text:
Rights Removal Bill – Gone But Not Forgotten
September 29, 2022
We were encouraged to see that the so-called ‘Rights Removal Bill’ (RRB), which would have repealed the Human Rights Act (HRA) and undermined many of our rights protections, has been dropped from the UK Government’s legislative agenda for the foreseeable future. The Bill contained a wide range of proposals intended to discourage rights-based scrutiny of Government actions, undermine the ways courts ensure Convention rights are upheld and attacked the rights of specific communities, particularly migrants and asylum seekers. The shelving of this Bill should be celebrated; however, we fear the attacks on the HRA and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are far from over.
The new Prime Minister Liz Truss and her allies have variously decried the ECHR and the ECtHR, with Truss saying during the leadership election that she was ‘prepared’ to withdraw the UK from the Convention, and close ally Suella Braverman – now Home Secretary – claiming that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is “thwarting our democracy” and the UK must be removed from its jurisdiction.
So why did they scrap the Bill?
Many signs point to internal party politics and smaller issues with the Bill, with some claiming that it was dropped because of its close association with former Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, who backed Rishi Sunak in the leadership election. What is indisputable, though, is that the ideological backing for the Bill still exists within the Conservative Government, and that the “principles and objectives” of the Bill are not being shelved, with revised options to progress them currently being explored. As such, the public and civil society across the UK must continue the fight to protect our rights, and particularly our Human Rights Act.
Many of the worst elements of the Bill are likely to be repackaged in a Rights Removal Bill 2.0 or tacked onto any other loosely related Bills that the Government is progressing or introduced through secondary legislation. The one useful element of the Rights Removal Bill (RRB) is that we now know which elements of the HRA/ECHR are likely to continue to be attacked. A useful watchlist so we can monitor where this Government may try to quietly reintroduce them into their legislative agenda.
Right to private and family life
The now shelved Bill aimed to prevent UK courts from finding legislative provisions regarding deportation as incompatible with the ECHR Article 8 right to private and family life. Per clause 8 of the RRB, only cases where provisions would cause ‘exceptional and overwhelming’ harm which cannot be mitigated could have been ruled incompatible with Article 8 of the ECHR, which itself diverges from existing European Court case law.
Differentiating access to Article 8 rights on the basis of specific demographic or background has the long-term potential to undermine those rights for everyone. Had the Bill continued, it would have further facilitated a deeply unfair deportation system where courts were unable to decide on a case-by-case basis how to apply Article 8 rights, and even potentially be prohibited from fully applying those rights where deportation was concerned. This assault on the universality of rights and specifically on how those rights apply to migrants and refugees reveals the clear racist motivations of the Bill and is one of the elements most likely to make its way back into legislation due to the Home Secretary’s current stance.
The very appropriate interim measure issued by the European Court of Human Rights halting the Government’s planned scheme to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda (pending a full judgement), seems likely to be further used by the Government to feed into their ongoing plans to erode the use of convention rights by minority groups like refugees and asylum seekers.
The Rights Removal Bill would’ve ensured that no account would be taken in domestic law of interim measures issues by the ECtHR. This was presumably a direct response to the measures issued by the Court in the Rwanda deportation flight. While the ECtHR would still have had jurisdiction in the UK and retained the ability to rule against the Government, interim measures issued by the Court to allow them to consider a case in more depth while preventing the potential rights violation from continuing would be ignored.
As such, for the Rwanda deportation flight, were the interim measure issued following the adoption of this Bill into law, the UK Government would not have been obliged to follow it and the flight would have went ahead.
Removal of Remedies for Rights Violations
The Bill would have removed several vital remedies courts could enact in response to a rights violation, namely positive obligations and interpretive obligations. Both these remedies were introduced in the HRA and were vital in “bringing rights home” and ensuring that they were enforceable through domestic courts.
Section 3 of the Human Rights Act places an ‘interpretive obligation’ on UK courts, requiring them to, where possible, read domestic legislation compatibly with Convention rights. The removal of this duty would’ve likely resulted in more ‘declarations of incompatibility’, wherein a court declares a provision or piece of legislation as incompatible with Convention rights but does not legally bind the Government to address this incompatibility.
Positive obligations, which are duties placed on Government and public authorities to proactively uphold specific rights in certain ways, also came under attack in the Bill of Rights Bill. Clause 5 of the Bill would have prevented domestic courts from newly interpreting Convention rights as placing these ‘positive obligations’ on public authorities. It would also have strongly discouraged UK courts from continuing to interpret Convention rights it had already considered to place positive obligations as still doing so.
These are only some of the more egregious proposals in the Rights Removal Bill that may yet be revisited by this Government. For a more in-depth analysis of the Bill and its implications for the human rights framework in the UK, you can now read our evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Bill of Rights Bill legislative scrutiny, which was submitted shortly before the Bill was shelved. You can also find a copy of the submission, including the questions asked by the JCHR, below.
The brief reprieve provided by the shelving of this Bill should be used to further shore up support for the Human Rights Act, hold the Government’s feet to the fire for their agenda of deregulation and rights removal, and continue making the case for a fully rights-based society across these islands.


text:
EA Sports announced plans to open a new development studio in Austin, Texas today, confirming details we first reported on late last month.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, EA said it will create 150 full-time and 150 contract jobs, which include software engineers, game designers, artists, programmers and senior technical positions.
"On behalf of the State of Texas, I'd like to congratulate EA on expanding its presence in Austin, and welcome the quality jobs that will be created here as a result," Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement.
"Much like the video gaming industry, our state is built on the foundation of competition; thanks to our low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulatory climate, fair legal system and skilled workforce, we continue to attract companies from around the nation."
EA already employs more than 450 people in its BioWare Austin studio. The company would not confirm what games this new Austin studio will develop at this time.

domain: economics


The draft National Policy on Information Technology 2011, released today, envisages an over three-fold increase in revenue from the country's information technology and IT-enabled services from $88 billion at present to $300 billion by 2010.
Releasing the draft policy, minister of communications and information technology Kapil Sibal said information technology is a key driver of an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, and that India is well positioned to enhance and leverage its existing IT capabilities for a leadership role.
Information technology, he said, has transformational power, and it is a great leveler of opportunity within and across economies. With the right policies and investment in infrastructure, he said, India has the opportunity to strengthen and enhance its position as a global IT powerhouse.
On the domestic front, he said, the use of IT across various sectors would help transform the economy, enhance equity and help the nation to rapidly improve its development indices.
The draft National Policy on IT 2011 envisages an increase in revenues of IT and ITES industry to rise to $300 billion by 2010 from $88 billion at present.
The IT industry has been a significant contributor in the economy's over-8 per cent growth achieved in the past decade.
Since, 80 per cent of the $88 billion IT industry revenues in 2010-11 came from exports, the policy proposes to encourage growth of indigenous demand and market to sustain the current growth. The draft policy also aims at formulating fiscal and other incentives to attract investment in this sector in Tier II and Tier III cities.
The Indian IT and ITES sector currently employs over 2.5 million skilled people and has been one of the major employment generators in the last two decades.
The focus of the IT policy is on deployment of ICT in all sectors of the economy and providing IT solutions to the world. The National Policy on IT aims to strengthen and enhance India's position as the global IT hub and to use IT as an engine for rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth in the national economy.
The policy aims to leverage the power of ICT to the maximum to help address the monumental economic and developmental challenges the country faces.
The thrust areas of the policy include:
- Increase revenues of IT and ITES Industry from $88 billion to $300 billion by 2020;
- Formulate fiscal and other policies to attract investment in IT Industry in Tier II and Tier III cities;
- Promote innovation and R&D in cutting edge technologies and development of applications and solutions in areas like localisation, location based services, mobile value added services, cloud computing, social media and utility models;
- Provide fiscal benefits to SMEs and start-ups in the key industrial sectors for adoption of IT in value creation;
- Leverage internet, web and mobile technologies for developing new products, technologies and businesses;
- Integrate internet-based and mobile-based delivery of services onto a common platform to enable seamless, ubiquitous, secure and personalised delivery of government and non-government services throughout the country;
- Integrate Aadhaar, financial and location-based services into this integrated platform to foster an ecosystem for innovation in services.
- Create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in ICT;
- Make at least one individual in every household e-literate;
- Extend the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and mandate provision of all government services through electronic mode within a fixed time frame by enactment of the electronic delivery of services (EDS) bill;
- Enhance transparency, accountability, efficiency, reliability and decentralisation in government and in particular, in delivery of public services;
- Leverage ICT for key social sector initiatives like education, health, rural development and financial services to promote equity and quality;
- Make India global hub for development of language technologies to encourage and facilitate development of content accessible in all Indian languages and thereby help bridge the digital divide;
- Enable access of content and ICT applications by differently abled people to foster inclusive development;
- Facilitate adoption of ICTs in key economic and strategic sectors to improve their competitiveness and productivity; and
- Strengthen regulatory and security framework for ensuring a secure cyberspace ecosystem.
The department of information technology has sought comments from the public on the draft policy, which is available on its website.


text:
Key West has no shortage of places to stay. You just need to decide on what amenities you want and what type of property you prefer. Chain hotel, vacation rental, boutique hotel, B&B guest house or intimate inn? Key West has it all. This is my Top Ten favorite properties based on the feedback I receive from all of the people I help put together their Key West vacations.
First – Choose A Location
You may also consider on what part of the island you want to stay. So I have separated my Key West top ten accommodations geographically. While only 2 x 4 miles, people have definite preferences. Some people want to be in the middle of all the action while others want more peace and quiet.
Stock Island Accommodations
Before arriving on Key West proper, you will find Stock Island. Not far from downtown Key West and my favorite accommodations offer free shuttle services. You will find rates slightly less here because of the short distance to Key West. It is also a great option if a Key West fishing charter is on your list of Key West activities. The best fishing charters of Key West are on Stock Island. Our pick:
- Ocean’s Edge – 6 pools, bar, restaurant, gym, marina, bike rentals, kayak rentals, shuttle service, parking, pet friendly.
Key West Accommodations – New Town
Upon entering Key West, you will be in what we call New Town. Here you will find many options, and because they are again a short distance to downtown Key West, rates are slightly lower. Our picks:
- Marriott Beachside – restaurant, bar, gym, beach, pool, parking, shuttle service
- 24 North – pool, library, hotel shuttle, 2 bars, Starbucks, outdoor concert area
- Hampton Inn – free breakfast, free parking, free wifi, pool, fitness center, pet friendly, near airport and across the street from the Atlantic Ocean
Smathers Beach is the largest beach on the island and has Watersports activities to boot. Our pick:
- Margaritaville – airport shuttle, gym, pool, parking, pet friendly
Casa Marina neighborhood is a gorgeous area near Higgs Beach. It is named thus for the Casa Marina, build by Flagler as a hotel for his railroad from the mainland to Key West. Our pick is of course:
- Casa Marina – 2 pools, beach, gym, spa, restaurant, bar, valet parking
Key West Accommodations – Old Town
The Historic Seaport is home to bars, boutiques, and the harbor walk where one can gaze at several historic ships. Our picks:
- The Marker Resort – parking, gym, restaurant, bar, 3 pools, bike rental
- The Knowles House – pool, sun deck, breakfast, adults only
Duval Street is our version of Bourbon Street. It is basically the main drag on the island and so while it can be noisy, you are in the heart of all of the action here. Our picks:
- Pier House Resort & Caribbean Spa – parking, gym, spa, beach, pool, restaurant, bar, pet friendly
- Avalon B&B – pool, breakfast, adults only
If you enjoy nightly celebrations and views of cruise ships, then Mallory Square is a perfect location for you to stay. Our pick:
- Opal Resort – bar, restaurant, pool, gym, parking, marina
We have many visitors that come through my doors when they are enjoying the Key West fishing Charters that I have put together for them. I get to hear about all the places that they stay and this is the Top Ten Key West Accommodations from the latest first hand experiences of real folks who stayed there.

domain: travel


text:
One of the dippiest, catchiest commercials of my youth was for Campbell’s soup. I remember it precisely; I can still sing the snippet of song at its center.
“How do you handle a hungry man?” crooned an offscreen voice. A very deep voice, I should add. It then answered, thunderously, “The Manhandlers!”
That was the name for a line of especially hearty Campbell’s concoctions, and the images that accompanied the lyrics, depending on which iteration of the commercial you saw, might be hockey players slamming into one another or basketball players jockeying for position under the net. The message was that a man worked up a sweat and then ate up a storm — in this case, a beef-and-noodle hurricane, or at least a split-pea squall. He was a force of nature with untamable appetites.
That was the 1970s, and what strikes me isn’t how much has changed but how little.
Oh, sure, we’re having a soulful discussion, at least in the media, about the elasticity of gender. Just over two weeks ago, the cover of Time magazine read, “Beyond He or She,” and in smaller type: “How a new generation is redefining the meaning of gender.”
But the following week, Time’s cover teased an interview with our president, Donald Trump, whose take on gender is decidedly old-fashioned and fixed. He casts himself — surprise! — as a force of nature with untamable appetites. And that persona won him tens of millions of votes, lofting him to the White House, so it can’t have contradicted Americans’ notions of manhood all that much.
A real man lusts. A real man rages. A real man doesn’t chip in with domestic duties. That’s not just Trump’s view — he once boasted that he’d never change a diaper — but also, apparently, the message that many young men in America today still get, according to an intriguing study released a few days ago.
Promundo, a nonprofit organization that promotes gender equity, surveyed roughly 1,300 American men between 18 and 30. Seventy-five percent said that they’re supposed to act strong even when scared or nervous; 63 percent said that they’re exhorted to seize sex whenever available; 46 percent said that they’re waved away from household chores.
Promundo also surveyed British and Mexican men, and neither group described a gender construct as musky, musty and unyielding as the one that Americans detailed. The research suggested that plenty of American men live in what some sociologists call the Man Box, constricted by a concept of manhood that includes aggression, hypersexuality, supreme authority and utter self-sufficiency.
I can’t say that I’m surprised, not when I look at the biggest male movie stars and see such an emphasis on brawn over brain. Dwayne Johnson — a.k.a. the Rock — can open a movie; Daniel Day-Lewis cannot. Tom Cruise’s box-office status owes more to physical pyrotechnics in the “Mission Impossible” franchise than to courtroom fireworks in “A Few Good Men,” just as Hugh Jackman’s currency comes from his bladed fingers in “The Wolverine” and now “Logan,” not from his dulcet voice in “Les Miserables.” Will Smith’s verbal dexterity in “Six Degrees of Separation” may have won him critical regard, but his coolness in “Bad Boys” and “Men in Black” made him box-office gold.
We’re seeing some young female stars expand into action roles — in the “Hunger Games” series, in the last two “Star Wars” offshoots — but I don’t detect a commensurate trend of young male stars seeking, and benefiting from, softer parts. True, Ryan Gosling danced (awkwardly) in “La La Land” and Bradley Cooper embodied vulnerability in “Silver Linings Playbook.” But Cooper soon pivoted into “American Sniper,” for which he thickened his body and slowed his speech.
Maybe I read the tea leaves too closely and pessimistically, but then I’m a gay man whose teen years were in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when homosexuality alone was considered antithetical to true manhood and someone like me was left in a limbo, wondering what claims on masculinity he really had.
I was a competitive swimmer, and while I hated it, I didn’t dare quit, as it felt like a retort to, and inoculation against, anyone questioning my maleness. Just before college I completed an Outward Bound course in the Oregon mountains, and my outsize pride was about how classically manly the adventure had been: no showers, no toilets, harsh weather, bland food.
That was decades ago, but just last week, when I emailed one straight male friend and one gay male friend with a succinct, unexplained question — “When do you feel the most manly?” — their answers reflected a similar perspective.
The straight friend flashed on his experience playing football in high school and college and wrote that he had felt the most manly when leaving the locker room with his “hands and wrists taped up, win or lose, smelling and aching.”
The gay friend mentioned that he’d been hiking a lot recently, in an area where strong winds were tearing at trees. “Limbs keep coming down,” he wrote. “I feel manly when I have to move them off the trail, knowing some are too big for other hikers to budge.”
When does Trump feel the most manly? That’s pretty obvious: when he’s salivating over women and styling himself some conquistador of the flesh, as he did repeatedly with Howard Stern and on one infamous occasion with Billy Bush. When he’s belittling and emasculating rivals (“Liddle Marco,” “low-energy Jeb”), as he did throughout his campaign. When he’s vowing vengeance against the House Freedom Caucus, as he did last week. When he’s surrounding himself with generals. When he’s pledging huge increases in military spending while moving to starve wonky research and the arts.
There are ways in which his life, and his political career in particular, are a burlesque of manhood, “so craven and desperately needy that it has an air of danger and pathos,” said Michael Kimmel, a Stony Brook University sociologist and the author of “Angry White Men,” a 2013 book that will soon be reissued with a new preface that takes Trump into account.
I think Trump protests too much, distracting us from other traits. He abhors handshakes: all those icky germs! He gilds and swirls his hair. Those white crescent moons under his eyes suggest time spent wearing goggles during artificial tanning sessions. The Marlboro Man got his sun on the range, not in the salon.
But Kimmel said that such signals have begun to diversify somewhat. He noted that Axe, which makes men’s grooming products, used to be famous for ads that equated using Axe with getting laid, but it unveiled a new one last year that showed one man in a wheelchair, another with cats, another at a chalkboard, another in drag. “Find your magic” was the tagline, and that magic didn’t boil down to sweat, swagger or a sheaf of condoms.
Axe, as it happens, sponsored the Promundo study, which concluded that men who registered narrow, clichéd instructions about manhood were more likely to act out in self-destructive ways, such as substance abuse, and in outwardly destructive ones, such as online bullying.
Online bullying? That brings to mind a certain tweeter in chief, and so does the argument that when you feel compelled to project an unforgiving kind of masculine strength, you end up in a twisted, tortured place. You can call it the Man Box. Or, these days, the Oval Office.

domain: news


text:
The second Super Sunday of the 2021 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) will be a busy one for poker enthusiasts from all over the world. One of the tournaments on the schedule to conclude today is Event SCOOP-28-H: $1,050 NLHE PKO, which will see 131 players out of 1,261 entries return.
They all have hopes of grabbing a decent slice of the $1,261,000 prize pool and have a cash prize of $1,104 locked up. But with every opponent they eliminate, the bankroll will grow further, as will the target on their own head. Among the contenders is also PokerStars ambassador Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, who hopes to spin up a short stack.
Dutch poker streamer Tom "Tom_Poker_NL" Talboom leads the field into the final day with a stack of 3,346,984, followed by Hungarian SCOOP regular "Wildace_hun" (3,245,116) and Jakub "Olorionek" Michalak(3,239,693). Only a couple of blinds behind are also Leocir "leocir25" Carneiro (2,860,124) and Matt "OLD TIME GIN" Stone (2,755,275).
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1 in SCOOP-28-H: $1,050 NLHE PKO
|Position||Player||Country||Bounty||Chip Count||Big Blinds|
|1||Tom "Tom_Poker_NL" Talboom||Netherlands||$1,812.50||3,346,984||167|
|3||Jakub "Olorionek" Michalak||Poland||$5,437.50||3,239,693||162|
|4||Leocir "leocir25" Carneiro||Brazil||$3,468.75||2,860,124||143|
|5||Matt "OLD TIME GIN" Stone||Canada||$3,687.50||2,755,275||138|
|8||Tatiana "Mysters_Y" Barausova||Russia||$2,312.50||2,390,802||120|
|9||Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian||Russia||$2,312.50||2,234,442||112|
|10||Alejo "Hugo_Ronzi" Castellazzi||Argentina||$2,343.75||2,221,110||111|
2021 EPT Sochi Main Event champion Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian (2,234,442) will aim to score yet another major victory in the virtual arena and further notables with an above-average stack are Aleksejs "APonakov" Ponakovs, Florin "AAgoodfold" Duta, Thiago "KKremate" Crema, Patrick "Egption" Tardif, Jon "luckyfish89" Clark, Pedro "pm_marke" Marques (1,101,477), and Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov (1,086,714).
Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis is the last ambassador for the red spade in contention with a stack of 301,397, which is good enough for 15 big blinds at the start. For the Dutchman, it was a busy night yesterday as he was also in contention for a SCOOP title at the same time and finished as the runner-up in SCOOP-29-H: $2,100 NLHE [8-Max].
The final day commences at 1.05 pm EST with the remainder of level 21 at blinds of 10,000-20,000 and a running ante of 2,500. All levels last 20 minutes each and a long session can be expected until a winner is crowned. Stay tuned to find out who will join the fray of SCOOP champions right here on PokerNews.

domain: hobby


Find out in our new white paper on improving the SMT process.
Electronics manufacturers looking to improve operational productivity and yield in their SMT assembly process often believe that their only option is investing in new infrastructure. Confident that their efficiency levels are already maximized with their existing equipment, they think the only option is to update it.
That’s not always the case. We’ve put together a whitepaper that presents four proven methods for improving your bottom line by raising line and machine utilization levels without investment in costly SMT assembly line machinery. The methods include:
Accurately assessing your current level of efficiency
It’s hard to decide whether or not to invest in new equipment for your SMT assembly process if you aren’t sure about your current OEE—the manually collected data traditionally used to calculate OEE was not always accurate. Data collected and calculated using automated shop floor collection techniques can deliver better results and new contextual interpretations that can help you understand where problems exist and what needs to be improved.
Using a scheduler to improve resource utilization
An automated scheduling generator can significantly improve utilization of shop floor resources without investing in costly new SMT assembly equipment. By creating optimized manufacturing plans based on customer orders and production constraints like line capacity, personnel availability and control critical parameters, an automated scheduling generator can help you optimize performance by comparing multiple what-if scenarios and making on-the-fly adjustments.
Implementing JIT methodologies
Another way to ensure that the correct quantity and quality of materials are always delivered right on time, without pre-kitting, is using an automated bill-of-materials (BOM)-aware system that receives “pull” signals from machines that can access work orders from the ERP system. An automated digital management system also prevents SMT machines or processes from working until all of the materials have been correctly set up as defined in the work order.
Reducing changeover times
One of the simplest and most effective ways to improve productivity is to reduce changeover times on the SMT assembly line, for example using automated materials management software like Valor™ Material Management software. The Valor solution, which helps improve operator and SMT assembly line efficiency, includes a changeover guidance feature, which enables continued use of the material currently mounted on the machines for the next work order.
The whitepaper explains these methods and more and is a must-read for manufacturers who are considering purchasing additional machinery in order to improve production yields.


text: The term "highstand shedding" means that a depositional system sheds most sediment into the adjacent basin during highstands of sea level. In the Quaternary, highstand shedding has been observed around all rimmed carbonate platforms studied to date. Highstand shedding in the distant past is more difficult to prove for want of well-documented sea-level curves and limited stratigraphic resolution. Nonetheless, several detailed studies strongly suggest highstand shedding of ancient platforms, too. The reasons for carbonate highstand shedding are twofold: (1) the productive area increases manyfold when the flat platform top is flooded during highstands, and (2) highstand platform sediments rapidly lithify during sea-level falls when the sea floors are winnowed due to lowering of wave base or when sediments become exposed to fresh water. The causes of highstand shedding also determine the limitations of this principle. Highstand shedding is most pronounced on low-latitude, rimmed platforms. It is reduced on ramps and in cool-water carbonate systems; furthermore, the effect is damped when the lowstand wedge can expand into a full-size platform during long-lasting lowstands of sea level. Highstand shedding ceases when the platform is drowned during a sea-level rise. All in all, the principle of highstand shedding of carbonate platforms is as robust as the principle of lowstand shedding of siliciclastic systems. Both are caused by fundamental attributes of the respective depositional system and both have their limitations and exceptions.

domain: geography


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July 30, 2020
The Ben-Gurion legacy: Independent national security policy
While David Ben-Gurion’s defiance caused occasional short-term tension, which undermined Israel’s popularity, he earned long-term respect for himself and for his country.
July 20, 2020
US and Israeli mass media: Siamese twins
The left-right divergence of confidence in mass media highlights the political, ideological, social and cultural polarization that has afflicted both countries.
July 5, 2020
The cost of Israeli sovereignty
The application of Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and parts of Judea and Samaria will bolster Israeli deterrence and advance the national security of the pro-U.S. Arab states.
June 24, 2020
Are US international agreements carved in stone?
Israeli policy-makers be warned: History proves that U.S. commitments do not even bind the president who signed them.
June 18, 2020
Arab policy isn’t determined by the Palestinian issue
Erroneous assumptions produce erroneous policies, as evidenced by the litany of Western peace proposals based on the idea that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
June 9, 2020
The Palestinian issue: A core cause of Middle East turbulence?
Irrespective of their pro-Palestinian talk, Arab leaders are convinced that a Palestinian state would add fuel to the regional fire.
June 3, 2020
The impact of the proposed Palestinian state on US interests
Western foreign-policy and national-security establishments would do well to remember that the “best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”
May 21, 2020
Saudi Arabia opposes Palestinian statehood
Riyadh is convinced based on the Palestinian track record that a Palestinian state would constitute another rogue anti-Saudi regime.
December 15, 2019
The roots of Islamic terrorism run deep
Islamic terrorism has been a systematic feature of intra-Arab and intra-Muslim politics since the 7th century. Western democracies cannot expect it to be kinder to the infidel than it has been to believers.
December 1, 2019
Israel’s presence in the Golan Heights benefits the US
An Israeli retreat from the strategic Golan Heights would erode its posture of deterrence, turning Israel from a U.S. national security asset to a national security liability.
November 24, 2019
Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria advances US interests
Israel’s control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria—the cradle of Jewish history—has transformed the Jewish state into a strategic ally of the United States.
Yoram Ettinger and Fred Zeidman
November 4, 2019
U.S.-Israel cooperation proves two guns shoot farther than one
America’s annual investment in Israel yields American taxpayers an annual rate of return of a few hundred percent, as well as enhancing U.S. national security.
July 30, 2019
Israel should welcome a visit by Reps. Omar and Tlaib
By doing so, Israel would display not only open-mindedness, but also respect for Congress, which has systematically enhanced America's ties with the Jewish state since long before 1948.
July 1, 2019
The deep roots of America’s attitude towards Israel
For most Americans, the Jewish state is not a generic foreign entity, but an integral part of the Judeo-Christian values that have shaped U.S. history, morality and culture.
June 20, 2019
Israel has extended America’s strategic reach in the Middle East
Recent events have demonstrated how Israel’s existence bolsters the security of U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf and throughout the Middle East, countering Iran and enhancing the war on Islamic terrorism.


text:
Written by Oscar Wilde
**A play about a good woman
** Lady Windermere discovers that her husband may be having an affair with another woman. She confronts her husband but he instead invites the other woman, Mrs Erlynne, to her birthday ball.
Angered by her husband's unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere leaves her husband for another lover...
The home of SUSUPA theatrical, The Annex located on Southampton University campus and regularily hosts shows by societies such as LOpSoc, Showstoppers, Theatre Group and ComedySoc.

domain: literature


The case is designed to accommodate three 30-round ammunition magazines for the M-16 rifle. There are two (2) grenade pockets with retainer straps are provided for carrying grenades. The case is provided with a support strap for attachment to the suspender snaphook or two keepers with slide for attaching to the individual equipment belt.
• Designed to hold three 30-rd M16 magazines vertically
• Features two side pockets with snap-closure straps to hold one grenade each
• Attaches with two standard ALICE slide-lock keepers


text:
Do you eat pretty fast? Do you have the tendency to stuff everything into your mouth and rush so that you won’t be late for meetings? But next time you do that, just pause… If you are planning to shed away the excess weight, then eating fast will do more harm than good. According to a recent study, people who eat slower tend to eat less, but at the same time, they remain fuller for a longer time. This, eventually, prevents unwanted snacking, consequently leading to weight loss.
Research On Eating Speed And Weight Loss
It has been proven that your brain needs 20 minutes to register the fullness factors. Anything you eat beyond this 20 minutes is overdoing, but that does not imply that you gulp down whatever food is kept in front of you during this phase. When you eat really fast, you are actually blocking your body’s ability to acknowledge the fullness factor. So, when you eat quicker, you tend to eat more as your body does not signal that you are full. The excess food you consumed stores up as fat, leading to weight gain.
In 2004, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity conducted a study which highlighted the relationship shared between eating pace and satiety. The group was asked to eat the food of their choice, but the speed of eating varied at various phases. During the first meal, the subjects were allowed to eat at their normal pace.
But pace of eating was divided during the second meal. During the first half of this meal, the subjects were asked to eat when they heard the beep, but without restricting the pace of eating. Using beeps, the bite timing was monitored, but they were allowed to eat as long as they wanted.
The results were really amazing. The subjects of the study ate less during the beeped phase as against their normal eating pace. This, in fact, is a motivation when it comes to weight loss. The results point out that when you eat in a timed way, you eat slowly and lesser quantities, which in fact could improve a sense of fullness, leading to weight loss over the time.
There is one more study that actually suggests that a slower pace of eating could be beneficial for shedding excess weight. According to this study, a slow eating pace gives you the time to chew food thoroughly and more than when you eat fast. In the fast eating pace, people generally swallow whatever they put in the mouth with hardly any effort to chew. When you chew more, you inculcate a sense of fullness even though eat lesser quantity of food. This, actually, sets the stage for weight loss.
[ Read: How Turmeric Effective For Weight Loss ]
Other Benefits of Eating A Little Slower
Along with weight loss, eating slower has an array of other benefits also.
- Enhances digestion by stimulating the secretion of digestive juices and enzymes
- Prevents blood sugar level fluctuations
- Promotes better absorption of nutrients
- Makes you less stressed
- Prevents digestive upsets
- Prevents formation of fat deposits
How To Slow Down Your Eating And Lose Weight
Here are some tips that you could follow to eat slower and shed weight.
1. Eat At Regular Intervals of Time
When you stay hungry for a longer period of time, you tend to eat faster as hunger pangs overtakes your mind control. Try to eat within 3 to 4 hours so as to prevent the hunger pangs. If you are working or travelling, keep healthy snacks handy so that you could munch in between before eating your meal later.
2. Do Not Gulp Down Your Food
Chewing thoroughly helps in releasing the digestive enzymes. Chewing thoroughly also helps in slowing down the pace of eating. The lesser your chew, the faster you eat and the more the quantity of food you eat.
3. Eat Mindfully
Mindful eating helps in slowing down your pace. Never eat something when you are emotionally overwhelmed. Studies have proven that emotional eating makes you consume more calories. When you are chock-a-block with emotions, you do not care about what and how you eat, which in fact affects the pace of eating. So take a few breaths and allow yourself to calm down before your start eating.
4. Keep Distractions Away
Yes, turn off your television; keep away your mobile, tabs, and newspapers away. Concentrate on your food. The slightest distraction could also compel you to eat faster. It is quite normal that you are hardly aware of what you eat when you watch television or read newspaper.
5. Include Foods That Need More Chewing
Include loads of fruits and raw veggies in your diet. You need to chew them thoroughly so that they are properly digested. And as mentioned above, the more you chew, the slower you eat.
6. Make Eating A Meditation
Eating meditation helps in enjoying the food thoroughly. Express gratitude for all the food in your plate. Send prayers to the food and then start eating. Make sure that your focus is only on what you eat. This observation will help in slowing down the eating process to a great extent.
7. Appreciate Yourself
Appreciation and rewards are two interesting ways to keep up your motivation levels. You could choose a healthy way to do this. Reward yourself with a massage or pedicure experience or take a walk in the nature to appreciate whatever you did. When you release those feel good hormones in the process, you will be motivated to keep up whatever you are doing.
8. Be Patient
It takes about 21 to 42 days for your mind to get accustomed to a practice. So give yourself that time to master the practice. Refocus and come back every time you feel you are falling off the track.
Bottom Line: It takes time, patience, and dedication to master the art of eating slower. And, when you master this art, weight loss comes as a by-product. So start eating slower right away!

domain: psychology


News from Miscellany Models
Followers of this blog will have noted that various test builds of my artwork coming together and I am now able to offer a number of these for sale under the name of Miscellany Models.
First up is a Highland Railway/LMS/BR diagram 51 full brake – priced at £48.00 for a 4mm and is suitable for OO, EM or P4. These were the last generation of full brake produced by the Highland, built with both cupboard doors and sliding doors as well as alternative forms of guards duckets (all of these are included in the kit). The kit inclusive of fully sprung Fox bogies (see below), roof, corridor connections (also see below) but all castings and buffers will need to be sourced separately. The castings for the bogies are proposed, but are not presently available.
As was common with many pre-grouping coaches these vehicles utilised Fox Bogies (£16.00) and these are being made separately to the remainder of the kit, These bogies have been developed in conjunction with Justin at Rumney Models and are fully sprung, with both the axleboxes and the bolsters sprung. They really do glide across track and look as if they weigh many tons rather than a few grams! They need castings for your favoured axleboxes/springs and bolsters but do include the foot steps and all of the bogies sides, brakes and details. Suitable for oo, EM and P4.
The second coach kit is for a MR/LMS/BR: Dia 530 Passenger Brake – priced at £36.00 in 4mm scale (suitable for OO, EM and P4). This prototype was built in some numbers and by the 1920s they were spread extensively across the LMS system. The kit is for full etches covering the roof, body, underframe and footboards plus parts for the sliding central axle included. It needs axlebox/springs (available from Branchlines or Coopercraft), gas lamps, buffers, brake and gas cylinders.
On the wagon front, there is an etch to detail the NER/LNER/BR: Dia P7 Hopper Wagon – £13.50 4mm (sufficient for two wagons). They cater for a large number of the variants to this numerous and long lasting hopper wagon. Needs wheels and the Slaters kit P7 kit for the donor model. Variants that can be made include the end braked version, improved components for the Morton braked version, outside twin W irons and also the anti-friction wheel device.
All of these are available from my website https://miscellanymodels.com/ and in addition to this from the Rumney Models stand at the following shows – Scalefour North in April, Railex in May, Scalefourum in September and South Hants in November,
All of these have been extensively road tested by me with a couple of test builds for each of them. You can see this unfold on my blog and if you are interested in seeing how they go together do take a look!
Please remember that the availability of these models is an adjunct to my own hobby and this has to be accommodated within the constraints of my day job and general life! In particular I can’t get to post these orders until Saturdays so do please give me a little slack when it comes to getting the goods to you!
Diagram 51 Full Brakes – Test Build part 5; now in glorious technicolor!
The pages of this blog have charted the development of a proposed kit to build the Highland Railways dia 51 full brake; well finally it is finished and we get to see them in the flesh and painted up.
The kit can produce, with a bit of modification, two variants of door and I have now build both of them. First up the cupboard door version painted in crimson lake and minus full footboards.
Second we have the sliding door version, this being modelled with full step boards and in Highland Olive green.
Apologies that the technicolor photos are a bit short on gloriousness; it is fair p*ssing down today and this is the most light that I could get to take any photos!
If you want to recap on the earlier blogs that show the development of the proposed kit, you can find them here:
Part 1 – getting underway with the body
Part 2 – drawing the chassis and roof to a conclusion
Part 3 – the build of the second vehicle (sliding door version)
Part 4 – details of the spring bogies that accompany these (and many other coaches)
I do now have a batch of these back from the etchers and I aim to conclude the instructions on Monday/Tuesday. I will then make a notification that they are available but at present I cannot provide the castings and those to the bogie are rather important. If you can scavenge from a Lochgorm kit some Iracier axleboes/springs, you will be able to complete the kit; if not then I am seeking to either source some of these castings or produce my own. So watch this space.
Cover Girl! ……..and a shameless plug!
Portchullin is a cover girl again, as it features on the front cover of the DVD supplement that accompanies the just available (perversely February 2019) British Railway Modelling.
It features me blathering on about the inspiration for the layout, the origins of the real line and the prompting of its building. I even managed to remember to thank Peter for building the signal cabins this time, so hopefully he will not cold shoulder me for six months this time……………..
This DVD is only available with the subscription copy or if you take it in a digital format, so you can not rush down to WHSmiths to get it – I dare say that this is the publishers of BRM seeking to encourage you to take out a subscription!
In addition to this (and probably partially as a result), Portchullin has also got itself nominated into the BRM/RMweb’s 2018 British Railway Model Awards – click the banner at the head of their website here. It would be great to see the layout do well in the poll, so if anyone fancies doing a bit of voting, all contributions would be gratefully received!!
If you wish to see Portchullin in the flesh, its next outing is in May at ExpoEm in Bracknell. Look forward to seeing you there.
Its only a hobby………..
Although I try to model at a good standard, I do try and keep it in perspective and it does frustrate me when others don’t. You particularly see this on the forums but the converse of this is that I have picked up many good tips from these same forums and, occasionally, they make me chuckle.
Whilst watching a film over the Christmas break, I was a reminded of one of these, a wonderful send up of those that can’t quite see that we are only, ultimately, playing with toy trains! So as a little reminder not to take ourselves too seriously, I thought I would share it – click here,
There will be some followers of this blog that are not close enough to the specifics to understand the references in this video. So for those that don’t P4 is the true scale version of 4mm modelling and EM is a compromise to make it a little easier to model. The Model Railway Journal is the magazine of choice for the finescale modeller and in this particular issue there is an article (by a follower of this blog) about using the compromise on the true scale gauge. This should give you enough to understand the video.
Happy modelling all in 2019 (and the tiny bit of 2018 that is left!) and something more serious to follow soon!
The stock for Glenmutchkin has a recent addition and a rather beautiful one too.
This is a Clyde Bogie; the prototype being designed by David Jones and delivered in 1886. Initially this was a top link locomotive of the line but as time went past it was relegated to lesser duties. On Glenmutchkin it will be one of the locomotives for the branch passenger trains – equivalent to what the real locomotive did at the end of its live. This particular example was the last in service and lasted until 1930 and, as you can see, it picked up the LMS’s first livery of fully lined Crimson Lake.
The model was built for me by John James from a Lochgorm Models etched kit. It is fair to say it was not an easy kit to master and John has cursed me a fair amount I believe for asking him to do this particular prototype…………… He would have cursed more if he also had to make the louvred chimney!
Since John has delivered it to me I have fitted a sound chip and some AJs. I need to fit some loco crew too before long. I suspect I am not going to find another sound fitted Clyde Bogie anytime soon as I have only ever seen one other built example so I can confidently say this is a first! I also seem to have disturbed the seating of the tender chassis as it is sitting rather low – a little task to attend to soon.
I have not been entirely idle whilst John has been busy and have been doing a number of little projects. Most of these will appear in future blogs but the pair of Wilsons & Clyde open wagons will not because this is effectively the same as the NB Jubilee Wagon I discussed previously. However, it is worth noting that Wilsons and Clyde were known to be one of the major providers of loco coal to the Highland so I am presuming these to be loco coal wagons.
And here is a picture of 14278 in action; albeit not at this point with sound fitted.
Slip Ups – There is an Easier Way……………
My last post recounted the difficulties that I was encountering correctly wiring up a slip and the technique I had arrived at to overcome this, This precipitated various bits of advice including an alternative approach provided by Richard.
Richard’s solution is certainly a little easier than my approach to wire and does not need an additional point motor to run the extra switching required. It is, however, slightly less idiotproof in use than my version – this is because once the approach turnout is set for the branch in my version, the whole of the run was also set electrically. On Richard’s version, it is also necessary to decide whether the main line to yard is to be set for the yard.
This is what it looks like as a wiring diagram and it is important to note that the approach turnout (A) is also operating one of the slip’s switches too.
I need to fire up the soldering iron now and undertake the correction, so that we can play with trains!
Now, I wonder if that heading will gather a few extra viewings………..?
As I have mentioned before on this blog, every few months I catch up with a group of mates to have a joint modelling session. The general gist of these is a combination of banter, a bit of modelling, more banter, a visit to the pub, even banter, a bit more modelling and all nicely rounded off with some more banter.
Last week saw us on the south coast to do some weathering – or rather some of us. One of our number was preparing for their imminent marriage whereas Oly (one half of OTCM) felt his budding TV stardoom was a sufficient excuse to hang up his airbrush. We do fear that Oly may not return to the fold; preferring instead to do his modelling with Brad, Leonardo and Denzil once he makes his silver screen debut in the autumn – don’t forget your roots Oly……….
We were all concentrating on different things; Peter constructed the better part of a bridge for his Aultbea layout and Chris was weathering some rather neat little shunters. For my part, I concentrated on weathering some of the stock that I have been building lately (and sometimes not so lately!):
First up is a pair of horseboxes. On the right is my HR version based on a Microrail kit – still in need of some glazing. On the left is the Caledonian’s equivalent based on a kit from by Spratt & Winkle. Both are in their pre-group livery as can be seen. As such stock was used in passenger trains, I have sought to give them an aged but largely cleaned feel – with the dirt largely present around ironwork and difficult to clean spots.
Having mucked up the weathering of some brake vans at the previous weathering session, I was also keen to get these corrected. This is where I have got with them.
As can be seen, I do not follow the school of thought that the pre-group or 1920’s era stock was constantly pristine. If you bother to look at contemporary photographs, little is clean and some of it is downright grubby. Railways in the steam era were very dirty places; it is inevitable where so much coal, ash and smoke prevail. Furthermore, I can not see even the most houseproud of railway companies regularly (or probably ever) cleaning their goods stock and most of these show stock that is care worn and soiled. This is the feel I am seeking to capture; not the utterly neglected and on its last legs look of the final days of steam but of railway materials that earn a living the hard way.
The pair of brake vans above are to HR diagram 39 from 1922 and are from a Lochgorm Models kit. There is some doubt whether they were delivered in 1922, as there are no known pictures of any of them in HR livery. However, I applying the “its my trainset rule” a number of modellers have painted them in Highland colours; including Paul Bannerman whose example is below.
The other highland brake van I weathered was the diagram 38 brake van. This originates from a Microrail kit and may well still be available from David Geen occasionally at shows as he does own the rights to the artwork. I have modified this with the early pattern roof look outs. These allowed the guard to look over the train around the twisting curves that characterised parts of the Highland’s system. However, there were complaints about whacked heads as the guards came up and down the steps to look onto the lookouts and as a result they were modified with approach cutouts on the roof – take a look at the Lochgorm’s page above to see an example.
Next up on the weathering front were some wagons and NPCS. The first pictures being the weathering to a couple of the items I have described in the pages here – the Oxford Rail NB jubilee wagon and the Mousa Models LNWR van.
And then some rather more ancient models of mine, a Highland Railway meat van from a Sutherland Castings kit and a GC van from another Mousa Models kit.
Finally, a group of wagons for Benfieldside. The hoppers have been seen before and the brake van we will hear more of another day.
Fastrack Finescale – Mousa Models Cast Resin Wagon Kits
I have been building a couple of Mousa Model‘s kits lately; which has been a bit of a tale of the good, the bad and the ugly. Whilst the bad one will be written about in due course, this is the good one! The remarkable thing about it is its ease and speed of construction – so much so, I timed its construction just to see how fast I could build and paint it. The prototype is a LNWR dia 32 covered goods van, with a door to one side only but also with a roof door. This is the tale of its construction:
0hrs 1 min – Straight out of the box, the body & underframe are separate cast resin parts, as is the fret with the axleboxes, springs and brake gear. The underframe is an etch kit and the buffers are 3-D printed.
0hrs 15mins – The operational underframe has been folded up and fillets of solder run down the joints. Waisted top-hat bearings inserted in the bearing carriers along with the suspension springing wire. The first two carriers have been cleaned up and are inserted in the W-irons ready to receive the first wheel.
0hrs 25 mins – The remaining bearing carriers have now been fitted and the operational underframe has been stuck to the underside of the cosmetic underframe – wait 10 mins for the araldite to fully go off – so time for a cuppa!
0hrs 45mins – the casting has been cleaned up to remove any casting burs/flash, which was apparent in small amounts around its base but actually the main casting was pretty good. The first two axlebox/spring assemblies fitted – but only after I opened up the rebate to their rear to ensure that the top hat bearings had room to slide and cleared away rather more flash. Being cast resin, the vehicles are pretty light so some weight has been added – 25g per axle is my rule of thumb. One thing I have found with vans is that the weight can detach so I tend to mechanically fix the weight too now, in this case with a couple of 8BA screws.
1hr 0mins – the second set of axle guards and springs now affixed, as is the body to the underframe. I decided that the bolt heads on the solebars were a bit too proud, so took them down a little with some wet and dry paper. A brake block has been attached – the kit provides a choice of timber brake blocks (for early periods) and cast iron – I went for the latter. I also decided, however, to cut away the brake lever as I felt it was both a bit too delicate to survive and also it was not quite straight. Instead, I provided a piece of 0.6mm brass rod to both help secure the brake block in place and to provide a mount for the replacement brake lever.
1hr 15mins – the buffer shanks have now been fitted (a tiny amount of fettling was required to the open the holes out slightly) and coupling hooks have been added. The kit does provide etched versions which I only failed to use as I thought I could save 5 minutes of the build by using Exactoscale hooks). A new brake lever and lever guard are etched brass from 51L models and should be more durable than the resin one provided in the kit.
Still 1 hr 15 mins – a piece of PCB has been provided for the eventual fitting of AJ couplings and I took advantage of this to provide a temporary bracket of metal to hold the model by during painting. A good scrub in warm soapy water, followed by a rinse and a second clean with a cream cleaner (washing up liquid leaves a residue, so I always do the final clean prior to painting with a cream cleaner) occurred next. So that is the model built in only an hour and a quarter, which is faster than anything I have built before – including converting r-t-r stock!
1hr 45mins – after masking the inside of the bearings, the whole model was painted in a mid grey – Tamiya TS 4 (German Grey). I thought this was about right for LNWR grey but as all greys of the time were lead based and thus darkened considerably over time, I tend to be quite cavalier about wagon greys! I did have a bit of an accident such that it ran on the roof but this was salvagable with a little bit of wet and dry once it had dried off. These paints finish to a semi gloss and thus are ideal for taking transfers, in this case HMRS Transfers sheet 16 in methfix because the vans were pretty archaic by the time that the grouping occurred, so I presumed that few would have been repainted in LMS livery.
2hr 15mins (but 10 mins of this was me correcting my messed up roof painting!) – ironwork below the solebar, the draw bar, buffer shanks and brake lever were all picked out in black. All then sealed with Testors dullcoat a couple of times.
So whats left? – I do need to weather it, some AJ’s need to be fitted and the “holding tab” will need to be removed. I am waiting to do a batch of weathering, so it will be a bit quicker; maybe 30 minutes for the vehicle. So I reckon this will be a complete, painted and weathered very good quality van or wagon on the 3 hour mark – well worth doing and no need to moan about when the r-t-r manufacturer is going to produce it!
Two Steps Forward and One Back
Having taken a few days off to make a long Easter break and absent the family for a few days, I have set about the wiring of the layout as it has laid untouched for too long!
First things first was to mount the control panel and rather smart it looks too……….
Then onto the wiring itself, which takes a surprisingly long time…………….this is only about 50% finished!
One of my slightly better ideas (you’re about to find out about a less good ones!) has been to make up mounting pieces for the DCC Concepts Cobalt point motors. These are inspired by those designed for the Tortoise units and work on the same principal; they have a uniform mounting arrangement so once set up the actual point motor can be swapped over if need be without disturbing the set up. This is what they look like:
Nothing too revolutional, but I hope it will make changing these at exhibitions a lot easier as this is the absolute devil on Portchullin.
And the less clever idea? Remember the multigang sockets I had used on the control panels (link here) well they are not rated at a sufficient capacity to operate the point motors. I think this is because Cobalts operate on a stall basis (the motor doesn’t turn off, it just stalls when it reaches the resistance of the physical stop). My guess is that this results in quite high ampage draw and has led to the following:
Ooops! Back to the drawing board (or rather traditional tag strip) for the linkage of the control panel to the board.
There have been other problems too; the carefully recorded wiring lists proved to be wrong on occassions so I have had to prove each cable run (dooh!) and I found one of the power district switches was defective (but only after a couple of hours of trying to trace the fault!)
So things are getting there, but we are still not at the stage of the first wheel moving!
Nothing to See Here
Well, that’s true of the top side, where nothing visible has happened of late but there is progress when you look underneath.
I have spent more than a few hours soldering dropper wires on about half of the track that has so far been laid. All is neatly colour coded (hopefully).
Another development in comparison to Portchullin is the painting of the entirity of the underside of the layout white. This is to make everything clearer and will, hopefully, make it easier to deal with issues with the layout set up – although I am hopeing for less issues!
Even more hours (weekends even!) have been spent making up jumper connections, so hopefully the wiring will speed up in the coming weekends! I have spent this time to work through the logic of the wiring across all boards and there is a full wiring schedule in place – none of the wonky logic on Portchullin this time!


text:
The plight of art schools in Australia in recent decades is hardly breaking news. Shrinking budgets, staff cuts, amalgamations and reduced course offerings have plagued most of them.
Some workshop disciplines including printmaking, studio glass, ceramics and precious metalwork are no longer viable in certain art schools. Others are staffed through makeshift arrangements, with casuals and sessional staff carrying the brunt of teaching and administration.
Four years ago, Tamara Winikoff, then the Executive Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, sounded the alarm, speaking to a number of key players in Australian art schools and observing some alarming trends.
These included job insecurity with the loss of the tenure system, fewer contract staff, the increasingly crowded marketplace for lucrative international students, and the authority of the word over the image – in other words, the pressure on artists working in academia to publish to gain university brownie points.
While Australia has a number of surviving independent art schools, most notably Sydney’s National Art School, 39 art schools now operate within universities. The largest of these is RMIT with 6537 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The smallest is Charles Darwin University with 161 students.
Traditionally, art schools focused on the disciplines of painting, sculpture and the graphic arts. Later, mediums associated with the crafts, such as ceramics, wood, glass, textiles, leather and precious metals, (sometimes called jewellery), were added into the mix.
More recently, photography, film and digital technologies as well as art theory were introduced. Design courses, which in the past had their own niche in the commercial sector, have also been incorporated into art schools.
The worrying trends noted by Winikoff four years ago have now accelerated with university funding cuts, the federal government’s attacks on arts and the humanities with the proposed student fee hikes and a general reassessment of the positioning of art schools within tertiary institutions. In some instances, the very existence of art schools as an independent entity is under threat.
A venerable ancestry
Art schools in Australia have a venerable ancestry and appeared relatively early in colonial life. The National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, for example, was founded in 1867 with the idea that it was a place where one could establish artistic standards and acquire the necessary skills through which to attain them.
The National Gallery Schools attracted some of Australia’s most distinguished artists as students, including Rose MacPherson (Margaret Preston), George Bell, Hugh Ramsey, Max Meldrum and Joy Hester, who were taught by the likes of Frederick McCubbin and Bernard Hall. The Gallery School merged with the Victorian College of the Arts in 1972, and in 2006 it became an affiliated college of the University of Melbourne.
Many art schools in 19th century Australia were founded around individual artists who gave art classes and these schools vanished as quickly as they were established. The Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney is an exception: founded in 1890, it continues to the present day. The Victorian Artists’ Society in Melbourne, founded in 1870, also continues to operate. Today, it still offers art tuition, although arguably it is not primarily an art school.
In the 20th century, private art schools, especially those established by Max Meldrum, George Bell and Desiderius Orban, had a greater longevity and impact than most of the other private ventures. There were a few well-established art schools in the capital cities of most Australian states and territories by the 1960s. However, as a rule, by this time, art education had become principally a state-funded activity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the art school scene started to change quite markedly in Australia. A number of new institutions were established, many within Colleges of Advanced Education or TAFE colleges. Some offered radical and progressive alternatives to those available in traditional existing art schools.
Sydney College of the Arts, for example, was conceived in 1974 as an independent College of Advanced Education. In contrast to other Sydney art schools, its faculty, which included Tracey Moffatt, Mike Parr and Imants Tillers, adopted a more postmodernist perspective.
Then Education Minister John Dawkins’s controversial reforms to tertiary education, which began in 1988, had a huge impact on art schools in Australia in the drive to establish a unified national system. The distinction between Colleges of Advanced Education and universities was abolished. Colleges were either transformed into universities or merged with them. Most art schools lacked the scale to stand alone and were forced into unions with universities, where they lost any semblance of autonomy.
A rare exception was the National Art School in Sydney. Traditionally known as East Sydney Tech, the school traces its origins to the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts in 1843. Over many years, it has staved off attempts to be taken over or amalgamated. It remains an independent art school with ongoing funding guaranteed by the New South Wales government as a State Significant Organisation.
The West Australian artist and teacher, Paul Uhlmann, reflecting on the transition from an independent art school system to one subsumed within universities, has noted many art schools “struggle to be understood, struggle for identity and autonomy” within the framework and hierarchy of a university. “The particular languages of making through painting or graphic means are not readily understood as being valid modes of knowledge production in their own right.”
In 2018, Su Baker, a long-term chair of the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, observed that
in the last decade we have seen art schools morph into the institutional shape of their host university and in some cases the radical destruction of many of these once active institutions.
The loss of identity within the broader university context has affected art schools on many levels. Similar strictures now apply to an art school as to the broader university community, with the requirement for many staff to have PhD qualifications, teach similar class sizes and have similar accountability and evaluation procedures for staff and students.
Operating within a university, rather than a College of Advanced Education or a TAFE, has enabled art school staff to be promoted to more senior academic ranks – with the accompanying shift in administrative responsibilities. But universities, facing economic realities, have had to make tough decisions about cutting resources.
Often, it seemed the art school suffered first when these decisions were made. For instance, workshops that traditionally required four or five members of staff were forced to make do with one or two.
One of the most public controversies was Sydney University’s 2016 decision to scrap jewellery, ceramics and glassmaking programs at the Sydney College of the Arts. Arguing they were “resource intensive mediums”, the university cut 25 of the 43 full-time equivalent positions at the school.
Ten years ago, printmaking workshops in many art schools had several teachers and technical assistants. Today, many are lucky to have more than one. Printmaking courses in etching, lithography and relief printmaking are no longer regularly available at most Australian art schools, although computer courses in design, digital printmaking and 3D printmaking are taught in some art schools.
At the Australian Print Triennial held in Mildura late in 2018, the sense of crisis in the institutional teaching of printmaking was palpable even though few were prepared to put down their observations in writing for fear of institutional retributions.
On the general sense of crisis that the arts are presently experiencing in Australia, Professor Deborah Stevenson, from Western Sydney University’s Institute for Culture and Society recently noted:
Significant cuts to arts funding; the closure of art schools; the continuing marginalisation of women in the arts; underfunding of multicultural arts; and new challenges facing Indigenous arts practice – all these issues need to be faced.
An existential threat
When Education Minister Dan Tehan announced his Job-ready Graduates Package in June 2020, proposing a massive hike in student fees for humanities and arts students, it was a major blow for the universities in general and for art schools in particular.
Most Australian universities were already in a financially weakened state following the impact of COVID-19 on their revenue streams. The Job-ready package, yet to pass parliament, will force many universities to make difficult decisions in the process of balancing the books.
Art schools, through the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, quickly pointed out “the high value of humanities and arts subjects to our sector and to society”. It said:
Those proposed changes may have devastating consequences yet to be determined not only for the individual, but for the nation.
The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, representing art historians, art theorists and art teachers working in Australasian universities and art schools, is now actively lobbying the crossbench senators to oppose the Job-ready legislation.
One suspects that within some university budgets, the viability of their art schools will come into question. Are art schools viewed as an integral part of the fabric of the university or as a desirable luxury that cannot be seen as being on the same level of importance as schools of law or political science or business management? Sometimes, in university priorities, it is a question of the last in being the first one out.
There is also disquiet within some of the art schools themselves. Have art schools become too academic, too theory-based and insufficiently hands-on and technique orientated?
Do graduates from arts schools emerge with an adequate skills toolkit as well as a broader appreciation of the art making process – a creative mindset? Is there an argument for smaller workshop-based units rather than an academy-like structure of an art school? Flexible units may be more responsive to the changing nature of the arts themselves.
While the structure, teaching strategies and broader philosophies of art schools are a matter of future discussion, their current plight is an urgent matter for the present.
Art schools in Australia are facing an existential threat. Decades of inadequate funding have left many of them in a perilous state. And the present political and intellectual hostility to the creative arts from some federal and state governments is threatening their very existence. Some art schools have thrived within their tertiary host institutions, but many have not.
Chronic under-funding plus demands from competing masters in some instances has not created a fertile atmosphere to foster new talents. Although many art schools advertise their worth through lengthy lists of illustrious alumni, frequently there is much accumulated dust on these lists.
Are the schools still in a position to offer similar excellence in their education offerings as when their famous alumni were students?
If art schools are becoming a threatened species, then it becomes a collective responsibility for all of us to fight for their preservation and restoration. Art is not a luxury, but a necessity for a country like Australia.
Taaniko and Vienna Nordstrom, two women who run a prison social initiative in New Zealand, have been painted by artist Tania Wursig as her entry into the prestigious Australian art prize.
The Archibald prize is awarded every year to the best painting of a living person who is distinguished in the art, letters, science, or politics.
