like (15)

By Ella Davies Earth News reporter12166299264?profile=original
cccccc.gif
_50899887_polar_bear_swim_mila_zinkova.jpg?width=466

A polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687km (426 miles), a new study has revealed.

Scientists studying bears around the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska, claim this endurance feat could be a result of climate change.

Polar bears are known to swim between land and sea ice floes to hunt seals.

But the researchers say that increased sea ice melts push polar bears to swim greater distances, risking their own health and future generations.

o.gif
start_quote.gif We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. end_quote.gif
George M. Durner

In their findings, published in Polar Biology, researchers from the US Geological Survey reveal the first evidence of long distance swimming by polar bears (Ursus maritimus).

"This bear swam continuously for 232 hours and 687 km and through waters that were 2-6 degrees C," says research zoologist George M. Durner..

"We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. It is truly an amazing feat."

Although bears have been observed in open water in the past, this is the first time one's entire journey has been followed.

o.gif

By fitting a GPS collar to a female bear, researchers were able to accurately plot its movements for two months as it sought out hunting grounds.

The scientists were able to determine when the bear was in the water by the collar data and a temperature logger implanted beneath the bear's skin.

The study shows that this epic journey came at a very high cost to the bear.

"This individual lost 22% of her body fat in two months and her yearling cub," says Mr Durner.

"It was simply more energetically costly for the yearling than the adult to make this long distance swim," he explains.

_50899894_polar_bear_a_wilson_naturespicsonline.jpg?width=466
Swimming long distances puts cubs at risk

Mr Durner tells the BBC that conditions in the Beaufort sea have become increasingly difficult for polar bears.

"In prior decades, before 1995, low-concentration sea ice persisted during summers over the continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea."

o.gif
POLAR BEAR FACTS
A polar bear (c) Tom Mangelsen / naturepl.com
Polar bears are the world's largest land carnivores
They have black skin and transparent hairs but appear white, turning yellow with age
On land, they can reach up to 40 kph (25 mph) when sprinting short distances to catch prey
inline_dashed_line.gif

"This means that the distances, and costs to bears, to swim between isolated ice floes or between sea ice and land was relatively small."

"The extensive summer melt that appears to be typical now in the Beaufort Sea has likely increased the cost of swimming by polar bears."

Polar bears live within the Arctic circle and eat a calorie-rich diet of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) to survive the frozen conditions.

The bears hunt their prey on frozen sea ice: a habitat that changes according to temperature.

"This dependency on sea ice potentially makes polar bears one of the most at-risk large mammals to climate change," says Mr Durner.

The IUCN red list identifies polar bears as a vulnerable species, citing global climate change as a "substantial threat" to their habitat.

Read more…

A look at this lady will never give her away for a man. From her breast and well shaped figure, to her steps , she looks every inch like a lady. But the bubble burst after she was discovered to be a man.

In a Strange Case of What a Woman Can Do A Man might just get caught doing it .


Photo 112166297896?profile=original Photo 2 Ogunleye Idris (As a man)

advertisement
19-year-old Ogunleye Idris, is one of the numerous young men who pose as ladies out there , in order to get money from their men folk.

Idris who just finished his secondary school education at Kings college Lagos, last year, was apprehended in a bar in Surulere area of Lagos, Sunday, where he had as usual, dressed like a man, waiting for a prey.

By sheer stroke of luck, a man(names withheld) reportedly walked into the bar in the company of two other ladies. But he was said to have been attracted to Idris who gave him an inviting look.

But Idris attitude was said to have raised the man's suspicion, when he attempted to fondle with his breast. Out of curiosity, the man reportedly managed to touch Idris' breast, where to his surprise, a sachet water fell off from the brazier. This caused an uproar, following which Idris was subsequently arrested.

In this interview with crime Alert, the Ogun state born disclosed that he began the illicit business this month, with a view of raising money to further his education.12166297482?profile=original

Hear him, " I went into it in order to raise money for my education. After my secondary school education, my father told me he could not afford money for me to buy JAMB form. Again there was nobody to help me because I am a man... I realized that men do not help their fellow men but women. Then, I decided to start dressing like a lady to deceive men and get money from them but I do not sleep with them. Whenever it gets to that stage, I stylishly excuse myself"

Asked how he usually collected money from men, he revealed that he would dial any number and if the owner happened t o be a man, he would invite him over, posing as a club girl. His preys according to him, sometimes fell into his trap while others disregarded him.

Continuing, Idris said, "so far, I have realised N20,000, out of which I used to buy part time form in University of Lagos and a JAMB form"

Asked if his parents are aware of what he was into, he shook his head, explaining that he never paraded himself like a lady around his vicinity in Isolo. On how he usually got himself dressed, he explained, " first , I would get a female dress and place two sachets of water on my breast, to make me look like a female and then, I will wear female shoes. I cat-walk like women because I always watch them walk and have been practicing the way they walk until I started this year. I had contemplated quitting at the end of next month,", he said.

The Lagos State Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, Mr Adesanya Jinadu, who cautioned men to be and wary of the likes of Idris out there, said he would be charged to court for attempt to defraud and attempt to breach public peace.

Read more…
IF EVER a ruling elite seemed to justify the Bush-era doctrine of “pre-emption”, it is the Kim dynasty in North Korea. No government anywhere subjects its own people to such a barbarous regime of fear, repression and hunger. And the Kims are complicit in international outrages ranging from murderous terrorism and nuclear proliferation to drug-smuggling and currency-counterfeiting. The present dictator, Kim Jong Il, is apparently not long for this world, and seems to be boosting his 27-year-old son and anointed successor as a victorious warrior. When the elder Kim was himself dauphin, in the 1980s, he earned his spurs through international terrorism.

This week the North waged war for the second time this year with South Korea when it shelled a South Korean island near the disputed maritime boundary, killing two soldiers and two civilians, injuring others and burning a score of houses. In March, when one of its torpedoes sank the Cheonan, a naval vessel, killing 46, North Korea could, albeit implausibly, deny culpability. This time, though the North describes its aggression as retaliation (for a harmless South Korean military exercise), there is no gainsaying its responsibility for one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean war in 1953. To add to this dismal catalogue, the latest onslaught came just three days after the revelation that, in defiance of international efforts to curb its nuclear programme, North Korea has developed a sophisticated facility for enriching uranium. That gives it a further potential source of material for bombmaking.



The starting-point for answering the North’s aggression has to be that, in the most basic sense, the Kims will almost certainly get away with only a symbolic return of fire. It is entirely wrong for North Korea to act as it does. But punitive military reprisals against the North risk a spiral of escalation and catastrophic war. Deterrence works badly against a dictator who blithely imposes famine and gulags on his people during peacetime. Even if there are doubts about the efficacy of its tiny nuclear arsenal, North Korea has enough men under arms, and enough conventional ammunition within range of Seoul—just 35 miles (60km) from the frontier—to make war seem very much a last resort.

If war and the threat of war are hardly even options, what can the world do? The best card in a bad hand is to heal the divisions among other countries about how to handle North Korea. That means, in particular, making China see that a tinderbox it has long regarded as a strategic asset has become an appalling liability. China also struggles to control North Korea. But a united front would change the environment that encourages the rogue state’s bad behaviour.

China cannot be blind to the Kims’ bungling and bellicosity, nor welcome their nuclear ambitions. But it has had two worse fears. One is of a rekindled war on the peninsula, which would damage China. The other is of North Korean collapse, with millions of desperate refugees pouring into China and South Korea or even American troops on China’s border. It is as a bulwark against this “instability” that China cossets the Kims. It refused to condemn them even for the sinking of the Cheonan, and this week issued blandly even-handed calls for restraint. It apparently believes that if their only ally abandons them, the Kims might do something really rash..

