text:
Why Information Grows
Thursday 4th June 2015 at 13:00 - 14:00
Durham Street Auditorium, RSA House
Creative Institutions and Systems
Can a better understanding of the world's complexity enable us to develop national industrial policies to raise living standards?
In a radical rethink of what an economy is, one of WIRED magazine's 50 People Who Could Change the World, César Hidalgo argues that it is the measure of a nation's cultural complexity – the nexus of people, ideas and invention - rather than its GDP or per-capita income, that explains the success or failure of its economic performance. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order itself.
Cesar visits the RSA to present a new view of the relationship between individual and collective knowledge, linking information theory, economics and biology to explain the deep evolution of social and economic systems.
For more information contact RSA Public Events at:
rsa.events@rsa.org.uk
Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
By Cesar Hidalgo
#RSAeconomy
César Hidalgo
Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at The MIT Media Lab
Mairi Ryan
Joint Head of Public Events Programme

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Shopping for food can tell a lot about someone, from their spending habits, interests, family situation, health, etc. I love nothing better than trawling through shopping aisles, delis, food shops waiting for new, exciting ingredients to pop out at me, or purchasing that 'extra' jar/bottle just in case I feel like making a particular dish. I start out with a list, but invariably I am always 'tempted' by specials or some new, interesting ingredient. I also do not plan my meals for the week. What I cook depends solely on what I feel like that day, or it might be a particular new dish or ingredient I want to try. Unfortunately, this habit also brings with it a very packed fridge, freezer and pantry, and then the 'use-by' date factor, which always leads to the wastage.
So, in the interests of saving money, time and the all-important catch-phrase of the moment – sustainable environment, I have decided to make do with what I have accumulated and what's available in the garden, before making any unnecessary new purchases.
This brought me to today's decision of 'pesto'. I had a favourite 'fresh basil pesto' that I would buy and stock a few tubs in my freezer, but, sadly I can no longer find this particular brand. Rather than experimenting with new ready-made varieties which are quite expensive, compared to the cost of growing your own herbs, I decided to make my own, using herbs available in the garden. Basil pesto – I could eliminate as I recently disposed of my plants due to woodiness and flowering. Years ago, I discovered a dill and parsley version, which is also no longer available, so I decided to revisit this combo. Very good with pasta, roasted kiphler potatoes or an assortment of roasted vegetables! Any leftover, store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer.
Add all ingredients to a food processor (I use a mini one). Process until combined and all dry ingredients are of similar texture. Add more oil if too dry.
Serve tossed through pasta and roasted vegetables (beetroot, cherry tomatoes and pumpkin are a lovely mixture). It is also perfect for vegetable lasagna.


text:
DC FanDome 2021: What Went Down
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Oct 18, 2021 | Anime, Cartoons, Cinema, Collectible Items, Comics, TV, Uncategorized, Video Games
Ahoy Captain Cats here and we are going to look at some of the biggest things that happen during this year's edition of DC FanDome! Comics Milestone Media Milestone Media is going to have a great year in 2022 with a grand return with new seasons of all of their comic...
Mariya Takeuchi and her comeback album Variety
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Sep 29, 2021 | Collectible Items, Hidden Gems, Uncategorized, Underground
Yo Ho, WeRCatz here! In 1981, Japanese singer Mariya Takeuchi went on hiatus after the release of her fifth studio album Portrait. She felt exhausted and suffered a sore throat. A year later, she married fellow musician Tatsuro Yamashita of "Ride On Time" fame. Since...
Berserk Manga Review
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Sep 7, 2021 | Anime, Collectible Items, Uncategorized
Today I wanted to do something different with anime because this week we may get to see what is possibly the last chapter in what many, including myself, calling this manga series one of the greatest mangas of all time and a masterwork of storytelling, character...
Comic-Con @ Home 2021 Review
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Jul 27, 2021 | Anime, Cartoons, Cinema, Collectible Items, Comics, Food and Life, TV, Uncategorized, Video Games
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to look back at this year's Comic-Con @ Home 2021 and see what it is as a whole from the different sections we cover here. Comics This year comics came back at the front of Comic-Con @ Home with panels from Marvel, DC,...
Macross To Be Released Worldwide!
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Apr 13, 2021 | Anime, Cinema, Collectible Items, TV, Uncategorized
Ahoy Captain Cats here and huge news to report about the Macross franchise! It has been reported that Big West and Harmony Gold have officially reached an agreement that will let them both release and distribute both the Macross and Robotech franchise worldwide. This...
Comic-Con Announced A Special Edition Event For November
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Mar 29, 2021 | Anime, Cartoons, Cinema, Collectible Items, Comics, Food and Life, TV, Uncategorized, Video Games
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today some big news about San Diego Comic-Con. The Non-profit organization has announced in a press release that a "Special Edition" version of the famous convention for this year in November. Here is what they said about it: "San Diego...
WonderCon @ Home Has Released Its Programming Schedule
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Mar 22, 2021 | Collectible Items, Comics, Food and Life, Uncategorized
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we have some news for fans of WonderCon. WonderCon will be once again virtual, which is not a bad thing to say and they have also released their programming schedule for this year's event. While it is only for 2 days, they do have a...
The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists Of The Jazz Age Review
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Sep 14, 2020 | Collectible Items, Comics, Uncategorized
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to look at the newest book by comics historian Trina Robbins and that book is The Flapper Queens: Women Cartoonists Of The Jazz Age. Just to let you know from here on out we will refer the book simply as The Flapper...
Comic-Con At Home 2020 Review
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Jul 27, 2020 | Anime, Cartoons, Cinema, Collectible Items, Comics, TV, Uncategorized, Video Games
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to look at the 2020 version of the San Diego Comic-Con International via Comic-Con at Home event and tell you what we think of this year's event. Good The panels This year has a great number of panels for everyone and I...
San Diego Comic-Con Release It's Full Programming Schedule
by Captain Cats and the Nightrider | Jul 13, 2020 | Anime, Cartoons, Cinema, Collectible Items, Comics, Table Top, TV, Uncategorized, Video Games
Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to go through all of the five-day programming schedules that will be on the San Diego Comic-Con upcoming event, Comic-Con@Home so without further adieu let's see what we are going to look at for those five days. Wednesday...


