Staunch environmentalist has offered himself as dinner to an anaconda in order to focus attention on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Paul Rosolie wanted was swallowed alive, filming every moment.

Anacondas, the largest snakes in the world, typically suffocate their prey before ingesting it, making Rosolie’s attempt all the more dangerous.

But Rosolie survived, and now people all around the world will have a chance to watch his harrowing journey into the stomach of the beast, starting Sunday night when the video airs in the United States on the Discovery Channel.

The idea came to him after a decade spent working in, and working to save, the rainforest habitat, Rosolie told AFP.

“Everybody on Earth knows that the rainforests are disappearing and most people can tell you how important they are, but still, not enough people are paying attention, not enough people realize this is such a problem.”

The American activist said he was proud to take on the adventure, even though the prospect of dying was hard to swallow.

An hour inside

To avoid suffocating, experts crafted Rosolie a specially designed carbon fiber suit, equipped with a breathing system — as well as with cameras and a system to communicate.

“We didn’t know if this was going to work, if I was going to be eaten, but we made sure that if I did make it inside the snake, I wouldn’t suffocate,” Rosolie explained after the ordeal.

The next challenge was trying to find a snake in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

“We spent 60 days out in the jungle, camping, hiking, looking through swamps every night,” Rosolie said.

Eventually, they found a female snake, which at, six meters (20 feet) long, fit the bill.

“When I went up to the snake, it didn’t try to eat me right away,” Rosolie recounted.

“It tried to escape. And when I provoked it a little bit, and acted a little more like a predator, that’s when it turned around and defended itself.”

The explorer was swallowed head first and spent more than an hour inside the giant snake, he said, adding that he kept in touch with his team the whole time.

He said he was scared that something would go wrong, but at the same time, “I was very excited to do it.”

“You are going up against one of the greatest predators of the planet and doing something that no one has ever done before,” he said.

Anaconda doing well

He did not give details on how he was freed from the snake, but he insisted his team was careful not to harm it and that he was the only one in danger.

“We didn’t force the snake to do anything, we didn’t ask from the snake anything out of the ordinary,” Rosolie said, explaining that “snakes very often regurgitate if they’re eating something and a predator comes by, they have to give up their meal so they can escape.”

The anaconda is now doing well, he said.

But Rosolie has faced fierce criticism from animal rights groups, including from PETA, who said “the snake was tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings.”

Rosolie said he even received death threats.

But he wasn’t fazed, saying the shock value is important to increase attention to his cause.

A fund linked to the show was set up to raise awareness and money to protect the Amazon and could also allow for more research of anacondas in their habitat.

After the US showing, “Eaten Alive” will air on December 10 in Finland, Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Sweden, and two days later in Australia, before being broadcast in other countries, including China and India.

Discovery said it expect at least three million viewers in the United States and a million others around the world.

If you’re waiting until the last minute to buy a Smartphone for the holidays, we have you covered.
Rankings were based on a variety of factors including design, software and hardware features, content selection, and price.

We are only considering phones that are available at Jumia (Kenya’s trusted Ecommerce site).

#9 BlackBerry Passport

BlackBerry’s newest Smartphone is the square-shaped BlackBerry Passport. It’s fat and wide compared to all other Smartphone’s, a design BlackBerry hopes will help it stand out. It also has a physical keyboard, a rare thing these days.

Price: Ksh69, 990

#8 Nokia Lumia 830

The Nokia Lumia 830 is one of the newest phones from Microsoft. It runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system and has a sharp 5-inch screen.

Price: Ksh 44,999

#7 HTC One M8 For Windows

The HTC One M8 For Windows is the best phone you can buy running the Windows Phone operating system. It has a gorgeous metal body and the new version of Windows Phone, 8.1, which includes the excellent digital assistant Cortana.

Price: Ksh 49,500

#6 iPhone 5S

Apple’s iPhone 5S may be over a year old, but it’s still a really good phone, especially if you don’t want a bigger screen.

Price: Ksh 58,999

#5 LG G3

LG’s current flagship, the G3, has one of the sharpest displays ever put on a smartphone. It’s also massive thanks to its 5.5-inch display. That makes the G3 more like a phablet than a standard Smartphone.

It’s a good Android phone, but LG put the power and volume keys on the back of the device, which is pretty awkward.

Price: 46,999

#4 Sony Xperia Z3

Sony’s flagship Z3 phone is one of the best Android phones to come out this year. It has a sharp 5.2-inch screen, incredible camera, and is resistant to water.

Price: Ksh 62,999

#3 HTC One (M8)

HTC’s flagship phone, the HTC One (M8), is the best Android phone you can buy.

Like the original, the new HTC One, which is also called the M8, has a gorgeous design and high-quality metal construction. It also has an extra rear camera that acts as a depth sensor so you can edit photos later and change the focus.

Price: Ksh49, 500

#2 iPhone 6 Plus

If you want a phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus is the best phone you can buy. Unlike other phablets that can be thick, chunky, and plasticky, the iPhone 6 Plus is thin, gorgeous, and made of metal. It doesn’t feel like you’re lugging around a giant phone.

Price: Ksh 91,500

#1 iPhone 6

The iPhone 6 is the best smartphone. Unless you really like using Android or Windows Phones, the iPhone 6 should be your first choice.

Chris Hart: We all love predictions. Tomorrow’s weather forecast, for example. The results of the next election. And how long your relationship will last…

Everyone has an opinion on that one, and so newspapers, magazines and TV endlessly offer suggestions.

But the truth is that even the couple rarely knows. Everyone starts off thinking it will last forever. Then you have your first serious argument. Instantly you’re scared. But afterwards, you reason that arguments make you a more skilled communicator and so you’re closer than before. But that belief’s actually an illusion.

Even trained marriage counsellors struggle to make good predictions, despite carefully basing their judgements on all the facts.

Real experts, in whatever field, know that judgement is unreliable. Instead, they create simple scales to guide their decisions. A famous example’s the “Apgar score” used to decide whether a newborn baby needs help. It’s a simple formula based on five vital signs that can be measured quickly: heart rate, breathing, reflexes, muscle tone, and colour.

The score does far better than a doctor’s judgement in deciding whether to take action, and has saved thousands of babies’ lives.

POSITIVE SCORE

Good marriage counsellors use the same idea, because they know that their impressions of a marriage are no better than the couple’s. So instead of using feelings, or judgement, or intuition, they score behaviour.

One very good approach counts verbal and non-verbal expressions of humour, contempt, anger, and affection. It’s very good at predicting marriage failure or success. But it’s complicated. On this scale, the couples with the best chance of success use humour well, are calm, affectionate, tease lovingly, and are interested in one another, companionable and supportive.

But by far the easiest test is a really simple formula: long term happiness equals how often you make love minus how often you quarrel. You don’t want the result to be a negative number! Because a positive score means happiness, while a negative one predicts misery.

This formula was discovered by psychologists who found that happy couples made love more often than they argued, while unhappy couples argued more than they made love. It really is as simple as that. So simple you can use the formula to monitor your relationship.

Just count your lovemaking and arguments and put them into the formula. Lovemaking means naked between the sheets of course, and an argument means anytime one of you is physically or verbally abusive, has emotional outbursts, refuses to talk, or leaves. Worry if a previously positive score goes negative  and start looking for the reason.

Because couples are OK when they’re loving more than they’re fighting. The other way round and eventually things will go wrong. Because couples with consistently negative scores generally separate or divorce before very long.

Do you argue a lot? I’m afraid the formula doesn’t mean you’ll straightway become happier by getting friskier in bed. You also need to fix the real problems. But it’s definitely worth a try!

A new business owner or manager can find it tough to know where to draw the line between being everyone’s friend and serving as an authority figure. But instead of turning into the bad guy when things get out of hand, here are a few alternative strategies for managing employees.

Encourage autonomy

Don’t be the type of boss who constantly gazes over employees’ shoulders to see where they’re at in carrying out a project. Micromanaging serves as a disadvantage to productivity. Employees need trust. They need to know that their managers believe they are fully capable of doing their work without a babysitter.

Over managing could disrupt employees’ natural rhythm of creativity or thought process, which can damage engagement and productivity.

Let peers evaluate one another

One way to get out of the bad-guy role is to put employees in charge of providing feedback to one another. Employees work closely with their colleagues anyway, so they often have a better grasp on who’s pulling his (or her) weight and who’s not.

Develop a system by which employees can thank one another for jobs well done or suggest ideas for improvement. Train employees to discuss improvement in a positive way — not to discourage someone.

Ask for feedback

Sometimes managers need to ask employees for feedback on their experience of working in an organization. Without feedback, there’s no way to see opportunities for improving and growing the company.

Listen and don’t try to deflect feedback with defensive statements. Let employees finish speaking. Thank employees for sharing.

Take action

Words that not followed with action add up to no change. When employees provide feedback, consider options to help meet unresolved needs. Take action to show your intention of making requested changes.

For example, if employees say they’ve been working long hours (say, coming in at 8 a.m. and not leaving until 7 p.m.), find solutions so that everyone can return to a normal schedule.

The reality of building a successful start-up is much more complicated than you think. Businesses don’t bloom into billion-shilling companies without a significant amount of capital. And raising money comes with a thorny question for start-ups.

What might the venture have to sacrifice to obtain the funding to fuel growth?

Giving up equity too early in the life cycle of a company can be extremely expensive. But starving a company of funding out of a fear of giving away too much ownership can hamstring its potential.

Self-funding can limit growth

Bootstrapping a company to its full potential is a lofty goal, but it’s almost always unattainable. Businesses simply need capital to fund their growth. And most savvy business owners realize that without outside capital, they will never grow their company to its true potential.

Entrepreneurs should always have a trusted advisor or CFO who can see ahead and make decisions proactively rather than reactively.

If you’re considering self-financing a company, think about the downsides before committing to this approach: Will it impede growth, restrict your market share or lead to a cash crunch?

Self-financed companies can find themselves in an unenviable position possible, running out of cash and desperate for financing. This can lead to a complete loss of leverage at the negotiating table with banks, venture capitalists or private equity groups.

When entrepreneurs lose cash flow, they give up leverage and negotiating power and risk losing too much ownership in a desperate attempt to raise funding

Parliament’s finance committee has approved the proposed sale of of five state owned sugar companies.

In a report tabled in the National Assembly yesterday, the committee argues that it is only through privatisation that the sugar sector can be revitalised.

The five companies are Miwani, Nzoia, Chemelil, Sony and Muhoroni. The committee wants the process fast tracked ahead of the Comesa safeguards on sugar imports which lapses in February.

“The privatisation programme should be expedited to save the sugar factories from the eminent collapse,” the committee recommends.

On October 14, the Cabinet approved the privatisation proposals of the five companies to facilitate rehabilitation and expansion with a view to enhancing competitiveness in the industry prior to lapse of the Comesa safeguards.

The report, tabled in the House by vice chairman Nelson Gaichuhie, warns the government against injecting more capital in the factories as previous attempts have yielded no return.

The committee says the privatisation is necessary because the government requires Sh40 billion to rehabilitate and modernise the five factories.

The companies are heavily indebted and cannot meet their current obligations or to mobilise additional resources as they are unable to meet related debt commitment.

According to the report, the five companies were, as of June 2009, indebted to the tune of Sh59 billion.

In January 2013, Parliament approved the write-off of debt totaling Sh33.8 billion through Sessional Paper No 12 of 2012 but the government is yet to execute the write off.

The report says out of the remaining Sh8.045 billion, after the write-off to clear the excess debt, an additional Sh5.9 billion, which is equivalent of the asset value, be written off to facilitate reconstruction of the sugar mills.

Paper: A Field Experiment in Motivating Employee Ideas

Authors: Michael Gibbs, University of Chicago, Susanne Neckermann,
Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Christoph Siemroth, University of Mannheim

Published: May 2014

In this paper, researchers had rare access to a database that tracked 5,000 ideas submitted by employees of an unidentified Asian information technology company. They found that newer workers may have a fresh perspective on the business, but it’s the longtime employees who have the primo ideas.

Younger professionals come up with slightly more suggestions than veterans, but theirs are not as good as those from the people in the organization for the longest time. To measure how good a given idea was, researchers looked at whether the idea was implemented within the company, a sign that management deemed it good enough to try, and whether it was shared with clients, on the rationale that managers would be unlikely to present inferior ideas to external stakeholders.

The researchers also discovered that rewards (points that could be turned in for such goodies as a smartphone) inspired workers—especially lower-level employees—to pitch ideas. That sounds like common sense, but an effect you might expect rewards to have—that workers would flood the suggestion box in the hope of a reward, diluting the quality of the ideas—didn’t happen.

Instead, idea quality was better overall, and incentives actually reduced the number of ideas per employee, even as they got more people to participate. What’s more, when the rewards went away, the ideas didn’t—the researchers suggested that workers keep pitching because they’d gotten in the habit of doing it.

One clear benefit: A website where employees can submit ideas lets management track the progress of suggestions. Better yet, it’s transparent, letting everyone in the organization see the origin and progress of ideas, which helps stimulate employee participation.