The Whore of Babylon is a mouthless cat from the land of Sanrio. If not, the evil Kitty can at least be equated with Mammon. Her ‘barf bags’ now start at $10 US.

If you are lucky enough to travel by the Hello Kitty plane on Taipei-Japan routes, don’t leave the airsickness bag behind and do collect other’s bags (unused ones, I suppose). The starting bid at auction website for an airsickness bag with an adorable mouthless cat (no less!) is HK$120 / US$15, according to Hong Kong Apple Daily.

A Hello Kitty airsickness bag = 10 Big Mac.

Since LfC reported on the auctions Hello Kitty air-sickness bags have had a starting price of $10 on eBay, as can be seen in this auction.:

EVA AIRLINE A330 HELLO KITTY Sickness Barf Bag ,NEW , ONLY ON FUKUOKA LINE CAN GET IT.Winner pays 3 dollars for shipping worldwide. Registered mail $ 2 extra.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, taiwan, hello kitty

ChinaRant has been toasted at the great firewall.:

whats happening? is it blocked in all of china? or is it just me?

i can still get into the weblog type pad but not view the site….

can anything be done?

OK>>>>>> NOW I CANT EVEN GET IN WITH THE OTHER LINK>>>>>>>>>

did someone piss of the commies?

Traceroute image from Shanghai Linkwan server. AsiaPundit continues to be blocked as part of a broader block on TypePad sites.

UPDATE: China Law Prof blog is also down.

I am sorry to announce that some users in China have again found this blog blocked. Another user reports that he can still access it, so apparently the blocking is not complete. As readers will know, this blog is not exactly a hotbed of anti-Communist Party propaganda. I can only see these problems as a sign of the increasingly paranoid information control being exercised by the Hu-Wen government.:

Technorati Tags: censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia

Hooray (kind of), China has finally started to admit the potential severity of the avian flu (sort of).:

While there have been nearly 150 human cases of H5N1 bird flu elsewhere in Asia, officially, China has denied any human cases until today. Shanghaiist has been somewhat skeptical about the rest of the world’s apparent lack of skepticism, even before reading SCMP reports about unannounced outbreaks elsewhere in hard-hit Liaoning province, where guards placed to keep outsiders from entering affected villages warn passersby of human deaths within. A hodge-podge of conflicting information on outbreaks and human cases and a barrage of denials from various local officials (including one who was arrested for certifying the health of bird-flu-infected chickens), even after outbreaks have been officially announced gives Shanghaiist the unsettling feeling that the entire situation will inevitably blow up a la SARS 2003. And all of the laudatory international recognition for the way Beijing has handled bird flu thus far seems to completely ignore what really matters: the (questionable) accountability of local officials at the site of unfolding outbreaks, and how well-equipped they are to handle bird flu.

Technorati Tags: asia, bird flu, china, east asia, northeast asia

Report: North Korea Just Enjoys Nuclear Talks

November 16, 2005 | Issue 41•46

WASHINGTON, DC—The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists published a report Tuesday revealing what the international community has long suspected: The government of North Korea simply enjoys nuclear talks. “After years of protracted talks about strategic versus domestic nuclear programs and launch and delivery tactics, it’s become increasingly evident that North Korea’s stalling tactics stem from a deep desire to chat about nukes,” said Ambassador Linton Brooks, chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration. “We are beginning to think that behind all this nuclear brinksmanship are 12 high-level scientists and politicians who enjoy getting together, kicking back, and making a weekend out of it.” Although North Korea Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju had no comment on the report, members of his cabinet said they “would be delighted” to get together and discuss the matter further.

The Onion article, via Arms Control Wonk, is almost believable. If you can be sure of anything it’s that Beijing would have much better cappucino than Pyongyang.

Technorati Tags: asia, northeast asia, north korea