I Dunno, What do You Wanna Do?

Naouful Drauchi, 30, and Abdel Kotiba, 25, were taking turns pointing a .357 magnum revolver at each other’s head and pulling the trigger. The gun was loaded with one shell. Kotiba lost, police said, adding that Drauchi told them it was an “accident” that he killed his cousin. “Russian roulette? That’s crazy,” said a neighbor when he heard about the shooting. “That’s stuff you see in the movies or hear about in the suburbs, not here in the ’hood.” (New York Daily News) ...Right: in the ’hood they usually use semiautomatics.

Man Nabbed For Air-expressing Himself In A Shipping Crate

Charles D. McKinley, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., had four weeks of vacation coming, so he decided to visit his parents in DeSoto, Texas. Rather than buy a plane ticket for $320, McKinley, a shipping clerk, packed himself into a shipping crate and air-expressed himself home, charging the fees to his employer. When the crate was delivered to his parents' front step, McKinley pushed out of the box and shook hands with the "shaken and frightened" delivery driver. The driver called the police. After an investigation by the FBI, the U.S. attorney, postal inspectors, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration, McKinley was charged as a stowaway, a federal misdemeanor. If he had only waited for the driver to leave, he would have been home free.

3 Ways You Unknowingly Destroy Your Children's Self Esteem

“Mom, I’m starting a new piano song! Will you sit by me?” my youngest son asks. I walk in and sit down at the piano bench. When he starts new songs, he likes me nearby. A bright smile flashes across his face and he starts playing. After a few mistakes his smile fades and a frown appears. I sense his growing discouragement. From my perspective the song is quite simple, it is easy for me. I almost say, “Oh come on this is easy, you can do it.” Instead I pause and think, “What I say will make my son feel encouraged which helps his self-esteem grow or cause discouragement which can lower his self-esteem. The choice rests with me.” Parent’s want their children to grow up self-confident and capable. Sometimes without even realizing it, your responses may be doing the exact opposite which lowers your children’s self-esteem. 1. Saying “It’s easy” When your children are struggling with a task, it may seem easy to you, however, it is not necessarily easy to them. When you say, “That is easy, you can do it.” You are trying to motivate and encourage them, yet it causes your children to think, “Something must be wrong with me because it’s not easy to me, therefore, I must be dumb.” This causes your children to feel discouraged and want to give up. It decreases their self-esteem. Instead tell them, “This can be tough or this is difficult.” Then if your children complete the task, they tell themselves, “I did something hard.” If they cannot figure it out, at least they know it was tough to begin with. This approach helps children stay encouraged and increases their feelings of self-worth. 2. Doing too much for them Your children want to do tasks on their own. This gives them a great sense of accomplishment and helps them feel good about themselves. You may feel one way to show your love is doing things for your children. This robs them of the opportunity to learn life skills and the satisfaction of feeling independent. It sends your children the hidden message, “You are not capable.” Instead of doing too much for your children, break the task into smaller more kid-friendly tasks. This gives your children the chance to feel the personal satisfaction of completing it on their own. Their self-esteem will soar. 3. Freaking out when they make mistakes Mistakes are part of life – we all make them. You may feel you need to rescue your children from making mistakes or help them avoid making mistakes. This does not help them – it cripples them for life. Your children will make mistakes and the way you respond either helps your children learn and grow from the mistake or teaches them mistakes are bad. Mistakes are painful, but they can cause great growth if handled in a healthy way. Don’t rob your children of the opportunity to rise to the occasion, admit they are wrong, fix the problem, and feel great about themselves. Instead of freaking out when your children make a mistake, teach them how to make amends and be accountable for their actions. This promotes a healthy view of mistakes and allows your children to feel good about who they are. Many parents do not realize these three parenting responses diminish their children’s self-esteem. If some of these ideas are new to you – take heart because reading and learning shows you are interested in improving as a parent and doing the best you can. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Damara Simmons’ LDS parenting website.

Photo: Borno govt awards scholarship to girls who got orphaned by boko haram activities.

Borno State Government yesterday Tuesday sent fifty girls whose parents were killed by Boko Haram on full junior and senior secondary school scholarship ‎at Zaria Academy, in Kaduna State, a famous institution said to have with records of excellence in academics.

SELF-TAUGHT ETHIOPIAN AVIATION FAN BUILDS OWN AIRPLANE

1 Zerefu’s social media profile is proof enough of his obsession with aviation – it is full with pictures of his own attempts and failures, and praise for his heroes, the Wright Brothers. His only goal since childhood was to become a pilot, so despite his high GPA, he dropped out of university to join the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy about 15 years ago. Sadly, he was turned down because he was one centimeter short of the minimum height requirement. Oddity Central has more: But Zerefu refused to let this setback alter his ultimate goal. “That was a turning point,” he told The Telegraph. “That was when I decided to build my own airplane in order to fulfil my lifelong dream of flight. This was in 2001.” He pored over FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) maintenance books, searched the internet for aircraft blueprints, and of course, watched hundreds of tutorials on YouTube. He then collected all the materials he needed and spent over a year working on them until his dream flying machine was finally ready. Zerefu’s social media profile is proof enough of his obsession with aviation – it is full with pictures of his own attempts and failures, and praise for his heroes, the Wright Brothers. His only goal since childhood was to become a pilot, so despite his high GPA, he dropped out of university to join the Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy about 15 years ago. Sadly, he was turned down because he was one centimeter short of the minimum height requirement. But Zerefu refused to let this setback alter his ultimate goal. “That was a turning point,” he told The Telegraph. “That was when I decided to build my own airplane in order to fulfil my lifelong dream of flight. This was in 2001.” He pored over FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) maintenance books, searched the internet for aircraft blueprints, and of course, watched hundreds of tutorials on YouTube. He then collected all the materials he needed and spent over a year working on them until his dream flying machine was finally ready.

The Biggest Mistake People Make Online

The threat from criminals online continues to grow. It’s not just “hackers” but actual criminal activity, backed by organized crime, and perhaps even some governments. They want your passwords, especially for bank and other financial accounts, so they can drain them for you, and they use some pretty tricky and often sophisticated means to get them, either from you, or from sites they break into.

Weekly Weird News

Thus it’s imperative that you have good passwords. What makes a password good? Long and complex, and unique. Long and complex makes it harder to crack; unique means that if a password is compromised, it can’t be used to get into other accounts too. (How many of you have the same login and password at more than one financial site?! Or, much worse, have the same login/password at financial sites and other sites that might be less protective of your information? Yikes, is that a financial disaster waiting to happen!)
How long? Eight characters is nowhere near enough. Security experts now recommend a bare minimum of 12 characters ...but 16 is better. I have my LastPass password generator set to 20 ...and then often add more to what it comes up with, especially if it's for an important site, like my bank.
How complex? Not just upper and lower case, and a digit or two. The more other characters allowed the better, such as ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) | \ / = / ~ } . Yes, really.
The problem is, such passwords are very hard to remember, and type. But software comes to the rescue: there is software that “remembers” all of your passwords so you don’t have to, and enters them when necessary — after checking to ensure that you’re really at your bank’s site, not one that just looks like your bank’s site with a quick glance. Then, you only have to remember one password: the one to unlock the software that holds your passwords for you. The good news is, such programs are pretty easy to use: 80-year-olds who can use banking sites can certainly use this software easily; no mad tech skillz required.
Is that safe? Yes: your passwords are encrypted on your hard drive using the password you choose. If done right, they’re also backed up elsewhere, such as the software company’s servers. Even there, they’re well secured. If you want more assurance than that, consider that Wired magazine notes that 73 percent of computer security professionals use password vault software, while only 24 percent of “non-experts” do. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s that high. I use LastPass, which is free for most uses (thus: no excuses!) If you want to have secure access to your passwords on your smartphone too, they ask for a mere $12/year for that. But again, on your computer, it’s completely free. A small price to pay for a wall around your bank accounts to protect you from organized crime.
Needless to say, I have no association with LastPass, and am not making anything by recommending them. I’m simply a satisfied user (and yes, I pay the $12/year!)
Do not be frightened by the “but LastPass has been hacked!” scare tactic. They discovered hackers trying to get passwords in their systems, and not only announced it, but went on to say what they were doing about it. There have been no reports of any passwords being compromised. Not one. Even those worried about the theoretical danger could thwart the risk by simply changing their LastPass password, which re-encrypts all of their passwords. Whoopie.
The bottom line is, good passwords are important, and password vault software makes them practical.

Does This Risk Scare You?

Well, it should. The risk is real. Hoping for the best won't work: that's what the criminals want. The best defense is knowledge, and now you know an important component: how easy it is to have good passwords. Not doing it is the biggest mistake people make online.
Additional Reading:

Lagos Vows To Stop Street Trading

The Lagos State Government has restated its readiness to rid the state of street trading, with plans on track to fully enforce the provisions of the law restricting street trading in the metropolis.

Chairman of the State Task Force on Environmental and Other Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), Police Superintendent Olubukola Abe, disclosed this to journalists in Alausa, Ikeja. According to him, the new drive is to reduce the traffic congestion on the road, often caused by the activities of street trading.
He quoted Section 1 of the Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003, which restricts street trading and hawking in the metropolis.
“Section 7 and 8 of the same law gives jurisdiction and power to the special court to order the seizure and public auction of items impounded for street tradition,” he said.
He expressed his men’s preparedness to step up enforcement of the relevant sections of the law, urging motorists not to encourage their activities by patronizing them.
According to him, Section 10 of the law prescribes a N5,000 fine or three months imprisonment upon conviction.
He explained that the implication of the violation of the law is multifaceted. “Aside from the far reaching implication of street trading in terms of accidents which in most cases are fatal, street trading also affects the free flow of traffic in the metropolis as well as contradicting the environmental sanitation laws by littering our streets with waste generated from the act”.
“We’ve had reports on the activities of persons who pose as beggars, especially in traffic, but their sole aim is to perpetrate evil. We are putting a search light on this trend and one way to do that is to ensure that we take preemptive measures to forestall this development,” he said.
Abe, while urging residents to refrain from patronizing street traders, also appealed to Lagosians to be safety conscious and ensure they seek for spaces in various markets designated for trading in the state.
“There is no way any responsible government will allow street trading to continue after providing stalls in designated market places all over the state,” he said.

“I Didn’t Go Into Politics As A Hungry Man” - Desmond Elliot

Veteran Nigerian actor and producer turned politician, Desmond Elliot has stated that nothing can change his person.

He said he didn’t get into politics because he was hungry.

Desmond Elliot was elected as a member of the Lagos State of House Representative for surulere constituency.

The husband and father said: –

“I really beg to be different when it comes to politics.”

“I didn’t go in as a poor man, I didn’t go in because I don’t have money to eat, that’s why I never changed my twitter or Instagram handle. I do everything myself, nothing changed about me. I hate when people over bloat themselves.”

“For me service Is what it’s supposed to be, that’s why from the beginning of my campaign, I never wanted any political godfather, no one is telling me I put you there, then you must do this for me. I’m eternally grateful to my party for seeing me worthy to be in that position.”

“I don’t have an entourage, I just have myself, my PA and my driver and most times I do the driving myself. It’s a call to service because coming from a popular stand point I’m not seeking for popularity, the aim to leave a legacy of success and real change.”