Volume 9 - 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00514 This article is part of the Research TopicNeuroaesthetics: Neuroscience of aestheticsView all 26 articles Motivated by these claims and our previous findings that humans display a consistent preference across various images with fractal-like statistics here we explore the possibility that observers’ preference for visual patterns might be related to their sensitivity for such patterns We measure sensitivity to simple visual patterns (sine-wave gratings varying in spatial frequency and random textures with varying scaling exponent) and find that they are highly correlated with visual preferences exhibited by the same observers Although we do not attempt to offer a comprehensive neural model of aesthetic experience we demonstrate a strong relationship between visual sensitivity and preference for simple visual patterns our results support assertions that there is a close relationship between aesthetic experience and the sensory coding of natural stimuli Despite a long history of fascination with beauty and aesthetics our understanding of many aspects of this experience remains Even widely agreed upon definitions of some of the associated terms are yet to emerge the term aesthetics is not restricted to appreciation of artworks and is used more generally to refer to the attributes associated with visual appeal and preference of a wide range of natural and synthetic objects the extremely varied and sometimes imprecise definitions of spatial complexity in these studies make it challenging to integrate their findings especially across different classes of images The aim of our study is to establish whether the preference for certain fractal-like statistics can be linked to the visual system’s general sensitivity for spatial variations across different scales Our hypothesis is that early visual processing can mediate aesthetic judgments for different types of pattern and that sensitivity to image structure can be directly linked to aesthetic judgments we aim to show that the most preferred images contain structure with fractal-like statistics to which the human visual system is most sensitive We report three sets of experiments that investigate both visual sensitivity and visual preference for synthetic random images varying in their spatial scaling characteristics By the direct comparison of these measurements using a within-subjects design we can explore the potential relationship by which visual sensitivity may mediate visual preference Experiment 1a compares visual preference and the visual system’s ability to detect spatial patterns varying in their amplitude spectrum characteristics Experiment 1b examines the relationship between visual preference and the ability to discriminate between images varying in amplitude spectrum slope Experiment 2 extends this hypothesis to the simplest visual patterns from the perspective of defining the visual system’s sensitivity for processing of spatial structure: sine wave gratings varying in spatial frequency This latter experiment tests to what extent the relationship between visual sensitivity and visual preference is maintained for spatial variations that do not contain fractal structure or characteristics but for which the visual system’s sensitivity has been well established the mechanisms mediating the visual preference for intermediate levels of fractal-like scaling are unclear We propose a straightforward connection—that visual sensitivity mediates visual preference and that this will be observable as heightened visual sensitivity to patterns that are visually preferred it is apparent that the visual system’s ability to discriminate between 1/f amplitude spectrum patterns depends on the amplitude spectrum slope and that a similar dependence holds with respect to the visual preference for such patterns in order to probe the suggested interrelationship more directly we measure visual sensitivity and visual preference in the same observers and with the same stimulus patterns across sensitivity and preference judgments We expect that this relationship should hold for different regimes of visual performance and we examine the relationship between visual preference and both absolute detection sensitivity (Experiment 1a) and discrimination sensitivity (Experiment 1b) Experiment 1a employed a (2) (Visual preference Detection sensitivity) × (6) (Amplitude spectrum slope variations) repeated measures design Stimuli were pre-drawn using a Visual Stimulus Generator (Cambridge Research Systems These were displayed on a 21 inch Sony Trinitron Multiscan (G520) monitor with a resolution of 1280 × 1024 (20.1deg × 15deg) Display luminance was linearised using a 12-bit lookup table A mean luminance of 58 cd/m2 was maintained throughout the duration of all trials in an otherwise dark environment Viewing distance was fixed at 55 cm by placing the head in a chinrest The stimuli in both tasks subtended a visual angle of 6 degrees Responses were registered by pressing one of two buttons located on a response box Twenty-two undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students participated in the experiment in exchange for course credit All participants were naïve to the purposes of the experiment and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision The age of participants ranged between 17 and 30 years All participants signed informed consent approved by the School of Psychology and UNSW Human Research Ethics Advisory Panels Examples of 1/f amplitude-spectrum stimuli with increasing amplitude spectrum slopes (α): (top row) Series 1; (bottom row) Series 2 All example images have the same mean luminance and the same Root Mean Square (RMS) contrast of 0.25 for the purpose of illustration of stimulus patterns Absolute Detection Threshold Measurements. To determine the threshold contrast estimate at which each of the experimental images with varying amplitude spectrum slope was just detectable, we used the Psi procedure, a Bayesian adaptive method developed by Kontsevich and Tyler (1999) Each trial consisted of two consecutive intervals lasting 400 ms and on each trial observer performed a two-interval forced choice (2IFC) task one interval contained a cosine-ramped stimulus display while the remaining interval was empty and the observers were required to indicate via button-press which interval contained the stimulus Two different auditory beeps marked the midpoints of the two intervals Participants were given unlimited time to respond The trial-to-trial changes in stimulus contrast (expressed as root-mean-square contrast) were determined by the adaptive staircase procedure This procedure estimates the observer’s contrast detection threshold as the level of 80% correct performance Depending on the participant’s responses on previous trials the stimulus contrast on each trial was chosen such that the participant’s response would be maximally informative in refining the threshold estimate The number of trials to obtain threshold estimate for each amplitude spectrum slope value was set at 30 trials For any given amplitude spectrum slope value α threshold estimates were averaged across a minimum of three separate experimental runs The detection thresholds were estimated for each of the six different amplitude spectrum slope values in separate blocks consisting of 30 trials resulting in a total of 180 trials to generate threshold estimates for the six α values The entire sequence was repeated at least three times with every observer resulting in a minimum of 540 trials per each observer Each repetition was conducted at least 30 min apart observers were familiarized with the task by performing one sequence of 30 practice trials Visual Preference Measurements. Visual preference was measured using the two alternative forced-choice (2AFC) paired comparison procedure. The paired comparison procedure was introduced by Cohn (1894) and is still considered a superior technique for measuring various forms of preference Each trial consists of two images presented side-by-side and the task of the observers is to simply indicate (via key press) which of the two stimuli they visually prefer The duration of the response interval was unlimited images of each amplitude spectrum slope α value are paired with all of the other five amplitude spectrum slope α values in its series This basic sequence ensures that every experimental image is paired with every other and that each experimental image is presented 10 times across all experimental pairings with equal frequency on the left and the right side All pairs were presented in random order and repeated three times A complete sequence of 90 trials was repeated at least twice for each observer with some observers undergoing three or four repetitions each all images were equated in their RMS contrast set at 0.30 participants were provided with a general information sheet regarding the experiment and written instructions for both of the experimental tasks Participants completed the full experiment over periods ranging from 2–5 days the visual sensitivity was expressed as an inverse detection threshold value and the visual preference was expressed as the proportion of 2AFC trials on which the image was chosen when presented Repeated measures one-way ANOVAs on the raw sensitivity and preference results revealed significant variations in both sensitivity and preference as a function of variations in the amplitude spectrum slope values in both data sets (Series 1 dataset: F(5) = 15.92 p < 0.0046 for sensitivity and preference results respectively; Series 2 dataset: F(5) = 19.42 p < 0.0004 for sensitivity and preference results Both functions exhibit a typical inverted U-shaped characteristic with a peak sensitivity and peak preference for the intermediate amplitude spectrum slope values A posteriori Holm-Sidak multiple comparison t-tests were used to examine the pairwise differences in sensitivity and preference between different slope values detection sensitivity at the lowest (0.1) and the highest (1.6) slope values was statistically lower than for any other slope values (min p < 0.05; max p < 0.0001) the sensitivity at slope values of 0.7 and 1.0 was significantly higher than at slope value of 1.3 (p < 0.05) detection sensitivity at the lowest (0.2) and the highest (1.7) slope values were statistically lower than at values of 0.8 and 1.1 (min p < 0.05; max p < 0.0001) sensitivity at slope values of 0.8 and 1.1 was also significantly higher than at slope of 1.4 in Series A the slopes of 1.0 and 1.3 were significantly higher than lower slope values of 0.1 the slope values of 1.1 and 1.4 were significantly more preferred than either lower slope values of 0.2 and 0.5 and the higher slope of 1.7 (min p < 0.05 with both stimulus sets we observe significantly higher sensitivity with intermediate than lowest and highest slope values With respect to the visual preference with both stimulus sets we observe significantly higher preference with intermediate than lower slopes and significantly higher preference with slopes of 1.1 and 1.4 than the highest slope of 1.7 with the Series B the highest slope value of 1.6 was not significantly less preferred than the intermediate slope values of 1.0 and 1.3 One possible reason for this is that the slope value of 1.6 is simply not “extreme” enough and 11 participants with Series B images (right panel) The error bars correspond to 95% Confidence Intervals associated with the respective condition means a (2) × (6) repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effect of slope (F(5) = 21.25 p < 0.0001 for Series 1 and Series 2 data sets respectively) Given that the raw scores in the detection sensitivity and visual preference were standardized the comparison between the task is not meaningful (with the F ratio of 0 in both data sets) However for both data sets there was a significant Slope × Task interaction (F(5,50) = 6.407 The average sensitivity and preference results for 11 participants with Series 1 images (left panel) and 11 participants with Series 2 images (right panel) The average data points are expressed as the standardized z-scores with error bars representing 95% Confidence Intervals While the overlap between the average sensitivity and preference results in each data set is considerable the significant Slope x Task interaction indicates that the peaks of the sensitivity and preference functions differ somewhat the correlation between the average sensitivity and preference for the combined amplitude spectrum slope values across Series 1 and Series 2 (12 pairs in total) reflects a moderate association with Pearson correlation coefficient r equaling 0.55 (p < 0.064) The correlation coefficients for the two data sets separately equal 0.43 and 0.66 for Series 1 and Series 2 data sets respectively but do not reach significance due to a very small number of pairs (6) in each case The median of individual correlations between detection sensitivity and visual preference was 0.358 Box and whisker plot of correlation coefficients between sensitivity and preference data for 22 individual observers the 25–75 percent quartiles of the distribution are drawn using a box The median is shown with a horizontal line inside the box Maximum “whisker” length corresponds to 1.5 *Interquartile range (25–75) This value corresponds approximately to ± 2.7 SD and 99.3% coverage The points outside of this range are considered outliers the peak detection sensitivity and visual preference both occurred for intermediate amplitude spectrum slope values but did not overlap completely we found modest but significant association between sensitivity and preference for synthetic images varying in their amplitude spectra at both group and individual levels It is quite remarkable that we were able to observe these significant levels of correlation given the very different nature of stimulus presentation: 400 ms in the absolute detection sensitivity task vs unlimited exposure in the visual preference task The experience with the stimuli was also quite dramatically different in the two task conditions given the near invisibility of patterns presented at detection threshold vs the high contrasts used in the visual preference task In Experiment 1b we test the generality of the sensitivity-visual preference association with a different measure of visual sensitivity and across a wider range of variations in the slopes of the amplitude spectra Here we examine the ability to discriminate differences in the amplitude spectrum slope of synthetic images now presented at high supra-threshold contrast and hence clearly visible We measure the size of just noticeable differences (JNDs) necessary to perceive increases and decreases in the amplitude spectrum slope at reference values ranging from 0.5–2.5 (with incremental steps of 0.25) visual preference was measured for the same range of amplitude spectrum exponent values Experiment 1b employed a (2) (Visual preference Apparatus. Testing was done using a HPZ230 workstation with Intel Core i7 processor, connected to a 24-inch LED Benq monitor, set at its native resolution of 1920 × 1080, at 100 Hz. The experimental stimuli and procedures were created using Matlab software with the Psychophysics Toolbox extensions (Brainard, 1997) Participants were seated at a viewing distance of 55 cm with the viewing position stabilized using a chinrest Forty-six undergraduate psychology students participated in the experiment in exchange for course credit (16 males and 30 females) None of the participants took part in the previous experiment and all participants were naïve to the purposes of the experiment and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision Stimuli. The grayscale images were constructed by the same procedure as outlined in Experiment 1a, with α values of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0, 2.25 and 2.5. For each amplitude spectrum slope value α, we generated three different versions or exemplars which were randomized across observers. One complete series of grayscale images is depicted in Figure 4 A subset of the experimental image used in Experiment 1b: From left to right the amplitude spectrum slope values are: 0.5 To determine the discrimination threshold contrast (JND) necessary to be able to detect increases and decreases in the amplitude spectrum slope of the reference image we again used the Bayesian adaptive Psi procedure (Kontsevic and Tyler For the purpose of determining JND thresholds we employed a four Alternative Forced Choice in which the observer was asked to find the stimulus which was different among four images shown on any given trial Each individual trial began with a fixation point at the centre of the screen for 500 ms. The fixation screen was followed by a trial display in which the four images were shown for a period of 500 ms. Each image was presented in a circular aperture with a blurred (raised cosine) edge as illustrated in Figure 5 three of the images had the baseline amplitude spectrum slope which remained the same throughout a block image had a different amplitude spectrum slope determined according to the participants’ previous responses and it appaeard randomly with equal probability in each of the four quadrants All of the stimuli were rotated relative to one another instead of repeating the same pattern with the same orientation This was done to encourage subjects to focus on the overall appearance of the stimulus rather than to adopt an image matching strategy on local regions of the stimulus