₦airaland Forum

It is true that most people don't even know what to regard as skin toning and what to call bleaching. The idea about these two have been some worth of a debate among many. Quite a number of people are confused because they don't know how to apply both terms. Some people use cosmetic products in an attempt to tone or even their complexion but end up bleaching instead. Although the difference between both cosmetic terms is some how nebulous but for the sake of clarity, It is very important if we differentiated between these two just to understand their striking difference and to know what to do in order to achieve any of these.

Skin Toning

Skin tone actually refers to the natural color your body possess. In skincare, skin toning is usually an attempt to correct your skin color so that it appears evenly. It involves the use of toners such as lotions or wash designed to clean the skin and even it appearance. Skin toning can also be an approach to correct hyper-pigmentation, a situation when patches of skin appear darker than the surrounding skin. Skin toning is actually a very good procedure that make your skin looks at it best and is often applied medically to correct skin color problems.

Skin Bleaching

Skin bleaching, refer to the practice of using harsh chemical substances in an attempt to lighten the skin by reducing the melanin concentration in the skin. Melanin is the substance in the body that gives the skin it color. The striking difference between skin toning and bleaching is that while in toning, your skin appears more natural and original, in bleaching your natural skin color is altered towards a more lighter complexion. Bleaching is actually the extreme form of toning and is usually frowned upon because it has a lot of devastating effect on the skin.

https://blog.obiaks.com/191025085948/skin-toning-and-bleaching-whats-the-difference

The ancient Egyptian empire is actually one of the most powerful empires in the antiquity. Often regarded as the birth place of the world civilization, even when most people usually disregard this facts. Quite a lot is known about this land of Pharaohs, ranging form its huge pyramids, down to the bandaged mummies and to its golden treasures. But how much more do you actually know about this place? lets find out.

They never used camels
Most people believe that Egypt was a place where camels were dominant as a means of transportation. Being a place closed to the Sahara desert, it should be rich in those animals. But according to history ancient Egyptians never enjoyed the usage of camels. The animal arrived late in Egypt, it actually came after the decline of the empire. The most dominant and effective method of transportation before camels arrived was the use of donkeys. Animals they used for several activities including farming. They also used boat as a means of transportation in sea.

Not everyone was mummified
To mummify means to preserve a dead body after burial. This was a very common practice among the Egyptians at that time which the whole world recognizes them for. Anyway the truth be told, the Egyptians never mummified everyone. Mummification was majorly the thing for the rich and the elites while the ordinary people who have died were taken to the deserts be to inhumed. The reason they mummified bodies was because they believed that there is life after death and that if a body is not completely decomposed the person could live again in the afterlife.

Egyptian women had equal rights with men
It seem Egypt was the birth place of feminism. That is quite wonderful though, considering the right all Egyptian women stood to enjoy. During the Egyptian empire you could barely differentiate between what men can do from what women can. The laws were made such that women enjoy the same right as the men, "no wonder Cleopatra could ascend the throne".
Egyptian Men and women of equal societal status at that time were treated equal before the law. Women could buy, sell, and inherit properties. Wives could preside over family issues and businesses when their husband were not around. When widowed or divorced, they could raise their own children alone. Women could become rulers and stake holders in the society.
Don't you think they deserve an applaud? holding to the fact that one could say they were primitive if compared with our present society, yet still went that far to protect women's interest. That's pretty cool of a law, don't you think so?

Women can be Pharaohs
If the law could see both men and women as equal in everything, then what's the issue as to whom ascends the throne? In ancient Egypt It is ideal that the male son of the previous king is entitled to inherit the throne but this was not always the case. There have been several occasions where women were made Pharaohs. Example includes Cleopatra VII Philapator, Twosret, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Sobekneferu and MerNeith who were among the few women of antiquity to reign during Egypt's long history.

Egyptian Kings married their siblings
Incestuous marriages were a common practice among the Egyptians especially the in the royal family. Several of the Egyptian Pharaohs married their siblings and had several children with them. For example, Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun, and was himself the child of an incestuous union between Akhenaten and an unidentified sister-wife.
These incestuous marriages ensured that the queen was trained in her duties from birth, and that she remained entirely loyal to her husband and their children. They also do this in order to restrict potential claimants to the throne.

The Great Pyramid was not built by slaves
It is a common belief that the Egyptians used slaves to build the great pyramid of Giza, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Most historical pictures always depict this as well as in movies. There is also a popular belief that the Israelite during their persecution were the ones the Egyptians used in raising such an enigma. But according to archeological evidences, this is just a misconception.

Archaeological studies have found that the Great Pyramid was in fact built by a workforce consisting of 5,000 permanent, salaried employees and around 20,000 temporary workers. The studies shows that these workers were free men, summoned under the corvée system of national service to put in a three- or four-month shift on the building site before returning home. Workers were provided food, shelter, and medical attention as a form of payment. And for those that died during the process, they were either buried in near by commentary or taking to their families for their funeral rites.

https://blog.obiaks.com/191025025353/unknown-facts-about-ancient-egypt

First, you must understand what a Virus is. A virus is any program that can override the function of another program. A virus can be written with any language. As long as it achieves its aim.

sparkle7:
Web developer is a type of programmer that builds web applications using frontend and back end tools. So the technologies you need is HTML and CSS (Paramount) JavaScript, a back end language like php or ruby or python or java, then databases like mysql, postgres or nosql databases like mongodb.
So as you can see the learning curve is deep from HTML to CSS to JavaScript to php using a database like mysql or mariadb.
If you enter into web dev just to get a job then you might go hungry and lose the interest in it.
One thing people fail to know is that programming is not like other business where you start seeing returns immediately.
It takes time bro and experience. Just like an investment you make on yourself and reap the rewards later.
You can work on andela, do freelance works on fiverr or run projects for computer science students.
My 2 cents.

When people ask question like the OP, i just advise them to go learn something else. Being a developer goes beyond a job. Its a lifestyle that must be fueled with passion. The tricky thing is that money will always come, but your development skills and expertise will have to matter first.

Celexralno:
You run Kali-linux bro?

Kali is broad, there lots of tools, i ve some.

OgaLinus:
Boss Thanks a lot, God bless you
Account number - 0058568218
Bank - Access bank

Jeez, i meant to say phone number. But its all good. I will credit you tomorrow. Something small for the weekend. lol

Celexralno:
My bro are a hacker?
Am gray hat hacker bro
Send me your number let's chat on WhatsApp

Am ethical. Maybe you should drop your number.

Coding is the act of writing a code. lets say in php we write
<?php
$msg = "Hello World";
echo $msg;
?>
Thats coding. Sometimes it might even be a function.

Now programming is a combination of codes and functions in order to achieve a particular objective

Sannisege:
Too tedious unlike Canada’s Express Entry Program

I don't really know much of the Canada Express Entry Program. I should read more about about it.

Australia is a nice country to be. It is a place where all your dreams are half solved if you were successful in settling in it. The country boast of a robust economy, good health care, good education, social securities, human rights security and civic freedoms. It is one of the best nations in the world to consider when trying to relocate to another nation as an immigrant. It is one of the few countries in the world that has never experienced recession for the past 26 years.

Just like Canada, Australia has several and flexible immigration policies for skilled workers who wished to settle. However, if you must be considered as a migrant who wished to be called an Aussies, you must have something to offer. There are several Skilled Migrant Visa the nation offer to those who choose to come the nation to help boost the economy.

Before you can apply for Australia Skilled Migrant Visa, you must first and foremost apply for an Expression Of Interest EOI. This is an application that asses your eligibility to know if you are fit for applying for any of their Skilled Migrant Visa. It is usually an online application form that needs to be filled by applicant using an Australian government website commonly called SkillSelect .

Below are the requirements that are taken into consideration when filling this form. Note that you will be scored for each assessment.

Age - you must be under 45 when you apply;

English language - you should have sufficient ability in the English language to work in Australia (at least at a competent level); this means you must take an English language test. Either International English Language Testing System IELTS or Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEFL. Don't let this freak you out alright, you can always read and pass the exam.

Nominated occupation - before you apply you must have nominated a skilled occupation, which fits your skills and qualifications. This occupation must be found on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List;

Skills assessment - before you apply, you must have your skills assessed by the Australian assessing authority designated to assess your nominated occupation (which will usually have specific qualifications requirements);

Health assessment - You must prove that you are healthy. All applicants must have their health assessed by a panel doctor and undergo a medical examination.

Character assessment - You should be of good character. But take note, this too must be assessed as well by some panel of judges.

When your Expression Of Interest has been successfully assessed and you are deemed fit to apply for any of their Skilled Migrant Visa, Below are the visa Categories you can chose from.

Skilled - Independent Visa

The Skilled - Independent Visa (subclass 189) is the most popular skilled migration category is geared to skilled workers who are in high demand and do not require a state or family sponsor.

Skilled - Nominated Visa

The Skilled - Nominated Visa (subclass 190) is a category for skilled applicants looking to emigrate to Australia who are sponsored by an Australian State or Territory.

