EYESFUD

Seven Family Was Kill By Gunmen in Kaduna

A family of seven was reportedly wiped out in Manyi Akuru village, near Manchok, Kaura local government area of Kaduna state following an attack  by  gunmen identified    to be Fulani herdsmen.

The incident was said to have occurred at about 10:30pm on Thursday throwing the community into confusion.

Angry youths from the community were said to have protested the continuous attacks on them by gun men when the Kaduna state governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero visited the area to commiserate with them over the incident

The angry youths were reported to have booed   the governor and pelted his convoy with stones, accusing him of failing to adopt security measures that will bring an end to the attacks.
Details to follow

Court grants unemployed man N50,000 bail over alleged N10,000-phone theft

An Ejigbo Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Friday granted bail in the sum of N50,000 and a surety to an unemployed  man, who allegedly stole a mobile phone worth N10,000.
The Magistrate, Mrs M. B. Folami, granted bail to 34-year-old Chulks Loke, who was also charged with stealing N25,000.
The accused, who resides at Egan, Igando, Lagos, is facing a count charge, but he pleaded not guilty.
The Prosecutor, ASP Nicholas Atumonye, had told the court that the accused stole the phone and money from Mr Kehinde Elegbede.
The prosecutor said that the accused committed the offence on Jan. 27 at Igando, a suburb of Lagos.
Atumonye said that the offence contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The section prescribes three years imprisonment for stealing.
The court adjourned the case till March 3 for mention.(NAN)

Uduaghan calls for peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.

The Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan has charged Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of peaceful co-existence so as to reduce burden on security operatives.

Dr. Uduaghan who said this Sunday in Asaba at an inter-denominational thanksgiving service to mark the 2014 Armed Forces Remembrance Day, stated that with peace, the work load on security operatives will be reduced.
He observed that security operatives are making a lot of sacrifices for Nigerians due to their actions or inactions, reiterating: “please, let us ensure a peaceful society so that we will not need to send security men to communities, so that we will not need to keep security men on our roads.”
The Governor assured Deltans that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, he will not shy away from carrying out his responsibilities without fear or favour, noting that the Remembrance Day celebration was a sad reminder of those who died for the nation and also, those who are making selfless sacrifice for Nigerians.
Quoting Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta State Governor)
“I will not shelve my responsibilities, I will do the work I have taken oath of office for”, the Governor said, adding, “Using the security forces, I will do my work of providing security for all Deltans.” ~ Uduaghan

Nigeria Marks Armed Forces Remembrance Day; Jan.15 2014

Armed Forces Remembrance Day is a day set aside to remember and honour Nigerians who lost their lives in the course of their service to the country and peace keeping operations across the globe.
It is also a time to appreciate those discharged and retired.Indeed, remembering the fallen heroes is the least the nation and Nigerians can do in respect of the supreme sacrifice they make, not only for national unity, but also for the promotion of global peace and territorial protection.
As Nigeria marks this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day, it has become imperative for governments to re-appraise the gains of the yearly ritual. This has become necessary as the lot of the dependants of the fallen heroes and Legionaries (retired military personnel from Army, Navy and Airforce) appear to fall short, inspite of the yearly ritual.
The yearly event is organised to commemorate the end of the Nigerian civil war on January 15, 1970 and honour military personnel that lost their lives in the line of duty.
In Kwara State, retired soldiers called on the Nigerian government to effect the increment of 35 per cent in their monthly pension due to them since three years ago.
The event took place at the Metro Park Ilorin and was attended by the state governor, Abdulfattah Ahmed.
Governor Ahmed inspected the guard of honour and laid a wreath in memory of the fallen heroes.
The Remembrance Day was therefore moved from November to January because the Federal Government thought it wise that the Armed Forces Remembrance Day would be more meaningfully if it is celebrated in honour of the men and women who gave their lives fighting for the unity of the country rather than honouring soldiers who fought for the British Empire.
Nevertheless, Nigerians who were enlisted in the British constabulary and were drafted to Europe to partake in World Wars I and II are not left out of the Remembrance Day celebrations which is also used in remembering all the other officers, men and women of the Nigerian armed forces who have paid the ultimate sacrifice maintaining peace at home and in other parts of the globe where they had been deployed on peace keeping missions.
In keeping with these constitutional responsibilities, Nigerians from all parts of the country have in the discharge of their duties as officers and men and women of the Nigerian armed forces, stood side by side as comrades in arms in the defence of the country. It is noteworthy that the Nigerian armed forces have since its establishment, fought in a civil war to keep the territorial integrity of the country intact as well as participated in several peacekeeping operations around the world.

Govnor Aregbesola and restructuring of Osun public education, in Osun State Nigeria

