Saturday 23 March 2013

Kibuli SS fundraising dinner raises sh700m for renovation

By Lutaya Shafiq Holmes

A fundraising dinner for Kibuli Senior Secondary School has raised sh700m, out of the sh3b required for renovation and constructing new buildings.

The dinner, organised by the school’s old boys and girls, took place on Thursday at Serena Hotel in Kampala.

Among the works to be done at the school is completion of the girls’ hostel, library and computer laboratory.

Buganda Queen Nabagereka Sylvia Nagginda thanked Prince Badru Kakungulu for donating the 80 acres of land on which the school was built.

“We hope to see more girls getting enrolled, new buildings and a much cleaner school to help the dreams of these students become reality,” Nagginda said at the dinner to mark the school’s 68 years of existence.

The headmaster, Ibrahim Matovu, said the school has a boys to girls ratio of 2:1.

Naginda encouraged parents to inculcate cultural values in their children, through the Nabagereka Foundation’s Kisaakate. The programme teaches children of 6-18 years cultural values and tips on how to pass through adolescence.

Kasim Nakibinge, Kakungulu’s heir, urged old students and well-wishers to contribute generously towards the school’s cause.

The Nabagereka echoed while presiding over celebrations of Kibuli SS to mark 68 years of existence where the School also launched the fundraising drive for three billion shillings for the completion of a girls wing.


The Nabagereka of Buganda Lady Sylvia Nagginda urges parents to further improve the living conditions of a girl child by giving them required support to achieve their education goals.
The Nabagereka echoed while presiding over celebrations of Kibuli SS to mark 68 years of existence where the School also launched the fundraising drive for three billion shillings for the completion of a girls wing.

The Nabagereka presides over celebrations of Kibuli SS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C14B1dV0E0s

Kibuli SS serves 68 years’ dinner


Ibrahim Matovu, the current headmaster of Kibuli SS addressing the guests


Kibuli Secondary School on Thursday held dinner at Serena hotel to mark 68 years of existence.
The school started in 1945 after Badru Kakungulu offered 80 acres of land at Kibuli hill for development of education, a mosque and a health facility. Sixty-eight years later, the school has continued to feed the nation with professionals from all faiths and spheres of society. Present at the dinner were the school’s alumni, present and former head teachers, a delegation from the Muslim leadership led by Sheikh Hussein Rajab Kakooza.
Sheikh Hussein Rajab Kakooza leads prayers


Also present was Prince Kassim Nakibinge. The Buganda kingdom Second Deputy Prime Minister, Muhammad Sekimpi, who led a big delegation from Mengo. Buganda Queen Sylvia Nagginda, the chief guest, lauded the late Prince Kakungulu for donating the land on which the school was built.
ROYAL SMILE: The Nabagereka of Buganda, Sylvia Nagginda


Prince Nakibinge called for the continued inculcation of honesty and discipline into the students, saying it’s the only way Uganda is going to reach the next level. The school is working to increase the number of girls. Currently the ratio of boys to girls stands at 2:1. Construction of a four-storey girls’ hostel worth Shs 3bn is underway. Already Shs 700m has been spent on the first floor and efforts are underway to raise more funds.
The younger generation of Kibuli's old boys and girls


Prince Kassim Nakibinge flanked by Buganda Kingdom Second Prime Minister, Muhammad Sekimpi and other officials delivers his speech

The older generation of the Kibuli SS family

Friday 1 February 2013

Snowmobiler Caleb Moore Was Brain Dead, Coroner Says, After Winter X Games Accident

Texas snowmobiler Caleb Moore, who died Thursday morning in a Colorado hospital after being severely injured in the 2013 Winter X Games, was declared brain dead and his organs will be donated, the Pitkin County coroner's office said today. He was 25.
Moore's family announced that the decorated X Games competitor had died at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., after succumbing to injuries he sustained last week at the event in Aspen, Colo., when his snowmobile flipped on top of him in a violent crash during competition.
"Caleb Moore passed away," the Moore family said Thursday in a statement through family spokeswoman Chelsea Lawson. "He will be truly missed and never forgotten.
"The family wishes to express their deep gratitude for all the prayers and support they have received from all the fans, friends and family around the world that Caleb has inspired."
Deputy Coroner Eric Hansen ruled Moore's death was accidental, according to a press release today.
This was the first competitor's death as a result of injuries sustained during competition in the 18-year reign of the X Games, which is produced by ABC's sister network ESPN.

ESPN released a statement Thursday in which it offered condolences to the family and said it would conduct a "thorough review" into the X Games' freestyle snowmobiling event and "adopt appropriate changes" for future games.
"For 18 years, we have worked closely on safety issues with athletes, course designers and other experts," the network said, adding that Moore was hurt performing a move he had done several times before. "Still, when the world's best compete at the highest level in any sport, risks remain."

Moore, a former all-terrain vehicle racer from Krum, Texas, had been in critical condition at St. Mary's Hospital for days after developing complications in his heart and brain after the Jan. 24 accident.
During his run in the X Games' Snowmobile Freestyle finals, Moore was completing a back-flip when he came up short and the skis on his sled hit the landing. The 450-pound machine flipped end-over-end.
Moore went over the handlebars of the snowmobile and it came crashing down on top of him. He tumbled down the slope before coming to a stop at the bottom, where he lay on the ground for several minutes.
He eventually got up and walked off the course with help, but he was rushed to Aspen Valley Hospital with a concussion, according to an X Games medical report. While there, doctors discovered bleeding around Moore's heart and he was flown to St. Mary's Hospital.
St. Mary's Hospital declined ABC News' request for comment.
Moore underwent emergency heart surgery on Jan. 25 and remained in intensive care. On Sunday, the Moore family released a statement through ESPN saying, "His cardiac injury has led to a secondary complication involving his brain."
Moore's younger brother Colten, 23, also competed in the Snowmobile Freestyle finals and crashed during the X Games competition. He was taken to the hospital with a separated pelvis but was released on Jan. 25 and "will not require surgery," according to Lawson.
An online fundraiser was set up on behalf of the Moore family on Tuesday to help the family pay for medical bills. As of this writing, the fund has raised over $49,200.

Netflix's 'House of Cards' creates social media buzz-binge

Netflix's original series "House of Cards" creates social media buzz
Netflix Inc.'s strategy of simultaneously releasing all 13 episodes of its new political drama "House of Cards" is generating social media buzz -- with well over 10,000 mentions since the show's debut just after midnight Friday.
"House of Cards" is sparking thousands of mentions every hour, according to analysis by social media research firm Fizziology. About 62% of the remarks are positive, with negative conversation virtually non-existent.
Most of those expressing mixed views are saying they don't have time to watch the series.
"This indicates that if they can't watch it all at once, they may not watch it until they have time to consume more than one or two episodes at a time," Fizziology President Ben Carlson said. "This might mean that people feel pressured to binge-watch the series."
Netflix found that its subscribers indulge in these marathon viewing sessions, watching episode after episode -- or even entire series -- over short periods of time. Complex serialized dramas such as AMC's "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad" have been beneficiaries of this copious TV consumption.
The subscription service's decision to flout network scheduling tradition and release "House of Cards" in one binge-worthy dump represents a nod to shifting viewing habits.
Indeed, 16% of the people talking online about the series are self-described "binge" viewers, most of whom said they planned to watch the series this weekend, Fizziology found.
"Many in the social conversation around 'House of Cards' are giving progress reports of where they are in the series, like 'I just finished Episode 1,' " Carlson said. "A loud and influential voice in the social space may well lead others to watch in a specific window of time."
Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey stars in "House of Cards" as House Majority Whip Francis Underwood, a snubbed politician bent on revenge. He appears in about 15% of the online discussions.
"People often describe [Spacey] as 'brilliant' and are excited to see him in a Washington role," Carlson said. "However, Spacey takes a backseat to Netflix, which is the real star of the series in social media conversations."
Netflix is mentioned in 38% of online discussions about the series. One in six have taken on the role of advocates, encouraging friends and followers to watch "House of Cards," even after watching just the first episode.
Google searches related to "House of Cards" also have surged in the week leading up to the Feb. 1 series debut.

'Warm Bodies': A Heartfelt Zombie Love Story

warmbodies 615.jpg
In the centuries since young Romeo and Juliet first discovered their stars were crossed, Shakespeare's tale of woe has been recounted beyond counting on stage and page, in ditties and ballads (You and me, babe, how about it?), and on screens both large and small. Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film (itself following in the footsteps of more than a dozen cinematic predecessors) upped the ante with a controversial bit of nudity; a 1996 variant, Tromeo and Juliet, went all in with a giant mutant penis. For the arithmetically inclined, there have been both a Romeo + Juliet and a Romeo x Juliet. (Given the plot, it's odd that no one has yet resorted to subtraction or division signs.) The Bard's story has been told by way of feuding pizzeria owners in Verona, New Jersey, and, across the river, feuding caterers in the Bronx. There have famously been Sharks and Jets, and, less famously, cold warriors, robots, seals, pornographers, and garden gnomes. A few years back, the Royal Shakespeare Company actually tweeted the tale under the all too apt title Such Tweet Sorrow. If there were one play in the English language you'd imagine was fully played out by now, this would be it—but no, here comes Julian Fellowes taking time off Downton to pen his own adaptation, due out later this year.

Related Story

Our Zombies, Ourselves
How to make it all fresh again? Here's a thought: Have Juliet and Romeo meet cute when she stabs him in the heart with a knife after he's just killed and eaten her boyfriend. Stick with me here: you see, this time out she's a human being and he's a zombie. Not a glamorous vampire, fangs glinting priapically. No, an honest to goodness animated corpse, complete with all the shambling and grunting and (occasional) brain-eating. This is hardly the most promising premise for a romantic comedy, but damned if Warm Bodies—directed by Jonathan Levine and adapted from the novel by Isaac Marion—doesn't somehow bring it to life. Nicholas Hoult stars as "R," the remaining letters of his name having been lost in the psychic fog of zombiedom. He and his ashen masses of fellow undead (notable among them Rob Corddry's "M"—no relation to the spymaster) make their home at the airport, as if waiting for a flight delayed indefinitely.
Blonde, pinkly alive Julie (Teresa Palmer), meanwhile, lives in a high-walled urban fortress with the remaining human survivors of an undisclosed apocalypse. When she and a team venture outside the wall in search of medical supplies, they encounter R and his own posse, out looking for a bite—and, whoosh, tucked in there amid the automatic-weapon fire and arterial spray, Cupid's arrow strikes. Her human companions dead, Julie returns with R to the airport, where he has a jetliner all to himself, like some cadaverous Ron Burkle. He plays her some LPs, she teaches him to drive, and pump by tentative pump—oh, get your mind out of the gutter, it's PG-13—his heart slowly begins to beat again.
There are hurdles to overcome, of course: Julie's disapproving father (John Malkovich, phoning it in a bit), R's habit of nibbling leftover bits of her boyfriend's brain, the violent attentions of a more degenerate species of skeletal zombie, and so on. But despite all these—and with the aid of an inevitable balcony scene—R eventually wins Julie's love.
Though his mind is nimble, out loud R can only express himself in a series of groans and grumbles—as touching a metaphor for love-struck adolescence as we may see at the movies this year.
And why shouldn't he? Hoult, who was a chubby-cheeked cherub in About a Boy and a seductive seraph in A Single Man, sets a new bar for post-mortem adorability as R. Though his mind is nimble in (very witty) voiceover, out loud he can only express himself in a series of groans and grumbles—as touching a metaphor for love-struck adolescence as we may see at the movies this year. "Stop staring," his internal monologue warns him at one point. "You're acting weird again." Julie can see it too: "It must be hard, being stuck in there." (Speaking from experience: Yes, it was.) Palmer is an eminently likable presence—a bit like a less-pouty Kristen Stewart, if such a thing can be imagined—and Corddry demonstrates that no one delivers deadpan better than the undead. Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, 50/50) continues his strong run, with direction that is deft, funny, and (given the subject matter) surprisingly tender. The soundtrack is a particular kick, making crafty use of songs ranging from "Sitting Here in Limbo" to "Missing You" to "Pretty Woman."
Is the premise of Warm Bodies a touch creepy? Yes it is, and it is probably safest not to subject the movie to much scrutiny, moral or physiological. But in contrast to the generic rom-com fluff we're typically offered in the run-up to Valentine's Day, this is a movie with a genuine heartbeat.