HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), announced today an expansion of the company’s infotainment portfolio with the new HARMAN connected radio platform. Targeted at the mainstream entry-level segment, the new HARMAN platform delivers a value solution to OEMs including leading-edge mobile content integration features as well as a seamless radio experience for consumers.
“The pervasiveness of today’s mobile devices and connected experiences is fueling greater consumer demand for easy and safe access to information, entertainment and personalized content in cars,” said Dinesh Paliwal, HARMAN Chairman, President, and CEO. “We are making it possible for more consumers to enjoy a high-quality infotainment experience as well as making it even simpler and safer to use, thanks to features such as hands-free operation and integration with the user’s own smartphone.”
The unit offers clear benefits to automakers: with the same cost of basic radio, OEMs can add smartphone connectivity with HARMAN’s AHA radio, turn-by-turn navigation and voice prompts into their vehicles, as well as meet fast development cycles and delivery.
The HARMAN connected radio supports a range of external user devices, including USB, SD, MP3 players including iPod, and a wide range of smart phones. Using the same NFC technology employed in HARMAN’s high-end infotainment products, consumers can easily connect their smartphones with the head unit in-vehicle. The head unit then uses the driver’s preferred navigation app straight from the Smartphone.
The care and pride taken as they acted as chefs, shop assistants, postmen, bank workers and as they filled their pretend cars up with petrol, made their old mum swell with pride.
But that’s what the Eureka! Children’s Museum in Halifax is all about, learning through playing. The aim of the national curriculum in nurseries is just the same and its great that like minded people are working hard to make sure our investment for tomorrow is well looked after.
The museum celebrated its 20th year in 2012 and has hundreds of interactive and hands-on exhibits to keep children aged 0 to 11 interested. And it runs a Helping Hands Project which allows free Saturday and Holiday Club access to disabled children and their families from nearby areas.
But it is not resting on its laurels, for the museum is due to unveil a new look Me and My Body Gallery in spring this year.
In the meantime there is plenty to keep everyone occupied. Eureka! is easy to find, being right next door to Halifax Railway Station and there’s an on-site car park for the drivers.
Adults and over three’s pay ￡9.95, with one to two year olds charged ￡3.45 and under one’s free of charge. And the fee covers not just one visit, but as many as you want within the year if you upgrade your ticket (free of charge) to an annual pass.
And an annual pass is what’s needed if my two are anything to go by. We visited during the holidays, which meant it was pretty full. But that did not stop Ruaridh and Flora having fun. They spent nearly five hours and never once complained they were bored.
For Ruaridh it was the Mr Maker workshop which caught his eye. While Flora played with the imaginary fish, Ruaridh painstakingly chose his art materials and spent an hour creating his masterpiece. Flora liked the interaction of the make believe Marks and Spencer and kitchen, while Ruaridh had a ball in the garage and pretending to be a bank manager and gas engineer!
The Sound Spacewas a big hit with both Ruaridh and Flora who had great fun trying out the strange sounds and the highlight, adding make up to a photograph of themselves!
As well as the usual displays, Eureka! always has something special on and our visit co-incided with the Interstellar Cinderella pantomime which was a twist of the usual story taking the audience into outer space.
This month sees Glasgow Science Museum on tour at Halifax with a Body Vision workshop and to celebrate Burns Night, a McEureka! Event including a hunt to find the Loch Ness Monster.
Pulliam Trustee Kent E. Agness said that today’s announced grants of more than $1.5 million to four animal welfare organizations more than double the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust’s commitment to an animal welfare cause its founder and namesake held dear.
“Nina Mason Pulliam, our founder, was a great animal lover,” said Agness. “Her homes in Indianapolis and Phoenix were havens for creatures great and small. Over the years, the funds she entrusted to us have supported many community improvements and animal welfare is one key area.”
“The timing is right,” said Michael Twyman, the Pulliam Trust’s director of Indiana program grants. “A true consortium of interested animal organizations is now operating effectively after three years of organizing. Because of that strong alliance, we are confident that this community-wide campaign will result in a significant reduction in the number of homeless or unwanted cats and dogs in Indianapolis, and increases in animal adoptions.”
Mayor Greg Ballard hailed the privately funded, nonprofit-managed initiative as a model of public/private cooperation.
“It always is our intent to reduce the number of animals coming into our shelters. This generous funding from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Lilly Endowment and Tony Stewart Foundation will greatly enable our all-hands-on-deck approach to educate the public about spay-neuter services and responsible pet ownership,” said Mayor Ballard. “It is our goal that this partnership lowers the number of stray cats and dogs in our community and finds more of them adopted into loving homes.”
The Pulliam Trust also announced that it has awarded three other grants to Alliance members and partners for related initiatives.
FACE (Foundation Against Companion-Animal Euthanasia) will receive a $170,300 grant to double the number of cats neutered from 3,000 to 6,000. The money also will facilitate a merger between FACE and IndyFeral, to more effectively decrease growth in the feral cat population in Indianapolis neighborhoods.
The Southside Animal Shelter will receive an $85,000 grant for two years of project support to develop the Silver Tails program to rescue, rehabilitate and find homes for at least 120 senior and special-needs dogs. The program will focus on increasing animal adoptions from the shelter, and trust funding will primarily cover medical costs, such as vaccines and spay/neuter surgeries of the dogs.
Cat’s Haven will receive a $25,000 grant to provide a free-roaming sanctuary for more than 100 sick, homeless or feral cats daily, or about 300 per year. Trust funding will cover veterinarian expenses, food and shelter supplies, outreach programs for local community residents, spay/neuter education for low-income pet owners, and community awareness through participation in citywide events.
“All of us in the animal welfare community are overwhelmed by the generosity and foresight of these grantmakers,” said Humane Society of Indianapolis CEO John Aleshire. “This investment of more than $2 million represents the largest consolidated investment we’ve ever seen for this cause in this community. We’ll truly be able to put this issue on the public agenda, enhance the services we’re able to provide, and make a far more concerted effort to increase the number of adoptions and decrease the number of strays on our streets and in our neighborhoods.”
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Gun Control Could Save Veterans' Lives
In 2006, the Israeli Defense Forces made a relatively simple policy change that required soldiers to leave their weapons at their bases when they headed home for the weekend. The result: a staggering 40 percent drop in the suicide rate among soldiers aged 18-21, according to a November 2010 study.
The study has received some renewed interest in America in the wake of Sandy Hook. While gun-control advocates and critics may debate whether new restrictions would prevent someone like Adam Lanza from shooting up an elementary school, they would almost certainly save the lives of American veterans struggling with their wartime experiences. Members of the U.S. military, unlike their Israeli counterparts, aren't allowed to bring their weapons home, but they don't really need to: America’s gun industry is making a concerted effort to put high-powered weapons right back in their hands.
The gun industry as a whole is shrinking, with the number of households that own guns dropping by more than 40 percent from 1977 to 2010, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center.In an effort to boost sales, the gun industry has started marketing its firearms directly to veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Freedom Group—the country’s largest manufacturer of firearms, owning companies like Remington and Bushmaster—wrote in its 2011 annual report that it expects to see an increase in sales as returning members of the military purchase “firearms for recreational use and to maintain training.”
When looking at the bottom line, marketing to the military makes sense. One of the shining spots in the otherwise languishing industry is assault weapons—generally considered to be semi-automatic weapons originally designed for use on battlefields. Currently, almost all of the top 15 gun manufacturers market some sort of assault weapon. And a 2010 consumer report of modern sporting rifles, also known as assault weapons, found that almost half of all modern sporting rifle owners are current or former members of the military or law enforcement.
According to Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy, the NRA has been one of the players at the forefront of this push. Sponsored by leading gun manufacturers, the NRA has a program called Life of Duty specifically intended to recruit veterans and law enforcement officials into the NRA. Through these sponsorships, members of the military and law enforcement can sign up for a free membership to the NRA and receive discounted prices on guns and other armor. “It’s not just that the NRA has targeted veterans or law enforcement in the U.S., but they are doing it with the [gun manufacturers],” said Sugarmann. “And that’s the key thing, because they are doing it to target a new market primarily for assault weapons.” The NRA did not return calls for comment.
In addition to marketing these weapons directly to military personnel, the gun companies have started using military imagery in advertisements for weapons that were, after all, designed for the battlefield. Shooting Industry Magazine wrote in July, the same month of the Aurora shooting, “Another major influencing factor of gun ownership is America’s modern military veteran. There are hundreds of thousands of dads, brothers, uncles, wives, sisters, aunts, cousins and extended family and friends, who served or are serving in Iran and Afghanistan. They are respected and admired. They carried firearms to protect our country. That factor, that imagery, has had a huge positive impact on how firearms are viewed in our country.”
But as the Israeli study showed, there are real dangers with putting these powerful weapons in the hands of newly returned soldiers. American veterans are much more likely than the average citizen to commit suicide: While only 1 percent of Americans have served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former service members represent 20 percent of suicides in the United States. In December 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that 18 veterans die by suicide each day. And this year, the military has reported its worst year of suicides among active-duty forces since it began tracking these deaths in 2001. As of Nov. 11, there were 323 confirmed or suspected suicides in the military in 2012, a figure that surpassed the previous high of 310 suicides for the entire year in 2009. Last year, suicide was the number one cause of death among soldiers, outpacing the number of deaths on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, a study out of Harvard found a clear connection between suicides and gun ownership. According to the study, suicide rates among children, women and men of all ages are higher in states where more households have guns. In 2004, more than half of the 32,439 Americans who committed suicide used a firearm.
“The suicide rate is the highest it’s ever been, and the [NRA] is putting forth this program that enhances the access to these weapons among a population that may very well be vulnerable,” said Dr. Larry James, Dean of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University and a retired Army colonel. “I question that logic.”
The military is aware of these grim statistics, and while it has added significant new suicide prevention programs, it hasn’t yet done anything major to tackle the problem of gun ownership--and many question whether it ever should. But in December, two retired military generals wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for Congress to repeal a provision of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act that prohibits officers from talking to their troop members about gun ownership. A spokesperson for the military told me that the members of the military go through no other protocol to obtain personal weapons than any other citizen. But given the problem with suicides, how and if the military should know which military members own weapons has been subject of discussion. “There is a list of concerns that everyone is taking a look at,” said Army spokesperson Dave Foster. “I do think they continue to think about it.”
As Washington prepares to debate renewing the assault weapons ban, it ought to consider how it would help returning soldiers. While eliminating militarized weapons is not a substitute for the mental-health care that veterans often need, it could at least save some lives.
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Lincoln issued on Jan. 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. The document declares that all those held as slaves within any state, or part of a state, in rebellion "shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."
Historian Bruce Levine explores the destruction of the old South and the reunified country that emerged from the Civil War in his new book, The Fall of the House of Dixie. He says one result of the document was a flood of black men from the South into the Union Army.
