Code for Kids teaches value of computer programming | Metro

What started out as a way to keep a colleague?s kid occupied during a PD day turned into a bright idea, says the Code for Kids non-profit founder.

?I was at Shopify and our head of talent acquisition had his kid in on a PD day. He got bored pretty fast,? said Julian Nadeau, 21, who has been working for the Ottawa-based e-commerce company as a co-op student since January.

Using a Raspberry Pi computer and a credit-card sized 700?MHz device often used to teach?basic computer science in schools,?Nadeau quickly showed the boy how work with the visual programming language Scratch.

?A moment later I thought: ?Why don?t we do this for a bunch of kids,?? said Nadeau, who runs the course from Shopify?s event space.

The next session, which is the third of the series, will teach kids aged seven to 12 about designing user interfaces. Based on past workshops, the sessions seem to be growing.

?In May?we had an event where we brought the kids in and taught them Scratch,? said Nadeau, pointing out that 35 to 40 per cent of the kids who showed up were girls. The first three hour event brought in 20 kids, the second in July roughly 60 for the morning and afternoon course where they learned how to create a webpage using HTML.

By teaching kids to code, even if it?s at a basic level, it will help them to adapt and understand how to harness the true potential and power of technology, he said.

?Even if you?ve gone through school as an English major, in your job you end up using computers all the time,? said Nadeau of his reason for founding the program. ?We have this world where everything is controlled by technology.?You probably use a computer in ways that aren?t using them to their full potential.?

Though he?s only running workshops in Ottawa, Nadeau said he to hopes bring the program to other Canadian cities.

?The kids come out and?they?re ecstatic because they now have a website to show their friends.?

The next session runs on September 14th at Shopify?at a cost of?$55.

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Source: http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/756514/code-for-kids-teaches-value-of-computer-programming/

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Sports Minister pledges additional support for women's football

Women's football is to receive additional support from the Scottish Government, Sport Minister Shona Robison has pledged.

The boost for Scotland's fastest growing sport was announced as Ms Robison attended the Women's Football Conference in Stockholm as a guest of UEFA.

She will take part in a panel discussion where the 54 football associations will talk about how to develop the sport.

Scotland's women's football team has climbed the Fifa world rankings from 29th to 20th, and from 17th to 11th in the UEFA European rankings since the appointment of Anna Signeul as the national team manager.

Ms Robison said: "Women's football in Scotland is going from strength to strength and the Scottish Government is a committed supporter. We have an excellent working relationship with the Scottish FA and Scottish Women's Football, and have played a key role in the growth of girl's and women's football in Scotland. That has helped the national team reach its highest ever ranking and the Glasgow City team reach the latter stages of Uefa Women's Champions League competition.

"Girls' and women's football is the fastest growing sport in the world. The Scottish FA and national team are raising the profile of women's football by winning games and providing positive role models. That's why it is now the top team sport for girls in Scotland, with over 200,000 girls trying football through our Active Schools Programme last year.

"Sportscotland have invested more than ?2.2m into women's football to fund the national coach, assistant national coach, under 19s coach and a number of other posts, with the sportscotland institute of sport providing strength and conditioning, performance lifestyle and physiotherapy support.

"So we are in good shape, but the heartbreak of the national team just missing out on the Euro 2013 finals in the dying moments of a playoff encourages us to do more to build on this success. I plan to offer additional support to improve the current training environment for national players to help them to deliver on the international stage."

Ms Robison said full details of the support package would be made available in autumn.

She added: "I am confident that it will help our national team compete with the best in the world."

Source: http://news.stv.tv/scotland/234247-scotlands-sports-minister-pledges-additional-support-for-womens-football/

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Ouch! Beyonce's hair gets caught in stage fan

Celebs

Ree Hines TODAY contributor

11 hours ago

Beyonce's Mrs. Carter World Tour has fans flocking to see her performances, but during a Monday night concert in Montreal, one fan just couldn't get enough of her.

While the singer belted out her hit "Halo," she stepped a little too close to a stage-side wind machine and suddenly found her long, blond locks locked in the blades. But it's likely enough that the other fans at the show ? the ones who paid to get in ? didn't even notice Beyonce's tress distress.

That's because despite the alarming and no doubt painful situation, Beyonce never stopped singing. Sure, she discreetly tugged at her hair a bit ? and welcomed a helping hand from security ? but the show went on without a hitch.

Eventually, Beyonce found relief and later in the evening, she even found the humor in the situation.

After posting a clip of the hair-raising drama on Instagram, the hitmaker revealed an aptly rewritten version of the "Halo" lyrics.

Monday night wasn't the only time a fan tried to steal the show while Beyonce sang "Halo" on the Mrs. Carter tour. In May, the singer turned the microphone on an eager member of the audience (as she often does) and that fan delivered one very big note.

As for the mishap in Montreal, Beyonce's halo of hair seemed just fine after the incident.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/ouch-beyonces-hair-gets-caught-stage-fan-6C10713869

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New Google Earth Hack Lets You Nuke Any City in Devastating 3D

A perverse fascination with nuclear fallout and blast radii isn't that weird. Don't you want to know how hard you and everything you know is going to disappear from the face of the Earth in the unlikely case that some maniac drops twenty kilotons of atomic death on your front door? Now you can see a simulation of the mushroom cloud that will claim your life?in three dimensions.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/EA1pPw-jiz4/new-google-earth-hack-lets-you-nuke-any-city-in-devasta-866361443

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Afghanistan, trade dominate Biden talks in India

NEW DELHI: US Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Indian leaders Tuesday as he sought to calm fears over the exit of American troops from Afghanistan and capitalise on growing investment opportunities.

Biden met his counterpart Hamid Ansari at the start of a round of talks that will include sessions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Pranab Mukherjee and a top opposition figure.

The vice president, the most senior US official to visit India since President Barack Obama in 2010, has said the world's two largest democracies share common goals on a range of regional security issues.

But there is widespread unease among Indian leaders over what will happen in Afghanistan once US troops have left in 2014, with many fearing that Pakistan has most to gain from the withdrawal.

India has spent more than two billion dollars of aid in Afghanistan since the Taliban, hardline Islamists who were strong allies of Pakistan, were toppled in the 2001 US-led invasion.

Even though planned talks between the US and Taliban collapsed last month, the possible return to power of the Taliban alarms many in India.

Writing in The Times of India on Tuesday, Washington-based commentator Seema Sirohi reflected a widespread feeling in New Delhi that the departure of US troops would be a major boost for Pakistan.

"Biden, as one of the original proponents of the pullback of US troops from Afghanistan, is well positioned to explain why the Americans have handed the keys to Kabul to Pakistani generals," she wrote.

"Americans may close their eyes to the reality but it is impossible for India to do so. Biden should understand that."

In an interview ahead of his arrival, Biden said the Taliban had a part to play in the political process as long as they renounced violence.

"Our goal is for Afghans to be talking to Afghans about how they can move forward, end the violence and start rebuilding their country," he told The Times of India.

"We have been clear that if the Taliban are to have any role in Afghanistan's political future, they will need to break ties with Al-Qaeda, stop supporting violence and accept the Afghan constitution as part of the outcomes of any negotiated peace settlement."

Indian and US officials have pointed to Biden's visit as a chance to heat up the investment climate and crank up the levels of bilateral trade, which are on course to reach around US$100 billion a year.

But in a sign of the frustration among American investors over the obstacles they face in doing business in India, a Washington-based lobby wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to address what it called "India's unfair trade and intellectual property practices".

Biden "has a unique opportunity to show the administration's commitment to protecting US innovative and creative sectors by raising this important issue during his high-level meetings in India", Mark Elliot, a co-chair of the Alliance for Fair Trade with India, wrote in the letter.

The issue of intellectual property has been a major bone of contention in trade ties for years, with the American pharmaceutical industry consistently accusing India's huge generics industry of riding roughshod over patents.

India, in turn, has voiced dismay about US Congress proposals to curb visas for high-tech workers employed by the flagship Indian outsourcing industry working for US clients on-site.

The Hindu newspaper however said Biden's visit was taking place at a "happier moment in India-US relations" after recent moves by Singh's government to open up the economy to outside investors.

"Since last month, India has largely met the US wish list for higher foreign direct investment in many sectors and agreed to work towards kick-starting an ambitious US investment proposal in the civil nuclear sector by September this year," said the daily.

Efforts to build up trade are expected to feature not only in his talks with Singh but also form the cornerstone of a keynote speech he is scheduled to make in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Biden arrived in India on Monday evening, heading straight to a museum celebrating Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi. He leaves on Thursday for Singapore.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/afghanistan-trade/753076.html

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NBA D-League Champion Executive Gersson Rosas Hired As GM of Dallas Mavericks

NBA D-League championship winning executive Gersson Rosas will leave the Houston Rockets after being hired as General Manager of the Dallas Mavericks.

Gersson Rosas has spent the past few years as Executive Vice President of the Houston Rockets. Under the umbrella of such a position was serving as General Manager of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Rosas helped build quite the relationship between the affiliates, merging them as one through an array of different player assignments, NBA call-ups, and flat out prospect development. Speaking to RidiculousUpside.com earlier in the season, the highly regarded executive discussed not only the importance of developing the Rockets' current players through the D-League, but also developing those sole playing for the Vipers, in hopes of keeping an eye on the future.

The man is a great judge of talent, and knows how to develop and help those raw young guns along as well. Over the course of this past season, Houston assigned the likes of Donatas Motiej?nas, Terrence Jones, Patrick Beverley, (the since traded) Royce White, and (the since waived) Scott Machado to RGV. What's more, the NBA team also ended up calling up Vipers players like Tim Ohlbrecht and Greg Smith.

But Rosas' eye for potential doesn't simply stop there. He traded for NBA D-League M.V.P. Andrew Goudelock and NBADL All-Star D.J. Kennedy, drafted (current Wizards' first round draft choice) Glen Rice Jr. in the later rounds of last year's minor league draft, and also hired (the since promoted Raptors' assistant coach) Nick Nurse as head coach.

Such a resume (even at the minor league level) is quite impressive, and it showed. The team that Rosas assembled in Rio Grande Valley lived up to its potential, bringing home an NBADL championship this year.

Rosas' hard work and due diligence as an executive with the Rockets has paid off, and as it turns out, he won't have to go very far to reap the benefits of a new promising position. He's been hired by the Dallas Mavericks as their General Manager.

Such a hiring is a great one, and a well-deserved one at that. Still, the timing of the hire appears to be rather strange. After signing the likes of Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, Devis Harris, and Samuel Dalembert, the roster appears to have just filled out. Why choose to bring Rosas after all that is already done, rather than before?

After losing out on the likes of Deron Williams and Dwight Howard, the Mavericks' main goal appears to be staying competitive long enough to keep Dirk Nowitzki in town.

As Nowitzki grows older, he'll surely want to be on a contending team. Dallas could have opted to begin a rebuilding process now and subsequently traded Nowitzki to a playoff team. Instead, they've opted to keep him in town and surround him with slightly better than decent role players all around.

This keeps them competitive, but for what will they contend for? The seventh or eighth seed in the Western Conference? It may not be much, but the short two to three year plan is enough to keep Nowitzki aboard and avoid uproar from their fan base.

It'll be interesting to see what, if any, of his own spin Rosas puts on this roster leading up to training camp. Either way, it's a fantastic hire for the Mavericks organization.

Source: http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2013/7/22/4546006/nba-d-league-champion-executive-gersson-rosas-hired-as-gm-of-dallas

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DTE Energy: Crews working hard to restore power

DETROIT -

Utility officials say crews have been working with help from neighboring states to restore power to customers in southeastern Michigan after severe storms.

As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, DTE Energy says about 24,000 customers remain in the dark after the strong winds and rain moved through Friday afternoon and overnight.

Viewer images of Friday's storm damage.

Majority of the outages:

• Oakland County: 8,000
• Wayne County: 7,000
• Macomb County: 6,000

The remainder are scattered throughout southeast Michigan.

DTE Energy says about 145,000 customers lost power when the storms brought winds up to 45 mph. The utility says 90 percent of customers are expected to have their power back on by Sunday night. All available crews are working 16-hour shifts around the clock to restore service.?

DTE Energy says they understands how difficult it is to be without power, and they are asking customers to remain patience while repairs are made.

Customers are encouraged to call DTE Energy at (800) 477-4747 to report power outages or downed lines.

Customers can use the mobile website at dteenergy.com, or their iPhone or Android phone to report a power problem using the DTE Energy Outage Center app. The app is available free of charge from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Customers can report an outage, check on the status of an outage, and view our outage map, all from their smart phones.

Additional information on the current storm ? including our on-line Power Outage Map ? is available at www.dteenergy.com/outage.

Stay away from downed power lines and anything with which they come in contact, especially metal fences. Treat every downed power line as if it were energized

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/clickondetroit/local/~3/FCpG_avhtcE/index.html

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