A building fire in Melbourne’s northern suburbs took almost three hours to bring under control and forced nearby residents to evacuate in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Sixty firefighters responded on High Street in Preston which broke out in the empty former furnishings store near the corner of Bell Street just after 3am.
A vacant former furnishings store has been engulfed in flames overnight.Credit:Chris Velago
After receiving a number of triple zero calls, firefighters arrived on scene within four minutes to find the large single storey building fully alight, according to a spokesman for Fire Rescue Victoria.
Around 50 residents from an adjacent apartment complex were evacuated due to the “threat” posed by the fire, the spokesman said.
No one was injured in the blaze.
Smoke emanating from the fire clouded streets more than 150 meters from the fire.
The fire was brought under control just before 6am, but crews will remain on scene in Preston to ensure the fire is completely extinguished.
North-bound lanes on High Street between Bell and Bruce streets are expected to be closed for some time on Saturday. The Department of Transport is encouraging drivers to seek alternate routes through Preston, such as Plenty Road and St Georges Road.
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A busload of about 50 migrants dispatched to New York City by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived early Friday as the Lone Star State Republican continued his war with the White House over its open border policies.
The migrants pulled in on a chartered bus at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown around 6:30 am, with a news release from Abbott callously declaring New York was now “a drop-off location” for the people crossing the border into Texas.
Alfonso Ruiz is one of about 25 men who arrived from Texas in a military bus around 6 am
“The journey by bus, it was tough. It was 36 hours from Texas,” Ruiz, 40, said. “It took about two days. Stopping and shouting and stopping almost every day.”
But that was nothing compared to the two months he spent walking to the US border from Venezuela.
“I’m tired,” Ruiz said. “We all have swollen feet.”
Gov. Abbott, prior to the bus’ Friday arrival in Manhattan, had already sent thousands of migrants to Washington, DC, in the escalating political battle where Mayor Adams quickly denounced Abbott for grandstanding on the backs of the new arrivals.
“This is despicable what we’re witnessing in Texas,” Adams said later at Gracie Mansion. “The Texas governor — using human beings as a political play — he finally admitted what we were saying. We’re going to continue to be open arms. This is who we are as a city.”
Major Eric Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (AP)
Adams planned to speak later Friday with federal officials about additional funding to offer support to the new arrivals. A mayoral spokesman earlier denounced Abbott’s bus stunt as “an embarrassing stain on the state of Texas” while dismissing the governor as an “inept politician,” later adding the city had no advance word of the incoming immigrant.s
The Texas governor’s press office said the migrants involved had all volunteered for the trip, and each showed documentation from the Department of Homeland Security. The office did not respond to a question about the total costs of the trip.
The bus’ arrival, after a 1,750-mile trip east, marked an escalation in the ongoing tussle between the governor and the mayor over the issue. None of the new arrivals remained when reporters arrived at the busy terminal two hours later, with Fox News the only news outlet present when the bus pulled in.
The migrants were dropped off on a green bus at Port Authority Bus Terminal at Gate 14, pictured here Friday morning. (Harry Parker/for New York Daily News)
“Because of President Biden’s continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies, the state of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe,” said a statement from Abbott.
In a later tweet, the governor described New York as “the ideal destination for these migrants. They can receive the services Mayor Adams has boasted about (within) the sanctuary city.”
Migrants hold Red Cross blankets after arriving at Union Station near the US Capitol from Texas on buses on April 27, 2022, in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
“Governor Abbott is shamelessly exploiting these migrants — human beings who have endured immense suffering in their home countries and on the journey to the United States, seeking safe haven and a better life — to serve some myopic purpose,” the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said in a joint statement.
Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, branded Abbott as “a cold-hearted publicity-seeking bigot.”
About two dozen of the newly-arrived men were led from the men’s shelter on E. 30th St. in the afternoon to board a yellow school bus for an undisclosed location.
Migrants arrive at a makeshift processing center at La Plaza Bus Terminal, in Brownsville, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022, where the migrants are processed to determine their final destination. (Miguel Roberts/AP)
New York, as a “right-to-shelter” state, is required by law to provide same-day housing for any adult who arrives by 10 pm with children at a homeless shelter.
Leidy, 28, made the 5 day trip from Bogota, Colombia with her kids, 7-year-old Ariana, and Nicholas, 13 because of the political climate in their home country.
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With the cost of living there skyrocketing and no job opportunities, she came here in search of work at what she says is the right time.
