DEMI LOVATO AND WILMER VALDERRAMA

Demi Lovato and Wilmer Valderramatook the world by surprise with news of their split on Friday, but people close to the pair say this was actually a longtime coming.

After dating for nearly six years, the couple called it quits last week. 

While the documentary covers all of the ups and downs about Lovato's life (from her early stages of depression through her growing fame and her struggles with drug abuse), the show takes a turn when she pauses to talk about Valderrama.

Demi thoughtfully begins, "I've never loved anyone like I loved Wilmer," and it just becomes more heatbreaking from there.

She says,

I've never loved anybody like I loved Wilmer, and like, I still love Wilmer. When I first met Wilmer he was 29. I met him on January 11 of 2010, and it was at a PSA shoot at his house for the 2010 census forms. To be honest, I only did it because I heard it was at his house and I thought he was really cute. I didn't really care about the census forms. But [when] I met him and I laid eyes on him for the first time, I was in hair and makeup and he came in and sat down and I was like 'I love this man' and 'I have to have him.' But I was only 17, so he was like, 'Get away from me.' After I turned 18, we began dating. I think it was love at first sight, and I don't really believe in that, but I believe that it happened.

It had nothing to do with falling out of love. We decided together that we're probably just better as friends. I do have moments where it's late at night and I'm lonely and I wonder if I made the right decision, because love is a gamble. I don't know if I'll lose him for the rest of my life.

I think my heart is always with Wilmer. I think it was with Wilmer. I think that it is with Wilmer, and I think that it will be... You don't share six years of your life with somebody and not give them a piece of your heart, and visa versa. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to meet anybody that compares to him, but I'm trying to keep an open heart and open mind when it comes to that. I'm growing up, by myself, and to have my own place designed the way that I want it to look, with my dog... I wanted to know what it's like to be on my own... and this is where I finally feel like I can be grown up.

S Chandrasekhar

Shri. S. Chandrasekhar has been Director of Operations and Director of The Singareni Collieries Company Limited since May 8, 2017.

Her noteworthy contributions in the total synthesis of architecturally diverse natural products are well-reflected towards the total synthesis of 35 natural products, which include an acinar morphogenetic inhibitor, Fusarisatin A, molecule with anticancer activity through tubulin inhibition, Rhazinal, neuro-protective natural product Stachybotrin C, anticancer molecule pladienolide, molecule with CNS activity, Kainic acid, prostacyclin analogue Beraprost, Bedaquiline (both R and S isomers) anti-TB compound, Azumamide E, Bengazole, Arenamide, Tubulysin, Spirastellolide B, Hyacinthacene A1, (-)-Spongidepsin with absolute stereo control. All these achievements were accomplished while developing new C–C bond formation reactions using organo-catalysis and carbocycles derived from carbohydrates.

Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar is the current President of the 12,000 member American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery . She was elected by the membership in August 2014. She is the third woman and the first person of Indian descent to hold that office. She previously served as Chair of the AAO-HNS Board of Governors.

Dr. Chandrasekhar completed her residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at New York University Medical Center in New York.  She then completed her fellowship in Otology and Neuro-otology at the House Ear Clinic and Institute in Los Angeles, California. She served on the full-time academic faculty of both UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and Mount Sinai School of Medicine before entering private practice in New York City in October 2004.  She is currently Director of New York Otology, Director of Neurotology at the James J. Peters Veterans Administration Medical Center, Otologist/Neurotologist at the New York Head and Neck Institute, and voluntary faculty at Mount Sinai.  As such, she is at the clinical forefront in management of disorders of hearing, balance, tinnitus, facial nerve, and lateral skull base, as well as cochlear and Baha implants. She is the medical director of the Vestibular Disorders Evaluation Clinic at the Bronx VA Hospital, a multidisciplinary team to rapidly and thoroughly assess and treat patients, especially those returning from active duty, with complex dizziness disorders.

