Ged Carroll

Search results for: “uniqlo”

  • Hino trucks + more news

    Hino trucks

    Hino Motors is a car and truck manufacturer best known for its iconic Hino trucks. It started its convoluted origin story spinning out of manufacturing company owned by Tokyo Gas.

    Hino 1973

    Before there was Hino trucks, there were a small amount of half tracks and armoured personnel carriers made for the Imperial Japanese Army. After the war Hino got into the truck business and for a brief while also made cars. The pretty Hino Contessa coupé showed potential, but becoming part of the Toyota group saw Hino focus on commercial vehicles under its own name.

    Hino, Green

    Hino trucks with their winged logo marked my childhood in Ireland. Hino trucks pulled palleted loads on taunt liner trailers, shipping containers and flat bed trailers of hay. The supermarket delivery wagons, the bakers lorry, skip deliveries, ready mix and the dairy picking up milk from my Uncle’s farm were all using Hino trucks. The distinctive unblinking three green lights on the roof of oncoming Hino trucks stood out of the total darkness of rural Irish roads.

    hino sh28

    I had Robert ‘Pino’ Harris to thank for making Ireland the Hino trucks capital of Europe at the time. And his Hino trucks success story is one of a singular focus on relationships and customer service.

    So it saddened me to read about Hino trucks emissions scandal relating to their diesel engines. Toyota/Hino: truck unit not strong enough to overcome emissions data scandal  | Financial Times

    China

    Adidas ousts China chief as sales suffer after consumer boycott over Xinjiang | Financial Times – Allison Malmsten, sportswear analyst at China-focused consultancy Daxue Consulting, said that since the boycott, Nike and Adidas have ceded their top position on ecommerce apps such as Alibaba’s Tmall. In their place, local online retailers have promoted Li-Ning and Anta, making the “competition a lot stiffer”.Jonathan Cummings, Asia-Pacific president of brand consultancy Landor and Fitch, said that after years of market dominance, Adidas and Nike were being challenged by “cheaper domestic brands that have become stronger”.Adidas generated nearly a quarter of its sales in the Greater China region in the first half of last year, the bulk of which came from mainland China. – it will be interesting to see where adidas will try to go in China and whether they feel it is worth riling western customers to arrest their decline in China

    The rising costs of China’s friendship with Russia | Financial Times – When the Russian invasion of Ukraine started two weeks ago, Jane Yan, a senior executive at a machine parts maker in eastern China, says she was not too worried about the impact. After all, buyers in Russia and Ukraine accounted for less than 5 per cent of the company’s overseas sales last year. But as the full ferocity of the Russian onslaught started to become apparent, the outlook shifted dramatically. Important clients in countries such as Poland and Germany cancelled orders with the Zhejiang-based company. “A Munich-based client said ‘it feels terribly wrong to send money to a country that is tolerating war in Ukraine — sorry’,” said Yan, who asked that her employer not be identified. She added that inquiries from European buyers have also fallen sharply since the conflict started. “I hope the war ends as soon as possible.” – I wonder how prevalent this consumer boycott actually is of Chinese products?

    Culture

    Why disco will never truly die — Quartz – interesting, but full of American privilege, but no love for producers like Giorgio Moroder, Luxxury, Dimitri from Paris, Late Night Tuff Guy or The Reflex

    Ideas

    How factory robots lead to human deaths – Futurity – “For decades, manufacturers in the United States have turned to automation to remain competitive in a global marketplace, but this technological innovation has reduced the number of quality jobs available to adults without a college degree—a group that has faced increased mortality in recent years,” says lead author Rourke O’Brien, assistant professor of sociology at Yale University. 

    “Our analysis shows that automation exacts a toll on the health of individuals both directly—by reducing employment, wages, and access to healthcare—as well as indirectly, by reducing the economic vitality of the broader community.” 

    Since 1980, mortality rates in the United States have diverged from those in other high-income countries. Today, Americans on average die three years sooner than their counterparts in other wealthy nations. 

