₦airaland Forum

writingking:
If you cant state your position in eight words or less, then you do not have a position

.
meaning pls

Brazilian footballer Neymar wants to leave his Spanish club Barcelona to move to France's Paris St-Germain - but the move is set to cost a record-breaking €222m fee.
At today's prices, one Neymar is worth £198m, or $262m, which could buy...
A plane (or three)
One Neymar could buy three Boeing 737-700 passenger planes, which cost $82.4m each.
If you wanted to upgrade to the snazzier 737-800 - the type of plane that makes up a large chunk of Ryanair's European fleet - you'd only be able to afford two, with about $65m left over for bells and whistles.
Alternatively, you could exchange your Neymar for a private jet - ranging up to about $100m - and then spend the rest on the (insanely high) running costs every year.
Want a luxury jet? This London shop can help
Enough spaghetti to cover Barcelona
Our colleagues over on the BBC Sport live page were crunching #NeymarMaths all day , with the help of our diligent readers. Some gems from the submissions:
The cost of human cloning is around £1.29m. Why spend £198,000,000 on one Neymar when you could clone 153 Neymars at that price? (Thomas from York)
One Neymar could buy enough spaghetti to cover the entire city of Barcelona (Adam Wright)
Or 792,000,000 Freddo chocolate bars (Davo Long)
A fighter jet (or 10)
In the market for a different kind of striker?
Take your pick: an F-35 Lightning, the current darling of the US Air Force, would set you back $94m, and the (no longer available) F-22 Raptor was some $150m when it stopped production.
And for the more budget-conscious shopper, one Neymar could be traded for about 10 Russian SU-24s - a formidable strike force.
The entire payroll of the New York Yankees
Or in the US, skip the soccer, as they say, and switch to the great American pastime: baseball. You could pay for a year's play from the whole New York Yankees main team - a bargain at just $155m for the active squad, according to player valuation database Spotrac .
And with the leftover cash, why not pay for the injured players, retained contracts, and minor squad, too? It will still only total $223m.
The winners of the other "football"
The entire New England Patriots team - Super Bowl winners, 2017 - has a payroll that is even cheaper, at $171,705,615. Bargain.
The entire GDP of six countries
If you have one Neymar, you would be able to match the entire economic output of one of six of the world's smaller nations.
Take your pick from Tuvalu, Montserrat, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau - all have a GDP output ranging from about $33m to $258m, according to United Nations data from 2015.
The national debt of a small island nation
(or a teeny, tiny fraction of the US debt)
If you were feeling philanthropic, Neymar's mammoth fee could wipe out the national debt of a small nation … like Tonga ($28.3m), Fiji ($72.4m) or Vanuatu ($82m) - or, stretching a bit, even Haiti ($234m).
Those countries, of course, just have low debt. They don't have the highest debt-to-GDP ratios, arguably a better sign that a nation has a debt problem.
So, if you wanted to help, say, the United States with its massive debt problem, a Neymar would knock off just 0.001% of the US national debt (which is almost $20 trillion at the time of writing).
Fine, I'll just take Neymar…
Congratulations!
If you save $1,000 a day, every day, you should be able to make your payment for one genuine Neymar in… 718 years.
Get saving.-BBC

Everett Lee Compton, a 49-year-old Arkansas man, was arrested Monday after he was accused of sneaking into a homeowner’s yard and sexually abusing their pet donkey multiple times.
According to the Siloam Springs Police Department, the donkey’s owners’ home had been under surveillance for the past month because the couple was having trouble with people harassing their pets. With "no trespassing" signs failing to deter intruders, the owners also set up security cameras.
In the early hours of July 16, 1:30 a.m. to be exact, the owners called local authorities to report an intruder. Found hiding in the bushes, Compton told the Siloam Springs police officers he was just taking a walk and wanted to give the donkey some carrots. However, once he was informed that security footage had recorded him getting frisky with the donkey, Compton claimed marijuana "makes him do sick things," the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
After reviewing the footage, police indicated the July 16 encounter showed Compton feeding the donkey carrots and covering its eyes as he went to stand behind the animal "to have some type of sexual interaction." The camera had previously recorded several instances – May 27, June 4 and July 5 – when Compton was filmed putting a bag over a donkey’s head, getting behind the animal and placing his pelvis against its rear, the police report read.
Compton is currently charged with four misdemeanor counts of criminal trespassing and bestiality along with five felony counts of cruelty to animals. He is scheduled to appear in court on September 11.

ololadeking:
poor journalisim and trash talk

friend what's ur point really

The artist turning women's stretch marks into art

Move over, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. You are not the richest folks on earth. The real claimant to the throne, is Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, if the account of a US Financier, Bill Browder, is correct.

Browder reportedly told senators last week that the Russian President is richer than both Mr. Bezos and Mr Gates combined.

According to Newsweek, the chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital Management estimated the net worth of Putin at $200 billion. Both Bezos, the Amazon.com founder and Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder are worth a combined $183 billion.

Newsweek said that Mr Browder’s company was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia and that Mr Browder was a shareholder in Gazprom, Surgutneftegas and other Russian state-run enterprises in the 1990s.

Around that time Putin reportedly made a deal with Russian businessmen that made him the “richest man in the world”.

Mr. Putin’s personal fortune has been the subject of intense debate and speculation in recent years.

Newsweek reports that, according to Mr Putin’s official asset form – a mandatory public disclosure for all Russian government officials – he earns $133,000 a year and has a modest apartment in Moscow.

Last week Mr Bezos briefly became the world’s richest person as a result of a surge in Amazon’s share price ahead of the e-retail giant’s quarterly earnings report. Shares later tailed off again, however, putting Mr Gates back in the top spot. Mr Bezos owns around 17 per cent of Amazon’s shares.

Mr. Gates was also named the world’s richest person in this year’s Forbes ranking. That publication in March estimated his wealth to be around $86 billion, ahead of second-placed Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren Buffett, whose fortune was cited to be around $75.6 billion. (NAN)

A man has been charged by Australian police after allegedly breaking into a home, drinking the owner's champagne then falling asleep in her bed.
Police said the 36-year-old man forced his way into the house in Esperance, Western Australia, around lunchtime on Friday.
He fell asleep after drinking the resident's "quite expensive" champagne, officers said.
The owner returned home and allegedly found the thief in her bed.
"She used her great initiative and crept outside the house to phone police who attended and arrested the offender," Senior Sgt Richard Moore, from Esperance Police, told the BBC.
"Police attended as soon as we got the call and located the person asleep."
The man was taken to hospital after being found "very intoxicated", Senior Sgt Moore said.
He has been charged with burglary offences.

Happy new month Folks. Its the month to smile more, forgive freely, walk away from troubles and pursue ur dream rigorously.

dammy13:
https://fabinfos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Awujale-of-Ijebuland-Oba-Sikiru-Kayode-Adetona.jpg

The Palace of Ijebu Land has officially announced the demise of the Awujale of Ijebu land, His Royal Majesty Oba Sikiru Adetona Awujale.

Sikiru Kayode Adetona was born 10 May 1934 and wad the Awujale (king) of the Ijebu Kingdom, a traditional state in Nigeria, having reigned since 1960. He was the son of Prince Rufai Adetona and Alhaja Ajibabi Adetona (née Onashile) and represented the Anikinaiya ruling family.

The cause of his death is yet to be known.

http://fabinfos.com/breaking-news-oba-sikiru-adetona-awujale-of-ijebu-land-is-dead/

all the beef with alake...does it matter again?!! just a thought after I see a linked topic about amosun reconciling the Awujale and Alake of Egba land.

lalasticlala mynd_44...I don't know how you people choose topics to make front page.. I had posted a more accurate version of this story 3days ago, but it failed to reach front page, despite the views and comments it attracted and pleas from some for it to make front page.
this as been my experience with some couple of other posts...don't be complacent about ur present success...encourage hard work and merits.

Nollywood actor, Uche Maduagwu in an Instagram post praised Mercy Johnson Okojie for being a ‘submissive wife and great mother.’

Mercy decided to reply him stating that every marriage has its challenges, and even hers is not perfect.

Uche Maduagwu

Maduagwu had written:

You are a submissive wife and great mother @mercyjohnsonokojie Unlike some female celebs who disrespect their husbands mum, and destroy Properties…You have shown to us all that you can actually be successful in your chosen career, and at the same time be a responsible wife at home.

Sometimes, we just complicate things for ourselves as women when we ignore the needful. God bless your Marriage dear, I pray for every girl looking up to God for a blissful marriage like this, before this year runs out, God will lead you to your own husband speedily as you type amen

She then responded to him saying:

Bros, this is wrong on every level, please don’t judge anyone until u walk in their shoes as our struggles are different…no one is assured of a happily ever after but we all hope on God for sustenance.

Every marriage has its challenges and not even mine is Perfect.. Words do a lot so we have to be careful…. I hope this changes something ….Thank you

The (ghost) Ibo-speaking part of the State is put into consideration, but no, not a far more populous one, SMH.

