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If there＊s one tool the Chinese online mob has learned to use with devastating skill, it＊s Adobe＊s photo editing software Photoshop.

The propaganda department of the Huili county government, on the other hand, could use another tutorial or two.

On June 26, according to a recent report in the Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese), an Internet user posted a message to the popular online discussion board Tianya Forum claiming to have ※almost coughed out a liter of blood§ after visiting a the Huili county government website and coming upon a photo in which three local officials appeared to be floating above a newly paved road. ※Even a rank amateur like myself can tell that this was a PS job,§ the poster wrote.

The story, according to the Southern Metropolis report (available in partial translation at East South West North): Huili propaganda director Zhang Yongzhi and a number of other local officials went out to inspect a newly built road. A government employee photographed them making the inspection but then decided the background wasn＊t impressive enough and so superimposed the image of the officials on a prettier stretch of asphalt.

The local government in Huili, a remote county in southwestern China＊s Yunnan Province, eventually apologized for the transparent fakery, but not before Chinese Internet users produced a flood of their own Photoshop jobs parodying the original.

Entrants in the informal competition to mock the officials placed them in locations as varied as an Afghanistan battlefield, a Jurassic lake and the arm of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. One image imagined the officials as targets in a first-person shooter video game, while another put them in the middle of what appears to be a porn set. Yet another incorporated them into the poster for the recently released (and widely panned) propaganda film the ※Building of the Party.§

In some cases, the Photoshoppers offered captions in imitation of the state-run press. ※Unconcerned with their own safety, three Huili county leaders ＆personally attended＊ a ＆site inspection＊ at the match, discussing how to put a stop to injuries on the pitch and promote civilized soccer,§ read the caption under an image showing the three officials examining Italian soccer player Marco Materazzi lying on the ground after being headbutted by French star Zinedine Zidane during the 2006 World Cup. ※Friendship first, competition second!§

Among the most skillful re-imaginings placed the officials in the White House with Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Robert Gates and others as they watched the assault on Osama bin Laden＊s compound in Abbottabad in May.

※Today, three officials personally guided Obama in completing the mission to capture or kill terrorist big shot Bin Laden, making a new contribution to the re-establishment of world peace.§

Chinese ace Li Na’s four consecutive first-round losses at WTA tournaments after the Australian Open this year disappointed fans who expected more after she reached the final at Melbourne Park three months ago.

However, renowned coach Carlos Rodriguez attributed Li’s poor performance to the “emotional wave after big events”, which is normal in professional tennis.

“A player’s mood always swings up and down during the year. It happens to everyone,” said Rodriguez, who coached Belgian former world No 1, Justine Henin, for 15 years and guided her to seven Grand Slam titles.

“High-level aces keep the disturbances as slight as possible to maintain top form.

“Li went so high emotionally after the major tour success. She is just now in the process of rising from the bottom. It’s nothing about skills or physical condition. I believe she will come back.”

Li, who is now training in Germany to prepare for the series of clay tournaments in Europe, echoed Rodriguez’s opinion, saying “she is recovering from the valley”.

Li also denied rumors spread by the media that she would retire at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Li’s compatriot, Peng Shuai, has enjoyed good momentum recently, achieving 25 victories at the 39 WTA tournaments she has played this season.

The 25-year-old improved her world ranking to No 29 on Monday and became the third Chinese player to reach the top 30 after Li and Zheng Jie.

Peng’s 25-win record stands behind only world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki’s 26 after last week’s Family Circle Cup, where she cruised into the semifinals.

“Actually, I did nothing to adjust her technique or strategy,” said Peng’s coach, Alan Ma, who began to guide Peng in 2004.

“I just encouraged her by daily phone calls and e-mail contact. Just tuned her up mentally and reduced the pressure that she used to put on herself.”

With no release date set for the iPad 2 in Hong Kong, the devices have fetched close to $15,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$1,924) on the city’s gray market—more than double what they’re retailing for in the U.S.

Stores have been paying couriers in the U.S., the only market where the iPad 2 is currently sold, to buy as many iPads as they can before flying back with them to Hong Kong.

At the store Like, in Sin Tat Plaza, the new iPads were on sale for HK$6,800-HK$14,800, depending on storage capabilities and connectivity. In the U.S., the devices retail for US$499-US$829. Like sold 40-50 of the new iPads on Sunday, shopkeeper Alex Kei said. As of Monday night, the store had 10 iPads left. But he said sales of the original iPad, which were set at the same price points, flew off shelves faster last year.

Hong Kong One, another shop in Sin Tat Plaza, said it sold about 100 iPads Sunday and another 100 Monday, charging HK$6,800-HK$13,000. Like most stores in the mall, the white iPads are commanding a premium. For the top-end model, the white iPads are HK$2,000 more than comparable black units at Hong Kong One. (Black and white models for the same specifications don’t vary in prices in the U.S.)

At Men Tone Digital Telecom, shopkeeper Jealousy Kwok was unpacking large boxes filled with iPad 2s.

‘There’s no more room in here,’ Mr. Kwok said, pointing to overfilled shelves. The store had close to 100 iPads in stock Monday night after selling about 30 devices Sunday.

On Thursday, the day before the iPad 2 went on sale in the U.S., Men Tone had set the prices at HK$6,000-HK$11,000—with customers putting down a 50% deposit. But after the first day of sales, the store raised its prices to HK$7,250 for the base model and HK$12,000 for the top-end 64GB model with wireless and third-generation wireless access.

‘Hong Kong doesn’t have any iPads, and the people here have money,’ Mr. Shum said of the premium. His store is expecting to receive about 50 more devices each day for about a week.

The children and the polar bear are face to face in the same swimming pool! According to the Daily Mail on February 8, through letting visitors get incredibly close to polar bears while separating them from danger by 10-inch thick plexiglas, the staff of Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat, in Ontario, Canada, attempts to promote awareness about the amazing animals and reduce hunting in the wild.

In a Chinese society that prizes modesty, Xu Jinglei, a successful actress, director & blogger, is not shy about trumpeting her victories″or her natural talents.

‘I’m pretty…smart…curious…a quick learner,’ she says matter-of-factly, sitting in her bare office near Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, decorated only with a few posters marketing her latest film. Then, she adds with a giggle, ‘Chinese are not used to bragging about themselves. But I’m 36. I don’t require to pretend otherwise.’

But this Beijing native is far from vain. she’s a way of connecting with ordinary people by coming across as being as normal as they are. Her blog, which has attracted over 286 million page views since late 2005, is filled with mundane details of her daily life, such as her insomnia, her felines, her diet (She has a healthy appetite for an actress.) & photos that show her with little make-up & wearing casual clothes. Her writing style, while loose, has an endearing quality of candidness, as if to say, ‘Look, here’s my life, & it’s no different from yours. & i am liking it!’

Ms. Xu has every reason to be proud of her accomplishments since she first came in to the public eye as a 20-year-old acting student playing a policewoman who falls in love with a gangster in a popular TV drama series.

Ms. Xu says she founded the journal to fulfill a childhood dream, as well as to cultivate relationships with advertisers that might also have an interest in her film projects. Her journal & production companies now employ about one dozen people, mostly in their 20s.

She knows how to capitalize on that perception & her influence commercially while not trying to glorify it. She started a every month digital journal called Kaila, meaning ‘opened’ or ‘started,’ in April 2007 when she was the top blogger in China. The journal, focusing on youth lifestyle, has average every month page views of 10 million, & she’s started selling jewelry under the Kaila brand since April.

She took some criticism from the media for the product placements in the film, which she co-wrote & directed & in which she played the leading role (although she wasn’t an investor). One online commentator wrote caustically that ‘the audience didn’t buy a ticket to watch adverts.’ The editorial was picked up by the website of the People’s Daily & several major online portals. But she’s not apologetic. She says it’s a commercial reality that everybody in China’s film industry has to face. Investing in films is a dicy business in China, she says, because there aren’t as many cinemas as in the U.S., audience sizes stay comparatively little & copyright isn’t effectively protected. ‘I’m a creative one who keeps investors in mind,’ she says. ‘Whatever I do, first it’s to be fascinating to me. But it also has to be commercially viable. Otherwise, I won’t do it.’

A couple of advertisers in her journal, such as Lenovo computers, appeared in her latest film, ‘Go Lala Go!’ It’s a drama about a young woman, Lala, & her office romances that has a flavor of ‘Sex & the City’ & ‘Cashmere Mafia.’ Because of product placements, which include Mazda cars & Lipton tea, investors in the film got back one thirds of their 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) investment even before its release. The film went on to become a blockbuster, by Chinese standards, taking in over 100 million yuan at the box office, & making Ms. Xu the most commercially successful female director in China.

Ever the pragmatist, Ms. Xu is keenly aware of risks in the content business in China.

In her blog, she never touches on politics or sensitive social issues, unlike China’s most influential blogger, Han Han, who is a social critic & was one time rumored to be her boyfriend. (He appeared on the cover of her journal in May.) The launch of Mr. Han’s own journal has been postponed for over six months for reasons not clear. Ms. Xu was also rumored to have dated the satirical novelist Wang Shuo.

She laid out six rules for her blog in 2008″never use people’s actual names; no critical comments of others; share happiness, not worries; no discuss politics & current affairs (so that her relatives won’t must worry about her). But if there’s something she needs to get out of her technique, the fifth rule says, ‘For the benefit of both body & heart, it’s best to spill it out & bear the consequence.’

Now she updates her blog never, sometimes not even one time a month, which was the case in May. But Sina.com still lists her as the second most popular blogger after Mr. Han, & when she writes, mostly to promote her film & journal, the posts command heavy online traffic. Her two-paragraph blog on April 16 got 373,000 hits & over 4,400 comments. What it says is simple: it was her birthday & everybody go to see ‘Go Lala Go!’

But underneath her commercialism & pragmatism, she’s her principles. Ms. Xu refuses to run ads on her blog even though it’s the most influential medium among the six she’s involved in. ‘That would make it too commercial,’ she says. She writes for fun. Besides, unlike her journal & films, there’s no cost involved (except herself) so there’s no require to make cash out of it, she says.

As for the blog de mode, sina.com’s Twitter-like service, Ms. Xu isn’t interested. She’s too busy with film projects. ‘I won’t do things because of expectations of others,’ she says. ‘I do things because I require to do them. That’s the only reason I can do things well.’

Justin Timberlake gives Justin Bieber relationship advice. Timberlake teaches Bieber how to live with all the female fans in his life and not letting himself get tied down!

The Best of Justin Bieber Sources say Bieber reached out to his role model, Timberlake and revealed that he feels awkward and intimidated around girls he really likes.

According to the National Enquirer, Timberlake tells Bieber, “Don’t allow yourself to get tied down. Don’t make promises you have no intention of keeping and NEVER hide information on your smartphone you don’t want a girl to see – because she’ll find it every time!”

Yupp, don’t make promises you can’t keep Justin or you’ll have a bunch of teary girls chasing after you.

One cold evening during the holiday season, a little boy about six or seven was standing out in front of a store window. The little child had no shoes on and his clothes were mere rags. A young woman passing by saw the little boy and could read the longing in his pale blue eyes. She took the child by the hand and led him into the store. There she bought him new shoes and a complete suit of warm clothing.

They came back outside into the street and the woman said to the child, “Now you can go home and have a very happy holiday.”

The little boy looked up at her and asked, “are you God, Ma’am?”

She smiled down at him and replied, “No son, I’m just one of His children.”

The little boy then said, “I knew you had to be some relation.”

