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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Technology & the Environment: per-unit energy consumption falls 3.35% in the first half of 2009

China’s energy consumption to produce a unit of gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 3.35 percent year on year in the first half of 2009, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement recently. The decrease compared with 2.88 percent in the first half of last year […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Health in China: obese babies spark health concerns later in life

The proportion of heavy babies at birth has doubled in the past decade in Shanghai, raising concerns more people may suffer obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood […]

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Economics Information Technology

Watch Gordon Brown’s “Wiring a web for global good” talk at TED

“We’re at a unique moment in history”, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: we can use today’s interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic — and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy […]

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Economics Information Technology Trend Watching

Watch Clay Shirky’s “How social media can make history” talk at TED

While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows social media help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Health in China: Output of medicine industry expected to increase by 20% in 2009

Output of China’s medicine industry would increase by 20 percent in 2009, a senior legislator has said. The output figure is expected to hit one trillion yuan (146 billion U.S. dollars) in 2009 despite the severe domestic macroeconomic situation, Sang Guowei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, told a biological industry forum on recently.

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Design Economics

Watch Alain de Botton’s “A kinder, gentler philosophy of success” talk at TED

Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: urban population exceeds 600 milion with rural income’s yawning gap

China’s urban population surged to 607 million with an urbanization rate of 45.7 percent at the end of 2008, a social researcher revealed recently […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: the world’s biggest automobile maker and market

In 2009, driven by the stimulus package for auto consumption by Chinese government, China’s auto sales increased by 18 percent and China became the world’s largest auto producer with the world’s largest auto market […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Technology and the Environment: Power consumption up in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong

In the first half of June/2009, China’s average daily power generation capacity was 9.764 billion kilowatt-hours, down 0.17 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC). In May, the nation’s average daily power generation capacity dropped around 3.5 percent year-on-year […]

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China Design Economics Innovation

China, Technology and the Environment: 1,000 new energy vehicles to run on Beijing’s roads

1,000 new energy vehicles will be put into operation in public transportation and sanitation sectors this year, according to Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (BMSTC) […]