Tidbits

I don't see any strong story for the day, so here are a few things - Korea and Gangwon related, that caught my eye.

My most recent post was about swine flu and the need to constant care to prevent illness. Today, I have learned that the eighth victim of Swine Flu was from Gangwon Province. The 64-year old woman went to a hospital and:

The hospital treated her with anti-viral medicine for five days, after which she tested negative for the flu, but she finally died of secondary complications from bacterial pneumonia, the ministry said.

I wonder what the anti-virals were. As most people know, there is no cure for viral illness - no cure for the common cold, for example - but the symptoms can be treated. Anyway, it seems the flu weakened her immune system and allowed pneumonia to take hold. I am not Korea-bashing here, but I wonder if she caught pneumonia at the hospital itself. This happens all the time, around the world.

Anyway, there are now 10,000 Koreans sick with swine flu.

At my university, we no longer need to line up and have our temperature taken to enter the campus. I do need to continue asking each class if anyone is hot and sending them to the campus nurse. With Chuseok coming up, we were reminded that we could not leave the country due to infection fears. I presume going to Seoul and eating from the same dish with a dozen family members is still okay.

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I find this funny and I don't even care if the elephant did it.

Police yesterday said they are probing whether an elephant at the zoo inside Children’s Grand Park in Seoul threw a stone at a woman. The Gwangjin Ward Police Station said, “A woman surnamed Kim reported to police that she was hit by a stone thrown by an elephant.”

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Yawn:

By Oct. 15, Pyeongchang will submit a proposal to host the 2018 games to the International Olympics Committee, which will narrow down its choices to three to four final candidates by June. IOC members will visit those finalists between February and March 2011, prior to making their decision at a general assembly in Durban, South Africa on July 6.

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E-books in Korea

Major S. Korean publishers, bookstores create e-book firm

SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- A group of major publishers and on- and off-line booksellers in South Korea founded an electric book firm on Wednesday, the new publishing body said in a release.

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I've been watching NUUT, a Korean brand of E-book reader device, for the last few years. I would totally buy one if I could get content easily without DRM - I don't feel the need to share the books, but I would want to move the e-book from my computer to my reading device, to new computer.... I have a habit of reading a book several times and I frequently buy non-fiction specifically to access at different times in the future.

Swine flu...forever

I think I'm a bright guy and am capable of thinking things through. Still, sometimes I need to hear or read or see something, as per my example below, dozens of times before it really sinks in.

My great epiphany last week was about swine flu, or rather contagious disease and our future.

Many K-bloggers have been describing the over-reaction to swine flu found in Korea. Roboseyo just blogged about the number of swine flu deaths compared to the number of suicides and asked why Koreans weren't investing more in suicide prevention.

At the same time, the ex-pat community has been discussing the lack of hygiene seen in Korea. I'm talking about people using bathrooms but not washing their hands, sneezing or coughing without covering their mouths and sharing food even to the point of all customers for an entire day sharing the same bowl of soy sauce. I'm going to point out here that I need to rub my eyes less and wash my own hands more as well.

Well, Korean officials have not been overreacting to swine flu; they may well be reacting exactly right, but they need to do this forever. This is what globalization is all about, this is what is meant by the cliche, "It's a small world." There will always be another disease on the horizon, people will always be in contact with international travelers and preventative measures will always need to be taken.

SARS, bird flu, swine flu, ... disinfectant gels and infra-red cameras and the rest will be with us til the end. The Asian bow will replace European greetings and even the North American handshake. Maybe online classes will come into their own.

I was told all this again and again since my university biology classes in the '80s but only now, standing in line to have my temperature taken and seeing disinfectant stations at doorways on campus, do I really understand.

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One more thing. Matt Ridley wrote a book about the evolution of sex called "The Red Queen". The red queen that Alice in Wonderland met had to run as fast as she could to keep up with the others, to stay in place. One of the explanations for sex in Ridley's book was to shuffle our immunities and cell markers. This kind of evolution is not the sort to change Australopithecus to man but to change the locks on our cells so diseases couldn't get in. For this kind of evolution, our grandfather's locks would work just as well for our grandchildren - as diseases found keys to one set of locks, they lost the keys to the old locks. A newborn, with an entirely new (or very old) immunity suite would be in a better position than a clone, young in body but with a slightly older immunity suite.

Anyway, I wonder how this affects my son. He was born relatively late in my life - I was thirty-eight while my father was in his twenties when I was born. Is he getting a better or worse immunity suite? Will the trend in developed nations of having children later in life make a difference in immunity?