    EACH NEW ROBOT PER 1,000 WORKERS LED TO ABOUT 8 ADDITIONAL DEATHS PER 100,000 MALES AGED 45 TO 54 AND NEARLY 4 ADDITIONAL DEATHS PER 100,000 FEMALES IN THE SAME AGE GROUP. 
    Automation is a major source of the decline of US manufacturing jobs along with other factors, including competition with manufacturers in countries with lower labor costs, such as China and Mexico.     

    Previous research has shown that the adoption of industrial robots caused the loss of an estimated 420,000 to 750,000 jobs during the 1990s and 2000s, the majority of which were in manufacturing.

    Korea

    The legal battle threatening Samsung’s dynasty | Financial Times

    Nearly 40% of Manufacturers on Brink of Insolvency – The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition) – this is small and medium sized businesses. This is worse than the 2008 financial crisis

    Legal

    Letters: No need for a WeChat ban | Australian Financial Review – not sure if Tencent would play along

    Marketing

    “Wank pods” to become a new work perk for Stripchat employees | Stripcat – cheap PR stunt

    What Is Message Testing, and Why Does It Matter?  | GLG 

    Materials

    Boeing suspends buying titanium from Russia | RTÉ News 

    Retailing

    Uniqlo to Keep Stores in Russia Open As Zara, H&M Pull Out 

    Security

    Another Chinese Hacking Tool Discovered By Symantec | Gizchina – interesting that it was aimed at high-level, non western government agencies. What is the equivalent that they are using in the west then? How about U.S. State Governments Hit in Chinese Hacking Spree – WSJ 

    Supply chain giant Expeditors is still recovering from cyberattack, expects ‘material adverse impact’ – GeekWire 

    Software

    Russian Cybersecurity Giant Kaspersky Tries to Maintain Neutrality During Ukraine War

    RuTracker.org, once the largest resource website in Russia, has recently been unblocked, after Microsoft, Adobe, game developers, etc. announced that they are banned from selling products in Russia – yqqlm – Gamingsym – BitTorrent to be main source of software and entertainment for Russians, opportunity for western governments to spread malware

    Technology

    It’s Not ‘Too Late’ for Intel to Beat the Apple M1 – ExtremeTech – so two questions come out of this.

    1. Can Intel out-design Apple in terms of chips? I think that is certainly possible, possibly even extremely likely
    2. Can Intel compete with Apple on process? Possibly soon, if they managed to partner with Samsung or TSMC. Certainly in the longer term if Intel’s process engineers get their mojo back, or they continue to partner with TSMC or Samsung

    Apple goes chiplet for 114bn transistor M1 Ultra – eeNews Europe 

    Telecoms

    Huawei UK’s British board members resign over Russia-Ukraine stance | Reuters 

    Web of no web

    Roundtable: A Brutally Honest Conversation on the Metaverse – Web 2.0 Is about the individual/the corporation, and Web 3.0 is about the collectivist statement, or the community / collectivist environment, in some ways. – interesting that there is a whole piece missing about web 1.0 being about personal and organisation publishing and communications. Web 2.0 being a web of data and creativity

  • Handset industry of South Korea + more

    South Korea’s handset industry

    South Korea’s handset industry is leading indicator of supply chain shift – Samsung has chosen to place two thirds of its global production capacity at 360 million phones near Hanoi, Vietnam and one third in Noida, India. At the same time, a group of American brands led by Apple have asked their Taiwan-based OEMs to set up production facilities in India. Taiwan’s three largest manufacturers Wistron, Pegatron and Foxconn all have production lines up and running in India. Before this, Taiwan-based notebook computer manufacturers had already moved their production to major ASEAN countries. It is a definite trend that manufacturers are relocating part of their production out of China into ASEAN countries and South Asia – Apple can learn a lot from South Korea’s handset industry. Apple’s approach to its supply chain compared to the handset industry looks risky. It is betting on Chinese behaviour that seems to run counter to Xi Jingping-era China. More on handset industry related content here.

