Posted by technology on February 10, 2011 at 7:01am
Apple keeps on growing! Steve Jobs' empire set to become world's most valuable company
Apple is set to become the world’s most valuable company this year, financial analysts said yesterday.
It is predicted to leapfrog the current number one, oil giant Exxon Mobil, capping a remarkable rise for the gadget firm, which is thriving on sales of Mac computers, iPhones, iPods and now iPads.
Shares in Apple are predicted to rise a staggering 32 per cent over the next 12 months, driving the company’s market value up to £269.5billion.
Rising shares: Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the launch of the iPad last year. 14.8m of the devices have since been sold, pushing the company's value up to £269.5billion
That is tipped to be sufficient to overhaul Exxon, currently valued at £263billion, even taking into account that its value is also set to increase, with rising oil prices likely to drive up its profits.
The rest of the top ten is dominated by mining and energy heavyweights, along with Apple’s long-time rival Microsoft, now trailing behind a firm it used to beat easily.
Apple reported its best ever quarterly results last month, continuing its relentless rise up the list of the world’s biggest companies.
Where the magic happens: Apple, which is thriving on sales of Mac computers, iPhones, iPods and now iPads, is based in Cupertino, California
In the last three months of 2010 alone, it sold 3.89million Macintosh computers, 14.1million iPhones, 9.05million iPod music players and 4.19million iPad tablet computers.
The better-than-expected figures for iPhones – which benefited from an expansion of their U.S. network – and iPads caused many analysts to upgrade their 12-month predictions for Apple’s share performance.
Although Apple suffered a momentary setback when shares plunged early last month after CEO Steve Jobs said he was taking a medical leave of absence, experts remain bullish over its prospects, saying it has only just begun to exploit the international market.
Cool and quirky image: Apple's iPod preceded the colourful iPod Minis and Nanos, which proved a hit with millions of customers
BRAINS AND BEAUTY: THE APPLE MAGIC
Intuitive, high-performance products with a sleek aesthetic have made Apple a favourite with gadget fans and technophobes alike.
Though Steve Jobs founded the company, he resigned from the board of directors in 1984. He returned as CEO in 1997, dramatically streamlining the company's product offering.
The first product to launch after his return would set the scene for things to come.
With its colourful bubble-shaped monitor, the iMac G3 was a sexy design at an accessible price point.
But it was the launch of the iPod portable media players in 2001 that opened the doors to a whole new customer base.
Quirky advertising campaigns and celebrity endorsement paved the way for spin-off products including the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle, while the iTunes music store became equally popular.
Today the iPhone (launched in 2007) and the iPad (launched 2010) are the company's must-have products, though a thinner, lighter follow-up to the iPad is already rumoured to be in production.
‘Analysts are as giddy as you can be, but Apple just keeps surpassing those numbers,’ said Pete Najarian, co-founder of stock market website TradeMonster.com.
Although it has long cultivated a unique reputation with a loyal customer base devoted to the ‘cool’, quirky brand and aesthetically pleasing design, it is only in recent years that Apple has transformed into a sales juggernaut.
Founded in California in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it grew in the shadow of Microsoft and was given up for dead a decade ago but surpassed the PC giant last May to become the world’s most valuable technology company.
Its rise is likely to be boosted with a thinner, lighter and souped-up version of its iPad tablet computer that is reportedly already in production.
Some experts expect the company to sell as many as 35million iPads this year, more than doubling last year’s 14.8million sales.
However, Apple’s latest success comes just months after it was accused of exploiting workers, with a spate of suicides among workers at manufacturing plants in China.
Fourteen workers at the Foxconn Technology Group factories, which make iPhones and iPads for Apple, killed themselves last year amid complaints of ill-treatment, causing Apple to launch an investigation.,,
Posted by 9jabook.com on December 12, 2010 at 9:34pm
If you know me personally, or even digitally , then you know that I am a physical fitness and athletic enthusiast. I find that there is a certain level of determination that is built up by being physically fit and sticking to a regimen. Athletics and exercise are the purest physical expression of true mental discipline that one can find. As an entrepreneur, I don't think I would be able to do what I do without the mental preparedness a daily workout routine brings. With so many parallels between athletics and entrepreneurship, I asked myself "Who is the Steve Jobs of athletics?" This question can certainly be debated, but at the end of the day I arrived with an answer of Michael Jordan. A recent ad campaign by Nike with Michael Jordan is focused on the phrase "Be Legendary." and the quotes that come from them are absolutely golden. In truth, some of the best entrepreneurial advice I have ever received has come from Michael Jordan and this campaign. Here are 23 insights that I've learned from Michael Jordan:..
