Friday, 20 February 2015

Lagos PDP Elders Tackle Bode George Over Comment On Obasanjo

Elders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State have berated a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, for his comments on former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

In a statement by Prof Tunde Olayinka, the elders said: “Whilst we are shocked at Chief Obasanjo’s action since an elder statesman is expected to be politically matured, we condemn in totality the words of Bode George, who called the former President an ingrate.

“Bode George is the ingrate not Obasanjo. He lacks the moral right to insult the PDP’s National Leader, his benefactor and former godfather.

“The Yoruba have a saying that a river that forgets its source will dry up forever. Obasanjo made Bode George who he is today.

“We want to recall that Bode George met us in PDP. He did not attend the April 1999 Jos convention, which delivered Obasanjo.

“When Bode George joined the PDP, he was not recognised. At that time, Sarunmi was the PDP arrowhead in Lagos.

“At the PDP Congress in October 1999 held at 1, Akilo Street, Ikeja, Obasanjo sent a directive to the delegates that Bode George should be imposed as the National Vice Chairman (Southwest) and Alhaji Murtala Ashorobi should be the Lagos State Chairman.

“Sarunmi became a minister at the time and Obasanjo told everybody that Bode George was his eyes and ears and anybody who did not want him should leave the PDP.

“Had he risen through the party hierarchy as required, he would not disrespect or misunderstand democratic norms.

“He presides over the Lagos PDP affairs with military precision.

“Why does Bode George try to play god all the time? He has deceived Jonathan and is still deceiving him.

“Bode George is not our arrowhead and we reject him as a leader. He does not represent our views.

“He is a beneficiary of the crisis between Obasanjo and Jonathan so he should stop fanning the embers of discord”.

Lagos PDP Elders Tackle Bode George Over Comment On Obasanjo

Elders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State have berated a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, for his comments on former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Star Wars: Some rumours 'are true'

By Tim MastersEntertainment correspondent in Los Angeles

OSCARS 2015

JJ Abrams has said some of the rumours surrounding his new Star Wars film are true.

The director was hosting the Irish Oscar Wilde awards in Los Angeles where actress Carrie Fisher was being honoured.

Fisher reprises her role of Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is scheduled for release in December 2015.

The film reunites her with original co-stars Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.

"I can't wait for you to see it. It's been a blast working on this and luckily we have an incredible post-production team," Abrams told the BBC News website on Thursday.

"There are always challenges as you go but it's been a complete kick to put this together."

In recent days a rumour about one of the characters in the film has beencirculating on some websites.

Asked about the secrecy surrounding the script, Abrams added: "We did the best we can to preserve the story for the audience, but it doesn't always work.

"There are a ton of rumours - some true, some false. But I'm grateful for everyone who would want to read a spoiler because it means that they care and want to see the movie.

"I know what it feels like, as an enormous Star Wars fan myself."

Carrie Fisher was presented with an award honouring her lifetime career

The annual Oscar Wilde awards, which honour the Irish in film, are one of a number of events in the run-up to the Oscars in Hollywood on Sunday.

As in previous years, it was held at Abrams' Bad Robot production company in Santa Monica.

Stephen Fry, who hosted the Baftas two weeks ago, presented Fisher with her honour.

"Everybody who knows her well would say she's witty and brilliantly clever," he said.

"She's had a huge career as a script doctor that most people wouldn't know about. She's written on and tweaked the screenplays of huge movies over the past 25 years."

Fisher's film career includes When Harry Met Sally, Hannah and Her Sisters and The Blues Brothers.

Her novel, Postcards from the Edge, was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep.

Her memoirs include Wishful Drinking which she also performed in a one-woman stage version.

Fry said: "She's charted her own adventures and misadventures with mental health and drugs in a way that was really pioneering, and very influential for a lot of people, myself included."

Also honoured were American satirist Stephen Colbert and Irish painter Colin Davidson.

Stephen Fry, Colin Davidson, Carrie Fisher and Stephen Colbert

Stephen Fry hosted the awards, where painter Colin Davison (second left) and Stephen Colbert were also honoured

Star Wars: Some rumours 'are true'

By Tim MastersEntertainment correspondent in Los Angeles

OSCARS 2015

JJ Abrams has said some of the rumours surrounding his new Star Wars film are true.

The director was hosting the Irish Oscar Wilde awards in Los Angeles where actress Carrie Fisher was being honoured.

How to spot a Russian bomber

More from the Monitor

Two Russian bombers have been escorted from near UK territory - the latest in a series of similar incidents. How easy is it to spot a Russian plane, asks Jon Kelly.

