Learn English or It’s the Sharp End of the Stick For You
I wonder what their summer English camp is like, and if it at all resembles The Lord of the Flies.
Talk about stressful. Can you imagine having one of these things staring at you during class?
Edgar Pangborn’s “The Singing Stick”
I reread Edgar Pangborn’s “The Singing Stick” this morning. It’s a caveman detective story initially published in 1952 by Ellery Queen Magazine.
What I love is the way Pangborn plays it straight. He uses the tropes of a Chandler-esque Private Investigator story without resorting to too many of the cliches.
Now if only I could find a copy of his novel Davy.
Jan Morris in Ridlerville
An interesting piece on Jan Morris and her struggles with academia over at Ridlerville.
She took a lot of heat for becoming who she really was, despite being a war veteran, amazing historian and journalist, and wonderful writer. Rumours abounded that positions of influence in universities were denied Morris because of her journey from one gender to the other, that her life as a travel writer was in part a result of these challenges.
The Best Naengmyeon in Pohang
Rotary Naengmyeon
The characters on the glass doors read “Naengmyeon Jonmun” and that means “Naengmyeon Specialty”. I like restaurants that have only two things on their menu and both of them are wonderful.
The where? Rotary is located up the street from the CGV movie theater at the 6 Street Intersection (AKA yuk-gori, the “go” is pronounced like it would be in “got”) across the street from one entrance to the pedestrian shopping street. It’s a family-run restaurant that’s been in business for 50 years. The city hall used to be a few blocks up the street in what’s now the public library.
Wiki-quote for the uninitiated: “Naengmyeon is served in a large stainless bowl with a tangy iced broth, julienned cucumbers (Korean cucumbers are like the gourmet cukes. Remove seeds if using the ubiquitous waxy cukes), slices of Korean pear, and either a boiled egg or slices of cold boiled beef or both. Spicy Mustard sauce [or Mustard oil-use sparingly] and vinegar are often added before consumption. The long noodles would be eaten without cutting, as they symbolized longevity of life and good health, but modernly, servers at restaurants usually ask if the noodles should be cut prior to eating and use food scissors to cut the noodles.”
The why? Rotary makes their own noodles, the broth is incredible, and the beef slices are better (quality and quantity-wise) than I’ve had elsewhere.
The bibim naengmyeon’s not bad either.
Islands
“On my island there is mountain and clean ocean beautiful forest and hill but they have no name.”
“On my island is big mountain and forest. It’s fun. The tree is tall. Its river is blue. beautiful!! wow!”
Censors of Knowledge
Today’s quote comes from No Tech Magazine:
“All too often journals, galleries, and museums are becoming not disseminators of knowledge – as their lofty mission statements suggest – but censors of knowledge, because censoring is the one thing they do better than the Internet does.”
…
“More than in any other area, the application of restrictive copyright is inappropriate for academic works: there is no sticky question of how to pay authors or reviewers, as the publishers are already not paying them. And unlike ‘mere’ works of entertainment, liberal access to scientific work impacts the well-being of all mankind.”
The rest is here.
I suspect this would be a testy issue. Researchers want to protect their work. Whether a paid gatekeeper charging 20 USD for single use access for one month on one computer cuts down on plagiarism I don’t know. It certainly doesn’t allow the information to reach a wider audience. But that’s another testy issue.
I’ll also add that I don’t have an advanced degree and am not currently in graduate school, nor do I play a graduate student on TV.
Yesterweird 