Children Climb Steep Cliff for Education

It is arguably the most dangerous path to get an education in existence but the children of Chinese village of Sichuan province climb steep cliff to attend school. Guided by their parents, child as young as six make treacherous path once per two weeks. They decend and stay for weeks in Le'er Primary School and ascend to reurn to their home. Building school is impossibility because the small area of the village and energy including water source is unreliable.

The village of Atule'er in Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture have 72 families and the only route to the outside world are vine ladders with narrow steel and wood pathways attached to the side of a two-thousand-foot cliff face. The resident visit nearby market place once a week to buy materials and sell agricultural products. Most of them make a living by growing chilly high on rock face. The government spend time making the isolated village self-sufficient even offering sheeps as livestock.

The ancestors of the villagers chose to reside high in difficult place to hide from war and tribal rivalry in lowland. The vine ladder is as old as the village itself.

Noticeably without safety measure about eight deaths reported so far. It will cost over 60 million Yuan to construct road connecting to nearby villages. Relocation is expensive and unrealistic because the properties of the villagers are on the mountain where land grabbing is feasible.

The Chinese government invited experts to build stable transportation, poverty solution and attract investors for tourism of the area.

Bladeless Wind Turbine Jiggles to Make Power

The wind can generate electricity which most part involves turbines with traditional blades. Those big and slow airplane-propeller-shaped rotating blades that are great backdrop for a helicopter chase in action movie scene, and the leading man stopped and noticed a flying broom silhouette. Spanish company Vortex has recently come up with the first and new innovation for the wind turbines using a bladeless pole design that produce power by shaking.

Can occupy less real state with vertical poles extending out of the ground, it is thinner than a traditional wind turbine without any blade but will definitely generate more electricity while covering less space and easement for repair or for selfie-interest tourist.

How does it generate power? Simply by jiggling. The jiggle motion is actually based on a interesting branch of physics called aeroelasticity which an interactions occur between the inertial and aerodynamic forces in elastic body is exposed to a fluid flow. The bladeless design actually captures energy of aeroelastic flutter and uses its magnified vibrations to create power even with weak wind.

The narrative example of wild aeroelasticity occurred to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state when strong wind vibrated the suspension bridge until it fell down to its destruction in 1940. Vortex said its design is 40% cheaper than the conventional turbine which require expensive blades to operate and repair.