Kayode Sowole develops app to read the bible in Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba

A 400 level Computer Science student of University of Lagos, Kayode Sowole who won the best student app for developing application that allows people to read the bible in Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and all English translations offline, tells the story of how the app come to be.

My name is Kayode Sowole. I am from Sodeke town in Abeokuta, Ogun State. I am currently a 400-level Computer Science student of University of Lagos.
I am a highly motivated individual who always enjoys a good challenge. My interest in computing since my childhood has been a major factor in helping me to develop my programming skills that have led to my high level of success in mobile app development. I love developing web and mobile applications. My leisure activities include writing, travelling and listening to music.

When did you realise you wanted to become an App developer?
I made the decision to become a mobile application developer in my first year in University of Lagos in 2010 after an online video training on app development on YouTube.

So what steps did you take?
I started by downloading and installing the Java IDE, which the YouTube training had recommended. I also got the Netbeans IDE on my laptop. Then, I searched Google for related e-books and downloaded them on my laptop for references. From that moment, I started building Java and Android apps. I found my kicks in getting online to research and learning new stuff about app development.

What was the first app you developed?
The first app I developed is called the Picpuzzle, a picture puzzle game that requires the player to rearrange the items in a picture in the proper order. I had fun putting that one together.

Where did you get inspiration for the app you created?
The Holy Spirit was the author of my inspiration. The thinking behind the app was that when God communicates with you in your native language, it seems as if God is from your town for Him to have been able to talk to you.

It allows for a closer and deeper transaction with the Almighty that is very native and heartfelt. When you read the Yoruba Bible, it seems as if God is a Yoruba man, which is true because we are all copies of God’s image. Language is very powerful.
If you want a people to lose their sense of identity, all you need to do is to take their language away from them. As such, providing the word of God to people in a language that they can understand is so powerful and has a very good feeling.

The Wazobia Bible app, affords you the opportunity to read God’s word in Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and all English translations offline. It’s all about creating value and opportunities for people to access God’s word.

What were the high points of your preparation?
The incorporation of the Bible into Bible programming languages such as THML (Theological Mark-up Language) and OSIS (Open Scripture Information Standard) was the most significant part of my preparation.

The Theological Markup Language is a new markup language that is being used to mark up texts for the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and other projects.

This XML application can be thought of as HTML with additions for electronic books and rich digital libraries, with special support for theological needs such as scripture references and Strongs numberings.

Also the Open Scripture Information Standard (OSIS) is an XML application (or schema), that defines tags for marking up Bibles, theological commentaries, and other related literature. These are useful languages I had to code with to develop the app.

Did you know that you were going to win?
I was shocked when I received the news of my win. Someone had called me to tell me I won because I didn’t attend the presentation.

How do you feel about winning?
This is so comforting and assuring. I feel so exhilarated. I’m so happy my hard work on the app has really paid off. This is a reward for the value I have tried to create by opening up the word of God to reach more people in a language they can understand and appreciate.

How do you plan to maximise the platform your victory has brought?
I intend to use social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter so as to reach out to a lot of people.

Could you take us through the start-up process and its growth trajectory?
I started the project by compiling the Holy Bible in Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and all English translations in plain text format.

Next, I built the GUI (Graphical User Interface) in Eclipse which made the project about fifty percent ready. After that, I developed the connection between the Bible files and the core of the app. At this stage, the project was seventy five percent completed.

To complete the development of the app, I introduced the reading of other documents such as Bible in one year, Every day in the word and other Christian books. I also made a collection of 384 bible verses which will be highlighted when reading the Bible. At the end of this stage, Wazobia Bible app was hundred per cent ready for use.

How have mobile users embraced the app and what kind of numbers have you churned out?
Wazobia Bible app has been downloaded beyond my expectation. The app has had over 2,800 downloads on MTN App Store.

Have you been able to monetize the application?
No. It’s a free app for now.

How do you intend to deal with the competition within the mobile industry?
I intend to introduce other features like reading the Bible out in audio and in the selected language such as Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Pidgin.

How would you assess current level of local mobile applications development?
I think local mobile applications development is increasing rapidly and a few years from now, the local mobile applications development community would have doubled.

MTN has launched the MTN NextApps store for various platforms, how will this impact the development of mobile applications and related content for mobile uses?
MTN NextApps store has definitely expanded the reach of apps to various platforms which will definitely improve mobile applications development speedily because it will encourage developers to port their apps to several platforms.

