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March 2007 - Posts

Gotta whole lotta love: Thinking blogs

Posted Saturday, March 31, 2007 4:47 AM by will
Imagethief is not normally a fan of self-referential blog memes. They foster a groan-inducing chain-letter sense of obligation. If included, is it churlish of me not to participate? They also smack slightly of sexually transmitted diseases. I gave it Read More...
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A true thing

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 12:15 PM by will
A westerner's cubicle, desk and screensaver will be covered with pictures of the significant other, the pets, and maybe romantic couple shots. A young Chinese woman's cubicle, desk and screensaver will be covered with photographs of her. In the event Read More...
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Thursday PR blog: Finger lickin' cheap

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:38 AM by will
Uh oh. PR trouble is brewing for McDonalds and KFC, which have been accused by the Chinese media of underpaying their Chinese labor. From the AP , via the China Daily : McDonald's and [KFC owner] Yum Brands Inc. spokesmen in China responded by saying Read More...
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Bank of China opens private wanking service

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:04 AM by will
I'm sorry, that should have been "private banking service". Damn those tiny little keys. Imagethief was put into a foul mood by the Bank of China today. First I spent an hour in line waiting for my number to be called while my bladder slowly filled with Read More...
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Wednesday PR blog: How to say "no" to a blogging journalist

Posted Wednesday, March 28, 2007 9:21 AM by will
Imagethief enjoys following the blogs of several of the foreign correspondents stationed in Beijing. Among the blogs I read is that of Tim Johnson, the correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers. McClatchy runs several newspapers, most of which are in smaller Read More...
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The devil wears Prada, and won't rent me an apartment

Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2007 6:02 AM by will
Imagethief hates looking for an apartment. Once I am comfortable someplace, I'll tend to stick with it unless there is some external factor that forces me to move. That could be a raise that lets me upgrade, the relocation of my office, a crack house Read More...
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Tuesday PR bloglet: The red detachment of anchormen

Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2007 4:35 AM by will
An interesting story by The Washington Post's Ed Cody on CCTV's flagship "Network News Broadcast", which is stuck in something of a time-warp as other Chinese news shows get more contemporary: Despite the party's strict censorship, some provincial television Read More...
5 Comments

Truly crappy paper

Posted Monday, March 26, 2007 9:24 PM by will
Let's hope this is never seen as a solution to handling problems with human waste. What I like is the irrepressible spirit of competition and one-upmanship. Our animal-dropping paper will be even better than Thai animal dropping paper: Liao Jun, a researcher Read More...
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Drowning

Posted Thursday, March 22, 2007 8:34 AM by will
Too much work. Looking for an apartment. Moving wife and cats to Shanghai. Working late. Eating badly. Not dead, but no time to post. More soon. Will Read More...
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You think we have a video sharing bubble in China?

Posted Thursday, March 15, 2007 7:14 AM by will
Perry Wu of China Tech News does. And he has a convincing case . A mining company that has suddenly decided it wants to be in the video sharing business: On March 5, 2007, Admax Resources changed its name to China YouTV Corporation. I'm not joking when Read More...
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Shi Tao case: Yahoo absolved legally, not morally

Posted Thursday, March 15, 2007 6:33 AM by will
In the last day or so there has been widespread coverage of the acquittal of Yahoo by the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner in any wrongdoing in the handing over of Shi Tao's account information to the Chinese authorities. I am not going to write about this Read More...
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Thursday PR shocker: 44% of Chinese consumers "seriously violated"

Posted Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:29 AM by will
Good lord, imagine the psychological consequences. But it turned out to be not quite what I thought. In fact, the China Daily article from which I got this precious nugget of infotainment turned out to be commenting on violations of the "rights of Chinese Read More...
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Kello Kitty mugger positively identified as Imagethief reader

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:20 PM by will
Attentive readers will recall yesterday's debate on the ethnic identity of this sinister looking cartoon man: I can report that the mystery is solved. Not only is the ethnicity of "give me money" man no longer a mystery, his actual identity has been unraveled. Read More...
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Hey, isn't that the guy who mugged Hello Kitty?

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2007 1:09 AM by will
Windows Live Messenger (nee MSN Messenger) is the IM tool of choice in my company, and pretty much the default communication mechanism. Occasionally I have to stick my head out of my office door and yell at people ten feet away to come talk to me face-to-face. Read More...
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CNET 62: HiPiHi -- China's Second-Life

Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2007 7:42 AM by will
HiPiHi: China's Second-Life March 13, 2007 China is well known for picking up western ideas and gleefully running with them. They've certainly been doing this in the Internet industry, where they have launched successful search engines (Baidu), auction Read More...
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CNET 61: Latest Internet cafe ban an exercise in futility

Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2007 7:40 AM by will
Latest Internet cafe ban an exercise in futility March 13, 2007 As usual, the annual full session of the National Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NCPPCC) is proving a fertile time for crackdowns on things seen to be damaging to Chinese Read More...
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Imagethief on BBC - the interview that China didn't want you to hear

Posted Tuesday, March 06, 2007 3:32 AM by will
You'd think they'd have bigger fish to fry. It's just taxis, fer chrissake. At any rate, here is the interview * I did on Beijing's smelly taxis with BBC Radio Five's " Pods and Blogs " program this morning (RealAudio link), despite the government's best Read More...
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A most peculiar conversation makes Imagethief paranoid

Posted Monday, March 05, 2007 7:55 PM by will
Imagethief is sometimes surprised at which posts drive the big discussions. I certainly didn't expect yesterday's throwaway on smelly taxis to be quite the lightning rod that it has been. But has it got me in trouble with the state? I ask because this Read More...
15 Comments

But onion breath disguises the smell of burning motor oil

Posted Sunday, March 04, 2007 10:42 PM by will
Imagethief, who has been subjected to the depravities of Beijing's taxi drivers more times than he cares to remember, was elated to see the following stern article from Xinhua this weekend: Smelly taxis warned to tarnish Beijing's image in 2008 (Xinhua) Read More...
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CNET 60: Yeeyan translates Chinese tech news and blogs into English

Posted Sunday, March 04, 2007 3:39 AM by will
Yeeyan translates Chinese tech news and blogs into English March 4, 2007 Yeeyan is a new Chinese blog that runs a great two-way translation service, translating English blog posts and articles on a number of topics into Chinese and vice-versa. "Yeeyan" Read More...
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CNET 59: Does it matter if Google can't have Gmail.cn?

Posted Saturday, March 03, 2007 7:38 AM by will
Does it matter if Google can't have Gmail.cn? March 3, 2007 A few days ago Reuters published an article about Google's attempts to buy the Gmail.cn domain from a Chinese company. It seems that Google has been frustrated in its attempts to get its hands Read More...
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Don't like China Daily? Check out New Light of Myanmar

Posted Saturday, March 03, 2007 2:58 AM by will
With all due respect to the many fine people who have worked there, the China Daily is not one of the world's great newspapers. Last night, at a cold and windswept drinkathon at an outside table at Shanghai's Cotton bar, Imagethief found himself in a Read More...
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