"The black population of the South had been raised on the notion that, among other things, black men could not, of course, be soldiers," Levine tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "that black men were not courageous, black men were not disciplined, black men could not act in response in large numbers to military commands, black men would flee at the first opportunity if faced with battle, and the idea that black men in uniform could exist and ... offer them the opportunity to disprove these notions and ... more importantly, actively struggle to do away with slavery, was unbelievably attractive to huge numbers of black people."
As its ranks dwindled and in a last gasp, the Confederacy, too, had a plan to recruit black soldiers. In 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved a plan to recruit free blacks and slaves into the Confederate army. Quoting Frederick Douglass, Levine calls the logic behind the idea "a species of madness."
One factor that contributed to this madness, he says, "is the drumbeat of self-hypnosis" that told Confederates that "the slaves are loyal, the slaves embrace slavery, the slaves are contented in slavery, the slaves know that black people are inferior and need white people to ... oversee their lives. ... Black people will defend the South that has been good to them. There are, of course, by [then] very many white Southerners who know this is by no means true, but enough of them do believe it so that they're willing to give this a chance."
Considering what might have happened had there been no war at all, Levine thinks slavery could well have lasted into the 20th century, and that it was, in fact, the Confederacy that hastened slavery's end. "In taking what they assumed to be a defensive position in support of slavery," he says, "the leaders of the Confederacy ... radically hastened its eradication."
The study has received some renewed interest in America in the wake of Sandy Hook. While gun-control advocates and critics may debate whether new restrictions would prevent someone like Adam Lanza from shooting up an elementary school, they would almost certainly save the lives of American veterans struggling with their wartime experiences. Members of the U.S. military, unlike their Israeli counterparts, aren't allowed to bring their weapons home, but they don't really need to: America’s gun industry is making a concerted effort to put high-powered weapons right back in their hands.
The gun industry as a whole is shrinking, with the number of households that own guns dropping by more than 40 percent from 1977 to 2010, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center.In an effort to boost sales, the gun industry has started marketing its firearms directly to veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Freedom Group—the country’s largest manufacturer of firearms, owning companies like Remington and Bushmaster—wrote in its 2011 annual report that it expects to see an increase in sales as returning members of the military purchase “firearms for recreational use and to maintain training.”
When looking at the bottom line, marketing to the military makes sense. One of the shining spots in the otherwise languishing industry is assault weapons—generally considered to be semi-automatic weapons originally designed for use on battlefields. Currently, almost all of the top 15 gun manufacturers market some sort of assault weapon. And a 2010 consumer report of modern sporting rifles, also known as assault weapons, found that almost half of all modern sporting rifle owners are current or former members of the military or law enforcement.
According to Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy, the NRA has been one of the players at the forefront of this push. Sponsored by leading gun manufacturers, the NRA has a program called Life of Duty specifically intended to recruit veterans and law enforcement officials into the NRA. Through these sponsorships, members of the military and law enforcement can sign up for a free membership to the NRA and receive discounted prices on guns and other armor. “It’s not just that the NRA has targeted veterans or law enforcement in the U.S., but they are doing it with the [gun manufacturers],” said Sugarmann. “And that’s the key thing, because they are doing it to target a new market primarily for assault weapons.” The NRA did not return calls for comment.
In addition to marketing these weapons directly to military personnel, the gun companies have started using military imagery in advertisements for weapons that were, after all, designed for the battlefield. Shooting Industry Magazine wrote in July, the same month of the Aurora shooting, “Another major influencing factor of gun ownership is America’s modern military veteran. There are hundreds of thousands of dads, brothers, uncles, wives, sisters, aunts, cousins and extended family and friends, who served or are serving in Iran and Afghanistan. They are respected and admired. They carried firearms to protect our country. That factor, that imagery, has had a huge positive impact on how firearms are viewed in our country.”
But as the Israeli study showed, there are real dangers with putting these powerful weapons in the hands of newly returned soldiers. American veterans are much more likely than the average citizen to commit suicide: While only 1 percent of Americans have served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former service members represent 20 percent of suicides in the United States. In December 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that 18 veterans die by suicide each day. And this year, the military has reported its worst year of suicides among active-duty forces since it began tracking these deaths in 2001. As of Nov. 11, there were 323 confirmed or suspected suicides in the military in 2012, a figure that surpassed the previous high of 310 suicides for the entire year in 2009. Last year, suicide was the number one cause of death among soldiers, outpacing the number of deaths on the battlefield.
Meanwhile, a study out of Harvard found a clear connection between suicides and gun ownership. According to the study, suicide rates among children, women and men of all ages are higher in states where more households have guns. In 2004, more than half of the 32,439 Americans who committed suicide used a firearm.
“The suicide rate is the highest it’s ever been, and the [NRA] is putting forth this program that enhances the access to these weapons among a population that may very well be vulnerable,” said Dr. Larry James, Dean of the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University and a retired Army colonel. “I question that logic.”
The military is aware of these grim statistics, and while it has added significant new suicide prevention programs, it hasn’t yet done anything major to tackle the problem of gun ownership--and many question whether it ever should. But in December, two retired military generals wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for Congress to repeal a provision of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act that prohibits officers from talking to their troop members about gun ownership. A spokesperson for the military told me that the members of the military go through no other protocol to obtain personal weapons than any other citizen. But given the problem with suicides, how and if the military should know which military members own weapons has been subject of discussion. “There is a list of concerns that everyone is taking a look at,” said Army spokesperson Dave Foster. “I do think they continue to think about it.”
As Washington prepares to debate renewing the assault weapons ban, it ought to consider how it would help returning soldiers. While eliminating militarized weapons is not a substitute for the mental-health care that veterans often need, it could at least save some lives.
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Lincoln issued on Jan. 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. The document declares that all those held as slaves within any state, or part of a state, in rebellion "shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."
Historian Bruce Levine explores the destruction of the old South and the reunified country that emerged from the Civil War in his new book, The Fall of the House of Dixie. He says one result of the document was a flood of black men from the South into the Union Army.
"The black population of the South had been raised on the notion that, among other things, black men could not, of course, be soldiers," Levine tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "that black men were not courageous, black men were not disciplined, black men could not act in response in large numbers to military commands, black men would flee at the first opportunity if faced with battle, and the idea that black men in uniform could exist and ... offer them the opportunity to disprove these notions and ... more importantly, actively struggle to do away with slavery, was unbelievably attractive to huge numbers of black people."
As its ranks dwindled and in a last gasp, the Confederacy, too, had a plan to recruit black soldiers. In 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved a plan to recruit free blacks and slaves into the Confederate army. Quoting Frederick Douglass, Levine calls the logic behind the idea "a species of madness."
One factor that contributed to this madness, he says, "is the drumbeat of self-hypnosis" that told Confederates that "the slaves are loyal, the slaves embrace slavery, the slaves are contented in slavery, the slaves know that black people are inferior and need white people to ... oversee their lives. ... Black people will defend the South that has been good to them. There are, of course, by [then] very many white Southerners who know this is by no means true, but enough of them do believe it so that they're willing to give this a chance."
Considering what might have happened had there been no war at all, Levine thinks slavery could well have lasted into the 20th century, and that it was, in fact, the Confederacy that hastened slavery's end. "In taking what they assumed to be a defensive position in support of slavery," he says, "the leaders of the Confederacy ... radically hastened its eradication."
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Why I’m Against Jonathan
He has not only proclaimed the programme fraudulent, but insisted on the declaration of an independent Ijaw nation under a renegotiated term through the convocation of Sovereign National Conference.
In this interview with the Abuja Bureau Chief, Iseoluwa Ige and Olufemi Adeosun, he speaks on Jonathan presidency, Boko Haram and other national questions. Excerpts:
The actualisation of resource control and self determination are at the heart of your group’s agitations in the last few years. To what extent will you say your group has achieveed these twin demands under President Goodluck Jonathan, who happens to come from that region?
For me, government is not represented by an individual; it is represented by the ground norm. And the ground norm in Nigeria is the Constitution. And as long as the Constitution remains as it is, it cannot engender development because development can only be achieved when there are enabling laws. When you have the Land Use Act, Inland Waterway Act, Petroleum and Pipeline Act, and so many laws that confiscate the resources of the people, the land, the water, it becomes very difficult for an individual to change it. Goodluck Jonathan cannot on his own say this is the law and it becomes law like in some countries where some people would say I am the law. When Saddam Hussein was the President of Iraq, he said and he would say I am the law, whatever I write with my hands is the law. Nigerian laws are worse than the Apartheid laws of South Africa before the eventual freedom. That is why we have always demanded for self determination through the peaceful Convocation of the Sovereign National Conference.
In the thick of the agitation for these self determination and resource control, the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo arrested and charged you to court in Abuja… (Cut in).
I was not only arrested during Obasanjo’s administration, I have been in and out detention, not because I am a rapist, a bunkerer or an armed robber, but because I am an Ijaw man who proclaimed to be and remained an Ijaw man. I have been arrested and interrogated by the men of the State Security Service more than 70 times. I have been in detention more than 40 times. There was a time I always prepared my bag, waiting for them to come. When they come, I pick my bag and follow them not knowing when I would be back. It is not a new thing. The only time I have not been arrested or harassed is during the current administration. When the late Umaru Yar’Adua was in power, it took the intervention of President Medvedev of Russia to bring me out of detention. That was when a question was asked about why an amnesty could be declared and at the same time effect arrest of others at the State House during a joint press conference between Russian President and Yar’Adua in 2009. My offence at that time was that I had the temerity to tell Yar’Adua that the amnesty was fraudulent. That was it, but shortly after then, I fled the country. For 10 months, I was outside the country until I arrived when Jonathan became Acting President. From Babangida to Yar’Adua, I have been detained by the government.
National Mirror was monitoring and covering the case by then, but till now we are yet to ascertain the position of the case in court.
I don’t even know what happened because I had no access to my lawyers and even my doctor. All I knew was that one day SSS officials just came and told me that I had been released and that I should go. I never applied for bail. Of course, I was privy to some surreptitious moves and so on. I never begged. There are people who are alive. The Amayanabo of Nembe, His Royal Majesty, Edmund Madubebe Dakoru, came to me in my cell (at that time, former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva was his SA) came to beg me to change my lawyer and take Afe Babalola(SAN) and then make a bargain to beg Obasanjo. But I told him I would prefer to die in the prison. Also former governor of River State, Mr. Donald Duke, came to beg me, myself and his wife, Onari, attended the same Primary school. He told me there are only living heroes, but I told him that almost all the heroes that I knew were all dead.
He told me that all I needed to regain my freedom was to go tell Baba that ‘I am sorry,’ but I insisted I would do no such a thing. I would never beg Obasanjo to release me from prison. When Obasanjo knew I was not ready to beg, he tried to use some elders to come and talk to me, Chief Edwin Clark, George Alfred Diete -Spiff and several people from Niger Delta. Senator (Uche) Chuckwumerije and former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also came, but I stood my ground. I cannot deny the fact that I am not Nigerian. I am an Ijaw man.
