Also list any foreign language classes

If possible, interview your past supervisors and co-workers and ask them to tell you what they think you brought to the table, and how your work improved over time.5. Almost done! Enumerate your preferences and needs for cultural surroundings and daily environment.- Do you need all the comforts of the average American city at all times, are you ready to completely rough it, or ok with something in between?- What type of living space do you require? An apartment with electricity and running water? Or can you do without appliances, and indoor plumbing? Can you live in a temporary structure such as a tent?- Have you ever been camping before? If yes, for how long and how did you enjoy the experience?- Is having roommates ok? Do you want a private space? Need couples housing?- Do you enjoy exploring cultures different from your own? Are you willing to research, respect, and comply with the cultural norms of another culture? Does your willingness extend to only certain cultures? Which ones?- How much weight can you carry?- Are you in good health? Will a doctor approve your travel abroad?- Are you on a special diet?- Do you need any medications? Discount Rosetta Stone - Are you able to commit to a contract teaching job (usually 10 to 12 months, but occasionally there are shorter assignments)?- Do you have enough savings, personal contacts, access to resources, and guts to try freelance teaching/tutoring?At this point, you should have a more complete picture of who you are, a general degree of interest in English and language learning, what some of your personal tendencies are, and whether you need a more Westernized, urban location, are looking for an experience with a very specific group of people, or ok with most any situation. At the very least, you should know by now whether you know enough English, or like English enough to learn what you need to know to teach it; whether you are a natural public speaker, have enough guts to try being one, or want to stick to tutoring; and the extent of your inclination to explore and be a part of another culture.6. As a final exercise, rewrite the above responses into an essay that more succinctly addresses the following:- Who are you?- What do you have to offer in your ESL job?- What attracts you to teaching English abroad?- What do you think you will gain from the experience - the pros, the cons, and the degree of unknown? Do I believe the pros outweigh the cons and unknowns?Whew! You made it to the end. Where you go from here, is up to you. The world holds unlimited possibilities for employment, and teaching ESL abroad is one of myriad niche. I guess the ultimate question is then, is this the best niche for you?

Read More

Cuba understands what US doesn't

Related topics: Federal Reserve, gold, investing strategy, retirement, Bill FleckensteinIt might seem obvious, but one of the fundamental rules of investing is "don't lose money." That rule is also one of the more important and unnoticed casualties of the Greenspan-to-Bernanke era at the Federal Reserve.Why? Because once you stop worrying about loss of capital, lots of bad things can happen (in addition to losing money).For those who need proof, just look at our two most recent asset bubbles. People and companies got up to a lot of mischief and were usually not worried that they might lose money. A lot of them behaved accordingly, which is to say, recklessly.Best ways to invest in goldAnd why wouldn't they? After all, they were encouraged to act that way. And nobody did more to convince people they shouldn't worry about taking advantage of the bubble du jour, be it tech stocks or real estate, than Alan "What, Me Worry?" Greenspan.What makes the "don't lose money" aphorism timelessly relevant, however, is that, at its root, it is about protecting yourself financially. Manage risk. Don't overextend. Do your homework. Stop and think. Know your limits. Know yourself.Bill FleckensteinAs regular readers know, I think one of the best ways to protect yourself, against numerous threats on multiple fronts, is to own gold. Although I have not been too focused on it in the past, one of those threats -- and therefore another reason we need protection -- is the big problem this country faces with regard to the bloated structure of local, state and federal governments.Does my pension make our deficit look fat?In a Rosetta Stone Italian previous column, I talked about the potential for class warfare between average citizens who are struggling and government workers who have the chance to retire on extremely generous pensions. In other words, there is going to be a clash between those struggling in the private sector and those living relatively fat off public money. What I had not realized until recently was just how out of control the numbers had become.In a newsletter this month, Dennis Gartman shared some data on the subject, which I found very illuminating: In 1949, government spending was 14.3% of gross domestic product. As of 2009, it had risen to 24.7% of GDP (and is obviously higher now). In other words, since 1949, that percentage has grown 73%. Given the problems the country faces, this is something that will have to be addressed somewhere down the road.An econ lesson in high Fidel-ity More importantly, it isn't just defense spending (as some would like to believe) that is the source of the increase. Gartman pointed out that in 1949, defense and international aid constituted 7.1% of GDP, while federal payments to individuals were just 3.7%. Today, only 4.9% goes to the former, while 14.7% is directed to the latter.I suspect one thing the left and the right might be able to agree on is that it does not do anyone in the private sector any good to have a public sector that is bloated to such absurd levels.Even communist Cuba has been forced to figure this out, as front-page articles in the Sept. 14 print edition of The New York Times ("Cuba's public-sector layoffs signal major shift") and the Sept.

Read More

They're very good at that type of problem

With programming and game design provided by University of Washington computer scientists Seth Cooper (lead author of the Nature paper), Adrien Treuille (now at Carnegie Mellon University) and Zoran Popovic along with Firas Khatib and other researchers in Baker's group, Foldit debuted in May 2008 as an interactive extension of Rosetta, a computer program Baker developed to predict protein structures. Solving protein structures is one of the preeminent challenges in biology, requiring expensive, labor-intensive x-ray crystallography to divine the arrangement of the thousands of atoms that comprise each protein. Rosetta, in contrast, relies on a large scale search for the lowest energy shape of each protein – a computer-hungry process that requires trillions of calculations. Baker quickly realized that Rosetta was limited by the amount of supercomputer time he could secure. So in 2004 he developed a distributed version of Rosetta that individuals could load on their home or office computers to help perform some of Rosetta's calculations. Some 200,000 volunteers have downloaded and installed, which displays possible protein configurations as a screensaver. Foldit got its start when some of the users told Baker that they wished they had the ability to manipulate the proteins that their computers were helping to shape. "People saw that Rosetta was making obvious Rosetta Stone mistakes, and they were getting frustrated that they couldn't manipulate the proteins themselves," Baker says. Now that they can, some players have proven themselves better than Rosetta at certain tasks. In a "blind challenge" run last year, Foldit players competed directly with the Rosetta program in establishing the shapes of 10 proteins whose structures were, at the time, unknown. Humans outperformed Rosetta in five of the 10 trials, and performed just as well as Rosetta in three other trials. Baker says that humans are particularly good at seeing holes in a developing protein that need to be filled with dangling bits called side chains. "There's this class of problems where a residue should be sticking into the core of the protein but it isn't, it's sticking out," says Baker. "Rosetta moving that residue at random is not going to stick it into the core of the protein. But people can look at the protein, see that there's a hole, look at the side chain, see that it's sticking out, and put it in the right place. They're very good at that type of problem."After soliciting e-mail feedback from top players – some of whom devote six or more hours to each protein puzzle – Baker says he's overwhelmed by the sheer creativity displayed. "People wrote back these very, very sophisticated descriptions of algorithms they had come up with, how they had combined the tools we provided in very novel ways." Next up: Getting Foldit players to design proteins from scratch. Baker works with other scientists who are searching for new proteins that will act as drugs or contribute to environmentally-friendly projects such as making biofuels from carbon dioxide and sunlight. "Designing new proteins to fit a desired shape is something that Foldit players should be very good at," says Baker. While it may be years before a new crowd-sourced virtual protein helps solves a real-world problem, Baker is convinced that day will arrive. "

