The Korea Herald

[Robert J. Fouser] Will second-language learning disappear?

Throughout history, change has stirred insecurity as people try to hold on to the familiar as it crumbles before them. Good leaders understand the emerging world and offer a path through the tumult of adjustment. Bad leaders pretend that the old world will reassert itself and use insecurity to legitimize their leadership. Over the past several years, more bad leaders than good have emerged, forcing a discussion of the future off the table. The future doesn’t wait, of course, and technological de

Feb. 28, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Will second-language learning disappear?

[Kim Seong-kon] Looking for the third way

Although it still lurks in the guise of socialism, communism has completely failed and therefore has largely disappeared from the face of the earth. The same is true of the Cold War ideology. Strangely, however, only on the Korean Peninsula do we see the paradigms of communism and the Cold War mentality still at play. To our dismay, both capitalism and democracy, too, seem to have exhausted their possibilities these days. Capitalism, pushed to the extreme, created a Wall Street where money rules

Feb. 28, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] Looking for the third way

[Gary Thompson] Oscar got best picture right on night of big gaffe

The “La La Land” Oscar-nominated song “Audition” contains an ode to unfulfilled dreams as an actress accustomed to trying and failing sings “Here’s to the mess we make.”You said it, sister.“Audition” didn’t win for best song, and as it turned out “La La Land” didn’t win for best picture, even though presenter Faye Dunaway announced that it had, sending “La La Land” producers to the stage for a victory celebration that ended abruptly when the terse accountan ts from Price Waterhouse let it be kno

Feb. 28, 2017

[Other View] The Trump White House is figuring out NATO

Slowly, and against the odds, the Trump administration is inching toward a more coherent foreign policy in Western Europe.President Donald Trump is, as usual, sending wildly mixed signals. He has said NATO -- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- is obsolete. He has been too cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently terrifying the leadership of free democracies in Europe.But the president’s subordinates have delivered a stronger, more reassuring message. Vice President Mike Penc

Feb. 28, 2017

[Brian Hamilton] Wake up, America: You elected an entrepreneur

After listening to the entirety of President Donald Trump’s recent press conference and then reviewing the coverage of it, it’s obvious the media doesn’t understand and cannot accurately interpret his style and approach. Put simply, most people don’t understand how entrepreneurs think. 　It’s one of the main reasons -- outside Trump’s propensity for stepping on his own feet and seemingly making up facts on the fly -- for the confusion and chaos we’ve witnessed during his first weeks in office. 　F

Feb. 27, 2017

[Elaine Ou] Even China can’t kill bitcoin

Every time a government sets out to abolish something people like, the well-liked thing moves to where it can’t be stopped. This has happened with prohibition, gambling, the war on drugs and digital piracy. Now it’s happening in China, where the government has been trying to crack down on bitcoin.　As part of an effort to control capital outflows, the Chinese central bank required bitcoin exchanges to suspend withdrawals until they could update their compliance systems. Trading on the exchanges t

Feb. 27, 2017

[Elaine Ou] Even China can’t kill bitcoin

[Leonid Bershidsky] What Google hopes to gain by suing Uber

The legal battle that’s starting between Waymo, the self-driving car spin-off of Google’s former “moonshot” unit, and ride-hailing giant Uber appears to be all about trade secrets and patents. But there is a bigger issue behind it: Silicon Valley ethics and employee loyalty. 　The Waymo lawsuit contends that a former employee, Anthony Levandowski, downloaded 9.7 gigabytes of sensitive data about the company’s proprietary self-driving system, in particular its main element -- the LiDAR (Light Dete

Feb. 27, 2017

[Leonid Bershidsky] What Google hopes to gain by suing Uber

[Eli Lake] Taiwan's war against Uber

This should be a good time to be an American Internet company in Taiwan. The new president, Tsai Ing-wen, has pledged to build an Asian Silicon Valley on the island. And the new American president, Donald Trump has threatened a trade war with Taiwan‘s rivals in mainland China. The stars would appear to be aligned.　So it’s surprising that on Feb. 10, one of America‘s most successful digital companies, Uber, had to suspend its operations in Taiwan. At issue was a new law to impose fines up to $800

Feb. 27, 2017

[Albert R. Hunt] Trump's great chance to tell us what he really wants

President Donald Trump’s initial address to a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday night may be the most anticipated in memory. Not, as Trump would claim, because he’s so compelling. Rather it’s because, when it comes to substance, we don’t know who he is.　For Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, a first February speech to Congress was a chance to add definition to well-articulated policy architecture. Trump, by contrast, has conveyed little sense of a governing stru

Feb. 27, 2017

[Other View] Trustworthy statistics are a vital asset

President Donald Trump’s penchant for “alternative facts” raises a troubling question: What if the same instinct leads him to pressure government agencies -- the ones that track everything from jobs to air quality -- into producing data to support whatever he wants to believe?If Trump won’t draw the line, the US Congress should.Two recent cases suggest where things may be headed. Trump’s officials have considered changing the way they calculate foreign trade balances, turning some surpluses into