text:
← IT IS TIME FOR TEACHERS AND TRAINERS TO CONSIDER ONLINE TEACHING AND TRAINING
Teacher quality, employer relations key to preparing students for workplace, says survey →
[VIDEO] PUNCH undercover reporter exposes mass cheating at NECO 'Miracle Centre'
Posted on November 9, 2015 by Lantern Books
Nodos International Schools
TOBI AWORINDE went undercover to sit for the 2015 Senior Secondary Certificate Exams conducted by the National Examination Council at a private secondary school in Lagos
Earlier this year, I bought the form for the Secondary School Certificate Examination and registered for the examination with a fake name, Oluwatosin Joseph Adedayo. The home address, and all other information that I supplied to the National Examination Council were doctored.
In the photo that I submitted, my beard was shaven and I looked several years younger than I looked in 2004 when I had written the same examination in secondary school as an authentic candidate.
This time I took the examination as part of a SUNDAY PUNCH investigation into reported mass cheating at special examinations centres in Nigeria.
In search of miracles
A few weeks before I registered for the examination, I had contacted an unofficial 'exams liaison officer', Mr. Emmanuel, and told him about my need for a special centre.
Special centres are schools that guarantee candidates good exam results through the connivance of rogue invigilators and corrupt school officials that provide answers to examinations questions to students for a bribe. Over time, these centres have come to be known as 'miracle centres' among students.
Emmanuel told me the registration fee was N30,000 ($150), though the official exam fee was N20,000 ($100). I tried to haggle and offered N25,000. But he was adamant. I had missed the registration deadline, he said, I couldn't pay any less than N30,000.
According to him, the online registration portal had been closed and it would require more money to get to reopen it for my registration. I knew when to back down.
He then asked me to meet him at Ultimate Tutors, a small business café, in the Ojo area of Lagos to make the cash payment in person.
Emmanuel introduced me to Kodi, a man with a large scar on one side of his face, the coordinator of the centre, which was a small room of about 10 by six feet in a shoddily built mini-shopping complex.A young lady in the room gave me a form to fill before asking for the N30,000 fee.
I filled the form with my alias, Oluwatosin Joseph Adedayo, and a false age of 22. I also filled Osun State as my state of origin. I indicated that I was an Arts student which meant that for the exams, I would write eight pre-selected secondary school subjects—English Language, Mathematics, Economics, Biology, Christian Religious Studies, Literature-in-English, Civic Education and Government.
After filling the form, Emmanuel led me to a photo studio which was about five minutes from Ultimate Tutors. Emmanuel explained to the photographer that I needed passport photographs for the examination at Nodos International Secondary School, located at No 1, Tedi Road, opposite Ojo Barracks, Lagos.
To my amazement, the photographer reached for a rack holding different school uniforms. The uniforms, I quickly realised, belong to different schools in the neighbourhood. She selected one, a blue shirt that had Nodos International School emblazoned all over.
I put on the shirt and had my photograph taken. After printing the requisite eight passport photographs, she asked for N400 ($2) which I again paid. Emmanuel and I returned to the café to submit four of the photographs.
After the 45-minute-long registration process, Emmanuel told me that to complete the registration, I would need a biometric capture and yet another payment for the uniform and identity card, which I would use for the exams. He added that for all these, I needed to pay an additional sum of N4,000 ($20) to his personal bank account.
When I informed him that I needed a receipt for all the payments, he gave me a knowing smile and said, "You should understand. We don't give receipts."
Later on, over the telephone, he informed me of the need to get an ash-coloured pair of trousers which would serve as part of my uniform for the exams. He explained that the school would only provide the uniform shirt I would wear.
On May 13, I made the N4,000 payment for the uniform and exam ID card into Emmanuel's Union Bank account.
On May 25, I received a text message saying I should visit Great Heritage College, Isashi, the following day at 9:30 am for my biodata registration. When I got there, I met about 50 pupils.When it came to my turn, the man in charge, sitting behind a dated computer and a fingerprint scanner, asked if I was a pupil of the school. I answered in the negative and he told me to step aside and carried on registering and taking the biodata of others who apparently attended the school.
When he finished, he asked 10 of us where our registration centre was. When he heard that some of us where from Ultimate Tutors, he compelled us to pay N500 each before attending to us. After paying the mandatory N500 fee, he took scans of the thumb and index finger of each hand. With this stage completed, I was eligible to take part in the exams and Emmanuel's role in the illegal activity came to an end.
Across Nigeria, 'exam liaison officers' like Emmanuel are the middlemen between desperate examination candidates who want to pass exams and the special centres. This desperation is often driven by the need of the candidates to get good SSCE grades for university admission.
Olayiwola Olurode, a Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos, explained that there is a demand and supply paradigm to the growing menace.
"It is like a tripartite kind of cartel—you have the school authorities colluding; you have the parents on one side also colluding; and you have the examination body. In most schools, especially the so-called private ones, that is what goes on. The general belief is that every stakeholder in the school establishment has a price," he said.
The professor added that mass cheating at examination centres is responsible for the poor quality of students admitted into universities and also responsible for the rot in the country's education sector. He illustrated this point with what he described as 'a nasty experience' he had about a decade ago.
"I travelled to the village one weekend and met somebody back home. He showed me his results and they were full of distinctions; he had only one credit. I decided to take him with me to Lagos. We (UNILAG) admitted through the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board that year, but I said he could come in through the UNILAG internal exams. We got home and, lo and behold, each time I spoke to this fellow in English, he would look down and not respond.
"I was wondering, 'What could be the cause? Could it be self-doubt or because he just didn't know what to say?' Then I took from the shelf some titles I had written for nursery school pupils and asked him to read. The boy was stuck to the chair; he couldn't stand up. The following day, I took him to the university and I asked a professor of Economics to pretend to conduct an exam for him to enter into the Economics department.
"The boy could not figure out anything; he didn't even write anything. At the end of the day, I asked him what happened and he told me his parents paid for him to write exams at a special centre."
Money is the game
I arrived Nodos International School for my first paper, Civic Education on Tuesday, June 2, with wads of naira in my pocket. I had been told I would have to spend more money during the examination.
Entering the towering two-storey school building, I was directed to a similar structure at the back of the compound. I met the principal, a light-complexioned, plump woman. She was engaged in a heated conversation with a pupil's mother, a politician who was arguing that, contrary to the school's claims, her daughter's fees had been paid in full.
In between their conversation, the principal sent for Bash. Bash turned out to be a fair, unshaven man of about five feet. He was clad in a white long-sleeved shirt atop dark trousers and appeared to be in his mid-30s. He was the chief exam coordinator of the school.
When he appeared, I introduced myself and explained that I was a candidate for the NECO exams. He asked for N2,000, which I handed over to him. He then ushered me to the office of the school principal's secretary.
After sitting there for about 15 minutes, the principal came in and pointed to three ragged uniform shirts in a corner of the office for me to choose from. Of the musty faded shirts, there was only one which had a complete row of buttons. I wore it. With that I was transformed into a student of Nodos International and I could walk into a classroom and sit for the national exam.
The external candidates, about 15 of us, kept mum in the principal's office. Save for a few, many of the candidates looked young and could have passed off as school pupils.
After another 15 minutes of waiting, the principal brought out a stash of ID cards, which had yet to be laminated. She asked each of the external candidates to search for his or her ID card, while she monitored the activity.
The subject which we were about to sit for, Civic Education, was not a general one, so only about one-third of the entire population of candidates at the centre sat for that paper.
I found my ID card but it did not have a passport photograph attached to it. The principal noticed that a number of others did not have photographs attached either. She asked where I signed up for the exam. When I told her I registered at Ultimate Tutors, she then asked me to return to the centre to get the passports of all the candidates that registered there.
With about 20 minutes to the paper, I returned to Ultimate Tutors and collected the passport photographs of seven of us, excluding a female candidate who had already come back to pick up her passport.
When I returned to the school, I gave the photographs to the principal and was asked to go to the topmost floor of the building where the exams would be conducted.
I was the first examinee in the hall. I met the invigilator seated on a desk. He sized me up and asked, "Are you an external candidate?"
I said yes and then he asked what my name was. I told him, "Tosin Adedayo."
He then asked what state I was from and I told him Osun State. He replied in native Yoruba, "I know one other Adedayo, but not from Osun."
Still speaking in Yoruba, the invigilator lowered his voice before telling me matter-of-factly that I would have to give him some money.
"External candidates are expected to drop something before they will be taken care of." I asked him how much and he said N500. I, however, ended up parting with N1,000 because he didn't have N500 change to give me.
With the money paid, the invigilator ushered me to a seat in the front and proceeded to give me special treatment, in spite of the freedom the entire hall enjoyed.
As the paper was about to begin, the principal appeared with our ID cards, which still had not been laminated. She distributed them. She added that we must return the ID cards immediately after completing the paper in order to laminate them.
Afterwards, the invigilator distributed the question papers and answer booklets at the same time. He asked us to start as soon as we got the papers. Normally, the papers are distributed to everyone before the invigilator asks the candidates to begin, so as to ensure orderliness and that everyone starts the paper at the same time.
As the exam started, the invigilator called me and asked which of the four question types—A, B, C or D—I was given. I told him I had Type C. He then asked if I had the instant messaging application, WhatsApp, on my phone.
After answering in the affirmative, he told me, "Let me call some other centres to find out if they have your question type. Once they do, they will send it to you via WhatsApp."
He then made several phone calls to other invigilators. With no answers forthcoming for my question type and noticing that I did not know anything about Civic Education, he moved a candidate from the back and placed him next to me.
The invigilator instructed the tall, slender boy with dark skin, who I quickly realised was a pupil of the school, to help me. The boy then took out his smartphone and placed it in the full glare of the invigilator, and logged on to http://www.examsanswer.net.
The site contained the answers to all the questions for Type A. He had already shaded nearly all of the 60 multiple-choice questions within 15 minutes of starting the paper and would intermittently go back and forth from the webpage to WhatsApp, where he had received the answers from another source.
The boy used the WhatsApp answers as a means of cross-checking the answers on the site. Though I had Type C and my partner had Type B, the invigilator encouraged me to follow suit, regardless of the fact that the answers we were both using were for Type A.
"Just shade the answers. When you're done, write 'Type A' on your answer sheet," the boy told me, pointing at the top-right corner of the answer booklet provided for candidates to indicate the question type they received.
With the boy too far ahead for me to keep up, he gave me the URL of the website and the login code for that day: "rule". He also introduced me to http://www.jazzyfans.net, which also had only Type A answers.
About 30 minutes into the exam, Bash, who is also the school's Economics teacher, entered the classroom with a textbook and began to write out the answers to the questions in the essay section. All the pupils in the hall copied from the board hurriedly.
Though the time given for both the multiple-choice and essay sections was three hours, I finished them in 50 minutes. The pupil beside me finished in even less time.
Comrades in crime
The chief examination coordinator was Bash. He was the man who ran the show when it came to exam-related activities. He was often the one who went round collecting the random N100 fee from each candidate in the middle of general papers like English Language and Mathematics in order to provide the answers.
He was assisted by — Mr. Ugochukwu (Physics), Mr. Silas (subject unknown) and the Biology and Geography teacher (name unknown) who were responsible for making sure the answers were available for each paper and assisting with collecting money when the need arose.
Typically, at the beginning of the paper, the external invigilator would begin by keeping an eagle eye on the candidates, but soon after the paper started, the invigilator would be beckoned on by one of the school's exam coordinators and he would be gone for several minutes.
