It was found that Asians love cute little characters, while Americans prefer aggressive ones.
This was proved in a character fair dedicated to Korean animators and licensing companies held in Seoul.
The Seoul Character & Licensing Fair 2013, which took place from July 17 to 21 at COEX, invited Korean animation creators and licensing companies, together.
The two groups participated in the event so that they could cooperate and further develop the Korean character industry.
Popularity of Korean characters like Bbororo, Pucca and Robocar Poli already surpassed the foreign ones in 2011, indicating that Korean animation creators have good potentials to succeed in global markets.
The fair's organizer Korea Creative Content Agency expressed hope that the event may generate business deals between the two groups worth $13 million or more.
Experts cite the need for domestic character makers to develop further sophisticated tactics to expand their presence in the global market.
Does marriage help your career? Most men say yes, while women think otherwise.
According to a survey by online employment portal Saramin, 82 percent of men said,
"marriage helps work life." While 65 percent of women said the opposite is true.
The men gave various reasons for saying so. Some 68 percent of them said that "they found motivation from family responsibilities," They also said that "it is mentally stabilizing", which means they feel safe having a home to return to after a hard day's work.
In women's case, 77 percent of women interviewed said that "The burden of household chores and raising children both fall on the shoulders of women."
Others reasons were "companies' disregard for married women", "too many things to handle", and "career discontinuity."
In response to the question "Is being married a factor in workplace discrimination?" some 35 percent of women said "yes," whereas only 5.2 percent of men agreed with the idea.
Some other difficulties married women face in the workplace are: difficulty in getting holidays for family needs, pressure to resign for pregnancy, the wage gap between men and women, and a lack of recognition.
Numbers of Hidden camera perverts are on the rise in Korea.
The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency released statistics about numbers of reported sexual criminals using hidden cameras. The result showed that the numbers increased over the past three years, reaching 1,569 by June 2013.
The criminals have become more difficult to apprehend as their tools kept improving in both size and technological features.
The cameras can be hidden inside the criminals' perforated shoes, portable USB storages, glasses and even credit cards.
The police say that citizens' voluntary reports of the criminals at the scene are required in rooting out the crime.
In May, a group of scientists discovered the remains of a 39,000-year-old female woolly mammoth frozen in Siberia.
It is the best-preserved example of the species ever found, according to the researchers and will go on public display in Yokohama, Japan.
Experts who found it also discovered a sample of its blood inside ice beneath the carcass which scientists claim could be used to breed one of the prehistoric animals, which last walked the earth around 4,000 years ago.
Semyon Grigoriev, from the North Eastern Federal University in Siberia, said, "We were really surprised to find mammoth blood and muscle tissue."
Parts of the carcass are especially well preserved because they remained entirely frozen for thousands of years, the scientists said.
Ultranationalist Japanese politician Nobuyuki Suzuki failed to win the Japanese House of Councilors election which took place on July 21.
The politician, who fanned a strong anti-Korean movement across Japan during his campaign, ran for the Tokyo electorate candidacy that offers five seats.
But despite his brazen efforts in defaming the diplomatic relation between Korea and Japan, he only came to 10th place out of 20 candidates, gaining 1.4 percent of the total ballots.
In June 2012, Suzuki aroused public ire in Korea as he tied a wooden stake to the Korean girl statue for comfort women in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. This was seen as an expression of his antipathy toward the Korean sex slaves during World War II.
The Seoul Central District Court already sent him a subpoena and set three trial dates for his misdemeanor in coming September and October.
A glass of beer after work can be a great reliever to the stress of modern life. It's also great with fried chicken too.
But is drinking beer making us dumb? Apparently so, according to some researchers.
They say that drinkers need 20 percent more brain-power than non-drinkers to carry out simple tasks, and might find themselves having a hard time concentrating, too.
They concluded that drinking three pints of beer once a week permanently dulls the brain.
The three-year study at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain compared 26 'binge-drinking' students with 31 non-drinkers.
Binge-drinkers, by their definition are "those who regularly drink a minimum of around three pints of beer, at least once a week."
When sober, those two groups were asked to react to different flashing symbols.
They analyzed the data of brain-power measurements, and found that 'binge-drinkers' had to work harder to achieve the same results as the non-drinking group.
But some students have no intention of giving up the pleasure of drinking. Paul McCormack, of Oxford Brookes University Students' Union in England, said, "Learning at university is not limited to the classroom."
He added, "While having a few drinks on a regular basis may dull your senses slightly, the gains far outweigh the disadvantages."
Korea's traditional liquor "Makgeolli" can now be safely served to overseas, preserving its original smooth tastes.
Thanks to the new fermentation technology developed by the Korea Food Research Institute, the previous distribution period for the liquor has been extended from 30 days up to 105 days.
The breakthrough finally allowed the liquor's distribution to overseas markets on vessels, which has been so far impossible because the liquor goes spoiled after a month.
According to the institute's recent study, makgeolli is found to have strong anti-cancer properties that are 10 to 25 times greater than beer and grape wine.
The Roman Catholic Church is known for its conservative values. But what Pope Francis announced recently was rather hip to the current online culture.
He said that individuals who follow the events of the 28th World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro online will be able to receive indulgences. Indulgence is a term used by the Catholic Church meaning partial reductions in punishments for committing sins.
In a decree, Pope Francis said, "The faithful who are legitimately impeded, will be able to obtain the Plenary Indulgence, provided that they follow the same rites and pious exercises while they are taking place, through television and radio or, always with the due devotion, through the new means of social communication."
These may be unfamiliar terms to the ears of non church-goers. But it means that in case you can't attend the event, you can actively follow and participate in the rites and rituals on twitter or social networking services and be granted a reduction time that must be served for sinning.
You can follow the Pope on Twitter @Pontifex
A scientific research confirmed that having beans and soy products actually prevents from getting gastric cancer, while having salty soy products like soybean paste is irrelevant to such effect.
The research was led by Professor Ko Kwang-pil at Gachon University and Professor Yoo Keun-young at Seoul National University.
After their 15 year-long cohort study that began back in 1993, it proved that those who eat soy or tofu between once and four times a week had up to 43 percent less risk of developing gastric cancer than those who never eat the foods.
The soy foods contain isoflavones, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects, so reduce the risk of getting the cancer.
The salty soy products, with their high level of salt and N-nitroso compounds, were confirmed not effective in reducing the risk of getting the cancer.
Many of us dream of winning a lottery prize. But here's one guy who won a large sum, and then spent it all. But now he says he's happy that he has a stable monthly income.
In 2002, a 19-year-old Michael Carroll won 9.7 million pounds (16 billion won). But now this Scottish lottery winner works in a biscuit factory for just 816 pounds (1.4 million won) a month.
He gave some of his winnings to family and friends, and frittered away the rest on drugs, gambling, and prostitutes.
He was also jailed twice after his 2002 lotto win. In 2004 He was jailed for five months after failing to comply with a drug treatment order, and in 2006 he was jailed for nine months for affray.
In February 2010, he was declared bankrupt.
Carroll said "I had 10 years of doing what a rock star does, like a stupid kid. But I'm so happy to get a wage packet again. I'm definitely happier because I'm back to reality," he added.
"If I win again, I will help kids with drug addiction," he said.