Well, fellow Nairalanders, I just pointed that out so you can understand your country, and criticize well.
cc: Omenka[/quote]IDIOT...hopeless mofo...you are sure criticising well with ur dump head mention of 'ghost IBO speaking part'...ur type is the problem we have in this world. if giving the opportunity you will dismiss an entire Igbo nation.
I love the IGEDES, I have them as friends-girl friend kwa!!!
you, which tribe are uomo ale

emeijeh:
Why wizzy head come be like matured wall gecko na?

https://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/michael-jordan-laugh.gif

na money cause am...you sef go understand If u ever get rich!

Firefighters in the US state of Ohio have rescued a woman who telephoned 911 in terror, pleading, "Oh, please! I have a boa constrictor stuck to my face!"
"Ma'am, you have a what?" the operator replied. "You're outside with a boa constrictor stuck to your face?"
The terrified woman explained that the 5ft 5in (1.6m) snake had wrapped itself around her and bitten her nose.
She said she had "rescued" the snake and another boa on Wednesday.
An ambulance was swiftly dispatched to the woman, who was found lying in her driveway in the town of Sheffield Lake with the snake around her neck.
"It was wrapped around her neck and biting her nose and wouldn't let go," fire chief Tim Card said, according to the local Chronicle-Telegram .
"They had to cut its head off with a knife to get it to let go of her face."
The 45-year-old explained her plight to the 911 operator, pleading, "There's blood everywhere!"
"I've never heard of this before," the dispatcher exclaimed, before urging the woman not to move.
Boa constrictors kill their prey by gripping it so tightly that blood and oxygen can't reach the victim's vital organs.
The woman, who said she had 11 snakes, was taken to hospital for treatment after the incident on Thursday. Her injuries were not said to be life-threatening.
Mr Card said the emergency services had disposed of the dead snake in a bin near Sheffield Lake City Hall.
A local reporter who visited the scene that afternoon found an empty glass cage on the pavement, and a small pool of blood on the driveway.

After firefighters put out the blaze and officers discovered the driver had non-life threatening injuries, they quickly realized his spirits weren’t exactly bubbly, despite his near miss.
"Officers asked the driver what sort of car he had, to which he replied 'it was a Ferrari,'" their press release read. "Detecting a sense of damaged pride [the car-less man] said 'I've only just got it, picked it up an hour ago.'"
Although officials say speed was not a factor in this incident, they are pressing drivers to exercise a certain amount of caution moving ahead.
"Over the past couple of weeks there have been a number of collisions where driving styles have not reflected the road and weather conditions," the statement added. "Please take more care!"
According to Ferrari’s website, F1 racing legend Michael Schumacher "spent a lot of time testing the 430 Scuderia when it was being developed."

The $260,000 car met its fate off the M1 highway near South Yorkshire after the driver lost control of the flashy vehicle in wet conditions. Seconds later it "went airborne and burst into flames" about 50 meters into a field, South Yorkshire Police reported.
For those curious about what the Ferrari looked like prior to the fireball, take a gander:

Somewhere in Britain, a sad, sad man is mourning the loss of a jet black Ferrari 430 Scuderia, which went up in flames an hour after it was purchased Thursday afternoon.
The driver survived the accident that consumed his vehicle in a "miracle escape," according to local authorities, but as pictures prove, the same cannot be said for the popular race car.

Watermelon lemonade
Simple yet visually stunning, our watermelon lemonade can be made by hollowing out a watermelon and filling it with a citrus and melon juice purée. This refreshing drink works both as a fun idea for a kid's party or a casual gathering of family and friends.

Watermelon & feta salad
Get two of your five-a-day with this vibrant watermelon & feta salad. The flavour combination of juicy watermelon, salty feta and cooling mint is ideal for a summer side dish or starter. With such versatlity, it's no wonder that watermelon is such a popular salad choice!

Watermelon salsa
For a zingy summer snack, serve this moreish
watermelon salsa as a light dip or topping for nachos. A hint of lime juice gives this salsa a citrussy boost which makes for a refreshing palate cleanser.

Watermelon pizza
Shaped liked a pizza but more fun and definitely more fruity! This watermelon pizza recipe is enhanced with the summery flavours of pineapple and coconut, and is ideal served as a starter, salad or light dessert at picnics or barbecues.

Watermelon lollies

Pretty in pink and so refreshing, these watermelon lollies are the perfect, low-calorie way to cool down. They're sure to be a hit with kids, too, who will benefit from the high vitamin C content. With only five minutes prep time, you can make these popsicles for a quick and easy treat on an unexpectedly hot day.

