text:
Lessons from the tsunami
The Bulletin interview with Dr Samlee Plianbangchang.
Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, 65, earned his medical degree from the University of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, in 1965 in his native Thailand. He gained his Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (MPH & TM) degree in 1970 and Doctor of Public Health (DPH) degree in 1972 from Tulane University in the United States. Dr Samlee joined WHO in 1984, where he has held a number of positions at the Regional Office for South-East Asia. He has also acted as senior health adviser to the Thai government. He took up the post of Regional Director of the South-East Asia Regional office in March 2004.
A year after giant tsunami waves struck six of the 11 Member States in WHO's South-East Asia Region on 26 December 2004, WHO has boosted its ability to respond better to a disaster on this scale. Reconstruction is advancing in Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, although a polio outbreak in the Indonesian province of Aceh and the first human cases of avian flu in Indonesia have slowed progress there.
Q: The tsunami of December 2004 was unprecedented in that a single emergency affected six countries in the South-East Asia Region. What have you learned and what could have been done better?
A: We should have made our emergency preparedness programme more effective by increasing the adequate number of competent staff. We should have had an emergency preparedness and response plan for WHO offices in all countries in the Region. We also learned the importance of enabling people and communities to help themselves in the first hours of an emergency before outside assistance can reach them. We at WHO did very well in helping the countries affected by the tsunami in their relief operations. However, WHO could have done better if there had been adequate funds for immediate use, a set of standard operative procedures to be used by WHO country staff and better coordination within WHO and between WHO and other organizations. We are addressing these issues now.
Q. Have countries rebuilt damaged health facilities?
A: They have done a lot, but a lot more remains to be done especially in Aceh in Indonesia, and in Sri Lanka. Work has slowed down in Aceh because of the recent polio outbreak in Indonesia and the first outbreak of human avian influenza in that country. Adequate funds have been pledged for Sri Lanka with support from many international agencies, including WHO. The plan in Sri Lanka is in the first phase of implementation (there are three phases – recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction). Thailand has nearly completed reconstruction of affected health facilities. India has almost completed reconstruction on the mainland, but a lot remains to be done on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Q: Did WHO send staff to help with the reconstruction?
A: We have been helping governments formulate plans for rehabilitation and reconstruction and our staff in those countries are also advising them on how to implement the plans. WHO is working with international agencies, health ministries, as well as education, defence and interior sectors in these post-tsunami operations.
Q: Your Region has been affected more than any other by new emerging diseases. What are you doing to ward off an epidemic of avian flu among humans?
A: We are not complacent, but have responded quickly to help countries prepare national influenza pandemic preparedness plans. These country plans are at various stages of development. Certain actions have already been undertaken to help countries implement what needs to be done in a timely manner. We are in close collaboration and have developed a joint strategy with the Western Pacific Region of WHO. We are stockpiling antiviral drugs and exploring the possibility of developing an avian influenza vaccine for humans. More health staff in countries are being trained in outbreak investigation and laboratory work. We host regional meetings so that countries can share information and experience.
Q: What challenges do you face in building and reinforcing health systems?
A: Well-functioning health systems are vital to the development and implementation of public health programmes, such as on disease control, water and sanitation, nutrition and mental health. We need public health services that promote health for all and services that focus on poor, underserved and vulnerable populations. A key challenge is to train adequate numbers of health workers.
Q: What are you doing to tackle your Region's heavy double burden of infectious and noncommunicable diseases?
A: We are focusing on primary prevention, mainly through health promotion and disease prevention. Countries in the Region fully participated in a recent conference on health promotion. Thailand has done a good job in this area, and currently the government is encouraging people to take regular exercise, have a healthy diet, lead a healthy lifestyle, and so on. Countries in the Region are tackling problems of drug addiction, smoking and alcohol consumption. Good mental health care is very important for prevention of noncommunicable diseases. There is a long way to go in health promotion, but some countries have got off to a good start.
Q: In some parts of your Region HIV/AIDS is spreading fast, spurred by tuberculosis. What are you doing to tackle this dual burden of infection?
A: At the Regional Office the two programmes have been put together in one unit under one regional advisor to integrate their activities. We try to encourage countries to do the same, but in reality the two programmes are still separate at country level. Therefore, we organize Regional meetings and bring the country staff from both programmes together so that they can talk to each other and when they go back they can cooperate more.
Q: Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs have become more available to people with HIV/AIDS in your Region, where has delivering treatment been successful?
A: Only Thailand has achieved its '3 by 5' target [to get ARV treatment to 3 million people in need by the end of 2005]. Our Region is supposed to reach the target of 400 000 people receiving treatment, at present we have achieved only 90 000. It will be very difficult for the Region to achieve the target. One reason why we can't get treatment to people faster is the lack of drugs at affordable prices. Also, to move fast we need to train a lot of health staff to deliver quality treatment properly. Without properly trained staff it could be dangerous and under these circumstances no treatment is probably safer than treatment.
Q: Will your Region halt transmission of polio by the end of this year, and what efforts are being made to tackle persistent pockets of polio in India?
A: In India we are optimistic that we can cut transmission by the end of the year. I am not sure we will halt transmission in the whole Region as there have been more than 250 cases in Indonesia this year, so we have to be careful. But the strain of polio just found in Indonesia was not local, and the indication of importation from elsewhere gives us some hope that we might soon halt transmission there too.


text:
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Try the 8.4 grain, 4.52 for a comparison
July 31 2012 at 7:23 PM
Carlos in ATx
Response to
i received a new batch of JSB express
I shot a Pro-Sport for about 2 years before joining the Darkside. It greatly preferred the heavier 8.4 grain pellets of just about any brand over the Crosman 7.9 straight out of the box. Both sorted and weighed, they shot very close to each other in performance. Oddly, the older Chinese Green label match domes shot nearly as well out to 45 yards and then the groups would open up. Same with Crosman Pointed and Milbro Clippers. JSB Exact 8.4 gr., 4.52mm, Beeman FTT and Crosman Premier 7.9 all shot smaller groups past 45 yards.
Respond to this message
in the past the express shot very well
- L.PIRRONE on Jul 31, 2012, 9:28 PM
Have you tried "Cometa" (re-badged JSB) from Pomona Airguns? /nt
- HookEm on Jul 31, 2012, 10:08 PM
not yet, but may give him a call.
- L.PIRRONE on Aug 1, 2012, 2:27 AM
On line trajectory calc by Brad Troyer
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subset: commoncrawl


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|You are in: World: Asia-Pacific
Thursday, 8 November, 2001, 16:10 GMT
ILO says Burma still using forced labour
By BBC Burma analyst Larry Jagan
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says forced labour still exists in Burma.
The organisation's conclusion comes after a recent visit by a high-level team whose four members were allowed to travel independently around the country to assess efforts to stamp out the practice.
Burma's ruling generals have repeatedly rejected allegations that the army is still using forced labour. But they were stung into action last November when the ILO condemned the military government for its persistent use of what the international community calls slavery.
But, according to the ILO report, this has only had a limited in reducing the use of forced labour. The report said the main reason for this was that the government had not prosecuted anyone for using forced labour.
"The local military authorities feel they could continue using labour for portering, building military camps and doing agricultural work for the army with impunity," said a Rangoon based diplomat who did not want to be identified.
In-depth investigation
There is no doubt that the ILO mission has been rigorous. In the three weeks it was in Burma, the team held talks with the country's military leaders, government officials, ethnic leaders and the opposition National League for Democracy.
And most importantly it ravelled around some of the border areas where there have been persistent reports of forced labour.
The investigators gathered extensive testimonies from people throughout the country and supplemented them by talking to refugees in the border areas who claim to have fled to Thailand to escape forced labour.
Their report is careful to be as even-handed as possible. "The point of the exercise was to be balanced and to give credit where it was due," said one ILO source.
Military problem
The ILO mission says the use of forced labour is no longer used routinely on building sites and road construction. At least, it has not seen any evidence of it.
But the use of forced labour is still endemic near military installations according to the ILO investigation.
"The local military commanders need the villagers for logistical support. They are not getting any assistance from the central command and so feel they have no alternative but to press gang civilians into service," said an ILO source.
The roots of the use of forced labour, according to the ILO mission, lie in Burma's dire poverty and lack of international engagement. The country needs foreign investment, international financial support and humanitarian assistance, the report said.
General's dilemma
But the political situation in the country, including the continued use of forced labour, is preventing the international community from changing its stance. The Burmese Government, according to the report's recommendations, has it in its power to do something about it.
If it begins to seriously stop the use of forced labour, which the ILO says will obviously take time, and show unequivocally that it means business, then the international community should respond positively. It is in the hands of the generals.
But analysts believe this is going to present the Burmese generals in Rangoon with a virtually insurmountable problem.
Local commanders, especially in the border areas, regard the use of forced labour as their right, and will not give it up voluntarily. While the Burmese military leaders need the support of the local commanders they will find it difficult to eradicate forced labour.
But the mission did say that the ILO will need a permanent presence in Rangoon to be able to continue to assess the extent to which forced labour has really been stopped.
The ILO mission says it has no mandate to recommend whether the threat of sanctions should stand or be revoked - that is up to the ILO general session which is currently meeting in Geneva.
The situation in Burma will be discussed next week. It is likely to be a tense session.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions says more than one-million people in Burma are still subjected to forced labour on construction sites for roads, railways and military installations.
See also:
16 Oct 01 | Asia-Pacific
Burma rejects EU charges
12 Oct 01 | Europe
EU probes Burma pipeline abuses
12 Apr 00 | Asia-Pacific
UK urges oil firm to quit Burma
14 Aug 98 | Burma
Multinationals and human rights
25 May 00 | Asia-Pacific
Burma discusses forced labour
06 Oct 01 | Asia-Pacific
Investigators silent after Burma visit
10 Oct 01 | Asia-Pacific
Burma slowly comes in from the cold
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Links to more Asia-Pacific stories are at the foot of the page.
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Greenspan canvasses another US rate rise
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Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan pointed at more rate rises to come in a generally upbeat assessment of the US economy that still warned of challenges such as record-breaking oil prices.
In his final testimony to the financial services committee of the House of Representatives, Greenspan said the Fed's "baseline outlook for the US economy is one of sustained economic growth and contained inflation pressures".
In a report accompanying the testimony, the Fed revised down its growth forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) this year to a range of 3.0-3.75 per cent, from 3.75-4.0 per cent before.
For 2006, it predicted growth of 3.25-3.75 per cent.
"Even if the Fed seems less sanguine regarding the pace of GDP growth, it still expects GDP growth to remain close to its potential pace," IXIS Corporate and Investment Bank economist Marie-Pierre Ripert said.
Greenspan said a slowdown in labour productivity growth could cloud the upbeat picture, and high oil prices represent another "major uncertainty in the economic outlook".
"Among other indicators, the significant rise in purchases of homes for investment since 2001 seems to have charged some regional markets with speculative fervour."
Greenspan's periodic appearances before members of Congress are closely followed by financial markets for hints on the Fed's thinking on US monetary policy.
He indicated that given the favourable outlook overall, the US central bank is likely to continue on a path that has seen it lift interest rates nine times since June 2004.
Keeping growth sustained and inflation down "will require the Federal Reserve to continue to remove monetary accommodation", Greenspan said, using Fed shorthand for its current policy tack.
Most economists expect the US central bank to raise the benchmark federal funds rate by another 25 basis points to 3.5 per cent when its policy-making committee next meets on August 9.
Greenspan was to follow up his appearance in the House with a similar report to the Senate finance committee tomorrow, marking his final congressional testimony before he retires next January after nearly two decades as Fed chief.
Financial markets were unfazed by his assessment that further rate hikes are in the works.
"It's the swan song for him," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies and Co.
The Congress members would be "hard pressed to get him to say anything to roil the market. He will certainly walk the middle road", he said.
Turning to the world at large, Greenspan said the July 7 suicide bombings on London's public transport network underlined that "terrorism and geopolitical risk have become enduring features of the global landscape".
He also warned of "growing evidence of anti-globalisation sentiment and protectionist initiatives, which, if implemented, would significantly threaten the flexibility and resilience of many economies".
Greenspan has recently given stern warnings to members of Congress who want to impose trade barriers against China in a bid to exert pressure for the booming country to revamp its currency regime among other policies.
Along with US Treasury Secretary John Snow, he has persuaded two prominent senators to shelve a bill that would have imposed a tariff of 27.5 per cent on all Chinese imports without a revaluation of the yuan currency.
Greenspan said a yuan revaluation seemed inevitable.
"They have said that they intend to adjust the currency. The issue that seems to be on the table is when, and what is the nature of the changes," he told the House committee.
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UniProt release 2012_08
Published September 5, 2012
Prokaryotes do it too: CRISPR, an RNA-based adaptive immune system in UniProt
Like all other cellular organisms, bacteria and archaea are constantly bombarded by viruses, and unlike eukaryotes, many are also susceptible to infective plasmids. While we have known about defenses such as restriction-modification systems, blockage of absorption and/or DNA injection and abortive infection for some time, new ways in which bacteria and archaea defend themselves against these infective agents have been found more recently. One of these is the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) sequences. CRISPR is an RNA-based adaptive immune system, which degrades invading genetic material. The system is mechanistically different from eukaryotic RNA interference (RNAi) and the proteins involved in prokaryotes are not homologous to those in eukaryotes (review).
CRISPRs are repetitive loci on the genome consisting of unique sequences 20-50 bases long (the spacer sequences) interspaced with repeated sequences of about the same length. Examination of the spacer sequences has shown that some are identical to viral and plasmid sequences; they are thought to serve as a "memory" of a previous infection. Bacteria and archaea can have from 0 to 18 CRISPR loci, with between 2 and 249 repeat-spacer units. While many pathogens have CRISPR loci, obligate parasites do not. The CRISPR loci are transcribed and processed to give short CRISPR-derived RNA (crRNA) complementary to a previously-encountered infective agent. It is this crRNA that is at the heart of adaptive prokaryotic immunity.
There are a large number of proteins associated with CRISPR loci, the operon-encoded CRISPR-associated or Cas proteins. The Cas proteins present in each locus have allowed the definition of 3 major CRISPR-Cas systems with further division into a number of subtypes. The number of subtypes will probably continue to increase as more prokaryotic genomes are fully sequenced. Many of these proteins are predicted to be nucleases, helicases and/or RNA binding proteins as is to be expected given the function of CRISPR.
There are 3 stages in CRISPR-Cas mediated immunity:
Stage 1, adaptation or acquisition, is the least well characterized. A short piece of DNA homologous to an invading agent is integrated into the 5' end of the CRISPR loci. This requires the metal-dependent Cas1 endoribonuclease, the only Cas protein found in all organisms with CRISPR loci, although almost all organisms also encode Cas2, another metal-dependent endoribonuclease which is also thought to be involved in adaptation.
Stage 2, expression or crRNA biogenesis, requires transcription and processing of the CRISPR loci to produce the crRNA. Type I CRISPR systems use one of the related, metal-independent Cas6, Cas6e or Cas6f endoribonucleases to process the precursor, while type III systems use endogenous RNase III to generate the crRNA. It is not yet known which protein produces crRNA in type II systems.
Stage 3, interference, is the destruction of the target (be it virus or plasmid) and is performed by a complex of crRNA and proteins. While it is generally thought to recognize invading DNA, the type III-B CRISPR system of Pyrococcus furiosis cleaves target RNA.
While CRISPR-Cas systems can now be assumed to be involved in adaptive immunity, there are tantalizing hints that they may perform other functions as well. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa UCBPP-PA14, the type I CRISPR system does not confer resistance to phages DMS3 or MP22, but is required for DMS3-dependent inhibition of biofilm formation and possibly motility, while in Myxococcus xanthus, a CRISPR system is involved in the regulation of fruiting body development.
We have recently annotated and updated characterized Cas proteins in UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, although the field moves so quickly that it is impossible to be fully up-to-date with all the latest research. All manually annotated CRISPR-associated protein entries can be retrieved from UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot using the query term 'CRISPR' in 'Protein name'.
UniProtKB news
Cross-references to GenomeRNAi
Cross-references have been added to GenomeRNAi, a database containing phenotypes from RNA interference (RNAi) screens in Drosophila and Homo sapiens.
GenomeRNAi is available at http://genomernai.de/GenomeRNAi/
The format of the explicit links in the flat file is:
|Resource abbreviation
|Resource identifier
|GenomeRNAi identifier
DR GenomeRNAi; 51593; -.
Show all the entries having a cross-reference to GenomeRNAi
Cross-references to UniPathway
Cross-references have been added to UniPathway, a fully manually curated resource for the representation and annotation of metabolic pathways.
UniPathway provides explicit representations of enzyme-catalyzed and spontaneous chemical reactions, as well as a hierarchical representation of metabolic pathways. All of the pathway data in UniPathway has been extensively cross-linked to existing pathway resources such as KEGG and MetaCyc, as well as sequence resources such as UniProtKB, for which UniPathway provides a controlled vocabulary for pathway annotation.
The format of the explicit links in the flat file is:
|Resource abbreviation
|Resource identifier
|UniPathway pathway ID (UPA)
|Optional information
|UniPathway enzymatic reaction ID (UER)
DR UniPathway; UPA00842; -.Q9M6F0:
DR UniPathway; UPA00842; UER00808.
Show all the entries having a cross-reference to UniPathway


text:
William Hill is one of the UK's leading bookmakers, with a presence on the high street, the Internet and now mobile. If you're looking for information on how to place accumulators for any sports, including football and horse racing then follow our simple instructions. If you're a new customer, you can currently get a free £25 free bet, click here for details.
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1. Select a Market & Event
First of all you must use the site navigation to pick an event to bet on. The screenshot shows various matches that are available to bet on, along with the odds available.
Select two or more events to bet on by clicking on the odds. Selecting the first column of odds is backing a home win, the second column shows the odds for a draw, and the third column displays the odds for an away win. For this example, I'm going to place an accumulator backing an away Brighton win, a home Milwall win and a draw between Blackpool and Derby.
2. Edit Your Betting Slip
When you add at least two events to your betting slip, a new section will appear, as show in the screenshot below.
The screenshot of the betting slip above allows the punter to bet on trebles, that is, the requirement for all three events to be correct in order win the accumulator. In the example, a wage of £2.00 would win £49.50. By selecting the various drop down bars, one is able to place more complex accumulators. That's it! Hopefully these instructions will help you place your first accumulator.
RELATED ARTICLE: 6 Tips to Instantly Improve Your Accumulator Win-Rate


text:
Author: James Gelrey
Average number of words per page: between 50 and 100
Review submitted on 05/21/2001 at 11:49:28
Ashley Ellis writes the following about Scooby-Doo! and the Carnival Creeper :
I would recommend his to a person who likes mysteries. I would recommend it to someone like this because Scooby-Doo has a lot of excitement and mystery to it. The illustrations are okay, but I loved the book.


text:
Corporate recovery and restructure specialist Lindsay Maxsted is a consummate board performer, numbered among those who will lead the next generation of boardroom giants. And he's not a bad judge of horseflesh either
It's almost the equivalent of a doctor who smokes, an accountant with a weakness for the nags. "It's true," concedes
But, and more typically of this next generation, his pedigree is not quite fashionable, to adopt thoroughbred parlance. The long-time chief executive of KPMG, who built his reputation alongside colleague
Well into the blood. Maxsted typically has an interest in 20 to 25 horses, some stabled in the Hunter Valley at the Attunga stud, some near Kilmore in Victoria. He's been a director of Racing Victoria and says he runs his horse interests dispassionately, with an auditor's gimlet eye, but that appraisal hasn't always washed with colleagues. One in particular: Crawford – Lend Lease and Foster's chairman, former KPMG chairman and, critically, Maxsted's mentor. It was Crawford and his then insolvency partner Jim Poulton at KPMG ancestor firm Peat Marwick who took on Maxsted in his formative years, when the young man came back from a stint in England.
"Crawford would look down at you – with that look many who know him would be familiar with – and say 'what's going on here?'," Maxsted remembers. Crawford doesn't resile from the charge. Or the look. "I had the view and put it to Lindsay that horse racing and chartered accountancy don't mix," Crawford confirms. "He never took my advice."
