Facebook now worth more than Walmart

Something tells me Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook employees might "like" this story.

Facebook's stock rose 3% Tuesday and hit at an all-time high. And the company is now worth more than Walmart.
Facebook's (FB, Tech30) market value is nearly $245 billion -- an amazing feat for a company that has only been around since 2004 and started trading on Wall Street in 2012.
The stock is up more than 11% this year. The recent rally has been fueled by optimism about the company's plans to launch interactive mobile video ads.
Walmart (WMT) is now worth about $235 billion. Its stock has fallen 15% so far in 2015 due to concerns about weak sales and increased competition from the likes of Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and Target (TGT).
Walmart doesn't really compete with Facebook, of course. But Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNNMoney's Cristina Alesci on Tuesday that Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram are two of the companies he most admires.
Walmart is still the world's largest when it comes to total sales. But as a result of Facebook moving ahead of it, Walmart is no longer among the top ten most valuable companies in the S&P 500 index.
So who's next for Facebook to pass?

Cash crisis: Buhari vows to recover stolen billions

 
U.S., others to support action
President Muhammadu Buhari sent yesterday a notice to treasury looters in the Goodluck Jonathan administration – we are coming after you.
He vowed to recover billions of dollars stolen from the treasury.
Buhari spoke during his meeting -  the first – with governors of the 36 states at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He told them: “There are financial and administrative instructions in every government parastatal and agency. But all these were thrown to the dogs in the past. Honestly, our problems are great, but we will do our best to surmount them.
“The next three months may be hard, but billions of dollars can be recovered, and we will do our best.”
The President explained that his administration had received firm assurances of cooperation from the United States and other countries on the recovery and repatriation of funds stolen from Nigeria.
He stated this at another forum – his meeting with Northern Traditional Rulers Council led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar – also yesterday.
The statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina quoted the president as saying: “In the next three months, our administration will be busy  getting those  facts and the figures to help us recover our stolen funds in foreign countries.’’
Citing the report submitted by the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee, Buhari said many revenue-generating institutions in the country have been compromised, leading to a weak economy.
Expressing surprise that  the governors had tolerated the atrocities allegedly committed with the Excess Crude Account (ECA) since 2011, the President  promised to tackle the issue decisively.
For him, the days of impunity, lack of accountability, and fiscal recklessness in the management of national resources are over. Systemic leakages will be stopped, he added.
The President said payment of national revenue into any  account other than  the Federation Account is an  abuse of the Constitution, adding that what he heard was going on in many agencies and corporations, particularly the NNPC, was clearly illegal.
On the refund of monies spent on federal projects by state governments, the President  assured the governors that the Federal Government will pay, but insisted that due process must be followed.
He promised special assistance for the three North Eastern states badly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
Buhari also said that  a comprehensive statement  on the economic and financial situation inherited by his administration   will be made available within the next four weeks.
He said: “We will try and put the system back into the right position. What happened in the 2nd Republic has apparently happened again, and even worse, but we will restore sanity to the system.”
On an immediate lifeline for states that owe months of salaries, Buhari said a committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will look at the ECA and see what can be shared immediately.
The governors presented a six-point wish-list to the President. These are:
•obedience of extant Supreme Court ruling that all monies go into the Consolidated Federation Account;
•an order from the President that all revenue generating agencies must pay into the Consolidated Federation Account;
•review of the Revenue Allocation Formula;
•refund of the monies expended by states on federal projects;
•a special consideration for the three states of the North East under Boko Haram infestation; and
•full details of the amounts that accrued into the Excess Crude Account from 2011, and how the money miraculously shrank without official sharing.
Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman Abdulaziz Yari, who is also Zamfara State governor, spoke to reporters along with Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abubakar and Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, at the end of the meeting.
The proposals given to the President, he said, include reimbursement of some projects sums embarked upon by states instead of requesting for the bailout, extension of repayment periods of loans’ balances owed by states from durations normally between four and seven years to 20 years.
Opposing the operation of the ECA, he said governors  wanted first line charges stopped and revenue such as the $1.6 billion tax paid by the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), be paid into the Federation Account.
Yari recalled that before the NGF was divided, $10.3 billion was left in the ECA ‎but only $2.6 billion was left even though sharing had been stopped since May 2013.
He said the meeting was not really about a bailout but how the states and the Federal Government can overcome their financial crises.
Yari said: “We proposed to Mr. President that instead of being given bailout, ‎that the funds for jobs, projects that were done by the states should be refunded by the federal government.  If the affected states are able to get the money owed them released, they can be able to start paying salaries without bail out.
“Secondly, we also brought to his notice that most of the loans owed by the state, some between four and seven years, if it can be stretched to 20 years, the states willl be relieved and would be able to continue other businesses, including paying salaries.
“Also, the first charge money that are paid by LNG about $1.6 billion, we requested that instead of paying to the federal government, we requested that it be paid to the federation account so that it could be shared amongst the three tiers of government, so that we can also get money to do one or two things.
“Also, we urged the President to follow the Constitution when it comes to money sharing, Section 80 is very clear. That all monies should go to the Consolidated Revenue Account ‎for the purpose; no account should be kept anywhere because this is what the constitution says.
“And Section‎ 162 also is explanatory, that whatever is going to happen to the money will be after sharing to the three tiers of government. That the NNPC or any other revenue generating agency should not have the first line charges.
“So we met the President and we shared knowledge from what was gathered from the Transition Management committee, the findings and what is on ground. We also briefed him on the condition of our states, and we all appreciated that something has to be done and going forward, we are going to ensure that most of the states and the federal government that have not paid salaries, that something will be on ground in the next couple of days.
On Boko Haram, Yari said: “We also discussed the issue of frontline states as regards insurgency Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. The President briefed us on his meeting with the G7 countries which have agreed to support the Nigerian government to fight the insurgency.
“Also, it was noted that the insurgency has done so much damage to our infrastructure – schools, hospitals and bridges.
“The President said he has put a committee in place to assess the situation and he has also made a commitment that he will not request money from any G7 country but support to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.
The governors kicked against the timing of the dismantling of military check points.
“We also raised concern about the dismantling of military checkpoints ‎on the highways. We are saying it is not timely. But Mr. President cited some incidents at the military checkpoints but where necessary, he has given the Chief of Army Staff the permission  that they can continue, especially in the North, Southeast and the frontline states.”

