Your Cellphone Could Be a Sonar Device

Submarines have used sonar for decades. Bats and dolphins have used it for millions of years. And thanks to a little math, humans could soon be echolocating with their mobile phones.

At the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, experts in signal processing discovered a mathematical technique that allows ordinary microphones to "see" the shape of a room by picking up ultrasonic pulses as they bounce off the walls. The work was published in this week's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Microphone echolocation is harder than it sounds. Ambient noise in any room interferes with the sounds used to locate the walls, and the echoes sometimes bounce more than once. There is also the added challenge of figuring out which echoes are bouncing off which wall.

NNPC must account for missing $10.8bn – TAPAN

The minister finance, Ngozi  Okonjo- Iweala,  must ensure that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)  accounts for the alleged missing $10.2 billion.

This is the position of  the Tax Payers Association of Nigeria (TAPAN). The association made its  position known in Abuja, yesterday, through its Board of Trustees chairman, Comrade Valentine Nzekwe, and the president, Mr Phillip Ilukhulo.

The body also  called for the amendment of  Section 85 (2) of the 1999 Constitution which  empowers the auditor-general of the federation or anyone authorised by him to audit “the public accounts of the federation and of all offices and courts of the federation” and submit his report to the National Assembly, but says the office cannot audit the NNPC but can only provide NNPC and similar bodies with a list of qualified external auditors to choose from, guide on fees to pay the external auditors, comment on their accounts and the external auditor’s reports.

According to TAPAN “ the finance minister is a woman of integrity and must therefore ensure they account for it as she promised. She has worked so hard for the nation and we believe she would ensure all the monies are accounted for.

Speaking on the  missing $10.8 billion from the Federation Account, at the Budget presentation last week, Okonjo-Iweala vowed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) must account for the missing fund.

According to her, the  role of the Federal Ministry of Finance is to ensure that the maximum amount of revenue  flows into the Federation Account.