Mercyvill

Six months after 276 girls were kidnapped, President Goodluck Jonathan hasn't been able to bring them back. So why was the country so effective in combating Ebola? Olamikan Gbemiga/AP For Nigeria’s embattled government, October 20 is a date worth circling on the calendar: That day will mark 42 days since Nigeria’s last confirmed Ebola case, which, at twice the 21-day incubation period, will allow the country to declare itself free of a disease that has ravaged its West African neighbors.

Violence works. Nonviolence does too. Noah Berger/AP In a recent dispatch from Ferguson, Missouri, Jelani Cobb noted that President Obama's responses to "unpunished racial injustices" constitute "a genre unto themselves." Monday night, when Barack Obama stood before the nation to interpret the non-indictment of Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown, he offered a particularly tame specimen. The elements of "the genre" were all on display—an unmitigated optimism, an urge for calm, a fantastic faith in American institutions, an even-handedness exercised to a fault. But if all the limbs of the construct were accounted for, the soul of the thing was not.

Does the continent's most-populous country deserve its new title? Crude oil spills from a pipeline in northwestern Nigeria (Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde) Something strange happened in Nigeria on Sunday: The economy nearly doubled, racking up hundreds of billions of dollars, ballooning to the size of the Polish and Belgian economies, and breezing by the South African economy to become Africa's largest. As days go, it was a good one. It was, in fact, a miracle borne of statistics: It had been 24 years since Nigerian authorities last updated their approach to calculating gross domestic product (GDP), a process known as "rebasing" that wealthy countries typically carry out every five years. When the Nigerian government finally did it this week, the country's GDP—the market value of all finished goods and ...

One reason for the racial divide over Michael Brown's death is that white Americans tend to talk mostly to other white people. Lucas Jackson/Reuters The shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and the anger poured out in response by Ferguson’s mostly black population, has snapped the issue of race into national focus. The incident has precipitated a much larger conversation, causing many Americans to question just how far racial equality and race relations have come, even in an era of a black president and a black attorney general.

Black Friday Black Friday shopping at a Target store in November 2008. Observed by United States , Brazil , Canada , Mexico , India , Panama , United Kingdom , Costa Rica , Romania , Denmark , Sweden , South Africa , France , Norway Type Commercial Celebrations Shopping Date Friday following the fourth Thursday of November Frequency annual Related to Thanksgiving , Buy Nothing Day , Small Business Saturday , Cyber Monday , Giving Tuesday, Christmas , and Boxing Day Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers have opened very early and offered promotional sales. Black Friday is not a public holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of anot...

Origin of the term "Black Friday" as a term has been used in multiple contexts, going back to the 19th century, [ 37 ] where in the United States it was associated with a financial crisis of 1869 . The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving was made in a public relations newsletter from 1961 that is clear on the negative implications of the name and its origin in Philadelphia:

I was happy to tell him that the odds are in his favor. My friend K. is a 54-year-old woman whose trajectory somewhat resembles S.’s. She had an exciting launch in her 20s (working “my dream job”), a sense of continuing achievement but slowing momentum in her 30s (“sort of a slog”), and an ambush in her 40s, when her father died, her mother had a stroke, her husband left her after their daughter was born, and she was laid off. Despite coping with all of that and doing well professionally, even with her layoff (“I did better in my career; I made more money”), she developed what she describes as a dark sense of humor about her life, ruefully telling herself that at least she had so many troubles that she couldn’t dwell on all of them at once.

What a growing body of research reveals about the biology of human happiness—and how to navigate the (temporary) slump in middle age. All photos by Chris Buck This summer, a friend called in a state of unhappy perplexity. At age 47, after years of struggling to find security in academia, he had received tenure. Instead of feeling satisfied, however, he felt trapped. He fantasized about escape. His reaction had taken him by surprise. It made no sense. Was there something wrong with him? I gave him the best answer I know. I told him about the U-curve.

Buy lots of little gifts, don't buy a warranty, and other tricks to squeeze the most pleasure out of your holiday purchases. Hartwig HKD/Flickr This year, a few pure souls might celebrate a freegan Christmas . Some will opt for a "Buy-Nothing" holiday. Others still will pull off a DIY Hanukkah . The vast majority of people who have some disposable income, however, will do what all the glossy store catalogs implore this time of year and "SHOP NOW." Even among those who think that Black Friday insanity, and holiday consumerism in general , are terrible, the default setting during December is to buy things. Behavioral economists have been puzzling for years over how much and what kinds of spending provides the biggest happiness boost for the buyer. But it turns out that whether people reap good vibes from...

Target shoppers Kelly Foley, left, Debbie Winslow, center, and Ann Rich use a smartphone to look at a competitor's prices while shopping shortly after midnight on Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, in South Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) NEW YORK—Black Friday seemed a little less crazy this year. There were squabbles here and there, and elbows got thrown, but the Friday morning crowds appeared smaller than usual and less frenzied, in part because many Americans took advantage of stores’ earlier opening hours to do their shopping on Thanksgiving Day. That might be hard to stomach for people worried about commercial encroachment on Thanksgiving. But it is good news for bargain-hunters who hate crowds.

Continue reading the main story Related Stories Skin cancer trial results 'exciting' Immune system boost 'fights cancer' New cancer treatments fight to survive A drug which makes a wide range of cancers more vulnerable to the body's immune system is "exciting" and may mark a new era, say doctors. It strips cancer cells of the "camouflage" they use to evade attack by the immune system. In the most detailed study,  published in Nature , some patients completely recovered from terminal bladder cancer. Cancer Research UK said the field of immunotherapy was delivering "a lot of very exciting results".

Blade Runner (Warner Bros). Science fiction films have many warnings for us – not least, how the road to a perfect future society is fraught with peril. Quentin Cooper loads up the DVD player to see what lessons we can learn. Science-fiction films sometimes offer us a future so bright we’ve got to wear shades. But mostly we’re deluged with visions of tomorrows far bleaker than today, from wildly unlikely “what if?” disaster scenarios through to entirely plausible but still scary extrapolations of the present.

(Getty Images) When we dream, does time pass at a different pace? David Robson investi When my alarm wakes me up, I’ll often hit the snooze button before returning to the warmth and safety of my duvet for another quick doze. But although what follows can seem like a short dream – perhaps a single conversation or a short walk – I’ll sometimes awake to find that a whole hour has passed. And I’m left puzzling: how could such few events have taken so long to play out in my head? Is this a common effect?

(Thinkstock) From :) to ¯\(°_o)/¯, there are now thousands of emoticons, and as Chris Baraniuk discovers, some can even sway our behaviour. It all started with an awkward moment online. In the early 1980s, computer scientist Scott Fahlman realised his words were failing him. When communicating with others on a forum, he found that it was difficult to convey that  some posts were meant to be taken as a joke .

Scenes of a sexual nature Torii Kiyonaga’s most celebrated shunga work Sode no maki (Handscroll for the Sleeve) shows 11 lovemaking tableaus. (British Museum) An exhilarating new exhibition at the British Museum features over 150 works of Japanese erotic art. But is it art, or pornography? Alastair Sooke investigates. It is one of the most salacious images in the history of art: deep underwater, a gigantic pink octopus drags a naked young woman into a cleft between two rocks. As his coiling tentacles slither over her blemish-free body, caressing a nipple and encircling her nubile legs, this unlikely molluscoid lover pleasures his prostrate captive, who throws back her head in ecstasy while a second, smaller octopus plants a tender kiss upon her mouth.

Nato's Gen Breedlove is in Ukraine for high-level talks with the Ukrainian leadership Continue reading the main story Ukraine crisis Year of chaotic events Child soldiers join fight Will war return? From revolution to conflict Nato's top military commander, Gen Philip Breedlove, has warned that Russian "militarisation" of the annexed Crimea Peninsula could be used to exert control over the whole Black Sea. Speaking in Kiev, Gen Breedlove said Russian military assets being installed in Crimea would have an effect on "almost the entire Black Sea". Mr Breedlove is in Ukraine for high-level talks with Ukrainian leaders. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.

The brain has a weak spot for Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, according to UK scientists who have pinpointed the region using scans. The brain area involved develops late in adolescence and degenerates early during ageing. At the moment, it is difficult for doctors to predict which people might develop either condition. The findings, in the journal PNAS , hint at a potential way to diagnose those at risk earlier, experts say. Although they caution that "much more research is needed into how to bring these exciting discoveries into the clinic".

Fred Deegbe is a former Ghanaian banker who decided to take on the world's leading shoe brands by teaming up with a friend in 2011 to start Heel The World - a high-end shoemaking company based in Accra. As part of the latest series of African Dream, the young entrepreneur, who now has 13 full-time employees and a passion to improve the quality of shoes made in Ghana, shares some of his 10 top tips for success: Competition is always good but not easy to handle. Chinese goods on the market have never been my worry - I make sure that my company constantly churns out beautiful products in order to get the desired attention It is very important to emphasise quality over quantity One of the key strategies I have had from the start is to focus on niche markets

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(Shutterstock*) At first glance, the idea of healthy eating and Thanksgiving may seem incompatible—I have certainly experienced “food comas”, the result of overindulging , that chained me to the couch for the rest of the evening. However, with a few substitutions and changes in the Thanksgiving routine you can make this holiday season just as festive, but healthier for all family members involved.

(Aleksandra Alekseeva/iStock/Thinkstock) A study of 96,000 Danes adds yet more evidence suggesting a vitamin D deficiency can raise the risk for cancer and death. “We have conducted a major Danish study, in which we have examined the connection between genes associated with permanent low levels of vitamin D and mortality. We can see that genes associated with low vitamin D levels involve an increased mortality rate of 30 percent and, more specifically, a 40 percent higher risk of cancer-related deaths. “An important factor in our study is that we have established a causal relationship,” says Shoaib Afzal, a physician at Copenhagen University Hospital.

We took a hacker to a café and, in 20 minutes, he knew where everyone else was born, what schools they attended, and the last five things they googled. By Maurits Martijn , from De Correspondent Translated from Dutch by Jona Meijers Illustrations by Kristina Collantes In his backpack, Wouter Slotboom, 34, carries around a small black device, slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes, with an antenna on it. I meet Wouter by chance at a random cafe in the center of Amsterdam. It is a sunny day and almost all the tables are occupied. Some people talk, others are working on their laptops or playing with their smartphones. Wouter removes his laptop from his backpack, puts the black device on the table, and hides it under a menu. A waitress passes by and we ask for two coffees and the password for the WiFi network. Meanwhile, Wouter switches on his laptop and device, launches some programs, and soon the screen starts to fill with green text lines. It gr...

Older people may have more of the mental strength required to endure long distances (Getty Images) When you grow old, could you run 20 marathons back-to-back? David Robson reports on the senior ultra-athletes who are defying the limits of aging and the body. A gruelling marathon and cycle ride through Switzerland’s mountains is not the average way to celebrate your 61st birthday. “I’d sworn I would never do an event like this – it seemed so long and brutal, with so much suffering,” says Sunny McKee. But here she was, competing in the formidable Ironman Championships. It involved cycling 180 kilometres (112 miles), combined with a marathon and a four-kilometre (2.5-mile) swim. All in a single day.

(Thinkstock) Cars increasingly rely on technology designed to make driving easier and safer. But are these improvements creating less-skilled drivers? Katia Moskvitch investigates. Researchers in Spain have developed a system they say can greatly improve the accuracy of car satnavs. Hardly goes by a week without a story of a driver running out of road or getting stuck in a narrow thoroughfare, all because the satellite navigation they are relying on has led them astray. Things may not be as bad as a couple of years ago, when Apple released its own maps application and directed cars to non-existent bridges and into lakes. But in the United States, a survey by Michelin Travel Partners found drivers were misled an average of 4.4 times last year. Younger adults, more prone to gadget use and following mapping apps on their smartphones or tablets said they had been misdirected even more often – 6.3 times on average.

Al Khilafa al Bilad Assudan Daular Khalifar Sakkawato Al Khilafa Al Bilad As-Sudan Imperial Caliphate ↓ 1804–1903 Flag Motto Ad Daulat al Khilfa al Bilad asSudan "The Caliphal State in Bilad As Sudan" Anthem Imperial Drum Beat Capital Gudu (1804) Sokoto (1804-1850), (1851-1902) Birnin Konni (1850) Burmi (1903) Languages Arabic (official), Hausa , Fula Religion Sunni Islam Government Oligarchic Republic (1804–1832) Theological monarchy (1832–1903) List of Sultans of Sokoto  -  1804-1832 Uthman Ibn Fodio I (first)  -  1896–1903 Muhammadu Attahir (last) Grand Vizier  -  ???–1832 Gidago dan Laima (first)  -  1890-1903 Muhammadu al-Bukhari (last) Legislature Shura  -  Upper house Senate History  -  Founded 4 Feb 1804  -  Tabkin Kwatto 1804  -...

The bitter sweet truth In the UK, we consume over two million tonnes of sugar every year. Yet we often don’t know we’re eating it. Most of us are aware that sweet stuff should be eaten in moderation. But some food and drinks contain a surprising amount of sugar, which means you could be consuming far much more than you should. Sugar traps Some of the added sugar we consume is found in the food and drink we think of as healthy or savoury, such as low-fat yoghurt and sauces.

Southern Nigeria Protectorate Protectorate of  the British Empire ← ← 1900–1914 → Ensign Badge Anthem God Save the Queen Southern Nigeria (red) British possessions in Africa (pink) 1913 Capital Lagos (administrative centre from 1906) Languages English (official) Igbo , Yoruba , Ibibio , Tiv , Edo , Ijaw languages widely spoken Religion Christianity , Yoruba religion , Islam , African traditional religion Government Constitutional monarchy Monarch  -  1900-1901 Victoria  -  1901-1910 Edward VII  -  1910-1914 George V High Commissioner  -  1900-1904 Ralph Moor  -  1904-1906 Walter Egerton Governor  -  1906-1912 Walter Egerton  -  1912-1914 Frederick Lugard Historical era New Imperialism  -  Established 1 January 1900  -...