Translation: Warning, perverts lurking

TOKYO – Following complaints about invasion of privacy. Internet search engine Google said it would reshoot all Japanese pictures for its online photo map service, Street View, using lower camera angles.

Google’s Street View offers 360-degree views of streets around the world using photos taken by cruising Google vehicles. The company has run into privacy complaints in other countries, including the U.K., and activists have attempted to halt the service in Japan.

Google said in a statement that it would lower the cameras on its cars by 40 cm (16 inches) after complaints they were capturing images over fences in private homes. The images included the exposure of such national pastimes as chasing schoolgirl ass, bondage, tentacle sex, and taking a crap on each other while others, not Google, take pictures.

Despite the complaints, Google said it would continue filming in Japan, where it has to date covered twelve cities.

“It is certainly a fact that there have been concerns,” said Google’s Tokyo office spokesman Yoshito Funabashi. “We thought of what we can do as a company and tried to be responsible. You have to admit though, those images were hot.”

Google said it has also blurred the faces of all perverts captured in the pictures, as it has done in Europe, but the new steps did not convince Japanese campaigners.

“They are just trying to get through at the technological level … the question is, can we allow for them to shoot unselectively?” said Tokyo-based Yasuhiko Tajima, a Sophia University professor of constitutional law.

Britain’s privacy watchdog has rejected calls to shut Street View down there, where concerns have ranged from images such as someone throwing up outside a pub to media reports that a woman filed for divorce after her husband’s car was pictured outside another woman’s house.

Both Google Maps and a related mapping service, Google Earth, have also been criticized by some countries for providing images of sensitive locations, such as military bases.

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Hong Kong – Following the release of 240 guests and 100 staff quarantined for a week at Hong Kong’s Metropark Hotel, a number of guests at other city hotels have claimed flu symptoms in the hope of receiving free perks and accommodation.

The Hotel Nikko, Grand Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental and several other five-star hotels have experienced a rush of claims by would-be guests anticipating a week of rest and relaxation in comparative luxury.

Guests and staff members at the Metropark Hotel quarantined since last Friday to contain the spread of influenza A/H1N1 received free accommodations for seven days, according to a senior official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

While some guests at the Metropark claimed to have suffered hardships – basic food, no room or laundry service and the threat of swine flu – even the threat of and arrest for making false claims hasn’t discouraged the wave of would-be freeloaders at the city’s better hotels.

Inspired by scenes of Metropark guests celebrating their impending freedom drinking and dancing, Hong Kong resident Chen Yofu, an unemployed waiter, said in a telephone interview from his room at the Hyatt that, “after two months of fruitless job-searching and nothing more than noodles to eat, I’m looking forward to a week’s rest.” Chen added that he had heard the hotel’s room service “is second to none.”

Last Sunday, Hong Kong’s leader Donald Tsang said that even though the H1N1 virus had been successfully contained, we should not be complacency. “The battle is far from over,” said Tsang. “Next time a person comes with the virus, we will still aim for containment,” he added.

After hearing Tsang’s statement, Filipina Fortuna Ramos flew to Hong Kong and checked-in to the Mandarin Oriental. The next day, she complained of fever and was quarantined. When asked she risked the trip and possible exposure to the virus, she said that needed a week away from her husband with whom she’s having marital problems. “We both needed a holiday,” she said, “but I got here first. If they give me one of those ‘Hong Kong, Live It, Love It’ bags, Fernando will be green with envy.”

Ramos was referring to a press release during the Metropark quarantine in which Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan stated that, “The most important thing is to let our tourists take back with them a good experience of Hong Kong.

Each guest received a bag containing a polo shirt with a Hong Kong logo, some plush toys, money-off vouchers for restaurants. They were also offered free stays at other city hotels, calling cards, a travel card each valued at HK$100 and a free ride to the airport. In addition, each of them also received a “gift set”, with free movie coupons and admission tickets to Ocean Park, Hong Kong Disneyland and Ngong Ping Cable Car.

Ramos said she planned to take advantage of the calling card and call her husband daily, “just to rub it in.”

In response to the flood of dubious guests, the city’s hotels have already begun screening them for false claims. A night clerk at the Hotel Nikko, who wished to remain anonymous, said that obvious party types and any males attempting to check-in in the company of dubious females will be refused accommodation outright. “We just refused a young traveler from the U.K., who arrived with six friends. We searched his luggage and found several togas.”

