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Otago Daily Times
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Wuthering dance open to all
Red-clad dancers gather to celebrate a previous Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever community dance event in the Octagon. The popular event returns on July 26. PHOTO: MARTIN BUYCK A sea of red-clad dancers will fill the Octagon in the fun and flamboyant midwinter community dance event, the "Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever". The annual event, based around a flash mob re-creating Kate Bush's iconic 1978 song and dance, will be held from 11am next Saturday, July 26. Organised locally by Dunedin city councillor Mandy Mayhem, under the HeartCore umbrella, the free event will be the first and most southern of hundreds of Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever celebrations going on all over the world. The project was founded in 2013 by "Wuthermothers" — British performance group Shambush — and is facilitated globally by Berlin-based Samantha Wareing. Participants will come together in the lower Octagon at about 11am for a warm-up and a practice run-through of the main dance — guided by lead dancer Hannah Rouse and her team. At noon, the full Wuthering Heights dance flash mob will swing into action. Cr Mayhem said everyone was welcome to just turn up and take part in the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever event — all that was needed was a red dress/outfit and some moves. The event will be accessible, with modified moves for all levels of participation — all ages, abilities and genders are welcome. There is no need to register, just turn up and join in. "We have red ribbons on sticks and pom-poms for those with limited mobility — it is all about participating and having fun," Cr Mayhem said. "We also have spare red clothes, including t-shirts and scarves, so there's no need to miss out if you don't have red clothes at home." The event will also raise funds for local mental health and wellbeing organisation Weka — Wellness, Empathy, Kindness Aotearoa.
TimesLIVE
7 hours ago
- General
- TimesLIVE
How schools are being built for extreme heat — without aircon
When prize-winning architect Francis Kere was growing up in Burkina Faso he spent his schooldays in a gloomy classroom that was so stifling he says it would have been better suited to making bread than educating children. Years later, while studying abroad, Kere returned to his home village to build a light and airy school where children could learn in comfort despite temperatures that can hit 45°C. But the Berlin-based architect did not use air conditioning. Instead he incorporated a host of cooling features into Gando Primary School that he has since applied to projects around Africa. Kere, who won architecture's highest honour, the Pritzker Prize in 2022, is among architects pioneering sustainable school designs for a warming planet. 'My own school was so hot it was hard to concentrate,' he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 'So I wanted to build a school that would be comfortable and inspiring for children.' Studies from Brazil to Vietnam show heat significantly affects learning. In a report last year, the World Bank warned climate change was threatening educational attainment, creating an 'economic time bomb'. Experts say classrooms should be no hotter than 26°C. In Gando, villagers were initially shocked when Kere announced he would build the school from clay, but the material is a natural temperature regulator, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Concrete and plate glass may look contemporary, but Kere said they make buildings hot, necessitating air conditioners. This creates a vicious circle. Energy-intensive air conditioners, which expel hot air outdoors, contribute to global warming, which then fuels demand for more air conditioning. Instead, Kere uses passive cooling techniques.
Indian Express
8 hours ago
- General
- Indian Express
How schools are being built for extreme heat
When prize-winning architect Francis Kere was growing up in Burkina Faso he spent his schooldays in a gloomy classroom that was so stifling he says it would have been better suited to making bread than educating children. Years later, while studying abroad, Kere returned to his home village to build a light and airy school where children could learn in comfort despite temperatures that can hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 F). But the Berlin-based architect did not use aircon. Instead he incorporated a host of cooling features into Gando Primary School that he has since applied to projects across Africa. Kere, who won architecture's highest honour of the Pritzker Prize in 2022, is among architects pioneering sustainable school designs for a warming planet. 'My own school was so hot it was hard to concentrate,' he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 'So I wanted to build a school that would be comfortable and inspiring for children.' Studies from Brazil to Vietnam show heat significantly impacts learning. In a report last year, the World Bank warned that climate change was threatening educational attainment, creating an 'economic time-bomb'. Experts say classrooms should be no hotter than 26 C. In Gando, villagers were initially shocked when Kere announced he would build the school from clay, but the material is a natural temperature regulator, absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Concrete and plate-glass may look contemporary, but Kere said they make buildings hot, necessitating air conditioners. This creates a vicious circle. Energy-intensive air conditioners, which expel hot air outdoors, contribute to global warming, which then fuels demand for more aircon. Instead, Kere uses passive cooling techniques. Gando's classrooms have openings at both ends, generating cross-ventilation. An overhanging roof elevated above a perforated lower roof improves air circulation and shades the facade. In Kenya, Kere's design for a college campus was inspired by termite mounds, which use natural ventilation to regulate interior temperatures. Low openings on the buildings suck in fresh air while terracotta-coloured towers let hot air escape. Some 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away in northwest India's Thar desert, temperatures reached 48 C this year. Vegetation is sparse, and sandstorms are common. The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School, a large oval sandstone edifice rising from the Rajasthan desert, was designed by New York architect Diana Kellogg. The building's orientation and shape allow prevailing winds to flow around the school, while lime plaster on the interior walls has an additional cooling effect. Lattice walls, inspired by traditional Indian jali screens, accelerate airflow due to a phenomenon called the Venturi effect. The school also runs off solar power and harvests enough rainwater for its needs. Temperatures inside are up to 10 C cooler than outside, contributing to high attendance, Kellogg said. Like Kere, she believes good architecture can encourage social change. Rajasthan has the lowest female literacy rate in India, but Kellogg said the school's monumental scale sends a strong message about the value of girls. 