The devils teeth

There’s nothing worse than a smug so-and-so telling me jokes about how cold it is. I hope they get murdered by a snowman.

I hate it when foreigners say, ‘Oh, I’m used to it! I’m from (somewhere unspeakably cold and remote).’  Well! Good for you! Go stand up outside for an hour or so and let me know when to put the snow chains on the motorbike.

Among my Western friends in Hoi An, the Irish think this is as cold as back home. The Canadians can’t see what all the fuss is about. The Australians are shocked twice over; once because they can’t get home and twice because they believe they are freezing to death as well. The Europeans are laughing and calling us all snowflakes and wimps.

While the weather lately hasn’t been quite like that of Siberia, it has been chilly enough to break local weather records going back nearly forty years here in Vietnam. Sure, it’s winter and all but this is supposed to be the tropics.

Fashionwise, natives have reacted by dressing for tea parties at the North Pole, just two eyes staring out of parkas, scarves, and beanies but that can be misleading. It scares the heck out of me when I’m on the road. Even in the summertime, a street vendor or local housewife will wear a hoodie when it’s thirty degrees Celsius so it becomes rather hard to judge the personal discomfort they might be feeling during this remarkable cold snap.

Other deceptively dressed folks, generally the blokes, wear Arctic jackets and shorts with flip-flops; again, it’s hard to tell if they are genuinely freezing or can’t afford trousers. Hanoi residents seem to be well-padded for the conditions, which makes it hard to tell if they are harder, tough citizens during the harsh northern wintry months. My coffee shop manager wears a business jacket but his staff are festooned for the winter Olympics; a very odd sight as they pass me my morning cappuccino.

The real indication that it’s colder than the devils’ beer fridge are the expats and visiting foreigners, most of us being furbished in expensive clothes but still shivering more than the locals. The tell-tale presence of really warm gloves gives the game away that you are not local. Not that many Vietnamese do gloves either; I don’t know why, maybe it looks ugly on a motorbike?

The one common dominator in all this is the hoodies; where are all the sparkly ones? The dullest colors I’ve ever encountered and I’m not better attired myself! I went around the place searching for another hoodie as the big freeze started but it seems fashion here only consists of black, red, gray and green. Come to think of it, have you ever noticed how the locals never really wear clothes that stand out? In Ho Chi Minh City maybe, but that’s the trendy university crowd or local schoolchildren wearing unrepeatable slogans on their rigs.

Mind you, I’m a fine one to talk. I’m bundled up in two jackets (and that’s inside the house), and all the other paraphernalia. Fortunately, I have big boots and lovely warm long outdoor socks for these ridiculous occasions. But I have figured out the lack of sock wearing around the place – it’s because the darn things get stretched out every time you take off the shoes to enter a house. I just guess floppy socks are a social no-no in Vietnam.

As much as I’m enjoying moaning about all this while sipping an ice-cold beer, this really does have a sad downside for the locals. There are still thousands trying to recover from the damage of our record-breaking storm season during last November and it’s still bitterly inhospitable chilly north of Hoi An. With smashed crops, houses still awaiting repairs, people living with just a tarpaulin, and warm clothing a scarcity, the tragedy of it is nothing will ever be fixed fast enough. So please, if you’re feeling generous, donate some dough to an organization that’s working on this.

The strangest thing will be forgetting about this lousy climate by March or May. Everything will be swapped for summer togs and sunglasses and complaining that the beer is not cold enough. But in the meantime, me and the dogs are huddled around the electric heater with a nice blanket to avoid the frigid floor tiles. Yeah, great, I live in a country where houses are built for summer.

Still, the trade-off is easy enough to accept; three months of winter and then nine months of summer. And the best part for us in Vietnam is COVID-19 is not locking us down. You can still shake to death at a local bar, munch though chattering teeth at the pizza joint and shudder while shopping in the open markets.

Yeah…why would you want to live anywhere else, hey?

T.K., a high school student in Ho Chi Minh City’s Phu Nhuan District, opens his vape and adds some drops of oil.

“There are no tastes I’ve never tried. Among all, chocolate flavor is the best,” he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper after taking a long drag then exhaling slowly.

Vaping has been sneaking into schools with a kit affordably ranging from VND120,000 to VND150,000 (US$5.19 to $6.49) in form of a lipstick, pen or USB.

E-liquid is diverse in flavors, from strawberry to orange, mango which contains nicotine and cannabis.