Dr. Chandrasekhar’s career interests include hearing loss, tinnitus, vertigo, skull base tumors and temporal bone histopathology.  Since 1990, she has published several papers in otology and otolaryngology.  She published a landmark paper on sudden hearing loss, and was vice-chair of the Academy Guidelines on sudden hearing loss. She is now a Consultant on the AAO-HNSF Guidelines Development Taskforce. Her research on intranasal surfactant for otitis media and Eustachian tube dysfunction is ground-breaking. She has built on that research to develop a company to commercialize the use of intranasal surfactant for OM and ETD. She has also written on, and is funded for, gender research in otolaryngology. Dr. Chandrasekhar was honored with the AAO-HNS’s Distinguished Service Award in September 2006 and 2012.  She is Immediate Past Chair of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Board of Governors. Her other main interest is in humanitarian outreach.  She has led five groups of practitioners on medical/surgical missions to Nicaragua, and has delivered lectures and performed surgeries on several occasions in India, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

7 new Earth-like exoplanets discovered, NASA announces

Talk about lucky number seven. Astronomers have discovered not one, not two, but seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1.

What’s more, three of them are in the habitable zone— the happy place where liquid water can exist on the surface of rocky planets, as it’s not too hot or cold. (Although liquid water could potentially exist on any of the seven, NASA said, it likes the odds on those three best.) The space agency calls the discovery of the fascinating solar system record-breaking. 

“The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said at a news conference announcing the discovery.

Zurbuchen called it a "major step forward" towards the goal of answering the very big question: Is there life on other worlds?

The discovery "is very promising for the search for life beyond our solar system,” Michael Gillon, astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium, added during the press conference.

This is the first time astronomers have found so many Earth-sized planets circling the same sun.

Since the seven planets orbit the star-- which is roughly 40 light years away-- fairly close to each other, the view from one planet would reveal other planets to look as big, if not bigger, than the way we see the moon from Earth. 

“If you were on the surface of one of these planets, you would have a wonderful view [of] the other planets,” Gillon said, adding that they would be much more than just "dots of light" in the sky, as we see other planets, like Venus, from our home planet. 

The three planets in the habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks Zone, are called TRAPPIST-1e, f, and g. Exoplanet “e” is about the same size as Earth and even gets around the same amount of star light as we do.

Scientists already knew of thousands of planets beyond our own solar system.

All told, the tally of confirmed exoplanets stood at 3,449 on Wednesday. But only a small number of discovered exoplanets meet the criteria for being possible Earths-- Earth-sized planets that are not too big, and in the habitable zone of a star.

While this discovery was made using the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the most important instruments in the search for other planets is the Kepler Space Telescope, which is credited with 2,331 confirmed exoplanet discoveries. It uses a technique called the transit method, watching for a star to dim when a planet passes in front of the distant sun. About 74 percent of known exoplanets have been discovered using that method, according to NASA.

Exoplanet discoveries just keep coming.

Earlier this month, astronomers announced that they had evidence of perhaps as many as 114 new exoplanets; the data they used to find those came from Hawaii’s Keck Observatory, which made observations of over 1,600 stars for over two decades. One of those newly-discovered planets that has garnered attention is a hot, rocky “super Earth” called Gliese 411b.

Scientists have even discovered a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, aside from the sun. Called Proxima b, that planet is somewhat larger than our own planet and lies about four light years away— close by cosmic standards but still incredibly far away from a human perspective. (One light year— the distance light can travel in one Earth year— equals almost 6 trillion miles.) The important Proxima b discovery was announced last August.

Top 100 Upcoming Movies of 2017

1.Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Director: Jon Watts

Stars: Tom Holland, Donald Glover, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr.

A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging superhero.

2.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Director: James Gunn

Stars: Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Sylvester Stallone

Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' continues the team's adventures as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill's true parentage.

3.Alien: Covenant (2017)

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members (Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup) of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.

Release date: May 19, 2017 (USA)

Director: Ridley Scott

Film series: Alien

Music composed by: Jed Kurzel

Story by: Michael Green

KCSE 2016 RESULTS -Check Your Results Online

2016 KCSE Exam Results Analysis

Shocking drop in KCSE results as only 141 students score A 
2016 KCSE exam results out, only 141 scored straight As
Only 88,929 candidates attained C+ plus and above (out of 577,253).

88929 Students scored between A and C+ (All to be absorbed in the university)
141 As in 2016
4645 A- in 2016
10975 B+ in 2016
Alliance Girls High School (25 As in 2016 KCSE Results) & Kenya High School (21 As in 2016 KCSE Results)
Top 20 Students 16 are Girls and only 4 Boys

Number of As

2016 number of As is 141
2015 number of As was 2636
2014 number of As was 3017
2013 number of As was 2722

2016 number of B+ 10975
2015 number of B+ 21927

ANDROID LISTVIEW TUTORIALS FOR BEGINNERS

Android listview is a group view that displays a list of scrollable items. A simple example is phone Contact book, where you have a list of your contacts displayed in a listview.

To use a listview in android, drag and drop the listview control from the pallet to your user interface (UI).

LISTITEM.

List items are individual rows in a listview where data for each individual item is displayed. For example in the phone contact book mentioned earlier, each person’s contact details (could be their photo, number, name & email) are displayed in a single row (list item).

ADAPTER:-

Acts as the bridge between the view (e.g. Listview or gridview) and the underlying data for the view.

It just manages the adapter with the data and adapts the data to the individual rows (list item) of the view.

-        setAdapter() method is used to bind the adapter with the listview.

  Some common adapters provided by android include:-

a.      Simple cursor adapter.

b.      Array adapter.

c.      Cursor adapter.

But for the most part you would like to make your own adapter, and to do that you extent BaseAdapter.

Alright, enough basics let’s try a simple listview application now using Arrayadapter.

-        This kind of adapter is mostly used if you have a list of single items backed by an array. e.g. List of fruits names, list of cities, list of planets etc.

Let’s create a string array of fruits;

    String [] fruits= new String[] {“Orange”,”Apple”,”Mangoes”,”pineapple”,”Bananas”}; // this is our source data.

Next is to create the arrayadapater;

ArrayAdapter<String> fruitAdapter= new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, fruits);

fruitAdapter is an object of ArrayAdapter.

The parameters include:-

a.      Context… this

b.      Layout , which the adapter will use to bind the data from fruit array ; here we use _simple_list_item_1, displays a simple text view(you can use simple_list_item_multiple_choice to add check box after each textview)

c.      The 3^rd is the data ……. fruits.

The last thing is to reference our listview and bind it to our adapter.

ListView fruitList= (ListView)findViewById(R.id.lst);

 fruitList.setAdapter(fruitAdapter);

Here is the code:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

    android:layout_width="match_parent"

    android:layout_height="match_parent"

    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

    tools:context=".SharedPrefActivity" >

    <ListView

        android:id="@+id/listView1"

        android:layout_width="match_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"

        android:layout_alignParentTop="true" >

    </ListView>

</RelativeLayout>

package com.example.listviewtutorial;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.view.Menu;

import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

import android.widget.ListView;

public class ListViewActivity extends Activity {

ListView fruitList;

String[]fruits= new String[]{"orange","apple","Bananas","Mangoes","Carrots","Tomatoes","onions","potatoes",};// make it longer if you wish

    @Override

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_list_view);

        

 ArrayAdapter<String> fruitsAdapter= new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_expandable_list_item_1,fruits);

        

        

        fruitList=(ListView)findViewById(R.id.listView1);

        

        fruitList.setAdapter(fruitsAdapter);

    }

    @Override

    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {

        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.

        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.shared_pref, menu);

        return true;

    }

    

}

My way to spiritual maturity perfection

Don’t become discouraged by mistakes and rebukes. Children make many mistakes and must often be told they are wrong. How often does a child fall while learning to walk? They fall again and again gathering bumps and bruises. They spill their milk, don’t hold their spoon properly, fall off their bikes, and come to bat in the bottom of the ninth with the winning run in scoring position and strike out. Parents are continually correcting, instructing, and punishing, till we almost feel sorry for the kids. Growing up is tough! If kids are going to become mature, they have to keep going in spite of mistakes and rebukes. And someday they will look back on their own childish mistakes and just smile. Likewise, new converts will make many mistakes and must often be told they are wrong. Some of the greatest Bible characters committed terrible errors and had to be rebuked.

·        Moses made excuses when God called him to lead Israel out of bondage.

·        David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was rebuked by Nathan.

·        Peter denied Jesus three times.

·        Paul persecuted Christians before his conversion.

·        Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection.

·        All apostles forsook Jesus when He was arrested and crucified.

Yet all this are remembered as some of God’s greatest servants.

Great servants are not people who live without ever sinning, but people who learn from their mistakes and go on to serve God faithfully. Judas betrayed Jesus and he is remembered as a traitor. Peter denied Jesus three times and is remembered as great apostle. What is the difference? Judas, after betraying Jesus hung himself. Peter, after denying Jesus, repented and went to work preaching the gospel.

Proverbs 29:1 – A person is destroyed not simply because he errs, but because he becomes stubborn when he is rebuked and will not repent.  What is needed is repentance and patience to learn to do right.

    

By Floyd Harris: