Virgin Money Giving celebrates raising millions more for charities with new ‘Changing for the Future’ campaign
Campaign highlights the benefits of investment in technology which has increased charitable donations to fundraising pages by 34 per cent.
Campaign runs from Monday 8 October with press and digital advertising.
Virgin Money Giving, the UK’s largest not-for-profit fundraising platform, has launched a new campaign to highlight the benefits of its new and improved website which is helping fundraisers raise millions more for good causes.
The campaign, which starts on Monday 8 October with press advertising, and backed by digital placement ads, looks to raise awareness of its not-for-profit model and highlights the benefits of its investment in technology - which has resulted in the site being completely redesigned and optimised for mobile and tablet.
The improvements have resulted in a 34 per cent increase in the amount fundraisers raise through the site, and an average 9 per cent increase in individual donation amounts.
The changes also include the launch of a new reporting tool for charities which provides easy access to their fundraising data.
Jo Barnett, Executive Director at Virgin Money Giving said: "Over the past 18 months, we have re-engineered and enhanced the Virgin Money Giving donation experience to help charities maximise donations. As a not-for-profit business we don’t make a profit from peoples’ generosity. Unlike other fundraising sites, our low fees only cover our operating costs. We don’t charge charities monthly fees and we don’t apply a fee for Gift Aid. This means more money goes to good causes rather than into the pockets of shareholders."
Since its launch in 2009, more than 14,500 charities have registered with Virgin Money Giving and, by the end of June 2018, over £660 million had been donated to charities through the service, resulting in an estimated £20.6 million more donated to charities because of its not-for-profit model.
In December Virgin Money Giving will introduce a new feature allowing donors to enhance their donation by paying the platform fee on behalf of the charity to which they are donating.
Virgin Money Giving has produced a film to support the campaign which can be viewed here.
Paul Lawler
Virgin Money Press Office
press.office@virginmoney.com
About Virgin Money Giving
Virgin Money Giving is the UK’s largest not-for-profit online fundraising website from Virgin Money and was established in 2009. Virgin Money uses its infrastructure and expertise as a financial services business to ensure that Virgin Money Giving is efficient and secure.
More than 14,500 charities have registered with Virgin Money Giving and, by the end June 2018, over £660 million had been donated to charities through the service since its launch in 2009, resulting in an estimated £20.6 million more donated to charities because of its not-for-profit model.
Fundraisers can personalise their fundraising pages, send out email alerts and manage their fundraising events. They can include their own content, photos and links to their page as well as customise messages for their supporters and link their page to social networking sites. Virgin Money Giving provides fundraising ideas and tips, offering help and advice on how to raise more for charity. In addition to supporting individual fundraisers, Virgin Money Giving also supports Appeals, Corporate and In Memory fundraising.
Virgin Money Giving is the official fundraising partner of events that include the Virgin Money London Marathon, Swim Serpentine, Prudential RideLondon and the Royal Parks Half Marathon.


Reading: People in the News - Deanna Marcum
People in the News - Deanna Marcum
Dan Tonkery
How to Cite: Tonkery, Dan. 2012. “People in the News - Deanna Marcum”. Insights 25 (1): 6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
The last time I sat down with Deanna Marcum at ALA in 2008, she was the very active and highly visible Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress. Running the day-to-day activities of perhaps the greatest and most complex library in the world, with its 53 Divisions and over 2,400 employees, is a massive undertaking. Being responsible for Acquisitions, Cataloging, Public Service and a number of other units is a managerial challenge second to none in the library world. At the end of December 2011, and after nearly ten years at the Library of Congress, Deanna decided to trade in the excitement and political intrigue and to close that chapter of her exciting career.
Most individuals would be looking forward to returning home to a quieter life, working in their garden, traveling around the world, or just taking time to recharge their batteries, but not Deanna. Deanna left the Library of Congress on a much stronger footing and far better organized than she found it, and has taken on a new responsibility as the managing director of Ithaka S+R, a strategic consulting and research service that focuses on the transformation of scholarship and teaching in an online environment. Ithaka S+R is one of the services from ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization.
Looking at Deanna's long career in public service, I was not surprised to see her moving to the opportunity at ITHAKA. She has always had a strong work ethic that stems from her growing up as a farm girl on a large family farm in Illinois. Armed with a first-rate education from the University of Illinois and advanced degree from the University of Maryland, she has dedicated her career to education, scholarship and teaching.
“Deanna is often on the front line moving, leading, or organizing people to tackle the most critical issues in our profession.”
Deanna is often on the front line moving, leading, or organizing people to tackle the most critical issues in our profession. Whether it is preservation, bibliographic control, scholarly communications or scholarly publishing, one can always find Deanna in the middle of the discussion. Just follow her career path from her work at the Association of Research Libraries, her creative leadership as president of the Council on Library and Information Resources, her deanship at the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science and her latest project, the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control at the Library of Congress. Deanna is indeed one of the most influential librarians of the 21st century. She continues to be an active leader in many of the transformational issues facing our profession.
Perhaps one of the most important efforts Deanna will continue to influence is helping to define the Bibliographic Framework Initiative at the Library of Congress. The library community is seeking the development of a new means for capturing and sharing bibliographic data. The replacement of the MARC format is one of those transformational activities that will influence hundreds of companies which provide products and services for libraries as well as thousands of libraries that manage their collections with shared bibliographic data.
While many people may not have heard of ITHAKA, certainly everyone knows of ITHAKA's services, such as JSTOR and Portico. ITHAKA was founded in 2003 with funding from Andrew W Mellon and a few other foundations, and merged with JSTOR in 2009. ITHAKA is a not-for-profit organization with over 230 professionals that is dedicated to helping the academic community take full advantage of rapidly advancing information and network technologies. Its services include Ithaka S+R, a strategic consulting and research service, as well as JSTOR (a trusted digital archive and hosting service for over 1,000 academic journals) and Portico (an electronic preservation service for electronic journals, e-books, and digitized historical collections).
“… a proud moment was receiving the 2011 Melvil Dewey Medal, one of the highest awards given in the library profession.”
Deanna is no stranger to ITHAKA, having served on the Board of Trustees since 2005. When she decided to retire from the Library of Congress, Kevin Guthrie, president of ITHAKA, saw a golden opportunity to add to his management team an individual with an extraordinary background and major accomplishments. Deanna joins the senior management team which includes Laura Brown, the former president of Oxford University Press, who now has responsibility for JSTOR.
In her role as managing director of Ithaka S+R, Deanna will continue to focus on those critical issues that are facing our profession. She will be able to mold the research agenda and continue to look at the sustainability of digital resources, the role of the library, practices and attitudes in scholarly communications, teaching and learning with technology, and scholarly publishing. As the technology changes and transforms the education, library and publishing communities, she will be able to steer the research agenda to meet the needs of the leaders in the academic community.
The role of the library at the university in the digital age is of particular interest to Deanna as is providing data to researchers who are looking into the sustainability of digital resources. How to share the data that has already been collected is one of the agenda items on a growing list of activities under review.
In the past, Ithaka S+R has produced a number of key reports such as Faculty Survey 2009: Strategic Insights for Libraries, Publishers, and Societies or University Publishing in a Digital Age. Under Deanna's leadership we can look forward to a continued supply of important research results.
When I asked Deanna what have been her proudest moments in her career, she told me that her work with the Bibliographic Framework Initiative and her work with the Working Group of the Future of Bibliographic Control were particularly rewarding. Also a proud moment was receiving the 2011 Melvil Dewey Medal, one of the highest awards given in the library profession.
Deanna Marcum has already had a lifetime of amazing achievements; let's hope that she will find her work at Ithaka S+R rewarding and continue to provide her particular style of leadership and wisdom for years to come.
Tonkery, D., 2012. People in the News - Deanna Marcum. Insights, 25(1), pp.6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery D. People in the News - Deanna Marcum. Insights. 2012;25(1):6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery, D. (2012). People in the News - Deanna Marcum. Insights, 25(1), 6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery D, ‘People in the News - Deanna Marcum’ (2012) 25 Insights 6 DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery, Dan. 2012. “People in the News - Deanna Marcum”. Insights 25 (1): 6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery, Dan. “People in the News - Deanna Marcum”. Insights 25, no. 1 (2012): 6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6
Tonkery, D.. “People in the News - Deanna Marcum”. Insights, vol. 25, no. 1, 2012, pp. 6–7. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.25.1.6


Collaroy Books
Welcome to Collaroy Books
The Trout Opera
Author(s): Matthew Condon
The Trout Operais a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia.
Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives.
Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life.
This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australian history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life?
Award-winning writer and journalist Matthew Condon is the author of over ten highly acclaimed books. He has written for leading newspapers and journals including Brisbane's Courier-Mail, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Melbourne's Sunday Age. His books have been widely reviewed and praised and have won, and been shortlisted for, numerous awards including the Steele Rudd Award for Short Fiction, the NBC Banjo Award for Fiction, and the Qld Premier's Prize for Fiction.
Imprint : Penguin Books
Author : Matthew Condon
Delivery times: 2 - 3 days, if in stock; 10 - 15 days for special orders. Orders can be collected in store, or post
Refunds: no refunds accepted unless stock is damaged during transit. All damaged stock must be returned to the store. No returns will be accepted via post. Proof of purchase required.
Privacy policy: Collaory Books will not pass any of your information onto any third party. Your information is used solely for the purpose of online sales, notifications of upcoming events, author signings, and newsletter push. You can opt out of our database at anytime.
1091 Pittwater Road
Collaroy, New South Wales, 2097
Email: inquiries@collaroybooks.com.au


News Elizabeth Kuti Orford Ness is full of stories
'Orford Ness is full of stories' Elizabeth Kuti on playwriting
Fri 4 Aug 17
With her play Fishskin Trousers being revived for a four-week run at the Park Theatre in London, Elizabeth Kuti, Director of Theatre Studies and the MA Playwriting at Essex, talks about her inspirations, the process of bringing a play to the stage and how her experience as a professional actor helps the writing process.
Elizabeth Kuti, Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Fishskin Trousers was written and first staged in 2013. Three characters on the Orford Ness shingle spit on the Suffolk coast tell their stories. They’re from different times but their tales become increasingly entwined as the play builds to its climax.
Mab is a 12th Century servant in Orford Castle who becomes fascinated by a wild man caught by fishermen and imprisoned in the castle’s keep. Ben is a scientist working on Cold War radar experiments to scan the waters, who hears strange screams from the sea. Mog is a young woman in 2003 facing a heartbreaking personal decision. It’s a play rooted in its location.
"Orford Ness has so many contradictory elements to it and has a very spooky atmosphere," says Kuti. "I found the layers of history fascinating.
"It's got remnants of nuclear testing that took place there during the Cold War and there are contemporary 20th Century myths about the secret development of weapons.
"Alongside that you've got the natural beauty; it's quite stark and quite wild but it's also very beautiful.
"And then there's a medieval strand – the well-known legend of the wild man of Orford who was apparently caught in fishermens' nets, taken to the tower in Orford, tortured and then released back into the wild.
"It's a place full of stories and interesting connections between those stories. The Cold War story was about fear and suspicion; the fear of what's out there in the water. That set off resonances for me with the medieval story of finding someone in the water and being completely distrustful and fearful of 'the other' that might be lurking out there."
Orford Quay with Orford Ness in the background
"spirit-logged, we are, these parts, the water drags 'em in and holds 'em"
Fishskin Trousers
Alongside a growing interest in the history of the area, Kuti had been looking at research on feral children. The two strands came together to form a key element of the play’s story.
"When I wrote Fishskin Trousers there were a lot of things going on in my mind around the question of feral children and people who have been found 'in the wild' and have no language.
"The wild man of Orford – we don’t quite know what that story was about, but if we take it that it was a true event, the questions in my mind were: Who was that man? Why did he have no language? Could it have been a person with a disability, or a person with what we today would call autism?
"That was a theme running in my head when I wrote the play because I have a child with autism who was quite a bit younger at that point. Some of what I was trying to explore with the play, through very metaphorical storytelling, was ideas around differences in people and how we relate to people who have no or little language.
"As ever with plays you think the play is about one thing over there, and as you write you realise that a lot of your personal life and feelings are going into it and coming out of it and being expressed through it."
Brett Brown as Ben in 'Fishskin Trousers'
The play was first presented at the RADA Festival in 2013 and then had a run at London's Finborough Theatre. The Guardian described it as "entrancing viewing" and Time Out "a fascinating and lyrical piece of writing". It was then performed at the church in Orford Ness and the Sailors’ Reading Room in Southwold. Internationally there have been productions in Canada and - in Greek translation - on Crete.
The revival will be staged at the Park Theatre’s studio from 17 October to 11 November with the three actors from the original run returning: Jessica Carroll, Brett Brown and Eva Traynor.
"For this revival, we found a producer called George Warren who liked the look of it and the Park was a venue that had been interested and thought it was suitable for their studio. It was a coming together of those elements, along with our desire to get it out, dust it off and give it another go. It's quite a minimal play – just three actors and three chairs, more or less."
Eva Traynor as Mog in 'Fishskin Trousers'
'We' is Kuti and her husband, Robert Price, a theatre director who directed the original performance of Fishskin Trousers and will reprise that role this time.
"We’ve worked together on a few projects and, bizarrely perhaps, it seems to work fine! We get on well professionally.
"He's very much the director and he makes his choices as director. I know he's got some new ideas for this revival; some new design elements and sound elements that we want to play with, but he'll make the final decisions on those – that's the director's job and I let him get on with it."
"In a monologue story-telling form you can have ideas and events that would be impossible to stage… It’s very interesting and freeing for you as a writer."
Elizabeth Kuti Department of LIterature, Film, and theatre Studies
It was Robert who challenged her to write a monologue-based play; a form that gives the writer enormous freedom.
"It was a form that we’d been talking about and were both interested in. I'd had this collection of ideas around Orford Ness which I hadn't quite figured out a form for, and so I thought 'That’s an interesting challenge!'
"In a monologue story-telling form you can have ideas and events that would be impossible to stage; magical elements that you can have a character bring to life from their words. It's very interesting and freeing for you as a writer."
Before joining Essex, Kuti worked extensively as a professional actor and playwright in Irish theatre.
"I was an actor first. I went in to professional acting as I was finishing my PhD so I've always had this mixture of academic and theatre practitioner roles.
"I started out in the Irish theatre because I was doing my PhD at Trinity College Dublin. It was always my dream to be an actor and I managed to become one, which was wonderful. I did that for several years but had always written and been interested in writing.
"The benefit of being an actor is that you’ve experienced plays and you’ve got a sense of how theatre works as a material medium and so it was quite naturally in parallel.
"I had my very first professional production as a writer in Dublin in 1998, with a director I'd worked with as an actor. In a rehearsal one day I managed to say, 'I've written a script, do you want to have a look?' and that’s how that came about."
"It’s very helpful to have been an actor on the journey to becoming a playwright."
Her experience as an actor also meant that she understood what an actor brings to the lines beyond the words themselves, through their body language and facial expressions.
"You have to not write too much so you leave space for the actors. But even with that experience, with every script you write you do a reading with actors and then realise all the mistakes you've made. You've over-written or under-written, so it's always a learning process.
"It's very helpful to have been an actor on the journey to becoming a playwright. Not all do, but a lot do."
'Fishskin Trousers' will run from 17 October to 11 November at the Park Theatre, London.
Park Theatre - Fishskin Trousers
Elizabeth Kuti - profile
MA Playwriting
Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Royal accolade for Essex excellence in political science
Thu 31 Jan 13
“Brilliant and inspirational” professor celebrated at Regius Professorship Lecture
Thu 20 Nov 14
Study at Essex


One Dead in Crash on 60 Freeway in Walnut
WALNUT – A Sig Alert in still in effect for the No. 5 lane of the eastbound 60 freeway at South Lemon Avenue Monday.
The crash was reported to the CHP at 5:25 a.m. January 13. A blue sedan struck the guardrail and landed on top of the guardrail. No other vehicle was involved in the crash, according to California Highway Patrol traffic logs.
The driver died at the scene and is only described as a man.
A one-hour Sig Alert was issued for the No. 5 lane at 6 a.m. It is still in effect, according to Officer Peter Nicholson of the CHP Traffic Management Center.
Diamond Bar/Walnut Sheriff's


Easterseals expanding services to Pahrump residents
Pahrump residents in need of various health-related services, referrals and information now have an ally on their side by way of Easterseals Nevada.
Selwyn Harris/Pahrump Valley Times Easterseals Nevada Independent Living Specialist Annabella Rivera said the agency is in the midst of expanding services to Pahrump individuals and families. Rivera noted that there are no financial qualifiers for the various programs and services offered by the agency.
The Las Vegas-based agency is now reaching out to support local families and individuals in the community, according to Independent Living Specialist Annabella Rivera, who spoke about two of the many services provided by the agency.
“We basically want to get the word out in Pahrump that we have an Independent Living and Assistive Technology program,” she said. “We help individuals maintain their independence in their home whether it be with some modifications they need, such as trying to get in and out of their house because they have steps, or if their doorways are not wide enough for certain medical devices and equipment.”
Rivera also said that the main goal of the Independent Living program is to prevent individuals from having to leave their community, to go into a care facility.
“We want to make sure that people with disabilities are able to stay in their homes and independently function in their home,” she said. “We help with assistive technology in the kitchen for the many people who have visual impairments, and we also help with hearing aids.”
Additionally, Rivera noted that both programs can benefit individuals and families who don’t have the financial resources to be able to receive the assistive technology.
“It’s just a matter of simply giving us a call,” she said. “There are no financial qualifiers for these programs. The only qualifier is that you have a disability where the impairment is threatening your independence at your home. We are based in Las Vegas and we are trying to get the word out about having a larger presence in Pahrump. We have serviced Pahrump residents before, but there’s just not enough exposure, so not a lot of people know about us servicing Pahrump.”
Rivera also spoke about the Easterseals Nevada NATE Project, which provides access to those in need of supportive devices and equipment.
The acronym stands for Nevada Assistive Technology Empowerment.
“The NATE Project is a loaning library of devices and durable medical equipment for short-term, long-term, or permanent loans to Nevadans who are disabled,” she said. “It is a resource to those who need a device for any number of reasons. We have donations for things like wheelchairs and durable medical equipment. Many times when those donations come in, we recycle them and put them out to the community for those who need them to improve their quality of life.”
Moreover, Rivera spoke of additional benefits of the NATE Program.
“There is the cost savings factor for individuals by offering affordable alternatives, to new devices,” she said. “The project also reduces the amount of usable products that would otherwise end up in landfills. Plus, there is no cost to participate in the NATE Project.”
Among the assistive technology devices desired for donations for recycling for the NATE Project are, computers with Windows 7 or higher, tablets, laptops and other electronic peripherals.
Desired donations for durable medical equipment include manual or power chairs, scooters, walkers and shower chairs.
“We can always use bath benches, commodes, gait walkers and most other durable medical equipment,” Rivera said. “We accept, sanitize, and repair the donations for redistribution. We are in Las Vegas, but we want to assist as many individuals as we can in the Pahrump area.”
For additional information on Easterseals Nevada and its NATE Project program, call 702-677-3560, or 702-677-3566 or log onto www.eastersealsnv.org
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes
Posted on: Community, News
Tagged: mc-news
Nye County employee faces theft, embezzlement charges
A longtime employee in the Nye County Juvenile Probation Department is facing at least three theft-related felonies for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from the department.
Former Pahrump Arts Council official arrested
The former president of the Pahrump Arts Council was arrested in early January on suspicion of embezzlement. Kristin Swan also was arrested on suspicion of obtaining money under false pretenses and theft, between $640 and $3,500, according to information from the the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.
Nevada redistricting group files amended petition
By Bill Dentzer Special to the Pahrump Valley Times
A group seeking to turn the once-a-decade process of redistricting political lines in Nevada over to a commission rather than the Legislature has refiled a petition with the secretary of state, after a judge ruled the original was misleading.
After roughly a century, bighorn sheep return to Pyramid Lake
By Colton Lochhead Special to the Pahrump Valley Times
Nevada state officials and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe worked to reintroduce desert bighorn sheep to the hills above the lake Monday, the first time since the early 1900s that they’ve been seen in the area 50 miles north of Reno.
Robotics team raising funds for state championship trip
By Jeffrey Meehan Pahrump Valley Times
A Pahrump youth robotics team is working to raise funds for its journey to Northern Nevada for an annual state championship.
Nevada authorities plan Pahrump hiring event
The Nevada Department of Public Safety is planning a hiring event in Pahrump, an effort scheduled for Jan. 25.
Senators call for investigation into Pahrump ICE facility
Two U.S. senators representing Nevada are calling for the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to investigate conditions at the Nevada Southern Detention Center, a privately-owned facility in Pahrump that contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as “ICE.”
Pahrump community invited out for All People’s Luncheon
By Robin Hebrock Pahrump Valley Times
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is right around the corner, and coinciding with the nationwide holiday in honor of the life and legacy of the civil rights leader, Pahrump’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Foundation will be holding its 17th Annual All People’s Luncheon.
Nevada State Museum plans exhibit, lectures for Black History Month
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas will be celebrating Black History Month with a new, large-scale photography exhibit and a series of lectures throughout February.
Pahrump Fairgrounds water applications protested
For more than a decade and a half, the town of Pahrump has been working toward development of a huge patch of land with the ultimate goal of turning 427 acres of property into a major recreation facility, the Pahrump Fairgrounds.


HomeSpotlightTHE GREATEST PROJECT IN PH
THE GREATEST PROJECT IN PH
San Miguel’s New Manila International Airport complex in Bulakan town is the largest and greatest enterprise ever in the Philippines to be undertaken by any single company or group of companies in the nation’s history. Designed to be among the world’s best airports and costing P735.6 billion of which P550 billion will be invested in the first four years, NMIA will have four runways, three terminals, eight taxiways, and service 100 million passengers, expandable to 200 million passengers. The project comes with 22 expressways covering north and south, west and east of Luzon, including the $3 billion 10-lane expressway on top of the present 23-km EDSA. The 22 new Metro Manila and Luzon expressways will cost another P3 trillion.
September 28, 2019 BizNewsAsia Spotlight Comments Off on THE GREATEST PROJECT IN PH
It is the largest and greatest enterprise ever in the Philippines to be undertaken by any single company or group of companies in the nation’s history.
San Miguel Corp., the country’s largest and most diversified conglomerate, was finally given the go-signal on Sept. 18, 2019 to proceed with the development and construction of its P735.6-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) in Bulakan, a quaint 444-year-old fishing and farming town, in historic Bulacan province.
Bulakan used to be the capital of Bulacan and also of nearby Pampanga province. So Ramon Ang’s putting up NMIA in the 444-year-old town (pop. 77,000) will in effect rewrite history, making Bulakan not only the virtual capital of Bulacan and Pampanga provinces but of the entire Central Luzon region, the nation’s richest region.
Bulakan sits cheek-by-jowl to Valenzuela City, the nearest of Metro Manila’s 14 cities and three towns. The town is about 22 kms from Manila, the national capital, with kilometer zero at Rizal Park. From Luneta, the drive is about 9 kms away. So the distance between Bulakan town to NAIA is just 31 kms.
“NMIA will be the game changer,” declared Ramon Ang, SMC vice chairman, president and chief operating officer, upon the signing of the 62-page 50-year concession agreement midmorning of Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the headquarters of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in Clark Freeport Zone.
On behalf of the national government, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade signed the SMC concession agreement. The contract comes with a notice to proceed (NTP) or notice to commence which was given the same day.
It seems ironic the contract for Asia’s next most modern airport was signed inside Clark, a former American facility that is being developed by the government itself as a gateway international airport.
In addition to Clark, a consortium of seven conglomerates is proposing to upgrade and operate Naia over a 15-year period. The National Economic and Development Authority has yet to approve the project.
DOTr Secretary Tugade said multiple airports would benefit the public. “Let it be a battle of commercial competitiveness,” he said on Wednesday. “Having multiple airports is something that the world’s biggest economies do. Ideally, there should be a train service linking these airports, which is also being pursued by the government. This complementation strategy was already part of the air transport roadmap from Day One. Rest assured, that’s what we are going to do,” Tugade pointed out.
San Miguel AeroCity
The project of San Miguel Aerocity, Inc., SMC’s wholly-owned airport subsidiary, does not just involve land development, and the construction and operation of an airport.
The long-term strategy includes the construction of no less than 22 expressways over a ten-year period or longer. The scheme is called the NMIA Integrated Multi-Modal Transport Network.
RSA’s AeroCity and multi-modal transport network are so huge they would make the present NAIA irrelevant. He thinks the 625 hectares of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) should be redeveloped instead into a new business district, which plan will free up P2 trillion worth of prime real estate. NAIA has a rated capacity of 25 million but services 31 million passengers.
Aerocity is aimed to attract 30 million tourists yearly beginning 2025 (from the present 7.1 million), drastically lower the cost of travel within the archipelago (a return ticket from Manila to the Visayas costs $500 because of runway congestion and traffic at NAIA), and contribute up to P1.5 trillion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP or the total output of goods and services).
Spirit of greatness restored
To me, the most important impact is that the Philippines will recapture its sense and spirit of greatness, the imagination and capacity to build grand things for the benefit of many, so that Filipinos during the next decade will proudly march in cadence, with the best of people in this world. Indeed, 500 years ago and until the 20th century, the Philippines was the center of the world and Filipinos were the envy of their neighbors in Asia.
The roads planned by San Miguel include a ten-lane 22-km elevated EDSA Expressway atop EDSA to ease traffic on Metro Manila’s main highway and of course deliver passengers to NMIA and back in just 30 minutes, a Bataan-Bulacan Airport Expressway, Bulacan-Tarlac Airport Expressway, a San Jose del Monte to San Jose, Nueva Ecija Expressway, an MRT7 to NMIA Expressway, and various expressways connecting NMIA to Balintawak, Sgt. Rivera, Buendia, Anda Circle in Manila, Lawton (BGC), Tramo (Pasay), Mall of Asia (Pasay), San Pedro and Calamba (Laguna), and Tagaytay (Cavite).
The expressways will cover as far north as Laoag (Ilocos Norte) and as far south as Matnog (Sorsogon). They will converge at the food and transport hub in Pandacan, Manila which connects to SLEx Skyway Stage 3. The road network combines with an MRT7 railway, now under construction from North EDSA to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan, and an even longer railway, from Tutuban to Bicol.
Expressway loop for Luzon
In other words, RSA will build an expressway loop from north to south, west and east of Luzon, easily a distance of more than 1,000 kms. and back, by connecting major airports and ports, from Poro Point in La Union to Bataan, Subic in Zambales to Clark in Pampanga and Tarlac, to Port Area Manila, NAIA in Pasay, Batangas port, and Matnog port which is a jump-off point to Visayas cities.
RSA will be redrawing the road network of Luzon, creating a new government center, new business districts, industrial estates, commercial areas, and residential districts, in the process redistributing population, agriculture, industries, jobs, and economic opportunities.
Mind-boggling cost and scale
The cost, scale, scope and supporting road, rail and coastal network of the Philippines’ future gateway airport are so mind-boggling only a man of RSA’s guts and audacity could possibly think of it and dare to pursue it, no matter the problems and the challenges.
I first learned of the word audacity from the late Ferdinand E. Marcos, once considered the most bemedaled Filipino soldier, the ultimate politician warrior and empire builder (If you believe Imelda,
the family once owned the major corporations in the country).
The battlecry of warriors
FM quoted Napoleon on l’audace. The French conqueror’s battlecry was “audacity, more audacity, always audacity” (“de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace”). In battle and in war, one must not hesitate because if one hesitates, one loses the battle, and having lost the battle, one loses the war.
The original quote is attributed to French revolutionary George Jacques Danton, “de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace” to save the fatherland. Danton was later guillotined. General George S. Patton also subscribed to the strategy of audacity as did President Barack Obama.
Audacious in size and cost
RSA’s airport is audacious for its size and cost. Total cost is P735.6 billion. Initial cost is P550 billion. The performance bond alone is P10.98 billion. The debt entailed with the project: P94 billion.
The first phase of NMIA will have two independent parallel runways (2.6-km to 3.5-km long) that can handle 80 aircraft movements per hour, two taxiways, and annual capacity of 35 million passengers. It will have three aprons suitable for 180 aircraft gates or stands. The terminal building will have a footprint of 16.5 hectares plus a cargo terminal of 3.5 hectares footprint. First phase will have 3+3-lane access road, expandable to 6+6 or 12 lanes.
With NMIA’s first phase is an 8-km toll road from NLEX to Bulakan, Bulacan. The first phase will cost P544.572 billion.
At a cost of P76.42 billion, the second phase increases capacity to 60 million (at 92 movements per hour) and is triggered once arrivals hit 21 million annually. The final phase is 100-million passenger capacity with runway rating of 105 movements per hour. The third phase will cost P114.636 billion. Total cost of NMIA after all three phases are done: P735.63 billion.
When fully completed after six years, NMIA will have four runways, eight taxiways, and three passenger terminal buildings, including two for low-cost carriers.
San Miguel AeroCity is given six years to complete the airport, Phase I. Ramon Ang promises to do it in four years. The airport proper will sit on 2,500 hectares of area. But with an expressway loop connecting a total of 22 major roads, the right of way (ROW) land coverage will extend to 10,000 hectares.
RSA is given 18 months to raise financing for Phase I, about P550 billion, 70% debt and 30% equity. He plans for 80/20 debt-equity ratio.
RSA feels that the Philippines is on the verge of a major tourism boom and attract tourists a third of the size of its population of 107 million.
San Miguel will take care of about 200 fishpond workers in Bulakan town displaced by the airport construction. They will be relocated and given support and training, SMC said. The company will also clean nearby rivers, build a flood barrier and spillway to help solve perennial flooding in the area.
The cleaning of the Tullahan River alone will cost SMC P1 billion, at no cost to the government.
SMC has tapped global engineering firms Groupe ADP, Meinhardt Group and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. for the airport’s design.
Food and transport hub in Pandacan
Meanwhile, Ang said SMC plans to spend up to P50 billion to convert the old 50-hectare Pandacan oil depot into a bus and food terminal.
The project will ease traffic in Metro Manila, create a new business district for the city of Manila, and a new marketing hub that could rival Divisoria with the construction of a bus terminal. SMC owns 25 of the 50 hectares.
“This project can really help the government and the people. It would help decongest Metro Manila,” said Ang.
As a business district, Pandacan will be half the size of the Makati Central Business District.
The bus terminal will serve different bus operators plying in and out of Metro Manila. There will also be a food terminal that will accommodate the food companies displaced when a portion of the Marcos-era Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig was shut down to give way to redevelopment.
The unsolicited proposal has already been submitted to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade.
Dubbed an “aerotropolis”, NMIA will have its own seaport, industrial, residential, commercial, and institutional zones. Also included in its design is the development
of a new government center making vital government services more accessible to fast-growing areas in Central Luzon.
The airport will be accessible from Metro Manila in less than 30 minutes, via interconnected expressways and rail—including a shoreline expressway that will traverse Manila Bay and head straight to NMIA.
NMIA will mean many things for the Philippines. It will be a proud showcase of what Filipinos can do. It is a long overdue and much-needed solution to problems rooted in our aging and inefficient airports—where flight delays and congestion are the norm.
Filipino travelers will have a greater sense of pride when they fly in from other countries. Facilities will be more than adequate, service levels will be consistently high, there will be zero delays caused by air, runway or taxiway congestion.
Airport congestion is a serious problem that both airlines and passengers have to contend with.
In the present NAIA, annual losses of airlines brought about by air traffic congestion are estimated to reach more than P10 billion per year. This will continue to grow if no new airport capacities are built.
On the other hand, productivity losses of passengers are estimated to amount to more than P15 billion per year.
Moving the country’s main gateway out of Metro Manila will also help alleviate the nightmarish traffic situation on major and secondary roads in cities around the present airport—Parañaque, Pasay, Las Piñas, Manila, Makati—and beyond.
The NMIA will signal to the world that the Philippines is finally ready to take its place among the ranks of Asia’s rising economies. It will boost tourism, raise our profile as an investment destination, and increase the competitiveness of our industries—including manufacturing and exports. It can even help bring about the development of new, technology-based industries.
Overall, it is seen to add an estimated P400 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generate at least one million jobs.
In 2018, the Philippines recorded some 7.1 million tourist arrivals. We are well behind our ASEAN neighbors such as Thailand (38.27 million tourists), Malaysia
(33.1 million tourists), Singapore (18.5 million), Indonesia (15.8 million), and Vietnam (15.5 million). If the Philippines can reach 20 million tourists, then that will equate to an estimated 40 million new tourism industry-related jobs.
The government’s Build Build Build program promises to fix our country’s infrastructure gaps. Boracay’s successful rehabilitation has made headlines all over the world, sparking renewed interest in our islands. It also serves as a model for our other tourist destinations.
Once complete, the NMIA is envisioned to be among the best airports in the region: the game-changer the Philippines has needed all this time.
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Text by Mark Voorendt
Hamburg is a major trade and harbour city in the north of Germany, situated about 110 kilometres from the mouth of the river Elbe. The city was flooded in 1962, after which additional flood protection measures have been carried out. The North Sea flood of 1962 was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 to 17 February 1962. In total, the homes of about 60 000 people were destroyed, and the death toll amounted to 315 in Hamburg. The flood was caused by a low-pressure system approaching the German Bight (Deutsche Bucht), coming from the southern Polar Sea. A storm with a wind force of 9 Beaufort and peak wind speeds of 200 km/h pushed water into the German Bight, leading to a water surge the dikes could not withstand. The water reached a level of NN + 5,70 m, which was 0,46 m higher than the highest water level up to then (registered in 1825). Breaches along the coast and the rivers Elbe and Weser led to widespread flooding of huge areas. Especially dikes that had not been heightened after the storm surge of 1952 were heavily damaged while most sea dikes withstood the surge (Wikipedia, 2012). More than 60 breaches occurred in the dikes with a total length of about 1.5 kilometres. The flooded area amounted 12 500 hectares, about 1/6th of the total area of Hamburg (Landesbetrieb SBG, 2012).
Emergency plans were implemented later and dikes were shortened and strengthened, leaving some river arms and bays detached from the sea. The design water retaining height was raised up to NN + 6,70 m and many dikes were reinforced, also in horizontal direction with more gentle slopes. In January 1976 a storm surge exceeded the one of 1962, leading to a water level of NN + 6,45 m. The reinforced dikes, however, were sufficiently high and stable to withstand this water, but there was much damage in the less protected harbour area. The erection of a storm surge barrier in the Elbe mouth (near Brokdorf ) was studied, but could not be agreed upon by the various Bundesländer. In the mid 90s, a flood protection construction programme was started to raise the retaining height with about one metre (to NN + 7,30 at St. Pauli, about 2 kmWest of Hamburg).
The calculation method was more sophisticated now, taking local hydraulic conditions like wave run-up into account per dike section. This led to varying retaining heights of NN + 7,50mup to NN + 9,25m(Landesbetrieb SBG, 2012).
HafenCity Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg: stairs in the flood defence (Reesendamm)
Hamburg: multifunctional quay wall under construction (near the Baumwall)
In 2000 a start was made with a project of the redevelopment of an old harbour area in between the Speicherstadt and the Elbe. This new area, the HafenCity, is intended for work, living, retail-trade, recreation, gastronomy and culture2. The HafenCity area, however, is located outside the area protected by dikes (see figure 2.28). Proximity to large expanses of water, namely, is what gives the area much of its charm; dikes would have deprived it of the many exciting sight lines down to the water. It appeared also to be troublesome to start constructing the buildings before the 126 hectare area would have been surrounded by dikes (Website HafenCity, 2012). By elevating the buildings on plinths made of mounds, HafenCity is connected with the existing city.
All new buildings stand on artificial bases eight meters above sea level - safe for the most extreme flooding. On the sides exposed to wind, such as the southern sides of Strandkai and Überseequartier, the external perimeter lies at NN + 8,03 to NN + 8,60 meters. It is the responsibility of the private developers of buildings to put these artificial compacted bases in place, so their number is growing as the number of buildings increases. This has dispensed with any need for premature financing of flood-protection measures years - or even decades - ahead of the sale and deployment of the sites concerned.
The interior of flood-secure plinths provides ample space for underground car garages, which means that almost all stationary traffic can be accommodated. The mounds solution therefore also makes a significant contribution to reducing the volume of private transport in the new part of town. No additional sites for above-ground parking blocks will be needed as a result, which also contributes to the effective use of ground surfaces as a resource. Roads and bridges are also being built above the flood-line at least 7.5meters above sea level.
Hamburg: apartment blocks in the HafenCity (Am Sandtorkai)
A broad strip up to 15 meters wide along the edges of the restored historic quays is down at the existing 4,00 to 5,50 meter level of the HafenCity area and provides 10,5 kilometers of waterside walks. This considerably adds up to public urban space right next to the water. In the western part of HafenCity many of these squares and promenades are already in constant use. Thus the mounds solution also has the side-effect of allowing a new topography to take shape - which affects the character and quality of the district (Website HafenCity, 2012). The HafenCity can continue to function virtually without restriction even during a flood and despite its ’island’ situation. In cases of high water, a few underground parking garage entrances along Am Sandtorkai and Brooktorkai (directly opposite the Speicherstadt) do have to close their flood gates. This is because, if the roadways passing directly adjacent to the historic warehouses had been retrospectively elevated, the identity and function of the whole Speicherstadt ensemble would have been affected. Planners of the listed Speicherstadt had worked on the assumption that their area could be flooded in cases of extreme high water (Website HafenCity, 2012). Moreover, windows should be able to withstand high water pressures and steel bulkheads have to prevent eventual damage on the glass windows by floating debris. It is not allowed to live on these ground floors, so they are used for car parks, restaurants and offices. The apartment blocks have different access levels in order to cope with varying water levels around the blocks. There are also escape routes on different heights to guarantee a safe evacuation if needed (Stalenberg, 2010).
The new multifunctional quay walls along the ’Baumwall’ and ’Vorsetzen’, just West of the Hafencity, contain a parking level, public toilets on street level and three places designated for building constructions. These structures are planned to include a restaurant and a kiosk. Due to securing flood protection during the construction period, demolition and construction of the new flood protection barrier must only take place under cover of temporary flood protection. See figures 2.29 to 2.34 for some examples.
Hamburg: steel bulkheads can be closed to protect the windows of apartment blocks along the Sandtorkai
Hamburg: a cross-section of the apartment blocks along the Sandtorkai (Pols, Kronberger et al., 2007)


Brother's on the Boulevard closing after 43 years
The store is having a retirement sale, reducing the price of every item in inventory up to 80%.
Brother's on the Boulevard closing after 43 years The store is having a retirement sale, reducing the price of every item in inventory up to 80%. Check out this story on theadvertiser.com: https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/money/2019/09/18/brothers-boulevard-closing-after-43-years/2362116001/
William Potter, Lafayette Daily Advertiser Published 9:10 a.m. CT Sept. 18, 2019 | Updated 4:44 p.m. CT Sept. 18, 2019
Brother's on the Boulevard storefront (Photo: Courtesy of Brother's on the Boulevard)
Brother's on the Boulevard, the 43-year-old Arnould Boulevard clothier, announced it would be closing on Facebook on Tuesday.
"We are forever grateful for the support we have received throughout the years and would like to thank the Acadiana area for their loyalty," Edward "Brother" Abdalla, VI, posted on Facebook. "We are retiring from the retail business to focus on the family real estate business, On the Boulevard Shopping Center.”
Read or Share this story: https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/money/2019/09/18/brothers-boulevard-closing-after-43-years/2362116001/
Lafayette Parish likely won't beat sales record
LSU vs. Clemson game brings big money to NOLA
Borden Dairy files for bankruptcy
Lafayette, Carencro, Scott, Youngsville near sales record
Waitr names Charles Grimstad, investment group manager, CEO
2019 a busy year for Acadiana businesses


Amazon Studios Orders Thrilling New International Adventure Series "The Banker's Wife," Based on the Best-Selling Novel
Meredith Stiehm will write all eight episodes, with award-winning director Lesli Linka Glatter directing all eight.
[via press release from Amazon]
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 27, 2019 - Amazon Studios announced today that it has ordered an eight-episode season of the exciting new series The Banker's Wife, based on the best-selling novel by Cristina Alger. Meredith Stiehm (Homeland) will write all eight episodes, with award-winning director Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Now and Then) directing all eight.
The Banker's Wife is a high-stakes international thriller set in the world of global finance, from Geneva to Paris, London and New York, about two women racing for answers when a mysterious plane crash sets them off on parallel pursuits of truth. As they shine a light on hidden offshore accounts meant to be kept in the dark, the pair will become embedded in the crosshairs of danger within a larger conspiracy of money laundering, powerful politicians and a web of terrorists and criminals, thus transforming their lives forever.
"As soon as we read The Banker's Wife, we knew this would be a series that our Amazon Prime Video customers will love, a fast-paced, compelling story that pulls you in immediately," said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. "We're thrilled to be working with Meredith and Lesli to bring their vision to the screen."
The Banker's Wife is from Amazon Studios and Federation Entertainment, with executive producer and writer Stiehm, executive producer and director Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland), and executive producers Sherry Marsh of Marsh Entertainment (Emmy-nominated Pose), and Ashley Stern and Pascal Breton (Federation Entertainment). Alger, who also wrote the New York Times bestseller Girls Like Us, is represented by ICM Partners.
· BANKER'S WIFE, THE (AMAZON)


November 28, 2018	Jose Gutierrez III
Piccolo, Cell, Rurouni Kenshin to appear in Jump Force
Four new challengers have entered the fray in Jump Force. Two come from an already established world while the other two characters are coming from a new world. The already established world introduces Piccolo and Perfect Cell to the fight. And the newly introduced world comes to us from the world of Rurouni Kenshin, also known as Samurai X, which introduces Himura Kenshin and Shishio Makoto.
The Rurouni Kenshin world introduces Himura Kenshin, the famous assassin known as Hitokiri Battousai. He is a wandering samurai offering help to those in need as an atonement for all the murders he committed. He uses a sword with a blade that has the cutting edge facing inward, making it nearly incapable of killing. The next fighter introduced is Shishio Makoto, who has taken over as head of the assassin guild that Kenshi left. Makoto plans to bring the Japanese government down after being nearly killed by government officials for knowing all of their secrets.
The next two players are Piccolo and Cell from the Dragon Ball Z world. Piccolo, also known as Ma Junior, is a Namekian who is both the child of and a reincarnation of King Piccolo. He vowed to kill Goku for killing his father, but as time progressed, he became part of Goku’s inner circle of friends. The next character introduced is Cell, the greatest creation of Dr. Gero who possessed all the abilities of the greatest fighters to have inhabited or visited Earth. This makes him one of the greatest and deadliest foes to ever be in the Dragon Ball series.
Does the new addition get you excited for the game? Let us know via our socials. Jump Force will be released on February 15, 2019.
Tags Dragon Ball ZJump ForceRuroni Kenshin
Jose Gutierrez III	705 posts
Jose Gutierrez III is an IT tech by day and nerd by night.


El Paso Shooter Bought Ammunition From Russia, Told Investigators He 'Wanted to Shoot as Many Mexicans as Possible': Report
By Alexandra Hutzler On 8/28/19 at 10:45 AM EDT
U.S. Mass shootings Gun Control
The shooter who killed 22 people and injured dozens more in El Paso, Texas earlier this month reportedly purchased his assault rifle from Romania and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Russia.
According to a Texas Department of Public Safety report obtained by The Texas Tribune, the 21-year-old suspect told police about the details of the weapons shortly after he was arrested. The gunman surrendered to authorities in his car nearly a mile away from the Walmart where the attack took place. Officials said the shooter had a "stone-cold look" when apprehended and expressed no remorse or regret.
The shooter later told investigators that he has purchased the AK-47 assault rifle from Romania and had it shipped to a gun dealer near Allen, Texas. The ammunition, he added, was from Russia. El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen had previously said the firearm was bought legally but never elaborated on where or when the shooter obtained it.
The shooter also reportedly told investigators about his manifesto, which was posted to the online messaging board 8chan just minutes before the attack. The document was filled with white supremacist ideology and railed against immigration, particularly in the Latino community. The author warned of a "Hispanic invasion of Texas" and detailed a plan to separate America based on race.
The suspect also told authorities that he "wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible" during the attack, according to a summary of his police interview included in the public safety report. Thirteen of the victims were U.S. citizens, eight were Mexican citizens and one was German.
People pray and pay their respects at the makeshift memorial for victims of the shooting that left a total of 22 people dead at the Cielo Vista Mall WalMart (background) in El Paso, Texas, on August 6, 2019. The Texas Tribune reported that the shooter purchased his assault rifle from Romania and thousands of rounds of ammunition from Russia. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
The Houston Chronicle recently reported that Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a fundraising mailer to supporters asking them to help him "defend" the state from illegal immigrants just one day before the El Paso shooting.
"If we're going to DEFEND Texas, we'll need to take matters into our own hands," read the letter, which was dated August 2.
"Doing nothing will only lead to disaster for Texas, both economically and politically. Securing our border should be the federal government's job, but there is clearly a crisis at our southern border — a crisis Congress refuses to fix," Abbott added.
This month's mass shootings, which killed 31 people in less than 24 hours, have sparked a nationwide debate over gun legislation and the Second Amendment. But despite public outcry and pressure from Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not called senators back from summer recess for an emergency legislative session on the issue.
The Senate majority leader has also not allowed a vote on gun control legislation that was passed by the Democratic-controlled House earlier this year. The bill would require universal background checks for almost all firearm purchases.
President Donald Trump responded to the tragedy in El Paso by condemning hate groups and calling for the death penalty for mass murderers and domestic terrorists. He also seemed to signal support for stronger gun background checks but has since reversed his stance on gun control.
"We have very strong background checks right now," Trump said last week. "But we have missing areas, and areas that don't complete the whole circle. And we're looking at different things. And I have to tell you that it is a mental problem. And I've said it a hundred times it's not the gun that pulls the trigger, it's the people."
During his visit to El Paso shortly after the shooting, Trump praised the work of first responders and noted how much "love and respect" people had for the office of the presidency. It was reported, however, that many victims did not want to meet with the president. Trump also said he was struck by "all the love" he had seen on his trip.
El Paso Shooter Bought Ammunition From Russia, Told Investigators He 'Wanted to Shoot as Many Mexicans as Possible': Report | U.S.
Everytown Urges McConnell to Stand Up to Gun Lobby: 'This Isn't Normal'
Republican Congressman Likens Gun Control to Banning Cars in CNN Interview
Texas Governor Asked Supporters to 'Defend Texas' from Illegal Immigration


Mapping Australia's high-speed rail routes
High-speed rail has been on the agenda for every Australian Government since 1984, but no project has ever made it past the advanced planning stages.
Elliot Gardner maps out some of the potential high-speed rail routes in the country
very populated continent is home to some form of high-speed rail network -except for Australia. The introduction of the bullet train in Japan in 1964 captured the world’s attention, and many countries – notably China, Spain, Germany and France – have followed suit with their own takes on the high-speed rail system.
The idea of uniting Australia’s eastern seaboard through high-speed rail has been floated since the early 1980s, with every federal government from 1984 to the present day investigating its feasibility. The 2017 federal budget allocated A$20bn over the next ten years to investment in the rail industry, with this figure rising even higher in 2018.
The east coast is almost exclusively seen as the preferred location for any potential such projects. Sydney to Melbourne is the world’s second busiest air corridor and using rail to reduce air traffic makes both economic and ecological sense, if the appropriate infrastructure can be set up. But with the sheer size of the undertaking presenting a mammoth engineering challenge, the question remains: what form would a modern Australian high-speed rail network take?
Click or tap on a location on the map to find out more about its high-speed rail
Consolidated Land and Rail Australia (CLARA)
Consolidated Land and Rail Australia (CLARA) is a private property development consortium that has announced a A$75bn plan to build three ‘smart cities’ on the east coast of the country – with even more planned - in order to decentralise the Australian population away from large cities to smaller, more sustainable high-tech inland cities. While the project is not purely about high-speed rail, CLARA believes this is the best available method for enacting the plan and transforming Australia.
The company has identified a Melbourne to Sydney route via Shepparton and Canberra as the most viable. Elevated tracks would most likely be used in order to minimise the impact on landowners.
The plan is a radical one and has thus attracted much criticism. A report from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects stated that it may well be difficult to locate a reliable water source for the new cities and several engineering groups have noted the intense practical challenge of developing a high-speed rail route from scratch. Still, in 2018 the CLARA proposal was one of three invited by the Turnbull Government to develop a detailed business case for funding.
Ultraspeed Hyperloop
No discussion of high-speed rail would be complete without mention of some form of Elon Musk’s futuristic Hyperloop proposal and sure enough Australia has also been earmarked as a potential site for an ultra-high-speed Hyperloop-type concept – though chances of it becoming a reality currently look to be slim.
‘Ultraspeed’ is the name of Australia’s Hyperloop offering, with plans being put forward for a travel network between Sydney and Brisbane via Tamworth and Toowoomba, with a second route proposed between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
As with all Hyperloop travel projects, designs are still very much conceptual. The idea is to suspend train carriages on an air cushion – thereby reducing friction – in a vacuum sealed tunnel. The train would be propelled by magnets, allowing for travel speeds of up to 1,000km/h. If the project comes to pass, travel times between Sydney and Brisbane could be reduced to as little as one hour.
Concerns have been raised that the inherent curves, ascents and descents of the Australian countryside would subject passengers to significant g-force and that the required tunnelling needed to set up the route would be very expensive, though Ultraspeed has claimed that the project could cost around A$40bn.
However, it is worth noting that the Ultraspeed website currently takes the form of an Indonesian-language discount storefront and there has been no social media presence on official channels since 2017.
Electric Tilt Train
Operating on the North Coast railway line in Queensland between Brisbane, Bundaberg and Rockhampton, the Electric Tilt Train service is the name of two high-speed tilting trains that have been in service since late-1998.
Tilting trains counter the centrifugal force experienced by rounding curves at high speeds by tilting the carriage towards the inside of the curve. Construction on Australia’s Electric Tilt Train began in 1993, with engineering company Walkers (now Bundaberd Walkers Engineering) being awarded the contract for
two six-carriage electric trains and Japanese multinational Hitachi providing the tilting equipment.
While technically speaking, the Electric Tilt Train service is a medium-speed rail line, during a trial run prior to opening in 1998, the service reached a speed of 210km/h, just above the internationally accepted minimum of 200km/h to be defined as ‘high-speed’. To this day, the 210km/h test run still stands as Australia’s rail speed record.
The two Electric Tilt Train services are still in operation, with the two trains recently refurbished in July 2016 and July 2017.
A joint venture between Alstom and Leighton Contractors (known as the Speedrail Consortium) proposed a link between Sydney and Canberra in 1993, but after a series of delays over subsidies, it wasn’t until 1997 that the Australian Government expressed formal interest in the Speedrail offering.
The government invited expressions of interest in high-speed rail proposals and chose the Speedrail Consortium as the preferred party to proceed with its A$3.5bn project. With the potential to create 15,000 jobs, the company claimed that there would be no net cost to the taxpayer.
While Speedrail submitted a feasibility study in late 1999 claiming that the project met all expectations and requirements, concerns still lingered that significant subsidies and tax concessions would be required to complete the project. The media at the time speculated an additional A$1bn would be needed. By December 2000, the Australian Government had dropped the project.
Inland Rail
While not a high-speed rail project, Inland Rail deserves an honourable mention because of the scale of the project and the impact it will have on the country. The Australian Government in 2017 committed $9.3bn for the delivery of a high-capacity freight route between Melbourne and Brisbane. The route is being divided into 13 smaller projects across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, with potential to connect Melbourne, Brisbane and regional Australia to domestic and international markets and significantly impacting rural communities along the way.
Inland Rail promises to cut the journey time between the two cities down to 24 hours, offering a competitive alternative to air and road travel, reducing emissions by 750,000 tonnes, and - according to the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities - it will boost Australia’s GDP by $16bn, though this figure has been a matter of some dispute. The first train is projected to run by 2025.
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Free Buns At London’s Naked Restaurant
Sunday, May 1st, 2016
Bunyadi Restaurant: https://www.google.com/
GOOGLE NETHERLANDS: “This spring, Google is introducing the self-driving bicycle in Amsterdam, the world’s premier cycling city. The Dutch cycle more than any other nation in the world, almost 900 kilometres per year per person, amounting to over 15 billion kilometres annually. The self-driving bicycle enables safe navigation through the city for Amsterdam residents, and furthers Google’s ambition to improve urban mobility with technology. Google Netherlands takes enormous pride in the fact that a Dutch team worked on this innovation that will have great impact in their home country.”
Satanists Offended By Cruz Comparison
ABC NEWS “Prominent Satanists want to be clear: Ted Cruz need not apply.
After former House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday called the current Republican presidential candidate “Lucifer in the flesh,” saying he found it difficult to work with him, staunch Satanists decried the comparison.
“Having a conservative Christian likened to Lucifer — one who opposes equal rights for same sex couples and promotes the ability to deny services to any with different values — we Satanists see as besmirching the positive, heroic aspects of that character as portrayed by Milton in his epic ‘Paradise Lost,‘” Magus Peter Howard Gilmore, the high priest of The Church of Satan, said in a statement.”
READ MORE: http://abcnews.go.com/
CANADA: America, But Better
Canada for President: http://www.americabutbetter.com/
They’re ALL Fucking Entertaining
2016 Election memes: https://www.google.com/


Home > Auto > Auto News
Rolls-Royce Ghost series II launched; Priced at `4.5 crore
The Hans India
null | 9 Nov 2014 12:21 AM GMT
Rolls-Royce has launched the Ghost Series II starting at Rs 4.5 crore (ex-showroom pan India). The car was first seen at the Geneva Motorshow and now...
Rolls-Royce has launched the Ghost Series II starting at Rs 4.5 crore (ex-showroom pan India). The car was first seen at the Geneva Motorshow and now has made its way into India. For Rolls-Royce, India is an extremely important market, not as important or big as China though, but still. The company already has 5 dealerships across India and has plans to expand it further in the years to come.
The Ghost Series II gets subtle changes to the exterior and interior and a few additions to the options list. The attention is drawn straight away by the rectangular LED headlamps which replace the round main headlamps. There are also 21-inch alloys along with new paint shades and a new rear bumper.
The Series II also gets new seats with reworked electronic adjustments and heating options. The rear seats have been subtly re-angled to augment communication with fellow passengers. The instrument cluster gets marginal changes but there is a new infotainment system with 10-inch multimedia screen with a touchpad controller that makes its way inside the car.
There will be occasions when you might want to get behind the wheel of this one and it won't disappoint. At the heart is the same 6.6-litre V12 engine which churns out 563bhp and 780Nm. Mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, the Ghost Series II will hit a top speed limited to 250km/h and accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 4.7 seconds.
You might think that 4.5 crores is a lot of money but Sven Ritter, GM Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific says, "We are bringing the car to India because there definitely is a demand and we want to fulfill it. People in India love our cars."
Rolls-Royce Ghost Series in India


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You are here: Home / Tennis Book Talk: Tennis Meets Romance in “Game. Set. Match.” by Jennifer Iacopelli
Tennis Book Talk: Tennis Meets Romance in “Game. Set. Match.” by Jennifer Iacopelli
By Lindsay on May 8, 2013
I’ve been wanting to start a regular column here at The Changeover on tennis books and tennis authors pretty much ever since we began the site–I have a bit of a personal interest in the topic– but unfortunately I got busy and also a bit lazy, a terrible combination, and never got it off the ground. But when Jennifer Iacopelli, who I met on Twitter, started tweeting about the release of her new adult (more on that later) novel “Game.Set.Match.” I knew that would be the perfect place to start.
I was right. (As usual.)
The truth is that as much as I love the history and the real-life biographies and the statistics and other serious-face tennis topics, I also enjoy the lighter side of the sport as well. I love the petty rivalries, the romances, the friendships, and the fashion. Though the matches and the training and the traveling are far from glamorous, it’s all still much more exciting and high-stakes than the life I lead. It’s always fun to imagine what goes on off the court between these players that we spend so much time watching.
“Game. Set. Match.” follows the lives of three different girls in their late teens who all train at the prestigious Outer Banks Tennis Academy in North Carolina. The structure of the novel works because all of the characters are different enough to stand alone, but all living in the same world and working towards the same goal–becoming the best tennis player in the world. The men in their lives are all intriguing (and HOT) as well, but they’re definitely the supporting characters in this book. It’s really about the established star Penny, the spawn-of-tennis-legends Jasmine, and the newcomer Indy trying to grow into women on the court and off.
Basically it’s 90210 meets the WTA.
From a writing standpoint, I enjoyed the book because it was fast-paced, flowed well, and never tried to pretend to be anything that it wasn’t. It’s cheesy in parts. It’s romantic. It’s overwrought, but grounded in emotions that make sense. It’s smart because it is exactly what it’s supposed to be. Fun.
From a tennis standpoint, I loved it because it was set in the real tennis universe. Though the characters and the Outer Banks Tennis Academy are all figments of Iacopelli’s imagination, they all exist in the tennis world that we know. The book follows the tour from Madrid through the French Open, so the timing of the release is absolutely perfect, and to be honest it was great to read about off-court drama that wasn’t quite as serious as the stuff that’s been going on in the news this week. It helps that Iacopelli is a real tennis fan, and her passion for the sport shines through. She’s one of us. Though she has to talk about tennis in terms that non-fans will understand, there’s plenty of stuff for hardcore fans to appreciate too, and I never felt like she was talking down to us.
I read the book in an afternoon, got completely sucked into the stories, and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next when it was done. Perfect.
Iacopelli was nice enough to answer a few of the questions I had, and hopefully will show up in the comments to answer any questions you may have! You can purchase the book here.
I know from our Twitter friendship that you really love tennis. How did you become a fan?
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a total sports nut, but tennis was my absolute first love. I grew up in Queens during the early nineties AND my name was Jennifer, thus I automatically assumed I was destined to be the next Jennifer Capriati. I took lessons at the National Tennis Center and just totally fell in love with the sport. Obviously, I wasn’t nearly good enough to play professionally and my interest in playing competitively dwindled, but I’ve always remained a huge fan.
The book is so specific about the life of an up and coming tennis player. Does your knowledge of that come from firsthand experience, research, or imagination?
I like to think of it as unintentional research and a lot of imagination. Obviously, I’m a tennis fan so I’ve heard a ton of stories over the years from players about their journey to the pro tour. The little details I had to fill in myself, but luckily there isn’t only one path to follow, so I could be creative with the players’ backgrounds.
As a tennis fan myself, I couldn’t help but wonder if you based your characters off of any current players? If not, I’d love to hear who you think your characters’ tour counterpoints are.
Oh! My tennis players all definitely have a little bit of some real life tennis players, both past and present.
Of my male characters, there’s only one who plays at a professional level, Alex Russell. He is British and a seven-time Grand Slam champion, but has fallen off a bit, focusing more on partying and less on training. I like to think of him as someone under the pressure of Andy Murray, with the talent of Roger Federer and the attitude of Andy Roddick all rolled into one!
Penny Harrison, on the court, is definitely Steffi Graf, though at the very beginning of her career. She’s got the talent and the drive to be the best ever, though she meets her “Andre” a lot earlier than Steffi did, so let’s hope she doesn’t let that distract her!
I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but Indy is definitely John Isner. She’s super powerful, though not nearly as tall, but she can be really inconsistent and she doesn’t have the strongest mental game. She’s got a ton of talent, but she has to get out of her own way.
And last, but not least, Jasmine. Actually the inspiration for Jasmine came from a “what if” I asked myself when I was doing some very preliminary character sketches. What if Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s kids wanted to play tennis professionally? Her character just grew from there.
How fun was it to come up with the names for all those tennis players?
Some of the players are named for my friends. The rest were me just having some fun on the internet looking up common names in different countries. Some of my favorites are Zinaida “Zina” Lutrova, the women’s No. 1, Pallavi and Anaya Kapur, twins who dominate the women’s doubles circuit, my little nod to the awesome Bryan brothers and Paolo Macchia, who is named for one of my favorite athletes of all time, Paolo Maldini of AC Milan!
Though these are fictional characters, you set it in the real tennis universe. There’s Madrid, Rome, the French Open, and even mentions of Rio. Was it hard to make the complicated tennis world accessible for a general audience, and did you ever consider just making up your own tennis rules?
Yes it was hard and no I never considered making up my own rules. One of my biggest pet peeves is a sports movie/tv show/book/whatever that portrays the sport in an unrealistic way.
At the same time, as you said, I wanted to make sure that the tennis, the complexities of the pro tour and the game itself, was as accessible as possible for people who don’t know the difference between love and deuce.
I took the “less is more” approach. I explained things only when absolutely necessary and tried to weave little details into the story when I could. Sometimes there was no getting around just explaining how the game works, like the first time I wrote about a tie-break or when I had to let a reader know that clay courts play slower than hard courts or how its easier to improve your ranking if you do really well at a Grand Slam rather than a much small tournament.
I was lucky in that I had some great early readers, some tennis fans and some not, who gave me a ton of great feedback and helped me strike that balance.
We’re tennis nerds and writing nerds over here at The Changeover. We’d love to hear a little bit about your process of writing this book briefly, from conception to writing to book deal to editing.
I got the idea for GAME. SET. MATCH. in August of 2011. I was actually in the shower with my iPod in its dock on random and the song Penny and Me by Hanson (no judging!) came on. There and then, Penny Harrison popped into my head nearly fully formed. I knew a ridiculous amount of information about her, but the one thing that really stood out was that she was a tennis player. I plotted most of it out and then started writing around the beginning of November. I finished in early 2012, did a bunch of revisions because the first draft was total crap and on March 31st, I was done.
Of course it’s not nearly that easy. I had a finished manuscript, but I didn’t have any way of getting it published, so the next step was to try and find a literary agent to represent me. And that means going through a process called querying. Querying is when you write a short (no more than one page) email, pitching your book to a literary agent.
Remember applying to college? Multiply that stress by about a billion and you might come close to what querying is like and I had it pretty easy. I sent out 100 query emails to literary agents who represented books like mine (young adult/crossover women’s fiction, now with its own new fancy label, “new adult”). I started querying on April 1st. Here were my stats:
Total Queries Sent: 100
Rejections of Query: 44
No Response: 33
Requests to Review Full or Partial Manuscript: 22
Rejections of the Full or Partial: 14 + 5 who never responded = 19
Offers of Representation: 3
I signed with my amazing agent Michelle Wolfson on June 12th, less than a year after starting my manuscript. I was SO lucky that we found each other so fast!
Then came a process that was even more nerve-wracking than querying. It’s called being “on submission” when your agent submits your work to publishers for consideration. We knew it would be really tough to sell GAME. SET. MATCH. because first, people think girls hate sports (untrue, but whatever) and second, I wrote in a category that didn’t exist yet. My characters are between the ages of 17-23, not “young adult,” but not really the right age for a mainstream adult novel. Thankfully we were able to sign with a publisher that was out ahead of a trend that’s really taken off since called “new adult” which focuses specifically on that age group. The awesome people at Coliloquy signed me to a three book deal in late July 2012.
I’ve rambled on a lot, but you did ask about editing too, so I’ll be quick! I won’t lie, there was a lot of editing, a ton really, but what never changed was the heart of the story, my three girls all of whom dreamed about becoming the best tennis player in the world!
Is this your first book? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I’ve been writing forever, but this is actually the first book I’ve managed to complete from start to finish. I’ve got bits and bobs of dozens of novels squirreled away for a rainy day though, just waiting for me to come back and finish them one day!
What is next for you and for your characters? Do we get to see them again? Please say yes.
In GAME. SET. MATCH. we travel to the French Open and just like in the real world, the next book, which will hopefully be out sometime later this year, will focus on the time leading up to and during Wimbledon! There will be a third book in the series as well and since you’re all tennis fans, I’m sure you can guess what major we’ll be headed to next.
Thanks so much to Jennifer for kicking off our Tennis Book Talk series! If you guys have any other tennis books and tennis authors you want me to read/interview, please let me know!
Lindsay is an author, a filmmaker, a long-winded blogger, and a huge tennis fan.
All posts by Lindsay
Posted in Tennis Book Talk | Tagged Books, Interviews
tennis watcher May 8, 2013 at 4:55 pm | Permalink
I can’t wait to read this! It sounds like a really great summer read. How does Iacopelli manage the cultural differences so prevalent in the tennis world? I imagine this is as difficult as the balance she seems to have struck with tennis IQ/knowledge, but when struck the audience for the book is limitless given the international reach tennis now has. Thanks for sharing this.
Parting question, will you be reading and/or reviewing Connors unfortunate memoir? I look forward to seeing more Tennis Book Talk!
Henk May 8, 2013 at 5:34 pm | Permalink
Please tell me this book is filled with tennis-flavoured double entendres.
“I dropped my balls on your deuce court”
Jennifer Iacopelli May 8, 2013 at 8:02 pm | Permalink
My editor wouldn’t let me leave them in! Kidding…kinda… 😉
Karolina May 8, 2013 at 9:16 pm | Permalink
Love to see tennis in the art form – definitely under represented. please check out “Broken At Love” – romance tennis web series…and like her I like accurate representations of the sport!! 🙂 enjoy. http://www.brokenatlovetheseries.com
Alyssa May 11, 2013 at 12:14 pm | Permalink
I love tennis so this book is really a must read for me! 🙂
Nicole May 11, 2013 at 7:42 pm | Permalink
This just went on my Amazon wish list. Thanks for sharing, Lindsay, and thanks for writing what sounds like a great tennis story, Jennifer! (I may be WAY beyond the book’s target market, but it still sounds like great fun.)
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From the Window Seat
The battle for hearts and minds
By Arnie Weissmann
h, the British love Americans. Or they love to hate them." I was at lunch with a British tour operator and was asking how well Brits and Yanks are mixing these days on tours that have guests from both countries.
Since the publication of controversial photos of prisoners detained at Camp X-Ray was followed by President Bush's identification of the "Axis of Evil," there have been a plethora of news stories about negative European reaction to America's recent behavior and announcements.
In particular, there's concern that the U.S. may be laying the groundwork for unilateral action against Iraq. The attitude of "you're either with us or against us" is sounding increasingly arrogant to foreign ears.
Our period of self-examination is appearing to be a period of self-absorption, and our patriotic flourishes are sometimes coming across as strident jingoism.
The official foreign government responses to U.S. pronouncements are couched in diplomatic turns of phrase, but worrisome to anyone in the travel industry are the interviews with people on the streets of European capitals.
Sympathy for America after Sept. 11 and admiration for the American-led forces' quick success in Afghanistan are being replaced by a sense that the U.S. is not listening to input from its allies.
If this attitude gains momentum, the predictable result will be a rise in anti-Americanism displayed by ordinary citizens abroad.
Of course, a rise in anti-Americanism wouldn't exactly be an incentive for already skittish Americans to begin traveling again.
One foreign national who is understanding of the position America finds itself in is writer Salman Rushdie. The author of "The Satanic Verses" knows all too well the dangers presented by regimes that practice a narrow and rigid interpretation of Islam.
He wrote an article finding fault with the U.S.'s critics in the New York Times earlier this month. He recounts listening "night after night" to Londoners' diatribes against Americans, diatribes focused in part on our patriotism, "emotionality" and "self-centeredness."
Rushdie concludes that America "did what had to be done ... and did it well," but also suggests that we're at a crossroads of sorts, and "this is not the time to ignore the rest of the world."
My British tour operator friend simply joked about any potential culture clash. He said the biggest problem in hosting Americans is making sure there's enough coffee and ice on hand, and in finding accommodations with showers.
He talked about how Americans change the atmosphere on a tour for the better: "They're far more noisy, exuberant and add energy -- the British get caught up and love it."
I think the reality for most Americans traveling abroad lies somewhere between Rushdie's British antagonists and the tour operator's rosy picture of harmony. I don't think travel agents or tour operators need to prepare clients to face anti-Americanism ... yet.
But I do hope that our government, while working to protect our national interests, bears in mind that it's in our national interest -- to say nothing of the interest of the travel industry -- to win two wars: the war against terrorism and the battle for the hearts and minds of people on foreign streets.
We're making progress on the first front, but we may be in retreat on the second.
Do-it-yourself flightseeing?
Harry Sommer's journey
Travel books to give and get
https://www.travelweekly.com/Arnie-Weissmann/The-battle-for-hearts-and-minds


