Monday, April 5, 2010

Tuttle News Wrap

1) Went to the FC Seoul vs Suwon match on Sunday; the weather started ot quite nice but had got a bit chilly by the end. Still, it warmed me up to see the home team win in convincing fashion after their last minute loss to Jeonbuk my last time out.

They won with three goals to one, in dramatic fashion beginning in the 24th minute, when Dejan tapped a back-heel to brand new foreigner Estevez. This was followed up three minutes later when the Bluewings keeper mishit his distribution ball and the left striker Jung polished it off with some interplay from Dejan, for the winner. Insurance was added in another four minutes, allowing the Reds to take a 3 - nil score to halftime.

Suwon, who had a large blue contingent in the stands, did not give up, and sparked to life with a goal in the third minute of the second half. This was mishandled by keeper Kim Yong Dae, bounced around before finally being tucked in. The thing to take away, of course, is that three of the four scores were Big Five.

2) Just when Federal Court Judge Vaughn Walker has ruled that the NSA broke the law with its "warrantless wiretapping activities", the Korea Times reports in a story headed "Behold: Somebody is Watching You" that clandestine eavesdropping by the Korean government are increasing at an alarming rate.

Though the article makes no claim the listening in violates Korean law, which requires court approval, the increase is astounding, jumping from 236,782 in the second half of 2008, to 15.77 million in the same period last year. That's a 6,600% increase.

Unfortunately, the article is so poorly reported that it's impossible to know what's really going on. The government officer quoted says that the increase is due to "the emergence of new types of crimes using telecommunications and the Internet." That's a hard-sell, unless they're referring to new laws cracking down on internet speech, such as the Minerva case.

Civil rights advocates say "investigators have often ignored the law for 'arbitrary and extensive' monitoring of targeted individuals or groups," but the only case they cite lacks any evidence that this is so. The group in question has been monitored through parts of three Korean administrations, so it's hard to call it pure politics.

3) Alas, the military has officially ended the attempt to rescue sailors who went down nine days ago when the ROKS Cheonan sank under mysterious circumstances, and will now focus on finding the cause of the tragedy.
The Navy halted the rescue operations on Saturday night upon the request of the family members of the missing sailors.
The request came after the body of one of the 46 missing sailors was found in the stern of the ship and a fishing vessel carrying nine sailors was apparently hit by a Cambodian-registered ship and sank after helping in the search operations.

Sad news indeed.

4) So, let us end on a happier note. I recently discovered, thanks to YouTube, a British TV program called QI, hosted by the inimitable Stephen Fry. It is a panel show wherein various British comedians and TV personalities attempt to answer quizmaster--or make that schoolmaster--Fry's impossible questions about anything and everything. He doesn't award points for being correct so much as for being Quite Interesting (that's what QI stands for, you see).

Well, it's effing brill, is all I can say. Someone named mikeyman211 has downloaded all of them in their entirety, but don't start watching until you've got some hours and hours free--it's Quite Interesting, and Utterly Addictive. Here's part 1 of Episode 1 of Season 1 to get you started:

2 comments:

Mo said...

If you like British panel comedy shows, you should check out Mock The Week, and Argumentals. Those are great shows! A YouTube user by the name of MrMoody posts those shows, go check out that channel and subscribe if you like them. :)

Tuttle said...

Thanks for the tip, Mo.