Best Photo Journalism of 2008 (Part 2)

AMANDA BEARD - NUDE AGAIN IN BEJING !

BEIJING (Aug. 6) - Olympic gold medalist swimmer Amanda Beard had to launch her naked, anti-fur campaign poster outside the Athletes' Village on Wednesday after Chinese authorities canceled a planned unveiling, citing safety concerns.

In a poster for the animal rights group PETA, the reigning 200-meter breaststroke champion appears naked in front of the U.S. flag and the slogan "Be comfortable in your own skin. Don't wear fur."

Jason Baker, an Asia-Pacific spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the launch was "a bit more dramatic than we had planned" after Chinese security officials visited a hotel where an official news conference had been scheduled and shut down the event.
"From what I've been told from the hotel, the public security bureau showed up at midnight and told them our specific event had to be canceled for safety reasons, without going into any specifics," Baker said. "When I arrived at 8 a.m., there were public security officials in the press conference room we had booked.
"Amanda didn't want her voice to be silenced, so we went ahead and arranged something else - we never knew if we were going to be stopped at any point."
Baker said the protest was not against China and did not interfere with the Olympics. Police and security did not interfere with the event outside the village's south gate.
"It was a sexy ad really designed for the U.S. market. It was positive, and it was (supposed) to be done in a private function room," Baker said. "I'm surprised they were so concerned, given we've done similar with Asian celebrities in the past."
The 26-year-old Beard, who has posed nude in men's magazines, said she decided to participate in the PETA campaign because she loved animals and was horrified to see how fur was produced for fashion in some places.
"I have seen a lot of the videos, and (it) brings me to tears," the four-time Olympian was quoted saying in a PETA statement. "What (some people) think is pretty is actually something that's very gruesome and gross."

SEE AMANDA BEARDS JULY 2007 PLAYBOY SPREAD !!!

CHINESE OLYMPIC CUISINE INCLUDES "Chicken without sexual life"

Local dishes like "Husband and wife's lung slice" or "Chicken without sexual life" conjure lots of furrowed eyebrows on famished foreigners.

So, with the Olympics a few short weeks away, China is giving its cuisine a linguistic makeover.

It is proposing that restaurants change the names of exotic, but bizarrely named, delicacies to make them more delectable for the estimated 50,000 visitors arriving in August for the Summer Games.

The appetizer "Husband and wife's lung slice" is taking on the more appetizing "Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce."

"Chicken without sexual life" has been transformed into "Steamed pullet."

The government has put down more than 2,000 proposed names in a 170-page book that it has offered to Beijing hotels, according to state media.

"Thanks to the pamphlet, we do not have to struggle to come up with the English translations of dishes any more, which is usually time consuming," a senior manager at the four-star Guangzhou Hotel in downtown Beijing told the Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese say the names of their dishes focus more on appearance than taste or smell. But Westerners are more accustomed to names that describe the ingredients and how they are cooked -- such as pot roast.

The government realizes local names are a matter of taste, but don't want them to get lost in translation.

Hence, the spicy Sichuanese dish "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" has been bestowed the more palatable "Mapo tofu."

Not everyone is pleased.

"The process of standardizing a menu translation is a double-edged sword," wrote columnist Raymond Zhou in the China Daily newspaper. It "removes the ambiguity and unintended humor" and "takes away the fun and the rich connotation.

"It turns a menu into the equivalent of plain rice, which has the necessary nutrients but is devoid of flavor."

CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE CLASSROOM VIDEO

THIS VIDEO HAS OUTRAGED THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT! THESE KIDS ARE ACTING LIKE AMERICAN SCHOOL KIDS! ITS ANARCHY !

YEAH HE'LL BE IN A LABOR CAMP BEFORE GRADUATION !