But they already have. Whatever it says publicly, China must surely see that this regime flirts with war as an instrument of diplomacy and that its desire to shock the world into negotiating with it requires ever greater outrages. Ultimately, this pattern of behaviour threatens the very stability China craves. China’s alliance with North Korea thus undermines not just its image as a global power but also its own interests.

So how to nudge China in the right direction? One possibility is the revival of the six-party forum, chaired by China and involving Japan and Russia. Talks stalled after North Korea forged ahead with its nuclear programme. The Kims would regard a revival as a victory. But talks will eventually have to resume if North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are to be negotiated down. If they also help persuade China to rein in North Korea, that would be a double benefit.
Read more…

Jay Jay Okocha Movie

Apparently there is a JayJay Okocha biopic in the works, it will be called Feet of Destiny(no surprises there…nollywood movie…cheesy title). The movie will reportedly span the entirety of Okocha’s life, including his football career.

Emeka Ike is lined up to play the football ace….Jimmy Jean Luis (Phat Girlz) will also be appearing.

Still on the topic of biopics, there is also a DAGRIN movie in the works – which would chronicle the late rapper’s life and his tragic death at 26 in April 2010. I hope these movies are done justice, and cast properly, as they more often than not Nollywood productions turn out to be over-acted, badly directed and poorly produced.

“Nuff said

What are your thoughts?

Read more…
I did a doubletake when I saw a friend's Facebook status update today : "I like it on the kitchen table." Probably just a private message mistakenly posted as a status update.

Then my sister posted, "I like it on the hall floor," and after a moment of feeling vaguely icky, I knew something was up. So I Googled and, of course, found that it's the latest viral breast cancer awareness campaign taking Facebook by storm. (The "it" is actually where a woman likes to leave her purse/handbag.)



My friend Genevieve likes it on the barstool. My friend Jalade likes it in the car.

Bobos please Get your minds out of the gutter.

They're talking about their purses.

Titillating the Facebook newsfeeds today, women are posting where they like to keep their purses when they come home, but they conveniently leave out the word "purse."

Men are not supposed to know what it means. So stop reading now, men.

The trend follows the January Internet meme in which women posted the color of their bra as their Facebook status.

Both are to raise awareness of breast cancer. October is Breast Cancer Month. (It's also Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but that's another story entirely.)

The question remains whether the viral campaign actually does raise awareness or just raises eyebrows.

One response to a Facebook status: "Woah is right. Overshare."

Update, 10:45 a.m.

Men: Hmph. Some of the not-so-fair sex have complained that this post is sexist as they are forbidden to read past the jump. Others have complained about the actual Internet meme: "Yeah, that's a great way to get men on board with breast cancer awareness month...alienate them."

We suggest going with the flow, men. Men can put purses places these days too.

Oh, and ladies, go take a breast exam..
Read more…
Next NewsPapers Say it is now 350,000Naira Daily Sun says It is now 40million all Accounts are from the ever efficient and buck passing Nigerian Police .who now say the Kidnappers are Actually Robbers ! nice to know our Criminals now have choice of vocation

Kidnappers of the 15 pupils of Abayi International School, Aba, had reduced their ransom to N350,000, an indication that they are willing to release the toddlers from a tortuous ordeal which has drawn worldwide condemnation.

It was further gathered that the failure to release the kids on Wednesday was as a result of multiple negotiations which the criminals were taking advantage of, possibly to make more money.
Photo:Policemen looking for the kidnappers what about the Corpers kidnapped last week ?
According to our source, a hamonised negotiation has been adopted, which may lead to the early release of the school children.

The Abia State commissioner of police, Jonathan Johnson, also said yesterday in Umuahia that final negotiations were going on with the abductors of the children to effect their release and save them from further mental and emotional torture that they have been subjected to since Monday, when they were snatched on their way to school.

He confirmed that the children would have been released yesterday, but for some minor hitches in the negotiations with the kidnappers, even as he appealed to Abia residents to remain calm as the children would be released soon..

The police boss said the kidnapping of the kids was his greatest challenge and one which has given him sleepless nights.

Police sources said their non confrontational negotiation with the kidnappers was the best option, so as to save the children from possible harm hurt during a shoot out, adding that if the victims were grown ups, the police would have adopted a confrontational stand.

Robbers turned kidnappers

The commissioner, who said it was difficult for him to understand why anybody could abduct kids of between three and 10 years, added that the police and the government were working together to ensure the early release of the children.

Throwing more light on how the children were kidnapped, another source said the kidnappers were not initially out to abduct them, but had used them to escape from the police who had attacked them as they were trying to rob a jeep.

According to the source, when the police swooped on them, they ran into the bush and when they saw the school bus conveying the children to school, they hijacked it to make good their escape, but might have changed their mind later after escaping with the kids.

The Abia State government has condemned the abduction and called on the kidnappers to release the kids forthwith.

The commissioner for information and strategy, ACB Agbazuere, said in Umuahia that the action was condemnable, and appealed to the hoodlums to embrace the amnesty programme and quit criminality.


Daily Sun


Kidnapped school kids: Ransom now N40m ...Parents besiege school
From OKEY SAMPSON, Aba, Taiwo Amodu, Abuja


Outrage trailed the abduction of 15 pupils of Abayi International School in Aba, Abia State yesterday, but the kidnappers upped the ante by increasing the ransom demanded on the school children to N40 million from N20 million. Contrary to the speculation on Monday evening that the school kids were abandoned in a bush path near a village in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area few hours after their kidnap on the way to school on Monday, investigations showed that they were still held captive.



When Daily Sun visited the school at about 2.45 p.m yesterday, none of the principal officers was around. They were said to have gone out with some policemen in search of the pupils, aged between three and 10.

A staff member who preferred anonymity confided in Daily Sun that the kids had not been freed and that frantic efforts were being made towards their release.

Some parents of the kidnapped school children were seen trooping into the compound perhaps to discuss with the school officials on the way forward.

When contacted, the spokesman, Abia State Police, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna, said the command had been unable to establish contact with the school authorities. However, a senior police officer in Aba, on condition of anonymity, claimed they visited the school yesterday morning but could not get any concrete information.

According to him, “we went to the school this morning (Tuesday) to get information about the children from the authorities, but all they told us was that God was in control. Please, my brother, if you have information concerning the whereabouts of the children, give us so that we can work on it,” he said.

There were, however, moves yesterday indicating the children would be freed as the authorities of the school, with the parents, intensified moves towards this direction but how soon that could be remained unknown.

In a related development, the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, yesterday, reacted angrily to the kidnap of the 15 pupils by unknown gunmen in Osisioma near Aba in Abia State describing it as callous and unacceptable.

Nwodo, in a statement by his media aide, Ike Abonyi, described the action of the hijackers of the children, most of them in nursery and primary level, as wicked and challenged relevant security agencies to fish them out and save the children, their families and the nation the trauma.

The PDP national chairman said such wicked action by anybody at a time the nation was in the celebration mood and many foreign dignitaries already in the country for the nation’s golden jubilee was not only callous but distracting.

He said the issue of kidnapping in the South-east, especially Abia, had become a huge embarrassment to the nation and should be condemned by all reasonable persons.

The last high profile kidnap in the same area involved three Lagos-based journalists returning to Lagos after attending a conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital.

In addition, the UN Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has joined the array of those crying out against the kidnap of the 15 school children in Abia on Monday describing it as craven.

“Under no circumstances should children be the target of violence,’’ said the Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, Dr. Suomi Sakai, in a statement yesterday in Abuja.

“Kidnapping children for financial gain is simply heinous,’’ the statement noted.

The children’s fund, which advocates everywhere for the inviolability of schools, hoped the law enforcement agencies would be able to find and bring the children to safety quickly.

“In all its work, UNICEF stresses the need for families, communities and civil society to work in partnership to protect the rights and well-being of children,” the statement added.

