All about power cuts 

Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province recently imposed an emergency energy-saving plan on local enterprises. From Aug. 27 to Oct. 11, all enterprises will have to rest for five consecutive days after manufacturing for nine consecutive days. From late July, several provinces including Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hebei and Shanxi started limiting the use of electricity or even imposing power cuts on steel, cement and aluminum smelting firms notorious for high energy consumption and high pollution. In Anping County, Hebei Province, even residential areas, hospitals and traffic lights were not exempt from power cuts.

据《第一财经日报》报道，日前，江苏常州发布公告称，为完成"十一五"节能目标，自2010年8月27日起，对市区工业企业实施"开九停五"(企业连续生产九天后连休五天)的节能应急用电调控措施。该方案将持续到10月11日。自7月底开始，浙江、江苏、河北、山西等省，相继采取了节能减排措施，对钢铁、水泥、炼铝等"两高"行业开始大范围限电甚至断电。在河北省安平县，不仅对工业限电，居民、医院甚至红绿灯也遭停电。 

What's the reason? 

原因是什么？ 

The reason for the power cuts is that the 11th five year plan (2006-2010), called for a cut in energy consumption of 20% per unit of GDP. But in the first four years on average the country only managed a cut of 15.6%. So savings of 4.4% must be achieved in the second half of this year. When results are evaluated at the end of the year, leaders of regions and enterprises that do not achieve the target will be investigated. So local governments have switched priority from GDP growth to energy saving and are using unprecedentedly severe measures. 

"十一五"计划提出单位国内生产总值(GDP)能耗降低20%左右的目标。前四年全国单位GDP能耗累计下降15.6%，因此今年下半年，必须完成降耗4.4%的目标。按照相关规定，到"十一五"末，也就是今年年底，国家要对节能减排情况进行检查，实行严格的问责制，对未完成任务的地区和企业集团，都要追究主要领导责任。在此背景下，地方政府将工作重心从上半年的保增长，转而采取空前严厉的手段限制产能、节能降耗。 

Any effect? 

可能会有什么影响？ 

The power cuts have had big effect on markets. The price of steel and cement began to rise quickly and the GDP growth rate is likely to fall in the second half of the year. 

各地的非常措施已经对市场产生了不小的影响。钢铁、水泥等耗电大户被限产后，价格开始大涨。而下半年的GDP增速，必然也会受此影响。 

Ex-Googler aims for mobile users 

李开复启动移动项目 

Ex-Google China President Kaifu Lee is out to prove that China can be innovative, and he's starting with two projects that aim at China's massive mobile-subscriber population, the Wall Street Journal reported. The first is called Tapas, a smartphone operating system based on Google's Android with a number of features tailored for Chinese users, including software that detects what cities incoming calls are from, syncs contact lists with popular Chinese social networks, and a music player that detects what songs users are listening to and displays the lyrics, karaoke style. It also includes an e-book reader that can be optimized for subway-reading. In the next few weeks, Tapas is expected to launch with handsets by Sharp, Haier and Tianyu.

据《华尔街日报》报道，谷歌中国区前总裁李开复正努力证明中国可以创新。他已启动的两个项目，目标直指中国庞大的移动用户群。第一个项目是名为Tapas的智能手机操作系统。该系统基于谷歌Android，并具有大量专为中国用户设计的功能，如显示来电号码所在地、同步社交网络联系人列表以及可同步显示歌词的音乐播放器等。它还内置了一个电子书阅读软件，用户可用它在地铁上看书。未来几周内，Tapas将被预装在夏普、海尔和天语手机上。 

The second project is called Wonderpod, or Wandoujia in Chinese, an application and media distribution platform – a highly fragmented and competitive sector that is in its early stages in China – that was launched two months ago for Android devices. It too is tailored to Chinese subscribers, letting them download clips from Chinese streaming-video sites Youku.com and Tudou.com, as well as backing up text messages in email format to make them easier to read.

第二个项目是名为豌豆夹的应用及媒体分享平台，已于两个月前发布，专用于Android设备。这类平台在中国刚刚起步，尚未完成整合，竞争激烈。它也针对中国用户进行了优化，可以从优酷和土豆等在线视频网站下载视频，还可以电子邮件格式备份短信，使阅读更加便捷。

Applications offered through the platform's marketplace are all free at the moment. Both projects are funded by Lee's technology "incubation" company, Innovation Works, which was launched about one year ago after Lee resigned from his post at Google. The company has backed 12 projects, with plans to choose about 15 proposals per year.

目前，该平台商店中的所有应用均免费。报道称，两个项目均由李开复的创新工场提供资金支持。在从谷歌离职后，他在一年前创办了这家技术企业孵化公司，已经资助了12个项目，计划每年投资大约15个项目。