Report cites insect-trapping plants in Kenya and Bangladesh's use of ducks in paddy fields, and resulting rise in crop yields
A move by farmers in developing countries to ecological agriculture, away from chemical fertilisers and pesticides, could…
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--With large corporations swallowing smaller ones it's hard to know who owns who
Many "ethical" treats have corporate sugar daddies, such as Green & Blacks, famously consumed by Cadbury, which was in turn devoured by Kraft. The original brand…
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--The less waste households put out for incineration, the less they pay. It's why Neustadt an der Weinstrasse's recycling rates are the toast of Germany
The citizens of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse take their recycling very seriously. So much so that…
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--Today, Reuters asked the questions we've all been thinking. Namely, "This is Japan, right? They've got lots of robots, right? So why aren't there robots helping out at Fukushima?" The answer they got is somewhat unsatisfying. Mostly, there's a lot…
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--Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the Japanese owner of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, falsified safety data and "dishonestly" tried to cover up problems there, according to reports based on Wikileaks-leaked cables (The Australian)....
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--In the past couple of days, as many of us around the world began thinking seriously about the fallout from the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Japan, I've gotten lots of questions about potassium iodide pills—"Why do people take them?", "How…
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--Koji Haga wasn't just near the tsunami that devastated northern Japan on March 11. He was on top of it. Somehow the fishing-boat captain kept his pitching vessel upright as the churning force of the wave attacked the shore, turning his coastal community of Akaushi into a graveyard of rubble and probably killing upwards of 10,000 people in the country's north. I met him barely 24 hours after he'd returned to the spot where his house once stood. Aside from the roof, which landed not far from his building's foundations, there was nothing recognizable that remained of his home. A few mementos were scattered in the kaleidoscopic wreckage: his waterlogged family albums were lodged in the axle of an upturned car, while his daughter's pink stuffed animal lay facedown in the mud.
Haga ignored most of these keepsakes. His first priority was scooping up sodden rice to take back to his hungry family and neighbors, who had escaped the wave by scrambling to higher ground. Yet even as the fisherman packed the ruined grain into a sack, he displayed the fortitude and generosity that have so defined this devastated region of Japan. Haga was embarrassed that the rice was spoiled, but he invited me to take some. A neighbor had found a bottle of grain alcohol bobbing in a fetid pool. Would I like a fortifying gulp? The next day, Haga would join Akaushi's other survivors to begin the slow clearing and reconstruction of a village virtually wiped off the map. "We'll all try our best to do this together," he said, not a note of pity in his voice. "That's the Japanese way, isn't it?" (See exclusive photos of the devastation in Japan.)
Natural disasters lay bare the best and worst in people, stripping away hubris and artifice. The tragedy in Japan - a 9.0-magnitude earthquake followed by a killer tsunami and compounded by a nuclear accident at a tremor-and-tidal-wave-damaged power plant - brought into relief the remarkable resilience of the Japanese people. Defining a national psyche can be a tricky undertaking. But the dignified stoicism with which the Japanese have faced this tragedy is extraordinary to see.
Japan's resilience, however, is not solely to be explained in terms of some innate psychological trait that its people possess. It is also manifested in the nation's preparedness. As high as the official death toll will climb in the coming days, there is little doubt that the complex tsunami and earthquake early-warning systems that Japan has in place saved tens of thousands of lives. Now as Japan struggles to overcome one of the worst natural disasters in its history - though the earthquake on March 11 was the most severe in modern times, far fewer died than in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 - it will need even more reserves of fortitude to remake a nation that is all too familiar with losing everything and starting anew.
Marooned on the edge of a continent and perched on one of the most seismically active spots on earth, Japan, for all its modern comforts and luxuries, is a country that lives on the brink of disaster. Even its language is a testament to how this sense of precariousness has shaped the national consciousness. I say this as someone who is half Japanese and should know how to articulate a nation's mind-set. But even I find it hard to define gaman, a unique mix of endurance and self-abnegation that practically all people I spoke to in the disaster zone used to describe their situations. Or what about shoganai, which is often translated too simply as "There's nothing you can do"? (See how Japan became a leader in disaster preparation.)
