A few nice Weight loss images I found:
Mel B The New Face of Jenny Craig
Image by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer
Mel B Of Spice Girls Fame Signs On With Jenny Craig, by Eva Rinaldi
Mel B aka Melanie Brown has just been signed up as the new face of Jenny Craig (Australia and New Zealand).
Today at 10.30am Mel B, the top brass at Jenny Craig, and over a dozen news media enjoyed a healthy and delicious breakfast (and a media gig) at the Centennial Parklands function centre.
In the extremely unlikely event that you didn’t know, Mel B is an English pop singer-songwriter, actress, author and television presenter. She is best known around the world as Scary Spice, one of the members of the girl group Spice Girls.
It’s well know that brands around the world are often interested in signing up suitable celebrities to promote their wares, and on the surface it looks to be a great match with Jenny Craig being a leader in the weight loss industry for over 30 years, and Mel B recently off pregnancy, enjoying motherhood and looking to loose weight.
The international star told our table "I just love the breakfast. Jenny Craig is just right for me being a busy mum".
Mel B said on her eating "I was eating literally eating morning, noon and night, and its didn’t matter what time. I was just eating. I was a house. I love my humps and bumps, but when a newspaper described my shape as the ‘bootylicious, curvylicious, post-baby body of Melanie, I knew I had to do something. I had to get the eating under control".
Jenny Craig boss Amy Smith released in a media statement: "Mel told us she doesn’t like dieting at all. She loves eating healthy foods and she is thrilled with the health snack options and the amount of fruit and vegetables she gets to eat. Jenny Craig’s team of nutritionists and doctors have created a program especially for women like Mel who have recently given birth, that takes into consideration the nutrient levels needed for breastfeeding women", says Ms Smith.
Mel B said: "Life gets a bit crazy when you’ve got four daughters but it’s important for us mums to live healthy and to be in good shape. Mums really need to take time for themselves and get to a place where they are happy with their body again. We should not put it off because we deserve more than that. I healthy happy mum equals a healthy happy family."
After breakfast Mel did some on site TV interviews, believed to be for Channel Seven, followed by a relaxed photo shoot in the lush green parklands. Apparently word must have spread around Sydney press circles, as after just minutes after going outside for the shoot a number of uninvited paparazzi showed up and started snapping away. Mel and her media team probably expected it, so its a good thing that the word is well and truly out about her new campaign with Jenny Craig.
Mel B looks great, so just imagine how hot she will look a few months into the Jenny Craig program. She acknowledge that media, the other former Spice Girls and everyone else will be watching her progress closely, and judging by today it appears UK pop queen is on set to achieve her diet goals. Will you achieve your dieting goals as summer sneaks up on you? Needless to say, you now know who to call, which we strongly suspect for the ideal in the first place.
Thanks for the tasty J.C breakfast guys. Highly recommended.
Websites
Jenny Craig
www.jennycraig.com.au
Melanie Brown official website
www.melaniebrown.com
Centennial Parklands Dining
www.trippaswhitegroup.com.au/our-venues/Centennial-Parkla…
Centennial Parklands
www.centennialparklands.com.au
Hollywood Treatment
www.hollywoodtreatment.net
Eva Rinaldi Photography Flickr
www.flickr.com/evarinaldiphotography
Eva Rinaldi Photography
www.evarinaldi.com
War Horse
Image by Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer
War Horse play enjoys Sydney, Australia media call at Lyric Theatre, The Star
This morning War Horse (the play – not the movie), enjoyed its Sydney media / production call.
It might have been a touch low on media attendance, but was high on talent, passion, and quality all around.
This Thursday War Horse will enjoy much more media attention with its Sydney red carpet premiere, however the Music News Australia and Media Man team were happy to get a leg up on the competition by getting an early look in at this world class production.
The acting, production, props and every other element certainly had a 5 star look and feel to it.
It’s little wonder media and audiences have been raving about the production the world over.
Media quotes…
“War Horse is extraordinary theatre. Brilliant, bold, moving, it is a world-class fusion of performance, design and specially puppetry.” The Age
“Epic… Magnificent… Impressive. You can almost smell the sweat and leather and hear the galloping hooves of their magnificent “animals” manipulated by master puppeteers.” – Herald Sun
“Outstanding. The production confidently says: Come along for the ride.” – The Australian
“Unique and breathtaking theatre.” – Radio National
“Truly a spectacle that you have to experience.” – 3AW
"Everything about War Horse looks to be 5 stars. The overall production, acting, consuming, the animal robotics. The interaction between the actors, the horses and the audience is amazing and has to be experienced to be believed. This version of War Horse is just as satisfying as the movie – maybe more so in some regards. This may just be the best play to hit Australia this year. Highly recommended – Greg Tingle, Media Director – Media Man.
The Guardian’s Michael Billington wrote in his review:
Elliott and Morris recreate the kaleidoscopic horror of war through bold imagery, including the remorseless advance of a manually operated tank, and through the line-drawings of Rae Smith projected on to a suspended screen. Admittedly the performers are somewhat eclipsed by the action … The joy of the evening, however, lies in the skilled recreation of equine life and in its unshaken belief that mankind is ennobled by its love of the horse.
Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph had written that, generally, "puppets are often an embarrassment, involving a lot of effort and fuss for negligible returns"; in this case, he praised the puppetry as "truly magnificent creations by the Handspring Puppet Company." The Times’ 10-year-old guest reviewer called the show "movingly and realistically brought to life" and "an emotional and compelling adaptation of the book."
In reviewing the Broadway production, Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times, "…it is how Joey is summoned into being, along with an assortment of other animals, that gives this production its ineffably theatrical magic…Beautifully designed by Rae Smith … and Paule Constable, this production is also steeped in boilerplate sentimentality. Beneath its exquisite visual surface, it keeps pushing buttons like a sales clerk in a notions shop." Brantley suggests, "The implicit plea not to be forgotten applies not just to the villagers, soldiers and horses portrayed here, but also to theater, as an evanescent art that lives on only in audiences’ memories. Judged by that standard, much of War Horse evaporates not long after it ends. But I would wager that for a good while, you’ll continue to see Joey in your dreams."
Entertainment Weekly gave a positive review, calling the show an "imaginative, moving new Broadway drama … The play’s equine stars are the remarkable creation of Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones’ Handspring Puppet Company. As manipulated by three handlers dressed in period costumes, the life-size creatures seem to breathe, snort, feed, walk, gallop, and rear up just as naturally as the genuine articles. In no time at all, they become characters as rounded and complex as any of the humans on stage." Time magazine ranked the play as its top choice among all theatre productions in 2011.
The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout praised the puppetry, but gave mixed reactions to the play: "The fundamental flaw of ‘War Horse’ is that Nick Stafford, who wrote the script ‘in association’ (that’s how the credit reads) with South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, has taken a book that was written for children and tried to give it the expressive weight of a play for adults. Not surprisingly, Mr. Morpurgo’s plot can’t stand the strain. Dramatic situations that work perfectly well in the context of the book play like Hollywood clichés onstage. In the first act, the craftsmanship is so exquisite that this doesn’t matter—much—but things go downhill fast after intermission. The really big problem is the last scene, about which, once again, the drama critics’ code commands silence. This much must be said, though: A play that is so forthright about the horrors of war owes its audience a more honest ending."
Theatre review aggregator Curtain Critic gave the production a score of 88 out of 100 based on the opinions of 21 critics.
WAR HORSE MEDIA RELEASE:
Internationally acclaimed critical and box office hit
War Horse…
The National Theatre of Great Britain and Global Creatures are proud to bring the multiple Tony and Olivier Award-winning War Horse, to Australia.
Applauded by critics and audiences alike, War Horse held its Australian premiere in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve at Arts Centre Melbourne’s State Theatre. After the Melbourne season War Horse will travel to Sydney for a season at the Sydney Lyric from Saturday 16 March, 2013 and to Brisbane for a season at Lyric Theatre from Saturday 6 July, 2013.
Since its world premiere in London in 2007, War Horse has won numerous prestigious awards including two Laurence Olivier Awards, five Tony Awards and four Outer Critics’ Circle Awards amongst a host of others. The Handspring Puppet Company has also won many accolades including a 2011 Special Tony Award.
“The ANZAC spirit is deeply entrenched in the Australian ethos. We expect War Horse to have a great resonance in this country not only because of our connection to World War I but because themes of the land, loss and the ultimate triumph of friendship have a special place in the Australian psyche. We are proud to produce this highly acclaimed show with the National Theatre.” says Carmen Pavlovic, CEO of Global Creatures.
Nick Stafford’s stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book, War Horse is a magnificent drama which tells the heart wrenching story of Joey, the beloved horse of a boy called Albert, who is sold to the cavalry at the outbreak of World War I and shipped to France. He’s soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man’s land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.
At its heart are astonishing puppets strong enough for men to ride, created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to life on the stage. Life size horses traverse the stage, their flanks, hides and sinews built of steel, leather and aircraft cables. Actors, working with these dynamic puppets, will lead Australian audiences on an emotionally-charged journey through history.
"War Horse is a life affirming story about friendship, courage and family, which appeals to all ages. This is a production that brings the family together, we get people coming back again and again, and they always have the same reaction. It awakens something in you,” says Chris Harper, Producer, National Theatre of Great Britain.
War Horse has played to packed houses at London’s National Theatre, the West End’s New London Theatre and New York’s Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. A further production opened in Toronto, Canada in February 2012 and a US tour commenced in June 2012.
Steven Spielberg’s movie adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, released by DreamWorks Studios in late 2011, was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, War Horse is designed by Rae Smith, with puppet design and fabrication by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler for Handspring Puppet Company, lighting by Paule Constable, and movement and horse choreography by Toby Sedgwick; the puppetry directors are Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, with video design by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer, songmaker John Tams, music by Adrian Sutton and sound by Christopher Shutt.
Websites
Lyric Theatre, Sydney – War Horse
www.sydneylyric.com.au/index.php/whats-on/current-show/Wa…
Lyric Theatre, Sydney
www.sydneylyric.com.au
War Horse On Stage official website
www.warhorseonstage.com
The Star
www.star.com.au
Media Man Int
www.mediamanint.com
Eva Rinaldi Photography
www.evarinaldi.com
Valentine Tank. 1940–44. Легкий английский танк “Валентайн”
Image by Peer.Gynt
Moscow. Kubinka Tank Museum. Танковый музей в Кубинке.
The Valentine was an infantry tank produced in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Over 8,000 of the type were produced in 11 different marks plus various purpose-built variants, accounting for approximately a quarter of wartime British tank production[1]. Over its lifetime it went from a riveted construction to entirely welded, and from a petrol powerplant to a safer, less ignitable, two stroke diesel engine produced by GMC. It was supplied to the USSR and license built in Canada. Developed by Vickers, it proved to be both strong and reliable.
Name
Several versions exist concerning the source of the name Valentine. The most popular one says that the design was presented to the War Office on St. Valentine’s Day, 14 February, 1940.[1] Some sources, however, claim that the exact date the design was submitted was 10 February. According to another version, the tank was called Valentine in honour of Sir John Valentine Carden, the man who led the development of the A10 and many other Vickers vehicles. Yet another version says that Valentine is an acronym for Vickers-Armstrong Ltd Elswick & (Newcastle-upon) Tyne.
Based on the A10 Cruiser tank, the Valentine was privately designed by Vickers-Armstrongs (hence its lack of a General Staff "A" designation) and was submitted to the War Office on February 10, 1938. The development team tried to combine the weight of a cruiser tank (so that suspension and transmission parts of the A10 could be used) with the greater armour of an infantry tank, which resulted in a very small vehicle with a cramped interior and two-man turret. Though its armour was still weaker than the Infantry Tank II Matilda and, due to a weaker engine, it shared the same top speed, the new design was much less expensive and easy to produce.
The War Office was initially deterred by the size of the turret and the crew compartment.[clarification needed] However, concerned by the situation in Europe, it finally approved the design in April 1939. The vehicle reached trials in May 1940, which coincided with the loss of nearly all of Britain’s equipment during the evacuation at Dunkirk. The trials were successful and the vehicle was rushed into production as Infantry Tank III Valentine. The Valentine remained in production until April 1944, becoming Britain’s most produced tank during the war with 6,855 units manufactured in the UK (by Vickers, Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon and Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon) and further 1,420 in Canada. They were the Commonwealth’s main export to the Soviet Union under the Lend-lease Act, with 2,394 of the British models being sent and 1,388 of the Canadian Pacific built models, and the remaining 30 being kept for training.
[edit] Combat historyThe tank first saw combat during Operation Crusader in the North African desert, at which point it began to replace the Matilda. It was extensively used in the North African Campaign, earning a reputation as a reliable and well protected vehicle. However, the Valentine shared the common weakness of the British tanks of the period – its 2-pdr gun lacked high-explosive capability and soon became outdated as an anti-tank weapon too. The small size of the turret and of the turret ring made upgunning of the tank a difficult task. Although versions with the 6-pdr and then with the Ordnance QF 75 mm gun were developed, by the time they were available in significant numbers better tanks already reached the battlefield. Another weakness was small crew compartment and two-man turret. A larger turret with a loader position added was used in some of the 2-pdr armed versions, but in the upgunned variants the position had to be removed again.
British tanks and crews line up on Tripoli’s waterfront after capturing the city, 1942.By 1944, in the European Theatre the Valentine was almost completely replaced in the frontline units by the Infantry Tank IV Churchill and the US-made Sherman. In the Pacific the tank was employed in limited numbers at least until May 1945. It was used in New Zealand service, some with the main armament replaced by the 3 inch howitzer taken from Australian Matilda CS tanks.[citation needed], on the Solomons in 1943.
In Soviet service, the Valentine was used from the Battle of Moscow until the end of the war. Although criticized for its speed and its weak gun, the Valentine was liked due to its small size, reliability and generally good armour protection.
[edit] Surviving tanks
Tank no 838 at the Canadian War MuseumTwo Canadian-built Valentines survive. Valentine Tank Mk VIIA, no. 838, built May 1943, was a Lend-Lease tank shipped to the Soviet Union. It fell through the ice of a boggy river near Telepino (Telepyne, Ukraine), during a Soviet counter-offensive on January 25, 1944. In 1990, a 74-year old villager helped locate the tank, and it was recovered and offered as a Glasnost-era gift to Canada. It was presented to the Canadian War Museum by independent Ukraine in 1992, and stands on display in the LeBreton Gallery.[2]
At least one Valentine exists in around 10 metres of water in Bracklesham Bay, south of Chichester in West Sussex. The hull and turret are clearly recognizable as it sits on a gravel mound. The remains of the tank used to be regularly dived by various diving clubs in the area.
There are also two Valentine DD tanks 3.5 miles (5.6 km) out of Poole Bay in Dorset. These tanks are 100 metres apart under 15 metres of water. They were part of the amphibious experiments during World War II to enable them to be launched into the water farther from the beach.[3]
There are also believed to be another five tanks sunk in the same area, and divers from the Isle of Purbeck Sub Aqua Club are involved in an ongoing search to find their location.[citation needed]
The remains of a Valentine Mk V (NZ20767), operated by the Waikato Armoured Regiment at Waiouru in the late 1950s, are now in a children’s playground in Ohakune, New Zealand.[4] A further Valentine is in running order at MOTAT in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand.
Valentines are displayed at Bovington Tank Museum and Imperial War Museum Duxford in the UK; Brussels Tank Museum, Belgium; Musée des Blindés, Saumur, France; Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia; National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg, South Africa; Armoured Corps Museum, Ahmednagar, India and Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles, USA. Further Valentines are held in private collections [5].
Service history
In service 1940–45
Used by British Army, Red Army
Wars Second World War
Production history
Designer Vickers-Armstrongs
Designed 1938
Manufacturer Vickers-Armstrongs and others
Produced 1940–44
Number built 7,300
Specifications
Weight about 16 long tons (16-17 tonnes)
Length hull: 17 feet 9 inches (5.4 m)
Width 8 feet 8 inches (2.6 m)
Height 7 feet 6 inches (2.3 m)
Crew Mk I,II, IV, VI – XI: 3 (Commander, gunner, driver)
Mk III, V: 4 (+ loader)
——————————————————————————–
Armour 8-65 mm
Primary
armament Mk I-VII: QF 2-pounder
Mk VIII-X: QF 6-pounder
Mk XI: QF 75 mm
Secondary
armament Mk I-VII, X, XI: 7.92 mm BESA machine gun
Engine Mk I: AEC A189 petrol
Mk II, III, VI: AEC A190 diesel
Mk IV, V, VII-XI: GMC 6004 diesel
131–210 hp (97–157 kW)
Suspension coil sprung three-wheel bogies
Operational
range 90 miles (140 km)
Speed 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_tank
