Home > The Voice > The Voice 2013: Former coach Danny O?Donoghue says ?I?m dating someone special,? but it?s probably not Bo Bruce!
August 3rd, 2013 by Lynn Connolly.
Fans of The Voice will of course know that The Script front man Danny O?Donoghue has called time on his role as a coach on the show, and evidently, that?s afforded him more time to spend on getting back his social life?
And to find some romance apparently as he?s told the Daily Mail that he now has a special someone in his life.
He said, ?I get so engrossed in what I do, there hasn?t really been that much room for anybody else?
?But I am now dating a special someone.?
However, while he wouldn?t say who that ?special someone? is, it?s most likely we can rule out his supposed former flame Bo Bruce ? who was of course a finalist on The Voice during its first series ? since Danny reckons all the talk of a romance between him and the talented singer was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Of the media reports that he and Bo were an item, Danny remarked, ?I didn?t deny or confirm the speculation.
?I found it funny. By not saying anything, it created its own buzz. I thought I?d use it, and help Bo get publicity.?
However, as we reported a while ago, Bo evidently didn?t find it overly ?funny? and in an interview with a newspaper, she revealed that she?d poured out her heartache over Danny into songs for her album.
She also accused the show?s bosses of putting the kybosh on their blossoming romance, telling The Sun?s TV Biz, ?We were incredibly close and he?s a hot guy. It was a mad time and meeting someone under those circumstances is difficult.
?I was very vulnerable and I regret a lot of things that happened.
?There was such an obsession with whether or not we were together and that put wild amounts of pressure on us.
?In the end a decision was made for him to not be around me. The process of writing my album Before I Sleep began when I was supposed to go with Danny to a Coldplay concert.
?It was meant to be an end-of-The-Voice present ? for him and me.
?But he was told he was not allowed to, because he couldn?t be seen with me in public.
?So I ended up not going with him but someone took pity on me and invited me to Coldplay?s box, with Coldplay?s agent, who then wanted to sign me.
?So although I said I have regrets about what happened, it led to so many other things.?
Here?s a reminder of Bo and Danny performing together on The Voice?
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott will soon launch a new hunt for noncitizens on Florida?s voter roll, a move that?s sure to provoke new cries of a voter ?purge? as Scott ramps up his own re-election effort.
Similar searches a year ago were rife with errors, found few ineligible voters and led to lawsuits by advocacy groups who said it disproportionately targeted Hispanics, Haitians and other minority groups. Those searches were handled clumsily and angered county election supervisors, who lost confidence in the state?s list of names.
?It was sloppy, it was slapdash and it was inaccurate,? said Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards. ?They were sending us names of people to remove because they were born in Puerto Rico. It was disgusting.?
Over time, the state?s initial list of suspected non-U.S. citizens shrank from 182,000 to 2,600 to 198 before election supervisors suspended their searches as the presidential election drew near.
?That was embarrassing,? said elections chief Jerry Holland in Jacksonville?s Duval County. ?It has to be a better scrub of names than we had before.?
Election supervisors remain wary of a new removal effort, which the U.S. Supreme Court effectively authorized in June when it struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act. That ruling nullified a federal lawsuit in Tampa that sought to stop new searches for noncitizen voters, and Scott quickly renewed his call for action.
?If there?s anybody that we think isn?t voting properly, from the standpoint that they didn?t have a right to vote, I think we need to do an investigation,? Scott said the day of the high court decision. Last fall, Scott joined the Republican Party in a fundraising appeal that accused Democrats of defending the right of noncitizens to vote.
Scott?s top elections official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, is now creating a new list of suspected noncitizen voters by cross-checking state voter data with a federal database managed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Detzner?s director of elections, Maria Matthews, sent a letter to election supervisors Friday, promising ?responsible measures that ensure due process and the integrity of Florida?s voter rolls? and vowing to include them ?in the planning and decision-making.?
Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, chairman of the Florida Hispanic Legislative Caucus, said Detzner told him that the state would resume its purge of potential noncitizens within 60 days.
?I?ve been told that they will go slow,? Garcia said. ?I?m completely confident that the process will work.?
