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.

Sandra Bullock buries romance rumours

'Not romantically involved' ... Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

Oscar winner Sandra Bullock has shot down tabloid reports that she's pregnant with Ryan Reynolds' baby.
The actress adopted little Louis at the beginning of 2010, just before her marriage to reality TV star Jesse James fell apart - and now OK! magazine has run a cover story suggesting the 47-year-old is about to become a mum again as her romance with newly-single Reynolds, 35, blossoms.
But the actress has contacted the producers of US TV news show Entertainment Tonight, asking them to set the record straight.

Facebook doubles first-half revenue to $1.5b: source

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AFP

Facebook's revenue doubled to $US1.6 billion ($1.5b) in 2011's first half, a source with knowledge of its financials said, underscoring its appeal to advertisers while it grapples with intensifying competition from the likes of Google.
Net income in the first half of 2011 came to almost $US500 million ($469.6m), according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because privately-held Facebook does not disclose its results.
Facebook's stronger results come as investors have pushed its valuation to roughly $US80 billion ($75.14b) in private markets, with many industry observers expecting the world's No. 1 internet social network to go public in 2012.

Facebook to launch music platform: sources

This post was originally published on Mashable.com
Facebook intends to launch its long-rumoured music service next month with Spotify, MOG and Rdio as three of the company’s launch partners, Mashable has learned.
The music and media platform will be announced at Facebook’s f8 developer conference on September 22. It will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com. Evidence of Facebook’s music platform first surfaced in the code of Facebook’s video chat service.

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According to two sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will not directly host or stream any music or media. Instead, it will rely on partners to provide the content. This is in contrast to Apple, Google and Amazon’s strategy of hosting music content on their servers. Facebook’s plan is to become a platform for media content in the same way it is a platform for applications and games.

Sony unveils $732 wearable 3D personal theatre

A model demonstrates using Sony's head mounted display "Personal 3D Viewer HMZ-T1" at its product launch in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Sony says it will start selling a head mounted display that provides a 3D theatre of music videos, movies and games, targeting people who prefer solitary entertainment rather than sitting in front of a TV with family or friends.
Sony said that the 60,000 yen ($732) "HMZ personal 3D viewer" is set to go on sale November 11 in Japan, and is planned for the US and Europe, perhaps in time for Christmas, although dates have not yet been set.
Resembling a futuristic visor, HMZ, which stands for "head mounted display", is worn like chunky goggles-and-earphones in one.

Reporters try Sony's head mounted display. Photo: Reuters

Endless summer: how to live in paradise

Wish you were here? Teaching yoga is one way you can earn money while living in an island paradise. Photo: Getty Images

Ever dream about running off to live in an island paradise? Megan Flamer explains how she did just that.
"Don't take this the wrong way," my friend wrote beneath my Facebook photo album, "but I hate you."
It was becoming a common occurrence: my friends, who had encouraged me to take this crazy leap in the first place, were turning against me. It seemed the more pictures I posted on Facebook and the more updates that included the words "beach", "sun" and "hammock" the more frustrated they became. What seemed to frustrate them most was my inability to explain how it had all happened, and even now, it's hard to see how it did.

Gaddafi's rocket car

Deposed Libyan dictator once fancied himself as a car designer.
There has been quite a kerfuffle about the expensive cars pulled out of the various Gaddafi family mansions, including a white Lamborghini and, less obviously, a Fiat 500.
But the most interesting vehicle hasn't surfaced: Gaddafi's self-designed ''Rocket''.
Not that the Fiat, a rather bizarre, open-sided electric version, was not interesting. The bright spark who commissioned it - believed to be the Colonel himself - perhaps didn't consider the implications of having no doors in a country that is, broadly speaking, an oven filled with sand.

The man himself. Photo: Reuters.

By one report, the $US130,000 ($122,000) electric Fiat had a separate petrol engine to power the airconditioning, diminishing its environmental gains.

Lure of luxury: does the watch maketh the man?

The world economy may be sitting in a ditch, but cashed-up collectors are still shelling out stratospheric sums for rare, vintage and collectable watches.
This year's top ticket item so far is a 1928 Patek Philippe, which changed hands at auction for a cool SFr3.24 million ($3.81 million). Another wealthy bidder snared a 1942 Rolex for SFr1.04 million ($1.22 million); the highest price the make has ever fetched at auction.
Australia has its share of high-end fanatics - those prepared to spend six figures on limited edition models from the big Swiss brands - and a bombardment of luxury watch advertisements in glossy weekend magazines aims to woo the rest of us.

