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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Celebrating the details most people overlook, the Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) competition, devoted to macro and micro photography, has selected this year’s winners from more than 9,000 entries from 54 countries. Close-up Photographer of the Year, founded in 2018 by photojournalists Tracy and Dan Calder, is an annual competition organized in association with Affinity Photo to encourage photographers to slow down, enjoy their craft, and make long-lasting connections with the world around them. Canadian photographer Samantha Stephens has been awarded the title Close-up Photographer of the Year, with her striking image of a pair of salamanders being consumed by a carnivorous pitcher plant in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada. ‘Northern Pitcher Plants normally feast on moths and flies but researchers at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station recently discovered a surprising new item on the … [Read more...] about Best Close Up Photography Of The Year: Amazing Winning Photos

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Under the motto “see the world anew,” more than 9,000 photographers from 56 countries entered this year’s Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) competition devoted to close-up, macro and micro photography. Close-up Photographer of the Year, founded in 2018 by photojournalists Tracy and Dan Calder, is an annual competition organized in association with Affinity Photo to encourage photographers to slow down, enjoy their craft, and make long-lasting connections with the world around them. The international contest, now in its third year, awarded the title to photographer Pål Hermansen for a remarkable image of insects discovered in a defective lamp on the side of his house in Norway (below). “I emptied the lamp and spread the contents onto a large light-table I had left over from my slide days,” explained Hermansen. “I wanted to express the chaos and diversity of this discovery, but also to find some kind of … [Read more...] about Close-Up Photographer Of The Year: 22 Striking, Winning Images

Phuket 7-Eleven was robbed, photo by Eakkapop Thongtub. Two thieves robbed a 7-Eleven in Phuket on Tuesday, just a day before it was set to close down . The two men snatched 1,826 baht from the store’s two female staff at gunpoint, The Phuket News reported. Thalang Police arrived at the scene and reviewed the CCTV footage. The footage showed two men on a motorbike circling the store twice before one man entered the store wearing a full-face helmet. The man then threatened the two female staff with a homemade firearm, police said. The terrified staff then handed the robber the 1,826 baht in cash. Forensic officers inspected the scene, and police are now on the prowl for the men. Deputy Chief Lt Col Anukul Nooket said that CCTV footage captured the robber’s features. Related news Thai celebrities duped out of 20 million baht in online toy scam, 300 victims speak out 2 hours ago Police bust Belarusian man in Phuket for … [Read more...] about Thieves rob Phuket 7-Eleven a day before it closes down

PHOTO: Koh Kradan Four Trang islands have been closed to tourists for four months to allow time for their ecosystems to rehabilitate. The Haad Chao Mai National Park says Koh Mook, Koh Kradan, Koh Waen and Koh Chuak were shut on June 1 and would remain closed until September 30. The park officials say June to September was the period when the islands would be hit by a strong southwest monsoon so it was not suitable for tourists to go out to the sea anyway and was therefore a good time to give time for the islands’ ecosystems to rehabilitate. Related news All aboard the sushi terror train 4 hours ago Southeast Asia’s most luxurious new beach hotels 1 day ago Tourism operators have been advised since last year of the plan to close the four islands during the monsoon season and park officials will patrol the islands to prevent any breaches of the closure. Koh Mook Sivalai Beach resort … [Read more...] about Four more Andaman islands close for R&R this year

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin We’ve all seen our share of poorly executed and downright uninspiring storylines in WWE history, but the Bloodline and Sami Zayn saga isn’t one of them. In fact, it has been so good, the saddest part about the angle is we know it is coming to an end shortly. On Friday, at the climax of the first episode of Smackdown since Saturday night’s epic Royal Rumble ending, the former honorary Uce and the Bloodline authored another memorable finish to WWE programming. In Greenville, South Carolina, flanked by Paul Heyman, the Tribal Chief delivered a strong promo looking ahead to his match with Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. Amidst chants of Zayn’s name from the crowd, Reigns tried to be dismissive of his new rival. That became impossible a few moments into Roman’s rant. Dressed in a black hoodie and joggers, Zayn attacked the Undisputed Universal Champion. During the attack, Zayn revealed his altered t-shirt with the … [Read more...] about WWE Smackdown Results: Sami Zayn And The Bloodline Author Another Epic Close To A Show

