Escape Villas Offers Family Vacation Rentals for the Holidays

Trade the cold winter weather in North America for a tropical Christmas vacation in Costa Rica, where travelers can spend their holidays enjoying outdoor family adventures in the comfort of an Escape Villa family vacation rental.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
As the holiday season approaches, more Americans are planning to travel for Christmas compared to 2011, according to a report by HomeAway, Inc. – an online vacation rental marketplace. The number of families traveling in December is expected to nearly double, rising from 22 percent in 2011 to 40 percent this year.
And while everyone looks forward to a “White Christmas,” some families are trading in blankets of fresh snow for the pristine white sands of a tropical beach. Costa Rica has long been a sun-kissed haven for vacationers seeking outdoor thrills and wildlife encounters, and its balmy weather is a welcome respite during the blustery winter season.
Escape Villas, Costa Rica’s leading vacation rental company, sees a ten-fold increase in reservations during the holiday season, with the majority of bookings made by large family groups. “One of the terrific features about vacation rentals is that extended families can stay together with all the creature comforts of home – but with a lot more space and privacy. They have their own swimming pool, kitchen, laundry facilities and an array of other amenities at no extra charge," says Escape Villas spokesperson, Sara Hopkins
With an impressive portfolio of villas and vacation rentals in some of Costa Rica’s most family-friendly locales, including Manuel Antonio, Tamarindo and Flamingo, Escape Villas caters to those seeking plenty of warm sunshine with easy access to national parks, beaches, nature tours and vibrant nightlife. According to Ms. Hopkins, most guests book their holiday beach vacation rentals at least six months in advance, sometimes even earlier.
On why families choose Escape Villas for their holiday plans, Sara Hopkins explains, “A Christmas vacation in Costa Rica takes the stress out of the holidays, as families can enjoy each other’s company in one of the most spectacular places in the world. The kids never forget the year Santa visited their beachfront home, where every day promised a new and exciting adventure.” Another built-in benefit to their vacation rentals: private chef services. No more slaving in the kitchen, as families can relax and spend time together while someone else prepares a home-cooked holiday feast.
When considering a holiday rental, timing is everything. Costa Rica has two tourism periods: a high season that lasts from December-April and corresponds with the country’s dry weather. And a low season, which runs from May-October, during Costa Rica’s rainy months. December and January are known for their fabulous climate, with cool breezes and average temperatures hovering around 82 F.
While prices may be steeper during this peak time, travelers are willing to shell out extra funds to reap the season’s many rewards, according to Escape Villas’ reservations manager. Recent statistics from a HomeAway, Inc. poll reveal that 31 percent of travelers are booking a vacation rental this December, and 21 percent say they’d pay more for more spacious accommodations, especially those that included a pool or spa tub, kitchen and laundry facilities.
Costa Rica has been a treasured vacation destination for many tourists during the festive holiday months. With its temperate climate, proximity to North America, and wealth of adventure activities, the perks of Christmas in paradise are many. And with more airlines offering direct flights into San Jose and Liberia, travelers have new budget-conscious options for booking their vacation. This past October, Canadian carrier WestJet announced non-stop seasonal service from Toronto to Guanacaste’s Liberia terminal. Other low-cost airlines including Spirit, JetBlue and Frontier also provide direct flights from major U.S. cities like New York, Denver and Orlando.
If the current travel trend continues, the team at Escape Villas anticipates another 10 percent increase in their Costa Rica vacation rental bookings for December 2013. Ms. Hopkins confirms “Our experienced concierge is committed to providing the tropical holiday vacation of a lifetime, with engaging activities for the whole family, from zip-line canopy tours and horseback rides to sunset sailing excursions.”
Families can celebrate the holidays in contemporary rainforest villas – where playful monkeys are regular visitors – to luxurious oceanfront homes with sublime views. Consider the many advantages of a Christmas vacation in Costa Rica with Escape Villas. Feliz Navidad!

Read More..

