3 Reasons Why Winter in Pakistan is Warmer This Year

January 2017 has already started in Pakistan and the winter season is still rather mild in most areas. In fact, the weather seems more or less the same as in early October of the last year.

Many are wondering whether this is just an anomaly or will this become a permanent feature for Pakistan’s weather from now on. Farmers, rural areas, urban areas, towns, cities – you name it. Everyone is concerned since it seems like climate change has been affecting weather patterns on a global scale.
Today we will be looking at these questions:
  • Is climate change playing havoc with Pakistan’s weather?
  • How did it affect the weather in the country last year?
  • What are the reasons behind Pakistan’s change in weather this year?
The answer to the first question is yes, climate change has indeed affected Pakistan. And here’s how:

Winter in Pakistan During 2016-17

There’s been virtually no rain in most of Pakistan ever since the winter season started. December-January period usually comprises of regular rainfall with the temperatures dropping below 0 in most areas of Punjab, KPK, Balochistan and the northern areas including Azad Kashmir.
What’s more astonishing is that snowfall has also been scarce in the northern areas of Pakistan.
Temperatures in Islamabad haven’t dropped below 5 degrees Celsius. Similarly, the difference between maximum and minimum temperatures in Pakistan has been higher than usual. For example, in Lahore, the temperature difference has been about 13 degrees Celsius this winter compared to 7 degrees Celsius last year.
The day times are unusually warmer this year. Similar weather patterns have been reported in Karachi which hasn’t witnessed rains in months and temperatures have been so high that it still feels like late summer in the country’s biggest city, save for the occasional cold winter night or two here and there.
Why is this happening? We take a look at 3 reasons why:

Warm Weather Phenomena in Pakistan

Pakistan’s meteorological department has also confirmed that sudden weather changes are the cause of this climate phenomenon in Pakistan.

Warm air patterns within Pakistan are responsible for warmer winters

Anti-cyclonic circulations over Khairpur and Nawabshah region are spreading warm and dry winds, increasing the temperature. This has resulted in higher than usual temperatures in the surrounding regions as well.

El Niño Southern Oscillation Affect

The secondary reason, is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affect. This ENSO, occurs every 3 to 10 years and causes severely warmer weather in the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean warms up. This leads to worldwide weather changes and severely affects the South Asian climate, causing droughts.

The stronger than ever El Niño affect causes warmer climates and less rain

The strong effects of the ENSO have previously had similar affects in Pakistan causing long spells of no rain and warmer climates. El-Nino years are considered to be the reason for higher temperatures in the region during winter.
With no rain and little moisture in the air, it’s hard for people to wear warm clothing during the current winter season.

Change in Western Weather Patterns

Another usual occurrence for Pakistan are the Western Disturbances. Winds and rains result due to these western weather patterns. Coming from the Mediterranean Sea, these disturbances bring moderate rainfall to the southern areas of Pakistan and heavy rainfall/snowfall in the northern part of the country.

Western disturbances are less intense in 2016 winter

This winter, these Western Disturbances are less intense as moisture in the air gets drained before it reaches Pakistan. This has resulted in less rain and no chilly wind flow, ultimately preventing the temperature from falling to usual levels in both, the mountainous and plain areas of the country.

Final Words

This is the warmest year on earth since 1880, with almost every single month breaking records set in the past years. It might rain or snowfall a little in the northern areas of Pakistan, however these scarce rains are not expected to bring the temperatures down by a lot. Additionally, normal rainfall or temperatures are not forecast for the near future.
With the warmer temperatures in mind, an early spring season could be expected in 2017. This could very well mean a rather short-lived winter season that never was. With the effects of climate change becoming ever more severe, one has to wonder if the winter season is every going to be the same.

ZEOZ: A Voice Driven Market to Connect Buyers & Sellers

Digital auction and e-commerce markets in Pakistan and across the globe have seen strong growth in the last decade or so and whilst many companies are still hoping to tap this lucrative market, ZEOZ has entered as a dark horse and unique player.

ZEOZ looked at the current scene in Pakistan regarding online shopping and developed what it and many others believe is a game changing tool for people who value trade.
Its solution? A voice driven application for buyers and sellers to connect and exchange information in local dialect using easy voice messaging services to save time in finding local buyers and sellers.

