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News- Hemp Is Not Pot: It's the Economic Stimulus and Green Jobs Solution We Need
News / By Hemp News
This incredible read by Dara Colwell was posted at alternet here. I tried and tried to just grab a quote or two but failed miserably. Anyway, I enjoyed reading this so much I borrowed it.
Hemp Is Not Pot: It's the Economic Stimulus and Green Jobs Solution We Need
While Uncle Sam's scramble for new revenue sources has recently kicked up the marijuana debate — to legalize and tax, or not? — hemp's feasibility as a stimulus plan has received less airtime.
But with a North American market that exceeds $300 million in annual retail sales and continued rising demand, industrial hemp could generate thousands of sustainable new jobs, helping America to get back on track.
"We're in the midst of a dark economic transition, but I believe hemp is an important facet and has tremendous economic potential," says Patrick Goggin, a board member on the California Council for Vote Hemp, the nation's leading industrial hemp-farming advocacy group. "Economically and environmentally, industrial hemp is an important part of the sustainability pie."
With 25,000 known applications from paper, clothing and food products — which, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this January, is the fastest growing new food category in North America — to construction and automotive materials, hemp could be just the crop to jump-start America's green economy.
But growing hemp remains illegal in the U.S. The Drug Enforcement Administration has lumped the low-THC plant together with its psychoactive cousin, marijuana, making America the planet's only industrialized nation to ban hemp production. We can import it from Canada, which legalized it in 1997. But we can't grow it.
"It's a missed opportunity," says Goggin, who campaigned for California farmers to grow industrial hemp two years ago, although the bill was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, citing the measure conflicted with federal law.
Considering California's position as an agricultural giant — agriculture nets $36.6 billion dollars a year, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture — Goggin's assessment is an understatement. Especially if extended nationwide.
"Jobs require capital investment, which isn't easy to come by at the moment, and we need hemp-processing facilities, because the infrastructure here went to seed. But this is a profitable crop, and the California farming community supports it."
Just how profitable? According to Chris Conrad, a respected authority on cannabis and industrial hemp and who authored Hemp for Health and Hemp, Lifeline to the Future, the industry would be regionally sustainable, reviving the local economy wherever it was grown.
"Hemp will create jobs in some of the hardest-hit sectors of the country — rural agriculture, equipment manufacturing, transportable processing equipment and crews — and the products could serve and develop the same community where the hemp is farmed: building ecological new homes, producing value-added and finished products, marketing and so forth," he writes in an e-mail from Amsterdam, where he is doing research. "Add to that all the secondary jobs — restaurants, health care, food products, community-support networks, schools, etc., that will serve the workers. The Midwestern U.S. and the more remote parts of California and other states would see a surge of income, growth, jobs and consumer goods."
In America, industrial hemp has long been associated with marijuana, although the plants are different breeds of Cannabis sativa, just as poodles and Irish setters are different breeds of dog.
While hemp contains minute levels of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana (compare 0.3 percent or less in Canadian industrial hemp versus 3-20 percent for medical marijuana), to get high you'd have to smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole.
Still, the historical hysteria caused by federal anti-marijuana campaigns of the 1930s, which warned that marijuana caused insanity, lust, addiction, violence and crime, have had a long-term impact on its distant relative.
Doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which in effect criminalized cannabis and levied high taxes on medical marijuana and industrial hemp, hemp cultivation wasn't technically disallowed.
However, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the DEA's predecessor, said its agents couldn't differentiate between industrial hemp and marijuana, a stance the DEA maintains today, so fewer farmers were willing to grow it. The exception came during World War II, when the armed forces experienced a severe fiber shortage and the government launched an aggressive campaign to grow hemp.
But after the war, hemp production faded away, and the last legal crop was harvested in 1957. Marijuana's propaganda-fuelled history, one filled with lurid stories, one-sided information, slander and corporate profiteerism, is too lengthy to address here, but hemp has never managed to remain unscathed.
Considering today's economic crisis and the combined threats of peak oil and global warming, there is increasing pressure to move toward sustainable resources before everything goes up in smoke. If there was any time to revisit hemp, it's now.
"Industrial hemp is the best gift a farmer could have. It's the ideal alternative crop," says Gale Glenn, on the board of the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Glenn, now retired, owned and managed a 300-acre Kentucky farm producing burley tobacco, and she immediately launches into hemp's benefits: It's environmentally friendly, requiring no pesticides or herbicides, it's the perfect rotation crop because it detoxifies and regenerates the soil, and it's low labor.
"You just plant the seed, close the farm gate and four months later, cut it and bale it," she says.
And there's more. As a food, hemp is rich in essential omega-3 fatty acids; the plant's cellulose level, roughly three times that of wood, creates paper that yields four times as much pulp as trees; hemp is an ideal raw material for plant-based plastics, used to make everything from diapers to dashboards.
In fact, Germany's DaimlerChrysler Corp. has equipped its Mercedes-Benz C-class vehicles with natural-fiber-reinforced materials, including hemp, for years. Even Henry Ford himself manufactured a car from hemp-based plastic in 1941, archival footage of which can be found on YouTube, and the car ran on clean-burning hemp-based ethanol fuel.
This leads to the most compelling argument for hemp: fuel. Hemp seeds are ideal for making ethanol, the cleanest-burning liquid bio-alternative to gasoline, and when grown as an energy crop, hemp actually offsets carbon emissions because it absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other plant.
As the world rapidly depletes its reserves of petroleum, America needs to create a renewable, homegrown energy source to become energy independent. Luckily, unlike petrol, hemp is renewable, unless we run out of soil.
"As a farmer, it's frustrating not being able to grow this incredible crop," says Glenn. But if Glenn did try to grow it, the American government would consider her a felon guilty of trafficking, and she would face a fine of up to $4 million and a prison sentence of 5 to 40 years. Because no matter how low its THC content, hemp is still considered a Schedule I substance, grouped alongside heroin.
It's exactly this war-on-drugs logic that has kept serious discussion of hemp off the table.
"I've met with senators over the last 13 years, and I've been to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) four times, and I'm always amazed by what they tell us — that industrial hemp is by far one of the most superior fibers known to man, but since it's a green plant with a five-point leaf, you'll never grow it in America," says Bud Sholts chairman of the the North American Industrial Hemp Council and former economist for Wisconsin's State Department of Agriculture.
Sholts' research into sustainable agriculture convinced him of industrial hemp's value, and he has been lobbying for it ever since. "We're overlooking something huge."
Luckily, farmers are practical folk whose pragmatism ensures their survival, and they have championed industrial hemp, which they see as a potential economic boon, by pushing for it through their state legislatures, where it has become a bipartisan issue.
To date, 28 states have introduced hemp legislation, including Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Maryland, North Dakota, New Mexico, Virgina, Vermont and West Virginia. Fifteen have passed it, and seven have legalized hemp production, according to Vote Hemp.
Yet in cases like North Dakota, the DEA still insists that federal law trumps the state's and farmers need a DEA-granted license before growing. This is exactly what happened to David Monson and Wayne Hauge, two North Dakota farmers given state permission to grow but who have been waiting a while for their federal licenses — in Monson's case, since 1997.
"Here we are in 2009, and it seems like we're still taking baby steps. We're a little closer, but I'm not making any predictions," says Monson, who also happens to be a Republican state representative.
Monson lives only 20 miles from the Canadian border, where fields of profitable industrial hemp have been growing since 1997, and he believes it's a simple case of "if they can grow it, why can't we?"
"The profit potential is there. Practically and economically, it makes sense to raise it," says Monson. "I truly believe as a farmer that hemp is good for farmers, it's good for the environment and it's good for state of North Dakota. And for that matter the whole nation."
As the law currently stands, to legalize hemp production, all the DEA has to do is remove hemp from its Schedule I drug list, a process that does not require a congressional vote.
Now that the Obama administration has announced an end to medical marijuana raids, hemp advocates are hopeful the move could open the door for hemp, because the president voted for a hemp bill while he was in the Illinois legislature.
The DEA follows the government's lead, and the government, which does not want to be seen as being soft on drugs, has been notoriously skittish tackling drug policy reform. If Obama told the DEA to move forward aggressively and issue all pending research, commercial and agronomic licenses, farmers like Monson could grow hemp tomorrow.
"Politically, I liken the situation to pulling bricks out of a dam," says Vote Hemp's Goggin. "There are now so many leaks, the dam's getting ready to burst. We're working hard for a shift in policy, but at the moment, Washington doesn't consider this a top issue."
While industrial-hemp advocates are becoming hopeful that policy change is in the winds, they caution that the industry still requires a massive, coordinated effort to develop.
"I'm hesitant overselling hemp and touting it like the magic beans that will save the economy or the planet," says Tom Murphy, national outreach coordinator for Vote Hemp. "Industrial hemp is an answer but not the answer. It has a great deal of potential — but it doesn't have any potential if you can't grow it."
Conrad, who believes in American ingenuity to find creative solutions using hemp, says, "Only the scourge of prohibitionism can see to it that our economy and environment rot into sewage. It is up to the good, hard-working and honest people to end cannabis prohibition and start the process of rebuilding the planet and our global and regional economies."
Other stories you might be interested in:
Two Republican Candidates back Hemp Farming in Kentucky
UPDATE!! California Senator is Poised to Welcome Hemp
Bipartisan Bill In Support Of Industrial Hemp Farming Introduced
Industrial Hemp Bill Hits Rocks in Kentucky


Gamer's Paradise is where you need to be – play the best games for just INR 40 an hour and the more you play, the cheaper it is.
Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Need For Speed, Lord of the Rings, MotoGP and more – Gamer's Paradise has all the coolest and latest games that you can play. Can't afford to buy it yourself or want to play with the whole squad together? This is where you need to go. Plus they have new Ryzen PCs with CPUs that are mind blowing.
Fully air-conditioned, the zone has many computers - so it's unlikely that you'll have to wait for long to play - each with its own set of speakers or headphones. The dim lighting, posters on the wall and mini-collectibles will also set the mood for your gaming sessions. It's also down the road from a bunch of eating places (the neighbourhood is littered with cool cafes and places to grab a quick snack). They provide free Wi-Fi for all their gamers and ice cold soda in six mouthwatering flavours.
You can pay by the hour or if you are you a gaming freak, you can also get a prepaid membership which will give you discounts. The more you play, the cheaper it is!
This is also a great place to meet like-minded gamers. The arcade has single and multi-player games so you can bring the squad for an epic showdown. The zone is open from 10am to 8:30pm.


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Traffic-clogged Jakarta plans to invest over $40 billion in infrastructure in next 10 years
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's capital plans to invest 571 trillion rupiah ($40.27 billion) to upgrade its transportation and other infrastructure in the next 10 years, its governor was reported by media as saying on Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: A vendor sells drinking water to motorists in traffic along the Sudirman business district in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Beawiharta
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said he has submitted a list of proposals to President Joko Widodo including plans to expand the city's new mass rapid transit (MRT) system and build a 120 km-long light transit railway.
Other projects include investments in a clean water pipeline and waste management projects.
"We will extend the MRT. It's now 16 km (9.9 miles), but later 231 km more will be built," he said, as reported by media.
The projects will be funded mostly through debt, Baswedan said.
Next week, the traffic-clogged city will open to public its $3 billion MRT system, running from south to central Jakarta along its main thoroughfares.
The project, funded by a loan from the Japanese government, is a centre-piece of an infrastructure boom under Widodo.
Widodo is vying for re-election on April 17 against opposition candidate, retired general Prabowo Subianto.
Delayed for more than 20 years, the MRT was finally launched in 2013, with the first line originally scheduled to open in 2018.
The national government will explore creative financing options to fund the newly proposed projects alongside the Jakarta administration, Luky Alfirman, director general of budget financing at the finance ministry, said.
Reporting by Maikel Jefriando; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Kim Coghill

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Welcome to Bud & Alley's Restaurant. Good Food. Good People. Good Times. Founded in 1986 and named for a dog and cat, Bud & Alley's has been a revered gathering place by loyal patrons for great food, great fun and Seaside's finest sunsets for 25 years. South Walton's longest established restaurant, Bud & Alley's is nestled in the dunes overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Bud & Alley's has garnered numerous awards including Florida Trend Magazines Golden Spoon Award designating the eatery as one of the top 20 restaurants in Florida as well as receiving a five star designation from the Tallahassee Democrat and annually winning Wine Spectator Magazines Award of Excellence.


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Politics World
China's South China Sea Claims Threaten India's Economic and Geopolitical Interests
25 October 2021 25 October 2021 Neeraj Singh Manhas 6 Comments Act Far East Policy, China, South China Sea, UNCLOS
The continued flow of commerce and naval movement in the South China Sea is vital for India. It handles around 55% of India's trade with the Indo-Pacific region. Sustaining regional peace and stability is, thus, crucial for India. To counterbalance China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) effort, India must leverage its geographical advantage, increasing its naval profile, ASEAN collaboration, and heritage of goodwill.
China and numerous other Governments have competing land and marine sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. Despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejecting China's claims of historical "exclusive control" over the sea, they persist. Many non-claimant states, like India, want the South China Sea to remain open as international seas.
Being the second busiest sea lane in the world, the South China Sea carries around one-third of global shipping (nearly $3 trillion). It has increased the trade and economic relations with various East Asian states as well as the Pacific region. Control of this sea route would benefit a single country economically and militarily. As a result, this area can be used to win control over the rest of Asia. Among China's opponents are the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
The "nine-dash line" claims most of the South China Sea for China. The loop encircles various islands from China to Malaysia and Singapore, including the Spratly and Paracel chains.
China uses a delaying strategy to consolidate its claims over the South China Sea. Also, it may resist any regional counterbalancing coalition led by the USA.
Also Read: Indian Ocean and South China Sea: Jugular Vein as Gordian Knot
With increasing political, military, and economic dominance, Beijing will undoubtedly utilise it to pursue its own interests to the detriment of other nations. China uses a delaying strategy, in which a state maintains its claims over the contested area, without providing concessions or deploying force to consolidate its claims while preventing other states from doing likewise. The passage of time strengthens a state's claim under international law if it holds contested land as part of a delaying strategy. Achieving better relations with neighbouring states trumped the contested maritime rights and islands in the South China Sea. Mao ordered the transfer of the disputed Bailongwei (White Dragon Tail) Island to North Vietnam in 1957 to boost Sino-North Vietnamese relations. It's unlikely, but it's possible. For example, China may resist any regional counterbalancing coalition led by the USA. Affected countries may expect China to make some concessions to mend relations.
Indian Interests
Despite not being physically located in the South China Sea region, India is strongly involved with numerous littoral states in the region due to geoeconomic and geopolitical interests. India considers the South China Sea to be its "extended neighbourhood" and has reached out to its neighbours.
A Chinese assessment puts the South China Sea's oil reserves at 130 billion barrels, second only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia. To expand long-term cooperation in the oil sector, India's state-run explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) signed a letter of intent with Petro Vietnam on September 15, 2014. ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) entered Vietnam in 1988 with Block 06.1. The government also granted two exploration blocks to the corporation in 2006. Block 127, being unprofitable, was abandoned, although the other block is still being investigated and closely correlates to the current Chinese escalation area.
Also Read: The Iran–China 25-years Deal: Where does it leave India?
Continued flow of commerce and naval movement in the South Chinal Sea is vital for India
The continued flow of commerce and naval movement in the South China Sea is vital for India. It handles around 55% of India's trade with the Indo-Pacific region. Thus, sustaining regional peace and stability is crucial for India.
The South China Sea connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans. As India's maritime cooperation with the US and Australia grew, the importance of Indo-Pacific region increased. The Indian Navy now joins the US and Japanese navies in the Western Pacific. As a result, India needs secure access to the South China Sea. India needs unhindered passage via the South China Sea to reach the Western Pacific.
To counterbalance China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) effort, India must leverage its geographical advantage, increasing its naval profile, ASEAN collaboration, and heritage of goodwill. This is the rationale for India's response to the South China Sea issue. India hopes to impede China's ambitions in the South China Sea by creating a cooperative security alliance that complements ASEAN's indirect balancing of China. With its weight behind countries, like Vietnam, which are embroiled in a dispute with Beijing over overlapping claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea, India's "Look East Policy" (LEP) and "Act East Policy" (AEP) compliment India's strategy of containing Chinese footprints in its "extended neighbourhood." The Look East Policy (LEP) and Act East Policy (AEP) have helped strengthen India-ASEAN ties. It has also paved the way for India's growing involvement and responsibilities in Indo-Pacific affairs.
Also Read: Abraham Accord and its Geopolitical Significance
India, the US, Australia, and Japan hosted the inaugural virtual Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) summit early this year, where they vowed to cooperate on cybersecurity and maritime challenges. Logical constructivism tempered by critical, practical geopolitical imperatives would be best suited to India.
Neeraj Singh Manhas
Neeraj Singh Manhas is a Director of Research, Indo-Pacific Consortium, at Raisina House, New Delhi. He has authored four books under his name and has various research interests covering India-China in the Indian Ocean, India's maritime securities, and Indo-Pacific studies.
https://therise.co.in/author/neeraj-singh-manhas/
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The outside is as important as the inside of your home.
A well-maintained kitchen, a clean bathroom and a well-lit living room do not make a beautiful home. To create the right impression on your guests, the exterior of your home should be beautiful too. Also, a strong exterior surface is required to protect the home from pests, mold, mildew etc.
How to begin the Exterior Home Renovation Project?
Homeowners consider home renovation projects as DIY jobs. But, remember that a small mistake can result into a disaster. So, it is essential that you obtain expert help from an experienced home renovation contractor. Choose a reputable contractor who can create new design elements in the lawn area and enhance the curb appeal of your home.
Before you meet a contractor, create a list of things that you want to renovate. Also, search online for different exterior home renovation ideas. It is essential to meet a couple of contractors before finalizing your favorite one. Do not forget to discuss your expectations with him. It will ensure that you love the final results.
What Areas should you consider for your Exterior Home Renovation Project?
The front door is the main entrance of your home. It is the first thing that a person will notice when he visits you. A dull and damaged front door will give an ill look to your home. So, consider painting the door in a fresh color that provides a welcoming appeal to it. If the front door is broken, it is essential to repair or replace it. It is because it can create safety issues in the future.
The driveway plays an important role in improving the look of your home. If the driveway is broken, it will not leave a positive impression on your visitors. Also, it can result in accidents. So, it is essential to repair the driveway. You can install new pavers and make it look beautiful. Alternatively, you can install a heated driveway to remove snow from its surface.
If the exterior walls of your home are dull and dirty, they can result in formation of mold, mildew, etc. It can cause severe health issues for your family members. So, ask the contractor to clean the walls, repair the cracks and paint them beautifully.
Do not underestimate the power of painting colors. Homeowners paint the interior of their homes with high-quality paints. But, they ignore the exterior part of their homes because they believe that no matter what quality of paint they use, weather will ruin it. Remember that using high-quality paints on the exterior walls will protect your home efficiently.
A well-maintained lawn area can give a beautiful look to your home. Ask the home renovation contractor to provide you with ideas for the lawn area. Growing plants and flowers is not the only way of beautifying the area. You can install beautiful water features as well as eye-catching lighting fixtures to make it pretty.
Do not ignore the exterior of your home because if it is not strong, it will make your entire home weak and susceptible to structural problems as well as health issues.
Renovating your home can be quite expensive, especially if you have to pay someone to do the labour for you. Labour costs can be very high, so hiring someone to do the renovations for you may be out of the question. Instead of spending money on the high costs of labour, try doing the work yourself and limit your expenses to the cost of materials. For homeowners who are handy, there are some cost effective ways to renovate your home. Try these low cost renovating ideas, which are sure to increase your property value.
Although there are many cost effective ways to renovate your home, start with the exterior of the house. The exterior is the one part of the house everyone can see, so fixing it up not only increases the property value of your home, but it may also get others in your area to do the same, which means that the property value of a whole neighbourhood or community could go up, too. Low cost ways of renovating the exterior of your home include the following ideas.
Paint any siding, trim, windows, or doors to give the exterior a fresh look. Using clean, white paint will freshen up an outdated exterior while choosing bright paint colours can make a house stand out more from the landscape. Paint is a low cost way to make a big impact.
Another low cost renovation idea is to redo your landscaping and garden. This involves more labour on your part than it does money for materials. Get rid of old shrubs, trees, and plants that may cause your landscape to look dull and unkempt. Plant new trees, bushes, and flowers that add pops of colour to the yard while creating visual interest in the area, too. This renovation project only costs what you spend on plants.
With so many cost effective ways to renovate the inside of your home, it can be difficult to know where to even start. Begin your interior renovations by ripping out your old flooring and installing new flooring. Most homeowners are able to complete this project without the help of a contractor, which saves money on labour costs.
In fact, the only cost associated with this project will be the cost of the flooring you choose to install. There are many flooring options on the market that range from low cost ideas to very expensive ones. Choose a flooring material that fits into your budget. Laminate hardwood floors and inexpensive ceramic tiles are low cost choices that instantly update a space and look great. Some low cost flooring renovations can make any room of the house look better.
Rip out the old or dated carpet in the main living area, hallways, and bedrooms. Replace the carpet with hardwood floors to get a polished and modern look. Pull up the laminate floors in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry areas. Replace the laminate floors with beautiful tile. This will make these spaces feel fresh and new again.
One low cost renovation project that many homeowners can do themselves is to take out a wall. Taking out a wall between rooms can open up a space and make the room feel more inviting. For example, if your kitchen is closed off from the rest of the house, consider knocking down a wall to open the kitchen to the dining room. This will give the renovated space a more contemporary feel and make the spaces brighter.
One low cost idea for renovating your home is to add an outdoor living space. This is a cheaper way to add useable square footage to a home instead of adding extra rooms. Creating an outdoor space can also add to a home's property value, as many families want larger outdoor areas.
You really need to consider the space you have, and work with that space to make an outdoor room that fits into your home's overall design scheme.
* Add a porch covering, extend the roof, or build a pergola to create some shade in the area.
* Add a floor by putting in pavers or bricks on the ground or even by pouring concrete.
* Add comfortable furniture for lounging outdoors as well as for eating outside.
* Add a grill and a small refrigerator to create the perfect area to cook, too.
Following these cost effective ways to renovate will reduce the expense of your home improvements and are relatively easy for you to do. They add great value at low cost.


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昆山市美甲培训学校
苏州美甲美睫培训/ 29/08/2019 / admin
$11m mansion sale hits snag
The sale of Rosecraddock in Caulfield North is subject to a dispute over an unpaid tradie's bill.The $11 million sale of the historic Rosecraddock estate has hit a snag, with a disgruntled tradie moving to block the deal over an unpaid $15,000 renovations bill.
It's not the first run-in with contractors for owner and former Channel Seven newsreader Simone Semmens, who was ordered to pay $37,000 to a builder earlier this year after a bitter legal dispute.
Darren Edgell of Summit Electrical placed a caveat on the title of the Caulfield North mansion after learning the property was sold last month, hoping to block its transfer to Kmart chief executive Guy Russo.
"When the job came to completion [Ms Semmens] didn't pay a large portion of our account – about $15,000. We sent her letters but there was no response so we put a caveat on the property," Mr Edgell said.
"We've had to carry that debt. I put the caveat on hoping the new purchaser would force Simone in the settlement to pay us out."
Rosecraddock received a complete renovation and refurbishment after Ms Semmens bought the landmark estate for $7.8 million in 2007. The Victorian, which has a ballroom, tennis court, pool and six-car garage, was the scene of the 2005 murder of eccentric millionaire Peter Shellard.
Ms Semmens and her lawyers, Clamenz Evans Ellis, did not respond to requests for comment.
It marks the second dispute over work done at Rosecraddock, with Ms Semmens ordered to pay $37,000 to builder Mitch Court Constructions by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal earlier this year.
An invoice of $14,318.18 for synthetic grass for the tennis court was among the documents submitted to the court as part of a claim for more than $90,000 worth of unpaid services. Ms Semmens contested the claim, citing faulty work.
Following mediation at VCAT, Ms Semmens agreed to settle for $37,000 but ultimately refused to make the payment after reporting newly discovered problems with the property's airconditioning system.
VCAT then ruled in favour of Mitch Court Constructions and ordered the $37,000 payment be made after Ms Semmens failed to attend a hearing in January.
Mitch Court declined to comment and it is unknown whether the payment has been received.
Former lawyers for Ms Semmens, Best Hooper Solicitors, also this year won a $19,579.87 claim plus costs against their client in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Ms Semmens, a former Telstra public relations manager, has been an active property trader and developer for more than a decade, buying and selling luxury homes in Toorak, Portsea and Caulfield North.
In her latest project, Ms Semmens bought the 30-room riverfront mansion Edzell House in Toorak for $11 million and is looking to sell off a portion of the land for up to $9 million.
[email protected]南京夜网.au. Twitter: @chrisvedelago
This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.
Hunter theatre enthusiasts commit to new company
Chris Maxfield has long held the dream of establishing a theatre company that would bring together Hunter Valley and Central Coast communities. And he found, in those get-togethers that actors have during rehearsal breaks, that the dream was shared.
So in May this year, after two years of discussions and planning, a team of people from throughout the region established The National Theatre Company with the aim of producing shows that would have people from towns as widespread as Gosford and Scone working together as actors and stage crews, and performing at several venues.
In the past week, The National Theatre Company has held auditions for its first production, the musical Godspell, and an information night for a second musical, 13, for which auditions will be held in December.
A reading of a new play by Newcastle actress Emma Wood, Mr Bennet's Bride, will be held tomorrow, with feedback from experienced regional actors, writers and directors.
While Godspell is a frequently staged musical, The National Theatre Company has obtained the rights for the first Australian staging of a re-orchestrated and partly rewritten version of the 1971 original that only ended its Broadway run in June.
And 13 is a recent American musical about a boy who moves from New York to a regional town and tries to make friends. It had its first major Australian production at the Adelaide Fringe Festival this year.
Mr Bennet's Bride looks at the backgrounds of the parents of five daughters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. A play reading is usually the first step towards the production of a new work.
Godspell will open at the new 478-seat St Philip's Theatre at Waratah in late February – the first commercial booking of that venue. The Newcastle season will be followed by performances at Singleton, Cessnock and Gosford.
13 will have seasons in Singleton and Newcastle in April and May.
The hopes of the new company's executive team to attract people from the Hunter and beyond to be part of shows have been fulfilled.
Maxfield says he had been up until 2am many mornings responding to emails from would-be cast members since auditions for Godspell were announced in late October.
On the day that I visited his Newcastle home to talk with him about the company and its plans, Georgia Taylor, a 17-year-old year 11 student from Scone, arrived with her parents for a singing lesson and an audition.
Maxfield, the company's artistic director, has been helped in spreading the word about the company by other members of the non-profit company's executive.
The company secretary, for example, is Tony Fletcher, of Singleton. Marketing manager Nicholas Stabler designs and develops websites around the Hunter Region.
Maxfield himself works at the University of Newcastle as a project and business process improvement manager.
The regional spread of the executive has helped the company to gain sponsorships from businesses such as a Pokolbin winery.
It was their love of theatre that brought the team together.
Maxfield is a multi-CONDA nominee who won an award for his performance as Ko Ko in a 2006 Newcastle production of The Mikado. He is nominated again this year for his Fagin in Metropolitan Players' Oliver! and has been cast as the Phantom in that company's staging of The Phantom of the Opera at the Civic Theatre next August.
He met Tony Fletcher when he was co-directing the musical Blood Brothers and Fletcher won a role. They again worked together in Oliver! with Fletcher as the officious beadle, Mr Bumble.
The choice of the name The National Theatre Company does not indicate a long-term plan to take shows throughout Australia, although Maxfield is hopeful that within two years the group could win Sydney seasons for some of its shows.
Instead, it is intended to show that the company does not have its focus on one city or community but aims to stage shows that will have broad appeal and give theatrical opportunities to people in smaller towns.
While The National Theatre Company is a non-profit organisation, the executive is looking at putting profits into two inter-related strands – employing theatre professionals in fields such as musical direction and choreography to help develop high standards in performances, and providing scholarships for young people.
In 2009 Maxfield founded i-act, an indigenous children's theatre providing free acting, voice, stagecraft and acting-for-camera tuition aimed at achieving more realistic representation of indigenous children in mainstream theatre, television, advertising and film.
He has also been increasingly involved in the dance world by providing drama tuition since 2010 for the Newcastle-based National College of Dance's summer schools.
The dance group is closely involved with The National Theatre Company. Its Lambton studios will provide rehearsal spaces for the theatre company and the choreographers of the first two shows will come from its ranks: Isabelle Leonard (Godspell) and Callan Constable (13).
Maxfield is looking at further-developing the relationship by staging musicals such as West Side Story in which dance is a key element.
The choice of the first two shows certainly shows a keenness to involve as broad a range of people as possible. The cast of Godspell will be drawn from a wide age range, but performers in 13, in keeping with the teenage characters, will be aged 12 to 16.
The company will also be choosing two people for each role, with actors alternating in performances to give as many people as possible a chance to broaden their skills.
Maxfield had his first professional role at age seven, in Noel Coward's Red Peppers.
He combined part-time acting with a career as a policeman in Sydney, with his day job later helping him in a continuing role as a cop in the television series Home and Away. He worked extensively in theatre, film and television before moving to Newcastle in 2000.
He has worked in the past two decades in human resources, with the skills coming in handy when he was told the rights to the new version of Godspell were not available.
After carefully navigating various parties, and having legal restrictions lifted, he eventually received a letter from Schwartz himself, decorated with an artist's caricature of the composer, in which Schwartz wished the new company "All [for] the best" in staging the show – the wish, in that form, being the name of one of the Godspell songs.
PLAYERS: Tony Fletcher, Georgia Taylor and Chris Maxfield. PICTURE: JONATHAN CARROLL
When the axe falls
Eddie McGuire has opened up about the way redundancies were handled at Channel Nine.Channel Seven sacks veteran reporterTen risks ratings disaster after cutsGuess who came to lunch?
When Eddie McGuire was forced to axe 100 staff from Channel Nine – barely a few months into his new role as CEO – he decided to give it to them straight.
Unfortunately, his HR department had other plans.
Instead of letting him sit down and talk with each unlucky worker, they made him read a scripted statement to them. He was also advised not to answer their questions.
"It was a disaster . . . the worst thing I did," McGuire confessed to his Triple M listeners last week. "These HR people come in, they have their set plays – and they never work."
That was in 2006: an annus horribilis of bad headlines for Nine. Of course, its redundancies were never going to be painless. But as McGuire found out, the advice from HR only compounded that pain.
Now, the embattled Ten Network seems intent on replicating these blunders with a series of ham-fisted sackings from its news department, including the removal of presenter Helen Kapalos.
And it is not alone: most TV and radio networks have swallowed the misconception that redundancies should be swift and brutal. No farewell to loyal audiences. No saying goodbye to colleagues. Just hand in your pass, pack your things and go. Now.
The theory is that a swift sacking equals a "clean break". The reality is that using a guillotine leaves a lot of blood. Badwill rises. Leaks spring. Rumours swirl.
The most bemusing aspect is that all this could be avoided through common decency. No one likes being sacked but a simple thank you, a farewell gathering and the option to work until the contract ends goes a long way towards reducing animosity.
Yet the idea persists that brutal axings are a hallmark of "decisive" management.
"Apparently in radio, people have to be sacked with some kind of great drama," Wendy Harmer, a former 2Day FM host, once told me. "You can't be told in advance you're going to lose your job. There has to be some sort of vile skulduggery."
Indeed, many hosts have no idea they're doing their final show until it's over. Often, they're sacked as they come off air and told not to return.
This happened to Mix FM's George McEncroe in 2009 – on April Fools' Day, no less. Eventually, her bosses convinced her it was no joke and McEncroe later described the experience as "very David Brent".
Others have endured rumours and even newspaper reports of their impending demise, including former Triple M hosts Peter Helliar and Myf Warhurst. By the time they were sacked, it was common knowledge in the industry they were making way for Eddie McGuire.
Likewise, Sydney newsreader Bill Woods was assured by Channel Ten management that recent reports of his sacking were wrong. Woods even told Fairfax Media he was looking forward to returning to work after the weekend – only to be sacked the moment he did.
Ten claims its decision had not been made when Fairfax Media reported it, just two days before it happened. It's hard to believe they weren't seriously considering it, though – and even harder to understand why they let Woods think he was safe.
If, on the other hand, Ten did decide to sack him just hours before doing so, it suggests such decisions are made on a whim: not a good look for a network in crisis.
Needless to say, Woods isn't the first newsreader to receive false reassurances.
In 2005, Beverley O'Connor was sacked by Channel Seven. As she wrote in the Herald Sun recently, "Execution day was also a Friday but they decided to do it a few hours before I was due on air. Not only were they dumping me, but I had to go on air and announce my own humiliating departure to Peter Mitchell at the end of the bulletin."
One executive looked her in the eye and promised she'd be given another job. That promise amounted to nothing.
It's hard to decide whether this is worse than the unvarnished cruelty of Seven's executives in sacking Mal Walden almost two decades earlier.
Last year, Walden told me, "We coined them the 'princes of darkness' because of their sheer acts of bastardry. I remember one guy standing at the door of the newsroom on a Friday and saying, 'I'm going back to Sydney now to draw up a list of those I'm going to fire on Monday. Enjoy your weekend.' "
What did this executive hope to achieve with such needless barbarism? Whatever his goal, it backfired spectacularly when almost all of Seven News' audience switched off in protest over Walden's sacking.
The most mystifying part of all this, however, is that such tactics are patently dumb.
People don't like seeing their colleagues treated badly. Even if they've escaped the axe themselves, it diminishes their respect for the company – leaving them happy to leak damaging information to other journalists.
If media companies want to cut costs, perhaps they could start with the overpaid HR executives who peddle the nonsense theories that McGuire learnt are no substitute for simple, decent treatment.
[email protected]南京夜网.au
A round about way to build a roundabout: apartment block stuck in middle of multi-lane highway as couple flatly refuse to give way
Exclusive location. Close to transport. Lots of room. Unique view.
For once all those tired, old real estate cliches are accurate.
Luo Baogen and his wife have refused to move out of their five-storey apartment block to make way for a highway in Wenling, in China's Zhejiang province.
So the apartment block now serves as an unusual roundabout, surrounded by a multi-lane highway which, when complete, will lead to Wenling railway station.
International media have picked up on the Baogen family's firm stance, quoting the People's Daily, which reported the couple were not happy with the compensation they were offered to move out.
Their neighbours have moved on, leaving much of the building empty.
Several reports said changes in private ownership laws in China have made it harder for residents to be forced out of their homes.
The family are not the only people in China to put up such a fight.
The Daily Mail reported Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, residents in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province, had made a similar decision this year to stay in a building, which now sits in the middle of a multi-lane road.
The family initially accepted compensation, but then changed their minds.
In England, the M62 highway near Scammonden runs right through Stott Hall Farm.
It was one property to survive when hundreds were bulldozed in the 1970s.
The tenant farmer, Paul Thorp, told the BBC in 2008 the farm had become an unofficial service station for motorists.
"People running out of petrol; coming and wanting to buy petrol and diesel; wanting to borrow spanners and jacks and to use the telephone," Mr Thorp said.
"If I've got some petrol I'll sell them some. I'll try and help anybody out.
"It's just not a nice spot to be, at the side of the road, especially if it's rough weather. I can't afford to give the petrol away, though. If I could get a regular trade, it'd be OK."
History of surfing in Jarratt's new book
There's not much that writer Phil Jarratt doesn't know about surfing in Australia. Now he's put his knowledge into an Australian history of the sport, writes HELEN GREGORY.
Veteran surf journalist Phil Jarratt's first meeting with former professional Mark Richards was as poignant as it was indicative of the history of his involvement with the dynamic sport.
Jarratt had arrived in Newcastle in 1970 as a Sydney Morning Herald cadet, working in Bolton Street, living in shabby digs in the East End and attending shorthand and typing classes as the only male student at what he recalls was Newcastle Ladies Business College.
Working afternoons allowed him to devote the mornings to surfing, which he had fallen in love with as a child growing up in Wollongong in the 1960s under the wing of the celebrated Bobby Brown, who died in a pub brawl in 1967.
Jarratt had surfed competitively up to the age of 18, then mostly hit the waves for recreation.
''I would get to the city beaches in the morning and I kept running into this tiny, scrawny kid who always looked like he was about to burst into tears,'' Jarratt recalls, his deep voice seeped in fondness.
''You know how just before you start to cry your chin starts to wobble?
''He always looked like that, but he could really surf, he was amazing, he had this unique style.
''That was my introduction to Mark Richards.
''A few years later I ran into him again as a journalist covering the beginnings of world pro surfing and I was astounded by the improvements in a few short years between 1970 and 1974 – Mark had gone from strength to strength.
''You could see in the early days he was going to be somebody special.''
Jarratt's decision to leave newspaper journalism, follow his passion and dip his toes in the world of surfing magazines would set into motion a gambolling career in the industry that has spanned more than 40 years.
''I think anybody that's really involved with surfing and really loves it as a sport and lifestyle wants to try and make a living out of it,'' he tells Weekender matter-of-factly from his home in Noosa Heads.
''Back in those days when I was starting out professionally in journalism in the early 1970s there wasn't really the career option to work as such in the surf industry and I certainly wasn't good enough to ever become a professional surfer.
''In the early '70s professional surfing didn't really exist either.
''There were guys out there on a tiny little world tour but they weren't really making money out of it, they were losing it.
''I knew I wanted to do something that kept me involved in surfing and really the only option at the time unless you were a pioneer in the surfing industry – and a few of my friends became that – was to get a job in the media.''
He edited Tracks magazine and Australian Surfer's Journal, was a contributing editor to Surfer and Pacific Longboarder magazines, wrote 27 books, was a scriptwriter and consultant on surfing films, worked for Quiksilver in Europe and the US and collaborated with Surfing Australia on projects that included the recent release of a commemorative stamp set to celebrate the Year of The Surfer.
He has launched this month his most recent project, Surfing Australia; A Complete History of Surfboard Riding in Australia (pictured below) which chronicles the development of the sport over the past 50 years from the rebel fringe to the sporting mainstream, as well as the 50 years of adventure and experimentation that preceded the half-century of organised surfing.
Jarratt said he had ''rooms full of research'' following his last book Australia's Hottest 100 Surfing Legends, which was packed with profiles on the sport's greatest athletes.
''After all these years of being involved I felt that all this work had one place, between one set of covers,'' he says.
''There had been histories of Australian surfing but I wouldn't regard any one of them as really comprehensive and what I wanted to produce was a book that would stand the test of time, could be updated eventually but one that really told the whole story.''
It also happened that 2013 would be the 50th anniversary of the birth of Surfing Australia, the governing body for a sport that had traditionally been the domain of the rebels and outsiders who had resisted governance in any form.
''It has played such an important part in grooming Australians for the world tour and creating champions like Layne Beachley and Mark Richards and so many others and I thought I should combine my idea for a comprehensive history of the sport with Surfing Australia's desire to have a book that comprehensively told their story.
''So it's a combination, my book tells the story of the whole century of surfing in this country but its also got a very strong emphasis on the organisational side of it, the contests, how we created so many champions over time.''
Jarratt's enthusiasm for the sport and attention to detail is evident in the hardback book, which follows surfing pioneers; the birth of clubs, contests and board-building; surfers sent to World War II; big characters and gangs; to the first of Australia's many international surfing champions, Bernard ''Midget'' Farrelly and the significance of the 1964 inaugural Surfing World Championships at Manly.
''I've tried to use the skills I have as a storyteller to make it accessible to everybody,'' he says. ''I've devoted a lot of space in the book to getting the detail right.''
The book also dispels some long-perpetuated myths, including that newspaper man William Gocher walked into the water in Manly in 1907 and swam during the day – in an era when ocean swimming was illegal after 7am – was arrested and, in doing so, changed the law.
But Jarratt says it wasn't like that.
''My reading of it [the truth] was that he was primarily drawing attention to his newspaper but at the time he played it up, 'I'm testing the law here and if they arrest me I'll put it in the newspaper and we'll get this law changed.'
''He did go for a swim at Manly and it did make some difference but the fact was that it was a campaign over the next five years that eventually caused the laws to be changed.
''In Sydney and other populated areas you could go swimming in the surf in daylight hours and that was the beginning of the whole surf culture.
''Everyone started doing it, and people started drowning while doing it, so the surf lifesaving movement began to try to get the fatalities down. Out of all that came surfboards, you could use a surfboard to try and save people.''
Another myth was that Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku introduced surfing to Australia when he visited in the summer of 1914-15.
''In fact we had a small but very keen tribe of surfers trying to ride surfboards several years before that,'' he says. ''This book tells that whole story, how they tried really hard but they didn't quite have it, didn't quite understand how to do it, then Duke came out here for that summer and really set things alight.''
Phil Jarratt.
Jennie Thomas: The Midas Touch
Jennie Thomas turned personal tragedy into humble generosity and has opened her heart to the region's best and brightest, writes ROSEMARIE MILSOM.
The widely respected former vice chancellor of the University of Newcastle, Professor Nick Saunders, was many things, but huggable was not one of them. That never stopped Jennie Thomas.
''She has this wonderful philosophy about the value of a good hug and she disarms people,'' says Bernie Curran, executive officer of the University of Newcastle Foundation, the institution's philanthropic arm.
''You watch these stiff people so used to being academic and reserved suddenly being swamped by a big hug,'' he says chuckling. ''That's a measure of her affection and warmth,'' he says of the foundation's most dedicated donor.
Unfortunately I miss out on one of Thomas's famous hugs because our interview happens over the phone. The 71-year-old pint-sized dynamo lives in Canberra and her impending visit to Newcastle for the International Space Time Concerto Competition, an ambitious and historical music event she helped fund to celebrate the Newcastle Conservatorium's 60th birthday, conflicts with Weekender's production schedule.
Thomas is well-known at the university for her enthusiastic support of students and researchers through a number of grants and scholarships, but her generosity also extends beyond the leafy Callaghan campus to include the Hunter Medical Research Institute, Hunter Melanoma Foundation, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Centre, an eye clinic in Sierra Leone, small business loans in Niger and education and health projects in Fiji and Burma.
When we speak, she has just returned from a two-week trip to Burma with her partner, respected ACT horticulturist David Young.
''It was an eye-opener,'' she says. ''David and I travel a lot and this was the best trip we've ever done. The people made it stand out – they are so gentle and warm.
''One of the first ladies I met was called Me Me and she told me something I'll never forget; she said, 'Jennie, the way you talk about your country, it's a 'me' society. Turn the 'm' upside down; you need to become a 'we' society'. We had a big hug on that one,'' she laughs.
It is a long way from a small dairy settlement near Lismore, where she grew up as the third eldest of nine children, to Burma, but Thomas is nothing if not adventurous. The former teacher first travelled overseas in the late 1960s when her late husband Philip Emlyn, known as ''Em'', an industrial chemist who graduated from Newcastle University – then a part of the University of NSW – took a job demonstrating the use of atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) in European laboratories.
The modern form of AAS was largely developed during the 1950s by a team of Australian scientists and it revolutionised chemistry. Em's knowledge and skill were in high demand.
''He trained and mentored a lot of young physicists and chemists and computer experts,'' Thomas recalls. ''They were all his family; our house was always full of young students. It was a very exciting time in chemistry.''
The couple, both scholarship recipients who met in Newcastle, married in Wallsend Baptist Church in 1962 and relocated to a pretty village in Switzerland, half-way between Lucerne and Zurich, for 18 months. ''The first night we got there, Em was told he had to go to Germany the next day,'' she remembers. ''I didn't know any of the language. He got up at 5 o'clock in the morning and vanished, and there was me.''
She pauses. ''I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt a lot about people. I learnt to be more observant than talk,'' she laughs, ''which is a bit hard if you're me and you've grown up in a big family and all of a sudden you're on your own in a European village where nobody speaks any English.
''Em was off to a different country every week and if I wanted to, I went with him. I visited Russia during the Cold War and China not long after Nixon's visit. Sometimes I didn't want to [travel], and I just walked and explored Switzerland. It was an amazing experience. One of the things that held me together was that I had a lifeline with my mum. I used to write to her sometimes two or three times a day because she was so excited that I was able to travel, because she couldn't.''
After their return to Australia in 1971, the couple settled in Melbourne and Thomas helped establish child migrant education within the Victorian Education Department. She developed the curriculum, trained other teachers, and became a consultant. She also pursued her interest in renovating and building houses. ''I don't know that I've ever lived in a house that I haven't done up,'' she enthuses. ''I like seeing results for hard work.''
took his own lifein March 2001. He was 60. The couple had been together for close to four decades.
''It's a very dark place to be in,'' Thomas says of the grief that overwhelmed her after Em's death. ''I did not ever think I would laugh again; I really didn't believe it. He was a brilliant person, a caring person, who made a lot of difference to a lot of people's lives.''
Thomas remembers standing by his grave and questioning what to do next. ''I just didn't understand, but I realised that,'' she pauses. ''There are two ways you can go – you can feel sorry for yourself and say, 'Why me?', and then I thought, I only have one life and I need to do something that's important. That's when I decided to put Em's money to good use.
''I don't need it for me; I live a fairly simple life apart from travelling, and I can go on making a difference to young people's lives, I can go on mentoring people, and I tell you what, they give me back more than I've ever given.''
Thomas fronted up to meet Bernie Curran at the University Foundation who then introduced her to mental health researcher Frances Kay Lambkin. Thomas asked Lambkin an important question, one that has since become her catch cry: ''What is your dream?'' Lambkin described how she wanted to create the world's first computer-based therapy for those battling abuse of alcohol and other drugs, and depression. Thomas made a one-off $60,000 donation.
''I've got a bit of a reputation in Newcastle for picking the right people [to support],'' she says. ''They've got to have that bit of extra something – I don't know what it is, but it's a spark and I can see the dream is real and that they will go on with it.
''I make a small contribution and then they make that bigger contribution back to society. Frances was a case in point; she was left-field – I like left-field – and when I walked into her and [fellow researcher] Amanda Baker's office one day and they told me about the DVD and using the computer to reach people with depression who might not seek help, I said, 'Right, well, we'll do that. Go for it'.''
She also returned to John Hunter Hospital and asked the cardiologists who had treated Em how she could help. ''He'd had depressive episodes throughout his life, but of course we didn't have the knowledge that we have now,'' she says. ''At the time Em had his heart attack and stroke, I didn't go back to the hospital and say, 'He's fallen into deep depression'. Now I know that so many people who have those significant health events later have a depressive episode and it can be very serious.''
Thomas became aware of research at HMRI and helped fund BraveHeart, a pilot study involving 39 patients at the hospital who were experiencing significant symptoms of depression or anxiety at the end of cardiac rehabilitation. The study showed that coronary heart disease patients who feel depressed or anxious can benefit from group therapy.
Em's life – and tragic death – has helped her pinpoint projects to support across the arts, health and environment. She often reflects on the opportunities that came their way because of their tertiary studies, which only happened because they received scholarships.
''We had very little money,'' says Thomas of her youth. ''Bringing up nine children in a scattered country settlement was a struggle. My parents, both teachers, had very few of this world's goods, but they lived a life of loving and caring for us and others in our community. They gave us love and laughter, literature and learning.
''Em also came from a home with little money or material goods. He arrived in Australia from a mining village in Wales when he was 10 and went to Toronto Public School, then Newcastle Boys High. What we both had was a love of life and people, a love of learning, and the determination to achieve our goals.''
Thomas is passionate about supporting university students to reach their potential. ''There's a country girl there,'' observes Curran. ''She can't stand bullshit, which is one of the reasons she likes being involved in the selection committees because she cuts through the garbage and gets to the essence of who someone is.
''It doesn't matter if you're a stand-out on paper, she is looking for that little bit of something different.
''She nosed around like a wombat until she found Alexia [Sinclair, award-winning photographer and digital artist] who won one of Jennie's Travelling Art Scholarships while she was studying fine art at the university.''
Thomas stays in contact with recipients and relishes news of their ongoing achievements
Curran says: ''She does like to get involved in the life of the recipient, not in an interfering way, but in a way which encourages them. ''They not only get the benefit of the dollars, they get the benefit of her – she becomes a mentor. I often use this image of Jennie as the mother duck walking across the road with an increasing number in her brood, ready to shelter under her wings.
''Some donors will say, 'Here's some money for indigenous students doing medicine, you find them' and that's it, that's their involvement. That's not the way Jennie does it.''
Thomas, who has no children of her own, has created a large and eclectic extended family. She wishes she was more comfortable with the term ''philanthropist''. ''It sounds money oriented, but it's people-oriented. Bernie pulled me aside one day and being a classics scholar loves explaining the origin of words; he said, 'It means lover of mankind, remember that, that's what you are'.''
Though reluctant to sing her own praises, when I mention that Em would be proud of her work, she replies: ''I'm sure so.''
She believes Em would also be pleased about her involvement in the International Space Time Concerto Competition and she made sure his beloved classical music would feature alongside innovative compositions, including an iPhone ensemble.
The competition, which has been described as ''Beethoven meets the Matrix'', offers an opportunity to perform with a full orchestra. Several finalists will play live with an international internet-linked ensemble spanning five countries.
''I'm getting very excited about it,'' says Thomas, who contributed $30,000. ''I think it's an amazing opportunity for Newcastle. It's a first in the world!
''You've got to have a go; that was one of things Em and I used to say. When an opportunity opens up, you take it and if it doesn't work, you've had a go.
''My dad put me on the train [to study in Newcastle] when I was 17 and he said, 'Go and make something of your life'. That's what I say to my dreamers: go and do it.''
The International Space Time Concerto Competition will be held in The Newcastle Conservatorium on Friday, November 30, and Sunday, December 2, and also screened live in Civic Park. Visit spacetimeconcerto南京夜网 for more information. Jennie Thomas blogs about her adventures at jtdytravels南京夜网.
ENCOURAGING: Jennie Thomas on the receiving end of a kiss from Nerida Ackland, joint winner of the 2010 Jennie Thomas Travelling Art Scholarship.
Lobby groups gatecrash annual meetings
The "tall poppy" syndrome is largely an Australian phenomenon. Doing well makes you a big target and there's no shortage of people who'll happily try to take you down.
Recently, that mood has extended to corporate Australia – or more specifically to AGM season, where interest groups try to use those meetings to advance their agendas.
Sure, we've always had vocal critics at annual general meetings, many who just try to push their own agendas.
Sometimes, they are even relevant.
AGMs are the new battleground
But now shareholder activism has taken a new turn. The AGM has become guerrilla marketing for lobby groups and their causes. Even when there's literally no chance of a resolution being passed, just putting the motion to the company's shareholders is enough to garner media attention for the cause. More so if the company is large or widely held by retail investors.
We saw exactly that this week with the resolution put to Woolworths (ASX: WOW) shareholders which would have – if passed – put limits on the company's operation of poker machines.
Bear in mind, these are legal, highly regulated gaming machines. They are operated by many, many hotel and club proprietors across the country, not to mention the listed casino operators. They are also in competition for the gambling dollar with lotteries providers and bookies, both listed and private.
And yet, a small group of shareholders decided to try to nobble their own company.
It's hard to escape the feeling that this was a marketing exercise on behalf of the lobbyists. If it's not, I'll look forward to the same motion being put to each and every ASX-listed business with exposure to gambling every year from here on.
I won't hold my breath.
A problem – but the wrong solution
To be clear, I'm not advocating for or against greater restrictions on poker machines. I think problem gambling is an important social issue that needs to be confronted and dealt with. Too many families are being affected by gambling addiction every day.
I am criticising the practice of targeting single companies as a proxy for an industry and in pursuit of a goal that is clearly out of reach. It is an abuse of the process.
Even if the motion was carried, the only outcome would have been to handicap Woolworths' business, with precious little impact on the industry as a whole.
Socially responsible or just 'feel good'?
I have no problem with investors who decide not to invest in companies who have gambling businesses.
However, socially responsible investing requires a personal ethical decision on what you are prepared to invest in – and it's a nuanced issue.
Sure, most of us can agree that cigarettes and guns probably fall outside the boundaries of socially responsible investing, but what about retailers that sell cigarettes. If pollution is bad (I think it's a safe assumption), then do we avoid all companies which aren't carbon neutral? Some don't invest in mining companies, yet happily put their money into companies that use the processed materials.
On the surface, it seems easy to make "ethical" investment decisions, but the reality is much more complicated.
Over before it began
The issue is that the resolution, as put, was never, ever going to pass. The proposers knew that, the company knew that, and yet it has earned thousands of words of reporting and commentary.
Mission accomplished for the lobby group in question – because the mission was essentially a guerrilla marketing exercise. The issue was raised and talked about, and all on Woolworths' dime, after it was forced to hold an extraordinary general meeting to deal with the resolution.
For the record, the motion only garnered 2.5 per cent support.
Of course, much of the commentary that followed has focused on the vote and Woolies' handling of the issue.
By virtue of the motion being raised, the company is now dealing with the distraction. Meanwhile casinos, pubs, TABs and bookies across the country continue to ply their trade unaffected.
Foolish takeaway
If you want to genuinely affect social or regulatory change, it's a legislative and social issue. At the very least, a genuine effort would see the same approach taken to all listed companies in the same space – from Woolworths to Wesfarmers (ASX: WES), Crown (ASX: CWN) and Tatts Group (ASX: TTS), and only when those shareholders had garnered enough support to give the motion a fair chance to succeed.
Anything less is simply a PR exercise, with the "tall poppies" forced to foot the bill.
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Scott Phillips is a Motley Fool investment analyst. He owns shares in Woolworths.
You can follow Scott on Twitter @TMFGilla. The Motley Fool's purpose is to educate, amuse and enrich investors. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691).
HOME: Seemingly afloat at Marks Point
Some of Newcastle's most significant and beautiful buildings were raised from the ground by a Davis: Newcastle's graceful Town Hall, the much-loved David Jones in Hunter Street, and Belmont Hotel circa 1957 are all examples.
In fact, three generations of the Davis family – grandfather, father, and son – all of them called Charles, have built throughout the area. The son, the current Charles Davis (Charlie to his mates), is now semi-retired. He and wife Barbara, Belmont Citi Centre's manager for 18 years, have built a few houses for themselves over the years, but none have they loved as much as the older home they found in Marks Point three years ago. They were living in a home Charlie had built in Redhead and weren't actually planning a move.
But a chance sighting of a waterfront property in an agent's window was enough to warrant an inspection.
From there, as the saying goes, ''One look was all it took.''
Three years on and quite a bit of work later, they love it even more.
''It is not a mansion, but you could just not replace this spot no matter where you went,'' Barbara says.
The ''spot'' is on the sought-after northern side of Marks Point, with gun-barrel views across the bay to Belmont Hospital and the Belmont 16-Footers Club.
As if that isn't enough, the view stretches the full 180degrees east to Belmont South and west to the Watagans. Uninterrupted and never to be built out, it's definitely as good as you could get – anywhere.
The house itself was in good condition but not quite to their liking. They decided to modernise it – including the addition of plenty of storage.
Charlie has done all of the building work for which, ironically, their furniture has provided the incentive.
''Everywhere we have lived, I have built around the furniture,'' Charlie says.
The first step was to reinvent an existing workshop and a garage to create a formal entry leading to a dining and lounge room on the lower level.
These formal spaces, overlooking the pool and the bay, provided the right setting for some of Barbara's inherited treasures, such as a graceful green velvet lounge suite.
A bedroom on this level was also given a modern feel with additional wardrobe storage and the en suite was renovated to their taste. The centre piece is an unusual green glass vanity.
The bedroom itself has a large picture window allowing the occupant to wake to a water view every morning.
The pool area also received a revamp – a new deck with landscaping, new lawns and a water feature. There is also a slipway into the bay.
Upstairs, a new granite kitchen was installed, including a walk-in pantry. It is easily accessed from the living room, which has wall to wall windows looking straight at the view.
In fact, from the kitchen you can't see anything but water, giving the distinct impression you are on a boat, rather than land. For Charlie this space is the best part of the house.
''I sit up there for my half hour of meditation each morning. We get some beautiful sunsets over the Watagans and of a night when the moon comes up what it does on the water is just beautiful.
''In the middle of winter you can live in that room and not even need a fire on. I've built a heap of houses for myself and you just have to have a north-east aspect.''
Barbara agrees: ''I can't believe the lifestyle we've got and only be two minutes from Belmont. You never feel like you are on your own because on the water, there is always someone coming or going.
''It is very much like being on holidays all of the time. You can't beat waking up to this.''
Do you know a house we could feature?
Email [email protected]南京夜网.au
Picture: Simone De Peak
Television: Tune into rude health
It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to achieve their precious 15 minutes of fame.
Or, in the case of not-for-the-squeamish UK television program Embarrassing Bodies, free medical treatment.
The patients featured on the show have to be getting free medical advice or treatment to compensate for the humiliation of having their private parts displayed, full screen, in high definition, don't they?
Watching an episode of Embarrassing Bodies is akin to staring at the sun. You know it's causing damage, and that you shouldn't do it, but you can't look away. It is utterly, and revoltingly, compelling.
(I'd like to take the opportunity, at this point, to assert that I do not watch the show regularly. If I happen to see the start, however, there's a good chance I'll be transfixed until the end. That is partly due to the humorous social media exchanges occurring as my friends and I watch.)
The show's mantra is ''No shame, we're all the same''. Doctors Christian, Dawn and Pixie will have you believe that the show exists, purely and simply, to aid people suffering from ailments that they are too embarrassed to show their GP.
Hmmm. I will address this point shortly.
The show's website claims the program can also help viewers ''self-diagnose at home without attending a doctor's appointment''.
This is marginally more believable, but also risky for a patient.
Self-diagnosis is fine until you decide to self-medicate, or start to ignore medical treatment altogether.
But trying to justify the show's existence by saying people who are too embarrassed to see their GP about an ailment would rather it was dealt with on television, to an audience of millions worldwide? Puh-lease.
Whatever its medical worth, Embarrassing Bodies is a hit because of its shock value and cringe factor – not for any alleged altruistic public health service.
An episode I watched a few weeks ago is a case in point. A young woman is led into the stark white consultation room. Correctly, I predict that she has an ailment concerning either her breasts or genitalia.
Within 30 seconds she is on a bed, in a gown, and a view most commonly reserved for gynaecologists, obstetricians or midwives fills the screen.
We are also ''educated'' by a close-up of a man's penis (he was being treated for a skin condition on his chest – go figure); shadowy footage of a woman giving herself a coffee enema (to which she is addicted and, while embarrassing, this is not exactly a common ailment); and a woman with a breast implant gone horribly wrong.
The program gives the impression the Embarrassing Bodies team travel around the UK having random patients drop by for medical advice. The show's website, however, makes it clear that one must actually apply for the privilege of worldwide humiliation.
What is interesting about cringeworthy reality television is not the content, but the people who willingly agree to bare all in the interests of entertainment.
Never mind showing up to work the next day knowing your colleagues have had a long hard look at the rash on your testicles. Never mind chatting to your father, knowing he knows you urinate during intercourse (yes, I saw that episode).
How are these people able to look anyone in the eye ever again?
