Science: Origin of Bed bug revealed

I remember when I was a teenager; bed bug was like an invincible creature, smart in disappearing as soon as it succeeded in biting you. Less than a minute, you start feeling the bite on your skin. Effort to investigate what bite you could last you 30 minutes, as bad as it is, you may end up spending an hour looking for this evil creature. The fear of contacting bed bug continues that when you visit a neighbour, the chairs could be looking very nice and comfortable but still left you in doubt how bed bug free is those chairs. Read further as melissa Hogenboom report the origin of this evil creature from BBC

Presented by
Melissa Hogenboom
"Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite," goes the familiar phrase. Unfortunately the statistics aren't in your favour, because these apple-pip-sized bugs are everywhere.
Hardly a week goes by without a news story of yet another infestation, and yet they are relatively understudied, says Warren Booth of the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, US.
Booth and his colleagues have used genetics to unveil the origin of bed bugs. They found that there are two lineages in Europe. They are so diverse, they have almost split into two species.
What's more, their origin lies with bats.
The research, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, provides the first genetic evidence that bats were the ancestral host of the bed bugs that plague human residences today.

Bosses 'call in jeweller to cut off workers' wedding rings

A factory has been accused of bringing in a jeweller to cut off workers' wedding rings as part of health and safety rules.
Unions claimed staff were in tears at having the rings removed, some for the first time since their wedding day.
However, the firm – Becton Dickinson, which makes sterile medical equipment and employs more than 700 people in Plymouth – said it had simply brought in a jeweller to resize the rings to make them easier to remove as part of the safety drive.
A leaked memo suggests the rules have been introduced after a worker lost a finger when they got their wedding ring caught on a piece of equipment.
Dave Springbett, regional officer for the Unite union, said: 'There are women in tears, women whose husbands put that ring on their finger 20 or 30 years ago and it has never been taken off.'
He added: 'I work with plenty of people in factories who wear gloves or tape [over their jewellery], but they have said no to that. They have even had a jeweller here cutting people's rings off

A memo sent out on December 15 said the new rules will come in on February 1, this Sunday, for workers in the operational, warehouse and toolroom areas, and anyone who works with equipment.
But it says stud earrings, necklaces, body piercings covered by clothing and medical bracelets will still be permitted.
While Mr Springbett acknowledged workers had been informed, he said the lack of information in the interim meant they thought the company had changed its mind.

He said: 'Apparently it's on health and safety grounds which is, quite frankly, ridiculous. There is no health and safety reason and no hygiene reason.'
Mr Springbett said that while workers have agreed to the policy, it is only because they had 'a gun to their heads' and wanted to keep their jobs.
A spokesman for Becton Dickinson said: 'We have implemented a policy that excludes the wearing of jewellery, or any other personal items, in those areas in which they could constitute a safety risk.
'We understand that a small number of our associates may be unhappy, and we are sensitive to their feelings, but our overriding priority must be workplace safety.
'We have offered associates who were unable to remove their rings the opportunity for a professional jeweller to come to the site to resize their rings. This is entirely voluntary and the cost is being paid by BD.'

Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2932367/Bosses-call-jeweller-cut-workers-wedding-rings-Union-claims-employees-left-tears-demand-health-safety.html

Woman claimed her kidney stolen by doctors

Woman 'had kidney stolen by doctors who tricked her into undergoing surgery by saying she had colon cancer... then sold the organ to traffickers in China'

A woman claims her kidney was stolen by doctors who sold it to traffickers after tricking her into having surgery by saying she had colon cancer.
Xu Xiuying, 48, has been fighting a seven-year battle for compensation after only discovering her organ was missing during a routine X-ray when she complained of backache.
She said: 'I thought it was a result of a genetic defect and assumed I had been born like that, so I didn't think any more of it.'
But when a neighbour alerted her to a scandal involving a trade in stolen kidneys she looked at the matter again.


Xu, who lives in the city of Xiangcheng in central China's Henan province, realised unscrupulous doctors must have removed her healthy organ and sold it on the black market.
Healthy kidneys can be sold for thousands of pounds illegally and a huge investigation has been launched into the trade in China where the illicit operation took place.


Xu, who has found she had two healthy kidneys in 2006 by looking at medical records held by her doctor, was told that she wrongly had colon cancer and faced major operations.
She was admitted to two hospitals over a period of 12 months, undergoing a seven-hour operation in the first.
She had more treatment in the second, but is now unsure when exactly her kidney was stolen.


It was during treatment at a third hospital that she discovered it was missing.
She now claims it could only have happened during treatment at either the Xiangcheng First People's Hospital or the Xiangcheng Suburb Hospital.
As neither hospital will admit responsibility, she is having to sue both of them for compensation for her lost kidney.
A recent offer of a small amount of compensation by the First People's Hospital has been turned down by Xu.
A judicial review confirmed her kidney was removed during surgery and that she was entitled to compensation.
But the courts are refusing to rule on who should pay it because of lack of evidence over which hospital was to blame.
Share or comment on this artic

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Alibaba who was alleged sales of fakes platforms claimed vindication

BEIJING— Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. claimed vindication on Friday in a dispute with a Chinese government agency over alleged sales of fakes and other misdeeds on its sales platforms, after agency officials said the two sides would work together to stamp out counterfeit goods.

In a statement on its website late Friday, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce said that its top official, Zhang Mao, met with Alibaba’s executive chairman, Jack Ma , that same day. It said the two agreed to tackle fakes and boost consumer protection online.


