The Korea Herald

Tech firms battle for OS supremacy

Global tech titans are expected to stage a fierce competition for the dominant operating system for smart devices this year, as Samsung and Microsoft seek to reenter the market with “Tizen” and “Windows 8,” respectively, and Apple and Google are expected to bring forward the launch dates for new products. The world’s bestselling smartphone maker Samsung will launch smartphones with the new operating system “Tizen” in January in Japan, a local report said, citing Samsung officials. OS giant Intel

Jan. 1, 2013

Most sleep on their sides, forget dreams

Most U.S. adults sleep on their sides, forget their dreams in the morning and often sleep with someone who snores, a survey of 3,700 indicates. A survey for home furnishings retailer Anna's Linens to coincide with National Sleep Foundation found 74 percent of U.S. adults said they wear pajamas to bed, 8 percent said they slept naked, 74 percent said they failed to recall their dreams in the morning, 74 said they sleep on their sides and 47 percent said they shared a bed with someone who snored.

Jan. 1, 2013

Comet heads our way for celestial show

A newly discovered comet could be the celestial spectacle of a century and light up the skies as bright as a full moon in 2013, its Russian discoverers say.Amateur Russian skywatchers Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski observed the object dubbed Comet ISON in September, Discovery.com reported."The object was slow and had a unique movement," Novichonok wrote on a comet-hunting blog."But we could not be certain that it was a comet, because the scale of our images are quite small and the object wa

Jan. 1, 2013

Yahoo exits S. Korea, halts service

U.S. Internet company Yahoo Inc. on Monday halted its South Korean service, pulling out of one of the world's most wired countries after 15 years.Yahoo will halt all products, services and content of Yahoo Korea starting Dec. 31 in addition to ending customer support in Korea on the same day, the company wrote on its Korean Web site.In October, Yahoo announced a plan to pull out of South Korea as chief executive officer Marissa Mayer focuses more on stronger markets."The decision is part of Yaho

Dec. 31, 2012

Apple will drop Galaxy S3 mini from Samsung patent suit

Apple Inc. agreed to drop Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S III mini from a patent-infringement lawsuit against the South Korea-based company, according to court records.Apple said it agreed to withdraw the smartphone from its case because Samsung assured the court the phone won’t be sold in the U.S., according to a filing Friday in federal court in San Jose, California. The filing, which follows an August verdict in the same court in Apple’s favor on other infringement claims, comes in a secon

Dec. 30, 2012

ArcheAge aims at a successful kickoff on Jan. 2

　A new massively multiplayer online role-playing game “ArcheAge” is drawing attention from Korean gamers, with its debut slated for Wednesday.　XLGames, the game’s developer, has provided an advance registration service on Dec. 19 in which gamers can create in-game characters before the official release. 　As of Friday, more than 200,000 users already have registered on the 15 separate game servers, proving Korean gamers’ enthusiasm for the title.　XLGames CEO Song Jae-kyung, who previously achiev

Dec. 30, 2012

ArcheAge aims at a successful kickoff on Jan. 2

Cough syrup deaths in Pakistan rise to 36

A batch of toxic cough syrup has killed as many as 36 people in Pakistan, officials said.The deaths have come over the past four days, mostly in Gujranwala where 25 people who used the cough syrup have died, News Pakistan reported Saturday.Among those who died was Chaudhry Irfan, a former councilor for Nadi Pur Town.About a dozen medical stores have been shut down by authorities and 8,000 bottles of tainted cough syrup have been seized, said health adviser Khwaja Suleman Rafiq, who visited Gujra

Dec. 30, 2012

Cough syrup deaths in Pakistan rise to 36

Winter spa: Restore mind and body for the New Year

Everyone wants to face the New Year fresh of mind and body, but all the shopping and partying around Christmas and the year’s end may have you feeling fatigued. For these tired souls, spa treatments offer a quick, easy solution. Indeed, there are body and facial treatments for virtually all types of conditions ― or complaints. Spa facilities in Seoul provide various programs to help one regain the daily rhythm or relieve muscles stiff from hunching in the cold. A spa treatment also can simply be

Dec. 28, 2012

Winter spa: Restore mind and body for the New Year

Asparagus may help with a hangover

U.S. food experts remind New Year‘s revelers that researchers found eating asparagus may help guard against a hangover. The Institute of Food Technologists said it published a study in 2009 by researchers at the Institute of Medical Science and Jeju National University in South Korea found the amino acids and minerals found in asparagus extract may alleviate alcohol hangover and protect liver cells against toxins.Lead researcher B.Y. Kim said chronic alcohol use caused oxidative stress on the li

Dec. 28, 2012

Ancient 'Megapiranha' had strongest bite

An ancient "Megapiranha" weighing around 20 pounds delivered a bite with a force more fierce than even the toothy Tyrannosaurus rex, a U.S. researcher says.Based on bite strength versus body size as found in modern piranhas, the Megapiranha of 10 million years ago could have had a bite force from 280 to 1,070 pounds -- 30 times its body weight -- and possibly more, University of Washington biology doctoral student Stephanie Crofts said."If our calculations are correct, Megapiranha was probably a

