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John Burns

Battle Guide •

Victory From Disaster: Last Stand at Rorke’s Drift

On 22nd January 1879 in the far flung reaches of the British Empire, a redcoated sentry stood watch. He wasn’t to know it, but at that very moment just a few miles away, the last of more than 1300 of his comrades, surrounded and outnumbered, were being cut down by an unstoppable enemy. In the hours to come, 4000 warriors of that great Zulu army would appear over the horizon and launch a series of brutal assaults against this small outpost in a fight that has gone down in history as the Battle of Rorke’s Drift.
Magazine •

The Library Collecting the Books of Tomorrow - Magazine

There are classic books – works that stand the test of time, touching the hearts of readers across the ages. And there are contemporary hits – books that really capture the zeitgeist, and flare in the moment.

And then there are books that are somewhere in between. Books that are already written, woven out of the collective cultural fabric of the here and now, but which will not be read for a hundred years.

This is what the Future Library in Oslo, Norway is all about.
Backpacking Light •

The Accursed Mountains: Exploring the Borderlands of Albania and Montenegro - Backpacking Light

The lads at the landing were working hard as the ferry pulled in. Laden with cars from the city of Shkoder to the southwest, the boat would need to deposit its cargo safely at Fierze, in the northeastern section of the snaking Lake Koman.

But this meant digging out a fresh landing site from the gravel at the lake side.

As the boat dropped its ramp, the ferry terminal crew buried it with rubble on the shoreline, giving the cars a smooth – or, at least, a relatively smooth – route up onto dry land.
PopMatters •

Resurrecting Bob Dylan's Not-So-Final Record 'Tempest'

Bob Dylan had an uneasy relationship with time.

The scratchy guitar and scratchier vocals of his eponymous 1962 debut channeled earlier folk and blues artists Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly far more than the jangly-pop and youth-centered rock ‘n’ roll dominating the contemporary airwaves.

The smart sideways glances and sardonic wit of his follow-up released a year later, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, later didn’t quite square with the image of a fresh-faced 23-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota.
Ultra Running World •

Extending Your Ultra Distance, Mindfully: Why it Might be Time to Rethink the Headphones

There's something special about cranking up the music and letting your feet do their stuff.

The right music enhances your mood, turning a familiar route into a new adventure – a new set of emotions to be explored.

Music can guide your tempo, pumping you full of adrenaline and giving you the strength to push that little bit harder for that little bit longer. It's motivating too – your favourite artist drops a new album? Stick those headphones on and get out for a run.