Kioo17 Journal

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more men!” — Albert Einstein Ever wondered why bees are so important for our survival? One of the thousands of reasons is the fact that they help to cure AIDS. Scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have found that by poking holes in the protective envelope surrounding HIV and other viruses, melittin – a toxin found in bee venom – kills the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving the body unharmed.  This breakthrough could lead to drugs that are immune to HIV resistance; development of an anti-HIV vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV; as well as possible treatments for existing HIV infections (In 2015, nearly 40 million people were living with the lethal virus globally). Dr Joshua L. Hood, a research instructor in medicine at Washington University, remarked: “Melittin on th...

If you've ever taken a close look at the zippers on your clothes, you've probably noticed the letters "YKK," in all capitals, on a lot of them. They're on everything from jeans, to coats, to sleeping bags. Those letters stand for "Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha" which, from Japanese, roughly translates to "Yoshida Company Limited." It's a zipper manufacturer named after Tadao Yoshida, who founded it in 1934.By one estimate, the company makes half the zippers on Earth, which is more than 7 billion zippers each year. Yoshida didn't invent zippers. In fact,zippers were invented by an American, Whitcomb L. Judson, in the 1890s. He called it a "chain lock fastener." His company now exists, with an improved zipper design, as Talon, Inc. The company is also a major zipper manufacturer, and it's used by brands like Brooks Brothers and Uniqlo. But YKK has a reputation unrivaled in the fashion industry. Its completel...

Apple has reportedly dismissed an engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X hands-on video went viral on YouTube. Brooke Amelia Peterson published a vlog earlier this week, which included a trip to the Apple campus to visit her father and see an unreleased iPhone X. Peterson’s video was quickly picked up by sites like 9to5Mac, and it spread even further on YouTube. Peterson now claims her father has been fired as a result of her video. In a tearful video, Peterson explains her father violated an Apple company rule by allowing her to film the unreleased handset at Apple’s campus. Apple reportedly requested that Peterson remove the video, but it was clearly too late as the content spread further and further. The video itself may have seemed like an innocent hands-on, but it did include footage of an iPhone X with special employee-only QR codes. A notes app was also shown on the iPhone X in the video, which appeared to include codenames of unreleased Apple products. Filming on...

A futuristic rail system featuring track-less trains and virtual lines was launched in a Chinese city yesterday. Billed as the world's first 'smart train', the vehicle runs on virtual rail lines through the bustling streets of Zhuzhou in China's Hunan Province, reported People's Daily Online. The train could travel as quickly as 70kmh, or 43 mph, and carry as many as 300 passengers. The rail system, called ART or Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, has been developed by China's CRRC Corporation Limited, one of the world's largest train manufacturers. It's set to speed up public transportation of Zhuzhou, a city with about four million residents, before being popularised to other parts of China. The train, sporting sleek livery, is somewhat a hybrid between a long bus and a traditional tram. It could carry much more passengers than a bus and unlike a tram, it doesn't run on physical railway tracks. The invisible railway measu...

Carl Hoefkens played for West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City during his time in England. A former Premier League defender has claimed he played alongside two gay team-mates in England, with one potentially being a 'genuinely big name'. Carl Hoefkens, the former West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City right back, says the players' sexuality was 'not hidden' in the dressing room – although the men in question remain anonymous at their own request. Justin Fashanu, who committed suicide in 1998, was the last active player in England to come out as gay – in 1990. Hoefkens worked in England 2005-09, playing in the Championship and Premier League. Hoefkens played in England for four years, leaving in 2009, and claims one team-mate would arrive at the club's training ground but his boyfriend but asked his colleagues to 'keep quiet to the outside world'. 'I played alongside three gay footballers, including one who was a genuinely big ...

Burundi becomes first country to leave International Criminal Court An ICC spokesman has confirmed that Burundi's pullout took effect on Friday, a year after the country notified the court of its intention to leave. Some African nations feel the ICC focuses too much on the continent. Burundi has become the first country to pull out from the International Criminal Court after a one-year withdrawal process came to an end. The country notified former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of its intent to leave the court on October 27, 2016, as one of three countries — along with South Africa and The Gambia — to make such moves last year. Both South Africa and The Gambia later took back their withdrawals. The ICC, which was established to prosecute the world's worst atrocities, has said Burundi's withdrawal does not affect the preliminary examination of the country's situation already being undertaken by the court's prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. ...

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY : SUZAN KORUSAWA \ THE AUSTRALIAN. During the West African ebola epidemic, which peaked in 2014, legions of travellers, spooked by the disease’s potential spread, cancelled holidays, particularly to East Africa, even though that popular safari region was far removed from the continent’s affected countries. The safari industry has had to fight hard to re-establish consumer confidence but a swag of new lodges, major refurbishments and revitalised products, such as walking safaris and cruises on the Zambezi and Chobe rivers, indicate that bookings are on the rise. Just when a return to financially healthy times appears imminent, key safari destination Tanzania is suffering due to rising costs for tourists. Billing itself as the largest online marketplace for African safari tours, Safaribookings.com claims the introduction 15 months ago of an 18 per cent value-added tax on previously exempt tourism services has caused operators in Tanzania to lose bus...