“Communities in which children are safe and well, are communities in which everyone is safe and well,” the statement added.
Read more…
Weekend Trivia:KAITA(Noun/Verb): A man who single handedly hinder the hope of his country for reason best known to him. "Kaita" can be use in place of words like Jeopardy, Hinder, Sabotage, Disrupt, Antagonist, fool etc.
Example

Noun: IBB is a kaita, so is Ota boy. Verb: Don't kaita what we have been building for 11 yrs in one day." I like that girl, please don't be a Kaita" Or In a Foolish Person's Thought: We are winning 1 - 0, let me kaita this game, so that I can get a red card and my opponent can win.



BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.


Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.

Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.

The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.

Small children swim in the polluted estuary here, fishermen take their skiffs out ever farther — “There’s nothing we can catch here,” said Pius Doron, perched anxiously over his boat — and market women trudge through oily streams. “There is Shell oil on my body,” said Hannah Baage, emerging from Gio Creek with a machete to cut the cassava stalks balanced on her head.

That the Gulf of Mexico disaster has transfixed a country and president they so admire is a matter of wonder for people here, living among the palm-fringed estuaries in conditions as abject as any in Nigeria, according to the United Nations. Though their region contributes nearly 80 percent of the government’s revenue, they have hardly benefited from it; life expectancy is the lowest in Nigeria.

“President Obama is worried about that one,” Claytus Kanyie, a local official, said of the gulf spill, standing among dead mangroves in the soft oily muck outside Bodo. “Nobody is worried about this one. The aquatic life of our people is dying off. There used be shrimp. There are no longer any shrimp.”

In the distance, smoke rose from what Mr. Kanyie and environmental activists said was an illegal refining business run by local oil thieves and protected, they said, by Nigerian security forces. The swamp was deserted and quiet, without even bird song; before the spills, Mr. Kanyie said, women from Bodo earned a living gathering mollusks and shellfish among the mangroves.

With new estimates that as many as 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the Niger Delta has suddenly become a cautionary tale for the United States.

As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 dumped an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska.

So the people here cast a jaundiced, if sympathetic, eye at the spill in the gulf. “We’re sorry for them, but it’s what’s been happening to us for 50 years,” said Emman Mbong, an official in Eket.

The spills here are all the more devastating because this ecologically sensitive wetlands region, the source of 10 percent of American oil imports, has most of Africa’s mangroves and, like the Louisiana coast, has fed the interior for generations with its abundance of fish, shellfish, wildlife and crops.

Local environmentalists have been denouncing the spoliation for years, with little effect. “It’s a dead environment,” said Patrick Naagbanton of the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development in Port Harcourt, the leading city of the oil region.

Though much here has been destroyed, much remains, with large expanses of vibrant green. Environmentalists say that with intensive restoration, the Niger Delta could again be what it once was.

Nigeria produced more than two million barrels of oil a day last year, and in over 50 years thousands of miles of pipes have been laid through the swamps. Shell, the major player, has operations on thousands of square miles of territory, according to Amnesty International. Aging columns of oil-well valves, known as Christmas trees, pop up improbably in clearings among the palm trees. Oil sometimes shoots out of them, even if the wells are defunct.

“The oil was just shooting up in the air, and it goes up in the sky,” said Amstel M. Gbarakpor, youth president in Kegbara Dere, recalling the spill in April at Gio Creek. “It took them three weeks to secure this well.”

How much of the spillage is due to oil thieves or to sabotage linked to the militant movement active in the Niger Delta, and how much stems from poorly maintained and aging pipes, is a matter of fierce dispute among communities, environmentalists and the oil companies.

Caroline Wittgen, a spokeswoman for Shell in Lagos, said, “We don’t discuss individual spills,” but argued that the “vast majority” were caused by sabotage or theft, with only 2 percent due to equipment failure or human error.

“We do not believe that we behave irresponsibly, but we do operate in a unique environment where security and lawlessness are major problems,” Ms. Wittgen said.

Oil companies also contend that they clean up much of what is lost. A spokesman for Exxon Mobil in Lagos, Nigel A. Cookey-Gam, said that the company’s recent offshore spill leaked only about 8,400 gallons and that “this was effectively cleaned up.”

But many experts and local officials say the companies attribute too much to sabotage, to lessen their culpability. Richard Steiner, a consultant on oil spills, concluded in a 2008 report that historically “the pipeline failure rate in Nigeria is many times that found elsewhere in the world,” and he noted that even Shell acknowledged “almost every year” a spill due to a corroded pipeline.

On the beach at Ibeno, the few fishermen were glum. Far out to sea oil had spilled for weeks from the Exxon Mobil pipe. “We can’t see where to fish; oil is in the sea,” Patrick Okoni said.

“We don’t have an international media to cover us, so nobody cares about it,” said Mr. Mbong, in nearby Eket. “Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”
Read more…
50 Cent lost a lot of weight for his upcoming movie "Things Fall Apart". In the movie 50 Cent plays a football player diagnosed with cancer.
He dropped from 214 pounds to an astonishing 160 with a liquid diet and three-hour-a-day treadmill walks for nine weeks.

"I was starving." Now he's back on tour and says, "I've been eating. I'll be back in shape in no time!"


These shocking pictures look like a homeless man who has not eaten for weeks.

But they are actually photos of multi-millionaire rapper 50 cent, who lost a staggering 54lbs in just nine weeks for a film role.

The hip-hop star went on a liquid-only diet and worked out for three hours a day to achieve the staggering weight loss.


He is due to play a cancer-stricken American football player in a forthcoming film and wanted to look authentic for the part..

In the past 50 cent has made much of his muscular body, often appearing topless in videos and showing off his huge frame.

The 34-year-old is starring and co-producing 'Things Fall Apart', which will also feature Ray Liotta and is directed by Mario van Peebles.

Soon after the dramatic weight loss pictures were posted on his website, 50cent.com, rumours swept the internet they were a hoax.




But in a statement the star, real name Curtis Jackson, said they were true.

'I was starving,' he said, adding that now he is back on tour, 'I've been eating. I'll be back in shape in no time!'

'50 Cent lost a lot of weight for his upcoming movie Things Fall Apart,' said the text between the pictures of him.


'In the movie 50 Cent plays a football player diagnosed with cancer.

He dropped from 214 pounds to an astonishing 160 with a liquid diet and three-hour-a-day treadmill walks for nine weeks.'

The rapper's achievement still does not top that of Christian Bale, who lost 63lbs for his role in the dark mystery film 'The Machinist'.

Bale went from 185lbs to 122lbs to look like he 'had not slept for a year' and did it by cutting out most foods and relentlessly exercising.







Read more…

Girl frozen in time may hold key to ageing

American scientists are keenly studying the DNA of a 17-year-old girl who still has the body and behaviour of a baby

This 21'st century Peter Pan has defied scientists .A genetic condition (Anageria) opposite to progeria which some speculate Paris Hilton and many other women and MEN will kill for ! Brooke Greenberg is a miracle.


Scientists are hoping to gain new insights into the mysteries of ageing by sequencing the genome of a 17-year-old girl who has the body and behaviour of a tiny toddler.

PHOTO:Brooke Greenberg "baby", then aged 9, with sister Carly who was 6

Brooke Greenberg is old enough to drive a car and next year will be old enough to vote — but at 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, she is still the size of a one-year-old.

Until recently she had been regarded as a medical oddity but a preliminary study of her DNA has suggested her failure to grow could be linked to defects in the genes that make the rest of humanity grow old.

If confirmed, the research could give scientists a fresh understanding of ageing and even suggest new therapies for diseases linked to old age.


“We think that Brooke’s condition presents us with a unique opportunity to understand the process of ageing,” said Richard Walker, a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine, who is leading the research team.

