Month: October 2010

AJ

Web Reads….

Texas in Africa gives a clear cut example of how correlation is not causation but notes the difficulties involved in finding the distinction in real life contexts…

The distinction between causation and correlation – and the obsession with making sure the two are not confused – sets quality research apart from shoddy or sloppy research. It’s incredibly frustrating to me to read a hastily put-together advocacy report or journalist’s account that assumes correlation means causation, despite the lack of evidence for such a claim. I understand why it happens; advocates and journalists have to work quickly, and if they talk to people who don’t understand the difference, how would they know otherwise? But it’s incredibly frustrating to see these errors made, especially when they lead to bad policy decisions.

Balaji Ravichandran at The Guardian argues one part of the case for sparing the BBC World Service from proposed changes to make it funded from the License fee:

The World Service was, and remains, the voice of intellectual sincerity – the voice of Indian Maoists was heard just as easily, and just as readily, as those caught up in the Sudanese civil war, or the American-led campaign against Iraq and Afghanistan. In a land where sexuality was a taboo and homosexuality unmentionable, the BBC highlighted gay rights groups with which I, and hundreds of others in India, could get in touch. The World Service, for all its flaws, remains an unparalleled space for suppressed and unheard voices around the world. I can only imagine the difference the shortwave (and digital) services makes to those souls living under the opaque shadows of oppressive theocracies and murderous dictatorships.

Interestingly, this is something I can relate to. A gift of a transistor radio when I turned eleven opened the doors to the world to me and provided a different angle to the government spin we heard daily in the midst of the Abacha regime via the NTA. Sportsworld and the BBC proms ensured we could hold our own when involved in discussions with our more fortunate neighbours who had access to DSTV back in the day..

Over at Boundless, Matt Kaufman blames an entitlement culture for the French protests centred around the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62 and argues that it is symptomatic of a wider problem:

This attitude isn’t just directed toward government. It’s one that pervades pretty much all of life for a great many people. They take an “I’m entitled” approach to their dealings with their families, their friends, their employers, their church workers. And even with God.

It should go without saying that this mindset is the opposite of the one we’re called to have. We’re supposed to be thankful people with servant hearts. But even when we know better, the culture has a way of seeping in, and finds a receptive place in our still-sinful nature.

Roy Hodgson continues to put his worst foot forward in response to questions posed by journalists. After the 2-0 loss to Everton at Goodison park; here’s what he had to say:

We didn’t score goals and Everton did but I refuse to accept that we were in any way outplayed or any way inferior. I watched the performance and the second half was as good as I saw a Liverpool team play under my management that is for sure

Apparently, he’s so good there’s a forum devoted entirely to the dross he spits out..

AJ

Stuff About Some Women I still Don’t Understand..

Things about some women I still don’t understand…..

