Sci tech environment

Minneapolis: When Liu Jingyao introduced herself, in the lobby of her apartment building, I didn’t recognize her. It was a puzzling feeling. For an entire year, photos of her had blanketed the Chinese internet. Like tens of millions of other Chinese, I had watched and rewatched surveillance video of her in this very building. She was one of the most talked about and mysterious women in China, and I thought I knew what she looked like. In the video, she wanders the halls of a mazelike building, with a man trailing along. They get in and out of several elevators. She seems unsure about how to get to her apartment. She wears striking waist-length hair and a long, dark knit dress. She doesn’t look glamorous, exactly, but for a 21-year-old college junior, she is dressed smartly. But on a morning in early August, she greeted me in a loosefitting checkered dress. Now 22, she looked pale and nervous. Her lips were chapped. She invited me upstairs and began an intense conversation … [Read more...] about She Accused a Tech Billionaire of Rape. The Chinese Internet Turned Against Her

The US Federal Trade Commission is considering asking a court to stop Facebook Inc from moving ahead with plans to integrate its WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger subsidiaries, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Facebook shares closed 2.7% lower, reflecting fears the potential regulatory move could be a first step toward forcing the company to sell apps WhatsApp and Instagram, its fast-growing acquisitions. Facebook has plans to allow users of its units Messenger, WhatsApp and the direct messaging system within Instagram to communicate with each other, and end-to-end encryption will be extended across the three services. A source familiar with the matter said the FTC has not asked Facebook to halt the integration, a step that would normally precede a legal challenge. The Wall Street Journal said the FTC could file for an injunction to halt the integration as early as January. Apart from antitrust concerns, Facebook and other tech giants are … [Read more...] about FTC may have ‘good news’ for Instagram and WhatsApp users

I was out on leave by myself, chiefly after lions. My native shikari (game tracker) came into my tent with an auspicious grin, just as I was finishing my breakfast, and said, ‘Sahib, I think I have got the big lion for you at last today; I have marked a big beast under a tree about four miles off; what it is I do not know…,’” Colonel E.A. Hardy of the 21st Hussars wrote in 1878, in his book Our Horses. The Colonel set out for his hunt, and some 30 yards away, he saw what he thought was a single large beast lying fast asleep. “I fired. To the shot up sprang six cheetahs, beautiful brutes, growling and rushing over each other, one evidently severely wounded. I was really so taken aback myself, I was stupid for a moment; but before I could determine whether to fire my second barrel or to bolt, the old shikari yelled out, ‘Come quickly for your horse, they are cheetahs, you can spear them; we’ll kill them all!’” Within a century of this … [Read more...] about What drove the charismatic cheetah to extinction in India?

Video PlayerClose BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's top securities regulator plans to improve governance of the capital market as part of major tasks for 2020. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said it would work to develop a capital market with more standardized rules, transparency, openness, vitality and resilience, while adhering to the supply-side structural reform in the financial sector as specified in the statement released after the country's annual central economic work conference. Reform of the ChiNext, another NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises preceding the sci-tech innovation board, will be advanced and the registration system will be piloted. The CSRC called for innovation in products and tools in the bond market, a larger supply of futures and options products, as well as further development of private equity investment. The country will take multi-pronged measures to improve the quality of listed companies. More efforts should be made to … [Read more...] about China to improve capital market governance

Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday in Berlin and Cologne to demand bolder measures to combat climate change. Some 36,000 people joined the rallies. Organizers said the protest aimed to pressure the government into ending Germany's reliance on coal for its energy needs and instead looking to renewable energies, such as solar energy and wind power. "The point is that Germany must phase out coal by 2030," Jennifer Morgan, who leads Greenpeace International, told the Agence France-Presse news agency. "What happens in high-tech Germany, how quickly the climate-damaging combustion of coal is replaced by solar energy and wind power, is very important, also for other countries." Read more: Climate change: 2018 set to be one of hottest ever years More Demanding a coal phaseout: In the thick of Hambach Hambi stays: Local slogan, global movement At least 6,000 people gathered in the heart of western German coal country Saturday to demand an end to coal use. People from … [Read more...] about Germany protests call for leadership on climate action