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Maurice Williamson

Maurice Donald Williamson (born 6 March 1951) is a New Zealand politician and former diplomat.

Williamson had a 30-year career as the National Party Member of Parliament for Pakuranga in the New Zealand House of Representatives. During this period, he was a minister in both the Fourth and Fifth National Governments, including as Minister of Transport, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Local Government, Minister of Customs and Minister of Statistics.

After retiring from Parliament, Williamson was New Zealand consul-general in Los Angeles from 2017 to 2021. He returned to politics in 2022, successfully contesting the Howick ward of Auckland Council.

Member of Parliament
Williamson was a member of Parliament for the National Party, a centre-right political Party in New Zealand, as MP for Pakuranga since the 1987 general election. He held a number of ministerial posts, including Minister of Communications, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister of Transport, and Minister of Research, Science and Technology, and associate Minister of Health (1990–96). He was a strong supporter of reform of prostitution law.

His 2005 election campaign saw one of the strongest results for National across New Zealand.

Suspensions
He was suspended from caucus on 22 July 2003, after refusing to curtail his criticism of the National Party leader, Bill English, who he blamed for poor performance in the polls. After English was replaced by Don Brash, Williamson was reinstated. After his return from suspension, Williamson played an active role in National and was elevated up the ranks to eighth position in the National lineup in 2008.

On 1 May 2014, he resigned his ministerial portfolios after making what the Prime Minister, John Key, called, "A serious error of judgement." The Prime Minister was referring to a phone call Mr Williamson had made to the police enquiring about a charge they were laying against businessman and National Party donor Donghua Liu over domestic violence allegations. Williamson had told police he was not trying to interfere with the process – he just wanted to make sure somebody had reviewed the matter to ensure the police were on solid ground as "Mr Liu is investing a lot of money in New Zealand".

Candid remarks
Williamson became known for his candid remarks and humor which often attracted controversy. In 2011, he attracted controversy for making crude jokes during a speech addressing a conference audience. Speaking to a Samoan speaker, he joked about whether his "papers were in order". Later he said: "What is the difference between Muslims and Kiwis? Muslims get to commit adultery and get stoned, Kiwis get stoned and commit adultery". In 2015, Prime Minister John Key defended him as a "flamboyant" person with a "strong sense of humour" after Williamson was accused of making "sexist" remarks during another speech. He later apologised. Earlier in 2007, Williamson was slammed for an email he sent in response to a TV report on obesity: "If some people can't lose weight no matter what ... how come there were no fat people in the Nazi concentration camps?"

49th and 50th New Zealand Parliaments
After the 2008 general election the National Party formed a minority government with three confidence and supply partners. Despite his high list placing, Williamson was not selected for cabinet due in part to a series of gaffes during the election campaign relating to the party's policy on road tolls. He was given ministerial responsibilities outside of cabinet for Customs, Building and Construction, Statistics and Small Business. One of the major matters under his governance was the ongoing leaky homes crisis, which he noted as having the government "stumped" due to its enormity.

In June 2009, Richard Worth left Parliament after Prime Minister John Key lost confidence in him as a minister over sexual allegations. Williamson was made the acting minister of Worth's portfolios of Internal Affairs, National Library and Archives New Zealand which were subsequently passed on to Nathan Guy.

After the election of the 50th Parliament of New Zealand Williamson was returned to his seat and re-appointed as a minister in the second term of the National-led government. Williamson retained his 2008 portfolios of Customs, Land Information and Building and Construction but lost the role of Minister for Small Business to John Banks as part of the new National-ACT Confidence and Supply deal. Williamson remained a minister outside of Cabinet, along with Jo Goodhew, Chester Borrows and Chris Tremain, until his resignation from all ministerial portfolios on 1 May 2014.

He announced that he would not stand for Parliament in the 2017 election.

Transport advocacy
In 2003, Williamson suggested that "cities have squandered fortunes upgrading their public transport only to find the car remains the mode of choice for most" and said local government subsidies should be axed for roading maintenance and public transport.

As a one-time Transport Minister and a local MP, Williamson has long supported and advocated for more motorway and roading projects. In 2005, he advocated for the Eastern Transport Corridor motorway to expand Auckland's motorway network, saying that the city was "grossly short" of motorways. As the National Party's transport spokesperson in the 2008 general election, he prompted controversy for supporting significant road tolls to enable new motorway construction projects.

In 2015, he advocated for two local roads in his Pakuranga electorate to be redesignated as state highways, as he felt Auckland Transport was prioritising public transport infrastructure too heavily in planning.

'Big gay rainbow' speech
In April 2013, Williamson voted in favour of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill which legalised same-sex marriage, delivering a memorable speech prior to the third reading vote.

"One of the messages that I had was that this bill was the cause of our drought. Well, in the Pakuranga electorate this morning, it was pouring with rain. We had the most enormous big gay rainbow across my electorate."

The speech was soon being referenced worldwide by news outlets and was chosen as 2013's quote of the year by Massey University. With Williamson's sarcastic and honest approach, the speech was viewed hundreds of thousands of times over the next few days, and featured on high-profile news sites like The Huffington Post and Gawker. Williamson said he had an offer to go on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but had to turn it down due to rules around ministers accepting gifts. Williamson was later given approval by the prime minister to go on the show as long as he donated any money received to charity. Williamson's speech was praised by Opposition politicians and left-wing media commentators.

Later career and return to politics
After he announced his intention to leave parliament at the 2017 election, Williamson was appointed the New Zealand consul-general in Los Angeles in 2016. He took up the post the following year.

Williamson returned to the New Zealand political scene in 2022 by running for Auckland Council as one of the two councillors for the Howick Ward, which encompasses all of Williamson's former Pakuranga parliamentary electorate. Williamson ran on a ticket with sitting councillor Sharon Stewart, and in October 2022 Williamson and Stewart were both elected, defeating sitting Howick councillor Paul Young.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown appointed Williamson to the chair of the expenditure control and procurement committee, charged with identifying cost savings. As a councillor, Williamson attracted criticism for his comments characterising posters promoting the use of te reo Māori as "objectionable" and for making comments "of a sexual nature" in relation to Wellington mayor Tory Whanau.

title: Maurice Williamson


text:
Talk:Zero-configuration networking

Microsoft against UPnP and for DPWS
Microsoft is not supporting UPnP anymore. One clear sign of this is that Vista only supports UPnP v1.0. Apparently - Microsoft wanted to pass throught their DPWS (Device profile for Web services) as UPnP v2.0. Since UPnP forum prioritised backwards-compatibility - it didnt go any further. However, Microsoft has implemented DPWS in Vista. Meaning - Microsoft will try to fight this war alone, and abandon UPnP. Can anyone tell me why!? DPWS is "very good", but so is UPnP. It really seems to me that both do the same thing - only in a different way. One can hardly say one is better than the other.

Was this renamed OpenTalk?

No, this is now called Bonjour (trademark problems, I believe). Here's an updated link: Apple's implementation--198.3.8.1 22:01, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * What about Windows XP's "Wireless Zero Configuration Utility" (the regular WLAN tool). Is that also Zeroconf? --Abdull 19:20, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Not sure, but I kinda doubt it. Microsoft has a competing discovery protocol - UPnP (universal plug-n-play). Apple did have a downloadable beta of zeroconf for windows, but it seems to have been removed from their site. I think they were planning on releasing it officially later in 2005.

 * With the name change to "Bonjour" (stupid name for something so cool), Apple has released a 1.0 of "Bonjour for Windows," which can be found at their site.

 * Corrected link above to new version djm101

Suggested Merger
I vote yes. I don't know who suggested merging Multicast DNS into this article, but it's a good suggestion. There's not enough information for its own article. -- HarrisX 13:40, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Me too (I always wanted to say that, and now I can ;-) ) -- Macfreek 12:26, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't yet know the details, but I think the article for mdns should be augmented rather than merged. The name "zeroconf" was used for an ietf working group and thus has connotations of signifying IETF standardization, but it seems that the dust hasn't settled yet on whether mdns or LLMNR is likely to be standardized.  --NealMcB 16:03, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree with the above and with a new contribution of mDNS packet structure, I've revived the article and moved the new contribution there. --Kvng (talk) 14:48, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

mDNSResponder
What's Apple's mDNSResponder, and what's it doing in the Bonjour section ? --Jerome Potts (talk) 14:03, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

 * mDNSResponder is the name of the application/driver/deamon that implements the network protocols that support Bonjour features. ~Kvng (talk) 21:18, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

Linux
This article should mention the use and implementation of Zeroconf in Linux above all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.27.231.221 (talk) 23:33, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

No, no, no! And why would anyone think it should be? Just in case this commenter was not trolling, or there are people who honestly share that opinion:
 * Even if the article were to be restricted to the set of protocols most commonly associated with the term zero configuration networking, those protocols were conceived of and sheparded through the RFC approval process primarily by Stuart Chesire, who along the way was hired by Apple to work on their implementation (now known as Bonjour). The Linux implementation (Avahi) came later.
 * And I feel compelled to point out that there are way more Macs and IOS owners using Bonjour than there are Linux owners actually using Avahi, and possibly even more Windows owners using Bonjour without even knowing it (because it's part of iTunes for that platform). In case you're wondering, I use all three.[[Image:Smile.png|20px]] Joeldbenson (talk) 22:13, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Zero-configuration networking


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Alexandria Eschate

Alexandria Eschate (, Αλεχάνδρεια Ἐσχάτα, "Furthest Alexandria") was a city founded by Alexander the Great, at the south-western end of the Fergana Valley (modern Tajikistan) in August 329 BC. It was the most northerly outpost of Alexander's Empire in Central Asia. Alexandria Eschate was established on the south bank of the river Jaxartes (Syr Darya), at or close to the site of modern Khujand (Хуҷанд; خجند). According to the Roman writer Curtius, Alexandria Ultima retained its Greek culture as late as 30 BC.