It's About Knowing Where You're Going
You have to have a clear path as to where you want to go. As a startup, things change along the way. Your execution might make you pivot or implement a different solution. At the end of the day, you need to stick to a clear vision and problem that you're trying to solve. If you're lucky enough to succeed, the road to where you're going may look a lot different than it did when you first started. Take a look at Google- make the world's information freely available. That has been the goal from day one, and despite solutions consisting of email, maps, video, operating systems, and more, that is still their goal at the end of the day. Never forget where you are going as an entrepreneur with your company.
Don't Forget Where You Started/Came From
This holds true for you as a person as much as it holds true for the company itself. Though we do it for more than the money, money can often change people to forget their humble beginnings. Many great entrepreneurs came from absolutely nothing - just an idea that might change the world one day. Don't ever forget that child like desire you had the first day you started. If you harness that essence, no money or fame can ever change you. Never forget your family and your close friends that were there before you started upon this journey. The best thing a company can do is keep a list/wiki of company lore that will remind them of their adventures. The long flights, the growth in employees, the launches, the failures, and more from the early days. Andres and I have been traveling the country with PadPressed. We've encountered some victories and many failures along the way, but we're keeping a record of it through writing, tweets, and pictures.
Have the courage to fail
Failure is a part of anything in life, but having the courage to face it head on is what makes you stronger. We hear so much talk about "it's okay to fail", but I don't think there's enough clarification. You shouldn't let your startup as a whole fail, that's not something you should easily let happen. Startups are really a compilation of many small instances of victories and failures. It's embracing those small instances of failures that will let you learn and adapt better. Think of embracing failure as the entrepreneurial equivalent of an immune system. By embracing failure, you learn what went wrong, what's bad, and how to prevent it from happening again. You build up a resistance to that specific instance of failure.
Don't break when broken
What goes up, must come down. Starting a company is a roller-coaster ride like none other. YCombinator actually has a graph here about this exact subject . You will feel broken inside and figure it's time to give it all up. That might be quitting yourself, selling the company, taking a weak deal, or even calling it quits on a smaller scale. DON'T. Emotions are fleeting and cloud your judgment. For the most part, something that makes you feel broken, should not break you. The true also holds same for the opposite.
Take everything given to you and make something better
Society is all about evolution, especially in technology and software. The greatest technologies take the fundamentals of what already exists in some form, but improves them with the new pieces that have evolved. I wrote about this earlier in a piece called "Build What Was Previously Not Possible." As an entrepreneur you will continually find new tools and innovations brought forth by other entrepreneurs. Take every single relevant thing you can find and bake it in to your product to make something better. For some that might be mobile, social, local,etc. Always ask yourself: "Am I using all the resources that are available and making something better?" We literally get nowhere with complacency, but get everywhere with advancement. Don't change the game, evolve the game.
Work Before Glory
The best entrepreneurs are humble and don't really care about the glory. One of the things that Dharmesh has taught me over the past few months is to keep a level head and be humble. Don't worry about the next press article that comes out about your company. Eventually there will be too many of them that it won't matter. It should be about the work you produce instead of the side benefit of glory. Your work will live on forever, but the glory will fade away when the next acquisition or rumor pops up. Legends are products of their work, NOT their glory.
Do what they say you can't
The competitive nature of entrepreneurship is a fun one. Many people will tell you that it can't be done or that it is too crazy. They will tell you that a better X can't be built or you won't be able to accomplish a small goal like fundraising or hiring. The people telling you this might not even be strangers, but close friends and family members. The only way to prove them wrong is to do it.
It's not about the tech, it's about what you do with it.
The tools and technology that is available to entrepeneurs just keeps on growing. Whether it's social, HTML5, geolocation, node.js, cloud services, or whatever else, that's not what this is about. Those tools by themselves are cool, but not that useful. The technology tools are like an artist's paint brush or a baseball players bat. It's about what you decide to create with those tools.
Be Scared Of What you won't become.
As an entrepreneur, you probably have a very big long term vision that you want to accomplish. It can't happen right now, but over time it eventually will. I always point out that Facebook started at one college, with one photo, no wall, and a mediocre design. Look at decisions as if they might compromise what you could become. If you take the easy route and make the wrong decision, you will not become what you should be. That should absolutely scare you. What if Zuck sold to Yahoo! many years ago? That has to be a scary thought as Facebook would not have become what it is today.
Make Others Scared Of What You Could Become
Entrepreneurs are often asked "So what if Google enters your market?" That's a worthy question, but at the end of the day, your vision should be so mind numbingly amitious and huge, that it scares Google or someone else. Today you might be something small, but if you play your cards right, what you end up becoming is scary. The really smart entrepreneurs aren't scared of the bigger guys as much as they are of the smaller, more nimble startups that COULD BECOME who they are now. At some point, everyone was no one.
