24 Kasım 2008 Pazartesi

PHOTO BARRIER TO OUR PARTIES and lives!

Do we benefit from technology or does it lead us to behave in a certain way?
Digital cameras should be counted as the third popular gadget after mobiles and i-pods in this century. Obviously, they added a new habit to our daily life. Thanks to digital cameras our visual mind got coloured with thousands of shots for every single memory.
But nowadays it is getting harder and harder to entertain at parties, night clubs and any occasion. Because majority of people seem like addicted to taking photos of every inch of places and other people. After second pint the only thing in minds to take as many photos as possible and put them on facebook and tag friends one by one the day after.
Apparently, we became addicted to record every moment in our lives. In the past, there were few black and white precious pictures of old days. But now we have chance to delete a shot and take it hundreds of times to get the best one before printing. This strengthens the dominant visual culture.
Magazines have more colourful, bigger, photoshop pictures, online news stories have more video materials, advertising sector is based on visual material more than ever and so on.
Plastic surgery is in its golden age since people are obsessed with their appearance.
Even our descriptive language is getting full of more visual based adjectives.
Children read more pictorial stories instead of bed time stories which were told by parents. Imagination of our kids is forced to draw pictures of stories in a certain way (in a way).
We are surrounded by a visual world. And lost our concentration for having real fun as taking photos....
10.11.2008
By Kubra Yelkenci

DEPOSITS BACK TO YOUR WALLETS

By Kubra Yelkenci
Shelter`s campaign for protecting tenants’ deposits from unscrupulous landlords has finally paid off. The Housing Act 2004 changed the way tenants’ deposits are handled.

Kate Parker from Housing and Homelessness Charity, Shelter explained the latest rules and said: “Landlords must hand over the deposit to one of the government-authorised tenancy deposit schemes. Literally within 14 days of receiving it. This is now a legal requirement.”
Ms.Parker figured out that schemes are completely independent of the landlord, so any disputes will be settled fairly. And she continued “If the landlord refuses to comply, the courts will be able to order him/her to give the deposit back, pay it into an appropriate scheme, and/or pay to the tenant three times its value.”
According to mydeposit.co.uk, a government-authorised tenancy deposit protection scheme, tenants were losing thousands of pounds each month by not following to tenancy agreements.
A Southampton student Kaan Baseskioglu, explained how he lost his deposit last year and said “When I moved in I pointed a crack on the window. However, when I was leaving, my landlord cut my £260 deposit off because of this crack and I couldn`t do anything.”
A Bournemouth resident, Alfredo Silva said he lost his deposit because of leaving house 4 months before the termination date of the tenancy agreement. “I even didn`t know how to protect my deposit at that time.”
Regarding latest regulations Marketing Manager of The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) Lucy Newcombe gave some advice for tenants and said: “My simple advice is: Always ask for evidence on how your deposit is protected, and know that you are entitled to formal evidence that protection has taken place.” DPS is a free to use deposit registration services which is open to all landlords and letting agents.
Estate Agent from Burns Lettings Kaylee Bradley, 29, pointed out where the letting agents stand in this new regulation and said: “As a letting agency we can demand a deposit but the estate agent should not hold a deposit or any other money unless they are covered by adequate insurance.”

New Artwork for Corfe House

Bournemouth University Corfe House students are invited to a meeting tomorrow to decide on a new art work around both entrances with commissioned two local artists.

By Kubra YelkenciUNITE have commissioned two artists to produce an interactive lighting artwork around both entrances to Corfe House accommodating 380 students. Shirleyann Plumridge the hospitality manager explained the aim of artwork:

“Basically when UNITE applied for the planning permission to build Corfe House here, the council said `that`s fine` but part of the planning concept was that we would have to commission a local artist to produce some public art for the entrances of the Corfe House.”

She continued that Corfe House students should be involved in decision of what the commission should be. Last year, students decided on building an `interactive light feature` for the entrances.

The artists Anna Heinrich and Leon Palmer are specialized in light commissions. They are married couple from Poole. They are going to bring some examples of their previous work and get some feedbacks from the students. They want to find out what is like to live in Corfe House and what is it feel like being away from home to build an artwork suitable to the concept of Corfe House.

The artwork will not be a sculpture, it is going to be an interactive light work. “So for example every time doors open someone goes in and out something will happen, we don`t know what that is. So that`s basically we want the student`s involvement in what it is.” said Ms Plumridge.

CREDIT CRUNCH CRUSHES LOCAL ESTATE AGENCIES

Bournemouth`s local estate agency `Bournemouth Flat Company` decided not to sell houses any more and is focused on lettings due to surviving at the current economic climate.
By Kubra YelkenciCredit crunch carries on hitting different business areas. It is time to tighten their belts for local estate agencies. The office manager of Bournemouth Flat Company Miss Hannah Lister,29, commented on possible effects of credit crunch on housing business and said “Because there are so many on the market there is more competition so people having to worry about prices. Yes the credit crunch is having an effect on us.”
According to Miss Lister, decline on sales figures was expected in the market for a few months. “House prices were going down in the South of England last months. We were selling houses below the market value. Normally, property prices always go up. But the graphic was up and down. All those were signs of stress in the market. “
All those drawbacks made them wring their hands as a company and they stopped selling houses as a part of their survival plan. “We don`t sell houses any more. We used to sell but not now. Because we are not selling any. Nothing is selling. Obviously with the action the problems happening we just stopped buying properties so we decided to stop the sell a precident to business so we focused on only lettings.”
What is the connection between Credit Crunch and House Prices?
Banks rely on the liquid transfer of cash between each other to fund their loans to consumers. Now these loans have dried up, it has made it impossible for them to finance mortgage deals. If there are no mortgages available, buyers cannot buy houses. Sellers have either to withdraw the property from the market or accept a much lower price.

POOLE`S LEGENDARY PIRATE: HARRY PAYE

You might think that pirates exist only in Hollywood movies, colourful novels for kids and in cartoons. But if you are a resident in the charming town of Poole you are living on the land of a legendary pirate called: Harry Paye
Mr.Pat Parker from Poole Museum said `Harry Paye`s activities took place in the beginning of the 15th century when Henry IV was King of England. And in this period the country was in the middle of battles known as The Hundred Years War with France.`
A Spanish nobleman of his day, Count Pero Nino defined him as following words, `This knight who scoured the seas as a corsair with many ships, plundering all the Spanish and French ships he could meet with.`
After spending long adventurous years, he settled down in Kent and died there in 1419. `His exploits still stir the imagination, more than five hundred years after his death ` says Parker. Famous citizen Herbert S Carter wrote a novel for children about his adventures and `Old Harry` pub in the High Street of Poole commemorated his name.

http://www.welcometopoole.co.uk/history/story3.htm
Poole Rediscovered, Museum Publishing

16-10-2008
By Kubra Yelkenci

`1ST WRITES` WRITING WORKSHOPS IN POOLE

A free-lance writer Monique Munroe giving fictional, descriptive and creative writing workshops to all enthusiastic people in Poole. Her workshops and charity magazine PCVS News are supported by Borough of Poole.
Monique Munroe a French-named English writer started writing at the age of thirteen. Her first short stories published in The Guardian.
“One day I saw a big announcement in The Guardian. They were looking for short story writers. I kept on sending my short stories until they accepted me” said Ms Munroe and continued “I also wrote for teenage magazines like Blue Jean and short stories for teen girls. I interviewed with teenagers about their problems and published their achievement stories in the magazine. ”
Two years ago she started to run the workshops under the name of `1st Writes`. “1st Writes became a brand for me” said Ms Munroe. The activity which is supported by Borough of Poole is open to people from all age groups with different backgrounds. There is an eight-week course `How To Write Short Stories` is currently run by her and also `Dynamic Description Workshop` is starting on 25th October. She answered the question about age range of attendees and said “There is one young guy and the rest is mostly in their 40s. Some of them are really talented with amazing imagination.”
She is also the editor of PCVS News charity magazine which is published seasonally since 1999. She told about charity activities and continued “There are seven different art projects in volunteer centre of Poole. And creative writing courses for people with mental disabilities.” She pointed the importance of those activities for mentally disabled people to be involved in life.
Ms Munroe recommended young people who are interested in writing to carry on writing and reading books as many as possible.

23-10-2008
By Kubra Yelkenci