Shortly after, the invigilator would return with a more relaxed disposition and the candidates would have a field day, albeit with varying degrees of freedom per invigilator. While a few invigilators at this special centre would allow the use of phones by candidates, others would insist that all phones must be left outside the hall no matter what.
Daring candidates would, nonetheless, still sneak in the phones. As a result, it was common to have at least one case during each paper whereby a candidate's phone would be seized.
Phones or no phones, one common liberty which the invigilators granted was the freedom for exam coordinators to write the answers to essay questions, unhindered, on the board.
There were times when the external invigilators from NECO allowed the coordinators to call out the answers to the multiple-choice questions, according to each type.
Also part of the exam coordinating crew was a standby member of the National Security Civil Defence Corps. Save for the last few papers, an unarmed NSCDC officer was always present. Such officers were expected to ensure that candidates, who were caught in exam malpractice, were arrested but they turned a blind eye at the centre.
The restitution angle
The Examination Malpractices Act No. 33 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates a minimum punishment of N50,000 and a maximum of five years imprisonment without the option of fine for violators of the offences stipulated in the Act. However, only a handful of examination malefactors are ever prosecuted.
What is common is that NECO sanctions secondary schools for malpractices in different parts of the country every year. In September 2012, the then Registrar of NECO, Prof. Promise Okpalla, announced the blacklisting of 13 secondary schools in the country for alleged involvement in malpractice in June/July examinations.
Okpalla said the schools cut across seven states in the federation, including Cross River, Imo, Rivers, Anambra, Benue, Kano and Nassarawa.
Similarly, the West African Examinations Council blacklisted 113 secondary schools nationwide as punishment for examination malpractices in 2012. In addition, the results of 30,654 candidates, who sat for the May/June 2012 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, were cancelled. The exam body also placed a two-year ban on 3,321 candidates from sitting for its exams over misconduct.
Another common occurrence, according to examination officials, is the growing number of students who turn up at the examination bodies' office to confess involvement in past examination malpractices. In 2013, WAEC announced that a total of 256 candidates, who admitted to have cheated in the past, returned their certificates because they had "found Jesus."
Deputy Director, Public Affairs, WAEC, Mr. Yusuf Ari, said the 256 cases were just the ones the examination body got between April and November 2013.
He said, "It is very common to get requests from such born-again Christians, who are usually from a particular Pentecostal church I won't like to name. The individuals come to our office or write letters. Some of those who come even start crying. They say they cheated and they have decided to return their certificates because they are now born-again."
Biology practical
On Friday, June 5, I arrived at the school 45 minutes early for Biology practical.
The school's tall, dark-skinned teacher of Biology and Geography (name unknown) summoned me to his laboratory on my arrival. He handed me a sheet of paper which resembled one of the exam question papers.
On top of the paper were the words: "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL: The information contained here is highly confidential. Efforts should be made, therefore, to avoid candidates getting to know of this either directly or indirectly before the examination."
I discovered that this was the sheet of paper known in Biology teachers' circles as the "yellow paper." A top-secret list of specimens for practical which the exam body makes available to the centre ahead of the exam, in order for the school to make timely provision of the needed specimens.
The teacher then asked me to find a small piece of paper and quickly copy out the items from the list of specimens.
"Use a sheet of paper that is small enough to carry into the hall," he told me.
As I began to tear out a piece of paper, a female candidate joined me and the man asked her to copy the specimen too.
Shortly after, we went upstairs for the paper and found a bench placed in the corridor outside the four classrooms used collectively for the NECO exams.
On the bench, the specimens were arranged in a row and labelled 'A' to 'P'.
Soon after the paper began, the Biology teacher, who was one of four exam coordinators in the school, ordered all the 95 candidates to file out from our classrooms in pairs, glance at the specimen and then return to our halls before identifying each specimen in our answer booklets.
"Don't waste time. Just briefly look at the specimen and go back to your seat. It is just to fulfill all righteousness," he repeatedly said.
When we all got back to our classrooms, those of us in the know discreetly pulled out our sheets of paper and started copying out the specimens.
The answers for Specimen A to P were: Housefly, toad, prawn, hibiscus flower, bean seed, coconut fruit (with husk), maize grain, mango fruit, tomato fruit, cockroach, earthworm, thoracic vertebra, cervical vertebra, caudal vertebra, sacral vertebra and humerus. Some candidates found the answers using their phones to browse websites, including http://www.jazzyfans.net and http://www.waploaded.com.
The homepage of http://www.jazzyfans.net was designed as an all-purpose site for young students. The banner had a green, nondescript crest. At the top of the homepage was the site's menu, which included music, video, Naija news, entertainment, technology, education and sports.
Listed below the site were a mix of links to wide-ranging subjects, including education, politics, entertainment and answers to examination questions.
The same was the case on http://www.waploaded.com. The site's menu included forum, music, videos,stories, among others.
On the homepage of http://www.examsanswer.net, there was a stern caveat requesting mobile airtime to be sent to the site's administrators before answers would be provided.
The password-protected site read, "WAEC English answers: Direct mobile/SMS — N800 MTN card. Online answers/password — N400 MTN card; send your MTN card, phone number,subject, exam type(WAEC/NECO/NABTEB) to 08107077307.
"Subscription ends one hour before exam starts.Don'teven expect free answers.We don't talk much.Please note: MTN LINE is best for our runz (business), we can manage Etisalat airtime; each subject costs N800, while practicals cost N400 for direct mobile; each subject/practical costs N400 for link/online answer. Do not call us, just text, know the difference between link/online answer and direct mobile.
"JAMB/NECO and NABTEB GCE enquires only — 08107077307."
Halfway through the two-hour paper, the external invigilator and female NSCDC officer only watched as the examination hall became rowdy. Most candidates began to switch seats to copy from one another.
Tales of desperation
A particular NSCDC official tried to act tough during the examination. She had gone round telling everyone to make sure they put their mobile phones and other incriminating evidence away because anyone caught in a compromising position would not be spared.
A female candidate, who looked to be in her mid-20s at least, angrily said to the hearing of everyone nearby that she had written SSCE exams no less than five times, mostly at special centres.
"I dare her to stop me! After collecting my N25,000, they want to tell me rubbish. They should try it first. Is it today I started writing exam?" the female candidate said after the NSCDC official's threat.
The invigilator later gathered all the candidates into one class and supervised the free exchange of answers, while the once scowling NSCDC officer watched in silence.
The Mathematics teacher also wrote out answers on the whiteboard as we hurriedly copied into our answer booklets.
After the teacher had written out the first answer, Bash asked him to stop in order for him to collect a random N100 fee from each candidate. Those that didn't pay were prevented from writing. When Bash was satisfied, he asked the teacher to resume.
On June 18, when I sat for English Language, the female NSCDC officer had been replaced by a more accommodating male officer.
Like most of the other papers, it was a walk in the park. Half of the class brandished their mobile phones in search of the answers. Only Type A answers were provided, so those like myself, who had other question types, used the answers as a guide in answering our respective question types.
Candidates occasionally dashed back and forth between desks to compare answers, while the easy-going invigilator watched. The case was the same with the multiple-choice and essay papers of Government and Economics.
The missing key
At 10am on June 23, the day of the Biology multiple-choice and essay papers, when the paper should have begun, the invigilator could not find the key to the padlocked courier bag of exam question papers.
The NSCDC officer said one of the coordinators had forgotten the key at home and had to go back to retrieve it. While candidates across the country had completed the multiple-choice questions, no candidate at my centre had laid eyes on an answer booklet.
We all sat in our classrooms idle. Before long, some had put their heads on desks and drifted into sleep. It wasn't until over an hour after the official starting time for the paper that the question papers and answer booklets were distributed. We started the paper at 11:11am.
Still, many of us completed the paper in record time as the coordinators furnished us with the answers by writing them on the whiteboards as we hurriedly copied.
Friday, July 3, was my last paper, Christian Religious Studies. I was an hour late for the exam because of traffic but I decided to feign a fever as this was the only tenable excuse. I told the invigilator that I had just left the hospital. He asked for my medical bill or report, but I did not have one. He then asked me to pay the sum of N300 before I could go into the exam hall.
After paying, he led me to a seat with two other candidates who were copying the answers off a website using their phone.
After a while, the invigilator fetched a CRS textbook for Junior Secondary School which had some answers and placed it on my desk.
One bright spot
On July 1, when it came time to take Literature-in-English (Drama and Poetry), the story changed. The external invigilator on duty was a woman in her late 40s who would not condone any misconduct. Her strictness first became apparent when, just before the paper started, the handful of candidates taking the paper decided to scatter themselves in the classroom. But she ordered that there must be no empty seat in front of anyone. That way, no one could escape her watchful eye throughout the paper.
The silence that hung over the entire hall was deafening. Even when Bash came in momentarily to whisper something to the hearing of the taciturn woman, as he did other invigilators before her, we all saw her unflinching resolve and we accepted our fate.
Throughout the paper, the silence was so thick that one could cut it with a knife. The friendly NSCDC officer could not help us. When two candidates arrived one hour into the exam, she told them, "Let me tell you, you have set yourself up to fail woefully. I am not cursing you; I am just saying it as it is. If you want to fail, you will fail."
With each passing minute, the paper seemed to last longer than the one hour and 40 minutes allotted.
Playing the ostrich
When contacted on SUNDAY PUNCH's findings, the Information Officer, NECO, Mr. Sani Azeez, told our correspondent that once the exam body found any school engaged in malpractices, it banned it.
He said, "You are making a very grievous allegation. The consequence is that once the council is able to establish that such a centre exists, the centre will be banned.
"If you can cast your mind back to when the results were released, some centres were blacklisted. It could be that they would be outright banned from conducting NECO exams. That is why I want the details of that centre."
A Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Foundations and Counselling, Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr. Bamidele Faleye, said members of the illicit exam network are enemies of the state that must be apprehended by whatever means necessary.
He said, "As someone who has worked directly with NECO, I am surprised to hear this. While serving as an examiner, I only heard about such centres without ever actually encountering anyone. But an end must be brought to this ugly trend."
On September 10, the NECO Registrar, Abdulrashid Garba, announced the results of its June/July 2015 SSCE exams with a 16 per cent pass rate improvement.
Garba, while making the announcement in Minna, said 68.56 per cent of candidates had more than five credits, including Mathematics and English Language.
Explaining that the 2015 result was an improvement on that of 2014, in which 52.29 per cent had above five credits, Garba noted that 969,491 candidates wrote the examination out of 969,991 who registered.
He added that 0.11 per cent cases of malpractice were recorded and that the results of candidates involved had been cancelled.
"The 2015 examinations result was released within 60 days after the final paper. This shows a great success achieved by the council.
"Lists of schools which were involved in examination malpractice have been blacklisted and the results of students who wrote in such centres have been cancelled," he said.
Two days after Garba spoke, I logged on to the website of the National Examination Council to check my result. I smiled sadly as my fairly good result was displayed in front of me: English Language (B3); Mathematics (C4); Civic Education (C4); Biology (C5); Christian Religious Studies (C5); Government (C4); Economics (C5); and Literature-in-English (E8).
Going by my result, I was one of the lucky 969,491 candidates who, according to Garba, were not involved in examination malpractice.
Source: punchng.com
Alagomeji, Lagos, Nigeria
Posted in Educational News and Events	| Tagged Education, Exam malpractice, NECO
2 thoughts on "[VIDEO] PUNCH undercover reporter exposes mass cheating at NECO 'Miracle Centre'"
chigbo
Rivalry in schools breeds jealousy and envy,how much was involved?
mylanternbooks
The unfortunate thing is that majority of our schools nowadays are merely interested in accumulating profit, they care less about education which is supposed to be their primary focus.


