German customs demand $475,000 for Japanese musician's violin

Violinist Yuzuko Horigome was passing
 through Frankfurt Airport when she was
 stopped and fined 

TOKYO — German customs seized a $1.2 million violin from a Japanese professional musician and are demanding she pay almost $475,000 to get it back, reports said on Wednesday.

Belgium-based Yuzuko Horigome was transiting through Frankfurt Airport last week after performing in Japan, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

When she tried to walk through the green gate for travelers arriving in the EU with nothing to declare, customs officers stopped her and said she needed to pay 190,000 euros in duty on her 1741 Guarnerius violin.

On top of this were fines, taking the total cost to an eye-popping 380,000 euros ($475,000), the Tokyo Shimbun said.

Customs confiscated the valuable fiddle because she could not provide the documents for her 1986 purchase, the Yomiuri said.

“The instrument is an implement for my work. For musicians, instruments are like parts of your bodies,” she told the Yomiuri. “I have used Frankfurt Airport many times and never had problems like this before. I don’t know why this happened.”

She has since submitted documents to prove her ownership of the violin, but negotiations have been difficult, the Asahi Shimbun said, quoting the musician.

Horigome, who has worked in Europe for three decades, was also contacting the governments of Japan and Belgium to see if they could help, the Tokyo Shimbun said.

A spokesman for the German authorities has suggested that the violin might be returned if it is regarded as necessary for her job, the Yomiuri said.

Guarnerius violins are considered among the world’s best, ranked alongside those made by Stradivarius and Amati.

Horigome plays in cities around the world with top conductors and orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

© 2012 AFP

Southern Africa: High-Speed Internet Links Regional Universities

Lilongwe — The first high-speed Internet link between national research networks in Sub-Saharan Africa was launched last month (17 July) when Zambia was linked up to South Africa by a cable passing through Zimbabwe.

It will allow Zambian scientists to join Géant, a European high speed internet network dedicated to researchers, through the SEACOM submarine cable node in South Africa, opening the door to them to participate in advanced regional and global research collaborations.

The link connects higher education institutions within the Zambia Research and Education Network to those in South Africa's Tertiary Education Network (TENET), using internet infrastructure supplied by the UbuntuNet Alliance - a Malawi-based association of research and education networks covering southern and eastern Africa.

The link will in particular enable Zambia's researchers to participate in global e-learning schemes, and help them share large datasets with colleagues around the world.

"Medical researchers will be early beneficiaries, as high definition images can now be shared and investigated collaboratively," Margaret Ngwira, UbuntuNet Alliance's special projects coordinator, told SciDev.Net.

"Research and education data can now be shared nationally, regionally and globally on a high quality secure network," she said, adding that this brings the "Zambian research and education community into the global community, permitting their participation in cutting edge research".

Moffat Nyirenda, a professor at the University of Malawi's College of Medicine, hopes the initiative will allow regional universities to move away from using satellite-based connections, which experience long transmission delays.

"As researchers, we produce large amounts of data, and to be able to communicate within groups you need a secure and reliable means of communication," Nyirenda said. "This new link will help to develop regional teams of researchers."

Ngwira said the link is the first building block in a regional southern African network.

She added that the EU-funded AfricaConnect project - a four-year programme that aims to establish a high-capacity Internet network for research and education in southern and eastern Africa - is expected to be rolled out later in the year.

This should allow most other countries in the region to link up through a high speed network, Ngwira said.

Duncan Martin, TENET's chief executive officer, expects bandwidth costs for research and educational networks to continue to fall sharply, lowering the access costs that universities will need pay to access the link.

"Unit costs will continue to drop, except in those countries where the traditional telecommunications operator continues to have a monopoly," Martin said.

The Zambian link was funded by a €2.25 million (US$2.8 million) grant from the Netherlands Initiative for Capacity development in Higher Education, and a €350,000 (US$432,294) grant from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority.

Original source here

Research Shows English Proficiency on the Rise in Indonesia

New data released by the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) on Thursday shows that English proficiency in Indonesia is increasing.

The scores received by Indonesian IELTS test takers in 2011 demonstrate that competence in three of four areas of English — writing, speaking and listening — has increased since 2010, according to the organization's website.

“Results from 2011 show Indonesian test takers are committed to English studies and improving their proficiency in the language,” British Council’s Angela Hennelly said.

John Belleville, ELTS Director at IDP Education Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Area, Australia added that the data also proved that more and more Indonesians each year are choosing to take the IELTS exam and increase their global education and employment opportunities.

Based on a scale from 1 to 9, the average IELTS score in Indonesia increased from 6.2 to 6.4 in 2011. Listening, writing and speaking scores all increased, with listening being identified as the strongest skill amongst Indonesians who took the test in 2011.

There are 31 IELTS test centers located across Indonesia, with branches in Bandung, Denpasar, Jakarta, Medan, Semarang and Surabaya.

IELTS test results are requested by more than 7,000 educational institutions, governments and employers around the globe in order to provide an accurate and reliable measurement of English language proficiency.

More than 1.7 million IELTS tests were taken in 2011, a 12% increase compared to 2010.

Original source here

More high school students passing Exit Exam

The vast majority of the class of 2012 - 95 percent of the state's 450,000 seniors - passed the California High School Exit Exam by graduation day, an all-time-high pass rate, according to results released Wednesday.

Not surprisingly, state education officials celebrated the news, noting steady improvement from the 90 percent pass rate in 2006, the first year students were required to pass the math and English test in order to graduate.

"When 95 percent of California students are hitting the mark - despite the tremendous challenges we face and the work we still have to do - there's an awful lot going right in our public schools," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

Yet critics of the Exit Exam have long questioned whether passing the test is anything to celebrate.

The exam, which was adopted by the Legislature in 1999, tests students on eighth- or ninth-grade math and 10th-grade English skills. Students are first required to take the exam in their sophomore year and have several chances to pass it.

Over the years, the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars administering the test as well as providing remediation, tutoring and test preparation to ensure students who graduate meet minimum standards.

And yet the Exit Exam isn't much of a gatekeeper. Relatively few students who didn't pass would have graduated anyway because they didn't finish required coursework.

In San Francisco, for example, 109 of the district's 4,058 high school seniors were denied a diploma in the spring solely because they had not passed the Exit Exam.

And those students were eligible to take the test again after their senior year. Those results were not available.

In other words, the Exit Exam is costly, measures early high school skills on a multiple-choice test, and the vast majority of students pass it.

