But then I took a second look:

Carcinogenic dyes and heavy metals - if that doesn't put you to sleep, what will?

... until I noticed what song they were studying. Let's zoom in, shall we?

"Time to say good-bye - con te partirò" - a rather peculiar choice for an emergency room. :-)

Having spent hours and hours playing with Lego as a child this one immediately woke the child in me and made me want to design a USB enabled space station:

I'm sure I will wish for the next one once the temperatures pick up ...

This one just looks plain cheap and the sheer idea of having it on my desk makes me nauseous:

Not only practical but also delicious looking is this triangular USB hub. Its resemblance to a Toblerone chocolate (巧克力) bar also didn't bypass the person who put it on the Yahoo online store:

And finally, this is my favorite. If you feel a real fishtank is to cumbersome but you want to bring some life to your boring workplace, this is the one to get:

So far, so good; there's nothing wrong with kids getting used to today's media early on. But let's have a closer look what he was playing:

I apologize for the photo quality, but you can recognize that it's a pretty violent and bloody game that involves running around simple 2D levels shooting with machine guns at others until the blood splashes and having the same done to yourself. Quite amazingly when the father noticed what his kid was doing he wasn't the least bit shocked or even surprised and seemed to smile approvingly of his son's pastime.

The next two photos speak for themselves:

In case you're wondering: Yes, "idiot" in French means the same thing as in English ...

I assume that the person who gave the idiot-ic name to the restaurant would respond to the tea shop's question with a resounding "yes!".

The names vary and are decorated with such tongue twisters as "International Commercial Affairs Detective". The ads often feature some attractive woman sporting a camcorder or some othern modern day Wannabe-Sherlock-Holmes equipment in a much too obvious and unprofessional fashion.

In the end these companies all have pretty much the same purpose. You hire them to spy on your loved one if you suspect him or her of being unfaithful. With adultery being one of the few legitimate reasons for divorce in Taiwan little afternoon outings in a cheap motel being interrupted by police, detectives, or spouses with camcorders are not uncommon.

The other day I was browsing to a hospital newsletter when when the following article - the picture to be exact - caught my eye:

The poor girl! Not only does she have a cheating bastard of a father, but on top of (or because of?) it all she now suffers from Tourette syndrome.