The age long adage says that when a handshake goes beyond the elbow, then it is no longer a handshake and one must prepare for a fight. This statement best explains the relationship between the governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola and his friends and admirers from the Baptists Church in Nigeria on one hand and the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) Osun Chapter on the other. It is hoped that the spirit of Christmas will reunite the once cordial friends who fell apart following the ongoing reclassification of schools in the state. The restructuring has not gone down well with the Baptists Church in Nigeria and it has punctured their hither to robust relationship. It will be recalled that in April 2013 during the Baptist National Centenary Convention in Osogbo that Governor Aregbesola was the guest of honour. Prior to the convention, the Baptist Church had approached the governor for financial aid and were given the sum of N25 million as well as 3 acres of land to use as convention ground. The governor also facilitated the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) by directing the Commissioner for Lands, Arc Muyiwa Ige to prepare and hand over the the C of O to the Baptists. As a matter of fact, the governor did not leave the convention ground until the documents were expressly prepared, signed and handed over to the Baptists. This action of the governor was more than a miracle to the leaders and laities. The whole convention ground erupted in ecstasy. The convention ground was charged with the shout of praise to God and commendation to a Muslim governor that gave the Baptists all their requests.
Aregbesola who commended the Baptists national convention for choosing Osun as venue of their centenary celebration had observed that, “your intervention in education at the primary, secondary and University- Bowen University at Iwo is undisputed. The first generation of the parents in Osun benefited from the Baptist education. The hand of God is in this state and that is why your presence here is welcome.” He further told the congregation that “it is religion and moral values that keep the society together.”
The President of the Baptist convention, Rev. Dr. Ayokunle was more than happy with the governor for his unusual generosity and hospitality and thereafter, pronounced the ‘baptismal’ name of the Osun governor to be “Rueben” as he thanked the governor for his financial and moral support given to them.
However, Governor Aregbesola preferred the name Nathaniel to Rueben. Quoting the Gospel of John1:47, where Jesus Christ said “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile”, the governor said religion will have no meaning if people do not know we are representative of God on earth, arguing that religion means love harmony, oneness with your maker.
As 2013 is about to end, the Baptists leaders had forgotten that Aregbesola did not just prefer Nathaniel as a name but share all that characteristics of the Biblical Nathaniel. Aregbesola believes that the purpose of man on earth is to serve God and render services to fellow being in whatever position he finds himself.
The Baptists have also forgotten the message of Nathaniel Aregbesola on the purpose of religion which he claimed was for us to live in love and harmony. Today, Rauf ‘Nathaniel’ Aregbesola is seen as a man on the course of Islamising the State of Osun.
But Governor Aregbesola can be likened to Cassius Clay who later became Muhammed Ali. Ali got pleasure in being different, most of all he liked being himself. He refused to fight in conventional way. A boxer usually keeps his gloves up towards his head and upper body, ready to parry a blow. Ali likes to keep his hands low, apparently inviting attack- but he is quicker than other boxers, and the best way to lure the opponent’s chin just close enough for Ali to snap a jab, by lowering his hands. Ali’s unconventional tactics defeated Sonny Liston twice, forced Joe Frasier to kiss the canvass in Kinshasa at-“the rumble in the Jungle” fight.
Nathaniel Aregbesola, a Muslim gave them money to complete Christian convention ground, nobody accused him of religious bigotry, when the C of O was issued in an unconventional manner, and he was celebrated as the Nathaniel on who is no guile. When Iwo Baptist High school was chosen as one of the model schools to be built at the cost of N1.3billion, the governor was on the good book of the Baptist Church. How come that the goods that Aregbesola have done not only to the Baptists but to the Catholic and Methodists were suddenly forgotten under six months only to be labeled a jihadist. If Baptists were in trance, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) cannot fall in to the same trance. Earlier in the year the Christian Association of Nigeria Osun chapter sought and gotten approval for a sum of N10 million for their secretariat from the same government they now accuse of islamisation.
The composition of the state executive is biased towards the Muslims. Out of the 34 members, the Christian members are 22, the legislators too comprises of 2/3 Christian members. The majority of the judicial members are Christians.
In Yoruba land, the people don’t fight over religion, this is because there is no community in the South West that has a mono religion; our secularism in Yoruba land allow husband and wife to belong to different religion without any trouble. Two of our governors in the South West even though practicing Muslims are married to Christians.
The bitter truth is that all public schools belong to the government since the promulgation of September 1975 decree that gave the power of ownership of schools to the government. If there is any state in the Federation that may return schools to the missionaries out of kindness, such gesture must not be abused, this is because if such gesture is challenged in the court the plaintiff stand to win. This is due to the supremacy of the Laws of the Federation over that of the states
The names of these schools merely reminded us that they were once established by the former owners. If we look at the Tenancy Law in Nigeria when an individual abandon its property for 12 years without collecting any rent it loses its property to the occupier, if on the other hand, it affect individual and the state the forfeiture take place after 20 years. So, the schools that the government have taken over for the past 35 years, is there any law that can support the repossession?
As we celebrate the Christmas, we must remember the love of Christ that is peace personify, we must adhere to Apostle Paul message that says in Romans 12 verse 18 “if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” the same Paul further stated “in 1Timothy 2 verses 1-2 “ I exhort therefore, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may live lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
If we all adhere to the biblical teaching as we enter the New Year and leave politics for politicians, more souls will be won for Christ and the glory of the Lord will be seen in our lives.

[TRANSFER ZONE] Milan loan Nocerino to West Ham

The midfielder has joined into the end of the season, with Marco Borriello also close to an Upton Park move
West Ham have confirmed the loan signing of midfielder Antonio Nocerino from AC Milan until the end of the season.

The 28-year-old made the switch to San Siro in August 2011 and was a mainstay in the side that reached the Champions League last season after a late resurgence.

However, the Italy international has struggled to maintain a regular spot in the Rossoneri XI this term, starting on just seven occasions in Serie A.

That has led to a temporary move to Sam Allardyce's side, who are desperate to bring in reinforcements as they seek to escape the Premier League relegation zone.

The Upton Park outfit currently sit 18th in England's top flight, having picked up just four wins from 22 matches thus far.

Nocerino could be joined at the London club by another Italy international in the form of Marco Borriello.

The forward has been strongly touted with a move to West Ham and said his goodbyes to Roma supporters on Twitter on Friday.

West Ham also had a bid rejected for Leeds United forward Ross McCormack on Friday.

Nocerino started his career at Juventus, where he enjoyed loan spells at Genoa, Messina and Piacenza, before making a permanent move to Palermo in 2008.

Deputy National Secretary APC; Nasir El-Rufai finally secures warrant of arrest from SSS

