0102-POSCO launches 'big data' system

By Yi Whan-woo

POSCO has launched a “big data” system to allow its offices and plants overseas to share information online in real time using mobile devices, the company said Wednesday.

Korea’s leading steelmaker said it implemented the integrated process management system, dubbed POSPIA 3.0, which applies to its headquarters in Seoul, two local plants in Gwangyang and Pohang, and also at its steel mill in Indonesia.

The firm added it will try to run POSPIA 3.0 at all of its branches across the world by the end of the year to improve efficiency in the work process.

The world’s fifth largest steel manufacturer said the big data system was an integrated system optimized to keep track of manufacturing, sales, marketing, finance and other activities and thus to beef up its global operations.

The systems include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Smart Workplace (SWP).

The difference in office locations makes it difficult to share data when needed, according to POSCO.

“We expect POSPIA 3.0 will innovative our work process, enhancing our competitiveness in the global market,” POSCO CEO Chung Joon-yang said in a statement.

A POSCO spokeswoman also said, “It was not easy for us at headquarters in the past to find out about the steelmaking process at the Indonesia plant in real time, but now we can check it out via smartphones or tablets.”

The steelmaker will be able to make an optimal decision on its sales strategy based on data collected from its branches, according to POSCO.

The company has updated its strategy on a quarterly basis, but the new network will help it to do so every month, it added.

POSCO also said it can lower its management costs by up to 20 percent with POSPIA 3.0.

1231-Abe draws stronger-than-expected backlash

A member of a civic group holds burning placards during a rally against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul Friday protesting Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine honoring Japan’s war dead the day before.  / AP-Yonhap

By Chung Min-uck

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine has met with a stronger-than-expected backlash.

Not only has Abe’s visit been blasted by neighboring Korea and China, which suffered imperialism under pre-World War II Japan, but criticism has also come from Tokyo’s main ally the United States and other global players, including the European Union.

Abe, a hawkish right-winger, made a visit to the shrine on Thursday and drew unprecedented reaction from the U.S. which said it was “disappointed.” Abe was the first Japanese premier in seven years to pay his respects to the shrine.

Government sources said Sunday Seoul has called off a series of proposed defense meetings and military exchange programs with Japan, reflecting its discontent over the prime minister’s war shrine visit.

Deputy defense ministers of the two Asian neighbors last month held a meeting on the sidelines of the Seoul defense forum and agreed to work together to facilitate exchanges between working-level officials by signing a memorandum of understanding.

The E.U. and the United Nations, in a rare move, also condemned Abe’s move, saying it undermined security in Northeast Asia.

E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement the organization “took note” of the visit and urged the countries in the region to build positive and constructive ties with one another that will bolster confidence, defuse tensions and assure long-term stability.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon also said that he was aware of Japanese prime minister’s visit and, “It is highly regrettable that tensions from the past are still plaguing the region.”

According to a survey released by the Japanese Asahi Shinbun on Sunday, almost 30 percent of the Japanese people believe their country’s engagements during World War II (1939-45) were not acts of aggression, whereas about 50 percent said they were.

Despite all the criticism from around the world, only a handful of Japanese politicians openly criticized Abe’s visit to the notorious shrine, with some expressing strong opposition.

Japan watchers say Abe is betting on Washington to support his rightist drive of denying Japan’s imperial past and expanding its military role.

“Just releasing a statement saying they are ‘disappointed’ of Abe’s move will not do,” said a Korean government official asking not to be named, adding that the condemnation was not as harsh as it should have been.

During Abe’s visit, the governor of Okinawa gave the go-ahead for land reclamation for the current U.S. military base in Okinawa, something that will help facilitate part of the U.S. plan to redeploy troops in and around Asia.

In response, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo released a statement saying, “The U.S. looks forward to working with the government of Japan toward base consolidation.”

1230-Robots' New Challenge: Pentagon Boot Camp

On display in Homestead Friday, Valkyrie, submitted by NASA Johnson Space Center. Dion Nissenbaum/The Wall Street Journal

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—They have been portrayed by Hollywood as deadly Terminators. They have been vilified as future automaton armies, hunting humans without conscience.

But these imposing robots, their makers say, are just here to help.

As part of the Defense Department's multimillion-dollar campaign to design robots that can be deployed in disaster recovery situations, teams from around the globe brought their machines to a Florida racetrack for some cyborg competition. Photo: DARPA

If all goes as planned, machines named THOR, Valkyrie and Atlas will rush in where humans fear to tread, rescuing earthquake victims and turning off potentially catastrophic radiation leaks.

To help developers come up with the rescue robots of the future, the Defense Department has embarked on a multimillion-dollar campaign. Competitors squared off Friday on a Nascar racetrack in Florida, where they engaged in a kind of slow-motion robot contest for survival—and for more Pentagon money.

The robots are running through two days of challenges, from driving an all-terrain vehicle to turning off a valve to climbing a ladder. Afterward, the Pentagon will whittle down the field and pump more money into the top developers, who come from industry, government and academia.

A robot built by Japan's Schaft Inc. opening a door.Dion Nissenbaum/The Wall Street Journal

As part of the Defense Department's multimillion-dollar campaign to design robots that can be deployed in disaster recovery situations, teams from around the globe brought their machines to a Florida racetrack for some cyborg competition. Photo: DARPA

These first-generation robots won't be coming to the rescue any time soon. Nonetheless, interest in the field appears to be rapidly growing. Earlier this month,Google Inc. GOOG +1.32% bought several robotics companies, including two participants in Friday's Robotics Challenge Trials.

Google, which is investing in a commercial drone-delivery program and developing a driverless car, has tapped Andy Rubin, who led the development of Android software for smartphones, to oversee its efforts.

"We feel like this is the birth of the robotics boom," said Eric Meyhofer, part of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, which brought a 400-pound robot called Chimp to the competition.

Sixteen teams from around the world came to the Homestead-Miami Speedway to take part in the two-day event. As many as eight will be chosen to get as much as $1 million each for another year of work. Next year, the Pentagon plans to hand out $2 million to help the winner continue developing its robot.

The idea for the contest came from the Defense Department during the 2011 earthquake that spawned a radiation crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Pentagon researchers wanted to build a robot that could have endured the radiation and more quickly contained its spread by venting reactors and preventing explosions.

It will be years before that dream becomes a reality. These robotsare still learning to open doors and walk on uneven ground. They have high design costs and limited capabilities. And a skeptical public raised on movies featuring deadly robots, still hasn't embraced the idea of working alongside a hulking machine.

"We are still a long way from having to worry about humanoid robots in our daily lives," said Missy Cummings, director of the Humans and Automation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "And they will not show up on the battlefield for a very long time."

The limitations of the robots were evident Friday. Many struggled through the tests, with several top prospects falling short of their developers' expectations.

Gill Pratt, the Defense Department official overseeing the competition, said it is impossible to know when developers will reach a breakthrough that propels robots into widespread use.

"The technology needs to get better and the costs need to come down, but the costs won't come down until there's a market, which only exists if the technology is better," said Mr. Pratt, a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Pentagon arm that is leading the robotics work.

There is another problem for these robots: Many of them are, in fact, scary. They look like big metallic spiders, faceless Storm Troopers, and soulless assassins from a dystopian future.

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Hubo, from Drexel University, driving an ATV. Dion Nissenbaum/The Wall Street Journal

To address such concerns, developers at the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Lab in California have tried to create a "panda-police look," said Brett Kennedy, the team leader. At the moment, RoboSimian, the lab's entry in the contest, looks more like a black-legged spider than a cuddly mammal. "We don't want it to be too scary, and we also want it to be a piece of equipment that someone's going to want to pick up and use," he said.

Overcoming public resistance could be a challenge. Americans have expressed strong reservations about using unmanned drones in the U.S. And various groups want to see the government develop tight standards to regulate the use of robots that could be used to aid troops on the battlefield.

Dennis Hong, director of Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, is developing a robot called THOR. He said it will be up to the nation's leaders to develop standards as the technology evolves. "It's not really about robotics or robots, it is an ethical problem of people who use them," he said.

On Friday, the robot competitors came with plenty of fans. One of the robots has been regularly tweeting about the competition. And Valkyrie, a six-foot-tall, 270-pound NASA robot named after the Norse goddess who decides who lives and dies on the battlefield, came with its own cheering squad.

Friends and family gathered in the stands with handmade signs in homage to the robot built by a NASA Johnson Space Center team.

"It just looks cooler," said Jaime Lien, a Stanford University graduate student, who carried a sign reading, "Valkyrie: You go girl!" sign to support her fiancée's work on the machine.

Despite its intimidating look, Valkyrie struggled on Friday. By day's end, the robot and its NASA team were in last place. A robot built by Japan's SCHAFT Inc., one of the companies recently bought by Google, led the pack.

Arati Prabhakar, Darpa's director, called Google's move into the field an "exciting" move that could "drive the robotics field forward."

She said that agency investments in breakthrough technologies have to remain a priority, even when it is faced with tighter budgetary times.

"Whether we're in peaceful times or times of war, whatever the budget situation, as a nation we have to make the investment for the next generation," she said.

1224-How Dogs Might Protect Kids Against Asthma: Gut Bacteria

A new study makes a connection between how having a pet dog leads to diversity in dust microbes, which can lead to lowering risk for asthma and allergies in children. Dr. Nancy Simpkins discusses on the News Hub.

Scientists studying why pets appear to protect kids against asthma and allergies say the answer might lie in the world of bacteria that live in the gut.

A new study published Monday found that exposing mice to dust from households where dogs were allowed outdoors significantly changed the composition of gut microbes in the mice.

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Monique Howard holds Waldo as she talks to her son Carter at their Northbrook, Ill., home this fall after his asthma treatment. Exposing mice to dust from households where dogs are allowed outside changed the gut microbes in the mice, researchers have found, noting that the results are likely to apply to people.Associated Press

When the mice were then challenged with some well-known allergy triggers, they had significantly reduced allergic responses compared with mice that had been exposed to dust from homes without dogs or that weren't exposed to any dust.

Having dogs in the house "might inoculate the GI tract" of babies and lead to a more mature immune response that is less sensitive to many allergens, said Susan Lynch, an associate professor in the division of gastroenterology at University of California, San Francisco and senior author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Researchers have identified a possible reason why dogs protect kids against asthma and allergies. Getty Images

"We develop this great diversity of organisms [in the gut] over the first couple of years of life," Dr. Lynch said. The gastrointestinal microbiome is the subject of a growing body of research showing the bacteria play key roles in metabolism, immunity and a variety of other biological processes.

While the study looked at mice, Dr. Lynch said the findings are consistent with previous research based on human observations and are likely to apply to people.

The new study identified one specific species of bacteria, Lactobacillus johnsonii, that was strongly linked to protection against allergic responses. When isolated from the gut of one group of mice and put into the intestinal tract of other mice, "those mice were protected," Dr. Lynch said. "The immune response was significantly reduced in those animals and they looked healthier."

But they weren't as well-protected as mice with a more-diversified microbiome, suggesting other such organisms in the microbiome affect immune response.

Dr. Lynch and her colleagues, including researchers at the University of Michigan; the Henry Ford Health System, Detroit; and the Georgia Regents University, Augusta, are shifting the research to people. The aim is to develop probiotics or "microbial based therapies" that might be used to prevent or treat asthma and allergies, Dr. Lynch said.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

1223-Moon’s about-face comes at long last

A first impression is incredibly influential. You can’t grasp much information about a person just by looking at them, and a first impression often dominates overall opinion of that person for a long time. That’s why I finally felt my impression of Democratic Party’s Moon Jae-in change when I learned that he said at a book publishing ceremony on Dec. 15: “Politics has become my destiny, which I cannot avoid any longer.”

