Buying a Home in Los Angeles From Abroad

Dreaming of the Hollywood lifestyle? Of running into populare Hollywood celebrities in malls and restaurants? Of living right at the vicinity of Sunset Boulevard and of Santa Monica beach? Well, here's the good news. You need not be in California or in the United States for that matter to be able to buy and own a home in Los Angeles!Most people would definitely say that now is a good time to buy your dream home. As the old adage goes, one's misfortune is another's good luck. With the financial crunch, property value is lower than expected. Enticing interest and mortgage rates are likewise being offered.More and more homes are lining up towards foreclosure and a good number of homeowners opting to sell, you may be able to get that dream home at a price that fits your budget perfectly.If you live abroad and you are out to take advantage of the crisis and go bargain hunting for amazing property, now is the time. It does not really matter whether you are in the United States or abroad. There are several real estate agents who are willing and ready to assist you in your home purchase. What's even better news is that you can access them online!Many property websites will give you basic real estate information. More popular Los Angeles home purchases include condos, townhouses and stand alone homes with big front lawns and backyards located near west Hollywood Rosetta Stone Latin Spanish Hills. The sprawling active city of Los Angeles also give home buyers options of which neighborhoods to live in, whether in downtown Los Angeles or in the more high end and posh communities of Hollywood and Orange County.The internet has allowed several agents to advertise, handle consultations and give sound property advice to interested homeowners online. Many websites do not only give property details, location and photos of homes, condominums and real estate finds, they can even give you initial mortgage estimates and computations, as well as provide you with a list of eligibility requirements if you are a foreigner interested in purchasing property in Los Angeles.Most of the time, aside from the usual legal documents and verification, a substantial downpayment would be required if you are a foreigner or if you are not a United States citizen. They will also give you initial information on taxes and other government fines and penalties that you may need to pay upon purchase.Of course, while you may be able to successfully make the initial transactions online, it is always to your best interest to see the property for yourself. check whether you are indeed purchasing a property that fits your needs as well as that of your family. Schedule a visit to your prospect property. That way you will know that you are indeed making an excellent purchase for your dream home. I wish you the very best of luck finding your next dream home. It is one of the best feelings in the world and you will never regret your decision of buying your next dream home in LA!

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10 common car-buying mistakes

With interest rates near record lows, it might seem like now is a great time to buy a new car. But don't speed down to the dealership just yet. Take the time to do a little homework first.Many car-buying mistakes are quite common, say auto industry watchers. To identify those errors, we asked for advice from experts at Edmunds, AutoPacific, J.D. Power and Associates and AAA. They gave us their best advice for navigating what can be a confusing path to buying a car.They also told us that most dealers are honest, reliable and hardworking local businessmen and women, but that there are some simple precautions every consumer should take before purchasing a car.How much car can you afford?1. Talking too much. Three things to never say on the lot:"I need this car now." Desperation breeds price inflation."I love this car". Emotions make you vulnerable."This is how much I can afford to pay per month." Once dealers know how much you want to pay per month, they'll find other ways -- through fees, warranties and financing -- to make up the difference between that payment ceiling and how much they must make on a sale. Talk about the absolute price of a car, not the monthly payment.2. Not doing your research. Walking into a dealership open to any ideas the salesperson has is a bad idea -- it makes you vulnerable to impulsively buying something you don't need, can't afford or ultimately won't want. Determining the market value of your car will help you know where to begin negotiations on the starting price of the vehicle. Use Kelley Blue Book (you can check Kelley values on MSN Autos here), the NADA Guides research center, Cars, AutoTrader and Edmunds to find the true market value and the expected residual value of the car you want.3. Not being realistic about what you need. Before you hit the showroom floor, take a hard look at the kind of driving you do. Don't assume you need a brand-new car, and consider keeping a driving journal for a week, or even a month, to chart exactly when, where and how far you drive Rosetta Stone Language each day. Then buy a vehicle according to those needs -- not aspirations, like thinking "maybe someday we'll need to tow a boat, so I need a truck with three-ton towing capacity."4. Leasing a car because you can't afford the down payment. Lease payments, especially for luxury cars, don't require a down payment and are often cheaper per month than what it costs to buy the car outright. But they don't always pay off. You have to determine if having a new car every two or three years and with no down payment -- but no ownership and no stake in the residual value -- is more important than long-term cost savings and ownership of a vehicle you will eventually pay off.5. Assuming you'll use the dealer's financing. Instead of going through the dealership, arrange for financing at your bank or credit union. And choose the shortest-term car loan you can; long-term loans coax people into buying cars they can't really afford by stretching out the payments over such a long period that the car is almost fully depreciated by the time it's paid off.Find the best car loan6. Buying at the beginning of the month. Dealers don't offer their best deals or incentives until the end of the month, when they realize how close they are to (or how far they are far from) hitting monthly sales goals. So if you can, wait it out.7. Buying at the beginning of the year. Dealers have less incentive to give you a great deal at the start of the year, when their inventory is brand-new and they have 12 months to hit annual sales targets. But in December, they'll have to clear out old stock in time for the new model-year cars to hit the showroom. That's when you should buy.8. Discussing the trade-in deal during the new-car negotiation. Be honest at the beginning that you may want to trade in your old vehicle -- but keep the new-car purchase discussion and the trade-in value discussion separate.

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Animal bone markings show evidence that Lucy species used stone tools, ate meat

