We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

A baby named Jie-Jie was born at a small local hospital in China's Anhui Province, armed with, well...three arms. All of them functional to some degree.

Clearly this is a sign of human evolution and the 144-hour Creationists* need to just shut the fuck up right now. This mutated baby will grow up being able to type out his blog and sip his Starbucks... simultaneously! How genetically developed is that?! It's like when the first giraffe had a long neck or the first elephant developed a trunk long enough to scratch its private regions.

In true egalitarian, communist fashion, doctors at a medical center in Shanghai are plotting how to take one of these arms away from the infant. In all seriousness, I say let him keep them all — he's not a freak, he's the future: an ergonomic infant.

Besides, the poor kid is missing one kidney, so shouldn't the extra arm be left intact to make up for his renal deficiencies? Won't someone think of the children?

If Jie-Jie could talk, I'm sure he'd be saying:

What the hell is wrong with you people? I've got an extra arm...think of how many things I'll be able to do that others can't, from sports to cheating at poker to clerical duties to intimate activities with my wife and/or girlfriend. Leave my arm the fuck alone! Oh, and why did you give me a name that sounds like I'm a fucking panda?! Were you high or something? I should take my third arm and go Cultural Revolution on your asses!

In principle, the same thing could happen with North Korea, but there's a lot that has to happen to get there.

I imagine for the shareholders the resolution of the nuclear issue is probably at the heart of it. I think the other thing that's at the heart of it is whether North Korea ... were to make the kinds of decisions necessary for that kind of economic progress to take place.

To be honest, I'm not so sure Guangzhou is the place to bring someone whom you're trying to convince to begin major reforms. Frankly, the septuagenarians who replaced the octogenarians who used to rule China have mostly lost control of the place. Someone like Kim Jong-il and his cronies are not going to look at free-wheeling Guangzhou and go, "Yeah, let's try that."

A country that was once a recipient of World Bank assistance, it's increasingly now playing a role as a donor and a model for a lot of other countries about how to do development the right way. It's an incredible success story here. There's a lot to be learned from it.

Wolfowitz told President Roh Moohyun at a meeting that he is pleased with South Korea's decision to expand aid to Africa and hopes the country will work with the World Bank.

I think it (North Korea) can open up ... There is enough room for everybody.

"If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," wrote Ambassador John J. Muccio, in his message to Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk.

The letter is receiving attention in part because it apparently wasn't found in what was supposedly an exhaustive investigation from 1999 to 2001, after the AP detailed an account of the Army's killing of large numbers of Korean refugees at Nogun-ri. The Muccio letter, declassified in 1982, was dated the same day as the Nogun-ri massacred.

The Muccio letter, which seems to contradict Pentagon accounts of what happened as a bunch of panicky soldiers reacting improperly—and without orders—to a group of refugees who may have had weapons and North Korean operatives among them, is discussed in a new book by American historian Sahr Conway-Lanz, entitled "Collateral Damage." In his book, he argues that, "With this additional piece of evidence, the Pentagon report's interpretation [of Nogun-ri] becomes difficult to sustain."

The WaPo says that the letter "is the strongest indication yet that such a policy existed for all U.S. forces in Korea, and the first evidence that that policy was known to upper ranks of the U.S. government."

The Pentagon concluded that the Nogun-ri shootings, which lasted three days, were "an unfortunate tragedy"..."not a deliberate killing." It suggested panicky soldiers, acting without orders, opened fire because they feared that an approaching line of families, baggage and farm animals concealed enemy troops.

Nogun-ri has been an embarrassment for the American military and anyone who supports strong US-ROK ties. For years, during staunchly pro-American regimes, the survivors at Nogun-ri found it difficult to seek redress. Some groups say hundreds more refugees were killed in later, similar episodes.

According to the WaPo and AP:Muccio's letter indicates the actions of the 7th Cavalry were consistent with policy, adopted because of concern that North Koreans would infiltrate via refugee columns. And in subsequent months, U.S. commanders repeatedly ordered refugees shot, documents show.The Army is standing by the report that was given, but acknowledged that among the millions of documents reviewed, the Muccio letter may have been missed.

What I don't like about the story is that it appears to be only half the story. The shocking part is at the top, the details later may be missed. Those meeting on the night of July 25, 1950, including US 8th Army top staff officers, Muccio's representative Harold J. Noble, and ROK officials, decided on a policy of air-dropping leaflets telling South Korean civilians not to head south toward U.S. defense lines and of shooting them if they did approach U.S. lines despite warning shots.

It should also be noted that it is not clear what action was taken as a result of the letter. Dated the same day as Nogun-ri, it may have had nothing to do with the tragedy that happened there.

Billy, the Korean War veteran story-teller I mentioned here, told me of some of what the US military was up against in the early days. Refugees were streaming south — staying north mean some or all would die. But the refugees were blocking their saviors from heading to the fighting, to meet those who would do them harm.

Billy told me of how the tanks would fire over the columns of refugees who were blocking the roads. That would get most to move off the road, at least for a while. Eventually, he said, it would be necessary to do this again.

The refugees were moving, moving, moving, because to do otherwise meant dying. We know of the tragic story of the refugees moving across the Han River Bridge as the retreating ROK and US forces were setting to blow it up to prevent the North Koreans from moving south of the river. But the refugees wouldn't get off. At some point, the horrific decision had to be made to sacrifice those still on the bridge in order to save many more lives.

