HP To Separate Into Two New Industry-Leading Public Companies!

HP announced on Monday October 6, 2014, plans to separate into two new publicly traded Fortune 50 companies: one comprising HP’s market-leading enterprise technology infrastructure, software and services businesses, which will do business as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and one that will comprise HP’s market-leading personal systems and printing businesses, which will do business as HP Inc. and retain the current logo.

According to information release by HP, the decision to separate into two market-leading companies will provide each new company with enhanced independence, focus, financial resources, and flexibility to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics, while generating long-term value for shareholders.

Total Lunar Eclipse On Wednesday Will Be a Rare 'Selenelion'!

Observers of Wednesday morning's total lunar eclipse might be able to catch sight of an extremely rare cosmic sight.

On Oct. 8, Interested skywatchers should attempt to see the total eclipse of the moon and the rising sun simultaneously. The little-used name for this effect is called a "selenelion," a phenomenon that celestial geometry says cannot happen.

And indeed, during a lunar eclipse, the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky. In a perfect alignment like this (called a "syzygy"), such an observation would seem impossible. But thanks to Earth's atmosphere, the images of both the sun and moon are apparently lifted above the horizon by atmospheric refraction. This allows people on Earth to see the sun for several extra minutes before it actually has risen and the moon for several extra minutes after it has actually set. 

As a consequence of this atmospheric trick, for many localities east of the Mississippi River, watchers will have a chance to observe this unusual sight firsthand. Weather permitting, you could have a short window of roughly 2 to 9 minutes (depending on your location) with the possibility of simultaneously seeing the sun rising in the east while the eclipsed full moon is setting in the west. 

Then again, sighting a selenelion might be problematic feat. Twenty-five years ago, in the August 1989 issue of Sky & Telescope, Bradley Schaefer, an astronomer who extensively studied the visibility of the moon when it was low in the sky, noted that the full moon only becomes visible when it is about 2 degrees up and the sun is about 2 degrees below the horizon.

So, depending on the clarity of your sky, you might have up to roughly 10 to 15 minutes before sunrise for the sky to still be dark enough, and the moon to be high enough above any horizon haze for it to be clearly visible. And keep in mind that this holds only for the uneclipsed portion of the moon. You might, however, be able to mitigate the effects of a brightening sky somewhat by using binoculars or a telescope.

If the moon is totally eclipsed prior to sunrise, you probably are going to have to scan the western horizon with binoculars as the twilight brightens in order to still detect some semblance of the Moon, which will somewhat resemble a very dim and eerily illuminated mottled softball.

People who live in those portions of the United States and Canada that are a few hundred miles inland from the Eastern Seaboard should have a good view of the Moon's emergence from the umbra somewhat later. The low, partially eclipsed Moon in deep-blue twilight should offer a wide variety of interesting scenic possibilities for both artists and astrophotographers. From Toronto and points south through the eastern Ohio Valley and into the Piedmont to the Florida Gulf Coast, a peculiar-looking, waxing crescent moon with its cusps pointing downward will appear to set beyond the western horizon.

Farther west, across the western Great Lakes and down through the Deep South to the Gulf of Mexico, the moon will appear to be notched on its lower right side by the shadow.

Going still farther west, the Moon will go down "full," but if the western horizon is haze-free, assiduous observers from much of Minnesota, western Iowa, eastern portions of Nebraska and Kansas as well as central sections of Oklahoma and Texas might still be able to detect a faint penumbral stain on the moon's lower right limb.

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British hostage released in Libya after five months!

News has it that British schoolteacher David Bolam has been released after nearly five months of captivity in Libya, reportedly after payment of a ransom to his Islamist captors.

"Glad that David Bolam is safe & well after his ordeal and has been reunited with his family, who we have been supporting since he was taken," Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond wrote on Twitter.

Bolam was kidnapped by militants in May in Libya's second city Benghazi, much of which is under the control of Islamists.

The 53 year-old, who hails from Shropshire in western England, was Head teacher at the International School in Benghazi.

The BBC reported that his release had been secured by local political factions and that money had changed hands. It said that Bolam whose kidnapping had not been reported at the request of officials, was flown back to Britain on Thursday.

His captors had contacted the Libyan director of the school to demand a ransom, according to a source at the establishment speaking on condition of anonymity.

Bolam's release follows the beheading of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, among four Western hostages executed since August by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were also brutally executed by IS militants operating in Syria and Iraq, with all four murders made public in videos.

The hometown of taxi driver Henning, Eccles in northwest England, paid tribute to the 47-year-old in a candlelit church service open to all faiths, after his death was announced late on Friday.

Floral tributes to the aid worker, who travelled to Syria as a driver in an aid convoy, were left outside his minicab office and home, and yellow ribbons traditionally tied for hostages festooned the town centre.

The British foreign office said that since teacher Bolam was released, his family had appealed for privacy.

The SITE intelligence group identified a video posted on YouTube last month of Bolam, looking dishevelled and wearing a white T-shirt, appealing for British Prime Minister David Cameron to help secure his release.

The video, apparently recorded in August, was released by a group that called itself Jeish al-Islam (Army of Islam) but SITE could not authenticate it due to a lack of information.

A former teacher at Bolam's school, Ged O'Connor Challis, told the BBC that he had spoken to Bolam on the telephone the morning he was kidnapped.

He said Bolam had been captured while he was out shopping.

"He is single-minded and stubborn," Challis added. "He is a very bright person. He is an English teacher -- one of the best I have ever met."

Michael Aron, Britain's ambassador to Libya, wrote on Twitter: "Delighted Benghazi Head Teacher David Bolam has been released after over 4 months in captivity".

Ebola Patient In The U.S Struggling To Survive!

“If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people infected with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us,” Those were the words of U.S President Barack Obama, after getting briefed by officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

However, barely a month after the statement was made, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was fighting for his life at a Dallas hospital on Sunday and appeared to be receiving none of the experimental medicines for the virus, a top U.S. health official said.

Thomas Eric Duncan became ill after arriving in the Texas city from Liberia two weeks ago, heightening concerns that the worst Ebola epidemic on record could spread from West Africa, where it began in March. The hemorrhagic fever has killed at least 3,400 people out of the nearly 7,500 probable, suspected and confirmed cases.

"The man in Dallas, who is fighting for his life, is the only patient to develop Ebola in the United States," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on CNN's "State of the Union."

In a media briefing with reporters on Sunday, Frieden said he was scheduled to brief President Barack Obama on Monday.

Frieden said doses of the experimental medicine ZMapp were "all gone" and that the drug, produced by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, is "not going to be available anytime soon."

Asked about a second experimental drug, made by Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, he said it "can be quite difficult for patients to take."

Frieden said the doctor and the patient's family would decide whether to use the drug, but if "they wanted to, they would have access to it."

"As far as we understand, experimental medicine is not being used," Frieden said. "It’s really up to his treating physicians, himself, his family what treatment to take."

Duncan remained in critical condition, Wendell Watson, spokesman for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, said on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, health officials said they were also seeking a "low-risk" homeless man who was one of 38 people who had potentially had contact with Duncan. Later on Sunday, a spokeswoman for Dallas County's top political official, Judge Clay Jenkins, said the man had been found and was being monitored.

At Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, parishioners prayed for Duncan, congregation member Louise Troh - who is quarantined because of her close contact with Duncan - and both of their families.

"Although this disease has become personal to us, we realize we're not the first to know its devastation, and we are not the ones most desperately affected," Associate Pastor Mark Wingfeld told the church audience.

He encouraged parishioners to focus not only on the Dallas family but also on those in West Africa stricken with Ebola.

In Nebraska, another hospital was preparing for the arrival of an Ebola patient who contracted the virus in Liberia, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Nebraska Medical Center spokesman Taylor Wilson would only identify the patient as a male U.S. citizen expected to arrive on Monday. But the father of Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman working for NBC News who contracted Ebola in Liberia, told Reuters on Friday that his son was going to Nebraska for treatment.

The Nebraska hospital last month also treated and released, Dr. Rick Sacra, an American missionary who also contracted Ebola in Liberia.

Sacra was admitted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts on Saturday for a likely respiratory infection that is not believed to be a recurrence of the disease, hospital officials said.

Duncan's case has highlighted problems that American public health officials are trying furiously to address: The Dallas hospital that admitted him initially did not recognize the deadly disease and sent him home with antibiotics, only for him to return two days later in an ambulance.

"The issue of the missed diagnosis initially is concerning," Frieden said, adding that public health officials had redoubled their efforts to raise awareness of the disease.

"We're seeing more people calling us, considering the possibility of Ebola - that's what we want to see," he said on CNN. "We don't want people not to be diagnosed."

Frieden said he was confident the disease would not spread widely within the United States. U.S. officials are also scaling up their response in West Africa, where Ebola presents an enormous challenge, he added.

"But it's going to take time," Frieden said. "The virus is spreading so fast that it's hard to keep up."

When asked on Sunday if the United States should suspend flights to and from affected countries or impose a visa ban on travelers from those countries, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "absolutely not."

"When you start closing off countries like that, there is a real danger of making things worse," Fauci said on "Fox News Sunday."

"You can cause unrest in the country," he said. "It’s conceivable that governments could fall if you just isolate them completely."

The CDC has identified 10 people who had direct contact with Duncan as being at greatest risk of infection. Another 38 were being monitored as potential contacts, out of 114 people initially evaluated for exposure risks. None from either group has shown symptoms, health officials said.

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Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau Says He's Alive!

See Video below:

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Neglected Governor Mimiko Media Aide, Dies!

Information revealed that Akinwale Martins Oshodi, a former Special Assistant (SA) on Electronics’ Media to Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, is dead.

Late Akinwale Martins Oshodi

A family source told SaharaReporters Mr. Oshodi died Sunday morning at an unconfirmed hospital after battling an undisclosed ailment over the past three months.  He is survived by a wife and children. 

Early last week, there were rumors he had already passed but his close friends were able to prove he was still alive.   

Before his appointment to the governor’s staff, he was a Media manager with the Ondo State Radio Vision Corporation (OSRC), where he headed the Crime beat.  He was known for his fierce coverage and passionate reporting, as well as his engaging style of delivering the early morning ‘Newspaper Review’ at the radio arm of the station.

Oshodi was appointed Special Assistant on electronics media by Governor Mimiko during his first term to coordinate many of the Labour Party’s government propaganda programmes both within and outside the state.

On account of his wide experience, Mr. Oshodi was used as a link between the state governor’s Press Crew and journalists, mostly the electronics’ journalists, who reported the activities of the government to their outfits based outside the state, particularly in Lagos.

He ensured that the programmes of the state government were well-reported, and monitored the coverage and activities of the outside station journalists in the crew, vetting their reports before they were filed with their mediums. 

Despite his hard work for the present government, Oshodi did not survive the second term axe of Governor Mimiko, as he was reportedly dropped on account of his health, and neglected until his death. 

A close friend of Oshodi said , “Akinwale was mostly used and dumped by the greedy administration of the already collapsed Labour Party government in the state.” 

Mrs. Oshodi, who spoke with SaharaReporters from an undisclosed hospital, said her husband was “writhing in pains till he gave up the ghost”.

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Beauty Vs. Brains: Most Beautiful Girl At UNILAG Rewarded With A Brand New Car While The Most Brilliant Debater Gets A Laptop!

Ms. Babajide’s windfall immediately ignited a debate among students and lecturers, with some criticizing the material rewards bestowed on a so-called beauty queen when the same university hands a mere computer and some cash to winners of its demanding debate contest. 

One lecturer, who asked for anonymity, said he was troubled that the car and other gifts to the university’s beauty queen far outstripped the prizes given on September 10 to the winner of the university debate competition. 

Zainab Olaitan, a 2nd year political science major at UNILAG who won the university’s rigorous academic debate competition, was awarded N100,000 and a laptop computer. 

UNILAG vice chancellor, Rahman Bello, handed the cash and laptop to the indomitable 18-year-old debater. 

The lecturer also noted that last year’s winner of the debate competition, Ms. Mary Adegunloye, received a laptop and N50,000. 

“I understand that the university management was planning to give the same paltry sum of N50,000 cash prize this year to the winner of the debate, but decided to double the cash prize because of criticisms from some lecturers and student leaders,” said the source. 

In addition, he said that pressure was put on the university’s management to give N50,000 each to runners-up in this year’s debate. 

Ms. Damilare allegedly received her car gift after emerging Miss UNILAG in a beauty contest organized by the Directorate of Student Affairs (DSA). 

SaharaReporters could not immediately ascertain the amount of cash and other perks awarded to the beauty queen, but Ms. Damilare said in a TV interview that the sum was “encouraging.” 

Reacting to the disparity in gifts for the beauty contest and the debate competition, a few students told our correspondent that the relatively small reward for intellectual achievement was likely to affect the academic morale of students on campus. 

Source:SR