Would you say Nigeria has the local capacity to effectively support the growth and development of mobile content and applications?
Not at the moment. We have a lot of talented students in Nigeria but most cannot even afford a laptop. Even those who have laptops have to use N100 from their pocket money to get 10MB of data to browse. Only a few can afford to fuel their generators because there’s no light. As students, we need laptops, data and electricity to effectively support the growth and development of mobile content and applications.

What advice would you have for the government or corporate bodies in a bid to strengthen the local mobile application industry?
The government needs to make electricity stable to strengthen the local mobile application industry. Corporate bodies need to divert the millions they give to music stars for adverts to buy laptops for secondary school students who just finished their WAEC and are awaiting results.
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The Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship (YALF) – Season 2

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Are you a youth thinking about contesting for elective position? Do you believe you have what it takes to lead and contribute to nation building through politics?

In The Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship (YALF) - Season 2; come and understand:

What is elective position and public office
How youth can effectively run for elective offices
How young females can achieve their political aspirations
What are the best entry points for youth interested in elective positions
Participate in a non partisan support network to encourage youth aspirants
What are other resources youth can tap into towards their political aspirations
And much more!

YALF Season 2 shall offer 2 workshops in Abuja and Lagos, a good governance learning visit to a highly performing state in Nigeria, a community leadership experience and certificate of participation.

Speakers
Prof. Pat Utomi - Centre for Values in Leadership
Senator Babajide Omoworare – National Assembly
Hon Abike Dabire – National Assembly
Hon Chris Fotabong – Youth Parliamentarian Cameroon
Ayisa Osori – CEO Nigeria Women Trust Fund
Hon Zainab Galadima – Councilor, Abuja
Nentawe Gomiyar – Young Aspirant
Lynus Okorie – CEO GOTNI
Hon. Nkoyo Toyo - National Assembly
ELIGIBILITY: Youth between the ages of 18 and 35, interested in running for political office.

RULES AND REGULATIONS: Full rules and regulations can be found here

HOW TO APPLY:
Step 1
Apply using the Online Application System
New Application Deadline: April 6, 2014
Step 2
Selected candidates will pay a registration fee of N10,000.
Participants are responsible for their transportation to Abuja. Accommodation shall be provided by us.
For more inquiries call +234 703 5535 876 or +234 809 8333 348 or email yalfng@yahoo.com

DEADLINE: April 6, 2014
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Engineered bacteria produce biofuel alternative for high-energy rocket fuel

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels, such as JP-10, in missiles and other aerospace applications. With improvements in process efficiency, the biofuel could supplement limited supplies of petroleum-based JP-10, and might also facilitate development of a new generation of more powerful engines.

By inserting enzymes from trees into the bacterium, first author and Georgia Tech graduate student Stephen Sarria, working under the guidance of assistant professor Pamela Peralta-Yahya, boosted pinene production six-fold over earlier bioengineering efforts. Though a more dramatic improvement will be needed before pinene dimers can compete with petroleum-based JP-10, the scientists believe they have identified the major obstacles that must be overcome to reach that goal.

Funded by Georgia Tech startup funds awarded to Peralta-Yahya's lab and by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, the research was reported February 27, 2014, in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.

"We have made a sustainable precursor to a tactical fuel with a high energy density," said Peralta-Yahya, an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. "We are concentrating on making a 'drop-in' fuel that looks just like what is being produced from petroleum and can fit into existing distribution systems."

Fuels with high energy densities are important in applications where minimizing fuel weight is important. The gasoline used to power automobiles and the diesel used mainly in trucks both contain less energy per liter than the JP-10. The molecular arrangement of JP-10, which includes multiple strained rings of carbon atoms, accounts for its higher energy density.




The amount of JP-10 that can be extracted from each barrel of oil is limited, and sources of potentially comparable compounds such as trees can't provide much help. The limited supply drives the price of JP-10 to around $25 per gallon. That price point gives researchers working on a biofuel alternative a real advantage over scientists working on replacing gasoline and diesel.

"If you are trying to make an alternative to gasoline, you are competing against $3 per gallon," Peralta-Yahya noted. "That requires a long optimization process. Our process will be competitive with $25 per gallon in a much shorter time."