At least one of the women trapped in the Metropark Hotel was believed to be a prostitute. She was stuck in one of the hotel’s 173 rooms with the guest who brought her in.

Meanwhile, no other cases have been detected, and all tests for the H1N1 virus among guests, staff and fellow passengers have come back negative.

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BEIJING – A rural Chinese county announced Monday it had reversed a rule urging its officials to smoke a certain number of local cigarettes to boost tax income. Instead, officials will be asked to purchase zentai suits from a local manufacturer.

Officials in Gongan county in central Hubei Province were asked to smoke over 230,000 packs of locally produced cigarettes a year. Officials who smoked cigarettes produced outside the county were to be fined, according to a local newspaper report.

A notice on the Gongan government website said the rule was introduced in March as part of an effort to crack down on fake and illegal cigarette smuggling in the area, which it claimed was harming consumers and causing the government to lose revenue.

To make up the lost revenue, officials will now be required to purchase one zentai suit for each family member over the age of eighteen from the Gongan Zentai Trading Company. The company is one of the county largest employers with revenues in 2008 of USD 23,998,000. Since the economic downturn sales of the skin-tight suits to the UK, Japan France, USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by more than 90 percent.

Gongan Zentai Trading Co. manufactures PVC, vinyl, spandex and lycra catsuits, as well as zentai, fetish wear, leotards and Cosplay wear. Local officials working at various government departments will not be asked to choose a particular type of suit, but must accept their duty and meet the specified quotas, according the government website.

A spokeperson for the company who asked not to be named said that, “various colors are available, in sizes from S-XXXL. If any officials would like us to make minor changes in an item’s style, we can open the eyes, mouth and face of the suit, add a removable hood, crotch zipper or tail and ears.”

Zentai suits were first developed for use in modern dance, but are now an increasingly common sight as recreational wear for both men and women at a wide variety of events ranging from Cosplay conventions to dance clubs.

The suits are used during meditation. They are said to provide a medium for body awareness, a focus for meditation via the senses by allowing for both sensory deprivation as well as sensory enhancement. They also allow the wearer to experience a sense of nakedness without being truly nude, which is handy when meditating in public places.

NASA have alos experimented with a skintight space suit (the space activity suit) to replace current air-pressurized designs.

In addition, zentai is associated with spandex fetishism. Some zentai fetishists enjoy the experience of total enclosure, while exhibitionists like the anonymity the suits provide.

That said, some enthusiasts choose zentai solely for the recreational sensory novelty or physical comfort, without any sexual connotations.

While it is too early to speculate on how much revenue will be generated by the sale of zentai, the government said it will continue to investigate the smoking habits of local government employees and discourage the smoking of counterfeit cigarettes.

China is the world’s largest tobacco market with about 2 trillion cigarettes sold every year.

Tobacco sales, the biggest source of government revenue, brought in $61 billion in the first 11 months of 2008, up 18 percent from 2007, according to the People’s Daily newspaper.

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CHUXIONG, YUNNAN – A Chinese surgeon was astounded to find what he said is a 5cm orange tree growing inside a man’s lung. The amazing ‘discovery’ was apparently made when he opened up Yao Fengli, 28, to remove what he thought was a serious tumor.

Gu had complained of extreme pain in his chest and had been coughing up blood. Doctors were convinced he had cancer.

“We were 100 percent sure,” said Lu Baozhi, a surgeon in Chuxiong City, prefecture seat of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province. “We did X-rays and found what looked exactly like a tumor.

“I had seen hundreds before, so we decided on surgery.”

Before removing part of the man’s lung, the surgeon investigated the tissue.

“I thought I was hallucinating,” said Dr. Lu. “I asked my assistant to have a look: ‘Come and see this – we’ve got a mandarin tree here’. He nodded in shock. I blinked three times as I was sure I was seeing things.”

Medical staff said that Mr Yao must have inhaled a seed, which later sprouted into a small orange tree (Citrus reticulata) inside his lung.

The tree’s branch, which was said to be touching the man’s capillaries and causing severe pain, was removed.

“It was very painful. But to be honest I did not feel any foreign object inside me,” said Mr. Yao. “I’m so relieved it’s not cancer.”

There was no independent verification of the surgeon’s claims.

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SHANGHAI – A restaurant in Putuo District has been closed after more than 30 people involved in shooting an epic Chinese movie had to be treated for injuries after a food fight turned violent.

Jet Li and Jackie Chan are just two of many major stars who will feature in “Jian Guo Da Ye”, a film celebrating the upcoming 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Neither is believed to have been on set when the food fight incident occurred.

A Metro Police spokesperson said it had shut the restaurant at 1510 Meichuan Road after 30 staff and extras on the movie had suffered injuries. The film production company will be held responsible for footing the cleaning bill that included the cost of scraping mashed dumplings off the ceiling.

The food fight left ceiling tiles damaged and could cost the company as much as RMB 7,000 to pay for overtime, maintenance and repairs, said Ji Meirong, the restaurant’s owner

“It wasn’t just one or two guys spitting melon seeds,” Ji said. “There were mashed dumplings  sticking to the ceiling.”

Security cameras captured the fracas that broke out about halfway through the one-hour lunch  break Wednesday at the restaurant.

The film company suspended between six and 20 actors, extras and crew members for two or three days for launching the day’s menu of spicy chicken feet, pork dumplings and braised noodles into the air.

As many as 50 persons might have been involved. The film’s producer, Zhu Lizhi said at least two crew members will be fired.

Cleaning costs will be taken from the crew’s extracurricular activity fund.

The restaurant, which specializes in Sichuan cuisine, is said to be considering similar measures.

“We’ll impose punishment after the investigation is complete,” said the owner, who wished to remain anonymous, adding that the fight was likely just a case of heightened emotions. “After all, this film is all about celebrating.”

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ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Cyberspies broke into U.S. corporate computers and gained access to information related to the several of the world’s top secret recipes Tuesday. In separate interviews, three executives of MacDonald’s, KFC and Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn said that the breach appeared to originate in China, though they couldn’t be sure because identities and locations can be easily hidden online. The Chinese embassy in Washington issued a statement saying the allegations were “fabricated.”

The recipes have since been published and widely circulated. Food analyst Ed Johnson said he was surprised that no one had discovered the secrets before now. “Take the Big Mac’s secret sauce: 1/4 cup Miracle Whip; 1/4 cup mayonnaise; 2 tablespoons, heaping, French salad dressing (the orange stuff); 1/2 tablespoon  sweet relish; 2 teaspoons, heaping, dill pickle relish (Heinz dill relish also works; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon dried, minced onion; 1 teaspoon white vinegar; 1 teaspoon ketchup and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Christ, why didn’t I think of that myself? It’s much simpler than discovering KFC’s secret formula, or new hybrids strains of corn.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese media attempted to throw more doubt on the idea that China was behind the break in, which gained access to three of the most closely-guarded secrets in the U.S. history. The state-run Global Times newspapers, launched this week, said other nations were more likely to be behind the break in because their hackers are more advanced. “Just from a technical point of view, on the global scale hackers in the U.S., Russia, and Israel are at a higher level than those in China,” it said. It added, “If the U.S. believes Chinese hackers were able to steal highly-sensitive food secrets, that is too ‘high a view’ of China.”

The Global Times story was widely picked up on the Chinese Internet. The argument generated much discussion on China’s Internet. “Hackers as good as this are from the U.S., not China!” said one commenter on the popular Sina news website. Another netizen said on another popular site, Netease: “I believe what the Internet safety experts said: Chinese hackers are not good enough to do this.”

The subject has been a sore one for weeks. Earlier this month the New York Times, quoting current and former food industry leaders, reported that hackers in China and elsewhere had broken into computers at Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters and obtain a list of ingredients in the soda maker’s Zero Coke product. Chinese officials have hotly denied such activity, saying the accusations are part of internal U.S. struggles among various security departments.

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SHANGHAI – Students attending a junior high school in Zhejiang Province were sent tea picking for profit instead of having classes last week.

Parents of the students in Shanghu Town Junior High School in Pan’an County of the eastern China Province complained to education authorities about the safety of their children who were tea picking on cliff sides.

The school said it was part of the school’s geology program.

Pan Lixia, deputy head of the county, said the tea picking had been stopped and any money made would be used for the students.

Meanwhile, the school’s principal Xiang Weipo said, “the class will be replaced with compulsory dancing from now on. Chinese schoolchildren have shown alarming levels of obesity in recent years.”

Seven sets of dance steps have been designed to ’suit the physical and psychological characteristics of students at different ages’, said Xiang, quoting a physical education notice.

Girls will be required to learn the hootchie-cootchie, the shimmy and the boogaloo.

