The next time you are strolling down Champs Elysees or Fifth Avenue or Nanjing Lu, don’t be surprised if someone suddenly stops you and stares at your navel.

That’s because you’re probably wearing the latest invention of a guy named Shaw Kaake – the Egokast, which is a palm-size video player that doubles as a belt buckle.

He came up with the idea because he felt that people were becoming too transfixed by hand-held screens and not paying enough attention to the world around them.

“This is the first media device that you don’t watch but everybody else does,” Kaake, an American industrial designer who lives in Shanghai, told the New York Times.

He is a realist though. He admits the Egokast might be not be right for shy folks. “Some people might be a little uncomfortable with everyone looking at their belt. It’s sort of an unusual place for people to be staring at.”

WE SAY: Gives a whole new meaning to the term navel-gazing.

Advertising to a captive audience

In the world of terror, not everyone has lost their sense of humour or, at least, sense of business opportunism.

Yes, security checkpoints in Sri Lanka have become the latest advertising platforms because they, well, have got a captive audience.

Companies such as Panadol, fittingly, are putting their messages at roadblocks. Bunkers have billboards selling roofing while security booths are being sponsored by a water pump manufacturer.

An AFP report says that advertisers are scrambling to get space on fox holes, barrels and iron-grilled barricades.

WE SAY: We wonder when airports, in the face of tougher competition and squeezed bottomlines, will start selling advertising space at their security points. Perhaps those sniffer dogs could wear sponsored jackets? Media Watch saw dogs for the first time at Hong Kong’s airport the last time and wouldn’t be surprised if this most capitalistic of cities picks up the idea first.

Burmese stand by their planet

In Myanmar, they always want to do things differently. So while the rest of the world have turned their backs on Pluto as a planet, the country’s leading astrologers say they will stand by their planet.

“Pluto has been traditionally defined as a planet in astrology, and it will retain that status,” said U Tiun Lin, president of the Myanmar Astrologers Association, in the Myanmar Times.

He is not alone. Vice president of the Myanmar Astrology Research Bureau said, “We can’t erase the traditional ways, just as we can’t change the essence of religious teachings whenever we like.”

So next time you visit the land of fortune tellers, remember the solar system still has nine planets instead of the current eight.