This is even as armed operatives of the Service again stormed a second house in Abuja believed to belong to the former minister in their desperate bid to arrest him.
They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first house in the Maitama District of the nation’s capital, but could not find him as he had reportedly gone to pick his children from school. They were said to have tried to force their way in to arrest the former minister. Continue…
In the latest siege on another property, also in the Maitama District, the operatives were said to have beaten up some private guards for refusing them entry.
The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, confirmed that the operatives visited Mr. El-Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied that anyone was beaten.
“I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told Premium Times on telephone. “We went to the first place, nobody was beaten up. How will we go to the second place and beat people up?”
She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant demanded by Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him to personally serve him the document.
“We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to come and make some explanations about the comments attributed to him.
“He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have now obtained that from a competent court and we are wondering why he is running.
“We want to serve it on him. Or is there any Nigerian that is above the law?
“The president has said his ambition is not worth any Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be making provocative statements?”
The manhunt for the former minister followed his refusal to honour an invitation from the SSS on Thursday.
He cited his pending suit against the Service over his detention in a hotel in Awka during the Anambra State Governorship last November 16 as the reason for refusing to honour the invitation.
Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of arrest before he could go to the SSS office.
The invitation of the APC chief was in connection with his remarks at a conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be violence if the 2015 general elections were not credible.
Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed that armed SSS officials stormed his home in Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the organization to compel him to report at their office without a valid warrant.
The statement said the former minister had on Thursday firmly told the Director General of SSS that he would be exercising his right not to go to the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him and offered to meet the SSS officials in his home or office.
“The armed invasion of his house is a clear indication that the SSS imagines itself as an agency immune from respecting fundamental rights, behaviour akin to a gathering of toughs before whom every citizen must quake,” the statement said.
“The SSS agents did not produce any warrant to back their invasion of his premises.
“The assault on El-Rufai’s house continues a sorry tradition of serial violation of his rights by the SSS which has arrested him at airports and hotels.
“The most recent was the action of the SSS in violating his right to freedom of movement in Awka during the Anambra elections. Without any just cause or formal charge, the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) had unlawfully detained El Rufai, the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the premises of Finotel Hotel, Akwa, Anambra State, from the 15th day of November, 2013 to the 16th day of November, 2013.”
The statement said during the period, Mr. El-Rufai was not only restricted to the hotel, he was denied access to his congregational prayer as a devout Muslim, and kept incommunicado without access to anyone and or the press.
It stated that in order to remedy the flagrant violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 35, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution, the former minister sued the SSS, seeking eight reliefs, including an injunction to restrain the SSS from further infringing on his fundamental right.

