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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Genetically Engineered Pups Glow Red

Have you ever heard of a glowing red dog? No, well, you may be the first on the block to get one if you live anywhere near Seoul, South Korea.

There, it seems, scientists purport to have genetically engineered four beagle pups that glow red. They boast that their cloning techniques might be able to develop cures for diseases that affect humans who don’t know how to bark.

Ruppy is the name given to the world’s first transgenic female beagle dog carrying fluorescent genes that make the canine glow red. Demonstrating a non-creative flow of energy, all four of these amazing puppies are named Ruppy, which is a combination of the words, ruby and puppy.

These dogs look like any other beagles you might come across by light of day. After the sun goes down, however, it is a different story.

These amazing puppies glow red under ultraviolet light and their nails and abdomens, which have thin skins, look red even to the naked eye. Why anyone would want a red dog is a question no one wants to address (or at least so it seems), but Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called these dogs carrying fluorescent genes an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.

The team of scientists identified the dogs as clones of a cell donor through DNA tests and recorded their experiments on the website of the journal, Genesis. Fluorescent mice and pigs have been cloned before in Europe, Japan and the United States, but this marks the first time dogs with modified genes have been cloned successfully.

“What’s significant in this work are not the dogs expressing red colors but that we planted genes into them. The glowing dogs show it is possible to successfully insert genes with a specific trait, which could lead to implanting other, non-fluorescent genes that could help treat specific diseases, like Parkinson’s,” said Professor Lee.

Rented “Friends” Pad Wedding Guest Lists

“Help!! Our wedding’s not expensive enough!” When’s the last time you heard someone say that? How about never?

The problem with weddings in the Western world is usually too high a price, not too low. Sure, you could reduce expenses by shrinking the guest list. But there’s the boss—oh, and Jim and Frank next door—and oh my God we nearly forgot Great-Aunt Esther…

In Asia, though, matters of status and saving face often trump matters of finance. And if making a good impression means bribing a few well-dressed strangers to attend your wedding, well, what’s a few extra yen, or won, or rupees, anyway?

Let’s say your problem is too few guests at your Japanese wedding. No sweat! The firm Office Agents in Tokyo will rent you some for a mere $200 apiece, all very presentable. Throw in 50 more bucks and they’ll sing a song. Add another hundred and you get a flattering speech too. (Incidentally, they’re available for funerals as well.)

Head counts matter at weddings in Japan, where the ideal celebration features the maximum number of relatives, friends, and coworkers. Likewise, it’s important to balance the number of guests on the groom’s side and the number on the bride’s.

Office Agents’ Hiroshi Mizutani tells of one wedding in which the groom’s entire party, all 30 of them, were shills. It being his second marriage, the groom didn’t care to trouble the same batch of people the second time around.

Koreans like to beef up their guest lists too, but the going rate is much lower than Japan’s. For as little as $16, a smiling guest will chitchat with the bride and compliment her on her dress, and even present the happy couple with a gift envelope.

Keep in mind that your rent-a-guest is likely to duck out just before group photos are taken, so your keepsake pictures don’t end up full of strangers.

Count on Indian agencies, though, to offer the very best rates for phony wedding guests. A 2005 report on the Best Guests Center, in Rajasthan, quoted a price of 600 rupees, only about 12 bucks! And talk about value for your money: Not only can you expect a guest who is well dressed; he’ll also be tall, well-spoken, and, yes, light-skinned. Nasty work, but somebody’s gotta do it!

Naked News Korea Loses More Than Just Clothes

Subscribers to the Korean version of the Naked News Franchise were shocked to find themselves cut off from the service recently. They soon discovered that the service was shut down after the company CEO disappeared, leaving behind a trail of non-payments and several unhappy staff members.

Naked News Korea was launched with a bang on June 23 and promised skin-peek news readers in the style of the Naked News franchise. Thus, as viewers were hit with the best and worst of breaking news, the gradually disrobing announcers were meant to fill in the entertainment value.

When it started out, nine eager announcers were nabbed for the show and the subscription base supposedly jumped to an impressive 260 000 in a month. This type of acceptance is hardly surprising given that this also the home of the “Love Land“.
However, braless news-reading reached a snag and ended up grinding to a halt on July 30th.

In the ruckus that followed, viewers learned the ugly truth behind a show which, in hindsight, had the unfortunate slogan, “There is nothing to hide”. Firstly, it turned out that the enterprising CEO, John Chau, had neglected to pay the staff members for that period.

His exact intentions or reasons are unknown. In fact, many of his former workers are pointing out that his exact whereabouts are a mystery as well.

Other ugly warts and blisters that popped up during this expose included the exact nature of the Korean brand of Naked News. For one thing, staff were shocked to discover that the parent company didn’t have a hand or say in this version.
Rather, Mr Chau had simply nabbed the right to use the brand name.

Secondly, despite claims of offering news sans clothes, it appeared that the announcers had signed on for the semi-nude version or, as known in some breakfasting circles, the “reading the paper in your undies” event.

The staff pointed out that management did attempt to reel increase the sex appeal of the show by requesting a full strip tease. Subsequently, more than half of the original announcers left in a huff while four of the original team remained.

Finally, matters came to a head when the CEO disappeared without paying his staff or naked news readers.

The unpaid staff are currently seeking justice and authorities are hoping to cover this matter swiftly.

South Korea To Categorize Dogs as Livestock?

Is the world going to the dogs or are the poor dogs going the way of the world? The answer is up in the air, at least in Seoul, South Korea, where an appeal has been made to the central government to propose categorization of dogs as livestock in order to properly regulate the trade of dog meat and strengthen sanitation inspections.

The purpose of the proposal is to address the absence of regulations concerning the sale of dog meat, which is considered a delicacy in Korea. City officials claim that proper categorization of dogs as livestock will force things to improve.

“The real problem is, we cannot regulate the sanitation process of how dog meat is served due to the lack of regulations. We will have a series of public hearings to discuss the issue as it’s a necessary step,” said one official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG).

The way things are, dogs are considered the same as donkeys, rabbits, horses and deer; that is, not livestock such as beef and chicken. This permits mass breeding, butchering and serving of dog meat in restaurants, but does not allow authorities to apply the same regulations regarding livestock to dog meat.

Animal rights groups and dog lovers have loudly and openly criticized the treatment of dogs in South Korea. In 2001, a law was proposed to set up proper regulations concerning dog meat and its categorization as “livestock,” but it was scrapped due to pressure from animal rights protesters.

Dog meat is considered a natural product. Whatever this may indicate for a lack for better laws, this situation is not likely to change soon. For now, the way the laws are set up the authorities can only take a legal action against those who butcher dogs in a brutal way or cause pollution to the environment during the slaughter process.

Is the world going to the dogs?

What do you think?

Salt Detector Could Mean Healthier Koreans

Salt. Where would we be without it? It improves the flavor of everything; even sweet foods get tastier with the addition of a few grains of salt. But most doctors say that when it comes to salt, there can be too much of a good thing.

The people of Korea don’t seem to have caught on to that message yet. The average Korean reportedly takes in some 13.4 grams of sodium per day. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this: The recommended daily limit set by the World Health Organization is only 5 grams!

The folks at South Korea’s Rural Development Administration felt that something needed to be done about this dietary imbalance, and they went to work on the problem. Their proposed solution costs about 20 bucks and fits right in your pocket.

The innovative new weapon in the war on salt is a thermometer-sized gadget that tests the salinity of your food. Just dip its tip into a bowl of soup, wait three seconds, and a little numerical display will tell you whether you’re pushing your luck healthwise by eating the meal you’ve just been served.

It remains to be seen whether the general public will go for it. Among other things, the RDA doesn’t say what you’re supposed to do if your prospective lunch exceeds the advisable threshold. The potential for arguments between waitresses and customers trying to send back their food seems huge.

And by the way: It’s considered very rude to lick it clean.

Kami Kami Bite Counter: Eat Your Veggies and Count Each Bite!

Does your child swallow his or her food whole? Do you have to be careful that utensils don’t get in the way when your child is seated and eating at the dining room table?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you will benefit from the Kami Kami (means chew in Japanese) Bite Sensor Counter for kids.

Japanese gadgetry is running amuck (or at least some of the companies behind the gadgets are), and the Kami Kami Bite Counter, from Nitto Kagaku, doesn’t disappoint.

This gadget attempts to make sure children fit into society properly, exhibiting good eating etiquette and manners at all times, but the question is: did it go too far?

How can a child avoid becoming neurotic if forced to don this headgear every time he or she sits down to eat? It’s enough to ruin anyone’s appetite.

Eating slowly and taking smaller bites are good things to teach a child as so many of are in a hurry when we eat and don’t really enjoy our meals. Chewing one’s food the right number of times, however, can be a senselessly exhausting task to keep track of as one goes through life.

