Categories
Entertainment

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding have a vicious fight after she asks him to do a charity stint

Andy Lee and his girlfriend Rebecca Harding got into a vicious fight after she asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace during Kyle and Jackie O's Only Lying challenge on Monday

Andy Lee and his girlfriend Rebecca Harding have a vicious fight after she asks him to do a charity stint for her workplace: ‘The answer is no. It is your problem, not mine

By Mary Mrad For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding got into a vicious fight after she pranked him during the Kyle and Jackie O Show’s Only Lying segment on Monday.

Rebecca, 31, called her boyfriend and asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace.

However, the pair got into an argument after he refused to participate in the event.

Andy Lee and his girlfriend Rebecca Harding got into a vicious fight after she asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace during Kyle and Jackie O's Only Lying challenge on Monday

Andy Lee and his girlfriend Rebecca Harding got into a vicious fight after she asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace during Kyle and Jackie O’s Only Lying challenge on Monday

Rebecca called Andy live on air and said: ‘I’ve got them begging me. They have had someone pull out, they need a celebrity to do this thing in the office tomorrow night and I said you could do it.’

‘I’ve done her favors before, it’s no,’ Andy responded.

‘It will be 15 minutes and you will just have to auction yourself off,’ Rebecca insisted.

During the segment, Rebecca called her boyfriend and asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace. However, the pair got into an argument after he refused to participate in the event

During the segment, Rebecca called her boyfriend and asked him to do a charity stint for her workplace. However, the pair got into an argument after he refused to participate in the event

A frustrated Andy responded: ‘I’m not doing it… Ring someone else. The answer is no and you don’t even know what the charity is. The answer is no.’

Rebecca then revealed to her boyfriend that she was ‘only lying’.

‘I can’t believe I have fallen for this,’ a shocked Andy admitted.

Rebecca called Andy live on air and said: 'I've got them begging me. They have had someone pull out, they need a celebrity to do this thing in the office tomorrow night and I said you could do it'

Rebecca called Andy live on air and said: ‘I’ve got them begging me. They have had someone pull out, they need a celebrity to do this thing in the office tomorrow night and I said you could do it’

Andy and Rebecca met in 2015 at a Melbourne café where she was working as a waitress.

The TV personality ended up leaving his email address on a napkin for her – and the rest is history.

For years, the rumor mill has been spinning with speculation about the pair getting secretly engaged.

A frustrated Andy responded: 'I'm not doing it… Ring someone else…The answer is no and you don't even know what the charity is. The answer is no'

A frustrated Andy responded: ‘I’m not doing it… Ring someone else…The answer is no and you don’t even know what the charity is. The answer is no’

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Sports

Aussie great John Steffensen savages Rohan Browning over ‘amateur hour’ relay debacle

Rohan Browning was devastated. Photo: Getty Images

Former Aussie 400m star John Steffensen has blasted Australia’s relay debacle at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games as “amateur hour”.

Australia looked on track to qualify for the final of the 4x100m but it all fell apart at the final change when Rohan Browning tripped over his own feet and hit the deck.

It was a disappointing result after the team of Josh Azzopardi, Jacob Despard, Jack Hale and Browning crashed out.

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After an impressive showing, the commentators were stunned by the moment.

“The last change only has to be clean,” McAvaney started to say before Tamsyn Lewis shrieked in the commentary box as Browning hit the deck.

“Oh he’s fallen over. I can’t believe it. I cannot believe it.

“A disaster for the Australians.

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“I’ve never seen anything quite like it to be truthful.”

“That was awful,” Lewis-Manou added.

“He looks devastated. Rohan would not have been able to do a lot of this training, he would have been focusing on getting his body right. He just really stumbled when he took his acceleration phase.”

Still can’t believe it happened. Photo by David Ramos/Getty ImagesSource: Supplied

In looking for reasons behind the stumble, from a belief Browning struggled with not starting in the blocks or that he wasn’t confident starting on the bend rather than on the straight.

One who wasn’t looking for excuses was 2006 Commonwealth Games 400m gold medalist and Olympic 4x400m relay silver medalist John Steffensen.

“If that was a final, I’d kind of accept it because you really want to push your relay change zone passovers,” he said on Channel 7.

