This is not exactly a tasteful photograph to celebrate graduation with and I am not surprised it is being criticized in Korea:

A poster showing topless art students posing has gone viral on social media after it was uploaded on a personal online account.

Eighteen modern dance students at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, took the now-famous photograph to commemorate their graduation, reports said.

It is customary for seniors to take studio photographs with their friends. However, this particular photo drew controversy when it was made into a poster for a graduation recital — an official school event.

The photos show the dancers 17 female and one male ­shirtless and with their backs to the camera.

“Things are difficult in our department as a result of this poster going viral,” Kim Yoon-ah, a teaching assistant in the dance department, told The Korea Times.  [Korea Times via the Marmot’s Hole]

You can read more at the link, but the rule of thumb just about anywhere is to ask yourself is this a photograph you would want to send to grandma? With that said the one guy in this photo is probably proud to show it to everyone including grandma.

Xinhua pretends NYT is denied visas because it violated rules. Everyone knows the Communist Party aims to censor NYT. http://t.co/MJ9msij05M

— Edward Wong (@comradewong) November 15, 2014

Then South Korean President Park Chung-hee (C) arrives in Canberra in 1968. At Park Chung-hee’s right is incumbent South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The junior Park accompanied her father to Australia at that time as a high school sophomore. (Photo courtesy of the National Archives of Korea)

This retirement reform proposal is better than others I have seen,but people should not be fooled into thinking this is in any way a good deal:

A proposal that would transform the military retirement system by promising smaller monthly checks but also giving troops a lump sum “transition pay” immediately upon retirement could turn out to be very popular among most service members, according to a new study.

The study published Wednesday by the RAND Corp. think tank looked in detail for the first time at how today’s 1.4 million active-duty troops might respond to a sweeping overhaul of the traditional military retirement system.
The results suggest that many troops, given a choice, would prefer to take an end-of-career payout, probably amounting to about 2½ years of their annual basic pay, in exchange for smaller monthly checks during their so-called “working-age retirement” years before age 65. (Army Times)

You can read more at the link but I would advise every troop against doing this but I could see some taking this option to pay bills or pay off a mortgage before retirement. What I like most about this bad deal is that it is voluntary and troops are not forced to take it.

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

I thought maybe that former North Korean detainee Matthew Miller had some mental issues to explain his odd detention in North Korea, but after reading this great NK News interview with him it turns out he is just an idiot:

It’s a story that begins with North Korea trying to refuse to imprison him, and ends with him going home on the personal airplane of America’s top spy.

It’s clearly more than an average vacation, yet this is exactly what 25-year-old Matthew Miller – the Bakersfield, California citizen who had his release from North Korea secured last Saturday by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper – has just experienced.

Enduring 210 days held prisoner by Pyongyang, Miller’s tale – now revealed exclusively by NK News – shows more signs of being an extreme vacation causing a major headache for Washington than the “six years of hard labor” North Korean state media called it when he was sentenced in September.

Despite fears in Washington about Miller’s attempt to claim “political asylum” during a tourist trip to North Korea this April, an interview with NK News shows that, far from being arrested upon entry, it took considerable effort for the curious American to get entangled in the DPRK legal system.

During his nearly six months in custody, Matthew Miller said he wanted to find out what North Korea was like beyond the tourist trail, something it seems he was successful in discovering.

“This might sound strange, but I was prepared for the ‘torture’ but instead of that I was killed with kindness, and with that my mind folded and the plan fell apart,” Miller told NK News this week from California.

“I sincerely apologized to North Korea, it was not coerced at all,” Miller said of his court statement to DPRK legal authorities.

“Before going I did not think I would feel guilt for my actions toward North Korea. Over time that changed and I did feel guilt for the crime, so in that sense I consider what I did to be a mistake even though I did achieve (my) goals.”  [NK News]

I recommend reading the whole interview at the link, but even the North Koreans saw that this guy was an idiot and were eager to get rid of him. It just makes me wonder if idiots like this should be charged with a crime for basically wasting everyone’s time, even the North Koreans with his stupidity? Or charge him for the cost of using the airplane to fly him out of North Korea?

Yesterday's Reddit AMA with Kang Chol-hwan "The average North Korean knows the situation in North Korea is not good" http://t.co/rjbVnQPOjo

— HanVoice (@HanVoice) November 15, 2014

Singer IU salutes at an event in Seoul on Nov. 6, 2014, to promote her to an honorary police corporal. (Yonhap)

The Secret Service is lucky this nut was not a suicide bomber because he could have blew up the White House considering how deep in the building he got:

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service response to an armed intruder who jumped the fence and raced into the White House was complicated by muted alarms and radios, thick bushes on the lawn, unlocked doors and an officer inside who was physically too small to tackle the intruder and fumbled with her equipment, according to the Homeland Security Department review of the case.
A summary of the government’s investigation, released Thursday night, revealed sensational new details about the Sept. 19 break-in at the White House by a disturbed Army veteran carrying a knife.
The government determined that lack of training, poor staffing decisions and communication problems contributed to the embarrassing failure that ultimately led to the resignation of the head of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson. The report disclosed Thursday did not specify any disciplinary actions. (Stars and Stripes)

You can read the rest at the link, but there was general buffoonery by both male and female agents stationed at the White House. It just makes me wonder what the standards are to be an agent now a days?

South China Sea a focus at the East Asia Summit? My curtain raiser at @AsiaMTI @lowyinstitute http://t.co/QP763q0gke

— Rory Medcalf (@Rory_Medcalf) November 12, 2014