In a remote region of the US, a town is struggling with a chilling health crisis caused by a recessive gene. The reason? Here, polygamy is still practised.
By Zaria Gorvett
26 July 2017
“We are to gird up our loins and fulfil this, just as we would any other duty…” said Brigham Young , who led the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormons, back in the mid-19th Century. It was a sweltering summer’s day in Provo City, Utah and as he spoke, high winds swirled dust around him.
The holy task Young was speaking of was, of course, polygyny, where one man takes many wives (also known by the gender neutral term polygamy). He was a passionate believer in the practice, which he announced as the official line of the church a few years earlier. Now he was set to work reassuring his flock that marrying multiple women was the right thing to do.
He liked to lead by example. Though Young began his adult life as a devoted spouse to a single wife, by the time he died his family had swelled to 55 wives and 59 children.
Fast-forward to 1990, a century after polygyny was abandoned, and the upshot was only just beginning to emerge. In an office several hundred miles from where Young gave his speech, a 10-year-old boy was
presented to Theodore Tarby , a doctor specialising in rare childhood diseases.
The boy had unusual facial features, including a prominent forehead, low-set ears, widely spaced eyes and a small jaw. He was also severely physically and mentally disabled.
In every case, the child had the same distinctive facial features, the same delayed development
After performing all the usual tests, Tarby was stumped. He had never seen a case like it. Eventually he sent a urine sample to a lab that specialises in detecting rare diseases. They diagnosed “fumarase deficiency”, an inherited disorder of the metabolism. With just 13 cases known to medical science (translating into odds of one in 400 million), it was rare indeed. It looked like a case of plain bad luck.
But there was a twist. It turned out his sister, whom the couple believed was suffering from cerebral palsy, had it too. In fact, together with colleagues from the Barrow Neurological Institute, soon Tarby had
diagnosed a total of eight new cases , in children ranging from 20 months to 12 years old.
In every case, the child had the same distinctive facial features, the same delayed development – most couldn’t sit up, let alone walk – and, crucially, they were from the same region on the Arizona-Utah border, known as Short Creek.
Even more intriguingly, this region is polygynous. In this small, isolated community of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the likelihood of being born with fumarase deficiency is over a million times above the global average.
“When I moved to Arizona that’s when I realised that my colleagues here were probably the most familiar I’d ever met with this disease,” says Vinodh Narayanan, a neurologist at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Arizona, who has treated several patients with fumarase deficiency.
What’s going on?
The disease is caused by a hiccup in the process that
provides energy to our cells . In particular, it’s caused by low levels of an enzyme – fumarase – that helps to drive it. Since it was perfected billions of years ago, the enzyme has become a staple of every living thing on the planet. It’s so important, today the instructions for making it are remarkably similar across all species, from owls to orchids.
For those who inherit a faulty version, the consequences are tragic. Though our brains account for just 2% of the body’s total weight, they are ravenously hungry – using up around 20% of its energy supply. Consequently, metabolic disorders such a fumarase deficiency are particularly devastating to the organ. “It results in structural abnormalities and a syndrome including seizures and delayed development,” says Narayanan.
Faith Bistline has five cousins with the disease, who she used to look after until she left the FLDS in 2011. “They are completely physically and mentally disabled,” she says. The oldest started learning to walk when he was two years old, but stopped after a long bout of seizures. Now that cousin is in his 30s and not even able to crawl.
Fumarase deficiency is rare because it’s recessive – it only develops if a person inherits two faulty copies of the gene
In fact, only one of her cousins can walk. “She can also make some vocalisations and sometimes you can understand a little bit of what she’s saying, but I wouldn’t call it speaking,” she says. They all have feeding tubes and need care 24 hours a day.
Fumarase deficiency is rare because it’s recessive – it only develops if a person inherits two faulty copies of the gene, one from each parent. To get to grips with why it’s plaguing Short Creek, first we need to back to the mid-19th Century.
Brigham Young was a busy man. In addition to leading the Mormon church, he also founded a city – Salt Lake City, Utah – which flourished from a sparsely populated desert valley into a full-blown polygynous utopia in the space of a few short decades.
Alas, it didn’t last. By the 1930s, the practice had been abandoned by the church and banned by the state of Utah, making it punishable by imprisonment and a hefty fine (equivalent to around $10,000 (£7,675) in today’s money). Followers needed somewhere to go.
They settled on the remote ranching town of Short Creek, which formed part of the Arizona Strip. This was an area larger than Belgium (14,000 sq miles, or 36,000 sq km) with only a handful of inhabitants – the perfect place to hide from the prying eyes of federal marshals.
Today it’s home to the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City – either side of the Utah-Arizona border – and some 7,700 people. It’s the headquarters of the FLDS, which is famous for its conservative way of life and polygyny. “Most families include at least three wives, because that’s the number you need to enter heaven,” says Bistline, who has three mothers and 27 siblings.
In the end, the link to fumarase deficiency is a numbers game. Take Brigham Young. In all, his children begat 204 grandchildren, who, in turn, begat 745 great-grandchildren. By 1982, it was reported that he had at least 5,000 direct descendants.
This sudden explosion is down to exponential growth. Even with just one wife and three children, if every subsequent generation follows suit a man can have 243 descendants after just five generations. In polygynous families this is supercharged. If every generation includes three wives and 30 children, a man can – theoretically – flood a community with over 24 million of his descendants in the space of five generations, or little over 100 years. Of course this isn’t what actually happens. Instead, lineages begin to fold in on themselves as distant (and in the FLDS, not so distant) cousins marry. In polygynous societies, it doesn’t take long before everyone is related.
In Short Creek, just two surnames dominate the local records – Jessop and Barlow
This is thought to be how one-in-200 men (one in 12.5 in Asia) are descended directly from super-fertile Mongol warrior Genghis Khan , who died nearly eight centuries ago. As Brigham Young said himself: “It is obvious that I could not have been blessed with such a family, if I had been restricted to one wife…”
In Short Creek, just two surnames dominate the local records – Jessop and Barlow. According to local historian Benjamin Bistline, who spoke to news agency Reuters back in 2007, 75 to 80% of people in Short Creek are blood relatives of the community’s founding patriarchs, Joseph Jessop and John Barlow.
This is all very well, but we now know that most people are walking around with at least one lethal recessive mutation (one that would kill us before we reach reproductive age) in their genome, around the same number as in fruit flies. Humans haven’t gone extinct because, being recessive, they’re only unmasked if we have children with someone who also just so happens to carry a copy of that exact same mutation too.
This is where the system starts to become unstuck. “With polygyny you’re decreasing the overall genetic diversity because a few men are having a disproportionate impact on the next generation,” says Mark Stoneking, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany. “Random genetic mutations become more important.”
In isolated communities, the problem is compounded by basic arithmetic: if some men take multiple wives, others can’t have any. In the FLDS, a large proportion of men must be kicked out as teenagers, shrinking the gene pool even further.
“They are driven to the highway by their mothers in the middle of the night and dumped by the side of the road,” says Amos Guiora, a legal expert at the University of Utah who has written a book about religious extremism. Some estimate that there may be up to a thousand so-called “lost boys” . “Often they spend years trying to repent, hoping to get back into the religion,” says Bistline, who has three brothers who were discarded.
Conservationists have known for years that a population’s “mating system” – the fancy word for sexual behaviour – can have a profound impact on its genetics. In wild deer and sage grouse, as in Mormon cults, polygyny is associated with high levels of inbreeding, because it shrinks the number of males contributing to the gene pool and increases the relatedness of the entire community.
Today polygyny is more widespread in Africa than any other continent
The fumarase deficiency gene has been traced to Joseph Jessop and his first wife, Martha Yeates (14 children). One of their daughters went on to marry co-founder John Barlow – and the rest is history. Today the number of people carrying the fumarase gene in Short Creek is thought to be in the thousands.
The FLDS are not alone. Today polygyny is more widespread in Africa than any other continent. In March 2014, Kenya's Parliament passed a bill allowing men to marry multiple wives , while in many West African countries it’s been practised for thousands of years.
Intriguingly, it’s associated with rare disease here, too. In Cameroon, scientists recently reported a polygynous community with abnormally high levels of stuttering. By comparing local genomes with those from sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and North African populations, the researchers identified “exceptionally rare” gene variants among this community, which appear to be responsible – though the authors do not speculate about whether this is a consequence of polygyny.
Which brings us to the good news. Since inbreeding tends to uncover “recessive” mutations that would normally remain in hiding, studying these communities has helped scientists to identify many disease-causing genes. That’s because genetic information is useless on its own. To be meaningful to medical research, it must be linked to information about disease. In fact, more human disease genes have been discovered in Utah – with its Mormon history – than any other place in the world .
It’s not the legacy Brigham Young expected, but in the end, it’s possible that the controversial practice might have some unintended positives.

