Full STEAM Ahead concluded the school holiday on a high note as Seria Energy Lab (SEL) wrapped up its third installment of the programme on December 18.
Held in collaboration with the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, Full STEAM Ahead was an initiative by the science centre to create awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education as well as improve the youth’s science competency through interactive learning.
The programme was held from November 30 to December 18 around the premises of SEL, offering four hands-on and engaging activities suitable for all ages such as Monster Slime, Tinkercraft, Circuit Fantastic and Cloudoh.
Other activities included shows produced by the SEL Studio and Aquashow to encourage participants to partake in interactive learning through entertainment.
Special talks were lined up by the Health Promotion Centre, Reef Cheek Brunei and Bong Poh Yuk.
Additionally, there were showcases and activities by Universiti Brunei Darussalam and the finalists of the Women in Science 2022.
Among the science shows organised was SEL’s renowned Science Spectacular show, which is a new performance-based learning programme that showcases two different interactive science performances.
One of the Science Spectacular performers Muhammad Hakimi Saldi Sofian told the Weekend Bulletin that: “I got to learn new creative skills and working with other participants and SEL workers. It was very fun!”
SEL said the programme will help to improve science competency among the public.
One of the activities conducted during the programme. PHOTOS: SELABOVE & BELOW: Participants enjoy activities at the lab
VAVUNIYA, SRI LANKA (AP) – Rasarathnam Anushiya once had a mission: She awaited orders to blow herself up as a suicide bomber during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Years on, her struggle now is to feed her three children during the country’s unprecedented economic crisis.
Anushiya, 36, was arrested in 2009 when government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had sought to create an independent homeland for minority Tamils. She had been a member of the rebels’ dreaded suicide squad known as the Black Tigers, and spent the next five years under government questioning and later at a rehabilitation camp.
She learnt dressmaking in the rehabilitation centre but was unable to build a profitable business after her release and relied on her husband’s salary from his job at a finance company as she devoted herself to raising their children.
Her husband, like many people, lost his job as a result of Sri Lanka’s current economic crisis. Families across the nation have been forced to cut back on food and other vital items because of shortages of money and high inflation.
For weeks, Anushiya has had to feed her 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter only rice and either potato curry or tomato curry. The couple’s three-month-old baby is still breastfed. While her daughter receives school lunches sponsored by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Education, her son does not because the programme only covers children from Grade one to five. Anushiya also is heavily in debt to micro finance companies and is often hassled by creditors waiting by her home. She can’t afford to pay the rent, and the house owner has asked the family to leave by the end of December.
Primary students each receive a cup of fresh milk at a primary school in Dimbulagala, Sri LankaABOVE & BELOW: Empty spice containers are seen kept in a kitchen rack; and Kavishka Madushan waters vegetable plants cultivated at the backyard of their house. PHOTOS: AP
In another village, Dimbulagala, primary school children receive a free breakfast, a glass of milk and lunch with help from the education ministry, WFP and a private donor agency.
Mothers of students prepare the meals at school with a menu provided by the education ministry. Each meal costs USD0.27.
School principal Anusha Sirimanne said attendance has improved since the meal programme began 20 weeks ago. Before, she said, many children fell asleep during classes and had trouble concentrating, but since the programme started, they are more alert and physically active.
“Most would not attend school without the feeding programme, and eventually the school would have to close,” she said.
SM Madushanka Kumara, the father of three children in Dimbulagala, said his family can only eat once or twice a day since he lost his job at a bakery when its owner decided to close it after prices of ingredients sharply increased.
“We can’t think about balanced diets,” said his wife, Malkanthi. “My 12-year-old son cried, saying his head hurt and he was hungry. I had nothing to offer. Today for lunch I gave him rice with okra curry, which I made from two okras I picked in the backyard.”
DETROIT (AP) – Tesla Inc is offering rare discounts through year’s end on its two top-selling models, an indication that demand is slowing for its electric vehicles (EVs).
The Austin, Texas, company started offering a USD3,750 incentive on its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV on its website earlier this month, but on Wednesday doubled the discount to USD7,500 for those who take delivery between now and December 31.
The move comes ahead of a new federal tax credit of up to USD7,500 that’s scheduled to take effect on January 1. Teslas weren’t eligible for a previous federal tax credit programme because the company had reached a limit of 200,000 vehicles sold. Next year’s credits don’t have such a limit.
“This is a sign of demand cracks and not a good sign for Tesla heading into the December year-end,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in an e-mail. “EV competition is increasing across the board, and Tesla is seeing some demand headwinds.”
Lower priced versions of the Models 3 and Y will be eligible for the federal tax credit come January due to limits on vehicle purchase prices outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Without the discounts, the Model 3 starts at just over USD48,000 including shipping, while the Y has a starting price of just over USD67,000. To be eligible for the federal tax credit, vehicles can’t have a sticker price of over USD55,000 for sedans and USD80,000 for trucks and SUVs.
Tesla’s company logo outside a Tesla store in Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. PHOTO: AP
In a regulatory quirk, many vehicles like Teslas that are made in North America likely will be eligible for the full USD7,500 tax credit from January into March because the Treasury Department is still working on rules requiring battery minerals and parts to come from North America. It’s likely that most of the vehicles will only be eligible for half the credit once the rules come out in March.
Tesla may be offering the discounts to juice sales before the end of the year in an effort to meet a pledge to grow vehicle sales by 50 per cent.
On the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call in October, Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said Tesla will fall just short of its 50 per cent sales growth target. But he later was contradicted by CEO Elon Musk.
Musk predicted 50 per cent annual production and delivery growth, but also pointed to logistical problems shipping vehicles.
To reach the 50 per cent sales growth target, Tesla must have a stellar performance in the fourth quarter.
Through September the company delivered 908,573 vehicles, compared with just over 936,000 vehicles a year ago. To increase sales by 50 per cent over last year, which would amount to about 1.4 million vehicles, the company would have to sell more than 490,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Industry analysts polled by data provider FactSet expect Tesla to deliver 431,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, ending the year at 1,341 million.
Tesla shares have lost more than 60 per cent of their value since Musk announced in April that he had taken a large stake in Twitter. They fell nearly nine per cent on Thursday, closing at USD125.35 after United States safety regulators said they would probe two more Tesla crashes possibly involving automated driving systems.
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar authorities have arrested more than 110 Rohingya, including children, for travelling “without official documents” as they tried to make their way to Malaysia, state media reported yesterday.
A total of 112 people, including a dozen children, were arrested in the southeastern township of Bogale, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar, with 35 given five-year prison terms.
The report, which identified the group by the pejorative “Bengalis”, gave no date for the arrests, but local media quoted police sources as saying they took place the morning of December 20. Widely viewed as interlopers from Bangladesh and often require permission to travel.
A local court sentenced 35 of the group to five years in jail for travelling without documents, the Global New Light reported, adding that 13 under the age of 18 would be detained at a “training school” until they were 20.
Thousands of Rohingya risk their lives each year making perilous journeys to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
DERVICAN, ALBANIA (AP) – The Greek Prime Minister on Thursday offered his country’s full support to neighbouring Albania’s further integration efforts with the European Union.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the Greek minority in southern Albania, the first visit of a prime minister to Albania’s ethnic Greek minority areas since his father, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, travelled there when he was Greek prime minister 31 years ago.
Relations between Greece and post-communist Albania have been at times uneasy, largely over minority rights and the sizeable Albanian community in Greece.
Mitsotakis called for the full respect of the Greek minority, saying that “it is Albania’s obligation, in the framework of its rapprochement with Europe, to fully respect your rights”, referring to the right to self-determination, learning the Greek language at all levels and the protection of property rights.
Last summer Albania launched full membership negotiations with the bloc.
Mitsotakis met with the local Greek minority community at Himara, on the Albanian Riviera, then was to travel to another southern commune, Livadhja, before ending his one-day trip in Dervican, where most of the Greek minority is located.
The exact size of the Greek minority is unknown. They declined to take part in the last census 11 years ago.
Both Mitsotakis and his host counterpart Edi Rama said the Greek minority was the link between the two countries.
An estimated more than 600,000 Albanians crossed into Greece after the fall of the communist regime in 1990.
“The Greek government is always beside you, as all the Greek governments were beside you. That is what we must do and that is what we will do,” Mitsotakis said.
EU member Greece has long backed Albania’s desire to eventually join the 27-nation bloc.Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that the government would renovate Dervican’s small square and name it after Mitsotakis’ late father and also place bust of him there.
Another issue of contention between the two countries has been a dispute over their maritime borders in the Ionian Sea.
Tirana and Athens inked a deal to define their maritime border in 2009, when Albania was governed by the Democratic Party that is now in opposition.
But Rama’s Socialists challenged the agreement in court, claiming it cost the country 225 square kilometres of territorial waters.
Albania’s Constitutional Court nullified the agreement nine months later, deeming it unconstitutional.
A few years ago, Tirana and Athens agreed to refer the dispute to the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice. That has yet to happen.
To realise the objective of creating a high-quality standard of living in Brunei by 2035, the authorities should consider making public transport free for the elderly around the capital on the weekends.
Such a move may confer significant health benefits in the population through increased physical activity among the elderly.
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the loss of strength and stamina attributed to ageing is in part caused by reduced physical activity.
Thus, providing free public transport would encourage our seniors, particularly those in the lower income bracket, to be more active and improve their overall health and well-being.
The initiative would also encourage our elderly to socialise with their peers more, allowing for a decrease in the likelihood of developing mental health issues associated with loneliness and neglect.
It is even truer for those who were cooped up at home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, our elderly would be much happier being out and about with their peers than staying at home, alone.
A recently British study found that the elderly conferred benefits of free bus travel were likely to report better quality of life, greater life satisfaction and fewer depressive symptoms than peers who were not eligible of the programme.
The Brunei authorities ought to mandate bus operators to waive the fare for those 60 years old and above on the weekends and limited to the city centre.
I believe our elderly deserve more; they have done so much to contribute to the nation’s development. It would be fitting to pay homage to their sacrifices by giving them free transport, at least.
Before anyone pan this idea as wasteful spending or not worthy of attention, it is best to reflect on their own age. By 2050, approximately a third of us will be 60 years old and above, according the United Nations.
So, this initiative will benefit all of us eventually.
THE WASHINGTON POST – Though it throws out about 90 pounds of food per person every year, Japan doesn’t rank at the top of the world’s list of waste offenders. Still, what’s discarded represents a serious problem for an island nation with limited landfill space and a goal of greater sustainability.
Reinvention can offer an alternative. Japanese companies are taking vegetable peels, cooking oil, eggshells and other used food and making entirely different products. Cement, for example. Even furniture.
Here are three companies with solutions that they hope will help their country cut its food waste in half by 2030, perhaps saving a bit of the planet along the way.
A TRAIN RUN ON ANIMAL FAT FROM SOUP
After a powerful 2005 typhoon destroyed the railway in Takachiho, a town of about 12,000 people in southern Japan, local leaders decided it was too expensive to restore all train operations. The loss put an essential source of the town’s economic activity at risk.
The rebuilding that began on the railway itself is still underway. But a two-car, open-air train that offers tourists breathtaking countryside views now runs daily – its fuel processed from leftover animal fat from tonkotsu ramen soup and cooking oil waste from tempura, which is gathered from about 2,000 restaurants in Japan.
The chief executive of the company working to rebuild the train operations, Takachiho Amaterasu Railway, focussed on environmental issues from the start. Fumihiko Takayama believed the town’s residents were partially responsible for the storm’s devastation because of the trees that had been cut down for housing and business development. He wanted to ensure the company’s work didn’t cause further harm.
ABOVE & BELOW: Tourist posing with the pink-and-white train; and enjoying the Japanese countryside as they ride the Takachiho Amaterasu Railway’s sightseeing train. PHOTOS: THE WASHINGTON POST
ABOVE & BELOW: A chair created via coffee grinds and a 3D printer; and tourists riding the Takachiho Amaterasu Railway’s sightseeing train
ABOVE & BELOW: Fabula Chief Executive Kota Machida checks dried food waste in a laboratory at Tokyo University; coasters made out of ‘food cement’; and NOD staff members in Tokyo work at turning eggshells and coffee grinds into 3D-printed furniture
Amaterasu is working with Nishida Shoun, a transportation company in Fukuoka, which produces about 3,000 litres of biodiesel daily at its plant. The fuel powers the Amaterasu Grand Super Cart on the scenic, three-mile round-trip journey taken by thousands of tourists from Japan and abroad.
“We wanted it to be something more than just a tourist attraction, that could inform people about the history, culture and environment,” said company’s managing director Hiroyoshi Saitoh. “By implementing the biodiesel, we wanted people to become more conscious about environmental issues as well as biodiesel, especially for the students that come here on school trips.”
One thing many of them notice: The biodiesel smells like tonkotsu ramen or fried rice from a Chinese restaurant. And the minimal smoke it emits is white, a big difference from the thick black smoke and gasoline smell of regular diesel.
DRIED FOOD SCRAPS TURNED INTO CONCRETE
Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world, and its key ingredient, cement, is a major polluter of greenhouse emissions – accounting for eight per cent of global carbon emissions, according to international research group Chatham House.
So what if a more sustainable alternative were possible by making cement with food waste, which also would help reduce greenhouse emissions from landfills where that waste would otherwise be dumped? That’s the idea behind Fabula, a Tokyo-based start-up.
Researchers at Fabula created a recipe to create food concrete by drying food scraps, compressing them and pressing them into a mould at a high temperature. The company, founded in 2021 by researchers at the University of Tokyo, began with commonly discarded items like cabbage, orange peels and onion peels but found that almost any food item can be used. (Even a bento, or a boxed lunch, from a convenience store worked.) It now takes mostly coffee grounds and tea leaves to make its cement.
The product’s durability depends on the ingredient.
Fabula is currently producing made-to-order household items, such as coasters and dishes, while awaiting its patent. The goal is to make furniture and larger structures once the technology is able to make the cement more durable.
The company hopes to work with farmers who have surplus crops and construction companies looking for sustainable alternatives. Food manufacturing companies that cannot avoid generating waste during their processes have also reached out to work with the company, said Fabula’s Chief Commercial Officer Takuma Oishi.
“We also hope that we can maybe become some sort of a matching service between companies that have food waste and companies who want to build things out of such materials,” he said.
Since the cement is 100 per cent edible, it could create opportunities during disaster response when temporary structures need to be built quickly, Oishi added. The evacuees placed in them might even turn to them for sustenance.
If the technology advances enough, he suggested, someday evacuees may be able “to eat the homes or furniture when necessary”.
SITTING ON EGGSHELLS IN 3D-PRINTED CHAIRS
The 15th Century Japanese technique of kintsugi – which means “to join with gold” – uses lacquer mixed with powdered gold to repair shattered pieces of pottery. Its underlying ethos is that mistakes and imperfections can become something beautiful and meaningful.
Chief executive of the Tokyo-based design company NOD Yusuke Mizobata, considers kintsugi a predecessor of the modern concept of upcycling. It’s the inspiration behind his work to turn coffee grounds and eggshells into minimalistic 3D-printed furniture.
“I think upcycling is actually a very natural part of Japanese culture, but things have become too convenient today, where we can buy everything we need,” he said. “In the past, people utilised what they had around them in more creative ways… With technology, we can encourage people to do so.”
The idea came about as Mizobata and his colleagues were working on spatial design projects and saw how quickly furniture would be built and then dismantled for commercial spaces such as hotels. They wanted to find a more sustainable option.
Their 3D printing ink is made from coffee grounds, egg shells and other food items that are dried and blended with resins. That mixture is turned into pellets that are melted for the ink they need. Japan, Mizobata noted, is one of the few countries with 3D printers that can create materials as tall as about 10 feet.
NOD makes furniture on a commission basis, but its CEO hopes the technology will become more accessible and common so that people can easily create items with food items they would otherwise throw out. Ultimately, Mizobata hopes the growth of furniture made from food waste might help to change people’s mindsets about consumption and encourage them to upcycle rather than buy new.
“While people are now more conscious about upcycling and sustainability, it’s still difficult for many to integrate it in their daily lives,” he said.
SYDNEY (AFP) – Afghan international Fazalhaq Farooqi was fired yesterday by his Big Bash League (BBL) side Sydney Thunder following an “incident” last week that was investigated by Cricket Australia.
The fast bowler’s contract was torn up after the club “received a complaint about the behaviour of Farooqi following an incident last Thursday”.
Thunder referred the matter to Cricket Australia’s Integrity Unit for investigation and sacked him following the hearing.
“The behaviours displayed by Fazalhaq Farooqi sit outside our values and it was determined that his contract be terminated,” Cricket NSW Chief Lee Germon said.
“Our focus now is providing the necessary support to those affected by this incident.”
Cricket Australia said the matter was confidential and no further comment would be made.
Farooqi, 22, has played 10 one-dayers and 17 Twenty20 games for Afghanistan, bowling superbly in the recent World Cup in Australia.
When signed by Thunder last month, he was described as “an emerging talent”.
ATHENS, GREECE (AP) – A police officer accused of fatally shooting a Roma teenager in the head during a car chase over an alleged unpaid gas station bill appeared in court on Thursday in northern Greece to provide further testimony after the charges against him were elevated to mans laughter with possible intent.
The 34-year-old officer remains free pending trial, with a bail condition banning him from leaving the country.
He had originally been charged with a felony count of attempted manslaughter with possible intent over the December 5 shooting of 16-year-old Kostas Frangoulis but the charge was upgraded after the teenager died more than a week later. He has also been charged with a misdemeanor count of illegally firing his weapon.
The youth’s shooting led to days of protests, which often turned violent, by members of Greece’s Roma community and others, despite calls for calm from the teenager’s family and Roma community leaders. The case has put a spotlight on Greece’s Roma community, who face widespread discrimination.
DHAKA (AFP) – Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer hit aggressive half-centuries yesterday to come within breathing distance of Bangladesh’s first innings total after pulling their side out of trouble at the second Test in Dhaka.
Pant hit an unbeaten 86 off 89 balls and Iyer was batting on 58 as India reached 226-4 at tea on the second day, trailing Bangladesh’s first innings total by only one run.
Taijul Islam claimed three early wickets in the second morning before Taskin Ahmed had Virat Kohli caught behind for 24 in the post-lunch session, leaving India in serious trouble after resuming on 19-0.
But Pant and Iyer launched a counterattack to add 132 runs in their unbroken fifth wicket stand to put the pressure back on their opponents.
Pant has been at his level best, hitting five sixes and six fours so far and completing his 11th Test fifty off 49 balls in the process.
India’s Shreyas Iyerand Rishabh Pant run between the wickets to score. PHOTO: AP
Bangladesh missed some key opportunities to take control of the Match.
Mehidy Hasan dropped Iyer on 19 off Taskin before wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan missed a simple stumping chance off Shakib soon after.
The first session of the day belonged to Bangladesh as Taijul had KL Rahul (10) and Shubman Gill (20) out leg-before in successive overs before he dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara for 24.
Rahul was initially declared not out but the decision was overturned on review.
Gill walked off after he was struck plumb in front by Taijul in the next over.
The left-arm spinner then broke the fledging 34-run partnership between Pujara and Kohli just as the duo looked set.
Pujara, who completed 7,000 Test runs during the innings, was caught by Mominul Haque at forward short leg.
Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed four wickets apiece on day one as India bowled out Bangladesh for a modest total in the first innings.
India won the first Test of the two-match series by 188 runs in Chittagong.
