Saturday, February 16, 2019
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Saint Valentine
Saint Valentine's Day on 14th February is surrounded by mystery - which is no surprise when you consider that there were at least three different Saint Valentines.
Saint Valentine's day is 14th February.
The celebrations of St. Valentine's Day are steeped in legend and mystery; indeed the motives behind the day's creation and even St. Valentine himself have been shrouded in controversy and doubt.
Saint Valentine's Day embraces a time of year that is historically associated with love and fertility. It encompasses the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera in Ancient Athens and the Ancient Roman festival of Lupercus, the god of fertility.
The priests of Lupercus would perform a traditional purification ritual, slaughtering goats to the god, and after consuming wine, they would run through the streets of Rome holding aloft the skins of the goats touching anyone they met. The occasion compelled floods of young women to the streets in the belief that being touched would improve their chances of conceiving and bring forth easy childbirth. There remains some speculation over the exact date of the celebration.
The first official Saint Valentine's Day was declared on 14th of February by Pope Galasius in 496, in memory of a 3rd century martyred priest in Rome. It is not known for sure whether Pope Galasius was honouring this 3rd century priest or whether it was one of two other martyred priests associated with the 14th of February. One was Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) and the other apparently suffered in Africa along with a number of companions. Nothing further is known about these two Saint Valentines and it is the priest in Rome that has become the most widely acclaimed of the three.
It is believed that the young priest rose to distinction after betraying Emperor Claudius in 270 AD by conducting illegitimate wedding ceremonies in the capital. Emperor Claudius claimed that married men made poor soldiers and consequently decreed that all marriages of younger citizens would be outlawed. Bishop Valentine, however, maintained that marriage was part of God's plan and purpose for the world. He continued to conduct marriages in secret between young people, sometimes as young as twelve, in the name of love.
His success gained him unwelcome notoriety, which became Bishop Valentine's downfall. He was jailed and ultimately beheaded, but not before he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. It is thought that on the evening of his execution the bishop passed her a note which read "from your Valentine". This story has blossomed into the defining tradition of Valentine's Day. An estimated one billion cards sent each year, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.
Valentine's Day has spawned celebrations of love beyond western culture. In Japan and Korea, Valentine's has become almost an obligation for women to give chocolates, known as giri-choco, to all of their co-workers. A reciprocal day on 14th of March known as White Day has emerged in recent times whereby men are supposed to thank those who remembered them on Valentine's Day with white chocolate or marshmallows, hence white day. In Korea there is an additional Black Day, held the following month on the 14th of April, for less fortunate men who did not receive gifts on Valentine's Day to gather together to eat Jajangmyun, Chinese style black noodles topped with a black sauce.
Reference: BBC
Saint Valentine's day is 14th February.
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| A typical Victorian Valentine's Day card © |
Saint Valentine's Day embraces a time of year that is historically associated with love and fertility. It encompasses the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera in Ancient Athens and the Ancient Roman festival of Lupercus, the god of fertility.
The priests of Lupercus would perform a traditional purification ritual, slaughtering goats to the god, and after consuming wine, they would run through the streets of Rome holding aloft the skins of the goats touching anyone they met. The occasion compelled floods of young women to the streets in the belief that being touched would improve their chances of conceiving and bring forth easy childbirth. There remains some speculation over the exact date of the celebration.
 |
| Claudius II © |
It is believed that the young priest rose to distinction after betraying Emperor Claudius in 270 AD by conducting illegitimate wedding ceremonies in the capital. Emperor Claudius claimed that married men made poor soldiers and consequently decreed that all marriages of younger citizens would be outlawed. Bishop Valentine, however, maintained that marriage was part of God's plan and purpose for the world. He continued to conduct marriages in secret between young people, sometimes as young as twelve, in the name of love.
His success gained him unwelcome notoriety, which became Bishop Valentine's downfall. He was jailed and ultimately beheaded, but not before he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. It is thought that on the evening of his execution the bishop passed her a note which read "from your Valentine". This story has blossomed into the defining tradition of Valentine's Day. An estimated one billion cards sent each year, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.
