CHECK OUT THE 10 BIGGEST WEDDING MONEY WASTERS YOU CAN AVOID.

It can feel good playing the big spender at your wedding and letting everyone know that you can afford lavish arrangements. The feeling can be quickly replaced by despair, once you pick up the pieces and see how little you have left. If you need to bring a little sanity to your wedding plans, you need to stay away from these huge wedding money wasters.

1. An expensive wedding venue

Wedding venue costs can be exorbitant enough to easily take over your wedding budget all by themselves. Sometimes, you can get in over your head even when you aren’t looking for an expensive place. Many venues try to reel people in by advertising low prices but building them up with expensive add-ons — china, furnishings, lighting options etc. It’s important to make sure that your venue doesn’t use up more than 20% of your budget.

The cheap alternative ?
Choosing an outdoor venue is the right way to save on decorations, thus you should consider some low-cost locations like your backyard, parks or forests. Another way to save you money is by choosing an all-inclusive package, which usually include reception, wedding and honeymoon. Bear in mind that having your wedding during an off-season will cut the expenses almost twice. On Saturdays wedding venues are more expensive as well.

2. Trying too hard to save money on the venue can be bad, too

A bare venue, such as a large loft in a building or an empty hall in a barely used part of a property, can go very cheaply. The problem with such low-end venues, though, is that it will be up to you to cart in everything that you need for your wedding: lighting, furniture, carpeting, cutlery and silverware. Often, you end up paying way more than you would if you picked a higher-priced venue that came with all the necessities included.

The cheap alternative?
Opt for moderate restaurants that already have neat ambiance. Bear in mind that sometimes it’s much less expensive to buy your own items such as silverware or tablecloths rather than renting them.

3. Indulgent entertainment

DJs, a string quartet and even a five-piece wedding band can liven up your wedding beautifully without costing much. If you need to indulge a special love for Davido or Wizkid, jugglers or Atilogwu dancers, though, you can easily run out of money. It’s important to keep your wedding entertainment expectations under control.
Wedding band, however, is not the only way to entertain your guests without huge expenses.

The cheap alternative?
A local college band is also a good option to consider. Young musicians will eagerly jump at a chance to get experience and such bands usually cost less than professionals. However, DJ’s performance is usually less expensive than a band’s one.

4. Inviting everyone

It can seem like the right thing to do to invite every relative and everyone that you’ve ever been friends with. But each additional guest can cost an extra $150 at the average venue. You can quickly inflate your final bill when you don’t have the heart to keep your guest list to a reasonable length. When making the guest list try to omit your coworkers, children, and separated couples. If you cannot decide on the number of guest use the rule of thumb: if you can spend more than two minutes with that person, invite them.
What’s the reason to invite 500 to 1000 guests if you physically won’t be able to speak to everybody?

The cheap alternative?
 Make a rough copy of the guest list and divide all the names into several major categories such as family members, relatives, best friends and coworkers. When you know the approximate number of people you can invite, it may be much easier to cut down on the last category. Don’t mark the invitation with “plus guest.” This way you will avoid extra people you don’t want to see at all.

5. Acquiring a sizable set of groomsmen and bridesmaids

At some weddings, the bride and groom show up with a small army of attendants called Asoebis. While it may feel good to have of large posse watching your back, they can cost money. Even if you don’t shell out for the dress, you have to think of paying for invitations, gifts, bouquets and places at tables. You can end up paying hundreds of thousands of Naira more.

The cheap Alternative?
While formal wedding require up to 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen, you can easily reduce the number of them to just one groomsman and one bridesmaid. Weddings on a budget usually have no ring bearer or flower girl either. If you are afraid to offend your friends, vest them with certain roles. Some may help you with preparation, while others can perform an important role during the wedding ceremony.

6. The wedding attire

According to a recently published survey, half of all brides are uncomfortable spending more than ₦292,000 on their wedding dress. Yet, the average wedding dress costs around ₦401,500. It’s very easy to buy into the glamour-filled messages that the wedding industry sends out and to spend far more than you are comfortable with. But I think that wedding attire is an expense item you have plenty of opportunities to save some money on!

The cheap alternative?
Nothing will happen if you will buy your out-off-rack wedding dress in a budget-friendly department store or an outlet. If you feel good about once-worn or vintage dresses you can ask your mom for her gown. This way you will get free attire and you honor your mom as well. Other cost-conscious variants include a rented gown or a dress bought at the online auction

7. Personalized wedding outfits

Personalized wedding outfits are big business these days. Wedding retailers offer custom-printed clothing for all involved, with formal wedding titles printed on. Everyone from the best men to the bridesmaids get monogrammed outfits to wear around while they help. Since these touches are a luxury, they come at a heavy premium. Moreover, you are not going to wear such clothes permanently, even though it’s fun to have something personalized at first. Thus, it’s not good spending money on such short-life pieces of clothing.
The cheap alternative?
 you can order a pair of pajamas with “bride” and “groom” across your buttocks. You are going to wear this type of clothes at home and only two of you will admire the titles!

8. Making memories of everything

Wedding service providers hard sell or convince you with the idea that weddings need to be treasured and remembered with all kinds of keepsakes – tokens that you can hand down to your children one day. They try to sell you monogrammed pens, picture frames, toasting glasses, preserved wedding flowers and vases to help with this aim. While memories are certainly important, you don’t need to spend anything on them.
The cheap alternative?
A photo album and your wedding dress are obviously the most significant mementos of this day. If you are on a tight budget create your own album with the most significant photos. If you are not going to watch your wedding video regularly, you can easily skip this expense item. Rather than cluttering your room with heaps of mementos, spend this money on something really worthwhile.