Global Warming news -mostly about Gangwon

Blogger note: In the 'create a new post' window, the two quotes below are the same colour, although the fonts are different. I have this problem frequently now that I am on a Mac.

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The joongang and the Chosun have articles about unusual crops in Gangwondo.

The Joongang has this to say:

Melons now grow in greenhouses in Yanggu County, Gangwon, and apples grow outdoors. Tangerines are being grown in Gangneung, Gangwon.

All of this shows that semitropical temperatures are moving north, leaving some to wonder what the temperature will be like in 100 years. The meteorological administration says that if the temperature continues its meteoric rise, the average temperature in Korea will be about 4 degrees higher. Ski resorts in Jeolla and Gangwon may have to shut down. Pine trees, which are symbolic of the Korean soul for many Koreans, could also disappear.

Apples growing outdoors is a sign of increased temperatures? I confess that I chiefly remember only wild apple trees rather than orchards in my part of Canada, but I have trouble thinking of apple trees as sub-tropical.

"Ski resorts may have to shut down"? Well, perhaps we can be done with Olympics bids, then.

From the Chosun, we learn that Gangneung has planted a field of sunflowers along the Namdae River:

The 8,000 sq. m field is made up of one million sunflowers and it is drawing people out of their cars to get a closer look. These sunflowers are different in that they only come up to a person’s waist, whereas ordinary sunflowers usually grow to the average person’s head.

Alright, maybe sunflowers aren't tropical either (and the article made no such connection) but they have the word 'sun' right in the name. Read critically, people!

I will work, next week, on finding and photographing one or both of these crops.

Roboseyo* has (re)posted a video about global warming that compares the costs and benefits of acting on global warming with whether or not such warming is taking place. The speaker in the video makes a fair point but I feel the worst-case-scenarios (while possible) aren't the way to convince fence-sitters.

On the other hand, I would have added that if we take action against global warming and it never does occur (and that Gore and the others, the many, many others, were wrong), we still come out ahead. I say this because most of the action needed to reduce or slow global warming have other great benefits - reducing fuel emissions is good for more than keeping us cool, it also prolongs how long we actually have fuel, reduces other forms of pollution, and walking and cycling rather than driving may make us healthier.

This is a point that GI Korea (link is to a search on his site for global warming) might not get. Either that, or he wants to argue the problem on it's own merits (is global warming happening or not) and not go off on tangents. Anyway, his blog is the best place for clear-headed anti-global warming information (not that I agree with it, mind you).

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Added later:

the Korea Times also has an article, an editorial this time, about Korea becoming subtropical. The writer is concerned that Lee Myoung-bak isn't doing enough. I can't really say, but I do know that Canadians have/had trouble accepting their government's One Ton Challenge, and Canadians produce far more carbon as individuals than Koreans do. I'm not exactly blaming Canadians: citizens are fewer and spread further out than Koreans are, making automobiles far more necessary.

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Roboseyo is also involved in KIVA, which is very cool. Follow the above link to his site. KIVA is sort of micro-loan bank. Instead of giving large groups piles of money, the micro-loans go to small-business people - to buy a sewing machine or a bike or, well, I don't know, but the loans are in the order of $20 to $50 or so. I don't think the loaner, Roboseyo in this case, makes money, but he has a wonderfully high likelihood of having the loan repaid and so is able to use it again. I have wanted to get involved but have always been too lazy.

Imjin river flood revisited

In looking for further information about the recent flash flood from North Korea, I see that I am not alone. At the Marmot's Hole, Oranckay stated that the North was testing a weapon, one that was deniable but capable of threatening Seoul itself. The Herald discussed the military angle but also reports that any explanation at this time is only speculation.

I would like to write about a different aspect of the flood - how the people died. As with the cause of the flood, I can only speculate, but I base my opinion on how the flood in Jirisan at the end of July, 1998 caused so many deaths.

First, the six Koreans (South Koreans, from the Herald article, I see a child presumed to be North Korean has also been found) were camping by the river.

The problem is, what does "by the river" mean? For the deaths caused by the Jirisan floods it meant actually on dry sections of the riverbed itself. I was unable to find much online about the 1998 flood but Kushibo linked to a Sally Ann article. People had even parked their cars on the riverbed. I had hiked along the river at some time before the flood and know that signs existed warning people not to camp "by the river".

If the victims of the recent flood also camped on exposed portions of the riverbed, I don't want to directly compare them to the Jirisan victims. The flood in Jirisan was caused by a fairly major typhoon and the campers should have put a little thought into their choice of campsite considering the heavy rain. There was no such warning at Imjin: from the above-linked Herald article: Speculation rose over what was behind the unusual discharge which came without notice when the area saw almost no rainfall recently.

