Author: GIKorea

For anyone stationed in the Tokyo area be on the look out for this deadly fungus:

The world’s second-deadliest fungus, known in Japan as kaentake, or “fire mushroom,” has been spotted at a park in western Tokyo that’s not far from a popular U.S. military recreation area.

The highly toxic bright-red fungus — also called Podostroma cornu-damae, or poison fire coral — grows on dead trees, causes severe skin inflammation if touched, and is lethal when ingested, according to a safety briefing slide distributed to Yokota units this week by the 374th Civil Engineer Squadron. 

“Commonly, symptoms start about 30 minutes after the fungus is eaten and it takes about 48 hours before a person dies,” Tamon Fukazawa of the squadron’s environmental element told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday.

Just touching a fire mushroom can cause a host of issues, according to the squadron’s safety slide. These include severe itching, sores, red skin, skin shedding, distortion of senses, loss of muscle coordination, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, nose and throat pain, cough, sneezing, difficulty breathing, wheezing, spitting up blood and bleeding disorders.

Ingesting the fungus, which is prevalent in Japan, China and Korea, but has recently popped up in Australia, can result in weakness, shock and death. 

“There is no anti-toxin,” the safety slide said. “[Medical staff] will make you as comfortable as possible, but it will be excruciatingly painful.”

The fungus is typically found on dead, diseased trees during late summer and fall, its peak growing season, according to the slide.

Tama city, where fire mushrooms were spotted sprouting last month, notified its residents to look out for the fungus on Aug. 23, Fukazawa said. The area — about 14 miles from Yokota and 12 miles from Camp Zama — is home to the Tama Hills Recreation Area, a U.S. military-run facility popular for its golf course, horseback riding trails and rental cabins.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Yoon administration has decided to crackdown on Park Sang-hak and his Fighters for a Free North Korea:

 South Korean activists say they clashed with police while launching balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda materials across the North Korean border, ignoring their government’s plea to stop such activities since the North has threatened to respond with “deadly” retaliation.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he his group had launched about eight balloons from an area in the South Korean border town of Paju Saturday night when police officers arrived at the scene and prevented them from sending their 12 remaining balloons. Park said police confiscated some of their materials and detained him and three other members of his group over mild scuffles with officers before releasing them after questioning.

Officials at the Paju police and the northern Gyeonggi provincial police agencies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

The balloons flown toward North Korea carried masks, Tylenol and Vitamin C tablets along with propaganda materials, including booklets praising South Korea’s economic wealth and democratic society and hundreds of USB sticks containing videos of U.S. Congress members denouncing the North’s human rights record, Park said.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

The new frontline on the war on woke has not shifted to the U.S. Air Force Academy:

Academy officials say such diversity training is long overdue and will build better leaders, while critics worry about what appears to be a changing culture and focus in the military and its institutions that will be to the detriment of the nation’s defenses.

One slide presented as part of the training program bore language that encouraged cadets to “recognize diverse family formation” by using broad terminology that avoided gendered references. The academy said the slide was taken out of context; cadets aren’t prohibited from using the terms “mom” and “dad,” as some news reports claimed, and the information presented as part of the training was “not intended to stand alone.”

But the academy’s response has only served to fuel ongoing controversy about so-called wokeism in the military, a debate that was re-stirred after images of the AFA training slides were shared beyond the campus north of Colorado Springs last month, reported on by Fox News Digital and then a slew of other outlets.

The slides , visual aids used in a moderated presentation at the academy — and the only elements of the presentation subsequently leaked to the media — made their points in a series of bullet points. One slide encouraged cadets to use “person-centered” and “inclusive language” that doesn’t imply presumptions about others’ situations, preferred pronouns or family life.

So, “parents/caregivers/guardians” instead of “mom and dad.”

And “ya’ll/team/squaddies/everyone/folks,” instead of “you guys.”

It also discouraged cadets from using terms such as “colorblind.”

A second slide explained that diversity and inclusion are key to developing warfighters who are prepared to lead the Air Force and Space Force “with character.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Academy is pretty much just producing the standard diversity training that is going on in most colleges in the U.S.

South Korea has joined with the vast majority of the world to condemn Russia’s attempted annexation of territory within Ukraine:

The South Korean government said Saturday it does not recognize Russia’s recent annexation of Ukrainian territory as legitimate while strongly condemning Moscow’s invasion of the eastern European country.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex four regions in Ukraine, following referendums in the territory late last month.

“The Korean government strongly condemns Russia’s armed invasion against Ukraine as a violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a statement.

“The Korean government does not recognize the referenda held in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson and Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory as legitimate.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but areas that Russia is claiming in this annexation have already been liberated by Ukraine. This includes Russia’s embarrassing defeat this weekend in the logistical hub of Lyman.

Here is an embarrassing gaffe by the U.S. Vice President:

A gaffe by US Vice-President Kamala Harris momentarily turned US policy on its head on Thursday when she declared the “important” alliance with communist North Korea – instead of South Korea, where she was speaking.

“So, the United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea. And it is an alliance that is strong and enduring,” Ms Harris said on Thursday at the start of her speech in the Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ, where she visited at the end of a tour to Japan and South Korea.

Apparently not noticing her misstep, Ms Harris went on to deliver the rest of the speech, which provided a robust reaffirmation of Washington’s alliance with Seoul in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea.

The Straits Times

You can read more at the link, but she wouldn’t be the first person I have heard before mistake South Korea for North Korea.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.