    China

    Ketamine and the Return of the Party-State | Palladium Magazine – as China gets richer and its factional lines get drawn across social battles instead of economic ones, we can expect rhetoric about moral regeneration to become more potent. The party’s turn towards encouraging family and child-rearing might well be the first sign of things to come. When all your political capital has been invested in the narrative of national rejuvenation, there’s no easy way out when the low-hanging fruits of the market start to run low

    Former Chinese Party Insider Calls U.S. Hopes of Engagement ‘Naive’ – WSJ – “Wishful thinking about ‘engagement’ must be replaced by hardheaded defensive measures to protect the United States from the CCP’s aggression—while bringing offensive pressures to bear on it, as the Chinese Communist Party is much more fragile than Americans assume,” Ms. Cai wrote. Her 28-page paper is slated for publication this week by the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank at Stanford University. A growing roster of Western politicians and analysts has concluded that U.S. diplomacy with China hasn’t paid dividends. But such views are rarely expressed publicly by sources as highly placed as Ms. Cai was just a short time ago. – Pretty reasonable assessment with plenty of empirical evidence to support it

    Fawning and complacent, the West has eased China’s path to power | The Sunday Times – while the statement is true, it also shows how much the tone has changed towards China

    Finance

    Brazil and China in talks to strengthen science and technology ties | ZDNet – China calls for financing to bring plans to reality…..

    France

    France probes fashion retailers for concealing ‘crimes against humanity’ in Xinjiang | Reuters – source told Reuters Uniqlo France, a unit of Japan’s Fast Retailing, Zara owner Inditex, France’s SMCP and Skechers were the subject of the investigation

    Hong Kong

    How Beijing humbled Britain’s mighty HSBC | Reuters – The decision by Baowu to blackball HSBC is part of a clampdown on the global London-based bank by many of China’s gargantuan state-owned enterprises – a campaign described to Reuters in interviews with HSBC bankers, and employees at state companies who have first-hand knowledge of their operations. Controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party, these companies manage the nation’s largest industrial projects and are responsible for $9.8 trillion of revenue annually. The reason for the pullback by state firms isn’t HSBC’s financial soundness, which isn’t in question, but rather Chinese politics. People inside the state enterprises and HSBC say Beijing has grown disenchanted with the bank over sensitive domestic and international legal and political issues, from China’s crackdown in Hong Kong to the U.S. indictment of an executive at Chinese national tech champion Huawei Technologies – this makes HSBC’s pivot to China look foolish

    ‘Unstoppable storm’: rights take back seat under Hong Kong security law | Yahoo! News – from the journalist’s Twitter thread when she shared the article and additional material that didn’t make the cut: “Judges hope to be given more trust and discretion. Prosecution wants more power. What can defense do? …I’m not as naive to believe they won’t come after lawyers. Losing license is the minimum charge.”

    Luxury

    Streetwear Has a Homophobia Problem | Highsnobiety – where to start with this? I think that some of the homophobia is down to in-out group dynamics. Gays have been in the streetwear industry for a long time. Bomber jackets as a streetwear item came from creatives like Judy Blame and the Buffalo Collective

    Media

    America’s New Post-Literate Epistemology | Palladium Magazine – McLuhan believed that the West was due for a period of “re-tribalization,” but by “tribal” he meant much more than the commonly understood definition. Yes, there would be polarization: people would by and large become less civil, less rational, touchier, and more defensive about the smallest things. This much, we already know and see every day. But McLuhan went even further in his use of the term, arguing that electronic media—more so than any political ideology—shifts the sensorial basis of Western society away from the visual, the literate, and the abstract and toward the oral, the tactile, and the tribal. In other words, he saw re-tribalization as a process that will eventually return modern man to the mental and epistemic world of his pre-literate tribal ancestors: the “global village.” Over the long run, this can be quite benign, even sublime: in 1969, McLuhan imagined its endpoint as a society of “mythic integration” where “magic will live again.” Speaking in lofty millenarian terms, he predicted technology would merge humanity “into an inclusive consciousness…a new interpretation of the mystical body of Christ…the ultimate extension of man.”

    ‘Crypto Keepers’ NFT-Backed Drama Series Hatched by AMM Global – Variety – the production company spun out of Hong Kong’s Asia Television – a former free to air TV station

    Facebook, Twitter, Google Threaten to Quit Hong Kong Over Proposed Data Laws – WSJ – the problem is that the online platforms don’t put teeth behind it. Like taking unilateral action against Chinese advertisers and Chinese media. Lets assume that Facebook, Twitter and Google would have to leave Chinese territories. They can then squeeze China two ways:

    1. China’s small factories rely increasingly on direct to consumer sales through Facebook and Instagram advertising. As does product aggregators like Wish.com and Shein. Squeezing them out of advertising would send 10,000s of Chinese employees out of work
    2. Shutting out China’s SOEs (Air China etc) and Chinese media accounts would severely cripple China’s external united work front efforts to influence the global market

    Vietnam

    Vietnam to phase out 2G, 3G serivces starting 2022 – Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) has decided to start phasing out 2G and 3G technologies within the country in 2022 in a bid to encourage people to use smartphones and promote digital society.

  • Mi Air Charge & things that made last week

    Mi Air Charge

    Mi Air Charge is a smartphone controlled air purifier by Xiaomi. The ad promotes it as being an essential item in a dystopian austere bachelor pad. I am not sure why the Mi Air Charge was controlled by an app, except to sell more It reminded me of a product advert specified and designed for the engineers that likely worked on the product.

    Dyson has done similarly sparse interiors in its ads, but they usually cast a couple or family.

    Bob Ross paintings

    Anyone who has watched TV in the middle of the night has likely come across the TV series of Bob Ross painting landscapes. For each show that he did, there were three paintings. Bob Ross’ paintings have never come up in auction. They were given to friends and the rest held in an archive by the company that carries his name.

    Uniqlo Japan AIRism advert

    Uniqlo set a high standard for adverts and creativity. This particular example for its AIRism casual wear is notable for its natural portrayal of a Japanese lesbian couple. Usually Japanese advert portray the struggles that the LGBTQ community face. Whereas this normalises its protagonists with a slice of life approach.

    https://youtu.be/PsfpCd0TAxU

    Luther Vandross would have been 70 last week

    On April 19, the Google Doodle celebrated Luther Vandross’ 70th birthday with a new animated video to accompany his track Never Too Much. The animation was done for Google by Sam Bass.

    And here is the original video from 1981. I love the way the video intercuts film that they shot on the street into the track. The song was recorded using a Studer A800 multitrack recorder.

    The Mercedes Benz 500E was inspired by AMG’s efforts with the Hammer and increased competition from the likes of Lexus. This video gives a good guide to the car, including clarifying that Porsche helped in the assembly but its not a Porsche sedan.

  • CNY 2021

    February 12, is CNY 2021 (Chinese new year 2021); based on the lunar calendar. It is the year of the ox, the second animal in the Chinese zodiac cycle. It is celebrated by people of Chinese heritage around the world.

    Some of the best creative in Asia comes out of the new year campaigns. Here are some of this years.

    China spring festival adverts

    I find it hard to find many good CNY 2021 adverts this year. Two consistent top performers are adidas and Apple.

    adidas has an advert that’s part of an app-driven multi-channel experience. Hence why the call to action at the end of the ad is the app. App driven e-commerce by the big sports leisure apparel brands. Nike has the ‘Nike’ app and SNKRS aimed at streetwear fans. Some of the more exclusive shoes are only available to purchase on SNKRS.

    adidas seems to be taking a similar line in China. The clothing presented is sports fashion in nature. adidas is also clever in the way it taps into Chinese culture with this app.

    adidas used gamification tactics to improve digital engagement and strengthen the brand salience with target segments, especially sports and street culture fans.

    The campaign consumer insights were:

    • Going beyond the Chinese New Year tradition of sharing wishes for good luck and good fortune. The brand took this in an engaging direction by showing audiences how they could honour their blessings and make wishes come true through their actions. This is something that that many Chinese take for granted
    • Many Chinese move back from the big city to smaller towns, the visuals of the ad draw on visual elements and atmosphere of a small town Chinese new year.
    https://youtu.be/HDyx2_MS8SE

    Apple has released a ‘Shot on an iPhone’ Chinese new year themed advert this year. This follows on from similar mini-movies that it has done in previous years by partnering with well known film makers. This year Apple turned to Chinese film maker Lulu Wang to reinterpret an old Chinese folk tale with a modern twist. The folk tale is related to Chinese new year celebrations.

    https://youtu.be/t-9YuIg7R1I
    Lulu Wang for Apple Inc. – Nian

    And there is a making of the film here

    https://youtu.be/9pHO5hpgj7k
    Apple Inc.

    Chinese video platform Kuaishou decided to make a Chinese new year film. (Kuaishou is a direct competitor to Douyin – the China specific version of TikTok.) The story was based on the real stories shared by Kuaishou users. The worked with film maker Jia Zhangke who had worked with Apple two years earlier on their Chinese new year film.

    For those that would be normally travelling home at this time of year, the film given added poignancy, given China’s restrictions on travel over the Chinese new year period to try and combat resurgent COVID-19 outbreaks.

    A honourable mention to H&M which I haven’t been able to find in a format to share online.

    Hong Kong CNY 2021 adverts

    The CNY 2021 themed ads are symptomatic of a couple of things:

    • Masks have established themselves as strong consumer brands. This has manifested itself in both retail presence and advertising
    • Budgets have been constrained by two years of economic declines, which explains some of ads low production values

    Chinese new year revolves around food and indulgence rather like Thanksgiving or Christmas in the west. On Kee Dry Seafood Co., Ltd sell abalone and other delicacies. Given that Hong Kong has been in a recession even before COVID-19 – discretionary spend is under pressure.

    On Kee Dry Seafood Co., Ltd

    What surprised me about this advert how much it looked as if it has been shot in a studio (look at the ‘retail product range’ shots around the 14 second mark to see what I mean. But any firm that is investing in its brand during a recession deserves the respect of marketers.

    Sun Shun Fuk Food Co. Ltd are a competitor to On Kee and have managed to come up with a shorter 15 second spot, but with higher production values. 15 second ads are hard, trying to get creative to land the messages in the creative and still have time for the brand compulsory pack shot and strap line on the end. I think they’ve done a good job with this.

    Sun Shun Fuk Food Co. Ltd

    HealthMe Plus put together a sub-30 second spot for its seasonal children’s masks. If you had asked me if this would have happened 12 months ago, I’d have said absolutely not. The effect of major brands like Solvay and 3M to meet consumer demand has allowed local champion mask brands to spring up.

    The music takes me back to hearing The Chieftains in China album as a child. And more recently, when I’ve visited or lived in Hong Kong, the local supermarket muzak during the run up to Chinese new year.

    McDonald’s Hong Kong innovate a lot more than their UK counterparts. A case in point being their Chinese new year menu with special burgers and curly fries. The Chinese new year menu features a Hello Kitty tie-in on packaging (and likely a soft toy giveaway, if you collect enough tokens). The 15-second spot isn’t anything special unless you’re a diehard Hello Kitty fan.

    McDonald’s Hong Kong
    McDonald’s Hong Kong
    McDonald’s Hong Kong

    I particularly like the seasonal ‘red envelopes’ that celebrate the different aspects of the McDonald’s Chinese new year menu.

    Malaysia Chinese new year adverts

    Malaysia is impressive for the quality of the ads, particularly given the country’s economic performance before and during COVID-19.

    The most impressive set of adverts for me so far have been done by Malaysian power company Tenaga Nasional Berhad. It is based on the same folk tale that Apple China adapted for their advert. There is a five minute film, a ten second and 30 second trailer to maximise impact. It feels like a mini Stephen Chow film.

    TENAGA

    Grab is similar to Uber, it does transport, food ordering and food delivery. Grab like Singapore’s Singtel builds on successful ads from last year. It mixes Chinese New Year with the tropes of a kung fu movie like the Grab book of Tai Chi. The production values on it are very high.

    Grab Malaysia

    Traditional Chinese medicine brand focuses on family in their engaging minute film.

    Eu Yan Sang

    Yakult is a six minute drama that is very now. A mother misses her daughter who is coming apart at the seams working in a challenging environment at a hospital. In the end they come together over food virtually.

    Yakult – Miles apart, but close at heart

    Mercedes-Benz went with telling a heart-warming story rather than trying to have a product hero. At 1 minute, the film seems extravagant compared to some of the ones I have been looking at this year. It plays on the mix of happiness and awkwardness that happens during family gatherings like Christmas or Thanksgiving in the west. The overlapping family banter is done really well and the code switching feels very natural.

    Mercedes-Benz

    Samsung Malaysia came out with Chinese New Year story for the COVID era, that is as much about relating with the audience as it is pushing product – although technology helps stave off the worst of a dystopian present.

    Lego created an ad with local online personality Danny Ahboy as the protagonist. It was interesting that they focused on nostalgia and had an all-adult ensemble, apart from the flashback scenes.

    The Lego Group

    Malaysian mobile phone carrier Celcom went with an uplifting message and artfully crafted b-roll, to show how Malaysians in the past faced adversity together with the bonds strengthened by Chinese new year festivities.

    Celcom

    It’s not necessarily the most memorable campaign, but it wins points for not putting the brand front and centre in the creative, and instead is a hymn to their stakeholders.

    The biggest surprise for me was Coca-Cola who have down a relatively safe route with their Have a little celebration with big meanings together, but its a 15 second spot which creatively very restrictive. I found this especially surprising, given how long Coca-Cola stopped its media spend for in 2020. I would have thought that they would need to spend on brand salience at this time.

    The Coca-Cola Company

    Singapore CNY 2021 adverts

    Singapore telecoms carrier Singtel has consistently done great Chinese new year themed adverts. This is a sequel to their CNY 2020 campaign. This year the hero product is 5G connectivity. It’s a mini cinematic production clocking in at 6 minutes. But it pays the audience back for their attention with drama, comedy and a heart warming ending.

    Singtel

    Mobile e-commerce platform Shopee came up with an ad to target shopping for CNY gift giving. It is the kind of ear worm song that is likely to stick with you from childhood, well into adult life and trigger nostalgia down the road. So a potentially great brand building vehicle.

    Shopee Singapore

    Uniqlo Singapore goes after COVID-19 head on, it treats this brand tribute to the spirit of Chinese new year as a look book. Check out the dancing Grandma. The staging of it makes clear that it’s an everyman tale. The story plays out in a well maintained HDB flat.

    Fast Retailing

    CNY 2021 advert conclusions

    For CNY 2021, across all the countries that I looked at, there were signs that advertisers budgets seem to be hurting. I have looked at this for a few years and never seen as many spots done on just a 15-second execution before. Especially given the opportunity that Chinese new year gives to get consumer spend and built brand salience.

    Imagine the John Lewis Christmas ad, or the Coca-Cola holidays are coming creative treatments as just 15 second spots?

    The Coca-Cola Company

    Storytelling becomes much harder. The planner has to craft a tighter brief and the creatives have to work harder to just get a good result, let alone a great result.

    A friend of mine once said that there might be a correlation between the amount of presents featured in a John Lewis Christmas ad and the likely retail performance during the holiday. I think we can draw a similar heuristic between 15 second spots and likely business performance.

    More information on past Chinese new year celebrations

    Chinese new year 2020

    Chinese new year 2019

    Chinese new year 2018

  • Vietnam boomtowns + more things

    Apple’s Shifting Supply Chain Creates Boomtowns in Rural Vietnam – Bloomberg – Vietnam is becoming the new China. While China has been impacted by problems of its own making, resulting in diversification of supply chains and trade disputes. This Vietnam build-out feels very much like build out in China during the late 1990s and the early 2000s after China joined the World Trade Organisation. Vietnam is now likely to experience double-digit growth. Hopefully Vietnam will climb up the value chain in a similar way to China. Vietnam is already a great place to develop software and applications. More Vietnam related posts here.