Hillsborough County halted its purge last year after several voters on a list of 72 flagged by the state proved their citizenship.
A voter whose citizenship is questioned has the right to provide proof of citizenship in a due process system that includes certified letters and legal notices.
If the next list is anything like the last one, its burden will fall most heavily on urban counties with large Hispanic populations, notably Miami-Dade.
?Ineligible voters will be removed when their ineligibility is substantiated by credible and reliable data,? said Miami-Dade election supervisor Penelope Townsley.
(JTA) ? In a rare public appearance, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said of Israel, ?removing it is a Lebanese national interest.?
?Israel poses a danger on all people of this region ? including Lebanon,? Nasrallah said Friday?in southern Beirut in what the World Bulletin news site said was his first public appearance since last September.
Nasrallah has lived in hiding for fear of assassination by Israel since Hezbollah fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006.
Speaking of Palestine, he said Palestinian leaders have no right to compromise on the land.
?The Palestine which we mean is a Palestine which stretches from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river and it should return to its rightful owners,? Nasrallah said, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. ?No king, president, sheik, state or country has the right to give up even one clod of Palestinian land.?
His speech was delivered to an audience at an event marking al-Quds Day ? a day devoted to Jerusalem and its extraction from Israeli control that was celebrated originally in 1979 in Iran. Nasrallah usually gives speeches via television screens.
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JOHANNESBURG ? South African organizers made a slim profit of $366,000 from the African Cup of Nations in January and February, way behind the huge commercial success of the country's historic 2010 World Cup.
Delivering the final report and financial results for the African Cup, the local organizing committee said late Monday that it also had exceeded its own expectations on the three-week tournament by about $305,000 having initially expected to make just $60,000.
The report "clearly depicts a positive financial position for the tournament," LOC chairman Mwelo Nonkonyana said.
More than anything, it underlined the massive gap between Africa's top tournament and the money-spinning World Cup, and showed how far the Cup of Nations lags behind in commercializing its product.
The African Cup was never expected to rival the success of the World Cup, but the large gap between the two was significant.
South African football was left with about $80 million from FIFA to develop its grassroots game following the hosting of the 2010 World Cup. That figure also did not include the money local organizers made off ticket sales. FIFA generated revenue of $3.655 billion from the 2010 World Cup and made a profit of nearly $2.5 billion, the world body said in its financial report for that year.
The Confederation of African Football hasn't made public its earnings from its biennial showpiece, but it projected in January revenue of just $10 million from the latest African Cup.
African football tournaments struggle with the continent's economic factors, where fans are generally poorer and with far less disposable income. Some of Africa's lesser-known teams also have little appeal for global audiences.
The LOC said the total attendance for the 32-game tournament was just over 750,000 with an average attendance of about 23,000 per game, less than half the average attendance of the World Cup. However, it was an improvement on the last African Cup.
South Africa also conceded that it had a very small budget to promote its African Cup.
"With AFCON (the African Cup of Nations) ... nobody knew what was happening until the last moment," South African sports minister Fikile Mbalula said.
Nigeria won the African Cup in South Africa for its third title, beating little-known Burkina Faso in the final at Johannesburg's Soccer City.
South Africa also will host the African Nations Championship, a tournament for Africa-based players, next year.
Welcome Dinner with Professors Koichi Hasegawa (Tohuku University), Shujiro Yazawa (President, Japanese Sociological Society), Margaret Abraham (Barnard College, New York and VP for Research, International Sociological Association), Han Sang-jin (Seoul National University and Beijing University), Yosimichi Sato (Tohoku University) and Torigoe Hiroyuki (Japanese National Association President).
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On July 12-15, 2013, the Japanese Sociological Congress organized a conference on ?Dialogue with Global Sociologists and Knowledge Production in the Region? inYokohama, Japan. Dr. Emma Porio, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, presented her paper, ?Crafting Insurgent Urbanism in Metro Manila: State, Civil Society and the Urban Poor? in the opening plenary session along with Margaret Abraham, professor at Barnard College, New York and Vice-President for Research of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and Prof. Han of Han Institute of Social Studies, Korea and Beijing University.
Santa's workshop not flooded -- but lots of melting in the ArcticPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
Santa's workshop at the North Pole is not under water, despite recent reports. A dramatic image captured by a University of Washington monitoring buoy reportedly shows a lake at the North Pole. But Santa doesn't yet need to buy a snorkel.
"Every summer when the sun melts the surface the water has to go someplace, so it accumulates in these ponds," said Jamie Morison, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and principal investigator since 2000 of the North Pole Environmental Observatory. "This doesn't look particularly extreme."
After media coverage in CBS News, The Atlantic and the U.K.'s Daily Mail, Morison returned from overseas travel late last week to a pile of media inquiries. Over the weekend the team posted an explanatory page on the project website.
One of the issues in interpreting the image, researchers said, is that the camera uses a fisheye lens.
"The picture is slightly distorted," said Axel Schweiger, who heads the Applied Physics Laboratory's Polar Science Center. "In the background you see what looks like mountains, and that's where the scale problem comes in those are actually ridges where the ice was pushed together."
Researchers estimate the melt pond in the picture was just over 2 feet deep and a few hundred feet wide, which is not unusual for an Arctic ice floe in late July.
In the midst of all the concern, the pool drained late July 27. This is the normal life cycle for a meltwater pond that forms from snow and ice, and eventually drains through cracks or hole through the ice it has pooled on.
The now-infamous buoy was first plunked into floating ice in April, at the beginning of the melt season, about 25 miles from the North Pole. Morison drilled a hole about three football fields away for a second camera, which is pointing in a different direction and shows a more typical scene. Since then the ice floe holding both cameras has drifted about 375 miles south.
The U.S. National Science Foundation has funded an observatory since 2000 that makes yearly observations at fixed locations and installs 10 to 15 drifting buoys.
The buoys record weather, ice, and ocean data, and the webcams transmit images via satellite every 6 hours. Images show the ice, buoys and yardsticks placed in the snow to track the surface conditions throughout the summer melt season. Maybe the instruments will survive the summer without getting crushed by shifting ice to record data for another year. Maybe they will fall in the water and eventually wash ashore. Researchers place the buoys to try to maximize their useful lifetime.
While researchers say the so-called lake at the North Pole is not out of the ordinary, there is a lot of meltwater that could affect the sea ice in coming weeks, in the closely watched lead-up to the September ice minimum.
Last summer the sea-ice hit a record low in extent since measurements began in 1979. This year the melting started a bit later than usual, Schweiger said, but picked up in the last couple of weeks. Late summer is usually the strongest period of shrinking because the ice is already thin.
"Whether we're going to see another record or not is still up in the air," Schweiger said.
He flew over the ice last month in a joint project with the U.S. Coast Guard to drop instruments that measure oceanic and atmospheric conditions and ice motion.
Morison was last on the ice in April when he deployed the buoys. His forecast for this summer, based on years of experience, is included on a list of expert predictions compiled by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Seattle office.
Morison will not change his June estimate that this summer will come close to, but not pass, the 2012 record, but he is having his doubts. Looking at the photos from the recent flyover shows more melt along the Alaskan coast, and his experience suggests that ice is fragile.
"I think it's going to be pretty close to last year," Morison said. "Up in the Canada basin the ice looks like Swiss cheese, with lots of holes. Even though the ice extent is pretty good, our thinking is that if there's a big storm event we're going to see a rapid breakup of that ice and it's going to disappear pretty quickly."
The UW team manages another sea-ice tracking tool. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center publishes daily images and calculations of sea-ice extent and area, while the UW group combines those satellite images and other data to tabulate sea-ice volume. For many people, the UW's monthly updates are a go-to source for getting the latest numbers on sea ice.
And while the North Pole lake theory doesn't exactly hold water, UW researchers say that it at least shows public interest and concern.
"While the hoopla about Santa's swimming pool was off the mark," Morison said, "it is the long-term observational record from these buoys that provides the perspective needed to understand what really is going on."
###
For more information, contact Morison at 206-543-1394 or morison@apl.washington.edu and Schweiger at 206-543-1312 or axel@apl.washington.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Santa's workshop not flooded -- but lots of melting in the ArcticPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
Santa's workshop at the North Pole is not under water, despite recent reports. A dramatic image captured by a University of Washington monitoring buoy reportedly shows a lake at the North Pole. But Santa doesn't yet need to buy a snorkel.
"Every summer when the sun melts the surface the water has to go someplace, so it accumulates in these ponds," said Jamie Morison, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and principal investigator since 2000 of the North Pole Environmental Observatory. "This doesn't look particularly extreme."
After media coverage in CBS News, The Atlantic and the U.K.'s Daily Mail, Morison returned from overseas travel late last week to a pile of media inquiries. Over the weekend the team posted an explanatory page on the project website.
One of the issues in interpreting the image, researchers said, is that the camera uses a fisheye lens.
"The picture is slightly distorted," said Axel Schweiger, who heads the Applied Physics Laboratory's Polar Science Center. "In the background you see what looks like mountains, and that's where the scale problem comes in those are actually ridges where the ice was pushed together."
Researchers estimate the melt pond in the picture was just over 2 feet deep and a few hundred feet wide, which is not unusual for an Arctic ice floe in late July.
In the midst of all the concern, the pool drained late July 27. This is the normal life cycle for a meltwater pond that forms from snow and ice, and eventually drains through cracks or hole through the ice it has pooled on.
The now-infamous buoy was first plunked into floating ice in April, at the beginning of the melt season, about 25 miles from the North Pole. Morison drilled a hole about three football fields away for a second camera, which is pointing in a different direction and shows a more typical scene. Since then the ice floe holding both cameras has drifted about 375 miles south.
The U.S. National Science Foundation has funded an observatory since 2000 that makes yearly observations at fixed locations and installs 10 to 15 drifting buoys.
The buoys record weather, ice, and ocean data, and the webcams transmit images via satellite every 6 hours. Images show the ice, buoys and yardsticks placed in the snow to track the surface conditions throughout the summer melt season. Maybe the instruments will survive the summer without getting crushed by shifting ice to record data for another year. Maybe they will fall in the water and eventually wash ashore. Researchers place the buoys to try to maximize their useful lifetime.
While researchers say the so-called lake at the North Pole is not out of the ordinary, there is a lot of meltwater that could affect the sea ice in coming weeks, in the closely watched lead-up to the September ice minimum.
Last summer the sea-ice hit a record low in extent since measurements began in 1979. This year the melting started a bit later than usual, Schweiger said, but picked up in the last couple of weeks. Late summer is usually the strongest period of shrinking because the ice is already thin.
"Whether we're going to see another record or not is still up in the air," Schweiger said.
He flew over the ice last month in a joint project with the U.S. Coast Guard to drop instruments that measure oceanic and atmospheric conditions and ice motion.
Morison was last on the ice in April when he deployed the buoys. His forecast for this summer, based on years of experience, is included on a list of expert predictions compiled by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's Seattle office.
Morison will not change his June estimate that this summer will come close to, but not pass, the 2012 record, but he is having his doubts. Looking at the photos from the recent flyover shows more melt along the Alaskan coast, and his experience suggests that ice is fragile.
"I think it's going to be pretty close to last year," Morison said. "Up in the Canada basin the ice looks like Swiss cheese, with lots of holes. Even though the ice extent is pretty good, our thinking is that if there's a big storm event we're going to see a rapid breakup of that ice and it's going to disappear pretty quickly."
The UW team manages another sea-ice tracking tool. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center publishes daily images and calculations of sea-ice extent and area, while the UW group combines those satellite images and other data to tabulate sea-ice volume. For many people, the UW's monthly updates are a go-to source for getting the latest numbers on sea ice.
And while the North Pole lake theory doesn't exactly hold water, UW researchers say that it at least shows public interest and concern.
"While the hoopla about Santa's swimming pool was off the mark," Morison said, "it is the long-term observational record from these buoys that provides the perspective needed to understand what really is going on."
###
For more information, contact Morison at 206-543-1394 or morison@apl.washington.edu and Schweiger at 206-543-1312 or axel@apl.washington.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
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