Shiny Reputation Highlights Airbnb for their Focus on Local Neighborhood Information

Shiny Reputation proclaims their opinion on the recent launch of Airbnb’s Neighborhoods program, in which they are looking to narrow the focus of their site to concentrate on services in local neighborhoods where rental properties are located.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Shiny Reputation has issued an announcement about the launch of the Airbnb Neighborhood program, which seeks to give users of its online holiday lodging rental marketplace more information about the areas in which the lodging is located.
The editor of ShinyReputation.com stated, “Local businesses will benefit greatly from the launch of neighborhood ratings by Airbnb, in which local neighborhoods are rated based on transportation, services, quality of local restaurants and more. This will create an all in one service for renters. The service, which is in its trial stage in San Francisco, will lessen Airbnb’s members need to use services such as Yelp. We still see Yelp going strong and always tell businesses that improving your reputation online is key to developing the business relationship with patrons. The neighborhoods service is another resource.”
Airbnb is an online marketplace in which people can offer their homes, apartments, and other types of lodging for rent directly to travelers, bypassing hotels and apartment-finding services. Airbnb was founded in San Francisco in 2008, and has since grown to host more than 200,000 unique listings in 26,000 cities in 192 countries across the globe. On Airbnb, individuals can search for lodgings available in a certain city for a certain timeframe, and then choose from the listings on offer by private renters in that location. Payment is done through the website itself, while all interactions between renters and lodgers are done on a personal basis. The Neighborhoods program is an attempt to give travelers more information about specific local areas of cities they travel to and choose lodgings in the area of their choosing. Currently the program is for information purposes only, and is not yet a channel for marketing online. “That being said the photos used to highlight the local businesses on the neighborhoods tool are amazing. Most travel savvy individuals will seek out those businesses’ websites. It is always recommended that server uptime monitoring receive some attention as we are primarily connected via the internet.”
Airbnb has launched the Neighborhoods program in this city in which it is headquartered, San Francisco, California. San Francisco is the financial, cultural, and technological capital of the West Coast of the United States. With over 800,000 residents in the city itself and more than 7.5 million in the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area, it is one of the largest and most important cities in the US. The San Francisco Bay Area is known for being the home of Silicon Valley, and the center of technological innovation in the US. Some of the tech companies with headquarters in the area include Apple Computers, Adobe, HP, Google, and Intel.
The launch of Airbnb’s local Neighborhood program will give local businesses further exposure within this large community of travelers, and possibly increase business. Additionally, it will position Airbnb as a rival to Yelp when looking at local businesses and determining where to stay, and what to do. It has yet to be determined if the program will be successful, but local businesses should be entranced by the thought of become visible to a new pool of potential customers.

Read More..

KSL Cars Adds Contact At Once! Live Chat in Ads

Utah Dealerships Can Integrate Chat to Connect with Potential Buyers

Atlanta (PRWEB) December 19, 2012
Contact At Once!, the leading live chat provider connecting online and mobile car shoppers to auto dealers, today announced that it has been selected by KSL Cars, Utah’s leading online marketplace, as its exclusive provider of live chat for automotive advertising. KSL Cars will bundle Contact At Once! in its auto dealer packages.
Contact At Once! live chat is used by over 10,000 automobile dealerships and the world’s busiest online automotive shopping sites. Dealers who use Contact At Once! say they typically experience a 25% increase in the number of connections with website visitors.
“Contact At Once! was the first to put live chat in online automotive classifieds and they have unique features that make the software especially well-suited for connecting thousands of shoppers with dealers through chat in ads,” says Eric Bright, KSL’s Vice-President of E-Commerce.
“More and more shoppers prefer text and chat to old-fashioned lead forms and they like the instant access, as well as the convenience,” says Lloyd Hecht, Contact At Once! Director, Business Development. Advertising with mobile and desktop text and chat options can draw more attention and appeal to shoppers who might be reluctant to call or email.”
KSL Cars is the leading provider of auto classifieds in Utah, serving more than 45,000 car shoppers per month. Another factor in choosing Contact At Once! was ease of use and implementation, says Bright. “Our advertisers can be chatting with potential car buyers in a matter of minutes.”
About Contact At Once!

Contact At Once! pioneered the use of website chat in automotive advertising, enabling instant connections between online shoppers and dealerships through search websites, dealership websites, social media and mobile sites. More than 10,000 customers rely on Contact At Once! chat to drive incremental sales opportunities and increase return on advertising investments. For more information, visit http://www.autodealerchat.com.
About KSL

KSL.com is owned and operated by Deseret Digital Media (DDM), and powers the largest online marketplace in Utah - including auto, real estate, deals and local search verticals. In total, Deseret Digital Media properties attract more than 5.5 million unique visitors and serve nearly 300 million page views per month. The DDM network of web sites includes KSL.com, Deseretnews.com, DeseretBook.com, MormonTimes.com, LDSChurchNews.com, FM100.com, OK.com and 1035TheArrow.com. Deseret Digital Media's two-part vision is to become the largest and most compelling regional commerce marketplace in the United States and to also become a world-leading, values-based digital content marketplace. Deseret Digital Media is a part of Deseret Media Companies.

Read More..

South Africa's Tutu prays for Mandela

 South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu says he is praying for a prompt recovery for former leader Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized for more than two weeks.
Radio 702, a South African station, on Sunday broadcast an interview with Tutu in which he says he exchanged telephone text messages about Mandela with the anti-apartheid icon's wife, Graca Machel.
Mandela who is 94, has been hospitalized since Dec. 8. He was diagnosed with a lung infection and also had gallstone surgery. Officials say his condition has improved.
Tutu and Mandela are Nobel laureates because of their role in the struggle against white minority rule. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and served one five-year term as president after he was elected in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

Read More..

South Africa: Mandela's hospital stay extended

Former South African leader Nelson Mandela will probably spend Christmas Day in a hospital because his doctors want to be satisfied his health has improved satisfactorily before sending him home, a South African media outlet reported Sunday.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said the physicians caring for Mandela had given no indication of an "imminent discharge" from a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, according to IOL, a South African news website.
"At this stage there is no update on his condition and his doctors have given no indication" about when Mandela could be discharged, IOL quoted Maharaj as saying Saturday. IOL is owned by Independent Newspapers, a national group that publishes 15 newspapers.
Mandela was hospitalized on Dec. 8. He was diagnosed with a lung infection and also had gallstone surgery; officials have said his condition has improved and that he was responding to treatment. President Jacob Zuma acknowledged several days ago that Mandela's condition had been serious.
"They (the doctors) say there is no crisis, but add that they are in no hurry to send him home just yet until they are satisfied that he has made sufficient progress," Maharaj said, according to IOL.
"We urge the public to continue supporting Madiba," he said, using Mandela's clan name, an affectionate term. Maharaj appealed for people to "understand that he is 94 years old and needs extraordinary care."
The Sunday Times, a South African newspaper that is not part of the media group that owns IOL, also said Mandela was likely to spend Christmas in hospital care. It did not cite a source. The newspaper quoted Maharaj as saying that rumors of a rapid deterioration in Mandela's health were "completely false and baseless."
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he is praying for a prompt recovery for Mandela. Radio 702, a South African station, on Sunday broadcast an interview with Tutu in which he said he exchanged telephone text messages about Mandela with the anti-apartheid icon's wife, Graca Machel.
Tutu and Mandela are Nobel laureates because of their role in the struggle against white minority rule. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and served one five-year term as president after he was elected in South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

Read More..

Mali Islamists destroy Timbuktu mausoleums

A tourism official says that Islamist extremists destroyed four mausoleums in Timbuktu Sunday.
The director of Mali's Timbuktu tourism office, Sane Chirfi, said that Ansar Dine rebels linked to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb tore down the mausoleums, which were historic but not included on the United Nations list of World Heritage sites. The mausoleums housed the remains of Muslim scholars and teachers who are revered by the Timbuktu population.
Since taking control of Timbuktu earlier this year, the Islamists have destroyed seven of the 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites. Some date back to the 14th century.
According to many residents, the destruction of the graves is the rebels' reaction to the recent U.N. resolution calling for an international military intervention to remove the Islamists from northern Mali.

Read More..

Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children

On the day of their son's surgery, the family woke before dawn. They saddled their horses and set out across the 12-mile-long carpet of sand to the nearest town, where they hoped the reputed doctor would cure their frail, feverish baby.
The neighboring town, almost as poor and isolated as their own, hosts a foreign-run emergency clinic for malnourished children. But that's not where the family headed.
The doctor they chose treats patients behind a mud wall. His operating room is the sand lot that serves as his front yard. His operating table is a plastic mat lying on the dirt. His surgical tools include a screwdriver. And his remedy for malnourished children is the removal, without antiseptic or anesthesia, of their teeth and uvula.
That day, three other children were brought to the same traditional doctor, their parents paying up to $6 for a visit, or more than a week's earnings. Not even a mile away, the UNICEF-funded clinic by contrast admitted just one child for its free service, delivered by trained medical professionals.
The 4:1 ratio that you see in this sandy courtyard on just one day in just one town is a microcosm of what is happening all over Chad, and it helps to explain why, despite an enormous, international intervention, malnutrition continues to soar to scandalous levels throughout the Sahel.
The world poured more than $1 billion into the band of countries just south of Africa's vast Sahara Desert to address hunger this year alone, according to a United Nations database. A third of that money went to Chad, where 15 percent of children are acutely malnourished, says a report by aid group Save the Children. That's among the highest rates in Africa.
There are now 32 clinics equipped with the latest technology to halt starvation, most within a few hours' walk of affected families. If a child makes it to one of these centers in time, the chance of survival is remarkably high.
Yet acute malnutrition is only getting worse in the Sahel, where every year, cemeteries fill up with the bodies of children who wasted away within walking distance of help.
In 2010, 55,000 children were treated for the most acute form of malnutrition in Chad. In 2011, it was 65,000. The expected caseload for 2012 is 127,300, according to the report published in June. Overall, in the eight countries in the Sahel, the number of admissions has doubled in just three years.
One reason is that families simply do not take advantage of the safety net created for them, and cling instead to traditions that can end up killing rather than healing their children.
"We try to tell them the consequences. That these are not good treatments. That if the child has diarrhea, he should go to the hospital," says Laurent Blague, director of child protection at Chad's Ministry of Social Welfare. "Unfortunately, this is tradition."
______
Eight-month-old Abdallah Lamine had been sick for a month, but it wasn't until he started vomiting that his parents made the trip to the medicine man, Haki Hassane.
The mother rode a red horse, carrying her baby's hot body in her lap. She could feel the fever consuming him even through her clothes.
The remedy the healer prescribes for malnourished children is the removal of the uvula, the tiny ball of flesh that hangs from the back of the throat, which he says "gets in the way of the food." For fever, he prescribes the removal of the child's teeth.
In baby Abdallah's case he prescribed both. He grabbed the baby by one arm, placed him on the mat and pinned him down. As the child began to shriek, he dug the unwashed screwdriver into the baby's pink gums, until four tiny teeth popped out.
The healer wiped down the holes in the child's mouth with a corner of a ratty blanket, stained with the blood of the other children he'd treated that day. Then he handed the petrified, whimpering toddler to his stone-faced mother.
Tooth extraction and the removal of the uvula is common in this part of Chad. Elsewhere, the treatment for diarrhea is burning the child's anus with a rod heated over a fire. Other treatments include draining the "bad blood," a procedure recommended when children's bodies swell, a sign of severe malnutrition.
Similar practices prevailed in Europe and America as late as the 18th century. The advances in world medicine since have made their way to Chad in the form of internationally-run clinics, but they continue to be seen as foreign. More than half of Chad's people still use traditional healers, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2010, whose remedies can be effective for some ailments.
Malnutrition is not one of them. Already malnourished children who have their uvula cut can't eat for at least a week, says health official Blague. When the child does eat, the open wound often gets infected. This worsens the malnutrition.
Because the infection can last several weeks, families believe their baby has simply contracted a different ailment. Chad's government has never addressed these harmful practices. The issue remains extremely sensitive, in part because the healers claim their gift came from Allah and in part because many local officials were submitted to such practices themselves when they were children, aid workers say.
Hassane says in 30 years of practice, he's never fielded any complaints from parents whose children became sicker.
"If a child has fever or diarrhea, once he opens his mouth, I can instantly tell. If I put my finger on his gum and feel it, I can tell if it's due to his bad teeth. Once we take out this bad tooth, the diarrhea stops," Hassane says. "And if the child gets sick again, it's because he had some other illnesses in his system."
Moussa Mahamat Ali, the chief of the healers in the town of Mao, the regional capital, claims that all the children who have come to him have been cured of malnutrition.
"If the child is sick ... he has yellow hair, he doesn't eat, he's skinny, it's because of the bad teeth," says the 75-year-old Ali. "This is a treatment for malnutrition. No one has ever told me that this is bad."
______
By the time children do turn up at the United Nations-funded centers, they have already been through hell. Nearly every week, health workers here admit dangerously emaciated children with a foamy substance coming out of their mouths.
Malnutrition is the underlying cause for the deaths of 2.6 million children every year, according to a study published in the scientific journal, The Lancet. That's a third of the global total for children's deaths.
At the feeding center in the town of Mao, run by the French aid group Action Against Hunger, a mother has come in carrying a bundle in her arms. When she pulls back the sheet, the health workers gasp. It looks like she has brought in a skeleton.
The best predictor for the severity of malnutrition is the circumference of a child's upper arm, the World Health Organization has found over years of responding to famines in Africa. Less than 115 millimeters indicates the child is at risk of imminent death.
This child's arms measure just 80 millimeters around. She weighs 5.2 kilograms (11.4 pounds), slightly more than a healthy newborn. She is 3 years old.
It takes a moment for the health workers to realize that the little girl, Fatime, has been admitted before.
Fatime's short history is a litany of the well-meant customs that get in the way of a child's health, and possibly even her life.
She was born underweight. Women in Chad, including her mother, are discouraged from eating during pregnancy, in the hope that a small child will be easier to deliver.
Fatime's mother stopped breastfeeding her when she became pregnant with her youngest child. She was told that pregnancy tainted her milk and could poison the child still nursing.
Zara Seid, the mother, collected the bitter chaff left over when women pound millet into flour, mixed it with water and painted it on her breasts. The bitter taste repelled the toddler, and she was weaned overnight.
Yet in a place where food is hard to come by, it meant that Fatime began her precipitous fall into undernourishment.
Malnutrition and disease work in a deadly cycle, and soon Fatime got sick with diarrhea and a fever. The lack of a proper diet weakens the immune system and makes childhood diseases more severe. The sick child then loses more weight, making recovery more difficult.
More than a year ago, Fatime's mother brought her into the clinic.
Like many African women, though, her mother needed permission from her husband to leave her family and stay away. And she knew he was starting to get impatient.
Over the pleas of the health workers, she left the clinic only a week after she got there. And upon the advice of villagers, she went to the traditional healer, a one-day visit instead of a three-week hospital stay.
The medicine man diagnosed the child's illness as the result of her baby teeth. He heated a blade in the fire and pulled them out.
"I thought this would bring back my daughter's health, so I took heart from that, even if it was hard to see her in pain," says Seid. "After we took out the bad teeth, it seemed like she was getting better. ... Then she got seriously worse."
It took the death of Fatime's baby cousin from malnutrition for her father to finally give her mother the permission to make a second, 1.5-hour journey to the clinic.
By the time Fatime made it to the clinic the second time, she didn't look much bigger than a fetus. Zara Seid kept her daughter wrapped in a cloth, as if embarrassed to show her body, the frightening sight of a child on the knife's edge of starvation.
Her head is bald except for a few tufts of hair. Her mouth is infected with lesions, and stained purple with the antifungal wash the nurses use daily. When she tries to drink formula, she coughs until her tiny, doll-like chest heaves.
Her legs are insect-like, unable to hold her up. They dangle, lifeless. Her arms are no bigger than a shower rod.
Flies are attracted to her, as if she is already dead. They land on her face and crawl in and out of the corners of her eyes.
_________
These mistakes lead here, to a set of humps in the sand. There's a burial ground in every village in this part of Chad, including in Djiguere, where Fatime's cousin lies under the newest hump of sand.
The big mounds are where the adults are buried. But the majority of the piles in the cemetery are small. Some are no larger than a loaf of bread.
Fatime may or may not make it. In the week since she arrived at the feeding center, she's gained 200 grams (7 ounces).
At home in the village, her father, Mahamat Ibrahim, says he has no regrets about having had his daughter's teeth extracted. Bad teeth are to blame for a child not growing, he says.
"This is something that everyone here knows," he says. "It's only the doctors at these foreign hospitals that don't know this. And that's why we avoid taking our children there."
His youngest child is five months old. In a few weeks, her baby teeth will start coming in.
If she falls sick, he plans to take her to the healer to yank them out.

Read More..

Tablet as teacher: Poor Ethiopian kids learn ABCs

The kids in this volcano-rim village wear filthy, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They don't go to school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can spell words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether children using today's new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they're already startled.
"What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten," said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse, the first to turn on one of the Motorola Xoom tablets last February. Its camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out the tablet's workings and made the camera work.
He proclaimed himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
On a recent sunny weekday, nine months into the project, the kids sat in a dark hut with a hay floor. At 3,380 meters (11,000) feet above sea level, the air at night here is chilly, and the youngsters coughed and wiped runny noses. Many were barefoot. But they all eagerly tapped and swiped away on their tablets.
The apps encouraged them to click on colors — green, red, yellow. "Awesome," one app said aloud. Kelbesa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own, tracing the English letters into his tablet in a thick red line.
"He just spelled the word 'bird'!" exclaimed Keller. "Seven months ago he didn't know any English. That's unbelievable. That's a quantum leap forward."
"If we prove that kids can teach themselves how to read, and then read to learn, then the world is going to look at technology as a way to change the world's poorest and most remote kids," he said.
"We will have proven you can actually reach these kids and change the way that they think and look at the world. And this is the promise that this technology holds."
Maryanne Wolf, a Tufts University professor, studies the origins of reading and language learning and is a consultant to the One Laptop project. She was an early critic of the experiment in Ethiopia but was amazed by the disabled-camera incident.
"It's crazy. I can't do that. I couldn't hack into anything," she said. "But they learned. And the learning that's gone on, that's very impressive to me, the critic, because I did not assume they would gravitate toward the more literacy-oriented apps that they have."
Wenchi's 60 families grow potatoes and produce honey. None of the adults can read. They broadly support the laptop project and express amazement their children were lucky enough to be chosen.
"I think if you gave them food and water they would never leave the computer room," said Teka Kumula, who charges the tablets from a solar station built by One Laptop. "They would spend day and night here."
Kumula Misgana, 70, walked into the hut that One Laptop built to watch the kids. Three of them had started a hay fight. "I'm fascinated by the technology," Misgana said. "There are pictures of animals I didn't even know existed."
He added: "We are a bit jealous. Everyone would love this opportunity, but we are happy for the kids."
Kelbesa, the boy lion, said: "I prefer the computer over my friends because I learn things with the computer." Asked what English words he knows, he rattled off a barnyard: "Dog, donkey, horse, sheep, cow, pig, cat."
Kelbesa, one of four children, is being raised by his widowed mother, Abelbech Wagari, who dreams the tablet is his gateway to higher education.
While the adults appeared grateful for the One Laptop opportunity, they wished the village had a teacher.
Keller said that Nicholas Negroponte, the MIT pioneer in computer science who founded One Laptop, is designing a program for the 100 million children worldwide who don't get to attend school. Wolf said Negroponte wants to tap into children's "very extraordinary capacity to teach themselves," though she said she has no desire to see teachers replaced.
The goal of the project is to get kids to a stage called "deep reading," where they can read to learn. It won't be in Amharic, Ethiopia's first language, but English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.
Keller and Wolf say they are only at the beginning of understanding the significance of how fast the kids of Wenchi have mastered the English ABCs. The experiment will be replicated in other villages in other countries, using more targeted apps.
One might wonder whether the children of Wenchi need good nutrition and warm clothes rather than a second language and no teacher — a question Wolf said has given her some sleepless nights.
She thinks she has arrived at an answer.
In remote regions of Africa and elsewhere, she said, "the mother who has one year of literacy has a far better chance to make sure her child can live to five years of age. They are savvier when it comes to medicine, to basic health, to economic development."
"So at 3 a.m. when I'm thinking, if I can do one thing ... using my particular knowledge, which is in reading and brain development and thinking — this is my shot; this is my contribution to the nutrition and health of a child.

Read More..

Video game shares down in wake of shooting

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Shares of video game makers and sellers fell Thursday in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, which has renewed debate about violent gamesand their potential influence on crime.

Shares of GameStop Corp., whose stores sell video games as well as systems like the Xbox and Wii, fell 5 percent in afternoon trading.

Investors are seen as being increasingly concerned that the government may impose tougher rules on the sales of games rated for "mature" and older audiences.

Investors may be worried that parents will also avoid buying first-person shooter games like "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2" after the tragedy Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary, in which 20 children and six adults were shot and killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

"Maybe there will be more stringent efforts to make sure youth are not playing games that they're not old enough to play," said Mike Hickey, an analyst with National Alliance Securities. "Maybe there will be a greater effort by parents in managing the content their kids are playing."

Shares of companies involved in the video game industry, many of which had been dropping since the shooting, declined further Thursday.

— GameStop stock lost $1.37, or 5 percent, to $26.18. Shares have barely changed since last Thursday's close, the day before the shooting, to Wednesday's close.

— Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc., the publisher of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2," fell 9 cents to $10.70. The stock had already dropped 5.6 percent.

— Electronic Arts Inc. shares fell 41 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $13.99. Shares had dropped 5.6 percent.

— Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. shares slipped 29 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $11.69. The stock had dropped 8 percent.

The declines came as broader markets rose. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.3 percent at 13,295.

Read More..

North Korea’s first video game: A boring version of ‘Crazy Taxi’ that nitpicks your bad driving

In theory, a driving game set in North Korea could be fun — it could revolve around delivering kidnapped movie stars from the airport to Dear Leader’s headquarters, for instance. In reality, though, it looks as though playing a driving game set in North Korea is about as much fun as actually living in North Korea. Business Insider’s Gus Lubin has posted his first impressions of “Welcome to Pyongyang,” an online game that’s “produced by Nosotek, a western IT company based in North Korea,” and he’s found that it’s pretty lame.
[More from BGR: Years after cashing out, MySpace cofounder mocks people who work for a living]
The goal of the game is to drive around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and become familiar with all the great tourist attractions it has to offer. But unlike action-driving classics such as Crazy Taxi and the Grand Theft Auto series, Welcome to Pyongyang is annoyingly authoritarian and won’t put up with you crashing into cars or mowing down civilians. To make matters worse, the game doesn’t even give you the satisfaction dying at the hands of bloody-minded authorities if you break the rules too often — rather, it sends out a fascistic meter maid to simply tell you that you have been “stopped for bad driving.” We’re not sure what the actual penalty is for reckless is in North Korea, but we get the feeling it’s more severe than getting nitpicked by an annoying digital character.

Read More..