game emulator

Costco to stop selling books at most US locations starting next yeargame emulator 。

As Mariners fans await an answer to the most pressing (depressing?) question hovering over the team this offseason — will they have to trade staff anchor Luis Castillo to upgrade the lineup? — the club has already executed its most meaningful move to complement the offense. When the Mariners last month announced the return of franchise icon Edgar Martinez as the team’s top hitting instructor, it came with a tacit endorsement of the Hall of Famer's old-school methods . It also signaled a strategic pivot for the Mariners front office, which has followed a league-wide trend over the past decade in investing heavily in technology and advanced analytics during Jerry Dipoto’s tenure as the head of baseball operations. Those investments have proven particularly fruitful on the pitching side, an area in which the Mariners have earned one of the strongest reputations in the industry. Those investments have not yielded consistent results on the hitting side, an area in which the Mariners this year have had to reassess their organization values. When Dan Wilson replaced Scott Servais as manager on Aug. 22 and brought in Martinez as the hitting coach, there was “an immediate shift,” Dipoto said, in the Mariners offense. Martinez’s emphasis on an all-fields mentality — trying to hit line drives up the middle and to the opposite field — clicked for many of the Mariners hitters, and for Julio Rodriguez in particular. That well-rounded approach, Dipoto said, is better suited for T-Mobile Park, which has ranked as MLB’s most challenging home for hitters for much of its existence. “Our ballpark might not be conducive to doing it quite the way we have [in the past],” Dipoto said in late September. “Shame on us for taking this long to understand that.” The Mariners won 21 of their 34 games with Wilson and Martinez in the dugout, closing out a disappointing 85-win season that saw them fall one game short of a playoff berth for the second year in a row. Within that 34-game sample were indicators of what the Mariners believe is a sustainable offensive strategy. They struck out far less and hit the ball to the opposite field more often; they were more aggressive on the base paths and even turned back to the oldest of old-school tricks — the sacrifice bunt — to help rev up their offensive engine. “What we saw for the last six weeks or so, it was really illustrative of the way we want to play,” Dipoto said last week at the MLB Winter Meetings. “We want to be athletic. We want to move the game. You know, the same players who struggled to make contact [for most of the season] all of a sudden started making contact better, and we went from the worst contact team in the league to about league average for the last six weeks.” In 2023, the Mariners were an extreme pull-happy offense, leading MLB in pull-side contact (45.1%) and ranking dead last on balls in play to the opposite field (21.8%), per FanGraphs. They also set a franchise record for strikeouts that season. Even with a new hitting coach, Brant Brown, to open the season, that trend largely continued into 2024 for the Mariners, who again ranked 30th out of 30 MLB teams in balls in play to the opposite field (21.4%) through Aug. 22. At that point, they were on pace to break the MLB record for strikeouts in a season. Over the final 34 games, the Mariners still pulled the ball more than most teams (43.3%) but they improved their opposite-field contact rate (24.3%) fairly significantly under Martinez, to about league-average. The buy-in from Rodriguez, the Mariners’ star center fielder, was especially notable. True, early in his career Rodriguez has proven to be a much better hitter in the second half — as the weather heated up, so did he — but the way he did it this year was different. Working closely with Martinez, Rodriguez saw his opposite-field rate rise dramatically — from 24.8% through Aug. 22 to 35.7% after Aug. 22. Across the board, Rodriguez’s offensive numbers rose too. He had a .313/.364/.537 (.901 OPS) slash line with nine homers, 30 RBI and 159 wRC+ over his final 162 plate appearances, the resurgence of a middle-of-the-lineup difference-maker the Mariners had so desperately needed earlier in the year. Rodriguez and Martinez grew close , and Rodriguez was hopeful the Hall of Fame designated hitter would come back in 2025. Indeed, Martinez agreed to return to Wilson’s staff with a new title — Senior Director of Hitting Strategy. The Mariners also added longtime Atlanta Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer to the same role and hired his assistant, Bobby Magallanes, to round out the hitting staff. Dipoto described Seitzer, a Kansas City native, as the “Midwest Edgar,” because of their shared hitting philosophies. “Having Edgar come back is so huge — a chance to continue what he started toward the end of the year,” Wilson said last week at the MLB Winter Meetings. “Using the stuff that Edgar brings — the idea of middle of the field, the idea of two-strike battles, doing what it takes to get runners in — really became a big part of our offense late in the season.” J.P. Crawford (31.9%) and Cal Raleigh (30.1%) also had notable spikes in their opposite-field contact rates late in the season. Pulling the ball in the air with authority is a valuable approach for hitters in today’s game, and plenty of teams (see: Los Angeles Dodgers) have had sustained success with a three-true-outcomes methodology (walk, strikeout or home run). It just might not be the best approach for sustained success for hitters at T-Mobile Park. With the midseason additions of Victor Robles, Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner, the Mariners fielded a more athletic and more contact-oriented lineup that ranked as the No. 3 offense in MLB over the final 34 games, as measured by their wRC+ of 125 (100 is average). “The line drives, using the middle of the field, those things are sort of timeless and resistant to park factors in a lot of ways,” Mariners GM Justin Hollander said, adding: “I thought we did an excellent job over the last six weeks with what — you can call it old-school or just fundamental baseball, just doing all the little things. And with our pitching, if you do the little things offensively, now all of a sudden your 2-nothing lead becomes 4-nothing. It changes the tenor of the game a lot.” As an organization, Dipoto said the Mariners have discussed various ideas about structural changes to T-Mobile Park as a way to potentially boost offense. Move in the fences? Change the batter’s eye? Close the roof more often? None of them, Dipoto said, would necessarily help manufacture more offense. “It's just adapting a team to the ballpark,” he said. “It's not trying to adapt the ballpark to some fictional team.” T-Mobile Park has earned its reputation as a notoriously difficult place for hitters — a reputation that has seemingly grown worse the past few years. Yes, Seattle has historically been the coldest MLB city during the spring, and other environmental factors — the marine layer , among them — add to hitters’ frustration. Some new hitters who have arrived in Seattle have not adjusted well to that reality — Jesse Winker, Teoscar Hernandez, Kolten Wong, Mitch Garver, to name a few in recent years. Hernandez home-road splits were pronounced during his one season in Seattle in 2023. And in an interview this summer, Hernandez blamed the “crooked” batter’s eye beyond center field for his struggles hitting at T-Mobile. Dipoto said the Mariners have talked about potential options to change the batter’s eye, but he also doesn’t see it as a glaring problem. “When teams struggle, when people struggle, you tend to find things or magnify an issue that might not be such an issue,” Dipoto said last week. “Our players find a way there. And I'd say for the most part, you don't really hear a lot of complaints. They know. They know the challenges early in the season and they know the rewards that you get later in the year, because during the summertime it's an awesome place to hit.” A more well-rounded approach, Dipoto said, should serve Mariners hitters better at home and on the road, and throughout the season. “What we need is we need to refine our messaging. We need to refine what we're looking at and how we're conveying what it's like to play in this ballpark to good players,” Dipoto said. “That's where I'm most encouraged by what Edgar and Dan have been able to do. ... “I don't think it’s, you know, ‘The curse of T Mobile Park.’ We need to do a better job at messaging, especially early in the season. Messaging patience. I think the ballpark plays a little bit different in April than it does in July and August. And the players who've been here know that and there's a patience to allow their season to develop.” Having that context is instructive for how the Mariners are seeking upgrades — at first base and third base, primarily — to the lineup this offseason. In Robles, Rodriguez and Arozarena, the Mariners have three dynamic players at the top of the lineup, and they have power bats in Raleigh and Luke Raley for the middle of the order. Add in Crawford as a cornerstone shortstop, and the core of the position-player mix is likely in place. “The team has shown that they are capable of doing this, that we don't need to go out and revamp a roster,” Dipoto said at the end of the season. “There's a reason we've had a good team for a handful of years now, and it's because our players are good. "Now we just have to continue to help them evolve their game in a way that suits our ballpark, that we can really magnify the results."

A new hypersonic missile, conflict escalation and a warning for NATO: What you need to know from Putin’s latest address

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save JERUSALEM — The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants began early Wednesday as a region on edge wondered whether it will hold. The ceasefire announced Tuesday is a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting sparked by the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. An international panel led by the United States will monitor compliance. People are also reading... Margaret Atwood OSU event altered over threats The real reason Corvallis' Pastega Lights moved to Linn County Tree farm fiasco has Corvallis homelessness under microscope Commentary: Gulbranson shows he should be starter in thrilling win over Cougars Head-on crash on Highway 228 kills 1, injures 2 Philomath woman suspected in Eugene Airport bomb scare Strike over: Benton County, union reach tentative deal American flag thrown by driver fleeing Benton County deputies Sweet Home man sentenced for crash that injured his daughter In trying to flee, suspect accused of driving over Albany police officer Corvallis man gets prison for armed robbery case Corvallis homes in on layout options for a new government center How is the OSU grad strike impacting students? 2 bucks illegally killed with crossbow in Corvallis UPDATED: Feds halt drawdown at Green Peter Reservoir after local cities complain The ceasefire began at 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the conflict that in recent weeks turned into all-out war. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities. Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. The ceasefire does not address the devastating war in Gaza , where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable. There appeared to be lingering disagreement over whether Israel would have the right to strike Hezbollah if it believed the militants had violated the agreement, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted was part of the deal but which Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have rejected. Israel's security Cabinet approved the U.S.-France-brokered ceasefire agreement after Netanyahu presented it, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Biden administration spent much of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza but the talks repeatedly sputtered to a halt . President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East without saying how. Still, any halt to the fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and exchanged direct fire with Israel on two occasions earlier this year. In this screen grab image from video provide by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. Netanyahu presented the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers after a televised address in which he listed accomplishments against Israel’s enemies across the region. He said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran. “If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.” The ceasefire deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance. Biden said Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce, but that the deal "was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” A police bomb squad officer inspects the site where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024. Netanyahu’s office said Israel appreciated the U.S. efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security.” Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire and described it as a crucial step toward stability and the return of displaced people. Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday it had not seen the agreement in its final form. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state," he said, referring to Israel's demand for freedom of action. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.” Rescuers and residents search for victims Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon. Even as ceasefire efforts gained momentum in recent days, Israel continued to strike what it called Hezbollah targets across Lebanon while the militants fired rockets, missiles and drones across the border. An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in central Beirut — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Israel also struck a building in Beirut's bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli military said it struck targets linked to Hezbollah's financial arm. The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously were not targeted. Residents fled. Traffic was gridlocked, with mattresses tied to some cars. Dozens of people, some wearing pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed overhead. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said peacekeepers will not evacuate. Israeli soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few kilometers (miles) from the Israeli border. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah is required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border. Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have exchanged barrages ever since. Israel escalated its bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes. Israeli security officers and army soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon. Chehayeb and Mroue reported from Beirut and Federman from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Lujain Jo and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Precious few garments have been made of spider silk. In 2012, a cape and shawl made from natural spider silk were displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where visitors learned that the garments were the result of a unique project that spanned eight years and involved the harvesting of silk from 1.2 million spiders. In 2019, a rather less painstaking project utilized fibroin, the protein found in natural spider silk, to fabricate an outerwear jacket, North Face’s Moon Parka. Starting with fibroin meant that silk could be sourced from genetically modified bacteria, which are easier to work with than spiders. Nonetheless, the Moon Parka, which takes its name from the word moonshot, was never meant to be mass produced. It was available by lottery for just a limited time. Museum pieces and moonshots are hardly synonymous with “mass production.” Is there another way to generate spider silk–based textiles, one that has more commercial potential? Yes, according to Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, which uses transgenic silkworms to produce lines of recombinant spider silk. The company plans to produce up to 10 metric tons of spider silk in 2025. Production of actual spider silk lines on this scale would allow textile manufacturers to test the silk on their own equipment. It’s not just textiles that may benefit. Recombinant spider silk’s tensile strength, weight, and durability make it attractive for myriad applications, including tissue scaffolds and sutures in the biomedical field, as well as textiles and ballistic materials. “In a silkworm, there are several proteins that are produced in the silk glands,” Kim Thompson, founder and CEO of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, tells . “One of those—a heavy chain fibroin—contributes roughly 96–98% of the molecular weight of the fiber.” Replacing the gene responsible for producing that protein with its counterpart in the spider results in recombinant spider silk. Kraig Biocraft produces spider silk using hybrid silkworms. As Thompson explains, hybrids of the two parental strains are more vigorous and produce better shaped cocoons. That vigor is passed down to subsequent generations. Kraig Biocraft’s approach appears to be unique in the spider silk industry. Other companies use vat fermentation to produce proteins that must be extracted, purified, and transformed into threads, adding steps and costs to the overall process. Spider silk’s high strength and light weight have attracted the interest of the U.S. Department of Defense. Dragline spider silk (which spiders use for the radial lines of their webs) requires 120,000–160,000 J/kg to break, whereas Kevlar requires 30,000–50,000 J/kg and steel requires 2,000–6,000 J/kg. Dragline spider silk weighs 1.18 and 1.36 g/cm , whereas Kevlar weighs 1.44 and steel weighs 7.84. Because spider silk combines strength, biocompatibility, and elasticity, it could be useful in tissue matrices and sutures. Dragline silk can increase its length by 27%, and flag silk (which spiders use for the spiral lines of their webs) can increase its length by 270%. Spider silk—or rather the technology behind it—could also be of interest to biopharmaceutical companies. For example, transgenic silkworms could serve as expression and production platforms for proteins other than spider silk proteins. Still, for Kraig Biocraft, the most immediate applications are in materials science. “We haven’t branched out into other areas that require more regulatory approval yet,” Thompson says. Thompson first approached the challenge of producing spider silk about 20 years ago. “I was looking at all the companies involved in that space,” he recalls. “The leader, Nexia Biotechnologies, was producing spider silk proteins in the milk of dairy goats.” “I thought that Nexia had misdiagnosed the problem and that it was about to hit a wall,” Thomson continues. Nexia’s method not only had difficulty with the mechanical challenges of transforming the proteins into fibers, but it was also extremely expensive. Thompson thought it would be better to create a cohesive fiber with the desired mechanical characteristics, than to create spider silk protein. He even suggested to Nexia that its scientists should use genetically engineered silkworms to produce fibers rather than using dairy goats to produce proteins. Nexia, however, preferred its approach, which yielded small proteins that were too weak to be spun into fiber. It declared bankruptcy in 2009. The University of Wyoming (UW), which held the rights to the genetic sequences Nexia has used to produce spider silk protein, granted Thompson exclusive rights to those sequences. “UW’s chief scientist, who had worked with Nexia, listed five reasons why it was scientifically impossible for these sequences to work in silkworms,” Thompson says. What that scientist may not have considered was that Thompson, working with molecular geneticist Malcolm J. Fraser, PhD, who then headed a laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, had a way to insert those sequences into silkworms. Fraser had co-developed the piggyback transposon, which “at the time was the only way to genetically engineer silkworms,” Thompson notes. Nonetheless, objections raised by the UW scientist reemerged every time Thompson approached a venture capital company for financing. Only by demonstrating dogged persistence did Thompson finally secure Kraig Biocraft the funding it needed to develop spider silk suitable for use by textile mills. Today, the company looks forward to starting commercial-scale production. “Our next inflection point is to produce the first metric ton of spider silk,” Thompson says. He adds that he is in discussions with “a number of significant players” to test Kraig’s recombinant spider silk on their machinery. The limiting factor, until now, has been an insufficient supply of product. “It’s hard to run a test when the world supply of spider silk has been measured in tens of kilograms,” he points out. To overcome supply problems, Kraig Biocraft plans to make good use of its new manufacturing site. “We have a backlog of order for prototype materials so they can make a test run,” Thompson says. According to Kraig Biocraft’s website, a kilogram of recombinant spider silk costs less than $300 to produce—about one tenth the cost of the protein alone using vat fermentation production methods. “To my knowledge, there are only three other companies involved in making spider silk: AMSilk, Bolt Threads, and Spiber,” Thompson says. Each uses vat fermentation to make the spider silk proteins, which he says significantly increases the costs. Thompson envisions a future of composite fibers in which spider silk is mixed with other textiles: “A lot of work continues to be done in that area, and it is accelerating.” He also points out that there are thousands of markets and technical applications for the advanced materials that are possible using recombinant spider silk: “We’re interested in capturing as much market share as we can, and we’re looking at new and expanded mechanical properties.” In the very near future, recombinant spider silk may be found in a range of products, from tissue scaffolds and sutures to performance fabrics. In that world, capes or expedition jackets made of spider silk won’t be rarities. They’ll be off-the-shelf articles. 2723 S State St, Ste 150, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (734) 619-8066 Kim Thompson, Founder and CEO 20 Recombinant spider silk–based fibers from genetically engineered silk worms.

Evolus, Inc. ( NASDAQ:EOLS – Get Free Report ) insider Rui Avelar sold 2,252 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.85, for a total value of $24,434.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 366,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,977,555.75. This trade represents a 0.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link . Evolus Stock Down 2.3 % Shares of NASDAQ EOLS opened at $11.09 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $13.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.73. The company has a market capitalization of $702.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.19 and a beta of 1.27. Evolus, Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.80 and a 1 year high of $17.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.58, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several research analysts have recently commented on EOLS shares. Barclays raised their price target on Evolus from $16.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of Evolus in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Evolus in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective on shares of Evolus in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Hedge Funds Weigh In On Evolus A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EOLS. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Evolus during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Evolus during the 2nd quarter worth $54,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Evolus in the third quarter valued at $132,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in Evolus in the third quarter valued at $191,000. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Evolus during the second quarter worth about $130,000. 90.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. About Evolus ( Get Free Report ) Evolus, Inc, a performance beauty company, focuses on delivering products in the cash-pay aesthetic market in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company offers Jeuveau, a proprietary 900 kilodalton purified botulinum toxin type A formulation for the temporary improvement in the appearance of moderate to severe glabellar lines in adults. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Evolus Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Evolus and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Among the 500,000 objects in the collection of the Powerhouse museum, its new trust president nominates a shopping arcade sign as his favourite. Business leader, and former Labor roads minister, David Borger, has the job of delivering the largest cultural infrastructure project in Australia since the Sydney Opera House. Powerhouse president, David Borger, says there is a lot riding on the opening of the Parramatta museum. Credit: James Brickwood All of that will be during an election campaign year, smack bang in the middle of one of the most marginal seats in NSW. “I’d be derelict in my duty if I didn’t feel pressure because there’s a lot riding on the opening of this museum,” Borger says. The electric neon sign to which he shares an emotional attachment once belonged to a mall he’d take his mum. Representative of the 1980s commercial retail development in Parramatta CBD – much of it flattened in a local building boom – it will be hung in one of the museum’s opening exhibitions showcasing the psychology of the shopping mall. “Mum had a mental illness,” Borger says. “She would be in Cumberland Hospital every three years, and we would come for a cup of tea in the Parramall cafe. “Now that sign from that little old shopping centre is going to be a part of something bigger. It’s remnant of a place that’s probably changed more than Dubai.” Born and bred nearby to Parramatta, Borger has been a longtime critic of the lop-sided distribution of cultural investment to city museums and galleries. He was, therefore, an obvious choice to step into the shoes of former Coalition arts minister Peter Collins to lead the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences trust from January 1. The trust has oversight of a $300 million revamp of the shuttered Ultimo campus, as well as the museum’s new $915 million Parramatta headquarters, the region’s first state-run cultural institution due to open in 2026. On the Parramatta riverside, more than 70 per cent of its 1300 pieces of exterior structure of the building are in place. Inside the concierge room of the Powerhouse where visitors will be welcomed. Credit: James Brickwood Installation of doors in the largest of the presentation spaces is underway where visitors will marvel at large objects showcasing the history of air travel and space exploration and First Nations stargazing. Visitors will spill out to a northern terrace. The museum will serve a region home to one-eighth of NSW’s population, one in five of whom are under 15 years, and half born outside Australia. For many, it will be the first time they step into a museum. “We’ve got to be a bit unpretentious here,” Borger says. “We don’t want to be too stuffy and conservative; we have to be welcoming. We have to deliver a great experience when someone walks in the door for the first time, something that knocks their socks off.” Suzette Meade, who led protests against the demolition of the historic villa, Willow Grove, which made way for the Powerhouse, questions spending on authors, chefs and photographers appointed as museum associates alongside professional curators and conservators. She is looking for the trust, led by Borger, to focus on delivering what was promised to the families of western Sydney – a museum of science and technology to rival the Smithsonian, as well as celebrating Parramatta’s rich cultural heritage. Borger is promising dedicated family exhibitions, with the interests of families and children embedded in all its offerings. He is “unapologetic” about finding new ways to present the collection. Nor should the public mind, he says, if weddings share presentation floor space. All but one of the seven Parramatta display spaces will be available for commercial hire. “The hope is that there’s some great experiences here and some revenue generating opportunities that can go to help with the operational costs. “We need to make sure that people come back for multiple visits, that they feel a connection to the museum because quite frankly a lot of people haven’t felt close to their museums for a long time. They’ve lived so far away from them, it’s been hard to get to them.” Borger’s first challenge is meeting the government’s $75 million goal for private donations for building costs. Some $53 million has been raised for capital works over three years, $27 million short of its target. The museum is without a campaign director. Borger says there was a pipeline of prospective donors to the museum with “real weight” and was confident of “closing the gap”. Should he fall short, the bill will be picked up by taxpayers. To rumours of overruns in fitout and program, Borger concedes budgets can move. “I’m confident we will deliver an amazing series of exhibitions within the money that has been given to us,” he said, adding: “I think some people frankly don’t believe western Sydney could host a tier-one cultural institution. There’s some who still don’t. We’re going to prove them wrong.” Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday .