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      <title>MappedUp.com country RSS (gb)</title>
      <link>http://www.mappedup.com/html/</link>
      <description>Real-time, geographical RSS for your site and desktop.</description>
      <language>en-us</language>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 14:11:01 +0000</pubDate>
      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[HybridLogic Journal, Birmingham, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[This Year at the Pictures]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:42:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[It seems I've gone to the cinema more times this year than in all my previous years combined. In fact, I've seen so many films the only way I can remember which ones I've seen is by looking at the ticket stubs. So here's a rundown of what's been brilliant and what's bored the hell out of me, and note this is only the films I can remember seeing.


February
Cloverfield – brilliant effects, 93%

March
10,000 B.C. – good effects but week story, 63%
Vantage Point –nothing really good here, 47% 

May
Iron Man – brilliant film, excellent effects and good story, ending drags though, 91%
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – killed my childhood, 11%
Doomsday – good violent action, but not much else, 68% 

June
The Incredible Hulk – a better version than the first (modern) film, 83% 

July
Hancock – a funny comedy with a good story, 84% 
Wall-e – a new classic, 82%
The Dark Knight – stunning film, must watch, 98%

August
Kung Fu Panda – funny comedy from Jack Black, 62%
X-File: I Want To Believe – feels more like a regular episode, 57% 
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – another sequel, still aceeptable, 64%
Hellboy 2 – a brilliant follow up, very enjoyable, 89%
The Dark Knight – so good, I saw it twice. 
Get Smart – an actually pretty funny film, 72%
Babylon A.D. – excellent until the final third, 66%

September
Step Brothers – hilarious comedy, 73%
Rock N Rolla – another good gangster film, 91%
Bangkok Dangerous – unusual hitman-esque film, 86%
Pineapple Express – funny comedy with a good story, 84% 
Strangers – brilliant horror, until the ending, disappointing, 34% 
Righteous Kill – passable film, but not worthy of its two leads, 76%
Death Race – all out action movie, good fun, 76%

October
How To Lose Friends and Alienate People – good transition for Pegg, but not for all, 79% 
The Mutant Chronicles – abysmal, 4%
Eagle Eye – typical Hollywood special effects fodder, no story but good effects, 69% 
Quantum of Solace – special VIP showing with work at The Electric, great fun!

November
Quantum of Solace - good sequel, but lacks something Casino Royale had, 93%
Max Payne – weird story but passable action, 71% 

December
Body of Lies – not quite reaching its potential, 62% 
Madagascar 2 – brilliant follow up  comedy, 75% 
Transporter 3 – better than the second, but still not as good as the first, 68% 
The Day The Earth Stood Still – awful remake, don't bother, 22% 
Four Christmases – good comedy if a little sentimental, 77% 
Twilight – typical Teen angst film, only worth it for kids, 58% 
Yes Man – brilliant return to form for Carrey, 89%]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://hybridlogic.co.uk/journal/75/this-year-at-the-pictures/?from=rss]]></link>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Rock IT News, Newbury, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[abcdefg]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 31 Dec 1969 23:59:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Big Desc]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.4</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Twitter / Laphroaigwhisky, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Laphroaigwhisky: @glutenfreefox .....Us Campbells aint so daft, we know how to get our kicks.....]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:09:31 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Laphroaigwhisky: @glutenfreefox .....Us Campbells aint so daft, we know how to get our kicks.....]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://twitter.com/Laphroaigwhisky/statuses/2785346781]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[InStyle.com - This Just In, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Look of the Day: Emmy Rossum]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:30:10 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Rossum wore a striking Emanuel Ungaro design to an L.A. gala.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feeds.instyle.com/~r/instyle/thisjustin/~3/LfRUzNBW6p8/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[FT.com - Energy, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Icahn agrees to buy Dynegy for $665m]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The activist investor has agreed to buy the US power producer for $5.50 a share in cash – 10 per cent more than the final offer from Blackstone that collapsed last month]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2151450e-0855-11e0-8527-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Most recent case entries, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[David McMillan v. Her Majesty’s Advocate [2010] HCJAC 103]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:31:22 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Criminal Note of Appeal Against Conviction:-  On 20 November 2008 at Perth Sheriff Court the appellant pled guilty on indictment to a contravention of section 113(1)(b) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 by “…having unsupervised contact with any female child or accosting or molesting any female child, you did between 28 July 2008 and 2 August 2008, both dates inclusive, at 17 Glenearn Road, Perth, 24 St Catherine's Square, Perth or elsewhere in Perth and Kinross, to the prosecutor unknown, without reasonable excuse breach the terms of said order in that you did repeatedly over the course of several days send text messages and make telephone calls to MLM, requesting her to meet you, repeatedly invite her to your home and indicate to her that you had drugs and alcohol at your home…”. A schedule of previous convictions was tendered which included:- (1) a conviction on 3 June 1996 in the high court for rape, and assault to severe injury, permanent impairment and the danger of life, which resulted a sentence of 9 years detention; (2) a conviction on 18 April 2006 at Perth Sheriff Court for a charge of breach of the peace on indictment, which resulted in the imposition of a probation order of 3 years duration and a restriction of liberty order of 12 months; and (3) a conviction on 1 December 2006 at Perth Sheriff Court for a charge of breach of the peace on indictment, which resulted in a sentence of imprisonment of 18 months, subject to a supervised release order with a requirement inter alia that the appellant did not have unsupervised contact with any female child under the age of 16. The appellant was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment to commence on 8 August 2008, when the appellant was first remanded in custody. Further, an order for lifelong restriction was made in respect of the appellant. The appellant lodged a note of appeal in which he appealed against his conviction and also against sentence. The ground of appeal for the appeal against conviction related to the advice the appellant was given by counsel prior to tendering his plea in relation to whether the appellant, in consistently maintaining that he honestly, albeit mistakenly believed, that the complainer was 19 years of age, afforded the appellant a “reasonable excuse” which would amount to a defence to the charge. It was submitted on behalf of the appellant that the legal advice offered to the appellant had been erroneous and the only relevant consideration was the age of the child and the words "without reasonable excuse" were an essential ingredient of the offence and the appellant's factual position was not consistent with his plea of guilty. It was submitted on behalf of the Crown that there having been a plea of guilty there were only three situations in which an appeal could succeed:- (1) where a plea of guilty had been entered without the authority of the accused person; (2) where the plea of guilty was offered under real error or misconception; or (3) where there was real prejudice to the accused, amounting to a miscarriage of justice; and none of those situations arose in the present case. It was submitted that the advice given to the appellant was not erroneous, that there was no basis for the appellant to hold a reasonable believe that MLM was an adult and in relation to the issue of "reasonable excuse" there was simply no basis for such an excuse in the particular circumstances of the case. Here the court considered the limited circumstances in which a guilty plea, once recorded, can be quashed. The court went on to consider whether there had been a miscarriage of justice in relation to the advice which had been given and accepted in relation to the issue of "reasonable excuse" in light of the appellant's position concerning the age of the complainer under reference to the meaning of the words "reasonable cause to believe" where they occurred in section 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 given that “reasonable excuse” was not defined in the 2003 Act.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.casecheck.co.uk/CaseLaw/tabid/1184/EntryID/16571/Default.aspx]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Windermere Lake User Forum (WLUF), Windermere, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Project timetable for re-submission of Windermere Navigation Byelaws 2008]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Project timetable for re-submission of Windermere Navigation Byelaws 2008 Stages What Is involved When 1 Examination of public inquiry recommendations relating to the need for a speed limit and the issues that a speed limit would resolve or mitigate for. &#8230; Continue reading &#8594;]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.wluf.info/project-timetable-for-re-submission-of-windermere-navigation-byelaws-2008]]></link>
          <geo:lat>54.3667</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.91667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC - Weather Centre - Forecast for London, United Kingdom, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Wednesday: light showers, Max Temp: 6&#xB0;C (43&#xB0;F), Min Temp: -1&#xB0;C (30&#xB0;F)]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:40:03 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Max Temp: 6&#xB0;C (43&#xB0;F), Min Temp: -1&#xB0;C (30&#xB0;F), Wind Direction: W, Wind Speed: 8mph, Visibility: very poor, Pressure: 1017mb, Humidity: 64%, 

UV risk: low, 


Pollution: low, 

Sunrise: 07:23GMT, Sunset: 17:06GMT]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=8]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC - Weather Centre - Forecast for Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Thursday: sunny intervals, Max Temp: 4&#xB0;C (39&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 0&#xB0;C (32&#xB0;F)]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Max Temp: 4&#xB0;C (39&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 0&#xB0;C (32&#xB0;F), Wind Direction: NNW, Wind Speed: 10mph, Visibility: very poor, Pressure: 1027mb, Humidity: 70%, 

UV risk: low, 


Pollution: low, 

Sunrise: 07:20GMT, Sunset: 17:04GMT]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=326]]></link>
          <geo:lat>52.2</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Wikio - g8, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[G8 adopts climate change pledge for 2050 (Times of the Internet)]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:13:25 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[L'AQUILA, Italy, July 8 (UPI) -- Group of Eight leaders meeting in Italy pledged to work toward a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, part of their vow to fight climate change. The statement on climate change approved by summit participants also includes a promise of an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by the world's richest countries, Italy's news service ANSA reported...Source : Times of the Internet (subscribe)Explore :  Climate Change, Meteorology, Science, United Nations]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.wikio.co.uk/info?id=115204550]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[London concerts, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[tomorrow : Oasis  London at Wembley Stadium]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:20:02 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Wembley Stadium  London HA9 0WS]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://gruvr.com/band/oasis/Jul-9-09]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | South Asia | World Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Pakistan court cuts new oil tax]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:52:40 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Pakistan's Supreme Court slashes a new carbon tax imposed on oil by the government, bringing down oil prices.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/south_asia/8139703.stm]]></link>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[The Register, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Reg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:34:50 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Email-tasm
Site news May we draw your attention to our latest email text-only newsletter, a weekly corral of all our Mobile and Wireless News and reviews.…Offloading malware protection to the cloud]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/08/register_mobile_wireless_newsletter/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Financial Times - UK Homepage, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Darling outlines tougher bank regulation]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:29:19 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Chancellor instructs FSA to force banks to hold more capital and have greater liquid assets to guard against a run on deposits, and introduces a 'backstop' power to prevent banks' borrowing rising too far]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/24ae00c8-6baf-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?o=%2Frss%2Fhome%2Fuk]]></link>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Google News U.K., London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[The pope's antidote to hypercapitalism - guardian.co.uk]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:27:16 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Telegraph.co.ukThe pope's antidote to hypercapitalismguardian.co.ukRead as a series of diagnoses and prescriptions, Pope Benedict's new social encyclical letter will frustrate. It is, for a start, very long; and its scope so ambitious that it seems every Vatican department has at one time had its input. ...George Weigel's intemperate attack on Benedict's 'incoherent ...Telegraph.co.ukPope prays for G-8 summitHinduPope Urges Forming New World Economic Order to Work for the ...New York TimesGlobe and Mail-Daily Mail-Washington Postall 721 news articles]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&amp;sa=T&amp;url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/08/pope-encyclical-caritas-capitalism&amp;usg=AFQjCNEXFn_SQwyDC0JmjAYKSVBt6LlkGg]]></link>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Scotland | UK Edition, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Man held after child kidnap bid]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:02:03 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Police in France arrest a man who allegedly tried to abduct a 12-year-old Scottish girl he met through the internet.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8140201.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC: UK, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Bank regulation reforms proposed]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:57:38 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The government puts forward its White Paper proposing wide-ranging reform of the UK's financial sector.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/8140457.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Front Page, Maidenhead, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Emotional farewell to King of Pop]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:52:16 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Michael Jackson's daughter Paris makes a poignant tribute at the end of a memorial service for the pop star in Los Angeles.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/entertainment/8137700.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.7</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | World | UK Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Troops flood into China riot city]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:52:16 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Thousands of troops flood the riot-torn Chinese city of Urumqi as President Hu Jintao leaves the G8 summit to tackle the crisis.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8139065.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC Music - Latest Rock And Indie Releases, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Matt & Kim, Grand]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Great company if you're in a certain mood. But possibly not if you have a headache.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/xjhj]]></link>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Technology | UK Edition, Derby, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Google to launch operating system]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:41:08 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Google is to launch a new operating system that is set to go head to head against Microsoft's Windows.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/technology/8139711.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>52.9333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-1.5</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Technology | World Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[TalkTalk  drops ad tracking firm]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:41:08 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Carphone Warehouses' ISP ends its agreement with Phorm, following BT's decision to step back.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/technology/8140368.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC Technology News [UK], London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[O2 signs Palm Pre exclusive deal]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:41:08 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[O2 has confirmed that it has an exclusive deal to sell the Palm Pre in the UK.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/technology/8138326.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[FT.com - Companies, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Rio executive held by China on suspicion of spying]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:29:56 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[One of the four Rio Tinto executives arrested by China has been detained by the authorities on suspicion of espionage, it was revealed by the Australian foreign minister who is leading diplomatic efforts to get the men released]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/41b4241e-6ba4-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?o=%2Frss%2Fcompanies]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[the INQUIRER, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Worldwide PC spending will drop six percent]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[ Nick Farrell   THE INQUIRER      Gartner warns ]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/7127/s/5314a68/l/0L0Stheinquirer0Bnet0Cinquirer0Cnews0C14330A20A0Cworldwide0Epc0Espending0Edrop0Epercent/story01.htm]]></link>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[FT.com - Financial Markets News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Commodity markets remain under pressure]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:02:21 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Commodity markets remained under pressure as nagging concerns about the global economy's recovery prospects weighed on sentiment]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/188fe3ea-6ba2-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?o=%2Frss%2Fmarkets]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[FT.com - World, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[S Korea in cyber security alert]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:48:46 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[South Korea issued a cyber security warning after hackers paralysed the websites of state agencies, banks and media companies in one of the world's most wired nations]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://traxfer.ft.com/cms/s/0/eedc1c16-6b89-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html?o=%2Frss%2Fworld]]></link>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC Sport | Football | UK Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Ablett to be named Stockport boss]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:38:01 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Stockport County are set to name former Liverpool defender Gary Ablett as their new manager, BBC Sport understands.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stockport/8140162.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[University of Cambridge News Stories, Cambridge, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Medieval remains found at heart of Cambridge University]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A hoard of historic finds, including Roman pottery, medieval remains and the bones of an 11th-century dog have been found at the heart of Cambridge University during an excavation to mark its 800th anniversary.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2009070801]]></link>
          <geo:lat>52.2</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[F1 news - autosport.com, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Raikkonen realistic for German GP]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:51:48 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Kimi Raikkonen says he is staying realistic about Ferrari's chances for the German Grand Prix, admitting victory is out of reach for the Italian squad.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76772]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Rock, Paper, Shotgun, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Tales Of Monkey Island Demo, Pricing Difference]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The demo for the first Tales of Monkey Island episodic adventure is available now. As indeed is the game. It seems so soon after the first announcement that it exists. This time you don&#8217;t appear to be able to buy the episodes separately. Instead Telltale want you to commit to the full five episode series [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RockPaperShotgun/~3/4kqsIFFH0CU/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Scotland | Glasgow and West, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Bid to end open cast mine protest]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:44:32 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Efforts begin to remove protestors who have dug themselves in to an open cast mine development.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8139792.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBCChinese.com | 中文网主页, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[印尼总统大选投票保安严密]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:37:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[印尼举行自1998年苏哈托倒台以来的第二次总统直选。数以十万计军警在全国各地戒备。]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8130000/newsid_8139600/8139685.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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          <author><![CDATA[Reuters: Top News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Americans doubt insurance plans will cover cancer]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:24:03 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer than half of all Americans trust that their health insurance plans would pay for the full costs of cancer treatment and nearly two-thirds falsely believe Medicare would not pay anything, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
  
