Latest news with #RCA
Observer
17 hours ago
- Health
- Observer
Arabian leopards in Oman saved from extinction with care
Muscat - The Royal Court Affairs (RCA) has succeeded in breeding Arabian leopards and protecting them from extinction by providing them with health care, nutrition, and a suitable environment for breeding. The female Arabian leopard, 'Al Muzn,' is one of the prominent offspring of the Wildlife Breeding Center (WBC). She was around two and a half years old and is in excellent health after receiving close follow-up care from specialists at the Wildlife Breeding Center, affiliated with the Directorate General of Veterinary Services at the Royal Court Affairs. The center has also been able to breed and care for two other leopards, a male and a female, who are over three months old. Arabian leopards receive special care during their first few months, a critical stage during which many leopard babies are at risk of dying, and the mother may refuse to care for her cubs. The center has intervened early to save and care for these leopards, ensuring their health is stable. The center cares for Arabian leopards native to Jabal Samhan in Dhofar Governorate by breeding and protecting them from extinction, and then reintroducing them to the wild after ensuring their ability to survive and reproduce. The center also exchanges expertise, knowledge, and scientific research with breeding centers in the region.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Automotive
- NZ Herald
Road cone hotline: Traffic management expert doubtful new scheme will work
'The main negative point that makes me the most uncomfortable about it is ... you think about a driver who is now somewhat empowered by the idea they can report overzealous road cones. Then [they are] looking at roadworks as ... what do I not like? What does not reach the threshold that will deserve my respect?' Tilton said this could lead to motorists having less respect for roadworks sites and their workers, posing safety risks. This in turn could lead to more traffic management equipment being deployed to counteract the disrespect. '[That's] the exact opposite of what is intended', Tilton said. In the first six weeks of operation, almost 900 reports were lodged to the hotline – with most of them deemed valid. These reports are passed on to the road controlling authority (RCA) responsible (such as Auckland Transport) to follow up. For example, Auckland Transport said its staff would often go to the site of concern or check CCTV footage to see what can be done. Minister for Workplace Relations Brooke van Velden's road cone hotline has received 236 reports of excessive cones in its first four days, with the most coming from Auckland. Photo / NZME Worksafe said 155 inspectors have completed special training to be able to spot cone over-compliance and in some cases, they will visit sites with the local RCA. Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said while abuse to road workers was never acceptable, more proportionate road cone use could actually help indicate there was a genuine risk at sites. Van Velden said during recent travels across the country someone raised the issue of a 'sea of road cones' at nearly every meeting. Parallaxx founder and chief executive Dave Tilton. This week, van Velden said there had been instances of cone over-compliance identified and addressed because of reports through the hotline. 'For example, in Albany, a worksite found 30 excess road cones after a report to the tipline, which were removed to make the site less disruptive.' Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal officials discouraged the minister from having inspectors complete site inspections alone because they have no power to enforce change immediately. 'There will be no ability for our inspectors to affect immediate change to the number of road cones present in each situation, because the business is required to operate the site according to the approved [Traffic Management Plan] which will already have been approved by the RCA. 'Additionally, our inspectors will not have access to the approved TMP without requesting a copy from the RCA.' Officials discouraged the Government from allowing anonymous reports of excessive road cone use at roadworks sites over fears it would lead to a flood of pranks and bogus reports. Officials cited a failed attempt in the UK to install a similar system where out of 17,000 calls for service, only five resulted in any cones being removed. 'A range of prank calls were received when the UK introduced a 'cone hotline' in 1992 and we aim to minimise this by asking for contact details,' officials said. Although the hotline is nationwide, officials warned the minister that local councils would not have capacity or the funding for follow-up reports swiftly as larger councils like Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington did. Officials said they had been advised by Auckland Transport that they had seen an increase in abuse of road workers especially following public announcements and commentary about road cones. 'It would need clear messaging that the road workers are not responsible for road cones.' Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
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Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Is Doja Cat's team scared her new album will flop?