Worse, several of Maxsted's partners in horseflesh are also KPMG partners – including current chairman Michael Andrew. To be fair, some of Maxsted's other chairmen are more tolerant. At Westpac,
The passion for thoroughbreds and racing – and Geelong – provides some perspective for one of the most highly regarded but personally inscrutable corporate careers of recent decades. It has hardly been a conventional one, from inauspicious beginnings through personal tragedy. For all the superficial similarity with Crawford's career path – KPMG partner, then governance role at the firm before leaving for boards and ultimately chairs – Maxsted's Geelong education (primary, secondary and tertiary) is hardly the stuff of the Melbourne establishment à la Crawford's Scotch College and Melbourne University beginnings. "Happenstance and the opportunity of the moment," Maxsted says of his course from graduate trainee to insolvency partner to management, then boards and a chair. And if Maxsted says he has never felt an outsider because of his background, he has always sported a beard, another peculiarity in corporate Melbourne.
Professionally, though, the Maxsted career is textbook. He joined Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co in 1974 as a 19-year-old graduate, working in audit and professional practice until the stint in the UK, in Birmingham, for two years from 1980. "I was young when I finished high school, which was one of the reasons I stayed in Geelong," Maxsted says. "My senior partner, Ron Dunn, a wonderful person and truly formative for me, had spent some time in Birmingham – it was a major partnership for us at the time – and thought it would be good for me to go there. So I said 'yes Mr Dunn' – it wasn't something I'd planned and that's pretty much been my story. I've been very lucky to have people like Ron and, obviously, David. That was the relationship with the most longevity."
On his return from Birmingham in 1982, Maxsted became a senior manager working for Crawford and Poulton, eventually taking over as national manager of corporate recovery in 1998. The team of Crawford and Maxsted became synonymous with the workouts of Australia's great era of corporate failure and recession in the late '80s and '90s, names such as Linter Group, Interwest, Bond Brewing, Bell Publishing, International Harvester, and Trustees and Executors Agency. The pair was famously installed by BHP Co Ltd to run one of the last remnants of the John Elliott Foster's empire, International Brewing Holdings (nee Harlin) after IBH failed to pay BHP $1 billion.
Maxsted says he and the rather more patrician Crawford complemented one another. "You always knew where you stood with David," Maxsted says, "and hopefully vice versa. We are different personalities but we are both outcomes- and values-focused, we don't tolerate fools – although I am perhaps a bit more tolerant in that sense." Pressed further, Maxsted also admits to a formative incident early in his career as an insolvency partner with Crawford working on the enormous International Harvester workout.
"I didn't do it intentionally, but I had gone quite a long way down the track without keeping Crawford up to date," he says. "I happened to be in Italy, in Torino, for the Fiat trucks, and I received a phone call from him. It was quite a long phone call and it began with him saying, in that deliberate manner of his, 'explain to me again why you are in Italy?' and I had to run through why it was important." It was an valuable lesson in communication for Maxsted.
Crawford maintains the two "never had cross words" but agrees their personalities were different as well as complementary – "there was an element of good cop/bad cop". He and Poulton saw very early on Maxsted had "the balance and ability to leave the ego behind" that was required of an insolvency partner. In part, Crawford believes, that is something that makes insolvency practitioners, in particular, very valuable on boards.
"As an insolvency partner with a major appointment, you are dealing with major corporates, senior members of the banking committees, major corporate creditors, the staff; you are constantly having to adjudicate the rights of different parties and often in the public gaze. Or in the courts seeking a judgment. I had no doubt that he would play a major role – nor that, when he chose to move on, he would be in great demand in the corporate world as a director."
Indeed, Crawford facilitated Maxsted's Westpac appointment. When he was leaving the board two years ago, Westpac chairman Evans asked him to help find a replacement. He had no hesitation in suggesting Maxsted. "Ted had said they wanted someone like me, and Lindsay is like me – but much better at some of those other skills, maybe the people skills," Crawford says.
Evans agrees insolvency practitioners have the "sort of experience that matters for banks". "Banks are about risk and risk management and insolvency guys have lots of experience in situations where that's failed," he says. More than that though, Evans praises the precision of Maxsted's board contributions. "At board meetings he speaks less than some others – but he says more," as Evans articulates it. "He might not say something until quite late in the debate but it will always be on the knocker."
Maxsted set up his own advisory firm
"I have very fond memories of my time spent with Lindsay," he says. "When I arrived in Melbourne in January 2008, he was the lead KPMG person working for Centro. He befriended me immediately and became a true confidant." Rufrano recalls one particular incident, a very productive twist on the 'elevator deal' scenario: "About the second week in December 2008, just before the deadline, Lindsay and I were working on a Sunday at Centro's Collins Street offices. We were leaving about 3pm when the elevator promptly broke down. We sat on the floor for two hours solving the Centro problems and, it seemed, all the problems of the world. Time went fast. By December 19th we had renegotiated all the Centro debts creating a three-year stabilisation agreement."
In January 2010, having ended an agreement between KPMG and Align, Maxsted joined Lazard as a special adviser, adding restructuring experience in Australia to match that for which Lazard is better known globally.
Wylie first worked with Maxsted during the privatisation of Victoria's gas and electricity assets in the '90s, a process run by Wylie. "We used to call him 'Mr Unflappable' and, of course, that's the perfect personality for a board or management – or a restructuring," Wylie says. "You want a guy who's capable of taking the temperature." Carnegie Wylie had been retained to work on the restructure of Centro when Maxsted was brought in by the banks and the two worked together on other restructures before Maxsted joined Lazard.
'Mr Unflappable' is a good descriptor. Always a congenial character, with a ready smile, the 56-year-old Lindsay Philip Maxsted – he's often referred to as LPM – is described by others as "droll", "quietly humorous", "slightly sardonic". Even "whimsical". He does pepper his very deliberate conversational manner with unexpected whimsy. Describing his training in the firm, he notes that today's streaming of graduates into a variety of businesses such as advisory or tax was unheard of in his day – audit was the only stream. "Not that there's anything wrong with those other streams – as Seinfeld would say," he quips.
Maxsted doesn't leap out as a Seinfeld fan. But asked whether he has ever lost his legendary reserve, he instantly answers "when Geelong lost the 2008 Grand Final". A Geelong tragic, Maxsted says the team will get over the loss of its best player, Gary Ablett jnr, and coach, Mark 'Bomber' Thompson, but never the shock loss to Hawthorn in a year they were clearly the dominant team.
Far more profoundly though, Maxsted's life was shattered in 2000 when his wife Lynda died suddenly of a heart condition, leaving him with two children and little experience of being a "modern" father. "Those events have certainly changed me and it has not worn off," he says. "It just gives you a different perspective. It is 10 years now and while I don't think about it every day, I absolutely make sure I have a better understanding of what's important and what's not. People do say I am calm in a crisis but I think that professional calmness is a bit different; it's knowing what you have to do."
He says he was previously a "pretty classic absent father". "When my first two children were born I had just made partner. It was that period during the recession; Lynda was terrific but after she died I was very critical on myself in many ways because I had been remote and I had a 12-year-old and 14-year-old. I am very close to my kids but also it is a different period now." Different, as well, in that Maxsted has remarried and has a two-year-old daughter – although, as Rufrano remembers, that birth hardly shook Maxsted's corporate poise.
"We had several deadlines for extensions during 2008 all to culminate at December 15th," he says. "Two weeks before, a group of us, including Lindsay, were working on a Saturday and decided to have lunch. A member of Lindsay's team asked about the soon-to-be birth of his baby. I was totally surprised – how could he be having a child during this period without me knowing? This was the working Lindsay keeping his personal life to himself."
Not only did the death of his first wife change Maxsted personally, it has rippled :through his professional career. He is now on the board of Baker IDI, the merged heart and diabetes research institution. "It's a terrific institution, one of the finest research bodies with a very personal touch and, obviously, because of Lynda, a very dear cause in terms of heart disease," he says. He was approached by Tabcorp and Suncorp director Paula Dwyer to join Baker. She had known him for many years stretching back to when she was at broker Ord Minnett. She had also worked with him via a joint venture between Tabcorp and Racing Victoria.
"I didn't know Lynda but I have known his current wife Catherine a long time," Dwyer says. "With the joint venture, Lindsay's role was to act as the responsible entity for Racing Victoria's 25 per cent stake. It was a custod-ianship and potentially adversarial but Lindsay was absolutely scrupulous and valuable." Baker had gone through a messy fraud incident when Dwyer joined the board in 2002 and was rebuilding its governance. She immediately considered Maxsted for a financial role and he now heads that committee. "I thought of Lindsay and thought it might be suitable after his wife's sad death. He has been just fantastic."
Maxsted joins the ranks of Australia's blue chip chairmen at a time of transition, with some of the most powerful figures of the past decade retiring. It will be Maxsted, along with the likes of Leigh Clifford, Michael Chaney and John Morschel, who will be taking the prominent roles of Don Argus, Charles Goode or Don Mercer as the focal points of the governance debate in Australia.
Maxsted has already demonstrated he is prepared to be more outspoken in the role of chair than he has in other roles, most notably in his first annual meeting as chairman of Transurban. With a recent history of shareholder revolt against Transurban's remuneration structures, Maxsted knew he would face a grilling and a strong protest vote against the remuneration report and executive bonuses at the meeting. But the protest vote of 60 per cent against the report was still a harsh slap in the face. He noted after the AGM "if we have a divergent view on the quantum or measurement of somebody's remuneration, think how little impact that has compared to an inadequate analysis of whether we should buy Lane Cove Tunnel or whether we should recommend a change of control proposal at $5.42 per security. They are the really big issues that make a difference."
He later told the AFR Magazine, "My point would be that yes, remuneration is very important around the board table ... but there are other things that are decided around the table with are relatively much more significant. If you make a poor decision [on remuneration], on fixed pay or bonuses then, yes, that can hurt the company. But these things are relatively easily fixed and you move on ... If we buy a road, that is a very major decision; you buy it for a long time, for 30 years, that is a crucial decision."
Not that Maxsted's other blue-chip board table is uncontroversial. He was relatively new to the role when Westpac brought the wrath of politicians and talkback radio upon itself in late 2009 by raising mortgage rates faster than the Reserve Bank was raising official rates. Now the role of banking villain has been taken by Commonwealth Bank, which made the same decision at the end of last year. Nevertheless, Maxsted remains worried about the tone of the debate.
