News You Might Have Missed: Superheroes, Siri and Space
Now is the time to escape the heat by heading to the cinema for an action-packed film, but lately people have been taking those stunts off the screen and onto the streets. There are also updates on the iPhone and gutter oil, and China has just sent its first female into space.
Perhaps it’s the release of the summer blockbusters or the arrival of Captain China, but everyone seems to be acting the superhero lately. This month’s news has been peppered with stories of people saving toddlers from falls from balconies. The latest one involves a man that “scaled the other building to where the boy was stuck” and proceeded to grip the wall with one foot and support the child with one hand for 20 minutes. When it’s not a Spiderman act, people are auditioning for the role of China’s Daredevil. A man in Chongqing thought it’d be fun to drive down the highway with his body halfway out the open car door. Watch it below with the same wide-eyed disbelief exhibited by the newscasters.
Chinese-speaking iPhone users no longer need to count on family and friends for support, feedback, tips and companionship; they can now get all that with Siri. The latest Apple updates not only include a more multilingual Siri that will speak Mandarin (Putonghua), Cantonese and Taiwanese Mandarin, but also a new operating system with Chinese-specific features including a “new Chinese dictionary, new Chinese fonts, improved input methods for Chinese characters, along with support for Chinese search engine Baidu and other Chinese social networks.”
The never-ending gutter oil scandal continues to play on our minds as we enjoy questionably lacquered meats and vegetables from our rickety metal stools in the local hole-in-the-wall. To help put our minds at ease, officials are considering installing cameras to monitor the gutter oil from 60,000 restaurants in Beijing to insure it is not resold. As a more proactive step, 200 Beijing restaurants have begun using machines to collect waste oil, theoretically preventing it from being recycled illegally. The rest of Beijing's restaurants are meant to follow suit.
China's first female astronaut went into space with the launch of the Shenzhou-9. Despite previous reports that only mothers would be eligible for the job, Liu Yang doesn’t have children, so perhaps there is room in the space program for those with scars. If you want even more from outer space, check out the Alien Exhibition at the Agriculture Center (until July 28). You’ll get the chance to see figures of famous aliens that have appeared in novels and movies ... just not the ones from Men in Black 3.
Photo: bbc.co.uk
