T1Wk8 Seah Yi Ling 2SA4: How 3D printing could revolutionise the solar energy industry

More efficient, less complex and cheaper, 3D solar cells can also capture more sunlight than conventional PV models

3D solar cells, despite advances in energy storage, can capture more sunlight than conventional PV models. Photograph: Andy Newman/AFP/Getty Images

During President Obama’s recent state of the union address, I was particularly drawn to one specific comment he made. The statement by the president I’m referring to was, “A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionise the way we make almost everything.” 3D printing has been increasingly used to produce jewellery, dental work, prototyping and even creating human organs. However, as an energy strategist, I’m most excited about the potential for 3D printing to revolutionise solar panel and photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing.

For starters, for those not familiar with 3D printing, it’s the ability to make a three-dimensional “solid” object from digital design specifications. In other words, 3D printing is really a smart printer that creates objects layer by layer through additive manufacturing or the deposits of materials such as glass, silicon, plastic, resin and ceramic by following a virtual blueprint or animated software.

T1Wk8 Charmain Phua 2AA1: A New Cold War, in Cyberspace, Tests U.S. Ties to China

By DAVID E. SANGER, Published: February 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration circulated to the nation’s Internet providers last week a lengthy confidential list of computer addresses linked to a hacking group that has stolen terabytes of data from American corporations, it left out one crucial fact: that nearly every one of the digital addresses could be traced to the neighborhood in Shanghai that is headquarters to the Chinese military’s cybercommand.

That deliberate omission underscored the heightened sensitivities inside the Obama administration over just how directly to confront China’s untested new leadership over the hacking issue, as the administration escalates demands that China halt the state-sponsored attacks that Beijing insists it is not mounting.

The issue illustrates how different the worsening cyber-cold war between the world’s two largest economies is from the more familiar superpower conflicts of past decades — in some ways less dangerous, in others more complex and pernicious.

T1Wk8 Cherie Heng 2SB5: Bring Up The Royal Bodies

*The article below is a response to this article written by Hilary Mantel. You may choose to read it if you do not understand what the article below is talking about.

The Guardian, Tuesday 19 February 2013

There is a generous explanation of yesterday’s sudden furore about what Hilary Mantel said about the Duchess of Cambridge – a brief medialand frenzy into which both David Cameron and Ed Miliband foolishly allowed themselves to be drawn – and then there is the one that is probably true.

The generous explanation is that this is half-term. The rich and powerful are on trade missions to India and ski breaks in the Alps. It is therefore a bit of a slow news week, with the press scraping around for things to write about. In such circumstances, there is a gut logic in tapping into the media’s monarchy mother lode, and fanning a controversy about what one of our leading writers has said about one of the most newsworthy royals – even though it was actually said two weeks before it erupted on to the front pages yesterday.

A satirical take on censorship in Singapore

As I did not really cover the issue of censorship in the media, save for the essay question discussion, I thought that it would be good to provide you with a little more info here.

This clip, appropriately titled “Cut”, was produced by Royston Tan after his film “15” received a record number of cuts from the censorship board.

Do note some of the examples of censored movies mentioned in the video. Many of the movies mentioned are very renowned films. Therefore, do you think censorship will compromise the artistic direction and merit of the film to a great extent?

The video also talks about Singaporeans practising self-censorship. Think about how this is inculcated in us (if at all) and whether Singaporeans are indeed mature enough to practise self-censorship.

There is no need for you to post comments for this. But if you wish to do so, by all means! (:

T1Wk7 Wang Yi Xiong 2SB5: Facebook’s new promoted-post feature sparks privacy concerns

from The Guardian, UK

The social network’s new feature allows its users to promote their friends’ posts, even if they don’t want them to

Photograph: Joerg Koch/AP

Facebook announced the launch of a new feature on Friday that allows users to pay to promote their friends’ posts. In return for a fee, Facebook promotes the post so that more people see it.

Promoted posts don’t function outside of Facebook’s regular privacy settings, so people who can’t normally see a status update won’t be able to see posts that have been promoted.

Still, the new feature has already sparked privacy concerns because you don’t have to give your consent for a post to be promoted by one of your friends.

T1Wk7 Jean Chan 2SA4: 4,000 turn up at Speakers’ Corner for population White Paper protest

Yahoo! Newsroom – Sat, Feb 16, 2013

An estimated crowd of 4,000 people gathered at the Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park on Saturday afternoon to protest against the Population White Paper endorsed by Parliament last week.

Organised by transitioning.org, a support site for the unemployed, the nearly four-hour protest saw people of all age ranges and races turn up in the light drizzle, with umbrellas and some with home-made, colourful placards and posters. Many also came with their young children in tow.

A total of 12 speakers, including former NTUC chief Tan Kin Lian, former presidential candidate Tan Jee Say, SDP’s Vincent Wijeysingha and NSP’s Jeanette Chong-Aruldoss spoke at the event, mainly hitting out at the 6.9 million population figure mentioned in the White Paper.

T1Wk7 Aparna Jaggi 2AA1: Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption strikes huge chord

New Delhi: In two hundred cities across India on Tuesday, thousands of college students, young executives and housewives joined a campaign that asks the government to enact an important new law to fight corruption.

At the centre of the movement is respected social activist Anna Hazare who has begun a hunger strike that he says will not end till the government proves its commitment to the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill). What the government has proposed in its draft, he and other activists say on the website,indiaagainstcorrpution.org, is “complete eyewash”. Rather than strengthen anti-corruption systems, it demolishes whatever exists in the name of anti-corruption systems today. It seeks to completely insulate politicians from any kind of action against them.”

Unless civil society plays a role in drafting the law, Mr Hazare believes, it will change nothing.

T1Wk5 Delphine Poh 2SA4: The French Debate Gay Marriage, in Their Fashion

PARIS — The invitation-only soiree at the Rond-Point Theater on the Champs-Élysées last Sunday gathered 1,000 of this city’s glitterati, among them government ministers, intellectuals, politicians, artists and even union leaders, to support the legalization of same-sex marriage in France.

The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy waxed poetic on stage, warning of the “black tide of homophobia.” Lilian Thuram, the soccer hero who played on France’s World Cup-winning 1998 team, said he was supportive “because my grandfather was discriminated against because he is black and my grandmother because she is a woman.” Manuel Valls, the interior minister, opened his remarks with a letter of support from the president of Argentina, which he read in Catalonian-accented Spanish, his mother tongue.

Comedy and singing routines were performed, including one with a Lady Gaga impersonator as a lesbian bride in a long white wig and sunglasses. Texts by famous French intellectuals (Michel Foucault, Marguerite Duras) were read aloud.

T1W5 Annalisa Koh Li Ling 2AA1: Youth in Revolt

By Gordon Brown, The Daily Beast Newsweek Digital

Why protests in India and Pakistan herald a trend.

The new year has begun—just as 2012 ended—with young people on the march. Literally. This week it is young Indians, shocked by the murder of a medical student, who dominate the street rallies that are demanding proper protection for women against rape. A few weeks before, it was thousands of young Pakistanis who responded to the shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, forming the majority in the mass protests calling for an end to the discrimination that locks girls out of school.

Defying doom-laden forecasts that social progress is not possible in today’s fragile world economy, 2013 is likely to be marked by a rising number of demonstrations for young people and by young people—demanding that their rights be taken seriously and opportunity be delivered.

T1Wk5 Amanda Chua 2SB5: The Virtual Middle Class Rises

I ENCOUNTERED something on this trip to India that I had never met before: a whole new political community — India’s “virtual middle class.” Its emergence explains a lot about the rise of social protests here, as well as in places like China and Egypt. It is one of the most exciting things happening on the planet. Historically, we have associated democratic revolutions with rising middle classes achieving certain levels of per capita annual income — say, $10,000 — so people can worry less about basic food and housing and more about being treated as citizens with rights and with a voice in their own futures. But here’s what’s fascinating: The massive diffusion of powerful, cheap computing power via cellphones and tablets over the last decade has dramatically lowered the costs of connectivity and education — so much so that many more people in India, China and Egypt, even though they’re still just earning a few dollars a day, now have access to the kind of technologies and learning previously associated solely with the middle class.