If for that I am going to be killed, I am ready to die. So the government granted me bail behind my back. Since I came out, many people have been agitating that I should tell the government to discontinue the case, but I said it with Goodluck Jonathan or anybody? But I know why the government would want to use it as the last card to blackmail me to submission. I don’t give a damn. Last year, many of my mates, relations and friends died. They never knew they were going to die. They had tall dreams. So, how do I know that if I beg today, I will not die tomorrow? It will be very shameful for me. If the government feels it is going to use it, It cannot hold me.
My aspirations and dreams are very clear. I came into this world to be alive, to glorify God and to lift up my people. I cannot come into this world and not contribute to bringing out my people from slavery. And to make sure we become free men and in doing that, I am ready to die because whether I am afraid and run away, death with still catch up with me. Our struggle is very clear; we are not struggling for Niger Delta Ministry or Presidency. We want an independent Ijaw nation with Ijaw people ruling themselves. But this first, should be negotiated. A Hausa man would not force me to live with him. A Fulani man, a stranger who invaded this country some 200 years ago, cannot force me to live with him. A Yoruba man cannot force me to live with him. I have Ibo blood. If I cannot live in Ijaw land, I can go and live in Ibo land. I know my root. But somebody I have no connection with cannot trust me.
During the administrations of former Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, militancy was on the increase, but now that Jonathan is in power, it appears to have been reduced. Could it be because Jonathan share the same views with you on this self-determination? If he does, would you really say his administration is doing something towards the realisation of the emancipation of Ijaw people?
I don’t think Goddluck Jonathan is going to do anything. We are becoming very impatient. But it will be wrong to fight your own brother. Jonathan is one of us; he is our brother, our blood, our flesh and our bone. You give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he shares the same aspiration with you. But overtime if it is clear he does not share the same aspiration with you, then you say, ‘my brother, e be like say the way you dey waka no be the way we dey do our own o, we wan leave you waka on our own o.’ And it would come to that because people are becoming impatient, they have started asking questions. The Boko Haram people are becoming bolder now.
They think we have been subdued, and this is not what we can take. Our belief is that for us to peacefully live together, we must peacefully re-negotiate the terms of our living together and if Jonathan does not believe in that, then we must ask ourselves question whether we are on the same template. He is our brother, but we cannot sacrifice our freedom for him. When Isaac Boro started, he didn’t know Goodluck Jonathan, when King Jaja of Opobo started, he didn’t know Jonathan, when King Koko Okia of Nembe started, he didn’t know Goodluck Jonathan, when Nana of Itsekiri started, he didn’t know Jonathan.
All the people who started this struggle never knew Jonathan. So, we cannot sacrifice our patriotic struggle for freedom for the sake of one man. We cannot do that. We must re-negotiate the terms and that is why there must be an un-inhibited gathering of the people with sovereign power to negotiate. Nobody can tell us that Nigeria is sacrosanct; it is not. It is a dubious, evil creation of the British for their economic interest and white supremacy.
You cannot put an old wine in a new bottle; it will burst. For us, we have given Jonathan enough time to look at this fundamental issue of freedom. Jonathan became the President not because he was the best, but because of what he represents. When the Gbagi man from Abuja look at him, or a man from Birnin Kudu look at him, he sees in Jonathan his own image and picture – the image of the deprived , oppressed people who have been put under the jack-boot of the “Born to Rule Project.”
It is the same thing with the Biron and Ogoni men. How can Jonathan stand shoulder to shoulder with former military President Ibrahim Babangida, it is not possible. It is the collective strength of the deprived people that said no to enslavement that brought Jonathan to power. If today, having climbed up, he pushes down the ladder, we will be waiting for him when he comes down.
Could that be the reason why you were quoted as saying that he would not be eligible for a second term?
I didn’t say so; maybe you didn’t read my interview well. What I said was that the way Jonathan is going on, the South-South might lose its uninterrupted eight years because there are nothing on the ground, nothing is happening. That is the truth and it must be said without mincing words. You cannot continue to keep quite when nothing is happening. East-West Road is a death trap; the coastal roads that Yar’Adua spoke about have been thrown away. Where is the Ledum Mitte Report? How long shall we wait?
In specific terms, what are your expectations from President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration?
We expect nothing from him other than what belong to us. He cannot give us anything because he is a part of us. Whatever he is, we gave to him. Not the other way round. What we are saying is that ‘you are the one we have prepared for the battle, where are the bounties?’ Why did we lose our lives? Why did the Ibo youth corps CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 members, Yoruba youth corps members, Itsekiri youth corps members and Urhobo youth corps members who stood their ground in the North were burnt alive? What did they sacrifice their lives for? Jonathan did not become President the way Yar’Adua and Obasanjo became President. Goodluck became President with the blood of the people because the “Born to Rule” people said that he would never win. He therefore cannot tell us we have no right to the benefits of what we fought and died for. Jonathan should not play with our emotions.
When Goodluck Jonathan came into power and the agitation simmered, many people attributed it to the fact that some of the brains behind the agitation were allocated with oil block..(Cut in)
That is an insult, oil blocks belong to us. Why should (Aliko) Dangote, (Femi) Otedola and (Mike) Adenuga have oil blocs? Who are they? What rights do they have to my oil blocs? What rights do they have that I don’t have? I am not a gentleman at all, what belongs to me I will take, peacefully or by force.
Don’t you think some people would say that you are picking on the President at this time because he has fallen short of your personal expectations of him?
So, if a man takes food from my mouth I should support him? What are you saying now? So if one Editor in National Mirror fires you today would you smile at him? Why should I not expect what belongs to me, that Otedola should expect? That Wale Tinubu should expect? That Dangote should expect? That Adenuga should expect, but me at 50 years I should not expect? That Jonathan should eat in the Villa and fill with excess and I should not eat? And I should support him; ‘I no shame for that one. If he no give me wetin be my own, I go fight am.’ Period! There is no two ways about it. Do you want me to die with my 18 children in hunger? No way! I am too prominent in this struggle; I have made some sacrifices. I did not emerge from the blue. I was the Vice-President of IYC, I was Deputy President of IYC and I was President. I started the armed struggle from the creek. Nobody wins and hands it over to people. That is why those who were at the cadre of revolutions in North Korea, in China and elsewhere that are pushed forward for leadership. So, nobody can push me around; it is not possible. I don’t expect anything from Jonathan. I demand what belongs to me. If he doesn’t give me, I will fight.
How then would he be able to settle down with the business of governance if you, his kinsman, is fighting him on one hand and Boko Haram is killing innocent Nigerians, causing security challenges?
It is because he is unable to manage his goodwill. If people support you and make sacrifices for you, you should appreciate them. But if you sit down comfortably in Aso Rock and become Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, then Moses would come to lead the people to freedom. Since Boko Haram is fighting him, he must be cautious and ruminate on this. (Bola) Tinubu supported Jonathan to win the last presidential election, but what is his relationship with Tinubu today? Obasanjo fought for him, what is his relationship with Obasanjo? Jerry Gana, Solomon Lar and Edwin Clark put their lives on the line, what is his relationship with them. Why are they angry with him? That means you are not able to manage your goodwill. And if you are not able to do that, I cannot hold forth for you at radio and television houses.
Obasanjo gave me. Yar’Adua even did more. He gave me right to lift oil, 10,000 barrels. Almost every month I was getting 5,000 DPK until I disagreed with him. Five thousand tonnes of DPK at that time translated to N36 million. Obasanjo offered to make me the first Director of Youth Sport and Women Affairs at the Directorate of NDDC, I rejected it because Obasanjo awarded a contract worth N4.5 billion in my village, Soku, when I told him that my people were suffering and he, a man from Abeokuta, was enjoying. I am a king in my village. NDDC has also awarded another dredging contract in Soku. When this terrible flood came, Soku was never flooded. Under Yar’Adua, he awarded road construction in my community. Even with all that, I spoke against Obasanjo government. When SSS wanted to recruit new hands during Obasanjo’s administration, I went to him, spoke to him and he said ‘bring a list of your people’ and I took the list, the people went for interview. Luckily out of the 15 people, only two did not pass.
In this interview with the Abuja Bureau Chief, Iseoluwa Ige and Olufemi Adeosun, he speaks on Jonathan presidency, Boko Haram and other national questions. Excerpts:
The actualisation of resource control and self determination are at the heart of your group’s agitations in the last few years. To what extent will you say your group has achieveed these twin demands under President Goodluck Jonathan, who happens to come from that region?
For me, government is not represented by an individual; it is represented by the ground norm. And the ground norm in Nigeria is the Constitution. And as long as the Constitution remains as it is, it cannot engender development because development can only be achieved when there are enabling laws. When you have the Land Use Act, Inland Waterway Act, Petroleum and Pipeline Act, and so many laws that confiscate the resources of the people, the land, the water, it becomes very difficult for an individual to change it. Goodluck Jonathan cannot on his own say this is the law and it becomes law like in some countries where some people would say I am the law. When Saddam Hussein was the President of Iraq, he said and he would say I am the law, whatever I write with my hands is the law. Nigerian laws are worse than the Apartheid laws of South Africa before the eventual freedom. That is why we have always demanded for self determination through the peaceful Convocation of the Sovereign National Conference.
In the thick of the agitation for these self determination and resource control, the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo arrested and charged you to court in Abuja… (Cut in).
I was not only arrested during Obasanjo’s administration, I have been in and out detention, not because I am a rapist, a bunkerer or an armed robber, but because I am an Ijaw man who proclaimed to be and remained an Ijaw man. I have been arrested and interrogated by the men of the State Security Service more than 70 times. I have been in detention more than 40 times. There was a time I always prepared my bag, waiting for them to come. When they come, I pick my bag and follow them not knowing when I would be back. It is not a new thing. The only time I have not been arrested or harassed is during the current administration. When the late Umaru Yar’Adua was in power, it took the intervention of President Medvedev of Russia to bring me out of detention. That was when a question was asked about why an amnesty could be declared and at the same time effect arrest of others at the State House during a joint press conference between Russian President and Yar’Adua in 2009. My offence at that time was that I had the temerity to tell Yar’Adua that the amnesty was fraudulent. That was it, but shortly after then, I fled the country. For 10 months, I was outside the country until I arrived when Jonathan became Acting President. From Babangida to Yar’Adua, I have been detained by the government.
National Mirror was monitoring and covering the case by then, but till now we are yet to ascertain the position of the case in court.
I don’t even know what happened because I had no access to my lawyers and even my doctor. All I knew was that one day SSS officials just came and told me that I had been released and that I should go. I never applied for bail. Of course, I was privy to some surreptitious moves and so on. I never begged. There are people who are alive. The Amayanabo of Nembe, His Royal Majesty, Edmund Madubebe Dakoru, came to me in my cell (at that time, former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva was his SA) came to beg me to change my lawyer and take Afe Babalola(SAN) and then make a bargain to beg Obasanjo. But I told him I would prefer to die in the prison. Also former governor of River State, Mr. Donald Duke, came to beg me, myself and his wife, Onari, attended the same Primary school. He told me there are only living heroes, but I told him that almost all the heroes that I knew were all dead.
