Although most of the birds escaped

A daily commuter, Alex Johns, of Ryde, asks: ''Are we becoming a nation of backpackers? It doesn't seem so long ago that city workers on buses and trains travelled light - women carried all they needed in a purse, and for men it was just a wallet and sometimes a briefcase. Now every second person is lugging an overstuffed backpack. I'm always tempted to ask: 'Why do you need all that stuff?''' Good question. So, all you encumbered commuters, are you willing to unburden yourselves and tell us what's in the backpacks? Another sign of the times. Rhona Stoloff, of Woollahra, reports: ''Passing a shop in Edgecliff Road recently, I noticed a sign saying 'Sorry we are open'.'' And John Boast, of Hunters Hill, informs us that a signpost in Bundanoon pointing to the Quest for Life Centre and the cemetery (Column8, yesterday) is out of date. He writes: ''The Quest for Life Centre has been dead for some time but the cemetery lives on.'' Rick Steedman's traveller's tale of ordering a flat white coffee in Canada but receiving a glass of chardonnay (Column8, yesterday) drew this response from Mike Millard, of Vancouver: ''Yep, a 'flat white' is unknown in Canadian Rosetta Stone coffee shops. And in Canada the prefix 'Tim' goes with the suffix 'bits', not 'Tams'.'' Advertisement: Story continues below ''By asking for mixed metaphors in Column8, you have unleashed a Pandora's can of floodgates into the china shop,'' warns James Cribb, of Lindfield. He may well be right, if the following contributions are anything to go by. ''One of my friends once told me I was 'digging myself into a corner'', writes Max Philipson, of Cremorne. ''I tell him now and then that he's 'backing himself into a hole', but my favourite is, 'I'll chew you up, spit you out, and throw away the key!' '' If mixed metaphors can be confusing, mixed drinks can be downright disgusting. Jennifer Saunders, of Bungendore, tells us: ''I ordered a lime and soda in a bar in Ireland and was given the most vile drink, which turned out to be lime and cider.'' An internet search by Aidan Wilson, of Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, of ''Googled'' as a verb (Column8, yesterday) yielded more than 20 million hits. And on the topic of genericised brand names, he tells us: ''In the outback, or more specifically in Kriol, the creole language of many top-end Aborigines, 'Toyota' has become the word for a four-wheel-drive, whether it's the Toyota brand or not. Any other car, whether a Toyota or not, is a 'modaga' (motorcar).'' It's bad news about one of the Sydney pigeons that stowed away on a container ship and ended up in Bluff, New Zealand (Column8, yesterday). Although most of the birds escaped, one was captured and is on death row. The Bluff Beacon's editor, Alan Mitchell, reports: ''The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has confirmed that the captured pigeon is being euthanased because of risk of avian disease.'' More likely revenge for the underarm bowling incident.

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Sceptical, I check, and it is simply not true

In my model, it's not a question of leading the economy but regulating it - but those limits on markets must be set by a respect for people's identities, traditions, lifestyles.'' Jacques Reland, the head of the European program at the Global Policy Institute in London, says Le Pen has managed to wrest the carpet from under both the left and right: ''She has pushed Sarkozy to the right to the point that he has alienated the centre while the left have alienated the workers and are seen as elite representatives of the civil services, the professional classes,'' he says. ''Le Pen does not describe herself as rar right as they are anti-Republic Amazingly, she has claimed the mantle of De Gaulle '' Alain Duhamel, the veteran from Liberation, the paper founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, says Le Pen is ''unfortunately, a very intelligent woman: combative, highly polished on radio and the television, extremely sure of herself and her intuitions and gifted with in an incomparable aplomb. She is, in fact, far more dangerous then her father ever was.'' Le Pen's formal leadership of the National Front may be new but she is no political tyro, despite her protestations that she ''fled politics'' all her life. At 18 she joined the National Front, for a while leading the party's youth wing. She has been a regional councillor in northern France and ran her father's campaign in 2007. Despite her profound Euro-scepticism, she has also been a member of the European Parliament since 2009. At university she trained as a criminal lawyer but in 2006 wrote in her autobiography, A Contre Flots (Against the Current) that her father's choices meant a miserable childhood. In 1976, when she was eight, a 20-kilogram bomb intended for her father blew up the family's apartment building in Paris. Unbelievably, nobody was killed or injured. Less than a decade later the party's office was destroyed in an arson attack. In 1987, when she was just 19, her mother, Pierrette, fell in love with her husband's biographer and ran off with him, sparking a bitter and undignified war over alimony. When Le Pen refused Rosetta Stone French to pay, making a quip about his former wife cleaning houses to earn money, Marine's mother posed for Playboy, not nude but in a skimpy maid's outfit. Le Pen says it was nearly impossible to practise law because nobody wanted anything to do with the poisonous family name. In 1998, by necessity she says, she moved into the ''family business'', taking on the National Front's legal branch. ''Being the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen - and therefore politics - was a very difficult milieu. It brought with it a lot of suffering, a lot of pain. It was for this reason that I avoided it,'' she says. ''But then politics set a trap for me. When you are born in such a milieu, when you grow up with it, you think - and I do believe - that it is a noble art in this world of such individualism. Politics is about caring for others. You cannot look after only yourself but have empathy, for the difficulties and experiences of others,'' she says, without a skerrick of irony. While Le Pen jnr refashions the National Front for a new generation, her anti-immigration stance remains as brutal as her father's. The big difference is that the rhetoric is tempered for a different period in history, a new zeitgeist in which a focus on cultural, not racial, differences is more palatable and intolerance is given gentler expression. So, too, Marine Le Pen's forays into the role of Islam in French society and the erosion of French values: all are favoured refrains but the most stinging criticism of populist, lightning rod issues such as Muslim prayers in the street, the headscarf and women-only days at public swimming pools is folded into the more respectable campaign for a national revival of France's all-important secularist traditions. For all this, she is free and easy with scaremongering statistics. At one point she asks if I was aware that French literacy levels have fallen below those of Tunisia. Sceptical, I check, and it is simply not true. Le Pen is not alone in this push to appeal to a new and wider generation of right-wing voters. Throughout Europe, the far right has gained ground in almost every poll over the past year - as well as in the European Parliament - as voters, confronted with vanishing jobs, burgeoning immigration and stagnant economies, walloped the mainstream parties they decided were responsible.

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Proud of time as president of chamber of commerce

As part of the Barnstaple and District Chamber of Commerce centenary celebrations Joel Cooper spoke to former president Herbert Malek about his time at the helm. As part of the Barnstaple and District Chamber of Commerce centenary celebrations, Journal reporter Joel Cooper spoke to former president Herbert Malek about his time at the helm. HERBERT Malek, 72, is known to many in the town as Mr Wimpy, having run the Barnstaple franchise of the burger bar since 1984. Originally from Austria, Herbert moved to the UK in 1959 for one year to learn the language. However, after meeting his future wife of nearly 50 years, Herbert decided to stay in the country and moved to Barnstaple in 1984.Having previously worked for Wimpy as a field operations manager, Herbert decided to open his own franchise of the brand in the town. He said: "I was very keen to get involved with the local community and meet some other businessmen in the town. "I joined what was then the Barnstaple and Braunton Chamber of Commerce just a couple of months after moving to the area." When Herbert joined the group there were 412 members. He said: "In its heyday the Chamber was at the forefront of the business community. "Almost every local business owner would join up and even the national chains like Boots and Marks & Spencer would encourage their managers to get involved." Herbert was president of the Chamber from 1988 to 1989. He said: "My year as president was fantastic. I made many friends and forged some great business relationships. "It also put Wimpy on the map in Barnstaple and Rosetta Stone Language attracted a lot of customers who wouldn't otherwise have visited." Herbert said his year at the helm had afforded him some fantastic experiences. He said: "I made it my business to attend every event I was invited to. "We supported the Pounds 10,000 CLIC Scanner fundraising scheme, played a big part in the Armada 400th anniversary celebrations and when he was North Devon MP Tony Speller, who was an honorary member, even took me on a tour of the Houses of Parliament. "My proudest moment as president was being invited to the opening of the fair at the Guildhall in 1988. I felt privileged and honoured and the experience will stay with me for the rest of my life." Herbert is still a member of the chamber but says he is more of a "backbencher" these days. He said: "We no longer have the influence because we have so few members. "National businesses don't encourage their managers to join any more and out-of-town shops like the new Tesco have pulled a lot of trade away from the High Street. "I would recommend the Chamber to anyone. It's a great way of meeting people, making friends and developing your business." IT was during Herbert's year as president that one of his former businesses, Mr M's Burger Bar on Queen's Street, was the subject of an attempted robbery. The would-be burger burglar burst into the restaurant wearing a pair of Y-fronts on his head and holding what appeared to be a shotgun. While he ordered a member of staff to empty the till, a female customer told the thief a police car had just pulled up outside, something she made up to distract him. The robber ran out of the shop without taking any money.

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Spare the electorate of any more stuffing around and just do it

Bruce Jones Pennant Hills Trolley good way to get the city moving Memo to Barry O'F and Gladys B: Amid the flood of advice from expensive experts on public transport, please consider this six-point, practical, achievable solution to moving Sydney's passengers expeditiously (Former CBD Metro chief to drive north-west rail link,'' April 7). 1.Eliminate all references to trams or the euphemistically termed "light rail". The 19th century technology. 2. Contact several of the major manufacturers of trolley bus systems around the world, and call for tenders to have a system running within your four-year term of office. (Some also make trams, but recommend using electric buses instead.) 3. Ask for the cost comparisons with trams, metros etc, and be very surprised at the capital savings, and the seamless blending with other traffic, on already existing roads and bus routes. The roads don't have to be destroyed and rebuilt for the rails. 4. Ask them how easy it is to extend the service quickly, to wherever it is needed, including greenfield developments and existing communities; as proven in hundreds of cities worldwide. Buses can use independent power systems away from the overhead wires if necessary. 5. Spare the electorate of any more stuffing around and just do it. Please. 6. Have a happy second term in office. John Ward Bangor Believe it or not, it's time to move on Imagine the outcry if the Reserve Bank raised interest rates because Glenn Stevens's horoscope had suggested he do so, or if he said that God told him to. He would soon be looking for a new job. A large number of people tolerate religion in Australia because they assume it will not have any effect on anything of substance - just a lot of rituals. In yesterday's Herald we see two articles: Aborigines against uranium mining (''Forget the billions, return Jabiluka Rosetta Stone Hindi site to Kakadu, say traditional owners''); and a proposed eruv in St Ives (''Panel to inspect sites before deciding on religious boundary''). Both these stories are in the same category as the Reserve Bank example above. All clear-thinking people should reject decision-making based on dark-ages ''thinking''. Kym Haines GordonGood Samaritan Tony Abbott quoted from the gospel of Matthew - ''The poor will always be with us'' - recently when referring to the plight of the homeless. Then today we have Cate Blanchett showing the true meaning of the gospels (''A big day for social justice'', April 7). Sometimes selective reading of the Bible can show up our innermost prejudices while others only find charity in their hearts. Zuzu Burford HeathcoteUnhappy Vegemite Forget golden staph and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. This morning I opened a jar and saw the ultimate suberbug: fungus able to grow on Vegemite. Brendan Jones Paddington (Qld)BYO party Why don't those in Labor's Left faction join the Greens, those in the Right faction join the Liberals, and close the party down? Put us all out of our misery. Janine De Saxe Cammeray It would appear that Tony Abbott's advisers have been impressed with the results of Barry O'Farrell's ''small target'' approach judging by Mr Abbott's conspicuous lack of growling and barking over the past few weeks. At least Australia seems a much calmer place while ever his spin doctors keep him at bay. Mark Pearce Richmond The Prime Minister's credibility fell a long way down into a dark pit of ignorance on Wednesday night's 7.30 with her mispronunciation of the word ''hyperbole''. I've heard of superbowl and pudding bowl, but never ''hyper-bowl''. Ellie Hallett Coffs HarbourA league of his own Cathy Wilcox's cartoon is footnoted ''(apologies to Churchill)'' (April 7). I know Clive was an inspirational rugby league player but I wasn't aware that he was given to delivering great speeches from fullback. Jim Dewar North GosfordMind your language Interesting how terminology changes to suit the circumstances.

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Iran's English-language Press TV airs re-enactment of murder

Camera, action ... Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani at her home in Oskou, north-west Iran, during the re-enactment. Photo: AP TEHRAN: Iran's English-language Press TV has aired footage of a woman, sentenced to death by stoning, re-enacting what it said was the murder of her husband. The broadcast came a day after reports from Germany that Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, whose case has sparked an international outcry, had been released. But those hopes were dashed as Iranian authorities mocked talk of her release by saying Mohammadi-Ashtiani was still in custody. Advertisement: Story continues below ''The defendant's case and judicial situation have not changed and she is still in Tabriz prison. Any news of her release is a sheer lie,'' Tabriz prosecutor Mousa Khalilollahi told the official IRNA news agency. ''Every once in a while foreign media give this case massive coverage for political aims.'' The Press TV report, which included interviews with Mohammadi-Ashtiani, her son Sajjad and lawyer Javid Houtan Kian who are also both in jail, did not give new information about the case. But it accused Germany-based Iranian anti-stoning activist Mina Ahadi of seeking to politicise the case in the Western media with the aim of undermining the Islamic republic. A German-based campaign group had said earlier that Mohammadi-Ashtiani had been released along with her Rosetta Stone Japaneseson and lawyer after photographs of her at her home first appeared in the media. The still photographs were taken from the television reconstruction. Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, was sentenced to death by two different courts in the north-western city of Tabriz in separate trials in 2006. Her sentence to hang for her involvement in the murder of her husband was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007. But a second death sentence by stoning on charges of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband's murder, was upheld by another appeals court the same year. The ''reconstruction'' aired on Friday showed Mohammadi-Ashtiani repeating details of her husband's murder - as previously described by Iranian officials - in her home in the small town of Oskou in north-west Iran. It was the third time she had been paraded on Iranian TV. The report also showed pictures of two German journalists jailed since October along with Mohammadi-Ashtiani's son and lawyer after reportedly conducting an interview with Sajjad. Before the broadcast, the English-language satellite channel said the program ''will shed light on the highways and byways of the murder''. Faced with an international campaign for Mohammadi-Ashtiani's release, Iran has sought to shift the focus from adultery charges to her involvement in murder. Amnesty International condemned the broadcast before it was aired, saying ''international standards for fair trial guarantee the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself or to confess guilt''. ''It appears that the Iranian authorities are using the Iranian media as a tool to portray her as a dangerous criminal who deserves to be executed,'' Amnesty said.

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Sunday TV: 100 Years of Mills Boon

Photo: Reuters Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills Boon ABC1, 8.35pm Lust, tears, burning stares and 100 years of arrogant andhandsome men penetrating passionate and proud women's betterjudgment are celebrated beautifully in this salute to romancepublisher Mills Boon. Writer Emma Frost's clever approachweaves together three women's stories, each set in a differentperiod, to illustrate the impact, importance and oft-disdainedformula of Mills Boon books. Advertisement: Story continues below Olivia Colman is excellent as Janet Bottomley, a put-uponspinster living in the 1970s. She finds refuge from the era'sdreary sexism and her mother's ailing health in Mills Boonnovels but becomes infatuated with the officious doctor giving hermo ther a hip replacement. Inspired, Bottomley writes a swooningromance novel of her own. The second story, set between and , centres on Mary Boon, who pressed her husband, Charles, to concentrate on romancetitles. In the third story, Emilia Fox plays a present-day English lecturer who is teaching a course in romantic fiction and whose cynical, somewhat politically correct notions of passion areup-ended by a young, hot-blooded student. Heston's Feasts SBS One, 8.35pm Jelly phalluses, melting watches, an edible mini-garden with fried insects and a drink flavoured with toffee, buttered toast,cherry pie, custard, pineapple and turkey. British chef Heston Blumenthal makes these dishes to re-create the Victorian era's love of the exotic and invites celebrities to taste them. He seems like a spoilt twit until his determination and exhaustive Rosetta Stone German research reveal him to be an adept scientist and ingenious bon vivant. History of Scotland SBS One, 7.30pm In the first episode of this ambitious five-part series,Scottish archaeologist Neil Oliver stands before an aerial view of his homeland to declare its beauty "overwhelming". But he believes it has suffered from its past being shaped by myths. His mission -to look beyond the legends and find the nation's real story -begins with the "birth" of Scotland, a land inhabited by disparategroups that joined to fight invading Romans. Lenny Ann Low Show of the week: John Adams SBS One, 9.30pm Quiz games are in vogue. The best of recent times was Stephen Fry's QI which modestly stands for Quite Intelligent but could alsoembrace Quite Indulgent. The hum our was scarcely restrained as it descended into erudite vulgarity, the best and naughtiest exponents of which were rewarded the lowest marks and loudest applause. QI has just finished up on the ABC so here's a quiz question tokeep the pot boiling. Who was the first vice-president of the US,eventually succeeding George Washington in the top job by a mere three votes? The title of this absorbing series and wondrous love story from HBO gives the game away. Its chubby hero, John Adams, apassionately honest Boston lawyer and orator, would eventually bindtoge ther the emerging 13 United States and establish a lastingrelationship with a defeated Britain and its detested redcoats. Adams was a forgotten pinnacle of US politics until this seven-part series, based on David McCullough's book, won 13 Emmy Awards. Frugal in everything apart from the flowing language with which he notably defended British troops during a hostile courtroomappearance, Adams is played with magnetic perfection by Paul Giamatti. His skill is matched by Laura Linney, as his beloved and influential wife Abigail. Their partnership offers a warm glow, asanctuary from the horrifying happenings on the streets as the Boston Tea Party brews open rebellion. The first episode contains a horrendous scene of mob law that starts powerfully and grows in intensity to its distressingconclusion. The episode opens in 1770 with Adams plodding home on his horse to snowbound Boston. It ends with him clip-clopping off to Philadelphia, an elected member of the short-lived Continental Congress.

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Most homes have DVDs and a digital camera

This classic combination of technological advances caused what many people call an inflection point - when all the conditions are right for a major new advance. Nobody really predicted the explosive growth of the internet. As late as 1994, even Bill Gates called it a transitionary technology "that doesn't even have a billing system" (Gates is into billing systems). But the inflection point hit hard in the mid '90s, leading to a frenzied tech boom and some of the biggest changes we have ever seen in the effects of technology on society. Falling prices and vastly improved ease of use switched the focus of technology from corporations to the individual, and to the home. The biggest changes have been in personal communication - the internet, the mobile phone and pay TV. In April this year, research company Connection Research Services released the results of a major survey into the digital usage habits of Australian households. CRS interviewed more than households, and found that 65 per cent were connected to the internet. More than one-third of these were on broadband, with the proportion predicted to grow to half over the next two years. Ten years ago less than per cent of homes were on the internet. All connections were dial-up - the concept of broadband didn't even exist. The CRS study also found that more than 80 per cent of Australian homes have at least one mobile phone, and most own more than one. Most homes have DVDs and a digital camera. They also have multiple TVs, and 80 per cent have at least one computer. Home theatres, driven by the plummeting cost of new TV technologies, are now found in nearly per cent of all homes, often in rooms dedicated to the purpose. For a glimpse at the future, look at Korea. Nearly 80 per cent of Korean homes have broadband connections - and Korean broadband is truly Rosetta Stone Chinese broad. Most connections are at 2 megabits per second (2Mbps) or higher (a typical residential broadband connection in Australia is 5kbps). The Korean Government expects that 70 per cent of internet connections will exceed Mbps by the end of 06 and that most will be at 100Mbps by the end of the decade. At these speeds, and with this level of penetration, the internet pervades Korean society to an extent unknown in the rest of the world. But with success come problems. In Korea, cyber crime is out of control, and a quarter of all teenagers are classed as internet addicts, many with behavioural problems. New cultural tools have appeared, such as "avatars", digital characters used to identify yourself online. There exists in Korea a digital world, of the kind predicted in Tad Williams's sci-fi trilogy Otherland, which is as real to its inhabitants as the corporeal world. Gangs of cyberyouths roam the net, stealing cybergoods from unfortunate avatars and disrupting things. There are other challenges. What is the future of intellectual property when music, films and software can be transmitted around the world in an instant and copied an infinite number of times? How can we make the virtual world as secure as the real world? Can we even distinguish real life from cyberlife? In , we already have the sub-$ notebook, the terabyte (1024 gigabytes) of storage on our video recorder, and the video camera in our phone. Ten years from now, everything we have now will be cheaper, smaller and easier to use, and a lot more mobile. The phone network, pay and free-to-air TV networks, and the net itself will all merge into a larger network, which some are calling the Supernet.

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