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Actor's cute triplets steal the show

The two-year-old boys – named Dae-han, Min-gook, and Man-se – have captured hearts with their cuteness on the KBS2 reality show “Superman Returns.” On the program, celebrity dads are left to care for their children alone for 48 hours.Popular actor Song Il-gook has captured the attention of the public again – or at least his triplet sons have.The boys’ cuteness has contributed to the show’s popularity, observers say.In the most recent episode, the boys showed off their appetites, devouring their meal of barbecued beef. Song, meanwhile, looked exhausted from the task of feeding triplets.The highlight of the episode came when Song tried to take a bite of meat and Man-se exclaimed: “Daddy, don’t eat my beef. Spit out (what you ate).”The triplets have gained huge popularity since appearing on the program.  One reason may be their whimsical names. Together, the boy’s names translate to the phrase “Hooray Korea!”Song has risen to fame through his roles on historical dramas including the hit MBC program, &ldqu

Sep 14, 2014
Actor's cute triplets steal the show

Soldiers vexed by tobacco price hike

While many smokers are unhappy with the government’s plan to increase the price of cigarettes, but one group may be more vexed than others: soldiers. Korean men participate in compulsory military service for 21 months and are only paid a small wage, meaning the price hike would make cigarettes less affordable. An Army private receives a monthly salary of around 112,500 won. Last week, Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo announced a set of anti-smoking measures including an 80-percent price increase, which would push the average cost of a pack of cigarettes from 2,500 won to 4,500 won. The smoking rate among soldiers stood at 42.9 percent last year, according to a report released by the Ministry of Defense. In light of the plan, the Ministry of Defense is “encouraging soldiers to quit smoking,” according to one official. “More soldiers will likely press their parents to raise their allowance to cover the increased tobacco price,” an army officer was quoted as saying. “The military is concerned about the soldiers’ frustration on this

Sep 14, 2014
Soldiers vexed by tobacco price hike

Aging reactor

Activists shout a slogan to urge the government to shut down the Unit 1 Reactor at the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant during a rally in front of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission in central Seoul, Friday. The reactor’s planned 30-year lifespan ended in December 2012, but the government is pushing to extend its operation, triggering concerns about the safety of the aging reactor. The commission plans to decide whether to close the reactor this year. / Yonhap

Sep 12, 2014

Hangul best language to learn math

Koreans owe their language “Hangul” for boasting their world-class math problems solving skills, American newspaper Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.A logic behind such statement lies with numbers of linguistic letters required to write numeric values. In comparison with English, Hangul takes far less letters to write the values. For example, it requires only two to write 11 (십일), while English takes six (eleven). The same perk applies to Chinese, which has nine distinctive words to indicate the values while English as 24.The paper said such disparity in linguistic brevity is directly related to the levels of convenience in learning math by students. An analysis showed that kids in kindergartens and elementary schools in English-speaking nations like the U.S. and Canada generally fall one to two years behind those in Korea and other Asian countries in mastering the same difficulty level of math. The paper also introduced an experiment result that Turkish kids aged three to four understood the concept of numeric values faster than Canadian kids, including that of dec

Sep 12, 2014By Ko Dong-hwan
Hangul best language to learn math

Group of students left nauseous by a student spraying fire extinguisher during fight

An elementary school student in Ilsan sprayed a fire extinguisher during a fight, causing his classmates to suffer from symptoms of nausea and vomiting, News1 said Thursday.Around 10:50 a.m. Thursday, a sixth-grader in an elementary school in Ilsan abruptly picked up the fire extinguisher and sprayed it in the classroom after arguing with friends.Classmates who inhaled the fire extinguisher chemicals soon reported symptoms of nausea and vomiting, and some needed to go to the hospital for treatment.Among the substances released from the fire extinguisher was a chemical called ammonium phosphate, which is harmless to humans in nature but can lead to nausea ingested in large amounts.“The student in question has a mild development disorder and the school was already monitoring him closely,” the police said.Since the student is under 14 years old, he will not be criminally prosecuted.

Sep 12, 2014
Group of students left nauseous by a student spraying fire extinguisher during fight
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