Secret of the popularity of the Olympics (Lol)

The 2012 summer Olympic Games start next Friday. Millions of enthusiasts are going to have a time of their life in London. Organisers announced a sales target of a whopping 6.6 million tickets, almost entirely allocated. To give you some perspective, the entire population of Denmark is about 5.5 million. Yet a million enthusiasts are grumbling about being shut out of first-hand tickets for the great games.

It would interest you to know that this great event has not always generated this much interest. Indeed, very early editions left organisers scratching their bald heads about why the galleries were bare.

Well, I’ve been doing some research on the transition from a period of poorly attended Olympics to an era of sold-out Olympic Games. My theory is that the organisers, after agonising over poor attendance for long, hit upon a bright idea that has continued to work like magic.  Follow the transition in pictures....

1908 London Olympics: Ladies Archery

Check out the full regalia of the ladies. Note how their ankles disappeared completely under the Cinderella skirt. Do note also that the only audience here seemed to be the couple of boys recovering the arrows for the ladies...

 1908 London Olympics: Gymnastics

Danish team getting set for action. Research is still ongoing to determine if the bottom part of this team’s attire was meant to be a skirt, a pair of shorts or full trousers. Please, note, as well, how the stockings took off from where the shorts ended.

  1908 London Olympics: Gymnastics

In action. A Danish gymnast performing on a gymnastic pommel horse at the 1908 London Olympics.  Save for a couple hiding behind the railings (probably seizing the occasion of a deserted sporting event to smooch), this athlete was performing strictly for self, the judges and the camera man.

1948 London Olympics: Track and Field 

Female competitors in one of the heats in the 80-Metres Hurdles at the London Olympics, Wembley Stadium, London, 3rd August 1948. Track and field was one of the few crowd pullers. Even then, there were still many empty seats.

  

Then, the Turnaround

A few decades ago, the organisers of the games hit upon a bright idea and thereupon started tweaking the wear of the athletes, especially the female artistes, with amazing results and incredible audience numbers. They have continued to tweak and tweak until....

Gymnastics



Gymnast Nastia Liukin at the London 2012 Olympics trials. (She didn’t make the cut for the US, by the way.)



 

Alluring gymnast Aly Raisman, in her form-fitting wear, doing her thing. (She was beaten to a spot, too.) 



Track and Field:



Basic Essentials: Sensational German sprinter Sina Schielke, 100-meter dash queen.

And of course, Beach Volleyball

See the expressions on the faces of a majority of these boys. Just watching these girls, I mean, this game, these boys are dead and gone to heaven!

 

Are you still wondering why some of the largest ticket sales are made in Beach Volleyball?

I lay no claim to being infallible. But this theory of mine has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny. Now, if you have a different theory as to how the audience numbers have ballooned over the years, I would love to hear it. :-)  

Balotelli pays highest bill ever in a bar!

Balotelli with friends at the bar

Super Mario's limbering up for the new season by hanging around with Dean Gaffney and having it large in nightspot owned by Gary Lineker's brother

Mario Balotelli racked up a venue’s biggest ever bar bill as he partied at an exclusive club in the party capital of the world.... Ibiza

The enigmatic Manchester City and Italy striker shelled out a record-breaking amount of cash during a day and night session at the Ocean Beach Club.

The new venue, which is owned by Gary Lineker’s brother Wayne, has hosted a string of big-spending soccer stars this summer including Joe Hart, Andy Carroll, Micheal Carrick and Danny Welbeck, but partyloving Mario outdid them all in the spending stakes which ran into thousands of pounds.

Stunned Wayne, who owns a string of nightspots across Europe tweeted: “Wicked night last night in @LinekersIbiza with Mario Barotelli. His bill was the biggest anyone has ever had in 25 years in any Linekers.

“Balotelli has just texted and said @LinekersIbiza was crazy place. Ha.”

The 21-year-old hitman hired the most exclusive table at the swanky venue - which has a minimum spend of 5,000 Euros.

Balotelli booked the ‘Owner’s Bed’ which is described as the ultimate VIP experience and the most exclusive VIP bed in the venue which caters for up to 20 guests.

Wayne added in a full-on Twitter spew: “Mario Balotelli has booked the owners bed today @oceanbeachibiza.he’s on route now. Let’s see if he can party!!