Is it worth the time, energy and money?

A baseline test

Many education and business leaders have time and again answered yes.

"It's a low bar," acknowledged Muhammed Chaudhry, CEO of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, which works with local industry to support policy and programs that prepare students for college and careers. "If you can't pass eighth-grade algebra and 10th-grade English, you are not going to be ready for college. You're not going to be ready for the workforce by any means."

However, passing the Exit Exam also doesn't mean you are ready for a job or college, Chaudhry said. Still, it's a standardized way to ensure every high school graduate has at least those minimal skills, he said.

"You have to have a floor to have (a diploma) mean anything," he said.

Currently, all students must pass the test to graduate except special education students.

In the meantime, education officials note that certain students - African American, Hispanic and poor students as well as English learners - are more likely to fail the Exit Exam compared with white and Asian teens.

In a 2009 study on the effectiveness of the exam, Stanford University researchers found that minority students and girls of all races scored lower on the exam than white male students with the same level of academic achievement, a disparity attributed to a greater fear of failing on the high-stakes test rather than a lack of actual skill.

"Our analysis suggests that, to date, this is neither money nor time well spent," said one of the study's co-authors, Sean Reardon, at the time.

Closing the gap

Yet since 2006, the gap in pass rates has been steadily closing.
African American and Hispanic students have posted the biggest gains on the Exit Exam since 2006.

This year, 92 percent of black students and 93 percent of Hispanic students in the class of 2012 passed the Exit Exam, compared with 84 percent and 86 percent, respectively, six years ago.
About 98 percent of white and Asian students passed this year, about two percentage points higher than in 2006.

San Francisco school officials touted gains among their 10th graders taking the exam for the first time. In 2012, 70 percent of sophomores passed the test, up from 68 percent the previous year.
"This exam is one important indicator of whether or not our high school sophomores are on track for graduation," Superintendent Richard Carranza said in a statement.

Overall, 94 percent of San Francisco seniors passed the exam by graduation day.
A few city high schools posted impressive gains.

At Wallenberg, 85 percent of 10th graders passed in 2012, up from 65 percent four years ago.
The school offers counseling, a wellness center and academic after-school programs as well as a freshman Plan Ahead course to help them prepare for college and career, said Principal Cheryl Foster.

"In short, our whole school community is focused on making certain that every student, including those traditionally left out, has the skills and support to be successful in the classroom and in life," she said.

Results online

To see school, district and state results from the 2012 California High School Exit Exam, go to cde.ca.gov.




Original source here

Early Learning Could Protect Cognitive Control: Study

Early experiences not only shape adult lives, but they might also protect against future cognitive problems resulting from brain damage, according to neurobiologists studying the mental abilities of rats with brain lesions. Typically, these lesions impair a rat's ability to focus and filter out distractions. But scientists now have evidence that an early behavioral intervention could prevent this effect.

Researchers at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, and New York University have demonstrated how just teaching young rats to focus on relevant cues could protect against cognitive decline related to their brain injuries. The finding appears August 22 in Neuron

"We never imagined you could do something for these animals that could essentially compensate for a major developmental defect," says neuroscientist Daniel Weinberger at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development at Johns Hopkins University. Weinberger, who is unaffiliated with the study, calls this work a totally novel approach and discovery.

In a healthy brain, cognitive control allows an individual to devote resources toward a specific object and tune in to only the correct cues. This is what, for example, allows you to pay attention when your boss is talking to you despite the appearance of five new e-mails in your inbox and a ringing telephone. This control deteriorates, however, as a consequence of certain brain injuries and in certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

For this study, researchers induced a brain injury in rats by injecting seven-day old pups with neuron-killing acid. Specifically, they targeted a region of the brain called the ventral hippocampus. The hippocampus is a region implicated in memory; it also neighbors the brain's cognitive command center, the prefrontal cortex. Rats that receive this injection possess normal cognitive functioning in their youth and adolescence, but as they enter adulthood, they show sharp cognitive and behavioral changes. These changes occur because as the brain continues to develop, the injury's damage is amplified.

The scientists first compared the cognitive control of healthy adult rats with those that had brain lesions. They placed rats on a rotating arena. Rats had to attend to cues in the room to orient themselves and avoid a region of the arena that would send a mild electric shock to their feet. As expected, adult rats with normal brains learned to avoid getting zapped much more quickly than those with lesions.

After demonstrating the normal cognitive deficits in these rats, the researchers added an additional level of comparison. They trained a group of adolescent rats--some with and some without lesions--to attend to relevant stimuli in a rotating arena. As adults, the trained rats were compared with damaged- and normal-brain rats that had received no training. Researchers placed these rats in a new study environment: a T-shape maze in which certain branches of the maze would be electrified. As in the previous experiment, untrained lesioned animals struggled to avoid the electrified areas. Brain-damaged rats with training, however, performed at the same level as healthy rodents. These adults had retained cognitive control even after maturation.

In addition, the researchers examined the rats' brain activity using electrodes. The scientists found that untrained lesioned individuals display low synchrony, meaning neurons fired in an uncoordinated manner, in the brain's inter-hippocampal region. But the trained rats--with or without lesions--displayed very similar, synchronous brain activity.

"That was very impressive to me," says neurobiologist and co-author André Fenton at New York University. He adds that the results have optimistic implications for humans as well--presenting how the brain's ability to grow and adapt could overcome an intense biological insult with purely behavioral training.

As the co-authors detail in Neuron, their finding may be particularly encouraging to researchers and psychiatrists who study schizophrenia. In fact, this particular rat model was developed to explore a possible explanation of the disorder's developmental course--in which an early injury to the brain leads to symptoms expressed in maturity.

Duke University psychologist Richard Keefe, who was not involved in this study, explains that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that cognitive deficits in schizophrenia precede and may influence psychotic symptoms. "It is a bold notion that we will eventually prevent schizophrenia by combinations of pharmacological behavioral treatments that will help to 'teach' those at risk to avoid the cognitive processes that lead to psychosis, and how to fortify healthy cognitive processes," Keefe says. In addition, the work of Fenton and his colleagues complements ongoing research in schizophrenia that suggests intervening at the earliest signs--when symptoms such as social withdrawal become apparent--could alter the disorder's course.

Given the nebulous nature of schizophrenia and limitations of a rat model, however, a more immediate implication could be the importance of cognitive training in general. The findings make a case for teaching mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy. "Experience can change outcomes in really profound ways," Fenton says. "It's best not to do nothing with your brain."