He told me that all I needed to regain my freedom was to go tell Baba that ‘I am sorry,’ but I insisted I would do no such a thing. I would never beg Obasanjo to release me from prison. When Obasanjo knew I was not ready to beg, he tried to use some elders to come and talk to me, Chief Edwin Clark, George Alfred Diete -Spiff and several people from Niger Delta. Senator (Uche) Chuckwumerije and former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also came, but I stood my ground. I cannot deny the fact that I am not Nigerian. I am an Ijaw man.
If for that I am going to be killed, I am ready to die. So the government granted me bail behind my back. Since I came out, many people have been agitating that I should tell the government to discontinue the case, but I said it with Goodluck Jonathan or anybody? But I know why the government would want to use it as the last card to blackmail me to submission. I don’t give a damn. Last year, many of my mates, relations and friends died. They never knew they were going to die. They had tall dreams. So, how do I know that if I beg today, I will not die tomorrow? It will be very shameful for me. If the government feels it is going to use it, It cannot hold me.
My aspirations and dreams are very clear. I came into this world to be alive, to glorify God and to lift up my people. I cannot come into this world and not contribute to bringing out my people from slavery. And to make sure we become free men and in doing that, I am ready to die because whether I am afraid and run away, death with still catch up with me. Our struggle is very clear; we are not struggling for Niger Delta Ministry or Presidency. We want an independent Ijaw nation with Ijaw people ruling themselves. But this first, should be negotiated. A Hausa man would not force me to live with him. A Fulani man, a stranger who invaded this country some 200 years ago, cannot force me to live with him. A Yoruba man cannot force me to live with him. I have Ibo blood. If I cannot live in Ijaw land, I can go and live in Ibo land. I know my root. But somebody I have no connection with cannot trust me.
During the administrations of former Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, militancy was on the increase, but now that Jonathan is in power, it appears to have been reduced. Could it be because Jonathan share the same views with you on this self-determination? If he does, would you really say his administration is doing something towards the realisation of the emancipation of Ijaw people?
I don’t think Goddluck Jonathan is going to do anything. We are becoming very impatient. But it will be wrong to fight your own brother. Jonathan is one of us; he is our brother, our blood, our flesh and our bone. You give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he shares the same aspiration with you. But overtime if it is clear he does not share the same aspiration with you, then you say, ‘my brother, e be like say the way you dey waka no be the way we dey do our own o, we wan leave you waka on our own o.’ And it would come to that because people are becoming impatient, they have started asking questions. The Boko Haram people are becoming bolder now.
They think we have been subdued, and this is not what we can take. Our belief is that for us to peacefully live together, we must peacefully re-negotiate the terms of our living together and if Jonathan does not believe in that, then we must ask ourselves question whether we are on the same template. He is our brother, but we cannot sacrifice our freedom for him. When Isaac Boro started, he didn’t know Goodluck Jonathan, when King Jaja of Opobo started, he didn’t know Jonathan, when King Koko Okia of Nembe started, he didn’t know Goodluck Jonathan, when Nana of Itsekiri started, he didn’t know Jonathan.
All the people who started this struggle never knew Jonathan. So, we cannot sacrifice our patriotic struggle for freedom for the sake of one man. We cannot do that. We must re-negotiate the terms and that is why there must be an un-inhibited gathering of the people with sovereign power to negotiate. Nobody can tell us that Nigeria is sacrosanct; it is not. It is a dubious, evil creation of the British for their economic interest and white supremacy.
You cannot put an old wine in a new bottle; it will burst. For us, we have given Jonathan enough time to look at this fundamental issue of freedom. Jonathan became the President not because he was the best, but because of what he represents. When the Gbagi man from Abuja look at him, or a man from Birnin Kudu look at him, he sees in Jonathan his own image and picture – the image of the deprived , oppressed people who have been put under the jack-boot of the “Born to Rule Project.”
It is the same thing with the Biron and Ogoni men. How can Jonathan stand shoulder to shoulder with former military President Ibrahim Babangida, it is not possible. It is the collective strength of the deprived people that said no to enslavement that brought Jonathan to power. If today, having climbed up, he pushes down the ladder, we will be waiting for him when he comes down.
Could that be the reason why you were quoted as saying that he would not be eligible for a second term?
I didn’t say so; maybe you didn’t read my interview well. What I said was that the way Jonathan is going on, the South-South might lose its uninterrupted eight years because there are nothing on the ground, nothing is happening. That is the truth and it must be said without mincing words. You cannot continue to keep quite when nothing is happening. East-West Road is a death trap; the coastal roads that Yar’Adua spoke about have been thrown away. Where is the Ledum Mitte Report? How long shall we wait?
In specific terms, what are your expectations from President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration?
We expect nothing from him other than what belong to us. He cannot give us anything because he is a part of us. Whatever he is, we gave to him. Not the other way round. What we are saying is that ‘you are the one we have prepared for the battle, where are the bounties?’ Why did we lose our lives? Why did the Ibo youth corps CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 members, Yoruba youth corps members, Itsekiri youth corps members and Urhobo youth corps members who stood their ground in the North were burnt alive? What did they sacrifice their lives for? Jonathan did not become President the way Yar’Adua and Obasanjo became President. Goodluck became President with the blood of the people because the “Born to Rule” people said that he would never win. He therefore cannot tell us we have no right to the benefits of what we fought and died for. Jonathan should not play with our emotions.
When Goodluck Jonathan came into power and the agitation simmered, many people attributed it to the fact that some of the brains behind the agitation were allocated with oil block..(Cut in)
That is an insult, oil blocks belong to us. Why should (Aliko) Dangote, (Femi) Otedola and (Mike) Adenuga have oil blocs? Who are they? What rights do they have to my oil blocs? What rights do they have that I don’t have? I am not a gentleman at all, what belongs to me I will take, peacefully or by force.
Don’t you think some people would say that you are picking on the President at this time because he has fallen short of your personal expectations of him?
So, if a man takes food from my mouth I should support him? What are you saying now? So if one Editor in National Mirror fires you today would you smile at him? Why should I not expect what belongs to me, that Otedola should expect? That Wale Tinubu should expect? That Dangote should expect? That Adenuga should expect, but me at 50 years I should not expect? That Jonathan should eat in the Villa and fill with excess and I should not eat? And I should support him; ‘I no shame for that one. If he no give me wetin be my own, I go fight am.’ Period! There is no two ways about it. Do you want me to die with my 18 children in hunger? No way! I am too prominent in this struggle; I have made some sacrifices. I did not emerge from the blue. I was the Vice-President of IYC, I was Deputy President of IYC and I was President. I started the armed struggle from the creek. Nobody wins and hands it over to people. That is why those who were at the cadre of revolutions in North Korea, in China and elsewhere that are pushed forward for leadership. So, nobody can push me around; it is not possible. I don’t expect anything from Jonathan. I demand what belongs to me. If he doesn’t give me, I will fight.
How then would he be able to settle down with the business of governance if you, his kinsman, is fighting him on one hand and Boko Haram is killing innocent Nigerians, causing security challenges?
It is because he is unable to manage his goodwill. If people support you and make sacrifices for you, you should appreciate them. But if you sit down comfortably in Aso Rock and become Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, then Moses would come to lead the people to freedom. Since Boko Haram is fighting him, he must be cautious and ruminate on this. (Bola) Tinubu supported Jonathan to win the last presidential election, but what is his relationship with Tinubu today? Obasanjo fought for him, what is his relationship with Obasanjo? Jerry Gana, Solomon Lar and Edwin Clark put their lives on the line, what is his relationship with them. Why are they angry with him? That means you are not able to manage your goodwill. And if you are not able to do that, I cannot hold forth for you at radio and television houses.
Obasanjo gave me. Yar’Adua even did more. He gave me right to lift oil, 10,000 barrels. Almost every month I was getting 5,000 DPK until I disagreed with him. Five thousand tonnes of DPK at that time translated to N36 million. Obasanjo offered to make me the first Director of Youth Sport and Women Affairs at the Directorate of NDDC, I rejected it because Obasanjo awarded a contract worth N4.5 billion in my village, Soku, when I told him that my people were suffering and he, a man from Abeokuta, was enjoying. I am a king in my village. NDDC has also awarded another dredging contract in Soku. When this terrible flood came, Soku was never flooded. Under Yar’Adua, he awarded road construction in my community. Even with all that, I spoke against Obasanjo government. When SSS wanted to recruit new hands during Obasanjo’s administration, I went to him, spoke to him and he said ‘bring a list of your people’ and I took the list, the people went for interview. Luckily out of the 15 people, only two did not pass.
How not to catch the norovirus
The laugh-a-minute pro-celebrity puking bug known by the streetname "norovirus" continues to squirm its way through the population, effortlesslytransforming ordinarily carefree human beings into spluttering, sulphurous geysers of molten waste. Everywhere the norovirus goes it leaves vast steaming lakes of freshly expelled vomit in its wake. It's like Piers Morgan, but invisible. Which actually makes it slightly better than Piers Morgan.
Everyone hates the norovirus, with the exception of two distinct groups. First: scientists. Professor Ian Goodfellow, who has spent the past decade studying it, has lovingly dubbed the norovirus "the Ferrari of the virus world", not because it makes the contents of your stomach accelerate from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, but because it's so ruthlessly efficient. Requiring a mere 20 particles to seize command of its victims, the norovirus is 200 times more infectious than Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Consequently many scientists claim to be "impressed" by the thing – a bit like admiring Nazi architecture, if you ask me.
It must be brilliant being a scientist during an outbreak like this because if you get infected yourself, you can at least take the edge off your suffering by admiring the sheer force of your symptoms. The fascinating pitter-patter of stomach contents against the back of your teeth as a fearsome torrent of spew erupts from within like a liquid poltergeist fleeing an exorcism. The impressive way your backside emits high-pressure jets of hot fluid, like the Hulk squeezing silty boiled water from a Fairy Liquid bottle by clenching it abruptly in his fist. The searing aftermath, as your throat rages as though sandpapered and your anus screams like a scalded button. This is nature in all its raw majesty. Film it in HD, get David Attenborough to record the soundtrack, and you've got a Sunday evening treat for millions.
Not that scientists do all the vomiting themselves. Researchers at Derbyshire Health and Safety Laboratory have developed a "vomiting robot" called Larry, to help them understand how far the virus can spread when someone spews it round the room. They push a button, Larry projectile-pukes, and then they analyse the spread of droplets. Must be a hard job to hold down when you've got a hangover. I imagine they have short lunch breaks.
The other group of norolovers are newspaper editors, who get to fill their front pages on the quiet post-Christmas news days with headlines like PALACE "FULL OF VOMIT" and BILLIONS DEFECATE. If, like me, you're an emetophobe – someone with an irrational fear of vomiting – such headlines are on a par with MADMAN ON LOOSE AND STANDING BEHIND YOU. Traditionally, I've been a bit of a wreck during puke season, but this year I seem to have finally conquered my fear of the norovirus. Mainly because I still haven't caught it. And unless I'm one of the small percentage who's naturally immune, I suspect I haven't caught the norovirus thanks to a very simple mental trick I observe religiously at this time each year.
It's easy. Just imagine you're a murderer, that the entire world is your crime scene, and that if you leave a single fingerprint anywhere, you are GUARANTEED to die in jail. If you adhere to this rule, you won't touch anything with your bare hands, and almost certainly won't fall victim. You'll also get so good at opening doors with your elbows you'll feel like a Paralympian.
Hey, it's not that impractical. You get used to thinking like a killer pretty quickly, and the sheer challenge of it can be fun. Using the office loo, for instance, becomes a task from the Crystal Maze. Using a clean bit of toilet paper as a makeshift "glove" you can lift the seat, shut the lock, operate the flusher and then, if you're really good, spin round and unlock the door, then toss said "paper glove" down the swirling pan before the flush cycle finishes. Do it correctly and an entire forensic team couldn't prove you were there. You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo. Just like that. Apart from the bit where you pulled your pants down and did a poo.
Sometimes you may have to shake people's hands, which is problematic. The trick here is to imagine that you're James Bond, and they're a double agent who's just stuck a small explosive device to your skin. If you don't scrub it off with soap and water within 60 seconds millions will perish – starting, perhaps most significantly, with yourself.
The revolting noro-friendly practice of shaking hands is reason enough never to become a politician or a movie star, or some combination of the two, like Barack Obama. Imagine how many faeces-encrusted palms he's had to shake. And then he's always having to pose for a photograph afterwards, eating a hotdog or something. He might as well be licking the damp porcelain rim of a great big bum-Pollocked bog bowl.
If things go disastrously wrong, and you've shaken someone's revolting disease-sodden hand and you don't have immediate access to hot water and a sink, it's imperative to remember your hand is "evil" until you've had a chance to wash it. Don't eat with it, and don't pick your nose or rub your eye with it either or you will die. Keep it in a pocket. Or sit on it, like a moron watching a lapdancer. Just don't use it.
The ladies once again had the day all to themselves last night (Jan. 5, 2013) as the all-female Invicta Fighting Championships held its fourth event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas where once again, a title was on the line.
While the planned pay-per-view did not go as planned, with credit card payments not being processed properly by Ustream, forcing Invicta President Shannon Knapp to jump the gun and remove the paywall, granting free access to all comers and offering a refund to anyone who wanted one, the ladies stepped up and continued to put on a good show for all the fans of the budding promotion.
The main event in particular was very interesting as unheralded Aussie Bec Hyatt stepped up on short notice to fight for the promotion's inaugural strawweight title against top 115 pound wrestler Carla Esparza.
Despite fighting on just eight days notice, Hyatt entered the bout as the better conditioned fighter and was actually having her way with Esparza on the feet. Her problem was she couldn't keep the fight there as the three time All-American wrestler was repeatedly able to take her down and work both ground and pound as well as guard passes and the occasional submission attempt.
The story of the fight was Hyatt's resolve, attacking with heavy right hands whenever the bout would get to its feet and scoring with big shots until being taken down over and over and over again.
While Esparza dominated the first three rounds of the fight with her wrestling, her pace slowed entering the championship rounds and Hyatt capitalized, scoring her best strikes of the fight and making fans and viewers wonder whether she'd be able to pull off the tremendous upset.
It wasn't meant to be, however, as Esparza would continue being able to drag the fight to the ground, although her output dropped and she wasn't able to keep the fight on the ground like she had in the beginning of the bout. With 15 seconds left in the fight, Hyatt threw a huge flurry that put "The Cookie Monster" on her back but she couldn't finish the fight before the final bell rang, granting Esparza the unanimous decision victory and the title.
The night's co-main event saw bantamweights Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler put on a tremendous showing for the fans as both ladies battled for nearly three full rounds until one went unconscious. Baszler had won the initial match-up in 2010 when Davis took the bout on short notice, but this time, both ladies had a full training camp and plenty of time to prepare.
This time around, Davis was the aggressor, outstriking Baszler on the feet with a heavy right hand and occasional leg kicks and going after "The Queen of Spades" on the ground, nearly catching the veteran with a nasty leg lock at the end of the first round which may have altered the rest of the fight.
Baszler favored her other leg slightly from that point on and Davis never stopped going after her, working punches on the feet and more submissions whenever the fight would go to the ground, nearly securing an armbar in the second. Davis continued attacking in the stand-up, eventually overwhelming Baszler in the third and forcing the veteran to lose her balance backing up. After a series of heavy ground and pound shots, the Canadian pounced on a rear naked choke opportunity and squeezed until Baszler went unconscious, winning via technical submission and avenging that prior loss in emphatic fashion.
In another of the most entertaining bouts of the evening, Leslie Smith and Raquel Pennington put forth a spirited display for three full rounds in a battle between Pennington's superior wrestling and one-punch power and Smith's conditioning, pace and overall technical punching prowess.
Pennington started strong, scoring with heavy strikes on the feet and outworking Smith in the clinch and on the ground as her vocal fanbase cheered her on, but Smith persevered, surviving a first round wardrobe malfunction and coming back with superior output of punches in both the second and third rounds as Pennington's pace slowed.
Smith added fuel to the grudge match's flames by repeatedly walking back to the center of the cage whenever Pennington tried to maneuver the bout towards the fence and raising her hands in a taunting manner, trying to egg Pennington on and get her to open up on the feet. Her strategy paid off as she was able to outland Pennington in the final two rounds to take home a unanimous decision.
Everyone hates the norovirus, with the exception of two distinct groups. First: scientists. Professor Ian Goodfellow, who has spent the past decade studying it, has lovingly dubbed the norovirus "the Ferrari of the virus world", not because it makes the contents of your stomach accelerate from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, but because it's so ruthlessly efficient. Requiring a mere 20 particles to seize command of its victims, the norovirus is 200 times more infectious than Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Consequently many scientists claim to be "impressed" by the thing – a bit like admiring Nazi architecture, if you ask me.
It must be brilliant being a scientist during an outbreak like this because if you get infected yourself, you can at least take the edge off your suffering by admiring the sheer force of your symptoms. The fascinating pitter-patter of stomach contents against the back of your teeth as a fearsome torrent of spew erupts from within like a liquid poltergeist fleeing an exorcism. The impressive way your backside emits high-pressure jets of hot fluid, like the Hulk squeezing silty boiled water from a Fairy Liquid bottle by clenching it abruptly in his fist. The searing aftermath, as your throat rages as though sandpapered and your anus screams like a scalded button. This is nature in all its raw majesty. Film it in HD, get David Attenborough to record the soundtrack, and you've got a Sunday evening treat for millions.
Not that scientists do all the vomiting themselves. Researchers at Derbyshire Health and Safety Laboratory have developed a "vomiting robot" called Larry, to help them understand how far the virus can spread when someone spews it round the room. They push a button, Larry projectile-pukes, and then they analyse the spread of droplets. Must be a hard job to hold down when you've got a hangover. I imagine they have short lunch breaks.
The other group of norolovers are newspaper editors, who get to fill their front pages on the quiet post-Christmas news days with headlines like PALACE "FULL OF VOMIT" and BILLIONS DEFECATE. If, like me, you're an emetophobe – someone with an irrational fear of vomiting – such headlines are on a par with MADMAN ON LOOSE AND STANDING BEHIND YOU. Traditionally, I've been a bit of a wreck during puke season, but this year I seem to have finally conquered my fear of the norovirus. Mainly because I still haven't caught it. And unless I'm one of the small percentage who's naturally immune, I suspect I haven't caught the norovirus thanks to a very simple mental trick I observe religiously at this time each year.
It's easy. Just imagine you're a murderer, that the entire world is your crime scene, and that if you leave a single fingerprint anywhere, you are GUARANTEED to die in jail. If you adhere to this rule, you won't touch anything with your bare hands, and almost certainly won't fall victim. You'll also get so good at opening doors with your elbows you'll feel like a Paralympian.
Hey, it's not that impractical. You get used to thinking like a killer pretty quickly, and the sheer challenge of it can be fun. Using the office loo, for instance, becomes a task from the Crystal Maze. Using a clean bit of toilet paper as a makeshift "glove" you can lift the seat, shut the lock, operate the flusher and then, if you're really good, spin round and unlock the door, then toss said "paper glove" down the swirling pan before the flush cycle finishes. Do it correctly and an entire forensic team couldn't prove you were there. You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo. Just like that. Apart from the bit where you pulled your pants down and did a poo.
Sometimes you may have to shake people's hands, which is problematic. The trick here is to imagine that you're James Bond, and they're a double agent who's just stuck a small explosive device to your skin. If you don't scrub it off with soap and water within 60 seconds millions will perish – starting, perhaps most significantly, with yourself.
The revolting noro-friendly practice of shaking hands is reason enough never to become a politician or a movie star, or some combination of the two, like Barack Obama. Imagine how many faeces-encrusted palms he's had to shake. And then he's always having to pose for a photograph afterwards, eating a hotdog or something. He might as well be licking the damp porcelain rim of a great big bum-Pollocked bog bowl.
If things go disastrously wrong, and you've shaken someone's revolting disease-sodden hand and you don't have immediate access to hot water and a sink, it's imperative to remember your hand is "evil" until you've had a chance to wash it. Don't eat with it, and don't pick your nose or rub your eye with it either or you will die. Keep it in a pocket. Or sit on it, like a moron watching a lapdancer. Just don't use it.
The ladies once again had the day all to themselves last night (Jan. 5, 2013) as the all-female Invicta Fighting Championships held its fourth event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas where once again, a title was on the line.
While the planned pay-per-view did not go as planned, with credit card payments not being processed properly by Ustream, forcing Invicta President Shannon Knapp to jump the gun and remove the paywall, granting free access to all comers and offering a refund to anyone who wanted one, the ladies stepped up and continued to put on a good show for all the fans of the budding promotion.
The main event in particular was very interesting as unheralded Aussie Bec Hyatt stepped up on short notice to fight for the promotion's inaugural strawweight title against top 115 pound wrestler Carla Esparza.
Despite fighting on just eight days notice, Hyatt entered the bout as the better conditioned fighter and was actually having her way with Esparza on the feet. Her problem was she couldn't keep the fight there as the three time All-American wrestler was repeatedly able to take her down and work both ground and pound as well as guard passes and the occasional submission attempt.
The story of the fight was Hyatt's resolve, attacking with heavy right hands whenever the bout would get to its feet and scoring with big shots until being taken down over and over and over again.
While Esparza dominated the first three rounds of the fight with her wrestling, her pace slowed entering the championship rounds and Hyatt capitalized, scoring her best strikes of the fight and making fans and viewers wonder whether she'd be able to pull off the tremendous upset.
It wasn't meant to be, however, as Esparza would continue being able to drag the fight to the ground, although her output dropped and she wasn't able to keep the fight on the ground like she had in the beginning of the bout. With 15 seconds left in the fight, Hyatt threw a huge flurry that put "The Cookie Monster" on her back but she couldn't finish the fight before the final bell rang, granting Esparza the unanimous decision victory and the title.
