Interesting News Stories

Date: 11/1/2010

I was looking through the Korean Times online newspaper (at this webaddress: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/index.asp) and I came across some very interesting news articles.  I know this is quiet a bit dorky of me, but I wanted to share what I learned, along with some peanut gallery comments (of course!).

Does anyone find this a little creepy/ironic/unsettling?  North Korea--the creator of many of the most popular cartoons coming out on the market today?  Um...what?!!  (Ms Kim actually has a lot of Pororo stuff all over her house.  She says Pororo has struck the country in the same style of Hello Kitty.)

Cartoon series ‘Pororo the Little Penguin’

"By Kim Se-jeong

North Korea’s information technology (IT) industry, especially in the field of computer-based animation production, is well on its way to achieve success, according to a Dutch outsourcing specialist currently conducting IT business with North Korean companies.

Speaking to an audience in Seoul for the launch of a book, “Europe-North Korea, Between Humanitarianism and Business,” Paul Tjia said France and Italy are two big users of North Korean animators.

He said that his Dutch clients also outsource animation to North Korea. European cartoon versions of classic literature such as “Arabian Nights” and “Les Miserables,” which aired on European television, were animated partly in North Korea. 

The ceremony was organized by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a German organization. 

Clients of animation produced in the isolated communist regime aren’t just Europeans. 

In early 2000 when the inter-Korean relations were at a peak, even a few South Korean animations were made in North Korea. 

“Pororo the Little Penguin,” an animated cartoon series, was an inter-Korean project completed in 2002. Also the same year, Akom, a South Korean company, also outsourced the production of “Empress Chung” to North Korea. The animation was released in 2005. 

Tjia mentioned that some of the American Walt Disney animations were created by North Koreans, purely by accident. Politically North Korea and America have a thorny relationship and the American government prohibits the private sector from doing business with North Korean companies. 

“There was a time when Walt Disney outsourced their animation production to countries in Asia like Vietnam or the Philippines. But the company didn’t have complete control over exactly which country the work was created, and found out later that some was produced in North Korea,” he said, adding that this was discovered after the animations had aired on TV.

An official at the Seoul Animation Center verified some of what the Dutchman said, confirming that Walt Disney’s outsourcing to Asia was true, and that’s precisely how South Korea’s animation industry took off. 

The news of a burgeoning animation industry in North Korea comes as a surprise to many who are used to hearing mainly about food scarcity, human rights violations and the regime’s nuclear ambitions. 

People in the North Korean IT industry are given far more freedom than regular people in traveling abroad. They freely travel to “learn new skills,” Tjia said, showing a group photo with North Korean IT engineers in Europe.

Apart from animations, he added, North Korea is also keen on developing computer games, cell phone applications and banking systems for clients from the Middle East. 

Cell phone applications, in particular, were devised even though not a single cell phone was available in Pyongyang. 

“They made them to target European clients,” he said. 

Yet for some the emergence of North Korea as an animation producer isn’t without alarm.

One European diplomat at the venue expressed concern over security, raising the possibility that the IT business with Europe could empower North Korea to become a cyber attacker.

North Korea already has a record of carrying out cyber attacks against South Korean websites, the most recent of which took place last July. 

“They (North Koreans) say they are capable of producing computer viruses,” Tjia said, and he has seen anti-virus programs made by the North.

The chief of the South’s National Intelligence Service was quoted last year as saying that North Korea had a force of 1,000 hackers who could engage in cyber warfare. He also said the North had “remarkable” cyber skills to carry out a massive attack on the South."

And hello?  Who wouldn't want to buy a corpse?

Selling a work of corpse for 100 million won, moral or immoral?

So-called “the work of corpse” by a prominent German anatomist is now under criticism. According to the media reports in England and German on Oct. 22, the artist is Gunther von Hagen, who has become famous for inventing the way to maintain corpses in the condition before death by inserting silicon rubber epoxy resin and polyester synthetic resin after the complete removal of the water inside. He has held the exhibition “The Mystery of Human Body” worldwide and shared the specimens of real human body with the visitors. Currently running an online shop selling his works of corpse, he charges a body 70,000euros (about 100 million won), a head 55,000euros (about 86 million won) and a trunk 20,000euros (about 31 million won). However, religion groups are showing a great dissatisfaction with him making profits out of the bodies of the dead. Although the sales are made only to the people involved in research, many think it’s still immoral. The media, on the other hand, questions the possible involvement of illegally traded corpses from China and Russia in his business.