It was in April 2002 when I first met Moon, then a lawyer. I was covering the background of Roh Moo-hyun, who was a promising presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. The lawyer I met at the law firm “Busan” was simple and honest. After listening to his stories about how he and Roh worked as human rights lawyers in the 1980s, I ended the interview by asking, “If Roh becomes president, would you join the Blue House staff?”

I meant it as a compliment, but his answer was firm: “I will never be in politics. There’s no way.”

I could tell he wholeheartedly meant it.

Since the interview, I’ve never met with Moon in person. But his assertion that he would not pursue politics left a deep impression on me. When he was appointed as the Blue House secretary for civil affairs and then chief of staff during the Roh administration, it didn’t occur to me that he had become a politician. Even when he ran for president, seeing him as a politician was awkward to me. It may have all been illusions based on my first impression.

But time can change many things. His latest remarks suggest he is determined to become a professional politician. It is customary for a defeated candidate to stay away from politics for a year or two, but Moon has almost made it clear that he will run for president in 2017. It is as meaningless to forecast his possibility of winning the 2017 presidential election as it is predicting the weather. It is also unclear if he will win the Democrat Party primary. But he deserves credit for building political insight through the last presidential election.

Moon’s recently published memoir on his experience in the last presidential election says his defeat was unfair. If that was the only thing he wanted to claim, there could be no progress. But he presented objective analysis on the faults of the election entities. He mentioned the failure to win votes of the older generation, his passive response on security issues and a lack of an agenda for growth as the tactical causes of his defeat. If he doesn’t repeat those mistakes again, the possibility of a victory for him will increase for sure. So it’s quite regrettable that he personally got involved in the controversy of not accepting the last presidential election outcome. In 2017, it is not President Park Geun-hye he will be competing against.

The author is a deputy political and international news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.


by KIM JUNG-HA

1219-Korean-American writer talks about her debut novel

Korean-American writer Susan Ee worked as a lawyer before turning to fiction writing, but having been a life-long fan of science fiction, fantasy and horror literature, it wasn’t too hard for her to choose the subject for her first book: angels.

“Biblical angels destroyed entire cities and turned people into pillars of salt,” Ee wrote in an email interview with The Korea Herald.

“Yet, we tend to portray them as cute cherubs and sweet guardian angels. If they came down to Earth in force, I figured they would be warriors, and badass street soldiers. It fascinates me to think about what happened then. Would there still be room for humanity? For love? For adventure?”

Her self-published debut novel, titled “Angelfall,” is set in California, just six weeks after “angels of the apocalypse” have destroyed the modern world. Its 17-year-old protagonist Penryn teams up with an injured and wingless angel Raffe to somehow retrieve her little sister, who was taken away by the warrior angels.

“I liked the juxtaposition of old-world angels being in Silicon Valley, home of the modern world’s most cutting-edge technology,” Ee wrote.

Ee said she definitely felt “some magic” while writing the novel, which is a story about a “battle-hardened warrior” being partnered with an “extraordinary victim” of his apocalypse.

“The story took its own natural course,” Ee wrote to her readers in Korea. “I tried not to influence it because that was the best way I knew to make sure that the story had its own heart and soul. If the characters and story didn’t want to go toward a certain direction organically on their own, then I wouldn’t force it.”

Initially released in the U.S. in 2011, the original English-language novel ranked No. 1 on Amazon’s Most Wished For Teen Books the following year, and was nominated for the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards for the year’s Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction. Its film adaptation is currently being created by “The Evil Dead” and “Spider-Man 3” director and producer Sam Raimi. The book’s Korean edition recently hit bookstores in Korea.