Skilled - Nominated (Provisional) Visa

The Skilled - Nominated (Provisional) Visa (subclass 489) is a temporary visa for skilled migrants to live and work in a regional area of Australia through sponsorship by an Australian State or Territory.

Skilled - Sponsored (Provisional) Visa

The Skilled - Sponsored (Provisional) Visa (subclass 489) is a temporary visa for skilled migrants to live and work in a regional area of Australia through sponsorship from a relative who lives in a Designated Area of Australia.

Skilled - Regional Visa

Highly skilled visa applications who have the necessary education and qualifications can qualify for a Skilled - Regional Visa if they are willing to settle in specific states and territories.

Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS)

Permanent residents entering Australia under the Employer Nomination Scheme have a job waiting for them. Alternatively, you can apply for this visa if you hold a temporary working visa, such as the Working Holiday Visa or a Student Visa.

Regional Skilled Migration Scheme (RSMS)

The Australian Government's RSMS is limited to certain areas of Australia. It allows employers to sponsor skilled migrants for job vacancies. The RSMS visa provides permanent residency.

Labour Agreements

Labour Agreements enable Australian employers to recruit a specified number of workers from overseas in response to identified skills shortages in the Australian labour market. Employees may come to Australia on either a temporary or permanent basis.

https://blog.obiaks.com/190913033800/how-to-migrate-easily-to-australia

Anthony Joshua was just handed a pretty dramatic defeat against rival fighter Andy Ruiz Jr. During their highly publicized match at Madison Square Garden, Ruiz Jr. dropped Joshua four times, taking his WBA, WBO, and IBF world titles. It was only the second time Joshua had ever been knocked out in the ring, and his first ever loss in his entire career as a professional boxer - and some fans are saying rapper Drake is to blame.

Drake really just ruined Anthony Joshua's career fans says.

Back in March, Joshua posted a photo with Drake to Instagram, accompanied by the caption: "Bout to break the curse. #June1st." He's referring to the growing superstition that Drake is a "bad luck charm," following a series of losses by high level athletes which just so happened to coincide with them spending time with the Canadian artist.

The most infamous episode in the saga of the "Drake curse" was Connor McGregor's defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov, a knock that the Irish MMA fighter has struggled to come back from. McGregor was photographed with Drake at the weigh-in prior to the match.

Then there are the football clubs that suffered a series of devastating losses in the aftermath of hanging with the rapper: Arsenal, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have all succumbed to the Drake curse.

After posting for a picture with @Drake : Anthony Joshua lost to Ruiz, Conor McGregor lost to Khabib, Sergio Aguero missed a penalty in the Champions League vs Spurs, Serena Williams lost in US Open, Kentucky Wildcats no final. The Drake curse took effect again on june 2, 2019

Some tennis fans even attributed Serena Williams' loss at the US Open in 2015 to the Drake curse, although Williams herself has dismissed it. In an interview with Glamour , the Grand Slam superstar said: "I don't think that was fair. I am the one who's playing, who's making mistakes or making winners. I am not to blame anyone else for anything. And I don't think anyone else should either. I played a really good opponent that day. And I wasn't at my best."

https://blog.obiaks.com/190603015447/drake-is-the-cause-of-anthony-joshuas-defeat

The present age has brought a mixture of advantages and disadvantages with new technologies that has caused a great change globally. This can be seen as there is a transformation from what technology was in the past.

Technology is evolving everyday due to increase in knowledge impacted through the boom in digital revolution and new media, especially social media.

According to Wikipedia, social media can be described as computer mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual, communities and networks.

Some of the applications include: Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, twitter, LikedIn, Snapchat, Google, Skype, Messanger, Telegram, and so on.

Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications said “about 75 percent of Nigeria’s population that use the internet are on social media; and the number keeps growing on both social networking sites and blogging sites.”

The emergence of internet has brought about a change in economic, political, intellectual, and socio-cultural interaction in the world today. The Internet and social media offers lots of benefits for youths.

The social media aids social interaction especially among youths. It enables them to create and exchange information in one way or the other via technological devices and ensures connection between friends when they are not able to see each other.

Youths are said to be the most active users of social media. The platforms have given the youths the voice to express themselves.

Social media keeps you up to date with things going on around your environment and things you are not familiar with. For example, with the emergence of blogs, people get the latest news on social media, ranging from politics, business, entertainment, etc.

Youths can also use the platforms to express themselves and develop social skills like writing, reading, acting, calculations, business and lots more.

However, social media has its negative sides. One of it is that youths are sometimes exposed to social vices. Another disadvantage is that youths can get addicted to it and abandon other important aspect of their lives.

Youths are also prone to giving false impression about themselves on social media in addition to engaging in violence due to what they are exposed to.

Social media is a good introduction to today’s world, but it can result in ills if not managed properly.

https://blog.obiaks.com/190528023334/influence-of-social-media-on-nigerian-youths-expert

Every company has its bad times and good time. Surviving the bad times become the major turnaround for businesses. Most big companies in the world have in one time or the other, suffer some set backs in production. The classical example of Apple failing in 1997 and Steve Jobs returning with some tough decisions like reducing product line from 350 to just 10 deserves a mention here. The rest, as we all knows is history. Some of the basic ways to save a failing company are:

Analyzing Situations

Businesses don’t fail overnight as signs begin to appear over a period. Sometimes these initial indications might get overlooked when companies are busy dealing with day-to-day operations. Internal audit of employee & customer satisfaction, tracking financial health and order book and staying on top of industry offerings, should be part of any company’s culture. These are some crucial aspects of business and any hiccups around them are a sign that you must start looking for faster and smarter solutions.

Some of the measures around these hiccups are cutting operational costs, re-visiting company’s strategy, re-branding businessor innovatingproducts to focus on new geographical location. Sales and finance functions of an organization help in deriving insights around these decisions.

Invest in Employee Trust

This is one profitable investment even in times of trouble for any business. Employees can achieve business KPIs with optimal efficiency even during tough times if they are provided with the right direction and motivation to deliver.

Transparent communication with a clear business vision will make them align with desired business objectives. Invest time and efforts to help them achieve smaller targets with a vision for the long term. Keeping their trust and motivation intact is of utmost importance,after all happy employees means happy customers.

Customer-focused Approach

Customers are indispensable. Decrease in customer base can have different reasons like change in customers’ expectations, better substitutes, price-wars among competitors or weak marketing and after sales services. Profitability is directly proportional to satisfied customerswhich is achieved through acustomer-centric approach.

There is a demand for every great idea and excuse like immature market holds no evidence. Sometimes, altering your current products and services would work for you and sometimes adopting an advanced and fast technology could be your savior.

Finding out your niche and matching customers’ expectations can land you up in sweet spot for saving your business.Time is a major factor here,and businesses have to act quick and smart in adopting and implementing.

Manage Cash Flow and Resources

Managing cash flow is important for any business, even more for a growing business.

When your business is not doing well, it is advisable to project and track cash flows on a weekly basis that you can later move to monthly upon achieving stability.

Keeping an eye on working capital and trying to convert receivables into cash inflows should be a priority. Communicating any delay in payments to your creditors will hold you in good state while a strategy should be adopted to get the payments from your debtors in the form of advance payments, discounts on instant full payments, quick follow-ups with slow paying customers.

Increasing Efficiency

Shortage of funds even to meet basic amenities of running business like pay cheques, paying vendor and other bills is a vital sign that a business is experiencing a tough phase.

Businesses are profit-making organizations and should always vouch for making profits for employees and stakeholders, without compromising on customers’ expectations.

Reducing operational expenses by cutting unnecessary expenses and keeping a tap on monetary benefits for a while can save you some precious dollars, putting them into more beneficial use. Although cutting costs is not the solution for reviving business, it will give you excess funds for some time to allocate resources to the most essential business needs. Do not rely on saving money from cost cutting, rather look out for ways to make company profitable in long run.

ABC of Marketing Strategies

Sometimes a failing company might be doing everything right – right product, identifying the right customer base, right pricing but their marketing is not able to convince customers to buy their products. The right way out for this is to evaluate the right marketing mix for your customers with right message and pitch.

It is not advisable to imitate your competitors. Figuring your own strengths works for a business. Investing a lot of money in short-term tactics will not work for your targeted audience while investing the same amount in right marketing tactics can give you expected ROI.

Don’t Shift Focus – Stay Lean, Hungry and Passionate

While saving your failing company, you should not shift focus from business objective to drive efficiencies and profitability. Discounted pricing, cost-cutting and boardroom meetings are short-term solutions and can never substitute for real doings that a company need swhen it is going through a trough.

The right thing to do here is to take a fresh approach for long-term sustainability. Any pre-conceived notions will make you less open to new ideas that may be the solution you are looking for.

Summing up, internal factors are relatively easier to control compared to external factors but one should also plan and hold on their best practices to face any external challenges.

https://blog.obiaks.com/190524014015/how-to-rescue-a-failing-company

Abby255:
Please who can recommend a very good skin cream for me, my heads and chest are really rough but other parts are clean. Have used a lot of expensive creams and they're really not working

You have fungal infection. Visit a doctor. you will be placed on antifungal drugs for three to four months, and dont forget to do HIV test.
All the best.

