Africa

Sunderland chief Margaret Byrne is delighted with their growing partners in Africa. read more

Well, this sucked. The Chicago Blackhawks came out with all the fire of an ice cube tonight, stumbling through sixty uninspired minutes of hockey, getting shut out 2-0 in TD Garden to fall behind the Boston Bruins two games to one in the Stanley Cup Final. The Hawks somehow decided the most effective way to challenge Tuukka Rask was by firing 30 and 40 foot shots on net, while the Bruins just lined up three guys in front of Rask, so he didn't really have to work too hard, as 17 Chicago shots were blocked. Let's get to this: THE GOOD: Ben Smith. He had to dress at a moment's notice, in the Stanley Cup Final. He handled it like a veteran. Thank God QStache went with him over Bollig. Perhaps he should have done that in Games 1 & 2, Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Except if you had told me Q was going to dress somebody who hadn't seen game action since the regular season before Game 1, Bollig would have been Plan C to me, behind Smith and Jeremy Morin. Bottom line is, Smith was good tonight. Corey Crawford. This game could have been an absolute curbstomping, but only Crow kept it to the point where the Hawks were within striking distance if they had been able to extricate their heads from their anal orifices. Everyone off the ledge. All the Hawks needed to do in Boston is split. Which they can still do with a win on Wednesday. You'd rather they won the first game in Boston, so they could go into Wednesday night playing with house money, but now it's a must-win. And if you can't pull out a must-win in the Stanley Cup Final, you get to see your Championship shirts and hats get shipped to Africa, it's that simple. THE BAD: Hossa in the locker room instead of on the ice. When you're in the other team's building needing a win, you'd like to do it with all your weapons. Hossa got hit with a shot during warmups, and Smith had to get dressed pronto. Of course, NBC's crack coverage told us that Zdeno Chara tripped during warmups and walked off the ice, but didn't tell anyone about Hossa. Don't you have enough guys there to keep an eye on each team? Michal Handzus. Took ten faceoffs, lost ten faceoffs. In fact, QStache never even sent him for a draw in the third period. -4 CORSI for the game. Man, was he brutal. THE UGLY: The Hawks PP. Instead of "Power Play", maybe this should be "Putrid and Predictable". No, that's stupid. But when the Hawks' biggest advantage over Boston is skating and moving with speed, the wise thing to do when there's one less Bruin on the ice is to...remain as still as possible. Especially when everyone is in the same place, moving the puck in the same direction, and Boston's best defenseman is essentially a human 747, the Bruins will eventually figure it out and start getting some shorthanded breakaways. Like they did tonight. And until the Blackhawks can prove that taking a penalty is actually a penalty and not a two minute breather while the Hawks play with themselves, I would only stop short of be performing on-ice eviscerations if I'm the Bruins. Next up is Game 4 Wednesday night in Boston. Don't hit the panic button just yet. All content copyright 2013 hockeenight.com. Any reproduction or reuse of this material without the written consent of the authors is prohibited.