Read More

A Teachers Perspective On School Reform

When people talk about problems with our schools, I hear a lot of blame: blaming, teachers, blaming parents, blaming kids. And when they talk about how to reform schools, I hear a lot of "get tough" measures: get tough on schools, get tough on teachers, get tough on kids.What I don't hear are the sort of obvious,?logical reforms that educators - people who have the most direct experience in education - advocate.None of my ideas are original, but I have compiled them here to give you a sample of what what one teacher, one person who actually works with students on a daily basis, strongly believes would make a difference.1. Small Class Size. I am fortunate to have one class of just six students. That class gets three times as much work done as my other classes and has three times as much time left over for fun and games. That's a happy and productive class. Until this semester, my idea of a dream class size was 16 students. But from this year's experience, I see that a class of 6 students can easily soar way beyond what a class of even 16 can accomplish.2. Small School Size. In his book, the?Tipping Point,?Malcolm Gladwell's refers to Dunbar's number, the maximum number of people in an organization that can form a cohesive group.This number is approximately 150. At six students per class, that would be about two classes per grade from kindergarten through eighth grade, along with teachers and support staff. I have worked in schools about that size (although the classes were larger), and they feel more like a community than larger schools. This decreases student alienation, and strengthens relationships. To further strengthen relationships, teachers should stay with the same cohort of children for multiple years. This can help to create an emotionally safe and secure environment for learning. It also reduces the time students need to adjust to a new teacher so they can more quickly allow themselves to open up and fully participate.3. Goodbye Summer Vacation. Come on - we all know that the school calendar in the United Rosetta Stone Software States is antiquated. We spend 180 days of the year learning and the entire summer trying our best to forget everything we just learned. When school starts up in fall, we play catch-up to make up for all the backsliding that's occurred over the summer. School calendars should be year-round and have their vacations timed to meet the local climate demands. So, in the North East, there should be a vacation scheduled in the dead of ?winter, when people take their lives in their hands to brave the treacherous roads to an expensively heated school. And, in the South, a vacation would make sense when students risk heat stroke on their way to an expensively air-conditioned school in the height of summer.4. Reinstate P.E. and Recess! Physical education is good for brain development, and students consolidate learning while they are playing at recess. Plus, as a teacher I can tell you that students who get a chance to run around are much more able to focus in class. It's unnatural, and counter-productive, to force children to sit still all day.5. Utilize Multiple Intelligences. Music, visual arts, kinesthetic learning, and exposure to nature should all be fully incorporated into the curriculum. Right now, we are so focused on the laudable goals of improving math and reading skills that we forget that those skills will more easily be improved if we accommodate different learning styles. There should be dancing in math class and nature walks in English class.6. Emotions and Logic are not Mutually Exclusive. Affective thinking should not be separated from cognitive thinking. To put that in more universal language, our feelings help us learn. This isn't just a made up notion. Learning is deepest when contains an emotional component. We should be aware of how we feel about what we are learning.7. Social and Emotional Learning. We also need to teach children the social skills necessary for successful interactions in school and in life. One thing I've noticed is that the inability to deal constructively with conflict and emotion interferes with the student's ability to focus on learning in school.

Read More

Hire A Home Tutor To Help Your Child

If you are in dilemma to hire a home tutor for your child then keep in mind that the problem is real and not to be ignored hoping that it goes away. Education is the most important gift that you can give for your child and it should be taken very seriously. A home tutor can help your child in many ways A home tutor can provide instruction without distraction, help your child to get caught back up with his class, help your child prepare for standardized tests, instill passion about the subject into your child, and challenge gifted students to reach for more Instead of learning your child can face many distractions that diverts his attention when he is in school. Your child can focus directly on the material that is presented to him and free from all distractions if he gets individual help from a home tutor. Your child may feel bad if he falls behind his friends and classmates. He doesn't want them to think that he isn't as smart as they are so he will not ask questions in front them and may to continue falling farther and farther behind To understand the subject better and quick a home tutor can teach your child in different ways. Catching up with the class will make your child reduce Rosetta Stone the stress and anxiety level and feel more comfortable at school. Standardized tests have become the norm in many schools due to government mandates A proper skill set of their own is highly required to take these type of tests. To teach your child on how to study for these type of tests and take them properly a home tutor is a best option for getting the scores that accurately represent his knowledge on the subject.Most home tutors are passionate about the subject matter that they specialize in This passion is usually quite evident and can be contagious and inspire your child to develop a passion not only about the particular subject but about learning in general If your children are having trouble at school the it is best to hire a home tutor for him. To reach beyond what is being taught in school and to strive to reach their full potential, a home tutor can challenge many students so that they can be benefitted. No matter the level of difficulty that your child is having in school, a home tutor can help The fees that you are paying is much lesser than the benefits that you are getting from a home tutor. Start your investment on your child's education and future by getting a home tutor.

