LATEST NEWS

Chinese Online Retailers Furiously Flogging 'Three Wolf Moon' T-shirts

by China.new

Remember “Three Wolf Moon”, 2009's meme of the year and, as a result, Amazon.com store retailer The Mountain's biggest selling design EVAR? No? It seems China doesn't either, leaving the field of wolf-wear wide open for one enterprising online seller obliviously ensconced (along with their customers) behind China's Great Firewall.

Achieving Social Media ROI For The Hospitality Industry

by Ron Callari

The buzz surrounding social media marketing hasn’t gone unnoticed by the hotel industry and hoteliers are seeking to make inroads by engaging with the leading social networks in new and innovative ways. Choice Hotels however has indicated that "hotels have been slow or very conservative in the adaptation of social media."

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Nubot Video Chat Doll Attends Meetings as Your Remote Avatar

by Steve Levenstein

Who says you can't be in two places at once? Introducing Nubot, a smartphone faced robotic avatar doll controlled by Skype and webcam that allows you to interact with others remotely.

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Avoid Co-Worker Cooties With The Vioguard™ Self-Sanitizing Computer Keyboard

by Must Love Gadgets

I doubt the word 'cooties' was in Vioguard's application to the FDA for approval of the very first Self-Sanitizing Keyboard (The UVKB50), but when you consider all of the types of germs that congregate on and between the keys of communal computer keyboards, you'll definitely want to avoid them like the cooties. Hopefully, your company is willing to wait on line to order the hygienic keyboard....

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Scientists Hope Natural Herb Will Prove Effective Treatment For Alcoholism

by T Goodman

A tree that is native to China, the Hovenia dulcis, or Asian raisin tree, has been described to contain a hangover remedy since 659 AD. If you can fathom how long it's been in use, you may wonder why it's taken so long for modern research to study its potential as a treatment for alcohol addiction. Well, now a multi-disciplinary team from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) are actively studying its impact; first on rats....

Nokia's 801T Smartphone for China Touts Telescoping TV Antenna

Nokia's New 801T Smartphone for China Features Telescoping TV Antenna

by China.new

Nokia's new 801T smartphone may be Finnish by nature but it's been nurtured to succeed in China's unique telecom environment. Take the retro-looking, telescoping TV antenna, for instance: it'll bring in television signals without putting owners in debt to their service providers.

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McDonald's Japan Big America Burgers are Back “4” 2012!

by Steve Levenstein

If you loved McDonald's Japan's quartet of “Big America” burgers last year and the year before, well get out the napkins and the antacid because they're baaaack! This year's fast food final four kicks off with the Grand Canyon Burger, followed by three more hamburger homeland homages filling out the first quarter – not to mention your waistline.

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Deep Brain Stimulation Tested On Bipolar Subjects Unresponsive To Other Treatments

by T Goodman

Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, is in its early experimental stages; this study, for example, had only 17 subjects. But when you cut into a person's skull and implant electrodes on either side of the brain while people are awake, it's probably not that easy to attract willing subjects. Nevertheless...

Dignity: Now That's Something New For Patient Attire

by Myra Per-Lee

Whether you are instructed to put the strings in the front or the back of the faded, wrinkled, rag of a gown, if there's one thing you won't have once you've donned the thing, it's your dignity....

Car Seat Sensors Can ID Drivers by Their Bottoms

by Steve Levenstein

Someday we'll be "flying" our cars and computers by the seat of our pants, if a unique new sensor system developed by engineers at Japan's Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology is adopted by car & chair makers. It seems each person leaves a unique impression when they sit down and the resulting digital pressure patterns can be used to identify drivers from the bottom up, so to speak.

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Will The U.S. Constitution Stay Afloat In 2012?

Will The U.S. Constitution Still Float In 2012?

by Ron Callari

Well if you've been following the partisan rhetoric emanating from the Belt Way, you might not think that the government of "We The People" is going to fare too well going into a contentious election year. However, if you're one of the 99 Percenter contingency, things might be looking a little "rosier" for you . . . and they do mean that literally.

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World's Largest Bus Seats 300, Bends Like Beckham

by China.new

The 25 meter (82 ft) long Youngman JNP6250G developed by Chinese manufacturer Zhejiang Youngman is the “world's largest” public bus and can carry up to 300 passengers. Don't expect to “bus da move” in luxury, however, as specs for the JNP6250G indicate it has just 40 seats... you do the math.

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Pawel Grunert Still Finds Time To Design With A 'Re Purpose'

by Toby

Just when you thought you'd seen the last soda bottle chandelier, table, or chair... Polish interior designer Pawel Grunert creates the bottle chair to end all bottle chairs: the Eco Chaise Lounge, a magnificent, dynamic sculptured work that's as organic in design as Grunert 's wood and steel masterpieces.

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Chinese Internet Retailers Now Stocking Kim Jong-Il T-shirts & Hoodies

by China.new

North Korea's “Dear Leader” may be gone but online retailers at China's Taobao Internet Mall are making sure he's not forgotten by flogging Kim Jong-Il t-shirts and hoodies. Lookin' sharp, comrade!

What Did Poor Pets Get This Christmas?

by Lady Bee

Though it's reported that British pets suffered, gift-wise, from the downsized economy this Christmas, the American Pet Products Association estimated that 53 percent of dogs and 38 percent of cats in the U.S. received Christmas gifts this year - a relatively good stash for them, I'd say. But what about pets from families who can hardly afford to feed them, let alone buy Santa hats for them?

Polymer Shown To Rehabilitate Soil After A Wildfire

by Myra Per-Lee

Wildfires claim hundreds of thousands of farm acres yearly, causing famines and permanent devastation to the soil that produced the farmed crops. But a graduate student at Tel Aviv University (TAU), along with his supervising professors from TAU and the University of La Coruña in Spain, has identified an anionic polymer polyacrylamide (PAM) that seems to enable reforestation more rapidly and less expensively than current methods.

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Taking the High Road: Tibet Invests in 53 New School Buses

by China.new

The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round... even in Tibet, “the roof of the world”. The recent purchase of 53 new school buses by local authorities in Lhasa means many students in far-flung farming regions will ride to and from school in style (and safety) for the very first time.

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Hello Kitty's Tribute to Visionary Apple CEO, Steve Jobs

by Steve Levenstein

Sanrio, Japan's kawaii character company and home of cuteness queen Hello Kitty, teamed up with California goods retailer LoungeFly to thank Apple's inspirational CEO, the late Steve Jobs, for a lifetime of creativity. The result was a bizarrely cute "Hello Stevie" love-child that ended up pleasing nobody.

New Year Time: Blancpain's Caruso 'Chinese Dragon' Limited Edition Wristwatch

by China.new

The Blancpain Caruso “Chinese Dragon” Limited Edition wristwatch rings in 2012, the Year of the Dragon, in rare style... and “rare” is the watchword here. The luxury Swiss watch manufacturer plans on producing just 50 of the 18k rose gold tickers, sticker priced at $219,682 each.

Newest Japanese Rice Field Art Sends Living Messages of Hope

by Steve Levenstein

The 2011 crop of “Tanbo” rice field art is bolder and more beautiful than ever before. This year, though, Japan's artistic rice farmers are going against the grain by growing messages of hope and perseverance meant to encourage a nation fed up with natural and unnatural disasters.