“I tried this in my eighth grade”

On a winter day in the southern metropolis, smoke billowed an air-conditioned coffee shop on Nguyen Thai Binh Street in Tan Binh District where a group of schoolboys in their uniforms gathered for vaping.

“Your eyes must feel stinging. This place is exclusive for vapers like us,” one of those schoolboys told Tuoi Tre’s reporter.

Exhaling chillingly while spinning an e-cigarette around his fingers, T.K. said he started using vapes at eighth grade.

“I tried for fun and felt quite dope at the first time. Now I get addicted to it and become the best smoker of my group,” he said proudly.

At school, they smoke in toilets yet as teachers start inspecting, these schoolboys have to gather at cafes for vaping.

T.K. opened his vape and added some drops of oil.

“There are no tastes I’ve never tried. Among all, chocolatey flavor is the best,” K. told Tuoi Tre after taking a long drag then exhaling slowly.

He has tried almost all kinds of vapes available and traded them if no longer interested.

“I cannot stick with a vape kit for so long. I am urged to upgrade. There was a time I pledged my motorbike for VND10 million ($433) to buy this vape,” K. added.

H.T.H, an 11th grader, said he knew all about e-cigarettes’ harms.

“We buy them online, from sites certified by vaping communities which sell quality products. Is there any cigarette that not harmful? But we are young then it is going to be fine,” said H.

Like a ball pen or highlighter

It is not a strange scene to witness students smoke vapes in front of high schools in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3.

V.T.H, a 12th grader, left his school on a customized Honda motorbike, riding two other friends. Stopping by a street café, H took out a pen-like vape, having a long drag.

“Half of my classmates are vapers including girls. No matter how hard teachers try to uncover us, we manage to sneak smoking anyway,” H. laughed, showing stained teeth.  

H. said he first gave it a try as hearing vape was “on trend”. He opts to cheapest types, from VND120,000 to 150,000 a kit.

Showing a small pen-like vape, H. said it was only VND100,000 ($4.33).

“My friends used to share me theirs. As I got addicted to it, I decided to buy my own. As my vape is small, I can bring it to school and even put on my desk without having my teachers suspect,” he said.

“Boys like vapes shaped like ball pens or highlighters. For girls, they prefer those looked like lipsticks. Flavors are diverse, mostly fruity. I like grapefruit taste the most as it is fresh,” he added.

Pointing to schoolboys smoking cigarettes at a coconut juice stall nearby, H. said they started with vapes.

“As they got more addicted and could not afford expensive e-liquid, they switched to tobacco,” he said.

“In case of giving up on e-cigarettes, I will take tobacco too as I will feel a void without smoking,” said H.

Tran Quoc Toan Street in District 3 is well-known for vape shops among students. An owner of a shop opposite Tran Quang Dieu High School showed Tuoi Tre’s reporter two types of pen-like vaping kits, priced VND120,000 and 130,000 ($5.62) each, advertising that they were popular among students.

“We don’t sell e-liquid,” he said, adding the prices remained unchanged for bulk purchasing due to huge demands.

Students’ usage of e-cigarettes is an emerging issue, according to Nguyen Nho Huy, deputy head of the Department of Physical Education under Ministry of Education and Training.

The Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund is developing regulations regarding e-cigarettes for the Government. Meanwhile, the ministry is expected to enforce mechanisms to prevent students from using vapes.

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A 28-year old woman and a 30-year old man in Cau Giay district in Hanoi have reported revenue of VND330 billion and VND269 billion from software they developed and posted on Google Play, App Store and other apps.

The Hanoi Taxation Agency said they were the biggest taxpayers in 2020 in the city, paying VND23.4 billion and VND18.1 billion, respectively.

In 2020, Hanoi collected VND123 billion from e-commerce, up by five times compared with 2019.

In Da Nang City, the Hai Chau district taxation agency confirmed it has collected tax arrears of VND25.3 billion from a man, who had revenue of VND281 billion from advert services paid by Google in 2015-June 2018.

Online game writer earns VND41 billion from Google

In October 2020, the HCM City Taxation Agency reported that Tran Duc P had income of VND41 billion and had to pay tax arrears for 2016 and 2017.

He specialized in creating online games, available on Google apps and received money from Google.

The VND41 billion was his income in 2016-2017, when P was only 20 years old. This means that P earned VND1.7 billion a month.

Do Mixi leads top 10 YouTubers in Vietnam

According to Social Blade, which ranks 100 top YouTube channels by the number of followers, Do Mixi’s channel has the highest number of subscribers. His channel has 4.45 million subscribers and more than 1.2 billion views.

It is estimated that the channel gets revenue of $145,700-2.3 million a year, or VND3.35-53 billion.

The second position belongs to Tran Thanh Town, with income of VND1.6-25.3 billion a year, Hau Hoang with VND1.44-23 billion, Anh Tham Tu VND7.7-124 bilion, and Thien An Official 125,900-2 million (VND2.87-4.6 billion).

Tan Vlog gets huge income

More and more people are earning huge incomes from YouTube and Google. Some of them earn hundreds of billions of dong a year from online business.

Nguyen Thi Tan, 63, or Tan Vlog, is one of the most famous YouTubers in Vietnam. Her channel once was listed among top three channels which received a gold button (1 million followers or more) the most quickly in the world.

Tan Vloger’s YouTube channel received the ‘monetization’ button on June 7, 2019. The channel can earn $3,800-61,400 a month, or $46,000-736,000 a year.

Hung Vlog

Nguyen Van Hung is the owner of Hung Vlog YouTube channel with 3 million followers.

The man is well known in Vietnam for videos with trivial challenges or videos to troll his mother (Tan Vlog).

Social Blade estimated that Hung Vlog can earn $15,400-246,300 a month.

Besides, Hung also has two other YouTube channels – Hung Troll and Hung Gamer. The former is believed to bring $12,700-202,800 a month, while the latter $24-381 a month.

At a meeting with the press, Hung VLog denied the huge income levels, explaining that the pay for viewers in Vietnam is just equal to 1/10 in the US.

If this is true, Hung would earn $2,390-38,205 a month, or VND55-885 million.

Nguyen Thanh Nam earns millions of dollars a year

Nam, born in 1994, is well known for trivial challenges. Though his videos raise controversy as many people think NTN Vlogs have bad content, it became the first YouTube channel in Vietnam with three golden Play buttons.

In addition to NTN Vlogs with 9 million followers, Nam also has two other channels, including Monster NTN (1.85 million) and Funny Game (1.52 million).

Social Blade estimated that Nam can earn $12,800 a month, while his annual revenue could be $153,000-1.7 million (VND3.5-39.4 billion).

Cris Devil Gamer – the channel with highest number of followers

This is the channel of Cris Phan, 26. The young man has left an impression on viewers thanks to his sense of humor and emotional face.

His channel has 9.38 million followers and 1.1 million viewers for each video.

Cris Phan is believed to earn $88,000-1.4 million (VND2.32 billion) from ads on YouTube.

Tho Nguyen earns tens of billions of dong a year

Her real name is Nguyen Hong Tho, born in 1992 in Binh Duong province. She is famous among netizens with entertainment videos for children that have funny and simple content.

Tho Nguyen’s YouTube channel is one of five channels with the highest numbers of subscribers, with 8.62 million followers by Jan 26, 2021.

With 6 billion views and 1.2 million views for each video, she can earn $263,000-4.2 million a year, or VND6.1-97.4 billion.

Son Tung M-TP known for YouTube records

His real name in Nguyen Thanh Tung, 26, has scored a lot of impressive records on YouTube. He is the only artist who has a YouTube channel listed among top channels.

Son Tung M-TP has 1.8 billion views for clips on his personal YouTube channel and 8.4 million subscribers.

The channel is also among those with the highest incomes in Vietnam. The singer from Thai Binh is believed to have revenue of $65,700-1 million a year from the channel, or VND1.5-23 billion.

Hanh Nguyen

2020: the year for Vietnamese streamers, YouTubers

In 2020,YouTubers and streamers stepped out into the light and became the focus of public opinion.

Where are Vietnam’s social networks in comparison with Facebook, Google?

With the establishment of a series of social networks, Vietnam is one of only a few countries with domestic products that are competitive with cross-border platforms.

Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have yielded the world’s oldest DNA ever sequenced, according to a study published on Wednesday, shining the genetic searchlight into the deep past.

Researchers said the three specimens, one roughly 800,000 years old and two over a million years old, provide important insights into the giant Ice Age mammals, including the ancient heritage of the woolly mammoth.

The genomes far exceed the oldest previously sequenced DNA — a horse dating between 780,000 to 560,000 years ago.

“This DNA is incredibly old. The samples are a thousand times older than Viking remains, and even pre-date the existence of humans and Neanderthals,” said Love Dalen, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, senior author of the study published in Nature.

