Oracle’s situation in its intellectual property legal battle against Google is looking more bleak by the day.

At one point in time, Oracle was trying to go after Google with the intent to receive up to $6 billion in damages . Slowly that figure has dwindled down to somewhere around $1 billion and then a few hundred million.

Now, it looks like Oracle could end up with just $150,000 — if anything at all given that the threat of a mistrial looms and we’re still in the middle of the second phase of the trial covering patent infringement.

Judge William Alsup warned Oracle at the U.S. District Court of Northern California on Thursday morning that the “most” the plaintiff might end up with is statutory damages over the nine lines of code in the rangeCheck method — the only item on the verdict form during phase one of the trial in which the jury found Google’s conceded use was copyright infringement.

“The fact that they have nine lines out of many millions, you have no damage study tied in,” Alsup exclaimed to Oracle.

Although it is up to the jury to determine damages, the maximum limit for statutory damages is $150,000.

Alsup suggested they “might want to find a way to streamline for some dollar amount,” hinting they should try to negotiate a settlement in order to avoid a long third phase of the trial dedicated to determining damages.

Nevertheless, all of this is still to be determined as Google has filed a motion for the copyrights phase of the trial to be declared a mistrial. The judge has not ruled on that issue yet.

Even if Google had to fork over $150,000, it could still be a huge win for the Internet giant considering how much Oracle originally wanted.

In regards to the patents part of the lawsuit — which as Groklaw described as a “roll of the dice for both parties” — Google put up a better offer in April for up to $2.8 million in damages over two patents in question. Furthermore, Google also offered a deal of 0.5 percent from Android revenue for one patent through December 2012 and 0.015 percent on a second patent through April 2018. The catch is that this offer was only a stipulation for damages if (and only if) Oracle prevails on patent infringement.

Oracle reportedly rejected it.

Link: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/oracle-might-only-receive-150000-in-damages-from-google/76611?tag=nl.e539

Very Interesting. I will however add dat the dearth of real honest research and documentation of language dynamics in this part of the world adds to the confusion. Most of the existing documented research were either the product of foreign researchers (lacking local insights into the vertical and horizontal integration btw the languages) or a few Nigerian academics (who are mostly underfunded and biased in their analysis). You can't blame the conclusions of people who read such research to substantiate their opinions. Even i have had to shift ground on some precepts based on new data or evidence.

Could we kindly leave the vitriol out of our speech when making comments?

In Religion for Atheists, published earlier this year, Alain de Botton suggests that religion has a lot to teach atheists. It is far too important to be regarded as completely redundant, he argues, because it promotes “morality” and “teaches us to become polite, honour one another, to be faithful and sober”. This is all true. Denying the wealth of knowledge and benefit that can be found in religion is hubristic.

But religion is also the cause of many of the world’s problems: it’s dangerous. Religious people often accept exoteric, literal interpretations of religious texts, without using their rational faculties. Religion without reason is blind, ruthless and leads to discrimination.

But 21st Century secularists are also guilty; they have dismissed and lost the ethics taught by religion. Contemporary media focus is too heavily weighed on the out-of-date issues which religion appears to have a regressive and pejorative understanding of.

In an article he wrote in February for the New Statesman, Journalist Bryan Appleyard described how a “neo-atheism” – by which he means “the conviction that science provides the only road to truth and that all religions are deluded, irrational and destructive” – has emerged over the past two decades.

de Botton echoes this view when he writes that when an atheist says ‘I think religions are not all bad’, he or she is subjected to “savage messages” calling them a “fascist, an idiot or a fool”.

One religion, however, is widely understood for its moral benefits. Buddhism – which, by its nature is a much less proselytising faith than the Abrahamic religions – stresses disengagement from worldly affairs and meditation, while it insists on maintaining a healthy relationship with the world.

It is this kind of emphasis on moral and spiritual benefits that the other faiths need to tap into; dogma, perfunctory rituals and overzealously propagating one’s religion are often a hindrance to their progression. There is nothing wrong with propagating faith, but how about doing it through acts of kindness, smiling and helping one’s neighbours, not through shouting on a pedestal or condemning others.

Two things are clear: many religious teachings are beneficial to humans – and there are a great many atheists who deny this truth. While religion has been in steady decline since the early 20th century, particularly in the West, it still plays a prominent part in many countries and will do so for a long time. So instead of completely rejecting it, we need to work with it and, more importantly, redefine it.

The Bible is still interpreted literally by many Christians and, consequently, we have seen the “issue” of homosexuality – which is condemned in the Old Testament – creep back into the headlines in the past few months. Religious leaders, basing their opinions on pre-modern scriptures, often speak insensitively about homosexuality. Why some Christians – even intelligent ones – still hold the Bible as a text that should be interpreted literally is a mystery, and potentially perilous. According to leading New Testament scholar Bart Ehram in his New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus, The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, the Bible is far from a divine revelation and has been altered, intentionally and unintentionally, on numerous occasions.

What is needed, however, is the quintessential message of love which suffuses much of the New Testament to override all other hostile attitudes to other people. There also need to be more progressives like Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, who although firm in their faith, are not afraid to challenge scripture.

Islam, like Christianity, is also failing in the field of hermeneutics; modern exegetes are unable or unwilling to interpret the texts to conform with our current world. This is partly because sects like the strictly orthodox Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, who are intent on not allowing innovation (which is a grave sin in Islam) into the religion, have a huge say on the Islamic literature disseminated throughout the world.

Then again, there are Muslims calling for change; in a blog called Contemporary Muslims are in need of spirituality, the Oxford academic Tariq Ramadan claims “Sufi movements have re-emerged” within Islam. Sufism is the inner, mystical version of Islam which places greater importance on asceticism and God’s love; the adherents, Sufis, are generally more liberal. The Sufi movements, Ramadan says, contrast with the “ritualistic traditionalism [and] Islamist activism”.

Muslims, according to Ramadan, have lost the essence of their religion which is the quest for meaning and the peace of heart. “The time has come,” Ramdan argues, “for a spiritual and religious emancipation.”

Many Muslims have neglected the inward dimensions of faith and have placed more importance on the outward. In a time when many Muslims’ faith has been shaken to the core, particularly since the bombardment of anti-Islamic sentiment following 9/11, the spiritual teachings of Islam are needed to restore a sense of equanimity more than ever. And none more so than for many intellectuals who see little import in “mainstream Islam”, an anthropomorphised God and other metaphysical concepts which seem farfetched.

The Muslim discourse on what traditionalism really is has been hijacked by literalists and has been exacerbated by 9/11: instead of Muslims saying what they are, they have become too preoccupied in saying what they are not.

A Facebook page dedicated to the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi who, according to Time Magazine, is one of the all-time best selling poets in the USA – reached 300,000 ‘likes’ last week. Rumi’s vision for Islam is one that is refreshingly inclusive compared to the doctrinal fundamentalist forms which are so often the focus of news media.

“Come, come again, whoever you are, come! Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come! Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times, ours is the portal of hope, come as you are,” he writes, encouraging people to the positive messages of the faith. While his writings may not conform with everyone’s particular interpretation of Islam, his candid understanding represents the depth and openness with which religion can understood and practised.

It is not just inclusivity that is needed but rather a more open and discerning mind that Muslims need to embrace. Debates around homosexuality and evolution as well as the effect that our increasingly sexualised world is having on young Muslims is, to a large extent, brushed under the carpet . It’s as if scholars and exegetes hope that by brushing these issues aside they will not resurface in the minds and daily lives of the Muslim community who are in need of answers.

But conversely, we cannot underestimate what the four horsemen of New Atheism – Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens – have done to widen the divide between religious believers and non-religious believers. Their articulate presentation of their views and deeply convincing writings shouldn’t blind us to the essence of religion and our need to reinterpret and redefine religious texts. If these leading atheists are really in search for cosmic or absolute truth, instead of incessantly thumping religion, they should encourage religious erudition, contextualisation and reasoning, as some of the answers they may be looking for may be buried deep in these ancient texts.

We often condemn religion as something simple and backward but we treat philosophy and science as pursuits of rigorous and profound study. Perhaps the reason why Dawkins et al. fail to see the profundity in religion is because, as Plato said, an individual can only master one art. The four horsemen are all leading experts in their respective fields, and indeed know more about religion than the masses – but, ultimately, they are pseudo-experts on religious texts. Sam Harris, for example, loves to talk about Jihad as if the term is linguistically synonymous with fighting and war; it’s not: Jihad means ‘struggle’, and the highest form is to struggle against one’s innate, evil tendencies. What’s so wrong with that?

Islam, according to American convert and intellectual Hamza Yusuf, is suffering from a crisis of authority, as he elucidated in a debate at Oxford University with Tariq Ramadan, entitled “Rethinking Islamic reform”, in 2010. Christian Catholics have a leader, the Pope, Tibetan Buddhists have the Dalai Lama, but many Muslims are demanding a leadership of their own, the caliphate.

So who are the right people to lead their respective religious communities? Many of the religious leaders and old establishments that are in place today clearly aren’t fit for the purpose: child abuse has been found to be widespread among Christian leaders and too many Muslim leaders in this country can’t connect with the young – indeed, 97% of Imams in Britain are foreign, mainly Urdu-speaking Pakistanis.

Christianity, Islam and the other world faiths shouldn’t be completely disregarded. Many of the ethics they teach – and the faith, and in turn, the security which they offer believers – are far too valuable to ignore; what needs to change is our understanding. It is up to the intellectual religious leaders, who have the ability to engage with the intelligent as well as the uneducated, to renovate religion.

By Omar Shahid
Link: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/05/11/islam-and-christianity-must-renovate-religion-atheists-have-to-stop-trashing-it/

How many realize that the basic ingredients, historically required, for national development are iron, chemicals, power and manpower. Does anybody notice that Nigeria had not been able to make any headway in any of this areas since independence. It has been posited that Luguard was berated for creating Nigeria, a unique country with all the resources required for industrial and technological development within a contiguous boundary.

I certainly agree the current crop of leadership will never take us to the promised land. It is my belief that the future direction of the country rests with the actions or inactions of Nigerian youths (not the internet bums spewing doom at every chance) within the next 3 years .

I certainly do pray i see the greatness of the country in my lifetime. No better legacy to bequeath to my progeny and i'm doing all i can to make it realizable

Its a big [size=16pt]YES[/size] for me. I believe.

Albert Einstein’s was estimated at 160, Madonna’s is 140, and John F. Kennedy’s was only 119, but as it turns out, your IQ score pales in comparison with your EQ, MQ, and BQ scores when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement.

IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for rising to the top ranks of business today. It is necessary, but it is not adequate to predict executive competence and corporate success. By itself, a high IQ does not guarantee that you will stand out and rise above everyone else.

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

With this in mind, instead of exclusively focusing on your conventional intelligence quotient, you should make an investment in strengthening your EQ (Emotional Intelligence), MQ (Moral Intelligence), and BQ (Body Intelligence). These concepts may be elusive and difficult to measure, but their significance is far greater than IQ.

Emotional Intelligence

EQ is the most well known of the three, and in brief it is about: being aware of your own feelings and those of others, regulating these feelings in yourself and others, using emotions that are appropriate to the situation, self-motivation, and building relationships.

Top Tip for Improvement: First, become aware of your inner dialogue. It helps to keep a journal of what thoughts fill your mind during the day. Stress can be a huge killer of emotional intelligence, so you also need to develop healthy coping techniques that can effectively and quickly reduce stress in a volatile situation.

Moral Intelligence

MQ directly follows EQ as it deals with your integrity, responsibility, sympathy, and forgiveness. The way you treat yourself is the way other people will treat you. Keeping commitments, maintaining your integrity, and being honest are crucial to moral intelligence.

Top Tip for Improvement: Make fewer excuses and take responsibility for your actions. Avoid little white lies. Show sympathy and communicate respect to others. Practice acceptance and show tolerance of other people’s shortcomings. Forgiveness is not just about how we relate to others; it’s also how you relate to and feel about yourself.

Body Intelligence

Lastly, there is your BQ, or body intelligence, which reflects what you know about your body, how you feel about it, and take care of it. Your body is constantly telling you things; are you listening to the signals or ignoring them? Are you eating energy-giving or energy-draining foods on a daily basis? Are you getting enough rest? Do you exercise and take care of your body? It may seem like these matters are unrelated to business performance, but your body intelligence absolutely affects your work because it largely determines your feelings, thoughts, self-confidence, state of mind, and energy level.