”It’s a little easier to get in,” Leidy explained. “A little easier to be here. Because before, it was very, very difficult and more with the children… [But now] with the children, if you come with them, it’s easier.”
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose city has already received more than 6,000 immigrants bused from Texas, has accused Abbott of “cruel political gamesmanship … (using) desperate people to score political points.”
Adams earlier this week turned down an Abbott invitation to visit Texas as the sparring between the New York Democrat and the Texas governor continued.
People like Ruiz, now in a strange city with only the clothes on his back, are real life pawns in this political game of hot potato.
“It’s unbelievable, but true. The governor of Texas doesn’t want immigrants in Texas. We got on the bus because they told us that from here they would help us get to the state we are trying to get to, and that they would help us get there more economically,” said Ruiz, who is bound for Atlanta, Ga. “We were thrown here. They left. We got here, they left us here. Now we have to figure out what to do.”
“We don’t see that it will hit the double figures that are being spoken about in Europe and in some other destinations,” Mr Albanese said.
His comments come as economic policymakers walk a narrow path to bring inflation to heel without sparking a local recession, amid decades-high inflation, rising interest rates, a 48-year low 3.5 per cent jobless rate, and record terms of trade that is sparking more record trade surpluses.
The attempt to engineer a soft landing for the domestic economy comes as growing anger at the rising cost of living and falling real wages tests the nerve of the RBA and the government to make tough but necessary calls.
The RBA said headline and underlying inflation would return to the bank’s 2 per cent to 3 per cent target band by late 2024, but a shift in inflation psychology could spark high wages growth in such a tight labor market.
“The effect of high inflation and cost-of-living pressures on wage- and price-setting behavior is a material risk to the inflation outlook,” the bank said.
A driving force behind the strong growth in goods and services prices is gas and electricity bills, which are set to rise 10 per cent to 15 per cent in the second half of the year due to the turbulence in the local energy market.
The RBA this week pressed ahead with a third straight 0.5 percentage point inflation-fighting interest rate rise, taking the official cash rate from a record low 0.1 per cent in May to 1.85 per cent, with more increases to come.
In its quarterly monetary policy update on Friday, the bank downgraded economic growth to 3.2 per cent this year, 1.8 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2024 as higher cost of living and rising interest rates stymie activity.
The bank also forecast the unemployment rate to fall to 3.4 per cent later this year, before slowing rising back to 4 per cent in 2024.
Real wages will not rise for another 18 months
There is currently about one unemployed person for each job vacancy, which, along with soft migration, is placing pressure on businesses.
“Hiring intentions reported by firms in surveys and the bank’s liaison program remain strong,” the RBA said.
“However, firms have also reported that finding suitable labor is a significant constraint on activity, with some expressing concerns about achieving their desired increases in headcount in the tight labor market.
“Firms have responded to labor availability issues by offering higher wage increases for specific workers, emphasizing non-wage remuneration, and hiring less experienced or less qualified staff than previously.”
The tight labor market is expected to slowly flow through to worker wages.
Wages growth is expected to pick up to 3 per cent this year, 3.6 next year and 3.9 per cent in 2024, with the bank’s business liaison program suggesting more than 60 per cent of businesses expected to give pay rises above least 3 per cent, while just over 30 per cent expect 2 per cent to 3 per cent.
But with inflation running well ahead of pay rises, real wages will not rise for another 18 months or more, according to the RBA. Under current assumptions, real wages will fall to 2008-09 levels over the next short while.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the result reinforced the need for responsible cost-of-living relief in the October budget, easing capacity constraints and increasing productivity over the long run, while the union movement said 2024 was too long to wait for real wages growth and demanded action.
“The cost-of-living crisis, and now the rapid and brutal hike in interest rates is forcing many workers to deplete their savings. They simply cannot withstand their wages continuing to go backwards in real terms,” said Michele O’Neil, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
Commonwealth Bank head of Australian economics Gareth Aird said at face value, the latest forecasts were not a good news story for households.
“The weaker outlook for real incomes as well the rapid pace of interest rate hikes delivered to date and the expectation of further rate rises has meant the RBA has downwardly revised their outlook for GDP growth,” he said.
CBA tips inflation to fall faster than the RBA
Demonstrating the high degree of uncertainty among policymakers and economists about the economic outlook, CBA is forecasting inflation to fall much faster than the RBA to back within the target band by late 2023.
“We anticipate a number of the forces that have driven the spike in inflation to weaken and/or dissipate in 2023…given we think that the household sector will struggle more under the weight of higher interest rates.”
Some cost-of-living relief may be on the way from global oil prices slumping to pre-Ukraine war levels in later week trading. Brent Crude was trading around $US94 ($135) a barrel on Friday, down from $US110 in late July.
That will flow through to lower pump prices – which, in addition to helping household budgets, will also provide some political cover to the Albanese government to not extend the $3 billion six-month fuel tax cut, which, given the state of the federal budget it is unaffordable.
Mr Albanese on Friday said it was important fiscal policy (the budget) worked in tandem with monetary policy (the RBA’s official interest rate) towards the same objectives.
“One of the things that the government can do is constrain spending through fiscal prudence,” he said.
“One of the reasons why we’re bringing down a budget in October, given there was a budget just in March, is to go through line by line and look for savings that can be made, to rip the waste which is there out of the budget.
“That’s part of the context of why we are doing that.”
Anne Heche was involved in a fiery car crash on Friday that has left her “severely burned” and “intubated” in the hospital, TMZ reports.
the vanished actress, 53, was reportedly driving her blue Mini Cooper down a suburban street in Los Angeles around noon when she crashed into the garage of an apartment complex, the new york post reports.
According to the outlet, bystanders tried to help Heche exit the vehicle, but she allegedly backed up and drove off before crashing into another home where her car became “engulfed” in flames.
It appears that Heche may have been under the influence of alcohol, as a bottle with a red cap was seen in the car’s cup holder shortly before the accident. However, the Los Angeles Police Department could not immediately be reached.
Aerial shots of video from the accident obtained by Fox11 show smoke billowing out of the home in which she crashed into.
Sources told TMZ that Heche is currently intubated in the hospital, but “expected to live.”
“Her condition prevents doctors from performing any tests to determine if she was driving under the influence of alcohol,” the outlet also reported.
Heche, known for her high-profile romance with Ellen DeGeneres in the ’90s, has spoken openly about her previous battle with substance abuse.
“I drink. I smoked. I did drugs. I had sex with people. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life, ”she told ABC News in 2020, adding that her choices were a result of her painful childhood that stemmed from being sexually abused by her father, Donald Heche.
“I’m not crazy,” the Six Days Seven Nights star also said at the time. “But it’s a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me.”
Reps for Heche could not immediately be reached.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been reproduced here with permission
A gross injury to hooker Aaron Booth has compounded the bottom-of-the-ladder Gold Coast Titans woes after a 32-14 loss to Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park on Friday night.
In what provided sickening replay vision, Booth’s knee collapsed underneath him at right angles as he attempted to make a tackle on Storm five-eighth Cooper Johns.
Not only was it game over for Booth, but it will undoubtedly be season over when scans reveal the extent of the injury.
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It was supposed to be his big night playing in a starting role against his former club, but it ended on a sour note for Booth.
Titans coach Justin Holbrook was emotional in the post-game press conference when talking about the Booth injury.
“I feel for Boothy,” Holbrook said.
“He’s fought really hard to get his shot this year and it’s going to be really nasty for him unfortunately.
“It’s really bad for him.”
Booth suffered a knee dislocation in the landing. It is likely that he has also turned an ACL, but scans will provide further evidence.
“He’s done everything you could do to it,” Holbrook said.
“He’s dislocated it and he’s done lots of other stuff.”
Sam McIntyre came off the bench and provided some punch from dummy half in place of Booth.
Despite the result, it was an encouraging performance from the three-win Titans. Greg Marzhew, promoted on the back of his strong form for the Burleigh Bears, fitted in seamlessly in his return to the Titans line up.
Marzhew ran for 184 meters, bettered only on his side by captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui with 185.
AJ Brimson and Tanah Boyd were solid in the halves, David Fifita muscled up defensively and Beau Fermor, Herman Ese’ese and Brian Kelly scored tries.
After giving up a 16-point head start, the Titans displayed a never-say-die attitude, but every time they got within touching distance of the Storm, they would have a mishap derail their progress.
“A lot to like but just not good enough,” Holbrook said.
“We’re seeing similar things where just one person has fallen off there or they’re doing that wrong and it’s costing us.
“It’s leading to tries which is the disappointing thing.
“I feel like they’re improving a lot and I feel like we were a lot closer than the suggested score, but the result is what the result is and that’s what we’ve got to stop some soft tries.”
