Listing to the South

We have just been asked to write an introduction to a feature on Southside shopping for a future issue of The List magazine. Its to cover any and all shops apparently so will have to get our thinking caps on for interesting and unique Southside locations. If anyone has any suggestions for a favourite southside business then drop us an email.

Streets Ahead

By now everyone will probably be aware of Google Street view but for those of you that might have missed it - check out the above to be totally amazed.

It was fun to look on Google Earth and try and spot your roof in the aerial photos but now you can actually go for a virtual wander around the streets and find blurry faced image of yourself standing on the street corner. Anyone had any luck finding anything unusual in the Southside yet - I had a lot of fun (sad I know) darting around the streets trying to find out where I'd parked my car. Its given me the idea of setting some kind of southside virtual treasure hunt - might look at that for the festival in May.

Anyway thought it would be of interest - we are going to look at using the Street view to help locate things in our posts so look out for more links in future and if you see a funny looking van with what looks like a ray gun on the roof - give them a cheesy grin and two thumbs up and you might become a Street view icon.

PS - there is a man across the road who has been feeding pigeons from a seemingly never ending bag of bread crumbs for about 40mins - he has a huge grin on his face, so do the pigeons.

Normal service shall resume

Sorry bout the lack of posts - it has been a busy month, with trips to Riga, London and St Andrews for birthdys, weddings and other assorted adventures. Should be back to normal now in the meantime here is another southside film we found on Youtube. This one is just as random as the cycling gorilla - but none the less enjoyable.

Just had a thought - maybe the gorilla one was a failed cadburys advert?

Have a Drink with the Stars!

I love all the lectures at the Planetarium so will try and pop along to the below event. The big lie back seats are really comfy though, so try not to have too many drinks or you might find yourself drifting off and snoring like a bear. (I heard one very recently and they snore extremely loud.) I'm not sure what the Galileo affair is all about but it sounds like a spy thriller.

"Following considerable success of our first lecture you may be pleased to hear that there will be a cash bar available from 6pm to 7pm to supplement our March 25th evening lecture.

We hope this will add to your enjoyment of the evening, allowing you to meet and have some refreshment as well as hear Brother Guy Consolmagno's account of "the Galileo Affair". "

OTHER SCIENCE CENTRE NEWS

"A few places left for our sleepovers

What a way to kick off the Easter School holidays! We've got a few places left for a sleepover on April 3rd. A fantastic line up of events, including star gazing, a live link-up with astronomers in Perth (Australia - just to be clear!), a chance to kip down amongst the exhibits and a breakfast to get you started the next day.

There's limited spaces available, so please follow the link above to find out more or email Joanne Foo"

MacDonald Bros and Nikitta:judges for the Festival Stars

So we've heard that the MacDonald Bros along with Nikitta Agnes will be judging and performing at this years Festival Stars. It's a southside version of the X Factor and is open to school kids on the southside of the city.

Nikkita Agnes and the MacDonald Bros will be judging both the heats and finals of the competition. If you know of any budding stars or are desperate to see the Macdonald Bros yourself go to www.southsidefestival .co.uk

Crafty stuff

We were emailed by Bianca to alert us to the craft fair taking place in two weekends at Langside Halls, Sat 21 March 10am - 4pm.

Should be fun - there are a selection of the exhibitors on their site glasgow craft fairs but I think they are still looking for more so if you've been making crafty things of your own then check out the site and try and get yourself a stall.

Its on the same weekend as the farmers market so why not wander through the park with a nice ice-cream cone, pick yourself up a necklace, a painting, a bunch of carrots and a venision sausage.

I really enjoy wandering around these kind of things so am very disapointed that we're away that weekend. Not anywhere as exciting as Riga or Japan this time - just London town, might try to pick up some cockney slang for our return posts guv, init.

Gorilla

About a week ago I went into Pearson's on Minard road to purchase some paints etc for doing some DIY. While there I took a ton of photos to do a post aobut some local shops. Unfortunetly I now can't find the memory card on which the photos are supposed to be. So while I go out and take some more photos here is a bit of an oddity I found on Youtube.

Did anyone see this or know what it is all about?

Bananas

The World Development Movement is holding a Fairtrade banana -eating challenge at the Co-op on Pollokshaws Road , to help the Fair Trade Foundation set a world record for the largest number of Fair-trade bananas eaten over a 24-hour period.

The event will be held on the 7th of March from 10am till 2pm

Additional info

Thanks to the support of the Co-operative who agreed to host the event and donate fair trade bananas, councillors and members of the public will be invited to eat a Fairtrade banana and write their own personal messages on a graffiti wall, which will be presented to MEPs/MEP candidates in a mass lobby later in the year.

The banana is the most popular fruit in the world – people spend over £10 billion on the fruit globally. Yet, the majority of banana plantation workers do not earn enough to live and support their families with some farmers earning less than £1 per day.

The Fairtrade mark provides a guarantee to consumers that developing country producers have received a fair price for their products. Despite an increase in UK sales of Fairtrade products, only one in four bananas sold in the UK is Fairtrade.

Bananas also symbolise the challenge of international trade. Like many banana farmers, millions of people working in agriculture, manufacturing and services endure unacceptable working conditions and are kept in poverty by unfair trade rules.

This world record attempt will aim to make it clear to retailers and European policy-makers that the public wants Fairtrade products but also trade policies that put people before profits and support human rights and long-term, sustainable development.

Steve Rolfe, Chair of WDM Glasgow said: 'Millions of people across the developing world continue to face the damaging impacts of unfair trade rules that are rigged in favour of big business. Fairtrade can only take us so far in tackling the fundamental injustices of the international trade rules. We need to change the unfair trade rules that keep people in poverty.'

The World Development Movement is one of the founders of the Fairtrade Foundation and this year the two organisations are teaming up to demand a system that prioritises the needs of the world's poor and challenge the new trade deals which the European Union is currently trying to broker with over a hundred countries.

WDM argues that these deals will put European companies first, not the 1.5 billion people in these countries living on less than US$2 a day. They will particularly harm the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world, as millions of low income farmers and producers will be at risk of not being able to compete with subsidised agricultural produce from Europe flooding their markets and destroying their livelihoods.

It can take many years for the impacts of trade deals to be realised, but evidence from previous deals in Mexico and South Africa shows that they rarely benefit the poor. For example, in Mexico the trade deal led to two million people leaving their land as the price for maize collapsed – whilst corporate giants reaped the profits.

The World Development Movement is calling for these trade deals to be stopped and campaigning for Europe to adopt trade policies that put people before profits.

EDIT: Here's a picture from the banana extravaganza - not sure if any records were broken or if Norris McWhirter was there or not.

(Oh apparently the star of record breakers has sadly passed on - who is incharge or new records getting into the book now? If Cheryl Baker and Kriss Akabusi vote a tie, who gets the deciding vote?)