Surprise flood on Imjin River

About six months ago was International Trans-boundary Water Day. I contributed a post about using radar to track rain in North Korea to judge Imjin River water levels - most of the river is north of the DMZ.

Apparently, there was a surprise flood there this morning causing six missing on this side of the border.

The same content in English. I also see that six weeks ago, there was concern of flooding in North Korea because "Seasonal floods are common in North Korea where decades of deforestation have left the country without a natural protection of tree cover."

More invasive species likely on the way for the Great Lakes

I don't know if Korea has any "great lakes" - no offense or anything, I'm just saying most lakes here are above dams. Anyway, this post is about the Great Lakes between Canada and the US.

One example of an invasive species is the Zebra Mussel.

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Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are small, fingernail-sized mussels native to the Caspian Sea region of Asia. They are believed to have been transported to the Great Lakes via ballast water from a transoceanic vessel. The ballast water, taken on in a freshwater European port was subsequently discharged into Lake St. Clair, near Detroit, where the mussel was discovered in 1988. Since that time, they have spread rapidly to all of the Great Lakes and waterways in many states, as well as Ontario and Quebec.

Diving ducks and freshwater drum eat zebra mussels, but will not significantly control them.

Likely means of spread: Microscopic larvae may be carried in livewells or bilgewater. Adults can attach to boats or boating equipment that is in the water.

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According to the blog Journal Watch Online, due to the recession, many ships are sitting at anchor longer than normal. This means more local critters are able to attach themselves to the hull to be carried to the next harbour.

...researchers have raised yet another possible downside of the economic crisis. Global merchant vessels are sitting idle at ports, potentially accumulating marine organisms that could be carried to other parts of the world when business picks up.

Ships that transport organisms on their hulls have likely helped non-native marine species invade new habitat around the globe, resulting in damage to both ecosystems and economies. Coating the hulls can prevent “biofouling,” but many of these treatments lose their effectiveness on inactive ships. For instance, a 200-meter ship could amass more than 20 tonnes of organisms if left unused for a long period of time, the authors write.

More on invasive species here (I think this is the site I got the zebra mussel info -there was a long, but necessary gap in the writing of this post - my son wanted to play outside).

come to Sokcho - any way you want.

It looks like another airline is going to try flying to our (well, Yangyang's) airport. I wish them well, but give them only a month or so (Click to enlarge the photo).

Earlier, I had heard about hopes for a high-speed train to Sokcho, via Chuncheon. I thought it unlikely but it appears Chuncheon is getting a fast train. Maybe they will extend it here after all.

I am surprised though, at how many transportation links Chuncheon is getting - In July an expressway was officially opened running between Seoul and Chuncheon -it seems to me that it will take passengers away from any rail service and/or that the rail service will take cars from the toll road. From the article:

The toll is 5,900 won for passenger cars for the entire route. Residents in Chuncheon and nearby counties will receive a discount of 700 won.

"We planned to open the highway in August but advanced the opening by one month, for the convenience of vacationers to Chuncheon and other destinations in Gangwon. We hope the road will ease traffic congestion between the two regions on weekends," a ministry official said.

By 2014, the expressway will be extended to reach Yangyang on the eastern coast.

Finally, a new ferry service overseas has started for China, Russia and Japan.

This is the second major ferry traveling from Sokcho; the first links Sokcho and Baekdu Mountain in North Korea....

The ferry can accommodate 750 people and is able to carry 180 containers. Travel starts each week on Monday at noon, when it leaves for Japan, and runs until its return on Sunday. However, it is a longer journey than air travel, taking almost one day to get to Japan and an additional 22 hours to Russia.

Sokcho is excited about the latest opportunity which is expected to boost the local economy as it becomes the first port on the Korean east coast to grab two exclusive international ferry links.

Once again, a jellyfish bloom

From the Times, a yearly warning of jellyfish.

The article says the jellyfish grow to around two metres in diameter so I am confused by the picture unless the diver on the left side is a child.

I know jellyfish are carnivorous and can eat fish, but I wonder if the jellyfish are being used a scapegoats for overfishing by humans.

Other posts about jellyfish at Gangwon Notes can be found here.

Fishermen returned from N. Korea

I don't have any special insight to the story but it is my beat, so I should at least provide links and background.

About a month ago, a fishing boat with four crew from Sokcho crossed into North Korean waters. So far, I think no one is publicly saying why although suggestions of navigation equipment or engine failure have been common. I have not heard anyone mention espionage although it is probably in everyone's sub-conscious.

Last night, they came home. Well, they were returned to South Korean territory -with their boat. I suspect none of the crew have been home nor will be for a few days longer. They may have had some contact - closely monitored - with their family.

For my mother and other foreign visitors, I think the return of the fishermen is connected to the offers of family reunions for Chuseok (An important holiday coming soon); both are related to offering more of a carrot to South Korea. The previous government was very North-friendly but the current one is not (and I approve, for all that's worth). Threats and missile launches haven't brought significant offers of aid so North Korea is trying a friendlier tack.

Anyway, on to some links:

The Korea Times

The Marmot's Hole

ROK Drop

Juxtaposition

Yesterday, the Herald was discussing Pyeongchang:

Pyeongchang, not contented with being the best winter holiday destination in the country, is also famous for its unrelenting efforts to host the Winter Olympics. The city has failed twice in bids to host the 2010 and 2014 games, but that doesn't seem to discourage them. Gangwon Province is trying yet again to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, this time with more ambitious and systematic preparations.

This is all well and good, except for an article a month ago in the Times:

For the people of Gangwon Province, bidding to host the Winter Olympics was first an ambitious goal, then a heartbreaking defeat, and now a dangerous dream that could end up throwing their home province into bankruptcy.

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But the problem is that the province's primary channel of capital inflow for the construction has for months been clogged up.

Once again, I am unable to escape the quotes feature in Blogger - I think it doesn't like Safari. I will have to jump across the partition some day and try Chrome, Firefox and Explorer to see if similar errors occur.

Anyway, 'Alpensia' - Alps in Asia, of course - is well-described in the Herald's article which is more tourism related. I want Pyeongchang to do well, but I have long been ambivalent about Winter Olympics here.

Hand of an artist

It's well-known that, on Christmas Day, many kids will take a fantastic toy out of its box, set it down and play for hours with that box. In a similar vein, after my son finished painting the last of my supply of computer paper, I looked at the results and took a picture of his hand.

Hmm, needs more red.

Kids in the Hall coming back!

Another Off-topic post.

Via Boingboing, I have learned that Kids In The Hall have a mini-series in production. The show is set in North Bay, about two hours north of my hometown.

I am a huge fan of KITH but am surprised the group is getting back together. I have heard no reports of problems within the group but some have, publicly at least, being doing much better than others. Dave Foley was the star of Talk Radio (Hartman was probably the heart) and has been in some movies, for example and although I have Bruce McCulloch's tape (!), Shame Based Man, he wasn't been very visible since KITH ended.

If you'd like to hear about the Daves they know, here's your chance.

bloggers are harming newspapers?

Note: Either Safari or blogger is having formatting problems. If this post, not yet seen on the blog, is formatted strangely, I wash my hands of it. If you find spelling and grammatical errors, I'm probably to blame.

GI Korea has a post up about AP news expecting/requiring bloggers to either embed an AP article -with ads but with no charge to the blogger, or pay to quote excerpts.

As GI Korea says, "Interesting stuff and really something that shouldn’t be too surprising considering how more and more newspapers are going bankrupt." Still, I think newspapers are going bankrupt for other reasons. Bloggers who link back to the original article are likely to encourage visits to the paper's website, rather than discourage them.

Now, I would say that some bloggers, myself occasionally among them, do harm newspapers - or try to. Some of the reporting in Korea is terrible - from poor English to extreme and obvious bias, these papers need to improve their game.Oh, the news media in North America that credulously post anti-vaxer nonsense also deserve some attention. A few years ago, many people commented that Jon Stewart's The Daily Show was offering better 'fake news than the legitimate networks could manage. Part of why I blog is to encourage mainstream media to offer better information to the public. I blog that information because the newspapers often don't.

Anyway back to GI's post. They want to charge people for posting excerpts? I can understand it if no link is given or citation listed. I even want to charge my own students to drive the rules of plagiarism into their heads. Is there a problem of length? Are some bloggers posting two paragraphs of a three paragraph story?

I understand that AP can easily search for their content and find those who post it, but charging such people would be very problematic. GI's post is about 'protecting content' and I had figured it was about a new kind of DRM or way to make their pages non-copyable.

Well, its a new world and we're all still trying to find our way in it. We always will be. We sure won't be going back to the 'good ole days' and we never will be. I hope newspapers can find a way to be commercially viable, but bloggers won't be going away.

Updated before I posted:

Boingboing looked into the subject over a year ago.