History
This region where Alexandria Eschate would be founded was ruled over by Persia starting with Xerxes I, and began to be populated by Greeks starting at that time. When "Greeks" (Greek-related and speaking peoples) in other parts of the Persian empire rebelled or otherwise were troublesome, they would be exiled to the far northeast of the Persian empire, the most distant segment from their homelands. This was not uncommon, because the coastline of Asia Minor was populated by many Greek-culture and language cities, who had colonized the region in the previous centuries. By the time of the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great, many had been exiled to this region north of India, so Greek villages, language, and culture were therefore all common in that area. Cyrus the Great founded a city there as his northeastern-most outpost, known as Cyropolis, which may have later become the site of Alexandria Eschate, simply renamed.

Alexander the Great
Alexander, during his years of conquest, would regularly establish long-term outposts to support his advance, either renaming and permanently securing an existing city, or creating a long-term, albeit non-permanent, outpost built up like a town. According to Greek essayist Plutarch, Alexander named seventy of these bases after himself, though this may be an exaggeration; only a couple dozen are known today.

In order to secure Sogdiana, the northeastern corner of the Persian empire, Alexander targeted Cyropolis and a half dozen other cities in 329 BC.

Alexander first sent Craterus to Cyropolis, the largest of the towns holding Sogdiana against Alexander's forces. Craterus' instructions were to "take up a position close to the town, surround it with a ditch and stockade, and then assemble such siege engines as might suit his purpose...." The idea was to keep the inhabitants focused on their own defenses and to prevent them from sending assistance out to the other towns. Starting from Gazza, Alexander went on to conquer the other surrounding towns. Five of the seven towns were taken in two days. Many of the inhabitants were killed. Alexander then arrived at Cyropolis, which was the best fortified of the towns and had the largest population. It also had reputedly the best fighters of the region. Alexander battered Cyropolis' defenses with the siege engines. While the bombardment went on, Alexander ordered certain of his troops to sneak through a dried-up water course that went under the town's wall. Alexander also joined on this mission and once inside his troops opened the town's gate to admit his attacking force. Once the natives saw that the town was taken, they fell violently upon the attackers. Alexander received a violent blow from a stone that landed upon his head and neck. Craterus was wounded by an arrow. But the defenders were driven off. Arrian puts the defender's force at about 15,000 fighting men and claims that 8,000 of them were killed in the first phase of the operation. The rest apparently sought refuge inside the town's central fortress, but surrendered after one day for lack of water.

Accounts of how the battle went down differ among authors. Arrian cites Ptolemy as saying Cyropolis surrendered from the start, and Arrian also states that according to Aristobulus the place was stormed and everyone was massacred.

One, probably Cyropolis, came to be called Alexandria Eschate, his northeastern-most outpost. As with most other cities founded by Alexander, a group of retired and/or wounded veterans from his army was settled there, joining the large population of Greek exiles settled in the area by Persia in previous generations.

Hellenistic period
Because Alexandria Eschate was surrounded by Sogdian tribes, and was about 300 km north of the nearest Greek settlement, at Alexandria on the Oxus in Bactria, the Greeks built a 6.0 km wall around the city which, according to the ancient authors, was completed in about 20 days. It experienced numerous conflicts with the local population.

From 250 BC, the city likely had greater contact with Bactria, after the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I extended his control into Sogdiana.

Alexandria Eschate was also located around 400 km west of the Tarim Basin (now Xinjiang, China), where other Indo-European peoples, like the Khotanese, Tocharians, Wusun and/or Yuezhi were established. There are indications that Greek expeditions travelled as far as Kashgar. The historian Strabo claims that the Greeks "extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni.

"Seres" meant either China proper – in which case the Greeks achieved the first direct contact between China and a European society, some time around 200 BC – or the peoples of the Tarim. In any case, a city known to the Chinese as Dayuan, which was mentioned by scholars from the Han dynasty (1st century BC to 2nd century AD), is speculated to refer to Alexandria Eschate. The prefix da meant "Great", while the suffix Yuan was the Chinese rendition of Ionians.

Chinese embassies were established in Dayuan, beginning with Zhang Qian opened around 130 BC. Soon the city and the rest of Dayuan were conquered completely by the Han after winning the War of the Heavenly Horses. This contributed to the opening up the Silk Road from the 1st century BC. Dayuan means "Great Ionians" in the Chinese language, Greeks generally being known in Asia by some variant of "Ionians". See Names of the Greeks: Ionians, Yunani, and Yavan for more information.

Archaeological remains
The remains of Alexander's town lie in the tell of the old citadel in Khojand. Although the oldest surface remains of the walls date only to the 10th century, Soviet and Tajik excavations of the site have revealed that below the modern surface are medieval, Hellenistic and Achaemenid layers. These layers have revealed fortifications dating to around the 4th century BC.

Other remains include household utensils, armaments and building materials which are exhibited in the Museum of Regional Studies in Khojand. The site has also revealed numerous Hellenistic coins and pottery.

In the Tabula Peutingeriana, below the city there is a rhetorical question in Latin: "Hic Alexander responsum accepit: usque quo Alexander?" (Here Alexander accepted the answer: "Until where, Alexander?") — referencing both his insatiable appetite for conquest and a legend from the Alexander Romance in which "celestial creatures" admonished Alexander to not pursue further explorations, which would ultimately lead to his untimely death.

In fiction
Alexandria Eschate is the final destination of Euxenus, son of Eutychides of the deme of Pallene, the protagonist of Alexander at the World's End by Tom Holt.

Horses of Heaven, by Gillian Bradshaw, is set in Alexandria Eschate, c. 140 BC, talks about the Ferghana horses and the War of the Heavenly Horses fought with Han China.

title: Alexandria Eschate


text:
Sparse binary polynomial hashing

Sparse binary polynomial hashing (SBPH) is a generalization of Bayesian spam filtering that can match mutating phrases as well as single words.

SBPH is a way of generating a large number of features from an incoming text automatically, and then using statistics to determine the weights for each of those features in terms of their predictive values for spam/nonspam evaluation.

title: Sparse binary polynomial hashing


text:
Generalized signal averaging

Within signal processing, in many cases only one image with noise is available, and averaging is then realized in a local neighbourhood. Results are acceptable if the noise is smaller in size than the smallest objects of interest in the image, but blurring of edges is a serious disadvantage. In the case of smoothing within a single image, one has to assume that there are no changes in the gray levels of the underlying image data. This assumption is clearly violated at locations of image edges, and edge blurring is a direct consequence of violating the assumption.

Description
Averaging is a special case of discrete convolution. For a 3 by 3 neighbourhood, the convolution mask M is:

$$ M = \frac{1}{9} \begin{bmatrix}1 & 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 & 1 \\ \end{bmatrix} $$ The significance of the central pixel may be increased, as it approximates the properties of noise with a Gaussian probability distribution:

$$ M = \frac{1}{10} \begin{bmatrix}1 & 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 2 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 & 1 \\ \end{bmatrix} $$

$$ M = \frac{1}{16} \begin{bmatrix}1 & 2 & 1 \\ 2 & 4 & 2 \\ 1 & 2 & 1 \\ \end{bmatrix} $$

A suitable page for beginners about matrices is at: https://web.archive.org/web/20060819141930/http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/imageproc/page2.asp

The whole article starts on page: https://web.archive.org/web/20061019072001/http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/imageproc/

title: Generalized signal averaging


text:
Lockwood Smith

Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith (born 13 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician and diplomat who was High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013.

Smith is a member of the New Zealand National Party and served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1984 until his retirement to pursue diplomatic roles in 2013. He represented the Kaipara and Rodney electorates and was briefly a list MP. In the Fourth National Government, he served as Minister of Education from 1990 to 1996 and later as Minister of Agriculture, Minister for International Trade, and Associate Minister of Finance.

Early years
Smith attended Auckland Grammar School in 1961. He has a PhD in Animal science from the University of Adelaide. Before entering politics he lectured at Massey University, worked as a television quizmaster for the children's quiz shows It's Academic and The W 3 Show, and was Marketing Manager at the New Zealand Dairy Board.

Member of Parliament
Smith was first elected in 1984 as the MP for Kaipara. He represented this electorate until it was abolished in 1996 during the shift to mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation. Following the election he was the representative for Rodney until the  election where he stood as a list-only candidate and was elected as a list MP.

Minister in the Fourth National Government
Smith served as Minister of Education from 1990 until 1996 in the Fourth National Government of New Zealand. During this period he implemented a number of changes to the tertiary education sector (universities and technical institutions). One high-profile change involved a radical increase in student fees, as recommended by the Todd Report, which the government had commissioned to address issues of funding.

As opposition education spokesman in 1990, Smith promised to remove the Labour Government's tertiary tuition fee of $1250, if elected. Once in office, he kept this promise on a technicality: he shifted the burden of charging fees for courses from the government to the institutions, who then had to charge even higher tuition fees due to decreased government funding.

Smith's term as Education Minister also saw the introduction of means-testing for student allowances, with the effect that students of middle-class parents became ineligible for allowances until they reached 25 years of age.

In 1996 Smith took up the Agriculture and Trade Negotiation portfolios: Wyatt Creech succeeded him as Education Minister. Smith also became Minister for International Trade and for Tourism, as well as holding responsibilities as Associate Minister of Finance, Associate Minister of Immigration (International Access and Processing), and Minister Responsible for Contact Energy Ltd.

As Trade Minister, Smith spearheaded New Zealand's efforts at the 1999 APEC negotiations. He successfully negotiated New Zealand's free-trade agreement with Singapore, which became the NZ – Singapore Closer Economic Partnership. At the WTO Ministerial in Seattle, he took part in efforts which later lead to the Doha Development Round.

Opposition, 1999–2008
In opposition, Smith held a number of spokesperson roles for the National Party, including those of Foreign Affairs, Commerce, and Immigration. In his role as Immigration spokesman, Smith challenged Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field over alleged impropriety in Field's dealings with constituents.

