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Sporting high-performance specialist Kim Crane, who has a lifelong connection with the ocean through surfing, outrigger canoe racing and stand up paddle-boarding and who is also a former member of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team, has accepted the position of Surfing Australia’s National High-Performance Director, further bolstering Australian surfing’s Olympic gold medal ambitions heading into the 2020 games in Japan.

Tailor made for the position, Crane not only has a genuine passion for surfing, but extensive knowledge and industry experience in high performance sport. Her impressive background includes involvement in multiple Olympic campaigns, sports administration and competing as a top-flight athlete.

Crane’s recent role as the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Performance Manager has been the perfect primer to her new role. At the AIS, Crane was responsible for leading the engagement of key internal and external partners to develop high quality, effective high-performance plans and strategies in order to increase the likelihood of achieving and sustaining performance targets. 

Surfing Australia's Newly appointed National High-Performance Director Kim Crane. 

Surfing Australia is confident that Crane can deliver these key objectives regarding Australian World Champions and gold medallists at the upcoming 2020 games in Japan. Crane will start in the role on the 11th September 2017 and will be based at the Hurley Surfing Australia High Performance Centre.

Prior to her AIS role, Crane worked at the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) as Manager High Performance Sport & Excellence. This role required her management oversight of up to 16 Olympic sports, and she led the NSWIS Coach Excellence Program, including facilitation of a Coach Development Tour to the London Olympics.  In the final year of the London Olympic Cycle, she also spent time as Hockey Australia’s National High-Performance Manager.

Kim Crane commented "I'm both humbled & genuinely thrilled to accept this new position. Having been blessed to grow up at Bells Beach Torquay, I truly respect Surfing's grass roots and the cultural significance the sport holds within Australia. Surfing has an enormous history of success, and this is such an exciting time for the sport.

To lead Surfing Australia's High-Performance Program which supports our athletes to become the world’s best surfers and people is without doubt a once in a lifetime opportunity. I sincerely acknowledge the work completed by previous organisational leaders who established the foundations for Surfing Australia to be ready for its first Olympic Games in 2020. There's much work to do, not just to ensure we are ready for Tokyo, but to build upon the talent programs creating the next generation of athletes striving for continued World Championship and Olympic success.

The vision and values, and the quality of the people at Surfing Australia is one thing that attracted me to the role. I look forward to starting this journey working beside Andrew Stark (CEO), Bede Durbidge (Elite Program Manager), HPC staff, the State bodies, and all the partners in the national sport network and surf industry. "

Surfing Australia couldn’t be happier with the team’s new addition and is looking forward to seeing Crane’s reputation of building a culture of excellence, accountability and continuous improvement at work. The organisation is confident that Crane will benefit Surfing Australia’s national program and network for leading sustainable success at both a sport and team level moving forward towards Surfing’s first Olympic appearance in 2020.

Newly appointed Surfing Australia Elite Program Manager and current World Surf League (WSL) competitor Bede Durbidge was stoked with the news of Crane’s appointment.

“I'm so excited I'll be working alongside Kim in her new role. She will be a massive asset to Surfing Australia and the high-performance program. What she brings to the table from her Olympic back ground is going to be so valuable to Australia's success over the coming years. On top of Kim's amazing career back ground, she has a deep passion and love for surfing. I couldn't ask for a better boss,” said Durbidge.

Surfing Australia CEO Andrew Stark commented “We were extremely fortunate to have an international field of outstanding applicants for this newly created role. Kim was a standout given her understanding and affinity with surfing coupled with her Olympic experience and knowledge and network of the Australian sporting system. Kim is extremely highly regarded in the Australian High-Performance sport industry and brings the exact experience, knowledge and leadership credentials and style we were looking for in the role. We welcome Kim to the team as we embark on this exciting new journey towards the 2020 Olympics and beyond.

Surfing Australia Chair Layne Beachley was thrilled by the announcement and commented: “Kim’s wealth of Olympic knowledge, sporting experience and passion for surfing makes her the perfect candidate to take on this position. Obviously Surfing Australia has wholeheartedly embraced the challenge of preparing for a new and exciting chapter as an Olympic sport and Kim’s appointment strengthens our team and demonstrates our commitment to providing the best opportunity for our athlete’s success on the world stage.”

Australian Sports Commission CEO Kate Palmer said “In a short period of time, Kim has made a tremendous contribution to the AIS through her role as Performance Manager. Her background as an athlete (Hockeyroo), business leadership, and time within NSWIS and more recently the AIS has strengthened the overall high-performance network. We are confident that Kim will provide strong high-performance leadership to support Surfing as they head into their first Olympic Campaign in Tokyo.”

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan today encouraged Australians to pause and reflect on the 72nd anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, marking the end of the Second World War.

“Victory in the Pacific Day marks Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies after more than three years of war,” Mr Tehan said.

“During the Second World War almost one million Australian men and women served, almost 40,000 Australians lost their lives, many more were wounded and more than 30,000 were taken prisoner of war—of those taken prisoner, more than 8,000 died in captivity.

