The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at the National Science and Maths quiz  competition. This year, as part of the contests, Primetime, which organizes the  National Science and Mathz quiz  on TV, introduced a section where various people speak before the contests to motivate the Ghanaian senior high schools students as well as others present.  +Bubune Adih  who was part of the victorious Mfantsipim squad of 1999, spoke.  +Nana Awere Damoah  also spoke. The quizmistress  +Elsie Effah Kaufmann , who is a lecturer of the University of Ghana Legon, also took out some time to speak about her experiences. I was the last person in the series of speakers, speaking just before the semi-finals happened on July 2, 2015. Interestingly, Presec, my alma mater, competed in the first semi-final. I was there at the R.S. Amegashie auditorium to watch  Presec   compete . Unfortunately, we lost to Adisadel that day , who in turn lost out on th...

A friend +Nathan Kwadade  shared an  article  about the Top 15 National Science and Maths Quiz contestants with me earlier after this year's  National Science and Maths Quiz  (NSMQ) had ended. I  posted  it on Facebook and it generated a whole lot of chatter. Many people posted comments talking about other favorite contestants. Some came to share their credentials too. The comments on this Facebook  post actually drove me to write this blog post. Because you can find this blog post better than my Facebook post when you google the info you are looking for. There. You're welcome :-) Hisham Idris started us off with " Where is Bubune Adih of Mfsantsipim? He's arguably the most prominent contestant the show has seen. " It's hard to argue with him.  +Bubune Adih  actually participated in the NSMQ this year, not as a contestant, but as a speaker. He also donated GHC2000 to the best contestant for this year. Not doing badly at ...

When I was entering Presby Boys' Senior Secondary (Now High) School - Legon more than a decade ago for my senior secondary school education, one of my main goals was to be a contestant for the Presec at the Brilliant National Science and Maths quiz . I didn't meet this goal, I took an exam with a number of students and didn't make a cut of 12. I wasn't too bummed out. Back then, I thought to myself, writing an exam is not the way to choose quiz contestants. We should battle it out via quizzes. Either way, Presec competed for the National Science and Mathz quiz that year in 2001 and while we didn't win, we acquitted ourselves admirably. Charles Odonkor +kc odonkor , Michael Nkansah and Prince Tetteh competed for Presec. No big deal. My alma mater has won the famous Brilla trophy 5 times, 2 more than the next best placed school. 1995, 2203, 2006, 2008, 2009. Bragging rights yes. In fact, we've been amongst the semi-finalists several years. Strong confirma...

13:22 – Peak of the hybrid #eclipse as seen from Accra, Ghana. http://t.co/8mwxniw203 #solareclipse pic.twitter.com/X2k8ZusnWk — Kwabena (@Kwabena) November 3, 2013 At exactly 1.22 p.m. today, November 3,2013 , Ghana and other parts of West Africa experienced a partial solar eclipse . Thanks to news houses like +Citi97.3FM , we knew all about it before hand. The phenomenon, described as “the romance between the Sun and the Moon,” started at 11.38 a.m. and lasted until 1.22 p.m. In the run up to this, many Ghanaians looked for the special shades to watch the eclipse because you couldn't see this with your naked eye. I wasn't very interested so didn't bother to get one. But Ghanaians took this eclipse thing " World Cup " when it comes to cracking jokes about it. That's what this blog post will cover. But before we get into that, the Ghana Planetarium organized a special event to view the Solar Eclipse today. Folks learnt about what causes an eclipse...

One of my favourite websites, CP-Africa.com, reported that Nigerian-American Biophysicist, John Dabiri, recently won the prestigious $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship! It's a very prestiguous fellowship awarded to the dons and geniuses of our day. My former MIT lecturer, Amy Smith, won it as well as famous Nigerian writer (and one of my favorites) Chimamanda Adichie won the fellowship as well in 2008. Get inspired! Watch the video below and read his bio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2audOlniaQ Biophysicist John Dabiri was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010. The Fellowship is a $500,000, no-strings-attached grant for individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more. Learn more at http://www.macfound.org/fellows. John Dabiri is presently an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California He's only 30 :-) Read more at Cel...

A while back I heard about From A Whisper, a Kenyan movie by Wanuri Kahui which commemorated the 10th anniversary of August 7th terrorist bombing in Kenya in 1998. The trailer was super and I've wanted to watch the movie so badly. I tell everyone I know who's visiting Kenya to get me the movie but no one has found it for me yet. Well, Wanuri Kahui is in the news again. Her short film, Pumzi, has just won the Best Short Film award at the Cannes Festival, one of the most revered film festivals in the world. The time is arriving, when African movies are challenging others around the world in terms of world-class quality. To Wanuri and her crew, I say Hongera! Pumzi website: www.pumzimovie.com . Film synopsis from Pumzi website: Sc-Fi film about futuristic Africa, 35 years after World War III --The Water War. Nature is extinct. The outside is dead. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council. When she receives a box in the m...

I wrote this article for KNUST's TECHNOCRAT magazine a couple of years ago at the request of one of my Odadee mates there. I don't know if it was ever published but the contents of the article are still relevant a few years on. I hardly write articles for magazines/newspapers because I find it hard to write technical pieces without my usual sarcasm, question asking and flexibility. I tried with this one :-) Science, technology and entrepreneurship in Ghana It was a breath of fresh Ghanaian air to lay my hands on my first issue of KNUST’s Technocrat. I saw it a conscious effort to promote the ability and the potential of our Ghanaian intellectuals, mind and hand. People close to Ghanaian inventors know their capabilities but the word never reaches the masses and many a time the investor. It is about time it did. I spent a few minutes thinking what ‘bridging the gap between industry and academia’ meant. This was my conclusion – applying innovation and inventiveness in academia in...