(토요모임) [23. Nov. 2019] Saturday meeting topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy !  It's me Scarlett !   

This week we have 3 categories of topics. 

◈ Climate  Change's  Multiplying  Effect  on  the  Habitat  and  Food  Security    

--- Climate change recognized as ‘threat multiplier’, UN Security Council debates its impact on peace

--- Habitat Security : Venice floods: Climate change behind highest tide in 50 years, says mayor

--- Food Security : Bangladesh flies in planeloads of onions amid national outcry over shortage 

--- Coal addiction ‘must be overcome’ to ease climate change, UN chief says in Bangkok

◈ Social phenomenon : Regional Collective Action

--- “Moss”: movie review

--- “Moss”: a Star Korean Comic Artist’s Suspenseful Tale Brought into English by Literary Translators and Serialized Free Online

--- Webtoons Provide Abundant Storylines For Korean Film And Drama Adaptations

◈ Work Performance : Superbrain

--- How To Learn Faster? Unlock Your Superbrain With Jim Kwik

--- 10 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY - Jim Kwik | London Real
--- Unleash Your Super Brain To Learn Faster | Jim Kwik

--- Master Your Brain With These 10 Tips

Hope you enjoy the topics. 

With luv 

Scarlett

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<< SMALL TALKS >>

▶Touch! Global Headlines from Morning Special

 
HEADLINE 1 (2019.11.21. Thu.)
Following the fall of the protesters’ last holdout, Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, more than 200 people have been arrested and slated to be charged for rioting.
 
HEADLINE 2 (2019.11.21. Thu.)
Amid a Korean consumer boycott on Japanese products, Japan’s exports to Korea have declined more than 20% y/y in October.

HEADLINE 3 (2019.11.21. Thu.)
A joint research by Korea, China and Japan have showed that 32% of Korea’s ultrafine dust pollution can be attributed to China. 

HEADLINE 4 (2019.11.20. Wed.)
Two Korean tourists have been released after being trapped inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
 
HEADLINE 5 (2019.11.20. Wed.)
The EU has agreed on next year’s budget, which will allocate more funds towards tackling climate change and youth unemployment.
 
HEADLINE 6 (2019.11.20. Wed.)
The National Assembly has passed a bill that will change the status of firefighters to central government public servants.

▶News Focus 1 (2019.11.21. Thu.)
 
A new study of 2,000 Americans found that over half of those surveyed admit they are “always” worried about the safety of their phone.
In fact, the average American has six “heart attack moments” every week where they start to drop their phone but save it just in time.
According to the poll, the average American drops their phone on the ground four times every week, and some people are making other tech do double-duty as protective measures.
Headphones have come to the rescue for half of those surveyed more than once, as 46 percent say they’ve been able to save their phone from hitting the ground by grabbing onto the headphone cable for dear life.

-just in time / for dear life
 

▶News Focus 2 (2019.11.20. Wed.)
 
Venice Calls, a volunteer-based environmental group founded in 2018, is active in tidying up libraries, churches, and cultural institutions that have been damaged by the floodwaters in the Italian city.
In the past few days, members of the group have participated in efforts to save the treasures of a museum and damaged books from a library.
More than 50 churches have also suffered from damages caused by flooding. The city’s iconic St. Mark’s Basilica received the brunt of the damage since it is located closest to the lagoon, in one of the lowest points of Venice.
 
-tidying up / the brunt of
    
▶News Focus 3 (2019.11.20. Wed.)
 
In what could possibly be the last court case of its kind, a former Nazi concentration camp guard is on trial in Hamburg.
Bruno Dey, who joined the SS in his teens, buried his face on his recent arrival at court in a wheelchair, on the third day of a 23-day trial, scheduled to run until late February.
Facing 5,230 counts of accessory to murder, Dey claimed in a statement he had no knowledge of the mass murders under way at the Stutthof concentration camp.
 
-the last court case of its kind / buried his face

Source : https://home.ebs.co.kr/morning/board/6/502387/view/10010621088?c.page=1&hmpMnuId=101&searchKeywordValue=0&bbsId=502387&fileClsCd=ANY&searchKeyword=&searchCondition=&searchConditionValue=0&pstId=10010621088&

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< Questions > 

Q1. Due to the Venice flooding, we might not visit Venice or could not take a look at the varios artifacts and historical buildings in a few year's later. What would be the cause of those incident? And what would be your response to this incident ? 

Q2. According to a joint research by Korea, China and Japan have showed that 32% of Korea’s ultrafine dust pollution can be attributed to China. What do you think about this matter ? 

Q3. The National Assembly has passed a bill that will change the status of firefighters to central government public servants. What would be the merits and demerits of this bill? 

Q4. The EU has agreed on next year’s budget, which will allocate more funds towards tackling climate change and youth unemployment. Do we have any bills similar to those issue? 

Q5. Are you involved in japan boycott movement? why or why not? 

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Venice suffers worst flooding in 50 years

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Assignment Asia Episode 113: Effects of climate change

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Korean Movie Moss --- Collective Action 

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10 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY - Jim Kwik | London Real

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Venice floods: Climate change behind highest tide in 50 years, says mayor

Severe flooding in Venice that has left much of the Italian city under water is a direct result of climate change, the mayor says.

The highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years would leave "a permanent mark", Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.

"Now the government must listen," he added. "These are the effects of climate change... the costs will be high."

The waters in Venice peaked at 1.87m (6ft), according to the tide monitoring centre. Only once since official records began in 1923 has the tide been higher, reaching 1.94m in 1966.