The Ministry of Defence insists that the Russian aircraft did not enter British airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from the nation's coast. But it says they were inside the UK's "area of interest", and the RAF scrambled Typhoon jets to intercept them. If the MoD's account is accurate, they may have been flying too far away for ordinary plane spotters to detect them - although a woman in Cornwall claims she saw them flying inland.

Each was a Tu-95 MS, also known by its Nato reporting name "Bear-H", a four-engine long-range bomber, equipped with turboprop-driven propellers and set-back wings that give it an unmistakable silhouette.

Tu-95 bomber

The most noticeable thing about the Bear, the earliest iteration of which entered service in 1956, is the almighty racket it makes. Its contra-rotating propellers spin faster than the speed of sound, creating their own sonic boom, making it one of "the loudest combat aircraft ever built", says Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute. The Bear, which typically carries six or seven crew members, is not the fastest aircraft in the Russian fleet, reaching speeds of only about 575 mph (920 km/h). But it is regarded as one of the most reliable, says Bronk, which helps account for its longevity.

A Tu-160 strategic bomber

Another bomber you might expect to see just outside British airspace is the Tu-160, known as the Blackjack, two of which were intercepted by RAF Tornado F3 fighters off the Scottish coast in 2010. Unlike the Bear, the Blackjack is capable of supersonic speeds of up to 2,200km/h. "It's essentially a heavier and faster equivalent of the American B1B Lancer," says Bronk. It also has a longer range and can carry more nuclear-capable missiles. An upgraded version of the TU-160 made its maiden flight in November 2014.

Then there's the Tu-22M3 strategic bomber, which is also supersonic and nuclear-capable. "It's not as big as the Bear and the Blackjack," says Bronk. "Its closest Western equivalent is the F-111." Its variable-sweep wing allows it to take off quickly and fly at very low altitudes. There are thought to be over 100 TU-22Ms in service in the Russian fleet.

The MiG 31 interceptor

Sometimes Bears are escorted by supersonic MiG-31 interceptors, says Bronk. Among the world's fastest combat aircraft, they are equipped with onboard radar that can track 24 airborne targets and attack six at a time. But Bronk says: "Although they are extremely fast and carry powerful radar, they are a essentially an evolution of a very old design, the MiG-25, and are no match for the RAF's Typhoons in air-to-air combat."

The incident in Cornwall is unlikely to be the last time radar operators detect Bears. There was a similar incident in January when two Bear bombers were escorted by RAF jet after causing what the Foreign Office called a "disruption to civil aviation". The RAF intercepted Russian aircraft on eight occasions in 2014, and the same number of times in 2013, according to MoD figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Bear raids" just outside British airspace were a common occurrence during the Cold War, sometimes taking place every week, says defence analyst Paul Beaver. Back then, he says, the intention was to test the RAF's reaction time. Their frequency lessened in the final years of the Soviet Union and stopped altogether when the Berlin Wall fell. Under Vladimir Putin's leadership, however, they have resumed. Yesterday, Prime Minister David Cameron said he suspected the Russians were "trying to make some sort of a point", and Bronk agrees. "Essentially, it's rattling the sabre."

Thanks to Nick de Larrinaga of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly for assistance with this article

How to spot a Russian bomber

More from the Monitor

Two Russian bombers have been escorted from near UK territory - the latest in a series of similar incidents. How easy is it to spot a Russian plane, asks Jon Kelly.

A Year Later, $19 Billion For WhatsApp Doesn’t Sound So Crazy

Messaging is the center of mobile. Snapchat is raising at around a $20 billion valuation. And no one cares who owns apps. On February 19, 2014, we didn't know any of these things for sure. So when Facebook announced it would pay $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp — an app most American pundits had never used — it seemed ludicrous. Zuck had to be crazy, right?

Wrong.

Without WhatsApp, Facebook’s international situation would look a lot dicier. And if a competitor like Google acquired it instead, it could have been disastrous.

Instead, Facebook possesses the most popular messaging app, and has neutralized the biggest threat to its global domination of social networking.

Why?

Chat Is The Mobile Portal

No apps get opened as often as messaging apps. While you might spend longer in total scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, the frequent short sessions with chat apps make them a vector for other experiences. That means they’re more valuable than they might first appear.

How do you monetize chat? It’s a tough question. Sure there’s stickers, but there’s too much competition to charge much upfront for an app and it’s too disruptive to show ads. But platforms, hubs, portals — whatever you want to call them — hold plenty of opportunities to cash in.

