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West Australian
21-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Basil Zempilas: Burswood Park racetrack is a project with no business case and a waste of $220 million
1. The spaceman has landed. Sixty-three years after John Glenn's historic flight on the Friendship 7 spacecraft, Perth has a glorious tribute to our city of light origin story. The 7 metre Boonji Spaceman, a gift to the City of Perth from American artist Brendan Murphy, stands tall on St Georges Terrace from today. Statue erection, like space flight, is difficult and at times dangerous work but that doesn't mean it can't be done. Just like the residents who turned their lights on for Glenn back in 1962, Perth's ability to pull off the remarkable should never be underestimated. 2. This week in Parliament I asked the Premier what is the point of community consultation if that community consultation is going to be ignored? That is precisely what is happening with Rita's racetrack at Burswood Park. This is a project with no business case, no community support and no transparency. The WA Liberals do not support this reckless, wasteful use of $220 million of taxpayer money on a project which simply does not stack up. 3. For 24 years Ken Gibbons has run the Community Cinemas at Burswood Park. He's been told he has to move the much-loved summer favourite to a new location, which he says won't work, to make way for changes associated with the ill-conceived racetrack. A racetrack prioritised over community, that's what's happening here. 4. Eleven weeks after the election, finally the big day has arrived for the five new members of the Liberal's Legislative Council team. Congratulations and welcome to Anthony Spagnolo, Michelle Boylan, Phil Twiss, Michelle Hoffman and Simon Ehrenfeld. See you at work members. 5. And with that, it's farewell and thank you to our retiring MLCs Donna Faragher and Peter Collier. Both have enjoyed magnificent 20-year parliamentary careers and both have made enormous contributions to the people of WA. We thank them for their service. 6. How they choose to operate in Canberra is their business, but the working relationship between the WA Liberals and the Nationals WA is as strong as ever. Our alliance is constructive, co-operative and united in a shared mission to hold the Cook Labor Government to account. 7. The best thing Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt can do for the people of WA is approve the extension of the North West Shelf development. Actually, there's one thing better he can do: approve it tomorrow. 8. Walyalup is a great name for the Dockers to adopt during and around Sir Doug Nicholls Round. But the club's name is Fremantle. Saturday's win against the Giants was a beauty but it shouldn't be the catalyst for a permanent name change as some are suggesting. 9. The Eagles black and gold WA Day jumper looks great. First in, best dressed, right? 10. Vale Adam Selwood. A lovely man, always so kind, he didn't deserve this pain. Nor do his family and friends. My sincere condolences.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
National Air and Space Museum to reveal more renovated galleries on July 28
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. From John Glenn's Friendship 7 to Blue Origin's New Shepard, space capsules and more are set to return to or debut on display with the opening of five "reimagined" galleries at the National Air and Space Museum this part of a still on-going, seven-year renovation of the museum's flagship building in Washington, the Smithsonian has announced that it is ready to premiere more of its exhibitions following the reveal of eight of its halls on the building's west end in 2022. The next launch, scheduled for July 28, includes two galleries highlighting some of the most historic and newest space artifacts in the national Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, which visitors will first see after proceeding through the museum's newly-redesigned Jefferson Drive entrance along the National Mall showcases some of the museum's most iconic objects, including Glenn's Mercury spacecraft and an Apollo lunar module configured to appear as Apollo 11's "Eagle" looked in 1969 when it landed the first humans on the moon. The displays in Milestones were the first to be redesigned in 2016 — in time for the museum's 40th anniversary — but then the hall was closed and the artifacts were removed again so that the area itself could be exhibits also include a North American X-15 rocket plane, the Gemini 4 capsule from which astronaut Ed White performed the first American spacewalk in 1965 and a moon rock that the public can touch. Also opening on July 28 will be the new "Futures in Space" exhibition, which takes over the location of the relocated "How Things Fly," next to the Milestones of Flight Hall. "Futures" will display artifacts new to the building to address topics like "who decides who goes to space?" and "why do we go?" Debuting with Futures in Space are a Virgin Galactic "RocketMotorTwo" engine that powered pilots Mark Stucky and Frederick "CJ" Sturckow into space on a suborbital test flight on board the SpaceShipTwo "VSS Unity" in 2018 and an aluminum grid fin that helped SpaceX land a Falcon 9 rocket's first stage in new is a mockup of Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule, a pressurized cabin used to fly cargo and clients beyond the boundary separating Earth and space. Jeff Bezos, the company's billionaire founder and its first passenger, has pledged to replace the replica with a flown capsule once it has retired from flying. Other areas of the National Air and Space Museum reopening at the same time include three aviation-themed halls — "Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight," "World War I: The Birth of Military Aviation" and the Allan and Shelley Holt Innovations Gallery — and the the Lockheed Martin IMAX remaining eight galleries still under renovation are scheduled to open on July 1, 2026, the 50th anniversary of the National Air and Space Museum and in time for the United States' 250th anniversary. Among them are the interactive "At Home in Space," which will engage visitors in how humans live and work in space and venture beyond Earth orbit, and "RTX Living in the Space Age Hall," revealing how innovations in space technology have transformed our lives on the "National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe" exhibition will show how advancements in astronomical tools changed our understanding of the universe. Also opening next year, wrapping up the renovations, are the "Textron How Things Fly," "Jay I. Kislak World War II in the Air" and "Modern Military Aviation" galleries, as well as the "Flight and the Arts Center."Free timed-entry passes are required to visit. Passes for the July 28 opening and beyond will be available on the National Air and Space Museum website June 13. Follow on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Chicago Tribune
20-02-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: United States Post Office Department created
Today is Thursday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2025. There are 314 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 20, 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the United States Post Office Department, the predecessor of the U.S. Postal Service. Also on this date: In 1862, William Wallace Lincoln, the 11-year-old son of President Abraham Lincoln and first lady Mary Todd Lincoln, died at the White House from what was believed to be typhoid fever. In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public's health. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded 'idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons,' among others, from being admitted to the United States. In 1939, more than 20,000 people attended rally held by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization, at New York's Madison Square Garden. In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Project Mercury's Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe three times in a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 miles northwest of Puerto Rico. In 1965, America's Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into the moon's surface, as planned, after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface. In 1998, American Tara Lipinski became the youngest-ever Olympic figure skating gold medalist when she won the ladies' title at the Nagano Olympic Winter Games; American Michelle Kwan won the silver. In 2003, a fire sparked by pyrotechnics broke out during a concert by the rock group Great White at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people and injuring over 200 others. Today's birthdays: Racing Hall of Famer Roger Penske is 88. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito is 83. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is 83. Film director Mike Leigh is 82. Actor Brenda Blethyn is 79. Actor Sandy Duncan is 79. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 71. Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is 62. Model Cindy Crawford is 59. Actor Andrew Shue is 58. Actor Lili Taylor is 58. Singer Brian Littrell (Backstreet Boys) is 50. Actor Lauren Ambrose is 47. Actor Jay Hernandez is 47. MLB pitcher Justin Verlander is 42. Comedian-TV host Trevor Noah is 41. Actor Miles Teller is 38. Singer Rihanna is 37. Singer-actor Olivia Rodrigo is 22.
