Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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Hemingway’s teaching on New Year’s predictions
Predicting events can be a dangerous game. That’s because some people simply project wishful thinking, allowing their personal biases to obscure reality. We see it repeatedly during election season. The key to making accurate predictions is absolute objectivity: observing patterns in a detached manner, drawing inferences and applying them to new developments in order to predict their likely trajectory.The big problem these days is that this requires the absorption of large amounts of information
Jan. 9, 2013
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[Robert Reich] Fiscal cliff deal won’t end war
“It’s not all I would have liked,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, speaking of the deal on the fiscal cliff, “so on to the debt ceiling.”For Republicans, the battle over the fiscal cliff is only a prelude to the coming battle over raising the debt ceiling ― a battle that will likely continue through early March, when the Treasury runs out of tricks to avoid a default on the nation’s debt.The White House’s and Democrats’ single biggest failure in the cliff negotiations was
Jan. 9, 2013
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Do credit ratings matter?
Taro Aso, 72, sure is a busy man. While most Japanese of his vintage are happily ensconced in retirement, Aso has three new jobs: deputy prime minister, finance minister and minister for financial services. This trifecta of responsibilities means Aso has been deputized to end deflation and weaken the yen once and for all. As he endeavors to do what no one has done before, Aso also will conduct an experiment of great interest to policy makers and investors: testing whether credit ratings matter.
Jan. 9, 2013
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How to secure expansion in higher education
Over the next decade, it is estimated by the World Economic Forum that the global economy will need to create some 600 million new jobs to preserve social cohesion, and ensure sustainable growth. In the midst of ongoing economic fragility across much of the world, this poses a monumental challenge, and will thus be one of the topics discussed at WEF’s annual meeting in Davos later this month.Education is key to delivering this agenda. Human advancement and development has always been driven by k
Jan. 9, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] Why not indulge in winter culinary pleasures?
The presidential election is over and the New Year is on. Kim Jong-un in the North chose less provocative words than usual for his New Year address. The National Assembly here cut hundreds of billions of won from the defense budget in the 2013 spending bill, and groups of our representatives left for junkets in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere on taxpayers’ money. We citizens too deserve a little relaxation, having been exposed to so much of politics. In this, the coldest winter in living mem
Jan. 9, 2013
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Falling birthrates portend a very different world
HANOI ― As the new year dawns, the world is rapidly growing old, and I’m not talking about the earth beneath our feet. No, birth rates for nearly all of humankind are plummeting.In fact, fewer than 20 percent of the world’s nations are now experiencing growing population rates, the CIA reports. All the rest have either stable or declining populations. The reasons for this are varied ― as are the likely consequences. But first the facts.The nations with the world’s lowest birth rates are here in
Jan. 8, 2013
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[Lee Jae-min] Disputes in the East China Sea
As if the current load of disputes was not sufficient, a big sleeping giant is about to wake up ― competing claims by Korea, Japan and China over the continental shelves in the East China Sea. Rather unnoticed in the waning moments of 2012, an 800-page report was submitted by Korea to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Included in the submission was scientific and technical information on how far Korea’s landmass extends under the sea toward the Pacific. In more technica
Jan. 8, 2013
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Obama needs Sen. Hagel in the Pentagon
Absent from the discussion about whether former Sen. Chuck Hagel would make a good secretary of defense is any focus on lessons learned from personal factors like combat in war, as well as loyalty to the president.As I was grousing about this, my eye caught a name on a rubbing I made from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall: “Edward S. Krukowski.” Many years ago, Ed and I studied Russian and were in the ROTC together.Capt. Edward Krukowski, USAF, was flying a C-123 on a resupply mission in Vietna
Jan. 8, 2013
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[Meghan Daum] On Facebook: I ‘like’ me, I really ‘like’ me
Recognize this pattern?Brag brag bragBait for complimentSelf-promotePromote someone else so as to be able to self-promote laterBragWax indignant about political issue on which everyone you know agrees with youBait againBrag bragThat, dear readers, is the footprint of your Facebook feed. Unless you’re some kind of outlier whose friends post nothing but links to worthy charitable organizations and lost-pet notices, that is what scrolls past your line of vision on a daily, perhaps hourly (minute-by
Jan. 8, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] The worsening war against the older generation
The war of the generations has begun in South Korea. With the defeat of the opposition party in the recent presidential elections, the younger people who voted for the defeated candidate are now experiencing a “mental collapse” and cursing those of the older generation who voted for President-elect Park Geun-hye. “How can this be possible?” an exasperated young man exclaimed after the elections. “We had no doubt that the opposition party would win.” Obviously, he is not alone in such sentiments.
Jan. 8, 2013
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Obama should shed light on shadowy drone war
A federal judge issued an important but puzzling decision last week regarding the Barack Obama administration’s deadly drone campaign against Islamic terrorists. First, Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York declared that the White House need not respond to Freedom of Information Act requests that it turn over its legal doctrine for the drone program. Then, after handing Obama that victory, she raised the possibility that he is a murderer. The judg
Jan. 7, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Charting a Syrian way out
WASHINGTON ― To help oust President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian opposition group has drafted a plan for a transitional justice system that would impose harsh penalties against diehard members of his inner circle but provide amnesty for most of his Alawite supporters. The goal is to provide a legal framework that reassures Alawites this isn’t a fight to the death, and that they will have a place in a post-Assad Syria. The plan would also encourage the rule of law in areas that have been liberated f
Jan. 7, 2013
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The mentally ill vs. those who love them
I once knew someone, many years ago, who was sent to a “rest home” by her aggravated husband. Today, you and I would call that “involuntary commitment,” and the fellow was able to do it with relative ease because he was an important person, knew the right people, and the laws were on his side.This was a time, the 1970s, when a woman couldn’t even be raped by her husband in a number of states and teenagers could be “grounded” all the way to the psychiatric hospital. It was a time when horrific pl
Jan. 7, 2013
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New fossil fuel resources
While there have been heated discussions over what to do with Japan’s nuclear power generation, it is important for the government not only to promote development of green energy sources but also to make serious efforts to exploit new fossil fuel resources, especially in the ocean, to operate the thermal power plants substituting for most of Japan’s nuclear power plants now being kept offline.On Oct. 3, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. extracted shale oil on a trial basis from 1,800-meter-deep be
Jan. 7, 2013
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Anonymity of addiction hurts more than it helps
HARTFORD, Connecticut ― I often wished that state legislators who knew the most about addiction would band together and speak out as one during budget debates. Who better to advocate for treatment and chip away at public denial than the recovering alcoholics I knew who were also members of the General Assembly?Yet the answer was as close as my nearest mirror. Despite being a journalist and writing opinion for years, I was no more likely to publish a column about my own 20-plus years’ recovery fr
Jan. 7, 2013
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[Kishore Mahbubani] Dynastic leadership in Asia
SINGAPORE ― To the extent that culture matters in politics, the recent spate of leadership changes in Northeast Asia suggests that Asian societies are more tolerant ― if not supportive ― of dynastic succession. South Korea’s recently elected president, Park Geun-hye, is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, who ruled the country from 1961 to 1979. China’s incoming president, Xi Jinping, is the son of Xi Zhongxun, a former vice premier. Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is the grandson and grandn
Jan. 7, 2013
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[Bill Gates] The optimist’s timeline
SEATTLE ― Usually, “optimism” and “realism” are used to describe two different outlooks on life. But I believe that a realistic appraisal of the human condition compels an optimistic worldview. I am particularly optimistic about the potential for technological innovation to improve the lives of the poorest people in the world. That is why I do the work that I do.Even so, there is one area of technology and global development where reality has tempered my optimism: the idea that cellphones would
Jan. 6, 2013
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The FTC’s missed opportunity on Google
For almost two years, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been investigating allegations that Google Inc. unfairly dominates the Internet search market. The consumer agency ended the case on Thursday without bringing charges over the main issue ― whether Google favors its own products in search results and, consequently, stifles competition. The FTC missed an opportunity to explore publicly one of the paramount questions of our day: Is Google abusing its role as gatekeeper to the digital econo
Jan. 6, 2013
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Debunking nine myths of the gun-control debate
So many myths and misunderstandings about gun control, from all sides of the debate, and so little time! Here goes: Myth No. 1: The extremism of the National Rifle Association and its chief executive officer, Wayne LaPierre, is hurting its cause. LaPierre’s seemingly unhinged recent performances, first at his no-questions news conference and then on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” have convinced gun-control advocates and members of the news media that he is out of his mind. He isn’t. His appearances wer
Jan. 6, 2013
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The perils of political punditry
Back in 2011, at the dawn of a long presidential campaign, I established a fine baseline for my credentials as a political prognosticator: I told readers that Mitt Romney’s strongest challengers for the Republican nomination would be Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.Neither one has been heard from since.Could I top that record in 2012?Pretty close. Last spring, I announced in a column that Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio would be Romney’s running mate. Sure, I hedged a littl
Jan. 6, 2013