NEWS: China Ends One-Child Policy

Photo: Cecilia Oramas via Flickr.

"Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardize China’s economic ascent, the Communist Party leadership ended its decades-old “one child” policy on Thursday, announcing that all married couples would be allowed to have two children. The decision was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.” Read full article in The New York Times. E.T.P. 6' You can also read about it in The Guardian. E.T.P. 5'

OUR WEEKLY PROCRASTINATION

Screenshots of Beijing Silvermine via Emiland Guillerme's Vimeo.

This week we came across Emiland Guillerme's Beijing Silvermine, a wonderful documentary about Thomas Sauvin and the work he performed in China, rescuing, scanning and classifying hundreds of thousands of photo negatives, to portrait the radical changes the country suffered during two very peculiar decades (from 1985 to 2005). The results of his experiment are not only visually beautiful, but very rich in an anthropological way as there are some really interesting insights about composition, favorite holiday places, clichés, fashion, family life, etc. and it is also a great approach to crowdsourcing. 

In Guillerme's vimeo you can read this description "Beijing Silvermine is a unique photographic portrait of the capital and the life of its inhabitants following the Cultural Revolution. It covers a period of 20 years, from 1985, namely when silver film started being used massively in China, to 2005, when digital photography started taking over. These 20 years are those of China's economic opening, when people started prospering, traveling, consuming, having fun."

Absolutely meaningful procrastination, in Emiland's Vimeo you have a look at Beijing Silvermine- Thomas Sauvin Part I (E.T.P. 12') and Part II (E.T.P. 5'20'') and to Silvermine (E.T.P. 15')

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 8th of June Edition

EDITORIAL

This week edition our News section features articles about the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, and John Oliver explaining Net Neutrality; also, a couple of infographic, one about gay rights in the world and another one about the economic split in Latin America between Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance. A glimpse into the humanoid robotics movement in Japan in our Science & Technology section. The future of work when (and if) robots take over and Van Gogh's ear in Design, Business & Innovation. In Culture & Entertainment we feature a moving portrait project by photographer Sasha Maslov with some veterans of the Second World War; and in a lighter note a fun campaign where glasses transform impressionism turns into hyperrealism. La Guía del Perro share with us how Panda-Dog craze sweeps China and how to tell if your dog is putting on weight, check In Dog We Trust.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Photo via The Independent.

This past week The Independent published an article about Tiananmen Square 25th anniversary – the massacre as it happened as told by Michael Fathers, The Independent's then Asia Editor, who was there. These were his dispatches from the atrocity. It is a quarter of a century since the People's Army put down China's incipient protest movement with shocking brutality.  'Rows of troops advanced slowly, shooting directly into the crowd.' Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 18'

Meanwhile in 2014, China blocked Google ahead of Tiananmen Square anniversary to slience its discussion. Read article in Mashable E.T.P. 3'

"Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is illegal in almost 80 countries, and in at least five of them is still punishable by death. In honour of the International day against homophobia and transphobia on 17 May, explore the legal situation for LGBT people around sex, marriage or civil partnerships, adoption, workplace discrimination and hate crime by region, country and overall population." Great interactive infographic made by Feilding Cage, Tara Herman and Nathan Good. Have a look in The Guardian.

I really enjoyed this video of John Oliver explaining Net Neutrality. It's an easy and fun way of understanding a very serious problem that I hope we don't have to face anytime soon. "John Oliver took on net neutrality on Last Week Tonight in the way only he can on Sunday evening. "They should call it cable company fuckery," Oliver said. After tearing into the FCC, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and the Obama administration, Oliver called for help from someone unexpected — Internet trolls. Oliver pointed viewers (and, more importantly, web commenters) to visit www.fcc.gov/comments to vent about the FCC proposal, which was opened for comment in mid May. "This is the moment you were made for, commenters," Oliver said." Read full article and watch the video in Mashable. E.T.P. 17'

Finally Latin America's economic split explained by a Bloomberg graphic. The inflation one is a beauty: "Latin America is divided between fast-growth countries along the Pacific coast and stragglers facing the Atlantic." Have a closest look in Bloomberg. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via AdWeek.

"What do Bob Dylan, Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, the Muppets, U2 and the cast of the '90s sitcom Full House have in common? They all starred in Super Bowl commercials this year, and none of them came anywhere close to the top of the list when it came to sharing of the ads online". Read this interesting article by Tim Nudd in AdWeek. E.T.P. 6'

Photo via Quartz.

"China already has the world’s longest high-speed rail network. And the country aims to more than double the amount of high-speed railway by 2015. Officials want to build everything from an undersea railway tunnel from the Chinese shore to Taiwan—twice the length of the Channel Tunnel between France and Britain. In that context, it almost seems feasible that China would be considering a recently discussed project—13,000 km of high-speed railway that crosses from China to Russia and North America that includes a 200-km tunnel under the Bering strait. A railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering told the Beijing Times that officials are having discussions about the project." Read Lily Kuo's full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 4'

Photo via AdWeek.

"It's such a great, simple idea: Young Brazilians want to learn English. Elderly Americans living in retirement homes just want someone to talk to. Why not connect them?

FCB Brazil did just that with its "Speaking Exchange" project for CNA language schools. As seen in the touching case study below, the young Brazilians and older Americans connect via Web chats, and they not only begin to share a language—they develop relationships that enrich both sides culturally and emotionally." Read full article and watch the project's video in AdWeek. E.T.P. 7'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Quartz.

What China burned for Day of the Dead says a lot about shopping trends among the living. Lily Kuo writes a very interesting piece in Quartz, and this is how it starts: "Paper replicas of internet routers, passports, subway passes and iPhones were among some of the gifts offered in China to departed loved ones during this weekend’s celebration of Qingming Jie, a day to honor one’s deceased relatives. As younger Chinese play a larger role in the annual holiday known in English as Tomb Sweeping Day, it’s become an occasion to look at what Chinese shoppers are thinking about most." Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P. 4' 

Photo via Wired.

It's the end of Facebook... as we know it. So, it's not totally great news, but something is something. "Facebook, the company that makes billions from connecting people to each other, is about to make it harder to have a conversation. In the coming weeks, Facebook’s mobile app will be losing its chat feature, a move that will no doubt annoy many regular users. But the gutting likely won’t end there. According to many Facebook watchers, the end of chat is just the first cut in what could eventually lead to the end of Facebook as a single, unified app altogether." Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 8' 

 

Photo via Wired.

And talking about the end of the world as we know it, Condoleezza Rice is joining the board of Dropbox. "Unsurprisingly" -writes Marcus Wohlsen in Wired- "some people aren’t too happy about the move. Over on Hacker News, a leading barometer for what’s on the minds of tech geeks, the day’s most popular link connects to DropDropbox, a new site calling on users to boycott the company unless it removes Rice. The campaign’s apparently anonymous creators are calling for her removal in part because of her support for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, including claims that Rice herself authorized eavesdropping on UN Security Council members. “Why on earth would we want someone like her involved with Dropbox, an organization we are trusting with our most important business and personal data?” the site asks." Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 6'

Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 22nd of September Edition

EDITORIAL

This week there was tons of things to do in London, but mainly we honoured both procrastination and the autumn-ish weather with a lot of indoors procrastination, that means that we watched a lot of movies, series and documentaries, and that we had the time to read a lot of things on the Internet, but we are recommending and sharing just the best. Our contributor Marie James did managed to go to a couple of LDF's events. She is sharing her experience with us and if you want to do the same for next week, please just send your article/post/critic/photo our way. 

Hope you have a nice reading and a happy Sunday.

NEWS

Photo: Bassam Khabieh/Reuters via Big Picture.

While we wait and see how the Syrian conflict unfolds, one of the world's best photojournalism blog, Boston Globe's The Big Picture publishes 23 photos showing Syrians struggle as the civil war continues. Great work being made by journalists and photographers. Nothing more to say really. Watch the photos here.

Image via Fast Company.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales, CSIRO, and the University of Sydney calculated a new measure they call the “material footprint” of 186 nations and published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently. The results? Wealthy countries that seemed to be slowing their environmental impact are actually as bad as ever. Read full article in Fast Company.

Image: faceofmalawi.com

Chinese University Asks Students to Sign 'Suicide Waivers'. City College of Dongguan University of Technology in China’s coastal Guangdong is asking students entering its freshman class to sign a document absolving the school of responsibility should the student commit suicide — a macabre sign, say some, of the growing pressures of Chinese society. Read full article in Time.