text:
Dearest (Film Review)
Let us go home.
Zhao Wei/Vicki Zhao as Li Hong Qing
Huang Bo as Tian Wen Jun
Tong Da Wei as Gao Xia
Hao Lei as Lu Xiao Juan
Mainland/Hong Kong
Language: Mandarin and Jiang-Huai dialect
Quick Rundown:
Tian Wen Jun and Lu Xiao Juan's marriage may be over, but they are still as in love as ever with their son, Tian Peng. After a tragic accident in which Tian Peng disappears, the duo launches on a seemingly never ending search for their lost boy. As luck would have it, the ex-couple finds Tian Peng, now living as Ji Gang, farmer Li Hong Qing's son. After a series of investigations, Li Hong Qing's late husband is unearthed as a suspect of child kidnapping and so even the orphaned girl the couple adopted is taken away. Innocent Li Hong Qing is unaware of her husband's dealings and begs unsympathetic lawyer Gao Xia to help her keep her daughter, but will she be able to?
Estelle's Take
The plot is not complicated, but the characters and their feelings are as gray as could be. While Vicki Zhao's character Li Hong Qing's husband committed a undeniably awful crime, she is not guilty of anything aside from raising the "adopted" child as her own. But how can you take a child from his rightful parents? Instead of focusing on the joys of being reunited, the story explores the inevitable, the reconciliation that comes afterwards and how to deal with a child who has learnt to love another mom and a mom who has lived a lie while not neglecting the original set of parents who must deal with being rejected by their flesh.
Based on a real life person, Li Hong Qing is the most complex and difficult individual to portray and Vicki Zhao used her whole heart and body to express the character. She was able to capture the innocence of a poorly educated but loving woman, one who naively believed her husband's lies when he brought home the children. She also displayed the eagerness and the worries of a mother when her children were taken away. Vicki brought to life every single emotion, and made me sympathize with her even though perhaps it would have been logical to hate her. I wept with her when she snuck around to see the children, I begged with her when she tried to get her daughter back from the orphanage, and I hoped with all my heart that she would continue to be courageous.
I also wondered to myself why her husband had to go to such length just to raise these children as their own? He must have desperately wanted children, but he must not have known that he could adopt from an orphanage. But as we learn from the film, orphanages aren't inclined to release children to the countryside, even if it is into the warm embrace of loving parents. While I understand the obvious concerns, but is it really that much better for these children to grow up waiting for someone to adopt them? Is holding out really worth it all? These are questions the film left me thinking, but I appreciate the fact that the movie did not attempt to get on the high horse to answer them all.
While Vicki's on screen performance was every bit incredible, everyone else paled in comparison. I should have felt more sadness when Tian Peng was lost and more joy when he was found, but Huang Bo and Hao Lei just did not evoke these feelings in me. Other than me knowing that these events were happening and that I should feel one way or the other, they did nothing to demonstrate what it meant to be angry, disappointed, hopeful, conflicted and dejected. Tong Da Wei as Gao Xia did a little bit better as a rude and arrogant city lawyer who sort of learnt to be more kind, but it was nothing another actor couldn't have done.
Overall, I would highly recommend everyone to watch this – if not to understand the issue topic, then to see Vicki's stellar acting skills. Child trafficking and kidnapping is wrong, as is all human trafficking, but
what about what comes after it? I think this film deals with it really well, even though there are no clear cut solutions. This is no happily ever after, yet it is the reality for so many.
This & That:
This movie produced several awards, including Best Actress for Zhao Wei/Vicki Zhao at the 10th Chinese American Film Festival and the 21st Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. Zhang Ji also collected Best Screenplay at the latter awards. The film, cast and crew are also nominated for a collection of awards at the 34th Hong Kong Film Festivals, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress.
Zhao Wei/Vicki Zhao will be in two movies this year, 12 Golden Ducks and Hollywood Adventures. The latter of the two was filmed mostly in Los Angeles. She is also currently filming comedy series Tiger Mom with Tong Da Wei.
Tong Da Wei was in 2010 Zhang Yi Mou movie The Flower of War with Christian Bale. The movie was China's entry for the Best Foreign Film in the 84th Academy Awards.
Huang Bo will feature on the big screen again at the end of this year (12/18/15) in movie The Ghouls with Angelababy and Chen Kun/Aloys Chen among others. He recently starred in Feng Ren (锋刃) a WWII series.
Hao Lei was in another movie late 2014, The Golden Era, which was Hong Kong's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.
Click for a news report of the actual case by NPR
Chinesedearesthao leiHong Konghuang bomoviepeter chanqin ai detong da weivicki zhaozhao wei

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tank Bottoms | Matcor, Inc.
Design a Detailed Tank Ring Anode System™ for an Above Ground Storage Tank in Seconds with MATCOR's Web Application.
Chalfont, PA – August 28, 2014, MATCOR, Inc., the trusted full-service provider of proprietary cathodic protection products, systems and corrosion engineering solutions, launched a valuable, timesaving web application that enables corrosion professionals to design a cathodic protection system for their above ground storage tanks (ASTs) in seconds.
The MATCOR Tank Ring Anode System App is available at matcor.com/tankring. The user enters specifications for their above ground storage tank and installation environment, and the app delivers detailed tank ring anode cathodic protection design specifications. MATCOR will then quickly quote and manufacture an accurate, reliable impressed current cathodic protection system, which utilizes patented Kynex® waterproof connection technology.
The factory-assembled MATCOR Tank Ring Anode System is fast and easy to install with no field anode assembly required. A small crew can install most systems in under two hours with no welding, hot permit, splicing of anode sections or special backfill required. MATCOR offers Tank Ring Anode Systems for new and retrofit tanks.


text:
Sales Manager Merchandising jobs in Europe
Sales Manager, Merchandising, Europe 28
Sales Manager Remove selection
Found 28 Full Time jobs
York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Due to growth with one of our key clients, Field Sales Solutions has an exciting opportunity for you to join them as a Retail Sales Manager! This is
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Barnstaple, Devon, United Kingdom
Lancing, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Paddington, Westminster, Greater London, United Kingdom
Newport, Newport, United Kingdom
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Warrington, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Strabane, Strabane, United Kingdom
Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Chester, Cheshire, United Kingdom
Nantwich, Cheshire, United Kingdom


The contracting party is Colorgem GmbH, Biberstraße 15/23a, 1010, Vienna, Austria. The contract language is English. Austrian law is applicable, excluding UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
Your order represents an offer for closing a purchase contract with us. When you place an order on muarjewelry.com, we will send you an e-mail confirming the receipt of your order (order confirmation). This order confirmation does not represent an acceptance of your offer, but should inform you that your order has reached us. A purchase contract is in effect when we have sent you the ordered product and confirm the shipment in a second e-mail (shipment confirmation). There is no purchase contract for products from one and the same order, which are not listed in the shipment confirmation.
Unless agreed upon differently, the delivery is carried out from the muarjewelry.com stock to the address provided by the customer. On our website, you will find information on the stock availability of individual products. It should be noted that all information on availability, shipment and delivery of a product is merely estimated information and an approximate value. It does not represent binding or guaranteed shipment or delivery dates, except if the delivery options of a particular product explicitly specify a binding date. In the event that during the processing of your order muarjewelry.com determines that products you have ordered are not available, you will be separately informed per e-mail. In the event that we are unable to deliver the ordered goods, because our distributor does not fulfill his contractual obligations, we are entitled to rescind the contract with the customer. In this case, the customer will immediately be informed that the ordered product is not available. The legal entitlements of the customer remain intact. In the event that a delivery to the customer is not possible because the customer cannot be reached at the address provided, the customer carries the costs for the unsuccessful delivery.
The customer can pay the purchase price with credit card, paypal, bank transfer or direct debit. The payment is to be made in the currency that appears on the invoice. Muarjewelry.com will not commence arranging or delivering the ordered products before your payment of the ordered products has been fully fulfilled. The ordered products will be sent to the address provided in the order confirmation.
Until payment has been completed, the delivered goods remain property of Muar Jewerly.
The reshipment of the defect goods must take place according to statutory provisions. Muarjewelry.com reserves the right to assert compensation for damages according to the conditions regulated by law. The statutory period of limitations is one year, counted from the date of delivery.
Moreover, muarjewelry.com is liable for the negligent breach of essential aspects, the breach of which endangers attaining the purpose of the contract, or for the breach of obligations whose implementation allows for the proper execution of the contract and the adherence to which you depend on. In this case, muarjewelry.com is only liable for damages that are foreseeable and typical for this type of contract.
Muarjewelry.com is not liable for the negligent breach of obligations that are not mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. The above mentioned limitations of liability are not applicable for damage to life, body or health, for defects arising after the acceptance of a guarantee for the quality of the product and for willfully concealed defects. The liability according to the product liability law remains unaffected.
To the extent that muarjewelry.com's liability is excluded or limited, this also applies to the personal liability of employees, representatives and auxiliary persons.
We save, process and use the personal data you provide on the order form, in order to execute the order. We give some of this information to the contracted shipping companies for the execution of the order. On written request, you will receive, free of charge, a list of the data we have saved regarding you. We will adjust any incorrectly saved data upon your written request. As far as you comply with a utilization of your personal data that is not already legal, you can revoke this compliance at any time.


Ergohuman's advanced ergonomic design and streamline contour provide you more healthy and confortable modern office environment.
The ergohuman's new creative design concept----'Automatic Flexible Lumbar support‿ensures the best ergonomic lumbar supports for users.
The multifunctional design,easy operation,various combination and inspire outline bring up the extremely mesh chair in ideas or styles.
You do need the extreamly different office chair,which let you cannot help but like ergohuman.Ergohuman is the very chair,which of aluminum support bracket with the elegance curves shows the different style,and the innovative and refined design with various colors optional.
Ergohuman has developed out full series of with headrest,without headrest and visitor chairs.At the same time,the headrest ,backrest,lumbar and the seat can be made of mesh,leather or fabric.Besides,there are two kinds of mesh with fourteen colors to be chosen.All these ensure you to establish a characterized and comfortable working environment according to all kinds of demand.


text:
Sinocyclocheilus huangtianensis is een straalvinnige vissensoort uit de familie van de eigenlijke karpers (Cyprinidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 2011 door Zhu, Zhu & Lan.

Eigenlijke karpers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This month's theme was Spring Fling.
The rundown: 2 full sized products, 2 samples + 1 bonus sample.
Nu.Me Feather Hair Extensions – Blue: Full size product. When I saw these in other people's boxes, I assumed they were clip-ins but you have to weave them into your hair. I like my blue extensions but I am scared of the snarly mess I am going to make. You should see my ponytails YIKES!
M. Asam Magic Fini: I have never heard of this before. It is a base before your foundation I am assuming. It looks a little dark but it sheers out to a matte finish. It supposed to smooth away wrinkles, large pores, conceal uneven skin tone and imperfections to reveal a sunkissed glow. WOW that's a lot to promise. I am looking forward to that!
Ocean Nail Polish in Pretty Please: Full size product. Another brand I have never heard of. Pretty Please is very nice sheer pearly pink colour. This will be great for a French manicure base.
Bonus item was Coup d'Eclat Lifting Ampoule. It says it's an instant facial energizer and erases the signs of fatigue. Hello can I get a barrel of this to dunk my face in? Thank you. HAHA seriously can I?
What do think of March's Glymm box?


Let this one build. A simple 8-bit melody that builds layer and layer rewarding you with some 80s synth sound vocals. I was just in California talking with some people I met about how the synth is back in! It sure is in today's selection.
"8-Bit Love combines a 20-something's view on life in post-Eraserheads Manila, and is filled with bright lyrics and squeaky synths."
The author, Cocolulu, aka Mark Redito, describes himself as falling in love with The Beatles and trying to imitate Ringo's playful drumming (age 10). Then at age 16 he joined the punk rock scene before "growing out of it" and moving into electronica. The release, 8-Bit Love [qd-4244], is the latest from QED records, a netlabel featuring electronica from the Philippines.


Description Selecting new News post from main group hierarchy toolbar uses default email address instead of default usenet address.
MPro doesn't have a default Usenet address. Each newsgroup can however have a particular identity (and therefore address) associated with it, and if you click the post news button with that newsgroup selected, it'll use that identity as the from address. Is this what's going wrong?
Badly phrased on my part. I would have meant uses the email identity rather than the identity configured for that newsgroup. So, yes. That is, IIRC.


The first Baptist meeting place on Anglesey was founded in 1750 in Llangefni. Originally called Tŷ Cildwrn, it was a small domestic cottage on the road to out of Llangefni towards Holyhead, where worshippers met. In 1781 it was replaced with a purpose built chapel, renamed Capel Cildwrn.
This small chapel was modified a couple of times in the early 1800s, but in 1846-49 it was enlarged by raising the roof of two thirds of the building to provide a more spacious interior, with a larger gallery. Further modifications took place in 1866 and 1878. At the end of the century the congregation decided to build a new larger chapel closer to the town centre, Capel Penuel. Capel Cildwrn was abandoned and disused for most of the 20th century until it was renovated in the 1980s and reopened for services as an Evangelical church. Their website contains a video greeting from the pastor that shows the interior.
The year 1791 saw the arrival of Christmas Evans. Renowned for his powerful preaching style and vivid imagination, he is often considered one of the greatest preachers ever in Wales. Born on Christmas Day in 1766 near Llandysul, Ceredigion, he was the son of a shoemaker who died when Christmas was young. He grew up in hard circumstances, which included losing an eye in a fight. However, he was converted at a revival meeting when a teenager, and the previously illiterate young man taught himself to read so as to study the Bible.
Evans soon moved on to preaching the gospel, and his talents began to be widely recognized. He was sent to North Wales and spent two years preaching on the Llŷn Peninsula. His reputation increased and he was asked to come to Anglesey to spread the Baptist cause there. His base was at Cildwrn, but he preached around the island and raised money for new chapels. After the death of his wife in 1823, and growing disagreements with some sections of the now greatly enlarged Baptist Church of Anglesey, he decided to return to South Wales. He preached in Caerphilly and Cardiff for several years, but then returned to North Wales to preach in Caernarfon. He died in 1838, aged 72.
June 2015 - Capel Cildwrn has been awarded £99,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for urgent repairs to its roof, fascias and chimney.
By the 1890s the congregation were outgrowing Capel Cildwrn. It was decided (after some long discussions) to build a new, larger chapel closer to town. Evan Evans of Caernarfon was retained to draw up plans for a new chapel. It was opened in 1897 and was dedicated to their beloved preacher, Christmas Evans.
In keeping with the monumental designs of late 19th century chapels, Penuel is in the Classical and Lombardic/Italian style, with entry through the gable end facing the road. A memorial to Christmas Evans can be found inside.


The content of the Oct. 21 Rejoinder by Rep. Ben Cardin, "Democrats have led on Medicare reform," -- was well-thought through and written by a knowledgeable individual who, indeed, had done his homework.
Should the Republican bill pass with its perks for the "got plenties," we seniors will suffer from this action for years to come; all because they are hurrying to meet a timetable regardless of the consequences.
The solution to the Medicare problem (and I admit there is one) is not to be accomplished hurriedly but, rather, it must be thought through carefully and slowly. Otherwise you will create a worse problem.
In Yiddish we have a word, "plunte," which means an entanglement from which there is no extrication. This is what the Republicans must not be permitted to do.
That is to create such a "plunte" in their haste that the seniors will not be able to extricate themselves.
Teachers and support staff in Baltimore City can no longer be asked to assume the burden of the incompetent, arrogant mismanagement of the public schools. The blame does fester at North Avenue.
The idea of an employee furlough (to cover up Superintendent Walter G. Amprey's inability to manage the schools) verges on the obscene. Teachers and support staff work hard and have no power to affect the changes that are forced upon them.
We are supposed to be professionals, but are never really treated as such. Rather, we are looked down upon by those who do not want to be in the classroom and we are used as a scapegoat for all the ills of the system.
It is time for the state and the city to see us as allies and let us do our job.
The people who live in the suburbs (or any other part of town being considered as a destination for the 1,324 poor households being relocated by the Baltimore Housing Authority) have worked to afford a better place to live for themselves and their families, thus creating their own American dream. When the government tries to provide the dream to everyone regardless of that person's effort, which is socialism, it undermines the work ethic that made this country great.
Contrary to what many officials would want you to believe the problem with public education is not the lack of funds. The Oct. 21 letter to the editor, "Public schools are wasteful bureaucracy," written by David D. Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, identifies the real culprit and it is an appropriate warning for taxpayers. In some of our schools today, everyone from teachers up has an assistant, sometimes three.
I recently read in your newspaper some reports about reduction in what the government will pay for the care of the elderly in our nursing homes.
I think we sometimes forget how far we have come in this country. The care of senior citizens in their later years is a commitment that this country made through Medicare and Medicaid programs. It is a commitment that we should keep.
These citizens are the ones who have fought in two world wars to keep this country free. These are the ones who built the most democratic and diversified nation on the planet.
These people are the ones who made the economy of this country the largest in the world and the envy of nearly every nation.
The people who live in nursing homes today, though they may look frail, built the platform from which many of us reach for even greater heights today.
These are our parents, other relatives and loved ones. Are they too much of a burden for us now, when they need help the most?
Our commitment to them must be kept. This is the right thing to do.
The writer is administrator of Horizon Healthcare Corp.
The Oct. 16 article, "Complications for cancer survivors," was of interest to all who themselves or through others have had cancer touch their lives. The disease is frightening. The treatments are scary. The future looks dismal.
The medical world reaches out with help.
Chemotherapy is simply chemical therapy. The chemicals are prescribed by a doctor who specializes in the treatment of cancer.
The patient (or the responsible designated person) must be aware of the dangers involved. However, there are plus factors, too. Some cancers go into remission and a recurrence of the disease is prevented.
Chemicals are sent into one's body to find and demolish any cancer cells. Unfortunately, these chemicals do not know the difference between good and bad cells.
Despite the nausea, mouth sores, fatigue, fright and loss of hair, etc., one must try very hard to build up one's immune system. Also one must struggle not to allow one's energy level to go to zero.
There may be other factors that are negative, too. The whole bit devours one (or so it feels like after one or two treatments).
Radiation is another treatment which completely wrings one out and can also have positive and negative factors.
Once begun, the battle does not soon end. The feeling of looking at the sky, smelling flowers, laughing and sharing with loved ones makes it all worthwhile.
Children are a different story. One is that the decision to allow cancer to pursue its course or try to fight it is made by parents. Children cannot fully understand the implications of the disease or its treatments.
With cancer treatments no one is 100 percent certain of the nTC results. Fortunately, new medical treatments seem to come at a steady rate. Length of life is now often prolonged.
Unfortunately, the medical profession cannot completely advise one of all the effects of treatments. Parents must understand that often in the aftermath of success, there may be trials and tribulations.
This is one of the features of support groups, where everyone's need seems to arise and be important to all. They share personal knowledge of the good and bad, that can lead to a better quality of life. We are all in a circle. What we give comes back. The strength adds to our life. One is not alone.


