Kangneung Elementary Students	Lots of crappy toys for sale, but that's coming from a (sort of) grown up.  I guess an inaccurate, flimsy bow and arrow would be fun if you were a 10 year old boy.
One of my students carrying his chair and pom-pom back to his classroom.	A woman passes on the silkworm larvae, and buys cotton candy instead... good call!

The 2-inch color screen is identical in size to other iPods, but will sport a higher resolution for photo viewing. However, the new device's real shining feature will be its video-out port, which will enable users to tote their photo galleries with them, ready to be plugged into any television for big-screen viewing.

Sources indicate that Apple will market the new photo iPod as being capable of storing 20,000 music tracks and 25,000 photos. As an added bonus for music fans, album artwork will be displayed on screen when it's available for a selected track.

The elusive triple triple.  It you've ever played Scrabble, then you have an idea of what I'm talking abouut.  I found this great flash video called CRAZIEST, which also happens to be the single highest scoring Scrabble word if used correctly - 311!!!  The video's great.  It was pretty entertaining, but at the end, I wondered if it was really a true story.

Click to view

Today I went to the optometrist and got my eyes examined at the big eye glasses shop downtown - across from Jacob the Baker.  I love how very reasonable it is to get glasses in Korea.  The eye exams are free, but it's assumed that you'll buy glasses or contacts from the shop.  The exam itself was only 10 minutes, and my glasses were made in another 10!  The longest part of being at the shop, was drinking their free soda and coffee, and choosing a pair of frames.  Ras helped me pick out a pair and I think these might be my "intellectual" glasses.  It was quite a dent in the purse, but still cheaper than back home.  Free exam, 70,000 won frames, 70,000 won lenses (had to get thinner, more expensive lenses because my eyes are so bad), and 50,000 for two boxes of contacts.  I spent so much money that they gave me a 5,000 won gift certificate, and 10% off the total bill.  Ahh-saa!  My prescription changed half a point, but it was a pretty big difference.  The woman who worked there took off my old glasses and had me try on my new pair.  With the old glasses, it looked like she had a nice complexion.  After putting on the new pair, I could now see all the flaws she was trying to hide with her make-up.  (I intentionally brought my camera to take pictures of the experience, but was so excited while there, that I forgot to snap any shots!)

Clarence Hailey Long, 1949 - Another Landmark Image

This is C.H. Long, a 39-year-old foreman at the JA ranch in the Texas panhandle, a place described as “320,000 acres of nothing much.” Once a week, Long would ride into town for a store-bought shave and a milk shake. Maybe he’d take in a movie if a western was playing. He said things like, “If it weren’t for a good horse, a woman would be the sweetest thing in the world.” He rolled his own smokes. When the cowboy’s face and story appeared in LIFE in 1949, advertising exec Leo Burnett had an inspiration. The company Philip Morris, which had introduced Marlboro as a woman’s cigarette in 1924, was seeking a new image for the brand, and the Marlboro Man based on Long boosted Marlboro to the top of the worldwide cigarette market.

Check out The Digital Journalist's other Feature Presentations.  Of the 7 or 8 galleries I got a chance to browse, I particularly liked:  Requim: by the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina, Tibetan Hunger Strike, Getting Beyond the Headlines, and Afghan Child Labor.

Afghan Child Labor.  Photo credit: Chien-Min Chung

R.E.M. and Dan Rather on The Late Show with David Letterman

This is a bizare event that only the 80's could produce!  Back in October 1986, Dan Rather was walking down a Manhattan street when he was punched from behind and thrown to the ground. His assailant kicked and beat him while repeating, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"  At the time, nobody could explain the bizarre event.  Finally in 1997, Dan Rather identified the man that beat him up.  "The CBS anchorman said his assailant was William Tager, now in prison for killing an NBC stagehand outside the Today show in 1994. Tager was convinced the media had him under surveillance and were beaming hostile messages to him, and he demanded that Rather tell him the frequency being used, according to a forensic psychiatrist who examined Tager after the NBC shooting."  Apparently, Tager was not stalking Rather, but accidentally encountered him.  It's straight out of Conspiracy Theory.  The attack inspired the 1994 R.E.M. hit "What's the Frequency, Kenneth." [Listen]  Being a good sport, Dan Rather accompanied the band when they performed the song on Late Show with David Letterman.  Now, there's an

After reading this, it made me curious about that Phil Collins song, in the Air Tonight.  I've heard for years that it's about Phil Collins watching his friend drown, as he helplessly watched from far away.  In addition, there was a man who could have rescued the friend, but just stood idly by.  Then, Phil writes a song about the experience and give the man a front row ticket to the show.  While he sings the song to him, the spotlight is on the man in the front row.  Sound familiar?

You want to know why barber shop poles have red and white stripes?

The symbolism of the barber pole goes back to the barber/surgeon of the Middle Ages. In addition to cutting hair, he'd pull teeth, let blood, use leeches, lance boils. He'd hang his bandages out to dry, and they'd blow in the wind and twist around red and white together.

If you needed dental work, enemas, or wound surgery during this time, the barber/surgeon was the man to visit. A pole painted red and white (to represent blood and bandages) was an advertisement to potential patients. By the 19th century, barbers began focusing on hair styling and snipping, leaving the ER work to the doctors. The distinctive striped pole remained however.

It's not quite as clear what the blue stripe of a barber pole represents. One interpretation says the blue stands for veins. Marvey believes the blue stripe was added during the turn of the century as a patriotic gesture.

I just watched the trailer for Alexander.  I swear, sometimes Colin Farrell can sound like such an American.  "Conquer your fear, and I promise, you will conquer death!"  He sounded like some macho quarterback giving a pep talk to his team.

Alexander the Great, one of the greatest military intellects in history, conquered much of was what was then the civilized world. Taught by his tutor Aristotle to believe that the Greeks were the most advanced people in the world.  Alexander created a huge empire, encompassing Macedonia, Egypt, Syria, Persia and Asia Minor, but died drunk at the age of 33.

[On June 10th 323 BCE, Alexander the Great died. Historians such as Faure speculated that his death was caused by extreme consumption of alcohol during the celebrations after the defeat of Persia and India and died of a pancreatic ailment. Others wonder whether Alexander died due to fever from malaria inflicted from a mosquito bite (Theulé 56). Alexander's death is still a mystery.  richeast.org]