Extra! Extra! Typhoons, tiny people and the Governator

• The Shanghai city government has decided to adopt the emergency weather code used in the rest of the country -- blue, yellow, orange and red, in order of increasing severity. The typhoons that swept through Shanghai this summer caused an estimated 1.7 billion yuan in damages and lead to 216,000 and 164,000 people evacuated for Typhoons Matsa and Kanu, respectively, also a Shanghai record (in Chinese).
• Fifteen day old fetuses are considered human beings both legally and ethically. According to this report (in Chinese) some Southern China branch of the China Genome Project (this is just our rough translation) declared at a conference that after fifteen days, the fetus bears enough resemblance or has the characteristics of a human being and therefore, ought to be considered one, with all the legal and ethical implications thereof. We're sure that ex-Governor of Texas George W. Bush would be pleased to know this. Of course, this is mostly aimed at stem-cell research and not abortions. The folks at the conference also declared univocal opposition to human cloning. That's too bad, because China could have made a bundle off cloning pop stars -- why keep a good thing to ourselves, right? Share the love.
• Speaking of Governors, California's own Gropenfuhrer was at the Shanghai Museum yesterday, where he spoke a cloud of bullshit discussed issues vital to the interests of California and Shanghai. According to this article (in Chinese), the cigar chomping, breast-fondling, aristocracy-marrying, humanity-from-the-apocalypse-saving, former mass orgy connoisseur talked for a total of maybe 10 minutes, which his advisers believe represents the maximum time he can speak before exhausting his vocabulary. Then the China boss of Warner Bros. took Arnold and Maria into the backrooms to watch Harry Potter 4. Taking leave of the crowd, Arnold said, "I'll be back." Shanghaiist wants to say something acerbic and witty about this, but we'll leave that up to the reader because despite our smile, we're crying deep down inside.

Photo from the AP.