text:
2010 - ICTs and Environmental Sustainability
GISW2010CountryZimbabwe_EN.pdf 1.94 MB
Margaret Zunguze
E-Knowledge for Women in Southern Africa (EKOWISA)
http://www.ekowisa.org.zw
According to an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) online publication on "e-environment", 1 e-environment can be discussed in three main ways: the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) as an instrument for environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources; the environmentally sustainable way of consuming, disposing, recycling and discarding hardware and components used in ICTs; and the use of ICTs in forecasting, monitoring and measuring the impact of natural and human-made disasters in developing countries. The Zimbabwean research component focuses on the environmentally sustainable way of consuming, disposing, recycling and discarding hardware and components used in ICTs – that is, electronic waste (e-waste).
How serious is the problem of ewaste in Zimbabwe?
In Zimbabwe, the numbers of imported electronic goods are increasing and the cost of purchasing is getting lower and lower. This research found that some of these electronic goods have a very short life span. This is confirmed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through reports warning of a dangerous increase in the amount of ewaste, which is often simply dumped in waste disposal sites. These sites are usually frequented by the urban poor and unemployed scavenging for reusable plastics or metals for resale, posing serious health hazards to themselves as well as residents near the dumps. Developed countries manufacture millions of tonnes of products like computers, TV sets and mobile phones, as well as household appliances like refrigerators, microwaves, etc. Some of these products are exported to developing countries as new items but some, which are exported second-hand, are effectively dumped.
This research did not find any evidence of such wilful importation of electronic goods for dumping in Zimbabwe. This could be happening, however.
Disappointingly, this researcher found a very low level of ewaste readiness for Zimbabwe. Discussions with ministries and departments on ICTs, the environment and waste management revealed there is neither awareness nor preparedness at all on issues of ewaste management. As the section on policy and legislative issues will show, there is also no legislation on ewaste. With the removal of import duty, it only takes some unscrupulous businessperson to import ewaste and dump it in Zimbabwe under the guise of bringing much-needed technology into the country.
In the course of researching this article, the people interviewed initially did not think that Zimbabwe has a serious problem with ewaste. However, they changed their minds after a short exposé on the potential hazards contained in ewaste. In an Association for Progressive Communications (APC) issue paper on ewaste, 2 Alan Finlay wrote that there is a correlation between the economic strength of a country and the levels of potential ewaste. Finlay says that "in a strong economy, imported technology will be cheaper and old technology will be more readily replaced," in this way increasing the levels of ewaste. The converse could be true, so that in a recovering economy like Zimbabwe, electronic goods may be used for longer periods before replacement.
Although e-waste might not be a big issue now in Zimbabwe, it could soon become a critical issue. Companies, ministries and waste management services interviewed showed that they are just beginning to be aware of the potential hazards that ewaste poses. One ICT retailer said:
Although prices of electronic goods have gone down, each purchase is a considerable opportunity cost [sacrifice of the enjoyment of another good]. So the purchaser will use that electronic good until it stops working. Once it has stopped working, one would take it to every dealer around town to get it working again. If all fails, one would still keep it in the house in the hope that someone somewhere would be able to repair it in the future rather than dump it.
Psychologically, people cannot really throw away electronic goods; they believe the electronic good could still have some value even in a non-functional state. Even if one was able to throw away the non-working electronic good, someone else would probably pick it up and try to make good use of it. So there is a sense in which, in this context, the possibility of electronic goods polluting the environment is very negligible.
Another respondent summarised the issue by saying, "Zimbabwe has a more advanced repair and servicing industry compared to most African countries. If you take it to Siyaso,3 someone will be able to get that discarded electrical good to work in one form or another."
Harare has many shops that profess to repair any electrical good. The repair industry is very effective and most electronic equipment is either efficiently repaired or the parts are always reused in one way or another. Interviewees attributed this to the depressed economic growth in the country, which translates into fewer imports, forcing second-hand recycling companies to boom.
These sentiments may be true at an individual level, but it becomes another issue at the institutional level. Zimbabwe imports thousands of refurbished computers to equip its many schools through international bodies like Computer Aid International. 4 However, the life span of these refurbished computers is no more than three years. Through the years, schools, ministries and companies have stockpiled outdated computers that have long outlived their productive lives. Most of these institutions cannot dispose of the non-functional computer inventory due to limitations of writing off the goods from asset registers.
World Links Zimbabwe, an organisation whose focus is to facilitate the use of computers in pedagogy, encourages schools to bring obsolete computers to their workshop in Harare. World Links has a salvaging programme at its warehouse where computers are broken down to their basic parts; reusable parts are put back to use and the waste is sent to City Council municipal dumps and landfills. However, the cost of transporting these computers from remote locations to Harare is very high and there is no incentive to encourage schools to respond positively to the call. So these computers remain in cupboards gathering dust and taking up valuable space.
This state of affairs shows that although technical solutions may be available, there is a need for a legal framework, an organised collection system, logistics, and other services. The issue of ewaste needs to be discussed at national level to raise the general public's awareness and to identify places where old electronic goods could be collected for stripping down, recycling and safe disposal. As far as this research could ascertain, there is no formal institution designated to grind unusable ewaste products in Zimbabwe; maybe the individual stripping down of components and reusing the usable ones could be an effective way of dealing with ewaste and there could be no need for a formal institution to play this role. These issues could be addressed by a legislative framework on ewaste.
Dealing with hazardous waste
According to the World Computer Exchange,5 "[a]n average computer may contain up to 1,000 toxins including lead, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals that are known to cause damage to the nervous system, the brain, the kidneys, and can cause birth defects and cancer. It is estimated that up to 40% of heavy metals in landfills come from electronic equipment discards." The Waste Management Department of the Municipality of Harare has protocols of proper disposal for hazardous waste, but does not address the proper treatment of ewaste.
For the safe disposal of ewaste, toxic materials must first be removed. However, Zimbabwe does not have a facility that focuses on removing toxic materials from electrical goods. There is a statutory instrument on disposal of hazardous waste in general as discussed under policy and legislative processes below. Currently, companies pay a certain amount to the local waste management facility to dispose of hazardous waste substances in proper landfills. Both the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and the Waste Management Department of the Municipality of Harare, institutions with the responsibility of waste management, agree on the need and urgency to draft procedures and processes necessary for the safe disposal of ewaste. Currently, there is no data on the percentage of ewaste or heavy metals in the landfills of Zimbabwe – another advocacy and lobby point for civil society organisations.
Environmental groups claim that the informal processing of ewaste in developing countries causes serious health and pollution problems. Zimbabwe, just like many developing countries in the world, is experiencing an increase in the take-up of ICTs.
Mobile technology usage has significantly increased, and mobiles are readily discarded due to rapid technological changes and their low average life span. Recently there has been an influx of cheap second-hand mobile phones on the market from the East. The availability of SIM cards means that anyone who wants to own a mobile phone can do so; many people now actually own more than one line. These developments are due to the relentless activities of the new Ministry of Information and Communication Technology that succeeded in removing import duty on electronic goods and reducing the cost of SIM cards to about the same amount as a loaf of bread.
Policy and regulation for ewaste
According to a report published by the UNEP Regional Office for Africa, 6 Zimbabwe signed the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal on 22 March 1989, but has not yet ratified it. The Basel Action Network's International Toxics Progress Report Card 7 also confirms that Zimbabwe has not ratified the Basel Convention. According to the UNEP report, since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, Zimbabwe has carried out activities aimed at enforcing and strengthening existing legislation, the establishment of a radiation protection services department, the institution of a Hazardous Substances Control Advisory Board, and the introduction of hazardous waste management regulations and national guidelines for the disposal of hazardous waste for local authorities. The national priority, according to the report, is to promote the environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals through education and awareness, the development of a register of toxic chemicals as well as their classification, and the promotion of cleaner production technologies.
The Hazardous Substances and Articles Control Act provides the legal framework for the control and management of toxic chemicals; there is however no mention of ewaste. There is therefore a need to raise awareness and lobby for the inclusion of ewaste management issues.
Discussions with the EMA revealed that there are no frameworks on ewaste management. EMA's mandate includes the engagement of multi-stakeholders in its quest to manage natural resources and protect the environment. The most recent legislation is Statutory Instrument 10 of 2007 which covers disposal of dangerous waste products.
Civil society's perspective
It is apparent that civil society organisations that work in the area of ICT for development need to take more active involvement in ewaste management issues. The immediate roles they could play could be to raise awareness on the critical issues of ewaste and hold discussions with local authorities involved in waste disposal. As an example, eKnowledge for Women in Southern Africa recently held a two-day workshop for local councillors and business leaders in Masvingo city to discuss gender and ICT issues in the ICT bill. Issues on ewaste were raised and were received very enthusiastically as evidenced by the formation of the "Masvingo Citizens' ICT Task Force" made up of nine representatives from the business sector, government departments, local councillors, female informal trade leaders, women's group leaders, girls' group representatives and young men and women with ICT skills. The purpose of the task force is to follow up on ICT issues at a local level and strategise for local coordinated actions for the sustainable use and appropriation of ICTs. This is just one example of how civil society organisations can conduct advocacy and educate public authorities, ICT industry leaders and even work with legislators for the promotion of environmentally sustainable ewaste management and related processes at the local level.
Issues of ewaste need to be discussed and addressed in the review of the ICT Policy Framework which is currently underway.
The ICT bill that is also under discussion should address issues of ewaste.
Civil society organisations involved in ICT for development should get involved in the reviews of the ICT policy and the ICT bill and ensure that ewaste is adequately addressed.
Private companies and even civil society organisations should be encouraged to engage in ewaste programmes and activities at the local level.
Centres that encourage the general public to bring in non-functional mobile phones, chargers and other related discarded electronic goods should be set up in strategic places around the country, and package the ewaste in bulk containers for export to countries that specialise in ewaste disposal.
NGOs could assist with the logistics of cost-effectively moving ewaste to collection centres.
E-waste management content should be disseminated to the public (including youth and businesses) through various forums and networking platforms to raise awareness levels and collective action at local levels.
NGOs could also work with the government to identify and strengthen electronic repair companies and encourage them to develop into effective electronic recyclers that understand ewaste issues.
This research actually became an awareness-raising activity that agitated for the need for action in the area of ewaste. However, a lot of work still needs to be done, as Zimbabweans collectively endeavour to find ways of consuming, disposing, recycling and discarding ICTs in environmentally friendly ways.
1 Labelle, R. et al. (2008) ICTs for e-Environment: Guidelines for Developing Countries, with a Focus on Climate Change, ITU, Geneva. www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/app/docs/itu-icts-for-e-environment.pdf
2 Finlay, A. (2005) E-Waste Challenges in Developing Countries: South Africa Case Study, APC, Johannesburg. www.apc.org/en/pubs/issue/e-waste-challenges-developing-countries-south…
3 A Zimbabwean phrase that means "Leave it like that, it works." This phrase is the name for the location in Mbare (a high-density suburb of Harare) where you find self-employed artisans who can fix anything and everything.
4 www.computeraid.org
5 www.worldcomputerexchange.org/ewaste
6 www.gridnairobi.unep.org/chm/roa/Country%20Profiles/Zimbabwe.doc
7 www.ban.org/country_status/report_card.html
Environment and ICT