A pair of inventive eco-sportsmen have driven across Australia using mostly wind power
Every now and then pioneering science offers up a solution to one of the world's many intractable problems that is as elegant and unexpected as it is brilliantly…
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--When a TechCrunch writer posted 'snarky' remarks about Source Code's marketing, the studio wasn't impressed. So what?
Reader, prepare yourself: Someone on the internet thinks Source Code looks silly. Source Code, of course, is a movie that premiered…
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--Exclusive: Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda
Jeff Jarvis: Washington shows the morals of a clumsy spammer
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate…
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--Robin Li sempat jatuh bangun untuk mengembalikan citra Baidu yang hancur lebur akibat perbuatannya. Sebab, ia menerima tawaran dari Sanlu Group, produsen susu yang mengandung melamin, agar menyaring situs-situs yang dapat merugikan perusahaan ini. Ia juga banyak menerima iklan kesehatan dari dokter gadungan, rumah sakit fiktif, dan apotek tidak terdaftar. Tapi, sistem baru yang diadopsi Baidu secara kualitas menempatkannya sejajar dengan Google.
Sukses Robin Li membangun kerajaan bisnis Baidu bukan tanpa batu sandungan. Ia sempat dituding menjalankan bisnis tanpa etika. Salah satu tuduhannya sangat serius. Dia disebut sebagai komandan dari pembajakan besar-besaran di China. Maklum, awal berdiri, Baidu memang menawarkan situs-situs yang langsung membuat pengguna dapat mengunduh semua lagu dari band atau penyanyi mana pun.
Lihat saja, pada tahun hajatan penawaran saham perdana alias IPO di 2005, sebanyak 25% lalu lintas di Baidu adalah mengunduh lagu-lagu. Namun, setelah kalah di pengadilan melawan raksasa musik EMI di tahun yang sama, Baidu mengurangi link ke situs-situs MP3. Alhasil, pada 2009, Robin mengklaim angka pengunduh tinggal 5%.
Banyak pemilik situs yang juga tidak senang dengan cara Robin menjalankan bisnisnya. Dengan sistem pay for performance, situs-situs harus membayar untuk mendapatkan prioritas penempatan link di Baidu. Mereka lantas membentuk aliansi yang disebut Fanbaidu yang dalam bahasa China berarti anti-Baidu.
Tahun 2008 adalah tahun terberat bagi Robin. Sebab, Baidu banyak diterpa skandal yang merusak citranya sebagai mesin pencari. Sanlu Group, produsen susu yang mengandung melamin, pada September 2008 ternyata membayar Baidu agar menyaring situs-situs yang dapat merugikan Sanlu dari pencarian.
Aib ini terbongkar dari sebuah dokumen internal Baidu yang beredar luas di internet. Dokumen ini beredar luas di kalangan blogger sebelum dimuat oleh Alibaba di situsnya. Baidu dipaksa mengalokasikan waktu yang sangat berharga untuk mengontrol kerusakan imej mereka.
Saat sedang memperbaiki citranya yang hancur lebur, sebulan kemudian, sebuah stasiun televisi milik Pemerintah China menayangkan dua seri pemberitaan tentang iklan kesehatan di Baidu. Berita ini mengungkap, bahwa banyak iklan kesehatan yang ada di Baidu dipasang oleh dokter gadungan, rumah sakit fiktif, dan apotek ilegal.
Stasiun televisi pelat merah itu menyebut, ada batas yang sangat tidak jelas dalam Baidu antara iklan dan hasil pencarian. Ini lantaran iklan hanya diberi label kecil bertuliskan promosi. Tentu saja, ini sangat membingungkan pengguna. Dan praktik ini selalu dihindari Google dan mesin pencari internet lain.
Tiga hari setelah penayangan pemberitaan itu, saham Baidu langsung anjlok 38%. Dalam hitungan hari, Baidu bersumpah akan membuang semua iklan kesehatan yang menipu, yang tiap tahunnya ternyata menyumbang 15% pendapatannya atau sekitar US$ 70 juta per tahun.