OGBENI AREGBESOLA WON MAN OF THE YEAR 2013 POLL; STATE OF OSUN NIGERIA

Aregbesola: Symbol of an alternative perspective – DAILY INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
The Man-of-the-Year is a difficult proposition. And for a reason. In our dysfunctional polity, the parameters set have to be exacting. As is known, the Republic is ill at ease with itself.
Dashed hopes, disappointed expectations as well as promises unfulfilled make the task of picking an individual who has made an outstanding contribution daunting. From time to time, a nugget representing a beacon of hope comes up. When for example a few years ago we picked the venerated Chinua Achebe, it was an inspired choice.
This is because by refusing to subordinate his principles to immediate expediency, Achebe caught the imagination and made picking the Man-of-the-Year easy. This year’s discourse was typically ferocious. The central theme being, who has attempted to break the mould? Who is today’s contrarian who has at least attempted in a positive direction to alter the terrain of discourse and operations? Who has been making resolute attempt to clear the fog of widespread cynicism and disenchantment with the polity and most of those who navigate the shop of state?
The choice of the State of Osun helmsman is in response to the need to roll back the tide of cynicism. We know of course that there is an intellectual-in-residence in the State House in Ado-Ekiti. Concomitantly there is also an activist in residence in Osogbo, the capital of the State of Osun.
Often times in history the activist has disappointed in office. Engineer Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has here bucked the trend. He has shown a knack to turn deep philosophical conviction into result-yielding good governance. It has helped in that he actually prepared himself for office both intellectually and practically. He has in this way merged ideological fervor with the practical act of governance.
The practical act of governance was horned on an exhilarating eight years of being the infrastructure czar of Lagos State, good old rambunctious, perennially demanding Lagos state. A seminal performance in Lagos State has been horned into administrative sagacity in the state of Osun.
The intellectual preparation has also stood him well. He came into office armed with a seminal six point agenda spanning the key socio-economic issues affecting the State of Osun. This has proved to be a very sensible thing to do. For taking over the state after a ludicrously long judicial battle came with a hefty debilitating prince tag.
The lacuna was that the state had barely seen even perfunctorily sensible governance for a long-time. The state’s public finance was not just opaque, it was in shambles. Waste, bizarre duplication of effort leading to cost inefficiencies had led to bureaucratic elephantiasis. Huge recurrent expenditure, insecurity and a general feeling of desperation was fast turning Osun State into a by-word as the generic term for maladministration.
The distinguishingly factor about Aregbesola which
facilitated our choosing him as our Man-of-the-Year, is that he redefined the territory of discourse and operations. The state’s public finances had to be re-directed away from consumption towards the arena of production. Recurrent expenditure has been slimed down thereby increasing the capital votes. Emphasis on production has led to an increase in the capital votes in geometric proportion.
The difference is clear. The State of Osun today has a spring (pardon the pun) in its step. The emphasis is now on production and jobs led economic trajectory. This new thrust has implications for the nation far beyond the narrow confines of partisan politics. This is because if the unfulfilled promises that have resulted in widespread cynicism are to be rolled back, the nation must become a proper democracy.
A proper democracy is based on social solidarity, community cohesion and a convergence of ideals centred on a social contract linking the political establishment with those they govern. Aregbesola has become a symbol of this new thrust. Imperfect yes, sometimes imperious. Nevertheless his policy thrust like his engagingly humane heart is in the right place.
Nowhere has this shown more than in his policy on education. A sweeping repositioning of the education sector is clearly leading to a situation where generations will now be technically prepared and empowered to face the reality of a brutally competitive world.
Some of it is contentious, certainly. Fine tuning has had to be done in implementation of course. However, this is nothing like the flak that United States President Barak Obama is today receiving over the implementation of Obamacare. In instances such as this we must be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
This sort of issue raises the bugbear of plas ce chang. Nothing ever really changes that much. In the process of the sweeping transformative repositioning of the Western Region in the nineteen-fifties, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, faced the same dilemma. This being how to negotiate a democratic agreement on key policy issue. No democracy has ever functioned effectively without this.
What Engineer Rauf Aregbesola has done in the State of Osun is to redefine the terrain of thinking and practice. He has set a mark that must be a pointer to the future. If this country is to prosper, it must move in the direction of the new thinking determined by people like Aregbesola.
The emphasis must be on production rather than consumption. Social contract must be the trajectory of policy developing both human capital and the physical infrastructure. Government must be located as the engine room for real sustainable development, the BIG D.
This is why warts and all, in a fiercely competitive field, we have chosen the State of Osun helmsman as our Man-of-the-Year. He represents a new wave of governance. A symbol of the aspirations of generation next that we need not be enmeshed in cynicism and defeatism. He also embodies the new federalist ethos to be used as a battering ram against the military induced overtly centralist state. As the symbol of the new thinking, he deserves to be our Man-of-the-Year. He has earned our appreciation.
Aregbesola emerged from a list of other distinguished Nigerians including the former Governor of Lagos State and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as well as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi.
Tinubu made a significant showing placing second on the ballot.
In a political space full of divisive characters, Bola Ahmed Tinubu divides opinion like few others. As the man leading the resurgence of the South West economically and politically, comparisons with the late Obafemi Awolowo are inevitable, and it is perhaps in this area where he divides opinion the most. His supporters view him as a master political strategist who is a worthy heir to Awolowo’s legacy, while to others he is merely a political hustler who cannot be mentioned in the same breath with a man Ojukwu called ‘the best President Nigeria never had’.
The story of Keshi is not lost on anybody who has been following soccer events in this country. When Keshi was appointed, the team was at its lowest ebb, having failed to qualify for the 2012 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. The failure was not because the team lacked what it needed to sail through, but due to indiscipline that has taken root in the team.
It was during this sorry state, and against all expectations, that Keshi turned around the team’s fortunes to become champions of Africa by winning the Africa Cup of Nations, 19 years after. By this feat, he became the second man in history to have won the Africa Cup of Nations both as a coach and player.
–SAHEED OLAMIDE/EDITOR
***************************
Man of the Year 2013 is Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola
Engr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola was born in the month of May, 1957. He had his primary and secondary education in Ondo State, and later attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he studied Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 1980. As a pupil in the primary school, Rauf was a centre-point around whom his mates hovered for guidance and direction. As a student, he was focused for remarkable performance which he made distinctively and seamlessly. In the Polytechnic, he positioned himself to conquer his environment by engaging in prolific studies.
The career man
Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM), Fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), Fellow of the Nigerian Association of Technological Engineers (FNATE) and Fellow of the Certified Marketing Communications Institute of Nigeria (FCMCIN), Rauf Aregbesola has a wealth of experience garnered through wide exposure in the private sector, such as the Nigerian External Telecommunications, now renamed Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. and Lagos Airport Hotel, before establishing his own Engineering Services Company, Aurora Nigeria Limited, in 1986. The company had handled numerous major projects for both government and private organisations in most States of the Federation.
The politician
Politically, Rauf has been no less a phenomenon. His involvement in politics dates back to his undergraduate days when he was Speaker of the Students’ Parliament (1977/78), The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and the President of the Black Nationalist Movement (1978-1980). He was also an active supporter of other progressive students’ movements nationwide, which earned him, for instance, the life membership of National Association of Technological Students. In June 1990, he became an elected delegate to the SDP Inaugural Local Government Area Congress. In July of the same year, he was also a delegate to its first National Convention in Abuja.
Rauf Aregbesola, as a pro-democracy and human rights activist, was a major participant in the demilitarisation and pro-democracy struggles of the 1990s. Prior to his appointment as the Lagos State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure (1999-2007), he was Director of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation (BATCO), which engineered the electoral victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Governor of Lagos State in 1999. He performed similar feat using the platform of Independent Campaign Group (ICG) to ensure the re-election of Asiwaju for a second term in office.
The Commissioner
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola acquitted himself excellently as Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 with the strength of his commitment to selfless service. His diligence, sincerity and tirelessness in the administration of the vast Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, as well as supervision of the Public Works Corporation and State Electricity Board, has been acknowledged as being responsible for the outstanding success recorded by the Tinubu administration, especially in road rehabilitation/maintenance and street lighting; and achievement that solidly laid the foundation for the actualisation of Lagos as the model of development and good governance as being sustained by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola today. Indeed, it is a known fact that he is one of the brains behind the infrastructural re-engineering that has now resulted in the transformation of social amenities in Lagos State.
Some of the novel achievements and innovations due to Aregbesola’s visionary qualities and enterprise include the redefinition and application of new aesthetic standards to ministry blocks and offices as corporate workplaces; vision and mission definition, annual staff retreats and modern manpower capacity building trainings; introduction of facility management practices; pioneering achievements in PR (ministry journal) and IT (website) operation; Pioneering Private/Public Sector Partnership Ventures; Award-winning best practices projects; etc.
The believer and advocate of the rule of law
Aregbesola’s belief in the sanctity of the rule of law is exemplary.
Engr. Rauf Aregbesola, on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC) contested for the Governorship of Osun State in the April 2007 elections, and won. To be so declared, however, took close to four years of what must go down as one of the most titanic mandate recovery legal battles of all time, and a moment for the manifestation of the omnipotence of the Almighty God and his steadfastness in support of those who rely on him.
Having gone through the tribunal of first instance, an appeal and a retrial tribunal, the second appeal court, delivering judgment on October 26, 2010, declared Aregbesola governor and ordered he be sworn in the next day.
Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, since assuming office as Governor of the State of Osun on October 27, 2010, has redefined the meaning of governance in the public sector, not just with symbolic posturing, but real and sustainable interventions that will presently enhance the quality of life of everyone that lives or works in the State of Osun. Rebranding of the state as the ipinle Omoluabi (State of the Virtuous) started from himself, adopting the title Ogbeni, simply Mister, in deference to the singular Excellency of the Almighty God. In just over a year, the chronicle of his achievements is astounding, and may be summarised as a chain of “O-Models”, the most astonishing been the engagement of 20,000 youth in the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme within his first 100 days in office; an accomplishment without precedence that has become the model for others to follow.
The strategist/visionary
Rauf is a born strategist. Throughout his life, whether as a pupil, student or career man; political appointee or Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has applied the art and science of strategy to ensure success in all endeavours in which he is engaged. He strategised and was outstanding as a student. He strategised and was efficient and effective as a career man. He strategised and was accomplished as a grassroots politician. He strategised and was excellent as a commissioner in Lagos State. He strategised to reclaim his mandate when he was rigged out in the race to offer selfless service to the good people of Osun. He strategised to lay a sound foundation for a regenerated Osun State knowing that sustainable development does not happen with ‘quick fix’ methods, tools, and techniques. He is strategising to position Osun and the good people of the state appropriately in the geo-economic milieu of Nigeria. He is a fervent believer in the dictum that strategists do not fail and so will not fail the people of Osun.
Committed to a better, egalitarian society, Aregbesola, though fully anxious to build a society with massive physical infrastructures that promote better living, believes in first pursuit of those human values that can pave the way for the emergence of that total man, who is socially responsible. Hence his dogged pursuit of programmes extra-curricular schemes, such as the Calisthenics, Omoluabi Boys and Girls Club, and other schemes aimed at re-orientating the youths to channel their energies towards a society where the promotion of the common, collective goods will dominate the crazy pursuit of the good of the self.
He stirs the hornet’s nests often; but, these are in his determined attempts to break the norms to achieve extra-ordinary results. To date, he has ignited debates on federalism, restructuring of education towards functionality, equity, justice and fairness in all spheres of life. Even in the face of mounting criticisms, he holds tenaciously to his ideas, convinced that oppositions to them are products of long years of military rule, ignorance of what is even good for humanity and the acute manipulative capacities of those whose interest it is to keep the ordinary people perpetually subjugated.
The family man
An exemplary family man, Rauf Aregbesola is a loving husband and caring father. Married to Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, he has nurtured his family with equal devotion and commitment.
For these reasons, he is a thinker, ardent performer, a visionary leader, a transformational leader, an agent of strategic change, a man for the people; Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, Governor of the State of Osun.

Juan Mata Completed Manchester United Move

Manchester United completed the signing of Juan Mata from Chelsea, the club have confirmed.

The Spain international missed first-team training with the west London outfit on Wednesday as he closed in on the club-record move to the reigning Premier League champions in a deal worth £37.1 million.

Jose Mourinho has already moved to secure a replacement for the Spaniard, as the Blues gazumped Liverpool to agree a fee with Basel for Mohamed Salah, a transfer which could cost up to £15m.

Speaking about the deal, Mata said he was delighted to have joined the reigning Premier League champions, describing Old Trafford as the "perfect place for me".

"I am thrilled to be joining United. I have enjoyed some very happy years at Chelsea but the time has come for a new challenge," he told the club's official website.

"United is the perfect place for me and I am excited at the chance I have to be part of the next phase in the club's history.

"Chelsea is a top club and I have many friends there but you cannot turn down the chance to join Manchester United. I look forward to helping the manager and the team be successful in the coming years."

David Moyes, meanwhile, confirmed that Mata will make his United debut against Cardiff on Tuesday at Old Trafford.

"I have been impressed with the excitement he has shown to be part of the new Manchester United," he added.

"I know our fans have admired Juan for some time now – he has always played well against us – and I know they will be delighted to see him in the red of United, starting on Tuesday.

"Juan is one of the finest playmakers in the game today and it's a real pleasure to have secured his signature," he added.

"He's been instrumental in Chelsea's recent success, with a notable 28 assists and 32 goals in his last two Premier League seasons."

Mata, twice named Chelsea's Player of the Season, struggled for regular football under Mourinho, with the Portuguese recently admitting his "door was open" should the playmaker seek an exit.

And United have jumped at the opportunity to bring the 25-year-old to Old Trafford, with David Moyes keen to boost his midfield options and strengthen the club's bid to claim Champions League qualification after the disappointment of crashing out of the Capital One Cup.

President Goodluck Jonathan names replacements for sacked ministers in Nigeria

Mr President

President Goodluck Jonathan has found 12 replacements for ministers he sacked last year, his office said on Tuesday, as he looks to shore up his support in an increasingly divided ruling party.
Jonathan removed nine ministers on September 11, mostly targeting junior posts in a move that did not affect the key posts of finance or oil for the OPEC member. The defense minister and youth minister had been ousted earlier and not replaced.
Jonathan is facing a crisis within his party centered around his assumed intention to run for another term in the 2015 election. He has yet to say whether or not he will.
Five governors and several lawmakers have defected to a recently formed coalition opposition in Africa’s most populous state.
Of the 12 names submitted for approval to the national assembly, eight were from the largely Muslim north where Jonathan faces most opposition – northerners made up only five of the 11 sacked ministers.
The president did not assign his 12 nominees to ministries, meaning he may be creating a new post after only 11 left.
The most high-profile nomination is that of Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, a former army general and national security adviser. Gusau is a powerful northern figure and could be a strong asset there for Jonathan, if he can be kept on his side.
Gusau is tipped to take over the defense minister position.
Two nominations were from the largely Christian oil-producing Niger Delta, from where Jonathan himself hails.
He had been accused, most recently by his former mentor and twice president Olusegun Obasanjo, of stuffing government posts with people from the Delta and of awarding them lucrative government contracts.
“This list is made up of politicians rather than technocrats. They have been chosen to take the fight to the opposition in their states,” said Kayode Akindele, partner at Lagos-based Africa consultancy 46 Parallels.
“This should increase the political temperature, as they will be using federal resources against state resources of the opposition.” Nigeria is divided into 36 states.
Bamanga Tukur, a northerner and Jonathan ally, resigned last week under a wave of pressure from party members and after mass defections to the opposition, and was replaced by former governor of Bauchi state Adamu Mu’azu, also a northerner.
On the day of that announcement, Jonathan also sacked and replaced his entire military leadership, without giving a reason. Some analysts said it was a move to ensure loyalty from the military ahead of what are likely to be bitterly divisive elections.

[sport] Match Fixtures Jan. sun26 2014

[Transfer Zone] I see no reason to leave Bayern for Real Madrid, Say's Muller

Thomas Muller has made it clear that he sees no reason to leave Bayern Munich for Real Madrid amid reports linking him with a move to the Spanish giants.

The Santiago Bernabeu side are rumoured to be considering a swoop for the 24-year-old at the end of the season, but while Muller admits it can be flattering to hear of interest from foreign sides, he maintains he is happy with life at the Allianz Arena.

"Real Madrid? There has been a lot of speculation about my future in the past few weeks, months and even years. We have all seen what has come from those rumours so far," Muller told AZ.

"It's not a bad feeling when you hear about interest from abroad.

"However, at the moment there is absolutely no reason for me to leave Bayern Munich for another club."

Muller has been in sublime form for the Bundesliga leaders so far this season, scoring seven goals in 16 league appearances.

The versatile attacker has a contract with Bayern until the summer of 2017.

The Mandatory Dating Advice You Must Follow to Have a Successful Relationship.

After interviewing gurus that counsel both men and women on dating, we noticed something that was quite curious. Some of their dating advice was actually gender-neutral and could be applied to both sexes. As we see it, good advice is good advice.
Here are the top five dating tips for both men and women:

1. Be Open Minded: The number one rule we have heard from both sides of the fence is to go into every date with an open mind. Your ideal partner, based on your personal checklist, may be completely different from the person that you could be truly compatible with. Everyone has this warped sense of who their perfect partner should be, but when interviewing countless older couples who have been married for more than 50 years – their life partners were completely different from the person they initially imagined.
2. Don’t Research Before a First Date: In these days of Google and Facebook, it’s easy to be tempted to do a little research before you even go out on a first date. Don’t do it! You’ll get a false impression of the person, and can make strong judgments without even knowing him/her yet.
   
3. Don’t Bring Baggage: Avoid talking about old relationships, negative experiences, etc. Have those conversations only after several dates. There is little to gain by dwelling on the past.
   
4. Be Honest About Yourself: You can avoid specific topics early on, but don’t lie about things. Starting a relationship based on lies is never a good idea.
   
5. Leave on a High Note: Keep a first date short, and it’s always better to leave on a high note. Meeting for coffee or a meal is great, but don’t make long drawn out plans for another date – excuse yourself and say goodbye. Better to leave the person wanting more.
   

British teacher gored by elephant tells how tourists left her for dead

Tips to get the best credit card for YOUR needs

Lots of people think negatively about credit cards but they can be an incredible useful financial tool, if used correctly. Many cards provide travel insurance, identity protection, reward points, cash-back, and more. If you carry a balance, your number one goal should be to get the lowest interest-rate possible. If you make monthly payments, then selecting a card becomes more difficult.

A few tips for selecting a credit card:

1. Check your credit report at least once a year.
2. Look at past statements and figure out how often you carry a balance, how much interest you’ve paid, and how often you’re late with payments.
   
3. Don’t settle on the first credit card that is offered in the mail – do research.
   
4. Use the Internet to research your best options; you’ll even see ads with great offers.
   
5. Think of getting different cards for different types of purchases. Some cards give two or three times more points for some purchases. Many people will have an airline card just for travel purchases.

[Tips] How to lose weight

More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. In fact, the furor over obesity, which some have termed an “epidemic,” has reached such proportions that one big-city mayor has gone about banning large-sized, sugary soft drinks and the First Lady has been on a crusade to control the dietary offerings in public schools.
Even many adults who do not fit the clinic definition of obese are still overweight, and a large percentage are looking for the best ways to lose weight.

Shedding pounds largely comes down to the two-pronged factors of diet and exercise. Not modifying the first one enough, and not getting enough of the second one, ends up giving the individual a recipe for being overweight.
Conditions related to obesity include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Counseling someone to eat less and exercise more might be the simplest advice possible, but it’s also, partially, an oversimplification. When it comes to diet, no one needs to starve themselves in order to lose weight. It has more to do with the types of food you eat than how much you eat.

Reduce the amount of red meat in your diet. If you don’t want to eliminate red meat altogether, choose cuts of meat with less fat content. Limit your intake of salt and starches. If you’ve got to have potato chips alongside your sandwich at lunch, opt for the baked potato chips that are less greasy and contain less fat than the deep-fried chips. You might find you’re really not sacrificing that much in terms of taste.


A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, egg whites, skinless poultry, fish and nonfat dairy products will certainly aid in the mission of losing weight. Drink more water and less sugary drinks. If you have to have a soda, a diet soda is a better option, but seltzer is an even better choice than that.

In terms of exercise, it’s important—if not always easy—to make sure you get at least some physical activity each and every day. Cardio and strength training burn lots of calories. If your feet or your stamina level won’t allow for a regular jogging regimen, then make sure you take lots of walks. Next time you need to mail a letter, walk to the mailbox instead of driving. Try to work in a daily walk in your neighborhood. And if you intend on more rigorous, formal exercising at the gym or fitness center, be sure to pace yourself and don’t build up to an overly ambitious workout agenda too quickly.

There are thousands of diet fads among us.  However, sometimes the best advice is common sense.  
Work towards a healthy diet and integrate regular exercise.  You would be surprised at the results small changes can make.

Mobile trick and tweak

All About Ethical Hacking, Forensic Tools, Vapt Tools HOC Tech News, Mobile Hacking, Free browsing, Network Hacking, Virus Writing, Proxy Servers, Security Tools and More ...

please comment below to get the full details...

TECHNOLOGY

Technology (from Greek τέχνη, techne, "art, skill, cunning of hand"; and -λογία, -logia^[1]) is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, and methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a pre-existing solution to a problem, achieve a goal, handle an applied input/output relation or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, including machinery, modifications, arrangements and procedures. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, and information technology.
The human species' use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.



                                                                       By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and explore space.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of Earth's environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

Definition and usage

The use of the term technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, and usually referred to the description or study of the useful arts.^[2] The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861).^[3] "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the Second Industrial Revolution. The meanings of technology changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into "technology." In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between Technik and Technologie that is absent in English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology" referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves.^[4] In 1937, the American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils, weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills by which we produce and use them."^[5] Bain's definition remains common among scholars today, especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study technology reject this definition.^[6] More recently, scholars have borrowed from European philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on technologies of the self ("techniques de soi").
Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge".^[7] Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice, the way we do things around here".^[8] The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as a whole.^[9] Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."^[10]
Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this definition of technology.^[11]
The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field.
Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture.^[12] Additionally, technology is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has, at its basis, the development of the Internet and the computer.^[13] Not all technology enhances culture in a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which formalize some aspects of technological endeavor.

