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BIE iNews Views 2.23.14
Barcelona will host a trade show this week where Samsung will unveil its latest high-end
Galaxy phone. The Korean goliath is facing pressure from Apple and Chinese newcomer Xiaomi
Corporation. The new phone, expected to be called the S5, will sport a bigger screen
and beefed-up battery and camera. Eye-recognition technology will be included but other specifications
haven’t been released.
About 100 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from a tank at the devastated
Fukushima nuclear plant. While this spill occurred far enough from the ocean that additional
damage to sea life will not occur, the contamination levels are 3.8 million times the maximum allowable
level for drinking water. TEPCO is storing the contaminated water in rows of huge tanks
holding about 340,000 tons of the dangerous liquid.
Ancient petroglyphs in the southeast region of the Korean peninsula are providing archeologists
with evidence of prehistoric whaling activities by early Koreans. The Bangudae engravings
include over 300 figures from the Neolithic Age, meaning whaling did not originate in
Norway as previously thought but in Korea as early as 6,000 BCE. These drawings were
first discovered in 1971 and offer a peek into the values and ideas of stone age people
in the region.
Copies of Anne Frank’s diary in Tokyo libraries have been defaced by vandals. Over 250 copies
of the famous writings of a young girl’s account of hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam
during World War II and other books about Anne Frank have had pages ripped and covers
vandalized. Concerns have been raised around the world as these incidents suggest an organized
effort to insult the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust.
Samsung stores in Europe and North America are being expanded in an effort to fight back
against the horde of cheap rivals. Ninety kiosks will open in Canada within Best Buy
retail stores and join the company’s 1,400 “store-in-a-store” kiosks in the U.S.
Many Samsung stores have been established across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong;
and over 100 stand-alone stores are located in Seoul. Additional stores sporting the Samsung
logo are expected to open in major global markets and offer a complete lineup of smartphones,
tablets, computers, and cameras.
Spain’s late night dinner culture is being replaced with a more normal routine that is
in sync with European habits. Prime time TV and dinner still begins at 10 p.m., but there
is a push to become more productive by limiting the afternoon siesta to one hour and turning
the clocks back one hour to coordinate with Portugal and Britain.