Korean Education falling behind?

This is kind of shocking knowing the push they have to learn and study and get educated. They start studying at a very early age, as young as only 2 (at which point some schools are teaching them to start to write etc). Only last week, my kindergarten class had to take a big test. A 1.5 hour long test!!! With reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Ridiculous!!!!
Once they hit elementary school (and often before then), they are sent to private schools after school to study more. Once they are in high school, many go to private schools and study until the wee hours of the morning. One math/etc hagwon that I used to live near had classes until 1 AM. The students then had to be up and back at school before 7:30 or 8 in the morning. They get homework from regular school as well as homework from the hagwons.
High School is often said to be the hardest as the competition to get into a good university is very tight. They base everything on which university they get into, with Seoul University being the best in the country.

Korea Near Bottom of the Class for Education
May 16, 2008
Korea ranked high among world countries in higher education achievement but near the bottom in quality.
In the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, published by the International Institute of Management Development in Switzerland, Korea is ranked a poor 53rd among 55 nations in terms of university education meeting the needs of a competitive economy, one of the indices that indicate quality levels.
In contrast, the country ranked fourth in the percentage of population that has attained at least tertiary education for people aged 25-34. That brought Korea's overall ranking in education competitiveness to 35th among the countries surveyed, down six notches from 29th in 2007. The country's ranking in education competitiveness has been yoyo-ing from 44th among 60 in 2004 to 40th in 2005, to 42nd among 61 in 2006 and 29th of 55 in 2007.
Competitiveness rankings were given according to compatibility with a competitive society, qualified engineers available in the labor market, and knowledge transfer between companies and universities.
Korea ranked a high fifth in scientific infrastructure, up two notches from last year, and top in patent productivity, a gauge of patents granted to residents or research and development personnel in business, fourth in business expenditure on R&D, and fifth in total expenditure on R&D out of GDP.
The country came 14th in technological infrastructure, down eight notches from 2007, due in large part to lack of sufficient technological regulations and cyber security. Korea ranked the lowest among 55 nations in the IMD survey on whether technological regulation supports business development and innovation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

cold

Kinda glad I'm not there! :P I just hope that Korea doesn't get the same effects from La Nina!

Coldest winter in years, Environment Canada warns
Updated Fri. Nov. 30 2007 1:00 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
The weather phenomenon La Nina will bring Canada the coldest winter in nearly 15 years, Environment Canada warned Friday.
Environment Canada's temperature forecast shows the majority of the country will experience a "temperature anomaly" of below-normal temperatures through the months of December, January and February.
Much of Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia and southern Ontario will also see above-normal precipitation.
David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, told The Canadian Press that the temperature and precipitation abnormalities are likely the result of the weather phenomenon La Nina.
La Nina, meaning the little girl, is the appearance of cooler-than-normal waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean.
"La Nina is thought to occur due to increases in the strength of the normal patterns of trade wind circulation," Environment Canada's website says.
"For reasons not yet fully understood, periodically these trade winds are strengthened, increasing the amount of cooler water."
These cooler waters result in wetter-than-normal conditions in the northern hemisphere and changes to the jet stream over North America.
"The shifted jet stream contributes to large departures from the normal location and strength of storm paths. The overall changes in the atmosphere result in temperature and precipitation anomalies over North America which can persist for several months," Environment Canada says.
In the past, La Nina caused drought and floods around the world. It also whips up more hurricanes in the Atlantic.
The effects of the weather phenomenon have already been felt in parts of Western Canada. Earlier this month, a fierce storm dumped nearly 80 centimetres of snow on Whistler, B.C. over 48 hours. The massive snowfall prompted management at the famous Whistler Blackcomb ski hill to open one week ahead of schedule.
With files from The Canadian Press

working the nightshift a carcinogen?

This is a scary thought. I know so many people that are working (or have for long periods of time) graveyard shifts. As a traveler, I know that messing with sleep patterns really screws up the system.

Check out the official ACS (American Cancer Society) list of known and probably carcinogens (link also listed at the bottom of the article). It is kinda scary! Some of the things listed are things that you wouldn't even consider: mineral oils, wood dust, Chinese style salted fish!!!

