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LEGO

Lego honours ‘Women of NASA’ with figures

Danish toy maker is honouring real-life heroines -- five women pioneers for the US space agency NASA.

Lego honours 'Women of NASA' with figures
Photo: Screengrab Twitter/LegoNASAWomen

The proposal for the set, submitted on Lego's community and ideas page by MIT News editor Maia Weinstock, has been approved, beating out 11 other projects examined by the Lego Review Board.

“Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the US space program, aka NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,” Weinstock wrote in her proposal.

“Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),” she added.

Lego said it expects the new “Women of NASA” set to be available by the end of the year or in early 2018.

“We’re really excited to be able to introduce Maia’s 'Women of NASA' set for its inspirational value as well as build and play experience,” the company said in a blog post.

The five women included in the set are:

— Astronaut Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space in 1983

— Astronaut Mae Jemison, who became the first African-American woman in space in 1992

— Astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, nicknamed the “Mother of Hubble” for her role in developing the landmark space telescope

— Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, who developed the on-board flight software for the Apollo mission

— Mathematician Katherine Johnson

Johnson is one of three women portrayed in “Hidden Figures,” the Oscar-nominated film that tells the little-known story of three female African-American scientists who played a key role in NASA's early space program.

The 98-year-old Johnson, portrayed in the movie by Taraji P. Henson, attended the Oscars with the film crew on Sunday and received a standing ovation from the A-list audience.

 

BUSINESS

Denmark’s toy giant Lego offers staff bonus after bumper year

Danish toymaker Lego, the world's largest toymaker, Denmark's Lego, said on Tuesday it will offer its 20,000 employees three extra days of holiday and a special bonus after a year of bumper revenues.

Lego is rewarding staff with a Christmas bonus and extra holiday after a strong 2022.
Lego is rewarding staff with a Christmas bonus and extra holiday after a strong 2022. File photo: Ida Guldbæk Arentsen/Ritzau Scanpix

Already popular globally, Lego has seen demand for its signature plastic bricks soar during the pandemic alongside its rapid expansion in China.

“The owner family wishes to… thank all colleagues with an extra three days off at the end of 2021,” the company said in a statement.

The unlisted family group reported a net profit of more than 6.3 billion Danish kroner (847 million euros) for the first half of 2021.

Revenues shot up 46 percent to 23 billion kroner in the same period.

It had been “an extraordinary year for the Lego Group and our colleagues have worked incredibly hard,” said the statement, which added that an unspecified special bonus would be paid to staff in April 2022.

Lego, a contraction of the Danish for “play well” (leg godt), was founded in 1932 by Kirk Kristiansen, whose family still controls the group which employs about 20,400 people in 40 countries.

READ ALSO: Lego profits tower to new heights as stores reopen

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