BEIJING  – China’s policymakers plan to show more support for domestic demand this year but are likely to stop short of splashing out big on direct consumer subsidies, keeping their focus mainly on investment, three sources close to policy discussions said. In recent weeks, top policymakers have repeatedly signalled their intention to work towards harvesting the consumer power of China’s 1.4 billion people, after economic growth in 2022 slumped to one of its weakest levels in nearly half a century. That has raised expectations that large-scale household stimulus measures could be announced at an annual parliament meeting in March. Prominent academics have felt emboldened to speak publicly about sizeable demand-side measures such as 1 trillion yuan ($148.28 billion) or more in nationwide consumption vouchers. The sources close to policy discussions, however, expect China to stick more closely to its familiar playbook of policies to support key industries and splurge on … [Read more...] about Big stimulus unlikely as China considers steps to support consumers-sources

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das If you thought the good news stopped with the Budget 2023 slashing the tax burden on individuals, think again. The budget proposals are also likely to help stop the interest rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India that have been raising your EMIs since last year. The Budget’s fiscal rectitude would be music to the ears of the members of RBI’s interest rate-setting panel. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman not only met her deficit target for the current fiscal year and announced a lower target for the next but she also said that she would stick to the medium-term aim of below 4.5 percent of the GDP. The RBI’s monetary policy committee, which has been waging a war on red-hot inflation over the last year, is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points when it meets February 6-8. The panel has raised interest rates by 225 basis points since April 2022. In October, the central bank failed to meet its inflation mandate after … [Read more...] about How Budget 2023 paves the way for RBI to pause rate hike after February

The central government has emphasised capital expenditure in the economy but it still has not addressed the issues surrounding public-private partnerships in the country, which needs to be urgently looked into, said Vinayak Chatterjee, founder and managing trustee, The Infravision Foundation. " I am not particularly optimistic (about the sucess of the PPP model in India) because I have not seen any, shall I say, strenuous or concerted attempt to address the ills of PPP, to address the issues that made PPP fall," Chatterjee said. He added that while the Centre’s move to increase capital expenditure on infrastructure in 2023-24 is an encouraging move to drive India’s economy and will push the country’s gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) to be around 7.5-8 percent of GDP in the next financial year, “Just a year after recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, if India's GFCF touches 7.5-8 percent in FY24, this is an encouraging sign for the country’s economy,” Chatterjee said. … [Read more...] about Govt spend will boost infra but concerns around public private partnership not addressed: Vinayak Chatterjee.

The Union Budget will boost the order pipeline for the infrastructure sector, but the pace of implementation and execution of the big-bang capital expenditure plan announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 will be key to success, said R Shankar Raman, chief financial officer of Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T). Some ongoing issues in the infrastructure sector, like dispute resolution and pace of ordering, need to be addressed to help the industry accelerate growth, Raman told Moneycontrol’s Rachita Prasad. Raman also spoke about the opportunities and risks and how L&T is preparing for 2022-23. Pushing project execution, managing people and closing the divestment of its non-core assets is on the top of the agenda for the engineering giant. Edited excerpts: The Union Budget made a big commitment to capex . What is your key takeaway for the infrastructure sector? The Rs 7.5 lakh crore is generous. The good part of the allocation is … [Read more...] about Interview | Budget plan implementation, faster dispute mechanism key to infrastructure growth: L&T CFO

Power Minister RK Singh (Source: Twitter/@OfficeOfRKSingh) Union Power and Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh on February 2 said the ongoing controversy surrounding the Adani group will not derail India’s green energy plans. Singh’s comment came a day after Adani Enterprises called off a Rs 20,000 crore follow-on public offering (FPO) after it got fully subscribed on the final day. Since last week, investors have lost over $100 billion of market value in the Adani group after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the company of using tax havens and flagged debt concerns in a report. “India now has one of the most robust renewable energy capacities in the world. We have at least 15-16 large companies that are of the level of global companies capable of going and investing anywhere. So, this (the Adani controversy) will not impact us in any way. India has some of the biggest companies in renewable energy in the world,” the power minister said in an interaction with … [Read more...] about Adani issue won’t impact India’s green energy mission: Power minister RK Singh