Online papers challenge Japan’s mainstream media: It used to be that in Japan, to get the story, journalists had to belong to a press club, where they enjoyed a cozy relationship with their sources. And to join a press club, they had to write for one of Japan’s major media outlets. But in recent years, thousands of “citizen journalists” – from students to housewives to lawyers – began adding their stories to the news cycle. Though dismissed by some as amateurs, they say they are providing an alternative to the “information cartel” of the mainstream media, government, and big business. [CSM]
For Vegas, an enormous gamble: CityCentre – a joint venture between the 90-year-old corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian and Dubai World – is the kind of real estate project that could only happen in the heat and booze-frazzled lunacy of the Mojave desert. Not content with choosing one celebrity architect, the developers hired five: Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, Daniel Libeskind, Rafael Viñoly and Helmut Jahn. Together they are creating an excesstropolis of almost comic proportions. Amenities will include a ten million sq ft hotel-casino, two other hotels, three apartment towers and a “retail and entertainment district” the size of one of Jupiter’s moons. [Times]
Detecting Nuclear Smuggling: Existing radiation portal monitors, as well as new advanced spectroscopic portal machines, cannot reliably detect weapons-grade uranium hidden inside shipping containers. They also set off far too many false alarms. [Scientific American]
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