in Paleontology ArchaeologyTwo Arizona State University researchers conducting zooarchaeological and archaeometric analyses of four fossilized animal bone fragments found by the Dikika Research Project in northeastern Ethiopia – within walking distance of the discovery of the hominin skeleton "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) – confirm that unusual marks on the bones were inflicted by stone tools. Their conclusion weighs in on findings reported in the Aug. 12 journal Nature, that A. afarensis used sharp-edged stones and a strong striking force to cleave flesh and marrow from large-sized animal carcasses some 3.4 million years ago. That evidence pushes back the origins of technology – the use of stone tools – and carnivory by some 800,000 years, from 2.6 Myr to 3.4, explained Curtis Marean, a paleoanthropologist at ASU's Institute of Human Origins and one of the world's leading experts in the study of animal bones from archaeological sites.Marean, a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a member of the international team made up of experts in paleoanthropology, archeology, geology, paleontology and materials science who reported the findings in the Nature article "Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia."The zooarchaeological analysis of the bone fragments, which included a femur shaft from an animal the size of a goat and a rib fragment from a much larger animal the size of a cow, was conducted at Arizona State University. Using a standard binocular microscope in ASU's zooarchaeology laboratory, Marean was able to provide evidence that sharp-edged stones and a strong striking force were used to remove flesh and marrow from the bones Rosetta Stone of large-sized animal carcasses.To further determine that the markings were not modern, he turned to Hamdallah Béarat, a senior research scientist at ASU's School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy."To confirm that the cutmarks on the bones are 'old' and verify that they were induced by stone tools, I used the Environmental Cell Scanning Electron Microscope (E-SEM) and the attached Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDX) in ASU's LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science," said Béarat, who has degrees in chemistry, archaeometry, material science and engineering.The E-SEM was used because it has a chamber and stage that can accommodate large bone fragments, Béarat explained."And, since the bone material is an insulator and these precious bone samples cannot be coated with a conducting film, such as gold or carbon, this E-SEM allows us to run the analysis in the H2O-vapor mode and thus avoid charging effects, while still using a high accelerating voltage (15-25kV)," Béarat said."Hamdallah is an expert in materials research and keenly interested in archaeology," noted Marean. "He had the great idea to do X-ray mapping of the surfaces of the bone to see whether minerals that passed from the marks to the surface of the bone were fossilized."The geologist on the team, Jonathan Wynn, from the University of South Florida, relied on documented dated volcanic deposits in the Dikika area to estimate the date of the marked bones to 3.4 million years ago."This discovery dramatically shifts the known timeframe of a game-changing behavior for our ancestors," said paleoanthropologist Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged, director of the Dikika project and director of anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences. No hominin remains were found with the animal bone fragments that were uncovered 200 meters away from the site where Alemseged and a team discovered "Selam" (Lucy's baby) in 2000. Lucy was discovered in 1974 a few miles north, near Hadar, by Donald Johanson, the world renowned ASU paleoanthropologist."There is no question that the announcement of stone tool use at 3.4 million years ago will unleash a flurry of controversy and genuine disbelief among some scholars," said Johanson.

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Best Home Inspection Training Providers in United States

Home inspection training plays an important role in providing the basic knowledge and necessary skills to all new home inspectors. The certification allows the qualified professionals to provide quality evaluation on the conditions of the houses or buildings. In order to have a good start in this career, it is essential to obtain quality training from those public recognized training providers. In United States, the fastest and safest way to look for quality training programs is through the places like the American Home Inspector Training Institute and the American Society of Home Inspectors. These institutions provide both online and offline formal training to new comers. Furthermore, they also provide continuing education programs for existing home inspectors.Besides that, let's take a closer look on the top training providers which are highly recommended by the public. Kaplan Professional School It was established in 1987 as the first licensed home inspection school in North America. Currently, it offers the largest variety of training programs in this specific field. Penn Foster This career school is famous for its distance learning program. The students can learn all the details on inspecting houses (interiors and exteriors) without attending classes at the campus. Allied Real Estate This school provides outstanding learning opportunities for students to increase their level of knowledge Rosetta Stone and skills through its online course. Ashworth College It is a nationally accredited online and distance learning school which is famous for its online diploma in home inspection. After obtaining the necessary knowledge and skills from the training school, your next step should be sitting for state exam to get yourself certified. Don't get me wrong - teacher should be paid more, in fact, I think that as long as pay in our society is unequal, teachers deserve more of it than anyone else, except maybe fire fighters. But that's not an education reform, that's just a matter of valuing teachers.Some of these reforms require adopting a new ideology, some mean relinquishing a bit of control, and at least one costs money. It's difficult for adults to change their ways of being, and people, especially those without children in public school, don't seem willing to invest more of their own money.?It's always easier to find someone or some group of people to blame for a problem, but the truth is that the problems of education in the United States are structural, and we won't solve them by focusing on the players instead of how the game is played.

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Schools Add To Allure Of Morristown NJ Real Estate

Morristown New Jersey is home to some of the best public and private high schools in the region. It is also home to the Rabbinical College of America and the College of Saint Elizabeth. Because of all the fine educational experiences available in Morristown, this charming suburb is a wonderful place to call home.The Morris School District's public schools serve the communities of Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains. It serves approximately 4,700 students with three primary schools, three intermediate schools, one magnet school for kindergarten through fifth grade, one middle school and one high school.Morristown also boasts numerous excellent private schools. The Red Oaks School is a Montessori school, serving students from preschool through sixth grade. Students from kindergarten through eighth grade attend Assumption Roman Catholic grade school. The Peck School, a private day school, serves nearly three hundred students through grade eight.Several private junior and senior high schools are also found in Morristown. The Delbarton School is an all-boys Catholic school with a student body of over 500 students in grades seven through 12. Morristown-Beard School is a private co-ed school for sixth through twelfth graders. The Religious Teachers Filippini also conducts the Villa Walsh Academy, a private Catholic college prep school. The Rabbinical College of America in Morristown has trained thousands of Lubavitch rabbis on its 82 acre campus. It is one of the larger Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic Yeshivas in the world today. The Yeshiva is supported by some of Rosetta Stone the wealthiest Jewish community philanthropists, including David Chase, Ronald Perelman and Ronald Lauder. Rabbi Moshe Herson directs the Yeshiva.The Rabbinical College of America is licensed by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education to grant a four year bachelor's degree in religious studies to its students. It is also accredited by the Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools. Many Jewish families relocate to Morristown every year to be close to the Yeshiva and all of its surrounding synagogues.The College of Saint Elizabeth is also located in town in the Convent Station neighborhood. It is a private, Roman Catholic four year liberal arts college for women. Founded in 1899, the college has long brought beauty and refinement to the community.The College of Saint Elizabeth is the oldest women's college in New Jersey. It was one of the nation's first Catholic colleges to award degrees to women. The campus offers theater and cultural events to area residents on a regular basis. One of the most popular campus destinations for locals is the college's greenhouse, which was built in 1911. New York City is only an hour by train from the front gate of The College of Saint Elizabeth, making this quaint college town a perfect place to live for commuters.Because of the strong community values of religion and education found in Morristown, it is an ideal place to live. Whether you are a student on campus or an educator or simply looking for a great place to raise a family in metro New York, Morristown has numerous real estate opportunities for you.