Aaron Booth of the Titans leaves the field. Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
A native rat vulnerable to extinction and known for its chubby cheeks has been found at Victoria’s Wilsons Promontory for the first time in three decades.
Key points:
The broad-toothed rat has not been seen on the promontory for 32 years
Scientists manage to track one of the chubby-cheeked rodents, trap it and release it back into the wild
The discovery suggests efforts to keep invasive species out of the area are working
The broad-toothed rat, or Tooarrana, is a tiny rodent historically found throughout south-eastern Australia.
The catastrophic Black Summer bushfires tore through much of its habitat in the Victorian high country, but studies showed its population was significantly declining in the decades before that.
The tiny rat has been vulnerable to predation by cats and foxes, habitat loss from an overabundance of grass-grazing animals, bushfires and climate change.
The rat is an indication that work to keep invasive species away from Wilsons Promontory could be beginning to be successful.(Supplied: Zoos Victoria)
It had not been seen at Wilsons Prom for 32 years.
A team of researchers, led by Zoos Victoria biologist Phoebe Burns and Parks Victoria ecologist Brooke Love, managed to track and trap one of the rats at the promontory before releasing it back into the wild.
“It is a very exciting time,” Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said.
“And it actually really does underscore the importance of us maintaining Wilsons Prom as a safe haven for a lot of our endangered species.”
Scientists say the discovery provides renewed hope for the future of the tiny native animal.(Supplied: Zoos Victoria)
The rodent is known for having chubby cheeks, a flat face and short tail.
It is also known for its bright-green droppings, which helped the researchers find the rat during surveys of the promontory, south-east of Melbourne.
“We thought, of course, that they had no longer existed and certainly, it hasn’t been spotted [at Wilsons Prom] in more than three decades,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.
“But some really clever scientific work that’s been done by our dedicated scientists in the field … discovered one of them still alive and thriving.”
The rat feeds on grasses and sedges in cool, wet habitats.
The rat’s diet of green grass and sedges helped scientists track its droppings.(Supplied: Zoos Victoria)
Native rats are essential to many ecosystems and can be indicators of environmental change.
The rat found by researchers is an indication that work to keep invasive species away from the Prom could be beginning to be successful.
The state government said the discovery underscored the importance of a plan to turn 50,000 hectares of Wilsons Prom into a sanctuary.
“This is great news for the Prom Sanctuary project,” Parks Victoria biodiversity science manager Mark Antos said in a statement.
“It provides a further reason to control introduced predators and grazing animals to help protect this unique species and give it the best chance of survival.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has advanced to the general election, surviving a challenge from a candidate backed by the former president.
Newhouse advanced from Tuesday’s all-party primary in Washington’s 4th Congressional District, the Associated Press projected Friday. He will face Democrat Doug White, who was also projected by the Associated Press to advance to the general election Friday.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring 3rd District, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) was in a tight contest with Joe Kent, a Trump-endorsed veteran who has called people arrested in the Jan. 6 investigation “political prisoners.”
Under Washington state’s nonpartisan primary system, all candidates are listed on the same primary ballot, regardless of party, and the top two finishers advance to the general election. While somewhat unique in their format, the primaries in Washington state served as the latest test of the ability of Republicans who have opposed Trump to survive his efforts to unseat them.
Of the other GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump, four announced they would withdraw from Congress. Rep. Tom Rice (SC) and Peter Meijer (Mich.) lost their primary elections, while Rep. David G. Valadao (Calif.) survived his all-party primary.
The Aug. 16 primary elections in Wyoming will decide the political fate of the final lawmaker of the group, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who is vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent money to help the conservative challengers to both Meijer and Valadao, and is targeting both districts in November. The national party isn’t focused on Washington’s 4th Congressional District, the most reliably Republican part of the state, which Trump carried in 2020 by nearly 20 points.
In that district, Newhouse faced Trump-endorsed challenger Loren Culp.
In Herrera Beutler’s 3rd District race, the candidate who claims the second general election spot will face Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto repair shop owner who the AP has projected to advance.
Newhouse and Herrera Beutler had considerably outspent their opponents, and hoped to benefit from a crowded field of pro-Trump challengers. Both lost substantial Republican support since their 2020 reelections, when they won more than 50 percent of the all-party primary vote.
Herrera Beutler has also spoken publicly about a key phone call during the Capitol attack between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Trump had “initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Herrera Beutler said that McCarthy told her.
