Korea Returning Chinese Character

The world of hangul studies and childhood education have collided in an unusually sharp argument over the future of hanja in schools.

The spark for this latest conflagration was the decision by the Seoul Department of Education to expand hanja education in its elementary and middle schools starting in the 2013 fall semester

On July 3rd, civic groups devoted to hangul and parents of schoolchildren gathered in front of the Department of Education?s office building in Jongro and held a press conference detailing their opposition to teaching hanja in elementary schools.

The Coalition for Hangul Culture, the Association for Hangul Studies, and other hangul organizations, New Right parent associations which typically voice their concerns about the Department of Education?s policies, conservative education groups and progressive education groups all stood side by side in presenting their position during the meeting.

South Korean elementary schools had been using hangul-only textbooks for the past forty years, however the hanja expansion policy introduced by Moon Yong-rin, Chairman of the Seoul Department of Education, would have marked a change back toward hanja-based education. This fundamental change lead to the unusually unified opposition showing on July 3rd.

Starting in the fall, the Seoul Department of Education will implement a policy that encourages city elementary and middle schools to use textbooks that prioritize learning hanja terminology. The department is currently looking at the demands of teaching hanja and parents? concerns in regards to hanja education.

Hangul advocates and a number of education civic groups have branded the policy ?a return to the past.?

According to critics, ?Chairman Moon is advocating for the cause of teaching hanja in school because he believes that it is difficult to understand the words in the textbooks, but he is doing so based solely on his personal feelings rather than any objective evidence.?

The opposition claims that the students have a hard time understanding the hanja-based terms in their textbooks, but that it also takes too long to teach them the characters. They say that if such is the case, it would be better to replace the difficult words with more native Korean words rather than trying to teach the hanja.

Opposition groups also suggested that the hanja education policy will place an additional burden on students, thereby pushing them to rely more on private education and tutors.

The Seoul Department of Education has responded by saying that the opposition is overreacting, since the hanja classes will be optional and taught after school hours. The classes are also intended only to improve knowledge of Korean words.

During an internal meeting last month, Chairman Moon stated that ?the hanja expansion policy is intended to increase understanding of Korean, not to undermine the hangul-only education approach?make sure that there are no misunderstandings.?

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The above was machine translated from Yonhap news.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/china-far-east/266645-korea-returning-chinese-character.html

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Pink Heals tour brings cancer awareness to Oshkosh

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WFRV) - A group of pink police cars and fire trucks stopped in the City of Oshkosh to help in the fight against cancer.

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It was all part of a national cancer awareness program called Pink Heals.

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Today, the caravan traveled to stops throughout the city? where people could share their stories and sign the trucks.

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It's part of a larger group of pink emergency vehicles that travel the country spreading awareness and raising funds for cancer treatment programs.

"I think a lot of times, the healthcare system is broke, and focus is too much in service to one's self, instead of everyone you're supposed to be inspiring to help," tour founder Dave Graybill says. "We're creating immediate care by raising money without raising taxes and 100% of it directed to the people in need."

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T-shirts commemorating the stop are on sale at all Oshkosh Hardees locations.

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The money raised will go to Aurora Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center.

Source: http://wearegreenbay.com/fulltext?nxd_id=211612

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Obama?s Speech Longer Than All but One of His State of the Union Addresses

AP

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
July 24, 2013 3:46 pm

President Obama?s speech on jobs and the economy Wednesday in Illinois took 1 hour, 6 minutes, making it longer than every State of the Union address of his presidency except the one in?January of 2010?when he spoke for 1 hour 9 minutes.

And yet many pundits were left wondering what the point was to Obama?s lengthy remarks at Knox College today.

The Weekly Standard?s Fred Barnes called it a ?predictable bust? with ?tired ideas? that proved Obama, whose approval ratings are at their lowest point since 2011,?may be older but is anything but wiser:

And remember the ?sequester??? It was his idea to force spending cuts of $100 billion or so for 10 years.? Now, though the sequester?s impact has been chiefly to reduce our military strength, he blames Republicans for ?leaving in place a meat cleaver? that?s done everything from costing jobs to gutting education and scientific research.

As usual for an Obama speech, there?s plenty of pie in the sky.? He?ll ?rebuild run-down neighborhoods.?? He?s for making preschool available for 4-year-olds?no mention of the cost?and providing ?a vital support system for working parents.?? Translated, that means taxpayer paid babysitting.

Forbes?contributor Doug Schoen, a Democrat, derided the ?much-hyped? address as little more than a campaign-style speech that doubled down on his 2012 approach: division, polarization and moving to the left.

Washington Post?s political blog ?The Fix? said Obama?s address would change very little despite being billed by aides as a major moment for his second term:

And yet, during that same OFA fundraiser, Obama acknowledged that no matter how lofty his goals or his rhetoric, the fundamental realities of the politics of the economy were almost certain to remain unchanged.??I?m excited about the speech, not because I think the speech is going to change any minds,? he said.

Truer words were never spoken.

?The Fix? editor Chris Cillizza added afterwards, ?You could be forgiven if you thought you had heard?President Obama?s speech on the economy today before. Because you have.?

Before the speech, liberal?Washington Post columnist and?frequent MSNBC contributor Dana Milbank pondered whether yet another attempt to ?pivot? to the economy showed the chief executive was ?fresh out of ideas?:

If he?s to break through the resistance, Obama will need some bold new proposals. That?s why his speech returning to the oldies would seem to confirm that the White House has given up on big achievements.

To build interest in the new series of speeches, the White House scheduled an invitation-only briefing (RSVP required) for Monday, then set cloak-and-dagger ground rules requiring that the briefers not be quoted, even anonymously. Reporters protested, but they needn?t have worried: The official who gave the briefing made clear that there would be no new policies announced, at least not major ones and not initially.

Even the royal baby stole Obama?s thunder. News that the young prince had been named George Alexander Louis of Cambridge came during his prepared remarks.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/obamas-speech-longer-than-all-but-one-of-his-state-of-the-union-addresses/

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At least one Mursi supporter killed in Cairo protest march

CAIRO (Reuters) - At least one supporter of Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Mursi was killed on Wednesday in Cairo during a protest march, a security source and the Muslim Brotherhood said.

The Muslim Brotherhood said on its website that police in civilian clothes had opened fire using live ammunition early on Wednesday on marching Mursi supporters, killing two and injuring others.

A security source confirmed one Mursi supporter was killed.

The Muslim Brotherhood has accused the Ministry of Interior of using thugs in plain clothes to attack protesters, but security officials have denied this accusation.

In a separate incident, a bomb exploded at a police station in a province north of Cairo early on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 17 others, Health Ministry and security sources told Reuters.

Unknown assailants threw the bomb from a passing car in Mansoura, the capital of Dakhalia province, two security sources said.

Nine people were killed in Cairo on Tuesday in clashes between opponents and Islamist supporters of Mursi who was toppled by the army earlier this month.

(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-one-mursi-supporter-killed-cairo-protest-march-040625085.html

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Novel 'top-down' mechanism repatterns developing brain regions

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Dennis O'Leary was the first scientist to show that the basic functional architecture of the cortex, the largest part of the human brain, was genetically determined during development. But as it so often does in science, answering one question opened up many others. O'Leary wondered what if the layout of the cortex wasn't fixed? What would happen if it were changed?

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/xyM_1rkqHw4/130722202649.htm

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Photo of Crashed Southwest Plane Shows Majorly Mangled Landing Gear

So remember how officials were pretty sure that the Southwest Airlines 737 crash landing at La Guardia was caused by a problem with the landing gear? Well, guess what?there was a problem with the landing gear. And according to a tweet from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it was doozy.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-8YdfsNvqmg/photo-of-crashed-southwest-plane-shows-majorly-mangled-887285882

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ENERGY BOOM Tech Fuels Domestic Oil Production in Western US

North Dakota and Texas get all the press when it comes to America's domestic oil boom, but production is increasing dramatically in several other states in the American West.

According to the Energy Information Administration, since 2010 oil production has increased 64% in Colorado, 51% in Oklahoma, 46% in New Mexico, 45% in Utah and 23% in Wyoming.

Combined, those states rival the heralded Bakken field in North Dakota. The reason behind the boom is the same as it is in the more well-known oil producing regions: technology.

"In the olden days exploring for oil and natural gas was a much bigger challenge than it is now," explains Tim Wigley, President of the Western Energy Alliance, an industry association. "And what really has been a game changer has been directional drilling, so now as opposed to having 15 or 20 wells on your property, you have one that can branch out 10 to 15 different ways."

Wigley is quick to point out that the onshore oil boom is not due to the Obama administration.

"While energy production overall in the country has gone up significantly it is because of private land production, it is in spite of the federal government not because of it."

In a statement to Fox News, the Bureau of Land Management pointed out that, "Domestic production from over 99,000 federal onshore oil and gas wells accounts for almost 13 percent of the nation's natural gas production and 5 percent of its oil. In FY 2012, this amounted to about $2.5 billion in royalties from onshore federal oil and gas production."

While industry critics say those figures are insignificant compared to what they could be, some conservationists believe the administration has gone too far in opening up federal lands in the West to oil and gas production.

"The reality is that acres of land that have been leased for energy production far outstrip land that has been preserved or conserved during the Obama administration," said Pete Maysmith, Director of Conservation Colorado.?

"We need to put that on equal ground. That's not happening right now, we need to be doing more land protection here in Colorado and the West."

Maysmith acknowledges that oil and gas exploration must and will happen on public lands but says it must be done in ways that preserve the western tradition of multiple land use.?

"And the interesting thing is that Westerners actually get that. A bipartisan poll that came out in the region just a couple of months ago shows deep and strong support for preserving our landscapes. They are economic drivers for tourism, outdoor recreation, industry, agricultural uses, clean water, you name it."

The administration has worked to shorten the time it takes to obtain oil and gas leasing permits on federal lands, a process that used to take an average of 300 days. But critics like Wigley say it's still not enough when compared to state and private lands. "For instance a permit in Texas or Oklahoma or North Dakota, you can get in 15 or 45 days. A permit on federal lands is about 230 days."

He also points out that unlike most areas of the country, in most of the Intermountain West, the amount of land owned by the federal government ranges from around 30% to 70% in states like Utah and Nevada.

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Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/23/domestic-oil-production-on-rise-in-western-states-due-to-technology-private/

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