“Just spoke to Mario Balotelli in @OceanBeachIbiza and OMG he has never heard of @GaryLineker WTF I said are you joking me !! £hesnotblonde

“Me and Mario Balotelli at @OceanBeachIbiza today. All I will say is mmm. £interestingguy

“OMG Mario balotelli is on the back benches getting his groove on in @linekersibiza £awesome.”

Balotelli, 21, and former Eastenders actor Dean Gaffney, 34, hit it off a treat during a boozy night out on the party island of Ibiza.

Sharing a £600 magnum of premium vodka, the odd couple chatted at length – both in slightly broken English – in the VIP area of Ocean Beach Club.

Flirting with, and staring at, an array of beautiful women, they talked football before moving on to nearby Lineker’s bar.

Despite expecting his first child with former lover Raffaella Fico, the Manchester City striker showed off his new flame, a blonde known only as Amber on Saturday night, reported Mirror.

Bad boil, Jim Iyke

Bad boy Jim Iyke is in the news again, living up to his billing. The online platforms are aglow with his recent travails, which in a way is a renewal of his old troubles. The woman who accused him of fraud has once again come out smoking hot, blasting the movie star into the galaxy (where he belongs?). Jim Iyke, who recently granted a national newspaper an interview saying the problem he had with the 30 year old business woman, Habiba Abubakar had been settled, stirred hornet’s nest again by sending out tweet messages to his followers, which offended the woman.

Abubakar released a battery of documents to buttress most claims she made, from smug shots of Jim Iyke taken by the police when the raps of fraud and assaults were laid on him, to flight tickets of the trips the woman arranged for Jim Iyke and his mother.

I hate the fact that the aged mother of the actor is being dragged into this mess. It is not fair to the old woman. The picture of the poor woman on her way to India for medical treatment, in my humble view is a low blow. That picture should never have been released. The woman would most likely not have sanctioned what his son was doing and should have been kept out of the entire mess.

Anyway, hopefully Jim Iyke would this time learn enough lesson to cease being a very bad boil bringing his relatives unbearable pain.  

'Lucky' reporter among victims of America's cinema massacre

Holmes, the gun man

America is full of depraved souls. What could possibly be responsible for a man walking into a cinema and spraying people watching a film with bullets? James Holmes, 24, was identified by two federal law enforcement officers as the man who opened fire during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at an Aurora, Colorado, theatre early Friday. At least 12 people were killed and 38 wounded, Police Chief Dan Oates said.

Police have ruled out terrorism. They believe the man is mentally disturbed. A few weeks previously, another gunman sprayed people at a restaurant with bullets killing one and wounding seven. Incidentally, one of the survivors of that incident, TV Sports reporter Jessica Ghawi , was not  a second time lucky. She was among the 12 killed by Holmes. Ghawi had shared on her blog the near death experience in Toronto’s Eaton Centre food court on June 2. Few weeks down the line, she was at the cinema to watch a film with a friend. But the film proved too real for them. May God rest her soul.

Ghawi, unlucky

Admittedly people go berserk everywhere. The difference is that when people go round the bend in Africa, they are mostly to be found roaming the streets butt naked, eating from the refuse dump and generally minding their own business. In America, when people go berserk, they carefully plan mass murders and  they execute them with military precision. May God comfort the victims’ relatives.

53 year-old Madonna bares boob at concert

Madonna and her toyboy who is also her top dancer

 Madonna, Madonna, Madonna. Won’t this woman let up? She has teased men relentlessly for about three decades, and now at 53, she still thinks she’s got it.

At her ongoing world tour, she has left many mouths agape. While performing Human Nature in Istanbul, Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, Madonna shocked her audience and got the boys screaming for minutes when she popped out her right breast. And, well, it still looks firm for a 53 year-old. But that’s beside the point. Should she still be doing this at that age?

Madonna bares her back at the Hyde Park concert on Tuesday.

At her show in London on Tuesday, she swore like a sailor, romped raunchily with her half-naked male dancers and grabbed her crotch and that of her toyboy, Brahim Zaibat, every now and then.

Should she still be doing this at seven years shy of 60? Madonna has four children ranging from five to 15,  and has been through two husbands. She is currently with a lover, 28 years her junior (that lucky b*****), with whom, she’s enjoying her stupendous wealth. She has an estimated fortune of £400 million. That is over a 100 billion naira! She does not need to work again, ever. What is this woman still looking for?

