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US Geneticist Discusses North Korea Trip With Dennis Rodman
sciencehabit writes "If you happened to catch any of the news coverage of Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea last week, you might have spotted in the big man's entourage a white guy with an Amish-style beard, as in clean-shaven cheeks and no mustache. That's Joseph Terwilliger, 48, a statistical geneticist who splits his time at Columbia University and the University of Helsinki. He's now visited North Korea three times with the basketball star. He sat down with Science Magazine for a Q and A about how he got involved with Rodman and whether the trips are helping--or hurting--U.S. relations with the country."
The write-up tends to make him look like a celebrity whore. Much like Kim Jong Un
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
..what is this doing on Slashdot?
...to confirm if Rodman is actually human or really from another planet. Recent evidence suggests he is, in fact, not from Earth.
Tonight I am going to kill Kim Jong Un......
Let me guess, the water park slides all end in shark tanks?
He goes on for a bit about opening up "scientific exchanges" with North Korea. Seriously? You could find more science to exchange on one hallway of one dorm on one campus in Seoul than in the entirety of North Korea.
Who needs safety barricades, when you have an unlimited supply of cheap disposable minions happy to smash their own bodies to protect VIPs?
They build a bunny slope with a 100 foot cliff at the bottom and this guys comments on how kind they are to have stopped him from going over in his inner tube. I do not think I would have seen it that way. I'm pretty sure I would have called them a bunch of morons.
Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number...and make that a little louder?
I then kept moving in the tube and five other Korean men also were knocked to the ground in their effort to stop my tube from going off a 100 foot cliff that was located at the bottom of the bunny slope.
North Korea, the only country where humans are cheaper than a fence.
Hey, it's not like NK has the budget for pools of laser-sharks. If you need a convenient way to dispose of undesirables, a "free ski lesson" on the bunny slopes of doom is a fine low-cost alternative for the thrifty (not-quite-so-)supervillain.
That's the proverbial (on slashdot anyways) "neckbeard". It's also the Muslim beard style (i.e., beard with mustache shaved). Maybe it's a biblical thing?
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
"Every medical expense you suffer for the good of our international image will be paid for by our glorious Republic and an equal share sent to your family, and possibly yourself if you live."
--Kim Jong Un
Sounds like Mr. Wiggin designed the place. At least there were no rotating knives...
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
"Great news! Your medical expenses cost absolutely nothing, because all the doctors joyfully agreed to work pro-bono (except for that one, who subsequently accidentally fell off a 100 foot cliff during special medical ski training)!"
DPRK is basically Nazi regime. Visiting this crazy fat asshole is equal to friendly visits to Adolf H. in 1938.
839*929
So a group of North Koreans potentially save someone's life, a visitor from a hated enemy no less, and someone on slashdot derides them for it?
American propoganda at its finest, I guess...
Also I'd think that the Korean War, economic sanctions, etc., have done more harm to US - NK relations than these visitors ever will.
And let's face it, the reason those guys risked injury to stop him was the thought of what would happen to anyone who let a guest of the Dear Leader fall off a cliff...
PizzAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"...In April of 2013, I saw an online auction for charity where people could bid on the chance to play H-O-R-S-E with Dennis Rodman. So I bid and won, ..."
Wow, pretty shrewd, that he saw this opportunity to meet with Rodman and capitalized, furthering his own agenda. A pity that the article only soft-balled some lame questions and didn't get him to comment on the advisory role he played to Rodman's entourage.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
US Geneticist Discusses North Korea Trip With Dennis Rodman
I expect they probably did have a chat about it at some point, yeah.
Honestly, I thought that J. Random Geneticist had scooped an interview.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
So we're propagandists here. Poasting our propaganda. To influence world politics on behalf of the State Department.
o_O
Also, wtf is wrong with US ski resorts that they don't have tackle-gangs lining the slopes to prevent injuries? Our resort operators are just using landscaping and safety barriers to avoid paying sacrificial slope guards. Greedy capitalists.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
For decades your press told you Yanks that East and West Germany would NEVER reunify, and even if they began the process, it would take 30+ years. However, once Russia withdrew from the picture, German reunification happened almost overnight, and today some very nasty individuals from the old East German regime are actually in dominant control of the new Germany.
So, what about Korea. You need to know that the Far East still has unfinished business dating back to long before WW2. America still occupies South Korea for one reason, and one reason only- to prevent the reunification. And, believe me, the reunification would occur faster than even happened between East and West Germany, if the US war machine was removed from the region.
So why does the USA PROHIBIT reunification? The answer is very disturbing. Japan. Japan will wage another massive war against a reunified Korea rather than see Korea become the other dominant force in the area (second to China). Japan is an incredibly racist and fascist State. It pretends that, despite the rise of China, Japan is still 'top dog'. It will NOT allow its old slave colony of Korea to gain greater power than Japan itself, not least for fear that Korea will eventually seek revenge for the deplorable history of crimes against the people of Korea by the Japanese.
Japan, forced by America, is actually a military NUCLEAR power. Japan is covered in fast-breeder nuclear power stations designed entirely to produce weapons grade plutonium for warheads. Fukushima was the world's worst nuclear disaster by far, because a plutonium containment facility exploded, scattering unprecedented amounts of particulate plutonium all over the surrounding areas. If America allows Korea to reunite, there will be a small window while the former South rushes to exploit the nuclear expertise of the former North, and build up a nuclear arsenal to discourage a Japanese attack. Japan will seek to destroy Korea's military nuclear capability during this window- which means massive military strikes by the Japanese military against Korea the moment US forces leave.
However, the USA is in Korea to CREATE this situation, not protect against it. By ensuring that post WW2 tensions have never been resolved in this key part of the globe, the USA seeks to maintain power and influence. However, the rise of China as another Superpower (definition= State that has the ability to destroy the USA, thus will not fear its war machine, no matter how large America makes it) changes everything, and informs us that the US occupation of South Korea is coming to an end.
You the sheeple read nonsense in your mainstream media about 'tensions' between Japan and China, but this is just laughable propaganda for the highly credulous. Japan KNOWS China is an unstoppable juggernaut, and that messing with China means an automatic death sentence. So, Japan partners with China in every practical way, and seeks to be the upstanding no.2 boos in the region. Japan 'pride' can withstand this, because of the geographic 'mass' of China. But Japanese national pride will never stand for being an irrelevant No.3 behind Korea.
World Wars usually begin in places the media tells their sheeple readership NOT to consider. Remember how when WW2 began, Russia was an aggressor (and partner of Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland) and NOT a victim. In truth North Korea threatens no-one. When re-unified, neither will Korea, but Japan won't care about this.
Actually, this is the real reason that North Korea wants nuclear weapons. They're trying to build a double black diamond slope. I hear it's going to be a killer.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Well, what you said is a more humorous version of my thoughts. What I was thinking was that if they didn't stop his tube and he did go over the cliff, 6 Korean men would find themselves living in a prison camp.
Further, the guy keeps talking about how nice the Korean people are to him and Rodman. Is this because if they were not nice they would be in the gulag? I'm sure that my views of DPRK are biased, because they mostly come from a biased media. That said, I have read reports from South Korea from people that escaped, so my view is not _that_ biased.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Personally, the man sounds like a dictatorship whore. I mean, look at the countries he has been to. if you read his stuff, you see what amounts to praise of all the places.
I agree - I read that part about a 100 foot cliff at the end of the bunny hill and immediately thought "design fail..."
Japan will wage another massive war against a reunified Korea rather than see Korea become the other dominant force in the area (second to China). Japan is an incredibly racist and fascist State. It pretends that, despite the rise of China, Japan is still 'top dog'. It will NOT allow its old slave colony of Korea to gain greater power than Japan itself, not least for fear that Korea will eventually seek revenge for the deplorable history of crimes against the people of Korea by the Japanese.
Japan has far more to worry about from the PRC than Korea, unified or otherwise.
Population of Japan: 127.6 million
Population of South Korea: 50 million
Population of North Korea: 24.7 million
A unified Korea starts off with less human capital than Japan. That's without accounting for the generations long project of bringing North Korea out of the stone age. It cost trillions of dollars and took more than a generation to bring East Germany up to West Germany's standard of living. North Korea starts out from a much worse state than East Germany. East Germany had a relatively educated population, a decent industrial base, and preexisting trade relationships. North Korea has none of those.
Bottom line, Korea isn't going to overtake Japan in any meaningful measure of power (hard or soft) within the 21st Century, unification or not. Japan has a fairly deplorable history in Korea that they still haven't owned up to, but their actions in China during WW2 were arguably worse, and China actually has the soft and hard power to give Japan a run for her money. Of course, Japan + the United States + Australia + the Philippines + New Zealand + Korea is a different story. Beijing will be contained the same way the USSR was contained, by an alliance of like minded Democratic counties.
