The world may be troubled, but the seasons come and go. The air is breezy in the morning and evening, and a warm cup of tea is desired. This time of the year reminds me of the late Yang Ham-ki, who taught me the joy of tea. He was a student at Joongang High School in the 1930s, when schools were closed in protest against imperial Japan. Hyun Sang-yun, the principal of the school at the time who was one of the 48 leaders of the March 1 Independence Movement and later became the founding president of Korea University after the liberation, encouraged him to continue studying, saying, “The country will have a future when elite students are educated.” Yang studied in Japan and became a doctor. He told me a tale from his childhood.
“My grandfather lived in Hamyang, South Gyeongsang, and every spring, he set out with two cows and his servant. I accompanied him. He would first stop at the tea fields in Hadong and purchase tea after checking the process of harvesting and roasting the leaves. Then he would give one of the cows as the price for the tea. Then he would cross the Seomjin River and visit Mr. Heo, an artist who painted Mount Mudeung. He would share the tea, compose poems and write calligraphy for about a month. He would bring back a few paintings, and present Mr. Heo with several boxes of tea and the remaining cow. Then the three of us would walk back home. I can still visualize the servant carrying the paintings and climbing Mount Jiri.”
Fortunately, I got to have three memories related to tea this year. In June, I had a temple stay at Buseok Temple in Seosan, South Chungcheong. The head monk Ju-gyeong offered me a calming green tea. He said, “The first cup is enjoyed for its aroma, the second for the taste, and the third is enjoyed with the heart.” The taste of the tea at the temple became a comforting memory, along with the long twilight in Seosan.
On a rainy day in August, I encountered the silky fermented tea at the Dasan Chodang in Gangjin, South Jeolla. Thanks to the tea offered by the resident instructors who teach tea ceremony, calligraphy, traditional manners and Silhak tradition, I could recover my energy. The trips to Seosan and Gangjin were not planned properly, but I am grateful that I took the journeys, thanks in part to the pleasant memories of the tea.
Recently, a friend offered a chance to enjoy traditional tea made by the venerable Myodeok, a master monk of “the nine rounds of roasting” method. The tea not only stimulated my appetite but also made me happier. I was amazed by the tea, and thought tea may be the tradition, culture and identity of Korea.
Yesterday, I went shopping for holiday gifts for relatives. I was looking for a nice tea set, but the selection was limited. The sales clerk said that coffee’s popularity has overwhelmed the demand for tea. Perhaps, it’s not just the tea but the traditional culture and mental relaxation that are being pushed over. This Chuseok holiday, I want to present my friends and family with traditional tea to enjoy over sweet conversation.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Thursday, September 12, 2013
0913-Surgeons Defend ‘Smile Surgery’
The need to smile all day at work is turning young South Koreans towards a surgical procedure that lifts the corners of their mouths.
Cosmetic surgeons in Seoul say they are seeing a sudden rise in demand for the so-called smile surgery this year among men and women in their 20s and 30s, most of whom are concerned about facing criticism at work because of their expressionless miens.
“Even when you are looking like your normal self, people keep asking you: ‘Why are you frowning?’” said Kwon Taek-keun, a plastic surgeon in practice for 20 years and known in professional circles as the first in the country to popularize the procedure. “That’s a lot of stress.”
- Goldenview plastic & aesthetic surgery clinic
- Before and after “Smile Surgery”
The pictures and video clips that Dr. Kwon’s clinic, Aone Plastic & Aesthetic Surgery, posted online have caused a controversy in recent days, attracting derision from some media reports and the blogosphere, and comparisons to the Joker character from the Batman series.
But the cosmetic surgeons who carry out the procedure argue people, young and old, come psychologically scarred by hurtful remarks about their naturally downturned lips, especially if they have customer-facing roles. Services-industry workers such as flight attendants and consultants frequent the clinics, according to the surgeons.
- Goldenview plastic & aesthetic surgery clinic
- Before and after “Smile Surgery”
Known in the West as “Valentine anguloplasty” after the heart shape of the removed muscle tissues at the lip’s edge, the smile surgery was first developed as a part of an overall anti-aging face lift, Dr. Kwon and other surgeons say. Tightening the drooping face parts didn’t restore the lips to the original upturned position, making an extra procedure necessary, they said.
“It is going against gravity,” said Dr. David Song of Golden View Plastic Surgery. He added that he observes the patient in different poses, such as in a seated position or while lying down, to get the most natural angle for the lips. “We’re restoring the original lip line.”
Though South Koreans are some of the most avid users of plastic surgery in the world – the country has the world’s highest number of cosmetic surgery procedures per capita, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons – the area around the mouth was relatively unexplored, the surgeons say.
The age demographic of clients asking about the smile surgery became substantially younger, the surgeons say, after some celebrities’ smiles began attracting public scrutiny earlier this year. Few have admitted to going under the knife for a perkier expressions.
But some clinics now publicize more than 15 different procedures for the lip and the mouth, including enlargement, reduction and gum exposure reduction. The most common procedure? The smile surgery, according to Dr. Cha Seung-youn at ZIEN Plastic Surgery.
“Your eyes and mouth make up the most of your facial expression,” said Dr. Cha.
With a typical price tag of up to $2,000, the “natural” killer smile doesn’t come cheap, and Dr. Song warns that consistent care will be needed over a three-to-six months of the recovery period.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
0912-Samsung’s ‘smart watch’ gets mixed response
After months of anticipation, snowballing speculation and countless leaked photos online, Samsung Electronics Co. on Wednesday introduced the Galaxy Gear, a wrist-worn device that allows users to check messages and make phone calls without whipping out their smartphones.
The new “smart watch,” in spite its futuristic appeal, brought mixed responses, with many not wholeheartedly impressed with the latest device from the South Korean tech giant.
Among the biggest issue was that it had no phone functions of its own, nor the flexible display that designers’ photos leaked earlier in the year had suggested. While it can receive or send calls, it has to be wirelessly linked to a smartphone to do so, along with other functions.
Some users also took issue with the Gear’s 315mAh battery, which Samsung said would last a day upon charging. Given that the device is basically a watch, battery life was just not enough, they said.
Its limited compatibility also appears to be a stumbling block in its success. As of now, the Gear can only be linked to Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, a large-screen smartphone and a tablet computer both released with the smart watch on Wednesday. Samsung has vowed to update other products of the Galaxy series to work with Galaxy Gear in the future.
The Gear has impressed most with its hardware, which has always been Samsung’s strength. Armed with 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display with 320x320 resolution, a single-core 800MHz Exynos processor and a built-in 1.9-megapixel camera, the watch offers an array of functions to entertain users.
U.S. tech media the Verge said users will be able to enjoy it “if you think of it as a toy and a fun accessory,” but that the problem was in its $299 price tag, which appeared a bit steep for a device that can only work as an accessory to another smart gadget.
With noticeable highs and lows, it remains to be seen whether the Gear will be a game changer in the emerging market of wearable high-tech devices, which research firm Gartner predicted will be a $10 billion industry by 2016.
Samsung’s archi-rival Apple Inc. is also planning to release its smart watch, and Sony and Qualcomm introduced their own watches Wednesday as well.
Samsung Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3 will be released in more than 140 countries in the world on Sept. 25, Samsung said.
By Yoon Min-sik
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
0911-New Radiation Hotspots Found at Fukushima Daiichi
TOKYO—The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex said over the weekend that its struggles to control highly radioactive water had suffered new setbacks.
The company announced the discovery of contaminated spots in new parts of the compound where the water is stored, while radiation levels jumped to highly dangerous levels in another part of that area where readings were previously lower.
The leakage water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been declared a level 3 "serious incident" by regulators. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks with Kathryn Higley, Head of Nuclear Engineering at Oregon State University.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it found on Saturday and Sunday high radiation levels in five locations near storage tanks installed to collect the 400 tons of contaminated water pumped out daily from the radioactive reactor buildings, indicating the possibility of new leaks from the tanks, or some other unexplained difficulties in containing the water.
Three of the measurements came in spots where contamination hadn't previously been detected. The other two hot spots registered sharp increases from previous measurements.
Two of the readings showed extremely high levels of radiation, one as high as 1,800 millisieverts per hour, another nearby at 1,700. Those are among the highest levels reported at the plant since the early days after a tsunami knocked out power on March 11, 2011, triggering one of the world's worst nuclear disasters. Exposure to such a level of radiation would kill a person within four hours, Tepco said.
Fukushima Daiichi: The Battle for Containment
More than two years after suffering one of the world's worst nuclear accidents, the compound remains a challenge for the operator and regulators.
Tepco has increased patrols and radiation readings after finding last month that 300 metric tons, or 79,000 gallons, of highly radioactive water had leaked from a hastily built storage tank. The Japanese government recently stepped in to take a more direct role in stemming the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, which suffered triple meltdowns after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked out backup power at the site.
The continuing reports of new radiation readings at Fukushima Daiichi underscore the difficulties Tepco and the government have in bringing the stricken compound under control.