Innovation has always been a strength for fabbricadigitale: it is the core of our thoughts, actions, and technology. Every day we focus on finding and developing innovative models of business and new products for a better future for our company and customers.
IoT solutions development requires effective end-to-end synergies in the ICT world; we improve our skills in hardware design and software development, in firmware writing and cloud definition.
The R&D activities in fabbricadigitale have made the in-house creation of end-to-end products possible, making smart objects, environments, and systems.
Hardware / software / telecommunications engineers and technicians, mechanical designers and specialists in digital manufacturing and 3D printing, startups, design, marketing and communication.
In this Lab, we realize hardware, firmware, and software dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT). We combine the IoT holistic approach with end-to-end solutions. We enhance our expertise on microcontroller and microchips, on the AMR and Intel worlds, and we develop all the necessary firmware.
In this Lab, we study and test our limits about development standards and native Cloud software. We develop our Open Cloud model through the best Open Source solutions use, analyzing the most advanced technologies and best practices used by the modern Internet companies.
This Lab is for the AI automation R&D.
We create platforms for preventing any repetitive human action, specialized in software automation activities.


danced their way to forever.
Celebration is an integral part of our life. We always find an excuse to celebrate anything. Weddings just happen to be the best celebration in existence! We love the colors. the emotions. the commitment. The laughter and joy. so many reasons we love photographing weddings!
On a much deeper level, we believe with our whole heart that marriage is the most important relationship. As Christ followers, we believe that marriage is a beautiful picture of Christ's love for humanity. As marriage photographers, it is our hearts desire to celebrate your relationship -- not only your epic party.
effortless. we are so thankful for our experience with them.
It was A+ service from beginning to the end!
josh and Jennifer really captured the love and fun times of the day!
chance meeting = perfect photographers!
They both have an amazing eye for photography, yet are so different which makes it that much better.
josh and Jennifer are such talented and loving individuals. they made everything so fun and simultaneously meaningful.
delightful. Jennifer is joyous, and Josh is quick witted and unflappable. When they work they compliment each other perfectly.
Josh and Jennifer did a great job at making the picture process as smooth as we could ever imagine!
Josh and Jennifer don't try to change who you are. Their photography only enhances the beauty between you and your loved one.
* all wedding colections include high resolution digital files with printing rights hosted on an online gallery for easy sharing with friends and family.


As others have noted, the script is not well written.

It's a good example of what can happen when a novelist adapts his own work for the screen. When it comes to editing, authors just hate having to kill their darlings, and so it was with Goodis leaving in those numerous dreadfully long monologues, which might be acceptable in a novel where the plot plays out in the reader's mind, but are inexcusable in a movie where the rule is 'show it, don't tell it'.

Unless dialog moves the plot forward it needs to be excised.

Goodis gave the director some real challenges, and what we end up with are characters not able to look at each other but instead stare without emotion while they babble on interminably about themselves, stopping the action dead.

Otherwise the plot, apart from some logic holes, is a good one, and typical of Goodis.

Casting is another problem for me. Mansfield's acting is simply atrocious.

Durea is a fine performer but having to act like and say that his age is 36, when in fact he is and looks almost 50, jars.

Peter Capell chews the scenery trying to depict Baylock.

Stewart Bradley (Charlie) personifies evil. I enjoyed his performance. I think Goodis writes best when he's writing for the villain of the piece.
Three burglars steal a valuable necklace before encountering the proverbial web of deceit.

The movie's a highly uneven work, reminding me as much of Kubrick's The Killing (1956) as the arty flashes of Welles and others. Clearly director Wendkos is reaching for an artistic style, but unlike Kubrick, Wendkos imitates more than he originates. Plus he's working with a ham-handed screenplay that lacks the clarity and flow of Kubrick's classic racetrack caper. Unfortunately, the narrative here tends to stumble along rather than evolve. For example, note the holes in just how the crooked cop puts his operation together, and how he knows as much as he knows. Nonetheless, the opening ten minutes covering the jewel theft is very effective, showing real promise. But the fluidity soon lapses.

On a lighter note, I can't help but notice (like another reviewer) Mansfield's unusually bushy eyebrows that undercut her good looks. I'm wondering if they were natural and later pared back by a studio make-over or whether they resulted here from a myopic make-up man. In fact, without all the studio glamorizing of later years, I hardly recognized her.

Anyway, for all its shortcomings, the movie remains a generally interesting curiosity that also affirms an unusual moral. Namely, that there can be more honor among thieves than among cops. Something Kubrick also knew.


Join us for our 26th Annual Fall Festival on Saturday, November 10th! Start your holiday shopping with us — there's something for everyone from vendors of crafts, alpaca wool, food, clothing, jewelry, seasonal items, cards, and direct sales to our bake sale and Take-A-Chance prizes. More details to follow.


The MS in Global Health prepares students to conduct multidisciplinary research on health issues of global importance. Students complete course work in epidemiology and biostatistics, international health systems and organizations, refugee and internally displaced people health issues, and global health research. The required thesis provides students an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member to systematically investigate a problem or issue with global health implications.
All students will understand how to apply their knowledge and skills gained in the program by completing a project or research thesis related to a current issue in global health on the basis of their research and/or experience with global health organizations within the United States and abroad.
All students will be able to describe the organizations involved within the global health arena and explain their roles, functions, funding sources, organizational structure, and involvement within global health.
By the completion of the core global health courses it is expected that all students will be able to demonstrate a sound understanding of the basic skills of a global public health professional including: biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, nutrition, and health administration.
All students in this program should be able to: (1) research and describe current issues in global health; (2) present and discuss these issues in a public forum; and (3) apply these skills to practice by the completion of the core global health courses.
View the program requirements for Global Health, MS.
Graduates of the MS in Global Health develop the knowledge base and skills to work and conduct research within the global health environment. Graduates may pursue careers in a variety of international health organizations or may choose to pursue a research pathway and continue toward a terminal degree.
Meet an alumna of the MS, Global Health Program.


text:
package extension

import (
	"testing"

	"github.com/yuin/goldmark"
	"github.com/yuin/goldmark/renderer/html"
	"github.com/yuin/goldmark/testutil"
)

func TestStrikethrough(t *testing.T) {
	markdown := goldmark.New(
		goldmark.WithRendererOptions(
			html.WithUnsafe(),
		),
		goldmark.WithExtensions(
			Strikethrough,
		),
	)
	testutil.DoTestCaseFile(markdown, "_test/strikethrough.txt", t, testutil.ParseCliCaseArg()...)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Flow International Corp., Kent, WA, a developer and manufacturer of industrial waterjet-cutting machines, has opened its Customer Technology Center in Kent. The 14,000-sq.-ft. center provides expanded customer training and application engineering support in two new classrooms. Each classroom is equipped with a waterjet lab used for training customers on maintenance, software, advanced applications and more. Alongside the training classrooms is a fully equipped applications lab, which includes each of Flow's Mach-series lines of waterjets.
Connecticut Spring & Stamping (CSS), Farmington, CT, has launched a redesigned website, www.ctspring.com. The site has been upgraded with a modern look and an enhanced user experience, allowing visitors to locate information on the company's capabilities and products ranging from machined stampings to fineblanked components and assemblies.
Notable new features include a company overview video located throughout the website to provide an instant view into some of CSS' key machinery, capabilities and products; and more streamlined and intuitive navigation and organization of content.
Hydrotech currently holds 26 patents for various fluid-power and motion-automation products within the industrial-manufacturing industry, including a new monitoring device that plans to introduce an Internet of Things approach to preventive machine maintenance. For more, visit www.hydrotech.com.


MORE than 1.5 million British expats living in Europe are a step closer to winning back their right to vote in UK elections.
Campaigners are already claiming 'victory' after MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown proposed the bill in the House of Commons last month, receiving no opposition.
It means expats will be eligible to vote in future general elections, possibly even one scheduled for later this year.
Campaigner Harry Shindler MBE said: "Sadly the timing of the general election could delay the bill until after the next election.
"But it can only delay the inevitable – our regaining the right to vote.
"Arguing whether we vote at the 2015 or 2020 election means we have won. It is now just a matter of time.
If your not voting for the nasty party or the pink tories it's a complete waste of time. If there is one EU law that should have been enacted at the beginning of the EU in 1956 it was proportional representation as a requirement of membership. How different would the UK be today if we had joined then and been forced to adopt the only true democratic form of voting.
You're very right on that Stuart, but everyone with a UK passport who lives in and wants to stay in Spain will need to be able to vote against leaving the EU if it ever comes to it. Better to sort out the paperwork now before it's too late.
I find it strange that people that are not resident in the UK can vote. They can sit in another country and vote a party in then when that party doubles road tax and increases VAT they sit back and say "Oh well, we are better off here".
@John Lightfot You are making a very simplistic statement on the situation. Ex pats can be greatly affected by what the UK government does or doesn't do. A great many of us have pensions which can only be taxed in the UK we cannot simply move them to another country to take advantage of a possibly more beneficial tax regime. Without exception we all have family still living and working in the UK so yes we care about how they might be treated by whatever party is in power. I suspect an awful lot like me decided to move to an EU country based on the fact that we were in the European Union and therefor had the freedom of movement and the continuation of our pensions paid abroad as easily as if we were still living in the UK and of course our health care provided under a reciprocal agreement. Having made that move we now find the goal posts being moved with a possible exit from the EU so yes we want a say. Further you may or may not be aware that ex pats have no right to vote in national elections in whatever country they reside in so we are disenfranchised all the way round. Finally I may no longer live in the UK and may well die abroad but I will die British.
I left North Norfolk 45 years ago for Spain and have never been back. Should I now demand the right to vote in North Norfolk affairs? Much better to give me (and the three million other Europeans who live in an EU country other than their own), some representation in Brussels.
I do not think it is simplistic. If during the election the voting by the people living in the UK would have chosen party "A" but because of the people not living in the UK the result is party "B" then you have decided the future of the country where you do not live. When you live here you take all policy's in to account. When living abroad you are more likely to focus on a pension or health issue that affects you.
You can not vote when you are detached from the consequences of your actions.
Living in Spain, having paid seguridad social, and the Hacienda for many years I would be far more interested in voting in national elections here.
I vote in local and european elections but we are disenfranchised for national and regional. I lived in many areas in the UK so I have no idea of which constituency I would be eligible.
For the UK, you have to vote in the last constituency where you were registered to vote. To vote in Spanish national elections you can apply for Spanish nationality. Most Brits need to have been resident in Spain for 10 years to be eligible though, unless you're married to someone with Spanish nationality.


Here is a glossary of hiking terms and abbreviations. The terms that are in all caps are used in hiking activity titles in the activity calendar and in The Rambler, the Club's newsletter.
NTD An easy hike ("Not Too Difficult"). Traditionally, a hike whose rating is between 0 and 4 on a WMC hike ratings system.
MOD A moderate hike. Traditionally, a hike whose rating is between 4 and 8.
MSD A difficult hike ("Most Difficult"). Traditionally, a hike whose rating is 8 or above.
EXT An MSD hike with special requirements, such as an ice axe or serious exposed scrambling.
EVENING A hike in the evening. Traditionally a weekday evening hike that leaves at 6:15 PM or 6:30 PM and returns by sunset. The weekday evening hikes often attract large groups. Although these hikes are relatively short, the pace can be vigorous.
AFTERNOON A day hike that leaves in the afternoon. Most day hikes depart in the morning.
MOONLIGHT A hike that finishes after dark, with help from a full moon and from flashlights or headlamps.
TURTLE A hike with an especially relaxed and gentle pace.
DOG Members' well-behaved dogs are permitted on the activity, with the consent of the organizer.
FAMILY Children of members may participate in the activity with the consent of the organizer. The member must accompany their children and must sign a special waiver.
CAR CAMP An overnight trip where you carry the camping gear in your car.
BACKPACK An overnight trip where you carry the camping gear on your back in a pack.
Organizer The person who organizes a particular hiking activity. The organizer determines the nature and destination of the activity, determines the meeting place and time for the activity and signs people into and checks them out of the activity.
WMC The Wasatch Mountain Club.
Release Form A liability waiver that everyone must read and sign before participating in a Club hiking activity -- NO EXCEPTIONS. It serves to remind hikers that hiking has inherent risks and dangers.
Register To contact the organizer of a hiking activity to get permission to participate. Hikes may require registration for many different reasons, such as limits on group sizes or the need to assess your skills and/or your gear.
Limit A numerical limit on the number of participants in the activity. The number normally excludes the organizer. The Forest Service, the Park Service and other agencies often have headcount limits on hiking groups in certain areas. You may be turned away from an activity or put on a wait list if the group size has reached a limit.
Exploratory The organizer may be testing a new destination or route on this activity.
Route Finding An off-trail hike may require searching for good routes on this activity.
Bushwhacking An off-trail route may go through thick brush on this activity.
Scrambling A hike that requires you to use your hands on rock for balance or security. Technical rock climbing is the province of the Mountaineering program. A hike with scrambling is by definition non-technical (class 3 or maybe class 4 at the most).
Exposure A hike with exposure has route sections where a fall could cause serious injury or death. Avoid hikes with exposure if you have a fear of heights.


text:
Axed Burnham-on-Sea bus service handed lifeline
PUBLISHED: 11:34 21 December 2016 | UPDATED: 11:34 21 December 2016
A bus route in Burnham could be saved.
The decision to withdraw funding for a bus service in Burnham was met with much negativity - but it could be temporarily saved.
The number 67 bus route travels through Burnham, Highbridge, East Huntspill, Mark and Wedmore before heading to Wookey Hole.
Somerset County Council was due to cut funds for the service on December 31 but will now fund a replacement until at least the end of January having met with parish councils in the area.


