TINGOLO, Kenya (AP) — A wave of outrage has grown in Kenya since word has spread that a 16-year-old girl was gang raped and thrown into a pit latrine in this western Kenyan town, with the alleged attackers told to cut grass at a police post, and then let go.
Nearly 1.4 million people have signed an online petition put up by the activist group Avaaz calling for prosecution of the young men and an investigation of the police who freed the suspects.
Kenya's political heavyweights are also speaking up. Supreme Court Chief Justice Willy Mutunga last weekend said he had forwarded the matter to the National Council for Administration of Justice for "immediate action." Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said that "as a woman and a mother I am outraged and angered by this inhumane, traumatizing and inexcusable violation."
The teen is currently confined to a wheelchair because of the physical trauma from the attack. She has undergone two surgeries — one for a fistula and another for spinal surgery, said Lydia Muthiani, the deputy executive director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women, a group that has taken up the case.
"She is doing very well. They are hopeful she will walk again," said Muthiani, who noted that the victim is still dealing with the psychological trauma of the rape and from time to time will shut down emotionally.
The attack happened in June but didn't get wider attention until Nairobi's Daily Nation newspaper wrote about it in early October.
Her mother spoke through tears at her home in Busia County. She told The Associated Press that the police at first said only that her daughter should be taken to a pharmacy and be prescribed pain killers.
Even if her physical and psychological trauma continues to heal, her life will forever be upended. Cultural traditions in this area mandate that a rape victim leave her home and move to another town where, in theory, people will not know that she has been raped.
Muthiani labeled rape an "invisible crime" in Kenya because it is underreported and rarely acted on judicially.
"We wouldn't know how big a problem rape is in essence just because we do not have all the numbers of reported cases, but from the number of cases that we do receive, it is a very, very high number," said Muthiani, who said studies have shown that one in six Kenyan women will experience some sort of sexual assault in their lifetime.
Muthiani said that one aid group that studied sexual violence during Kenya's 2007-08 election violence found that at least 3,000 women were raped during the months of violence. Muthiani said there have been only 11 convictions related to those 3,000 cases.
"When you have a statistic that low, what are you inspiring the public to do? The institutions that are supposed to protect and serve us, for instance police and prosecutors, have to start doing a better job. We have to put it out there that there is going to be punishment for people who sexually violate other people," she said.
Kenya's inspector general of police, David Kimaiyo, has tweeted in support of the victim from his personal Twitter account. Kimaiyo said the investigation into the attack is complete and that the file has been forwarded to prosecutors to be acted on.
Alfred Ouma, the chairman of a local council of elders in Busia County, said he wants "severe action" taken against the officers who initially received the rape complaint and "mishandled it."
The victim's grandmother told AP from her small grass hut home that the attackers must be found.
"I want those policemen that released the boys that they had in custody to arrest the parents of the boys who raped my granddaughter so that they can say where the boys are hiding," the grandmother said.
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Associated Press reporter Andrew Njuguna contributed to this report. Straziuso reported from Nairobi, Kenya.
The old-model college professor could afford to write for free. Times have changed.
Photo by Shutterstock
Should writers work for free? What if those writers are academics?
That is a real question up for debate in several media outlets this past week. But I’d like to ask why we work for free and why we don’t shame organizations that expect us to.
The Internet has created a bottomless void that requires content. In a classic case of how expansion breeds stratified access, an increase in platforms that require writing has resulted in fewer outlets that pay writers to write. In the New York Times recently, Tim Kreider argued that he cannot afford to write for free. He encourages other writers to reject the freemium culture for the benefit of all who make a living by penning the word. In a column for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sarah Kendzior says that journalists may find it beneficial to write for free occasionally, but that academics should never do the same, even though “[p]ublishers like to evoke academics’ professional status to justify not paying them.”
Kendzior’s argument might seem like backward logic: Why shouldn’t privileged elite academics give back to the public good by writing for free? Her larger point is about the profit structure of academic publishers, and it is a good one; but there is another argument to be made that’s more specific to the structural change of labor occurring in higher education. It is a reality largely hidden in plain sight as wars, government spying, and rising inequality dominate our national attention span, but the life of the mind is not the elite gig it once was.
Nearly two-thirds of all those teaching in colleges and universities aren’t the tenured professors in corduroy sports coats familiar from pop culture, inoculated from layoffs and depressed wages. They are instead adjuncts—who work on piecemeal teaching contracts for an average of $2,700 per class, per semester/quarter—and other non-tenure-track instructors. Even among the less precarious professoriate, there’s a push to dismantle tenure and replace it with term-limit contracts. Academics who write for free under these conditions are not doing it to prove their superstar bona fides. Many are writing for free hoping to build a career path where increasingly there is not one, doing work for which they have trained for a decade or more only to find an economy that isn’t much interested in paying a premium for expertise.
Withholding our creative contributions from causes and organizations that reflect our values does little to challenge systematic abuse.
Let’s get this out of the way: I have written for free. My membership in the club of Real Academics is constantly being negotiated, but early in my doctoral career I wrote for outlets without payment. Like Atlantic writer Ta-Nehesi Coates, I made my calculation relative to how I understood my social position. I am a black woman with a non-elite higher-education pedigree. When you are at Harvard or Yale, you do not need much else to be considered an expert on anything, really, whether you have studied it or not. You are at an Ivy League institution. We assume you can comment with gravitas on everything from global warming to Michelle Obama’s fashion choices. Without those types of Ivy League status baubles, it is hard to cultivate gravitas. Contributing to public discourse is even more complicated for women and minorities, both of whom are underrepresented in both old and new media. The op-ed pages of major news outlets, which are overwhelmingly white and male, are gatekeepers to Sunday news shows where experts influence public opinion. With the recent exception of Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC, the Sunday-establishment television punditry has been a near whitewash, with a minority view of white men representing the views of an America that gets browner every year.
Like many minority scholars, I accept responsibility for countering this imbalance in who is deemed “expert.” But, like money, it takes status to make status. And there are few mainstream venues that invite women and people of color to speak on more than “women’s issues” or “race issues” but on issues germane to their actual expertise in a field of study. In many ways, gender, race, and class issues in academia become pipeline issues for media gatekeepers and the professional pundit class. How can academics who already exist at the margins shape discourse that always comes first for women and minorities, and also buck the structural trend of publishers expecting them to write for free? There is no easy answer.
The economics of demanding free content, in a field flush with more producers than paying outlets, is a formidable barrier. So are the economics of higher education, which produces more experts than dignified, full-pay work for experts. Working for prestige without accompanying cash is, in the end, a Faustian bargain. But so too is hunkering down amid the crumbling academic labor structure, especially for minority scholars who have long been underrepresented and systematically denied tenure. For them, public scholarship can be less about exposure than indemnity. How do we expand access to these voices without further marginalizing them?
I no longer write for free … unless I do. After a solid track record of payment for my content, a local alternative newspaper approached me a few months ago. It is a nonprofit that raises hell in a conservative Southern media market. I like hell-raisers. I have, on occasion, raised a little myself. I also like insurgent media. This newspaper could not afford to pay me, something the editor said upfront. I gladly gifted the paper the content. I had published the original essay at my own website first, making my ownership of it clear. The editor asked for the content, rather than assuming that because it was on the Internet it could be borrowed without my explicit permission. He explicitly expressed an understanding of the value of the work and that he was unable, not unwilling, to compensate me for it. In short, he respected my professionalism and my work. That the outlet also shares my values made the contribution a no-brainer for me. Judging by the reader mail I received after the paper published the essay, it sparked a meaningful conversation about an emotionally laden subject.
My choice to publish that essay for free is not the same as writing for free. I had choice and control. How do we give other academics and writers that same kind of choice and control? Individually, we can manage our own spaces. Be it in the form of blogs or e-books, the adjunctification of academic labor and media means exerting control over what we write. And, as Kendozier argues, we should demand respect for our work, even if respect is not always indicated as payment. Withholding our creative contributions from causes and organizations that reflect our values does little to challenge systematic abuse. However, expecting that our work be respected and only valuing gatekeepers that respect us can resist exploitation. More than writing for free, it is the assumption by gatekeepers that one should write for free that needs to be disrupted. The editor at that alternative newspaper could not afford to pay me, but that he expected that I should be paid worked very much in favor of my decision to write for free.
Ultimately, though, systematic abuses require systemic change. With the economics of labor against us, we have to appeal to cultural norms. Children working in factories can absolutely maximize profit returns, but we’ve (mostly) decided that child labor is a moral violation. In the same way, for-profit organizations that abuse labor to maximize profits should pay a price in legitimacy. That requires organizing, agitating, and writing about the hard choices faced by so many—even if, on occasion, we write about it for free.
Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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Contact: Minnie Glymph minnie.glymph@duke.edu 919-660-8403 Duke University
Metamaterial cells designed by Duke engineers provide electric power as efficiently as solar panels
DURHAM, N.C. -- Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.
The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. (It is now available online.)
It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say.
The key to the power harvester lies in its application of metamaterials, engineered structures that can capture various forms of wave energy and tune them for useful applications.
Undergraduate engineering student Allen Hawkes, working with graduate student Alexander Katko and lead investigator Steven Cummer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, designed an electrical circuit capable of harvesting microwaves.
They used a series of five fiberglass and copper energy conductors wired together on a circuit board to convert microwaves into 7.3V of electrical energy. By comparison, Universal Serial Bus (USB) chargers for small electronic devices provide about 5V of power.
"We were aiming for the highest energy efficiency we could achieve," said Hawkes. "We had been getting energy efficiency around 6 to 10 percent, but with this design we were able to dramatically improve energy conversion to 37 percent, which is comparable to what is achieved in solar cells."
"It's possible to use this design for a lot of different frequencies and types of energy, including vibration and sound energy harvesting," Katko said. "Until now, a lot of work with metamaterials has been theoretical. We are showing that with a little work, these materials can be useful for consumer applications."
For instance, a metamaterial coating could be applied to the ceiling of a room to redirect and recover a Wi-Fi signal that would otherwise be lost, Katko said. Another application could be to improve the energy efficiency of appliances by wirelessly recovering power that is now lost during use.
"The properties of metamaterials allow for design flexibility not possible with ordinary devices like antennas," said Katko. "When traditional antennas are close to each other in space they talk to each other and interfere with each other's operation. The design process used to create our metamaterial array takes these effects into account, allowing the cells to work together."
With additional modifications, the researchers said the power-harvesting metamaterial could potentially be built into a cell phone, allowing the phone to recharge wirelessly while not in use. This feature could, in principle, allow people living in locations without ready access to a conventional power outlet to harvest energy from a nearby cell phone tower instead.
"Our work demonstrates a simple and inexpensive approach to electromagnetic power harvesting," said Cummer. "The beauty of the design is that the basic building blocks are self-contained and additive. One can simply assemble more blocks to increase the scavenged power."
For example, a series of power-harvesting blocks could be assembled to capture the signal from a known set of satellites passing overhead, the researchers explained. The small amount of energy generated from these signals might power a sensor network in a remote location such as a mountaintop or desert, allowing data collection for a long-term study that takes infrequent measurements.
###
The research was supported by a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative from the Army Research Office (Contract No. W911NF-09-1-0539).
CITATION: "A microwave metamaterial with integrated power harvesting functionality," Allen M. Hawkes, Alexander R. Katko, and Steven A. Cummer. Applied Physics Letters 103, 163901 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4824473
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Wireless device converts 'lost' energy into electric power
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
7-Nov-2013
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]
Share
Contact: Minnie Glymph minnie.glymph@duke.edu 919-660-8403 Duke University
Metamaterial cells designed by Duke engineers provide electric power as efficiently as solar panels
DURHAM, N.C. -- Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels.
The device wirelessly converts the microwave signal to direct current voltage capable of recharging a cell phone battery or other small electronic device, according to a report appearing in the journal Applied Physics Letters in December 2013. (It is now available online.)
It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be tuned to harvest the signal from other energy sources, including satellite signals, sound signals or Wi-Fi signals, the researchers say.
The key to the power harvester lies in its application of metamaterials, engineered structures that can capture various forms of wave energy and tune them for useful applications.
Undergraduate engineering student Allen Hawkes, working with graduate student Alexander Katko and lead investigator Steven Cummer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, designed an electrical circuit capable of harvesting microwaves.
They used a series of five fiberglass and copper energy conductors wired together on a circuit board to convert microwaves into 7.3V of electrical energy. By comparison, Universal Serial Bus (USB) chargers for small electronic devices provide about 5V of power.
"We were aiming for the highest energy efficiency we could achieve," said Hawkes. "We had been getting energy efficiency around 6 to 10 percent, but with this design we were able to dramatically improve energy conversion to 37 percent, which is comparable to what is achieved in solar cells."
"It's possible to use this design for a lot of different frequencies and types of energy, including vibration and sound energy harvesting," Katko said. "Until now, a lot of work with metamaterials has been theoretical. We are showing that with a little work, these materials can be useful for consumer applications."
For instance, a metamaterial coating could be applied to the ceiling of a room to redirect and recover a Wi-Fi signal that would otherwise be lost, Katko said. Another application could be to improve the energy efficiency of appliances by wirelessly recovering power that is now lost during use.
"The properties of metamaterials allow for design flexibility not possible with ordinary devices like antennas," said Katko. "When traditional antennas are close to each other in space they talk to each other and interfere with each other's operation. The design process used to create our metamaterial array takes these effects into account, allowing the cells to work together."
With additional modifications, the researchers said the power-harvesting metamaterial could potentially be built into a cell phone, allowing the phone to recharge wirelessly while not in use. This feature could, in principle, allow people living in locations without ready access to a conventional power outlet to harvest energy from a nearby cell phone tower instead.
"Our work demonstrates a simple and inexpensive approach to electromagnetic power harvesting," said Cummer. "The beauty of the design is that the basic building blocks are self-contained and additive. One can simply assemble more blocks to increase the scavenged power."
For example, a series of power-harvesting blocks could be assembled to capture the signal from a known set of satellites passing overhead, the researchers explained. The small amount of energy generated from these signals might power a sensor network in a remote location such as a mountaintop or desert, allowing data collection for a long-term study that takes infrequent measurements.
###
The research was supported by a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative from the Army Research Office (Contract No. W911NF-09-1-0539).
CITATION: "A microwave metamaterial with integrated power harvesting functionality," Allen M. Hawkes, Alexander R. Katko, and Steven A. Cummer. Applied Physics Letters 103, 163901 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4824473
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Cameramen film as the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Cameramen film as the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
AP10ThingsToSee - A Voodoo devotee prays on top of a grave stone during Day of the Dead celebrations at the cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)
Kellie Pickler, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs present the award for vocal group of the year at the 47th annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Wade Payne/Invision/AP)
A three-month-old Sumatran tiger cub named "Bandar" shows his displeasure after being dunked in the tiger exhibit moat for a swim reliability test at the National Zoo in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. All cubs born at the zoo must take a swim test before being allowed to roam in the exhibit. Bandar passed his test. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
A supporter of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi shouts to a police officer outside of a police academy compound were the trial of ousted President Mohammed Morsi is held in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Nov. 4 2013. After four months in secret detention, Egypt's deposed Islamist president defiantly rejected a court's authority to try him Monday, saying he was the country's "legitimate" leader and those that overthrew him should face charges instead. The trial was then adjourned until Jan. 8 after several interruptions.(AP Photo/Manu Brabo)
Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.
This week's collection includes a Voodoo devotee praying on the Day of the Dead in Haiti, a tiger cub taking a swim reliability test, Golf star Tiger Woods making a shot from Asia to Europe on the Bosporus Bridge and a Russian rocket blasting off carrying the Olympic flame to the International Space Station.
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This gallery contains photos published Nov. 1-7, 2013.
Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://apne.ws/XZy6ny
The Archive: Previous "10 Things to See" galleries: http://apne.ws/13QUFKJ
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See other recent AP photo galleries:
5 works from the art hoard found in Germany: http://apne.ws/17Ps4v7
Circus life for transgender Chileans: http://apne.ws/17Ps7Hq
A city rises from Syrian refugee camp: http://apne.ws/HIZQJ1
Images from the Day of the Dead celebrations: http://apne.ws/HJ05nb
India glitters ahead of Diwali: http://apne.ws/1iPqU4f
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Follow AP Images on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Images
Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com
___
This gallery was curated by photo editor Patrick Sison.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The father of Bristol Palin's son is seeking at least equal custody.
Levi Johnston filed a petition for custody last month saying he wants 4-year-old Tripp to be in his mother's and father's lives equally.
The couple had agreed in 2010 that Palin would have primary physical custody and the two would share legal custody, according to Thomas Van Flein, Palin's attorney at that time. Johnston was given visitation and had agreed to pay child support.
Palin's current attorney, John Tiemessen, said that as of Oct. 15, the Child Support Services Division reported that Johnston owed about $66,000 in back support.
Palin and Johnston were thrust into the national spotlight as expectant, unwed teenagers in 2008, when Palin's mother, Sarah Palin, was tapped as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Johnston and Bristol Palin had an on-off relationship before splitting for good. He has since married and has a daughter.
Bristol Palin has appeared in several reality series, including one for Lifetime that documented her life as a single mom.
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