[NYTimes] Chen Guangbiao, who sells cans of fresh air, said he would soon meet with Times representatives, which the company denied.
A wealthy Chinese businessman and philanthropist known for his zany public stunts said on Tuesday that he was leading a group of investors seeking to acquire a large or controlling stake in The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... Company.
Soon to join whatsisname Slim of Mexico in controlling what an ever-shrinking segment of America is permitted to be aware of?
Shares in the Times Company jumped more than 4 percent to a five-year high on Monday, shortly after the businessman, Chen Guangbiao, hinted at his plans in a speech in southern China.
Chen and his insider pals, I'll wager, already had shares in hand last week...
What's the diff between the Times and People's Daily? Aside from the typeface, I mean.
#1
I wonder, from a control your own people standpoint, how useful it would be to be able to publish whatever mistatements you wanted in the NY TImes and then quote them throughout China. Or even sell the NY Times in China with the delusion that it is an American paper with 'un censored' news.
And they say the spirit of journalism is dead!
[Telegraph] Kate Stone, 44, suffers life-threatening injuries in 'the most unlucky freak accident ever', after the stag appeared to single out the 6ft academic who was the tallest of the group
A Cambridge University academic has suffered life-threatening injuries after being gored by a giant stag during a holiday in the Scottish Highlands.
Kate Stone was standing with a group of friends outside the home of a local musician at Lochailort, near Fort William, when the large animal appeared suddenly out of the darkness. The Press and Journal reported that it appeared to single out 6ft-tall Ms Stone, the tallest of the group, and its antlers pierced her throat and went through to her spinal column.
It was feared that the 44-year-old, who was born a man but changed gender in 2007, could be left paralysed by the attack. A spokesman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said she was in a "serious and stable condition" this afternoon but refused to comment further on the nature of her injuries.
After shaking its head to free itself, the stag vanished into the surrounding trees and moorland, leaving Ms Stone lying on the ground bleeding.
Her companions initially thought she had only been knocked down during the attack, which happened in the early hours of Monday morning, but quickly realised her injuries were more serious. An ambulance was called from Mallaig, 15 miles away, and she was taken to the Belford Hospital in Fort William. Doctors there discovered her life-threatening injuries and she was flown by air ambulance for specialist treatment yesterday at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.
Ms Stone and her friends had earlier been at a ceilidh in the nearby Lochailort Inn, where they met Jim Hunter, 50, a local musician who invited them back to his home. He said: "There was a crowd of seven of us coming from the pub by torchlight. We were coming in to our garden and the stag had got in. The only way out was through the gate we were coming in and he panicked.
"He came right at us and right through us. We were all having a great time -- it was just the most unlucky freak accident ever. There was blood coming from her neck and we took her inside.
"The paramedics came in about 20 minutes which is good as we are a bit isolated here, and gave her oxygen. They were fantastic. I don't think the animal deliberately attacked her. It was just panicking."
But a neighbour of Mr Hunter said: "I am very wary of the stags around here. I do not walk to my house -- particularly at night.
"They do not always run away. They stand there facing up to you, pawing the ground in a threatening manner. The rutting season is over so now they have harems of hinds to jealously guard against other stags.
"Perhaps this woman was targeted because she was the tallest of the group and perceived by the stag as their leader and the most threatening to it."
Ms Stone has a PhD in physics and microelectronics and works as a research engineer at the University of Cambridge's institute of manufacturing. She also set up a technology company, Novalia, which specialises in "making anything that's printed interactive".
She was part of a multinational group of three men and four women on a three-day festive break at a local bed-and-breakfast owned by Gary Burton, 51, and his wife Kasia, 35. They had spent three days hill walking and enjoying the scenery.
Mr Burton, who runs the Mo-Dhachaidh Guest House, told the Press and Journal: "I understand Kate is critical in the hospital's intensive care unit.
"She was telling me she enjoyed the outdoors in the hills and camping on her own in remote places so any form of paralysis to such an active person will be a disaster. The incident is absolutely shocking and so unexpected.