Graveyard shift soon to be listed as 'probable' cause of cancer
Thu Nov 29, 8:03 PM By Maria Cheng, The Associated Press
LONDON - Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer.
It is a surprising step validating a concept once considered wacky. And it is based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.
Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen.
The higher cancer rates don't prove working overnight can cause cancer. There may be other factors common among graveyard shift workers that raise their risk for cancer.
However, scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumour development, is normally produced at night.
If the graveyard shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 per cent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.
Among the first to spot the night shift-cancer connection was Richard Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of Connecticut Health Center. In 1987, Stevens published a paper suggesting a link between light at night and breast cancer.
Back then, he was trying to figure out why breast cancer incidence suddenly shot up starting in the 1930s in industrialized societies, where nighttime work was considered a hallmark of progress. Most scientists were bewildered by his proposal.
But in recent years, several studies have found that women working at night over many years were indeed more prone to breast cancer. Also, animals that have their light-dark schedules switched develop more cancerous tumours and die earlier.
Some research also suggests that men working at night may have a higher rate of prostate cancer.
Because these studies mostly focused on nurses and airline crews, bigger studies in different populations are needed to confirm or disprove the findings.
There are still plenty of skeptics. And to put the risk in perspective, the "probable carcinogen" tag means that the link between overnight work and cancer is merely plausible.
Among the long list of agents that are listed as "known" carcinogens are alcoholic beverages and birth control pills. Such lists say nothing about exposure amount or length of time or how likely they are to cause cancer.
The American Cancer Society website notes that carcinogens do not always cause cancer. The cancer society doesn't make its own assessments of possible cancer-causing agents, but relies on analyses by the IARC and a U.S. agency.
Still, many doubters of the night shift link may be won over by the IARC's analysis to be published in the December issue of the journal Lancet Oncology.
"The indications are positive," said Vincent Cogliano, who heads up the agency's carcinogen classifications unit. "There was enough of a pattern in people who do shift work to recognize that there's an increase in cancer, but we can't rule out the possibility of other factors."
Scientists believe having lower melatonin levels can raise the risk of developing cancer. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people working in artificial light at night may have lower melatonin levels.
Melatonin can be taken as a supplement, but experts don't recommend it long-term, since that could ruin the body's ability to produce it naturally.
Sleep deprivation may be another factor in cancer risk. People who work at night are not usually able to completely reverse their day and night cycles.
"Night shift people tend to be day shift people who are trying to stay awake at night," said Mark Rea, director of the Light Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who is not connected with the IARC analysis.
Not getting enough sleep makes your immune system vulnerable to attack, and less able to fight off potentially cancerous cells.
Confusing your body's natural rhythm can also lead to a breakdown of other essential tasks. "Timing is very important," Rea said. Certain processes like cell division and DNA repair happen at regular times.
Even worse than working an overnight shift is flipping between daytime and overnight work.
"The problem is re-setting your body's clock," said Aaron Blair, of the United States' National Cancer Institute, who chaired IARC's recent meeting on shift work. "If you worked at night and stayed on it, that would be less disruptive than constantly changing shifts."
Anyone whose light and dark schedule is often disrupted - including frequent long-haul travellers or insomniacs - could theoretically face the same increased cancer risk, Stevens said.
He advises workers to sleep in a darkened room once they get off work. "The balance between light and dark is very important for your body. Just get a dark night's sleep."
Meanwhile, scientists are trying to come up with ways to reduce night workers' cancer risk. And some companies are experimenting with different lighting, seeking a type that doesn't affect melatonin production.
So far, the colour that seems to have the least effect on melatonin is one that few people would enjoy working under: red.
-
List of known and probable carcinogens from IARC and National Toxicology Program listed on American Cancer Society website: http://tinyurl.com/2kl5ab
International Agency for Research on Cancer: http://www.iarc.fr/

death by cell phone update

A Death-By-Cell-Phone Story Falls Apart
By Patrick J. Lyons
Ever been so annoyed at some boor yakking too loud and too long on his cellphone that you find yourself wishing the accursed thing would just blow up in his hand? (Or have you ever had someone wish that on you?) Then consider this strange tale.
The technology press was alive yesterday with this news out of South Korea, as reported by the English-language Korea Times:
A 33-year-old excavator driver was found dead on Wednesday in Cheongwon, North Chungcheong Province, after a suspected cell phone battery explosion, police said.
The man, identified only with his surname Seo, was found lying dead beside his excavator in a stone quarry in Cheongwon at 8:40 a.m. by his colleagues. His cell phone was found in his shirt pocket with its battery severely melted and his chest burned and fractured, the police said.
What a nightmare-in-everyday-life scenario it was — a constant companion and helpmate that suddenly turns into a live grenade. And plausible too: the overheating problem with lithium batteries may be rare, but it is widely known (another case of one catching fire while being charged on a nightstand turned up just a day later in New Zealand).
But the morbid fascination that the technology press would naturally have with the story out of South Korea was quickly laced with notes of puzzlement, bordering on skepticism — a feeling that investigators evidently shared: The reported injuries didn’t seem to quite match the supposed cause. From Information Week:
Police want to know why a 33-year-old quarry worker was found with broken bones, heart damage, and a melted cell phone in his left chest pocket.
The manufacturer, which turned out to be LG, wanted to know that, too. A company representative told the Korea Times that a foil coating on the battery would make it melt, not explode, if it overheated, and the man’s phone indeed looked merely to have melted.
It isn’t out of the question that an exploding cell phone could cave in someone’s ribs — it apparently happened to a welder in China in June, Information Week reported. But the high temperatures he was exposed to were thought to be to blame, not any fault in the phone, and the Korean quarry worker was working outdoors in the winter cold. How could it have killed him?
All that skepticism now appears to have been well warranted. Today, the police arrested a coworker of the dead man and charged him with manslaughter. They say he has confessed to accidentally killing Mr. Seo by backing into him with a drilling vehicle, and then trying to frame the cell phone.
It’s hardly consolation for Mr. Seo’s family, of course, but it is no doubt a relief for LG stockholders, not to mention a bit of a black eye for the all the news outlets that seized a little too eagerly on the initial story line. As the Korea Times noted today in a rueful editorial:
We have often seen cases of fierce competition for media coverage causing irresponsible reporting not based on facts but on rumors, speculation and unconfirmed sources. [ … ] Reporters, editors and publishers are struggling to meet both timeliness and accuracy. They try not to sacrifice one thing for the other. But, it is not easy for them to do both at the same time in a highly competitive environment.
Media outlets should learn a lesson from the cell phone case. They must be careful not to repeat the mistake of false reporting, which might cause irrevocable damage to businesses, the public, the government, or the country.
[The LEDE Blog New York Times]

BUT

Cell Phone Battery Explodes in the Night
James Niccolai, IDG News Service Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:00 AM PST
A New Zealand man was woken in the middle of the night when his cell phone battery exploded and burst into flames, the second exploding battery incident reported this week.
Norman Sievewright said he was asleep in bed about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when he woke to a loud bang and found his cell phone battery in flames on the carpet. The phone had been charging while he was asleep.
"It was very scary ... especially the fumes and stuff. The back has been blown off the phone," he told New Zealand's TVONE television news channel.
The phone was made by Nokia, which asked Sievewright to turn over the battery and charger so it can investigate. Until it has done so, "it would be inappropriate to speculate," a Nokia spokeswoman said via email.
In August Nokia issued an advisory about faulty batteries in some of its phones. It said 46 million Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries were vulnerable to a short circuit that could cause them to overheat while recharging, and offered to replace them for customers who are concerned.
Nokia did not issue a recall and said incidents had occurred with only a tiny fraction of phones -- 100 out of the 46 million. The batteries were manufactured by Japan's Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. and sold in a wide range of Nokia devices.
Nokia said it didn't know yet what type of battery was inside the phone in New Zealand, and attempts to contact Sievewright Thursday were unsuccessful.
Also Wednesday, police in South Korea said a worker may have died because his cell phone battery exploded in his pocket, the Associated Press reported. The man was found dead at his workplace in a quarry with a melted cell phone battery in his shirt pocket, according to the report.
The doctor who examined the man said the pressure caused by the explosion may have "damaged his heart and lungs" and led to his death, according to the AP, which quoted a local news agency. That phone was made by LG Electronics, reports said.
With close to 300 million cell phones sold in the world last quarter, such battery explosions are considered extremely rare.

to improve your memory....