“We think that she has a mutation in the genes that control her ageing and development so that she appears to have been frozen in time.

“If we can compare her genome to the normal version then we might be able to find those genes and see exactly what they do and how to control them.”

Such research will be the focus of a conference at the Royal Society in London this week to be attended by some of the world’s leading age researchers.

It follows a series of scientific breakthroughs showing that the life span of many animals can be dramatically extended by making minute changes in single genes.

The work began with tiny worms known as C elegans, which normally live for only about a fortnight. Researchers have been able to extend their life span by up to 10 weeks by making small changes in certain genes.

Scientists have gone on to discover that mutating the same genes in mice had the same effect.

“Mice are genetically very close to humans,” said Cynthia Kenyon, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, who is a key speaker at the Royal Society.

“The implication is that ageing is controlled by a relatively small number of genes and that we might be able to target these with new therapies that would improve the quality and length of human life.”

The laboratory findings have been supported by research into humans, focusing on families whose members are long-lived. In one recent study Eline Slagboom, professor of molecular epidemiology at Leiden University, Holland, collected data on 30,500 people in 500 long-lived families to find the metabolic and genetic factors that make them special.

“Such people simply age slower than the rest of us,” she said. “Their skin is better, they have less risk of diseases of old age like diabetes, heart disease and hypertension and their ability to metabolise lipids and other nutrients is better. The question is: what is controlling all these different manifestations of slow ageing?

“So far, the evidence suggests that there could be just a few key genes in charge of it all. If we can find out where they are and how they work, it opens the way to new therapies against the diseases of ageing that could work in all of us.”

Walker and other researchers, including Kenyon, believe that finding the cause of Brooke Greenberg’s condition could be one way to pinpoint some of those genes.

Superficially, Brooke, who lives with her parents Howard and Melanie Greenberg and her three sisters in Reisterstown, a Baltimore suburb, is frozen in time. She looks and acts as if she were a small toddler — for 17 years her family has changed her nappies, rocked her to sleep and given her cuddles.

Brooke has shown some development, including crawling, smiling and giggling when tickled but she has never learnt to speak and still has her infant teeth.

But she has also suffered a succession of life-threatening health problems, including strokes, seizures, ulcers and breathing difficulties — almost as if she were growing old despite not growing up.

Howard Greenberg, Brooke's father, said he wanted the genome research carried out in the hope it might help others.

He said: "Brooke is just a wonderful child. She is very pure. She still babbles just like a 6 month old baby but she still communicates and we always know just what she means."

Walker and his colleagues, who are working with Brooke’s parents to ensure she benefits from any research findings, have just published a research paper which suggests that in reality some parts of her body have indeed aged — but slowly and all at different rates.

“Our hypothesis is that she is suffering from damage in the gene or genes that co-ordinate the way the body develops and ages,” he said.

“If we can use her DNA to find that mutant gene then we can test it in laboratory animals to see if we can switch if off and slow down the ageing process at will.

“Just possibly it could give us an opportunity to answer the question of why we are mortal.”


Jerly Lyngdoh: World’s oldest baby:


Surgeons and pediatricians in India have been puzzled after discovering a 26-year-old man trapped inside the body and mind of a child aged between one and two years.Jerly Lyngdoh – who is still dressed in baby clothes by his parents – has a head circumference that babies 9-12 months old have, measures 84 cm like any two-year-old and weighs 22 pounds.

“Jerly’s infantile features are remarkable, and the only things he shares with an adult are his teeth,” Dr. J. Ryndong told the Hindustan Times.


According to the pediatrician, Lyngdoh suffers from poor secretion of growth hormones from the pituitary gland.


“His is a case opposite to progeria, which means advanced ageing, and we have reasons to say Jerly is a rarity,” Ryndong added. He ruled out the genetic factor, since all six of Jerly’s siblings have no physical or mental disability.


“We also plan to seek expertise from the medical world beyond to crack Jerly’s case,” the doctor said.


