YeinJee's Asian Journal

One of the biggest truffles found in half a century, a 1.5kg specimen unearthed in Italy late last month, has sold for $330,000 at an auction held simultaneously in Macau, London and Florence.

The winning bid on Saturday night (Dec 1) came from Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho, bidding by phone via his partner Angela Leong, who was on stage with the auctioneer.

Ho beat British artist Damien Hirst and Sheik Mansoor Bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi for the prized fungus. Truffles can vary considerably in size and are prized in Italian cooking for their flavour and aroma.

Proceeds from the auction were donated to charities including the Caritas in China, Consortium for Street Children in the UK, and the Telethon in Italy. [Reuters]

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300-year-old ginseng sold for $400,000
Hundred year old ginseng sold for $250,000

A cute video of baby giant pandas playing in snow…

National Geographic has chosen 4 winners (one for each category) from 148,203 images submitted to the International Photography Contest.

Photo by Li Feng, winner of animal category - which shows some caged monkeys await their fate at a medical laboratory in Hubei Province, China

View all winning pictures from National Geographic.

An interesting mug that reacts to heat…

Coffee mug reacting to the heat (hot beverage)

In its dormant state, the mug offers a black “OFF” display, but once your hot coffee or tea hits the inside, it gradually transforms to read “ON”. A heat sensitive pigment changes the color of the mug from black to white. [Technabob]

The colour-changing is nice, but the “On-off” word doesn’t really appeal to me. Perhaps they should try some other words or patterns instead.