QR Codes At Seoul Bus Stops

It wasn't too long ago that I learnt a new word ( OK - it's not the first time I've admitted I'm a techie dinosaur) and now I read that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has introduced QR Codes at  its bus stops in Seoul City. Very  impressive.

Real-time information for bus routes now available at the fingertips of Smartphone owners in Seoul

Quick Response Codes, i.e. two-dimensional matrix barcodes, were developed by a subsidiary of Toyota called Denso-Wave way back in 1994. QR codes, now commonplace in Japan, are quickly becoming part of the arsenal of marketing managers who want their clients' business cards,  advertisements and billboards to talk directly to their customers' mobile phones.

QR code on the right side of the conventional bar code - snapped at a  Japanese supermarket

So with the QR Code reader application in your mobile phone, all you need to do is to snap a photo of the QR code at a bus-stop in Gangnam, for instance, and all the relevant information pertaining to the bus services that ply that route will be instantly available on your smartphone. No  more painstaking keying in or noting down the bus schedules.

That's good news for Smartphone owners who are living or working in or simply visiting Seoul.  The application is available in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese ( both in the simplified versions for those from the PRC and the traditional script for the Taiwanese).

Remind me to buy a smartphone before I make my next visit to Seoul.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=257573
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid
http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588

Clueless About Valentine's Day Gifts?

Korean strawberries are sold in the local markets already so I'm wondering how long it will be before these  find their way onto supermarket shelves in my country. It's not clear whether a Korean or an Australian first developed heart-shaped strawberries, like the Japanese who pioneered cube-shaped watermelons but I bet the strawberries are more likely to sell better than the watermelons - they're cuter, have more commercial appeal and easier to transport and kinder on the postman who'd have to deliver these to scores of delighted girlfriends around the world.

Caption From Source: Workers wrap heart-shaped strawberries at a farm in Gangjin, South Jeolla, yesterday. The heart-shaped strawberries have been getting a huge response from consumers. They are being sold on the Internet at http://cafe.naver.com/icigo/. [NEWSIS]


source:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2931533
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/01/18/148251_horticulture.html

Sliding Down The Frozen Floodgates Of Goesam Dam

Just kidding - it's the same ai-ee( 아이)  in this ajumma who had the impulse to go toboganning down tumuli in Gyeongju. Am NOT recommending that people take their sleds to go sliding down the frozen waters off Goesan Dam.

Caption from source: Water flowing from the floodgate of the Goesan Dam in North Chungcheong Province froze over on Wednesday with freezing temperatures continuing to grip the nation for several days. The dam was designed and built using solely domestic technology. (Yonhap News)
 
source:
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_photo_detail.htm?No=15937

Sometime Firefighter, Sometime Icefighter

Do the firefighters in Korea expect this in their job description? Guess in a 24/ 7 world and in a temperate zone country, one has to expect the unexpected. Firefighters in Seoul and other cities around Korea are likely to be pretty busy hacking down icicles this winter. So thanks, gentlemen for risking life and limb and suffering the chill.

Coming from a country which only has one season, it's easy to overlook winter hazards like falling icicles. Wouldn't want to be passing by when one of these decides to drop on the heads of passers-by. Have to remind myself to avoid buildings with frosty facades - fascinating but diabolical like the White Witch of Narnia.

Caption from source: Rescue officers of a fire station are removing a huge icicle after a water tank of a residential building in Changcheondong, Seoul froze and burst in freezing temperatures.  (Yonhap News)


source:
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_photo_detail.htm?No=15928&current_page=

BRRRR....Winter Bites Back

The unusually cold temperatures continue into January, plunging Korea into a deep freeze. The morning of January 16th was the coldest of the season, setting new lows in the recent cold snap.

From the KBS website:

" According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the Sunday morning lows came to -17.8 degrees Celsius in Seoul, -24.3 degrees in Cheolwon, -23.2 degrees in Jecheon, -22.5 degrees in Chuncheon, -16.2 degrees in Cheonan, -16.1 degrees in Daejeon, -13.1 degrees in Daegu, -11.7 degrees in Gwangju, and -12.8 degrees in Busan."

