TV 2M

If you are currently considering buying a television for your home, you find that you are faced with two options – Plasma TV or LCD flat screen TV. Both types of TV employ completely different technology, although they both hope to achieve the same result. And because the technology used is different, each will have its own unique advantages and disadvantages. When considering whether to buy a Plasma or a Flat Screen, it’s wise to consider both.

How Plasma TV works.

The challenge of creating any television set, is to create moving images by lighting up the screen. Plasma TV achieves this by using fluorescent light bulbs. The display is made up of cells. Each cell has two glass panels. Between each glass panels, there is neon-xenon gas. When the set is in operation, the gas is charged and that’s when it knows whether it should strike red, green or blue phosphors. A set of red, green and blue phosphors makes up a pixel.

How LCD TV works.

LCD TV also uses fluorescent bulbs to produce light to form the images. However, instead of using phosphors to form the images, crystals are used instead. In Plasma TV, there is the application of mercury, which is natural chemical. In LCD TV, very little mercury is found. Or at least, the user doesn’t have the chance to come into contact with the chemical. Similar to the Plasma TV, each pixel of the LCD TV is made up of 2 glass panels. Between the panels are crystals instead of gas. The crystals will allow or disallow light to form the images.

So should you go for Plasma or LCD? Let’s weight the pros and cons.

Plasma technology allows much richer and deeper colors. For example, Plasma TV can render deeper blacks compared to LCD TV. Colors are also more accurate and precise, and motion lag is almost non-existent. However, due to the heat generated by the phosphors, the lifespan of a Plasma set is not as long as that of an LCD set. The good news is, with technological improvements, this is changing.

LCD TV cannot produce images that are as sharp as Plasma TV. But it can produce brighter images, and it runs at significantly cooler temperatures. One major drawback is that if the pixels get damaged on the display, they cannot be replaced. You can still continue to use the TV set if you wish, but you will have to bear with the disturbances. When you can’t stand the irritation any longer, the entire set must be replaced.

It’s interesting to observe that both types of TV has continued to thrive in a marketplace with fierce demands. Performance levels for Plasma and LCD TV has continued to improve, and prices are coming down. Today, very little separates Plasma TV and LCD TV. Even prices have come down to competitive levels.

Your final buying decision, should therefore be based more on the technology than on pricing. In other words, if you prefer better display quality on bigger screens, and you don’t mind the additional energy consumption, Plasma would be a better choice. However, if you prefer a lighter weight TV that uses less energy, LCD TV would be the ideal candidate.

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Developing E-Business For Small Businesses In Africa

By: Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu

(E-Business Consultant)

(http://www.imoonline.org/gcforum.htm)

Published March 7, 2007

In simple terms, E-business (doing business on the Internet) can enable small scale businesses in emerging markets gain greater bargaining power in the global economic exchange despite their limited capital, and mobility. The world economy is moving online. Today people are meeting online and eventually getting married, people who do not have the capital to establish physical stores are getting rich maintaining only online shops, small musicians who find it difficult getting producers are uploading their tracks on ‘Napster’ (http://www.napster.com/choose/index.html) to be downloaded by millions of people around the world, even politicians are using video-sharing tools like ‘Youtube’ (http://www.youtube.com/) to reach potential voters, etc. Therefore, the action or inaction of African businesses to take advantage of e-business will determine how much they grow in the coming years.

E-readiness Ranking

Every year Economist come up with a table of e-readiness ranking from a selected number of countries. It is not surprising that African countries often rank lowest in most e-readiness reports. That is not very promising considering that most investors today will be interested not only on the investment climate and infrastructure in a country but also on e-readiness indices such as national connectivity, e-leadership, information security, human capital, and e-business climate.

Interpreting E-readiness Indices

There are many indices used to measure e-readiness. The most common ones are:

• Connectivity: Addresses the ability to exchange information, goods and services with the rest of the world.

• E-leadership: Addresses the commitment of a national government to partner with industry leaders to create conditions favorable to electronic transactions.

• Information security: Addresses issues concerning the protection of personal data, intellectual property, and effective privacy laws.

• Human Capital: Emphasis on developing competent manpower including IT managers who can manage complex technology tasks, policy analysts who can make informed inputs on government policies and regulations that are capable of stifling technology growth; local content creators who can either customize or adapt global technologies to the specific business needs in the country, software and hardware engineers.

Beyond the indices, e-business also requires a larger population of end-users or consumers who don’t have to understand how the technology works, but can use the technology.

How Small Businesses In Africa Can Benefit From E-business:

Individual Action:

Even in challenging environments such as Africa, small businesses can still benefit from e-business. Simple information websites with product and contact information, as a first step can open new doors for small businesses locally and internationally. Hospitality industries stand to gain more exposure and market through e-business. Tourists and people in the Diaspora are excellent target customers for hotel and tourism information for online reservations.

Group Action:

Business associations, Chambers Of Commerce, Cooperative societies, and NGOs in Africa can bridge the economy of scale on the technology required for e-business by setting up online malls showcasing a pool of their members’ sites, products and services. Through the online mall people in the Diaspora may order local goods for friends or family. These associations can also help to guarantee the quality of products advertised on the site, as well as the credibility of its members to ensure fraudulent people do not seize the opportunity. Only certified members and certified products will make it on the site. ‘Ghana Mall’, for instance, sells goods made by Ghanaian artisans internationally. It also rakes in some $500 million a year in goods and cash that are sent to the country from abroad. Funds to develop such malls can be sort as grants from multilateral agencies as the World Bank Group’s Small and Medium Enterprise Department (http://www.ifc.org/sme)

Payment:

No doubt, credit card acceptance is the heart of e-commerce, but technological hindrances and doing business in local currency can drive up transaction costs. There are rules and protocols to gain access to international card association systems, which currently do not favor African countries. The amounts of online transactions originating from most African countries hardly meet the rules required by the international card associations. So there must be a way around it. Therefore, banks in Africa need to establish special ‘Merchant Accounts’ for small businesses to enable them accept secured payments in foreign currencies processed in the same way as credit cards. Online payments will still have to go through SWIFT, encryptions, or other secured sites, as PayPal to ensure adequate security.

Shipping:

Most national and international courier services are currently equipped to handle shipping to any location in the world. Business organizations can enter into partnership agreements with these postal and shipping agencies to either enjoy special shipping rates or develop more efficient shipping methods that can guarantee delivery. In addition, the Customs department should make available list of prohibited items, duties and fees to the business organizations. One workable model is to post their personnel at the post offices to facilitate the inspection of goods.

Government’s Role

As a private-sector crusader, I dislike prescribing any solution that will depend on governments. But E-commerce requires vendor credibility. Apart from technology, the greatest impediment African businesses face in embracing e-business is fraud. This is where the governments should play important role. Law-makers should strengthen existing laws to stem out corruption in their countries. People who thrive on advance fee fraud should be put out of business. It is possible! Anything that works through technology can be stopped through technology. It’s simply a digital war amongst programmers (it’s like the virus and anti-virus battle among programmers). Moreover, the world wants to see trials, prosecutions and convictions to believe that African countries are serious in their war against corruption.

How This Will Work

For this to work it must exist as one bundle. A customer does not want to be bothered by the backend technology and how it works. They want an easy-to-use, time-saving, front-end screen. As for now, cross-continental partnerships will play a major role in helping businesses in Africa cross the e-commerce threshold, as African businesses will still need international partnerships to help complete orders. PeopLink (http://www.peoplink.org/EN/) offers such a partnership. They have developed free, downloadable tools to help small businesses build virtual product catalogs, which they then upload to a searchable catalog on their database, thereby offering small businesses the opportunity to benefit from collective marketing power.

One Stop Tech Support Centers:

Technology investors should also consider going into one-stop tech support centers. For instance, in Ghana BusyInternet (http://www.busyinternet.com/) is such a one-stop IT center with a cyber café, call booths, video conferencing services, document services, web hosting, space rental and other tech support for e-businesses.

