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JAKARTA - Indonesian domestic maids may return in big numbers to Malaysia under a proposed deal announced by the Malaysian and Indonesian governments yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said, after wide-ranging bilateral talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta, key private sector groups in both countries might be roped in again to handle the recruitment of maids.

Arrivals of Indonesian maids in Malaysia have dwindled after the government capped the cost structure of hiring the maids at RM4,511 (S$1,746), well below the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies' (Papa) proposed rate of RM7,500.

"I have agreed that the MoU (signed in Nov 2011 in Bali, Indonesia) on the cooperation in labour, especially with regard to domestic maids, be expanded to include the private sectors that represent both nations," he told a news conference at the presidential palace.

"An MoU should be signed between Papa and Apjati (its Indonesian counterpart -- Association of Indonesian Manpower Services).

"If both sides sign the MoU, I am confident that the number of Indonesian domestic maids in Malaysia can reach our desired levels.

"So far, only 513 maids have arrived in Malaysia under the current (government-to-government) mechanism."

Indonesia imposed a temporary freeze on the supply of maids to Malaysia on June 26, 2009, following reports of abuse by employers. The freeze was lifted following an agreement between Najib and Susilo in December 2011.

Meanwhile, Apjati was optimistic that the latest arrangement agreed by the two leaders would help resolve the impasse on the arrival of foreign maids to Malaysia.

Najib and Susilo, who had an hour-long meeting, followed by their delegation meeting at their annual consultation, also discussed a host of other issues, including haze, transnational crime, student visas, trade and the marketing of palm oil.

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Malaysia may see end to maid impasse

ROUND MOUNTAIN, Texas (KXAN) - A flash mob broke out at a wedding in the Hill Country town of Round Mountain during a maid of honors speech.

My wife Bethany Blankenship (who is the American Sign Language signer that starts the video with her speech) had been planning the flash mob for about three months, said Chris Blankenship.

Blankenship sent in the video using our ReportIt feature, saying the couple got legally hitched in New York because the two women couldnt do that in Texas.

However, they did come back to the Lone Star state to celebrate at Three Points Ranch, only a few miles outside of Marble Falls.

After being together for about 12 years, Adrienne Sneed and Claudia Secor-Watkins finally tied the knot.

It didnt come without some courage, however.

Adrienne also had only recently come out to her dad about a year ago when the two decided to get married, said Blankenship. He struggled with the issue for a while but ended up accepting her because they [the couple] are so happy together.

Blankenship adds an interesting detail about the flash mob organized by his wife, who is an ASL interpreter at Austin Community College: My wife chose signs that reinforced homosexual equality.

More about the Air Band and movers and shakers

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Flash mob hits up Hill Country wedding

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by TINA SHIVELY / KVUE News and Photojournalist KENNETH NULL and KVUE.com Staff

kvue.com

Posted on December 20, 2013 at 8:55 AM

Updated today at 9:01 AM

AUSTIN -- Construction will begin on the West Lawn of Auditorium Shores on Friday, Dec. 20, according to the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD).

The AuditoriumShores Improvement Project will close different sections of the park temporarily during various phases of construction. During the phase of construction to begin Friday, the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail will remain open, but there will be a few trail detours.

"It is desperately in need of improvement and more importantly than that, it solves the problem of safety which is very real out there. The collision of dogs and cyclist and runners is something that happens on a daily basis, and something needs to be done about it," Executive Director of the Austin Parks Foundation ColinWallace said.

But not everyone agrees.

"What happened with the community involvement in this? I think I'm plugged in and I didn't hear anything about it. There has been no concern for the public opinion. No vetting. On the contrary, there's been a back room treatment of this issue," Teresa Quay said.

The park improvements are part of a parnership project between PARD, C3 Presents and the Austin Parks Foundation.

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Auditorium Shores construction to begin Friday

The LATC licenses individual landscape architects, not firms or corporations. California landscape architect licenses expire on the last day of the licensee's birth month and must be renewed every two years.