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/JAhLygm1-yk/idUSTRE5670JX20090708]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Education | guardian.co.uk, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[From head of geography to whistleblower]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:29:40 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[One teacher's willingness to speak out led to suspension of senior staff at his school. Francis Beckett talks to himWhat kind of teacher has the courage to blow the whistle against their own headteacher? When the head of Copland community school in Brent, north-west London, was suspended while his handling of the school's finances could be investigated, it was largely because of the actions of one member of his own staff. Hank Roberts, geography teacher and union activist, now knows all the ups and downs of suspecting things are wrong in school and acting on those suspicions. After 20 years in the school, he was the one to stand up and be counted when strong rumours emerged about school finances.Sir Alan Davies, the headteacher, has now admitted taking tens of thousands of pounds in bonuses. It is alleged that up to 1m was paid to the school's senior management team over seven years. And now the school's governing body has been sacked by the schools secretary, Ed Balls.Only private schools and academies are allowed to pay bonuses. But Copland's chair of governors, Dr Indravadan Patel, claimed that Davies's success in attracting sponsorship, raising 2m for a new building and putting in extra hours to help a primary school in special measures made him "worth every penny". The legality of the case is now being investigated by council auditors. I've come to a cafe to meet up with Roberts. We are looking across the road at the school where he was first appointed by Davies as a geography teacher 20 years ago. For 19 years, Roberts and Davies rubbed along pretty well. At the start, the head gave Roberts the school's most challenging class, and his exuberance won them over. Davies saw he had a talented teacher and promoted him to head of geography.    So when, four years ago, Roberts heard rumours that Davies was getting bonuses on top of his salary, he says: "I thought it was probably not very much money and anyway, no one had any evidence."  Change in behaviourAt the start of last year, Roberts, by now the full-time branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Brent but still on the Copland school staff, says he started noticing a change in his boss. "He had always been consensual and democratic and not keen to seek confrontation with staff and trade unions, and quite quickly he became the opposite. I wondered why."I wondered if it was related to the fact that the staff had opposed his plan to turn Copland into a trust school, which would mean ... more autonomy for the head."  In a secret ballot, the staff voted 99 to five to oppose the plan. Early this year Roberts decided to  start investigating the rumours he had heard. He went to past caretakers and bursars, and past and present governors, and promised them he would never reveal his sources without their permission. He found that in 2004-05 the head received a 65,000 bonus and his deputies 45,000 each, and last year Davies had an 80,000 bonus on top of his 100,000 salary.  Several relatives of the head and of those staff responsible for finance were employed by the school, and 1.5m was owed to developers.Now Roberts was in a hurry to get the authorities to investigate, for delay might allow Davies to get trust school status, which could provide greater secrecy. So Roberts sent a dossier to the schools secretary, the Audit Commission and Brent council. He says: "Under the whistleblower legislation, if you reveal something, you cannot be disciplined for it, even if you are wrong, so long as it's something serious and you do it in good faith. I made sure it was done in my capacity as the elected NUT branch secretary in Brent and copied it to the three teaching union general secretaries."The legislation encourages whistleblowers to go to the authorities, not to the press and the public. But his years of union activity, Roberts says, have taught him that "left to themselves, the authorities will cover these things up". So he went to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) conference at Easter and announced Davies's bonuses from the platform, which gave rise to stories in the national press.   "I knew Alan Davies would find it hard to face me at the first staff meeting of the following term," he says. "But I had made it very hard for him to suspend me."    Instead, Davies did the last thing Roberts expected. The Friday before the school term began, Davies suspended him for something else. A letter had been sent opposing trust school status from the three union representatives at the school. Roberts's wife, Jean, dispatched the letter without knowing that it had not yet been seen by one of the three, the ATL representative. This, says Roberts, was a genuine error, and made little difference because the ATL representative agreed with the letter, which was in line with her union's policy. But Davies suspended Roberts, and two other union reps.Roberts's main worry was that the authorities might not act fast enough.  So he sent off a second dossier containing more allegations, which are now being investigated, together with a letter explaining his fears:"You may already know that I have ... been suspended on a trumped-up charge. I know that long-term this simple act of retribution and victimisation will be exposed. However, in the meantime, the very governors who authorised, and the headteacher who accepted, these unlawful bonuses may dismiss me. Protection of whistleblowers should be such that they are protected against trumped-up charges and disciplinary action taken on that basis."SuspensionsVery soon, Davies was suspended, along with his deputy, Richard Evans, and the school bursar, Columbus Udokoro.  Philip O'Hear, principal of Capital City academy, has now become acting head, spending four days a week at Copland. The day after Davies was suspended, Roberts was given permission by O'Hear to go into the school for a union meeting.  Roberts can still feel the glow of the reception he got that day. He is emotional as he tells me: "It was astounding, teachers and pupils standing and cheering. That was a good moment." The next day, at a meeting with O'Hear, all charges against Roberts were dropped.Roberts has long been a union activist and has never been afraid to stand up to authority. A fierce opponent of academies, last year he was among protesters who camped out on the site of a proposed academy in Brent to stop the construction work. But he accepts that not everyone is a born activist or whistleblower. To any teacher faced with a decision about challenging the powers that be, his advice is: "If they have evidence, they should blow the whistle, that's the right and proper thing to do. Under the legislation, if they do it in good faith, they are protected.  There is also extra protection for union representatives, and they should keep their union informed."Right now, Roberts is pleased with himself. He hopes the investigation will lead to real questions being asked about what he calls the "bonus culture" in schools. Also, he believes good will come of it at Copland. "One year's bonus for Sir Alan is equivalent to the textbook budget, and the school is very dilapidated." He hopes he has made school privatisation harder to justify, for in a trust school or an academy it would have been almost impossible to stop the Copland bonuses. Perhaps, says Roberts, we will start to focus on classroom teachers. "No one ever said: I did well in life because the head managed the school well. They talk of inspirational teachers. These are the people who change lives."TeachingSchoolsguardian.co.uk  Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/07/hank-roberts-copland-community-school]]></link>
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          <author><![CDATA[icLiverpool - Liverpool FC - News, Liverpool, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Red Watch: Michael Owen may yet win Liverpool a league title]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:14:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[DO we care that Michael Owen&#8217;s signed for Manchester United?]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=red-watch-michael-owen-may-yet-win-liverpool-a-league-title%26method=full%26objectid=24103035%26siteid=50061-name_page.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.4167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-3</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[CNN.com - World, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Honduras agrees to mediation, Costa Rica says]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:22:24 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Provisional Honduran President Roberto Micheletti has accepted an offer that an independent commission help broker an impasse over whether to allow the return of ousted President Jose Manual Zelaya, Costa Rica's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
    
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/hbMHUwO6604/index.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[IBE Web - IBE News, Durham, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Pace appoints its first chief strategy officer]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[
Pace plc has appointed Scott Sheldon as chief strategy officer. Sheldon will join the Pace executive team to drive development of the group&#039;s future strategy in the global market for digital TV technology. 
read more]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.ibeweb.com/ibe-news/pace-appoints-its-first-chief-strategy-officer]]></link>
          <geo:lat>54.7667</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-1.56667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Science Fiction in the News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[SHUTi - Automated Online Insomnia Treatment]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:35:42 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A recent clinical trial has demonstrated that an automated online system can provide treatment for insomnia that is at least as effective as that provided by human therapists. With video. (SF in the News)]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2392]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Raw Story Breaking News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Video report: Taliban buys children to use as suicide bombers]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:12:08 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Video report: Taliban buys children to use as suicide bombers

]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rawstory/gKpz/~3/M-hGZI2LTJg/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Tom's hardware UK, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Samsung Releasing Nvidia Ion Netbook in July]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:21:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The Samsung N510 could be the first Nvidia Ion netbook.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/samsung-nvidia-ion-netbook-atom,news-31421.html#xtor=RSS-141664]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Scotsman, Edinburgh, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Swine flu: Scots will be forced to wait  1&#189; years for full vaccination]]></title>
          <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[HEALTH bosses have admitted that the NHS will not be able to vaccinate all of the Scottish population against swine flu until November 2010 – almost 1&#189; years away.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Swine-flu-Scots-will-be.5437234.jp]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.95</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-3.2</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC Arabic, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[تحطم طائرة ركاب يمنية]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:09:45 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[تحطم طائرة ركاب مدنية وعلى متنها 150 شخصا قرب جزر القمر في المحيط الهندي، ولا أنباء عن وجود ناجين.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/hi/arabic/world_news/newsid_8125000/8125679.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[consultuk.com, Brighton, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Continuous Improvement of Business Audits]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[In this series of articles on Business Performance Audits we have looked at the different stages of auditing performance and the best practices that should be followed. Here we discuss the need for a gradual, orderly, kaizen style continuous improvement approach to the auditing process, in order to ensure that the process continues to be [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.consultuk.com/?p=49]]></link>
          <geo:lat>50.8284</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.139475</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Guardian Unlimited Media, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Dan Kennedy: William Ayers pays the price John McCain's accusations]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Dan Kennedy: The McCain-Palin campaign demonised William Ayers, but left him to deal with the consequences once the election ended]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/nov/25/election-obama-william-ayers]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Guardian Unlimited home | Guardian Unlimited, Manchester, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[US Treasury unveils extra $800bn in bail-out funds]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:57:18 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The US government extended its economic firefighting programme today by targeting the mortgage and consumer credit markets with a further $800bn (£523bn) in taxpayers' subsidies.The US Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, announced plans to pump $200bn into the frozen consumer credit market today after admitting that car loans, credit card lending and student debt issuance effectively dried up last month.The move was overshadowed by another wave of dire economic data as house prices tumbled by a record 16.6% in the third quarter and it was revealed that  the US economy had performed worse than expected over the same period.Pledging that the $200bn infusion was just the "starting point" for the government's latest attempt to free up paralysed credit markets, he said: "As the economy is turning down it is very important that lending continues to be available. What we are doing is to support consumer lending."The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, also anounced that it will buy up to $600bn worth of mortgage-backed assets in a bid to free up the mortgage lending market and, hopefully, bring down house loan rates. Paulson denied that the move showed the nationalisation in September of the two biggest mortgage lenders in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, had failed. "It is aimed at getting [mortgage] rates lower and it is a great deal for the taxpayer." The glut of government initiatives, which included a $326bn bail-out of banking giant Citigroup yesterday, is taking place against the backdrop of a worsening economic outlook.  It was confirmed today that the US economy performed worse than initial estimates in the third quarter. Gross domestic product in the three months to September fell 0.5%, said the commerce department, instead of the 0.3% decline in earlier forecasts. However, the economy is expected to contract in the final quarter of the year and well into 2009, more than fulfilling the technical definition of a recession which is two successive quarters of negative growth.The US economy is expected to contract by 4% in the final quarter of the year, according to some estimates, ratcheting up the pressure on president-elect Barack Obama to unveil a mammoth economic stimulus programme."The Obama administration is beginning to understand that the stimulus package has to be very, very big. Estimates of about $500bn to $700bn are about right. Anything less than that is like a popgun," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at economic forecaster Global Insight.The latest slump in US house prices underlined the depth of the economic trough entrapping consumers and threatened to tip millions more house owners into the negative equity spiral that set off the credit crisis last year. The closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller US national home price index fell by a record 16.6% in the third quarter, year-on-year. Prices are now at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004 and it was revealed this week that nearly half of all house sales are from foreclosed housing stock.The Dow Jones gained 91.43 points, or 1.08%, in early trading as it rose to 8535 &ndash; buoyed by further confirmation that the government is prepared to throw billions of dollars at the credit markets. The FTSE rose 1.35% to 4209 in London as traders digested a US GDP revision that was less severe than some feared. The announcements by the Federal Reserve and US Treasury today represented a switch of focus from the corporate to the consumer credit markets. The agencies launched a sister to the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, called the Term Asset-Backed Loans Facility, or TALF. The facility will be funded by a $20bn contribution from the TARP that will be leveraged by the Fed to create a $200bn facility. TALF cash will be offered to holders of securities backed by car loans, student debts and credit card borrowings who, it is hoped, will open their lending books again.Economists said the government was attempting to jump start a consumer loan market whose frozen state is threatening to exacerbate a looming recession. John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia Bank, said  the "extraordinary" paralysis in consumer credit markets left the government with no choice other than direct intervention. "There is simply no lending going to the ultimate consumer. What we saw after September was no-one knew what the counter-party risk was or where the economy was going," he said, referring to the aftermath of the collapse of banking giant Lehman Brothers. He added: "Given this uncertainty you cannot expect to have lending in that environment. The Fed and the Treasury therefore thought they had to get involved."US economyUS economic growth and recessionUnited StatesCitigroupFreddie Mac and Fannie Maeguardian.co.uk  Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/25/us-economy-consumer-credit]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.21667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[DC, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[The OpenID levees break: Everyone&rsquo;s OpenID accepted on Facebook]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2009 03:14:45 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Facebook will momentarily add yet another feather to their bow by becoming the biggest example of a social network accepting OpenID from other companies.  It is maybe now, more than ever we should expect websites to care more about verifying the age and identity of their customers – now that one of the largest in the market has widely accepted a technology that makes asserting verified claims SO easy.








      
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DCGWB/~3/ZCLs9607ZQs/when-the-levees-broke-everyonersquos-openid-accepted-on-facebook.aspx]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[MOTORCYCLE EVENTS IN ENGLAND, Ardingly, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[BMF GEMS]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:28:45 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[JUN. 6-7 -- BMF GEMS. The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent, England. Info: www.bmf.co.uk]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bmf.co.uk/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.0333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.0833333</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Guardian Sports, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Round one has given Johnno plenty to ponder]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:57:50 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Robert Kitson: It might have been encouraging for certain players, but the Premiership's opening weekend has presented Martin Johnson with a potential dilemma]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/09/09/round_one_has_given_johnno_ple.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Health | World Edition, Maidenhead, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[UK rejects assisted dying law]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The House of Lords defeats a motion to change the law on assisted dying in England and Wales.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/health/8139512.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.7</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Mobile Phones, Mobile Phone Deals, Cheap Mobile Phones, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Samsung Jet Deals on Orange]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:15:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Free on Orange Dolphin Saver plan. Pay just £24.47 per month for 400 anytime minutes to any network plus unlimited texts. Fantastic value for one the best and fastest touchscreen phones available. Mobile internet can be added for an extra £5 per month.
The Samsung S8000 Jet is an exquisitely designed, ...]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.thephonenetwork.co.uk/blog/index.php/samsung-mobile-phones/samsung-jet-deals-on-orange/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA['Time to ditch climate policies']]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:07:54 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[World leaders need to abandon current global climate change policies, says an international group of academics.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/sci/tech/8138429.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Creationism question 'misleading']]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:07:54 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Complaints about a question on creationism in a biology GCSE prompt an exam board to review its science exam papers.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/8136034.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC Sport | Football | Teams | Liverpool | UK Edition, Liverpool, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Pardon appeal for Shields refused]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:44:13 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Justice Secretary Jack Straw provisionally refuses an appeal for a pardon for jailed Liverpool football fan Michael Shields.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/merseyside/8126083.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.4167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-3</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Halcrow.com latest news, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Halcrow’s Paul Maliphant elected to the Council of the Geological Society of London (GSL)]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:58:52 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Paul Maliphant was elected to the Council of the   Geological Society of London (GSL) at the society's Annual General Meeting in June 2009.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.halcrow.com/html/news/2009/09_jul_paul_maliphant.htm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News | Have Your Say | World Edition, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Did police prepare well for G20 protests?]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:55:38 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A watchdog has said the Metropolitan Police's planning for April's G20 protests was inadequate. What do you think?]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6707]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[openDemocracy.net, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Crisis comes slowly to Sakhalin, Ksenya Semenova]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:39:13 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[It's May 14, and it's snowing in Sakhalin. This is nothing unusual, though it's a pity, for the trees were about to blossom.  There were jonquils outside my window, but now this tender new spring is sprinkled all over with cold whiteness. 

The news summaries are not any more cheerful: "a powerful cyclone with abundant snowfall has hit Sakhalin, which means the power is down in the centre of Yuzhnosakhalinsk and winter has returned to Sakhalin..."   Nothing seems to captivate the attention of our central media more than this. Sakhalin gets hit by a snowstorm and it's news on the national channels. But none of the local people are ever surprised by the fact that the TV screen always seems to show the same footage, filmed goodness knows where. 


As a provincial journalist, it's interesting to look at the work of my colleagues from the mainland. I must admit that Moscow for me is like Sakhalin for them. They still call Sakhalin a peninsula, and then go on to say that the latest cyclone has cut all connections between Sakhalin and the mainland. My co-editor's mother lives in Belarus. As soon as she sees these kinds of alarming weather reports on TV or the internet, she calls her daughter to ask what is going on. And what can we say in reply? The island is just having its usual weather.  


Until recently, Sakhalin seldom made it into the federal news at all except for its weather. It did hit the headlines in August 2007, when an earthquake almost completely destroyed the coastal town of Nevelsk, following which the island's governor was sacked and a new one appointed. Many Sakhalin residents were amused and surprised by the reasons the federal channels gave for the governor's dismissal. It's as if we were saying, so that's how it is!  We didn't know - thank you for opening our eyes... But that's another conversation. 


When details of funds from the federal centre being sent to rebuild Nevelsk were given on the news, Sakhalin, in many Muscovites' minds, went back to being a place where bears roam the streets and people travel by reindeer, catch fish and speak a strange language. One of my mainland acquaintances once asked me to send him a colourful photo to give him an idea of where it was he was being sent on business. I tried my best not to disappoint him, which is not hard seeing that I have plenty of bears and reindeer in my photo archives. I don't want to try to change the picture others have inside their heads. For some people, this exotic picture of a distant place is perhaps precisely what will attract them to actually make the journey there and see it all with their own eyes.    


I 


It is entirely possible to run into bears on the outskirts of towns on Sakhalin  


In fact, there's a grain of truth in this image. It is entirely possible to run across bears on the outskirts of our towns, especially in spring and early summer, when they are hungry. People feed them, feeling sorry for them, as if they were stray dogs.  The bears lose their fear of people and start coming closer and closer to homes and yards. But this doesn't mean people stop being prey or bears hunters, so tragic incidents are unfortunately all too common. 


When people ask me to say a few words about my island (rather than just saying I live on Sakhalin, I like to say that I live on an island - it has something magical about it, I think), I tell them I love Sakhalin. It sounds banal, but it's the absolute truth. I love it for banal reasons too: the people are good and the landscape is beautiful. At the weekend we went up to Chekhov Peak, which at 1048 metres is the highest mountain in the southern part of the island. It was the seventh time I had been up, but I still found the views wonderful.  Up there, far from the hot and dusty city, you can breathe so much more freely. The rounded hills spread out all around. We have a special word for these hills in the Far East - ‘sopki'. Say it to someone from elsewhere in Russia and they don't know what you're talking about. It's a local word. When you hear someone talking of ‘sopki' rather than hills and mountains, that's the mark of a true Sakhalin islander. Add to that things like ‘gathering water chestnuts, cooking with wild herbs, the ability to tie up winter fishing lines, tell a Korean from a Chinese or a Japanese, eat kuksu (Korean noodles), not wrinkle your nose at the smell of the Kamchatka bilberry, drive cars with the steering wheel on the right, use chopsticks, clean dried smelt and be able NOT to like red caviar.'  This last one is probably a joke: in Yuzhnosakhalinsk caviar is almost more expensive than in Moscow, but I digress. 


 


Every year the whole town of Yuzhnosakhalinsk celebrates Victory Day by climbing Chekhov Peak, the highest mountain on the island  


This time, it was the whole town that set off for Chekhov Peak. In Yuzhnosakhalinsk, the capital of Sakhalin Region (not of Sakhalin, as my TV colleagues like to say), we have a tradition of climbing the peak in honour of Victory Day. The ascent this year was different in that students were entrusted with putting a replica of the Victory Banner at the top. This important mission was accomplished four hours after the ascent began. The whole trip up and down takes about eight hours. I like to climb the peak in spring. Everyone says it's not the best time because there is still a lot of snow. This is true. The snow remains on the slopes until mid-summer, but where the sun shines more strongly the snow has already melted and you can see the clearings where berries grow and the dense tangle of Siberian pine saplings. It looks like summer and winter all rolled into one. My friend says the landscapes are like those in the film ‘Lord of the Rings'. In short, it's beautiful.   


As for the people, provincials, especially distant ones like us, are always a bit different. I have no complexes about the fact that I'm 23 and for me the mainland is a big country, where I've never been.   It's not the same as saying, ‘you know, I haven't been to the Moon yet'.  I suppose because flying to the Moon is a dream, whereas going to the mainland is a real possibility.  I'll let you into a secret:  I plan to go to the mainland this summer, and not just for any old reason, but to go to a concert. The island's remoteness doesn't bother me. People say, ‘wow, cool!' when I tell them I live on Sakhalin. The only problem is that my favourite musicians don't come this far. If they've been here, it was before I became a fan. The ones who come now are all Russian pseudo pop stars, whose concerts are actually very popular. When the rock group ‘Nochniye snaipery' (Night snipers) came, their concert was not sold out, though rock music is quite popular here.  It's the music all my friends, and I have quite a lot of them, listen to. So, I've found a very good reason for my first trip to the mainland - a concert. Sometimes I look at what's playing in Moscow and St Petersburg and can't help but feel jealous.   


I almost forgot another event that got Sakhalin into the news. The president came out here in February. It had been a long time since any presidents visited Sakhalin, and in such distinguished company too.  With the president came the Japanese prime minister, the Duke of York, the Dutch minister of the economy and 100-odd other ministers, industrialists and businesspeople. Only Putin stayed behind. "Someone has to stay in the Kremlin, after all, to water the flowers". 


The delegation was so large and important that the city's airport was closed to ordinary passenger traffic that day. The main streets were closed to traffic and glum-looking policeman stood on literally every corner. They had to stand a long time. Dmitry Medvedev spent almost 24 hours on Sakhalin. Some said that the president is afraid of his own people - even shops selling weapons were closed that day. Safety first. 


The island had long since been expecting him. They tried to keep the date a secret, but it didn't work. People guessed that there had to be a reason for the abundance of snow-clearing equipment out on the city streets. The city authorities normally don't pay so much attention to clearing the streets. The city was literally buried under snow after the New Year holiday period. Even big cars had a hard time getting through the snowdrifts, not to mention pedestrians.


But as soon as word got round the HE was coming, the equipment and workers got busy. Hundreds of KAMAZ trucks worked around the clock to remove all the snow. But a new ‘powerful cyclone with abundant snowfall' hit the island just before the big day. People worried that the airport would be closed and the important guests unable to fly in. However, as visitors later noted on one well-known Sakhalin forum, "Dmitry Medvedev is an excellent president. Yesterday we had a snowstorm, but the sun was shining as his plane arrived. He leaves on the 19th, and on the 20th the snowstorm will resume. Good people are always lucky. So, we should give him his due".   


 


Angry islanders took to the streets to protest the Kremlin's decision to increase import duty on foreign cars.  


