Taking their own advice?

Today's Korea Times has a staff editorial about the struggles of Korean parents to pay for private tutoring for their children. The KT concludes:

"Solutions won’t be easy to find. Yet, in order to lay the groundwork for
the country’s sustainable development, our overspending problems in education should be rectified as soon as possible. In particular, it would be urgent to reduce demand for private education by upgrading public education. Now is the time for parents to change their mindset on getting a college degree."

1) I guess I was in the policy battles in Washington, DC, for too long. I now skip past the analysis, statistics, new hip phrases and get right to the conclusion/alleged solutions. The last paragraph finally mentions the lack of solutions. If they had one, they probably would have started the staff editorial with that.

2) So the Korea Times says public education needs to be upgraded.

Questions
* How long has the Korea Times been saying that?
* How likely is public education to be upgraded anytime soon?
* And if it isn't upgraded anytime soon, then what?
* Could it be in Korea's competitive education world that parents will never be truly satisfied with the public option, always seeking to get ahead? Meaning the comment that public education needs to be upgraded is a meaningless statement...

3) The Korea Times concludes: "Now is the time for parents to change their mindset on getting a college degree." I wonder how many of the reporters, educators and upper-management at the Korea Times lack college degrees? Are the children/grandchildren of Korea Times staff waiting for public education to be upgraded before enrolling their children in private institutes? It is easy to say what others should be doing with their own time, resources, and lives without taking your own advice.

* * *

Death isn't funny. Well, not usually. But it is hard not to laugh at this story: "Man killed while trying to create Bigfoot sighting."

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A man dressed in a military-style "ghillie" suit and apparently trying to provoke reports of a Bigfoot sighting in northwest Montana was struck by two cars and killed, authorities said.

The man was standing in the right-hand lane of U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on Sunday night when he was hit by the first car, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. A second car hit the man as he lay in the roadway, authorities said.

Flathead County officials identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell. Trooper Jim Schneider said motives were ascertained during interviews with friends, and alcohol may have been a factor but investigators were awaiting tests.

"He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting," Schneider told the Daily Inter Lake (http://bit.ly/PWJvA5) on Monday. "You can't make it up. I haven't seen or heard of anything like this before. Obviously, his suit made it difficult for people to see him."

Ghillie suits are a type of full-body clothing made to resemble heavy foliage and used to camouflage military snipers.

"He probably would not have been very easy to see at all," Schneider told KECI-TV (http://bit.ly/PkdWMO ).

Tenley was struck by vehicles driven by two girls, ages 15 and 17, who were unable to stop in time, authorities said.

1) I love these kinds of stories. When the cops are discussing the details, how do they stop themselves from bursting out laughing.

2) The trooper says alcohol "may" have been a factor. May have been? Either that or drugs, that's the test doctors should be waiting for.

3) Could you running over something that looks like a bigfoot? The guys were unable to stop in time--and in my case, I probably would have driving, not sure I would have believed what I had seen and not wanting to take a chance on the thing catching up to me.

2014-02-14 Yeon-Mi Park`s debut

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According to the Korea Herald : Caffe Bene, the nation’s largest coffee shop franchise, has started cutting jobs and executive salaries, blaming regulations against expansion of its bakery and restaurant chains. Then a funny thing happened on the way to a seemingly bland story: There was actual talk about the Korean government playing a role in damaging Caffe Bene's business. Not just a throwaway line or a final comment at the end of the article, but actually tying the business's problems to the Korean government's policy. Caffe Bene took over bakery chain Mainz Dom in December despite the National Commission for Corporate Partnership’s advice to reconsider the acquisition as the panel was discussing restricting bakery franchises. The state-funded commission last month designated bakeries and restaurants as “SME-only” businesses, barring franchises to keep from opening too many stores or within 500 meters from small bakeries. Large companies in the dinin

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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