For the first time in a long time, people are actually able to walk on the frozen Nakdong River in Busan. That, so far, has been the only plus point of the unusually firigid weather in the southern part of the Korean peninsular which is more accustomed to milder winters.

People living in Gimhae, Gyeongsang-namdo faced dry taps when a water mains burst and in Busan, traffic came to a standstill for three hours when another pipe burst near an elevated highway and the gushing water froze three of seven lanes. Then again, many motorists couldn't even make it to the highways as their car engines stalled.

Local fishermen were caught off-guard when their boats were blocked by ice in the ports. According to one fisherman, he "had never seen frozen seawater in Busan in [his] entire life"

Caption from source: Cold snap continues: Residents walk past a line of snow-covered cars at an apartment complex in Nam-gu, Ulsan, Tuesday. Heavy snow hit Pohang, Ulsan and other cities of North Gyeongsang Province, snarling traffic in the region, with Pohang receiving a record 28.7 centimeters of snow. The weather office forecasts the freezing weather will continue across the nation throughout this week./ Yonhap

Caption from source: Icicles hang off an apartment in Seo District, Gwangju, yesterday, caused by a burst water pipe on the building’s exterior from the recent spell of extremely cold weather. [YONHAP]

BTW, a reminder to pedestrians on sidewalks, beware of falling icicles and black ice!

Caption from source: Water pipes rupture: Residents line up to receive tap water from a fire truck in Dong-gu, Busan, Monday as the ongoing cold spell froze and ruptured water pipes in countless households in the southern port city. The temperature there dipped to minus 12.8 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the lowest in 96 years./ Korea Times photo by Lee Seong-deok

When temperatures plunge, there's a chance the water supplies as well as power supplies will be affected while costs of utilities will soar. Power-conserving measures are already in place and civic buildings have been instructed to turn off their heating sources for certain periods to avoid a power shortage crisis. Employees have been encouraged to wear long johns or naeboks to their places of work.

Caption from source:  White-tailed sea eagles fight at Gyeongpo Lake in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, Tuesday. Wild birds are believed to have difficulty finding prey these days as lakes and rivers are frozen amid the cold weather.

Even the birds aren't spared. As if H1N1 isn't enough, the wild birds now have to struggle to survive as food supplies become scarce. Any chance some kind councilmen are going to do what they did last year to feed the wild critters?


Notes from KBS - for those who want a little more on the changing climate:

"The typical weather pattern in Korean winter is three days of cold followed by four days of warmth. That means a cold spell usually dissipates after three days. This year’s winter feels particularly harsh not only because of the low temperatures, but also because of the lack of the temporary thaw. Snowstorms make matters worse, giving the impression that the winter freeze is not letting up. Thaws have not lasted long, reaching average temperatures for only half a day, two days at the most. In Seoul morning lows fell to minus 10 degrees or lower almost every day in 2011. At this rate Seoul’s average temperature in January will set the lowest record in 30 years. As of January 16th, a whopping eight days saw daily lows below negative 10 degrees, pulling down the average low temperature to below the minus-10-degree mark.

So why is the latest cold snap so relentless? The Korea Meteorological Administration attributes it to unusually high temperatures in the North Pole. In general the temperatures in the Arctic region remain very low. The colder the temperature in the North Pole, the faster the atmospheric air rotates, which traps the cold within a whirlpool of cold air and prevents it from spreading into the northern hemisphere. But this year’s unseasonably warm winter in the Arctic has slowed down the air circulation and has allowed the cold air to move south toward the middle latitude regions of the northern hemisphere. Some meteorological experts also claim that severe snowfalls in Siberia and the southeastern part of Mongolia have reflected energy out into the atmosphere and further cooled down the air in the upper stratosphere. The weather forecasters say that a large expanse of minus 40-degree air is hovering above the Korean Peninsula. It is ironic that the effects of global warming have thawed the North Pole, thus causing the extreme cold spell. Of course not all the blame for the extreme cold is directly attributed to global warming, but it is undeniable that changes in the climate are causing anomalies in weather patterns. "

sources:
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_zoom_detail.htm?No=6077
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/17/2011011700459.html
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/17/2011011700354.html
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2931075
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/01/115_79835.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/01/115_79774.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/01/115_79525.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/0
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2931118
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2931126
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/n_feature/2010/12/29/14/4901000000AEN20101229007800315F.HTML



Looking For Lepus Coreanus and Giant German Rabbits In Korea

As the Year of the Rabbit is around the corner, I’ve been wondering if Korea has its own native species of rabbit. Apparently it does, and the Korean hare, a.k.a. Lepus coreanus is probably among the 37,000 species on the list of indigenous wildlife species in Korea. This list was recently completed by the National Institute of Wildlife Resources and the number is expected to grow in future with more international validations.

Spotting the Korean hare may be easier than spotting the native tiger which is already extinct in the country. If you’re a fan of the Discovery Channel or into wildlife photography, keep your eyes open for it in its favourite foraging sites which could be in dense mountain forests or farmlands.

And if you’re visiting North Korea, you’d be even more hard-pressed to find the giant German rabbits imported by some North Korean officials way back in 2007. Some international papers like the Der Spiegel made much ado about the potential of breeding these enormous bunnies for their meat.

The breeder, Karl Szmonlinsky first caught the eye of the North Koreans when he won a prize for his “German grey giants” and they persuaded him to part with at least ten rabbits sold at around 80 euros or $104 per rabbit ( a pretty hefty discount, it seemed as the normal going rate for each rabbit was 200 t0 250 euros) and there was even talk of Szmonlinsky making a trip to Pyongyang to share his expertise with the North Koreans who were supposedly going to breed the rabbits to ease the food shortages there.

However, Karl Szmonlinsky became suspicious when the North Koreans later told him the trip was off, they weren’t issuing him a visa as promised as they didn’t need his technical advice anymore. He then shared with reporters his fear that the rabbits were no longer hopping around on a breeding farm or even a petting zoo but had made their last appearance on the dining tables of top officials.

The story doesn’t quite end there. The mystery of the missing rabbits in North Korea was raised again more recently by British artist Jess Flood-Padlock. By featuring images of those German giants in her solo exhibition “Gangsta’s Paradise” at the Hayward Gallery, she questioned the motives of those involved in the transaction.

Five hundred years from now, a group of archeologists may uncover some strange bones buried on the outskirts of Pyeongyang and wonder where they come from. The mystery may continue.

sources:
http://www.mammalwatching.com/Palearctic/palearctkorea.html
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Sc_detail.htm?No=78665
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Hare
http://san.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2008/10/31/2008103100564.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,475218,00.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,458863,00.html
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0%2C2144%2C2307544%2C00.html
http://www.artreview.com/forum/topics/jess-floodpaddock-gangsta
http://www9.artslant.com/global/artists/show/169946-jess-flood-paddock

Happily for one German giant, Herman,  it wasn't sold to the North Koreans. Here it poses with its owner, Hans Wagner.

Going Ga-Ga Over Rabbits

I've got to hand it to the enterprising folks of Everland - they go to such lengths to attract visitors with new gimmicks and seeing as the imminent New Year celebrations for Koreans, Chinese and Japanese will be for the Year of the Rabbit (interestingly the Vietnamese will observe the Year of the Cat), they've trained some bunnies to race around a circuit and never mind what animal rights activists would say, I have to admit they look kinda cute doing the hippity-hop over the hurdles.




Uploaded by itnquirky.

Now I'm wondering if there's a permanent staff worker in Yongin, Everland who is paid to design special costumes for its animal employees ( see Penguins dressed up for the 2010 World Cup) and another who has the specific job of dressing these critters. They must be glad the Year of the Tiger is almost over!

Even on the beaches, Koreans are paying tribute to the year of the Hare. Question is what are these two pounding? 

Caption from source: Handheld heaters in the shape of dolls on sale at Lotte Mart’s Seoul Station branch yesterday. The heaters, which sell for 5,000 ($4.40) and 6,700 won, are made of high-end velour, which preserves heat. The retailer said they’re much safer than hand warmers that generate heat from chemical reactions. [YONHAP]

If I were in Korea, I'd be more likely to spend my won on the rabbit-shaped handheld heating pads than on the more classy and less practical porcelain calendar plates with engravings of bunnies, given the frigid temperatures in the country.