Top Tip For Improvement: At least once a day, listen to the messages your body is sending you about your health. Actively monitor these signals instead of going on autopilot. Good nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate rest are all key aspects of having a high BQ. Monitoring your weight, practicing moderation with alcohol, and making sure you have down time can dramatically benefit the functioning of your brain and the way you perform at work.

What You Really Need To Succeed

It doesn’t matter if you did not receive the best academic training from a top university. A person with less education who has fully developed their EQ, MQ, and BQ can be far more successful than a person with an impressive education who falls short in these other categories.

Yes, it is certainly good to be an intelligent, rational thinker and have a high IQ; this is an important asset. But you must realize that it is not enough. Your IQ will help you personally, but EQ, MQ, and BQ will benefit everyone around you as well. If you can master the complexities of these unique and often under-rated forms of intelligence, research tells us you will achieve greater success and be regarded as more professionally competent and capable.

By Keld Jensen
Story link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/04/12/intelligence-is-overrated-what-you-really-need-to-succeed/

@PAGAN 9JA

Havn't found the reference yet. Rifling thru old books can be pretty boring. Will make a note to make a post when i find it (kinda busy wit other things now).

[size=16pt]PCSTATS Investigated The Fact That websites with black background save energy[/size]


Read a summary of the results below. The full link is at text bottom.

Is the search page, Blackle.com, really an energy efficient alternative to Google? The theory is websites with black background save energy. That claim is based on an assumption that "a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen. Is this a blatant green washed marketing ploy, or an earnest energy saving tweak for something we use every day?

To find out, PCSTATS hooked up an Extech Power Analyzer to a 19" CRT and a 19" LCD. One explorer window, set to full screen (1280x1024) was opened to each of the following websites. Blackle's claims appear to hold water, although the difference is just 17.7W and 3.8W for CRT and LCD respectively. What that adds up to over the course of a year, for every second you spend doing a search on Google is anyone's guess.

The resulting monitor power consumption to display a webpage fluctuated as shown below:

---------------19" CRT ADI Microscan-------19" LCD Samsung 192MP
Google.com------83.5 Watts ----------------38.6 Watts
Blackle.com-----65.8 Watts---------------- 34.8 Watts
PCSTATS.com-----76.2 Watts-----------------37.8 Watts

Testing the internet: where monitor power consumption is potentially wasted

Expanding on the Blackle.com vs. Google.com question further, how many website designers out there have considered the electrical impact of their creations on monitor power consumption? Few, I'd wager. PCSTATS certainly never considered this...

Before comparing Google vs. Blackle we wouldn't have thought that the colours used in web design would have a significant impact on energy consumed by the display device. Yet faced with the lower energy useage that Blackle.com proves is possible with crafty use of dull dark colours and stationary images, we got to wondering. What is the carbon footprint of some of the most popular websites out there? How about websites that focus on environmentally friendly design, products, lifestyles and energy sources? Are there websites which disseminate this timely and important information using an power sensitive colour scheme?

Link: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2649

Dyt: Comes in wearin a white garmet, face powdered
Walkin slowly

Nollywood ghosts. Very scary in d daytime rather than at night.

[size=16pt]5 Mind-Bending Facts About Dreams[/size]

When your head hits the pillow, for many it's lights out for the conscious part of you. But the cells firing in your brain are very much awake, sparking enough energy to produce the sometimes vivid and sometimes downright haunted dreams that take place during the rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep.

Why do some people have nightmares while others really spend their nights in bliss? Like sleep, dreams are mysterious phenomena. But as scientists are able to probe deeper into our minds, they are finding some of those answers.

Here's some of what we know about what goes on in dreamland.

1. Violent dreams can be a warning sign

As if nightmares weren't bad enough, a rare sleep disorder — called REM sleep behavior disorder — causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. Such violent dreams may be an early sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson's disease and dementia, according to research published online July 28, 2010, in the journal Neurology. The results suggest the incipient stages of these neurodegenerative disorders might begin decades before a person, or doctor, knows it.

2. Night owls have more nightmares

Staying up late has its perks, but whimsical dreaming is not one of them. Research published in 2011 in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms, revealed that night owls are more likely than their early-bird counterparts to experience nightmares.