But this was about the only time people used the words "excellent president" during his visit. Just the opposite:  the islanders were unhappy with their president. It was just when Moscow was talking about raising import duties on second-hand imported cars. Like all people in the Far East, people on Sakhalin were in a state of complete shock over the decision. There are two cars for every one person on Sakhalin, and they are practically all Japanese. It's far from everyone who buys new foreign-made cars (there is a 24-fold income gap between the different layers of society on Sakhalin). Second hand cars make up the bulk of sales on the island. And then we suddenly get this news from Moscow. People on Sakhalin, as in Vladivostok, even took to the streets for an unauthorised meeting (not sanctioned by the authorities) calling for the duties to be abolished. We at Sakh.com were the only ones to cover the meeting, and ended up paying for our boldness. Other media contented themselves with the regional administration's terse press statement: "Far fewer people took part in the meeting than the organisers hoped for..." People joked that the President would arrive in a Russian-made car, but that was not to be.  


As for what brought the president all the way to Sakhalin, it was not a concert by his favourite musician of course, but an event for the whole country - the opening of Russia's first and only liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. 


I too managed to be at the opening ceremony, not that I was overjoyed at the chance. There is not much fun to be had in catching a glimpse of the president in the distance and then following the endless statements on a big screen in the press service's office. Others were envious. "Cool, you'll see the president", they said. I said it'd have been better if Shakhrin, the leader of the rock group Chaif, had come. 


 


The best equipment and most advanced technology were used to build the gas installations in Aniva Bay.  


Sakhalin Natural Gas is a huge complex in Aniva Bay. It boasts the best specialists, the best equipment, and the most advanced technology and is the result of 10 years' work. The nature of my job means that I have been following the Sakhalin-2 project.  I am familiar with all the stages of its implementation and have visited various sites, as well as going on board oil and gas tankers. I had an idea then of what the people directly involved in the project felt at the launch. This is their baby after all, as Ian Craig, director of Sakhalin Energy, the operator company, likes to say. 


But because I've been following the project closely, I also understand the local people's scepticism about offshore development, LNG production and royalties. They didn't build the plant, have seen it only in passing and, for most of them, LNG is something that gets sold for a lot of money to Japan, the USA and Korea. Oil and gas account for 95% of Sakhalin Region's exports. When Sakhalin-2 reaches full capacity it will provide 5% of the world's gas supplies. There are plans to deliver gas from Sakhalin throughout the neighbouring region of Vladivostok. Meanwhile, an old thermal electricity power station still chugs away in the south of our island, and there are plans to convert only one unit to gas by 2011. 


In response to this situation people joke that Sakhalin residents are asked: ‘We've got gas in our flat.  Have you?'   'Do we have gas?' comes the reply,  'we've got the whole pipeline!"    


It's not surprising then that Yuzhnosakhalinsk residents are eager to get out of town, even if the weather is not very sunny. They're after a bit of fresh air, especially when you consider the two cars per resident as well... it's a good thing that there's nature just nearby.  And it's beautiful. 


The old power plant is nothing when you consider that it took them until May 9 this year to find the gas to light the Eternal Flame - the sacred memorial to our victory in the war. In the past, they'd light the flame before the war veterans arrived at the monument, and then it'd go out until the next Victory Day came around. Now the local authorities promise that the Eternal Flame will be just that - eternal. Time will tell.  


The LNG plant was launched amidst big crowds and with much pomp and promise. Fireworks lit up the evening sky. There were endless banquets ‘in honour of' and ‘hosted by'. A month later, the first LNG deliveries from the plant began. Japan was the first country to receive supplies. Contracts for the plant's output have been signed for the next 20 years, and 60% of it will go to Japan.     


Japan is not just any old neighbour for Sakhalin. It's the closest foreign country to us. Some people on Sakhalin have never been to Moscow, but have already been to Japan, though not many. Planes and ferries go between Sakhalin and Hokkaido, but tours to Japan have not proved particularly popular, even though the two regions have good relations. Several towns on Sakhalin are twinned with towns on Hokkaido. Sakhalin businesspeople work closely with Japanese businesspeople in various sectors, though every year brings its inevitable share of complications and political incidents.  The Kuril islanders and Japanese organise visa-free exchanges, and the Friendship Ship travels between the islands.   


There were plans a decade ago to build the Russian-Japanese Friendship House on the main street of Yuzhnosakhalinsk as a symbol of friendship between Russia (Sakhalin Region) and Japan, but construction work stopped and the unfinished site graces the regional capital's main street to this day. During Dmitry Medvedev's visit a high fence was put up to hide the stone shell of the unfinished building, and it was said that the construction work would continue. But from my office I see that the president has left, the fence is still in place, and there is not the slightest sound of any construction equipment. The Russian-Japanese Friendship House is not about to open its doors anytime soon. "The right house for the friendship", people joke on the forum. If you look at things from the point of view of the territorial dispute with Japan, which dies down only to flare up again with renewed vigour, there may be some truth in this.   


Going back to an issue that has been dragging on for years is of course one way to avoid the issue on everyone's lips at the moment, namely the crisis. Most new and interesting things take a long time to reach the Far East and especially Sakhalin, but the crisis lost no time in coming. There was no panic, just the firm conviction that things would soon go downhill. Prices soared, especially for petrol and food. The cat litter I buy used to cost 300 roubles: it went up another 100 roubles overnight. When I asked the sales woman why the sharp increase, she said, "it's the crisis", without adding any further explanation. Medicines, nail varnish, ballpoint pens, all more expensive because of the crisis. Everyone knows this, but exactly what this crisis is all about, that they don't know. 


Of course, those who've lost their jobs do know what it's all about. They get some explanation for their sorry predicament - optimising costs, staff cutbacks,  finance has dried up. People working at the Sakhalin offices of big companies have been particularly hard hit. These companies are reacting to the hard times by trying to maintain their head offices, and the regional offices get just enough funding so as not to close down entirely. It seems to me that this applies not only to companies, but also to support for the regions from the federal centre. People on Sakhalin are not expecting much federal money this year. 


I haven't been personally affected by this crisis yet, except that it has become more expensive to keep a cat. So far, my wages have not been cut (touch wood!), and I've even acquired my first means of transport - a bicycle.  


The reason for my good fortune is that I work in the internet media. In their quest to optimise costs and so on, companies are looking for more profitable ways to advertise. In this respect, an internet portal with an active forum offers a well-developed interface.   


My friend Zhenya was not so lucky.  She worked in a non-profit environmental protection organisation involved in the conservation of Pacific Ocean salmon. The Sakhalin Salmon Initiative, as this organisation was called, received money from the Wild Salmon Centre in the USA. But with the crisis, they decided that six people were enough to protect salmon on Sakhalin and Zhenya, as the newest employee, was made redundant. 


I recently ran into Sergei, a former fellow student, in the street. He was on his way to the job centre to register as unemployed and ‘spoil the statistics', as he put it (with a population of around 530,000, official unemployment on Sakhalin is 4%). Sergei was one of the victims of mass layoffs in the branches of one of Russia's biggest mobile phone operators. He had graduated as a journalist, but had been selling mobile phones. 


There are even worse cases. One acquaintance of mine recently fired his secretary. The fifth. She had forgotten to submit the necessary documentation to take part in a construction tender - an unpardonable mistake in these tough times, of course. He placed a wanted ad to hire a new secretary and stipulated that applicants should be computer literate.  


Today he said that a young man sent his CV: a university graduate with top marks, fluent in English, good knowledge of French and basic knowledge of Spanish and Korean, experience as a deputy director, security specialist, translator and manager, and now he's ready to type documents, answer the phone and make coffee for 14,000 roubles a month. That's around $450 - in euros a sum too horrifically small to contemplate. 


That's the crisis for you, Sakhalin style. 


------------------------------------ 


Editor's note: 


Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the capital of Sakhalin Island.  It has a population of nearly200,000 and is the administrative centre of the Sakhalin Oblast, an area which includes the Kuril Islands.  It was founded in 1882 by convicts sent to the island by the Tsarist government to serve out their sentence in labour camps.  The southern half of the island was ceded to Japan after Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.  Soviet troops took it back in 1945, when it acquired its name, which means South Sakhalin City.  While remaining the administrative centre, the city shows many signs of the rush for oil and gas: the presence of foreign energy companies has contributed to infrastructure developments, including the building of new hotels and residential areas. 


-------------------------------------- 


Russia is not only Moscow politics and St. Petersburg's monuments. Read other Letters from provincial Russia: 


Khabarovsk: Far East is still far away, by Alexei Minin. 


http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/Far-East-is-still-far-away 


Saratov: Summer in Saratov, by Olga Bakutkina 


http://www.opendemocracy.net/russia/article/summer-in-saratov 


Kirov: The Vyatlag Archipelago, by Ekaterina Lushnikova 


http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/the-vyatlag-archipelago 


Lipetsk:  You can get a life - in spite of everything! By Oksana Zagrebnyeva 


http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/you-can-get-a-life-in-spite-of-everything 


Izhevsk:  A Sunny Mayday in Izhevsk, by Nadezhda Gladysh 


http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/letter-from-izhevsk 

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          <author><![CDATA[The Economist: Daily news and views, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
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          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:33:20 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Another round of ethnic violence in Urumqi as Han Chinese and Uighers clashTHE city of Urumqi was an ethnic tinderbox on Tuesday July 7th. Two days after rioting in the provincial capital of China&#8217;s western Xinjiang region had left at least 156 people dead and more than 1000 injured, tensions flared anew. Urumqi is home to 2.3m people, a majority of them Han Chinese, many of whom have lived here for generations, and a minority of them Uighurs, Xinjiang&#8217;s mostly Muslim indigenous Turkic population. Screaming in anger about the weekend unrest, thousands of Han Chinese marched through the centre of Urumqi on Tuesday afternoon, wielding a variety of makeshift and menacing weapons, including clubs, meat cleavers, long knives, axes and bricks. &#8220;This is no longer an issue for the government!&#8221; said an employee of the Tian Bai Commercial Plaza, wooden club in hand. &#8220;This is now an ethnic struggle between Uighur and Han. It will not end soon, and we Han will do what we must to protect ourselves&#8221;, he said. ...]]></description>
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          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:30:50 +0000</pubDate>
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          <author><![CDATA[Arseblog - ...an Arsenal blog., London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Almunia - Keown on Senderos and Djourou - Matuidi - Hangeland and more...]]></title>
          <pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:15:34 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Morning, I was expecting to have a bit more news about pre-season starting but so far there's been nothing. Oh well.
Not much going on to be honest but Manuel Almunia is already setting the bar for the season ahead. He wants us to start well and play more like we did in the second half of last season, saying:

That is what we need to do from July this year, from the    minute we get back for pre-season. We need to make sure the group is together and focused after the break and to    show our total commitment. I am sure that because we have the quality, next season will be much better    than the one we have just finished.

One of the issues that bothered us last season was complacency. In the second game of the season we'd been beaten by Fulham after a listless display but the lessons weren't learned and we paid the price again for thinking we just had to turn up to beat teams like Hull and Stoke. Gael Clichy talked about lack of focus throughout the squad yet when we did eventually find our form we went on a very lengthy unbeaten run.
So hopefully the boys will be much better prepared this season and can get off to a good start. It's so vital to ensure you don't fall behind right at the beginning, you're playing catch-up the whole time and it makes life that bit more difficult.
Elsewhere Martin Keown has been talking to sport.co.uk about our central defence (amongst other things) and in particular Johann Djourou and Philippe Senderos. In his autobiography the husband of that the X-Factor judge talked about how Senderos had disrespected Keown, something which Keown claims to have no knowledge of. Of the prospects of Senderos making it at Arsenal, he says:

With regards to Philippe, it&rsquo;s an interesting question. If he has been able to learn from his loan move and if he is given another chance, he&rsquo;s only going to be better. The thing with Philippe is he needs to learn the game. He&rsquo;s a highly intelligent individual but at times he&rsquo;s made elementary mistakes on the pitch. Football intelligence is a different experience to that off-field. What will be fascinating to see is whether he has improved those elements that he needed to.

At the moment we don't know where he'll end up this summer. He could easily stay but I'm told he does have offers from other clubs. I suppose the decision will be made when we see what other movement there is in terms of our centre-halves.
On Djourou Keown says:

Johan is at the crossroads now. He has to start becoming a first team player. He&rsquo;ll want that, he&rsquo;s a big strong lad and more than capable with the attributes to make it. He just has to put a game together. Arsene has lots of confidence in him, but injuries have taken their toll recently. If he can iron out the niggly injuries, he&rsquo;ll turn from a teenager into a man. His career is in his hands and he&rsquo;ll be desperate to get in that side for pre-season.

Interesting stuff and maybe one of the things we overlook with the two Swiss is how young they both still are in the lives of a centre-half. Maybe there's too much water under the bridge for Senderos to resurrect his Arsenal career now - Djourou still has time but definitely needs to step it up a bit for the season ahead.
Other vaguely interesting centre-half news is that Fulham's Brede Hangeland has rejected a new contract with the club after insisting all along he was happy to stay there. We've been linked with him fairly solidly for the last 6 months so perhaps, and I stress perhaps, this is a sign there might be something going on.
Gunnerblog reckons Arsene won't pay 21.5m for Felipe Melo. I can understand that, it'd smash our transfer record by a considerable distance, even if you included someone like Eboue as part of the deal. Unfortunately though the reality of the transfer market this summer is that it hasn't been hit by the recession and we're living in a world where Antonio Valencia costs 18m. Why wouldn't Fiorentina expect at least that kind of money from Melo?
St Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi says he's leaving his current club and wants to play for Arsenal. He says:

Playing for Arsenal would be fantastic but I can&rsquo;t say anything about that yet. Everyone knows their wonderful style of football.

Why do football people always talk about something then say 'I can't talk about that'? Weirdos.
Fabio Capello digs Arsenal's academy. It makes him excited about the future of the England team. Which is good. For him. I suppose.
And that's about it for now but around lunchtime I'll be posting an exclusive interview with Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis in which he talks about how his move to Arsenal took place, the challenges facing the club on and off the pitch, our team, the goals for the season ahead and lots more. Check back around lunchtime for that.
Till then take it easy.

]]></description>
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          <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:05:45 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Posted by Aaron WheelerWe've all been in difficult interview situations - you get a hard question and go on and on and on without giving a solid answer. In our realm, though, there are some SEO best practices that are so well established that everyone should know and be able to describe them to other people. If you're a business looking to hire an SEO (in-house, contractor, or otherwise), there's no better way to gauge an SEO's abilities than to ask them about basic SEO definitions and strategies. Similarly, SEOs looking for work should be prepared for a comprehensive interview that tests both their knowledge and their creative abilities. In this week's Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about some of the questions that might come up in interviews for SEO positions and how to answer them (as well as discussing why interviewees should ask these questions). Have a good question for interviewers? 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Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're talking about SEO interview questions, how there are a lot of times in your professional life when you're going to be either interviewing someone who might be working with you on an SEO team inside your company, who might be contracting for you, perhaps a consultant, you're interview someone, you're the CMO or the VP of marketing and you want to know who all these SEO people know their stuff. It can actually be kind of tough to know what questions to ask unless you've got some background experience. Likewise if you are someone who might be interviewing for an SEO position, if you're someone who is a consultant and might be talking to some clients and you want to be prepared for the questions that they're going to throw at you, this Whiteboard Friday is for you.  So in the SEO interview process, the questions that I would ask, these are very SEO specific ones. So in every interview, particularly when you're bringing someone on to your team, you're going to asking questions about cultural fit and background and their biography, like what have they done in their past. Are they going to be a good fit for your team? Are they going to be able to handle the responsibilities? Does their work/life balance work with sort of organization you've got? I'm not going to talk about that stuff. I am going to talk about the very specific knowledge kinds of things that you want to use with an SEO or that you want to be prepared for as an SEO when you're going into these types of discussions.  So the first general section, the section that I start with is general knowledge. This is a great way to feel out whether someone is comfortable and capable. I would use these, honestly if we were doing this, I would be using these on phone screens or maybe even in the interview process, like right in the form field just to get a sense, like, "Does this person have a good sense of SEO? Do they know things like, what's a rel=canonical? What does it do? How does it work? How do search engines treat the meta refresh? What's an image title versus an alt attribute?" So you've got different properties of a particular graphic or an image, and you want to know that the SEO person understands. "Yeah, I know that image title describes the image, but it isn't necessarily being used by search engines to the same degree that the alt attribute is. It doesn't show up when you hover in Firefox. It's not going to become the image label in Google image search, those kinds of things, versus the alt attribute that gets used as anchor text when the image links off to somewhere. So those kinds of things.  You might even have a question like, "How do you remove personalization from search results?" What you want to see is somebody goes, "Oh, yeah, yeah, it's google.com/search?Q=whatever the search term is @pws=0." You find someone who can write off search strings and tell you, "How do I change the country language code?" "Well, you just add in @gl=uk. To get the UK or 'us' to get the US." You want to see that sort of knowledge that indicates that they're really deep into the process of doing SEO. They live and breathe this stuff. They know it like the back of their hand. That's what you want to see from an SEO, and this general knowledge section is a great way to get a sense of that.  Now next up, I like to get a little deeper and understand a person's thought process and be able to explain your thought process to somebody else. That's why we have a section on strategy and tactics. So this is asking questions that will elicit a response that indicates to you how well this person can really do the functions of SEO. A lot of this general knowledge stuff they should have a good background, but if they miss a few of these questions, it's fine. They can always go learn them. They can go look them up. They'll figure it out, it's okay. But you really want to know things like, "Do they understand how to run a keyword research campaign? Do they understand how to run link building? Do they understand what's involved in a content strategy? What does that mean? It doesn't just mean a blog, does it?" It's all sorts of different things.  So I like asking broad questions like, "How would you create a site to rank for give them a keyword or a set of keywords?" Like, "I am getting into the men's fashion industry. Just imagine for me, brainstorm with me a site that's going to perform really well in men's fashion." And if you hear things like, "Well, I would like to build a site that naturally incents lots of creators, lots of designers of clothing, and lots of brands to put their stuff on our site. So it will be a big important site where lots of people will come to. They'll put their stuff up and they'll essentially promote it for us, but we have a lot of unique form fields and unique content that they have to fill out so that the content itself is unique and it doesn't just look like the manufacturer's suggested description across everything else, because we don't want to have duplicate content problems." That's shows some level of depth in terms of thinking. It gives you a sense of how they'll tackle problems.  You can ask questions like, "What are some of your favorite scalable link building tactics?" And if they say something like, "Well, I really like contacting webmasters." No, like, "Nope, you're clearly missing this word scalable and also probably favorite, because nobody really likes contacting webmasters." That's the least fun part the SEO's link building job. But if they say things like, "Well, I really like building up popular social accounts," or, "I like running a blog and building up content to attract a community," those are pretty good answers. If they say things like, "I really think that content syndication or image licensing or badges and embeddable widgets is a great link building strategy that's scalable," those are great answers. You want to hear that kind of stuff.  "How would you get video content into Google?" More of a tactical question, but it gives you a sense of some of the knowledge and then how they do it. So if you hear a question like that and the person gives you a response and they say, "Well, Google has this video protocol." All right, they do, Google does have a video protocol. But what you really want to hear is, "Oh, it's great! What I like to do is make content using YouTube or Wistia or Vimeo," or whatever it is, whatever their preferred video hosting service of choice is and let them tell you why that is, "and then embed it on our pages and we use the video XML sitemaps feed to send to Google so that appears as rich snippets in the search results." Perfect, this person clearly understands the tactical knowledge, and maybe they don't even know how to craft it. I don't know how to write a video XML sitemap. I couldn't start writing you the protocols from scratch, but I can go find it online and copy what Google suggests it needs to be. I just need to have the knowledge of how to do that.  So that strategy and tactics section, also really important.  Last up. I do like to ask about some tools and metrics because this can give you a great sense of both an SEO's depth as well as they way they think about a lot of problems. Because the field of SEO, granted, is some art, some science, and a lot of research and learning and trying new things, the tools and metrics, the statistics that we use, the correlation data kinds of things, the link data that comes out of Yahoo Site Explorer, or Bing Webmaster tools, or the Google link command, or Exalead, or Majestic SEO, or SEOmoz, you want to know that they've got a good grasp on, "Oh, here's all the ways that I could potentially get that data and here's why I like this one and I don't like this one. I like the Bing or the MSN Ad Center or the keyword tool. I don't like the Google keyword tool. I really don't like some keyword tool here, but I think Keyword Spy's great or SpyFu is awesome," or whatever it is. And you want to know, not just what those tools are, but how do they evaluate them.  That gives you a really good sense for how that person thinks about problems, how they're going to attack things, whether they're a critical thinker or whether they just take things on face value, which in the SEO world is not a great idea. Like even the things that I might be telling you on Whiteboard Fridays, you probably want to verify for yourself. So things like, "What data would you use to use to judge the value of a link?" And you want to hear things like, "Well, I'd try and gets some metrics around how important the domain is, how important that specific page is. I'd try and get some metrics about where is that link going to be placed, what sort anchor text will it use, how many other links are on that page, where do they point to, or they spammy or manipulative, or are they good and authentic?" Those kinds of things. "What tools do you use to measure competitors' keywords and traffic?" And if they tell you, "Well, I really like this SpyFu or KeyCompete, or some of these other ones, Compete.com has a competitive intelligence tool. Hitwise has one, very enterprise level." Hey, yeah, those are good ways to measure keywords.  On the traffic question, if they say, "Well, I really like, Alexa." I'd be like, "You do? Why do you like Alexa? What do you find useful about it?" There are good answers, which is, "Well, for the top 1,000 or 5,000 sites on the Web, Alexa's pretty good at saying what the relative difference is between them." Which is relatively true, most of the time at least. But for those sites in the tail, sites in the midrange, Alexa's terrible. You kind of want to hear, "Well, none of the data sources are particularly excellent, but I like to look at Google Trends for websites, or Compete.com, or I like to look at Quantcast. I like to compare across the set. But I really like to look at maybe how many people are subscribing to their blog through Google Reader. That's a great signal." It's let's you know that person is thinking more deeply about these questions.  "How do you measure social activity on a site?" That's more of a broad based question. Like, "Do you just track tweets? Do you have some sort of an analytics tracking? What do you set up for that? Are you using something simple like a shared count? Do you have a statistics dashboard? Would you be using a Twitter client to be measuring that?" Whatever they've got.  If you ask these questions or you can answer these questions, I think you're going to do a lot to cement a good relationship between things. If you're in SEO right now and you're thinking to yourself, "Boy, I'm not sure I can answer all those questions that Rand had on the board," I mean, these aren't the toughest things that'll get tossed at you at an interview. They shouldn't be definitely. So you might want to spend some time having good answers to these questions, thinking hard about these things, researching them. And likewise, if you're an employer or a contractor and you're trying to find SEO people to work for you, do consulting work, you definitely want to amass a good set of these. I would actually recommend trying to ask relatively consistently again and again with the same people because having that consistency between questions let's you really grade people on the same level. If you change up your questions every time, it can get tough to remember how well a candidate might have done against another one.  All right, everyone. I hope you've enjoyed this addition of Whiteboard Friday. I hope you're going to find some great jobs and some great SEOs, and I look forward to seeing you again next time. Take care. Video transcription by Speechpad.comDo you like this post? Yes No 
    
