President Barack Obama’s uncle has been granted a special hardship driver’s license after having his regular license suspended last week in a drunken driving case.

Onyango Obama of Framingham, west of Boston, is the half-brother of the president’s late father. He was charged with drunken driving in August after rolling through a stop sign.

Sara Lavoie, spokeswoman for the state Registry of Motor Vehicles, said Obama got the special license at a hearing on Monday, allowing him keep his job as manager of two liquor stores.

Onyango Obama “provided the necessary documentation to receive a hardship license – proof of enrollment in an alcohol treatment program and a letter from his employer,” Lavoie said.

Obama still faces a pending immigration case. He was briefly held by the U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement in August on suspicion of violating a 1992 order to return to Kenya.

Source: Reuters

By the end of the decade, exaFLOP computers are predicted to go online heralding a new chapter in scientific discovery.

The United States, China, Japan, the European Union and Russia are all investing millions of dollars in supercomputer research. In February, the EU announced it was doubling investment in research to €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion).

What is an exaFLOP?

Computer scientists measure a supercomputer’s performance in FLOPS, an acronym for FLoating Point Operations per Second, while “exa” is a metric prefix which stands for quintillion (or a billion billion). An exascale computer could perform approximately as many operations per second as 50 million laptops.

“It is the next frontier for high-performance computing,” says Dimitrios Nikolopoulos, professor at the School of Electronics at the UK’s Queen’s University of Belfast.

How fast are today’s supercomputers?

Today, the fastest supercomputers operate at the petaFLOP level says Nikolopoulos, performing in excess of one quadrillion (or a million billion) operations per second.

The first computer to break through the petaFLOP barrier was IBM’s Roadrunner in 2008. But its reign as the fastest computer in the world didn’t last long, with the Cray Jaguar installed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States becoming the quickest with a performance of 1.75 petaFLOPS in 2009.

Today, the crown is held by is Japan’s K computer developed by RIKEN and Fujitsu.

The machine, installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, in Kobe, Japan, currently operates at over 10 petaFLOPS. It is more than four times faster than its nearest rival, China’s NUDT YH MPP computer (2.57 petaflops).

How big are they?

“The kind of space that you need is similar to that of a football field. You’re talking about many, many lanes of computer racks and thousands of processors,” says Nikolopoulos.

The K computer contains a mind-boggling 88,128 computer processors and is made up of 864 refrigerator-sized cabinets.

Physically, exascale computing won’t get any bigger, says Nikolopoulos, and might even get a little smaller. But the amount of processors will rise substantially to anywhere between one million and 100 million.

What are the challenges of reaching exascale?

The current projections suggest that power consumption of exascale computers will be 100 megawatts. It’s impossible to build a suitable facility and have enough power
Dimitrios Nikolopoulos

Nikolopoulos says “severe technology barriers” remain, the most important being power. “Power consumption of supercomputers in general is not sustainable,” he says.

“The current projections suggest that power consumption of exascale computers will be 100 megawatts. It’s impossible to build a suitable facility and have enough power.”

Historically, a computer’s processor has used the most power (around 40-50% of the total) Nikolopoulos says, but memory is rapidly catching it up.

“Changing materials and also the architecture of processors and memories is critical to exascale’s success,” he says.

“We are beginning to understand the challenges of exascale in terms of hardware, software and applications. We are at the stage where we can make mental projections and set up directions for research.”

What benefits could exascale computing bring?

It will enable discovery in many areas of science, says Nikolopoulos. “Aerospace engineering, astrophysics, biology, climate modeling and national security all have applications with extreme computing requirements,” Nikolopoulos said.

Bill Cabbage, public information officer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says exascale will attempt to tackle very serious challenges in energy supply and sustainability.

“These are very difficult problems and will require the development of new forward-thinking technologies to deal with them,” Cabbage said.

“We are bringing all our resources to bear on these problems,” he added.

Social sciences could also profit, says Nikolopoulos.

“More and more people are interested in understanding the behaviors of societies as a whole. These require simulations — how people interact, communicate, how they move. That will require exascale computing,” he said.

The Eldoret North MP and Deputy Prime Minister hope to achieve this either by piling pressure on The Hague to delay the trials through collection of five million signatures.

Uhuru unveiled his strategy during last month’s controversial meeting in Limuru, where his supporters mooted plans to collect two million signatures to demonstrate to the International Criminal Court it would be dangerous for the country to go for elections without him and Ruto in the race.

Ruto upped the game on Tuesday when his supporters, meeting under the umbrella of Kamatusa an acronym for Kalenjin, Masai, Turkana and Samburu communities announced plans to compel the Government to apply to the United Nations (UN) security Council under Article 16 of the Rome Statute to defer the cases until after elections.

They also agreed to collect three million signatures countrywide for the purposes of the petition, which will run side by side with Uhuru’s that is directed at ICC.

The Kamatusa group, that also endorsed Ruto as their undisputed leader also decided that if the UN option fails, Members of Parliament should use their powers to postpone the elections until such a time when there shall be a conducive environment where competitive politics can be practiced fairly and peacefully.

The problem, however, is, there is no telling how long the trials would take, and so it remains unclear how their supporters who went public on Tuesday on the strategy, plan to craft amendment delaying elections.

Still, it is not even clear how they plot to deal with the controversial fact that this could come along with an extension of President Kibaki’s term in office and probably even a longer life for the Tenth Parliament to forestall a vacuum in the governance structure.

But in case they are ignored, Kalenjin community elders announced they would prevail upon athletes from their community to boycott this year’s London Olympics.

“The community will announce a date when all people of Kenya who value justice and fairness will go to polling stations to append their signatures,” said Kalenjin Council of Elders Chairman Major (Rtd) John Seii at the meeting in Eldoret.

Despite the obvious logistical challenges, Seii also announced they would mobilise five million members of the Kalenjin community to travel to The Hague to take part in the cases.

The meeting also declared Rift Valley a United Republican Party zone and gave Ruto a free hand to pick and work with political alliances he considers key to the community’s interest.

In what appeared choreographed message to the country and the world, as Ruto’s supporters spoke in Eldoret, the Gema group met in Nairobi to strategise on how to collect two million signatures to demonstrate it would not be in the interest of Kenyans, their peace, and democracy to hold elections in which the two would not be running.

Adopted from the standard newspaper.

The fight erupted when two groups of British Army soldiers from Scotland and Ireland clashed after one group accused the other of being reckless drivers and causing accidents within Nanyuki area.

Police said five soldiers who suffered serious injuries were airlifted to Nairobi Hospital for specialised treatment.

Laikipia East OCPD Mr Joshua Lutukai said a fight ensued between the soldiers on Friday after a disagreement at a bar at Sportsman Arms Hotel.

Lutukai said two soldiers were treated at Cottage Hospital and allowed to go back to the nearby British Army Training Camp in Nanyuki, while the other five were flown to Nairobi hospital for specialised treatment.

The soldiers, according to Lutukai, suffered serious head, limbs and rib injuries.

The police chief said scores of other soldiers were injured during the Friday night brawl that also left property estimated at about Sh150,000 destroyed at the hotel.

Ms Carol Muriuki, a patron who was at the bar when the fights erupted said the soldiers disrupted business at the hotel after the fights spread to other tables where other patrons sat.

“Police came in riot gear but they could not also calm the soldiers, and they resorted to arrest some call girls who were with them, but we could not wait. We just went home and left them fighting,” said Muriuki.

Laikipia DCIO Mr Shadrack Uman Juma said senior British Army officers arrived at the hotel and pledged to take necessary action.

“They told us everything was under their control and even refused to give us names of the victims,” said Juma.

However, Lutukai and Juma said no civilian was hurt in the fight.

A source at the hotel told The Standard that the fights lasted more than two hours and the soldiers only stopped fighting after their combat wing intervened.

Source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/

Mobile service provider Safaricom will double its broadband capacity next week to 42 mbps from 21 mbps  and it will be the fastest network in the whole of East and Central Africa.

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said this during the Connected Kenya Summit 2012 in Mombasa.

Growing up in Murang’a, Mr Mwangi — now final year Bachelor of Commerce student at Catholic University — was fond of the farm on which his family grew fruits and vegetables. But as he grew older, he noticed something unusual: the quality of the soil was deteriorating and the land was no longer as productive as before.

Unable to explain the phenomenon, he went round seeking a solution from other farmers.

“Every farmer I talked to advised me on various chemicals and fertilisers that I could use but I could not comprehend it.

Their names were too hard and I decided I could not use products whose names I could hardly pronounce,” he told the Business Daily in a recent interview.

Farming accolades

Unable to find a viable solution, Mr Mwangi turned his search online. Little did he know that his presence online would later earn him important African farming accolades.

It took him one year to research on best farming practices and in the end organic farming was what he settled on. “Most people do not know about organic farming. It allows the soil to replenish itself. It is also the best pest control method,” said Mr Mwangi.

Thanks to his decision, his family’s 15-acre farm is fertile once again. They grow maize, beans, passion fruit, potatoes, parsley, cabbages and spinach on rotational basis. They also practice greenhouse and bamboo farming, which has proved to be lucrative.

Bamboo has a ready market in furniture dealers who are using it to replace wood which has become costly and unfriendly to the environment due to deforestation. Bamboo also takes a shorter period to grow and can be used as hedges and later harvested for cash.
Since Mr Mwangi is now a full-time student living in Nairobi, he is not fully involved with the technical work on the farm.

Instead, he has affirmed his role as the farm’s strategic manager in charge of research and marketing.

He has also sought to share his farm experience with other youth through his blog Youth Agropreneur, a blog he established in October last year with the goal of sharing important farming information with the public. Youth Agropreneur was short-listed in the YoBloco youth in agriculture blog competition award.

The blog won third place. Mr Mwangi will be travelling to Johannesburg, in May to receive his 800 euro cash prize and trophy.

“I first ran a blog on agriculture investments called investment Kenya.wordpress.com, then I decided to launch another blog that focuses on agriculture only—the one that won.”

He says that he learnt about the competition when a friend twitted him about it. One of the requirements was that the blog had to be solely on agriculture.

He says he was confident that he was going to make it among the top three, having searched through similar Web sites to compare with his.

With the prize money, Mr Mwangi intends to buy blue berry vines and set up an organic berry farm. But before that he will need to seek licence from UK for his organic export since that is the market that fascinates him. Each blue berry vine sells for Sh600.
The win has turned him into an avid blogger. He now contributes to two other blogs and runs three others on health, agriculture and technology.

“I blog on health and investments in agriculture.” Mr Mwangi advises youth to follow their passion instead of eyeing short-term monetary gain from job opportunities.

He advises them to invest in rewarding long-term ventures. “I started blogging one-and a-half year ago and its only last week that I got a huge reward for it. It took long but it was worth it,” he says.

Other winners were Nawsheen Hosenally, 23, from Mauritius, who took the first prize. Her blog link is http://nawsheenh.blogspot.com/.

The other top blogger was Sourou Nankpan from Benin. He is a 28-year-old biotechnologist graduate. His website link is http://www.agrobenin.com/

Two other Kenyans featured as runners up. They are Hudson Were, 28, and Grace Wanene aged 23.

Position five

They featured in position five and six respectively. Mr Were is an environmental science graduate from Kenyatta University. He was hosting a blog on sustainable development but later integrated agriculture into it. His website aims to provide the youth with information on agriculture and how to get them involved in farming.

He says the competition has helped him acquire more knowledge on farming techniques since is required to carry out extensive reading before writing an article. It has also provided him with the opportunity to network.

He is currently working with Biovision farmers’ communication project as the project assistant.

Ms Wanene is an environmentalist who is passionate about conservation, agriculture and rural development. She is a Bachelor of Science graduate from Egerton University. She launched her blog— Youth Agro-environment initiative in 2011.

The YoBloco competition was funded by Technical Centre for Agricultural and rural co-operation (CTA), a joint institution of African, Caribbean and Pacific, and European Union (EU) that seeks to advance food security through sound natural resource management and knowledge sharing.

The organisation, which is based in the Netherland, has 79 countries as members.

Source: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com

US Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration said on Monday that once JKIA is certified as a ‘Category 1′ air field by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and Federal Aviation Administration which is a requirement for all airports handling flights operating in and out of America, then direct services between Kenya and the US can commence.

“In terms of terminal completion and other things, it will be at least another 180 days before that happens. Things may slip as they often do but we are pushing to make sure that things happen as soon as possible,” the envoy said.

Plans to launch the direct flights have been on the cards since 2007 but have not materialised largely due to security concerns by the US government.

In 2009, US homeland security officials declined to give Delta Airlines the approval to operate flights between JKIA and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, via Dakar, Senegal citing ‘security vulnerabilities’ in Nairobi.

The indefinite suspension of the inaugural flight, which had been scheduled for June 3, 2009 nearly caused a diplomatic tiff between the two governments, as Nairobi protested that it had not been informed of the decision to cancel the flights.

Negotiations have since resumed although they have been hinged on the capacity and ability of Kenya’s main airport to handle direct flights to and from the US. The government hopes to have this status attained by August this year.

If achieved, the service will afford the two countries the opportunity to enhance their commercial ties particularly in the trade and tourism sectors.

“We believe that there is a tremendous market in the United States for everything including green beans, flowers and we believe direct flights would help to bring investments to Kenya. We also believe that Kenya is on the cusp of tremendous growth and there are many companies that want to invest here.” he stressed.

Some of those companies include American multinational aerospace and General Electric (GE) which has already opened its Africa headquarters in Nairobi.

The conglomerate is also extending its operations from energy to aviation with the announcement that it had been picked by national carrier Kenya Airways to supply the engines for nine Boeing 787 Dreamliners that it hopes to take delivery of beginning 2014 at a cost of USD380 million.

The 19 GE-nx-1B engines deliver 15 percent fuel efficiency and come with lower maintenance costs.

Speaking while signing the deal with GE, KQ Chief Executive Officer Titus Naikuni enthused that they would see a significant reduction in their fuel bill in the next few years that would be reflected into their bottom line and enable them to offer competitive rates.

Fuel accounts for about 40 percent of the airline’s direct costs.

“The engines are bigger, quieter and more efficient than the Boeing 767 engines; have reduced fuel burn and longer periods on the wing between overhauls. This means the Dreamliner will come with lower maintenance costs and therefore ability to be flying longer,” Naikuni added.

The delivery will bring the share of engines supplied by GE to 56 percent in the next five years up from the current 42 percent.

The two companies hope to further reinforce their partnership by incorporating skills development on how to operate and maintain the engines.

“We will help KQ train its engineers and technicians to be able to work on the maintenance aspects of the engine and also we will cooperate at the higher level with the Pride Center for training of managers and leaders of Kenya Airways,” disclosed General Electric Aviation’s Vice President Sales, Middle East and Africa Isam Moursy.

The money will be used to help developers come up with simple solutions for every day use especially in health and education.

The World Bank said the grant would enable Kenya to enhance accountability through web-based applications and transform the economy.

“Information technology has on average contributed one percentage point to Kenya’s growth since 2000, and opened a path for achieving remarkable improvements in transparency and also in governance,” said Johannes Zutt, the World Bank country director for Kenya.

Information Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo said the money would help scale up content development and create jobs while facilitating the government’s efforts to offer it services online.

“We shall work more to simplify data and convert it into information,” said Dr Ndemo in reference to e-governance, a programme through which public services are offered online to increase efficiency and curb corruption.

The World Bank said the grant would support Kenya’s efforts to increase Internet penetration and create an enabling environment for budding software applications developers to thrive.

“Kenya has put in place the second-fastest broadband on the continent (after Ghana), which has reduced the wholesale Internet capacity prices by over 90 per cent and increased Internet penetration from three to 37 per cent of the population in the past decade,” read part of a statement from the World Bank.

The government through the Kenya ICT Board will extend the grant to innovators who want to commercialise their ideas.

Youth groups, mainly university students and fresh graduates who have ventured into start-ups, operating from various innovation centres across Nairobi such as iHub, iLab Africa, mLab, and NaiLab are the driving force behind the applications.

There are more than 3,000 software developers who have come up with both mobile and personal computer-based software applications that are changing lives across the continent.

The applications are designed to help users solve their day-to-day problems, ranging from linking farmers with buyers for their produce, to monitoring if a patient is taking a prescribed drug, to locating a restaurant.

The World Bank is keen on software applications that can enable citizens to monitor how grants given to the government or organisations are used.

Nokia has also announced intentions to establish a regional research and development centre in Nairobi to capture the growing number of software developers who can make applications for its African market.

Other global organisations are trooping to Kenya in search of locally-made software applications which they hope to replicate in other parts of the world.

Kenya is now widely recognised as a world leader in using ICT and a global leader in IT applications. These include the home-grown mobile-money platforms like M-Pesa, which are enabling increasing numbers of Kenyans to use their phones for financial transactions, bringing quasi-financial services to the unbanked for the very first time.

Since it was approved in 2007 the KCTIP project has contributed to the sector through activities in connectivity, content development and selected eGovernment applications.

Task Team leader Isabel Neto said the project will support the government to expand its Open Data initiative and the Integrated Financial Management Information System.

It will also increase the government’s investment in cyber security and support investments to simplify and improve immigration and population registry systems.

Previous beneficiaries from the KTCIP grants have included Infotrack Strategic Solutions Ltd, which has developed a portal that will link teachers with their employer, the Teachers’ Service Commission, while iBid Labs has come up with the Kenya Online Museum project which seeks to document the country’s history.

Source: www.businessdailyafrica.com