During the 2008 election campaign, on 22 October 2008, Smith made some comments in an interview with The Marlborough Express concerning seasonal Asian and Pacific workers that caused controversy. Regarding Pacific workers he said that some employers "are having to teach them things like how to use a toilet or shower..." And he said that for pruning trees: "some of the Asian workers have been more productive... because their hands are smaller." Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia described these remarks as "racist", and the Prime Minister Helen Clark characterised them as "absolutely daft". Smith later stated that the media had presented his comments out of context, and that he had repeated the views of employers whom he had talked to; he expressed regret at any unintended offence taken. The parliamentary leader of the National Party, John Key, subsequently referred to this statement as an apology.

Speaker of the House
Following the National Party's successes in the 2008 election, Members of Parliament unanimously elected Smith as Speaker of the House. Smith took a rather different approach from his predecessor, being more active in requiring ministers to provide answers to oral questions. Smith was re-elected as Speaker of the House again on 20 December 2011.

Smith was expected to retire from Parliament and to be appointed High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom later in 2012, but stayed on until February 2013. He gave his valedictory speech on 13 February 2013; this was in fact his first speech in Parliament in four years, as Speakers perform an apolitical role. Reflecting on his nearly 30 years in Parliament, he listed voting against the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1986 as his biggest regret:

"I faced the classic dilemma of voting according to my own judgement or the opinion of those I was elected to represent. As a new member, I opted for the latter and I've always regretted it."

Smith was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services as a Member of Parliament and as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
Smith began his term as High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom on 25 March 2013, with a pōwhiri at New Zealand House in London. He stepped down from the role on 25 March 2017. He was replaced by Sir Jerry Mateparae, the former Governor-General.

Personal life
On 4 July 2009 he married longtime partner, Alexandra Lang, in the Legislative Council Chamber of Parliament.

title: Lockwood Smith


text: Category:899 deaths

title: Category:899 deaths


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Andrew Evans (pastor)

Andrew Lee Evans OAM (born Wilfred Andrew Lever Evans; 17 June 1935 – 26 May 2023) was an Australian Pentecostal Christian pastor in the Assemblies of God and a politician in the South Australian Legislative Council. Evans was most notable as pastor of the then Paradise Community Church (now Futures Church) for 30 years and co-founding the conservative Family First Party.

Early life and education
Andrew L. Evans was born to missionary parents Tom and Stella Evans in British India and was the older brother of pastor Fred Evans. From 1958 to 1960, Evans studied for Christian Ministry at the Assemblies of God Commonwealth Bible College in Brisbane (now known as Alphacrucis in Parramatta, Sydney). He graduated with a Diploma in Theology in December 1960 and was ordained to the Ministry in 1963. He then served as a missionary with AOG World Missions in the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea from 1963 to 1969.

Career
From 1970 Evans served as Senior Pastor first of Klemzig Assembly of God in Adelaide, then Paradise Assembly of God (now Influencers Church) when the church relocated there in 1982. In 1977 he became the National Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Australia, which position he held for 20 years and saw a new church started every 11 days.

Evans retired as the senior pastor of Paradise AOG in 2000, after 30 years, the church had reached over 4000 members, when his eldest son assumed the leadership. Another son formed the Planetshakers Church in Melbourne.

Politics
After retiring, Evans helped co-found the Family First Party and was elected into the Legislative Council at the 2002 state election, retiring from service on 3 July 2008.

Death
Evans died on 26 May 2023, at the age of 87.

Awards and achievements
Evans received a Doctor of Divinity from the unaccredited California Graduate School of Theology on 5 August 1981. He was also awarded a Doctor of Ministries on 20 September 1994 from the School of Theology in California. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal OAM for his service to the Christian Church 26 January 2003.

In the South Australian Parliament from 2002 to 2008, he
 * introduced the Bill that removed the bar to prosecuting people for sexual offences committed before 1 December 1982
 * introduced the motion that established the Select Committee into the Status of Fathers in South Australia
 * Compelled the State Labor Government to include an interim 2020 target for its climate change legislation

title: Andrew Evans (pastor)


text:
Tony Ryall

Anthony Boyd Williams Ryall (born 19 November 1964) is a former New Zealand politician. He represented the National Party in the New Zealand Parliament from 1990 to 2014. Between 2008 and 2014 he served as a cabinet minister, holding the posts of Minister of Health, Minister of State Services and Minister of State Owned Enterprises. He served previously in the Shipley Cabinet between 1997 and 1999. He announced in February 2014 that he was to retire from politics at that year's general election. He is chief executive of BestStart Educare, an early childhood education provider.

Early life and family
He was born in Christchurch and educated in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and graduated Bachelor of Business Studies (Accounting and Finance) from Massey University. Ryall is married with two children.

Professional career
Before entering politics, he worked as a credit analyst at a bank. In 1990 he was in the Corporate Credit Recovery section of the Bank of New Zealand. He joined the East Cape branch of the Young Nationals in 1980. In 1987 he was an assistant at the party National Headquarters, and in 1988/89 was Canvassing Coordinator and Treasurer of the Miramar electorate.

1990–1999
He first won election to Parliament as Member of Parliament for the East Cape electorate in the 1990 election at age 26. Subsequent boundary reorganisations saw him represent the Eastern Bay of Plenty electorate (1993–1996) and the Bay of Plenty electorate (1996–2014).

Ryall served in the Cabinet between 1997 and 1999 variously as Minister for State-Owned Enterprises (8 December 1997 – 10 December 1999), Minister of Local Government ( 31 August 1998 – 31 January 1999), Minister of Youth Affairs (31 August 1998 – 10 December 1999), Associate Minister of Justice (8 December 1997 – 31 January 1999), Minister of Justice (31 January – 10 December 1999), Minister in Charge of the Audit Department (8 December 1997 – 26 August 1998), Minister Responsible for Radio New Zealand (8 December 1997 – 31 January 1999), and Minister Responsible for Housing New Zealand (31 January 1999 – 10 December 1999).

In Opposition: 1999–2008
During the National Party's time in Opposition, he was spokesperson for Housing (1999–2002), Justice (1999–2002), Timberlands and SILNA (1999–2002), Commerce (15 August 2002 – 2 November 2003), Corrections (15 August 2002 – 2 November 2003), Courts (15 August 2002 – 2 November 2003), Police (15 August 2002 – 2 November 2003), Sentencing (15 August 2002 – 2 November 2003), Law and Order (2003 – 26 October 2005), and Immigration (9 August 2004 – 26 October 2005).

In the 2005 general election Ryall won the largest National Party electorate majority in the country: in his Bay of Plenty electorate he gained a majority of approximately 15,800 votes. In the 2008 election he secured the country's second largest majority, behind the Prime Minister's 17,600 majority.

Cabinet Minister in the Fifth National Government: 2008–2014
From November 2008 to his retirement from politics in 2014, he served as the Minister of Health. Along with the Minister of Finance, Ryall oversaw National's government share offer programme, which yielded $4.7b from the partial sale of three state-owned electricity generators and Air New Zealand. He announced in February 2014 that he was to retire from politics at that year's general election.

Ryall was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament, in the 2015 New Year Honours.

After politics
Ryall joined law firm Simpson Grierson in November 2014 as head of its public policy practice. In February 2015, he was appointed a director of the New Zealand subsidiary of Australian nib Health Funds, a health insurance company. He is currently chief executive of BestStart Educare Limited.

title: Tony Ryall


text:
Bernd Cullmann

Bernd Cullmann (born 11 October 1939) is a retired West German sprinter who won a gold medal in 4×100 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. The German team finished second behind the American team, equaling its own world record of 39.5, but the Americans were later disqualified for an incorrect exchange.

Cullmann was gem cutter by profession and a national champion in the 50 m indoor in 1960, and in the 60 m indoor in 1961. He was part of the German relay teams that set two world records. His brother Hans was a middle distance runner.

title: Bernd Cullmann


text:
Crown ether

In organic chemistry, crown ethers are cyclic chemical compounds that consist of a ring containing several ether groups (R\sO\sR’). The most common crown ethers are cyclic oligomers of ethylene oxide, the repeating unit being ethyleneoxy, i.e., \sCH2CH2O\s. Important members of this series are the tetramer (n = 4), the pentamer (n = 5), and the hexamer (n = 6). The term "crown" refers to the resemblance between the structure of a crown ether bound to a cation, and a crown sitting on a person's head. The first number in a crown ether's name refers to the number of atoms in the cycle, and the second number refers to the number of those atoms that are oxygen. Crown ethers are much broader than the oligomers of ethylene oxide; an important group are derived from catechol.

Crown ethers strongly bind certain cations, forming complexes. The oxygen atoms are well situated to coordinate with a cation located at the interior of the ring, whereas the exterior of the ring is hydrophobic. The resulting cations often form salts that are soluble in nonpolar solvents, and for this reason crown ethers are useful in phase transfer catalysis. The denticity of the polyether influences the affinity of the crown ether for various cations. For example, 18-crown-6 has high affinity for potassium cation, 15-crown-5 for sodium cation, and 12-crown-4 for lithium cation. The high affinity of 18-crown-6 for potassium ions contributes to its toxicity. The smallest crown ether still capable of binding cations is 8-crown-4, with the largest experimentally confirmed crown ether being 81-crown-27. Crown ethers are not the only macrocyclic ligands that have affinity for the potassium cation. Ionophores such as valinomycin also display a marked preference for the potassium cation over other cations.

Crown ethers have been shown to coordinate to Lewis acids through electrostatic, σ-hole (see halogen bond) interactions, between the Lewis basic oxygen atoms of the crown ether and the electrophilic Lewis acid center.

