China :: Science & Technology

Chinese online video website Youku.com Inc. announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2010. For the fourth quarter, net revenues were CNY152.5 million, a 183% increase from the corresponding period in 2009. For the full year of 2010, net revenues were CNY387.1 million, a 152% increase from 2009.Bandwidth costs as a component of cost of revenues were CNY51.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing 34% of net revenues, compared to 71% in the corresponding period in 2009. Content costs as a component of cost of revenues were CNY26.2 million, representing 17% of net revenues, compared to 10% in the corresponding period in 2009.Operating loss was CNY8.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing an 80% decrease from the corresponding period in 2009. Net loss was CNY37.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing an 18% decrease from the corresponding period in 2009.Operating loss was CNY154.3 million in

Add to My Stories Their exotic colours and leaves brighten up homes, gardens, ponds and parks across the land. But a host of popular plants are threatening to take over the countryside, according to experts.A report today names 92 non-native plants sold by garden centres and pond specialists that are in danger of spreading into the wild. The charity Plantlife says many of the species could become the next Japanese knotweeds alien plants choking the countryside after being set loose by careless gardeners.Plantlife is calling for urgent action to curb the spread of the invaders and for two plants to be banned from sale. Japanese knotweed: Report names 92 non-native plants which could spread into the wildInvasive plants and animals are thought to cost the economy around 1.7billion every year in damage to buildings, roads, woodlands and farms.The new list features species that are on the brink of becoming invasive but which are not covered by laws that would limit their spread.These in

Add to My Stories The remains of a 4,500-year-old sauna have been discovered by archaeologists excavating a Stone Age temple. They unearthed the foundations of the building at Marden Henge, near Devizes in Wiltshire. Located close to the River Avon, the neolithic sauna was in a key position overlooking a ceremonial area at the site. Marden Henge, which has no standing stones, is located on a line which connects Stonehenge (pictured) and Avebury. The remains of a 4,500-year-old sauna have been discovered by archaeologists excavating the Stone Age templeEnglish Heritages Jim Leary said: The building brings to mind the sweat lodges of the native North Americans and the reason for that saunaor sweat lodge interpretation is that the floor plan was utterly dominated by a large hearth so large in fact there does not appear to be any space for living, cooking or doing anything much at all. Itis also located very close to the River Avon and would have had a readysource of water, which is a n

Add to My Stories A scientist has created a formula to calculate the worth of planet Earth and has valued it at three thousand trillion pounds. Astrophysicist Greg Laughlin came up with the figure by calculating the sum of the planets age, size, temperature, mass and other vital statistics and Earth came out as the most expensive.Mars was only valued at 10,000, while Venus is said to be worth less than a penny.There are about 1,235 other planets in the universe, most of which werent given a high price tag because of their inhospitable climates. Hefty price tag: Astrophysicist Greg Laughlin valued planet Earth at three thousand trillion poundsProfessor Laughlin from the University of California-Santa Cruz invented the equation, which he used to evaluate the discoveries made by Nasas 600 million Kepler spacecraft .The planet-hunting spacecraft went into orbit two years ago and a year later Laughlin decided to create price tags for the terrestrial planets that Keplar was set to discover

The worlds largest social network may be blocked in the worlds most populous nation but according to the latest stats from Social Bakers China has been the fastest growing Facebook nation over the last three months. Before attacking the messenger, Social Bake is a highly credible source of statistics on Facebook, which is why I did not dismiss this as an error not worth noting. According to Social Bake, there are now 659,060 Facebook Users, ranking China as the 82nd largest nation on Facebook and a penetration 0.16% of the online population and 0.05% of the general population. To get an idea of scale, there are roughly 420mn netizens in China and 160mn users registered on Renren, the China-based social network aiming to IPO later this year. Nations Social Bake places at a similar speed of growth are a catalog of African nations with troubled histories, such as Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic. Social Bakers is not very clear about how they gather statistics for