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Highland Holiday Homes and Highland Vacation Club

Holiday is something that every one wait for, go on a vacation is always the best solution for recharging your battery, refresh your mind, body and soul and make better performance in job or school, especially when you get a good discounted travel deal your holiday will be complete. You too lazy to plan your itinerary, or you are too busy to plan and think where you want to go, ‘you just want to have a great holiday and also get a good discounted travel deal, then let's start your way by choosing Highland Holiday Homes.The best way to contact Highland Holiday Homes which you can easily do it from home or your office, by Telephone, you can have 10 or 15 options without wasting your time in the street to jump from one place to another place plus you can directly compare them with the same day within a few minutes by email from us.Once you reduce your choices to the top 3, you can go directly to their office to get the details of the itinerary that the agencies listed on the website, a good travel agent will help you gladly with your need like destination, how long you're going to stay, how many budget do you have, or helping you with the travel documents like Rosetta Stone passport or visa. Now you ready to decide which agent do you choose? Which destination you will visit ?get a good discounted travel deal are not that hard, all you have to do is go Highland Holiday Homes and then make your choice.Come to the perfect place to experience hospitality at its finest, no matter if you are traveling for business or pleasure. We provide travelers with upscale accommodation, personalized service and information on local businesses and attractions. We provide our guests with friendly service and a variety of affordable amenities. Highland Holiday Homes Pvt. Ltd is a company established to fulfill the demands of holiday lovers, looking for perfect holiday that provides them all they needed. Highland Holiday Homes in India offers you a relaxing vacation in luxurious resorts located at some of India's premier hill stations and beaches of India. Come and enjoy the cool climate, green landscape and clear mountain air in the our resorts at Goa, Kodaikanal, Tirupati , Mahabalipuram and Lonavala; in the midst of astounding views of waterfalls, lakes, caves, hiking trails that weave through the woody surroundings. Walk across meadows of wild flowers and apple orchards in full bloom, see rushing streams cascade down the mountainside on Lonavala and Kodaikanal, and stroll down the beach at Mahabalipuram and Goa.

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A fox with a bit of hedgehog

THE LAST MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING by Andrew Robinson Oneworld, Replace the commas in the subtitle of this book, 'Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, and Deciphered theAmong Other Feats of Genius', with exclamation marks, and it reads like the title of a Gillray cartoon or the patter of a circus huckster.The problem we have with polymaths, as Andrew Robinson points out in his introduction, is that they do seem too good to be true. When it comes to Isaiah Berlin's famous distinction between thinkers -- hedgehogs, who know one big thing, and foxes, who know many things -- we are generally more comfortable with the hedgehogs. Or rather, preferring to pin thinkers down into easily memorable categories, we will foxes into hedgehogs. The foxes, with their wide-ranging intellectual curiosity and manifold talents excite our suspicion. Perhaps they are plausible quacks; perhaps they force us to acknowledge our own blinkered specialisms. Thomas Young, with his achievements in optics, physics, medicine, philology, life insurance and mechanics (among other things), was a remarkable figure in the early 19th century; he now has the biography he deserves. He was elected to the Royal Society at the tender age of 21. In his late twenties his theory of optics in the eye led to researches which demonstrated that light acted as waves, not, as Newton had said, a stream of corpuscles. In his forties he contributed 63 articles to the supplement of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on subjects as diverse and complicated as bridges, ancient Egypt and tides; at the same time he was making the first moves in the unlocking of the riddle of the . And these are just a few of the things that Young managed to cram into his life. He died in 1827, aged just 56. The list of his achievements Rosetta Stone Software is enough to make the reader feel dizzy and at least a little inadequate; it is a problem for the biographer as well.It would be too easy to eulogise such a character. In another author's hands, Young might have been treated with reverential awe. But Robinson is an experienced enough writer to give the case against his subject as well as attempting to justify the big claims of the title. In his own time and ever since Young has been accused of spreading himself too widely to make a real mark in any of his fields. As one friend complained to Young, it was a matter of regret that his versatility was such that he was forever being pulled 'from mathematics to Greek philosophy and from that to medicine' so that he was unable to bring his discoveries to a 'pitch of perfection'. But, as this book shows, Young is a key figure in the history of science. It was just that he did not boast about his discoveries, or indeed explain them with the precision required of a rigorous discipline; it was left to later generations to elucidate Young's insights. There would be no research grant for Young today. As he said, he preferred 'general investigations to particular applications', but doubted whether the world would have benefited had he confined himself to a narrower sphere. He would have found it impossible to do so. Fortunately, he had the rare luxury to go where his mind led him. I take the sobriquet 'The Last Man Who Knew Everything' to apply to his methodology rather than to a miraculous feat of memory and reading. For in every aspect of his researches Young returned to first principles. He had a prodigious memory and the ability to hold a multitude of competing theories in his mind at once. He cleared his mind of the cant and received opinions and sacred tenets of science and medicine that imprisoned the thinking of many of his contemporaries.

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Oral language and beginning to read

Introduction Oral language has long been regarded as the foundation for beginning reading as children draw on the meaning, syntax and the phonology of spoken language as a bridge to emergent literacy (Saracho & Spodek, 2007; NICHD, 2005; Poe, Burchinal & Roberts, 2004; Menyuk & Chesnick, 1997). Oral language and print knowledge are viewed as the two pillars of learning to read (Mol, Bus & De Jong, 2009). As oral language is related to learning to read many teachers are concerned about the vast diversity in the oral language capabilities of children starting school. In this small study of children in a metropolitan school in Adelaide the teachers commented that some children were beginning school with relatively small vocabularies and some used forms of nonstandard oral language. The teachers thought that children with nonstandard forms of English syntax may have difficulty accessing the syntax of books or book language to aid their beginning reading. Also the school had increasing numbers of children with English as an additional language as well as children who speak languages which have not been recorded in written form. The concern of these teachers led to questions about oral language and reading which are explored further through a review of literature, several case studies of groups of young children who are beginning to read emergent texts and an analysis of oral and written language.Oral language as a predictor of early reading The importance of oral language as a predictor of future literacy achievement is supported by research across a number of oral language domains. Young children need to have control over several aspects of oral language prior to starting the beginning to read process--phonology, vocabulary, syntax, discourse and pragmatics (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998). The National Early Literacy Panel (2008) in the United States in a review of research concluded that some aspects of oral language had substantial correlations with decoding and reading comprehension. There are several characteristics of Rosetta Stone English oral language: word meanings (semantics), sentence structure (syntax), the architecture of words and word parts (morphology) and sounds (phonology) (Richgels, 2004). In this paper the particular characteristics of oral language phonology, syntax and vocabulary will be explored and compared to written language.There has been a wealth of research evidence over the past 20 years demonstrating a strong link between phonological awareness and the ability to learn to read and spell. Measures of preschoolers' level of phonemic awareness strongly predicts their future success in learning to read and 'maybe the most important core and casual factor separating normal and disabled readers' (Adams 1990, pp. 304-305). Children's awareness of phonology, particularly rhyme and alliteration, was found to have a powerful effect in their eventual success in learning to read (Bradley & Bryant, 1983). Phonological skills, particularly rhyming, enable children to make analogies when learning to read and this is important in alphabetic literacy where there is a grapheme-to-phoneme relationship (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Byrne, 1998). In learning to read, phoneme segmentation was also found important for the reading of sight words and the matching of sounds to words. Dixon, Stuart and Masterson (2002) found that children's phoneme segmentation ability was related to not only learning new words quickly but also for building up a detailed representation of words useful for reading, proof reading and eventually spelling.The use of syntax or grammar in oral language has been identified as important for beginning reading comprehension and vocabulary development (Bowyer-Crane et al., 2008).

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Learning Management Systems and Online Home Schooling

The Grace Academy is an online homeschool program that utilizes a Learning Management System (LMS). This system is a package of software allowing students to access online courses from anywhere at any time of the day. By using a Learning Management System, students are free to learn at their own pace.Learning Management Systems typically include a vast database of information. However, this database is not just a source of information; it's a dynamic network of interlinking courses, assignments, readings, offsite materials, and more. Our Learning Management System, for example, offers students the opportunity to keep track of a student's progress throughout the year. Our gradebook and testing structure are Rosetta Stone Latin Spanish fully integrated.A Learning Management System usually has a heavier back-end management system that organizes the roles, users, course structures, report-generation, and teacher access. There are many different roles that a Learning Management System must play. Many different parties must be able to use it. Teachers and homeschool administrators should be allowed to send mass communications to the base of students and a variety of other functions.A primary advantage of a homeschool Learning Management System is its ability to be updated on the fly. Instead of waiting for years before new editions of homeschooling textbooks can be published, teachers are able to update the courses as soon as changes take place. For instance, we were able to demote Pluto from its former planetary status within a day of the decision by scientists to do so. It took will take years for other curricula to catch up. This is especially valuable in the social sciences as breakthroughs are common.

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Counting the Home Schooling Costs For Yourself

There are a lot of different things that need to be taken into consideration whenever you're homeschooling a child. Watching your child develop into a healthy adult is certainly one of the greatest benefits of teaching your child at home but there are a few other things that warrant some attention. For example, keeping home schooling costs in mind is important if you are going to be successful for the long-term.The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of things to take into consideration whenever you are trying to determine the home schooling costs. Things such as purchasing books, taking your child on field trips, paying for the curriculum as well as numerous other things are all going to end up very quickly. Although the average is about $3000 per year in order to teach your child at home, that number can vary by quite a bit depending on what you put into it.There are also some other home schooling costs that you need to take into consideration. For example, will one of the parents have to forgo working as a result of teaching the children at home? This can take you from a two income family down to a one income family and can seriously impact your budget. It is important Rosetta Stone Chinese for you to consider what is coming into the house as well as what is going out of the house whenever you are trying to determine home schooling costs. Only after you have done this, will you be able to make a good decision as far as whether this will work for your family or not. GCSE reform next month would also mean more varied questions. New Conservative plans for A-levels and GCSEs emerged last night. Some of the proposals being considered include giving more points in school league tables for A-levels achieved in "hard" subjects, such as maths and physics, and fewer points for so-called "soft" subjects such as media studies; and removing vocational qualifications, including the government's flagship new diploma, from league table rankings because they are "nowhere near as academically demanding". Michael Gove, the shadow children's secretary, told the?Sunday Telegraph?that Labour's "meddling and micromanaging of exams" had "dumbed down" the system. Homeschooling vs public school you decide?

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The Benefits of Home Schooling

A child's education is one of the most important things they will ever accomplish. It can be hard to watch them throw an education away. It can be even tougher to watch others fail to educate your child properly. If you have considered home schooling your child, there are a number of benefits you have to offer them. A family member's contribution to a child's education is often just as important, and sometimes more important, than the contribution of a stranger.One of the best benefits of home schooling is that you get to choose the curriculum. Unlike most public or private school teachers, you can design your child's learning experience around the things they enjoy. You can help to promote lifelong learning skills by simply showing them how the various subjects relate to their levels of interests. You decide what to teach and when to teach it because you know your child better than anyone else ever could. Another great benefit of home schooling is that the Rosetta Stone English learning experience will never stop for your children. You don't just have to be your child's teacher. You can continue to work through a concept throughout the day, month, or year. You have the power to guide your child's knowledge, to help them question and learn the things they need to know. They no longer just have to apply the concepts to a classroom environment, you can take those concepts outside the classroom and apply them to the world they will eventually live in. One final benefit of homeschooling your children is that you get the opportunity to consistently model the behavior you want them to apply to their lives. They no longer have to see the behavior of others and try to decide which way you might want them to go. They can see how you live your life each day and try to apply those principles to their own lives.There are so many great things about home schooling your child. An education is one of the best gifts you can offer your child. Shouldn't that gift be the perfection that only you can design?

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The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

The government has lost all credibility. We call them Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" "We are extremely frustrated and angry." 1107 GMT: Protesters in Tahrir Square wave banners and shout slogans calling for Mubarak to stand down. 1104 GMT: The Middle East and the whole world waits to see what will happen in Tahrir Square. Will the crowds disperse as the army has urged? Will people march to key locations in Cairo such as the state television building or the president's palace? Crowds have already assembled in both places. 1101 GMT: A dramatic moment. History could be in the making as Friday prayers come to a close in Tahrir Square. The square is completely thronged with people as the time for the mass rallies approaches. 1056 GMT: Three Egyptian officers shed their weapons and uniforms and join hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the immediate overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, witnesses say. "They joined the crowd, smiling, and chanted slogans calling for the fall of the regime," student Omar Gamal tells from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the focal point of the protests. 1054 GMT: "Thousands of enraged demonstrators are protesting in front of the television building," reports photographer Marco Longari. 1052 GMT: In Tahrir Square the sheikh leading the prayers faints towards the end of his sermon, but not before he called on the army to "act in a way that will be acceptable to God on judgement day." 1044 GMT: Egyptian demonstrators react with fury as the military throws its weight behind President Mubarak's attempt to cling on to power despite massive nationwide protests. Protesters outside Mubarak's palace erupt angrily and one grabs an army officer's microphone to denounce the move. "You have disappointed us, all our hopes rested in you," he shouts, as the crowd begin to chant slogans calling for Mubarak to be put on trial. 1042 GMT: The BBC's Persian television service is being jammed from within Iran following coverage of the mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak's rule in Egypt, the Rosetta Stone Italian broadcaster says. BBC Persian TV has been working with the BBC's Arabic TV service to broadcast rolling news from Egypt, and the broadcaster believes it is this coverage which has prompted the jamming which began yesterday 1040 GMT: Friday prayers are under way in Tahrir Square. 1037 GMT: The army's statement says it is committed to "safeguarding the legitimate demands of the people and will work to implement them ... for a peaceful transition of power and a free democratic society." The communique says the army will not arrest those calling for reform, but warns against any "harm to the safety and security of the nation." 1034 GMT: The army's statement asks protesters to go home and get back to work. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi, says it has agreed to "lift the emergency law as soon as the current circumstances are over" and "to hold free and fair presidential elections based on constitutional amendments." 1023 GMT: BBC saying the army has promised to repeal the state of emergency which has been in place in Egypt since 1981, the year Mubarak came to power. 1016 GMT: 's Daphne Benoit reports from Luxor: "The hotels are empty, souks deserted and tour guides idle. Luxor has been but a shadow of its former self since the uprising against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak started." Luxor tour guide Ebrahim Moses says: "Economically, it's serious." "Travel agents aren't working, no one is selling anything," laments Moses at the entrance of the Luxor Temple, a marvel of ancient Egyptian architecture and normally a big tourist draw. 1012 GMT: A council of Egyptian generals pledges the army will guarantee "free and fair elections," in a second communique read out on state television as anti-regime protests enter their 18th day. 1006 GMT: World oil prices climb as heightened tensions in Egypt fuel concerns about possible disruption to crude supplies through the Suez Canal, analysts say. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March jumps 88 cents to $101.75 a barrel.