Don't finish where you began
Startups are all about momentum and forward moving progress. Every task, project, or new feature should be able to take you forward. It might even be okay if it took you backwards, as the journey backwards is still a journey. Spending a ton of time on something and just ending up where you began is something you should avoid as an entrepreneur.
Know what is within you, even if others can't see it
Sadly, too many people in our industry disregard others that aren't in the in crowd or very visible. They look at who an entrepreneur is now, but not at the true future potential of who that person will become. The same way a smart person knew that Facebook would be something big in 2004, is the same way a smart person knew that a 19 year old unknown kid from Harvard would change the world. Some people ask me why I put my phone number and other contact information out there publicly (fyi- it's 201-305-0552). It's simple- You never know who you might meet. They might not be somebody now, but over time they might become somebody legendary. If you can help them get there, it benefits everyone involved. By helping others, you eventually start to develop pattern recognition for finding great talent, which is a key component of being a leader.
Patience is more important than courage
We always want success now or even yesterday. It's hard for us to realize that things won't happen as fast as we want them to. Courage is certainly a very important trait, but more important is having the patience to see things through. When we look at the success of others, we only see the end result. Even if we see the journey along the way, it is still a small snapshot. Take in the whole picture and realize that there are no overnight successes.
Fulfill your destiny.
It takes a while to get to this point, but you eventually realize what your destiny is in life. You clearly know what you were meant to do with your life and what the end result will be. It takes a lot of trial by fire to get there, but once you do, you will become unstoppable. The real key to fulfilling your destiny is figuring out exactly what it is. Once you figure out what that specific destiny is, it's a long journey, but the fire it generates inside, will put you on auto-pilot.
The press leads us to believe it is easier than it is
The press' job is to write about stories that generate pageviews, since pageviews generate more advertising dollars. Failure and the grueling times don't really get too many pageviews. Success, money, glory, and the end result of hard work certainly does get pageviews. This skews us to think that raising money, selling your company, or launching is just so easy. I'd wager a fair amount of money that you will almost never hear a story titled:"Startup X Fails To Raise $2,500,000 Dollars" unless there is some juicy gossip backstory attached to it. Get back to work and close the RSS reader.
The real work starts at the keyboard and with customers.
If you're in a startup you're either making something or selling something. If you haven't made anything or sold anything, then I sincerely have no clue what you're doing at a startup. Sure there are operational tasks that need to be handled, but all founders can bear that burden. As a whole, founders + early employees need to make sure their actions have a direct impact on something be made and/or something be sold.
Not every product or feature launch is a winner
Remember Beacon? Remember Google Buzz? Remember Yahoo! Live? Remember AppleTV V1? Well, you might, but not for good reasons. Not every feature or product launch is going to be a slam dunk. Even the giants in our industry like Apple can have products launch that don't perform well. It's impossible to shoot 100%, but what matters is that you take 100% of the shots that you should be taking.
Fire over flash
Pretty interface and nifty features are not the path to success. They are certainly a great advantage to have, but the product also has to have fire behind it. If you have a pretty application that provides no real "fire" aka utility to the user, then it won't be used for long. Make sure you have fire before you have flash in your product.
Find Strength In Your Weaknesses
More and more, I'm finding out that my weaknesses are my strength. Weaknesses can be identified and attacked. If your company has a hole in its team, business model, or customer acquisition model, you can attack it head on. Find your weaknesses and figure out how to attack them in order to make your company stronger. It's simple: the less weaknesses you have, the stronger your startup becomes.
Be motivated by your pain
Some athletes hit their high points when they reach the area of most pain. The pureness of facing the most difficult parts of your journey should be the most rewarding as they allow you to level up. When Facebook first started in the college market, they didn't go after the schools where they could gain market share the easiest. Instead, Facebook actually went after universities where they would experience the most resistance and have the most pain ie- schools with existing social networks. If they could conquer this pain, they could easily conquer everything else.
Treat entrepreneurship like a privilege, not a right
I'm lucky to live in a country where entrepreneurship is something that anyone can get into. Many people often forget that other countries are not as lucky and have oppressive governments. We often talk about entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty, but this isn't even possible in some countries. Don't treat this as a lackadaisical experience. Many people would literally kill to be an entrepreneur, because it meant their survival. Be grateful for the opportunities you have and never take it for granted.
You must work for it every single of your day
Work/life balance is important, but there is no off switch for being an entrepreneur. You can't just turn it off and come back to it 3 weeks from now. If you really want to do this. If this is your destiny, which for many many people it just isn't, then it is something you have to keep at every single day of your life. Some are lucky enough that their first thing takes off. Your first, second, or even third thing might not take off. Stick with it and keep working at it every single day of your life.
Do not make excuses
Accomplishing something is a binary outcome. You either accomplished it or you did not. A lot of the times the end result will be the former, but don't sugercoat it. It happened for a reason and don't make excuses that act as scapegoats. Face success or failure head on. We often associate excuses with failure, but I think they can also be present in success as well. Though it's good to be humble, you shouldn't also make excuses for your success. Realize your what you did right and the hard work associated with it. Excuses are exactly just that- excuses. What other athletes and sports references have helped you become a better entrepreneurship? Instead of Michael Jordan, who might you pick and what has been their advice?
One More Thing...A FREE Special Event And Gift To The OnStartups Community
==================== OnStartups is helping put on a free "virtual event" in conjunction with the PlusConf crew on December 7. It starts at 12 pm EST, is 100% free, and all you need is a computer with an internet connection. Speakers include some awesome Boston natives such as David Cancel of Performable and Todd Garland of BuySellAds. OnStartups Presents PlusConf
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה, literally "head of the year," Israeli: Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈʁoʃ haʃaˈna], Ashkenazic: ˈɾoʃ haʃːɔˈnɔh, Yiddish:[ˈrɔʃəˈʃɔnə]) is a Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the "Jewish New Year." It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.[1] It is ordained in the Torah as "Zicaron Terua" ("a memorial with the blowing of horns"), in Leviticus 23:24. Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of Yom Kippur.
Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes as explained in the Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shmita) and jubilee (yovel) years. Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to one view in the Talmud, that of R. Eleazar, Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man, which entails that five days earlier, the 25 of Elul, was the first day of creation of the Universe.[2]
The Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's oral Torah, contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of judgment." In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to repent and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living."[3]
It would happen each fall around the Jewish new year. At the very time when renewal was in the autumn air, Arnold Barnett, an engineer from Moorestown, would go into a mild funk. His wife eventually figured it out: He was less than enamored with high holiday synagogue services.
"He simply wasn't engaged by what went on inside our Reform synagogue, or with the traditional approach to Judaism," said Ellen, 70. "I knew he was struggling. So sometimes, I would just go to services alone."
Then last year, the Barnetts saw a small notice in a local Jewish newspaper about a recently formed group in South Jersey. "We went to a meeting that was focused on Jewish history," Arnold, 71, recalls, "and that was something I could relate to. It was much more appealing."
And so the Barnetts will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which begins Wednesday at sundown, by meeting Sunday with like-minded members of South Jersey Secular Jews - a group of people who may or may not believe in God, but do believe in caring about the world and one another, respecting and understanding Jewish history, and celebrating a culture that has meaning and emotional pull.
"The most important aspect of secularism is the survival and continuity of the Jewish people," said Paul Shane, a native New Yorker now living in Philadelphia and married to the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
Shane, 75, a member of the more established Philadelphia Secular Jewish Organization, believes humans are responsible for what happens on Earth. The here and now is central, and actions speak louder than words.
That philosophy resembles traditional Judaism. But secular Jews and traditional Jews part company when it comes to accepting religious dogma.
If you're secular, God is optional. (Traditional Judaism has "God at its heart. That's not an option," said Rabbi Ethan Franzel of Main Line Reform Temple Beth Elohim in Wynnewood.) Also, life-cycle events are handled individually - for instance, there are no set burial or wedding traditions in secular Judaism.
Of course secularism, in which one adheres to cultural norms rather than religious ones, is hardly new. During the Renaissance, from 1450 to 1600, and the Enlightenment in the 18th century, many Jews shed the God-oriented elements of their Jewishness, according to Shane, a professor of social policy at Rutgers University in Newark. That shedding also continued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
What's different today is that a growing number of secular Jews are finding one another, forming groups, and practicing the social responsibility Judaism requires - minus the synagogue.
Rifke Feinstein, executive director of the national Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, says there are approximately 2,000 affiliated secular Jews in the United States. But because seculars typically are unaffiliated, and therefore uncounted, estimates for the entire American secular population range from 8,000 to 40,000.
In the Philadelphia area, there are six such organizations for secular Jews - including the five-year-old South Jersey Secular Jews - all under the local umbrella cooperative venture called Kehilla for Secular Jews.
For many people, discovering that such an organization exists has been a relief.
" 'I thought I was the only one!' is what people often express when they discover that they are not alone in their secular relationship to their Jewishness," said Larry Angert, 59, a member of 11-year-old Shir Shalom: A Havurah for Secular Jews. "The Jewish tent is big, and there's room for all of us in it."
Some local secular groups, like Philadelphia's Sholom Aleichem Club, which started in 1954, and Philadelphia Workmen's Circle, founded nationally in 1900 to aid Jewish immigrant workers and to promote Yiddish, have graying memberships. Bob Kleiner, 85, of Elkins Park, a retired sociology professor at Temple University, and his wife, Frances, a teacher of Yiddish, both long active in the secular movement, lament that younger people are not actively involved in these historic groups.
But the formation of new groups, such as South Jersey Secular Jews, is evidence the movement still has traction.
Credit Naomi Scher, 64, of Cherry Hill, whose children attended the Jewish Children's Folkshul, another Kehilla group, which is a parent-run cooperative held at Springside School in Philadelphia. About 100 children receive their Jewish education, not in a traditional Hebrew school but in classes that nourish social justice and individual responsibility. Bar and bat mitzvah aspirants undertake personally meaningful projects that they ultimately share with the entire Folkshul community.
Although Scher formed relationships with parents of her children's classmates, commuting to Philadelphia became burdensome once her children graduated, and in 2005, the retired social worker decided to start a secular group closer to home.
What began as a gathering of eight to 10 people now regularly attracts 30, meeting monthly with speakers who address social and political concerns, Scher said.
Deborah Chaiken, 74, of Palmyra is delighted to have a group close to home. "In the formal Jewish community, I felt that I didn't really have a voice. Here, I know that I do."
Dues are $25 a year, and participants are asked to bring food for potluck dinners. Meetings are held on the second Sunday of the month at Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill..
South Jersey Secular Jews members Cary and Bilha Hillebrand of Cherry Hill call the group a welcome addition to the local landscape. For Bilha, 54, the philosophy of the group is more in keeping with that of her native Israel, where the majority of the population leads a more secular lifestyle.
"We are not in any way antireligious," says Cary, 60. "We hold the belief that we are responsible for what happens to ourselves and to the world. And to us, that's the essence of what religion is, and should be."
People are talking and saying that What Turai did was mere childsplay that we are about to see the mother of all First Ladies in 9ja ! READ ON: Shocking Revelations await
Article:
It used to be that our government officials, their wives, aides, and hangers-on were prolific in the exercise of poor judgment and the making of horrible choices that always exacted a terrible price from the rest of us. When I read newspaper reports last week that Mrs. Patience Jonathan had travelled to Dubai and Beirut “on a private visit”, I concluded that our nightmare had just been made worse. It means that these fellas ruining our lives in Abuja and the state capitals have now graduated from the congenital exercise of poor judgment that afflicts all of them, to an outright assassination of judgment.
Let’s dispense first with some of the half-witted commentaries of the ponces of power that have been running riot on the Internet. Dame (the title maniacs have quietly introduced the ‘Dame’ thing in the media) Patience Jonathan, we are told, has the right to travel anywhere privately as a free citizen of Nigeria bla bla bla and more bla. Fine. The emergency contractor-defenders of the civil rights of the First Lady should please remind her not to use the presidential jet for the Abuja-Lagos leg of such private trips next time. Once the Nigerian taxpayer foots the bill of any part of the First Lady’s private trips, it is our responsibility to make our basketmouths to start dey leak again - apologies to Fela.
Of all the destinations that Patience Jonathan could have visited on this horribly ill-timed and unbelievably ill reflected “private trip”, it had to be Dubai, an increasingly popular money laundering route/destination for Nigerian politicians, government officials, and their courier-wives and concubines. And this is a Patience Jonathan who is still waiting for her day in court for corruption charges bordering on money laundering (by the way, her EFCC indictment file must not disappear)! Pray, when your neighbours suspect you of stealing the dogs in the neighbourhood for 404 purposes, must you be heard boasting of your affection for puppies in the market?
It gets worse.
Our friend, Elder Chief Stakeholder James Ibori, was apprehended by Interpol in Dubai. One week later, Patience Jonathan is on the plane to Dubai. Is there, by any chance, any of the handlers of the Jonathans who was thinking correctly?
The couple has a retinue of aides and advisers responsible for the packaging of their every move. We need to know which of them thought it was a great idea for the Patience Jonathan to head out to Elder Chief Stakeholder Ibori’s embrace in Dubai at this most inauspicious of times.
Ibori’s embrace? Am I perhaps stretching metaphor and speculation? You bet I am! I am more than happy to help the Jonathans ruin the little goodwill that ushered them into Aso Rock since squandering that goodwill appears to be their first order of business. And that is precisely what Nigerians are doing online. It’s an orgy of wild speculations out there. What does Elder Chief Stakeholder Ibori know?