The New York Times, an AP member organization, refers to this as an “attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt.” I suggest it’s better described as yet another attempt by a big media company to replace the established legal and social order with with a system of private law (the very definition of the word “privilege”) in which a few private organizations get to dictate to the rest of society what the rules will be. See also Virgin Media claiming the right to dictate to private citizens in Britain how they’re allowed to configure their home routers, or the new copyright bill being introduced in Canada, under which the international entertainment industry, rather than democratically-accountable representatives of the Canadian people, will get to define what does and doesn’t amount to proscribed “circumvention.”

Swine flu and precautions

Ahhh! run for the hills! don't let anyone get too close! Keep away! Am I describing fear of The Happening* or viral epidemics?

Well, viruses today. There may not be enough of the vaccine when it does reach Korea to help us much. What vaccine there is, needs to go to... who, exactly? It's a tough question. My son is among those most at risk of death from the virus, but I am more at risk of catching it (I am a foreigner a teacher who comes into close contact with hundreds of students a week and, well, more below about those students) and bringing it to him.

So, those at greatest risk from the disease or at greatest risk of catching the disease; the victims or the carriers?

I don't particularly want the vaccine (Though I feel it and just about all other vaccines are useful and safe) and feel I can protect myself through various preventive measures. Earlier, I blogged about places that weren't crowded in Korea and a friend with a great sense of humour suggested that washbasins in public bathrooms weren't crowded in Korea. Here is something that we should work on. The advantage of a clean hands sort of campaign is that it is effective against more than the most recent headline-grabbing disease.

I don't think the face masks are necessary but that might be a western sort of prejudice against them. Still, covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough is a smart, as well as polite idea and one that I have discussed with many classes of students who cough (accidentally?) on me.

Kim Hannula, at All my faults are stress related, a geology blog that often has good teaching content, discusses swine flu, whooping cough and vaccines. She reminded me of the crazy-ass anti-vaxers and finished with:

odds are that swine flu will start to spread rapidly through the community as soon as the students get back to campus on Monday. But if we haven't all come down with it before October, my kid and I will get vaccinated. (And I'm going to get re-vaccinated for whooping cough, too.) Because it's not just about the two of us. It's about the herd.

Brian in Jeollanam-do is, as always, on the case with a roundup. In a comment he made to his own post, he said:

It doesn't do any good to sanitize your hands when everybody projectile sneezes or coughs without covering their mouths. "disease terrorists," I think commenter nb once wrote. Coughing on people is my second biggest pet-peeve here, behind noisy eating.

kimchi-icecream brought up a good point elsewhere. They talk about sanitizing the classrooms every day, but let's not forget cleaning is often left up to the students. The same students who don't use cleaning solution, who don't use hot water, who mop the classroom floors with mops that are stored in the bathroom, and who don't wash their hands. Not only do they seem woefully ignorant about cleaning and sanitation, but if you note the half-assed way in which the classrooms are cleaned now, I don't think you'd put much faith in them being sanitary in the future.

Kimchi Ice cream discusses concerns that too many healthy people with visit the hospital:

In Korea I've often been told I 'should go to the hospital' (see here for a post about this cultural difference) for things I'd never go to the hospital for back home in Canada . . . and I think that this cultural habit may put too much stress on the medical system in Korea.

"Over 250 outpatients visited the Geoje hospital to get tested for the new influenza on Tuesday this week alone, 40 percent more than a usual day, according to the hospital.

This is a reasonable concern as, when I am sick with a minor cold, people will ask me if I've visited the hospital. Seems a little strange as pharmacies can treat the symptoms and doctors can't give me a cure for what is, after all, only a irritation. I remember some time ago, a children's clinic had a good play area and my wife suggested we take the little guy there on hot days to enjoy the air conditioning. I pointed out that sick people tend to go there.

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*And I am, if not afraid, then horrified by this movie.

Fall runs

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea has chosen not to organize the Terry Fox Run again this year. I can sympathize; to meet Canadian liability requirements would be a challenge for a small organization overseas.

So I'm happy to see that the Hi-Seoul marathon, which does include an actual marathon, also has shorter runs - a half marathon and a 10km run. Here is the site.

I am not sure if Oct 11 is a good date for me as I hope to get to Seoul for the KOTESOL conference two weeks later, but I will try. I will also watch for local runs.

Kwandong foreign teachers will start the semester late

University classes start at the regular time but foreigners will start a week late. I like the idea of time off but hate to be treated differently than the other staff.

In an effort to be fair about this, I expect the foreign students will also start late but no one felt the foreign teachers needed this information. Similarly, Korean professors who travelled overseas may also be asked to wait a week - again, there is no reason to tell the foreign profs this. As a group, my coworkers and I are the most likely to be returning from overseas, so I guess it makes sense.

Still, I have been in-country long enough to satisfy quarantine requirements and want to try to teach - as a student I would have loved to hear we have a week free, but as a teacher, I want to teach.

I had thought the quarantine at other schools was for everyone, not merely the foreigners. Perhaps I was wrong about that, too.

Oh, I have a week off but have been asked to stay away from crowded places. I would love some ironic suggestions in the comments

1. the plagiarism-investigations office of any school
2. the line at the bank for people with no credit card debt
3. Roh Mu-hyeon's gravesite now that Kim Dae-jung has stolen his thunder.
4. beaches after Aug 31: "it's too cold!"
5. ....your suggestion here...

Bikes on subways

Seoul will soon allow bikes on the subway outside of peak of peak hours. In addition, bike storage will be available at some stations.

I like the ideas and hope it catches on.

Happy Birthday, Galileo's telescope

It is 400 years old today.

I tried to buy a galileoscope - two actually - but sent them to an obsolete address for my sister. I may try again and send her two, with the expectation that I will get one at some point. Oh, they only can be shipped to American address. You could order yours here.

How do New Zealand and Finland teach science?

However they do it, they do it well. Graph from Nature.

Despite their small populations, they have a large percentage of top performers in science. Korea has more top performers but, due to it's larger population, a much smaller percentage. I wonder, though, if it works better for Korea as at least some Korean scientists are basically trapped here due to language and cultural isolation.

There is another interesting graph in the article but I can't understand what it is saying -the childish style is cute, but impenetrable. I'm clearly not a 'top-performer'.

Hat Tip (if needed) to Pharyngula.

'Mentee'? A good idea, but crazy name.

The Joongang has an article about 'volunteer' service that students are required to do (it being required is why I put volunteer in scare-quotes). One student who previously hated doing volunteer work is now enjoying mentoring other students. The program is in Songpa, where I once lived and worked -and volunteered myself, as it happens.

Anyway, there are two individuals involved, the mentor and the ...mentee?

“We supervise and counsel the mentors and mentees and the mentees’ guardians, and we also distribute budgets for the outdoor activities,” said Lee Yu-mi, a welfare worker in the Pungnap welfare center. “We also share information and discuss matters about the activities and the mentors.”

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The tutoring is generally done once a week and outdoor activities typically occur monthly. Usually the mentors teach youngsters school subjects they’re having difficulty with.

For outdoor activities, the two participate in activities that interest the mentees, such as visiting ecological parks or observing the lives of insects and plants.

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Skeptics say most high-school students participating in community service programs activities are simply trying to meet admission requirements at universities, as many universities now like to see community service activities as part of a student’s application.

I thought the word was 'mentored'. It seems Mr Domestic Bliss is mentoring a few students as well (well, showing them bugs).

Ontario students are required to perform fifteen hours of volunteer service a year in order to graduate (I think - this is long after I graduated and I haven't lived in Canada in a long time). I am not sure what the goal is; making someone volunteer wouldn't seem to encourage volunteerism in later years in my opinion. As a coach, making your players shake hands with opposing teams is a good idea but is not guaranteed to encourage good-sportsmanship. Making someone do anything is not really the best way to encourage that behavior.

Anyway, I hope this particular program works both the mentor and mentee (hee-hee) are helped by it.

By the way, to any Sokcho or coastal Gangwon people: I used to do a fair bit of volunteering but family scheduling conflicts have caused me to ease off - to nothing. If people are looking to irregular volunteering (irregular hours, I mean - a full day here or there or a few nights one week only), I am looking to help voluntees.

Is this a lily pad?

I was at the in-laws for a day on the weekend and found my little guy with this plant.Most lily pads I've seen have a definite 'start' and 'finish' to the leaf - at 11:40, the edge clearly folds into and at 12:20, it bulges out again, showing apparent endpoints. Not this leaf.
They grow in swampy water, like lily pads, but the stalk is strong enough to carry the leaf well above the water.
Finally, do these look like frog eggs or the like? I have heard of some frogs that glue their eggs above the water, so that the tadpoles dive into the water upon hatching.
The visit with the in-laws went well, with me managing to not embarrass myself in helping with the farm-work. I helped plant about twenty rows of potatoes, each row around 200 metres long - with the whole extended family, it took around four hours.

In honour of Left Hander's Day (Belated)

I received a compliment a day or two after Left Hander's Day which was was surely inspired by that day.

I've been playing frisbee with a few friends lately. On the day in question, it was just two of us and my friend told me, "I'm glad [name] isn't here. H[is/er] throws are so accurate that I don't get to run much and it's boring. I don't have that problem with you."

Can you think of a more left-handed compliment then that?

Since my friend reads this blog, I know what you mean and am just happy to play. No hard feelings.

toronto Star Scientific Literacy Test

The Tor Star archives its articles after a week or so. If you want to do this test, hurry!
Here is the link.

I will try to write my comments below in white. After the test, highlight the area below to read (AFTER THE TEST!)

I got five wrong (#2,16,22,24,26)

#2 I don't understand. Sure, the side facing the sun is illuminated, but I thought the phases came from the Earth's shadow.

#16 - Am I confused by the 'best describes' part? I thought the sun and the Milky Way would be the same age, and both younger than the universe.

#22 I was wrong and shouldn't have been. I guessed 'b'.

#24 DNA allows cells to run chemical reactions? Well, it creates catalysts, but chemical reactions will happen come what may.

#26 Our ancestors go all the back to the pre-Cambrian and beyond. Go far enough back and we are related to plants.

fifth international archery contest in Sokcho

As I am out of town, I forgot about this but a friend on Facebook reminded me this morning.

At the Hwarang training centre this weekend is a mounted archery contest (Hwarang is the name for Shilla knights of yore). After a short search, I could not find any information about the event this year. A British team attended last year and, at some point, a Korean archer was filmed at the event.

Lefthander's Day

Woo-hoo!

See previous posts: 2008, 2007

looking for photo-editing software

One surprise I have found with the iMac is that, while the photo-editing software has some technical features, it lacks a lot of the simple stuff I enjoyed with Microsoft's "paint" - part of the Windows accessories package.

As a teacher, I like to take pictures and then write text on them -maybe a label or caption. I also like to be able to point at or circle a specific part of the picture.

As an enthusiastic amateur, I also like to occasionally stitch three or four photos together to make a panoramic view.

As a blogger, I like to resize photos to very specific sizes.

With iPhoto, I appear to be able to do none of these things. I can blur part of a picture, which is great if I want to remove recognizable features of person's face to preserve anonymity and the crop feature is better that Window's version but if I want to resize a pic the simplest options are "large, medium and small".

I am looking at GIMP, Serif Photoplus and a few other free editing software programs online, but getting GIMP to add a phrase to a picture is overkill. Its not clear to me that Serif Photoplus has an Apple version.

Any suggestions?

Korean swimming pioneer passed away

I wish I knew more about Cho Oh-ryun and his accomplishments before he passed away. He apparently swam from Ulleungdo to Dokdo (which surely means it belongs to Korea) and other, notable distances.

Gangwon travel suggestions from the Herald

A excerpt from a tourism piece about the province:

If you want to drag your family to the beach, but want something extra with your trip or a longer stay, head out to Gangwon Province. There are a bunch of things to do in Chuncheon, and there are several areas with pensions near the city, particularly to the southwest along Cheongpyeong Lake. The usual conveniences of a small city - supermarkets, bakeries and pharmacies - are here, and there are options for cycling and other leisure activities by the river.

Day 1: Travel to Chuncheon, stopping off on the way at Petite France - a cluster of French style buildings themed on Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's book "The Little Prince." Tucked appropriately in the folds of the hills surrounding Cheongpyeong Lake, it's a pretty impressive stab at creating a piece of Europe in Korea.

As an old(er) guy, I like the emphasis on children's activities in the article. There is a lot here that I, a Gangwon resident, would like to do.

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If it looks like something you'd want to do later, save it. The Herald has (or maybe had) a policy of archiving material for only a week.

I like this comic strip but

at first I thought Professor Gates was on a gallows.

probably poor navigation

Via the Marmot's Hole, I see a fishing boat on the East Coast crossed into North Korean waters and was towed to a North Korean harbour. I suspect the boat is lost, to enrich the North Korean fishing fleet, but I hope the crew are returned, and in good time.
BBC
Reuters

Image from offshore motorboat.

All there was some rejoicing.

Quietly celebrated my birthday with some friends last night. I have reached the mystical age of 42, which means I should have some knowledge of life, the universe and everything, but still seem to be waiting to see what I'll do when I grow up.

Thanks to my well-wishers.

Give the kid a break

I'm not really in a blogging mood these days but will return to regular posting....sometime.

For now, I'm really feeling sympathy for Pak Tae-hwan, who is being questioned everywhere (see reports in the Herald, the Times, the Joongang and the Donga).

