Shown is a blueprint for YG Entertainment’s K-pop Cluster to be built on 49,600 square meters of land in Uijeongbu City, Gyeonggi Province. The blueprint was released on Jan. 15, 2015. (Yonhap)
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
The KFA's dubious "friendship tours" of North Korea: http://t.co/E45rTdO9Bz
— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) January 15, 2015
People run topless at a marathon event in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, on Jan. 11, 2015. (Yonhap)
It looks like Google is serious about pushing for a near term release of their self driving car technology. I can see this probably being a custom option available to customers just like Ford currently has the automatic parking feature in some of their vehicles:
LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday it will supply battery packs to the self-driving cars to be launched by U.S. Google Inc. a move that wil certainly help South Korea’s No. 2 tech giant tap deeper into the automobile industry.
“We have been conducting various projects with Google as a strategic partner. Our automotive technology will now be applied to Google’s self-driving cars,” an LG official said.
A battery pack is a set of any number of individual battery cells.
Google said it will also partner with U.S. automaker General Motors Co., Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., Germany’s Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, and join forces with chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and German automotive technology giant Bosch as well.
Earlier this month, LG said its chief has discussed possible business tie-ups with the head of Mercedes-Benz. The company launched the Vehicle Components Division by regrouping its business sectors in 2013 in line with its efforts to tap new sources of profits. [Yonhap]
Trailer for new documentary: "Us & Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-Pop World" http://t.co/WhWKsMfk10
— Michael Bourdaghs (@sayonaraamerika) January 15, 2015
Foreign tourists enjoy catching trout with their bare hands at a festival in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province, on Jan. 11, 2015. (Yonhap)
Here is an update of the development of the “Combined Division” that the 2nd Infantry Division is developing with the ROK Army:
About 30 South Korean officers, including a one-star general, became part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s headquarters staff Thursday as part of the formation of a combined division.
The integration is one of the first concrete steps the two militaries have taken toward the historic restructuring since the initiative was announced last September.
“U.S. and Korean soldiers will literally operate as one unit with one unified effort,” 2ID commander Maj. Gen. Thomas Vandal was quoted as saying in a 2ID statement. “Nowhere else has this been attempted to the extent that we are going to implement, and the fact that we are able to make this happen is momentous.”
The combined division will fall under the 8th Army and include 2ID forces and South Korea’s 16th Brigade. It will be led by the 2ID commander and a South Korean one-star general – initially Brig. Gen. Yin Sung-hwan — acting as deputy commander. Many of the South Korean officers joining the headquarters staff, composed of approximately 750 U.S. troops, will begin integration training next week, according to the statement.
Officials have said the combined division will improve the allies’ warfighting capabilities and create more opportunities for joint training. South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense previously said that during peacetime, troops from each country will live at separate bases and train together as needed. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
Though some units have had active training relationships with ROK Army counterparts in the past this is probably something that should have been done long ago that is finally coming to fruition to formalize and better integrate these relationships. Hopefully these headquarters staff ROK officers are not treated as glorified KATUSAs and instead are fully integrated as part of the team. It will be interesting to see how well this works out.
Here is a pretty cool story involving a Korean War veteran:
Early last month, Chip Herrington was headed back to Alabama, where he lives, from Mississippi, where he happened to be working that day. As he drove, Herrington, an attorney, saw some antique and pawn shops along the roadway and decided to stop and take a look around.
That’s when Herrington spotted it — an old military sword, resting in a butter churn next to the bat and gun barrel at the Mississippi shop.
“I saw what I knew to be an old Navy officer’s sword,” Herrington told The Post in a phone interview this week. “I love that kind of stuff, and it was a good price, I thought. So I bought it for $40.”
The sword was listed as a Civil War-era piece of equipment, even though it wasn’t. And the scabbard wasn’t in great shape — the leather peeling away — but Herrington said he understood what he had was once valuable to someone.
“I knew exactly what it was when I saw it,” Herrington said.
When Herrington got home and took a closer look at the sword, he noticed that it was inscribed with a name — ROY M. JOHNSEN, written in all caps, just like that. [Washington Post]
You can read the rest at the link, but Herrington was able to track down Roy M. Johnsen and found out that he was a 88 year old Korean War veteran who had the sword stolen decades ago.
A Marine who lost a leg while serving in Afghanistan explains what it was like to summit Mt. Vinson in Antarctica http://t.co/fN3mg4edJS
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) January 13, 2015
