Wow! This robot sorts over 400 pancakes per minute. Right around 1:15 it gets amazing, it seems like it’s sped up, but they need to slow it down in the video to show it off! … via jk.
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I reviewed The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind for Good. I think it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Here’s an excerpt of my review:
William Kamkwamba’s parents couldn’t afford the $80 yearly tuition for their son’s school. The boy sneaked into the classroom anyway, dodging administrators for a few weeks until they caught him. Still emaciated from the recent deadly famine that had killed friends and neighbors, he went back to work on his family’s corn and tobacco farm in rural Malawi, Africa.
With no hope of getting the funds to go back to school, William continued his education by teaching himself, borrowing books from the small library at the elementary school in his village. One day, when William was 14, he went to the library searching for an English-Chichewa dictionary to find out what the English word “grapes” meant, and came across a fifth-grade science book called Using Energy. Describing this moment in his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (co-written with Bryan Mealer), William wrote, “The book has since changed my life.”
Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. “A windmill meant more than just power,” he wrote, “it was freedom.”
For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity is something to be proud of. For a half-starved, uneducated boy living in a country plagued with drought, famine, poverty, disease, a cruelly corrupt government, crippling superstitions, and low expectations, it’s another thing altogether. It’s nothing short of monumental.
Read the rest of my review at GOOD.
William Kamkwamba visits Baobab Health Trust founder and TED Fellow Gerry Douglas’ home in Lilongwe, Malawi. Gerry is giving William a lesson in machining helicopter and windmill blades with various types of cutters. (It was very exciting to read that William’s favorite magazine is MAKE!)
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Things I Will Do For Love: |
|
| Yes | No |
| Run right into hell and back | That |
| Be there ’till the final act | |
| Take the vow | |
| Seal a pact | |
| Raise you up | |
| Help you down | |
| Get you right out of this god-forsaken town | |
| Make it all a little less cold | |
| Hold you sacred | |
| Hold you tight | |
| Colorize your life | |
| Make it all a little less old | |
| Make you some magic with my own two hands | |
| Build an emerald city with these grains of sand | |
| Give you something you can take home | |
| Cater to every fantasy you’ve got | |
| Hose you down with holy water if you get too hot | |
| Take you places you’ve never known | |
Feel free to print out this chart and keep it in your wallet for easy reference.
© 2009 Jeremiah Altepeter