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At any rate, there is little of interest about the monument itself

For the first six years the settlement was run by the Aborigines Inland Mission which built simple dwellings from corrugated iron and timber with cement and dirt floors. Children had to live in dormitories and the Aborigines were forced to depend upon the supplies at the mission for their livelihood. From 1951 until its closure in 1956, when the Aborigines were moved on to Warrabri, the settlement was controlled by the Northern Territory Administration who encouraged the building of adobe huts. The abrupt departure of the Aborigines from the settlement allows the visitor to see the harsh conditions which passed for benevolence in the 1950s. Attack Creek Memorial Further north is the Attack Creek Memorial which recalls that 'On 25 June 1860 John McDouall Stuart and his two companions, William Kekwick and Benjamin Head, reached Attack Creek, the most northernly point of that expedition. Hostile Natives and illness forced the party to return.' Whatever incident occurred between the party and the local Aborigines, it is now claimed that it arose out of fear and misunderstanding across the language barrier. According to some accounts the indigenous people were helpfully trying to indicate the direction of a water source but, as they were afraid to come too close, they shouted and gestured in the appropriate direction with their spears and boomerangs signs misunderstood by the European party. At any rate, there is little of interest about the monument itself. If visitors go down to the creek, they can see where the old Stuart Highway used to run to the east of the current road. Churchill's Head Rosetta Stone English 300 metres beyond the Memorial is the road to Churchill's Head which, at the very least, gives the driver an opportunity to traverse a portion of the Old Stuart Highway. This roadside rock formation was named by soldiers traveling to Darwin during World War II. Perhaps it was they who first stuck a piece of piping in the rock to provide some comic relief to an otherwise long and dull trip. Certainly it provides greater verisimilitude to a likeness some find strained. Overland Telegraph Station Between 1860 and 1862, McDouall Stuart made three expeditions through the area with the intent of mapping a path for the overland telegraph which was being extended from England to Australia. The telegraph line was completed in 1872 and a permanent repeater station was built that year, utilising local stone for the walls and corrugated iron for the roofing. It replaced an earlier timber structure, built in 1870 but rapidly destroyed by termites. This station, which lies 11 km to the north of Tennant Creek, was the first point of European settlement in the region and was, for many years, the only European structure within hundreds of kilometres. Nonetheless it was regularly visited by drovers, prospectors and others traversing the track between Adelaide and Darwin. It closed down in 1979 and currently operates as a museum. It is generally unattended but guided tours are usually conducted during the dry season. Ring the Visitor Information Centre on (08) 8962 3388.

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Beyond the pilot station is King's Wharf

The original lighthouse was designed by Edmund Blacket though it has since been replaced You can walk along this artificial promontory, with Nobbys Beach to your right, past the lighthouse and along the breakwater to its terminus, from whence there are excellent views across to the northern breakwater which extends outwards from the southern end of Stockton Beach, a massive stretch of sandy shoreline which you can see trailing off in a northeasterly direction to Port Stephens. Not far from the northern breakwater, clearly visible on the shoreline of the beach, is the 1974 wreck of the Sygna. Towards the end of the pier are five basrelief sculptures reflecting upon various aspects of Newcastle and its history. Walking back towards the mainland the remnants of some more military fortifications are clearly apparent on Nobbys, though they are not very accessible. 2.THE FORESHORE If you look to your right, as you return along Nobbys Head towards the mainland, you will see tiny Horseshoe Beach facing east out to the ocean. The rock wall adjacent Horseshoe Beach is a popular fishing spot. It lies at the tip of the harbourside area now officially known as The Foreshore. Start walking in a westerly direction along The Foreshore. At the end of the rocky section is an area known as the Boat Harbour, a stone harbour constructed between 1866 and 1873. It contains the Pilot Station, established in 1866, and the Tug Wharf and has been used continuously for over one hundred years. The earliest pilot station was a convictmanned whaleboat which commenced operations in 1812. Tugs still take the huge coal and container ships from the ocean up the estuary to their moorings. Beyond the pilot station is King's Wharf. The large section of adjacent grassy parkland is Harbourside Park. The enormous barbecue and shelter shed in the park was originally a railway shed (c.1880) as this area was once the site of the Newcastle East Marshalling Yard. The gigantic yellow building looming over the park at its southern fringe (in Stevenson Place) is the former John Bull Warehouse (c.1890). There is a pond in the park known as the Frog Pond which, in its original form, was a well fed by a freshwater spring. It was the major source of freshwater for the first European settlers Rosetta Stone . Convicts once carried 100 gallons of water a day to the prison in Scott St and ships docking in the harbour used it to restock supplies. The original shoreline of 1797 lay close to this site, drawing attention to the fact that the harbour foreshores are entirely manmade and bare little resemblance to the way the Hunter was prior to the 19th century. They were constructed from about 1840 with material supplied by ship's ballast, the dredging of the river mouth and sand taken from the dunes of Newcastle East. Queen's Wharf Walk westwards along Wharf Rd and you will come to Queens Wharf. The observation tower,which is linked, via a walkway, to the city mall offers an excellent view up the Hunter River and across the city. There is also a marina, a ferry wharf (you can cross the Hunter on the Stockton ferry a pleasant 15minute trip), a tavern, boutique brewery, cafe and restaurant. Great North Walk and the Yuelarbah Track A plaque on the tower indicates that this is also the end point of the 250km Great North Walk from Sydney Cove through the Hunter Valley to Newcastle, a 14day walk taking in a wide range of environments and attractions, both natural and manmade. It can be broken down into smaller subsections, such as the Yuelarbah Track (the local section) which covers 25 km. Contact the tourist information centre for a brochure. The William IV and Merewether St Wharf Just a little further west along Wharf Rd are the Merewether St wharves where, on the third Sunday of each month, the William IV, a replica of the first Australian built coastal steamer, departs at 11.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. for a cruise around the harbour, (02) 4926 1200. The original vessel was built near Clarencetown and the replica was constructed at Raymond Terrace. The industrial area of Carrington lies on the other side of the harbour. Directly opposite the wharves is the state dockyard.

