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China

China’s Shaanxi Normal University introduces standing urinals for women (yes, it involves a funnel)

September 30, 2010
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For once, weird urinal news is coming out of China — not Japan, the usual land of body fluid obsession. A few days ago, Shaanxi Normal University unveiled a new pilot program aimed at conserving water. By using standing urinals, it’s said, women can save the university an estimated 160 tons of water (annually, I assume). Reactions thus far have been mixed. One student tried for “2 to 3 minutes” but ultimately couldn’t drain her ladysnake. Why so pee shy, Chinawomen?

UPDATE: Police arrest Xiao Chuanguo for attack on Fang Zhouzi, China’s ‘science cop’

September 22, 2010
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Though little known in the U.S., Fang Zhouzi is China’s famous “Science Cop.” He goes after high-profile intellectuals, academics and executives, charging them with exaggeration, crackpottery and sometimes even outright fraud. It seems that he may have finally gone too far.

Photo: Macau, China

September 6, 2010
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Mormons hope to be officially ‘regularized’ just like other ‘imported’ faiths in China

September 3, 2010
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They may be Christianity’s retarded uncle who shows up at family reunions wearing brown shoes, blue slacks and a tinfoil hat, but the Mormons are everywhere. And everywhere includes China, where their faith isn’t even recognized as a religion. The LDS church would like to change that.

Focus on the Family’s abstinence education now being taught in China’s schools

September 1, 2010
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You know how tobacco companies are giving up on the American market and instead shifting their efforts to developing nations to find their next generation of smokers? The same thing may be happening with abstinence education. Seems that Focus on the Family’s abstinence literature has been adopted by at least one school district in China.

Chinese company uses scantily clad Princess Diana lookalike to advertise lingerie

September 1, 2010
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The Daily Mail is reporting that this advertisement is currently appearing in at least one Chinese airport. Tsk tsk. And just 14 years after her death.

Now China is creeping into disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan

August 30, 2010
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The Kashmir Conflict is already murky. India controls one large chunk, Pakistan another. Both have standing armies in the area, ever wary of even the slightest encroachment by the other. It’s the perfect symbol for the tensions between those two countries. It’s also cited as the situation most likely to cause nuclear war between the neighbors. And now, China is getting involved.

Photo: At the Great Wall, China

August 23, 2010
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Being slut and/or homewrecker to be grounds for expulsion at several Chinese universities

August 19, 2010
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As capitalism spreads across China, minting new millionaires every day, the age-old tradition of rich-man-keep-young-woman may suffer under the nosy lens of modernity. At least when it comes to wealthy dudes forming “special relationships” with college-age girls.

China’s Three Gorges Dam turning into giant trash can

August 2, 2010
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China is proud of its Three Gorges Dam, which reportedly cost $22 billion. After operating successfully for 3 years, the massive hydroelectric generator is getting clogged with trash. (File under: “Finally, news that someone else is ruining their own environment”)

Big tourism in little China: 120 dwarfs start their own theme park

September 29, 2009
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Though my bullshit sensor is clanging louder than the dinner bell at a fat camp, I can’t resist reporting this one. Tired of being bullied by the full-sized world, a group of 120 dwarfs have set up their own little village in southern China. This being the 21st century, they’ve naturally invited tourists to pay [...]

Meet the Tibetan Mastiff worth $600,000

September 11, 2009
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In China, a woman identified only as Mrs. Wang bought a rare Tibetan Mastiff for the equivalent of $600,000. Here it is: Even if she’s planning to serve that mutt with a nice chianti, Mrs. Wang overpaid. —Chinese millionaire spends £350,000 on rare Tibetan mastiff dog | The Telegraph

Tired of traffic-stopping suicides, authorities coat popular bridge with butter

August 28, 2009
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When fences and polite signs didn’t stop suicidal citizens from jumping from their bridge, authorities in southeast China turned to their refrigerators for one last solution. From Metro: Chinese workers have covered a giant steel bridge with butter because officials are fed up with traffic jams caused by people who slow down to watch suicide [...]

Busted: Human traffickers specializing in…Chinese chefs?

August 18, 2009
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For once, here’s a story about human trafficking that doesn’t involve underage girls, Russian heroin and back-alley whorehouses. From the Local: Law enforcement officers staged nationwide raids on Monday as part of an investigation into a Chinese human trafficking ring providing “specialty cooks” to restaurants across Germany. Some 1,330 customs officials, as well as state [...]

China practices for its inevitable “Children of Men”-style lockdown

August 7, 2009
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Two months ago, in a post about border tensions between Brazil and Argentina over swine flu, I asked this question: Can you imagine the swift brutality with which, say, China would confront a genuine medical crisis?

Neverland Ranch to rise again, in China

July 8, 2009
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If you were too old, or too female, to have been invited to Neverland Ranch in its heyday, fret not — an ambitious entrepreneur in China will make your dream come true. From China.org: Several quick minded businessmen plan to build a replicated Neverland Ranch in suburban Shanghai, a move both aimed at satisfy Chinese [...]

Chinese authorities fail to see romance in dead boy + dead girl wedding ceremony

June 16, 2009
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This week’s “Oh, Those Crazy Villagers” story comes from rural China, where authorities weren’t happy that a girl’s body was dug up and married to a young man who’d died in a car crash. From the Telegraph: The suspects included a grieving father who allegedly paid his four accomplices around £2,700 pounds to find a [...]

Third acid attack rattles Hong Kong shoppers

June 10, 2009
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If you’re shopping in Hong Kong anytime soon, you might want to avoid the crowded Mong Kok district. From the Straits Times: A BOTTLE of acid thrown into a crowd in one of Hong Kong’s most densely populated shopping districts injured 24 pedestrians, police said on Tuesday, the third in a series of attacks that [...]

China allows nude bathhouse to reopen

June 10, 2009
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Three weeks ago, authorities in Chongqing, China not only shut down the sex-themed amusement park Love Land — they bulldozed it for being “vulgar, ill-minded and misleading.” Apparently they don’t have a problem with nude bathhouses: China’s controversial nude bathhouse has been reopened in southwestern Sichuan province, despite a public outcry that forced authorities to [...]

For MGM Mirage, alleged gangster ‘Pansy Ho’ is perfectly fine biz partner

June 4, 2009
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Who says a woman named Pansy Ho would make a bad partner in the casino business, just because her father has alleged ties to organized crime? The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, that’s who. And that makes MGM Mirage very happy. From AP (by way of Forbes): A top MGM Mirage executive said Wednesday [...]

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