Cody Taylor

If you can finish the phrase “Chickety China, the Chinese Chicken,” or you hate people who can… watch this video.

jehovajerieh writes to us in the time-honored tradition of rampant Apple speculation, pointing to an article over on IBTimes suggesting that while the iPhone Nano may be on the way, the US might not be the first to experience this gadget bliss. “Despite limited information in the supplier channels and typical secrecy with new Apple products, insiders have confirmed that the iPhone nano is not yet in the testing labs at AT&T, Marshal says, leading him to believe that the launch will most likely be with a non-US carrier. ‘Obviously, the best-case scenario here would be a China launch (~600mil+ wireless subscribers total in the country), but we have no definitive knowledge of this and are working on identifying the [locale] of launch and other pertinent details,’ he said.”

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evan_arrrr! writes “From the article: Since the early 20th century physicists have known that light carries momentum, but the way this momentum changes as light passes through different media is much less clear. Two rival theories of the time predicted precisely the opposite effect for light incident on a dielectric: one suggesting it pushes the surface in the direction light is traveling; the other suggesting it drags the surface backwards towards the source of light. After 100 years of conflicting experimental results, a team of experimentalists from China believe they have finally found a resolution.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

evan_arrrr! writes “From the article: Since the early 20th Century physicists have known that light carries momentum, but the way this momentum changes as light passes through different media is much less clear. Two rival theories of the time predicted precisely the opposite effect for light incident on a dielectric: one suggesting it pushes the surface in the direction light is travelling; the other suggesting it drags the surface backwards towards the source of light. After 100 years of conflicting experimental results, a team of experimentalists from China believe they have finally found a resolution.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

theodp writes “Every day, Americans toss out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic waste the fastest-growing part of the US garbage stream. A lot of the world’s e-waste is exported to Guiyu, China, where peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead (a 15″ computer monitor can pack up to 7 lbs. of Pb), while others use acid to burn off bits of gold. Guiyu’s willingness to deal with lead, mercury and other toxic materials generates million a year for the village, but as a result. Guiyu is slowly poisoning itself with the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. The village experiences elevated rates of miscarriages, and its children suffer from an extremely high rate of lead poisoning. TIME suggests checking out recycling brokers and accredited e-stewards the next time you’re ready to toss a gizmo.”

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China expanded an Internet cleanup campaign Friday, shutting down an edgy blog hosting site for apparently carrying “harmful comments” and naming more than a dozen sites containing pornography or other vulgar content.

Guiyu, China breaks down much of the world’s discarded electronics, slowly poisoning itself in the process

DragonFire1024 writes with this story from Wikinews that says “access to the Chinese Wikinews website has been blocked in China. Wikinews can also confirm that the English version of the website is still available in China. … Users using the social networking site called Twitter have reported that the site was “blockade[ed] today by the mainland” of China. Others, writing on the Wikimedia Foundation’s mailing list also state that the Chinese version of Wikinews is blocked in major Chinese cities such as Beijing.”

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A primary-school student in central China had to have 52 stitches in his face after he was beaten by his teacher for not doing his homework.

Wide Angle writes in with a PBS report on tough economic news from Ireland: Dell announced that it will relocate its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland to Lodz, Poland. “Dell’s announcement… is a severe blow to the Irish economy, which has been hit hard and fast by the global economic crisis. Dell is Ireland’s second-largest corporate employer and the country’s largest exporter. Nineteen hundred shift workers will lose their jobs. …Dell’s closing is not a result of the economic downturn, but of a pattern all too familiar in the United States — corporations’ perennial search for cheaper labor. Since 2000 several companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Intel, Gateway, and NEC Electronics, have moved manufacturing jobs from Ireland to China, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it became an attractive place for companies to set up manufacturing plants. … However, Ireland has managed to maintain and attract… ‘knowledge-intensive jobs.’ Google’s European headquarters are based in Dublin, and Facebook announced late last year that they would locate their international headquarters there. But the overall economic picture for Ireland is bleak.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.