'It has enhanced their standing in the community,' she said. 'The girls take pride in attending and call it 'The College'. When I visit, the boys say, 'Build one for us'.' Even temperate countries are looking at how to cool schools as climate change brings more frequent heatwaves. Britain has said new school buildings should be future-proofed for a 4 C temperature rise. Its draughty Victorian-era schools with big windows and high ceilings are better suited to heatwaves than newer schools designed to keep heat in. But education does not just happen indoors. Playgrounds are also important for children's development, and many cities are trying to make them greener. Urban areas can be 4 C to 6 C warmer than rural areas, but planting trees reduces temperatures through shading and the release of water vapour. Paris aims to convert all asphalted schoolyards to green oases by 2050. Another solution involves cool paint. While countries like Greece have long painted building roofs white, scientists are now working on high-tech coatings that could potentially outperform air conditioners. From geothermal cooling technology to smart glass, engineers are developing increasingly sophisticated systems and products to control temperatures. But German architect Anna Heringer said sustainable architecture means working with local materials. Heringer, who has designed schools from Bangladesh to Ghana, is known for building with mud – 'a low-tech material with high-tech performance. 'If you ask farmers, they will tell you a mud house is cool in summer,' Heringer said, adding that clay balances humidity, which exacerbates physical discomfort in extreme heat and cold. 'Architects often try to be way too technical, but sometimes the solutions are in front of us.' In Tanzania, villagers told her they built concrete homes for status, but went to mud huts to sleep at night. Contrary to popular perception, clay walls do not dissolve in the rain, Heringer said. There are simple techniques to prevent erosion, and a natural crystallization process strengthens the walls over time. 'Clay has been branded as a weak material, but in every culture and climate we have mud buildings that are hundreds of years old,' Heringer said, adding that schools she built 20 years ago have required little maintenance. Some classrooms in her schools have solar-powered fans, but there is no aircon. Not only does it consume energy, but constantly switching between heat and cold can harm children's health, she said. Kere – whose international commissions include Benin's new parliament building and the upcoming Las Vegas Museum of Art – said his studio gets many inquiries about building with clay and passive cooling. 'There's a big shift,' he said. 'This would never have happened just a few years ago.' (Reporting by Emma Batha;
DW
10 hours ago
- Business
- DW
How Germany can better support young entrepreneurs – DW – 07/16/2025
Benedict Kurz wants his app to provide an AI-supported tutor to a billion schoolchildren worldwide. But why doesn't Germany have more young entrepreneurs like him? "We found studying pretty impersonal and boring, and we spent a lot of time on TikTok and Instagram." German entrepreneur Benedict Kurz was just 17 when he founded Knowunity in 2019 with three friends the same age. The company wanted to change how students acquired knowledge by adopting a peer-to-peer approach: students who were really good at a particular subject would explain the material to others. These "knowers" would have their own influencer profiles and followers on the platform. Quizzes, index cards and mock exams were designed to make learning more exciting. Knowunity also developed a "study companion" based on several different AI language models. It has access to millions of "knowers," enabling it to compile individual study plans and exercises. "Our app is tailored to the students themselves, not teachers or schools," says Kurz. Personal recommendation is an essential element of the business model. According to company data, from year five on, one in three schoolchildren in Germany already use Knowunity for studying, and so do many university students. It has more than 20 million users in 17 countries. Now, the Berlin-based startup plans to expand, primarily to the US and Asia. Knowunity has raised more than €45 million ($52.3 million) in funding to do this. In the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic and ChatGPT have turned the education sector upside down. Investors have spotted the opportunities this has created, and their investment has enabled the Berlin learning platform to grow at a startling rate. Many young people find the education system's inflexible "one size fits all" principle frustrating, but very few take this as the inspiration to start a company. What prompts someone not just to identify a problem, but to contribute to the solution actively? The IfM in Bonn, an institute that analyses the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany, and the Research Network Entrepreneurship conducted a survey that found that 40% of all 14- to 25-year-olds have some interest in starting a company. Only 11% actually do so. The number is twice as high in the Netherlands and the United States. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The researchers believe that, within this age group, there is potential for an additional 1.6 million startups. What holds these young people back is financial insecurity, lack of networks, lack of knowledge of business practices and limited access to capital. An experiment conducted with around 300 young adults interested in starting a company showed that basic startup security provision is the thing most likely to encourage them to take the plunge. Social security benefits and a secure income in the first year could make all the difference. Among the young adults, 24-year-olds would find this more of a motivation than 18-year-olds, women more so than men. Access to venture capital is more decisive for men. Immigrants, who tend to be less well-connected, want mentoring and help establishing networks. Support programs and further training geared to young would-be entrepreneurs come quite a long way down the list. The researchers are calling for young people with a variety of different needs to be actively involved in developing measures that would support them. Kurz knew very early on that he was going to be a businessman. At the age of 13, he was already buying and selling Chinese e-bikes online. He devoured podcasts about entrepreneurship and stories about people like Mark Zuckerberg who had built huge enterprises out of nothing. There were also role models at home: His parents, and his grandfather before them, run a small family business. "Entrepreneurship was never a topic at school," says Kurz. "My fellow students found my preferred career a bit of a joke." His best friend was the only one who shared his enthusiasm. Today, he, too, has his own company. Kurz found his partners in Knowunity at an event for people interested in starting a company. All four now work at the startup in different roles. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Unlike Knowunity, most startups originate in an academic environment. According to the current Student Entrepreneurship Monitor of the German Startup Association, one in five students can imagine setting up their own company. Soft factors are considered the most important: They want to learn new things, see the relevance of their work, and they're prepared to work long hours for this. Here, too, there's a lot of untapped potential: an estimated 18,000 startups a year that at present simply don't get off the ground. The majority of potential entrepreneurs, and even those aiming for a traditional career in employment, would have liked to have learned more in school and at university about starting and running a business. There's not much content along these lines on the Knowunity app, either. "We're guided by the curricula," Kurz admits. He suggests that the subject ought to be presented positively within the education system. He says it doesn't always have to be Zuckerberg; there are also great regional entrepreneurs. "They should bring more of them in to give guest lectures in schools." Kurz is on the board of the Startup Association. He is also in favor of social security to cover the initial phase. "Not everyone is lucky enough to get support from their family. Lots of people have the pressure of needing to start earning money right away." Kurz also thinks universities have a responsibility to facilitate the transfer of scientific discoveries to industry and to invest in spin-off companies. Finally, he says, regional hubs are needed to take startup culture to the regions. "Outside the bubbles of Berlin or Munich, it's not really something people have on their radar," he comments. Almost no free time in five years, the abandonment of a sporting career, and the weight of responsibility for employees and investors' money are part of the package of being an entrepreneur. On the other hand, says Kurz, it's super cool to create something new, make your own decisions, and work with exciting people. And he also gets a buzz every time he's on a train and spots someone using his app.
Yemen Online
a day ago
- Politics
- Yemen Online
Court rejects German responsibility in Yemen drone case
The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that Germany did not violate international law by failing to strictly monitor or prevent US drone attacks carried out with the help of signals from the Ramstein air base. The ruling comes after two Yemenis who say they had family members killed in a US drone attack in their home country more than 10 years ago, invoking the right to life and physical integrity enshrined in the German constitution in a complaint to the court. What did the court say? The court did state that Germany had a certain obligation to protect basic human rights even of foreigners living abroad. However, it said it had been unable to establish that the US had employed unjustifiable criteria in its differentiation between military targets and civilians in its attack. The court also ruled that any such attack would have to have a sufficient connection to German state authority for the obligation to hold, something that it said could not be claimed in this case. The ECCHR, who supported the plaintiffs, told DW that it was "unlikely" that they would pursue the case further, for example at the European Court of Human Rights. The German government has welcomed the verdict. A joint statement by the Foreign and Defense Ministries said that the court had recognized the wide leeway granted to the government in assessing whether an action by a third country conformed to international law. The statement said the ruling sent an important signal with regard to Germany's actions in the spheres of foreign affairs and security. What was the case against the Ramstein air base? The two Yemeni men bringing the case, Ahmed and Khalid bin Ali Jaber, said they lost some of their relatives in a US drone strike on the village of Khashamir in 2012 that occurred during a wedding meal of a male family member. They argued that Germany held partial responsibility for the attack, as the drone mission used signals relayed from the Ramstein base, situated near the city of Kaiserslautern in the southwest. The two men were supported in their case by the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which has said: "Without the data that flows through Ramstein, the US cannot fly its combat drones in Yemen." Assessing German responsibility The case has been before the courts for more than 10 years, being initially rejected in 2015 before a higher administrative court in the city Münster in 2019 ordered the German government to investigate the legality of the US use of the Ramstein airbase for such attacks. That ruling was then overturned by a federal court. The German Defense Ministry has argued that Berlin has received repeated assurances from Washington that no drones are launched, controlled or commanded from Germany and that US forces have adhered to international law in their actions. For years, the US has carried out drone attacks on suspected militants from the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Yemen.
