The Frozen Hedgehog
RSSPosts tagged with "news"
It’s often said that “necessity is the mother of invention” and this idiom could not be further from the truth in the case of self-taught Rwandan engineer Anastase Tabaro.
With no more than six years of elementary-level education, Tabaro proves that sometimes, determination, dedication and initiative are enough to achieve great feats of innovation. The 59-year-old, who started his research in 1990 with the objective of selling power to his neighbours, has now built a hydroelectric system that provides power to some 700 households in and around his village in rural Rwanda.
“I grew up in [neighboring] Democratic Republic of Congo and my village had electricity,” Tabaro says. “Then my family moved to Rwanda and our village had no electricity. I felt I couldn’t live without electricity so I started to research by myself.”
Cameroon: U.S. Company Accused of Greenwashing 'Land-Grab'
Environment groups are accusing a New York-based agricultural company, Herakles Farms, of going forward with plans for a 73,000-hectare palm-oil plantation and refinery in southwest Cameroon despite a lack of government authorisation, two court injunctions, and in the face of significant community opposition.
On Wednesday, the Oakland Institute and Greenpeace, two environment watchdogs based here in the United States, released a report suggesting that the project, situated in what is described as a biodiversity hotspot between four major conservation zones, could negatively impact up to 45,000 people.
The groups warn that the project, which is linked to the Blackstone Group, a massive investment group, represents the vanguard of a new “scramble for land” in Africa by Western companies.
“Herakles claims to be engaged in improving Cameroon’s food security and humanitarian situation, but we have found this to be a total fraud. In fact, they are about to destroy the livelihoods of thousands,” Frederic Mousseau, the report’s author, said in a media call Wednesday.
“Repeatedly showing us a killer’s face isn’t news, it’s just rubbernecking.”
(Source: youtube.com)
It’s shocking enough for The New York Times to report that it and other news organizations are now giving the White House and campaign sources from both parties quote approval – the ability to clean up, tighten up, tone down, rethink, and kill the embarrassing (and perhaps candid) bits from what they end up saying in print.
- Journalists who allow quote approval become complicit in political spin | Jeff Jarvis | (via onthemedia)
House Republicans, for the 33rd time, have voted to repeal all or part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Because if at first the GOP doesn't succeed at taking away healthcare coverage from 30 million Americans, they try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try and try again.
(Source: inothernews)
“Hindsight is always 20-20, but last time I checked almost every president since Teddy Roosevelt tried to do something on health care and wasn’t able to do it. It was the right thing to do, and sometimes you don’t get a second chance to do the right thing.” — Former North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge
“Republicans did a great job of misinforming … and scaring the American people. So did the insurance companies, and the fact is when you explain provisions of the bill, the American people support it. …I’m embarrassed for Congress that they didn’t pass health care reform long before we did. Far too many people in Congress think that they are there to get reelected and that’s unfortunate. We’re there to work for the American people, and that’s what we did. We passed a measure that allows millions of Americans to be insured. It allows people with pre-existing [conditions] to get covered.” — Former Ohio Rep. Steve Driehaus
“You have to vote with your conscience and do what’s right. In my district, I had 350,000 who had no health insurance. I came from a migrant family, and I knew the seriousness of not having insurance and people dying because they couldn’t go to the doctor. It was the right thing to do, and if I had to do it again, I would do it again. It was now or never.” — Former Texas Rep. Solomon Ortiz
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Politico spoke to Democrat lawmakers who fought to pass the Affordable Care Act — and who were voted out as a result. The consensus? No regrets.
That’s because they did the right thing.
(via inothernews)
Albert Einstein’s personal papers, now online: From an original handwritten draft of the Theory of Relativity to personal letters, Israel’s Hebrew University announced that it has added 2,000 newly digitized documents from Albert Einstein’s collection to its online portal.
In one letter, a 6-year-old writes, “I saw your picture in the paper. I think you ought to have a haircut.” An older fan wrote, “I’m making a scientific survey to determine why genius so often tends to long hair.”
(Source: theweek.com)
(Photo: Patrick Semansky / AP via the New York Daily News)
This is Moscow, Russia on February 4th, 2012. That date is today.
These are the people protesting the clearly rigged election, resulting in the victory of Vladimir Putin.
This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. Can’t wait to see it here
They faced temperatures well below freezing and massed anyway.
Not even the elements will chill humanity’s hearth.
It's Full of Stars: Russia and NASA plan to COLONISE the Moon
‘We want to do more than just step on it’
Russian, American and European space agencies are in talks to create a human colony on the moon, according to Russian news source Rianovosti.
Russia wants to build either a space base on the surface of the Moon itself or a space station that…
Daily chart: life beyond Earth. A new index scores planetary bodies on their suitability for life. Unsurprisingly, Earth tops the list, but Titan, a Saturnian moon, takes the second spot ahead of Mars.
About The Frozen Hedgehog
I am 20 studying geography at the University College of London (on hold for a year and living back in The Fens in the mean time).
I draw and stuff so feel free to clickety click on the link to my DeviantArt account, below.
Posts I Like
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Also I just remembered that the first person I ever drew was Zachary Quinto. Awww. Or somethin.
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The BSA ♥ Chris Noth
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I’M SCREAMING I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A GIF AND THIS FROG GOT IN THERE SOMEHOW OMG
where did this frog come from?
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fantrolls asked: i just want to applaud you for such a spectacular tagging system that pretty much covers any word you could think to type in. i don't think i've ever seen an ask where you don't have a tag for them to check, and the tags are always filled with food. you have such a variety and such a consistent variety too. it's really obvious how much effort you put into this blog and i hope you're as proud of it as your followers are! thank you for always providing recipes with a lovely personality <33
Oh god thank you! I’m so glad most of the followers can appreciate the time and effort that goes into the blog.
I try really hard, and I’m just one...
![Smile with me =]]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/avatar_c81c5b5e38e0_30.png){kind=avatar}
