The vast scale of China’s landmass and its population means that China produces and consumes copious amounts of natural resources and food. It also means that China houses a large chunk of the world’s billionaires. We dug around to find some interesting statistics. Did you know that China’s railway lines could loop around earth twice? Here are some interesting facts about the world’s second-largest economy, which could soon eclipse the U.S. to become the world’s largest this year.
Posted by BUSINESS INSIDER (Page 6)
Samsung and Facebook’s Oculus VR unit are working together to create a virtual reality device powered by Samsung’s Galaxy S5 line of phones, Engadget reports. You literally plug your phone into the headset and you’re inside a “shockingly good” virtual world, the site reports.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Shenyang, Northeast China, has been making the rounds on Twitter this morning.But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen large-scale replicas of global tourist destinations in China.
The Asian giant with a rich cultural heritage of its own, has also incorporated architectural styles from around the world and in some instances tried to replicate Paris and towns in England.
Shanghai rolled out a “One city, Nine Towns” scheme with small towns built in a different international style.
We compiled 16 spots that China ripped off — admittedly, some of these are part of larger theme parks.
Beijing’s subway network is the busiest in the world, with commuters taking about 10 million rides a day throughout nearly 200 subway stations.
These commuters, who already deal with massive traffic jams, overcrowded public transportation, and air so filthy that biking or even walking to work is often not an option, are experiencing a new obstacle: airport-style security at major subway stations.
On Saturday, Beijing tightened security checks at subway stations following an attack in China’s troubled Xinjiang region which killed 31 people.
Here are photos from this morning’s massive lines during rush hour at Beijing’s Tiantongyuan North Station.
“Minecraft” is a huge, open-world sandbox game, which was released for the PC in 2009. Since then, it’s been released on other platforms, and as of February 2014, it has sold over 14 million copies on the PC, and 35 million across all the other platforms.There are various activities you perform in the game: combat, exploration, crafting, gathering items, and building things. There are no specific goals to accomplish, but there are different modes. For example, there’s Survival mode, where players have to craft items in order to build certain things. There are baddies that come out at night, and there’s a health bar that you need to check up on.
Then there’s Creative mode, in which players have the freedom to use their imaginations and build things, without worrying about health meters and bad guys.
Building in “Minecraft” is easy. You get tools, like shovels and axes, to chop down trees and cut through stone. And without a time limit or a place to go, some players have taken their creative freedom to the next level.
“Godzilla” opened in theaters late Thursday evening.
If you’ve seen the trailers, you know one of the coolest parts is a skydiving sequence, showing members of the military paratrooping from a plane in order to engage the monster.
Check it out:
Google is reportedly in talks to buy Twitch.tv, the live video-game streaming site that has exploded in popularity over the last year, currently ranking fourth in U.S. Internet traffic, behind only Netflix, Google, and Apple.
Twitch is a site where users can view other users playing popular video games. The site is also the host of Intel’s Extreme Masters World Finals, the “Champions League” of e-sports (organized video-game competitions). More than 23 million people tuned in this year to see the world’s best players square off in Counter-Strike, StarCraft II, and League of Legends.
The Twitch phenomenon was punctuated in March by one of the weirdest online experiments in recent memory. For over three weeks, nearly 1.1 million video game players collectively beat Pokemon Red on Twitch after 390 hours of game-time.
When “Godzilla” roars into theaters this Friday, cinema’s greatest monster will go up against the world’s largest military, the U.S. armed forces.
But how much of a chance would the U.S. military actually have against a 355-foot tall radioactive Godzilla?
To find out, we spoke with the film’s Military Technical Advisor, retired Sgt. Maj. James Dever and asked how the U.S. military would hypothetically take on the monster, and, more importantly, whether they could do it.
In 2012, at the age of 14, a Taliban gunman climbed onto a bus Malala Yousafzai was riding in and shot her in the head. Though she nearly died in the attack, Yousafzai recovered, and courageously returned to advocating on behalf of girls’ education rights. She has become internationally famous for her activism in favor of allowing women the same educational opportunities as men, both in her native Pakistan and abroad.
Unfortunately, the Indian mattress company Kurl-on decided to use the shooting incident as fodder for one of its latest print ads.
With technology moving faster than ever, it’s hard to imagine what careers will look like 20 years from now. But The Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan (CST), a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to helping Canadian families save for their children’s post-secondary education, wanted to find out.
With help from foresight strategists, CST took a look into the future to find the jobs that may be commonplace by the year 2030.
North Korea called the United States “a living hell” while offering a comprehensive listing of criticisms against the country it called “the world’s worst human rights abuser” in a news report from state-run media Wednesday.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
For everyone dreaming of the chance to visit North Korea, you’re in luck. There is now an app for that.
The North Korea Travel app, released on Wednesday, promises to be the most comprehensive guide ever created for tourists to the Hermit Kingdom.
The app, which will be available through both the App Store and Google play, will feature information on over 350 locations throughout the country. Each location will feature “Tour Guide Tips” provided by Simon Cockerell, who works in the North Korea travel industry and has visited the country over 120 times.
Japanese aerial photography company HEXaMedia flew a drone equipped with cameras through Tomioka, Japan, the largely abandoned town that played host to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
It edited together a number of spooky shots into a 7-minute video that you can watch here. Check out the most stunning shots in the gallery below.
The nostalgia of a classic Nintendo Entertainment system is like nothing else.
I remember when I first got a Nintendo. I didn’t get the bundle with the gun, so no “Duck Hunt” for me, but that didn’t stop me from playing “Super Mario Bros.” for hours with my friends. Then I’d go to their houses and play for hours more. It was the first real game system I had (before that I had a Commodore VIC-20 — don’t mind me as I date myself) in a long line of game systems that followed.
I think back on those games and that system fondly, but I never considered buying one today, or even one of the mods people have made, such as this one, called the Hyperkin Retro 5.
Usually it’s because the graphics on these systems is pretty weak compared with what we’re used to from systems like the Xbox 360, and especially newer systems like the PS4 and Xbox One.
Until now, that is.
An Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for consumers could go on sale next year, a company representative told Business Insider at Facebook’s F8 developer conference today.
Management at Oculus VR, the Irvine, Calif.-company that Facebook bought for $2 billion earlier this year, will be “disappointed” if it doesn’t have a headset available at retail for ordinary people by 2016, according to an Oculus spokesperson.
Burger King has raised some eyebrows with its latest menu addition in China, called the “PooPoo Smoothie.”
The drink as similar to a Taiwanese boba tea, or bubble tea, and has pulp-like “pearls” inside that are supposed to “explode in your mouth upon consumption,” according to the Daily Meal.
Malaysian officials have released a preliminary report about the Flight 370 disappearance that says the official rescue operation didn’t start until four hours after the plane vanished from radar.
CNN reports that Malaysian officials also noted it took 17 minutes for anyone to notice that the plane had gone off the radar.
The gist of the report — officials are still far from finding the missing plane.
Sea levels may rise by about one meter by 2100 if carbon emissions continue unchecked, according to a recent survey of experts, and the effects on coastal cities could be devastating.
A 2008 report from the OECD ranked the most exposed cities, identifying areas that would be exposed if sea levels rose 0.5 meters by 2070 and there was a once-in-a-century storm, accounting for larger storms in some areas (raising water an additional 0.5 meters to 1.5 meters), natural and artificial land shifts, and urban growth.
Calcutta, India could be hit hardest, with 14 million people and $2.0 trillion in assets exposed in 2070 — and the problem could get even worse by 2100.