Latest news with #PeterJames
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Using a fan during summer could help you sleep better – and it's not just about the temperature
Using a fan on a hot summer night may help you sleep better — and it's not just about the temperature. While a whirring fan may provide some much-needed relief from sky-high dew points and lingering heat, they can also alleviate noise pollution. 'Tuning out environmental noises with the soothing sound of white noise from a fan can significantly improve sleep quality,' the Better Sleep Council advises. In a survey of Americans' sleep, 27 percent of respondents who considered themselves to be excellent sleepers reported regularly sleeping with a fan in their bedroom. But, there are even more benefits. Here's what to know... Using a fan may help to improve the quality of your sleep. (Getty Images/iStock) It's not just white noise With people awake longer hours during summer months, there's more noise pollution, or unwanted and disturbing sound. Fans can help to fight the negative effects of noise pollution, such as sleep disruption, insomnia, and chronic health conditions that include heart disease, depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. Loud noises can even trigger an acute stress response commonly known as 'fight-or-flight,' according to Peter James, an associate professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. James and colleagues found in 2017 that low-income communities and areas with a large proportion of nonwhite residents are disproportionately impacted by traffic noise. So are people who live in urban areas. 'We've made these conscious or subconscious decision as a society to put minority-race communities who have the least amount of political power in areas near highways and airports,' he told Kaiser Health News. Tuning out these sounds can significantly improve sleep quality. Fans produce a consistent ambient noise that can 'mask some of the lower-level fluctuations in background noise so that you're not alerted to those signals,' Norah Simpson, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, told The Washington Post. White noise may also make the ringing sound associated with tinnitus less noticeable. The audiological and neurological condition impacts approximately 10 percent of American adults, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. There are other more obvious benefits For one, fans can clear the air in a room. 'If you're blowing a fan on you to help you cool, that's great. But if you're in a stuffy room, you actually want the fan to blow out all the carbon dioxide that has built up in the room,' John Saito, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, told The Post. Exposure to too much carbon dioxide in a room may put people at an increased risk of tiredness, headache, eye irritation, sore or dry throat, dizziness, and congestion. Secondly, fans cannot lower the temperature in the room, but they can make you feel more cool. Fans are able to cool people by displacing warmer air, and helping to evaporate sweat from the skin, according to NASA. Make sure to get the right fan! Oscillating fans may prevent air flow from moving directly toward you as you sleep (Getty Images/iStock) Getting the seven hours of sleep adults need to stay healthy is greatly impacted during hot and humid summers. And the season is becoming even hotter due to the impacts of human-caused climate change. Hot and bothered Americans already lose over an hour of sleep each week in summer, according to SleepScore Labs, impacting an already shorter average sleep duration. 'In summer, the delta between the sleep we need and the sleep we get widens,' Nate Watson, SleepScore Labs' Sleep Advisory Board chair, told 'Warmer temperatures' impact on our ability to fall asleep along with increased social activities competing with sleep time are likely additional factors impacting these findings." Bear this in mind Oscillating fans prevent air flow from moving in just one direction, according to Healthline. The publication notes that fans can circulate dust and pollen, dry out your eyes and skin, and result in muscle aches. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using fans only if indoor temperatures are less than 90 degrees. 'In temperatures above 90 degrees, a fan can increase body temperature,' the agency said. 'When you're sitting in front of a fan, it makes you feel cool. But just because you feel cool doesn't mean that it's exactly reducing the burden that your body faces,' Glen Kenny, a physiology professor at the University of Ottawa, told InsideClimate News.
The Independent
17-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Using a fan during summer could help you sleep better – and it's not just about the temperature
Using a fan on a hot summer night may help you sleep better — and it's not just about the temperature. While a whirring fan may provide some much-needed relief from sky-high dew points and lingering heat, they can also alleviate noise pollution. 'Tuning out environmental noises with the soothing sound of white noise from a fan can significantly improve sleep quality,' the Better Sleep Council advises. In a survey of Americans' sleep, 27 percent of respondents who considered themselves to be excellent sleepers reported regularly sleeping with a fan in their bedroom. But, there are even more benefits. Here's what to know... It's not just white noise With people awake longer hours during summer months, there's more noise pollution, or unwanted and disturbing sound. Fans can help to fight the negative effects of noise pollution, such as sleep disruption, insomnia, and chronic health conditions that include heart disease, depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. Loud noises can even trigger an acute stress response commonly known as 'fight-or-flight,' according to Peter James, an associate professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. James and colleagues found in 2017 that low-income communities and areas with a large proportion of nonwhite residents are disproportionately impacted by traffic noise. So are people who live in urban areas. 'We've made these conscious or subconscious decision as a society to put minority-race communities who have the least amount of political power in areas near highways and airports,' he told Kaiser Health News. Tuning out these sounds can significantly improve sleep quality. Fans produce a consistent ambient noise that can 'mask some of the lower-level fluctuations in background noise so that you're not alerted to those signals,' Norah Simpson, a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, told The Washington Post. White noise may also make the ringing sound associated with tinnitus less noticeable. The audiological and neurological condition impacts approximately 10 percent of American adults, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. There are other more obvious benefits For one, fans can clear the air in a room. 'If you're blowing a fan on you to help you cool, that's great. But if you're in a stuffy room, you actually want the fan to blow out all the carbon dioxide that has built up in the room,' John Saito, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, told The Post. Exposure to too much carbon dioxide in a room may put people at an increased risk of tiredness, headache, eye irritation, sore or dry throat, dizziness, and congestion. Secondly, fans cannot lower the temperature in the room, but they can make you feel more cool. Fans are able to cool people by displacing warmer air, and helping to evaporate sweat from the skin, according to NASA. Getting the seven hours of sleep adults need to stay healthy is greatly impacted during hot and humid summers. And the season is becoming even hotter due to the impacts of human-caused climate change. Hot and bothered Americans already lose over an hour of sleep each week in summer, according to SleepScore Labs, impacting an already shorter average sleep duration. 'In summer, the delta between the sleep we need and the sleep we get widens,' Nate Watson, SleepScore Labs' Sleep Advisory Board chair, told 'Warmer temperatures' impact on our ability to fall asleep along with increased social activities competing with sleep time are likely additional factors impacting these findings." Bear this in mind Oscillating fans prevent air flow from moving in just one direction, according to Healthline. The publication notes that fans can circulate dust and pollen, dry out your eyes and skin, and result in muscle aches. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using fans only if indoor temperatures are less than 90 degrees. 'In temperatures above 90 degrees, a fan can increase body temperature,' the agency said. 'When you're sitting in front of a fan, it makes you feel cool. But just because you feel cool doesn't mean that it's exactly reducing the burden that your body faces,' Glen Kenny, a physiology professor at the University of Ottawa, told InsideClimate News.
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Peter James obituary
Peter James, who has died aged 84, was once described as the best artistic director the National Theatre never had. His career covered such innovative and long-lasting projects as the Liverpool Everyman (1964-70), the Young Vic (1971-73) and two consolidating, long stints as the second artistic director at both the controversial open-stage Sheffield Crucible (1974-81) and the recreated, refurbished Lyric, Hammersmith (1981-94). As a director James was equally at home with new plays and musicals – directing the UK premieres of Chicago and The Wiz (the all-black rock version of The Wizard of Oz) in Sheffield. In 1994 he made a drastic career swerve to become principal of Lamda – the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art – and led a complete overhaul of the school's new home, which he identified and purchased, in the former Royal Ballet School buildings on Talgarth Road; there, he re-established its top dog status alongside Rada. A killer commercial theatre success evaded him, but his style was that of a quietly effective enabler: of students, actors, organisations and fellow artists. Right at the start of his Lyric phase, he put on David Hare's important revival of Christopher Hampton's Total Eclipse (with Hilton McRae as Rimbaud and Simon Callow as Verlaine) to an acclaim long overdue since its 1968 premiere. And in Sheffield he channelled his sporting enthusiasms – which included boxing and soccer (he was a lifelong Arsenal fan) – into pitching for, and landing, in 1977, the long-term residency of the money-spinning World Snooker Championship, which put the Crucible on the global map and reinforced its local and national profile. Modest, quietly spoken and loved by colleagues and peers alike, James sported a piratical/rock star 'look' with long hair and ponytail, wide-brimmed hats, and a rare ability to roll a liquorice-papered ciggie in one hand while writing notes with the other. When invited to direct the Israeli premiere of Hair in Tel Aviv in the early 1970s, he suggested breaking the ice on the first day of