“You really want to push them out a bit, you want to take a bit more risk because you’re running against the best, or some of the best in the world, in the Commonwealth.

“But that was amateur hour last night. To see what happened with Rohan, I do not know what was going through his brain.

“Accidents happen, mistakes happen track and field, yes, I get it.

“But it’s one of those things, I’ve done it (many) times in training. Sometimes you want to push, you really push the barriers and the angle you want to come out of your drive because that’s how you go fast.

“In training you sort of go low, low and you will sort of work your way back up. Then you find a comfortable position that you can take off from.”

Rohan Browning was hoping for more. Photo by David Ramos/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

Former Olympic 100m sprinter turned Channel 7 presenter Matt Shirvington said he knew how Browning felt, having been in a similar position in the 2006 Commonwealth Games 4x100m final.

In that final, Australia appeared headed for a medal but Shirvington took off a touch early and Adam Miller couldn’t catch him to pass the baton.

Shirvington said Browning would be “gutted.”

“Rohan more than most of them because the other boys have been there waiting to compete,” Shirvington told Channel 7.

“Rohan knows that coming into this he was going to have quite a bit of speed, he’s in good shape.

“I have been there before, I’ve been there a couple of times.

“I have been there at a packed MCG at the Commonwealth Games at the same change in the final and we haven’t made it happen.”

Browning did admit he was “gutted” soon after, apologizing to his teammates, who were on the team specifically for the relay.

“I’m so sorry. I know these boys put in so much work. In my years in athletics, nothing like this has ever happened and, hopefully, it never happens again.

“I just caught my toe and slipped. It has never happened before in training or in races.”

Browning looked horrified. Photo: Channel 7Source: Channel 7

Teammate Jack Hale was quick to console Browning both after the race and in the post-match interviews.

“It’s a relay. There are so many variables and these things happen. It is what it is,” Hale told Channel 7.

Browning finished sixth in the individual 100m final, falling just 0.06 seconds short of a bronze medal at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

It was the closest Australia has got to winning a medal in the men’s blue ribbon event since Matt Shirvington’s lightning time of 10.03 still wasn’t enough for him to get a medal at the 1998 Games.

Australia has never won a medal in the men’s event since the Commonwealth Games changed the distance to 100m in 1970. Now we have to wait at least four more years.

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Categories
Australia

Feeding coral larvae helps them grow and survive, new research finds

Feeding coral larvae helps them grow and survive, new research finds

Little is known about the dietary requirements of coral larvae but new Australian research has revealed feeding them can improve their chances of survival.

A study by Southern Cross University PhD candidate Colleen Rodd, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found giving the larvae supplement nutrients boosts their energy at a critical early stage of development.

Scientists expect the findings will improve the effectiveness of coral restoration projects being done to help degraded systems such as the Great Barrier Reef.

“Our research has shown if you do feed coral, you can drastically increase the number of those larvae that actually turn into corals on a reef, which is actually pretty exciting,” Ms Rodd said.

A shooting task

Adult coral reproduces by releasing gametes into the water, which form into coral larvae.

Those larvae face a “particularly precarious” time in the water before settling on to the reef where they grow complex skeletons.

“The larvae themselves have a finite amount of energy and they use up about 70 per cent of that in the first week of swimming around,” Ms Rodd said.

“From there they can run out of energy and die either before they can transform into a coral or shortly thereafter because transforming from a larvae into a coral is very energetically costly for them.

“Most of those larvae will die if we don’t intervene there.”

She said the feeding allowed the larvae “a little bit of leeway to make it until they turn into a polyp where they can start feeding like adults”.

What do they eat?

The coral larvae in Ms Rodd’s research were fed blended artemia — a crustacean also known as brine shrimp.

The feed contained a mix of nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

A woman wearing a blue top in a laboratory with equipment set up to feed coral
PhD candidate Colleen Rodd works on the food-reared coral larvae experiment.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

How exactly the larvae feed remains somewhat of a mystery, however.

“That’s where we’re taking the research next — to figure out the exact mechanisms through which they feed,” Ms Rodd said.

“Coral larvae are very, very, very small — less than a millimeter in length — and it was assumed they can’t feed.

“They have an oral pore, not quite a mouth but nevertheless a way to take in food, but they can also absorb it through their cell wall.”

Coral-rearing cones set up for a feeding experiment at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Coral-rearing cones set up for a feeding experiment at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

Implementing the research

Ms Rodd said feeding coral larvae used for restoration projects would be “very cheap to implement”.

Two types of mass-spawning reef-building coral species used in the research were cultured at the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s National Sea Simulator experimental facility near Townsville.

So far though, larvae have not been observed feeding in the wild.

An image showing the extent of growth of coral larvae that have been fed brine shrimp.
An image showing the extent of growth of coral larvae that have been fed brine shrimp.(Supplied: Southern Cross University)

One theory is wild coral larvae obtain their nutrients after unfertilized sperm and eggs break down in the water during spawning.

“It hasn’t been seen because you need a microscope to see it, but we are looking at some research down the line where we explore those kinds of questions,” Ms Rodd said.

“From our understanding of their life cycle, it [was] assumed they can’t feed and that they don’t or that they don’t feed because they can’t.

“This actually changes our understanding of their basic biology, which has some pretty cool implications for restoration work.”

Ms Rodd will present the research this week at the Australian Marine Sciences Association conference in Cairns.

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Categories
US

These seven GOP senators voted to keep $35 insulin cap in reconciliation bill

These seven GOP senators voted to keep $35 insulin cap in reconciliation bill

Seven Republican senators voted with all 50 Democrats to maintain a $35 monthly cap on the price of insulin in the Democrats’ $700 billion climate, health and tax reconciliation bill.

The measure targeting people not covered by Medicare was ultimately blocked from being included in the Inflation Reduction Act when it fell three votes short of the 60 required to override a ruling from the parliament Senatearian.

The seven Republicans who voted with Democrats were Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), John Kennedy (La.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska ) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska).

Many of the seven Republicans who supported the measure have been vocal in their criticism of the reconciliation package broadly — and all of them voted against the bill as a whole.

Democrats won a partial victory when the parliamentarian allowed the $35 insulin cap to apply to Medicare beneficiaries, which could influence prices in the private market.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate Sunday 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker vote.

“While I don’t oppose everything in it, there is no doubt in my mind, based on both substance & process, the Senate should not have passed it,” Murkowski wrote on Twitter after the passage.

Kennedy had proposed his own amendment related to insulin costs, but ended up siding with the Democrats on theirs — though he called his colleagues across the aisle “a special kind of stupid” for the tax increases in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

“Democrats’ tax and spending spree will do nothing to decrease inflation, but will raise the tax bill falling on everyday Americans,” Cassidy wrote on Twitter Sunday. “I proudly voted no.”

Hyde-Smith released a statement calling the legislation “a long, forced march toward more economic hardship and more government in our lives.”

The reconciliation bill came out of an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), and is aimed at investing in domestic energy and lowering prescription drug costs by closing tax loopholes on wealthy individuals and corporations.

The Hill has reached out to the offices of GOP senators who supported the insulin cap for comment.

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Categories
Business

Metricon QLD GM Luke Fryer quits, national restructure update this week

Metricon QLD GM Luke Fryer quits, national restructure update this week

The Queensland general manager of troubled builder Metricon has resigned, days after the company announced around 225 staff would be sacked in a national restructure.

Luke Fryer, who had been with the company for 15 years starting as a sales estimator in 2007, was previously NSW GM before moving back to his home state of Queensland in 2020.

Metricon director Jason Biasin announced Mr Fryer’s resignation in an email to staff on Friday.

“The last two years have seen more challenges in our industry than ever before,” Mr Biasin wrote.

“Luke’s commitment to our people, to me personally and our business has been unwavering and will not be forgotten. We wish Luke all the best for the future and he will always remain a part of the Metricon family.”

He added, “I know this week has been very difficult for everyone and I thank you all for your professional and compassionate approach to the tasks at hand and looking after each other. I look forward to sharing more positive news with you next week.”

Metricon has been contacted for comment.

Last Monday, Metricon announced it would be shedding 9 per cent, or about 225 of its 2500-strong national workforce, in a restructure “to better accommodate and reflect the requirements of the current market“.

The affected roles are largely in sales and marketing.

The country’s largest home builder was plunged into crisis in May amid reports it was on the verge of financial ruin and engaging in crisis talks with the Victorian government, following the sudden death of its founder Mario Biasin.