Marco Island school targeted by Florida nonprofit that has come under scrutiny
The email was sent at 10:20 p.m. to George Andreozzi’s Gmail account on a Saturday in early April.
Marco Island school targeted by Florida nonprofit that has come under scrutiny The email was sent at 10:20 p.m. to George Andreozzi’s Gmail account on a Saturday in early April. Check out this story on naplesnews.com: http://nplsne.ws/28KGF9n
Naples Daily News Published 12:26 p.m. ET Dec. 7, 2014
Ryan Mills, (@NDN_RMills)
The sender, identified only as “An Onoma,” requested Andreozzi’s last payroll transaction from his job as principal of the Marco Island Charter Academy high school.
Andreozzi, who has since retired, never responded or even acknowledged the email. A little over a month later, the Deerfield Beach nonprofit Citizens Awareness Foundation sued in Lee County Court alleging the school had violated Florida’s Sunshine law by not turning over the records.
The foundation, with a mission to “empower citizens to exercise their right to know,” has drawn scrutiny for filing more than 140 similar lawsuits in at least 27 Florida counties since January. In every case reviewed by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, the suits were filed by an attorney with the O’Boyle Law Firm — a firm that not only shares a building with the foundation, but personnel and money as well.
The firm then attempts to collect cash settlements.
Read or Share this story: http://nplsne.ws/28KGF9n


'Ad limina' meeting was a 'sharing among shepherds,' Cuban bishop says
by Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service
Pope Francis meets with Cuban bishops during their "ad lumina" visit to the Vatican May 4. (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano)
Rome — Having a group meeting with Pope Francis was not like attending a lecture, but it was a moment of communion and sharing among friends and shepherds, a Cuban archbishop said.
"When people call it an audience, it sounds like we're there only to listen, but this was a sharing among shepherds; a meeting of bishops — the apostles that are in Cuba — and Peter," Archbishop Dionisio Garcia Ibanez of Santiago, president of the Cuban bishops' conference, told Catholic News Service May 4.
Francis met with the 13 prelates from the Caribbean island-nation earlier that day during the "ad limina" visit that bishops are required to make to the Vatican.
Garcia said the pope listened intently as well as offered advice on the challenges facing the nearly 6 million Catholics in Cuba.
Although the problems "are common in many churches," Garcia said, they "manifest in Cuba in a unique way."
"It is a poor church and we need material help. But more than anything, we need missionaries, we need priests, religious men and women. The number of missionaries does not reach the demand of people who come to the church and the evangelization efforts we have," he said.
While the government has granted greater religious freedoms to the Catholic Church, Garcia told CNS that the lack of money has made it difficult to "build new churches in so many places where we have started to preach the faith."
The church, however, continues to stay strong and is encouraged by the support by the pope, he added.
"We know and we feel the appreciation of the Holy See for Cuba and we thanked (Francis) for that. We told him about the situation of our church, which is a very fragile and poor church in many things, but one that is also creative and enthusiastic about evangelizing. He listened to us and gave us advice; it was a conversation among shepherds," Garcia told CNS.
He also said that Catholics in Cuba are "very grateful" for the affection shown to them, particularly throughout the past three pontificates.
The closeness of the universal church to the people of Cuba began with St. John Paul II's historic visit in 1998, the first visit of a pope to the country.
"Pope John Paul II was an imposing person; imposing not only in how he presented himself but also because of his personal history. He was a man who lived through totalitarianism and who went out to fight for his church," the archbishop said.
And, Garcia said, when St. John Paul visited Cuba, "his old age and physical weakness made him even more lovable because of his frailty and the power of his voice and thought."
Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 2012. Recalling the retired pope's "methodical and studious" personality, Garcia said that although he had shown signs of frailty, "he had a very powerful way of thinking."
"Pope Benedict spent two days in Cuba whereas Pope John Paul II spent five days. Yet in only two days, he conquered the hearts of the people," the archbishop said.
However, he continued, Pope Francis stands out since "out of all three, he was the one that was known before" he became pope.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio headed the drafting committee for the final document of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil.
The document's call to renew the church's commitment to mission and discipleship in Latin America, particularly reaching out to those far from the church, resonated in areas where the church was in decline or just beginning to flourish, Garcia said.
The Cuban people love Francis' "Latin American personality" and his way of "transmitting the Gospel in a very Latin American style," the archbishop said.
Each of the three popes, "according to their own personality, according to the historical moment, have left their mark which is to bring us the Gospel," Garcia told CNS.
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With a commitment to world class research, Staffordshire University is also at the forefront of digital innovation.
With a history of teaching, research and knowledge transfer dating back to 1901, Staffordshire University (SU) has a long and proven track record in undertaking pioneering research and providing informative, cutting-edge and stimulating training to a variety of audiences. The University remains dedicated to being a truly international centre of learning and to conducting high-impact research with real-world applications.
SU is also undertaking an ambitious plan to become the UK’s leading digital university. To achieve world-class status, the University has already invested £40 million in new, state-of the art teaching and learning facilities and £12 million in new computing and games facilities. The University has the UK’s top Games Design programme, industry-leading media and motion capture studios, and hosts the Centre of Archaeology which is internationally recognised for its expertise in the investigation of Holocaust sites.
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October 27, 2018 February 2, 2019 The Grey Lantern
Ian Brown announces new album with single First World Problems
Nine years after his last solo release, Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown has announced seventh studio album Ripples to be released on March 1st 2019. To accompany the announcement, Ian has shared the first single from the album First World Problems.
Self-producing the album, Ian Brown also wrote the majority of the album tracks. Three of the which were co-written with his sons, who also play a multitude of instruments across Ripples. The new album also features cover versions of Barrington Levy’s Black Roses and Break Down The Walls by Mikey Dread.
Ripples was recorded in Liverpool and enhanced in the Beatles room at Abbey Road Studios, before being mixed by long-term collaborator Steve Fitzmaurice. The record was digitally mastered by Bob Ludwig in New York, while the vinyl was mastered by Chris Bellman in LA.
Ian Brown has retained complete creative control of the project, producing the album, directing a soon to be released video, as well as creating the artwork himself and playing guitar, drums and a host of other instruments throughout the record.
Ripples by Ian Brown is released March 1st 2019 and can be pre-ordered here.
Breathe and Breathe Easy (The Everness Of Now)
The Dream And The Dreamer
From Chaos To Harmony
It’s Raining Diamonds
Soul Satisfaction
Break Down The Walls (Warm Up Jam)
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