August 02, 2007
The Soccer Fan's Guide to China's Host Cities: 2007 Women's World Cup
ESPN Sports Travel
August 2, 2007
The venues for this year's FIFA Women's World Cup are scattered across the Middle Kingdom.
They range from the river city of Wuhan, the lake district of Hangzhou and Chengdu, the panda capital of China. Don't forget about Tianjin. And the centerpiece, of course, is the massive metropolis of Shanghai, home to the tournament's opening and closing ceremonies and the Cup finals.
Here is a traveler's overview of host cities as the World Cup comes to China Sept. 10-30:
Read the rest at ESPN.
Posted by jcard at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2006
Uncle Sam's Trout
Outdoor Library
December 13, 2006
Public-access fishing on American military land holds lots of wild country, lots of rules and regulations, and hard-earned fish.
Since 1972, the Fort McCoy fisheries program has been keeping 71.2 miles of streams in good health, with 70% ranked as Class I trout water. Along with standard conservation practices like controlling erosion, monitoring water quality and doing fish surveys, the fisheries program has been keen to install over 400 L.U.N.K.E.R. structures, an acronym for Little Underwater Neighborhood Keepers Encompassing Rheotaxic Salmonids.
A positive "rheotaxic salmonid" is simply a trout that faces upstream; a negative rheotaxic fish faces downstream. These structures serve a dual purpose: to stabilize streambanks and to create a near-perfect hiding spot for trout.
Lunker structures are made of oak slabs that are wedged parallel into the bank and spiked into the streambed with steel rebar. Another slab is cantilevered over oak pylons and it forms a tunnel-like environment that funnels drifting food to the well-protected trout. The wood is covered with rock and dirt and seeded and, in the end, is the ultimate ambush point for a trout hunting its food and for an angler hunting the trout.
Read the rest at Outdoor Library
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August 22, 2006
Korea Casts an Eye Heavenward
Wired News
August 21, 2006
DAEJEON, South Korea -- Now Hiring: Wannabe Astronauts. Must weigh between 110 and 209 pounds. Feet must be smaller than 11.6 inches. English proficiency required. Those with criminal records need not apply.
These are the simple requirements to become South Korea's first astronaut. No experience or prior training required, apart from being fit enough to run a 3.5K race and a willingness to experiment on kimchi in space.
Understandably, the prospect of being the first South Korean in space has generated some excitement.
Read the rest at Wired News.
Posted by jcard at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2005
A chronicle of Korea-Japan 'friendship'
Asia Times
December 23, 2005
SEOUL - Korea-Japan Friendship Year 2005 didn't turn out to be all that friendly.
It was conceived after the euphoria of co-hosting the successful World Cup of football in 2002. With the catchphrase, "To the future, together to the world", it was supposed to be a year of reconciliation, positive steps and celebration of the 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic ties. Cultural, economic and sports and arts exchanges were planned.
But the year was a chain of events that resulted in ugly diplomacy, raging nationalism and the opening of old wounds.
In January, declassified dossiers relating to the Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty of 1965 opened the first old wound. It was the first disclosure to the Korean public; it revealed that Seoul demanded US$364 million compensation for individuals who died, were injured or used as laborers during Japan's 35-year occupation on the Korean peninsula. Instead, the South Korean government received $800 million, in a combination of grants and low-interest loans, as reparations from Japan.
South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee agreed that after this payment, South Korean citizens would give up their right to make individual claims against the Japanese government. What the declassified documents revealed was that Park only paid out about 2.56 billion won ($251 million) to families killed by the Japanese and 6.6 billion won to owners of destroyed property. None of the thousands of South Koreans conscripted into the Japanese military and labor workforce received compensation.
The remaining money was earmarked for nation-building construction projects. Park's often-criticized vision of linking Seoul and Busan in the south by expressway became a reality. He poured money into developing infrastructure and heavy industry, especially his favored state-owned business, Pohang Iron & Steel, which later became Posco, one of the world's top steelmakers.
The Japanese reparation money, along with American foreign aid, was the gratuitous seed money that bootstrapped the South Korean economy into the industrial nation of today. Arguments in the winter of 2005 revolved around the wartime victims being sacrificed for the greater good of the nation and Park's Japanese philosophy of "poor people, strong state".
Read the rest here at Asia Times
Posted by jcard at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2005
Life and death exams in South Korea
Asia Times
November 29, 2005
Last week, 600,000 South Korean students took an exam that will determine the future course of their lives - the ultimate goal being to reach the SKY.
In a country where students, not babies are born, young children are prepped, schooled, coddled and groomed to take the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). From a tender age children, and their parents, are shooting for acceptance into one of the so-called "big three" Korean universities.
Seoul National University (SNU), Korea University and Yonsei University are collectively nicknamed SKY. Getting into one of these institutions is considered a South Korean student's crowning life achievement. Not only will successful students have the best academic pedigree in the country, they will also have a strong alumni network that tends to be biased in hiring and mentoring grads from their alma mater. Even their currency as a marriage partner increases as a SKY graduate.
The national obsession that revolves around higher education is focused on getting a near perfect score on the CSAT, along with having top grades in school. Parents start their children on the educational track early on in an assortment of pre-schools that offer numerous early childhood learning programs that guarantee they will mold the brains of junior geniuses. Some are worthy, many are dubious.
A college entrance exam in many other countries usually generates only a shrug but on CSAT day in South Korea, intensity hangs in the air. Under government orders, businesses reschedule the workday so employees alleviate the traffic conditions for students heading to testing sites.
The National Police Agency asks motorists not to honk their horns near schools and teams of volunteers and special police units work as traffic managers. The US military halts live-fire training and aviation missions to give test-takers quiet time. The South Korean stock market opens late and closes early. This year, even the aggressive farmers protesting the rice market opening agreed to mellow out for the day.
In the lead-up to the test, nervous mothers pray for that extra edge on the CSAT. In the weeks before the exam, many visit Buddhist temples with photos of their children to be placed on the altar. They bow an auspicious number of times. Christian churches also push spirituality as a means for CSAT success by organizing prayer meetings and candlelight vigils.
The morning of the test, teary-eyed mothers kiss their sons and daughters as they enter the school. Younger students hold signs wishing good luck and victory to their older friends. Slapped onto some school gates is yut, a sticky candy that is symbolic of the Korean verb that means to stick, a colloquialism for getting one's name "stuck" to a top university. The night before, some of the bolder and desperate students rip off an "S" from the metal nameplates on Hyundai Sonatas or Ssangyong trucks. The "S" stands for Seoul National University.
Read the rest at Asia Times
Posted by jcard at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
Yoo Young-cheol, South Korean Serial Killer
Crime Library
November 21, 2005
Yoo Young-cheol
When he got out of a South Korean prison in 2003, his first goal was to capture a lot of stray dogs so that he could beat them to death and perfect his killing technique. That done, he planned to murder 100 wealthy people and steal their money.
Excerpts:
"Following the story of Jeong, Yoo felt the wealthy were the causes of all that is wrong with Korean society and were the people to blame for his life's misery. He would beat them like dogs. He planned to kill over a hundred people.
Police investigations of the serial killings of Yoo Young-cheol would later reveal that he was a methodical man. His forethought was extraordinary and his attention to detail was superb. The physical act of bludgeoning a human was no exception. He needed to practice up for such violence."
* * *
"The house he picked looked easy to break into. A common feature of most two-story houses in Korea is a walled area around the house that forms a courtyard. Most homeowners use this space to cultivate bonsai trees, raise herbs and potted plants or to have their very own micro-patch of grass amidst the concrete blight of urban Seoul. The outer wall is usually between shoulder to head level and a two-door gate beckons you inside.
The house Yoo cased fit that profile. It was situated at the entrance of an alley near a main road. It had a little garden behind the wall and no security system. It seemed the only people that lived there was an elderly couple. He watched the house for ten minutes before making his move. Wearing gloves, he climbed over the back wall and entered through the front door. He was armed with his homemade hammer and a knife with a six-inch blade."
* * *
"The Mapo district, where he lived, was a poor area with no electricity and running water, and residents had to get water from a public well. Yoo had two older brothers and a younger sister. One brother eventually ran away from home. His father had a replacement for his mother, and the stepmother savagely beat Yoo's sister. She never hit Yoo because he unnerved her so much from staring at her for hours with contempt and hate."
* * *
"When Yoo stepped outside of his apartment, he picked up calling cards off the ground. They are everywhere in Seoul—stuffed under windshield wipers, tucked in mailboxes, and seemingly tossed about on any flat surface. There are so many around that most people cast them aside as litter. On the card is always an erotic photo of a beautiful woman promising hot sex and a number to call."
* * *
"Yoo led the police to where he buried the bodies of the women he killed. Before the temple grounds of Bongwon is a small hamlet that borders a quieter, secluded world and the frenetic cement jungle of Seoul. It is a neighborhood where the traditional tile roof houses still exist under the canopies of Zelkova trees and Buddhist paper lanterns are strung up on the narrow lanes that lead up to the temple."