In a separate statement, the SAIC appeared to play down a white paper that it posted on its site on Wednesday accusing the company of allowing fakes to be sold on its platforms and alleging that Alibaba employees took bribes from merchants in exchange for better placement there. SAIC said the statement was an account of a July conversation between SAIC and Alibaba officials and not a formal white paper.

SAIC officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for additional comment. On Thursday it pulled the white paper from its website, without citing a reason.

An Alibaba spokesman said, “the most recent SAIC posting speaks for itself. We feel vindicated.”

Alibaba’s New York-traded shares on Friday were up 1.4%. On Wednesday, the day the SAIC released its report, Alibaba’s New York-traded shares fell 4.4%. They fell an additional 8.8% on Thursday after Alibaba reported disappointing revenue growth in the quarter ended in December.

The statements may resolve a dispute that had put Alibaba—which dominates e-commerce in China and last year raised $25 billion in the U.S. in the largest-ever initial public offering—under a cloud. The company has long grappled with allegations that its Taobao sales platform is home to a large number of counterfeit products.

At the same time, the dispute could also be a precursor to additional pressure on Alibaba as China drills down on intellectual-property protection in its effort to overhaul the economy, pumping up consumption and reducing reliance on cheap labor, exports and big-ticket spending projects.

Such pressure could hurt Alibaba’s results more immediately, but could pay off down the road if handled correctly, said investment advisory firm JL Warren Capital. The company wants to shift more business to its Tmall platform, on which more-established businesses sell goods to consumers, from its Taobao platform, which allows smaller mom-and-pop firms to sells their products to Chinese customers. While Taobao is more dependent on ad sales, Tmall generates more sales commissions, so it pays off as online stores become more established, the firm said.

The SAIC’s broadside against Alibaba was its most aggressive move yet against a major company. It comes as observers say the agency is trying to increase its profile and protect its turf against other Chinese agencies. The SAIC is increasingly flexing its muscles in Chinese e-commerce, a more than $500 billion market by KPMG’s estimate, following complaints by businesses of the alleged availability of widespread fakes.

“They realized that international online trade is growing and it’s going to hit a critical mass,” said Joe Simone, director of Hong-Kong based intellectual property consulting firm SIPS.

The agency oversees a broad array of matters involving market order in China. That includes certain business licenses as well as trademark administration. It also keeps voluminous records on businesses in China, though it makes only partial data available outside of official and legal circles.

Last year it raided Microsoft Corp. offices in China as part of its investigation into how it sells and bundles it software. Microsoft has said it is cooperating. The SAIC also has probed the offices of foreign drug makers, though it never publicly levied any punishments.

The SAIC began working on its Alibaba white paper last year, after China’s State Council, the government’s highest decision-making body, gathered about 30 representatives from foreign and domestic companies to ask them about doing business online in China, Mr. Simone said.

Mr. Simone, who attended along with representatives of other companies, said some told officials that they weren’t doing enough to tackle fakes. Companies recommended that the SAIC police the biggest offenders, he said. Mr. Simone said he told officials, “we have an elephant in the room, and I’m going to name them: Ali.”

An Alibaba spokesman said it has an aggressive antifake effort that removed more than 90 million counterfeit items from its platforms over the past two years.

Experts say that much of the SAIC’s recent moves have been attempts to assert its power and justify its existence. Leaders have stripped some of its powers away in recent years, including food safety oversight. It has waged turf wars with China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planner, over antimonopoly law enforcement, according to attorneys. Last year, the Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC spearheaded probes of prominent auto makers like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler.

Legal and industry experts say that the SAIC tends to be fairly open with businesses, meeting regularly with corporate heads to discuss problems and proposed action plans. In December, Mr. Zhang, the SAIC chief, spoke at a reception held by the American Chamber of Commerce for China, which U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus also attended. “The huge market of China and the capabilities and advantages of the Unites States in terms of human resources and technology are bonding us closer together,” Mr. Zhang said. “Harmonious cooperation will benefit both sides.”

Mr. Zhang said in an interview with China’s state-owned broadcaster China Central Television that SAIC posted on its website earlier this month that the agency would be pushing for better service and consumer protection online, where he says he also shops. The SAIC accepted 50,000 consumer disputes for online problems in the first 11 months of last year, Mr. Zhang said in the interview.

“Originally it was all young people, but now middle-aged and older people have entered e-commerce,” he said, adding that “problems are not few” for the sector.

—Kersten Zhang and Yang Jie contributed to this article.

Malaysia Airlines MH370: the black box explained

What is Black box?
Aviation experts warned in March last year that the crucial moments of doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may never be discovered, as the 'black box’ which records details of the flight may have overwritten key data.
A 'black box' actually consists of two boxes – a cockpit voice recorder and a data recorder. The flight data recorder records a stream of flight information, while the cockpit voice recorder stores conversations and other noises made in the cockpit.
Each of the boxes is about the size of a shoe box and weighs around 10kg. They are made out of aluminium, and are designed to withstand massive impact, fire or high pressure. Although the original flight recorders were painted black, the colour was changed to orange to make them easier to find by investigators.
The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8 last year, carrying 239 passengers and crew shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing. In January, Malaysia's government released a statement formally declaring the crash an accident.
The black box on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is made by US firm Honeywell Aerospace. It is programmed to record cockpit communication on a two hour loop and delete all but the final two hours.

This is because it is normally the last section of a flight that determines the cause of a crash. In the case of Air France flight 447, for example, the cockpit voice recorder provided a valuable insight for investigators into the confusion that overcame the pilots.
In the case of MH370, however, it is thought that the crucial moment for understanding the flight revolves around the period during which its communications systems were disabled and it took a sharp turn westward before flying silently for about seven hours.
Although the flight data will have survived, the discussion in the cockpit immediately after the flight lost contact with air traffic control will have been overwritten, unless power to the recorder was lost at the same time.
The black box sends out a ping, activated by immersion in water, that can be picked up by a microphone and a signal analyser from about a mile away.
However, the battery of the pinger on MH370 only lasts for 30 days and the mystery may never be solved as the black box has still not been found.
The depth of the area of ocean that investigators were searching ranged from 1,150m (3,770ft) to 7,000m (23,000ft). The detector could have picked up the black box pinger down to a depth of about 6,100m (20,000ft).

A man claimed God told him to cut off children’s heads… then he would be made king

I don't know why the number of insane,ignorant,evil people keep increasing in this world and they go further to think is cool and right to kill innocent people?To be honest with you,hell must be getting pretty full.Below is a story report from daily mail that:decapitated corpses have turned up in the Ivory Coast after a wave of child murders - with one attacker calmly telling police that God had told him 'to cut off children's heads ... and then I would be made king.'
More than 20 children have vanished in the past few months, with their bodies found mutilated.
But one suspected killer was caught after he tried to attack two boys while they were fetching water from a well in in Yopougon, a suburb of Abidjan, on January 25.
Those gathered around the well watched in horror as Cedric, 14, and Souleymane, 10, were attacked by Drissa Coulibaly with a machete.

Souleymane was in shock, but he survived, unlike many victims of a wave of child murders in the Ivory Coast.
He said: 'The man came out with a machete. I fell down. He started to hack at me.'

The would-be killer went after Souleymane, then Cedric, before a soldier from a nearby base saw what was happening and chased the man away.
'I thought he had come to collect water, said Cedric. 'But he pulled out a machete. He tried to cut me up.'
 As word spread, soldiers from the nearby base quickly fanned out and tracked down the attacker.
Once in police custody, he reportedly confessed to at least three murders.
Giving his name as Drissa Coulibaly, the suspect wore a red and white robe, filthy after months of living on the street.

He calmly told police that God had told him 'to cut off children's heads ... and then I would be made king.'
'God told me to do this. God told me to cut off children's heads and bring them to him and then I would be made king,' Coulibaby, 38, told AFP from custody.
'I told him that I didn't want to do this but he insisted,' he added.
His goal was to win his 'swords' of royalty, and he said he communicated with God by way of 'angels' in the shape of crows.
'Either he is very intelligent (and pretending to be mad) or he is very crazy,' one investigator said.
God told me to do this. God told me to cut off children's heads and bring them to him and then I would be made king
 Drissa Coulibaly
Cedric's mother, market seller Daniele Kone, was present when the attacker was questioned by troops.
'He's a very confident man. Not a madman,' she said. 'He is used to doing this.'
She told AFP that the suspect 'said he had already killed three children' for Internet clients known as 'browsers', a charge Coulibaly has since denied.
Browsers is the term used for delinquents who specialise in Internet scams and are widely regarded as behind the child murders, though proof is scanty.
Father Norbert Abekan, a charismatic Abidjan preacher, charged in an article last week that some browsers sought 'human sacrifices the better to swindle'.

'Fortunately, his machete was not well sharpened,' Corporal Habib Tito said after the search. 'He was determined to get the two children.
'Had it not been for the presence of one of our men, the smallest boy would be dead,' he added.
At least 20 children have not been as lucky as Souleymane and Cedric.
In the last two to three months, police opened 25 unexplained cases of child kidnappings, followed by murders, across the country.
First Lady Dominique Ouattara spoke out Tuesday against 'horrible and inhuman acts that nothing can justify'.
'It isn't right that parents should grow anxious each time their children go out of the front door of their houses,' she said.
Police called the murder toll extremely high, saying it is 'a real and unusual phenomenon', which has shocked Ivorians and spread fears that youngsters have become victims of ritual sacrifices.
Brindou M'Bia, the director general of national police, has said most bodies have been found 'mutilated, with their genital parts missing, or decapitated'.
'We know the typology of ritual crimes very well,' Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko added.

People are led to believe that through these crimes, they can gain power or money.'
He said 1,500 police and troops were being mobilised 'to patrol the areas with a high crime rate'.
The spate of child killings has prompted some hysterical responses, from warnings posted on Facebook to alarmist text messages. Kidnappings are reported on an almost daily basis.
'Thieves of children grab them by force even from grown-ups or kidnap them around schools, or even go into homes pretending to be visitors or census agents,' an SMS sent to an AFP journalist charged.
The impoverished west African nation, which has suffered a decade of political and military crisis, is set to hold a presidential election in October.
The wildest rumours about people disappearing for human sacrifice in rituals, particularly albinos, always circulate in the Ivory Coast in electoral years when politicians seek gains at the polls.
The kidnappings have led to calls for action from the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, which urged authorities to do everything possible to quickly identify those responsible.
'UNICEF is deeply worried by the kidnapping of children and the mutilated bodies that have been found,' Adele Khudr, UNICEF'srepresentative in the Ivory Coast, said in a statement.

Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2931735/Ivory-Coasts-ritual-killers-kidnapping-boys-girls-struck-20-times-three-months.html

Father buried his ten-year-old daughter alive because he had always wanted a son

Indian father buried his ten-year-old daughter alive because he had always wanted a son and hated having a girl

Yes,this post is not in any way related to sciences but it caught my eye and I feel I should use this means to advise those parents especially the fathers who discrimnate and dictate to their creator the type of child they want.It is true you can pray your ways out asking God but He knows better why is bringing you a female child. Learn to appreciate and treat your kids without gender bias.They are both from God,don't act as if the girl child are from the devil.

An Indian father has been arrested for attempted murder after trying to bury his ten-year old daughter alive.
Locals in Putia village, in Tripura, northeast India, alerted police that Abul Hussein was trying to bury his daughter in the backyard of his home.
When police arrived at his home he had had tied his daughter's hands with rope and taped her mouth before burying her up to her chest.

Police said that Hussein disliked girls and tried to kill his ten-year-old daughter Rukshena while his wife was away from their home. He was desperate for a son and hated that he had a daughter.
Senior police official Pradip Dey said: 'We received a call from a villager telling us that a man was trying to kill his daughter by burying her alive. Our team immediately reached the house and found Rukshena.

'We rescued her and arrested Abul Hussein for attempted murder. He is now in judicial custody until his trial.'
After burying Ruskshena up to her waist her mother returned home but Hussein temporarily threw a bamboo basket over her head, intending to finish the job later.
But his wife grew suspicious and called neighbours for help. She claimed she was already worried about her husband's love for their daughter.

When neighbours found Ruskshena buried Hussein was beaten before police arrived.
Ruskshena was admitted into a local hospital after falling seriously ill on January 16 but was discharged after a few days.
She is now back with her mother and is being protected by her mother's relatives.
In many parts of India, parents consider daughters an economic burden while sons are seen as the breadwinners in the family. They are also seen as the child to continue the family's legacy and are often preferred to female children.
The huge cultural preference often leads to abortions of female fetuses or decimation against girls by denying them access to education.
India's sex ratio of 943 females for 1000 males has been an ongoing concern for Indian governments.
And to generate awareness to save female children and empower women, the new government has launched an ambitious Beti Bachao, Beti Padao campaign, translating as 'Save Girl Child, Educate Girl Child'.

Read how spelling mistake led to the collapse of a business employing 250 workers.

My eyes caught this story and I feel I should share it among my dear readers and for some of you that so much believe working individually will only increase efficiency and promote job productivity in your work environment are only kidding.Few points from the Holy Book stated that; two cannot work together except they both agreed. Another phrase states that: One killed one thousand while two killed ten thousand.With these few points,I'm on the opinion that team work is still the best way to achieve success.

From this story,I actually noticed there was a big gap between the employers and the employees,lack of team spirit among them resulted to this mess.Read further and comment on what you think went wrong? 
  Companies House wrongly said that engineering firm Taylor & Sons Ltd had been wound up - when in fact it was an unrelated company called Taylor & Son Ltd.
As false rumours spread that the business was in trouble, customers cancelled their orders and credit facilities were withdrawn, leaving the 134-year-old firm unable to keep trading.
Now a High Court judge has ruled that Companies House is liable for the firm's default, and must pay as much as £8.8million in compensation to its owner Philip Davison-Sebry
When Taylor & Son went out of business in February 2009, Companies House document examiner Philip Davies wrongly amended the companies register to say that it was Taylor & Sons which had ceased trading, the court heard.
Collapse: Owner Philip Davison-Sebry, pictured, started to receive angry phone calls from clients
+4 Collapse: Owner Philip Davison-Sebry, pictured, started to receive angry phone calls from clients
The blunder was corrected three days later - but word had already begun to spread that Taylor & Sons, based in Cardiff, was in financial trouble.
Mr Davison-Sebry, 57, was on holiday at the time, and began to receive angry phone calls from clients asking why he had fled the country when his company was in liquidation.
His lawyer Clive Freedman QC told the court that the firm's best customer, Tata Steel, quickly withdrew its £400,000-a-month business.
And contracts to construct three Royal National Lifeboat Institution stations collapsed at a cost to Taylor & Sons of £3million.
'The business of the company was, effectively, irreparably destroyed,' he told the court. 'The business was damaged so as to become of no real value.'
Mr Justice Edis ruled this week that Companies House was responsible for the the business, which was founded in 1875, entering administration two months after the mistake.
He concluded: 'The reason why the Company went into administration in April 2009 was the error made by Mr Philip Davies.'
The judge pointed to the fact that this is the only comparable blunder ever recorded on the companies register, saying: 'That can only be because it was easy to avoid.'
Taylor & Sons, Mr Justice Edis added, had 'no way of protecting itself' against the error and its catastrophic consequences.
The damage to the company was foreseeable and there had been an 'assumption of responsibility' by Companies House, he said.
In handing victory to Mr Davison-Sebry, the judge said it was 'fair, just and reasonable' to hold Companies House liable for what happened.
He said that while Taylor & Sons had run into difficulties during the recession, the mistake by Mr Davies - who has 33 years of experience in the field - was the 'precipitating factor' in its eventual collapse.
The amount of damages payable by the State-owned body has yet to be determined, but Mr Davis-Sebry valued his claim at £8.8million.
Companies House said in a statement today: 'Companies House has recently received the judgement in this case and is currently considering the implications at this time. Until these considerations are complete we remain unable to comment further.'
A spokesman refused to say whether or not any employees had been disciplined over the expensive error.


