China

On June 22nd, Royal Court Of China will join forces with Jason and the Scorchers' guitarist Warner E. Hodges for a one-off benefit performance

Why Chinese Hate Their Men's Soccer Team. my latest at @BloombergView

One statistic above all explains the excitement India kindles: just 18 people in every 1,000 own a car. In China the figure is 58, according to the World Bank, while in most European countries it is more than 500. “India’s level of car ownership per capita is even lower than in Sudan, or Afghanistan,” says Tomas Ernberg, head of Volvo in India. “So in the long term there is bound to be growth, enormous growth.” The market is also strikingly new. Barely 20 years ago India’s “Licence Raj” restricted aspirant motorists to two basic choices: the grand Hindustan Ambassador, an imitation of the venerable British Morris Oxford; and the boxy Maruti-Suzuki 800 hatchback, the country’s first (and then only) people’s car. From the FT, here is more.

THERE’S a section on the Heartland Institute’s website pointing readers to “Stuff We Wish We Wrote”. After events over the last year or so, the chaps at the fossil fuel-funded “think tank” might want to add a new section with the title “Stuff We Wish We Hadn’t Wrote”. The Heartland Institute, for those who don’t know, is a Chicago-based group promoting any view or position that argues we shouldn’t do anything about human-caused climate change. They run campaigns, hold conferences, write op-eds in the media and pay contrarian scientists. Right there on the think-tank’s homepage, the group proudly displays a quote from The Economist magazine describing Heartland as “The world's most prominent think-tank promoting scepticism about man-made climate change.” Yet as is the case with most things Heartland says about climate change, things are not always as they seem. Heartland’s boastful quote is taken out of context and comes from this article in The Economist, documenting a spectacular own goal by Heartland. Heartland, The Economist wrote, had lost an estimated $825,000 in funding after running a billboard campaign that equated acceptance of human-caused global warming to the values of serial killer Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski. So when The Economist was describing Heartland as a prominent think-tank promoting climate science denial, it wasn’t doing it in a good way. No wonder then that Heartland didn’t hyperlink the quote. This brings us to Heartland’s most recent example of self-aggrandizing – implying the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) thinks they’re awesome because it translated two of Heartland’s reports, only to be told by aforementioned academy to apologise for misrepresenting what they had actually done. Here are the nuts and bolts of the story. On June 11, Heartland released a statement detailing how CAS had translated two volumes of its NIPCC reports  – Climate Change Reconsidered. The main contributors to the reports, contrarian scientists Craig idso, Fred Singer and Australia-based Robert Carter, were due to fly to Beijing to launch the report, Heartland said. Internal Heartland documents have shown that in 2012, Heartland planned to pay Idso $11,6000 a month for his work on the NIPCC report. Singer was to receive $5,000 per month and Carter would get $1,667 monthly. On June 12, Jim Lakely, Heartland’s communications director, took to the think-tank’s blog - “Somewhat Reasonable” - with unfettered excitement. Under the headline “Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes Heartland Institute research skeptical of Global Warming” Lakely wrote that CAS’s translation now placed “enormous scientific heft” behind the “questionable notion that man is responsible for catastrophically warming the planet”. In a typically restrained and understated manner, Lakely quotes Heartland President Joseph Bast as saying: “This is a historic moment in the global debate about global warming.” Bast then tries to drive a wedge between China and other countries involved in United Nations negotiations to agree a deal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. China’s previous refusal to sign a deal, Bast claimed, was now justified because CAS had translated the Heartland book and this “indicates the country’s leaders believe their position is justified by science and not just by economics.” Professor Carter told Lakely that Chinese companies would soon leave their Western counterparts in the competitive dust becuase, he said, they were still “hindered by the IPCC’s leaden and outdate global warming ideology”. Climate sceptic blogger Anthony Watts was similarly excitable, running a post with the title “Heartland’s NIPCC report to be accepted by Chinese Academy of Sciences in special ceremony”. That these statements were published on a Heartland blog with the title “Somewhat Reasonable” seems beautifully ironic, given what followed. Presumably finding Heartland’s actions Somewhat Unreasonable, the Lanzhou Branch of the National Science Library of the

My mole in the transport department sent me a fine tidbit about the recently concluded nonsense that is called Fathers’ Day. I mean, for a start, which kid really knows who his progenitor on the spear side is? In England, a lot of mothers don’t know that… Anyway, a certain bus company on Hong Kong Island which shall remain nameless notified said transport department with the usual degree of Hong Kong foresight (i.e. at 5pm on Friday evening) that it planned to “launch” the following banner ad on its website: Happy Fathers’ Day! Please greet the bus captain too when you enter the bus compartment. My friend said that, regrettably, the person who received the message is one of those civil servants who actually reads what she gets sent. As a result, the good people in the “communications” department of the bus company, having acknowledged that a goodly proportion of their drivers had never fathered offspring, especially the female ones, erased the second part. Spoilsports!

