Literary Maverick Putting Asia on the Publishing Map (1)
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Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai) (0)
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6 days, 19 hours
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While New York and London are the current publishing powerhouses serving the US and Western Europe, there are millions of English speakers in developing countries who may be overlooked. The Telegraph has a profile of Philip Tatham, who is addressing this untapped market and tackling Asia from Singapore. Tatham established Monsoon Books in 2004 and currently publishes literary and commercial novels, as well as a wide range of non-fiction books. One of Monsoon’s star authors ...
Music Phones That Actually Make Music (1)
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Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai) (0)
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1 week, 3 days
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Pushing the boundaries of the “music phone” concept, a collaboration between au Design Project and Yamaha have produced a series of innovative phones that act as musical instruments. In total, the project has resulted in 5 unique prototypes: Band in My Pocket (above) incorporates multiple instruments including a trumpet and harmonica, which are controlled by fingers and singing or humming. Trio in Your Hand is designed for easy game play and features an interface for ...
Virtual Goods Sustaining Poor (2)
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Joel Horowitz (1)
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1 week, 5 days
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In a game like World of Warcraft, some non-devout players often can’t be bothered to put the time & effort into gameplay to gain better weapons and armor for their avatars. So they’ll outsource gameplay to “gold-farmers” to play & advance their avatar. BBC reports that at least 400,000 people in China earn an average of £77 per month selling these virtual goods to players. Steven Davis, chief of game security firm Secure Play, said ...
Beijing’s Post-Olympic Architectural Plan (1)
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Joel Horowitz (1)
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3 weeks, 2 days
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While China’s striking Olympic stadium and village currently houses the world’s greatest sporting event, it was only decided four years after construction began that the faux-bamboo-covered Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium would become a future NBA China League arena. Following the trend of revamping the way tremendously expensive Olympic venues are originally designed so they can be transformed into usable facilities after the games finish, Kansas City Architect David Manica is charged with the retrofitting the ...
How Much is Western Garbage Contributing to China’s Pollution? (2)
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Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai) (0)
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It’s no secret that China is home to some of the worst air quality and biggest rubbish heaps in the world, but is China the only one to blame? An article in UK’s The Sun recently reported the vast amounts of British waste found in Chinese garbage dumps – plastic Tesco bags, UK cigarette lighters and plastic bottles, among other trash. In fact, roughly 3 million tons of UK rubbish end up in China- because ...
Face Recognition Technology Not All That Smart (1)
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Dan Gould (17)
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1 month, 3 weeks
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New cigarette vending machines in Japan have a face recognition software that supposedly can tell if a potential customer is an adult or not. Nice idea, but an epic failure. A newspaper put this ability to shame when they tricked the machines by holding up a magazine photo to the mirror/camera sensor. The software thought it was a real person and sold them some smokes. It gets worse. Now a second group used the simple ...
Mobile TV China (1)
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Jason Tan (2)
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3 months, 1 week
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Mobile television - made famous in 2005 by South Korea where citizens demanded to get their soap opera fix on their cell phones - is set to have its coming out party in China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The option to channel surf through other Olympic events on your phone during the timeout would probably be welcome; but beyond entertaining the masses, China has job creation on its mind. Bear in mind that the ...
Philippine Prisoners Become Unexpected Fashion Designers (1)
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Orli Sharaby (2)
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4 months, 1 week
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Using an unusual technique, a Philippine prison is trying to rehabilitate its inmates by turning them into wannabe Versaces. Al Jazeera reports from Manila’s maximum security prison, where noted fashion designer Puey Quinones visits once a week to teach the prisoners, some serving life sentences for crimes like murder and kidnapping, to sew, bead, and hand paint textiles. The idea was conceived in order to exercise inmates’ imagination and keep them occupied, but has since ...
Flashmobbing for a Cause in China (1)
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Christine Huang (2)
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4 months, 1 week
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Yesterday, Chinese flashmobbers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen gathered themselves outside bookstores throughout the four cities and, en masse, began reading. Flashmobs are still somewhat of a novelty in China, but the most recent literary-happening suggests that Chinese flashmobbing is well on its way - but of course with a Chinese twist. The flashmobs we’ve witnessed here in the US are generally put on for fun, or a laugh, or often to get a ...