Example of an experimental trial: Three quadrants have filtered noise patterns with an amplitude spectrum slope of −1.25 and one quadrant (top left) has a filtered noise pattern with an amplitude spectrum slope of −1.5 the discrimination threshold was determined for one of the reference amplitude spectra slopes The blocks with different reference slopes were run in a randomized order Visual preferences were determined with a paired comparison procedure as described in Experiment 1a All images were equated in RMS contrast set at 0.30 Each of the images with different amplitude slope value was paired with all other eight images from resulting in 72 pairs for each image class each image was presented equally often on the left and the right side and was presented a total of 16 times The participants indicated which image in the pair they preferred by a button press visual sensitivity was expressed as an inverse detection threshold value and the visual preference was expressed as the proportion of paired comparison trials on which the image was chosen when presented one-way repeated measures ANOVAs were performed with the raw discrimination sensitivity and visual preference data Both the discrimination thresholds and the visual preference for grayscale images varied significantly as the function of the amplitude spectrum slope (F(8) = 147.1 p < 0.0002 for visual discrimination and visual preference respectively) we performed a posteriori Holm-Sidak multiple comparison t-tests in order to confirm the inverted U-shaped characteristic for both discrimination sensitivity and the visual preference functions For the data regarding the discrimination sensitivity out of 36 pairwise comparisons all but four were statistically significant (min p < 0.05; max p < 0.0001) Non-significant differences were observed between the extreme slope values of 0.75 and 2.5 as well as between slope values of 1.25 and 2.25; 1.5 and 2.25; and 1.75 and 2.0 these comparisons confirm the inverted U-shape function of discrimination sensitivity as a function of amplitude spectrum of 1/f grayscale images With respect to the visual preference for the Grayscale images the two intermediate slope values of 1.25 and 1.5 were significantly more preferred compared to the two lowest (0.5 and 0.75) slope values and the two highest (2.25 and 2.5) slopes values The slope value of 1.75 was also significantly more preferred than the lowest slope value of 0.5 and the higher slope values of 2.0 thus adding support for the inverted U-shaped distribution of visual preferences for the Grayscale images The average discrimination sensitivity and visual preference results for 46 participants plotted as a function of the amplitude spectrum slope of the Grayscale images We performed a (2) Task x (9) Exponent repeated measures ANOVA to test whether the sensitivity and preference scores vary in the same way as a function of the image amplitude spectrum exponent The analysis revealed significant main effect of slope (F(8) = 37.49 given that the raw scores in the detection sensitivity and visual preference were standardized the comparison between the tasks is not meaningful the Slope x Task interaction was significant (F(8,360) = 10.62 the median of individual correlations between discrimination sensitivity and visual preference was 0.378 Box and whisker plots of individual correlations between discrimination sensitivity and preference for 46 observers The 25–75% quartiles of the distribution are drawn using a box the peak detection sensitivity and visual preference both occurred for intermediate amplitude spectrum slope values and we found significant association between sensitivity and preference for synthetic images varying in their amplitude spectra at both group and individual levels Sine-wave gratings varying in spatial frequency from left to right with a pronounced selective loss at low spatial frequencies In order to be able to establish a direct measure of the strength of co-variation between visual sensitivity and visual preference for simple sine-wave gratings we again measure both sensitivity and preference in the same set of observers and for the same patterns Detection sensitivity) × (7) (Spatial frequency) repeated measures design was employed Twenty-nine first year psychology students participated in the experiment in exchange for course credit Twelve of these participants also received financial compensation The age of participants ranged between 17 and 44 years Informed consent approved by the UNSW Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel was obtained All stimuli were constructed using MATLAB (version 6.12) and corresponding Psychophysics Toolbox (version 2.5) Stimuli consisted of Gaussian enveloped sine-wave gratings with peak spatial frequency ranging from 0.25 to 16 cycles per viewing degree when presented at 54 cm viewing distance Phase was randomised with each presentation in both the contrast detection and visual preference tasks To determine the threshold contrast at which each of the sine-wave gratings with varying spatial frequency was just detectable we used the same Psi procedure as described in Experiment 1a The average thresholds for the whole stimulus set were based on at least 4 (and up to 6) runs with every observer the visual preference was measured using the 2AFC paired comparison procedure In order to control for the possibility that participants would choose a sine-wave grating of middle spatial frequency as preferred even in the absence of any strong visual preference we introduced a modification to ensure that the visual preference results are not affected by range effects or the “regression to the mean” strategy the testing blocks for the visual preference task did not use the entire range of spatial frequency manipulations and instead we created two sequences that span either low to mid spatial frequency range (0.25 2 and 4 c/deg) or mid to high spatial frequency range (1 Each of the two sequences consisted of 20 unique pairs Each participant completed both sequences at least twice Figure 9 depicts the average sine-wave detection sensitivity and visual preference data The panel on the left shows the average inverse contrast detection thresholds as a function of spatial frequency with the characteristics of a typical contrast sensitivity function: an inverse U-shaped function with a peak in the intermediate range The panel on the right shows the average visual preference results for the stimuli in two experimental sequences and shows that the results were not influenced by the range effect or the tendency to rate the spatial frequencies in the middle of each sequence as the most preferred the visual preference for the range of spatial frequencies present in both experimental sequences was equal regardless of the experimental sequence they belonged to the visual preference results from the two sequences were combined Raw detection sensitivity (left) and visual preference for sine-wave gratings varying in spatial frequency for 29 participants Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed with the raw detection sensitivity and visual preference data as a function of spatial frequency The detection sensitivity varied significantly as a function of the amplitude spectrum slope (F(6) = 188.7 the visual preference for sine-wave gratings also varied significantly as a function of spatial frequency (F(6) = 83.95 A posteriori Holm-Sidak multiple t-tests revealed that detection sensitivity was significantly higher with the intermediate spatial frequencies of 2 and 4 cycles per degree compared with the two lowest (0.25 and 0.5cpd) and the two highest (8 and 16 cpd) spatial frequencies intermediate spatial frequency of 4 cpd was significantly more preferred than the two lowest (0.25 and 0.5 cpd) and the two highest (8 and 16 cpd) spatial frequencies As in the previous experiments, we compare the pattern of results from the sensitivity and preference tasks via the standardized z scores as shown in Figure 10 Both functions exhibit remarkably similar characteristics with peaks around 2–4c/deg Standardised sensitivity and visual preference for sine-wave gratings varying in spatial frequency for 29 participants The error bars correspond to 95% Confidence Intervals associated with their respective condition means A (2) Task x (7) Spatial Frequency repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effect of spatial frequency (F(6) = 100.9 p < 0.0001) and a significant spatial frequency by task interaction (F(6,168) = 11.36 As in the previous experiments, the correlation between average sensitivity and average preference was high (r = 0.876, p < 0.012). Similarly, the mean of individual correlations between sensitivity and preference was also high (r = 0.570, CI = 0.41–0.73, p < 