This is very interesting. I think I can handle all that. ;)

You Must Remember This: Tips for Improving Memory
Why do we tend to forget things so easily as we get old? The answer lies with the hippocampus on either side of our brains. Everything we see, hear, and feel is stored in these two cucumber-shaped areas that measure just one cm in diameter and 10 cm in length.
The moment we are born the neuro-cells in the hippocampus start to die off, and around the age of 20 the rate of destruction starts to pick up speed. Some say about 3,600 memory cells disappear in about an hour. But there's no need to worry. While one memory cell generates a few axons, people can create enough axons, through deliberate efforts, to replace dying memory cells. Let's examine a few proven methods to keep our brains young.
1. Walking
By making 210 people with average-sized brains walk briskly three times a week for one hour each session, a research team at Illinois University found that after just three months of walking, the walkers' memory cell activities were on par with those who were three years younger. The team also found that walking stimulates the cervical vertebra which in turn doubles the amount of blood circulated to the brain. Active blood circulation facilitates the release of neurotransmitters, enabling much faster and simultaneous information exchange, said Prof. Lee Dong-yeong of Seoul National Hospital’s neuro department. "This helps to improve long term memory.”
2. Wine
A research team in Auckland, New Zealand, reported that one to two glasses of wine a day can significantly improve people's memory. They say a neuroreceptor called NMDA reacts to the alcohol. "A small amount of alcohol not only stimulates NMDA but also expands blood vessels, thereby facilitating blood circulation," said Prof. Han Seol-heui of Konkuk University Hospital’s neurology department. The antioxidants in red wine also prevent the destruction of brain cells, improving our memories. Still, too much alcohol -- more than five to six glasses a day -- may well destroy the brain cells, deteriorating our ability to remember things.
3. Coffee
Dr. Karen Ritchie of the National Health and Medical Research Center of France conducted research on 7,000 adults over the age of 65 for four years. She found that those who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had a memory deterioration rate 45 percent slower than those who drank one cup or less per day. A research team from Ottawa University in Canada studied 6,000 people living in four different cities from 1991 to 1995, and found out that those who had a consistent intake of caffeine performed better in tests -- by about 31 percent on average -- compared to those without the intake. "Caffeine in coffee and tea stimulates the central nervous system and enhances memory capacity by facilitating the brain's reticular system,” said Prof. Koh Jae-young of Seoul Asan Medical Center’s neurology department.
4. Sleeping
Robert Stickgold, an American psychologist, argued in a paper published in a cognitive neuroscience magazine in 2000 that a minimum of six hours of sleep is needed to fully retain knowledge learned the previous day. "Knowledge acquired during the day gets stored in the temporal lobe while one sleeps," said Dr. Park Dong-seon of Yesong Sleep Center. "It is strongly recommended to sleep after midnight in particular, as the stress hormone that destroys neuro-cells is secreted significantly more after midnight.”
5. Writing notes
The long term memory capacity of our brains has no limit. But there is limited space for short term memories -- such as recently memorized phone numbers, lists of daily tasks, and names of stores passing by the car window. Thus, elderly people with fewer memory cells are better off writing down miscellaneous information like phone numbers and daily tasks the moment they pop up. When useless short-term memories clog our brains, our forgetfulness only worsens.
6. Reading
Reading is a much better way of improving memory than conventionally known methods such as playing cards or chess. After studying the relationship between dementia and recreational activities such as playing chess, cards, watching TV, and reading, a research team at Kyung Hee University Medical Center found that people who read often have a lesser chance of developing dementia. "Reading helps to stimulate the transition between short term memory to long term memory by exercising the ability to understand events that happened earlier and later in a book,” said Dr. Won Jang-won of Kyung Hee University Hospital.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Mental Aerobics for a Sharp Old Age
People who do a lot of work with their brains, and indeed those who don’t, may benefit from mental aerobics. The exercises, quiz games and the like, aim to improve memory for anyone from elderly people at risk of Alzheimer’s to students. They have been shown to boost the dendrites in brain cells that help the brain process information more effectively and prevent it from getting slow. Dr. Michael Valenzuela, a clinical neuroscience research fellow at the University of New South Wales’ School of Psychiatry who won the Australian Computer Society's Eureka Award this year, says games like wordplay are effective in preventing Alzheimer's disease. His three-year research of 29,000 people over 60 found that those who do plenty of brain work saw the risk of Alzheimer's disease halved while their hippocampus, the area in the brain related to memory, shrank less than normal.
Mental aerobics has been known to the public in advanced countries like the U.S. for 10 years. The UCLA Brain Research Institute and division of Neurophysiology of Duke University took the lead in conducting research on the exercise and produced plenty of programs and books on mental aerobics. Here, the exercise is being introduced in the neurological clinics of university hospitals and private clinics that help students perform better, including Inje University’s Paik Hospital and the Dementia Prevention Center at Hallym University Medical Center in Kangdong, Seoul.
The most effective way to do mental aerobics is to participate in programs offered by brain clinics and receive training in a systematic way, but there are simpler methods. For example, keeping a diary is one good method. To improve memory and practice abstract thinking, bring back what you did in the past and reflect on what you did. In addition, you can become more positive-thinking by planning for a better future. Another good method to practice at home is to write down what you remember after watching news or TV dramas: you may recall what articles you read or what clothes or what hairstyle a character wore in the drama you saw. You can also write down what you ate and how it tasted after each meal.
Korean checkers, chess, card games or computer games that are not too stimulating are also not bad, provided you do it no more than 30 minutes at a time. Staying sedentary for too long can cause abdominal obesity, and that is a cause of other metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia that are also bad for the brain. Yeon Byeong-kil, a professor with Hallym University’s College of Medicine, says six out of every 10 patients who come to him because of memory loss or dementia are also suffering chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases related to lifestyle and obesity. "I often see that their MRI pictures show fats accumulated in their brain blood vessels, which kills their brain cells,” he adds.
To maximize the effect of mental aerobics, you may need to change your diet and do light exercise. Getting together with people you know often and complimenting others is also good for your brain. When you skip breakfast, it slows down your brain activity in the morning. You need to have fresh fish more than twice a week and fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Tuna, mackerel, white fish, nuts and brightly colored vegetables are also good for your brain. Processed instant food like fried potatoes, donuts and bacon are not. You should have at least 10 glasses of water a day and choose tea over sodas or coffee. In addition, do stretches to straighten your muscles for more than 5 seconds frequently and walk for between 30 minutes and an hour.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Train the Brain to Fight Disorders

Korea... a "Danger Country" ?????

I read this a couple of days ago. I'm not surprised for the most part, but a bit, yes. I've always felt very safe here, at any hour day or night. I've been told by Korean friends to be careful, to not walk alone after dark, etc. All because they heard of a few instances where things did happen. I think that in relation to the population, it isn't so bad. The OECD Classificion DOES surprise me, a lot.

Rash of Violent Crimes Leaves Korean Women Frightened
Many Korea women are anxious these days after a series of murders, rapes and other crimes targeting women made headlines recently.
Last August, two female office workers were abducted and murdered by illegal taxi drivers near Hongik University in Seoul, and in September a police officer raped two women in a subway parking lot late at night, stealing some W19 million (US$1=W917) in cash and valuables.
Earlier this month, a man in his 30s was arrested for raping nine women who were returning home at night in Seongbuk district in northern Seoul. Women now are increasingly afraid to catch a cab at night or even to go out.
With the surging growth of women in the Korean work force, economic participation by females has reached 54.8 percent. However public security measures to protect women at night remain neglected. According to the National Police Agency, more than a third of all violent crimes including murder, robbery, and rape occur between midnight and four a.m.
Korea is classified a "danger country" in terms of women's public safety by the 30-member OECD. According to the OECD's Social and Welfare Statistics for 2007, the homicide rate for Korean women is 1.7 per every 100,000 people, the third highest after the U.S. (2.7) and Iceland (2.2).
Experts say it's urgent that safety be ensured in cabs, the most frequently used means of transportation for working women at night. Most cabs including private and company-run ones are considered safe but measures must be taken against illegal contract cabs that are often used in crimes.
Contract cabs refer to licensed cabs that can be rented from an owner or a company for around W100,000 a day. They allow criminals to act as cab divers as long as they can pay. An estimated 5,000 contract cabs cruise the streets of Seoul.
"While more than 80 percent of people in Korea catch cabs on the street, most people in other countries have to call," said Park Yong-hun from the Coalition for Transportation Culture of Korea. "We should pursue a system for women-only call cabs."
Many also point out the need to step up public safety measures in secluded places like parking lots and alleys by setting up watch posts and CCTV cameras. "Women returning home late at night are the easiest targets for criminals, since they look for vulnerable victims in places where they can most easily commit crimes," said researcher Hwang Gi-tae of the Korea Institute of Criminal Justice Policy.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

why do i worry so much?

I worry all the time about too many things. Maybe this is why.??

Why Women Worry So Much
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer 28 September 2007 10:15 am ET
Scientists have known that on the whole, females of all ages tend to worry more and have more intense worries than males. Women also tend to perceive more risk in situations and grow more anxious than men.
Now we know why.
Women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future, according to two new studies.
The research, involving both 3- to 6-year-olds and adults of both genders, tested the extent to which participants' thought that worry can be caused by thinking that a bad event that happened in the past could happen again in the future. (This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.)
For the first study, subjects listened to six stories that featured characters harmed by another person or animal in the story. Many days later, the character felt worried or changed their behavior when confronted with the same wrongdoer who had hurt them before. (For example, if one little boy stole a toy from another, the child might be worried when he saw that boy again and hide the new toy he was playing with.)
The second study was the same, except that the person or animal the character ran across later only looked similar to the one that had harmed them before.
At the end of each story, the participants were asked to explain why the character was worried or changed their behavior.
Females, both children and adults, were more likely to use uncertainty to explain the character's reaction, that is, they tended to explain the reaction in terms of events that might happen versus those that will happen, the researcher reported. They also tended, more than males, to predict that the characters who encountered the new character who looked similar to the wrongdoer would feel worried because they thought the new character would also do them harm.
The studies, detailed in the Sept./Oct. issue of the journal Child Development, also found that children increasingly made these kinds of past-to-future connections as they got older, which yields insight into their cognitive development.
"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," said study author Kristin Lagattuta of the University of California, Davis.

An older but related article:

Men and Women Really Do Think Differently
By Bjorn Carey, LiveScience Staff Writer 20 January 2005 02:12 pm ET
Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study.
The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.
Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.
"These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior," said Haier, adding that, "by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain."
The results are detailed in the online version of the journal NeuroImage.
In human brains, gray matter represents information processing centers, whereas white matter works to network these processing centers.
The results from this study may help explain why men and women excel at different types of tasks, said co-author and neuropsychologist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico. For example, men tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized processing, such as mathematics, Jung said, while women are better at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions of the brain, which aids language skills.
Scientists find it very interesting that while men and women use two very different activity centers and neurological pathways, men and women perform equally well on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as intelligence tests.
This research also gives insight to why different types of head injuries are more disastrous to one sex or the other. For example, in women 84 percent of gray matter regions and 86 percent of white matter regions involved in intellectual performance were located in the frontal lobes, whereas the percentages of these regions in a man's frontal lobes are 45 percent and zero, respectively. This matches up well with clinical data that shows frontal lobe damage in women to be much more destructive than the same type of damage in men.
Both Haier and Jung hope that this research will someday help doctors diagnose brain disorders in men and women earlier, as well as provide help designing more effective and precise treatments for brain damage.

