SEX, BOMBS & BURGERS

So you think cheap knock-offs of DVDs and Rolex watches are the best fakes the Chinese can do? Nah, not by a long shot. A couple of blogs have posts about China's growing fleet of copied robot recon planes, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Wired's Danger Room and Defense News both give a quick rundown of what China is working on. Danger Room says China's Xianglong looks a lot like the U.S. Global Hawk while the Yilong bears an uncanny resemblance to the Predator. Defense News says China has been copying Western military designs since the 1960s. While China recently showed off its UAVs, the country doesn't seem to have put them into production, which the blogs say is evidence that they're being copied and not actually designed from the ground up. "The companies displaying these are probably trying to elicit foreign investment and probably do not have an actual prototype," a Chinese military analyst told Defense News.

While the United States is the far-away leader in UAV technology, accounting for about 60 per cent of the market, China is going to catch up quickly because of major investment in the area, according to Defence Professionals. Chinese officials stated in 2007 that it would take the country about 10 years to get fully up and running.

UAVs, of course, need a solid satellite system to be of any use. Is it any surprise that China is also investing heavily in its space program?

Time to learn Mandarin. If anything, it'll help you get a better deal on those DVD knock-offs.