The Korea Herald

LG to invest W120b in environmental safety

LG Electronics Inc., the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said Monday that it plans to spend 120 billion won ($107.8 million) to beef up its environmental safety program, including chemical spill prevention, by 2015. LG also said it will expand the number of chemical experts and improve its fire protection system as part of the plans. The investment plan came after a highly poisonous hydrofluoric acid leak at Samsung Electronics Corporation’s main chip plant took place on Thursday in the

May 13, 2013

Samsung to offer 5G service by 2020

Samsung Electronics Co. said Sunday that it successfully developed a core technology of the fifth-generation network (5G) for the first time, aiming to enable users to access faster data services by 2020. The new wireless technology will enable customers to access a stream of data faster than the current fourth-generation network and download an entire movie in less than a second, the world's largest smartphone maker said. Under the new platform, users can download and upload data at speeds

May 12, 2013

LG launches Optimus G Pro in U.S. market

LG Electronics, the world’s No. 3 smartphone maker, has released its Optimus G Pro smartphone in the U.S., the Seoul-based company said Friday. The launch follows the release of a 5.5.-inch Optimus G Pro at home in February, and the full HD smartphone launched by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo in March.The latest phone features an IPS display consuming 50 percent less energy, despite being twice as bright as AMOLED screens of the same size, the company said.U.S. customers can pick up the latest version of t

May 10, 2013

Tech research firm to hold conference on 3rd platform

International Data Corporation Korea will hold its annual conference to deliver an informative overview on issues reshaping the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets at InterContinental Seoul COEX on May 15.Under the theme “Unlocking Value from the 3rd Platform: New Buyers, Offerings and Competitors,” the IT Directions 2013 Conference will provide insight into the industry’s transition to the next-generation computer platform -- built on big-data, cloud, mobi

May 10, 2013

Korea starts work on next-gen light source

Korea will build a facility for a next-generation light source that creates high-energy X-rays, 10 billion times brighter than its current most powerful source.The government had a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to build a “fourth-generation synchrotron radiation” facility in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. A synchrotron accelerates particles such as electrons to extremely high energies, creating an electron beam that travels at almost the speed of light. It then uses this beam to genera

May 9, 2013

Korea starts work on next-gen light source

Thick-skulled fossil cuts dino theory down to size

PARIS (AFP) ― The discovery of a new thick-skulled dinosaur the size of a large dog may challenge our image of a prehistoric Earth dominated by supersized lizards, a study said.The planet may, in fact, have been inhabited by many more types of small dinosaur than widely thought, a group of researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications.“It would have been a world filled with a diversity of dinosaur life, both large and small,” study co-author David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum’s nat

May 9, 2013

Ice Age language may share words with modern tongues

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Our Ice Age ancestors in Europe, 15,000 years ago, may have used words we would recognize today, according to a new study out this week in a U.S. journal.Words that sound alike in related languages are generally assumed to have come from a common route, like “father” in English and “pater” in Latin.Lead author Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in Britain, and his team were able to take the analysis a step further by showing that certain very co

May 9, 2013

Ministry to ease sodium limit on kids’ food despite opposition

Concerns are rising over health authorities’ plan to relax salt content limits on instant noodle products that aim to be certified as good-quality snacks for kids.The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced its plan on Wednesday to ease the sodium limit of the products from the current cap of 600 milligrams to 1,000 milligrams. The new sodium limit of 1,000 milligrams is more than half the recommended limit for a child’s daily consumption of sodium ― between 1,500 and 1,800 milligrams a day.B

May 9, 2013

Diagnosing gastric conditions

More people in Korea than in the West complain of symptoms related to the gastrointestinal system. However, many people tend to dismiss such symptoms and do not see a doctor about it, which can sometimes lead to the progression of serious illnesses, such as gastric cancer. The best methods to maintain a healthy life is to practice the usual good lifestyle habits and have regular checkups to diagnose conditions early. Here, we will look at gastritis, gastric ulcers and gastric cancer, which are s

May 9, 2013

Advanced facial contouring surgery attracts attention

A triangular-shaped face is popular among young Koreans in their 20s and 30s because they think it is beautiful. Demand for surgical operations to have this “V-line” shape is growing. But many of those who want to change their looks often find difficulty choosing surgical methods because many facial surgeries carry a high risk of side effects and cause excruciating pain.To this, Siot osteotomy has been grabbing attention because it cuts a smaller part of the chin bone than other existing methods

