This is an issue I hadn't really considered when thinking of China's pollution problem, or pollution in general. Some of China's soil is getting infected, leading to tainted crops. It is interesting to see the negative effects that come up as a country tries to grow and develop, and it will also be interesting to see the actions China takes to combat these issues in the future.

This is an article detailing the debates over fishery quotas in Japan and other countries. It reminds me about the issues of over-fishing that were brought up in "Seasick". This has been a serious issue for awhile, but it appears as if fishing organizations are ready to listen to science and set reasonable limits. Hopefully all nations affected will be able to reach an agreement.

This is pretty cool to see. With the cancellation of the shuttle program by NASA it will be interesting how other countries expand into space to fill the gap and conduct their own research. The international space station has been around for awhile, but China moving out into a solo program definitely shows how far they have developed.

This is a somewhat interesting article about cooperation between China and Taiwan over resources in the South China Sea. This region was discussed a bit in Seasick, so I though it would be nice to get an update on the situation. Apparently there is some disputes over who owns land in the region, which makes negotiations even more difficult then if they were just over how resources should be divided up.

Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is at it again! We can now add underage labor to other articles in this group that show how this company has been involved in controversial practices. It makes me wonder why Foxconn would continue to participate in risky, and in this case illegal, practices. Especially when they just had a strike earlier this month! Is it all about the money? What should be done? This seems like something the Chinese government would want to get involved in to protect the countries image.

Several big companies pull their advertisements from a Vietnamese website that lets people download music for free. It makes me wonder why companies like Coca-Cola were advertising on this site in the first place. The article suggests they either didn't know or ignored it, but with such a hot issue like illegal downloading, why take the risk?

The iPhone 5 was released recently, which led to many workers in China working extreme overtime. Some had to go a month or more without a day off. Add that to the already poor working conditions in some of Foxconn's factories and you get a riot. It is a shame that these workers have so few rights, especially since they can't even use these phones, which was also highlighted in one of the articles posted by John Trang. The site this article came from, phys.org, is a great site that I've visited for years for news related to a variety of sciences and technologies. Here are a few articles related to changes in the global oceans like the ones discussed in Seasick: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-slippery-slope-slime-overgrown-algae.html http://phys.org/news/2012-09-ocean-acidification-scientists.html

Last year's nuclear disaster in Japan has caused a lot of controversy within the country about whether to continue using nuclear energy or not. There seems to be some miscommunication between government officials and the common citizens too. I personally think nuclear energy should be studied and used more than it is already, but with last years events I can understand why some people would be wary of this technology.

A short list of some new forms of advertising in South Korea. While social media has been used for this purpose for awhile, things like the interactive ads and image-recognition ads are fairly new, and certainly more advanced than billboards or magazine ads. What do you guys think of this? Is it the way of the future for marketers everywhere, or an ineffective use of technology?