Japan’s Wakayama Electric Railway was in financial trouble a couple years ago, but their decision to make a cat named Tama the official station-master of Kishi Station in Kinokawa has drawn in thousands of visitors across Japan and saved the company.
The company isn’t the only one benefiting financially from Tama’s charm; one expert claims that the mascot’s popularity has boosted the local economy by ¥1.1 billion (~USD10 million) via the extra train passengers, Tama’s merchandises and other tourists’ activities [more on Japanprobe]
How you wish your cat can do the same thing for you ain’t so? Too bad lol…
Dr Ross Garnaut, a professor of economics at the Australian National University, has urged Australians to ditch beef and lamb for kangaroo steaks to help save the planet in his recent climate study commissioned by the Australian government.
Image by Shoreline, who said the kangaroo meat was so amazingly GOOD!
Todd from Taiwan took this photo at the Dengshan Trail in Jhongsing Village. Got to be the cutest bug that I’ve ever seen, bizarrely reminded me of a milk-cow…
Tom cats in Sichuan Province in southern China have sprouted wing-like growths on their backs, which locals are attributing to the hot summer weather and the romantic attentions of females [more on Telegraph]
Scientist however said that the hairy growths are probably developed because of unusual grooming habits, a genetic defect or a hereditary skin condition.
A group of Korean animal rights activists held a demonstration at a large dog meat market in Seongnam-si (near Seoul) last weekend to protest against dog eating.
Koreans protest against dog eating (Image from Chosun)
Dog meat is a common food in Korea; Koreans have been eating dog meat for thousand of years. One of the popular dishes is Bosintang (literally ‘invigorating soup’), a traditional Korean soup with dog meat as its primary ingredient which is very popular during summer season.
It’s estimated that over a million of dogs are slaughtered every year in Korea to meet market demand. The younger Korean generations however are beginning to ditch this tradition.
A group of former South Korean elite soldiers slaughtered live pheasants, Japan’s national bird, outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul last Thursday (July 17) in protest against Japan’s sovereignty claim on Liancourt Rocks. Video below…
The Liancourt Rocks are a group of small islets in waters between Japan and Korea; the islets are also known as Dokdo in Korean or Takeshima in Japanese. Both nations are claiming sovereignty over the islands… and the dispute heated up recently following Japan’s fresh claim of ownership in their textbook guidelines.
The South Koreans protested heavily as expected, and I don’t blame them for doing so. However, cruelly slaughtering live birds in public? That’s too much.
Most foreigners don’t have enough knowledge on who actually owns the island. We can only learn a bit of the story from news and websites; and this kind of bird-killing gimmick certainly won’t go well in global opinions… it achieved nothing besides showing the world a bad image of South Koreans.