Read more…
After months of hide and seek, sick President Umaru Yar’Adua’s mother, Hajia Dada Yar’Adua was allowed access to him on Friday by the restrictive cabal led by Her daughter-in-law, Turai and Chief Security Officer (CSO), Yusuf Tilde. our source in Abuja revealed that few minutes after setting eyes on her son, shocked Hajia Dada broke down and wept like a baby, repeatedly calling him “Babangida, Babangida” her choice name for President Yar’Adua. The President never responded to his mother as he sat and looked at her in a manner that suggested he may have lost memories of her, according to a source. “Hajia was so shocked at his state of his health and the most painful was that even while she called him Babangida, the name she gave him from birth by which family members know Mr. President, he did not respond, he was just there looking at her like he doesn’t know who she is,” the source told us. For months Turai and her co-travelers restricted access to the sick President. They did not even allow his immediate family including his mother to see how he is doing. It was against this background that Hajia Dada called on the PDP, General Ibrahim Babangida, and Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to prevail on Turai to allow her access. According to our source, on setting her eyes on her son, she repeatedly called out her favorite name she calls him. She named him Babangida after his paternal grand father. Our source said she kept calling “ Babangida, Babangida” , but her son just starred at her and could not utter a word. advertisement our source said after several minutes of trying to establish communication with her gravely ill son, with stone-faced Turai watching, Hajia Dada was taken away by security operatives. It was leant that the President’s mother returned to Katsina later Friday night, with the possibility of not seeing her son again, at the back of her mind. Our source also hinted that several times Hajia Dada had asked that her son be brought back to Katsina, where is expects marabouts to perform a miracle. Sources say shortly before Yar’Adua was evacuated to Saudi Arabia, the sick President had requested audience with his mother at the Presidential Villa. But Hajia Dada spent two days with the President and did not know why other brothers and sisters of President Yar’Adua never came around to see her. According to sources, Turai, wife of the President had instructed security operatives in the villa not to allow any of the President’s siblings around. An operative who is said to be very close to the Yar’adua’s had hinted the President’s mother. The President’s mother, it was gathered had told the president and for the first time, President Yar’Adua, according to a source “tongue lashed his wife and immediately ordered than his family members be granted unrestricted access anytime they want to see him.”
Read more…
There are 20 more al-Qaeda-trained bombers like me, Abdulmutallab confesses - Releases more information on accomplices to security agents - Judge postpones trial indefinitely By Seyi Gesinde with Agency Reports Saturday, January 9, 2010 After his arraignment on Friday, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, charged with trying to blow up a United States (US) airliner, has confessed to security agents that 20 others were being trained to carry out similar attacks. Advertisement ! http://www.9jabook.com advertisement here call or email:info@systemini.net twitter:systemini linkedin:systemini tel +234-0806 495 0565,234-07083793511,234-07058888394 44-7894214683, According to CBS reports, British intelligence officials said while being interrogated, Abdulmutallab had “boasted that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners.” During his first public appearance at a US court sitting in Detroit on Friday, none of Abdulmutallab’s family members showed up, but “in the front rows sat a delegation from the Nigerian embassy in Washington,” BBC reported. He pleaded not guilty to the six-count federal charges filed against him, arising from his botched Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Officials from the two US top security agencies, the CIA and FBI, leading the investigation, said Abdulmutallab has since offered useful information which will help in his trial. In one of the charges, Abdulmutallab allegedly stitched two highly explosive substances into his clothes, and tried to detonate them as the plane carrying 290 people approached Detroit. But the device failed, and instead, Abdulmutallab was arrested after being overpowered by passengers and crew. Five minutes before the case was due to start, BBC reported that Abdulmutallab had hobbled into the court, “perhaps because of the injuries sustained or the leg irons he was wearing. “Considering the violence of the attempted crime, Room 100 of the US district court in Detroit was surprisingly calm, just an hour ahead of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s first appearance. “Seating was limited to those who had queued outside on the frosty pavement for a pass several hours earlier.” Abdulmutallab reportedly wore leg shackles and walked slowly into the court room, after which he sat in a chair and for several moments, listened and nodded to his lawyers. “He looked up slowly, his eyes staring with a slightly vacant look at the court. His shoulders were hunched,” BBC reported. The court appearance lasted less than three minutes, after which the presiding judge said there would be further proceedings at a later date, BBC reported. The six-count federal charges: *Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction *Attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the US *Wilful attempt to destroy and wreck an aircraft *Wilfully placing a destructive device in or near an aircraft which was likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft *Two counts of possession of a firearm, that is, the bomb, in furtherance of violent crime. During court session Abdulmutallab declined to enter a plea during his first court appearance to all the charges filed against him after which the judge entered him for a “not guilty” plea. “He confirmed his name and its spelling, as well as his age in a soft voice, prompting the judge to ask him to speak up. “Asked if he had had time to read the indictment, he answered “yes.” He also confirmed he understood the charges. “Asked if he had taken any drugs in the previous 24 hours, he said he had taken some pain killers,” BBC reported. Abdulmutallab was treated for burns after his arrest at Detroit Airport. Penalty If found guilty, AbdulMutallab faces life imprisonment. Little emotion “Abdulmutallab stayed standing, neither aggressive, nor cowed. “It was hard to read his thoughts, hard to tell what he has been thinking in the 14 days since the attempted bombing. “His lawyer told the court he would not be applying for bail. “The judge said there would be further proceedings at a later date, and after a little more procedure, that was it. Less than three minutes in all. “As the court rose, and the judge left the chamber, Abdulmutallab turned to his left to walk out of the court. “Then - in the first display of any real interest on his part - he craned his neck to take a look at the front row of the public gallery. “It was hard to read any emotion on his face as he looked for anyone he knew, a family member perhaps. “And then he walked slowly out.” BBC reported
Read more…
Are You Feeding Your Soul? Are you happy with what you see when you look in the mirror? And I’m not talking about your physical body when I ask this question — I’m talking about your spiritual body. Has your soul been getting the nourishment it needs to grow in health and strength, or have you deprived it from the Word it so desperately needs? If what you see in the mirror doesn’t even begin to reflect what you know you can be, it’s time to make a change, time to dive into God’s Word and receive all the love and forgiveness He has been waiting to give you . . . a time to release your life into God’s hands. The Word tells us, But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT). You may not like what you see now, but just wait. Rely on God’s faithfulness and perfect timing and begin to make changes when God shows you it is necessary. And soon, you’ll be able to look back and say, “Look where God moved me from. Look what He saved me from. I stand blessed where I am all because of the transforming grace of God.” An Evangelistic Tool The following is an evangelistic tool. Feel free to use this tool to lead someone to the Savior. It can also be used in your church. Tony lead the members of our church through this process, and then commissioned them to offer the good news to those they come in contact with in the course of their day. This is one of our outreach programs for this year. OPENING QUESTION: Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how you can be sure you are on your way to heaven? Would you allow me to show you? I. First the Bad News a. The Problem: Every person is a sinner before a Holy God and unable to save themselves (Romans 3:10, 23). b. The Penalty: Every person is under the sentence of death and will be forever separated from God because of their sin (Romans 5:12; 6:23). I. Now the Good News a. The Provision: Through the substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ, God has addressed the sin problem for us (Romans 5:8, 17-21). b. The Pardon: God offers a free pardon and eternal life to all who place faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation (Romans 10:9-10; 4:4-5). CLOSING QUESTION: Would you like to trust the Lord Jesus Christ right now as your personal Savior? PRAYER: Lord Jesus thank You for dying on the cross for my sins and rising from the dead to save me. By transferring my total trust to You alone as my Savior, I now receive the forgiveness for my sins and the free gift of eternal life that You offered me.
Read more…
Crazy like a Fox is one of few movies directed by a Nigerian that has won global recognition. This film was one of the official selections for the American Black Film festival in 2008 and has been nominated for several awards as well.I got a chance to sit down in Harlem with the director of this movie - Tony Abulu (Back to Africa, American Dream, Crazy like a Fox) and we got a chance to talk about his story behind the arts of film making. Tony Abulu is truly multi-dimensional — uses the arts to express several dimensions of creativity: beyond being the voice for the African film maker and artistic persons in New York, Tony has also been the voice for Nigerian film makers and producers, owned his own Pan-African magazine for ten years, and the list is endless. Enjoy the interview! Tony, could you tell us a little bit about your background?I actually started studying fine arts, graphic design and illustration in college and then I worked in a top ad agency in Nigeria between 1982 - 1984. I eventually left that company because I felt my creativity was eroding but before I left I started a magazine called Black Ivory which was basically ancient Africa in an illustrated form. Some will say that was when my foray into film making actually began. Black Ivory eventually became a major Pan African magazine in Nigeria and the United States and I was in that business for fifteen years (15).What would you say actually took you into the world of movies and films?The idea to make a film came in 1976 when I was in college. I started toying with this idea with a few friends of mine. At that time I was a martial arts instructor, so the script I wrote had major elements that incorporated martial arts. You have to remember that in 1976, there was nothing like that - there were only three or four people who made movies at that time in Nigeria and it was really grand scale and these movies were shot in 35mm. So we (my friends and I) tried to make this movie but it never came about. I will say that was my first foray into the world of films.Beyond your background in martial arts - what other factors influenced your interest in movies?At that time, a lot of people in my age group were being influenced by movies like the Ten commandments, Sound of Music, etc. These movies had the ability to transform you and take you into a totally different world. But, you know we weren’t only being influenced by movies from the West but we were being influenced by movies from India, China etc. I remember my brother fell in love with Indian cultures via Indian movies that he chose to move to India at nineteen (19).You know this is very interesting because you see how African young children get into a form of art that is completely outside their ‘norm’. Nigerians at that time, were looking very heavily into world cultures and we had the opportunity to imbue these cultures at an early age and as such many Nigerians at that time, were calling themselves by Indian nicknames - Jagu, Jatamaurta. The next influence was from Chinese movies like Bruce Lee. We were influenced by different Nigerian cultures as well. I know my Nigerian influence was via my grandmother who used to tell us stories - she was a top rate story teller. She used to sit us down at night and tell us stories about Ancient Nigerian history.So, what event led to your first movie - Back to Africa?About fourteen (14) years ago, at around the time that Eddie Murphy’s movie, “Coming to America” came out, I wrote another script and I was determined to see this script through. My script was called American Dream.I spent some months going after people like Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis to be in my movie. They all read the script and wanted to be in the movie but my budget was 1.4 million dollars and I spent four years trying to raise the money but couldn’t do it.Luckily, one of my very good friends, Obafemi Lasude came to my rescue. Femi Lasude was a Nigerian who used to work in a TV station in Brooklyn, we were both very passionate about entertainment in Africa. He eventually went back to Nigeria to pursue his passion further and he advised that I come back as well. At that time, I had written another script, which took me two days to write, called Back to Africa and I decided to follow Femi’s advise and produce my movie in Nigeria.Femi introduced me to a friend Larry Talbot with the hopes that Larry will invest in my movie. I met Larry and told him about my movie and that same day Larry invested 25 000 dollars in my movie. The only favor Larry wanted was that I take his son to Nigeria with me. So, I did my casting call and picked a couple of my cast from the U.S and then took them to Nigeria. We spent 6 weeks in Nigeria shooting that movie. We went to places like Ekiti, Oshogbo, etc to shoot this movie. By the time we got back and started editing the movie - people who saw it were amazed at the quality. That was the first Nigerian movie anyone ever saw in the U.S.After that movie - I spent the next ten years developing distribution for the Nigerian film industry in the U.S and ironically to this very day - I get orders from all over the world for that movie. That movie cost about 80,000 dollars to produce.You mentioned earlier that there was no form of distribution of Nigerian movies in the states when you produced the movie, Back to Africa - so how did you distribute your movies?I made VHS copies of my movie and I went to every single store and restaurant in different communities from the Caribbean community, African community and the African American Community.I went to Nigerian parties and other parties that I was invited to and set up a table and often times faced the initial jeers at the cost of the movies but people eventually started warming up to the idea and started wanting more of it.During that time, I ran into two other Nigerians - the first one was Rabiu Mohammed - he had a small store in the Bronx ,where he used to sell movies. Today, he is one of the number one African movie distributors in the U.S and another guy called Bethel Agumoh. Bethel Agumoh was the first Nigerian to sell VCD on the Internet in the U.S.A.The Film Makers Association of Nigeria (FAN) was made up of these two men, myself and Caroline Okoli who came through Bethel. Her forte was back end management - she had worked for McDonald corporation for some years. At that time, we had noticed that a few Senegalese and Malian traders were beginning to sell bootleg copies of Nigerian movies and we understood that if FAN does not legitimize the distribution of Nigerian movie where we ensure that people sell authentic copies of the real thing so that producers in Nigeria get some renumeration for the movies sold in the states - the industry could die.At that time, Nigerian producers were selling 100,000 - 200,000 copies of their films. We took this issue to the Nigerian producers in Nigeria but they did not want to listen to what FAN had to say, they felt that we needed to prove that we were serious and had their interest at heart by putting down some money which we were not ready to do. Now, with the Chinese getting involved in the Nigerian movie distribution business - many now wish that they had listened to our suggestions. What is going on now is that a lot of Nigerian movies (as much as 50) are being compressed illegally into one CD and being sold and none of the monies are going to the producers, directors or anyone involved in the creation of the movie. Working with FAN as the president, I was able to convince 70% of distributors of bootleg movies in the states to become legitimate distributors of Nigerian films.Beyond distribution of Nigerian movies, were there other issues that you were hoping that FAN will address?Ultimately, the plan was to get involved in movie projects that tell the cross over stories. We wanted to work on Nigerian projects that can appeal to the American public as well. I think one of the things that Nigerian movie producers do not realize is that very few consumers of Nollywood movies are African American. We have a lot of ‘buyers’ from the Caribbean community, the African community and a couple of others. The reason that the African American community isn’t buying into our movies is because they can’t relate to it.For example, the movie Back to Africa, tells the story of an African American girl that goes to Africa to find her roots and in the process, I integrate every day aspects of Nigerian life. It is a story that appeals to a lot of African Americans because at one time or the other, they had questions about their roots and where they are from originally. that movie is heavily bought into by the African American community but I can’t say the same about a lot of other Nollywood movies.But, I will have to say this about Nollywood’s effect on Americans - it has shown a different face of Africa. For those that do watch it, they see that Africans in Africa live like they do and do not swing on trees. That Africans in Africa have cars, houses, go to parties and often times dress like they do.You’ve definitely been in this business for a long time. What are the weaknesses that you see in the Nigerian film industry?My main problem is the lack of authenticity in most of the stories told. I will call it the ‘fakeness’. There are some movies that are a direct copy of American movies but even when they copy these movies, they refuse to put their ‘Africaness’ or should I say ‘Nigerianess’ into it. They use music that isn’t theirs, they dress in ways that aren’t really authentic. I think a lot of our movies are projecting images that aren’t really African but rather African American and because those images aren’t really ours, it makes it a difficult sell. If you do not really comprehend what it means to be African American then how can you project the image realistically and most importantly how can you support that image?I have often said that if people believe that a certain culture is theirs then they should be able to support it. The way that the world works is that you have your own products that you create and you brainwash other people to buy into it. We need to learn our culture and find out what our own brand of products are and then sell it.Extra:There are a lot of issues within the Nollywood industry that were highlighted during this interview. Regardless of if we buy into his argument or not, Nollywood is an industry that will keep on growing and is one of Nigeria’s main cultural exports. Our hopes are that this industry will become more recognized within the global film making community. Tony Abulu’s movies are a must watch for any connoisseur of movies. I got a chance to watch - Back to Africa and Crazy like a fox and the quality and story telling were on point. You can get these movies
Read more…
Bloggers to Make History at G20 Summit‏ So it looks like this citizen journalism thing might be around for a while. Read on: ********** ********** ********** A coalition of NGOs - the G20Voice – and the UK government are breaking with convention and, for the first time, allow 50 bloggers to report live and direct from the G20 summit, on 2 April 2009 in London. This unprecedented event, backed by the Government, gives the bloggers and their audience the chance to engage with and influence world leaders on issues including development, climate change and women's rights. The bloggers were nominated by the public, with more than 700 nominations received in 12 days. The organisations behind G20Voice are OxfamGB, Comic Relief, Save the Children, ONE and Blue State Digital. G20Voice is a collaborative effort demonstrating the breadth of commitment to ending world poverty and inequality. The 50 include a broad range of influential, knowledgeable and popular bloggers from the G20 countries and the developing world. These include: * Sokari Ekine – a pioneering Nigerian blogger * Jotman – an undercover blogger exposing injustice in Thailand and Burma * Daudi Were – a leading organiser of African bloggers * Dr Kumi Naidoo – head of GCAP and contributor to Huffington Post * Cheryl Conte from Jack and Jill Politics - representing the US "Black bourgeoisie" * Enda Surya Nasution – the father of Indonesian blogging * Rowan Davies – representing the 200,000 members of Mumsnet * Rui Chenggang – China's leading economics broadcaster and blogger with 13,000,000 viewers every evening on CCTV * Richard Murphy – the leading expert on Tax Havens They will be joined by thousands of bloggers online at www.g20voice.org with audio and video livestreaming, and also via Skype broadcasts from inside the summit. There is a full programme of events for the 50 invited bloggers. The event begins on 1 April with the official launch, including a series of briefings and round table discussions. On the day of the summit bloggers will have access to briefings from senior figures and world leaders. Members of the delegations have been invited to speak with the bloggers to discuss the developments in the main summit chamber. Journalists are invited to come to the blogging tent to meet and talk with bloggers throughout the day. Karina Brisby, G20Voice project founder and Digital Campaigns Manager, Oxfam GB said: "The G20Voice project was inspired by the articulate, engaging and often outraged posts, tweets, podcasts and videocasts from bloggers all over the world about the current economic crisis and how that affects the issues they are passionate about such as poverty and climate change. "We are seeing a huge increase in the number of people around the world using digital tools to inform themselves and then contribute to debates about the issues that affect their lives. G20Voice recognises the importance of bloggers and gives them a unique opportunity to report back to their audiences direct from the G20 Summit itself." Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns at Save the Children said: "G20Voice will tear back the curtain as leaders draw up their blueprint for global recovery. Thanks to G20Voice at this summit the world will be watching. Bloggers will witness the summit from the inside - and the world will know whether leaders are building a future fit for the world's children, or one that rewards only the rich. Gordon Brown has set the bar for the London G20 summit next month by promising that the UK will meet its aid commitments despite the economic downturn. He must ensure other G20 countries do the same. If action to prevent children dying isn't taken now we could see this financial crisis claim the lives of a generation of children." Oliver Buston, Europe Director of the Africa campaign group ONE said: "At ONE we’ve always been focused on empowering individuals to raise their voices against extreme poverty. This group of citizen-journalists includes some of the most articulate voices on this issue, and it’s exciting to be a part of bringing them to this international stage. The world’s poorest people are being hit hardest by a global crisis not of their making – the bloggers will have a chance to ask tough questions of world leaders, and demand solutions that will benefit everyone, not just the wealthy few." How to Find G20Voice Online: Web: www.g20voice.org; Twitter: @G20Voice; Flickr: www.flickr.com/g20voice; Youtube: www.youtube.com/G20voice; Moblog: moblog.net/voice FYI: The G-20 (more formally, the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world's largest national economies, plus the European Union (EU). The G-20 is a forum for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. It studies, reviews, and promotes discussion among key industrial and emerging market countries of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization.
Read more…

facebook With friends like these

FacebookWith friends like these ...Facebook has 59 million users - and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won't catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information - not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking siteTom Hodgkinson The Guardian, Monday January 14 2008 larger | smaller Article historyThe following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday January 16 2008The US intelligence community's enthusiasm for hi-tech innovation after 9/11 and the creation of In-Q-Tel, its venture capital fund, in 1999 were anachronistically linked in the article below. Since 9/11 happened in 2001 it could not have led to the setting up of In-Q-Tel two years earlier.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------I despise Facebook. This enormously successful American business describes itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". But hang on. Why on God's earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me? Why should my relationships be mediated through the imagination of a bunch of supergeeks in California? What was wrong with the pub?And does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations.Facebook appeals to a kind of vanity and self-importance in us, too. If I put up a flattering picture of myself with a list of my favourite things, I can construct an artificial representation of who I am in order to get sex or approval. ("I like Facebook," said another friend. "I got a shag out of it.") It also encourages a disturbing competitivness around friendship: it seems that with friends today, quality counts for nothing and quantity is king. The more friends you have, the better you are. You are "popular", in the sense much loved in American high schools. Witness the cover line on Dennis Publishing's new Facebook magazine: "How To Double Your Friends List."It seems, though, that I am very much alone in my hostility. At the time of writing Facebook claims 59 million active users, including 7 million in the UK, Facebook's third-biggest customer after the US and Canada. That's 59 million suckers, all of whom have volunteered their ID card information and consumer preferences to an American business they know nothing about. Right now, 2 million new people join each week. At the present rate of growth, Facebook will have more than 200 million active users by this time next year. And I would predict that, if anything, its rate of growth will accelerate over the coming months. As its spokesman Chris Hughes says: "It's embedded itself to an extent where it's hard to get rid of."All of the above would have been enough to make me reject Facebook for ever. But there are more reasons to hate it. Many more.Facebook is a well-funded project, and the people behind the funding, a group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, have a clearly thought out ideology that they are hoping to spread around the world. Facebook is one manifestation of this ideology. Like PayPal before it, it is a social experiment, an expression of a particular kind of neoconservative libertarianism. On Facebook, you can be free to be who you want to be, as long as you don't mind being bombarded by adverts for the world's biggest brands. As with PayPal, national boundaries are a thing of the past.Although the project was initially conceived by media cover star Mark Zuckerberg, the real face behind Facebook is the 40-year-old Silicon Valley venture capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel. There are only three board members on Facebook, and they are Thiel, Zuckerberg and a third investor called Jim Breyer from a venture capital firm called Accel Partners (more on him later). Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook when Harvard students Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskowitz went to meet him in San Francisco in June 2004, soon after they had launched the site. Thiel now reportedly owns 7% of Facebook, which, at Facebook's current valuation of $15bn, would be worth more than $1bn. There is much debate on who exactly were the original co-founders of Facebook, but whoever they were, Zuckerberg is the only one left on the board, although Hughes and Moskowitz still work for the company.Thiel is widely regarded in Silicon Valley and in the US venture capital scene as a libertarian genius. He is the co-founder and CEO of the virtual banking system PayPal, which he sold to Ebay for $1.5bn, taking $55m for himself. He also runs a £3bn hedge fund called Clarium Capital Management and a venture capital fund called Founders Fund. Bloomberg Markets magazine recently called him "one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the country". He has made money by betting on rising oil prices and by correctly predicting that the dollar would weaken. He and his absurdly wealthy Silicon Valley mates have recently been labelled "The PayPal Mafia" by Fortune magazine, whose reporter also observed that Thiel has a uniformed butler and a $500,000 McLaren supercar. Thiel is also a chess master and intensely competitive. He has been known to sweep the chessmen off the table in a fury when losing. And he does not apologise for this hyper-competitveness, saying: "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."But Thiel is more than just a clever and avaricious capitalist. He is a futurist philosopher and neocon activist. A philosophy graduate from Stanford, in 1998 he co-wrote a book called The Diversity Myth, which is a detailed attack on liberalism and the multiculturalist ideology that dominated Stanford. He claimed that the "multiculture" led to a lessening of individual freedoms. While a student at Stanford, Thiel founded a rightwing journal, still up and running, called The Stanford Review - motto: Fiat Lux ("Let there be light"). Thiel is a member of TheVanguard.Org, an internet-based neoconservative pressure group that was set up to attack MoveOn.org, a liberal pressure group that works on the web. Thiel calls himself "way libertarian".TheVanguard is run by one Rod D Martin, a philosopher-capitalist whom Thiel greatly admires. On the site, Thiel says: "Rod is one of our nation's leading minds in the creation of new and needed ideas for public policy. He possesses a more complete understanding of America than most executives have of their own businesses."This little taster from their website will give you an idea of their vision for the world: "TheVanguard.Org is an online community of Americans who believe in conservative values, the free market and limited government as the best means to bring hope and ever-increasing opportunity to everyone, especially the poorest among us." Their aim is to promote policies that will "reshape America and the globe". TheVanguard describes its politics as "Reaganite/Thatcherite". The chairman's message says: "Today we'll teach MoveOn [the liberal website], Hillary and the leftwing media some lessons they never imagined."So, Thiel's politics are not in doubt. What about his philosophy? I listened to a podcast of an address Thiel gave about his ideas for the future. His philosophy, briefly, is this: since the 17th century, certain enlightened thinkers have been taking the world away from the old-fashioned nature-bound life, and here he quotes Thomas Hobbes' famous characterisation of life as "nasty, brutish and short", and towards a new virtual world where we have conquered nature. Value now exists in imaginary things. Thiel says that PayPal was motivated by this belief: that you can find value not in real manufactured objects, but in the relations between human beings. PayPal was a way of moving money around the world with no restriction. Bloomberg Markets puts it like this: "For Thiel, PayPal was all about freedom: it would enable people to skirt currency controls and move money around the globe."Clearly, Facebook is another uber-capitalist experiment: can you make money out of friendship? Can you create communities free of national boundaries - and then sell Coca-Cola to them? Facebook is profoundly uncreative. It makes nothing at all. It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway.Photo: Tim Boyle/GettyThiel's philosophical mentor is one René Girard of Stanford University, proponent of a theory of human behaviour called mimetic desire. Girard reckons that people are essentially sheep-like and will copy one another without much reflection. The theory would also seem to be proved correct in the case of Thiel's virtual worlds: the desired object is irrelevant; all you need to know is that human beings will tend to move in flocks. Hence financial bubbles. Hence the enormous popularity of Facebook. Girard is a regular at Thiel's intellectual soirees. What you don't hear about in Thiel's philosophy, by the way, are old-fashioned real-world concepts such as art, beauty, love, pleasure and truth.The internet is immensely appealing to neocons such as Thiel because it promises a certain sort of freedom in human relations and in business, freedom from pesky national laws, national boundaries and suchlike. The internet opens up a world of free trade and laissez-faire expansion. Thiel also seems to approve of offshore tax havens, and claims that 40% of the world's wealth resides in places such as Vanuatu, the Cayman Islands, Monaco and Barbados. I think it's fair to say that Thiel, like Rupert Murdoch, is against tax. He also likes the globalisation of digital culture because it makes the banking overlords hard to attack: "You can't have a workers' revolution to take over a bank if the bank is in Vanuatu," he says.If life in the past was nasty, brutish and short, then in the future Thiel wants to make it much longer, and to this end he has also invested in a firm that is exploring life-extension technologies. He has pledged £3.5m to a Cambridge-based gerontologist called Aubrey de Grey, who is searching for the key to immortality. Thiel is also on the board of advisers of something called the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. From its fantastical website, the following: "The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. There are several technologies ... heading in this direction ... Artificial Intelligence ... direct brain-computer interfaces ... genetic engineering ... different technologies which, if they reached a threshold level of sophistication, would enable the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence."So by his own admission, Thiel is trying to destroy the real world, which he also calls "nature", and install a virtual world in its place, and it is in this context that we must view the rise of Facebook. Facebook is a deliberate experiment in global manipulation, and Thiel is a bright young thing in the neoconservative pantheon, with a penchant for far-out techno-utopian fantasies. Not someone I want to help get any richer.The third board member of Facebook is Jim Breyer. He is a partner in the venture capital firm Accel Partners, who put $12.7m into Facebook in April 2005. On the board of such US giants as Wal-Mart and Marvel Entertainment, he is also a former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Now these are the people who are really making things happen in America, because they invest in the new young talent, the Zuckerbergs and the like. Facebook's most recent round of funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital, who put in the sum of $27.5m. One of Greylock's senior partners is called Howard Cox, another former chairman of the NVCA, who is also on the board of In-Q-Tel. What's In-Q-Tel? Well, believe it or not (and check out their website), this is the venture-capital wing of the CIA. After 9/11, the US intelligence community became so excited by the possibilities of new technology and the innovations being made in the private sector, that in 1999 they set up their own venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, which "identifies and partners with companies developing cutting-edge technologies to help deliver these solutions to the Central Intelligence Agency and the broader US Intelligence Community (IC) to further their missions".The US defence department and the CIA love technology because it makes spying easier. "We need to find new ways to deter new adversaries," defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003. "We need to make the leap into the information age, which is the critical foundation of our transformation efforts." In-Q-Tel's first chairman was Gilman Louie, who served on the board of the NVCA with Breyer. Another key figure in the In-Q-Tel team is Anita K Jones, former director of defence research and engineering for the US department of defence, and - with Breyer - board member of BBN Technologies. When she left the US department of defence, Senator Chuck Robb paid her the following tribute: "She brought the technology and operational military communities together to design detailed plans to sustain US dominance on the battlefield into the next century."Now even if you don't buy the idea that Facebook is some kind of extension of the American imperialist programme crossed with a massive information-gathering tool, there is no way of denying that as a business, it is pure mega-genius. Some net nerds have suggsted that its $15bn valuation is excessive, but I would argue that if anything that is too modest. Its scale really is dizzying, and the potential for growth is virtually limitless. "We want everyone to be able to use Facebook," says the impersonal voice of Big Brother on the website. I'll bet they do. It is Facebook's enormous potential that led Microsoft to buy 1.6% for $240m. A recent rumour says that Asian investor Lee Ka-Shing, said to be the ninth richest man in the world, has bought 0.4% of Facebook for $60m.The creators of the site need do very little bar fiddle with the programme. In the main, they simply sit back and watch as millions of Facebook addicts voluntarily upload their ID details, photographs and lists of their favourite consumer objects. Once in receipt of this vast database of human beings, Facebook then simply has to sell the information back to advertisers, or, as Zuckerberg puts it in a recent blog post, "to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web". And indeed, this is precisely what's happening. On November 6 last year, Facebook announced that 12 global brands had climbed on board. They included Coca-Cola, Blockbuster, Verizon, Sony Pictures and Condé Nast. All trained in marketing bullshit of the highest order, their representatives made excited comments along the following lines:"With Facebook Ads, our brands can become a part of the way users communicate and interact on Facebook," said Carol Kruse, vice president, global interactive marketing, the Coca-Cola Company."We view this as an innovative way to cultivate relationships with millions of Facebook users by enabling them to interact with Blockbuster in convenient, relevant and entertaining ways," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and CEO. "This is beyond creating advertising impressions. This is about Blockbuster participating in the community of the consumer so that, in return, consumers feel motivated to share the benefits of our brand with their friends.""Share" is Facebookspeak for "advertise". Sign up to Facebook and you become a free walking, talking advert for Blockbuster or Coke, extolling the virtues of these brands to your friends. We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.Now, by comparision with Facebook, newspapers, for example, begin to look hopelessly outdated as a business model. A newspaper sells advertising space to businesses looking to sell stuff to their readers. But the system is far less sophisticated than Facebook for two reasons. One is that newspapers have to put up with the irksome expense of paying journalists to provide the content. Facebook gets its content for free. The other is that Facebook can target advertising with far greater precision than a newspaper. Admit on Facebook that your favourite film is This Is Spinal Tap, and when a Spinal Tap-esque movie comes out, you can be sure that they'll be sending ads your way.Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: Paul Sakuma/AP)It's true that Facebook recently got into hot water with its Beacon advertising programme. Users were notified that one of their friends had made a purchase at certain online shops; 46,000 users felt that this level of advertising was intrusive, and signed a petition called "Facebook! Stop invading my privacy!" to say so. Zuckerberg apologised on his company blog. He has written that they have now changed the system from "opt-out" to "opt-in". But I suspect that this little rebellion about being so ruthlessly commodified will soon be forgotten: after all, there was a national outcry by the civil liberties movement when the idea of a police force was mooted in the UK in the mid 19th century.Futhermore, have you Facebook users ever actually read the privacy policy? It tells you that you don't have much privacy. Facebook pretends to be about freedom, but isn't it really more like an ideologically motivated virtual totalitarian regime with a population that will very soon exceed the UK's? Thiel and the rest have created their own country, a country of consumers.Now, you may, like Thiel and the other new masters of the cyberverse, find this social experiment tremendously exciting. Here at last is the Enlightenment state longed for since the Puritans of the 17th century sailed away to North America, a world where everyone is free to express themselves as they please, according to who is watching. National boundaries are a thing of the past and everyone cavorts together in freewheeling virtual space. Nature has been conquered through man's boundless ingenuity. Yes, and you may decide to send genius investor Thiel all your money, and certainly you'll be waiting impatiently for the public flotation of the unstoppable Facebook.Or you might reflect that you don't really want to be part of this heavily-funded programme to create an arid global virtual republic, where your own self and your relationships with your friends are converted into commodites on sale to giant global brands. You may decide that you don't want to be part of this takeover bid for the world.For my own part, I am going to retreat from the whole thing, remain as unplugged as possible, and spend the time I save by not going on Facebook doing something useful, such as reading books. Why would I want to waste my time on Facebook when I still haven't read Keats' Endymion? And when there are seeds to be sown in my own back yard? I don't want to retreat from nature, I want to reconnect with it. Damn air-conditioning! And if I want to connect with the people around me, I will revert to an old piece of technology. It's free, it's easy and it delivers a uniquely individual experience in sharing information: it's called talking.Facebook's privacy policyJust for fun, try substituting the words 'Big Brother' whenever you read the word 'Facebook'1 We will advertise at you"When you use Facebook, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, add applications, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalised features."2 You can't delete anything"When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information."3 Anyone can glance at your intimate confessions"... we cannot and do not guarantee that user content you post on the site will not be viewed by unauthorised persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of user content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have copied or stored your user content."4 Our marketing profile of you will be unbeatable"Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (eg, photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalised experience."5 Opting out doesn't mean opting out"Facebook reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications."6 The CIA may look at the stuff when they feel like it"By using Facebook, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States ... We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Facebook service or using the Facebook name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies."
Read more…

Blog Topics by Tags

  • in (506)
  • to (479)
  • of (339)
  • ! (213)
  • as (166)
  • is (157)
  • a (156)

Monthly Archives