Miscellaneous

Foxconn to Phase Out Human Workers, Replace Them With Robots

by China.new

Foxconn is everyone's favorite iPhone and iPad maker... unless you work there. Faced with a million-strong workforce clamoring for more pay and better working conditions, Foxconn has hit on an ideal solution: phase out whiny, fallible humans and “employ” silent, tireless, obedient robots instead.

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Debt Ceiling Debate May Have Been Won Or Lost In Twitterville

by Ron Callari

In a town of 200 million folks, Twitterville is more than twice the size of Canada and two-thirds the size of the U.S. The difference being, members of the the microblogging site speak their minds daily to a global audience, while American citizens can only grumble amongst a handful of friends and family, at best.

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Tibet Airlines Always Flies at 'Peak' Travel Times

by China.new

Tibet Airlines, which celebrated its inaugural flight on July 26th, 2011, can hardly be accused of flying under the radar. On the contrary, by operating out of Lhasa's Gonggar Airport with service to Tibet and China, the airline's fleet of three Airbus A319 jets is definitely a cut above... pretty much everything.

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Dinosaur Chopsticks Make Mealtimes More Messy-zoic

by Steve Levenstein

Gee Mom, Jurassic Pork again? No matter what's on the menu, this set of 3 different Dinosaur Chopsticks will make dining delicious even if your teeth aren't the size of steak knives.

Which Costs More - The Wine or The Corkscrew?

by Norm Cassian

I'm no connoisseur, but I imagine most wine experts consume wine that costs more per bottle than the cost of the common corkscrew used to open that bottle. At my house the typical wine on the bill of fare retails for between $4 and $10. My fancy Rabbit corkscrew runs about five times more expensive than the wine. Now meet Sveid, who manufactures a $72,000 corkscrew that deftly handles wines from $3 to $160,000.

Too Hot to Trot, or Work? Beat the Heat - Take Your Pants Off!

by Norm Cassian

A Salt Lake City-based ad agency has figured out a way to make work more exciting, and cool: Make it illegal for employees to wear pants to work. The conversation in the photo, "What d'ya say we head to that meeting, Boss?"

Solar Cookers Save Power in Lhasa, Tibet's 'Solar City'

by China.new

Cheap and effective solar power is hot, especially in Lhasa, Tibet, where clear air and up to 3,000 hours of sunlight annually conspire to create the perfect environment for homegrown solar cookers and water purifiers.

Evolution Eraser: Intelligent Design that Makes Errors Extinct

by Steve Levenstein

Evolution may be an ongoing process but Japanese designer Hiroyuki Shiratori has made it stationery, thanks to his revolutionary Evolution Eraser.

Measuring The Google Effect on People's Memory - Can You Google Where You Left Your Car Keys?

by Norm Cassian

How has rampant computer use, particularly emloyed in the search for esoterica and trivia, changed the way our brain retrieves, collects and stores information? Should we be concerned that a computer named Watson wallopped human Jeopardy champions? How did I get here, where are my car keys and do you have a good recipe for lemon marangue pie? New research by a Columbia University scientist studies The Google Effect and how it impacts whether we store information or simply remember where to find it.

Internet of Things Exceeds The Internet of People [Infographic]

by Ron Callari

While we were asleep at the switch learning to "plus one" on Google, the Internet of Things (IOT) just exceeded the number of people that reside on the planet. Beyond just smartphones and tablets, that number of "things" that connect to the Internet will only continue to scale as the growing number of connected gizmos, appliances - and even cows - are coded and catalogued to send messages to the Web.

Honey I'm Home! Beekeeper Battle is the Calm Before the Swarm

by China.new

The thrill of victory, the sting of defeat? In one of the more unusual endurance contests out there, a pair of Chinese beekeepers competed to see who could carry the heaviest load of live bees.

Customer Returns 3-Legged Duck, Didn't Check the Bill

by China.new

Buying the family dinner ain't all it's quacked up to be! A customer who bought a duck at a Chinese farm market was mighty angry when he noticed his purchase had a little extra 'kick' to it.

China's 'Bigfoot' Leaves Big Footprints in Chinese Cornfield

by China.new

Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti... and now, the Shennongjia Wildman? Said to inhabit a mountainous, heavily forested area in central China, this legendary red-haired creature has once again made the news by leaving what appear to be footprints in a Chinese farmer's field.

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Propeller Pen from Japan Keeps Writers Cool

by Steve Levenstein

The Fan Pen Type R combines the best features of a ballpoint pen and a hand-held fan, allowing users to write hot, hard-boiled prose while keeping cool as a cucumber.

Did Google+ Beat Facebook To The First Social Media Water Closet?

by Ron Callari

You can't get any more social then taking care of bodily functions in public places. Whether it's men lined up at urinals or ladies collectively freshening up their make-up - water closets or restrooms are about as social as you get. Ironically, hanging out together privately in designated places might be the bull-eye that gives Google+ the competitive edge - heretofore dominated by Facebook.

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Will The Social Media Wars Be Won By The 'Best Steward' Of Your Personal Data?

by Ron Callari

News of Google+ is cyberventilating on the blogosphere. While still in a beta test mode, more has been written about its impending launch than anything else they have done in the social media space - and to date that includes a number of starts-sputters-and-stops along the way (less we forget Orkut, Buzz, Google Me, Google+1, etc.) Facebook on the other hand continues to expand exponentially approaching the 3/4 billion mark milestone - leaving little room for others to play catch-up.

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Justin Timberlake Proves To Be Real VC-Man With Ownership Stake In MySpace

Page from "Facebucks & Dumb F*cks" graphic novel

by Ron Callari

As life imitates art, Justin Timberlake who appeared in the award-winning movie "The Social Network" was also satirized in the graphic novel, "Facebucks & Dumb F*cks." As VC-Man, the novel parodies the actor playing the real-life venture capitalist Sean Parker. Today, it was announced that JT will assume that role in real-life with a joint acquisition deal with Specific Media to buy MySpace from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

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Super Combo Ramen Fork Spork Keeps Your Noodles Soupy

by Steve Levenstein

This cool designer ramen “spork” allows slurpers to gulp their noodles with a spoonful of soup on the side. Besides dispensing with wasteful disposable chopsticks, the souped-up spork adds a dash of artistic taste to any bowl of delicious hot ramen!

Google's Social Media Hangouts Challenges Facebook's Friends

by Ron Callari

Google seems to be unshaken by all its missteps, lawsuits and flawed attempts at seeking social media's holy grail - as it makes yet another attempt at trying to beat Facebook at its own game. This time out, it's launching a social networking service called the Google+ project which while looking a lot like Zuckerberg's brain child - is in a lock-down beta mode, only accessible to a select group of testers, hand-picked by the Big G...

5 comments

Animal Footprint Beach Sandals Make Walkers Paws

by Steve Levenstein

These stealthy beach sandals from Kiko-Kids have really got sole: animal footprint soles to be exact. Now your kid can make tracks to the beach right through your living room and blame it on the family cat, monkey, owl, gecko or dinosaur.

2 comments