Monday, May 2, 2011
$1.5 million paid for world’s most expensive dog
Genghis Khan had one, legend says. So did the Buddha.
And now, the prized red Tibetan mastiff, thought to be one of the world’s oldest and most venerable breeds, has another distinction: One of the massive, fluffy dogs has become the most expensive dog ever sold.
An 11-month old pup named Big Splash (“Hong Dong” in Chinese) recently sold in the Chinese city of Qingdao for 10 million yuan — about $1.5 million in U.S. dollars.
The 3-foot-tall, 180-pound dog is one of a breed that has been around since time immemorial. Tibetan mastiffs are said to have guarded nomad camps and monasteries, and are rarely seen outside of Tibet.
But even among that rarified class of canines, Big Splash stands alone.
Raised on a diet of beef, chicken, abalone and sea cucumber, “he is a perfect specimen,” his breeder, identified only as Mr. Lou, told the British newspaper. “He has excellent genes and will be a good breeding dog. When I started in this business, 10 years ago, I never thought we would see such a price.”
Lou declined to identify Big Splash’s new owner, other than to say that he is a multimillionaire who made his fortune in coal. And given the rising popularity of the breed, it may be that the owner can make some of his investment back by offering the dog’s services at stud. Some breeders are willing to pay as much as $100,000 to get a dipper out of Big Splash’s gene pool.
Big Splash takes the title of the World’s Most Expensive Dog away from another Tibetan mastiff, Yangtze River Number Two, who sold for 4 million yuan in 2009. In an example of what some say is the excess exhibited among China’s new rich, Yangtze River Number Two was chauffeured to its new owner in a motorcade that included 30 limousines.source
Glowing Pork, anyone?
Shanghai city resident purchased “blue glow pork”, both surprised and afraid.
Miss Chen the purchased a kilogram of pork from a wet market on Yang Gao North Road the day before yesterday. That night her family used a portion of that pork to make dumplings together. Afterward, she placed the leftover pork on a small table in the kitchen. At 11pm, Miss Chen got out of bed to use the toilet, and suddenly noticed a faint blue glow coming from the kitchen, and that the bright blue glow was coming from the pork itself!
Glowing pork
In order to be sure she wasn’t seeing things, Miss Chen woke up her family to look at this piece of strange meat together. The pork glowed in the dark but returned to “normal” in the morning. Both astonished and afraid, Miss Chen’s family did not dare to eat from this piece of pork again.
Yesterday afternoon, this reporter rushed to Miss Chen’s home and saw this piece of glowing pork. This reporter noticed that the remaining 500+ gram of pork was in the shape of a strip, with more lean meat than fat, and though it had already been purchased for over a day, there was no peculiar smell.
This reporter, through multiple tests in the dark and light, truly did see the pork emit a faint blue light, that apart from the pig’s skin, the entire piece of pork was suffused with blue light, and a faint blue glow could also be seen on fingers that had handled the pork. This reporter afterward intentionally washed this piece of pork with water and again checked in a dark place, but the pork still emitted a blue glow, only just slightly more faint.
The glowing phenomenon may be caused by bacteria
This reporter got a hold of two food experts on the phone. Regarding this, the experts response was that they have never seen pork emitting light, that it may have been caused by bacteria, that the pork needs to be tested, and further observation, research, and analysis is required before anything can be confirmed.
Changsha “blue glow pork” is caused by glowing bacterium
Last year in February, Changsha city residents one after another discovered that the pork they had purchased from supermarkets emitted a blue glow at night. After this phenomenon was reported by the media, the Changsha Food Safety Commission mobilized the efforts of the business, livestock, industry and commerce, health, and other departments and at the same time invited experts and professors to participate in the investigation. Through scientific bacteria cultivation separation, experts discovered “blue glow pork” was caused by secondary bacterial contamination.
Food experts say it is safe to eat
Shanghai Health Supervision Department food experts say the pork that has been contaminated by phosphorescent bacteria is still safe to consume after cooking and heating.
Group hysteria after watching ghost movie
A group of movie-goers went hysterical after watching a ghost film in Indonesia.
They were screaming and shouting, and some even crying while rolling on the ground at the car park of Trade Mall in Bogor last week.
According to witnesses, the incident first started on 13 youths, and eventually those around them were also affected.
Security personnel were immediately called to help but failed.
Fifteen minutes later, a man who had just finished his prayers arrived at the car park.
He touched on the heads of those went hysterical, and amazingly, the group calmed down.
The youths said had just finished watching ghost film 13 Cara Memanggil Setan (13 Ways to Summon the Demons) at the mall.
Source: Agencies
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