“On Victory in the Pacific Day we recognise those who served our nation, honour those veterans who remain and remember those who are no longer with us.

“Today we reflect on our country’s experience of all wars, the values our service men and women fought to protect and the price they paid for doing so.

“We owe those men and women a great debt of gratitude and we will never forget.

“In the coming months the Australian Government will hold national services for the 75th anniversaries of the battles of Milne Bay, El Alamein, and Kokoda and the Beachheads.

“I encourage all Australians to attend these services, hear the stories of Australians who served, and honour the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the Second World War.”

Last Post ceremonies for these important Second World War anniversaries will take place at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on the following dates:

25 August 2017 - 75th anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay,

23 October 2017 - 75th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein and the culmination of the North Africa campaigns,

2 November 2017 - 75th anniversary of Kokoda and the Beachheads.

JOHN Lyons, one of Australia’s leading journalists, is to join ABC News as Head Investigative and In-depth Journalism.

He will lead Australia’s premier current affairs teams and programs across broadcast and digital, including 7.30, Australian Story, Four Corners, Q&A, Insiders, Offsiders, Lateline, Foreign Correspondent, Behind the News, AM, PM, The World Today and Correspondents Report, as well as finding the best ways to deliver the ABC’s finest investigative and long-form content to new audiences.

A three-time Walkley Award winner, Lyons’ previous roles include being the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Executive Producer of the Nine Network’s Sunday program, a foreign correspondent in Washington, New York and Jerusalem and, currently, Associate Editor (Digital Content) at News Corp’s The Australian.

ABC Director, News Gaven Morris said Lyons was an outstanding editorial leader.

“As platforms and channels change, information outlets multiply and fake news proliferates, the demand for trusted sources of information, well-told stories and quality, news-breaking journalism is greater than ever,” he said.

“The centrepiece at ABC News is always the journalism, and John will play a key role in delivering our best in-depth and investigative reporting to all Australian audiences when, where and how they want to consume it.”

Lyons said: “After ten great years at The Australian, I’m delighted to be joining the ABC in this important role at a time when independent public interest journalism is more vital than ever.

“With people increasingly getting their news and information through different means, it is crucial we are able to present strong investigative journalism on digital platforms. The ABC is committed both to investigative journalism and to telling stories in ways relevant to a changing society.”

Lyons takes over from Bruce Belsham, who held the role (previously called Head of Current Affairs) with distinction for five years.

A three-time Walkley Award winner and one of Australia’s leading journalists, John Lyons is currently Associate Editor (Digital Content) at The Australian. He has previously been the Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and Executive Producer of the Nine Network’s Sunday program. John has been a foreign correspondent in Washington, New York and most recently Jerusalem. From the Middle East he won the Walkley for best investigative journalism for a report he presented on the ABC’s Four Corners. While based in Jerusalem, he also won three United Nations human rights awards and wrote his recently-published memoir, “Balcony Over Jerusalem“. John has also won the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year.

The NSW Government is toughening sanctions on those who repeatedly flout driver licence laws, but also providing a road back to lawful driving for disqualified drivers who can demonstrate they can be trusted.

The reforms were announced today by Attorney General Mark Speakman, Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Sarah Mitchell alongside Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson.

Mr Speakman said, “This overhaul of driver licence disqualification laws rebalances the system in favour of people who prove they can steer their lives back on track, while providing police with extra on-the-spot powers to punish repeat disqualified driving offenders.”

The NSW Government reforms adopt recommendations of the multi-partisan Legislative Assembly Committee on Law and Safety and will do the following:

“The reforms put road safety front and centre giving disqualified drivers an incentive to return to lawful driving. For those who continue to break the rules, magistrates will continue to have maximum disqualification periods available to them,” Mrs Pavey said.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Sarah Mitchell said, “Lengthy disqualification periods, which can currently exceed 10 years, are often ineffective, provide no incentive to return to lawful driving and disproportionally affect the disadvantaged, including Aboriginal people.”

Researchers have described a new species of brittle star, which are closely related to starfish, and showed how these sea creatures evolved in response to the rise of shell-crushing predators during the late Palaeozoic Era. The results, reported in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, also suggest that brittle stars evolved new traits before the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history, and not after, as was the case with many other forms of life.

A fossilised 'meadow' of dancing brittle stars -- frozen in time in the very spot that they lived -- was found in Western Australia and dates from 275 million years ago. It contains several remarkably preserved 'archaic' brittle stars, a newly-described genus and species called Teleosaster creasyi. They are the last known complete brittle stars of their kind, an evolutionary hangover pushed to the margins of the world's oceans by the threat from predators.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, suggest that while other species of brittle stars evolved in response to predators such as early forms of rays and crabs, these archaic forms simply moved to where the predators weren't -- namely the seas around Australia, which during the Palaeozoic era was pushed up against Antarctica. In these cold, predator-free waters, the archaic forms were able to grow much larger, and lived at the same time as the modern forms of brittle star, which still exist today.