Drowntown Robbie Morrison, Jim Murray Jonathan Cape Part pulp noir, part sci-fi, featuring a hard and hulking PI, big guns, beautiful girls, sleek, sexy aquabikes, anthropomorphology,and much more, Drowntown could very easily have gone very wrong. I’m sure to some people that line of description will sound pretty wrong in itself. In this first of 3 volumes, Morrison takes an all hands to deck approach, giving the audience the full hand of players involved, the elements in place -and it works. The setting is London futureopolis, but not quite as envisioned. The long-predicted climatic changes have boomed into effect, leaving the world and the capital submerged in water, making roads and cars obsolete, and forcing  the wealthy to retreat to their literal towers to escape from rising waters and the unseemly results of ever increasing human/animal genetic DNA splicing. Money, as ever, lies in patents, properties, politics and weaponry. Morrison gives us a fantastic opening- our, um, hero in danger. Done many a time before yes, but done again here with verve and wit that makes it fresh once more. Up to his neck in mud and water, with guns of various sizes pointed at him, we get the seen-it-all-before, wise-cracking internal monologue of the rather bummy, but richly christened PI, Leo Noriet. As a reader you recognise and side with him instantly- the tough, dubious but ultimately good guy, here in the guise of a looming bearded, Hawaiian shirt wearing frame- less the dashing, loveable rogue, and more the affable, funny guy.  Saved at the last minute by a  human-hyena hybrid of indeterminate will and purpose, Leo is soon reminded of that old addage; nothing comes for free. His mysterious saviour turns out to be in the employ of one Alexandra Bastet, underworld figure,  African leader, object of the West; suspicion and greed. While Alexandra has risen swiftly to power, she remembers nothing from the first 19 years of her life or how she came to find herself in Africa, other than that when she was ‘found’ she spoke with a London accent. Naturally keen to find out what has passed before her enemies do, she hires Leo to find out exactly who she is. Meanwhile, another lady of mysterious origin, bike courier, Gina Cassel finds herself catching the eye of heir-with-a-heart,Vincent Drakenberg, whose father’s company aims to control the weather, humans, hybrids, DNA patents- pretty much everything. And all these erstwhile people, it would appear, are linked in some way; the questions of how and why remain elusive. As I said, Morrison chucks in a whole load of players, but never veers off track; hooking and maintaining the reader’s interest, setting up shop- introducing the various characters, getting plot-lines rolling in a healthy manner, dropping clues, hints, but not giving too much away just yet either. He’s aided and abetted in large part by Jim Murray’s sublime artwork: the way he draws the water is insane: green and murky, with thickness and dirt and heaving swells of movement that you can see. I would really have liked to see more of the world Morrison and Murray have created here, simply because what we do get looks amazing and I’m curious and eager to it built upon. A little more focus and inclusion in terms of the physical effects, changes and minutiae of having a semi-drowned world would be fantastic and hopefully will be expanded on in the upcoming books. I loved Drowntown, and yes, it ticks a multitude of my ‘narrative favourites’ boxes: crime/mystery/sci-fi/interesting worldscape/anthropomorphic characters, but I wouldn’t have loved it if  it was bad, if those things were all jumbled together in a incomprehensible mess. Morrison’s plucking of tropes and scenarios from various genres, mixed with strong original elements really make this a super read; he uses humour, in particular, with finesse, balancing it perfectly- Noiret’s interactions with the

Deep Forest, the brainchild of French musician Eric Mouquet, returns with the new album, Deep Africa, to be released July 9 on BIG3 Records. The globally recognized Grammy award winning group, whose music has often been described as an "ethnic electronica collective," has sold more than 10 million

On Monday morning it was revealed that Tim Connelly, former assistant general manager of the New Orleans Hornets, would be the Denver Nuggets’ new Vice President of Basketball Operations. Not much is known about Connelly at this time in terms of his abilities. Those talents can only be revealed after he has assumed his (somewhat titular) GM position in Denver and made moves that can be analyzed. Here is what we do know about his background… From Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post: Connelly, like Ujiri, is known for his international scouting abilities and has a vast basketball background… “His reputation around the league as a front-office rising star is spot-on,” said Chicago Bulls assistant general manager Brian Hagen, who worked with Connelly in New Orleans. “I think the world of him. He’s a class act who is hard-working, smart and will have a plan and process in place for the Nuggets’ continued success.”… Connelly, 36, joined New Orleans in 2010 after working as the director of player personnel for the Washington Wizards. In New Orleans he worked under Dell Demps. Connelly first got his first NBA experience in 1996, working as an intern for the Wizards. After graduating from Catholic University in Washington D.C. in 1999, he was hired by the Wizards as the assistant video coordinator. He became a scout the following season. From the Nuggets homepage on NBA.com: Connelly, 36, joins the Nuggets front office after three seasons as assistant general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans, where he worked closely with general manager Dell Demps. Connelly’s duties included scouting, draft preparation, trade negotiations and player contracts… Prior to his time in New Orleans, Connelly spent 10 years with the Washington Wizards organization, rising to director of player personnel. His role included overseeing scouting, salary cap and database management, player evaluation and assisting the vice president of player personnel with all front office duties… A native of Baltimore, Connelly began working with the Wizards as an intern in the basketball operations department in 1996 and joined the team full-time as the assistant video coordinator in 1999. He became a full-time scout in 2000 and spent four years in that role before becoming the director of player personnel… Connelly has strong international connections, having traveled globally to identify talent around the world. He currently serves on the board of the GEN Basketball Academy, a Sarajevo-based academy funded by NATO, and has assisted with their youth camps… In addition, Connelly has also worked as an instructor at the NBA’s “Basketball Without Borders” program in Moscow, Russia, last year. His first experience with the program took place in South Africa in 2006. That same summer, he was involved with the Seed Academy in Dakar, Senegal. From Yahoo!Sports.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski: Connelly, 36, has been considered one of the league’s rising young executive stars and will move immediately into the Nuggets’ search for a coach and preparation for the NBA draft and free agency… Nuggets CEO Josh Kroenke plans to work closely with Connelly in reshaping the Nuggets’ front office and building upon a 57-victory team that earned the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs… Connelly is part of a younger generation of league executives moving into top management positions and has been compared favorably to Orlando’s Rob Hennigan and Phoenix’s Ryan McDonough as part of the league’s next crop of bright young minds… After learning that his best internal candidate, Pete D’Alessandro, had left to take the Sacramento Kings GM job late last week, Kroenke targeted Connelly and moved quickly to hire him over the weekend, sources said. And lastly, from Scott Hastings’ Twitter account: Reaction: All signs point to this being a good hire

The advent and continuous expansion of Google Street View has made it possible to explore far off places that we may never be able to visit in person. But where exactly does Google’s reach end? One person deigned to find out. Inspired in part by the online game GeoGuessr, Alan Taylor over at The Atlantic’s In Focus blog set out to find “the ends of the road” — although, in truth, it’s a lot less philosophical than it might sound. What he did was spend some serious time on Google Street View, attempting to find the borders of its coverage. At the top we have the end of Google’s ability to follow the Kaimu-Chain of Craters Road in Hawaii. Over time, lava from eruptions of the Kilauea volcano has covered the road and made it impossible to follow any further. Both the photo above and below show a southernmost point, although one is much better marked than the other. Above we have the southernmost point buoy in Key West, Florida. Below, the southernmost point of Africa — no, not The Cape of Good Hope, though that’s a common misconception — The Cape Agulhas, South Africa. From the south, we go east, to two of the easternmost points on their respective continents. Above is Lighthouse Road, Byron Bay, New South Wales, which is located on Australia’s easternmost shoreline. Below is one of the easternmost points Google has managed to map along Brazil’s Atlantic shoreline. Finally, the last two photos we’ll show you here take you in opposite directions. Above, we have a photo of the Chilkat Range, across Lynn Canal from Juneau, Alaska. This point is about as far north of Juneau as Google (or anyone) can drive. And below is a point about as far south as one can go on the South Island of New Zealand. These are only a few of the pictures that Taylor collected over the course of his digital travels. To see all 26 “ends of the road” for yourself, be sure to follow the link below to the original In Focus article. The Ends of the Road [The Atlantic via kottke.org]

This weekend, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said that more leaks were coming and they “couldn’t be stopped”. Today, The Guardian ran a story based on information from Snowden that the UK GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters), Britain’s NSA, set up extensive electronic surveillance, wiretapping and other espionage directed at Britain’s allies during the 2009 G20 Summit in London. Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic. The revelation comes as Britain prepares to host another summit on Monday – for the G8 nations, all of whom attended the 2009 meetings which were the object of the systematic spying. It is likely to lead to some tension among visiting delegates who will want the prime minister to explain whether they were targets in 2009 and whether the exercise is to be repeated this week. The disclosure raises new questions about the boundaries of surveillance by GCHQ and its American sister organisation, the National Security Agency, whose access to phone records and internet data has been defended as necessary in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. The G20 spying appears to have been organised for the more mundane purpose of securing an advantage in meetings. Named targets include long-standing allies such as South Africa and Turkey. There have often been rumours of this kind of espionage at international conferences, but it is highly unusual for hard evidence to confirm it and spell out the detail. The evidence is contained in documents – classified as top secret – which were uncovered by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and seen by the Guardian. They reveal that during G20 meetings in April and September 2009 GCHQ used what one document calls “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept the communications of visiting delegations. This included: •?Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and key-logging software to spy on delegates’ use of computers; •?Penetrating the security on delegates’ BlackBerrys to monitor their email messages and phone calls; •?Supplying 45 analysts with a live round-the-clock summary of who was phoning who at the summit; •?Targeting the Turkish finance minister and possibly 15 others in his party; •?Receiving reports from an NSA attempt to eavesdrop on the Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev, as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow. The documents suggest that the operation was sanctioned in principle at a senior level in the government of the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, and that intelligence, including briefings for visiting delegates, was passed to British ministers. Via

This summer, Idris Elba sees summer blockbuster action in Pacific Rim, and he just landed a role alongside Javier Bardem and Sean Penn in The Gunman. But later this fall, Elba might be entering awards consideration territory with Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The film from Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) has been in the works ever since Mandela himself granted the rights to his life story to producer Anant Singh fifteen years ago. The movie follows Mandela's life from his childhood in a small village all the way up to his inauguration as President of the South Africa, and now the teaser poster is here. ››› Continue reading Idris Elba Makes Trouble on 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' Poster

