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Though Jacob did not disclose how much of the cost on electricity manufacturers pay to the Discos for supplies to them, past reports indicated that it was, however, in billions, meaning a loss of such huge revenue source would be heavy on the financial books of the Discos.
For instance, if the Abuja Disco which has a lot of government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) under its service network, and which are under the MD category, fails to provide meters as directed by the NERC, it would for the period it is unable to do this, lose huge sums of revenue.
Following from its June 2016 order to the Discos to fully meter their MD consumers by November 30, 2016 which was a mutually agreed time frame for the job to be done after which it will take regulatory actions against recalcitrant Discos, the NERC subsequently pulled the trigger last week and called on unmetered MD consumers to shelve paying their bills to the Discos.
NERC said in a statement announcing this that it received appeals on compliance deadline from Discos prior to the expiration of the November 30, 2016 deadline and the deadline was extended to March 1, 2017 after consideration of these appeals.
But shortly after the order was made, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had to clarify its application following reports that it applied to all classes of consumers including residential users.
The NERC in its clarification stated that the order barring the 11 Discos in the country from billing electricity consumers without meters was only applicable to MD and not residential consumers.
It explained in a statement from its Assistant General Manager, Media, Vivian Mbonu, that the order affected only electricity customers within the consumption threshold of 45kVA and above.
According to it, for non-maximum demand and unmetered customers on the Discos’ networks, the Discos have been notified to adhere strictly to its approved estimation methodology which it said was the ‘Estimated Billing Methodology Regulation’.
The regulatory agency also advised electricity customers to make the most of its redress mechanism in instances of contested electricity bills before seeking further legal advice.
“The underlying rationale to this directive is the effect that since this category of customers have been completely metered as directed by the commission and reported by the Discos, no maximum demand customer should be issued with estimated bills,” NERC explained.
Not wanting to abate quickly and likely to cause more troubles for the Discos, their trade association – the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED)- also came out to clarify the position of the order.
ANED’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Azu Obiaya, said that while it recognised the frustrations of its other classes of customers who do not have meters, it was, however, working hard to ensure it achieves full metering of its consumers soon.
They thus called on other consumer classes who do not have meters yet to show some patience with them.
“We recognise that significant interest in the NERC notice is directly linked to our customers’ requirement that they be metered. And rightly so. It is critically important that we state that there is no more interested party in the comprehensive metering of our electricity consumers than the Discos,” said Obiaya.
“While we continue to operate with the estimated billing methodology that is approved and mandated by NERC, we are working diligently towards addressing the metering obligations specified under our performance agreements with the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), as well as ensuring that we continue to be sensitive and responsive to the inadvertent challenges of estimated billing that our residential or non-MD customers are faced with,” he added.
Further on the NERC directive on MD customers and the dusts it had raised, he stated: “The publications have, erroneously, stated that the requirement of non-payment of electricity obligations, in the absence of the customer not being provided with a meter, applies to all electricity consumers. This is incorrect. For clarity, this requirement only applies to, and is specific to MD customers and not residential customers.
If successful, vermicomposting will result in new worms as well as compost.
1 Do Worms Eat Coffee Grounds?
Box composting, also known as worm boxing or vermicomposting, is an alternative food recycling method for apartment dwellers or homeowners with too little yard space for an outdoor compost bin or heap. Red worms of the species Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus, if kept healthy in an indoor composting box, will eat food scraps like fruit and vegetable matter, coffee grounds, coffee filters, napkins and tea bags, and turn them into useable garden compost. Worms thrive in shallow boxes, such as the clear plastic shoeboxes available for shoe storage, when provided with plenty of air, bedding and food.
Fit a hand drill with a 1/8 inch bit and drill at least 10 holes in the lid of a clear plastic shoebox. Also drill holes around the upper portion of the sides of the shoebox to provide enough air circulation for both optimal decomposition and worm survival.
Line the bottom of the shoebox with a few sheets of newspaper. Shred more newspaper into strips 1 foot long and 1 inch wide to make bedding for the worms.