I need to read more before commenting knowledgeably, but, at his level of competition, you cannot swim fast at every meet. In preparing for a best time, you need to take one to two months to reduce your workload and recover from training. That's one to two months you are not increasing your fitness level, one to two months that competitors might be increasing theirs.

I've questioned his coach-hopping, and I see that now in the news reports but need to sit down to them before commenting further today.

Best of luck to him in the 1500!

Potato Festival

Much as I love potatoes, this seems a little silly.  On the other hand, Gangwon is known for potatoes, so I guess it fits as a regional speciality.

From the Herald:

On Aug. 1-3, the festival will be held in the areas near Hwengye of Pyongchang, with wide ranges of programs and contests prepared. They include potatoe picking (which participants will get to keep), scavenger hunts, as well as exhibitions showcasing various potato products.

I can't imagine what a potato scavenger hunt looks like, or if it is different from actual potato picking.

Perhaps I am being too hard on the festival.  Kids, and maybe others, need to learn that veggies don't really grow at the stores.

Wait, is there a way to incorporate the Olympics bid into the event.  I bet there is!

Cottaging on the Pickeral River

My plans for a big canoe or kayak trip were too ambitious- my friends were unable to join in them and I was too out of shape for prolonged paddling. Instead, we visited an uncle's cottage.
We rented a canoe at Grundy Lake Supply Post -they set us up well with a canoe and gear and are open until 8:00pm, which is much better than Swift Canoe rentals.
I want to also recommend the French River Visitor Area, which is between the French and Pickeral rivers on Highway 69. A lot of local history is described and displayed there but, it being built by the Ontario government, doesn't advertise much for fear of disrupting local businesses.

Anyway, we paddled for fifteen minutes to the cottage past lots of bare rock and bent-over pine. Some find it beautiful.

While there, my uncle taught his grand-nephew how to drive.
Near the cottage is a railroad and a tunnel was dug through a ridge of rock at some point. I have explored by flashlight the whole tunnel but on this day, we just peered into the opening.
Around my mother's house and in central Ontario generally, I have seen a lot of cormorants and no loons. I worried that the cormorants had out-competed the loons as both are fish-eaters. I was happy to see a pair of loons near the cottage.
Apparently, turtles are in decline. We saw eight of them in one day, so we were satisfied.
We also saw a small water snake that allowed us to get quite close.

Koreans and genetics: this time Dr Hwang doesn't appear to be involved

Recently, two articles were published in prestigious scientific journals describing the genetic sequences of two Koreans. Unsurprisingly, there is now controversy, although problems with publishing etiquette seem mild compared to previous shenanigans.

Craigleith Provincial Park

This trip home has been a sort of nostalgia-fest for me as I take the little guy to places I liked. I barely remember Craigleith Park, indeed, I thought it was named Craigleaf, but I did remember the fossils. It was hard to explain that we would not be finding dinosaur fossils but rather much smaller critters, albeit also much older.

Click to embiggen any photo.

It was not a warm day and the wind had lots of room to gather strength before reaching us. Spring jackets were required. Look at that open water behind the little guy!


Along shore at Craigleith Park, the shale is comprised of many layers - and chock full of trilobites and the like.


There was one danger that, so far, we have avoided. We found some poison ivy at the park but stayed away. I hoope the same is true for our trip to an uncle's cottage later this week.

posted by GeorgianBayBrian.

Santa's Village

Santa's summer Ho-ho-home is in Bracebridge, Ontario because Bracebridge is halfway between the equator and the North Pole -yeah, that makes sense.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Santa's Village - I had enjoyed going there as a child and my son likes it now but they did not hire me when I applied 28 years ago. The first job I applied to and they shut me down, while hiring all my friends.*

The roller coaster in the trees is a good example of the rides there. The coaster was exciting enough for GeorgianBayAlex and the views were scenic enough for me. As the pictures show, this coaster had the right combination of terror and fun for the little guy.




Santa was there and greeted each child warmly. A few of the elves appeared tired but most were perky and in character.
We went to Santa's Village with my mother and my sister and her kids. There we met four of her friends and their mothers and kids. It was a big group going around. One of the grandmothers invited us all to her house for dinner and play by Lake muskoka. This duck wandered by and let me get extremely close, even while a Golden Lab was playing ten or twenty metres away. Strange, but beautiful.
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*Is this a typical Korean ESL teacher story? A loser who wasn't hired by the local equivelent of McDonald's goes on to work in Korea? Much as I hate that stereotype, I fit it in this regard (ONLY!)

Posted by GeorgianBayBrian.