WHATSAPP MESSENGER SERVICE NO LONGER COMPACTIBLE WITH SOME DEVICES STARTING JANUARY 1ST 2018

Starting from 1 January 2018, watsapp messenger service will no longer be available on any device running on Windows 8.0 OS (or older versions), BlackBerry OS or BlackBerry 10.

The Independent reports that the company made the announcement in an update to a blog post that was originally published in February 2016.

The company statement reads: “When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.

“Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.”

The platforms that are being cut are unpopular, and have been for some time. The company ended support for Nokia Symbian S60 devices in June.

It is also planning to cut support for Nokia S40 devices on December 31, 2018 and phones running Android versions 2.3.7 and older on February 1, 2020.

Although these platforms are still supported, WhatsApp is no longer actively developing for them, which means some features could stop functioning at any moment.

The company added that: “While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future.

“This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.

“If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone."
 previously it was reported that the global phone messaging platform, WhatsApp had shut down for more than thirty minutes on November 3, 2017.

The shutdown had created a lot of online hysteria as online communities are wondering what has gone wrong..

A GUIDED TOUR INTO WORLD'S LARGEST VOODOO MARKET.

Beninese

Deep inside the heart of West Africa,Vodou (Togo); Vodoun (Benin), or more familiarly, Voodoo (Haiti) is not only alive and well, but it is thriving.

Togo’s capital city of Lomé is the birthplace of the largest Voodoo market in the world – a kind of super supply store for fetishes, charms and anything else one might need for a ritual.

The Akodessewa Fetish Market, or Marche des Feticheurs, is a place where you can find anything from leopard heads and human skulls to Vodou (voodoo) priests who bless and create fetishes or predict the future and make medicines to heal whatever ails you.

Though many people think of Haiti as Voodoo’s biggest stronghold, the religion originated in West Africa. Vodoun is the official religion of neighboring Benin and is still the largest religion in the area, which is obvious given that the outdoor market’s location is in the heart of Togo’s capital.



Although the market is owned and run by Beninese. The Akodessewa Fetish Market is a mecca to local practitioners and they travel there from all over the African continent.

Many believers view the Marche des Feticheurs as a kind of hospital or pharmacy – it is the place you go when you either cannot afford traditional treatment or traditional treatment has failed you. Here you can find talismans and charms good for treating everything from the flu or infertility to removing the blackest of curses.

In the practice of Voodoo every single creature is potent and divine, whether alive or dead, and in the Akodessewa Fetish Market you may find them all – monkeys, alligators, goats, leopards, gazelles, and many, many more – in various stages of decay and stacked up in macabre piles for blocks.

The outdoor location doesn’t quite suppress the stench but at least the huge market is in the open air. It is a jarring place for tourists who are not used to the idea of animal sacrifice as part of worship or using pieces of the dead as talismans, but for locals who practice the religion, it is a treasure and a necessity.

MASSIVE WITHDRAWAL OF FUNDS OUT OF GTBank BY NIGERIANS

Sequel to the court battle between the management Guaranty Trust Bank and the Industrialist Chief Innocent Chukwuma the Chairman of Innoson Group which led to the humiliating arrest of the latter at his residence in Savage Crescent G.R.A Enugu by Law Enforcement officers Attached to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, over some Financial disagreement. This further led to the massive Transfer of funds from GTB to other Banks like UBA, Fidelity bank, First Bank, Diamond bank, Zenith Bank etc and closure of Bank accounts by Nigerians especially Business men and women of the IGBO extraction.
 As at yesterday being the 20th day of December and today 21st of December 2017, over 18.5 Billion Naira have been moved to other Banks and over 20 Million GTB accounts have been closed following the campaign launch of #BoycottGtb on Twitter and other social media platforms. Thereby making the bank standing the risk of folding up.
To many Nigerians, this is a welcome move in solidarity on the premise of "A disservice to one is a disservice to all"
There is a revolution coming in Nigeria where Nigerians will unite as one to fight Injustice and irregularities in the political circle.

 
                     

THE EVOLUTION AND CLASSES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE...From the Simple programmed to Self Awareness.

 With advances in computing power which includes machine language,neural networks, natural language processing, genetic algorithm and computational creativity, to name just a few. We seem to have discover that Artificial Intelligence is evolving or transforming from the simple programmed to self awareness machines. But before we can go further, it is important we know what an Artificial Intelligence or A.I(for short) is, the types of A.I, a look at where A.I is and the prospect of what it may become in the future.

WHAT IS AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ?
 Artificial Intelligence according to John McCarthy is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines especially intelligent programs.
Artificial Intelligence is a way of making a computer, computer controlled robot or a software think intelligently in the same way Human beings think and react.
Therefore A. I is accomplished by studying how human brains think, learn, decide and work when engaged in problem solving using the outcomes of the study as a basis of developing intelligent softwares and systems.
Now we have an overview and the knowledge of what an Artificial Intelligence is, we can now proceed further to know the Classes and types of Artificial Intelligence and where we can classify them if we perceive and see them.

        CLASSES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

1) PURELY REACTIVE OR PROGRAMED A.I
     This is the most basic form of A.I. it perceives it's environment and situation directly and acts on what it sees. It doesn't have a concept of the wider world. It can't form memories or draw on past experiences to affect current situations thereby making it a Specialist in a particular field or area.
Example of this class of A.I are
 •  IBM 's Deep Blue which beat Garry Kasparov at Chess
             

 •  Google's AlphaGo which won human Go Champions.

         


 2) LIMITED MEMORY

As we go further up on the A.I evolutionary ladder, this type of A.I considers pieces of past information and add them to it's pre programmed representations of the world. It has just enough experience to make proper decisions and execute appropriate tasks. Examples of this class of A.I
• Self driving cars.

• Chatbots, Personal Digital assistants.

3) THEORY OF MIND

This type of A.I has the capacity to understand human thoughts and emotions which of course affect human behavior or character. This type of A.I which can comprehend feelings, motives, intentions, expectations and can interact Socially is yet to be built, but would likely be the next class of intelligent machines. Examples of this class of A.I are.
• C-3P0 and R2-D2 from the Star Wars universe.
                 

• Sonny in the 2004 film I Robot.
   

       
     
 4) SELF AWARENESS

These types of A.I can form representations about themselves which makes them an extension of the Theory of Mind A.I. They are aware of their internal states, can predict the feelings of others, make abstractions and inferences. They are the future generation of machines; Super intelligent, sentient and conscious. Examples of this class of A.I are.
• Ava in the 2015 movie Ex Machina

• Synths in the 2015 T.V series Humans
• Chappie in the 2016 movie Chappie
   

Over the week, the World Bank announced that loans will no longer be available for the implementation and execution of Fossil fuel based projects around the world.
This announcement was welcomed by climate change supporters who were present at Present at the Climate change held in Paris to curb against
fossil fuel-based energy, the World Bank President
made this announcement at the One Planet
summit called by French President Emmanuel
Macron. The bank, which provides loans to
developing countries to foster economic growth,
announced on December 12 that it will no longer
offer financial support for oil and gas exploration
after 2019.
During the summit, the bank released a statement
saying it “will no longer finance upstream oil and
gas,” citing a need to change in a “rapidly changing
world.” In 2015, the bank previously vowed to have
28% of its portfolio dedicated to climate action by
2020. The bank’s latest statement on fossil fuel
financing suggests that it is on course to achieve that goal.
This is yet another tragedy to the fossil fuel energy
industry, and a seemingly significant win for
environmental advocates. The economics surrounding the energy sector are increasingly making it more attractive and useful for entities to switch to renewable energy.
Across the world, it has become cheaper to build new renewable energy installations than to operate and maintain existing coal power plants.

The World Bank’s plan does lay out a caveat for
“exceptional circumstances,” saying that they will
consider “…financing upstream gas in the poorest
countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of
energy access for the poor and the project fits within
the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.”
The Paris agreement is a major factor in the decision.
The One Earth summit was planned on the two-year
anniversary of the historic agreement, which was
looking uncertain after the President of the United
States, one of the major financial and influential
member nations, decided to withdraw . Even so, the
agreement looks to be thriving, even in the US, which
may reach the goals laid out in Paris against all odds.

WATER, NEVER A BEST REMEDY FOR HOT PEPPER CONSUMPTION

Do you know that Peppers play an integral role in spicing up foods. Do you also know that without peppers, food cannot taste good. In as much we recognize the role peppers play in making foods tasty, it is important for us to know that Hot peppers are loaded with capsaicin, which binds to pain receptors in the mouth?
Anyone who has ever wondered why eating certain spicy foods makes your mouth feel like it’s on fire should take a look at a new video released by the American Chemical Society, which explains the science behind some of the world’s most excruciating dishes.

The main culprit is a molecule called capsaicin, which is found in the tissue of a number of hot peppers – including the infamous ghost chili, as well as the all hottest Carolina reaper Pepper and Dry pepper – and binds to pain receptors in the mouth. This stimulates the brain into coordinating a response designed to get the invading substance out of the body as quickly as possible, by making the eyes stream, the nose run, and the sweat begin to pour. There’s even a scale to measure the intensity of this response, called the Scoville scale.

However, rather than waiting for the body to recover naturally, pepper-stricken diners can take matters into their own hands by seeking out a non-polar substance to dissolve the capsaicin in. Non-polar molecules are those which are not positively charged at one end and negatively charged at the other. Since capsaicin falls into this category, it can only be dissolved in other non-polar substances – of which water is not one. Milk, however, contains molecules such as fat and a protein called casein, which are ideal for removing capsaicin from the pain receptors in the mouth.

Obviously, you don’t have to be a scientist to know not to take a bite out of a hot chili, although by watching the video below, you’ll at least be able to understand the chemistry behind your pain the next time you eat something that’s just a little too fiery.