People who drink three to four times a week are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who never drink, Danish researchers suggest.
Wine appears to be particularly beneficial, probably as it plays a role in helping to manage blood sugar, the study, published in Diabetologia, says.
They surveyed more than 70,000 people on their alcohol intake - how much and how often they drank.
But experts said this wasn't a "green light" to drink more than recommended.
Prof Janne Tolstrup, from the National Institute of Public Health of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the research, said: "We found that drinking frequency has an independent effect from the amount of alcohol taken.
"We can see it's a better effect to drink the alcohol in four portions rather than all at once."
After around five years, study participants were followed up and a total of 859 men and 887 women group had developed diabetes - either type 1 or the more common type 2.
The researchers concluded that drinking moderately three to four times a week reduced a woman's risk of diabetes by 32% while it lowered a man's by 27%, compared with people drinking on less than one day a week.
Findings also suggest that not all types of alcohol had the same effect.
Wine appeared to be particularly beneficial because polyphenols, particularly in red wine, play a role in helping to manage blood sugar.
When it came to drinking beer, men having one to six beers a week lowered their risk of diabetes by 21%, compared to men who drank less than one beer a week - but there was no impact on women's risk.
Meanwhile, a high intake of spirits among women seemed to significantly increase their risk of diabetes - but there was no effect in men.
Unlike other studies, this research did not find a link between binge drinking and diabetes.
Prof Tolstrup said this could be down to the small number of participants that reported binge drinking, which was defined as drinking five drinks or more on one occasion.
Alcohol effect
Dr Emily Burns, head of research communications at Diabetes UK, said people needed to be wary as "the impact of regular alcohol consumption on the risk of type 2 will be different from one person to the next".
While the findings were interesting she said they "wouldn't recommend people see them as a green light to drink in excess of the existing NHS guidelines".
That advice suggests that men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week - equivalent to six pints of average strength beer or 10 small glasses of low strength wine - over the course of three days or more, with some days being alcohol-free.
Prof Tolstrup and her team have used the same survey to research the effect of alcohol on other conditions.
They found that drinking moderately a few times a week was linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disorders, such as heart attack and stroke.
But consuming any amount of alcohol increased the risk of developing gastrointestinal diseases, such as alcohol liver disease and pancreatitis.
Prof Tolstrup added: "Alcohol is associated with 50 different conditions, so we're not saying 'go ahead and drink alcohol'."

In our series of letters from African journalists, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at why some Nigerian women have gone back to the militant Islamists who abducted them.
When news emerged that some of the Chibok schoolgirls, abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, had declined to return home with the batch of 82 freed in May, the world found it difficult to believe.
Not even the release of a Boko Haram video showing some hijab-clad, Kalashnikov-wielding girls saying they were happy in their new lives, was enough to convince people. "They must have been coerced," some said.
"It must be Stockholm syndrome," others said. What else could explain why any girl, any woman, would choose to remain with such horrible men?
Yet, some women rescued by the Nigerian military from captivity are willingly returning to Boko Haram's Sambisa forest hideout in north-eastern Nigeria to be with these same horrible men.
'Fairytale life'
In January, I met Aisha Yerima, 25, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram more than four years ago. While in captivity, she got married to a commander who showered her with romance, expensive gifts and Arabic love songs.
The fairytale life in the Sambisa forest she described to me was suddenly cut short by the appearance of the Nigerian military in early 2016, at a time her husband had gone off to battle with other commanders.
When I first interviewed Aisha, she had been in government custody for about eight months, and completed a de-radicalisation programme run by psychologist Fatima Akilu, the executive director of the Neem Foundation and founder of the Nigerian government's de-radicalisation programme.
"I now see that all the things Boko Haram told us were lies," Aisha said. "Now, when I listen to them on the radio, I laugh."
The pull of power?
But, in May, less than five months after being released into the care of her family in north-eastern Maiduguri city, she returned to the forest hideout of Boko Haram.
Over the past five years, Dr Akilu has worked with former Boko Haram members - including some commanders, their wives and children - and with hundreds of women who were rescued from captivity.
"How women were treated when in Boko Haram captivity depends on which camp a woman was exposed to. It depends on the commander running the camp," she said.
"Those who were treated better were the ones who willingly married Boko Haram members or who joined the group voluntarily and that's not the majority. Most women did not have the same treatment."
Aisha had boasted to me about the number of slaves she had while in the Sambisa forest, the respect she received from other Boko Haram commanders, and the strong influence she had over her husband. She even accompanied him to battle once.
"These were women who for the most part had never worked, had no power, no voice in the communities, and all of a sudden they were in charge of between 30 to 100 women who were now completely under their control and at their beck and call," Dr Akilu said.
"It is difficult to know what to replace it with when you return to society because most of the women are returning to societies where they are not going to be able to wield that kind of power."
Still in shock
Apart from loss of power, other reasons Dr Akilu believes could lead women to willingly return to Boko Haram include stigmatisation from a community which treats them like pariahs because of their association with the militants, and tough economic conditions.
"De-radicalisation is just one part of it. Reintegration is also a part of it. Some of them have no livelihood support built around them," Dr Akilu said.
"The kind of support you have in de-radicalisation programmes does not follow you when you leave. They often come out successful from de-radicalisation programmes but they struggle in the community and it is that struggle that often leads them to go back," she said.
Recently, I visited Aisha's family, who were still in shock at her departure and worried about her wellbeing.
Her mother, Ashe, recalled at least seven former Boko Haram "wives" she knew, all friends of her daughter, who had returned to the Sambisa forest long before her daughter did.
"Each time one of them disappeared, her family came to our house to ask Aisha if she had heard from their daughter," she said. "That's how I knew."
Some of the women kept in touch with Aisha after they returned to Boko Haram. Her younger sister, Bintu, was present during at least two phone calls.
"They told her to come and join them but she refused," Bintu said. "She told them she didn't want to go back."
Life on track?
Unlike some former Boko Haram "wives" I've met, who are either struggling to survive harsh economic conditions or dealing with stigma, Aisha's life seemed to be on track.
She was earning money from buying and selling fabric, regularly attending social events and posting photos of herself all primped up on social media, and had a string of suitors.
"At least five different men wanted to marry her," her mother said, pointing out that there could be no greater form of acceptance shown to a woman, and presenting this as evidence that her daughter faced no stigma whatsoever from the community.
"One of the men lives in Lagos. She was thinking of marrying him," she said.
But, everything went awry when Aisha received yet another phone call from the women who had returned to the forest, informing her that her Boko Haram "husband" was now with a woman who had been her rival.
From that day, the vivacious and gregarious Aisha became a recluse.
"She stopped going out or talking or eating," Bintu said. "She was always sad."
Two weeks later, she left home and did not return. Some of her clothes were missing. Her phones were switched off. She took the two-year-old son fathered by the commander in the Sambisa forest, but left the older one she had with the husband she divorced before her abduction.
"De-radicalisation is complicated by the fact that we have an active, ongoing insurgency. In cases where a group has reached settlement with the government and laid down their arms, it is easier," Dr Akilu said. "But, when you have fathers, husbands, sons still in the movement, they want to be reunited, especially women."
Asta, another former Boko Haram "wife", told me that she has heard of the many women returning to the group, but has no plans to do so herself.
However, the 19-year-old described how terribly she misses her husband, and how keen she is to hear from him and to be reunited with him.
She insisted that she would not return to the forest, not even if he were to ask her.
"I will tell him to come and stay here with us and live a normal life," she said.
But as with Aisha, the desire to be with the man she yearns for may turn out to be more compelling for Asta than the aversion to a group responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in north-east Nigeria, and for the displacement of millions who are struggling to survive in refugee camps.

Surgeons have removed 27 contact lenses from the eye of a 67-year-old woman who had come to Solihull Hospital for routine cataract surgery.
"A bluish foreign body" turned out to be a "hard mass" of 17 lenses stuck together with mucus, and 10 more were then found under further examination.
A report in the BMJ said she had worn disposable lenses for 35 years, and had not complained of any irritation.
But after they were removed, she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.
'Shocked'
Specialist trainee in ophthalmology Rupal Morjaria told
Optometry Today: "None of us have ever seen this before.
"It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together.
"We were really surprised that the patient didn't notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.
"She was quite shocked. She thought her previous discomfort was just part of old age and dry eye."
'Hiding'
The case report said the patient had poorer vision in her right eye and deep-set eyes, which may have been a factor in the lenses becoming lost.
Association of Optometrists spokeswoman Ceri Smith-Jaynes said losing contact lenses in the eye was a common problem but they usually worked their way out.
"They are normally hiding, folded up under the top lid of the eye," she said.
"They can't go any further up than that because there is a pocket.
"It's the same under the bottom lid - the lens can only be in one of those places."
She said it was important to see an optometrist or optician regularly to avoid any issues when using contact lenses.
Top tips for contact lens wearers:
Don't wear your lenses for longer than you have been told to, and not for more than 16 hours in a day - you should never sleep in them, unless specifically designed for wearing overnight
Wash and dry your hands thoroughly before putting anything in your eye
Never apply eye make-up before putting in contact lenses
Don't go swimming when wearing contact lenses
Replace your contact lens case regularly to reduce the risk of infection
If you spot any signs of redness, pain or loss of vision, consult your optometrist or optician immediately
Make sure you go for regular check-ups
If in doubt, take them out

Atlantia:
The miracle of science.