Images showed popular sites left completely flooded and people wading through the streets as Venice was hit by a storm.

St Mark's Square - one of the lowest parts of the city - was one of the worst hit areas.

St Mark's Basilica was flooded for the sixth time in 1,200 years, according to church records. Pierpaolo Campostrini, a member of St Mark's council, said four of those floods had now occurred within the past 20 years.

The mayor said the famous landmark had suffered "grave damage". The crypt was completely flooded and there are fears of structural damage to the basilica's columns.

The city of Venice is made up of more than 100 islands inside a lagoon off the north-east coast of Italy.

Two people died on the island of Pellestrina, a thin strip of land that separates the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. A man was electrocuted as he tried to start a pump in his home, and a second person was found dead elsewhere.

Mr Brugnaro said the damage was "huge" and that he would declare a state of disaster, warning that a project to help prevent the Venetian lagoon suffering devastating floods "must be finished soon".

"The situation is dramatic. We ask the government to help us," he said on Twitter, adding that schools would remain closed until the water level subsides.

He also urged local businesses to share photos and video footage of the devastation, which he said would be useful when requesting financial help from the government.

People throughout the city waded through the flood waters.

A number of businesses were affected. Chairs and tables were seen floating outside cafes and restaurants.
In shops, workers tried to move their stock away from the water to prevent any further damage.

One shopkeeper, who was not named, told Italy's public broadcaster Rai: "The city is on its knees."

Three waterbuses sank, but tourists continued their sightseeing as best they could.
One French couple told AFP news agency that they had "effectively swum" after some of the wooden platforms placed around the city in areas prone to flooding overturned.

On Wednesday morning, a number of boats were seen stranded.
A project to protect the city from flooding has been under way since 2003 but has been hit by soaring costs, scandals and delays.

The so-called Mose project - a series of large barriers or floodgates that would be raised from the seabed to shut off the lagoon in the event of rising sea levels and winter storms - was successfully tested for the first time in 2013.

The project has already cost billions of euros in investment. According to Italy's infrastructure ministry, the flood barriers will be handed over to the Venice city council at the end of 2021 following the "final phase" of testing.
Italy was hit by heavy rainfall on Tuesday with further bad weather forecast in the coming days. Venice suffers flooding on a yearly basis.

Is climate change behind Venice flooding?
By BBC meteorologist Nikki Berry

The recent flooding in Venice was caused by a combination of high spring tides and a meteorological storm surge driven by strong sirocco winds blowing north-eastwards across the Adriatic Sea. When these two events coincide, we get what is known as Acqua Alta (high water).

This latest Acqua Alta occurrence in Venice is the second highest tide in recorded history. However, if we look at the top 10 tides, five have occurred in the past 20 years and the most recent was only last year. 

While we should try to avoid attributing a single event to climate change, the increased frequency of these exceptional tides is obviously a big concern. In our changing climate, sea levels are rising and a city such as Venice, which is also sinking, is particularly susceptible to such changes. 

The weather patterns that have caused the Adriatic storm surge have been driven by a strong meridional (waving) jet stream across the northern hemisphere and this has fed a conveyor belt of low pressure systems into the central Mediterranean. 

One of the possible effects of a changing climate is that the jet stream will be more frequently meridional and blocked weather patterns such as these will also become more frequent. If this happens, there is a greater likelihood that these events will combine with astronomical spring tides and hence increase the chance of flooding in Venice

Furthermore, the meridional jet stream can be linked back to stronger typhoons in the north-west Pacific resulting in more frequent cold outbreaks in North America and an unsettled Mediterranean is another one of the downstream effects.

Article source : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50401308

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Bangladesh flies in planeloads of onions amid national outcry over shortage
Agence France-Presse/ Mon 18 Nov 2019 00.07 GMT

Even the prime minister has chopped the vegetable out of her official menu after monsoon caused Indian crop failure

Bangladesh has been forced to import planeloads of onions as the price of the cooking staple soared to record highs, an official said, with even the prime minister chopping the bulb from her menu.

The price of onions – a sensitive subject in south Asia where shortages can trigger widespread discontent with political ramifications – has climbed to eye-watering levels in Bangladesh since neighbouring India banned exports in late September after heavy monsoon rains reduced the crop. One kilo of the vegetable usually costs 30 taka (US36c) but has soared to up to 260 taka after the ban was imposed.

Hasina’s deputy press secretary Hasan Jahid Tusher said onions were being imported by air freight, and that “prime minister (Sheikh Hasina) said she has stopped using onion in dishes”.

None of the dishes at the PM’s residence in Dhaka on Saturday contained onions, he added.
Local media reported several onion consignments arrived at a major port in Chittagong city on Sunday after the government – facing a public outcry – imported the bulb from Myanmar, Turkey, China and Egypt.

The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is also selling onions at a discounted 45 taka per kilo in the capital Dhaka.

At the city’s busy Farmgate neighbourhood, hundreds of people queued for hours – some getting into scuffles – to buy the subsidised vegetable.“Even if I have to stand another two hours, I will do that. I can save some 250 taka by buying one kilo of TCB onion. I am standing here because I have to save money,” said Ratan, an English teacher who goes by one name. “I am 41 years old. I have never seen onion prices ever crossing beyond 120 taka.”