"There are plenty of deer around here but you never hear of a stag attacking anyone. The force of the attack must have been ferocious. I went to the scene and found Kate's mobile phone smashed into tiny bits."
He said he and his wife found out about the attack when four of Ms Stone's friends returned to the guesthouse in the early hours of yesterday morning in a "very shocked" state.
Peter Fraser, a retired gamekeeper from Aberdeenshire who has worked with deer for more than 40 years, said he had never heard of a similar attack before. He added: "For a stag to come out of the darkness like this and go for someone is highly unusual -- a chance in a million."
#1
I really bear this individual no ill will, I hope for as full a recovery as possible. I saw the big stags at Castle Culzean in Scotland. The fence was 18 feet high. At Castle Spannocchia in Italy, there was no fence separating us from the wild boars, but the groundskeeper warily kept us at a safe distance.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/02/2014 8:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
It was feared that the 44-year-old, who was born a man but changed gender in 2007.
#5
#1 I really bear this individual no ill will, I hope for as full a recovery as possible.
Me too. I thought twice about posting it, but it seemed like a good fit here. Critters. Violence and confusion in the dark. Responders. PC. Tragicomedy. Above all, the ease with which destiny, having placidly ignored a lifetime of contortions or passivity or renunciation, effortlessly runs us down and, well, gores us like a stag. Or maybe that's just me.
#6
ZF6220, I meant no criticism of your decision to post. The story has all the elements you described and took my thoughts back to tour now 3 decades old.
All the same, I can't resist...
I thought twice about posting it
Horns of a dilemma, eh?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/02/2014 11:22 Comments ||
Top||
#11
It's a humorous study in a sad (and sick) way, but I don't wish ill on Mr./Ms. Stone, whatever gender she/he is. I'd like to think we'd all agree on that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/02/2014 16:44 Comments ||
Top||
#12
It could have been worse, it could have been A. Moose.
Stone spends his professional life studying and innovating technology, uses technology to change to a her, goes out for some good times with fellow technology innovators to celebrate what will be a successful new year, open the door...
and bam. Gored by nature, at the front door.
And the only thing which may save Stone's life - modern technology.
#14
I wonder if Stone annoyed the Juice or maybe the Russkis. They're pretty crafty, you know! Was there polonium on the horn, I wonder?
Or Disney. It could have been an audio-animatronic stag, after all!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/02/2014 19:26 Comments ||
Top||
#15
#6 Horns of a dilemma, eh?
Cackle. I'm sure it's been done (twenty years ago?) but it just now occurred to me how easy it would be to put together an unobtrusive battery-powered rig to provide my own soundtrack. In case I'm not weird enough already. Anyway: [rimshot] [pigsqueal]
#7 3.5 men, and 3.5 women, I would say.
As I was going to St. Barts
I met some people with some parts
Some were lairds and some were damsels
I don't think there were any camsels
Think twice what you do in the night
Lest some wee beastie take affright
I'm here all week -- please try the haggis!
It's ten -- do you know where your stag is?
Besoeker: Love the St. Hubert legend, but so help me, I hadn't even thought of it. Thanks. Blueberries. Walnuts. Must remember.
Redneck Jim: Sorry for riling you up. I know how you feel. I got herds of hobby-horses. If Dagwood's diner cook wants to be called "Queenie," I'm fine with that. "Miss Queenie?" Sure, why not. But I get nervous when they want me to sign off on what's in their pants and genes. And when they drag lawyers and judges and police and HR into it, I'm right there with you.
Rantburgers generally: Thanks for all the yucks and links and wisdom. I'll toddle back over to the kids' table now.
[An Nahar] A group of seven Ugandan politicians on Wednesday accused President Yoweri Museveni of meddling in the escalating conflict in neighboring South Sudan.
Fighting erupted December 15 in South Sudan between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebels who have sided with his rival and former deputy Riek Machar.
On December 20, Kampala deployed soldiers to South Sudan to evacuate stranded Ugandan nationals.
The MPs objected to a warning by Museveni earlier this week for the rebels to stand down or face regional action.
"This issue of President Museveni giving ultimatums to Machar is not good. This is a tribal fight and not a political matter that he should get involved in," Theodore Ssekikuubo told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Already Uganda has taken sides in the conflict and ceases to be neutral," said Ssekikuubo, who was recently expelled from the ruling party for opposing Museveni's policies.
Kiir has accused Machar of attempting a coup d'etat but Machar has rejected that claim and accused the South Sudanese president of carrying out a purge of his rivals.
"We support the evacuation mission but it has to be in line with our constitution ... and it should not be misunderstood to be a ploy to deploy in defense of one party," he added.
The politicians also argued that even an evacuation mission needed parliamentary approval.
"The president has to come to parliament and explain why we are in this conflict," said Abdu Katuntu, another MP who is shadow attorney general.
"Museveni has sidestepped parliament and deployed troops without our mandate," he told AFP.
Junior foreign minister Okello Oryem said the mission had been okayed by South Sudan's government and required no further approval.
"The evacuation mission was authorized by President Kiir and our troops are there for that and nothing else".
Ugandan troops have so far evacuated a total of 1,142 people -- mainly Ugandan nationals, but also including Æthiopians, Rwandans and Kenyans -- from South Sudan, airforce front man, Captain Tabaro Kiconco told AFP.
Uganda's most recent airlifts have gone as far north as Malakal, the capital of oil-producing upper Nile, and Heglig, an oil-rich area on the South Sudan-Sudan border claimed by both Khartoum and Juba.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under:
Nice pic at the Rooters link. Pollution problems in China, are by no means new. But heightened public anger - and a growing political will to deal with the issue - has created opportunities for firms to earn a slice of China's clean-technology market, which is set to triple to $555 billion by 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. A chance to improve the balance of trade while improving the lives of the Chinese! Where is Champ on this issue?
"China has reached a saturation level which people can no longer tolerate," said the president of the U.S.-China Clean Tech Center, which takes U.S. companies to China to meet potential partners. Sort of like a dating service.
Coal accounts for more than two-thirds of China's primary energy consumption. China is pushing to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollutants from power plant emissions and offering subsidies to get firms on board. The cost of retrofitting all China's power plants over a 5-year period is around $11 billion. How long before there is a CEPA (Chinese EPA)?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/02/2014 17:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looks like a ready made Al Gore Carbon credits scam if I ever saw one...
[CNN] North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... on Wednesday praised the recent purge of his uncle and former protector, saying it brought greater unity within the secretive, nuclear-armed state.
"In the seething period of the effort for building a thriving country last year, we took the resolute measure of removing the factionalists lurking in the Party," Kim said in a New Year's address, referring to the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea.
"As our Party detected and purged the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists at an opportune time and with a correct decision, the Party and revolutionary ranks were further consolidated and our single-hearted unity was solidified to the maximum," Kim said, according to the text of the speech carried by North Korean state media.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
[India Express] In her first public statement in the two-week-old India-US spat over the treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York, the US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell Tuesday said she regretted the circumstances of Khobragade's arrest even as officials in America indicated charges against the IFS officer would not be withdrawn.
Powell's statement, which was weaved into her new year's message, was seen as an attempt to assuage India's concerns as the furore over the alleged mistreatment of Khobragade has soured relations.
New Delhi responded by saying it would communicate with Washington through the designated channel, the State Department in this case, and that it remained serious about pursuing misuse of diplomatic privileges by US diplomats in India.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/02/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Pollution problems in China, are by no means new. But heightened public anger - and a growing political will to deal with the issue - has created opportunities for firms to earn a slice of China's clean-technology market, which is set to triple to $555 billion by 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
North Korea
[India Express] In her first public statement in the two-week-old India-US spat over the treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York, the US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell Tuesday said she regretted the circumstances of Khobragade's arrest even as officials in America indicated charges against the IFS officer would not be withdrawn.