 * [[Image:Various crown ethers (molecular diagrams).png|thumb|center|700px|Structures of common crown ethers: [[12-crown-4]], 15-crown-5, 18-crown-6, dibenzo-18-crown-6, and an aza-crown ether]]

History
In 1967, Charles Pedersen, who was a chemist working at DuPont, discovered a simple method of synthesizing a crown ether when he was trying to prepare a complexing agent for divalent cations. His strategy entailed linking two catecholate groups through one hydroxyl on each molecule. This linking defines a polydentate ligand that could partially envelop the cation and, by ionization of the phenolic hydroxyls, neutralize the bound dication. He was surprised to isolate a by-product that strongly complexed potassium cations. Citing earlier work on the dissolution of potassium in 16-crown-4, he realized that the cyclic polyethers represented a new class of complexing agents that were capable of binding alkali metal cations. He proceeded to report systematic studies of the synthesis and binding properties of crown ethers in a seminal series of papers. The fields of organic synthesis, phase transfer catalysts, and other emerging disciplines benefited from the discovery of crown ethers. Pedersen particularly popularized the dibenzo crown ethers.

Pedersen shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the synthetic routes to, and binding properties of, crown ethers.

Affinity for cations
Due to the chelate effect and macrocyclic effect, crown ethers exhibit stronger affinities for diverse cations than their divided or acyclic analogs. Hereby, the cation selectivity for alkali metal ions is mainly dependent on the size and charge density of the ion and the cavity size of the crown ether. Affinities of a given crown ether towards the cations of lithium, sodium, and potassium can change by multiple magnitudes, which is attributed to the high differences in their charge density. Between the cations of potassium, rubidium, and cesium changes in affinities are less notable, as their charge density varies less than the alkali metals in earlier periods.

Apart from its high affinity for potassium cations, 18-crown-6 can also bind to protonated amines and form very stable complexes in both solution and the gas phase. Some amino acids, such as lysine, contain a primary amine on their side chains. Those protonated amino groups can bind to the cavity of 18-crown-6 and form stable complexes in the gas phase. Hydrogen-bonds are formed between the three hydrogen atoms of protonated amines and three oxygen atoms of 18-crown-6. These hydrogen-bonds make the complex a stable adduct. By incorporating luminescent substituents into their backbone, these compounds have proved to be sensitive ion probes, as changes in the absorption or fluorescence of the photoactive groups can be measured for very low concentrations of metal present. Some attractive examples include macrocycles, incorporating oxygen and/or nitrogen donors, that are attached to polyaromatic species such as anthracenes (via the 9 and/or 10 positions) or naphthalenes (via the 2 and 3 positions). Some modifications of dye ionophores by crown ethers exhibit extinction coefficients that are dependent on the chain lengths of chained cations.

title: Crown ether


text: User talk:61.11.76.168

title: User talk:61.11.76.168


text:
Brae oilfield

The Brae field is a Scottish oil field. The name comes from a Scots language word for hillside. The field was discovered in 1974 by well 16/7-1 drilled by a semi-submersible rig Odin Drill for operator Pan Ocean.

The Fields are operated by TAQA Bratani and are located in UKCS block 16/7a. Three accumulations total about 70 million tonnes of oil liquids and a further 22 cubic kilometres of gas. The main platforms currently produce from underlying reserves, with regular infill drilling to identify and exploit undrained pockets in the Brae stratigraphy. A number of subsea tieback fields in the area produce through facilities on the platforms, extending their viability into the future. Gas is exported to St Fergus, Scotland via the SAGE pipeline system and oil is exported via the Forties system.

Field reservoirs
The hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Brae field have the following properties.

Topside facilities
The topsides for Brae Alpha (Brae South) were designed by Matthew Hall Engineering which was awarded the contract in August 1979. Initially there were facilities for 19 oil production wells, 14 water injection wells, two gas injection wells and 11 spare slots. The production capacity was 100,000 barrels of oil per day, 12,000 barrels of Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) per day and 4.25 million standard cubic metres of gas per day. There are two production trains each with three stages of separation with the first stage operating at the exceptionally high initial pressure, for that time, of 248 bar. Electricity generation was powered by four 25 MW Rolls-Royce SK-30 gas turbines. The topside accommodation was for 240 people. There were 14 topside modules and the topsides weight was 31,000 tonnes.

The topsides for Brae Bravo (Brae North) were designed by Matthew Hall Engineering which was awarded the contract in October 1983. Initially there were facilities for 12 oil production wells, three gas injection wells and 19 spare slots. The production capacity was 75,000 barrels of liquid hydrocarbons per day, and 11.3 million standard cubic metres of gas per day. There is a single production train with four stages of separation with the first stage operating at a pressure of 103. Electricity generation was powered by three 24 MW Rolls-Royce/GEC ERB-124C gas turbines. The topside accommodation was for 240 people. There were 21 topside modules and the topsides weight was 33,000 tonnes.

The topsides for East Brae were designed by Matthew Hall Engineering which was awarded the contract in October 1988. Initially there were facilities for 13 oil wells, and four gas injection wells and 13 spare slots. The production capacity was 120,000 barrels of liquid hydrocarbon per day, and 17.6 million standard cubic metres of gas per day. There is a single production train with three stages of separation with the first stage operating at a pressure of 102 bar. Electric power is provided from Brae A and Brae B by subsea cable. The topside accommodation was for 160 people. The topsides weight was 18,500 tonnes. Fabrication details are shown in the table.

title: Brae oilfield


text:
Louis Walsh

Michael Louis Vincent Walsh (born 5 August 1952) is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s. He has also served as a judge on television talent competition shows, including Popstars (2001–2002), You're a Star (2003–2004), The X Factor (2004–2014; 2016–2017), and Ireland's Got Talent (2018–2019). In 2024, Walsh was a contestant on the twenty-third series of the reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

Early life
Michael Louis Vincent Walsh was born in Kiltimagh on 5 August 1952, the son of Maureen and Frank Walsh. He has one older sibling and six younger siblings. He was raised Roman Catholic.

Music manager
Having moved to Dublin to start his music industry career in the 1990s, Walsh decided to create an Irish version of Take That, which the papers picked up on when he advertised the open auditions. The end result was Boyzone, whom he managed to international success with 16 top three singles, six of which were number ones, as well as four number one albums, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. When Ronan Keating announced he wanted to take a break from Boyzone, Walsh continued to manage his career. Keating achieved a number one hit with "When You Say Nothing At All" in 1999 and also "Life Is a Rollercoaster" in 2000, while his album sold 4.4 million copies. Keating and Walsh later agreed to part company as Keating's solo career reached an all-time high.

Walsh then went back to the boy band formula to create Westlife, which Keating co-managed with Walsh for the first couple of Westlife's number one singles and albums. Westlife were an Irish boy band, formed in Dublin in July 1998. They sold over 50 million records worldwide, a total that included studio albums, singles, video releases, and compilation albums. The group accumulated 14 number-one singles in the United Kingdom. They achieved a total of 26 UK top ten singles over their 14-year career, and achieved the first number one on the UK Singles Downloads Chart with "Flying Without Wings" in September 2004. Despite an earlier bitter feud, Walsh had a public reconciliation with Boyzone on the ITV2 programme Ghosthunting With... in which they explored a network of subterranean streets beneath Edinburgh. In December 2012, he became Union J's manager.

Television career
Walsh's first television work was in 2001, in the Irish version of Popstars. The following year Walsh appeared as a judge on the UK ITV show Popstars: The Rivals with Pete Waterman and Geri Halliwell. Walsh went head-to-head with Waterman on the show with his girlband Girls Aloud battling it out with Waterman's boy band One True Voice. Girls Aloud's debut single "Sound of the Underground" reached number one in the UK. Walsh managed the band to achieve a million singles sales while their debut album went platinum.

Walsh also frequently appears on various talent shows on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the most recent being You're a Star. He covered for Simon Cowell as a judge on Britain's Got Talent during series four's Birmingham auditions in February 2010, due to Cowell being ill. He again filled in for David Hasselhoff at the London auditions in the following series when Hasselhoff was unavailable due to appearing in pantomime.

In January 2012, Walsh appeared on the ITV documentary series The Talent Show Story where he was interviewed about being a judge on The X Factor and Popstars The Rivals. Fellow Popstars judge Pete Waterman also appeared on the programme as well as past and present X Factor judges, including Dannii Minogue, Simon Cowell, Kelly Rowland and Gary Barlow.

The X Factor
Walsh appeared from 2004 as a judge, along with Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne, on ITV talent show The X Factor. In 2004, Walsh found chart success with G4, who went on to have a chart-topping album and completed two tours of the UK. In 2005, Walsh managed the winner Shayne Ward, whose debut single "That's My Goal" spent four weeks at UK number one.

In November 2005, Walsh quit the show mid-series out of protest regarding his treatment on the show; the most explicit example being Osbourne's drenching him with water during a live recording. Walsh returned on the Saturday evening's live show, stating that he could not abandon his remaining competitor and eventual winner, Shayne Ward. Ward went on to win the competition with over 10 million votes in the final. Walsh then went on to win The X Factor: Battle of the Stars with actress Lucy Benjamin.

ITV announced in March 2007 that Walsh would not return as a judge on The X Factor, but would remain behind the scenes managing some acts from the show. According to UK tabloid newspaper The Sun, the decision to be replaced with two other judges came as a shock to him. He was replaced on the panel by American choreographer Brian Friedman. Osbourne, Cowell, Friedman and new judge Dannii Minogue appeared at the London auditions; however, after the first few days, Cowell decided to re-hire Walsh to the panel and hire Friedman as a choreographic instructor for the live show stages. On 22 June 2007, Walsh confirmed he would be returning as a judge for the fourth series of The X Factor. Friedman then became the show's creative director. Walsh mentored the Over 25s category in series four. In the 'Judges Houses' stage of the competition, Walsh took his acts to Dublin and invited guest Kian Egan to help him decide whom to take through to the live shows.

Cowell reportedly told Walsh off for his comments about the Spice Girls. Walsh had said that the girl group were "past their sell-by date" and lacking in talent, but Cowell already had plans to book the girls on the show.

In 2008, Walsh returned for the fifth series along with Cowell, Minogue and Cheryl Cole, who was hired after Osbourne quit the previous June. In this series, Walsh mentored the groups, choosing JLS, Girlband and Bad Lashes to represent him in the live shows. Walsh took his acts to Castle Leslie in Ireland during the judges houses stage where he was aided by Westlife star Shane Filan. Bad Lashes and Girlband were the first two acts to be eliminated over the first two weeks, but JLS finished as runners-up.

Walsh returned to the sixth series show in 2009, again mentoring the groups for the fourth time in six years. During the judges houses stage, the Groups and Walsh flew to Lake Como in Italy where Boyzone singer Ronan Keating helped Walsh pick his final three. Walsh took Kandy Rain, Miss Frank and John & Edward to the live shows. Kandy Rain were eliminated in the first live results show, from which Walsh was absent due to the sudden death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. Walsh was absent again on the Saturday and Sunday of the second week of live shows due to Gately's funeral on 17 October. In week three, Miss Frank were eliminated from the competition, while John & Edward were eliminated in week seven, though went on to have successful careers in the industry.

In 2010, Walsh mentored the Over 28s category on the seventh series of The X Factor. In the judges houses stage, Walsh took his acts to Adare in Ireland. Walsh was helped by former judge, Sharon Osbourne. His last surviving act, Mary Byrne, was a semi-finalist who finished fifth overall.

Walsh returned to the show in 2011 for series eight. He joined new panellists Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa, who replaced former judges Cowell, Minogue and Cole, all of whom left the show after series seven. This meant that, following Cowell's departure, Walsh became the only original judge left on the programme. During the Bootcamp stages it was announced that he would mentor the Over 25s category for the rest of the competition.

In the Judges Houses stage, Walsh took his acts to Barcelona in Spain where he was aided by Cowell's former assistant judge Sinitta. Walsh chose Kitty Brucknell, Sami Brookes, Johnny Robinson and Jonjo Kerr to go through to the live shows. His most successful act of the competition was Brucknell who made it to week six of the live shows before she was eliminated.

During the live shows of series eight, in an interview with former judge Minogue, Walsh stated that he did not know whether he would return as a judge in 2012. However, on 3 May 2012, Walsh confirmed he would return for his ninth series alongside Tulisa and Barlow. Former American X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger who replaced Kelly Rowland joined Walsh, Contostavlos and Barlow as the new full-time judge for ninth series.

Walsh filled in for Cowell at the Kansas City auditions for season two of the American version while Cowell was recovering from bronchitis. He joined the other season two judges: L.A. Reid, Demi Lovato and Britney Spears, and was introduced with the line, "When Simon needs an opinion from someone he trusts, I'm the man he calls". His episode broke ratings records for the series.

Walsh returned for the tenth series and was joined by Barlow, Scherzinger and fellow original judge Osbourne, who replaced Tulisa. Due to being the only judge to remain for the whole ten years, he was awarded by being assigned the Boys category, instead of the Overs and Groups he was assigned to every year, since mentoring Shayne Ward in 2005. His category consisted of Nicholas McDonald, Luke Friend, and Sam Callahan. McDonald finished in second place to Sam Bailey, mentored by Osbourne. Despite not winning, this was still by far Walsh's most successful year as a judge on the show due to going 5 weeks (breaking a record) without having any of his acts in the bottom two and had two of them (Friend and McDonald) in the final.

In 2014, Walsh returned for the eleventh series, while Barlow, Osbourne and Scherzinger were replaced by former judges Cowell and Cole, and new judge Mel B. In 2015, Walsh stated that he was considering not returning to the twelfth series of The X Factor, citing his desire to return to full-time music management. After rumours circulated that he had been fired from the show, Walsh announced his decision to quit the show, stating that he had not been fired, but he was not "hanging around for them this year."

In 2016, Walsh returned as a judge to replace Nick Grimshaw for the thirteenth series, alongside Cowell, Osbourne (who replaced Cheryl) and Scherzinger (who replaced Rita Ora). The same judges returned for the fourteenth series. On 7 June 2018, Walsh announced he had decided not to return for the fifteenth series, in order to focus on music management and other commitments. "The show needs a change and I'm ready to leave," said Walsh in a statement. Walsh was replaced by Louis Tomlinson.

In 2019, Walsh along with Cowell and Scherzinger returned to The X Factor as judges in the newly created format The X Factor: Celebrity. He was mentor of the winner Megan McKenna, marking Walsh's third overall victory on the show.

Ireland's Got Talent
In May 2015, it was announced that Walsh, would be launching a new Irish talent show, produced by Cowell, as a judge, set to premiere in 2017 or 2018. Walsh stated that he would like to broadcast an Irish edition of Got Talent, though he stated that the untitled talent show was only in early development. Walsh later confirmed himself on ITV's This Morning as head judge on the show, Ireland's Got Talent, alongside judges Michelle Visage, Denise van Outen and Jason Byrne. The show launched on 3 February 2018 on TV3 and ran for two series before being cancelled in July 2019.

Junk Kouture
Walsh has been a judge on sustainable fashion programme Junk Kouture since 2014 and has been joined by celebrities such as Rosanna Davison, Vogue Williams and Michelle Visage on the judging panel in recent years.

Other television
In July 2011, he raced the "Reasonably Priced Car", a Kia Cee'd, during series 17 of Top Gear On 1 September 2014, Walsh appeared on an episode of Who's Doing the Dishes? In January 2016, ITV announced that Walsh would appear in Drive, a new show which pitted eight celebrities against each other in a series of races in different vehicles. Hosted by Vernon Kay, the show began airing on 5 April 2016 In 2023 he was a guest on Channel 5's Eurovision: 30 Unforgettable Moments a chart countdown based on the song contest which also featured contributions from David and Carrie Grant, The Fizz and Johnny Logan, with footage from the 1980s' contest showing Walsh cheering on Logan included in the run time. In March 2024, Walsh entered the Celebrity Big Brother house as a housemate on the twenty-third series. During his stint in Celebrity Big Brother, Walsh revealed that he had survived a diagnosis of Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a rare form of blood cancer, in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He reached the final and finished in fourth place.

Ronan Keating
When Ronan Keating announced he wanted to take a break from Boyzone, Walsh continued to manage his career. Keating achieved a number one hit with "Life is a Rollercoaster" in 2000 while his album sold 4.4 million copies. Keating and Walsh later agreed to part company, and then had a bitter falling out. Walsh told the press, "[Keating] wasn't the most talented one – he's not a great singer and he's got no personality." Keating later told Closer magazine, "That man absolutely tried to ruin me and if he thinks we can ever hug and make up he can forget it. I haven't heard from him in three years and I wouldn't have a problem if I never saw him again. He's not a nice character." The feud between the two men had apparently ended by March 2008, and they helped select the finalists in the Groups category in The X Factor.

Louis Walsh v News Group Newspapers
Walsh sought access to documents which allegedly showed that The Sun UK tabloid paid €700 to a man who made a false sexual assault accusation against him. The man was later imprisoned for the false accusation. The senior counsel for Walsh told Ireland's High Court on 14 May 2012, "The Sun directed the operation to take out Louis Walsh as a public person." On 10 August 2012, the High Court ordered The Sun to give all documents and information to Walsh relating to the preparation of an article in The Sun entitled "Louis Probed Over 'Sex Attack' on Man in Loo". The article was published both in The Sun and their website on 23 June 2011. Walsh sued for defamation of character resulting from the false and malicious allegations and the case was settled out of court. Walsh was awarded damages of €500,000 and €180,000 costs on 28 November 2012. Despite winning the legal case, the false accusations had a "lasting effect" on Walsh who was, as of 2015, suffering from paranoid thoughts and panic attacks as a result of the ordeal.

Stephen Gately
Walsh was unaware of Stephen Gately being gay when he selected him for Boyzone and said in 2008 that, had he known, he would have thought twice before picking him. He elaborated that he might not have picked Gately because "it wasn't cool then to have a gay guy in a band".

Mel B
During an interview conducted by Sarah-Jane Crawford on The Xtra Factor during the semi-final results show in 2014, Walsh groped Mel B by her buttocks. Visibly irritated, she scolded and moved away from Walsh, who said he was only "looking after her". Crawford and the other judges, Cowell and Cheryl, tried to reassure her that she was "safe" while laughing off the gesture. After resurfacing on social media in July 2018, a few months after the Me Too movement began, the clip amassed millions of views on social media; it prompted discussion on the treatment of women by men and drew condemnation of Walsh and the responses of Crawford, Cowell and Cheryl. Some viewers defended Walsh based on his alleged homosexuality and the justification that he was unaware of what he was doing, while others pointed out that, if it can happen so openly in a public setting, there is a correlation to how frequently it may happen behind closed doors. Walsh stated on 21 July 2018 that he grabbed Mel B's buttocks as a joke, but conceded that the gesture was no longer "politically correct" due to social media reaction.

Misha B
Misha B, a contestant from the 2011 series of The X Factor, stated in June 2020 that she had been a victim of racism and accusations made by Walsh and Tulisa, who were judges on the show at the time. She says that the producers and screenwriters created a narrative to make her appear to be a bully. The X Factor team announced that they would look into the matter.

Awards and honours

 * 2009 Mayo Person of the Year
 * 2015 The Irish Post - Outstanding Contribution to Entertainment Award

title: Louis Walsh


text:
Sue Kedgley

Susan Jane Kedgley (born 1948) is a New Zealand politician, food campaigner and author. Before entering politics Kedgley worked for the United Nations in New York for 8 years and for a decade as a television reporter, director and producer in New Zealand.