    Apple develops alternative to Google search | Financial Times – “Any reasonable search engine has to have 20bn-50bn pages in its active index,” Mr Ramaswamy said. When a user runs a query, the retrieval system must sift through vast troves of data then rank them in milliseconds. Some observers still dismiss the idea of Apple creating a complete search rival to Google. Dan Wang, associate professor of business at Columbia Business School, said it would be “extremely difficult” for Apple ever to catch up. “Google’s advantage comes from scale,” he said, as the endless user feedback helps to tune results and identify areas of improvement. “Google gets hundreds of millions of queries every minute from users all over the world — that’s an enormous advantage when it comes to data.” – Apple needs search for its app store, mapping services, media services and even on device. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple will do a ‘Google’

    Army of avatar robots readies to invade Japanese job market – Nikkei Asia – stocking shelves in a FamilyMart

    Apple develops alternative to Google search | Financial Times – explains Apple’s massive amount of overcapacity in their datacentre space for the past decade as they built around the world

    Chinese retailer Miniso beats Uniqlo and Muji at their game – Nikkei Asia – interesting profile of Miniso. What becomes apparent is how Luckin Coffee has poisoned the well with investors for Chinese retailing businesses

    Surveillance Startup Used Own Cameras to Harass Coworkers | Vice News – not terribly surprised that this was in their sales team. It fits right in with the sales cultures I have known

    25 Years In Speech Technology. …and I still don’t talk to my computer. | by Matthew Karas | Oct, 2020 | Medium – great essay on voice technology on computers (including smartphones)

    German spy chief Gerhard Schindler: China is poised to dominate the world | World | The Times – Gerhard Schindler, who led the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 2011 to 2016, said Germany needed to curb its “strategic dependence” on Beijing and ban Huawei from its 5G mobile phone network. He also warned that Angela Merkel’s liberal approach to the 2015 migrant crisis had left Germany with a “large reservoir” of young Muslim men susceptible to violence and jihadist ideology, and that the true scale of the danger was only now becoming clear.

    UK risks road rage with China in Africa – POLITICO – United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy told a Congressional hearing in 2019 that Washington was “weaponizing” its African embassies “to confront China on a whole range of issues, most prominently a commercial one.” Westcott, from the Royal Africa Society, pointed out that Britain was so far aiming to maintain its own influence in Africa rather than reduce Chinese influence — but that it could take a more aggressive approach in future, for example attempting to outbid China for projects.

    How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine – The New York Times – The Epoch Times was a small, low-budget newspaper with an anti-China slant that was handed out free on New York street corners. But in 2016 and 2017, the paper made two changes that transformed it into one of the country’s most powerful digital publishers. The changes also paved the way for the publication, which is affiliated with the secretive and relatively obscure Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, to become a leading purveyor of right-wing misinformation. First, it embraced President Trump, treating him as an ally in Falun Gong’s scorched-earth fight against China’s ruling Communist Party, which banned the group two decades ago – the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I see this as a failure of liberal politicians engaging with a plurality of opinions about China.

    The Belt and Road Strategy Has Backfired on Xi | Palladium Magazine – The Belt and Road is less a geoeconomic power play than a marketing strategy. Few of the myriad projects and investment schemes labeled ‘Belt and Road’ exist because of the initiative as such. Grand strategists in Beijing did not cause the tremendous outbound flows of money, men, and material that comprise Belt and Road, and they cannot direct it either. What statesmen like Xi Jinping do have power to influence is how these flows are understood and perceived by the world

    How Did China Beat Its Covid Crisis? | by Ian Johnson | The New York Review of Books – ambiguous lessons on handling COVID-19

    WeChat ban a catch-22 for Chinese Australians – The China Story – some members of the Chinese Australian community have created parallel chat groups on WhatsApp, Letstalk, Line or Telegram in case of a local WeChat ban. But they continue to be drawn back to WeChat as their main social media platform. Why do members of the Chinese diaspora choose to self-censor when they have many other options available? The answer may lie in platform affordances available in WeChat as well as techno-material features of the app that produce ‘habits’, engender ‘necessity’ and provide users with a sense of ‘vitality’.

    Inside Out: China’s Forgotten Domestic Politics – The China Story – China digging itself into a soft power hole

    Adobe’s new AI experiment syncs your dance moves perfectly to the beat | The Next Web – I was thinking about the effect that quantisation had on music software in the early 1990s which allowed for perfect beat synching (in theory, though MIDI and USB could throw that off slightly

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