Latest news with #VictoriaIsland
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
People left with a 'headache' after discovering bizarre island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island - as one vents 'my brain cells hurt'
The remote regions of the world are full of some incredible and baffling mysteries. Now, one discovery, shared in a viral post on Instagram by @ has left social media users reeling. Located in remote northern Canada, this is the world's largest island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island. If that description sounds confusing then you're not alone, as Instagram users have flocked to the comments to complain that the island left them with a 'headache'. One frustrated user vented: 'That just scrambled my brains.' At the centre of this geological Russian nesting doll is a small, sea-horse-shaped island measuring just over 300 metres (1,000ft) long from end to end. That island is nestled inside a small unnamed lake which takes up most of the area of another larger island. This, in turn, is sat within a 55-mile (90km) lake located near the coast of Victoria Island, the eighth largest island in the world. Zooming out, you can see that this island is sat inside a larger, 55 mile (90km) lake One commenter said they 'literally had a headache' after trying to understand this strange island This island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island is what geologists refer to as a 'recursive island'. Geography buffs used to believe that the largest of these recursive structures was an island in a crater lake on Volcano Island in the middle of Lake Taal on the Philippine island of Luzon. But careful satellite analysis has revealed that the unnamed Canadian recursive lake is significantly larger. However, that exciting bit of trivia may have been lost on many social media users who have struggled to comprehend the island's tongue-twister-like description. On Instagram, one baffled commenter complained: 'I literally had a headache after reading this'. 'I had a stroke reading it,' another chimed in. Meanwhile another wrote: 'My brain is fried.' Even those who did manage to get their heads around the description still reported being left frazzled by the efforts, writing: 'I think I got it, but I think I pulled a brain muscle trying.' Even those who did understand what they were reading complained of pulling a 'brain muscle' while trying The island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island At the centre is a small island measuring 300m from end to end. That island is nestled inside a small unnamed lake which takes up most of the area of another larger island. This, in turn, is sat within a 55-mile lake near the coast of Victoria Island. Due to the island's remote location in the freezing Arctic, it is unlikely that anyone has ever set foot on this strange recursive island. Victoria Island, or Kitlineq as it is called by the Innuit residents, has a population of less than 2,000 people despite being larger than the US state of Idaho. However, Canada's unique geography means that this region is littered with recursive lakes. Canada is also home to the world's largest island-in-a-lake, Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, and the largest lake-on-an-island, Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island. According to the NASA Earth Observatory, nearly all of Canada was covered by glaciers during the last ice age. As the glaciers moved, they carved out a network of channels and deposited small hills made up of glacial till, a mixture of clay, sand, and rock dug up by glaciers. Dr Daniel Kerr, a geologist from the Geological Survey of Canada, told NASA's Earth Observatory: 'This area became ice-free by about 8,000 years ago. 'But because of the weight of the ice sheet, the land was depressed and the waters of the Arctic Ocean flooded the land.' That left the region dotted with millions of small lakes, many of which had islands of them which, in turn, had their own nested lakes and islands.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wärtsilä to supply power generation equipment to 30MW power plant in Nigeria
Technology company Wärtsilä has been selected to supply and maintain a new 30MW power plant on Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria, for a local independent power producer (IPP). The project, which is a first-of-its-kind in Nigeria, is expected to serve as a model for future power projects in the country. It is being developed through a collaboration between Lagos-based Elektron Energy and its local partners. Victoria Island Power (VIPL), a special-purpose company incorporated by Elektron Energy, has entrusted Wärtsilä with the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of the project. Wärtsilä will also manage and maintain the power plant for a duration of five years on behalf of the client. Elektron Energy co-CEO and CFO Deen Solebo said: 'Elektron has conceptualised, developed, and funded the IPP and has secured the implementation by engaging Wärtsilä to assume single point responsibility for the major construction and operational aspects related to the eventual power generation facility. 'This pioneering project relies on reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) technology that has the efficiency and flexibility to deliver clean and reliable electricity to our customers.' The new power plant will run on natural gas and will be integrated with the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) at their NEPA Close Site. It is expected to improve the availability and reliability of the power supply to consumers served by EKEDC. The power plant will comprise three Wärtsilä 34SG gas engine-generator sets with related auxiliaries. It is designed to be scalable, allowing for the addition of one more engine-generator set in the future. This modular design concept by Wärtsilä enables cost-effective expansion with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. Solebo added: 'Clearing and preparation activities at the NEPA Close Site are progressing well and are due for completion within Q2 2025, after which construction can start. 'Commissioning is expected 15 months thereafter and the operations and maintenance agreement is timed to commence before the new build project reaching commercial operations date (COD).' VIPL has secured power purchase agreements (PPAs) with individual customers, adopting a service-based tariff philosophy. The project is backed by institutional investors and funding partners, including ARM Harith Infrastructure Fund, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, InfraCredit, Bank of Industry, FBN Quest, and Stanbic Infrastructure Partners. In April 2025, Wärtsilä announced that it will supply a 64MW/128 megawatt hour (MWh) energy storage system for Octopus Australia's Fulham solar battery hybrid project. "Wärtsilä to supply power generation equipment to 30MW power plant in Nigeria" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Five Years and Scores of New Jewelry Designers Later
Akunna Nwala-Akano, the founder of the Kuku's Hair salon chain in Lagos, Nigeria, found herself at loose ends in April 2020. Like many people around the world, she was fearful of losing loved ones to Covid-19 and struggling to make sense of life under lockdown. 'I was downright depressed,' Ms. Nwala-Akano, a lawyer by training, said on a video call last month from London, where she and her family were on vacation. 'I was trying to promote my hair business. I'd never done TikTok in my life. So I said, 'OK, I'll go into my dressing room and I'll make TikTok videos for hair.'' Then, inspired by a grandmother's jewelry collection, she began designing her own pieces and, by 2021, had arranged for them to be made overseas. Her first creations, a diamond necklace and earrings in a fan motif, referenced her family's roots in eastern Nigeria, where making fans, especially in raffia and leather, is a traditional handicraft. 'Designing was a distraction from thinking about losing people,' she said. 'And then before I knew it, everybody was like, 'Have you seen Kuku's jewelry?'' ('Kuku is the short form of Akunna,' she said, calling it a pet name that family members use for her.) Today Akano, the fine jewelry brand born of Ms. Nwala-Akano's time in lockdown, employs 14 people and opened its first store in September 2024 on Lagos's Victoria Island. Ms. Nwala-Akano, who during the call displayed a striking diamond pavé necklace featuring a 74-carat rubellite tourmaline, now has set her sights on international expansion. 'I'm going to be the Messika, the Graff, the Cartier coming out of Nigeria,' said Ms. Nwala-Akano, 43. 'I'm going to play catch-up with those old jewelry houses, and I'm going to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.' Human Potential You may not realize it, but buying fine jewelry today is a fundamentally different experience than it was before the pandemic. The digital innovations and supply chain disruptions that earned headlines during Covid's initial spread have made gems and precious metals easier to purchase, but also more expensive. The biggest impact, however, may have come from the influx of designers such as Ms. Nwala-Akano, who pivoted to jewelry during lockdown. Adept at using social media, conscious of sustainability and committed to sharing their idiosyncratic points of view, these newcomers have helped redefine what sells, whether it happens through stores, online platforms or social feeds. 'The pandemic caused many people to rethink their priorities and put steps in place to bring their dreams and passions to life,' Maia Adams, the co-founder of Adorn, a jewelry consultancy in London, wrote in an email. 'I certainly noticed a rise in popularity of independent, founder-led brands, some of which had existed before the pandemic, others that emerged during or shortly after it.' Take, for example, Alexia Karides, the founder of Ysso, a demi-fine jewelry brand manufactured in Athens with its headquarters in London. In March 2020, Ms. Karides, a lawyer who had been working for a skin care brand, was stuck in her London flat with nothing but time. She began to ruminate on how she might build a jewelry brand around the sculptural gold-plated jewels that her mother, Stalo Karides, an archaeologist and art historian, had been making in Athens since 2015. 'I'd been talking about it for years by this point,' Ms. Karides said on a video call last month from her parents' home in Athens, where she was photographing the brand's next campaign. 'The reason I hadn't launched before was because I was thinking, 'What would people think? Will they like it?' There was all this self-doubt. Being alone during Covid, that came apart.' In contrast, Meghan Griffiths, the founder and designer of Angharad, a fine jewelry brand in London, always knew she would be a creative entrepreneur. But until the pandemic forced her to seek refuge at her parents' farm in the English county of Hampshire, she didn't have the space or time to devote to her own work. 'My parents kindly gave me one of the outer farm buildings,' Ms. Griffiths, 30, said on a video call from her current workshop in Hatton Garden, London's jewelry district. 'I got a bench and got the initial equipment that I needed just to start designing.' In 2021, she founded Angharad, a name taken from 'The Mabinogion,' a collection of early Welsh prose that she discovered in her parents' home (Ms. Griffiths has Welsh heritage and Angharad also happens to be her middle name). 'One of the characters is called Angharad Golden-Hand because she used to wear all this gold,' Ms. Griffiths said. 'And I was like, 'It's a sign.'' Similarly, when Zulaikha Aziz, the founder of Mazahri, a fine jewelry brand that uses motifs drawn from her native Afghanistan, officially introduced her website on March 20, 2021, she, too, was encouraged by a kind of mystical significance. 'It was an auspicious date because it was Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and it was like a new beginning,' Ms. Aziz, who left Afghanistan with her family when she was a child and later trained as a lawyer, said on a video call last month from her home in Laguna Niguel, Calif. The idea for the brand first came in 2014 when Ms. Aziz was traveling to Afghanistan to work as a legal adviser on a democracy and governance project. 'There's an area in Kabul called Koch-e Murgha, which translates literally to Chicken Street,' Ms. Aziz said. 'And there are rows and rows of jewelers who've had stalls there for hundreds of years. I would go in and talk to some of them and look for vintage pieces because I really love vintage gold Afghan jewelry.' The security situation in Kabul had gotten progressively worse, Ms. Aziz said, but by 2018 and 2019, when she was working on a project for the Asia Foundation, it had deteriorated significantly. 'There was a bombing of an N.G.O. near our guesthouses, so they evacuated us to another safe space, and they put us under lockdown,' she said. 'We weren't allowed to leave except for work. I had a lot of time on my hands, and I started sketching designs.' When Ms. Aziz returned to California in September 2019, she decided to pursue a graduate gemologist degree at the Gemological Institute of America (G.I.A.) in Carlsbad, Calif. She had just finished the diamond course in March 2020 when the school canceled in-person classes. (She finished her coursework, but never took the colored gemstone exam to complete the degree.) 'It was an uneasy time,' Ms. Aziz said. 'Something inside of me just kept saying, 'Do this. This is your passion.' But it was difficult because it was tragic for my family, too. We lost two family members in Afghanistan to Covid, an aunt and an uncle that I had just spent a lot of time with.' Supply-Side Shocks The business challenges that the pandemic posed were nothing compared with the scale of human loss, yet the supply chain disruptions stemming from the lockdowns damaged the industry in lasting ways, said Wim Vertriest, the G.I.A.'s manager of field gemology, who is based in Bangkok. 'Many artisanal miners could no longer convert the gems into cash because there were no brokers around, so they turned to other jobs to sustain their livelihood,' Mr. Vertriest wrote in an email. 'To this day, we see areas that used to be very productive and where gems are abundant, but there is simply no renewed interest in mining the gems.' Stuart Robertson, the president of Gemworld International, a wholesale gem pricing provider in Glenview, Ill., said the echoes of the pandemic continue to affect the pearl industry, too. 'If you're mining garnets and you can't mine them, they stay in the ground,' Mr. Robertson said. 'But if you're culturing pearls and you can't get to them, you lose one to two years in that cycle and it has ripple effects for several years. 'In the finer end of Tahitian and South Sea pearls, wholesale prices are up on average 45 percent to 50 percent,' he added. 'Unlike a tariff, which is a tax, this is literally because of scarcity in the market; demand overtook supply.' The diamond sector also has been reshaped. 'The rise in popularity of lab-created gemstones can, in part, be traced back to the pandemic,' Ms. Adams of Adorn wrote in an email. 'Natural stone supplies were disrupted as mines shut down and furloughed consumers were having to spend more carefully. 'With their accessibility, lower prices and messaging that often centers on sustainability, lab-created stones may have felt like a better fit for the times,' she wrote. Myriad Parallels As jewelers and jewelry-related businesses take stock of what the pandemic did to the trade, many say that the all-too-familiar fears provoked by the recent economic instability, record gold costs and tariff threats have produced a kind of déjà vu. Yet David Hakimian, the founder of DEH Jewelry Solutions, an agency in New York that specializes in product development and production management for fine jewelry lines, has been seeing other parallels. Then, Mr. Hakimian saw a surge of interest from new designers; he estimated that about 40 percent of his current fine jewelry clients started doing business with him during the pandemic. And recently he has seen another rise in inquiries. 'Since February alone, we've been approached by six aspiring designers, many of whom are not coming from traditionally creative fields,' Mr. Hakimian wrote in an email. 'What I find particularly compelling is the irony that both now and in 2020, we've seen a significant rise in gold prices and broad economic volatility. 'These aren't conditions most would consider ideal for launching a fine jewelry brand. And yet, we may be witnessing the beginning of a new wave of influential designers — just as we did five years ago.'