Acting chief executive Peter Langfelder has repeatedly shot down those allegations, but a question mark still hangs over Metricon’s future despite the company’s directors injecting $30 million into its business to allay fears about its survival, and a rescue deal being struck with Commonwealth Bank.

Last month, Metricon listed nearly 60 display homes for sale across NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, worth a total of around $65 million.

Staff who were informed of the restructure during a Microsoft Teams meeting last week said those who had remained with the company rather than jumping ship “basically had the rug pulled out from under them”.

“It has not been received well by some of them,” one NSW staff member told news.com.au. “I’m a little bit burned by the whole situation.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Metricon confirmed it was in the “process of an internal restructure of the business, with an increased focus on delivering homes to more than 6000 Australians whose houses will be constructed this year”.

“To better accommodate and reflect the requirements of the current market and ensure the most appropriate deployment of resources, Metricon is working to appropriately reduce its sales and marketing capability while it focuses on the construction and delivery of more than 6000 homes,” a spokeswoman said .

“We have commenced a consultation process with our people. This process is proposed to lead to a reduction of personnel and redundancies across the national business.”

The spokeswoman said 2020 and 2021 saw record demand for homebuilding and that Metricon “expects demand to settle at pre-pandemic levels”. “As a result, the business will rebalance towards construction on homes it is currently building and the thousands more in the pipeline – the biggest volume in the company’s history,” she said.

The impacted roles will be at the “front-end of the business, predominantly in sales and marketing roles, representing approximately 9 per cent of the national workforce”.

“With the headwinds buffeting the industry, specifically labor costs due to competition for skills, combined with present global material cost hikes and with our very strong existing pipeline of work, we need to carefully balance the current pipeline of new builds with the construction side of the business,” Mr Langfelder said in the statement.

“We are working to restructure our front-end of the business given the current climate and the need to move forward efficiently. We are committed to looking after any of our people who may be impacted by these proposed changes, and they will continue to have ongoing access to the company’s support and mental health services.”

Mr Langfelder said Metricon was rebalancing the business’ focus over the next 18 months on executing builds as quickly and efficiently as possible whilst maintaining equilibrium in the pipeline.

“We have previously said that our company has a proven history of success and remains profitable and viable, with the full support of our key stakeholders – this remains the case today,” he said.

Mr Langfelder said Metricon was still expected to continue to contract on average 100 homes per week, in line with pre-pandemic levels. “Our future construction pipeline shows no sign of slowing down with more than 600 site-starts scheduled for 2023,” he said.

In an email to staff on Tuesday, Metricon said it would be holding a virtual town hall this week “to provide you with further updates on our business, current market conditions and plans for the future”.

“We do not underestimate the effect that this review is likely to have on some of you,” the directors wrote.

“We are committed to working through this process as thoroughly and efficiently as possible, and to keep you updated as we progress… Despite the current challenges across our industry, we remain stable as a business with full support from our key stakeholders.”

The Australian building industry has been plagued with escalating issues that have already seen Gold Coast-based Condev and industry giant Probuild enter into liquidation in recent months, while smaller operators like Hotondo Homes Hobart and Perth firms Home Innovation Builders and New Sensation Homes, as well as Sydney-based firm Next have also failed, leaving homeowners out of pocket and with unfinished houses.

The crisis is the result of a perfect storm of conditions hitting one after the other, including supply chain disruptions due largely to the pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine conflict, followed by skilled labor shortages, skyrocketing costs of materials and logistics and extreme weather events .

The industry’s traditional reliance on fixed-price contracts has also seriously exacerbated the problem, with contracts signed months before a build gets underway, including the surging costs of essential materials such as timber and steel.

It comes after it recently emerged that Australia recorded a staggering 3917 liquidations or administration appointments across all industries during the 2021-22 financial year.

The construction sector led the charge, representing 28 per cent of all insolvencies, although firms from countless industries also failed in the face of soaring inflation and interest rate pressures, Covid chaos, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions.

There were 1536 collapses in NSW, with Victoria recording 1022, Queensland 665, WA 350, South Australia 196, 91 for the ACT, 29 for Tasmania and 28 in the Northern Territory.