Early life and career
Kedgley stated she had a sheltered upbringing being given a 'proper' girls upbringing and was a debutante. Along with her twin sister Helen Kedgley, she went to Samuel Marsden Collegiate School and later Victoria University. While studying at Victoria she became interested in politics, a subject she had previously little to do with. Kedgley became involved in student politics and was a member of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association from 1967 to 1969. She then studied at the University of Auckland and in 1971, while still a student, she joined Women's Movement for Freedom, a group formed in 1970 by Patricia Enting. In 1971, Enting handed over the leadership of the group to Kedgely, who renamed it Women's Liberation. That same year she stood for the Auckland City Council as a Labour Party candidate. Kedgley's Master of Arts thesis in political science was submitted to the University of Otago in 1972.

Kedgley was employed as a researcher on the show Checkpoint. She was unable to become a presenter, being told at the time that women couldn't because their voices "aren't deep enough and they lack authority". Kedgley has written a number of books on feminist issues, and was one of the founding leaders of the women's liberation movement in New Zealand. Her book, titled Eating Safely in a Toxic World, set the scene in New Zealand for a new movement of 'safe-food campaigners'.

Her autobiography Fifty Years a Feminist was published in 2021.

Local body politics
In 1992 Kedgley, having left Labour to join the incipient Green Party, was elected the Wellington City Council (WCC). She remained a member for 7 years and was the founder and co-convenor of the New Zealand Safe Food Campaign. While on the WCC, Kedgley held the roles of chairperson, Consultation Committee, 1996–1998 and chairperson, Transport and Infrastructure Committee, 1998–1999. She resigned from the council in December 1999 after winning a parliamentary seat, saying it would be impossible to carry out both roles successfully at once. Before leaving she pushed for a by-election to be held to replace her rather than an appointment. The Green Party did not stand a candidate and both the party and Kedgley endorsed independent candidate Ray Ahipene-Mercer, an environmentalist, who won the seat.

Member of Parliament
Kedgley represented the Green Party in the New Zealand Parliament since first becoming a Member of Parliament as a list MP in the 1999 election until 2011. She won re-election in the 2002, 2005 and 2008 general elections. Particular political interests include health, food safety, animal welfare, consumer affairs, transport and women's issues.

In 2005 her Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Bill, granting employees with dependants the right to request part-time or flexible hours, was drawn from the member's ballot. The bill was eventually passed as the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007.

In 2006 her Consumer's Right to Know (Food Information) Bill was drawn from the member's ballot, but was defeated at its first reading.

Kedgley was the Chairperson of the New Zealand Parliament Health Committee from 2005 to 2008 and was the Deputy Chair for 6 years prior.

In September 2010 she announced that she would not be standing for re-election in the 2011 general election. She gave her valedictory speech on 27 September.

Return to local government
In July 2013, Kedgley announced that she would be running for the Greater Wellington Regional Council on a Green Party ticket in the Wellington ward. She won a position on the Regional Council as well as the Capital and Coast District Health Board in the October elections. She announced that she would not stand for re-election to the Regional Council in 2019, but will contest the District Health Board. She was re-elected to the District Health Board at the 2019 elections.

As of 2021 Kedgley is on the board of Consumer NZ having been elected in 2013.

Honours and awards
In 2016, Kedgley received the New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Diversity in recognition of her work towards greater gender diversity in the workplace. In the 2020 New Year Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to women and governance.

Personal life
In 1990 she married Wellington lawyer and former Wellington City and Regional Councillor, Denis Foot, and they have one son.

Foot was a Wellington City Councillor from 1971 to 1977 representing the Citizens' Association when he stood down. In 1980 he was elected for another spell on the city council as well as to the Wellington Regional Council, stepping down in 1983. At the he stood in the  electorate as the Green Party candidate, placing third. At the 1992 local elections he stood successfully again for the regional council, this time for the Green Party, and was re-elected in 1995 before retiring in 1998.

title: Sue Kedgley


text:
Strandloper (novel)

Strandloper is a novel by English writer Alan Garner, published in 1996. It is loosely based on the story of a Cheshire labourer, William Buckley. The historical figures of Edward Stanley and John Batman also appear as characters. An English epileptic is transported to Australia, where he escapes and becomes the holy man of the Beingalite people. Many years later he returns to England, and walks his home landscapes like an Aboriginal. Reaching the village church, he smears his body with clay and performs a spirit dance.

Critics found the book private, idiosyncratic, and difficult; Jenny Turner admired its Buntingesque construction but disliked its biblical tone. The Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher likened it to a baptism of folklore that demanded work from the reader, but found that worth the effort.

Plot
In 1803, a farmer's son from Cheshire, William Buckley, participates in folk rituals which coexist with the local Christian church. An epileptic, William is prone to visions which contain patterns. He is being taught to read by the son of a local land-owner, Edward Stanley, who sees him as both friend and test subject. Both men have a close relationship with William’s fiancée, Esther. Edward’s father, Sir John, sees working-class literacy and community rituals as threats, and gets William convicted on a charge of trespass. William is transported to Australia.

On arrival in Australia, William escapes, surviving in the outback, and collapses on the grave of an Aboriginal shaman. He is discovered by some Beingalite people, who regard him as the reincarnation of their shaman, Murrangurk. William learns the Beingalite language; his epilepsy enables him to become their shaman. Taking Murrangurk’s name, he stays for thirty years, becoming a "feather-foot" - arbitrating in disputes, carrying out justice, and performing the "dreaming" rituals. The patterns he saw in his youthful visions are revealed as Aboriginal.

Many years later, he intervenes to prevent the slaughter of some newly-arrived English soldiers. He mediates between the Aboriginal tribes and the British sheep-farmers led by John Batman. For this, he is granted a governmental pardon, but remains as Murrangurk with his rituals. The aims of the settlers and Aborigines soon prove incompatible, as the Beingalite slaughter the settlers' sheep. In reprisal, the Beingalite are massacred, and the remnants of the tribe are forcibly Europeanised. Realizing his efforts have failed, he performs one last ritual in which he sees Bungil, the Beingalite ancestor. Bungil tells him that the Dreaming has been preserved: it is William's role to take it to his own home, for another person to take up later. As a token, Bungil gives William a ritual woomera spear-thrower. Back in Cheshire, William finds that the old community ritual has been destroyed. He meets Edward and gives him the woomera. Esther is a married woman; she has named her son after William, but it seems the actual father is Edward. Though heartbroken, William accepts these events as part of "the Dance". Bidding Esther goodbye, he leaves to ritually walk the landscapes of Cheshire as he once walked Australia. His walk ends in the church. Taking off his clothes and painting his body with clay, he dances a spirit dance.

Reception
The literary critic Jenny Turner, writing in The Guardian, notes that Strandloper has been described as Garner's "first ever adult book". She praises the novel as "constructed like a Buntingesque prose poem of continuity and rupture, environment and myth", commenting that the dialogue "is stunningly harsh and bare, forcing the reader to work and think and learn". She criticizes the "Aboriginal episodes" as "the usual anthropological nonsense, dotted with that giveaway primitive-peoples linguistic marker, the biblical cadence." In short, she finds the work "disappointingly precious" and "a bit embarrassing to read", even if "patches of the writing are lovely".

The author and folklorist Neil Philip, writing in Signal, states that Garner "clearly regards" the real-life William Buckley as his "spiritual ancestor". He notes that Aboriginal churinga are totemic artefacts that "record sacred details of the eternal Dreamtime", in a form that only initiates can understand. In Philip's view, that makes Strandloper heavy with private meaning, and accordingly "hard to gauge": he supposes that the first page will cause many readers to give up, and that this was intentional on Garner's part. He summarizes the book's theme as that "Aboriginal spirituality offers a balance of individual and community, and man and landscape, of a kind that we [Westerners] need". The novelist Brian Attebery, writing in The New York Review of Science Fiction, admires Garner's handling of the story. In his University of Oxford PhD thesis, the scholar of Welsh mythology Felix Taylor writes that "Garner’s depiction of aboriginal cultures, first in Australia in Strandloper and then back in Cheshire in Boneland, develops ideas of rootedness in a local landscape which also connects him to the spirit of his ancestors." Taylor notes that Garner had studied Welsh mythology in relation to his native Cheshire, and had then expanded his "idiosyncratic" understanding of this "into a wider conception of a universal mythic consciousness". In Taylor's view, Garner portrayed in the novel "what he saw as the psychologically restorative powers of mythological narratives and imagery."

The Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher, reviewing the book for the Mythopoeic Society's Mythprint, calls it "a remarkable, luminous, difficult book", and "the most purely mythopoeic of all Garner’s novels". Fisher warns that the work "is not for all readers", and not like Garner's other novels, either. In Fisher's view, it depicts "Garner's deep, almost baptismal immersion" into folklore and then an "alien mythology". The reader, he states, has to work actively to unravel "its abstruse layers". He found it "very much worth the effort". Another Tolkien scholar, Patrick Curry, lists Moby-Dick, The Master and Margarita, Le Grand Meaulnes, Riddley Walker, and Out of Africa as among the few works of "mythic fiction" that could be considered comparable to The Lord of the Rings, commenting that most of these were their authors' life's work. He wrote in 1997 that Strandloper might perhaps find a place alongside those books, but that it was too early to tell.

title: Strandloper (novel)


text:
Talk:Hip hop fashion

Edits by 211.30.6.162
Hip Hop may have emerged from the poverty stricken black areas, however, hip hop fashion is strongly linked to capitalist consumption and “commodity fetishism.” (Mitchell, 1996, 85) Followers aspire to the visual style of “bling bling” materialism, being an aesthetic of wealth characterized by diamond covered jewellery. A clear juxtaposition of style is evident as bling bling is worn with baggy, oversized pants and loose baseball tops, which are said to have been derived from US prison clothes, which are issued in one size only and emphasizes Hip Hop followers outlaw status. (Mitchell, 2003, 45) Hip Hop fashion fulfils the desire of youth for conformity, as it acts as a marker of membership within a group, as one Hip Hop gang may only wear Fubu tracksuits, whilst another only Adidas.

