Bangkok is already known for its pink taxi, it may soon also be known for its "Hello Kitty" cops.

Yesterday Chief Officer of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok as announced that police officers arriving late, parking in a prohibited area, littering among other petty crimes will be forced to stay in the division office and wear a pinky flashy "Hello Kitty" (the Japanese icon of cute) armband all day as a mark of shame.

Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan said the idea is part of zero tolerance anti-crime initiatives theory which argues that getting tough on petty crime leads to a reduction in more serious offences.

However, "Hello Kitty officers" will not wear the armband in public. Should the public visit police offices instead to make sure this new guidelines is enforced ? 

photo: AP 

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After questioning about politically correctness, I found two interesting items on sale in Japan and confirm the saying "if you don't find it in Japan, it certainly simply does not exist".  

The first one called "Shotguard" (17 USD) is a pervert-proof, IR (infrared) blocking panties as apparently school girls wearing short skirt school uniform as well as athletes are facing risks to have their undies photographed by perverts using night vision camera (sic!).

At the same time, another Japanese company launches what could certainly be considered as the ultimate geek's dream: "The USB Keyboard Bra" (130 USD).

Astonishing Japan isn't it ?

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There were in May 2007 284 millions Internet users in Asia, according comScore study, who are online an average of 20.2 hours and view 2171 pages per month while the worldwide average is 25.2 hours and 2519 pages.

Asia region represents the third of the Worldwide Internet population. China leads with 91.5 millions users (they only represent 9% of the country's population), followed by Japan (53 million) and South Korea (26.3 million). Internet users of these 3 countries represent, all together, 60% of all Asia-Pacific Internet users.

In term of usage rate, South Korea in on the top with 65%, closely followed by Australia (62%), New Zeland (60%) and Hong Kong (59%), India is at the rear with only 3%.

If Google is the most popular web site worldwide, ComScore's study shows that in Asia Yahoo remains the prefered site in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Microsoft domains are the most visited in Australia, China, and New Zealand, with the Seoul-based NHN Corporation taking top honors in South Korea.

Source: The Register

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