In the study 264 university students rated how often they experienced nightmares on a scale from 0 to 4, never to always, respectively. The stay-up-late types scored, on average, a 2.10, compared with the morning types who averaged a 1.23. The researchers said the difference was a significant one, however, they aren’t sure what's causing a link between sleep habits and nightmares. Among their ideas is the stress hormone cortisol, which peaks in the morning right before we wake up, a time when people are more prone to be in REM, or dream, sleep. If you’re still sleeping at that time, the cortisol rise could trigger vivid dreams or nightmares, the researchers speculate. [Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

3. Men dream about sezx

As in their wake hours, men also dream about sezx more than women do. And comparing notes in the morning may not be a turn-on for either guys or gals, as women are more likely to have experienced nightmares, suggests doctoral research reported in 2009 by psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.

She found women's dreams/nightmares could be grouped into three categories: fearful dreams (being chased or having their life threatened); dreams involving the loss of a loved one; or confused dreams.

4. You can control your dreams

If you're interested in lucid dreaming, you may want to take up video gaming. The link? Both represent alternate realities, said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada.

"If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," Gackenbach told LiveScience in 2010. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." Her past research has shown that people who frequently play video games are more likely than non-gamers to have lucid dreams where they view themselves from outside their bodies; they were also better able to influence their dream worlds, as if controlling a video-game character.

That level of control may also help gamers turn a bloodcurdling nightmare into a carefree dream, she found in a 2008 study. This ability could help war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gackenbach reasoned.

5. Why we dream

Scientists have long wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud's idea that dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are just a side effect of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Turns out, at least part of the reason may be critical thinking, suggests Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett who presented her theory in 2010 at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in Boston.

Her research revealed that our slumbering hours may help us solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours. The visual and often illogical aspects of dreams make them perfect for the out-of-the-box thinking that is necessary to solve some problems, she speculates.

So while dreams may have originally evolved for another purpose, they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping the brain reboot and helping us solve problems, she said..

Link: http://www.livescience.com/19950-5-facts-dreams-nightmares.html

LOL

Skeptical? Glad you are. But the above accounts are real as you. Before any1 asks, i seriously don't believe in ghosts. Nah, not one bit . Sorry to disappoint. Its certainly not untypical to have such discussions, is it?

Idowuogbo: Am scared!!!!! U sure u not a ghost typing?

Its educative. A little history hurts no one. Do we have to live on junk all the time.

shymmex: who cares?

My grandmom told me a story of a relative who died over 15yrs ago in Kaduna. She appeared severally to her sister in dreams looking dejected. The sister to whom she appeared to informed an elderly person who told her to be calm when the dead sister appears and ask her what was the problem. The dead relative appealed to her to settle her debts as she's been denied entry into heaven because of the debts. The sister had to go round Kaduna central market amongst her dead relatives customers announcing to all whom the dead relative was indebted to come forward for repayment. About N120K was paid out of the dead relative's property and she never appeared to her sister in her dreams again.

Bottom line. A lot of unexplained phenomena still exist out dere in the big wide world.

I wouldnt want discussions to be tainted with the religious battles raging on some pages on the forum. No juju, witchcraft or magic (black or white) or religious manifestations whatsoever please.

Can we just have a civil discussion of plain intuitive unexplained phenomena people can relate to please.

[size=14pt]The Ghost Who Helped Solved Her Own Murder[/size]

One January afternoon in 1897, Erasmus (aka Edward) Shue, a blacksmith, sent his neighbor’s young boy to see if Elva, Shue’s wife of three months, needed anything from the market. When the neighbor boy walked through the front door of the Shues’ rural Greenbrier County, West Virginia, log house, he found Elva’s lifeless body at the foot of the stairs. The boy stood for a moment looking at the woman, not knowing what to make of the scene. Her body was stretched out straight with her legs together. One arm was at her side and the other rested across her chest. Her head was tilted to one side.

At first he thought that the woman was simply asleep on the floor. He stepped toward her, quietly calling, “Mrs. Shue?” When she didn’t respond, he panicked and bolted from the house. He told his mother what he had found and she summoned the local doctor and coroner, George W. Knapp.

