22 Cogrington Drive, Harrington Park, NSW 2567
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House$2,070,000
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Versace inspired Harrington Park mansion that is half finished set for auction
An unfinished Versace inspired mansion with eight bedrooms, two crystal chandeliers and an integrated sound system is set to go to auction this weekend.
With around 740sqm of internal space, the half-completed mansion in Harrington Park still needs plenty of work.
The landscaping, two floating staircases, a half-paved patio and a swimming pool and spa area with murky water and rubbish floating on the surface are just a few things not yet complete.
However, the facade, internal tiling, a grand aquarium and walls covered in Versace tiles have all been completed.
Located at 22 Cogrington Drive, Harrington Park, the property will go to auction on Saturday with price expectations hovering around the $2m mark.
McLaren Real Estate agent Max Johnston estimates the owners have already spent around $1m building what he expects to be one of Harrington Park’s grandest homes when finished.
“Nothing like it has ever been seen in the area before,” he said.
WaPo Op-Ed: The Defiant Hope Of Christmas — God Is With Us
Meet Escapista, a collection of slow video for our times. My name is Cristiano, I’m a designer & developer who for a few years has been in love with the concept of Slow TV, but not doing much about it. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I started gathering YouTube Channels specialized in this content and I was impressed with how there was so much more than I ever thought! So along with a friend, we started sketching ideas for a website to help popularize Slow TV and help all the quarantined people around the world feel better. Choose a channel and let your mind wander with the great Slow TV and ambient videos we handpicked for you. Relax with the natural images and sounds while you work, put on your TV or invite your friends to watch together.”
MakeUseOf - 7 Websites to Find Beautifully Bound Books You Would Love to Own: “A book can be an object of desire. Here are some of the best sites for books that are beautifully designed and bound.Books stacked on a bookshelf horizontally and vertically Whether it’s the style of the cover illustration, the material of the binding, or the staggering attention to detail, a beautifully bound book can create an atmosphere that’s uniquely special…”
A conversation across time and space’: the power of birdsong
The Guardian – Musician Cosmo Sheldrake is on a mission to highlight the loss of UK birdlife with an album of avian chatter: “…Birds live on a different time axis,” says 30-year-old Sheldrake. “There’s a spectrum of relationships with time – we look at birds and think they’re very ‘other’, but when you slow their song down, you get an idea of the tapestry of what they’re saying and they sound strangely human. These are very subtle, integrated phrases that we miss when they’re singing at their normal speed.” And so these little characters and conversations have been pieced together in an album that follows the natural acoustics of the day; it starts with a nightjar, which sings just after dusk and through the night, then goes to a nightingale, and then the dawn chorus, before working its way through the day. A chord can be composed of five or six different aspects of a song played simultaneously. Tracks are based on sounds that already exist and have their own identity and character. “It’s a collaboration,” says Sheldrake, “except without explicit consent from the birds.”…
Also Listen to: Why should we listen to birds? (part one) – podcast
Ten Stories That Shaped 2020
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Here's my annual look back at some of the notable library headlines from this year. Can you guess what number one is?
10. News Flash: Prejudice Still Exists
The problem of algorithms propagating biascontinues to be an important issue in our field.
9. More Elsevier Cancellations
Following the University of California's break with their expensive subscription costs in 2019, otherlibraries have joined the cause.
8. The USPS Slowdown
As libraries rely upon the mail for many services, such as interlibrary loan, the problems with the postal service before the election was a story worth following.
Honorable Mention: Curbside Videos
On the lighter side, several libraries created innovative marketing materials for their adjustedpick-up procedures due to COVID-19.
7. Scandals Roundup
Issues attracting bad publicity this year included the beleaguered American Dirt release; former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh's fraud conviction; the removal of Gone with the Wind from the airwaves; the weeding process at New Zealand's National Library; toner theft from the Austin library; and J.K. Rowling's dubious attempt to convince people that transgender people can be criminals by penning a novel featuring a transgender criminal.
6. Proctorio's Bonkers Surveillance Practices
Online test taking had a bit of a moment this year, for obvious reasons. The methods employed by exam proctoring software, however, have raisedseveral eyebrows.
5. The Internet Archive's National Emergency Library
Due to the closure of many physical library buildings, the nonprofit organization running the digital library at archive.org opened its texts for free viewing, much to the chagrin of commercial publishers. An ensuing lawsuit had the desired effect: the project was shut down. The fair use practice of online story hours faced similar threats.
Dishonorable Mention: Bad Patron Behavior
Librarians adjusting their service models due to the pandemic this year were often challenged by patrons with unrealistic and uninformed expectations about how libraries should be operating, not to mention blatant acts of rudeness.
4. Vaccine Hunt Fraught with IP Issues
Ah, capitalism. The search for a COVID-19 vaccine was driven, and perhaps hindered by, interests of those seeking to monetize the cure.
3. Bookstores Challenge Amazon
Amazon reaped in record profits this year, while several brick-and-mortar stores closed their doors for good. The efforts of Bookshop.org to compete with the retail giant received some much needed attention.
2. Misinformation Endangers Lives, Democracy
Conspiracy theories about the coronavirusabounded this year, causing an untold number of unnecessary deaths. And earlier this month, a poll of Republican congressman discovered that just ten percent of them will say who won the presidential election. As for librarians, if our mission is to slay ignorance, our role in combating bad information remains unclear.
1. #closethelibraries due to COVID-19
With a few notable exceptions, library leaders were excessively slow to shut down their buildings in order to protect the health of their workers and clientele. A campaign to close the libraries spread before many of the closures finally occurred. How libraries will reopen in 2021 is yet to be seen.
What was your favorite story of 2020?
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: “As reporters across the country covered the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests this past summer, the free legal hotline for journalists operated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press saw a huge spike in usage, reflecting journalists’ demand for legal guidance during one of the most tumultuous years in our nation’s history. June accounted for the most hotline traffic since data collection began in 2013. Each of the next five months also showed sustained growth compared to previous years. “The thing that struck me was that 2019 was the busiest year that we had on record,” said Reporters Committee Staff Attorney Sarah Matthews.
“Then, in 2020, we surpassed that number in September.” The hotline numbers for 2020 exceeded the previous year’s numbers by more than 35%. Since the Reporters Committee’s founding 50 years ago, the legal hotline has become a key component of our work providing legal support to journalists nationwide. On the heels of 2020’s significant increase in traffic, we thought it was an appropriate time to provide journalists with some important information about the legal hotline — and to remind them when they should use it, and what to expect when they do…”