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African Tech Roundup - What Defines An African Startup? + The Week’s Biggest News

Back in Episode 3 of the African Tech Round-up we asked the question: “What is a startup?” A lively discussion ensued— inspired by an eloquent piece written by David Adamo Jr, a Nigerian Computer Science PhD student at the University of North Texas. Since then, the highly-opinionated founder of Hotels.ng, Mark Essien, and Project Isizwe CEO, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, have both since penned articles (When Startups In Nigeria Suddenly Got Serious and Venture Capital In Africa Is Hard) which contribute to answering a more pointed question we’re asking in this week’s show: “What defines an African startup?” Can African tech startups be defined in the same terms as those currently being born and raised in Silicon Valley? Are there certain universal standards (i.e. minimum levels of traction in the form user on-boarding, cashflow, etc) that must be met in order for a business owner to claim the coveted title of “startup founder”? Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku's discussion this week adds to a debate that we hope everyone in Africa’s tech eco-system will continue to jump in on. Also, catch up on all the week’s biggest tech, digital and innovation news from across Africa: -- Safaricom poised to start charging banks for bank-to M-Pesa transfers, -- Google Transit launches in Kenya and attempts to aid users of public transport, -- Nest VC establishes a presence in South Africa through a partnership with Cape Town Garage, -- Android One’s Infinix Hot 2 smartphone selling like hotcakes in Nigeria, -- Google announces that they have reached a 10 million user milestone in Nigeria, -- South African mobile network, Cell C, discontinues free WhatsApp promotion, and -- South African airline FlySafair server crash following slash price ticket campaign. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Serious Inquiries Only - AS167: Ex-Baha’i Sahar

Sahar is an ex-Baha’i and she is here to tell us all about it! She very recently came to the realization that she is an atheist, and one of the things that she claims has helped her through this process is hearing from the ex-religious on my show. So, in that spirit, I figured we … Continue reading AS167: Ex-Baha’i Sahar →

The post AS167: Ex-Baha’i Sahar appeared first on Atheistically Speaking.

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The Gist - The Year Disco Became a Dirty Word

On The Gist, our regular guest Chris Molanphy returns to explore Billboard chart hits from 1980, including rock songs, adult contemporary tracks, and lots of elements stolen from disco. It was a great year for dentists’ offices. For the Spiel, we name our new lobstar of the antentwig.  Do check out this Spotify playlist to hear the songs mentioned in today’s show one more time. Once is never enough. Attention all New York City–area Gist fans! Tickets are now on sale for our first-ever LIVE Gist event. More info and tickets available here. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.

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the memory palace - Episode 75 (The Ballad of Captain Dwight)

The finale of the 2015 Summer Season.

 

 

Music

* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.

* There's Branches, by Keith Kenniff

* Then The Big Ocean, from Ben Sollee's score to Maidentrip. 

* Then End of the World from Dan Romer's score to Beasts of the Southern Wild. 

* There's The Sage, pulling once more from the dope-as-hell self-titled album from the Chico Hamilton Quintet.

* There's a loop pulled from Worm is Green's song, Brand New Day

* There's The Light, from my pal Jimmy's wonderful project, The Album Leaf. Go buy their albums. 

* The piece at the end is the theme to Charlie Countryman from Christophe Beck's score.

* Oh: stuff gets heavy to Ghosts I from Nine Inch Nails.

* And finally (though out of order), playing over the fall-out from JFK's death is Now by Goldmund. 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes

A selected bibliography.

 

* We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, by Richard Paul and Steven Moss

* Voices of Contemporary and Historical Black Pioneers, Farmer & Shepard-Wynn, editors

* The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

* Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Sciences, by Gulbert, Sawyer, and Fannin

* The All-American Boys, Walt Cunningham's memoir.

* The Ebony article mentioned in the piece can be read here.  

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - China Stock Market Crash

The Chinese Market Crash in context. How big is the market, how many investors does it have and does it tell us anything about the wider Chinese economy?

Eight Million Foreigners Are there really eight million foreigners in the UK?

What does 95% less harmful actually mean? E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than ordinary cigarettes according to last week's report by Public Health England. But what does this mean? The number was arrived at using something called 'multi criteria decision analysis' so how does it work ? we ask the man who brought it to the UK, Professor Larry Phillips.

Thinking Like an Engineer Guru Madhavan from America's National Academy of Scientists lifts the lid on how engineers think and argues that those making policy should ask engineers as well as economists about solving social problems.

Sprinters legs It's may seem strange, but world class runners don't move their legs faster than average park runner. That's the claim anyway ? is it true and if so what is it that means athletes like Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin run so fast?

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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - The Future of Slavery

While it's comforting to imagine slavery as a barbaric practice in humanity's distant past, nothing could be further than the truth. Join Ben and Matt to learn more.

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They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

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The Allusionist - 17. Fix part I

The English language is a mess. And if you don’t like it, what are you going to do about it – fix it? Good luck with that.

In the early 18th century, a movement of grammarians and authors wanted to set up an official authority to regulate English, like French had in the Academie Francaise. But is trying to fix a language a good move? Linguists Liv Walsh and Thomas Godard weigh up the evidence.

There is more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/fix-i. Say hello at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

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