The Next Challenge – April Songwriters Circle http://songwriterscircle.co.uk/the-next-challenge-april/
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
The Next Challenge – April Songwriters Circle http…
http://distributedresearch.net/status/the-next-challenge-april-songwriters-circle-http/
March 17 2012, 9:48am | Comments »
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I posted to andyroberts.me
Podcast 43 – Romford Folk Club 12/04/11
http://andyroberts.me/podcast/podcast-43-romford-folk-club-120411
Podcast 43 is made from the first part of the soundtrack of the April 12th gig at Romford Folk Club Here’s the download and play link etc: Download podcast 43 Subscribe to the podcast RSS or get it from iTunes Download MP3 to save – 37.6. Mb in size, playtime 26 minutes 4 seconds :- 43 Andy Roberts Podcast Episode 43.mp3 Andy Roberts Podcast #43 Shownotes Show Notes for Podcast 43
Hold On Below Time For The Music Waiting Work Is Done Cormorants Narrowboats
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May 23 2011, 10:03am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
MPs step up pressure to remutualise Northern Rock
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/02/mps-step-up-pressure-to-remutualise-northern-rock
Support grows for motion tabled by MP Chuka Umunna to return nationalised lender to the mutual sector. That means the Northern Rock Bank would become the Northern Rock Building Society again, a mutual building society without any shareholders.
This article titled “MPs step up pressure to remutualise Northern Rock” was written by Jill Treanor, for The Observer on Saturday 30th April 2011 23.06 UTC Political pressure for the remutualisation of Northern Rock is gathering strength: 100 members of parliament have signed an early day motion backing the return of the nationalised lender to the mutual sector. Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP who tabled the motion, said 19 MPs had lent their support in the past week. Northern Rock and UK Financial Investments (UKFI), which looks after the taxpayer’s interests in the bailed-out banks, have appointed Deutsche Bank to explore options for the Newcastle-based lender. Deutsche will present ideas to UKFI that could be used as the basis of any recommendations made about Northern Rock to the chancellor. The lender, notorious for granting 125% mortgages before the financial crisis, was nationalised by Labour in February 2008 after it suffered the first UK bank run in living memory and thousands of anxious depositors queued round the block to withdraw funds amid fears about its solvency. After it was rescued by the government, the bank was split to create Northern Rock plc, the “good” bank that has resumed lending, and Northern Rock Asset Management, the “bad” bank that was merged with Bradford & Bingley’s mortgage business, another nationalised casualty of the credit crunch. Deutsche is looking at the options for Northern Rock plc. While Labour was in office, the then Treasury minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry revealed that ways of remutualising Northern Rock had been considered, but warned: “I’m not pretending it’s going to be easy.” Coventry building society has presented itself as being interested in linking up with Northern Rock, although little information has emerged as to how it might facilitate any deal. An analysis by Landman Economics has suggested that “profit participating deferred shares” could help the government recoup the money tied up in the lender. Landman’s analysis concludes that a trade sale or stock market flotation would not raise enough funds to pay back the taxpayer in full. Labour ex-minister Gareth Thomas, who has campaigned for the Rock to be remutualised, said he had doubts about whether George Osborne was interested. “I do not believe the Treasury is taking this seriously,” he said. Another option is merging the 70 Northern Rock branches with the 600 that Lloyds Banking Group has to sell to comply with EU rules on state aid.
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Related posts:A co-ordinated strike is the next step Fukushima factor adds pressure to economic fallout from Japan’s crisis Bank of England governor blames spending cuts on bank bailouts
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May 2 2011, 9:51am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Viewfinder competition: win a £150 hotel voucher
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/26/viewfinder-competition-win-a-150-hotel-voucher
Name the place and win a £150 voucher from Hotels.com, letting you stay at thousands of hotels worldwide.
This article titled “Viewfinder competition: win a £150 hotel voucher” was written by , for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 24th April 2011 00.30 UTC guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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Related posts:Smartphone competition heats up as HTC closes in on Apple London breaks with theatre show and hotel South of Pigalle Paris Breaks Competition
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April 26 2011, 11:05am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
iPad 2: where can I buy one in the UK?
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/30/ipad-2-where-can-i-buy-one-in-the-uk
Supplies of Apple‘s iPad 2 are running perilously short – but more iPad 2s are expected to surface before the weekend.
This article titled “iPad 2: where can I buy one in the UK?” was written by Josh Halliday, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 30th March 2011 15.04 UTC Apple’s iPad 2 has been virtually out of stock in the UK since its launch on Friday. Streams of shiny geeks have been left dissapointed and empty-handed by gadget shops up and down the land. But we have good news. Dixons, PC World and Currys expect to get more iPad 2s in stock today. Most will be going to those who have pre-ordered, but if you hurry you might just be able to buy one over the counter. Fancy that. Argos, meanwhile, has been left woefully short handed. Its 750 stores in the UK and Ireland ran out of stock on Monday – and doesn’t expect to get any more until 25 April. Sounds like a bad April Fools’ joke. At Phones4U, which was reported to have been given just one iPad 2 for each of its 500+ stores, the devices are only “down to the last few”, according to a spokeswoman. No word, yet, on when more will be available. John Lewis, which is famously “never knowingly undersold”, has sold out. The retailer says it will have more of the Apple gadgets in time for the weekend. As does Tesco, which encourages customers to order online. Now, over to you. Tweet @GuardianTech or @JoshHalliday with the store name, location (preferably with the postcode), and whether there are any iPad 2s in stock. We’ll update the map below.
Click here for a larger map.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
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Related posts:iPad 2 queues start 33 hours early as demand expected to beat supply While you were sleeping.. Australians end long wait for iPad 2 Apple’s slice makes the iPad a bad deal for newspapers
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March 30 2011, 10:58am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Spring’s here: skylarks overhead, moles in the garden, moths in the bathroom
After a long, hard winter, the seasons have turned and at last the days are lengthening. Spring is here with skylarks, moths, moles, chiff chaff, rowan tree buds, wagtails, catkins and lambing.
This article titled “Spring’s here: skylarks overhead, moles in the garden, moths in the bathroom” was written by Rob Penn, for The Observer on Sunday 27th March 2011 00.05 UTC Winter was very long in the Black Mountains. We’ve been embattled by the weather since snow fell in late November and the temperature hit –15C. I’m not expecting a campaign medal. I can’t remember anticipating spring so eagerly, though. There is no universally accepted event that heralds the new season, but it arrived incontrovertibly for us last week, with a period of high pressure that brought warm sunshine, temperatures in the teens and stirrings of new life in the dead land. For meteorologists, who like to tidy the year into four neat sections, spring begins on 1 March. For astronomers, the vernal equinox (20 March this year) marks the turning of the season. For some, it’s the moment the clocks go forward. For trout fishermen, it’s the first hatch of March browns or even grannom, the drab fly that erupts in clouds over rivers at the beginning of April. Others identify more intimate ambassadors: the first dashing yellow daffodil, the rising dawn chorus of birdsong, the earliest appearance of frogspawn in ponds and ditches, the first cut of grass, a pied wagtail over ploughed land and yellow catkins dangling from hazel branches all symbolise spring’s arrival for someone. . For me, spring is evidenced in many ways. On dewy mornings, when the sun rises over the hill behind our house and illuminates the lawn, lighting the million pearls of moisture suspended from the tip of every blade of grass, I know the waiting is over. When there are moths in the bathroom, moles in the garden and the moor is full of the liquid trill of skylarks, spring has arrived. When I can cycle down the hill to my office in Abergavenny in a T-shirt, with sunshine on my forearms and warm air funnelling over the creases in my face, I feel the wheel of the year has turned. It’s an elementary pleasure, a madeleine moment that validates my existence at this time, year after year. Observing the coming of spring is part of the British condition. I’m told it’s the moment in the year when expats pine for home the most: Oh, to be in England/ Now that April’s here, Robert Browning wrote in Home-thoughts, from Abroad in 1845. There is satisfaction in knowing that its arrival is timeless: a joy identical to me and to someone who inhabited the iron age hill fort a mile from my home, 2,750 years ago. Exactly 275 years ago, we started documenting it. In 1736, Robert Marsham saw the first swallow of the year wheeling and banking over the open fields at Stratton Strawless in Norfolk, eating insects on the wing in celebration of having completed an epic, 6,000-mile journey from southern Africa. Marsham wrote the event down, in effect inventing a new field of study, phenology – the effects of cyclic and seasonal phenomena on plants and animals. Marsham recorded 26 “Indications of Spring”, as he called them, without interruption, for 62 years. He noted the dates different trees first came into leaf, blossom and flowers came out, frogs first croaked and butterflies appeared. In collating his observations, Marsham, a friend of the more famous naturalist Gilbert White, crystallised a British fascination. It’s a fascination that could be as old as the seasons themselves and which is still manifest today, not least in the popularity of the BBC series Springwatch. For farmers in the Black Mountains, spring means lambing: an arduous, 24-hour vigil that lasts for up to eight weeks, leaving many of the protagonists looking as if they’ve just been released from a POW camp. “Most farmers are lambing by the end of March,” said Mark Morgan, a farmer in the Llanthony Valley. “It’s the most important time of year. Everything depends on these few weeks. It’s hard work, but it’s fulfilling and something we take pride in. For me, spring starts with lambing. It’s like waking up from some primeval nightmare.” The winter preparations for this moment are complete and the monochrome landscape looks ordered. The hedges are laid and trimmed or “flail cut”. Gates have been rehung. The fields have been “chain-harrowed”. Though the grass is still pallid, the effect of this raking is visually dramatic from afar: the green, two-tone strips are the first hint there is life in the long-dormant earth. In our garden, growth meets decay when spring arrives. The decay is a reminder that I’ve been idle over the winter. I’ve pruned some of the fruit trees and cut the raspberry canes, but there’s still a mountain of clearing and pyres to be set alight. Last week my wife and I dug over and weeded the vegetable patch – another winter task we didn’t get round to before the earth turned to iron in November. We like to toil over the veg patch together each year, satisfying an immemorial urge to provide food. Lettuce, coriander and rocket seeds have been planted in the greenhouse. In a rare fit of exuberance for gardening, my kids have planted sunflowers, alpine strawberries and a packet of wild flower mix. The first wee shoots of basil are showing on the windowsill in the kitchen. The old spaniel, who was all but written off by the vet a month ago, has a touch of his swagger back. He loves the warmth and passes the afternoons in a suntrap in the lee of the byre. The young spaniel stalks under the copse of birch trees, thrusting his snout into the rabbit holes and intermittently exhaling hot air from his nostrils into the burrows. Inside the house, the mice have thankfully moved off to their summer residence. The coat cupboard has had an interim clearout: arctic boots, salopettes, woollen hats and a diverse selection of single children’s gloves have gone to the attic. It snowed in the Black Mountains in late March last year; the rest of the coats stay out for now. In the wood we manage as a community group, high up on Hatterall Hill, the rush of activity to coppice the stools of hazel is over and the chainsaws are quiet for now. In fact, we stopped all tree felling at the beginning of March, as birds are nesting earlier and earlier. There’s still plenty to do: the trunks and thicker branches of hazel need to be cut into 2ft lengths, ready to be loaded in the burner we’ll use to make barbecue charcoal over the following months. The hazel sticks will be bundled up and left in a pond for a fortnight, until they’re used for making hurdles. The firewood, most of it windblown, will be stacked and left to season. The clocks go forward today. The extra hour of daylight in the evenings is always welcome, but the more significant milestone for me is the passing of the equinox. Daylight hours are now longer than the hours of darkness and increasing by three or four minutes every day. It’s a psychological crossroads: for the first time in the year, I feel I can be profligate with daylight. I can be outside and content doing nothing. I walk the dogs because I want to, not because I have to. There is time to lean against a tree, look up and let the sun burn golden palaces on to my closed eyelids. Of course, spring is the time to be social too. Human interaction redoubles as the sun strengthens, turning even the dourest farmers into extroverts. On the lanes, people stop to chat on the thinnest premise. In town, every face offers a smiling reception. It is no wonder spring is pregnant with pagan mating rituals. It’s the season of possibility, for us as much as nature. For that alone, we should celebrate its arrival. Rob Penn is the author of It’s All About the Bike: the Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels (Particular Books).
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Related posts:Big Garden Bird Watch results are out Plantwatch: Welcome warmth brings spring blossom Winter Solstice The Shortest Day
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March 27 2011, 9:57am | Comments »
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