Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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Big Brother Africa 8 'Shower Hour' Stirs Controversies


Story by Osaremen Ehi James/Nigeriafilms.com

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The Big Brother Africa (BBA) is unarguably one of Africa's biggest reality TV shows. The show, which started about eight years ago, has become a yearly ritual which many people do not miss and it is now highly anticipated every year.

One aspect of the show that has gradually attracted much viewership is the 'Shower Hour', which shows when the show's contestants take their early morning bath in the full glare of the viewers as there is camera everywhere.

That aspect of the competition, as Nigeriafilms.com gathered, is only available on a dedicated premium channel different from general channels which airs the programme. This, according to information, is because of the adult scenes in the show.

The 2013 edition of Big Brother Africa tagged 'The Chase', has generated mixed reactions. While some sections of the viewers have shown their displeasure at the promotion of n*dity, others, because of the s*xual satisfaction from the exposure of the n*dity of female contestants of the game show, have criticised those against the TV programme.

Some of them told Nigeriafilms.com that the contestants were aware of that aspect of the show and they agreed to go into the competition. “I don't see anything wrong with the 'Shower Hour'. Since they (the contestants) are aware that their nakedness will be beamed to the world, I don't see any fuse with that,” one of the viewers posited.

“That programme should be scrapped; it is not promoting Africa in good light. We are not promoters of n*dity, the African culture kicks against that, and we shouldn't Westernise Africa. This is not African at all,” another viewer of the show told Nigeriafilms.com.

Housemates are camped for three months in BBA, which holds in South Africa. The show has produced three Nigerian winners; Kelvin Pam (2009), Uti Nwachukwu (2010) and Karen Igho (2011). In 2012, late Goldie represented Nigeria at the show along with Chris and Ola, who left the competition at the early stage on health grounds.

© 2013 Nigeriafilms.com

Video games may boost learning in students: Report,..so you can give it a shot!

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Video games could be key to keeping more disengaged youngsters interested in education, a new study has found.The research, carried out by Lancaster University's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), has shown how basing educational projects around video games can get hard-to-reach youngsters interested in learning.
The project, run by Inspire Opportunities and carried out earlier this year, involved 15 secondary schools through the Wolverhampton area Local Education Partnership. More than 100 youngsters were involved.
"If the level of outcomes from this project could be replicated across the UK, then 5,000 more young people would be likely to become interested in the video games and video effects industries each year," said leading academic Dr Don Passey, a Senior Research Fellow and a Director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning at the university.
The project found that young people, who were disengaged from learning and were likely to end up not in employment, education and training (NEET) can become re-engaged with the classes incorporating video games.
"The details of the research have been released as part of a knowledge exchange programme, highlighting the economic impact and promoting the benefit to business and the wider community of academic research," Professor Chris May, Associate Dean: Enterprise and Employability for FASS, added.

'World's largest building' opens in China...the next time you visit China remember to check it out!


By CNN Staff
To put this in perspective, Chengdu's New Century Global Center is big enough to house 20 Sydney Opera Houses. To put this in perspective, Chengdu's New Century Global Center is big enough to house 20 Sydney Opera Houses.
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Chengdu's New Century Global Center
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • New Century Global Center is the 'largest freestanding building in the world'
  • Mega-structure capable of housing 20 Sydney Opera Houses
  • Attractions include an IMAX cinema, water park and luxury retail outlets
(CNN) -- The superlatives in China continue -- the latest symbol of China's "bigger is much, much better" ethos is open for business.
Located in Chengdu (population 14 million), capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, the New Century Global Center is the "largest freestanding building in the world," Chinese officials say.
Though the words "world's largest" usually bring to mind an image of a towering skyscraper, this project actually isn't all that tall. But it's certainly big.
At 500 meters long, 400 meters wide and 100 meters high, the 1.7-million-square-meter mega-structure is capable of housing 20 Sydney Opera Houses and almost three times the size of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
The Global Center, which opened June 28, is home to business offices, hotels, movie theaters, shopping malls, a faux Mediterranean village and family-themed attractions such as a water park called Paradise Island.
The New Century Global Center is located in an entirely new planned area of Chengdu called Tainfu New District.
Chengdu is also currently expanding its subway line and plans to construct a new airport by 2020, further suggesting official ambitions to make the city an economic and cultural capital of western China.
From June 6-8, Chengdu hosted this year's Fortune Global Forum, an annual invite-only event featuring chairs, presidents, and CEOs of the world's largest companies.
According to Xinhua, China's official state media, by the end of 2012 Chengdu's GDP had hit 800 billion RMB (US$130.48 billion).