Original source here

GCSE results: more students to appeal over 'manipulated' grades

Schools across the country are preparing to order wholesale remarking of test papers following a sudden slump in the proportion of entries marked A* to C - the first annual drop in the exam’s 24-year history.

Most complaints surrounded GCSE English where grade boundaries appear to have been dramatically raised compared with previous assesments.

In one "controlled assesment" task set by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance in January, pupils needed just 54 per cent to gain a C grade. But pupils taking a similar assesment in June needed to secure 66 per cent for the same mark.

C grade boundaries increased in many other AQA English papers and some English assesments set by Edexcel. One C grade pass rate increased from 57 to 67 per cent.

It came amid an overall decline in the number of pupils gaining good grades. Some 63.9 per cent of test papers set this summer were awarded at least a C compared with 65.4 per cent in 2011.

On Thursday, examiners admitted grade boundaries had been changed in some subjects but denied that results had been deliberately depressed in English.

But a Government source suggested that grade boundaries set for the January exams had been too low – resulting in a sudden raising of requirements to counter severe grade inflation.

It was also claimed that a fall in results reflected an increase in the number of pupils sitting tests in the summer – instead of winter – and the introduction of new combined English language and literature GCSE papers for the first time this year.

But the move sparked a storm of protest.

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services, which represents local authority chiefs, called on the Department for Education to launch an official investigation into the drop.

Labour questioned whether Ofqual, the exams regulator, had put pressure on individual exam boards to “shift grade boundaries”.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said the decision to change the grade boundaries was down to individual exam boards.

He said: "You cannot have a situation where exam passes continue rising forever and ever without there being in some subjects at some points grades either falling or steadying or changing - it's just in the nature of things that inevitably there will be alterations."

"That is a result of the independent judgments made by exam boards entirely free from any political pressure and I think that the various chief executives of the exam boards, and indeed the chief executive of the regulator Ofqual, have made it clear today that these decisions have been made because the exam boards and the regulator have sought to ensure this year as every year, that exam results are comparable over time so that we can all have confidence in the examination system."

Conservative-controlled Westminster Council said it “appears the goalposts have been moved for a particular group of children halfway through their two-year exam, which is simply not fair”.

Last night, examiners were preparing for a surge in the number of re-mark demands amid fears a fall in headline grades may lead to pupils missing out on sixth-form college places.

St Aidan's Church of England Academy in Darlington said it expected results to exceed last summer, when 44 per cent of pupils gained five good grades, including English and maths. But on Thursday it emerged that just 34 per cent of students had hit the mark.

Alison Appleyard, the principal, said: "I simply don't believe the English marks are correct. We have asked the examining board to review the situation with all urgency.

"We hope that this will be rectified very soon.”

Results at four out of five schools run by ARK– one of the biggest backers of the Government’s flagship academies programme – were down this year.

Lucy Heller, managing director, said: “While the movement in the GCSE English threshold has hit overall attainment levels in the short term, all our schools are committed to raising the bar higher in this and other subjects.”

It was claimed that around 30 students from St Mary's Catholic High school in Astley, Greater Manchester, received D grades when Cs were predicted.

Janet Parkinson, head of English, said: “They have raised the bar that's needed to get a grade C. They have done it, I think, as a political move and it's very unfortunate for students who are in this year's crop."

Many schools refused to submit grades to The Daily Telegraph’s annual GCSE results because of complaints marks were too low.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “What appears to have happened is that, halfway through the year, it was decided that too many students were going to get a C grade in English and the grade boundaries of the exam were pushed up very substantially.

“It is morally wrong to manipulate exam grades in this way – you are playing with young people’s futures. Failure to gain a C or above in English blocks access to post-16 study and many career paths.”

But an Edexcel spokesman said: "Our changes are comparable to those of other awarding organisations. For English we made changes to grade boundaries in the range of two to 10 marks. This needs to be taken in the context of the fact that Edexcel units have more than double the marks available compared those of other boards.

"We only made changes to three of nine grade boundaries."

An AQA spokeswoman said: "This summer, all the exam boards raised their grade boundaries for GCSE English in order to maintain standards. In AQA's case, this was by between zero and three marks.

"We take account of how students have performed in each exam series when we set grade boundaries, in order to ensure that standards are maintained. While grade boundaries can therefore vary between exam series, students can be confident that the grade they get for an overall qualification one year would be the same the next."

Ziggy Liaquat, managing director of Edexcel, said: "We do understand that students and teachers not getting results they anticipated is unsettling.

"But I think the key point is we base our decisions on the quality of the work that we see in front of us. We use other data points to do this in collaboration with the regulator, so at qualification level, students should be reassured that they've got the grade that their work merits."

Original source here

Australian National University: Student Poverty Highlighted

A REPORT into the cost of living in residential colleges at Australian National University has highlighted the seriousness of student poverty.

The accommodation survey from the ANU Interhall Council of Presidents found that at half the residents in four ANU colleges reported having disposable income of $50 a week and that 76 per cent were living below the poverty line. The average weekly accommodation cost is around $175 a week, said Will Gort, council president. Students on Youth Allowance receive $237 a week and some are eligible for rental assistance.


Students are now calling on the ANU to increase investment in on-campus accommodation, saying they should not have to shoulder financial burdens that are not their fault.


While the council reported that 67 per cent of residents are receiving financial assistance from family or a spouse, it also raised concerns about the workloads of self-supporting students. It said 25 per cent of survey respondents worked for 21 hours or longer per week, with 12 per cent reported working more than 31 hours, an amount it said was ''sure to be affecting grades''.

Sri Lanka shuts universities

The University of Colombo is among institutions closed by the
 Sri Lankan government until futher notice. 

UNIVERSITIES in Sri Lanka have been closed until further notice, with the Minister of Higher Education accusing a union of trying to create a political crisis to topple the government.

University staff have been on strike since early July over issues including pay and sector funding.

The government's official website announced the closure 21 universities and educational institutes, but exempted  faculties of medicine and those not involved in the strike.

Minister S.B. Dissanayake took the decision  after talks with vice-chancellors and directors of universities and academics who were not involved in the Federation of University Teachers Associations trade union action.

The BBC reported that a FUTA official dismissed the accusation it wanted  regime change as "frivolous''. "You need to understand, Futa [the union] includes academics from all political parties,'' he said. "This is a national struggle.''


Mr Dissanayake said the government had agreed in principle to five of the six demands from the FUTA with the exception being a demand for a 20 per cent salary increase, but the FUTA said this wasn't true.

