[A giant multi-colored ice building is one of the glowing sculptures at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, China, which opened on Christmas Eve. Image via Getty]

Two examples of downright, calculating festive nefariousness have happened today in Afghanistan and China. One set of media-savvy people wanted to hide their cruelty and the other wanted to show it off. See if you can guess which is which.

Chaos in Copenhagen! A tense meeting between Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began with violence. Reporters were shoved!

Perhaps in revenge for the Chinese getting Obama's name wrong when he was in China, the press office bungled Wen Jiabao's name in a hastily-corrected press release. Lucky they're not in sensitive negotiations!

In your special wingnutty Monday media column: Andrew Revkin is leaving the NYT, NPR hires a foreigner, China demonstrates how to keep newspapers in line, and Martha Stewart's still scared of us, and America.

Watch this Chinese rocket fly just a few miles away from a commercial airliner. You can tell the people were anticipating it, because cameras start clicking immediately upon its arrival. Fireworks sure are a big deal over there.

The President has left China. But try as he might, he couldn't get the Chinese to translate his name correctly the whole time he was there. Please call him President Aobama from now on.

China banned these "Oba-Mao" T-shirts, which were selling at a brisk pace in Beijing, last week in an apparent effort to avoid embarrassing Barack Obama during his visit. The weird thing is, in China, it's a pro-Obama shirt.

[Panda sculptures at the Beijing zoo are covered in snow after Chinese scientists claimed to artificially induce the second snowstorm in the country's capital this year. Image via Getty]

[A model in an insect-inspired get-up walks the runway today for the Eonfashion Award Colorful Cosmetic Design Contest during Beijing fashion week. Image via Getty]

In your tendentious Tuesday media column: Internet commenters will never be defeated, Pinch Sulzberger is brave, more buyouts at the Star-Ledger, and journalism in China is no easy-peasy thing, we'll tell ya.

Chinese men are very, very interested in finding out more about a mythical secret of town Swedish lesbian lumberjacks have reportedly "crippled" the nation's data networks with a flood of search requests. And they're inundating the poor Swedes, as well.

Well, well. Liberals and lefties try to claim President Obama's far more progressive than George W. Bush. That may not entirely be the case, because, unlike Bush, Obama can't bring himself to meet with the Dalai Lama...

[The New York skyline took on an interesting shape last night when the Empire State Building was colored red and yellow to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Image via Getty]

Today's the glorious 60th anniversary of China's rebirth as a communist nation. And, as it does, the government pulled out all the predictable, synchronized stops to celebrate. Yawn. We've seen it all before. Let's take an excessively red-blooded American look.

The Empire State Building will be awash in red and yellow lights tomorrow night in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China, a shining beacon of hope to totalitarian corporatist regimes everywhere.

Sarah Palin gave a speech in Hong Kong. Despite what you may read in "news" "articles," the content of the speech was unimportant. No one thinks she knows anything about economics or China. What matters is how it played!

Flat-earther Times columnist Thomas Friedman thinks we should probably "outsource" our form of government to China, where they have streamlined the whole process by eliminating the bit where idiots "vote."

Hey, Commenters! Wouldn't that suck if you had to comment under your real names? The New York Times reports today that the Chinese government issued a confidential edict last month: commenters on China's news sites must use their real identities.

Poor Google! The company's Chinese expansion hasn't been easy: they've been shamed for giving into government censors and continue to play second-fiddle to a state-supported competitor. And now they've lost their regional leader. What will become of the company?