From a humbling at the hands of North Korea to John Aloisi's famous strike, our pick of Australia's attempts at the World Cup1) North Korea 6-1 Australia (Phnom Penh, November 1965)Australia's multifaceted World Cup story kicked off in suitably peculiar fashion. Having finally been dragged out of an all-amateur era, Australia's first tilt at qualification was, somewhat appropriately given the game's historical ties, for the 1966 World Cup in England. The route was set to be arduous with Africa, Asia and Oceania all vying for a lone ticket. However, African nations withdrew en bloc in protest at not being granted an automatic continental berth, South Africa were banned because of apartheid, and South Korea ultimately elected not to participate. A gruelling campaign had become seemingly straightforward. That just left North Korea. Finding a venue, however, proved troublesome. Cambodia, an ally of Pyongyang's leadership, came to the rescue and the newly built Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium – a classic Communist style concrete structure - was the venue for a contest to be played over two matches. In truth, one match would prove more than enough to demonstrate the gulf between the teams.A four-week boot camp in North Queensland and a scratch match against local opposition was deemed to be enough preparation for the Socceroos' World Cup campaign. Most of the squad had not travelled internationally for football, let alone to such a foreign environment. But the Aussies were unprepared off the field as well as on it, and by the time the match came around many were ill after consuming the local water. The fleet-footed and skilful Koreans went one up early although Australia held firm until the hour mark. Then injuries, a noisy 60,000 crowd, and of course, a vastly superior opponent, took their toll. The North Koreans were easy 6-1 victors with Les Scheinflug's penalty on 70 minutes a lone, though historic, consolation. Johnny Warren later aptly described the match as "Australia's sporting Gallipoli", and it was hard to argue with the analogy.Remarkably, goal aggregate was not taken into consideration, and thus a victory for Australia in the return would have meant a third and deciding match. That was never likely, and despite an improved display for Australia, and another goal for Scheinflug, they lost 3-1. The Koreans famously proved their quality on a far bigger stage, notching an unthinkable group stage win over Italy before they narrowly failed to reach the 1966 World Cup semi-finals.2) Australia 1-0 South Korea (Hong Kong, November 1973) For decades it was an achievement that stood out as a singular beacon on a desolate landscape. Qualification for the World Cup. It was the end product of a marathon 11-match operation for Australia's battle-hardened amateurs. So too an equally epic globe-trotting campaign four years earlier had indirectly laid the platform for success. Earlier in the year Australia had seen off New Zealand, Indonesia and, in their first ever meeting, Iraq. Then came a backs-to-the-wall aggregate win over Iran. The final hurdle was home and away against South Korea. The first leg in Sydney was a scoreless stalemate, and the return an action-packed 2-2 draw in Seoul. Australia had to come from two goals down to earn a share of the spoils, but unlike the Iran tie some 24 years later, away goals were not considered. Thus a hastily arranged third match took place in Hong Kong. Remarkably, the match was played just 72 hours later. Korea had enjoyed the better of the first two encounters yet had nothing to show for it. The teams shared the same flight to Hong Kong and crafty Scottish-born midfielder Jimmy Rooney described the Koreans as looking broken.In truth, the decisive match was relatively unremarkable in terms of incident. Despite Australia turning in one of their most fluid performances of the era, the deadlocked remained. Finally on the hour mark came the decisive moment. An unconvincing clearance fell to Roo

I was in that imperial Moroccan city a thousand years old.  I was in Fez.  I had come exactly a year before. And I had come again for the same reason:  the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music.   The year before I had fallen in love with a girl.  Tonight I would fall in love with another.  Or maybe I would fall in love with two.   The stage was set for them.  And then they were there. American singer Rosemary Standley and Spanish cellist Dom La Nena.  Together they were Birds on a Wire.   Rosemary reminded me of an old French film star. She meandered from Dylan to Fairuz and sang Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits.  Her accent was perfect in several languages. She was timeless. And when she sang, I could hear her golden fingers. And when she drummed I could feel her longing. As for Dom la Nena, her bow across the strings made a heartbreaking and joyous sound. Too soon, far too soon, it was over.  They got up laughing to say their goodbyes. And then they clapped for us as they left the stage.   But really, all the applause should have been all for them.... ****** Note: Want to receive My Marrakesh in your inbox?  Subscribe here. PS:  New stock of the very prettiest Moroccan handira -- wedding blankets in my shop, Red Thread Souk.  Take a peek right here.