Online Gaming Companies Find Loopholes in Underage Ban

It is estimated that almost two million South Koreans have an internet addiction.  Funding for treatment programs for people with internet (and specifically online gaming) addiction has been increased in the last three years.  However, the government is also trying to legislate preventative measures to reduce the risk of developing internet addiction.

Last December, the government announced that there would be a midnight to 6am ban coming for underage gamers.  This did not make the online video game industry in Korea happy, and they are already finding way around it so that they can keep their underage users in the PC Bangs and gaming between the hours of midnight and 6am.

Source:

Online game operators are likely to bypass a shutdown system for underage gamers proposed by ruling and opposition parties simply by changing registration rules. The shutdown aims to prevent youngsters under 16 from playing online games from midnight to 6 a.m.

The Legislation and Judiciary Committee in the National Assembly on April 21 unanimously passed a revision to relevant laws that introduces the shutdown, and a plenary session is to ratify it later this week. It will go into effect as early as October. 

But Korea's largest online game company NCsoft has already changed its registration procedure for some games it deems "for all ages," so now only an e-mail address is needed instead of the resident registration number previously required. Six of its 20 games fall into the category.

Many e-mail service providers do not require age verification, so it is impossible to know how old users are.

NCsoft's decision is likely to be copied by smaller firms that are fiercely opposed to the shutdown. An official at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said, "We have not discussed ways to prevent youngsters from playing games late at night. Hopefully, we will have some measures in place before the revision comes into effect in October."

NCsoft in a statement denied it simplified the registration process to beat the shutdown but said its aim was to stop the unnecessary collection of private data. Ironically, the government has been prevailing on Korean online businesses to scrap the requirement for resident registration numbers, mainly to prevent ID theft.

It is the familiar debate of what a government should be doing to protect children and what parents should be doing to protect their children.  I really do not see this ban as a huge infringement on the personal freedoms and liberties of children.  I think they should really be sleeping instead of earning meaningless points in an imaginary world that contributes nothing meaningful to their real lives.

KPOP Korral - [Kahi] - Come Back, You Bad Person

Kahi (박가희) is the leader of the KPOP girl group After School.  However, Pledis Entertainment has released her first solo album this year, and she has confirmed that she has not left her group.  Kind of silly that a leader of a group would pursue a solo career... not being a very good leader I think.

Kahi has a rather interesting life story.  She grew up in a small village in gangwondo and received no formal training or support from her parents during her childhood to pursue singing and dance.  She dropped out of university when she was 18 to move to Seoul to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer and her father disowned her and did not speak to her for seven years.  I think he got over it once she started making real money though...

North Korea Holds its Largest Magic Show Ever

Seriously?  In a country where six million people are on the verge of starving to death, a top priority of the regime includes a giant magic show.

ABC has the story:

Amid a burst of fireworks and a haze of smoke, a burly showman in a white sequined suit and gold lame cape appears with a flourish. Over the next 45 minutes, he appears to make a Pyongyang bus levitate and wriggles free from a box sent crashing to the stage through a ring of fire. 

This is magic North Korean-style performed in a show touted as the country's biggest ever and mounted in a city where good, old-fashioned illusion, a dancing bear and a dose of slapstick comedy can still command the biggest crowds of the year. 

The country's love for magic is a legacy of the circus traditions they inherited decades ago, during an era of Soviet influence. 

North Korean founder Kim Il Sung ordered the creation of the Pyongyang Circus in 1952 in the middle of the Korean War. The tradition of highly technical stagecraft — including the Arirang mass games, where 100,000 performers move in sync in a feat that has come to embody North Korean discipline and regimentation — still dazzles in a country where high-tech entertainment is scarce. [...]

You can follow the link to read more.  I guess I am not surprised the regime would have a magic show be such a big deal, last month I saw the below video and this passes for pre-school education.  I wonder how many six year old children were brutalized and discarded before they found the perfect five to play this silly melody in perfect unison.  This video would be impressive if children in North Korea led happy and healthy existences, but it is all propaganda all the time and these kids and their families are slaves to the regime.

EYK's Box Folding Video and Waygook Home Tour

This is possibly one of my favorite videos ever posted by Simon and Martina from Eat Your Kimchi and all that is is just a guy boxing some funny junk.  Simon decided to video tape the guy boxing up a prize for a blog viewer and it is fascinating to watch.

They also gave a tour of their home where they film most of their videos. I was very surprised at how small it was, but they obviously make the most of the space they have.  It is awesome of them to be so open and willing to show us everything they have.

Cool HD Time Lapse Video

I love this kind of stuff.  The footage is by Terje Sorgjerd.  Just stunning to look at...

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

and...

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

KPOP Korral - [Jewelry] - Back it Up

Jewelry (쥬얼리) is a four member girl group and holds the honor of being the longest running currently active KPOP group in Korea.  The group has existed with different members for almost ten years.  The group announced their disbandment in 2010, but apparently they are back again with two new members.  Their current members include Baby J (베이비 제이), Eunjung (은정), Yewon (예원), and Semi (세미).  The group has seven former members that are no longer associated with the group and none of the original members are still in it.

Their latest release is Back it Up.  I'm a little surprised by their pro-American and British outfits.  Very colorful...

Jewelry was one of the biggest groups in Korea when I first arrived in early 2009.  Here was their hit at the time and the kids went crazy over it.  Two of the members in the video below are currently solo artists now.

Macho Man Randy Savage in North Korea

I came across a hilarious blog of someone just photo shopping in Macho Man Randy Savage into famous pictures.  I came across this one and had a good laugh.

Bizarrely enough, this is not the first time someone has had the humourous idea of putting Kim Jong Il and Macho Man Randy Savage together.

Here are some of my other favorite photos from the blog.

.

.

.

.

Rain Ranked #1 Again on Time 100 Poll

And my fifth graders tell me that Rain isn't really popular anymore... I guess Korean netizens did this as a show of force and ganged up on this online poll to make Korea look important in the world.

Additionally, since a Taiwanese actor came in second on the poll, there was probably a big online rivalry happening to win this that went way over everyone else's head.

Source Times News Feed:

He's done it again, and we're not surprised. 

Korean pop star Rain has won the top spot in the TIME 100 poll, in which we asked readers to rank who they think are the world's most influential people. By the time the poll closed Thursday night, he had garnered 406,252 "influential" votes and 33,813 "not influential" votes. This is certainly not the first time Rain has taken the top spot; he won in 2006 and 2007, and placed in second in 2008. Coming in a distant second this year was Jay Chou, Taiwanese star of The Green Hornet, getting 207,239 "influential" votes. Rounding out the top three was Britain's Got Talent phenomenon Susan Boyle with 151,324 "influential" votes. The top-ranking American on the list was Beyoncé, coming in fifth.

Second place finisher, Jay Chou, was the runner-up and only got about half as many votes... So, those crazy Korean netizens went a little over-kill.

Source:

Rain garnered 406,252 votes in the online poll to rank No. 1 among 203 candidates, Time magazine said on Friday. He also previously placed first in 2006 and 2007, and in 2006 he was shortlisted to the final Time 100 and walked down the red carpet for the ceremony.

Taiwanese actor and singer Jay Chou was the runner-up on the latest list with 207,239 votes, followed by "Britain's Got Talent" sensation Susan Boyle. U.S. pop star Beyonce came in sixth, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 11th. U.S. President Barack Obama ranked 46th.

Time is preparing its final 100 list based on the online poll and its own selection process. Last year, Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na was named to the final 100.

And NMA TV has it covered...

Here is the first time I ever heard of Rain, when Stephen Colbert called him out for beating him in the Time 100 poll in 2006.

Chinese Exchange Student Murdered While Boyfriend Watches Attack on Webcam

This is highly disturbing... I also want to mention this happened in Canada, and not the United States.  I'm sure given the limited facts I have, this guy will be found shortly.

Source:

Fron CNN:

A 23-year-old exchange student, attacked in her Toronto apartment while a friend in China watched via computer webcam, was found dead there hours later, police say. 

Toronto Police on Monday identified the student as Qian (Necole) Liu of Beijing. She was talking early Friday morning to a male friend from home when a man allegedly knocked on her door, asking to use her phone, police said in a news release. 

The online witness said he saw Liu and the unknown man struggle for a time before the attacker turned off her laptop, the news release said. 

The friend in China then started a desperate bid to find out what happened, CNN-affiliate CTV reported. 

Ten hours later, police arrived at the basement apartment to find Liu's body, naked from the waist down. Her laptop was missing. 

"It was obvious that she had been dead for some period of time," Detective Sgt. Frank Skubic said in the news release. 

The cause of the death is yet to be determined, the news release said. There were no obvious signs of sexual assault or severe physical trauma, and police are awaiting toxicology reports, it said. 

Police are unsure whether Liu, an exchange student at York University, knew the man. The attacker was described as white, age 20 to 30, 6 feet tall, weighing 175 to 200 pounds, with a muscular build and medium-length brown hair, and wearing a blue crew-neck T-shirt. [...]

Oh my...

Korean Public School Cafeteria Talk

I do not generally like to disparage my school or coworkers (because they are amazing), but I thought there were some good lines in this latest text to type video by a disgruntled NEST lampooning Korean absurdities.

One of my top complaints of working in a Korean public school are mandatory school events that require me to stay past 4:30 and nobody tells me about them about them until the day of.  Sometimes it is a volleyball game.  Sometimes it is a staff retreat.  Sometimes it is a welcome dinner.  Regardless, I can NEVER get my coteachers to tell me when these will happen until the day they happen.

Now, I am not married, but I have a girlfriend and friends and frequently do have plans in my evenings.  I do not have kids, but someday I might and many of my coworkers do.  How can it be that "Korean culture" includes planning staff dinners and retreats that require mandatory unpaid overtime and nobody is allowed to know about them until the day of?  It is infuriating...