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/lWGWRGtmpVM/seo-interview-questions-whiteboard-friday]]></link>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Gallo blog, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Corporate responsibility]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:58:43 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[There are some interesting voices around questioning the value of certain corporate responsibility initiatives. Dan McQuillan, and his collection of thoughts on Slideshare, is probably onto something. I showed Dan&#8217;s slides to a friend who has worked in CSR and human rights (for large corporates) for over ten years, who tends to agree&#8230; &#8220;&#8230; especially [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://robgallo.org/2010/03/25/corporate-shmorporate-responsibility/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Twitter / youthworksummit, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[youthworksummit: A quite extraordinary day of planning, filming, meeting new people and generally getting excited. We're all off for a lie down.]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[youthworksummit: A quite extraordinary day of planning, filming, meeting new people and generally getting excited. We're all off for a lie down.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://twitter.com/youthworksummit/statuses/25315480738]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[laphroaig - Twitter Search, Glasgow, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[@Kleaut oooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ramanticus. Doe mij maar een Laphroaig.]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:03:20 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[@Kleaut oooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ramanticus. Doe mij maar een Laphroaig.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://twitter.com/witteflip/statuses/2797648010]]></link>
          <geo:lat>55.8333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-4.25</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Lonely Notes #mashed08, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Lonely Notes #mashed08]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Lonely Notes App at #mashed08]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://researchr.evo42.net/lonelynotes/show/1]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Lonely Notes #mashed08, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[some nice tile...]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[NYC -- some nice description of usernote]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://researchr.evo42.net/lonelynotes/show/2]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Personal and Career Development Articles Store, Brighton, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Continuous Professional Development CPD - There's No Escape!]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:32:12 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Guidance for working professionals on the importance of continuous personal development activities, and an explanation as to why it is now an essential requirement in all professions.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.brightonsbm.com/articlestore2.htm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>50.8284</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.139475</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BCH Blog, Bristol, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Thinking differently without waiting for disaster]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Well. That was pretty exhilarating. We&#8217;ve just had the privilege of spending three days in the Cotswolds with our Expert Advisory Group, laying out the structure of the three worlds that form the basis of our BCH scenarios. We&#8217;ll share more detail about these scenarios in a later post: this is just a short note [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://blog.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/2009/02/27/239/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.45</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.58333</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Chelsea Football Club Blog, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[FA Cup Final: Chelsea 2 - 1 Everton]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:43:32 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Updated Monday, 1 June 09, 10:15 AM
Match reports
The Observer, Paul Wilson: "This is the first trophy Chelsea have won since Jose Mourinho signed off his silverware account with victory against Manchester United here two years ago, and as the outstanding Florent Malouda was unlucky to be denied a third goal with a shot that bounced down from the crossbar and over the line, there was no case for arguing that they were not worthy winners."
Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: "Yellow was the colour at a brilliantly sunny Wembley yesterday as Chelsea, in their second strip, deservedly won the FA Cup after the shock of conceding the fastest goal in the 137-year history of the final. Louis Saha's stunning effort after 25 seconds was the high point of the afternoon for Everton by a long way, one that they rarely threatened to approach. Chelsea were level within 20 minutes through Didier Drogba's header, and Frank Lampard, second only to Florent Malouda as their leading performer, won an enjoyable game that would almost certainly have touched headier heights were it not for the debilitating heat."
Sunday Telegraph, Duncan White: "Even in triumph he was modest, dignified. Having climbed the 107 steps, Guus Hiddink seemed almost reluctant to lift the trophy, but ushered on by Ray Wilkins he took the adulation of the Chelsea support, a flourish that brought to a glorious end a whirlwind affair between the Dutchman and this club. Once he got going though, amid the champagne spray, the emotions poured out and the wise man of world football celebrated with childish enthusiasm. &ldquo;He's a great manager and a great man," said Frank Lampard, who scored the spectacular winning goal. "It's a great send-off for him and we're delighted to give him a trophy.&rdquo;"
Sunday Times, Jonathan Northcroft: "[Hiddink's] parting gift ensured he will forever be cherished by the club of which he has been temporary manager since February. Not only is the FA Cup football&rsquo;s most holy hunk of silverware, this was Chelsea&rsquo;s first trophy since Jose Mourinho and perhaps now they can finally move on from the Portuguese demagogue whose shadow was such his 2007 dismissal was still being picked over on newspaper back pages yesterday."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Andy Jones: "Having fallen behind inside half a minute, it required goals in either half from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard to seal the club's first silverware in two years. It was the perfect way to wave goodbye to Guus Hiddink, who has overseen such a fantastic turnaround since his arrival in February."
The goals
1' Saha 0-1
21' Drogba 1-1
72' Lampard 2-1
The preamble
I got myself into a tizzy again. These big matches play havoc with my emotions; by the time kick-off arrived I was a ball of nervous tension and feeling a bit sick. Normally, I would dose up on ice-cold lager to calm things down somewhat, particularly on a hot day like yesterday, but on this occasion I chose not to and watched the game stone cold sober.
My emotions were such that the London Community Gospel Choir's rendition of 'Abide With Me' brought tears to my eyes, and the singing of the national anthem made the hairs on my arms stand on end. Maybe pills are the answer. Kick-off was a blessed relief.
The relief lasted all of 24 seconds.
The good

	The match and performance. Over half a billion people around the world watched the game live on television. They were served up quite a treat. In temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, both teams played their part in a splendid game of football. It started with the fastest goal in FA Cup final history, which eclipsed Di Matteo's strike against Boro in 1997 by a full 17 seconds. Everton kicked off, the ball was pinged into our box, Mikel defended it reasonably well, but Alex was out-jumped by a giant with an afro wearing an Everton shirt. It fell nicely to Saha, who volleyed a fine left foot shot past a despairing Cech who could do little about it as the ball came from behind a couple of his own defenders and he didn't see it until it was too late. There were 25 seconds on the clock. Our worst nightmare had come true: Everton had scored early. You can imagine what this did to my delicate constitution. I consoled myself with the thought that at least we have 89 minutes and 35 seconds to score an equalizer. We went on to dominate the first half with every Chelsea player putting in a fine performance. Just after the 20 minute mark our French contingent made their mark. Anelka swept a lovely cross-field pass to the player formerly known as Malouda out on the left, who, along with Cole, had the beating of Everton's right throughout the opening 45 minutes. Malouda knocked in a pinpoint cross, four Everton defenders stood like statues as Drogba jogged into the box and powered a header past a helpless Howard. It was no more than we deserved. We continued to dominate but failed to make our dominance count. After the break, for around 20 minutes the match petered out somewhat, probably because of the heat. One player continued to impress though...
	Ashley Cole. The players' Player of the Year bombed up and down the left wing for 94 minutes without seeming to tire. He spent as much time in Everton's 18 yard box as he did in his own. Quite how he managed it in such testing conditions, god only knows. It was literally a breathtaking performance. He picked up his fifth FA Cup winner's medal, his second with Chelsea, a record in the modern era, and was rightly given the E.ON Man of the Match award. My Man of the Match too, just ahead of...
	Frank Lampard. What a player. As ever he was exceptional. Scored the winner from 22 yards with 20 minutes of the match to go, his 21st goal of the season. According to Soccerbase, it's the sixth season in a row that he's scored 20 or more goals. 2008/09: 21; 2007/08: 22; 2006/07: 22; 2005/06: 23; 2004/05: 22; 2003/04: 20. 130 goals in just six seasons. From midfield. What a player. Neville man-marked him for 94 minutes, but he hardly had an impact on Lampard's all action performance. As the Telegraph match report says, "he has played with metronomic excellence in a season when Chelsea have often lacked stability". His goal celebration mirrored that of his father's, Frank Lampard Sr., who scored the winning goal for West Ham against Everton in the 1980 FA Cup semi-final. Definitely my Player of the Season.
	Florent Malouda. What else is there left to say about the resurgence of a player who was derided by fans just three months ago? Scored a goal which was not unlike Di Matteo's, only on this occasion it wasn't given because the ball spun out of the goal after hitting the underside of the bar. TV replays confirmed that it was clearly over the line. Fortunately, the fact that it wasn't given didn't have an impact on the outcome of the match so there's unlikely to be much said about goal line technology. But it is about time the windbags at FIFA and UEFA came up with a solution to a problem that's never going away. One day it will decide a major final and cost a team silverware. Malouda would probably have edged out Cole and Lampard and been my Man of the Match if the goal had been given.
	Guus Hiddink. One of the best.


The bad

	I can think of only one bad point: this was Guus Hiddink's final match in charge of Chelsea FC. He made quite an impression on me, so much so that I had tears in my eyes when he and Ray Wilkins lifted the Cup together. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I now hold him in the same esteem as Jose Mourinho. It's typical of Chelsea that we find another special manager only to let him depart the club after just three short months. But it says so much about Hiddink that he's unwilling to break his contract with the Russian national side. He's a rare breed. And will be a hard act to follow.


Player ratings

	Petr Cech - 6.5/10 - Had very little to do. Spilled a couple of high balls, as is his wont these days, but also showed bravery to come and claim at the feet of Everton players on more than one occasion. Had an up and down season to say the least, but I wouldn't swap him for anyone. I'm with Tony when he says that Cech just needs a decent understudy to keep the pressure on him. We've been linked with a couple of promising up and coming keepers, but will they want to play second fiddle to Cech? One last word on keepers: you have to feel for Carlo Cudicini, who started the season as number two to Cech. He's gone from a club where he was adored to a nobody at some second-rate outfit in north London, no doubt on the promise of first team football. Poor Carlo.
	Jose Bosingwa - 7/10 - Got forward well and put in several dangerous crosses. Plays with a nonchalance that gives me kittens - I can often be heard mumbling something derogatory after he's played himself or a team-mate into trouble with a sloppy pass or dilly-dallied once too often. That said, he's a fine attacking full-back (with the emphasis on attacking) and provides the width down the right. Had a pretty good season. Scored a couple of good goals too. The emergence of Ivanovic will ensure he won't have everything his own way next season. It'll be interesting to see what our new manager makes of him.
	John Terry - 8/10 - Another rock solid performance at the heart of the back four. Dealt with Everton's long balls up to Fellaini and Cahill with relative ease. A pretty good campaign all said, and as Habs wrote in the Sunderland report, Terry played more games this season than any other since Mourinho&rsquo;s first. I don't think it matters what Makelele says in his new autobiography about Terry's role in Mourinho's departure, Terry is Chelsea to the core and will always be held in the highest esteem by the fans.
	Alex - 7/10 - Looked nervous in the tunnel before kick-off, at one point yawning on camera. Was out-jumped by Fellaini in the opening moments which led to Everton's goal. Other than that, pretty steady stuff. He's had a fine season and scored a couple of fine goals. You could see the affection Hiddink has for him during the on-field celebrations when he was embraced numerous times by the Dutchman. Could well be a first choice centre-back next season if Carvalho continues to suffer from injuries. Did anyone see Carvalho during the celebrations?
	Ashley Cole - 9/10 - Awesome game, awesome season. The players recognised his contribution when they voted him their Player of the Season. Picked up his fifth FA Cup winner's medal. Cole and Malouda on current form are a formidable pairing.
	John Obi Mikel - 8/10 - Got the nod ahead of Ballack and didn't disappoint. On his day he's one of the best in the holding midfield role. Ended the season as he started it. At one point he was being talked of as our Player of the Season, but the return of Essien from long-term injury and a brush with the law saw his form dip a bit and he was forced to sit out a few games. Came back strong though and has a bright future at the club. Some newspapers claim he's wanted by several of Europe's top clubs, while others have him close to signing a new contract. He's one for the future and should be kept at all costs.
	Michael Essien - 6.5/10 - A tad disappointing by his high standards. Substituted after an hour. As for his season, he missed most of it with a serious knee injury but made an immediate impact on his return in March. Highlights must be his marking job on Steven Gerrard in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final at Anfield, and the wonder goal he scored against Barcelona in the second leg of the semi-final at the Bridge. Destined to become a Chelsea legend.
	Frank Lampard - 9/10 - Already a Chelsea legend. Made light of his man-marker and sprayed passes for fun. Tackled back, marshalled midfield, and scored a 20 yard screamer. Should have had a penalty but was instead booked for diving by Howard 'Best Referee in England' Webb (Webb isn't even the best referee in the Premier League). Scored 20 goals from midfield for the sixth season in a row. Player of the Season. Player of the Decade. Soon to be the Best Player of All Time. Sorry, Franco.
	Florent Malouda - 8.5/10 - Continued in the rich vein of form he's been in since Hiddink's arrival. Gave Everton's right side a torrid time, particularly Hibbert who didn't emerge for the second half such was Malouda's dominance. Provided a pinpoint cross for Drogba to head the equalizer. Had a quiet opening to the second period but was soon back in the game. Scored with a blistering left foot shot from all of 30 yards but it wasn't given even though the ball landed over the line. Started the season poorly and it wasn't until the arrival of Hiddink in February that he began to show any sort of form. If he can maintain that form going into next season, he'll be one of the best left-sided midfielders in the country. I'm glad we nicked him from under Liverpool's noses now. We have Drogba to thank for that.
	Nicolas Anelka - 8.5/10 - Should have equalled Ronaldo's tally of goals in all competitions this season. Had several opportunities to do so but didn't have his shooting boots on. Other than that, he was magnificent. Played out wide, cut inside, held the ball up, went on explosive runs - all that was missing was a goal. Has had a fine season and ended up winning the Golden Boot despite a recent dry spell. One of the best finishers in the league and deserves a chance to play the main striker for an extended period next season.
	Didier Drogba - 7.5/10 - Great goal and fewer theatrics than usual. Let himself down in the first half when a nothing tackle saw him remain on the ground for an extended period, much to Hiddink's annoyance. Soon perked up when Hiddink hollered at him from the sidelines - didn't want to be substituted for a second time after feigning injury. His season has been typical Drogba: he didn't try under Scolari but has been immense since Hiddink's arrival. He's been a better all round footballer since his outburst after the loss to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, there have been fewer dives and his behaviour has been close to exemplary. If only he would do this all the time, he'd be one of the greats.


Man of the Match
It was quite a tough decision, a straight fight between Cole and Lampard with Malouda a close third. I would normally give it to Lampard, because of the impact a goal has on a game, especially one from 20 yards to win it. But on this occasion I'm giving it to Cole for what was an outstanding display of attacking full-back play, and for winning his fifth FA Cup winner's medal.

