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Open Thread #38
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on February 16, 2008 at 10:28 am, filed under Open Thread. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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86 Comments
Start the weekend off with some laughter:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5PsnxDQvQpw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GmG4X9PGOXs
Warning: semi-work/school appropriate due to language.
I’ve got an Apple Wireless Keyboard that I bought in Singapore last fall, when they first were released. I saw it on sale and had to have it since it wasn’t yet on shelves in Korea.
Only thing is, in Singapore they have no need for hangul key legends. I’m almost a touch typist with hangul, but my kids are not and they need the legended keyboard. So now I’ve bought another hangul Apple Wireless Keyboard and don’t need the English-only one.
It works with Mac and Windows, so long as your computer has Bluetooth. If you’re a computer user who doesn’t read or speak Korean, it could be right for you.
List price W85,000 — yours for W40,000. Contact me by my blog if you’re interested. If nobody in Korea wants it the keyboard is going to my Dad’s in St. Louis this summer.
‘looking over the monumental “Science and Civilisation in China” works of Joseph Needham would be a good start, to see how far ahead of the Europeans they always were, up until 1800.(and Koreans were their partners in many technical and social advances; no small thing).’ sanshnseon
Sanshinseon, I know I am not your favorite poster but won’t you tell me if the partnership between the chinese and koreans is covered in the book you recommended?
If you’re a computer user in Seoul who doesn’t read or speak Korean, it could be right for you.
#1. This White person did not like your clips.
Of course, things like this don’t happen in America where everythin’s perfect, right? The exact reason I don’t eat hamburger:
http://www.komotv.com/news/national/14980896.html
The video just makes you angry.
Interesting discussion going on at occi re Ampontan and Debito. Have a look.
http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=827
I own the same one, which is far better than the earlier Mac wireless keyboard. That one was good for storing crumbs and dust.
#6,
You’re losing your touch. You can’t even make a tu quoque argument correctly anymore.
Watch and learn:
Notice what the headline states: abuse. So, where are the Korean newspaper articles about how dogs are abused before being butchered?
See? That’s how you make a proper logical fallacy.
Not that you need a video to be angry, anyway…
@#7:
You still read Occidentalism? You are a masochist, aren’t you?
#7,
Well, the shop keeper could have just as easily written, “We don’t speak English. Sorry.”
#11,
Nah, he’s a troll.
…I bet Pawi is actually a 40-something alcoholic New Zealander.
#14, #15, He has been successful in pissing-off just about everyone on the blog!
‘Not that you need a video to be angry, anyway…’
I’d respond to you but since you have ‘access’, I’m afraid you might publish my email address like the last time I made you go into flying rage. lol.
‘you still read ‘occi’?’ sonagi
There are long gaps between visits. However, recent events have caused me to visit his site more often, ie the accusation that someone isn’t who he says he is. Of course, if true, it would explain much.
BTW, re chinese characters: my knowledge is based on my studies of Chinese. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I speak Chinese but I did study it and do retain about a 700-800 characters in my head, though I am getting REALLY rusty.
Lastly, here is my response to you, konglick:
I really think that there are two issues here that, in essence, cannot be bridged by suggesting two polar opposites of any given situation can result in misunderstanding, and lead to the verification of items not yet discussed.
Now, do you understand?
Speaking of KAs, Kelly Choi on the red carpet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddnfZLyNnhk
Don’t flatter yourself, pow pow, it’s a lost cause. Besides, my dear nuljimaripkan, how could you flatter yourself, being an aol.com customer?
“BTW, re chinese characters: my knowledge is based on my studies of Chinese. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I speak Chinese but I did study it and do retain about a 700-800 characters in my head, though I am getting REALLY rusty.”
“I really think that there are two issues here that, in essence, cannot be bridged by suggesting two polar opposites of any given situation can result in misunderstanding, and lead to the verification of items not yet discussed.”
I guess you never studied Latin…or Logic.
…that was “argumentum ad hominem” for those of you who aren’t Latin or logically impaired.
bingo!
‘he(sic) last time I made you go into flying rage.’
wow, you must have been really mad and in a hurry to respond since you left off the ‘t’. lol.
As I said, pow pow, in your dreams, if you have any…
“List price W85,000 — yours for W40,000. If nobody in Korea wants it the keyboard is going to my Dad’s in St. Louis this summer.”
