Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The world is in mourning. The passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs is truly a tragedy on a personal level; yet, I can’t help but reflect what his life’s work represented on the international stage. “Innovative” is the recurrent description attached to Jobs by various news networks. However, if he were known for just that trait alone, then he wouldn’t have superseded America’s creative reputation. America is the land where technical innovators are born. Whether it’s Henry Ford, Thomas Eddison, or even Bill Gates, that’s what America is known for. It’s what made companies like Apple the envy of nations across the globe and continued to persist after the current Great Recession. In a Giant Robot interview with Shuji Iwai, the dirctor remarked over Japan’s economic and creative slump. He idly commented how few products turn the world the way Apple does. Even executives and employees of Sony boldly strove to compete with Apple’s products during Jobs’s renewed tenure. CEO of Chinese computer company Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing, voiced similar sentiments at the news of Jobs’s demise Creations aside, Jobs’s most recent achievement was a simple one. He preened and maintained America’s stature as innovators of tomorrow. Whether or not this belief of American exceptional is a myth or reality doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that people both abroad is what counts. Steve Jobs has died, but one can only hope that he didn’t take this perception to the grave.
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It’s not that exciting, but prison is prison. For you fans of caged life, here’s a tale of what it’s like in a Chinese prison. Yes, “IT” happens there too. Just know that if you overstay your visa and elude police, life in the clink will happen. (ilookchina – prison)
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Not the 90s band that you all love, but we’re talking about opinion swayers or spinners in China. When there’s a negative opinion on something that the government cares about, there are paid “spin doctors” who write something on the contrary, and then another, and hopefully another. 10,000 writers are supposedly employed, barely. They’re paid .50 a post to write something to help bend a public opinion. The net is huge in China, perhaps 50 Chinese cents per post all day can translate into some heavy yuan! Not really though, since 50 Chinese cents is 7 US cents. (bbcuk – spin doctors)
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Here’s a French produced film that’s about oil. It just shows that although the US has issues with many countries, China doesn’t. They’ll get oil from countries that the US won’t work with. They’re paying the higher rates and are on track to buy the most oil in just a few years. It’s going to be a deep issue in terms of “security of supply”. What’ll happen in a few years? [youtube]Bc2_oS9zDeo[/youtube] [youtube]T6w4FhwIumQ[/youtube]
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The dream is to connect China, and to do it quick is important, yet why is it that a crash happened so fast? The bullet trains of China are infamous, but so is the big July wreck. It happened during a lightning storm, but really what happened? The word isn’t out. They say human error, but at the same time, this WSJ report mentions that the technology is so new, that the foreign components and pieces aren’t all understood. “…that local engineers couldn’t fully understand…” This is a good look into the system and technology. (WSJ – China Trains)
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