Mophasa:
Josiah Jesse Ransome-Kuti is the First Nigerian to ever release a record album.

He recorded Yoruba hymns in gramophone & released them in 1925 under Zonophone Records, known today as Warner Music Group.

His album is in the British Museum. He is the grandfather of afrobeat legend fela Anikulakpo Kuti.


https://www.viewsnaija.com/2019/05/meet-first-nigerian-to-ever-record.html?m=1

He is also Wole Shoyinkas' grand father.

In 1604, England’s King James I authorized a new translation of the Bible aimed at settling some thorny religious differences in his kingdom—and solidifying his own power. But in seeking to prove his own supremacy, King James ended up democratizing the Bible instead. Thanks to emerging printing technology, the new translation brought the Bible out of the church’s sole control and directly into the hands of more people than ever before, including the Protestant reformers who settled England’s North American colonies in the 17th century.


Emerging at a high point in the English Renaissance, the King James Bible held its own among some of the most celebrated literary works in the English language (think William Shakespeare). Its majestic cadences would inspire generations of artists, poets, musicians and political leaders, while many of its specific phrases worked their way into the fabric of the language itself. Even now, more than four centuries after its publication, the King James Bible (a.k.a. the King James Version, or simply the Authorized Version) remains the most famous Bible translation in history—and one of the most printed books ever.

How the King James Bible came to be

When King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603, he was well aware that he was entering a sticky situation.


For one thing, his immediate predecessor on the throne, Queen Elizabeth I, had ordered the execution of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, who had represented a Catholic threat to Elizabeth’s Protestant reign. And even though Elizabeth had established the supremacy of the Anglican Church (founded by her father, King Henry VIII), its bishops now had to contend with rebellious Protestant groups like the Puritans and Calvinists, who questioned their absolute power.


By the time James took the throne, many people in England at the time were hearing one version of the Bible when they went to church, but were reading from another when they were at home. While one version of Christianity’s holy texts—the so-called Bishops’ Bible—was read in churches, the most popular version among Protestant reformers in England at the time was the Geneva Bible, which had been created in that city by a group of Calvinist exiles during the bloody reign of Elizabeth’s half-sister, Mary I.


For the new king, the Geneva Bible posed a political problem, since it contained certain annotations questioning not only the bishops’ power, but his own. So in 1604, when a Puritan scholar proposed the creation of a new translation of the Bible at a meeting at a religious conference at Hampton Court, James surprised him by agreeing.


Over the next seven years, 47 scholars and theologians worked to translate the different books of the Bible: the Old Testament from Hebrew, the New Testament from Greek and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. Much of the resulting translation drew on the work of the Protestant reformer William Tyndale, who had produced the first New Testament translation from Greek into English in 1525, but was executed for heresy less than a decade later.

Bringing the Bible directly to the people

Published in 1611, the King James Bible spread quickly throughout Europe. Because of the wealth of resources devoted to the project, it was the most faithful and scholarly translation to date—not to mention the most accessible.


“Printing had already been invented, and made copies relatively cheap compared to hand-done copies,” says Carol Meyers, a professor of religious studies at Duke University. “The translation into English, the language of the land, made it accessible to all those people who could read English, and who could afford a printed Bible.”


Whereas before, the Bible had been the sole property of the Church, now more and more people could read it themselves. Not only that, but the language they read in the King James Bible was an English unlike anything they had read before. With its poetic cadences and vivid imagery, the KJV sounded to many like the voice of God himself.


Religious and political impact

By giving more people direct access to the Bible, the King James Version also had a democratizing influence within Protestantism itself, especially in the English colonies being settled in the New World. The Puritans and other reformers “didn’t overtake the Anglican Church in England,” Meyers explains. “But in the colonies, the Anglicans no longer had supremacy, because the Puritans, Presbyterians, Methodists came,” all of whom made use of the King James Bible.


Meanwhile, back in England, the bitter religious disputes that had motivated the new Bible translation would spiral by the 1640s into the English Civil Wars, which ended in the capture and execution (by beheading) of King James’s son and successor, Charles I.


If James had hoped to quash any doubt of his (and his successors’) divine right to power, he clearly hadn’t succeeded. Meyers points out that the King James Bible gave people access to passages that were not ordinarily read in church—passages that limit the power of secular rulers like James. As an example, she cites Deuteronomy 17, which reads, “One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.” But it also suggests that the king should not acquire too many horses, wives or silver and gold for himself; and that he, like anyone else, should be subject to the laws of God.


“King James wanted to solidify his own reputation as a good king by commissioning the translation,” Meyers says. “Maybe he didn't know about those passages about the limits of the king's powers, or think making them available to all might threaten his divine right as king.”

The cultural legacy of the King James Bible

From Handel’s Messiah to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the King James Bible has inspired a wide swath of cultural expression across the English-speaking world over generations. Writers from Herman Melville to Ernest Hemingway to Alice Walker have drawn on its cadences and imagery for their work, while Martin Luther King Jr. quoted the King James Version of Isaiah (from memory) in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.


Beyond the countless artists and leaders inspired by the King James Bible, its influence can be seen in many of the expressions English speakers use every day. Phrases like “my brother’s keeper,” “the kiss of death,” “the blind leading the blind,” “fall from grace,” “eye for an eye” and “a drop in the bucket”—to name only a few—all owe their existence, or at least their popularization in English, to the KJV.


From the early 20th century onward, mainstream Protestant denominations increasingly turned toward more modern Bible translations, which have been able to provide more accurate readings of the source texts, thanks to the use of more recently discovered ancient Semitic texts unavailable in 1611. Still, the King James Version remains extremely popular. As late as 2014, a major study on “The Bible in American Life” found that 55 percent of Bible readers said they reached most often for the King James Version, compared with only 19 percent who chose the New International Version, first published in 1978 and updated most recently in 2011. (The high percentage also likely includedpeople who favor the New King James Version, an update of the classic English text published in the 1980s.)


It’s clear that after more than 400 years, the King James Bible has more than proven its staying power. “[For] reading in worship services, it's much more majestic than most of the modern translations,” says Meyers. “It’s had a very powerful influence on our language and our literature, to this very day.”

https://blog.obiaks.com/190329012311/Why-the-King-James-Bible-of-1611-remains-the-most-popular-translation-in-History

A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by Southwest Airlines made an emergency landing Tuesday after experiencing an engine problem as it was being ferried from Florida to California, the US Federal Aviation Agency said. The aircraft returned and landed safely in Orlando, the FAA said in a statement, adding that no passengers were on board the aircraft, which was being transferred to Victorville, California for storage.

The FAA is investigating, added the agency, which grounded the Boeing 737 MAX on March 13 following two deadly accidents involving Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air but continues to allow the planes to be ferried from airport to airport. Southwest said the plane experienced an engine problem shortly after takeoff. The crew followed protocol and safely landed back at the airport around 3:00 pm (1900 GMT), spokesman Chris Mainz said. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 will be moved to our Orlando maintenance facility for a review. It was the latest setback for Boeing's flagship narrow-body plane following October's Lion Air crash and the Ethiopian Airlines accident earlier this month, which together killed 346 people. The accidents, which shared similarities, led authorities across the world to ground the aircraft. Boeing has since conducted test flights of its 737 MAX to evaluate a fix for the MCAS stall prevention system targeted as a potential cause for the deadly crashes, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The system has been criticized since it can malfunction and make it difficult for pilots to control the aircraft. Both of the recent crashes occurred moments after takeoff. A Senate Commerce Committee panel will hold a hearing Wednesday to question FAA Acting Administration Daniel Elwell and Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel, The officials are expected to face questions from lawmakers on the FAA's certification of the 737 MAX and whether regulators have become too cozy with the company, and fast-tracked some approvals. The session is expected to be followed by a second hearing at a later date with Boeing, airline pilots and other stakeholders, the committee said.

http://news.obiaks.com/190327101203/Boeing-737-MAX-makes-emergency-landing-in-US-after-engine-trouble-

American actor, Jussie Smollet, has been released after being charged for allegedly filing a fake police report, Smollet was facing a 16-count charge which were all dropped on March 26 with his records wiped clean, The actor was first arrested on February 21 and accused of faking a hate attack against himself. It has been an interesting roller coaster for American actor, Jussie Smollet, who went from being one of the stars of TV series, Empire, to being in police custody for allegedly faking a hate attack on himself. Recall that the internet, including many celebrities, had been disturbed upon hearing news that Smollet was reportedly a victim of a homophobic attack in Chicago.