Former NBA MVP Allen Iverson arrived in Istanbul on Monday to play for a prominent Turkish basketball team.

The NBA star arrived with 16 bags and was greeted by around 20 fans wearing the black-and-white team colors of Iverson’s new team, Besiktas, reported private NTV channel.

Iverson signed a 2-year 4 million dollar contract with the Turkish team in New York last week, after no NBA team signed him for this season.

Besiktas won its first and only national basketball championship in the 1974-75 season.

Former NBA player Allen Iverson holds a jersey from his new team, the Turkish basketball team Besiktas, with the Besiktas club president, Yildirim Demiroren, during a press conference in New York October 29, 2010.

Iverson told NTV Spor that he was very happy to arrive and had a very good feeling about this opportunity.

He added that his main goal was for the fans to watch him live, and to show them a much better Iverson than they had seen before.

Iverson won the an NBA All-star MVP in 2001 and 2005. His number 4 Besiktas uniform is already on sale at Besiktas sporting goods stores. He will be attending the Besiktas-Kasmpasa football game Monday evening, and be introduced to the fans with a public signing ceremony Tuesday night.

The tides advance; the tides recede. Winter goes and summer comes. summer wanes and the cold increases. The sun rises; the sun sets. The moon is full; the moon is black. The birds arrive; the birds depart. Flowers bloom; flowers fade. Seeds are sown; harvests are reaped. all nature is a circle of moods and I am a part of nature and so, like the tides, my moods will rise; my moods will fall.

It is one of nature’s tricks, little understood, that each day I awaken with moods that have changed from yesterday. Yesterday’s joy wilI become today’s sadness; yet today’s sadness will grow into tomorrow’s joy. Inside me is a wheel, constantly turning from sadness to joy, from exultation to depression, from happiness to melancholy. Like the flowers, today’s full bloom of joy will fade and wither into despondency, yet I will remember that as today’s dead flower carries the seed of tomorrow’s bloom so, too, does today’s sadness carry the seed of tomorrow’s joy.

And how will I master these emotions so that each day will be productive? For unless my mood is right the day will be a failure. Trees and plants depend on the weather to flourish but I make my own weather, yea I transport it with me. If I bring rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism to my customers then they will react with rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism and they will purchase naught. If I bring joy and enthusiasm and brightness and laughter to my customers they will react with joy and enthusiasm and brightness and laughter and my weather will produce a harvest of sales and a granary of gold for me.

Hong Kong stocks rose for a fifth straight session on Friday, with the weighted index gaining 341.19 points, or 1.39 percent, to end at 24,876.82.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index opened up 1.51 percent at 24,905. 43 and traded between 24,732.90 and 24,931.85 during the day’s session. Turnover rose to 133.81 billion HK dollars from Thursday’ s 120. 12 billion HK dollars.

Hang Seng Index moved up 7.7 percent for the week.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index on Friday went up 158.80, or 1.14 percent, to close at 14,107.29 HK dollars.

Two of the four sub-indices gained ground. The Commerce and Industry sub-index rose 1.68 percent and the Finance added 1.73 percent, while the Properties lost 0.21 percent and the utilities shed 0.52 percent.

Heavyweight HSBC jumped 3.10 percent to 88.15 HK dollars, and China Mobile edged up 1.17 percent to 82.30 HK dollars.

Chinese mainland lenders closed higher. Bank of China increased 1.15 percent to 4.85 HK dollars. ICBC inched up 0.45 percent to 6. 74 HK dollars. China Construction Bank rose 0.36 percent to 8.30 HK dollars. Bank of Communications up 0.79 percent to 8.98 HK dollars.

As for local developers, Hang Lung plunged 6.45 percent to 37. 70 Hk dollars. Cheung Kong, a flagship of Hong Kong led by billionaire Li Ka-shing, was 0.08 percent higher at 130.00 HK dollars. Henderson moved up 1.70 percent to 59.80 HK dollars. SHK rose 0.48 percent to 146.00 HK dollars.