According to Herrera Beutler, after McCarthy told Trump it was his supporters storming the Capitol, Trump responded: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”
Culp, a former sheriff and gubernatorial candidate who was endorsed by Trump, predicted in an interview before the election that Newhouse would struggle to unite Republican voters. The district, he said, wanted more conservative representation than Newhouse had delivered.
“Everybody that I talk to is sick and tired of him,” Culp said. “Not only did he vote to impeach President Trump and vote for the Jan. 6 commission, but he’s voted for anti-gun laws, he’s voted for big government spending.”
When it came to Herrera Beutler’s primary, national Democrats didn’t spend money, seeing a southwest Washington district that voted for Trump by a single-digit margin as a tough target in a midterm where the party is on the defensive. While Herrera Beutler regularly ran ahead of the GOP ticket, Kent said in an interview that the popularity of Trump and his agenda was underrated.
“No Republican voters are waking up in the morning and saying, ‘Gosh, what are Kevin McCarthy and Lindsey Graham saying about the issues of the day?’ Kent said. “They’re looking for the ‘America First’ messaging coming from Trump, coming from Matt Gaetz, coming from Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he added, naming some far-right members of Congress who have been polarizing.
In an interview, Perez said the seat was winnable in a race against Kent, whom she called a “classic package of great hair and bad ideas.”
“3D printing will remain a niche product for the foreseeable future,” Jager said.
“If you only need to print a few items a year, the simplest solution is to use an online 3D printing service. These facilities provide a range of 3D printing materials and processes using professional-grade machines.”
It could be that the proliferation of such services will make the notion of in-home printing redundant, as you could upload your 3D file to the closest commercial printer and have it shipped to you that day. But these services are currently expensive.
Engineers can make bespoke parts in small quantities using 3D printing.Credit:hubs
“If you need a replacement part for something, such as a camera lens cap, it’s usually more cost-effective to buy the part directly from the manufacturer,” Jager said.
Hubs, an online service that connects engineers and consumers with a global network of printers for on-demand manufacturing, has produced 7 million parts since 2013. Research commissioned by the company predicts the global 3D printing market to accelerate sharply from this point, tripling to reach $US44 billion by 2026.
But Hubs co-founder Filemon Schoffer doesn’t expect much of that will include consumers setting up printers in their own homes.
“The range of applications is really the fundamental limit to the current adoption rate for 3D printing. For a non-engineer, there’s simply not that much use, beyond hobby DIY,” he said.
“For professional engineers, it’s a completely different story; design validation, geometry testing, prototyping, low-volume end–part production. If you’re prototyping daily, typically use the same materials, and don’t need high-resolution, buying a desktop 3D printer would make sense. If you need larger parts or better resolution, have a variety of needs, or require more difficult materials for your parts, a 3D printing service would be the preferred choice.”
According to Google Trends data, most of the things the people of 2012 thought we’d be printing are the same things people are searching for right now; food, houses, body parts and clothes. And for the most part, those things are being 3D printed, just not in anybody’s home.
The world’s first lab-grown beef burger was cooked in London in 2013. The in-vitro burger was cultured from cattle stem cells.Credit:Reuters
Printed plant-based steak is available in Europe. A 3D-printed ear was attached to a patient just this year. Fashion designer Iris Van Herpen incorporates many printed elements, and companies around the world are 3D-printing low-cost housing.
But where the 3D printing revolution has truly taken hold is at an industrial level.
Engineers can now iterate prototypes faster or manufacture unique items, students learning to code or model in 3D can get physical results to study, and the capabilities of huge expensive industrial printers have improved far beyond what we’ve seen in the desktop space.
In particular the ability to print metal parts up to thousands of kilograms in weight has opened new doors for manufacturing, where 3D printing (or “additive manufacturing”) has some significant advantages over traditional machining.
AML3D founder Andy Sales.Credit:
“Think of a big metal block, which gets machined down to let’s say 30 per cent of what it originally was. You’ve got 70 per cent in waste there. But not only that, you’ve got all the machining time to take away that 70 per cent,” said Andy Sales, founder and managing director of ASX-listed AML3D.
“And the carbon footprint of our process is an order of magnitude less than then the traditional. Our energy output is minimal. The wire feedstock that we use has a minimal footprint.”
ASX-listed AML3D prints huge metal parts for marine or aerospace applications, and has been certified through classification societies DNV and Lloyd’s Register to supply mission-critical parts to the likes of oil rigs or the Navy.
