See you in 2010!
Once the debt crisis of Dubai World appeared on the news, I happily went to my nationalistic friends to ask, "don't you think Shanghai will be the next Dubai?" No, they didn't even think about it. Of course Shanghai is different: Shanghai is not in the desert; it has a big local population; it has full backing of the Chinese government and the Chinese banks...
What Dubai and Shanghai have in common is that all their resources are concentrated in the hands of a few power elites. And these elites can indulge themselves in self-aggrandizement with few public accountability. Just look at the skyscrapers in these two cities. Now that the Burj Dubai is left half-done, the Shanghai Center--the 632m tower--might become the tallest building in the world when it is finished in 2014. Why is it a bubble? Because office buildings in Shanghai are already facing over-supply, the occupation rate is around 50%, and you cannot get your investment back from rent (according to current rent-purchase ratio) within 50 years. The power elites' obsession with erecting tall buildings might be a good case for psycho-analysis, but I will only write about what I know for sure, that they are betting with public money.
In the case of the Shanghai Tower, the developers are three government-owned companies. They are using the public land for free (In China, all lands are owned by the state), and they get their funding from state-owned banks. So what if the Shanghai Tower becomes just another empty building? The banks will write it off as a bad loan. What if the banks cannot survive so many bad loans like that? The government will use public money to bail them out (as it did in 2004). In other words, everyone is blackmailed by the bubble.
Dubai thought it had found a new path to prosperity when it stopped exporting oil. Shanghai is not that different, when it can no longer depend on exporting cheap labor (our unique natural resource), it resorts to credit expansion and construction as the engine of growth. Others have failed in that path, Dubai, Spain, Japan...but somehow many people here have no doubt that we will be the exception.
The Copenhagen Climate Talks is receiving a lot attention from Chinese media. There are debates over whether the US is taking too little responsibility and China is taking too much as a developing country. But you don't hear the kind of skepticism towards climate change common in the US (maybe because the smog in Chinese cities is quite hard to ignore). But certain argument from the American conservation radio shows will not make any sense to Chinese: If you are believe climate change, you must be anti-freedom, anti-America, elitist, and sissy. Some Chinese are against environmentalism because it is not profitable or convenient, but they don't have the moral imagination that they are defending a free-consuming lifestyle, defending normal and moral people against the threats of intellectuals or science, or even defending masculinity (I don't really get that part)...
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.
Have a great weekend,
daisy, Team Vox