However, several claims later stated that the actor might have staged the attack in which he denied. On February 21, Smollet, who had faced many criticism for allegedly faking such attack was taken into police custody and accused of filing a false report. He was then facing a 16-count charge in which many stated could land him a long jail sentence, if found guilty. In what seems like a shock to millions of people who have followed the case keenly, Jussie was released on March 26 and had all his charges dropped. It was gathered that the actor also had his records wiped clean. Meanwhile, Actor Terrence Howard, who played the role of Smollett's father, took to social media to show his support for his onscreen son amid allegations of his staged attack on. Howard had posted a video of the actor who was spotted rocking a giggling baby boy. He accompanied his video post with a caption in which he made it known that the actor’s friends were all strongly behind him despite what he was going through.

http://news.obiaks.com/190327090414/American-actor-Jussie-Smollet-walks-free-after-being-arrested-for-faking-hate-attack

Brazzaville:
Thumbs up

Thanks

Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was a scheduled flight on March 8th 2014, that was scheduled to leave from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia at 12:35 am and arrived in Beijing China at 6:30 am , but flight 370 never arrived in Beijing and now over four years later since the plane mysteriously vanished we still don't have an answer for what happened to it or where exactly it currently is. The disappearance of the plane mid-flight and the lack of any conclusive answers has guaranteed that flight 370 remains the greatest mystery in aviation history. This article is my attempt to give you as much information as possible and to help explain how exactly a plane can go missing in the 21st century.

First the basics. Flight 370 was one of two daily flights operated by Malaysia Airlines that made flights between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Flight 370 was scheduled to leave Kuala Lumpur on the 8th of March at 12:35 am. and arrived in Beijing at 6:30 am for a total flight time of five hours and 34 minutes. The aircraft that was being flown was a Boeing triple7 passenger jet that was carrying enough fuel to remain in the air for 7 hours and 31 minutes, more than enough time to make a diversion in the event of an emergency.

The plane itself was 11 years old and had no previous incidents of mechanical issues reported. The flight was operated by a crew of 12 people all of whom were Malaysian citizens and two pilots. The pilot in command was 53 year olds a hair Ahmed Shah a longtime employee who had joined Malaysia Airlines back in 1981 and had over 18,000 hours of flight time experience. His copilot was 27 year old Fariq Abdul Hameed who had been with a company for seven years and had over 2700 hours of flight experience as well . In addition to these two pilots and 10 other crew members, there was a total of 227 passengers that were on board; 153 Chinese citizens, 50 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians, four French, three Americans, two Canadians, two Iranians , two New Zealanders, two Ukrainians, one Dutch, one Russian and one Taiwanese.

Departing slightly later than scheduled, flight 370 took off from the runway at Kuala Lumpur at 12:42 am and was soon cleared by air traffic control to climb to 18,000 feet in altitude. Subsequent voice analysis has confirmed that the first officer aboard the flight verbally communicated with air-traffic control before the flight took off and that the captain was in communication with them just after taking off. The flight at first continue normally but at 1 of 6 am the plane sent its last automated position report and final transmission. The last verbal contact that anybody had with somebody on the flight occurred just moments later at 1:19 am, just 37 minutes after the plane had taken off. At that time Kuala Lumpur radar made a call to the cockpit of the flight telling them to switch over to Viet Nam's airspace saying "Malaysian 370 row contact Ho Chi Minh 1 2 0 decimal 9 good night" This was answered by the head pilot captain Shaw when he simply said "good night Malaysian 370".

The plane was now flying over the gulf of Thailand on its scheduled path, but this is when things start to get weird. Just three minutes after making their final verbal contact with the outside world. At 1:21 am flight 370 suddenly vanished from the radar screens at both Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City. This means that the transponder on board the flight was no longer working at this time. There were very few clouds in the area with no storms, which means it's extremely likely that the transponder was manually turned off by somebody instead. Military radar was still capable of tracking the flight after this point though, and here's what happened next.

For whatever reason the plane began to make a turn right, but then took a sudden left turn to a southwesterly direction. Flight 370 then flew in this direction directly back over the Malay Peninsula, fluctuating a few thousand feet at altitude. At 1:52 am flight 370 was detected to cross just south of Penang Island and then took another turn to fly across the Strait of Malacca. The last location of MH370 known with certainty was over the Indian Ocean at 2:22 am, which was near the limits of the Malaysian military radar. Despite being lost to radar, the flight was still making satellite communications. Based on an analysis of the satellite data it has been concluded that MH370 then took another bizarre turn to the south and continue to fly this way for over five hours.

The whole time this part of the trip was happening the aircraft satellite communication system was responding to hourly status requests from the satellite company IMMARSAT. A phone call was made to the cockpit again at 2:39 am, which rang, but was unanswered by anybody inside. Over four hours later at 7:13 am, another phone call was made to the cockpit but this time too, it just rang and went unanswered. By 7:24 am, while still airborne somewhere over the Indian Ocean, the flight was one hour late past its scheduled arrival in Beijing. The Malaysian government announced that they had lost contact with the plane and that search and rescue operations had been mobilized, but unknown to them at the time, MH370 was still flying. The last piece of data received from the plane happened at 8:19 am. It was a logon request sent by the flight to the company IMMARSAT, at which would have only happened for a few reasons namely : either a power or a software failure.

The plane at this point had been flying for seven hours and 38 minutes, and since it was only scheduled to fly for five and a half hours, it's most likely that the plane had run out of fuel. By this point IMMARSAT sent another status request to the plane at 9:15 am , but this time it finally went unanswered. Based on that fact, it's most likely that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean sometime between 8:19 am and 9:15am, but it's still not known exactly where this happened. When the final communication was made with a flight at 8:19 am.

Taking that into consideration and the general flight path the plane was taking, analysis from the satellite data, it's most likely that the plane went down somewhere around the white circle above, several thousand kilometers west of Australia.

So to recap, the plane departed from Kuala Lumpur on the way to Beijing and started flying on the normal flight path, but then made a sudden right turn over the Gulf of Thailand then a sudden left turn and flew across the Malay Peninsula. Once past the island of Penang, the plane took another turn to fly into the Indian Ocean and then took another turn south at flew for over five hours straight across that ocean before it probably finally ran out of fuel and crashed somewhere west of Australia in the middle of nowhere.

The search for the plane and the 239 people on board began almost immediately. The hunt initially began in Southeast Asia, as it was believed early on that the plane probably went down around there. But as more information came out about the actual path a flight took the search was changed to the Indian Ocean. Between March 18th and April 28th 19 ships and 345 sorties by military aircraft searched an area over 4.6 million square kilometers in size, larger than the entire country of India and found nothing. A sonar search of the seafloor was also conducted about 1,800 kilometers west of Perth Australia but also didn't find anything. Nothing at all was actually discovered until over a year after the plane vanished when in July 2015, a piece of wreckage was discovered washed up on the beach of Reunion, 4,000 kilometers west of the main search area. The piece was a wing flapper of a plane and was confirmed to have come from MH370. Its analysis showed that the landing flaps of the plane were not extended when it crashed, which kind of terrifyingly supports the theory that when the plane crashed in the ocean, it did so by entering into a vertical dive. A few more pieces of wreckage were later discovered across the coast of East Africa.

By January 17th, 2017, nearly three years after the planes disappearance, the official search for the flight was suspended after discovering no other evidence for the planes location other than those small amounts of debris. The search was conducted mostly by the governments of Malaysia , Australia and China, and it had become the most expensive search in aviation history, costing 155 million dollars. The official report from the search claimed to have narrowed down the location of the crash to a twenty five thousand square kilometer area in the ocean west of Australia; an area roughly the same size as Macedonia. In January 2018, though a private US company called ocean infinity announced that it would resume the search for the plane in that twenty five thousand square kilometer area , but as of March 2018, after searching a thirty three thousand square kilometer area around it, they too have found nothing.

After over four years of searching and coming up with few answers, the speculation as to what happened to MH370 has been rampant. We're pretty certain about the path of flight took in the general area of where it crashed, but we're no closer to understanding why it happened. The first major theory that got a lot of early attention was a possible hijacking from passengers on board. There were two men aboard the flight who are Iranian citizens with stolen passports which raised a considerable amount of suspicion. They had only purchased one-way tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and only entered Malaysia a week before the flight depart, but Interpol later concluded that both men were simply asylum seekers fleeing Iran and not terrorists. Neither of them had the relevant skills to have flown a plane and performed hijacking and both American and Malaysian officials extensively reviewed the backgrounds of every single passenger named in the flight manifest and came up with no potential leads. There was speculation that the plane could have been hijacked and taken to a remote island, but no group to date has ever claimed responsibility for that, and following the discovery of the wreckage off the coast of Africa, this theory has become extremely unlikely. A passenger hijacking doesn't seem likely to have taken place, but what about a crew hijacking? There was considerable suspicion raised around captain Sahara Ahmed Shah, but no conclusive evidence has been found that links him to "causing" the incident either. The Malaysian government conducted 170 interviews of friends and family of the crew that were on board, but once again nothing significant or sinister was discovered through these. If the pilots caused the incident, it's unclear what exactly would have been their motive for doing so. Police searched the homes of both pilots and seized the financial records of all 12 crew members. The FBI even analyze data from captain Shaw's home flight simulator, but none of this discovered anything sinister. But remember when the flight took that turn out over the Indian Ocean and flew for five hours until it ran out of fuel , American intelligence officers believe the most likely explanation for that was that someone in the cockpit of flight 370 manually reprogrammed the aircraft's autopilot before it took that turn. Do you also remember back when flight 370 first vanished off the radar screens because a transponder stopped working?, it's also possible that somebody inside the cockpit manually turned the transponder off.