1) As you can see my top lip was practically non existent and there was no clear definition to my lips. They more or less just blended into my face and never really stood out. Its been a running joke by family and friends for a long time that I've had no top lip haha everyone used to notice it.
2) So Lesley started by putting on some anaesthetic cream. I must say too this stuff was amazing!! within 10 minutes I couldn't feel my mouth. My lips were doing alsorts involuntarily and I may of dribbled a little too haha (apparently this was normal so I didn't feel too embarrassed). Once this had absorbed and my lips feeling ready to be tattooed we started with the shape.
Lesley measured my lips and my cupids bow to make sure they were as accurate as possible but also followed the natural lip line too with a rounder and a flatter side to my natural lip to make it look natural. She took the line slightly higher to make my top lip fuller and she made my cupids bow neater and more perfect (all this is done in a lip pencil to get the desired lip line.) Lesley will not tattoo until you're both 100% happy with the shape!
So from here I laid on the tattoo bed and the tattooing process began. Starting with the outline that is pre pencilled she works her way around the lips. (If anyone has had a tattoo previously, I think it just feels like a tattoo but at the lip area .. not really anymore sensitive until you get the the plumper parts of the lip. For those who haven't it feels like a sharp scratch a bit uncomfortable and the area makes your eyes want to water or you feel like you want to sneeze but it's certainly bearable – perhaps depends on your pain threshold). So with the outline tattooed a couple of times to lock in colour, Lesley added a 'broken wound' anaesthetic – this is an anaesthetic that penetrates underneath the skin to give you extra numbing.
After tattooing the outline she started to use circular motions and a different needle to blend the colour inwards to colour the plumper parts of lips. I'm not going to lie by this time I felt like I'd been thumped in the mouth by Mike Tyson, my lips felt huge and the pain starting to kick in but becoming the norm as I was used to it now. However that said the results are so worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
3) Around 3 hours later – Once all the colour had been inputted into the lips this was the finished result. Packed with colour and slightly swollen but definitely a huge difference! The colour in this picture will decrease by upto 40% to leave a blush of colour that is more natural and not so bold and lipstick looking.
4) Day 2/3 – So as you can see in this picture your lips may get cold sores or scabbing but they will also start the peel when healed, again like a normal tattoo. Don't pick at them just keep using the balm and they will shed the skin naturally. This process doesn't hurt I just found it a bit irritating and hard not to pull at or lick your lips because you can feel the skin coming away.
5) Day 4 – almost there! I found the lips peeled from the inner area outwards. You're left with a kind of lip liner look of the darker tattooed skin … This will shed though.
6) YAAAYY! ! Day 5 is here and they're practically healed. Colour locked in place and significantly lighter. Top lip shaped and defined. Natural fuller looking lips, although the first process is more so about shaping the lips. I will return in around 2 months for a touch up of colour. Tattooing again to make the colour more visible and redefine lines if they need it.
I love my lips to date and I'm sure I will love them even more when they've been further tattooed a second time. All above numbered pictures contain no makeup editing or lipstick to show you all the true result.
I have also included a full makeup shot but again nothing on the lips to show you how they look in respect to your full face and how your look changes.
Next Post The Soap House Co.


You have signed up with our turnkey solution service and is now the owner of your turnkey store. You are taking charge of your business and your store launches only once. You want to use the launch as a chance to get as much traffic and attention as you can.
This post is all about getting traffic to your new store by targeting influencers and getting attention. We offer actionable tactics and provide six templates you can copy and paste to use for your campaigns. And at the end we share the most important things you should do as an established business to keep the momentum going.
Now let's start getting you some traffic.
Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most effective marketing channels for ecommerce merchants. A recent study found that Instagram gives brands 25% more engagement than any other social platform and our own analysis found that it generates a higher average order value than Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.
It's also a great way to drive traffic and awareness for your store – especially if you know how to target influencers.
For the sake of example, let's say you want to start a company selling hair products online. How do you get attention for your store and products?
Get started by looking through Instagram for the popular accounts that may consider featuring your product to their hundreds of thousands of followers.
How do you find these popular accounts?
By searching through WEBSTA, a site that catalogues the most popular Instagram hashtags and users. By typing in "hairstylist" in the search bar, you get to see both the most popular related hashtags as well as users who have "hairstylist" in their usernames or bios.
You might also check out WEBSTA Hot, which features the most popular hashtags trending now.
It was by searching through WEBSTA that we discovered Steph Brinkerhoff, a professional wedding hair stylist and makeup artist based in Utah. Her Instagram handle is @hairandmakeupbysteph, and she has about 150,000 followers.
Look: In her bio, Steph features a link to her blog, Hair and Makeup by Steph. You can find there all sorts of advice on hairstyles.
And just as importantly, you can find above a link to her "Contact" page. It lists a phone number, email, and a contact form. From there, you can initiate contact.
Another effective way to target Instagram influencers is by using the Instagram app on your phone. You can check the "popular page" which contains photos that are trending and have thousands of likes. Look for photos related to your industry and click over to the user's profile to see if she has a large audience and a way to get in touch.
For example, here's how that might look if you sold pet-related products.
Typically if a popular account has contact information – especially an email address – in her bio, it usually means she's open to product placements, partnerships and advertising opportunities.
Now when it comes to reaching out, it's important to be strategic about this. Not every Instagram user with a lot of followers is willing to feature products from users. We're certainly not recommending that you target Steph or nala_cat to get your product featured. Instead, this simply describes the journey of the targeting process.
What might a reach-out campaign look like? If a business address can be found on a contact page, send along a sample directly and attach a note to describe the product.
My name is Lauren, and I've been a big fan of your Instagram posts.
You might be interested to know that I've recently launched an online store around (the type of product you sell). I'm particularly proud of (the product that you're sending), and wonder if you might accept if I pass along a sample of it. If you like it as much as I do, perhaps you'll consider sharing it with your audience?
Please let me know if there's a business address for me to send a package to, and if you have any questions at all.
There are other people you can reach out to: bloggers, vloggers, and press. The size of their audience varies, but some of them have large followings, and the process of reaching out to them is quite similar to reaching out to Instagram influencers.
The best way to find bloggers is simply by looking for them on Google.
On Youtube, you might try out keywords like: "hair advice," "hair tips," and "hair care." Then see whether the makers of the videos post regularly on aspects of writing about hair products.
You may have to play around with your keywords to find the people who may be interested in your product. There are many people who review products on video part-time or for a living.
Another tried and true method for getting traffic is landing your business in the press. Now you might not get covered from very big newspapers and sites, but you have a better chance of getting press from local news sites and community papers. You have a good chance of being featured if you can tell a unique story, if you can talk about your product in interesting ways, and if you write a good pitch.
When reaching out to the press, a concise pitch is nearly always better than the long pitch because reporters see lots of pitches. If you'd like to get press attention, write a short and compelling email. Tell them about what makes you different, and try to pitch yourself as a local success story.
Just as it would be with an Instagram personality, getting coverage from a popular blog, from a vlogger, or from the press can drive a lot of sales to your store. Reach out to them just as you would to an Instagram personality to send them a sample and a short note.
What can you write to a blogger or a vlogger? We've put together this template to get you started.
My name is Richard and I am a (your info) who also sells (your product). I'm a fan of your blog on (focus of the blog), and especially enjoyed a recent post on (focus of a recent blog post).
I just wanted to let you know that we've recently opened an online store to sell (your product). Our products are special for the following reasons (list two or three reasons why they're special).
I've sent a sample of (your product) the address listed on your contact page. If you love it as much as I do, perhaps you'll consider sharing with your audience? Please let me know if you're interested in learning anything at all about these. My direct number is: (direct number).
My name is Dana and I am a local resident of (your town). I've recently started an online store selling (your product) and I wonder if (the paper) might be interested in this local story.
Please let me know if we can tell you anything more about our product and our story. Maybe other local residents can learn a few things about selling online.
All of these people have audiences, and getting their attention when you have just launched and are still novel may be your best shot at getting covered.
Note: You don't have to target the biggest and most successful people. Your chances of getting featured are better for people with smaller audiences, because they're not constantly swarmed by people who are looking for a feature. In fact, Chris Dammacco, who sells retro video games, has made a conscious decision to target Youtube vloggers with smaller audiences. Keep in mind that the loyalty of the audience matters almost as much as its size.
The whole internet hangs out on reddit. In addition to its main page, which aggregates the most popular content, it also has thousands of niches called subreddits. You can find a subreddit on nearly any subject, for example, /r/bicycling, /r/scifi, or /r/corgi.
There are a few threads that you should be paying attention to that may help your business.
First, everybody should be browsing the /r/entrepreneur subreddit. With about 79,000 subscribers, it has lots of interesting tips and discussions on starting a business. You might also be interested in the related/r/smallbusiness thread as another source of general business advice.
Let's stick with hair products. Well, maybe you want to check out the /r/femalehairadvice thread. There's a lot of discussion on all aspects of haircare for girls.
Take a look also at related subreddits like /r/haircarescience, /r/curlyhair, or simply /r/hair. As we said, there are a lot of niche subreddits out there.
Who says that short hair can't be fancy? My store in Philadelphia makes accessories for guys with really short hair.
Make it snappy, catchy, and not very sales-y. You should also check out the Reddiquette guide to check out whether you're following reddit guidelines.
Pay attention also to the rules of your subreddit. They're always found in the sidebar to the right of the subreddit. Some subreddits don't allow promotional material – so posting what's basically an ad for your store is not allowed. If you post about your site to a place that doesn't want it, either you'll find that no one's upvoting your link, or in extreme cases you may even get banned from the subreddit. Read the rules.
Are you at the age yet when all of your Facebook friends are posting pictures of their babies? Isn't it annoying?
Many people are sick of looking at baby photos, but you can probably get away with sharing your online store. People don't launch businesses too frequently, and so it'll probably be quite novel within your circle of friends to see you start your own business.
Do you know the site Upworthy? Of course you do. Upworthy articles are in everyone's Facebook feeds. Now did you know that its initial momentum was generated by friends and family. They set a goal of getting 1,000 Facebook fans by the end of the day of their launch date. It worked, and that's part of what gave them the initial traction to take off.
Reach out in a targeted way to your friends and family. You'll get away with it without risking irritation. On Facebook, talk about your store in an update.
Are there channels for talking to your extended family? Do they plan reunions on an email list? Send a note, and tell them about your new store.
Don't focus the ask on getting them to buy your products. You should instead offer them your products for free. They are your friends and family, after all.
Instead, ask them to share the store with their networks. These are people with whom you have social equity, and you won't ask for these kinds of favors very often. You'll have a higher rate of success than reaching out to strangers, and if enough of them share, that may give you sufficient momentum to keep a regular stream of customers.
What might that message look like?
Craig here. I'm really excited tell you all about a store I built online: (yourstore.com).
Would you share and spread the word about it? I'd really like to get some momentum going.
Add exclamation marks as required.
You don't need to start selling products before you engage with people on Twitter. There are a lot of ways to get on peoples' radars as a cool new store.
Blackbird Baking Company, a bakery in Toronto that sells fresh bread, managed to get over 500 followers before it opened its store in Toronto.
That's nothing to sneeze at. How did it get a few hundred followers pre-launch?
First, it generated some follow-backs by following select people on Twitter whom it determined may be interested in a new bakery. These include restaurateurs and self-declared bread enthusiasts in Toronto.
One tool that you can use to find relevant users is Followerwonk. Log in through Twitter, and you can search relevant keywords in bios and profiles.
It has also been following a disciplined tweeting strategy. Blackbird has been baking and distributing their breads around interested stores around Toronto, and have been uploading lots of pictures of breads to Instagram and Facebook. The pictures are mouthwatering – and shareable.
It also engaged very pro-actively with people who sent tweets about the local community. These topics included life in Toronto, great food there, and, of course, bread.
It has finally tweeted often about when the store would open, building anticipation.
And so when it finally opened, there were lots of interested people ready to coming knocking and buy its bread.
Here's the central strategy: Search Twitter for for keywords related to your business and then look for chances to help people or add value in a way that lacks a sales pitch. Let people discover themselves why your tweets are valuable.
Our final suggested tactic for getting traffic goes back to reaching out and connecting to people with big audiences, and bloggers in particular.
Instead of reaching out by sending a sample of your product, you might get traffic in a more roundabout way: By writing a blog post about them, and sending it to them in an email or via Twitter.
Yes, instead of waiting for them to feature you, you can feature them first.
You're going to be looking for the influencers in the lingerie industry anyway. Write up the top people you find and turn that into an easy blog post featuring the most popular Instagram users, bloggers, and vloggers. Heck, throw in major Twitter accounts in there, too.
In the blog post, list them and come up with a short blurb discussing what they're about. Need an example of what that post might look like? See below.
My name's Hermione, and I just wanted to send you a short note to let you know that I've featured you in a blog post highlighting the most essential (vloggers/bloggers/Instagram/Twitter users) to follow for insights, along with (famous personality x) and (famous personality y).
Thanks for such great work!
Don't be too obvious that you're just trying to get their attention. As long as your blurbs are thoughtful, they'll be flattered. If they send it out to their network, all the better.
A store only gets launched once, and you won't again have an easy excuse to reach out to a lot of people. So do everything you can to get traffic and convert them into customers.
Once you've built a following, look toward other ways to establish yourself as an online store. These methods include mastering SEO, following a good content strategy, engaging with fans on social media, and spending money effectively on social media ads and on Google Adwords.