Knapp didn’t get to the Shues’ house for almost an hour. By the time he arrived, Shue had already gotten home, carried his wife’s body up to the bedroom, washed and dressed her, and laid her out on the bed. He’d prepared her body for burial in a high-necked dress with a stiff collar and placed a veil over her face. Knapp went about examining the body, Shue cradling his wife’s head and crying the whole while. When Knapp attempted to examine Elva’s neck and head, Shue became agitated. Knapp didn’t want to provoke him any further, so he left. He’d found nothing amiss with the body parts he had examined and had also been treating Elva for a few weeks prior, so he listed the cause of death as “everlasting faint” and then changed it to “complications from pregnancy.”

Elva’s body was taken to her childhood home of Little Sewell Mountain and buried, but not before a bizarre funeral where her widower acted erratically. He paced by the casket, fiddling with Elva’s head and neck. In addition to the collar and the veil, he covered her head and neck with a scarf. It didn’t match her burial dress, but Shue insisted that it was her favorite and that she would have wanted to be buried in it. He also propped her head up, first with a pillow and then a rolled up cloth. It was certainly strange, but most guests likely chalked it up to the grieving process. Shue was generally liked and regarded without suspicion by everyone in town.
Mother-in-Law’s Intuition

Everyone, that is, except Mary Jane Heaster, Elva’s mother. She had never liked Shue, and even without evidence, she was convinced that he had murdered her daughter. If only Elva could tell her what happened, she thought. She decided to pray for Elva to somehow come back from the dead and reveal the truth about her death. She prayed every evening for weeks, until finally her prayer was answered.

Heaster claimed her daughter appeared to her in a dream four nights in a row to tell her story. Supposedly, the spirit appeared first as a bright light, gradually taking a human form and filling the room with a chill. Elva’s ghost confessed to her mother that Shue cruelly abused her, and one night attacked her in a rage when he thought that she hadn’t made any meat for his dinner. He had broken her neck, the ghost said as it turned its head completely around. Then the ghost turned and walked away, disappearing into the night while staring back at her mother.

Heaster went to the local prosecutor, John Preston, and spent the afternoon at his office trying to get him to reopen the case. Whether Preston believed her story about the ghost, we don’t know, but Heaster was persistent and convincing enough that he began asking questions around town. Shue’s neighbors and friends told Preston about the man’s strange behavior at the funeral, and Dr. Knapp admitted that his examination had been incomplete.

It was enough for Preston to justify an order for a complete autopsy, and a few days later, the body was exhumed despite Shue’s objections. Knapp and two other doctors laid the body out in the town’s one-room schoolhouse to give it a thorough examination. A local newspaper, The Pocahontas Times, later reported that, “On the throat were the marks of fingers indicating that she had been choken [sic]; that the neck was dislocated between the first and second vertebrae. The ligaments were torn and ruptured. The windpipe had been crushed at a point in front of the neck.”

It was clear Elva’s death was not natural, but there was no evidence pointing to the killer, and no witnesses. Shue’s strange behavior since Elva’s death stuck in Preston’s mind and cast some suspicion on him. At the same time, Elva’s mother had described exactly how her daughter was killed before the autopsy was performed. Maybe she’d done it, and the ghost story was an elaborate plot to frame Shue.
Skeletons in Shue’s Closet

Preston continued to investigate and began looking into Shue’s past. He learned that Shue had been married twice before. The first ended in divorce while Shue was in prison for stealing a horse. That wife later told police that Shue was extremely violent and beat her frequently while they were married. His second marriage ended after just eight months with the mysterious death of the wife. In between these marriages, Shue boasted in prison that he planned to marry seven women in his lifetime. The previous wife’s mysterious death and Shue’s history of abuse were circumstantial, but enough for Preston to bring him to trial.

Mary Jane Heaster was the prosecution’s star witness, but Preston wanted to avoid the issue of her ghostly sightings, since Elva’s story as relayed by her mother might be objected to as hearsay by the defense. Perhaps hoping to prove her unreliable, Shue’s lawyer questioned Heaster extensively about the ghost’s visits on cross-examination. The tactic backfired, with Heaster refusing to waver in her account despite intense badgering by the lawyer. Many people in the community, if not the jury, seemed to believe Heaster’s story, and Shue did himself no favors taking the stand in his own defense, rambling and appealing to the jury “to look into his face and then say if he was guilty.” The Greenbrier Independent reported that his “testimony, manner, and so forth, made an unfavorable impression on the spectators.” The jury deliberated for just an hour and ten minutes before returning a guilty verdict.

Shue was sentenced to life in prison, but died soon after as epidemics of measles and pneumonia tore through the prison in the spring of 1900. Mrs. Heaster lived until 1916, and never recanted her story about Elva’s ghost. Maybe her story swayed the jury and won the case. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe her daughter spoke to her from beyond the grave, maybe the ghost was all in Heaster’s head, or maybe it was a strategic lie. But no matter who saw or believed what, without the ghost story, Heaster may have never gone to Preston, and Shue might not have gone to trial.

A historical marker in Greenbrier County commemorates Elva’s death and the unusual court case that followed, noting that this was the “only known case in which testimony from [a] ghost helped convict a murderer.”

Story Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/120530

War at times may be necessary, but it is the most deadly of all human means to resolve conflicts. In the end, and as history as shown, victory is often obtained at a very great price. World war II was the deadliest war in human history with an estimated 60 million people killed or missing.

Click the link for a full screen slide show of World War II highlights presented as a memorial to the loss of human lives

[size=16pt]http://rememberthewar.com/[/size]

It includes sounds and important radio broadcasts embedded in the pictures.

[size=16pt]We have to start looking for an alternative to JAVA[/size]

A San Francisco jury issued a verdict that the Google broke copyright laws when it used Java APIs to design the Android system.

If the verdict that Android infringed copyrights stands, it could put programmers in a difficult situation. Java is an open source language, but now it's not clear how free programmers are to use it, since Oracle has said that anyone following the Java APIs—which are basically sets of instructions about how to use Java—needs a license.

The effects beyond Android and Java are unclear. At this point, Android is the only "non-standard" implementation of Java. However, it could have a chilling effect, and if Oracle is seen as a major IP enforcer when it comes to Java, that could backfire.

"Other people will be deterred from using Java as the basis for some non-standard thing in the future," said Tyler Ochoa, a professor of copyright law at Santa Clara University. "It could be the case that Oracle wins the battle and loses the war."

Story links: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/05/jury-rules-google-violated-copyright-law-google-moves-for-mistrial.ars
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57428612-94/oracle-v-google-jury-returns-partial-verdict-favoring-oracle/

[size=16pt]GSM and SMS technology are 20 years old today[/size]

"Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM), set up in 1982, created the GSM standard, leading to a unified, open, standard-based mobile network. SMS, up to 160 7-bit character messages sent over control channels (when they aren't busy), was part of the original GSM specification itself. The first GSM handests were approved for sale in May 1992. But it was not until 1996, when pay-as-you-go SIM cards showed up, and the kids got their hands on it, that SMS gained popularity." Today, over 4 billion people in the world use cell phones today. Story Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/06/sms-text-messages-20th-birthday

[size=14pt]How has this technology affected your life? Has its influence been positive or negative?[/size]

[size=14pt]Share your thoughts with all[/size]

I recall a colonial study documenting a minority tribe along the middle belt or North-eastern Nigeria (Adamawa region) practicing it. Will delve into my library and see if i can come up with a name. Due to the stigma, u may find few willing to admit their tribe practices it.

Goody then. Seems a lot people saw the couple then but didnt tell. Kudos.

@akereconfi Right on the mark. You may be the 1st and only person on NL to see couple .

Good Post Sagewood. Keep it coming. Its only in Nigeria a petty thief is lynched, while mega thieves go free and live in luxury. Just imagine the chain reaction effect if all the above thieves had been lynched.

Its high time the death penalty is made the constitutional punishment for fraud and corruption.

On Wednesday, a remote code execution vulnerability in PHP was accidentally exposed to the Web, prompting fears that it may be used to target vulnerable websites on a massive scale. The bug itself was traced back to 2004, and came to light during a recent CTF competition.

The group that discovered the bug was waiting for a patch to be published before they released any information. However, on Wednesday details were leaked to Reddit prompting the group (Eindbazen) disclose what they had discovered.

“When PHP is used in a CGI-based setup (such as Apache's mod_cgid), the php-cgi receives a processed query string parameter as command line arguments which allows command-line switches, such as -s, -d or -c to be passed to the php-cgi binary, which can be exploited to disclose source code and obtain arbitrary code execution,” a CERT advisory on the flaw explains.

