November | 2015 | Peter "Just Loves Flying"

How Africa’s fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda | Environment | The Guardian

November 29, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Kenya, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Rwanda, Solar Power Leave a comment

East African plant is completed in less than a year – creating jobs and setting the country on the path to providing half its population with electricity by 2017

Source: How Africa’s fastest solar power project is lighting up Rwanda | Environment | The Guardian

“Arise, shine for your light has come,” reads a sign at the entrance to the first major solar power farm in east Africa.

The 8.5 megawatt (MW) power plant in Rwanda is designed so that, from a bird’s-eye view, it resembles the shape of the African continent. “Right now we’re in Somalia,” jokes Twaha Twagirimana, the plant supervisor, during a walkabout of the 17-hectare site.

The plant is also evidence, not only of renewable energy’s increasing affordability, but how nimble it can be. The $23.7m (£15.6m) solar field went from contract signing to construction to connection in just a year, defying sceptics of Africa’s ability to realise projects fast.

The setting is magnificent amid Rwanda’s famed green hills, within view of Lake Mugesera, 60km east of the capital, Kigali. Some 28,360 solar panels sit in neat rows above wild grass where inhabitants include puff adders. Tony Blair andBono have recently taken the tour.

From dawn till dusk the computer-controlled photovoltaic panels, each 1.9 sq metres, tilt to track the sun from east to west, improving efficiency by 20% compared to stationary panels. The panels are from China while the inverters and transformers are from Germany.

The Gambia bans female genital mutilation | Society | The Guardian

November 29, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Africa, Female Genital Mutilation, FGM, Gambia, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

President Yahya Jammeh outlaws practice that affects three-quarters of women in west African country

Source: The Gambia bans female genital mutilation | Society | The Guardian

“The Gambia has announced it will ban female genital mutilation (FGM) after the Guardian launched a global campaign to end the practice.

The president, Yahya Jammeh, said last night that the controversial surgical intervention would be outlawed. He said the ban would come into effect immediately, though it was not clear when the government would draft legislation to enforce it.

FGM involves cutting female genitalia – often when girls are young – to remove their labia and clitoris, which often leads to lifelong health complications, including bleeding, infections, vaginal pain and infertility. More than 130 million women worldwide are subjected to the procedure in Africa and the Middle East…”

Spin Recovery: What’s The Purpose Of Each Step? | Boldmethod

November 22, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Flying, Madox Airsports, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Pilot 1 Comment

Spins are always a hot topic, and spin recovery is one of the first maneuvers you learn in flight training. Many of us learned the spin recovery acronym “PARE,” for Power, Aileron, Rudder and Elevator. It’s a great way to remember spin recovery technique – but do you know what each step does?

Source: Spin Recovery: What’s The Purpose Of Each Step? | Boldmethod

New on 500px : nature by strock by strock

November 19, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Leave a comment

mallard with a few specks of water comming off of his feet via Tumblr

Source: New on 500px : nature by strock by strock

How to Fight ISIS – The New York Times

November 19, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Conflict, Fighting ISIS, International Security, ISIL, Middle East, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

“The mass murder of civilians in Paris has inevitably reignited the debate over using military force in the Middle East to attack the Islamic State. The debate, like anything that gets tangled up in American presidential politics, is divorced from reality. The United States, and other nations, is already engaged in military action with some ground forces in Iraq and Syria.

The panicked reactions, fanned by right-wing politicians in the United States and Europe, to “declare war” on the Islamic State are mostly just noise. None of those proposing that kind of response offer the slightest idea of how it would be done; all they have is an understandable desire, which we share, to obliterate the terrorist group also known as ISIS.

President Obama struck the right note in his remarks on Monday: Military action can be only one part of a broader strategy that the United States and its partners will have to pursue over many years. Important Muslim nations, notably Saudi Arabia, will simply have to stop paying for and politically enabling the mosques, imams and paramilitary groups that fuel extremists and their virulent perversions of Islam. Moderate Muslims need to redouble efforts, begun after 9/11, to ensure that their vision of a more tolerant and inclusive Islam prevails…”

Source: How to Fight ISIS – The New York Times

Fearing Fear Itself – The New York Times

November 17, 2015

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Leave a comment

Terrorists won’t bring down Western civilization, and the tradeoffs we make to counter it should not include giving in to the panic they hope to create.

Source: Fearing Fear Itself – The New York Times

“Like millions of people, I’ve been obsessively following the news from Paris, putting aside other things to focus on the horror. It’s the natural human reaction. But let’s be clear: it’s also the reaction the terrorists want. And that’s something not everyone seems to understand.

Take, for example, Jeb Bush’s declaration that “this is an organized attempt to destroy Western civilization.” No, it isn’t. It’s an organized attempt to sow panic, which isn’t at all the same thing. And remarks like that, which blur that distinction and make terrorists seem more powerful than they are, just help the jihadists’ cause.

Think, for a moment, about what France is and what it represents. It has its problems — what nation doesn’t? — but it’s a robust democracy with a deep well of popular legitimacy. Its defense budget is small compared with ours, but it nonetheless retains a powerful military, and has the resources to make that military much stronger if it chooses. (France’s economy is around 20 times the size of Syria’s.) France is not going to be conquered by ISIS, now or ever. Destroy Western civilization? Not a chance…”