Whispers are swirling around Doja Cat's stalled comeback, and not everyone's convinced it's just a matter of timing. Her long-teased album Vie was first announced in February, with buzz picking up again when a snippet of its alleged lead single Jealous Type appeared in a high-profile Marc Jacobs campaign. But months later, there's still no release date, no music video, and no confirmed rollout, leaving fans and industry watchers wondering: is Doja's team nervous about how it'll land? There's talk that Jealous Type sounds too safe, a return to her earlier, chart-friendly pop-rap sound that lacks the experimental flair of Scarlet. That shift has sparked quiet speculation that the label might be second-guessing its decision, unsure if playing it safe is the right move for an artist known for her unpredictability. Despite early hype, the track remains unreleased and the album campaign seems to be stalling. Some suggest internal chaos could be to blame. Doja is signed to both Kemosabe (headed by Dr Luke) and RCA, two labels often accused of mismanaging major artists. Insiders point to sample clearance issues or executive indecision as possible factors behind the delay. Others believe the label may be waiting for a more favourable market window, or scrambling to rework the album altogether. Adding to the unease is the absence of clear branding or visuals. For an artist who built entire eras around aesthetic reinvention, the lack of direction this time feels off. Behind the scenes, it seems even her team isn't fully sure what the Vie era is supposed to be. Still, Doja's commercial track record and intense fan loyalty may be her saving grace. With the right move, the comeback could still be massive, but time is running out.
New Statesman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
David Gentleman's pensées for the novice artist
David Gentleman. Courtesy of Pelican Books Among the 400 or so instructional letters sent by Lord Chesterfield to his illegitimate son in an attempt to school the young man in 'the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman' there is one, dated 1747, that touches on the importance of art. 'I find that you are a tolerably good landscape painter, and can present the several views of Switzerland to the curious,' he wrote, 'I am very glad of it, as it is a proof of some attention.' Attention, the nobleman thought, was the key attribute not just of art but of life itself, since 'the world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description'. Attention is also one of the elements stressed by the artist-designer David Gentleman in his own book of instruction, Lessons for Young Artists. Gentleman's is a more humble endeavour than Chesterfield's and is notable for its simplicity, but he too believes that to understand the world you need to be in it. He is now 95 and this charming, illustrated volume presents a distillation of some the wisdom gained during a near 80-year career. That span has seen him become one of Britain's most ubiquitous though least-known practitioners. On leaving the Royal College of Art in 1953 he set himself against teaching as a way of subsiding being an artist, as many of his peers did, and relied instead on commissions, for whatever was needed and wherever they came from. His first was for a set of wood engravings for a book called What About Wine? and, thanks to his versatility and inventiveness, they have kept coming. He hasn't always warmed to them, and one brief for an American company was, he later learned, for pesticides that had turned out to be poisonous for the farmers who used them. 'I realised that besides finding interesting and well-paid work, it ought to be responsible, too,' he notes. But, as he says in one of the short commentaries that explains each of his artistic nuggets, jobs are a necessity and, faced with a workaday task, 'I just had to get it done.' The reward, he says, was slow accumulation that eventually led to recognition and a reputation. Nevertheless, it was 20 years before he held an exhibition of his work. It helped that Gentleman was not just the son of two painters but was taught at the RCA by John Nash and Edward Bawden. It is a bloodline that links him directly to a group of figures who transformed British art in the first half of the 20th century, Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious among them. In the 1920s and 1930s the RCA was committed to the idea of allying art and design. Its principal, William Rothenstein, was determined to steer the students away from producing 'dreary imitations of Morris designs' and towards work that had a 'more alert spirit'. It was an ethos still prevalent when Gentleman studied there, and this heritage – and spirit – has long been apparent in his work. Indeed, Gentleman confesses that Bawden's influence in particular was in danger of becoming a little too insistent. When he noticed that there were echoes of his teacher cropping up in his own work, he 'consciously tried to avoid them'. This was not to denigrate Bawden but to make sure his own pictures were original rather than an imitation, however reverential. What makes Gentleman a significant figure is both the range and the quality of his work. He has found a form of artistic demotic that, certainly to Britons of a certain age, has a comfortable familiarity that nevertheless sparkles with imagination. Between 1962 and 2000, he created 103 stamps for the Post Office. His designs ranged from British trees, birds and building types to stamps commemorating the Battle of Britain, 50 years of the BBC, and the launch of Concorde. He has designed posters for London Transport and the National Trust and is responsible for a redesign of the Trust's oakleaf and acorn logo. He has created dustjackets for Faber & Faber and the New Penguin Shakespeare series – a staple for innumerable schoolchildren. He is responsible too for the platform murals at Charing Cross Tube Station showing the building of the Eleanor Cross, a 13th century stone monument; the commission came in 1975 with no brief from London Transport other than 'it had to explain how Charing Cross got its name'. He responded with a bande dessinée of 'medieval' wood engravings that were then expanded to life size. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Perhaps his most untypical work was with the placards he designed for the Stop the War Coalition following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Using a typographical 'No' spattered with blood, he took advice from Tony Benn, whom he had first met when the latter served as postmaster general and Gentleman started designing stamps. For good measure, Gentleman was responsible for coming up with the 'Bliar' slogan too. So the guidance here comes from a long-lived and engaged mind. What Gentleman offers is the antidote to swathes of contemporary art-think and -speak. There is no talk in his book about 'meaning' or 'profundity', much less the wilful obfuscation and vapidity of much contemporary and conceptual art. Instead he proffers modest advice that in less authentic hands would be mere cracker-barrel slogans. Start with a pencil, he counsels, and draw quickly and then you'll get the essentials without being distracted by detail; sketch whatever is to hand; embrace the accidents of watercolour; return to motifs in different weathers and times of day; choose unlikely angles; look up. Attention, attention, attention. His pensées may not be worthy of Montesquieu but they are straightforward and have a validity that is applicable beyond the mere making of images: 'Keep your expectations slight'; 'Just get on with it'; 'You don't have to like, or be good at, everything'. And he accompanies these crisp strictures with a generous helping of his own pictures – drawings in pencil, pen and ink, wood engravings and lithographs, commercial designs and fully fledged watercolours, many from his travels. Some are from his patch of Camden Town in London (as in the view of Euston and King's Cross from the Regent's Canal, pictured above) and others are of the unshowy Suffolk countryside around the cottage he has owned for more than 40 years in a village ten miles from the coast. These pictures are invariably endearing, both observant and skilled, and, in his more considered watercolours, full of detail too. Part of their appeal is that they show a man in tune with the craft tradition; his are indisputably hand-eye works. And while David Gentleman must have looked into his soul many times over the years, he is far too good natured and well mannered to bother the viewer with what he has found there. Art, for him, is not knotted self-expression, revelation or provocation: 'We make art because it is interesting,' he says. It is not highfalutin, but it is a better definition than many. Lessons for Young Artists David Gentleman Particular Books, 192pp, £20 Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from who support independent bookshops [See more: Samuel Pepys's diary of a somebody] Related
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
RCA under ED radar for money laundering; three officials booked
1 2 Jaipur: The Enforcement Directorate has launched a money laundering investigation into alleged financial irregularities in Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), based on an FIR lodged at Jyoti Nagar police station in Jaipur. BJP MLA Jaideep Bihani, former convenor of RCA ad hoc committee, had filed the FIR in August 2024 against former RCA office-bearers Bhawani Samota, Rampal Sharma, and Rajesh Bhadana. The ED has now registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and begun its probe. The FIR was registered under IPC Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), and 120B (criminal conspiracy). It alleged that contracts were awarded to favoured firms without due diligence or assessment of credentials. One such firm, reportedly in the garment business, was paid Rs1.4 crore for business consultancy services. "We have initiated investigations after registering a PMLA case. It is too early to comment much on the developments. Our team is on the job of collecting various data and information related to the case," said an ED officer. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Storage running out on your Mac? Space Lens will show you why MacPaw Read More Undo According to sources, the ED has taken cognisance of the FIR as well as developments in the ongoing police investigation in Jaipur. "There are many instances of financial irregularities mentioned in the FIR, including the awarding of a contract to a construction firm for renovation, repair, and event management of the Sawai Man Singh Stadium during the India versus New Zealand match," said an ED officer. "Initially, tenders were invited for the work, but the original bidders were side-lined, and the contract was given to a favoured firm. Our job is to probe the money laundering angle in the case," the officer added. ED officials, however, refrained from disclosing further details, including who has been summoned for questioning. "We are investigating the case. At this juncture, nothing much can be shared," the officer said.