text:
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
The Scripture Of Nature
Season 1 | Episode 1 | ABC | December 4, 2009
The National Parks traces the history of America's Best Idea from their birth in the mid 1800s to present day. It is simultaneously a biography of compelling characters and of the American landscape. It was filmed over more than six years in some of nature's most spectacular locales, from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. The National Parks is as much a story of people from every conceivable background, rich and poor, famous and unknown, soldiers and scientists, natives and newcomers, idealists, artists and entrepreneurs. They are people willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved.
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Voice of the Wilderness
The last string of unspoiled islands south of Miami is saved with the help of the son of a former slave; and in Alaska, America's 'Last Frontier' becomes a testing ground for the future of the park idea.
Poets And Kindred Spirits
After World War II, American families flocked to their parks in unprecedented numbers, creating new problems of overcrowding but also passing on a love of the parks to the next generation.
Not For The Rich Alone
During WWII, the national parks provided a source of peace to battle-weary soldiers and a source of poignant memory to some Japanese Americans imprisoned unfairly; President Roosevelt fights to create new parks in the West.
Geography related videos
See all geography related videos
22:33 | Published 1 day ago
Chris Humfrey's Animal Instinct
Chris starts the day with some shaving tips from good friend, Trevor the water dragon. At Koala HQ, we check in on the health of Matilda the koala's tiny joey.
The clock is ticking as Chris makes a mercy mission to save owl eggs from an unexpected predator.
Chris Humfrey welcomes us into his crazy world where his housemates are furry, feathered and fanged.


Poarch: Where is YOUR Charity?
Other tribal groups give back to the community, but the Poarch "Creek" seem to only want to take money, violate tribal lands, and give nothing back. What are your deeds, Poarch? All I've seen is desecration and gambling profits that seem to be used to buy off corrupt government in order to get innocent people charged with bogus crimes for opposing your greedy ways. You're allowed to violate state law... that could very easily change.


Who is the richest actor in the world?
Shah Rukh Khan. Net Worth: $600 Million.
Probably Gene Autry, now deceased. He took his acting money and bought California real estate back when Los Angles was a growing town of about a million people. Owned the LA Dodgers, among other things. That is a couple of billion in present day money.


We appreciate Your love and watch care over Your creation. We know that all things were created by You, and we know that You hold all things together. We thank You that You share Your common grace with all. You even bless those who completely reject You by providing them with air, food, water, and a measure of health. We thank You for Your Providential care for all mankind, and we remember that You steer the course of history.
We appreciate You, our God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are grateful that the Holy Spirit has regenerated us; He caused us to be born again and brought us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We are grateful that He indwells us, has baptized us into the Body of Christ, endowed us with spiritual gifts, and, as we permit Him, He fills us to overflowing.
We pray, O Lord, for our Supreme Court Justices. We know these individuals wield tremendous amounts of power. Help them to interpret our laws wisely and honestly. Help them put aside their own prejudices and seek the original intent of our constitution and its amendments. Give them clarity of mind and a heart that senses its accountability to a higher law, Your law.
Almighty God, You know our church family has many needs. Some are suffering from physical, psychological, or spiritual downturns. Others have relational or financial difficulties. Some are disappointed, others are grieving, while still others are searching for that deeper life. Father, You know each need and burden, and we commit them to Your will and Your care.
Abba, Father, we remember our missionaries, those who know You and have been called by You to carry the Gospel to regions beyond. This morning we remember those who minister is Asia, an area dominated by non-Christian religions. We pray that governments like China, North Korea, and Viet Nam would recognize the religious rights of their citizens. We pray that multitudes in nations like those we just mentioned, as well as nations like India, Bangladesh, and Japan would turn to the Lord Jesus in droves. Help those who minister in these highly populated but under-evangelized parts of the world. Protect them, direct them, enlighten them, and give them fruit for their labors.
At home, Lord, we have much work to do. Today we remember our Sunday School ministry. We pray that our Sunday School ministry would blossom and make a big difference in deepening and grounding believers. Bless our teachers who give of their time and energy. May Your Spirit prosper their instruction. May they seek Your guidance as they prepare. Convince Your children of the importance of this ministry.
As individuals, each one of us need to grow in so many ways. This week, we pray that you would help us to love others better. Help this growth in love to begin at home, spread to work and school and the neighborhood. May others see Christ in us because they see the love we have.
And so Lord we commit these requests to You.
Thank You Lord for hearing and changing things because we pray in Jesus' Name, Amen.


We would like to thank all the Streamwatch volunteers that came out to Warragamba Dam for our midyear event. It was a great day providing Streamwatch volunteers a chance to catch up and enjoy presentation in a fabulous venue.
Joe Perra from WaterNSW gave the group a presentation on Validation of Grazing Module. WaterNSW funds catchment incentives in grazing land, such as riparian fencing, revegetation and grazier education, with the aim of reducing the potential for grazed areas to contribute pollutants to stream during rainfall events. The benefits of these actions have, to date, been inferred based on literature and on an understanding of the basic mechanisms that effect the runoff of pollutants to stream from grazing land. There is a need to quantify the impact of different management actions in terms of their effect on water quality. The grazing evaluation trial project was initiated with the aim of collecting data to inform the grazing evaluation model in terms of pathogen and nutrient runoff from known stock levels and runoff. Joe also discussed the proposed carp eradication program.
Volunteers enjoyed a lovely lunch looking out over Warragamba Dam and were able to then have a tour of the site.
A special thanks to WaterNSW for hosting us and to Joe Perra for his fascinating presentations.
New South Wales is divided into thirteen catchment areas.


text:
Lee Mack on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know
Not Going Out star Lee Mack discovered his great grandfather's service in the First World War when he appeared on Who Do You Think You Are?
Lee Mack, creator of Not Going Out, has long been drawn to the figure of his great grandfather, Billy Mac. Autographed photographs and mementoes reveal that Billy was also a comedian and that he performed at the 'Chic' Casino in Lee's native Southport – can Lee find out more?
"As I get older, I'm getting more curious," Lee says at the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are? He begins by ordering up Billy's birth record. It shows that William Alexander McKillop was born in 1889, which means he was 25 years old when the First World War broke out. In August 1914, Billy volunteered for the King's Liverpool Regiment as part of the first-ever Pals Battalion.
As Lee follows Billy's wartime odyssey through training at Lord Derby's estate, Knowsley Hall, and then to northern France, where Billy advanced in the third wave of troops on the first day of the Somme, it emerges that Billy performed with a concert party, The Optimists, while in the military. Lee learns how the troupe even performed straight after taking part in a brutal battle at Ypres. "That's unbelievable to be actually shot at, or perhaps to kill someone, and then to walk on stage," marvels Lee.
In the wake of the conflict, Billy carried on performing, but by 1922 he was working in the "wireless apparatus" industry. But there's one last twist. Lee was curious as to why the family has publicity photographs of Billy that have been autographed. It turns out that he "ended up marrying an autograph hunter", Lee's great grandmother, Gladys.
Next, Lee researches the life of his maternal grandad, Joe, whose mother went to Canada and left her son to be raised by his grandparents. "It does feel a bit cold," says Lee after visiting his aunt in Southport and hearing her memories of a worrier and a "very money-conscious" man.
In Ballina in Ireland, Lee learns more. Joe was born out of wedlock at a time when there was huge stigma around illegitimate children. His mother, Delia, would have struggled to find work, making her decision to go Montreal, her passage paid by a domestic agency, far more understandable.
He also learns about Delia's parents, Thomas and Mary Farrell. Thomas was a labourer who lived in a two-room house and had a sideline in selling unlicensed booze in a 'shebeen'. He was often fined for his activities. Then, in 1922, he made an insurance claim after the doors and windows of his home "were wantonly and maliciously damaged or injured by rifle fire".
This was the time of the Irish civil war when family fought family, but it may be the Farrells were simply caught in the crossfire. Whatever the truth, Joe's worrisome nature is now easier for Lee to understand. His forebears, he says, have gone from seeming "abstract" to being "real people."


text:
Home Views Clinical areas Mental health and addiction Adjusting to widowhood – and GP life back in the UK
Adjusting to widowhood – and GP life back in the UK
It is nearly two years since my family and I touched down in Auckland, New Zealand, ready to embrace our new life as immigrants there.
We had been tempted to leave behind our life in Britain by the promise of beachside living, a better climate, and a more relaxed work environment. My late husband, Richard, had secured a job as a consultant anaesthetist and intensivist at Whangarei hospital, and I had a job to go to in a thriving general practice in the same city, as well as the hope of picking up some hospice work in due course.
What we did not foresee was the complaint made to the GMC about Richard that would throw a grenade into our life when we opened the letter that every doctor dreads on Christmas Day 2015, just as we had packed the last of our belongings into a container bound for New Zealand, sold our house, and notified our children's school that they would be leaving shortly.
A massive shadow was immediately cast over our lives. Despite the complaint being relatively minor, and despite it being thrown out in due course – as everyone around Richard fully expected it to be – its timing was devastating. It caused us stress for months on end, as we crammed ourselves into holiday accommodation, arranged for our jobs to be returned to us, put our children back into their school. As time dragged on, we decided to forge ahead with our emigration plans, and finally departed on my work visa, with Richard forced to have two months off while his paperwork was processed.
I did not foresee this could happen to our close-knit, happy family
While this sounds great, in many ways – eight weeks of enforced holiday, on Northland's pristine beaches – the toll it took on Richard was huge. After five months of anxiety, he was now thrust into his new life Down Under with no structure to his day, or colleagues to banter with, or patients to take care of, and with an abundance of time on his hands in which to ruminate.
Eventually, life got easier; Rich started work, we moved into a fabulous rental with landlords who embraced our pets and we met friends who will be in my life forever, such was the warmth with which they welcomed us. We lived on a peninsula with a beach moments away, looking out towards Mount Manaia, with an island which we could walk to at low tide, and a grassy area by the water where we kept kayaks; my husband acquired a fishing boat and friends to teach him how to use it.
But by now Richard had developed the symptoms of depression. He had been ill with it once before, over 20 years earlier. With treatment, his depression lifted, and, for a time, life was great, by the beach. And then his illness returned.
I won't dwell on the details here, but the long and short of it is, he died. He was ill, the drugs didn't work this time, he was an anaesthetist with easy access to lethal drugs and he had an impulsive streak.
If I look at his death as a significant event of the sort that we reflect on in clinical practice, then I see how multi-factorial it was: GMC complaint, plus a move across the globe, a new job, the loss of family and close friends, insomnia from a more frequent on-call rota and heightened work-related anxiety as a sequela of the complaint, to name a few.
Added to this I see myself as one of the factors – I did not accurately assess his suicide risk as high. I failed to imagine this particular outcome. I did not foresee that this could happen to our family, our close-knit, happy family, our little unit of four.
And so, we are now a unit of three. We left Richie behind in New Zealand, or at least some of him – his ashes are scattered on three of his beloved Northland beaches.
I have returned to work here in the UK, at the hospice where I worked for five years before we left, and as a GP locum; my kids are back at their old schools.
I have had to remember how to operate EMISweb, Lexacom, Docman; I have had to say farewell to electronic referrals, easy email access to consultants for advice, and, most tragic of all, the little torches that fit inside speculum handles over there. (It was with a sinking heart that I adjusted my first wall-mounted desk lamp at the foot of the examination couch back in this country.)
I have a host of worries constantly accompanying me at all times. My children. My finances. Surviving general practice back in this country in the longer term. My new status as single parent and sole income generator. The loneliness of making every single decision, big or small (and they have mostly been big) by myself.
There was a suicide clause in our New Zealand life insurance policy, newly taken out. I have no choice but to roll up my sleeves and, in Rich's phrase, 'crack on'.
Time will tell whether I can do this; I will be honest in this blog, and keep you all posted. I am sick and tired of widowhood already, five months in, but every day I wake up and Richard is still dead, incomprehensibly; the only option is to get out of bed, and get on with life.
Dr Kate Harding is a locum GP and hospice doctor in Herefordshire
GPs to prioritise health checks of mental health patients during vaccinations
1.3 million in UK report having long Covid, ONS survey suggests
NICE depression guidelines signal move away from medication