It began almost 100 years ago in 1921 and these days artists from all over Australia, but also New Zealand and Pacific islands, can enter it and compete for the $100,000 prize money.
Artist Tania Wursig has been a portrait painter for the last 30 years and in 2011 began an artist’s residency in French Polynesia.
“The first year I went I absolutely fell in love with the culture, the people, the massive beauty of the place and I though I need to work out how to keep doing this,” she said.
Last year while back in Sydney she was introduced to sisters in law Taaniko and Vienna Nordstrom, two Maori women who were looking for an art space to work in.
The Nordstrom’s run a photography business called Soldiers Road Portraits in New Zealand.
They dress their customers in traditional Maori, Pasifika, Native American and First Nations outfits to then take vintage inspired portraits.
For Taaniko Nordstrom their work is all about helping indigenous people reclaim their identity.
“We use elements of our culture of our identity in a way that empowers all sorts of people,” she said.
Soldiers Road Portraits started in 2013 and after a few successful years the sisters-in-law decided to give back to their community and started a prison social initiative.
Maori people are over-represented in New Zealand’s criminal justice system and despite making up just 14 per cent of the country’s national population they represent 50 per cent of its prison population.
“Using out photography and using images of us looking like our ancestors for people that really needed the reminder of the mana which in English would be of the essence that each of us has even those that have made mistakes,” said Taaniko.
Prisoners are asked to write a letter to their ancestors and then have their photo taken in traditional outfits, and the photos then displayed in a temporary gallery in the prison.
Three pictures are taken of the prisoners with one to hang in the prisoners cell and one to be sent back to their family in the hopes the perception of the men inside prison can change.
“One of the feedback we got was from a man who had been released and when he got home his kids were sleeping but his portrait was hanging in their room and he just sat on the floor and cried,” Ms Nordstrom said.
It was this powerful impact that made Tania Wursig decide the two women would make for great subjects for painting.
“As a painter they are incredible subjects Vienna has the maternal energy and Taaniko has this feisty warrior element but they’re background story is so rich,” she said.
It’s now a waiting game until the Archibald prize’s finalists are announced, in mid September, but Ms Wursig said regardless of whether her painting places or not it’s the message she hopes people will love.
It’s an important piece not just because of who they are but because of what it represents in terms of not just women taking their power back, indigenous cultures I really feel like we are on this cusp where people are beginning to take notice and learn,” she said.
“I hope it does send that message.”
When Andrew Stephens wrote in our Summer issue (#321) of the new vision that Karen Quinlan has brought as Director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Canberra, neither he nor our readers could have predicted the crisis into which the world would be plunged by the time our next issue hit the shelves in March. Anticipating a year in which ‘her reinvigorated program for this young and popular institution’ would see the gallery reopen in style after its four-month closure for renovations in 2019, Quinlan noted the blockbuster show ‘Love Stories: Works from the National Portrait Gallery, London’ as a defining highlight for 2020. As the only Australian venue for this touring selection of key works from the English institution – one of several ambassadorial ventures planned during its own three-year closure for renovations – the NPG justifiably regarded this as a major coup. A media release published in December and subsequently removed from the NPG’s website promised an exhibition including ‘portraits of some of the world’s best-known couples from the sixteenth century … to the present’, celebrating what Quinlan termed ‘the multifaceted and often complex nature of love’.
Eight months after the publication of this optimistic vision for the future, however, we find ourselves faced with a more cynical and constricted arts ecology, in which those seemingly unassailable fixtures of the contemporary curatorial landscape – the blockbuster show and touring exhibition – must adapt or risk extinction. In this brave new world, the fate of ‘Love Stories’ is perhaps a sign of things to come: crossing international borders has become an extraordinarily difficult and costly process, so the much anticipated loans from London have been superseded by a more modest display of local faces from the NPG’s collection. The December media release reveals that this display was initially planned as a companion to the main show, addressing the universal themes of ‘passion, friendship, family, community and connection’, but Quinlan likely didn’t envisage an entirely online experience.
Visitors to the section of the NPG website that hosts this ‘amorous online adventure’ will find little trace, at first, of the themes noted above. After a brief introduction, we are invited to select one of five randomly selected ‘love stories’ with evocative and sometimes tongue-in-cheek titles like ‘When the stars align’ or ‘Right-hound man’. Each of these is linked to a page with an image and a short caption, followed by another list of five stories. The captions are refreshing, departing from the standard curatorial description to focus on the humanity of each work and the various forms of love revealed. Some audiovisual content, however, perhaps including recorded interviews with the curators, artists, subjects or gallery visitors, might have provided a more enriching experience.
Greater attention to the guiding themes of the exhibition would also have been appreciated – these only surface when the visitor receives a personalised ‘love score’ generated by their choice of ten love stories and based on the coding of each story into one of five categories: ‘Devotion’, ‘It’s Complicated’, ‘Lust’, ‘Nearest & Dearest’ and ‘Passion’. Lacking curatorial framing, however, these categories seem little more than vestigial traces of the themes promised last year, while an invitation to share your ‘love score’ on Facebook or Twitter recalls the usual conclusion of clickbait quizzes popularised by websites like BuzzFeed.
The compulsive attraction (and frequent absurdity) of these quizzes is one of many facets of our online lives exposed to a more critical evaluation in another exhibition also conceived before the outbreak of the pandemic and subsequently adapted for web-based display: ‘Conflict in My Outlook_We Met Online’, hosted by UQ Art Museum, Brisbane. While an emphasis on the familiar, reassuring and sentimental in ‘Australian Love Stories’ draws attention to the new forms of connection and community that the internet has made possible, curator Anna Briers frames ‘Conflict in My Outlook’ as a shift away ‘from the utopian impulse of early internet culture to its current dystopian realities’. In the exhibition essay and media release, she asks us to consider the extent to which ‘algorithm-driven communications have exacerbated social division, stoking the fires of nationalism, fundamentalism and the rise of the alt-right’, and to bear in mind the need to guard against ‘fake news, post-truth politics and echo chambers of disinformation’.
Nevertheless, despite their different curatorial aims, the platforms through which we are invited to explore ‘Australian Love Stories’ and ‘Conflict in My Outlook’ are similar in design. Visitors to the ‘Conflict in My Outlook’ website are again faced with a brief introduction and a choice of links to artist pages that present an image, a caption or statement and a short biographic summary. There is once again a lack of audiovisual supporting material, yet the works – with the exception of watercolourist Kenneth Macqueen’s cloudscapes, rather tenuously included as a nod to Cloud data storage – more than make up for this in the overwhelming volume and theoretical density of their content. These are mainly video, digital or web-based projects that reward repeated, sustained viewing and are perhaps better suited for online than onsite display, inviting visitors/viewers/users to engage at their own pace, from the comfort of their homes.
The works cover a broad range of themes, from Xanthe Dobbie’s interactive parody of a clickbait quiz and Kate Geck’s ‘digital spa’ that promises ‘to combat social media anxiety and network fatigue’ through ‘meditative experiences and psychic cleansings’, while ironically using the same technology that causes this fatigue; to Natalie Bookchin’s unsettling but all-too-believable composite narrative compiled using excerpts from alt-right video blogs, and Daniel McKewen’s semi-fictional tale of intrigue and conspiracy told through Gumtree listings, SMS and Facebook messages, archived emails, videos and touched-up images.
Turning our attention from the uncertainty of our current real-world circumstances to the no less anxiety-inducing digital platforms through which are lives are increasingly mediated, the provocative and highly erudite works that Briers has selected expose our reliance on these platforms as a Faustian bargain, with implications yet to be revealed. In return for the promise of online intimacy, community and almost limitless opportunities to indulge our most private fantasies or to create avatars of our ideal selves, we have consented to an amplifying of the voices of paranoia, prejudice and hatred. More insidiously, as Briers notes in her essay, we have also consented to the collection and monetisation of personal data, inaugurating the age of the algorithm, targeted advertisement and unsolicited mailing list. Perhaps this, in the end, will be the future of the exhibition: a clickbait narrative, tailored to our preferences, and readymade to share on social media.
Dr Alex Burchmore, Publication Manager
Shukria Shukria Oruzgani, a Year 11 student from Melbourne, has taken out one of Australia’s leading youth art prizes.
Oruzgani, who arrived in Australia two years ago from Pakistan as a refugee, won the AMES Australia art prize that had the theme ‘One Planet’ this year.
Her winning entry to the competition will be turned into a large mural and displayed at the Multicultural Hub in Melbourne’s CBD.
Shukria’s family, who fled their home in Afghanistan a decade ago, lived in Quetta, in Western Pakistan for years after fleeing their homeland. They were persecuted because they were part of the Hazara ethnic minority community. Further targeted attacks on Hazaras inside Pakistan eventually forced the family to flee to Australia.
“I’m very honoured to have won the competition. I’m passionate about art and I love painting,” said Shukria after winning the prize.
“But, I’m also interested in maths and science and maybe medicine,” she said.
The One Planet art competition was held by AMES Australia’s youth services division, with entrants given the chance to win prizes including laptops and tablets, designed to help young people in their studies.
Cath Scarth, CEO of AMES Australia, said there were many different interpretations of the theme ‘one planet’, with many talented young artists entering the competition.
“The judges were all very impressed with the thought and work that went into all of the entries and applaud all of the entrants on their work,” she said.
The youth services at AMES Australia works with young people from refugee, migrant and Indigenous backgrounds, helping them to reach their potential. They provide specialist support services, education programs, knowledge sharing, career counselling, advocacy and social initiatives.

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