Your sperm could be in danger…

According to research, it has been shown that pesticides used in killing rodents and insecticides used in houses for killing insects could reduce the quality of sperm in men.

It has been proved through the findings that many environmental factors affect the quality of sperm, and these include pesticides and insecticides which are damaging to sperm producing organs.

“Pesticides and insecticides used in controlling insects, pests, and rodents have harmful effects not only on a person’s health, but also on the sperm. Pesticides and insecticides exposure may affect spermatogenesis leading to poor semen quality.

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Posted in science

Facebook android phone?

Facebook has sent its invitation out (again) to the press to “come see our new home on android” next Thursday, April 4th at its Menlo Park headquarters.

Since the home was not specified in the Facebook invitation, several rumours have been flying around about what Facebook is trying to build with the android OS (Operating System).

There has been collaboration between Facebook and phone-making company HTC before and this has sparked rumours that Facebook is trying to build a special type of OS on an HTC phone.

There are other speculations from the Wall Street Journal that the home could be a special type of home page on your phone, which will notify you of whatever is happening on Facebook right on the home screen of your phone.

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Posted in Gadgets, technology

Facts and Stats: How big is the biggest fish in the World?

The earth as we all know, or to be on the safe side contains 30% of land mass and the remaining 70% is water. It is safe to conclude that humans have explored more from the 30% than from the 70%.

A foray into the most popular animal in the entire water body is not a bad idea; in fact it is a wonderful idea.

The so called creature is the fish. Fish breathe in water with their gills unlike human beings and most land animals that breathe air. Like human beings and every other thing in existence, the fish are also of different sizes. What is the size of the largest fish that has been discovered by man?

The largest species of fish is the whale shark (just like you have the Siberian Tigers and African elephants).

It is called a whale shark because it is as large as some species of whales and also a filter feeder like many whale species.

The average size of an adult whale shark is about 9.7 metres in length and 9 tonnes in weight.

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Posted in facts, Specials, stats

Google to test for advancement of internet usage via ‘white space’ in South Africa

The American mega tech company Google is set to exploit “white space”, the gaps between TV broadcast signals which have great potential for wireless broadband.

This is because the frequencies are low and this enables signals to travel over relatively long distance. This is expected to be of great application in rural areas, but at the risk of interfering with other transmissions.

Google

Google has started trials in the United States since 2010 when Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules to free up white space. Few years ago, Nokia, Microsoft, and, and some other 15 companies tested white space in the U. K. 

These tests showed one of white space’s features which is its ability to pass through walls especially in the use of GPS. This feature is absent in the traditional wireless spectrum. The availability is high since we already have TV broadcast signals everywhere.

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Posted in Google, technology

Nnamdi Azikiwe University wins Africa Geo-sciences competition

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, out of the eight Nigerian universities that participated in an African geo-sciences competition has emerged the winner of the competition.

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Imperial Barrel Award was won by Unizik.

The University, located in the South Eastern part of Nigeria came first with a score of 79.33%. Helwan University, Egypt came second while another Nigerian university, Federal University of Technology, Akure came third.

We are brilliant now, aren’t we?

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Posted in science

From steam engine trains to maglev trains; history and evolution of the fastest form of land transportation

Once upon a time, there was a man who tapped into the much acclaimed infinite wisdom and brought out the first of what is now the fastest form of land transportation.

This man started something that have not benefitted many Nigerians but have benefitted many more in other countries worldwide.

This mystery man is Englishman George Stephenson. George Stephenson in 1822 invented the first train with a steam engine. It was first operated for the public in 1825.

There have been some rail engines before Stephenson’s, but Stephenson’s was the best utilized. It was the first used commercially.

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Posted in Specials, Trains

Eyes control and other things to know about the recently launched Samsung galaxy S4

Following the big success of the Samsung galaxy S3, the South Korean company is set to release another of the galaxy S series on the 26th of April this year.

There was a launch earlier at an event centre in New York on the 14th of this month. Samsung galaxy S3 gave us many things as a phone and it is arguably the best mobile phone yet but that is not the point of this post.

However, we want you to know what to expect from the galaxy S4 if you’re planning to get one for yourself or a loved one. These are the exquisite features any customer will likely relinquish from the new product;

The Samsung galaxy S4 comes with a 5-inch full HD screen with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 and 441 ppi (pixels per inch) which is the highest yet for a smartphone.

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Posted in Gadgets, Samsung

This week in history: the most important dates and events

This is the week starting 17th of March and ending 23rd of March. We want to remind you of various events that occurred in the past years during these days. This is a walk into the past where many things had happened, both positive and negative. Here we go; 

March 17

On the 17th of March, 1992, nearly 69 percent of white South African voters backed F.W. de Klerk’s reforms—which included the repeal of racially discriminatory laws—and effectively endorsed the dismantling of apartheid.

Apartheid is racial segregation, sanctioned by law, has been practiced in South Africa before 1948.

The policy was extended in 1948 by the incoming government and was given the name apartheid.

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Posted in history, politics, technology

Observations about the newly released 2013 Forbes rich list

Forbes has released its annual world’s billionaires list for 2013 and there are certain things that caught the eye in this year’s list. As expected, some have gained and some have lost over the course of the past year.

To cut the long story short, here are the most obvious observations about this year’s list;

1.      This year’s list contains 1,426 billionaires, an all-time high. The net worth of the billionaires is $5.4 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion last year, an all-time high also.