text:
how much do hairdresser cost for a wedding
And so Nancy was gone; and Harry Esmond blushed that he had not a single tear for her, and fell to composing an elegy in Latin verses over the rustic little beauty. He bade the dryads mourn and the river-nymphs deplore her. As her father followed the calling of Vulcan, he said that surely she was like a daughter of Venus, though Sievewright��s wife was an ugly shrew, as he remembered to have heard afterwards. He made a long face, but, in truth, felt scarcely more sorrowful than a mute at a funeral. These first passions of men and women are mostly abortive; and are dead almost before they are born. Esmond could repeat, to his last day, some of the doggerel lines in which his muse bewailed his pretty lass; not without shame to remember how bad the verses were, and how good he thought them; how false the grief, and yet how he was rather proud of it. ��Tis an error, surely, to talk of the simplicity of youth. I think no persons are more hypocritical, and have a more affected behavior to one another, than the young. They deceive themselves and each other with artifices that do not impose upon men of the world; and so we get to understand truth better, and grow simpler as we grow older.
On presenting himself at the Commander-inChief��s levee, his Grace had not the least remembrance of General Lumley��s aide-de-camp, and though he knew Esmond��s family perfectly well, having served with both lords (my Lord Francis and the Viscount Esmond��s father) in Flanders, and in the Duke of York��s Guard, the Duke of Marlborough, who was friendly and serviceable to the (so-styled) legitimate representatives of the Viscount Castlewood, took no sort of notice of the poor lieutenant who bore their name. A word of kindness or acknowledgment, or a single glance of approbation, might have changed Esmond��s opinion of the great man; and instead of a satire, which his pen cannot help writing, who knows but that the humble historian might have taken the other side of panegyric? We have but to change the point of view, and the greatest action looks mean; as we turn the perspective-glass, and a giant appears a pigmy. You may describe, but who can tell whether your sight is clear or not, or your means of information accurate? Had the great man said but a word of kindness to the small one (as he would have stepped out of his gilt chariot to shake hands with Lazarus in rags and sores, if he thought Lazarus could have been of any service to him), no doubt Esmond would have fought for him with pen and sword to the utmost of his might; but my lord the lion did not want master mouse at this moment, and so Muscipulus went off and nibbled in opposition.
Mr. Webb thought these verses quite as fine as Mr. Addison��s on the Blenheim Campaign, and, indeed, to be Hector a la mode de Paris, was part of this gallant gentleman��s ambition. It would have been difficult to find an officer in the whole army, or amongst the splendid courtiers and cavaliers of the Maison du Roy, that fought under Vendosme and Villeroy in the army opposed to ours, who was a more accomplished soldier and perfect gentleman, and either braver or better-looking. And if Mr. Webb believed of himself what the world said of him, and was deeply convinced of his own indisputable genius, beauty, and valor, who has a right to quarrel with him very much? This self-content of his kept him in general good-humor, of which his friends and dependants got the benefit.
The house would not be up for some hours yet, (it was July, and the dawn was only just awake,) and here Esmond opened himself to his mistress, of the business he had in hand, and what part Frank was to play in it. He knew he could confide anything to her, and that the fond soul would die rather than reveal it; and bidding her keep the secret from all, he laid it entirely before his mistress (always as staunch a little loyalist as any in the kingdom), and indeed was quite sure that any plan, of his was secure of her applause and sympathy. Never was such a glorious scheme to her partial mind, never such a devoted knight to execute it. An hour or two may have passed whilst they were having their colloquy. Beatrix came out to them just as their talk was over; her tall beautiful form robed in sable (which she wore without ostentation ever since last year��s catastrophe), sweeping over the green terrace, and casting its shadows before her across the grass.
Don Dismallo was a staunch young Jacobite, like the rest of his family; gave himself many absurd airs of loyalty; used to invite young friends to Burgundy, and give the King��s health on King James��s birthday; wore black on the day of his abdication; fasted on the anniversary of King William��s coronation; and performed a thousand absurd antics, of which he smiles now to think.
This is certain, that for a considerable period no officer in the Duke��s army lost favor with the Commander-inChief for entertaining or proclaiming his loyalty towards the exiled family. When the Chevalier de St. George, as the King of England called himself, came with the dukes of the French blood royal, to join the French army under Vendosme, hundreds of ours saw him and cheered him, and we all said he was like his father in this, who, seeing the action of La Hogue fought between the French ships and ours, was on the side of his native country during the battle. But this, at least the Chevalier knew, and every one knew, that, however well our troops and their general might be inclined towards the prince personally, in the face of the enemy there was no question at all. Wherever my Lord Duke found a French army, he would fight and beat it, as he did at Oudenarde, two years after Ramillies, where his Grace achieved another of his transcendent victories; and the noble young prince, who charged gallantly along with the magnificent Maison-du-Roy, sent to compliment his conquerors after the action.
Of the gout,�� says Harry, interrupting him, and looking him hard in the face; I know a good deal about the gout.��
Major-General Webb had meanwhile made up a force of twenty battalions and three squadrons of dragoons at Turout, whence he moved to cover the convoy and pursue La Mothe: with whose advanced guard ours came up upon the great plain of Turout, and before the little wood and castle of Wynendael; behind which the convoy was marching.


Asia as we know it today is the product of a wide range of polity expansions over time. Recognising the territorial expansions of Asian polities large and small through the last several millennia helps rectify the fallacy, long-held and deeply entrenched, that Asian polities have been interested only in the control of populations, not in expanding their command of territory.
In countering this misapprehension, this book suggests that Asian polities have indeed been concerned with territorial control and expansion over time, whether for political or strategic advantage, trade purposes, defence needs, agricultural expansion or increased income through taxation. The book explores the historical experiences of a set of polity expansions within Asia, specifically in East and Southeast Asia, and, by examining the motivations, mechanisms, processes, validations and limitations of these Asian territorial expansions, reveals the diverse avenues by which Asian polities have grown. The chapters draw on these historical examples to highlight the connections between Asian polity expansion and centralised political structures, and this aids in a broader and more comprehensive understanding of Asian political practice, both past and present. Through these chapter studies and the integrative introduction, the book interrogates key concepts such as imperialism and colonialism, and the applicability and relevance of such terminology in Asian contexts, both historical and contemporary. Comparisons and contrasts with European historical expansions are also suggested.
This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Asian history, as well as by those with an interest in Asian interactions, international relations, polity expansion, Asia--Europe historical comparisons and globalisation.


J-U-D-E, is a 4-letter male given name.
Praised, from judea, to praise, praise, thanks, praise to the lord.
Jude currently has 368 likes, and is in the top 1% of liked boy's names. The name Kaiden is slightly more popular than Jude.


text:
Why MLB Should Put A Third Team In New York
By: Kyle Sammin
After this year's playoffs and World Series are over, Major League Baseball's franchise owners will discuss, as they have for the last few years, the possibility of expansion. It will have been 20 years since the last round of expansion brought the total number of MLB teams to 30. During that time, the population of the United States has grown by 50 million and the game has reached farther than ever overseas to capture new fans and new players. Expansion could be undertaken without any diminution in talent.
Baseball journalists and pundits have suggested new cities that could support baseball at the highest level. There were familiar names, like Montreal, and perennial candidates, like Portland, Charlotte, and San Antonio. Newer possibilities such as Las Vegas and Mexico City have entered the mix. But the city best-suited for another MLB team is rarely mentioned despite all the demographic, economic, and historical arguments in its favor. Baseball should put a third team in New York.
Baseball's Long History in New York
New York has always been a baseball town. Even in baseball's earliest days, the city took center stage as the powers that be adopted the New York version of the game over all of the other regional variants around the time of the Civil War. Since then, New York has always held at least one team and usually more.
By the time the sport stratified into major and minor leagues at the start of the twentieth century, New York had representatives from both major leagues, with the Giants and Dodgers in the National League and the Yankees in the American League. In fact, of all the defunct leagues that baseball historians now consider to have been "major" leagues, only the short-lived Union Association of 1884 lacked at least one team in New York.
In 1957, the last year three teams called New York home, the Yankees were second in the league in attendance, the Dodgers were in the middle of the pack, and the Giants were near the bottom, likely owing to finishing in sixth place two years running. But the owners' eyes were all on Milwaukee, as the Braves far outpaced the rest of the league with their fourth straight year of 2,000,000-plus attendance, having relocated there from Boston in 1953. The West looked like the future for baseball, and the Giants and Dodgers lit out for the territory, settling down in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where they remain to this day.
New York felt the loss keenly, and investors began to talk of creating a third major league, the Continental League, with one of its goals to fill the gap in Gotham baseball. Anxious to avoid competition, MLB responded with expansion, including a new National League team in New York, the Mets. The proposed third league died before it was born, but the prospective owners' aim was accomplished—of the ten cities slated for Continental League teams, nine now have MLB franchises. New York has remained a two-team town ever since.
Nowhere Left To Go
Part of the drive to relocate in the 1950s and 1960s came from the owners' realization that as the nation's population moved south and west, baseball was still largely confined to the northeastern quadrant of the country. Until the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, St. Louis served as MLB's southernmost and westernmost outpost. Until the relocation of the two New York teams to California, the league had no West Coast presence.
That situation has been corrected. MLB now has a widespread presence on both coasts and in the American interior, plus a team in Toronto, Canada's largest metropolitan area. Taking the United States and Canada together, of the 25 largest metro areas, 22 have at least one major league baseball team. Three more teams make their homes in the 28th (Kansas City), 34th (Cincinnati), and 36th (Milwaukee) most populous regions. In 1950, the third and seventh largest regions (Los Angeles and San Francisco) lacked teams. The distribution now is far more equitable.
The remaining regions in the top 25 all have their reasons for remaining bereft of major league baseball. In Montreal, the expansion expos' failure to sustain attendance after the 1994 strike led many to believe that baseball could not work in the French-speaking Canadian city. There is good reason to doubt that—the team's pathetic attendance can largely be chalked up to its pitiful play and inconsistent ownership after the strike year—but it has been enough until recently to scare off MLB owners from committing to a new team in Quebec. Montreal could have its place in a 32-team league, but even its case is not as strong as New York's.
The other two top-25 regions—Portland, Oregon, and Orlando, Florida—have major strikes against them, too. Neither has recently shown the capacity to support even minor league baseball; both have single-A teams with season-long attendance that would not add up to a week of home games for an MLB team. Portland has been successful in basketball and soccer, but could not hold onto their AAA team, the Portland Beavers, which fled for Tucson in 2011. Orlando has likewise done well with basketball and soccer, but the lackluster attendance of the other two Florida baseball teams—26th and 30th in the league—suggest that the market in the Sunshine State is already saturated.
There's Room for One More
The arguments against those cities do not necessarily equal an argument for New York, but the demographic data about the nation's largest city and largest metro area do. In 1950, the New York metro area had 9.3 percent of the American population and 18.75 percent of the major league baseball teams. It was fair to say then that the Big Apple was overrepresented. Today, the area has 7.4 percent of the population, but only 6.6 percent of the teams, arguably an underrepresentation. With three teams in a 32-team league, that percentage would rise to 9.3 percent.
That might look like an overrepresentation again, but other factors mitigate in New York's favor. For one thing, the people can afford to go to more games. New York's average household income is 121 percent of the national average, while other contenders are far below that level: Portland has 108 percent, Charlotte has 94 percent, and Orlando has 87 percent. No major metro area without baseball has a higher median income than New York, other than Hartford, which is just outside New York and probably too small to support a team (it is the 42nd most populous metro area in the United States and Canada). New Yorkers can afford more baseball.
New York is also an area that indisputably supports baseball. The Yankees were sixth in MLB in attendance with 3.1 million in 2017. The Mets, despite an injury-plagued, lackluster season, were 14th in attendance and actually had a higher ratio of attendance per win than their American League rivals. Adding in the fans attending the minor league teams in Brooklyn and Staten Island, and the area as a whole has 5.8 million tickets sold, the fifth best attendance per team in MLB. That the Yankees and Mets both moved farm teams to the city suggests that even they know there is a greater appetite for baseball in New York than they alone can meet.
Even if that were divided among three teams without adding a single new fan, New York would be at about 80 percent of the league average in attendance per team. That does not take into account the bump in attendance that always follows the creation of an expansion team. When the Mets moved into New York in 1962, the total MLB attendance in the region increased by 38 percent. By the end of the decade, it had increased a further 34 percent. More recently, expansion into Denver and Phoenix led to attendance figures roughly ten times higher than what the AAA teams in those cities took in.
Beyond getting fans in the seats, New York has other major advantages over other cities. It is the nation's largest media market at a time when broadcast rights are an increasingly large portion of a team's revenue. Also, given that corporate purchases of luxury box seats pay a lot of the bills, New York is home to the headquarters of 141 of the Fortune 1000 companies, far more than the next closest expansion target, Charlotte, which has 19. Again, even divided three ways, this is a distinct advantage.
Bring Back the Peppers
New York has the people and the money, but the elephant in the room is Major League Baseball's system of geographical hegemony, which gives existing teams veto rights over what is considered their territory. The Giants have repeatedly exercised such rights in keeping the Oakland Athletics from moving to San Jose, and the Mets used their veto to keep the Yankees from temporarily moving their AAA team to Newark in 2012. So a plan to expand baseball in the New York metro area seems dead on arrival.
But just having a veto does not mean the teams would have to use it: it could also act as leverage. MLB worked out an arrangement with the Baltimore Orioles to let the Montreal Expos move to Washington in exchange for financial compensation. MLB is also susceptible to pressure from Congress, as in the early 1970s, when senators from Missouri and Washington threatened to remove baseball's unique antitrust exemption if they would not replace teams in those states that had moved away. Entangling politics and sports is never ideal, as recent events in the NFL have shown, but it does happen.
Just having a veto does not mean the teams would have to use it: it could also act as leverage.
People who are nostalgic for the Brooklyn Dodgers might dream about a team in that borough, but a rival stadium just minutes away from the Mets' home grounds could be too much to ask. It might sweeten the deal for the incumbent teams if the new team were located outside the city proper. One likely spot option is northern New Jersey.
Major League teams played in North Jersey, though not in more than a century. The Elizabeth Resolutes played in Elizabeth in 1873, but only lasted for two dozen games. In 1915, the upstart Federal League fielded a team in Newark that was more successful. Relocated from Indianapolis after the 1914 season, the Newark Peppers were a part of the league that posed the most credible challenge to the National and American leagues in the twentieth century. The finished a respectable 80-72, but folded after the year, when the league went under.
Despite the Peppers' failure, Newark continued to have a long history of non-major league baseball. Several teams played under the name Newark Bears, with four of their Depression-era seasons recognized as among the top 100 minor-league baseball teams. The city also had a Negro League team, the Newark Eagles, with a storied history that included a Negro World Series championship in 1946 and future MLB All-Star Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League.
Whether they would be called Peppers, Bears, Eagles, or something else altogether, a Newark-based baseball team could join the soccer team, hockey team, and two football teams that call North Jersey home. The nation's largest metro area and media market could add another team to the many successful franchises located there, and Major League Baseball could return to its historical roots with a third team in greater New York. MLB should give the fans what they want, and what they're willing and able to pay for: more baseball in New York.
Kyle Sammin is a senior contributor to The Federalist, the senior editor of the Philadelphia Weekly, and the co-host of the Conservative Minds podcast podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @KyleSammin.
Kyle Sammin
Visit on Twitter @KyleSammin
Disgraced FBI No. 2 Calls For Feds To Treat 'Mainstream' Conservatives Like Domestic Terrorists
8 Times Left-Wing Protesters Broke Into Government Buildings And Assaulted Democracy
J6 Hysteria Is How Media And Other Democrats Are Avoiding Accountability For Their Rigging Of The 2020 Election
13 Happenings In 2021 That I Never Would Have Believed 5 Years Ago
New Videos Capture Pennsylvania Officials Hiding Evidence Of Alleged Election Fraud
Shop The #FDRLSTSWAG Store
Like The NBA, Golden State Warriors Co-Owner 'Doesn't Care' About Uyghur Suffering
Jordan Boyd January 17, 2022
Gov. Kristi Noem Releases Ad Falsely Claiming She 'Never Backed Down' From Protecting Women's Sports
Spencer Lindquist January 13, 2022
Meet The NASCAR Driver Whose Breakout Win Was Derailed By 'Let's Go Brandon'
Christopher Jacobs January 10, 2022
John Madden: A Tribute To The Man Who Was Football
Jenna Stocker December 30, 2021
A Scandal For Every Month: The Biggest Botches, Failures, And Mess-Ups Of Joe Biden's First 12 Months In Office
Elle Reynolds
Fauci Helped Loosen Weak Rules For Risky Virus Research
Eleanor Bartow
Why The Media's Attempt To Split DeSantis And Trump Isn't Working
'The Uphill Climb': A Tribute To Biden's Inaugural Year And The Poem That Kicked It Off


Grammostola pulchra molt. Male or female please?
boina and Nightstalker47 like this.
Dang! I guess I never asked, but what's the ratio between male n female tarantulas in an egg sac?
@Richie Santiago It varies on every sac, so there's no telling. But we usually stick with the 50/50 idea.
@Richie Santiago Fortunately, this species is in high demand for breeding, so when your male matures, you should have no trouble finding someone who needs him.


Looking for information on how to search for a business entity in Massachusetts? If yes, then we have got you covered.
We've put together this step-by-step to help you search for business records on Massachusetts Secretary of State website.
The Corporations Division of the Massachusetts Secretary of State holds records of all the corporations and business entities registered in the state. Business entity information is a matter of public record and can be accessed for free on Massachusetts SOS (https://www.sec.state.ma.us/) website.
The SOS keeps records of the Corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and LP registered in the state.
Download Certificate of Good Standing or file the annual report.
Step 1: Visit the MA Corporations Division business search page.
Step 2: Enter the name of the business entity (Company/LP/LLP/LLC) you are looking for.
If you don't know the exact name of the business, you can use filters to assist you with search: Begins with, Exact match, Full text, and Soundex as shown in the image above.
For example, let's try searching for 'Plumber' (refer to the image below).
Step 3: Next click on 'Search Corporations' button.
Step 4: On the next page, you can view the search results.
With the information available on the search results page, you can narrow down to the business you are looking for.
If you're unable to determine the business, try searching again with other keywords.
Step 5: Click on the business name to view further information.
Step 6: On the next page you can view complete information about the business.
Step 1: Open Massachusetts SOS business search page (refer to the image below) and select 'Search by an individual name'.
Step 2: Enter the First Name, Middle Name and Last Name of the person. The First Name and the Last Name are mandatory fields.
If you do not know the exact name of the person, you can try using the available search filters – Begins with, Exact, Full text and Soundex.
Step 3: Next, click on the 'Search Corporations' button.
Step 4: On the next page, you can view business entities with which the person is associated with.
Step 4: Click on the business name to view further information.
Step 5: On the next page, you can view complete business details.
Each registered business in MA is assigned a unique 9-digit ID. Using the ID you can directly query business information.
Step 1: Open MA Corporation search page and select 'Search by Identification Number'.
Step 2: Enter the 9-digit business ID.
Step 3: Click on the 'Search Corporations' at the end of the page.
Step 4: On the next page, you can view complete information about the business.
The SOS assigns a temporary filing number to each business who've filed for formation. One can check the status of the application using the filing number.
Step 1: Open Massachusetts corporation search page and select 'Search by Filing Number'.
Step 2: Enter the filing number of the business entity you are looking for.
Step 3: Click on 'Search Corporations' button at the end of the page.
Total issued and the outstanding number of shares.
You can also request for certified copies by clicking on the 'Request Certificate' button.


Alyson Waylen, Angela Muldoon, Bryony Ling, Claire Roe, Danielle Ling, Ellie Shaw, Emma O'Regan, Emma Rolison, Gabrielle Smith, Jessica Scrivener, Julie Lee, Juliet Townsend, Karen Petty, Keeley Monsen, Laura Davies, Laura Kerry, Lindsay Griggs, Liz Ohrland, Louise Lloyd, Maryam Khorasani, Rachel Copeland, Rachael Gill, Sally Radbourne, Sam Mildinhall, Sarah Smith, Sara Tupper, Shaunna Wiggins, Sidney Macdonald, Sophie Ellam, Tamasin Curtis.
I looked into joining Ladies Circle as all my friends were starting to settle down and I was not and my social life was starting to dwindle. I thought about going along to a meeting for about 2 years but kept putting it off thinking that it would be cliquey and that I would not be welcome. I finally went along to my first meeting in May 2012 and have never looked back. I was immediately welcomed as one of the girls and since then I can count at least 20 new close friends that I have made through Ladies Circle and lots more friends to be made! My social life is also very busy and it's nice to be out and about regularly! You really do make friends for life.
I also get a lot out of the charity element of Ladies Circle. Locally it was a great feeling to raise funds for the Women's Refuge, Canine Partners and Farleigh Hospice in the last three years. Also, nationally we have raised funds for Whizz Kidz provided them with 5 new wheelchairs and also funds for Sckin a skin cancer charity.
I have been very active in Ladies Circle and I jumped at the chance to go to different national meetings and international meetings. I have been to Blackpool, Harrogate, Leeds and Nottingham on national jaunts and internationally to Germany, Estonia, Vienna and even Mauritius!
If you are interested in coming along to a meeting please do give us a go, we are actively looking for new members as we think it is the more the merrier! Also, I know how nerve wracking it can be going along for the first time to a meeting and so pleased be assured that we were all there once for our first meeting and we are a friendly bunch!
I moved to Chelmsford in 2012 when I moved in with my fiance (now my husband!) and didn't know many people. As my husband is a member of the Round Table, I thought I would give Circle a try. I love that there is something to get involved in at least twice a month, and there is no pressure to attend anything. The friendships and laughter are an added bonus! There is a variety of events planned, and we have even been to Germany and Austria for Circle events. My favourite event is the annual Burns Supper and I love the opportunity to try new things, which have so far included gong relaxation, life drawing and sweetie making.
I decided I needed to get off the sofa and do something with my life before I got too old! I saw an advert for Chelmsford Ladies Circle in the Weekly News, they were having a new members night, so I decided to go along and see what it was all about. On arrival I was presented with a large glass of wine and a cupcake, I was sold! It's a great way of trying new things, making great friends and having fun... with the added bonus of raising money for charity.
A few years ago I moved back to Chelmsford and wanted to expand my group of friends. My parents were in Circle and Table and I have great memories as a child of helping them to build the bonfire every year and helping/hindering in the kitchens at the old folk supper. I love the variety of the meetings. Where else would you get to go to an axe demonstration (yes, you read that correctly), take a Jack the Ripper tour followed by a curry and take Santa out on his sleigh around the houses at Christmas! The best things about Circle are the laughs and friendships made.
After 10 years in London, in 2011 I moved back to Essex with my husband to be near my family and get back out to the countryside with my two dogs. In 2013 was missing having a gaggle of girlfriends to hang out with locally, so I joined Circle to meet new people in Chelmsford and to support local charities. I love the friendliness of Circle and the social activities and particularly appreciate the relaxed nature of this group of women who all lead busy and interesting lives. As well as the official activities of the club I have enjoyed developing friendships outside the club nights, often meeting a like-minded Circler for lunch or to go to an interesting event. I enjoy that way that everyone can get involved with the organising of events, including developing new ones. I have developed a wide range of skills by being part of the team running Circle events.
Ever since I was little I was always very aware of Ladies Circle as my mum Natalie was a member and my dad was in Round Table. Having grown up surrounded by amazing people and making friends with lots of the 'Children of Table & Circle' I always knew that I wanted to become a member when I was a 'Grown Up'!! I joined officially in 2012 and am so glad I did. I have made some great friends and got to take part in lots of fun, weird and wonderful activities – I'm still adamant it wasn't me snoring during Gong Relaxation! Now I'm married and have started my own family, I look forward to the next few Circle years and what they have to bring.
I moved to Chelmsford in 2014 with my husband in the hope that we would like the area enough not to move again. So we wanted to make new friends. I had already been a member of Ladies Circle a few years before but in a different area. Although at the time it did not work around my job, I did remember the girls being fun and friendly and always doing interesting things, so I thought I would give it another go.
Circle is great, the girls are a friendly, welcoming and caring bunch and with lots of different things to get involved in both charity and social. For me, Circle provides a brief break from working with a bunch of men on a construction site and most importantly friendship. I liked Ladies Circle so much that in 2015, with Sara T, we both agreed to become the Social and Charity Planners and it looks like a fun and interesting year ahead.
The event that I have enjoyed the most is our Charter Night with a Jiving 50s theme that got everyone on to their dancing feet. Plus there has been a few others from the more sedate life drawing class to Burns Night Celebrations.
I joined Chelmsford Ladies Circle in 2015 after moving to Chelmsford with my partner. I didn't know many people in the area, mostly my partners family and friends and wanted to build my own network. All of the ladies were very welcoming and I liked that there was a range of activities on offer which I could choose from, attending as much or as little as I liked. Working and commuting to London also means you lose a sense of community and circle helps to re-build that. The charity and community events are a good way to give something back.


We're proud to be supporting Royal Mail during their upcoming peak season and are urgently looking for experienced Class 1 drivers (min 1 year on category) to join the team.
Operating in the Park Royal, Greenford, Heathrow, Slough, Woking and Gatwick areas. Good rates of pay.
All applicants must hold a UK license.
We are currently seeking 5 x Class 2 drivers for permanent positions at a friendly company in Greenford, West London. £28K pa plus holiday & benefits.
We are always seeking Class 1 and 2, Hiab and Moffett drivers for various roles throughout London and the South East.
Please contact us about our current HGV driver vacancies on 0330 335 8367, or complete the Sign Up Form on this page.