For buyers, ZEOZ lets you choose what you need without having to search the web, phone directory or any contact list for that matter. Record a voice message and have results instantly appear as local sellers hear your request and reply using the app.

For sellers, ZEOZ is a unique opportunity to communicate directly with local business to advertise goods and services sold almost the moment a search is performed by the buyer.
Since concept and design, the company developing the smartphone application has moved through several phases of research, design and development before bringing it to market for us to see.
Over the course of its development, the service provided by the app has been compared by early adopters in the US, UK and Gulf to existing ‘search methodologies’, virtual assistant services like ‘Google Now’, ‘Siri’, ‘Cortana’ and even the likes of ‘Uber’ in its advent but what the company has decided is to anchor in the online auction and e-commerce space.
For Pakistan, this is the first time voice services are being provided in the e-commerce sector; inquiring about the available services near you can be done through sending a simple voice message.
It is important to note that the company is reaching out to all Pakistani businessmen at home and abroad to sign up as a seller of goods and services in their area of expertise no matter what domain.
Companies, Commerce Chambers, Economic Professors and Govt. officials wanting to learn more about the business plan, disruption and application of digital currency are welcome to write to hellopk@zeoztheapp.com for further information.
The application has also passed multiple phases of testing and is ready to stress test with a larger user base across the country.
When compared to other services, ZEOZ provides a much effective approach which is beneficial for both buyers and sellers; the increase in communication increases the chance of more sales thus resulting in a number of customers dealt.

How Does It Work?

The working of the ZEOZ service is simple; it acts as a third party and connects the service providers with the users seeking those particular services.

Buyers:

Suppose you are out of town and looking to get a haircut. What do you do? Here are the following steps:
  • Get the app ZEOZ available at Apple and Google Play.
  • Create an account.
  • Choose area where you require service and see services in a 20km area.
  • Select from trending services or your favorites list to pick your hairdresser.
  • Send a voice message stating what you seek e.g. availability and costs.
  • View a list of listed hairdressers.
  • Have 1 or many reply.
  • Negotiate a time and visit the shop to get your haircut in your allocated time slot.
Time sensitive services such as requiring blood on urgent basis is what sets ZEOZ apart. Instead of Googling a blood banks contact information and then waiting for them to pick up, you can broadcast a message saying how much blood you require and all the blood banks near you will respond. You can then select one bank and visit to pick up the blood units of your requirement, as per the agreed terms through the ZEOZ application with the blood bank.
Similar steps need to be followed if you are looking for something more pleasant such as a nice cup of coffee. The coffee shops in your vicinity will respond you with their offers from which you can select.
Other things you will find:
  1. A map with all local business listed in a radius of 20 km.
  2. Local trends, favorite sellers and new options available to pre-order.
  3. Facility to ask local sellers what’s new and make reservations from wherever you are.
  4. Instant results of targeted local sellers with business name, website, description, rating, distance and online status.
  5. User profiles with options to hear reviews.
  6. Rate services and add reviews for others to hear.
  7.  Voice messaging services.
  8.  Free calls to local business online (where conditions allow)

Sellers:

Often small businesses are overshadowed by larger companies with greater advertising and marketing budgets. ZEOZ provides a fair opportunity to all the people looking to promote their ventures. From a house keeper to home delivery service, everyone can enlist their services.
While there are no charges for the buyers, sellers of goods and service providers will be required to pay a fee (subject to change) to connect with buyers to promote and offer their services.
For services not found or listed, you will need to contact local ZEOZ management via the app.
For the seller’s section, the company writes:
  1. Option to sign us as a seller to engage with local trade immediately.
  2. A business to business local advertising and marketing platform.
  3. Free calling with prospective buyers.
  4. Seller account options to target select markets with services and products for sale.
  5. Favorites list of people you work with direct or rely upon for services from anywhere in the world. For example, car traders, estate agents, travel operators and freelancers.
  6. Bonus credit for connecting with local business.
  7. Revision to user interface based on seller feedback.
To end, ZEOZ brings a unique proposition to the economy and stands to challenge new and existing auction and e-commerce ecosystems. The human element is simply a bonus to search technology.
Disclaimer: The next phase of application testing requires a much larger user base and if any faults are found, you are invited to leave comments with Pro Pakistani for Team Z or direct back to the feedback section of the ZEOZ application.