If someone wants the wireless keyboard and can type in Korean you can also go to Yongsan and buy these stickers for the keyboard. I found a shop that sells them in the basement of the old building. It is a real pain in the ass to put them on, but no problems with them falling off.
btw, i forgot to ask you guys whether we should create a 200+ thread regarding the ethnicity of our most recent example of a guy on a rampage? shall we? something tells me this you won’t be interested.
of course, i’m not like so many of you who concluded cho acted because of his race. race got nothing to do with what happened yesterday. this is all about culture. though we americans don’t like to admit it, violence is a fundamental tennet of our ways. that’s why we see these things happen so often here. it’s just become a fact of life here. go to the store to get some bread, stand the chance of being blown away.
pawi save those burgers for me! and the steaks to
i have no problems eating american beef
its always amusing to hear koreans talk about food saftey, Mad Cow in the states when simply put most korean restraunt kitchens are disgusting bacteria breeding, germ infested, nasty and unsanitary but that doesnt stop me from eating the delicious food they make
Koreans have no fear or understanding of bird flu which has killed many right here in Asia and is easily transmitted
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7972
but are extremely concerned over Mad Cow which has never been linked to human illness or death
on a side note a funny picture regarding the loons at Berkeley
http://michellemalkin.com/2008.....-the-week/
Pawi, you are the only one any Marmot reader could possibly know of who has ever viewed the Virginia Tech shooting as an ethnic issue, and you persist in this error despite the entirety of the evidence to the contrary.
Where are you getting this stuff?
Is it too much to ask that you desist in this ERROR? At least by the first anniversary in April, so as to respect the dignity of the victims?
“when simply put most korean restraunt kitchens are disgusting bacteria breeding, germ infested, nasty and unsanitary”
Nice. Not a random bs “fact” at all.
show me a mom/pop korean restaraunt that doesnt have a kitchen that leaves a lot to be desired. prove me wrong?
i am not being negative here i am pointing out koreans fear or ignorance of mad cowand american beef as compared to their daily eating habits
dont get me started on germs/diseases spread by everyone sticking chopsticks in the side dishes and then their mouths and back in the side dishes
and like i said it doenst stop anyone from eating the food including me
you just accept it
slim a lot of koreans came out and reacted similarly asking “how could a person with korean heritage do this?”
it shows a high level of ignorance
hence why pawi posted it
‘dont get me started on germs/diseases spread by everyone sticking chopsticks in the side dishes and then their mouths and back in the side dishes’ mcnut
what diseases? and may i ask? do you think it’s right for koreans to make gross generalizations about americans? expats? foreigners?
you’re one of those people who can’t practice what he preaches, huh? and where’s that ‘tu quoque’ guy when you need him?
what diseases? you mean you go into the kitchen of korean restaurants? do you do that with american ones?
what diseases?
I am rarely sick in Korea, and I shove my glistening chopsticks into whatever banchan will accept their prodding ways.
Come on, Mcnut, when no one is looking you shove your fingers up your nose and feast upon the bounty found therein, and if it makes you sick back home you see a doctor but if it happens in Korea you store it up as racial collateral.
Why should they, when it has been “scientifically proven” by a professor that kimchi kills the bird flu virus?
Various forms of hepatitis. Tuberculosis.
#6,
You’re losing your touch. You can’t even make a tu quoque argument correctly anymore.
Watch and learn:
Notice what the headline states: abuse. So, where are the Korean newspaper articles about how dogs are abused before being butchered?
See? That’s how you make a proper logical fallacy.
Huh?????
what diseases?
Various forms of hepatitis. Tuberculosis.
Dogbert, that’s why you wash down your Han jung-shik with soju, kills the bacteria.
“btw, i forgot to ask you guys whether we should create a 200+ thread regarding the ethnicity of our most recent example of a guy on a rampage? shall we? something tells me this you won’t be interested.”
The one people were talking about how Korean Americans shouldn’t worry about the ‘Backlash of 2007′ (Copyright Brendon)?
#32,
The common cold, meningitis, bacterial meningitis, influenza, and respiratory infection,…to name a few of the contagious disease that are carried by saliva.
Question is, do the bacteria and viruses that cause these diseases ’survive’ the heat, salt, and capsaicin that is found in Korean food? Probably. I’ve had food poisoning after eating out one time too many to doubt that they would.
good point brendon i forgot about that!!!
#34, Too bad it has met its match in those silent, bladed killers, or maybe those common household fans only kill people with low levels of kimchi in their systems. Those who aren’t eating kimchi on a regular (three meals a day) basis.
Once again, I’d like to talk to the victim of “fan near-death”. Is fan death always 100% fatal? Has anyone survived an attempt by a fan at homicide? Did they see a light and hear a sound like a helicopter?
#41,
“If I hadn’t gotten up to pee, I’d be dead.”
Refresh our memories. There are a number of regular commenters here. Who specifically are the “you” that “concluded Cho acted because of his race”? Please include links to specific comments lest anyone think you’re pulling generalizations out of your 肛門.
#22,
Boy did that one go right over your head.
I guess sarcasms isn’t one of your strengths either.
You better stick to playing bingo at church.
Not sure why no one in the Kblogosphere is talking about this, but there’s been some fairly disgusting revalations in the Korean female sports world about male coaches raping and abusing players as young as elementary school age as a means of “controlling” them.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....ryCode=117
This is a huge topic of conversation in all the usual netizen hangouts as well….
I must have defective fans, as I use two and am still kicking as of this morning. Most of my Korean friends think I have a death wish when they learn (or see) that I close my doors and windows to block out the yellow dust and turn on those “whirring blades of death” to keep me cool when the temperatures begin to rise.
I’d still like to know why only “Korean” fans are killers? How did all those fans in other nations throughout the entire world give up their murderous tendencies? Are Korean criminal elements (or gasp, Japan or the U.S.) somehow behind this? Why isn’t the government launching full-scale investigations as to why this is only a South Korean phenomenon (I doubt that many North Koreans have fans, as most don’t have much food or use for them in their glorious leader’s posh Gulags)?
#46,
I wonder how they explain the millions of people sleeping with a ceiling fan on and the windows shut? Oh, right. Korean and foreign physiology isn’t the same. Of course.
I’ve been sleeping with fans pointed at my face not more than 2 feet away on summer nights with doors and windows closed shut for pretty much all my life.
The only way I’d die from such a thing is if the fan were a high-power arctic freezer driven by a combustion engine strong enough to create some sort of carbon monoxide vortex in my room. Shiiit!
#48. You are living on borrowed time.
Yeah, yeah. Fan deaths are urban legend. Now please kindly step away from the already decomposed horse corpse and refrain from beating it in the future.
All that university gun violence in the U.S. has me thinking.
I agree that people that aren’t “all there” shouldn’t be allowed to own guns, but they can still use cars as instruments of death ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Vista_massacre ). Also, if people happen to believe in Greek, Roman, or Norse gods, does this make them mentally deficient and subject to not being able to carry? I know from my own experience that many who worship Yahweh and Allah are rather off in their thinking. Some of these enlightened beings actually believe the world is less than 10,000 years old or that scores of virgins await only the true male believers in the afterlife (What are all those used up women throughout human history to do when they leave this Earthly sphere? Where is their paradise?).
I don’t even think an out-of-this-world alien invasion could unite this messed up planet, as too many believers of different gods wouldn’t be able to believe their eyes or fathom the reality that they’ve spent countless years being brainwashed by their respective cults.
Lucky for me, I escaped the cult of the Roman Catholic Church after only two decades of fervent indoctrination. Amazing what clarity thinking for oneself does when it isn’t darkened by the narrowness of cultism and fanaticism.
肛門
it’s so much more attractive when it’s wriiten with 韓文. lol!
re read the 200+ thread, there were plenty saying cho’s korean heritage had something to do with his actions.
was reading a recent addition of ‘popular mechanics’ and came across an article that gathered a bunch of top scientists to ask them to give the fifty most important inventions in the last 50 years. ‘most important’ in this sense means most important to ordinary people.
imagine my surprise to find out that it was the koreans who developed mp3. i didn’t know that.
and the expat says the koreans never invent anything. makes me wonder about the ipod.
