Message of Hope

Damola Morenikeji and Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo - as the latter affirms his hope for Nigeria and Nigerians

Leading the Future

ADM and some pupils at one of his programme.

Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child

Aanu Damola Morenikeji and Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili (CFR); World Bank's Vice President for Africa.

Award

Damola Morenikeji with the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun after becoming the first recipient of the Ogun State Youth Award for Excellence in Health and Community Service.

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Alas! Google is 13


Google began in March 1997 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Stanford working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP's goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library." and was funded through the National Science Foundation among other federal agencies. In search for a dissertation theme, Page considered—among other things—exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web, understanding its link structure as a huge graph. His supervisor Terry Winograd encouraged him to pick this idea (which Page later recalled as "the best advice I ever got") and Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, considering the number and nature of such backlinks to be valuable information about that page (with the role of citations in academic publishing in mind).[6] In his research project, nicknamed "BackRub", he was soon joined by Sergey Brin, a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.[2] Brin was already a close friend, whom Page had first met in the summer of 1995 in a group of potential new students which Brin had volunteered to show around the campus.[6] Page's web crawler began exploring the web in March 1996, setting out from Page's own Stanford home page as its only starting point. To convert the backlink data that it gathered into a measure of importance for a given web page, Brin and Page developed the PageRank algorithm.[6] Analyzing BackRub's output—which, for a given URL, consisted of a list of backlinks ranked by importance—it occurred to them that a search engine based on PageRank would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).[6][8]
A small search engine called "RankDex" from IDD Information Services (a subsidiary of Dow Jones) designed by Robin Li was, since 1996, already exploring a similar strategy for site-scoring and page ranking. The technology in RankDex would be patented [10] and used later when Li founded Baidu in China.[11][12]
Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. By early 1997, the backrub page described the state as follows:[13]
Some Rough Statistics (from August 29th, 1996)
Total indexable HTML urls: 75.2306 Million
Total content downloaded: 207.022 gigabytes
...
BackRub is written in Java and Python and runs on several Sun Ultras and Intel Pentiums running Linux. The primary database is kept on an Sun Ultra II with 28GB of disk. Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg have provided a great deal of very talented implementation help. Sergey Brin has also been very involved and deserves many thanks.
-Larry Page page@cs.stanford.edu
Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 4, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
Both Brin and Page had been against using advertising pop-ups in a search engine, or an "advertising funded search engines" model, and they wrote a research paper in 1998 on the topic while still students. However, they soon changed their minds and early on allowed simple text ads.
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol,"[15][16] which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros (although Enid Blyton used the phrase "Google Bun" in The Magic Faraway Tree (published 1941), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (published 1946), and called a clown character "Google" in Circus Days Again (published 1942), and there is also the Googleplex Star Thinker from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb, "google," was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning, "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet." The use of the term itself reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.[16]

Philanthropy
In 2004, Google formed a non-profit philanthropic wing, Google.org, giving it a starting fund of $1 billion.[54] The express mission of the organization is to help with the issues of climate change (see also global warming), global public health, and global poverty. Among its first projects is to develop a viable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 100 mpg

Google has worked with several corporations, in order to improve production and services. On September 28, 2005,Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1,000,000-square-foot (93,000 m2) R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are planning to work together on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers. In October 2006, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org.
Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on December 21, 2005, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a $1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL. As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium-video service within Google Video. This did not allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase.
In August 2003, Google signed a $900 million offer with News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit to provide search and advertising on MySpace and other News Corp. websites including IGN, AmericanIdol.com, Fox.com, and Rotten Tomatoes, although Fox Sports is not included as a deal already exists between News Corp. and MSN.
On 6 December 2006, British Sky Broadcasting released details of a Sky and Google alliance. This includes a feature where Gmail will link with Sky and host a mail service for Sky, incorporating the email domain "@sky.com".
In 2007, Google displaced America Online as a key partner and sponsor of the NORAD Tracks Santa program.[68][69][70] Google Earth was used for the first time to give visitors to the website the impression that they were following Santa Claus' progress in 3-D. The program also made its presence known on YouTube in 2007 as part of its partnership with Google.
In January 2009, Google announced a partnership with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, allowing the Pope to have his own channel on YouTube.

