Worldcrunch
YUTZ — Use a digital tablet in gym class? You might smile, but in room A101 of the Jean-Mermoz Junior High in northeastern France, the visitor today is Luc Di Pol, whose job title for the regional education authority is digital supervisor for physical education. Here in the mostly rural French department of Moselle, Di […]
BOCHUM — Katja stares into her laptop camera and bites her lower lip. “Hmm, yes…” She confirms that she understands how chromosome divisions work. In front of another laptop, her teacher Julia Wirth holds up a piece of paper with circles and Xs drawn in green and red pen. Meiosis and mitosis. Katja nods from […]
GAIBANDHA DISTRICT — In remote areas of Bangladesh, the Internet can arrive in unpredictable ways. Take for example, Shathi, who rolls into a small village, ringing the bell on her bike – and soon the kids are running to tell their parents, screaming “Hello! Hello!” And so the women of the village come out of […]
First, ovens that already know a dish’s cooking parameters? Now, miniature computers that you can swallow like pills? After the Internet of Things, here comes the Internet of Bodies.
After top tech companies were shown to be dodging taxes in several European countries, similar questions have now emerged in Israel. An exclusive from top Israeli business daily Calcalist.
You probably have never heard of French engineer Louis Pouzin. But you might not be reading this website without him. At 82, he offers a unique perspective on Edward Snowden, and us all.
BUENOS AIRES – It’s the first guide of its kind. It explains which medical issues demand immediate attention and which ones can wait. Someone feels well and then, all of a sudden, they feel very ill. It could be an incessant cough, acute headache, fever, bad stomach ache, a cold with constant sneezing, increased blood […]
MILAN – “Prestanome for hire: thirty years old, good credit rating, permanent job…” More and more advertisements like this one are finding their way onto the Internet. Literally a “lend-name,” the prestanome has made the leap from mafia-esque dodgy dealings into the real world. “The only thing I had left was my name: so I […]
RIO DE JANEIRO – They want to be heard. They want injustices reversed. They want attention. They probably didn’t think they would achieve this – but they did, to the point where the whole region is now looking at them. They are Brazilian. And since last week, hundreds of thousands of them have taken to […]
How can the Internet run more efficiently? A growing number of experts say so-called “band-aid” fixes are insufficient — and the entire system of communication needs to be rebooted.
PARIS – Retake control of your personal data and get paid for it. This is the straightforward concept behind the recently launched French startup Yes Profile. On its platform, Yes Profile allows the user to create a profile with a certain amount of information – from email to age to interests and preferences such as […]
It’s online of course…
REYKJAVIK – Mid-February this year, British tabloids published the news that Iceland’s leftwing-green Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson wanted to limit access to online porn on the island. Ways of doing that, according to the minister, could be to block certain IP addresses, or to make it impossible to pay certain sites with an […]
Even as it continues to report record earnings, certain trends remind us that even the smartest, most dominant tech companies eventually are brought down to size.
AFP, BBC, IRRAWADDY (Burma), REUTERS Worldcrunch MEIKTILA– Burmese sectarian violence has turned deadly, as angry mobs rioted in the streets and at least five people have been reported killed in the central city of Meiktila. The BBC cites a death toll of 20 by Friday morning, though the Myanmar government has only confirmed five fatalities […]
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP, KOREA INFORMATION SECURITY AGENCY (South Korea), AP Worldcrunch SEOUL – Two banks and three major broadcasting stations in South Korea went into shutdown mode on Wednesday in what is a suspected hacking from North Korea. According to Korean news agency Yonhap, three broadcasters, three banks and two insurance firms reported to the […]
Beware of “Ransomware”…
TURIN – Marco* was dragged here by his parents. He is 17 and spends 16 hours a day glued to the computer. Two years of school down the drain and no friends. But he still doesn’t get it. “I’m fine,” he says. He wakes up at two in the afternoon and goes to bed at […]
NEW DELHI – Mukesh is standing barefoot in front of the computer embedded in the wall, deep in concentration. He’s trying to guide the little arrow of the mouse onto the number eight because the talking machine asked him how old he was. This is the first time that he has come to the “Hole […]
Lang Lang look out!
