Research funding 'should support academic freedom'

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Academic Freedom Aotearoa supports the ministers desire to place "a higher value on research that meets user needs", but we are concerned that those who offer "research funds and contract research" will have their needs met at the expense of the rest of New Zealand society, says Academic Freedom Aotearoa chairperson Professor Jack Heinemann.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce's announcement today acknowledging the flaws in the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF), a mechanism of distributing funding to universities and other research-oriented tertiary institutions, is timely. He states he is reviewing PBRF to simplify "the research assessment process, saving time and reducing costs", reforms that researchers and academics have called for since its introduction over a decade ago. He promised to clarify the objectives of PBRF.

"Its about time that this massive fund had clear objectives," says Professor Heinemann. "And hopefully those objectives will serve all stakeholders equally well. So far, I dont believe that they have."

"We hope that the Minister will formally recognise the important role of the critic and conscience of society. He could tie some PBRF funding to this fundamental role," Professor Heinemann said.

"When academic staff and students serve as critic and conscience they may from time-to-time challenge government, industry and civil society agendas and thereby fall out of favour with those wealthy enough to offer grants and contracts. But the critic and conscience role helps to create space for new ideas and new entrepreneurs as well as prevent poor policy and products" said Professor Heinemann.

"To do nothing now to promote the role of the critic and conscience would be to prolong the life of a funding mechanism that encourages conformity and obedience, rather than innovation and novelty."

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Research funding 'should support academic freedom'

Freedom given OK to hire firm that will help preserve evidence

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Evidence collection began when U.S. Attorney's office first issued subpoenas

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal bankruptcy judge authorized Freedom Industries to pay a company to help it preserve and catalog electronic evidence.

The company, represented by attorney Stephen L. Thompson, appeared for Tuesday's expedited hearing on the Freedom's motion to pay Vestige Ltd.

The reason Freedom wanted an expedited hearing, according to the motion, is so it could ensure continued compliance with requests served through the Attorney General's office, grand jury subpoenas and litigation hold notices.

Thompson explained this electronic evidence includes cell phone, computer, email and other data from current and former officers and anyone else associated with Freedom. The cost to the estate will be $42,555.

In the hearing, Thompson said evidence collection began when the U.S. Attorney's office first issued subpoenas, which he said was around the beginning of last month.

Jared Tully, on behalf of the committee of unsecured creditors, did not have any objections to the motion.

Freedom Industries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 17, following the Jan. 9 discovery of crude MCHM leaking into the Elk River.

In an earlier hearing, Freedom Industries' attorneys announced the company would scale back its business and may cease to exist at some point in the future.

As previously reported, even though business is winding down, attorneys said the case is not converting to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or straight liquidation, and will remain under Chapter 11 proceedings.

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Freedom given OK to hire firm that will help preserve evidence

Freedom Industries Officials Back in Federal Bankruptcy Court

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The West Virginia company at the center of a January chemical spill is hiring experts to preserve emails and phone records for ongoing investigations.

Freedom Industries will pay Vestige Ltd. about $42,500 to maintain electronic evidence, which is needed for a U.S. Attorney's Office investigation and other chemical spill inquiries.

Freedom attorney Steve Thompson says the data firm started collecting information around Feb. 1, when the U.S. Attorney's Office was issuing grand jury subpoenas. Judge Ronald Pearson approved Freedom's request in bankruptcy court Tuesday.

Thompson says some records are with former Freedom executives. Court documents show the company's environmental cleanup bill topped $911,000 in January. Freedom expected another $1.7 million in environmental costs from mid-February to mid-March.

Freedom's Jan. 9 spill contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people for days.

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Freedom Industries Officials Back in Federal Bankruptcy Court

Judge approves Freedom evidence-collection request

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A bankruptcy judge approved a request from Freedom Industries on Tuesday to hire a company to help collect and preserve its electronic documents, like cell phones and emails.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A bankruptcy judge approved a request from Freedom Industries on Tuesday to hire a company to help collect and preserve its electronic documents, like cell phones and emails.

The documents from current and former Freedom officials must be collected to comply with subpoenas issued by U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin's office and other agencies investigating the company after a Jan. 9 chemical leak into the Elk River fouled the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians, an attorney for the company said.