(c) Wikipedia

Friday, 23 September 2011

LET'S CELEBRATE FIVE YEARS OF BUILDING OUR NATIONAL IMAGE


The Nigerian Flag and Coat of Arm is known to be one of the most important national symbols of the country – Nigeria. The flag symbolizes in no small measure greenery, harmony and a sense of togetherness – which comes in mind when the Name Nigeria is mentioned.
Unfortunately however, the Nigerian flag which is known to be a peculiar object in describing the image of the country has been left uncelebrated for several years. Going history lane, the image of the United States as inscribed in its National flag is been celebrated annually. The celebration is meant to bring the consciousness of its citizens to the fact that there exists a flag which denotes what the country stands for.
Battling this back drop, a group of patriotic Nigerian led by Akinola Solanke in the year 2007 celebrated the first ever Flag Day in the history of Nigeria which made Nigeria at that time, the second nation in Africa to celebrate its Flag day after Liberia and recently Ethiopia whose parliament just passed their Flag Day bill in on October 1, 2008. The Flag Day is known as the birthday of the Flag and it was been celebrated since 1877 by the United States and about fifty other countries.
The event, which has proven to be a useful tool to inspire a high level Spirit of Patriotism and a sense of belonging in their citizenry had successfully been celebrated in Ogun State in the year 2008 and Plateau State in the year 2009.
Celebrating five years of outstanding efforts by Patriotic young Nigerians, a Non-governmental organization whose aim is to promote national value re-orientation and education of all and sundry towards the creation of a new Nigeria – Initiative for Promotion of Our Flag Image in Nigeria” – has put things in shape towards the celebration of the 2011 National Flag Day.
In a release signed by its Public Relations officer, Rotimi Atunluse Abayomi, he made it know to our correspondent that the event is scheduled as follows;
Date: Saturday, 24th September 2011
 I.      Press Conference
Venue: Conference Hall, Duban International Hotels, After Murhi International (NGR) Ltd. 63/65, Aguda, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria.
Time: 10am – 11am prompt.
II.  Anniversary Lecture
Venue: Conference Hall, Duban International Hotels, After Murhi International (NGR) Ltd. 63/65, Aguda, Ogba, Lagos, Nigeria.
      Time: 11.00.am prompt.
     Theme: “Promoting Peace and National Unity through Civic Orientation and Patriotic Education.”
Akin Solanke and Pa Taiwo Akinkunmi
In a chat with the Executive Director, Initiative for Promotion of Our Flag Image in Nigeria – Building Our National Image [BONI] project, Mr. Akinola Solanke, dignitaries expected at the press conference includes Pa Taiwo Michael Akinkunmi (the designer of the Nigerian Flag), Engr. Abiodun Fijabi (Chairman Board of Directors, Initiative for Promotion of our Flag Image in Nigeria), State Director of the National Orientation Agency and other stake holders. He further revealed that the Anniversary Lecture will be honoured with the presence of Chief John Dara, (Chairman, National Transformation Party) as the Chairman of the Occasion, Ambassador Segun Olusola as the Father of the day, Mrs. Margaret E. Obanya (Director Administration, Voice of Nigeria), Mr. Ibirogba Aderemi (the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Lagos State), Mrs. Tokunbo Fayokun (Oyo State Commissioner for Education) as special guests of honour.
The keynote speakers are Mr. Fela Durotoye and Barrister Yomi Okunnu.
For more information, kindly contact Solanke Akinola on 07040383732 or www.boniproject.com.

Monday, 19 September 2011

What have you done (Poem) by Saddiq Dzukogi

In what tone
Shall I speak
This alien story
Of my artless soul
Dwelling this
Demonic sphere
Where a thousand vampires
Guzzle my virginity
Why must you snatch
A soul that belongs to me
You fed me
Grim bread
The prize for
My juvenile spirit
But I didn’t request it
Too young
To eat from your
Garden of reckless urge
Genocide
I groan a hideous voice
Words, shy
To speak of
Sweet dreams turned
Into festival of nightmares

Extract from the forthcoming collection, Canvass.

Meet Fatai Rokeeb; a ten year old ‘engineer’

Rokeeb displaying his engineering skills
Nigeria is blessed with lots of talented and skilled citizens - with youths, teenagers and children constituting a larger percentage - of which, if adequately trained and developed will immensely contribute positively towards the growth and development of the country.
One of such lads is Fatai Rokeeb, a 10 year old mechanical engineering apprentice at a mechanical workshop in South West Nigeria. The young lad today performed what seemed to be ‘a miracle’ on a generating set which mysteriously generated problems.