Her next stops are Birmingham tonight and Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday. The tour is expected to generate a whopping £500 million in revenue.

Glamorous wife of Syrian president flees

The British-born wife of Syria's embattled president Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia after rebels killed three of his top security chiefs in a devastating suicide bomb attack, it was claimed today.

Rumours of Asma Assad's departure swirled around the capital Damascus within hours of the blast, which claimed the lives of the president's brother-in-law and other top officials.

The president himself was believed to be in the coastal city of Latakia, directing a response to yesterday's attack as violence between rebels and pro-government forces intensified in the capital.

There were signs today that the 16-month uprising had reached a potentially pivotal stage, with rebel assassins reaching Assad's inner circle for the first time and soldiers apparently defecting en masse.

More than 200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in violence across the country yesterday, including 38 in Damascus where armed rebels are pressing an all-out offensive, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Anti-regime activists said today that government forces had begun shelling neighbourhoods in and around the capital in response to the suicide bomb attack.

Russia, which has supported Assad, said a 'decisive battle' had begun in Syria but supporting the opposition was a 'dead-end policy'.

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, added: 'Assad will not go on his own and our western partners don’t know what to do about that.'

Loud explosions, gunfire and attacks by helicopters were heard in Damascus yesterday, and it was suggested that troops had been issued with gas masks, raising fears that chemical weapons could be used.

Earlier, Syrian state television confirmed the deaths of Assef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law and the deputy head of the armed forces, as well as defence minister Dawoud Rahja and crisis management chief Hassan Turkmani.

Shawkat, who was married to Assad's sister Bushra, was one of the most feared members of the president's inner circle.

Other leading government figures were wounded when the bomb exploded during a meeting of ministers and security officials at a national security building in Damascus.

Goldie comes home

Evicted Big Brother Stargame housemate, Goldie, arrived Nigeria last night. She was received upon arrival by Mr. Kenny Ogungbe, Managing Director, Prime Time at the Muritala International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

Women have their queer ways. I’d say she looks too great to throw herself at that perforated and superficial fellow housemate, Prezzo, who couldn’t even be decent enough to pretend to love her back. Anyway, welcome back home, babe.

New traffic offence bill misses it, again

Traffic gridlock in Lagos. Inset: LASTMA logo

The new traffic offence bill just passed by the Lagos State parliament and currently awaiting Governor Babatunde Fashola’s assent again speaks to the cluelessness at the heart of Lagos traffic problems. Solution to increasing traffic infractions on Lagos roads does not lie in making the traffic laws more draconian. Instead, it lies in effective enforcement of extant laws. 

Can it be argued that everyone who has driven against the traffic in Lagos in the last one year has been apprehended and fined accordingly? Certainly not. If you have not arrested even 10 percent of those who have committed this violation in Lagos in the last one year, how can you come to the conclusion that the fine is not effective?

It has been demonstrated in other jurisdictions that people will generally not violate traffic laws if they know they will be detected and punished accordingly, with a fine primarily. Nobody is happy to pay out money unless in exchange for goods and services. Nigerians hate fines. Lagosians who travel to environments where traffic laws are enforced effectively are generally among the best behaved road users.

Namibia is in Africa, yet if you jump the red light at an intersection you are not likely to get away with it. Manual monitoring is complemented by an automated system, complete with cameras which capture your plate number. A ticket is despatched to the address registered with the vehicle within days. If the offender fails to pay within stipulated time, he gets a court summons. At that stage onward, he can land in jail. Nigerians in that country dutifully abide by the laws. Such an advanced system was not put in place overnight. It began with the development of a central database of vehicles and their owners.

The challenge of traffic law enforcement in an environment like ours is what the government should creatively and rigorously think about, not rolling out this simplistic solution that bodes ill for Lagos and its residents.

Three years imprisonment without an option of fine for one-way driving is an unreasonable proposition, which even if it works, will be at a hugely disproportionate cost to the society. There is a cost of enforcement beyond Naira and Kobo that the makers of the laws have not thought about. For every one daredevil one-way traffic violators that this law will send to jail, there are two otherwise law abiding citizens whose lives will be ruined by that law for taking a wrong turn in a city lacking in modern directional signs. Ignorance, indeed, is no excuse in the court of law.