Read the rest at Crime Library
Posted by jcard at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
The Lost Brook Trout of New Zealand
Outdoor Library
September 21, 2005
The gravel road that leads to Lake Emily ends at a gate with two signs. One is riddled with what appears to be two bullet holes. It reads, "Lake Emily, Fly Fishing Only." The other says "Public Access, Four Wheel Drive Track, Use At Own Risk." Lake Emily lies in the high country near the headwaters of the Ashburton Rivers and the landscape is reminiscent of Wyoming or Montana. I half expected to see mule deer in the distance. Vehicles pass with such infrequency that you could plant a lawn chair on the road and read a newspaper. By the time you got to the sports pages, you might see a farm truck on the horizon. It was my kind of place.
I came for the brook trout. In the previous weeks I caught rainbows and browns on some of the South Island's legendary rivers. The world-class rainbow and brown trout fisheries get all of the glory and attention, yet the brook trout of New Zealand is a footnote of a fish. It is overlooked and seemingly passed over in New Zealand's fly-fishing scene when compared to the heaps of literature, guide services, and angling media about rainbows and browns. Graeme Hughes, a Fish and Game Officer of the Central South Island Region said, "Not of great interest to a large percentage of anglers due to the scarcity of good sized specimens. I have shown them in glass tanks and they create quite an interest, they are the most handsome of our sportfish."
The 19th-century was the time of the transoceanic steamships and it allowed for semi-perishable goods to be transported around the globe. Trout are not native to New Zealand yet the country has thousands of coldwater rivers and creeks that make for near-perfect trout habitat. The goal of the "acclimatization" societies formed by the early European settlers was to introduce flora and fauna from their original homeland to their new homes halfway around the world. For sustenance and sporting pursuits, they relocated red deer and wild boar for hunting and trout and salmon for fishing.
Mr. A.M. Johnson, ordered the first shipment of brook trout over from San Francisco and it arrived in Christchurch in 1877. From this stock, Johnson sold brook trout fry to the Canterbury Society, the Auckland Society and the Otago Society which distributed the fish in their regions. There were numerous shipments of thousands of brook trout over in the 1880's. Many of the fertilized fish eggs were dead on arrival from the long journey but the survivors were reared and released with some success.
During this early history of trout transplanting, the brook trout was competing with introduced brown trout (from the United Kingdom via Tasmania) and rainbow trout (from California) in its new environment and it was recorded that the brook trout migrated to the headwaters of streams when occupied by other species of trout-a characteristic shared by its cousins in North America.
I left the car parked off to the side near the gate, and hiked up the two-track. In a publication of New Zealand Fish and Game it is written, "In fact the Central South Island Region probably offers the best fontinalis populations in the country, with Lake Emily being renowned as the place in New Zealand to catch a trophy." That small blurb of information was repeated from other sources with scant details. The obscurity was tantalizing.
Read the rest at Outdoor Library
Posted by jcard at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
South Korea's Dioxin Double Take
Environment News Service
July 19, 2005
CHANGWON, South Korea, July 19, 2005 (ENS) - The South Korean government has promised to establish dioxin regulations by the end of this year after studies are done to determine if dioxins are dangerous to humans. Dioxins are a group of 75 chemically related chemicals classified by the World Health Organization as damaging persistent organic pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers them as human carcinogens, but in South Korea, dioxins are not officially proven to be harmful.
Although the status of dioxins is in a grey area, South Korea has previously written regulations to restrict their discharge. In 1999, South Korea joined the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), which governs the emission of the dirty dozen - dioxins and 11 other chemicals.
Dioxins are an unwanted by-product of manufacturing. Pulp mills, chemical plants and smelting facilities are common emitters, while solid waste incinerators release the greatest amount of dioxins into the environment. One component of the waste burned in these incinerators is polyvinyl chloride plastics, and when chlorine based plastics are burned at too low a temperature, dioxins are emitted.
In January 2001, medium and large solid waste incinerators became subject to monitoring by the Korean Ministry of the Environment. In addition, numerous government agencies have conducted dioxin research, but their results have not yet been combined to create a database that would allow for comprehensive policy making on dioxin issues.
In South Korea concern focuses on dioxins as airborne and waterborne pollutants. When released, some dioxins are broken down by sunlight, some evaporate to air, but most attach to soil and settle to the bottom sediment in water.
Dioxin concentrations may build up in the food chain, resulting in measurable levels in animals. An estimated 90 percent of human dioxin intake is through food sources.
