₦airaland Forum

Eh, it sounds a lot less impressive the more he describes it. 36 derivatives, a patent for each, lol.

The lecture series stuff though is pretty good, though it seems more like the IEEE and ACM let you give a talk at member chapters. So it isn't as if he was an employee or whatever of either organization, just a guy giving a talk about his work. Which is good, but talking about your work is something every academic does.

Doesn't nuclear power take forever to get up and running? We can generate enough hydro-electrical electricity (correct me if I'm wrong.) I'm not sure of the need for nuclear power.

Church and State absolutely have to be separated. If your pastor is telling you who to vote for, then he isn't doing his job.

Look, nothing good comes from when the church meddles in political affairs. Not only does it weaken politics and democracy, but it also weakens the church. These pastors should know better than that.

Eh, how about nobody takes over, instead we select the best people to lead, regardless of gender.

Women have lots of potential for leadership in politics, but they are human beings like any other; let's not put anybody on a pedestal.

Algorithms is a branch of theoretical computer science. But this is not the same as mathematics as a whole (analysis, topology, number theory, etc.)

I think programmers and algorithmic thinking is extremely valuable for applied mathematics, like numerical linear algebra, operations research, maybe some things like that.

But applied math is only a part of math, not all of it.

I'm just trying to think of when math is really used in programming. In algorithms, you use proof by induction to prove the correctness of an algorithm. But aside from that, when do you really, really need to know anything beyond high school math?

Maybe I've not been programming the right things, but I almost never use my mathematical training when coding. I guess it boils down to what you are programming, though. If you mostly do text processing in Perl, probably not math needed. If you write numerical linear algebra libraries in Fortran or C, then of course you need to know some math (or at least understand the existing algorithms.)

Anyway, I could be entirely wrong, I'm mostly just a dabbler in programming, not an expert.

naija!

I'm a big fan of Ruby on Rails. But probably any MVC framework (like Django for Python) is likely to be just as good.

Truth be told, I wish I'd learned Python instead of Ruby. Oh well.

When you became married, did you turn into a goat or statue? Quite a big difference to be attracted to another man and actually acting upon it. I don't see why we are expecting people to lose their humanity once they get married.

^--- I feel you, man. It isn't an easy situation. And maybe if I were in his shoes I'd do what he is doing. Just not sure it is the "right" thing to do, you know?

Oh well, hopefully things work out well for him.

afam4eva:
If the pope or Cardinal Arinze endorses a candidate you can be sure that at least 40% of the Igbo population will go for that person.

Disturbing if true.

^--- Eh, we don't have guns or an army. If we did, then things would probably be different. And certainly if the north DIDN'T control the army, then they'd have zero say in anything in the country. Who would give a damn what they say without guns to support it?

Saddest thing about this whole Nigeria mess is so much misunderstanding. I don't think SW and SE are that different people. And it is clear that we share a lot of mutual interest. But I guess people are not willing to let go of the past to move their people forward.

Yeah, the numbers are high. Nearly 450 people in a kidnapping gang? I was thinking a 5 or 10 man operation, not almost a village's worth of kidnappers.

Pretty interesting. I guess you must be in the early stages though; Matlab scales poorly for large problems.

There are a lot of academic papers you can Google for though, there is bound to be lots of code floating online.

Gnu C++ Compiler.

If you are using windows, they have a way to run it on that too (iirc.)

Can you provide more info? What is the setup? Provide a Wikipedia or some other article so we can have a better idea of what problem you are trying to solve. . .

Are you maintaining some old software, or writing from scratch? I hope the former rather than the later

What is the consensus on who the arms were for?

^--- Sad, but true 

I even know of a pastor at a Redeemed who was caught having s-ex with one of the secretaries. And this is a guy who would anoint my head with oil, pray over me, etc. I was flabbergasted when I heard this story.

Since then I've realized that following any human like a cow is a recipe for disaster. . .

fstranger:
With all due respect, I don't think you have the right to say something like that. It is an unfair, prejudicial characterization of a group of people. Some of the most hardworking people in Nigeria, and in fact, in the world, are people of the Islamic faith. You need not lampoon them to get your message across. We get it. You are a Christian and you've been brought up to look down on non-Christians, but haba with your education, you should know better.  Laziness is not peculiar to any religious group. Neither is it a function of someone's race. It is a state of mind of the "lazy" individual. Islam does not in anyway condone laziness, just as how it is not tolerated in the Bible.  And accusing them of having a primitive mind says a lot about how you have been brainwashed to thinking less of people of different religious beliefs. It saddens me that with your level of education and intellect, you, like most religious bigots, many of whom are illiterates, chose to remain close-minded when it comes to religion. I hope you realize how wrong your behavior is and atone for it before it is too late. However, more than that, I would advise you to be more objective in your characterization of people who are different from you. I know that old habits die hard, but I believe in you. You can make amends moving forward.

You are right, my comments were pretty ill-advised, and I apologize to you (and others here who I might have offended) for them. Especially the laziness comment.

However, to be completely honest. . . I grew up in a Christian home, but by no means am I the most religious of people. I'm not obsessed with religion one way or another. If you are Muslim/Christian/Hindu/atheist/Shango worshiper whatever, fine, I don't have a problem with it. But regardless of your religion, I want you to be a hard-working, contributing member of society. One who will hold onto views that are compatible with a modern democracy, one built on equality for all people (in particular, women and children.)

As much as it might be bigoted to say this, I don't think Islam as practiced in many countries is compatible with this vision I have. For many, their worldview is more of a throwback to earlier times, when women could not vote or hold political office, the constitution and laws of the land were defined by a religious book, etc. Again, this is not a criticism of Islam itself as a religion, just the way it is practiced.
Heck, Christianity in the 1200s and 1300s was extremely barbaric, just as bad if not worse than Islam today. But that in a nutshell is the problem. Christianity HAD its reformation, its religious revolutions. We've learned to keep religion as part of private life, rather than public. State and church are separated in almost every predominantly Christian country in the world. For Muslim countries, this is not generally true.

BTW, this is not to say this is true for ALL countries or all Muslim peoples. Turkey is for example a great counterexample showing that Islam and modern democracies are not incompatible. I also think that Yoruba Muslims (for example) are people you can build a healthy democracy and society with (or at least, I really, really, really pray that this is true. . . )

EDIT: And sorry to play the lame "my best friend is a" card, but truly in my (extended) family, there is lots of religious diversity. I have Muslim relatives, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, Catholics, and even an aunt who became Mormon (my immediate family is all Christian, though.) I'm sure if I dug closely enough, I could find some cousins who worship the hill next to my town in Ekiti State

sugah:
Here in the US, a cop was charged to court cos someone had a footage of him beating up a man he was supposed to arrest. If more pple would be bold enough to record or take pictures of naija policemen doing their thang (road blocks and 50 naira egunje), maybe just maybe the NPF would start looking into those issues.

This. As corrupt and lawless as the cops are even in the US, you guys want to be around Nigerian cops w/o photo evidence?

Makes no sense.

Omenani:
Acts of terrorism still impacts a population. Have Americans got over the 9/11 attacks? The answer is no, many people continue to feel unsafe in the U.S, because of radical Islamist.

Yes, we've gotten over the 9/11 attacks. I'm not sure who you've been talking to, but life continues.

Look, terrorism, what it does is primarily to make life more expensive, inconvenient, and unpleasant. But it isn't some sort of existential threat to a nation.

And like I said, none of these guys (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Al Qaeda) really care about Northern Nigeria in and of itself. It is just a tool for them to use. If no access to oil money, then you'll suddenly see interest (and funding for Boko Haram and the equivalents) dry up.

Why on earth does the nigerian gov't sponsor these pilgrims? Separation of church and state, please. . .

Omenani:
The same is not true for the Niger Republic, because in that nation, you have Muslims fighting each other. Remember the Tuareg, "North Africa's bad boys," continue to pose a problem for both Mali and Niger. Muslims are fighting each other instead of focusing on non-Muslims and the West in these nations. As long as the Tuareg agitate for a country of their own, we do not have to worry much about them.

