The Inquisitr » china

Coal Mine Explosion Kills At Least 42 In China

AHN — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Harbin, China (AHN) – Rescuers in China’s Heilongjiang Province are searching for survivors after a gas explosion in a coal mine struck while workers were deep underground.

Authorities at the Xinxing Coal Mine in Hegang City confirm at least 42 miners are dead and believe another 66 are missing. Another 29 miners are at a local hospital with a variety of injuries, including six seriously wounded workers.

The accident occurred at about 2:30 am on Saturday, local time. The Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, which owns the Xinxing Mine, says there were 528 miners working on the site at the time of the accident.

(Image: Chinese State Media)

China shuts down World of Warcraft

Chris Greenhough — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:28:50 +0000

Previously, we knew that the Chinese government was censoring World of Warcraft. Now, a separate non-governmental authority has wielded its Banhammer +42 (or whatever) and ordered that the game be shut down throughout the country.

This order comes direct from the General Administration of Press and Publication in China (GAPP), which is apparently displeased that the new version of the game lacks official approval, despite launching September 19. GAPP, incidentally, is going to head-to-head with the Chinese Ministry of Culture, which also looks after online gaming.

Shutting down World of Warcraft down in China essentially blocks 20% of the World’s population from playing the mega-MMO. That’s a big drop in potential consumers for Blizzard, and I suppose Cheetos and Mountain Dew, or whatever the Chinese equivalent is.

Nevertheless, Leon Li, vice president of Chinese mobile Internet firm KongZhong, thinks gamers will cope well enough:

“Millions of Warcraft players will suffer the most. But if you take a long term view of the industry, many of these Warcraft gamers may migrate to other games, so for the other Chinese online game companies, it is a good thing.”

[Reuters, via VG247]

Researchers Say Chinese Dyslexia More Complex

AHN — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:45:42 +0000

A new study suggests that the complexity and severity of dyslexia varies across language barriers.

The authors, from the University of Hong Kong, said that Chinese-speaking children with the disorder may have a harder time with it than their English-speaking peers. The differences were seen in the brain and in the performance of Chinese children on visual and oral language tasks, the researchers said in a statement.

According to the researchers, English dyslexia is typically a “phonological disorder,” meaning that people with the condition have difficulties detecting or manipulating the sound structure of oral language. This leads to troubles in mapping speech sounds onto letters, Wai Ting Siok, a lead author of the study, said in a statement.

But the development of dyslexia in Chinese is really two disorders – a visuospacial deficit and a phonological disorder combined, Wai said.

The study can be found in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Current Biology.

[Image]

China’s Lunar Surface Map Completed

AHN — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:12:56 +0000

Beijing, China (AHN) – China’s lunar surface map in three dimension and high resolution has been completed, according to the country’s state-owned media.

The map is based on images taken by China’s first moon prober, the Chang’e-1, launched in October 2007. It will be the world’s fifth map of the moon; the U.S., Russia, Japan and India have the same map taken by their respective probers.

The map will be used to guide an unmanned lunar rover that China will send to the moon by 2012 as well as help scientists study the moon’s geology, survey officials said. Likewise, the same map will be used in the more ambitious goal of landing Chinese astronauts on the moon.

Who needs pandas? Let them die out, says expert

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:14:25 +0000

They’re too stupid to keep from going extinct and they want to eat your new bamboo flooring.

Well, that part’s not exactly true, but a BBC wildlife expert is saying we should quit trying to help those stupid ungrateful pandas anyway. Chris Packham sees the animals as “evolutionary dead ends” and says that they’re not very clever and have problems reproducing in captivity. (When was the last time you tried to perform in captivity, buddy?) On Britain’s GMTV, he said:

“Can we really afford these big charismatic animals that suck up so much of our funding?”

And he went on to say to the Telegraph:

…let’s face it: Conservation, both nationally and globally, has a limited amount of resources, and I think we’re going to have to make some hard, pragmatic choices.”

While many wildlife enthusiasts disagree, Packham believes resources would be better spent on protecting endangered habitats like rainforests. Pandas are the world’s rarest bears, and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. draws 3 million visitors a year to the panda exhibit.

Visiting China? Throw away your mobile phone on returning

Steven Hodson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:31:15 +0000

It appears that the US Government doesn’t think that it’s a good idea to use any of your electronic equipment like laptops and mobile phones after you return from a trip to China. In fact they suggest that you use separate equipment all together for your trip and then wipe it clean afterwards.

Such was the case when Mark Bregman, chief technology officer at Symantec, was advised by some “three-letter agencies in the US Government” to buy a mobile phone in the US and throw it away when he returned. This is on top of the fact that he already uses a separate MacBook Air for his trips to China – which the agencies also suggested he weight before leaving and again on returning – which he reimages every time he returns home.

Bregman said the US was also concerned about its companies employing Chinese coders, particularly in security.

He said the "software supply concern" was due to fears that Chinese developers would insert malicious code into software sold to American companies or the US government.

Source: CRN – Safety first for IT executives in China

Chinese Say UFO Filmed For 40 Minutes During Eclipse

AHN — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:02:09 +0000

Nanjing, China (AHN) – Astronomers in China say they have confirmed that a UFO was filmed during a solar eclipse this summer.

Ji Hai-sheng, director of the Purple Mountain Observatory, told sina.com that an unidentified object was filmed for 40 minutes near the sun during a total solar eclipse on July 22.

He declined to speculate on the nature of the object, saying that scientists will study the footage before drawing any conclusions.

Reports of UFO sightings are not uncommon in the Nanjing area. A researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Wang Sichao, reported in 2008 that UFOs visit the provincial capital every five or 10 years.

In 2007, Wang used his personal savings to establish annual awards for people who observed and recorded details about UFOs.

Nanjing was the site of the first recorded sighting of a UFO in China in 1892.

China’s high speed rail to leave the rest of the world behind

Steven Hodson — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:35:00 +0000

How can you tell when your country is lagging behind when it comes to things like high-speed rail? Well a good hint would be when the epitome of American global business IBM decides to build its global high-speed rail innovation center in Beijing.

China has in its drive to become a world leader has committed to investing over $300 billion in high-speed rail through to 2020 in contrast to the much argued invest in the US of only $8 billion. With that money China plans for 16,000 miles of new track by 2020 that will be used to carry trains travelling at speed approaching 220 miles per hour. A long with those plans the China Railway Company plans on hiring some 20,000 yo9ung engineers.

Part of the reason for this drive to modernize their rail system is the sheer number of people already using the rail system in the country. Last year saw 1.46 billion journeys by rail which was a 10.9% increase over the previous year and is expected to more than double within the next ten years.

Contrary to popular belief not all the work is being done by Chinese companies either as much of the technology for the signaling systems and 40 of the systems trains is being provided by Canadian company Bombardier.

At the same time in the US the plan to spend $8 billion suffers from bickering and government partisanship and really doesn’t even come close to what is already being requested by 40 states. States that have submitted 278 pre-applications for a number of high-speed passenger rail projects that right now amount to $102.5 billion in requests.

One of the arguments used by detractors of high-speed rail is that there isn’t the demand of ridership that the proponents might like to have us believe; but if the experience of Phoenix is any example the fact is that the demand is there especially if it is done right.

When Phoenix first started laying out plans for their modern light rail system they were only projecting some 25,000 weekly riders. It turns out that since they opened up a 20 mile line with 28 stops last December they’ve been seeing a ridership of 40,000 per week instead. this ridership is beating all the forecasts which would seem to indicate that there is more of a desire for public light rail transportation than previously thought.

- The Inquisitr – Could Phoenix show a bigger desire for public rail than we think?

hat tip to Treehugger / photo courtesy of KimonBerlin

Chinese government censors World of Warcraft

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:03:06 +0000

Chinese internet company Netease recently took over the hosting of World of Warcraft in China, resulting in the game being down for six weeks. The reason? Chinese government censors have been wielding the scissors with Blizzard’s MMO phenomenon, before allowing it to restart.

The result is a less gory WoW that’s deemed to be more suitable by the Chinese regulators. No, I never regarded World of Warcraft as being gory either, but it’s worth remembering that age ratings for games don’t exist in China.

Some of the changes made by the famously cuddly Chinese government include piles of bones in the game being replaced with sandbags, undead in-game avatars having a layer of flesh attached to visible skeletal bones, and icons depicting skulls, severed heads, and blood changed to more generic-looking boxes. You can see some ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots for yourself here.

Even the color of blood that spills from monsters has changed from red to black. This has led to community jokes about their characters running on petroleum. As one Chinese gamer says:

“It’s just like oil, my orc warrior have black blood and hit with dark effect, sucks! Petroleum, the Valuable Resources of Human, we shouldn’t waste it.”

You … probably had to be there.

[MMOSite, via Gamasutra]

Where’s the PETA whackos when they could actually be useful?

Steven Hodson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Animal testing is a really touchy subject as well it should be. Our use of animals in testing everything from make-up to new drugs is one of the darker spots of our society and unfortunately is something that we continue to do. So much so that supplying all those animals for testing purposes is big business with monkeys making up a large portion of the animals being used.

Figures released recently shows that in Britain alone more than 4,000 monkeys are used each year for animal testing with much of the supply coming from huge monkey farms in China. Farms that according to sources can breed up to 50,000 monkeys a year.

The Sunday Mirror uncovered disturbing images inside the monkey farms after visiting the Conghua area of Guangzhou province in China. Home to more than 40 farms, chimps arrive here from Cambodia and are bred to be sold across the globe.

Obscured by hills and notoriously secretive, the chimp camps are hidden away from the world. But our investigators – posing as businessman looking to help supply monkeys to the UK for testing – were able to get access to some of the farms.

Inside, monkeys were packed tight into cages. Mothers clutched their babies in the sterile prisons awaiting the journey to the labs of Europe, America and the Far East where they will be tortured in the name of science.

Source: Mirror :: 50,000 monkeys held in Chinese hell farms

With most of the monkeys selling for around $1,600 USD (£1,000) making the export market for monkeys and chimps pretty close to $250 million (£150 million).

Clinton, Geithner Continue “Constructive” Talks On Day 2 Of U.S.-China Dialogue

AHN — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:04:32 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The first U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue continues on Tuesday after a day of what Obama administration officials called “constructive” talks on bilateral efforts to address the global economic crisis and climate change. The two-day dialogue closes later in the day with a communique, and press conferences by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner and their Chinese counterparts.

Geithner led discussions on the economy along with Vice Premier Wang Qishan. He was joined by a number of administration officials, including Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke, National Economic Council chairman Larry Summers, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Tuesday’s talks will be about investment policies, trade and strengthening regulation in the financial sector, according to Loevinger. A communique will be released that will outline actions both nations agree to undertake over the next several years.

On climate change, Vice Premier Xie Zhenhua discussed “substantial steps” that Beijing is implementing to limit CO2 emissions.

“The level and the breadth of Chinese and U.S. participation highlighted the importance of the issue to both countries and the degree to which climate and clean energy are becoming increasingly seen as interrelated to both economic and national security issues facing both countries,” said Todd Stern, special envoy for climate change issues at the State Dept.

The Obama administration is seeking to strengthen ties with China, saying few global problems can be solved without cooperation from a nation with a GDP of $4 trillion dollars and a strategic interest in North Korea.

The dialogue was established in April during a meeting between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G20 Summit in London.

Obama opened the dialogue with an address that called for Beijing to open up its domestic markets to American imports as well as energy-efficient technologies.

“The relationship between the United States and China will shape the 21st century, which makes it as important as any bilateral relationship in the world.” Obama said. “We can deepen this cooperation. We can promote financial stability through greater transparency and regulatory reform. We can pursue trade that is free and fair… And as Americans save more and Chinese are able to spend more, we can put growth on a more sustainable foundation – because just as China has benefited from substantial investment and profitable exports, China can also be an enormous market for American goods.”

The President urged Beijing to join efforts toward a global response to climate change, despite the Asian nation’s rejection earlier this month during a G8 Summit to of a deal to reduce greenhouse emissions by half by 2050, with developed nations agreeing to an 80 percent reduction.

“The United States and China are the two largest consumers of energy in the world,” he said.” We are also the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Let’s be frank: neither of us profits from a growing dependence on foreign oil, nor can we spare our people from the ravages of climate change unless we cooperate.”

World leaders have been in talks led by the U.N. about a new framework to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. The United Nations is set to hold a two-day conference on Dec. 11 in Copenhagen for the next round of discussions.

Clinton in her address at the plenary session called the dialogue the culmination of previous efforts by Chinese and American predecessors, as well as an “unprecedented” beginning to start a “comprehensive relationship between the two countries.

Nevertheless, she made clear, “Results won’t happen overnight. We will not always see eye-to-eye, as is the case with human rights, where the United States will continue to be guided by the ideal that the rights of all people must be respected. Still, solutions to many of today’s global challenges are within reach if we work cooperatively where our interests intersect, and are honest with each other when they don’t.”

For his part, Geithner praised Beijing for taking steps away from an export-oriented economy.

“China’s success in shifting the structure of the economy towards domestic-led growth, including a greater role for spending by China’s citizens, will be a huge contribution to more rapid, balanced, and sustained global growth. These efforts are also closely linked to our shared environmental goals. A shift toward domestic demand-led growth in China will be one of the most powerful and effective means for moving China’s economy onto a less carbon intensive and more energy efficient path.”

Clinton, Geithner and their counterparts State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vice Premier Wang Qishan give their closing statements late afternoon on Tuesday after the four officials meet Obama and Vice Presidnt Joe Biden at the White House.

China takes its park rules very seriously

Duncan Riley — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:00:20 +0000

We do you start with such a bountiful glorious dose of Engrish? the shitting in the park, or the reference to Christianity as a feudal religion?

China Quarantines Hundreds Of School Children From UK, US Over Swine Flu

AHN — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:00:35 +0000

Beijing, China (AHN) – Over 100 students along with their teachers from the UK and US have been quarantined in Beijing after eight British and American teens were tested positive for H1N1 flu in the country.

Four students each from the UK and the U.S. are being treated at a hospital in the mainland’s capital city for having contracted the H5N1 virus. The reports said that they are in a stable condition.

The students were part of different groups that arrived in China to learn more about Chinese culture and language. The visits were coordinated by the Confucius Institute, an official Chinese agency.

The Chinese authorities have quarantined the remaining 104 children and their teachers at their hotel to avoid contacts with the local population. The reports said that several of Americans had been in contact with the UK group.

More than 1,000 students are expected to visit China this week from across the world as a part of the program.

The World Health Organization, which raised its swine flu threat level to Pandemic, said that the 2009 influenza virus has spread internationally with unprecedented speed.

In past pandemics, influenza viruses have needed more than six months to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks, the international health agency said in a statement on July 16.

“This pandemic has been characterized, to date, by the mildness of symptoms in the overwhelming majority of patients, who usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week of the onset of symptoms,” the WHO said.

“However, there is still an ongoing need in all countries to closely monitor unusual events, such as clusters of cases of severe or fatal pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection, clusters of respiratory illness requiring hospitalization, or unexplained or unusual clinical patterns associated with serious or fatal cases,” it added.

The WHO has urged the health officials in all the countries to remain vigilant of any suspected swine flu cases to provide instant medical assistant and closely monitor their entry ports including airports.

Motorcyclist pulled over in China for riding with no arms

Paul Short — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:06:42 +0000

A motorcyclist was stopped by police in the Shandong province of China recently for being overloaded with three adults on board. To their amazement, the driver operating the vehicle had no arms.

The 27 year old driver, whose name is Liu, lost his arms at the age of 7 after a severe electrocution accident left them damaged beyond saving. At the age of 10, Liu’s parents sent him to a circus training camp so he could learn various skills and earn an income. That’s where he learned to ride his motorcycle without arms.

The Police officer who stopped Liu said: “I spotted from a distance that the motorbike had three adults on but we were all stunned by what we saw when we got closer.” When confronted, Liu admitted that he had been riding his modified motorcycle for 10 years and doesn’t even have a driver’s license.

Liu, who has no money to pay a fine if ticketed, was given a warning and promised Police that he would not operate a motorcycle again.

Over 10,000 homes destroyed in China Earthquake

Duncan Riley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:46:06 +0000

A 6.0 earthquake struck China’s Yunnan Province Thursday evening destroying over 10,000 homes.

China state media reported that over 300 people were injured, with 30 people suffering severe injuries. There are no reports of deaths at this time.

The quake hit at 7:19 p.m local time (July 9) with an epicenter in Guantun Township, about 200 km from the provincial city of Kunming (see map above._ Along with the 10,000 houses destroyed, a further 30,000 houses have been damaged.

As the area continues to be rattled by after shocks, officials have begun distributing tents, medicines and food to affected residents, with further assistance on its way from other areas within China.

Chinese filtering move demonstrates futility of Australian censorship proposal

Duncan Riley — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:30:56 +0000

The Chinese Government has issued a decree that all computers sold in the country must include filtering software from July 1. The software will allow the Chinese Government to filter sites it deems inappropriate on each PC, including the ability to regularly update computers with up-to-date filtering lists.

The need to introduce PC based filtering in China can only be interpreted one way: existing ISP level filtering in China is not adequately working, despite years of investment in technology and support staff.

So if China can’t get ISP level filtering to work, why does the Australian Government believe that it’s different?

Australia’s proposed “Great Firewall of Australia” internet censorship regime proposes to block thousands, even possibly millions of sites (the Minister today still refuses to give a straight answer) using ISP level filtering. Unlike China, where the methods to bypass filters would be subject to strict censorship, the knowledge and tools needed to bypass the Australian version are freely available, and as far as we know, are not about to be banned either. Tools is probably the wrong way of putting it, because tools imply some level of effort, where as bypassing ISP level filtering isn’t anywhere nearly that hard.

Proof that filtering doesn’t work effectively in China is yet another reason why the Australian Government must drop its draconian internet censorship policy. Who knows: Australia’s Mandarin speaking Prime Minister may actually recognize that if his mates in China can’t get it right….

China bans snake poisoned chicken

Duncan Riley — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:13:58 +0000

Chinese officials have banned a snake poisoned chicken dish on animal cruelty grounds.

The dish, popular is some southern areas of China, is made by forcing a snake to bit a live chicken until it dies. The dish was promoted as having detox benefits, and surprisingly isn’t venomous.

A video of the practice on popular Chinese website Sina caused outraged locally, with many saying that the practice was disgusting and cruel.

Reuters notes that another dish popular in the area is monkey brains scooped from a live animal.

Being old and alone is not a good idea in China

Steven Hodson — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:20:26 +0000

While being old and alone is not anything anyone would want for their future it is even something you would want less if you live in China. If you do you could find yourself being a target of gangs that are kidnapping and murdering elderly people and then selling the corpses. The reason that this is a lucrative developing business in China is because the bodies are being sold to superstitious families who don’t want their own dead loved ones cremated.

China as a result of its huge population has been heavily promoting cremation as an alternative to burials that are taking up valuable space. In some cases there are regions of the country where it has become an obligation to cremate instead of burying loved ones. The problem is that there is a long held superstition that believes if the body is burnt the spirit will be angry and as a result misfortune will befall the family descendants.

There are reported to be several gangs involved in the dead body trade making up to $1,464 USD per body. The South China Morning Post has reported that there is an increasing number of missing-person posters appearing in towns in recent years.

[Source: Daily Express Online]

GhostNet spying operation linked to China

Steven Hodson — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:22:06 +0000

There are times that I am really proud of my country especially when a bunch of Canadian geeks expose one of the largest cyber spying operations currently running in the world. It was a bunch of researchers based at the Munk Center for International Studies, at the University of Toronto, who in their just released report exposed that the operation had infected at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries – and still going.

The researchers, all of who are well acknowledged experts at detecting computer espionage, say they believe that this ‘GhostNet’ has been targeting not only the Dali Lama but also the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.Not only that but the operation is still going strong as it continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week.

The malware is remarkable both for its sweep — in computer jargon, it has not been merely “phishing” for random consumers’ information, but “whaling” for particular important targets — and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.

The researchers were able to monitor the commands given to infected computers and to see the names of documents retrieved by the spies, but in most cases the contents of the stolen files have not been determined. Working with the Tibetans, however, the researchers found that specific correspondence had been stolen and that the intruders had gained control of the electronic mail server computers of the Dalai Lama’s organization.

Source: New York Times

While the Canadian team of researchers agree that most of the computers behind the spying operation are operating out of China they wouldn’t say that it was tied definitely to the Chinese government. However another team, in England, who have also been tracking down this GhostNet do suggest that the Chinese government is involved.

Great Wall of China’s latest attraction: man eating tigers

Duncan Riley — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:02:19 +0000

A tourist visiting the Great Wall of China near Beijing has discovered the hard way that you should never stray from the allotted path when he came to a rather unfortunate ending with a tiger.

The 20 year old man, and two of his mates were returning along the wall when they thought they’d take a short cut across a “wasteland” besides the wall. What didn’t compute though is that the wasteland was actually the Siberian Tiger enclosure at the Badaling Wildlife World.

According to reports, the short cut ended with the man himself become a short cut, a t-bone, and an eye fillet for a waiting tiger who (and I can’t make this up) opened his mouth wide open and caught his dinner before it had hit the ground.

His two mates, having seen what was going on, quickly ran away, although obviously not before filling their pants about 100 times over.

The two men told police they had seen signs around the enclosure warning of predatory animals, but said they didn’t believe them because they hadn’t seen any animals at the time. Obviously the signs were there for fun