Silicon Valley's plan to be more diverse

The lack of gender and racial diversity within the tech industry is a problem that almost every Silicon Valley company is trying to solve.

Getting there will take time and money. But in the end, tech companies hope a more diverse workforce will result in bigger sales and profits.
After all, engineers build gadgets and software for men, women and people of every color -- and a diverse workforce means a more expansive understanding of what customers want.
The tech industry had been secretive about the makeup of its workforce largely until 2014, when companies began releasing their diversity statistics in full force. Unsurprisingly, employees are mostly white men, but each firm pledged to add more women and minorities to their ranks.



A year later, here's what some of the biggest tech companies are doing to become more diverse.
Apple (AAPL, Tech30): Apple has said it will donate $50 million to organizations that will help women and minorities get into tech jobs. The investment will take the form of scholarships, college training programs, and paid internships. The company is partnering with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as well as the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
Before this year's WWDC, Tim Cook also told Mashable he is convinced the industry can become more diverse. "Most of the issues have been created by humans, so they can be fixed," Cook said.
Google (GOOGL, Tech30): Google told CNNMoney it plans to spend $150 million on a combination of internal and external diversity efforts. Half will go toward outside organizations and communities focused on attracting and keeping women and minorities in technology. The other half will be used inside the company to make Google more inclusive. In 2014, the company invested $114 million in diversity programs.
Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30): In an email sent to Microsoft employees and published on the company's website last year, CEO Satya Nadella said he believes "men and women should get equal pay for equal work."
Publicly, Microsoft has tried to change the white male image of tech. The firm featured three female executives -- Agnieszka Girling, Briana Roberts and Lara Rubbelke -- during its Build keynote in April.
Intel (INTC, Tech30): The Intel Capital Diversity Fund will invest $125 million in minority-led startups over the next five years. The new fund will be headed by Lisa Lambert -- a former software engineer who says a lack of diversity in tech is a funding problem, not a shortage of ideas or startups.
"It's not a social cause, this isn't charity," said Lambert. "This is real business and we believe in it."
In January, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich pledged $300 million to hire and retain a proportion of women and minorities to be "more representative of the talent in America," including in leadership roles, by 2020. A portion of the money will also be invested in groups and programs outside the firm.
eBay (EBAY, Tech30): The online auction company recently added two more women to its board of 17 directors: Bonnie Hammer, chair of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, and Gail McGovern, American Red Cross CEO. Before Hammer and McGovern joined, eBay had just one woman on its board -- Kathleen Mitic, a startup veteran.
Salesforce (CRM, Tech30): CEO Marc Benioff told CNN's Poppy Harlow he has an aggressive goal to employ an equal number of women and men, and he thinks it's "absolutely doable" within five years. Salesforce is also currently reviewing all employee salaries, because Benioff said he wants to make sure women and men are paid the same for the same role.
Read: These 9 startups are focused on increasing the number of women and minorities in tech
By setting bold goals, the public can help hold Silicon Valley executives to be accountable for what they say.
But reaching these objectives won't be easy. There is a well-known pipeline problem, in which women and minorities tend not to seek careers in science and technology.
Making matters more difficult, the lack of diversity is most pronounced among the people making the decisions. Managers and executives have the power to promote and control which projects are prioritized, funded, and executed. And they serve as role models inside and outside the company.
Twitter's global workforce, for example, is 70% male, 30% female, but its tech jobs are staffed by 90% male workers and 10% female workers. Twitter overall is 12% non-white or Asian, but among tech workers, this proportion drops to 8%. Similarly just 4% of Twitter's senior management team are non-white or non-Asian, and 79% are male.