So the threat of blowing up a few buildings or something, is what will cause us to poop our pants?

Even Israel, sorrounded by hostile Arabs who are willing to blow themselves up (something the Hausaman probably is not willing to do) gets by. I'm not really that concerned about the North, if it is a separate country. Putting into place good border control is a lot of work and effort, but can be done. Once you throw up that border fence/checkpoints at the border, then the largest remaining Muslim population south of the border would be Yoruba Muslims, so what, at most 10-15% of the remaining population?
That is a number of Muslims I'm willing to deal with, not worried about that.

Also, Yoruba Muslims are not really the sort of type where Wahabi Islam would flourish. And if it does, then you ban the preaching of that sort of Islam, kick out the foreign imams from Saudi/etc, and encourage other sects (Sufi Islam, for example, which is relatively harmless.)

Beaf:
The above might be the only reason the West will stand against Nigeria's separation. They would rather prefer a strong South / Middle Belt and a weakened North in order to prevent Iranian or Al Qaeda influence growing in a poverty stricken North.

Why is that same argument not true for say Niger Republic? Even Iran and Al Queda, will they give a damn about Northern Nigeria without oil? What threat would such a state pose?

But if I'm a Westerner, I'd prefer for Nigeria to remain one. Much easier to exploit the country than if it were divided. If the South secedes, do you think that all these low-quality white guys who come to work for Shell in Nigeria and are paid tons of money despite not being very good would be allowed to stay? The Western world is a leech on Nigeria, just like the North is.

tpia@:
^^you're just aching for people to volunteer as cannon fodder, arent you.

Talk by itself is not harmful. Surely none of the words I've said would cause anyone to do anything foolish.

So even all the peacekeeping missions the Nigeria Army did in say Liberia/Sierra Leone and elsewhere, weren't they basically just police actions?

If that is true, then the army hasn't had any real experience in literally 40+ years. Combine this with what is probably substandard training (though of course, how much can you train an illiterate who also cannot speak English?). . . hrm.

Or are there some facts I'm not aware of or haven't considered?

Omenani:
Even tiny Israel, is able to defeat most Arab nations in a protracted war.

Indeed. All of the Arab countries together at once, but they still got their @$$es kicked by Israel.

Arabs are not nearly as powerful in the world as one might think, even accounting for their oil.

Yeah, i really didn't want to divert the discussion to civil war stuff. But the thing is, I've read a lot about the amount of training say the us army puts into its soldiers. And the guys in Southern Sudan at least have LOTS of recent military experience, real battles fought.

Nigerian Army very likely has neither. If you fill your army with illiterates who have very limited battle experience, then your army probably will not do well against a better-trained enemy (unless you have some sort of overwhelming numerical advantage.)

Who knows, maybe the officers in the Nigerian Army are superb, to help make up for the lower-quality of the average soldier.

tpia@:
want to volunteer your hometown to find out?

we'd all like to know.

Err, what? Obviously the Nigerian Army can kick my @$$. But that isn't what I'm wondering about; how will it do against another legitimate fighting force that is well-trained and well-armed?

alj harem:
do not underestimate the nigerian army
trust me, the biafra have done it, boko harem have done done it and now it soon be mends turn


we northerners are very brutal in warfare

First, fighting a bunch of illiterate untrained boko haram terrorists is not very impressive.
Second, mend seems to have more than held its own.
Third, the Nigerian army actually didn't do that well against Biafra, at least once you take into account numbers.

If these three things are supposed to be a testament to the fighting ability of the North, then I'm not impressed.

Anyway, this is all hypothetical talk, doubtful anything in Nigeria would actually come down to civil war

I think another underrated aspect of this is that when Southern Sudan gains independence, that is another nation that might be willing to support an independence movement elsewhere (if only implicitly by allowing you land to train your own soldiers there.)

Not to mention that Southern Sudan has a LOT of weaponry, it seems. Who knows, they might be willing to sell off some of the excess tanks, anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers in their possession?

I wonder how strong the Nigerian army really is. They've not been tested in a true battle in over 40 years. I would not be surprised if they are a paper tiger.