Satellite picture of smog bank trapped on China coast, taken November 6, 2009. Source: NASA If you rolled out of bed this today clawing at your throat like a French legionnaire in the Sahara, you might not be crazy: it might be the air. This jaw-dropping photo from NASA (taken November 6) charts the progress of a temperature inversion (i.e. smog bank) that has been trapped on China's coast for the past week. That noise you hear? Your lungs, sobbing like babies. Source: NASA Observatory...

On Wednesday we told you about how the recent comments of Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew made during his latest trip to the US have caused an uproar among Chinese netizens. Aside from his more controversial statements that Asia needs the United States to counterbalance a rising China and that the US needs to be "an important part" of any new East Asian architecture, Lee also gave a wide-ranging interview to the Charlie Rose Show of the PBS network. China featured heavily in the 60 minute interview which kicked off with Lee's proclamation that the United States may have...

A recent prostitution bust in Henan has gotten netizens into a fury... against the police, who were videotaped interrogating a naked woman in an incredibly rough fashion. [CNNGo] We can't get enough of stories about the Chongqing corruption trials, so we're glad we get to hear two of our favorite China journalists, Paul French and Malcolm Moore, discuss "China's Chicago." [Ethical Corp] So how are Chinese propaganda departments dealing with new media rules that don't allow them to really "stop" people from being interviewed? By wining and dining reporters and other "soft" forms of intimidation. [Telegraph] Chinese women are...

We documented our Halloween celebration with pictures, more pictures and even a video! We went to Origin on Taikang Lu and found their sandwiches and salads refreshing and delicious. Then we headed over to three different places to get some soup for comforting our flu-ridden bodies. We laughed at a photo of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing chess on The Bund. We discussed, and then let other people discuss, Disneyland coming to Shanghai. We laughed at, but then agreed with a quote by a Guangdong family planning official that proposed giving sex toys to migrant workers. We recorded...

Hint: Tiger Woods is not one of them. Check out the whole list here....