(YouTube Link)

The death of a beloved pet can be a traumatizing experience, and most people love their pets as they would any other member of their family. But would you pay $50,000 to clone a new version of your beloved pet from the DNA of the deceased? The lady in this clip didn’t hesitate to head over to South Korea, shell out the cash and clone her deceased dog Trouble, and she seems to have no regrets about her decision.

It seems like a huge waste of money to me, considering that the cloned pet probably isn’t going to have anything in common with it’s genetic original beyond physical appearance, but what do you guys think? If you had $50k to spare, and you’re grieving the passing of a pet, would you choose to have them cloned?

–via Videogum

‘Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Cream’ contains 70 percent snail extract, and the company says it pays great attention the quality of that 70 percent.

The snails, the same kind that can be found on menus in French restaurants, are fed red ginseng while being raised in Korea in order to ensure quality slime. [...]

The snail cream, made from 21-percent snail extract, is currently the company’s best-selling product.

“I had severe adult acne,” says fan Mina Oh, 26, who began using snail cream last winter when her boss introduced her to the product.

Oh says that the snail cream is so sticky she has to slap it onto her face with a spoon. That doesn’t bother her at all.

“I could feel my skin getting much better,” she says. She plans to continue using snail-based creams.

Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Flickr user Silver_sh

The robots are designed to patrol the corridors of corrective institutions, monitoring conditions inside the cells. If they detect sudden or unusual activity such as violent behavior they alert human guards.

The government should keep in mind that, with rising energy prices around the world, such a program could be expensive to maintain. There are, however, alternative energy sources.

Link -via Technabob | Photo: Yonhag

Bonhyang founder and CEO Bae Jae-yul says the beads allow people to keep their relatives close to them, wherever they go. He also says stored ashes can rot, a claim denied by crematoriums. “Our beads are clean; they don’t become moldy and don’t go off and smell bad,” he says.

Bae uses ultrahigh temperature to melt cremated ashes until they are crystalized and can be turned into beads in a 90-minute process. The colors are mostly blue-green but sometimes pink, purple and black.

The ashes of one person can produce four to five cups of beads, Bae says, although the ashes of young people have a higher bone density that can yield up to eight cups of beads.

Link -via Oddity Central| Photo: AP/Ahn Young-joon

Can't get your students motivated enough to study? Not a problem in South Korea - in fact, they have the opposite problem: their students study too much.

How much? Let's say that the problem is so bad that the government started raiding study halls to stop students from studying. No, seriously.

Amanda Ripley wrote this must-read article for TIME Magazine:

In South Korea, it has come to this. To reduce the country's addiction to private, after-hours tutoring academies (called hagwons), the authorities have begun enforcing a curfew — even paying citizens bounties to turn in violators.

The raid starts in a leisurely way. We have tea, and I am offered a rice cracker. Cha Byoung-chul, a midlevel bureaucrat at Seoul's Gangnam district office of education, is the leader of this patrol. I ask him about his recent busts, and he tells me about the night he found 10 teenage boys and girls on a cram-school roof at about 11 p.m. "There was no place to hide," Cha recalls. In the darkness, he tried to reassure the students. "I told them, 'It's the hagwon that's in violation, not you. You can go home.'"

Cha smokes a cigarette in the parking lot. Like any man trying to undo centuries of tradition, he is in no hurry. "We don't leave at 10 p.m. sharp," he explains. "We want to give them 20 minutes or so. That way, there are no excuses." Finally, we pile into a silver Kia Sorento and head into Daechi-dong, one of Seoul's busiest hagwon districts. The streets are thronged with parents picking up their children. The inspectors walk down the sidewalk, staring up at the floors where hagwons are located — above the Dunkin' Donuts and the Kraze Burgers — looking for telltale slivers of light behind drawn shades.

At about 11 p.m., they turn down a small side street, following a tip-off. They enter a shabby building and climb the stairs, stepping over an empty chip bag. On the second floor, the unit's female member knocks on the door. "Hello? Hello!" she calls loudly. A muted voice calls back from within, "Just a minute!" The inspectors glance at one another. "Just a minute" is not the right answer. Cha sends one of his colleagues downstairs to block the elevator. The raid begins.

Link

According to Marc Abrahams, the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize and the Annals of Improbable Research, some Korean businessmen own special suits that emit a pleasant aroma when rubbed. These suits allow the owners to remain fresh after very long days at work and play. Here’s Abrahams demonstrating the effectiveness of his peppermint-scented suit to a test subject.

-via @cenmag

Link – via Geeks Are Sexy (Photo: Matt Douma/LA Times)

Aah, the beach. The shimmering ocean, the scantily clad girls frolicking in the sun ... wait scratch the last one, at least if you're in South Korea.

John Glionna of the Los Angeles Times wrote to tell us how people in South Korea's most popular beach go there to avoid the sun:

Covered end-to-end with multihued parasols that turned the beige sand into a sea of blue, red, white and pink, South Korea's popular summer playground is a beach where people studiously avoid the sun.

American businessman Greg Conklin shook his head at the sight: This isn't a public beach; it's another planet.

"In Michigan, we go to the water to sizzle and burn," he said. "You don't see umbrellas jammed together like cars during rush hour. I mean, where's the sand? Where do you throw the Frisbees?"

And it doesn't end there. Read more about how the local officials had to install a high heel-friendly runway on the beach and other eccentricities: Link (Photo: Matt Douma/ LA Times)

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Getty

For three years beginning in April 2005, she took her driving test once a day, five days a week. After that, her pace slowed, to around twice a week.

“When she finally got her licence, we all went out cheering and hugged her, giving her flowers,” said Park Su-yeon, an instructor at Jeonbuk Driving School.

He said that Mrs Cha would not be a danger, since it was on the written part of the test, rather than the practical side, that she had failed so many times.

Link | Photo: motortrivia.com

South Korean fans are getting excited about their national team’s chances for winning the World Cup, so naturally they dressed penguins from a Seoul aquarium in team uniforms and put them on a model soccer field.

Link via Geekosystem

Link via Popular Science | Photo: News 24

A friend of Neatoramanaut Andrew Wirtanen snapped this photo of a construction site with a unique screen hiding the building being worked on in Seoul, South Korea. The screen is made entirely out of doors!

A little Googlin’ brought another view by waynekorea [Flickr]; this wonderful house made entirely out of old doors in Elberton, Georgia; and this amazing "door/portal" group on Flickr.

Thanks Andrew!

A South Korean grandma has failed her driving test 771 times, reports a local newspaper:

The 68-year-old, identified only by her last name Cha, has taken the test almost every working day since 2005 in the southwestern city of Jeonju. She failed again Monday for the 771st time.

“It was a record-breaking number here,” Choi Yong-Cheol, a police sergeant supervising the test in the city’s Deokjingu district, told AFP.

“I wonder if she will try it again for a 772nd time.”

The Korea Times said Cha will in fact be back for another attempt.

Choi said that Cha cannot pass the preliminary written section of the test, averaging scores of 30-50 whereas the pass mark is 60 out of 100.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

Security staff and aides from the ruling party stood guard outside the room to keep opposition lawmakers away after the committee’s GNP-affiliated chairman invoked his right to use force to "keep order" in parliamentary proceedings.

Scuffles broke out as dozens of opposition members and their aides attempted to push their way into the office. TV footage showed people from both sides shoving, pushing and shouting in a crowded hall at the National Assembly building amid a barrage of flashing cameras.

Opponents later used a sledgehammer and other construction tools to tear open the room’s wooden doors, only to find barricades of furniture set up inside as a second line of defence.

Link (Photo: AFP/Getty)