Microsoft Develops A Mood Measuring Smart Bra That Prevent Over Eatin

A bra is part of any woman’s wardrobe, and one of the most essential under garments. But  what could be better than getting more than physical support from it? I say stress management courtesy of that little garment.

Apparently scientists have now come up with a bra believed to read the wearer’s moods and prevent over eating as a result of stress. According to BBC, Microsoft researchers have designed a smart bra that can detect stress. The prototype contains removable sensors that monitor heart and skin activity to provide an indication of mood levels.

The aim of t his project was to find out if wearable technology could help prevent stress-related over-eating. Mood data was provided to the wearer via a smartphone app in order to highlight when “emotional eating” was likely to occur.

Not to say they forgot about the men, only that theirs did not work as well. A similar underwear had been invented but was not as effective and it is believed this was because the sensors were located away from the heart. As if that is not technology enough, Last month saw the release of a Twitter-connected bra, that tweeted every time it was unhooked to encourage women to self-examine their breasts.

Well, I hope the smart bra works for all those emotional eaters!

NSSF ACT 2013: What You Need to Know

NSSF ACT 2013
The NSSF Bill 2013 was passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2013 and received presidential assent on 24th December 2013 repealed the NSSF Act (Cap 258) and replaced it with the NSSF Act 2013. In this regard from the commencement date of the NSSF Act 2013 the previous amount of Kshs 400 per employee under the NSSF ACT no longer applies.

The highlights of the NSSF Act 2013 include:
1. Convert the existing NSSF from a provident fund to a pension scheme.
2. Mandatory contributions are a total of 12% of a person’s earnings divided as follows:
a. Employer contributions of 6%
b. Employee contributions of 6%
2. Contributions into the scheme are divided into two categories
a. Tier I contributions : All is remitted to NSSF
b. Tier II contributions: Goes to NSSF or to a registered private pension scheme of which the employee is a VALID member by the commencement date.
3. Both Tier I and Tier II contributions are mandatory.
4. All pension contributions are tax deductible contributions.
5. All employers with one employee or more are required to register with the NSSF and remit contributions every month.
6. Any employer who fails to deduct and remit contributions to the NSSF, neglects or refuses to register with NSSF commits an offence and shall be liable to a fine  of  Kshs 300,000/-.
7.  Access to public services for all employers shall be subject to registration with the Fund (NSSF).

Facebook No Longer Free! You Now Have to Pay for Ads to Reach Your Fans!

Facebook has continually encouraged people to create fan pages for their businesses and products as a way to have a sales and marketing platform or just as a means to interact with customers one on one. They have done this by asking you to get as many likes as possible. But was this social site fooling us all along?

If you are a marketer or a business owner you might have noticed that the organic reach of your posts on the Facebook has dropped! That means not all your audience or the people who have liked your page are getting to view your posts. Considering it was very hard to get the likes in the first place and even Facebook going ahead and requesting you to pay them to get more likes, just to turn around and change that, it does not seem right.

According to AdAge, Facebook stated that “We expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.”

For business owners it does not make financial sense to pay to display free content that is not generating any sales thus no revenue acquired. It is also a disadvantage to the viewers too as they liked your page for reason, maybe to get particular content e.g news, health tips etc and that will not be getting to them. So did Facebook just make Google + the next big thing?

Give us feedback on what you think of the Facebook changes and stay tuned to the next article on how you can reduce the effect of this change.

African Union Responds To Melvin's Video Message

Last week, Melvin was announced as the winner of ONE Campaign’s Big Brother Africa video competition and this week, the African Union has responded to his video message.

Melvin recorded this video message calling on the African Union AU to step up its efforts to fight energy poverty. Energy poverty affects 70% of the 589 million citizens in sub-Saharan Africa. This severely hampers life-saving hospital services, job and educational opportunities, agricultural production as well the safety and security of women and girls.



This was part of a video competition organised by ONE in collaboration with MNET to mark charity week.  BBA housemates recorded short video messages calling on the AU to do more to address problems facing Africa.  Viewers then voted on the best video using Big Brother Africa’s online platform.

Melvin presented his winning video to a representative of AU/NEPAD at a press function held in Johannesburg last week, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. On that occasion, ONE noted that 42, 170 viewers (out of 82, 474) had voted for his message, signifying the importance that Africans attach to energy poverty. He therefore, called on AU leaders to do something about it.

Well, H.E Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Agriculture and Agriculture at the African Union thought it wise to respond to Melvin’s call with a video message of her own. How cool!

What’s even cooler, she reassures Melvin and the Big Brother Africa viewers:

“We will definitely increase our efforts and steps to eradicate energy poverty, end hunger, fight HIV/AIDS and many more pertinent issues…. The African Union is not just for the Heads of State and Government – it is your Union,” she said.

“The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whom I am here representing, echoes the words of young people who like to say: it is not cool to be poor,” Her Excellency added.

Feature: The Future Of Bengelo!

Bengelo is the last standing couple in the House having survived the 'curse of the couples'.

After the likes of Cleo and Elikem lost their loved ones to Evictions, we saw LK4 and Koketso booted out together while Bolt and Betty, as well as Oneza followed each other out of The Chase.

As much as we love Bengelo and wish them all the best in their relationship, it seems Africa is not entirely convinced.

We ran a poll recently about what Big Brother Africa fans thought about Beverly and Angelo's relationships and the results prove that this looks like one of those convenient arrangements.

With 793 fans convinced that the two are just enjoying each other's company for now. A close second came in with 779 votes saying "there's no love here, they will separate after BBA".

There are 573 that have no doubt at all that the two love each other but also know that they will still separate after The Chase.
Then how mean can people be though? a whole 486 think the two are just using each other. Anyway, there's no hope lost as a certain fraction of the respondents believe that the two are a solid couple and may get married.

We still wish our Bengelo stay together and have all the fun in the outside world. What about you?

Uti Donates To The Less Privileged

BBA All-Stars winner, Uti Nwachukwu pulled his other celebrities, fans, supporters and his friends along, to go support the less privileged, for the third edition of Uti Leads The Stars.

Nwachukwu began the visit in 2011, as a platform for stars to come together and lend their support to the less privileged.

The event which took place at the tail end of 2013 at Calabar Hall, Surulere was well attended by several entertainers and celebrities who lend their undying supports to the actor. In attendance include, BBA ‘The Chase’ contestants, Melvin Oduah and Beverly Osu, Frank Oshodi ,Morachi, Ace, Chuddy K, Gulder Ultimate men- Michael Nwachukwu, Chris Okagbue and Dennis, Ik ogbonna, Ogechi Asiegbu, Mr Anambra Francis, Mr Nigeria Kenneth Okolie, Miss Nigeria Ezinne Akudo, Yolanda Okereke and Yomi Casual.

The event was hosted by the larger than life Denrele Edun and Pastor (Dr) Ayotunde Alao who made sure the widows, orphans, blind, deaf, dumb and others enjoyed every minute of the event held in their honor.

Lots of goodies were raised for the homes and they were blessed with bags of rice, clothes, shoes and food in abundance. The homes felt so much love and happiness as they enjoyed the celebrity performances and charitable donations. Some of the children from different homes all took turns to give ‘star’ performances in dancing, singing and the likes.

The less privileged were pulled together from 15 different homes including, God Wives International, Ajoke Group Of Widows, Amuwo Odofin Widows Association, Less Privileged Children Yaba, Sari-Iganmu Special School, Amuwo Odofin Orphan Committee, Modupe Cole, Bethesda Home, to mention but a few.

Uti says “I feel so blessed, I am so happy that God has used me as a platform to continue to care for victims of the society. It is Christmas time and it is a season to be thankful. This is my own way of saying thank you to God for such a wonderful and successful year. It has been the best career year and personal emancipation for me. Uti Leads The Stars was revisited and I feel honored that some of my friends came through for me. Thank you so much guys. To all our sponsors, my mentor in South Africa, the students who sent their widows mite, and finally to the wonderful women that run the Uti Fan Club (UFC), words cannot express my gratitude, I am totally honored and I pray that you all harvest in 100 folds the seeds you have all sown.” -

Willy Paul’s Mum Ask haters (J Blessing and Others) To Leave His Son Alone

Kenyan Gospel Artist Willy Paul has of late been in the entertainment headlines for all the wrong and right reasons. His Music has been doing so well hitting the top chats across the East African nations while at the same time his controversial stories also hit the top trending topics on social media across the region.

Of late Willy Paul has had a serious beef with one of the TOP Video Directors in the Country Jibril Blessing popularly known as J Blessing.

This has gone so far that Willy Paul’s Mum decided to come out in defense of his son. Willy’s mum was forced to intervene when things were seen to be getting out of hand that Willy was now begining to get too stressed up.

Willy’s mum phoned one of Pulse reporters in an effort to clarify the on goings between Willy Paul and J Blessing and this is what she said:- “I am begging J Blessing to leave him (Willy) alone. I appreciate what he has done for my son but I am helpless when I hear what he is trying to do to halt Willy’s career. I have an orphan at home. We eat what Willy gets and he gets that through music. If his music doesn’t get played then what will the orphan and I eat?”

The beef between the two is not very clear but when J Blesing was asked about it during an interview with SDE, this is what he said:  I signed Willy and delayed his recording because we agreed that he should finish school first and do music later. However, he was impatient and decided to look for other producers,”