What's in the News

Imma go out on a limb and say not one of those "SELECTED COMMENTS" was native spoken.

Oooohhhh!!!!  Can I be in charge of making new taxi policies?  All I need is a little time and some firing squads to fix a lot of problems.

Oooohhhh!!!!  Can I be in charge of making new taxi policies?  All I need is a little time and some firing squads to fix a lot of problems.

Why yes, yes you can.

Here is where you make your application: http://topic.media.gov.cn/topicdata/en/index.html

How to drink baijiu: Beijing's pros share their tips



Beijing (CNN)It's the most widely drunk hard liquor in the world but it's rarely found on cocktail menus.

Baijiu, distilled from sorghum and rice, rules every festive occasion in China, where it's the tipple of choice for everything from wedding receptions to business banquets.

It's especially popular during celebrations for the Lunar New Year, which began Saturday, when shot glasses filled with the potent spirit are thrown back and slammed down on the table in endless rounds of toasts.

"Many (foreigners) find baijiu off-putting, but it's not about the liquor itself," says Bill Isler, co-founder of Beijing's Capital Spirits, the world's first baijiu-themed bar.

Isler says the drink's fearsome reputation comes from visitors being coerced into excessive drinking by Chinese friends or coworkers -- persuading people to drink is a gesture of generosity and "being a good host," he says....


 

 

His Dark Materials follow-ups announced by author Philip Pullman

Author Philip Pullman has announced the publication of the long-awaited follow-up to his best-selling His Dark Materials series of novels.

The new trilogy is called The Book of Dust and the first novel will come out in October, 17 years after the last instalment.

He says the books are an "equel", rather than a prequel or sequel....


Hell yes this is too news. Vive La Lyra Belacqua!

China to Permit Lab Poised to Study World's Most Dangerous Pathogens

Maximum-security biolab is part of a plan to build more of these facilities across the country

A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns.

Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations. But Chinese microbiologists are celebrating their entrance to the elite cadre empowered to wrestle with the world’s greatest biological threats.

“It will offer more opportunities for Chinese researchers, and our contribution on the BSL‑4-level pathogens will benefit the world,” says George Gao, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology in Beijing. There are already two BSL-4 labs in Taiwan, but the National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan, would be the first on the Chinese mainland....


Game over, man. Game over. All hail shambling, bleeding, vomiting zompocalypse!

 

Oh my.  They want how many??? 

Quite some time back, I read about the protocols for Level 4.  Let's just say I hope they've been subsequently tightened.  Anything like this needs multiple supervisors who are willing to lock people away in a deep underground isolation vault for weeks or months if there's even a slight risk of contamination, without regard to the rank or connections of the person or persons who are going to be locked away.

I dread the thought of what could happen if someone bypassed some level of precautions or if the soap dispenser didn't get refilled one day.

From the article:

"But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says."


And the plan puts this BSL-4 in Wuhan. High speed rail links Beijing-Wuhan and Wuhan-Guangzhou. The apocalypse is gonna draw a line right down the middle of this rooster.

Maybe you could get them to study viruses which are fatal to pigeons?

Ok... it rids the embryo of hereditary diseases. But, when the embryo grows up and reproduces, can it pass on the defective gene to its offspring? If so, the diseases will become more and more prevalent.