July 11 READ ME Evacuated building reopens, but tremors remain mystery Authorities on Wednesday decided to lift the evacuation

order on the high-rise office building and its adjacent shopping mall, despite being unable to discover the reason behind Tuesdays tremors. Through emergency inspections for the past two days, we have not found any major issues with the structure of the building, said Park Jong-yong, vice chief of the Gwangjin district office. In order to find the cause of the tremors, we will attach vibration sensors to the pillars of the building, and the public access ban will be lifted on July 7 at 9 a.m., he told press at a briefing. However nearby residents still remained uneasy about the safety of the building, regardless of the lifted ban, which was originally placed some four hours after the vibrations. I will not be going to TechnoMart any more, it makes me too uneasy, said Kim Kyung-ran, an apartment tenant across the street. Even if they announce that it is safe to go back, I won't trust it, said the 39-year-old, who declined to give her name. At roughly 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, the 39-story office building attached to Techno Mart, shook violently in a see-sawing motion felt on the higher floors of the building, according to occupants. The unexplained tremor, reportedly lasting some 10 minutes, prompted an estimated 500 people to immediately flee the building, which had a total occupancy of roughly 3,000 people at the time. Though most of store owners were relieved to hear about the lifted ban, they seem more concerned that the scare will keep away customers from the thousands of retailers, multiplex, and commercial offices.

We appreciate and understand the role of the government to protect the people, said a store owner. But we did not agree with the order to evacuate as there was not a single bit of damage, he added. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Do you think the evacuation order on the building should be kept until the reason of tremors of the building? 2) Do you think Koreans sometimes are insensitive to safety? 3) Do you remember/know the collapse of the Sampung Department Store/Seongsu Bridge? What were they?

July 12 READ ME Playing good guy leads to isolation in military The death of four soldiers in the recent military shooting rampage was merely the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface are more episodes of abuse and demoralizing hierarchy that indicate ostracism in Korean military is worse than people think. A sergeant, who recently got promoted to a higher position, is one of the victims who got assaulted for playing the good guy. In order to halt the traditional, ongoing cycle of shoe-shining, ramen preparation, and ironing of uniforms - duties assigned to low-rank soldiers - he banned senior soldiers from demanding junior soldiers to carry out their traditional roles and equally distributed the workload. The senior soldiers criticized the new system, claiming, He must have benefitted from the hierarchy at one point. Why would he ban the practice now? Consequently, the sergeant got appointed as an outcast. Notice that there is a pattern: deviation from traditional practices or majoritys wishes leads to isolation. Im Tae-hoon, an affiliate of the Soldiers Rights Center, claims that such pattern was born out of Macho-ism, a form of male chauvinism that emphasizes the idea that a man must silently withstand beatings. What is unfortunate is that situations can worsen if word of counseling sessions get out, so the best that soldiers can do is record any scenes of abuse or simply endure the pain. As long as ostracism still exists in the military, inappropriate practices will be most likely hard to break, he said. Lee Seung-jae, a law professor at the graduate school of Konkuk University, says that in order to mitigate problems like these, the military

should solve human rights issues in collaboration with a monitoring organization, like German Ombudsman for the Military, an independent body within the federal parliament. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Do you think the military is different from other organizations, so it can be treated differently on human right issues? 2) Why is bullying in the military force more serious? 3) What is the best solution for this matter?