So even when you think you are the best,you still someone to go through what you have done.

Twitter launches group messaging and mobile video features

Twitter is rolling out two new features on its micro-blogging service: group messaging that allows users to have private conversations with groups of their followers, and a mobile video camera that allows users to share 30-second videos with their followers.
Twitter users can already carry out private conversations with individual followers, using Direct Messages. However, until now the only way to have a group conversation was to have it publicly.
The group messaging function will allow users to have private conversations with a selection of their followers simultaneously. The members of the group do not all need to follow one another in order to chat.
"The ability to converse privately with groups gives you more options for how and with whom you communicate on Twitter," the company said in a blog post.
Twitter also announced a new mobile video feature that allows users to capture, edit and share videos directly from the Twitter app.

Smartphone users who have downloaded the Twitter app can use the in-built mobile video camera to record 30-second videos, edit them using Twitter's inline editing tools, and share them with their followers.

Taiwan outlaws children using electronic devices for too long

The Taiwanese government has passed a law making it legal to fine parents who allow their children to spend too long playing on electronic devices.
The new law expands on existing legislation the Child and Youth Welfare and Protection Act, providing the government with the power to fine parents of children under 18 who are deemed to be using gadgets for an excessive amount of time.
Parents whose children fall physically well or begin to suffer from mental illness as a result of their use of electronics exceeding "a reasonable time" will now face fines of up to $50,000 Taiwanese dollars (£1,050).
The new law brings excessive gadget use in line with smoking, drinking and drug use, all of which are heavily restricted.
It does not, however, provide exact time limits as to what is considered excessive.

China and South Korea already operate under similar rulings, designed to keep children's electronic use to a healthy level.
Prime Minister David Cameron has previously said he struggles to control the screen time of his own children, and often found them turning on another device the moment he had turned another off.
Pope Francis urged families to put aside their iPhones and Twitter and talk to each other last week, saying "the great challenge facing us today is to learn once again how to talk to one another, not simply how to generate and consume information".

Source:Telegrah

Apple Sold More iPhones In China Than Ever Before Last Quarter, Tim Cook Q&A Reveals

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Beijing today speaking to Chinese press about the launch of the iPhone with carrier partner China Mobile. The WSJ was also in attendance, and reported on a Q&A session in which Cook explained Apple’s view of the Chinese smartphone market, China Mobile itself, and the long road to this partnership.

Cook revealed that during the past quarter, Apple sold more iPhones in the Greater China market than it has at any time previously, which means it moved over 10.4 million iPhones in that region alone, something which was in part made possible because Apple selected China as a launch market for its iPhone 5s and 5c this year, which is a first for any of its iPhone roll-outs. iPhone availability early and now with China Mobile should help curtail Apple’s grey market problem in the region, too, Cook says, thanks to increased availability.

“[A]s of this weekend we will be selling iPhones in more than 3,000 additional locations from what we were selling it before,” the WSJ quotes him as saying. The China Mobile deal opens up the iPhone to retail channels in cities where it had absolutely no presence before, he noted, and cited the carrier’s distribution network as an “enormous” asset.

Cook also fended off concerns about the increasing number of cheap devices competing with the iPhone in China, saying that Apple’s “North Star” has always been building the “best products in the world” and arguing that stats showing 57 percent of mobile browsing in China happens on iOS hardware should be enough to convince people of the effectiveness of that strategy.

spending hours Gaming can lead you to an early grave

It is true gaming can serves as a tool to developed children's level of reasoning but many adults are not excluded in gaming.I haven't said gaming is evil but staying hours gaming poses on health hazard.According to a particular report from CNN, I learnt
Mark Griffiths is a Chartered Psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University (UK). His latest book published in January 2015 (written with Dr. Daria Kuss) is "Internet Addiction in Psychotherapy" (Palgrave Press). The views expressed in this commentary are solely the author's.

(CNN)Earlier this month, a 32-year old male gamer was found dead at a Taiwanese Internet cafe following a non-stop three-day gaming session. This followed the death of another male gamer who died in Taipei at the start of the year following a five-day gaming binge.

While these cases are extremely rare, it does beg the question of why gaming can lead to such excessive behavior. I have spent nearly three decades studying videogame addiction and there are many studies published in both the medical and psychological literature showing that very excessive gaming can lead to a variety of health problems that range from repetitive strain injuries and obesity, through to auditory and visual hallucinations and addiction.

I have to stress that there is lots of scientific research showing the many educational and therapeutic benefits of playing but there is definitely a small minority of gamers that develop problems as a result of gaming overuse.

A handful of ultra-rich guys are racing one another to deliver the Internet from the sky

With the intention to make the world a small global village,billionaires battle for the internet in space.
These men realize that there is a huge untapped potentials estimated 3  billions who are yet to be online worldwide.Increases in online shopping,payment of utility bills,social network,advertisement and medium for political campaigns discussion  and youths participation in politics will convince these giant billionaires to be involved in this investment

According to Cnn report that the latest is SpaceX, which just got $1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity. Some of that money will be used to bolster CEO Elon Musk's plan to launch hundreds of Internet-signal satellites into space.

His mission to deliver reliable Internet access worldwide isn't unique. Other tech entrepreneurs realize there's a vast, untapped potential in connecting the estimated 3 billion people who still aren't online. These are customers who could be shopping, clicking on advertisements and posting on social media.
You can already get an Internet signal from above. But it requires special hardware. It's spotty, slow and ludicrously expensive.
In an effort to change that, Google (GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin is overseeing Project Loon, a battalion of Wi-Fi balloons that will float in the stratosphere. Facebook's (FB, Tech30) Mark Zuckerberg wants to do that with high-flying drones for his Internet.org project.
Then there's Virgin's Richard Branson, who last week poured a ton of money into OneWeb. The company wants to launch a fleet of 648 microsatellites to bring high-speed Internet and phone service "to people living in underserved areas."
Tech industry billionaires are obsessed with this idea for two reasons: capitalism and philanthropy.
Whoever owns the skies has the opportunity to be the telecom operator of the future, creating a network in space akin to what AT&T (T, Tech30) made by laying down cables in the dirt 100 years ago.
Also, the Internet is so pivotal to commerce and communication that access is starting to be considered a human right. The Arab Spring revolutions of 2011 were made possible by protestors coordinating via Facebook and Twitter (TWTR, Tech30). When Egypt pulled the plug on the Internet to try to assert authoritarian control, it showed that land cables are a liability to liberty.
Advocacy groups like Outernet and A Human Right (led by a former SpaceX engineer) hope to acquire satellites to deliver Wi-Fi from space to make sure that never happens again.
To make the Internet from space a reality, entrepreneurial billionairs are trying something daring.
For decades, companies like Intelsat (I) and SES have operated school bus-size satellites that float above a particular area of the Earth in geosynchronous orbit. They're far away -- just over 22,000 miles above the ground -- so a single satellite shoots back a wide beam that can cover an entire continent.
But they violate the rules of space economics 101. The satellites are large and heavy, so it's extremely expensive to launch one. As a result, companies build them to last 10 to 15 years and rarely replace them. That's why their hardware and Internet signals are so slow. To those on the ground, it feels like dial-up.
The tech industry is now championing a new way of delivering the Internet from the sky. O3B launches four satellites at once and keeps them closer to the ground, orbiting at "just" 5,000 miles. That allows for tighter light beams and faster Internet. The downside is a smaller coverage area, about the size of New Mexico.
SpaceX and OneWeb are aiming even closer. They want to launch many rockets -- each with lots of smaller, cheaper satellites inside -- and keep them circling at a relatively low 750 miles above the Earth. The coverage area will be tiny, but the goal is to sprinkle the atmosphere with hundreds of satellites. The extra gravity means they'll run out of fuel faster. But they need to be replaced often anyway to keep up with ever-faster Internet-connected devices down on the ground.
The biggest challenge, experts say, is money -- hence the backing from some of the world's richest people.
Despite the lower costs, launches are still expensive. Right now, a SpaceX launch costs $61 million or $85 million, depending on the rocket power needed, according to the company. Musk wants to reduce the cost of sending a pound of anything into space from $2,000 to below $1,000.
If SpaceX runs out of money before all those mini communication satellites are up there, experts warn it'll suffer the same fate as the failed Motorola-backed project Iridium, which aspired to do the same for cell phones before it ended up in bankruptcy in 1999.
"The big catch has always been the capital cost necessary to build the infrastructure and get it up there," said Sean O'Keefe, who served as head of NASA during the Bush administration and now teaches at Syracuse University.
So who will win the race?
Carissa Bryce Christensen, a policy analyst who consults NASA and the U.S. military, notes that Google's balloons will go up first, because they're easier to launch. Then come Facebook's drones. But they'll both be limited by complicated laws and restricted airspace. SpaceX will be the first to deliver worldwide Internet, because the Earth's outer atmosphere belongs to no one.
"This idea [of low-orbit Internet satellites] has been around for a long time, and people return to it because it's a good one." said Christensen, who founded The Tauri Group. "But it hasn't been implemented, because the devil's in the details."

China Denies Microsoft Outlook Hacking Allegations

We just got a report that recent allegations that Chinese authorities hacked into Microsoft's Outlook email service are "groundless", the official Xinhua news agency quoted Beijing's cyberspace regulator as saying late on Thursday.

The comments, made by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) spokesman Jiang Jun, were in response to a Monday report by online censorship watchdog GreatFire.org, which said that Chinese users of the email service were subject to a hacking attack over the weekend.
Xinhua quoted Jiang as saying that the accusation aimed to "incite dissatisfaction and smear China's cyberspace management system".

Last month, Google's Gmail email service was shut down in China before resuming disrupted activity, forcing many Chinese users to adopt domestic email systems.

Source :http://www.cdrinfo.com/

WhasApp Messaging service now available on the web

WhatsApp escapes the app: Messaging service now available on the web (but not if you're an iPhone user)
Service currently only works with Google's Chrome browser
Will not be available to iPhone users 'due to Apple platform limitations'
Works with the mobile app to mirror messages on site


It could be the kiss of death for office productivity.
The popular mobile messaging application WhatsApp is now available on your office computer as well as your phone.
The firm today launched a much rumoured web version of its service linked to the mobile app - but admitted it would not work with Apple's iPhone.

The app, acquired by Facebook last year for nearly $22 billion, unveiled the service today.
'Today, for the first time, millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your web browser,' it said in a blog post.

To us Nigerian Youth:You can lead this country to the promise land

I'm writing this post to remind all Nigerian youths irrespective of the party you belong.We the younger ones have to to be ready to take this country back in 2019 and move it to the next level. Like seriously,the old folks will never get tired giving us the same crap.
Do you know U,I mean U (no gender bias my friends) reading this post can lead this country to the promise land? Yes,definitely you can.

What does it take? Investigate,develop, Define,Plan,implement those plans at the right time with high level of transparency and accountability.If you put all these together with men with integrity working with you,there won't be need wasting billions of taxpayers monies to buy support and trust from the people when your integrity already reflecting on individuals.

In spite of the fall in oil price globally,there are still leaders among us the youth who can prudently manage the natural resources and leave smile on the face of every Nigerian...don't get me twisted,I don't mean someone like Demiji Bakonle

Developing: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia dead at 90, state TV reports

According to series of report coming from individuals in Saudi Arabia and other countries,it shows the king was a nice man,did everything possible with in his effort uniting the world. I can also remember him as the first King to visit the Pope Francis.Share if you remember his contribution to humanity.


DEVELOPING: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the powerful U.S. ally who joined Washington's fight against Al Qaeda and sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom has died at 90, according to Saudi state TV.

His expected successor is his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman, who recently has taken on the ailing Abdullah's responsibilities.

The announcement came in statement read by a presenter on Saudi state TV, which aired video of worshippers at the Kaaba in Mecca.

Saudi state TV said he died after midnight Friday.

Saudi King Abdullah Admitted To Hospital For Medical Tests in December

I'm reporting this for the benefits of young readers who may not have the proper understanding of what transpired and how it happens.

Accourding to Reuter, on Dec 31 - Saudi Arabia's elderly King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was admitted to a hospital in Riyadh on Wednesday for medical tests, state media reported on Wednesday, citing a royal court statement.

King Abdullah, who took power in 2005 after the death of his brother King Fahd, is thought to be 91, although official accounts are unclear. He has undergone surgery in the past few years related to a herniated disc.

Saudi stocks dipped on the news, which will also be of wider interest as Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the top U.S. ally in the Gulf region. Global oil prices did not appear to be immediately affected.

"The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, may God keep him, entered today, Wednesday, ... the King Abdulaziz Medical City of the National Guard in Riyadh to undergo some medical tests," the statement said, according to state news agency SPA.

Hacking Wi-Fi is child’s play! 7-year-old shows how easy it is to break into a public network

Just two days after an investigation revealed how much personal information public Wi-Fi networks can ‘suck’ from phones, a child has shown how easy the hotspots are to hack.

A seven-year-old broke into a Wi-Fi hotspot in just 10 minutes and 54 seconds after watching an online video tutorial.

The ethical hacking demo was carried out under the supervision of an online security expert to highlight just how vulnerable the networks are.

Experts predict that attacks on free, public Wi-Fi networks will rise in 2015.

An investigation by 5 News earlier this week found that hackers can force customers in a café to switch their phones from a legitimate Wi-Fi network to a fake one, without them knowing.

This made it possible for thieves to access phones, hack email accounts, steal login details, track people's movements and access online bank accounts.

To put these dangers into perspective, virtual private network (VPN) provider Hidemyass.com (HMA) recruited a child to attack a public network.

January briefing event as it happened - new Windows 10 launches: Windows 10 free to end users

In spite of all the Windows Microsoft has built over the years, Windows XP seems to me the best Operating System ever because of its reliability, dependability, efficiency, maintainability, security and its high level of compatibility to generic packages and application software were amazing.
When I heard that Microsoft will be releasing into the world Windows 10 early this year, I was really curious to see a better operating  system with  ‘’Start Button’’ that got missing on Windows 8. I will doubt  the efficiency of this new Windows 10 if start button did not come with it.
Statistically, the number of users using Android worldwide as of today is in billions. I will be in my seated position to watch how Windows 10 with its free price would display the great Android in the global market.

China raises wages for government workers at least 31 percent

In spite of series of research carried out in developing countries in the world by noble researchers to ascertain the origin, why was there corruption, when did corruption actually grow to a level of being part of us and why the evil fruit refused to die?
 If I must say that corruption is one of the things that broken the theory that states: To everything that has a beginning must also have an ending.
Personal I’m really skeptical if corruption has an ending in this part of the region I belong. Surprisingly, Chinese’s government seems to be breaking the walls and setting standards for other countries to follow.

War over new constitution in Nepal’s parliament

The history of Nepal has been influenced by its position in the Himalayas and its two neighbours, modern day Indiaand China.
Due to the arrival of disparate settler groups from outside through the ages, it is now a multiethnic, multicultural, multi religious, and multilingual country. Central Nepal was split in three kingdoms from the 15th century until the 18th century, when it was re-unified under the Shah monarchy. The national and most spoken language of Nepal is Nepali.
Nepal experienced a struggle for democracy in the 20th century. During the 1990s and until 2008, the country was in civil strife. A peace treaty was signed in 2008 and elections were held in the same year. In a historical vote for the election of the constituent assembly, Nepalese parliament voted to oust the monarchy in June 2008. Nepal was formally renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal when it became a federal republic.
To find out if all is still well with Nepalese politics

Kenya police fire tear gas on playground protest

I was really shocked when I saw this atrocity and barbaric act towards school children. School children should be respected because education is a right no longer a privileged coupled with the fact that they are the true leaders of tomorrow.
 In most part of the world, it takes parent extra effort to persuade their children to go to school. So disturbing those who are willing to get education is a serious crime.
 You may not want to agree with me on this, but what is really wrong for students to protest over the sale of their