Pawi what is this?????
http://inventors.about.com/od/.....PThree.htm
Oh, you’re far from my least-favorite tho! The neo-fascists bother me more…
No it really doesn’t — Joseph Needham’s monumental “Science and Civilisation in China” series-of-volumes were written in the 1950s~70s when nobody knew anything about Korea’s accomplishments (still, all too few do). The good book on that cultural and technological ‘partnership’ remains to be written.
Few people are going to go through Needham’s thousands of pages of dense research (i’ve only browsed through them myself) if they can find them in a library at all, but fortunately there is now a good summary of his work published in affordable paperback in 1997: _The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention_
http://www.amazon.com/Genius-C.....ref=sr_1_6
Also probably going to be very good is a biography on him by veteran writer-on-China Simon Winchester, _The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece_ due to be published this coming May. I’d love to read that if i’ll have the time…
thank you, sanshinseon.
i meant player. sorry to deflate you.
ps sanshinseon, i’ll be buying that book. thanks again.
Is pawikirogi getting high or something? First he’s LOLing at things I’m writing, now he’s responding to an Expat without vitriol, but with substantive content. Wow. Trippy!
Here is your answer: Here comes the irony: In 1998, Compaq’s engineers made the first hard-drive-based MP3 player and licensed it to a Korean company (Hango) that didn’t do much with it.
As a lovely weekend spent at home with Mrs. Linkd and Baby Linkd draws to a close, I would like to extend my thanks to the Americans for two things: their strict copyright enforcement and their large market.
In the past few years I have seen multiple seasons of the Sopranos, the West Wing, Mad Men, Boston Legal, Survivor and probably more fine series from HBO, Showtime and the major networks than I can recall now. And, thanks to P2P networking, I have paid nothing for them. Further, because there were no commercials, I didn’t even get exposed to the marketing messages of the companies who did pay for their production. I called C&M last month and cancelled my cable subscription. Can’t believe it took so long.
Quality programming, great writing, good acting, high production quality – all at the cost of serious money. And because the US enforces copyright, and because the US is a big domestic market, that means the money is available to finance all those expensive productions. Available from the US domestic consumer, that is.
And then the rest of the world gets them for free. So, all you commenters here with the stars and stripes beside your names, thanks for the subsidy.
I extend my thanks to cm and the rest of the Canadian market as well, on account of their being part of the US domestic market. No offense intended.
Linkd, I have a sling box connected to a satellite dvr and a cable dvr back in the states, but with an open VPN address, I almost don’t need the sling. Most network shows are posted online the following day.
With the VPN, I can even access my brother’s Netflix account from here in South Korea. Just hit pause for a few minutes and then you can watch without the stream running out of buffer.
For me, dvds are already outdated technology.
See how my flag changes in a blink of an eye. That VPN allows me to cross the globe effortlessly.
Hotspot Shield is a free VPN that gives you a couple of hours of viewing a month. Try it out.
hey, don’t argue with me. you argue with popular mechanics who credit the koreans with the developement of the first mp3 player. their information is wrong? rather than trying to upstage me, why don’t you try upstaging them?
lastly, given a choice btween believing you or a mag like ‘pm’, c’mon now.
‘first hard-drive-based MP3 player’
what does ‘hard-drive-based’ mp3 player mean, btw? does that mean you could carry it with you?
it really gets to you that koreans are credited with something, don’t it?
tonight, i’ll give the audience the publication date of the issue in question (if i can find it).
i don’t know why, lawyer, but what you wrote about excommunication just had me rolling. slim’s comment was a close second. indeed, the shit was even making me laugh the next day.
pss sanshinseon, the chinese drilled for natural gas? i’m definately buying the book. probably in the next few days.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5622055-1.html
The counterexample to pawi’s claim was about mp3 files, not mp3 players. However, hard-drive based mp3 player (which is what most mp3 players are in the market these days) was first made by Compaq and licensed to Hango, a Korean company.
To clarify, it was a Korean company that made the first mp3 player (Saehan), which was based on a flash drive rather than a hard drive.
U.S. beef industry SO not helping itself:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin.....ref=slogin
Time for some Super Tu Quoque Action™:
US beef potentially tainted, due to incomplete inspections at one slaughterhouse — US FDA does a recall of 143 million pounds of beef dating back to 2006, which can be tracked due to supply-chain IT investments. Plus there’s all those trial lawyers waiting to sue.
