Loose change for February 23, 2009

 Economic news 

• Daewoo Securities says that Korea will easily be able to absorb a record number of IPOs this year.
• AP asks if the low-paying garment industry — which includes a number of South Korean-owned factories — can save Haiti.
• Beef imports were down 11.7 percent in 2009, which the Korea Times blames on lingering worries over Mad Cow Disease. I wonder if the drop may be more attributable to the sucky-arse economy, especially since Australian beef (which is not associated with Mad Cow) was also down.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• The Korea Times has a piece to accompany today's report by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, focusing on the plight of several women who fled North Korea. The Korea Herald is carrying a similar story.
• Seventy percent of South Koreans feel threatened by North Korea's weapons.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• In South Korea, no small number of people believe (as do many Japanese and Taiwanese) that blood type determines personality, so the Korea Times asks if it determines your career.
• President Lee Myungbak would like to spend the next year focusing on rooting out corruption among senior politicians as a way of improving national competitiveness. 
• With the arrest of a possible Taliban operative in Taegu, the Korea Times is warning that South Korea is not immune to terrorist attack.
• Mobile phones are becoming "digital wallets." Yeah, this has been going on for years.
• If you're a Linton, you get free seat upgrades on Asiana Airlines. One of the Doctors Linton diagnosed my appendicitis. I won't provide the details, but it wasn't pretty.
• The Chosun Ilbo has a focus on actress Chea Minseo's role in Vegetarian, which involved, among other things, shedding eight kilograms as part of the story line and a nude scene with her brother-in-law (something to talk about during Chusok, I suppose). And it wouldn't be the CSI if it didn't involve pictures with lots of skin. So go have a look.
• The Marmot's Hole Korea Blog Aggregator is back! I always get a lot of traffic from that but, surprisingly, I actually got more traffic when it was out. Hmm... maybe when it's gone, more blog-browsing folks work a little harder to find out on their own what's where. But I'm glad it's back, not only for my own hits, but also because it's easier to check out things interesting on blogs I only rarely look at, like Coming Anarchy. Apolo Anton Ohno seems pretty excited about it being fixed. Or maybe he's the one who fixed it. Or maybe the Aggregator got disqualified. Hard to tell.

 Miscellany 

• Find cast members of "The Office" photoshopped into historic Olympic photographs. Yeah, I love "The Office" and Jenna Fischer, and I'm bored.
• After defeat in the men's 1500-meter event, Shani Davis is looking to the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. That is, if they have any ice there.