Getting animated about the world's most precocious computer programmer

MAGPIE WONDERS whether Dell in Limerick could have been saved had the company's employees included Aman Rehman.

MAGPIEWONDERS whether Dell in Limerick could have been saved had the company's employees included Aman Rehman.

Aman teaches computer-generated animated film at the College of Interactive Arts in Dehradun, the capital of the state of Uttarakhand in northeast India, the sort of place to which Dell-type jobs are migrating, though in the case of the Limerick plant, what is the midwest's loss is Poland's gain.

The thing about Aman, however, is that he's eight. That's eight years of age. His family believe that he may be the world's youngest college lecturer.

It was at the age of three, when Aman's parents became aware of his talent. His father, an illiterate scooter mechanic who supports his wife and three children on about €65 a month, took Aman to the College of Interactive Arts at the suggestion of a friend.

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After a week of intense lobbying, he persuaded the college to watch Aman on computer. They offered him a place and within five months, he had written his own software program.

"Whenever I am having holidays," says Aman, "I make it a point that I should work on a computer for at least eight hours. And usually I work on computer for four hours because I have to complete my schoolwork. I am making projects on black holes, aliens and water conservation."

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Speaking of bright kids, Barack Obama's daughters Malia (10) and Sasha (7) began school this week in Washington. Readers with good memories will recall how some of the more rancid neo-con commentators in the US tried during the election campaign to portray Obama as a loony Muslim fundamentalist hell-bent on taking over and destroying the US.

So what school have the Obamas chosen for their children? The DC branch of a Pakistani madrassa, perhaps? No. Sidwell Friends on Wisconsin Avenue near Bethesda in Maryland, a Quaker school.

Here's what Sidwell says of itself: "Sidwell Friends School is an educational community inspired by the values of the Religious Society of Friends and guided by the Quaker belief in 'that of God' in each person. We seek academically talented students of diverse cultural, racial, religious and economic backgrounds. We offer these students a rich and rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum designed to stimulate creative inquiry, intellectual achievement and independent thinking in a world increasingly without borders. [The Quaker belief] inspires us to show kindness and respect toward one another. It motivates us to recognise and nurture each person's unique gifts. It teaches us to apply our talents in service to others and to work courageously for peace."

Got that Fox News, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh et al?

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Second last Bushism: "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." - January 27th, 2000