Feb. 27, 2017

[John B. Quigley] No: Pre-emptive strike would trigger global disaster

Following January’s widely condemned ballistic missile test by Iran, rumors are rife that Israel is planning a military strike against Iranian missile sites. But the last thing President Donald Trump should do is give such an attack his blessing.　As anyone who watched the recent joint press conference with Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu knows, the Israeli prime minster is obsessed with highlighting the supposed Iranian threat. It’s all he wanted to talk about.　But Iran, regardless of what its lead

Feb. 26, 2017

[John B. Quigley] No: Pre-emptive strike would trigger global disaster

[Jonathan Bernstein] Don't ignore the dangers of a weak president

As the first month has passed of Donald Trump’s presidency with little sign of success, and some question whether he‘s even up to trying to turn his campaign platform into a real legislative agenda, it’s occurring to more and more people that what we‘re looking at is someone on the road to being a very weak president. My View colleague Ramesh Ponnuru has a nice item making that argument, focused on Trump’s reputation. 　Since Trump tends to lash out when losing, he remains a danger to democracy e

Feb. 26, 2017

[John Kass] Once lost, liberal journalists' mission suddenly found in time of Trump

Journalists “find a renewed sense of mission,” reports the New York Times.　That’s nice. There is some truth to this. And it‘s not fake news.　With the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, journalism, in a typical pattern of self-congratulatory excess, has dusted off an old cliche to announce that it is once again “speaking truth to power.”　Behold. That which was lost has now been found.　But it isn’t exactly like setting out on a long and frightening sea voyage to find an undiscovered count

Feb. 26, 2017

[John Kass] Once lost, liberal journalists' mission suddenly found in time of Trump

[Adam Minter] Why is eBay returning to china?

About a decade ago, eBay made a legendary retreat from the Chinese auction business in the face of growing local competition. It was a defeat so humiliating it became a business school case study. Since then, however, the Chinese e-commerce market has changed drastically -- and so has eBay. As the company makes its return to the mainland, it may be at the forefront of an important trend in online trade.EBay recently announced it‘s partnering with Ningbo, a major port and manufacturing hub, to he

Feb. 26, 2017

[Other VIew] Welcome, new cosmic neighbors!

To adapt the Bard of Avon: “O, wonder! ... O brave new world.”Or seven of them, as it happens. Researchers revealed last week that they’ve uncovered these intriguing planets swirling outside the solar system, all of them rocky and Earth-sized. Three seem temperate enough to support life. And all are orbiting a small, dim star just 40 light-years away.The planets’ orientation should allow detailed study of their atmospheres -- meaning that, if they do support life, it should soon be evident. All

Feb. 26, 2017

[Reg Henry] The wisdom of keeping time on paper

As a member of a generation that knew no computers or personal devices, I think I have adjusted fairly well to the electronic marvels that people take for granted today. But there is one convenience that I cannot embrace. I still depend on a paper calendar to plan my days.My wife has urged me to get with the modern program. She has adopted technology so enthusiastically that her iPhone beeps messages at all hours, so marriage with her is like being the spouse of R2-D2 from “Star Wars.” That remi

Feb. 24, 2017

[Stephen L. Carter] Stop staring at your phone

My wife and I decided to take advantage of the spring-like weather this week and head for the beach. We were not surprised to find that others had the same idea. Foot traffic was so thick on the boardwalk that we could move only at a sluggish pace. We didn’t care. We were there to look at the dark, beautiful winter water, gently lapping up close, frothy further out. Visually, we drank our fill.But what struck us as remarkable was how many of our fellow promenaders had no interest in the view. Th

Feb. 24, 2017

[Stephen L. Carter] Stop staring at your phone

[Los Angeles Times] Looking back with shame

Seventy-five years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, declaring parts of the United States to be military zones from which particular groups of people could be “excluded” for security reasons. The order set the stage for the relocation and internment, beginning the following month, of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom were American citizens living on the West Coast.　To our lasting shame, here’s what the Los Angeles Times editorial page had to say about

Feb. 23, 2017

[Johnathan Bernstein] Making sense of Trump’s disapproval ratings

The most important single thing to know about Donald Trump’s approval ratings after his first month of the presidency is ... there is no one single thing. Both the measurement and importance of presidential approval are complicated subjects, with wide ramifications for both governing and future elections. So here‘s a start on getting up to speed on Trump and his approvals: 　He’s easily the least popular president one month in of the polling era, and likely the least popular president ever at thi

Feb. 23, 2017

[Johnathan Bernstein] Making sense of Trump’s disapproval ratings

[Sandra Navidi] How Trumpocracy corrupts Democracy

American democracy is a complex, self-organizing system. In terms of network science, President Donald Trump is a “superhub”: the most well-connected human “node,” located in the center of the network. While Trump does not have control over the entire system -- he himself is subject to its systemic forces -- he has enough influence that he could cause it to fail.Complex systems don’t fail easily. They are generally adaptive and self-correcting. When they become too skewed, circuit breakers kick

Feb. 23, 2017