Exploring E-business will help small businesses in Africa increase their market share in the global marketplace? There should be a concerted effort to make this happen. The World Bank developed a collection of free tools called ‘SMEToolkit’ to help small business develop such potentials. This can be found at: http://www.smetoolkit.org/

You can read more articles by this writer at:

http://www.imoonline.org

http://www.exposureworld.net

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This is an old clip, but the science still stands. The Moorish flag is between 10000 and 50000 years old. The Moorish Amexem or Al Moroc Empire flag share a relationship with The Kingdom Of Morocco in what we call North Africa TODAY. The Moorish Flag was flying around the world before The Kingdom Of Morocco in that region of what we call Africa TODAY was flying their flag, check the history. * For books on Moorish history – astore.amazon.com *Moringa Oleifera has 7 types of Vitamins, 6 types of Minerals, 18 types of Amino Acids, 46 types of Anti-oxidants, high concentration of Anti-inflammatory agents, Anti-toxins, Anti-tumor, Anti-bacterial and Antifungal just to name a few great things Moringa does, learn more and get some of the amazing products – bit.ly * Improve Your Business & Entrepreneur Skills – bit.ly * Sovereign Tee Apparel: Visual Alchemy – www.cafepress.com * Moorish Brooklyn Blogspot Page – moorishbrooklynintelligence.blogspot.com * Moorish Brooklyn Facebook Page – http * Learn About Law, Civics, Nationality & Ancient Global History – rvbeypublications.com * Never pay over $8.99 for a music album ever again, singles also available – http * Discounts On DVD, Blu-ray, HD DVD, VHS, Video On Demand In All Genres – bit.ly

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Traditional Filipino Music is generally a confluence of Western styles and our own ethnic music. In modern times, however, Filipino music is similar to modern music that is heard in any part of the world.

Original musical works by Filipino artists is usually referred to as “Original Pilipino Music” or OPM. Many song and music artists of the Philippines usually use Tagalog and English for the lyrics of their songs. Thus, if you listen to any local FM radio station, it would not be a surprise to hear OPM songs with English lyrics and titles.

One of the best contemporary artists that have made a lot of Filipino music is Mr. Ryan Cayabyab. Ryan is a professor of the University of the Philippines conservatory if music and is currently the head and conductor of the San Miguel Philharmonic orchestra.

Ryan has been an internationally acclaimed musical artist and has received numerous awards on the International level. His most popular composition is “Kay ganda ng ating musika” which literally means “How beautiful is our music”, which he composed during the first Metropop song festival in the early 80s. The Metropop song festival was then the most prestigious avenue for original Filipino music competitions. Ryan still continuous to produce albums with his Orchestra. He also arranges for many singers and song writers.

If you want to hear ethnic Filipino music, you just have to hear the music of Joey Ayala. Joey Ayala makes use of indigenous instruments for his music. One characteristic of Joey Ayala’s music is that you hear the sound of nature as accompaniment for his songs, like a stream that is flowing or birds chirping. Nowadays however, Joey Ayala’s songs are not played on FM radio. Simply go to any CD music store on any mall if you want to grab an album of Joey Ayala.

Like in any part of the world, FM stations usually play pop music so it is unlikely that you hear ethnic music when you tune in to FM stations. If you are more of the rocker type of musician or listener, all you have to do is tune in to the “Alternative music” FM stations. The most popular of these FM rock stations is the Manila-based FM station NU 107.1.

In the Philippine, the world “Alternative music” refers to the heavy metal, or rock music done by Filipino artists. This type of wave in Filipino music started during the early 90′s.

Some of most popular alternative music bands are “Eraserheads”, “Parokya ni Edgar” and “Wolfgang”. Other popular alternative bands are “MYMP”, “Hale”, and “Orange and Lemons”.

Popular female alternative song artists are Kitchie Nadal and Barbie Almadi. These two ladies have very good voices that sound like Alanis Morisette (if you still remember this artist from the mid 90′s).