The above was written by 211.30.6.162 and removed by the same. Maybe something can be salvaged from it. I think that the Mitchell mentioned here is Tony Mitchell. Tim Ivorson 09:39, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Expansion tag
This is an important topic, that is prominent in today's society. I think it deserves a longer and fuller article than it currently has (with all due respect to those who contributed the current info). That's why I added the tag. I'm even tempted to nominate it for WP:COTW or something, but I'll give y'all a chance to add everything you know first! Its such important a topic, and there's so much to say about it, that i reckon it could even be featured article standard. Jdcooper 03:34, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

No mention of the demographics
Why is there no mention of any demographics (age, race, sex) that most commonly follow this fashion? 2_of_8 22:31, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Because there are no studies. 65.102.255.67 (talk) 04:33, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Missing another element...
This article fails to mention that with persons like Kanye West, style has changed as well. The phrase "Gettin my Kanye on" refers to his style of dress; polo shirts and cardigan sweaters and things like that. I think that his rise in popularity and how music is invariably tied into style makes this a point to me included as well.

Sports Jerseys?
Ths article doesn't really speak on the tremendous popularity of sports jerseys and "throwback" jerseys in hip hop fashion.--Section8pidgeon 09:34, 27 June 2007 (UTC) ((Jerseys are not cool anymore everyone knows that.)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.184.59.48 (talk) 21:06, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Haute Streetwear
Expect to talk about Haute Streetwear in the near future..--24.122.138.4 23:53, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Excessive censorship?
"Us [African-Americans] will always sing the blues / 'cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes."

I'm not sure this censorship is productive. Surely we shouldn't change the lyric because it's offensive, so we must be changing it for clarity. But isn't that what hardlinks are for? Just a thought 76.210.61.17 01:44, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * This isn't censored... The original lyric is "Us will always sing the blues"--the brackets are just to indicate who he's talking about. Calliopejen1 00:41, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Toronto is unimportant
"...youth living in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto..."; why Toronto? Where is the justification? There is no valid reference given in this article to support listing Toronto on par with LA and NYC, in having contributed to hip hop fashion.

Why isn't Philadelphia listed instead of Toronto? Or Detroit? Or St. Louis? Or Boston? Or New Orleans? Or Memphis for that matter? Surely American cities like Beantown, Philly, and Motown -- with much more heavily entrenched African-American communities than that of Toronto -- have had far more influence than has had Toronto upon hip hop culture. And within Canada, Halifax, Nova Scotia has a much older African-American community than does Toronto. Even otherwise obscure Plainfield, New Jersey has had a bigger influence than Toronto, what with George Clinton's "Parliament" virtually inventing the funkadelic sound that gave birth, ultimately, to rap and hip hop.

And then there is Chicago.

Indeed, just the South Side of Chicago alone, such as Kenwood, is more important than all of Toronto in contributing to hip hop fashion or hip hop, period. In fact, Cabrini Green itself has contributed more to hip hop than the entire region of metro Toronto. (Torontonians, if you are reading this and don't know what Cabrini Green is or means in African-American culture, please close your browser; you're wasting your time even being here).

This is just another example of something I note throughout Wikipedia: an insidious effort to make Toronto "look good". (Is this some desperate post-SARS spin?) Wikipedia is not a marketing vehicle to promote Toronto. It is so bad that I would almost suggest there is a conspiracy; for all we know, the city of Toronto municipal government has a department set up just to worm through Wikipedia articles to write positive things about Toronto.

A good example is the ridiculous Wikipedia article entitled "GTA", for "Greater Toronto Area". It is written like some 1950s Chamber of Commerce brochure; all it seems intended for is to boast how big Toronto is. Never mind that it is inherently incorrect (the claim that the GTA is the 5th or 6th largest metro area in North America conveniently ignores a standardized basis for delineating metropolitan areas; and frankly, "GTA", who cares).

In conclusion, this is why I removed Toronto from the list and added Philadelphia and Chicago instead. While it is difficult to find objective references to substantiate any city's claim to having founded, or contributing to the founding of, hip hop culture -- and I certainly am not entirely confident of the extent of the contribution of Boston and St. Louis -- I challenge anybody to prove that Toronto has had a bigger influence upon hip hop fashion than have had Chicago or Philadelphia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atikokan (talk • contribs) 02:40, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Photo request
We need some pictures of hip-hop clothing from the late 1970s and the 1980s. Basically any time before the present. Calliopejen1 (talk) 15:55, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

something
This article does not describe hip-hop fashion worn by women —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.164.159.157 (talk) 20:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

hi
hip hop,everyone know it,even it always been talk to time,coz hip hop is just like everyon doing in live..4 me hip hopis my life..i'm a b girl.,hip hop is my b girl life..hehehe

°°° —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.101.110.33 (talk) 08:02, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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Wiki Education assignment: Hip Hop 50
— Assignment last updated by KING162 (talk) 16:31, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hip hop fashion


text:
Ron Mark

Ron Stanley Mark (born 29 January 1954) is a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand First party, and former soldier, who served as Minister of Defence between October 2017 and November 2020. He served as mayor of Carterton from 2010 to 2014, and again from 2022 defeating incumbent Greg Lang.

Early life and family
Mark was born in Masterton on 29 January 1954, the son of Apiti Stanley Maaka and Te Aroha Maaka (née Grace). He was fostered with six Pākehā foster families in Pahiatua, saying "I wouldn’t have survived without them". He was educated at Tararua College from 1968 to 1970. Mark's first wife was Gail (née Berry) Mark, and the couple had four children. On 12 February 2012, Mark told the NZ Herald that his partner of seven years, Christine Tracey had made a leap year proposal. Marama Fox, formerly a Māori Party MP is a cousin of Mark.

Mark pursued a military career between 1971 and 1990, initially serving in the New Zealand Army. His first unit was the Royal New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers before moving to 2/1 Battalion, 3 and 10 Tpt Regiments and Queen Alexandra's Mounted Rifles before passing New Zealand Special Air Service selection. Mark served a 13-month tour of duty in the Sinai with the Multinational Force and Observers in 1982–83. After being refused entry into the NZSAS, he was contracted to the Sultanate of Oman as a technical staff officer from 1985 to 1986, and then joined the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces becoming an electrical and mechanical engineering officer in the Sultan's Special Force Electrical and Mechanical Engineers between 1986 and 1990.

Between 1990 and 1996, Mark was a commercial consultant, ran an import and export business, and was an amusement park operator.

Member of Parliament, 1996–2008
In the 1993 election he was the Labour candidate for the Selwyn electorate. He was later involved in the discussions about the formation of the New Zealand Democratic Coalition. When these failed, he joined New Zealand First. He was a list MP from the 1996 election until his party's failure to retain any seats in the 2008 election. During the (1996–98) coalition between New Zealand First and the National Party, he was the government's Senior Whip.

The New Zealand television channel TV3 was banned for three days from filming in Parliament in August 2006 for showing Mark repeatedly giving the finger to another MP.

In 2009, Mark told media that while he still had a subscription with New Zealand First, he was "not active", and that he would not rule out standing for Parliament with another party.

Mayor of Carterton
In 2010, Mark was elected Mayor of Carterton in the Wairarapa. He succeeded outspoken mayor Gary McPhee who retired after two terms. In the 2013 local elections, Mark was returned as mayor unopposed.

Return to politics, 2014–2020
Mark stood as a New Zealand First candidate at the 2014 general election, finishing third in the Wairarapa electorate. However, his ninth placing on the New Zealand First list saw him returned to Parliament, and he resigned as Mayor of Carterton, and was replaced by John Booth.

When the new Parliament was sworn in on 20 October 2014, Mark was one of two MPs nominated for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. He received 13 votes, coming second to incumbent Speaker David Carter.

On 3 July 2015, he replaced Tracey Martin as deputy leader of New Zealand First.

In 2015, Mark told National MP Melissa Lee to Go Back to Korea in parliament.

During the, Mark contested Wairarapa, finishing third place. However, he was re-elected into Parliament on New Zealand First's party list.

Following the 2017 general election, Mark was appointed Minister of Defence and Veterans following the formation of a coalition government consisting of the Labour Party, New Zealand First, and the Green Party. Mark was succeeded as New Zealand First deputy leader by Fletcher Tabuteau on 27 February 2018.

During the 2020 general election held on 17 October, Mark contested the Wairarapa electorate, coming third place behind Labour's candidate Kieran McAnulty and National's candidate Mike Butterick. He and his fellow NZ First MPs lost their seats after the party's vote dropped to 2.6%, below the five percent threshold needed to enter Parliament.

On 9 November 2020, Mark was granted retention of the title "The Honourable" for life, in recognition of his term as a member of the Executive Council.

After politics, 2020–present
Mark and other former New Zealand First MPs were approached by the media ahead of the party's AGM in June 2021. He said that he would not be attending the meeting or renewing his party membership, as he was finished with politics and not interested in returning to Parliament. Mark travelled to Ukraine to assist with humanitarian efforts during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mark was re-elected as Mayor of Carterton in the 2022 New Zealand local elections. He ran on a campaign for more scrutiny of council operations to avoid previous "cost blowouts", also drawing attention to what he described as "some political parties...pushing for central control over everything, whether by asset stripping first or imposing more and more legislative requirements". He later clarified his concerns that this was [an]..."ideological drive to centralise and put everything under the control of the government", citing the Three Waters reform programme as an example of this "collectivism". Mark also expressed some concerns about the voting process due to high numbers of people not receiving their voting papers, or votes going missing in the mail, stating that "constitutionally...[this]...is open to questioning by every court of law."

