Page 6 - HW November 2020

editorial
The lastest technology in Window Flashing and Joining Tape has arrived
NZ Hardware Journal is published 11 times per year (monthly except for January)
Group editor Steve Bohling steveb@mpm.nz
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2456 • 30/9/2018 www.abc.org.nz
Rewards in difficult times
WITH THE HARDWARE Awards just a few days ago as I write, I’d like to say a massive “thank you” to everyone who supported the 2020 program.
Thanks to those who nominated others, to those individuals and companies
who helped us assess their suppliers
and customers, to those who entered
or supported an entry and to our commercial partners.
The latter have been particularly supportive, given that for some five or six of the last eight months we’ve been on tenterhooks as to whether we’d actually be allowed to conclude the 2020 Awards with a meaningful gathering...
Well done too to our Finalists who, the judges agreed, were without exception
of an extremely high calibre – so, if you didn’t win, it isn’t a “fail”!
We will be featuring all our winners in the December magazine.
So goodonya, everyone – we were delighted to address what we saw as a clear appetite for a bit of R&R after an interesting year!
Talking of which, unbelievably, “coronavirus” is only the sixth most Googled word or term this year, globally.
Not a lot people know that.
“Google”, “facebook”, “youtube”, “you” and “video” were the top five most searched for terms, showing, if proof were needed, that, whatever the circumstances, people are always looking for diversion, this year perhaps more than ever.
Us Kiwis were far more specific, far more searching.
So far this year, our top Google searches were for “weather”, “you”, “google”, “facebook” and “news” with “covid” and “coronavirus” still relatively low on people’s interests, coming in at numbers 7 and 9 respectively.
More revealing is that the word “lockdown” has been declared the Word of the Year for 2020 by the Collins Dictionary, after a sharp rise in its usage during the pandemic.
Indeed, Collins registered over a quarter of a million usages of “lockdown” so far during 2020, against only 4,000 the previous year.
Says Collins: “Our lexicographers chose ‘lockdown’ as Word of the Year because it is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of COVID-19.”
According to the dictionary, “lockdown” is defined as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces”.
Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.
“Lockdown” “encapsulates the shared experience of billions of people”, says Collins.
Indeed it does, speaking as part of the team of five million.
Steve Bohling, editor steveb@mpm.nz
4 NZHJ | NOVEMBER 2020
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