Bloggers Arrested in Pakistan for Posting Fake Images Online

Few fellow bloggers are reportedly missing for more than 12 hours now as they are not responding on their mobile numbers after appearing before FIA Cyber Crime Wing Islamabad yesterday morning, sources have confirmed ProPakistani.

At least three bloggers had been asked by FIA Cyber Crime Wing Islamabad to present themselves before investigation officer on (Dec 31st, 2016) for posting images of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with a PML(N) leader while wrongly attributing him as Justice Saqib Nisar.
Bloggers, while they had removed the images, made themselves available at FIA office Islamabad but only to get arrested.
Families of these bloggers, when contacted, were clueless and had no idea on whereabouts of their kids.
These part time bloggers, hailing from Multan, had posted images in question online and FIA was able to track them down through WHOIS information available on their website.
Not to mention, these three bloggers were among few thousands other online users who had shared the images in question on Whatsapp, Facebook and through other social media channels.
Through sources we know that these bloggers are now detained by the FIA, however, nothing has been said officially on the matter as of yet.
It must be mentioned here that Ch. Nisar, Interior Minister, had ordered the FIA to investigate the culprits behind spreading fake image of Mr. Sharif with Chief Justice.
As it is clear to everyone, instead of catching the original posters, FIA will nab easy targets only.
While we aren’t certain about the section of cyber crime bill that’s being investigated, but from the looks it appear that bloggers might be charged with “Cyber Terrorism”.
Section 7 of Cyber Crime Law deals with Cyber Terrorism and it says:
= the use of threat is designed to coerce, intimidate, overawe or create a sense of fear, panic or insecurity in the government or the public or a section of the public or community or sect or in society
Since we don’t have information on what section are they going to get charged with, its early to comment about any consequence.
But just to give you an idea, Under this section, if proven guilty, these bloggers could face up to 14 years in prison or/and up to Rs. 50 million in fine.
It must be mentioned that there are more bloggers, and a hosting provider who were also sent these notices but are out of Pakistan as of now.
While we had warned you before, this is what Cyber Crime law was all about. Post a fake image on Facebook — which is obviously wrong — and get behind the bards immediately, with no warrants, investigation or trial at all.
This is a developing story and will be updated as we get more information on it.

National IT Policy to be Submitted for Final Approvals in One Month

 Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has completed consultation on the draft of National IT Policy 2016, envisaging software and telecom enabled service exports at $6 billion by 2020.

Earlier this month, the ministry made the draft of National IT Policy 2016 public for views, comments and feedback.
According to the officials concerned, consultation process is almost complete now and the draft policy will be given final shape soon.
It is expected that the draft policy will be submitted to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval next month, an official added.

Read More: Ministry Finalizes IT Policy Draft, Envisions $6 Billion in IT Exports by 2020

However, stakeholders have termed the exports target of $6 billion by 2020 as unrealistic while keeping the ground realities in view.
Syed Ahmad CEO of DPL Software Company said government claims that IT exports are about $2.5 billion, however, State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) data reflects only $500 million. There is no study to measure the exact exports figures or to find out why there is discrepancy in govt and SBP figures, he added.
Syed Ahmad further said that exports of formal IT industry range between $500-600 million and non-formal industry i.e. freelance is around one billion dollars. However, it is not easy to regulate the freelancers to report the actual figures. IT exporters said that government needs to give incentives to the sector, especially to the freelancers, to increase the exports.
About the IT Policy 2016
Some of the key features of the National IT Policy draft are sectoral digitization, big data, data analytics, entrepreneurship, Internet of Things (IoT), e-commerce, e-agriculture, software export.
According to the draft policy, there has been higher growth in recent years in the Pakistani IT industry as a whole with IT firms earning nearly $560 million, mainly in software development and service outsourcing. However, it has been estimated that around 75 percent of earnings are held overseas to finance the cost of foreign offices and international marketing making the real figure in excess of $2.2 billion. IT exports have witnessed a 41 percent increase during last one year.
The draft policy states that Pakistan has more than 2000 IT companies and calls centers and the number is increasing every year. Pakistan has more than 300,000 English-speaking IT professionals with expertise in latest IT products and technologies. More than 20,000 IT graduates and engineers are being produced every year.