In short, the flaw will attackers to issue commands to servers where PHP has been compiled to run under CGI mode. This is often done for security and development reasons. It’s important to note that FastCGI configurations are not impacted by the flaw.

PHP developers pushed a fix for the flaw, resulting in the release of PHP 5.3.12 and 5.4.2, but as it turns out it didn’t actually remove the vulnerability.

“The new PHP versions as well as the official PHP patch contain a bug which makes the fix trivial to bypass. Use our mitigations for now,” the Eindbazen team wrote on their blog.

Mitigations as well as additional information from Eindbazen can be found on their website. You can view it Here: http://eindbazen.net/2012/05/php-cgi-advisory-cve-2012-1823/.

Finally, the developers over at PHP are aware of the issues created by the fix and are working to stamp out the problem.

Story link: http://www.securityweek.com/official-fix-php-flaw-easily-bypassed-researchers-say

At first, it looks like a pensive face in a Venetian mask (see photo below). But take a closer look at its features and you’ll see that it conceals a couple kissing. Aptly named Mask of Love, the illusion was created by Gianni Sarcone, Courtney Smith and Marie-Jo Waeber from Archimedes’ Laboratory in Genoa, Italy, after discovering the blurry photograph.

Can you see the kissing couple?

My VB is rusty but what u need to do on your form is:

1. Create 3 textboxes: txtInput1, txtInput2 and txtAns to collect data1, data2 and display the answer in Answer textbox.

2. Create an event handler to initiate the computation after data is entered and execute the remaining code.

3. Check that the data entered are numbers using isnumeric(textbox) function.

4. Set the answer box to display the answer like this: txtAns = CSTR(CINT(txtInput1)*CINT(txtInput2))

5. Dont 4get ur error handler code.

That is as neat as it gets.

Project management is a relatively new management specialization in Nigeria though it is an established profession overseas, mainly in the US and some EU countries. The profession has not yet been given recognized status in Nigeria because of a subsisting conflict between Engineers and Quantity surveyors, which is still in the courts. Engineers argue that project management, especially for engineering projects must be managed by engineers. Quantity surveyors on the other hand argue that no special engineering skills are required for project management tasks (Note the arguments go deeper than this, just simplifying the nitty gritty). If engineers win, it implies they will have certification rights over who is a project manager. If quantity surveyors win then they have the rights and not engineers. Thus it is conclusive that no management institute shall award certification for engineering project management (which is the most lucrative) any time soon.

At present the Nigerian Institute of management provides periodic certification exams for aspiring managers in Nigeria. Its qualification requirement are an NUC recognized degree or HND from any institution in Nigeria and a pass in the certification exams (At a fee). They have been partnering (since 2003) with NYSC to offer corpers a shot at being certified managers during the NYSC programme.

Check out their website for more info: http://www.managementnigeria.org/index.html

Sent the ebook to ur Yahoo & UNN mailbox; check.

U can simulate SG3524 with Proteus in two ways, either with a spice model or by creating ur own model (Dont know how, havent done it b4.). Follow the links below to learn more about how to do it.

http://www.edaboard.com/thread12969.html

http://www.edaboard.com/thread238759.html

http://www.sonsivri.to/forum/index.php?topic=3545.25

The Sonsiviri forum is particularly cool. I'll encourage you to register with it. The guys dere are real good wit Proteus simulations and have lots of modules and resources.

Hope it helps.

[size=14pt]A quitter never wins and a winner never quits[/size].

Change ur reading strategy and find one that works for you. A true test of a good reading strategy is when u can solve basic problems easily. So test ur self once in a while wit past questions.

Download the zip file in the posted link below and play the game just for 30-60 mins each day to improve ur memory (no guarrantees):

https://www.nairaland.com/927618/improve-intelligence-quotient-iq#10724075

Goodluck

Post ur email or PM me. I'll send u a practical step by step ebook that explains everything you need from computations, solar panel selection, construction, etc.

venezuelan artist jesús gonzález rodríguez creates unsettling portraits by collaging multiple photographs
of individuals and 'cutting' out along their edges. each image is composed of a head-on and side view of the subject against
a blank white wall, creating a nearly optical-illusion in which the portraits can appear momentarily normal until one's eyes
fall upon an outlying characteristic.

A psychologists depiction of differences between successful and unsuccessful people. Guess which category Nigeria's leadership falls.