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Malcolm discovers marriage without benefits. It’s all part of Simone’s ploy to give the illusion that she has a husband in order to compete with a long-time rival. At least she knew enough to avoid choosing Eddie for the role. Watch hundreds of free full-length streaming movies and TV shows on www.crackle.com TWITTER twitter.com TAGS: watch free streaming television tv video minisode malcolm eddie griffin sitcom jamal warner marriage friend bar sister McGee’s

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The Eastern Cape is South Africa’s second largest and most diverse province

It’s a great sun, sand a sea destination with a coastline that runs from temperate rocky shores in the south to sub-tropical beaches in the north. There is a beach for every reason – from highly developed urban playgrounds to wild and untamed stretches of wae-washed sand. It has some of the best surf in the country – make that some of the best surf in the world. The small towns of Jeffreys Bay and St Francis Bay are renowned and very popular surf destinations and the Wild Coast has some legendary (and mostly secret) breaks.

The Eastern Cape is not classic lowveld, which is the vegetation type found around the Kruger National Park and is most usually associated with big game. However, this province has some awesome safari destinations. The Greater Addo Elephant National Park, near the town of Addo, conserves a staggering diverstiy of plant and animal life. There are a number of private game lodges, both in the national park and in surrounding private reserves. Best of all – it’s totally malaria free. South Africa’s first and – to date – only serious commercial ski resort is in the high-lying northern part of the Eastern Cape. OK, it’s not exactly Chamonix or Aspen – but its is skiing in Africa. Snowboarding’s big, too.

The Eastern Cape’s cultural heritage is particularly varied and interesting, and thre are so many interpretive tours, museums and monuments, you’ll never be bored. Towns that will particularly appeal to more culturally minded visitors include Graaff-Reinet and Grahamstown.

Nieu Bethesda, which is close to Graaff-Reinet, is a funky little village that owes its poularity to the existence of the Owl House, which is South Africa’s most well known example of outsider art. Port Elizabeth is renowned for its excellent township and cultural tours. The Nelson Mandela Museum in Umtata is a loving tribute to South Africa’s first president. Thre are great tours along the Wild Coast, on which you get to spend time with the local people and see how they live. The Grahamstown Festival or, more accurately, the National Festival of the Arts, which showcases a huge variety of South Africa’s visual and performance arts, is held in Grahamstown at the beginning of July.

There are some excellent golf courses, but they’re not all as conveniently close together as they are, for example, on the Garden Route. Some of the better courses are to be found in or near Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, East London and Port Edward. A brand new golf course has been built at the rather interesting town of Alicedale, which is experiencing a huge economic revival after spending years as a virtual ghost town.

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Hosted by Josh Faure-Brac and “Weird Al” Yankovic, this Collabo-Jam Super Special includes Al and Josh’s favorite clips from SuperNews! and some of Al’s classic music videos. Plus, the World Premiere of the new “Weird Al” music video, “Ringtone” animated by the SuperNews! team. Watch more SuperNews! www.current.com www.facebook.com VIEW more SuperNews! clips & SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube Playlist here… www.youtube.com

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The film was partly shot in Nigeria and he acted alongside American actor, Paul Robeson. He was part of the cast in “Black Libel” which unfortunately was not released due to an incomplete shooting. He featured in “Man from Morocco”, and “Man of Two Worlds” which gave him the desired breakthrough into the limelight.

“Mister Johnson”, a novel by Joyce Cary was converted to a film. The movie was partly shot in Nigeria and was released in 1991. It was directed by Bruce Beresford and starred Mister Johnson (Maynard Eziashi), Harry Rudbeck (Pierce Brosnan of the James Bond 007 fame- Die Another Day (2002 amongst others), Waziri (Femi Fatobi), Brimah (late Chief Hebert Ogunde), Ajali (Sola Adeyemi).

Hollywood movies shot in African countries are carried out to recreate events that occurred at one time or the other (in a country, its people, or life of an individual) or simply because certain Natural sceneries are considered ideal as the setting for original / adapted works.

“The Ghost and the Darkness” (1996), starring Valkimer, Michael Douglas, was based on a true story in1898 with regards to Man eating lions which killed the men  laying the Railway tracks. It was shot in South Africa. “King Solomon’s Mines” (1950) starring Deborah Kern and Stewart Granger was shot in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo and the U.S.A.  “Congo” (1995) directed by Frank Marshall was shot in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda.