The night's co-main event saw bantamweights Alexis Davis and Shayna Baszler put on a tremendous showing for the fans as both ladies battled for nearly three full rounds until one went unconscious. Baszler had won the initial match-up in 2010 when Davis took the bout on short notice, but this time, both ladies had a full training camp and plenty of time to prepare.
This time around, Davis was the aggressor, outstriking Baszler on the feet with a heavy right hand and occasional leg kicks and going after "The Queen of Spades" on the ground, nearly catching the veteran with a nasty leg lock at the end of the first round which may have altered the rest of the fight.
Baszler favored her other leg slightly from that point on and Davis never stopped going after her, working punches on the feet and more submissions whenever the fight would go to the ground, nearly securing an armbar in the second. Davis continued attacking in the stand-up, eventually overwhelming Baszler in the third and forcing the veteran to lose her balance backing up. After a series of heavy ground and pound shots, the Canadian pounced on a rear naked choke opportunity and squeezed until Baszler went unconscious, winning via technical submission and avenging that prior loss in emphatic fashion.
In another of the most entertaining bouts of the evening, Leslie Smith and Raquel Pennington put forth a spirited display for three full rounds in a battle between Pennington's superior wrestling and one-punch power and Smith's conditioning, pace and overall technical punching prowess.
Pennington started strong, scoring with heavy strikes on the feet and outworking Smith in the clinch and on the ground as her vocal fanbase cheered her on, but Smith persevered, surviving a first round wardrobe malfunction and coming back with superior output of punches in both the second and third rounds as Pennington's pace slowed.
Smith added fuel to the grudge match's flames by repeatedly walking back to the center of the cage whenever Pennington tried to maneuver the bout towards the fence and raising her hands in a taunting manner, trying to egg Pennington on and get her to open up on the feet. Her strategy paid off as she was able to outland Pennington in the final two rounds to take home a unanimous decision.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Transportation Secretary Urges Bold Changes
By Monday, Massachusetts transportation officials must come up with a plan to put the state’s roads, bridges and rails on the right track.
Official estimates show the state could need up to $1 billion a year in new revenue to meet highway and mass transit needs.
Former Transportation Secretary James Aloisi said the state needs to make dramatic changes to invest in transportation, such as increasing the state gas tax or implementing a vehicle miles traveled tax. He recently outlined these and several other funding recommendations for CommonWealth Magazine.
“People need to come to grips with a few realities,” Aloisi said about accepting an increased state gas tax, which has not been raised since 1991.
“There’s no commodity that anyone buys in Massachusetts that hasn’t gone up in price since 1991 or gone up with inflation,” Aloisi said. “Number two, we’ve created an entirely inequitable approach to transportation financing by forcing fare increases on transit riders and keeping vehicular motorists free from sharing the burden.”
Aloisi knows it’s a tough sell. It’s one he tried, and ultimately failed, to make when he was the transportation secretary in 2009 and Gov. Deval Patrick proposed raising the state gas tax 19 cents per gallon.
“We need to understand that our future in terms of energy security, in terms of environmental protection, in terms of mobility depends upon a more realistic and honest appraisal of the cost of vehicular mobility and the way it is dragging us down in many ways.”
The fairest approach, according to Aloisi, is taxing vehicle miles traveled. Under this proposal, vehicles would be outfitted with GPS equipment that tracks the number of miles traveled on state roads. Car owners would then be assessed a fee based on that mileage and the location. As Aloisi explained, it could be a broad-based fee for rural areas that increases for more urban or congested areas.
Aloisi said the state needs to improve mass transit between suburban and urban areas to help people who live in the suburbs but have to commute into the Boston area. Part of that may include some incentives to take mass transit into cities such as Boston, which could help lower the costs.
In 2009, Patrick and lawmakers overhauled the state’s transportation agencies, combining them into one agency, and closed pension loopholes.
“So I don’t think that the solution here is to go back to the same, frankly tired old arguments about cutting and reforming, because it only nibbles at the margin,” Aloisi said.
The reality, he said, is the mass transit system is old, expanding and in need of repairs because it has been “chronically underfunded” for years.
“The way to solve that is to do something big and bold and fair and structural,” Aloisi said. “It’s not to nibble away at the edges and it’s not to create the sort of red herrings of the past.”
In the end, it depends on what lawmakers decide to do to create stable funding for the state’s transportation needs. House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray have signaled that transportation is a top agenda item for them this legislative session. That conversation will play out in the months ahead.
Through a free mobile application (app) SafeTrac, Latha can track Preethi’s movement on a real-time basis, either from home, on the Internet, or on a hand-held device that has Google Maps and an Internet connection.
In case of an emergency, or when Preethi feels unsafe or threatened, she can click the ‘Emergency’ button in the app. This will immediately send out an SMS and e-mail alerts to the emergency contacts registered by the user. Since the location of Preethi is readily known, help can be rushed to her immediately.
The Chennai-based KritiLabs has developed the app as a social initiative following last month’s rape incident in Delhi. It was developed based on the company’s Transport Operation Mobile Management software platform, which is largely intended for the logistics industry, said Srikrishna Varadharajan, Consulting and Business Development, KritiLabs.
The moment a SafeTrac alert is initiated by Preethi, her mother will know the route she is taking, in real time. Any deviation from the usual route, and she can call her daughter immediately.
The app works through the global positioning system. At present, Google Maps has an app called My Location, which shows the precise location only to the mobile owner. The same concept has been used in the app but with both mobile and Internet integrated through a central server.
Currently, SafeTrac works on Google’s Android-based phone but there are plans to extend it to other platforms, including iPhone and BlackBerry, says Varadharajan. SafeTrac can be accessed at www.safetrac.in. Users need to first register by providing the requisite information. On successful registration, an email is sent with instructions on downloading and installing the app on one’s mobile phone, he said.
Going forward, the company plans to provide SafeTrac with features such as alerting the nearest police patrol / station when the ‘Emergency’ button is clicked.
Over the past two years, FotoBridge has built a strong following among people interested in preserving photos, including educators and archivists, and its corporate clients include NBC Universal, the Smithsonian, the Indianapolis Colts and USA Hockey. The company shares photos, photography news and tips, and discount offers with its 14,000 likes on Facebook and 18,000 followers on Twitter. It also uses social media to answer questions and share blog posts, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes details of selected high-profile digitizing projects. “We answer questions and support customers primarily in real-time via Facebook,” said Ms. Morris. “For us, it’s a quick, effective and efficient way to communicate with those customers adept at using Facebook, which is becoming a larger part of our customer base.”
The company uses a mix of pay-per-click and Facebook ads to build followers and drive traffic to the Web site. On a typical campaign, it spends more than $10,000 a month on Google ads that Ms. Morris believes end up more than paying for themselves. “For every dollar we spend on Google AdWords,” she said, “we earn six dollars back.”
They have found that it helps to change keywords frequently. “We review our keywords every six to eight weeks,” she said. “We look for ones that are relevant to our service and that are not highly competitive yet but have a decent amount of monthly traffic and have proven to convert well in the past.” So far, the company’s search audience has been largely baby boomers, but FotoBridge has been finding different keywords to attract younger customers. “Our younger audience use words like ‘photo scanning’ verses our older customers who will type in ‘slide conversion,’” she said.
In addition, Ms. Morris uses Twitter to focus on sharing content and hashtags that promote their crucial terms in search results. Social media, she said, is “our primary means of building our brand and engaging a broader audience in a conversation.”
Official estimates show the state could need up to $1 billion a year in new revenue to meet highway and mass transit needs.
Former Transportation Secretary James Aloisi said the state needs to make dramatic changes to invest in transportation, such as increasing the state gas tax or implementing a vehicle miles traveled tax. He recently outlined these and several other funding recommendations for CommonWealth Magazine.
“People need to come to grips with a few realities,” Aloisi said about accepting an increased state gas tax, which has not been raised since 1991.
“There’s no commodity that anyone buys in Massachusetts that hasn’t gone up in price since 1991 or gone up with inflation,” Aloisi said. “Number two, we’ve created an entirely inequitable approach to transportation financing by forcing fare increases on transit riders and keeping vehicular motorists free from sharing the burden.”
Aloisi knows it’s a tough sell. It’s one he tried, and ultimately failed, to make when he was the transportation secretary in 2009 and Gov. Deval Patrick proposed raising the state gas tax 19 cents per gallon.
“We need to understand that our future in terms of energy security, in terms of environmental protection, in terms of mobility depends upon a more realistic and honest appraisal of the cost of vehicular mobility and the way it is dragging us down in many ways.”
The fairest approach, according to Aloisi, is taxing vehicle miles traveled. Under this proposal, vehicles would be outfitted with GPS equipment that tracks the number of miles traveled on state roads. Car owners would then be assessed a fee based on that mileage and the location. As Aloisi explained, it could be a broad-based fee for rural areas that increases for more urban or congested areas.
Aloisi said the state needs to improve mass transit between suburban and urban areas to help people who live in the suburbs but have to commute into the Boston area. Part of that may include some incentives to take mass transit into cities such as Boston, which could help lower the costs.
In 2009, Patrick and lawmakers overhauled the state’s transportation agencies, combining them into one agency, and closed pension loopholes.
“So I don’t think that the solution here is to go back to the same, frankly tired old arguments about cutting and reforming, because it only nibbles at the margin,” Aloisi said.
The reality, he said, is the mass transit system is old, expanding and in need of repairs because it has been “chronically underfunded” for years.
“The way to solve that is to do something big and bold and fair and structural,” Aloisi said. “It’s not to nibble away at the edges and it’s not to create the sort of red herrings of the past.”
In the end, it depends on what lawmakers decide to do to create stable funding for the state’s transportation needs. House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray have signaled that transportation is a top agenda item for them this legislative session. That conversation will play out in the months ahead.
Through a free mobile application (app) SafeTrac, Latha can track Preethi’s movement on a real-time basis, either from home, on the Internet, or on a hand-held device that has Google Maps and an Internet connection.
In case of an emergency, or when Preethi feels unsafe or threatened, she can click the ‘Emergency’ button in the app. This will immediately send out an SMS and e-mail alerts to the emergency contacts registered by the user. Since the location of Preethi is readily known, help can be rushed to her immediately.
The Chennai-based KritiLabs has developed the app as a social initiative following last month’s rape incident in Delhi. It was developed based on the company’s Transport Operation Mobile Management software platform, which is largely intended for the logistics industry, said Srikrishna Varadharajan, Consulting and Business Development, KritiLabs.
The moment a SafeTrac alert is initiated by Preethi, her mother will know the route she is taking, in real time. Any deviation from the usual route, and she can call her daughter immediately.
The app works through the global positioning system. At present, Google Maps has an app called My Location, which shows the precise location only to the mobile owner. The same concept has been used in the app but with both mobile and Internet integrated through a central server.
Currently, SafeTrac works on Google’s Android-based phone but there are plans to extend it to other platforms, including iPhone and BlackBerry, says Varadharajan. SafeTrac can be accessed at www.safetrac.in. Users need to first register by providing the requisite information. On successful registration, an email is sent with instructions on downloading and installing the app on one’s mobile phone, he said.
