Late Night Ignoring Asia

The tin cans take over

Nikkyo Technos and Yaskawa Electric are developing a robot to automate the management of laboratory animal colonies used by pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, primarily those that raise from 10,000 to 30,000 mice or rats.
This six-axis, vertical, multi-jointed robot can mimic the motions of a human. It can change cage sheets, top up the food, and change the water. Taking out cages, changing sheets, and topping up food are each done with separate tools, which the robot picks up in turn. In this model, the amount of food remaining isn’t taken into account. But in the next model, a camera will be used to see how much food is left, so the robot can add the right amount.

Soon it'll be a Robot in every pot




Smokem if you gotem

Internet cafes, better known as PC bang (room) here, have been the center of the controversy regarding the smoke-free zones. As many PC room customers look for smoking seats, the new ban is expected to deal a severe blow to the PC room industry. “I don’t get why Internet cafes are a non-smoking zone while billiard rooms or karaoke bar are still okay to smoke,” said a PC room owner at Imun-dong, Seoul. “If the prohibition is aimed at promoting public health, it should equally regulate smoking in such places as billiard rooms frequented by juveniles.”

Soon you'll be smoking in the boy's room

The fallopian barbecue has opened

In the bustling metropolis that is Singapore, where exotic foods are abound, American bullfrogs have become common items in many restaurants. But few have heard about the amphibian’s fallopian tubes served as food or medicine — until recently.

Surprisingly, in this part of the world, diners welcome this exotic food known locally as “hashima.” And while many hashima aficionados find the unusual treat pleasing to their palates, many have little to no idea what hashima is made from.

This culinary trend owes its popularity to Singapore’s only frog farm, where the owner, Chelsea Wan, together with her family lives nearby in a two-storey bungalow. Her father, a former oilrig engineer, started breeding frogs in the 1970s, about the time when the Singaporean government encouraged raising alternative livestock.

A must miss epicurean delight