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An Arab spring has started to emerge in Vietnam,”  said  Pham Chi Dung, a former member of the ruling Communist Party, following the largest and most widespread protests in years. Over the weekend of June 9-10, tens of thousands of Vietnamese took to the streets across the country to protest two bills on cyber security and the creation of new special economic zones, or SEZs. The protest began with the participation of around 50,000 workers from the Pouchen footwear factory in Tan Tao industrial zone in Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest economic hub in the Southeast Asian nation. Thousands of people gathered in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Nha Trang and other cities, chanting and carrying banners that read “Say no to bill on SEZs,” “No land lease to China even for one day,” and “Cyber security law means silencing people.” The protests showed how widespread the dissatisfaction is with systemic corruption, serious large-scale environmental pollution, deep social inequal...

This clever case pops open to protect your phone when you drop it Devin Coldewey That moment when you drop your phone and everything stops. You can hear your heart beat — the buzz of the world around you is silenced — all cognition stops — you see as if in slow motion the pirouette of your $700 piece of electronics toward the cement. How will it land? Will you get lucky this time? Or is this it? But if you had this case on it, you’d then see it spring horns and land with a jaunty bounce. This “active damping” case, a bit like an airbag for your phone, is the brainchild of Philip Frenzel, an engineer at Aalen University in Germany. His idea won the top award from the German Society for Mechatronics, which considered projects from students all over the country, and you can see him explain its genesis in a video here. Frenzel, like me, doesn’t like compromising his phone’s aesthetic with some ugly protective shell, but he likes even less the shattered countenance that inevitably res...

It’s been hard to miss the scooter startup wars opening fresh, techno-fueled rifts in Valley society in recent months.  Another flavor of ride-sharing steed  which sprouted seemingly overnight to clutter up sidewalks — drawing  rapid-fire ire from city regulators  apparently far more forgiving of traffic congestion if it’s delivered in the traditional, car-shaped capsule. Even in their best, most-groomed PR shots, the dockless carelessness of these slimline electrified scooters hums with an air of insouciance and privilege. As if to say: Why yes, we turned a kids’ toy into a battery-powered kidult transporter — what u gonna do about it? An earlier batch of  electric scooter sharing startups  — offering full-fat, on-road mopeds that most definitely do need a license to ride (and, unless you’re crazy, a helmet for your head) — just can’t compete with that. Last mile does not haul. But a short-walk replacement tool that’s so seamlessly manhandled is ...

India’s Times Internet buys popular video app MX Player for $140M to get into streaming Jon Russell Times Internet,  the digital arm of Indian media firm Times Group, is getting into the digital content space, but not in the way you might think. The company’s previous venture — an OTT called BoxTV.com — shut down in 2016 after an underwhelming four-year period. Now it is taking a radically different strategy by buying video playback app MX Player for Rs 1,000 crore, or around $140 million. The company didn’t disclose its stake but said it is a majority percentage. The service originates from Korea but it has become hugely popular in India as a way to play media files, for example from an SD card, on a mobile device. It is a huge hit India, where the app claims 175 million monthly users — while the country accounts for 350 million of its 500 million downloads. From here, Times Internet plans to introduce a streaming content service to MX Player users which Karan Bedi, MX Play...

John Oliver is erased from Chinese internet following segment on China Romain Dillet@romaindillet / Jun 25, 2018  Comment John Oliver HBO’s Last Week Tonight has led to some drastic measures in China. After an episode aired on June 17th, the Chinese government is now trying to erase all signs of John Oliver  on the internet. The show had a 20-minute segment on Xi Jinping and the Chinese government. In particular, Oliver mentioned Xi’s abolition of term limits and even compared him to Mao Zedong. Oliver also mentioned torture of political opponents, the infamous experiment to leverage WeChat data to give you a score and determine if you’re a good citizen, Tiananmen Square protests, Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo’s recent death and, yes, online censorship. It’s a bit ironic that Oliver’s show itself is now censored in China as a result of this episode. It proves Oliver’s point that China still has a long way to go when it comes to human rights and freedom of the pr...

المثقف والسياسي .. وصاية أم انفلات؟ مقاربة غير متأنية بقلم: حسن العاصي على الدوام كانت علاقة المثقفين بالسلطات السياسية تحكمها معايير مركبة وشائكة ومزدوجة وملتبسة في جوهرها وباطنها، وفي أوجهها المتباينة ومستوياتها المتعددة. إذ أن قطاع المثقفين يشهد تنوعا قزحياً وانتماءات متعارضة. فتجد المثقف الذي يقف بجانب السلطة الحاكمة ويبرر شرعيتها، ويستميت في الدفاع عن قرارات ومواقف السلطة السياسية، ويغالي في تجميل صور الطغاة. وهناك مثقف من نوع آخر ينتقد النظام السياسي ويدافع عن مصالح الشعوب ويتبنى مطالبها. وبينهما نجد أنواع ونماذج متعددة من المثقفين، المثقف المناضل والحزبي والمحايد والمسالم والمستشار والمداهن. المثقف الموضوعي، المثقف المدجن، المثقف الحالم، المثقف المشروع، المثقف الانتهازي، المثقف النموذج. في مفهوم المثقف.. الثقافي في اللغة هو كل ما فيه استنارة للذهن وتهذيب للذوق وتنمية ملكة النقد عند الإنسان. والمثقف في الدلالات الاصطلاحية هو ناقد اجتماعي يسعى إلى تحديد الظواهر وتحليلها ووضع تصورات لمعالجة المشكلات بهدف الوصول إلى مجتمع أفضل. إن تحديد دلالة مفهوم المثقف ما زالت موضع ...