For nearly two years, they say they have minimized the biggest danger of the crippled complex, the possibility of a new meltdown. But they have fallen behind on dealing with the hundreds of tons of groundwater coming into contact daily with the radioactive reactor buildings, sticking the bulk of it in storage tanks on the compound. Storage tanks hastily set up during plant emergencies have started springing leaks, and Tepco can't replace them with sturdier ones fast enough.
While disclosing the new findings over the weekend, Tepco officials played down the significance of any new risks.
"We're not taking the latest findings lightly and we understand that it's a critical challenge," Tepco spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai said Sunday. "But we're not in a situation where the 300 tons of leaked water [detected so far from the storage tanks] will increase to 600 or 900 tons."
At Fukushima, the Battle Continues
Reuters
![[SB10001424127887324009304579041812407114696]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uboInNMvagnRBUpP26wuZ2JfTcr_dmVuG9HVZl26q5IHyUzEG7cAYe5MfNoBRdOsCwQDnrkjP28RFK3flYlKVuWybZQkYbrIjuVSoRRuhZ0XdT69oNdFfsQVtA9SttoEiybgKBw64b_HkA0D43Drmp=s0-d)
Workers move radiation-contaminated waste at a storage site in Naraha town, which is inside the former no-go zone within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius of the crippled nuclear-power plant. Currently, it is a designated evacuation zone.
Tepco said water levels of tanks nearby the five contaminated spots haven't fallen, suggesting the water hasn't leaked. Mr. Nagai said drain valves connected to the storage tanks are closed and that the tanks are built atop a concrete foundation, which the company says is waterproof, suggesting not much water has leaked outside the complex and into the ocean nearby. In the case of the 79,000-gallon leak, Tepco suspects the water leaked from a tank's drain valve that was open.
Regarding one of the new hot spots reported Saturday, Tepco said Sunday that it appeared to be caused by the fact that one drop of contaminated water is leaking every 90 seconds from a pipe linking two storage tanks. Late Sunday, Tepco said it appeared that the leak had stopped after it tightened bolts.
Reuters
An aerial view of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
As for the sharp rise in the radioactivity at one of the hot spots, Tepco said that while workers measured 1,800 mSv/h at a spot that was around five centimeters from the tank's base, the reading dropped sharply to 15 mSv/h when moving 50 centimeters away from the base, a level considered much less dangerous.
By wearing special gloves or using aluminum sheets, the radiation can be blocked, according to the operator. Still, the level is incredibly high since 100 mSv is the level at which cancer risks are seen as rising and equivalent to double the maximum dosage that workers at the plant are allowed in an entire year.
The continuous water problems have prompted Tepco and the government to continue seeking new solutions. The Japanese government is now studying an expensive, untested proposal to install a subterranean ring of ice to stem the spread of radioactive water. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said the government would now take the lead from Tepco after Japan's nuclear watchdog recently assessed the leak to be a "serious incident" or level 3 on an international nuclear accident scale of zero to seven.
Monday, September 9, 2013
0910-Choking on Pollution, Beijing Eyes Car Congestion Fee
- Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- Cars on an eight-lane expressway on a polluted day in Beijing.
Faced with often catastrophic air pollution, Beijing is considering taking a page out of London’s playbook: a congestion fee for car owners.
A notice published on the Beijing government website (in Chinese) late Monday said the city is mulling a policy to impose a congestion fee for cars as it aims to keep less than 6 million vehicles licensed by the end of 2017, from about 5.35 million now.
“Whoever pollutes the air is responsible to clean it up,” the state-run China Daily on Tuesday quoted Fang Li, spokesman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, as saying. The notice didn’t specify how the fees would be imposed or paid.
Auto emissions account for one-third of PM2.5—particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter—in most congested areas in Beijing.
According to the notice, the congestion fee is part of the city’s broader five-year plan to clean up its heavily polluted air and which also targets power plants, oil refiners, cement makers and restaurants. The municipal government of Beijing pledges to reduce the density of PM2.5 by at least 25% by 2017.
Beijing has already distributed license plates through lotteries to curb car sales. It has also restricted the use of motor vehicles by banning private cars one workday a week based on the last digit of the license plate.
Calls for the government to improve air quality surged this past winter, when swaths of the country were blanketed by rarely seen air-pollution levels. In the capital city, residents stocked up on face masks and air purifiers.
But finding a solution to the city’s serious pollution problems won’t be easy.
“Road pricing is controversial. Getting political consensus for that is harder than implementing ownership controls,” Binyam Reja, the World Bank’s transport sector coordinator for China, said in a recent interview. Nonetheless, London and Singapore have successfully introduced such programs, he said.