Review of local governments in NZ
The New Zealand Minister of Local Government announced a review on 23 April 2021 into the future of local government in the country. The independent draft report was released on 28 October 2022. Nanaia Mahuta noted that the government was "focussed on ways to keep a lid on rate rises...[and would]...continue to support the sector in its efforts to engage with local communities in order to get the buy-in needed for any change." The draft document acknowledged that the "pace of change" risked growing distrust of, and engagement with, democratic institutions and signalled five shift that needed to be made to address this: "strengthened local democracy; authentic relationships with hapu/iwi and Māori; a focus on wellbeing; genuine partnership between central and local government; and more equitable funding." The final report was released in July 2023. The New Zealand media noted on 4 August 2023, that Council representatives from Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa had met in response to a recommendation in the report that "67 city and district councils and 11 regional councils be reorganised into 15 regional groupings", and determined that they would "plan a new governance deal together...[considering]...everything from shared services through to amalgamating into one big council." It was noted in the piece that Ron Mark, who had advocated for this amalgamation between 2010 and 2014, said that "every council in the country is vulnerable", and while acknowledging Wairarapa was "not going to survive in its current form and structure", claimed the area could lose some of its asset base and autonomy if things move "to a more centralised socialist viewpoint, disempowering our people."

title: Ron Mark


text:
Geoff Bullock

Geoffrey William "Geoff" Bullock (born 6 November 1955) is an Australian singer-songwriter and pianist. He helped pioneer the Hills Christian Life Centre, which later became Hillsong Church. He was appointed as the church's worship pastor and was also the convenor of their annual conferences from 1987 to 1995, before leaving Hillsong in late 1995.

Bullock has recorded over 20 albums and written two books, Hands of Grace (1998) and The power of your love... Jesus the unexpected God (2000).

Early life and career
Geoffrey William Bullock was born on 6 November 1955 in Sydney. His father is Peter and his mother is Beth; and he grew up with a younger sister, Jane. Bullock was raised as a Presbyterian and attended Knox Grammar School from 1964 to 1972. He completed tertiary studies at North Sydney TAFE in 1976 for a Television Operator's Certificate II. From 1975 to 1984 he worked as a cameraman at ABC Television in Gore Hill, including work on The Marcia Hines Show, Farnham and Byrne (see John Farnham, Debra Byrne), Mastermind, Parkinson, The Norman Gunston Show and Play School as well as news and current affairs programs. During the early 1970s he played in "garage band after garage band" and by mid-decade was in a rock group, Arnhem, which toured the east coast of Australia.

In November 1978, at the age of 23, Bullock became a committed Christian. He said that "it was in that real charismatic, pentecostal awakening that was happening... I grew up with a bunch of teenagers and they started getting saved into what has become the Hillsong Church and eventually I went along and that was it." He was on the team, led by Brian Houston, that pioneered the Hills Christian Life Centre (later part of Hillsong Church) in August 1983. Aside from Bullock and Houston the initial pastors were Pat Mesiti, Mike Murphy, Donna Quinn and Michael Smith. Bullock was appointed the worship pastor for Hillsong Church in Sydney and was the convenor of their annual conferences from 1987 to 1995. Tanya Levin described him in her book People in Glass Houses: An insider's story of a life in and out of Hillsong (2007) writing that "[he] was our Piano Man. Short and stock, with blue eyes that pierced you like laser beams."

Bullock was a pastor at the Hillsong Conference in July 1995. He left Hillsong Church in October that year. In August 2004 he told David Adams and Lloyd Harkness of Sight magazine, "I burnt out, I suppose. At the time I was so convinced that God was asking me to leave and (now) I’m just not so sure... I just knew I had to go and I think, in a way, it was escaping a damaging spirituality that I'd allowed to happen. I don't want to blame those guys for it – it was my problem. Now I have become a very different person and so you can see that there was a divergence of style and theology and concept that came from it."

During Bullock's time at Hillsong Church, six albums were recorded and released by Hillsong Music for which he wrote many songs, including "The Power of Your Love", "Refresh My Heart" (both July 1992), "Have Faith in God", "You Rescued Me" (both July 1994), "I Will Never Be the Same Again" (1996) and "This Kingdom" (July 1995). He co-produced some of the albums with Russell Fragar and / or Darlene Zschech. He also wrote articles for various religious journals.

In 2006 Angelica Del Vasto of Worship Leader Magazine wrote about Bullock's song "The Power of Your Love" that it "encompasses the listener with... the empowering conviction that the Creator of the universe has done, and is doing, everything to convey His love to us. It compels us to face our own weaknesses and then fall into the arms of God." She noted that the "musical feel of the song [is due] to the use of minor chords to break up the major chords, a typical approach in his writing." Bullock acknowledged its influence on his later life, saying "so many of the songs that I had written [earlier] were given new meaning as I had to live out their inspiration. It is far easier writing a song than having to live out its words."

In January 1997 Bullock released the solo album You Rescued Me: The First Ten Years Anthology 1987-1997, a double CD album on the Breedon Hill Music label which collected his works written while a member of Hillsong. In 1998 he issued Hands of Grace – Face to Face Worship on the Kingsway label, of which Cross Rhythms' Trevor Kirk said that "[his] recent work has noticeably veered toward the middle of the road. This project goes further, and infringes on the ambient. Loads of swirling synths and elaborate (and lengthy) arrangements." Bullock also wrote his first book, Hands of grace: Jesus, God's symphony of hope, printed by Strand Publishing, in 1998. His album A Symphony of Hope was released on 21 May 1999, which was recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and has Paul Terracini as conductor and arranger. It had been recorded in Prague on Good Friday and included two tracks written by Terracini.

In 2000 Bullock's second book, Power of your love: Jesus: the unexpected God, was published. It was followed in early 2001 by another album, Deeper and Deeper, of which Jennifer Brooker of Cross Rhythms said that it had a "broad rich sound, immaculately produced; some numbers are arranged for full symphony orchestra" although she also wrote that "Shame the songs aren't more memorable, anyone looking for another 'Power of Your Love' won't find it." In October 2008 Bullock reflected on his songs, saying that they are "about worship, but worship is an entirely different thing. It is a bit like love songs. Love songs aren’t love, they are songs about love. I think worship is far more your response and your meditation and being confronted by what it means to receive grace and forgiveness from God."

On 22 August 2011 Bullock issued a triple CD compilation album, The Power of Your Love – The Songs of Geoff Bullock. He has said about his later work, "All my songs and my whole spiritual journey since [Hillsong] is all about what God has done for me, rather than what I would like to do."

He was interviewed in 2021 podcast of "I was a teenage fundamentalist" about his faith and his time at Hillsong.

Personal life
Bullock married Janine (born c. 1957, Lithgow) in 1980 and the couple had five children within a decade. Janine was choir master on some of Hillsong Music's releases, including Friends in High Places (July 1995). The marriage broke down in 1996 and he later recalled that "It was over before I knew it. I was just too busy to even notice what was happening. People say, 'Weren't there signs?' Of course there were signs. But we just thought OK, we'll just have to work harder – serve God harder – we'll do more for God and he will bless us. We separated within weeks of leaving Hills. It was a very hard time and it got worse as the months went on. I had to face the fact of my failure as a husband and a father."

Bullock's second wife is Victoria, They have raised her two children from a previous marriage.

Bullock has described his mental health issues, including "episodes of mania" and "long periods of depression". In 2003 he was diagnosed as having bipolar II disorder. In September 2010 he told Terry Allen of Christian Faith website of his condition, "[It] has caused all manner of symptoms in my life which has been confronting. One of the main ones being high levels of anxiety, which has seen me come and go publicly three times. I am now 10 years on and I feel the illness is manageable and the greatest gift, I think, is that I have been forced to learn insight into the way I think and the way that I do. I have learnt that by reflection on my past."

Geoff Bullock is now retired (since 2016) and lives on Scotland Island.

title: Geoff Bullock


text:
Pita Paraone

Rewiti Pomare Kingi "Pita" Paraone (30 November 1945 – 26 August 2019) was a New Zealand politician and chairman of the Waitangi National Trust Board. He was a member of the New Zealand First party.

Early life and family
Paraone was born on 30 November 1945 in Kawakawa in the Northland Region. He received his education at Motatau District High School and Bay of Islands College. He had a Diploma in Business Development from the University of Auckland, and a Diploma in Social Work from Victoria University of Wellington. He also attended the Henley Management College in Henley-on-Thames, England.

Before entering politics, Paraone had a long career in public service spanning several decades. He was a regional director for Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Maori Development. In the 1997 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori and the community. He lived in Pakuranga during his first period in parliament.

Paraone was married with three children.

Political career
Before entering parliament, Paraone was a board member of New Zealand First (1999–2000) and a member of the Board of Directors (2000–2002).

He stood in the in the  electorate but was unsuccessful. He was ranked 19th on the New Zealand First party list, which was too low to be elected from the list. He was first elected to Parliament as a list MP in the 2002 election. In the 2008 general election Paraone was sixth on the New Zealand First list, but the party lost all its parliamentary seats, winning no electorates and polling below the 5% threshold.

In December 2009 he was elected a Chairman of the Waitangi National Trust Board, replacing Jeremy Williams. Paraone has been on the board of the Waitangi National Trust since 1997.

In 2014, Paraone was re-elected as a New Zealand First list MP and was his party spokesperson on Māori Affairs, Treaty of Waitangi Issues, Pacific Island Affairs, and the Office of Treaty Settlements. At the 2017 election however, Paraone was ranked 11th on the New Zealand First list and was not returned to Parliament. Paraone publicly encouraged his party to support the formation of Sixth Labour Government of New Zealand. He was appointed chair of the Local Government Commission in November 2018 and held this appointment until his death.

Death
Paraone died in Auckland on 26 August 2019. He had undergone cardiac surgery just three weeks prior, but had failed to recover. The incumbent Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, offered his condolences, stating that he was "deeply saddened" by the death.

title: Pita Paraone


text:
Edwin Perry

Edwin Jock Perry is a New Zealand politician. He was a New Zealand First Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2005.

Member of Parliament
He was first elected to Parliament as a list MP in the 2002 election, having also stood in the Wairarapa electorate. He formerly held office in the National Party's organisational wing. Before entering politics, he worked in marketing. He lost his seat in the 2005 election.

title: Edwin Perry