Latest news with #Rutter
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Rutter sustains spine and leg fractures in TT crash
Seven-time Isle of Man TT winner Michael Rutter has had "a number of fractures" in his spine "stabilised" after a crash in Friday's Supertwin race. The 53-year-old crashed on the third and final lap at the 31st milestone on Friday and was transferred to the Walton Unit at Aintree Hospital in Liverpool. Advertisement A statement on Bathams Racing's Facebook page said "the worst of his injuries have been treated successfully" and he has "already been able to mobilise on his feet". "He suffered a number of fractures in his spine between the L2 and L5 vertebrae," Rutter's team said. "Surgeons have successfully stabilised all the fractures and Michael has already been able to mobilise on his feet. "He requires more surgery in his ankle to repair a further fracture, but for now the worst of his injuries have been treated successfully." Rutter made his Isle of Man TT debut in 1994 and decided to step back from the Superbike and Superstock races for the 2025 event to focus on the Supertwins - the slowest of the four classes at the road race. The Isle of Man TT is an annual road race which takes place on 37.7 miles of closed public roads on the Mountain Course.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Editorial: We knew Deborah Rutter at the Chicago Symphony. She did not fail the Kennedy Center.
When Deborah Rutter became president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2003, she inherited an institution with debt from a massive renovation project and that was suffering a serious drop in attendance and thus box office revenue. By the time she left in 2014 to assume the presidency of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the CSO was 'on its most solid financial footing in years, with one of the world's most renowned conductors, Riccardo Muti, serving as its music director to raise the artistic bar while drawing large audiences to programs at Symphony Center and beyond,' reported Heather Gillers and Mark Caro in the Tribune that year. Here is what Rutter said to those reporters about her job in the nation's capital: 'Fundamentally what we do is we care and nurture for music and musicians and try and steward an institution to serve an audience, so at the very core it's exactly the same job. But the world around us changes.' The sting was in the tail of that quotation. Boy, did it ever change. Probably far more than Rutter possibly could have anticipated. After a decade in her new job, she was effectively fired by a president of the United States, bound and determined to move the arts center in a direction in line with the priorities of his administration. Trump did not just say 'thank you for your service and we are going in a new direction,' which arguably was within his right to do, given the unique relationship the Kennedy Center has with the federal government. He attacked Rutter for what he called her 'bad management,' accusing her of programming stuff he personally did not want to see (to each his own) and of wasting millions of dollars. 'I don't know where they spent it,' Trump said last week. 'They certainly didn't spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.' The last time we were in the Kennedy Center, just a few weeks ago, we did not witness a problem with the decor, but we did appreciate the programming. Indeed, the verdict on Rutter's tenure when we were there was that she had been a highly effective arts administrator and the polar opposite of a narrow ideologue. Look at what she told NPR after her firing: 'I am a professional arts attendee. I am a believer in the work of the artist. I am not a propagandist. I am not a politician. Art speaks for itself. Art sometimes doesn't make you feel comfortable, but it is telling the story of who we are and all artists, as all Americans, have the freedom of expression.' Indeed they do. Indeed they must. As all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, should understand. Those words match our long experience with Rutter in Chicago, when she was a distinguished steward of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of our most precious civic assets. We were sad to lose her in 2014 and regret that her important work in our nation's capital had so unpleasant an ending. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@
Chicago Tribune
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: We knew Deborah Rutter at the Chicago Symphony. She did not fail the Kennedy Center.
When Deborah Rutter became president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2003, she inherited an institution with debt from a massive renovation project and that was suffering a serious drop in attendance and thus box office revenue. By the time she left in 2014 to assume the presidency of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the CSO was 'on its most solid financial footing in years, with one of the world's most renowned conductors, Riccardo Muti, serving as its music director to raise the artistic bar while drawing large audiences to programs at Symphony Center and beyond,' reported Heather Gillers and Mark Caro in the Tribune that year. Here is what Rutter said to those reporters about her job in the nation's capital: 'Fundamentally what we do is we care and nurture for music and musicians and try and steward an institution to serve an audience, so at the very core it's exactly the same job. But the world around us changes.' The sting was in the tail of that quotation. Boy, did it ever change. Probably far more than Rutter possibly could have anticipated. After a decade in her new job, she was effectively fired by a president of the United States, bound and determined to move the arts center in a direction in line with the priorities of his administration. Trump did not just say 'thank you for your service and we are going in a new direction,' which arguably was within his right to do, given the unique relationship the Kennedy Center has with the federal government. He attacked Rutter for what he called her 'bad management,' accusing her of programming stuff he personally did not want to see (to each his own) and of wasting millions of dollars. 'I don't know where they spent it,' Trump said last week. 'They certainly didn't spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.' The last time we were in the Kennedy Center, just a few weeks ago, we did not witness a problem with the decor, but we did appreciate the programming. Indeed, the verdict on Rutter's tenure when we were there was that she had been a highly effective arts administrator and the polar opposite of a narrow ideologue. Look at what she told NPR after her firing: 'I am a professional arts attendee. I am a believer in the work of the artist. I am not a propagandist. I am not a politician. Art speaks for itself. Art sometimes doesn't make you feel comfortable, but it is telling the story of who we are and all artists, as all Americans, have the freedom of expression.' Indeed they do. Indeed they must. As all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, should understand. Those words match our long experience with Rutter in Chicago, when she was a distinguished steward of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of our most precious civic assets. We were sad to lose her in 2014 and regret that her important work in our nation's capital had so unpleasant an ending.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
New pope gives Villanova University another reason to cheer
By Karen Freifeld VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - At midweek, the chaplain of Villanova University's basketball team cheered as one of his former star players led the New York Knicks to a come-from-behind National Basketball Association playoff win. The next day, Father Robert Hagan was celebrating another Villanova graduate he knows - the pope. "We're just cheering another one of our teammates, you know?" Hagan said on Friday as students packed up for the semester. Leo XIV was known as Robert Prevost when he was a math major at the Catholic university in the 1970s, walking its bright green lawns and studying and praying in its gray stone Gothic buildings. Hagan, a former senior associate athletic director at the university, also is prior provincial, the leader of Augustinian friars at Villanova. Leo, who once led the world's Augustinians as prior general, is the first pope from that order. Hagan said the pope, whom he has known for 27 years, has the spirit of St. Augustine of Hippo, a North African bishop of the fourth and fifth century. "And what I mean by that is veritas, unitas, caritas would be the core values," he said, referring to the Augustinian university's Latin motto that translates as "truth, unity and love." The pope's intelligence, compassion, capacity for language, and ability to immerse himself in different cultures would help him in his mission, Hagan added. "He has a certain ability to relate and connect with people that I think the world is going to really appreciate," he said. Students and faculty alike are savoring the moment. Classmates at a watch party at St. Rita's Hall, a building at the heart of campus named for a 15th-century Augustinian nun, eyed white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel. Other students were taking a final exam in engineering when their professor announced the news on Thursday. Evening mass in the campus's iconic St. Thomas of Villanova Church became a celebration. Patty Rutter, 63, went into the library at the Inn at Villanova near campus on Thursday after she heard the news. Yearbooks dating to 1943 line the room in the inn's lobby. Rutter found the 1977 edition and paged through to a portrait of a serious-looking Prevost. "There is no halo," joked Rutter, who works at the inn and is a Villanova student. The yearbook was soon removed from the library and placed in a safe, front desk clerk Kay Shockley said on Friday. It had suddenly become more valuable. Aleko Zeppos, 21, the newly elected student body president, said it had been an incredible week for Villanovans. "Now our most notable alumni is not an NBA player," he said. The 183-year-old Catholic university has 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students. Its academic reputation is strong, but it is most recognized outside its Philadelphia suburb for basketball. "We've been known for being the NCAA champs at three different times," said Father Kevin DePrinzio, Villanova's vice president for mission and ministry. "And we also have a pope now. That's a whole different level of wow." DePrinzio had emailed the future pope on Tuesday, telling him he was praying for him as cardinals worked to choose a successor to Francis, who had led the Church since 2013. DePrinzio, who started that email with "Dear Bob," said he got an immediate and friendly response. On Friday, he was planning an email offering "prayerful support." "I will lead with 'Your holiness,' and wait for him to say, 'You can call me Bob.'" "If that happens," he said, "I might just pass out."
