Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

Ly Sam played a machine. The machine at the Sheraton Saigon Hotel awarded him the jackpot of 55 million +. The machine supposedly has a limit of $46,000. It may have malfunctioned. Yet, the Vietnamese American was awarded the jackpot he won in 2009. The management assured him he’d be paid, he took photos, got witnesses, and they only offered him $300, what he spent gambling. Years later, the court costs was worth it. We hope he gets paid. (tuoitrenews – Ly Sam)
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Operation Babylift, at the end of the Vietnam war, was looked at as a humanitarian mission, but it was problematic. There was a plane crash that killed 138 children and adults, there were thousands of families split apart, and at the time there was very little for the children who were relocated to prepare them for their new lives in foreign lands and cultures. Not so different from the complications of international adoptions today. In the years following the relocation of thousands of Vietnamese children, ranging in ages from newborn to teen, lots was written and documented about the children who were taken from their home/land and expected to fare better in the hands of foreign agencies and adoptive families. There are volumes written by the children of the airlift and academics looking at the fallout, and the success stories, of such an extreme transition. The latest story comes from Al Jazeera correspondent, Cath Turner who was relocated to a white Australian family. For an episode of Al Jazeera Correspondent, she told her story in “So Close, So Far Away“. It’s compelling story of discovery, identity, and family. Highly recommended. The Operation Babylift diaspora has a lot of stories that are worth knowing. There are some happy endings out there, but not without struggle. They are stories which should never be forgotten as the world gets smaller, and small people are taken across borders everyday with no idea what lies on the other side.
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Sorry, it’s not sexy at all, just sad. Brent Stirton – Getty Images “RHINO WARS” “A wealthy Vietnamese woman sits and grinds Rhino horn for her personal consumption in a roadside café in Baoloc, Vietnam. The dealer who sold her the horn sits next to her. Rhino Horn is an illegal substance in Vietnam yet both the woman and her dealer have no fear of the police, grinding the horn in a café in full view of the street. The dealer states that he pays $1500 a month to the right people and they can carry on with impunity. The woman says that it has cured her Kidney Stones and now she takes it daily for her general health. Rhino horn is generally used as a fever reducing agent and for the removal of toxins across Vietnam, the biggest market for horn today. Rhino horn has even been held up as a cure for Cancer by a senior Minister in the Vietnamese government.” Why is this happy little dude and his mom better off living in captivity? Rhinos have been in trouble for a long time, but their slaughter for their horns is on the rise. They’ve long been in demand for ornamental and “medicinal” purposes in Asia and the Middle East but since 2007, despite increased efforts to save the remaining rhinos in the wild, their death toll has increased. In 2011, the death toll added up to one rhino being killed every 20 hours. The biggest current market for rhino horn is the affluent Vietnamese who is using the powdered horn as a hangover remedy. What happened to a nice hot bowl of pho doing the trick? There’s not much response from the Vietnamese government to try to curb the collecting of horns, and distributors often have organized crime connections. The horns find their way into hospitals as well as private homes. Big game hunting is big industry in many parts of Africa developing their tourism, with customers flying in from all over the world to take out gigantic herbivores that don’t run very fast or pose any threat to humans. Vietnamese rhino horn distributors sign up for fake hunting trips, sometimes hiring Thai sex workers to go on the trips so they don’t have to get their loafers dusty on safari. The distributors succeed with the help of corrupt wildlife reserve workers, customs officials, and even shady wildlife veterinarians. The rhinos are going fast. The black rhino has already been declared extinct, with other species of rhino following fast. Vietnamese ballers need to chill out on the horn and just take a couple of ibuprofen after an all-nighter, or we’ll be all out of rhinos. This creep in the US got busted, but he’s just one of thousands around the world who don’t really mind if they wipe out a species or two. Shark fins, rhino horns… when we’re all out of sharks and rhinos, what’s next? Brent Stirton – Getty Images “RHINO WARS” “A four man...
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Put away your dogs. 98% are domesticated in Thailand, but if you have a muscular and pudgy dog, it might become Tom Yum. Actually, no they go to Vietnam where it’s “warming” and good luck. It become a meal and popular enough where they have to get it elsewhere. Stop the illegal dog trade? Check out this site soidog.com In CNN: “The trade is illegal in Thailand and while authorities have made a number of raids involving thousands of dogs, the Thai Veterinary Medical Association estimates as many 500,000 dogs are sold across the Mekong every year.” (CNN – Dogs)  
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