0.0001). Figure 11 shows the box and whisker plot of individual correlations between sensitivity and preference for 29 participants The median individual correlation between detection sensitivity and visual preference was 0.730 Box and whisker plot of correlation between detection sensitivity and visual preference for sine-wave gratings for 29 observers Maximum “whisker” length corresponds to 1.5 *Interquartile Range (25–75) The points outside of this range are considered outliers and are denoted by red crosses the association between visual sensitivity and visual preference for sine-wave gratings at both group and individual levels was greater than that observed in our first two experiments This might be related to the greater relative simplicity of sine-wave gratings affording less ambiguous characterization of sensitivity for the specific parametric variations in spatial structure The simple sine wave gratings used in this study contain only one spatial frequency component unlike synthetic images defined by variations in their amplitude spectra While there have been several suggestions linking visual preference to various aspects of visual processing few have been directly tested as done here In this paper we have examined the relationship between visual sensitivity and visual preference with regards to two quantitative parameters of image structure the amplitude spectrum of spatially broadband images (measured by amplitude spectrum slope) and the spatial frequency of sine-wave gratings The effects of these two spatial parameters were investigated in two independent The experimental procedures in both cases involved the measurement of visual sensitivity and visual preference in the same observers using standard tasks (contrast detection task and forced-choice paired comparison Comparative analyses of the results from these tasks were used to discern the possible relationship between visual preference and visual sensitivity Comparative analysis between visual sensitivity and visual preference was in general supportive of our starting hypothesis with both sensitivity and visual preference functions exhibiting inverse U-shaped patterns with peaks within similar ranges of amplitude spectra characteristics (though not always identical) we focused on parametric variations in the amplitude spectra of two-dimensional grayscale images it is possible that the same relationship could apply to even more diverse patterns and scenes that feature scale-specific spatial variations measuring visual preference and visual sensitivity in sine-wave gratings varying in spatial frequency was to test our hypothesis that the relationship between preference and sensitivity could extend to other types of variations in image structure Results from both the visual sensitivity and visual preference measurements with these patterns were consistent with the general characteristics of the contrast sensitivity function the agreement was even closer than that found in the first set of experiments with psychophysical functions closely matched and high individual correlations found With respect to the question of the prevalence of natural fractal statistics in artworks, our findings also suggest a hybrid of the perceptibility and affective hypotheses formulated by Graham and Field (2008) in that efficient perceptual processing and aesthetic appeal are seemingly tied together The same hybrid of efficient processing and associated aesthetic appeal extends to complementary observations of the considerable aesthetic appeal of natural and synthetic fractal patterns aesthetic experiences are undoubtedly complex and diverse in magnitude and we are by no means suggesting that they can be explained in their entirety in relation to low-level sensory processing We show that aesthetic judgments of spatial patterns can be directly linked to our visual sensitivity to precisely defined spatial aspects of image structure and we believe that revealing the role of early perceptual processing in aesthetic experiences provides valuable insight and contribution to our understanding of this ageless Further investigations will be useful in providing a broader and richer understanding of the relationships between early visual processing and visual preferences and aesthetic experiences The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest This work was supported by an Australian Research Council grant DP120103659 to BS and RPT CC was supported by an Australia Research Council Future Fellowship FT110100150 Quantifying aesthetic preference for chaotic patterns CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Implicit association of symmetry with positive valence CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Contrast sensitivity in natural scenes depends on edge as well as spatial frequency structure PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Application of fourier analysis to the visibility of gratings Experimentelle Unterschungen uber die Gefuhls-betonung der Farben Google Scholar Vorschule der Aesthetik [Elements of Aesthetics] blur and the sources of variability in the amplitude spectra of natural scenes Predicting beauty: fractal dimension and visual complexity in art Preference for luminance histogram regularities in natural scenes doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.03.018 [Epub ahead of print] Statistical regularities of art images and natural scenes: spectra Variations in intensity statistics for representational and abstract art and for art from the eastern and western hemispheres Statistical regularities in art: relations with visual coding and perception Google Scholar Fractal dimension of landscape silhouette outlines as a predictor of landscape preference CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Discrimination of amplitude spectrum slope in the fovea and 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jackson pollock’s fractals Fractal analysis of pollock’s drip paintings Google Scholar Individual differences in judgments of the beauty of simple forms CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Band-limited contrast in natural images explains the detectability of changes in the amplitude spectra Beauty and the beholder: highly individual taste for abstract Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain Google Scholar Clive bell’s “significant form” and the neurobiology of aesthetics Clifford CWG and Taylor RP (2015) Beauty and the beholder: the role of visual sensitivity in visual preference Received: 31 May 2015; Accepted: 03 September 2015; Published: 23 September 2015 Copyright © 2015 Spehar, Wong, van de Klundert, Lui, Clifford and Taylor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Branka Spehar, School of Psychology, UNSW Australia, 715 Mathews Building, Gate 9, High Street, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia,Yi5zcGVoYXJAdW5zdy5lZHUuYXU= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. 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Or sign-in if you have an account claiming it is his “moral obligation” to fight against its unconstitutional collection Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience His latest plan to avoid turning over more than $1-million has been rejected a bid to use money seized from his bank accounts to pay off his criminal fine for tax evasion rather than his tax bill The government said doing that would allow him to declare bankruptcy and avoid the civil obligation of paying his tax debt Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. the Federal Court of Canada sided with the government but Mr Klundert remains unbowed and is still fighting the tax assessment in the Tax Court of Canada After multiple trials for tax evasion — with a jury twice acquitting him — several appeals he continues to press his anti-tax crusade “I knew it was going to cost me money and it was going to cost me time But I wouldn’t have kept this up for all these years if I didn’t believe it,” Mr I knew whatever I did to take a stand would not be appreciated by the CRA.” Klundert properly filed and paid his income tax each year Then he read a pamphlet questioning the constitutional validity of the federal government enforcing taxation an Alberta anti-tax crusader who was popular in the 1990s when he went on a cross-country speaking tour spreading his anti-tax message studied the British North America Act and became convinced it was unconstitutional for the federal government to impose and collect personal income tax they did not want direct taxation coming under the laws of the federal government “The people who end up running a federal government end up oppressing the people of the country because they are given too much power They eventually become accountable to no one.” he wrote: “Collecting income tax by the government is against the Constitution of Canada,” instead of calculating an amount he did not disclose his income or pay income tax on the approximately $1.4 million he earned Klundert had already moved $500,000 offshore in preparation for the coming battle I was advised that when you fight Revenue Canada they will seize all of the money in your bank accounts They get a ‘jeopardy order’ to seize all of your assets so you have nothing left to fight them with.” He was then charged criminally for tax evasion he outlined why he had not been paying his taxes; that he had no intention of committing tax evasion but was protesting what he saw as an unlawful government action The government appealed and won a second trial The government appealed again and won a third crack at prosecution “They pulled out all the stops this time,” he said The judge only allowed the jury to hear whether I did it or not I did not pay income tax but I wasn’t able to tell the jury why He was fined $522,346 and sent to prison for a year was not appropriate because “it does not provide a sufficient degree of general deterrence.” after spending three months in Windsor jail releasing him to serve the remainder of his sentence at home “This is a unique case where the appellant’s behaviour was not as deceitful nor as fraudulent as the average evasion case,” the judges said “The appellant’s history actually shows that in virtually every other respect he was a law abiding citizen.” the government then prosecuted him for the tax years of 2000 to 2005 That brought a second conviction and a $101,393 fine he tried to appeal his first conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada but was denied He fought to have the money seized by the government go towards his criminal fines not the unpaid tax bill arguing the seizure was authorized because of the criminal investigation and not the civil debt although it means his patients must pay him for their eye exams and then be reimbursed by OHIP instead of him directly billing OHIP because the tax agency had been intercepting his OHIP billings His customers seem to understand and he remains busy “I’ve been able to keep my head above water and pay my legal bills We have been able to carry on,” he said of his wife and children “I did what I felt I had a moral responsibility to do I am happy and pleased with what I have done Calls to the Canada Revenue Agency were not returned transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news You are receiving this pop-up because this is the first time you are visiting our site You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker) we are relying on revenues from our banners So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.Thanks "The marketing season for Indian grapes has started off much better than last year," says Corné van de Klundert of Origin Fruit Group "There was significant rainfall in India at the beginning of the season The local Indian market demands its usual volumes making it more challenging for exporters to ship large quantities the risk for exporters has increased significantly." "There is still a solid volume of Indian grapes coming this way the grapes are arriving much more gradually," Corné explains Prices for Indian grapes range between 10 and 12 euros for clamshells and between 9 and 11 euros for 4.5-kilogram packages "The grapes are not entirely problem-free in terms of quality but they are slightly better than last year," he adds South Africa is in the final phase of its grape season with supply consisting mainly of red seedless varieties and Autumn Crisp South Africa has had a very solid grape season There was a period when an oversupply of loose grapes in all colors flooded the market but punnet prices remained stable throughout the season," says Van de Klundert the first Chilean grapes are also arriving There will be a larger supply heading to Europe because the North American market is already oversupplied more grapes will start arriving from there." For more information:Corné van de KlundertOrigin Fruit EuropeAlbert Plesmanweg 250 - Port 2450 3088 GD RotterdamTel: +31 88 244 93 08 [email protected] www.originfruitgroup.co FreshPublishers © 2005-2025 FreshPlaza.com But what makes it different than an apartment in is that in the eyes of Dutch tax collectors owning that home means the Van de Klunderts became landlords The Van de Klunderts owe taxes on roughly what they would charge to rent the place to strangers "This seems like the most fair way of taxing the capital one has when owning a house," Benjamin told Business Insider The Van de Klunderts are subject to what's called imputed rent even in the Byzantine world of economics and tax policy But it has huge implications for the housing market and how we measure the size of the economy Let's say you're renting an apartment for $2,000 a month. To your landlord, your rent checks are considered income, and she pays tax on it. Then you decide to buy a home of your own. Turns out it's pretty similar to the one you were renting, but it's all yours. Imputed rent is based on the logic that instead of paying your landlord, you're now paying yourself that $24,000 a year. In the Netherlands that effective income is taxable; in the US it is not. You can think of the "return" on this investment as the value of paying yourself, rather than a landlord, even if it’s not paying dividends or increasing in value. “The issue really is that the imputed rent from your house is exempt,” Eric Toder, codirector of the tax policy center at the Urban Institute, told Business Insider. “So if you finance a house by equity, it’s as if you have money invested in the house. If you invested it in a Treasury bond, it’d be taxable income. This is income that is tax-free.” But just because it's tax-free doesn't mean the government doesn't care about it. Kyle Browns once found the idea of imputed rent counterintuitive too. Now it’s part of his job to calculate it at the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). “It was difficult to wrap my mind around, unlike haircuts or cars,” Browns told Business Insider. For economists, imputation simply means calculating data they don’t have. It’s a fancy way of estimating how much we spend on something. But if the BEA left out imputed rent — all that money homeowners are not paying to landlords — a little over a trillion dollars would vanish from the national income, Browns said. That’s roughly equivalent to what the country spends on healthcare. “There’s always some benefit that owning a home is providing that should be attributed,” Browns said. “This is how we do it.” And to do it, BEA officials have to estimate what homeowners would pay if they were renting. They use comparably priced rental units in the area, or other proxies. But it’s an estimate. In some communities, nearly everyone owns a home, so there are few comparable rental units. In principle, the BEA should also include imputed rent for things like cars, and even furniture, but compared to housing, it’s such a small part of the economy that it’s not worth the effort. Housing is a big expenditure, and including imputed rent is important when comparing the US GDP to that of other countries. Homeownership rates vary. For example, 83% of Spaniards own, but Germans like to rent. Homeowners can deduct the interest they pay to their banks from their income. The idea is to encourage more Americans to buy homes and, in theory, join the middle class. The deduction is controversial. Some studies show it does little to increase the rate of homeownership but encourages buyers to choose bigger homes. And it doesn’t help everyone; it applies only to owners who itemize their taxes. Many middle-class married couples don’t benefit. The hidden imputed-rent tax break is different. It benefits anyone who owns a home, but it benefits most those with high incomes living in expensive homes. If your home would rent for $4,000 a month, the implicit tax break you get is a lot bigger than someone living in a home that would cost $1,000 a month.