Equally important is the fact that this law will be putting the enforcers in harm’s way. Those who came up with this bill apparently did not consider that they might be imperilling the lives of the LASTMA officials working to keep our roads free? They did not consider the fate of that hardworking LASTMA official that will try to stop a one-way traffic violator who knows he is certainly going to jail if caught. And for the motorists who do not have the heart to run over a LASTMA official standing between him and freedom, they will be willing to significantly jerk up the upper limit of a bribe they can pay a traffic law enforcer. Either way, the society is the loser.

Traffic management thrives on careful planning and rigorous thinking. This proposed law is not a product of that process and will ultimately make Lagos worse than it is. Why do we still not have a central database of vehicles owned in Lagos State, plus the biometrics of their owners? And when the bill talks about first-time offenders, how do they even determine who is a first-time offender when there is no central database that you can run the biometrics of offenders through? This bill is assuming that the offences will be repeated in the same locality by the same offenders who will be apprehended by the same LASTMA officials who apprehended them the first time! A little convoluted, isn’t it? But that’s the only assumption we can make in an environment where digital records are non-existent.

It is not too late. The government can initiate an exercise to collect and centrally warehouse the details of all vehicles used in Lagos and their owners. And it should be at no cost to vehicle owners. Governments miss the point when they turn a vital social project like this to money-making ventures which add to the burden of the citizens. They then fail to get the much needed buy-in of the public. If at all any money will be paid by motorists and vehicle owners, it must be a token.  

In the meantime, government should invest in modern traffic management gadgets for the traffic managers. Breathalysers, speed guns, radio communication equipment and other essential tools should be provided. And, as for this bill, it should be tossed where it belongs, the dustbin.

End

Cheap, Chinko phones can kill you

Look at it this way. Nobody produces at a loss and stays in business. The Chinko phones are cheap in the first place because corners have been cut in many areas, including safety. No pretence is made to make these counterfeited devices meet international quality standards. And when they get into Nigeria, they are distributed in the grey market (outside the official, authorised distribution networks of the original equipment manufacturers).

Consequently, the phones bypass the Type Approval process of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). In essence, when you use this phone, you are truly and genuinely on your own (OYO).

Speaking to the media in Lagos on Monday, Silvin Sinan, the Head of Nokia Care Centre, Nokia West Africa, highlighted some of the dangers of chinko phones to include short life span and excessive radiation. Many Nigerians would nod their heads to the first one. Buyers of chinko phones don’t buy it to last. They buy it because it is cheap and looks like the expensive original. It’s the second danger that is not so well known, because you don’t feel it. Exposure to radiation won’t kill you in years, but will ultimately.

So how can you tell a phone is Chinko? Very easy. If someone offers you a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3 that goes for about N100k at the curious price of N20k, it’s either stolen or counterfeited. Either way, you should take to your heels.

Those turning House of God to den of robbers

Visiting my mother in Festac on Sunday reminded me how big the problem of commercialisation of religion has become in Nigeria. For the entire duration of the trip, we encountered at every turn, various gatherings of people professing to be worshipping God in lock-up shops, tents, open fields and residential buildings. Most were equipped with loud speakers, blaring at dangerous decibels.

In Festac, we could hardly hear each other talk as two gatherings of people using residential flats converted to churches on either side attempted to drown each other with loud preaching and praise worship. They are all operating outside areas designated for religious activities by the government. Residents who are not happy with the development are reluctant to report the activities to Federal Housing Authority lest they are branded persecutors of the Gospel.

But why do they all turn up the volume of their public address systems so dangerously and then proceed to yell as though there was none? This happens even if it is a lock-up shop that accommodates no more than 10. The reason for this would be an interesting study subject for social behaviour scientists.

The unfortunate truth was revealed by a Nigerian cleric who openly lamented recently that the work of God had been infiltrated by charlatans. There is a fast growing tribe of men and women who see ministerial work as an avenue to personal riches and aggrandisement. And with no formal entry barrier, hundreds of such men and women, some with no scruples at all, are turning into ministerial work to lead the good life. They lay claim to a right to have astounding wealth on account of working for God, because, well, of course, God is not poor. They have no time for rural evangelism.

The missionaries of old left the comfort of their homes for rural environments without electricity, pipe borne water, boreholes, decent toilet, etc to win souls for Christ. But our modern day preachers are only called to evangelise urban, Blackberry and iPad-hugging souls. Everyone is hunting for souls that can sow a seed of a Hummer or Bentley into the life of a ‘Man of God’. Suddenly, the House of God is a place that poor people are blamed for their plight. They are made to believe they are poor because they have not learnt to sow very well. Many end up giving up the little they have to enable the Man of God to buy and fly a private jet. This cannot be the will of God.

This verse in the Holy Bible speaks to many ‘Men of God’ today. Mathew 21:13.  ‘He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Certainly, there is a principle of sowing and reaping. But the ministers of God using this principle unscrupulously to take from the poor in order to lead a life of obscene wealth should listen to Jesus Christ rebuking them in Mathew 21:13.

World’s largest woman adopts marathon sex for weight loss

Pauline Potter became the world's heaviest living woman last year, weighing in at a whopping 643 pounds. Now, Potter has her sights set on losing weight, and she's turned to marathon sex sessions to help shed the pounds.

In an interview with the UK's Closer magazine, Potter described how her reignited sex life with ex-husband Alex has helped her lose 98 pounds. 

 “I can’t move much in bed, but I burn 500 calories a session –- it’s great exercise just jiggling around," Potter told Closer. Potter, who had been consuming 10,000 calories a day, hopes to reach her goal weight of 532 pounds with the help of Alex. The two have sex up to seven times each day.

 She makes sure to have some fun, too.

 “We love foreplay and massages and, as well as full sex, I pleasure Alex, too," she told the magazine. "My bed is strengthened and, although I can’t buy sexy lingerie, I drape a nice sheet over me.”

After meeting online in 2002, the couple married in 2005 and, when Potter failed to bond with Alex's son, the two split up three years later. The break-up triggered Potter's weight gain. She began consuming copious amounts of high-calorie foods and packed on the pounds.

With all the extra weight on her, Potter became depressed. She contacted the Guinness Book of World Records in hopes that winning the title of "World's Heaviest Woman" would shame her into losing weight.

When Alex got wind of the publicity surrounding Potter, he decided to visit her and the flame was quickly rekindled.  

“Within the first day of being back together we had sex six times in 24 hours," Alex told the Sun last November. “Even though one of Pauline’s legs weighs more than I do, we’re able to position her body to make sex enjoyable for both of us."

Alex, who weighs just 140 pounds, does most of the work in the bedroom.

“It’s really dangerous for us to have sex because at any moment the bed could collapse and one or both of us could be seriously injured or even killed from the impact," he told the Sun.

But using sex for weight loss is not an unheard of activity.

"Shagging can make you slimmer, if you do enough of it," Dr. Yvonne Kristin Fulbright, a sex educator, relationship expert, columnist and founder of Sexuality Source Inc., wrote for Fox News in 2008. "It can also help the two of you fall for each other all over again. Requiring no monthly fee — dress code optional – you can 'sexercise' yourself into shape. This is one gym membership you’ll never want to drop."

Dr. Fulbright, who has contributed to The Huffington Post and who earned her Ph.D. in International Community Health Studies at New York University, also writes that a good "sexercise" routine can not only lead to weight loss, but also to improved blood flow, strengthening of the heart, better cholesterol, better sleep, more energy, improved muscle tone and decreased stressed.

While Potter's sex life is speeding at full-throttle, she's also reined in her eating habits. She no longer eats 10,000 calories per day, though she still enjoys the occasional Big Mac.

The World's Most Expensive Mobile Phone

British jeweler Stuart Hughes lays claim to creating the world's most expensive mobile phone. The iPhone 4 "Diamond Rose" edition boasts a price tag of £5 million or about $8,184,968.42.

According to Marshable, for that astonishing sum, the purchaser gets 500 individual flawless diamonds totaling over 100 carats, a rose gold Apple logo with 53 diamonds, and a single cut 7.4-carat pink diamond on the home button.

Hughes has also bundled in an 8 carat single cut flawless diamond which can replace the pink one, just in case you needed a sweetener to seal the deal. According to CNN, only two were made, so it's most unlikely owners would ever bump into each other ever.

One visible failure of Gov Amosun

Tankers, trailers parked on both sides of the expressway at Ogere

Ogere, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway continues to be a huge headache to travellers. Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State promised upon being sworn in to solve the problem once and for all. It is over a year now, yet tanker and trailer drivers continue to be as lawless as they have always been, parking recklessly on the expressway.

They are so comfortable that they even form double lines on the express way sometimes, leaving a narrow passage for motorists to squeeze through. Any day there is a huge influx of traffic, maybe for a religious event or anything else, motorists have to detour into Sagamu to bypass the trouble spot or spend hours sitting in traffic gridlock.

Former Governor Gbenga Daniel tried as though he was going to win the battle against the lawless tanker drivers, but ultimately lost.  It does seem this is one failure that we are going to have to record for Gov Amosun upon completion of his tenure too. But of course, there is still time.  If the governor with all the powers conferred on him by the constitution cannot tame these lawless lot, who will?

Widest mouth on a human...

Widest mouth on a human...

This gentleman was probably coming into the world as a whale, before he changed his mind at the last minute.  He has the widest mouth found on any human. His name is Francisco Domingo Joaquim, from Sambizanga Luanda, Angola.

His mouth conveniently accommodates a can of coca-cola. No kidding. According to Guinness World Records, the chap’s mouth measures 17 cm (6.69 in). Measurement was done live on the set of Lo Show dei Record in Rome, Italy, on 18 March 2010, so you can be sure there was no hanky panky. And of course, there are pictures too. Nobody has since come close, but that's probably because they haven’t tried the characters in our National Assembly!

Abubakar confirmed as IGP

IGP Abubakar

The National Police Council has confirmed Mohammed D. Abubakar as Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

This is long overdue. In my humble opinion, the gentleman ought to have been confirmed ages ago, and fire put on his tail to rein in the spiralling violence across the country. Things have never been this bad, security-wise, and all we had was an Acting IGP who was not too sure if his butt would be kicked any moment.

Give a man all the authority he needs; allow him all the confidence he requires to bark and bite, and of course, all the equipment too. Then, give him deadlines. Produce results or get sacked. You can then actually expect results.

New camera gives photo shoot new meaning!

Creative, innovative camera to be added to your gadget cache. But ..erm, you have to stay sideways to snap objects. Plus, you have to watch where you use it. Fancy taking this camera out to snap the Right Honourable Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan at an event. You stand a very good chance of being shot with the real thing by jittery security officials before you shoot your own picture!  

Iran should not kill this man

Waiting for death: Pastor Nadarkhani pictured with his boys before his arrest.

Christianity has been gaining ground in unlikely places, but not without some steep prices. This 34-year old man, Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the Church of Iran, a husband and father of two lovely boys, is awaiting execution in an Iranian prison, after he was convicted of apostasy in an Iranian court in 2010. Interesting fact is that death for apostasy is not codified in the Iranian Penal Code. The court somehow exploited a loophole to impose the death sentence. He has spent over 1000 days in prison and has had three opportunities to renounce Christianity or face death. He refused each time. He next appears in court on September 8, but could be executed before then.

This guy does not deserve to die. He has not hurt anyone. His wife does not deserve to be a widow and his lovely boys do not deserve to be fatherless. The U.S. State Department issued a statement last Monday demanding that Tehran immediately release this man. Remember him in your prayer and if you have the email of the Iranian ambassador, send him a line to lend his voice to the campaign to set this man free. It’s the 21^st century.

Top 10 features of Samsung Galaxy S3

In my view, these are the killer features of the brand new Samsung Galaxy S3

1. Monster screen- The screen is a whopping 4.8 inch (12.2cm). At that size, you are in gaming heaven! Plus you see picture and videos much better.

2. Best photo option- An 8MP camera with Best Photo' function allows you to pick the best of four shots the camera takes in one single click. With this feature you are four times more likely to have the best shot of that rare occasion where you can only click once.

3. Smart screen- The screen knows when you are awake! A second camera (1.9MP) on the front of the device plus face recognition technology enables the device to track your eye movements and therefore ensure that the phone never goes dim or goes into lock mode as long as you are looking at it. How cool is that!

4. Wireless transfer- S-Beam feature makes it possible to transfer files, documents, videos and other content from one Galaxy S3 to another. Works best if you and your spouse or best friend have this phone.

5. Wireless projection- Allshare allows you to play and see the content of your device on a television screen etc without using wire.

6. Voice command- S Voice let’s you give voice command to the device. You can ask your phone to play songs, adjust the volume, send text messages or emails, and take photographs.

7. Missed call notification. The phone vibrates when you pick it if you have missed some calls.

8. Optimised battery- You can go 24hours before needing a recharge. Well, that’s something considering the size of the screen. With many Smartphones with much smaller screens, you’d be lucky to go a full day.

9. Call clarity- Noticeably clearer call quality than most phones on the market.

10. Wireless charging- With an optional accessory of a docking unit, you don’t need wires to recharge your phone. Just dump it on the docking unit in your office or car.

It's the stone age on the long bridge!

Brig.Gen. Iruh, killed

It’s the first time I’m hearing about this, but apparently it has been going on for a long time. If your car breaks down on the long bridge along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, near the popular Berger Bus Stop, you are in deep trouble. Some herdsmen permanently stationed under the bridge leap up within minutes and attack you with arrows and dagger.

Latest victim is Brig. Gen. Sylvester Iruh (rtd) whose Toyota Hilux had a flat tyre on the bridge and was shot with an arrow while fixing it. The herdsmen reportedly stabbed him many times and even abandoned a dagger in him before proceeding to rob him and the occupants of his vehicle.

On the night of the attack on the gentleman and his relatives, four other victims with stab wounds were rushed to the Accident and Emergency Hospital, near 7 Up/old Toll Gate Ikeja where the Brig.Gen breathed his last. They were all reportedly attacked at the same location. They were however luckier to have survived their ordeals.

Several commentators have since then been coming out with stories of how that place has been a notorious den of primitive robbers armed with knives, bows and arrows for a very long time.

Incidentally, just nearby is a cattle market-cum-settlement of cattle-rearers/sellers. If this has been going on for this long, what are the authorities doing about it? Lagos State could claim it is out of its jurisdiction. But what is the Ogun State government doing about it? Is this not one of the challenges that the two states can collaborate to tackle, especially seeing as it affects the residents of the two states.

Must we wait until people resort to self-help and precipitate another Southerner versus Northerner blood-letting before our governors will drag their lazy backsides off their expensive chairs to do something?

Mobile phones colonise mankind

The more mobile phones become useful to us, the more they are able to get more and more of our attention, sometimes at the detriment of other things. Check out these youths turned to walking zombies by their mobile devices. Are you this besotted with your own phone?

This gentleman cried for help, but none came

Majority Leader of Plateau House of Assembly Hon. Gyang Fulani recently cried for assistance for his defenceless constituents who were being slaughtered by Fulani Herdsmen on a regular basis.

Many would have thought he was being melodramatic when he went as far as calling for protection from the international community through the United Nations during one of his submissions on the floor of the state assembly. Some would have thought that that call was a slight on our president as it more or less indicated that he had no trust in his assurance to rein in the violence, nor in the ability of constituted authorities to save his people.

Now, the gentleman is dead, killed by the self-same assailants that he had consistently cried to authorities to save his people from. He was killed together with a serving senator, representing Plateau North in Nigeria’s upper chamber, Dr Gyang Dantong and scores of other hapless Nigerians. About 100 people were reportedly killed by the herdsmen in two days of orgy of violence against defenceless people, including women, the aged and children. All these happening in a country with constituted authorities. Would it have been any worse in Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature?

WACS carries traffic in Nigeria

MTN Nigeria has rolled out a bouquet of services running on its all new ultra-high capacity submarine cable, West African Cable System (WACS). The services are being rolled out and managed by MTN Business, a division of MTN focused on business-to-business solutions. The 17,200 km submarine cable system courses from Europe through West Africa to South Africa. This Service was made commercially available in May, 2012.

“We are now in a position to offer large organisations and SMEs reliable high capacity connectivity for all their needs,” declared Mr. Babatunde Osho, Chief Enterprise Solutions Officer, MTN Nigeria, in a press statement released in Lagos. “We have capacity to provide high quality, low latency internet access to wholesalers such as ISPs, Internet Bandwidth Resellers and Carriers, as well as end-users anywhere in the country.”

Mr. Osho explained that WACS has 15 landing stations along its route, putting MTN in a vantage position to deliver International Private Leased Circuits to additional locations worldwide. He added that MTN has a unique advantage which no other cable has, of a pre-existing extensive terrestrial Internet Protocol (IP) and broadband backbone infrastructure, enabling the company to deliver high grade and highly-available Internet capacity to anywhere and everywhere in Nigeria.

Mr. Osho expressed the belief that WACS would bring the much-needed boost to the growth of many businesses whose requirements for data have continued to be on the rise in the last few years.