Final thoughts
That's it, another season over. It's flown by. It seems like only yesterday that a sun-drenched Stamford Bridge was treated to a display of samba football as Luiz Felipe Scolari got his stint as Chelsea manager off to a stylish and promising start. Portsmouth were the victims that day, but little did we know that by the time of the return fixture at Frattan Park in March Big Phil would be all but a distant memory. A lot happened in the intervening six months or so, but it can be summed up thus: gradual decline. February, and we looked a shadow of the team that had started the season so brightly. Scolari had revealed himself to be a one-dimensional manager with little or no Plan B, and there were stirrings of discontent from within the changing room. There were even stories that the players had been requesting a harder training regime, which gave an indication of just how bad things had got. But despite this most fans seemed willing to give him more time to build his own team. It wasn't to be: the club fired Scolari a few days into February. There was quite a lot of shock and disbelief amongst supporters on hearing the news, probably because of the timing. Many of us thought, myself included, that the lunatics had finally taken over the asylum. How wrong we were.
Just two days later the club appointed Guus Hiddink. Hiddink had an immediate impact and revitalised the club and the players, particularly Drogba and Malouda: both have been immense since his arrival, which says a lot for his man management skills. A little over three months and just one defeat later, Hiddink has delivered the club a trophy, its first since the departure of Mourinho two years ago. It could so easily have been two but for a certain Norwegian referee. In his brief spell at the club, he has guided us to 16 wins, five draws, and just the one defeat. We scored seven goals against Liverpool over two legs in the Champions League quarter-final, put four past Arsenal at the Emirates, held Barcelona to two draws home and away in the Champions League semi-final, knocked Juventus out of the Champions League, and pushed Liverpool and Manchester United all the way in the Premier League. But his most important achievement has been to guide the club out of the shadow of Jose Mourinho. Now that we have the FA Cup in the trophy cabinet we can finally move on.
Hiddink's already left the club. He's on his way back to Russia to watch the Russian Cup Final before taking charge of the national team for a World Cup Qualifier in 10 days' time. He'll be missed.
Thank you, Guus. It's been emotional.
Related links

	Reaction: Nearly perfect, very emotional


Update Monday, 1 June 09, 10:15 AM: Ancelotti confirmed as manager
Carlo Ancelotti is the new Chelsea manager. He has signed a three-year contract and will start on July 1st.

]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/chelseablog/~3/XWOH47E3oPA/fa-cup-final-chelsea-2---1-everton]]></link>
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          <author><![CDATA[Oliver Steeds, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Living with the Machigenga: Questions answered&#8230;]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[And a few from the Kombai and Mek&#8230; Well sorry it has taken a while to collate all your questions and answer them all - but for good and bad - here are some answers&#8230;cant begin to thank everyone who has taken the time to watch the show and write on this blog-thing&#8230; here goes&#8230;]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://oliversteeds.com/2009/04/03/living-with-the-machigenga-questions-answered/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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          <author><![CDATA[Pink News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[New York Democrats refuse to give in on gay marriage]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:58:43 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A power struggle between Democrats in the New York State Senate that at one point threatened the party's commitment to gay marriage continues.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9819.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Ektopia, Ipswich, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[New Futura Prints]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:03:57 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[KRUNK are set to release two new prints by one of my all time favourite artists, Futura and Hang Up Pictures are working alongside them to release numbers 75 to 100 of each. These don&#8217;t sound like any ordinary screen-prints either -
These highly textured, hand-pulled editions exemplify the potential of modern fine art printmaking - [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.ektopia.co.uk/ektopia/archives/2008/12/10/new-futura-prints]]></link>
          <geo:lat>52.0833</geo:lat>
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          <title><![CDATA[How To Dance to Dubstep]]></title>
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          <pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
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          <link><![CDATA[http://feeds.timesonline.co.uk/c/32313/f/440134/s/58fa703/l/0L0Stimesonline0O0Ctol0Cnews0Cworld0Carticle6740A0A840Bece0Tcid0FOTC0ERSS0Gattr0F20A15164/story01.htm]]></link>
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          <author><![CDATA[Nature - issue, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Abstractions]]></title>
          <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:05:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[First authorHave you ever noticed that when you buy, say, a red convertible, every other car on the road suddenly seems to be a red convertible? According to findings by Marius Peelen and his colleagues in the psychology department of Princeton University in New]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/7251009b]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC - Weather Centre - Forecast for Bristol, United Kingdom, Bristol, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Sunday: foggy, Max Temp: 17&#xB0;C (63&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 7&#xB0;C (45&#xB0;F)]]></title>
          <pubDate>Sun, 28 Sep 2008 08:40:16 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Max Temp: 17&#xB0;C (63&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 7&#xB0;C (45&#xB0;F), Wind Direction: SW, Wind Speed: 6mph, Visibility: very poor, Pressure: 1027mb, Humidity: 59%, 

UV risk: low, 


Pollution: low, 

Sunrise: 07:05BST, Sunset: 18:56BST]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1263]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.45</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.58333</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Live Brum: Rock &amp; Pop Events, Birmingham, United Kingdom]]></author>
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          <geo:lat>52.4667</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-1.91667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[New Scientist - Physics-Math, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Law of hurricane power discovered]]></title>
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          <link><![CDATA[http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/424049/s/bd9b88a/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn191570Elaw0Eof0Ehurricane0Epower0Ediscovered0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fphysics0Emath/story01.htm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC News: Millennium Development Goals, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Sacrificing Millennium Goals would be a real crisis]]></title>
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          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/news/int/search/news%2Bsport/mdg/-/2/hi/science/nature/7621507.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Soccer Videos on GoalVideoZ!, Londonderry County Borough, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Osasuna vs Real Madrid 0-1 Goal By Gonzalo Higuain 2009-05-31]]></title>
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          <description><![CDATA[Gonzalo Higuain - Osasuna vs Real Madrid 0-1 Goal By Gonzalo Higuain 2009-05-31...]]></description>
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          <geo:lat>55</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-7.33333</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[talqualmente, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Contos de Machado voltam a ser traduzidos depois de 30 anos]]></title>
          <pubDate>Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:52:28 +0000</pubDate>
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Machado escreveu cerca de [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://talqualmente.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/contos-de-machado-voltam-a-ser-traduzidos-depois-de-30-anos/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Forecast for Brighton, United Kingdom, Brighton, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Sunday: sunny, Max Temp: 24&#xB0;C (75&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 18&#xB0;C (64&#xB0;F)]]></title>
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          <description><![CDATA[Max Temp: 24&#xB0;C (75&#xB0;F), Min Temp: 18&#xB0;C (64&#xB0;F), Wind Direction: S, Wind Speed: 14mph, Visibility: moderate, Pressure: 1016mB, Humidity: 57%, UV risk: moderate, Pollution: low, Sunrise: 06:01BST, Sunset: 20:04BST]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2132]]></link>
          <geo:lat>50.8284</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.139475</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Peterborough Today - News, Peterborough, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Emotional moment as teacher is cleared of rape]]></title>
          <pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Friends and relatives of a former teacher accused of rape wept with relief in court on Friday as he was cleared of the charge by a jury.]]></description>
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          <geo:lat>52.5833</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.25</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Oliver Steeds, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
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          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Crooked Tongues Quick News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Solebox NB 1500 @ FP]]></title>
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          <description><![CDATA[If you want to pick up the latest SB colab with NB then head down to FP  tomorrow AM......]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.crookedtongues.com]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[The Yogscast, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
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          <pubDate>Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:47:20 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A delicious sausage made up of random bits of leftovers from this year! Hurray :D]]></description>
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          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[BBC Arabic News | الصفحة الرئيسية, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
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          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Jemjabella.co.uk; Reviews, Articles and Opinions, Telford, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[6 Dollar Layout]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:29:53 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[After much nagging and one amusing &#8212; and wholly accurate &#8212; unrequested review I finally decided to get off my arse and finish changing my layout, something that has been on the cards for months.
However, failed design after failed design led to much frustration. In my weakened, feeble state I decided that spending hours of an evening in front of Photoshop was simply not an option I wished to continue playing with. Instead, I resorted to the dreaded option of downloading a template (*gag* / *vomit* / etc). I bought the BLOG THEME GREEN PSD (descriptive name, I know) and did some heavy tweaking to make it look more Jem-esque (the irony being I spent more time tweaking this than I did creating my previous layout.)
Credit for the cheesy comment icon goes to DryIcons, the ninja to IconBuffet (as usual) and of course, the base layout 'iMike'... and I'm sorry for doing this to your lovely design.
At this point the only tasks left are to style the comments (in progress), and to liven up the dreaded sub-navigation (see the sidebar on any of my main sections). The latter of which I'm all out of ideas for and therefore welcome input from all of the design geniuses that read my blog.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jemjabella/~3/zkMd1xgoB6s/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>52.6333</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.5</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[Protean, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[SSIS - The script task junkie!]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:55:11 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[The script task in SSIS was a fantastic improvement on DTS Active X script. The reasons for this in my view are 2 fold:-


Firstly, by allowing the user to code in Visual Studio it is far easier to develop and debug. Because the developer can make use of intellisense &#038; object explorer, it means even [...]
 
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/proteanit/feed/~3/5uvmV7ZVNwk/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Protean, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Software you can&#8217;t do without?]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:55:11 +0000</pubDate>
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Whilst I&#8217;m a fan of open source technology, frequently it has left me cold. [...]]]></description>
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          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[bfish.xaedalus.net, Wokingham, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[binocular football]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:27:35 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Funniest thing I have seen all day. I wonder how many got a nice close up view of the sun.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=305]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.4167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.833333</geo:long>
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          <author><![CDATA[SSRadio, Maidenhead, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[The Good Groove 22.12.08]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Intro - &quot;Mrs&quot;
Clem Curtis - &quot;Need Your Love (Dub)&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1979) [RCA]
Crashers - &quot;Skank&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1981) [Capo Disco]
Gepi &amp; Gepi - &quot;Body To Body&quot; (Body To Body LP 1979) [Baby Records]
Musique - &quot;Summer Love&quot; (Keep On Jumpin&#039; LP 1978) [Prelude Records]
David Shire - &quot;Manhattan Skyline&quot; (Saturday Night Fever LP 1977) [RSO Records]
Jack Jones - &quot;Wives &amp; Lovers (Disco Version)&quot; (Nobody Does It Better LP 1979) [Polydor]
Milton Hamilton Crystalized - &quot;So Beautiful&quot; (Disco Madness LP 1976) [Disko Mania]
Flower - &quot;Classical Love&quot; (Heat LP 1979) [MCA]
Al Hudson &amp; The Partners - &quot;Rock&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1979) [MCA]
Ingram - &quot;Dj&#039;s Delight&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1983) [Streetwave]
Transmission - &quot;Mystery Lady&quot; (Great Collectors VOL 5) [Boogie-Times]
Valentine Brothers - &quot;Computer Boogie&quot; (Have A Good Time LP 1984) [A&amp;M Records]
Junei - &quot;Let&#039;s Ride&quot; (Original 7&quot; 1987) [Pharaohs Records]
Tourist - &quot;Hooked On You&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1986) [Reelin&#039; &amp; Rockin&#039; Records]
Twilight 22 - &quot;Mysterious&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1984) [Vanguard]
Ian Foster - &quot;Out For The Count&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1987) [MCA]
Freddie James - &quot;Dance To The Beat&quot; (Freddie James LP 1981) [Black Sun]
Mystic Touch - &quot;Get Myself Together&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1980) [Champagne Records]
Savanna - &quot;Never Let You Go&quot; (Original 12&quot; 1982) [R&amp;B Records]
Slave - &quot;Steal Your Heart&quot; (Show Time LP 1981) [Cotillion Records]
Derek B - &quot;Chillin&#039; With Santa&quot; (Christmas Rap LP 1987) [Profile Records]


    
Victor P MySpace Page :: Get To Know The Man & The Record Collection!
    

    
The Funky End :: See When Im Playing Next In Aldershot&#039;s No:1 Bar!
    

    
The Square Bar :: See When Im Playing Next In Camberley&#039;s Funkiest Bar!
    

    
SoulHouse :: Official SoulHouse Facebook Page
    

    
70&#039;s & 80&#039;s Soul, Funk, Disco, Rare Groove & Boogie - We Love it! :: Join The Facebook Group.
    