What is the nature of the beans he is threatening to spill to the Dubai and British authorities that may have warranted presidential pacification? Does he perhaps have more embarrassing details on that little matter of Patience Jonathan’s money laundering wahala? Who knows what the Yar’Adua cabal revealed to him about the Jonathans when he played godfather over Aso Rock.
There is also considerable Internet chatter about madam having gone on a jewelry shopping spree. All the chatter about going to pacify Elder Chief Stakeholder Ibori or waste our money on jewelry is deserved. That is what you get when you have a Presidency that has been so perennially clueless in the management of public perception. Segun Adeniyi and his crew perpetually mismanaged the public perception of the Yar’Aduas. They were so incompetent that they couldn’t even tell coherent lies to the Nigerian people. Ima Niboro and his crew don carry dem own come. Not one of them suggested to their Oga and his Madam that this woolly-headed trip couldn’t have come at a worse time?
Beyond Internet chatter about the ill-advised trip to Dubai, it does appear that we, first lady-weary Nigerians, will once again have to contend with the spectre of that unconstitutional assault on our sensibilities. Patience Jonathan is already showing all the symptoms of a looming no break no jam first ladyship. There is always a competition to surpass the last occupant of that constitutionally non-existent office in overbearing showiness, gra-gra, and ostentation.
What is wrong with Nigerian men? Why do they find it so difficult to tell their ever ambitious madams that our Constitution does not recognise their predilection for transforming oga’s political office into a divahood launching pad? Every time someone gets selected to office, they make a heck of a noise about not tolerating the first lady aberration, only to get to the bedroom and sing a different tune to madam. After Maryam Babangida, Miriam Abacha, Stella Obasanjo, and Turai Yar’Adua, Nigerians are more than ready for a return to the first ladyless days of Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari. Deopka Goodluck Jonathan must therefore be advised to exercise no patience with Patience on this matter.
* Police, APCs deployed on the streets
VP nominee and Kaduna State governor, Namadi Sambo
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* How Sambo won Jonathan
The choice of Governor Mohammed Namadi Sambo of Kaduna State by President Goodluck Jonathan as his nominee for the vice presidential slot has sparked tension in Kaduna, prompting the police to deploy troops and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to the streets yesterday.
Sunday Vanguard can also report that the president’s choice of Alhaji Sambo, an architect, is a product of the president’s personal interaction with, and knowledge of, the governor from their time as members of the committee on power set up by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Some Islamic clerics and youths are said to be ones engineering the tension.
Their grievance, it was gathered in Kaduna, was not much about Alhaji Sambo but the fact that the affairs of the state will now be run by a Christian and the current deputy governor, Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.
Mr. Yakowa is from the predominantly Christian Southern Kaduna.
Some imams were said to have openly complained about the development..
On Friday some text messages began to articulate in the state one of which said:
‘Suhanallah, this means that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has won. Their agenda of taking over Kaduna and Nigeria has succeeded.
“Namadi is also not a prominent Muslim. Appointing him shows clearly that the Obasanjo agenda of shifting power to the Christians in both Kaduna and Nigeria is fast becoming a reality.
“All Muslims need to rise in prayers and in tigfar so that Allah in His infinite mercies may change this arrangement and put these enemies of Muslims and Islam to shame.”
The police reacted promptly be deploying men to the streets on Friday ahead of the Jumat prayers.
Policemen drove around the flash point in their APCs.
The state Police Commissioner, Alhaji Tambari Yabo Mohammed, also held a meeting with Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) in the state yesterday and reportedly directed them to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order in their areas.
Besides, Muslim and Christian leaders in the state were mandated to educate their followers on democratic principles.
SOKAPU, NDPF, NANS welcome his choice
But the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), the Northern Democratic Peoples Forum (NDPF) and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) hailed Gov. Sambo’s choice.
“The nomination of Sambo as vice president will certainly be of greater benefit to the generality of the Nigerian populace as he is a detribalized fellow, who believes in the corporate and peaceful co-existence of all Nigerians, irrespective of their religious or ethnic affiliations”, the NDPF said, while SOKAPU “rejoiced with the new Vice Presidential designate, Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo by President Goodluck Jonathan,” adding that Sambo was not only a “suitable replacement but a worthy honour to the union and Kaduna state”.
SOKAPU National President, Professor Haruna Ishaya Nock who spoke for the union said, “We are rejoicing with Arc Namadi Sambo and it is a welcome development because our state have been recognized in the federation.
This is a good omen and would bring about more other development to the Reacting to the development, the Kaduna state Police Spokesman, Deputy Superintendent, Aminu Lawal in an interview said, “the Commissioner of Police just finished security meeting with all Divisional Police Officers throughout the state, and he charged them to brace up and tighten up security vigilance in their respective areas.
“We are on top of security and trouble makers have no place here I can tell you. Kaduna state is intact and peaceful and no threat to security exists.
“Our men would go back and continue working with other stakeholders to strengthen security in their areas. We don’t want any record of breach and we are ready. People should go about their normal activities”.
All is well — KDSG
The state Commissioner for Information and Home Affairs, Alhaji Saidu Adamu said:, “There is no tension whatsoever in Kaduna state, everything is going fine and you can see.
“It is just the handiwork of detractors who wish the state bad but there is nothing like that in the Kaduna.
“The government of Kaduna state is actually happy that this is happening to us in Kaduna state, because we all know that the Governor never wanted this appointment, all he has been saying is that he wants God to grant him the ability to go back for a second term as the Governor of the state to make sure that he completes most of the projects he has started, so each time you even speak to him about being the Vice President he never liked it.
“He wanted to stay in Kaduna and complete the good job he started, but you see when God is doing his own thing he does not consult anybody.
“God had already prepared him for the Vice Presidency, so even when our governor was working tirelessly to see that Senator Makarfi becomes the Vice President, little did he know that in God’s mind he has already started with him.
“And that was why President Goodluck Jonathan decided to pick him as the constitution has provided.
“Whoever is saying that Sambo scuttled Makarfi’s bid to be Vice President actually does not believe in God. Namadi has been lobbying for Makarfi. It is the President that has the sole right to nominate anybody he feels that he is comfortable to work with him, so he feels comfortable to work with Namadi as Vice President”.
On the expected takeover of leadership in the state by the Deputy Governor, Mr.Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Adamu further said that, “the constitution is clear about this; the deputy governor will automatically become the governor, if the Governor is sworn in as the Vice President.
“Development is coming to our state; creating more environments for our people. That is the thinking of God and nobody can change that.
“It a normal issue without contest and if anybody thinks otherwise then he is ignorant of the constitution.
“Unless if the constitution is changed today, it is very clear and we have no other reason than to comply with the constitution. As long as the constitution is there we have no choice than to act according to it.
Why Jonathan settled for him
Meanwhile, Sunday Vanguard gathered that President Jonathan settled for Governor Sambo on the strength of the existing relationship between them that began when they both met and served in the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s committee on power.
The relationship, according to a source familiar with them, is “one based on trust, confidence and mutual respect.
Sunday Vanguard can also reveal that President Jonathan decided to consult as widely as possible so that whoever he settled for would be seen as the “product of wide consultations in the country”.
However, it was also gathered that at no time did he ask for a group nominee as was done by the Senate, House of Representatives and the Governors’ Forum.
A Presidency source told Sunday Vanguard “President Jonathan never requested any nominee from the Senate or the House of Representatives or the Governors’ Forum”.
Nevertheless, he kept it open and consulted as widely as possible.
On the involvement of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the nomination process, the source said; “in truth, President Jonathan deferred to the former President but there was never a time that guarantees were made or given on the matter.
“However, what many could not understand was that Jonathan and Sambo had struck a relationship which was nurtured into something wonderful.
“While both men were on the committee on power which the late President Umaru Yar’Adua instituted, they worked together and the trust was built.
“During the work of the committee on power, Governor Sambo and then Vice President Jonathan forged a relationship that was based on trust and understanding.
“The trust was built so much so that there were times when the Vice President would not approve anything except Governor Sambo had vetted the bills as appropriate.
“I think Jonathan also saw in Sambo a man who did not put pecuniary and primordial interests ahead of national interests and national developmental goals and objectives.”, a source who has followed both men closely told Sunday Vanguard last Friday.
Sunday Vanguard also gathered that when Jonathan visited Kaduna State during the KADA Games, the national sports festival hosted by the state, Jonathan was so impressed with the calisthenics that he requested from Sambo that “the people involved in the demonstrations should be brought to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, for the Under-16 World Cup. For the Vice President to have made such a request relates to the level of confidence he has in the man. And it is mutual.
“Even while some hawks were pushing Jonathan to do certain things while Yar’Adua was not around, good counsel from some quarters prevailed and you can guess from where”, adding, “Governor Sambo had made up his mind that if God Almighty was going to do something, why should human beings be the one rushing for it as if they could make it possible and, therefore, did not bother himself or show keen interest”
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Supersize Donna Simpson has found a bizarre way to turn her passion for food into money. Hundreds of men pay to watch online as 45st Donna scoffs vast amounts of burgers, pizza, crisps and cakes in an attempt to hit her target weight of 1,000lbs, or 72st. Since setting up her website last November, Donna, who squeezes into size 40 clothes, has already attracted 260 subscribers and their fees net her an impressive £2,000 a month – which she spends on food.
Donna, who’s 39 and 5ft 4, hopes to become one of the world’s heaviest women by consuming up to 12,000 calories a day. To reach her target, ex-carer Donna, who already suffers from diabetes and high-blood pressure, needs to gain another 27st and predicts it will take her until 2012 at her current weight gain of 7st a year.
“I don’t know why my target is 1,000lbs – it’s just the weight I believe I was born to be,” she says. Donna has been obese since childhood. By nine, she weighed 13st – she was bullied at school and dubbed “Fatty four-eyes.”
"He liked me supersized"
At the age of 24 Donna married Robert Simpson, a chef who encouraged her eating by bringing home leftovers from work to feed her. “He’d come home with steak and desserts,” she recalls. “He liked me supersized.”
Robert – who was already a dad to son Sean, now 18 – and Donna had a child together, Devin, now 12, but divorced shortly after. By then Donna weighed 43st. For the first time ever she went on a diet, urged on by her father who was concerned for her health, and lost 5st in six months.
But she soon lapsed when she met fat-lover Philippe Gouamba, 47, in an online chat room for oversized women in 2006. “When I ate enough for five people on our first date, it really impressed him,” says Donna, from New Jersey, USA. Philippe, who counts watching his girlfriend eat as one of his favourite hobbies, says: “I’ve always been attracted to big women, but Donna is my fantasy. The more she weighs, the sexier she is.”
Extreme health risks
The couple, who plan to marry next year, say that Donna’s size makes their sex life even better. “Philippe goes on top so he can play with my fat belly,” says Donna. Regular gym-goer Philippe, who is 13st and 6ft 4, also gets aroused by helping Donna, who is a bra size 56E, wash her rolls of fat in the shower.
Although doctors had said her 38st frame would make it almost impossible to conceive, Donna fell pregnant within three months of dating Phillipe. But she developed diabetes and high-blood pressure during pregnancy and needed a team of 19 doctors and nurses to get through the high-risk Caesarean birth.
When baby Jacqueline was born weighing 8lbs 14oz in February 2007, Donna became the world’s fattest woman to give birth – the previous largest had weighed 34st. But she admits she struggles to care for her daughter, as she can barely walk 20ft without needing to sit down. “It’s difficult keeping up with Jacqueline, but we’re very closely bonded,” says Donna. “Fortunately, anything I can’t do with her, her dad can, so I don’t feel guilty.”
It was six months after giving birth that Donna resolved to become one of the world’s heaviest women by weighing 1,000lbs. “I decided that if I was healthy enough to have a baby, then my body could cope with an extra 34st,” says Donna. “It will be a great achievement – not many other people have reached that weight.”
And despite initial worries for Donna’s health, Philippe supports his fiancée. He says: “Gaining weight makes Donna happy and seeing her happy makes me happy.”
"My food costs £400 a week"
But Donna’s ambition proved expensive, so she decided to set up a website after discovering that there were men willing to pay to watch large women eat. “My food costs £400 a week,” says Donna. “In a typical day I’ll eat four burgers and fries, a loaf of bread with peanut butter and jam, four servings of meatloaf and mashed potato, a large pizza, a chocolate cake with ice cream and cream, 12 cupcakes, two cheesecakes and fizzy drinks. And I don’t want Philippe to foot the bill just because I’m too big to go out and work.”
Donna charges £8 a month for access to photos of her body and videos of her feasting and measuring her ever-expanding waistline. She has 260 “fat admirers” from as far away as Japan and Australia and their ages range from 20 to 68. She spends between six and 10 hours a day responding to emails or doing live chats online. And although she admits to getting some sexual requests, these are firmly ignored.
Human resources executive Philippe is supportive of Donna’s venture. He says: “I don’t mind other men looking at her because I’m the only one who touches her.”
Since launching her site, Donna has gained 7st. Incredibly, she doesn’t care that reaching 72st will probably confine her to a wheelchair and could kill her, leaving her daughter – who she feeds a healthy diet – motherless. “I’m well enough to cope with my target weight,” she says defiantly.
With so many parallels between athletics and entrepreneurship, I asked myself "Who is the Steve Jobs of athletics?" This question can certainly be debated, but at the end of the day I arrived with an answer of Michael Jordan. A recent ad campaign by Nike with Michael Jordan is focused on the phrase "Be Legendary." and the quotes that come from them are absolutely golden. In truth, some of the best entrepreneurial advice I have ever received has come from Michael Jordan and this campaign. Here are 23 insights that I've learned from Michael Jordan:..