One-third of fish and squid for sale at random spot-checked supermarkets in Korea found to be actually contaminated with deadly drug-resistant staphlococcus bacteria — Korean FDA is still thinking it over.
I know whose food-safety regime gives me greater comfort.
first hard-drive-based MP3 player’
what does ‘hard-drive-based’ mp3 player mean, btw? does that mean you could carry it with you?
it really gets to you that koreans are credited with something, don’t it?
tonight, i’ll give the audience the publication date of the issue in question (if i can find it).
Pawi, you called iPod into question in your post, I provided you the answer.
Considering what I have seen, related to the beef industry in the U.S., I could not agree with you there Brendon. They have a long record of being pro-industry — at the expense of public health and safety and the politics is as dirty as it comes.
Your site also does not seem to be loading at all, thus I will try later. Try looking at this lawyer site, regarding the tainted beef scandal in the U.S.
Correction: Brendon, your site does not seem to be loading in Firefox (OS 10.3.9) but does in Safari.
@#71
I’d say, both are f*cked, hooray Upton Sinclair, and go eat a burger hoping that I’m not munching on something they wanted to recall.
Totally off topic, but how do you make that TM? I need to know so that I can increase my smartassedness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02.....vo.html?hp
Kosovo declares independence… Rightful secession after brutal Serbian rule, or reckless recognition of separatism that will raise hell for other countries around the world?
A key difference between US and Korean food chains is that many people in the US live within driving distance of a farmers’ market or farm that sells locally raised and slaughtered meats, often grass-fed, at prices cheaper than what Koreans pay for grain-fed factory farm stuff. Just yesterday, I picked up some goat bones, lamb bones, calf liver, and beef marrow, all at $5-6 a pound. Take that, sollungtang lovers! The farm store is unmanned and uses an honor system. Customers write up their own sales slips and leave the money under a cup between a fridge and a freezer stocked with hundreds of dollars worth of meat.
R. Elgin:
Actually, that lawyer site (Mad Cow Blog) is one of the parts of the US food safety system that gives me confidence. There are always problems, but in the US the people have realistic private remedies as well as sometimes-effective government response. Since the politics are always dirty, wherever you are, thank God for the trial lawyers and the private remedies. That fear keeps them on their game; when they forget, or get fancy, they get slapped.
See, I’m a pro-trial lawyer conservative, unlike those sneering characters at Overlawyered.com. Real injuries need real remedies, and businesses need the fear of having to make good on such remedies.
I was also pleased to see that my UW law school classmate David Babcock is working at Marler Clark, the food-safety law firm behind Mad Cow Blog. Babcock’s a great guy, very smart and entirely decent, and I am sure that his clients are in the best hands.
bumfromkorea:
The trademark symbol can be entered by the key combination Option+2 (i.e., hold down the “Option” key while pressing the number 2) on Mac OS X. On Windows, it’s a little harder — of course it is! — Alt+0153 on the keypad (i.e. hold down “Alt” while entering the string “0153″). Here’s more if you’re curious about the others.
You’re welcome. I am always happy to contribute to increased smartassitude.
Or you can do “left arrow-sub-right arrow”, or “left-arrow-sup-right arrow”
I’ll give it a try, since I’ve never done it before.
Didn’t work. Better take the lawyer’s advice; that’s what we pay him for.
Might as well drop this off here. Alba’s blog (Spanish girl from Misuda):
http://badalona-seoul.blogspot.com/
‘To clarify, it was a Korean company that made the first mp3 player (Saehan), which was based on a flash drive rather than a hard drive.’ bumfromkorea
and it was ‘popular mechanics’ that saw the first mp3 player as significant enough to warrant a mention in a top fifty list, not pawikirogi. they credit the koreans.
railwaycharm just can’t stand that.
probably more like railwaycharm just can’t stand your posts.
‘probably more like railwaycharm just can’t stand your posts.’
ah, but YOU love them. that’s for sure.
pawikirogi™
Pawi, if you were clear from the get-go about the device (BFD), not the technology, we could have saved a lot of time. I hate to deflate you; an Mp3 player is hardly a world changing invention.
When one witnesses an argument over the origin of MP3 players, one wonders what kind of offline lives the Expat and the Kyopo are leading.
With that aside.
Jeez get a grip guys!! I mean MP3 players?? Get a life!!