2017 Year of the Fire Rooster

[GeneChing]

Sorta dumb as articles go, but appropo for this thread.

Westside Story – Martial Arts Is For Chickens
MAY 2, 2017 BY JOE BOYLE

When I was a kid, we were so poor we could not afford a dog. Instead, our family pet was a chicken.


Family pet – Feathers.

The chicken, who I called Feathers, helped me with my 5th-grade science fair project. The premise of my science experiment was to ascertain if I could teach my chicken martial arts. Actually, as I just finished telling you, I was a 5th grader, so realistically, the word ascertain could not have been in my 72-word vocabulary.

Allow me to restate my target disclosure sentence. The premise of my science experiment was to find out if I could teach my chicken martial arts.

By hanging out at the dojo every day and through diligent study of judo, I had worked myself all the way up to a 1st degree white belt.

I am happy to report that I earned an “A” and took the first place ribbon in the science fair for my grade level. That is the good news. The bad news is the chicken, who had earned a black belt in judo, put me in the hospital for 3 days.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is some old 8mm film I converted to video. The film was taken during a chicken judo training session.



You may get a good out of the film, but I do not think it is that funny.

So, I got the last laugh.

[GeneChing]

So on topic it hurts. I'd totally play this.

[@PLUGO]

Apparently it's been on tour.

[GeneChing]

China's 'richest chicken farmer' front of brood for Moy Park


Northern Irish Poultry giant Moy Park is being eyed by Chinese agrichemical giant New Hope

Ashley Armstrong, retail editor
19 AUGUST 2017 • 8:30PM

China's richest chicken farmer has joined a brood of bidders vying for a £1bn takeover of Northern Irish poultry giant Moy Park.

Liu Yonghao, chairman of China’s agrichemical business New Hope, started his company in 1982 by investing in breeding quails and chickens to sell on to other farmers.

He made a fortune as the Chinese appetite for meat soared and the business has grown to become one of the largest non-government conglomerates in China, with nearly 70,000 employees across 30 countries.

Industry sources said that New Hope was now the frontrunner to clinch Moy Park after the firm was put up for sale in June by its Brazilian owners in the wake of a political corruption scandal.


Liu Yonghao started the business with his brothers in 1982 investing in chickens and quails.

JBS bought the business just two years ago for £1.2bn but is now rapidly trying to offload assets to cut its debt pile. Its weak financial position has been exacerbated after its controlling shareholder, J&F Investimentos, entered into a 10.3bn real (£2.5bn) plea bargain for its role in a political corruption scandal in Brazil.

Moy Park is the largest private employer in Northern Ireland with 6,300 workers based in County Armagh.

Chinese group WH, which controls the world’s largest pork producer Smithfield Foods, has also previously been tipped as a suitor for the business. Other companies believed to be interested include US-based Tyson Foods, Brazilian food company BRF and private equity firm CapVest.

Bankers close to the process said that a deal was unlikely to be derailed by the Chinese government’s crackdown on overseas acquisitions as New Hope could prove there was industrial logic behind a takeover and argue that the deal would boost China’s efforts towards self-sufficiency in agriculture.

Last week, China’s State Council said that it would restrict “irrational” foreign takeovers of property, film, entertainment, sports and hotel companies. The move follows a string of overseas leisure deals by Dalian Wanda and *Fosun.

Overseas deals by Chinese companies hit a record $170bn (£132bn) in 2016, prompting the Chinese government to scrutinise some companies.

I've always wondered why quails can't be GH'ed and GMO'ed to produce more meat like chickens have been. Seems to me that quail would be more marketable if they could be mass farmed like chickens, but now they are probably too small and bony to be as profitable.

[GeneChing]

YEAR OF THE TRUMPDOG
A mall in China is ringing in the year of the dog with a Trump-inspired dog statue


Meet #TrumpDog. (Weibo/FashionWalk)

WRITTEN BY
Echo Huang
7 hours ago

The Chinese mall best known for its statue of a rooster modeled after Donald Trump has done it again. Brace yourself for #TrumpDog.

To ring in the Lunar New Year in February, FashionWalk, a shopping mall in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, has erected a massive Trump-inspired dog statue at its entrance (link in Chinese). Aside from sporting the US president’s signature hairdo and golden eyebrows, the statue is depicted with its index finger (if dogs have fingers, that is) pointing upward—a “well-recognized pose” of Trump during the US presidential debates, reports Newsweek.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

People's Daily,China
✔
@PDChina
Welcome the #TrumpDog: A giant dog figure sporting Trump's hairdo and gesture is seen outside a shopping mall in downtown Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, heralding the upcoming Year of the Dog. US President Trump was born in 1946 in the Year of the Dog.

6:30 PM - Dec 25, 2017
46 46 Replies 361 361 Retweets 586 586 likes
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No doubt, #TrumpDog is a ploy, just like #TrumpRooster before it, to draw international attention, but this year’s depiction is especially poignant since Trump was born in 1946, the year of the dog, according to the Chinese zodiac. But that’s no reason to celebrate.

People take pictures with mobile phones of a sculpture of a rooster that local media say bears resemblance to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China December 30, 2016.


The Trump-inspired rooster statue. (Reuters/Jon Woo)

In Chinese culture, it’s generally believed to be bad luck if the zodiac animal of the current year is the same as the year you were born in, something that happens every 12 years. For example, if it’s the year of the dog, bad luck will befall all those who were born on prior years of the dog.

I can't remember a U.S. president ever being so mocked internationally. Maybe Nixon during his impeachment...

thread: 2018 Year of the EARTH DOG
thread: 2017 Year of the Fire Rooster