One crafty female from China has performed the ultimate hustle to raise funds for a home deposit. The scheme involved a lady convincing her 20 boyfriends to buy her 20 new iPhone 7s, which she then sold for enough money to put a down payment on a house. Using the pseudonym Proud Qiaoba, a blogger gave a detailed description of how the hustle was performed by a colleague of hers, dubbed Xiaoli. While the legitimacy of the story might sound dubious at first,   the BBC reported   it has been able to authenticate the claims. Proud Qiaoba said she was utterly surprised when Xiaoli revealed she sold 20 iPhones to a mobile phone recycling plant for $A23,200 ($17,815) and then used that money for her house deposit. “Everyone in the office is talking about this now,” Proud Qiaoba wrote in her blog, reports the BBC. “Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public.” Proud Qiaoba said Xiaoli did not come from a wealthy family,...

Arsenal and Manchester City could be subject to punishment after confusion over the new substitution rule in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup clashes. City saw off Wolves in a penalty shootout, while Arsenal needed extra time to beat Norwich at the Emirates Stadium. However, both clubs are awaiting judgement on whether they broke the rules over substitutions, which could land them in hot water. Both Premier League clubs made four changes, with two coming in extra-time, and the Canaries are set to demand clarification over whether this was allowed. Four substitutions are allowed in the Carabao Cup this year, but the official rules imply that only one can be used after 90 minutes. When asked if Arsenal’s subs had been within the regulations, Arsene Wenger replied: “Yes.” Norwich boss Daniel Farke added: “I think the rule has changed but it is complicated.” Carabao Cup Rule 10 states: “Each team is permitted up to seven substitutes of whom not more than three may t...

PATRICIA MEISTER (64). A 64-year-old woman has opened up about how she was swindled out of $100,000 after falling for a man she'd never met. Patricia Meister, from Queensland, struck up an online relationship with who she though was a dashing middle-aged businessman after he sent her a friend request on Facebook in 2015. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the woman revealed the moment she fell head over heels in love, before discovering her Italian lover named 'Carlos' was a Nigerian fraudster. Ms Meister said the man seemed keen to share every aspect of his life with her when he messaged her every single day. 'I'd never been on dating websites, and I only used Facebook for business. So when I got the friend request, I thought it couldn't do any harm, can it? ,' she said. ' I guess at the time, I was going through a period in my life where I felt isolated. I'd been single for a while and I'd never been on dating sit...

THE LATE GABRIELLE MAINA. The estranged husband of Australian teacher Gabrielle Maina has been arrested after the mother-of-two was shot and killed in Nairobi last week, according to media reports. Ms Maina's husband, Cyrus Bernard Maina Njuguna, and another man, John Njuguna Waithira, were arrested over Thursday's shooting in the exclusive suburb of Karen, the ABC reports. CYRUS BERNARD MAINA NJUGUNA. Her lawyer, George King'ori, earlier on  Tuesday told AAP the couple was in the midst of divorce proceedings in the Kenyan courts after the 40-year-old had been granted a restraining order against her husband in April. "She feared her estranged husband ... the husband had become very irrational," Mr King'ori told AAP in a statement. A post-mortem examination confirmed Ms Maina, originally from the NSW town of Armidale, was killed by a single gunshot wound, the ABC reports. Mr King'ori said the mother-of-two may have be...

 Six crew from a German container vessel have been kidnapped in Nigerian waters, a shipping company said on Tuesday. Four of those taken are Filipino and one is a Ukrainian national, according to the Philippines department of labor and Ukrainian foreign ministry. Kidnapping for ransom is a common problem in parts of Nigeria. A number of foreigners have, in the last few years, been kidnapped in the Niger Delta, source of most of the crude oil which is Nigeria’s economic mainstay. “The vessel was attacked by pirates on early Saturday morning when it was approaching one of the ports of Nigeria,” said a spokesman for Peter Doehle Schiffahrts KG. “Six of the crew were taken off the ship and they are now held by kidnappers in Nigeria,” he said. There were no German nationals among the kidnapped but the spokesman declined to say where those abducted were from. Those kidnapped comprise four Filipinos, one Ukrainian and one Hungarian, officials from the countr...

RUSSIA is ready to fire its new “Satan 2” nuclear weapon that can beat any missile shield deployed by the West . Vladimir Putin’s long rumoured super weapon is due to be test before the end of the year. Dubbed the Satan 2 by NATO, the weapon has long been rumoured and talked up as being capable of destroying an area as big as France. The 100-ton ICBM will carry up to 15 nuclear warheads – each capable of hypersonic speeds of 4,000mph. Last year, first pictures were released of the Satan 2 – official name the RS-28 Sarmat. Now, Russian state media reports the weapon will be tested before the end of 2017. Kremlin engineers are said to be aiming to deploy the Satan 2 ready for war before the end of 2020. The RS-28 will replace Russia’s current arsenal of SS-18s, called Satans. It is said to have range of up to 7,000 miles and can “speed past every missile defence system in existence”. The RS-28 will be tested at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, north western...

Kwame Nkrumah was a futurist, a born visionary. His plan as leader of Ghana was to make it an industrial hub within a generation. He dreamt of a united and successful African continent and the narrative he was creating for Africa was a foreign policy concern for the United States of America. In a Memorandum from the President’s Acting Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer) to President Johnson, the coup that led to Nkrumah’s downfall was described as a fortuitous windfall because, “Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. In reaction to his strongly pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western.” In other words, the military regime was a shadow of the West, a whole puppet show mistaken for governance. Before the declassification of the official documents by the USA, a C.I.A operative, John Stockwell, shared his knowledge on how the United States had been involved in evoking anti-Nk...