There are other arts. At intervals when the long long grayness let up, I'd a passing interest in other arts. From Grades 4 to 6, I played music, violin for three and then recorder for one year. I took part in UPEI's debating society for several years. I own an untouched calligraphy set. Most recently, a few years ago I bought a sketch book and some pencil crayons with the intent of doing something. Why not do something?
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bitterlawngnome asked me almost five years ago? Why not indeed.Photography has become my new art. It operates as a sort of art therapy for me, helping me frame and phrase the things I see around me, giving me another way to communicate my environment in its various glories. It's an enjoyable art, something that's respected despite its ongoing assimilation into the realm of digital imagery. I don't think I'll ever become more than a talented amateur, but who knows?
That's my experience. All of my readers have their own passions re: the arts, I'm sure. What new arts would you like to pick up? I've been thinking myself of opening up that calligraphy set, and not only because I'd like to improve upon the handwriting that deteriorated so very badly once I began my university career.
Discuss.
Mr Browne, who has also served as Scottish Secretary, said he had decided with "some reluctance" that it was time to move on. But the Labour politician said he wanted to spend more time working towards the goals of multilateral disarmament and conflict resolution. Mr Browne, who was elected as the MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon in 1997, is one of the members of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Disarmament and Non- Proliferation.
He said it had been an "enormous privilege ( Read more... )
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Mary Archer may have been able to dismiss her husband's imprisonment for perjury with typically stylish froideur, but she could find it much harder to dispel the image of a demanding, cheapskate employer that is fast emerging from the industrial tribunal on the sacking of her former PA.
Jane Williams, who worked for Lady Archer for more than 13 years ? and was runner-up in the PA of the Year competition ? has been spilling the beans on her employer in devastating style. Revelations of ( Read more... )
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I took two photos of the southerly lion, using different settings for each. The first photo shows what the lion looks like in the 11:30 light, but the second looks more vibrant. Which do you prefer? and why?
Approximately two weeks ago an unflattering photo started to appear at the top of Google's Image search when the search term "Michelle Obama" was used. The offending photo had an ape's face superimposed over the top of that of Michelle Obama.
When the photo originally appeared internet search users complained to Google and the image was removed from the search results - but only on the grounds that the website hosting it was also hosting malware viruses. So when the image started to appear ( Read more... )
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Combined with a vivid writing style and an impetuous streak, they fuelled his career, first as an admired journalist and later as a still more successful travel writer and popular historian.
It was restlessness that provoked him in 1970 into leaving a secure and
enviable berth as chief feature writer on The Guardian to become a full-time
author. His first travel book, Calcutta, was published the following year;
but he sought a more demanding challenge and in October 1972 ( Read more... )
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Phil Duffy, a joint administrator at MCR, the restructuring specialist, said: ?We are conducting closing down sales while we continue to seek a purchaser for all or some of the company?s stores.? The fire sale of stock will pile pressure on the bookseller?s rivals Waterstone?s and WHSmith, as well as Asda, Tesco and Amazon.
Mr Duffy added: ?All outstanding employee wages have been paid up to date and
ongoing wages for retained staff will continue to be paid as an expense ( Read more... )
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A commercial security service team has entered the home in the exclusive resort of Gstaad.
They declined to say what they were doing during the Saturday visit, but the company handles a range of services ? from video surveillance to alarm installations and armoured doors.
A condition of Polanski's house arrest is that he be fitted with an electronic
monitoring bracelet that would detect if he tries to leave the chalet. That
would ( Read more... )
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I get a call from a journalist who wants to clear up my positions on markets
and gay adoption. I say that I am in favour of free markets but think that
neoliberalism had often produced monopoly outcomes. On gay adoption I say I
had no contemporary problems with it, but in terms of the controversy two
years ago over Catholic adoption agencies, I thought the Catholic view that
a child needed a mother and father shouldn't have been outlawed; in a free
society we need not fear diverse ( Read more... )
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At least six children died last year after drinking contaminated baby formula and more than 300,000 were sickened in one of the country's worst food safety crises.
Parents and lawyers have reported pressure from government officials not to pursue lawsuits over the tainted milk, so the start of the trial yesterday was seen as a breakthrough.
"It's a little progress," said Beijing-based lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who
told The Associated ( Read more... )
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Enrich your mind with a selection of the latest hardback and paperback books.
Click here or on the image on the right to launch
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Ex-Tory peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch told the Times that he took the proposed deal to the Conservative leader in the upper house, Lord Strathclyde, after Ukip beat Labour into third place in this June's European elections.
Last month Mr Cameron dropped his promise of a national vote when the treaty was finally ratified by all EU member states - angering the new Ukip leader as well as many of his own backbenchers.
Lord Pearson, who was elected ( Read more... )
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They said the ferry M.V. Coco-4 was sailing to the coastal town of Bhola, some 185 miles from Dhaka, last night with around 1,500 people on board - about three times the number it was registered to carry.
The death toll late on Friday had been put at five.
Many of those on board were going home to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival today.
Media at the scene reported the ferry started taking in water after it hit a
raised ( Read more... )
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Carol Hill, 60, who lost her job at Great Tey Primary School in Great Tey, Essex, in September, failed yesterday in a bid to persuade governors to reinstate her.
Mrs Hill, who lives near the school, was disciplined for a "breach of confidentiality" after telling how the youngster had been whipped with a skipping rope by other pupils.
Governors discussed Mrs Hill's appeal during a day-long meeting in nearby
Colchester before deciding ( Read more... )
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A survey of voters in 32 Labour-held constituencies by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph put David Cameron's Conservatives on 42 - a lead of six points compared with a 10-point deficit in 2005 (34 per cent to 44 per cent).
The turnaround is greater than across the country as a whole and would be enough to defeat Labour MPs in every one of the seats which are being targeted by a drive from Tory HQ.
Nationally, the poll gave the Opposition ( Read more... )
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The Government's target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 will be missed unless at least another £6.8bn is spent, campaigners said yesterday.
The warning came as official figures showed that more than 3.5 million children were still living below the poverty line, despite a 200,000 drop in the number last year.
In the European Union, only Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal have a greater proportion of children classed as poor.
Charities and campaigners said the Government ( Read more... )
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morbidloren's put up a small Q&A session about my story in Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues. Therein, I reveal a bit of history about The Bomoh, which was published in Morbid Curiosity #7 and the anthology -- everything except what chicken penises look like, really. It also has a photo of me from the Borderlands reading, which I am less sure about. I am seldom kind to pictures. This is no exception. I look vaguely like one of the Dustmen, just less pretty.
- Mood:
cheerful
Network Rail, the government-backed operator of the national rail system, yesterday took back direct control of track maintenance from the troubled private contractor Amey in a further example of the "creeping re-nationalisation" of the railways.
The company, which replaced Railtrack last October, also warned that other private sector firms could lose their maintenance contracts when they come up for renewal. The move follows an alarming escalation in the costs of rail maintenance under ( Read more... )
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The Ministry of Justice said Clearsprings was issued with a demand to improve its performance earlier this month. Its contract, worth nearly £6 million last year, could be cancelled if it fails to act.
The company, which runs 204 hostels, was issued with a rectification notice after a judge criticised controls at a hostel in Stockton, Teesside.
Judge Peter Fox QC said Mark Bradshaw's life might have been saved if tighter
controls ( Read more... )
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The saga, which includes many psychologist reports, a police break-in and promises by the child himself to give up candy, has gripped Spain.
In September, child advocates ordered the couple, Margarita Gabarres and Luis Montoya of Orense in the northern region of Galicia, to send the boy to a public treatment centre for his obesity after he had suffered what was described as "severe respiratory failure" in August. Social welfare workers said the boy, whose name was reported as Moisés, weighed ( Read more... )
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Page Summary
- rfmcdpei : [FORUM] What new art would you like to pick up? [+0]
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ti_news :: the_independent : Des Browne to resign as MP to 'seek further challenges' [+1] - ti_news :: the_independent : Take a letter. Oh, and buy my mistress a present [+1]
- rfmcdpei : [PHOTO] Same Royal Ontario Museum lion, different takes [+1]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Current Google Insights trends: Michelle Obama, Black Friday sales [+18]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Geoffrey Moorhouse: Wide-ranging writer whose subjects ranged from travel and spirituality to cricke [+1]
- ti_news :: jamesthompson : Borders to launch stock liquidation sales on Saturday
[+0]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Swiss ready Polanski's chalet for house arrest [+2]
- ti_news :: the_independent : My Week: Phillip Blond [+1]
- ti_news :: the_independent : First civil lawsuit starts in China milk scandal [+0]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Indy Choice: The best of the new books [+1]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Ukip offered Tories election deal over treaty [+4]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Thirty dead as Bangladesh ferry capsizes at dock [+0]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Sacked dinner lady to appeal to tribunal [+5]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Poll shows success for Tory maginals policy [+7]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Living below the poverty line: 3.5m children [+2]
- vampyrichamster : Morbid Curiosity Blog Tour Interview [+0]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Network Rail takes direct control of maintenance work [+1]
- ti_news :: the_independent : Bail hostel firm could be axed in wake of murder [+3]
- ti_news :: the_independent : 'Neglectful' Spanish couple refuse to surrender 11-stone 10-year-old [+1]