[email protected]

— with Alexis Carey

Read related topics:Brisbane

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Categories
Technology

Use This Trick To Make More Precise Google Searches

Use This Trick To Make More Precise Google Searches

People can use this particular new-and-improved Google search operator with their desired search terms to enhance the accuracy of their results.

Recently, Google has become synonymous with looking up stuff online or searching the web. A recognized verb in modern-day dictionaries, “Googling” ⁠— thanks to a recent update ⁠— has become much more accurate, especially for power users who like to use search modifiers like quotation marks to improve results. In addition, people searching for specific phrases on Google will now be able to see exactly where the desired keywords are located on web pages instead of just being fed results without indicating precise placement.

Google has recently provided useful upgrades to its comprehensive line of products. Those who prefer Google Chrome as their web browser of choice will soon be able to use a password strength detector that’ll help them ensure their passwords are impenetrable. The newly rolled out Gmail interface design makes it easier for users to switch between Google apps without needing to open new tabs or windows.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Related: This Nifty Trick Will Help You Finish Podcasts & Audiobooks Faster

With the newest improvement to what is arguably Google’s most popular service offering, users can utilize quotation marks — one of the search engine’s special operators — around any search word or phrase and only be shown pages that contain the exact words or phrases as typed. Additionally, for searches conducted on a desktop, the snippets that appear below every search result will feature the searched-for keywords in bold, making it easier for the user to click on a website from the results list and identify the phrase’s location within the page . Before the update, encasing Google search phrases in quotation marks merely yielded website results that have the desired keywords somewhere in their various pages, including specific areas a typical user may not know how to navigate (such as in a website’s metadata) or may not be useful for their research purposes (like a web page’s navigation bar, as a menu item). Google users would have to manually scan the resulting website for the search phrase in question, a task that can be tedious when the particular web page has dense text content.


Conducting Quote-Based Google Searches: Best Uses & Limitations


Google Search best cookie recipe quote marks

Using quotation marks to perform Google searches that yield the best results can be beneficial when super-specific content is required. For example, people who search for recipes online using natural language may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of results an ordinary Google search returns. However, typing out a particular search like “best cookie recipe” may yield web page results wherein users have written the exact phrase on the recipe’s comment page. This simple tweak drastically prunes down potential search results, showcases the most relevant options, and will make selecting one to try out a less daunting task.


Of course, there are caveats to performing quote-based searches. Although using quotation marks does improve Google’s overall functionality, results may still include pages that only have the quoted keywords within a page’s meta description tag, which is neither visible on the page itself nor particularly useful for ordinary search tasks. Google’s system may also recognize some punctuation marks as spaces, which can affect quoted searches and include unwanted results (ie, words separated by a comma and a slash may appear within the same search but may not mean the same thing). Furthermore, if a user searches multiple quoted key phrases, the snippets below the page in the results list may not show all the required keywords if they are too far apart. The snippet will only showcase the most relevant mention of a phrase that appears multiple times on a page.


This Google search hack is something experienced Google users may want to employ whenever they need to perform precise searches. However, this doesn’t diminish the reliability of Googling words sans quotation marks. In addition, Google’s default is to provide search results that contain both exact phrases and related content, which could be useful for additional insight. There’s also the standard ‘Find’ command that comes with any web browser. For Google Chrome on a desktop, it’s Ctrl + f for Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS, or ⌘ + f for Mac — that Google users can fall back on to quickly highlight specific phrases within a web page.


Next: Android Phone Going Straight To Voicemail? try this

Source: Google 1, 2

artificial hearts

Artificial Pumping Hearts: What They Mean For Soft Robots (And Humans)


About The Author

Jam Kotenko
(98 Articles Published)

Jam Kotenko is a long-time freelance writer based in Seattle with a focus on cool tech, social media, entertainment, and lifestyle. Her ella bylines have appeared in publications such as Digital Trends, The Daily Dot, and Bustle and ella was often tapped to test and review new mobile apps, compile best-of lists, and share details on her ella OKCupid success story. Additionally, she has also written personal essays about her experiences of her relating to marriage, motherhood, and everything in between. She recently contributed articles relating to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic for Nautilus Magazine. She is a full-time stay-at-home mom to two rambunctious boys and a nap-loving dog. Along with her husband de ella, she is currently on a health and fitness kick and is hoping to run her first marathon in late 2022.

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Categories
Entertainment

Late mum wrote letter for kids and husband before dying

Late mum wrote letter for kids and husband before dying

Before her tragic death in June, Dame Deborah James wrote down all she had learned about staying positive in the face of adversity.

The inspirational Sun columnist and podcaster was determined to share her life lessons in new book How To Live When You Could Be Dead, The Sun reports.

Here, in an exclusive extract, Emily Fairbairn shares Deborah’s beautiful final letter to husband Sebastien, son Hugo, 14, and 12-year-old daughter Eloise:

“I am currently sitting here next to the love of my life, Sebastien.

I never quite knew if you could really have a love of your life, but I now know what the very core of unquestioned love is between two people.

I have always loved my husband.

I fancied him from when I first met him, and I knew I would marry him after our third date.

It was clear to me that, while he wasn’t perfect, there was something about him that was right for me.

He respected me, and he never let me walk all over him or wrap him around my little finger.

He has always been, and always will be, the one person who can come and make everything better at 3am. He makes me feel safe.

If I look across any room 18 years later, I still find him the most attractive man there.

He had to mellow like a fine wine, because he has a stubborn side, which makes the three-year-old in me want to throw all my toys out of the pram.

He loves a feisty debate and loves to joke — sometimes I just prefer a movie and a glass of wine.

When I look back at our relationship and marriage, I realize that it didn’t just happen without work.

The complexities of daily life sometimes got in the way.

It’s easy to forget that the person you love is still there in front of you when things are clouded by the annoyance of childcare logistics, money pressures and living like ships in the night.

I wish I had learned at a young age that making time for your marriage to work should be as much a part of your time table as going to the gym or cleaning your teeth.

It’s important that you don’t allow the big arguments to build up, when all you really want is to forget about everything and cuddle the one person who you love.

As cancer brings my life to an end, I feel this cruel realization that I’m not fully able to be myself with the one person I have adored and needed in my life more than anyone else.

I feel robbed of the freedom of a body without pain to kiss with, the freedom for us to make whimsical plans for our future and retirement together.

Our goals and dreams have had to be adjusted week by week and day by day, depending on my cancer.

My husband has always been my rock. He holds me up when I can’t hold myself and wipes away my tears.

And yet I’ve wondered every day how it must have felt for him when the fairytale marriage he signed up for became a daily struggle to survive and fight for an extra moment of living.

I’ve wondered how he’s felt knowing he is about to become a widower.

I’ve wondered how he’ll remember me, and I’ve wondered if he will be OK.

To Hugo and Eloise, I can’t even speak about you without crying. You are my world.

I’ve learned that there are many ways to parent—nothing is right or wrong as long as there is love.

I’ve also learned that children are more resilient than we think.

There are mental snapshots of being a parent that will never leave you.

But the beautifully etched memories that will come to you in your death are not necessarily the ones you might expect.

One of my first is of Hugo when he was four days old.

He was lying next to me in our double bed in our flat, and he was looking for my breast to feed on — he was yellow and had a big conehead.

I remember looking at this little 6lb ball cradled against my tummy and thinking that it was only at this point that I had begun to understand what love was.

I now look at that same 14-year-old boy, who still takes the time to cuddle up next to me on the sofa, and I would give anything to continue being able to protect him in the way I did when he was just four days old.

I believe in self-fulfilling prophecies, I believe in rebellious hope and I believe my children will be OK when I die.

Because if I tell them they won’t be, then they might not be.

I want them to realize that life does not always go according to plan.

You can make plans, and you can have goals, but you have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes life is more interesting when you go off-piste — so be brave.

Take a chance and back yourself.

Remember to be your number one cheerleader.

Don’t leave the world and all it has to offer until retirement — experience it now.

Learn to balance living in the now and being present in the moment with your plans for the future (although this may be the hardest lesson of all).

Marry only for love.

Buy a dog — I bought Winston at one of the lowest points in my life and he has made me so happy. Nature and animals make me happy.

It is only towards the end of my life that I have really started to appreciate nature.

Take time out. Relaxing isn’t an indulgence — it’s a form of refilling ourselves. None of us can drink from empty cups.

Each day, do things that make you happy — build them into your life and never criticize others for the things that make them happy.

Every day we wake up not knowing if we will see the full 24 hours of the day, so as the sun comes up on a new day, we should feel blessed.

We are given 86,400 seconds every day, and we each choose how to use them.

It is only as they begin to slip away from us that we understand the value of each and every one of those seconds.

So, my greatest advice to you is that you can do whatever you want with those seconds. You can use them however you want.

The choice is yours, but the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Do you believe in yours?

Excerpted from How To Live When You Could Be Dead, by Deborah James (Vermillion, £14.99), out on August 18, 2022 © Deborah James.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

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Categories
Sports

Patrick Cripps suspension, hit on Callum Ah Chee, how many weeks, Carlton vs Brisbane Lions, video

Patrick Cripps suspension, hit on Callum Ah Chee, how many weeks, Carlton vs Brisbane Lions, video

The contest that left Brisbane Lions player Callum Ah Chee convicted will see Carlton captain Patrick Cripps sit out the home-and-away season on the sidelines, according to two former AFL stars.

Cripps launched at a contest with Ah Chee in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, collecting Ah Chee and leaving him dazed before he was eventually subbed out with concussion.

Blues coach Michael Voss mounted a defense for Cripps’ action when speaking after the 33-point loss.

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Carlton Press Conference | 06:10

“I thought it was a good answer,” he said.

“The umpire probably told the story, he didn’t pay a free kick, did he? Clearly he felt the arms were out and it was evenly contested and clearly when you have not a lot of time to adjust in those circumstances, it made for a difficult contest.

“I’m sure it’s one that’ll get looked at but from what I’ve seen the arms were outstretched and it was a pretty even contest.

“There’s microseconds in it, so if we’re asking players to make microsecond decisions, I don’t know whether the game enables that, I really don’t.”

Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, dual-premiership player for North Melbourne David King said Voss’ comments undersold the football IQ of Cripps, as well as the severity of the outcome for Ah Chee.

“So we’ve got the age-old argument of are we protecting the head or not – players can make decisions in microseconds, it’s what they do,” he said.

“I don’t know if that’s a microsecond decision. He’s coming in, he’s off the ground, his shoulder is tucked, he’s ready for contact. I don’t buy that. I love Vossy and I love what he’s done with Carlton, but that’s just not right.”

Co-host Ben Dixon pointed out Cripps and the Blues could argue the star was participating in a marking contest, but King wasn’t convinced.

“Mate, come on. He’s ready for contact at least a meter-and-a-half away, Cripps,” King said.

“He knows he’s going to be late, he assesses these things for a living. He knows when he’s late.

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Categories
Australia

Commonwealth Games 2022 continues; John Barilaro continues inquiry; Labor climate bill enters Senate; Dominic Perrottet defends David Elliott trade role

John Barilaro set to give evidence to NSW parliamentary inquiry; Senate climate bill negotiations heat up; Monkeypox vaccines secured; David Elliott, Matt Kean set for NSW leadership challenge; 2022 Commonwealth Games continue; NSW COVID cases grow, Victoria COVID cases grow

Returning to Dominic Perrottet’s radio interview from earlier this morning, and the NSW premier has shot down state Labor’s commitment to scrap several trade roles following the John Barilaro saga if he is elected next year.

Speaking to radio station 2GB this morning, Perrottet said the plan – spearheaded by NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns – is the wrong course of action.

NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns wants to abolish several trade roles if he wins the next state election.

NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns wants to abolish several trade roles if he wins the next state election.Credit:Kate Geraghty

“These roles are incredibly important, and I’ve seen that firsthand,” the premier said.

“If you speak to our ministers in relation to the trade missions that they’ve done in the past… NSW wasn’t even in the room.

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“I’ve met people on my recent trade mission who have said to me that they will now start to look to invest in NSW that they wouldn’t have done before.”

2GB’s Ben Fordham also asked Perrottet whether he had made a “handshake agreement” to help upgrade suburban rugby league stadiums after the premier told the NRL it would not follow through on a $250 million pledge to invest in suburban venues.

“I shake hands with Peter V’landys every meeting I’m at,” the NSW premier replied.

“We’ve just received a flood inquiry, which is going to cost the people of NSW billions of dollars. My job as premier is to not look after vested interests. My job as premier is to look after the people of NSW.”

Categories
US

More human remains found at Lake Mead as shoreline continues to recede

More human remains found at Lake Mead as shoreline continues to recede