TALLINN – It’s 4 p.m., and night is already falling on Tallinn. The wind is freezing. Covered in snow, the old Soviet military barracks located on the outskirts of Estonia’s capital city look like the set of a Cold War movie. Uniformed soldiers occasionally cross the courtyard. You almost expect James Bond to suddenly come […]
TECH CENTRAL, IRISH INDEPENDENT (Ireland), LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch DUBLIN – The European Union is banking on broadband. More than eight million euros in EU funding have been awarded to a project that promises to “revolutionize” broadband in Europe. According to Tech Central, the DISCUS project aims to address issues at the heart of the […]
BEIJING – Recently, pharmaceutical company Renhen Pharmacy went through a public relations nightmare after a doctor wrote on the popular Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo that its children’s cold medicine was dangerous. Could better preparation and response on Weibo have substantially mitigated the damage to Renhe’s image? On Jan. 21, a Weibo post about Renhe Pharmacy […]
PARIS – “The melting Arctic is under threat…Let’s take action!” Last July, Greenpeace launched a vast media campaign to “stop Shell from drilling in the Arctic”, as the oil giant was getting ready to open its second Arctic well off Alaska. Greenpeace’s campaign garnered huge support from the general public, but it also reached the […]
XINHUA, JIANGXI, GLOBAL TIMES (China), WANT DAILY (Taiwan) JIANGXI – The Chinese New Year is the worst holiday to be single in China – the family pressure is too intense. “With or without money, get married to have a better New Year,” goes the Chinese proverb. The Chinese New Year– also called the Spring Festival […]
LA NACION, CLARIN, BUENOSAIRESBACHE (ARGENTINA) Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Driving through Buenos Aires can resemble scenes from Mad Max. Not only must you dodge reckless drivers, but also steer clear of the multitudes of potholes. According to La Nacion, in the most populous neighborhoods of Buenos Aires such as Belgrano, there are potholes on virtually […]
TVNZ, NEW ZEALAND HERALD (New Zealand) Worldcrunch WELLINGTON – In order to adapt to the decreasing volume of posted items, the New Zealand Post is considering cutting mail delivery from six to three days a week to allow “greater flexibility” in its services, according to the New Zealand Herald. Although Communications and Information Technology Minister […]
BEIJING – Since 2010, China’s number one state-owned newspaper, the People’s Daily, has published quite a number of commentaries concerning hot-button social issues. We are very pleased and applaud this. In general, these commentaries have a higher purpose and discuss national issues with sharpness. Recently, though, the People’s Daily published a commentary written by Bai […]
In his native Germany, Mr “Dotcom” is called by his real name, Kim Schmitz; but Germans joined with the rest of the world to see the roll-out of his new outsized Internet file-sharing site.
KANSAS CITY- It looks like the typical American neighborhood home: a flag out front, a terrace with a rocking chair and a barbecue in the backyard. But this ordinary Kansas City street contains a hidden treasure. It’s one of the first places to have access to “Google Fiber,” the super-fast broadband that is 100 times […]
Thanks to Android boom and strategic mistakes at Microsoft, Bing search is even further behind Google on mobile devices.
Behind codes of encryption, the so-called “Deep Web” hosts a vast network of people trading in illegal sales of all sorts, most notably any drug imaginable.
RAMNICU VALCEA – To the tourist eye, Râmnicu Vâlcea is a quiet, leafy city. Located at the bottom of the Carpathian mountain range, in central Romania, no one would guess this town’s secret, buried in its working-class neighborhood, Ostroveni. You have to leave the boulevard that stretches across the city to end up in narrow […]
XINHUA (China), VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch BEIJING – Chinese legislature has passed a law that includes mandatory real-name registration for Internet users, Xinhua reported on Friday. The new rules were announced by the official Xinhua news agency on Twitter: Rules approved Friday in China to enhance protection of personal info online and safeguard […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch The Verbraucherzentrale Hamburg, a Hamburg-based consumer association, has accused food company of marketing scams, particularly free online games for children, reports Die Welt. “Many parents have complained about the games, which are usually on sites advertising very sugary and high fat products,” says the organization’s nutrition expert Silke Schwartau. “Unlike adults, […]
Children’s privacy is of particular concern in Europe, even as US tech giants line up to oppose any new laws that could force Internet “de-indexing.”
PARIS – On November 27, Reporters Without Borders launched a new website called “We Fight Censorship,” that “publishes content that has been censored or banned or has led to reprisals against its creator.” The content is selected by an “editorial committee,” posted in its original language then translated – mostly into English or French. The […]
THE CANBERRA TIMES (Australia) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Though still holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has declared his intention to run for the Senate in his native Australia, and to launch a WikiLeaks party early next year, reports the Canberra Times. Photo – Mataparda/espenmoe In an exclusive interview with […]
By some calculations, Fabian Thylmann is the biggest porn king of all time. But right now, he’s stuck inside a Belgian jail.
Seniors Demographic Reaches Social Media Tipping Point.