“There’s something very uncomfortable about distorting the decision to tax the house you live in versus the one you don’t,” Todd Sinai, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business’s real-estate department, told Business Insider. This is one of those ideas that economists love to think about, but it rarely moves from academia into the world of mainstream policy proposals. “In theory, it probably would be a good idea” to tax imputed rent, Toder of the Urban Institute said. “That doesn’t mean it would be popular.” Most Americans don’t think of it as income in the first place, so rallying support would be an uphill battle. Sinai said if we taxed it, housing would look like a lot of other investments. Homeowners would add the imputed rent to their total income, but then offset it. Mortgage interest would now come off the top of their imputed rent. They could depreciate the value of the home and everything in it over time. Property tax would be taken off the top, as would maintenance costs. “You’d have a higher income, but you’d have greater deductions,” he said. If the US decided as a nation to reduce or eliminate incentives for homeownership, eliminating just the mortgage-interest deduction would, on average, eliminate about a third of that subsidy. But taxing imputed rent fully eliminates the tax-favored status for housing, Sinai said. Many economists, as a matter of principle, believe taxing imputed rent makes sense. But as a practical matter, Sinai said it's hard to calculate and hard to implement. And taxing it would make for bigger disparities between winners and losers, so the chance of politicians proposing this is next to nothing.  But for those thinking about housing tax policy, there are other possibilities. Half of imputed rent could be taxed, or the mortgage-interest deduction could be capped. And there are real reasons lawmakers might want to think about these scenarios, Sinai said. In places where housing is scarce, tax subsidies tend to just raise home prices. But where housing is easy to build, it has little effect on prices, and doesn’t have a significant influence on the rate of homeownership, he said. “We have subsidies for all sorts of things in the tax code,” Sinai said. “The problem with current tax incentives is that they’re not very effective in inducing people to buy houses. They’re very effective at getting people to spend more when they buy them.” For Benjamin van de Klundert in the Netherlands, "Any tax is too much." But he knows if he didn’t pay imputed rent, "we’d be paying taxes on something else." When buying homes, the Dutch know beforehand how much the tax adds. "It will never be a deal breaker," he said. The potential of downtown Windsor is being touted with the opening of a new real estate office in the city core. Realty ONE Group Iconic officially opened Thursday in The Hive building at 513 Pelissier St. The building, owned by BK Cornerstone, also has 24 rental units above the main floor commercial space. Brent Klundert, Vice President of BK Cornerstone and part owner of Realty One Group, says they think the downtown has a lot to offer. "We still have a long way to go but with our current project, this one operating actually out of downtown Windsor, with the next one we have on Wyandotte, that's the next anchor that's going to be bigger and better," he says. "We really want to push the envelope in investing here downtown, because at the end of the day we really believe in this city." Klundert says they are in the process of developing a project in the area of Wyandotte Street and Pelissier with up to 100 rental units, and an additional project with 300 units at an unspecified location in the core. The Hive building at 513 Pelissier St. in downtown Windsor. (Photo: Rusty Thomson) Chris MacLeod, broker owner of Realty One and chair of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, says it was a bit of a 'leap of faith' in investing downtown years ago. "In order to be impactful in our community, I think you need to be selective in where you invest your business dollars," he says. "The belief that we can make a difference and we can, through that investment make a difference in our community, really drove us to push forward downtown." MacLeod says the feeling of safety and security downtown is still a concern for some residents. "Having this office downtown I think is a vote for downtown. It's to say 'it's ok to invest in downtown, let's get in and come on and join us,'" he says. The real estate agency already has 20 agents signed up with plans to bring in as many as 70 in the downtown location. The Hive building, the former Don Cherry's bar and restaurant, was the first to receive a Community Improvement Plan grant from the city which helped spur a $12-million investment into the building by its owners. The rapid rise in interest rates that smothered demand for newly built homes also put the brakes on escalating home construction prices last year in the Windsor area According to the latest New Housing Index released by Statistics Canada the cost of building a local home fell 1.3 per cent in 2023 “I think the average prices may have fallen slightly because people are more focused on affordable homes,” said Windsor Essex Homebuilders’ Association president Brent Klundert Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada “With demand also coming off — even if supply is low — there’s not as much upward pressure on prices.” Klundert said the average cost of a semi-detached/townhouse in the Windsor area ranges from $650,000 to $800,000 but can be much higher depending on the quality of the finishes A new single-family home on average starts at $750,000 Prices declined or remained the same in 21 of the metropolitan areas surveyed across Canada “Input costs for materials are also stabilizing,” Klundert said of another key factor in home price stabilization “Lumber prices have stabilized in the last year offsetting a five- to seven-per-cent increase in manufactured goods the new-home industry is very dependent on where the price is The gap between new and resale homes had grown Klundert said buyers also consider the energy savings and lower maintenance costs with a fully warranted new home versus resale said buyers in the second half of 2023 focused more on affordability in the resale market resulting in the new home market drying up “There haven’t been a lot of major sales happening for new-home contracts,” Gemus said especially on the upper end of $1 million-plus “Builders are looking to get rid of their inventory There isn’t the building on spec we saw a couple years ago.” Klundert said developers haven’t discounted their products much but the margins are small so there isn’t a lot of wiggle room,” Klundert said “You might be able to get a couple thousand off and some accepted conditional offers That’s the first time we’ve seen any of that in five years.” Klundert said developers have been resistant to deep discounts confident the local real estate market as a whole will accelerate this spring He notes the record demand and prices for industrial and commercial real estate seen locally in the fourth quarter of 2023 “Residential lags shortly behind industrial and commercial real estate,” Klundert said “Builders think demand is building and the dam will break soon.” noting that yet-to-be released residential numbers for January will show an improvement over December He also expects the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates by April With rates in the bond market having been in decline for months insured fixed mortgage was available for 5.09 per cent Tuesday “We expect Windsor-Essex prices to rise by 7.5 per cent in 2024,” Gemus said “It’ll be driven by rate cuts and population growth It’s not that a quarter-point cut makes that much difference but it’ll change the psychology in the market people will jump back in and we’re actually worried we’ll see a lot more multiple bids and price spikes.” The average price decline nationally was .9 per cent while London and Kitchener-Waterloo fell 1.8 and 1.3 per cent Ottawa-Gatineau (Ontario portion) had the nation’s largest annual decline at 4.8 per cent followed by Victoria The biggest increases in new housing costs in 2023 were experienced in Quebec City (3.3 per cent) and Calgary (2.7 per cent) Dwaddell@postmedia.com This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image Now a resident of Redroofs Lifecare rest-home Mrs van de Klundert (87) was visited recently by a delegation of her former Friends of the Library colleagues and Dunedin City Council library services manager Bernie Hawke the visitors presented Mrs van de Klundert with a framed "plaque" describing her many years of service to books Friends of the Library president David Crooks paid tribute to her energy and efforts in support of library staff as well as her advocacy for a South Dunedin library alongside the late Anne Turvey "We are very pleased to make this presentation to acknowledge all her years of hard work," Mr Crooks said A library assistant at Dunedin Public Libraries from 1962-65 Mrs van de Klundert became archivist at Holy Cross College in Mosgiel As president of the Friends of the Library (the Dunedin Public Libraries Association) for several terms Mrs van de Klundert was pivotal in the organisation’s success She was also the author of Turn Back the Pages a 1890-2005 history of the Dunedin Public Libraries Association Mrs van de Klundert was the recipient of a library citation in recognition of her contribution to the association and to historical research in New Zealand Mrs van de Klundert was thrilled with the presentation saying she felt "very fortunate and overwhelmed that [the Friends of the Library] should do this for me" "I started going to the library when I was a little girl of 4 and reading became a great passion of my life," she said She said it was very nice that former Dunedin city librarian Auckland city librarian and national librarian Mary Ronnie was also a resident at Redroofs as it gave the old friends plenty of opportunities to share their love of books  - brenda.harwood@thestar.co.nz Conrad van de Klundert sees a healthy future for the Reload chain The casino operator has downgraded its earnings guidance for the second time The first blueberries from Peru have arrived at Aartsen in the Netherlands "These blueberries are characterized by lovely They're always 16mm+ and are specially harvested "They're packaged under the Grandezza label the market is good too," says Arco van de Klundert more and more new plants are coming into production There's still a lot of blueberry acreage expansion That's often with new varieties with improved firmness This development forces our Peruvian partners and us to ensure our trading is perfect," says the importer That's so we can achieve the best results," said the importer "Grandezza's reputation in both the Benelux and Asia helps enormously Blueberries are one of the fastest-growing items there," says Arco Aartsen started its Grandezza brand in 2016 Aartsten imports all its Grandezza products directly from South America and Australia "Grandezza products have been grown with love and passion It's a brand of which Aartsen's very proud There's a continuous increase in demand for the brand "We're continually seeking shipping agents that match our quality brand other products have strongly represented the Grandezza brand and blueberries under the Grandezza label." will be the newest addition to the Grandezza family The Asian markets will get the first arrivals in November Being in the market twelve months a year gives our clients a strong quality base we're able to operate in that market's top segment That's our goal with the brand," says Van de Klundert Aartsen's also expecting its first Grandezza grapes at the end of October again These white seedless Sweet Globe grapes come from Peru have been very successful in recent years." "We've been working on this for several years now These varieties are becoming more widely known create a top-line among grapes," concludes Arco For more information:Arco van de KlundertAartsenTel: +31 (0) 765 248 162Email: [email protected]   Website: www.aartsen.com but caution it shouldn’t come at the expense of existing programs “It’s a great idea,” said WEHBA president Brent Klundert who added it’s something builders across the country have been requesting Nixing the GST will save local buyers an average of $40,000 to $50,000 and directly improve affordability “The more we eliminate or minimize taxes on a new home the more it’ll affect affordability of all homes going forward,” said Klundert Chen said the appeal of the program is the immediacy of the impact on buyers it will have if implemented “The main problem for the home ownership dream is affordability,” Chen said “This proposal directly impacts affordability “Any policy at any level of government by any party that directly targets improving affordability is helpful This is going to save buyers tens of thousands of dollars.” The proposal by the official Opposition party would remove the GST on any newly built home priced up to $1 million But both Klundert and Chen caution the Conservatives about scrapping or reducing existing federal housing programs to pay for the proposal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday one way of financing a portion of his party’s GST plan would be by eliminating the Liberals’ current $5-billion Housing Accelerator Fund which offers municipalities millions if they agree to zoning changes to increase densification to fourplexes by right of way “A lot of the Housing Accelerator funding is going to the municipal level to increase supply (by building supporting infrastructure),” Klundert said that would further constrain supply — we could still be in trouble.” would have a ripple effect in the housing market beyond new construction Those buying newly built homes generally will have a home to sell thus expanding the inventory of available re-sale houses “There’s always a chain effect in the housing market,” Chen said “It’ll add homes to the inventory and that added supply helps stabilize prices.” Chen and Klundert agree that the removal or reduction of taxes and fees from housing imposed by the municipal provincial and federal governments is a key pillar in creating housing affordability it’s been detailed that one-third of a home’s price are taxes by the municipal provincial and federal governments,” Klundert said the GST is applied to any portion of a new home sale that exceeds $390,000 Klundert said the federal government offers a tax credit up to a maximum of $24,000 which is the equivalent to reducing the average GST tax rate from 13 per cent to approximately 10 per cent Klundert said the $390,000 tax-free ceiling for a home is outdated having been set when most homes fell under that cap He said the average new build in the area now sells for $850,000 “This proposal is a step in the right direction we need to increase the supply of homes if we want to achieve any pricing relief from today’s prices,” Klundert said you’ll start to see upward pressure on prices This year will see a ‘historic low in modern times’ for the number of new homes built in Canada due to the affordability issue Windsor wasn’t eligible for the current federal funding as the city opted not to allow for fourplexes as a right of way while Tecumseh received $4.38 million for agreeing to do so as part of its funding application You are not permitted to download, save or email this image. Visit image gallery to purchase the image. Curling up with a good book might be the preferred activity for many Dunedin librarians. But last night they put that and any natural shyness aside to strut their stuff in vintage clothing. The ''Geek to Chic'' fashion show at the Dunedin City Library was held as part of iD Dunedin Fashion Week. Fashion show organiser and Dunedin Public Libraries marketing co-ordinator Lynette Hartgill said it was the third year the show, which features librarians swapping their day clothes for vintage clothing from the 1950s to the 1980s, had been held. Seventeen took part last night. It was a big deal for many of them to leave their natural shyness behind to take part, she said. ''There is such a buzz afterwards. It's a real morale booster.'' Librarian Shana Clyne said all she worried about was not falling over in her gold heels, but she was impressed with her bouffant hairdo. ''I'm shaking. I'm more of a rugby player than a model.'' For library head Bernie Hawke it was just as difficult as he modelled a cobalt blue suit he was wearing for the last time before he gave it to charity. Friends and family in the audience cheered the librarians on, especially Lola van de Klundert who had to be held back when her mother, Melanie, modelled a pink lace sheath. You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account The addition of about 1,000 good paying jobs at Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant has been a mixed blessing for Ben Klundert the mass hiring will boost the local housing sector head of the Windsor Essex Homebuilders’ Association the competition for labour will get tougher I lost one of my labourers to Chrysler,” said Klundert “We were looking at apprenticing him as a carpenter and a source familiar with the company’s plans said the automaker is hiring an additional 1,000 employees at the plant which will build the next-generation Chrysler Town and Country minivan as well as the current Dodge Grand Caravan New hires working on the line start at $20 an hour and take 10 years to reach the maximum of about $34 while skilled trades workers earn significantly more The unionized workforce also could be in store for wage and benefits hikes since the current four-year contract comes up for renegotiation next summer For a region saddled with the highest jobless rate in the country the influx of well-paying manufacturing jobs will not only increase employment but inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy plus billions into federal and provincial coffers economist at the Centre for Spacial Economics  of the auto industry’s impact on the Canadian and Ontario economies as well as auto-producing municipalities, found that the area’s 12,000 autoworkers’ paycheques contributed $764 million to the Windsor economy in 2014 (or $2.1 million per day). “When you have improved wages and probability of employment in a community, the good news spreads because those high-income earners spend money in other parts of the economy,” said Somerville. “Retail and housing are big beneficiaries.” The benefits will spread beyond Windsor and Essex County, he added. Another 1,000 auto assembly jobs will add about $100 million each to federal and provincial coffers annually as well as $1 billion to Ontario’s gross domestic product, he estimated. Klundert said the hiring at Windsor Assembly will encourage people who’ve put off buying big-ticket items to jump into the housing market. “What you’re going to see is a lot of people making that decision,” he said. “If people feel secure about their jobs, they will make the big investments. And there’s no bigger investment than your home.” He also predicted increased sales for the home renovation business. “The home renovation business right now is double the value of the new home build industry as far as revenues go,” he said. It underscores the benefit of having an auto assembly plant in the heart of Windsor, said Matt Marchand, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. “These are high skilled and certainly high-wage jobs that can multiply up to nine times in the real economy, and that’s the real value of the automotive sector,” Marchand said. “That’s why other jurisdictions are so aggressive in trying to attract this industry, because the impact is so dramatic.” Tony Faria, business professor emeritus at the University of Windsor, said he was hopeful the hiring will chip away at Windsor’s 10 per cent jobless rate. “A lot of people jumping into higher-paying assembly jobs will be coming from lower-paying jobs and I would expect some of those 1,000 will come from auto suppliers,” said Faria. “They, in turn, will have to do some hiring, including some people currently unemployed. That will bring them into the workforce. And it will bring a lot of additional spending.” There are other “ancillary” benefits, that can’t be measured in dollars, said Somerville. “A strong economy usually means lower crime rates. You get a stronger community.” The education company — which is the largest provider of vocational education in schools in New Zealand — is looking at the possibility of other sporting codes Director Pieter van de Klundert said New Zealand Rugby had been looking to "future proof" its refereeing and coaching stock The concept he offered was to train and coach school pupils and ensure they got NCEA credits "New Zealand Rugby really have seized this and run with the ball More than 500 pupils had been trained over the past two years and it had been "brilliant" for both rugby clubs and schools It was a "massive positive" for those undertaking the study — not all were academically inclined but they were passionate Schools recognised the value of the initiative and the response this year had been "overwhelming" and The Learning Place had not been able to meet the demand Next year was looking "massive" and it was getting more trainers One pupil did the rugby course and was then taken under the wing of a rugby club and paid to referee games The business helped train 6000 pupils this year and is in 400 secondary schools throughout the country including the compliance side which covered health and safety and hazardous substances Underpinning it all was category one status from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority the highest qualification a training provider could get sally.rae@odt.co.nz Bowie was the object of the New Year’s Day  rescue in St Bathans when he became trapped on a ledge in the historic St Bathans tailings for almost 18 hours after chasing a rabbit and becoming stranded on a cliff said Bowie had returned to normal life and the family was grateful to the Central Otago community for his rescue About 1000 people attended yesterday’s fete which was run by the Cambrian-St Bathans branch of Rural Women New Zealand and featured about 50 stalls and war veterans brought central Dunedin to a halt today before the official laying up of the New Zealand Scottish Regiment colours at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum The ceremony marked the disbandment of the regiment by the handing over the colours to Toitu before heading down lower Stuart St to Toitu for the ceremony Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said Dunedin was a fitting place for the colours as it was New Zealand's most Scottish city and the impetus for the regiment's establishment came from Dunedin the regiment drew recruits from around New Zealand who initially had to prove their Scottish heritage At Dunedin-based private training provider The Learning Place director Pieter van de Klundert says the more accessible it is made If a workplace of 20 or more employees decides to have a health and safety committee they  elect a health and safety representative to represent them in those matters That elected position could issue a Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) a written notice telling a person or business to address a health and safety concern in the workplace But that could only be issued if the representative had training in unit standard 29315 The Learning Place’s online development division has built New Zealand’s first online health and safety representative stage 1 training and assessment module delivering unit standard 29315 It used ADInstruments’ kuraCloud online learning platform as employees could do it at their own pace and in their own time and it was also easy to understand and enjoyable to complete Research done by The Learning Place showed far more workplaces were engaging with health and safety Following a soft launch of the module in December there had been much interest and many registrations throughout the country The Learning Place started delivering health and safety compliance for the liquor and food industries and then branched out into other areas Mr van de Klundert was looking forward to a "huge" year ahead Since the development of the first wholly online licence controller qualification for the liquor industry 18 months ago the online training division has continued to develop online compliance training modules for industry The licence controller qualification had taken a 25% market share of national candidates since its inception Mr Hide has already fired the first shot in any coming battle - accusing Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin of "scaremongering" by raising the prospect of privatisation during last week's library centenary celebrations in Dunedin Mr Chin told a gathering of library staff and supporters celebrating the centenary that recent comments by Mr Hide urging councils to "stick to the basics" to rein in rates Contacted by the Otago Daily Times after his speech Mr Chin reiterated his belief that Mr Hide's comments "potentially puts the library under threat" and that the minister would be in for a fight if he moved towards privatisation "If it was under threat I [have] no doubt at all the community would be rising up in arms," Mr Chin said His concerns were mirrored by library staff spoken to by the ODT and members the Dunedin Public Libraries Association who feared what such a move would mean for the library's collection of rare books "Would he want to flog them off?" association president Merle van de Klundert asked "The library resources would just die away It's too horrendous to even think about." Mr Hide attacked his critics when contacted on Tuesday saying he had no plans - nor the legal "mechanism" - to privatise libraries which were the responsibility of local authorities that would try and scaremonger in this way The word library has never come out of my lips I think Mayor Chin is being disingenuous," Mr Hide said Mr Hide said he aimed to be a "cheerleader" encouraging local authorities to think carefully about expenditure - particularly when it came to using ratepayer funds for stadium projects "It would be a bit of a dim city that didn't have libraries There's a big difference between spending millions on a stadium and managing a good library," he said The row comes after Mr Hide threw his support behind a recent Local Government Forum report which argued local authorities had strayed from core business into other areas "that could easily be provided by the private sector" He said the Government was determined to ease the burden on households and businesses and "I will be looking at ways of achieving this goal" The forum's members include the Business Roundtable New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and the Retailers Association chris.morris@odt.co.nz