While much research has gone into producing ethanol and bio-diesel fuels, comparatively little work has been done on replacements for the high-energy JP-10.

Peralta-Yahya and collaborators set out to improve on previous efforts by studying alternative enzymes that could be inserted into the E. coli bacterium. They settled on two classes of enzymes – three pinene synthases (PS) and three geranyl diphosphate synthases (GPPS) – and experimented to see which combinations produced the best results.

Their results were much better than earlier efforts, but the researchers were puzzled because for a different hydrocarbon, similar enzymes produced more fuel per liter. So they tried an additional step to improve their efficiency. They placed the two enzymes adjacent to one another in the E. coli cells, ensuring that molecules produced by one enzyme would immediately contact the other. That boosted their production to 32 milligrams per liter – much better than earlier efforts, but still not competitive with petroleum-based JP-10.

Peralta-Yahya believes the problem now lies with built-in process inhibitions that will be more challenging to address.


"We found that the enzyme was being inhibited by the substrate, and that the inhibition was concentration-dependent," she said. "Now we need either an enzyme that is not inhibited at high substrate concentrations, or we need a pathway that is able to maintain low substrate concentrations throughout the run. Both of these are difficult, but not insurmountable, problems."

To be competitive, the researchers will have to boost their production of pinene 26-fold. Peralta-Yahya says that's within the range of possibilities for bioengineering the E. coli.

"Even though we are still in the milligrams per liter level, because the product we are trying to make is so much more expensive than diesel or gasoline means that we are relatively closer," she said.

Theoretically, it may be possible to produce pinene at a cost lower than that of petroleum-based sources. If that can be done – and if the resulting bio-fuel operates well in these applications – that could open the door for lighter and more powerful engines fueled by increased supplies of high-energy fuels. Pinene dimers, which result from the dimerization of pinene, have already been shown to have an energy density similar to that of JP-10.

Co-authors from the Joint BioEnergy Institute included Betty Wong, Hector Garcia Martin and Professor Jay D. Keasling, co-corresponding author of the paper.

CITATION: Stephen Sarria, et al., "Microbial Synthesis of Pinene," (ACS Synthetic Biology, 2014). (http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/sb4001382).

This work was started at the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and finished at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The work at JBEI was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research through contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. The work at the Georgia Institute of Technology was funded by startup funds awarded to the Peralta-Yahya laboratory. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the DOE.
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153 University Students gets registration fees from Bafarawa

Attahiru Bafarawa

Attahiru Bafarawa, a former governor of Sokoto State, came to the aid of 153 students of Usman Dan Fodio University (UDU), Sokoto by paying N5.2 million for their registration fees.

Addressing the beneficiaries in Sokoto on Sunday, Mr. Bafarawa dismissed insinuations that the gesture had political undertones.
“The step is aimed at salvaging the future of the students and the educational development of the state and the country in general.
“The youths are the leaders of tomorrow and deserve to be well educated to equip them with the capacity to be good leaders in various fields of endeavour,’’ he said.

Mr. Bafarawa, now a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, said the party was planning to provide free education from the primary to tertiary level if it won the 2015 Sokoto state governorship election.

The former governor, who recently decamped from the All Progressives Congress, appealed to students to be serious with their studies, and advised them to shun vices which could jeopardise their educational pursuits.
“You should also pray for the peace and unity of the state and the entire nation, because we need that to prosper as a nation,’’ he said.

While speaking at the occasion, some representatives of the students — Bashar Sani, Yazid Abdullahi and Asiya Al-Hassan — thanked Mr. Bafarawa for the gesture.
They promised to re-dedicate themselves to their studies.
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22-Year-Old Woman Gets World’s First 3-D Printed Skull

A 22-year-old Dutch woman recently underwent a revolutionary procedure where she received a 3-D printed skull, which surgeons say was a world first.

The patient suffered from a condition where her own skull thickened, putting pressure on the brain, according to NL Times. The woman’s symptoms became so bad she was beginning to lose her ability to make facial expressions and it was only going to get worse, possibly leading to death.

Applying 3-D printing technology into the medical field has given doctors the ability to custom fit patients with replacement body parts — in this case a plastic skull.

The procedure was conducted at the University Medical Center Utrecht a few months ago and has since been proclaimed a success as the woman is already back at work, Dutch News reported.

“The patient has regained her capacity for facial expression, is free of complaints, is back to work and it is nearly impossible to see she was ever operated on,” Bon Verweij, the lead surgeon, told NL Times.