The way to fix the problem is to make existing employees feel more comfortable raising issues without consequence, according to Kathy Phillips, a professor and senior vice dean at Columbia Business School. Once they do, companies should give them the right and ability to suggest remedies and implement them.
Many of these firms have started to publicize their 2015 figures -- but don't expect much change from last year. There's still a long way to go.

Man builds giant computer at home

 

 

For many tech companies the race is on to build ever smaller computer processors, but one British man has gone in the opposite direction.

James Newman is building a 14m (45ft) computer processor in the lounge of his bungalow in Cambridge.
Mr Newman's 16-bit "mega processor" will contain 14,000 individual transistors and 3,500 LED Lights.
So far the project had taken him three years and cost about £20,000, he told the BBC.
Mr Newman said he hoped it would have educational value but it would be hard to transport as it was likely to weigh about half as tonne once finished.
Bits of the processor light up as they operate, but other than that the entire machine operates just the same as a standard chip-sized microprocessor found in all computers.
"I was taken with the idea of being able to see how the thing works," Mr Newman, a digital electronics engineer, said.
"I have a visual way of thinking about things, I wanted to be able to see how a computer works and how things flow around within it.
"I intended it as a learning exercise, and I have learned a lot."
He said his enthusiasm for the project had ebbed and flowed over the years but he hoped to complete it by the end of 2015.
Mr Newman is now relying on "determinedness" to finish his creation, but he is concerned about the space the processor, which is 2m high, will take up.
"When it's set up and running in the living room, there won't be much space for living," he said.
"One of the fantasies is to line the hallway with it."
He said the first programs he intended to run on his mega processor were likely to be Tetris, noughts and crosses and 1970s evolutionary simulation Life by mathematician John Conway.
Mr Newman said: "My mother keeps asking, 'What can it do?' I keep saying, 'It's a computer, it can do anything.'
"My friends think it's mad, but I think they are also slightly jealous that I can allow myself to do it."

ISIS now drowning their prisoners in swimming pool (photos)

My goodness! When will these men be stopped? Yesterday, ISIS militants released a video showing how they murdered 5 prisoners accused of being spies in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul. They actually put a camera inside the pool to show how the terrified men struggled to breath until they drowned.

ISIS also showed how they killed another group of 'spies'. They chained the prisoners together with explosive necklaces which are then detonated (left)...some of them are decapitated. Sad! See the photos after the cut..

Check out this cute photo of Obama & his girls when they were so young

How cute is this photo? Current US president Barrack Obama pictured with his daughters Sasha and Malia at the beach when they were much younger... 

The biggest sofa in Africa at the Vitafoam Orange moment, Owerri

The biggest sofa in Africa was a cynosure of all eyes at the Vitafoam Orange Moment Owerri. Guests were thrilled at the size and magnitude of the Sofa. The event which took place at City Chef besides the popular Rock View hotel started with a celebration of all the children in attendance because the children are believed to be the next generation in Vitafoam.

Taraji P. Henson sexes up W magazine new issue (photos)

The Empire star and Oscar nominee is the cover girl for the Pop issue of W magazine and she oozed a lot of sex appeal.
 

Pics: Benue lawmakers engage in free for all fight over appointment of principal officers

Benue state lawmakers today engaged in a free for all fight inside the state Assembly chambers. The lawmakers are in strong disagreement over political appointments such as House Leader and Deputy House Leader in the house.

Chinese Long Hair Competition!

Kazak women show their long hairs at a competition in Barkol Kazak autonomous county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on June 20, 2015. The winner with 1.67-meter-long hair walked away with the prize.

 

OMG! What do you think about the picture below?

President Buhari please we really need change to change the lives of this people. Are those women in the picture below actually in the 21st century with us?

Is this really a 21st century picture?

Watch Out : A Lady with a male Physic! You might not believe this.

Add caption

Her name is Angela Salvagno and she's a body builder. Men, you find all these muscles on a woman sexy?

Britain Fattest Man Dies at age 33

Britain's fattest man, Carl Thompson has died. The 33 year old (pictured right in his home in May) had been confined to his home in Dover, Kent, for more than a year, relying on carers to bathe him after being unable to move around on his own due to his 65 stone weight.

Carl (pictured left as a young boy) said he began eating heavily as a means of coping with his grief after he lost his mum in 2012. He pleaded for professional help and vowed to shed weight after being told by doctors his ill-health would kill him. Unfortunately, he died this morning. RIP, Carl!

Addax Petroleum Internship

STEVE JOBS STANFORD COMMENCEMENT SPEECH-2005

10years ago, Steve Jobs -founder of Apple- delivered this powerful motivating speech and I think this speech is ever alive and worth sharing.Enjoy it!


I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.