DVD-Sniffing Canines

These dogs aren't out to sniff for illegal substances. They're job is to sniff out pirated optical discs like DVDs and CDs. The dogs don't really know the difference between pirated and original products. What they can do is sniff them out in packages that were declared to contain something else. Lent by the Motion Pictures Association of America to the Malaysian government, these two black Labradors bring forth a new fight against intellectual property infringement. Top Hollywood studios like Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal Studios lost a total of $1.2 billion to movie pirates in the Asian region in 2006.

Durian Brings Dollars

This is the Durian fruit (Durio zibethinus). It has the reputation of being the stinkiest fruit of all. Very common and cheap in Mindanao in the southern Phillippines, it can fetch up to $50 apiece or even more in Western countries where it is regarded as a delicacy. The Durian is now a lucrative and even risky source of income for many Asian hotels, particularly in Malaysia. People have died over this lowly but delicious fruit. The photo is from http://faculty.virginia.edu/timwu/fruits.htm