Brittle stars consist of a central disc and five whip-like appendages, which are used for locomotion. They first appear in the fossil record about 500 million years ago, in the Ordovician Period, and today there are about 2,100 different species, mostly found in the deep ocean.

Early brittle stars were just that: brittle. During the Palaeozoic Era, when early shell-crushing predators first appeared, brittle stars made for easy prey. At this point, a split in the evolutionary tree appears to have occurred: the archaic, clunky brittle stars moved south to polar waters, while the modern form first began to emerge in response to the threat from predators, and was able to continue to live in the warmer waters closer to the equator. Both forms existed at the same time, but in different parts of the ocean.

"The threat from predation is an under-appreciated driver of evolutionary change," said study co-author Dr Kenneth McNamara of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. "As more predators began to appear, the brittle stars started to evolve more flexible bodies, which enabled them to either burrow into the sediment, or to move more rapidly to escape."

About 250 million years ago, the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history -- the Permian-Triassic extinction event, or the "Great Dying" -- occurred. More than 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species went extinct, and as a result, most surviving species underwent major evolutionary changes as a result.

"Brittle stars appear to have bucked this trend, however," said co-author Dr Aaron Hunter, a visiting postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences. "They seem to have evolved before the Great Dying, into a form which we still see today."

Meadows of brittle stars and other invertebrates such as sea urchins and starfish can still be seen today in the seas around Antarctica. As was the case during the Palaeozoic, the threat from predators is fairly low, although the warming of the Antarctic seas due to climate change has been linked to the recent arrival of armies of king crabs, which represent a real threat to these star-filled meadows.

Aaron W. Hunter and Kenneth J. McNamara. Prolonged co-existence of “Archaic” and “Modern” Palaeozoic ophiuroids – evidence from the early Permian, Southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2017 [link]

Previous work from INSEAD Associate Professor of Marketing Hilke Plassmann's research group did show that a higher price, for instance for chocolate or wine, increased the expectation that the product will also taste better and in turn affects taste processing regions in the brain. "However, it has so far been unclear how the price information ultimately causes more expensive wine to also be perceived as having a better taste in the brain," says Prof. Bernd Weber, Acting Director of the Center for Economics and Neuroscience (CENs) at the University of Bonn. The phenomenon that identical products are perceived differently due to differences in price is called the "marketing placebo effect." As with placebo medications, it has an effect solely due to ascribed properties: "Quality has its price!"

The researchers assessed how different prices are translated into corresponding taste experiences in the brain, even if the wine tasted does not differ. 30 participants took part in the study, of which 15 were women and 15 were men, with an average age of around 30 years.

The wine tasting took place lying down in an MRI scanner, allowing brain activity to be recorded "online" while participants were tasting the wines. Each time, the price of the wine was shown first. Only then around a milliliter of the respective wine was administrated to the test person via a tube in their mouths. The participants were then asked to rate via a button on a nine-point scale how good the wine tasted to them. Their mouths were then rinsed with a neutral liquid and the next identical wine sample was given for tasting. All of the experiments were performed in the brain scanner at the Life & Brain Center at the University of Bonn.

"The marketing placebo effect has its limits: If, for example, a very low-quality wine is offered for 100 euros, the effect would predictably be absent," says Prof. Weber. This is why the researchers conducted the tests using an average to good quality red wine with a retail bottle prize of 12 €. In the MRI scanner, the price of this wine was shown randomly as 3, 6 and 18 €. In order to make the study as realistic as possible, the participants were given 45 euros of initial credit. For some of the tastings, the displayed sum was deducted from this account in some of the trials.

"As expected, the subjects stated that the wine with the higher price tasted better than an apparently cheaper one," reports Professor Hilke Plassmann from the INSEAD Business School, with campuses in Fontainebleau (France), Singapore and Abu Dhabi. "However, it was not important whether the participants also had to pay for the wine or whether they were given it for free." Identical wine leads to a better taste experience when a greater quality expectation is associated with the wine due to its price.

The measurements of brain activity in the MRI scanner confirmed this. The research team discovered that above all parts of the medial pre-frontal cortex and also the ventral striatum were activated more when prices were higher. While the medial pre-frontal cortex particularly appears to be involved in integrating the price comparison and thus the expectation into the evaluation of the wine, the ventral striatum forms part of the brain's reward and motivation system. "The reward and motivation system is activated more significantly with higher prices and apparently increases the taste experience in this way," says Prof. Weber.

"Ultimately, the reward and motivation system plays a trick on us," explains INSEAD post-doctoral fellow Liane Schmidt. When prices are higher, it leads us to believe that a taste is present that is not only driven by the wine itself, because the products were objectively identical in all of the tastings. "The exciting question is now whether it is possible to train the reward system to make it less receptive to such placebo marketing effects," says Prof. Weber. This may be possible by training one's own physical perception -- such as taste -- to a greater extent.

Liane Schmidt, Vasilisa Skvortsova, Claus Kullen, Bernd Weber, Hilke Plassmann. How context alters value: The brain’s valuation and affective regulation system link price cues to experienced taste pleasantness. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08080-0