How make a great, tasty appetizer from professional cooking teacher and former caterer Betty Bannerman Busciglio: "The inspiration for this appetizer came when I was looking through a very old cookbook and found a recipe which called for finely chopped cooked chicken along with a few other ingredients. After combining, the recipe said to cook the meatballs for 20 minutes. Already cooked chicken...

Walk into an old hardware store and take a big whiff. Come on now, just tip that head, sniff those fumes, and bring back a big brainful of love and memories with these gems: • Hot, rubbery tires. Chinese chemical plants, hot vials of liquid rubber, and the musty stench of ocean liner storage bays combine to form this mind-altering buzz. And when you cruise on by, don’t forget to grab a free massage by rubbing your hand across all those tiny plastic hairy bits sticking off the tires in all directions. A classic. • Those tightly packed piles of soil. Flopped sideways and drooping in all directions, don’t these bags always look like they’re about to burst at the seams? Well, I guess the problem is that some of them do, leaking their sweet smelling brown-with-white-flecks dirtload all over the floor. • The key-cutting machine. If your hardware store is lucky enough to have a kid working away on a screaming key-cutting machine, then you’re probably sniffing in some hot, oily machine parts and a few metal scraps flying in all directions. Yes, that high-pitched piercing will wake up your baby and those smoky-metal fumes will wake up your childhood memories. Not a bad trade. • Stacks of lumber. Decades of sun, water, and carbon dioxide help build tiny seedlings in the sod into majestic giants of the forest. Now even though they’re diced up into bits, they’re still breathing out those deep woody, sappy-fresh scents. • Assorted old spills. Somebody kicked a can of paint thinner under Aisle 3 back in 1987 and now its faintly toxic aroma is just hanging limply in the air along with metal nail dust, shiny tools, and plastic snow shovels. Yes, as you walk those old hardware aisles it’s hard not to soak in the memories. So when you leave the store on the creaking wooden floor, through the dusty, sunbeam rays shining lazily over the dirty black floormat, let that jingle-jangly door clang shut on your great Saturday morning sniff down memory lane. AWESOME! Photos from: here and here

Running until Sunday, the “Moments in Light” celebrates the works of female artists from China. Continue reading...Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Design-focused commerce company Fab has raised that round of funding we scooped a few months ago. Fab is announcing today that it has raised $150 million in the ?rst tranche of the company’s Series D round of ?nancing. We’re told that $150 million is the ?rst part of a larger Series D round that Fab expects to complete over the next few months. New to this round is Chinese Internet giant Tencent, who will also have a board seat at Fab; and Japanese conglomerate Itochu. Previous investors Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, RTP Capital, Pinnacle Ventures, Lars Hinrichs, and Docomo Capital also participated in this latest round of ?nancing. This brings Fab’s total funding to $310 million. We’re hearing from multiple sources that the pre-money valuation of the company was $1 billion, as we had reported in April (a spokesperson for Fab has confirmed the valuation). And we’ve also heard from a source that Fab will be raising another $100 million or more in the later part of this round. At Fab’s last round of financing in 2012, the company was worth around $600 million. Past investors include First Round Capital, SoftTech VC, Baroda Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, Thrive Capital, Kevin Rose, SV Angel, The Washington Post, VTB Capital, Phenomen Ventures and the Times of India. Founder and CEO Jason Goldberg said the company started down the fundraising route in March to raise enough capital to have several years of runway, at least until 2015. He added that for this round there was $400 million worth of interest coming from investors. Growth, International And Another Pivot Fourteen million users strong, Fab is continuing to grow at a fast clip after its initial pivot. Last year, the company saw $150 million in revenue, and revealed in February that sales were up by nearly 300 percent in January 2013 over January 2012. In fact, January was Fab’s third-highest sales month ever. According to the company, Fab should reach $250 million in 2013 sales. Fab’s now achieving 43 percent gross margins, up from 29 percent in 2011. Interestingly, Fab says that most of its revenue is not derived from flash sales, which was the initial model Fab adopted after its pivot in 2011. As we wrote in this profile of the company, Fab infamously pivoted from Fabulis, which was a social network for the gay community, into a flash sales site. Fab says that two-thirds of sales are currently not from the flash-sales on the site, and the company recently rebranded to reflect this change. And 50 percent of Fab’s sales are in home categories. In May, Fab debuted its new design store, which makes it more of an integrated e-commerce site. You can access design pages by room, type of furniture, color, designer and more. International is also a huge potential growth area for the company. Fab has 1 million members in the UK, which is generating nearly 40 percent of its sales in Europe and is its fastest-growing market outside the U.S. Asia is the next frontier, which is why Goldberg and Fab are bringing on Tencent and Itochu as partners. As Goldberg explains, there are currently only four e-commerce companies in the world that are valued at more than $10 billion: Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and Rakuten. He believes that Fab has a legitimate chance to be the ?fth by leading in what he calls Emotional Commerce. This basically means that Fab helps people discover the items they love and want. Part of Fab’s plan to take over emotional commerce involves making its own line of products and home goods. Fab is also partnering with designers to manufacture and sell home furnishings exclusively through Fab. Additionally, Fab is experimenting with brick and mortar stores, with the first store debuting in Hamburg, Germany. Mobile is also a huge growth area, with one-third of sales being placed via mobile. And international will also be a major strategic focus for Fab, which just acquired German custom furniture store Massivkonzep

At Least Four UK Nets Lining Up To Bid For FA Cup Rights A bidding war reportedly is gearing up in the UK for TV rights to soccer tournament the FA Cup for the three seasons to 2017-18. Financial Times reports that BT, ITV, BSkyB and the BBC are entering bids. BT and ITV currently share rights to the FA Cup until the end of the 2013-14 season. FT says analysts predict that having all four in the ring could significantly push up the cost of the rights. In January 2012, ITV acquired free-to-air broadcast rights for 16 FA Cup games per season, along with some of England’s home qualifying games, for an annual cost of £43M. But the BBC is understood to be concerned about its lack of live soccer during the regular season. BT and BSkyB are still expected to be the most aggressive bidders. Shanghai Now Second-Biggest Box Office Among Chinese Cities Shanghai box office has become the second biggest of all mainland Chinese cities and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the next few years, spurred on by investment from U.S. studios Disney and DreamWorks, according to a study by Artisan Gateway. In 2012, Shanghai’s box office was $214.2 million, a 22.2% year-on-year growth. The city, regarded as the birthplace of Chinese cinema, has 122 movie theaters, just two more than the No. 1 Beijing market. The U.S. Consulate, which sponsored the study, said it plans to contribute more to protecting IP rights, Shanghai Daily reported. Karlovy Vary To Fete John Travolta, Premiere ‘Killing Season’ The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will present John Travolta with its Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. The June 28-July 6 event also will host the world premiere of Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season starring Travolta and Robert De Niro. “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent,” Karlovy Vary fest president Ji?í Bartoška said. “His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honored to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.” Previous recipients of the Crystal Globe include De Niro, Robert Redford, Michael Douglas and Miloš Forman. Vince Gilligan, Miranda Hart Added To Edinburgh TV Fest Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and Miranda star Miranda Hart have been added to the roster for the 2013 Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. Gilligan will deliver a masterclass on his Emmy-winning drama, whose final eight episodes will begin airing shortly before the festival in August. Hart, the creator and star of BBC One sitcom Miranda, will take part in the Richard Dunn Memorial interview. As previously announced, Kevin Spacey will deliver the keynote MacTaggart Lecture at the fest which runs August 22-24. Helen Mirren’s ‘The Audience’ Sets National Theatre Live Record Helen Mirren’s West End play The Audience was broadcast live to movie screens worldwide last week and became National Theatre Live’s biggest attraction yet. Mirren won an Olivier Award for playing Queen Elizabeth II in the Peter Morgan-scripted play performed at London’s Gielgud Theatre. The Associated Press reports the live retransmission was seen by nearly 30,000 people in North America and nearly 80,000 people in the UK, a record for the four-year-old NT Live program. Encore screenings are planned throughout the summer. Here’s a link to find movie theaters in the U.S and the UK that are showing the play. Antoine de Caunes To Take Over As Host Of Canal Plus’ ‘Le Grand Journal’ Canal Plus’ flagship news and interview show Le Grand Journal is getting a new host. With Michel Denisot exiting after nine seasons to concentrate on his new role as editorial director of the French version of Vanity Fair, Canal Plus veteran Antoine de Caunes reportedly is set to take over. The new show will get an overhaul, according to French daily Libération, to focus more on entertainment and perhaps resembl