The South China Morning Post reports, on January 12, 2022, that “China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth“. The report begins: China has built a research facility that simulates the low-gravity environment on the moon – and it was inspired by experiments using magnets to levitate a frog. Further details: […]
Over the years, a number of scholars have reported on the implications of ‘Car Face’ design. For a recent example, see the work of Xueyuan Zhang, Liqing Huang and Mingzhu Li of the School of Art, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China, who report, in E3S Web of Conferences 236, 02042 (2021) regarding Research on the Shape […]
The specific question of whether cats are where girls are is addressed in a new study: “Where There Are Girls, There Are Cats,” Yuhang Li, Yue Wan, Yigui Zhang, Zhaomei Gong, and Zhongqiu Li, Biological Conservation, epub 2020. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) Here are details from the study: The […]
Every nation is keen to find new propaganda weapons to use against its rival nations. Some nations now gleefully use the Ig Nobel Prize. Here’s a recent (September 18, 2019) example, in an editorial in the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun: Ig Nobel Prizes encourage people to enjoy science with a smile Winners of the Ig […]
The famed Chinese cultural divide — wheat-centric in the north, rice-centric in the south — plays out even in today’s coffee shops, suggests this new study: “Moving Chairs in Starbucks: Observational Studies Find Rice-Wheat Cultural Differences in Daily Life in China,” Thomas Talhelm, Xuemin Zhang, and Shigehiro Oishi, Science Advances, Vol. 4, no. 4, April […]
Are you looking for a “state of the art monograph which presents a unique introduction to thinking about cuteness and its incorporation into modern, especially computer-based, products and services” ? If so, you could consult Cuteness Engineering : Designing Adorable Products and Services (Springer International Publishing, Hardback £61.99 or e-Book £48.99). Here is an example chapter […]
It was somewhere around the 4th century BC that Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou raised the idea of ‘The Usefulness of Uselessness’. Master Zhuang pointed out that objects (or information) which appear at first sight to be quite useless, can, on further investigation (and/or at a later date, and/or at another place) sometimes turn out to […]
Nicola Twilley explores many aspects of the history of food refrigeration in China. Twilley’s report “What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do With Global Warming?” in the New York Times, ends with a visit to someone who is not thrilled at the culinary prospects of widespread, organized food refrigeration: Still, not all Chinese people are ready […]
Consider, if you will, the creative art of Chinese pickled vegetables. If time is short, then you may save a great deal (of it) by checking out a thesis from 吳倍毓 (Pei-ju Wu) of the National University of Tainan, Taiwan. It’s entitled : ‘Creative art of Chinese pickled vegetable ─ A Discussion on the Creative […]
AFP reports on the sudden existence of a cockroach diaspora: One million cockroaches reportedly flee farm in China At least one million cockroaches have reportedly escaped from a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine. The cockroaches fled the facility in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, for […]