Show org-mode bullets as UTF-8 characters. org-bullets mode
Copy the file somewhere in your load-path, then add to your .emacs: Installation
(require 'org-bullets)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook (lambda () (org-bullets-mode 1)))
select, do [M-x eval-region]. The *s will be replaced with utf-8 bullets next time you open an org file