July 13 READ ME Koreans Ecstatic Pyeongchang Will Host 2018 Winter Olympics The South Korean resort of Pyeongchang has been selected to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. It took only one round of voting in Durban, South Africa, for Pyeongchang to defeat Munich, Germany, and France's Annecy. Now many South Koreans hope that by having the games, it will also put them on the map as a winter sports hot spot. After two consecutive failed bids to host the Winter Olympics, the ski resort area of Pyeongchang, about 180 kilometers east of Seoul, finally will get its chance. Ahn Kyoung An, 23, who sounded a little hoarse from cheering, says she is really happy South Korea won this time. "We are also very stunned, because we tried a lot of times," said Ahn. Pyeongchang is already the center for winter sports in Korea, but many here say the 2018 Olympics could turn the area into an international hub. That sounds a little overambitious, says Jason Lee, a long time sportscaster with Korea's Arirang TV. But he says the resorts there have already done a good job at luring some foreign skiers. "They are bringing people from countries that do not have snow, from South East Asia, from Africa," said Lee. "They have got good intentions in trying to make Pyeongchang an area that is just not central to Korea." But Lee says the hard part is making Pyeongchang's facilities meet international expectations. The area does not have much in the way of an after ski culture, and major transportation projects are planned to make the three-hour trip from Seoul a little less of a trek. But Lee says he's confident the Koreans will have it all done by 2018. "There are a lot of things that need to be built, but it has been one of those things," Lee added. "We will do it once we are promised these games

and I think they definitely do have a long way to go. But the fact that they have the support of the Olympic committee, the nation is fully behind it." South Korea becomes the second Asian nation, after Japan, to hold the Winter Games. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Do you think Olympic games are good to upgrade national image? 2) Winter Olympic Games have been the playground for European and North American nations. Why? 3) What is the most important and urgent matter to solve in preparation of Pyeongchang Olympic Games?

July 14 READ ME Fans, stars and Hollywood mourn end of Harry Potter magic Film farewells dont get much bigger than Harry Potter, and thousands of fans prepared on Thursday to say goodbye to their beloved boy wizard at the world premiere of the final movie in the record-breaking series. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 is the eighth installment - and first in 3-D - of a franchise that has generated more public excitement and media hype than any other in living memory. For Hollywood studio Warner Bros it has been a magic pot of gold, with the seven films released so far grossing $6.4 billion in ticket sales and billions more from DVDs and merchandise. For a generation of Potter fans, the movies have extended the wizarding world created by British author J.K. Rowling in her seven-book saga which began in 1997 and concluded in 2007. More than 400 million copies have been sold around the globe, making Rowling the first author billionaire and providing a huge support base upon which the films built. Weve grown up in the Harry Potter generation - I read the first book when I was 5 so now its weird that its coming to an end... like the end of childhood, said Rhys, an 18-year-old who braved the rain in Londons Trafalgar Square. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Why did Harry Potter series become so popular in movie and book? What are the reasons? 2) Do you like fantasy novels/films? Why or why not? 3) When the same contents exist in film and in book, which one do you prefer? Why?

July 15 READ ME How to goof around without your boss knowing Office workers who spend everyday glaring at a computer screen find it hard to keep their concentration throughout work hours. It is difficult to access Facebook, Twitter or other websites when the boss is watching. Here comes my boss, provided by popular site Humor University, is a simple route to avoid being caught slacking: It returns the screen immediately to a desktop setting. Double monitor programs provide an upgraded version of this. Available on numerous download websites, they allow users to have several screens in one monitor; just by pressing a key the screen can switch back to that of a diligent workers at a glimpse. Recently, Bay Gross, a computer science major at Yale University, made Hardlywork.in, a site that automatically converts Facebook news feeds into an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is carefully engineered to help those feel as professional as possible. Users can see what friends are doing with updates appearing as new spreadsheet rows. They can also like entries by clicking on the like column. The Excel file is also named daily cash reconciliation to make it seem legitimate. Gross thought of the idea when his friend with a government internship said she could only check her Facebook after work. The site is attracting around 10,000 unique users everyday. Bay Gross, said it only took 15 hours to develop. Visitors are greeted to the site with: Feeling unprofessional when you check your Facebook profile at the office? Well theres nothing more professional than a nice

spreadsheet. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Many companies block some websites. Do you think it is necessary? 2) Do you think Korean workers do more personal things at work? 3) Some people say that some time with web surfing is breathing room for employees. What is your opinion?