"There is nothing wrong, nothing broken with banking in this country," he says with the certainty of a man who has spent his career amid the carnage of broken banking decisions. But the assertion comes with a weary shake of the head. "It is easy to be dismissive [of the backlash] because you know it is unfounded, but people do have this view the banks are profiteering and these fears can lead to poor decision-making, poor policy. Yet we are still so close to the financial crisis, people seem to have forgotten that."
As he becomes accustomed to his role as one of the highest profile figures of the new generation of Australian directors, Maxsted acknowledges, however reluctantly, that he will inevitably be drawn more into the public debate. It will be a challenge. Whatever else, such a role is almost diametrically opposed to "speaking less and saying more". Or indeed Maxsted might prefer to quote Seinfeld: "Well, you're not saying nothing so you must be saying something."
AFR Magazine


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Lori (nee Schwartz) and Andy Walinsky of Lafayette Hill, along with big sister Zoe, announce the birth of their son and baby brother, Eli Benjamin (Elijah Binyamin), on March 5.
Sharing in their happiness are grandparents Debbie and Marvin Schwartz and Nicey and Michael Walinsky, along with great-grandfather Philip Schwartz.
Joining in the celebration are Aunt Bev and Uncle Gary Weinberg, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Marc Walinsky, and Aunt Stacy Walinsky, along with cousins Brooke and Jessie Weinberg, and Bailey and Owen Walinsky.
Eli Benjamin is named in loving memory of his maternal grandmother Edith Schwartz and his maternal and paternal grandfathers, Benjamin Sklaroff and Benjamin Walinsky.


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Published: May 12, 2013 at 11:12 PMWho is the one who actually takes these pictures? Just curious because last time I was at universal (about 2 weeks ago) I happened to see a random helicopter just hovering over the park.
Published: May 13, 2013 at 6:38 AMThe best recent aerial pictures I've seen on any site.
Published: May 13, 2013 at 9:27 AMHope they keep in mind their larger guest on these new Harry Potter attractions. I have seen so many people get turned away at Forbidden Journey due to body shape and size.
Published: May 13, 2013 at 1:19 PMI drive by the Cabana Bay resort area several times a week and it is going up really fast. Those rooms look tiny though and they look like exterior hallways facing out on to Turkey Lake Road and Hollywood Way.
Published: May 13, 2013 at 5:59 PMWow... some great shots TH! Thanks for sharing. These photos really help to put the new land into perspective.
Published: May 13, 2013 at 6:07 PMWow... some great shots TH! Thanks for sharing. These photos really help to put the new land into perspective.
Published: May 14, 2013 at 11:08 AMGreat article! Thanks for the pictures! I love how the people behind Universal Orlando are always changing and updating the park. I just got back from Universal and Islands of Adventure about 3 weeks ago. I plan to go again in early 2015. In that span of time they will have added: The Transformers Ride, Diagon Alley, and possibly Springfield.
That's why Universal Orlando Resort has always been my favorite theme park destination. They always have new attractions debuting, so the park always feels like a fresh experience when you visit.
Published: May 15, 2013 at 8:38 AMLove the shots! Can't wait to see what they have in store for the visuals while riding the train. My guess is digital displays with cinematic graphics in place of windows.


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Happy Year of the Dragon!
On the left, my parents' gao; on the right, gao at Panya.
For the Chinese new year, my parents sent some nian gao, the requisite brown sugar sweetened sticky rice cake and some date and lotus seed candies. It's their way of saying "Happy Year of the Dragon" and "hurry up and have kids." (Of all the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, the dragon is the most prestigious. Every time the Year of the Dragon comes around, there's a Chinese baby boomlet.)
The Chinese language is full of homonyms, which make for plenty of punny jokes, and for the new year, all the traditional eats are loaded with auspicious symbolism. The nian gao is always eaten around the new year because "nian gao" not only means "sticky cake," but also to advance, year after year. Usually, the nian gao is topped with dates and sometimes filled with lotus seeds, or there might be a dessert soup with the two, symbolizing more children, a blessing for Chinese. The Mandarin Chinese word for date is a homonym for "early," and lotus seed, or lian zi, sounds like the words "continuous" and "children."
There's almost always fish at a Chinese banquet, especially for the new year. "Fish" is pronounced similarly to "reserve" or "leftover" in Chinese, and by the time the fish course arrives, toward the end of dinner, everyone's usually so full they can't finish it. But that's the point: a hope of abundance for the new year.
Last night, the eve of the lunar new year, was a big night for most Chinese restaurants, but there's still plenty more eating for tonight. Restaurants like Ming's Chinese, Kirin, and Jade Dynasty Seafood still have open reservations.
Chinatown, of course, is always a go-to for nian gao, but Panya also makes a few nian gao variations: the traditional brown sugar cake, a coconut sticky cake, and a water chestnut nian ago that's more like a firm jello with chunks of sweet, crunchy water chestnuts. My favorite way to eat nian gao is to chill it overnight, then slice it and pan-fry it for a caramelized sugar exterior and oozy, sticky inside.
Gung hee fat choy!
Ming's Chinese Restaurant, 841-8889
Kirin, 942-1888
Jade Dynasty Seafood, jadedynastyhawaii.com, 947-8818
Panya, multiple locations, panyagroup.com
(Another homonym case in point: Chinese restaurant phone numbers tend to have lots of "8"s, which sounds like "fortune" in Chinese.)


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GUATEMALA CITY (Nov. 17)
Roberto Stein, president of the Guatemalan Zionist Organization, has been named this country's delegate to the 25th Zionist Congress to be held in Jerusalem next month. This will be the first time that Guatemala will be represented at a Zionist Congress. Mr. Stein will represent all local Zionist organizations.


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Door-to-door salesman selling loft insulation.
What was your first-ever job?
Door-to-door salesman selling loft insulation.
What was your worst experience as a trainee?
As a pupil barrister, getting on the wrong train for a planning inquiry and failing to get back in time by other means. It was pre-mobile phones, so there they were all waiting.
Where is the best place to go if you want to find out what's really going on in the office?
There are pretty good views from the glass lifts.
What time do you usually leave the office?
Not late, but more often than not it's to go to a function.
What do you do at weekends?
Family, friends, music, mass catering.
What's your favourite restaurant?
Do readers really want to hear about our staff canteen again? Various pubs in the Chilterns.
If you weren't a lawyer, what would you have been?
Journalism or the music or advertising industries.
Who's your hero and why?
Lesley MacDonagh, former head of planning at Lovells. She had an intuitive sense of what was best for the client and project.
What's the best thing about your job?
Working side-by-side with non-lawyers in achieving developments in a system where the odds are stacked in favour of the status quo.
What's the toughest thing about your job?
Bad legislation, transactions where I spend more time chasing than negotiating; turning away interesting work through conflicts of interest.
What's your biggest work/career mistake and what did you learn from it?
Various stories from the 1980s: the client who went missing after a long celebratory lunch; the partner I mistook to be a new trainee at an induction event. I learnt the boundary between confidence and overconfidence.
What car do you drive?
Ford Ka to the station, XC90 for weekend child freight.
What book are you currently reading?
Vikram Seth's Two Lives.
What's on your CD player at the moment?
Flaming Lips' At War with the Mystics, Echo and the Bunnymen's Siberia and Johnny Cash.
What's your favourite children's book?
Anything by Jacqueline Wilson for my nine-year-old daughter or Steve Cole's Astrosaurs series my six-year-old son.
What's the most exciting deal/case you've worked on and why?
For litigation adrenaline, cases such as acting for Bishopsgate Goodsyard businesses against London Underground. For the possibility of leaving something of lasting value, the negotiations that led to the retention of the London Eye or consents for big regeneration schemes such as Quintain's Wembley project.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what two luxury items would you take?
A Telecaster and a tractor mower.
If a movie was being made about your life, which an actor would play you?
It would be a Pixar animation with a Hugh Grant voiceover.
Firm: SJ Berwin
Position: Head of planning and environment
Lives: Hertfordshire
Educated: King Edward VI School, Southampton, and Queen Mary College, University of London (1981-84).
Work history:
1985: Called to the bar
1987: Joined Oppenheimers
1989: Joined Lovells
1991: Admitted as a solicitor
1997: Joined SJ Berwin
1999: Elected to partnership
2005: Elected head of planning and environment


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New contracts
After several months of negotiations we are extremely pleased to have been awarded the new roads and car parks contract for The Grange school in Hartford nearread more
Royal Visit
F&S Project gets Royal sign of approval. HRH Prince Harry visited a project we have been immensely proud to be part of at Cast North West inread more
Established as a limited company in 1994, F & S Construction is based in the North West (Mawdesley) and specialises in the management and execution of groundwork and civil engineering projects.
With over 17 years experience in the construction industry we have built up a reputation for quality, reliability and the ability to deliver on time and within budget. F & S are a main contractor involved in renewable energy projects, including Wind Farms and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Plants involving road construction, excavation and concreting of tank and clamp bases.Read More


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Haven't been able to find it anywhere. It's been discontinued. 4 inches tall. Anyone want to part with theirs?
Haven't been able to find it anywhere. It's been discontinued. 4 inches tall. Anyone want to part with theirs?
Here's a buy it now listing that includes one, also a nice butterfly that I like because it has antannae! Save the swan for me if you don't want it!
I seen that one Cindy, but the one I want doesn't have the flared dress like that one. I can't upload a picture from my work computer to show you what it looks like. Here's a link to the one I need. . I don't want all the other cutters that comes with this one. I wrote a message to the person that's selling these to see if she would just sell the one I want, but haven't heard back from her.
Why don't you get Karen's girl cutter and use that to make the girl with the pigtails? There's a pigtailed girl in the samples:
Sheryl they still sell it I think at a local place I go to here in Il. I can check and pick it up next time I'm there. I have one but can't part with it as I use it alot.
That would be wonderful Lynda. I'd really apprieciate it! Thanks
lynda as soon as I saw that girl with the pigtails I thought of you!
I have her and the boy - love them, they're so cute! Hope you get one! I bought mine online can't remember where though, sorry...
Last edited by DippinPops; June 10th, 2012 at 04:09 AM.
aka Dippin' Pops ~ aka Sweet P's