Tokyo - A Japanese man who stole cash from a store by brandishing a
knife turned himself in only five minutes later, saying he wanted to
be punished, police said on Monday.
Ginji Aoi, a 23-year-old unemployed man, threatened a convenience
store worker with an 18-centimetre (seven-inch) knife on Sunday in
Osaka and snatched 79 000 yen ($770) from him, police said.
But as soon as he was out the door, he headed straight to a nearby
police station, an officer at the station said.
"He told police, 'I want to be caught because I did something bad,'"
the officer said.
"He said he stole because he didn't have money, but he seems to have
reflected immediately after his act," he added.
Aoi is in custody as police consider whether to press charges, he
said. - Sapa-AFP
Mense ek weet nie wat die gemiddelde ouderdom op die NG is nie, maar ek glo
daar is 'n paar manne hier wat soos ek nog worstel met 'n huis en kar
paaiment. Ek sien dat daar 'n voorspelling is dat die petrol prys voor die
einde van die jaar die R20 per liter gaan haal. Het julle 'n idee hoe dit
die rente koers en die voedselpryse gaan affekteer.
Ek is regtig bekommerd dat die land binnekort in sy moer in gaan wees. Ek
het vandag my bakkie verkoop. Die ou by die motor hawe se die manne met die
4x4's staan omtrent tou om van die goed ontslae te raak, en vir hulle 'n
klein karretje te koop.
Ek onthou so paar maande gelede was ek op die punt om vir my 'n 4x4 te koop.
Ek moet se ek is baie bly dit het nie so uitgewerk nie. Watter planne het
julle manne indien sake in die land verder gaan versleg - behalwe om OZ toe
te gaan natuurlik
Daar is geen dood.
Wat lewe heet, is net die op en neer
as ons klein skuitjie al maar daal en klim;
en wat ons sterwe noem, is niks nie meer
as ons verdwyning op die gindse kim.
Daar is geen dood.
Ons wat van lae strand dit sien, en speur
hoedat hul vaart die die afstand steeds vergroot-
ons kan nie sien wat anderkant gebeur,
en daarom noem ons die verdwyning: dood.
Daar is geen dood.
Ons lae standpunt is te laag en ver,
en hul ontseil ons sfeer van ruimte en tyd,
daarom word eindelik ons blik versper
wanneer hul roerpen stuur in die ewigheid.
1
Op 'n sekere dag in die blou maan maand September
Onder 'n jong pruimboom, hou ek haar
sag vas  my stil en bleek geliefde
In my arms is sy soos 'n elegante droom
En bokant ons, in die pragtige somershemel,
Was daar 'n wolk waarna ek gekyk het
Dit was spierwit en so geweldig hoog
En toe ek weer gekyk het, was dit weg.
2
Sedert daardie dag het baie maande
Stil-stil verby en weggevloei
Die pruimbome is dalk al afgekap
En jy vra my: Wat het van my lief geword?
So, ek antwoord jou: Ek kan nie onthou nie
Maar steeds weet ek wat jy bedoel
Maar ek kan werklik nie haar gesig onthou nie
Ek weet net dat ek haar eens gesoen het.
3
En daardie soen sou ek ook al vergeet het
Was daardie wolk nie in die lug nie
Wat ek steeds ken en altyd sal onthou
Dit was so wit en het so hoog gedryf
Miskien blom die pruimbome tog steeds
En daardie vrou het dalk al sewe kinders
Maar daardie wolk het net 'n paar minute geblom
En toe ek opkyk, was dit weg in die wind.
February 28, 2008
TED2008: Neil Turok, finding the African Einstein
The second prize winner this year is the remarkable scientist and
educator, Neil Turok. Turok is a cosmologist at Cambridge, but he’s
got an amazing side project - he’s built an amazing math academy in
Capetown that provides advanced training for the most promising young
African mathematicians.
Turok was born in South Africa. His father was imprisoned for
resisting the apartheid regime, and his family moved to the young
nations of Kenya and Tanzania. “We saw the wonders of the world,
Kilimanjaro, the Ulduvai Gorge…” He went to high school in London, but
came back as soon as he could, becoming a student teacher in Lesotho
when he was 17.
His students in Lesotho amazed him with their creativity. Asking
students to estimate the height of a building, he discovered a young
man measuring the height of a brick and counting bricks, getting an
extremely accurate measurement. The adults amazed him as well - the
poor miner who told him about his love of Shakespere. “If Africa is
going to get fixed, it’s these people, not us, who are going to fix
it.”
Turok talks briefly about his work in cosmology. “All we know in
physics can be expressed in a single equation.” Unfortunately, that
equation has 18 free parameters. In his work with Stephen Hawking,
Turok has attempted to understand the big bang - he tells us that he’s
still in regular tough with his primary school maths teacher, a
Scottish woman who taught him in Tanzania. She periodically asks him,
“What banged?”
Turok’s theory is that the big bang wasn’t a singularity - it was a
collision between two three-dimensional realities, which parallel each
other, separated by a tiny gap, a small fraction of the size of a
nucleus. If those two worlds intersect, “it looks a lot like the big
bang.” But if there’s a three-dimensional intersection of worlds,
there’s no singularity, and the equations don’t break down - we can
support all the data we have on background radiation. If this theory
is right, “we’ve had bangs in the past, and will hae bangs in the
future - we have an endless universe.”
Despite his success, Turok was haunted by the question, “What about
Africa?” He shows us some of the painful statistics of the continent,
visualized with maps from Worldmapper. Africa leads the world in
deaths from preventable causes, and deaths from war. It trails the
world in GDP. And it has huge limitations as far resources to solve
these problems - tiny populations of physicians, educators and
scientists. “As was very eloquently argued at TED Africa in Arusha,
aid has completely failed to put Africa on its own two feet.”
Turok’s parents were both elected to South Africa’s first post-
apartheid parliament - the only couple other than Nelson and Winnie
Mandela. Turok took a leave to visit South Africa in 2001 and realized
the nature of the desperate skill shortage. So he bought a derelict
hotel in Cape Town with 80 rooms, for $100,000, and he founded AIMS -
the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He invited lecturers
from all over the world, and students from all over continent… and
they came. In part, it helped that the hotel was near the beach. It
also helps that Turok is an amazing and passionate man whose
enthusiasm is contagious.
In AIMS, the professors and students live together, which means that
there are impromptu tutorials at 1am. There’s a strong emphasis on
skills that are relavent to Africa, including epidemeology and
financial mathematics. He walks us through the life stories of a few
of his students - they’ve ended up in amazing places, many getting
Masters and PhDs around Africa, the US and Europe. He tells us that he
can educate five times as many students at AIMS for the money it takes
to send one student to the US or Europe.
Turok shares his dream: “that the next einstein will be African.” Not
just Einstein, but the next Gates, Brin and Page. To help this happen,
he wants to scale up AIMS, building 15 centers across Africa. Each
will be pan-African, and each will focus on a different aspect of
science. The centers will teach entrepreneurship and policy skills as
well, and build a network of graduates who will help transform the
continent. The next centers are slated for Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan,
Uganda and Madagascar.
> Neil Turok
> From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> On May 9, 2008 Mike Lazaridis announced that Turok would become the
> new Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical
> Physics starting on October 1, 2008.
Die Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics se
stigter is Mike Lazarides, een van die twee CEO's van
Research in Motion (RIM) die makers van die
blackberry. Hy het 'n paar jaar gelede $100 miljoen van
sy eie geld gebruik om die Instituut te begin in
Waterloo, in Ontario. Die idee is om dit finansieel
aantreklik te maak vir die beste Fisika-wetenskaplikes
van die wêreld om in Waterloo te kom werk. Lazarides
wil die vrugbare teelaarde skep vir die ontwikkeling van
'n toekomstige Einstein.
Waterloo is omtrent honderd kilometers noord-
wes van Toronto. Dis nie 'n groot plek nie. Die
Universiteit van Waterloo is eers in die sestigerjare
geskep deur die regering van Ontario, toe die
babyboomers deur die universiteite gegaan het en
Ontario drasties universiteitsplekke vir die baby-
boomers moes voorsien. Dis die enigste universiteit
in die wêreld wat 'n Fakulteit van Wiskunde het,
en waar die departemente almal verskillende
soorte Wiskundige wetenskappe verteenwoordig.
( Daar is dus nie 'n Dekaan van Wetenskap nie,
maar 'n dekaan van Wiskunde.) Hulle departement
van Rekenaarswetenskap is ook van die beste in
die wêreld. Hulle sê dat Bill Gates, wanneer hy
Kanada besoek, nie kom jag nie, maar na die
Universiteit van Waterloo kom om werknemers
te kom soek.
Die Universiteit van Waterloo is ook
bekend vir sy Mennonite Studies. Die Mennonites
is 'n Christelike groep wat uit Europa gevlug het
omdat hulle pasifiste is en nie onder die regerings
van Europa wou veg 'n paar eeue gelede nie.
Baie van hulle weier om in motorkarre te ry en
ry in klein swart kapkarretjies. As die meer
progressiewes van hulle 'n motor koop, is dit
gewoonlik 'n groot swarte. Hulle is baie na
verwant aan die Pennsylvania Dutch in die
VSA.
Neil Turok is veronderstel om 'n baie
groot vonds te wees vir die Perimeter Institute.
Dit was vir my interessant om uit te vind dat
hy oorspronklik van SA is.
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