I was gonna call it a new dawn but I realised that I already have a post titled that. It was about the Glo-1 underwater fibre cable. By way of update Glo is now advertising in the papers about the new Glo broad access service. It almost has to be internet services based on the bandwidth of the broadband cable. Fast internet here we come :D

Anyway today's topic is Power. This is the definition of generalization by anecdote, but I wanted to make sure this was out there before the bandwagon gets rolling :D.

So my generator packed up last week Saturday cos we weren't using it enough. Granted my battery was bad, but this is still memorable because it was lack of use that finally killed the damn thing. The reason for the lack of use was that PHCN was pretty much constant all through the week. True to that form, they brought back light about 30mins later.

Now I live very close to a main distribution substation which means that my light is better than most normally, but this was pretty unprecedented. The reason is that PHCN for the last week or so has been able to distribute about 3500MW of electricity. This has not been done for any sustainable length of time, especially in the dry season so this is a notable achievement. Granted it stacks very poorly against all their notable non-achievements but encouragement works yeah ;)

Now the improvement in generation is due in large part to the recent peace in the Niger Delta. The improvements to the transmission grid over the last year allowed the power to be sent across the nation, but it was the increased availability of gas that made the difference. So here is to hoping that the Niger Delta stays peaceful :D

So with gas availability no longer an issue (knock on wood) it is entirely possible that installed capacity will reach 6000MW. They say they are on 5000MW right now. Most people do not believe that the grid can take 6000MW before the end of the year, but it may be reasonable to assume that PHCN will get there early next year. When you factor in the 4000MW from the NIPP plants that should come in the power situation in Nigeria may start to get good even for people that don't live near the substation.

I now have another question. If Yar'Adua does succeed in doing both Niger Delta and Power would he have done enough to deserve reelection?

I could be wrong, but I think Unity Bank just did something very very weird on the financial statements that they published in the papers today.

Here are a few select financials from Unity Bank in September 2008

Profit - N2.7 billion
Reserves - N23.5 billion
Shareholders Funds - N30.8 billion

Now flash forward to September 2009
Loss - N8.7 billion
Reserves - N24.8 billion
Shareholders Funds - N32 billion

The fact that reserves increased to N24.8 billion from N23.5 billion in accounting terms means that there had to be a N10 billion addition to reserves sometime in the last year to make up for the N8.4 loss in 2009.

The first way this could have been done was for Unity Bank to make N10 billion in profit between September and December of 2008. I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to believe that after making N2.7 billion in 9 months of 2008, they made an additional N10 billion in the last three months.

The other possible explanation is that sometime between September 2008 and September 2009, Unity Bank raised N10 billion. If they did, I would hope that they disclose this investment to stop any rumors of accounting fraud from spreading.

However in the same accounts Unity Bank in 2008 had N34.7 billion in non performing loans, but only provided for N225.6 million. While this was probably due to the CBN suspension of provisioning for margin loans, it is still worrying that a prudent bank would do this. Oh wait... Never mind.

See eh, all of you that live in Lagos or have friends that live in Lagos you need to do me a favor. You need to spread the word that

QUEUING FOR FUEL BECAUSE OF DEREGULATION IS DAFT!!!

Look at it this way. If you have an empty tank and buy 50 liters of petrol all you save is about N2000 if the price goes from the current N65 to the expected N105.

That is it

2000 effing naira.

You people are putting all of us through hell for 2000 effing naira

Oh and all of u VI workers that are sending your drivers to queue, you'll get yours too.


Aiight I'm done.

Welcome back to your daily, weekly, well dose of Aijuswanarite :D Today we will be discussing sexism.

I started thinking about this again when one of my friends inflicted a bbm forward on me. The forward was the old riddle about the man and his son in an accident. The father dies and the son is brought to the hospital. When he gets to the operating table, the doctor takes one look at him and says "I cannot operate this is my son". The riddle then asks you who the doctor is.

When I received this, I immediately lambasted my friend for picking such a stale riddle to present to the world. I was sure that everyone who read it would know the answer even if they had never seen the riddle before. 10 mins later a few of the responses received were:

a) Gaylord couple
b) A spirit
c) can't be surgeon's son
d) surgeon played away
e) Its impossible
f) I don't know
g) its too hard

I was stunned. However it did put me in mind of the Implicit Harvard tests that I blogged about a long while ago. In that the question kind of acts as an implicit test of sexism because it plays on preconceived notions of gender roles.

As a result of this, anybody that reads/hears that riddle and doesn't know the answer demonstrably finds it hard to think of the mother as the surgeon. To my mind, not being able to do this means that on some level you are sexist. Though it is possible to argue that the "gaylord couple" answer is correct as it is a valid answer to the question.

Though I would argue that the gay answer even though correct is even more sexist, because the person would have to think that it is more likely that a gay man is the father of the boy rather than a woman. Though I suppose the person gets some bonus points for a lack of homophobia.

So can you guys think of any other thing that can be used as barometers of sexism in addition to its regular? I was going to mention trying to defend 1 Timothy 2:12 as an example but that is too obvious even for me. So what you guys & gals got?

This is a post that has been ruminating in my head over the last two months or so. Every so often I want to write it, but I think I start feeling that I cannot do it justice. So I have decided not to try and do it justice, but just to free associate it and see what happens.

This post is about the wonderfully complicated world of the ex significant other... of a close friend. You know the drill if you are not a complete social cripple, or the person is a complete ****, you tend to end up becoming decent to pretty good friends with the significant other of one of your close friends.

This is normal and expected, the complication arises when the relationship ends and you are all friendly with this person. The standard solution is that you leave with who you came with. Which is that if you were the guy's friend you are no longer friends with the girl and vice-versa.

However it is not always so simple, because you may have truly become friends with the person and you don't want to throw away a friendship on a technicality as good friendships are hard to find. On the other hand you do not want to aggravate your friend's issues because after all they were your friend first.

I was looking for a pithy "solution" to wrap around this little quandary but none decided to present itself. So I have decided to throw it open to my last few remaining users to find out what you think.

Now I know that it depends on the situation and all that, so what I want from you is what your normal inclination is before you allow the situation to have an effect? Don't all talk at once now :D

Oh and this is sorta like my three year anniversary so say something nice