Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the "From the Web" links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).

"Getting to know", Beijing style: At the Reuters China blog, Nick Mulvenney describes the new face of BOCOG press conferences: "Getting to Know" sessions:

the "Getting to Know" session is a huge improvement on the BOCOG press conferences I attended when I first arrived in Beijing to cover the Games’ preparations back in February 2006.

Then, two or three officials would give speeches, often verbatim readings of a handout everybody received when they walked through the door, leaving time for only two or three questions in the allocated hour.

Since then, the BOCOG media department has solicited and been receptive to suggested improvements and the result is shorter "introductions", more questions and the "Getting to Know" sessions.

What they can’t change, however, is the mindset of Chinese officialdom — traditionally suspicious of foreign media and reluctant to deviate from the lecturing style.

Democracy, disparity, and disgrace: The Economic Observer's English website looks at what's on the front page of some other periodicals, including China Fortune, Southern People Weekly, and Spring and Autumn.

BA flight from Beijing crash lands - no one hurt: A passenger flight from Beijing crash landed at Heathrow Airport near London on Thursday afternoon. From CNN:

Images showed the Boeing 777 -- BA flight 38 -- grounded on tarmac after touching down several hundred meters short of the airport's south runway, close to a perimeter road, with its emergency chutes deployed.

Three people sustained 'minor injuries', no one else was hurt.