WeChat-users-in-Singapore-can-now-book-taxis-inside-app-more-countries-to-follow-in-EasyTaxi-partnership

The messaging apps from Asia are proving this as we speak. China’s WeChat also lets you call ataxi, pay friends, search, shop, buy movie tickets, and more. Japan’s Line hosts Line Pay, Line TV, and an identity platform for games. Why fumble with a bunch of different apps, passwords, and payment methods when you can do it all while you chat?

Even Snapchat is expanding far beyond messaging. Its Stories product for broadcasting sequences of photos and videos is a hit with star content creators. Its Snapcash feature lets you quickly pay friends through Square Cash. And its new Discover portal collects Snap-formatted content from premium producers like Comedy Central, CNN, ESPN and Vice.

A lot of critics wondered how Facebook could earn money from messaging on WhatsApp, considering it’s vowed not to show ads and only charges its skimpy $1 subscription fee in a few markets. The answer is it doesn’t have to. By taking a cut of commerce, or charging for promotion of content, it could keep chat lean and clean while monetizing other parts.

It Missed The Boat On Snapchat

Facebook famously offered to buy Snapchat for somewhere around $3 billion. With 20/20 hindsight, we know that was a short-sighted low-ball. Snapchat rejected the offer, and all of Facebook’s efforts to clone it since have failed spectacularly.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel laughs it up

Now Snapchat is trying to raise around $500 million at a $20 billion valuation. Its Stories feature has grown into a competitor to Facebook’s News Feed. And Discover could make it all quite monetizable if it gets popular. Snapchat is constantly cited as where teens are ditching your parents’ social network for.

Snapchat has become one of the banes of Facebook’s existence, and I’d imagine Facebook wasn’t willing to let it happen again abroad. So rather than trying to pay what WhatsApp was worth a year ago, it resigned to pay what it may be worth one day.

Parent Companies Don’t Matter

Whenever a tech giant buys a popular startup, there’s always some immediate backlash from users, and worries that people will jump ship. But time and time again, we’ve seen that if the acquired startup is allowed to run at least somewhat independently and can simply carry on its mission with more resources, fans stay loyal.

Instagram had around 30 million users when Facebook bought it for $1 billion. Now it has over 300 million users and Citigroup values it at $35 billion.

Some Kickstarter backers and early developers moaned when Facebook acquired Oculus. But it’s since flourished into the premier virtual reality platform. CEO Brendan Iribe told me the acquisition helped by boosting confidence of big devs because they knew Oculus wouldn’t run out of money and shut down.

The Parse developer platform has grown from 60,000 apps to over 500,000 since Facebook bought it. Flurry flourished with Yahoo. Twitter’s ownership didn’t deter people from Vine.

Facebook buying WhatsApp wasn’t going to ruin it, and it didn’t. It’s kept growing from 450 million monthly users a year ago to 700 million last month.

The Scary Alternative

More risky than Facebook not buying WhatsApp was what would happen if a competitor did.

Most obviously, Google could have used WhatsApp to jumpstart its late-to-the-game Hangouts messenger. Suddenly, Facebook would be battling a deep-pocketed competitor to replace SMS as the way the world chats.

Without it, Google has seemingly surrendered in the messaging war. Since WhatsApp runs independently, Facebook has been able to focus on its Messenger app in its home market, which has risen to 500 million users.

WhatsApp has achieved massive popularity in the developing world where SMS fees are hard to swallow. That’s because discretionary income is less common, which also makes monetizing these users with ads difficult. That’s a problem for Facebook that WhatsApp can help solve. Through mobile payments that are widespread in places like Africa, WhatsApp could monetize where it’s tough for its parent.

And whether it stayed independent or sold to someone else, WhatsApp could have challenged Facebook’s iron grip on social networking. It’s not just chat. WhatsApp offers a status update feature reminiscent of AOL Instant Messenger’s away messages. But if you squint, those statuses look quite similar to what people post to the Facebook feed.

Since messaging is the core feature of mobile, WhatsApp could have wedged its way into becoming a full-fledged social network starting with statuses.

We won’t know for sure until WhatsApp starts bringing in serious revenue. But in the age of the desktop web, AOL and Yahoo grew huge by using their frequent use to become the portals to everything else. Messaging apps are the portals of mobile, and Facebook owns the biggest one.

Crazy like a fox.

Hunter Walk And Satya Patel Raise $50 Million For Homebrew Ventures Fund II

It was just 18 months ago that Hunter Walk and Satya Patel formally launched Homebrew Ventures, a $35 million venture fund focused on investing in what they called the “bottom-up” economy. Those former product guys have raised even more money for their second fund, which tops out at $50 million.

