Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - The impact of sport on the development of children

There are only a few parents and teachers who understand that a child should have a balanced routine, and get time for studies, games, and proper rest. As a blogger and sports lover, Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds believes that education is not just reading, memorizing, and writing homework. It is, in fact, the growth of one's personality. The importance of sports and games should not be ignored, when it comes to educating children and teenagers. Sports contribute to a child's physical, emotional and psychological growth.

Here are some benefits of playing sports for your child - 

Physical Benefits - Playing a sport involves lots of physical movement by the player. So, just imagine, if your child takes up any sport, he/she has to undergo a lot of running around and bodily activities in order to play and excel in a particular sport. These things will help your child build their muscles strong and also prevent diseases which are caused by over-weight and lack of physical activities. You will see a new change in your child's growth. 

Boosts Self-Esteem - One major advantage of playing sports is that your child will have to play in a team. Being part of one team with a common goal will raise your child’s self-esteem as he will feel an important part of a unit. Every little or big contribution they make to the team, will boost their confidence and feeling of self-worth. 

Builds Character - Children who play sports can serve as good role models to other children. Playing sports early enables children to participate in social interactions and develop essential social skills. This, in turn, will teach children to develop and practice numerous mental and moral qualities they learn from the field. 

Social Development - Sports help your children to develop sportsmanship and patience. They learn about teamwork and cooperation which are needed in every phase of their life and also help them gain experience in handling both victory and defeat. In life, we do not always excel in everything we try, sometimes we need to see the good of the darker sides, and therefore your kids should learn to be happy even if they fail. Children who fail to learn this often get prone to wearing grudges that adds negative traits to their personality. 

Decreases Stress - Sports help to fight anxiety, depression and stress. Sports trains one to accept failure gracefully and move one. They learn that winning and losing are parts of life, one should not feel discouraged and depress on losing, but move on and try more for the next time. Sports inculcates the spirits of sportsmanship and sharing. Children playing together as a team, share and celebrate their winning together. This has a positive effect on a child's psychology and behavior. 

Be a responsible parent and give your child a life high beaming with pride, confidence and self-esteem. This would be the best gift you can give him/her and one day you will be proud to have given your child the future he/she deserved.

Nick Tsagaris McDonalds - Pinterest

NickTsagaris McDonalds offers some truly amazing posts and information about many locations throughout the world through his blog. He has some truly unique experiences and tips to share with those who are interested in travel adventures. One of the main reasons of the popularity of his blog is that the content is so incredibly unique and interesting, yet informative at the same time.

Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - Firefighting planes from Canada iced in and unable to get to Australia

A fleet of water scooping planes, lauded as the champions of Canada's firefighting fleet, are iced in and cannot make it to Australia to help fight fires.

The CL-415 "super scoopers" can land on dams, lakes or the sea and scoop up water to drop on fires.

7.30 has learned that despite early warnings of a dangerous fire season, authorities only requested the planes in December, by which time they were grounded by the frigid Canadian winter.

Stuart Ellis from the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC), confirmed they would not make it to Australia.

"Canada can't physically deploy those aircraft to Australia currently because of icing conditions," he said.

The NAFC is now scrambling to source other scooping planes from France and Malaysia.

Yesterday it was revealed two US air tankers due to arrive in Australia had been delayed due to natural disasters.

Former fire chief Greg Mullins told 7.30 he thinks homes could have been saved if Australia had more water bombers.

"I do believe that if we'd had more aircraft in the sky, possibly we could have saved more homes," he said.

"Aircraft don't put out fires, but they give you a fighting chance to save life and property.

"They take the intensity out of those fire fronts to allow the ground crews to get in and do their work."

Getting planes to Australia

The NAFC leases planes from around the country and overseas each fire season and is funded by the states, territories and the Federal Government.

States and territories request aircraft as they need them, and the centre tries to source them.

In November last year, the NAFC's Mr Ellis said he was confident Australia had enough water bombers for the impending season. It is now ordering more.

In 2019, former fire chiefs warned the Federal Government it needed to permanently fund the NAFC, but their warnings were ignored until this fire season was underway.

