 TRAVEL

 NEWS

Technology in travel is not helping relieve travel anxieties

CHESTER CHIN
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
| Thu, June 7, 2018 | 07:05 am

Technology has certainly made it easier for us to see the world, what with flight and accommodation
bookings only a click away. But does it actually help broaden globetrotters’ horizons?

New research by Booking.com reveals that a significant two thirds (67%) of today’s travelers don’t
believe they are making the most of their travel opportunities due to lingering travel anxieties.

The travel booking platform conducted research across more than 20,500 global travellers to uncover
the barriers and anxieties which prevent people from making the most of every trip and reveal how
they can move to a state of truly limitless travel.

Results show that despite a world of opportunities, three in 10 people have never felt limitless on
vacation and one in 10 have only ever felt limitless once.

The bulk of travellers’ anxieties boils down to language barrier. Majority of respondents (44%) said
getting lost in translation hold them back from planning a holiday.

Meanwhile, 18% are nervous about getting lost without speaking the local language. Struggles to find
accommodation (41%) and fear about unfamiliar situations when travelling (27%) are also potential
barriers.

On what would remove travel barriers, top factors cited were great accommodation options (33%),
positive reviews from other travelers (30%), being able to ask questions and directions in the local
language (25%) and being able to order their favorite food (22%).

Read also: Eight destinations to explore in Indonesia in 2018

One cause of travel anxiety is the fear of getting lost without speaking the local language.

However, many travellers (49%) admit that using technology frequently while travelling does in some
way, help alleviate these concerns.

Booking.com senior vice president Pepijn Rijvers said the right technology can enhance travellers’
experience.

“As an industry innovator, we are continuously looking for ways to use the latest technologies to take
the friction out of travel and empower people to experience the world,” he said.

Back in March this year, digital media company GlobalData revealed the top six technology trends in
travel to look out for in 2018. These include augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence,
Internet of Things, voice technology, WiFi connectivity and wearable devices.

But if it were up to travellers, many still believe that unique experiences are what will push their travel
limits.

Booking.com’s survey indicated that about half of the respondents (54%) think the best way to
elevate their travels is to get out of their comfort zone.

The top getaways to push the limits include a long-distance train journey, ancestry trip to find out
about their heritage, gourmet adventure, mystery trip and volunteering holiday.
 D&G: China shopping sites pull products in ad backlash
 23 November 2018
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Image copyrightGETTY IMAG

Dolce & Gabbana products have been pulled from Chinese e-commerce sites as the backlash against a
controversial ad campaign grows.

The firm posted videos this week showing a Chinese model struggling to eat pasta and pizza with chopsticks.

The campaign was accused of trivialising Chinese culture and promoting unflattering stereotypes.

The controversy risks alienating Dolce & Gabbana from one of the world's biggest luxury markets.

Local celebrities have called for a boycott of the brand.

The brand crisis deepened when messages allegedly written by co-founder Stefano Gabbana, which included
offensive comments about Chinese people, went viral.

The firm apologised for any offence but said it and Gabbana's Instagram accounts had been hacked.

It offered a fresh apology on Friday, publishing a video showing Gabbana and co-founder Domenico Dolce
appealing for their "misunderstanding of Chinese culture" to be forgiven.
Image copyrightDOLCE AND GABBANAImage captionDomenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana asked for
"forgiveness"

A brand that 'knows China'

The Italian firm cancelled its fashion show in Shanghai earlier this week.

But the backlash has continued as retailers in China retreated from the brand.

On Friday, Dolce & Gabbana products were not available in China on major e-commerce sites Taobao and
JD.com, as well as smaller platforms Kaola and Secoo.

Alina Ma, associate director of research at market insights firm Mintel, said the advert had left Chinese
consumers confused and appeared to show the company did not understand them.

"They want a brand that knows them, that makes them feel that they are important," Ms Ma said.
It is a crucial market for luxury firms. A 2018 report by consultancy Bain & Company forecast the luxury
goods market in mainland China will grow by up to 22% this year.
 Samsung apologises to sick factory workers
 23 November 2018
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionSamsung boss Kim Ki-nam delivered the formal apology

Samsung has formally apologised to employees who fell sick or died after working in its factories.

In the apology, Samsung president Kim Ki-nam said staff and families had "suffered" because the South
Korean company had been too slow to act.

Earlier this month Samsung agreed a compensation deal for workers who fell ill while on its production lines.

The apology follows a campaign to win redress for staff by Hwang Sang-ki, the father of one Samsung worker
who died.

Cash payout

"Beloved colleagues and families have suffered for a long time, but Samsung Electronics failed to take care of
the matter earlier," said Mr Kim, adding that the company had "lacked being considerate".

He said Samsung Electronics had not "fully and completely" handled potential health risks on production lines
that make chips and LCD displays.

