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Category Archives: Rants

“… We Call It Life”?

19-May-06

I came across this Reuters article. It was about a TV ad titled “Carbon dioxide… we call it life” by a conservative group, Competitive Enterprise Institute. At first I thought it was a joke, but apparently it is not. The ad contained this claim: “The fuels that produce CO2 (carbon dioxide) have freed us from [...]

Surveilling MinJokSaGwan HakGyo?

23-Jun-04

We were watching some Korean TV programs recorded on the ReplayTV off of a local station, and there was a segment about MinJokSaGwan GoDeungHakGyo in HoengSeong, KangWon-do. It looked like a specialized high school and from the name I thought it was one of those government funded elite schools (well, “MinJok” (race, nation, people, etc.) [...]

Quality of a Leader

12-Mar-04

Something happened in Korea that will be recorded in Korean history. President Roh Moo-Hyun was impeached by the opposition party parliament members for election fraud, corruption and incompetence. The matter is sent to the Constitutional Court to be decided whether the result of the impeachment vote would stand. For now, his presidential power has been [...]

Boys will be boys, or else?

19-May-03

I just read an interesting article, “The New Gender Gap” by Michelle Conlin in BusinessWeek (May 26, 2003, pp.74-82). The article has a “provocative” subtitle, “From kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex.” Somehow I am not that surprised about the female excelling in school. Even for less “macho”/”aggressive” society such as [...]

Tonight’s Entertainment!

21-Mar-03

To quote (loosely) a broadcaster on NPR for this “War” this morning: “This is the ‘Shock and Awe’ [show?] we’ve been promised.” Is this like a New York Fourth of July firework extravaganza? Is this the blockbuster dinner and the movie? Is this a bully showing off his bulked up muscles and flexing biceps? [updated] [...]

The Things to Come for the Music Industry?

22-Feb-03

I saw an article titled “Pop Stars Learn to Live with Pirates” on International Herald Tribune. This article is about how the musicians and the record labels have to adapt in order to survive in China, where “95 percent of music sales” is through piracy. It is a very interesting and fairly well-written story on [...]

Diminishing American Powers?

22-Jan-03

I just can’t help but think that if the current Bush Administration is doing much harm to the U.S.’s overall power than good. By “power”, I mean the power to influence others and convince them of one’s own agenda. It is undeniable that the U.S.’s hard power (or direct power, such as military or economy) [...]

How to Say “We Are Human beings too. You Can’t Hit Us Like That!” in Korean…

26-Nov-02

This is a bit embarrassing. No, a lot. This newspaper article (in Korean) talks about a Korean language instruction booklet that has been circulating on the Internet. This Korean language book was made about two years ago by a Vietnamese company who exports labor outside Vietnam. Almost all the Vietnamese workers in Korea are supposedly [...]

“I Don’t Know What I Want…”

27-Sep-99

I’ve come to realize that I don’t know what I want, really, in “love”. Or maybe, I want too much and I know that’s unrealistic. On a certain level, I feel like I would be perfectly happy with any “decent” one once I am convinced. However, on the other hand, I feel like that’s just [...]