The Federal Government has now committed ongoing funding to the NAFC and kicked in up to $20 million for four large new water bombers, including the two delayed in America.

Australia's fire services rely heavily on aircraft leased from the United States and Europe.

But with fire seasons in America and Australia starting to overlap, aircraft are not making it to Australia in time.

7.30 has learned the well-known water bombing helicopter Elvis is still in the US, believed to be undergoing maintenance, after the fire season there.

The NAFC says it will put a business case to the Federal Government at the end of this season to request funding to buy more planes.

It also flagged it would look to have planes here earlier, starting in September, rather than November, to respond to the changing fire season.

The Prime Minister's office said in a statement it had been taking expert advice.

"Whether it's helping coordinate which offers of international support states and territories want to accept or what further water bombing planes need funding, we've been acting on everything that is asked of us by the country's fire chiefs," the statement said.

"We listen to the expert advice and the business case submitted by the National Aerial Firefighting Centre is why our Government committed an extra $11 million this summer and last summer for water bombing aircraft on top of the annual budget and it's why when we were asked to fund an extra plane at 8:00pm on Friday, 3 January, we responded the next morning with an extra $20 million that would support four planes."

"That ongoing support will be there at that level into the future."

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - US lifts China's currency manipulator status as initial trade deal nears

The Trump administration is dropping its designation of China as a currency manipulator in advance of the Wednesday signing of phase one of the US-China trade agreement.

The preliminary pact that the two sides are set to sign this week includes a section that is intended to prevent China from manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages.

The removal of the designation comes five months after the Trump administration branded China a currency manipulator — the first time that any country had been so named since 1994, during the Clinton administration.

While removing China from its currency black list, the Treasury Department does name China as one of 10 countries that require placement on a watch list that will mean their currency practices will be closely monitored.

In addition to China, the countries on that list are Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland and Vietnam.

Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration had dropped China's designation as a currency manipulator because of commitments in the phase one trade agreement that President Donald Trump is to sign with China on Wednesday at the White House.

"China has made enforceable commitments to refrain from competitive devaluation, while promoting transparency and accountability," Mr Mnuchin said in a statement accompanying the currency report.

'A lot of show and very little results'

However, some critics of China's trade practices criticised the administration's decision.

"China is a currency manipulator — that is a fact," said Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate.

"When it comes to the President's stance on China, Americans are getting a lot of show and very little results."

The Treasury Department is required to report to Congress twice a year, in April and October, on whether any countries are manipulating their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages against US businesses and workers.

When a country manipulates its currency to keep it artificially low, its goods become comparatively less expensive overseas — and other countries' goods become relatively more expensive.

The new report is technically three months late, apparently because the Trump administration had delayed its release until it had achieved the currency phase one commitments from China.

The initial decision to brand China as a manipulator had come in a surprise announcement in August, reversing a Treasury finding in May that no country was manipulating its currency.

The United States had not put any country on the manipulation blacklist since the Clinton administration branded China a manipulator 26 years ago.

Mr Trump had long accused China of manipulating its currency, even though most independent experts concluded that Beijing had stopped doing so years ago.

The designation was largely symbolic. It obliged the United States to enter into negotiations to resolve the currency problem that could ultimately lead to the imposition of economic sanctions such as higher tariffs on Chinese goods — something the Trump administration was already doing in its tit-for-tat trade war with China.

Trade deal due to be signed on Wednesday

Mr Trump is scheduled to sign the phase one trade agreement on Wednesday, after which administration officials said the text of the deal would be made public.

In a fact sheet on the deal released on December 13, the administration said the agreement would address "unfair currency practices by requiring high-standard commitments to refrain from competitive devaluations and targeting of exchange rates."

The signing of the phase one agreement caps a rocky two years of trade conflict between the two nations, during which punitive tariffs were imposed on tens of billions of dollars of products from each nation.

The battle escalated uncertainty and caused businesses to pull back on their investments, slowing global growth.