Caption from source: Staff of a ceramics company pose with a plate engraved with a 2011 calendar ahead of the Year of the Rabbit in Seoul on Monday. /Newsis


sources:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930640

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgcxgx_south-koreans-go-hopping-mad_news

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/10/19/2010101900386.html

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930640

Missing An Appointment With The First Sunrise Of 2011

The Korean way of celebrating the new year appeals to me than partying on the streets and watching fireworks before trooping home bleary-eyed before dawn.  You can't beat the symbolism of the custom, observed not just in Korea but also in Japan and Taiwan - saying hello to the first sunrise strikes me as a more meaningful way to welcome the new year - first light, new hope, rebirth and so on.

To enjoy the growing warmth of the sun after the long hours of waiting in the chilly winter and to witness the lengthening streaks of sunlight colouring the sky is probably more inspiring than clinking beer cans, listening to pop stars in an open-air concert and counting down past midnight with a few thousand strangers. ( Why do I assume that there aren't any beer cans, pop concerts or fireworks in this beach scenario?  I know I shouldn't but I'd like to.)

Oops - someone let the  ball slip at Homigot

Even better to greet the sun from the top of a mountain or hilltop.  It's like a celebration of a mini-victory over oneself and a promise of better things to come - the resolve to conquer the peak and one's natural inclination to sloth and comfy couch PLUS the reward in spectacular views of the sun's rays spreading over the horizon and the valleys.



As I said, it all sounds very nice. In theory. Truth is, I'm more likely to and indeed I did spend this most recent New Year's Eve like a party-pooper indoors and was fully asleep even as dawn was breaking. But then I read about the cancellation or postponement of various sunrise festivals, no thanks to the fear of foot-and-mouth disease in three G provinces namely Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeonggi-do, and Gangwon-do. And then I came across an article about some Taiwanese who were thwarted by cloud cover and so for various reasons, different people couldn't keep their date with the sun at the start of 2011.

And I'm sorry for all of us.  I've waited in expectation of briliant sunrises and been disappointed by no-shows or dismal displays but if I allow myself to sleep in and not bother to make the occasional rendezvous, I'd be letting myself down in more ways than one.

Gotcha!

So this weekend, I'm going to try ( VERY HARD) to wake up early and find myself a spot on a hill to keep a belated appointment with the sun as a way of seeking inspiration, of affirming some promises to myself and of reminding myself that resolutions are meant to be kept, and not broken within the first month.
And if THAT doesn't work out, well - thank goodness for Seollal.

See also:
Waiting for the Sunrise, Naksan-sa

sources:
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid=1154775

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=293277

Did Those Who Welcomed The First Sunrise of 2011 Leave their Rubbish On The Beach?

Seeing a photo of the piles of rubbish left behind by exuberant but thoughtless or apathetic people who were out on the streets of my hometown left me wondering:  Did  the Koreans who welcomed the first sunrise of 2011 leave their paper cups of coffee, plastic bottles or party hats all over the beach or did most do the responsible thing and dispose of their rubbish properly?

I'd like to think that if you're going to celebrate the new year by communing with nature, you're more likely to take care of the environment and not leave your mess to be cleaned up by foreign labourers. But then that may be naive of me. If only we took more seriously more concrete yardsticks to measure how advanced a society is - instead of looking at the GDP, how about seeing how much or little waste is left behind by party-goers?

If any of you were there on the beaches and hilltops in Korea before dawn, could you share with me what you saw on the ground when it was lit up by the first rays of the sun?


sources:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/01/2011010100325.html
http://kl-nite.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-new-year-celebration-area-kl.html

Happy New Year and What's Your Gyeolsim?

Oops! Forgot to note down the source of this cartoon from one of the Korean websites. Here's wishing all a Happier, Healthier and Hope-fuller 2011. It's funny though why some writers on websites from Korea are already calling it the Year of the Rabbit when Seollal hasn't even happened yet. Just hope that I don't have to rethink or reformulate my resolutions come February.

Hope I will spend more time learning new words in Korean - with the help of the Korean Times. See below.

However much I hope to be indebted to the Korean Times for any progress in my language learning, I still feel somewhat annoyed by this other cartoon from the same website. How would you feel if Mother Earth was depicted in hot pursuit of a prettier than a flower boy with a six pack instead of a toothless, walking stick wielding grandpa?

sources:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/01/195_79063.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/02/273_58652.html