Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian square off in New Jersey Monday night. Notice how the I Heart China gang was there in full force. [H/t to John Shabe of NJ.com!]
Photos: Yao Ming vs Yi Jianlian in New Jersey
A more humane way to die?
It is no secret by now. China executes more people than the rest of the world put together (yes, even more than the Islamic world). In fact, Amnesty International says China carries out about 80 percent of the world's total capital punishments, if not more (1,770 people in 2005). The recent UN vote for a moratorium on executions saw a fractious two-day debate between the anti-execution camp led by Italy and the pro-execution camp led by Singapore, which has the ignominious honour of having the highest number of executions per capita in the world (coming from there, we are ashamed). The result of the vote: 104 for, 54 against and 29 abstentions. Opponents of the moratorium included the United States, China and Iran (one rarely finds these three countries in the same camp).
All they need is some bad medicine*
1. university students who might be studying medicine and could use the cash, 2. people who want to further the cause of medicine (and who might be sick themselves, and thus have a stake in it), and 3. people who are in it just for the money.
Is Yahoo a moral pygmy?
Last weekend, we told you that Yahoo! is now apologizing for not telling the full truth to Congress at the February 2006 hearing where Yahoo! was taken to task for its role in the conviction of Chinese journalist Shi Tao. Now both Republicans and Democrats have launched scathing attacks on Yahoo. San Mateo Democrat Tom Lantos has called Yahoo "moral pygmies", and New Jersey Republican Chris Smith compared Yahoo’s cooperation with the Chinese government to companies that cooperated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Applebee's: Xujiahui's neighborhood grill & bar
During our times in the suburbs of New Jersey (don't hate), the American restaurant chain Applebee's was always a friendly place for meals with family and late night gatherings with friends. All of those nostalgic feelings came rushing back as Shanghaiist read some rumors on the internets about the opening of the chain's first outlet in China. With our curiosity peaked, we decided to go check it out. As Shanghaiist and accompanying guest entered the...
Stand-up comedy tomorrow night
Has the destruction of Wujiang Lu got you down? Need a quick picker-upper? If so, you might think about heading down to Henry's Brewery & Grill for a nice dose of comedy to turn that frown upside down. Does Henry's sound familiar to you, oh dearest reader? That's because it will also be the host of Shanghaiist next Happy Hour. Okay, that's enough self-promoting. This isn't the first time there's been some stand-up comedy on...
Who will perform at Live Earth Shanghai?
Or more like who won't be performing. We've already told you about Live Earth, Al Gore's 24-hour, 7-continent series of concerts on 7/7/07. Well, lists of performers at different venues (cities participating are: East Rutherford, New Jersey [near New York]; London; Rio de Janeiro; Maropeng [near Johannesburg]; Tokyo; Shanghai; and Sydney) are starting to be announced. First up, the US and the UK.
More f*ckin' regulations
The report, in Chinese gives us a brief glimpse of a bunch of new regulations called, in Chinese, 《上海市民公共行为条例》, or something like "Shanghai citizens' public behavior regulations." The million dollar question is whether or not this thing has any teeth, or put in more everyday terms, how much will we have to fork over if we are caught doing something "bad"?
Stuck in Shanghai for the holidays?
Lucky for Shanghaiist, we won't be. But we certainly feel for people who will be stuck in the city for the holidays. So we've compiled an incomplete list of a few things to keep you occupied while your friends are back home drinking eggnog and getting wasted with family around the Christmas tree.
Chinese co. sues for IPR protection in US, hell freezes over
As the convential wisdom goes, China will not respect other's intellectual property rights (IPR) until its own IPR needs protection. If this is true, then IPR in China recently took a significant step forward as the Financial Times is reporting that a litigious Shenzhen USB flash drive manufacturer Netac has hired Morgan Lewis & Bockius to sue New Jersey computer hardware manufacturer PNY Technologies for infringing upon Netac's patent for USB flash memory drives, or key drives (that's US Patent #6,829,672 for you IP boffins out there).
This Week In -ist: Elsewhere in the Gothamist Network
Austinist was in an entertainment state of mind as they covered the dickens out of the Austin Film Festival, depicted all the Big 12 football coaches as South Park characters, and interviewed Jose Gonzalez.
Mystery Man: Chinabounder, Part III
Xinmin Wang (新民网) has an article on Chinabounder (in Chinese) that adds a few more puzzles to the story. It seems that the Oriental Morning Post (东方早报) has been getting leads and tips from the internet now claims to know the identity of Chinabounder.
DPRK fires a few missiles, China yet to say a word
At approximately 4:22 pm Beijing time today, North Korea test launched yet another missile amidst a sea of international furor and condemnation after six fired earlier in the day.
Toodou.com: Will the revolution will be vidblogged?
Shanghaiist just read a recent newspaper article about China's premiere and largest pod/videocasting website , Toodou.com. Our interest piqued, we went over to the site to see what we could find -- and find stuff we did! First off, here's the CNN special on bloggers and podcasters where they interview the founder of Toodou, the US educated Gary Wang. Wang and his Dutch co-founder started the site "out of boredom," which is what cool internet startup business types nonchalantly call what is in fact their shrewed intuition of what's going to become the next big thing. Or they were really bored.
City Diner should open sometime this week (we think)
A brief note regarding the City Diner we told you about not too long ago: We have learned that it is supposed to open this week, either today or Friday, depending on who you believe. We assume the source that said today is reliable, because he was seated in one of the City Diner's booths working on a computer. We'll explain: We ate at Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on Saturday (delicious, as always) and afterwards decided to snoop around upstairs to see what the diner was looking like. Honestly, it looked a lot like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman -- the same beige pseudo-suede upholstery. We were kind of hoping for some red vinyl and at least one jukebox. The only things that really screamed "diner" were the retro Coca-Cola fridge, the hanging lights and the neon sign outside. So, we figured they still had some redesigning to do. But the guy with the computer sitting in the booth (who we didn't notice at first -- good thing we didn't steal that wine) said it was scheduled to open on Monday. And who would doubt a guy sitting in a booth working on a computer? Well, we would. We just called iiiit!, another one of Eduardo Vargas's establishments, and they said the City Diner will open Friday, but that it didn't have a phone number yet. If any of you decide to go with the computer guy's word, let us know what you find.
Fuhrer For Hire: Friendly English teacher named Adolf
This hilarious post is from Danwei (or is it now called "Asianizm"?). Apparently, Adolf Hitler is trying to get an English teaching job for kids that don't read good and want to learn other stuff (bonus points, readers, if you got that reference) in Beijing. The former Fuhrer wrote this: "I am a 117 year old German expat who is looking for a teaching job in das Chaoyang District. Preferably in ein Kindergarten. I have international experience from my previous job where I had the chance to go from London to Moscow." And this is the ad that he replied to, from That's Beijing:

