So what on earth is going over there in Seoul?!  Pure craziness and lots of drama that you will need to eats lots of popcorn for because this is surely exciting.  First, if you don’t know already Jaebeom has left 2PM. Yeahhh…sorry for the folks that thought he was going to return.  It has been confirmed that he will not be back.  JYP Entertainment recently had a conference to discuss 2PM and the whole Jaebeom ordeal.  Well, first it was a 4 hour conference!  Only in S. Korea would this kind of conference take place when someone from a group left.  I actually find it very nice that the company would hold this conference for the fans but 4 hours…those fans were there for business let’s get that straight first.  The hottests’ came out in full force and demanded answers from JYPE and 2PM.  I won’t summarize the whole 4 hour conference you can listen to it yourself or read the English transcripts here but Jaebeom left, who knows what else he did that was even more terrible than that whole Facebook episode.  Did he do drugs, have wild and crazy sex…I don’t know but the fact of the matter is that he left, he is in America and he is not coming back.  So get over it and move on with your lives…hottests’ please move on to the next thing!  If I am to be honest, the group’s vocals are actually below average.  What they have going for them is their looks…only in Korea…well not just Korea can you get away with a bad voice and still be a famous singer.  S. Korea relies more on looks than it does actual talent.

So where am I going with this…ohhh back to the hottests’ and the conference, everyone was a little emotional there and could have said things more politely but it was a very hard and  drawn out conference.  What do I think about thing whole thing?  I think the rest of 2PM members are in it for themselves, they want to have a job, they want to still keep getting paid.  It’s that simple.  So how can they possible help and defend Jaebeom in any way shape or form.

What do you think of this whole fiasco make a comment?

Download the 4 hour conference here.

Like the Moon Escaping From Clouds is another movie to watch out for this year. The movie is about 4 main actors facing off: Hwang Jung-min as a blind swordsman and Cha Seung-won as a leader of rebellious forces fighting to overturn the strict social order.  It looks pretty good and kind of reminds me of Chuno.  The story is set at the end of the 16th century’s Joseon Dynasty, following Japan’s invasion of Korea.

Watch the trailer and let me know what you think!

Clearly, Chile is a more prosperous country, with economic output per head of the population more than 10 times greater than Haiti. That has meant that buildings in general are better built, but Chile was also better prepared. And the fact that there were different roles of involvement of the U.S. in Haiti vs. in Chile!

Also people in Chile knew the safest places to go to when the earthquake struck.

Also, since an even stronger earthquake in 1960, Chile has developed a seismic design code for new buildings, which has made them better able to stay standing in an earthquake.

One system that helps buildings stay up is called the “strong columns weak beams” system.

The idea is that buildings are held up by reinforced concrete columns, which are strengthened by a steel frame.

Reinforced concrete beams are joined onto the columns to make floors and the roof.

If there is an earthquake, the idea is that the concrete on the beams should break near the end, which dissipates a lot of the energy of the earthquake, but that the steel reinforcement should survive and the columns should stay standing, which means the building will stay upright.

The problem is that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake is “towards the top end of what you’re designing for”, according to Professor Colin Taylor, professor of earthquake engineering at Bristol University.

A mitigating factor in the Chilean quake was that its epicenter was 21 miles underground, off-shore and 70 miles (115km) from the nearest big city, Concepcion.

The energy from earthquakes falls the further away you are from the center.

The Haitian quake on the other hand was only 8 miles  underground and right on the edge of Port-au-Prince.

Synopsis

Set during the Joseon (Chosun) dynasty, Chuno (“Slave Hunter”) takes place in the world of slave hunters and slaves, and focuses on Lee Dae Gil (played by Jang Hyuk), a nobleman whose transformation from a kind lord to a ruthless slave-hunter unfolds with unflinching clarity. Dae Gil is a man of high birth and expected to uphold the family line, but when he falls in love with his kind, beautiful slave, Un Nyun (Lee Da Hae), tragedy strikes. Un Nyun loves him in return, but when Dae Gil’s father finds out, he plans to sell her off. Desperate to help her, Un Nyun’s brother Ki Yoon burns down the house, killing Dae Gil’s parents in the process, and escapes, taking his sister with him.  What happens next…watch it!

OST

There are a total of 18 songs in part 1 and part 2 OST.    Have something to say about this drama…well make a comment about it here.

In Chile the death toll from Saturday’s earthquake has topped 700 and is expected to rise. As many as two million people have been left homeless. The 8.8-magnitude quake is one of the strongest in recorded history. More than 500,000 homes were destroyed or heavily damaged. Rescue workers are searching for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings, but a series of strong aftershocks have hampered the rescue efforts. The quake caused widespread damage to hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructure. Officials said adobe homes have been most affected and that indigenous populations are most at risk. A tsunami triggered by the earthquake caused additional damage in some southern areas of Chile. The earthquake hit less than two weeks before Chilean President Michelle Bachelet leaves office. On Sunday she announced a series of emergency measures.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet: “We are facing a massive catastrophe which has caused damages that will require an enormous effort by both the public and private sectors, one of the largest (efforts) in the history of the country. This effort will be required both for now and for a period into the future. We are facing an emergency unprecedented in the history of Chile that will require an urgent and rapid response.”

The Street, an investment Web site, published an article, misleadingly titled “An Opportunity to Heal Haiti,” that lays out how U.S. corporations can cash in on the catastrophe. “Here are some companies,” they write, “that could potentially benefit: General Electric, Caterpillar, Deere, Fluor, Jacobs Engineering.”

Other commentators–like James Dobbins, a former U.S. special envoy to Haiti under President Bill Clinton–likewise see an opportunity to remake Haiti along free market lines. As he wrote in the New York Times, “This disaster is an opportunity to accelerate oft-delayed reforms.” As director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corporation, the reforms he advocates are not designed to meet people’s needs, but to pad corporate profits through mechanisms like privatization.

THE U.S., a few other imperial powers, some lesser countries and the UN convened a meeting on January 26 in Montreal to profess their concern and promise to aid Haiti.

The 14 so-called “friends of Haiti” at the conference made sure to include Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to at least give the illusion of respect for the country’s sovereignty. But outside, a protest organized by Haiti Action Montreal challenged the meeting with signs demanding “Medical relief not guns,” “Grants not loans” and “Reconstruction for people not profit.”

Guardian columnist Gary Younge criticized the summit for failing to produce any solutions:

Even as corpses remained under the earthquake’s rubble, and the government operated out of a police station, the assembled “friends” would not commit to canceling Haiti’s $1 billion debt. Instead, they agreed to a 10-year plan with no details and a commitment to meet again–when the bodies have been buried along with coverage of the country–sometime in the future.

By contrast, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas grouping of Latin American and Caribbean nations opposed to U.S. neoliberal plans has called for relief not troops and cancellation of Haiti’s debt. On his weekly television show, Chávez declared that thousands of “soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals–that’s what the United States should send. They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

Source: Ashley Smith

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