I put this on in here just because of the last line...

Barbershop run with half naked hairdressers is fine?

A barbershop in Australia, where hot hairdressers work without their tops, is now controversial, British online outlet Asylum reported on Oct. 22. The world’s first barbershop run with half naked female hairdressers, Hot Cuts, opened Oxford Street, Sydney, early this month. The charge of haircut and scalp massage is 60-70 Australian dollars (about 66,000-77,000 won). The unique marketing strategy is to invite more customers in times of the sagging economy, and the customers revisiting the shop less than two weeks proves the plan has worked. However, some voice worries hair dyeing chemicals and sharp scissors may endanger the safety of the hairdressers armed with insufficient protection.

I knew there was a reason why Korean's didn't like the Japanese!  Just look at the mummified remains of those people from across the sea!

Unidentified creatures in Japan’s mummies

KILLER SHARK!!!  (at least, a computer version!)

Megalodon, king of animal kingdom

The prehistoric shark Megalodon was the predator having the strongest bite power in the history of the Earth, reported the British Daily Telegraph and the BBC based on research by a team comprised of paleontologists. According to the report, even Tyrannosaurus Rex surrenders before Megalodon. The team, with the help of a computer, reanimated the shark’s skull, teeth and muscles to find out its bite power. Assumed to be 16m in length and 100 tons in weight, Megalodon’s bite strength came in from between 10.8 to 18.2 tons, easily beating T. Rex’s 3.1 tons. Modern bite power doesn’t compare _ the Great White shark is a measly 1.8 tons, followed by the African lion’s 560kg. A human being’s is a mere human’s 80kg. And don't forget about the people of the night!  They're science has come to help the common, daylight-ers! 'Vampire facelift' better than Botox  Plastic surgeon and 'Vampire Filler' Dr. Julio F. Gallo has pioneered the use of blood to treat aging of the face, finding a unique way to circumvent the use of potentially harmful chemicals, such as Botox and Restylane, reports the Daily Mail. The technique, in which a small amount of blood is extracted from the patient's own body and passed via a tube connection to a machine where it's briefly exposed to UV light, is redirected into the bloodstream at the areas of concern. There is little side effect of the new surgery as the patient’s blood is used, compared Botox which could be chemically reacted, causing hurt to the face. The technique had often been used to treat patients who get emergency surgery. However, Galo has succeeded in applying it to plastic surgery with high tech. However, the “Vampire plastic surgery” has its own defects. It is difficult to maintain youth with one injection of blood. Patients have to receive surgery with blood extracted in three to six months after the first surgery. However, it is far safer and cheaper than Botox as there appear no side effects. The surgery takes about 20 minutes. Although the surgery can change the shape of face, it can remove wrinkle and keep skin tone up, making those in their 60 years to those sexy in their 30s. *Please notice that it is a Western person getting the vampire facelift.  No wonder we have a strange rap!  We're the one trying out the crazy things! One More:  Monster 'chupacabra’s' mutation?  Public attention has focused on what monster the chupacabra actually is. The chupacabra, also known as the goatsucker, is a mythical beast that has been a fixture in Hispanic folklore for years and to this day is blamed for the deaths of livestock in many parts of Latin America and the U.S. The research about the monster has been revealed in depth in a local TV program, Surprise, recently. Sheep’s dead bodies were discovered in Puerto Rico in 1994, but there were no drops of blood or other body fluids found in the bodies, driving all the island into horror and shock. Fortunately, there were villagers who claimed to spot the monster-like creatures which were presumed to have killed the livestock. According to the witnesses, the creature is similar with the monster, Katun, depicted by ancient Mayans. People named it the chupacabra but experts claimed that it is not a wild beast but an unidentified living thing as it never leaves puncture wounds and inflammation on the neck when the creature bites the livestock. At that time, a Chilean biologist concluded that it is neither a human being nor a beast from the outcome of a blood test. However, while the U.S. has kept mum about such occurrences, Chilean scientists claimed later in their continuous research that it was a mutation in the process of cloning by the U.S. military. However, the U.S. military has never commented on the Chilean scientists’ claim. Some experts claimed that it might be an alien as UFOs were claimed to have been spotted several times in the region where the chupacabras turned up *My money is on the alien theory... Okay...so that's it for this edition of Strange and Crazy News.  I hope you enjoyed--it made me laugh!