Read More

How to Succeed in a Home Business Even if you Have Kids

You've seen the ad in the magazines and online. I call her the Perfect Work-At-Home Person. She's a beautiful lady with perfect makeup and hairstyle. She's sitting at her computer in her home office and her two-year old is quietly playing with her toys on the floor.Or perhaps it's a picture of a man who's lounged by the pool laughing and talking on his cordless phone while his children are floating around in the pool.Let's pause for a reality check.As I type this, I'm holding an 18-month old who has barged into my office and demanded his favorite past-time: to sit on my lap while listening to iTunes. (Right now, we're listening to "How Long" by The Eagles and he's desperately trying to climb onto the keyboard to get my iPhone.)In fact, less than an hour ago, I had a phone call from a potential business partner who had to hold for a moment as I made sure that my oldest son had his phone charged and knew to be careful crossing the street to go to his friend's house.Of course, I could close the door. I could ask my wife to watch him for a bit while I take care of some business.And sometimes I do that. But, usually, I'm doing business or taking calls throughout the day while I'm enjoying being with my family.Welcome to the Home Office of the 21st Century Family: Where family is the top priority and we don't feel the need to pretend that our home office is a picture from a magazine. It Rosetta Stone Arabic wasn't always this way, though. I remember not too long ago, if the phone rang, I was shrieking at everyone to be quiet because I was "working". Or I spent huge swaths of time with the door to my office closed because I was "working".What a drag. What's the point in working at home if you have to pretend you're in a corporate environment? Or where everyone around you is stressed out because they feel like they're walking on eggshells.I suspect that most home-business entrepreneurs are living the same way and doing it for the same reason: fear.They're afraid that if someone hears a child in the background, it means they're not "professional". But the truth is that most of the people you talk to would love to be able to work from home and be with their loved ones every day. And this is especially true if you're in a business where showing people how to get out of the corporate environment is what you do.The truth is that working at home and being connected with your family is cool today. Today's best "power lunch" is when you're making money while slicing a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich for your kids. And the best suits to wear when doing business is a swimsuit.

Read More

The great surprise about him is his grin

The Picture Porter from Digital Foci is a portable picture viewer that provides storage for digital photos, music and video files, and data files. It's a hard drive with the ability to show slides and play music and videos. It also can connect directly to a television for output on the larger screen.Most Popular CBS Blogs5 Reasons Using a Debit Card is Dangerous Shriver, Schwarzenegger Former Home for Sale Save Money: 10 Weird Ways6 Ways to Never Pay an ATM Fee AgainBoost Your Social Security Payout By $100,000It's able to read CF I/II, MD, SM, MMC, SD cards, mini SD, Memory Sticks, MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo memory cards. It can store and display JPEG, TIFF, BMP, and RAW images and provides a portable hard drive/photo album to download photos so cards can be emptied and used again. There are two models, one with a 20GB hard drive and another with 40GB. The two-inch LCD color screen has a backlit resolution of 558 5 234 pixels, and the overall size is 5.2 5 2.8 5 1.2 inches. The music files that can be played on the Picture Porter include MP3, WMV, AAC, and WAV. The video formats include MPEG1, MPEG4, MJPEG, and DivX 5.x. The USB connection that lets you download media and data files is the faster 2.0 speed. He is no Daniel Day-Lewis, another reedy Brit who morphed from the scrawny, handicapped Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" into an utterly believable Hawkeye, the echt frontiersman in "The Last of the Mohicans." Fiennes lacks that physicality. He is rigged for other things. He's rigged for the title character in "Onegin," the film version of the Pushkin classic Rosetta Stone Language directed by his sister, Martha, about a tortured Russian aristocrat. He's rigged for the adulterous Maurice Bendrix in the film version of Graham Greene's "The End of the Affair," for Dennis Cleg, the severe schizophrenic in the film version of Patrick McGrath's "Spider," for the driven Count Laszlo Almasy in "The English Patient." He's rigged rather well for Justin Quayle, too. Fiennes carries a fragile beauty. When he tells J. Lo. in "Maid in Manhattan" that she's beautiful, she replies, "So are you." The great surprise about him is his grin. It's a sweet, seditious thing that reminds you of your kid brother. It's a huge event that shatters all of the gorgeous planes on his face and, for a moment, liberates you from his blue eyes. Fiennes rolls them when the word "tortured" is used to describe his roster of characters. "I know, I know, I've had this all day," he says at the end of a flood of interviews. "I hate this word. I don't see them as tortured. I see them as people. I suppose I'm drawn to the chance to show the complexity at the center of the drama." Asked what kind of roles he still wants to play, Fiennes ignites in glee. "I want to play a cowboy. I want to be a cowboy," he says, knowing precisely how absurd the idea is. "I love that myth, out on the horse." Pause. "I've got the wrong genes." Pause. "I've got the wrong jeans." But why not the challenge of the mundane? "Simple characters are hard," he replies. After "Maid in Manhattan," could he ever shine in a romantic comedy? Under the right circumstances. "The great romantic comedies -- there's quirkiness, a looseness, an eccentricity to them. They're built on neuroses and people who have obsessions -- stuff we all recognize. It feeds back into the complicated stuff.

Read More

Science notes / Psychology, health

Study shows texting doesn't affect spelling Parents, u r gonna be surprised by this, but a study from the University of Alberta says that the abbreviated and unpunctuated language commonly used in instant messaging and texting probably has no effect on your child's spelling abilities. If anything, says psychologist and study lead author Connie Varnhagen, the language variations used in instant messaging and texting should be viewed as a new language or at least a dialect with its own set of rules for spelling and writing. Those findings suggest that parental worries that kids who use "chatspeak" will become bad spellers or never learn how to write well are unfounded. "Young people can compartmentalize their language," Varnhagen said. "They have language that they use on the playground and then school language. They know how to speak in classrooms without sounding like goofballs."The study was proposed by a group of third-year psychology students who surveyed roughly 40 students ages 12 to 17. The participants were asked to save their instant messages for a week. At the end of the study, the participants completed a standardized spelling test."Kids who are good spellers [academically] are good spellers in instant messaging," she said. "And kids who are poor spellers in English class are poor spellers in instant messaging." -- The Washington Post **Gender, dominant leg Rosetta Stone German V3 influence ACL injuries Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are often linked to how an athlete moves. Kicking, pivoting and landing can be important factors in tearing or rupturing this knee ligament that helps keep the joint stable. But gender and which leg sustains the injury may be key as well, according to a new study.Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Santa Monica Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation looked at ACL injuries in dominant versus supporting legs among 93 athletes, 41 male and 52 female. The participants, a mix of professional, college, high school and youth soccer players, had undergone surgery for a complete ALC tear.Among all athletes, contact and non-contact injuries were evenly distributed between left and right legs. The vast majority of players (84) preferred kicking with their right leg, while nine kicked with the left. A little more than half of the injuries occurred in the dominant leg.Even when researchers looked at non-contact ACL injuries only, about half happened on the dominant leg, and half on the supporting leg. However, when broken down by gender, the numbers changed drastically. Injuries on the dominant leg occurred in 74 percent of males, but only 32.3 percent of females. Female athletes are at higher risk than males for ACL injuries.

Read More

High School for Home Schoolers

Home schools are a good option for parents who want to be involved hands on in the education process of their children. However, when home-schooled children reach the high school age, a critical question that parents face is whether to continue instructing them at home or enroll them in a public school.Teenage is the stage in the life of any child when you need to be very cautious as a parent. During adolescence, children are easily influenced by negative thoughts and activities, and there are limits to how much you can keep an eye on them. If you want them to be under your guidance when they are passing through this often emotionally tumultuous period, then home schooling is certainly recommended. Though home schooling a child who has reached the high school stage can be a tough job, it can certainly be achieved with determination. Home schooling through high school is beneficial, as your child can complete the studies at home in just 24 months or even less. This not only saves time compared to high schools where the tenure extends to 4 years, but also enables your child to focus energy and resources on specific subjects of his or her interest. Since your child will not have to face peer pressure, acts of bullying or even traces of negative influences like sex or drugs while being schooled at home, it could set an efficient learning environment.If you send Rosetta Stone Chinese your child to a public school, a lot of time is spent on administrative duties, which includes roll calling for attendance, distributing out work and supplies, maintaining discipline, and the collection of homework and reports of each and every student. Commuting to and from school is also a time consuming activity that can exhaust your child. Home schooling can help children make optimum use of the time at their disposal. Teenage children are the fastest growing group of the home-schooled population in the US that is currently estimated to be approximately two million. It has been proved that students, who have been home schooled, possess greater ability to absorb information and produce better results than students who have been educated in a public school. No surprise then that most colleges or universities in the US welcome home schooled students, provided they meet their basic eligibility criterion. In order to start teaching your child at home through high school, you should make a plan that is based on their style of learning. You should place emphasis on the areas where they display specific interest. The curriculum should be conducive to their natural inclination along with covering the basics of all subjects so that they get to learn everything but master a few. If you are facing problems in covering difficult subjects, you could try using online school, educational software and videos. If you want your child to acquire a diploma or certification to apply for jobs in the future, you could help them prepare for the General Development Test (GDT) that is used to measure the skills and general knowledge of a home-schooled child.With the help of a planned curriculum supplemented with real life experiences, home schooling of high school children can help them become mature and responsible human beings, and good decision makers.

Read More

Home Schooling During the High School Years

Home schooling during the high school years can be a fun and rewarding time for both the child and parent. This time can be used to keep, maintain and even deepen a relationship with your child during a high stress time of their lives. This can be a time to build a trust with your child so that they are willing to listen to council that you would like to share with them during this time of their lives. Also, as a Christian parent it can be the time to guide your child in their Christian walk and to help with any questions that they have so that their relationship with the Lord is their own; which will help them as new choices and decisions come their way in the upcoming years.As your child enters the high school years record keeping becomes very important. You will want to start recording the things that your child accomplishes so that you can report them for college admission considerations. This is the time to start looking at the requirements of the top three college choices that your child is thinking about attending. This will help in knowing what they require from incoming freshman. Also, check your state requirements in what they recommend a high school student to have before graduation. Some things that we learned along the way is to start a record writing down every book read during the high school years either for school or free reading. Keep up to date with your records; Rosetta Stone Language this will help if you need to present them for scholarships or grants.Keeping track and recording your child's extracurricular activities are just as important as recording the grades of the academic classes. For homeschoolers this is important because sports can also be counted as physical education credit as well as extracurricular. Colleges are interested in a child's outside activities only to show that they are a well rounded person, sports, 4-H, part time job it isn't important to a college what a student is involved in just that they have a well balanced life and are active in academic as well as extracurricular activities.During this time of your child's development it is important for them to start learning life lessons while they are still in a safe environment and still have you as a sounding board to hear from them and have some input towards their dreams and decisions.

Read More

Home Schooling Your Autistic Child: Tough Choice To Make

I wanted to take the time to share some information on home-schooling your autistic child. Autism provides some unique challenges to parents. It is a spectrum disorder that makes it much more difficult for a child to relate to others, as well as communicate to others. As you can guess, teaching someone that lacks the basic communication skills is quite difficult. Often teaching becomes a two-part process. The first to teach the skills of communication and than moving onto the actual teachings a child needs. This will require a lot of preparation on your part, a lot of patients and understanding because this won't be a walk in the park. I'm going to show you how you go about home-schooling your autistic child.Structure and routine are the two most important things you can have in place for any autistic person. You have to understand that you can't just throw this together each day and hope for the best. It has to be well planned and consistent to a routine. Since autism is so hard on the senses for children, they need this routine to keep everything familiar for them. You should stick to a schedule and start each day the same way. A fun learning exercise that can help a Rosetta Stone Greek child learn and keep a routine is to allow them to make the routine. Have them draw some pictures of what will be done through the day and have them put it up on a chart. This can help a child want to follow the routine.Home-schooling your autistic child will require a lot of help. You need to speak to a professional. You can't just teach the same things a regular child would learn. It just doesn't work that way. You need specialized material that is going to help the child out best. A doctor may disagree with your desire to do home schooling, but they should recommend the type of education they would need. Each autistic child is a different, with different skills and abilities; there is no universal teaching manual for the autistic. Make sure you pick up professional teaching material for autism, to ensure they get the best quality education.One of the best tools you have at your disposal when home schooling your autistic child is the ability to journal the experience. A lot of people don't see the value in journaling, but they tend to be the people that stop after a week. The real value from journaling comes months down the road. When you start going through things, you can pick up on certain behaviors. If there was a bad day with your child, than you might notice some similarities in what happened that day. It is also a great tool in measuring how your child's progress is coming. Since progress seems like a crawl day-to-day, going back over the months can really show you a strong learning patter, which will make you a much more motivated teacher.