Read More: National IT Policy 2016 To Focus On Killing Piracy & Increasing Internet Security

Pakistan has 14 Software Technology Parks at present with an area of one million square feet with more being planned for the future. Freelancing revenue is another $90-100 million per year, domestic revenue is roughly around Rs 30 billion or $300 million and the market of cellular mobile companies is huge with total imports of Rs 73.224 billion for the fiscal year 2014-15. All these of reflect a promising IT landscape in Pakistan.
The policy is targeting to enhance exports of software and IT/IT enabled services to create jobs and contribute towards the government’s efforts to increase overall exports and IT remittances.
The policy mainly concentrates on emerging areas of mobile applications, responsive web applications, and animation. It is also focused on moving up the global IT value chain while it is also exploring new areas where low end business process outsourcing jobs can be created.
The policy aims to attract multinational global companies to utilize Pakistani manpower for back-end services by providing appropriate incentives in a transparent manner, utilize the Pakistani diaspora in the US and European markets to plug young entrepreneurs into the global IT value chain. The policy is aimed at providing enabling environment for companies to set up venture capital and other financing mechanisms to start up companies.
The ministry spokesperson said that given the growing trends of information technology, it has become imperative to reformulate the National IT Policy to take into account the transformative fundamentals of technology and its ecosystem centered on digitization.
I generally start with a very simple question with my interview candidates. I ask the for writing a program for giving the integer average of 2 integers using only integer type variables. Assume that input will always be with in integer limits.

The definition of integer average is the highest smaller integer if average is floating point number. Also the condition if that they can not use any typecasting or any datatype other than int.

Example:
a = 4, b = 5, avg = 4
a = 4, b = 6, avg = 5
a = -4, b = -6, avg = -5
a = 4, b = -5, avg = -1
a = -4, b = -5, avg = -5

95% of candidates smell some issues in this problem and when I say nothing is there they don't even ask any clarification and come up with something like this: 
1int get_average(int a, int b)
2{
3 return (a+b)/2;
4}

Then I ask them to have a look if this is correct on definition and then they see that it is. But there test failed on very first floating point negative average. Then most of them do a quick fix and come up with something below:
int get_average(int a, int b)
{
 int sum = (a+b);
 if (sum < 0)
  return sum/2 - 1;
 return sum/2;
}

The above solution is obviously wrong if sum if a even negative number. I am disheartened to see why do these candidates just solve a test case and show the solution. They don't even care to run this with some examples.

On pointing this, most of them correct the code. Others face the rejection at this stage.


int get_average(int a, int b)
{
 int sum = (a+b);
 if (sum < 0 && sum%2 != 0)
  return sum/2 - 1;
 return sum/2;
}

Now I ask them to make it production worthy and taking care of boundary conditions. Many of them are not able to do so but some of them go through it for my second question.

Though I expect this problem to be concluded within 30 minutes depending of their experience but candidates do a lot of silly mistakes and stretch.

Lets see if you can code this correctly.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;


int get_average (int a, int b)
{
 int a_half = a/2;
 int b_half = b/2;
 bool a_even = a%2==0? true:false;
 bool b_even = b%2==0? true:false;
 if (a>=0 && b>=0)
 {
  if (!a_even &&  !b_even)
   return a_half + b_half + 1;
  return a_half + b_half;
 }
 else if (a<0 && b<0)
 {
  if (a_even &&  b_even)
   return a_half + b_half;
  return a_half + b_half - 1;
 }
 else
 {
  int sum = a+b;
  if (sum < 0 && sum%2 != 0)
    return sum/2 - 1;
   return sum/2;
 }

}

int main()
{
 int n, a, b;
 cout << "number of test cases: ";
 cin >> n;
 for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
 {
  cout << endl << "Enter a and b: ";
  cin >> a >>b;
  cout << "average = " << get_average(a,b) << endl;
 }
}


Breaking News Ticker Widget For Blogger - JSON Feeds Support!

Breaking News Ticker Widget For blogger

Breaking News Ticker widget for Blogger blogs is a free, flat, stylish, modern, easy to use and responsive Blogger jQuery news ticker. It displays text-based titles of your latest posts in a scrolling fashion automatically. It is the best way to showcase your hottest content to your website visitors on your homepage just how BBC or CNN does it! We have coded it using Blogger JSON Feeds API and jQuery News Ticker plugin.

Some sites like codecanyon are selling News Ticker Plugins at $5, but you will not only get it free at MBT but you will also learn how such widgets are coded if you read our JSON Feeds series.

Instead of using RSS Feeds to built a scrolling newsticker, we will use JSON Feeds to create a more advanced, lightweight and dynamic News Ticker that will not only just display titles but will also show almost every info (i.e. Avatar/Comments/Published date) about your blog post.

What is a News Ticker?

A news ticker is a primarily horizontal, text-based display. Most tickers are traditionally displayed in the form of scrolling text running from right to left across the screen. This term originally refers to Television News tickers, scrolling near the bottom of the TV screen. The TV news ticker allows breaking news to be shown to the viewer without interrupting the current broadcast. Similarly webmasters have adopted a similar method of displaying latest news on their websites homepage. The latest headlines of your websites or blog is shown scrolling from left to right across the width of the site to keep visitors informed about most updated content.

In short it is a simple, handy widget that helps you to showcase your website's latest headlines, latest updates or featured content from a specific category.

Features of Breaking News Ticker Widget:

Blogger News Ticker is an advanced widget equipped with these features:

  • Author Avatar - Unique!

  • Displays latest posts dynamically. - Unique!

  • Displays recent posts from a specific category/label.

  • Scrolling text with two animations: reveal & fade

  • Clickable Comments Count

  • Custom Date Format - Unique!

  • Title Length is adjustable

  • Fully Customizable - Multi Colors!

  • Responsive and mobile friendly. 

  • Controls Navigation. Play/Pause, Next/Previous

  • Support all browsers: Firefox, Chrome, IE, Safari etc.

  • Many more!

How To add News Ticker Widget In Blogger?

To add news ticker widget in your blogger templates, please follow these easy steps:

  1. Go To Blogger > Template

  2. Backup your template

  3. Click "Edit HTML"

  4. Just below <head> tag paste the following JS and CSS source links:

    <link href='http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/assets/font-awesome/css/font-awesome.css' rel='stylesheet'/>

    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oswald' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>


  5. Next search ]]></b:skin> and just above it paste the following code:

    /*########Default Newsticker Styles#########*/

    .ticker-wrapper.has-js{margin:20px 0;padding:0 20px;width:780px;height:32px;display:block;-webkit-border-radius:15px;-moz-border-radius:15px;border-radius:15px;background-color:#f8f0db;font-size:.75em}

    .ticker{width:710px;height:23px;display:block;position:relative;overflow:hidden;background-color:#f8f0db}

    .ticker-title{padding-top:9px;color:#900;font-weight:700;background-color:#f8f0db;text-transform:uppercase}

    .ticker-content{margin:0;padding-top:9px;position:absolute;color:#1F527B;font-weight:700;background-color:#f8f0db;overflow:hidden;white-space:nowrap;line-height:1.2em}

    .ticker-content a{text-decoration:none;color:#1F527B}

    .ticker-content a:hover{text-decoration:underline;color:#0D3059}

    .ticker-swipe{padding-top:9px;position:absolute;top:0;background-color:#f8f0db;display:block;width:800px;height:23px}

    .ticker-swipe span{margin-left:1px;background-color:#f8f0db;border-bottom:1px solid #1F527B;height:12px;width:7px;display:block}

    .ticker-controls{padding:8px 0 0;list-style-type:none;float:left}

    .ticker-controls li{padding:0;margin-left:5px;float:left;cursor:pointer;height:16px;width:16px;display:block}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause{background-image:url(../images/controls.png);background-position:32px 16px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.over{background-position:32px 32px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.down{background-position:32px 0}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused{background-image:url(../images/controls.png);background-position:48px 16px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused.over{background-position:48px 32px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused.down{background-position:48px 0}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-prev{background-image:url(../images/controls.png);background-position:0 16px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-prev.over{background-position:0 32px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-prev.down{background-position:0 0}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-next{background-image:url(../images/controls.png);background-position:16px 16px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-next.over{background-position:16px 32px}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-next.down{background-position:16px 0}

    .js-hidden{display:none}

    .no-js-news{padding:10px 0 0 45px;color:#F8F0DB}

    .left .ticker-controls,.left .ticker-content,.left .ticker-title,.left .ticker{float:left}

    .left .ticker-controls{padding-left:6px}

    .right .ticker-controls,.right .ticker-content,.right .ticker-title,.right .ticker{float:right}

    .right .ticker-controls{padding-right:6px}

    /*########Blogger Newsticker by MBT#########*/

    .ticker-wrapper.has-js{margin:0;padding:0;width:98%;height:42px;display:block;border-radius:0;background-color:#fff;border:1px solid #eee;font-size:12px}

    .ticker{width:80%;height:42px;display:block;position:relative;overflow:hidden;background-color:#fff}

    .ticker-title{background:#71db00;padding:10px;color:#FFF;font-size:16px;font-family:oswald;text-transform:uppercase;text-shadow:1px 1px 6px #666}

    .ticker-title:after{left:76px;top:10px;height:0;width:0;position:absolute;content:" ";pointer-events:none;margin-left:0;margin-top:1px;border-left:13px solid #71db00;border-top:10px solid transparent;border-bottom:10px solid transparent;-moz-transform:scale(.9999)}

    .ticker-content{background-color:#fff;margin-left:15px;color:#444;margin-top:1px}

    .ticker-swipe{background-color:#fff;position:relative;top:5px;left:100px!important}

    .ticker-swipe span{margin-left:1px;background-color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #333;height:12px;width:7px}

    .ticker-controls{padding:0!important;margin:13px 0 0 10px !important;list-style-type:none;position:relative;right:-50px}

    .ticker-controls li{padding:0;margin-left:5px;float:left;cursor:pointer;height:16px;width:16px;display:block}

    .ticker-controls li a{border:0!important;padding:0!important}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause,.ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused,.ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused.over,.ticker-controls li.jnt-prev,.ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.over,.ticker-controls li.jnt-next{position:absolute;background:none}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause:after,.ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.over:after{content:"\f04c";font-size:13px;color:#71db00;font-family:fontAwesome;position:relative;left:1.8em}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused:after,.ticker-controls li.jnt-play-pause.paused.over:after{content:"\f04b";font-size:13px;color:#71db00;font-family:fontAwesome;position:relative;left:1.8em}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-prev:after{content:"\f04a";font-size:13px;color:#71db00;font-family:fontAwesome;position:relative;left:0}

    .ticker-controls li.jnt-next:after{content:"\f04e";font-size:13px;color:#71db00;font-family:fontAwesome;position:relative;left:3.6em}

    .ticker .iauthor:before,.ticker .icomments:before,.ticker .idate:before{font-family:fontAwesome;position:relative;padding-right:8px;color:#fff}

    .ticker .iauthorpic{width:16px!important;height:16px!important;border-radius:50%;float:none;display:inline-block!important;margin:0;padding-right:3px;position:relative;top:3px}

    .ticker span{padding-right:5px;font-family:Oswald;font-weight:400}

    .ticker .icomments a{color:#71db00;font-size:11px}

    .ticker .icomments a:hover{text-decoration:underline}

    .ticker .icomments:before{content:'\f086';padding:0 3px 0 0;color:#777;position:relative;top:-1px}

    .ticker .idate{font-size:11px;padding-right:7px}

    .ticker .idate:before{content:'\f073';padding:0 5px;color:#777;position:relative;top:-1px}

    .ticker .mbttitle{font-family:oswald;font-size:14px;color:#71db00!important;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none}

    .ticker .mbttitle:hover{text-decoration:underline}

    Make these changes

    • To change the green color theme of the News Ticker simply replace the green highlighted color codes with color of your choice. The color can be in rgb or #hexadecimal, both work. Use our  Color Code Generator.


  6. Save your template.

  7. Now go to Blogger > Layout

  8. Select "Add a Gadget"

  9. Choose "HTML/JavaScript" gadget

  10. Keep the title field empty and then paste the following code inside it:

    <!-- ######### Breaking News Ticker By MBT ############# -->

    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script><script src="http://www.jquerynewsticker.com/includes/jquery.ticker.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript">

    //----------------------------Defaults

    var ListBlogLink = "http://www.mybloggertricks.com";

    var ListCount = 5;

    var TitleCount = 70;

    var ListLabel = "Widgets";

    //----------------------------Function Start

    function mbtlist(json) {

    document.write('<ul id="js-news" class="js-hidden">');

    for (var i = 0; i < ListCount; i++)

    {

    //-----------------------------Variables Declared

    var listing= ListImage = ListUrl = ListTitle = ListImage = ListContent = ListConten = ListAuthor = ListTag = ListDate = ListUpdate = ListComments = thumbUrl = TotalPosts = sk = AuthorPic= ListMonth = Y = D = M = m = YY = DD = MM = mm = TT =  "";

    //----------------------------- Title URL

    for (var j = 0; j < json.feed.entry[i].link.length; j++) {

    if (json.feed.entry[i].link[j].rel == 'alternate') {

    break;

    }

    }

    ListUrl= "'" + json.feed.entry[i].link[j].href + "'";

    //----------------------------------- Title Stirng

    if (json.feed.entry[i].title!= null)

    {

    ListTitle= json.feed.entry[i].title.$t.substr(0, TitleCount);

    }

    if (json.feed.entry[i].thr$total)

    {

    ListComments= "<a href='"+json.feed.entry[i].link[j].href+"#comment-form'>"+json.feed.entry[i].thr$total.$t+"</a>";

    }

    ListAuthor= json.feed.entry[i].author[0].name.$t.split(" ");

    ListAuthor=ListAuthor.slice(0, 1).join(" ");

    AuthorPic = json.feed.entry[i].author[0].gd$image.src;

    //################### Date Format

    ListMonth= ["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"];

    ListDate= json.feed.entry[i].published.$t.substring(0,10);

                             Y = ListDate.substring(0, 4);

                            m = ListDate.substring(5, 7);

                             D = ListDate.substring(8, 10);

                             M = ListMonth[parseInt(m - 1)]; 

    //----------------------------------- Printing List

    var listing = "<li class='news-item'><span class='iauthor'><img class='iauthorpic' src='"+AuthorPic+"'/>"

    +ListAuthor+ "</span> <span class='icomments'>"

    +ListComments + "</span>  <span class='idate'>"

    + D + " " + M + "</span><i class='fa fa-chevron-right'></i> <a class='mbttitle' href="

    +ListUrl+

    "target='_blank'>"

    +ListTitle+

    "</a></li>";

    document.write(listing);

    }

    }

    document.write("</ul><script src='"+ListBlogLink+"/feeds/posts/default/-/"+ListLabel+"?alt=json-in-script&callback=mbtlist'></"+"script>");

    /*##########Breaking News Ticker Settings########*/

        $(function () {

            $('#js-news').ticker({

            speed: 0.20,

            controls: true,  

            titleText: 'Hottest',

            displayType: 'reveal',

            pauseOnItems: 2000,   

    });

    });

    </script>

    Make these changes:

    • ListBlogLink : Insert your Blog URL here

    • ListCount : Decide how many breaking titles do you wish to display.

    • TitleCount : Choose how many characters to display in post title length.

    • ListLabel : Insert your blog label here. Remember that labels are case sensitive. Therefore type it exactly as it is shown in your browser address bar. News Ticker will not work if label case is not correct. Edit "Widgets"

    • speed: Edit this value (0.20) to increase or decrease the scroll speed.

