Alan Yu

Alan Yu appears in the following:

In 'Ten Years,' A Dystopian Vision Of Hong Kong's Future Under China

Thursday, July 07, 2016

The Hong Kong movie industry is best known for martial arts and crime thrillers, but this year's hottest film is a dark meditation on what Hong Kong could be like in 2025.

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Researchers Offer Jet Lag Advice In Return For Data About Your Sleep

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Users of an app developed by the University of Michigan to help with jet lag entered information on their time zone and sleep patterns that helped academics with their work. But is the approach valid?

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Nurses Say Stress Interferes With Caring For Their Patients

Friday, April 15, 2016

Almost one-quarter of ICU nurses have symptoms of PTSD, studies find, and other nurses are seriously stressed at work, too. Some hospitals are trying to come up with ways to help them cope.

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How One App Might Be A Step Toward Internet Everywhere

Monday, April 07, 2014

A few weeks ago, January Chang, a student at National Taiwan University, joined her fellow students in protesting a controversial trade agreement, which would bring Taiwan closer to China. The students occupied Taiwan's legislature, and some of them are still there, but they had a problem: With weak or ...

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Physicists, Generals And CEOs Agree: Ditch The PowerPoint

Sunday, March 16, 2014

About six months ago, a group of physicists in the U.S. working on the Large Hadron Collider addressed a problem they've been having for a while: Whenever they had meetings, everyone stuck to the prepared slides and couldn't really answer questions that weren't immediately relevant to what was on the ...

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Automakers Eye Laser Lights To Let Drivers See Farther At Night

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

In our Weekly Innovation series, we pick an interesting idea, design or product that you may not know about yet. Do you have an innovation to share? Use our form.

If you thought LED headlights were bright enough, automakers are looking ahead to even more powerful beams using ...

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A Father Plays Call Of Duty With His Son, Watched By Thousands

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Jason Munkel and his father Bill are 39 years apart in age, but since last year, they've been sitting down together to play Call of Duty: Ghosts almost every night.

They also broadcast their gameplay to more than 120,000 followers, who watch the father-son duo pursue and shoot enemies ...

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Ads Focused On A Few Drug Risks Might Make Them Memorable

Friday, February 21, 2014

The way that prescription drugs are advertised on TV could be better, especially when it comes to communicating the risks and side effects of medicines. Now the Food and Drug Administration is calling for research into how the ads could be improved.

The problem, as Michael Wolf, a health ...

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How Most Anyone Can Find Photos Of Secret Government Sites

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Last August, Jeffrey Lewis saw a North Korean propaganda video, posted in April 2012, which showed its missile launchers holding intercontinental ballistic missiles, shot from an oddly-shaped building.

He was curious. So with a team of students, he modeled what the building would look like and searched for what North ...

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FBI Offers Cash Reward To Catch People Who Point Lasers At Planes

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The FBI is making a limited-time offer at 12 of its field offices across the nation from Albuquerque and Los Angeles to New York City and Washington, D.C.: During the next 60 days, if you help them catch someone aiming a laser pointer at a plane, the FBI is ...

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What's Wrong With Getting Help On A 'Personal' Essay?

Friday, February 07, 2014

Applying for a Rhodes Scholarship this year? A new rule means you won't be able to get any help writing or editing your application essay.

The organization that hands out the prestigious scholarship says American students have been sending in too many "formulaic" and "predictable" essays. They usually go ...

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Most Smokers Don't Buy Their Cigarettes At CVS

Thursday, February 06, 2014

When CVS said it will stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products at its 7,600 pharmacies by October, President Obama hailed the company for setting a "powerful example."

The announcement Wednesday made us wonder — how many people actually buy their cigarettes from drugstores, anyway?

For answers, we turned to ...

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Knox Case Could Put U.S. In An Extradition Quandary

Saturday, February 01, 2014

This week, Amanda Knox was found guilty, again, by an Italian court.

She was found guilty of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2009, though the verdict was overturned two years later. Last year, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, its highest court, sent the case back to ...

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Tycoon's Lesbian Daughter Rejects Multimillion-Dollar 'Marriage Bounty'

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A Hong Kong real estate tycoon made headlines two years ago when he offered a $65 million bounty to the man who could win his daughter's heart and marry her. In an open letter today, the daughter says she hopes he can accept that she is indeed a lesbian.

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Weekly Innovation: A Radiation Detector In Your Smartphone

Thursday, January 23, 2014

In our Weekly Innovation series, we pick an interesting idea, design or product that you may not have heard of yet. Do you have an innovation to share? Use our form.

A smartphone camera can make you a walking gamma ray detector. Without needing any extra hardware, you ...

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Big Bike-Sharing Supplier's Bankruptcy Doesn't Doom U.S. Programs

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Canadian company that is the main equipment and technology suppliers for bike-sharing systems across the U.S. has filed for bankruptcy.

Public Bike System Co., (PBSC) which owns the widely used BIXI bike-sharing system, announced the bankruptcy Monday, citing almost $50 million in debt, as first reported by ...

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Western Scientists Look To Chinese Medicine For Fresh Leads

Saturday, January 18, 2014

In the quest for new treatments, U.S. researchers are looking to traditional Chinese medicines, some of the oldest remedies in the world.

A recent discovery resulted in a better treatment for a type of leukemia that strikes about 1 in 250,000 people in the U.S. Another study found ...

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How Virtual Currency Could Make It Easier To Move Money

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Virtual money could have very real effects for companies that help people transfer money.

There are now more than 70 virtual currencies, with the largest players being Bitcoin, Ripples and Litecoin. Another group tried to launch Coinye last week, though its backers abandoned their efforts on Tuesday after ...

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TV Makers Look To Pack More Pixels Into Your Home TV With 4K

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Companies from Sony and Samsung to Netflix and Google's YouTube are putting their money into TVs that pack more pixels. Several models are on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

4K offers about four times the number of pixels compared to high-definition ...

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How Language Seems To Shape One's View Of The World

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Lera Boroditsky once did a simple experiment: She asked people to close their eyes and point southeast. A room of distinguished professors in the U.S. pointed in almost every possible direction, whereas 5-year-old Australian aboriginal girls always got it right.

She says the difference lies in language. Boroditsky, an ...

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