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).

What the Douban folks are reading: The current top-ten list from the book-centered social network Douban. Translated with commentary by Micah Sittig at Shanghaiist.

National lottery regulations due next year: Xinhua reports that regulations to combat fraud and other lottery abuse will be issued next year:

Calls for publishing regulations or even a law on lottery supervision have been voiced repeatedly in recent years.

At present, China has only a provisional regulation on the management of lottery distribution and sales, which was issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2002.

Actually, China has begun drawing up a national regulation more than a decade ago and it has been delayed year after year due to divergences among different government departments, such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Civil Affairs and General Administration of Sport.

Is Web2.0 a wash for free speech in China?: Rebecca MacKinnon looks at the state of free expression on the mainland's networks following several recent incidents, including the raid on Minjian editor Zhai Minglei's home, the block of the Memedia website, and the closure of a Hepatitis BBS.

Zhuang on a propaganda banner: Liuzhou Laowai has photos of banners hung up in Guangxi bearing text in the local Zhuang language, whose writing system celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Diplomatic denials show disregard for Chinese fishermen lost at sea: A dozen Chinese fisherman went missing in the South China Sea last week. Beijing Newspeak explains how a dispute over island ownership affected a rescue effort and influenced news reports:

For Xinhua to report the situation properly, the task would have to be given to the international department, which could make full use of its bureau in Manila. But handing the task over to the international department would be implying that this part of the islands was not under Chinese control. So nothing was written until the next day, when three of the fishermen were reported to have been found.