US Myths & Misperception About Asia's Tech Industry

Myths and misconceptions about Asia's tech industry


Asia has been often referred to as the ‘manufacturing hub' of the world with people saying that China is the world's factory. Over the last few years, Asia has also emerged as the ‘go-to destination' for banks and financial service companies given the resilience that the region showed in the wake of the recent financial crisis. Of late, Asia's technology industry has also become a force to reckon with and a growing number of Asian companies are poised to emerge as global technology leaders, with their own cutting-edge products and services combined with a growing reputation for innovation.

Closer home, Indian companies like Infosys, Wipro, Mindtree, and TCS have become the leaders in the IT services industry. India has almost become synonymous with the word ‘software'. Taiwan has become the hotbed for hardware innovation and is aggressively challenging the western norms of design, scale and innovation. The rise of several new Asian innovators, such as Asus, Lenovo, and Samsung amongst others comes as markets across Asia see explosive demand for computing of all kinds, with far-reaching implications for the technology industry and the region. To understand why these changes are happening, and what they mean, some widely held misconceptions about Asia need to be dispelled.



The first myth is the misperception of Asia as solely a manufacturing location and not a hub of innovation, according to a report in The Hindu Business Line

Fear of Radiation Treated as "Psychiatric Disorder" by Paul Watson

Fear Of Radiation Treated as “Psychiatric Disorder” In Fukushima
 
Despite the fact that the Japanese government and TEPCO were caught red-handed underplaying the severity of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a study has found that almost a quarter of Fukushima residents hospitalized in the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami were treated as having a “psychiatric disorder” because of their concerns over radiation. “Some 24.4 percent of people who were hospitalized in Fukushima with psychiatric disorders in the wake of the outbreak of the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had done so possibly because of fears of radiation exposure, according to the results of research conducted by psychiatrists at Fukushima Medical University,” reports the Mainichi Daily News. 


The phenomenon of authorities underplaying the threat posed by radiation or even characterizing concerns over it as a mental illness has become a dominant theme since the catastrophe just over a year ago. This is despite the fact that Japanese authorities were caught over and over again lying to cover-up the true scale of the disaster. After Japanese authorities released thousands on tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, the EPA announced that it was raising the “safe limit” of exposure to iodine-131 by around 100,000 times. The treatment of Japanese citizens who expressed concerns about radiation sickness only to be told they had a mental illness is similar to how Desert Storm veterans and other U.S. military servicemembers were told that their health problems from exposure to depleted uranium were in fact a result of a psychological disorder.

The situation at the Daiichi nuclear power plant is by no means stable. Only yesterday, TEPCO announced that, “it has found that the cooling water in one of the damaged reactors at Fukushima is only 60 centimeters deep, far lower than previously thought.” Although the Fukushima crisis seldom makes the headlines anymore, the devastation it wrought is unlikely to be quantified for years or even decades.


Research published by the New York Academy of Sciences last year found that the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor killed nearly one million people worldwide as a result of cancer-causing nuclear fallout that circulated the globe. Research has shown that some areas of Tokyo have more radiation than existed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zones. Indeed, recent soil samples taken in Tokyo were found to be so radioactive that they would be considered radioactive waste in the United States and would have to be disposed of by experts at a secure facility.

TERRIBLE NEWS: Dick Cheney Recovering From Heart Transplant

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering after undergoing heart transplant surgery at Falls Church, Va., today, according to a statement released by Cheney’s office.


Cheney has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months.
“Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift. Former Vice President Cheney is thankful to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University Hospital for their continued outstanding care,” the statement said.


Mitt Romney tweeted, “Ann and I send our thoughts and prayers to Vice President Cheney for a fast and full recovery.”


Cheney has had five heart attacks, the first of which was in 1978 when he was 37 years old, and the fourth in November 2000, after he and former President George W. Bush were elected to the White House.


In 2001, Cheney had a pacemaker installed into his chest, and in September 2009, he underwent elective back surgery to treat lumbar spinal stenosis.
Cheney’s fifth and most recent heart attack was in February 2010.The heart attack and subsequent two-day hospital stay forced the former vice president to miss a breakfast with his former boss, George W. Bush, and hundreds of former White House and campaign staffers. The event, sponsored by the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association, was to be the first time the two met in person since they left office in January 2009.


Instead, Bush dropped by to visit Cheney at his home in Virginia on Feb. 25. Cheney and Bush, both sporting dark suits, shook hands and exchanged grins on the steps of Cheney’s residence in McLean, Va., before turning to wave to the ABC News camera.


“Mr. President, welcome,” began Cheney.
“Lookin’ good,” said Bush again.
“Could be worse,” the often dry-witted Cheney said.
Cheney underwent surgery in July 2010 to have a heart pump, called a Left Ventricular Assist Device [LVAD], implanted to treat his recurring heart disease.


The LVAD is implanted next to the heart to help its main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, pump blood through the body. Such devices are used mainly for short periods, to buy time for potential transplant candidates as they await a donor organ.


Cardiologists said then that in Cheney’s case, the pump was likely a “bridge” that would keep him alive until he could receive a heart transplant. Many cardiac experts said at the time of his surgery that Cheney may be only one step away from a transplant but could find himself on a wait list for “months or years.”


Cheney served as Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush.
ABC News’ Karen Travers contributed to this report.

Shanghai: The City of The Future

New York, go to bed - this is the city that never sleeps.