Science, engineering and technology

The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. Science is the reasoned investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the phenomenal world by employing formal techniques such as the scientific method.^[14] Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as utility, usability and safety.
Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.
Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering — although technology as a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research and reference.^[15]
The exact relations between science and technology in particular have been debated by scientists, historians, and policymakers in the late 20th century, in part because the debate can inform the funding of basic and applied science. In the immediate wake of World War II, for example, in the United States it was widely considered that technology was simply "applied science" and that to fund basic science was to reap technological results in due time. An articulation of this philosophy could be found explicitly in Vannevar Bush's treatise on postwar science policy, Science—The Endless Frontier: "New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous additions to knowledge of the laws of nature ... This essential new knowledge can be obtained only through basic scientific research." In the late-1960s, however, this view came under direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentious—though most analysts resist the model that technology simply is a result of scientific research.^[16][17]

History

Paleolithic (2.5 million YA – 10,000 BC)

The use of tools by early humans was partly a process of discovery and of evolution. Early humans evolved from a species of foraging hominids which were already bipedal,^[18] with a brain mass approximately one third of modern humans.^[19] Tool use remained relatively unchanged for most of early human history. Approximately 50,000 years ago, the use of tools and complex set of behaviors emerged, believed by many archaeologists to be connected to the emergence of fully modern language.^[20]

Stone tools

Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of Homo sapiens approximately 200,000 years ago.^[21] The earliest methods of stone tool making, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago,^[22] with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago.^[23] This era of stone tool use is called the Paleolithic, or "Old stone age", and spans all of human history up to the development of agriculture approximately 12,000 years ago.
To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as flint) was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers.^[24] These tools greatly aided the early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to perform a variety of tasks including butchering carcasses (and breaking bones to get at the marrow); chopping wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its hide; and even forming other tools out of softer materials such as bone and wood.^[25]
The earliest stone tools were crude, being little more than a fractured rock. In the Acheulian era, beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stone into specific shapes, such as hand axes emerged. The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago, saw the introduction of the prepared-core technique, where multiple blades could be rapidly formed from a single core stone.^[24] The Upper Paleolithic, beginning approximately 40,000 years ago, saw the introduction of pressure flaking, where a wood, bone, or antler punch could be used to shape a stone very finely.^[26]

Fire

The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple energy source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind.^[27] The exact date of its discovery is not known; evidence of burnt animal bones at the Cradle of Humankind suggests that the domestication of fire occurred before 1,000,000 BC;^[28] scholarly consensus indicates that Homo erectus had controlled fire by between 500,000 BC and 400,000 BC.^[29][30] Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten.^[31]

Clothing and shelter

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era were clothing and shelter; the adoption of both technologies cannot be dated exactly, but they were a key to humanity's progress. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380,000 BC, humans were constructing temporary wood huts.^[32][33] Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa by 200,000 BC and into other continents, such as Eurasia.^[34]

Neolithic through classical antiquity (10,000 BC – 300 AD)

Man's technological ascent began in earnest in what is known as the Neolithic period ("New stone age"). The invention of polished stone axes was a major advance because it allowed forest clearance on a large scale to create farms. The discovery of agriculture allowed for the feeding of larger populations, and the transition to a sedentist lifestyle increased the number of children that could be simultaneously raised, as young children no longer needed to be carried, as was the case with the nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.^[35][36]
With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization.^[37] What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures, the specialization of labor, trade and war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges, such as the building of dikes and reservoirs, are all thought to have played a role.^[38]

Metal tools

Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided the ability to smelt and forge native metals (naturally occurring in relatively pure form).^[39] Gold, copper, silver, and lead, were such early metals. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone, and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 8000 BC).^[40] Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1400 BC.

Energy and transport

Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailboat.^[41] The earliest record of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot dating back to 3200 BC.^[42] From prehistoric times, Egyptians probably used the power of the Nile annual floods to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and 'catch' basins. Similarly, the early peoples of Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, learned to use the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for much the same purposes. But more extensive use of wind and water (and even human) power required another invention.
According to archaeologists, the wheel was invented around 4000 B.C. probably independently and nearly-simultaneously in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe. Estimates on when this may have occurred range from 5500 to 3000 B.C., with most experts putting it closer to 4000 B.C. The oldest artifacts with drawings that depict wheeled carts date from about 3000 B.C.; however, the wheel may have been in use for millennia before these drawings were made. There is also evidence from the same period of time that wheels were used for the production of pottery. (Note that the original potter's wheel was probably not a wheel, but rather an irregularly shaped slab of flat wood with a small hollowed or pierced area near the center and mounted on a peg driven into the earth. It would have been rotated by repeated tugs by the potter or his assistant.) More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the Ljubljana marshes of Slovenia.^[43]
The invention of the wheel revolutionized activities as disparate as transportation, war, and the production of pottery (for which it may have been first used). It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads and fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery. But it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources.

Medieval and modern history (300 AD – present)

Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with innovations such as silk, the horse collar and horseshoes in the first few hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Medieval technology saw the use of simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley) being combined to form more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow, windmills and clocks. The Renaissance brought forth many of these innovations, including the printing press (which facilitated the greater communication of knowledge), and technology became increasingly associated with science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. The advancements in technology in this era allowed a more steady supply of food, followed by the wider availability of consumer goods.
Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was a period of great technological discovery, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, metallurgy and transport, driven by the discovery of steam power. Technology later took another step with the harnessing of electricity to create such innovations as the electric motor, light bulb and countless others. Scientific advancement and the discovery of new concepts later allowed for powered flight, and advancements in medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering. The rise in technology has led to the construction of skyscrapers and large cities whose inhabitants rely on automobiles or other powered transit for transportation. Communication was also greatly improved with the invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio and television. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a revolution in transportation with the invention of the steam-powered ship, train, airplane, and automobile.
The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission has led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Computers were also invented and later miniaturized utilizing transistors and integrated circuits. The technology behind got called information technology, and these advancements subsequently led to the creation of the Internet, which ushered in the current Information Age. Humans have also been able to explore space with satellites (later used for telecommunication) and in manned missions going all the way to the moon. In medicine, this era brought innovations such as open-heart surgery and later stem cell therapy along with new medications and treatments. Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to construct and maintain these new technologies, and entire industries have arisen to support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education — their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have been created to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science, and other fields have been made more complex, such as construction, transportation and architecture.

