store: the world’s first content and application store topersonalize content according to a person’s social connections and physicallocation. “We have positive momentum within our Fortus 3D production systems and RedEyepaid parts businesses, driven by new products and emerging DDM applications. Die Abgänge durch Verkäufe minderten die nachgewiesenenReserven 2008 um 0,1 Milliarden Barrel Öleinheiten Auf Basis der Flüssigkeiten- und Erdgaspreise vom 31.

The two most-discussed talk-show hosts aren’t talking — to each other, that is.

The success of “American Idol” hasn’t just been about the singing talent.

When “The Bachelor’”s Jason Mesnick proposed to Molly Malaney, he picked the picture-perfect setting.

The label Dust-to-Digital has made a business out of taking old recordings and making them like new — and artful.

For folks in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, believing that Tiger Woods is in the town’s sex rehab clinic is a bit like believing in Santa Claus.

Ladbroke, the hotels and leisure company, yesterday kicked off its long-awaited hotels disposal programme, raising pounds 100m from the sale of the Langham Hilton in central London to Hong Kong-based Great Eagle, writes Mathew Horsman. Thereafter, and probably within three months, Hollinger will make a full, all-share bid for the company, aiming to take its stake to more than 50 per cent. Late last Friday night, Mr Black announced he would pay pounds 294m for Power’s stake.Hollinger is now expected to make market purchases to take the holding to just short of 50 per cent. Toronto-based analysts speculated over the weekend that Power Corporation, controlled by Paul Desmarais, could bid for both the Toronto Sun and the Post, and arrange to sell the financial daily on to Hollinger at a later date.Mr Black and Mr Desmarais’s Power Corporation had been partners in Southam, where each held about 20 per cent of the shares.

“Our position on Fairfax has not changed,” he said yesterday. “We still want to increase our stake and will do so once we are permitted. The only reason we would want to sell is if the review does not allow us to increase our holding.”The Australian government is reviewing the cap on newspaper ownership that has kept Mr Black’s Fairfax holding stuck at 25 per cent. Australian media mogul Kerry Packer owns 17 per cent of the shares, while Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is believed to have a 5 per cent stake.Mr Black’s interest in the money-losing Financial Post, in which the Financial Times also has a stake, follows a decision earlier this month by its owners, Rogers Communications, to sell its newspaper division, which includes the Toronto Sun, a downmarket tabloid, as well as the Post.Ted Rogers, who made a fortune in the cable industry in Canada, is believed to be seeking a single buyer for both the Sun and the Post, but Mr Black’s advisers believe they can reach a deal none the less.Two competing media companies, Thomson and Quebecor, are also thought to be interested in the Rogers titles. Conrad Black’s Hollinger group wants to take control of Canada’s leading business newspaper, the Financial Post, in which he already has a 20 per cent stake, sources close to the company said at the weekend. The purchase could coincide with a full bid for Southam, the giant Toronto- based newspaper group, in which Hollinger holds 41 per cent, following the purchase last week of a 20 per cent stake previously owned by Power Corporation of Montreal.
Mr Black’s renewed interest in Canada, his home country, has fuelled speculation that he was preparing to sell a 25 per cent holding in Fairfax, a leading Australian newspaper group, to help finance acquisitions in North America.But Mr Black’s London-based lieutenant Dan Colson, deputy-chairman of the Telegraph Group and Fairfax, denied Mr Black was poised to sell the Fairfax shares. “It’s all about price and service,” one source said.ScottishPower owns Caledonian Gas, which supplies 6,000 commercial and industrial customers in the UK.

Last year, Scottish spent pounds 18m developing its telecoms subsidiary, Scotti-shTelecom, which is rolling out a fibre- optic network in Central Scotland.A bid by ScottishPower for Southern is unlikely to be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, as there are no obvious competitive issues arising from the merger.. Moreover, gearing, now at 52 per cent, would rise further in the event of a successful bid.The aim is to develop a stronger brand name for Scottish as a utilities provider, irrespective of region. Southern’s bankers are Rothschilds and SBC Warburg.Southern Water, which is capitalised at just over pounds 1bn, last year bought back 10 per cent of its shares, and has one of the industry’s strongest balance sheets. According to current fashion in the utility sector, a merger with Scottish would allow the two companies to save millions on centralised costs.Joint billing systems, metering, information systems, procurement and transport can all generate savings, the company believes. Scottish expects to be able to cut operating costs by as much as pounds 100m by 1998 following its takeover of Manweb.Similar efficiencies could be achieved through a merger of Scottish and Southern, although insiders caution that the savings would not be as great.

