“China makes ever stringent demands on producers of IT trying to enter its markets….Commercially, the rules force outside companies to maintain special lines for Chinese products, creating an inefficiency that benefits local companies. Politically, its all about mastering encryption so as to be able to circumvent it with censorship.”
“China’s demand for global resources skyrocketing and environmental problems piling up,but entire apathetic (and rapidly aging) population sitting on its ass, when not otherwise engaged in stupid, government-organized political demonstrations; Chinese premier says, ‘What do we need with education anyway?; Millions in America comforted by news that R&D lead growing!” It would be some weird alternative history where Mao’s economic policies actually worked!
Unfortunately for the China doomsayers, Mao’s policies stopped being a factor in Chinese economic calculations years ago. R&D in China is bound to surpass the US, and education is on the forefront of every Chinese family’s mind.
Neat contest, and this post shows off the best ten entries. The picture to the left is the contest winner – a backpack based tent, that is easy to deploy anywhere.
“Designer: Dan Ostrowski
Based on the reports coming out of Haiti, I decided that a natural disaster refugee was a transient person that would migrate to new locations in search of safety, food, and/or medical help. I developed an inflatable tent because of its lightweight, easy transport, and minimal storage space when not in use. A GPS tracker was added so that rescue teams could know, before entering a ND zone, where they are most needed. The Lifestraws were added in an attempt to stave off water born pathogens and the use of mosquito repellent fabric was indented to stave off malaria.”
“New York has the Statue of Liberty. France has the Eiffel Tower. Now Senegal is about to get the “African Renaissance”—built by North Korea.
This month, workers from Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, a North Korean design firm, were putting the finishing touches on a giant copper sculpture of a family.
…
“Only the North Koreans could build my statue,” says Mr. Wade, sitting in a red velvet chair in his palace. Moreover, they offer monuments at a good rate, he says: “I had no money.”
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Over the past decade, Mansudae has built dozens of statues and monuments for cash-strapped African countries. Botswana cut the ribbon on a memorial to three tribal chiefs in 2005. Neighboring Namibia boasts a bronze of its founding president wielding an AK-47.”
Honestly, do you need any more prompting to go read this one?
“[...]The income gap between China’s rural and urban dwellers widened in 2009, according to new figures released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Net income per capita for urban Chinese was 3.33 times greater than that for those in the countryside: 17,175 yuan ($2,525) compared to 5,153 yuan ($754). The divide is the widest on record; China began tracking the statistic after opening its economy to international trade in 1978. China’s wealth is concentrated mainly along the heavily populated eastern seaboard. Addressing and narrowing the wealth divide has been a core policy priority for Beijing, as outlined in a five-year plan released in March 2006.[...]“
“A human-portable hydroelectric generator that weighs about 30 pounds and generates 500 watts of power may soon be a new option for off-grid power.
Developed by of Mailbu, California, the Backpack Power Plant can create clean, quiet power from any stream deeper than 4 feet.
The company showed off its more-rugged, militarized version of the Backpack Power Plant at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco last week. Bourne Energy CEO Chris Catlin estimates the system will cost $3,000 after it goes into production.
“The with no heat or exhaust emissions, is 40 percent less visible during operation and can also be bottom mounted to be totally invisible,” the company maintains.
Off-grid solar cells are also quiet, but they don’t make much power relative to the mini-turbine. For example, one measures about 12 square feet and produces 62 watts of peak power. You’d need 60 square feet of panels to get the same peak power as the BPP-2, and the panels would only generate electricity while the sun was shining.”
, a London design house, has worked on everything from cell phones to speakers to . But Britain’s Design Council, hoping to see what serious design thinking might produce, asked them to work on something completely different: Hospital Wards.
PG has just released their proposal today, in a “.” In it, they argue that the central problems facing hospital design happen to have already been solved in the design of first-class cabins for airlines.
Think about it: Nurses need to be able to visit patients easily and efficiently. So do airline stewards. Hospitals, meanwhile, need to maximize their square footage utilization, while giving patients privacy and–ideally–a comfortable, homey environment. Which actually happens to be exactly what airlines do, in their first-class cabin[..]“
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