Technology and philosophy

Technicism

Generally, technicism is a reliance or confidence in technology as a benefactor of society. Taken to extreme, technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will someday be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology. Some, such as Stephen V. Monsma,^[44] connect these ideas to the abdication of religion as a higher moral authority.

Optimism

Optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and singularitarianism, which view technological development as generally having beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of scientism and techno-utopianism and fear the notion of human enhancement and technological singularity which they support. Some have described Karl Marx as a techno-optimist.^[45]

Skepticism and critics of technology

On the somewhat skeptical side are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan, who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed. They suggest that the inevitable result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and psychological health.
Many, such as the Luddites and prominent philosopher Martin Heidegger, hold serious, although not entirely deterministic reservations, about technology (see "The Question Concerning Technology"^[46]). According to Heidegger scholars Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Spinosa, "Heidegger does not oppose technology. He hopes to reveal the essence of technology in a way that 'in no way confines us to a stultified compulsion to push on blindly with technology or, what comes to the same thing, to rebel helplessly against it.' Indeed, he promises that 'when we once open ourselves expressly to the essence of technology, we find ourselves unexpectedly taken into a freeing claim.'^[47]" What this entails is a more complex relationship to technology than either techno-optimists or techno-pessimists tend to allow.^[48]
Some of the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be dystopian literary classics, for example Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and other writings, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. And, in Faust by Goethe, Faust's selling his soul to the devil in return for power over the physical world, is also often interpreted as a metaphor for the adoption of industrial technology. More recently, modern works of science fiction, such as those by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, and films (e.g. Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell) project highly ambivalent or cautionary attitudes toward technology's impact on human society and identity.
The late cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and, finally, what he called "technopolies," that is, societies that are dominated by the ideology of technological and scientific progress, to the exclusion or harm of other cultural practices, values and world-views.^[49]
Darin Barney has written about technology's impact on practices of citizenship and democratic culture, suggesting that technology can be construed as (1) an object of political debate, (2) a means or medium of discussion, and (3) a setting for democratic deliberation and citizenship. As a setting for democratic culture, Barney suggests that technology tends to make ethical questions, including the question of what a good life consists in, nearly impossible, because they already give an answer to the question: a good life is one that includes the use of more and more technology.^[50]
Nikolas Kompridis has also written about the dangers of new technology, such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and robotics. He warns that these technologies introduce unprecedented new challenges to human beings, including the possibility of the permanent alteration of our biological nature. These concerns are shared by other philosophers, scientists and public intellectuals who have written about similar issues (e.g. Francis Fukuyama, Jürgen Habermas, William Joy, and Michael Sandel).^[51]
Another prominent critic of technology is Hubert Dreyfus, who has published books On the Internet and What Computers Still Can't Do.
Another, more infamous anti-technological treatise is Industrial Society and Its Future, written by Theodore Kaczynski (aka The Unabomber) and printed in several major newspapers (and later books) as part of an effort to end his bombing campaign of the techno-industrial infrastructure.

Appropriate technology

The notion of appropriate technology, however, was developed in the 20th century (e.g., see the work of E. F. Schumacher and of Jacques Ellul) to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new technologies or those that required access to some centralized infrastructure or parts or skills imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement emerged in part due to this concern.

Technology and competitiveness

In 1983 a classified program was initiated in the US intelligence community to reverse the US declining economic and military competitiveness. The program, Project Socrates, used all source intelligence to review competitiveness worldwide for all forms of competition to determine the source of the US decline. What Project Socrates determined was that technology exploitation is the foundation of all competitive advantage and that the source of the US declining competitiveness was the fact that decision-making through the US both in the private and public sectors had switched from decision making that was based on technology exploitation (i.e., technology-based planning) to decision making that was based on money exploitation (i.e., economic-based planning) at the end of World War II.
Technology is properly defined as any application of science to accomplish a function. The science can be leading edge or well established and the function can have high visibility or be significantly more mundane but it is all technology, and its exploitation is the foundation of all competitive advantage.
Technology-based planning is what was used to build the US industrial giants before WWII (e.g., Dow, DuPont, GM) and it what was used to transform the US into a superpower. It was not economic-based planning.
Project Socrates determined that to rebuild US competitiveness, decision making throughout the US had to readopt technology-based planning. Project Socrates also determined that countries like China and India had continued executing technology-based (while the US took its detour into economic-based) planning, and as a result had considerably advanced the process and were using it to build themselves into superpowers. To rebuild US competitiveness the US decision-makers needed to adopt a form of technology-based planning that was far more advanced than that used by China and India.
Project Socrates determined that technology-based planning makes an evolutionary leap forward every few hundred years and the next evolutionary leap, the Automated Innovation Revolution, was poised to occur. In the Automated Innovation Revolution the process for determining how to acquire and utilize technology for a competitive advantage (which includes R&D) is automated so that it can be executed with unprecedented speed, efficiency and agility.
Project Socrates developed the means for automated innovation so that the US could lead the Automated Innovation Revolution in order to rebuild and maintain the country's economic competitiveness for many generations.^[52][53][54]

The use of basic technology is also a feature of other animal species apart from humans. These include primates such as chimpanzees, some dolphin communities,^[55][56] and crows.^[57][58] Considering a more generic perspective of technology as ethology of active environmental conditioning and control, we can also refer to animal examples such as beavers and their dams, or bees and their honeycombs.
The ability to make and use tools was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus Homo.^[59] However, the discovery of tool construction among chimpanzees and related primates has discarded the notion of the use of technology as unique to humans. For example, researchers have observed wild chimpanzees utilising tools for foraging: some of the tools used include leaf sponges, termite fishing probes, pestles and levers.^[60] West African chimpanzees also use stone hammers and anvils for cracking nuts,^[61] as do capuchin monkeys of Boa Vista, Brazil.^[62]