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Thursday, November 8, 2007

India is the latest of the countries where the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) experiment has started. Children from the village of Khairat were given the opportunity to learn how to use the XO laptop. During the last year XO was distributed to children from Arahuay in Peru, Ban Samkha in Thailand, Cardal in Uruguay and Galadima in Nigeria. The OLPC team are, in their reports on the startup of the trials, delighted with how the laptop has improved access to information and ability to carry out educational activities. Thailand’s The Nation has praised the project, describing the children as “enthusiastic” and keen to attend school with their laptops.

Recent good news for the project sees Uruguay having ordered 100,000 of the machines which are to be given to children aged six to twelve. Should all go according to plan a further 300,000 machines will be purchased by 2009 to give one to every child in the country. As the first to order, Uruguay chose the OLPC XO laptop over its rival from Intel, the Classmate PC. In parallel with the delivery of the laptops network connectivity will be provided to schools involved in the project.

The remainder of this article is based on Carla G. Munroy’s Khairat Chronicle, which is available from the OLPC Wiki. Additional sources are listed at the end.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Civic Parade of Pichilemu took place on Saturday morning, in Daniel Ortúzar Avenue. The event was attended by around 9,000 people. It started with an exhibition of cueca, the Chilean national dance, by winners of communal and regional Cueca championships.

All the schools from urban Pichilemu and its rural villages participated in the parade, including La Aguada School, Espinillo Basic School, Cáhuil School, Charly’s School, Colegio Preciosa Sangre, Agustín Ross High School, Digna Camilo Aguilar School, and others. Neighborhood councils (such as Infiernillo, presided by Mauricio Vargas), elderly clubs, sport clubs (such as Arturo Prat and Independiente), the Public Safety Agency and the Fire Bureau also participated. The Parade music was performed by Banda Instrumental Pichilemina (Pichileminian Instrumental Band).

The parade is part of celebrations marking two hundred years since Chile began the Independence process, that ended in 1818 after Bernardo O’Higgins proclaimed it.

“This parade shows the power that the Pichileminian people has to stand again [after the February 27 earthquake],” Mayor of Pichilemu Roberto Córdova said. “It is the greatest parade in the History of Pichilemu,” he added.

The event was broadcast by the local radio stations Entre Olas, Atardecer and Somos Pichilemu. Jorge Vargas González, owner of Radio Somos Pichilemu and former Mayor of the city also attended the event, along with his wife Andrea Aranda, current Councillor.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Toulouse, FRANCE – In a ceremony attended by several European political leaders and 5,000 VIP guests, Airbus unveiled plans for the A380, a twin-deck aircraft that can carry up to 840 people in all-economy class (550 for a Boeing 747), or 555 people in typical three mixed classes layout.

The new aircraft will take the world’s-largest title away from rival Boeing’s 747. Boeing’s upcoming new design, the 7e7, does not attempt to compete directly with the A380 but instead is aimed at a more efficient and comfortable flight at 200-250 seats.

Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard stated that he expected sales of the aircraft to exceed the 250 required for the project to break even. To date, 149 confirmed orders for the aircraft have been received. Airbus has hopes that sales will exceed 700. The company is currently in talks with China regarding possible sales there.

The first test flight of the aircraft may take place as early as March, and the first commercial flight is expected to take off in mid-2006 from Singapore’s Changi Airport.

British and American airline Virgin Atlantic has purchased six of these aeroplanes and intend to fit them with gyms and bars as well as seats.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

London, England — Yesterday Wikinews had the opportunity to tour the Ottobrock wheelchair repair workshops at the Paralympic Village in London.

It is one of a network of workshops at every Paralympic venue. They are run by Ottobrock, which has been repairing wheelchairs at the Paralympics since 1988. The workshop opened on August 22 and will remain until September 10.

The Ottobrock employees include people from 20 countries. Between them, they speak 23 languages. They liken themselves to the pit crew of motor sport — except that they have no idea what sort of equipment they will have to work with. The store room contains 15,000 spare parts, with everything from spare carbon fibre running blades to spare tyres — over 2,000 of them. They stock Ottobrock parts and their competitors’ too, as they have no idea what will arrive at the workshop next. Athletes from around the world bring in all manner of equipment.

The prosthetic technicians have to deal with everything from flat tyres to broken spokes to full-scale rebuilds. They have to be expert problem solvers. They frequently collaborate on determining how best to effect a repair. The objective is to get the wheelchair repaired and back in service as soon as possible.

Wheelchairs vary somewhat in design, depending on the sport. Those for wheelchair basketball and rugby have cambered wheels so they can spin around. Aluminum and titanium parts are used for strength. Ottobrock has a welding workshop where frames are repaired; the teams’ equipment managers understandably cannot bring such heavy equipment with them to the games, so they rely on the workshops. When a repair job is required, it is often required in a hurry. At the Turkey vs United States game, a chair was repaired during the match.

In addition to wheelchairs, the workshops handle all manner of work with prostheses. Carbon fibre running blades are adjusted. Broken feet and legs are a challenge. The Chinese Boccia team brought in its power chairs to have the electronics adjusted. In that sport, having the controls working perfectly is all-important.

There are 4,200 athletes at the Paralympic games. So far, the workshops have carried out 1,100 repairs.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

The inflation rate in Ireland, as measured by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), edged upwards to hit a five month high in May at 2.4%. This represents a 0.2% rise on the previous month when the rate stood at 2.2%.

The major contributors to the rise were increased transportation, healthcare, and education costs. In April the EU25 average rate of inflation was 2.1%, with Latvia having the highest rate at 7.1% and Sweden the lowest at 0.4%.

Despite the increase in the rate, Irish inflation remains very low – having hit 7% during 2000 and remaining around the 5% until the beginning of 2003. Another major factor easing any worries about the increase is Ireland’s very strong GDP growth – expected to be around 5.5% this year

On an annual basis the cost of footwear and clothing have fallen by 2.7% whilst energy costs have soared by 10.4%. The cost of food, furniture, and communications also fell over the last 12 months.

The Consumer Price Index is made up of over 55,000 prices consisting of 613 headings which cover over 1,000 different items.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.