This gadget throws off forever the old adage about “biting off more than you can chew.” Perhaps it’s good training for counting raindrops and snowflakes so that calculations for blizzards and floods can be accurately noted?

What do YOU think about this?

Creamy Dessert Makes a Mockery of Tradition

Could it be true? Has Japan, the land of the eternally small—small homes, small cars, small people—decided to turn over a new leaf and venture into the world of bigness? Could a gargantuan creme caramel spell the end of Japan as we know it?

As if to spit in the eye of centuries of Japanese miniaturizing, the people at Takara Tomy have created the astounding Giga Pudding, a flan so large you have to make it in a bucket. Luckily, the bucket’s included.

Giga Pudding’s a cinch to make at home. Just follow the simple directions on the pail, and then remove every single thing from your teensy-weensy Japanese refrigerator so you can somehow wedge it in there. A few hours’ wait and presto!, creamy dessert for you and 19 of your closest friends.

You’d have thought they would go about it in steps. They could have started with a Kilo Pudding, for instance, then graduated to a Mega Pudding. But no—with this invention, Takara Tomy’s mad dessert scientists have propelled pudding directly to the Giga level, to a size larger than the average Japanese head.

Some observers believe this insult to tradition can only lead to trouble. Rumors are already circulating of Yakuza gangsters strong-arming their way into parties and scooping off the Giga Pudding’s sugary brown top for themselves. Some people will stop at nothing!

Snake with a Foot Discovered in China

A snake measuring sixteen inches long has been discovered in China by Dean Qiongxiu, making its grand entrance by clinging to the bathroom wall with a clawed talon.

Unfortunately, its life was cut short when she beat it to death with a shoe as it attempted to defy evolution and scurry across the wall using its single foot. Preserving the specimen in alcohol, it was turned over to the Department of Life Sciences at West Normal University in Nanchang.

According to resident snake expert Long Shuai, the cause of the foot remains unknown, though an autopsy may reveal why. This biological anomaly is in a way similar to the growth of an extra head, which shares similarities in the way humans develop into conjoined twins.

Unlike two-headed snakes, however, human conjoined twins don’t often attack each other. A snake with two heads has little chance of surviving for a long time in the wild, though one can only guess the physical limitations or advantages a snake with an extra foot might have.

It’s only a matter of time before regular snakes evolve into walking monsters and take over the world.

Thailand Police Don Smiley Masks: Ha, Ha… Wha?

In Bangkok, Thailand, motorcycle policemen patrol the city wearing anti-pollution masks with bright red grins painted upon them.

In an odd attempt at improving public relations between the police and the populace, the highway policemen of Thailand wear the masks to lift the moods of passing motorists.

This past year has been no laughing matter for the lovely country known once known as “The Land of Smiles.” Unstable government, an increase in mob violence and a decrease in tourism due to the recent hostile takeover of Bangkok’s airports have created a volatile environment with little to smile about.

“For our highway policemen, we have the policy that the police must be friendly and smiling all the time, but the problem is, when we’re tired, it’s hard to keep smiling,” said Colonel Somyos Promnim, the Highway Police commander.

The Thai smile is as enigmatic as that of the courtly lady depicted in Da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa. It is as mysterious and as complicated in meaning as the bow is to the Japanese, and it also requires just as many muscles.

The communication problem with foreign visitors is quite obvious. They may be charmed outwardly by the smiles, but language and cultural barriers preclude their understanding of what is behind that smile. What is the real expression on the face behind the face, so to speak?

“They have to put on a mask because a smile doesn’t come naturally anymore… These past few years that smile has worn thin because we are all angry at each other and willing to show it,” says economist, Ammar Siamwalla.

Recently, Abac, a leading polling agency, spent three days questioning more than 2,000 people in the Bangkok area only to discover that on a scale of 1 to 10, people gave Thailand only 5.77 points for being the “Land of Smiles.”

One customer service company has taken the lead by giving its employees mirrors so that they can practice the effect their smiles have on others.

In Japan, workers have been trained to hold a chopstick between their upper lips and their noses to produce the living equivalent of a smiling emoticon.

“People forget to smile… but I think with better training we can do a better job. Training should always be one of the top categories for anyone,” says Kritika Kongsompong, a professor of business who for a year was Thailand’s grim hostess of the television show, The Weakest Link.

Thailand’s Prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, promised his people that Thailand will once again become the land of smiles.

The highway police seem to be as good a place to start as any.

So what is everyone waiting for?

Put on a happy face!