Freedom will pay Vestige an estimated $42,500 to collect, restore, catalog and preserve the evidence, according to Steve Thompson, an attorney for the company.

Freedom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 17. Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize and continue operating, but during a hearing last month, Freedom's attorney said the company would soon shut down.

Goodwin is conducting a criminal investigation of the leak. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board also is examining the incident.

Vestige has already started collecting the evidence, Thompson told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson.

"They started, I believe, when the subpoenas were first issued by the U.S. Attorney's office," Thompson said.

A federal grand jury in Beckley started meeting about the leak in January, officials have said. Federal hazardous materials investigators in January climbed into the tank where the leak occurred.

A tank at the company's Barlow Drive location leaked Crude MCHM, a coal-cleaning chemical, into the river. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing the cleanup, which is being carried out by Freedom Industries and contractors for the chemical company.

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Judge approves Freedom evidence-collection request

Melvin Manhoef vs. Cyborg Santos 2 set for April in Brazil

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Daniel Herbertson, MMA Fighting

MMA fans went crazy on Feb. 4, 2006, with an epic brawl between Melvin Manhoef and Evangelista Santos at Cage Rage 15 in London, England. Eight years later, they are set to meet again.

Gringo Super Fight announced Tuesday that "Cyborg" and Manhoef are set to collide one more time on April 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the vacant welterweight championship. In the first fight, Manhoef stopped the Brazilian with punches in the second round.

Manhoef (27-11-1, 1 no-contest), who is set to make his 170-pound debut, went 15-9 (and one no-contest) since that battle with "Cyborg" in London, scoring wins over Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Hunt, Kazuo Misaki, and Denis Kang.

Santos (19-15) competed at Pride, Sengoku and Strikeforce since losing to Manhoef. "Cyborg" has fought top competition in Gegard Mousasi, Nick Diaz and Siyar Bahadurzada in those promotions, defeating the likes of Francis Carmont and Marius Zaromskis in his 7-7 run since 2006.

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Melvin Manhoef vs. Cyborg Santos 2 set for April in Brazil

Florida – The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel – LEE COUNTY BEACHES – travel destination – Video

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Florida - The Beaches of Fort Myers Sanibel - LEE COUNTY BEACHES - travel destination
View more travel videos from all over the world; find information on destination hotels, attractions and more at videoglobetrotter.com.

By: videoglobetrotter

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Florida - The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel - LEE COUNTY BEACHES - travel destination - Video

Signature Theatres Beaches is a tissues-optional performance

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Thank the gods, or at least the licensing people: in the new stage version of Beaches, we get to hear The Wind Beneath My Wings. It arrives during Act 2 of this amiable throwback of a musical, and the actress who lands it, Alysha Umphress, presents it to us in a delicate caress, as if it were a family heirloom, to be shown to the assembled guests on special occasions.

Its not the only pleasing musical interlude of this Signature Theatre world premiere, based on Iris Rainer Darts hearts-and-flowers novel, about lifelong bosom buddies who need, needle and nourish each other. Dart who has written the lyrics and co-written the musicals book with Thom Thomas fashions with composer David Austin some frisky uptempo numbers, especially a witty send-up of disco, (Im) All I Need, and a song for the shows stars, Normal People, that recalls the merry backstage brio of movie musicals like Singin in the Rain.

But trying to navigate the storys stormier pathways leads the writers up some muddier alleys, in particular, to a lifeless ballad for Mara Davi, playing Bertie White, doomed pal of Umphresss singing sensation Cee Cee Bloom, that sends us blandly into intermission. And the music for the talented Matthew Scott, in a turn as Cee Cees overshadowed husband, John, disappears from memory almost as rapidly as Gabriel Mangiantes 10-member orchestra strikes it up.

So approach this Beaches with your expectations a tad in check. Be prepared for a few hiccups; be armed with the knowledge that its not quite the five-hanky schmaltz-fest you might be hoping for. (Signature is optimistically selling packs of Beaches tissues at the concession stand.) If you come with the thought that theres a bit of tinkering still to be done, youll find that director Eric Schaeffers production is as comically engaging as this slightly dated material will allow.

Beaches, of course, is a pop-culture artifact as a result of the 1988 movie adaptation that featured Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler as a pair of unlikely best friends, one classy, one brassy, who wash up together in early midlife, clutching each other as they stare into the abyss. The novels accounts of Berties horrible marriage redeemed by the birth of a child and Cee Cees yo-yo-ing career as an entertainer, provide a vigorous framework for a musical, offering patented opportunities for commentary on the pitfalls of show business and a well-deserved microphone for the sultry-voiced Umphress. She grandly takes up the gauntlet from Midler, who turned the films signature love theme, by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley, into her personal anthem.

Chronicling the good times and bad times in the 1950s through 80s between Cee Cee and Bertie the two characters are portrayed by three sets of actresses at various ages, and all six are excellent the stage version seems primed to carry on Beaches time-honored tradition of allowing the tears to flow freely. So why does the novels unalloyed sentimentality feel underserved here? Though the shows final scene raises a lump in the throat, thanks in part to the endearing portrayal by little Svea Johnson of Berties daughter Nina, the musical as a whole doesnt adequately capitalize on one of Beaches most potent selling points.

Having just read the novel, I wondered how the musical would handle one of Darts most moving passages, a scene in which bitterly estranged Cee Cee and Bertie reconcile at the bedside of Berties dying mother, Rose (Helen Hedman). In the novel, Bertie is stunned to find Cee Cee in the hospital singing a lullaby to the unconscious Rose. What might communicate love and loyalty with more emotionality? The musical merely portrays Cee Cee showing up stalwartly at the hospital after their roaring row, to lend Bertie support. Beaches is one of those properties that feels as if it is not fulfilling its mission unless it goes a little over the top.

Dart and Thomas, with Schaeffers guidance, do a darn good job of propelling an audience through a considerable volume of exposition. In concert with choreographer Dan Knechtges, Schaeffer and the songwriters come up with deftly inventive ways to integrate Little Bertie and Cee Cee into numbers with their older selves. As the littlest embodiments of the main characters, Brooklyn Shuck and Presley Ryan are delightful. But with the exception of Michael Bunce as a Sarasota obstetrician who falls for Cee Cee, the male roles are all rather thankless.

Derek McLanes totemic set high walls made out of desks, bureaus, lamps and tables, interlocking items furnishing two lives is a pleasantly unconventional backdrop, and costume designer Frank Labovitz is in fine form, dressing the high- and low-living Cee Cee in wild 60s paisleys and 70s sequins.

The main event, however, has to be in the electricity that crackles through the central love story, that of two obstinate women drawn inexorably into each others arms. Umphress and Davi are well-matched for ignition to occur (though, come to think of it: how can it be that Bertie has nearly as good a voice as Cee Cee?). One waits with a pack of Beaches tissues at the ready, for the water works to come as readily as do the amusing sparks.

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Signature Theatres Beaches is a tissues-optional performance

Renovators get busy, pushing up prices

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Northern Beaches

Growth potential: This five-bedroom home at 961 Barrenjoey Road, Palm Beach, sold for $7 million last September through LJ Hooker Palm Beach.

The hammers and saws are getting a workout on the northern beaches as buying and remodelling older properties takes off on the back of a much-welcome recovery in sales.

"There is a lot of renovating," says Century 21 Dee Why principal Brett Read. "There's not so much knockdown and rebuilding - most buyers are stretched just to buy a property and most do it with a view to renovate slowly over time as they can afford it."

961 Barrenjoey Road, Palm Beach.

A shortage of properties under $1 million has agents on the northern beaches wishing for more supply.

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"Anything under $1 million is attracting a lot of attention," says Read. "There are just not enough to satisfy the buyer demand. From Manly to Palm Beach that's really the case."

David Mackay, principal of LJ Hooker Avalon, agrees. "The bottom end of the market up to around that $1.2 million mark is very, very hot," he says. Buyers who fall in love with a property in that price range might need to move fast. "What we're seeing unfortunately is gazumping," says Mackay. And there are also many buyers wanting to seal a deal before auction. "In previous years, we just haven't experienced that," says Mackay.

First homebuyers on the northern beaches are thin on the ground. Century 21's Read says directing first homebuyer grants to new property has "really caused this".

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Renovators get busy, pushing up prices