"Register Today!"

Shortly after receiving this e-mail from Footprints, I got another one.  The subject of this one was, perhaps, a little bit more timely:

What Every Expat Should Know: 
Register With Your Embassy

What I Eat When I'm Sick

This is my favorite kind of instant noodles.



I've been trying to eat more soup and kimchi since I've been sick.

I always seem to recover much faster from colds, sore throats, and the like if I eat kimchi when I feel the sickness coming on.

I always noticed that if I had a sore throat, the burn of the kimchi seemed to burn the soreness out of me. It may also help that cabbage is apparently a superfood. My coworker made a list of vitamins and then listed all the foods that offered them, and he said cabbage ended up on all but one.

This same coworker has another theory about kimchi's benefits to your health. He speculates that by eating acidic foods like fermented cabbage and other pickled side dishes, you're actually altering your body's pH level and creating an environment that's too destructive for viruses (etc.) to survive in. This, he thinks, would be in sharp contrast to many of the foods that are staples in a Western diet, such as milk and bread, which he says are bases.

I'm no scientist, so I won't even pretend to know if his view is accurate or not. But if he's right, would that partially explain why citris fruits (or highly acidic fruits) seem to be so beneficial for your health?

Anyway. The only kind of kimchi that I really like is cucumber kimchi, but I have to say that even basic kimchi's quickly growing on me.

This is an interesting opinion article about the recent headlines made by North Korea.

Here's an excerpt:

North Korea's message seems to be: If you have nuclear capabilities, it doesn't matter how outrageously you behave; it doesn't matter how horribly you mistreat your people; it doesn't matter how flimsy your economy is.

When you have a nuclear arsenal, countries that could topple your regime with a tiny fraction of their power suddenly become afraid of making you angry.

This is a pernicious reality with tragic and hazardous consequences.

...

This standoff is not over, but Pyongyang has already won. From the moment the North obtained nuclear weapons, however rudimentary, the game changed. From that moment, the chances that the North Korean people will rejoin the world and have a chance at a better life diminished greatly. From that moment, the South and the West's room to maneuver became much more limited.

If You Had Doubts About Its Fame

Why I still haven't bought anything at the famous Lee Sung Dang Bakery:

Shop Smart...

Shop 에스마트!

Behold My Magic Bag

My boss suggested that I use a “magic bag” in kindergarten to help my students remain interested. I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't know where to buy something like that.

Well, that doesn't matter anymore, because now I have a sewing machine!

Behold my magic bag:







It was a great way to ease back into sewing, and I'm sure the kids will like it, too.

Addicted to News on North Korea? There's Probably an App for That

I think this article accurately* describes the effect sensationalist media is having on many Westerners.

Poll Shows Americans Are Obsessed with North Korea, Overstate Its Threat

Here's an excerpt:

... Theories for North Korea’s rhetoric vary — some say Kim is seeking concessions from the West, others that he’s working to rally his own military’s support — but you will be very hard pressed to find a North Korea analyst who shares the view of 59 percent of Americans that North Korea is willing to launch a nuclear warhead at America.

It’s not clear why Americans who pay more attention to news reports about North Korea are so ill-informed about its military capability and with the expert analysis of the country’s intentions. But, as The Washington Post’s Chico Harlan writes today, this sense of urgent alarm “plays into North Korea’s hands, amplifying the sense of crisis on the Korean peninsula.” One South Korean analyst even suggested this was part of a deliberate “headline strategy” by Pyongyang.

Andrei Lankov, a respected North Korea analyst, warned in a recent New York Times op-ed that all the attention and overstatements of North Korea’s threats actually risk strengthening the country’s hand when it inevitably starts pressing for concessions from the West.

“It does not make sense to credulously take their fake belligerence at face value and give them the attention they want now,” he writes. “It would be better if people in Washington and New York took a lesson from the people of Seoul,” where South Koreans are mostly shrugging off the recent threats.

*Although apparently even Washington can't agree on what to think about whether the North is capable of loading nuclear weapons onto ballistic missiles yet or not.