Sebuah survei di 2008 juga mengambil kesimpulan bahwa pengguna Baidu menghabiskan waktu dua kali lebih banyak ketimbang pengguna Google sebelum menemukan situs yang dicari. Penyebabnya, Baidu mencampurkan antara iklan dan hasil dari pencarian.
Untuk mengatasi masalah-masalah ini, Robin lalu menjalankan sistem pengiklanan baru yang disebut Sarang Phoenix, yang hanya akan menempatkan iklan pencarian tertentu di kiri atas dan kanan hasil pencarian.
Tetapi, beberapa pengiklan menemukan bahwa dibutuhkan waktu empat kali lebih banyak untuk meraih hasil yang dicapai dibandingkan sistem sebelumnya. Dan, pengguna biasa mengacuhkan iklan di sebelah kanan.
Setelah kejadian itu, Lonnie B. Hodge, ahli pemasaran yang tinggal di China, bilang, Baidu lebih mementingkan menyelamatkan citra mereka daripada sekadar keuntungan. Sistem baru ini menempatkannya secara kualitas sejajar dengan Google.
Pihak berwajib China telah menangkap 3.001 orang yang terlibat praktik jual beli barang 'kw' alias palsu tapi mirip aslinya. Tak hanya itu, sekitar 292 situs jual beli barang palsu pun ikut ditutup.
Tindakan ini merupakan bagian dari kampanye memerangi pembajakan yang gencar dilakukan China sejak Oktober 2010. Muncul atas desakan Amerika Serikat (AS) dan negara lain yang menjadi partner perdagangan China, negeri tirai bambu ini berupaya membasmi keberadaan berbagai produk tiruan.
Dikutip detikINET dari Business Week, Selasa (15/3/2011), aksi 'bersih-bersih' yang dilakukan China kali ini mengumpulkan 26 ribu ponsel bermerek Nokia dan Apple palsu, tiruan jam merek Rolex, tas Louis Vuitton, komponen otomotif, DVD dan bermacam pakaian merek terkenal.
"Perlindungan terhadap kekayaan intelektual sangat penting dalam membangun sebuah negara yang berorientasi pada inovasi dan mengubah citra China dari 'pencipta produk tiruan' menjadi 'pencipta inovasi'," kata Li Chenggang selaku Deputi Direktur Kementerian Perdagangan Divisi Hukum.
Dilaporkan pula oleh kantor berita Xinhua, 23 orang di Jingzhou, provinsi Hubei, ditangkap karena diketahui memproduksi obat-obatan palsu. Sebanyak 100 juta kapsul obat palsu yang diisi campuran serbuk gergaji dan tepung terigu dijual menggunakan merek obat ternama.
Obat-obatan tersebut diiklankan dan dijual melalui email dan internet. Namun hingga saat ini belum ada laporan keracunan akibat menenggak obat palsu tersebut.
A new website, iCorrect, is offering celebrities the opportunity to put the record straight about the untruths that are printed about them in the media
Revise the history books! Forget all you once thought was true! There is a new website to right…
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--NEW YORK -- The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan and triggered a powerful tsunami on Friday has had a profound effect on both the surrounding terrain and the planet as a whole.
Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S.…
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--The iPad 2 went on sale in the U.S. on March 11, and already the device is selling out at Apple, AT&T, Verizon and various retail stores around the country.
Industry analysts are predicting that the device will outsell its predecessor, but that…
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--WASHINGTON — Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration took action on fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked…
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--In June 2010, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of the lava lake boiling in the depths of Nyiragongo Crater, in the heart of the Great Lakes region of Africa. The team had dreamed of this: walking on the shores of the…
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--An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit off the east coast of Japan early today. The quake -- one of the largest in recorded history -- triggered a 23-foot tsunami that battered Japan's coast, killing hundreds and sweeping away cars, homes, buildings, and…
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--Japan raced to avert a nuclear meltdown today by flooding a nuclear reactor with seawater after Friday's massive earthquake left more than 600 people dead and thousands more missing. Towns in the country's northeast coast were literally wiped away by…
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