Friday, April 15, 2016

Ninjas of the Week

Who is ninja-worthy this week? Well we've got a lot to cover. From basketball to the United Nations we've got some pretty bold contenders. Let's dive in.

5. Kobe Bryant


In his final NBA game this week, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant scored a record-breaking 60 points with 30 points in the last quarter. This game marked his sixth 60-point game. He's ranked as the NBA's number 3 all time scorer. At 37 years old he is arguably one of the most well-known basketball stars of this decade. His agility, skill, and top scoring puts him up there with the best of the ninjas. And this is the second time he's made our Ninja of the Week list! Maybe he's retiring from the NBA to work as a Ninja in Japan...

4. Solar Impulse 2

Speaking of record breaking, the Solar Impulse 2 is almost ready to take to the sky again. This solar powered plane will resume its flight around the world on only the power of the sun. No fuel needed. It's an adventure seeking, light weight, and energy efficient aircraft that originally started its journey in Japan. So we are on to you, SI2, you are the airplane Ninja of the future if we've ever heard of one. 


3. The Next United Nations Security General



“They use knowledge. They use coalitions,” she says. “They use the power to advocate and persuade to do quite incredible things — to set the global agenda and then move toward solving major problems.” 
The race is on, and we're not talking about the race to the White House. This position is at the top of the United Nations - the next UN Security General. There has been a huge call for a female leader of the UN and currently, out of the eight candidates running, four of them are women. Never before in the history of the UN has a woman held this position but times are changing and the call may be answered. The process of nominating a candidate has also changed with the times, making it more transparent than ever. The top women running for the position are
  • Vesna Pusić, deputy speaker of the Croatian Parliament and former Croatian foreign minister
  • Natalia Gherman, former Moldovan foreign minister
  • Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO
  • Helen Clark, administrator of the UNDP and former prime minister of New Zealand

The UNSG will need to use their knowledge, power, persuasion, and coalitions to get their job done. These are all skills necessary to be a successful Ninja. Maybe they need to add "Ninja skills" to the job description. Either way, we're rooting the candidates on!

To read more about The Next UNSG visit this link: Mashable

2. Stephen Hawking


When the average person or even average scientist thinks about interplanetary exploration we begin with Earth. If man wants to travel into the stars we need to take off from our place of origin. But with that comes the first challenge. To get even one human out of our atmosphere takes a hell of a lot of power and with that comes weight. But Stephen Hawking is no average scientist. He's overcome so many challenges in his own life and he's still coming up with brilliant answers to the hardest questions. Hawking has proposed and plans, with the help of Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, to begin testing what they are calling "Breakthrough Starshot." Their goal? Use a giant laser on Earth to send "postage-stamp-size spacecraft" at the speed of light into space. Sounds like a mash-up of Innerspace and Austin Powers with the seriousness of Interstellar. Okay, I'm confused now. But I think this means we need to call Dennis Quaid and have him suit up! Stephen Hawking, you are a mind-bending Ninja.

More on the proposed plan here: NPR

1. Omaima



Inspired by Malala Yousafzai (the Pakistani-born Nobel prize laureate who relentlessly campaigns for female education in defiance of the Taliban) Omaima set out to educate young girls and their families about the risk of underage marriages. Omaima lives in the 80,000 person Syrian refugee camp in Jordan where she holds classes teaching young women art, reading, and the benefits of staying in school. She has successfully encouraged the parents of many young women to cancel proposals until the girls reach the legal age to marry. Omaima, we're naming you Ninja of the Week! Keep up this amazingly inspirational, dangerous, but much-needed work.
"In pre-war Syria, an average of 13% of all marriages involved someone below the age of 18, UNHCR reports. Among Syrian refugees living in Jordan, this rate had risen to 32% by the first quarter of 2014."
To read more about Omaima visit this link: Mashable

Wow that got heavy. So many amazing Ninjas out there in the world! I don't know about you but I'm inspired. I'm putting on my ninja gear now - even if it's just to sit in my cubicle and process spreadsheets. Even Office Ninjas need to keep busy!