Going forward, the company plans to provide SafeTrac with features such as alerting the nearest police patrol / station when the ‘Emergency’ button is clicked.
Over the past two years, FotoBridge has built a strong following among people interested in preserving photos, including educators and archivists, and its corporate clients include NBC Universal, the Smithsonian, the Indianapolis Colts and USA Hockey. The company shares photos, photography news and tips, and discount offers with its 14,000 likes on Facebook and 18,000 followers on Twitter. It also uses social media to answer questions and share blog posts, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes details of selected high-profile digitizing projects. “We answer questions and support customers primarily in real-time via Facebook,” said Ms. Morris. “For us, it’s a quick, effective and efficient way to communicate with those customers adept at using Facebook, which is becoming a larger part of our customer base.”
The company uses a mix of pay-per-click and Facebook ads to build followers and drive traffic to the Web site. On a typical campaign, it spends more than $10,000 a month on Google ads that Ms. Morris believes end up more than paying for themselves. “For every dollar we spend on Google AdWords,” she said, “we earn six dollars back.”
They have found that it helps to change keywords frequently. “We review our keywords every six to eight weeks,” she said. “We look for ones that are relevant to our service and that are not highly competitive yet but have a decent amount of monthly traffic and have proven to convert well in the past.” So far, the company’s search audience has been largely baby boomers, but FotoBridge has been finding different keywords to attract younger customers. “Our younger audience use words like ‘photo scanning’ verses our older customers who will type in ‘slide conversion,’” she said.
In addition, Ms. Morris uses Twitter to focus on sharing content and hashtags that promote their crucial terms in search results. Social media, she said, is “our primary means of building our brand and engaging a broader audience in a conversation.”
How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
When she was little, Maria Konnikova's father read her Sherlock Holmes stories. She was captivated by "A Scandal in Bohemia", when Holmes asks Watson how many steps run up to their room and Watson is stumped. "You have not observed," tuts Holmes, annoyingly. "And yet you have seen … Now, I know there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed."
That's true of all of us. We see, but we do not observe. Cognitive biases distort the way we think all the way along the line. We are victims of priming and stereotyping, confirmation bias and the conjunction fallacy, probabilistic incoherence, the default effect and goodness only knows what else.
If we wish to overcome these biases and emulate the great detective it's not enough just to shack up with a butch medical man, take a bunch of cocaine and learn the violin. We must recognise that our brain has two systems: System Holmes and System Watson. The former is mindful, attentive, self-questioning and rational. The latter is quick to action, prone to travel along familiar paths, and will tend to bungle when the chips are down.
We spend most of our time running System Watson but, says Konnikova, it's possible to train ourselves to run System Holmes – and if we get into the habit, eventually it will become second nature. "It won't be easy," as she often warns. But, as she also often promises, "our brains' very structure can change and develop … even into old age."
The recipe is clear. Here is a giant helping of Daniel Kahnemann, a tincture of Atul Gawande, a whiff of Nassim Taleb, a dollop of Jonah Lehrer, a salting of context-light neurosciency stuff ("it experiences tonic activity in what's now known as the DMN, the default mode network: the posterior cingulate cortex, the adjacent prenucleus, and the medial prefrontal cortex") and the whole assemblage served, Heston Blumenthal-style, in a deerstalker hat.
A good deal of Konnikova's advice, boiled down, is straightforward: pay mindful attention, think twice, question your own assumptions, be methodical, and if you're stuck on a problem take time out to let it percolate through your unconscious while you go for a stroll / do some knitting / chase the cat round the house with a Nerf gun. Be aware, above all, of your own fallibility.
What's most interesting in the book is how this stuff is backed up by scientific trials – and how extreme they show our cognitive distortions can be. I was delighted to be introduced to the ingeniously constructed Implicit Association Tests – which, in effect, show that you're much more racist and sexist than you think you are – and directed to implicit.harvard.edu, where you can take them yourself. And to hear how success at things can make us measurably worse at them is kind of wonderful.
Konnikova doesn't half flit and skim, though. She'll describe Darryl Bem's study apparently evidencing ESP, for instance – but it's to Google you'll need to head if you want to find out how and why it was exploded. Likewise, when she talks about "the Florida effect" or the "hard-easy effect" she does so with frustrating cursoriness. The former suggests that if you "prime" test subjects with words associated with old age (lonely, careful, Florida, helpless, knits and gullible will do it, apparently) they'll get scatty and start walking more slowly. The latter, even more startlingly, says that we're more likely to be overconfident when a task appears difficult than when it's easy. Even as you ask: "Really? Evidence?" she's on to the next thing.
Forgetting, too, that a prime pleasure in the reading of a Holmes adventure is the reveal, she frequently gives you the set-up without telling you what actually happens. Holmes curses himself, she says, for not realising that the newspaper is a vital clue in "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk". A clue to what? She doesn't say. A bloody fingerprint in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", she tells us, is to Holmes decisive evidence of the innocence of the accused. But how? She doesn't say. In The Sign of the Four, we hear Holmes's deduction that the villain came in through the hole in the roof. Which hole in the flaming roof?
Holmes is sometimes less consistent than Konnikova would have it, too. At one point, she discusses his indifference (why waste mental space storing the answer?) to the question of whether the earth circles the sun. At another, she mentions with approval that a case hinges on his happening to know about an obscure species of jellyfish. She attempts to square the circle with thoughts about curiosity, open-mindedness and the way you stock your "mental attic" to make sure that nothing that might come in handy is omitted – but, of course, the actual answer is that Holmes knows about the obscure jellyfish precisely because that case turns on it. If another case turned on Copernican theory, Holmes would have known about that too … because he's a made-up detective.
The conceit of this book requires us to treat Holmes as a real person rather than a literary artefact, and his creator as a penetrating psychologist with an intuitive grasp of the future discoveries of neuroscience. Konnikova gets a fair way with this, but in the final analysis it's a selling point rather than the structuring principle for a grown-up book. Holmes's job as a character is to embody the idea of a man with stupefying mental control: he is a collection of showbiz tricks rather than an actual case study. Superman comics don't have much to tell us about the physics of flight.
And as far as mindfulness and attention to detail goes, Holmes's creator was far from the paragon this reading requires him to be. The details of Watson's war wound and his marriages – even the location of his consulting rooms – famously shift around, the name of Holmes's housekeeper inexplicably changes at one point, and in one story a woman gets her own husband's first name wrong. Conan Doyle was writing pulp fiction, with consistency not his prime concern.
Plus, as Konnikova semi-sheepishly discusses in a final chapter called "We're Only Human", Conan Doyle was not just a fanatical spiritualist but also the guy who swallowed the Cottingley Fairies lock, stock and barrel. The points she makes in his defence, many of them fair, underline her argument that we are all conditioned by our environments and expectations. But if even the creator of Holmes can't stop System Watson from creeping in, what hope for the rest of us?
The question Konnikova's book promises to answer is: "What can Sherlock Holmes teach us about how our brains work?" The question it actually answers is: "How can I make a book about how our brains work into a book about Sherlock Holmes?" Here is a decent if sometimes repetitive meander though some interesting findings in cognitive and social psychology, gussied up as self-help and launched into what it hopes will be a market – to use the book's own term – "primed" by Benedict Cumberbatch.
That's true of all of us. We see, but we do not observe. Cognitive biases distort the way we think all the way along the line. We are victims of priming and stereotyping, confirmation bias and the conjunction fallacy, probabilistic incoherence, the default effect and goodness only knows what else.
If we wish to overcome these biases and emulate the great detective it's not enough just to shack up with a butch medical man, take a bunch of cocaine and learn the violin. We must recognise that our brain has two systems: System Holmes and System Watson. The former is mindful, attentive, self-questioning and rational. The latter is quick to action, prone to travel along familiar paths, and will tend to bungle when the chips are down.
We spend most of our time running System Watson but, says Konnikova, it's possible to train ourselves to run System Holmes – and if we get into the habit, eventually it will become second nature. "It won't be easy," as she often warns. But, as she also often promises, "our brains' very structure can change and develop … even into old age."
The recipe is clear. Here is a giant helping of Daniel Kahnemann, a tincture of Atul Gawande, a whiff of Nassim Taleb, a dollop of Jonah Lehrer, a salting of context-light neurosciency stuff ("it experiences tonic activity in what's now known as the DMN, the default mode network: the posterior cingulate cortex, the adjacent prenucleus, and the medial prefrontal cortex") and the whole assemblage served, Heston Blumenthal-style, in a deerstalker hat.
A good deal of Konnikova's advice, boiled down, is straightforward: pay mindful attention, think twice, question your own assumptions, be methodical, and if you're stuck on a problem take time out to let it percolate through your unconscious while you go for a stroll / do some knitting / chase the cat round the house with a Nerf gun. Be aware, above all, of your own fallibility.
What's most interesting in the book is how this stuff is backed up by scientific trials – and how extreme they show our cognitive distortions can be. I was delighted to be introduced to the ingeniously constructed Implicit Association Tests – which, in effect, show that you're much more racist and sexist than you think you are – and directed to implicit.harvard.edu, where you can take them yourself. And to hear how success at things can make us measurably worse at them is kind of wonderful.
Konnikova doesn't half flit and skim, though. She'll describe Darryl Bem's study apparently evidencing ESP, for instance – but it's to Google you'll need to head if you want to find out how and why it was exploded. Likewise, when she talks about "the Florida effect" or the "hard-easy effect" she does so with frustrating cursoriness. The former suggests that if you "prime" test subjects with words associated with old age (lonely, careful, Florida, helpless, knits and gullible will do it, apparently) they'll get scatty and start walking more slowly. The latter, even more startlingly, says that we're more likely to be overconfident when a task appears difficult than when it's easy. Even as you ask: "Really? Evidence?" she's on to the next thing.
Forgetting, too, that a prime pleasure in the reading of a Holmes adventure is the reveal, she frequently gives you the set-up without telling you what actually happens. Holmes curses himself, she says, for not realising that the newspaper is a vital clue in "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk". A clue to what? She doesn't say. A bloody fingerprint in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", she tells us, is to Holmes decisive evidence of the innocence of the accused. But how? She doesn't say. In The Sign of the Four, we hear Holmes's deduction that the villain came in through the hole in the roof. Which hole in the flaming roof?
Holmes is sometimes less consistent than Konnikova would have it, too. At one point, she discusses his indifference (why waste mental space storing the answer?) to the question of whether the earth circles the sun. At another, she mentions with approval that a case hinges on his happening to know about an obscure species of jellyfish. She attempts to square the circle with thoughts about curiosity, open-mindedness and the way you stock your "mental attic" to make sure that nothing that might come in handy is omitted – but, of course, the actual answer is that Holmes knows about the obscure jellyfish precisely because that case turns on it. If another case turned on Copernican theory, Holmes would have known about that too … because he's a made-up detective.