Chronic exposure to dioxins can lead to weakening of the immune system, skin diseases, infertility, cancer, and endocrine disruption.
In April 2005, the first public report about dioxin pollution from the steel industry was released by the state-run National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER). It revealed that two steelyards of Pohang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., or Posco, one of South Korea’s most profitable corporations, emitted pollutants at rates 6,000 times higher than those released by the country’s biggest waste incinerator.
The Ministry of Environment researched the issue of dioxins emitted from the steelyards in 2002, but the results were not disclosed for reasons of corporate privacy.
The NIER report was inconclusive, stating that local laws governing dioxin emissions do not exist and they were unable to prove that the discharge of steelyard dioxin is a risk to health. More research was called for, along with standards to lower dioxin levels.
At the Gwangyang steelyard, a brown haze perpetually hangs over the area and a patina of black dust collects on neighborhood windowsills hours after they are wiped clean. In September 2004, Seoul National University researchers discovered that residents of Gwangyang have bronchial infections at a rate five times greater than the national average.
Many Gwangyang children are plagued with "ah-toe-pi,” the Korean word for atopic dermatitis, or eczema, a skin inflammation.
The most noted health effect in people exposed to large amounts of one dioxin - 2,3,7,8-TCDD - is chloracne, a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions that occur mainly on the face and upper body. Other skin effects noted in people exposed to high doses of this dioxin include skin rashes and discoloration, according to the U.S. federal Agency for Toxic Substances.
In Pohang, home of the other Posco steelyard, the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute studied mussels in the nearby coastal areas. The level of dioxin extracted from the mussels was the highest in the nation. By the Institute's estimation, if a person consumed three or four mussels per day, that person would ingest dioxins in excess of the World Health Organization's recommended maximum intake of four trillionths of a gram per day per kilogram of bodyweight.
In 2003, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported of a waste removal crisis. Of the country’s 232 landfills, half were ordered to close over a five year period because they were filled to overflowing.
That year, the Ministry of the Environment approved the construction of more municipal solid waste incinerators and declared that its waste disposal policy favored incineration over landfills. Ministry official Kang Sok-jae said, “We are aiming to double the percentage of incinerated waste to 30 percent by the year 2011.”
The construction of municipal incinerators is partially subsidized by the national government. Private companies bid for their construction and management. All together they are nicknamed the “Incineration Cartel” by environmental groups.
In 2002, the Citizens' Institute for Environment Studies took blood samples from residents living near waste incinerators in Pyeongtaek in the Gyeongii Province. The survey concluded that if the sampled residents are representative of the province, then people of the Gyeonggi area would have some of the highest dioxin levels in the world.
The incineration boom has not gone unnoticed and many Korean citizens are concerned about dioxin exposure. In many cities, civic groups have rallied and have pressured politicians not to build incinerators in their neighborhoods, invoking a not-in-my-backyard position.
In 2001, the Seoul government continued with their plan to build incinerators in the districts of Mapo, Gangnam, Yangcheon, and Nowon despite the protests and rallies of residents and environmental groups. Incinerator construction plans in the cities of Gyeongju and Busan were blocked successfully by citizens.
Some of the older incinerators use obsolete Japanese technology that emit more dioxins than the newer ones. In the last three decades, other industrialized nations created environmental policies that lowered the use of incinerators and dioxin emissions. So, incinerator manufacturers targeted foreign markets where public awareness about incinerator generated dioxin was limited or nonexistent.
By the 1990s, South Korea had become a dumping ground for over 13,000 small scale incinerators that discharge 20 to 30 times more dioxin than larger ones.
In 1998, there were 14,791 incinerators across the country and 95 percent were small capacity incinerators that are estimated to produce 52 percent of total dioxin emissions in South Korea.
The government sponsored incinerators and heavy industries are not the only dioxin emitters - burning agricultural plastics contributes to the country's dioxin burden.
Covering the Korean countryside are tunnel-like seasonal greenhouses that extend across the limited flatlands. Used to mitigate the weather fluctuations and optimize plant growth, the greenhouses are made of polyvinyl chloride film. Once worn or torn, the agricultural plastics are burned and produce a thick, black smoke, laden with dioxins. Although local regulations addressing this pollution exist, enforcement is uncommon or nonexistent.
Critics say the South Korean government is in the Dark Ages when it comes to regulating dioxin levels. But after the promised government studies are completed, South Korean residents may gain some insight into the risks of dioxin emissions.
Posted by jcard at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)