The minister also said that in the past year, government had  given a total salary increase from 36 per cent to 83 per cent through various allowances and payments.

The government had also proposed to appoint a special Presidential Commission on Higher Education and to establish a Post Graduate University in the future.

Asianews.it reported that the FUTA called the decision to close the universities "stupid and unjust'' and said it would lead to the destruction of the country's educational sector. It announced a mass demonstration in opposition to the closures overnight Thursday in Colombo.

The BBC also reported the FUTA had "denounced government plans to partially privatise a tertiary education system that has always been state-funded and free.

The Australian

Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly, #1) by Susan Dennard

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

CHINESE PARENTS SAY NO TO COMMERCIALIZED STUDY TOURS

Overseas study tours for school students, often costing thousands of dollars, have recently attracted controversy amongst Chinese parents in light of a number of surprising incidents.

A photo of a group of primary school children outside a shopping center near New York, Woodbury Info Center, created a storm online as it was discovered that the teachers had been shopping and the students were on the curb eating hamburgers.

There was another incident where parents found out that their children at a renowned primary school in Beijing had a 10 day study tour to the United States, costing 30,000 yuan ($4,720), which included a trip to Las Vegas. The teachers defended themselves by stating that the casinos at Las Vegas had services for children as well.

In a recent survey that involved over 1000 internet users and was conducted by the online media Chinese company Sina, 49 percent of participants are opposed to allowing their children to go on study tours as they believe that tours have become too commercialized; 42 percent think that children learn little from overseas study tours and 24 percent find the cost to be too high.

Despite this, there are parents who view the tours are useful opportunities to provide their children with educational benefits. Zhou Li, a mother of a 14 year old student, believes that a study tour assists her son in making a better decision for college. Zhou, along with her husband, has been employed in Beijing for 15 years, but does not possess hukou (a permanent resident permit).Their son will be required to sit the college entrance exam in Zhejiang province, their hometown, which has a higher admission score than Beijing.

"My son will not be able to attend a well-known college if he takes the exam in Zhejiang, so the only option is to send him overseas." Zhou sent her son on a study tour to the US in July. "You need about 1.5 million yuan to provide for your child to study overseas. So what does it matter to spend an additional 39,000 yuan to help him make the right decision?" Zhou said.

Wang Mingxia, a mother of an 18-year-old student living in the Hainan province, said that the study tour changed her son's mind about his dream university. When her son was 5 years old, Wang told him the story of the beginning of Stanford University: how the son of Leeland Standford has died of typhoid fever in the year 1884, and the Stanfords had come to decide that, as they were not able to do anything for their own child anymore, they would adopt California's children as their children, and so they started the university.

"When my son learned about this story, his dream was to go to Stanford," Wang said. Her son went on a study tour to the US. Following his stay in Boston for 10 days, he reconsidered his choice of college.

"Boston has many fantastic universities, and my son likes the Atlantic coast very much as well as the culture, and so he changed his dream college," Wang said.

"If parents and students focus more closely on the reasons for the trip prior to their children leaving, they may gain more benefits from the study tour," said Zhou Xiaolan, who is managing the New Oriental Education's overseas study tour marketing department.

(Source: Tourism-review)

The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a 2012 fantasy drama film directed by Peter Hedges and released by Walt Disney Pictures on August 15, 2012. Based on a concept by Ahmet Zappa, the film is about a magical pre-adolescent boy whose personality and naivete have profound effects on the people in his town. It received mixed reviews from critics and had modest ticket sales in its debut weekend.

Plot: The movie begins in an adoption center where Cindy and Jim Green are trying to adopt a child. When they put "Timothy" on the line about how they'd be good parents, they explain.

Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim Green (Joel Edgerton), a couple residing in Stanleyville, are told they are unable to conceive, so they dream up their ideal child and write the child's characteristics and life events on pieces of paper. The Greens place the notes inside a box and bury it in their backyard. After a stormy night, a ten-year-old arrives at their home, claiming the Greens as his parents. Soon they realize that the boy, named Timothy (CJ Adams), is actually a culmination of all their wishes of what their child would be. Timothy continues to be the ideal child - not perfect, but ideal in ways that matter - changing the hearts of those who are most important to him. But Timothy is unusual; leaves grow from his legs. And when they fall off completely, Timothy must leave as well.

Ralph Lauren to buy back up to $500M in shares

NEW YORK (AP) — Clothing and housewares maker Ralph Lauren Corp. said Thursday it will add $500 million in shares to its buyback program.

That's in addition to the $277 million still available at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2013 as part of a previously authorized share repurchase program for a total of $777 million.

When companies buy back stock, it tends to increase the value of remaining shares.

The news follows Ralph Lauren's second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.

Ralph Lauren Corp. said Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter net income rose 5 percent, but the company forecast a revenue decline in the current quarter and sounded a note of caution about the weak global economy hurting consumer spending.

Shares fell $2.92 to close at $148.43 on Thursday. They rose 89 cents to $149.32 after hours following the announcement.

Space Agency Makes Big Discovery In Own Backyard

The 12-inch-wide footprint belonged to an armored, tank-like
 plant-eater.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, some of the most brilliant minds in the world work to build the spacecraft that humans use to explore their universe. But where space scientists now roam, dinosaurs used to call home, according to dino-hunter Ray Stanford.

Stanford has discovered the footprint of a lumbering, spiny dinosaur called a nodosaur in NASA's own backyard on the Goddard Space Flight Center campus. NASA officials aren't disclosing the precise location of the print, fearing that someone might damage or try to remove the fossilized track.

The dinner-plate-sized footprint bears the mark of four dino toes. It belongs to a nodosaur, a tank-like, armored beast studded with bony protuberances that roamed the area about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 125 million to 65 million years ago. Nodosaurs were plant-eaters, and this one appeared to be moving quickly across the Cretaceous mud, as its heel did not sink deeply into the ground.

Stanford also found several smaller dinosaur footprints in the area, likely from meat-eating theropods. He called the location "poetic."

"Space scientists may walk along here, and they're walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy-armored dinosaur walked, maybe 110 to 112-million years ago," Stanford told Goddard officials.

Artist's conception of Edmontonia, a genus of Nodosaur.

Maryland is no spring chicken when it comes to dinosaur fossils; in fact, the corridor between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., is known as "Dinosaur Alley," because so many of the beasts' fossils were discovered during iron mining in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Stanford's partner David Weishampel, a Johns Hopkins University dinosaur expert.

 "Today, Maryland remains the only source of Early Cretaceous dinosaur fossils on the East Coast," he wrote in a 1996 article for Johns Hopkins University magazine.

Headline Aug24,2012/"The Pyramids Of Sand!"

"THE PYRAMIDS OF SAND!"

This abstraction called, Hell, I am just so sure, is a Software environment, as that is where I have been residing since long! So, as I stop to reflect and to write this post, one stark reality dawn on me that "All of Education has become more and more Theatrical! A visible and a great accomplishment would be to make Education one hell of a lot of fun! Only and only then will the World truly even out!! Do stop and figure out this word. even out? I for one, found no fun in writing a genetic algorithm in C and C++. But then to my good fortune, Will Durant, pulled me out of my psychological funk, "Education is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance!" So very true! Thank you, Sir!

Strong, and vital and happy as he appears, he often speaks these days with the voice of a man who feels his own death. It is a voice made more credible by his ageing, the snowy hair, the thinner face and frame, the lines in his cheeks and brow, the scar that runs the length of his chest.

In his splendid service to humanity, that gets repeated in Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, the African leaders tend to treat him as if he were still the world's most powerful Head of State.

He is , after all, perhaps the most famous person on earth, an emissary from a rich country that they love and sometimes hate, and in Africa, they seem to regard Clinton as still being the leader of the part of America that is more agreeable to them. The Presidents stand proudly next to him, as if his presence reflects their own legitimacy. And they listen when he urges them to help remove the stigma from their HIV infected citizens, to expand health services to rural areas, and to cooperate with the United Nations, Western governments, and non-governmental organisations.

But at Kigali , the capital of Rwanda, he solemnly laid a wreath on the mass tomb that commemorates the eight hundred thousand victims of the genocide that Clinton did nothing to stop. He has profusely apologised for that failure before, but it may not be possible to apologize enough. At luncheon in his honour, he held forth while Rawanda's President Paul Kagame sat opposite and listened.

Then the room went quiet. Clinton realized that Kagame wanted to speak. Kagame finally spoke, "You are welcome in our country anytime." Bill Clinton smiled a warm gratified look as it had gotten something that he had wanted just so very much.

To a fair world, which sadly and tragically it is not, this great work of President Bill Clinton should be nothing short of Renaissance. This honour is not about death of faith but about the triumph of humanity. And History must record, and you all must remember, that the Students of the world were the first and foremost to bring the world together! Just look at our fluttering flags!

Good night and God bless.

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Avril Lavigne, Chad Kroeger engaged to marry

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Canadian rockers Avril Lavigne and Nickleback frontman Chad Kroeger are engaged to be married, Lavigne's spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday as news of the impending nuptials spread online.

People.com reported that Kroeger, 37, proposed to Lavigne, 27, on August 8 with a 14-carat diamond ring. The couple fell for each other while working together on Lavigne's fifth studio album. No wedding date has yet been set.

Earlier this week, the Grammy-nominated Lavigne tweeted that she had wrapped her album and Tuesday, she began retweeting congratulatory messages on Twitter regarding her engagement to Kroeger.

Lavigne is known for such hits as "Complicated" and "I'm With You." The power ballad heavy-Nickelback, also Grammy nominated, is known for songs like "Photograph," "Gotta Be Somebody" and "If Everyone Cared."

Lavigne was previously married to Deryck Whibley from rock band Sum 41 from 2006 to 2010.

Why Do So Many Politicians Have Daddy Issues?

Paul Ryan’s dad died at a young age. He is in good company. Political leaders often have absent, alcoholic, neglectful fathers, or fathers who died too young.

Paul Ryan, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Regan, and Gerald Ford

We've heard a lot about the death of Paul Ryan's father: He had a fatal heart attack when the future GOP vice presidential candidate was only 16. Biographical sketches cite the event as a formative early trauma that helped turn Ryan into a "man in a hurry." With the Republican National Convention days away, we will soon hear Ryan’s origin story—and the role his father’s death played in it—repeated and echoed many more times. The strange thing, though, is that Paul Ryan is hardly alone—American politics is overflowing with stories of absent fathers, alcoholic fathers, neglectful fathers, and untimely deceased ones. Indeed, one of the more interesting questions raised by Ryan's biography is: Why do so many of our politicians have daddy issues?

The list is surprisingly long. Take Ronald Reagan, who was haunted by a moment when he discovered his alcoholic father on the front porch "drunk, dead to the world," his hair filled with snow. The 11-year-old Reagan had to drag him indoors. Or Bill Clinton, whose biological father drowned in a car crash, and who remembered standing up to his alcoholic stepfather and demanding that he never beat Clinton's mother again. Gerald Ford's father, an alcoholic, was found guilty of extreme cruelty to his family, and refused to pay child support when Ford's mother left him. George W. Bush's relationship with his father was less lurid, but infamously resentful: He spent his entire life, including his presidency, careening between attempts to live up to H.W.'s impossible expectations and efforts to garishly repudiate them. And it hardly bears recounting that President Obama built his political persona around a search for his absent dad.

This isn't just cherry-picking either. It's a representative window into the emotional makeup of our political class. While there are few academic studies on the subject of political daddy issues, the ones that do exist suggest an outsized percentage of prominent politicians have absent or dysfunctional fathers. The most methodologically credible of these is actually a British study called The Fiery Chariot: A Study of British Prime Ministers and the Search for Love, which found that, in the words of a peer reviewer, "the rate of bereavement amongst prime ministers was exceptionally high," somewhere around half of all British prime ministers. That was much higher than the estimated rate for the population as a whole, and the bereavement rates for Cabinet members also ran consistently higher than the general public. What could be going on here? Is this simply politics imitating Shakespeare, or is there some causal reason that so many people with father issues make it to the upper reaches of public office?

One possibility is that kids who are immersed in traumatic personal environments early in life become hypersensitive to the feelings of those around them and develop coping mechanisms that also make them better politicians. Quoting psychology literature, the best biography of Reagan notes that children of alcoholics become perceptive enough that they can "walk into a room, and without even consciously realizing it, figure out just what the level of tension is, who is fighting with whom, and whether it is safe or dangerous." The same instinct may have fed Reagan's desire to comfort the nation on the model of FDR's fireside chats. Bush on the Couch, a psychoanalysis of the 43rd president, traces George W.'s folksy jester behavior to the period right after his sister Robin died, when he felt it was his responsibility to keep his family cheerful.

Another explanation may be that dysfunctional fatherhood forces children to take on an early leadership role. Bill Clinton was characteristically explicit about this dynamic, musing that in the process of standing up to Roger Clinton, their roles seemed to reverse and "I was the father." David Maraniss' biography of Clinton notes that the children of alcoholics often assume a role known as the "Family Hero," who takes on adult responsibilities and becomes “a vessel of ambition and the repository of hope" for the family by excelling in the outside world. Moreover, one academic study suggests, "a boy whose father has died forms a grandiose idea of him; and, he calls strongly upon himself to replace the parent who has been thus idealized." President Obama openly discusses this type of motivation in Dreams From My Father; and Obama on the Couch, the sequel to the Bush psychoanalysis, ascribes Obama's academic drive to a feeling that he was a vessel for his father's wasted potential and his mother's hopes and ambitions.

Of course, there is the hunger for attention and the gaping psychological need to be loved. It's often been observed that electoral politics is so demanding and unpleasant that no normal person would endure the indignities required to become a successful politician. In that sense, anyone who is willing to fundraise, glad-hand, and defend their smallest gaffes for months must derive some additional psychological benefit from politicking. Many of the people willing to keep going must be, in some sense, broken inside and driven to salve their emotional pain by courting the adulation of voters.

In any case, the phenomenon is real, and it can most likely be explained by a combination of all three of these hypotheses. So what does all this tell us about Paul Ryan? According to Justin A. Frank, the psychologist who wrote the Bush and Obama on the Couch books, the death seems to have prodded Ryan to become more determined, self-reliant, and industrious. "When there's a sudden death like that, [children] can become extremely, very responsible. They step up to the plate," says Frank. According to Frank, Ryan also exhibits an “anti-gratitude” that is very common in some of these children, especially Republicans. “The anti-gratitude has to do with an unconscious hatred of the part of the self that needs other people,” says Frank. “Somehow you degrade unconsciously the part of you that needs help, and then you project that onto other people and say they don't need help." While Ryan benefited from his large family and government support, Frank says Ryan’s reaction recalls George W. Bush's feeling that nobody helped him get through the death of his sister.

More concretely, this analysis suggests that Ryan's experience mirrors that of a great many other politicians. His story is moving, but similar tales can be found throughout Congress, the executive branch, and the history books. And it's worth noting that, compared with the violent traumas experienced by many of our presidents, the death of Ryan's father was relatively peaceful, and probably left fewer psychological scars than the toxic childhoods of Clinton or Ford. Indeed, Ryan's daddy issues seem to play a comparatively smaller role in his biography than those of many presidents. Given the destructive power with which some of those psychodramas may have played out in the White House, that is probably a good thing.

Slate

Universidad de Chile students overwhelmingly vote to support Occupation

The Universidad de Chile main campus in the middle of last year’s protests.
 Photo courtesy of Osmar Valdebenito/Flickr.

The Student Federation of the Universidad de Chile (FECH) voted Tuesday night to support the occupation of the university’s main campus in downtown Santiago, which has been occupied by a small group of students since Friday.


“With a quorum of 89 percent of university departments and 74 percent approval, the occupation of the main campus has been ratified,” FECH President Gabriel Boric said via Twitter. Only 2 percent voted against, according to FECH.

The vote comes at a critical time for Chile’s student movement. While high school students have been occupying schools throughout Santiago for the past two weeks, the occupation of the Universidad de Chile, however, holds special significance as the first university to host an officially-sanctioned occupation, or “toma.”

Universidad de Chile was also the symbolic center of last year’s so-called “Chilean Winter,” during which it was occupied for six straight months.  Boric speculated that the FECH vote may kickstart a new wave of protests.

“Today [Universidad de] Chile, tomorrow all the other universities,” Boric said.

Noam Tittleman, president of the student federation at Chile's Universidad Católica (FEUC), told La Tercera that "the toma of the main campus of U. de Chile signifies a matter of discussion in other institutions," including his own.

The Confederation of Chilean Students (Confech), an organization that unites student federations from universities across the country, plans to meet on Saturday in Iquique, over 1,000 miles north of Santiago, to determine a direction for the broader student movement. Boric added that Confech would also be participating in future protests organized by high school student organizations, who have scheduled a march for Thursday morning.

Confech will also sponsor a "Cycle-a-thon for Education" at 8 p.m. Wednesday night, starting in Santiago's Parque Bustamente.

By David Pedigo - The Santiago Times

Boxing champ Johnny Tapia died of heart disease

Johnny Tapia

(Reuters) - Five-time World Boxing Champion Johnny Tapia died of heart disease exacerbated by prescription drugs, an autopsy report released on Wednesday concluded.

The 45-year-old boxer, who was found dead at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 27, died as a result of complications from hypertensive heart disease. Prescription drugs were a contributing factor, the autopsy report said. The cause of death was an accident.

Tapia's wife first released the results on Wednesday, saying her husband died of heart disease and had no illegal drugs in his system.

He rose to prominence in the late 1980s, and eventually won five world boxing championships in three weight classes: super flyweight, bantamweight, and featherweight.

His final professional boxing record was 59 wins, five losses, and two draws. Thirty of his wins were knock-outs.

In 2007 he planned a comeback bout against Ilido Julio dubbed "The Final Fury." A month later he was found unconscious of a cocaine overdose and was eventually taken into custody for violating his parole stemming from a prior cocaine offense.

Tapia was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father was murdered when his mother was pregnant with him, and his mother was later brutally murdered when he was 8 years old.

Chelsea 4 - 2 Reading

Chelsea avoided a major upset as they came from behind to overcome a brave Reading at Stamford Bridge.

A Frank Lampard penalty put the home side ahead before Pavel Pogrebnyak's steered header levelled matters.

Blues keeper Petr Cech fumbled a Danny Guthrie free-kick into his own net to gift Reading a shock lead.

Gary Cahill's shot hauled Chelsea level and, after Fernando Torres tapped in when he appeared offside, Branislav Ivanovic got a fourth for the Blues.

In such an enthralling and absorbing game, it was a shame that what appears to be a mistake by the linesman for Torres's goal played such a crucial role in the eventual result, and undid so much of Reading's good work.

The Royals were on the verge of a famous upset against the European champions for much of the game and, while there was an element of fortune for Chelsea, they will see it as reward for their pressure and perseverance.

-  BBC.co.uk

Usain Bolt not expecting to break 200m record in Diamond League

Usain Bolt says he will not try to break the 200m world record at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne.
The six-time Olympic champion heads a field of 19 London 2012 gold medallists at the Pontaise Stadium on Thursday.
Bolt will race against compatriots Warren Weir, Jason Young and Nickel Ashmeade and the USA's Wallace Spearmon in the 200m.

"I am not worried about world records right now - I am just trying to get through the season," said the Jamaican.
Bolt is the current 200m world record holder, with a time of 19.19 seconds in the 2009 World Championship final in Berlin, but he does not expect to come close to that mark in Lausanne.
"It can be one of those tracks (to break world records), in great shape and in great weather," he said. "But I'm just trying to end this season injury-free, because it has been a stressful season for me.
"I am just trying to get through these last three races."
Triple Olympic medallist Yohan Blake takes on the USA's Tyson Gay, who finished fourth in the Olympic 100m final, and Ryan Bailey in the 100m in Lausanne.
Olympic 100m bronze medallist Justin Gatlin was also due to compete in Lausanne but withdrew on Wednesday with a stomach problem.
A total of 52 medallists from London 2012 have been entered for the 11th leg of the Diamond League.

Older dads linked to rise in mental illness

A genetic study has added to evidence that the increase in some mental disorders may be due to men having children later in life.

An Icelandic company found the number of genetic mutations in children was directly related to the age of their father when they were conceived.

One prominent researcher suggested young men should consider freezing their sperm if they wanted to have a family in later life.

The research is published in Nature.

According to Dr Kari Stefansson, of Decode Genetics, who led the research, the results show it is the age of men, rather than women, that is likely to have an effect on the health of the child.



"Society has been very focused on the age of the mother. But apart from [Down's Syndrome] it seems that disorders such as schizophrenia and autism are influenced by the age of the father and not the mother".

Male driven

Dr Stefansson's team sequenced the DNA of 78 parents and their children.

This revealed a direct correlation between the number of mutations or slight alterations to the DNA, of the child and the age of their father.

The results indicate that a father aged 20 passes, on average, approximately 25 mutations, while a 40-year-old father passes on about 65. The study suggests that for every year a man delays fatherhood, they risk passing two more mutations on to their child.

What this means in terms of the impact on the health of the child is unclear. But it does back studies that also show fathers are responsible for mutations and that these mutations increase with age.

And, for the first time, these results have been quantified and they show that 97% of all mutations passed on to children are from older fathers.

The reason that men rather than women drive the mutation rate is that women are born with all their eggs whereas men produce new sperm throughout their adult life. It is during sperm production that genetic errors creep in, especially as men get older.

The findings should not alarm older fathers. The occurrence of many of these disorders in the population is very low and so the possible doubling in risk by having a child later in life will still be a very low risk.


Dr Stefansson, however, told BBC News that from a long-term perspective the decision by some men to have children later in life might well be speeding up the evolution of our species.

"The high rate of mutations is dangerous for the next generation but is generating diversity from which nature can select and further refine this product we call man," he said.

"So what is bad for the next generation may be good for our species in general."

- BBC.co.uk

Qantas reports $256m loss and cancels plane orders

Australian airline Qantas has reported its first annual loss since it was privatised in 1995, amid high fuel costs and growing losses at its international operations.

The firm made a net loss of 244m Australian dollars ($256m; £161m) for the year to 30 June.

This compares with a net profit of A$250m in the previous year.

Qantas also cancelled orders for 35 Boeing Dreamliner jets worth $8.5bn due to "lower growth requirements".

Alan Joyce, chief executive of Qantas, said growth was expected to be slow due to the uncertain global economic environment especially in Britain, Europe and the United States.

The biggest impact on Qantas' earnings came from the growing losses at its international operations, which reported a net loss of A$450m.


Qantas has also lost passengers to rival carriers, reducing its share of the international market.

"Our biggest challenge is Qantas International," Mr Joyce said.

The firm has already taken measures to try to turn around the fortunes of the unit, including cancelling services on loss-making routes and streamlining some of its maintenance operations.

The restructuring plan is also expected to result in 2,800 job cuts.

Rising fuel costs also made a big dent in its balance sheet. The firm said its fuel costs had soared to a record A$4.3bn during the period, an increase of A$645m from a year earlier.

One in six young people not in education

One in six 16 to 24-year-olds in England were not in education, employment or training at the end of June this year, new figures show.

This was a small drop (0.2 percentage points) on the same time last year to 16%.

With 968,000 young people out of education and employment or Neet, it is the second highest June rate for more than a decade.

The data also shows a small rise in 16 to 18-year-old Neets.

Some 10.3% of this age group were recorded as Neet, compared to 9.8% in the same month of 2011.

Official statistics on 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training are published quarterly by the Department for Education.

'Wasted talents'

They follow a seasonal pattern reflecting the academic year, with lower rates in the autumn followed by a gradual rise in spring and early summer to a peak in late summer.

The Neet rate reached a record high in third quarter of 2011, with 1,163,000 young people aged 16 to 24 out of education or work.

A government spokeswoman said that the number of "Neets" was still too high, adding it was spending a record £7.5bn on education and training for 16-to-19-year-olds.

"As part of the Youth Contract, we are spending £126 million over the next three years on extra targeted support for the 55,000 16- and 17-year-olds most in need of education and training," she said.

"Our education reforms will create a world-class education system that will equip young people properly for both higher education and skilled, sustainable employment."

Shadow education minister Karen Buck said the figures showed a jump of 100,000 young people not in education, employment or training since the 2010 General Election and that the government was allowing the talents of too many young people to go to waste.

"Now more than ever, we need to ensure our young people have the right skills, experience and opportunities to progress in education or the workplace.

"But the prolonged double-dip recession and the lack of support to help young people stay in education, or find work and training, is making that impossible," she added.


Original source here

Karen Klein Puts $75,000 Toward Anti-Bullying Foundation

After a viral video of her being antagonized by a group of middle schoolers sparked an outpouring of support from more than 32,000 online strangers, Karen Klein is using some of the $700,000 in donations to launch an anti-bullying foundation, KSDK reports.

She told WROC she plans to put $75,000 toward the Karen Klein Anti-Bullying Foundation

“We’re hoping to get other people to put money in it, and this is going to be for education for people that have been bullied, for people that just — for people that need it for this situation,” she said.

Klein threw out the first pitch Sunday at the “Strike Out Bullying Ball Game” at Frontier Field in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y. She was there on behalf of the minor league Rochester Red Wings, who are partnering with local organizations to teach fans about the dangers of bullying.

According to KSDK, the details of Klein’s foundation have yet to be finalized, but the 68-year-old now-retired bus monitor is planning to make a formal announcement at the end of the month.

In the meantime, WROC reports that Klein and her family are headed to Disneyland Friday.

Klein has previously indicated she would donate some of her money to charities, including those that support Down syndrome research, as one of her eight grandchildren has the chromosomal disorder.

Original source here

The virtual world just gets more Pinteresting

From fashionable clothes, to scrumptious desserts; from the trendiest gadgets to the coolest cars; from amazing toys to elegant home decors, all these and more interesting items are on Pinterest's website.

No, it's not a new online store but the latest social networking site creating waves right now. The two-year-old website is currently the third largest social network in the US according to data intelligence firm Experian Hitwise.

Since its inclusion in Time Magazine's "50 Best Websites of 2011," Pinterest has started spreading like wildfire in social media space.

The social photo-sharing site allows its users to "pin" photos of their interests to a "board". Pins are images or any media content uploaded on Pinterest. Users can pin or upload photos from their computers or the internet, "like" or "comment" on pins uploaded by other members or "repin" (which is the equivalent of retweet in Twitter, and share in Facebook) photos from other user's pinboards. The whole process is the same with the other social networking sites, only Pinterest's founder and CEO Ben Silbermann thinks that the site is a means for people to continue or start their collections online. Pinterest is also being used to plan weddings, decorate homes, and organize favorite recipes.

Founder and CEO Ben Silbermann said in an interview that a collection says a lot about the collector. Pinboards, in a sense, can be viewed as sets of people's collections online. Through the things that people upload on their boards, we get an idea as to the kind of person behind them.A 

THOUSAND WORDS

"(Pinterest) allows users to say a lot using pictures," says PUP student Anabelle Alcomendas. She has been using Pinterest for a little over a month but is already hooked, spending at least two hours in the social networking site. Alcomendas thinks that part of Pinterest's success lies on its visual nature. "People are generally drawn towards images," she adds.

Alcomendas says the social networking site is also a search engine where people can "find resources related to their needs through the links attached to the images" posted on the website.

Meanwhile, Manuel Garcia of Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) maximizes his blog's social media presence through Pinterest.

"I use Pinterest in driving traffic to my blog. The total amount of traffic that Pinterest can bring to a blog is more than the combination of Google+, LinkedIn and Youtube," says Garcia.

Pinterest has over 20 million users, and with 2012 US Presidentiables' wives Ann Romney and Michelle Obama joining the site in March and June respectively, the figures are expected to grow more.



Original source here

South Africa: Our Youth Must Stop Protesting and Start Studying Says Top Businessman

With violent and sometimes fatal protests becoming a weekly occurrence, young South Africans have been urged to stay away from toyi-toying and focus on their education.

They have also been challenged to free themselves from "apartheid victim mentality" if the nation is to progress, said Sipho Nkosi, chief executive of JSE-listed diversified mining group Exxaro, last Friday while addressing learners in Nyanga township - a site of recent violent protests.

Nkosi warned that black South Africans remained "trapped in protest politics" and if they do not unshackle themselves by taking education seriously, particularly Maths and Sciences, "this country is doomed".

Nkosi was addressing learners at Oscar Mpeta High School in Nyanga at the launch of a High Schools and Communities (HSC) Maths and Science Mentorship Programme pioneered to initially benefit two other schools, Inkwenkwezi Secondary School in Du Noon and Elsies River High School.

Nkosi told the youngsters that "for South Africa to move forward, we have to compete with the world...don't waste time protesting".

"South Africans are trapped in protest politics. We protest all the time instead of focusing on things that can change our lives. The apartheid victim mentality should stop."

He advised the learners to focus on studying Maths and Science in order to tap into vast opportunities in the mining sector.

He said during the apartheid era he did not get the chance to study those subjects but had to force his way into studying them at the University of Zululand.

Nkosi warned learners not to "cut corners" and fall in to the trap of living "bling-bling" lives sustained through borrowed money or government tenders.

The students s had a chance to also learn about Maths and Science career opportunities at the South African Maritime Security Agency and as well as in the petroleum industry.

Many of the learners who spoke to West Cape News following the event said they were inspired by Nkosi' address and it would help them shape their careers.

Though she planned to pursue studies in accounting rather than sciences, Khanya Nyati, in grade nine, said she had learnt from Nkosi's address that "science is easy and cool".

Fellow grade 12 student Simphiwe Zweni, 17, said he planned to follow a career in robotics.

"I'm inspired by people like Nkosi. They went through a lot. I learnt that you can still study even if you don't have money," he said.

Founder of lifestyle company Century Wellness Lihle Nkosi, who started the mentorship programme, told the youngsters that they were the ones who could transform their communities.

She said she planned to expand her programme into several schools in the province as well as and the Northern Cape, including rural areas.

She said she would be offering some of the learners bursaries to study Maths and Sciences further.

Original source here

Indonesia Gets Unesco Literacy Prize

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has awarded Indonesia for its fight against illiteracy, the UN agency said in a statement obtained here on Wednesday.

The country’s directorate general for community education development was the top winner for the Unesco King Sejong Literacy Prize this year.

“This program [in Indonesia], aimed at enhancing education quality and eradicating illiteracy through entrepreneurship, reading, culture and training, is involving more than three million people and specifically prioritizing illiterate women,” an official Unesco statement said.

Unesco also awarded prizes to Bhutan, Colombia and Rwanda for their efforts to improve literacy.

The winners will officially receive their awards during a ceremony at Unesco headquarters in Paris on Sept. 6, as part of International Literacy Day celebrations, the agency’s director general, Irina Bokova, said on Tuesday.

Rwanda received the second King Sejong Prize for an adult national literacy program of the Pentecostal church. The program, which focuses on women and teenage dropouts, has reached 100,000 people through 3,500 education centers.

Bhutan’s department for adult and higher education took the Confucius Prize for Literacy for providing community education through 950 education centers.

In Columbia, the Transformemos Foundation took second place in the Confucius Prize for its interactive programs fighting illiteracy in conflict areas. The program has reached 300,000 people since 2006.

The King Sejong Prize has been presented by the South Korean government since 1989 while the Confucius Prize has been presented by the Chinese government since 2005.

The winners of the Unesco Prizes each receive $20,000, along with a diploma and a medal.

Original source here