In a chat with the young engineer, he made it known that he aspires to be an Engineer in the nearest future and work at the engineering department of the biggest and greatest engineering firm of his time.
Imagining what was powering his dream, he confessed that his parents had continually encouraged him to face his education likewise pay full attention at the workshop, telling him that if he can be the best in his workplace (work shop), he will easily get a job after leaving the university with good grades.
Rokeeb at work

Speaking in Yoruba Language, the father – Mr. Muhideen Fatai – who is also a mechanical engineer exposes that his son had been acquiring the knowledge when is was a little above the age of five. ‘After leaving school at 2:00pm, my wife ensures he treats his assignments before coming to meet me at the workshop’ he narrates. ‘Our joy is that he is also serious with his academics and wants to be one of the best engineers in the country’ he concludes.

The young Rokeeb
The future seems bright for the Primary three (3) student of Chidi Memorial Nursery and Primary School, Abeokuta, Ogun State, whose best subject is Mathematics.

There is hope for a better Nigeria if required attention is given to technical education in the country.

Fatai Rokeeb, not the sky shall limit you!

Friday, 16 September 2011

Strengthening Your Writing by Lauri Kubuitsile

(c) google.com
Everyone wants stronger more interesting writing. Today let’s look at some easy changes you can make that can begin to wake up a boring, tired story.

1. Get rid of adverbs and adjectives.
In English there are different parts of speech and each part has weight. Nouns and verbs are the heaviest, they have the most impact. This is because every sentence must have them. Adjective and adverbs have less weight. We use them to modify nouns (adjectives) and verbs (adverbs), but writing becomes stronger when we choose descriptive nouns and verbs and leave out the adjectives and adverbs. Here are two examples showing how adverbs and adjective can be removed to make the sentence stronger.

Her haunting, thoughtful eyes made him remember strongly his past love.
Her eyes haunted him, reminding him of his past love.

He was always hopeless and negative so people didn’t easily become his friends.
His hopelessness and negativity kept friends away.


This doesn’t mean you should rid your writing completely of adverbs and adjectives but make sure that you chose exciting, fresh modifiers or you use them in an interesting way. In the example below the unexpected use of brightly makes the sentence pop.
She watched them walk away through tear-filled eyes. “Enjoy yourselves,” she said brightly.

2. Get rid of qualifying modifiers.
A modifier like an adverb or an adjective is bad enough, but when you now add a word or group of words to qualify the modifier you’re weakening your writing even further. Look at the example below:

She was very unforgettable.
She was unforgettable.

That date is a bit noteworthy.
That date is noteworthy.

3. Be careful with the Be Verbs
We all know the be verbs, and there is no way a writer can toss all of them to the wind, but too heavy a reliance on these little verbs make your writing weak. Look at this example:

Elephants that are disturbed by people often become vicious.
Elephants disturbed by people often become vicious.

4. Use Active Voice
Active voice is when the subject of the sentence is the one performing the action. In a passive sentence, the subject of the sentence is being acted on and it makes for complicated and less energized writing. Look at the example:

The ball was thrown by Dineo. (passive)
Dineo threw the ball. (active)

5. Vary Sentence Length and Structure
If your entire story uses only compound sentences it will be very boring for the reader. And you shouldn’t think that using simple short sentences will mean your story is simple and uninteresting. Often it will mean the opposite. Look at this passage:

Mpho stopped at the lights and looked at the man in the car next to her. She knew him. She’d seen him many times before. When he turned, she quickly looked the other way. What was she afraid of? Herself. She knew herself too well. A man like that was the exact wrong sort for a woman like her. Not that it would stop her.

The passage is interesting because different types and lengths of sentences are used. And what happens when the writer uses the short, snappy sentences with the element of repetition? The suspense builds. If you have too many short sentences the reading becomes choppy, but the right amount helps to build tension and speeds things up.

6. Remove Clichés
I think most of us know common clichés, phrases such as: right as rain, everyday life, winds of change, bright and early. These are easy to spot and need to be removed and replaced with something more interesting. But other clichés can be found in lazy writing. I’ve been working through some edits for an upcoming book and the editor pointed out how many times I used almond eyes. This is a cliché too. A reader just passes over it, and because it is overused, it adds nothing to the excitement of your writing. Keep a keen eye out for those sorts of clichés too.

To read more from Lauri, click here.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

BUT WHAT DO THEY DESERVE? (Poem) by Yinka Kareem


Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Wikily he blew his
Wiki-whistle
“Aondoaka is a thug
says US officials.”
Labelled he was
OLOFOFO!


Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Leakily we heard his
Leaki-whistle 
"Supreme Court Judges
took bribes to validate
Yar’Adua/Jonathan
election.”
Branded he was 
EKE!
 

Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Wikily he blew his
Wiki-whistle
“Jonathan voted four
time in 2007.”
Tagged he was
GBEKEYIDE!

Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Leakily we heard his
Leaki-whistle
“NNPC…allocated USD
1.00 per barrel of Nigeria
oil sold as a type of
personal payment or “kick back”
to former President.” – Obasanjo.
Abused he was
ELENUUJO!


Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Wikily he blew his
Wiki-whistle
“David Mark and House
Speaker Dimeji Bankole
Pocketed USD 005/barrel
[of Nigeria oil sold, amounting
to] $30million.”
Nicknamed he was
EKE IBIDUN!

Wiki-leaki
Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
                Wiki-leaki
Gratitude to Assange
Gratitude not money
Deserved a whistle-blower
But what do THEY deserve?

*OLOFOFO, EKE, GBEKEYIE, ELENUUJO, EKE IBIDUN are derogative Yoruba names for a wistle blower.

Friday, 9 September 2011

How to create the formula for your book and ensure it's a winner! by Steve Manning


An Algorithm is a procedure or a formula for solving a problem. On the Internet, the most famous algorithm is the one used by Google to determine which page comes up first during a search. But they're used by police, by scientists, by teachers and just about every professional to arrive at the solution to a challenge that must be solved.

So it is with writing.

Each kind of book has an algorithm, a strategy, a structure, an architecture that is duplicated time and time again to arrive at the result that is the finished book. Ten years ago, writers used to say that a particular kind of book was formulaic. That was a pejorative comment because every author, editor and publisher wanted to believe, rightly or wrongly, that all their books were unique, special, different. Not only does that prove not to be the case, it can actually be a strategy that hurts your chances for success as a writer.
 

Let me give you a non-writing example. When Mozart wrote a classical symphony, he used a classical symphonic structure, or algorithm. Within that algorithm, Wolfgang was free to do whatever he wanted, and the possibilities were limitless, but every listener in the audience, knew that the symphony would have four movements, each movement would have a particular tempo, there would be one or two themes as well as a bridge theme that would undergo several pleasant, and almost predictable, variations. No 'surprises' and everyone loved it. Then Beethoven came along and everyone hated his third symphony because that was where he threw all the rules out the window and no audience member knew what was going on.
 

So it is with writing. The book you want to write has an algorithm. Follow that algorithm and agents, editors, publishers and readers will love you. Divert from it, and you've got an uphill struggle.

1) Your first step is to purchase no fewer than 10 current best sellers in your area of interest. If you want to write thrillers, get thrillers. If you want to write romance, get romance. Try to get books that are as close to what you want to write as possible. So if you've got your heart set on a thriller with a kidnapping as the major event, that's what you're looking for. If romance is your thing, remember that this category alone is divided into more than a dozen sub genres. Science fiction? Well, you know as well as I do that this is just a very rough starting point. Now, if for some reason you can't get specific, then go with the more generic. Can't find 10 thrillers involving a serial killer? Okay, then go with three.

2) After getting your hands on those books, read them quickly. No more than an hour or two for each one.

3) Now go through each one again and tell me, in once sentence, what happens in the first scene. Keep it broad, not specific. Just about every thriller has someone significant dying a grisly death in the first scene, just to get the reader warmed up.

Romance? We get to meet the hero or heroine and realize that despite their success in life, there is an empty spot.

4) Do that for each scene and you've got the algorithm for that book.

5) Put the algorithms of these 10 books together as cohesively as you can so you have one, comprehensive algorithm that incorporates the majority of books you've studied.

This is the algorithm that will help you when you write your genre book.