Reflecting the idea that "loneliness is a crowded room", there is some evidence that increasing technology-enabled opportunities for connection can actually be counterproductive for some people, as it just highlights their relative isolation.
Picture source: Postsecret
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FEBRUARY 2011
Western and Asian chains are battling over the growing appetite for restaurant meals among Chinese consumers, who have more spending power but less time to cook.
China: shaking the world BBC podcasts http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2010/05/100513_china_shaking_the_world_part_one.shtml China overtakes Japan as world's second-biggest economy http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12427321 How China shapes the world ttp://www.ft.com/cms/ca6ea7d6-1d94-11e0-a163-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=Late_headline2/NL/CEJanuary2011/Vanilla_chnstw/0/ The power of China's people http://bigthink.com/idea_feed_items/4728 China tackles image problem in the West http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e63db99c-23f8-11e0-bef0-00144feab49a.html#axzz1DY8jhJ6X Chinese leaders have talked for five years about shifting the growth model towards consumption. Yet rebalancing the economy is proving much tougher than Hu Jintao let on in the US last week http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/S3DAYC/6O6X2/9ZT0UL/6VFH2H/B7/t?a1=2011&a2=1&a3=24 If China's senior leadership does not make a more meaningful effort to combat the tobacco problem, the nation will face a serious health crisis http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2043775,00.html?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Guan Tong Media Tank is a privately sponsored, independent European-Chinese media exchange platform where opinion leaders of both sides meet and discuss issues of common interest and strategic relevance. http://mediatank.com/ One of China's most high-profile human rights activists says he is being held under house arrest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12413660 JANUARY 2011 The China Syndrome http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/01/growth_0 The Facebooks of China http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1715041/print Beijing's foreign policy - China's preference for non-intervention will be strained as its interests become more deeply entangled with the rest of the world http://link.ft.com/r/0QSDPP/72L5HS/A2VIM/18R9NV/A7U9S6/AZ/t?a1=2011&a2=1&a3=20 Chinese Language Programs Revive "Red Scare" Hysteria http://www.good.is/post/chinese-language-programs-revive-red-scare-hysteria/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+good%2Flbvp+%28GOOD+Main+RSS+Feed%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Trying to read the new "assertive" China http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/997/ The BBC reports on China's dispossessed http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d0f9p Why Chinese Mothers Are "Superior" (article we read on train) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html China’s tough new attitude is both dangerous and counterproductive http://www.economist.com/node/17902953 The anger harboured by Beijingers about the sky-high cost of homes, and inflation in general, has been captured in an e-mail spreading in Chinese cyberspace. http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/EW81Q9/P29IW/26RZ7I/GKT5KL/1G/t?a1=2010&a2=12&a3=24 Life is easier for Western expatriates in China than it is for Chinese expatriates in the West http://econ.st/dJmwZG , says The Economist Not specifically about China, but check out new Lattitude volunteer stories http://ow.ly/3yxVy international education experts were stunned by the fact that students in Shanghai outscored their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of the widely respected Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, tests, which measure learning by 15-year-old students in 65 countries. Yes, Shanghai represents the best of China, but the best of China is now scoring better than anywhere else in the world. http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=3037&item=37148404&type=member&trk=EML_anet_ac_pst_ttle DECEMBER 2010 The 10 biggest myths about China in 2010 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/12/the-top-ten-china-myths-of-2010.html China's growth model 'unsustainable' - renowned Chinese academic and former member of the central bank's monetary policy committee launches scathing indictment of the country's extraordinary growth story Read more >> http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/72UJC9/9VCY7/S3XB5G/NS0I2Q/50/t?a1=2010&a2=12&a3=24 Why don't the Chinese spend more money? http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2010/12/27/why-don%E2%80%99t-chinese-spend-more-money/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader 40m new Chinese internet users in 2010 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1bafb49a-136e-11e0-a367-00144feabdc0,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html?ftcamp=crm/email/20101230/nbe/ChinaBusiness/product#axzz19aMb6VSH China: too little information http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2032304_2032746_2035983,00.html?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Seven notches on the Chinese doorpost - This was the year China's economy surpassed Japan's, a moment that will ensure 2010 a place in history books. But in other ways too, the past year will be seen as crucial in China's renaissance http://link.ft.com/r/XYEWFF/72POO7/568WV/GK6AYJ/8AR4FW/28/t?a1=2010&a2=12&a3=16 Chines society changing quickly http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/mongolian-diptychs-tell-of-profound-change/ Social networks steer China web evolution http://link.ft.com/r/IOCBMM/RN5XG1/3QGT3/189UZV/S32M1W/UP/t?a1=2010&a2=11&a3=29 What does China censor online? http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-does-china-censor-online/
HALCYON ON ANIMAL RIGHTS
ISSUE
Glacier shrinkage, combined with melting of the polar ice caps, pose three main threats: raising sea levels; disrupting ocean current circulation and losing freshwater stores.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
27/01/11 - The threat of the Greenland ice sheet slipping ever faster into the sea because of warmer summers was ruled out in one new scientific study.
FURTHER READING
As we seek to work, just a keystroke or two away we also have access to Google and YouTube, books and blogs, TV shows and movies, music and video games, email and texting, newspapers and magazines, and countless web sites and apps. We're free to indulge our every whim, no matter how trivial, and that's exactly what many of us now do, argues a leading academic.
Indeed, the social critic Linda Stone has coined the term continuous partial attention to describe the fractured way we now focus.
Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy suggests that there are "fault lines" marring the world economy. These weak spots, or pitfalls, lie hidden below the surface in prosperous times, but become obvious during crises.
The number of chronically hungry people declined by 10% in 2010, said the UN, while warning the global agreement to cut the percentage of people suffering from hunger by 2015 was in jeopardy.
Globally, 85% of oyster beds had basically disappeared by early 2011, making oyster beds potentially the most severely impacted marine habitat in the world.
Kevin Bales explains the business of modern slavery, a multibillion-dollar economy that underpins some of the worst industries on earth.
The main findings:
As Bales concludes, "if we can't use our intellectual power to end slavery, there is one last question, are we truly free?"
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