text:
Other titles in association with Sport
Great Sporting Moments — Introduction
Introduction to Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport Magazine 1988-2004 — Damien Wilkins
Is there a less suggestive way of saying this? Sport was born in the back of my yellow Ford Escort as we were rounding the Basin Reserve some time in mid-1988. I was driving. Fergus Barrowman and Elizabeth Knox were in the back seat. This was a period in which on important occasions I was—rather oddly it now seems—their chauffeur. Several months later I was to drive Fergus and Elizabeth home in the same vehicle after their wedding. Neither could drive; it gave them great power.
'I think we should do the magazine,' said Fergus, 'and I think it should be called Sport.'
'Sport,' I said. 'Mmn.' Well, has anyone loved the name on first hearing it? (In his only editorial for the magazine—please see Sport 3—Fergus ponders gloomily the notion that the gender imbalance in that issue might be connected to the name, with its 'blokeish self-satisfaction'. 'This,' says FJB, 'is certainly not intended.')
Elizabeth spoke from the back of the car. 'He's going to do it too.'
'It's not settled,' said Fergus.
'It is,' said Elizabeth. She leaned forward. 'He's doing it.'
'Good,' I said.
The reconstruction is naturally imperfect. It's also disingenuous on my part. I sound rather cool about the whole thing. I was probably in that moment dreaming wild dreams of paradigm shifts—and thinking with deep pleasure that I could now get some of my own stories published. We'd been talking up the idea of a literary magazine for a while. These conversations, like many we had around literature, were satisfyingly high-flown, full of pitiless assessments of others' failings, and wonderfully free of resolution. Nothing was any good—and that was enough for us. Landfall seemed less and less interested in stories and poems. Robin Dudding's excellent Islands appeared to be lost. The inspiring guerilla raid of Rambling Jack was complete. It's hard now to say why the decisive moment for action came in the car. Fergus had the name—and maybe that was sufficient.
The written record of the time—supplied chiefly by us—doesn't entirely support my picture of bruising confidence. We sound assertively mild in public. We speak of 'good writing' and avoiding the 'unproductively prescriptive' oppositions of 'simplicity or artifice, postmodernism or not'. (The terms sound quaint; they were becoming so even at the time.) There is mention of 'fun'. Fergus sees Sport in the 'entirely appropriate image of a traditional literary magazine.'
Our third issue had not just FJB's note but another editorial, from 'EFK'. Elizabeth's version upgrades her husband's sober ambition: 'In producing our magazine we could fancy ourselves as Baptists, making strait the way.' I recall something of this fervour attaching itself to our near-daily visits to Unity Books where another member of the editorial team, Nigel Cox, standing behind the counter, would urge us on with wise, insightful, frequently libelous statements about the book trade. Now, Nigel pressed, is the hour. It was also around this time that Barbara Anderson, when visiting VUP, used to tell friends, 'I'm just off to see the baby-faced killers.' I remember Janet Paul, the artist, visiting the office to talk about the use of one of her paintings on the cover of Barbara's first book. Another visitor was there at the same time, and he was wearing a bright shirt. Janet said, 'It's so wonderful to see men wearing colourful clothes!' Then she turned sadly to look at Fergus and me, dressed in our dull, dark shirts. But here I'm reminded of that character in Anthony Powell's novel Temporary Kings who blacks out at a party in which he's come across people and stories from his past. When he revives he considers the likelihood that he's literally dying of nostalgia.
Of course a literary magazine usually needs more than hostility to what's around it to keep going. Fortunately we had some writing.
I'd recently joined Victoria University Press as Fergus's assistant. We were publishing Jenny Bornholdt's first book, Anne Kennedy's first book. Barbara Anderson had begun to win short story competitions. Dinah Hawken had won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her first book the year before. Forbes Williams was a recent graduate of Bill Manhire's creative writing course. (The course crucially fed both VUP and the magazine; Fergus has been an external examiner for more than twenty years.) Bill himself was publishing short fiction for the first time. Nigel had published his second novel the previous year, which was also the year of Elizabeth Knox's debut. Alan Brunton was back in the country after a decade away. Vincent O'Sullivan had just been given a chair at Victoria. Ian Wedde was working on his next big novel. Things were happening. Nor is it only in retrospect that all this activity seemed important. The great rolling weight of excellence pushed at our backs. Many of these writers were in regular contact with Fergus through VUP. The first issue—an all-fiction affair—more or less picked itself.
Fergus was the editor and publisher and designer. This was still the time of slicing and waxing galleys, where a good part of our day was used up pleasantly bent over the lightbox, fixing the typesetting in place. Fergus would sometimes greet an author at the door of our prefab office with a scalpel in his hand. The first three issues were done in this manner, literally cut and paste. Fergus also drew the cover image, after Picasso. And he hit on interested parties for the start-up funds. Andrew Mason, then literary editor at the Listener, gave money, as did Alan Preston, owner of Unity Books. Bill Manhire and Nigel Cox also helped. A couple of these loans to this day remain outstanding, giving a nice sense perhaps of the way obligations of this sort sometimes never quite disappear. As in most businesses, the creation of stationery and the taking of a private box were highlights—for me, even end-points. I remember the shock of reading the copy on the back cover when the first issue came back from the printer's, which stated—in an alarming present tense—that the magazine 'is published twice-yearly, in October and April'. It was October. I was ready to retire.
A quick study of the newspaper photo of that moment reveals our foolish, unchecked joy. Perhaps only Fergus held back—was everything in place? was the spine straight? was the binding solid? had we spelled everyone's name correctly?—but only then for a few moments. We'd each flicked to our own pieces. 'I think it looks pretty convincing, don't you?' he said. In the photo we look capable of eating the thing. Indeed a version had been consumed a few weeks before when Nigel, together with Marion McLeod, had organised a cake for Fergus and Elizabeth's engagement party. The cover appeared in lurid green icing with the message 'Give Marriage a Sporting Chance'.
In some ways the first issue is strangely misshapen, a memorial to abandoned projects and interrupted careers. The lead-off piece comes from Forbes Williams, who did publish a book of stories and from whom the odd brilliant noise issues, but who hasn't, as they say, 'gone on'. Nigel's chapter comes from a novel which never appeared, and he wouldn't publish another book for thirteen years. Miro Bilbrough's prose poem sequence was never finished and she's now a filmmaker based in Sydney. Keri Hulme's contribution finally ended up in a book sixteen years later. Wendy Pond's rather beautiful story 'High Line', which narrowly missed selection here, appears to have been her last. Poets Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt get in with prose—Jenny has not yet found a place in her seven books for 'The China Theory of Life'—and novelist Elizabeth Knox is represented by an essay she originally wrote for an English Honours paper, also as yet uncollected.
An odd bunch of things then; less emphatic perhaps than my nostalgic sense of the period had allowed—and yet, totally in line with the usual parameters of a literary magazine. (Here Fergus was proved right.) There are the classics—'from Motel View', is one of these. There's also work of absolute accomplishment which is not followed up on—a category of peculiar poignancy. Then there are major writers in a minor mode perhaps, minor writers writing up, off-cuts, dead-ends, surprises, jokes—oh, and failures. The literary magazine always has space for these.
The second issue has always belonged in my mind to a single author, the Australian Gerald Murnane, whose 20-page story 'When the Mice Failed to Arrive' should be here except for an irregular selection policy with regard to overseas writers. (Paul Durcan makes it but James Fenton's deserving 'Here Come the Drum Majorettes!' doesn't. Something to do with New Zealand references, relative availability of said work and other mumbled excuses.) Most of the 'foreigners' were guests of the International Arts Festival; publication in the magazine being seen as useful exposure ahead of in-person appearances. Murnane was not in this group. He believes that flying is 'an insult to the earth'. Fergus and I thought he was simply the most exciting fiction writer around and we wrote a begging letter. We commissioned Catherine Bagnall to draw the cover based on the Murnane piece. I'm surprised—and delighted—to see that this issue's centrepiece is, in fact, J.H. Macdonald's 45-page debut, a novella which was to grow into his novel The Free World. We also secured a chunk of that Wedde novel, which promptly disappeared for another sixteen years and counting. Is there a relationship, pace J.H. Macdonald and R. Carl Shuker, between excerpting a novel-in-progress and said novel's demise? For pedants, the bits we got from Maurice Shadbolt's Monday's Warriors (Sport 3) and Maurice Gee's The Burning Boy (Sport 5) don't affect the result since both were completed at the time of magazine publication. Shadbolt's piece appeared—at the author's specific request—with a © attached; sign perhaps that our credibility had not been fully established.
Poetry also broke through in this issue, with classic Bornholdt and Hawken and Les Murray. I'm sure there was an attempt originally to keep poetry out of Sport. What were we thinking? I believe we were thinking Granta. The quarantine broke easily once we saw how little we had in prose reserves, and how strong the poetry was. We also said no reviews, and only relented when the occasion looked momentous. If Douglas Standring, in the third issue, seemed to be hedging in his piece on some short story collections ('They are homogenous in their diversity.'), Stephen Stratford, reviewing the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories in the next issue, gave his feelings away in the title: 'Is Your Book Really Necessary?' Much later, Andrew Johnston also had things to say about Mark Pirie's New Zealand Writing: The NeXt Wave: 'a self-contradicting, ill-informed and ill-conceived production that misreads and misrepresents recent writing by young New Zealanders'—a few subscriptions might have been lost that day, and perhaps a few gained. (For the record, the subscription base hit its level almost immediately—at around 250—and has stayed near there ever since. Sport has always relied on bookshop sales more than subscribers.) When Alan Brunton was commissioned to review the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry, he turned in fourteen pages mainly of quotations from the anthology and other sources, including a 'want list' found in a library book.
Survey pieces and critical commentary appeared from time to time: the UK critic Michael Hulse looked at some recent NZ poetry. ('[Gregory] O'Brien, for a start, doesn't seem to have been to God's funeral.') Vincent O'Sullivan wrote about Owen Marshall. Gregory O'Brien fired in an appreciation of the Australian poet Ken Bolton in Sport 16. ('If the amount of annoyance Bolton's poems have caused is any indication then he's a very effective poet indeed.') A sizeable section of Sport 23 was given over to pieces about the sale by Victoria University of Colin McCahon's painting 'Storm Warning' and O'Brien again wrote the memorably fierce lead essay: 'Colin McCahon's belief in art as ³a means of conquering spiritual death² must sound like mumbo-jumbo to the post-humanists and those sainted individuals bold enough to describe themselves as ³skilled in reading the visual². How could they cope with McCahon's stated objective ³to make a painting beat like, and with, a human heart²?'
The personal essay or memoir quickly became an important part of the magazine's appeal. In addition to the terrific pieces here—many of which have yet to be collected in book form—there were notable contributions through the years from Iain Sharp ('Green Viva' 21), Murray Bail ('Killing an Elephant' 4), James Meffan ('Lie of the Land' 14), Elizabeth Knox ('On Being Picked Up' 24), Nigel Cox ('On the Way to the Jewish Museum Berlin' 28 and 'Eva from the Tyre Factory' 29), Laura Kroetsch ('Moby Dick on Darwin Harbour' 29), Tim Corballis ('Taking Root' 29), and Elizabeth Smither ('Head or Hat' 9). Bill Manhire's account of his trip to Kuala Lumpur in 'Wings of Gold: A Week Among Poets' (6) is the greatest of these and can be readily located in his essay collection, Doubtful Sounds.
As if announcing a new initiative, there are two interviews in Sport 5—with visiting poet James Fenton, and with Maurice Gee—and despite good intentions, this form wasn't revisited until fourteen years later when I interviewed Geoff Cochrane (Sport 31). More reliably, the magazine has featured substantial photographic work by Peter Black (twice), Bruce Connew, Bill Culbert, Mary Macpherson, Bruce Foster, Alan Knowles and Andrew Ross.
There's also probably an essay to be written on Sport covers, which have featured commissioned work by artists such as Julian Dashper, Nigel Brown, Ruth Watson, Ronnie van Hout and Brendan O'Brien, as well as forgiveable appearances by Jack, the editor's son, as a baby, and by his sister-in-law as a figure in a worrying re-enactment of a violent scene from a Caravaggio painting. When Jack Barrowman was five, he illustrated the cover of Sport 21 with a drawing of 'Mummy and Daddy' as horned devils with tridents and tails. Daddy has cloven feet and a large belly button; Mummy on the whole looks happier. This image was made into a teeshirt as part of the 21st celebrations, which were also marked by Sport's first subscriber giveaway, a limited edition book by Dinah Hawken called 'The Little Book of Bitching', one of the harshest, most invigorating birthday presents ever dispensed.
My own direct involvement in the magazine ended when I went overseas in 1990. And though Sport has remained Fergus's baby, several others have helped out—even saved the baby on occasions. James Brown has been vital to the magazine from number 11 onwards. For more than a decade Sport has largely worked up its contents list from decent on-going arguments between James and Fergus. James also gave this anthology its title. The other principal influence on the shape of the magazine has been Bill Manhire, most obviously in the number of writers who came to the magazine via his creative writing class; less publicly in the twenty-year conversation Bill and Fergus have carried on around literature. A week at VUP when I worked there was somehow incomplete if Bill didn't drop in for a chat. I've no reason to think anything's changed.
Greg O'Brien also deserves credit in this story since the Peter Black issues, as well as the aforementioned 'Storm Warning' feature, were driven by him. Andrew Johnston was another important ally and member of the editorial team for several years, while Kate Camp, Catherine Chidgey and Sara Knox have acted as guest editors. Jenny Bornholdt instigated and oversaw the Bill Culbert issue. Like all survivors, Fergus has never surrendered, but he's always been available for capture.
In reading through thirty-two issues I was struck by how much I'd missed first time around. I'm not sure whether my ignorance simply suggests a personal laziness—well, of course it does—or whether it speaks of any writer's self-regard, the small fortress one erects around one's work. To my shame, I paid little attention to Annora Gollop, Emma Lew, Chris Pigott, Adam Shelton, Alex Scobie. Had I properly read Dennis McEldowney's autobiographical pieces? I seemed to have passed over Cilla McQueen's 'Map', Frankie McMillan's 'Marshmallow', Rhian Gallagher's 'First Sailing'. This job has been as much about discovery as recovery.
It's not a defence but over the years I've tended to read Sport erratically, temperamentally, unfairly. And while it would be stupid to consecrate this as 'the writer's way of reading', I do think writers tend to respond to things which seem to have 'relevance'; that is, things which connect with what they themselves are currently engaged in. Is this any different from the woman thinking of leaving her husband, or the man thinking of exploring China by motorbike, seeking out those books which feature such figures and scenarios? Not really. Except there's an expectation that writers, since they're in the business, might read each other, might keep up. They don't. I know writers who won't read novels in the first person, or which feature angels. Poets who won't read poems in which pets appear, or the moon. There's a writer, represented here, who burned a copy of one of my novels because it didn't furnish him with 'a sufficient sense of redemption'. Though some of us, as Elizabeth suggested in her editorial, may be Baptists, we are none of us saints.
To push further into the mire, is there something about a literary magazine that is less than compelling, a sort of limited, compromised essence? The literary magazine has a documentary function as well as a literary one. It stops time—excitingly for a moment, a week, a month—before time moves on. A writer friend once commented that he always shudders when he sees on anyone's shelf a line of old Landfalls. The reaction seems reasonable to me. Old issues of London Magazine have a similar effect, of Paris Review, of Meanjin and Scripsi. The sense that one is looking at a lost world can be unpleasant. Who were all these poets and short story writers? All these bios which run, 'He spent three years at university but it did him no good'?
To anthologise such a venture might seem then a dubious undertaking. A literary magazine lives in the currents of its time, swept along by the culture which makes it and which it tries to make, victim finally of the mailbox and of the commissioning energies of the editor. In a way, Great Sporting Moments runs counter to this movement. It aims, I suppose, to make a good book, to do the Best Of. It has trouble with what Ian Wedde, writing about the 'profoundly humbling' experience of editing the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, calls 'the immense emotional force of the collective minor'. I hope not to confuse Sport's little life with that of a national literature; nevertheless the collective minor, if it lives anywhere, it's within the pages of just such a journal. Scholars of that bent will need to go further than the present volume to find out whether what appeared individual to those writing it was in fact part of something happening not just to them but to us as well.
When we showed the contents list to James Brown, an editor more familiar with the material than I am, he commented that an alternate selection could probably be made that would look just as convincing. That's true. But right now, I like this stuff the most. (The selection criterion was no more sophisticated than that.) It's about ten per cent of everything that appeared in the magazine. There are many more great sporting moments out there. And nearly all of the magazine will in due course be readable in cyberspace as one of the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre's on-going ventures.
Heading into the project I feared two things: that I'd reject the past, and that I'd reject the present. Acts of apostasy and of humbuggery are equally tempting here. To say I gave in to neither might suggest I reached some cosy and accepting middle-ground, where everything looked persuasive. I did not—and it did not. Discussions with Fergus—and I must thank him and acknowledge his guidance—were punctuated with statements such as, 'Why on earth did you publish that?' Being a literary publisher—in my book, the best—he was rather used to, and even fond of, such attacks. 'Ah, yes,' he'd say, rubbing his face.
There are more than five thousand pages of Sport in the world, over four hundred writers represented. What I haven't asked its publisher is how he feels, looking back over this bulk. If I were him, adding up the fine writers who have been allowed to use the magazine to grow under his editorship, I would feel deep satisfaction; I might even feel vindicated—though that seems a small emotion for the largeness of the achievement. This sampling from the five thousand can only hint at what's been done over seventeen years. And of course there is the next issue to think about. Fergus has been saying for years that this one will be the last. We've all stopped believing him—because of course it's in our interest to do so.
Despite the seminal drive in the Ford Escort, where something was decided, and the first few issues, I know I've had little to do with all this extraordinary writing. The task of choosing the best has nevertheless filled me with a strange pride. I feel a bit like the billionaire owner of a great soccer club—somehow in a position to take whomever I like and put them on my side, have them perform their wonders, and make me look good. What can I say? Here's the team then. Look at them run onto the field. Play, you devils, play!
Buy Sport 47 print edition
NZ $30 for print edition.
Available from good bookshops
or directly from Sport.
Buy as an ebook at
meBooks or Amazon
c/- VUP
Email: fergus.barrowman at vuw.ac.nz
Sport, c/- VUP, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand Fax: +64 (0)4 463 6581 Email: fergus.barrowman at vuw.ac.nz


