An American Idol-style cable show in China raises alarm bells in the government, which moves swiftly to introduce rules that prevent shows like it from being too popular. Supergirl is a show from a rural cable TV station, and its popularity challenges the dominancy of China Central Television. The show, in addition to promoting a new “sour yogurt drink”, promotes rebelious attitudes with bellies showing and spiky haircuts! And most unsettling to the government: “Supergirl also set a dangerous precedent by introducing Chinese to the concept of voting.” Via AdAge China (free registration required).

I love this online card trick, which embodies the very spirit of what I call Expectation Management.

A friend of mine just told me about a superstitious custom where, on the first of the month, the first thing you say is “Rabbit Rabbit” to bring you luck. I thought she had made it up, but Lo! There is an article regarding the custom on Wikipedia! I love these kinds of mysterious customs, especially the lucky ones. The problem is: now I want to say “rabbit rabbit” all the time. I can imagine my sis and I rabbit rabbiting at each other all day long, if we’d known about this when we were kids.