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Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery photographed by Hélène Binet
Amy Frearson | 22 October 2015 Leave a comment
These new images by Swiss-French photographer Hélène Binet offer a detailed look at the spaces of Damien Hirst's new south London gallery, which opened to the public earlier this month (+ slideshow).
Designed by London architecture firm Caruso St John, Newport Street Gallery is a space for the artist to exhibit pieces from his own personal collection, which includes works by Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons and Pablo Picasso.
The gallery is housed within three renovated red-brick warehouses – originally built in 1913 for theatre carpentry and scenery production – and two new structures constructed from black engineering bricks. It stretches along an entire street in Vauxhall.
Newport Street Gallery opened to the public on 8 October 2015, with an inaugural exhibition dedicated to the work of Sheffield-born abstract painter John Hoyland.
The building has since had mixed reviews from critics, with comments ranging from "unremarkable" and "severe", to "finely crafted" and "immaculate".
The Telegraph's art critic Mark Hudson wrote: "The space itself is unremarkable: a tasteful warehouse conversion that looks just like any other white-walled gallery."
Digital photographs of buildings can be "disturbing", says Hélène Binet
But the paper's architecture critic Ellis Woodman disagreed, suggesting that there is more to the building than its robust brick facade. "The severe exterior conceals moments of surprising exuberance," he said.
Financial Times critic Edwin Heathcote echoed Woodman's sentiment, claiming the gallery "reveals itself to be extremely finely crafted only on a closer look."
He also praised the building's interiors, particularly the white brick staircases that spiral between the floors. Heathcote described these as "perhaps the best the city has seen for decades, a return to a kind of Edwardian civic architectural grandeur".
In the Guardian, architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright also lauded the building as a display of craftsmanship, but questioned whether the overall effect was too understated.
Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid photographed by Hélène Binet
"It looks a bit like a block of luxury docklands apartments – a couple of old brick warehouses with a polite in-keeping brick extension," he said. Wainwright then went on to describe it as "a model of careful craft by one of the best architects practising in the UK today".
The new photographs of the building demonstrate the high-contrast style favoured by Hélène Binet, who still shoots exclusively in analogue rather than using digital. In an interview with Dezeen earlier this year she said she finds digital photography "slick" and "very disturbing".
Binet also recently photographed another Caruso St John-designed London gallery – the recently completed Gagosian Grosvenor Hill. The two projects are among several new exhibition spaces in the capital, where the art and design scene is experiencing a "new energy", according to gallerists and collectors.
Caruso St John
Newport Street Gallery
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Toby Keith 2018 Tour
Toby Keith Celebrates First Hit With Milestone Tour
Should've Been A Cowboy Tour XXV Marks Debut's Silver Anniversary
Tour Presented By Ford F-Series Amid More Honors
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) The song that started it all comes full circle in 2018 with the Toby Keith Should've Been A Cowboy Tour XXV presented by Ford F-Series. Released to radio 25 years ago this month and went on to be the most played country song of that decade, "Should've Been A Cowboy" kicked off a multi-platinum career that - appropriately since it was written solely by Keith - eventually led to his induction in the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2015).
The tour opens April 6 in Salt Lake City and, to-date, travels throughout North America. Like all his recent tours, the trek is presented by Ford F-Series and promises a full complement of Keith's too-many-for-the-setlist hits. Sure to be among them, of course, is "Should've Been A Cowboy." See tour itinerary below. Additional dates will be announced soon.
BMI's David Preston,
Scotty Emerick, and Toby Keith
Another song he wrote, "I Love This Bar," was recently honored by BMI for more than 4 million performances on commercial radio stations. And it all began more than 25 years ago with an off-hand comment.
"Cowboy" Stats
Writer: Toby Keith
Produced by Nelson Larkin and Harold Shedd
Debut album Toby Keith released April 20, 1993
Two-week Billboard No. 1 June 5 & 12
BMI Country Award Winner (1994)
Nearly 7 million BMI radio performances
Most played country song of the 1990s
More than 200 million views/plays across streaming services
Behind "Cowboy"
Keith was at a bar with some hunting buddies when one asked a woman to dance. She declined. A cowboy approached the same woman and his dance request was accepted, prompting Keith to say, "John, you should've been a cowboy." That night, back at his hotel, Keith wrote the song in about 20 minutes, holed up in the bathroom as his roommate slept. His inspiration included the TV series Gunsmoke.
While sound-checking with the song as a member of a house band, Keith was approached by the late Chris LeDoux, who asked to record the song. Keith informed him he'd just been signed to Mercury and the song would be his first single.
"Should've Been A Cowboy" has carried as far as Keith's performances at forward operating bases in war zones during his USO Tours, inclusion in the video game Rock Band, and to a stage in Saudi Arabia, where Keith was the nation's first western performer.
Toby Keith Should've Been A Cowboy Tour XXV
April 6 Salt Lake City, UT Vivnt Smart Home Arena
April 7 Florence, AZ Country Thunder
April 8 Huntington Beach, CA Coastal Country Jam
May 27 Daytona Beach, FL Country 500 Fest
June 8 Myrtle Beach, SC Carolina Country Music Festival
June 17 Santa Rosa, CA Country Summer
July 5 Ft. Loramie, OH Country Concert at Hickory Hill Lakes
July 6 Battle Creek, MI Firekeepers Casino
July 13 Hinckley, MN Grand Casino Amp
July 14 Rhinelander, WI Hodag
July 19 Harrington, DE Delaware State Fair
July 20 St. Clairsville, OH Jamboree In The Hills
July 21 Twin Lakes, WI Country Thunder
July 27 Cheyenne, WY Cheyenne Frontier Days
July 28 El Dorado, KS Dam Music Festival
Aug. 2 Davenport, IA Mississippi Valley Fair
Aug. 18 Calgary, AB Country Thunder
Aug. 25 Glenmoore, PA Citadel Country Spirit USa
Aug. 31 Huron, SD SD State Fair
Sept. 15 Puyallup, WA Washington State Fair
Reba Does ACM noms 3/1
Chris Janson Opry Induction
George Strait in Las Vegas
Chris Young Extends Tour
Billy Currington 2018 Tour
Dierks Bentley Clothing Line

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The emir defends that Qatar and Spain "have a lot in common" and says that his visit will strengthen the relationship
MADRID, 17 May.
17 May 2022 Tuesday 04:28
News Editor 2
MADRID, 17 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Qatar's emir Tamim bin Hamad al Thani stressed on Tuesday that his country and Spain "have a lot in common" and expressed his conviction that his state visit will strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
This has been pronounced in a brief joint session of the Spanish Courts held in the Senate and during which the president of the Lower House, Ander Gil, and that of the Upper House, Meritxell Batet, have awarded him the medals of honor of both cameras.
The Qatari sovereign thanked this gesture and the welcome received and stressed that Qatar and Spain have "historic relations" that this year celebrate their 50th anniversary.
"This visit comes to strengthen these relations in all areas, both at the institutional, governmental, parliamentary but also popular level," he maintained during the ceremony held in the former Senate Sessions Hall.
"We yearn for friendly relations between Qatar and Spain, two countries that have a lot in common, especially many values in common", he added, in which a priori they will be his only public words during his stay, in which he plans to meet with King Felipe VI and also with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
For his part, Ander Gil stressed that in the past half century "bilateral relations and cooperation have not ceased to strengthen", first after the arrival of democracy in Spain and then with the opening of two embassies between 2003 and 2004.
"Both of us have grown and improved in these decades", defended the president of the Senate, who also pointed out that the two countries have "experienced significant modernization processes" and now both are immersed in new plans in this regard, in the case of the Gulf country with the Qatar 2030 initiative and in the case of Spain with the 2030 Plan.
The two countries "think of a future of well-being, sustainability and happiness for our citizens", Gil asserted, but for this "we have to deepen the economic and social transformations that we have already promoted and think in terms of modernization, commercial cooperation and culture and diversification of our markets".
"We trust in a greater strengthening of relations," he concluded, trusting that in those aspects in which the two countries cooperate, they will do so "from trust and mutual respect."
The emir of Qatar has started his first state visit to Spain since his arrival to the throne very close to the seat of Parliament. Thus, as established by protocol, he has been received with all honors in the Plaza de Armas of the Royal Palace by Kings Felipe VI and Letizia.
Sheikh Tamim, who has traveled accompanied by his wife Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim al Thani, has received military honors with the interpretation of the national anthems of the two countries and the traditional 21-gun salute.
The King and the emir then reviewed the battalion of honors of the Royal Guard, after which they greeted both official delegations. On the Spanish side were Sánchez, Gil and Batet, as well as the president of the Constitutional Court, Carlos Lesmes, the foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida.
Precisely, the latter has handed over the keys to the city of Madrid to the Qatari sovereign in a subsequent ceremony. The emir plans a meeting at the Palacio de la Zarzuela with Don Felipe, after which the King and Queen will offer the Qatari monarch and his wife a private lunch. The traditional dinner of honor is scheduled for tonight at the Royal Palace.
1 Anti-Covid vaccine: no, it is not planned to receive... 2 The recommendations of the Court of Auditors less... 3 Army deployed to help fight outbreak in North Korea 4 Feijóo criticizes the lack of "foresight"... 5 After the heat, hail falls in Quebec 6 Germany sends Ukraine about 2,500 grenade launchers... 7 WOW 6: Enrique 'Wasabi' stars in a luxury... 8 The PSOE challenges the PP to answer for the Villarejo... 9 We can see "humiliating" that the emeritus... 10 Feijóo defends that the king emeritus "can return...
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Anti-Covid vaccine: no, it is not planned to receive...


In case the heat and the State Fair weren't strong enough reminders that summer is vibrantly in full swing, head to Whitey's Jolly Kone, 1300 Jefferson Boulevard in West Sacramento. Their seasonally fresh peach shakes are here! Thick, creamy, and speckled with ripe, tangy peaches, you can lose yourself in the moment as you slurp. At $3 for a regular and $3.50 for a large, this is one summer treat that everyone can appreciate.
The scent of perfectly greasy fries and burgers oozing their goey juices over the grill will lure you in. The great prices at this 2009 Zagat-rated burger stand will make you stay. But hurry! The shakes won't last once peach season ends. And be sure to note their hours of operation: weekdays 8:30 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. and Saturdays 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. I've been foiled several times by showing up when they're closed.
Had one last week and it was sooooooooo good! Get em while they have em.


Ontario, Ca. – Citizens Business Bank Arena has announced the position of General Manager has been filled by Adam Millar. He will take on the day to day duties of a General Manager.
"We are pleased to welcome Adam to Ontario and look forward to his expertise in managing and booking an entertainment venue." said Michael Krouse, Regional Vice President of SMG Worldwide. "His experience in the industry and core strength of working in Southern California will ensure we will continue to meet our goals since taking over management of the venue on July 1, 2016." Adam will lead the team and continue to build upon the improved content and guest experience upgrades at Citizens Business Bank Arena.
Adam Millar began his career in the entertainment industry as an intern for SMG at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum & Sports Arena, working his way up to Event Manager. Following that, he served as the Director of Event Management for the SMG-managed Network Associates Coliseum & Oakland Arena until taking on the position of Managing Director for The Forum. Adam's career then included positions as the Director of Booking & Event Services at Staples Center, Theatre Operations Manager of The Greek Theatre, and Director of National Events for USA Water Polo, all in the Los Angeles area. Most recently, Adam has served as General Manager of City National Grove of Anaheim since 2005.
Knowledge and work experience in several positions within a venue will provide Adam the tools to educate and lead the team at Citizens Business Bank Arena. He has a B.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University and is a graduate from International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) Oglebay Venue Management School. He is a 2018 Candidate for the IVAM Certified Venue Executive (CVE) Certification.
Adam, a sports and music fan, resides in Long Beach with his wife Doreen, and their family.


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Denied PG degree, 3 Mangaluru students win relief after fighting own court battle
Mangaluru, Feb 06, 2018: Three former students of St. Aloysius College in Mangaluru have finally won compensation from their institute after a prolonged court battle in which the students represented themselves since they could not afford a lawyer.
Sandhya D'Souza and Reena S were part of the first batch of the MS Communication course at St. Aloysius institute in 2008, and Harsha Raj was part of the 2009 batch of Master of Communication and Media Studies.
When the trio graduated, they were not given their degrees as the institute was yet to gain approval from Mangalore University for the courses they had advertised.
"The institute, which was yet to gain approval from the University, started the course in 2008. They applied for the course application and did not wait for the approval to come. They started the course. It gained approval only in 2011 and the University told students that whoever graduated in 2011 will not receive degrees," recounts Sandhya.
When the university gained approval, it did not recognise students from the 2008 and 2009 batches as they had completed their studies before the approval was finalised.
Not ones to take things lying down, the trio filed a case in the district consumer forum in 2012 and were awarded their degrees and compensation for the course fees they paid only for the institute to take the case up to the state and national level.
"When the district court ruled in our favour, they took the matter up to the Karnataka consumer court and then to Delhi. When the court cases were in Mangaluru or Bengaluru, it was easy for us to go to the court and represent ourselves but when we were fighting the case in the Delhi court, the three of us would pool in our resources and one of us would go to Delhi to take part in the hearings," says Sandhya.
Even when the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruled in our favour, the institute failed to repay the students the full course fee and the trio had to start from scratch all over again by filing another case in the district consumer court. After a series of court hearings which were again taken up to the state and national levels, the institute finally paid the trio their course fee and litigation expenses in January 2018.
The compensation comes five-and-a-half years after the trio first took the institute to court. "When I graduated I wanted to do a PhD but I was not able to, since I was fighting to get my master's degree. Instead of filing job applications we were filing court applications," says Sandhya. While Sandhya did not manage to do a PhD, she worked with Deccan Herald while Harsha Raj worked with The Indian Express in Bengaluru and Reena at Samaya TV while simultaneously following up on the constant merry-go-round of court cases.
The trio also received help along the way as two lawyers - Shridhar Chakravarty and Gangadhar Ullal - gave guidance to the trio on a pro-bono basis.
The trio's success paves the way for 21 other former students of the institute from the 2008 and 2009 batches to demand compensation for themselves.
Courtesy: thenewsminute.com


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Home » Guest Blogs » HMIs Transform How We Interact With Vehicles
HMIs Transform How We Interact With Vehicles
October 8, 2020 Robert Huntley for Mouser Electronics
Human machine interfaces (HMI) have become omnipresent in new vehicle models. Used initially as a replacement for car radio and cassette/CD entertainment units, they quickly added satellite navigation capabilities to turn them into an infotainment system. Designs vary, some opting for a tablet-style landscape-orientated display, while others are seamlessly integrated into the vehicle's instrument cluster. Typically, they share the sleek glass touchscreen display approach used by our smartphones and tablets, making the HMI feel familiar and easy to use. Today, an infotainment system has further integrated smartphone functions through apps such as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. As technology continues to be added to our vehicles, everything from advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), to changing the color of the interior trim lighting, the infotainment HMI has become a core part of the vehicle's cockpit and control mechanism. The move to integrating more control functions has also allowed vehicle manufacturers to remove traditional mechanical buttons and switches from the dashboard, further advancing the sleek and stylish aesthetics on a vehicle's interior design. Here, we'll look at various automotive HMI user interfaces and what they mean to drivers' user experiences:
Critical Factors of Automotive HMI Design
Several primary requirements drive the design of automotive HMIs, of which safety is the most important. For an HMI, safety includes preventing driver distraction. Ready access to a plethora of functions and features via the HMI can result in the driver momentarily taking their eyes off the road to select a different music track or read a text message. The design of the HMI user interface (UI) should be intuitive and easy to operate so that the driver is only distracted for the absolute minimum of time. The development of specific standards for automotive HMIs is still in their infancy. However, the international standard ISO 15005:2017 stipulates that glances of 1.5 seconds should be long enough for a driver to gather information from a vehicle's transport information and control system. Some HMIs monitor driver interaction while the vehicle is moving. If it appears the driver is spending too much time selecting different functions or accessing specific functions, such as news headlines, the HMI issues a warning to the driver. In this scenario, the touchscreen might have been the input method, although using a voice assistant would be a safer option for certain features.
Another driver of HMI adoption comes from the need to provide a more straightforward interface for a host of sophisticated features. This requirement is valid for semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles, where the controls needed are very different from those required by a human driver. Likewise, the gauges and dials for a fossil fuel-powered vehicle are different from those required for an electric or hybrid vehicle. LCD touchscreens provide an extremely flexible HMI on which to create an intuitive UI that is informative and easy to operate. The overall user experience (UX), when carefully planned and designed, yields an engaging visual architecture that eases navigation.
For the vehicle manufacturer, the HMI provides a way to differentiate their vehicle platforms from those of other manufactures. The UX has a large part to play in this, where a standard UI is developed across all the manufacturer's different vehicle marques. Developing custom icons, symbols, and fonts can be a chore for the embedded developer. Still, attention to this detail is easy for consumers to compare and contrast, and is increasingly part of the vehicle selection process.
For the vehicle owner, a flexible HMI permits the personalization of the vehicle's various features, creating an experience that suits their mood, the length of the journey ahead, and brings the manufacturer's brand experience to life. Comfort and interior lighting controls are popular personalization features, as is the driving mode (normal, eco, sport, etc.), and in high-end marques, the firmness of the suspension.
HMI Technologies
The HMI designer has a wide range of tried and tested technologies readily available on which the UI can be built and controlled. Projected capacitive touch (PCAP) sensing controls are the norm, closely followed
by voice-operated controls. Complementing these input methods are haptics, gestures (touch and in-air), proximity and force detection, eye-tracking, and machine learning.
The use of machine learning-based voice recognition applications is predicted to grow significantly in the coming years. Estimates by Tractica, a research company, forecast that artificial intelligence-based voice-enabled smart assistants will play a major role in HMI, with the global market worth $4.6 billion (USD) by 2025. Within just a few years, 80 percent of vehicle HMIs will integrate a voice recognition system, and that doesn't include the smartphone assistant applications such as Google Voice and Apple's Siri. Voice commands are most commonly used to control media players, setting the desired destination in the navigation function, and operating an attached smartphone to make a call. As machine-learning algorithms advance, voice recognition will be reliable enough to control ADAS functions and comfort controls. The availability of high-performance automotive-qualified application processors and inference engines will permit the use of more sophisticated natural-language algorithms that more readily accommodate regional accents and a more comprehensive range of voices. In addition to neural networks, digital voice processing techniques will help remove background noise from other vehicle occupants, tire and wind noise, and reject spurious commands from radio programs and other media sources. The voice UI also requires a configurable voice output for confirmation of spoken commands, asking pertinent questions, and other two-way dialogues. From a safety perspective, using voice controls makes perfect sense, allowing the driver to keep their eyes on the road rather than becoming distracted by options on a touchscreen.
Projected capacitive touch technologies are well advanced, with the ability to manage large display surfaces. For example, Tesla uses a 15-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen. Screens need to accommodate a wide range of ambient light conditions, from bright sunshine to darkness. High-contrast, high-brilliance display panels are critical to deploying a successful UI. The use of small touchscreens in vehicles is not recommended since they can be more distracting for safe driver interaction. That said, large screens with too much information presented at once can equally be distracting for the driver. UI/UX design is crucial and requires an experienced team that understands how a driver will interact with the UI with minimal distraction. Safety and usability are crucial. PCAP functions are routinely available integrated into a microcontroller or application processor. Multi-touch capacitive touch controllers are the norm, so that finger gestures such as pinch and stretch are accommodated. Touch button, slider, and wheel UI features are implemented as touch surfaces, and audible tones give user feedback during operation.
Enhancements to touchscreens include the use of vibrating haptic sensors to provide user feedback, proximity detection, and force detection. Proximity detection can activate the touchscreen or a set of
options as a finger approaches the screen. Force detection is a relatively new development that creates a 3D user experience suiting some applications more than others–for example, allowing the use of a more positive virtual push of a button icon rather than just placing the finger on the touchscreen. Multi-touch force detection is also beneficial for operation when the driver might be wearing gloves.
Haptics sensor development for use in automotive applications is still advancing, and some high-end vehicle manufacturers are incorporating haptics in their HMI. An example is an in-air haptic technology where hand-tracking techniques and an array of ultrasonic speakers are used to form and track an ultrasonic pattern that the human hand can feel. In this way, various ultrasonic 3D shapes can be formed in the air, such as a circular control knob, that the fingertips can feel and appear to hold. Typically, the shapes are formed a couple of inches above a control surface and create a virtual touch experience. Hand-tracking algorithms then detect which way the knob is turned or pushed to complete the UI.
Technical Design Considerations for Automotive HMIs
Several aspects of an HMI's operating environment need particular attention for automotive applications. These include the changeable environmental conditions with extreme temperature, humidity, and physical factors such as dirt, dust, and vibration. Touchscreens are prone to erratic behavior should a film of condensation form on the glass. Likewise, operation with damp or wet fingers can result in the UI freezing until any remaining moisture is removed. At the other extreme of humidity, dry air increases the chances of static discharge occurring as the driver touches the screen. Any automotive HMI application needs thorough testing across a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions to ensure safe, robust, and reliable operation. HMI touchscreens should be easily cleaned by wiping away marks from everything from sticky sweets, soft drink spills, and moisturized hands. The display brightness needs to quickly and automatically compensate for driving through tunnels and into bright sunshine.
Road and cabin noise are other considerations for AI-based voice-recognition interfaces. Cabin noises can include conversations between other persons in the vehicle and sound from the infotainment application, too. Placement of the microphones that listen for voice commands needs to be optimal and physically isolated from the vehicle's body. That way, road noise such as low-frequency rumbles and droning tire noise is kept to a minimum. Audible noise from heating and air-conditioning vents can impact voice command performance. If any of the vehicle's windows are open, the rushing high-frequency audible background noise component is prevalent. Digital signal processing techniques and filters can help isolate the required human speech signals for subsequent processing by the voice recognition neural network algorithms.
Other technical considerations include ensuring the HMI conforms to various safety standards and other legislation such as EMI and EMC. With the increasing use of wireless communication in the vehicle,
including cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth®, unwanted interference is high. Also, in electric and hybrid vehicles, high dV/dt transients from the electric motor drive chain can be significant.
Some aspects of a vehicle's ADAS functions will fall under the remit of the automotive functional safety standard ISO 26262. This standard serves to highlight risks in any software-based system that controls a vehicle's operation and examines three criteria: the potential for harm, the probability it will occur, and how the system might avoid harm. Risk assessments are divided into four automotive safety integrity levels (ASIL), with ASIL A the lowest risk, and ASIL D the highest.
Automotive HMIs have transformed the way we interact with our vehicles. As cars are fitted with more sophisticated infotainment, communication, and ADAS control features, the HMI has become the principal control panel for drivers and passengers. The use of voice recognition is predicted to increase rapidly in the coming years, increasing driver safety and made possible through the use of a generation of new powerful AI processors and inference engines.
Robert Huntley is an HND-qualified engineer and technical writer. Drawing on his background in telecommunications, navigation systems, and embedded applications engineering, he writes a variety of technical and practical articles on behalf of Mouser Electronics.
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Minnesota declares state of emergency over bird flu in poultry
By Reuters | 7yrs ago
USA: Minnesota declared a state of emergency on Thursday over a fast-spreading strain of avian flu that has led to the extermination of more than 7.3 million birds in the country. It followed Wisconsin's action on Monday.
The highly pathogenic H5N2 strain of bird flu has been identified on 46 Minnesota farms in 16 counties and affected more than 2.6 million birds in the state.
State health officials said they were expediting prescriptions for the antiviral drug Tamiflu for farm workers and others who have been in direct contact with infected flocks. No human infections have been reported in this outbreak.
"There's no reason for anybody in the state of Minnesota to be concerned about their own health," Governor Mark Dayton said at a press conference on Thursday after declaring the state of emergency.
Federal and local public health authorities have said the risk of human infection is low.
The state's action to provide antiviral drugs follows recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Revealed: 47 people linked to Sh30b fraud in the US bought luxury cars, property in Kenya
US man accused of falsely selling crops as organic
Minnesota's health department approached 140 farm workers and others who had been in direct contact with infected birds and advised 87 of them to take the Roche antiviral medication as a preventative measure, the department's spokesman Michael Schommer said. Seventy of them took the drug, he said.
Of the 62 people that state health officials have followed up with so far, none have been infected by the virus, Schommer said.
Minnesota avian flu bird flu
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The Heritage volleyball coaching staff including Coaches Walter, Borsa, and Kent attended the Steve Shondell Volleyball Coaches Clinic at Purdue. There the coaching staff learned new individual and team drills on setting, attacking, defense and team concept wash drills. The clinic also touched on injury prevention, conditioning / weightlifting, training of elementary-aged players, and student-athlete leadership training. The staff is very excited to share what they learned at the clinic with our Patriot volleyball players!


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}

/**
 * 条 または 項
 * elementは下位のItemを配列で持つ
 */
export default class Element {
  id: string
  labelName: string
  items: Array<Item>
  appendix: string

  constructor(plain: PlainElement) {
    this.id = plain.id
    this.labelName = plain.labelName || ''
    this.appendix = plain.appendix || ''
    this.constructItems(plain.items)
  }

  renderAppendix(): string {
    if (!this.appendix) {
      return ''
    }
    return tag(
      'div',
      this.appendix.split('\n').map(t => tag('p', t)).join('\n'),
      { class: 'appendix' }
    )
  }

  // template method to avoid circular dependencies (Item <=> Element)
  constructItems() {
    throw new Error('implement constructItems() method')
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Wairaurahiri Jet Achieves a GOLD ENVIROMENT award from Qualmark.
Only current Jet Boat Company to have a Gold Enviro award.
Wairaurahiri River level is up.
Wairaurahiri Jet is back on the river. The river is back up to operating level.
Wairaurahiri River Is at a all time low. Johan can't remember over the last 20 years when Lake Hauroko has ever been so low. So the Wairaurahiri Jet has been parked up in its shelter.


text:
The Virginity Project
Kate Monro is the author of Losing It: How We Lost Our Cherry Over the Last 80 Years, published by Icon Books.
Click here to order the book in physical form from Amazon or, here to order the Kindle edition.
Losing our virginity…it happens to almost all of us, no matter who we are or where we come from. How did it happen for you? Ever wondered what other people think and feel about this never-to-be-repeated experience? I am on a mission to find out. Follow my journey as I collect stories from as wide a selection of people as possible. From men and women, old and young, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim and Catholic, from the funny and the sad, to the happy and occasionally, the unbelievable. I am in search of the one story that we rarely share. Come and join my adventure.
Contribute your story?
Have you got a story you would like to post? Or an opinion you would like to share? Email me: katemonroe@yahoo.com Remember to tell me when you were born and what country you come from. All names will be changed to protect identity.
EM & LO
Savage Lovecast
Irish Examiner
These are a few of my favourite posts...
The Original Slapper
Island life..
Through the past darkly..
Conversations with my mechanic...
Judgement day...
How to Lose Your Virginity
Kate's other blog...
Talent imitates, genius steals
Charon QC....the blawg
Whats happening in the sky?
asexuality (3)
Australian virginity loss stories (9)
Becoming a 'first time' author (15)
celibacy/asexuality (8)
Defining virginity loss (12)
Gay virginity loss stories (8)
GUEST WRITERS (4)
Losing It: How we popped our cherry over the last 80 years (15)
Losing our virginity (102)
Losing virginity advice (32)
Losing virginity to a prostitute (14)
Men & sexuality (61)
Men & virginity loss (56)
Muslim virginity loss experiences (5)
Nothing to do with anything (27)
Painful 'first times' (20)
Pegging (4)
Perfect 'first times' (21)
Pre-1960 virginity loss stories (8)
Religion and virginity loss (53)
Secondary virginity (5)
Slapstick virginity loss stories (5)
The First Time: True Tales of Virginity Lost & Found (Including My Own) (39)
The Virginity Project (73)
The Virginity Project goes on holiday (7)
The Virginity Project: The Play (6)
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Experience Project
More: Love stories, dating stories, divorce support, marriage support
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Happy Endings and how to have lots of them
When it comes down to it, what is the constant theme in our lives, the thing that we pursue in the belief that two hearts are better than one, the inspiration for so many people to open up and tell me – and you - stories on this blog, the noise that occupies songs, poems, books, films, advertising, your Facebook news feed and the reason that some of us exist in the first place? I'll tell you. Its love, the discovery of…and hopefully its endurance.
Our intimate relationships are central to our daily lives. When I interviewed people who had 'not found love' for the Guardian several years ago, the stories and the resultant comments on the Guardian website were astonishing. Therefore, it is slightly ironic that I trotted down to the British Library last week to listen to the very first piece of government-funded research into that which affects us most meaningfully. It was titled Enduring Love? With a question mark thrown in at the end because as we all know, there are precious few guarantees when it comes to the big L.
And it is big, this idea of enduring love. It's not just about love hearts and afternoons slumped on the sofa together. Its about society at large because the one thing that is well documented is that happier relationships produce happier children and happier children become more contented members of society and that works for all of us. This shit matters.
I love that principle investigator Jacqui Gabb was harangued with the request to 'Just give me 3 tips..' by a journalist writing a feature about the study results. As if two years of research into the intricacies of British love lives could be reduced to three tips and that love were ever even that straightforward in the first place.
Something was also made of the fact that it is hard to produce research, much less data about something as complicated as enduring love. Culture references the idea of love the whole time. Sociology not so much. To this end, as the research principles talked us through two years at the coal-face of our personal lives, we heard about the delicate rigor applied to the gathering of information. Research was 'multi sensory'. It involved biographical interviews, 'couple collage interviews', diaries and emotion maps.
And of course the great big fat question, for me at least, is how do we even know we are all talking about the same thing when we talk about love? Maybe I'm nit picking but back in the 80's, do you think my teenage boyfriend, the one who phoned my house in the middle of the night for weeks after we broke up making veiled threats to 'end it all' if we didn't get back together know anything about what it really means to love another human being? He thought he did. Vociferously. See what I mean? It's a tricky business trying to quantify love, let alone how we go about making it last. But it doesn't really matter what I think. What counts is that the powers that be deem it important enough to pour time, expertise and of course love, into the production of a piece of work that is intended to make life better for upcoming generations. I was tempted to try and reduce what they told us down to three useful tips but instead, I am going to tell you a few things that stuck.
The younger amongst you might be comforted to know that it is the simple things that count. Those of you who have had a few trots around the block will nod your heads sagely. In no particular order….
Couples are islands in a way that older generations were not
Lots of us don't have children and as a result, we are prone to put pressure on our shared coupledom to provide absolutely everything that we need: a best friend, a lover and a 24-7 sounding board. Being glued to someone's side – anyone – is not healthy. Furthermore, this Western ideal of coupledom is not ubiquitous. People do togetherness in all sorts of ways so lets not believe that ours is the best or the most effective. Lots of cultures are integrated with extended family for example, therefore providing a buffer and different people to be interested in. To counter this, people spoke about, *gasp*, spending time apart pursuing individual interests. One woman just got straight down to it and said 'keeping a distance is important'.
I particularly liked the case study of the woman who had what she called an 'introverted' partner. She recognized his need to retreat. She didn't take it personally and by the same token, her partner was happy to allow her to draw him out when she deemed he'd had enough 'cave time'. A true two-way-street. That's a love that could endure right there. Which segues into this intriguing fact:
30-40% of couples sleep apart
And this wasn't a biggie for the people concerned. It was just what works best for, as it turns out, quite a lot of us. We all like sleep and we don't appreciate the oft-mentioned-in-research 'duvet thieves'. The point being that whatever makes your relationship work, even if its not what some might consider 'conventional', sod them and good for you. As long as people weren't using their nightly separation as a negative yardstick by which to measure their relationship, all was well. Which leads into another blatantly obvious but somewhat challenging meme…
Creating 'mess' and then tidying it up together is a good thing
Not physical mess but the mental spaghetti of life and the acceptance that mess is part and parcel of a relationship. Or, as one panellist put it, 'if you want a harmonious life, go and live with a car battery'. We all say and do stupid things. It doesn't mean the relationship is bad, doomed or hopeless. For conflict haters like myself, this is a tough one but in the end we are human beings and actually, the more we tussle, the more we realize that it is our ability and our willingness to navigate the tussle together that really counts. And finally…
The 3 big tips that I'm not giving you
The biggest theme of the day was a triumvirate of tea, 'love bombing' and the shared inclination to tear up the dance floor together from time to time, even if said dance floor was the living room carpet.
'There is something peculiarly important about a cup of tea in our culture' said Jacqui Gibb which is no surprise to anyone has have ever lived in the UK but I love the fact that it featured so prominently in research. Time and again it was 'the cup of tea that he/she makes for me every morning without me asking for it' that kept things ticking over. But dig a little deeper and it was those who were able to perform acts of kindness even when deeply irritated by their partners who were the real game changers. 'Love bombing' is an iffy term but the idea behind it is not. If you want a different result, i.e. a happier partner, change your own behaviour. Those who could think beyond the latest humdinger of an argument and still hold out the white flag and say something nice were the ones who stayed the course. And then there was the dancing.
This took me right back to an extraordinary set of stories that I titled 'the happy ending' and placed, unsurprisingly, at the end of my book, 'Losing It: How we popped our cherry over the last 80 years'. All the interviews I did for my book were told from one person's perspective. Except for Peter and Susie who I interviewed one after the other about an experience that they had shared over 40 years ago.
Peter and Suzie danced together when they were teenagers, 'we still do in fact, if we get the chance and we can stay upright!' I will say no more except to say that this is an epic tale of enduring love that gets me every time I read it…with a twist. Lets twist again. Like we did last summer. I give you Peter and Suzie.
Peter. Born 1942. Lost virginity aged approximately seventeen
'It's hard to imagine, when one of the problems today is superfluity of everything, that after the Second World War there was absolutely nothing. It was very stark, there were frequent electricity cuts and it was cold.
Everybody spent their holidays at eight, nine years old, doing things which would today be considered anti-social behaviour. The staple diet for reading was escape stories and there were a tremendous amount of guns around. But the biggest difference was that you were turned out of the house at nine o'clock in the morning and you didn't see an adult again until six o'clock in the evening. Totally free roaming, on bicycles, everywhere, because there was nothing else to do.
There was no formal sex education in schools but then you can tell people a lot of stuff and draw them diagrams but they've still got to actually experiment and get feedback and change the way they behave so it doesn't really matter. The watershed was learning to dance. Dancing was the basis of night-time entertainment. All the kids went. So you had a hundred people, a band, a ballroom and that was it. That was where you started and if you were good, then girls wanted to dance with you.
The jive was the dance of the time and you very soon got to know what people were like, because it's extremely physical. It's very rhythmic and if you're embarrassed or can't throw yourself into it with somebody, you just can't do it. And it's the most surprising thing. You can have all sorts of very elegant and interesting-looking people, and then you'd try to jive with them and they were hopeless, they hadn't got a clue. So if you found somebody that you can do it with, it's almost a model of sexual activity, which is what made it so popular.
I met Suzie when she was fourteen and I was sixteen. She was extremely outgoing and anti-authoritarian and one thing quickly led to another. Suzie and I jived together a lot, still do in fact, if we get the chance and we can stay upright! She could pass for sixteen and seventeen at any time from her fourteenth birthday. And did. Later on, we'd go to London for a dance and we were meant to be staying with friends but we would go and stay in hotels and get away with it. I didn't realise how ridiculous it must have looked, walking into a smart hotel and announcing that we were Mr and Mrs. Totally absurd. But we got away with it.
Suzie will tell you that at one point her grandfather's chauffeur used to drive her backwards and forwards to assignations. We're talking parents being out all day, maids cleaning the house and the place being empty. I had a whole floor of the house for my records and books and stuff. And so we would go up there during the day for hours, no trouble at all without any interruption. Nobody thought for a moment what we were doing. They'd have been horrified if they'd known.
It was a big deal to risk getting pregnant and managing the risk was very, very important. I remember when a girl arrived from California with the first contraceptive pills, and thinking, oh my god, you know, after all this hoo-ha, there they are, just this round pack with all these pills in and that's that. If you were intelligent, you knew the anatomy, you knew the biology, but we courted disaster all the time.
I never, ever, conceived of a man as having virginity. Because there was no definition of, 'this is sex'. I remember it as a process more than one point in time when you could say, OK, yes, I've done that. We did all kinds of things which fell short of full intercourse and I wouldn't know at what time it actually passed from one to the other. I think virginity is more about naïveté. There's a certain point that you're no longer innocent, and we lost innocence very early on, at boarding school. So it did happen, but not with any sort of medievalism about it, no red sheets and all that sort of thing.
We went out for a couple of years and then my family moved to Cornwall. My parents were keen on splitting from Sheffield and putting everything into this new life and so we saw each other once in Oxford and then Suzie went abroad. You know, it was ultimately my responsibility, but they did break it up, my parents, by not supporting us. We drifted apart and she got married very soon afterwards and so did I.
There's no doubt at all that if you have a very satisfactory first full sexual experience with somebody and you allow that to drift off and then go off with other people, they've not got a cat in hell's chance. It just doesn't work. Unless by miraculous coincidence it's even the better than the first one. But I think that's asking too much. No, it was disastrous. There's the awful, awful realisation that actually, that is quite rare'.
Suzie. Born 1945. Lost virginity aged approximately fourteen
'I think I was encouraged to grow up. I remember my father, when I was twelve years old, looking at me and saying, 'You look awfully dull. Go and buy yourself a lipstick! You really ought to make an effort.' And that was at twelve. I was definitely encouraged to make myself look more attractive.
I was born ten days before the end of the war, so I'm officially a war baby. I can remember rationing being over because Mother was so thrilled that you could suddenly get golden syrup again, and of course you were not given articles to play with and toys the way children are today.
The first thing I can remember, how old would I have been? Perhaps seven years old, was getting a scratch on my very undeserved breast and being so depressed in case anybody saw it. That's a huge, I suppose you'd say, sexual awareness because I fancied the boy next door, we used to go climbing trees together, and I fantasised that he would have seen this scratch. Which is rather a strange thing to remember, but it must have been so vivid because that's the first real sexual awareness that I recall.
I was very interested in sex myself, presumably because I didn't have anybody who'd made me feel self-conscious, my parents certainly didn't. My parents were not disciplinarians at all. They allowed you to develop in your own way. But although they were very open-minded, they didn't tell me anything about sex. Not a whisper. Things were only ever implied as in, if you're going get up to any mischief, you be careful what you're doing. I think it would have been difficult to stop, in my instance. Not because of the boys, but because of the way I felt. You know, I actually wanted physical contact with them, and I found it.
I met Peter when I was fourteen and three months. My sister had asked me to fill in the numbers for a theatre party. So off I went and walked into this private house. I was very shy. Extremely shy, but you wouldn't have known it because I had a sort of bravado. Peter was in the kitchen; I can see him now, this little thing by the Aga. A very good-looking boy, Peter was. And still is, in my opinion, so there! And he came over to me like a bee to a honeypot and then we went to the theatre, he sat down next to me and took my hand and started tickling my palm. We were drawn to each other very immediately and very sexually. The following evening he arranged to meet me again, I can't remember where but we stopped in the lanes and that was where Peter and I had a good old tussle in the undergrowth and that was very nice!
I think we saw each other as frequently as we could in those days and it became the chauffeur's job to take me over in the car, sitting in the back, he in the front with his cap on, to Peter's house to drop me off. Peter lived in a three-storey house with a room at the top; I suppose it was called a den in those days. We would be left alone all afternoon to explore and the chauffeur would arrive at the appointed time to pick me up again and take me home.
Peter is absolutely right when he says that there was no defining moment of virginity loss. I remember the house painter – and I would be sitting on Peter's knee and he'd be actually inside me, because you had big voluminous skirts covering everything up – coming to the window and sort of smiling at me. But I absolutely can't pinpoint one moment. Peter would say, 'Oh, well let's just try inside a little,' so it was actually going inside the vagina but certainly no ejaculation or anything. You had to be terribly careful. Lots of little handkerchiefs that could probably have stood up on their own all over the room. It was very funny.
I was lucky because Peter is extremely bright. It wasn't as if I was being bonked by some local yokel who didn't know anything about sex. Peter had gone off to his textbooks to discover the anatomy of a woman, so he knew where all the bits were. We were extremely careful. Otherwise we would really have had a problem because he was going off to university and his parents then decided that they were going to sell the family business and move to Cornwall. It was awful. I was sixteen by this point and we'd been together two years, but his mother was determined to get away from the area and he just said, 'Oh, we're going to Cornwall, it's going to be lovely.' I didn't say a thing. I just said, 'Yes, that's lovely,' and nearly died inside. I never told him. Mmm.
Peter actually says now that if I had expressed the way I felt, he would have reacted differently. But I didn't. I can tell you exactly why; because I was so traumatised by boarding school that I had got into a frame of mind of thinking that I had to tolerate everything. I had this artificial armour of coping. So when he said he was going, I just told myself that this was another thing I'd got to put up with.
So off he went. But we still wrote to each other and I was pretty bloody-minded. I can remember him writing and saying, 'You must come to Cornwall in the summer,' and me writing back and saying, 'No, it's the same distance for you to come to Yorkshire if you want to see me.' I was blowed if I was going to trot after him. I wanted to be padded after and chased by men, because you didn't chase after people in those days.
The last time I heard from Peter was just after I had my first car and his letter came through the post. My sister came running and said, 'Oh, Peter's written to you, Peter's written to you!' and I opened it up and it was to say he was getting married. I nearly died. I had to swallow that one. And that was the last time I heard from him until he rang 32 years later.
He always knew where I was. He had a cousin in the area and he would ask the cousin how I was, and she would always say I was very happily married. Which in a way I was, you know? So he stayed away. But he'd always promised himself that when he was 50 he would get in touch with me come hell or high water. So he went to stay with his daughter in the South of France and went on a diet – although he's never admitted it – and got himself all bronzed up and then he rang.
The odd thing was, he rang and he said, 'Oh, hello, this is ...' you know, giving his name. And I said, 'Do you know, I haven't spoken to you for 32 years?' That was absolutely off the cuff. I'd never even thought about how many years it was but it was true, it was 32 years. So subconsciously, somewhere, it was on my mind.
When I went to the station to pick him up, the first thing he said was, 'You haven't changed much,' which I have, so that's a lie! We went back to my home and we sat very staidly in the kitchen and I cooked an omelette and talked in a very stodgy sort of way. Literally, you know. And then he said, 'Well, I've got to get the train.' He was actually going to some conference. 'OK,' I said, 'I'll run you up to the station. I'll just go into the loo and I'll be out in a minute.'
He was in the hallway when I came out and I looked across and I suddenly saw the person from years ago. I literally said, 'Oh, Peter.' And I ran across to him and we were completely back to square one. It was very weird. We got in the car and I have never driven up a motorway at 40 miles an hour before. I was emotionally blasted, as was he. We sat in the car, hand in hand all the way to the station. Anyway, he was back again the next day and now we are married.
I do believe that your first experiences are very influential, but it could be badly influential, couldn't it. Actually it could scar you, as opposed to enhance your life or your ideas about men, or women, or sex. So I was just very lucky but we were also extremely compatible and sex was an incredible experience. Absolutely extraordinary. Yes.'
Posted by The Virginity Project on January 20, 2014 at 12:02 PM in Losing It: How we popped our cherry over the last 80 years, Pre-1960 virginity loss stories, The Virginity Project, Virginity loss stories & UK | Permalink
Tags: Enduring love, first time stories, happy endings, making love last, sexuality, story telling, virginity loss stories


text:
Federal Labor Leader Interview Transcripts, Federal Labor Leader Media Releases, Federal Labor Leader Speeches
Transcript of Doorstop – Press Conference – Sydney – Wednesday, 20 November 2019
SUBJECTS: Morrison Government's $3.78 billion infrastructure package, floundering economy under Morrison and Frydenberg; Cory Bernardi.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks very much for joining us. When I first became the Leader of the Labor Party, I stated there was a need to bring forward infrastructure investment. Today, what we see is a Government that has argued against that from day one, and is now capitulating and agreeing that there is a need to bring forward some investment due to the softening that is there in the economy. So, what we see today, though, is an announcement of $3.78 billion, counting state funds. But of that, of course, much of it is off in the never-never, still. What we also see is that that figure is less than the $5 billion underspend on infrastructure that we've seen since this Government came to office. That is the difference between what they've actually invested in dollars, creating jobs, creating projects and what they themselves have announced on Budget nights in each of their Budgets. What we want to see from this Government is actually delivery on the ground. Not like where I was in South Australia yesterday at Marion Road, where we had two million dollars for a planning study announced prior to the 2016 election. We saw the entire term pass to 2019 before we had another announcement. We still haven't seen the planning study, let alone actual shovels in the ground and actual infrastructure work. We see a Government that has increased infrastructure investment with today's announcement, but still doesn't have an economic plan. No plan to deal with wages. No plan to deal with consumer demand. No plan to deal with productivity. No plan to deal with what we see is the lowest retail spending figures since the 1990s. What we want from this Government is a comprehensive economic plan to deal with the challenges which are there. And I note also that part of the commentary about this is about its delivery, it's about skills shortages. Well, we announced in the first statement that we made, in terms of vision statements, we announced Jobs and Skills Australia. Precisely why this Government needs to get on with ensuring that we invest not just in infrastructure and capital, but we also invest in people and their skills so that the economy can expand. Jim?
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW TREASURER: Thanks very much, Anthony. Today is an admission that the economy is much weaker than what Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have been telling us. This is an admission that the economy has deteriorated since the election, but it's not a comprehensive plan to turn things around. It's an admission that the Morrison Government has got the economy badly wrong. But it's not a comprehensive plan to boost an economy which has deteriorated on the Liberals' watch. For months now, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have been saying that their policy settings are bang-on and that the fundamentals of the Australian economy are very strong. And with this announcement today, they are conceding, in a humiliating fashion, that both of those statements were wrong. Whatever the Government's been doing in policy terms to now has not been working. Whatever the Morrison Government has been doing to date has been a recipe for the slowest economic growth in 10 years, weak retail sector, our weakest business investment since the early 90s, stagnant wages, almost 2 million Australians looking for work or more work, declining living standards, declining productivity. The list goes on and on and on. Today is more a response to political pressure than it is a response to the slowing economy. For months now, Labor under Antony's leadership, the Reserve Bank, international organisations, economists and the business community have been crying out for action on this floundering economy. The Government has been refusing to act. And even today, they are refusing to act sufficiently to deal with the big economic challenges which have emerged on their watch and which they need to take responsibility for. Most of what's being proposed today still won't come in for the next couple of years. And the economy needs a boost right now. The economy needs a comprehensive plan to turnaround our weakening economy, deteriorating growth and stagnant wages. And what we're seeing today is not that. The Prime Minister, in his press conference today, as always, is obsessed with the Labor Party. He wants to talk about the Labor Party to distract from his own failures on the economy. What we're seeing now is very different to what we saw 10 years ago. What we are calling for, as is business, the Reserve Bank, economists and other experts is responsible and proportionate and measured stimulus so that the workers and businesses of this country get the assistance that they need and deserve. So that we can all work together to turn around an economy which has deteriorated under the leadership of Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg.
ALBANESE: Thanks very much. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: On infrastructure, the Prime Minister describes his economic approach as responsible and sensible when compared to the "panic" and "waste" of the former Labor Government. How do you respond to this criticism?
ALBANESE: Have a look at what he's actually said today and compare that with what he was saying weeks ago, whereas any infrastructure investment which we've been calling for was unnecessary. He was saying that he had the settings right. Today he has put his hand up and said he got the settings wrong. Just like yesterday, he put his hand up and said he got Robodebt wrong after saying that there was no problem with more than 200,000 Australians receiving debt letters for money that they didn't owe. So, this is a Government that says that everything's all hunky-dory. They've been on a victory lap since May 18. What they haven't been doing is governing properly. And today, again, we saw in the Prime Minister's announcement, him acting like an Opposition in exile on the Government benches, talking about the Labor Party rather than talking about what is actually required for the economy. What I want to hear from the Prime Minister is a plan for wages, is a plan for productivity, is a plan for consumer demand, and is a plan for nation building. I'm not seeing any of that because they're too obsessed and too arrogant to concede that they are getting the fundamentals wrong of how they're managing the economy.
JOURNALIST: A lot of Australians do like Scott Morrison's approach and likes that he plays it on the safe side. Do you think that what you are proposing is a bit rapid?
ALBANESE: Not at all. We have called for measured and responsible stimulus. The Prime Minister talks about projects and makes announcements during the election campaign. For example, I've been up in Queensland, projects that won't begin until 2026. Now, when people hear the announcements from the Government, they don't expect that it's completely off in the never-never. On the Princes Highway, myself and Michael McCormack put out a joint statement as the Minister and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, calling upon action on the south coast. What we saw in the actual budget, though, when you look at the detail, is that hardly any of that money was flying in the next four years. Now, some of that apparently will be brought forward as part of that package. That's a good thing. The problem for the Prime Minister is the difference between his rhetoric beforehand and his rhetoric after today can't be reconciled because he said any bring forward of infrastructure investment wasn't necessary.
CHALMERS: I think that if you're one of the two million Australians who are looking for work or for more work, you wouldn't consider his approach to be responsible. If you're part of a small business in the retail sector, staring at the worst retail conditions we've had in this country for three decades, you wouldn't consider the Prime Minister's actions to be responsible. The Prime Minister's behaviour to date has been characterised by complacency and by his complete refusal to understand what's actually happening in the real economy in Australia. The economy has deteriorated while Morrison and Frydenberg have denied and dithered and delayed. And so if you're part of the economy, which relies on consumption, which relies on business investment, which relies on all of the things that matter most to good growth in this economy and the distribution of opportunity in our society, then you've been left hanging by a Prime Minister who has spent all of this time pretending there's nothing wrong with the economy and has been forced into this humiliating change today.
JOURNALIST: There are a lot of local councils and also state governments that will be happy with this $3.8 billion, getting money for local projects that they can get immediately. Are you saying that is not a good move economically?
CHALMERS: Well, we've made it clear for some time now, for almost every day of Anthony's leadership, we've made it clear that we want to see more investment in infrastructure and we want to see that investment occur sooner. So, of course, local governments and state governments will do what they can to get the most they can from the Federal Government to invest in infrastructure. We are the infrastructure Party. Anthony has been the Infrastructure Minister and the Infrastructure Shadow Minister. We want to see more investment and we want to see it earlier. We understand that people have been crying out for that investment. Our beef is not with local governments. Our beef is not with state governments of either persuasion. Our beef is with the Federal Government, which has spent six months ignoring our calls for extra and earlier infrastructure investment while the economy has been running on fumes, largely, and has only been dragged kicking and screaming now to this announcement today to respond to political pressure and not because they understand what's actually going on in the economy.
ALBANESE: And you don't have to go to Labor Governments. Go to the New South Wales Berejiklian Government and ask them whether there's been sufficient investment, including after today, in the Western Metro of which there is zero dollars from the Federal Government. And ask them about the infrastructure regarding the rail line through Badgery's Creek Airport as well. There are a range of projects right here in Sydney that are deserving of support and bring-forward at a time when the benefit of that investment is that it doesn't just disappear. It adds to productivity. It produces a return. It's not dead money. That's the beauty of infrastructure investment. And that's why we've called for it. But this Government has cobbled together a series of projects. But there's a whole range of projects as well that merit support of the Commonwealth that are not receiving them.
JOURNALIST: On another matter. Now that Cory Bernardi is handing his seat back to the Liberals, are you worried about how strong Morrison's position in the Senate will be?
ALBANESE: I don't see it as making a difference. I had Cory Bernardi in the 'others' column for every vote. And look, it's a fact. I've said continuously that the Morrison Government have a majority in the House of Representatives and we have the most Conservative-friendly Senate since we've seen WorkChoices introduced, which led to the demise of the Howard Government, which is why they're doing 'WorkChoices Lite' and they're calling it the Ensuring Integrity Bill. The fact is that the Coalition are pretty close to a majority on most things. That's something that we've said repeatedly. We are trying to be constructive and we're prepared to engage with the Crossbenchers on issues. And we're doing so. And we call upon those Crossbenchers… I mean, I'd rather, frankly, have someone who doesn't pretend they're not a Liberal than someone who pretends to be an Independent and just votes with them. You may as well be more honest and at least this will be more fair dinkum.
JOURNALIST: Bernardi has been no friend to the Labor Party, are you happy to see the back of him?
ALBANESE: It's a matter for him. He's retired, so I don't wish him any ill will. I think he's someone who genuinely holds his views. It's just unfortunate that most of his views are wrong. Thanks very much.


Rob Lowe at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Knife Fight.
Rob Lowe is an American actor and model. He is best known for being part of the 'Brat Pack'.
Rob became known as being part of the 80s 'Brat Pack", alongside Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. He starred in "St. Elmo's Fire", "Wayne's World", "Tommy Boy", and in "The Outsiders". He was a regular cast member on the television series "The West Wing and "Parks and Recreation". In 2015, he was cast with Fred Savage in the television series "The Grinder". Rob received a Golden Globe nomination for the made-for-tv movie "The Golden Child".
Rob married wife, Sheryl Berkoff, in 1991. They have two sons together, In 2015, Rob debuted his skincare line.
Rob Lowe is a famous American actor, who was born on March 17, 1964. As a person born on this date, Rob Lowe is listed in our database as the 2nd most popular celebrity for the day (March 17) and the 11th most popular for the year (1964).
People born on March 17 fall under the Zodiac sign of Pisces, the Fish. Rob Lowe is the 67th most popular Pisces.
Aside from information specific to Rob Lowe's birthday, Rob Lowe is the 491st most famous American and ranks 3rd in famous people born in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.
In general, Rob Lowe ranks as the 830th most popular famous person, and the 180th most popular actor of all time. "The Famous Birthdays" catalogs over 25,000 famous people, everyone from actors to singers to scientists to serial killers and more. If you're curious to see who was born on your birthday, you can use our database to find out who, what, where, when and why. You can search by birthday, birthplace, claim to fame or any other information by typing in the search box, or simply browse our site by selecting the month, the day, the horoscope, or any other clickable option.
3rd born in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.


Drew will also take part in the Voila Tour.
Come immerse yourself in all things French on Saturday, April 1, 2017. Prepare to be entertained on every level. The festivities begin at 5:00 PM with a Meet and Greet with all of the artists and performers listed below. Watch as phenomenal glass artist, Benou demonstrates her unique techniques for jewelry and other art pieces. Painters Cairoli and Cattaneo will display their stylistic renderings. Art and Music are the Universal Language and a great way to encourage cultural exchange and understanding.
Dinner begins with L'Esprit Rosé from Chateau Sainte Marguerite, delicious with the cuisine of Provence. Next dine on your choice of items from the Gourmet Buffet created by award winning Chef Marie-Pierre Gall. At 7:00 PM the concert begins. Drew Ryniewicz of the X-Factor a talented child from Chino Valley, AZ will fly in from her new home in Nashville to perform as the Voila Tour guest star. Seen by many millions on The Voice France, Fanny Melili will serenade with both American and French classics. Gaelle Buswel, a singer, songwriter and guitarist with more than 500 performances across Europe, Canada and the USA, will take the stage to rock the audience with her full band.
Hohner Harmonica trophy winner, CadiJo will entertain with genres from the Blues to Gypsy Jazz and his own ballads. Cattaneo will pair up with CadiJo to perform his Action Painting right before your eyes! The beautiful and funny Belen la Parisienne will make you feel as if you are in a French Cabaret whether singing her own songs or classics by Edith Piaf or Brigitte Bardot. Jo will accompany Belen and additionally will perform his mystical and haunting tunes on the Oboe. Sedona's Daniel Hicks will join the party with his Native American flute music. And Chris & Lo' will not only back up Fanny Melili but will also perform their version of American Blues and Rock with their own French flair.
The program will be co-emceed by local celebrity Marnie Uhl & singer Belen Ferris. Doors open at 5:00 PM. Please go to voilatour.fr for more information. Tickets are also available at the Prescott Valley Event Center box office, 3201 N. Main Street, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314. 800-745-3000 or 928-772-1819.
Dust off your beret and join us for a great night, Voila Tour!


Wedding Sales Pro? Work for one of Sydneys LANDMARK venues!
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A pub in Guildford is seeking a casual Bartender (up to 40 hours per week) to join our team.
Fantastic opportunity for an Event coordinator to step up and oversee a cluster of venues. Great hours and salary!
A bar/pub/bistro in Kogarah is seeking a casual Bartender (up to 35 hours per week) to join our team.
A bar/restaurant in Fortitude Valley is seeking a casual Bartender (up to 20 hours per week) to join our team.


Resilience is the strength and speed of our response to adversity – and the good news is we can built it. As Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg says so eloquently in her recent book Option B, resilience isn't about having a backbone. It's about strengthening the muscles around our backbone. For New Zealand entrepreneur, Suzanne Hall MNZM that's exactly the philosophy behind her groundbreaking BE Intent technology platform and well-being app.
Suzanne is working with businesses globally and has a team that includes some of the world leaders in positive psychology, organisational psychology and change management.
Suzanne Hall is a serial entrepreneur and has created two ground breaking businesses. She had been awarded the Queen's Order of Merit for her services to business. She is passionate about businesses that help people and create social change. She focusses on solving problems in innovative ways. Currently she has multiple projects that will support change in mental health, unemployment, youth suicide and entwined in it all is the issues of bullying and cyber bullying.
Her first business Living Nature was the world's first 100% natural skincare and she grew that into a multi million dollar business in 14 countries, all while being a solo mum. She was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 and Business Person of the Year. She was the first woman and person under 30 to get that award in NZ.


Before the season, I doubt anyone in the commentariat would have labeled Oklahoma-Texas Tech one of the marquee games in the Big 12 this year. (Note that I'm using "marquee" in a very relative sense, i.e. within the decidedly non-marquee conference itself.) Yet, here we are.
As is customary of the crew from Lubbock, the Red Raiders boast a prolific offense that is near the top of the country in a number of key statistical categories. Can OU slow down Tech's hurry-up O?
A few thoughts based on what I've seen out of TTU so far this year.
Not so physical in the running game.
Bob Stoops brought his brother back to Norman with the hope that Mike would retool OU's defense to at least slow down the Big 12's smorgasbord of spread offenses. Going on two years in his second stint in Norman, OU's defensive coordinator has done a better job than the #HATERZ would care to admit. Of course, the moves made to combat all that uptempo aerial action have left the Sooners susceptible to downhill running games and play action – Notre Dame, Texas and Kansas, for instance.
Tech is about as spread as you get. While the Red Raiders have two productive running backs in Kenny Williams and DeAndre Washington, Kliff Kingsbury's offensive philosophy skews pass to run. Lining up to mash between the tackles with heavy personnel sets and tight formations would go way against type. Consider that an edge to the Sooners.
One guy to watch for Tech is junior receiver Bradley Marquez. He's a physical route runner and is especially tough on comebacks and stop patterns on the sideline.
Personally, I'd look to match Aaron Colvin or maybe even Cortez Johnson against Marquez, who could overpower one of the smaller DBs.
That Tech "tight end" is scary.
Jace Amaro fits the definition of a receiving tight end to a TT. He'll remind Sooner fans of Jermaine Gresham, although Amaro is probably a notch below as a blocker. His size and athleticism pose hellacious decisions for defensive coordinators, who have to prepare for Amaro to line up tight or split out.
In our preview podcast, Aaron Dickens of RedRaiderSports.com made the point that the best approaching to defending No. 22 is to accept that he will get his touches and just limit his capacity to turn them into big plays. TCU accomplished that earlier this year by using a few bracket coverage schemes that emphasized re-routing Amaro away from the middle of the field and towards the sideline. I'm not sure if I'd recommend that approach for OU, but it's at least one school of thought.
Please, Tapper, don't hurt 'em.
If I'm Mike Stoops, I want to try to exploit that spot with pass rushers Charles Tapper and Eric Striker.
Unlike the 3-4 sets that the Sooners have run in recent weeks, I expect to see OU playing a ton of 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 on Saturday. Last year, OU went with a Cover-2 Man Under defensive scheme against spread offenses that was met with varying degrees of success. It leaves the D vulnerable to running quarterbacks, but that's not Davis Webb.
Would Mike consider dusting off a game plan that saw such an ignominious end in 2012?


The 9-hole Prairie Lakes course at the Prairie Lake Golf Club in Marseilles, Illinois was designed by Lee Singletary. The course offers 3,218 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 37. The course rating is 71.9 and it has a slope rating of 118. The Prairie Lake golf course opened in 1960.


For 25 years, Christina Bellas was a traveling saleswoman. Running from city to city for meetings and presentations, it was important that she always appeared polished. Like many modern female professionals, she experienced the frustration of looking good on-the-go. She was constantly juggling cosmetics that often got damaged in all the hustle and bustle and touching up her makeup in all sorts of places—cars, cabs, planes, bathrooms, hotel rooms, etc.
One day, as she checked into a hotel and started getting ready, she opened up her suitcase to grab her makeup bag (hoping this time nothing had melted or broken) and then proceed to put everything in a vanity cup on the bathroom counter. This was a common habit for her and for many of her friends, but why? Thinking about it, it seemed silly to take her makeup out of one container and put it back into another. She realized the vanity cup made everything so easily accessible—no digging or searching!
Wouldn't it be even easier if her makeup carrier was just like that vanity cup? Wouldn't it be easier for all women on-the-go? In that moment, an innovative idea sparked in her mind.
Christina first took on the idea of inventing a traveling vanity cup for makeup as a hobby and started by doing extensive research. This was a passion project her friends and family admired, but never imagined she'd turn into a reality. But Christina had big plans and she was ready to make them happen. So, she hired an attorney to help navigate how to build this passion project into a business initiative.
The first challenge was designing a product around products that already existed. There are a million different makeup brush sizes and compacts in the marketplace. At the time, refillable makeup also started to become a trend to meet the needs of the conscious consumer. In fact, Christina discovered that 50% of all plastic packaging waste in landfills was created by the cosmetic industry!
Her invention would be reusable, eco-friendly and eliminate the need to buy plastic compacts. Additionally, it would accommodate industry-average brush and refillable makeup sizes. In her research, she also discovered that 65% of women surveyed say they do their makeup in the car for the natural lighting. So the product would need to be a convenient size everywhere it goes—from cup holders, to cubicles to carry-ons.
Once she had a vision for what the physical product was going to be, she needed a brand. And what better name for 'makeup in a cup' than "Make-Cup"? From there, she started sketching out a logo and creating messaging. "I had this idea inside of me and started writing it all out," Bellas said. Her brand was always beautiful, never wasteful and the ease and accessibility of her innovation would empower women to achieve a "5 minute makeover" on the go.
Christina worked through eight different prototype designs before finalizing the structure and look and getting a design and utility patent. From there, she brought on Ani Schroder as a serial entrepreneur and they applied for the Macomb Innovation Fund through JPMorgan Chase and got awarded $25,000 to get Make-Up manufactured and on the market. Christina was passionate about sourcing all manufacturing in Michigan and interviewed 50 companies over 10 months to find the right vendors. Quality Cavity tooling company in Wixom would make the molds and PolyOnes Michigan office would manufacture the material Tritan by Eastman. Tritan is the safest plastic on the market and known for its durability. Tritan has temperature resistant properties that help prevent makeup from melting and it's also BPA, which helps prevent cross contamination caused by common makeup bags.
Further, Christina engaged with the LTU Collaboratory to help get her business initiative off the ground. The LTU Collaboratory helped Make-Cup establish a roadmap strategy, make some protyping tweaks and get plugged into local entrepreneurial events. "There is so much happening in Southfield, it's almost overwhelming," says Bellas.
BUILDING A STARTUP, EMPOWERING WOMEN, WHAT'S NEXT?
So, what's next for Make-Cup?
After successfully launching in November, the startup began working with Alchemy Brand Strategy in Royal Oak to conduct focus groups and figure out how to talk to target audiences. Their goal is to create a new voice and elevated brand that will help their product go national.