The mammoths were originally discovered in the 1970s in Siberia and held at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Researchers first dated the specimens geologically, with comparisons to other species, like small rodents, known to be unique to particular time periods and found in the same sedimentary layers.

This suggested that two of the mammals were ancient steppe mammoths more than a million years old.

The youngest of the trio is one of the earliest woolly mammoths yet found.

DNA jigsaw

They also extracted genetic data from tiny samples of powder from each mammoth tooth, “essentially like a pinch of salt you would put on your dinner plate,” Dalen told a press briefing.

While it had degraded into very small fragments, scientists were able to sequence tens of millions of chemical base pairs, which make up the strands of DNA, and conduct age estimates from genetic information.

This suggested that the oldest mammoth, named Krestovka, is even older at approximately 1.65 million years old, while the second, Adycha, is around 1.34 million years old, and the youngest Chukochya is 870,000 years old.

Dalen said the discrepancy for the oldest mammoth could be an underestimation in the DNA dating process, meaning the creature was likely around 1.2 million years old, as suggested by the geological evidence.

But he said it was possible the specimen was indeed older and had thawed out of the permafrost at one point and then become wedged in a younger layer of sediment.

The DNA fragments were like a puzzle with millions of tiny pieces, “way, way, way smaller than you would get from modern high quality DNA”, said lead author Tom van der Valk, of the Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University.

Using a genome from an African elephant, a modern relative of the mammoth, as a blueprint for their algorithm, researchers were able to reconstruct parts of the mammoth genomes.

The study found that the older Krestovka mammoth represents a previously unrecognised genetic lineage, which researchers estimated diverged from other mammoths around two million years ago and was ancestral to those that colonised North America.

The study also traced the lineage from the million-year-old Adycha steppe mammoth to Chukochya and other more recent woolly mammoths.

It found gene variants associated with life in the Arctic, like hairiness, thermoregulation, fat deposits and cold tolerance in the older specimen, suggesting mammoths were already hairy long before the woolly mammoth emerged.

Ice Age giants

Siberia has alternated between dry and cold Ice Age conditions and warm, wet periods.

Now climate change is melting the permafrost and revealing more specimens, Dalen said, although higher rainfall could mean remains are washed away.

He said new technologies mean it may be possible to sequence even older DNA from remains found in the permafrost, which dates back 2.6 million years.

Researchers are keen to look at creatures such as the ancestors of moose, muskox, wolves, and lemmings, to shine a light on the evolution of modern species.

“Genomics has been pushed into deep time by the giants of the Ice Age,” said Alfred Roca, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois, in a comment piece published in Nature.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a rare message, Pyongyang’s official news agency reported Thursday, in his first public communication with his wayward neighbor for more than a year.

The note signaled a possible improvement in their strained relationships, which has soured over Pyongyang’s growing weapons ambitions even though Beijing is its longtime ally and economic benefactor.

Xi’s message, dated Wednesday, was sent in response to congratulations from Kim last week for securing a second term as the head of China’s ruling party.

“I wish that under the new situation the Chinese side would make efforts with the DPRK side to promote the relations between the two parties and the two countries to sustainable soundness and stable development,” Xi said, according to the North’s KCNA news agency said, addressing Kim as “Comrade Chairman”.

In his earlier note, Kim had offered Xi his “sincere congratulations” and expressed his belief that their relations would develop “in the interests of the people of the two countries”.

The last time KCNA reported a message from Xi was in July 2016.

Analysts say that such exchanges have become extremely rare under the current leaders, even though Beijing and Pyongyang traditionally sent greetings and congratulations on each other’s key anniversaries in the past.

Their relationship was forged in the blood of the Korean War, when Mao Zedong sent millions of “volunteers” to fight U.S.-led United Nations forces to a standstill.

Mao described the allies as close as “lips and teeth”, and China has long been accused of failing to enforce United Nations sanctions against the North for its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, even after voting for them in the Security Council.

But Beijing has grown increasingly frustrated by its belligerent neighbor, and rapidly backed a new set of U.N. measures after a flurry of missile launches by the North and its sixth nuclear test in September.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the public exchange of messages signaled a willingness on both sides to improve relations.

“The fact that both sides are swiftly trading letters and announcing it carries a symbolic meaning,” Yang told AFP .

“If the message was more intimate, we could expect a faster thawing of ties,” he added, “but for now, it shows that both sides agree on the need to improve their relations”.