Find out why America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death

 Freedom and comfort are very paramount in a man’s life. I bet you if these two words are lacking in a man’s life it could lead to disorganization of the home, family and the society in general. So when individual perceived the attempt is under way to make life a bit easier, they speedily accommodate the change because it has a lot of economic benefits. I am very sure you reading this will not waste a minute waiting for a prophet or an imam to inform you.
I remember vividly those days in school when my Supervisor asked me to make a presentation on E-Transaction, I will tell you I was so excited not because it was a short title but foreseen people, groups, businessmen and entrepreneurs moving from a traditional way to a much more comfort ways of transacting business. Among the benefits I listed was reduced crimes, theft, transport cost etc. The people will definitely welcome the development so long the infrastructures are available.  
I don’t know how prepared ownership of shopping malls are mostly in Africa as against online shopping that is going wider and wider on a daily basis. This development has affected hundred of shopping malls in America and other giant countries by forcing shopping malls out of business and also threatening the workforce.

Honda to begin selling jets in 2015 Scale model displayed at Detroit auto show

I know Honda products are fantastic no doubt.It took the company 20 years it shows you how reliable and dependable the jet will look.
After 20 years of preparation, Honda plans to begin selling light jets in the second quarter of 2015, the Japanese automaker announced Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show, where a scale model of the HondaJet was on display.

John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. said the HondaJet has yet to complete the Federal Aviation Administration approval process, but is already being mass produced.

"The most significant of HondaJet's many breakthroughs is the unique, over-the-wing engine mount configuration," Mendel said. "It's engineered and proven by Honda after more than 20 years of extensive research and development. This design makes HondaJet the fastest, the highest flying and - typical Honda - the most fuel efficient aircraft in its class."

Beer Poisoning Death Toll Rises to 69 in Central Mozambique

While praying for those that have passed on to rest in peace and God grants their closed relatives the fortitude to bear the lost. I also pray for the ones presently admitted at the hospital a quick recovery. The beer poisoning really sound me confusing though I know investigation is still on.
More so, I won’t fail to let you know my dear readers its hard time we stayed away from those things that can ignorantly send us to an early grave. I preach to you to stop consuming liquid that you are not sure of its origination and the some manufacturing drinks without government approved label. Always remember ‘’your health is your wealth’’

A Man busted smuggling 94 iphones into China like body armor

 I’m really shocked hearing there is a low and underwhelming consumers that even smugglers who illegally shipped them to China have to slash their prices less than half because of falling in demand. There is also a report that the main route to China for smuggling iPhones is from Hong Kong-gangs persuade consumers to buy them using their official ID cards, only one of the agents to collects the device from the Apple store.
I believe you will make a whole lot if you happen to be one of the smugglers. Selling the iPhone 6 illegally in China can make you big bucks, which is why smugglers are willing to go to insane lengths to bring ill-gotten iPhones into the country. The Verge directs our attention to a new report from Sina News about a man in China who got busted trying to sneak 94 iPhone 6 units into the country by strapping them all to his body.

Jackie Chan’s son arrested on drug charges, faces up to three years in prison

I have always respect China's policies even before she recently became the second largest economy in the world though the westerners did not agree always pointing fingers and accusing the Chinese government of oppression and brutality on her citizens. Personally, China's attitude towards discipline, corruption in particular, equality, vocational skills, management of resource control, human  development to mention but a few contributed to what the citizens are enjoying today. 
That is not to say there are no bottle-necks, but the truth is that they have really achieved growth in almost every sector of the economy and still not relent in achieving to be the largest economy in the world. 
I would like to use this medium to inform other developing countries especially in African where World Bank reported recently that more than eighty percent of the population still lived on dollar per day. This country should stop being sentiment and do everything humanly possible to emulate some of the China policies.
If you are in doubt, Jackie Chan’s son was arrested on drugs charges and he’s to face up to three years in prison.....This is a man with all his popularity and personality whose movies contributed to China’s GDP in the 80s and early 90s, I was very young then with my peers crying like babies if is not Jackie Chan movie nothing more. 
I know few African countries have gathered the courage, but implementing the policy is the fear.

Be careful, taxi drivers told during tense strike

Many taxi drivers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have been assaulted by colleagues since Thursday afternoon for not participating in a strike aimed at reducing the franchise fees that eat up much of their monthly revenue.

Many taxi drivers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have been assaulted by colleagues since Thursday afternoon for not participating in a strike aimed at reducing the franchise fees that eat up much of their monthly revenue.
The local transport department has warned taxi drivers to watch out for their safety, but suggested they carry passengers as usual.

A few taxis responded to ride-hailing apps or stopped on the road for passengers during the weekend, but workers at the city's two railway stations said about 90 percent of the taxis have stopped operation.

According to the Nanjing government, the transport and price departments are launching a survey into the taxi industry and will "initiate legislative proposals" dealing with the drivers' demands "in proper time".

Acknowledgement

I deliberately post this to acknowledge you my dear readers for spending time all through last year visiting my blog and reading my posts. I want to say your comments, critics, compliments were overwhelming.

 I will not stop without wishing you all happy New Year and also pray to God almighty to grant you the ability to achieved more this year in your own various endeavour.

Readers from Asian, Europe, American, Africa to mention but a few, I appreciate you all and let continue doing this by sharing more useful information that would make more impact in our respective society and the globe in general.
I also pledge to update you and make this year more interesting for you all. Also remember without you guys, there won’t be Pius Blogs.


Sincerely,
Pius Ernest.