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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Asia’s rich to splurge more on art as investments

Despite giddy Chinese art prices showing some strain from global economic uncertainty, art collectors think values will continue to rise due to limited supply and continued strong demand as Asian collectors become more affluent […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Shoppers go abroad for luxury bargains

Chinese consumers spent about US$7.2 billion on luxury goods overseas during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, a 28.6 percent jump year-on-year, according to a survey […]

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Design Economics Information Technology Innovation Trend Watching

Watch “What we’ve Learned from 5 million Books” talk at TED by Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel

Have you played with Google Labs’ NGram Viewer? It’s an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel show us how it works, and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words […]

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Design Innovation Software

Watch Aaron Koblin’s “Crowds and Clouds: Data, Sheep, and Collaboration” talk at MIT’s Office of the Arts

Where others see just data points and fodder for bar graphs, Aaron Koblin visualizes dynamic systems where information assumes forms both abstract and familiar. In this talk, Koblin shares recent projects that meld statistical science and art to convey a really big picture, while often inviting the viewer to partake in a more personal experience […]

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Design Economics Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Alex Steffen’s “The shareable future of cities” talk at TED

How can cities help save the future? Alex Steffen shows some cool neighborhood-based green projects that expand our access to things we want and need — while reducing the time we spend in cars […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Beijing more expensive than Paris

Beijing is the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland for expatriates, ranking the 20th highest in the world for costs of living, according to an annual report released by Mercer, a US-based consulting company […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Shanghai now more expensive than New York

Tokyo is still the world’s most expensive city to live in and Oslo and Osaka still make the top five, but the Worldwide Cost of Living 2011 survey just released from the Economist Intelligence Unit also revealed some dramatic changes in the last year […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: BBC highlights the rise of the Asian megacities

Three decades of sustained economic growth, concentrated along the booming coast, has lured millions from the impoverished Chinese countryside. This great migration – unprecedented in human history – has put 46 Chinese cities over the one million mark since 1992, out of a national total of 102 […]

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Design Innovation

Watch Bruce Sterling’s Closing Keynote on IxDA | Interaction ‘11 Conference

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne.

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Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Kathryn Schulz’s “On being wrong” talk at TED

Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we’re wrong about that? “Wrongologist” Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility […]