The Marmot’s Hole

14 Comments

1. dda
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 12:37 pm | Permalink

   Me first, this time
   Anybody notice that the mine that collapsed in Utah is called “sago”? Sounds fitting…

2. Ut videam
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 12:45 pm | Permalink

   You’re mixing up your mine disasters, dda. The one in Utah is the Crandall Canyon mine. The Sago mine was the one that collapsed in West Virginia in January 2006:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.....e_disaster

3. shrug
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 12:47 pm | Permalink

   You know what else sucks? The recent credit crunch situation hitting global markets. Korea apparently got hit harder than the rest of Asia and the US with a drop of 5% in its exchange.

4. dda
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 1:02 pm | Permalink

   Ut — I stand corrected. Still funny though.

5. gbnhj
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 1:49 pm | Permalink

   Remember the Ali-Frazier ‘Thrilla in Manila’? Well here’s another ‘thriller’, only this one’s in Cebu.

   Watch it and get scared straight (in more ways than one).

6. Maddlew
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 2:52 pm | Permalink

   Damn! Bollywood on crack.

7. hardyandtiny
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 6:49 pm | Permalink

   Dear People living in apartments,

   Please stop slamming things around after midnight.
   Please try to consider your neighbors, who may be sleeping, before you slam your entrance door, your bathroom door, your closet doors and your kitchen cabinets at 200am.

   Thank you
   Hardy

8. dda
   Posted August 11, 2007 at 7:17 pm | Permalink

   and don’t let your kids wear clogs in your flat…

9. Herod
   Posted August 12, 2007 at 4:58 pm | Permalink

   I like the people who drive up to the front of an enormous apartment building at the crack of dawn and then honk the horn to hurry someone getting ready on the top floor. The complete disregard for other people!

10. McGenghis
    Posted August 12, 2007 at 5:35 pm | Permalink

    I just got refused service at a local PC bang because apparently ‘waegookins put viruses on the computers’. That’s about the most blatant racism I’ve encountered in 18 months.

11. Hwarang
    Posted August 12, 2007 at 9:09 pm | Permalink

    McGenghis, I got the same response a couple of months ago when I tried to use a couple of PC bangs in the same area (they were both back behind the It’aewon mosque, in the Hannam-dong area). That one day was the only time it’s happened to me, though, even though it’s been posted about previously here on the Marmot’s.

12. wjk
    Posted August 13, 2007 at 1:51 am | Permalink

    The Second Korean War: 2014

    After years of abortive talks over the North Korean nuclear program, North Korea has successfully tested a nuclear weapon. “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il’s ultimatum to the United States is simple: remove all military forces from the Korean Peninsula or Seoul will be consumed in a nuclear inferno.

    President Lindsey Graham (only months in office after the death of President McCain little more than a year into his second term) instead opts to declare war on North Korea. The US is joined by its loyal allies, Great Britain, under Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Australia under the leadership of Peter Costello. South Korea, eager to defend itself and re-unite the frayed Korean Peninsula quickly joins the fray, and Japanese Prime Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki provides financial and logistical aid to the Western powers.

    Not long after the declaration of war, the People’s Liberation Army crosses the Yalu river into North Korea in order to secure the interests of the People’s Republic.

    Not many rule changes here, just the addition of the T-95, available to China, and the chemical shell, available to the PRC and North Korea.

    http://forums.civfanatics.com/.....p?t=165096

    Pure fiction of course, but it is a possibility. I guess the possibility of China entering North Korea is much higher than US and Japan aiding South Korea.

    Thus, Koreans must take care of their own destiny, and I think it is right to upkeep more Kaesongs in North Korea.

    Could you imagine Taiwan in the 1980s unifying with China in the 1980s.

    Didn’t West Germany pay for the upkeep of the highway to Berlin, while the East Germans put in nothing?

    Starve ‘em out they say. They’re already starved, in a physically disfiguring way. Some permanently unable to reproduce.

    Take ‘em and reel ‘em in when the elite turns over Kim Jong Il.

    I think China entering North Korea is more likely with a severely weakened North Korea versus an economically sufficient North Korea.

    I’m not a commy. I believe in conservative business side economics.

    However, war must never happen again in Korea.

    The re absorption of a North Korea much worser than now will sink South Korea to the depths. It’s unacceptable.

    Much better to keep creating Kaesongs and gradually let them focus on making money rather than nukes.

13. Janus
    Posted August 14, 2007 at 12:03 am | Permalink

    But the money…buys…nukes…

    Additionally, the special economic zones that the PRC used to kick off its 改革开放 (in case you’ve always wondered just what they called this liberalization stuff) had the advantage of being far away and easily isolated from the rest of the nation. North Korea has no such ability as it is comparatively squished, making internal regions difficult to isolate. Heck, they can’t even isolate other countries–just watch China go.

    And while Deng was undoubtedly an evil son of a bitch, he cannot hold a candle to Kim Jong Il when it comes to the “which midget dictator is more evil” contest

    Also, I just got back from Seoul and I hate Beijing more than ever. Thank goodness the summer internship is over and I get to go back to Philly this week. Breatheable air, free speech, and a fucking iPhone await!

14. gbevers
    Posted August 17, 2007 at 1:14 pm | Permalink

    Today I came across Dr. Lankov’s article on Wongaksa (圓覺社), “Quite a Drama,” which was an old theater in Seoul. However, I noticed that the building in the picture that was posted with the article did not look like a Wongaksa, which can translate as “Round Awareness Arena.” The reason was that the buidling was square. Anyway, I looked up Wongaksa on the Internet and found the following picture: Wongaksa

    Anyway, I just posted it for those who might be interested.