    

File Download (119:54 min / 110 MB)]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.ssradiouk.com/index.php?id=8230]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.7</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Cheap Mobile Phone Shop, Cheap Mobile Phone Deals, Cheap Uk Mobi, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Cheap Lg Chocolate Mobile Phones - Cheap Mobile Phone Shop, Cheap Lg Chocolate Mobile Phone, Cheap Mobile Phone Deals]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:25:51 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Cheap Mobile Shop Offers - Cheap Mobile Phone Shop, Cheap Lg Chocolate Mobile Phone, Cheap Mobile Phone Deals, Lg Chocolate Mobile Phone Shop, Latest Lg Mobile Phone, Lg Mobile Phone, Buy Lg Mobile Phones Online, Buy Lg Chocolate Mobile Phones On Cheap Deals From And 12/18 Month Contract From Cheap Mobile Shop, Cheap Uk Mobile Phones Shop.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.cheap-mobile-shop.co.uk/lg/lg-chocolate.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Guardain Unlimited Art, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Africa as you've never seen it]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:25:52 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Sean O'Hagan on the work of Pieter Hugo, a young South African photographer causing a stir]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/photography/story/0,,2291827,00.html?gusrc=rss&amp;feed=40]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[24dash.com RSS feed, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Hells Kitchen raises £21,000 for local childrens charity]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:35:51 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[A group of company directors were thrown in at the deep end in Norwich recently when they were given just 30 hours to plan, cater for and deliver a banquet at The Assembly House to raise money for local charity East Anglia Children&rsquo;s Hospice (EACH). Guests were treated to a four-course gourmet meal with entertainment before being asked to pay what they thought the evening was worth, in the style of the Hell&rsquo;s Kitchen TV show.  The 33 directors from Kier Support Services, who had no...]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2009-12-21-Hell-s-Kitchen-raises-21-000-for-local-children-s-charity]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Romantic Getaways and Luxury Romantic Holiday Destinations, Manchester, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Raffles Konottaa Maldives]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:45:55 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Set on the pristine Gaafu Dhaal in southern Maldives is the Raffles Konottaa, ready to welcome you in 2009. Amid sparkling blue lagoons and dazzling white beaches, it presents an inviting refuge of serenity; an exclusive oasis where every convenience is close at hand, yet the world is far away. Where you can indulge in [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.romantic-getaways.co.uk/maldives/raffles-konottaa-maldives/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.21667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC NEWS Have Your Say: Saddam Hussein sentenced to death, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Saddam Hussein sentenced to death]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:06:39 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[I feel moved to share my revulsion at the joy human beings seem to get out of vengeance.  I try to avoid television news so that I don't get images engraved in my head.  But sitting in a hospital waiting room, I saw the bodies of Sadaam Hussein's sons and the barbaric satisfaction shown by some Iraquis and Americans on the screen.  Now we have Sadaam's execution to anticipate... I am sickened and ashamed.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?messageID=1755827&amp;tstart=0#1755827]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[CURRY.COM, Guildford, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[China Hates Garfield the Cat]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:27:28 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Firefox 3.5 rolls out. Get it now. China is filtering out Garfield the Cat. Pirate Bay sale worries some. Dell going into the Android too? Where is the picture of Steve Jobs who is supposedly back at work. Confusion over Comcast 4G, WiMax. Forrester says tech biz bottoms in Q3. Palm Pre beating sales [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://curry.podshow.com/?p=1746]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.2167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.566667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[4barsrest.com, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[4BR Money List]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:06:09 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Black Dyke head the winnings list after their Preston victory.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?id=10106]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Crossfire Latest News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Ladder Match of the week!]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:56:34 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Today, following  Wesbo&#039;s call for ladder resurrection, two brave teams will fight their way out of deepest holes of inactivity in order to climb Clanbase ladder. 

Who are these teams you may ask?

Allstar mix of greatest ET players, former OC champion...]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=news&amp;mode=item&amp;id=5153]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[c h r o m a s i a, Blackpool, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[fly by]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:30:34 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Having written two tutorials on the topic of working with textures (details about part one are here, part two here) I thought it was about time that I posted something that used the techniques. And while I'm reasonably pleased with how this one turned out it would definitely be fair to say that this is a technique that I understand more from a technical point of view than I do from an artistic one; i.e. I can do it, but am still struggling a bit with working out the aesthetics for this type of image. What I can say though is that they're a lot of fun to produce.

If you're interested, the base image is here:

.../archives/fly_by.php

On a related matter: we're currently running a 4th of July special offer on our tutorials and are offering a 25% discount on the first year’s payment of an annual subscription or our lifetime membership package. If you're interested there are some further details here:

http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/archives/0907040823.php]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.8167</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-3.05</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Vitamin, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Ryan Singer on UI design, Frontend Development, Project Management and Inspiration]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:46:22 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[We recently sat down with Ryan Singer, lead designer at 37signals, to ask him several questions that are on web designer&#8217;s minds. He talks about copywriting, being a project manager, frontend development skills, handcoding and where to find inspiration.
What websites do you usually go to for design news, inspirational, or tutorials?
I&#8217;d have to say probably [...]

Related posts:Jim Coudal: Copywriting, Inspiration and Working Farmer HoursLaunch a Business, Not a Side ProjectRedefining Content Management]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vitaminmasterfeed/~3/cr8JlgdtMD4/]]></link>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBCMundo.com | América Latina, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Fidel "no teme" dialogar con EE.UU.]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:07:26 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[El ex presidente cubano elogia el diálogo pero advierte a los países que asistirán a la Cumbre de las Américas.

]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_7984000/7984877.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[videogaming247, Brighton, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Snow cancels new DICE console game showing in UK]]></title>
          <pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:46:43 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[EA&#8217;s confirmed to VG247 that a new, unannounced DICE console game was to be shown in the UK today, but the event has been cancelled thanks to snow.
What is it? We&#8217;ve been told it&#8217;s a new Battlefield, and that an Army of Two sequel was to be shown at the event. EA&#8217;s having none of [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.videogaming247.com/2009/02/02/snow-cancels-new-dice-console-game-showing-in-uk/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>50.8284</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.139475</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Religious Persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[ID: [Presidential] Debate Fails to Tackle Human Rights Issues]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[None of the [Presidential] candidates, for example, touched on the most fundamental human right - the right to freely worship one's God. Our national ideology, Pancasila, enshrines the belief in one God and the right to worship one's God without fear. This is a God-given right, but sadly neither the state nor previous governments have prevented church burnings or the open persecution of the Ahmadiyah sect. - Jakarta Globe, Indonesia]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.thepersecution.org/world/indonesia/09/06/jg18.html]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[One Mick Jones : FOOTBALL : Wrexham, Leeds, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[More 'experience'... in The Bryn Law Stadium  : Wrexham]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Topic: More 'experience'...

Message: I actually think he'll do well for us! Holds the ball up well which we were in sore need of last season. Should be able to play in the likes of Marc Williams &#38; create chances for him, as well as giving Mark Jones something to run onto &#38; hit. Downside is his age but with the right sort of willing runner alongside him, (Marc? New striker?) I think it will work well!]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.onemickjones.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=100228#100228]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.8</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-1.58333</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[digitalspy.co.uk - Digital Media and Entertainment News, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[DeGeneres 'most powerful gay celebrity']]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:08:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is named the most powerful gay celebrity by US publication Out.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a153863/degeneres-most-powerful-gay-celebrity.html?rss]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[The Sun BabelFish Blog, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Peter Sloterdijk, radical cure to twitter]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Do you feel like you are in a binary discussion on some topic, that goes back and forth with no apparent progress? Do you feel you have gotten so involved in a micro topic, that you feel that you may be missing the big picture? Is perhaps the phantasy of such a big picture you have taken as your background, itself the cause of the problem you are dealing with?  Do you find yourself preaching that God is dead, or not? Are you preaching? Why?
Peter Sloterdijk, one of the most famous contemporary German philosopher, is known to write very large books that span over all domains of human activity from philosophy to history, to technology, aesthetics, biology, religion and economics, in a passionate, often humorous, sometimes jolting way, linking these in a fluid narrative that flows healthily through the barriers of all academic disciplines. Sloterdijk diffuses dualisms through fluid depth of analysis, carefully linking both sides of a debate in such a way that they can be seen to be part of the same surface reflecting a third party that had not yet been seen, the real topic of the discussion perhaps, of which he goes on to draw the history and evolution.
So in his latest book "Du mu&#223;t dein Leben &#228;ndern" ("You must change your life"), which I have nearly finished reading here in Vienna, Sloterdijk starts off with the a beautiful poem by Rilke of the same title (english translation with german original here ) where Rilke describes what could be called a religious call for transformation whilst looking at an ancient Greek stone torso of Apollo he had come across in the Louvre museum in Paris. The undeniable reality of this upward sentiment of transformation, is what Sloterdijk then goes on to describe the history of throughout his book, linking it to the exercises that Olympic athletes of our times to always further push back the boundaries of what humanity is capable of, which he then traces back to the budhist philosophers and their spiritual exercises,  the ancient greek schools of thought, and the exercises the early Christians followed to break through the barriers of death, by for example entering the Roman circus' to be devoured calmly by Lions. This pursuit of transcendental improvement can then be found to have moved from the monasteries of the middle ages into the artisans workshops where the practices of meditation were put to use in the building of the Protestant work ethic...

For those who speak German here is a very interesting interview of him in October of last year on a Swiss television channel talking about the financial meltdown that occurred.



(Thanks to Michael Zeltner for the link on his very interesting blog. More parts here).
]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/peter_sloterdijk_radical_cure_to]]></link>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Nature UK, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Something for the weekend: 8 October 2010]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:39:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Guest blogger: Stephen Moss is a series producer at the BBC Natural History Unit and author, with a special interest in British wildlife. Here he begins an occasional series of personal reflections on the the seasonal wildlife in his garden.

Just as all the summer clothes are safely packed away, and the central heating has come on, an Indian Summer has arrived, with temperatures in the low 20s - more like June than October. Great news for the various butterflies and dragonflies feeding in my Somerset garden: hardy autumn insects such as red admirals, which are currently getting drunk on the fermented juice of rotten cider apples strewn across my lawn.
They are so preoccupied with feeding that they hardly notice me as I approach, and I am able to marvel at the extraordinary beauty of what, if they were a bird, I would call their plumage. No other British butterfly shows quite such vibrant contrasts of ebony black, crimson red and white &ndash; and I do wonder whether, if red admirals were as rare as high brown fritillaries or purple emperors, we might appreciate their beauty more!
The other insect enjoying the autumn sunshine in my garden is the common darter dragonfly &ndash; a rhubarb-and-custard bi-plane of an insect, whose males are currently chasing their prospective mates around, in an urgent desire to mate before the frosts set in.


In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.


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Video: David Attenborough on how jays harvest acorns (from Life of Birds)
In the skies above Bristol and Somerset &ndash; and probably above much of the country too, there is a minor invasion. Jays &ndash; those colourful, stocky cousins of the magpie, are bouncing across the blue heavens, occasionally uttering that extraordinary call that sounds like muslin being torn apart.
These are not British jays, but birds from the continent, invading our shores in search of food. Over the coming season they will strip oak trees of acorns, eating some and caching others, to retrieve later in the year when food is scarce. This is how oak trees move uphill, of course.
So as the weather holds this weekend, what better time to head out into the autumnal countryside (or indeed suburbs, city parks and seaside) and look for wildlife&hellip;
Stephen Moss&rsquo;s latest series, Birds Britannia, will be shown on BBC Four from Monday 1st November.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/natureuk/2010/10/something-for-the-weekend-8-oc.shtml]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Total Telecom today's top stories, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Microsoft denies making handset]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:36:50 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Software giant responds to earlier media reports claiming it was preparing to make its own smartphone.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://www.totaltele.com/View.aspx?ID=104649&amp;t=2]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-0.116667</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Navetj Kohli Famous Book Reviews, Kent, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[The Viceroy of Ouidah : Bruce Chatwin]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:14:38 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Navtej Kohli finds that story seems different because having some historical touch with some fiction and having some message which convey   some message. Navtej Kohli also feels that books like case study about African slavery system and political conditions. 
Bruce Chatwin book The Viceroy of Ouidah is a very famous book . It is based [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://nkbookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/the-viceroy-of-ouidah/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.25</geo:lat>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[FriComedy: The News Quiz 05 Jun 2009]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Election and Exodus: Gordon Brown's battle to keep his job, the aftermath of the European elections, and the perils of drunken trampolining get the News Quiz treatment.  Sandi Toksvig presides over team regulars Andy Hamilton, Jeremy Hardy, Sue Perkins and Francis Wheen.  Produced by Victoria Lloyd]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fricomedy/fricomedy_20090605-1850a.mp3]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Flux, Bristol, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Website Blocking: bear hunts, battlefronts and missed opportunities?]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:14:46 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc0U2WAz4s

What you'll hopefully have found is Michael Rosen, possibly the UK's most celebrated children's poet, performing 'We're going on a bear hunt', at your finger tips.  A brilliant opportunity to engage with a crafted performance of a poem, directed at the viewer, with sub-titles to read along with.  A valuable resource, right there in your living room, office, or wherever else you access the internet. But not in your classroom.]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://flux.futurelab.org.uk/2009/07/02/website-blocking-byron-bears-and-missed-opportunities/]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.45</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.58333</geo:long>
      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Pilates Or Stretch For Back Pain, Bolton, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Ease Your Back Pain with Stretching and Pilates]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:18:59 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[There is no reason to suffer from back pain when there is a way to defeat  it. Back pain can be a result of old age, a car accident, having children,  working, or an athletic injury. By using Pilates in combination with a few  stretching techniques, your back pain will become a [...]]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://stretchorpilatesforbackpain.com/wordpress/?p=98]]></link>
          <geo:lat>53.5833</geo:lat>
          <geo:long>-2.43333</geo:long>
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      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[BBC Click, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Saving the planet one gadget at a time]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:17:20 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Spencer Kelly discovers the home energy gadgets that are trying to save the planet - and your money]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9045392.stm]]></link>
          <geo:lat>51.5</geo:lat>
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      </item>

      <item>
          <author><![CDATA[Search Engine Watch RSS Latest, London, United Kingdom]]></author>
          <title><![CDATA[Will Local Make up 70% of Mobile Ad Spending?]]></title>
          <pubDate>Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
          <description><![CDATA[Last week, BIA/Kelsey released its latest forecast, projecting U.S. mobile advertising to grow from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion in 2015. Full disclosure: I am the author of that forecast.


In a past column, we focused on breakdowns in mobi...]]></description>
          <link><![CDATA[http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2083246/Will-Local-Make-up-70-of-Mobile-Ad-Spending]]></link>
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