Read More

They will take the pressure off

They apparently have some very special needs that have to be met immediately regardless of laws or basic human decency. Well, the boys must be delighted that City of Sydney now recognises this specialness and will be providing public opportunities for them to express their specialness, and whip it out in full view of other revellers. And they can conveniently do this while neatly corralled in groups of four on prominent corners around Sydney's busiest night spots. Now that's the kind of bonding even the best footy coach could only dream of. Camille Manley Camperdown Portable urinals were used in Bradfield Park at the start of the 2009 Sydney Marathon, with singular success. They are a splendid idea to literally relieve pressure and facilitate flow and motion. After all, there's nothing worse than to join a queue at a portaloo just for a "number 1" only to find the person ahead/inside was there for a "number 2"! City to Surf organisers please take note. Edward Loong Milsons Point Well done to the City of Sydney council for trialling the new portable urinals. I saw these in action last year in Paris at the Vendanges de Montmartre, even tried one myself. There were large crowds, not many portable toilets and a couple of these. Guess what, no big queues for the loos. I commented at the time that they should be a part of every music and outdoor event. They will take the pressure off. Ross Mayberry Mudgee Perhaps they should put ''temporary public urinal'' along the Corso at Manly and inform rugby league players that it's there. They'd then be allowed to piddle in public and not get in trouble. Michael Deeth Como West Umm, where do I sit? Amanda Lyons Darlinghurst Families in crisis The story in today's Herald is sad in that it condemns all men to changes in family law as a result of the actions of one, although sadly it's not only men who murder their children (''She once escaped a killer - under today's laws she would still be trapped,'' April 7). The proposed changes to the Family Law Act will bring back the behaviour that I and other fathers experienced when I went through my divorce in 2001. At that time the law encouraged mothers to maximise their income from child support and Centre link by minimising the time the father was given access to his children Rosetta Stone Chinese . I am a good father and I love my children. Why should I be condemned by the actions of others? The presumption of shared care is fair for all. Name withheld Helen Cummings is correct in highlighting the need for amendments to the Family Law Act. My ex partner, a respected professional man who was emotionally abusive, used the Family Law Act to "grasp shared care (in our case custody) as a weapon to use against" me. While the four-year legal battle took place, our son was shuttled between the two of us in a decision made by the court in "the child's best interests". The process left me and my son emotionally drained, not to mention the prohibitive financial cost that caused hardship to me but not to the professional father. Since the conclusion of the custody case, three years, where I was awarded full custody, there has been no contact from the father but, thanks to the Family Law Act, the consequences are long lasting and permanent. Name withheld What about the husbands? There are many independent studies out there from Europe and America showing that the incidence of wives abusing their husbands is almost on par with the reverse situation. I have been physically and verbally abused by my wife and it only stopped when I got police intervention. Most of the time she attacked me because I was protecting the children against her and her outbursts and drew her attention away from them, otherwise she would have been physically and verbally attacking them. But with the focus on the women being the victim, I did not know where to go and what to do as there is very little out there for men. Finally my family assisted me.

Read More

Guide to Dungog in NSW

It is believed that the area was occupied by the Gringgai clanof the Wanaruah people prior to European settlement. It ispresumably from their language that we inherit the word 'Dungog'supposedly meaning 'place of thinly wooded hills'. The first Europeans in the area are thought to have beenstockmen in search of wayward cattle. The thick stands of cedar inthe area soon drew timbergetters. One account concerns a cedar treewith a circumference of nearly 9 metres which it was estimatedwould yield 9 km of timber. Advertisement: Story continues below The initial property grant was made by Governor Darling in 1824.The first grant to the north was made to James D. Dowling in 1828.His descendants have remained on the property. It is JamesDowling's name which graces Dungog's main street. The land for a township to be named Upper Williams was set asidein 1830 but 'Dungog' was adopted in 1834. At this time the settlers petitioned the Rosetta Stone authorities for amilitary post to deal with bushranging in the area. CaptainThunderbolt and his wife had been involved in plundering homesteadsin the Munni, Monkerai, Main Creek and Underbank districts. JoeBurn, a member of Ben Hall's gang was shot in the shoulder by alocal woman when he bailed her up. The Governors and the Jew BoyGang were also active in the area. The hilly terrain made fornatural cover. Hence the town courthouse was built between 1835 and1838 as a barracks and stables for troopers who successfully drove Thunderbolt north over Gloucester Tops and out of the area. A town plan was approved in 1838. A school, built in 1843, wasdesigned by noted architect, Edmund Blacket. It was only his secondcommission in the colony. By 1850 the town was wellestablished andof good reputation. Timbercutting remained a central focus of the local economy intothe 1860s when it was supplemented by a tannery, a tobacco factoryand a flour mill.The railway arrived in 1911. In 1972 the Dungog timber industry supplied timber for elementsof the interior of the Sydney Opera House. Today the town's majorindustries are beef and dairy cattle, poultry, timber andtourism.

Read More

The spartan dashboard is shaped like a surfboard

From behind the wheel the Z4 feels like a tighter Z3. The throttle and steering are responsive, the engine is highly refined and the exhaust growls subtly between gear changes. Acceleration is brisk by any standards. The 2.5 covers the 0100kmh dash in a respectable 7.0 the 3.0 takes a claimed 5.9 seconds. The 3.0 test car provided by BMW (there were no 2.5s available for media evaluation) felt quick, but not that quick. If the exterior is a departure from conventional design, wait until you see the cabin. The spartan dashboard is shaped like a surfboard. Overseas markets have a confronting woodgrain finish as standard but BMW Australia opted for brushed aluminium, which is little consolation: the horizontal etching feels like sanper. The controls are otherwise functional and cupholders are fitted for the first time. The glovebox appears to be an afterthought, hidden as it is by the shape of the dashboard. The lid opens down into the passenger's footwell, causing what few items it holds to fall out. A lockable compartment between the seats aims to compensate for the lack of storage. BMW intends to compete directly with the likes of the MercedesBenz SLK and Porsche Boxster, yet it has retained a fabric roof rather than switching to the vogue folding metal designs. The ragtop, however, saves weight and enables the roof to be raised or lowered in about half the time of a folding metal roof. BMW claims either operation takes less than 10 according toDrive 's stopwatch, it was up or down in about eight seconds. All cars tested were equipped with the fully automated roof. There were no latches, just one button to press. However, we were disappointed to learn, this roof is optional. The softtop also has what is possibly an unintended benefit: it doesn't hurt when you hit your head on the roof. On every bump (and even on gentle undulations) we encountered, the suspension bucked sharply upwards, causing nausea after an extended spell of driving. The Z4 still does not ride and handle as a thoroughbred roadster should. It is Rosetta Stone Korean surprising to find this shortcoming in the model that would benefit most from BMW's expertise in this field. Like the Z3, the Z4 was created by fitting a new body on the underpinnings of the 3 Series sedan. The convertible's lowslung stance may have created limitations with the suspension. The Z4 is competent but it is no rival for the Porsche Boxster. There are two suspension setups but, as a colleague said, the comfort set up is not comfortable and the sporty option is not sporty. The test cars, BMW said, were built to US specifications and did not necessarily reflect the setup of cars to be delivered in Australia. We will reserve judgement until it arrives mid2003. Mixed mediaThe Z4's mix of convex and concave lines proved a challenge for some of the world's best car photographers. One said the reflections were so hard to eliminate it was "like trying to photograph the back of a spoon". 44 time Those keen to buy a highper formance version of the Z4 will be disappointed. BMW says it has no plans to build an M roadster based on the new model for "at least three years". And even then, given the rush of new models due in the next five years, there is no guarantee the Z4M will be built. What the new BMW Z4 must beat ... Mercedes Benz SLK The BMW Z4's main rival is not due for replacement until late 2004. The secondgeneration Mercedes Benz SLK is expected to share visual cues with the flagship SLR, such as a Formula Onestyle nose and twin round headlamps. The car has been spied during testing but has been heavily cloaked to disguise the design. E

Read More

The noise it makes is fantastic

It has a 240 km/h top speed and shattering acceleration." When he starts its Fiatbased 1100 cc engine with avgas flowing through twinchoke Weber carbies, the sound is earshattering, too. The Stanguellini is identical to the factory race cars but this one was privately owned, apparently, and in 1960 won a formula junior race at Monza. "When he (the owner) finished racing in 1963, he just put it away." McDowell is only the second owner. Finally we get to his sleek, silvery blue ASA, the coupe with hints of Ferrari at the rear. McDowell opens the bonnet to reveal its neat, black 1000 cc engine. "That, effectively, is just four cylinders cut off the 250 V12 Ferrari," he says. "These produced 100 hp (75 kW) in 1959. It was equivalent to the racing formula at the time." The car had been repainted in Barcelona before he bought it but the rest is original. "It's only done 30,069 since new," he says, peering at the speedometer. "The noise it makes is fantastic. It's such a responsive little motor." We walk around the car, McDowell singing its praises. "It's got Borrani centrelock wheels. They were just the absolute best money could buy. And the Nardi steering wheel and the Jaeger racingtype instrumentation. The interesting thing about this car is that it came standard with four wheel disc brakes in 1959. Only really highper formance stuff, like Ferraris and Maseratis, had four wheel disc brakes." The Rosetta Stone ASA is still lefthanddrive and the dashboard looks very sporty with its big matching tacho and speedo flanked by lots of smaller gauges and toggle switches. The gear lever sits high on the centre console. But that's not the interesting bit. What looks like a lever for blinkers on the steering column is overdrive. "It's a fourspeed gearbox with electronic overdrive in third and fourth gears," McDowell says. "Which is really fun to use. You can flick it in and out as you go along. It (the ASA) is just so much fun to drive." He claims the ASA could probably do 200 km/h at a time similar British cars were "flat out at 130 or 140". He's done his best to prove it. The speedo tops out at 220. "I've tried to do 220. I've had it as fast as it will go (on a closedroad speed event in WA)," he laughs. "We couldn't get the needle past the 220 but we sure tried. It was absolutely screaming." Autobiography The "Mille", as it was known, was a show car but Enzo Ferrari didn't want to build it himself and sold the concept to the Italian company Autocostruzione Societa per Azione (ASA). The first ASA 1000 GT its body was designed by Bertone and the mechanicals by Giotto Bizzarrini, who worked at Ferrari was powered by a 1032 cc fourcylinder engine with twin carbies; it produced 91 hp (nearly 70 kW). The car was unveiled at Turin in 1962 and became known as the "Ferrarina" or "baby Ferrari". Only about 120 were built, the last in 1967. Stanguellini was a Modena car dealer. He launched his first road car in 1947 and first formula junior car in 1958. In 1963 Stanguellini broke six speed records at Monza. A roadgoing GT was planned but only four prototypes were made.

Read More

You can't time travel with a companion

A typical day would be to get up as late as possible, eat ahearty lunch and spend the afternoon driving around the countrysidevisiting local producers.If I have the time, I wouldn't mind having a massage or two,either! However, the most decadent thing I would do is eat outevery lunch and dinner. Stephen Smith, 53, is Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister.He lives in Perth. Having spent the past 15 years regularly flying from Perth toCanberra, and having spent more than 100 days overseas in more than25 countries in my role as Foreign Minister, my dream holidaydestination is one that doesn't involve a plane. Fortunately, the dream is reflected by reality. For the pastdecade or so, our Christmas family holiday has been in thesouthwest of Western Australia in the Margaret River, Yallingupand Dunsborough triangle.We stay within striking distance of the appropriately named SmithsBeach. The ideal day starts with a morning walk for an hour or so,sometimes past Yallingup Woodfired Bread to pick up the best breadin the area. Then it's off to Smiths Beach for a swim, followed bya session of a Test cricket match on TV and perhaps a coffee inDunsborough. Afternoon or early evening dips at Bunkers Bay, or more usually Eagle Bay, invariably open up the prospect of a glass of WestAustralian white or red wine on the beach. The occasional foray toa local winery, with Cullen Wines my favourite, is also readilyavailable. And after all of that (for a fortnight, if we can manageit) it's only a leisurely threetofourhour drive back toPerth. Robert Dessaix, 65, is the author of several books. Hislatest is Arabesques. Whenever I leave home alone for overseas, I like to time travel.You can't time travel with a companion. A fellow traveller keeps hauling you back to the present like amobile phone. Of course, I could just go to Devonport in Rosetta Stone Hindi Tasmania,but I want more than a time warp. I want to jump into the river ofcivilisation.Ideally, I head first to Bhutan for a taste of medieval Buddhistculture. No trekking or kayaking, just a bit of mooching invillages unchanged for centuries. From there, I might zip across to Zanzibar, and not just becauseit has two Zs in it and Freddie Mercury from Queen was born there.Wandering through the ancient streets of Stone Town, I would hopeto catch a whiff of cloves wafting among the mosques and topplinghouses, and a glimpse of what an old Arab spice and slaving portwould have been like. It would be tempting to drop in on Sana'a in Yemen to delight in its fantastic architecture and lose myself in the aromatic souks so Arabian Nights. But Yemen is not very safe these days, soperhaps I would head straight for Libya first class, naturally.There is no point in suffering en route, although on trains the crowd in second class is usually more communicative and fun. In Libya I'd go from Roman ruin to Roman ruin, trying to think myself back into the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. It's so much easier todo there than in downtown Rome. Sometimes I think I would like to visit a few truly appallingplaces not Las Vegas, somewhere worse. Lagos, say, or Mogadishu.It might remind me of the paradise I have here in Hobart. Paradiseis fine for living in, but now and again you have to get out. Les Murray, 70, was born in Nabiac, NSW. He has published morethan 30 volumes of poetry and has been called Australia's "bard ofthe bush".Nuuk, formerly Godthaab, is the capital of Greenland, which isstill faintly attached to Denmark [as an autonomous territory].Princess Mary's first royal tour went there in 2004. This vasttreeless land, with its towering mountains and one of the world's prettiest flags, contains the remote Thule airbase and the Inuitsite of Qaanaaq. Nuuk has a meat market called the bord ("table" in Danish) where you can buy walrus steaks, whale blubber, polar bearand fermented fulmar birds all the rich constituents of an Arcticmeatonly diet. I would try more than one, pleading that, afterall, I'm a vegetarian in India.