  • How they manage to go from hag to wag in twenty short minutes on bus 23: Each day I get on the bus, I am treated to a minor miracle. The ladies – and they are the same ‘offenders’ in the main – unfailingly whip out their boxes and mirrors and get to work. Within the space of a short bus ride, the transformation is complete. Several brushes, colours and peeks in the mirror later, they are virtually unrecognizable. Just why that couldn’t be achieved at home before hopping on the bus beats me hollow though.
  • Why odd coloured shoes make it into the aso-ebi list: Last April, I was hounded well nigh to death by purple shoes. Thing was a good friend of mine had to keep up appearances attend some function  – the specifics of which escape me. The clothes were done and dusted – only problem was that purple shoes were required. It just so happened that purple shoes were out of stock in all the shops she knew to check, and yours truly was called upon to devise a solution. Needless to say I failed woefully – not through lack of effort  as I even went the distance of setting up a conference call just for them shoes – but due to the sheer absurdity of the choice of colour. My theory is that the first women who had aso-ebi’s had major shares in a shoe manufacturer and chose odd colours so that the shoes could not be re-used thereby guaranteeing increased revenues!
  • Why some people think lime-green eyeliner works on their ebony-black face: Whilst quickly looking through lounging on   amebobook the other day, I stumbled on a picture of some random chic with lime-green eyeliner. You know how a friend of a friend comments on a picture and amebobook somehow manages to put them onto your news feed in all their gory glory – that was it. Granted it was in the spirit of the Nigerian Independence celebrations, and people had to pretend to be patriotic by wearing green-ish stuff, but surely there were mirrors at home… and in the rare event of there not being mirrors, friends and family could have alerted said chic to the incongruity of the eye-liner?
  • How they manage to still feign surprise over stuff they knew would happen anyways: The ladies at MO Corp have banded themselves into some sort of fraternity. Ladies-only lunches, baby club discussions (at my desk no less), and the ‘official’ baby shower for the pregged ladies on their last day of work. Its all well and good to have baby showers – great pizza, us blokes get to leave a wee bit early on a Friday and all, but I never can quite get over the false sense of surprise them ladies seem to muster. I mean, its standard practice that you’ll get a baby shower. Expect it, and spare us the excessive oohs ahhhs, and the drama! arghhh…
  • Why you wear ‘six’ inch heels to church and then take them off midway through the service: I am an ‘apostle’ of functionality which is why them ladies who wear six inch heels and then take them off midway leave me worried. Surely, the shoes can’t be so uncomfortable that they can’t stay on for two and a half hours only?
  • Why you manage to tear up ever so freely in church: Every time I get the misfortune of being sat next to a particular young lady in church, I groan inwardly. Problem is not that she’s got a massive dose of BO, but that she manages to contort her face in so many twists and turns that I’m left wondering if I am safe. 90% of the time, she’ll cry during the worship – often times that is the precise moment I am discreetly reviewing my twitter timeline, an indicator of just how bored with the whole experience I am. It really is just the worship right?I have a sneaky feeling, that it might be more than just the worship, perhaps she is remembering what Bro Okon did the night before…

Sigh…

PS: No hard feelings.. To the friends I have called out.. I owe each of you a purple shoe…. In the year 2150.. 🙂

AJ

Going Vegetarian..

The sudden realization, that it took me only a month and a half to fill a Nandos loyalty card has left me with a mixture of sadness and fear – sadness at the sheer number of chicken that have lost their lives to feed my lust for peri-peri chicken, and fear at what those loads of chemical laced proteins is doing to my innards… So for a week – to pacify my conscience, i will eat vegetarian only… That will be difficult because my early morning bacon sandwich and coffee from Sainsbury, my company paid bacon/egg/mushroom roll on Fridays, and all the other good meaty stuff I live for will get tossed out.. Healthy eating was one of the four critical categories for 2010, I need to get a jump on it….

AJ

Stuff I will not miss about NCT..

  • Broken lifts – gave me free exercise but thirteen flights of steps went a wee bit too far…
  • Empty bottles, spilled liquids and much more in the lifts when they actually worked….
  • Extra rowdy football crowds – if only they actually won something…..
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses proselytizing – oh and they offered to come back…
  • Mr Landlord – who smoked in the house, once decided to remodel the bath on a Monday morning and was generally a pain in the nether regions….
  • Attempted murder just across the road and in broad daylight too…
  • A notorious park within the neighborhood…
  • Hate messages scrawled on freshly painted walls, and scratched on lift doors….
  • Raised eyebrows when I give my post code at the GP…
  • Regular police fliers in the mail requesting information on crimes committed in the neighborhood……

Ten months after making the move up north – and opting to go the cheap route to stay in the vicinity of a council flat – I’m finally moving houses…  Its good to be moving on…. If I can only get the heating and the internet  to work.. ..

AJ

YNWA

After a long running saga, Liverpool FC was finally sold to another set of Americans.. NESV principal and the new club owner , John W Henry, had this to say so us ‘long suffering’ fans…

All I can say at this point is we’re going to work as hard for you as we possibly can and there’s no doubt about it, you deserve it. You have supported this club through the worst of times now and we’re going to do everything in our power to make the supporters proud of their club and of us. It’s a big challenge but I think we’re up for that challenge.

We keep ‘walking on… with hope in our hearts……’