I probably would have thought that this was the real thing if it was on the supermarket shelf. It’s not like I really care that much about washing powder…
Jan 282011
This past Sunday has been labeled “Black Sunday” by Chinese netizens after China’s major file sharing site VeryCD disabled all its downloads.
Being one of the leading file-sharing sites in China, VeryCD was the major source of eMule downloads for music and videos. It had virtually everything – from Hollywood blockbusters to Korean pop songs to Japanese TV shows. Although the site is still accessible, all download links have been removed, in its place are links to licensed contents. VeryCD is now moving towards legitimacy by obtaining an official license to operate and moving towards authorized content.
After 7 years of good times, a lot of users will definitely be deeply saddened. After avoiding a crackdown against many similar sites in 2008, the pressure on VeryCD in 2011 was clearly too much. Earlier this month, China’s attempts at reducing copyright infringement have increasingly targeted the digital domain and while Youtube-like sites have taken up much of the spotlight, it was only a matter of time before linking sites like VeryCD felt similar heat.
It seems the crackdown on online piracy is now in full force and a lot earlier than most anticipated. Earlier this month, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security released a document which detailed penalties for online copyright infringement.
If someone uploads a movie, TV show, music, software or even image to the Internet without the consent of the copyright holder, penalties apply if certain conditions are met. These include if more than 500 pieces of the work are spread to others, if total online downloads hit 50,000 or if a site where the material is located has a sign-up membership of more than 1,000. Penalties are harsh – between 3 and 7 years in jail.
via TorrentFreak.
Traditionally, the luxury sports car market is dominated by men. However, in China, women are leading the way in purchase of exotic cars.
China’s millionaires are growing by the minute. Sales of high-end automobiles rose 60 percent last year and analysts are already pegging a 35 percent climb for 2011.
A third of China’s millionaires are women so that means the sales of exotic cars is going to be huge. Already, the percentage of women buying Maseratis in China is triple that of Europe, while the percentage buying Ferraris is double the global average. Maserati reports that 30 percent of its Chinese sales are to women, compared against just 10 percent for European sales. China is now on track to pass Italy as the automaker’s second largest market.
The rise in exotic vehicle sales has even gotten the attention of Bugatti, and the Volkswagen Group is now discussing a potential sales plan for China.
The craziest thing about this sales growth is that the cars sold in China cost typically double the price compared to those sold in the U.S.. The reason for this is the high tariff for cars assembled overseas (Almost all luxury sports cars are not assembled in China).
I guess that’s why you call them crazy rich…
via Autoblog.
Jan 232011
Great news! The Chinese government has issued a ban on animal circuses and certain types of animal abuse at zoos that is in effect immediately.
The ban entails several different stipulations that zoos will need to comply with, and pertains to the 300 state-owned zoos that are part of the China Zoo Association. Firstly, the zoos will be forced to stop pulling the teeth of tiger cubs so that zoo visitors can hold them. Zoos will also have to put a halt to the selling of animal parts in their shops, and the zoo restaurants will have to refrain form serving dishes made using rare animals. On top of this, zoos will need to end the attractions in which live animals are sold to visitors and then thrown to the wild cats, allowing the visitors to watch the cats rip the defenseless animals to shreds. Finally, the zoos will also need to provide the animals with adequate housing, away from disturbance and irritation.
For those of who want a better idea of the animal abuse in China can check out the following video:
This is a big step for China. If the ban is properly enforced; this will make China a better place for animals compared to even many Western countries.
I am quite surprised to hear about this ban. It will definitely affect many zoos and is not an issue most Chinese would care about. Apparently, China’s State Forestry Bureau discovered that more than 50 zoos contained animals that had suffered severely from abuse after a three-month investigation. Well I guess the Chinese government does care about ethical issues and will use its power to make things right.
The great thing about China is when something needs to be done, it gets done. The greatest concern now is that the ban will inevitably push many zoos towards bankruptcy, leaving many animals with possibly nowhere to go.
I guess all this means I won’t be able to taste white tiger meat anymore…
via reddit via Huffington Post
Jan 212011
This is one of those before and after makeup pictures. However, I realized that this girl wasn’t really that ugly compared to the others…
What I don’t understand is the number of girls in China who pay to have photos of them, in ancient outfits, taken. I thought that only tourists would do such a thing. Does this raise their marketability to men considerably? Is there some sort of weird cosplay fetish going on in China?
Jan 202011
via reddit
Sorry for the Chinese video without English subs but this is something that is too good to pass…
Yeah, wtf is wrong with the younger generation.
Jan 172011
In Taiwan, you better have a good excuse for not paying debt, especially, that owed to drug dealers or you might end up losing something “very” precious.
This 28 year old man found out the hard way. He only owed 4,700 Taiwan Dollars (or 160 USD).
Taiwan has so many crazy stories. So a man who is pronounced dead is revived in a bizarre Buddhist ritual.
I’m more surprised that you can just check out a corpse and bring it back home in Taiwan. Are the hospital staff not responsible for checking the patient’s vitals before releasing him? Either way, more scary than the ritual itself.
These mp3 players from MANNDigital will sure drive Steve Jobs insane. Not only are they clear rip-offs of the iPod shuffle, but they are so poorly made they will make you cringe. None of the rip-offs are consistently built: the buttons are located differently and the orientation of the buttons are all different.
