6 minutes estimated reading time
Burning NFTs
Why brands are burning NFTs | Vogue Business – Burning NFTs, which are tokens stored on a blockchain, is the process of permanently removing a token from circulation. This can be done to eliminate unsold or problematic inventory from an NFT drop, or it can be used to engage collectors and fans through “upgrades” that replace an original NFT with something else. For fashion and beauty brands, burning NFTs could offer a way to manipulate scarcity, and therefore price. It could also lead to more intriguing NFT projects, in which consumers must weigh risk and reward by burning an NFT in exchange for something else. These scenarios, among others, are already playing out among artists and gaming startups, paving the way for fashion. Already, Adidas is using a burn mechanism to change the state of its NFTs when NFT owners make a purchase. Apparel brand Champion recently partnered with Daz 3D’s NFT collection, Non-Fungible People, and will use burning to enable peoples’ profile picture NFTs to digitally dress in Champion gear, while Unisocks invites NFT owners to burn them in exchange for physical products. – burning NFTs sounds like a dangerous precedent
China
How China is using black sites in the UAE as they target Uyghurs abroad | Sky News – particularly interesting when one thinks about how much of a surveillance state that the UAE is. It is very hard to do anything like this there without the government knowing
Consumer behaviour
Environment | Gallup Historical Trends – interesting longitudinal data set. Environmental messaging effectiveness is proportional to consumer disposable income and financial security at the time
Design
Defining character: A Hong Kong font designer’s bold effort to preserve Cantonese culture – Hong Kong Free Press HKFP – based on the past toughness of Hong Kong…
Economics
Lithium price squeeze adds to cost of the energy transition | Financial Times – China has a lock on the world’s lithium supply through mining acquisitions, so this squeeze has been coming for at least five years
UK engineer Renishaw expects chip crunch to last another 2 years | Financial Times – expects semiconductor supply chain problems until at least 2024
When will the music stop? | Financial Times – bill being called due on financialisation and post-industrialisation of western economies and a move from globalisation to regionalisation
Germany
Mercedes accused of using cheat-devices with ‘500%’ higher NOx emissions | CAR Magazine – the interesting thing about this is that Mercedes is a more financially precarious position than Volkswagen is due to lower profit margins and less of a war chest to draw on if this case gets serious
Hong Kong
Australia denied access to dual citizen detained for alleged ‘subversion’ in Hong Kong | The Guardian – the interesting thing about this is that dual citizenship is no longer allowed in Hong Kong, which is at odds to the way things had been in the colony
Ideas
Twee fashion: will the revival bring back toxic body image? – The Face – intersectionality impacting nostalgia
Chen Qiufan on Science Fiction as a Weapon of Storytelling – The Wire China – defining the future is exceptionally important (paywall)
Ireland
US embassy warns TU Dublin about risks of ties with Chinese university | Ireland | The Sunday Times – China wants Ireland to host international campus of Harbin University. Ireland should be looking at the experience of Hungary who were made to foot the bill for a campus that only benefit Chinese students – In 2020 HIT was added to an “entity list” by the US Department of Commerce, which identifies people or organisations that it believes are involved in activities contrary to US security or foreign policy interests. Last week the American embassy in Dublin said it was still concerned about HIT’s ties with the People’s Liberation Army and its efforts to acquire foreign technology in support of its defence aims
Online
When scientific conferences went online, diversity and inclusion soared | Careers | Chemistry World
Security
China and Russia’s hypersonic weaponry threatens US early warning system | Financial Times
China companies try to list in US in test for regulators after clampdown | Financial Times
British research ‘could help China build superweapons’ | News | The Times – The number of research collaborations between scientists in the UK and Chinese institutes with deep connections to the country’s defence forces has tripled to more than 1,000 in six years, a figure that lays bare the scale of cooperation with the hostile state. The university funding includes £60 million from sources now sanctioned by the US government for supplying the Chinese military with fighter jets, communications technology and missiles. The article was published with this opinion piece: Is getting into bed with President Xi for science . . . or just sleazy? | News | The Times – It is 1914 and our scientists, encouraged by government and big business, have been co-operating with their German opposites on machine-gun technology, ballistics and aeroplane design — all in the name of exciting new technology and with a rising country with an important market and close ties with the UK. Now return to the present, but with an eye to the future. As The Times reveals today, UK scientists are working closely with Chinese scientists from institutes intimately associated with weapons development
South Korea to track travel by chip engineers as tech leaks grow – Nikkei Asia – reading this made me think of the scientific brain drain in Len Deighton’s The Ipcress File. It also give you an idea of the lengths that the Koreans think China will go to
US adds 33 Chinese companies to red flag list, unseals Hytera indictment | South China Morning Post – Being added to the Commerce Department’s ‘unverified list’ means a firm faces tougher rules on doing business with American companies. The Hytera indictment details a 13-year effort by the company and a group of former Motorola employees to steal technology
Foreign Office hit by “serious cybersecurity incident” | The Stack – not much information on the nature of the breach or who was likely to be behind it
Telecoms
Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2021 | Morgan Stanley
Web of no web
Why gamers hate crypto, and music fans don’t – gamers feel that they are being ripped off, music fans look at NFTs like as if they are souvenirs or trading cards. This has important implications for mechanisms governing the metaverse