I went to an Austin cake show today, and amid several superhero cakes, wedding confections and some impressive feats of fondant I stumbled upon an ode to Angry Birds. I dont know who entered the cake, as the entry forms dont offer personal details, but if I were judging this competition, it would get my vote. For those who want more Angry Birds, check out Oms video interview with the guys who designed the game. Watch this video for free on GigaOM Related research from GigaOM Pro (subscription reqd): The Real Impact of Facebooks New Approach to Gaming How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developers Guide Why Microsofts Mobile Gaming Strategy Is a Mistake

Source : Xinhua BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold an online chat with Internet users across the country and overseas on Sunday, the third time the leader has participated in the event prior to the annual session of China's top legislature. Wen will answer questions posted by Internet users at www.xinhuanet.com, the official website of Xinhua News Agency. The chat is scheduled for 9 a.m. (Beijing time) and will be shown live on the central government's website (www.gov.cn) and http://www.xinhuanet.com/ . Three hours after the news was announced, nearly 7,000 questions about hefty housing prices, inflation, wealth gap and other social issues have been posted for the chat on http://www.xinhuanet.com/ "Premier Wen, the housing prices have been increasing. I've waited for five years, yet the longer I wait, the less able I am to afford an apartment. I hope the government can take decisive measures to let the masses have their own homes,"

Add to My Stories A mobile phone that spots cancer - and is more accurate than the techniques routinely used in hospitals - has been developed by scientists.The smartphone-based system is up to 100 per cent accurate at telling the difference between benign tumours and their malignant counterparts.It also takes just an hour to make the diagnosis, meaning patients dont have to spend days or weeks anxiously waiting for test results. Cancer breakthrough: Researchers have developed a smartphone-based system that is up to 100 per cent accurate at telling the difference between benign tumours and their malignant counterpartsThe U.S. researchers said the gadget could transform cancer care by also making it easier for doctors to track how well drugs are fighting the disease in a patients body.In initial tests, it was 88 per cent accurate in distinguishing cancerous stomach tumours from benign growths.Refining the technique boosted accuracy to 100 per cent, the journal Science Translational Med

Add to My Stories Scientists are baffled as to why the carcasses of a large number of bottlenose dolphins have washed up on beaches and are trying to establish if it is connected to the BP oil spill. Since the start of the year there have been 29 baby dolphin deaths, compared with 89 in all of 2010.The same thing happened in Texas in March 2007 when 68 dolphins washed up in Galveston and Jefferson, including a large number of infants. Unexplained: Rescuers have found an unusually large number of baby dolphin carcasses washed up on beaches in Mississippi and Alabama Cause of death: Scientists are carrying out necropsies on the bodies to try and find out how they died and are not ruling out links with the BP oil spillThe carcasses of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins washed up on the shores of the 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Mississippi, east to Gulf Shores, Alabama yesterday. The remains of about ten adult dolphins, none of them pregnant females, have also been found s

Add to My Stories It turns out male monkeys aren't taking the proverbial when it comes to their grooming habits and trying to catch a mate.Scientists believe they can finally explain a baffling habit unique to capuchin monkeys, who urinate on their hands and then rub the urine into their fur.Male monkeys attract females by sending a message that they are single and available through rubbing urine into their fur, according to a study. You smell lovely! A study suggests female capuchins are attracted to males who have washed themselves in their own urineThere is more activity in the brains of female tufted capuchins when they are exposed to the smell of the urine of sexually mature males, researchers said.Several hypotheses for why they perform this 'urine wash' had been tested by earlier studies, but most had proved inconclusive.Possible reasons that had been put forward previously included the possibility that it somehow helped to maintain body temperature or allowed the

Add to My Stories Scientists are baffled as to why the carcasses of a large number of bottlenose dolphins have washed up on beaches and are trying to establish if it is connected to the BP oil spill. Since the start of the year there have been 29 baby dolphin deaths, compared with 89 in all of 2010.The same thing happened in Texas in March 2007 when 68 dolphins washed up in Galveston and Jefferson, including a large number of infants. Unexplained: Rescuers have found an unusually large number of baby dolphin carcasses washed up on beaches in Mississippi and Alabama Cause of death: Scientists are carrying out necropsies on the bodies to try and find out how they died and are not ruling out links with the BP oil spillThe carcasses of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins washed up on the shores of the 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Mississippi, east to Gulf Shores, Alabama yesterday. The remains of about ten adult dolphins, none of them pregnant females, have also been found s

Add to My Stories Scientists are baffled as to why the carcasses of a large number of bottlenose dolphins have washed up on beaches and are trying to establish if it is connected to the BP oil spill. Since the start of the year there have been 29 baby dolphin deaths, compared with 89 in all of 2010.The same thing happened in Texas in March 2007 when 68 dolphins washed up in Galveston and Jefferson, including a large number of infants. Unexplained: Rescuers have found an unusually large number of baby dolphin carcasses washed up on beaches in Mississippi and Alabama Cause of death: Scientists are carrying out necropsies on the bodies to try and find out how they died and are not ruling out links with the BP oil spillThe carcasses of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins washed up on the shores of the 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Mississippi, east to Gulf Shores, Alabama yesterday. The remains of about ten adult dolphins, none of them pregnant females, have also been found s

LONDON: Doctors have for long said that cycling is good for health. But, now a new study has claimed it is literally one of the biggest triggers of heart attacks. The study, which analysed 36 pieces of research , has revealed that the "final straw" in bringing on a heart attack is spending time in traffic as a driver, cyclist or commuter, the Lancet journal reported. But of these, cyclists are in greatest danger because they are more heavily exposed to pollution and are subjecting themselves to another major heart attack trigger, exercise. Traffic exposure was blamed for 7.4% of heart attacks, followed by physical exertion with 6.2%. Over-all air pollution triggered between 5% and 7% of heart attacks, while drinking alcohol accounted 5%. Other risk factors included negative emotions (3.9%), anger (3.1%), eating a heavy meal (2.7%), positive emotions (2.4%) and sexual activity (2.2%). Cocaine was to blame for 0.9% of heart attacks, but this was because of limited exposu

Chinese telecom operator China Unicom has published a report, stating that by December 31, 2010, the company had opened 3G international roaming and short message services in collaboration with 195 operators in 98 countries and regions. According to the report, China Unicom has cooperated with 487 operators in 238 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, in launching the 2G roaming and short message services; it has cooperated with 195 operators in 98 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, in launching 3G roaming and short message services; and it has cooperated with 337 operators in 173 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, in launching GPRS roaming services.At the same time, China Unicom claimed that it is now the only Chinese telecom operator that can provide a video call roaming service, and it has opened this service with 22 operators in 11 countries and regions around the world.In addition, the operator's mul

In a move that could signal Google is taking a hard line on in-app payments similar to the way Apple has outlined new subscription rules , Google has pulled the popular Visual VoiceMail app from Android Market, citing a violation of the developer payment rules. The details of the violation are not completely clear but the developer believes the app, which has had one million downloads on Android, was targeted for not processing in-app payments through Google Checkout. Google notified developer PhoneFusion Tuesday night, saying it was pulling their free voicemail app after more than two years on the market fora violation of theDeveloper Content Policy. When Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based PhoneFusion followed up, the Android Team said in an e-mail that the developer violated section 3.3 of the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement, covering pricing and payments. In the section, it reads: If you want to collect fees after the free trial expires, you must collect all fees for the fu

If theres one aspect of the media business that has been disrupted more completely than any other, its the whole idea of breaking news. Just as television devalued the old front-page newspaper scoop, the web has turned breaking news into something that lasts a matter of minutes or even seconds rather than hours. If your business is to break news, your job is becoming harder and harder every day, as legendary Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke is only the latest to discover . Finkes company has accused a competing news site of stealing news stories, and seems to be trying to use the antiquated hot news doctrine of 1918 to bolster its case. But relying on laws from the turn of the century isnt going to help make the web-based content business any easier, regardless of the merits of Finkes complaint. According to the cease-and-desist letter that Finkes MMC Corp. sent to TheWrap a blog run by former New York Times writer Sharon Waxman that site has been engaged in a continuous pattern of m

