Here's some lunchtime fun for you.

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Sumo wrestlers coaxed 80 babies, all less than a year old, to cry at last Sunday's annual baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo. The tiny winners are determined by who cries first and who wails the loudest. Participating Japanese parents apparently believe the sumo-induced cries are beneficial, with the babies crying out a wish for good health. At the very least, it probably exercises the lungs.

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Some babies reportedly refused to cooperate and stayed silent or even dared to laugh in the wrestlers' faces. Or, at least, that was the case until the wrestlers resorted to slipping on their scary masks.

Earlier this month, the documentary version of FP Editor in Chief Moisés Naím's bestselling book Illicit aired on the TV channel PBS in the United States. The film and book documents how -- as the book's subtitle says -- "smugglers, traffickers, and copycats are hijacking the global economy."

Those copycats who profit off pirated DVDs had better be careful, though. The doggy duo of Lucky and Flo are out to get them. The black Labs are the first canines to have been trained to sniff out the polycarbonates found in DVDs and CDs. Although they can't differentiate between legit and pirated discs, their noses lead human investigators to discs that are hidden in cargo that has been declared as having other items, such as clothing. Lucky and Flo have been so successful that they've even received death threats from crime syndicates.

Check out a video of the furry crime fighters here:

BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM: Helen Park, an avid collector, adjusts her My Little Ponies as they are displayed at the International My Little Pony Convention at the Redwood Hotel and Country Club near Bristol on October 26, 2007, in England. Fans of the toys were in the city to celebrate 25 years Of My Little Pony (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

There's a convention for everything these days.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for bringing out in public his beloved dog Koni, a black Labrador retriever. In fact, he has even used his large dog to intimidate German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is reportedly scared of dogs due to a childhood biting incident.

Putin has also revealed a macho "my dog is bigger than yours" mentality in ridiculing U.S. President George W. Bush's Scottish terrier, Barney. When Bush once visited Putin's summer home, Koni came running out, and Putin said to Bush, "Bigger, tougher, stronger, faster, meaner—than Barney."

But Putin's little secret is that he has a special place in his heart for the most unmacho of dogs, his poodle Tosya. Putin has tried to keep his fondness for Tosya hidden, ever since news of the poodle made some Russian men perceive him as a wimp. (Today, Tosya is conveniently described as belonging to Putin's wife Lyudmila.) And the poodle is pampered. A 2005 interview with Tosya's hairdresser revealed that the poodle's fur is trimmed "in lion's style" once or twice a month for 150 euros ($213 at today's exchange rate) per trim.

Photos of Tosya have been extremely difficult to come by, but Scottish Terrier and Dog News, the authoritative source for news on Scotties and other canine-related matters, which has been following the story closely, recently announced that a photo has finally emerged. The photo, included here, shows Putin in the throes of affection with Tosya. So much for ridiculing Barney!

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Yesterday, Indian students dressed as members of India's independence movement for a program marking the 138th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth. Earlier this year, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 2, Gandhi's birthday, as the International Day of Non-Violence (I guess they didn't get the memo in Iraq and Burma).

Interestingly, in a survey published last year by the Economic Times newspaper, 37 percent of Indian management students and young business leaders said today's biggest icon was Bill Gates. Gandhi trailed at 30 percent. Seventy-four percent of the young business leaders and 61 percent of the students said people of their generation could not relate to the father of the nation. Fifty-six percent said it was time to reinvent Gandhi.

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On the right: A young boy in a traditional Bavarian costume Oktober-rests in a cart during the Costume and Rifleman's Parade Sunday in Munich, Germany. The procession, which features oompah bands and people in Bavarian costumes, takes place annually on the first Sunday of Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival, which this year began on Saturday and lasts until Oct. 7.

Other highlights from the opening weekend include:

• 500,000 liters of beer gulped
• 11 oxen devoured
• 60 "beer corpses" (though a spokeswoman for the Munich police said the actual number of people who drank themselves unconscious was probably higher)
• An out-of-control American man who threw a carrot, injuring a Chilean woman near the eye
• An inebriated Swiss man who got scared by a mechanical ghost and attacked it.