Sharmin, a housewife who also goes by one name, said she had stopped using onions in her cooking in the past week. “My husband sells piazu (pakora), which needs a huge quantity of onion. But after the recent price hike, he stopped selling piazu,” she added. Restaurants have cut onions from their menus and there has been a fall in the sale of deep-fried snacks normally cooked with onions. Bangladesh’s largest opposition party has called for nationwide protests on Monday over the record prices, which they blame on the government.

Article source : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/bangladesh-flies-in-planeloads-of-onions-amid-national-outcry-over-shortage

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Climate change recognized as ‘threat multiplier’, UN Security Council debates its impact on peace

As climate change is increasingly recognized as a “threat multiplier” by scientists, political representatives, and civil society across the world, the United Nations Security Council held an open debate on Friday to discuss its concrete impact on peace and security, and focus on tangible ways to diminish the effects of global warming.

“The relationship between climate-related risks and conflict is complex and often intersects with political, social, economic and demographic factors,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs in her opening remarks.

“The risks associated with climate-related disasters do not represent a scenario of some distant future. They are already a reality for millions of people around the globe – and they are not going away,” she stressed.

The meeting took place almost two months after 197 parties to the UN Climate Change Convention agreed to a concrete way forward on implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement – which aims to keep global warming under 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels – and ahead of the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, convened for 23 September this year.

■ Climate risk: to debate or not to debate?

Whether climate change is an issue that should be examined by the UN’s peace and security body to begin with, has been the subject of controversy. Some Member States believe that this is stepping on the toes of other UN entities, specifically mandated with taking a lead on social and economic development, or environmental protection.

The risks associated with climate-related disasters do not represent a scenario of some distant future. They are already a reality for millions of people around the globe, and they are not going away – UN political affairs chief DiCarlo

The first ever meeting of the Security Council examining the linkages between climate change and insecurity happened in April 2007. 

Since then, the UN body has increasingly taken steps that effectively acknowledge that the two issues are related: in July 2011, another open debate on the matter was held; in March 2017, resolution 2349 was adopted highlighting the need to address climate-related risks in order to tackle the conflict in the Lake Chad basin; and in July 2018, a debate was held on “understanding and addressing climate-related security risks”.

In a sign of how important the discussion is to many countries, the debate was attended by over 70 Member States and included statements in the Council chamber from a dozen Ministers, including Kuwait, Belgium, Indonesia, Germany and Poland.

■ ‘Keeping up with the challenge’

After citing the various ways in which UN political missions, regional or country-based, are already actively seeking ways to address climate-related security risks, Ms. DiCarlo insisted on the need to focus on three key areas:

- Developing stronger analytical capacity with integrated risk assessment frameworks.

- Collecting stronger evidence base so good practices on climate risk prevention and management can be replicated in the field.

- Building and reinforcing partnerships to leverage existing capacities within and outside the UN system.

“Most important, for all of us, is the recognition that deeds must follow words. Major armies and businesses have long recognized the need to prepare for climate-related risks, rightfully assessing climate change as a threat multiplier,” said the UN Political Affairs chief.

“We cannot lag behind. We must act now, with a sense of urgency and a commitment to place people, especially those most marginalized and vulnerable, at the centre of our efforts,” she stated.

The Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Achim Steiner, also delivered remarks, by phone. An environmentalist by training, he noted that climate change is “not only affecting the atmosphere, but also the biosphere”, and that the world is “not keeping up with the challenge.”

He called on the Security Council to recognize the science and empirical evidence, leverage all possible measures that can slow global warming, and invest in climate adaptation and risk reduction for the millions of people already suffering from the effects of climate change.

Mr. Steiner cited some of the hundreds of projects carried out by UNDP in some 140 countries, including a water management system in the Maldives, the development of a vulnerability index to facilitate preparedness, and a financial support scheme for vulnerable households in the Caribbean.

■ Scientists and youth to advise the Council

For the first time in history, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was invited to brief the members of the Security Council on climate and extreme weather issues.

Professor Pavel Kabat, Chief Scientist at the WMO brought some clear scientific data to the table, to inform the debate. “Climate change has a multitude of security impacts - rolling back the gains in nutrition and access to food; heightening the risk of wildfires and exacerbating air quality challenges; increasing the potential for water conflict; leading to more internal displacement and migration,” he said. “It is increasingly regarded as a national security threat.”

He noted that WMO stands ready to support the UN and Member States with “cutting-edge science” and “expert information” so informed decisions can be made.

Before the floor was opened to Members of the Security Council, a youth representative and a researcher on environmental security, Lindsay Getschel, was also invited to speak.

She came to the meeting with three key asks for the UN body:

- A resolution officially recognizing climate change as a threat to international peace and security.

- An assessment on how climate change impacts local youth (e.g., through displacement, unemployment, food insecurity, and recruitment in armed groups).

- A reduction of reliance on fossil fuel energy in UN missions worldwide and a commitment 50 per cent of energy used to be from renewable sources by 2025, with regular reporting to the Secretary-General to monitor progress.

She finished by reminding those present in the room that many across the world “do not have the luxury to not care about this issue,” and called on world leaders to “live up to their words.”

 
(Via UN News)

Article source : https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/fr/news/climate-change-recognized-‘threat-multiplier’-un-security-council-debates-its-impact-peace

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Coal addiction ‘must be overcome’ to ease climate change, UN chief says in Bangkok
2 November 2019/ UN 

ESCAP/Suwat ChancharoensukUN Secretary-General António Guterres visits a climate mitigation project in Bangkok Centenary Park, Thailand.

In Thailand for the ASEAN Summit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visited a climate mitigation project in Bangkok's new Centenary Park on Saturday where he told journalists that “coal addiction must be overcome”.

The world’s addiction to coal “remains a major threat in relation to climate change and one of the messages in the summit will be very clearly that countries in these areas that are countries that are in one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change”, Mr. Guterres underscored.
 
The UN chief informed the press of a recently published report saying that climate change was causing ocean levels to rise much faster than previously forecasted.

“According to this new report, unless we are able to…defeat climate change, in 2050, the research has forecasted that 300 million people will be flooded by sea water in the world”, Mr. Guterres stated, and called climate change “the biggest threat to the planet at the present moment, [and] the defining issue of our time”.

Pledging his commitment to raising global attention on the need “to abide by what scientists tell us is necessary to do”, he argued that that “we need to contain the rising temperatures 1.5 degrees until the end of the century” and “to be carbon neutral in 2050 and reduce the emissions by 45 per cent in the next decade”.

“We have to put a price on carbon”, he continued. “We need to stop subsidies for fossil fuels and…the creation of new power plants based on coal in the future”.

He also maintained that South East Asian nations must set an example, “to be in the front line of carbon pricing, of stopping subsidies to fossil fuels, and of stopping the construction of coal power electricity plants in order to be able to defeat climate change and to preserve the beautiful cities like Bangkok and others that we want as a legacy to humankind forever”.

Article source : https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050491

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< Questions > 

 Habitat Security and Climate Change -----------------------------------------

Q0. According to UN, Climate change acts as a multiplier of Security concerns. Do you support this idea? 

Q1. Have you ever heard about the habitat security ? What it is? 

Q2. What was the main reason of Venice flooding ? Sea level rise ? Climate change? or What is it?

Q3. Have you ever been to Venice? Do you think it is possible to visit Venice 50 years later?

Q4. Due to the those extreme flooding in Europe, if you can not see any historical places or buildings in the future, what would you do?

Q5. If sea level rise is getting severe, can we visit Busan in Korea? 

Q6. Do you think your regional area is safe after 50 year's later? 

Q7. What do you think of your political leader? Is he/ she aware of climate proofing design concept for your regional area? 

 Food Security and Climate Change -----------------------------------------

Q1. Do you think severe monsoon climate has something to do with your meal? What is your opinion?

Q2. What would you do if we could not find any simple food ingredient like pepper, onion or carrot as Bangladesh did? 

Q3. What is the food security? 

Q4. What is the monsoon climate? Why does it matter? 

Q5. I will ask Question 1 again. Do you think severe monsoon climate have something to do with your meal? Your answer is changing or not?

- Coal addiction and Climate Change -----------------------------------------

Q1. UN addresses 'Glocalization'. However, it brings about very sensitive issue sometimes. Becasue value of globalisation conflicts with regional value system. If that is the case, do you think UN supports unprevileged gruup or previlaged group?  

Q2. What is the coal addiction?

Q3. According to the UN report, world is addicted to use coal. Do you think this idea is true? If yes, Why can we stop to use fossil fuel? 

Q4. Where do you live? Do you think climate condition in your country has been changed a lot ? 

Q5. How many fossile fule power plant in your country? 

Q6. Do you agree with carbon tax instead of fossile fule subsidies? 

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Moss (2010) - Film Review

4:35 PM PDT 10/23/2010 by Elizabeth Kerr

Moss (Korean: 이끼; RR: Iggi) is a 2010 South Korean mystery thriller film directed by Kang Woo-suk. It was based on the popular webtoon of the same title by Yoon Tae-ho. 

Winding, weaving, and occasionally losing its convoluted way, "Moss," the latest from director Kang Woo-Suk, takes a turn away from the popular filmmaker's traditional action comedies ("Public Enemy") and historical dramas ("Silmido") to dabble in the psychological mystery thriller.

Winding, weaving, and occasionally losing its convoluted way, "Moss," the latest from director Kang Woo-Suk, takes a turn away from the popular filmmaker's traditional action comedies ("Public Enemy") and historical dramas ("Silmido") to dabble in the psychological mystery thriller. The film succeeds to about the halfway point until its narrative weight becomes overwhelming and it starts to collapse in on itself ahead of a fiery finale.

A strong, if not "Silmido"-level blockbuster, performance at home is no surprise, where it opened in the summer, and Kang's name and reputation could give "Moss" traction in Asia. Top-notch production values ensure general festival play and possibly limited runs in urban markets will define overseas release. Korean cinema aficionados should give it a healthy life on DVD.

In a small rural village, the god-like Ryu Mok-Hyeong (Heo Jun-Ho) is trying to forge a haven for those wishing to be reborn and live untouched by the world's evil. He has his first run-in with corrupt cop Chun Yong-Duk (Jung Jae-Young, "Silmido") when he's falsely accused of fraud. But Mok-Hyeong's cult of personality has Chun seeing the light in no time, and they join forces to build a better town. Flash forward to Mok-Hyeong's long lost son Ryu Hae-Guk (Park Hae-Il, "Good Morning President") arriving for Mok-Hyeong's funeral and who, in attempting to settle his father's estate, discovers a web of interconnected secrets and lies and abuse of power that may ultimately point to murder.

That's the short version. "Moss" is based on and Internet comic series and it shows. For the first 90 minutes or so the film does a first-rate job of building tension, making everyone look suspicious, and raising just enough questions to maintain forward momentum. In slowly revealing the connections within the small community and exposing each character's character, the underlying rot and hypocrisy of life in the idyllic village feels even uglier. But as one unsavory nugget after another comes to light, "Moss" simply becomes unwieldy.

Several characters have only partially fleshed out backstories that likely received more play in its original format; it wouldn't be surprising to hear of readers unconsciously filling in blanks -- odd considering the bloated running time. The missing links make for the film's most jarring moments: Hae-Guk is the estranged son back from the big city, but we never get a clear idea of why he's been absent in his father's life. He has a bitter history with possible maybe arch-nemesis prosecutor Park Min-Uk (Yu Jun-Sang), but how their antagonistic relationship developed remains an enigma. At its core "Moss" is melodrama about good, evil, sin and redemption, absolute power corrupting absolutely, and the intractability of human greed. It's a lot of story and theme, and Kang and writer Jeong Ji-Woo try to give sufficient time to all of it. In doing so, they sacrifice key elements that the story demands be addressed.

The saving grace here is the performances that (with the exception of blank Park) are uniformly strong. Though there are times he struggles to be seen beneath the latex, Jung pulls off a melange of menace, rage, and entitlement that suits Chun's transition from crooked cop to equally crooked village elder, so immersed in his own power he fails to see his inevitable downfall.

Venue: Tokyo International Film Festival
Sales: CJ Entertainment
Production company: Cinema Service, Let's Film
Cast: Jung Jae-Young, Park Hae-Il, Yu Jun-Sang, Heo Jun-Ho, Yu Hae-Jin, Kim Sang-Ho, Kim Jun-Bae, Yu Seon
Producer: Jung Sun-Young
Director: Kang Woo-Suk
Screenwriter: Jeong-Ji-Woo based on the comic by Yoon Tae-Ho
Executive producer: Kang Woo-Suk
Director of Photography: Kim Seong-Bok
Production Designer: Jo Seong-Wong, Lee Tae-Hun
Music: Jo Young-Wook
Costume designer: Jo Sang-Gyeong
Editor: Go Im-Pyo
No MPAA rating, 163 minutes

Article source : https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/moss-film-review-32245

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“Moss”: a Star Korean Comic Artist’s Suspenseful Tale Brought into English by Literary Translators and Serialized Free Online
By By Colin Marshall  / 03/29/2016

A young man from the city drives out to the countryside, ostensibly to set in order the affairs of his recently deceased father. But not long after he arrives in the remote village where Dad spent his final years, he decides to stay. On some level, this looks like an example of the kinds of acts of filial piety you’d see in any number of Korean stories, but the circumstances of our protagonist, a certain Ryu Haeguk, quickly get complicated. And in fact, they’d already got complicated before the story begins, what with his having somehow lost his wife, daughter, and career at his relatively early age, thus leaving him free to pursue the suspicions that arise shortly after he meets the cast of shifty-looking creeps who populate the hamlet he now calls home.

The brief prologue of Yoon Tae-ho’s comic series Moss (이끼) describes Haeguk as “fussy and compulsive, so that small misunderstandings build into major events” — such as the aforementioned total disintegration of his life in Seoul. But his attention to detail, combined with a borderline-foolish fearlessness we see demonstrated early and often in the story, puts him firmly in the tradition of the ideal mystery protagonist, unable to resist probing into the not-quite-explained until, and indeed well beyond, it gets him into trouble. Here, the process begins with one driving question: why has the village head written off his father’s sudden death, at age 67, as a case of “old age,” not bothering with and perhaps even refusing to order a routine medical examination?

Haeguk’s increasingly dangerous investigation of his estranged father’s life, the place where it ended, and the people around whom it ended originally ran in Korean between 2008 and 2009, not as a traditional print comic but as one particularly successful example of the made-for-the-web form of comics Koreans call “webtoons.” It gained such a fan base, in fact, that it became an award-winning feature film in 2010 and did much to make Yoon’s name as one of Korea’s most famous webtoon artists. He’s more recently demonstrated his wide range with the even more popular Misaeng (미생), a webtoon satirizing in the dead-end office jobs often held by Korea’s younger generation, which went on to become a hit television series.

Only now has Moss become available in English, translated by the formidable husband-and-wife team of Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton. (I recorded a podcast interview with Bruce here in Korea in the summer of 2014.) Enthusiasts of Korean literature will almost certainly know the names of the Fultons already, given their prolificacy and astute choice of material, most recently a retranslation of Hwang Sun-won’s Dickens-scale The Moving Castle (about which more in a future Korea Blog post). Here they try their hands at one of the most popular of all current Korean storytelling forms. Should you make the trip to Seoul, take a glance at the screens of the mobile phones at which almost everyone aboard the subway will be staring; chances are you’ll see more than a few webtoons scrolling by.

Moss takes advantage of the format: each of its episodes unrolls vertically, like an actual scroll, usually landing on some sort of cliffhanger or revelation: Haeguk, and thus we, discover the village head’s shady past as a police detective, the even shadier pasts of the other inhabitants, a secret tunnel built under his father’s house, a murderous intent among those who surround him — that sort of thing. The story has drawn comparisons to the classics of Southern Gothic literature, especially those that drop a citified protagonist into a small, isolated community, set in its ways, peopled with eccentrics, and exuding a sinister vibe that deepens with every page turned.

