Dear Slate, yes there are chocolate bars in China
Lot o' Hotpot: Three Travellers
How AIDS in China is spreading
Shanghaiist Scrabble: We have a winner!
Interview: Kerry Ann Lee, culture shock = inspiration
- Rumor: MySpace to Close China Doors [JLM Pacific Epoch] "Recent rumors have said MySpace China may close down and withdraw from the Chinese market, reports DoNews. Unnamed sources said on Thursday that MySpace China may undergo major restructuring in the near future and adopt media as its new orientation."
- 'Reactionary' Ringtones Spark Arrests In Tibet [NPR] "Police in Tibet have swept markets in recent months looking for banned music. Chinese state media report that police have arrested several suspects for allegedly downloading to their cell phones music that the government considers 'reactionary.'"
- How much are those bronze heads really worth? [Danwei] "I have been studying China's old palace architecture for over 70 years. I think that two out of so many parts of the palace's enormous structure, the zodiac animal heads from the Old Summer Palace don't have much value in themselves. There is nothing remarkable about their cost or craftsmanship. They were just water faucets, and very coarse compared with other artifacts from the Old Summer Palace kept at Peking University and other places. These days, they can be easily manufactured at small factories in Beijing or Guangzhou. The artistic value is just not very high."
- China told to end Tiananmen taboo [BBC NEWS] "A group of mothers of those killed in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square has urged China's leaders to fully investigate the deaths. Their call was issued as the 20th anniversary of the massacre approaches, and days ahead of the annual session of the National People's Congress. The Tiananmen Mothers want the government to name the dead, compensate families and punish those responsible."
- Beijing Palace Museum curator visits Taiwan [International Herald Tribune] "The curator of the Beijing Palace Museum began a high-profile visit Sunday to arrange an exhibition of Chinese relics in Taiwan, the rivals' first joint cultural program for six decades."
- China lunar probe mission ends with planned crash [AP] "China's lunar probe crashed into the moon Sunday in a controlled collision at the end of a 16-month mission, state media reported. Xinhua News Agency cited sources at the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense as saying the Chang'e 1 lunar satellite hit the moon at 4:13 p.m. local time (0813 GMT) on Sunday."
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There was some big space news today...
China plans space station with module launch in 2010 http://tinyurl.com/amtagb
China To Dock Two Spacecrafts By 2011 http://tinyurl.com/bwx9sz
While the PRC continues to draw in humanitarian welfare/grants, etc from the UN and developed countries.
I think China should definitely be congratulated for its achievement, but why is any country spending money on space programs, they are of absolutely no benefit. Meanwhile, on Earth, we have famine, overpopulation, disease, financial crisis, mass-extinctions, water shortages, pollution, war, climate change, poverty and terrorism to deal with.
The billions we spend on, frankly, entirely useless space programs that yield zero material benefits for humankind, should all be shelved until we address the problems listed above. Even more so for the 1 trillion $US the world spends on military/arms every year. We could irrigate every village, eradicate all disease, eliminate hunger and overhaul our civilization's energy/waste systems entirely with money like that. Of course, its harder for mega-rich people to distract the masses from the fact that they corrupt the world for their benefit without a bunch of useless wars, xenophobia and "advances" in space so...