It's true: your boss is smarter than you

Proven ... your boss is smarter than you are.

Office managers think they're smarter than the rest of the staff and now there is medical evidence to back it up.
According to research from the University of NSW, managing other people at work triggers structural changes in the brain, protecting its memory and learning centre well into old age.
Researchers have identified a link between managerial experience in a person's working life and the integrity and larger size of an individual's hippocampus - the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory - at the age of 80.

Depression? Don't believe it

Depression ... often considered a "women's ailment". Photo: Aurora Daniels

In 2000 the World Health Organisation named depression as the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease and predicted that by 2020 it would rise to second place. I suppose WHO didn’t mean it to sound like a target to be aimed for, but we seem to be rising to the challenge in any case.
A new survey from the European College of Psychopharmacology, a meta-analysis of a mass of research, reports that a staggering 164.8 million Europeans - 38.2 per cent of the population - suffer from a mental disorder in any year.
As well as depression, this includes neural disorders such as dementia and Parkinson’s; childhood problems from ADHD to "conduct disorder"; and the leading anxiety disorders - everything from panic attacks to obsessive-compulsive disorder to shyness. The latest figures for Australia, from 2007, indicate that more than one in five people - 3.2 million - had suffered from anxiety, a mood disorder or substance abuse in the preceding 12 months; 2-3 per cent more were estimated to have been affected by other mental illnesses.

Confronting your lover's lover

Is it a good idea to confront your partner's other lover?

Cheaters. Hot topic. Just ask Gwyneth. But if you caught someone cheating on you, is it wise to confront the third party?
When I was at university, I found myself involved with a guy who later turned out to be married.
He also turned out to be an Evangelical Christian (whole other kettle of Ichthys).

 Long story short, it all came to a head when I, confused and bruised, decided that I couldn’t let the relationship continue, and so ended it, despite his protestations.

Real bodies to reap rewards

Plus size supermodel Robyn Lawley.

BRING on the ''real women'' photo spreads: Australia's glossiest images can now vie for the federal government's Positive Body Image Awards.
In an echo of the Australian Heart Foundation's tick campaign, winners of the new awards will be able to use a Body Image Award Winner symbol on their products such as magazines, websites and advertising campaigns.
''I certainly believe that companies would want that symbol,'' said Australian Women's Weekly editor Helen McCabe, who will chair the award panel. ''Women are now very aware of pictures that have been overly Photoshopped or digitally altered.''

Nike releases famed Back to the Future shoe

The 2011 Nike Mag. Photo: AP/Nike

Nike is going back to the future.
The sneaker maker says it has created a limited-edition shoe based on a glowing pair that appeared in the popular 1989 movie Back to the Future II.

 The 2011 Nike Mag is designed to be an exact replica of the fictional sneaker, including a glowing Nike name on the strap. But unlike the movie version, these shoes won't lace themselves.

Nike will release 1500 pairs of the 2011 Nike Mag sneaker for auction on eBay and donate all proceeds to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research. Fox famously played Marty McFly in the Back to the Future time-travel trilogy, where he wore the shoes during a visit to the year 2015.
"It hasn't gone unnoted by us that there is something special about that shoe and, of course, the movie," said famed Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, who helped design the original shoe and worked on the latest version.

Outage hits Hotmail and MSN.com

Microsoft email services are gradually being restored following a worldwide outage that knocked email services including Windows Live Hotmail and MSN.com offline.
Australian customers reported problems logging on to the email services on social networking site Twitter from about 1pm.
Microsoft is now scrambling to bring its services, including its cloud-based software Office 365,  back online.

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‘‘We’re aware of an outage impacting Hotmail, SkyDrive, and our other properties. We are actively working to resolve this issue,’’ a Microsoft spokesman said via Twitter.
It is understood services were restored to some customers about 3pm, although the outage is still affected thousands of customers.
‘‘We are slowing coming back online. Please hang in there if you are still not getting to the site, Hotmail, etc,’’ a spokesman for Hotmail told Twitter users.

'Is this real?': tapes reveal 9/11 horror

"Did you just say somethin' hit the World Trade Centre?" an incredulous military official asked shortly after the beginning of America's terrorism nightmare on September 11, 2001.
Minutes later, with air traffic authorities warning that another commercial jet was off course and just 10km from the White House, Washington ground control sounded in denial, saying it was "probably just a rumour".