Shanghai’s registered population in 2009 was 19.2 million. By 2030 it will have an estimated 31 million permanent residents. Shanghai has the 3^rd and 10^th tallest buildings in the world and will also have the second tallest in 2014. 12 buildings over 200 meters are under construction/in planning. Also, both a Disneyland and a Universal Studios are under construction in Shanghai.

Although Tokyo, London and New York will retain their positions as important global cities, there is little doubt that in the coming decades, the brightest spotlights will be on Shanghai.

http://www.ilookforwardto.com/2010/09/why-shanghai-is-the-city-of-the-future.html 

Wheelchair Weilding Toddler Nabbed by TSA

Facebook Summons Wall-Street for Pre-IPO Breifing

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc is taking the next step on its IPO journey and has summoned research analysts from Wall Street banks to its Menlo Park headquarters early next week for a pre-roadshow briefing to discuss the finer points of its business and books.

The world's largest social network, which is racing toward what would be Silicon Valley's largest ever initial public offering, will not disclose new information during the meeting with analysts.

Instead, it will outline its strategy and answer questions on how to analyze its operations and help analysts build models on its financials, two sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public. Called a "due diligence meeting", such pre-roadshow pow-wows are standard fare for future debutantes.

It is not clear how many analysts have been invited. One source said analysts from five to 10 of the largest banks underwriting Facebook's IPO will likely attend the meeting.

A second source said analysts from most banks helping underwrite the offering have been invited to the meeting, scheduled for Monday. Both sources would not elaborate because of the conditions of the presentation.

Facebook listed 31 banks as underwriters on its IPO in an updated regulatory filing on March 7.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook is the world's No. 1 online social network with more than 845 million users. The company plans to raise $5 billion in an IPO expected to value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion, in Silicon Valley's largest-ever coming-out party.

Some on Wall Street worry about the company's over-reliance on advertising for 85 percent of its revenue, which totaled $3.7 billion last year. Others will want to know how Facebook intends to fend off increasing competition from the likes of Google Inc, which is cultivating its own social network called Google+.

Also, corporate governance experts have called attention to the fact that Zuckerberg will retain disproportionate control over the company after it goes public.

The company has said it expects to trade under the ticker FB when it makes its debut as a publicly traded company, expected in mid 2012.

DARPA Director Leaves Pentagon, Moves to Google by Noah Shactman

Darpa director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon’s premiere research shop to take a job with Google. Dugan, whose controversial tenure at the agency lasted just under three years, was “offered and accepted at senior executive position” with the internet giant, according to Darpa spokesman Eric Mazzacone. She felt she couldn’t say no to such an “innovative company,” he adds.

Dugan’s emphasis on cybersecurity and next-generation manufacturing earned her strong support from the White House, winning her praise from the President and maintaining the agency’s budget even during a period of relative austerity at the Pentagon. Her push into crowdsourcing and outreach to the hacker community were eye-openers in the often-closed world of military R&D. Dugan also won over some military commanders by diverting some of her research cash from long-term, blue-sky projects to immediate battlefield concerns.

“There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at Darpa,” she told a congressional panel in March 2011 (.pdf). “Darpa is not the place of dreamlike musings or fantasies, not a place for self-indulging in wishes and hopes. Darpa is a place of doing.” For an agency that spent millions of dollars on shape-shifting robots, Mach 20 missiles, and mind-controlled limbs, it was something of a revolutionary statement.

The shift was only one of the reasons why Dugan was a highly polarizing figure within her agency, and in the larger defense research community. The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is also actively investigating hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of contracts that Darpa gave out to RedX Defense — a bomb-detection firm that Dugan co-founded, and still partially owns. A separate audit is examining a sample of the 2,000 other research contracts Darpa has signed during Dugan’s tenure, to “determine the adequacy of Darpa’s selection, award, and administration of contracts and grants,” according to a military memorandum.

Results of the inspector general’s work haven’t been released. And the work had “no impact” on Dugan’s decision, according to her spokesman, Mazzacone. “The only reason” she decided to leave the Pentagon was the allure of working at Google.

“Dr. Dugan’s departure is not related to an OIG investigation,” Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, adds in a statement. “The OIG conducts regular audits of Defense agency contracts and ethics programs; as a Defense agency, this includes Darpa.”

“In the spring, questions were raised over whether it was appropriate for Darpa to have funded a proposal submitted by RedXDefense, particularly in light of the Director’s continuing interest in this closely held small business,” Morgan says. “In response, the Department reviewed the processes in place at Darpa to ensure that those processes would ensure integrity and public confidence.” That review — separate from the OIG’s ongoing audits — found that Darpa and its chief’s actions “were consistent with the letter and spirit of relevant laws, regulations, and policies governing conflict of interest.”

Dugan is expected to depart “sometime in the next few weeks,” Mazzacone notes in an email. Darpa deputy director Kaigham “Ken” Gabriel, who has overseen the agency’s day-to-day operations since mid-2009, will serve as the acting Darpa chief. He’ll certainly be a strong contender for the permanent position, as will Lisa Porter, the head of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity — Darpa’s counterpart in the intelligence community.

In the meantime, the Pentagon’s leadership are hailing the first female director of its most important research agency. “Regina Dugan’s leadership at Darpa has been extraordinary and she will be missed throughout the Department,” Frank Kendall, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, says in a statement. “We are all very grateful for the many contributions she has made in advancing the technologies that our war fighters depend on. She leaves for an exciting new opportunity and we wish her every success.”