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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: 85% of Chinese families can’t afford houses

According to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), 85 percent of Chinese families can not afford housing expenditure, and house prices are much higher than their incomes […]

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Design Information Technology Innovation Software

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps at TED

In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: 2.54 billion journeys will be made during Spring Festival

China began its annual mass passenger transportation for the traditional Lunar New Year, with an expected 2.54 billion journeys in the coming 40 days […]

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Design Inspiration

Watch Rory Sutherland’s “Life lessons from an ad man” talk at TED

Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value — and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life […]

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China Information Technology Trend Watching

Internet in China: Internet population hit 384 million in 2009

China’s population of Internet users jumped by nearly a third to 384 million at the end of 2009, an official report showed recently, just a few days after Google threatened to retreat from the expanding market […]

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Consumer Behavior Trend Watching

Watch Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” talk at TED

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz’s estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied […]

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Trend Watching

Mike Rowe celebrates dirty jobs at TED

Mike Rowe, the host of “Dirty Jobs,” tells some compelling (and horrifying) real-life job stories. Listen for his insights and observations about the nature of hard work, and how it’s been unjustifiably degraded in society today […]

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Information Technology Innovation Software

Watch Lalitesh Katragadda’s “Making maps to fight disaster, build economies” talk at TED

As of 2005, only 15 percent of the world was mapped. This slows the delivery of aid after a disaster — and hides the economic potential of unused lands and unknown roads. In this short talk, Google’s Lalitesh Katragadda demos Map Maker, a group map-making tool that people around the globe are using to map their world […]

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Design Innovation

Watch Rachel Armstrong’s “Architecture that repairs itself?” talk at TED

Venice, Italy is sinking. To save it, Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials and, well, make architecture that grows itself. She proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon, too […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: consumption stimulus to extend into 2010

Stimulus policies spurring Chinese domestic consumption will be maintained in 2010, while high sales growth of home appliances and automobiles due to the stimulus packages will not affect consumption, analysts predict […]