Bird's eye view ... The towers, mid-collapse. Photo: NYC Police Aviation Unit

Samsung to Apple: Kubrick made first iPad

The iPad-like devices in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Stanley Kubrick, not Apple, designed the iPad, Samsung says in a bizarre patent defence that cites 2001: A Space Odyssey as an argument for why its copycat tablet shouldn't be pulled from sale in the US.
Even more surprising is the fact that a senior patent lawyer argues that "Samsung probably has a viable defence here".
Apple and Samsung are suing each other all over the world for patent infringement after Apple accused Samsung of "blatant copying" of its products.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Photo: Supplied

Facebook revamped to combat Google+ threat

The changes mean users can approve or reject all posts depicting or referencing them.

Facebook has today launched a significant privacy-led revamp of the social networking site in a move that's being interpreted as a direct response to the threat posed by Google+.
The site said the changes, designed to make it easier for users to control what personal details are revealed on the site and to whom, would be rolled out to users "in the coming days". Rectifying a major privacy flaw, Facebook users can now approve photos they are tagged in before they appear on their profile
Google+ is still in its early stages - 25 million members at last count compared to Facebook's 750 million - so Facebook isn't in immediate danger but many have remarked about how the Google social network, by grouping friends in "circles", makes it easier to control who you share with.

Heat on Cameron over News pay to fallen adviser

Questions ... discredited former editor Andy Coulson. Photo: PA

British Prime Minister David Cameron faces "serious questions" over claims his former communications chief Andy Coulson received several hundred thousand pounds from News International while he was employed by the Conservatives, Labour says.
The BBC has reported that Coulson, the former News of the World editor, received a series of severance payments for several months after he began working for the Tories.
The instalments totalled the full entitlement under his two-year contract as editor of the now defunct tabloid which was published by News International, the BBC claimed.

His severance package also included continued access healthcare as well as keeping hold of his company car, the BBC said.
A Labour spokesman said: "David Cameron now faces allegations that one of his top advisers was also in the pay of News International.

Perfect service, $500 a night and captivity

The Rixos hotel housed top government officials, foreign journalists and state television facilities but is still in control of forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

Tripoli's Hotel Rixos was a safer reporting base than the front lines but no longer, writes Jeremy Peters.
WITH a 1600-square-metre spa, helicopter service upon request and a self-described ''culture of service perfection'', the Rixos is Tripoli's premier hotel. The reporters called it the ''Hotel California'' - a place where you could check out any time you liked, but never without a government minder or spies watching your every movement.
At the weekend, the 120-room, $500-a-night oasis in the centre of the Libyan capital became a prison for the journalists working from there. Armed government forces have refused to let journalists leave. And even if they wanted to, a raging gun battle outside would most likely prevent them from getting very far.
As a result, journalists from CNN, Reuters, the BBC and other international news organisations were holed up inside with no electricity or air conditioning, forced to stand clear of windows because of stray bullets.

''It's just become so dangerous being here,'' said CNN's Matthew Chance, the cable channel's senior international correspondent, who was still able to broadcast an occasional update and provided regular commentary via Twitter.

Safe landing: a better way to manage your super

Life plan ... Rose Fox has consolidated her super into one fund. Photo: Quentin Jones

Some super funds are now offering the in-built option of reducing risk as you age, writes John Kavanagh.
The markets have been highly volatile over the past few weeks with big swings on local and overseas shares and fixed interest markets. But what about your super fund? Is it exposed to these risks and should you change your portfolio option to have greater security?
Super fund members should have different attitudes to risk, depending on how old they are and how long they expect to have their money invested before they retire.
The younger you are the more risk you can afford to take. That is because the risky assets are the ones that tend to produce higher returns over time.

But as you get closer to retirement your priorities change.
You start thinking more about capital preservation. Your super fund investment option should have more defensive assets to reflect that.

European bank job 'bloodbath' hits 67,000

UBS’s decision to cut 5 per cent of its workforce brings to more than 40,000 the number of jobs cut by European banks in the past month and to 67,000 this year, as the region’s worsening sovereign debt crisis crimps trading revenue.
UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, said yesterday it will eliminate 3500 jobs, mainly from its investment bank. It follows HSBC, which announced 30,000 cuts on August 1, Barclays, which is cutting headcount by 3000, and Royal Bank of Scotland, which is eliminating 2000 posts. Credit Suisse announced 2000 reductions on July 28.
European banks are slashing jobs this year six times faster than their US peers, as concerns about the creditworthiness of Italy, Spain and France roil financial markets and reduce income from fixed-income trading, stock and bond underwriting as well as mergers and acquisitions.