As for the people who turn on the TV and contribute to the ratings? That's another column altogether.
Embarrassing Bodies is on Nine Network at 9.30pm on Wednesdays.
STEEL STOMACHS: The show's doctors are untroubled by the gruesome ailments.
Liz Love: Bistro Molines
What: Bistro Molines at Tallavera Grove.
Where: 749 Mount View Road, Mount View, NSW 2325.
Prices: Entrees, $24 to $27 ; mains, $39 to $42 ; sides, $9 to $10 ; desserts, $17 ; cheese, $17.
Chef: Robert Molines.
Owners: Robert and Sally Molines.
Wines: A selection of French and Hunter Valley wines, showcasing Briar Ridge, Pepper Tree and Tallavera Grove wines.
Hours: Lunch Friday to Monday; dinner Friday and Saturday.
Vegetarian: Four entrees.
Bookings: 49909553.
Bottom line: Entree, main, dessert for two without wine about $165.
You can take le français out of la France but you can never take la France out of le français. And this is never more evident than when Robert Molines prepares the dishes of his native Provence or shows off one of his passions – his herb and vegetable garden outside the restaurant kitchen door.
The enduring reputation of this SMH Good Food Guide one-hat restaurant, which nestles into the side of a hill and enjoys an enviable outlook over a sea of vines to the northern rim of the Hunter Valley, bears witness to this passion and that of Robert's talented wife, Sally. Add some dedicated staff and you have a winning formula.
And what about the food? With a loyal following of locals and visitors from Newcastle, Sydney and beyond, the menu reflects a commitment to locally sourced, in-season produce but keeps the long-time favourites. Expect to find Robert's duck liver pate or terrine de campagne, lamb brains, rabbit and venison; all that changes is the method of preparation or the accompaniments. Blanquette de veau in winter, fillet of veal wrapped in prosciutto in spring; rack of lamb in spring, lamb shank in winter.
Each table receives an amuse bouche. You can never predict; it depends on the whim of the kitchen. It may be a creamy stuffed egg half, or a crisp pastry star topped with fish mousse and salmon roe.
Even though the place is full, the efficient service guarantees the meal proceeds at a pace well suited to a pleasant Sunday afternoon. And there's always the stunning view to distract.
It's hard to go past the leek tart with its crisp pastry and creamy filling topped with a raft of tiny white asparagus spears and a vibrant green chervil hollandaise – a substantial dish that would make an excellent vegetarian main.
Where would a French menu be without St Jacques au gratin? This is Australia so they're called scallops. Four plump specimens, each one in its half shell sitting on a bed of spinach, coated with a basil infused gratineed bechamel sauce. Very traditional, very delicious.
Venison and roasted beetroot is a marriage made in heaven, the rich, well rested-meat perfectly offset by earthy vegetables including broad beans, carrot and cannellini beans. I wish I had kept some of the delicious crusty ciabatta to soak up every last drop of the sticky blackcurrant jus.
The white bean and chorizo cassoulet brings Mediterranean pizazz to a perfectly trimmed rack of lamb. This is more restrained than it sounds; there should still be room for some dessert.
And what to choose. Not only are there 10 listed on the main menu; the blackboard has three more. But I have spotted the chocolate mousse millefeuille on another table.
A fine, crisp pastry sandwich is filled with two scoops of creamy, airy dark chocolate mousse and offset by caramelised orange slices topped with vanilla ice-cream – heaven on a plate.
Excellent coffee and petits fours confirm what we have always known. France is not as far away as you think. Formidable.
HEAVENLY: Bistro Molines has great views over the northern rim of the Hunter Valley. PICTURE: RYAN OSLAND
Sony 'overstretched' – cut to junk status
Mrs Rinehart, why did you get into media?
Grandmother loses bid to stop TV interview
VIDEO: Ken Pearsall Tai Chi
GALLERY: RSPCA, Gimme shelter
苏州美甲美睫培训


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6 Feb 2019 • 5 min read
My team recently cleaned up an API in an internal storage library. While it's a simple case, it covers a couple interesting language tools and tradeoffs. Let's dig in!
The starting point
It's a function called enumStoreKeys that returns a Set of StoreKey enums for a given classKey. StoreKey is just an interface and we use enum implementations of it. To make the enum bit explicit we literally have it in the function name.
How can we make this better?
Removing Footguns
Right off the bat, there's an obvious footgun here: this only applies to enums and will fail if you give it a class that isn't an enum. Can we make that more explicit? Particularly in a way that doesn't wait until runtime to find out?
We could mark it in the generic
Now we've made T a subtype of Enum<T>, which is a roundabout way of saying we want it to be enum.
But now we've lost the StoreKey. How do we keep both?
The answer is a somewhat little-known feature of Java and Kotlin called Intersection Types. In short — you can mark a generic as extending one class and also require that it implement certain interfaces. The syntax for this in both languages can be a bit surprising if you haven't seen it before:
In Kotlin, we move the generic bounds to a "where" clause at the end of the function signature.
In Java, we use an "&" to denote the intersection in the type declaration.
Boom. Now the compiler's going to enforce this for us. No runtime checks needed, and the user's going to be bounced into doing the right thing immediately. We can even remove the redundant enum prefix to the name now too.
This falls into a grey areas as far as whether or not it's a breaking change. By the letter of the law, it technically isn't a breaking change at runtime. Is does potentially break calling code though at compile-time with the stricter requirements. As it's also basically enforcing what was already enforced at runtime, it's the kind of change I'd possibly make even in a semantically versioned project (without the rename of course). It's tricky though, and you'd have to take each on a case-by-case basis. In our code base though, we just made the switch. This also revealed several incorrect usages that would have always failed (were always failing?) at runtime.
The next thing we can improve here is the return type. Right now we just return a simple Set, which is fine for all intents and purposes. However, we just made the enum nature of the type explicit. Does that buy us anything? Yes!
Java has a special Set implementation just for enums called an EnumSet. From its doc:
A specialized Set implementation for use with enum types. … EnumSets are represented internally as bit vectors. This representation is extremely compact and efficient. The space and time performance of this class should be good enough to allow its use as a high-quality, type-safe alternative to traditional int-based "bit flags."
Sounds great! As it's just a custom Set implementation, this is actually a non-breaking API change for source compatibility. We had to do a bit of work to make our implementation conform to this return type (namely — EnumSet doesn't allow you to just give it an empty set to create from), but that's a work load we're happy to take on for our users. In the end, they get an optimized implementation for the returned set.
EnumSet
This all looks fine and dandy, but there's a couple of pitfalls here.
For Kotlin users, this is arguably a regression. Why? Set is immutable in Kotlin and this new API is actually returning a mutable collection. You could work around this by returning an immutable implementation instead though, such as Guava's ImmutableEnumSet.
From a higher level though: Set is an API type, and EnumSet is an implementation set. Set allows for different implementations in the future, and keeps your API consumers agnostic to those implementations. We can still use EnumSet under the hood and get all the aforementioned benefits from before. You can see this in the aforementioned GuavaImmutableEnumSet as well: it's not a public class, just an implementation detail.
Thanks to Jesse for pointing this out!
There's one last optimization we can make here, but it's unique to Kotlin. If we make the function inline, we can mark the type parameter T as reified. This allows us to remove the classKey argument all together and retrieve it from the type directly.
Reified
This comes at a cost though:
It's a breaking API change. For Kotlin consumers— it's a signature change. For Java consumers — It's effectively deleting the API, because Java can't call reified functions. You could get around this by adding the reified function as an overload though, but at the cost of adding API surface area.
inline is not free. If your function is huge, it may bloat your app. If it accesses other private APIs internal to your library, you can't mark it inline without exposing them too. You have to decide! I personally try not to use inline if the function is more than ~10 lines or requires making other private functions public/inline with it.
While a little thing, this nicely captures how tradeoffs have to be considered for what might initially seem like an obvious win. Our storage code is actually written in Java, so we couldn't do this change if we wanted to. Even if it was in Kotlin though, we probably would have opted against due to the usage of other private APIs in its implementation.
Prefer exposing API types, not implementation types
Be mindful of mutability changes
And most importantly
Let the compiler enforce APIs for you!
Special thanks to Jesse, Florina, and Oleg for the feedback on this!
Header photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
Welcome to my new blog! I've been thinking about this awhile for a few reasons. Medium's increasingly heavy-handed and frankly annoying monetization strategies.Wanting something a bit more personable. Here I can have a speaking page with past talks, (eventually) projects, and link my
Detecting Blurriness with Renderscript
About three years ago, I worked on a project at Uber to try to detect when photos taken client-side were blurry. The goal was to be able to fail fast, ask the user to retake them if necessary, and save the cycle of waiting