Reuters: China steeled for worse weather as holidays loom more ›

Even though we've long put our public relations days behind us, we can't help but think what a day in the life of a PR executive at Starbucks must be like. They must all have been working overtime lately with the Seattle-based coffee company hitting the headlines like crazy lately. First it was the landmark victory against Shanghai Xingbake, then there was the trans fat issue. more ›

Torontoist has some awesome, cutting edge news: A movie is being made about a gay hockey player - filmmakers even got approval from the NHL and the Toronto Maple Leafs! Also awesome: Toronto's "Do the Sneeze Sleeve Campaign". And most awesome is this dreamy photograph of Toronto's skyline in fog. more ›

We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network! more ›

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. more ›

We suppose this is what we should expect from an illegal hookup. Why illegal? Because there is no legal alternative. Believe us, we'd be the first in line to sign up for a reliable and legit satellite dish, if one existed. But it doesn't. We use Dream satellite TV out of the Philippines, only they don't know about it. It's the same service most people use here, we think. Last summer, tired of Chinese historical dramas and infomericals, we finally called one of the numbers on one of the hundreds of satellite fliers that overflowed from our mailbox, a husband and wife team showed up at our apartment, and she held on to his belt while he risked his life installing the satellite outside out our 13th floor window. We paid around RMB 1,600 -- a one-time fee, they said. They warned us that sometimes service would would go out -- the company in the Philippines, knowing that thousands (millions?) of people in China are using their service for free, will occasionally re-scramble their codes (or something like that) -- but that wouldn't be a problem, because all they need to do is get us a newly coded card to put in our box. They would do that free of charge, and the most we'd be left without satellite service would be a couple days. Two hundred bucks for lifetime satellite TV? With nothing more to pay ... ever? Life was good. Fifty-two channels (Dream 890 is the plan we appear to have) ... most of them in English. We even had a soft-core porn channel that seemed to be on an endless loop of tantric sex how-to videos and B-movies starring Kari Wuhrer (that channel has since been discontinued). more ›

Just when you thought you were all grown up and could do things on your own, your parents find a new way to interfere -- at least that might be the case for hundreds of young adults in Shanghai, whose parents are worried that they are too old to be single. Taking matchmaking to the next level was a “parent’s chat meeting,” which, according to the current print edition of the Shanghai Star, started in July to let parents try to hook up their kids -- according to some criteria of course. Can you believe that the waiting list for these monthy meetings extends until next January? more ›