The idea of monarchies may seen quaint and anachronistic, and a recent FP List, "King for a Day or Two" even examines some of the royal families whose time may be coming to an end.

But it seems the public's fascination with royalty will never die. All the pageantry, intrigue, and fairy-tale qualities associated with kings, queens, princes, and princesses infatuates us. For many, a world without monarchies just wouldn't be as fun. (And it would probably put Hello magazine out of business.)

Following the 10-year anniversary of Princess Diana's death, the most recent example of the public's obsession with royalty is today's celebration of Japanese Prince Hisahito's first birthday. Last year, he was the first male heir to be born in more than four decades, relieving a succession crisis in a country where only males can ascend to the throne. Today, photos of His Cuteness were splashed across newspapers' front pages. Articles about the royal birthday detail the 30-inch, 20.4-pound prince's impressive skills, which include crawling on stairs, playing the xylophone, and turning pages of picture books all by himself.

Of course, the attraction changes from cuteness to romance once royal children hit adulthood. Forbes magazine, famous for its ranking of the world's richest people, just produced a list of the "world's most eligible royals," complete with a slide show.

We just don't want the fairy tales to ever end, leaving the royals to live happily ever after.

Question: How do you discipline bad cops who litter, arrive late, park where they aren't supposed to, and commit other misdemeanors?

Answer: Make them wear Hello Kitty armbands as punishment.

In Thailand, police officers who behave badly will now have to wear a hot pink armband—picturing Hello Kitty sitting on two hearts—as a mark of shame. A police official explained the rationale by saying: "[Hello] Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps."

The only concession is that officers receiving the armband punishment will have to stay in the division office all day. They won't have to wear Hello Kitty in public.

President Bush has kept his dance moves mostly under wraps for six years, preferring, it seems, to let subordinates step into the limelight when the music comes on. At a recent White House event on combating malaria, though, the president just couldn't help himself. His rhythmic stylings are today's Thursday Video. Personally, I think he's got Karl Rove's moves beat.

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CISARUA, INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 26: Dema (male) the 26-day-old endangered Sumatran Tiger cub cuddles up to 5-month-old female Orangutan, Irma at the 'Taman Safari Indonesia' Animal Hospital, on February 26, 2007 in Cisarua, Bogor Regency, West Java, Indonesia. Irma and another orangutan have been rejected by their mothers while two Sumatran tiger-cubs (including Dema) also born in the hospital, have also been rejected by their mother Cicis and are being looked after by staff at the Animal Hospital.

Meet Prince Pickles, the new face of Japan's increasingly active military, known as the Self-Defense Forces for constitutional reasons.

The cute, manga-like cartoon character is intended to construct a non-threatening image of Japan's military. For the past few years, the Japanese military has been seeking a more assertive global role, and will be the platform from which Japan can become a "normal" country in the wake of its strict postwar pacifism.

Prince Pickles is our image character because he's very endearing, which is what Japan's military stands for," said Defense Ministry official Shotaro Yanagi. "He's our mascot and appears in our pamphlets and stationery."

Not surprisingly, the military's efforts to adopt innocuous-looking symbols has raised suspicions that Japan is cloaking darker ambitions, but the government insists that such imaging serves to create cultural understanding and help Japan's efforts in the military theater. In Japan's Iraq mission (where it deployed 600 noncombatant troops in its first military mission since the Second World War), water trucks were decorated with Japan's globally popular cartoon characters, and "everybody loved it," according to Foreign Ministry official Aki Tsuda. Not a single truck was attacked in the two and half year mission, which Japanese officials attribute to the cartoons rather than the fact that the deployment area was largely free of violence.

In one of last month's Winners & Losers, we noted that pandas were being born so fast in China that zookeepers needed the public's help to come up with names for them.

Well, we have an update now: Eighteen of the fuzzy balls of cuteness have been given names at a special ceremony. The most popular names were Tao Tao ("playful" in Mandarin) and Huan Huan ("happiness").

To see more photos of how China is just crawling with pandas, check out this slideshow and brace yourself for an overload of cuteness.

Women following the Chinese lunar calendar may hear their biological clocks ticking a whole lot louder: February 18 marks the beginning of what is widely believed to be the Year of the Golden Pig. What's so special about the Year of the Golden Pig, you ask?