Zawya
16-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: Experts emphasise pivotal roles of power, water in addressing energy challenges
Experts have emphasised the pivotal role of power and water in addressing challenges confronting Nigeria in the energy sector. They disclosed this at an exhibition held at the Balmoral hall Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Director, Exhibitions Vertex Next at the Power & Water Nigeria, Meher Bedi, the power and water exhibition which started in Nigeria since 2022, was also aimed at fostering collaboration among stakeholders and facilitates discussions on integrating renewable energy sources. According to her, the event has evolved into a central platform for showcasing innovations in power generation, distribution, and renewable energy. She added, 'It also help in improving grid infrastructure, and implementing smart technologies. 'It brings together industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to discuss and collaborate on sustainable energy solutions tailored to Nigeria's unique challenges and opportunities.' Bedi also stated that Power and Water Nigeria serves as a catalyst for market development by showcasing innovations and introducing cutting-edge technologies in power generation and distribution. She added, ' It also facilitates partnerships by creating opportunities for collaborations between local and international companies. 'It aids knowledge sharing through the hosting of sessions that provide insights into best practices and emerging trends. 'These elements collectively contribute to a more robust and resilient Nigerian energy market. 'The event acknowledges the interdependence between energy infrastructure and digital services. By promoting reliable and sustainable power solutions, it directly supports the growth of data centres across Africa. Discussions at the conference often highlight the need for energy-efficient practices in data centre operations, aligning with the continent's digital transformation goals.' Some of the participants at the exhibition expressed optimism that, it will go a long way in improving their business. On his part, Lu Kun of Tianhong Power Technology Company Limited stated that his company is introducing its product to Nigeria to create opportunities in the communities that are not yet connected to electricity. 'There is problem where some people live, they have power problem,poor electricity supply our company is to help on how to develop the power. 'This is our concern to help the people here, and render a helping hand,to work with Nigerian people and create a better future.' Lu Kun whose company focused on producing and selling of transformers said National transformer can bring a beauty to power work, to the satisfactory our work is beneficial impressive. 'There may be some new situations we will face, we can work with local people, local distributor, we will think of how to make things better for them, a new way a new solution. 'We are just introducing our products to Nigerian market,' he said. Wulinlin, manager at JCNS solar Energy Nigeria Limited, said her company has been in Nigeria for two years and brings her products from China to sell in Nigeria. She, however, advocated that the federal government needs to review excise tax and other taxes imposed on imported goods, because the tax inadvertently led to an increase in the cost of the products imported. Wulinlin said her company also have provision for after sale service. 'It is Chinese company in Nigeria that deals with solar,solar batteries,solar fan,inverters hybrid and satchels, solar generator and other solar products. 'As a new company, we have other companies competing with us. 'Cost of shipping our products to Nigeria market is high,but where we import the products from it is cheaper over there. 'The excise duties and other levies imposed on our products make the price we sell the products higher here in Nigeria. 'The exchange rate also makes the prices of our products to go higher. 'Our products are better, we have other facilities other companies don't have, we have our service centre in Lagos, if you have any challenge with our products, it can be taken to our service centre for repairs. prices of our products is highly competitive.' She said. Xia Xiaohui of Renac Power Technology Company limited whose company produces water machines stated that, his company was participating in the exhibition for the first time, but they are impressed and would be interested in coming to Nigeria again. 'The Nigeria market is a hot cake, every Chinese want to be here, several factories,and industries, Nigeria market is very, very good to water machines. 'My first time of coming. My expectations is to receive several customers in this exhibition. The market to our company is very important. 'We will come back in October when there is another exhibition, because the October exhibition will be a bigger exhibition.' Xiaohui said.