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There also needs to be a qualifying statement

The ACCC says registration and compulsory thirdparty insurance payments arent mandatory to buy a vehicle, only to operate it on the road. However, the insurance levy charged varies according to whether your suburb is classified low, medium or high risk making it practically impossible to generalise and be precise in ads. The minimum requirement for advertising a cars price to satisfy the new guidelines (and therefore likely to be the most widely adopted practice) is for ads to include the recommended retail price of the car and a separate sum representing the combined dealer delivery charge and stamp duty. There also needs to be a qualifying statement, "Other onroad costs additional" referring to, but not quantifying, the registration and compulsory thirdparty insurance. However, by permitting the combining of the nonnegotiable statutory stamp duty fee with the oftnegotiable "dealer delivery fee" in a single aggregate, consumers are left guessing how much each is, without tracking down the applicable stamp duty scales and doing the maths. Without knowing how much of extra cost the dealer delivery fee represents, youd be unsure how much negotiating room you have. "Wed be going beyond the Trade Practices Act to say that youd have to specify the (dealer) delivery charge," Mr Martin says. The ACCC prefers dealers, if theyre advertising a cars price, to adopt "drive away, no more to pay" deals: a single allin dollar amount that includes registration and compulsory thirdparty insurance. But hold on arent these the very fees that werent "mandatory"? Its "best practice", the ACCC says, as "consumers should expect to pay no more than the advertised price". What the ACCC warns is likely to contravene the Trade Practices Act is an advertisement that lists the base price of the car plus the separate dollar amounts of GST, Rosetta Stone dealer delivery and administration fees and stamp duty. It seems a strange outcome. Isnt that exactly what buyers want to know that is, where theyre being stung, and by how much? In answer to that, the ACCC says the courts have held such a price treatment to be a complex or ambiguous calculation because it doesnt give the total of all mandatory charges or specify the cash price of the vehicle. "What the courts have said is that the price components must not be difficult to calculate, they must not be ambiguous," Mr Martin says. He adds: "In terms of consumer interest, its always tricky to know which way to go. If you insist on everybody listing all these things, the judge tells us thats complex. And is it fair on the industry to have to list all this stuff? As long as people know what theyre going to pay when they walk out the door in terms of the headline figure, I would have thought thats the main thing." Consumers need to be alert, too, to whos actually advertising the price: the manufacturer or a dealer. The new guidelines say manufacturers can recommend retail prices, but an advertisement may be misleading or deceptive if it conveys the impression a car can be bought from a dealer at the RRP. Manufacturers ads need to state that the price excludes other mandatory charges that may vary from trader to trader, and that the cars cant be bought directly from the factory. Where the ACCC warns the car industry that its ads could run into illegal pricefixing contraventions are those ads that are jointly done by the manufacturer and a group of dealers. If the advertised price has the effect, or likely effect, of controlling or maintaining prices by the parties agreeing to an artificially high advertised price, its likely to be deemed anticompetitive.

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The cheesy Talkin' 'bout Your Generation

Bratich beat much more prominent WAGs for the crown, including Lara Bingle and Lee Furlong. This column is looking forward to the magazine potentially hosting a similar poll for Australia's SCRWAGs, or Sydney's Crime Relos Wives and Girlfriends featuring the likes of Shayda Bastani Rad, girlfriend of the targeted Sydney identity Fadi Ibrahim. GOT A TIP?Contact diarysmh.au or 9282 2179 WITH THE RATINGS RACE After running a distant third for the first half of the year, Channel Ten has some unlikely programs to thank for closing the ratings gap on its freetoair rivals. Last week the network finished in third place, with 24.5 per cent, just 1 percentage point behind Channel Nine and two behind Channel Seven. The ABC was fourth with 17.4 per cent and SBS finished with a 5 per cent audience share for the week. Along with the regular ratings boon of MasterChef Australia, which averaged more than 1.4 million for two episodes, Ten had two programs in the top five mostwatched for the week. The cheesy Talkin' 'bout Your Generation, which features Amanda Keller (pictured), managed what countless Ten game show launches in recent years have failed to do remember the doomed dating show Taken Out? Generation averaged 1.6 million and finished in third place for the week. It was followed by another unusual topfive inclusion, a repeat episode of Ten's US crime drama NCIS, which averaged 1.56 million. A second repeat episode of NCIS averaged 1.31 million. Either this show is so good viewers can't wait to watch it again (it's not) or there is a lack of quality, fresh crime drama in prime time. The rest of Rosetta Stone Software the top 10 for the week was rounded out by Channel Seven news and reality programs including Seven's Sunday night news, which was the most watched with 1.7 million. There was also a lone ABC wolf, Spicks And Specks, which averaged 1.45 million despite the suspension of its Wednesday night partner, The Chaser's War On Everything. With no programs in the top 10, Nine settled instead with its programs filling the top 20, including RPA and Getaway. A BIG DAY FOR FRANK LOWY The man who has done all the hard work had to look up to the eager politicians mugging for photos with soccer stars at yesterday's launch of Football Federation Australia's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup finals. The FFA chairman competed for the cameras against the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, the Socceroo captain, Lucas Neill, and the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull. WITH THE PRESS GALLERY The Press Gallery Midwinter Ball the annual kneesup for federal pollies and journos celebrates its 10th anniversary at the Great Hall at Parliament House on Wednesday. Proceeds from the ball and auctions including journos bidding for a dinner with the Prime Minister will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. All of cabinet and senior members of the Opposition are expected to attend, with one exception Julia Gillard will instead be on her way to the US and on to Israel. The Deputy Prime Minister will not be the only one sorely missed. At last year's event her partner, hairdresser Tim Mathieson, kept his table entertained with an indepth analysis of the hairstyles of various political figures. WITH YOUTH AWARDS While grassroots performers hoping to crack the big time collect their gongs tonight at the annual live entertainment industry awards, or Mo Awards to be held at Blacktown RSL another youthoriented awards scheme, the SOYA Awards, will have its 2009 launch tomorrow at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Heartland of hedonism

The holiday activity is relentless but peace prevails atthe new Club Med in Mauritius, writes David Scott. Seventeen cubes of light permeate the steam and bring faintoptical relief inside the hamam. It's still dark and hot but thegentle pipe music brings tranquillity to this corner of Club Med'supmarket resort in Mauritius. If the steam disappeared, theskylights would illuminate ornate floral tiles and the occasionalsweaty body. But the steam stays and so does the prevailingpeace. The southern end of the resort is called the zen area. There'san infinity pool where the water seems to run straight into theIndian Ocean. There's a restaurant to balance the sumptuous buffetat the northern end of the resort. And there's the spa, CinqMondes, with a range of treatments and the adjoining saunas, hamamand gym. Advertisement: Story continues below You are already in the tropics, in humid high20s, yet the steamroom seems to take another step towards the Club Med idyll:happiness. Club Med approaches the pursuit of happiness with scientificprecision at La Plantation d'Albion, its flagship resort on thewest coast of Mauritius. I'm among a group of Australians who arrive, jetlagged anddisoriented, to a welcome of traditional sega dancers and steeldrums. Smiling staff thrust cocktails into our hands and thefeeling of wellbeing becomes contagious. Suddenly, the jet lag hasdisappeared. The smiling staff are known as GOs, or Gentils Organisateurs,and they play a variety of roles at La Plantation d'Albion. Theywelcome us to breakfast, correct our slice on the golf drivingrange, teach us to sail a catamaran and set us up with a predinnerdrink or two. An Australian visitor confessed to other guests that she feltslightly uncomfortable in the water during a snorkellingexpedition. A GO promptly jumped in and held her hand as she swam,so she could continue Rosetta Stone Greek gawking at the rich reef life. Club Med pioneered the allinclusive holiday: once in theresort, it is possible to enjoy myriad activities, from sailing andarchery to golf and a session in the hamam. Some activities, such as excursions, scuba diving and spatreatments, cost extra but the variety of free activities and theendless buffet Italian, Mauritian, French, African and Chinese ensure that no guest can be bored or hungry. There's also a newfeature an open bar with options including champagne or cocktailsusing Mauritian rum. Five years ago, Club Med faced a choice for its worldwideportfolio of holiday resorts: to go upmarket or downmarket. "It was budget or best," says Club Med's chief executive, HenriGiscard d'Estaing, who was visiting during my stay. "We asked ourcustomers and they said, 'You should try to be the best."' Conscious of a brand built on quality, Club Med sold 65properties and spent $1.5 billion opening 20 new upmarket resorts.La Plantation is Club Med's second resort in Mauritius. The other,La Pointe aux Cannoniers, is off the northeast coast among acluster of hotels around the party town of Grand Baie. La Pointe isa fourtrident property for families, while La Plantation has fivetridents and stresses its seclusion. For its move upmarket in Mauritius, Club Med has done away withstandard rooms. French architect Marc Hertrich designed LaPlantation with 266 rooms. The 176 club rooms each span 41 squaremetres, the 60 deluxe rooms have 50 square metres and, for theultimate in luxury, the 30 beachfront suites sprawl over 71 squaremetres. Space is the main difference; all are beautifully appointed.Clawfoot baths, separate showers and distinctive basins are part ofthe new Club Med style and the suites have sky views from thebathroom and a bottle of champagne on arrival. The kingsize beds are somehow soft and firm at the same time.Flat screens beam in Mauritian news and television, with an Englishlanguage station thrown in for good measure. All the rooms have outdoor settings, where you can enjoy a gin and tonic from theminibar and watch the cheeky macaque monkeys troop through theproperty.

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United colours of Bhutan

Click for more photos Bhutan Unspecified Photo: Keith Austin The tiny kingdom in the Himalayas is an extraordinaryrefuge in a crazy world, writes Keith Austin. O173;ne of the best things you can take a Bhutanese man as apresent, say the guidebooks, is a fancy pair of kneelength Argylesocks. Yeah, sure, I thought, and instead stocked up on thoselittle koalas that cling to your bag or lapel. But here we are and there's our guide, Sangay Dorji, standingoutside Bhutan International Airport with a smile as wide as thejet we just flew in on. He is dressed in a gho, the nationalcostume of Bhutan, which it is compulsory to wear during the day onpain of a fine. Advertisement: Story continues below The gho looks, basically, like a threequarterlength wrapoverdressing gown. On his feet are shiny black formal shoes. In betweenare, you guessed it, kneelength Argyle socks. It is an incongruous mixture and yet it works. He looks smartand full of wellplaced pride. A lot like Bhutan itself. Here is acountry that is the flavour of the moment, at least in the travelbusiness and among the famous, where it's not so much a causecelebre as a celebrity clause. Joanna Lumley has made a documentary about it; budding BuddhistRuby Wax wrote about it for Britain's Daily Mail; DemiMoore has been there; and the eternally bemused Michael Palintravelled through it, one dubious eye on the penis wall murals, forhis documentary Himalaya. Here in Australia the former magazine editor Bunty Avieson livedthere while her partner, the producer Mal Watson, worked on thefilm Travellers and Magicians with the moviemaking lama Khyentse Norbu. Her book about that experience, A Baby in aBackpack to Bhutan, is a fascinating insight into everydaylife in what she calls "a little pocket of sanity in a world gonemad". Holy Himalayas, even Bruce Wayne Rosetta Stone Spanish Spain supposedly ended up there inBatman Begins, the latest instalment of the Dark Knightsaga. And when a comic book character has been there, you know it'sfinally on the map. (He didn't really go there those scenes werefilmed in Iceland, probably to avoid altitudesickness problems ina country that is, literally, in the clouds.) Which makes it the place to which everybody, and nobody, hasbeen. It's traditional when writing about this tiny Himalayan kingdomto resort to cliches: comparing it with the hidden paradise ofShangriLa (from James Hilton's 1933 novel, Lost Horizon)is the horse that's most dragged from the stables and flogged toexpiration. It's also the Land of the Thunder Dragon, a mystical countrythat time forgot, a time machine, a step through the lookingglass. What it is is an absolute monarchy where the king, Jigmi SingyeWangchuck, truly is revered and where that same king is trying todo himself out of a job by introducing democracy while alsodeclaring that gross domestic happiness is more important thangross domestic product. Whatever that means. It was the last place on Earth to allow in the dreaded TV (in1999, and they're still not convinced), the first place to bansmoking but not betelnut chewing, which gives you throat cancer,and where the national sport is archery played by men inmanycoloured ghos using stateoftheart bows. It's a place where stray dogs roam the streets and howl and barklate into the night because the people are Buddhists who won't killthings but who are happy to eat meat if someone else has done theslaughtering. Most people find it endlessly fascinating even those whohaven't been there and yet one wellseasoned traveller I knowdescribed it as "passionless". My overriding impression? Disneyworld. Couldn't get it out of myhead (except on a fiveday trek when I developed bronchitis and allthoughts were concentrated on not coughing up a lung).