Valentine's Day has spawned celebrations of love beyond western culture. In Japan and Korea, Valentine's has become almost an obligation for women to give chocolates, known as giri-choco, to all of their co-workers. A reciprocal day on 14th of March known as White Day has emerged in recent times whereby men are supposed to thank those who remembered them on Valentine's Day with white chocolate or marshmallows, hence white day. In Korea there is an additional Black Day, held the following month on the 14th of April, for less fortunate men who did not receive gifts on Valentine's Day to gather together to eat Jajangmyun, Chinese style black noodles topped with a black sauce.
Reference: BBC
Sunday, February 12, 2012
American Singer and Actress Whitney Houston dies at 48
American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died in Los Angeles at the age of 48.
Houston was one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, with hits including I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love For You.
But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.
Police spokesman Mark Rosen told reporters Houston was pronounced dead at 15:55 pm (23:55 GMT) Feb 11, 2012 in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Fire department personnel and members of hotel security were attempting to resuscitate her when police arrived at the scene, he said, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
"She has been positively identified by friends and family that were with her at the hotel, and next of kin have already been notified," he added.
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| Houston was found on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton hotel. |
For More
reference BBC
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Indie Gogo Campaign by the usePULSE Team
Indie Gogo Video from usePULSE Team on Vimeo.
The video for our IndieGoGo campaign
Background Music: Henri Dikongue - "Francoise"
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Last year with PULSE: 2011
Hmm, apart from working with Wasamundi, I also work with Pulse as Product Engineer and other projects. To this effect, I had to work relentlessly in order to meet up and I spend less time for leisure.
Pulse is a web/mobile based online student platform aimed at connecting African universities, professors to their students. In order words, we trying to make African education look cool, Pulse will provide a platform where any University can own and operate its own high-end online students services at a low cost, without having to deploy any technical infrastructure, it will permit lecturers to communicate faster and cheaper with their students and lastly it will enable students to receive updates from their teachers and classmates through sms, web and email. We are building only for these category of universities and of course we taking into consideration the realities of African users, that means for us, that our platform will be centered around the mobile experience.Pulse is currently on beta and we plan to deploy and test Pulse this year in a University.
I hope this year would also be a successful one and I pray for more leisure time. Amen :)
Pulse is a web/mobile based online student platform aimed at connecting African universities, professors to their students. In order words, we trying to make African education look cool, Pulse will provide a platform where any University can own and operate its own high-end online students services at a low cost, without having to deploy any technical infrastructure, it will permit lecturers to communicate faster and cheaper with their students and lastly it will enable students to receive updates from their teachers and classmates through sms, web and email. We are building only for these category of universities and of course we taking into consideration the realities of African users, that means for us, that our platform will be centered around the mobile experience.Pulse is currently on beta and we plan to deploy and test Pulse this year in a University.
I hope this year would also be a successful one and I pray for more leisure time. Amen :)
Friday, January 13, 2012
Last year: 2011
2011 was a stressful and remarkable one for me. As an entrepreneur (Co-founder of Wasamundi) and tech geek I learned many new things and gain great satisfactions.
Feb 13, 2011 Wasamundi went public, a venue that helps you discover, share, rate, talk about and add pictures for your favorite businesses, products, services, people and places in Cameroon. Wasamundi literally means 'Search Earth' or 'Find the World' .... I use 'Mother Earth' for certain cases.
Nara Laurence and I work relentlessly to see this come true. We needed to help people find things in towns of Cameroon and Africa, but I would say "Wasamundi --- (Mother Earth) is a constantly changing idea" .
Some months later, Eta Palace Hotel found in Buea and many other businesses started using their page on Wasamundi as their website as seen on Up Station Mountain Club with extremely long URLs (ctrl + f --- Eta Palace on this page). Couple with other reasons, WasaME the first Cameroonian URL Shortener was born on June 15, 2011. It aims to provide businesses on wasamundi with a Unique web ID which shall be better than a phone number and a customized website for all businesses in Cameroon. We shall experience the rolled out of the customize websites this year (2012).
