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The Korea Times

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Jason Lim

It's always jarring to see the idols of your youth turn into an unfortunate spectacle right in front of your eyes. This happened to - among many others - Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and now, Johnny Depp. I was too young to experience Elvis and Michael as they were in the beginning of their careers, except for snippets of old videos on Ed Sullivan shows and Jackson Five performances. So, when they turned into unrecognizable, larger-than-life caricatures - more akin to bad modern art than actual, relatable people - it was more of a rubbernecking exercise than anything else.

2022-05-29 16:25

The crash that some had been warning about happened. TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin, imploded over a period of a few days. TerraUSD was pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar through an algorithmic smarts that linked its value to a sister cryptocurrency called Luna, which crashed to $0.40 on May 12th; on May 5th, Luna was worth $87

2022-05-15 16:25

Elon, the Twitter bodhisattva

The legend of Elon Musk has only gotten bigger in recent days with his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion. What's really interesting about this purchase is that Musk doesn't do things for the sake of doing the thing. He does things for the sake of doing the vision.

Kim Ji-soo | 2022-05-01 16:24

BTS Army can wait

The mandatory military service for all Korean men is the third rail of South Korean politics and society. Everyone hates it and tries to find ways to escape it. At the same time, you will be socially ostracized and professionally penalized if you actually do find some way to escape since it's a mutually binding social compact of misery that everyone has equity in. If I had to do it, then you better do it. The few acceptable exemptions include medaling in the Olympics or winning the gold medal in the Asian Games. The latter was the way that Song Heung-min, the Tottenham Hotspur star, got out ...

2022-04-17 16:23

Since so many people have offered their opinions on the “slap,” I figured that adding my own little voice to that discussion wouldn't tip some type of a cosmic balance, so here goes. It's certainly been a furious several days since the incident whereby Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a rather harmless joke making fun of Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, for being bald.

2022-04-03 16:14

Too old to wage war

While tragic and unwarranted, wars provide a glimpse into the world that we are living in. Here are a few interesting observations from the ongoing war in Ukraine that have relevance for Korea.

2022-03-20 16:09

Stories that kill

When someone asks me what my race is in the U.S., I reply that I am an Asian American. When someone asks my Indian-American friend what his race is, he also says that he's an Asian American. We are both be correct in the U.S. However, when we are asked the same question in Singapore, for example, we might not answer it in the same way. I might reply that I am a Korean while he might reply that he's an Indian. Nothing has changed about us. The location and the cultural boundaries that define our physical looks have changed, so our internal stories about who we are adapt to the local cultural ...

2022-03-06 16:09

Politics of Olympic representation

Born a citizen on one country but representing another country in international sports venues is nothing new. A simple internet search will turn up hundreds of cases in recent history.

2022-02-20 16:49

What are you wearing to the Olympics?

As someone who's plugged into the U.S. and South Korean media, I think it's reasonable to say that this year's Winter Games in Beijing isn't really getting lots of traction in the press in the two countries. I almost wish that I was just as savvy about the Chinese media scene so that I could compare. I am sure it would be a fascinating contrast in terms of world views.

2022-02-06 17:00

Searching for meaning in Korea

Last November, Se-woong Koo wrote an interesting piece for Korea Expose titled, “What Makes Life Meaningful in Korea? Not Much, It Seems.” It was his take on the Pew Survey that had just come out, that showed that, out of 17 advanced countries, Korea was the only country that put material wellbeing as the #1 contributing factor to making life "meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying.”

2022-01-23 16:31

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