Read More

Internet changing consumer electronics world: Intel chief

The Internet is a magnificent "disruptive force" changing the world's gadgets along with lifestyles, computer giant Intel's top executive said Monday at the top consumer electronics show. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) abounds with televisions and other devices that link directly to the Internet, bypassing computers, making gadgets smarter and increasingly interconnected, said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini. "The Internet is a disruptive force that is changing the consumer electronics industry," Otellini said, in a speech wrapping up the first day of the CES event in Las Vegas that ends Thursday. Advertisement: Story continues below "I submit we are just getting started," the head of the world's largest computer chip maker said. "The next generation is the Internet coming to us instead of us going to the Internet." Otellini demonstrated a prototype handheld device that combined satellite positioning technology with translation software, image recognition and mobile Internet connectivity. The gizmo can determine where it is, download the applicable maps and language information and essentially act as a personal tour guide, translator and local business reference guide. In a demonstration, the device translated restaurant and street signs in a faux Chinese stage setting after being pointed towards them. "Doing things like realtime translation and augmented reality will require Rosetta Stone Chinese (Mandarin) exponentially more powerful processors that are also exponentially using less power," Otellini said. To fulfill the promise of "personal Internet" people can take wherever they go will take not only faster computer chips but ubiquitous, reliable broadband Internet access, he added. "Eventually, we will blanket the globe with wireless connectivity." Also needed are better "natural interface" technologies that let people command devices using gestures, words and even body movement, according to Otellini. "Think of the Nintendo Wii," he said, referring to the Japanese electronics giant's coveted video game console with motionsensing controllers. "The popularity lies not in the graphics, but in the motion." As these technologies come together, computerized virtual worlds such as Second Life will "take another step up" with people's ingame proxies resembling them and mirroring their realworld movements, Otellini predicted. He called Smashmouth front man Steve Pederson to the stage and used technologies by startups eJamming, BigStage and Organic Motion to orchestrate "the world's first virtual jam session." Animated versions of Pederson and his band mates, each in different parts of the world, played one of their hits in an online replication of his garage. "Wow, that's amazing," Pederson blurted. "The cool thing is not having to be in the same room." Otellini urged electronics makers to fulfill his vision and advised them to take advantage of the business opportunities it holds. "You may argue over when this will happen, but I believe it is inevitable," Otellini said. "More and more industries are going to be transformed." CES continues Tuesday with nearly 3,000 electronics, Internet and software companies showing off their latest innovations and forums with industry insiders and government policy makers.

Read More

Wave of Iraq attacks kills 49

Two truck bombs targeting a tiny sect in a village in northern Iraq and a spate of bloody attacks across the country killed at least 49 people on Monday and wounded more than 250, officials said. In the deadliest single attack, two boobytrapped trucks exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving 28 people dead and 155 wounded. The massive blasts levelled 35 houses and gouged deep craters into the ground of the prosperous village of 3,000, home to members of the small Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin. Advertisement: Story continues below Falah Ridha, a 23yearold nurse wounded in the attack, said he was the only survivor of 12 people in his family home. "Eleven people in my family were killed when their house collapsed. All of them woke up after the first bomb, but the second bomb was very close to my house, it was like an earthquake," he said. "No one else escaped, just me." Mohammed Kadhem, 37, told : "I was sleeping on the roof and I woke up as if there was an earthquake. After that I saw a plume of smoke and dust spreading everywhere." "A minute later another bomb went off, knocking me off the roof onto the ground. I was struck unconscious by shrapnel and stones," he said. Another local resident, Assaad Salem, said: "I had just finished my prayers and was trying to sleep when the first bomb went off and destroyed everything in my house, it was like a dust storm. "Then the other bomb went off and I thought this is doomsday, this is the end of all life." Mosul has been the frequent target of attacks despite a Rosetta Stone German marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country, and US commanders describe it as the last urban bastion of alQaeda loyalists in Iraq. The country's second city with a population of about 1.6 million, Mosul is mainly Sunni both Arab and Kurdish but it also has significant Christian and Shi'ite Turkmen minorities. Later Monday afternoon, unidentified gunmen shot dead two offduty policemen in separate attacks in the city, said a police source, who declined to be identified. In Baghdad, two bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning looking for jobs, police and the interior ministry said. The first bomb, hidden inside a bag of cement, exploded at Hay alAmel in the west of the capital, killing seven people and injuring 46. The second attack, a car bomb in Shurta Arbaa in the north of the city, killed nine people and wounded 36 others. A third bombing at a market in the southern suburb of Saidiyah killed three people and wounded 14. Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki at a meeting with army commanders praised efforts in fighting insurgents but said the struggle was ongoing. "The pursuit is still on and, God willing, we will remove all those corrupted people who willingly and in cold blood kill Iraqis," he said. On Friday, a powerful car bomb blast killed at least 37 Shi'ite Muslims near a mosque in Mosul in a wave of attacks that also killed 10 people in Baghdad, threatening to plunge the country into a new round of sectarian conflict. Despite a reduction in violence in recent months, attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and in the ethnically divided northern oilrich city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following the pullout of US forces from urban areas. The figure for May was 155, the lowest of any month since the USled 2003 invasion. The Shabak community numbers about 30,000 people living in 35 villages in the province of Nineveh, and many want to become part of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shi'ite Islam and local beliefs. The Shabak community was persecuted under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and after the invasion they were targeted on a number of occasions by alQaeda.