Soak two-thirds of the strips in water, and mix all the strips together in the shoebox to make damp, not soaking wet, bedding. Fill the shoebox shallowly, leaving at least one inch of space at the top. Alternate bedding materials include peat moss, sawdust and corrugated cardboard.
Place the shoebox in an area with temperatures between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, such as a kitchen, basement or garage. Do not place the shoebox in direct sunlight at any time as high temperatures can be harmful to the worms.
Slide a plastic tray under the shoebox to catch any spills. Add 1 cup of soil to the bedding to help the worms get started, and add 1 pound of worms to the shoebox. Leave the lid off for one hour to encourage them to burrow into the bedding.
Place a temperature gauge inside the bedding to ensure that the inside of the box never reaches more than 84 degrees Fahrenheit, which can be fatal to worms.
Wash all fruits and vegetables before adding them to the shoebox to remove fruit fly eggs. Cut large items into smaller chunks. Add scraps daily, burying them under the bedding in different locations.
Periodically check the compost pH with a soil testing kit. Worms do best in an alkaline pH between 4.2 and 8.0, ideally 7.0. If soil is too acidic, which is common for kitchen compost, add limestone or eggshells.
Harvest the compost after three to five months, when little actual bedding is left. In preparation, add no new food for two weeks. Once those weeks have passed, carefully empty the shoebox onto a tarp. Fill the box with new bedding, and gently transfer the worms from the tarp to the shoebox.
Use the compost as desired. If spreading on indoor plants, double check to make sure no worms are left because most plant pots are too small for worms to survive in.
Shoebox sizes should measure about 13 inches long, 8 inches deep and 4 inches wide to be large enough for composting.
One pound of worms can compost 1/2 pound of table scraps each day.
Keep bedding material regularly moist, not wet.
Do not add meat, dairy or oily foods to the shoebox as these attract pests and take a long time to break down. Also avoid adding citrus, such as oranges, as they tend to attract flies and cause bedding to become too acidic for worms.
J., Melissa. "How to Compost in a Shoebox." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/compost-shoebox-73309.html. Accessed 25 April 2019.
With the front doors open and a cold drink in hand, it makes a strong case for summer’s new hotspot.
Three steps inside Pub Royale (2049 W. Division St., Wicker Park, pubroyale.com) and you’re smacked with the smell of curry wafting from the kitchen. But don’t think the latest Heisler Hospitality (Sportsman’s Club, Lone Wolf) is some kitschy send-up of all things Indian. The spot’s a little more subtle than all that—yes, the drink menu includes a spiked mango lassi, and yes, that is some sitar music woven in between Rolling Stones tracks, but the place is a surprisingly cool respite from the increasingly clubby confines of Division Street.
With the bright yellow front doors propped open, the interior felt positively breezy, perfect for taking in a sizable beer menu or some of the Indian-inspired bar snacks. Add in plush seats and a low-key crowd and you could be looking at a contender for Bar of the Summer.
Feature, June 3, 2018, 3:51 a.m.
News, May 25, 2018, 7:31 p.m.
News, April 21, 2018, 12:36 a.m.
News, April 9, 2018, 1:10 p.m.
The Cupertino tech giant is now using Google's Cloud Platform, in addition to Amazon's S3 service, to store encrypted iCloud data.
News, Feb. 26, 2018, 9:51 p.m.
Japan's Yui Kamiji claimed her first Australian Open wheelchair singles title on Saturday, bouncing back from a set down to defeat Rio Paralympics gold medalist Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands 6(2)-7, 6-3, 6-3.
Second seed Kamiji, who won singles bronze in Rio, defeated her top-seeded opponent in 2 hours, 18 minutes to better her runner-up finishes at the tournament in 2014 and 2015.
"I was really pleased the moment the match finished. I was in good form this past week," said Kamiji, who now has three of the four Grand Slam crowns after winning the French and U.S. Opens in 2014.
Kamiji also made up for her disappointment from a day earlier when, as second seed, she missed out on her fourth-consecutive doubles title in Melbourne. She and Dutch partner, Diede de Groot, who was playing in her first Grand Slam, lost 6-3, 6-2 to the top seeded Dutch pairing of Griffioen and Aniek van Koot.
Vinyl: The Future of Music?
Has the Baltimore trio Celebration figured out the record industry?
Celebration, a trio from Baltimore with a frenetic female singer, organs that would make protestants shudder, and the musical dexterity of their friends TV on the Radio, announced on their Web site that they will no longer release CDs.
Our plan and experiment is to post new songs monthly, as we create and record them. Under the creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license. all of our new music will be free to download on our website for non-commercial use. When we have enough music for an album, we will release it on vinyl for those who want to have something to hold.
Labelmate Bon Iver did what the smarter bands are doing with his most recent EP, Blood Bank: the four song vinyl release came out before the digital download was available. And the vinyl came with a code for an MP3 download. So the vinyl comes with the MP3s for your iPod and the record companies make more than they would off a CD. Everyone is living in peaceful harmony. And, hey, they can sell records at shows too! Money, in the record industry.
Vinyl has had a resurgence in the last five years. Record-store dwellers, audiophiles, and die-hard music fans have been on the vinyl bandwagon since, well, vinyl was the only thing you could listen to besides the radio. But recently more and more record labels have been releasing albums and singles on vinyl. And Celebration is the first band to make the move to where I think the record industry is headed.
There’s a ritual with vinyl. A lot of people listen to music on vinyl that they might not otherwise. And, as 4AD says, it’s “something to hold.” Something to put on your shelf and be proud of and have for years to come. It’s an instant relic.
Releasing individual songs will keep loyal fans happy and allow the band to create even more anticipation for the record to hit shelves. Newspapers are yellow and sick and dying. But if people pay attention to Celebration, the record industry is going to turn out just fine. Just make sure your parents don’t sell their record player at the garage sale—you’ll need it.
A record number of students took the national college entrance exam this year, and math scores were the highest in four decades, the College Board said yesterday.
The 1.4 million students who took the Scholastic Aptitude Test earned average scores of 519 out of a possible 800 for math – the highest score since 1969.
Students scored an average of 507 on the verbal section, the highest since 1987, according to the board, which administers the exam. The average combined math-verbal score was 1,026 out of a possible 1,600.
In New York state, the average math score was 510, up 14 points since 1993.
New York students scored 496 in the verbal portion, about the same as in 1998 and a modest four points higher than 10 years ago. The average math-verbal score was 1006.
Eighty-two percent of eligible New York high school students took the SAT, one of the highest participation rates in the country. By comparison, only 54 percent of eligible California students took the exam. In Illinois and Michigan, only about 10 percent of the students participated.
“Higher SAT scores, a record number of test-takers, and more diversity add up to a brighter picture for American education,” said College Board president Gaston Caperton.
The board said the higher scores were due to increased participation in advanced math and science courses such as physics, pre-calculus, calculus and chemistry.
The president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics credited teaching methods that include more real-life applications.
Although there is no data to support it, Caperton believes high-tech toys that introduce young children to math – and the computer programs that help them to retain their interest in the subject – have also helped boost math scores.
But some math experts said the test preparers were overblowing the results.
“I don’t think we’re doing a better job in math at the high school level than twenty years ago,” said Al Posamentier, head of City College’s teacher education program.
Posamentier said it’s a stretch to compare results of a test four decades ago with the one given today. “They’re two different tests. You can’t make the comparison,” he said.
He said that today many more students take SAT prep courses and are better test takers.
Verbal score up one point and math score up seven points since 1998.
Verbal score up four points and math score up 14 points since 1993.
* Connecticut – 1026 (512 Verbal, 514 Math).
* California – 1018 (499 Verbal, 519 Math, 54% took it).
* New Jersey – 1016 (501 Verbal, 515 Math).
* New York – 1006 (496 Verbal, 510 Math).
Peter de Graaf takes a hike in the Victorian highlands.
All I wanted was a kangaroo. Well, okay, I wanted several kangaroos, and close enough to say g'day to, thank you very much. I didn't want to have to squint to see them bound across a distant paddock.
I also wanted an emu. And one of those strange, spiky, ant-eating echidnas. And, because you're not in Australia every day, I wanted a snake. Preferably venomous.
Happily, the Grampians granted all my wildlife-spotting wishes, then threw in something called a bearded dragon and several thousand raucous birds for good measure.
Grampians National Park rises from pancake-flat Victorian farmland about three hours' drive northwest of Melbourne. It covers 1670sq km, making it twice the size of Tongariro National Park and one of the biggest national parks in Victoria.
It consists of upthrust sandstone ridges with gentle, forested western slopes dropping off sharply in the east in a series of escarpments and serrated peaks.
A hot spot for Aboriginal rock art, the area was originally called Gariwerd but takes its more recent name from a Scottish mountain range.
It's a fabulous place for day hikes because the terrain and abundant wildlife make walking feel like an adventure, while well-maintained trails and modest elevations — few peaks top 1000m — make it achievable even for kids and the only moderately fit.
My time in the Grampians was short but luckily I had Marie Killeen, senior guide at Melbourne-based Auswalk, to show me the highlights.
As a warm-up she took me on a hot and sticky climb through stringybarks and grass trees to the top of Mt Sturgeon, from where we could see the aptly named Mt Abrupt and the rest of the Grampians stretching away to the north.
We met no humans but we did see an echidna snuffling around in the undergrowth and a bearded dragon guarding the trail. I can't lie and say I didn't feel an initial twinge of disappointment that something called a dragon was just 25cm long and didn't breathe fire.
From there we headed to Halls Gap, population 600, a tourist town in the heart of the Grampians.
We scaled a series of peaks in an almost Tolkienesque landscape — if you can imagine a really dry Middle Earth — where trails twist around gravity-defying rock stacks and lead through canyons so narrow your elbows scrape either side. And, unlike walking in New Zealand's dense rainforests, the sparse bush means you always have a view.
One of my favourite walks was the climb to the top of 991m-high Mt Rosea. The trail started in a shady forest of fire-blackened gums with kookaburras kicking up a racket and wildflowers, bright yellow banksias and lilac fringe lilies, adding splashes of colour.
Soon the bush opened up, the birds fell silent, and the gentle forest trail gave way to boulder-hopping around teetering rock stacks, under rock shelves and up stone staircases.
I was having so much fun I forgot I was walking uphill for almost 5km. It was like exploring a vast outdoor playground complete with wallabies and soaring wedge-tailed eagles.
If any hike can drag kids away from their phones and silence their refrains of "are we there yet?", this is it.
On the way down we saw an emu with two young foraging in the bush next to the trail.
Even the chicks were taller than Marie, who said the adult was most likely a male. In this progressive species, dad is responsible for most of the childcare.
After a full day in the Grampians I still hadn't seen a roo but I needn't have worried.
When I got up the next morning an eastern grey kangaroo was munching grass a couple of metres from my door with an over-sized joey in its pouch. Scattered around the motel grounds were at least a dozen of its mates, but that was nothing compared to the kangaroo army hopping around the nearby campground or trimming the grass at the race course up the road.
In the evening the roos were joined by thousands of corellas, a noisy, cockatoo-like bird, swirling in deafening flocks in the sky and roosting in the gum trees.
If you do go to the Grampians and have time for just one walk I'd recommend the loop trail to the Pinnacle, a 720m-high outcrop overlooking Halls Gap.
Instead of taking the track straight up the ridge, Marie led me up a rocky gully dubbed the Elephant Hide, through a Wonderland canyon and up a series of stone staircases. A super-fit Crocodile Dundee-type, who was taking his morning walk and looked to be well into his 60s, told us he'd counted all 1092 man-made steps.
Eventually the canyon narrowed to a cleft barely a metre wide, dubbed Silent Street by the locals. The walk was even more enjoyable than the climb up Mt Rosea and was rewarded with a final clamber up the Pinnacle with a commanding view over Halls Gap and along the Grampians' rocky spine.