rehearsals by starting with the all-nude scene at the end of the first act. He then stripped off, the actors and stage management followed (birthday) suit and the ice was not only broken but completely dissolved. Born in Enfield, north London, Peter was the son of Gladys (nee King) and Arthur James, who worked in the Enfield gun factory. He was educated at Albany secondary modern (now comprehensive), then joined the sixth form at Enfield grammar school, progressing to Birmingham University to study English and philosophy before spending 39 weeks in rep as actor and dogsbody at the Intimate, Palmer's Green, his near-local theatre. He entered the 'national' world of theatre by taking a certificate in drama at Bristol University and, in 1964, launched the Liverpool Everyman in a former Methodist chapel on Hope Street, with Terry Hands, future RSC director, and Martin Jenkins, future BBC radio drama producer. He directed more than 30 productions there as sole artistic director (1967-70). He invited Liverpool into the theatre, commissioning the poet Roger McGough and his band the Scaffold, and directing a documentary about the building of the new Roman Catholic cathedral at the end of the road. This set the tone for the following eras of the director Alan Dossor and the playwright Willy Russell, and indeed all managements since. At the Young Vic, working with the artistic director Frank Dunlop, he directed Beckett (Denise Coffey in Happy Days), Pinter, Shakespeare, O'Casey and a season of Ted Hughes. The happiest time of his life, he said, was in Sheffield – he gave Alan Rickman his first leading roles, notably as a distraught pop concert sponsor in Stephen Poliakoff's The Summer Party (1980), with Brian Cox and Hayley Mills; and as Jaques in As You Like It with Ruby Wax (1977). James also brought on the comedian and cabaret performer Victoria Wood as writer and the film director David Leland. He himself directed a controversial play by Keith Dewhurst about Northern Ireland, The Bomb in Brewery Street (1975). The Guardian critic and New Statesman writer Paul Allen, who was from Sheffield, claims that James made him a better critic and, later, a better playwright (he wrote the stage version of the movie Brassed Off in 1998 and several plays with Rony Robinson), and he ended up chairing the board. James's Sheffield 'posse', who remained close, included Allen, the designer Roger Glossop, Glossop's wife, the stage manager Charlotte Scott, his secretary Lou Cooper and the press officer Jen Coldwell. At the Lyric, he confessed that he 'never quite knew who I was talking to'. All the same, he directed fine new plays by Poliakoff and Neil Simon, the venerable farce Charley's Aunt starring a brilliant Griff Rhys-Jones, and two musicals by Charles Strouse – an operatic Nightingale (1982) starring Sarah Brightman, and the weirdly eccentric Lyle the Crocodile (1987) – for which Strouse wrote music, book and lyrics – based on Bernard Waber's 1962 book The House on East 88th Street. He called in his impressive international contacts to bring two great directors to the Lyric: Yuri Lyubimov with his version of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1983) led by Michael Pennington, and the actor Núria Espert with a beautiful production of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba (1986) starring Joan Plowright and Glenda Jackson, which transferred to the West End. At Lamda, James initiated courses based on the work of Mike Alfreds' Shared Experience and Simon McBurney's Complicité, and commissioned workshops with the playwright Mark Ravenhill and actor/director Di Trevis that led to new plays taken up by Nicholas Hytner at the National – Ravenhill's gloriously rude Mother Clap's Molly House and Pinter's beautiful, unproduced screenplay of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (both in 2000). He left Lamda in 2010 but was coaxed out of retirement to be head of the theatre-directing graduate course at Mountview Academy in Peckham, south London, in 2012, a post he relinquished only two or three years ago. His latest theatre productions included several shows for Glossop at the 260-seater Old Laundry in Bowness-on-Windermere. In all, he was a dynamic, one-man motor and instigator for the last half century of British theatre and fully deserved being made CBE in 2011. James was married to Anthea Olive, a costume designer at the Liverpool Everyman, from 1964 to 1972, when they divorced. He was then in a relationship for 10 years from 1975 with the Irish actor Bernadette McKenna before marrying Alexandra Paisley in 1998; they divorced in 2012. He lived in Tottenham, north London, retiring finally to Truro, Cornwall, to be near his daughter, Emily, from his first marriage. Even there, in failing health, he contacted the Hall for Cornwall to enquire as to how he might advise and encourage young people entering the theatre. He is survived by Emily, by Leo, his son with McKenna, by four grandchildren, Felix, Jessica, Olivia and Lila, and by a younger sister, Margaret. Peter John James, theatre director, born 27 July 1940; died 28 June 2025
ABC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Convicted drug dealer had same private ATMs as used in illegal tobacco shops
At the height of his epic Top End drug dealing enterprise, Peter "Hippy" Wellman James was juggling a virtual flood of cash. The muscular, tattooed former gardener was smuggling in truckloads of prime cannabis heads packed in drums and disguised as gravestones — estimated to bring in close to a million dollars a week. Evidence of his vast cash flow was confirmed by regular payments of up to $800,000 in notes that James had put in Cryovac bags to be shipped on a near weekly basis to his Adelaide based supplier known only as the "Russian" or "Milkman". When he was finally arrested in 2020 with over $100,000 in cash hidden in his home, police estimated the value of drugs he'd smuggled into the Northern Territory had topped $17 million. Dealing with the huge amounts of cash should have posed a headache for the Darwin resident and potentially put him on the radar of authorities. But the then 41-year-old — who has since been jailed for 12 years for supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis — had a legitimate excuse to move around with bags of bank notes all thanks to a legal business he ran: a fleet of private Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs). Despite having a drug conviction from 2012, James had been able to own and operate a business called atm2go Darwin using private ATMs associated with a Queensland-based business called atm2go. The machines provided not just a cover for cash possession, but offered an opportunity for money laundering, with evidence given in court that cash from the drug dealing was to be loaded into the ATMs. The 2022 Northern Territory case was uncovered by an ABC investigation into how a lack of regulations around private ATMs is enabling their widespread use by criminals, especially those in the billion-dollar violent illegal tobacco trade. The machines have been placed in multiple small tobacco shops where they facilitate cash only transactions for illegal products — enabling tax evasion and general scrutiny from regulators. As evidenced in the James case, the ATMs also created a risk of money laundering, where a convicted criminal was legally allowed to load the machines with his own cash. Customers can unwittingly withdraw that dirty cash from the ATM. When the cash is withdrawn, the ATM sends an electronic instruction that eventually results in the customer's bank account crediting the same amount to the bank account associated with the operator of the ATM. The money's original source does not come under the same level of scrutiny that occurs if criminals try depositing certain amounts of cash in various ways at a bank counter or official bank ATM. "The cash that started out as proceeds of crime, now appears as legitimate funds in the ATM owner's bank account,'' said financial crimes consultant Neil Browne. "No questions about the source of the funds have been asked." Among the private businesses supplying machines to tobacco shops is atm2go, which was associated with the ATMs used by James in the Northern Territory. Atm2go started in 2011 and offers machines for events and retail stores. Its operations have included a franchise model. Its website has promoted the business as selling, renting or placing ATMs in stores for free, taking a cut of the transactions. The business declined to respond to questions from the ABC about how atm2go machines were supplied and used by James despite his previous criminal conviction. The ABC has confirmed atm2go machines have been installed at numerous stores across the east coast of Queensland selling illegal tobacco. In some circumstances the machines continue to operate in the shops after they have faced regulatory action for supplying illegal tobacco. One example was just south of Brisbane, where the Marsden Gifts and Tobacco shop on Barklya Street had been promoting an atm2go machine on site before facing an interim closure order from authorities. In June, the ABC found the shop had re-opened and was selling illegal tobacco while featuring two atm2go machines on site. Among illegal tobacco products being sold at the business for "cash only" were $10 Hongtashan 20 packs of cigarettes, lacking required health warnings. In inner Brisbane's West End suburb, a few hundred metres from the local police station, the "A1 Convenience" shop sells illegal tobacco products for cash at discounted prices. The shop was temporarily closed by Queensland's Health Department for illicit tobacco supply earlier this year. At the time an atm2go machine was in use on the site. By June, the shop was back open with the same branded unit inside, still selling illegal tobacco, including packs of "Double Happiness" cigarettes for $10 cash, the ABC confirmed. The registered owner of the store declined to comment. Atm2go is still featuring an image of the machine in the West End shop on its official website promoting its "Retail ATM" installations. The business did not comment about why its machines were still in shops once shut down by authorities for tobacco infringements and whether they were concerned about the potential use of the ATMs for money laundering. Do you know more about this story? Email or or via encrypted app Signal. Atm2go has made little secret of its dealings with tobacco shops — even promoting on its social media pages the successful installation of ATMs in the businesses. "Tobacco shops around Australia are LOVING the benefits of having an ATM in their store,'' says one post on atm2go's official Instagram page. Other Instagram posts in 2021 revealed that atm2go promoted a machine in the Strathpine Tobacco and Gifts, just north of Brisbane. "Today's install at Strathpine Tobacco & Gifts — such a good spot for an ATM," the post read, with an image of the machine in the store. Business searches link the Strathpine shop to Bilal Jamal Al Dilami, who in 2023 reportedly faced charges relating to the seizure of 5,000 nicotine filled illegal vapes. The court was told that thousands of vapes were allegedly found in the Strathpine store. Mr Dilami pleaded guilty to the supply of medicines or hazardous poisons and was fined $4,000 when he appeared in court in 2023. Contacted about the atm2go case, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said his government would be taking action in relation to private ATMs. "I've asked the agencies to work further on this specific issue." AUSTRAC, the nation's money laundering watchdog, said it was aware of the case where Northern Territory drug dealer James was operating the ATMs. "By using the proceeds of crime to replenish private ATMs, money launderers can layer or attempt to disguise the illicit source of the cash,'' the spokesperson said. "The transfer of settlement funds into operator and owner accounts integrates the illicit cash into the financial system." The ABC has previously revealed how Next Payments, a Victorian-based company backed by prestigious investment house Macquarie Group, had supplied ATMs to illegal tobacco sellers. Next Payments has told the ABC it was cooperating with authorities in relation to a "live investigation" relating to illegal tobacco. The company's CEO Tim Wildash has rejected allegations the machines posed a money laundering risk, arguing anomalies would be noticed quickly in the bank accounts being used. The ABC also asked atm2go if it was concerned about how their machines might be helping to fuel what is an illegal and violent business. It declined to comment. Last month, two men received burns and were hospitalised when the tobacco shop they were minding was allegedly set on fire at Browns Plains south of Brisbane. As police picked through the smoking wreckage of the shop in the aftermath, a slightly scorched but still legible sign associated with the business was very visible on the pavement in front. The sign featured an arrow pointing towards the shop and the words atm2go.
Scotsman
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Theatre reviews: Picture You Dead
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Picture You Dead, Theatre Royal, Glasgow ★★★ You Can't Break My Soul, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★ Two very different shows offer some light-touch summer entertainment, yet they feature one strange similarity, in that they both revolve around the theft - or at least the sudden unexpected removal - of things of value. Picture You Dead | Contributed In Peter James's latest stage thriller Picture You Dead - based on his 2022 novel of the same name, and playing its only Scottish date in Glasgow this week - the valuable object is a £20 painting bought by an apparently sweet young couple in a Brighton car boot sale, that turns out to conceal a genuine long-lost old master by Fragonard, painter to France's ancien regime in the years before the 1789 revolution. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The sweet young things, whose name is Kipling (cue cake jokes), turn for advice to local art forger turned copyist Dave Hegarty, who advises them to hide the real Fragonard in storage, and to commission him to provide a copy for their living room wall, until the original can be verified and sold. The couple duly agree; and so begins a veritable circus of bluffs, thefts, fakes and counter-fakes, in which ruthless art collector Stuart Piper - and his frighteningly violent female enforcer Bobbie - pursue the original Fragonard to the death, while Hegarty the copyist turns out not to have gone quite as straight as he pretends, and Peter James's dogged Brighton detective Roy Grace - with stoical sergeant Bella in tow - gradually unravels most of the puzzle. The play is loosely based on the true story of ex-forger David Henty and his friendly relationship with Graham Bartlett, the ex-cop turned thriller writer who once sent him to jail; and it frolics through its labyrinthine plot in decent style, without ever plumbing any depths, or soaring to any great heights. George Rainsford's Inspector Grace seems a shade subdued in the company of such flamboyant criminals, while Mark Oxtoby turns in a charismatic performance as the gifted rogue Hegarty, and 2016 Strictly winner Ore Oduba plays to his many fans with a bravura portrayal of the evil collector Piper; and Jonathan O'Boyle's production romps its way to a head-nippingly complex conclusion, with a final twist in the tale that elicits a few last gasps from the audience, before they head out into the summer night. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad You Won't Break My Soul | Eoin Carey In JD Stewart's latest Play, Pie And Pint drama about 21st century gay life You Won't Break My Soul, meanwhile, Glasgow flatmates and best friends Jordan and Russell have set up a household shrine to their favourite pop diva Beyoncé, and adorned it with their hugely expensive tickets for her upcoming mega-concert in Edinburgh, now just 24 hours away. The only problem is that Jordan - a drag queen still in recovery from being beaten up after a school reading to which some took exception - has ordered in some casual sex in an effort to cheer himself up; and fails to notice his hook-up partner casually helping himself to the tickets as he leaves the flat. Stewart's 50-minute play therefore follows Jordan and Russell through a frantic afternoon and evening, as they try to recover their lost tickets, or to acquire some new ones, with the help of waitress and drag king Sooz, from the restaurant across the road. In the end, sheer desperation - and love for Beyoncé - drives Jordan to rediscover his drag queen mojo, after months in hiding. And the show, vividly directed by Laila Noble and designed by Heather Grace Currie, ends in a celebratory riot of glittery drag performance and raunchy dancing, carried off in heartfelt style by Jamie McKillop as Jordan and James Peake as Russell; with strong support from Kaylah Copeland as the ever-resourceful Sooz, determined to secure a happy ending, for the friends she loves.