It also roiled financial markets with fears that the trade war could become serious enough to push the US economy into a recession.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - Bushfire-affected beekeepers appeal for more access to unburnt national parks

Beekeepers are mounting a campaign for greater access to national parks in New South Wales after catastrophic fires destroy millions of hectares of flowering trees in regular foraging areas.

They expect it could take between five and 20 years for some flowering gums to fully recover, and to produce enough nectar and pollen to feed the bees.

Stephen Targett from the NSW Apiarists Association said thousands of hives — housing many millions of bees — had also been destroyed.

"These fires will lower NSW honey production by about 30 per cent for at least the next 10 years … and we're the largest honey-producing state in Australia," he said.

One insurer alone reported beekeepers affected by the Dunns Road fire near Tumut could have lost more than 6,000 hives.

South Australia has reported losing 3,000 hives on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills fires before Christmas.

While the beehives can be rebuilt easily, the remaining bees will be weak and hungry.

Prime forest country burnt

Mr Targett said the South Coast bushfires had a massive impact upon bees.

"Beekeepers had hives among grey ironbark [near Bermagui] when the fires came, and they worked all night to move the bees out of there to blackbutt [forests near Eden]," he said.

"Then a few nights later, they had to come and move them because that resource was getting burned as well."

Mr Targett welcomed the 60 tonnes of bee sugar that was available for apiarists in NSW to keep bees alive.

"Sugar syrup — we're supporting the Australian sugar industry — so there's a silver lining for someone," he said.

But he said more help was needed.

Almond pollination at risk

The $1 billion almond industry has joined the Honeybee Industry Council and NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall to call for access to more national parks to feed and strengthen bees for the task of pollination starting at the end of July.

"Our concern is the beekeepers who supply the pollination service and use the national parks for floral resources," Almond Board of Australia chair Neale Bennett said.

Almond growers pay more than $100 per hive for the six-week pollination and the bees need to be healthy and strong to cope with the task.

"Not only now, but any hives that are in the parks and for the future — for the regeneration of pollination sources," Mr Bennett said.

Almonds are entirely dependent on bees to do the essential cross-pollination.

The almond industry, which is now Australia's largest horticultural export, has doubled production since 2012. Last year, it produced 104,000 tonnes — worth $700 million in exports.

National picture

Honeybee Industry Council chair Peter McDonald was worried about access for bees to flowering trees nationally.

He said agriculture more broadly was reliant on honeybee pollination, which was worth $15 billion annually, with the value of honey around $120 million a year.

"In Victoria and Tasmania, access to national parks is easier with state governments recognising the important role of bees to pollination," he said.

But it is harder in NSW and Queensland.

"NSW imposes restrictions on new bee sites in national parks, while the Queensland Government has a plan afoot to remove bee sites from all national parks by 2024," Mr McDonald said.

The office of NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean has been contacted for comment.

Public appeal to gardeners

After years of drought, trees had stopped flowering in parts of the NSW South Coast.

Illawarra beekeeper David West suggested gardeners grow more flowering plants and set up bird baths for bees.

"Generally you have to fill a bowl with pebbles or sponges to make sure the bees don't drown," Mr West said.

NSW beekeepers can access free feed by calling the Agricultural and Animal Services Hotline on 1800 814 647.

And beekeepers have appealed to the public to help the best way they can.

"If people want to help us, buy Australian honey," Mr Targett said.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - Could tension between the US and Iran spark World War 3?

Our age is cursed by hyperbole, hysteria and exaggeration. Blame it on social media and the 24/7 news cycle, where one extreme comment follows another.

So it has been with the America-Iran stand off. It has already generated a Twitter hashtag: #WorldWarThree.

Ludicrous? Well, yes if you consider that by any measure Iran is dwarfed by the United States.

Its population is a quarter the size of America's, its economy is barely 2 per cent as large. Its outdated weapons are no match for the most powerful military force the world has ever known.

Yet Hillary Mann Leverett, a former senior US National Security Council official, told me on Al Jazeera this past week that in Iran the United States faces its greatest adversary since World War II.

She's ignoring the nuclear-armed Soviet Union of the Cold War and the current threat of China. But look more closely and she has a point.

Iran is more daunting than Ho Chi Minh's Viet Cong, or the Taliban, Al Qaeda or Islamic State.

Iran has a large military, a nuclear program, it is geographically crucial to the Middle East, it borders the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world's most crucial choke points — and it is resource rich.

Iran is the world's most dominant Shia Muslim power. Since seizing power in the 1979 revolution, Iran's clerical regime has withstood war, revolt and crippling economic sanctions.

Iran would not capitulate as quickly as Saddam's Iraq or Gaddafi's Libya. Anyway, its leaders are too shrewd to invite an Iraq-style US invasion with American troops rolling down the streets of Tehran.

That's not something that would appeal to America either.

Is America ready for another war?

A glance at history reminds us of the often fraught legacy of post-World War II American military adventurism: beating a retreat from Vietnam; the bodies of American soldiers dragged through Mogadishu's streets; fought to a standstill in Afghanistan (America's longest war); Libya divided with the government teetering at the onslaught of the warlord Khalifa Haftar (backed by Russia, among others).

One by one the dominoes have toppled in the Middle East since the Iraq war: the Arab spring, fallen dictators, the war in Syria, the emergence of Islamic State, millions homeless, countless dead, a flood of refugees.

Amid this upheaval Putin's Russia and Erdogan's Turkey have increased their power and influence. Iran and Saudi Arabia compete for dominance and fight a proxy war in Yemen.

Myriad insurgencies complicate the picture: forming and switching alliances, conquering and losing territory, their reach and ideology spreading far and wide.

In Africa, rebel groups have a foothold in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, the Central African Republic.

The likes of Al Shabab have proven resilient and adaptive. Despite heavy attack from African Union troops and American bombing, they can still strike in cities like Mogadishu and Nairobi. In parts of Somalia they operate as a quasi government.

Bigger than bin Laden

The 21st century was only a year old when Osama bin Laden orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the US. We live still in their shadow.

A new decade has begun with the killing of Qassem Soleimani, a man revered in Iran, yet detested elsewhere.

It is a far more significant moment than the killing of bin Laden or IS leader Abu Bakhar al-Baghdadi.

They didn't belong to national governments. Soleimani was crucial to the Iranian regime.

He seized on the post-9/11 upheaval to entrench Iranian power. He orchestrated the type of asymmetrical warfare that has undone America from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Soleimani built a network of proxies, notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, which now dominates that country's politics. He successfully emulated the Hezbollah model in Syria and Iraq.

Yet Soleimani also saw the emerging backlash: mass protests across Lebanon and Iraq calling for an end to sectarianism and chanting "Iran out".

He made his fatal trip to Baghdad after Iraq's President rejected the nomination of a pro-Iranian candidate for prime minister.

US President Donald Trump decided to press go on Soleimani's execution, and now Iran threatens "severe revenge".

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens to unleash martyrs on American targets. The Iraqi parliament votes to expel US forces from its land.

And the twitter hashtag #WorldWarThree goes viral.

War weakens strong nations

War weakens nations, even those victorious.

The two world wars ended Great Britain's dominance and handed global leadership to America.

The US has never stopped fighting since.

Its weakness is revealed in its three most recent presidents.

George W Bush started a war in Iraq that set fire to the region.

Barack Obama led from behind and left the world with Islamic State establishing a caliphate, Syria in flames, Russia annexing Crimea amid war with Ukraine, China claiming and militarising the disputed islands of the South China Sea and North Korea a rogue nuclear-armed state.

Now Donald Trump has assassinated — he argues justifiably — an Iranian military leader and national hero and Iran, threatens revenge that would take the world into uncharted territory.

What will WWIII look like?

This first month has already set the course of 2020, a presidential election year in the United States.

World War III? A look around the world tells us we may already be in it.

And we haven't mentioned the war in cyber space, where countries hack each other's military secrets and meddle in elections.

World War III won't look like World War II, just as that war didn't look like World War I.

Conflict with Iran alone would not end the century of American dominance — the US remains the world's biggest economy and by far its most powerful military.