Media captionHwang Sang-ki: The pain will not be forgotten

"Today, we wish to express a sincere apology to the workers who suffered from diseases, as well as their
families," Mr Kim said.

Mr Hwang Sang-ki, who headed the compensation campaign, said the apology did not go far enough.
"Honestly, today's apology made by a Samsung Electronics CEO is not sufficient for the victims of the work-
related diseases," he told the Yonhap news agency.

However, he said, he would "consider" it as resolution of the issue.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe death of Hwang Yumi prompted her father to lead a
compensation campaign

Mr Hwang began the compensation campaign in 2007 after his daughter, Hwang Yumi. died on the way to
hospital after developing leukaemia.

He sought to shame the company into making payouts to workers who suffered the same disease or who
contracted other illnesses after working for the company.

He set up the Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry (Sharps) with the
help of labour activists. The group held protests and sit-ins to put pressure on Samsung to act.

Sharps said it had found 319 other victims, 117 of whom had died, as of June this year.

The compensation package agreed this month will see sick workers - and their children with related illnesses -
get up to 150m won (£103,207) per illness.

All current or former staff who worked for Samsung and its sub-contractors on the chip and display lines in the
Giheung factory in South Korea since 1984 can apply for compensation.

The agreement does not acknowledge that Samsung workplaces are directly related to the diseases suffered by
some employee
 NASA to launch 'workplace safety review' of Elon Musk's high-flying SpaceX firm
 BY GINA SUNSERI
Nov 21, 2018, 4:15 PM ET

 Email
You would think that getting high would be part of NASA’s core mission.

Yet the space agency is undertaking a workplace safety review of Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX -- reportedly in
response to the capricious entrepreneur’s decision last summer to smoke pot and drink whiskey on a podcast
that was streamed on the Internet and captured in a YouTube video.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials issued a press release this week saying they
would be undertaking a “cultural assessment study” of commercial partners SpaceX and Boeing “to ensure the
companies are meeting NASA’s requirements for workplace safety, including the adherence to a drug-
free environment.”
Matt Hartman via AP
Space-X's Falcon 9 rocket with 10 satellites launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Jan. 14, 2017.
The release went on to underline NASA officials’ intentions to ensure their requirements are met.

(MORE: Elon Musk 'optimistic' about 2019 test flights to Mars but a 'good chance you will die')

We fully expect our commercial partners to meet all workplace safety requirements in the execution

of our missions and the services they provide the American people. As always, NASA will ensure

they do so.
“We fully expect our commercial partners to meet all workplace safety requirements in the execution of our
missions and the services they provide the American people."

"As always, NASA will ensure they do so.”

But three NASA officials with knowledge of the probe told The Washington Post, which first reported news of
the impending reviews, that they are being undertaken in response to Musk’s herbal indulgence on the podcast.

A NASA spokesperson declined to say what specifically prompted the reviews. But in an interview, NASA
Administrator Jim Bridenstine told the newspaper that it was all about public confidence.

“If I see something that’s inappropriate, the key concern to me is what is the culture that led to that
inappropriateness and is NASA involved in that,” he said. “As an agency we’re not just leading ourselves, but
our contractors, as well. We need to show the American public that when we put an astronaut on a rocket,
they’ll be safe.

(MORE: Elon Musk's new company is selling flamethrowers)

Space X is one of Musk’s most visible accomplishments -- showcasing the ability to reuse rockets and launch
cargo more cost effectively, which significantly changed the paradigm for the space business.

Kiichiro Sato/AP, FILE

Tesla CEO and founder of the Boring Company Elon Musk speaks at a news conference in Chicago, June 14,
2018.
NASA invested in SpaceX with a $1.6 billion dollar contract for cargo flights to the International Space Station
- and NASA is counting on SpaceX - and another commercial provider, Boeing, to carry cargo and astronauts to
its orbiting outpost.
 (MORE: Elon Musk takes 1st steps to build futuristic underground tunnel in LA)
Both companies were supposed to fly test flights in August with the hope of launching astronauts before the end
of 2018, but both firms have had setbacks.

But this week, NASA announced that the first flight of a SpaceX rocket built to fly astronauts to the
International Space Station will test launch in early January from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Sapto Djojokartiko illustrates human-technology relationship in latest collection

NI NYOMAN WIRA
THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta | Mon, September 24, 2018 | 12:49 pm

 File/Ferry Ahmad

Designer Sapto Djojokartiko marks his 10th year anniversary in the fashion industry by holding the
Saptodjojokartiko Spring/Summer 2019 show on at Istora Senayan, South Jakarta, on Sept. 20.

Sapto Djojokartiko, Indonesian designer and creative director of ready-to-wear brand

Saptodjojokartiko, depicts the connection between humans and technology in his latest
Spring/Summer 2019 collection.

Held on Thursday at Istora Senayan, South Jakarta, a fashion show featuring the collection
consisted of 70 looks for men and women, from casual to formal attire.

Cultural evolution and artificial intelligence (AI) were among Sapto’s inspirations for the collection. He
channeled them through design, patterns and accessories that have modern and street-style
elements, such as robot and architecture patterns. He also used stark, contemporary color palettes,
including frost, black and clay with a touch of bright colors.

“I want the collection to be futuristic, but still organic with Indonesian culture on it,” Sapto said during
a press conference after the fashion show. He believed that the organic touch would soften the
futuristic elements in his works.

He used different techniques in the collection, including embroidery and patchwork with various
materials to create certain dimension and texture. “I used cotton and fleece, but if it’s more formal, I
applied more intense embroidery and patchwork,” said Sapto.

“I want people [who wear my design] to look cool, effortless and feel comfortable with themselves,”
Sapto said. “Since the beginning, I’ve wanted this collection to be more casual, so even if it’s evening
dress, I didn’t use stretch material that clings into the body. It’s more relaxing.”

Read also: A year of fabulous fashion

Interestingly, Sapto opted to hold the show in a semi-outdoor corridor at Istora Senayan with
skyscrapers and garden as the background since he believed the place was memorable and
historical. His decision was made long before the 2018 Asian Games was held.

Shadtoto Prasetio, the show’s director, described the challenges in the preparation. “The most
challenging thing is the unpredictable weather, but Sapto was very confident,” Shadtoto said. “Some
dresses are also too long, while the models had to climb the stairs to reach the runway.”

Moreover, the show was also held at 10 a.m. because the natural lighting was perceived to be
optimal without leaving the guests sweating.
The Spring/Summer 2019 presentation was Sapto’s first seasonal show after previously holding more
private shows to selected audiences. It also marked his 10 thyear in the fashion industry. He believed
it was the right time as his works had been well-received by the public.

Sapto aims to be consistent in holding seasonal shows, especially for Fall/Winter 2019. “It’s a little bit
ambitious, but we’ll do our best,” he said, adding that he was not targeting specific countries to
market his collections. (kes)

In a pop-culture era rife with cleverness for its own sake, how did Rowan Atkinson’s new spy-
spoof sequel wind up with a title as retro bland as “Johnny English Strikes Again”? Was
“Johnny English Is Back!” already taken? How about “The Return of Johnny English”?
“Johnny English Strikes Again” is the third in the series of goofy air-popped espionage satires
in which Atkinson plays an MI7 agent who is stuck in the James Bond ’60s (that’s the joke,
though the real joke is that he dithers and bumbles and disco dances on pep pills and clams up
whenever he’s supposed to know anything.) That said, it might as well be the 33rd entry in the
series. Because it’s not as if we’re living in a world that’s hungry — starved! — for vintage spy
spoofs.

The “Austin Powers” movies took the same comic theme and ran with it in a far more ticklishly
crackpot, laugh-out-loud merry-surreal way. Michel Hazanavicius’s “OSS 117” films, starring
Jean Dujardin, are succulently deft and detailed period satires. And then, of course, you can go
back to the “Naked Gun” films (technically about a police detective, though by the second film
Leslie Nielsen was playing him as a global super-sleuth) or Inspector Clouseau, the character
Johnny English actually most resembles. He’s that old school, that “classic” and quaint.

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There’s a scene in “Johnny English Strikes Again” where Atkinson essentially does Peter
Sellers doing Clouseau. Johnny English has to pretend to be a waiter, so he puts on a French
accent (which makes it sound like he’s got a bumblebee buzzing around in his throat) and
flambés a saucepan full of shrimp, which wind up as charred remains on the floor, but he serves
them anyway, along with the tiny bit of champagne he hasn’t used to put out the flames.
Funny…sort of. I smile-chuckled in a nod to the polished timing with which Rowan
Atkinson can still bring off a sequence like this one, and to the general tradition of destructo-
stumblebum comedy it represents. But it’s like watching a farce under glass. Should this be in a
sequel or a comedy museum?

The character I thought of most during “Johnny English Strikes Again” was Mr. Bean,
Atkinson’s other franchise nitwit, because he’s a much, much funnier creation. Bean, who’s
essentially a fearless cretin out of silent comedy, is beyond oblivious; he’s so mired in his
passive-aggressive idiocy that he’s impervious — a man-child clown who doesn’t begin to
know what he doesn’t know. He’s a holy force of stupidity. Whereas the Johnny English films,
because they have to function as spy movies, depend on Johnny being at once inept and (at
convenient moments) half not inept. Which just waters down the comedy.

The first “Johnny English” came out 15 years ago and did okay business ($28 million
domestic), but “Johnny English Reborn,” in 2011, faltered with only $8 million, and I wouldn’t
expect “Johnny English Strikes Again” to fare much better. More than even before, this series
has a leftover-goods, what-is-this-movie-doing-here? quality. Yet if you’re a fan of Atkinson’s
twinkly egomaniacal absurdism, or just want to revel in that face of his, with its naturally
italicized jet-black eyebrows and its mouth twisted into a grimace of befuddlement (Johnny is
scowling at everything he doesn’t understand, which is more or less everything), there are a
minor handful of scenes in “Johnny English Strikes Again” that will make you laugh. A bit.

The premise is that Britain is under a cyber-attack that has outed the identities of every current
MI7 agent. As the prime minster, played by a fulminating Emma Thompson(“Vodka tonic! No
vodka, no tonic!”), prepares to host her first G12 summit, Johnny, who is now teaching spy
techniques to middle schoolers, is plucked from the obscurity of retirement to chase down the
perpetrator. He is reunited with his sidekick, the redoubtable Bough (Ben Miller), and finds
himself navigating the most generic of espionage scenarios with the aid of the low technology
he still thinks of as high.

He’s driving a vintage Aston Martin that can barely navigate a hairpin turn, and he seems to
believe that it’s a mighty advantage to toss away his cell phone because the villain “will never
see us coming.” All very mild stuff, but when Johnny has a drink with Ophelia (Olga
Kurylenko), a leggy Russian spy he has no idea is a Russian spy (he’s convinced she just wants
to have a cocktail with him), his order of a drink called a London Lemming is a hoot. Johnny,
of course, is still the nerd version of a Bondian caveman, to the point that when Bough informs
him that his own wife is a British Navy captain who commands a nuclear submarine, Johnny
stares at him as if he’s just been speaking in Urdu.

The villain is a Silicon Valley billionaire, played by Jake Lacy in as oily-obvious a fashion as
the bad guy in a “Smurfs” movie. There’s one sequence that’s vintage Atkinson: Johnny is
given a virtual-reality training session (to learn how to navigate the villain’s lair), and after
accidentally stepping off the VR treadmill, he wanders through central London with his headset
still on, attacking imaginary villains in a bookstore and a bakery, at one point slashing away
with a pair of baguettes, which was the moment I gave in to laughter. On occasion, a movie like
“Johnny English Strikes Again” will do that to you, but there aren’t enough occasions. The
movie just made me wish that Atkinson would now make “Mr. Bean Saves the World” (in the
process of trashing it).

Film Review: 'Johnny English Strikes Again'

Reviewed at Bryant Park Screening Room, New York, Sept. 20, 2018. MPAA Rating: PG. Running
time: 88 MIN.

PRODUCTION: A Universal Pictures release of a StudioCanal, Working Title Films, Perfect World
Pictures production. Producers: Chris Clark, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Rowan Atkinson, Rafaël
Benoliel. Executive producers: Liza Chasen, William Davies.
 CREW: Director: Davis Kerr. Screenplay: William Davies. Camera (color, widescreen): Florian
Hoffmeister. Editors: Tony Cranstoun, Mark Everson. Music: Howard Goodall.

WITH: Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, Emma Thompson, Olga Kurylenko, Jake Lacy, Miranda
Hennessy, Adam James, Pippa Bennett-Warner.

'Adult' furry erotica site hacked

 21 November 2018

The website of an adult video game featuring sexualised animals has been hacked, with the information
of nearly half a million subscribers stolen.
Hack monitoring website Have I Been Pwned said the data breach had happened in August.

The compromised information, including email addresses, names and order histories, resurfaced on a popular
hacking forum a few months later.

It is the latest in a long series of hacks aimed at adult sites.

'Sensitive breach'

High Tail Hall is a customisable role-playing game, which features what the website describes as "sexy furry
characters", including buxom zebras and scantily clad lionesses.

Describing the hack as a "sensitive breach", the founder of Have I Been Pwned, Troy Hunt, contacted the team
behind the game as soon as he became aware of it.

In response to his notification, HTH Studios, acknowledged the breach and said it had fixed it.

"As of the overhaul in October of 2018, we are using a much more advance and stable security system," it said
on its website.

Pornography sites

"Both our internal security and web team security assures us that no financial data was compromised. The
security of our users is the highest priority."

It recommended that all users change their passwords.

It is the latest of a long line of security breaches affecting adult sites.

In October, eight pornography sites, including one known as Wife Lovers, were hacked, exposing more than
1.2 million email addresses.

And in October 2017, it was revealed that Pornhub had been infiltrated with malicious adverts, potentially
infecting millions of users with malware.

Perhaps the most famous adult-website breach was that affecting the Ashley Madison website, which saw
25GB of company data, including details of its users, leaked in 2015.

The dating site was aimed at married people who wished to cheat on their spouse and the hack left millions
fearing that they could be "outed".