The Best Cultural Revolution Photos You’ll See Today

Cultural Revolution
The NY Times’s photography blog, Lens, has just published 20 stunning pictures from the Cultural Revolution, a “panoramic view” that includes Little Red Books, an execution, and an elongated dunce cap. The images were taken by Harbin photojournalist Li Zhensheng, “perhaps the most complete and nuanced pictorial account of the decade of turmoil ignited by Mao... Read more »

Woman, Wailing And Resisting, Dragged Away By Traffic Cops

Woman dragged away by Changsha police
One of the more popular Youku videos from last week, with 264,000 views, this recent incident in Changsha, HubeiHunan province has people talking. The woman in the picture was allegedly riding a motorized scooter in a part of town where they weren't allowed, and when she resisted something or other, traffic cops (possibly chengguan) decided to drag her away. When someone tried to film the proceeding, the camera got tossed into the grass. The woman's off-camera wails are far scarier when that's all you hear.

Upon A Massive Fireball Caused By Pipe Explosion, A Man And Young Child Converse

Shijiazhuang pipe explosion
A neighborhood sinkhole in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province on Saturday afternoon caused a gas pipe to explode, sending up a huge column of fire that scorched several cars and forced hundreds to evacuate. After firefighters controlled the conflagration, the resulting pit in the road was 10 meters in diameter. Luckily, no one was hurt. In the video above, a man and small child (let's just assume father and son) stand at a distance and watch, all the way until there's another explosion -- at which point they scurry.

Truckin’, With 18 Trucks On My Bed

Truckin featured image
Remember this truck with two other trucks stacked on it? It was very much worthy of the Robert Crumb "truckin'" cartoon, but it's no match for this truck here, shown lugging 18 trucks. Posted last week to YouTube by VIPCRUISING.

Another Fight On A Chinese Flight, This Time Caught On Camera

Flight fight
Last week, a "violent fight" between two Chinese passengers on a 200-person flight from Zurich to Beijing caused the pilot (or an equally harebrained decision-maker) to turn the plane around after more than six hours in the air. (I can't imagine what possible reason a pilot could give for doing this, or the passengers' resultant anger.) Sadly, no one on the flight took a video, but we imagine it would have looked something like the above