An official from the environmental ministry was quoted last month by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying the central government would invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($280 billion) in the coming years in efforts to control air pollution.
In addition to worsening air pollution, Beijing is also combating heavy traffic. The average speed of car traffic in the city is short of 15 kilometers, or 9.3 miles, per hour, about the speed of easy bicycling, data from UBS Securities show.
The notice said Beijing will ban vehicles of outside the city from entering the Sixth Ring Road unless they get permission from the city government. The restriction will take effect in 2014. Currently, cars from other provinces are prohibited from entering the Fifth Ring Road during rush hours.
–Rose Yu
Friday, September 6, 2013
0909-Mathematicians must be storytellers
Scholar stresses need to make subject fun, improve research qualitatively
Hwang Jun-muk is not your typical mathematician. He reasons the most abstract complexities but tries his best to communicate them in fun and exciting ways.
The ability to tell stories is needed among mathematicians in Korea where the subject is still deemed boring and learned by rote, said the nation’s top academic in the field.
Korean students are among the top performers in international mathematics contests, but they lag far behind in terms of interest and passion, which may account for the relatively modest performances by professional Korean researchers in the world.
The trend bodes ill for the nation’s future as mathematics is key to creative thinking and increasingly important as the fundamental base for diverse disciplines including science, engineering, finance, design and even philosophy.
Hwang Jun-muk, professor of mathematics at Korea Institute for Advanced Study (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)
Hwang, 50, calls for a drastic change in the way mathematics is presented to the general public, taught in school and researched in academia.
“When I prepare for a presentation, I think hard to put my ideas into a good, interesting story. If you put all mathematical proofs just in order and present it to your audience, it will be extremely boring,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald.
“Korean mathematicians have good techniques and knowledge and made progress in research, but they are still not good at making a story (in comparison to Western powerhouses for advanced mathematics).”
Hwang began his career at the University of Notre Dame in U.S., and taught at Seoul National University before coming to the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.
In 2006, Hwang became the first Korean invited to speak at the prestigious International Congress of Mathematicians, the world’s biggest gathering of mathematicians.
Seoul will hold the event dubbed the Olympic Games of mathematics in August 2014 as the fourth Asian host after Japan, China and India.
Hwang said it attests to Korea’s progress in the field despite its short history in modern academic research.
Korea was ranked 11th in the world in terms of SCIE publications in mathematics in 2008, more than doubling its publications in less than 10 years.
Hwang pins high hopes on the event for developing mathematics and making it engaging and popular in the country.
“Next year, we’ll have six Korean invited speakers at the congress. It’s already something. And I believe this event will be a stepping stone to move on to the world’s top level,” he said.
But the nation still has a long way to go to join the world’s top countries in the discipline.
“In order to make to the top level, the country needs to develop not only quantitatively, but qualitatively as well,” he said.
A key stumbling block is the current educational curriculum, which has traditionally emphasized only problem-solving techniques. Also, many Korean mathematicians do not learn how to present their ideas.
Universities’ assessment of professors and researchers also needs changing.
“Most colleges and universities here only see how many papers professors have published in journals, not the quality of his or her research.”
He pointed out that the evaluation system based on quantity rather than quality has adverse effects on Korean academia.
“Researchers write papers not because they have found something to write, but because they have to write something to keep their positions. And doctorate students tend to choose a relatively easy subject in order to obtain a doctorate by publishing a paper in a journal,” he said.
In 2006, Hwang received the Korean Award for Supreme Scientist by solving complex rigidity problems in complex geometry.
To speak simply, it is for finding proofs of nonexistence, he said. “You can say my research is useless, because I prove something that is not real. But by proving such nonexistence, it can help reduce risks of others going the wrong way,” he explained.
A good mathematician requires not only techniques but also creativity.
He perhaps inherited his creative side from his parents. His father is traditional Korean music composer and “gayageum” master Hwang Byung-ki and his mother is one of the country’s leading authors, Han Mal-sook.
“Thanks to my parents, I read a lot of books at home in my childhood. That may help me now when I present my ideas to others.”
“I had a chance to talk to high school students, and I told them read novels as well as watch movies a lot to practice and improve their skills to present their ideas well in a simple and interesting way. It’s important to be a good mathematician,” he added.
The most difficult thing about a mathematician, he said, is that it can be months or years before one finds an idea to solve questions.
Good ideas usually come up while strolling or taking a trip and he tries to meet as many people as possible to hear their ideas.
“I always think not one, but many questions and think several things at the same time. It helps me keep working.”
