A newly-coined Japanese verb – ‘to Obama’ – which means to persevere with optimism, ignoring all obstacles. Writing on his blog, Ampontan, Bill Sakovich revealed that a new word – Obamu – is catching on among Japan’s youth. Sakovich credited the Japanese Teachers’ Network in Kitakyushu for the following definition: Obamu: (v.) To ignore inexpedient and inconvenient facts or realities, think ‘Yes we can, Yes we can,’ and proceed with optimism using those facts as an inspiration (literally, as fuel). It is used to elicit success in a personal endeavor. One explanation holds that it is the opposite of kobamu. (æâ¹âãââ¬, which means to refuse, reject, or oppose). Sakovich continued: One more Japanese-language citation is from a Twitter tweet, which defines it simply as believing you can accomplish something. ¦ It remains to be seen whether this word is capable of hitoriaruki (literally, walking alone, or becoming independently viable), and whether the tweety Pollyanna definition or the more pointed Kitakyushu definition become the standard. But considering the nature of the Internet and the Japanese love of wordplay and new coinages, it shouldn’t be long before we find out.
President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that his administration plans to spend $3.4 billion on producing a safer, more efficient electrical grid. Obama underscored the need to find clean forms of energy by making his announcement at a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla. This government infusion of funds — part of the $878 billion stimulus package approved by Congress earlier in the year — represents the largest modernization in the nation’s electrical infrastructure. The $3.4 billion in federal money will be matched by contributions from private companies, resulting in a total grid-improvement package estimated to be about $8 billion. Of the federal money, about $1 billion will be directed at helping consumers use less energy or use energy more wisely. This could mean subsidies for buying more efficient appliances or incentives for using electricity at different times of the day. About $2 billion will be targeted at making the outlying components of the grid more reliable. This requires the deployment of more sensors and automatic turn-off mechanisms that operate during emergencies. About $400 million will be invested in streamlining the bulk movement of power across high-voltage power lines. A better effort will be made to integrate renewable […]
For as long as anyone can remember, McLennan County has been abstinence country. Nestled in the heart of Bible-Belt Texas, it’s the kind of place where the local newspaper prints ‘In God We Trust’ on the front page of every edition. ‘We’re a very conservative community,’ says Jan Hungate, an assistant superintendent for the West Independent School District. So when the McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Program (MCCAP) came to her a little more than a decade ago, offering an abstinence-only sex education program, she says, ‘It was the answer to our prayers. It was exactly the way we wanted to go.’ For years, each school was responsible for developing their own curriculum. Armed with the federal government’s new abstinence-only grants, MCCAP offered to do the heavy lifting for free. They taught kids proper dating behavior, encouraged female students to think about their wedding days and why their virginity would matter then. In 2006 MCCAP had a $1 million budget, all from government grants, which they used to educate 6,000 to 7,000 students. Today, MCCAP struggles to reach half that number. Its $800,000 Community-Based Abstinence Education grant ran out in 2007 and was not renewed. Then, Obama’s 2010 budget did […]
When Dave Boileau was out on a walk Monday evening near his home in Iqaluit’s Happy Valley, he saw a sign of spring that’s usually reserved for the South: a pair of chubby, red-breasted robins. Boileau, who always brings a camera with him on his walks, snapped photos of the birds before they flew off singing. ‘It was kind of neat,’ Bouleau said. ‘I thought they were snow buntings – before I noticed the red.’ This isn’t the first time that robins have been spotted in Iqaluit. During the summer of 1999, robins nested near the beach below Happy Valley. These robins, numbering at least two adults and a juvenile, were seen several times near the Iqaluit cemetery and along the walking trail to Apex. Since then, robin sightings have come from as far away as Baker Lake, Kugluktuk, Arviat and Rankin Inlet. Robins have also been sighted along the Ungava Bay coast of Nunavik, where they are known as ‘ikkariliit’ (a name that echoes the sound of the robin’s song). Robins generally migrate north along with average temperatures of 2.2 C. Thanks to warming temperatures in south Baffin, this means robins can […]
Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. Infertile men and women could have their own biological children using the breakthrough sperm and eggs Forever fertile? Infertile men and women could have their own biological children using the breakthrough sperm and eggs Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn that the advances taking place to tackle infertility risk distorting and damaging relations between family members. The U.S. government-funded research also offers the prospect of a ‘miracle pill’ which staves off the menopause, allowing women to wait longer to have a child. It centres on stem cells, widely seen as a repair kit for the body. Scientists at Stanford University in […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