May 9, 2013

Advanced facial contouring surgery attracts attention

Study: Fish oil doesn’t help prevent heart attacks

Eating fish is good for your heart but taking fish oil capsules does not help people at high risk of heart problems who are already taking medicines to prevent them, a large study in Italy found.The work makes clearer who does and does not benefit from taking supplements of omega-3 fatty acids, the good oils found in fish such as salmon, tuna and sardines.Previous studies have suggested that fish oil capsules could lower heart risks in people with heart failure or who have already suffered a hea

May 9, 2013

Women are born to be overeaters: study

Women gorging or vomiting are generally considered those who have failed to adapt to cultural pressure and are obsessed with thin bodies. However, according to a recent study from Michigan State University, women are biologically born to be more likely to overeat than men.The researchers led a feeding experiment on 60 rats, half of them male and half female. Scientists studied the eating habits of each gender group by regularly replacing the food pellets with vanilla frosting.The experiment res

May 9, 2013

Money talks, after all

Higher income seems to improve happiness even if the amount of earnings exceeds a certain level, National Bureau of Economic Research found. The NBER conducted research on the top 25 countries with the highest population in the world to analyze the relationship between income and happiness, and concluded that people’s happiness is proportional to their family income. The degree of happiness, however, was found to be different depending on the country. Among families from the top 25 countries wit

May 9, 2013

A romp for the Heat, who top Bulls 115-78

The Miami Heat recorded its most lopsided playoff win in franchise history and inflicted the heaviest such defeat on Chicago by beating the Bulls 115-78 on Wednesday, squaring their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series 1-1.Nine technical fouls, two ejections and a lot of pushing and shoving also injected some venom into the series, as the Heat turned what was a close game in the first half into a blowout.In Wednesday's other game, the Golden State Warriors withstood a big comeback from San An

May 9, 2013

Number of mobile subscribers switching carriers nears record

Mobile Number Portability in South Korea still ran high over the past weekend as local mobile carriers lured subscribers with new pay plans and lower prices, industry sources said Tuesday.According to the sources, the country’s three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. ― received a total of 105,035 MNP applications during the May 4-6 period, nearing an all-time high of 116,055 MNP applications seen late last month.The figure translates into around 35,000 mobile telephon

May 8, 2013

LS Group inks e-car MOU with China’s Dongfeng Motor

LS Group, a South Korean conglomerate specializing mostly in electricity materials, said Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s Dongfeng Motor Group to cooperate in developing parts for electric cars and hybrid automotives.Under the deal, the South Korean business group will work with the Chinese automaker for the development of power trains, energy storage components and other parts used for automotives, according to the group.Also, the two groups will cooperate

May 8, 2013

Would you subscribe to YouTube’s paid channels?

The word is out again. Google-owned online video giant YouTube is reportedly close to launching its paid channels as early as this week.YouTube said it is “looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube.”Foreign press reported that if the new subscription system goes into effect, there will be as many as 50 paid channels offering different topics such as films, TV shows or music for a subscription fee as little as $1.99 a month.Since 2008, YouT

May 7, 2013

Nearsightedness hereditary: study

Many problems with eyesight can be traced to genetic conditions, South Korean researchers said in a new study on Tuesday. Professor Chung Eui-sang and his colleagues from Samsung Medical Center conducted the study on 240 identical twins and 45 fraternal twins and 469 pairs of siblings who had visited the hospital from 2007 to 2011.They found that identical twins who share many of their genes showed a high level of consistency in their eyesight. When one monozygotic twin is nearsighted, the other

May 7, 2013

Facebook to add video ad to newsfeed

Social network Facebook is set to present a new video ad solution in its newsfeed starting from July to increase revenue. The move, which came after its shares lost ground last year, is aimed at carving out a share of the video ad budget of major advertisers. Spending on digital video ads is expected to grow by 41.4 percent from 2012 to hit $4.1 billion in 2013. The new type of ads will start automatically on the user’s newsfeed without any sound at first. The user will have to press the play bu

May 7, 2013

Children having ‘adult’s diet’ healthiest: study

Children who tend to eat the same food as their parents are found to have a healthier diet than other children, a study found. The University of Edinburgh conducted a study on about 2,200 5-year-olds to look at their eating habits, and discovered that when children were allowed to eat what they want, the majority of them asked for high-calorie, low-nutrition foods such as pizza and chips.“Offering separate children’s food for a main meal may result in children missing out nutritionally, for exam

May 7, 2013

Children having ‘adult’s diet’ healthiest: study