“Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.”
― B.F. Skinner
Japan Paralympic squad receives spirited send-off for Rio Games
2 AUGUST 2016 JAPAN TIMES KAZ NAGATSUKA
Paralympic sports have been receiving greater attention in recent years.As a result, Japanese athletes were even more excited about competing in the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games when they attended a warm send-off reception at a Tokyo hotel on Tuesday.
The Japanese delegation will dispatch a total of 127 athletes — 83 men and 44 women — and 65 coaches and staff members to Brazil for the Sept. 7-18 Paralympic Games. The nation set a goal of winning 10 gold medals and finishing within the top 10 in the gold-medal rankings for the 15th edition of the Summer Paralympic Games.
In the 2012 London Games, Japan captured five gold, five silver and six bronze medals and placed 24th in the gold-medal table.
Hiroya Otsuki, the leader of the delegation, said at a news conference that it would be his sixth Paralympics to get involved yet the circumstances for Paralympic sports in Japan have clearly changed over the years, partially thanks to the country’s capital, Tokyo, winning the right to host the next Summer Paralympics in 2020.
“In order for us to have a satisfactory Paralympics in 2020, how well we are going to perform in this Rio Paralympics will be important,” Otsuki said. “And I’m not referring just to what kind of results we will have, but it’ll also be important for our athletes to enjoy the moments.”
Making his fourth Paralympics, wheelchair basketball player Reo Fujimoto said that the Rio Paralympics would carry a little different meaning toward the Tokyo Games.
“I’ve played wheelchair basketball for 15 years, but I’ll be playing in this Rio Games a little differently,” said Fujimoto, who was named captain of Japan’s delegation. “How we’ll perform in it will determine where we will be on the map (of the Paralympics) toward the Tokyo Games in 2020.”
Yui Kamiji, a female wheelchair tennis player and two-time Grand Slam tournament singles winner, said: “It’s been my goal to win a gold medal in the Paralympics. Younger wheelchair tennis players have lately been increasing and to get even more attention for the sport when we have the Tokyo Games, we would like to do our best this time.”
Kamiji, 22, will be Japan’s flag bearer at the Rio Games.
Atsushi Yamamoto, a silver medalist in the men’s long jump (T-42 class) in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and a former world-record holder, said that he feels greater expectations for himself for this upcoming Paralympics than previous ones. “I see more media reporters and I know that’s a sign of how much we are getting attention,” said the 34-year-old Yamamoto, who’ll compete in sprint disciplines in Rio as well.
Female track and field athlete Wakako Tsuchida is a Japanese Paralympic legend, having previously gone to six Paralympics, competing in both the Winter and Summer Games.
Tsuchida, 41, has participated in track disciplines in recent Summer Games (and speed skating in the Winter Games), but will focus just on the marathon in Rio, aiming to capture the gold.
The Tokyo native insisted that the 2012 London Games was the best Paralympics she’s ever been a part of, but she hopes the Rio Games will be a great experience.
“I’m excited about what we’ll experience in Rio,” said Tsuchida, who’s racked up seven Paralympic medals, including three golds. “And we’ll need to end the Rio Games on a high note so we’ll relay it to the Tokyo Games.” Read More
Bys crash survivor violently tossed awake to horrific scene
2 AUGUST 2016 ASSOCIATED PRESS SCOTT SMITH, CHRISTOPHER WEBER
ATWATER, CALIFORNIA (AP) -- Leonardo Sanchez was sleeping peacefully on a bus carrying him to Oregon to pick blueberries when he was suddenly thrown face-first into the back of the seat in front of him, awakening him to a horrific scene of chaos and death.The bus carrying Sanchez and about 30 others on a pre-dawn journey through California's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley had somehow plowed head-on into a highway pole that nearly sliced it in half. Five people died and at least 18 were hurt.
... Lesser injured like himself climbed out on their own, fearful the bus might catch fire. The 55-year-old farmworker said he was left with pain in his stomach and a bruised jaw and mouth.
"It was too much. It was a very ugly accident. Thanks to God that I got out of there alive," he said.
The bus was traveling north up State Route 99, which cuts through the center of California farm country, and was only about a couple miles from its next stop when the crash occurred.
The still-intact sign it hit stuck out from the roof of the crumpled bus hours after the crash as crews prepared to move the vehicle. Wreckage and debris including seat cushions, drink containers, pillows and a blanket were scattered in lanes and on the highway's shoulder. Read More
Wall-climbing mini robots build "entirely new structures" from carbon fibre
2 AUGUST 2016 DEZEEN RIMA SABINA AOUF
Graduate shows 2016: University of Stuttgart graduate Maria Yablonina has devised a new method of construction using mini robots that is cheap, fast and can create structures that would otherwise be impossible to build (+ movie).Instead of using one or two large robots, Yablonina and the university's Institute for Computational Design (ICD) developed a carbon-fibre fabrication method that involves many small robots. These look like Roomba vacuums and could fit inside a single suitcase.
The agile robots, which climb walls and ceilings, work in concert to pull fibre filaments across a space, creating a structure onsite.
"We are only at the very beginning of exploring the true architectural potential of this fabrication system," said architect and ICD director Achim Menges. "But we are convinced that its main advantage is that you can build entirely new structures that would be impossible to materialise otherwise."
"Pragmatically, smaller robots will be cheaper and, in working collaboratively in larger numbers, faster than the established systems," he told Dezeen.
A graduate student of the university's ITECH course, Yablonina developed the project with the ICD and the Institute for Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE). The departments are behind the carbon-fibre Elytra Filament Pavilion currently on display at London's V&A museum.
The project constitutes a form of "swarm construction" – a fabrication method, predicted to be common in the future, that involves swarms of small robots working together.
Titled Mobile Robotic Fabrication System for Filament Structures, the project features robots that use sensors and suction to travel across any horizontal or vertical surface, including existing architecture.
Their size and mobility means they can reach areas and create structures that large industrial robots cannot.
"Working with many small robots rather than one or two big ones extends the design space significantly and allows us to tap into the unique possibilities of filament structures," said Menges. Read More
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