All posts tagged: House

Broad support in House of Lords for home education register

Broad support in House of Lords for home education register

Published by skeptic

Peers have expressed support for a compulsory register for children who are not in school, with many citing concerns about unregistered faith ‘schools’. A private member’s bill which would require local authorities to maintain registers of children who are not full-time pupils at any school had its second reading in the House of Lords today. The Home School Education Registration and Support Bill, sponsored by Liberal Democrat Party peer Mike Storey, would oblige parents who choose to educate their children at home to register with the local authority. Unregistered schools are institutions which do not register with the Department for Education to avoid regulations and inspections, so they can teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. They operate either illegally or exploit legal loopholes to run within the margins of the law. Many parents in insular religious communities who claim to be home educating their children are in fact sending them to unregistered faith schools. The National Secular Society, which has long campaigned for an end to unregistered schools, sent a briefing to peers …

House of Lords reforms must address bishops, say peers

House of Lords reforms must address bishops, say peers

Published by skeptic

Peers have said the ‘bishops’ bench’ in the House of Lords cannot continue in its current form, with several arguing for its abolition. In a debate on House of Lords reform yesterday, there was cross party support for the notion 26 seats automatically given to Church of England bishops are unsustainable and unfair. The National Secular Society, which campaigns for the abolition of reserved seats for bishops in the House of Lords (also known as ‘lords spiritual’), briefed peers ahead of the debate. The debate was triggered by a bill to remove hereditary peers, which had its third reading in the House of Commons yesterday. An amendment supported by the NSS to include the bishops in the bill was voted down after the vote was whipped by the Government, who wished to avoid disruption to a Bill delivering a manifesto commitment. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who sits on the bishops’ bench, announced his resignation yesterday following revelations that he failed to take action against the most prolific child abuser associated with the Church of …

MPs vote down amendment to remove bishops in the House of Lords

MPs vote down amendment to remove bishops in the House of Lords

Published by skeptic

Members of Parliament have rejected an effort to remove Church of England bishops from the House of Lords. Tabled by Conservative MP Gavin Williamson, the amendment to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill would have ended the automatic granting of seats to 26 senior bishops of the Church of England. The National Secular Society, which supported the amendment, briefed MPs ahead of the debate. It also encouraged its supporters to ask their MPs to back the amendment. The amendment was defeated after 378 MPs voted it down, with just 41 MPs in favour. Despite most new Labour MPs reportedly agreeing with abolishing the bishops’ bench, 342 voted against the amendment after the vote was whipped by the Government, who wished to avoid disruption to a Bill delivering a manifesto commitment. Arguing for the amendment, Williamson said it is “not right” that constituents “who do not have an Anglican faith are legislated on by Anglican bishops”, and that he “cannot see” why he has a right to greater representation as an Anglican than his Catholic …

Trump Wins Not Just the White House but His Freedom

Trump Wins Not Just the White House but His Freedom

Published by José

Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday was not just an electoral success but a triumph over the legal system. In the years since reluctantly leaving office in 2021, he has been dogged by four separate criminal prosecutions for his various abuses of power before, during, and after his first term as president. Securing a second term was the simplest way to bring these prosecutions to an end, and now his path to doing so is clear—mostly. That the country is even facing these questions is evidence of the novel—and frightening—position it now finds itself in. Trump has made history as the first person ever to be elected president with a felony record, having been convicted by a New York jury in May, but not yet sentenced. Additionally, he has been indicted in three other cases in both state and federal court, though these cases have not yet made it to trial, and now may never. An apparent majority of American voters decided that these charges, the bulk of which speak directly to Trump’s willingness to abuse …

Egon Schiele Death Mask Makes 10x Estimate at London Auction House

Egon Schiele Death Mask Makes 10x Estimate at London Auction House

Published by skeptic

An “exceedingly rare” bronze cast of Egon Schiele’s death mask sold for $24,600—more than ten times its estimated price—this week at London’s Sloane Street Auctions sale of 20th Century, Modern and Old Masters, Islamic and Asian Art and Jewelry. (All figures included the buyer’s premium and fees.) The mask was made by Gustinus Ambrosi two days after Schiele died from the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918. According to Artnet News. Ambrosi “made four copies of the mask: one for himself, one for Schiele’s mother, one for Arthur Roessler (an art critic who first recognized Schiele’s talent), and one for his publisher Richard Lanyi.” The auction house said it’s unclear if more copies of the plaster cast of Schiele’s face exist. Related Articles Ambrosi’s The Death Mask of Egon Schiele (1918) was one of 600 lots during the sale, which included Buddhist sculpture, Orientalist paintings, Persian rugs, art deco jewelry, avant-garde furniture, and Renaissance Madonnas. Other top lots included a landscape by Sir Alfred Munnings, Dedham Mill Pool (ca. 1930) which took in $62,300, and an oil painting that has been attributed to Renoir, Study of a …

New Pompeii Excavations Reveal Decorated “Tiny House”

New Pompeii Excavations Reveal Decorated “Tiny House”

Published by skeptic

Murals in the House of Phaedra (2024) in Pompeii. Source: Archaeological Park of Pompeii.   Archaeologists at Pompeii recently unearthed an atypical ancient Roman dwelling. Deemed the House of Phaedra for the contents of its murals, it makes up for its small size with its sumptuous interior decorating, shedding new light on how Pompeiians showed off their wealth and style.   Murals at the House of Phaedra Mural detail (2024). Source: Archaeological Park of Pompeii.   The unusually small residential unit was found during ongoing excavations at Pompeii‘s Amanti Island insula. Despite its diminutive size, the Pompeiian “tiny house” was decorated with well-preserved fresco paintings that are just as extravagant and detailed as those in wealthier villas nearby. It has been provisionally named the House of Phaedra, as one of the frescoes depicts a scene from the ancient myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra.   Many of the murals feature erotic scenes, including an embrace between a nymph and a satyr and a couple believed to be Adonis and Venus. Another more damaged mural depicts the …

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Published by skeptic

Where Dreams and Nightmares Converge There’s something irresistible about haunted house stories that keep drawing us back, like moths to a ghostly flame. But in Alix E. Harrow’s latest novel, Starling House, the haunting isn’t just in the creaking floorboards or shadowy corners—it’s woven into the very fabric of a town’s painful history, buried beneath layers of collective guilt and willful forgetfulness. This mesmerizing blend of Gothic romance, social commentary, and supernatural horror proves that sometimes the most terrifying ghosts are the ones we create ourselves. A Fresh Take on Gothic Romance In the tradition of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling, Harrow crafts a story that honors Gothic conventions while subverting them in surprising ways. The brooding hero, the mysterious house, the dark family secrets—they’re all here, but viewed through a distinctly modern lens that examines issues of class, race, and environmental justice. Story and Structure Plot Overview The story follows Opal, a sharp-tongued survivor scraping by in Eden, Kentucky, as she takes a housekeeping job …

Cain International partners with Olympian Homes to expand PBSA platform with St James House redevelopment in Bristol

Cain International partners with Olympian Homes to expand PBSA platform with St James House redevelopment in Bristol

Published by skeptic

Alternative asset manager Cain International which specialists in real estate investment solutions, has acquired St James House in Bristol which it will redevelop with Olympian Homes. The scheme, set to be the tallest in Bristol at 28 storeys, will provide 574 beds and bring Cain’s Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) equity platform to a total gross development value of approximately £800 million. This represents the delivery of 3,000 beds across the UK, following the development of five PBSA assets completed in 2023. Developed by Olympian Homes, St James House will comprise two towers: one featuring 442 beds, and the other offering 132 larger co-living units. The asset will include approximately 15,000 sqft of premium amenity space, including a cinema room, a fitness suite, study areas, a games room, and group dining facilities. The development is targeting BREEAM Excellent and WiredScore Platinum certifications. Completion is targeted for the 2028/29 academic year. RG Group have been appointed to deliver the scheme, further extending the relationship between Olympian & RG group. Located in the heart of Bristol, St James …

Humanists UK welcomes amendments to remove bishops from House of Lords

Humanists UK welcomes amendments to remove bishops from House of Lords

Published by skeptic

MPs have rallied to support amendments to a government bill to remove the automatic right for 26 Church of England bishops to sit in the House of Lords. The amendments follow cross-party MPs calling for reform during the second reading of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. Humanists UK has welcomed the amendments and urges MPs from across the chamber to back this progressive reform. The amendments to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill would see an end to the 26 reserved places for Church of England bishops in the House of Lords. If selected, they will be voted on during the Committee Stage of the Bill, the date for which has not yet been announced. The Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer MP previously committed to transitioning the House of Lords to a ‘fully elected’ chamber, which would mean no reserved seats for bishops. However, it has not yet embarked towards removing the bishops. If successful, the amendments would follow the recommendations of a 2020 report from the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group …

Take a Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, the Mansion That Has Appeared in Blade Runner, Twin Peaks & Countless Hollywood Films

Take a Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, the Mansion That Has Appeared in Blade Runner, Twin Peaks & Countless Hollywood Films

Published by José

There are more than a few of us who’d enjoy the oppor­tu­ni­ty to live in a house that appears in Blade Run­ner; there are rather few of us who would val­ue that oppor­tu­ni­ty at $23 mil­lion, the ask­ing price giv­en in the 2019 Archi­tec­tur­al Digest video on Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924 Ennis House above. Yet even beyond the Wright pedi­gree and the Blade Run­ner pres­tige, the house has also appeared in a host of oth­er films, a screen résumé that begins nine years after its con­struc­tion, when it made its screen debut as the man­sion of a lady auto tycoon in Michael Cur­tiz’s Female. In the decades that fol­lowed, it went on to pro­vide set­tings for pic­tures — usu­al­ly genre pic­tures — like The House on Haunt­ed Hill, The Day of the Locust, The Replace­ment Killers, and Rush Hour. “The Ennis house appar­ent­ly tran­scends space and time,” says the nar­ra­tion of Thom Ander­sen’s doc­u­men­tary Los Ange­les Plays Itself. ” It could be fic­tion­al­ly locat­ed in Wash­ing­ton or Osa­ka. It could play an ancient vil­la, a nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry …