Daily Archives: May 22, 2017

Nico Hulkenberg hopes to build on Renault progress in Monaco – ESPN

Posted: May 22, 2017 at 3:31 am

Nico Hulkenberg says he is optimistic about Renault's chances at next weekend's Monaco Grand Prix as he targets extending his run of points finishes in the 2017 Formula One season.

The German has taken points in the last three races, including his best result of the year -- and Renault's best finish since returning to the sport as a full works team in 2016 -- with sixth place at the Spanish Grand Prix. Hulkenberg has scored all 14 of Renault's points so far in 2017, six more than the total achieved throughout the whole of last season.

"The track should suit us, especially with the super-soft and ultra-soft tyres," Hulkenberg said. "I am looking forward to race day and obviously I'm aiming for a good result. Last year I performed there quite well and with the new cars it will feel even quicker.

"You need a good rhythm and a good harmony with yourself and the car and feel comfortable. Lap times can be tricky to find, but in recent years I have done well, so hopefully we can have another strong performance.

"You have to build it up step by step, session by session. The last thing you want to do is touch a wall as that will take all your confidence away. In qualifying you peak and take more risks and get closer to the barriers and really get on the limits. But it is a street circuit, we know what they entail and you have to be sensible and totally focused on the task."

Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul echoed Hulkenberg's comments and hopes the Enstone-based team can seal a strong result around the streets of Monte Carlo.

"As a constructor, Renault has won twice in Monaco, with Jarno Trulli in 2004 and in 2006 with Fernando Alonso," he said. "As an engine supplier, we have tasted the top step a further four times. Our expectation is not to add to this statistic in 2017, but we are making progress and we are ambitious for this new challenge.

"In Monaco we will start our celebrations of the 40 year anniversary of Renault first entering Formula One. We hope we can harness the force of our 40 year history for a strong result this weekend."

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Firefighters Make Progress On Fire Southeast Of San Diego – CBS Sacramento

Posted: at 3:31 am

May 21, 2017 7:58 PM

JAMUL, Calif. (AP) Firefighters reported making progress against a wildfire that forced hundreds of people to evacuate a popular campground and small community southeast of San Diego.

The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday that an overnight rise in humidity allowed firefighters to advance on the blaze near Pio Pico RV Resort and Campground.

Authorities reported it was 30 percent contained after burning across more than two square miles.

The blaze broke out Saturday south of Jamul and spread rapidly through grass and brush.

Campers and residents of nearby Dulzura were evacuated.

An evacuation warning remained in effect, but residents were allowed to return.

Authorities say the campground remains under evacuation because of infrastructure damage.

They did not reveal the extent of the damage.

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Family spokesman: Injured WPD officer ‘making incredible progress’ – KWCH

Posted: at 3:31 am

Injured Wichita Police Department Officer Brian Arterburn is continuing progress on his road to recovery, a little more than three months since he was run over by a stolen vehicle.

Saturday night, a family spokesman provided an update on Arterburn's recovery at a Colorado rehabilitation hospital.

"Brian has been making incredible progress," the spokesman says. "Brian began talking again after going to Craig Hospital (in the Denver area), and is talking quite well now."

A week after a second surgery in April, the spokesman says Arterburn was able to stand up and, using parallel bars and help from a therapist, was able to walk about 45 feet in one session. Arterburn has also worked to build strength in a weakened left side and is working on getting back to a solid-food diet.

In the past few weeks, he has progressed from needing a walker to walking mostly on his own with assistance from a therapist there if he needs it.

"Although this is remarkable progress in only 3 1/2 months, there is still a very long journey ahead," the family spokesman says. "Recovery from a severe (traumatic brain injury) is measured in years, not months, and he still utilizes a wheelchair for mobility."

The spokesman says Arterburn has memory issues still, but his awareness has increased and he is asking more questions about what happened the day he was injured. Arterburn is also becoming more aware of the severity of his injuries and talks about family, friend and co-workers a lot, motivated to return to Wichita.

Arterburn has received cards from all over the world and is said to be overwhelmed by all of the support.

The family spokesman points out that two years ago, Arterburn had a liver transplant and was back to full duty within four months of that. He says Arterburn's liver was not damaged when he was injured in February, but his current liver enzyme levels are not where doctors would like them to be. The spokesman says doctors are doing more testing to determine the cause for the fluctuation.

"They hope to get it figured out, and leveled off with adjustments in medication, so the family would appreciate additional prayers for the situation with Brian's liver to resolve itself," the spokesman says.

He says Brian, his wife, Claudale and their family appreciate the thoughts, concerns and prayers from everyone, "but especially the strong support from the local (Wichita) community."

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Vt. Lawmakers Made Progress In a Few Areas – Valley News

Posted: at 3:31 am

Montpelier The Vermont Legislature has adjourned for the year and while Republican Gov. Phil Scott has vowed to veto the state budget, guaranteeing lawmakers will return next month for a veto session, lawmakers had a number of notable accomplishments this session.

A list of some of those accomplishments:

Scotts promised veto of the state budget and a proposal on the best way to save money on teacher health care costs looms over the proceedings.

He has said he plans to veto both the budget and the separate legislation because lawmakers didnt pass a bill to his liking that would save the states property taxes an estimated $26 million a year by changing the way the states 14,000 teachers get health insurance.

The next fiscal year starts July 1 and no one seems to know what would happen if the state doesnt have a budget in place by then.

Scott argues that by negotiating a statewide benefit rather than having each school district negotiate separate health care deals it can save property tax payers $26 million a year.

Democrats counter the savings is only an estimate and they put forth proposals that would guarantee the savings that the governor was uninterested in while ensuring all the health care plans are negotiated local by teachers unions.

Earlier this month, the Vermont Legislature became the first such body in the country to vote to legalize marijuana. The other eight states and District of Colombia all legalized it through citizen referenda. But it remains to be seen if the legislation will become law next year as planned.

Under the Vermont legislation, small amounts of marijuana would be legal to possess and grow for anyone over 21. Larger amounts would remain illegal. A commission would develop a proposal to tax and regulate marijuana that would be ready for the Legislature to consider next year, ahead of the implementation date.

Scotts office has officially received the legislation and he must decide what to do by Wednesday.

He said Friday hed take the weekend study it.

Its a bit of a struggle, admittedly, he said. Again, its my own libertarian streak. What somebody does in their own home, behind closed doors as long as doesnt affect the innocent, thats their right and Im fine with that.

But he has concerns about public safety on the states roadways and keeping it away from children.

Separately, the Legislature expanded access to medical marijuana.

With broad bipartisan support, Vermont lawmakers passed a law that limits police involvement with the federal government and gives the governor the power to sign off on agreements for officers to do federal immigration duties.

Scott, one of the backers of the proposal, called it a response to federal overreach by the Trump administration.

Under the law, state and local police officers are prohibited from collecting personal information on residents beyond whats needed to carry out their law enforcement duties.

It also bars police in some instances from providing information on residents to federal agents. Before signing the bill in March, Scott addressed concerns that Vermonts law would conflict with federal immigration laws.

I want to be very clear. This law has been carefully crafted through a consensus-building process to confirm Vermont remains compliant with federal law, that we would not be establishing a sanctuary state, Scott said.

Vermont has become the latest state to enact a law that protects journalists and their sources. Earlier this month, Scott signed a new law that creates a legal protection for information given to journalists by confidential sources or for conversations that take place off the record.

That means that the identity of anonymous sources is out of the reach of Vermonts legal system, even if those sources are government employees leaking privileged information. At a Statehouse signing ceremony, Scott said he supported the law because it helps reporters preserve their independence.

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Mizzou touts progress of Springfield medical program after budget scare – Springfield News-Leader

Posted: at 3:31 am

Scott Miller, who is in his fourth year at the University of Missouri's Springfield Clinical Campus, says he's had a good experience in the two years he's been in the Queen City of the Ozarks studying to be a doctor. Wochit

People gather outside of the banquet room at the White River Conference Center to celebrate the anniversary of the University of Missouri Springfield Clinical Campus on Friday, May 19, 2017.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)Buy Photo

Fresh off surviving a budget scare, a Mizzou-backed medical program in Springfield is gearing up for its first birthday.

The Springfield Clinical Campus, which is a partnership between the University of Missouri School of Medicine, CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield, started last June and plans to see more than 60 MU medical school students through the end of their education by 2020.

University officials say they hope the program will help fill a shortage of doctors in rural areas, which is a problem in Missouri and across the country.

Scott Miller, who is in his fourth year at the University of Missouri's Springfield Clinical Campus, says he and his classmates havehad a good experience in the two years he's been in the Queen City of the Ozarks studying to be a doctor.

"Throughout the yearwe've been so fortunate," Miller said. "We've worked one-on-one with doctors pretty much every day in various specialties at both Cox and Mercy.

Dr. Andy Evans, speaks during the anniversary of the University of Missouri Springfield Clinical Campus on Friday, May 19, 2017.(Photo: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)

The hope is that students like Miller stay in the area or at least in state, said Patrice Delafontaine, dean of the MU School of Medicine, who added that more than 60 percent of graduates stay in Missouri.

Delafontaine said the clinic represents the hopes of a long-term collaboration with both Mercy and Cox.

But in order to go "full-steam" next year, Delafontaine said, the program will need its funding restored.

The expansion was slated to receive $10 million, but Gov. Eric Greitens withheld $4 million in January, and his initial budget recommendations didn't fund the Springfield expansion at all.

$5 million dollars was eventually restored for next year, and the university drew on reserve funds to keep the program going this year.Delafontaine can't say whether the other half of the expansion's funding will be replenished, but he said he was optimistic.

The Springfield campusis tied into expansion plans in Columbia where the state's flagship university is located. A $42.5 million facility at MU is expected to open in July, according to a news release.

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‘Prey’ (PS4) review: More hybrid than human, and that’s OK – Auburn Citizen

Posted: at 3:29 am

(Warning: Mild spoilers below.)

For a game with such an elegant title, "Prey" sure is the epitome of complicated history.

Consider, first, the history of Arkane Studios' new game: It arrives 11 years after the first "Prey" and three years after the cancellation of its sequel, both helmed by Human Head Studios.

Previews of "Prey 2" stirred hype with open-world bounty hunting evolved from the first game's generic alien shooting. But after publisher Bethesda Softworks ended the sequel's stalled development and quietly gave the property to Arkane, the "Dishonored" studio kept only the series' extraterrestrial threat, transhumanism and marketer's dream of a name. Otherwise, it started from scratch.

In a way, though, the studio didn't. Another complication of "Prey" is its gameplay DNA: "System Shock" filtered through "Thief," "BioShock,""Deus Ex"and other first-person action-adventure classics. Identifiable as those and other influences are, however, they don't feel disrespected or cheaply invoked. "Prey," in fact, honors its "System Shock" family by earning its own place in the tree.

Its stealth and wayfinding systems reward patience and wit much like "Thief" did:hacking to unlock doors, strength to dislodge obstructions and even a glue gun to spit puffy white platforms so you can reach high points. However, "Prey" much more often forces lethal encounters with itsenemies, the walking Rorschach blot Typhon aliens and the humans and robots they possess. Mimics disguise themselves as everyday objects only to spring at your face with damaging swipes, and Phantoms teleport out of sight only to blindside you with energy blasts. Fighting them mixes terror, frustration and exhilaration in a way less like "Thief" than "Dark Souls."

"Prey's"setting, the space station Talos I, is a ruined paradise like "Bioshock's" Rapture, if not as novel. However, it splices the underwater world's art deco with mid-century modernism and other aesthetics, and roughs up those clean surfaces with traces of scientific catastrophe and some zero G when the Typhon descend. The station's carnage asks for the same slow, attentive crawl as "Bioshock," and its email and audio logs ask for the same deductive assembly of its personnel's history. Exploring the station as you unseal its rooms and humanizing secrets may be "Prey's" strongest pull. For all you learn about the Talos I crew's guarded same-sex relationships or internalized body shame, though, the game struggles to bring its distant characters into your orbit.

+3

Steampunk suits "Dishonored 2."

"Prey's" story takes place along an alternate timeline that started with JFK surviving his assassination attempt, leading to more aggressive space exploration, leading to the Typhon's attack and subsequent capture. It revolves around not only the aliens, but the scientific breakthrough their biology allows: neuromods. Like augs in "Deus Ex," neuromods let the humans of "Prey" transcend their limits in ways mundane (instantly becoming a piano virtuoso) and mutant (projecting psychic energy). However, "Prey" twists its transhumanist plot device with compelling narrative results.

That leads to yet another complication of "Prey": Its protagonist, Morgan Yu, is a neuromod guinea pig. Not only is the Chinese-American Morgan a protagonist of underrepresented ethnicity like the first "Prey's" Tommy, who was Cherokee, but Morgan can also be a man or a woman per your choice. (That's why I'll be using feminine pronouns, as I chose a woman Morgan.)

Because removing neuromods means removing any memories formed while they were installed, mystery clouds Morgan's experience aboard Talos I. She struggles to survive the Typhon and piece together her life outside the laboratory in tension with her researcher brother, Alex, who doesn't want his progress on neuromods destroyed alongside the aliens. As he and other voices provide Morgan guidance and you decide whose to follow, the story of "Prey" is shaped by continual revelation about Talos I, about the Typhon and, of course, about her.

Morgan's neuromod proficiency also forms the foundation of "Prey's" open-ended gameplay. Like "System Shock" and other games it inspired, "Prey" lets you shape your experience with it via an extensive skill tree. You can invest the neuromods you collect into gun damage or Typhon attacks so you feel a little less frightened in their staticky presence, or you can max out your hacking, repair and strength skills so nothing stands in your way of sneaking around them.A dilemma also arises when, by scanning them, the Typhon's own abilities become available. Mind control and object mimicry are tempting, but the cost to Morgan's humanity has moral and logistical consequences, such as turrets recognizing you as Typhon and therefore firing on you.

Like "Dishonored 2," "Prey" cushions death with a speedy save/load option that becomes muscle memory early in the game. But Arkane's follow-up falls short in a few other presentational respects: Morgan frequently drifts or bobs back and forth despite not touching the controller, in-person voices frequently vie with those of audio logs for your main speaker channel, and I was locked out of a side quest because the game didn't register my acquisition of a quest item. Maneuvering Morgan in zero G can also fluster, especially when suicide-bombing Cystoid Typhon swarm you from every conceivable angle."Prey" may be a game of complication, but when it comes to its gameplay, some of its complications are more welcome than others.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

Arkane Studios' "Prey" takes place aboard a space station overrun by inky black aliens.

TL;DR: Arkane Studios ("Dishonored") takes its talent for absorbing open-ended adventure to the moon's orbit in this sci-fi thriller, though its characters are as cold as the hull of its space station setting and its gameplay hybridizes genre predecessors like something out of its transhumanist labs.

CONTENT RATING: Mature for blood, language, use of alcohol and violence

DEVELOPER: Arkane Studios

PUBLISHER: Bethesda Softworks

DISCLOSURE: I received a review code for this game from Bethesda Softworks and completed its main story and several side objectives on normal difficulty in about 25 hours.

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How 12th century Persian poet Omar Khayym inspired a hedonistic counterculture in Victorian England – Scroll.in

Posted: at 3:27 am

May 20, 2017.

How did a 400-line poem based on the writings of a Persian sage and advocating seize-the-day hedonism achieve widespread popularity in Victorian England? The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym was written by the eccentric English scholar Edward FitzGerald, drawing on his loose translation of quatrains by the 12th-century poet and mathematician Omar Khayym. Obscure beginnings perhaps, but the poems remarkable publishing history is the stuff of legend. Its initial publication in 1859 the same year as Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species and JS Mills On Liberty went completely unnoticed: it did not sell a single copy in its first two years. That all changed when a remaindered copy of FitzGeralds 20-page booklet was picked up for a penny by the Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes, who passed it on to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who subsequently fell in love with it and sang its praises to his Pre-Raphaelite circle.

When, in 1863, it fell into the hands of John Ruskin, he declared: I never did till this day read anything so glorious. From that moment, there began a cult of Khayym that lasted at least until the First World War, by which time there were 447 editions of FitzGeralds translation in circulation. Omar dining clubs sprang up, and you could even buy Omar tooth powder and illustrated playing cards. During the war, dead soldiers were found in the trenches with battered copies tucked away in their pockets.

What then was the extraordinary attraction of the Rubiyt? The answer sings out from some of its most famous verses:

XXIV Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and sans End!

XXXV Then to the lip of this poor earthen Urn I leand, the Secret of my Life to learn: And Lip to Lip it murmurd While you live Drink! for, once dead, you never shall return.

LXIII Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing at least is certain This Life flies; One thing is certain and the rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

The Rubiyt was an unapologetic expression of hedonism, bringing to mind sensuous embraces in jasmine-filled gardens on balmy Arabian nights, accompanied by cups of cool, intoxicating wine. It was a passionate outcry against the unofficial Victorian ideologies of moderation, primness and self-control.

Yet the poems message was even more radical than this, for the Rubiyt was a rejection not just of Christian morality, but of religion itself. There is no afterlife, Khayym implied, and since human existence is transient and death will come much faster than we imagine it is best to savour lifes exquisite moments while we can. This did not mean throwing oneself into wild hedonistic excess, but rather cultivating a sense of presence, and appreciating and enjoying the here and now in the limited time we have on earth.

This heady union of bodily pleasures, religious doubt and impending mortality captured the imagination of its Victorian audience, who had been raised singing pious hymns at church on a Sunday morning. No wonder the writer GK Chesterton admonishingly declared that the Rubiyt was the bible of the carpe diem religion.

The influence of the poem on Victorian culture was especially visible in the works of Oscar Wilde, who described it as a masterpiece of art and one of his greatest literary loves. He took up its themes in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The character of Lord Henry Wotton is a champion of hedonism who explicitly refers to the sensual allures of wise Omar, and tempts the beautiful young man Dorian to sell his soul for the decadent pleasures of eternal youth. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses, says Lord Henry. A new Hedonism that is what our century wants.

Wildes novel was a thinly veiled celebration of homosexuality a crime for which he was gaoled in 1895 (passages of the book were read out at his trial as part of the incriminating evidence). He saw in the Rubiyt an argument for individual freedom and sexual liberation from the constraints of Victorian social convention, not least because FitzGerald too was well-known for his homosexuality. For Wilde, as for FitzGerald, carpe diem hedonism was far more than the pursuit of sensory pleasures: it was a subversive political act with the power to reshape the cultural landscape.

Hedonism has a bad reputation today, being associated with YOLO binge-drinking, drug overdoses, and a bucket-list approach to life that values fleeting novelty and thrill-seeking above all else. Yet the history of the Rubiyt is a reminder that we might try to rediscover the hidden virtues of hedonism.

On the one hand, it could serve as an antidote to a growing puritanical streak in modern happiness thinking, which threatens to turn us into self-controlled moderation addicts who rarely express a passionate lust for life. Pick up a book from the self-help shelves and it is unlikely to advise dealing with your problems by smoking a joint under the stars or downing a few tequila slammers in an all-night club. Yet such hedonistic pursuits enjoyed sensibly have been central to human culture and well-being for centuries: when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they discovered the Aztecs tripping on magic mushrooms.

On the other hand, the kind of hedonism popularised by the Rubiyt can help to put us back in touch with the virtues of direct experience in our age of mediation, where so much of daily life is filtered through the two-dimensional electronic flickers on a smartphone or tablet. We are becoming observers of life rather than participants, immersed in a society of the digital spectacle. We could learn a thing or two from the Victorians: let us keep a copy of the Rubiyt in our pockets, alongside the iPhone, and remember the words of wise Khayym: While you live Drink! for, once dead, you never shall return.

This article first appeared on Aeon.

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Twin Peaks: Is Andy Hazel Australia’s biggest fan? – ABC Online

Posted: at 3:26 am

Updated May 22, 2017 15:17:59

One Thursday evening in 1990, 13-year-old Andy Hazel sat down to watch Twin Peaks as it was broadcast on Tasmanian television.

He had seen advertisements for the show promoting it as a detective series, and he thought it might be a bit like Murder, She Wrote.

Instead, he said, there was "sexual abuse, grief, incest, and small town people being nasty to each other".

"It sideswipes you with these really long scenes of people crying, there's drug taking, there's all this debauchery going on," he said.

"Right in the middle of it you've got Agent Dale Cooper, who is one of the most inspiring and amazing characters in television history, I think."

Mr Hazel said Agent Cooper's balancing of reductive rationalism and spiritual intuition made him "the epitome of the perfect human being".

"For the rest of my adolescence I would ask, 'what would Dale Cooper do' as a way of solving problems."

Mr Hazel estimates he has since watched the show's first two seasons 20 to 30 times, first on VHS and then DVD.

While working in Edinburgh as an entertainment coordinator, he filled downtime in his venue's calendar with Twin Peaks marathons.

In 2016 Mr Hazel travelled to North Bend, Washington where much of the series was filmed for the annual three-day Twin Peaks Festival.

The event, which usually sells out in less than an hour, allows 300 fans to visit locations from the series and meet some of the stars of the show.

He said some fans had attended the festival for 10 years running, and a few people had moved to the area because of their love of the show.

"Some people were really obsessed with the female characters, others were obsessed with the style of the time, some people came to it through being obsessed with [director] David Lynch's other projects," Mr Hazel said.

For the long-awaited third season Mr Hazel has begun a podcast where he will analyse each episode alongside guest experts from fields such as film noir, feminism, music and sound design.

He will be joined for the series by Twin Peaks newcomer Hayley Inch, who has just finished watching the first two seasons.

"There's been lots of tweeting from her being constantly surprised, as I remember being in 1990," Mr Hazel said.

He said he was looking forward to seeing the reaction of others drawn fresh to the series by the recent hype surrounding the show.

"To see this huge mainstream attention given to something that is going to be so dark and weird, and is going to alienate and annoy a huge amount of people, is fascinating."

Topics: television, carnivals-and-festivals, internet-culture, people, melbourne-3000

First posted May 22, 2017 14:37:34

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10 best pieces from Milan Furniture Fair 2017 – The Australian Financial Review

Posted: at 3:26 am

Konstantin Grcic's graphic sofa system, Soft Props, was inspired by the handrails of the Milanese metro.

The annual Milan Furniture Fair is like a big wheel of Parmigiano you can slice it any way you like, but the simplest thing is to cut straight through. This year it was clearly bisected, right down the middle.

On the one hand, light ephemeral gestures, furniture reduced to the merest trace in space, a will to disappear. This mood was epitomised by Japanese design studio nendos elegantly absent Invisible Outlines installation at the Jil Sander showroom, a telling choice since the German fashion brand is renowned for its minimal touch. Blindingly white tables melted into bowls, translucent Jellyfish vases gently quivered, wired outlines framed negative space. Not exactly wares for the home.

On the other hand, there was a pleasant heavy-handedness, a weightiness that implied a certain gravitas. In editing this Best of Milan 2017 selection, Ive erred on the side of heft. This because Australian homes, oriented as they often are towards airy exteriors, benefit from bold interiors. In slicing the cheese this way, an unexpected undercurrent of 1940s rigour emerges. The magic, of course, is in the mix.

by Konstantin Grcic for Cassina

An evolution of last years Props architectural steel shapes with no fixed function this year Grcic developed a graphic sofa system called Soft Props. Inspired by the handrails of the Milanese metro, designed by Bob Noorda and Franco Albini in the early 1960s and considered a perfect example of Italian Rationalism, the metal tubes of the Soft Props are made of interchangeable parts, allowing the user to rearrange the configuration at will. I started with some classics from the Cassina catalogue in mind and ended up stripping them all back to bare or exposed structures, says Grcic. Le Corbusiers LC3 club chair comes to mind. Apparently rigid, the Soft Props is in reality modular, a spongy piece of soft furnishing loosely cradled in a solid frame. Timeless.

by Germans Ermics for Rossana Orlandi

In homage to Shiro Kuramatas iconic Glass Chair of 1976, Amsterdam-based designer Ermics unveiled his Ombr chair and Horizon screen, alluring compositions of translucency produced byprinting coloured ink onto a transparent film which is then sandwiched between two panes of glass. Technically excellent, the series is seductive in its play upon absence and presence, solid and yet hard to grasp. The sculptural pieces change appearance as light shifts, or as people move around them. Beyond creating highly collectible furniture, the designer says his aim is to shape colour. Its perhaps that bigger vision that imbuesthe work with significance beyond its ownphysicality.

by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Mattiazzi

Mattiazzi is known for its finely crafted timber seating, rigorous in line although sometimes quite hard on the behind. Increasingly, it is developing upholstered offerings, of which the Bouroullecs Quindici lounge chair is an excellent example.

Slung between two chunky T-shaped arm rests, the slender ash seat itself is a suite of three solid planes working together to create perfect support. Upholstered in a choice of lush Kvadrat fabrics, the Quindici is a gentle giant of a thing industrially tough, but offset by a good dose of luxe.

by Ronan and ErwanBouroullec for Flos

The Bouroullec brothers Verticale is a set of long, thin glass columns encased within fine exoskeletons constructed from anodised aluminium. When illuminated, the metal frames are abstracted by the light source, appearing to merge into a singular column of light.

Modular along the vertical, the lights can be adjusted for height. As a single column theyre totemic, clustered they become talismanic. Great for a stunning lobby statement.

by Fernando Mastrangelo for Rossana Orlandi

Brooklyn artist and designer Mastrangelos Escape series of tables, storage and seating are composed of a mix of silica, hand-dyed sand and powdered glass which, once dry, gives the impression of striated, solid rock. In soft pastel tones of pink, blue and inky black, they are reminiscent of Georgia OKeeffes gentle New Mexico landscape paintings.

Monolithic in their unapologetic heft, they suggest an earnestness underscored by the raw, granular aspect of the touch. If a rock bench feels too harsh, it can always be softened by some of those zigzag knit cushions from Missoni Home.

by Patricia Urquiola for CC-Tapis

Following the success of last years geometric Visioni carpets, Urquiola has devised a new series of tapestries, titled Rotazioni. Softening the right angles with sensuous curves, the superposition of the cylinder motif creates an optical dynamism, the hand-woven wool enhancing the impression of depth.