It also sells complete large-scale robotic metal printers to companies that want to print their own parts, which Sales is confident will become increasingly common.
“Let’s say you’re building a ship, and you’ve got a nice little workshop alongside the wharf, and that’s printing off critical metal parts to be installed on the ship. Normally, you would have relied on a supply chain for that, whether it be a casting shop, or a forging shop, maybe in another country,” he said.
loading
“And instead of a big area with all these kilos of parts in the yard, you have it in a digital library. When you need it, you can get it printed.”
And there’s no reason why a panel beater or any small engineering company wouldn’t one day be able to use in-house printers, he said, as processes and devices become more standardized.
“I call it like the Mercedes model. You know, whatever Mercedes used to put in their cars, 10 years later it would be in a normal Toyota.”
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It’s meant to astonish those who are lucky enough to witness it, yet what’s going on in this picture is creeping some people out.
Bikini-clad women lie sprawled on beach towels as they sun themselves, while men dressed in shorts relax and children build sandcastles.
But there’s a twist; these people are not at the beach. Instead, they’re inside a building, and there are fully dressed spectators watching from above and scrutinizing their every move.
The picture has some social media users puzzled, with comments that it looks like a scene from a bizarre prison movie.
“You’ve got people packed in, and some people watching them like they’re at the beach but they’re not at the beach, they’re in a building with sand in it,” one social media commenter said.
“Without a doubt this has to be the strangest footage I’ve seen in my whole life … It’s pretty crazy, pretty wild, pretty out there.”
Another commented it could be like a “prison for the super rich”, while a third said it looks like a “prison floor”.
It turns out that it’s actually the artwork/opera Sun&Seawhich has traveled to different art galleries around the world, each time looking a little different.
The “beachgoers” are opera singers, and they sing as nature around them crumbles.
Many who have seen the display have raved about it, calling it “extraordinary”.
“There is less a feeling of doom than an elegy of beautiful sadness,” one audience member wrote.
In 2019, the opera won the coveted Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, while representing Lithuania.
At the time, Guardian reported that visitors looked down at the display from a minstrel’s gallery inside an old naval warehouse in the Venice Arsenale.
More recently, the piece was featured at Iceland’s Reykjavik Art Museum in June this year for the city’s arts festival, featuring black sand from the volcanic country’s coastline.
Sun&Sea project curator Lucia Pietroiusti has an intriguing description of the display. “Imagine a beach. The burning sun, sunscreen and bright bathing suits and sweaty palms and legs,” she said.
“Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance.
“The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound. The crinkling of plastic bags whirling in the air, their silent floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat.
“Then a chorus of songs – everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them, the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth, a gasp.”
The performance loops continuously, for four hours each day and the audience can come and go as they please.
Upcoming tour locations include Helsinki, Barcelona and Lisbon.
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Flash flooding at Death Valley National Park triggered by heavy rainfall on Friday buried cars, forced officials to close all roads in and out the park and stranded about 1,000 people, officials said
The park near the California-Nevada state line received at least 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) of rain at the Furnace Creek area, which park officials in a statement said represented “nearly an entire year’s worth of rain in one morning.” The park’s average annual rainfall is 1.9 inches (4.8 centimeters).
About 60 vehicles were buried in debris and about 500 visitors and 500 park workers were stranded, park officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and the California Department of Transportation estimated it would take four to six hours to open a road that would allow park visitors to leave.
It was the second major flooding event at the park this week. Some roads were closed Monday after they were inundated with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.
The rain started around 2 am, said John Sirlin, a photographer for an Arizona-based adventure company who witnessed the flooding as he perched on a hillside boulder where he was trying to take pictures of lightning as the storm approached.
“It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin, who lives in Chandler, Arizona, and has been visiting the park since 2016. He is the lead guide for Incredible Weather Adventures and said he started chasing storms in Minnesota and the high plains in the 1990s.
“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon.
“A lot of washes were flowing several feet deep. There are rocks probably 3 or 4 feet covering the road,” he said.
Sirlin said it took him about 6 hours to drive about 35 miles (56 kilometers) out of the park from near the Inn at Death Valley.
“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anyone injured “or any high water rescues.”
During Friday’s rainstorms, the “flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices,” the park statement said.
A water system that provides it for park residents and offices also failed after a line broke that was being repaired, the statement said.
A flash flood warning for the park and surrounding area expired at 12:45 pm, Friday but a flood advisory remained in effect into the evening, the National Weather Service said.
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