Archive for the 'environment' Category

• 06.04.08 Living in China: Shanghai’s noise pollution worsens as air, water quality improves
  
  "Water and air quality improved in Shanghai last year, but noise pollution was worse, the city's Environment Protection Administration said. Water quality in the Huangpu River showed signs of improvement for the first time in five years, the administration said in an annual report before Thursday's World Environment Day, according to the Oriental Morning Post. Road noise on Shanghai streets hit an average of 71.9 dB during the day while it dropped to 65.9 dB at night, failing to meet last year's target, the report said..."  read on
  
  posted in transportation, living, shanghai, china, environment
• 05.13.08 Wenchuan Earthquake: China races against time as death toll nears 10,000
  
  "Rescuers are racing against time to reach survivors a day after the strongest quake that hit China in more than three decades jolted the southwestern province of Sichuan. The country was immersed in immense grief as the death toll rose to nearly 10,000. China's English-language newspaper China Daily silhouetted the front page in black to mourn the victims. The headline reads: "The Day the Earth Moved." Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan Monday evening, urged "calm, confidence and courage" in face of the catastrophe. Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the earthquake at western Sichuan province, has reported 57 confirmed deaths, and about 60,000 locals were still out of reach..."  read on
  
  posted in population, disaster, transportation, china, economics, environment
• 05.11.08 Autodesk sponsors project to develop Open Source GIS tools for kids
  
  "KidsGIS is a cool project from a group of professionals and educators out in Oregon (USA), who have been using MapGuide Open Source tools to create an open source geospatial portal as a tool for educating kids about environmental issues and about using open source software and open data standards. The project has an impressive group of sponsors, including the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, Autodesk, the San Diego Visualization and Supercomputer Centers, URISA, local governments and schools, and private companies such as Spatial Integrators and SPATIALinfo..."  read on
  
  posted in united states, geospatial, autodesk, software, education, information technology, environment
• 05.06.08 Living in China: Shanghai heads list of expats’ favorite cities
  
  "Shanghai maintains the highest quality of life on Chinese mainland for Asian expats, but environmental pollution problem is still a concern, according to the latest survey. The Location Ranking Survey, conducted by one of the world's largest human resources organizations, ECA International, ranked Shanghai in 11th place in Asia and 78th in the world in terms of expat living conditions. The city retained its top spot among the 13 cities in Chinese mainland that included Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Xiamen..."  read on
  
  posted in health, real estate, macao, living, hong kong, china, shanghai, beijing, environment
• 03.22.08 Autodesk featured in the Top 50 World’s Most Innovative Companies
  
  "Autodesk has been recently featured in Fast Company's ranking of the world's most innovative companies. From visionary upstarts to storied stalwarts, the list highlights companies that dazzle with new ideas -- and prove beyond a doubt how business is a force for change: Since 1982, designers, engineers, and architects have made Autodesk's 2-D AutoCAD drafting programs the default choice for creating anything from buildings to sailboards. Now Autodesk is targeting the latest growth area in product design: 3-D virtual prototyping that eliminates the need for building physical models."  read on
  
  posted in software, autodesk, united states, innovation, interaction, culture, design, information technology, environment
• 03.20.08 “The Design Eco-System”: Bill Buxton’s Keynote at IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference
  
  "Bill Buxton, in his keynote during for the opening of IxDA | Interaction ‘08 Conference, asks us: "How Can We Design Great Products if we don’t First Design our Environment?" Great ideas are not enough. In many ways, they are the easy part of design. The hard part is seeing those great ideas through to reality. But the weight of that hard part can be significantly lightened if one has the right tools, the right team, and is working in the right physical and cultural space. While this sounds obvious – banal even, the reality is that in the technology sector, the eco-system in which much design takes place is not conducive to the task. Designers are generally significantly out-numbered by technical staff. Unless proper attention is paid to details, the resulting physical and cultural eco-system will be determined by those with the larger numbers..."  read on
  
  posted in autodesk, creativity, ixda, canada, research, innovation, design, trends, information technology, interaction, environment
• 02.15.08 107 dead, $15.4 billion lost due to snow in China
  
  "The blizzards that struck southern China in the past month have killed at least 107 people and left eight missing, as of February 12/2007, reported a senior Chinese official recently. The disaster has also caused direct economic losses of about 111 billion yuan ($15.4 billion), Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said: 21 provincial-level areas had been affected, with Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region the worst hit..."  read on
  
  posted in hunan, disaster, transportation, health, china, living, environment
• 02.04.08 Disaster prevails as relief effort beefed up
  
  "Weather conditions in southern China will remain severe and relief work difficult, Chinese leaders warned yesterday as the country battles with the worst snowfalls in decades. The warning came after a meeting chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao to study the relief effort. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has just concluded his second visit in a week to central Hunan Province, the region worst hit."  read on
  
  posted in transportation, population, hunan, disaster, living, energy, economics, natural resources, china, agriculture, environment
• 02.02.08 Millions stranded by the snow in holiday havoc
  
  "Heavy white storms staged a comeback late yesterday as China's transport network remained crippled by the heaviest snowfall in five decades. Millions of people trying to head home for the Spring Festival are stranded. The big freeze has killed dozens of people, impacted on the lives of at least 80 million others and caused economic losses estimated at more than 53.8 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion)..."  read on
  
  posted in travelling, living, transportation, changsha, hunan, beijing, china, media, economics, wealth, natural resources, environment
• 01.30.08 What does experience design have to do with sustainability?
  
  "Not being industrial designers, we generally aren’t qualified to address product life-cycle issues such as materials & processes or transportation logistics in any meaningful way. But perhaps we can bring a new perspective to the sustainability conversation that other disciplines haven’t yet considered. Experience is closely tied to sustainable behavior: People act un-sustainably because it’s often much easier or results in a better experience than doing otherwise..."  read on
  
  posted in china, interaction, industry, information technology, trends, wealth, design, environment

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