The conceit of this book requires us to treat Holmes as a real person rather than a literary artefact, and his creator as a penetrating psychologist with an intuitive grasp of the future discoveries of neuroscience. Konnikova gets a fair way with this, but in the final analysis it's a selling point rather than the structuring principle for a grown-up book. Holmes's job as a character is to embody the idea of a man with stupefying mental control: he is a collection of showbiz tricks rather than an actual case study. Superman comics don't have much to tell us about the physics of flight.
And as far as mindfulness and attention to detail goes, Holmes's creator was far from the paragon this reading requires him to be. The details of Watson's war wound and his marriages – even the location of his consulting rooms – famously shift around, the name of Holmes's housekeeper inexplicably changes at one point, and in one story a woman gets her own husband's first name wrong. Conan Doyle was writing pulp fiction, with consistency not his prime concern.
Plus, as Konnikova semi-sheepishly discusses in a final chapter called "We're Only Human", Conan Doyle was not just a fanatical spiritualist but also the guy who swallowed the Cottingley Fairies lock, stock and barrel. The points she makes in his defence, many of them fair, underline her argument that we are all conditioned by our environments and expectations. But if even the creator of Holmes can't stop System Watson from creeping in, what hope for the rest of us?
The question Konnikova's book promises to answer is: "What can Sherlock Holmes teach us about how our brains work?" The question it actually answers is: "How can I make a book about how our brains work into a book about Sherlock Holmes?" Here is a decent if sometimes repetitive meander though some interesting findings in cognitive and social psychology, gussied up as self-help and launched into what it hopes will be a market – to use the book's own term – "primed" by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Recognizing obstacles and overcoming
At the age of 14, Trajean Jadorette, confessed his sins to the Lord and accepted Him as his savior. Twenty-five years later, that young man is now the new senior pastor at New Covenant Baptist Church. But his path to the pulpit has been one in which he admits he's had his fair share of challenges — like most people, but he said he was able to overcome those challenges because he never wavered in his belief in God.
The biggest of his challenges through the years he believes was when he was not married.
"I never had the time to really invest in a relationship at that stage of my life," said the pastor at the church on the East-West Highway, in a recent interview with The Nassau Guardian.
Like most young men, he was more interested in ensuring that he had a car to drive, making certain he looked good and being single, dating — but without marriage as the end result uppermost in his mind.
The good thing he said was the fact that he never had to battle with gambling, alcohol or drugs.
"My problem was I wasn't married as yet and if you are faithful to your faith, then you have to maintain that not just by word, but by deed as well. Getting married was my challenge. I never had the time to really invest in a relationship at that stage of my life."
Pastor Jadorette said he came to the realization that in order to be faithful to his faith, that he had to maintain his faith not just by word, but by deed as well. He said that the challenge first had to be recognized, and then he associated himself with people who could lead him in the right direction.
Pastor Jadorette admits that overcoming challenges is not something that a person can do overnight.
"It's not something that you're going to wake up and say I'm going to fly straight. It is things that you start to practice that eventually become habit. Looking at your company (friends) is important and critical in my opinion. Developing a strong prayer life and just being real with yourself helps. When you become real, you start to look at life differently. When you look at life differently, your choices in many ways you start to change them. But as long as you're not realistic, whatever you're doing is fine," he said.
Pastor Jadorette changed the way he looked at relationships when he found the woman of his dreams. They are three years into their marriage during a time when he was elected to serve as the new senior pastor at New Covenant. He assumed the post at the retirement of Bishop Simeon Hall, who retired after 30 years as senior pastor.
Like most people he has made his fair share of mistakes in life. But he believes the journey that brought him to the pulpit at New Covenant Baptist Church was God-orchestrated.
Pastor Jadorette accepted the Lord as a tenth grade student while working as a busboy at a restaurant on Grand Bahama, after he was witnessed to by one of the waiters on staff — even though he had been a member of Faith Temple Church of God in Freeport all of his life.
"Delano Williams witnessed to me one evening and I confessed to Christ at the age of 14. That journey was not a straight journey. I hung out ... some of my friends were not the most savory of characters — they were not saved, and I hung out with them quite a bit. Luckily for me though I never used drugs, and never drank and to this day I don't smoke or drink," he said.
The young Jadorette had one driving passion — he yearned for education and to attend college. And he believes that God stepped in to assist him when things looked bleak.
"I was a young lad, 19-20, had a car, traveled quite a bit, but I knew God had some other things in store for me. But I just got tired doing the same thing over and over so I started really seeking God and would go by the beach by myself sometimes until the wee hours of the night talking to God and listening to Him talk to me. One day He said, 'You have the access granted, you're going to go off to school.'"
Jadorette did not know where the money was going to come from to make it happen. But he believes that because of his altruism to others it was returned to him when Pastor Reno Smith told him about American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee. Jadorette packed his bags and the rest is history as they say.
The pastor said an extremely kind God helped him to graduate in three years. He then used the remainder of his visa time to obtain a master's degree at Fisk University. And at the same time get his first taste of life in the pulpit.
"While at Fisk, (at) the church I attended, the pastor resigned and by this time I was an ordained, trained minister. I came in as acting pastor for a year and after that year they voted me in as the senior pastor of First Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where I spent five years."
It's that wealth of knowledge that Pastor Jadorette, 39, took with him to New Covenant. He was elected to serve in an event-free process by the 359 persons in a process that took less than 15 minutes.
He has taken a hands-on leadership style to New Covenant. He believes in autonomy when people are given tasks, but Pastor Jadorette said he still likes to be hands-on.
"Not necessarily to micro-manage, but I like to be hands-on. I?like to be a hands-on leader who is very practical,"?he said.
And while a number of churches encounter friction when it's time to elect a new leader, the pastor said the event-free process that gave him the senior role showed that the membership had confidence in him. It's his goal to have that confidence strengthened over the years.
"I?think they have quite a bit of confidence in me and I pray that I continue to lean on God as I?would have in all my years in ministry since I've given my life to Christ, so that that confidence can be strengthened over the years as well,"?he said.
"I?think our young people strayed quite a bit and even some of our older people... society has really become overly materialistic. My hope is that we can make church exciting again, a?place where folks can come and get closer to God. If we can do that, and that spreads like a virus in society, we can get the kind of spiritual underpinning that we once enjoyed in this country,"?he said.
"My vision for the next 30 years if it be that long, is to once again point people back to Christ. And we're going to do that using several mediums — the different ministries that we have in the church, it is my goal and vision to strengthen those different arms of the church so we can bring folks in to bring them closer to Christ,"?he said.
The biggest of his challenges through the years he believes was when he was not married.
"I never had the time to really invest in a relationship at that stage of my life," said the pastor at the church on the East-West Highway, in a recent interview with The Nassau Guardian.
Like most young men, he was more interested in ensuring that he had a car to drive, making certain he looked good and being single, dating — but without marriage as the end result uppermost in his mind.
The good thing he said was the fact that he never had to battle with gambling, alcohol or drugs.
"My problem was I wasn't married as yet and if you are faithful to your faith, then you have to maintain that not just by word, but by deed as well. Getting married was my challenge. I never had the time to really invest in a relationship at that stage of my life."
Pastor Jadorette said he came to the realization that in order to be faithful to his faith, that he had to maintain his faith not just by word, but by deed as well. He said that the challenge first had to be recognized, and then he associated himself with people who could lead him in the right direction.
Pastor Jadorette admits that overcoming challenges is not something that a person can do overnight.
"It's not something that you're going to wake up and say I'm going to fly straight. It is things that you start to practice that eventually become habit. Looking at your company (friends) is important and critical in my opinion. Developing a strong prayer life and just being real with yourself helps. When you become real, you start to look at life differently. When you look at life differently, your choices in many ways you start to change them. But as long as you're not realistic, whatever you're doing is fine," he said.
Pastor Jadorette changed the way he looked at relationships when he found the woman of his dreams. They are three years into their marriage during a time when he was elected to serve as the new senior pastor at New Covenant. He assumed the post at the retirement of Bishop Simeon Hall, who retired after 30 years as senior pastor.
Like most people he has made his fair share of mistakes in life. But he believes the journey that brought him to the pulpit at New Covenant Baptist Church was God-orchestrated.
Pastor Jadorette accepted the Lord as a tenth grade student while working as a busboy at a restaurant on Grand Bahama, after he was witnessed to by one of the waiters on staff — even though he had been a member of Faith Temple Church of God in Freeport all of his life.
"Delano Williams witnessed to me one evening and I confessed to Christ at the age of 14. That journey was not a straight journey. I hung out ... some of my friends were not the most savory of characters — they were not saved, and I hung out with them quite a bit. Luckily for me though I never used drugs, and never drank and to this day I don't smoke or drink," he said.
The young Jadorette had one driving passion — he yearned for education and to attend college. And he believes that God stepped in to assist him when things looked bleak.
"I was a young lad, 19-20, had a car, traveled quite a bit, but I knew God had some other things in store for me. But I just got tired doing the same thing over and over so I started really seeking God and would go by the beach by myself sometimes until the wee hours of the night talking to God and listening to Him talk to me. One day He said, 'You have the access granted, you're going to go off to school.'"
Jadorette did not know where the money was going to come from to make it happen. But he believes that because of his altruism to others it was returned to him when Pastor Reno Smith told him about American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee. Jadorette packed his bags and the rest is history as they say.
The pastor said an extremely kind God helped him to graduate in three years. He then used the remainder of his visa time to obtain a master's degree at Fisk University. And at the same time get his first taste of life in the pulpit.
"While at Fisk, (at) the church I attended, the pastor resigned and by this time I was an ordained, trained minister. I came in as acting pastor for a year and after that year they voted me in as the senior pastor of First Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where I spent five years."
It's that wealth of knowledge that Pastor Jadorette, 39, took with him to New Covenant. He was elected to serve in an event-free process by the 359 persons in a process that took less than 15 minutes.
He has taken a hands-on leadership style to New Covenant. He believes in autonomy when people are given tasks, but Pastor Jadorette said he still likes to be hands-on.
"Not necessarily to micro-manage, but I like to be hands-on. I?like to be a hands-on leader who is very practical,"?he said.
And while a number of churches encounter friction when it's time to elect a new leader, the pastor said the event-free process that gave him the senior role showed that the membership had confidence in him. It's his goal to have that confidence strengthened over the years.
"I?think they have quite a bit of confidence in me and I pray that I continue to lean on God as I?would have in all my years in ministry since I've given my life to Christ, so that that confidence can be strengthened over the years as well,"?he said.
"I?think our young people strayed quite a bit and even some of our older people... society has really become overly materialistic. My hope is that we can make church exciting again, a?place where folks can come and get closer to God. If we can do that, and that spreads like a virus in society, we can get the kind of spiritual underpinning that we once enjoyed in this country,"?he said.
"My vision for the next 30 years if it be that long, is to once again point people back to Christ. And we're going to do that using several mediums — the different ministries that we have in the church, it is my goal and vision to strengthen those different arms of the church so we can bring folks in to bring them closer to Christ,"?he said.
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