Dragon's teeth

Risk of overheating ... uncertainties in the Chinese economy could have damaging consequences for Australia. Illustration: Karl Hilzinger.

Will Australia's dependence on China's growth come at a cost? Some analysts say there are worrying signs.
BHP Billiton's recent stunning financial results announcement - an after-tax profit of more than $22 billion in the year to June, the largest corporate profit ever recorded in Australian history - has skittish investors wondering whether the China story might, in fact, have many more years to run.
At a time of intense financial volatility, with economies in trouble in many countries, such an outcome would be welcome news for our markets.
For it is our fast-growing exports to China, along with that country's decades-long run of good economic growth (see charts, right), that have provided support for our economy over many years.

iPhone hookups go straight with new meet market

He's credited with sparking a sexual revolution in the gay community and now Joel Simkhai thinks he can evolve the way heterosexual people meet each other as well.
Simkhai is the creator of Grindr, a homosexual pickup app for the mobile phone that connects people with others in their immediate vicinity. Launched in 2009, Grindr now has almost three million users around the world including almost 150,000 in Australia, of which 41,500 are in Sydney.

 

Blendr uses smartphone GPS to connect you with people in your immediate vicinity.

Today Simkhai and his now 100-strong team took the wraps off their latest creation, Blendr, which is designed to be used by both gay and straight people to meet others who are nearby and who have similar interests.

Ultrabooks harness the best of tablets to fight Macbook Air

Looks a lot like a Macbook Air ... Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook.

PC makers have a new weapon in their battle to stop tablets stealing laptop market share and prove Apple doesn't have a monopoly on design: Ultrabooks.
Acer, Asus, Samsung, Lenovo, Toshiba and others have all unveiled plans for new ultraportable Windows 7 laptops that are thinner, lighter, faster and have longer battery life than previous efforts. Acer is the first cab off the rank with new models due out next month starting at $1200.
Ultrabooks is the umbrella term for the new category, which was created by chipmaker Intel to guide vendors with a series of stringent rules.

 

Jump off the express

Keeping up with the pace in Shanghai is a challenge but there's an oasis or two where you can take a breather, writes Winsor Dobbin.
THE sun has only just risen above the Shanghai skyline but already thousands of locals have descended on Fuxing Park - the leafy backyard for many apartment dwellers in this sprawling city.
There is an eccentric collection of Shanghainese going through their workout regimes, which range from swordplay to tai chi; ballroom dancing to calligraphy; kite-flying to head-butting a tree; playing musical instruments to playing cards.

Nightlife in Xintiandi. Photo: Getty Images
All age groups are involved; some of the dancers appear to be in their 80s. Some move energetically, others more languidly. Some are dancing to traditional Chinese music blaring from portable loudspeakers, others to 1940s big-band tunes.

A box-seat at a river crossing

Crossing the Zanskar. Photo: Christina Thompson

I STARE in amazement at the wooden box that will carry us across the river. As boxes go, it appears quite well made, if old and worn. Nevertheless, it is a wooden box, not what I would recognise as the promised "cable car".
But as I watch two local farmers sit calmly in the contraption as it is pulled across the Zanskar River by means of a frayed blue nylon rope,
I have the usual thoughts of a stranger facing a challenging situation in a foreign country: "Put your trust in the locals. They know what they're doing."

In fact, the ride looks quite exciting. The box, suspended from a cable that stretches to the stark, rock-strewn shore on the other side, will allow us to traverse a torrent of grey, silt-laden water from the peaks of the Ladakh range in the far north of India.