The Briton will get AUD150,000 in salary to have a six-month vacation at Great Barrier Reef… ok, not exactly a vacation as he needs to handle some daily task as the caretaker of the islands; but it’s pretty close to being paid to have a holiday. He will start his ‘work’ on July 1st.

The job, offered by Tourism Queensland in Australia, was announced in early 2009 and received more than 34,000 applications. It was obviously a tourism marketing campaign, and a very successful one considering the global publicity it receives.

Congrats to the dude [image courtesy of Tourism Queensland]

Briton gets the best job in the world from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Australia – Rafael Nadal won first Australian Open crown, defeating Roger Federer [ATP]

China – Birth defects soar due to environmental pollution; a baby is born with physical defects every 30 secs in China [Chinadaily]

Enviromental – Many effects of climate change are irreversible [BBC]

Iraq – A fibreglass-and-copper monument (pic) is built in honour of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference [Youtube]

Japan – PM Taro Aso has announced a 1.5 trillion yen (USD17bn) aid package to help Asian countries weather the economic downturn [BBC]

North Korea – North Korea is scrapping all pacts with South Korea and warned that the downward relations has pushed the peninsula to the brink of war [Reuters]

South Korea – Asiana Airlines, Korea’s second-largest air carrier, is named Airline of the Year by ATW (Air Transport World) magazine [ATW]

Thailand – Deja vu… tens of thousands of protesters held a rally in Bangkok calling on the new Thai government to resign [Youtube]

General roundup (February 1, 2009) from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Dingdong Dantes

Well, Edison might be sexier than Takeshi in E!’s point of views (I guess the sex pics might help a bit), but the sexiest Asian title goes to Dingdong Dantes (3th) from the Philippines instead.

Bollywood actor John Abraham is the other Asian celebrity that made the list, and he too was ranked higher than the two Chinese stars at 10th.

This E! sexiest men list is a bit unique as the chosen celebs covered a wide range of different nationalities and ethnicity as compared to most other sexiest/hottest lists which are dominated by Hollywood stars. Arguable… but nice try.

Here are the top 25 sexiest men of the world according to E!…

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Edison Chen sexier than Takeshi Kaneshiro? from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Image by Shoreline, who said the kangaroo meat was so amazingly GOOD!

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Eat kangaroo, save the planet from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Top 10 best movie stars for the bucks

1. Vince Vaughn (pic)
2. Tobey Maguire
3. Julia Roberts
4. Brad Pitt
5. Naomi Watts
6. Matt Damon
7. George Clooney
8. Jennifer Aniston
9. Hugh Jackman
10. Ben Stiller

Top 10 most overpaid movie stars

1. Nicole Kidman (pic)
2. Jennifer Garner
3. Tom Cruise
4. Cameron Diaz
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Jim Carrey
7. Nicolas Cage
8. Drew Barrymore
9. Will Ferrell
10. Cate Blanchett

Hollywood’s best valued vs overpaid movie stars 2008 from YeinJee's Asian Journal

First serious attempt on fireworks photography; results are rather poor. Here are a few of the relatively nice photos…

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Australian team at MIFC 2008, Putrajaya from YeinJee's Asian Journal

I was planning to go for a show on Wednesday, but the weather was not permitting; will try my luck again on Sunday. Meanwhile, catch a video below, produced by an official media partner of MIFC with the Malaysian team performing on August 12.

Besides the Malaysian team, other teams that are competing in the event this year are from China, Spain, Canada and Australia.

Update – check out a few photos taken by yours truly during one of the shows.

Malaysia Int’l Fireworks Competition 2008 from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after a judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender.

A family court judgment said it was important to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, and had threatened self-harm.

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Judge cleared 12-year-old girl to change sex from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Conveyor belt sushi (Image by Michael Stephens)

The concept has revolutionised the Japanese food culture, with thousands of conveyor belt sushi restaurants operating around the world.

Some might argue that the kaitenzushi is not of the highest quality, which is probably true… but it allows the consumers to have sushi at much cheaper price, and that’s probably why these restaurants are so popular. Most of the people who visit these places are aware of the flaw anyway.

Btw, the kaitenzushi also has a cute name in Japan… the kuru kuru sushi (くるくる寿司, literally sushi-go-around). The Australians are more direct with the name though, by simply calling it the train sushi.

[Reference from Wikipedia; Hat tip to Japan Navigator]

50th birthday of conveyor belt sushi from YeinJee's Asian Journal