But we haven't entered the post-American world just yet.

By: abc.net.au

Nick Tsagaris Mcdonalds - Recycling scrap metal into riveting works of art

The crackle of a welder, the bang of a hammer, and the click of snippers in a dry corner of South Australia's Mallee, is the sound of junk being given a second life, to help drought-affected communities.

Trent Stewart is a farmer and shearer who lives in Jabuk and loves the land.

But when work is sparse, or time is spare, he heads straight for the shed and lets his artistic sparks fly, creating sculptures under the name of Mallee Boy Art.

"I basically just use farm scrap to build whatever the imagination can come up with," Mr Stewart said.

"Anything from old rusty wire, to old plough shears, nuts and bolts, fence droppers, cogs — you name it — if it's been used on the farm at some stage it's more than likely going to end up in a piece of artwork."

But this year, Mr Stewart's efforts have been channelled into crafting artwork that reflects and supports areas impacted by drought.

'Where is he?'

Just under 70 kilometres from his Jabuk home, Mr Stewart's sculpture, titled Where is he?, sits in the main street of Karoonda after being donated to the local council that has been impacted by drought conditions.

The artist said it was a dedication it to all farmers' wives who spend long hours running a property and ensuring the safe return home of loved ones each night.

"They were a little bit taken back at first, because when you say you're going to give them a bit of scrap art, they think it's just going to be a heap of junk welded together," Mr Stewart said.

"It's not until they got it and could see it's actually a person … and can relate to the person you've built, or the story you're trying to tell."

In the state's mid-north, the artist's creation, Poppa, has been sitting in front of the Robertstown community centre inviting people to learn more about the character.

"You can sit on the chair and have a selfie with him if you're driving through, and stop and take in some of the town," Mr Stewart said.

"It's just to try and get the travelling public to stop, have a break, go into the local shops and just keep the towns going.

"We rely on the little country towns to keep going, so if I can help some way … [to] bring outside money in during drought, well that all helps."

Women making their mark

Horticulturist, Heidi Setchell, has also tried her hand at scrap art to share stories of rural life.

"Growing up on a farm you're always making use of everything, repurposing things, and my mother did quite a lot of that," she said.

"I remember finding an old cupboard just laying outside, perishing, and I said, 'Can we do it up?', and that's how I got started using recycled materials."

The Loxton resident said it was not until a local junk art competition came along that she was encouraged to step up her efforts, creating a life-size figure out of barbed wire.

"Barbed wire is horrendous to work with, but it's quite effective once you've created something out of it," Ms Setchell said.

"I had done a lot of fencing in a previous job … I lived up in the [Northern] Territory so all the fences were 100 per cent barbed wire."

Ms Setchell described repairing the sharp material as "an absolute fright" and said the sculpture, named Barb, was a tribute to all the people who have worked with the metal before.

"You just get your inspiration from experiences like that," she said.

Roos for Rudd

In Renmark, former tech teacher Dudley Siviour has been drilling and welding sheets of corrugated iron together to build three-dimensional animals that have travelled around the globe.

Fish, sheep and emus are just some of the animals he has brought to life from metal, but it was his kangaroos that have proven to be most popular.

"Kevin Rudd was given two of the smaller kangaroos, with Senator Anne Ruston helping with the sale," Mr Siviour said.

"I've got two kangaroos that the Australian Government gave to East Timor to [Former President] José Ramos-Horta.

"And the town of Orroroo has kangaroos at the entrances of their town."

Creating global connections from a country shed

Mr Siviour said his artwork connected with people across the world because of its lifelike features.

"I try to make them realistic, I start with the outline of a real animal and then work from there … even the little joeys look cute," he said.

Back in his Jabuk workshop, Mr Stewart has been continuing to create beauty from junk, sharing stories of dry times and good times with people from all walks of life.

"The older generation can relate to the parts that you use. They'll say, 'That's off an old header or combine'," he said.

"Younger people are captured by how you're actually using and recycling stuff.

"This material was previously broken or just junk and now we're turning it into something quite beautiful."

By: abc.net.au