miracle indeed my brother. I am one testimony to that

A US boy who made history as the world's first child to have a double hand transplant is now swinging a baseball bat well, his doctors say.
It is two years since Zion Harvey, who is now 10, was given new hands, and his doctors say they are amazed by and incredibly proud of his progress.
Zion can now write and feed and dress himself, as well as grip a bat.
Although his hands came from a donor, his brain has accepted them as his own, medical tests show.
Dr Sandra Amaral, a member of the team treating Zion at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told the BBC that Zion continues to make significant progress.
"He is able to swing a bat with much more co-ordination, and he can write his name quite clearly.
"His sensation continues to improve. It's amazing.
"Now he can pat his mother's cheek and feel it."
Dr Amaral said there was evidence that his brain had rewired to take account of his new hands.
The team has published medical notes about his remarkable story in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal .
Zion's new hands
Zion was born with two hands but when he was aged two, doctors had to amputate them.
In his own words: "When I was two I had to get my hands cut off because I was sick."
Zion had sepsis, a life-threatening infection. Doctors removed both his hands at the wrist, and his legs below the knee because they were dying. His kidneys also failed.
At the age of four, after two years of dialysis, Zion had a kidney transplant using a kidney donated by his mother Pattie Ray.
It was another four years before the boy from Baltimore got his new hands.
Risky procedure
Zion's hand operation in June 2015 was a big deal. Although not the first ever double-hand transplant - that was in 1998 - he was the youngest to ever have the procedure.
His doctors say Zion's medical story, along with his positive personality and determination, made him a great candidate.
Transplant patients need to take lifelong anti-rejection drugs and these can have bad side-effects, which means the benefits of the surgery must outweigh the risks.
Zion was already on this medication for his kidney and after 18 months of close assessment, the medical team was confident a double-hand transplant could benefit him.
Next came the wait for a donor of the right size, skin tone and blood group compatibility.
Three months later they found a donor.
A team of 40 medical staff, including 10 surgeons, operated through the night and into the early hours of the morning to fit Zion's new hands.
One of the biggest challenges was connecting up all the tiny blood vessels that would keep the hands alive.
Dr Benjamin Chang, co-director of the hand transplant programme at the hospital, recalls: "We wanted to really make sure that this was going to work for our patient and work for a lifetime."
Two years on, Zion is doing well.
There were a few times in the first year after the transplant that Zion's doctors feared his body was starting to reject the new hands. Thankfully, tweaking his medication helped.
His doctors say one of the most promising things they have seen during the recovery period is how well Zion's brain has responded "despite the absence of hands during a developmental period of rich fine motor development between the ages of two and eight years".
Speaking about Zion last year, lead surgeon Dr Scott Levin said: "His brain is communicating with his hands. His brain says for his hands to move and they move. And that in and of itself is remarkable."

Hundreds of naked swimmers have taken to the water in Finland in a bid to break the world record for the biggest naked swim.
Some 789 people at a music festival in eastern Finland went skinny dipping on Saturday, organisers said, beating the previous record set in Australia by just three, reports said.
Organisers were waiting for Guinness World Records to confirm the record.
It is the third Finnish attempt at the record, Yle news website said.
Previous attempts in Helsinki in 2015 and 2016 each attracted about 300 participants.
Organisers at the Ilosaari Rock music festival in Joensuu had hoped to entice 1,000 people into the chilly water.
As in previous attempts, only a few hundred volunteers appeared to be willing to participate, but shortly before the event was due to begin the sun came out and this boosted the numbers, Yle reported.
The record they were hoping to break was achieved in 2015 in Perth by 786 people at an attempt to celebrate positive body image.
Outdoor swimming is a tradition in Finland, where "avantouinti" - ice-hole swimming - is promoted by the country's tourist board as an energy-boosting experience.

An Australian cattle worker whose thumb was severed by a bull has had his toe surgically transplanted in its position.
Zac Mitchell, 20, was injured in April while working on a remote farming property in Western Australia.
"A bull kicked my hand into the fence," Mr Mitchell said of the incident.
He underwent two unsuccessful operations to reattach his thumb before doctors opted to relocate his big toe in surgery lasting eight hours.
Mr Mitchell said fellow workers had attempted to preserve his thumb immediately after the accident.
"They put it in the esky [cooler] with some ice," he told the BBC.
Mr Mitchell was flown to hospital in the state capital of Perth, but efforts to save his thumb ultimately failed.
Difficult choice
Despite initial reluctance, the cattle worker agreed to the transplant operation at the Sydney Eye Hospital two weeks ago.
Lead plastic surgeon Dr Sean Nicklin said he was not surprised it took time to accept.
"It is a bit of a crazy idea - they [patients] do not want to be injured in another part of their body," he said.
"[However] even if you have got four good fingers, if you do not have something to pinch against them, your hand has lost a huge amount of its function."
Mr Mitchell will need more than 12 months of rehabilitation, but he plans to return to farm work.
The Sydney Eye Hospital said it was rare to transplant a complete toe, like in Mr Mitchell's case, although partial toe relocations were more common.
"A lot of people think their balance and walking is going to be significantly affected which it generally isn't," Dr Nicklin said.
Mr Mitchell's mum, Karen, said he was making a good recovery.
"Two weeks since the operation his walking is almost back to normal."