With mobile phones coming to Indonesia before everyone had landlines, Southeast Asias most populous nation leapfrogged into the mobile era. By 2005 only a quarter of Indonesian homes had landlines, while mobile penetration stood at 20 percent. Now, five years later, more than half the population has mobile phones and the number of landlines has declined by more than 10 percent. Mobile phones have an impact on Internet usage that has been seen in few other markets globally. The decline of Friendster in Indonesia happened largely due to Facebookss superior mobile app . Interestingly, much of the growth has been driven by teenagers, according to recent research by the Nielsen company. More than 70 percent of teenagers have mobile phones and the number of 10 to 14-year olds owning phones increased five times in the last five years, according to Nielsen. The Indonesian demographic with the highest penetration of mobile phones is teenagers aged 15 to 19. The top uses for mobile phones for te

Add to My Stories It gives a whole new meaning to the idea of lending a hand.Scientists have created the illusion of having three hands - and made it so realistic that men and women taking part broke into a sweat when their extra limb was threatened with a knife.The bizarre insight into how the brain can be fooled may speed the development of life-like prosthetic limbs for stroke patients and others who have lost the use of their own arms. Scroll down for video Experiment: Scientists have created the illusion of having three hands - fooling volunteers' into thinking they had two right limbsTo create the illusion, Swedish scientists set up an experiment in which a person sat at a table and had a skin-toned rubber artificial arm placed next to their right arm.Both their real arm and the artificial one were covered with a cloth up to the shoulder, leaving only the two right hands in clear sight.The researchers then used small brushes to tickle the real hand and the rubber hand at the

Add to My Stories New model is expected to be launched in San Francisco on March 2 If you're about to whip out your newly acquired iPad on a crowded train to the envy of fellow commuters, think again.For no sooner have you spent your hard-earned cash on the must-have tablet computer, Apple is expected to announce the launch of its new iPad - in just seven days from now. And the news has taken the technology world by surprise. Scroll down for video report... Must-have gadget: Apple boss Steve Jobs unveils the iPad in January 2010. The iPad 2 is expected to be launched in San Francisco next WednesdayContrary to speculation that the iPad 2 had been delayed, it now appears Apple willofficially unveil it at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, its preferred venue, on March 2.It is thought the iPad 2 will differ from its phenomenally successful predecessor in a number of ways.The new model is expected to be slimmer, lighter, have a better resolution display and cameras o

Add to My Stories The launch of Nasa's Glory Satellite was abandoned earlier today five minutes before take off, due to engineering problems.The $424million mission has been postponed until tomorrow - the same day that Discovery will make its final ride into orbit. Officials at a military base in central California delayed the launch of the Taurus XL rocket - which is carrying an Earth-observation satellite - as they met with some last minute technical difficulties. Delayed: Nasa's Glory satellite spacecraft will measure the direct and indirect effects of atmospheric aerosols and of the Sun on Earth's climate The rocket is slated for a three-year mission to analyse how airborne particles affect the Earth's climate. Besides monitoring particles in the atmosphere, Glory will also track solar activity to determine the sun's effect on climate.Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosol

One of the biggest stories of my career as someone who covered telecom industry happened fifteen years ago: The 1996 Telecom Act was the start of the liberalization of an industry that had been vertical with very little competition. What followed was an amazing transformation of the staid calling industry not necessarily for the better. One of the basic tenets of the 1996 Telecom Act was unbundled access to the telecom facilities of the local phone companies, which meant competing phone companies could access the so-called last-mile that led to peoples homes over the incumbent carriers network. The change in law created an insane amount of competition, and turned the economics of the business on its head. It led to kamikaze-style pricing of phone minutes. Voice had been the primary source of revenue for phone companies for nearly a century. The increased competition was coupled with the arrival of Internet and Internet-based telephony. That allowed rivals such as cable