“A Far Off Place” (1993) was shot in Namibia and Zimbabwe, “Sheena” (1984) was filmed in Kenya, “Black Hawk Down” was shot on location in Sidi Moussa, Morocco. “Blood Diamonds” (2006) directed by Edward Zwick, starring Leonardo Di Carprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, was shot in South Africa and Mozambique. “Tomb Raider” was filmed in Kenya, “Out of Africa” starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford was filmed in Kenya and was based on a true story.

“The Last King of Scotland” (2006) directed by Kevin MacDonald, starring Forest Whitaker, was filmed on location in the U.K and Uganda. “Hotel Rwanda”, was a true life story about Paul Rusesabagina, a Hotel Manger who hid Tutsi refugees from the Hutu militia during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It was filmed in Johannesburg, (South Africa), and Kigali (Rwanda).

Unfortunately the movie “Tears of the Sun” (2003), starring Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, was not filmed in Nigeria as most thought since it projected a Nigerian story line. It was shot in Hawaii with Non- Nigerians playing the native roles in the movie.The Northern African countries have been known to host the shooting of popular movies. Jesus of Nazareth, Lawrence of Arabia, Othello, and The Gladiator were shot in Morocco. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, and The English Patient were shot in Tunisa.

The movie “Phat Girlz” (2006) had a spicy, romantic, Nigerian undertone to it with the presence of Dr Tunde Jonathan from Nigeria, played by Jimmy Jean-Louis. The movie was filmed on location in L.A / California U.S.A and at no time was any scene filmed in Nigeria. The average Nigerian might be puzzled over the consistent preference for a few selected African countries, with Nigeria excluded from the filming location list, despite being endowed with abundant Human and Natural resources.

Good image, International exposure of great Tourism spots, creative stories spun around us, safe and conducive environment to shoot in, willingness to extend hands of  fellowship brokering into good partnership deals, support from relevant Government bodies, can stimulate the interest of Hollywood film makers(and those from other movie bodies) to come to Nigeria to shoot movies.

Let’s consider the hit film “Slumdog Millionaire” which was directed by Danny Boyle, produced by Christian Colson, and filmed in India. It portrayed the Indian version of the Game show “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” (Ironically we have the Nigerian version actively sponsored by Telecoms giant MTN). In the movie, the Show plays host to a poor young man from the slums of Mumbai, who relies on his experiences to answer the questions correctly, exceeds people’s expectations, arises the suspicion of the game show host and law enforcement officials in the process based on his outstanding performance, with the juicy package within his reach.

To say the least, the movie was shot in India, woven around an Indian plot and played by Indian thespians. The movie won an enviable number of Oscars, and has opened greater doors for Indian thespians (adults and children alike) with its Industry inclusive. I hope that our local Industry will not fold their arms and adopt a lackadaisical attitude, and watch as other movie bodies harness the products of a symbiotic relationship with the trail blazers of movie productions.

So longâ?¦auggiepo@yahoo.com

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Why is there a WhenTvWas.Com?

Until the advent of radio and television, history is made for books. With the ability to capture world events in sound and picture as they occur, the curious no longer need to rely on the words of others to gain access to the knowledge of actions past. You want to know more about World War II, you don’t need to read it in a book. You can listen to radio tapes of BBC correspondents describing the bombing of London. You can watch PBS documentaries on the World at War with footage captured from the enemy upon surrendering.

You want to know something about the great Abe Lincoln historian Carl Sandburg, you can watch his five or so minutes of fame as a mystery guest on What’s My Line. The same with seeing the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. If a picture says a thousand words, then a moving picture with sound showing the object of your interest says millions more than you can know about the person from reading a book.

A segment on I’ve Got A Secret in the early 1960′s has a man in his late 90′s who is a child in the audience at Ford Theatre as Lincoln is assasinated. His recollection brings an immediacy to the historical event.

Jerry Lewis acting cutthroat against his celebrity opponent in an early 1960′s edition of Password does so much to show us one facet of his personality- the need to be in control of the situation.

A stint by Milton Berle as the mystery guest on What’s My Line where he announces he is coming back to television to host a jackpot bowling show- no joke- in the late 1950′s underscores Uncle Miltie’s need to always be ‘on’, to be working, doing almost anything. No book or magazine article can express this better than hearing and seeing it in the person’s own words.

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