 

“Just play dumb,” Haeguk tells himself, having settled into the community as best he can after selling most of his father’s land to the developer who’s been waiting for it. “Lay low and blend. Move slow and steady, grab on and stick like moss.” His investigation determines early that there’s, “strictly speaking, not a single family unit here,” and almost no women, apart from a young-ish widow from whom he rents a room and about his attraction to whom he engages in a bout of self-loathing. Later, he pieces together that the residents haven’t all come here by chance, and the retired detective — the one who didn’t want the death of Haeguk’s father looked into — may have used his power over years and years bring everyone there one at a time, with the utmost deliberateness. But why?

I haven’t even touched on another major player, a district attorney in his own countryside exile, sent down after a tangle with Haeguk in the past. I’d tell you more about their relationship and the probable result of their inevitable man-to-man encounter in this alien setting hostile to the both of them, but I don’t yet know much about it myself. Moss‘ serialization in English, which began in January on the Huffington Post, has only reached episode 42 of 82, with a new one going up every Monday. Haeguk has cheated death a couple times already, and plenty of cliffhangers and revelations surely remain in store.

 

You can read more about the process of translating a work like this in Asia Pacific Memo’s interview with the Fultons. “We saw in the story an allegory of abuse of power during the period of military dictatorship in the Republic of Korea,” they say, emphasizing that Yoon has created something much more complex than the standard everyman-in-a-eerie-small-town thriller: “Like much good fiction, and especially with works that involve political and social problems, there’s a great deal of hidden meaning.” (Sometimes these meanings proved especially hidden, so they ran their questions by Korean friends, though “they too had difficulty understanding certain areas of the story.”)

As to how Moss arrived at the Huffington Post, the Fultons talk about how the internationally-minded Korean webtoon company Rolling Story took it and about two dozen other series in translation and pitched them together as a serialization package. The site accepted six of them, including, of course, the Fultons’ translation of Moss. I’ll admit that, unfailingly aggravated by its glitchy and distraction-intensive design (not to mention their pay practices), I’ve long instinctively avoided the Huffington Post. Even with webtoons it can’t get the interface quite right, a particularly bothersome example being how the navigator to click to the next episode sometimes appears and sometimes doesn’t. A far cry indeed from the advanced webtoon infrastructure of the Korean web, but I’ll deal with it; now, just like Haeguk himself, I’ve simply got to know what killed his father and why, no matter the obstacles that lie in my path.

Get started reading Moss, translated into English by Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton, from the first episode here at the Huffington Post.

You can follow Colin Marshall at his web site, on Twitter @colinmarshall, or on Facebook. If you’re in town, come to the free, bilingual Seoul Book and Culture Club event he’ll host on Saturday, April 2nd, a conversation with award-winning young Korean writers Kim Ae-ran, Chan Kangmyoung, and Kim Min-jung.

Article source : https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/the-korea-blog/moss-star-korean-comic-artists-suspenseful-tale-brought-english-literary-translators-serialized-free-online/

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Webtoons Provide Abundant Storylines For Korean Film And Drama Adaptations

viewsFeb 12, 2019, 01:37pm/ Joan MacDonald / Contributor

Hollywood & Entertainment 

Cheese in the Trap was a popular webtoon adapted successfully into both a film and a drama.

tvN 

I'm a journalist fascinated by Korean drama and film.

What do the following titles have in common? Cheese in the Trap, Tazza, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?, Goong or Secretly, Greatly? Those are the titles of dramas and films that were inspired by webtoons or digital comics.

While Korean TV dramas draw inspiration from varied sources, webtoons are one of the most popular sources of inventive storylines. This in-demand form of instant entertainment began in Korea in the early 2000s and now attracts international attention, alongside other forms of Korean pop culture, a least partly because of the dramas and films it inspires.

Webtoons are an art form based in the more traditional comic or manhwa format but transformed by technology. Reading digital comics became popular in Korea because the nation is number one worldwide in smartphone ownership and Internet usage.

“Unlike in the United States, it’s very common to see South Korean commuters riding the subway or the bus and indulging in webtoons via their cell phones,” said Jinyoung Jin, director of cultural programs at the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University, which hosted the 2016 exhibit Webtoon: The Evolution of Korean Digital Comics.  “This is likely because of the accessibility of high-speed Internet service almost everywhere in South Korea.”

Comic lovers can access dozens of online portals which publish hundreds of digital comics or manhwa, offered in regular installments. Some are partially or completely free, while others require paid subscriptions. 

“Half the people in the country have read or are active readers of webtoons, and that’s a pretty big population,” said Ernest Woo, chief product officer of TappyToon Comics, which offers Korean webtoon content in several languages, including Spanish, French and English. “They have entertainment value. They’re quick to read and some of them are very engrossing and well made.”

Webtoons can be any genre: fantasy, action, romance, horror and thriller. One of TappyToons’ recent hits is the  fantasy, Daughter of the Emperor, about the challenges faced by a cruel and fretful king while raising a newborn daughter. They also offer  Bloody Sweet, a fantasy romance between a shaman and a vampire, as well as the more conventional office romance, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim?

There’s no way to predict which webtoon genres will become popular or will next be converted into other media. Webtoons-turned-dramas are as diverse as the workplace saga Misaeng, the historical vampire drama, The Scholar Who Walks The Night, and the romantic comedy Flower Boy Next Door. 

“The more popular ones for conversion would be historical (saeguk) ones or romantic comedy drama titles, because it’s more realistically possible to convert them into something else,” said Woo. “Sci-fi or fantasy is harder to produce.”

There are a few reasons webtoons have become such a popular source for adaptation. The first is the creativity the format inspires. Webtoons have been a boon for novice writers who have innovative ideas and previously had a limited platform. Because they don’t have any limitations on imagination, webtoons can deliver interesting and unusual stories. A drama or film may benefit from a good story that does not initially consider cost as a deciding factor.

“Film producers often limit themselves in reality of production cost, but webtoons do not, so there are more interesting stories being told and to be made into a film,” said the Naver webtoon team in an official group response to the question of drama content. “When webtoons are made into a video, the storyline or ending may change. However, webtoons’ core parts, which the fan base is created on, such as its charming characters and their lines, remains the same.”

Naver Webtoon, launched in 2004, attracts more than eight million readers daily and two of their most popular webtoons Cheese in the Trap and Along With The Gods, both became films and dramas. Recent drama adaptations include My ID is Gangnam Beauty and Mama Fairy and the Woodcutters, while Naver's production company, Studio N, has several adaptations in the works including the working titles: Your Letter, Strangers from Hell,  Golden Spoon and Vigilante. 

​The mass popularity of webtoons makes it easier to attract a ready audience for an adaptation. Loyal fans are excited long before the first day of filming.

“When a popular title is serialized, there are a lot of people reading it,” said Woo. “The story already has a built-in audience, which is great if you want to make another property out of it. Anyone who reads the comic will have some small interest in the drama and because the drama industry relies on TV ratings, it’s good to have a popular title with a built-in audience.”

The third reason adaptations are popular is that they save the time and energy a drama or film would otherwise spend developing a story line. 

“If you produce an original story, there is a lot of time going into developing a story line,” said the Naver web team. “Webtoons reduce those steps, which is why they are being welcomed.” 

The very visual medium of webtoons can be adapted into dramas, films, animation or even a printed novel. Conversely, the daily adventures of a k-pop band may even become a webtoon.

The record-breaking, award-winning, k-pop band BTS recently released an official webtoon titled Save Me, a collaboration between their agency Big Hit Entertainment and the artist Lico. It premiered on Naver’s webtoon platform and features the adventures of the band members, with a little time travel thrown into the plot. 

Because manhwas have such a loyal fanbase, adaptations may face criticism as often as they earn praise.

“One of the most universally acclaimed was Misaeng, which was very well made and true to the original story,” said Woo. “I think audiences loved it for that. It’s a very real story that a lot of people were able to invest themselves in. Another very different kind would be Scholar Who Walks The Night. When people announced they were making that drama, people had doubts about it. It was a fantasy saeguk, but it turned out well. The actor did a good job.”

Adaptations don’t always please fans, but you can decide for yourself by sampling some of the original manhwas and then enjoying the media they inspire.

Article source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanmacdonald/2019/02/12/webtoons-provide-abundant-storylines-for-korean-film-and-drama-adaptations/#f73f3af5dc44

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< Questions >

Q0. Locals have thier own unique culture somtimes which is against to global value system. UN addresses 'Glocalization'. However, it brings about very sensitive issue sometimes. Becasue value of globalisation conflicts with regional value system. If that is the case, do you think UN supports unprivileged group or privileged group?  

Q1. What is film adaptation?  

*** Film adaptation
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dialogic process.
A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film. Other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiography, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources, and other films. From the earliest days of cinema, in nineteenth-century Europe, adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_adaptation

Q2. Have you ever experienced any weird and not logical culture of small region? And If that culture is against to law or moral condition like this movie represented, how would you react to it?

Q3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of collective action ? 

Q4. What do you think of the movie Moss? What is the storyline ?

Q5. What does collective intelligence mean? Could you make an good and bad exemplary case of collective intelligence?

Q6. What do you think of the movie based on the webtoon source? What is the big difference of those movies from the movies originated from other sources such as novels or real historical stories?

Q7. Are movies a good way to learn history?

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How To Learn Faster? Unlock Your Superbrain With Jim Kwik

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Unleash Your Super Brain To Learn Faster | Jim Kwik

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Master Your Brain With These 10 Tips

06/01/2017 06:55 pm ET Updated Jun 02, 2017
Alejandro Rojas,  Contributor Writer, blogger, video and podcast host.

I think I have a pretty decent brain, and I use it a lot, so it would be wise of me to take care of it and even make it better if possible. But how do you do that?

In order to answer that question, I interviewed Jim Kwik, a learning expert who  lectures, advises and trains people on how to master their brains. He also has a podcast called Kwik Brain.

Kwik grew up with learning challenges he says stemmed from a head injury when he was a child. He told me he was labeled the “boy with the broken brain.”

“Eventually, when I was around 18 years old, I came up with ways to compensate to go from below normal to normal, and eventually above normal,” Kwik explained.

He says this experience influenced him to study learning theory, how to study properly, neuroscience, memory, how to listen and concentrate, and other cognitive health and performance topics. Eventually, Kwik began to teach others what he learned.

According to Kwik, “The faster someone can learn, the more that they can earn, and so that’s our goal is to show people how amazing that their mind, their brains are, how to use them more effectively so they could have more productivity, so they can have greater levels of performance, and also greater levels of peace of mind.”

I certainly recommend checking  out Kwik’s podcast. You can also find a host of videos on YouTube featuring interviews and lectures from Kwik, but for starters, I asked him what my readers could do today to help improve their brains. He gave me 10 tips...

1. Food
I would say part of it is a good diet, because people can be doing all the right things, but if they’re eating poorly it’s going to affect their brain’s performance. We did this podcast episode, my top 10 favorite brain foods, and there’s certain foods that just help light up your brain, it helps with your memory, it helps with your focus, and there are certain foods that are really horrible for your brain. 

