Sunday, September 30, 2012

The sins of the father bearing down on the daughter

The New York Times has an article talking about how people's impression of Park Geunhye's father is affecting how they might feel about Park Geunhye and her own race for the presidency.

An excerpt:
That man was Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea with an iron hand for 18 years, until his assassination in 1979. Despite continuing ambivalence over his rule — he is credited with spearheading South Korea's extraordinary economic rise while harshly suppressing dissent — polls consistently show him to be the country's most popular former president. Now his daughter, Park Geun-hye, is seeking the presidency as the candidate of the conservative governing New Frontier Party, and she is not only riding on his residual popularity but also carrying the burden of his more negative legacy.

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Mitt Romney's Long, Dark Night

I enjoyed the following New York Times op-ed not just for the news analysis but also for this delicious quote, which sums up nicely what has happened to a once great party now controlled by loons:

"This is just an extension of the Republican war on facts. If you find a truth disagreeable, simply deny it. Call it corrupt. Suggest that it is little more than one side of a story — an opinionated, biased one — and insist that there is another explanation. The base will buy it."

I find it dismaying that as I get older and more conservative — or rather, she'd wide-eyed liberal views from my college days — the Republican Party keeps moving further and further to the right, away from me. 

And not just moving, but running. After having stripped off their clothes and screaming wildly in the vast dark of night. And here I am, left in the center, scratching my head and wondering, "Who the [bleep] was THAT?!"

Anyway, 2012 is becoming a clear choice between the community organizer and the company harvester.

: http://bit.ly/SVFWYx


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Korean rapper vows topless performance of megahit song

Lately I've decided that "Gangnam Style" is a North Korean plot to push negative stories about Pyongyang out of the news, by getting everybody to pay attention to this absolutely ridiculous, silly, mindless, and addictive – highly addictive – video from South Korea.

Essentially, my theory goes, people have a limit on how much news they can get from Korea – a quota, if you will – and Psy fills that. With daily news reports on the latest Gangnam Style happening, Psy easily fills it.

So the latest is that he will perform this song and dance topless if it becomes the number one song on Apple's iTunes. And apparently I guess people want that.

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/technology/story.html?id=7319922

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Friday, September 28, 2012

ROK men are one-fifth of entire planet's market of make-up for men

ABC News has a piece on how South Korean men's purchases of cosmetics are responsible for a whopping 21 percent of the entire market across the globe. If you live in Seoul, this is hardly new or surprising, given the way that KoKo men have learned — often at the prodding of their girlfriends — to primp and preen and exfoliate. 

And that means, ladies and gentlemen, that make-up for men is the real "Gangnam style."

[Kushibo rides fake horse in order to drive point home.]

I know of this first hand, as my ex-fiancée used to clear my pores, powder my face when it was greasy, and other things I'm too ashamed to admit. After we broke up and I was dating a girl from America who was (literally) hands-off when it came to make-up, I almost felt like asking, "Don't you love me?" 

Sorry for taking you into the twisted world of KoKo-'Bo and no-KoKo-'Bo relationships, but it was relevant. 

Anyway, from ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/korean-flower-men-increasingly-turning-cosmetics-plastic-surgery/story?id=17328380#.UGVoNUIYRQs

Every morning Chung Yong-Hyen, 35, goes through a daily ritual of applying five skin care products.

"I wash with face cleanser, serum booster, toner, moisturizer, and sun screen," he says while being pampered at Amorepacific Spa in downtown Seoul.

The lean 6-foot tall marketer in public relations visits the spa once or twice a month and spends about $500 every season on various products "to maintain and take care of" himself.

Chung's lifestyle may seem at odds with conservative Korean culture in which macho men tend to have dominated the social scene. But the latest numbers show a surprising trend of Korean men striving to look beautiful. Nearly 21 percent of global sales of men's cosmetics, a total of $495.5 million, have been sold here last year, according to Euromonitor International, a global market research firm.

That makes Korea the largest market and by far the largest in terms of per capita – only 19 million men - as well.