The LATC has provided a database which allows you to access the current listing of landscape architects by license number, name or city. Delinquent, expired, suspended, or revoked licenses are not listed in this database.

(as of 12/10/2013)

LICENSEE NUMBER LICENSEE NAME LICENSEE CITY

The information is computer-generated and subject to change as licenses are issued, expire, are renewed, revoked or suspended, or as name and address changes are filed with the LATC.

For the most current information, you may telephone (916) 575-7230 or send an e-mail with your request to the LATC at latc@dca.ca.gov. A response will be transmitted to you within 48 hours of your inquiry. Please be aware that public information for licensees is restricted to license number, name, address of record, license issue and expiration dates, and enforcement and disciplinary actions. Telephone numbers are not provided.

If you would like to report an unlicensed person, please include that request or information in your e-mail.

ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS are available on the LATC Web site for five years. Please contact the LATC at (916) 575-7230 or latc@dca.ca.gov to check on any enforcement actions beyond five years.

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Query Licensee Information - Landscape Architects Technical ...

Dec. 19, 2013 A UT Arlington landscape architect and his graduate students have published three case studies for the 2013 Case Study Investigation Series for the Landscape Architecture Foundation that help show environmental, economic and social benefits of notable projects in that sector.

The case studies analyze the benefits of Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, the University of Texas at Dallas Campus Landscape Plan and Buffalo Bayou Promenade in Houston. In the case of Klyde Warren Park, the research team said the park has contributed to increased property values for nearby property, increased physical activity among patron and helps reduce carbon dioxide in its urban setting.

Taner zdil, an associate professor of landscape architecture and associate director for the Center for Metropolitan Density, was named a fellow of the Landscape Architecture Foundation this year. He directed the studies as part of the foundation's Landscape Performance Series, an online, interactive set of resources and tools that help designers, agencies and advocates make the case for sustainable landscape solutions.

"There is a growing call to explain the impact of landscape architecture and what it does," said zdil, whose team included landscape architecture master candidates Sameepa Modi and Dylan Stewart. "We are a part of that call."

Each project was noteworthy for the way it creates a sense of place and asserts economic viability within its context, zdil said. Researchers said they hope that the knowledge and lessons discovered through examination of these landmark projects will inform future landscapes in other urbanizing areas.

Don Gatzke, dean of the UT Arlington School of Architecture, said that establishing value for public projects such as parks is a relatively new area of research and study for the design community.

"The world will begin to use this area of study more and more as entities try to tell public and private shareholders what a project is worth," Gatzke said. "We're ecstatic that Dr. zdil is a leader in this area of study in its beginning stages."

In the case of Klyde Warren Park, zdil and his team showed that 69 percent of park users surveyed said visiting the park increased their outdoor activity. The case study also showed that the park mitigates 18,500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually through newly planted trees.

Another finding showed increases in property values near the park. The nearby 21-story 2000 McKinney Tower saw a 65 percent increase in value for 2013 compared with 2008 values, for example.

The case studies of Buffalo Bayou Promenade and the UT Dallas plan measured similar criteria.

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Landscape architecture study places value on Klyde Warren Park, other urban spaces

Chances are, when you arrive at the airport, youre more worried about forking over obscene amounts of cash for a checked bag than whats over that grassy knoll beyond the runway. The airfields of JFK or LAX certainly wouldnt be anyones idea of a picturesque landscape.

Charles Waldheim, co-curator of a new exhibit at Harvard University entitled Airport Landscape, has a different take. Our basic argument is that the airport sits in a kind of blind spot, culturally. Its been dealt with in a technical way, he tells Co.Design. Its a site for engineering, but the design disciplines have paid less attention,

Designing an airport is a monumental puzzle for an architect to solve. Consider how the terminals need to accommodate increasingly larger planes and shifting security requirements, confused tourists and wayward baggage, air control and transit connections. After taking care of the myriad functional aspects of air travel, airport plans have generally left little room for natural beauty.

Yet Waldheim and his co-curator, Sonja Duempelmann, both landscape architecture professors, argue that airports are complex ecological design projects. And as older airports are increasingly decommissioned and, oftentimes, turned into public parks and wildlife habitats, the links to landscape design become even clearer.