Makes me sick to even think about it

FACTBOX-Some facts on female circumcision
Aug 20 (Reuters) - Egypt strengthened its ban on female genital cutting in June by eliminating a legal loophole allowing girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons.
A U.N women's forum urged the world to ban the procedure last March. However the practice remains widespread as a rite of passage for girls.
Here are some key details on female genital mutilation (FGM):
* WHAT IS FEMALE CIRCUMCISION:
-- FGM, often referred to as "female circumcision", comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs.
-- The practice involves cutting off all or part of the clitoris and other female genitalia, sometimes by a doctor but also often by a relative or midwives.
* SIDE EFFECTS:
-- The immediate and long-term health consequences of the process varies according to the type and severity of the procedure performed.
-- Immediate complications include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, urine retention, ulceration of the genital region and injury to adjacent tissue. Haemorrhage and infection can cause death. There is also increased susceptibility to HIV/AIDS.
-- It may leave a lasting mark on the life and mind of the woman who has undergone it. In the longer term, women may suffer feelings of incompleteness, anxiety and depression.
* WHY IS THE PROCEDURE CARRIED OUT:
-- In order to attenuate sexual desire in the female, maintain chastity and virginity before marriage and fidelity during marriage, and increase male sexual pleasure.
-- To conform with the social norm - those who don't conform are likely to be stigmatised.
-- To initiate girls into womanhood, social integration and the maintenance of social cohesion.-- Some African Muslims believe that cutting is required by Islam and fulfils a religious obligation, however the practice predates both Islam and Christianity.
* WHO PERFORMS FGM:
-- Genital mutilation predominantly occurs in around 28 African countries, but it also takes place in some Middle Eastern nations, like Saudi Arabia, among immigrant communities in Europe and North America, and parts of Asia, including Indonesia.
-- A 2005 UNICEF report said that 97 percent of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 had been circumcised. UNICEF said Eritrea ranks amongst the worst in the world for FGM and a survey by its government in 2002 found less than 1 percent of circumcisions were performed by trained health professionals. Eritrea banned FGM last April. In Kenya, the government has estimated about a third of women suffered the procedure.
-- FGM is practised throughout West Africa. In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mali, at least 90 percent of women are cut.
-- The number of girls and women who have been undergone female genital mutilation is estimated at between 100 and 140 million. It is estimated that each year, a further 2 million girls are at risk of undergoing circumcision.

Koreans are racist

I came to this conclusion a LONG time ago... my first year here.
They are nice to most people, yes, but for most of them, in their minds, they are better than everyone else. Koreans base a lot on race, nationality and looks. When foreign language schools are looking for teachers, they look for good looking white foreigners. My first year, when my school was hiring another teacher, they handed me two pictures and asked me which one I thought they should hire. I look at them with a bit of a WHAT? look and asked to see the resumes if they really wanted my opinion. Many schools advertise that they want North American's only (and imply white North American). I do know several African Americans that are working here, but many schools won't even consider hiring one. Also, at many schools, North Americans will be paid more than other westerners, because of where they are from and having nothing to do with experience or credentials.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that ALL Koreans are like this, but many are. I do have some Korean friends that are not and many that are generally not.

Koreans often think that all westerners are rude, overbearing and fat. Even the polite, quiet and thin ones. If you don't fall into what they expect you to be, they are quite surprised.

I remember the boss of one of my previous schools saying something along the lines of just because we can speak English doesn't mean we can teach it. He followed that by saying that he (and other Koreans that studied English) make much better teachers because they had to study the ins and outs of the language. Well, while giving this lecture, I don't think he spoke a single sentence that was without grammatical errors. He told us that if it were up to him, there would be no foreign teachers in Korea. I think that he chose the wrong career. Through others, I heard that he made a couple of other comments as well that were racist and prejudice. He said that any Korean woman that would date a foreigner was a hooker or a slut. And, one of the other foreign teachers at the time was a plus sized girl. He said something to her along the lines of because of her size, she had to work twice as hard to do as well as the others. How rude. He is not the norm, but neither is he an exception.

With the recent events in Afghanistan, the racism came out again. Koreans were storming the mosques and demanding that the hostages be released. Non-Korean Muslims here were harrassed elsewhere about the issue too, or at the very least given very unwelcoming looks. What do the Muslims her have to do with the Taliban?

If one foreign teacher does something wrong, they blame all foreign teachers and think that they are all doing or going to do something wrong. If one American soldier does something wrong, all of them are to be blamed and punished. A few months ago, a soldier raped a 50 some year old woman. Because of that, all American GIs and their familys are banned from certain areas (again - it had only recently been opened up after being closed to them from an incident long ago) such as Hongdae. Well, I suppose I do agree with it somewhat. Most times that I have been in any bar that GIs were in, there was some sort of fight going on between GIs or GIs and other foreigners or Koreans. They sort of have a reputation for things like that.

Because Koreans are racist, they also have the mindset that all others are as well. When the Korean student went on a shooting rampage at an American university, almost all Koreans were worried that the Americans were going to take it out on all Koreans in the US. (Well, to be fair, if it had been an Arab Muslim that had done the shooting the results would have been VERY different, I think.)

Anyway... this post seems to have no organization what-so-ever. Just me rambling.
Here a couple of articles that I had saved a while back but had never really gotten around to getting to until now (the reason for this post).

It's About Time Korea Became Colorblind
"The Korean word 'minjok' (race) doesn't include ethnic minorities such as white or black people who were born in Korea and have lived all their lives in Korean culture. Korean people indulge in black-or-white thinking. The idea that if you're not of 'our minjok' then you're a foreigner is racial discrimination," said a U.S. soldier in a Korean speech contest last month. "As long as Korea is an advanced nation, you can't excuse racial discrimination by blaming it on the ignorance of a few people."
▶The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in March interviewed immigrants who had married Koreans and settled down in Korea. The survey found that these people resent expressions like "mixed blood," "Kosian" (a child born to a Korean and another Asian), and "half-Korean." A Philippines-born woman said, "My child speaks Korean fluently, so he's not half Korean but full Korean." A Japanese woman said, "The term 'mixed blood,' a derogatory expression that disparages and discriminates against children of international marriages, is already a dead term in Japan." Some 11.5 percent of children from such marriages said it was hard for them to go to school because they faced ostracism from their classmates.
▶One in eight marriages in Korea last year was international. There are some 720,000 foreign residents in the country, accounting for 1.5 percent of our entire population and up by 35 percent from last year. Of those, most were foreign workers (36 percent), followed by married immigrants (12 percent) and naturalized Koreans (7.5 percent). Foreign residents will likely exceed 9 percent of the population by 2050. Our society will soon turn into a multicultural one with one non-ethnic Korean for every 10 citizens.
▶A nationwide attitude survey was conducted in April. Asked what it means to be Korean, respondents said that simply believing oneself to be Korean is more important than nationality or blood. They said they could be on intimate terms with Southeast Asians as close neighbors (40 percent) or close friends (36 percent). This suggested that most people are fairly open-minded. But only seven percent said they would accept a foreigner as a spouse, and a mere three percent said they would accept a foreigner marrying their child. In reality, most Koreans are still narrow-minded.
▶Last weekend, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination urged Korea to end racial discrimination. "There was a genuine fear that overemphasis on and excessive pride in the ethnic homogeneity of the Republic of Korea might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures," UNCERD said in a report. The common concepts of "pure bloodedness" and "impure" blood came "very close to ideas of racial superiority." Ethnic homogeneity for many years gave us a strong identity which helped us to defend ourselves against outside forces. But this idea no longer holds water. Korea has achieved great prosperity in the global market and now must face up to its responsibilities as a member of the global community. Our eyes should be open not to the color of people's skin, but to their minds and hearts.

UN Concern at 'Ethnocentric' Korea
August 20, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed concern at persistent ethnocentric thinking in South Korea. "There was a genuine fear that overemphasis on and excessive pride in the ethnic homogeneity of Korea might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures,” it said. It urged the country to include a human rights awareness program “that stressed understanding of societies with multiple ethnic/cultural backgrounds” in the official education curriculum.
Meeting in Geneva from July 30 until Aug. 17, the 71st UNCERD reviewed national reports on Costa Rica, New Zealand, Mozambique, Indonesia, and South Korea and released recommendations for them. On Aug. 9-10, it looked into reports submitted by the South Korean government. In the recommendations, UNCERD expressed discomfort about a prevalent notion in Korean culture of "pure-bloodedness," saying, "The whole concept came very close to ideas of racial superiority."
The committee praised the Korean government for the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and the Basic Act on the Treatment of Foreigners adopted in May and establishing an Interpretation Support Centre for Foreign Migrant Workers last year. But it urged Korea work out better systematic devices and suggested the country legally guarantee equal rights for foreign workers and children born from international marriages in employment, marriage, residence, education, and interpersonal relations. It called for information about the history and culture of various ethnic groups and peoples to be included in elementary and secondary school textbooks.
UNCERD also expressed concern that foreign women are improperly protected from potential harassment from either their Korean husbands or international matchmaking agencies. It highlighted cases of abuse -- some international marriage agencies demand exorbitant fees for their services or confiscate passports and travel papers from foreign wives-to-be without giving them sufficient information about their future husbands. Foreign workers, it noted, “were allowed to change their place of employment four times during the course of their three-year stay. They gravitated to relatively low-paying jobs that were deemed difficult, dangerous or dirty by the Korean population.”

Number of Foreign Residents Surges 35%
August 2, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
The number of foreign residents in Korea has surged by 34.7 percent compared to last year. Some 722,686 foreigners lived in Korea as of the end of May, up 186,059 from 536,627 in 2006, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs said Wednesday. The number of foreigners in Korea accounts for 1.5 percent of the 49.09 million population.
The ministry attributed the surge to increase in international marriages supported by local administrations and influx of foreign students and businesspeople. The ministry and local government tallied the number of foreigners who have been staying in Korea more than 90 days to help them settle in Korea. It comprises both legal expatriates and illegal aliens.
Some 35.9 percent or 259,805 were foreign workers, followed by 12.2 percent or 87,964 who married Koreans. By nationality, Chinese accounted for 52.4 percent of foreign residents, Southeast Asians for 23.7 percent, Americans for 3.4 percent, Japanese for 3.3 percent and Taiwanese for 2.9 percent. Some 64.4 percent lived in the metropolitan area including Gyeonggi Province, where 29.7 percent of foreigners were living. Seoul was home to 28.7 percent and Incheon to 6 percent.

Foreigners Have a Hard Time in Korea -- Report
January 30, 2007 Chosun Ilbo
Last April, "K", a 30-year-old Japanese graduate student in Korea, had an unpleasant experience trying to subscribe to a mobile phone service.
Because K is a foreigner, a clerk at the mobile phone company demanded that he either subscribe to the service under the name of a Korean national or pay a W200,000 (US$1=W941) deposit. He had a similar experience trying to subscribe to an Internet service. In the end, K paid the W200,000 deposit to the phone company and he found a Korean friend willing to sign him up for the Internet. But the episodes soured life in Korea for K. "There seem to be too many complicated procedures that foreigners have to go through to live here," he said.
Even the most basic of daily interactions can be stressful for foreigners. Some non-Koreans have reported food shop owners who browbeat them into buying dishes after they sampled a free snack. A visit to a Korean hospital can be a terrifying experience for foreigners who fear for their safety when medical staff don't understand their language.
Currently there are more than 530,000 foreign residents in Korea, more than three times the number in 2000. But many Koreans are still inconsiderate of their foreign guests.
According to a study on the daily lives of foreign consumers from the Korea Consumer Protection Board, 41.7 percent of 545 respondents said that they're "dissatisfied" with their life as consumers in Korea. When asked what the biggest problem is, 35.9 percent pointed to communication difficulties. Other reasons for unhappiness include a lack of consideration for foreigners on the part of Koreans, financial difficulties, a lack of public information, and cultural differences.
When it comes to consumer goods, 48.7 percent of those foreigners expressed dissatisfaction with their mobile phone companies. Other sources of frustration were credit cards, the Internet, and real estate transactions.
"D", a 36-year-old English teacher from Canada, recounted his difficulties in signing a lease for a residential officetel in Yeonhui-dong, Seoul. The landlord demanded an advance of W9 million, a full year's rent, claiming that he might have a hard time tracking down D if he skipped out on his rent. D decided to try a boarding house in the neighborhood instead. But even some boarding houses don't accept foreigners, and it took D several tries before he found one willing to take him in.
A 34-year-old American expat called "J" said that credit cards presented undue stress in Korea. "I have never had a problem using my credit card in any other country. But here in Korea, merchants rarely accept it. And just because I'm a foreigner, it's impossible to apply for a cash card to withdraw my deposits."
Kim Hyun-joo, a senior researcher at the Korea Consumer Protection Board, said that with the number of foreigners visiting Korea on the rise as a result of globalization and the open-door policy, how the Korean people treat them is becoming an important criterion for national competitiveness. "We need to work out a variety of support programs that assist foreigners in their daily life as consumers," Kim said. For more information or counseling, foreigners are advised to call (02) 3460-3393.

This article gives some hope, but from a combination of my own experience, friends' experiences and what I've read, they still have a long way to go: What Koreans Really Think About Ethnic Homogeneity.

how sad

2 people that I met when I was in Egypt in 2005 died almost 4 months ago, both from liver problems. Maybe this has something to do with their problems:

Better Infection Control Programs Needed to Help Combat Hepatitis C in Egypt
EGYPT: 5 million infected with Hepatitis C
...
The annual infection rate is more than 70,000 new cases, of which at least 35,000 would have chronic hepatitis C," said Dr Manal el-Sayed, Professor of Paediatrics at Cairo's Ain Shams University and member of the National Hepatitis Committee which is currently formulating an action plan to fight the disease.
Hepatitis C is a lethal virus which can cause liver cirrhosis and cancer. Egypt has one of the highest prevalence rates of the virus in the world, say specialists. An estimated 10-15 percent of the population, some 8-10 million people, are carrying hepatitis C antibodies, meaning that they either have or at one time had the virus. Five million of those are actively infected, according to government figures.
No vaccine is available for HCV although it can be treated with a combination of drugs if detected early enough.
Egypt's very high prevalence of HCV is largely the legacy of government campaigns prior to 1980 to treat rural populations for schistosomiasis (or bilharzia), a water-borne disease which at one time was endemic in Egypt. The treatment campaigns, which involved repeated injections, did not follow rigorous hygiene standards, and as such spread blood-borne HCV throughout the population.
As it may take up to 30 years for a patient to display symptoms of HCV or for the disease to become active, the full extent of the problem has only recently become known.
...
Those at risk of new HCV infections in Egypt are not just those in medical contact with existing patients, however. The children and relatives of individuals affected during the schistosomiasis campaign are also a high-risk group, as widespread behavioural practices - such as the re-use of syringes, sharing of toothbrushes and even circumcision - all increase the risk of contracting blood-borne viruses such as HIV and Hepatitis C.
...
[BBS News]

makes me cringe...

This makes me very sad. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to go through anything like this.
Female Genital Mutilation Persists in Egypt

life expectancy

It is very interesting to see the correlation between GNP and life expectancy. You can see how it it has changed since 1975. You can also see how each individual country has changed, by clicking on the country name to the right.
[saw this on Rantings of a Sandmonkey, a great blog to check out if you haven't already]

Keyword analysis... ummm...

These are some of the things that people are searching for... and end up at my blog:

club oi hongdae
dwenjang chigae recipe
blood type o korean
doenjang-jjigae
densest cities in the world
harisu as a male
somewhere in the world
ktf office in hongdae
mu gung hwa lyrics
sheeshas and germany
hookers prostitutes guam
hanbok - my boyfriend type b
arrived at dhl facility
dubai,russian prostitutes,nightclubs,photos
dong poo character korea
jamsil love motels photos
korean game: rock scissors paper
somewhere in the world today music
doenjang recipes
messenger id of hookers
what does pleia mean in ballet
club malibu edmonton
why do egyptian men sleep with foreign women

The World's Densest Cities

World's Densest Cities

1. Manila, Philippines
population: 1,581,000;
density: 41,014 persons per square kilometer ...

2. Cairo, Egypt
Population: 15.2 million (official) / 25 million (unofficial)
Density: 36,618 persons per square kilometer
Egypt's capital also happens to be the cultural capital of the Arab world and the largest city in Africa. Its traffic is overwhelming. It has to be seen to be believed. Compounding the ever more horrendous noise is the variety of vehicles: autos, buses, bikes, vans and trucks on narrow streets with the use of the sidewalk almost a must. The traffic rarely stays in lanes, instead weaving its own tapestry. It is an elemental force.
[Not to mention the horses pulling carts and donkeys pulling carts that I kept seeing in the mix of vehicles.]

3. Lagos, Nigeria
Population: 10 million to 15 million
Density: 20,000-plus per square kilometer ...

4. Macau
Population: 508,500
Density: 16,521 persons per square kilometer ...

5. Seoul, South Korea
Population: 10,297,000 (20 million-plus metro area)
Density: 16,391 persons per square kilometer
South Korea's capital has great transportation facilities, but it also has 3 million vehicles plying its streets. The huge subway system moves 8 million a day. But rush hour in the evening is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Seoul is also South Korea's business center with company headquarters for Samsung, LG Group and Hyundai. It uses on its streets a full range of vehicle fleets: buses and taxis. Driving can be arduous, and citizens have to learn to be Seoul survivors.

6. Dhaka, Bangladesh
Population: 6,724,976 (11 million-plus metro area)
Density: 14,688 persons per square kilometer ...

7. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Population: 2,776,138 (12 million-plus metro area)
Density: 13,680 persons per square kilometer ...

8. Jakarta, Indonesia
Population: 8,792,000
Density: 11,360 persons per square kilometer ...

9. Kaohsiung/Taipei, Taiwan
Population: of 1,510,577
Density: 9,835 persons per square kilometer ...

10. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Population: 2,530,000
Density: 9,516 persons per square kilometer ...

[Forbes]

You know there's a problem when...

Korea’s Suicide Rate Highest in OECD in 2005
The number of suicides rose to an all-time high of 12,000 last year as more people took their own lives amid economic hardship, recording the highest suicide rate among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO) yesterday, suicide was the fourth-largest cause of death in the country for two years in a row...
"The fast pace of social change in the country and stagnant business conditions were main contributors to an increase in suicides last year,’’ an NSO official said.
He said suicides are also on the rise among senior citizens who had not fully prepared for old age and were not properly supported by their children.
What was more alarming is that suicide topped the causes of deaths last year for 20-and 30-somethings who were supposed to actively participate in economic activities.
About 21.8 people in their 30s out of 100,000 decided to take their own lives due mainly to the worsening economic conditions. ... [The Korea Times]

College graduates finding jobs in Egypt...

This made me think of Diaa, a woman I met during my trip to Egypt. She was the manager of the Fat Boy restaurant that my friends and I went to a few times for dinner. Diaa was a lawyer, but was working at a fast food restaurant! (More about that meeting in a great day in Egypt)

Mapping Happiness

the article that goes with the map...

Or Not???

Oslo 'priciest city in the world'
BBC World

After 14 years as the world's most expensive city, Tokyo has been knocked off its top spot - by Oslo.

10 MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES
1st - Oslo, Norway
2nd - Tokyo, Japan
3rd - Reykjavik, Iceland
= 4th - Osaka, Japan
= 4th Paris, France
6th - Copenhagen, Denmark
7th - London, UK
8th - Zurich, Switzerland
9th - Geneva, Switzerland
10th - Helsinki, Finland

I just read on the Korean Times that Seoul was 8th on the list... what happened? Where did they get their stats???
And... I guess it all depends on who is doing the survey, and what they include.

Oslo joins the group of most expensive cities in the world
By Tann vom Hove, Editor

1 February 2006: Deciding on which is the world’s most expensive city is a little bit like choosing between the merits of various world heavy weight boxing champions. Until recently the choice has been between Tokyo and London. But in its latest ‘Worldwide cost of living survey’ the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) says Oslo had overtaken Tokyo as the world’s costliest city. And in June 2006, Mercer Consulting says Moscow was the most expensive city in the world, with Oslo being ranked 10th. Meanwhile, Swiss Bank UBS puts London in first place, followed by Oslo, New York and Tokyo.

London is the most expensive city in the world while Swiss cities are home to highest earners
A report by UBS

London is the most expensive city in the world due to the UK capital’s high cost of renting accommodation. If rents are excluded, Oslo, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Zurich are among the most costly cities in the world. In terms of living costs, Oslo remains the most expensive of the 71 cities surveyed, now followed by Copenhagen, Tokyo, Zurich and London.
...
Rank/City
1 London
2 Oslo
3 New York
4 Tokyo
5 Copenhagen
6 Hong Kong
7 Zurich
8 Paris
9 Chicago
10 Geneva
...
27 Seoul

Expensive??? Or Not?

Seoul Ranks World’s 8th Expensive City
By Ryu JinStaff Reporter Korea Times

Seoulites live in the world’s eighth most expensive city, according to a survey released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on Monday.
It is the first time that Seoul has been placed on the top-10 list for the cost of living.
Oslo was in first place, followed by Tokyo, Reykjavik and Paris, in the survey conducted biannually by the EIU. Seoul was in the 16th and 13th place in August 2005 and January 2006, respectively.
...

I don't think so.
I'm not sure what their criteria are. I suppose things like rent are very expensive, so they live in smaller homes. The fuel prices are also up there. Other things, though, I find to be lower than at home. The cost of food, for instance, is much lower than at home in Edmonton.
As a foreigner here, I find the cost of living to be very cheap. So many foreigners regularly go out for lunch and/or dinner, because it is so cheap. If you add in the time it takes to make a meal, and the cost of the food, it is much easier to just go to a little Korean restaurant for a quick, big, delicious, cheap meal. I also regularly take taxis here, as they are so readily available, and cheap (Korean's don't think so).
I think the standard (usually one room) school provided foreigner home in Korea costs the hagwons around 300,000 Won per month. Mine is a bit more at around 600,000 Won (or so I've been told), but I have a Korean home rather than a one room villa or officetel room.
I suppose it is difficult for many Koreans, as they don't really do mortgages here... you have to have the money up front. It is possible to get a loan, but you have some sort of collateral, or a huge amount of money to begin with.
I guess if you include the cost of all of the after school academies and hagwons that the parents send their kids to, the cost of living goes up quite a bit.

Japan's fertility rate

Found this article... very interesting.
No sex please, we're Japanese
I think that the fact that Japanese women are working more, and are better educated now, might be a reason that I'd more likely believe. Or the fact that it is just very expensive to raise children.