Canon considers hiking prices of non-camera products

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Canon India is considering hiking prices of its non-camera products by around 5 percent from next month to offset the impact of the steep fall in the rupee, which in the past 45 days has lost more than 8 percent against the US dollar."The biggest impact of the rupee decline is on our cost and imports, which has impacted the margins. We have to pass on the cost increase to customers. It will take a month or two before the new prices become effective.
"We are thinking of a 5 percent hike but have not yet decided the date, but we are looking at doing it in July," Canon India executive vice-president Alok Bharadwaj told PTI.
The price increase will be in the documentation products including laser printers, copier machines, inkjet printers and other IT peripherals segments which contribute half of the its turnover.
Computer firms like HP, Lenovo and mobile handset manufactures have said they cannot but pass on the cost increase by way higher import cost to consumers to protect their margins.
About 50 percent of Canon India's revenues in 2012 came from cameras, 20 percent from printers, 25 percent from copiers and document management services and 5 percent from the professional printing products business.
It can be noted that since May the rupee has been on a downward slope losing over 8 percent since then and since March the loss has been over 10 percent. After the US Fed chairman's last week said it will reduce its USD 85-billion monthly bond buying programme by the end of the year, the rupee plunged to a lifetime low of 59.985 (intra-day) on Thursday. It closed at 59.27 against the dollar on Friday.
"We will do it for the B2B segment, which means all the printers, copiers, scanners. That is what we are contemplating now. The B2C, essentially the cameras and lenses, that we are not looking at now. We cannot afford another drop in the festive season which starts in the next two-three months," Bharadwaj said.

How names influence our destinies ...this is a must read to every nation!

We don't choose the names we carry, but they have an immense and often hidden effect on our lives
Your name can either help or hinder you professionally and has an undoubtable influence on your life, what you're drawn to and what you do.
Your name can either help or hinder you professionally and has an undoubtable influence on your life, what you're drawn to and what you do.
Tetra Images/Corbis
D
o names matter?
To a remarkable degree, they do. Though we don't choose them, our names are badges bearing information about our class, education level, and ethnic origin — or at least those of our parents. Scientific studies have shown that the world makes different assumptions about a boy named Tyrone than it does about one named Philip, and while those assumptions are often wrong, they can have a considerable influence on the course of a life. A name can even exert unconscious influence over a person's own choices. Some scientific researchers contend that there are disproportionately large numbers of dentists named Dennis and lawyers named Lauren, and that it's not purely an accident that Dr. Douglas Hart of Scarsdale, N.Y., chose cardiology or that the Greathouse family of West Virginia runs a real-estate firm. To some degree, this has always been true: The Romans had the expression nomen est omen, or "name is destiny."

Has the way we name kids changed?
In this country it has. Most families used to give boys names chosen from a repertoire established within a family over generations, and while that was less true for girls, there was a relatively finite range of acceptable names, largely limited to those of saints. But in recent decades, the number of names in circulation has exploded. In 1912, when the most popular names in America were John and Mary, parents of 80 percent of American babies chose from among the 200 most common names. Today less than half of girls and about 60 percent of boys are accorded a top-200 name. One study found that 30 percent of African-American girls born in California during the 1990s were given names they shared with no one else born in the state in the same year.

What influences those choices?
The simple answer is taste, but taste is a complex thing. Names come into and fall out of fashion much as clothing styles, musical genres, and haircuts do. None of the top five girls' names from 1912 — Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret, and Ruth — ranked in the top 40 in 2010, when the leaders were Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, and Ava. The name Wendy surged after the release of the movie and musical Peter Pan in the early 1950s, and Brittany took off in the 1990s with the career of pop star Britney Spears. The popularity of the names Isabella, Jacob, and Cullen in recent years has been linked to characters with those names in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series of vampire novels.

Is it good to have a popular name?
In situations where the name is all that is known, people with common first names fare better than those with unique ones. Studies have found that a résumé submitted under a name perceived as African-American, such as Lakesia Washington, gets less attention from potential employers than the identical résumé bearing a more "Caucasian" name, like Mary Ann Roberts. A recent Australian study found that people tend to have better impressions of co-workers and political candidates whose names they can pronounce easily. Nonetheless, in this era of individual self-expression, many parents view commonplace names like Thomas or Jane as boring and uncreative. "For some parents, picking out a baby name is like curating the perfect bookshelf or outfit," said writer Nina Shen Rastogi in Slate.com. "It should telegraph refinement without snobbishness, exclusivity without gaucheness, uniqueness without déclassé wackiness." That's a fine line to walk: Aiden, one of the most popular boy's names in the U.S. over the last seven years, has now lost the exclusivity that made it attractive to many parents.

How do we react to our own names?
Research indicates that people are unconsciously drawn to things, people, and places that sound like their own names. Psychologists call this phenomenon "implicit egotism." The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung noted that his colleague Sigmund Freud (German for "joy") advocated the pleasure principle, Alfred Adler ("eagle") the will to power, and he himself ("young") the "idea of rebirth." A controversial 2007 study cited implicit egotism as the reason why students whose names began with a C or a D had lower grade point averages than those with names beginning with an A or a B; students gravitate to grades, the study argued, that reflect their own beloved initials.

So are our names our destiny?
They undoubtedly have influence, but "destiny" is too strong a word. "Names only have a significant influence when that is the only thing you know about the person," says psychologist Dr. Martin Ford of George Mason University. "Add a picture, and the impact of the name recedes. Add information about personality, motivation, and ability, and the impact of the name shrinks to minimal significance." Condoleezza Rice's name might have held her back, but she was so smart, talented, and driven that she became secretary of state. On the other hand, there are people like Sue Yoo of Los Angeles, who grew up with people telling her, "Oh my god, that's your name, you should totally become a lawyer." Today she's an attorney. "Psychologically," she says, her name probably "helped me decide to go in that direction."
Names of the West
Where you live has a big impact on what names you prefer for your children. In the American West, University of Michigan researcher Michael Varnum has found, parents are more likely to give their children unconventional names than residents of the Eastern seaboard are. He says that reflects the persistence of the pioneer preference for "individualistic values such as uniqueness and self-reliance." You'd think that biblical names would be more popular in conservative regions, but the reverse is true. Naming expert Laura Wattenberg says that "classic, Christian, masculine" names like Peter and Thomas are more popular in blue states, while "an androgynous pagan newcomer like Dakota" is more likely to show up in a red state. Alaska's Sarah Palin, that Western avatar of traditional values, is a perfect example of that paradox: She named her children Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig.

The 8 best smartphones: What's the best phone you can buy in 2013?


The best 8 smartphones reviewed

There are plenty of phones to choose from right now, so here is where PC Advisor lists 2013's 8 best smartphones that are avilable to buy in the UK right now. When you've found the phone you like, compare mobile phone deals to get the best tariff.

8 Best Smartphones of 2013

8. Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung Galaxy S3
  • Reviewed on: 17 June 13
  • RRP: From £29 per month; Around £500 SIM-free
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10

The Galaxy S3 has turned out to be an excellent smartphone. It offers a good design and build quality, despite our small niggles. Samsung has put together an impressive set of hardware resulting in silky smooth performance and extensive software features. We can't give the number one spot to two smartphones, so the iPhone nudges it on a show of hands, but it really is a matter of personal taste. The S3 really is as good a smartphone as you can buy right now. Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Apple iPhone 4S comparison review.

7. HTC One X+

HTC One X+
  • Reviewed on: 23 January 13
  • RRP: Around £450 inc VAT
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
With a newer version of Android, fixed build quality issues and significantly increased battery life, the One X+ is a polished and honed version of its predecessor. It's now an even better all-round quality smartphone with a reasonable price tag.

6. Motorola Razr i

Motorola Razr i
  • Reviewed on: 25 September 12
  • RRP: £345 inv VAT
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
The Motorola Razr i is a great all-rounder smartphone. It offers a great combination of design and performance for a reasonable price. It's worth a look for its price and worthy of our recommended award.

5. Google Nexus 4

Google Nexus 4
  • Reviewed on: 14 November 12
  • RRP: £239 for 8GB; £279 for 16GB
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
As long as the storage capacities suffice, the Nexus 4 is the definition of a bargain. You quite simply get the performance and features of a high-end smartphone for half the price you would expect to pay. Unless you're set on an iPhone, the Nexus 4 is an unbeatable deal.

4. Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4
  • Reviewed on: 16 May 13
  • RRP: Around £500 inc VAT
  • Rating: Rated 8 out of 10
The Galaxy S4 is a great phone with outstanding hardware and performance, but it's not flawless. We're disappointed with the build quality considering the handset costs a fair bit more than its rivals and while the S4 is packed with features we find a lot of them to be gimmicky.

3. New HTC One

New HTC One
  • Reviewed on: 28 March 13
  • RRP: £529 inc. VAT
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
The HTC One is up there with the very best smartphones on the market today. It has superb performance, and excellent build quality spoiled only slightly by running hot in use. You can't fault the feature set, and it matches the other high-end products in terms of price. In terms of audio and visual output it is unsurpassed. The interface might be an acquired taste for some, and we weren't overly impressed with the camera. It's not perfect, but alongside the Xperia Z and iPhone 5 this is about as good a phone as you can buy.

2. Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5
  • Reviewed on: 17 June 13
  • RRP: £529 (16GB)
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
The iPhone 5 really is much more than a tall iPhone 4S with a new plug. The people may demand a revolution every upgrade season. But Apple may just have supplied what the people need, not what they say they want. And that's a powerful evolution on the theme of iPhone which is currently putting the competiton back on the starting blocks.

1. Sony Xperia Z

Sony Xperia Z
  • Reviewed on: 17 June 13
  • RRP: £520 inc VAT
  • Rating: Rated 9 out of 10
The Xperia Z is the first smartphone which Sony has really nailed. We love the stylish, desirable and rugged design. The combination of excellent performance, a stunning screen and great cameras make the Xperia Z a force to be reckoned with. There is very little to say about this phone that is negative.

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