Profile
Hwang Jun-muk
Hwang is professor of that school of mathematics at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study in Seoul. He previously served as assistant professor at Seoul National University from 1996-1999.
Hwang works on algebraic geometry and complex geometry. He received a Korean award for supreme scientist in 2006.
He graduated from Seoul National University with a bachelor’s degree in physics, and earned his doctorate degree in mathematics at Harvard University.
By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
0906-[Editorial] Low-priced electricity
Officials of Korea Electric Power Corp. monitoring the daily peak-time power usage should be breathing a sigh of relief as the heat wave begins to recede. Yet, they cannot afford to lower their guard, because the possibility of rolling blackouts cannot be ruled out during the next several weeks.
On the contrary, blackouts can strike the nation during off-season maintenance, as they did in September 2011. An unseasonable heat wave, when put together with a breakdown at one or two power plants, is a good recipe for a blackout.
Moreover, a shortage in power supply is not a passing problem but a chronic one. Given that power plants cannot be built in a short period of time, the nation will have to brace itself for blackouts next summer. Then, energy conservation will be stressed again.
But an appeal to the public for conservation alone cannot be a solution to the chronic power shortage. Instead, the nation will have to deal with the root cause of the problem ― the provision of electricity at an unreasonably low cost.
The ratio of electricity rates to production costs rose from 87 percent to 90.9 percent when KEPCO raised the rates 4.5 percent on average last December. In other words, KEPCO was still providing electricity well below cost despite the rate increase.
It raised the rates another 4.9 percent on Aug. 6. This time, the power company did not disclose the post-increase ratio of electricity rates to production cost. No matter where the ratio stood, the provision of electricity at unjustifiably low prices was undeniable. Held accountable were previous administrations, which pushed down electricity rates to curry favor with consumers on one hand and help boost exports on the other.
More often than not, the previous administrations, concerned about consumer inflation, had refused KEPCO’s requests to raise electricity rates for individual homes. Rate increases, when permitted, had been kept to the minimum.
Rates for companies had been pushed down for a different reason ― to help them maintain a competitive edge against their foreign rivals. According to a recent news report, the cost of electricity for industrial use in Korea was 37 percent of that in Japan and 41 percent of that in Germany.
This industrial policy has backfired, given that the industrial use of electricity in the nation shot up 35 percent from 2002 to 2009, compared with a mere 4 percent increase on average among OECD members.
Against this backdrop, the incumbent administration has recently agreed with the ruling Saenuri Party to raise rates both for homes and companies. But corporations are misguidedly putting up organized opposition to the proposed rate increases. They should be thankful for the favors they have received, instead of grumbling about the move to raise rates in October.
On the contrary, blackouts can strike the nation during off-season maintenance, as they did in September 2011. An unseasonable heat wave, when put together with a breakdown at one or two power plants, is a good recipe for a blackout.
Moreover, a shortage in power supply is not a passing problem but a chronic one. Given that power plants cannot be built in a short period of time, the nation will have to brace itself for blackouts next summer. Then, energy conservation will be stressed again.
But an appeal to the public for conservation alone cannot be a solution to the chronic power shortage. Instead, the nation will have to deal with the root cause of the problem ― the provision of electricity at an unreasonably low cost.
The ratio of electricity rates to production costs rose from 87 percent to 90.9 percent when KEPCO raised the rates 4.5 percent on average last December. In other words, KEPCO was still providing electricity well below cost despite the rate increase.
It raised the rates another 4.9 percent on Aug. 6. This time, the power company did not disclose the post-increase ratio of electricity rates to production cost. No matter where the ratio stood, the provision of electricity at unjustifiably low prices was undeniable. Held accountable were previous administrations, which pushed down electricity rates to curry favor with consumers on one hand and help boost exports on the other.
More often than not, the previous administrations, concerned about consumer inflation, had refused KEPCO’s requests to raise electricity rates for individual homes. Rate increases, when permitted, had been kept to the minimum.
Rates for companies had been pushed down for a different reason ― to help them maintain a competitive edge against their foreign rivals. According to a recent news report, the cost of electricity for industrial use in Korea was 37 percent of that in Japan and 41 percent of that in Germany.
This industrial policy has backfired, given that the industrial use of electricity in the nation shot up 35 percent from 2002 to 2009, compared with a mere 4 percent increase on average among OECD members.
Against this backdrop, the incumbent administration has recently agreed with the ruling Saenuri Party to raise rates both for homes and companies. But corporations are misguidedly putting up organized opposition to the proposed rate increases. They should be thankful for the favors they have received, instead of grumbling about the move to raise rates in October.
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