Despite its seeming likely that somebody in the crew was responsible, there's still zero conclusive evidence to prove that that's what actually happened. There's a few other weird theories out there about what went on, ranging from the plane getting sucked into a black hole, to getting abducted by aliens. There's also a theory that the plane was hijacked remotely by cyber criminals that gained access to the flight controls, but Boeing has denounced this idea as impossible. The final theory I haven't discussed yet is the fire hypoxia theory. It's possible that a fire may have started somewhere on board the plane while on route to Beijing. The theory goes that the pilot decided to turn back and wanted to attempt an emergency landing at the nearest suitable airport in northern Malaysia. Based on an analysis of the timing of the satellite communications data, a power interruption mid flight would be the most likely reason for it. It's unknown what may have caused a power interruption though since it's been ruled out that it was an engine issue. It could have been somebody inside manually switching off the aircraft's electrical system but who knows why that would have happened. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded that an unresponsive crew resulting from a potential cabin decompression event was the most likely explanation : for when the plane flew for five hours straight across the Indian Ocean. If this happened then everybody on board the flight would have been unconscious for hours up to when it crashed in the ocean. This is all pretty speculative though because

a. it's unknown what might have caused the decompression event happening

b it's unknown what might have caused the power interruption happening and

C even if a fire did happen on board in the crew attempted an emergency landing in Malaysia, why did they continue to fly over Malaysia and then change course out over the Indian Ocean?

No matter what Theory you might think is most likely, every single one has some holes in it to make any of them seem doubtful , and if it's frustrating for you not knowing any answers , imagine how frustrating it must be for the families and friends of the people that were onboard. MH370 remains Aviation's greatest unsolved mystery and as long as we haven't discovered the plane we probably won't get any answers or closure. It's possible that somebody in the world knows exactly what happened to MH370 and it's also possible that literally nobody in the world knows what happened. But whichever of those two possibilities is real, they're both equally unsettling.

https://blog.obiaks.com/190221101832/What-Happened-to-Malaysia-Airlines-Flight-370

Nearly every bit of data we use in our modern devices has a price tag associated with it, but there is one vital piece of technology that many of our devices depend on, that is free. It allows our phones to give us turn-by-turn directions, no matter where we are in the world, and it may one day even facilitate driverless cars. This, of course, is the Global Positioning System, or GPS, for short. This satellite constellation costs upwards of 12 billion dollars to build and launch, yet its service is available for free, worldwide. Well... not really for free. The US taxpayers paid for it, and continue to pay approximately 2 million dollars a day, to maintain and operate the system. But it wasn't always available for use. These satellites were launched for use by the military to provide all divisions of the military with pinpoint accurate location information on their aircraft, ships, and even their individual soldiers, anywhere on the planet.

The first Global Positioning satellite, the Navstar 1, was launched in February 22nd, 1978, aboard an Atlas rocket. Over the next 7 years, another ten GPS satellites were successfully launched into orbit. Only one of the twelve planned, Navstar 7, failed to launch. These Block I satellites validated the system's capabilities and the lessons learned from the project were carried forward to the Block II satellites, which would complete the 24-satellite constellation, providing worldwide GPS coverage for the US military. A 24-satellite constellation ensures that at least 4 satellites have a direct line of sight with any point on the planet's surface at all times. This ensures the GPS constellation can pinpoint your location anywhere on Earth through trilateration. We know exactly where the satellites will be at any time as a result of predictable orbits, and a ground station regularly checking in to make sure they are where we expect them to be. GPS satellites constantly broadcast a radio signal which the GPS receiver in your phone is constantly listening for.

This signal tells your phone the satellite's position, and what time it was sent at, thus allowing the receiver to calculate how far away it is from the satellite, as the radio signal travels at a known speed - the speed of light. Each satellite tells us we are within X kilometres, and thus we know we are somewhere on the circumference of a sphere with a radius equal to that distance. Getting this information from 4 satellites allows us to pinpoint exactly where we are on Earth by combining each sphere, and seeing where they intersect. Knowing the exact time is essential to making this system accurate. A divergence of 20 to 30 nanoseconds would make the distance measurements unacceptably inaccurate, so each satellite contains an atomic clock, the most accurate timekeeping device available, but, due to their size and cost, these cannot be used in phones so the GPS satellites also constantly update the phone's time to ensure it is able to calculate the distance between itself and the satellite accurately.

To keep this time measurement accurate, we even have to consider the effects of special relativity, because the receiver on the ground is moving slower than the satellite in orbit, which is travelling at 14,000 kilometres per hour. Special relativity predicts that the onboard atomic clock will experience time slower and thus fall behind the clocks on the ground by 7 microseconds a day. Furthermore, the satellites are orbiting at 20,000 kilometres above the surface of the planet, where the gravity of Earth has less effect on the curvature of spacetime. General relativity tells us that the clocks closer to the mass of Earth will fall behind the ones in orbit, so, if we calculate the time dilation due to gravity on the Earth's surface, and then calculate the dilation at 20,000 kilometres from the planet's surface, we can see that the clocks will diverge by 45 microseconds every day. Combining these effects, we have to make the clocks onboard each satellite to tick 38 microseconds faster than those on Earth. If this effect wasn't taken into account, GPS calculations would lose 10 kilometres of accuracy each day making it completely useless, but, thanks to the efforts of those ingenious engineers and Einstein's incredible discovery, we have a Global Positioning System on our smartphones with an accuracy within about 5 metres.

But, as said earlier, this system wasn't always available to the average citizen; it was for military use only. To open this system up to the public would open a tool that could potentially be used against the US. After all, missiles used this system for navigation, too. The incentive to open its use for civilian use came in 1983 when a Soviet Su-15 shot down a Korean passenger jet that strayed from its intended route, into Soviet prohibited airspace. An error that could've been avoided had the new form of navigation been available. And so, on September 16th, 1983, president Ronald Reagan announced the Global Positioning System would be made available for civilian use, free of charge. But, there was a catch: the signal would be scrambled to decrease its accuracy to around 100 metres, making it useful, but not by today's standards. This was intended to keep the US military's tactical advantage, and prevent the system from being used for nefarious purposes. It wasn't until 2000 that president Bill Clinton signed a bill to stop the scrambling and open accurate GPS to all civilians, including those outside of America.

This was done in recognition of the huge economic benefits GPS could provide to companies in America. American armies have disrupted the signal in the past in areas like Iraq by blasting out radio waves that disrupt the radio waves incoming from the satellites, and this isn't a difficult thing to do. In 2013, a truck driver in New Jersey wanted to mask his GPS location from his boss and used a small jammer, but inadvertently interrupted GPS navigation systems in Newark Airport every time he drove by. Beyond this simple jamming technique, which is easy to track, the US could simply choose to take away this privilege at any point, and cripple businesses across the world. So, countries around the world have been building their own GPS systems.

Russia has its own 24-satellite constellation, and so does not depend on the US at all. A similar system will be available for China and Europe in 2020, while Japan has 2 satellites in orbit to increase GPS availability in its urban counties. These satellites' orbits have been tailored to ensure that one is directly overhead at all times. Finally, India has 7 of its own satellites to cover India's land area alone. This tool is probably one of the most underrated results of the space program. A simple radio signal that allows our farmers to operate driverless tractors to manage their land. Commercial fishing vessels use it to navigate, and find fishing locations. The aviation industry uses it for navigation, and collision avoidance. Even drones would not be possible without it, as anyone who has flown a DJI drone knows that you have to have a connection to at least 6 satellites to fly.

https://blog.obiaks.com/190118062043/Why-The-US-Military-Made-GPS-Free-To-Use

helinues:
No religion is the most peaceful

At least one has to be more peaceful than the other. They all cant exhibit the same level of violence

Jerusalem, so rich in history, is a beloved and tragic city. It is the home to three of the major religions- Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. It is one of the most mysterious cities in the world, and there have been many interesting legends and myths about the place. Let us explore more in this ever-controversial city.

Jesus' Entombment's location
There have been many accounts regarding the location of the entombment of Christ, but everybody agreed that the internment was done in a new place originally intended for another person. The most common belief is that the location was the beautiful Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem's old city. The second alleged location is the garden tomb located just outside the Old City's walls near the Damascus gate. The final alleged location called the Talpiot Tomb, located in the east Jerusalem is a bit controversial since it is based on an inscription that says, "Jesus, son of Joseph."

The mystery surrounding the dead scrolls
Some of the manuscripts known to mankind, the dead scrolls, dating back to the fourth century BCE, were discovered in caves near the dead sea. One theory states that in the Jewish-Roman wars, these scrolls were carried out from the Jerusalem libraries by fleeing Jews. Another theory states that these scrolls were written by the banished Jewish Priests called the Sadducees.
Zedekiah's Cave
This cave, under the northern walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, was hidden for 300 years until 1854, when a missionary's dog dug deep in the wall and disappeared through the opening. According to the legends, during a Babylonian siege in 422 BCE, King Zedekiah tried to flee Jerusalem through it but failed. In 1968, a man claimed his grandfather; an east Jerusalem person had buried three cases of gold in the cave. He even promised the government some share of it if they would finance a dig. There was nothing.

Treasures of the Jewish Second temple
One central mystery that has haunted the world is: are the feeble treasures, know as the lost treasures of God of the Jewish second temple still in existence? If so, where are they now? Some say it is in Europe dating back to 70 AD when the Roman ruler Titus was victorious over the Jews. They were able to salvage some of the treasure from the temple to commemorate his victory before it was burned. Some say it is still buried in the grounds of Jerusalem. The hunt for the treasures of god is still on.

King Hezekiah's tunnel
In 1838, an American explorer, Dr. Robinson Edward discovered an ancient tunnel beneath the streets of Jerusalem. Incredibly it runs through 1700 feet of bedrock matching perfectly to the description of King Hezekiah tunnel in the bible. Water still flows through it and is used by the women for laundry purpose. The archaeologists still wonder how anyone in that age was capable of such excavation. The tunnel it seemed was built from both ends simultaneously. A geological study shows that a lot of the channels were formed by natural forces tens of thousands of years ago and not everything was done by man.

https://blog.obiaks.com/181230120151/Jerusalem-Mysteries

Damsyjay:
Islam...religion of piss..according to yoruba Muslims and almajiris

Don't bother mentioning Christians or Muslims. Can we shun tribalism and be objective?

Following multiple instances of Islamic extremist terrorism, non-violent Muslims around the world began a movement to label Islam, “a religion of peace”. Many say that distinct segments of the Muslim population advocate violence, but that at its core, Islam encompasses peace and pacifism. Still, although peace is preached in every religion, the manifestation of belief can sometimes be non-peaceful and oppressive. So, what are the world’s most peaceful religions?

Well, most of the world’s religious population falls into one of two categories: Western Abrahamic religions, and Eastern Dharmic religions. Problematically, some scholars argue that all three major Western religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, are inherently violent. As they are all monotheistic and exclusive, nonbelievers are directly and implicitly considered at odds with religious doctrine. Despite preaching peace, numerous acts of violence have been committed in the name of God, Allah, and Yahweh throughout history. That leaves the Dharmic faiths. These are predominantly Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jain•ism. Hinduism has long been identified as non-violent, largely due to the influence of the pacifist Mahatma Gandhi. However, even within the religion, violence may be used to protect oneself or one’s country. One Hindu god states that violence is necessary in the defense of justice, and does not conflict with a spiritual life. And even Gandhi himself was killed by a fellow Hindu.

A similar view is found in Sikhism. Violence is permitted when absolutely necessary; and historically, Sikhs have been oppressed, forcing them to fight back. After years of such oppression in India, Sikhs began wearing a small knife called a “ker-paan.” It is one of five mandatory articles of faith and is symbolically carried to defend themselves and others. But while Sikhs may have good reason to be occasionally violent, it doesn’t help make their case for being peaceful. Buddhism has always been pointed to as one of the world’s most peaceful religions. In order to fulfill one of their three most important tenets, Buddhists cannot harm any sentient living thing. Historical Buddhist texts actively condemn violence, and the Buddha himself even states that soldiers who die in a “killing mindset” will have an unpleasant reincarnation. However, in practice, Buddhists have not always preferred nonviolence. In Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist population has been violently oppressing a stateless, Rohingya Muslim minority. Acts of violence by Buddhists are frequently based on political or cultural differences, and not specifically religion. This leaves Jainism.

Although Jainism is not as popular as the other religions mentioned, there are roughly four and a half million Jains , almost exclusively living in India. Jainism advocates nonviolence and pacifism as a fundamental ethical principle. All violence is viewed as a form of self-injury, as it prevents one from reaching spiritual liberation. And unlike other religions, Jains believe nonviolence applies not only to people, but animals, plants, and even microorganisms. As a result, practitioners are strictly vegetarian, they walk in a way so as to avoid stepping on insects, and they’ll even refuse to filter water to keep any bacteria in it alive. These 7 religions are among the largest, but there are estimated thousands of smaller, newer movements with their own distinct views. Of the main religions, however, Jainism prioritizes peace and nonviolence more so than any other. The Sikhs may not be the most peaceful, but they’re definitely among the most interesting.

https://blog.obiaks.com/181229112542/What-Is-The-Worlds-Most-Peaceful-Religion

India is a bit of an anomaly on the world stage. It’s a massive 1.2 billion person strong country stretching thousands of miles tall and thousands of miles wide with one of the most sizable economies in the world, but it was never really destined to be a country… at least not in its current form. To the north-east the country is shielded by the formidable Himalayas. This mountain range is nearly impenetrable even for a modern army.

China and India have fought a few small skirmishes over border disputes in the region, but a full-scale land invasion from either across the Himalayas would be difficult. China has control over Tibet—a vast region lacking the infrastructure necessary for quick troop movement—while India remains politically close with Bhutan and Nepal—two nations sandwiched between India and China. Largely because of this enormous mountain range, India historically has not had many relations with China—the other superpower of the region. Contact between the two countries today remains cold due to their border disputes. Both countries claim this entire area and every few years the dispute escalates—a dangerous situation between two nuclear powers.

You can’t even drive from India to China due to this—there are no border crossings between them—but for most there’s little reason to cross the border as the two countries are vastly different culturally. As mentioned, due to the mountain range they didn’t have much contact historically so they each developed into what they are today independently. India’s longest border is with the ocean.

Ocean borders are a bit of a double edged sword. The ocean allows civilizations like India fairly simple access to the world, but it also isolates. Some countries, like the UK, used oceans both to grow their global power while also benefiting from the relative protection they give. Any military invading by water is at a significant disadvantage to those defending so ocean borders were and still are a source of geographical protection. India is also relatively isolated in distance to other powerful countries so a defensive navy was never really necessary because the country was never significantly threatened by sea. By water, they’re over 800 miles to the Persian Gulf, about a two day boat journey, over 1,700 miles to Singapore, a four day boat journey, and nearly 3,500 miles to Hong Kong, over a week’s boat journey. In fact, by boat, they’re really just as close to the significant cities of eastern Asia as Perth, Australia. Many of the other powerful countries of the world developed into what they are today because of their proximity to other centers of power.

In Europe, if Portugal invented something it would quickly spread to Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and all the other nearby countries while India had to go through its whole process of technological and cultural innovation largely independently. India did have navies through history, but they were never world-class and they never used them to conquer lands far away. It was never their priority as the leaders had their hands full already keeping their massive territory together. They also didn't have the need to colonize far-away lands as India itself really had all the resources they needed.

The UK, France, and Spain colonized partially because they had large, developed populations within small areas lacking enough natural resources to advance their country’s power. India was a highly developed and powerful country historically and it just didn’t have the need to go outside its region. This is part of the reason why India is so culturally unique but it also may have put them at a disadvantage through their historical development as they were not exposed to some of the technological advancements of other civilizations far away. India’s north-west border is really the problematic one.

Back in the 19th and early 20th century, India was ruled as a colony of the British Empire, but before the British came, India was not truly a country but rather a loose collective of regional powers. For example, in the 16th century someone from Bahmani would have never called themselves Indian—they were Bahmani. With the British, this entire area was brought under the rule of one central government that reported to the British crown. This entire area, with nearly a thousand different languages, hundreds of different ethnic groups, and six different major religions was grouped into the one crown colony.

Unsurprisingly, the British rule didn’t last for long. After World War Two, the nearly bankrupt crown folded to pressure and decided to give up the now unprofitable territory, but the way they went about leaving the sub-continent has had far-reaching consequences. Many of those in charge of the transition were followers of a theory that stated that the diverse people of India were singularly differentiated by their religion—not their ethnicity, language, or any other commonality. The idea was that within India there were two nations in the same territory— the Hindu one and the Muslim one. So, in what they believed was a step that would reduce violence, those in power split the country into two—India and Pakistan.

The idea was that Pakistan would be the country for Muslims, while India would be the country for Hindus. Over the months following the partition, tens of millions of people crossed the border to settle in the country for their religion and in the ensuing violence up to a million people died. This whole plan was destined to fail. Pakistan was given land with few resources and it was a country split in two. East Pakistan was separated from the capital in West Pakistan by nearly 1,000 miles of hostile territory. To think that the two parts could exist as one country would be absurd and, unsurprisingly, east Pakistan eventually revolted and became an independent Bangladesh in 1971.

India and Pakistan have been at odds almost continuously since their partition. They have fought countless times and it’s now almost engrained in culture for Indians to hate Pakistanis and vice versa.

This is far from surprising given that the two countries were created through concentrating the two groups that were already at odds, but from an Indian perspective, the border with Pakistan is a problem because it just looks like this. It’s open, flat, and relatively sparsely populated compared to the Pakistani side largely because of this—the Thar desert. The Thar desert pretty much ends right at the border with Pakistan which means it’s easy for Pakistan to build up their military infrastructure at the border while it’s hard for India. If Pakistan invades India they would have to cross this desert which would be difficult, but overall Pakistan has a greater advantage by having a populated and inhabitable area on their side of the border. This border is India’s greatest geographic weakness and it has helped fuel the ongoing conflict. If there were a significant river or mountain range or something in between these two countries, they might have been able to coexist, but as of now, the India-Pakistan conflict seems almost endless. As the two largest countries in the world and neighbors, India is most commonly compared to China.

In 1980 the two countries had nearly identical GDP’s and over the past 50 years their populations have grown at similar tremendous paces, but China has now taken the lead as the more developed country with a GDP five times greater. But India’s economy is now growing even faster than China’s. They’re benefiting hugely from one of the greatest trends in business—outsourcing. Believe it or not, this success can even too be loosely linked back to geography. The British came to India because of all the natural resources it had, but their presence back then is part of the reason why the economy is growing so fast today. There’s no doubt that the British empire did a lot of bad to the country that has caused huge economic damage, but during their reign English literacy got good and the country continues to excel in the English language today. In fact, India is second only to the US in number of English speakers at 125 million. Of course due to their enormous population this is only 12% of their people, but businesses worldwide saw the opportunity presented by a cheap labor market with such good English literacy.

The first wave of outsourcing came as businesses moved their accounting, human resource, and customer support operations to India, but today India is benefiting from something different. India has become a major destination of software development outsourcing as Indian developers can do much of the work for a fraction of the cost of western workers. The reason India is able to serve this industry is because the country has a lot of educated people, but it also has a lot of uneducated people. India produces tons of really smart people, but their educational system also lets many others fall through the cracks. It’s an unequal system but it means that the country has a big subset of its population that’s educated enough to work medium-skilled jobs in English. This is unlike China which has a perhaps more equal system that produces a huge population educated enough to work low to medium skilled manufacturing jobs.

Part of the reason India’s educational system might be like this is because the country has a lot of isolated rural areas. Transportation is very hard in this country due to hostile terrain, lack of infrastructure, and a hugely dispersed population. In fact, the entire country historically was pretty much split into two by this hilly region halfway down the sub-continent. China, on the other hand, benefits from a much more urbanized population which makes it easier to set up a smaller number of better schools concentrated in large cities.

The urbanization level of a country actually correlates very strongly with the quality of their educational system. All the least urbanized countries like Chad, Afghanistan, and Burundi also have some of the lowest ranked education systems. Of course correlation does not equal causation since as a country develops economically it tends to urbanize, but it’s doubtless that it’s easier to educate a population that’s concentrated into large cities than spread out. Even the US hasn’t fully solved the problem of how to educate a spread-out rural population and there’s a huge disparity in quality of education between big cities and small towns in America. Overall, in India, there are some great schools in the cities, but the rural population is often left behind with sub-par education. India is the country it is today because of its geography. It inhabits an amazingly diverse and resource rich area that has successfully been able to serve as home to well over a billion people.

The sub-continent developed into such a diverse area because it’s always been hard to get around due to natural barriers and size. When the British came they tried to integrate all the different nations into one country by building up railway and road infrastructure, but still today India is a country of nations. Much like the US they’ve created a federalized government with different states each with a level of autonomy acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all governance system cannot work with so many people with different ideals, issues, and wishes.

The country benefits hugely by having a favorable geography for agriculture which has allowed it to grow into the second most populous in the world. Economically, its numbers are its assets. With so many people, there has to be a good amount of highly educated people who can drive innovation, serve as a workforce, and raise the development level for the entire country. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the next ten to fifteen years will be crucial for India and serve as a determination on whether it will be a great developed superpower of the future or if it’s destined to fail.
https://blog.obiaks.com/181228101826/Indias-Geography-Problem

EVILFOREST:
He was already looking like a GENIUS

Lol. abeg how does a GENIUS look?

At the end of the first millennium, around 1000 AD, China was definitively the most powerful country in the world. More than a third of the world lived within its borders, it’s technology was the most advanced in existence, and its economy accounted for an astronomical 50% of the worlds GDP. The west paled in comparison to China, but eventually, Europe arose from its dark ages, the importance of China diminished, and the west came to rule the world.

Today that is still largely the case, but China is rising again. In 1978 China had a GDP of only $200 billion, only about 4% of the world’s GDP, but nowadays that GDP has risen to $11 trillion and accounts for 15% of all economic activity in the world. This economic renaissance of the last 40 years is largely thanks to one industry—manufacturing. We’ve come to accept that China is the world’s factory, but it wasn’t always this way.

In the early 20th century goods were often just produced right near where they were sold. America made American goods, Europe made European goods. It wasn’t until cheap, worldwide shipping became available that the production side of a company could be relocated to the other side of the world, but why did China win? How did this country become the manufacturing giant it is today?

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping took power in the People’s Republic of China. He quickly visited Bangkok, Singapore, and other flourishing Asian cities and was convinced that, in order to succeed, China needed to open itself up to the outside world, at least to an extent. He gave people control of their farms, privatized businesses, and, most importantly, allowed foreign investment in the country for the first time in decades. He opened up four special economic zones with tax incentives and exemption from the oversight that the rest of the country saw on its investments and trade activity. These four zones were essentially the free market portions of China, but none was more successful than Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province.

Before its designation as a special economic zone in 1980, Shenzhen was a tiny town with about 30,000 inhabitants but today that’s grown to nearly 18 million people. That means its size rivals that of New York and London. It’s believed that Shenzhen might have been the single fastest growing city in human history. Every other Special Economic Zone was an established area before its designation, but Shenzhen made sense as a spot where China could embrace the west as it lay just north of the border of Hong Kong—what was at the time a British territory.

Today Shenzhen is the electronics manufacturing capital of the world. Shenzhen as a city is really known for two things. One is manufacturing capabilities especially for consumer electronics products and second, its gravitation for talents or human resources especially on the product development or research and development disciplines. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Canon—they all manufacture products here in Shenzhen. In fact, 90% of the world’s electronics are made at least in part in this city. Everything just costs less in China so labor costs less too. Where a factory in the United States might pay upwards of $10-15 an hour, a Chinese laborer would happily accept $3 or $4 an hour in Shenzhen.

China has artificially depressed the value of their currency. Up until 2005, the Chinese government just said that the exchange rate was 8.27 yuan per dollar and that was that. They then went a few years allowing it to increase in value within a margin, but in 2008 they pegged its value again to make Chinese exports more attractive during the financial crisis. Nowadays, the government just picks a exchange rate daily and lets the currency fluctuate from it by up to 2%. This just makes it so western companies can buy more for less.

China also doesn’t charge taxes on exports while the US doesn’t charge taxes on imports. The US doesn’t even charge customs fees for some products like tablet PC’s so some products can make it all the way from their factory in China to stores in the US completely tax free.

In Shenzhen there are markets where you can buy every part imaginable, there are factories ready to build prototypes in a matter of days, there are engineers ready to work at the drop of a hat. Development just happens faster in Shenzhen. A US company might use the same factories as one based in Shenzhen but the geographical distance makes production slower. In addition, word travels fast in Shenzhen.

A few years ago Anker was first-to-market with a technology called PowerIQ that allows for faster device charging. The engineers from Anker told me that a big reason they were able to go to market before the western companies was because they heard about it first thanks to their proximity to other engineers and companies. Shenzhen just produces things better and faster, but a product isn’t just a physical item.

What Shenzhen can’t build as well is brands. Certain companies like Anker have been able to build a brand to an extent thanks to smart PR and marketing, but some other companies just don’t bother. Lucrative western consumers want familiar and approachable feeling brands but cultural differences and geographic distance often make China based companies just seem different.

When the designers are thousands of miles away from the consumer they might not be as knowledgeable of their wants. Some companies have sprung up in Shenzhen whose whole business is to develop and produce products without a brand. They’re called "white label companies". They might produce earphones, for example, then sell them to a western audio company who will attach their brand and sell the product at a mark-up.

Despite its enormous role in increasing the GDP of China 30-fold in the last 30 years, manufacturing is not an entirely sustainable industry for the country long-term. The problem is that, rather ironically, the economic growth that manufacturing spurred in China has increased labor prices to a point where their manufacturing is less competitive.

Before manufacturing came in China was a country of poor, rural farmers but today China has a real middle class and cities that are expensive to live in. It used to be that workers like the ones at Anker’s factory moved to the city for a few years when they were young to make money for their family back home but nowadays people are moving to cities permanently and want to be able to set up solid, middle class, urban lives. The average cost for real-estate in central Shenzhen is almost $1,200 per square foot. That’s even higher than San Francisco and New York. Even when workers live outside the city center, higher wages are necessary even just to pay for housing. At the same time manufacturing is becoming less labor intensive every day as robots and automation are becoming increasingly advanced and inexpensive.

In 2015 China launched a initiative spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year to upgrade and automate factories in order to keep prices low, but this will likely do little to keep companies from packing up shop and moving elsewhere. Manufacturing lines that can be automated are likely to move back to the United States and the rest of the western market. Robots cost the same whether they’re in the United States or China so manufacturing products in the US helps save on shipping costs and certainly is good for PR.