Homebrew has made 17 investments since being founded, focusing mainly on companies that, as my former colleague Leena Rao wrote at launch can help “drive economic growth and innovation through simpler, cheaper and more direct access to technology, information and customers.” That includes companies like on-demand shipping company Shyp, legal help marketplace UpCounsel, and office cleaning and management startup Q.

For Fund II, not much has changed in terms of focus, although the size of the fund has increased a bit. As the blog post notes:

Homebrew II is a $50 million fund. It’s slightly larger than our first fund because we intend to deploy entry capital over a 30-36 month period, whereas we invested the initial fund in 24 months. Our sweet spot is, and will remain, playing a leadership role in first institutional financing rounds. That usually looks like a $500k-$1m check as part of a $1m-$3m fundraising.

In addition to Fund II, Homebrew has raised an additional $35 million “Moonshine Fund” for doing investments in companies that grow beyond its initial seed or early Series A focus and raise follow-on financings. That’ll enable it to support investments in its most successful portfolio companies.

Hunter Walk And Satya Patel Raise $50 Million For Homebrew Ventures Fund II

For Fund II, not much has changed in terms of focus, although the size of the fund has increased a bit. As the blog post notes:

Homebrew II is a $50 million fund. It’s slightly larger than our first fund because we intend to deploy entry capital over a 30-36 month period, whereas we invested the initial fund in 24 months. Our sweet spot is, and will remain, playing a leadership role in first institutional financing rounds. That usually looks like a $500k-$1m check as part of a $1m-$3m fundraising.

Deadly cold hits US East for second day

The snow and ice look may look pretty, but as Ben Bland reports, the weather is causing problems

Bitterly cold temperatures have continued for a second day in the eastern half of the US.

A number of record lows were broken on Thursday, including in Washington, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Midwest temperatures dropped to -40C (-40F).

The cold has been blamed for at least 19 deaths, many in Tennessee where temperatures were far lower than usual.

Forecasters say some areas will see sleet and freezing rain as temperatures warm up slightly over the weekend.

Ontario and parts of Quebec were also under extreme cold warnings - with the wind-chill making temperatures feel like -29C in Toronto and -45C in northern Ontario.

In Toronto, a three-year-old boy died on Thursday after being lost for hours wearing only a T-shirt, nappy and boots.

Elijah Marsh was found a few hundred metres away from his home in temperatures of -19C but died in hospital.

The extreme cold has also frozen parts of the Hudson river near New York City, with a tugboat brought in to break up the ice.

People use a "selfie" stick to take a photo in front of the frozen fountain in Bryant Park in the Manhattan borough of New York 14 February 2015

A completely frozen fountain in Bryant Park, New York City drew onlookers

Elijah Marsh died after being outside in -19C temperatures in Toronto

Pieces of ice flow over the Canadian "Horseshoe" Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, 19 February 2015

The deep freeze has partially frozen Niagara Falls

In the US Midwest, a majority of Lake Michigan and 98% of Lake Erie were frozen over.

Chicago reopened its schools on Friday after closing the day before due to wind-chill temperatures as low as -34C.

Schools in the Waterloo region outside Toronto were also closed because of the cold on Friday.

What can the US learn from Finland about dealing with cold weather?

Record lows

Ronald Reagan National Airport, outside Washington DC, -14C. Previous record, -13C, 1896
Baltimore-Washington Airport, -17C. Previous record, -15C, 1979
New York City's Central Park, -16C. Previous record, -14C, 1950
Pittsburgh, -21C. Previous record, -19C, 1934

About 3,000 people were still without electricity in Tennessee on Friday down from 30,000. Eleven deaths are being blamed on the cold in the state , including six from hypothermia.

In western Pennsylvania, temperatures dipped to minus -28C, without the wind chill.

And further north in the mid-western state of Minnesota, temperatures dropped to -41C.

A man takes selfie photo of himself against a frozen fountain during frigid temperatures at Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta, Georgia 19 February 2015

Unusually cold temperatures have spread across the US South - including Atlanta (seen here)

The Great Falls of the Potomac River begins to freeze over during a frigid, cold snap in Virginia 20 February 2015

Great Falls, Virginia, near Washington DC, freezes over

Pedestrians make their way along ice covered sidewalks and streets in Nashville, Tennessee 19 February 2015

Tenneesse remains in a state of emergency after at least 11 people died because of the cold