Tag: Korea

It looks like this is a pretty impressive robot that KAIST won this recent competition with:

On Saturday, Team KAIST from South Korea emerged as the winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) in Pomona, Calif., after its robot, an adaptable humanoid called DRC-HUBO, beat out 22 other robots from five different countries, winning the US $2 million grand prize. The robot’s “transformer” ability to switch back and forth from a walking biped to a wheeled machine proved key to its victory. Many robots lost their balance and collapsed to the ground while trying to perform tasks such as opening a door or operating a drill. Not DRC-HUBO. Its unique design allowed it to perform tasks faster and, perhaps more important, stay on its feet—and wheels.

“Bipedal walking [for robots] is not very stable yet,” Jun Ho Oh, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who led the KAIST Team, told IEEE Spectrum. “One single thing goes wrong, the result is catastrophic.” He said a robot with a humanoid form has advantages when operating in a human environment, but he wanted to find a design that could minimize the risk of falls. “I thought about different things, and the simplest was wheels on the knees.”

DARPA decided to organize the DRC after the Fukushima accident in Japan, hoping to advance the field of disaster robotics. The DRC Finals called for teams of semi-autonomous robots and human operators to work together in a simulated disaster environment. The robots created by universities and companies for the competition varied widely in size and shape and include legged robots, wheeled robots, and hybrids as well.  [IEEE.org]

You can read more at the link, but basically KAIST won the competition because this robot completed all the tasks that the organizers outlined for this competition.

It will be interesting to see what kind of turn out this Christian group has against the queer festival:

Non-affirming Christian groups are circulating a text message requesting support for a protest against the opening ceremony of the Queer Cultural Festival to show the world how “moral” Korea is.

“By filling Chunggye Square and the pedestrian way with protestors we show our Korean morals to the world,“ Professor Gil Won-Pyoung said in text message that he is encouraging people to circulate on Kakao, Facebook and other social media channels.

“We have a duty as Koreans to do our utmost best to show our morals, as Korea is the only country to prevent the trending flow of homosexuality,” he said.

The Korea Observer translated this message in full for our readers:  [Korea Observer]

You can read the message at the link, but this guy is obviously delusional if he thinks Korea is stopping the trend of homosexuality.  The openness of gays in Korea has shifted dramatically for the positive in the past two decades.  Does this guy want Korea to be like Iran that hangs gays?  If the participants are not bothering anyone with their festival then this Christian group should show some respect and just leave them alone.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/608462820028641282

Members of South Korea’s first underwater maritime police unit are shown in the photo provided by the Korea Coast Guard Academy on June 5, 2015. The unit’s mission is to investigate marine incidents, including ship collisions and sinkings, by securing evidence that is underwater. (Yonhap)

Here is an interesting chart that shows where the majority of the MERS infection are coming from in Korea:

A major worry about the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak is coming true: The disease is spreading to other regions as people who visited Samsung Medical Center move from Seoul not knowing that they’re infected.

Samsung, one of Korea’s biggest and best hospitals, accepts patients from every corner of the country. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is worrying about possible fourth-generation infections, although none have been reported.

The health authority announced nine more MERS cases on Tuesday, raising the total number of patients to 95, and reported one more fatality, Patient No. 47, the country’s seventh victim. Nine MERS patients, Patients No. 12, 23, 24, 28, 42, 58, 74, 81 and 83, are in critical condition.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but it looks like the infections are happening in the emergency rooms.  The lesson learned would appear to be to stay away from emergency rooms until this outbreak gets contained.

I think the lesson that Koreans traveling overseas on working holiday visas is to not work for other Koreans:

Most young Koreans participating in working holiday programs face a wide range of unfair labor practices and racial discrimination, according to the minor opposition Justice Party.

Six out of 10 working holiday visa holders experienced exploitation by employers, and four out of 10 suffered racial discrimination.

Alleged unfair practices include violation of the minimum wage rule, delayed payments, physical and verbal abuse, and sexual harassment, the party said in a report.

The party called on the government to monitor the situation and take measures swiftly, saying the victims complained of difficulty in seeking help through diplomatic channels.

 “Safety and labor rights of students working overseas are out of the authorities’ protection,” Justice Party floor leader Rep. Sim Sang-jeung said during a press conference at the Assembly, Monday.

“Among the victims, there was not a single person who sought help from the embassy or consulate to solve the problem,” she added, citing that distrust toward the government is prevalent among the visa holders.

The Justice Party conducted a 20-day survey of labor conditions related to working holiday programs from May 8 to 28, and publicized its report Monday. Of 100 respondents who experienced working holiday programs, 58 percent said they experienced unfair labor treatment.

About 65 percent reported violation of minimum wage rule, followed by delayed payments (39.7 percent); violation of contracts (29.3 percent); unfair dismissal (15.5 percent); physical and verbal abuse (6.9 percent); and sexual harassment (1.7 percent).

Of the four nations involved ― Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan ― Australia ranked tops in the percentage of unfair treatment of Korean workers, with 72.1 percent. Of all cases in Australia, 70.5 percent of illegal practices were found in businesses run by Koreans.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but how are these working holiday visa holder experiencing racism when they are being exploited by primarily other Koreans?

This month will be the 13 year anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six South Korean sailors murdered by the North Koreans along the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea.  What was probably the most disgraceful about this attack was how the then South Korean government did everything possible to cover up the attack to maintain the illusion of the Sunshine Policy.  Even worse was that the deceased sailors were treated like they were criminals:

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more about this attack at the below link:

• DMZ Flashpoints: The 2002 West Sea Naval Battle

However, times have changed and now with Sunshine Policy exposed for the fraud that it was the Korean movie industry is releasing a movie this month heroically depicting the ROK sailors that fought in the 2002 West Sea Battle:

The forgotten sacrifices made by young South Korean sailors during a bloody naval clash with North Korea 13 years ago will be portrayed on the silver screen in a new film funded partly by citizens.

The movie titled “Battle of Yeonpyeong,” to be released next week, is based on the naval skirmish between the two Koreas on June 29, 2002, in waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea.
Six sailors were killed and 18 others were injured after a fierce exchange of fire, which was sparked when two North Korean patrol boats infiltrated the maritime border.

The occasion, which is known to also have caused some 30 casualties in the North, is called the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, with the first battle taking place in 1999.  “I’ve wanted to depict the ironic situation where the young sailors, who are someone’s beloved sons, fathers, and friends, were killed on one side, while others were overwhelmed by the 2002 World Cup,” Kim Hak-soon, director of the film, said Wednesday ahead of a press preview.  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest of the article at the link, but I look forward to watching this movie.

In Korea’s MERS outbreak, lessons from SARS highlighted http://t.co/YDuU3WkNvg pic.twitter.com/Q9AxXkLCdw

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 9, 2015

Members of South Korea’s two umbrella trade unions rally over minimum wages in front of the government complex in Seoul on June 4, 2015. The unions are demanding that the government raise the per-hour minimum wage from 5,580 won (US$5.01) to 10,000 won. (Yonhap)

According to this CNN article people should not really be all that concerned because the virus is not as contagious as believed:

You can read more at the link.