Loose change for October 24, 2009

Korea-related stuff

• Ratio of households earning less than half the median family income reached 8.5% in 2008, the highest level since the economic crisis of 1997-98, when the rate was 14.8% (the Korea Herald has a similar story focusing on female-headed hosueholds)
• The Chosun Ilbo takes a sober look at the outcome of the recent ROK-US Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul
• The Korea Herald focuses on the possibility of closing down so-called "foreign language high schools" that are thought to fuel excessive spending on private tutoring
• The New York Times has a review of the 2008 movie Night and Day, starring Kim Youngho [김영호] and Park Eunhye [박은혜]
• A Korea Times focus on Itaewon's gay bar scene and how it caters to "sexual minorities"
• Celebrated marathoner Lee Bongju [이봉주] ends his career with win in Taejŏn
• Foreign students (some of the kyopo?) hit the trifecta of drug arrests after getting caught with coke, meth, and pot
• Korea and Chile consider FTA revisions

Stuff not-so-Korea-related

• In the wake of the deaths (and possible murders) in a Sedona, Arizona, sweat lodge, the Wall Street Journal has a piece focusing on the dangers of self-help tactics
• Craigslist, called "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," wins lawsuit aimed at forcing the online goods-and-services flea market to pull its "adult services" ads
• Nations in a race to build combat robots
• Dallas police issued dozens of tickets to people for not speaking English (HT to ZenKimchi)
• Mayumi Heene, mother of "Balloon Boy," reportedly says incident was a hoax (concocted by her control-freak husband?)