Southern Water is expected to make a formal statement to the Stock Exchange tomorrow.ScottishPower, which last year paid pounds 1.1bn for Manweb, the regional electricity company, has appointed ING Baring, UBS, James Capel and Scottish firm Noble Grossart. Companies from both countries have been on the acquisition trail in the UK.An agreed bid was believed to be the most likely outcome, depending on negotiations in coming days. Shares in Southern Water, which closed Friday at 681p, are expected to soar in trading tomorrow, following the holiday weekend.
ScottishPower, confirming its interest, said a bid would be a step toward creating a multi-utility conglomerate, giving it a water utility to add to its other regulated businesses, which include gas and telecoms.”We are confirming our interest in Southern and would like to reach agreement with their board,” a spokesman for ScottishPower said.Analysts speculated last night that a US or French utility could also be in the frame. A bidding war looked set to break out last night as Southern Water confirmed it had received approaches from two potential buyers, including ScottishPower, and was considering its options. A bid, expected to be in the region of pounds 1.3bn, could again ignite the utilities sector, where analysts and investors had been expecting further bid action since the mergers of Swalec and Welsh Water and of NorWeb and North West Water.

Within her own pre-packaged office milieu at Lancing & Loucho, her surroundings are equal to her, and her dangerousness is limited. Francine is a parodic figure, a monstrous inflation of the London secretary stereotype, devoid of everything but the cheapest fantasy, waiting vacuously for “something more creative” to come along. The Temporary is generally a smoother read, with less crammed into each sentence: the novelist has established her style and seems more relaxed. The best vignette of this couple who endured so much and who, in spite of everything, forged a great destiny together, is found in a letter of 1928 – quoted by neither Maddox nor Byrne – in which Lawrence seeks to dissuade a pilgrim from visiting them: “Here am I, 42, with rather bad health: and a wife who is by no means the soul of patience … But what am I now but a stray individual with not much health and not much money?. If you liked Rachel Cusk’s Whitbread winner, Saving Agnes, then you’ll probably like this too – indeed, you may even prefer it. The atmosphere there is evoked by one of the many guests to take advantage of Frieda’s boundless hospitality, WH Auden: “Cars of women pilgrims go up every day to stand reverently and wonder what it would be like to sleep with him.”Frieda’s own attitude to her hubby could not have been more different.

She carefully conveys how Frieda’s hasty involvement with Ravagli entailed no loss of loyalty to Lawrence: in his own practical, unliterary way Ravagli did his bit for the novelist’s posthumous glory, fetching his remains from France and building a chapel to his memory in Taos. Swatting aside the academic analyses that began to appear after his death, she insists again and again on the aspects of Lawrence that still mean most to us today: “To me his relationship, his bond with everything in creation was so amazing, no preconceived idea, just a meeting between him and a creature, a tree, a cloud, anything.”It is in chronicling these years after Lawrence’s death that Byrne comes into her own. Byrne provides more detail about the world of the Teutonic avant- garde in which Frieda moved (especially the pre-Lawrence affair with the radically randy psychoanalyst, Otto Gross), but the crucial point, that lots of Lawrence’s “ideas” were derived from this milieu via Frieda, is felt most vividly as a lived process in Maddox’s account.Whether these intellectual imports had a beneficial effect on Lawrence’s work is a moot question, but Byrne emphasises Frieda’s intuitive grasp of what – despite the sniping of English intellectuals – was most valuable in that work. In both accounts she is infuriating, vital, lumpen-aristocratic, revolting (chain-smoking Woodbines – ugh), loyal, faithless and, as Lawrence claimed when he first met her, “wonderful”. More than anyone else, perhaps, the test this “genius for living” poses a biographer is, precisely, to make her live, to present her as a flesh and blood being rather than the accumulation of acts undertaken by a name on the page This is what Maddox does so well. Byrne and Maddox have both made up for this by presenting fully-rounded, broadly similar pictures of a woman too easily cast as Lawrence’s “muse” or “the mother of orgasm”. It’s rotten luck for Byrne, who is intelligent, scrupulous, and a far better advocate of her subject’s individual claim on posterity than Rosie Jackson who, in her recent, rather feeble book, Frieda Lawrence, protested that Frieda had never been seen whole, as she was, had always been reduced to type.

Now, at eighth or ninth hand, Lorenzo’s cracking a Bessie Smith record over his missus’ head has all the cosy familiarity of a favourite moment from Man About The House. Which Lawrence was, of course, though not quite in the sense he intended while throttling her and hissing that he was the master. “Lawrence was always busy,” Frieda’s third husband recalls, “mostly doing housework.” But then we already knew that too.
Often, in the course of reading A Genius for Living, one feels that it is too much too late. Plate-smashing, rages, beatings: friends witnessed the Lawrences’ rucks with shock and bemusement.


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