- President Lee pardons Samsung chairman in bid to win 2018 winter Olympics (NYT, BBC, AP via WaPo)
- North Korea said to be looting heavy equipment from US-led nuclear consortium's unfinished reactor (NYT, Yonhap, Reuters via WaPo)
- South Korea demands return of equipment (UPI)
- Kumho Asiana, facing cash crunch, agrees to sell controlling stake in Daewoo Construction (Reuters via NYT, Bloomberg, Yonhap)
- North Korea may conduct nuclear test in 2010 (UPI)
- ROK Justice Ministry plans to ease permanent residency requirements for overseas ethnic Koreans and long-term foreign residents (Donga Ilbo, Korea Times, Joongang Daily, Yonhap)
- Activists hold rally for "martyr" Robert Kim Park (AFP)
- South Korea, Japan, and China to develop "tourism pass" (Chosun Ilbo)
- President Lee promises that the canal plan is dead; and not Jason dead but really dead (Korea Herald)
- Government to set up database for convicts' DNA (Yonhap)
- ROK military to free up 9 million square meters for civilian use (Yonhap)
- Anti-English Spectrum "pretty sure" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was once an illegal English teacher in South Korea; Justice Ministry announces new E-2 visa regulations requiring English teachers to be tested for underwear bombs (Yonhap)
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Daily Kor for December 31, 2009
Okay, so I was able to carve out a little time while taking advantage of a wifi connection at It's A Grind, my new favorite coffee shop chain. Don't expect this to happen again tomorrow, however, as I'll probably be at the Grand Canyon. Oh, and 새해 복 많이 받으세요.
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Happy New Year to you & your readers. Glad I discovered you & the rest of the K-sphere this autumn.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if more and more people are figuring out that winter is the best time to visit the Grand Canyon if you're not planning to hike into it. Few visitors and the soft glow of the sun from the south make winter an ideal time to visit. People from SoCal or Hawaii may think a 18F night is cold, but to us from wetter northern climes, the dry cold is pleasant and bearable compared to the bone-chilling damp cold we are used to.
ReplyDeleteAnd while you're there, do check out the canyon on a clear, moonlit night if you can. Absolutely beautiful, especially with a snow-capped rim.
ReplyDelete"Activists hold rally for "martyr" Robert Kim"
ReplyDeleteYou mean Robert PARK. BIG difference.
Sonagi wrote:
ReplyDeleteYou mean Robert PARK. BIG difference.
Whoops.
D'oh!
Fixed.
And really, it's a statistical inevitability that a Robert Kim, a Robert Park, a Robert Lee, and a Robert Choi will all be famous some day.
In fact, Robert Choi is the only one left.
The Sanity Inspector wrote:
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you & your readers. Glad I discovered you & the rest of the K-sphere this autumn.
Well, it's nice to have you in the K-blogosphere. Happy new year!
Sonagi wrote:
ReplyDeleteI wonder if more and more people are figuring out that winter is the best time to visit the Grand Canyon if you're not planning to hike into it.
It is absolutely gorgeous in the winter. In fact, every trip I've made to the South Rim except one has been in December or January. It's sort of a family tradition, given that Christmas vacation was our traditional "Southwestern vacation" time.
And the only times I've ever hiked to the bottom were in the winter time. The top two miles are icy and snowy, but as you get farther and farther down the canyon, it gets drier and warmer. The last time I did it, the temperature was 30-something on top, but it was 70-something at the Colorado River.
And since it's a lot cooler in the canyon, it's feasible to do the whole thing (down and up) on the same day. During the summer, temperatures down below can reach the 120s, which are deadly dangerous for people trying a grueling down-and-up hike, but this is not the case in the moderate temperatures of Christmas-New Year's.
Few visitors and the soft glow of the sun from the south make winter an ideal time to visit.
I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's absolutely true.
People from SoCal or Hawaii may think a 18F night is cold, but to us from wetter northern climes, the dry cold is pleasant and bearable compared to the bone-chilling damp cold we are used to.
Ha ha. Well, bear in mind that I've now used to Korean winters enough that the Grand Canyon winter is bearable.
And for the record, the temperature got down to 8°F as we were walking around in the moonlight just before midnight, according to my iPhone.
It was a happy coincidence that we were there as the moon was full, which was the same as the last two visits I made to the Grand Canyon (North Rim in August 2008 and South Rim at Christmas 2004).
Both times we took moonlit walks, and it really does present the canyon in a completely different way. It's truly amazing.
You repeated the Freudian slip in the Jan. 2 Loose Change:
ReplyDelete"Supporters of Robert Kim launch balloons into North Korea."
Hehehe. And I'd hoped never to read that name again in the K-blogosphere.
Have you ever seen the moon rise over the water? Its beauty rivals a sunrise or sunset. The moonbeams start as a thin silver sliver on the water and then broaden to light golden band. I spent a week on a tiny peninsular resort off the south coast of Java, a place where one could see the sun set on the western sea and then walk ten minutes across the peninsula to see the moon rise to the east. Sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, and banana pancakes in between. The perfect vacation.
ReplyDelete