Read more: http://www.theblaze.com
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YOU HAVE DREAMT.....its time to wake up and WORK

Yes there is time to sleep. Also there is time to wake. These days alot of us have over slept and we kept pilling up dreams waiting for realisation of these dreams in our sleep. Until you wake up, dust your self and work on your dreams, YOU GOING NO WHERE. The image above shows us in a mirror. Binded by colour but we differ in our dreams and passion. We are all uniques in our own ways. IF YOU DONT BUILD YOUR DREAMS, SOMEONE ELSE WILL PAY YOU OR EMPLOY YOU TO HELP BUILD THIERS.....

I have seen less educated people employing first class students to build their dreams for them. A first class slave you may call it.

RETHINK!!!!
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Public Holiday to be observed to mourn SLAUGHTERED students of FGC,muni

Unity College Teachers
Mourn Late Students
Teachers and other workers in 104 Federal
Government Colleges (FGC) across Nigeria have
declared Monday, March 3, a lecture-free day to mourn
the students of FGC,Muni Yadi, Yobe State who were
murdered by Boko Haram insurgents on Tuesday
25th February 2014.
In a statement yesterday by Association of Senior Civil
Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), the union said the one
day of mourning is a way of showing solidarity with
the Management, Staff and Parents of the deceased
students.
“We believe that this gesture is the least honour that
can be accorded defenceless students who were
murdered in their prime by the religious bigots. It will
also send a strong signal to the Boko Haram militants
that the entire society is united against its dastardly
act,” the statement explained.

REMINDER!!! JAMB registration to close one week from now

This is a reminder that the JAMB closing date for the JAMB
UTME 2014 is on Sunday, 9th March 2014. All candidates
who are yet to register for the JAMB Exam should ensure
they do so before the closing date.
Please note that the since the portal will be closing for
registration on 9th March, 2014, the sale of scratch cards
will be ending on 7th March, 2014, which is the last working
day for that week. All registration scratch cards should
therefore be purchase on or before 7th March.

So hurry up because 2014 must not pass you by again. Good luck!

ASUP strike to be resolve.FG issues N40bn

FG Seeks End to ASUP Strike, Offers to Pay N40b
in Two Instalments.....thisday reports!

The Federal Government has appealed to the Chairmen of
Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnics in Nigeria to
prevail on the striking members of the Academic Staff Union
of Polytechnics to end their now five month strike which
has grounded activities in the polytechnic sector.
This is as it disclosed that it would pay the N40 billion
outstanding arrears of the migration to CONTISS 15 in two
instalments; an offer which the union already rejected.
According to a statement issued by the Senior Special
Assistant on Media to the Supervising Minister of
Education, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu, the Supervising Minister
of Education, Chief Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, met with the
Chairmen in Abuja friday.
The offer, he said, also extends to striking lecturers of
Federal Colleges of Education in the country.
"At our exhaustive meeting with the Academic Staff Union
of Polytechnics, ASUP, we agreed on the two instalmental
payment of the CONTISS 15. We have since raised a memo
to the President to this effect. I took the risk of committing
government because we are deeply worried over the
prolonged strike.

Seriously, Nigeria education is messed up...who's gonna fix it if not us!

Fashion pictures from istafashion and veecubed

Some thrill me while others don't. Looking good is simply the key. You don't just have to go so wild to a point where wearing clothes is same as just going nude.

I have few of some pictures collected from instagram and also from my mobile gallery. I LOVE COLOURS!!!

For more info send a mail to admin@veecubed.net or 752A80CE

Disclaimer: pictures 1to5 is from instagram. Others are members of the veecubed community.

Heartbreaking letter written by a 12-year-old before dying

Heartbreaking letter written by a 12-year-old girl to her future self found by parents after she dies of pneumonia

Sometimes sources of comfort can come from the most unexpected places. At least that’s been the case for a grieving mom and dad in Tennessee whose 12-year-old daughter died of pneumonia on Jan. 5. Just days after Taylor Smith’s death, her parents found a sealed envelope containing a letter Taylor had written to her 22-year-old self — and its sunny, wise-beyond-her-years prose appears to be a consolation to her parents. 

Taylor Scout Smith, 12, died of pneumonia Sunday in Tennessee



may her soul rest in peace!!

mailonline

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