“Each dance set lasts four to five minutes, and will be performed during class breaks or in extra-curricular time,” said the principal. “The students can then work after school at OK Karaoke Club but that is strictly on a voluntary basis. Contrary to certain malicious rumors, the bar is not owned by my brother-in-law, but I’ve heard the commission he pays is quite generous.”

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BANGKOK, THAILAND – The Thai government, embarrassed by the latest ASEAN summit disruption, has declared that elections will henceforth take place every 30 days, in an attempt to rein in the increasingly chaotic domestic situation.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at noon Monday declared the new policy, citing increasing danger of violence by anti-government protesters in the capital and elsewhere. “Any more of this sort of behavior,” he said, “and we’ll become the Bolivia of South East Asia.”

Abhisit said the policy was not announced earlier in Bangkok because the government wanted to keep normal order there, but the situation became tense and the government had to take drastic measures to restore normality.

He also asked Deputy Prime Minister in charge of security matters, Suthep Thaugsuban, to take charge of enforcing the next election.

The move follows gunfire from unidentified sources, heard during a scuffle as the prime minister’s car left the Ministry of Interior Sunday afternoon.

Television footage showed protesters smashing the prime minister’s car with clubs, iron bars, rocks, flower pots and bottles forcing the driver to take evasive action in the compound as protesters blocked all entrances. The car’s window was shattered..

Mr. Abhisit escaped unharmed and he later told reporters that he was safe but one of his security guards was nabbed by the protesters.

When the prime minister departed the interior ministry, a driver in another car was seriously injured after being beaten by the protesters.

He said he had not fired at the protesters but the gunshot was heard after the protesters tried to grab a gun from him.

“Effective immediately, elections will be monthly because a group of people are inciting unrest,” said Abhisit. Thailand will never become a banana republic, rather it will be the most democratic nation on the planet.”

It will be implemented by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, Mr. Abhisit said.

Mr Abhisit, reportedly disguised as a woman, was spotted trying to escape to sea in a small canoe.

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NEW YORK – North Korea released television footage of its rocket launch late Tuesday night, revealing for the first time that the supposed communications satellite was in fact doctored footage of a soda bottle rocket.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency aired the clip last night, showing a plastic rocket printed with the word “Choson” in red. The footage showed the rocket blasting off from the launch pad as well as shots of the control and command center where a small dot, apparently indicating the rocket, was on display on a radar screen. From the footage, the bulbous-shaped payload at the top of the rocket appeared to be a modified bottle cap.

Pak Tok-hun, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN, said “the launch was a hoax”, and warned yesterday that the North was “only having a little fun at the expense of the neo-imperialist war mongers

In a printed statement, Pak wrote that, “Building and launching a classic soda bottle rocket fueled by basic rubbing alcohol is fun and an educational lesson in physics. An alcohol fueled soda bottle rocket closely resembles that of a ballistic flight pattern. Bottle rocket designs may vary, but are all subject to four forces in flight: weight, thrust, lift and drag.”

Meanwhile, the South Korean government said on Sunday that the North “appeared to have tried to launch a rocket” but has yet to make a conclusive announcement on its nature. The United States has categorically termed the payload a missile in previous statements.

On the day of the launch, U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the North for launching a “Taepodong-2,” referring to the North’s ballistic missile. Marine Corps General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told the Pentagon that North Korea failed in its “transition from one stage of boost to the next,” suggesting that the last two boosters of the three-stage rocket had not separated before apparently plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

South Korea said it needed more time to get a conclusive report on whether the separation took place.

Separately, a South Korean government source told the JoongAng Ilbo that the North Korean rocket traveled upward 485 kilometers (301.4 miles) before coming up short of putting its payload into orbit.

South Korea’s King Sejong the Great Aegis vessel tracked the flight, according to the source. However, the KCNA, the North’s state-run news agency, reported that its rocket was orbiting at between 490 feet and 1,423 feet above Earth.

The South Korean source said the rocket appeared to lack standard propulsion. According to sources, a satellite needs to travel at about 7.9 kilometers per second to enter orbit but the North Korean rocket was traveling at 1.2 kilometers per hour.

As scientists and experts tried to determine the fate of the rocket, the United Nations Security Council canceled its meeting yesterday. According to anonymous sources, ambassadors from the U.S., Britain and France, three of five permanent member nations, met privately.

The United States, along with non-standing member Japan, is pushing for a strong measure, likely a legally binding new resolution, while China and Russia are among those urging a more muted response.

Pak insisted that Pyongyang launched a soda rocket and said the Security Council was “undemocratic” in criticizing North Korea for launching the rocket while other countries were allowed to send much larger objects into space.

“This is a soda bottle rocket. Everyone can distinguish it and a missile,” Pak said. “Every country has the right, the inalienable right, to use outer space for whatever purposes it wishes.

“Not a few countries, many countries, they’ve already launched a satellite, several hundred times,” Pak added. “Does it mean that it is O.K. for them to launch a satellite, but we are not allowed to launch a bottle rocket? This is not fair.”

Pak said if the Security Council takes any step, the North will consider that an infringement upon its sovereignty and “the next option will be ours. We have necessary and strong steps that will follow.” He added that the governments of the U.S., Japan and South Korea benefited from the popular distraction to take attention away from the “miserable failings of the capitalist economy.”

Any attempt to punish North Korea will infuriate Pyongyang, which has also threatened to restart a plant that makes arms-grade plutonium and quit nuclear disarmament talks if the UN takes action.

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SHANGHAI – With rents soaring and operating costs at an all-time high, management at the Huaihai Street KFC decided earlier this month to lessen their financial burden by taking on a roommate, 24-year-old Wang Xufang. Manager Li Guoring said he found the fried chicken chain’s new occupant after posting a classified ad on Sina.com. The online ad reportedly offered a 100-square-foot storage room, with access to a modern restaurant-style kitchen, shared public bathroom, and spacious walk-in fridge, for RMB 1,200 a month.

Wang, who fit the qualifications of being a responsible non-smoker with no pets, replied to the notice and was quickly approved to move in following a brief interview.

“We were really excited about getting a roommate,” said Li, who claimed that the restaurant would have had to move to a cheaper location were it not for the extra rent money. “Everybody got along great with Wang at first, and it was fun to have someone new around the place. Plus, he’s got this really amazing collection of kungfu DVDs.” “Unfortunately, Wang also has a tendency to leave his clothes all over the dining room floor and walk around the kitchen in his boxers while we’re trying to cook,” Li added. “And yesterday he left his bike parked in the bathroom for 12 hours. That’s just inconsiderate.”

Since moving in, Wang has irritated several members of the KFC staff. On Monday, the new roommate refused to wash a tray of plucked poultry, claiming that he should be paid just like anyone else for his efforts. In addition, Li reportedly inconvenienced dozens of customers on Friday by throwing a family party during business hours, and letting his friend Wen crash in the walk-in fridge for three days.

The new living situation has frustrated both full-time and part-time employees, many of whom have complained about not being able to focus on their work with Wang constantly around. Head cashier Deng Fei Fei, 19, said she was forced to quit last week after Wang entered her work area on several occasions wearing nothing but a towel. Others claimed that Wang is the worst roommate they’ve ever worked with.

“One morning I came in and he had used up all the hot sauce packets without even leaving a note,” said Yu Langfang, who works the early shift at KFC. “And last week, he pretty much ate all the wings in our fridge and then said he’d get us back the next time he went shopping.”

Added Yu, “We couldn’t serve half our menu that day.”

While Wang has infuriated employees by pounding on the windows after misplacing his keys, tension between the new roommate and staff reportedly reached its breaking point Wednesday, when Wang left the front door open all night, and costly KFC property was stolen.

“Sure, it sucks when customers get angry about Wang brushing his teeth in the bathroom, or when he leaves half-eaten drumstick on the counter, but this is too much,” Li said. “They took our damn Frialator.”

For his part, Wang said he is also unhappy with the current arrangement. Calling his new living situation “fucking gross,” the 24-year-old was appalled to discover that his roommates never washed their hands, and was tired of “people stinking up his home” with their “disgusting food.”

“That smell of the fryers lingers forever,” said Wang, adding that it’d be nice if someone cooked something other than Southern fried grease every now and again. “I can still smell it on my clothes and pillow.”

In addition, Wang said he was getting tired of the steady stream of people showing up in his home at all hours of the night.

“What’s up with all these drunk losers coming over at 2 a.m.?” he said. “This place isn’t bad, but I’m totally going to bail if people aren’t more respectful around here.”

KFC management claimed that if the situation didn’t improve soon, they would call a house meeting to kick out Wang, and instead supplement their income by giving erhu lessons.

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