9. Elaborate wedding invitations

Wedding invitations are so expensive that you can easily end up spending ₦7300 on an invitation with the works. It’s much more reasonable go with mass-produced invitations designed by big-name designers such as Vera Wang.

The cheap alternative?
 Ask your guests to respond via telephone or e-mail instead of adding a reply card or using usual postcards. However, with the abundance of arts and crafts supplies available out there, you can easily make your own wedding invitations. Surf the Internet to find interesting designs and invite your friends to assist you. Wedding invitations are commonly sent in more than one envelope, but this tradition is no longer rigid and you can use only one envelope, which helps to save some extra Naira

10. An extra large wedding cake

With their special decorations, wedding cakes can start out as expensive as ₦2920 a slice. It’s easy to make a wedding cake very expensive by ordering a larger size than you need. Too many couples order wedding cakes to serve 200 when they only have 100 guests.

The cheap alternative?
 A large cake is impressive, but it’s much cheaper to order a small wedding cake and to serve the guests a separate, simply decorated sheet cake. You will significantly save your budget if you decide on a sheet cake. The ingredients are usually the same, but sheet cakes are plain and unpretentious in terms of decorations.

Finally, Eliminating the top wedding money wasters can be a valuable way to get more money where it counts — the life that you need to build after the guests go home. With hundreds of ideas out there you still can have a cheap yet marvelous wedding of your dream. Most brides regret having so many odd and useless items they had spent money on. It’s up to you what expense items to include or to remove from this list, but you just should be aware of these major wedding money wasters. What are the biggest wedding money wasters? Share your thoughts, please.

REVEALED: 7 WAYS IN WHICH YOUR BODY WILL BE BURIED IN THE FUTURE

In the near future, many things we are used to will change drastically, the things we look at as impossible will be possible by pressing a little button. Our cars could fly,  we can possibly live on Mars. Extinct species like the dinosaurs and Mammoths will be reborn. I guess this sounds weird and impossible to you right now as you are reading

Well, enjoy it all while you still can because, eventually, we’re all still going to die. That’s one thing that won’t change even Biology recongnizes this process. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

But there’s a way to spice up the traditional burial in the near future. Am not not trying to judge anyone’s final wishes. There’s just something so plainly old-fashioned about having your body end up six feed under in a coffin. Once buried, your body decomposes, and feeds a host of micro-organisms underground. Eventually, all that’s left is a pile of fossilized bones.

Well it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Luckily, it’s 2018. And, if you kick the bucket, there are now countless ways to approach post-mortem planning – including some futuristic ones that could even give you a chance at living on eternally in the digital afterlife.

1. Get your Ashes scattered Into Outer Space

Photo credit:Mesoloft 

Having your cremated remains shot up into space is becoming an ever-growing trend in the United States. Mesoloft — a company that specializes in launching human remains to an altitude of about 24,084 meters (80,000 ft), using balloons — is one of many businesses trying to convince you to slingshot your ashes high up into the sky. But why?

Melosoft’s head of operations Alex Clements has a simple answer: “I think people are tired of being put in a wooden box in the ground,” he tells Popular Science.

Once at just over 24,384 meters — a long shot from the start of actual space at 100,000 meters (380,000 feet) — an Arduino-powered robot releases your ashes into the atmosphere, recording a little snippet of video to show to friends and family at the funeral.
Well if you are wondering how much this Funeral rites cost in shooting your remains outer space, it will cost you $ 4,500 for a standard Launch package to $7,500 for a destination launch package


2. Lay to Rest in a Digitalized Buddhist Temple

 In Japan for instance, Funeral rite is one of the most expensive ventures but a state of the art digitized cemetery called Ruriden at the Koukokuji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo offers something much more affordable: a locker space for cremated remains, along with a little LED Buddha statue. It’s a lot cooler, and High tech. There is no need to be afraid when you enter there.

                                       Credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images


As reported by Motherboard, there are more than 2,000 of these statues lining a massive wall in the space. Directly behind it, lockers house the actual human remains. With the help of a smart card system, visitors can store information about their deceased loved one, and make their representative Buddha statue light up like your childhood Sketchers.

The cost? $6,600 USD for a single locker, along with a yearly maintenance fee of $80. A long shot from the tens of thousands of dollars spent on a traditional burials in Japan.



3. You can convert your Remains Into Diamonds

There’s a reason they’re sometimes called “blood diamonds” – a lot of blood is shed in the process of mining, refining, selling, cutting, and eventually sticking the sparkly bit into a piece of jewelry. But there are alternatives out there. Moissanite, for instance, is a synthetically created diamond that shines just as bright. And now, you (technically, your dead body) can shine bright like a diamond, too!

That’s right. Your cremated remains (or cremains) can be pressed into diamond form using a 13,000 pound industrial machine.

According to LifeGem — allegedly, the owners of the only diamond production facility in the U.S. — the process involves heating extracted carbon from the remains to extreme temperatures, and placing it in a specialized diamond press. Once cut and polished, the diamond can be laser etched with a “unique identifier,” such as “<3<3<3.” Romantic.


4. Do you want to Live On as a Coral Reef ?

If you’d rather have your remains serve a more useful purpose — let’s say, protecting or conserving fragile underwater ecosystems — consider having them strapped to a “Reef Ball.” The ball mimics reef material and allows sea life to attach to it.


The company behind it, called Eternal Reefs, uses a special blend of concrete and combines it with your cremated remains. Once plopped into the ocean, sea life inhabits the reef ball, and allows more fragile habitats to thrive.
The company offers three sizes, of 400, 1,500 and 2,000 pounds, costing between $1,000 and $5,000. There are also two models for pets, for $400 and $500. The reef balls are cast with most of the weight at the bottom, to provide stability as the hollow design and holes dissipate energy from currents. The concrete used is non-acidic and the surface is roughened and dimpled, to encourage coral growth. A brass plaque marking the name and dates for the person being memorialized is included in the price.”


5. Let Mushrooms Consume Your Dead Body

Although it’s not appealing to the eye, a decomposing body can offer the natural habitat a lot of food to feast on. But pumping the body with formaldehyde – and using non-biodegradable materials in the casket or clothing – results in a harmful mix that won’t break down for decades, if not centuries.

Artist, and CEO of Ceoio, Jae Rhim Lee, found a much more Earth-friendly alternative to the conventional Western burial. She invented the Infinity Burial Suit — a full-body suit that can grow mushrooms specifically bred to break down hair, skin, and nails. Spores of these so-called “Infinity Mushrooms” are then infused into the cloth of the body suit, speeding up decomposition significantly.

6. Get Buried On A Floating Island

If a cemetery in the suburbs is too passé for you, consider moving to Hong Kong. Once there, you can chose to be buried aboard the “Floating Eternity” — a seaworthy graveyard that was designed to relieve the pressure of a growing number of deaths in Hong Kong.

       
                                          Image Credit: Para Site, 

While technically not available to customers just yet, the “Floating Eternity” will be able to house the ashes of some 370,000 people. The London and Hong-Kong-based architecture firm behind the project, BREAD studio, designed a circular walkway that allows for an unobstructed view from any angle.

7. The Artificial Intelligence that resurrects you

Uploading somebody’s consciousness to the interwebs is still very much science fiction. But, while having your mind “resurrected” using technology may not be an option right now, recreating a version of you that acts (or at least types) like you, is.

Companies like Sweden-based funeral agency, Fenix Begravning, are using sophisticated AI algorithms to create an interactive digital identity based on a deceased person — a spooky ethereal entity that allows you to hear “voices from ‘the other side'”, as Fenix refers to it.

This digital self can mimic how a person speaks through text only right now, but Fenix is hoping to expand this to verbal communication as well in the future. The technology behind it is not some Ouija-board-based magic, but an algorithm that’s being fed the deceased person’s social media, chatlogs, and even emails.

So, now you know, which option will you pick? Choose wisely. It’s truly a matter of life and death.

THE ANOTHER DIMENSION OF EBOLA OUTBREAK

For more than four decades, the rare but deadly virus has terrorized the world, with news of a new outbreak cropping up seemingly every few years. The largest of these outbreaks took place in West Africa from 2014 through 2016 when Ebola killed more people than in all previous outbreaks combined: 11,310.

MORE THAN 100 PERSONS FEARED DEAD AS A BOEING 737 AIRCRAFT CRASHES IN HAVANA CUBA

More than 100 persons were confirmed dead in Cuba in a plane crash as a Boeing 737 commercial aircraft crashed and went down in flames at Jose Marti Airport in Havana, Cuba.

The plane crashed down moments after its take-off from Jose Marti International Airport in the country's capital Havana.

It was also recorded that Three people survived the crash but were rushed to hospital in a critical condition, Cuban media reported.

It was also reported that the aircraft had 104 passengers and nine foreign crew on board when it crashed between the airport in southern Havana and the nearby town of Santiago de las Vegas.

Wreckage was scattered over the area 20 km south of Havana and ambulances and firefighters were at the scene, witnesses said. Blackened parts of the fuselage were visible.

"We heard an explosion and then saw a big cloud of smoke go up," said Gilberto Menendez, who runs a restaurant near the crash site in the agricultural area of Boyeros.

Carlos Alberto Martinez, the director of Havana's Calixto Garcia hospital, told Reuters four victims of the accident had been brought there. One had died and the other three were in a serious condition.

She is alive but badly burnt and swollen," said a distressed relative of one of the survivors at the hospital.

The flight was bound for Holguin in eastern Cuba and was leased by airline Cubana from a small Mexican airline called Damojh or Global, Cuban state media said. Holguin has some of the island's most pristine beaches, and attracts tourists.

The plane was rented by Cubana, which has taken many of its ageing planes out of service in recent months due to mechanical problems.

REASONS WHY I THINK SOME NIGERIANS PREFER TO DIE THAN LIVE.

COME TO THINK OF IT TOO IF AM RIGHT! !!!


1:In town today, the cheapest hotel cost
more than ₦5000 just for a night, and the
most expensive mortuary is just ₦2900 for
a month, while a cemetery is ₦9000 for a life time!
what do u think? live or die?

2: A cab which gives you a lift for just 30mins,
that should be 2 and half miles, will charge you not less than ₦2000, and Ambulance is just
₦1500 for a whole day. ....what do you think?
live or die? .....

3: If you got bitten by a snake and you were rushed to the hospital, your admission and treatment cost more than ₦4000, and how much is for gun bullet? ...₦250...why wouldn't people
kill! ?...what do you think? live or die? ...

4: Just a baby towel cost more than ₦1000,
wat about condoms and pills? ..₦500 can solve
that! what do you think, abort or keep the
baby? ......

5: Welcome to our special country where
Friday's are fixed date for burials.....and
Independence day is just a day celebration! ......

6: Nigeria is where a casket and coffin seller
Make more money than politicians, find out
Yourself! .....

7: If you are alive you hardly see friends around
You, die first! You become a celebrity! e.g..The famous Nollywood Actor "Muna".
It was when he died that many people even
knew his name! what do u think? live or
die? ....

8; This happens a lot on facebook everytime,
someone will post "I just
lost ....my ............!" People will "LIKE"
It....what do you think? live or die?

9: This one makes me angry. Somebody will post
Something meaningful on Facebook for instance he gets like 3 comments and 2 likes for 5hours, but if another person posts "I just lost my.......!" Hmmmmmm, you will see 5 likes and 78 comment's in 23mins.....what do you think you are doing? Even people make their parents die 7 years ago, just because of comments, and now he or she is writing it. I believe that
some people make their parents die on social media while they are alive
One guy in my Neighborhood did it He posted, "I just lost my dad!" and he didn't know that his dad is his friend on Facebook and his Mum is a mutual friend.You need to come and see The beating of his life that day! what do you think? live or
die? ..

10: And you are reading this Blog post , and you are saying " I have not lost anybody" then you are not u commenting
Hmmmmmm! what do you think? live or
die? .....

AN INJECTION OF SALT INTO YOUR EAR DRUM CAN PREVENT IT FROM PERMANENT HEARING LOSS

Have you ever heard an explosion or seen that in the action packed thriller you' ve just watched?This is how it happens. First there is a bomb explosion, Then, the sound cuts out. Dazed survivors look on as chaos silently unfolds all around them.

It’s a common trope in movies, but, yes, people do go deaf after a sudden loud noise. It’s even got a real medical name: noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), and it affects roughly 30 percent of the world's population. NIHL can be either temporary or permanent depending on how long a person heard it and how loud it was, and we currently have no way to reverse it.

Now, researchers have come up with a deceptively simple — though slightly cringe-inducing — treatment for NIHL: an injection of a salt or sugar solution directly into the eardrum.

In a study published last week in the journal PNAS,  researchers from the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) Keck School of Medicine set out to figure out exactly what caused NIHL. They built a tool that would let them take detailed pictures of the cochlea, the part of the inner ear in which sound transforms into something your brain can interpret.

Rodent lovers, consider yourselves warned about this next bit: the researchers exposed the mice to super loud noises, comparable to the roadside bomb a soldier might come in contact with during combat, and took pictures of their cochleas before and after.



The team’s images showed the loud noise caused two things to happen in the inner ear.

First, they saw a number of the tiny hairs inside the cochlea had died off. Second, they saw a buildup of liquid containing high levels of potassium. You know how your ears feel “full” when you leave a noisy concert? It’s because of that buildup.

Based on their research, the team concluded that this buildup kills neurons, which, along with those hair cells, play an important role in hearing. While the death of the hair cells was immediate and irreversible following a loud noise, the death of neurons took longer. That meant the researchers had a small window to intervene and prevent it.

The researchers suspected that, because salt or sugar could offset the effects of the potassium, a solution that contained either might be able to counteract the fluid’s neuron-killing effects. And they were right — the researchers discovered they could reduce the fluid build up and prevent 45 to 64 percent of neuron loss by injecting a solution containing either salt or sugar through the eardrum into the middle ear three hours after the noisy event.

The researchers next hope to test their treatment in human trials. John Oghalai, the study’s corresponding author, said in a press release that he thinks it could be useful on the battlefield and beyond.

People in combat could carry tiny vials of the solution to inject into the eardrums of their fellow soldiers (or, for the particularly hardcore ones, into their own) following an explosion. The NIHL treatment could even help with hearing loss not caused by a loud noise but still linked to fluid buildup, such as Meniere’s disease, Oghalai said.

Ultimately, the contents of your pantry could help save the hearing of millions — as long as they can stomach a shot right into the eardrum.

PENIS TRANSPLANT? VERY POSSIBLE IF YOU WANT TO FEEL GOOD AGAIN

On March 26, a team of eleven surgeons at Johns
Hopkins Medical Center transplanted a new penis,
scrotum, and part of the surrounding abdominal
tissue onto a veteran who had lost his genitals in a
combat injury.
The donated organ came from someone who had
recently died and signed off on the new procedure.
Similar penis transplants have been done before, but
this marks the first time that the scrotum and
abdominal wall were also transplanted.
It’s also the latest in a growing number of operations
that, though they are not life-saving, are important
for helping people feel normal in the bodies they
inhabit. Face transplants , uterine transplants, gender
confirmation surgeries — none of them are going to
save patients’ lives per se, but all of them are life-
changing for the people who elect to undergo them.
“When I first woke up [after the procedure], I felt
finally more normal… [with] a level of confidence as
well. …like finally I’m okay now,” the anonymous
veteran who received the transplant said in a press
release.

As procedures like these become more common and
routine, we can only hope that some of the stigma
facing people who take on non-essential surgeries
goes away. For example, much of the stigma
surrounding cosmetic surgeries like facelifts and
other augmentative procedures has faded — largely
because the surgeries themselves have become less
risky and invasive . The same could be true for facial
feminization procedures, still-experimental uterine
transplants — and, yes, even penis transplants.
It’s not clear whether people are more comfortable
with cosmetic surgery because they have become
more accepting or simply because the procedures
have improved to the point that people can no longer
tell who has had work done.
But either way, it’s easy to imagine a future in which
a similar shift has happened for people who undergo
the procedures and surgeries that today are still risky,
involved, and revolutionary.

THINKING OF QUITTING FACEBOOK ? HERE IS PROBABLY THE REASON

Get your Cutlass, fellow men. We have a new
Arsonist to run out of town, and its name is Facebook.
It’s selling our data, monitoring our phone calls , and, perhaps worst of all, doesn’t even seem to feel that bad about it.
But before you smash your phone, Tablet or your PC or delete Facebook,
let’s take a look at this. Is the platform really a toxic
monster? Or perhaps more of a misunderstood
beneficial beast?
Let’s see if we can consult science based on this.
Last month, The Journal of Social Psychology published a study exploring the relationship between Facebook and stress. Using 138 active Facebook users as their Lab rats or better still in plain English "Case Study", researchers from the University of Queensland found that taking a five-day break from the platform lowered levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

I think you are Ready to hit that delete button, but calm down and don't take it so fast.

“[W]hile participants in the study showed an
improvement in physiological stress by giving up
Facebook, they also reported lower feelings of well-
being,” lead researcher Eric Vanman said in a press
release. “People said they felt more unsatisfied with
their life and were looking forward to resuming their Facebook activity.”
And those lower cortisol levels? Participants didn’t
even notice, reporting that they felt just as stressed as they did before quitting Facebook temporarily.
In some instances, using Facebook can actually help
you cope with stress.
That’s according to a study the journal Computers in Human Behavior published in May 2017. Northwestern University researcher Renwen Zhang surveyed 560 Facebook-active university students, focusing on their use of Facebook to disclose information about stressful events in their lives.
Zhang concluded that opening up on Facebook helped the students mentally cope with stressful situations.
When the students shared information, they were
likely to get support from their Facebook friends in
the form of encouragement, advice, or offers of help. This, in turn, made them feel supported, more
satisfied with life, and less depressed.

Therefore Quitting Facebook means saying goodbye to all those digital hugs that can help you get through your latest breakup or crappy day at work.

So the question is, how do Facebook’s scientifically supported benefits stack up against its disadvantages?
Well, there are the aforementioned privacy issues to consider, plus the damage the platform can do to our health , IRL relationships , self-esteem , intelligence, overall well-being … We could go on and on.
Hmmm On second thought, maybe it is time to get your Cutlass. Or, at least, don’t smash your device on the floor just yet.

A TRANSGENDER MAN GIVES BIRTH TO A HEALTHY BABY IN FINLAND

In Helsinki, Which is the capital city of Finland, A Finnish woman who underwent hormonal therapy has become the nation's first transgender man to give birth, local media said Wednesday, triggering controversy as laws require infertility to change gender.

"The baby weighed nearly four kilogrammes and was 53 centimetres in length (at birth)," the transgender man, whose name was not revealed to protect the family's privacy, told Finnish news outlet Lannen Media a fortnight after the birth.

The man, who is in his 30s, legally changed his gender from a woman in 2015 after years of testosterone therapy.

But he decided to cancel sex change surgery, to complete his male physical transition, before trying to get pregnant with his husband.

Under Finnish law for hormonal therapy, a person is required to prove they are "infertile" in order to change legal gender from female to male.

In practice, Finnish medical units deem their transgender patients infertile when testosterone therapy has continued for a prolonged period.

But fertility can sometimes return if hormonal therapy is put on hold.

This case is exceptional because the couple, living in the Helsinki region, decided to suspend hormonal treatment and the man's period returned.

"Do I want the society to dictate what I can do with my body and my life? Nothing can stop me. I'm a free man," the man recalled in an earlier interview with Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat while still pregnant.

Finland is the only remaining Nordic country to require infertility from its citizens who want to change their legal gender, prompting sharp criticism from human rights organisations in recent years.

SNOOP'S ALBUM "BIBLE OF LOVE' TOPS AT NUMBER 1 IN THE BILLBOARDS CHART

In his musical career spanning for 25 years, Snoop Dogg achieved another milestone in his illustrious rap career, of which He can thank God for it

The veteran rhyme-singer’s inspirational project, Snoop Dogg Presents: The Bible of Love , is No. 1 on Billboard ’s Top Gospel Albums chart.

According to Billboard , The 32-track song collection moved 5,000 equivalent
album units last week. The LP features guest appearances from gospel superStars Marvin Sapp, Tye Tribbett, Erica Campbell and Charlie
Wilson.
In addition to having a No. 1 album, Snoop has three tracks from Bible
of Love charting on the Hot Gospel Songs tally. At No. 20, is “You,”
featuring Tribbett, followed by “Saved,” featuring Faith Evans and 3rd
Generation at No. 24, and “Blessing Me Again,” featuring Rance Allen
at No. 25. Another song from the set, “One More Day,” featuring
Charlie Wilson, spent a week at No. 17 on the March 10 chart.
In the meantime, Snoop Dogg is hitting several festivals in the coming
months. In April, he will be performing at the Tortuga Music Festival
and in May he will perform at both the Grizzly Fest and BottleRock
Music Festival. For a list of his tour dates head over to Songkick.com .

VERY SOON YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGING YOUR PHONE THROUGH A POWER OUTLET BUT BY YOUR BODY MOVEMENT

We have a lot of devices these days, and they all need to be charged. Though there are now pads for
wireless charging , these are still plugged into a power outlet.
Researchers at The University of Buffalo and Chinese Academy of Science have developed a new device that can generate electricity from body movement by harnessing triboelectric charging. This tiny metallic tab could one day allow us to charge our
devices without having to plug them into an
outlet. With this kind of evolution, you don't need to charge your devices using a power outlet

 In many cases, the charging process has barely
evolved at all in the past decade or more.
All it takes, according to their research
recently published in the journal Nano Energy, is a
special metallic tab and a little bit of body movement.

The secret is an effect called triboelectric charging,
and it’s something that most people have actually
seen — or felt — before. Triboelectric charging
happens when a material becomes electrically
charged after coming into frictional contact with
another material.
Most static electricity happens this
way, like when you accidentally touch a person and
you get a small shock from it.
This kind of contact electrification has been quite
difficult to turn into a useful power source, although there have been studies that looked into it. Too often, the materials are difficult to produce or are not cost effectiveness. The metallic tab developed by the researchers supposedly overcomes these hurdles.

The tab features two thin layers of gold that sandwich
a slab of a silicon-based polymer called
polydimethylsiloxane , which is typically used in
contact lenses and Silly Putty. One layer of gold is
stretched and then released, causing it to crumple.
Upon applying force again, movement between the
layers of gold and the polymer creates friction.
“This causes electrons to flow back and forth between the gold layers. The more friction, the greater the amount of power is produced,” lead author Yun Xu, a professor of Institute of Semiconductors at CAS, said
in a press release . This friction can come from the
slightest movement of a finger, the researchers
explained.

As a demonstration in their study, the researchers
used a metallic tab that’s only 1.5 cm (0.6 inches)
long and 1 cm (0.4 inches) wide. The small tab
generated 124 volts, with a maximum current and
density that was enough to light 48 red LED lights at
the same time. Though the tech is not quite there yet,
the researchers hope that their material could soon
charge smartphones and other smart gadgets using
just movement.
“No one likes being tethered to a power outlet or
lugging around a portable charger. The human body
is an abundant source of energy. We thought: ‘Why
not harness it to produce our own power?'” lead
author Qiaoqiang Gan, an associate professor of
electrical engineering at University at Buffalo, said in
the press release.
Gan and his colleagues plan to improve the
performance of this triboelectric charging device
while at the same time working on a portable battery
that can be used to store the energy the tab
generates.

MARIJUANA BECOMES A LATEST TREND IN ONLINE SHOPPING

As consumers, we’re obsessed with buying anything we need online ranging from Art supplies, Vitamins to even Adult diapers and we have all delivered to our door in an anonymous box, and without the need to avert your gaze from the cashier.

Apparently, marijuana is no exception — Americans, Indians, Africans are buying weed online in droves.

This news comes courtesy of a study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. It marks the first time anyone has analyzed online marijuana sales by looking at internet searches and the resulting links.

For their study into Americans’ online pot-purchasing behavior, the research team started  with Google. Specifically, they looked at searches

on the platform between January 2005 and June

2017, excluding those from the U.S.’s six least-

populated states.

First, they isolated all the searches including terms

such as “marijuana,” and “weed” in combination

with “buy,” “shop,” or “order.” From that list, they

eliminated searches that were clearly unrelated or

off-topic, such as “order weed killer.” This left them

with 12 terms tied to the thing they actually wanted in buying marijuana through the internet.

Next, they looked at how often people searched those terms each month. They found out that, in their 12 years of study, searches tied to buying weed online increased by 199 percent relative to all searches on the internet. In June 2017, the numbers soared as *high* as 2.4 million in a single month.

The searches weren’t restricted to particular parts of the country — all but two states the researchers

analyzed saw a growing number of searches each

month.

Not content to simply track search totals, the intrepid team also wanted to know where their list of terms would take them online. You know, for research .

In July 2017, they typed each of their pre -determined keywords into Google, hit “search,” and analyzed the first two pages’ worth of links. Of those links, 41 percent were to retailers offering mail-order marijuana. For two-thirds of the searches, the very  link led to such a retailer.

Their conclusion is People aren’t just searching for

weed online. They’re finding it.

This wouldn’t be a problem if buying weed were the same as, say, buying shoes or electronics. Though nine states and Washington D.C. now permit recreational marijuana use, none permit its sale online.

Buying Marijuana online may be more convenient, but there are good reasons why it’s not allowed. When people buy online, states might miss out on the major financial benefit of legalizing recreational marijuana: taxes.

Even more importantly, it’s harder to regulate who is buying the weed. In states where marijuana is legal, buyers must be 21 or older , and it’s far easier for those below that limit to fake their ages online than in person.

The study’s authors noted in a press release that

public health leaders must intervene to prevent these sales, perhaps by convincing internet service

providers (ISPs) to remove mail-order weed retailers from search engines.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop teenagers from

purchasing weed if they were really determined to

get it. But as U.S. states relax their marijuana laws,

the World needs to take precautions to keep the drug out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have it.

Addressing mail-order marijuana seems like a pretty

good place to start.

WICKEDNESS: WOMAN GIVE BIRTH TO LIZARD AFTER CARRYING PREGNANCY FOR 2 YEARS

Several reports trending on Facebook have it that a particular woman allegedly gave birth to a Lizard in a town’s market in Rivers state after two years of carrying the pregnancy.

Some Facebook users have taken to the platform to share the photos of how a lady who has been pregnant for two years gave birth to a lizard at Omoku market, Rivers state.

A user, Ahamuefuna Ijeoma Darlintina, who shared the most photos, wrote,

speechless….God forbid….a woman after two years of pregnant…giving birth to a lizard… in market omoku ….it was a shocked to me

Another user, Festus Emeka wrote,

This is life in omoku market a woman deliver lizard people are wicket in this Word

Jenni Blink wrote,

what a tragedy a woman with 2 years pregnancy finally delivered a live lizard in omoku market today

Brown Johnson,

Hmmmm i really dnt know wat dis world is turning into. see wat a woman given birth to in omoku market after 2years pregnancy..i just tire

Photos below:

HERE IS PROBABLY THE REASON WHY YOUR DATA IS BEING USED WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT

Your data is probably being used without your
consent.
This, I guess will not make you feel bad. In fact, it’s one of the biggest takeaways of the recent
investigation involving Facebook and a data mining
company called Cambridge Analytica.
The short version: Cambridge Analytica used a quiz
app to scrape data such as users’ identities, their
friend networks, and likes from millions of Facebook users. Users inadvertantly gave consent by agreeing to the user conditions in the app. The company later used that data to build targeted political ads for Donald Trump’s political campaign, the New York Times, which conducted the investigation along with The Observer , reports.
But who’s to blame for such a massive breach of user privacy? Yes, it’s easy to point a well-deserved finger at Cambridge Analytica, and another at Facebook. But it’s too neat to pin it on those two when the problem is so much larger and insidious.
So the question we need to ask is "WHY IS CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA ALLOWED TO SCRAPE THIS DATA?"
These seem like simple questions, but they’re really
not.
To the first point: Well, the Facebook users that
downloaded the data-scraping app,
this is your digital life, did technically consent to having their data scraped.

We all do this. When we download a new app or sign up for a social media site, we never read the user agreements. They’re boring and we’re impatient. But the truth is they have some  vital information in them. We check “yes” on Terms of
Service agreements, even though we know in the back of our minds the fine print might include an article that
the network plans to sell our information. We could
all stand to be more discerning before downloading
apps and filling out quizzes.
Even more invasive was that Facebook’s terms of
service allowed apps to access friends’ Facebook data as well as the user’s own (this was the case in 2014 and, Facebook has stated, has since changed). That means that any app that was using Facebook at the time could have accessed as much data as Cambridge Analytica did, though it’s not yet clear if other apps did so.
Facebook executives have claimed “everyone involved gave their consent,” as said by vice president and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal.
But that’s patently false. Consent, by nature, has to be informed for people to actually give it.
And another is question is this "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA DOING WITH
THIS DATA?"
That is, how worried should you be?
Cambridge Analytica says they used this information
to create profiling tools, which were then used to
target political ads at users’ personality traits. In
doing so, many news reports have suggested, the
company helped put Donald Trump into office.
It’s still unclear if that sort of targeting has much
influence. Research suggests that it does not. As The
Verge put it , while misuse of data is a no-no,
suggesting that Facebook likes are enough leverage to influence an election is “almost certainly overstating
Cambridge Analytica’s power.”
Even so, the sort of data that the app was collecting is used by lots of other third parties. It’s incredibly
valuable to advertisers, who can exploit users’
information to target their marketing down to the
individual level. All of this high-tech data collection is in the name of a timeless goal: to get consumers to b buy a product.

Discomfited by the seemingly unlimited power social media has over our information, lawmakers globally have pushed for governments to step in. In a recent review, the New York Times found that, in the past five years, more than 50 countries have passed laws that better regulate how people use, and are protected from, websites.

Most notably, in May, the European Union (EU) will
put new regulations into effect that will ensure users understand when their data is being collected.
The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR,
requires that companies identify what data they are collecting and why it’s being collected, and allow consumers to access and control that data. The legislation applies to social media networks, which must comply.
The United States remains one of the few of the
world’s leading countries that has no such legislation in place. Last year, Congress overturned a law that would have prevented internet service providers (ISPs) from selling data without users’ consent.
Legislators have resisted taking any action against
Silicon Valley; broadly, opponents of such regulation assert that these regulations stifle innovation.
But that doesn’t mean that Americans are going to be the only people in the world with their data up for grabs. As the EU’s new laws go into effect, Facebook is launching a new “privacy dashboard” that will help users worldwide exert better control over their privacy settings. Other companies are altering, or even shutting down, their social media advertising and data businesses internationally in response to the GDPR, Wired reports , simply because it’s too difficult to tailor services to the countries with more restrictive laws.
Cambridge Analytica may be the most recent
company found to be taking advantage of the data
users unwittingly hand over to social media sites, but it likely won’t be the last. There’s no telling how
many apps have been doing the same thing. Their
roles may come out in the future, or they could
remain a secret.
GDPR shows the power that legislation can have in
reining in the moneymaking schemes of social media.
If similar laws were passed outside the EU, you
wouldn’t have to worry as much about clicking “I
agree” to any terms of service you damn well please.

COMMISSIONER FOR HAPPINESS AND COUPLES FULFILLMENT URGES IMO MEN TO MARRY TWO WIVES TO REDUCE PROSTITUTION.

The Imo state Commissioner for Happiness, Mrs Ogechi Ololo, has appealed to men in her State to try to marry two or more women and stop the idea of one man , one woman as a way of reducing prostitution and redundancy among Imo state Women.

Speaking in Owerri state capital this morning, Commissioner Ogechi said Imo state has more women than men forcing a lot of unmarried women to commit adultery with other people’s husbands.

The commissioner said according to statistics, out of approximately 3.9 million Imo state indigenes, 3 million are women and only .9 million are men.

“I am not forcing you, but just encouraging you to marry two or more wives to reduce on women staying without husbands”.

Commissioner Ogechi told a conference of about 14,000 men who were receiving training in various life skills in the commercial capital.

“Our women are crying every day due to lack of men to marry and support them economically hence they engage in prostitution. So please try to work hard and be productive so that you can help our women by marrying two or more wives provided you are able to provide for their basic needs”.

“As government, we shall be giving some small incentives to such men provided you don’t abuse your wives”, said Commissioner Ogechi.

Imo state is said to have the highest level of prostitution in South East among young girls and women who are not in school or formal employment

MICRO SYRINGES TO DELIVER ACCURATE DRUGS INTO YOUR BODY SYSTEM WITHOUT FEELING ANY FORM OF PAIN

A fear of needles may soon be a thing of the past, as a team at the University of Texas at Dallas has come up with a painless alternative to conventional syringes.

With the new method, drugs would still be injected into the body, but using a microneedle that patients can’t even feel. The needle is so thin that it would break off under the skin dissolving as it releases the intended substance over time. Although the system wouldn’t work for every kind of medication, ultra thin needles are able to deliver a variety of drugs, provided they are made of small molecules.

The team’s research, published in ChemRxiv, explains that the needles are made using a 3D printing technique known as “fused deposition modeling”, and polylactic acid, a renewable, biodegradable, thermoplastic material that’s been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To achieve the tapered shape, the needles are chemically etched after the printing process. The team is able to create microneedles with tips as small as 1 micrometer or one millionth of a meter, and different needle shapes with a width of 400-600 micrometers. For comparison, a human red blood cell is about 5 micrometers wide.

While hypodermic needles are the standard for giving injections, they can be painful, and leave ugly bruises if not handled with precision. They also produce biohazardous waste. The new microneedles would solve all these problems at once: not only do they make injection painless, and can theoretically be used by just about anyone, but because the needle dissolves under the skin as it delivers the drug, it doesn’t create waste.

One setback to the concept is that while the actual needles can be produced cheaply, the initial design requires expensive photolithographic equipment. However, early results are encouraging: The finished microneedles have been successfully tested on parafilm and pig skin to evaluate their ability to puncture and break off as intended. And according to Cosmos Magazine, the researchers found that applying sideways force worked well, resulting in 84 percent of needles breaking off.

Research into alternative ways to deliver drugs has become increasingly popular in recent years. Last June, scientists from Georgia Tech and Emory University developed a sticker patch equipped with microneedles that could be used to deliver vaccines. In February, researchers from the University of Copenhagen released a study suggesting edible QR codes could be the next step in drug delivery.

Regardless of where the medical community goes, it’s safe to say that patients around the world would welcome painless injections, or no injections at all. Imagine a world in which parents no longer have to convince their children that the scary-looking needle isn’t that bad, even when it is, in fact, terrifying to look at.

WHAT ARCHBISHOP OBINNA SAID TO UCHE NWOSU

His Grace Anthony Obinna, the Archbishop of Owerri, has no
apology for saying that Imo State needs a seasoned administrator
to govern it and not Uche Nwosu. “What we need is a
democratically elected Governor and not a handpicked successor”.
The Archbishop also has no regrets in saying that Governor
Okorocha cannot succeed himself and that pushing for his son-in-
law, Ugwunba Uche Nwosu, to replace him is an indirect way of
doing that, which is unacceptable. That was basically the
beginning of what caused the fracas at a funeral mass at St
Michael’s Catholic Church, Ngwoma, Saturday 3rd of March. Party
supporters loyal to Governor Okorocha and Uche Nwosu, his son-
in-law, caused mayhem and pandemonium at that funeral Mass,
following the Archbishop’s comment and two responses
apparently from an APC and PDP supporter. Then hell was let
loose.
Speaking to the congregation which included Uche Nwosu and the
Governor’s wife, Nkechi, His Grace condemned the idea of
imposing a candidate on the people, and urged the faithful to
register and arm themselves with their voter’s card, for next year’s
election. “You cannot impose anyone on the people. Your vote will
decide. We have become miserable. Imo is now an empty basket.
Rebuilding Imo State and restoring its dignity is a challenge. Get
your voter’s card. Let us vote for mature, responsible citizens who
will serve the people not dominate them,” the Archbishop said. His
Grace also said, “Imo needs a seasoned technocrat who will right
the wrongs and correct several anomalies and hardship inflicted on
the people by the present administration and not the Governor’s
stooge who lacks the experience and maturity needed for such
exalted office. It is wrong to impose his son-in-law. Imo needs a
seasoned administrator, not Uche!” The Archbishop emphasised
that the Governor could not replace himself and imposing his son-
in-law on the people was wrong. He strongly advised the people to
register, get their permanent voter’s cards (PVC) and prepare to
use their votes to get their desired candidate.
The Archbishop’s advice follows a decision of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) for the church to help end people’s
apathy towards voting by encouraging the faithful to register and
be prepared to exercise their civic responsibility. While the
Archbishop was speaking at the mass, two other men who raised
their hands were allowed to speak. One of them, obviously a
supporter of Governor Okorocha, defended the Governor saying he
was doing well. The second speaker, however, spoke against the
Governor, saying that there was much poverty and pain in the land,
demanding a change of government in the next election. It was at
that point that APC supporters went berserk. The Bishop was not
physically assaulted but he was insulted.
Meanwhile, a communiqué issued by the Restoration Coalition, a
group from the All Progressive Party (APC), Imerienwe in Ngor
Okpala, L.G.A, condemned what they called the “clandestine
endorsements”, indiscriminate adoption and wanton “anointments”
of certain elements in the APC. “It is quite disturbing that these
endorsements obtained by blackmail, coercion and intimidation are
taking place in the hallowed orbit of the Imo State Government
House under the watch of the Governor. We are embarrassed
because this theatre of absurdity, as we have confirmed, has the
full backing and financial muscles of Imo State Government as the
person being endorsed, one Chief Uche Nwosu, his son-in-law, is
also his serving chief of staff. As a matter of fact, this is an
anomaly and points to a dangerous and destructive party politics of
APC in Imo State,” the Coalition also said.