I am not trying to justify anything that happened there. I really don't know what happened. North Koreans reportedly really had infiltrated many columns of refugees, which put all of them at risk. In times of war, it's hard to know who the enemy is and who isn't, but ultimately, much or all of the blame lies with Kim Il-Sung and the North Koreans, who perpetrated the war in the first place and utilized such tactics in a way that gave the ROK and its allies nothing but Hobson's choices.

The teen obsession with yakking, text messaging and ring-tone swapping on cellphones might mean more than a whopping phone bill. For the most crazed, it's a sign of unhappiness and anxiety, according to a new medical study.

A survey of 575 South Korean high school students found that the top third of users — students who used their phones more than 90 times a day — frequently did so because they were unhappy or bored. They scored significantly higher on tests measuring depression and anxiety than students who used their phones a more sedate 70 times daily.

The study, presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn. in Toronto, was among the first to explore the emotional significance of teens' cellphone habits as the device becomes more entrenched in today's youth culture.

The LAT drives home the importance of this in the US, tellings us that two of every five American youths from ages eight to eighteen have a cellphone, and that students in grades seven through twelve spend an average of an hour a day on their cellphones — about the same time they devote to homework.

Some research has shown that students incorporate cellphones into their personal identities. For teens, cellphones were "not just objects or communications tools. They were portals for being in touch with other people — extensions of themselves."

But all is not lost. Ever hopeful that things are not as dismal as they sound, the leader author of this report, Dr. Jeehyan Ha, said heavy cellphone users involved in his study weren't clinically depressed. Rather, he said, the students probably had some serious cases of teen angst.

Well, heck. I had that!

Dr. Ha suggested these kids may be unhappy because of a problem in their lives or anxious about their social status, and "they are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to others." So that could make cell phones a good thing, right?

Both the LAT and Time asked, given that cellphone use in South Korea is higher than in the US, do the findings applied to American teens? James Katz of Rutgers University professor says yes:

A central concern for teenagers is being in touch with friends and drawing boundaries about who's in and who's out. People who are anxious and depressed are concerned about whether they are in or out and naturally often look at their cellphones to see if they've gotten answers to the text messages they sent out.

For anxious teens, one scientist commented, text messaging can also become a substitute for face-to-face communication. You want to be sure that you are not reinforcing social isolation.

Not everyone is convinced. Dr. Bruce Spring, of USC's Keck School of Medicine, said that in some cases, light or no use of a cellphone might be a more serious sign:

Teens who are really anxious and depressed won't be sending messages or making calls.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess. Time Magazine ends on this somewhat bright note:

Either extreme may be worrisome, but parents take heart: As an adaptive response, inappropriate cell use is a whole lot better than drugs or antisocial behavior—but it may deserve some attention.

Calling the ties a special relationship, speakers at the opening ceremony said the (countries') acts and slogans of struggle to oppose global dominators and their struggle spirit aimed at safeguarding national dignity and independence are deepening the relations.

It might sometimes seem that my less-than-outraged attitude toward the way Japan has confronted—or not confronted—its imperial past is driven by some dislike of Korea. Actually, I simply find Korea and China’s criticism of Japan’s past to be historically simplistic, at time politically motivated and almost always diplomatically counterproductive. At the same time, as the victims of Japanese imperialism, I can understand how Koreans and Chinese might be bitter about the whole experience, regardless of how many school, roads or railroads the Japanese may or may not have built in their overseas possessions. In other words, they at least have a right to bitch.

What really gets my goat, through, is when I hear Americans and Europeans taking Japan to task for its past. Example A: Rep. Henry Hyde warning Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro to stop visits of the Yasukuni Shrine if he’d like to address Congress...

A lonely doctor (Sandra Bullock) who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its newest resident, a frustrated architect (Keanu Reeves). When they discover that they’re actually living two years apart, they must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it’s too late.

Eunju moves out of her house "Il Mare", leaving behind a Christmas card for the eventual new owner of the house in 1999. In it she asks him/her to forward any mail of hers to her new address in the city. It is 1997 and Sunghyun, the first owner of "Il Mare" is moving in and finds in his mailbox the Christmas card from Eunju. Thinking it was a joke, Sung-hyun leaves her a letter telling her so and reminds her that it's 1997 not 1999. Eventually the two realize that they are separated by two years of time but can somehow communicate through the mailbox and begin to form a friendship through their letters.

No, Hollywood did not rip off Korean cinema. Rather, they did what Korean carmakers have doing for years: they paid the licensing fees to remake somebody else's stuff as their own. In fact, Hollywood has been doing this for years with French and other European films (and not a few television shows), and lately with Japanese, Korean, and other Asian cinema.

Making his first policy address as head of government, Romano Prodi formally abandoned the unequivocal support that his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, gave to U.S. policy in Iraq. Prodi appeared to indirectly criticize the United States' holding of terrorism suspects, saying such efforts must never undermine personal liberties.

Korea, according to Prof. Kyung-Hui Lee, is one place that has hardly been touched by the divorce culture, despite its modernization. Family and responsibility are still overriding values there, and extended families are still strong. Divorce is rare enough there that "family law" mostly deals with inheritances and the perils of marrying someone with the same surname, and so that is what Prof. Lee mostly had prepared to discuss.

The impact of the language amendment was unclear even after its passage. The wording negating claims to multilingual services appears straightforward. It also sets requirements that immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship know the English language and U.S. history. The amendment would require more thorough testing to demonstrate English-language proficiency and knowledge of U.S. history and elements of U.S. culture such as the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem.