Dust Magazine

The Condom Challenge: Bill Gates is giving away $100,000 to anyone that can revolutionise the condom

dust — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:00:42 +0000

Yes, you read correctly. Bill Gates, through the Gates Foundation, and Grand Challenges in Global Health are calling all scientists, students, entrepreneurs and innovators and challenging them to come up with ideas to make wearing a condom (male or female) more enjoyable and fun.

The program was launched in 2008 and already, more than 800 Grand Challenge Grants have been awarded to innovative, early-stage projects in over than 50 countries. As we said before, the grant program is open to anyone from any discipline.

Need more motivation to make history? Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded (not once, but..) twice a year and successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-up grant of up to $1 million.

Really very cool.

Download the latest issue of DUST here!

dust — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:56:53 +0000

View this document on Scribd

Freaky Friday: 33 Mistakes Men Make While Having Sex

dust — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:00:10 +0000

We thought we’d give you a little something to get you and your colleagues, friends, partners talking this weekend.

What do you think? What are the mistakes women make while having sex?

Exchange Program for Media Professionals from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and the United States

dust — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:00:05 +0000

This is an interesting program for you wonderful members of the media. The Exchange Program is run by the International Centre fro Journalists (ICFJ) and is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

They’re looking for 20 African media professionals from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda (5 from each country), who will be involved in a 18-month, multi-phase program that’ll include approximately 4 weeks at an American media organisation for a practical fellowship.

Sounds like something you’d be interested in? Click here to go to the ICFJ’s website and apply. The deadline is 15 January 2013.

Source

Image: Reuters

Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women: Discovering the world of BDSM

dust — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:00:01 +0000

I have always loved sex, apart from an unfortunate first time incident, and vowed to always have satisfying sex; I have been known to hop off a dick halfway through if the man’s moves were not good enough.

At the age of 30 it seemed I was all fucked out, until I stumbled on a fem-dom porn clip. My pussy got wet instantly watching the lady use and abuse her submissive.

Fast forward 4 months and I am now the Black Mistress, so enamoured with the BDSM world that I have sworn off vanilla sex. There is something so exhilarating about penetrating an alpha straight male from behind and hearing him moan and desperately beg for more [aside: for my ladies who love to peg and lesbians out
there, invest in the Feeldoe, a strapless strapon - it will change your sex life!!!].

In my journey of self-discovery I have met weird and wonderful people, and also made amazng business contacts it seems the more powerful the man in the vanilla world, the more submissive he becomes in the bdsm world.

Have you ever explored BDSM? (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, Masochism) Are you curious about BDSM? What questions do you have? Post them in the comments box .

Join the conversation here.

TED Talk: Try Something New for 30 Days

dust — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:02:55 +0000

Its been said that you can break a habit in 30 days; its also been said that you can form a habit in the same period of time. Why not challenge yourself to improve certain parts of your life, giving yourself 30 days to do so?

Take a moment to think ‘Who do I want to be in 5 years?’ What kind of habits would you like to have?

Check out this TED talk first to get inspired:

Save a tree. Read an e-book.

dust — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:00:17 +0000

Yeah, we said it. Many of us now have smart phones or tablets of some form or other and with the environmental changes we are all experiences, its important that we make small changes to our lifestyle to make a difference. For us in the publishing industry, the change is pretty simple: going electronic.

The great thing about this is that more and more free electronic content is becoming available for those interested enough in taking the time to download it.

Save a tree. Read an e-book.

We’ve put together a list of our favourite website to get free books (classics and relatively new stuff) and magazines. If you know of a website we’ve missed, lets us know in the comments box. Sharing is caring.

The Literature Project

100 Simple Nutrition Tips

dust — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:00:10 +0000

Don’t substitute fruit juices for whole fruits.
Eat whole, fresh, unprocessed foods.
When buying packaged foods, read the nutrition labels carefully.
Never cut any food group out of your diet, including carbohydrates.
Don’t eat too much or until you’re stuffed.
Eat something every four hours.
Don’t take more than one all-purpose multivitamin daily.
Exercise is important to burn your food efficiently.
Before following a nutrition plan, check the credentials of the creator.
Keep track of your food intake to know which food group you need to eat more or less from.
Eat a variety of foods.
Take the skin off before eating chicken.
Eat fish at least once a week.
Cut back on margarine.
When eating outside, watch out for large portion sizes.
Desserts should be kept to minimum.
Use extra virgin olive oil for salads or whenever suitable.
Buy low fat versions of dairy products.
Eat oily fish like salmon, mackerel or sardine at least twice a week (rich in Omega-3)
Never smoke after eating.
Don’t eat fruits immediately after meal.
Replace tea with green tea.
Don’t sleep immediately after eating.
Apples protect your heart.
Bananas strengthen bones.
Broccoli combats cancer.
Carrots save eyesight.
Fish boosts memory.
Garlic kills bacteria.
Honey increases energy.
Lemons smoothen skin.
Mushrooms control blood pressure.
Oranges support immune systems.
Rice conquers kidney stones.
Strawberries calm stress.
Tomatoes protect prostate.
Walnuts lift mood.
Yogurt protects against ulcers and helps us digest food better.
Eat breakfast.
Enjoy soups often.
Make a fruit salad at least once a week.
Keep a variety of raw vegetables ready in the fridge for quick snacks.
Include one dark green and one orange vegetable on your plate every day.
Make at least half of your carbohydrate foods whole grain each day (e.g. brown rice).
Take a vitamin D supplement daily (the dose should be according to your age).
Replace salt with lemon, herbs and spices to flavor foods.
Eat a variety of fibre-rich foods everyday including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
Minimize your caffeine intake.
Purchase leaner meat cuts more often.
Eggs, beans, peas and lentils provide a good source of protein and fibre (also are good meat alternatives for vegetarians).
When eating out, choose healthier choices.
Substitute whole wheat flour for white flour.
Keep the skin and peels on fruits and vegetable if possible.
Replace fried food with steamed, baked or broiled food.
Slow down when you eat.
Buy organic products whenever possible.
Plan healthy menus as a family.
Home-cooked meals always win over eating out.
Enjoy preparing meals as a family. It’s a lot of fun.
Mustard can be consumed guilt free.
Use peanut butter and avocado as healthy fat sources.
Eat cabbage to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
Eat lettuce if you have a sleep problem.
Dark chocolate is packed with healthy nutrients. Moreover, it improves mood and pleasure.
Ginger is called “the universal medicine”
Onion is believed to clean the blood among many other health benefits. It is also one of the cheapest vegetables.
Use chocolate covered bananas as a healthy dessert.
The liver can make more enzymes out of fresh lemon juice than any other food element.
Whole oats are famously fiber, minerals, and vitamins rich.
Frozen vegetables retain almost all of their nutritional value.
Asian food is considered among the healthiest in the world.
To make any meal ultra nutritious, just add sea vegetables (can be found in Asian markets)
Fasting is one of the oldest therapies in medicine.
Spinach is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available that improve brain function.
Eggs aid in concentration and improves memory.
An orange a day keeps the doctor away!
Wait 20 to 30 minutes to have a second helping.
Swap soda for water.
Pack healthy snacks.
Select foods that have minimal saturated fats.
Avoid foods that contain more than 10 ingredients.
Avoid foods that contain man-made ingredients.
3,500 calories = 1 pound of body weight
Spice your meals up.
Split your meal with a friend.
Avoid open buffets.
Eat your favorite foods – even if unhealthy – every now and then.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
Don’t put serving bowls on the table.
Protein bars make a good snack.
Research healthy restaurants.
Start each lunch/dinner with salad.
Drinking a glass of ice water can burn 25 calories!
Don’t leave yourself dehydrated. Water flushes out fats and toxins.
The best healthy cuisines are Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican and Greek.
Buy food in its season (e.g. strawberries in summer).
Buy from local farmers.
Veggie broth is a great healthy choice.
Eat less, enjoy more.
Make your own instead of buying in jars.

No joke: African teens create urine-fueled generator.

dust — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:00:47 +0000

The days where people could say there was no innovation coming out of Africa is truly a time of the past. Not only is Africa pioneering some of the most impressive mobile banking systems in the world, but now it appears that four young African girls are attempting to make their mark in the renewable energy industry by crating a generator that runs on urine. Yes, you read right. The generator runs on pee.

Read the original article below, where the arthor, Leslie Katz, discovered the girls at this year’s Maker Faire Africa in Lagos Nigeria.

In a stroke of ingenuity that could have proven handy during Hurricane Sandy, four teenage African girls have come up with a urine-powered generator.

Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all 14, and Bello Eniola, 15, collaborated on the invention, which they claim generates one hour of electricity from one liter (about a quart) of urine.

The pee-powered product made its debut at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, this week. A post on the Maker Faire Africa blog describes the generator’s workings in the following words:

Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

Hydrogen, of course, carries explosive risks, so the girls used one-way valves as a security measure (whether that is safety precaution enough is unclear). But don’t start saving your bladder output just yet. The blog doesn’t mention where the energy needed to power the electrolytic cell comes from, or whether the electrolytic cell uses more power than the machine generates.

While many commenters on the Maker Faire Africa blog are applauding the girls’ work, others have expressed skepticism of their contraption. On one science-minded blog, believers and not-so-believers are currently engaged in a lively and thorough deconstruction of its various components.

The girls will probably be famous chemists one day, in any case, but they aren’t the first to propose urine (or more solid human and animal waste) as a possible alternative fuel.

Last year, in one example, researchers from Ohio University came up with their own technology for extracting hydrogen from urine. Doing so, they say, requires less power than plucking it from water, as hydrogen can be separated more easily from the ammonia and urea chemical compounds present in pee.

The four African teens likely are the youngest researchers yet to dabble in pee as power. Skepticism aside, can we all just agree that the foursome should be lauded for their efforts to find alternative power sources on a continent that could really use them? Sheesh. When I was 14, I’m pretty sure I was too busy watching TV to concern myself with hydrogen extraction.

Original article/ source

Photo credits: Maker Faire Africa

10 Relationship Words that aren’t Translatable into English

dust — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:00:45 +0000

With Ghana’s ‘Wedding Season’ quickly approaching, we at DUST have been wondering about how other cultures use words to express the idea and experiences of love. This lead us to a site that had a list of relationship words that you just couldn’t translate into English because we didn’t have a word for the particular experience or emotion. Don’t ask how some of them are pronounced, but find some of them below:

Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego): The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to start.

Oh yes, this is an exquisite word, compressing a thrilling and scary relationship moment. It’s that delicious, cusp-y moment of imminent seduction. Neither of you has mustered the courage to make a move, yet. Hands haven’t been placed on knees; you’ve not kissed. But you’ve both conveyed enough to know that it willhappen soon… very soon.

Yuanfen (Chinese): A relationship by fate or destiny. This is a complex concept. It draws on principles of predetermination in Chinese culture, which dictate relationships, encounters and affinities, mostly among lovers and friends.

From what I glean, in common usage yuanfen means the “binding force” that links two people together in any relationship.

But interestingly, “fate” isn’t the same thing as “destiny.” Even if lovers are fated to find each other they may not end up together. The proverb, “have fate without destiny,” describes couples who meet, but who don’t stay together, for whatever reason. It’s interesting, to distinguish in love between the fated and the destined. Romantic comedies, of course, confound the two.

Cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese): The act of tenderly running your fingers through someone’s hair.

Retrouvailles (French): The happiness of meeting again after a long time.

This is such a basic concept, and so familiar to the growing ranks of commuter relationships, or to a relationship of lovers, who see each other only periodically for intense bursts of pleasure. I’m surprised we don’t have any equivalent word for this subset of relationship bliss. It’s a handy one for modern life.

Ilunga (Bantu): A person who is willing to forgive abuse the first time; tolerate it the second time, but never a third time.

Apparently, in 2004, this word won the award as the world’s most difficult to translate. Although at first, I thought it did have a clear phrase equivalent in English: It’s the “three strikes and you’re out” policy. But ilunga conveys a subtler concept, because the feelings are different with each “strike.” The word elegantly conveys the progression toward intolerance, and the different shades of emotion that we feel at each stop along the way.

Ilunga captures what I’ve described as the shade of gray complexity in marriages—Not abusive marriages, but marriages that involve infidelity, for example. We’ve got tolerance, within reason, and we’ve got gradations of tolerance, and for different reasons. And then, we have our limit. The English language to describe this state of limits and tolerance flattens out the complexity into black and white, or binary code. You put up with it, or you don’t. You “stick it out,” or not.

Ilunga restores the gray scale, where many of us at least occasionally find ourselves in relationships, trying to love imperfect people who’ve failed us and whom we ourselves have failed.

La Douleur Exquise (French): The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have.

When I came across this word I thought of “unrequited” love. It’s not quite the same, though. “Unrequited love” describes a relationship state, but not a state of mind. Unrequited love encompasses the lover who isn’t reciprocating, as well as the lover who desires. La douleur exquise gets at the emotional heartache, specifically, of being the one whose love is unreciprocated.

Koi No Yokan (Japanese): The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love.

This is different than “love at first sight,” since it implies that you might have a sense of imminent love, somewhere down the road, without yet feeling it. The term captures the intimation of inevitable love in the future, rather than the instant attraction implied by love at first sight.

Ya’aburnee (Arabic): “You bury me.” It’s a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

The online dictionary that lists this word calls it “morbid and beautiful.” It’s the “How Could I Live Without You?” slickly insincere cliché of dating, polished into a more earnest, poetic term.

Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you’re first falling in love.

This is a wonderful term for that blissful state, when all your senses are acute for the beloved, the pins and needles thrill of the novelty. There’s a phrase in English for this, but it’s clunky. It’s “New Relationship Energy,” or NRE.

Saudade (Portuguese): The feeling of longing for someone that you love and is lost. Another linguist describes it as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist.”

It’s interesting that saudade accommodates in one word the haunting desire for a lost love, or for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be-experienced love. Whether the object has been lost or will never exist, it feels the same to the seeker, and leaves her in the same place: She has a desire with no future. Saudade doesn’t distinguish between a ghost, and a fantasy. Nor do our broken hearts, much of the time.