International

Japan's booming pet population is aging along with its owners, increasing the need for a steady source of dog blood. The Japan Animal Referral Medical Center is hoping a recent Dog Blood Donor Clinic will convince owners it's better to give than to receive.

Artistic keyboards have come and gone, but few have looked as good as these exquisite manga painted anime art keyboards by star illustrators CARNELIAN and TONY.

Off road vehicles are great for taking a scenic ride through the woods, but many are not very well suited for the road. They are also expensive to build and maintain if you plan on traversing places very few have seen. Vmoto hopes to solve both of these issues with their new SCARTT 500 ATV.

Hauled into jail by some rural deputy sheriff and need to pay a fine? If you're in Japan, you can use that one phone call to make an instant cash transfer. Finally, a pay phone that actually pays!

You want to know how many golf inventors there are?  Just find out how many golfers there are, and you'll have the answer.  One company just opened its door to all those inventors.  I hope it's ready for all of you!

Aston Martin is known for making some of the most powerful and luxurious vehicles to ever hit the market. Unfortunately being produced in small numbers has put them out of reach for most people. A recent partnering with Toyota however, may bring the Aston Martin nameplate into reach for many new car buyers.

"Maid Detective" takes the bizarrely popular Maid concept from Akihabara cafes to the silver screen. Actress & singer Saki Fukuda cleans up crime scenes every week on Japan's TV Asahi.

Back at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show, Yamaha unveiled a hybrid motorcycle concept called the Gen-Ryu. Since then, it seems as though the company has been busy filing patents and gearing up to put the hybrid motorcycle into full production.

Small, personally owned aircraft are becoming more common throughout the world. Not only are they becoming increasing easy to fly, but they also are becoming less expensive to operate and maintain. A perfect example of this can be seen with the Yuneec E430 all electric airframe set to go on sale next year.

What's a Glubble and why are families queuing up? Glubble turns the Internet from a personal activity into an experience for the entire family. As a new type of social network, Glubble offers an online activity center where families with children under 12 can play, share, discover and learn.

Timing is everything when you're a performer and nobody knew it better than the late Michael Jackson. Timing is also essential in business, as Amazon.com is surely realizing - the new "Michael Jackson: Live In Japan" DVD was posted on the Amazon website a mere 2 days before MJ's untimely death.

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) is holding its 55th Summer Fancy Food Fair in New York City this weekend (June 28 - 30, 2009) and my mouth waters just reading about some of the luscious new foods premiering at the event. If you can get there, here are ten tasties I'd love you to try for me! (This list leans to the sweet, I warn you.)

Within minutes of Michael Jackson's passing on June 25, Twitter went abuzz with all ten trending topics referencing Michael Jackson, from "RIP Michael Jackson" to "Pop King." Whatever you may have thought of Michael Jackson's personal life, his contribution to the world of entertainment was unmistakable. He raised the bar beyond the level of Elvis Presley to set a mark that will be hard for any artist to measure up to in the years and generations to come. Watch the Top Ten videos selected to honor the life and times of the King of Pop that were all produced within a few hours of his passing.

Feeling blue? Japan's got a beer for that: Okhotsk Blue to be exact, a foamy brew made with water sourced from icebergs, tinted icy blue with seaweed.

Samsung's Innovation Quest (aka Samsung IQ or SIQ) is now open for competition, this year being devoted to building the Samsung's new GT-i8910 home screen widgets. Samsung is also being innovative by giving you lots of resources and technical tools that were not available in prior years -- including teaching you all about widgets!

With the protests in Iran, there has been a lot of discussion in the news of late about the power of technology in circumventing government control and censorship. Of course no one knows this kind of censorship better than Chinese netizens, especially after these past few weeks that saw the blocking of popular social media sites and the introduction of the 'Green Dam' filtering software.

in the face of such censorship, some more creative Chinese netizens (I have no idea who, or how many) have used Google Docs to release a declaration of war against this government imposed internet filtering.

Every year, a group of automotive enthusiasts come together and are presented with a list of today's most highly rated engines. After sorting through the data, the group then decides which among them can be considered the best. For 2009, the title of International Engine of the Year goes to the 1.4 liter Twincharger manufactured by BMW.

Think "hearse" and a long black Cadillac is what usually comes to mind. Toyota has a better, greener idea however: the Prius Hearse.

Freeloading friends making you feel like a taken-advantage taxi driver? Spoiled teenage kids too lazy to take the bus? Don't be a crabby cabby, get even - and get a fake (but oh-so-real-looking) taxi meter!