Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update

	October 30th, 2012 幽 Posted 1 day ago by Koichi Mitsui to s a s u r a u 2 山行。 E-commerce holiday shopping statistics & trends [infographic] Posted 1 day ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Looking for the inside scoop on e-commerce trends for the holiday season and where the social traffic is for businesses? Then check out this infographic from Invesp to get the inside track. Via Invesp. Like infographics? So do we. Too Close Posted 1 day ago by Amazing Pics to Amazing Pics 2 via 500px.com Don't scorn this storm: Hurricane Sandy strikes Posted 1 day ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 1 Colliding weather systems, a full moon, and eerily abandoned places that are usually buzzing with activity are bringing the kind of real-life horror to the East Coast that we hope to avoid during Halloween season. - The Flickr site for MTA has a series of photos taken as NYC prepared for the worst to hit, and we never realized how comforting those crowds really were until they were gone. - As of 9:00 am this morning, the New Jersey coast was getting slammed with surf rarely seen in this part of the world: Embedded media -- click here to see it. - NPR has is providing up-to-the-minute updates about the storm, including the status of the two crew members of the HMS Bounty replica off the North Carolina coast who have gone missing. - For a local take on what's going on in New York City, WNYC news is using Storify to document events as they happen in the city. - Here’s the link to The Weather Channel’s updates as well, so stay informed and stay safe, and in that line, here's the advice of FEMA for those farther inland as well:    "Follow the direction of local officials — if told to evacuate, do so immediately. — "Make final preparations — If you're further inland, now is the time to make final preparations. Be ready for power outages and stock up on emergency supplies of food, water, medications, and other supplies. — "Know the forecast for your area – Sandy is a large storm with potential impacts from wind, coastal flooding, inland flooding, rain, and snow. Listen to your NOAA weather radio and local news reports, or visit weather.gov for the conditions in your area. — "Check on your neighbor – make sure they're ready too."   Full story at The Weather Channel and NPR. Eye of the storm. Update on School Closures in Ekiti - Commissioner's Response Posted 1 day ago by Feyi Fawehinmi to aguntàsólo Anything published in the press and which remains unchallenged is a notorious fact               - Reno Omokri, The Great   A friend of mine sent my last post on the closure of schools in Ekiti to the Commissioner for Education in that state, Dr Eniola Ajayi.  She responded by email and asked me to get in touch with her. We've exchanged a few emails since then and I have found her to be polite to a fault and a remarkably decent person to the extent that you can measure such things over an email exchange. Here's her response Thank you for forwarding the story. I do not blame the writer for writing from the perspective he did. It’s because of the angle in which it was reported in the first place. It seems truly absurd to close a school simply because it’s not registered or it’s not on zillion hectares of land. The truth is that no mention was made of the other criteria used. One main component is the issue of having a certain number of qualified Teachers. Some of the School have a School Certificate holder as Head teacher. There are several other criteria. In other to make this exercise as thorough as possible, we engaged the help of the National Association of Private Proprietors in Ekiti State. In their words, 'we have no apologies for the schools you wish to close down'. The truth is that many of them do not merit being called a school. The structures are truly alarming. Some are near collapse. If we wait until someone dies in those contraptions, I will be blamed even more. More importantly, it’s an implementation of a well thought out decision of the State EXCO over 7 months ago.  She also sent me the requirements for opening schools in Ekiti State which the closed schools presumably did not meet. Both are attached below GUILDELINES_EST_JSS_in_Ekiti.pdf View this on Posterous GUILDELINES_EST_NURS-PRY_Schools_in_Ekiti.pdf View this on Posterous   It was a relief to read that not because I agree with everything but mainly because it's clear that it wasnt just a rampaging government going about bullying private schools while ignoring its own failings.  I still think the requirements are rather onerous and dont take into account people who might only want to start on a small scale but if everyone was subjected to this criteria, then I am fine with it. The issue then becomes how to make the criteria better so that it guarantees better outcomes for students.  A couple of points to note 1. Before writing my last note, I checked at least 3 different online news websites for the story and they all seemed to report it from the same angle so I went with the version in Channels but you can check the Punch version or ThisDay one and you see that the reports are almost identical in what aspect of the press briefing they focused on.  It got me wondering - how do Nigerian newspapers source their news? Or was this a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report? I am not sure how things work so I am genuinely curious. Or do newspapers now share journalists outside Lagos?  I suppose we can conclue that the reports in the papers on this story qualifies as a notorious fact if the Commissioner is to be believed.  2. Where two or three Nigerian business(wo)men/businesses are gathered, a cabal is soon formed. So I am wondering if this National Association of Private Proprietors in Ekiti is not another 'nascent' cabal. I am pretty sure the schools that were closed were not members of this body which might mean the NAPP has just been made stronger to the extent that anyone who doesnt join them (and pay dues) can easily be eliminated as competition. The thing with cabals is that they always start innocently so in this case private school owners may have come together to form a body to share knowledge and best practice etc. But as Adam Smith presciently said 'people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public'. What if you dont want to be a part of this body and you just want to do your thing on your own? Hopefully the govt will take such scenarios into account and protect people who are genuinely trying to deliver education and run a business at the same time...on their own merit. But all in all, it's always good to hear govt's side of the argument.   FF 11 viral pics that aren't Sandy Posted about 23 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 2 Amidst the social media storm accompanying Hurricane Sandy, there are plenty of pics making the rounds that don’t stand the sniff test. Reyhan Harmanci and Allison McCann have rounded up these eleven, a few of which you’ve probably already seen, and told the real story behind them. Above Via A photoshop job of the Statue of Liberty and a supercell thunderstorm from 2004 taken by photographer Mike Hollingshead. Via This Manhattan skyline fake has been floating around Twitter and Instagram today, but was originally on a Wall Street Journal post from 2011. Via Crazy satellite picture...of Hurricane Ike. Full story at Buzzfeed. Wading through the social media flood. Hurricane Sandy from the ISS [video] Posted about 19 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 2 The crew on the International Space Station didn’t need the Weather Channel to tell them bad things were brewing Earth-side, since they got a pretty good look at Sandy when they flew over this morning as this raw footage from NASA shows. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Full story at NASA @ Flickr. The view from space. Sent by Posterous. Change your email settings or unfollow. Other questions? We'd love to help.