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Financial firms are also cutting costs as regulators force banks to hold more and better quality capital to withstand future shocks.
“It’s a bloodbath, and I expect things to get worse before they get better,” said Jonathan Evans, chairman of executive-search firm Sammons Associates in London. “I cannot see a lot of those who have lost their jobs getting re-employed. Regardless of how good someone is, no one wants to talk about hiring. Life will be very difficult for two or three years.”

Poison at the heart of Greece

'Facing the metrics of doom', Greece is heading for a pyrotechnic default. Photo: AP

The debt-laden country is mired in corruption.
TAVROS is a scruffy suburb in the south-western part of Athens, about five kilometres from the city centre. It is home to the kind of utilitarian office blocks that 1960s town planners thought were a good idea. Many of the buildings are scarred by graffiti and the side streets are strewn with litter.
On a stiflingly hot day, I come here to interview Petros Themelis, a Finance Ministry official, who runs a call centre that's part of the Greek government's battle against tax evaders. The idea is that public-spirited citizens ring up and dob in those they suspect of tax-dodging. This is the human factor in a much bigger war: Greece's life-or-death struggle with the debt beast.
The state's accumulated borrowings are equal to about 160 per cent of national output. Greece cannot afford to service the interest, much less repay the capital. The country is, in effect, insolvent. Without the largesse of outsiders - many billions in bailouts from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union - it would already have collapsed into bankruptcy.

I do not: Warne hasn't popped question to Hurley

Warne and Hurley ... deny marriage rumours. Photo: Getty Images

It had all the potential to be the one Australian wedding greater than Scott and Charlene's nuptials on Neighbours.
But those waiting with bated breath to hear a confirmation that Shane Warne has proposed to Liz Hurley will be sorely disappointed.
A spokeswoman for Warne's manager, James Erskine, denied a report in yesterday's Daily Star newspaper that the former international cricketer popped the question during a Spanish cruise.

"It's not true, it's just rumours," the spokeswoman said.
The couple have been reported to be engaged several times this year after getting together in December.
The pair, who let their relationship play out on Twitter, stayed silent on the subject and did nothing to quash the latest rumour in recent days.

Getting the best out of blonde

High maintenance ... Cameron Diaz's blonde locks require extra care.

Cameron Diaz's hair colourist advises bottle blondes to have hair no longer than mid-length.
Based in Los Angeles, Tracey Cunningham is Redken's creative consultant for colour. She's worked with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Bosworth as well as Diaz and says blonde is the colour of the moment.
However, as stylish as it looks it can be tough to maintain.

"This process involves a lot of bleach to strip away your natural colour and everyone's hair reacts differently to it," she explained.

Why lazy parents make happy families

Relax ... to raise happier, more resourceful children, says Idle Parent author.

Children need time and space just to play and to be - if not they'll end up psychologically damaged and useless, says a British parenting writer and philosopher.
Tom Hodgkinson is author of The Idle Parent, a book that encourages parents to adopt a hands-off approach so that their children become more self-reliant and capable.
Such advice could be something Australian parents need to hear. A new survey of more than 400 Aussie parents with kids between the ages of five and 12 shows almost half (47 per cent) are suffering from "family fatigue". And the culprits? A lack of time, too many extracurricular activities, too much homework and too many hours spent in front of a television or computer screen.

Kimberly Stewart's delightful baby name

New mum ... Kimberly Stewart.

New parents Benicio del Toro and Kimberly Stewart plan to call their baby daughter Delilah, Entertainment Tonight reports.
Stewart gave birth on Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital with her rock star father Rod Stwart and his wife Penny Lancaster by her side.
Del Toro and Stewart are no longer together but the Oscar-winning actor has confirmed that he is the father of the child.

Rich list reveals most cashed up couples

Brazilian beauty Gisele Bundchen and her American footballer husband Tom Brady have seen off Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles to be named the world's wealthiest celebrity couple.
The mega-rich supermodel and her sports star partner took home a joint income of $US75 million ($72.56 million) in 2010, according to the list compiled by Forbes magazine.
Gisele Bundchen had already been named the highest-earning model in the world for the past three years, boosted by lucrative campaigns with Versace, Dior, True Religion jeans and Ebel watches and a successful shoe line.