Ee was born in Korea and moved to California as a little girl. “I didn’t speak a word of English at the time but now, I don’t remember a word of Korean,” she wrote.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to communicate with non-English-speaking Koreans and I am excited that my book has been translated for you. You could be an old friend from kindergarten or friends of my cousins. It’s a warm and wonderful feeling to connect with you again.”

“Angelfall” has been translated into about 20 different languages. Ee, who loves the the fantasy and SF genre for its “freedom from reality and the fantastic stimulation of the imagination,” said she enjoys reading Haruki Murakami, Stephen King, George RR Martin, Suzanne Collins and J.K. Rowling. And she is certainly excited about the upcoming movie based on her novel.

“I hope the movie will be visually entertaining and emotionally engaging,” Ee wrote. “It would be great fun to see Penryn and Raffe on the big screen!”

1218-Thai mega mall tops Instagram‘s year-end list

Sure, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal and the Grand Canyon have inspired many photographs. But a shopping mall in Bangkok has claimed this year‘s crown as the world’s most photographed location on Instagram.

In its Top 10 year-end list, the photo-sharing app dubbed Siam Paragon as the planet‘s most ``Instagrammed’‘ spot in 2013. It edged out No. 2 Times Square and No. 3 Disneyland in California on the list that also includes New York’s Central Park and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Paris‘ iconic steel tower got bumped off the list. And if Siam Paragon seems like an improbable winner consider this: last year’s most ``Instagrammed‘’ place was again from Thailand _ Bangkok‘s Suvarnabhumi Airport, which this year was at No. 9.

Instagram spokeswoman Tiffany Testo said in an email response that the California-based company does not release data on how many pictures were taken.

The luxury mall in the heart of Bangkok is not exactly a world-famous landmark. Sightseeing visitors to the city typically head first to the majestic Grand Palace or take in the serenity of Buddhist temples like Wat Pho. The mall is a trendy meeting place in Bangkok that claims to have more than 100,000 visitors a day. But why is it so avidly photographed?

``All the celebrities come here and post photos of themselves,’‘ said Sayamon Srichai, a 33-year-old Bangkok office worker walking past Paragon’s tropical Christmas garden with an outstretched arm as she smiled for her smartphone. ``Regular people like me want to walk in their footsteps.‘’

Thailand has long been called the Land of Smiles, but it could also be called the Land of Selfies. Thais love taking pictures of themselves, documenting their daily activities and uploading the images instantly so friends know what they‘re up to. The Southeast Asian country is also one world’s biggest users of social media, which could explain why a building that may not be the most photographed in the world still ends up as the most visible on Instagram.

``Taking Instagram pictures is sort of like a daily ritual,‘’ said Jitlada Mahan, 18, another shopper posing for her phone outside the sprawling five-floor complex. ``This is how I communicate with my friends. Now they know where to find me.‘’

Combine that passion with Thailand‘s love of shopping malls, which offer air-conditioned refuge from the steamy outdoors, and the photo ops are endless.

Many shoppers treat Paragon like their personal catwalk: Visitors pose for pictures everywhere _ at the aquarium, at the cineplex, the bowling alley, the outdoor Christmas garden and inside its hundreds of shops and restaurants.

Diners in the food court pause before eating to photograph their food

``I take photos of food here all the time. Almost every day,’‘ said Jirathip Khajonkulvanich, an 18-year-old student who has 1,035 Instagram followers and has learned how to boost her online popularity. ``When you take photos of food, people press `like’ more than with other pictures.‘’

Jirathip was having lunch with a group of fellow students from Chulalongkorn University, one of the country‘s most prestigious and a short walk away from the mega mall.

Historical sites can’t compete when it comes to uploads, said one of the students, Suthasinee Tilokruanochai, who said her friends upload multiple pictures from every visit to the shopping mall.

``If you go to the Eiffel Tower, you go once. You take a picture and you leave,‘’ said Suthasinee, a 22-year-old engineering student. ``We come here every day after school.‘’ (AP)