With all this, we decided to divert into one of the reasons that made us start Wasamundi, this time Hamlet Tandi, Lafon Leslie , Shu Absalom, Teghen Victor and Hugues Leandre Tchassa joined Wasamundi on the quest, then WasaHOSTEL was rolled out to the public on November 13, 2011.
All along, we were concentrating on businesses, we decided to venture into the people part of Wasamundi and bridge that gap between users and businesses, online and offline etc This resulted to the birth of the Transcript and WasaTEXTO on December 20, 2011.
The transcript brings all your activities on Wasamundi and its related apps to life.
You can now,
WasaTEXTO is a bulk SMS platform enabling you to reach your family, friends, customers and everyone else via SMS anywhere they are. If you have an account from any of Wasamundi's apps, then you can login and you can send SMS to over 200 countries worldwide She also has a restful API which may be used from any programming language or platform that enables http connections. This API enables developers to build their own platforms with a core based on WasaTEXTO. Developers in Cameroon and World wide can write to us at info or support [at] wasamundi.com for their Api keys and test. In addition, SMS are sent by means of credits. One credit is equivalent to one SMS which costs 15FCFA. Wasamundi permits individuals to buy WasaTEXTO credits in bulk at a reduced rate and make profit out of resale of these credits.
Feb 13, 2011 Wasamundi went public, a venue that helps you discover, share, rate, talk about and add pictures for your favorite businesses, products, services, people and places in Cameroon. Wasamundi literally means 'Search Earth' or 'Find the World' .... I use 'Mother Earth' for certain cases.
Nara Laurence and I work relentlessly to see this come true. We needed to help people find things in towns of Cameroon and Africa, but I would say "Wasamundi --- (Mother Earth) is a constantly changing idea" .
Some months later, Eta Palace Hotel found in Buea and many other businesses started using their page on Wasamundi as their website as seen on Up Station Mountain Club with extremely long URLs (ctrl + f --- Eta Palace on this page). Couple with other reasons, WasaME the first Cameroonian URL Shortener was born on June 15, 2011. It aims to provide businesses on wasamundi with a Unique web ID which shall be better than a phone number and a customized website for all businesses in Cameroon. We shall experience the rolled out of the customize websites this year (2012).
With all this, we decided to divert into one of the reasons that made us start Wasamundi, this time Hamlet Tandi, Lafon Leslie , Shu Absalom, Teghen Victor and Hugues Leandre Tchassa joined Wasamundi on the quest, then WasaHOSTEL was rolled out to the public on November 13, 2011.
All along, we were concentrating on businesses, we decided to venture into the people part of Wasamundi and bridge that gap between users and businesses, online and offline etc This resulted to the birth of the Transcript and WasaTEXTO on December 20, 2011.
The transcript brings all your activities on Wasamundi and its related apps to life.
You can now,
- preview all your activities throughout Wasamundi's apps.
- earn points for adding businesses and popular places (convertible to wasamundi credits)
- see the latest happenings between people and businesses around you
- and more...
WasaTEXTO is a bulk SMS platform enabling you to reach your family, friends, customers and everyone else via SMS anywhere they are. If you have an account from any of Wasamundi's apps, then you can login and you can send SMS to over 200 countries worldwide She also has a restful API which may be used from any programming language or platform that enables http connections. This API enables developers to build their own platforms with a core based on WasaTEXTO. Developers in Cameroon and World wide can write to us at info or support [at] wasamundi.com for their Api keys and test. In addition, SMS are sent by means of credits. One credit is equivalent to one SMS which costs 15FCFA. Wasamundi permits individuals to buy WasaTEXTO credits in bulk at a reduced rate and make profit out of resale of these credits.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Happy New Year: 2012
Happy New Year | Forward this PictureI thank God for the good and bad times I had in 2011.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends, family, colleagues, lecturers, tutors, advisers etc. May this year be a remarkable one in your lives.
Special New Year greetings to all African Start-ups, Pulse and Wasamundi Team
Claim a New Year gift from Wasamundi
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