'Digital Dementia' A Problem With Computer Overuse

Digital dementia?  Apparently that's the latest mental disorder tied to overuse of all the latest new-fangled gadgets we can't seem to live without. Although a global problem, South Korea is battling a major problem with the 35 and under crowd, where a whopping 95% of the population has access to the Internet.

 There, young people in their late 20s and early 30s regularly show up at clinics exhibiting many of the symptoms usually associated with mental disorders in the elderly. Those symptoms include memory problems, an inability to concentrate, and sleeplessness.

The young patients' difficulties, the doctors say, come from high exposure levels to digital screen media, ranging from televisions to computers to game consoles to smart phones. And while no one has yet calculated how many young Koreans are affected, the phenomenon is adding fuel to the already contentious debate between neuroscientists over the health risks of using digital media.

The rest here.

Most of us spend far too much time online. With blogging and googling, twitter and Facebook, we can spend hours upon hours glued to our computer screens, IPhones, and other portable methods of accessing the Internet. I know I do, and it's definitely not healthy. South Koreans are so obsessed with the Internet that an MP, Lee Joung Sun, proposed a bill several years ago to restrict the amount of time one can spend playing on-line games. They also wanted to restrict teens' access to Internet Cafes and games.

They probably would have had no need to take such drastic measures had it not been for a slew of bizarre crimes that were linked to Internet addiction, including several murders and deaths. One 28-year-old man, in 2005, died of a heart attack after he played 50 hours straight (without food or water) a game called StarCraft at some local Internet cafe.

Then there was the 22-year-old guy who killed his mother over her complaints about his game playing and immediately returned to a cafe to finish the game. Or the man who got so angered with another player he attacked the man after he tracked him down via the game's chat room.

Then the most tragic and bizarre case involved a married couple, 41-year-old Kim Yu-Chul and 25-year-old Choi Mi-sun, who starved their three-month-old baby girl to death because they were so hooked on a computer game, get this, that involved raising a 'virtual' child. The couple had met on-line, through a chat site, and spent as many as twelve hours a day playing the game, with an occasional stop home to feed the baby powdered milk.

According to the Yonhap news agency, South Korean police said the couple had become obsessed with raising a virtual girl called Anima in the popular role-playing game Prius Online. The game, similar to Second Life, allows players to create another existence for themselves in a virtual world, including getting a job, interacting with other users and earning an extra avatar to nurture once they reach a certain level.

"The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told Yonhap. "They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby."

Sadly, Kim's parents had been taking care of the baby until 2 weeks prior to her death, when the baby was returned to the couple.

Sources guardian.uk and dailymail.uk

North Korea Invades The South Korea -Another propaganda video

More North Korean propaganda. In this video we are treated to the DPRK invasion of South Korea.

Correction: Initially I mentioned it was the U.S.- oops

The people of North Korea are being bombarded with this type of propaganda.

Psy of "Gangnam Style" Fame Rapped About Killing Yankees in 2004

I'll admit, I'm one of the millions that has made Psy's "Gangnam Style" video the number one viewed video on YouTube, with well over 904 million views and counting. I thought it was hilarious, I've even enjoyed the many parodies that have popped up since the original became a viral hit. And I've helped make him a very rich man. According to Variety, Psy has made more than $8.1 million on that song, including over $870,000 from YouTube hits alone.  He's also made at least $2.9 million, so far, from iTunes downloads, making it the top downloaded song on iTunes, as well.

But it looks like the South Korean phenom has something in his past that he's probably regretting, about now.  In South Korea, back in 2002 and 2004, he participated in several anti-American rallies, including one where he rapped about killing Yankees "slowly and painfully."

According to the New York Post:

Wearing a red cape and gold face paint, he smashes a toy American tank on the ground while belting out his rap-rock song "Killer." Psy went on to beat the toy with his microphone stand into pieces to the excitement of the crowd.

“Killer,” as described by the Korea Herald, “makes a mockery of the brutal law of the jungle when big guys can bully the weak for anything.”

The performance was in response to the 2002 death of two Korean school girls, who were killed in an accident with an American military vehicle outside of Seoul, according to Korean Web site BusanHaps. The soldiers driving the tank were acquitted by a US military court.

According to the Korea Herald, anti-American sentiment ignited after their deaths, and one of the most outspoken critics in the local entertainment industry was Psy.

Mediaite reports a second incident in 2004 after a South Korean missionary was executed in Iraq – an act of revenge for the country's support of the U.S. war in Iraq – Psy performed an anti-America song with another popular Korean rock band.

In the heavy metal “Dear America,” there are sounds of gunshots, explosions and guttural deathcore screams throughout.

The lyrics for the song "Dear American" at the 2004 rally:

Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives

Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture

Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers

Kill them all slowly and painfully

Not nice, but he was around 24 at the time, and we've all done stupid things when we were young that we regret when older, but it's hard to tell if he's repentant or not.  He did issue an apology, but is it sincere or just covering his proverbial butt since we 'Americans' are probably responsible for the bulk of those millions.

But many are still outraged. Due to take part in Barack Obama's annual Christmas event, someone posted a petition on the White House website to rescind Psy's invitation.  The petition has since been removed for  violating the "Terms of Participation", whatever that means.

It will be interesting to see if people will forgive him, but I can't imagine that it will make much difference either way. I can't see Psy topping the popularity of his "Gangnam Style", at least for Western audiences.

N Korea Executes 30 Officials For Failed Talks With S Korea

North Korea has been busy purging its government ranks by killing officials who have somehow failed in some form or other. According to a new report from Amnesty International, 30 people who were tasked with improving relations with South Korea were either executed or killed in apparent "staged traffic accidents." Of course,  the main reason those talks have failed is because the whacked out former "dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, and his equally touched son, Kim Jong-un, keep playing with their nukes and ballistic missiles. The country also happens to maintain one of the largest armies in the world, right on South Korea's doorstep. But no matter, 30 of those officials quickly dispensed with last year.

Then this January, when dear "Father's" fiefdom was passed on to his pudgy, 29-year-old baby-faced son, another 200 were either killed or sent off to North Korean gulags. Just making sure that any potential dissension was stopped before it happened. Amnesty estimates there are some 200,000 North Koreans rotting away in gulags.

But members of the oligarchy have never been safe in communist North Korea. Pak Nam-ki (or sometimes Nam-gi) Director of the Planning and Finance Department- was executed in 2010 for being

"a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy"

In other words, he messed up an already incredibly messed up economy by revaluating the local currency, which caused further drastic problems.

Since relations with South Korea will continue to remain soured, and the economy will continue to suffer (unless they make major reforms), I'm sure there will be plenty more shipped off to gulags or executed.

After the failed missile test in April, there is talk that they might try again on May 28, Memorial Day:

"The North Korean regime is hell-bent on being a belligerent actor," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, during a visit to Seoul with a congressional delegation. "And I think that on holidays or sad commemorations like Memorial Day weekend is when the leadership tries to provoke the democratic allies into action."

We shall see.

China's Soylent Green- Dead Baby Flesh Found In Pills

There is much to be said for the herbal remedies that are part and parcel of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and I have often written about the efficacy of many on my other blog Mind, Body and Spirit.   Some are almost miraculous, like Yunnan Baiyao which  amazingly stops bleeding. Unfortunately, like Yunnan Baiyao, some have proprietary blends that don't list all the ingredients, and if you don't purchase them from a reputable manufacturer, you never quite know what you might be getting. China has a tremendous quality control problem, and really can't be trusted. Every year or so we hear horror stories about some sub-par product from China- tainted milk, poisonous dog food, toxic drywall- and google 'tainted Chinese herbs' and you'll find a slew of articles. But the latest out of China takes the cake.

Anyone remember the film "Soylent Green"?  What South Korea discovered in the thousands of 'stamina boosting' gel caps it confiscated being smuggled into their country en route from  China is as horrifying as "Soylent Green is people!" 

..... powdered flesh from dead babies, which some people believe can cure disease.

The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, the Korea Customs Service said.

Customs officials refused to say where the dead babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing. Chinese officials ordered an investigation into the production of drugs made from dead fetuses or newborns last year.

Naturally, no-one wants to ruffle the Chinese government's feathers, but apparently the smuggling of these dead baby pills has been going on for a while. At least 35 times, and almost 18,000 capsules full since August. What most seem concerned about is the fact that they were contaminated with bacteria and other nasties, though no-one has gotten sick. And will anyone be prosecuted? Nope, because

Ethnic Koreans from northeastern China who now live in South Korea were intending to use the capsules themselves or share them with other Korean-Chinese, a customs official said.

The capsules were all confiscated but no one has been punished because the amount was deemed small and they weren’t intended for sale, said the customs official, who requested anonymity, citing department rules.

 And what does the Chinese government have to say about the situation?

China’s State Food and Drug Administration and its health ministry did not immediately respond to questions faxed to them Monday.

Chinese media identify northeastern China as the source of such products, especially Jilin province which abuts North Korea.

The Jilin food and drug safety agency is responsible for investigating the trade of such remains there. Calls to the agency and to the information office of Jilin’s Communist Party were not answered Monday.

Their silence, of course, is not surprising-  anyone remember how long it took for them to fess up to being ground zero for SARS?  Besides, they were probably little baby girls, so who cares.

However,  not all Chinese herbs are bad, especially if you get them from a licensed holistic doctor.