Sir Donald Bradman feared a second Kerry Packer breakaway venture in the 1980s and did not blame Australian cricketers for taking big money to play in apartheid South Africa. He was no fan of Paul Keating, admired Queen Elizabeth II, and took some of his greatest pleasure late in life from watching Shane Warne in action. These insights and many more are contained in a collection of more than 20 letters penned by Bradman to an English friend, the entertainer Peter Brough, and tucked away in the National Library of Australia. Sir Donald Bradman wrote letters late in life almost as prolifically as he’d made runs in his younger years. Credit: Fairfax Media Written between 1984 and 1998, the letters capture Bradman’s complicated relationship with fame and his often trenchant views on sport and politics at home and abroad. Peter Brough was an English entertainer, specialising in a ventriloquist act that was popular on radio during the 1950s in the UK. Bradman met Peter Brough through his father Arthur during tours of England in the 1930s, and the younger men struck up a friendship that continued through correspondence over many years. Peter Brough died in 1999, Bradman in 2001. The letters were donated to the NLA by Peter Brough’s family. ‘The cricket world has been in a ferment’ In the winter of 1985, Bradman held grave concerns for the future of the game amid the loss of 14 top Australian players to “rebel” tours of South Africa. There were parallel revelations that Kerry Packer was signing up players himself to protect his investment in the game in Australia. Former Australian captain Kim Hughes (left) at the Wanderers Ground in Johannesburg in 1985 while playing on a rebel tour of South Africa organised by Ali Bacher. Credit: AP There was no Packer breakaway: the terms he had agreed with Bradman in 1979 were too generous for that. And it was economic sanctions, rather than the sporting kind, that brought a swift end to apartheid in the late 1980s. Bradman was buoyed by South Africa’s readmission.Hyperscale Data, Inc. Announces Notice of Noncompliance with NYSE American Listing StandardsBradman letters revealed: What Don really thought about Packer, Warne, the queen and fame
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CUPERTINO — An iconic performing arts theater where Apple co-founder Steve Job unveiled the first Macintosh computer in 1984 is being reduced to rubble, five years after the college district that owns the space . Workers began the demolition of De Anza College’s Flint Center in early October, breaking apart the beige concrete walls that one housed a plethora of community events and exposing dozens of deteriorated railings and theater seats. Majority of the demolition is expected to be completed by March 2025, according to Paula Norsell, a spokesperson for the Foothill-De Anza College District. In 2019, the board of trustees voted to close the center, saying the district would need to pour in $50 million in renovations, seismic and accessibility upgrades to keep the space open. The district is planning to build a new multi-million Creative Arts Building in its place and also make room for an adjacent Student Services building. The projects will be funded by Measure G, which was approved by district voters in 2020 to provide $898 million to upgrade and repair facilities, classrooms and labs, and to acquire and construct facilities and equipment for De Anza and Foothill College. “We are incredibly grateful to the community for approving Measure G and are excited to put the bond dollars to work,” Norsell said. “Improving the college’s aging infrastructure and creating new state-of-the-art facilities that will meet the needs of the next generation of students and reduce our carbon footprint.” In the meantime, De Anza college has temporarily closed down several student walking and drop-off areas around the center until January 2025. and was a hotspot for local plays, symphony performances, religious services and college graduations. The center’s popular Celebrity Forum series brought foreign dignitaries into the Silicon Valley, along with famous athletes like 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, and movies stars including Star Trek actor George Takei. It was also where Jobs and other Apple executives unveiled the company’s latest phones, computers and other pioneering technologies. In 2015, the center was even the filming site of for a biopic about Jobs. But managing the five-story concrete building was no easy feat for the Foothill-De Anza District. A 2015 study by the district found the Flint was booked only 17 to 24 percent of the year, and hosted just six or seven annual events that drew crowds of more than 2,000 people.China approves new lunar sample research applications from institutions
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