The nuanced palette is a de facto guide to this years trend colours: soft rusts, faded aubergines and pale, egg-shell blues, colours so subdued as to qualify as hues. So beautiful, youll want to hang these carpets on the wall.

by Michael Anastassiades for Flos

London-based Anastassiades is one of the most influential lighting designers working today. So widely imitated, in fact, that hes released a lamp called Copycat. But its his new Table Composition and Floor Composition that are of real interest. Not only do they establish an entirely new typology the table/light they do it with all the judicious disequilibrium of a Brncusi.

The asymmetry of the uprights, the ballast of the sphere anchoring the structure echoed in the flattened surface disc is a virtuoso balancing act. It has a self-referential quality that keeps the eye constantly on the move, trying to take it all in. In just the right shade of rusty red powder-coated aluminium, it has trend alert written all over it.

by Cristina Celestino for Nilufar

Nina Yashars Nilufar Depot is the premium Milanese dealership in rare 20th-century design. Increasingly, she is also commissioning new work in limited editions by contemporary designers, pieces that segue seamlessly with her historical aesthetic, savvily updated for today.

Celestinos slinky Visiera sofa evokes Hollywood glamour of yore, its rich velvet saddle sitting low to the ground (perfect for come-hither reclining), its bulbous back attached by a broad band of brushed and varnished brass. Finished with two oversized brass studs, its like a perfectly formed fashion accessory for the home. Precious.

by Lucidi Pevere for Gebrder Thonet Vienna

Thonet is renowned firstly for its innovations in Bentwood bistro chairs, secondly for its skills in tubular steel, most famously in the hands of Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe. Nowhere in the Austrian companys catalogue does soft upholstery feature. This fact alone makes the Chignon stand out. Company history aside, the low seat is charming in its pert self-assurance, just slightly quirky.

The way the steam-bent, lacquered frame (note the rust red, on trend) supports the plump seat cushion then wraps around the backrest, squeezing it like a bon-bon, makes me smile. Word on the street is that the boudoir is set to make a comeback, even as a boydoir. When it does, the Chignon will be the perfect seat for hours spent brooding.

by Oki Sato for nendo

Over recent years the designs of Sato and his Tokyo-based nendo studio have been getting lighter and lighter, ethereal to the point where this year they all but dissolve. His series of 30 different Jellyfish vases are pulled back from the brink by two factors: their ghostly blue tint and their gentle fluidity.

Made from ultra-thin transparent silicon that has been dyed twice to create a nuanced dgrad, their surface perimeters are so fine that they gently undulate. To underscore the effect, nendo showed them in a tank of water alongside flowers and fish. Dont try this at home.

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10 best pieces from Milan Furniture Fair 2017 - The Australian Financial Review

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Assaults on women, free speech in ‘Michiganistan’ – WND.com

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Published: 1 day ago.

Protests against Syrian refugees broke out in multiple states in 2015 and 2016, but the Obama administration doubled down on placement, particularlyin California, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona and Massachusetts. Refugee resettlement has continued under President Trump but at a slower pace compared to the Obama administration.

A Muslim gas-station attendant in Troy, Michigan, faces charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after he allegedly groped a woman who asked for his assistance with a credit-card reader.

And thats just part of the story that some see as an outgrowth of the rapidly changing culture in Michigan. Others say free speech the right to criticize Islamic is being squelched in the wake of the arrests last month of two Detroit-area doctors for the horrific crimes of female genital mutilation.

Abdelnasser Mohamed, 25, allegedly assaulted a woman customer while working as a clerk at the Mobil Gas Station in Troy, Michigan, on May 4, 2017. Photo/Troy Police Department

Abdelnasser Mohamed, 25, was the clerk on duty at the Mobil Station at 25 E. 14 Mile Road in Troy when, at about 8:45 p.m. on May 4, he was asked for assistance by a female customer having trouble with the card reader. She reported to police that Mohamed touched her in the groin area and told her he would help her with the machine in return for a sexual favor. She escaped and called 911. He was arraigned May 5 and granted a $10,000 bond, then released on a 10-percent surety.

WND contacted Troy Police Department Wednesday and asked for the suspects immigration status and was told the city does not ask for such information.

I do not know his status. He was not asked, not that Im aware of. We dont ask people their immigration status. We ask other questions, such as place of birth, Sgt. Megan Lehman of Troy Police Department told WND.

She told WND she would look up the suspects file and call back with his place of birth.

The booking card is not in a place I can assess it through the computer Ill have to pull the hard copy, she said, agreeing to do so and call back with the information.

She never called back despite repeated phone messages.

Mohamed was described by multiple Michigan newspapers as simply a Detroit man or a male employee with apparently no inquiries into his immigration status or country of origin.

The name Abdelnasser means conqueror or victorious in Arabic and is common among Muslim families in Syria and the Palestinian territories, Arabic speakers told WND.

Michigan has been consistently among the top three or four states for receiving Syrian refugees, and Troy is the No. 1destination city for Syrians arriving weekly in the state.

Since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, nearly 2,200 Syrian refugees have been distributed throughout Michigan, with Troy getting 657, followed by 481 sent to Clinton Township, 387 to Dearborn, 147 to Ann Arbor and 130 to Battle Creek, according to the U.S. State Departments Refugee Processing Center. Detroit received 20 and nearby Hamtramck 43.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, doing business as Samaritas, has a processing office in Troy, from which it distributes refugees into both Oakland and Macomb counties. Many have been temporarily held in a hotel in Sterling Heights owned by a CAIR-connected businessman that has been nicknamed Hotel Damascus, as WND has previously reported.

The gas-station incident is just one of several unsettling events in Michigan of late.

The local Alma newspaper, the Sun, cited the Southern Poverty Law Centers list of hate groups for its story berating Secure Michigan, and then SPLC returned the favor by using the Suns article to blister Secure Michigan on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] instigated the charges of hate and intolerance against the Detroit firefighter who is a captain in the department and pressured the city to suspend and investigate him.

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was charged April 13, 2017, in Detroit with mutilating the genitalia of girls ages of 6 to 8.

Michigan also isthe first state in which a doctor has been charged with the barbaric, Third-World practice of female genital mutilation. Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, a Muslim physician from West India, was charged in April, followed by the arrest of a male Muslim doctor, Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife on the same charges just days later. The doctors imam, who leads a Farmington Hills mosque, fled to India on a one-way plane ticket on April 10, the Detroit News reported.

All of this activity has kept the Michigan chapter of CAIR busy, defending or deflecting attention away from Islam.

Those Michigan residents who say things deemed inappropriate by CAIR and the SPLC have been quickly rebuked and publicly shamed with the cooperation in many cases of the Michigan media.

But the Michigan media, in its incessant quoting of CAIR-Michigan Director Dawud Walid, refuses to point out that CAIR has been identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 terrorism-financing trial prosecuted against the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas, Texas, which was caught funneling money to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Nor is the Michigan media fazed by Walids own radical leanings.

According to the Gatestone Institute, CAIRs Dawud Walid cemented his position as a preacher of hate and radicalism. He has already become known to many Muslims as an extreme figure, who bullies anyone who disagrees with him, maligns dissidents, harasses gay Muslims, and foments anti-American sentiments.

Dawud Walid heads up the Michigan chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR

The SPLC was evencited by the Obama administration as a group that reflexively labels people with whom it disagrees as bigoted haters. The SPLC once tried to label Dr. Ben Carson as an extremist because his views on marriage didnt line up with those of the SPLC.

Some believe CAIR and the SPLC along with their Democratic allies are drawing the battle lines in Michigan in preparation for an important election next year in which the Democrats are hoping to elect the nations first Muslim governor, Dr. Abdul el-Sayed, the former health director for the city of Detroit.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed with wife Sarah.

El-Sayed is actively campaigning on the platform of making Michigan a sanctuary state that welcomes refugees from Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and throughout the Third World.

Dick Manasseri, a spokesman for the group that had its presentation raided by students from Alma College in tiny Alma, Michigan, said if the SPLC is tweeting about a group as small as his, it will go after anyone who publicly provides a message that disagrees with the SPLC-CAIR agenda of open borders and favored treatment for Islam.

Manasseri said he wont be deterred by the radical elements trying to shut him and his organization down.

Im making a presentation again tomorrow night, he said. To me, the new normal is actually scary. This whole notion of not enforcing the law or a sanctuary city not asking the right questions is scary. SPLC actually tweeted the little local newspaper. Theyre really reaching to have to deal with us. SPLC is a full-time, professional, fully-staffed organization with a radical agenda.

Manasseri believes the Catholic Church will also play a role in whether working-class Democrats fall in line for el-Sayed in Michigans 2018 gubernatorial election.

The whole state needs to get up to speed on this and get ready for Dr. Abdul. The message needs to get out, he said. One Catholic voter at a time. Because theyre going to be encouraged heavily, because he is Obama II as best we can tell.

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