Marketers make a point that the new consumers of cosmetics are straight men who are embracing a new version of handsome.

The whopping sales figures are expected to increase by 79 percent this year, reaching $885 million, according to South Korea's largest cosmetics company, Amorepacific.
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North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel - WSJ.com

Global cities (formerly New York City, London, Tokyo, etc., but now including the likes of Seoul, Los Angeles, Osaka, Mumbai, etc.) are often in search of an iconic structure to symbolize the city. New York City, for example, has the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, while Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign and Sydney has the Opera House. Seoul has, well, Namdaemun or N-Tower, I guess. 

Pyongyang may be years off from ever being a global city, but the Ryugyong Hotel seems to becoming an eerie icon unto itself. I must admit it does look rather cool, and if it is structurally sound (and if an Egyptian telecom company can't make a 100-story building structurally sound, who can?) it might be an interesting place to visit, if not stay. 

Anyhoo, the Wall Street Journal is featuring the recently renovated hotel in the photo essay below. Enjoy.


Greg Baker/Associated Press

The Ryugyong Hotel, seen from a road outside Pyongyang, on Oct. 25, 2011.


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North Korea disbands Camp 22?

If Kim Jong-un really were the Gorbachev or Deng Xiaoping of North Korea, what would it look like? Would it include releasing pictures of the Young General riding modern-day roller coasters or sending economic missions off to far-flung areas of China and the rest of the world to learn how to enter the late 20th century? 

Would it include closing down a gulag or two? It's a pertinent question because this seems to have happened at Camp 22 in Hoeryong, according to Daily NK (link and excerpt below). Before we get ahead of ourselves, it appears that the inmates at this institution have been transferred rather than released, but could the closure itself be a sign of something? 

Why would it close? Is it too cruel even by the standards of the new North Korean leader? Are these standards changing? Is this change being pushed (or even forced) by China? Are there secret deals with Washington (or Seoul or Tokyo) whereby aid or diplomatic recognition or something of value is dangled like a carrot if certain benchmarks are met, such as the closing of x number of gulags? 

It's n interesting proposition. 


http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=9865

Daily NK - Camp 22 Disbanded on Defection Fear

▲ Location of former Camp 22 nr. Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province (©DailyNK)
Daily NK has belatedly confirmed that one of North Korea's infamous network of political prison camps has been closed down, while also obtaining information suggesting that the decision to close it was triggered by a high-level defection.

A source from North Hamkyung Province informed Daily NK on the 27th, "Camp 22 in Hoiryeong was totally shut down in June. It was decided that it should be closed down after the warden who ran it and another officer ran away to China."

The source said that all the camp inmates were transferred to other camps, and that as far as he is aware none were released.
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ROK Foreign Minister tells AP that Japan should better educate its people on its past

There's always going to be a problem when one country cannot forget and the other cannot remember.

I think that what Prime Minister Kim says below is kind of important, but perhaps instead of drilling this point home all the time with government officials, maybe they should look into making some K-dramas that focus on this issue.

Perhaps a lot of people who love "Winter Sonata" will also start to understand why so many people in Korea are so upset about Japan's imperial past.

From the AP (via WaPo):

"When the Japanese government claims Dokdo is their territory, Korean people (take) it as another attempt to invade our country," Kim said. "So that's the Korean sentiment and I hope that Japanese government understands this."

http://m.washingtonpost.com/national/ap-interview-skorea-foreign-minister-says-japan-must-educate-its-people-about-its-war-crimes/2012/09/27/dbc40808-08c7-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html


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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Koreanization of America: SF, NYC, and LA discover officetels

Anyone who has lived in Seoul or any big city in Korea knows all about the "officetel" apartments, small units equipped with a private bathroom and kitchenette that could be used as either an office or a private residence for an individual (or an extremely cozy couple). Hence the neologism officetel (office + hotel). 

They're not for everybody, but if you want something close to the city center, often with a great view, and not too big and not too expensive either, then officetels are great. 

But in America, where cities tend to be more horizontal than vertical and where spacious living is seen as a God-given right, would this fly? I'm not so sure, if they think a 220-foot unit should run for $1200 to $1500, since that takes the "affordable" element out of the equation (I'm not too familiar with the San Francisco housing market, but it sounds comparable to uber-pricey Waikiki and much of the rest of Honolulu).

Hmm... Maybe I'm charging too little for my own place. 


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-micro-apartments-20120924,0,5210788.story

San Francisco considers 220-square-foot micro-apartments - latimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The tiny apartments are touted as "affordable by design."

New York City has launched a pilot project to test them out. Boston is doing it too. But here in San Francisco, where a growing number of residents are being priced out of the housing market by a revived tech economy, city leaders are considering the smallest micro-units of all.

At a minimum 150 square feet of living space — 220 when you add the bathroom, kitchen and closet — the proposed residences are being hailed as a pivotal option for singles. Opponents fear that a wave of "shoe box homes" would further marginalize families of modest means who are desperate for larger accommodations.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider tweaking the city's building code, which requires newly constructed units to be at least 290 square feet.

The number of micro-units that could be built under the proposal would not be capped, although critics are pushing for controls on the experiment. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, for instance, has signed off on just 60 apartments that would be 275 to 300 square feet small.

Patrick Kennedy — a Berkeley-based developer who in November will unveil a building with 300-square-foot units in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood — has said he hopes to build several thousand even smaller models.

The mini-apartments' schematics include window seats that convert to spare beds and beds that transform into tables. Bay windows offer sweeping views.


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Monday, September 24, 2012

Korea and Kazakhstan sign a deal for an environmentally friendly power plant

The connection between Korea and Kazakhstan should come as a surprise to no one. The reason why this might be considered newsworthy is because of the size of the project.

Moreover, if Korea can be a major player in future-oriented technologies like environmentally friendly power production, it might be invincible.

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Longer iPhone 5 screen means wider viewing area.

After bashing iOS 6's maps app a little bit, I thought I'd talk about things I like on the new iPhone 5, which is actually a lot.

I'll admit that when I first saw the leaked pictures of the iPhone 5's four-inch screen, I was a little disappointed. I wanted something a tad wider, not longer.

As it turns out, I think longer was a better choice. The phone still fits neatly in my smallish hands, and I can always flip it 90* for a truly wider viewing area. More to the point, the long screen is an ideal fit for watching programs without wasted black bar space. Note in the picture here the same show on Hulu on the iPhone 4 (top) and on the iPhone 5 (bottom). Forgive the picture quality; the iPad 2 is not exactly known for its photo-taking capabilities and my Nikon wasn't handy.
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Saturday, September 22, 2012

South Korea suspends bidding for US rice imports

Rice imports from United States has never been a popular idea in South Korea, and finding arsenic in American rice is certainly a good excuse to cut them off.

The truth is we're not really sure how much arsenic occurs naturally and whether or not these levels really detrimental to the human body when consumed as part if food. After all, it could be something that's completely natural and our bodies are accustomed to those trace amounts.

On the other hand, if this really is something that is no big deal at all, it might become something like Mad Cow where people are against it whether there really is justification for it or not.

Basically, if this can be used as a political tool against American imports, it will be. That is not to say there's nothing to this story; the fact is right now we really don't know.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-21/south-korea-suspends-bidding-for-us-rice-imports

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Sarah Silverman on voter ID laws

Having just registered a bunch of students to vote in Hawaii who might not be able to because of complicated rules on what ID will work, I sympathize with Sarah Silverman's message here. Would be funny if it weren't so serious.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ypRW5qoraTw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DypRW5qoraTw

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The Amazing iOS 6 Maps

Apparently not everybody is impressed with the maps from iOS 6.

I guess a lot of us miss thel Google maps app that used to come with the iPhone.

Click here for some of the more amusing ways in which iOS 6 has mucked up the world.

http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/


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