TIC (This is China)

[998S]

Idiot + Biogas

So what is actually happening there?
My screen is half covered with stupid advertising ... I don't get it ....or did I just loose interest to see more idiots?

[Maux]

Holy Jeebus! I don't believe I just found this thread!

First off, those guys in the original videos got 0wnt like they should have and despite the chaotic nature of the event there is "crowd intelligence" which steers their actions.

Second of all I'll be burnt if I ever knowingly pass by anyone in genuine needs of help, however little or much, without at least saying something. Refuse my help, tell me you don't need my help, it's fine, I don't care in the slightest, but burn me if I don't offer it. I know I'm not fit to render the help some people need but stopping and asking is the least any decent person could do.

[ChinaV]

This is shameful and disgusting... busses and blue trucks will be the death of us all.



China quietly shelves new diesel emission standards (Source: theguardian)


The government has quietly postponed plans to clean the fumes from truck and bus exhaust pipes


It ought to have been a centrepiece of China's efforts to reduce smog, but the government has quietly postponed plans to clean the fumes from truck and bus exhaust pipes.


The 18-month delay of new diesel emission standards, which was announced this month, runs contrary to the authorities' promises to tighten controls on air pollution.


Environmental scientists say the move shows public health concerns remain far less of a priority for China's leaders than the economic interests of state-owned petrol companies, PetroChina and Sinopec.


It was not supposed to be this way. China is trying to shake the notoriously filthy hazes that envelop many of its cities and result in hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year.


After years of obfuscation and inaction, the government has taken a series of high-profile steps recently to show that it is serious about addressing the problem.


Last year, state planners announced a new goal to reduce emissions of Nitrogen Oxides by 10%. Last month, Beijing began releasing hourly data on fine particulates, known as PM2.5, that cause smog and can enter the bloodstream.


But even as it announced ambitious new targets and improved transparency, the central government has repeatedly delayed one of the most important policies for clearing the air.


The China IV Standard for diesel emissions was issued in 2005 and was originally supposed to have been introduced nationwide on 1 January 2011. Similar to the Euro IV Standard, it would force truck manufacturers to install cleaner engines. But to be effective, it requires petrol stations to sell higher-grade fuel with lower levels of sulphur, which is currently not the case.


This is crucial because traffic – particularly heavy trucks that burn diesel – is increasingly more significant than coal burning as a source of air pollution. Studies suggest vehicle exhaust pipes contribute more than 70% of the nitrogen oxides in downtown Beijing and are the dominant source of roadside PM2.5 levels – and the biggest threat to health.


But it has proved difficult for the relatively weak environment ministry to impose the extra costs on the state's biggest petrol companies, which have an equal political rank and considerably greater lobbying resources.


The oil firms are technically capable of improving the fuel quality – as they have shown in Beijing, which has higher standards than elsewhere – but they are reluctant to bear the costs. In other countries these would be passed on to drivers, but in China, pump prices are determined by the government rather than the market.


Last year, the government announced a one-year delay in introducing the tighter controls. In January this year, that was further extended to July 2013.


To the frustration of many of those involved in drafting the new controls, there appeared to be no fresh pressure from the ministry to overcome the logjam. The notice posted online simply stated the problem – "The current supply of diesel in China is still incapable of meeting the China IV standard" – rather than indicating how it might be overcome in the next 18 months.


Without the new rules, environment officials lack a vital tool for achieving pollution reduction targets. Truck and bus makers and fleet operators also have a weaker impetus to offset the impact of this setback.


Michael Walsh, who chairs the International Council on Clean Transportation, which has been working with the environment ministry for several years on the project, said the delay threatened the effort that China has made in dealing with air pollution.


"The irresponsible failure of the oil industry to respond to the serious environmental problems by providing the necessary low sulfur fuels is seriously hampering further progress especially with diesel trucks and buses, jeopardising public health and undercutting the government's efforts to substantially reduce nitrogen oxide emissions as called for in the 12th five year plan."


Walsh, a winner of the government's "friendship award" last year, said the government now has to work harder to ensure the policy is next year.

Enjoy the air!
Cheers!
ChinaV

[998S]

Rings stuck on man's penis, a high price for his anti-theft tactic

Doctors of central China's Hunan Province helped a middle-aged man to get two rings off his penis as he used this bizarre method against theft and robbery on his journey home, but the rings later got stuck on it, a local newspaper reported today.

Changde City firemen received a report around noon of January 28 that a man got two rings stuck on his penis due to long-time congestion in the penis.

The man said he put the rings on his penis to prevent them from being stolen or robbed as he traveled long distance home for the Chinese New Year, the Changde Evening News reported.

As the rings were around a sensitive organ, the firemen sent the man to a hospital for surgical removal. In a sterile operation room, doctors used forceps to create a gap between the rings and the man's penis and cut off the rings with a pair of pliers.

The operation lasted about an hour and the man was finally relieved.

[Shanghai daily - 2012-02-02]

[chinabiker]

No need for a comment

http://revoseek.com/technology/681-apple-iphone-gas-stove-seized-china/

[TB-Racing]

G'Day,

Would you like your eggs scrambled, sunny-side up, or how about boiled in the piss of a virgin boy.....???
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...=behindthewall

[chinabiker]

A very harmonious couple

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...-was-dead?lite

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-0...t_25461525.htm

[TB-Racing]

Rumor spurs demand for peaches and firecrackers
2012-6-7 | Shanghai Daily Newspaper

BEIJING residents have been setting off firecrackers late at night and rushing to the supermarket to buy all the canned peaches they can lay their hands on.
But they're not celebrating ... they're afraid that angry gods are about to take their children away.

A rumor, which began among villagers in Hebei Province, said an ancient temple had collapsed after an earthquake in Tangshan City on May 28.
As a result, ancient Chinese gods would be emerging from the ruins and take young boys and girls from their families, the rumor said. The only way to prevent this was to set off firecrackers and eat yellow peaches.

According to Chinese tradition, setting off firecrackers drives away evil spirits, while taozi, the Chinese word for peaches, sounds the same as "boy escaping" in Chinese.
Although the Hebei Province government quickly issued a statement to say there were no problems at any of the province's temples, the rumor, which was later posted online, spread like wildfire.

According to the Beijing News, residents in Fangshan and Daxing districts of the capital are complaining about neighbors setting off firecrackers late into the night.
"Loud bangs can be heard from every direction at night. It's like they are celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year," complained a Fangshan resident surnamed Wu.

He said when he objected the families told him they had to do it or their children would be taken away.
There was panic buying of canned yellow peaches in the district.

"The product became extremely popular these days," said a supermarket worker. "Dozens of canned peaches are being sold each day, while normally very few people would buy one in a week."
A resident surnamed Sun said he had been sent to buy peaches as older family members had insisted because of the rumor.

Fangshan District officials told the newspaper that some sub-district governments and neighborhood committees have been trying to tell residents that they shouldn't believe the rumor and have issued a ban on setting off firecrackers at night.
Zhao Shu, an expert in Chinese folk customs, told the newspaper there was no direct evidence to show that any damage to a temple would lead to any kind of disaster or retribution by the gods.

[TB-Racing]

Moron driving on the wrong side of the road this morning in Shanghai.....

[chinabiker]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...85400D20120605

China says only it has right to monitor air pollution

(Reuters) - A senior Chinese official demanded on Tuesday that foreign embassies stop issuing air pollution readings, saying it was against the law and diplomatic conventions, in pointed criticism of a closely watched U.S. embassy index.
The level of air pollution in China's heaving capital varies, depending on the wind, but a cocktail of smokestack emissions, vehicle exhaust, dust and aerosols often blankets the city in a pungent, beige shroud for days on end.
Many residents dismiss the common official readings of "slight" pollution in Beijing as grossly under-stated.
The U.S. embassy has installed a monitoring point on its roof which releases hourly air-quality data via a widely followed Twitter feed. The U.S. consulates in Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou provide a similar service.
While China tightened air pollution monitoring standards in January, the official reading and the U.S. embassy reading can often be far apart.
Chinese experts have criticised the single U.S. embassy monitoring point as "unscientific".
Deputy Environment Minister Wu Xiaoqing went a step further, saying such readings were illegal and should stop, though he did not directly name the United States.
"According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ... foreign diplomats are required to respect and follow local laws and cannot interfere in internal affairs," Wu told a news conference.
"China's air quality monitoring and information release involve the public interest and are up to the government. Foreign consulates in China taking it on themselves to monitor air quality and release the information online not only goes against the spirit of the Vienna Convention ... it also contravenes relevant environmental protection rules."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin called on foreign diplomatic missions to respect China's laws and regulations and to stop issuing the readings, "especially over the Internet".
"If the foreign embassies want to collect this kind of information for their own staff and diplomats, I think it's no problem," Liu told reporters. "They can't release this information to the outside world."
The U.S. embassy acknowledges on its website (beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn) that its equipment cannot be relied upon for general monitoring, saying "citywide analysis cannot be done ... on data from a lone machine".
Richard Buangan, the spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Beijing, said the air quality monitor in Shanghai was "an unofficial resource for the health of the consulate community".
That was consistent with the Beijing embassy's "practice of making air quality data available to the American community in Beijing", Buangan said in emailed comments to Reuters.
Wu said China's air quality standards were drawn up in consultation with the World Health Organization and "accorded with the present situation in our country".
"What needs saving is the country's air quality, not the government's face," Zhou Rong, an energy campaigner for Greenpeace, said in emailed comments. "The environmental authorities must stop finger pointing and start taking actions that really address the issue."
Despite his criticism, Wu acknowledged that China's air quality and overall environmental situation remained precarious, with more than one tenth of monitored rivers rated severely polluted, for example.
Wu said the government was studying a long-mooted environment tax on polluting industries, though he did not give a timetable for when it might come into effect