Read More

Most of those flying were compensated by the airline

The dollar is not as volatile now, but it could reasonably be expected to correct its value in the longer term to about US80162;. Buyer beware. Neil Bloomfield ThirlmereStorm damage I added a large bit to Macquarie Airport's massive take from parking fees on Monday night. Because of the storm, my partner's flight arrived three hours late, but I was still expected to pay the parking fee at $7 a halfhour. I checked the arrival time online before driving to the airport, but the information was incorrect. I soon discovered there was a snowflake's chance in hell of getting a discount. Most of those flying were compensated by the airline. Those of us on the ground were ground into it by the excessive parking fees. Joseph Barakat Maroubra Money limit doesn't curb free speech John Kaye confirms the status of the Greens as the lapdogs of the NSW Labor Party (''Influence of big money must be removed'', November 9). The proposed ban on donations from the tobacco industry, clearly targeted at the NSW opposition, is only a token gesture. As Kaye himself says of the proposed changes, ''loopholeswill undoubtedly appear''. He says restricting the spending of third parties, such as unions, on election campaigns ''is a difficult task that skirts dangerously close to threatening free speech'', but restriction of spending is exactly what is needed. Restricting spending is not restricting free speech, it is only restricting the inordinate amounts of money spent on advertisements. Politicians, unions and others will all doubtless have their say, and be reported ad nauseam in the media as they are now. Politicians the world over have shown they are incapable of both raising money and governing in the public interest. It is time we made their jobs easier for them, for all our sakes. John Croker WoononaFine grading of the genitalia debate Andrew Rosetta Stone Hindi Bazar (Letters, November 10) credits the ''classification review board'' for the increase in vaginal plastic surgery. The review board does not, as a matter of routine, classify publications. It exists to consider appeals against the decisions of the Australian Classification Board. As a former member of the classification board I was routinely involved in decisions about the acceptability of images in publications. The board considers whether the impact of the image exceeds what is acceptable in a publication for public display, or if it warrants restriction to an audience over 18. In my experience there was no bias against women with ''outies'', or a preference for tidy little pudenda. There was always debate (a great way to spend an afternoon, discussing the finer points of genital display), but it revolved around the concept of ''emphasis'' of what was there through posing, splaying of legs, cropping of images and myriad other editorial techniques. If the board rejected an image as too detailed and with too much emphasis, the publisher could substitute it (in an unrestricted publication), change the requested classification of the publication to ''restricted'' (sold in a wrapper) or get busy with Photoshop. My three years on the board gave me plenty of reading material to form the opinion that stick mags were not a hothouse of positive selfimages for women. Porn is part of modern life. The classification system is designed to ensure we don't have it staring us in the face at every newsstand, petrol station and corner shop. Sally Bryant Wellington Blueprint to weld ethics and religion exists: here it is Jessica Stewart (Letters, November 9) asks how her child can attend both special religious education and ethics classes. Picture this: each week, children gather in unsegregated classes with their regular, professionally trained teachers. They learn about a variety of belief traditions and philosophies, religious and nonreligious.

Read More

Glass half full for A-League but coffers are not

Limit ... Ben Buckley says the FFA can go only so far in providing short-term assistance to Newcastle. Photo: Getty Images The Socceroos are in a transitional phase. The A-League is in trouble. Football is losing ground to other codes in the battle for audiences. Sebastian Hassett speaks with FFA chief executive Ben Buckley about the problems facing the game in Australia. SMH: The state of play in football in Australia has everyone concerned. What's your take on it? Ben Buckley: I think it's extremely positive. We've just been to our second World Cup in a row, we've got a new Socceroos coach who is charged with developing the next generation and our sights are set on the Asian Cup and the ride to another World Cup. I don't see issues at a select number of A-League clubs as cataclysmic for football. Advertisement: Story continues below SMH: Then why are people talking about a ''crisis'' and the potential death of the A-League? BB: A lot of commentators put one and one together and come up with five. Individual issues gain momentum and the language used becomes more exciting than the reality. By no means are we saying the A-League doesn't have issues. We have some clubs who need financial support in the short term, but if you look at any football competition in the world, that's not unique. SMH: Many within the game say the existing club model is flawed. True or false? BB: We definitely need to generate more income and manage our costs. Over time, our goal is for the FFA to provide a central grant to cover the salary cap but that's not likely to happen until we've got a new television agreement and new sponsorship agreements that will come over the next few years. SMH: The money runs out for Newcastle next Monday. What happens after that? BB: We want Newcastle to be in the competition but Rosetta Stone English the FFA cannot bail [out] every club all the time and we can't put the rest of the competition in jeopardy. Whether it's in Adelaide, Townsville or Newcastle, the loyalty and passion for the team has to be realised through sponsorship and support. We can only go so far in providing short-term assistance before it becomes a drain on the competition. SMH: If Con Constantine can't produce the money, are you prepared to let the Jets die? BB: We don't want the Jets to die. We won't leave any stone unturned to make that happen. SMH: But is it a possibility? BB: Put it this way - we don't have an endless supply of finance. SMH: Archie Fraser's very public critique of you made headlines. Were you expecting those comments? BB: I don't agree with his assertions but what I can say is that we have a fantastic new head of A-League in Lyall Gorman. He's had five years of hardcore, coalface experience [with Central Coast]. Since he's been in the chair, our communication with the clubs has improved dramatically. SMH: Fraser did mention the importance of an independent commission for the A-League, just like the AFL. Does he have a point? BB: That shows how naive his comments were because the FFA is governed by an independent board, the same way the AFL is by an independent commission. But the AFL doesn't have responsibility for national teams, like the FFA does. The FFA has a board elected by the members of the FFA in an independent way and are charged with the responsibility, amongst other things, for the A-League. SMH: What's your theory on why crowds keep falling? BB: Clubs and the FFA have to work together to engage with the fan base and to get fans coming along regularly. Teams will ebb and flow in performance and crowds will be the same. I'm sure once some of the noise from the other codes has dissipated our trend line will improve. SMH: You can see the SFS from your office window. Do you ever look over and wonder how Sydney FC will ever work? BB: I wonder about a lot of things out of that window - but I think there's no one simple remedy for Sydney. It's a combination of performance on the field and strong engagement with the community. SH: Your trip to China was kept quiet. Did you make any inquiries about their interest in bidding for the 2026 World Cup? BB: I won't comment about my international trips but I will say we are in the process of establishing friendly relations with a lot of our counterparts in Asia. SMH: We're getting closer and closer to December. How is our bid placed? BB: We're well positioned in a competitive field. We've built up a certain rapport with people who make decisions but it's going to be a strong race right to the finish line.

Read More