A California man set a new world record for hot dog eating. Joey Chestnut, 23, ate 59 1/2 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. The record was set at the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship in Tempe, AZ.

The obesity epidemic has spread to once slim and trim Japanese men who are using cutting edge technology to battle the bulge. Japanese men have turned to cell phone cameras to help them lose weight by keeping track of how many calories they eat. The scheme is simple. Instead of using a paper and pencil to record what they eat in a day, then look up the calories of that food and add them all up the men just pull out their cell phones and snap a photo of what they are about to stuff in their mouths.

A new research study investigating the interpretation of facial expressions by individuals shows how cultural boundaries between them affects their psychology. Researchers found that while Americans tend to judge emotional status of a person by looking at the mouth, Japanese are likely to do so by looking into the eyes. The research team led by Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan, confirmed the hypothesis using two studies - one using emoticons and one using manipulated photographs of real people.

The fact that the dog is the most faithful animal ever was proved yet again when a pet dog in southern Japan helped rescuers find her 88-year-old owner, who went missing the day before. According to police reports, the pilot of a police helicopter looking for the missing man spotted his 11-year-old female dog, named Maru, in an orange field about a half mile away. This led police to believe that the old man too would be at the same place, thus leading to his rescue.

According to certain reports, some of Japan's residents who wanted a poodle have been walking around with a sheep on the end of their leash. According to early reports, the scam was discovered when a Japanese film star appeared on a talk show talking about her gorgeous little puppy.