Dec. 28, 2012

Ancient 'Megapiranha' had strongest bite

Holding back emotions may reduce lifespan

German researchers say exercising self-restraint and holding back negative emotions -- what Britons call keeping a "stiff upper lip" -- may reduce lifespan.Researchers Marcus Mund and Kristin Mitte at the University of Jena in Germany said the findings might explain why the generally more emotional Italians and Spanish live almost two years longer than the cool English who "keep calm and carry on," MedicalDaily.com reported.After analyzing more than 6,000 patients, Mund and Mitte found people wh

Dec. 28, 2012

Holding back emotions may reduce lifespan

Better language skills may reduce anger

Toddlers who have developed language skills are better able to manage frustration and less likely to express anger as they get older, U.S. researchers say.Principal investigator Pamela M. Cole of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues tracked 120 predominantly white children from families above poverty but below middle income from the time they were 18 months to 48 months.Through home and laboratory visits, they measured children‘s language and ability to cope with tasks that might elicit

Dec. 28, 2012

African-designed smartphone, tablet seen

An entrepreneur in the Republic of the Congo is launching what he says is the first African-designed smartphone and tablet.Verone Mankou said his company‘s VMK devices will run the Android operating system and will cost $170 for the smartphone and $300 for the tablet computer, the BBC reported Thursday.“Only Africans can know what Africa needs,” Mankou said at a technical conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.“Apple is huge in the United States, Samsung is huge in Asia and we want VMK to be

Dec. 28, 2012

African-designed smartphone, tablet seen

Cancer patients reach 1 million, survival rate improves

The number of cancer patients in Korea reached 1 million last year while their survival rates rose from a decade ago, a report showed on Thursday.According to a joint survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Cancer Center, Korea had a total of 960,654 patients and survivors ― diagnosed with cancer between 1999 and 2010 ― last year.About 200,000 new cancer cases were found in 2010 alone, up 4 percent from a year earlier, the report add.The statistics showed that both five-yea

Dec. 27, 2012

Number of Korean science students abroad growing

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday that the number of Korean students studying science and engineering abroad continues to increase, but has been offset by a high inflow of foreign students.Citing data by Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, the ministry said that the number of undergraduate Korean students who went overseas to study science and engineering doubled to 24,674 in 2011 from 2003.However, the inflow of foreign undergraduates into Korean unive

Dec. 27, 2012

Park’s life cycle health, welfare system put to test

Following is the eighth in a series of articles on President-elect Park Geun-hye’s key policies. ― Ed.President-elect Park Geun-hye used to say that her foremost task is to bring stability to people’s lives if she becomes the nation’s first female president. Projecting her image of a guardian of the state and of the people, Park pledged to introduce a Korean version of a lifecycle health and welfare system with programs tailored to all age groups from newborns to senior citizens.Park’s plans see

Dec. 27, 2012

Park’s life cycle health, welfare system put to test

Growth plate injury

Growing children have growth plates around their joints, which promote growth of the upper and lower limbs. Such growth plates disappear when children pass puberty, and their growth stops. These growth plates are made of cartilage tissue, which is vulnerable to damage by external forces. Therefore, various traumas can lead to growth plate damage. Children enjoy outside activities and sports when the weather becomes warmer. This is why growth plate injuries most frequently occur in the spring and

Dec. 27, 2012

BossPack wins global packaging award

Packaging company BossPack Co. has been selected as next year’s winner of the WorldStar Packaging Award, presented by the World Packaging Organization, for inventing unique water-absorbing package film, the company said on Thursday. To be presented in May at an award ceremony in Australia, the 2013 WorldStar Packaging Award is conferred to globally competing firms that demonstrated innovative packing technologies in seven sectors: electronics, household, pharmaceutical and medical, health and be

Dec. 27, 2012

Water-absorbing vacuum cleaners see success

Vacuum cleaners that can both dust and “wash” the floor have been gaining popularity in online stores, offline home appliance shops and on TV home shopping channels. Demand for hydro vacuum cleaners is ever rising, said chief executive Park Myung-duk of Chung Lim Aqua Co., a manufacturer specializing in cleaning equipment and agents. “The vacuum cleaner market operates on one of the fastest-changing trends both at home and overseas,” Park emphasized. In less than a decade, the global trend of va

Dec. 27, 2012

Water-absorbing vacuum cleaners see success

Mark Zuckerberg‘s sister angered after family Facebook photo goes public

The confusion around Facebook‘s oft-criticized privacy settings hit close to home for founder Mark Zuckerberg, when his sister noticed that a photo she had meant to be private went public. On Christmas Day, Randi Zuckerberg posted a Facebook photo of her family -- including Mark -- reacting in mock surprise to the company’s new Poke app. When Callie Schweitzer, Vox Media‘s director of marketing, saw the photo at the top of her feed, she assumed it was public and promptly tweeted it to her follo

Dec. 27, 2012