2. Think Positive
You eat the right foods, but then if you have a lot of negative thoughts, research has proven that what we say matters, that our self-talk makes a difference in our performance. Your brain’s like a super computer and your self-talk is a program that will run, so if you tell yourself, for example, you’re not good at remembering names, you won’t remember the name of the next person you meet because you’ve programmed the super computer not to.

3. Exercise
You could have good food and good thoughts, but if you don’t exercise and move, your brain’s not going to be anywhere near as high-performance as it needs to be nowadays. We know that as your body moves, your brain grooves, and whatever is good for your heart is really good for your head, so we know that when someone exercises, afterwards they have stronger mental performance, they have better focus. They get more blood flow to the areas that matter, especially their brain. 

4. Supplements
You could do all three of those things, but if you haven’t been eating right, and living a healthy lifestyle and you can’t get the right nutrients into your body, then I’d say brain supplementation. It’s been shown time and time again that omega-threes are good for your brain, but if you have a deficiency of vitamin B you’re going to struggle with attention.

5. Positive Peer Group
A positive peer group is really important because it’s not just your neurological network, but it’s your social networks, because what’s really good for your brain is being around certain people that are encouraging, that are teaching you, that are challenging you, that are supportive and positive as opposed to people that are negative, that are taking your energy and so on.

6. Clean Environment
A clean environment is really good for the brain. We know that when we clean our office, we clean our desktop, our computer, we have clarity of thoughts.

7. Sleep
Sleep, that was number seven, because you could do all these things and get a horrible night’s sleep, right? You don’t sleep really well, and then what happens the next day to your brain? You can’t think, you have brain fog, you have brain fatigue, you can’t make good decisions, you have no sharpness, you’re dull.

8. Brain Protection (Wear that helmet!)
You also need brain protection. You got to protect your brain, because a lot of people don’t have the brain performance they need or the brain help they need because they play extreme sports, they don’t wear a helmet, and so on. I’m a perfect example for that.

9. Lifelong Learning
If I had to give one of these, this would be it. It would be new learnings, because the best way to stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s is novelty. There was a study done, it was on the cover of Time Magazine with these nuns. It was a longevity study by someone to find out how these women were living 80, 90, above, and they found half of it had to do with their emotional gratitude, their faith, but the other half was they were mentally active their entire lives. They were dedicated to lifelong learning, and so it added years to their life and also life to their years.

Your brain is like a muscle. It’s not muscle, obviously, but it’s like muscle, it’s use it or lose it. A lot of people have flabby muscles because they’re outsourcing their brains to their digital devices. How many phone numbers did you know growing up as a kid? How many do you know now? Not that you need to ... I don’t want to memorize hundreds of phone numbers, so it’s convenient, but a lot of people don’t have that capability anymore because they just have flabby mental muscles. We’ve outsourced our brains to our smart devices. It keeps our calendars, our to-dos, it does simple math, it tells us how to get from here to there. Our brains don’t have to think or remember the way that it used to, so it’s not getting the exercise. They call it digital dementia. The rise of the digital age is making us forgetful.

New learnings would be the one I would highlight the most because to get yourself to learning, and especially learning how to learn, then you can succeed at anything. They say the average student that enters the workforce is going to have somewhere like 10 to 14 different careers. Not jobs, actual different verticals because the world is changing so quickly, so the ability to learn faster will give you a huge advantage so you can pivot and out think and solve problems and such.

10. Stress Management
The 10th thing I would say that I talk about is stress management, because stress, we don’t realize how much stress we’re under in digital distraction. One of the first things people touch in the morning is their phone, which is the absolute worst thing for people to touch in the morning because you’re training yourself to be reactive. You’re playing into this attraction because you get dopamine fixes every time you get a like, a share, a comment, and you’re frying your brain that way. You’re literally rewiring your brain. You’re checking text messages and emails, which is just training you to be reactive and responsive to do things for everyone, what they need and everything else like that, as opposed to proactively starting your day. But a lot of people are under so much digital stress that they don’t realize that when you’re stressed it’s really good for fight or flight, if you need to do something physical, but it’s not good if you need to study, or not good if you need to give a presentation at work. It’s not really good if you need to remember someone’s name, for example. Cortisol and adrenaline (stress hormones) literally just shuts down different parts of your thinking.

If you want to be fit like people, not only physically fit, you want to be stronger, you want to be faster and you want to be sharper, more focused physically, you want the same things for your minds. You want your mind to be stronger. You want your mind to be faster. You want your mind to be more flexible and agile. I’m kind of like a personal trainer for the brain. A brain coach, if you will. People have a business coach, they have a physical personal training coach. I want to be their brain coach, and that’s why we launched the podcast.

Article source : https://www.huffpost.com/entry/master-your-brain-with-these-10-tips_b_5930979ee4b00573ab57a1f0

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< Questions > 

Q1. What do you think of superbrain skills? Do you have any intention to follow his treatment?

Q2. How do you enhance your work performance ? Do you have your secret ways?

Q3. Jim Kwik introduce us 10 tips to master your brain as below. Do you think how many similar habits you have for brain practice?

1. Food

2. Think Positive

3. Exercise
4. Supplements
5. Positive Peer Group

6. Clean Environment
7. Sleep
8. Brain Protection (Wear that helmet!)

9. Lifelong Learning
10. Stress Management

[리사홍]

Learn faster! work harder!

[리사홍]

Omg, this video is a hour long!