Airports have often been built on the outskirts of cities, as was the case in Denver or Chicago, but as the city grows, it rises to meet the airport, which once seemed distant. We believe airports are more central to the life of cities than they have ever been, Waldheim says.

They also tend to be fairly complex sites in terms of the mix of species and biological management, according to Waldheim. Airports are frequently built on top rich wetland environments, where wildlife, including birds, thrive. Though much of the land has been engineered to divert water and paved over for planes, the open space set aside as a safety measure for landing planes looks attractive to animals--an uncultivated plot in the middle of the urban environment. Yet bird strikes can pose a deadly threat to aircraft. Thus, airports walk a fine line between managing wildlife, controlling water runoff and pollution, and making the runway surroundings both aesthetically pleasing and safe. Its easier for us to describe it as a complex piece of landscape architecture, Waldheim says.

Airport Landscape examines these issues through the lens of photography, like Yann Arthus-Bertrands images of runways, and through case studies, many of them surrounding the issue of decommissioned airports, like San Franciscos Crissy Field, a former military airfield and hazardous material dumping ground that has been rehabilitated as a public park in recent years. Its an issue faced by cities around the world--what to do with these enormous, often contaminated airfields from the early 20th century that no longer fit the regions needs. Many cities are now choosing to slowly adapt them into public parks, as has happened in places like Berlin, and Orange County, Calif.

Im interested in a kind of emotional honesty about [airports], Waldheim says. Theyre not going away. Rather, we should be thinking about airports as a complex public landscape, one that should be designed to fit into both the city and environment around it.

The exhibit ends this week at Harvards Graduate School of Design.

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What Should We Do With Abandoned Airports?

When architect Drew Heath returned to Sydney after visiting Angkor, he mulled over how he could remodel his grandiose home. The house he created recently won the 2013 National Award for Residential Architecture. Cecelia Marshall heard how he did it.

The temples at Angkor have inspired travellers from all corners of the globe for generations from the first explorers to modern-day poets, artists, and musicians. But few decide to try to recreate them at home. Drew Heath, an Australian architect, first visited Cambodia five years ago as a tourist and came away from the ancient structures with an unusual plan. Last month, his $9 million Angkor-inspired home in Sydney won the 2013 National Award for Residential Architecture House.

At home, the 44 year-old runs the Drew Heath Architects firm, mostly doing residential home designs with illustrious gardens. But his schedule regularly takes him abroad to visit some of the worlds greatest architectural wonders: the mountaintop Greek Acropolis is one of his favourites.

This is the first time I fully embraced the landscape

With each trip, he takes away a different idea, he said in a Skype interview. But Angkor Wat was different. The sight of the once-forgotten temples overtaken by jungle an image of man cohabiting with nature offered an aha moment for Heath.

When he returned from Cambodia, he set to work on a new and personal project: one that would bring the outside into his own home.

The project, which he alone conceived and designed, took three years and involved four builders. His wife and four kids aged between two and 14 lived inside the incomplete house while construction took place. It didnt matter, he said, since the theme of the house was incompletion. This is the first time I fully embraced the landscape, he said. Its almost like living outdoors.

Various rooms of the home are on different levels of space. There isnt a basic ground floor, first and second. Climb a couple of steps, and youre in the living room where a giant window opens up to the outside and you can see the kitchen down the hallway. This type of layering is borrowed from the temples and offers privacy and enclosure but also openness and a certain vulnerability to the outside elements.

The name of the house, Tir na ng, comes from his wifes Irish background. In an ancient Gaelic childrens tale, Tr na ng means other worldly place. With this in mind, Heath wanted to create an otherworldly place of eternal youth and timeless jungle against timeless ruin, he said.

Heath said that the house incorporates his emotive response to visiting the temples. PHOTO SUPPLIED

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Architect models his own house on Angkor complex

Chappaquiddick erosion issues dominated the agenda of the Edgartown conservation commission this week, from the extensive landscape restoration project at the Schifter property to the fate of the house owned by Jerry and Sue Wacks that must be at least partially torn down before it falls into the sea.

At a site visit Monday the commission viewed both properties which lie at the Atlantic-facing edge of Chappy where significant erosion has returned as the Norton Point breach recedes.

The Wacks home now sits just 20 feet from the edge of Katama Bay, with erosion occurring at the rate of about a foot a day. On Wednesday the commission agreed to send a letter clearing the way for emergency demolition of most of the house.

Edgartown conservation commission reviewed landscaping and erosion control plan for Schifter house. Mark Lovewell

To prevent the house from ending up in Katama Bay, out into Nantucket Sound or washing up on adjacent beaches, the commission wrote in part. The letter went out yesterday. It is understood that the Wackses plan to demolish all but two bedrooms and a utility room in the modest house, built 30 years ago in a spot that at the time was on high ground overlooking the bay.

Also on Wednesday the board reviewed a landscaping and erosion control plan for the Wasque home owned by Richard and Jennifer Schifter. The plan calls for restoring trees, shrubbery and sandplain grasses that were stripped from the land when the 8,000-square-foot house was relocated over the summer. The plan also includes installing a new system of straw logs, called wattle logs, and hydromulching to strengthen the embankment where the house now sits.

Trees, shrubbery and topsoil that were removed last summer in preparation for the house move are still stored offsite on property owned by Gerald Jeffers. The commission said this week its time to restore the property to its previous state.

Yes, we okayed the pile of sand [that was used to stave off more erosion while the house was being moved] but why cant we just go back to the contour and trees and bushes that were there before the pile of sand, commission member Christina Brown said. Those contours had a thick understory and some significant bushes and trees. Why cant they have it again?

Stripped of all vegetation, Schifter property will be replanted in spring. Mark Lovewell

But commission member Bob Avakian said the site visit was eye-opening for him. I think we learned a hard lesson, he said. We should have had this discussion before you can say, okay you can cut down trees.

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Next Phase Begins for Schifter Property: Restoring the Land

The Artists' Gallery makes the most of its compact space in a downtown Columbia office building. And its all-member holiday show and sale covers seemingly every available surface with art in various media.

As you would expect from a group exhibit that arrived with the onset of winter weather, this show has its share of reminders of the season. They range from directly representational depictions of winter to other, less direct references.

As part of the latter group, Winnie Coggins' clay vessel "Winter Winds" has white bands worked into its bumpy surface. The effect is of a strong wind raking a brown landscape.

Stylistically situated midway between realism and abstraction, Jing-Jy Chen's watercolor-and-ink "Winter" incorporates direct references to a tree-covered landscape, but its melding of black, gray and white tones also has a semi-abstract quality.

Straightforward realism can be found in Barbara Steinacker's pastel "Baby, It's Cold Outside." The artist sets this scene inside a presumably warm room, where the viewer first contemplates a candle placed just inside the window and then looks outside to gaze upon a snowy yard.

Setting up his camera outside on a cold day, photographer Carl Segal's "Bactrian Camels in the Snow" has two of those furry beasts looking very comfortable as they stand in a snowy landscape.

Whatever the season, many of the artists in this exhibit like to set their scenes out in nature.

Deborah Maklowski's colored-pencil drawing "Stone Barn" astutely brings out architectural detail in the subject's stone walls. The artist's drawing "Water's Edge" similarly makes sharp distinctions between rocks along the shore and a very blue body of water. Maklowski switches media for her pastel "Red Barn at Massey," with the softer attributes of pastel making for a visually softer image of a red barn set in a yellow field.

Some of these artists are willing to travel quite a distance for their natural subject matter.

Jerry Weinstein's photograph "Boat in the Harbor Iceland" bears a title that might have you reaching for yet another layer of clothing, but this appears to be a warm-weather scene. The boat in question is a Viking-style vessel whose traditional design is in contrast to the modern-looking boats docked behind it. You get the sense that all of these boats are intended for weekend pleasure cruises.

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Columbia Artists' Gallery presents all-member holiday show