Remember how when WW2 began, Russia was an aggressor (and partner of Nazi Germany in the invasion of Poland) and NOT a victim.
The Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Poles, and Lithuanians are sympathetic to this argument. Of course, you've vastly oversimplified matters. Hitler had designs on the Soviet Union before he ever came to power (read Mein Kampf) and one could easily argue that Stalin's ruthlessness towards his small neighbors bought needed strategic depth that saved Moscow in 1941. Germany was coming regardless of Stalin's treatment of his smaller neighbors.
The bigger lost opportunity was the chance the Western Powers had to enlist Stalin in a containment alliance directed against Germany, France tried to make this happen, but the UK was ambivalent about dealing with Stalin for obvious reasons. Whatever slim chance existed evaporated after Munich, when Stalin concluded that the West lacked the backbone to stand up to Germany. Once the balloon went up Eastern Europe was screwed regardless of what happened on the battlefield. The UK couldn't impose its will on the USSR, France was a spent force, and the United States wasn't going to absorb another million battlefield casualties for the sake of Poland and the Baltic States.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Also I'd think that the Korean War, economic sanctions, etc., have done more harm to US - NK relations than these visitors ever will.
You're right. After all, we started a war of aggression, attempting to unify the country at gunpoint. Once we were defeated by the free and brave North Korean people we spent the next half century engaging in terrorist attacks against them. We even sent commandos across the border in an attempt to assassinate their President once upon a time. Heck, just a few years ago a United States Navy Submarine torpedoed and sank a North Korean ship on the high seas, killing dozens of innocent North Korean sailors just to make a political point. That's not the only hostile action on the high seas, one time we captured a North Korean ship in international waters, then held the crew hostage and tortured them for nearly a year before releasing them.
The history of American aggression towards North Korea is truly astonishing. Thank you Anonymous Coward for bravely stating the truth, which shall set us all free!
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
21 teams went to Berlin in 1936 to play basketball. The US team got the gold medal. 7 of the nations playing were invaded by Germany in the following war. Spain withdrew before and saw Luftwaffe action that same year.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
I know, right? At least he took the time to understand their accent, though.
I bet Kim Jong-un smoked Dennis Rodman in a game of 21 with a score of 37 million to 0.
Dude, you need to use a sarcasm tag or something... I wasted thre of my lifetime quota of clicks following your links, thinking "he's got it completely opposite"
Fuck yea. This is what we need more of on slashdot: knee jerk prejudicial opinions. Now we need to have a comment about how this visit is wrong because he is white, and we all know white privilege has no place in today's politically correct society. Has anyone thought that perhaps the N. Koreans have a more highly developed society than the West does. Perhaps all their propaganda is true. You will never know unless you go there. However you will never go there because you know that place is full of crazy inferiors who do you share your enlightened view of humanity that you do.
50 years ago it was cool to make fun of the supposed minorities (blacks, communists, etc) because they were not like you.
Today it is cool to make fun of minorities (whites, racists, etc) because they are not like you.
It is funny that the world is up in arms about the attempted genocide of the Jews, yet no body cares about the successful genocide of the Canaanites. Yet everyone thinks the Jews are different from the Germans. They are not; they are exactly the same.
Humanity never changes.
The summary says a white guy with an Amish style beard, but the first image on the link just has a dorky unshaven stubble nerd.
2million people dying in a famine suggests that they don't have quite the level of society that would be called "more highly developed than the west".
Based on the scale of: "Number of people that die due to a lack of food" scale of "highly developed". That's just me though.
Perhaps more people dying is a sign of higher developed...In which case: you are right! how did we get it so wrong!!
The picture I get in my mind is that scene from History of the World, Pt. I.
Have you been there or you're just translating media nazi memes?
Note to readers: today is Opposite Day.
Perhaps all their propaganda is true. You will never know unless you go there. However you will never go there because you know that place is full of crazy inferiors who do you share your enlightened view of humanity that you do.
Not even Kim Jung Un is stopping you, just don't leave the official tour group!
Don't forget about the concentration camps, where they will take three generations of your family for committing a crime.
Am I the only one who thinks the CIA was knocking at his door the instant he got the invite? He's a crazy dick, who would suspect?
Not to enter the argument, however one point to make is about the population of Japan. They may have about 130 million people, however A) they are one of the few countries with a demographic of more older people, B) They have few kids, C) as a nation they appear to be a bit anti-immigration.
Not exactly a great combination. Over the next 20 years their population will be in decline as a result.
It's OK. Clicks are a renewable resource.