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Thursday, 14 July 2022 06:45

Book Review: The National Conversation: Interests and Intrigues that shaped the 2014 National Conference

Authors: Akpandem James and Sam Akpe Size: 633 pages Reviewer: Philip Afaha Publisher: Wordsworth Resources Year: 2022 The Amalgamation of 1914 by Lord Frederick Lugard brought the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria together, but the 2014 National Conference can be said to be the first genuine attempt at the bringing together of the peoples of Nigeria to proffer solutions to their country’s fault-lines. Although the 2014 exercise was not the first time Nigerians gathered to dialogue about their country, it is widely believed to have been the closest Nigeria came to resolving the problems of her nationhood. The 2014…

Sunday, 10 July 2022 06:48

How to be a little less judgmental

Casting judgment on others has never been so easy. Social media gives onlookers the opportunity to scoff at a person’s every choice, from how they dress to what they feed their children. How people have behaved during the pandemic has inspired plenty of judgment in its own right: At the height of restrictions, adherence — or lack thereof — to masking and social distancing measures practically became barometers of people’s characters, indicating a lack of personal responsibility and empathy or an abundance of hysteria and over-caution, depending on your views. While it gets a bad rap, in pre-modern times, judgment…

Saturday, 09 July 2022 06:35

The effortless way to dramatically improve your memory, backed by science

Want to remember more? Close your eyes and daydream for a minute or two. Say you need to remember something important. Information from a meeting where taking notes wasn't possible. A pitch you'll make to investors. A presentation you'll make to employees. So you take mental notes, or review written notes. You study, highlight, or rehearse. If you're smart, you also sleep: According to a 2016 study published in Psychological Science, people who studied before bed, then slept, then did a quick review the next morning not only spent less time studying, they also increased their long-term retention by 50…

Monday, 04 July 2022 06:09

From AM to PM, the fickle force of government is with you

When you groggily roll out of bed and make breakfast, the government edges up to your kitchen table, too. Unlike you, it’s perky. It’s an unseen force in your morning. The government makes sure you can see the nutrients in your cereal. It fusses over your toast, insisting that the flour it comes from has no more than 75 insect fragments and one rodent hair per 50 grams. The government also tends to your coffee, mandating that no more than 10% of your beans be moldy. Its satellites inform the weather forecast on your phone for the day ahead. The…

Sunday, 03 July 2022 06:49

Can this Bible-inspired diet bring you better health?

It’s not uncommon for people to eat food in accordance with their religious beliefs and culture; the Daniel Diet is a diet based on the Book of Daniel. Many individuals have tried it and found it to be effective, despite what their beliefs may be. Also known as the Daniel Fast Diet, it is a 21-day partial fast that is said to promote weight loss, boost energy, and general wellness. It has been used and endorsed by celebrities like Chris Pratt and Jimmy Kimmel, and with its interesting history, it just may be the diet for you. If you are…

Wednesday, 29 June 2022 06:23

Ukraine war shows limits of drone warfare

In early June, as the U.S. was rushing to provide financial and military support for Ukraine, reports said that four American-made Gray Eagle drones would be part of the package. These are armed drones that are larger than the well-known Predator drone, which became a symbol of the global war on terror. However, the planned sale of these few expensive, complex drones has run into some hurdles because of concern that they might get shot down and their sophisticated systems could fall into Russian hands. While the Pentagon isn’t elaborating on the status of the Gray Eagle sales, the overall…

Tuesday, 28 June 2022 06:52

Travelling to this country scares me more than anywhere else on earth

Nope, it’s not Rwanda, Afghanistan or El Salvador. It’s the increasingly terrifying United States of America. I’ve had some harrowing travel experiences in my time. I’ve been robbed in a tiny town in the middle of Ecuador, where a couple of tourists had been killed days before. I’ve accidentally wandered into Burundi in central Africa, which holds a fairly steady spot on Australia’s ‘reconsider all travel’ list. But there’s one country on earth that puts my heart in my throat more than either of these places; where I feel a near-permanent sense of unease, simply when I’m walking the streets:…

Monday, 20 June 2022 06:58

In Moscow, shoppers feel far less pain than Americans from Ukraine war - Report

As the Russian army intensifies its artillery assaults in eastern Ukraine, life in the Russian capital remains relatively unchanged. Despite the exodus of Western brands from the Russian market, the parks and cafes of Moscow remain as crowded as ever. "I haven't noticed any change in consumer behavior," Iakov Yakubovich, head of Moscow's Tsverskoy Municipal District, told Newsweek. "Other than the obvious rise in price of many goods and services, there's no difference that's visible to the naked eye." On the streets themselves, Moscow's annual season of bicycle-lane installation and sidewalk enlargement is already underway. "We recently allocated an 8%…

Sunday, 19 June 2022 02:59

Your understanding of ‘eye of the needle’ is probably wrong

If you were in Jerusalem for a religious pilgrimage and wanted to trace Jesus’s steps along the Via Dolorosa to chaotic tourist hotspot the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, you would pass by the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevsky. You might not realize it, because the church emits the architectural feel of a high end hotel, but this baroque church claims to house the Judgment gate through which Jesus allegedly walked and also a rather out-of-place looking hole in the wall. The latter is supposedly the “eye of the needle,” a small entryway that some claim is the…

Friday, 17 June 2022 06:41

China and Russia are building bridges. The symbolism is intentional

For decades the Amur River has separated modern China and Russia – its waters cutting though more than 1,000 of their roughly 2,500 border miles. But it’s always lacked one thing: a vehicle bridge. Now – as Russia’s economic isolation in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine pushes it closer to Beijing – that is changing, with fanfare. Last Friday, Beijing and Moscow feted the launch of another new link – what state media on both sides have called the first highway bridge over the Amur – with rockets trailing colorful smoke bursting overhead, and local officials applauding from…

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Saturday, 11 June 2022 05:58

People who married for money reveal what happened after

Sure, some people marry for love, but have you ever wondered what it's like to marry for money? In three separate Reddit threads from a while back, people who married for money are sharing the reasons behind their decision and what it's actually like — and they even revealed their biggest perks and biggest regrets. Here are some of the most fascinating — and eye-opening — stories: 1. "Not me, but my aunt did. Her husband is a gigantic prick, and she knows it. He is the most uptight man you will ever meet; you could shove coal up his…

Thursday, 09 June 2022 06:46

In Nigeria's disappearing forests, loggers outnumber trees

Deep in a forest in Nigeria's Ebute Ipare village, Egbontoluwa Marigi sized up a tall mahogany tree, methodically cut it down with his axe and machete, and as it fell with a crackling sound, he surveyed the forest for the next tree. Around him, the stumps dotting the swampy forest were a reminder of trees that once stood tall but are fast disappearing to illegal logging in Ondo state, Southwest Nigeria. "We could cut down over 15 trees in one location, but now if we manage to see two trees, it will look like a blessing to us," the 61-year-old…

Thursday, 09 June 2022 06:45

‘We are stuck’: Months of university strikes leave young Nigerians’ lives on hold

Before February, Khalil Rahman Abdullah would start his day with morning prayers before racing off to classes at the University of Ilorin, where he is a final-year medical student. These days, he wakes to his phone and laptop screen, then browses the web or signs up to online courses. As time ticks by, like many Nigerian students, he is becoming enormously frustrated. Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for university lecturers, went on strike on 14 February … and staff have not returned since. “With the strike, it means I will spend a longer year,” says…

Thursday, 09 June 2022 06:42

New Theory of Decision-Making seeks to explain why humans don’t make optimal choices

Summary: A new theory of decision-making helps explain why humans often make decisions that are simply adequate, not optimal. According to the theory, people often use relative thinking when they should use absolutes, and vice-versa. A new theory of economic decision-making from Mina Mahmoudi, a lecturer in the Department of Economics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, offers an explanation as to why humans, in general, make decisions that are simply adequate, not optimal. In research published in the Review of Behavioral Economics, Mahmoudi theorizes an aspect of relative thinking explaining people may use ratios in their decision-making when they should only…

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