The West African Cable System (WACS) is a consortium of 11 network operators across 15 countries with MTN being the single biggest investor in the group. WACS connects South Africa with the United Kingdom along the West Coast of Africa, landing in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

MTN Business will continue to provide world class ICT solutions that will enable large corporations and small and medium scale enterprises, serve their customers better. The coming of WACS is yet another way of keeping our promises.” says Osho.

Samsung strengthens ties with mobile apps developers in Nigeria

Samsung Electronics West Africa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Co-Creation Hub (Cchub) Nigeria’s foremost technology innovation centre. The agreement will allow Samsung to provide expertise, resource, capacity building, and marketing support to local mobile apps developers in addition to availing them the right platforms to create awareness for and monetize their creations.

As part of this partnership, Samsung recently sponsored the June 2012 edition of CcHUB’s ‘Developers Parapo’, where Nigerian web and mobile application developers network to share and gain knowledge required for starting and growing viable businesses..

Head, Product Marketing, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Jude Omozegie, who officially opened the event with a presentation entitled Samsung Business Content, expressed Samsung’s delight at the opportunity provided by the platform to interface with young developers whose contributions are critically needed to drive local participation in the blossoming mobile application industry..

“Learning, entertainment, social networking, health services, financial services etc are going mobile. As a result, applications have emerged as a fundamental part of this evolution, as more and more consumers want to access relevant content on the go on their mobile devices,” he said..

Omozegie added that Samsung is in tune with this dynamics, and recognises the pivotal role of mobile phones in facilitating innovation-based services, which he said, explains why Samsung is currently the topmost Smartphone manufacturer in the world..

“At Samsung, our core business is apps and technology solutions, but we still rely on different stakeholders to help provide content; hence our interest in building a strong mutually beneficial relationship with Cchub. Samsung recognises the need for partnership because fast-growing portfolios of mobile applications would be fuelled by efficient developer ecosystem”..

Also speaking at the event, the Head, Content and Services, Samsung South Africa, Mr. Thabiet Allie, urged the young developers to strive to combine marketing and business perspectives with their technology or coding background, stressing that this is key to their emerging successful entrepreneurs. “The essence of apps developing business is recognising a niche market and matching it with a solution”, said Allie..

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Creation Hub, Mr. Bosun Tijani in his remarks thanked Samsung for supporting the community, which according to him had availed local technology entrepreneurs of the opportunity to meet face to face with Samsung to explore mutually beneficial opportunities.

Samsung Galaxy S III hits Nigeria

Samsung Electronics’ latest flagship Smartphone, Galaxy S III is now available in Nigeria, only a few weeks after launch in Europe. The much expected device was formally unveiled to Nigerian phone users at Samsung Brand Shops at The Palms Shopping Mall in Lekki and Ikeja Shopping Mall, in Alausa, Ikeja, both in Lagos. The new phone is the follow up to the very popular Galaxy II, which was critical to Samsung overtaking Nokia to become the world’s best-selling mobile phone maker.

Samsung is hoping to consolidate the success it achieved with Galaxy S II by enhancing some of its most popular features in this latest device. Galaxy S III comes with a 4.8 inch (12.2cm) screen, an increase on the 4.3 inch screen of its predecessor, and much bigger than the 3.5in display on the iPhone 4S. It is one of the largest screens on smartphones ever.

The arrival of the phone on Nigerian shores put paid to speculations as to when mobile phone users in the country can have access to the Smartphone which has enjoyed rave reviews across the world.

Speaking at the consumer launch of the device at the weekend, Donald Etim, Head, Corporate Marketing, Samsung Electronics, said that the Samsung Galaxy S III is designed to respond intuitively and naturally to human use and interaction. “Once again, we are putting the ‘Next Big Thing’ in the hands of consumers. The Galaxy S III introduces a completely new way of sharing and socializing that no other mobile phone can. The device essentially balances ergonomics with intuitive use, making it an extension of the user,” he said.

It would be recalled that Samsung Electronics overtook Apple Inc. in the last quarter of last year to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor amid a widening technology and legal battle between the two companies.

During the period, Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones, taking 23.8 percent of the market, according to the United Kingdom- based renowned research consultancy, Strategy Analytics. Apple’s 17.1 million shipments, comprising 14.6 percent of the market, pushed Apple to second place, the firm said, adding that Nokia maintained its third position.