text:
Town Mountain puts out disc
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 – Bluegrass band Town Mountain releases a 12-song CD produced by Mike Bub of Del McCoury's band. Scott Vestal engineered, mixed and masted the music of the quintet.
CD reviews for Town Mountain
New Freedom Blues
Town Mountain is a bluegrass band at its core. But here, whilst true to the bluegrass form (drinking - "One Drop In The Bottle; wide open spaces - "North of Cheyenne"; more open spaces- "Lazy River," "Pamlico"), there's an edge to it all. "Life and Debt" is, not surprisingly, a pushback on the New American Normal, as is the title cut. Town Mountain's sixth studio album shows the group's writing strength and confidence in playing. »»»
Southern Crescent
Town Mountain offers a bluegrass album you can sink your teeth into. Leave aside the time-worn battle between bluegrass and newgrass. Town Mountain presents a straightforward case for respect in bluegrass, the odd piano and percussive effect notwithstanding. The CD starts out with a modest-appearing, "St. Augustine" (clocking in at one minute) that is anything but slight. A clever fiddle hesitation bowing is followed by a hard-fought instrumental track that announces that the Town »»»
Leave the Bottle
Bluegrass ranges from the smooth baritone of David Parmley and Charlie Waller to the high tenor of Larry Stephenson to the mountain music of Dr. Ralph Stanley. If you're familiar with Junior Sisk, who is closer to Stanley than Parmley, then you know what to expect from Town Mountain. This is the bluegrass music you'll hear around the campfire at many festivals: excellent instrumental work, untrained yet good, on-key singing. All but one of the songs was written or co-written by band members. »»»


This movement began humbly as the vision of musician and filmmaker Martin Shore. Take Me To The River' is an award-winning full-length documentary film directed and produced by Martin Shore. The film brings multiple generations of award-winning Memphis and Mississippi Delta musicians together, following them through the creative process of recording an historic new album. 'Take Me to The River' features Terrence Howard, William Bell, Snoop Dogg, Mavis Staples, Otis Clay, Lil P-Nut, Charlie Musselwhite, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Yo Gotti, Bobby Rush, Frayser Boy, The North Mississippi All-Stars and many more.
Within a record 3 years, the movement has expanded to include an Educational Initiative, a national tour and plans to tell stories of more cities, their rich musical histories and global impact.
The 'Take Me To The River' Education Initiative seeks to inspire a deeper understanding of history, culture, and the meaning of intergenerational and cross-cultural collaboration. Through the program we bring the film directly to schools and share a screening, master classes, Q&A sessions and more, interacting directly with students, teachers and the community to bring history to life and foster a deeper understanding and respect for all cultures, genders and generations.


Not just a practical bucket to keep papers and kindling in, a this is complete with kindling too!
In smart charcoal powder-coated finish, this handy kindling bucket is the ideal starter set - complete with UK premier dried kindling wood in a jute hessian sack.
All you may want to add is matches and some seasoned logs!
Metal powder-coated bucket with steel handle.


Our essential aim is to encounter the inner silence which ends conflict.
When the mind is very still, it is capable of seeing the world as it is.
In this "seeing" we begin to transcend conflict and confusion.
We begin to understand who and what we are.
Our relationships become more meaningful.
Beauty and a sense of wonder fill our lives.
And a transformation of consciousness becomes possible.
We are the solution we seek.