Babies born in the "year of the golden pig" are believed to have good fortune and will lead a comfortable and wealthy life. [...]

People who believe in the year of the golden pig say the special year comes every 600 years. They came to this conclusion through calculations, using a combination of the Chinese zodiac and the yin and yang theory.

Chinese culture has had an enormous influence on Korea over the centuries. So this year promises to be a boon for both Chinese and Korean wedding planners and obstetricians as they handle an influx of potentially lucky infants. Regardless of whether it's just superstition or not, the impact on Korean society has been enormous. The birthrate is expected to rise 10 percent from the previous average, fueling a baby boom not seen since, well, the millennium birthing frenzy of 2000.

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Call it the Panda, Inc. phenomenon: Threatened species attract attention, but not in direct proportion to the threat they face. The World Wildlife Fund didn't choose the panda over the Hispaniolan solenodon for its logo by way of scientific method. Pandas are big business, because everyone loves the cuddly black-and-white furballs. Just ask the China National Tourist Office, and closer to home for me, the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

For those of us concerned with biodiversity—which should be everyone, given the stark implications of a worldwide ecosystem collapse—this presents a problem. How can we attract scarce dollars and attention to lower-profile animals like, say, the cave snail, who may not be cute, but is a key player in the global food chain? Here are my top four suggestions:

1. Sell the place, not the species. In a recent paper in Science magazine on global biodiversity priorities, the authors contrasted the 'Last Chance to See' approach, meaning the description of highly vulnerable species, with the 'Shangri-La' approach, promoting conservation of the world's few remaining pristine spots. They rightly suggested more attention for the latter tactic. This has worked for Costa Rica, a country that's built a massive tourist industry out of its astonishing biodiversity.
2. Monetize. Without realizing it, we all receive free services from the environment. Examples include water purification, pest control, climate regulation, and raw materials of all sorts. All those so-called ecosystem services would be prohibitively expensive to replicate using technology, so we need to keep the whole complicated web of an ecosystem in good working order. Ecosystem services have a theoretical market value, but we've been freeloading on them for a while now. Some serious people want to change that. Goldman Sachs recently awarded Woods Hole a grant for research in this area (focused on forests), and the Natural Capital Project was launched in the last quarter of 2006. You can even read an equation-filled academic paper on the application of portfolio theory to ecological services.
3. Outline the stakes. An authoritative, Stern-like review of biodiversity assessing the cost of action now versus deferral to the next generation would sharpen a lot of minds.
4. Rebrand. It may sound hokey, but giving the 'A Bug's Life' treatment to key unloved contributors to the world's biodiversity riches could do a world of good. Imagine Billy Crystal as the voice of Steve the Sardonic Cave Snail, a witty sidekick for Simone the Panda, played by Whoopi Goldberg (hey, she could use the work).

Richard Caines once studied sea anemones, but now plies his trade as a manager in the Environmental and Social Development Department of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. Richard is a regular contributor to the Private Sector Development Blog. Writers from the PSDBlog contribute a regular series of posts for Passport entitled "Fighting Poverty With Markets."

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The 2006 Robot Awards have just been handed out in Tokyo and this year, aids for the elderly took top prizes. Paro, this furry little robotic seal used for therapy in nursing homes, took the service prize at the Japanese government-sponsored awards. I supposed Paro is meant to be a friend for the lonely, much like a real pet, since it responds to its name, coos, and reacts to petting. A feeding machine was also honored, another sign that Japan is hoping robots will help care for its rapidly aging population. Forty percent of Japan will be 65 or older by 2055.

But robot innovations this year weren't simply geared toward the elderly. There was also the giant vacuum:

Other robots to be honoured at the ceremony included a huge autonomous vacuum cleaner that moves around Tokyo skyscrapers at night, clearing up after office workers.

And the robot salesgirl (she's on the right, folks): 

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We're not quite sure if these photos qualify as FP-related, but we couldn't resist. Meet Thumbelina, the world's tiniest horse, who made a brief appearance at the Big Apple Circus in NYC yesterday. Seriously, people. Look at that face. Doesn't it look like it's capable of inspiring world peace?