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I had to remind Jason that he was part of a team

Akermanis no longer worried about what people thought of his handstand celebrations at the end of games, his outspoken columns, his bleached hair and darkened goatee (he had gone blonde when he found there too many talented redheads on the Lions list.) "everyone wants to be liked but I've got to the point of acceptance. My accomplishments and where I've come from give me strength to make me who I am." This laudable confidence may have been his downfall at Brisbane. Unwilling, or unable to curb his media activities, his relationship reached a new low when a comment arose in cyberspace describing coach Leigh Matthews as a "fwit". He attributed the insult to his younger brother, apologised, and discontinued his 'Akarama' website, but was stood down from the final six matches of 2006, and by 2007, after 248 games in Brisbane colours, at 30 years of age, he was lining up for the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne. As if this was not eventful enough, Akermanis also established contact with his birth father during 2006, and met his halfbrother and two halfsisters for the first time. For the Bulldogs, playing as a goalkicking small forward, his output varied, but improved in his second season, 2008, when he was considered to be in AllAustralian form midway through the year. However, Akermanis was "read the riot act" after commenting on what he felt was a "negatively based" season review. Again, what the player saw as honesty, the club saw as destructive disloyalty. "It's not what they want (me doing media), they don't deal with it that well ... but big deal," he told The Age's Samantha Lane. Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon had words with the troublesome star. "I had to remind Jason that he was part of a team. And notwithstanding that he's won three premierships, he hasn't won a premiership with this current group of players, and that's what he basically was there for to help us, as a club, have success on the field." By the end of 2009, Akermanis was still a strong contributor for the Dogs he led the team's goalkicking with Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin 43 majors but no longer a lynchpin. Originally expected to retire at the end of the season, Akermanis eventually signed on for a final season on reduced terms. The Bulldogs had been only an agonising seven points from a grand final berth maybe a moment of Aker magic could help the Bulldogs snatch their first flag since 1954. Due to the reduction in his contract, Akermanis now earned nearly as much from his various media deals than he did from playing football. The form of Akermanis and the Bulldogs, whilst not terrible, did not live up to their high expectations in the first ten rounds of 2010. The Akermanis media voice became louder, with a role at new radio station MTR giving him a platform to discuss such topics as the standard of modern footballs. Then came his article about homosexuality and football. In the firestorm of reaction, there was confusion about the various versions of the article, and whether they had been approved by the club. Akermanis eventually admitted he made a "small mistake" complaining about his article being changed. Many Bulldogs players and officials, desperate for unity, were unhappy. The administration arranged to meet to decide what course of action was necessary. The footy world waited to see if the brilliant iconoclast would survive his latest drama, sure of only one thing they wouldn't die wondering what Aker thought about any of it Jason Akermanis: milestones 1977 February 24 Born, in Mildura 1984 First game of football, for South Mildura under11s, as a seven'yearold. (he starred.) 1986 Akermanis and family move to Queensland, where he plays footy for Mayne. 1990 Akermanis is told by his mother's best friend that he is not the son of John Akermanis, as he had believed. 1991 A serious injury leads to thoughts of suicide 1992 Taking a year off Aussie Ruiles, Akermanis thrives as an athlete, winning a scholarship to prestigious Nudgee College.

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Feminism Is Not Over

Germaine Greer takes part in a Women's Liberation march in Sydney in 1972. To claim the movement is a failure is not only wrong, it fails to grasp its complexity. In the past decade we've become used to gloom-and-doom announcements - that feminism has let women down, has been unsuccessful in delivering on its promises, and that the hoped-for feminist utopia has failed to materialise. And, of course, it's true that women everywhere still face problems, some of them enormous and daunting. But is this a sign of feminism's failure, or simply of how much work remains to be done? No feminist that I have ever met thinks feminism has ''succeeded'' in the sense that it is a completed program, with its work finished and all its goals achieved. Advertisement: Story continues below Indeed, I think the feminist revolution has only just begun. Gender inequality is complex and pervasive, and it manifests in many different contexts around the globe. There is no quick fix; no simple solution to all the problems that women face. Let me give an example. I recently came across a 19th-century discussion of so-called conjugal rights; a man's legal right to have sex with his wife - rape her, in effect - whenever he wanted. For the first wave of feminists in Australia, active in the 19th and early 20th century, the abolition of conjugal rights was an important goal. Yet it took a century for rape in marriage to be outlawed in this country - 1985 in the state of Victoria. Should we see these early feminists and their ideals as failures because it took a long time to achieve this goal? Or should we see them as heroic women whose fight would be continued by other women, and whose aims would ultimately be achieved? Saying that feminism has failed is short-sighted and simplistic, because it misunderstands and underestimates both feminism and the problems feminism is seeking to solve. After all, who are these feminists that are said to have failed? We've usually got that archetypical feminist in mind - often she is the second-wave activist who marched for women's lib in the 1970s and became a femocrat in the '80s, hammering away at the glass ceiling. The feminists who fit that description did incredible work - they helped secure many of the fundamental reforms that we take for granted Rosetta Stone Korean today - but still, they represent only one strand of feminism, and one approach. Real feminism is constantly evolving and splintering; it's broad, it's dynamic. Feminism attempts to articulate and redress injustices against women in a dazzling variety of contexts. We don't have a bible. It's not a cult. And there never was a feminist central command, with Germaine Greer at the head of the coven, declaring that by the year 2010 a specific set of demands must be met. Yet reducing feminism to a simplistic stereotype, then declaring it a failure, is far easier, more entertaining and probably more satisfying than grappling with nuance. It makes a better headline for a Sunday magazine supplement. It just happens to be completely wrong. Yes, some feminists have failed to achieve their goals. Others manifestly have not. There have been mistakes made, and unintended consequences that still need figuring out. Yet feminism will continue anyway, even if there are occasional setbacks and failures, because at the heart of all feminist activity is a simple desire to create a better, more just world for women. This does not mean that we should never be critical of feminist ideas. It's not a love-in. Disagreement among feminists is a sign of health, not failure. The very fact that we are able to define and discuss the many complex problems that women still face is due to feminism; that words such as sexual harassment, domestic violence, sexism - words we now take for granted - have entered the vernacular. Feminism has given us a language to talk about these issues. And in doing this, in putting them on the public agenda, feminism has succeeded even if women's problems have not all been ''solved''.

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