Capsule toys are really popular in Hong Kong, and all over the region you’ll see Japanese capsule machines outside of convenience stores selling various little toys, usually for dangling on your mobile phone.

These little trinkets are usually based on popular anime series, Gundams, video game characters, and food, etc. but one in particular came across as a little bizarre: “Cute & sexy” Minney Mouse Disney panty ornaments. WTF?

If this were Mainland, I would just say “whatever, copyright infringement, nothing to see here” but this is Hong Kong where that sort of thing doesn’t fly as easily. So, either this big distributor is selling knock-off bizarre toys, or Disney has some pretty different rules for its IP in Asia.

China’s interest in US President Obama never ceases to amaze me.

First it was Obama’s alleged endorsing of the Blockberry handset. Then, he was endorsing real-estate in Shaanxi province. Then there was the short-lived Obamao-mania souvenir frenzy prior to his visit to China.

Well, all of that is topped with the announcement of something so bizarre, I couldn’t make it up if I tried: a new Obama Entertainment Club is opening up right here in Shanghai. And with that playful pink leg dangling out of the “O”, I’m sure it will be quite the classy establishment.

I love reading Shanghai Daily. It’s full of news about Shanghai and China, but even better is that it’s full of off beat and weird news (like the article in the image).

Compared to other publications, it isn’t as tightly controlled by the government and is less biased.

That said, I still find it odd that their site displays a banner ad promoting users to follow them on Twitter, considering Twitter has been blocked in China for the last year!

Could this not be considered encouraging users to break the law?

Browsing the iTunes App Store, I was really surprised to see how many apps there are that are solely dedicated to finding the nearest cup of Tim Horton’s coffee in Canada. Out of curiosity, I downloaded one free app, TimmyMe, and got the above results. I clicked on the first one expecting a long – but walkable! – 7697 km, but it turns out it was actually twice as long as first reported!

Here are the directions to the closest Tim Hortons from Shanghai’s Luwan district. Which for some reason happens to be in Whitehorse… :

Almost 16,000 km and 37 days driving, a lot of which is underwater! Also, I’m not the best with directions… but from China, I would’ve gone east instead of west.

I’m not too confident about that ‘shortcut’ west of BC either! Let’s hope and assume this app works better in Canada…

“…. and don’t get me started on fire extinguishers!”

Not 小广告, but close.

This blast from the past is “Don Lapre”, a money making genius who hosted a late-night infomercial in the early 90s.

In “Making Money Secrets”, he went on and on about how he became rich by putting tiny classified ads in newspapers. According to Don, the secret was that if you could put one tiny classified ad in one newspaper, and that ad made only $30 – $40 profit in a week… and THEN you put that same tiny classified ad in newspapers all over the country… you would make a LOT of money!! Don himself claims to have made $50,000 dollars a week out of his one bedroom apartment.

Of course, Don never mentioned what these tiny classified ads that would magically generate $30 – $40 a week worth of revenue out of nothing would be… that you would find out by buying his “Making Money” package for only $39.95! But who cares! With just one tiny classified ad, you’d make that back in a week!

I always wondered why he felt the need to repeat tiny classified ads every minute or so. Just imagine the money you could make with LARGE classified ads…

You can’t make this stuff up. According to the Wall Street Journal and Xinhua, the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIRC) is offering rewards of up to 10,000 RMB (or almost $1500 USD) to people who stumble across pornography on the Internet and report it to the police.

Are you kidding me? 10,000 RMB for finding and reporting a porn site? For that price, I’ll turn chungkingmansions.com into a porn site and report myself!

How I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this concept was being brainstormed:

Boss: Alright gentlemen, Contra is really popular, so let’s come up with a two-player game with two gun-toting Contra-like guys.

Executive 1: PERFECT! And Satan… no, wait… a satanic goat… is the last boss!

It’s no secret that Obama is pretty popular in China. So popular in fact, that several t-shirt vendors and shops in Beijing have been selling what has to be one of the most bizarre souvenirs to catch on in a while: “Oba Mao” t-shirts, bags, etc. which display President Obama’s likeness dressed in a Red Guard uniform, staring in a Chairman Mao-like pose.

I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean exactly, but apparently they’ve been selling like crazy.

Not while Obama visits China later this month though. Beijing Municipal Government officials have warned shops to stop selling the merchandise while Obama visits (although they can resume after he’s left.)

Who says China is not taking a hard stance on smoking? By 2012, if you’re in a hospital in Sichuan, you’ll have to smoke outside.