2.      The richest man on the planet is Carlos Slim Helu. The Mexican has been the richest man for four years in a row with a net worth of $73 billion this year. The telecom mogul is up $4 billion from last year.

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Posted in Business, Specials

Eyes control and other things to know about the recently launched Samsung galaxy S4

Following the big success of the Samsung galaxy S3, the South Korean company is set to release another of the galaxy S series on the 26th of April this year. There was a launch earlier at an event centre in New York on the 14th of this month. Samsung galaxy S3 gave us many things as a phone and it is arguably the best mobile phone yet but that is not the point of this post.

However, we want you to know what to expect from the galaxy S4 if you’re planning to get one for yourself or a loved one. These are the exquisite features any customer will likely relinquish from the new product;

Samsung Galaxy SIV. Credit: bostinno.com

The Samsung galaxy S4 comes with a 5-inch full HD screen with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 and 441 ppi (pixels per inch) which is the highest yet for a smartphone. This underlines Samsung’s devotion to giving us a crisp display and quality images in mobile devices (and other brands of their electronic devices with display). It also possess a 13 megapixel camera at its rear and 2.1 megapixel camera at the front; a 1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor/1.6 GHz Octa-Core Processor.

It has an internal storage of either 16GB or 32GB. The operating system it will be operating on is the latest Android Jelly Bean 4.2. It is equipped with a RAM of 2GB. With a weight of 130g and a thickness of 7.9mm, it is lighter and thinner than its predecessor but not as slim as its main competitor iPhone 5.

It has the ‘Smart Pause’ feature which allows you to control the screen using the movement of your eyes. When watching a video, looking away will trigger a pause on the video you’re watching and it will resume when your eyes return to the screen.

There is also the ‘Smart Scroll’ feature which allows consumers to scroll the page of a browser up or down with the eyes. When your eyes move towards the bottom of a page, it recognizes it and scrolls down (yes, all these done with your eyes). The eye control was in Samsung galaxy S3 but it is being taken to a whole new level. If this two features work perfectly without bugs, it could be one of the best feature of the phone if not the best.

It is equipped with the ‘Dual Camera’ which allows you to take photos and videos at the same time using both the rear and front cameras. The ‘Dual Video Call’ allows you to show someone both your face and the view from the rear of your phone, while video chatting with the person. The ‘Group Play’ feature means you can enjoy photos, music, and games with other users around you, without requiring a Wi-Fi AP or cellular signal.

The ‘S Translator’ is an app which can convert languages whether in text format or voice. The ‘S Voice Drive’ which uses Bluetooth to connect to a vehicle will convert any text message to voice. The phone can also be controlled through voice instructions while it is still connected to the vehicle. The ‘S Health’ app is used to track fitness and as a food diary. It has a pedometer that count your steps, you can also take photos of your meals to know the amount of calories present in it.

These are some of the weapons Samsung will use to fight its main competitor in what has become a fiery and thrilling battle. I just hope the consumers always come out as one of the winners.

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Personalized Newspaper: Things to expect from changes to Facebook’s News feed

In continuation of the news about Facebook inviting reporters to show them a new form of News feed on Thursday, which featured on this blog, Facebook has shown reporters the new form of the news feed.

Facebook

The new form has not been implemented on every users’ account. The new News feed is being tested on some selected accounts. It is expected that the News feed will be implemented on every users’ account.

It is expected that the News feed will be implemented in every users’ accounts in six months time.

However, there are things to be known about the News feed even before it will be implemented on your account;

Mark Zuckerberg addressing the media at Facebook headquarters

     
1.       The change to be implemented is to focus majorly on photos, videos, and music and division into other various sections. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the makeover was part of an effort to position the social network as a “personalized newspaper”, complete with different sections for users to explore.

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Posted in technology

EU fines Microsoft $732m for breach of agreement

The European Union on Wednesday (6^th March, 2013) fined Microsoft Corporation $732 million for failing to offer consumers who use the company’s Windows operating system a choice of web browser.

This is a charge that is expected to act as a warning to other technology firms involved in antitrust disputes with the EU.

Microsoft Corporation

EU said the US Company had broken a legal agreement made in 2009 to ensure consumers had a choice of browser, rather than defaulting to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

An EU investigation into the case found out that Microsoft breached the agreement in software that was issued out between May 2011 and July 2012, which meant 15 million users were never aware that they could choose.

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Posted in technology

Mobile phones to catch up with world population in 2014- UN

The United Nations’ telecommunication on Thursday (28^th Feb, 2013) said the number of mobile phones worldwide is set to catch up to the globes population next year.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said mobile subscribers will reach 7 billion next year.

“More than half of all mobile subscriptions are now in Asia, which remains the powerhouse of market growth,” the ITU said.

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Posted in technology

Facebook to change its look of News feed.

The biggest social networking website Facebook yesterday (Friday, 1^st of March) invited reporters to a news conference next Thursday at its Menlo Park headquarters to “come see a new look for News feed”.

Facebook Invite

This could be a big announcement in the running of the social site. Facebook has made changes in recent years to the look of the site with some leading to much outcry from users.

News feed has been introduced to Facebook since 2006 and it has been the centerpiece of the site since then. Members are able to see friends’ status, group and news links and most things they look for on Facebook.

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Posted in technology