    • controls: Set true to false if you wish to hide the control buttons i.e. Play/Pause, Next/Previous

    • titleText: Set the News Ticker title here from Hottest to anything you like such as Latest, Breaking etc.

    • displayType: There are two types of scrolling text animation, reveal or fade. Set it as per your preference.

    • TitleCount : Choose how many characters to display in post title.

    • If you want to show latest posts headlines of your blog without mentioning any specific label/category then simply remove /-/"+ListLabel+" from the code above. 


  11. Click Save button and you are all ready to start showing animated plus scrolling headlines to your readers! :)

Do You Need Any Help?

The installation steps above are made extremely simple. You just need to follow it carefully especially taking care of the label case sensitivity and also the jQuery file. Let me know if you need any help. I would love to assist you as soon as time allows.

I really appreciate when you share your feedback.  Please let us know how useful was this tutorial for you and how can this cool news ticker widget help you to better engage your readers and increase your pageviews. Would be waiting to hear from you.

The next tutorial will be based on adding a tooltip to this ticker for displaying Image Thumbnail plus description snippet, it would be an amazing enhancement to the current design, so stay tuned for updates! :)

Secondary Education

Secondary education is basically regarded as the education children receive in their teen years. The exact general age group for secondary education varies around the globe, but generally the same age group after 12 pursues secondary education after finishing their junior schools.

They are referred to as the basic education which makes an individual’s life, and generally is regarded as high school, middle school, sixth form, sixth form colleges, lyceum etc according to their countries. Most countries provide free secondary education to all children where as in rest of the countries tuition rate varies as per quality of school, whether it is private or government.

The most vital aspect of secondary education is that it prepares the students for upcoming practical life, and gives an idea about the critical education ahead in colleges. In most countries, the education children receive in their early years is declared crucial to the development of job skills and other attributes mandatory to become a keen worker and a prominent member of the society.

Importance of Secondary Education- Any system that helps in the development of one’s personality and knowledge is considered important enhance our skills. High school prepares students for the real world criticism and analytical thinking. It is a huge aspect in the development of professional skills. It gives you a chance to grow up mentally, physically, emotionally, and into someone who is much mature than his past. Almost 60 percent of the companies want employees who have graduated more than high school. So if even high school is not completed, you can well imagine the rough task of finding a job without high school graduation.


Economical growth and poverty reduction- Education is the best skill anyone can acquire. It helps us to improve the standards of our life and contribute towards the better economy of the country. Knowledge enhances the skills of a person and it progresses the development of the country at a national level. When hundreds of people are educated, some of them pursue higher education, find jobs and earn money. This is helping us to erase much poverty in the country. Not all can be erased but it is reduced to a minimum.

Key issues in Secondary Education-

The main points in secondary education are:

  1. Access
  2. Quality and Relevance
  3. Curriculum
  4. Assessment
  5. Financing
  6. Governance
  7. Technology
  8. Teaching


All these elements ensure quality development in growing individuals. The best schools and teachers give the most distinct qualities, which helps the students to excel their professional lives. Some families or students themselves live on the belief that knowledge is not really necessary and that everything can be achieved in life with other means. That can be true in rare cases or with luck. But the most certain and definite way of improving our own self is the gain of knowledge.


Now considering child marriages in some underdeveloped countries, if secondary education is provided then early marriages would drop more than 60 percent in the world. Education for girls should be made compulsory as they are the mothers of the nation and they nourish our upcoming generation. If they are taught well, they give better guidance to their children.


Effect of secondary education on population- Education has a huge impact on the growth of population. The ratio of a larger family between educated and uneducated people differs to a massive extent. This is no news that that an educated woman or man can decide better for themselves and decide to have average children and earn bread for them. The population of a country also depends on the secondary education provided.


Improving learning outcomes requires strategic reforms and interventions at all levels of the education system. Major challenges in access to a meaningful education remain for the most disadvantaged populations, and there is a need to close these gaps and to improve the quality of service provision through better policies and stronger institutions.

We can summarize that secondary education is crucial to human development in order to enhance their sense and mature them into a better person. People with secondary education generally have more awareness about world affairs or general issues. Importance of secondary education should be promoted so that more and more people pursue this after junior education.