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).

Fragments of the Tocharian: At Salon's How the World Works blog, Andrew Leonard examines the global ramifications of Ji Xianlin's studies in the Tocharian language:

Earlier this week, the Indian government bestowed one of its greatest honors, the Padma Bushan award, on the 97-year-old Ji, in honor of his contributions to cross-cultural understanding. In the realpolitik of Chinese-Indian diplomacy, the move was immediately interpreted as as indicating a positive direction in the relationship between the two countries.

Symbolically speaking, the theory has some merit. Ji has long been a believer in the transformative virtue of translation. When he received a lifetime achievement award in China in 2006 for his contributions to the field of translation, he observed that "The reason our Chinese culture has been able to remain consistent and rich throughout its 5,000 years of history is closely linked to translation. Translations from other cultures have helped infuse new blood into our culture."

China admits two Olympic construction deaths: At the Times Online, Jane Macartney reports on a press conference in which Beijing disclosed that several deaths have occurred during the construction of Olympic venues:

Ding Zhenkuan, deputy head of the Beijing Bureau of Work Safety, grudgingly revealed the toll only after he came under pressure during a rare early evening news conference. Mr Ding at first dismissed the report in The Sunday Times. But then said: "There were two deaths at the Bird’s Nest, one in 2006 and one in 2007. We have properly compensated the families, reported the accidents to the construction community and seriously punished those responsible."

But it was only amid confusion over the total number of dead and injured that Mr Ding finally revealed that another four people had died during construction of the other Olympic venues, bringing the total to six. He declined to give details of how or where they died and virtually scampered out of the media spotlight.

Heavy snow for next three days, chaos continues: From Xinhua:

China's worst winter weather in five decades will continue over the next three days, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) told a news conference Wednesday.

The heavy snow and sleet has paralyzed transport and coal shipments, and led to travelers cramming railways stations and airports and power supply reductions in almost half of the 31 provinces and regions on the Chinese mainland.

China's champion blogging boxer: The New Yorker has published a profile by Evan Osnos of China's blogging, boxing champ Zou Shunli, who has a decent crack at Olympic gold.

Matt Roberts of About.com China: Interfax has published an interview with former Dow Jones executive Matt Jones, who is now heading About.com's China operations, introduced thusly:

U.S. based Web site About.com, which offers users advice from specialists on topics ranging from body building to horticulture, has been quietly expanding in China. Last year, without public announcement, the company opened its About.com China office in Beijing. In November, testing of a Chinese version of the site, called Abang.com, started.

About.com is a subsidiary of The New York Times Company.