China may get over its coal addiction faster than anyone thought

Beijing’s air quality is thanks in large part to coal-burning.

Lead writers of Citigroup’s new note attacks “one of the most unassailable assumptions in global energy”—the forecast that China’s coal consumption will grow wantonly over the next two decades. By extension, it challenges apocalyptic climate change forecasts.

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China’s delivery companies testing parcel delivery with drones

SF Express is testing a drone it has built for delivering packages in China.

The US has a couple-decade head start on China in building drones that kill people. But when it comes to domestic uses, US businesses are hamstrung because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) isn’t required to issue commercial drone rules until 2015. In the meantime, one of China’s biggest delivery companies is tinkering with using drones—with Chinese government permission. (Video)

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Chinese shipping firm begins using new arctic shipping route to Europe

The Arctic Ocean shipping route will cut thousands of miles off the journey from China to its key European market. (The Northeast Passage is in blue)

A Chinese merchant ship has made its maiden voyage to Europe through the “Northeast Passage.”  This route will help the world’s biggest exporter speed goods to market and is a symbol of Beijing’s strategic ambitions in the Arctic.

 

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Why 3D printing is set to explode in 2014

Brook Drum, the founder and CEO of Printrbot.

Patents have been holding back 3D printing, the technology that’s supposed to revolutionize manufacturing and countless other industries. In February 2014, key patents that currently prevent competition in the market for the most advanced and functional 3D printers will expire, says Duann Scott, design evangelist at 3D printing company Shapeways.

 

 

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Value of a college degree in China – $44

Job fair in China for college graduates.

College students in the U.S. facing the misery of an anemic post-graduation job market have company in an unlikely-seeming place: China. Despite entering a robust economy that seemed to weather the financial crisis as if were it a middling squall, China’s college graduates on average make only 300 yuan, or roughly $44, more per month than the average Chinese migrant worker, according to statistics cited over the weekend by a top Chinese labor researcher and reported today by the Beijing Times (in Chinese).

 

 

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The Chinese skills disconnect may be an opportunity for us

Business in China are swamped with job applications from college graduates but have few jobs to offer.

The headline in he New York Times read “Degrees, but No Guarantees.” However, the story was not about the students graduating from American universities this season. Instead, it was about Chinese grads. Chinese businesses are swamped by job applications from graduating students but have few jobs to offer. As bad as our economy seems for our own grads, their prospects are better than China’s.

 

 

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U.S. will be pushed toward exascale with the fear of thinking war machines

An exascale computer operates at 1,000 petaflop.

This week’s discussion at a congressional forum was on China retaking the global supercomputing crown on cognitive computing, Computerworld reports. Unlike China and Europe, the U.S. has yet to adopt and fund an exascale development program.

 

 

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China is no longer the world’s most important source of growth

China’s economy is undergoing a structural slowdown.

China has been way out front as the world’s most important source of economic growth for years.  China has the world’s second largest economy and it continues to grow at a rapid clip but it is cooling as other enormous economies heat up.

 

 

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