At the same time, the labor intensive jobs that China prospered on in past decades are moving to less developed and less expensive countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India. Chinese manufacturing firms are responding to this by opening up their own factories all across the world—everywhere from Africa to the United States itself. The model that might work for China in the future is that of Anker—Chinese based firms that can take advantage of their proximity to the production lines to cut down on development cost and time.

Shenzhen based start-ups like Anker, DJI, and OnePlus have already succeeded in taking advantages of this proximity, but more are being established each day. If you see a hardware-based Kickstarter campaign, there’s a good chance it comes from Shenzhen. 10 years ago a company would be hard-pressed to succeed in Shenzhen as its own brand because historically the retailer has acted as a barrier in between the manufacturer and consumer, but with the rise of Amazon and other e-commerce sites its now possible for eastern companies to sell directly to the western consumer in a system that rewards for quality over price. The time really is ripe for Chinese entrepreneurship.

While Silicon Valley might be the dominant area for software start-ups, its hard to rival Shenzhen as an ecosystem for hardware development and manufacturing.

https://blog.obiaks.com/181227094708/Why-Chinese-Manufacturing-Wins

soberdrunk:
Wow!! Just Wow!!

Success is always around the corner. Don't over look opportunities

This story is Gary Kildall, the man who should have been Bill Gates. It's an absolutely fascinating story, and I think that more people should know about it. The year is 1977, and Apple had just become extremely successful with their first PC, the Apple II. It was the first mass production personal computer that you didn't have to assemble yourself.

PC industry was already worth 1 billion dollars just three years after it had begun. For the first time, computers amplified productivity and human intellect from within the home. IBM, who was in the corporate computer business of selling large mainframes, just saw the dollar signs. This was the opportunity of all opportunities. By 1980, IBM had turned their attention to Apple’s success in the PC market, and realized that they were wrong about the PC. It wasn't just a hobbyist toy anymore. It could actually be useful. The problem for IBM is that they were a huge company. They were bureaucratic and very slow when it came to decisions. It was going to take years for them just to come up with a PC design, so how were they going to compete in a timely manner? The answer came in the form of a secret small team within the company. This small team was assigned the task to create a business-orientated personal computer. When they got to work, the decision was made to use off-the-shelf parts to speed up the design process. Using non-IBM parts was very unusual for the company.

With this method, instead of building a computer from scratch, they managed to have a complete product within a year. In 1980, IBM had the PC hardware cobbled together. The only thing needed was software to run on it. What IBM needed was an operating system.

An operating system is like a computer's digital traffic cop. It keeps track of how files are stored and how the computer handles hardware such as a mouse, screen, floppy disk drive, and etc. Basically, it's the basis that allows for a modern computer to run.

At this point, this is where the story starts heating up. IBM was the biggest tech company of the time, so any PC that they made would have an incredible impact on the world.

Which system would IBM chooses?

So what software was going to run on it? This was the battle for one operating system that would rule them all. The stakes are high. Every decision here impacts the rest of all history and herein lies one of the saddest stories in computing history.

Bill Gates VS the man who should have been Bill Gates

While building their PC in 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to build the operating system. Before saying a word about the project, IBM asked Bill Gates, who was initially mistaken for the office intern, to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Bill Gates had to keep IBM's plan a secret and he couldn't tell a single soul. When IBM told Gates what they were doing, he remarked that Microsoft didn't have an operating system. The 25-year-old programmer would point IBM in the direction of Gary Kildall.

Gary Kildall a computer scientist

Gary was a meek and mild-mannered man, but despite being unassuming, he had already paved the way for operating systems and personal computers. In 1971, Kildall had made a programming language for Intel's first CPU, the 4004. But he quickly realized that there had to be a way to control how the chip interacted with the rest of the computer system. In 1972, he solved this problem with CP/M, which stands for Control Program for Microcomputers. This was the very first PC operating system. Before CP/M, each computer had to have tailor-made software. Imagine it like this. It would be like having different types of fuel for every single car model in existence. With an operating system like CP/M, a programmer only needed to write software just once, and CP/M would take care of the rest. It was a way to run the very same software on different computers.

Despite this, Gary didn't really have much interest in business matters, and was just doing this as a hobby, but his wife, Dorothy, convinced him to start a business and start licensing his creation. The result was a company called Digital Research. By 1979, Digital Research became the industry standard for operating systems. In essence, they were the Microsoft of the late 1970s, and Gary was equivalent to Bill Gates.

The worse day of Gary's Life

So IBM had just approached Bill Gates, and asked him if he could make an operating system for their new PC. And Bill Gates pointed them in the direction of Gary. So, keen to waste no time, IBM takes Bill's advice and pays a visit to Gary in Seattle. Bill calls Gary on the phone to give him some warning that someone is coming to visit. Because of the non-disclosure agreement, Gates couldn't reveal exactly who was coming to visit.

Bill exclaimed, "Treat them right, they're important guys!".

Unfortunately, Gary was a somewhat chilled-out guy and didn't really get the full urgency of what Bill was warning. Perhaps he thought it was just another small company, and not the largest tech company on the planet. Because of this, Gary isn't home when IBM visits. He's out flying one of his private planes on business. IBM ends up talking to Gary's wife, Dorothy, who is now head of operations in Digital Research. The lawyers of IBM begin pushing her to sign a nondisclosure agreement, essentially to say that they were never there. Dorothy wasn't impressed by this, and refused to sign the document. The IBM team had a short temper. After going nowhere with negotiations, they became frustrated and decided to leave Gary's house. A few days later, IBM would approach Bill Gates a second time. Gates, being deterministic and opportunistic in nature, was never going to give Gary a second chance. He saw that IBM had the potential to change the PC market into something entirely different: a new cleaned-up business image instead of the geeky enthusiast image it had. So here comes the clincher.

Bill Gates decided to do something pretty sneaky: he told IBM that Microsoft could in fact make an operating system, even though they didn't have one. What Microsoft decided to do was just buy an operating system from a small company down the road for $75,000. This operating system was called the Quick and Dirty Operating System, or QDOS for short. If you think that that's a bit of a weird name, there's a reason for it. The code it used for the software was essentially a rip-off of CP/M, the operating system that Gary had made. So with this rip-off of CP/M, Microsoft now had their hands on a functioning operating system. QDOS would become Microsoft DOS, or MS-DOS for short, and would be packaged with every IBM PC. So if you've ever used MS-DOS, it could be said that you were using the Microsoft Dirty Operating System. However, this name would be officially changed to Microsoft Disk Operating System. And of course, MS-DOS would eventually become Microsoft Windows.

The first IBM PC was released in August of 1981. It was predicted to make 250,000 sales, but it was a smash hit, selling two million units in a couple of years. IBM had now overtaken Apple as the world's largest PC manufacturer. With this event, it was now truly ok for the white collar class to get into PCs. It was no longer for hobbyist freaks and enthusiasts So everything was falling into place for Bill Gates. He was getting set to be the richest man in the world. The Dirty Operating System was one half of the equation, but some smart business sense would complete it. Because the IBM PC was made from off-the-shelf parts, other manufacturers such as Compaq and HP began making their own PC clones with the very same parts.
The deal for Microsoft was that MS-DOS would be licensed to IBM by Microsoft for a one-time fee of $50,000, but there was a catch: Microsoft never mentioned to IBM that their deal was non-exclusive. Soon Microsoft was selling MS-DOS to all of IBM's competitors, taking a licensing fee from every computer sold. This licensing deal has been called the greatest deal in history. It made
Bill Gates a billionaire.

Gary's failure to not be there at the right time is conversely called one of the biggest business failures in history. Once the sales of the IBM PC took off, Gary had realized what he had lost. For a rare moment, he would shed off his kind nature and threatened to sue IBM. In a settlement, IBM agreed to offer CP/M alongside MS-DOS with every PC sold. Gary Kildall was pleased. People could now choose for themselves which software they liked best. Justice had finally been served. There was only just one problem, though. When both software packages were released, MS-DOS sold for $40 and CP/M, $240. This was a complete disaster for almost identical pieces of software. For this reason, Gary's CP/M software would fade into obscurity by the late 1980s. Gary had lost to a clone of his own creation. Sadly, he didn't take it well. He was so crushed by the events that he didn't ever bother suing Microsoft or IBM again. The strain from missing out on the greatest opportunity of many lifetimes would eventually cause Dorothy to divorce Gary. He would also shy away from his show, The Computer Chronicles. The ubiquity of personal computers in the following years meant that Gary would forever be reminded of his failure everywhere he turned. Kildall would slip into a bout of depression and alcoholism.

Sadly, in 1994, Gary would die from head injuries in a fistfight at a biker bar. Today, Gary, the man who invented the operating system for personal computers, is only a faint footnote in technology history. So I think that it's important that we keep his contribution to the evolution of computing alive. I can see that it was just a series of unfortunate events for Gary, but if we can take any lessons away from them, it might be, make the most of every opportunity.

https://blog.obiaks.com/181227022954/The-Man-Who-COULD-Have-Been-Bill-Gates-Gary-Kildall