Willis Knuckles Has Died
The death is announced of Mr. Willis D. Knuckles, former Minister of Public Works and former Minister of Presidential Affairs, Republic of Liberia.He died in Accra, Ghana this morning, following a brief illness. He held both positions during the administration of Liberia’s current President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.Mr. Knuckles was widely known for his extraordinary organizing skills, which he put to great use during the two presidential campaigns of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in 2005 and 2011. These political initiatives led her to victory on both occasions.A staunch, lifelong Methodist, Mr. Knuckles also organized fund raising drives for the rebuilding of the Seys United Methodist Church of Careysburg, Montserrado County, first in the the mid-2000s from devastation during the war, and a few years when the newly renovated church was destroyed by a mysterious fire.Following his graduation from Cuttington College and Divinity School in the 1967, Willis, though he graduated in Chemistry, began working for the State Department under Secretary of State J. Rudolph Grimes. Secretary Grimes immediately saw promise in Willis’ intellectual and diplomatic skills and sent him to Columbia University, where both Grimes and his Deputy, Ernest Eastman, had studied, to pursue the Master’s in International Relations. But Willis left Columbia after a semester and returned home.In the early 1970s he became the Chief of Staff to Vice President James E. Green, President W.R. Tolbert’s first Vice President.Mr. Knuckles later became Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, under Minister Estrada Bernard–a post Knuckles held until the 1980 coup d’etat, when he and his family sought exile in the United States.Upon his return home in 1982, Willis, an excellent writer in the English language, became managing editor of the Daily Observer newspaper, as well as Liberia correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).He reported forthrightly on many of the troubles which the Daily Observer and others encountered during the regime of Head of State Samuel K. Doe and the People’s Redemption Council. When in 1984 the Daily Observer was closed down for the fourth time, Willis flashed a detailed story to the BBC, which was immediately aired. Willis was immediately arrested and imprisoned at the Post Stockade, the maximum security prison.Following his release months later, Willis, an avid sports enthusiast and energetic individual, took the leadership in reorganizing the Liberia Football Association (LFA).He is a lifelong member and key organizer of the Old Timers Football Club, with whom he played every Sunday until his recent illness.He is survived by his loving wife, Mrs. Hawa Sherman Knuckles, two daughters, Hawa Ellen and Ethel Virginia, a son, Willis III, grand children, several brothers, including Gabriel Knuckles, a sister, Bushin Knuckles and many other relatives.(For the latest news and updates, follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Liberian-Observer-Online/42279623238.)Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
“I am confident that South Africans will rise to the challenge,” writes Nhlanhla Nene. “They have a history of doing the right thing at the right time.” (Image: Brand South Africa)Nhlanhla Nene, South African minister of financeWe presented the medium-term budget policy statement last month in a difficult economic environment. Our growth performance has decelerated significantly over the last four years. Obviously, the global crisis of 2008 sent us into recession. The outlook for global growth remains gloomy, and in all likelihood it will be many years before the global economic returns to the growth rates experienced before the crisis.It has also become increasingly clear that structural constraints in the domestic economy are holding South Africa back. These include infrastructure bottlenecks, weaknesses in the delivery of government services and a conflictual labour relations environment. The 2014 budget policy statement is a response to this reality facing us.It is essential that we act now to defend the gains we have made. In 1996, government spending on education amounted to R1 100 for each South African. Today, we spend more than R4 000. If we remove the effects of inflation, this is a real increase of 50%. Similarly, health spending per capita has increased from about R500 in 1996 to nearly R2 400 for each South African today, a real increase of 93%. Overall, government spending has increased from R5 700 for each citizen in 1996 to more than R23 000. This has been achieved without increasing taxes.Defending these gains means doing three things proposed in the policy statement. First, we have to slow down the growth of government debt. To do otherwise would be to place our achievements at the mercy of fickle global markets. Therefore, fiscal consolidation can no longer be postponed. The fiscal framework achieves this through slowing increases in spending, and pencils in moderate increases in tax revenue.Second, we have to improve the quality of government services. Despite the huge increase in spending over the last 10 years, the quality of government services have remained a challenge.We have doubled the social wage (expenditure on housing and community amenities, health, education, and social protection) in real terms. Social assistance pays directly to vulnerable households, while the other public services that make up the social wage replace or subsidise expenses such as housing, education and amenities, reducing the cost of living.Capital spending has grown tremendously. The salaries of public servants have increased much faster than inflation. All of this should have translated into improvements that can be felt in the lives and wellbeing of ordinary South Africans.The key question we face in the years ahead is, therefore, how we can make sure spending does change the lives of South Africans in radical ways. Without improving the quality of our budgets it is doubtful that increases in the quantity of spending will have the desired effect. The challenge of doing more, together, with less applies to all government departments, to all provincial governments and, not least, to the state-owned companies.The third challenge is to restore the momentum of economic growth. Over the longer-term the money required to fund government spending can only come from economic growth. Faster growth is a key objective of the National Development Plan. But it is also a necessary condition to raise the resources needed to fund the country’s social and economic transformation.There are limits to what the budget itself can do to sustain growth. The budget relies on resources from the economy. We cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps forever. High rates of inflation and a wide current-account deficit limit the scope for macroeconomic policy.The critical issue now is the structural transformation of the economy. The reforms we require are spelt out clearly in the medium-term strategic framework, which outlines a five-year strategic programme.But as the strategic framework points out, achieving a higher developmental trajectory and building a more equitable society cannot be the work of government alone. The burden of development cannot be carried by the fiscus alone. It requires partnerships between a capable developmental state, a thriving business sector and a strong civil society.The next two years will be challenging. All of us will be called upon to share in the burden. Unzima lomthwalo, ufun’ amadoda!But I am confident that South Africans will rise to the challenge. They have a history of doing the right thing at the right time.
“I’d like to make up my own video game.” – Zack, Age 8 Study participant, Dylan, age 6, killing time on his visit to Latitude HQ.Download a PDF of the study summary. Part one of this series was published on July 7.It’s no surprise that gaming is popular with kids. But creation and design? Yep – unsung favorites. Thirty one percent of technology ideas proposed by children were a tool or platform for creating something (a Web site, a game, a video to be shared, a physical object, etc.). “Artistic creation and design were common underlying principles for a large subset of the kids’ technology concepts, with truly incredible diversity across disciplines. Kids wanted to be 3D game designers, Web designers, fashion designers, landscape designers, industrial designers, musicians, ‘traditional’ artists – and then, of course, the study itself was an exercise in imaginative creation,” said Reinis. “I’d like to paint and draw right on the computer screen and have it show up.” – Abby*, Age 8 A Web Developer’s New Best Friend is the AI Wai… “I want to video kids on the other side of the world using a different kind of language.” – Emma, Age 7“Continuous connectivity to people and information via the Web is the norm for many kids today, and it seems to be making them feel more capable and independent – making life opportunities feel closer at hand,” said Reinis. They can look up any piece of information on Wikipedia in real-time, they can self-learn with sophisticated, interactive games, and they can even video chat international language partners on Skype for free – and many of them want to do these things. “We see this drive to experience the world at large and the drive to express oneself in it as symptoms of a much larger phenomenon – a special brand of confidence – which we’re calling ‘digital optimism’,” she continued. For kids today, the world, ironically, feels smaller and more accessible – just as their awareness of its size, diversity, and possibility is increasing.*The names of some of the children have been changed to protect the participants’ privacy. In select cases, participant drawings may be modified solely for the purposes of removing identifying information (e.g. the participant’s name).Latitude is an international research consultancy exploring how new information and communications technologies can enhance human experiences. Latitude’s user-centered research approach unites generative, media-based methods with robust quantitative analysis to identify concrete opportunities for Web-based innovation. “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet” is one installment of Latitude 42s, an ongoing series of open innovation research studies which Latitude publishes in the spirit of knowledge-sharing and opportunity discovery. For more information on this study and its applications to your business, email Neela Sakaria. Related Posts Yesterday, we posted part one of the findings for “Children’s Future Requests for Computers and the Internet” (PDF summary), an open innovation study by Latitude Research and ReadWriteWeb. The study asked children aged 12 and under to illustrate their ideas for new Web and computer technologies. In our previous post, we looked at the findings from an interaction angle. We discussed how younger generations expect to have increasingly intuitive interactions with technology – and not just localized to swiping and tapping an iPad, but really moving things in the world of physical activity and objects. This represents “a shift from smartphones that can go anywhere to The Internet of Things which is everywhere,” said Jessica Reinis, the analyst who headed up the study.Kim Gaskins is Director of Content Development at Latitude, an international research consultancy. Visit life-connected.com for other studies in Latitude’s open innovation series.Today’s post will focus on a few other themes that stood out in the kids’ “future requests” for technology and why we think they’re worth acknowledging.Confidence Through Creation and Creativity Top Reasons to Go With Managed WordPress Hosting
Tags:#Digital Lifestyle#Internet of Things#Real World#Trends#web Selection of themes coded in children’s drawings (n=126)The Social World is Growing – and Shrinking?Social networking was especially popular amongst 10- to 12-year-olds, who contributed 56% of all socially-enabling innovations. What’s more, some participants expressed a desire to expand their social spheres beyond family and friends; they wanted to meet children in far-distant locales (e.g. remotely through immersive “chat” environments). Why Tech Companies Need Simpler Terms of Servic… “I’d like computer games to learn about fashion designing.” – Klara, Age 11Per usual, MIT’s Media Lab is doing great things. This time, it’s providing the tech infrastructure to help kids create. It devised a simple language called Scratch that kids aged 8 and older can use to make interactive animations, annotated stories, games, music and art. Through an external sensor kit, media created using Scratch can interact with everyday objects such as pencils or water. This study suggests there’s more opportunities to build and extend environments like Scratch (especially ones that are conversant with the physical world) as children’s offerings. (And, of course, when given these types of generative tools for ideation purposes, kids can contribute real value to innovation processes.)Interestingly, kids’ drive to create – and the expectation that technology will assist creative expression – was highly under-acknowledged by parents. When we asked participants’ parents outright what their children’s favorite computer activities were, only 7% chose some form of creation or design as an option while, not surprisingly, 70% selected gaming. By contrast, children’s own inventions revealed artistic design as a close second to gaming. guest author 1 8 Best WordPress Hosting Solutions on the Market
fredric paul Where Does The Mini Fit?As I was testing it, I kept wondering if I would buy one, or even who it was best suited for. I already have a full-size iPad and a seven-inch Nexus 7 tablet. I don’t think I’ll be buying a Mini as well.But what if I was looking for my first tablet? Or if I only had the iPad 2? If I had no tablet, I would consider the iPad Mini. It’s a nice compromise between the cheap seven-inch tablets like the Nexus 7, Kindle HD and the spendier 10-inch options. My only concern would be price.If I was stretched, $200 for one of the competing little guys might change my mind. For people who aren’t invested in the Apple ecosystem. Jumping from there to the $329 iPad Mini is a 60%-plus premium. It’s clear the Mini is a superior device, but that’s a big difference.For people with a little more money to spend, there’s only a $70 gap between the iPad Mini and the iPad 2 or Google’s new Nexus 10. If I could swing it – and I was planning to use the tablet primarily at home – one of those larger devices would be mighty tempting. As would a fourth-generation iPad or Microsoft Surface if I had a little more cash to spend.I’m sure Apple will have no trouble selling all the iPad Minis it can make this year, but the market sweet spot is kind of limited: People who really want an iPad but can’t afford the extra $70.And what about those who aleady have a full-size iPad? Well, I wrote recently that I sometimes reach for various tablets depending on what I want to do. But I also wrote that, “If I was forced to give one up, which one would it be? The seven-incher, no question.” (See How Many Screens Does One Man Need?)Plenty of Apple fans will undoubtably want two sizes of iPad. But most people will choose one size or the other. And for me, given the price differentials, I think I’d spend my dough on a full-size iPad – and add a cheap, seven-inch tablet if I really needed something more portable as well.I may be wrong about that, though. ReadWrite’s Dan Frommer believes the Mini is now the “real” iPad. I’m guessing Tim Cook thinks it is, too. What it Takes to Build a Highly Secure FinTech … Tags:#Apple#iPad#iPad mini#iPad Mini Review Related Posts The Rise and Rise of Mobile Payment Technology Role of Mobile App Analytics In-App Engagement Why IoT Apps are Eating Device Interfaces After spending a weekend playing with the iPad Mini, I can say conclusively that it’s… a smaller iPad. Sure, there are few more things to say about it – and I’ll get to them – but the Mini really is nothing but a scaled down iPad 2. The real questions are a) How does the size change the tablet experience and, b) How does the diminutive device fit into the tablet market?When I got my mitts on the iPad Mini, I had dreams of going deep into its unique features and specs. But why bother? I’ve been using an iPad 2 for months and the Mini is, as promised, basically the same thing with a smaller screen. That’s a good thing, of course, as the iPad is still the gold standard for tablets, and the Mini delivers pretty much all of the standard iPad performance – in a smaller package. It’s markedly better than the other small tablets out there, including Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD.Apps worked just fine, with no hiccups. The five-megapixel back camera took much better still pictures than does an iPad 2 (though still not great), the speakers sounded much better (though still not great), and Apple’s new Lightning connector wouldn’t work with any iOS peripherals in my house.Actually using the Mini was significantly different than using a full-size iPad in that some tasks felt more natural on the Mini.What Worked Well?Any app with a simple layout took to the smaller iPad like a duck to water. Email worked great, for instance. The 7.9-inch screen is plenty big enough to work with messages, and the app seemed more concentrated, somehow. I didn’t miss the extra size at all.Reading books or long blocks of text worked great, too. A single column fills the smaller screen nicely, and the smaller, lighter Mini is more comfortable to hold, especially in one hand. Taking photos holding a Mini felt noticeably less ridiculous than holding an iPad. Still felt kinda ridiculous, though.Being smaller and lighter, the Mini is more likely become a constant companion – especially when Apple adds fast, fourth-generation LTE connectivity in future models. Having a smaller tablet with you at the coffee shop is way better than having a bigger one back at home.What Worked Less Well?Apps that squish a lot of stuff on the screen, not surprisingly, fared less well. Even though the Mini’s screen has the same resolution as the iPad 2, the shrunken size made busy apps harder to read and navigate.That dynamic was even more true for browsing Web pages. Simple pages looked great, as did ones that dynamically adjusted the layout to optimize for my screen (ReadWrite.com, for example!) But complex pages and images larger than 1024 x 768 overwhelmed the screen, forcing me to zoom and scroll and squint.The smaller screen covers for the Mini’s lack of HD video. But even though movies and videoconferences played fine (Heck, those things work fine on the iPhone, too.), they didn’t generate the same impact that they do on a full-sized iPad. 
An expert team comprising members of the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Institute of India on Friday began a probe into a three-year-old tiger’s death at Satkosia reserve in Odisha’s Angul district, a Forest Department official said. The NTCA and the WII will carry out a “thorough investigation” to ascertain the cause behind the death of Royal Bengal Tiger ‘Mahavir’ at Satkosia, he said. “Both the organisations have taken Mahavir’s death very seriously. They will find out if the animal died of natural causes or there were other reasons,” the official said.Mahavir, translocated from Kanha National Park in M.P., was found dead in the core area of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve on Wednesday. Two of the six tigers — ‘Mahavir’ and ‘Sundari’ — were translocated to the sanctuary earlier this year. Earlier this month, ‘Sundari’ was tranquillised and shifted to an enclosure, after people alleged that it had mauled two persons to death.
Generally, trees are cut down for building roads. But in Arunachal Pradesh, a village is hoping that a flourishing tree will help spur the construction of a road. Residents of Kallek village in Siang district have developed a track to the State’s largest tree, standing almost 65 metres tall.The trekking track, the brainchild of 14 households in Kallek, was fuelled by the hope that the tree, called Atang Ane, and the variety of birds it attracts would popularise trekking enough for the local authorities to act on their 20-year-old promise to pave the road from the highway to the village. Kallek, inhabited by the Adi community, is 48 km from Pasighat, the Siang district headquarters. The last 10 km from the highway to the village, marked by a tough and hilly terrain, has been in the making for two decades now. “Atang Ane, which has grown into a huge tree today was once a fragile sapling, brought here from Myanmar. It was planted by a village elder,” said Tamang Tamuk, the head ‘gaonburah’ (village elder) of Kallek. Atang Ane (Ficus elastica) means ‘mother rubber tree’ in the Adi dialect. A three hour trek from Kallek, it stands as the largest multi-trunk tree in Arunachal Pradesh, spreading over an area of 59.8 m. “The trek from Kallek to Atang Ane is not just about gawking at a huge tree. It is also a birdwatchers’ paradise,” said Gandhi Darang, who runs Ane Siang Tours & Expeditions in Itanagar.Birds in the area include the great hornbill (the State bird), sunbird, white-tailed robin, barwing, collared treepie, parrotbill, and shrike babbler. In fact, 252 species were recorded in the Siang region during a six-year study that ended in 2016. Of these, 66, including six endangered ones, were reported for the first time.
Robredo: True leaders perform well despite having ‘uninspiring’ boss PLAY LIST 02:49Robredo: True leaders perform well despite having ‘uninspiring’ boss02:42PH underwater hockey team aims to make waves in SEA Games01:44Philippines marks anniversary of massacre with calls for justice01:19Fire erupts in Barangay Tatalon in Quezon City01:07Trump talks impeachment while meeting NCAA athletes02:49World-class track facilities installed at NCC for SEA Games “I’m always happy to get an American record, but I was hoping to go a little faster,” King said after posting a time of 29.66 seconds. “I’ve think I’ve still got a little left in the tank for Budapest.”She’ll have almost three weeks to prepare after breaking the record Jessica Hardy held for nearly eight years by 0.14. King also could be heading to Hungary with the No. 1 time in the event this year after passing her Russian rival Yulia Efimova, who started the day in the No. 1 spot with a time of 29.88.FEATURED STORIESSPORTSSEA Games: Biñan football stadium stands out in preparedness, completionSPORTSPrivate companies step in to help SEA Games hostingSPORTSWin or don’t eat: the Philippines’ poverty-driven, world-beating pool starsKatie Meili, an Olympic gold medalist like King, finished in 30.11.King has qualified in two individual events and the Indiana University star will chase her third win in three nights when she competes in her specialty, the 100 back Friday. Pagasa: Kammuri now a typhoon, may enter PAR by weekend Dressel has qualified in three individual events for the worlds — the 100 free and the 50 and 100 fly, where he’s like to square off with rival Joseph Schooling of Singapore.Kevin Cordes set a championship record by beating Andrew Wilson with a time of 26.88 in the men’s 50 breast, No. 3 in the world, and 19-year-old Justin Ress closed it out with another world-best performance in the 50 backstroke. He beat two Olympic gold medalists, Ryan Murphy and Matt Grevers, with a time of 24.41 — and surpassed China’s Xu Jiayu for the No. 1 spot.Leah Smith, who finished second to Katie Ledecky in races each of the first two nights, finally won the women’s 400 IM in 4:33.86. It was third on the international list. Elizabeth Beisel wound up taking second in 4:38.55 after Ella Eastin was disqualified for a bad turn coming out of the backstroke.Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next Messi’s bride Antonella, ‘first lady of football’ Lacson: SEA Games fund put in foundation like ‘Napoles case’ Another vape smoker nabbed in Lucena Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. View comments She was only part of the speedy equation in Indianapolis, though.The U.S. men produced world-best times in three of the night’s four events and set a championship record in the other one.Chase Kalisz started the impressive run in the men’s 400 individual medley, finishing in 4:06.99 — the first sub 4:07 in the world in 2017. Second-place finisher Jay Litherland, Kalisz’s teammate at Georgia, wound up second in 4:09.31, No. 4 in the world.Event winners automatically qualify for the U.S. team. The runner-ups must wait for the selection process to end before finding out if they make the team.Caeleb Dressel took the men’s 100 butterfly, winning in 50.87 to become the first swimmer to crack the 51-second mark this year. Twenty-six-year old Tim Phillips was second in 51.30, the third-fastest time in the world.ADVERTISEMENT
Pagasa: Kammuri now a typhoon, may enter PAR by weekend Lilly King celebrates winning women’s 200m breaststroke at the U.S. swimming national championships in Indianapolis, Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — Lilly King set an American record in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke, three other swimmers had the fastest times in the world this season and two more broke national championship records at the U.S. titles on Thursday.Each has even bigger plans for next month’s world championships in Hungary.ADVERTISEMENT LOOK: Jane De Leon meets fellow ‘Darna’ Marian Rivera LATEST STORIES What ‘missteps’? China furious as Trump signs bills in support of Hong Kong MOST READ Cayetano to unmask people behind ‘smear campaign’ vs him, SEA Games