Today, by The Sneaks

The Sneaks, three-piece band from Auckland, have recently released Today,their third EP. It follows You All Suck! (EP) 2005, Pep Sounds! (EP) 2007, and album The Sneaks, 2007.

 Listen here and then buy one for more than $7 NZD
(it's $7 or a donation).

The Sneaks

Atomic bomb Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki

The acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.

DA

bbc david attenborough

Ancient Spanish chestnut tree planted between 1670 & 1700 in the parkland of 
Croft Castle, Herefordshire

PhotoVoice

Veterans: Living with genocide

Floods, UK

 

A crowd of Cambodians is pushed onto a bridge on the last day of celebrations of a water festival in Phnom Penh. Thousands of people stampeded Monday evening, on a small island in a Cambodian river, killing at least 339 people, according to Prime Minister Hun Sen. HENG SINITH 

A child is rescued on a flooded street in Bogota, Colombia. JOSE MIGUEL GOMEZ

Today in Pictures, TIME

Green Roof?

As you can see a green roof is a roof of a building that is partially
or completely covered with vegetation.   Greenery grows out
of a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane.
It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and
drainage and irrigation systems.  Try get one!

get facebook to unfriend coal

Dear Obama

Dear Obama - A Message from the Victims of the LRA
Pictures
Background

Ghostly Cheetah, Britta Jaschinski

We must protect women in Congo

The Guardian, Friday 27 August 2010

The mass rape of women in Congo (Report, 25 August) illustrates the difficulty the UN faces in trying to fulfil its mandate to prioritise the protection of civilians. Civilians now account for 70% of casualties in wars and most are women and children. Sexual violence against women and girls has been part of conflicts from Rwanda and Bosnia, to Sierra Leone, Haiti, Congo and Afghanistan. In Congo a few months ago, I spoke to women who had, in effect, been used as weapons of war and who had endured horrific forms of violence. While I am haunted by memories of their suffering, I remain inspired by the courage and tenacity they show. That is why the promise of UN resolution 1325 on ending violence against women in conflict has to be fulfilled and there must be concerted international action to increase awareness of the importance of engaging with women in conflict prevention and resolution.

I therefore urge the coalition government to take these matters as seriously as Labour and Gordon Brown did when, for instance, he appointed me earlier this year as Foreign Office minister with cross-departmental responsibility for bringing coherence and direction to our work on these issues. My role was to ensure that our work was co-ordinated and strategic, so the UK was better able to support the efforts of the UN secretary general's new special representative, Margot Wallstrom.

So far the government has been silent on the matter and in spite of repeated questioning has not put forward the name of the minister who would undertake these vital tasks of ensuring that foreign policy, development and military assistance work together to ensure that international law as it applies to women and girls is respected.

Glenys Kinnock

Lab, House of Lords

The Weirdos

Patsy

Emperors

national geographic

FGM

“If Genital Mutilation were a problem affecting men,

the matter would long be settled.”

- Waris Dirie

Combating FGM in Europe

Casey Jex Smith

visit Casey Jex Smith

I like his work.

Photos of food from a while back

Vincent Lum

Three photos of Vincent Lum's drawings, pen and ink on paper.

These are taken from a big pile he's been adding to over the last 

two years. Many of his drawings are portraits of unusual looking 

men, often strung out or 'ugly'. His characters are instantly 

recognisable, in keeping with the distinct style he started at art 

school in Auckland years ago.  His work is awesome, basically.  

      


























    

Sub-Saharan Africa

List of countries

Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
Democratic Republic of Congo
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sao Tome and Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Swaziland
Togo
Uganda
United Republic of Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Right Here

STREET CHANT

Auckland based three-piece Street Chant have recently released album
Means. Scroll down on http://cheeseontoast.co.nz  to see review by Andrew Tidball.

Brainwave

Brainwave
Brainwave is a charitable trust, which exists to educate New Zealanders from all walks of life about the latest research in neuroscience.  They now know that a child’s experiences from conception to three largely determine how their brain develops, and whether they will become capable, contributing, well adjusted adults.  They have a lot of information they want to pass on – to parents, to educators, to health professionals, to social workers, to anyone who works with or parents children!

The Neuroscience Data of Childcare

Researching and understanding the effects of non-parental care on young children is complex. Each child, each family, each situation is different. Data can only speak in statistically significant generalities. Yet once the findings from the research become robust and repeated it is important to report it so that parents can incorporate this information into their decisions, as well as advocate for improved policies and programmes. 

To date, many studies have examined the link between the stress hormone cortisol and the use of childcare in children. Because observed behaviours do not always reliably reflect a child’s stress level, physiological measures are seen as more accurate assessments of a child’s stress response in childcare. Humans produce cortisol even when they are not stressed. However, multiple pathways in the brain respond to threat or challenge by increasing activity of the HPA system that raises cortisol levels over normal baseline. Chronic exposure to stress early in childhood may be a risk for later affective and cognitive functioning.

As of 2006, all the published studies examining this link were assessed and evaluated in a meta-analysis . The data included research from the USA, Germany, Hungary and France and draws from a range of childcare settings, including use of a model centre that is used for training purposes and was assessed as of the highest quality.

Pakistan Flood

Pakistan estimates that it could cost £10bn to rebuild the country. Rains that first fell in northern areas such as the Swat valley have caused "walls of water" to sweep through the south, especially along the river Indus.

Cranberry by The Ruby Suns

Cranberry by The Ruby Suns

Our Moon

SKIN NECTAR

SKIN NECTAR

 

Rosemary and Peppermint Scrub
Price: £15.00
The ultimate pick me up, rosemary for remembrance and peppermint for, well, some serious va-voom. Dead sea salts slough away dull skin whilst the oils nourish. This age old combination will perk you up and get you out the door with skin that glistens like a pearl.

The fact that Rosemary is an age old method for waving goodbye to cellulite is also worth a mention here.

Snow White - I'm Wishing

Tricked into Sex Slavery

Quinton Fortune for Tender

Tender Final from Morph Films on Vimeo.

Tender is a charity situated in London, which teaches domestic abuse and sexual violence prevention to young people under 25 through the use of drama and other forms of art.  Tender promotes healthy relationships based on equality and respect, encouraging all men, women and especially young people to actively prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Early warning signs of abuse in intimate partner relationships are often hard to detect.  Being able to identify these when sexual relationships are forming is crucial in preventing people from entering into unhealthy relationships. Abuse/violence in relationships starts with the perpetrator conducting subtle controlling behaviour over the other, which escalates over time. 

Tender's evaluation report, 2009 shows that the work is making positive impact on participants.

www.tender.org.uk

Presidential polls open in Rwanda

Rwanda: Silencing Dissent Ahead of Elections

Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, overturned by judge

Modern Day Slavery - Dignity Overdue

WATCH

Millions of women and girls around the world turn to domestic work in order to provide for themselves and their families. Instead of guaranteeing their ability to work with dignity and free of violence, governments have systematically denied them key labor protections extended to other workers. Domestic workers, often making extraordinary sacrifices to support their families, are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world.

Loretta and Bobbie

Loretta Lynn - First City

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billy Joe

read

Female Genital Mutilation in the UK

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice.

Princess Chelsea - And I love Her

Financial Reform Bill Including Conflict Minerals Passed in USA

READ

On July 15 USA Congress passed the financial reform bill with the inclusion of a key provision on conflict minerals, an incredible victory for the thousands of activists who for months have been calling on their members of Congress to take decisive action to end the trade in Congo's conflict minerals.

The amendment will require companies to disclose whether they source conflict minerals from Congo or neighboring countries, and require companies to report on steps taken to exclude conflict sources from their supply chains, backed by independent audits. From the day President Obama signs the bill, the Securities and Exchange Commission will have nine months to develop regulations implementing the new law.

Global Military Expenditure

source: Global Issues

Global military expenditure stands at over $1.5 trillion in annual expenditure at current prices for 2009, and has been rising in recent years.

(1991 figures are unavailable.)

Summarizing some key details from chapter 5 of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s 2010 Year Book on Armaments, Disarmament and International Security for 2008:

*World military expenditure in 2009 is estimated to have reached $1.531 trillion in current dollars;

*This represents a 6 per cent increase in real terms since 2008 and a 49 per cent increase since 2000;

*This corresponds to 2.7 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), or approximately $225 for each person in the world.

*The USA with its massive spending budget, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total, at 46.5% of the world total;

SIPRI has commented in the past on the increasing concentration of military expenditure, i.e. that a small number of countries spend the largest sums. This trend carries on into 2009 spending. For example,

*The 15 countries with the highest spending account for over 82% of the total;

*The USA is responsible for 46.5 per cent of the world total, distantly followed by the China (6.6% of world share), France (4.2%), UK (3.8%), and Russia (3.5%):

The Cutest

Tom/Fri night please come.

Tom/Fri night please come.

TOMORROW:

Congo – Stronger Women, Stronger Nations

Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A, £3 unwaged, £5 waged

Hear from Women for Women International’s DRC Country Director Christine Karumba, human rights activist Sam Roddick, Judith Wanga from BBC documentary The Worlds Most Dangerous Place For Women and Susan Schulman photo journalist and Amnesty Media Award winner as a part of an expert panel discussing the impact of the current conflict in DRC on women and the vital role that they are playing in building a stable Congo. For further information email Kate Hughes on KHughes@womenforwomen.org

FRIDAY:

Congo Now! - London Literature Festival, Southbank Centre, £9

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/literature-spoken-word/tickets/congo-now-53462

Congo Now! is an evening to celebrate the extraordinary vitality and resilient creativity that is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese poets, writers, performers and musicians are joined by international artists in solidarity to mark the 50th anniversary of Congolese independence. Contributions from renowned writers and performers including Eddie Kadi, Frederick Kambemba Yamusangie, Sandi Toksvig, Norbert Mpu-Mbutu, Lynn Nottage, Adam Hochschild and Eve Ensler feature alongside a moving photo exhibit by the acclaimed photojournalist Susan Schulman. Music from the Congo features the celebrated Kasai Masai and singer-songwriter Safroman.

Congo Now! got in the press!!!!!!

READ

Parts of Seville

A Documentary to Watch

Examined Life, by Astra Taylor
watch

State of the World Population 2009

FULL REPORT

v i d e o

UNFPA Climate Change in Bolivia

50 years, 50 faces

My cancer is arbitrary. Congo's atrocities are very deliberate

Bluefin Tuna extinct by 2012? - Thanks humans!




link!
link!