National Geographic
10-04-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
Why do birds sing so loudly in the morning in spring? It's the ‘dawn chorus'
The American redstart is a warbler whose voice contributes to the dawn chorus, heralding the start of spring. Photograph by Melissa Groo, Nat Geo Image Collection As spring begins, so does a fresh song at daybreak, unique to the season. Just before the sun rises, birds start singing their melodies, creating a chirpy symphony. This phenomenon is known as the dawn chorus, and it's special for a number of reasons: There are more birds singing at this time of year, and they also sing more often. This energetic burst of birdsong is often louder than usual too. The dawn chorus' early morning explosion of sounds has even inspired multiple poems and songs. 'It's the epitome of spring,' says Jordan E. Rutter, an ornithologist at the American Bird Conservancy. After the long and cold winter, 'all of a sudden you have this influx of so many beautiful birds coming back and singing.' This harmony of birdsong at dawn happens during a fundamental time of the year. The dawn chorus is, in fact, mostly composed of birds of both genders singing to find a mate so they can breed (though males may sing more). A pine grosbeak, who sings during the dawn chorus, perches on a branch in Meadowlands, Minnesota. Photograph by Richard Seeley, Nat Geo Image Collection 'There is such a large increase in quantity of song by individuals and the collective,' Rutter says. 'These birds sing louder to literally be heard. They need to compete with each other as well, and the louder the better in regards to who is the most impressive mate.' During this time, males also sing to assert their dominance and claim their territory. 'Those songs are how they communicate to other males of the same species, or even just other birds and predators in general, and say, 'This is my home,'' says Rutter. Why is it the ideal winter break? In the United States and Canada, the dawn chorus can be heard roughly from March through May, when many bird species migrate there from their winter homes to breed. Peak dawn chorus times might depend on where you live, Rutter says. For example, April is peak for the southern U.S., but birds in Washington, D.C., will put on the best show in early May. (Alternatively, in the tropics, the dawn chorus can be heard almost any time of year, as many birds have a prolonged breeding season in those warmer climates.) The song of the great crested flycatcher is common during the dawn chorus. Photograph by Joel Satore, Nat Geo Image Collection Why is it a 'dawn' chorus? But why birds sing in the early morning is still 'an open question,' says Mike Webster, an ornithologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 'There's a lot of debate, and I don't think there's any consensus on exactly why it is that everything happens at dawn.' One hypothesis is that weather conditions at daybreak make it easier for birdsong to travel. 'In general, sound travels farther when the air is cooler and more dense. Sound also transmits more clearly (and very slightly faster) when humidity is higher so that details of the song do not degrade as much over distance,' says Heather Williams, a professor at Williams College who has studied the neuroscience of birdsong. She notes that wind may also impede sound transmission. 'At dawn, the cooler air results in decreased winds at ground level, so coupled with the higher humidity, sound carries farther and more clearly, with less distortion.' Yellow-throated vireos are more colorful than most vireos, but they usually remain out of sight. You're likely to hear them during the dawn chorus, though. Photograph by Joel Satore, Nat Geo Image Collection It may also be that in the morning, after the night has passed, male birds want to inform their rivals that they're still there, claiming their territory. During the dawn chorus, each singer has their own entrance time, too. 'Each species tends to have a very specific time or amount of time before sunrise when they start singing,' says Webster. Some birds, for example, will start chirping 45 minutes before the sun comes up, others half an hour. 'It's really very precisely timed.' Some species even have songs that they perform only during the dawn chorus, according to Webster. This unique symphony resonates in every habitat where songbirds live, from deserts to forests to grasslands. Among those, warblers, thrushes, vireos, orioles, grosbeaks, and flycatchers are some of the most iconic birds you can hear. But how do the birds understand other individuals of their own species among all the noise? 'Birds are very good at picking out the songs of their own species,' says Webster. 'Even though there's lots of other species singing, making it hard for them to hear each other, they still can pick up on each other's voices.' Cardinals, like this duo at the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue in North Carolina, can be heard in the dawn chorus. Photograph by Joel Satore, Nat Geo Image Collection How to tune in to bird radio Witnessing the dawn chorus can be a rewarding experience, but this phenomenon can also help scientists working on bird conservation. 'Listening to birdsong is a window into the health of the species and the health of the ecosystem,' says Webster. For example, scientists record the dawn chorus to understand which species live in an area, or how populations are faring. 'You can get a gauge of the health of the ecosystem by who's participating in the dawn chorus,' he adds. Fortunately, anyone can listen in. This spring, just wake up early, bring a cup of coffee, head out into nature (even just in your backyard), and stand still and listen. 'You don't need to know how to identify bird calls or songs to just appreciate them,' says Rutter. 'It's the most natural soundtrack on Earth, which is just so wonderful.'
