Emanuel delivers talks for Hyundai and KIA employees going abroad with families (November 25, 2011)

Emanuel delivered talks for a select group of employees from Hyundai and KIA Motors on November 25 in which he spoke about the need for a vision of the significance of working abroad and the importance of having a family plan for what the stay abroad means for each family members.

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Talk for UST

November 15, 2011

Emanuel delivered a talk at KIST for students enrolled in UST (University of Science and Technology) an innovative technology program run jointly by a group of research institutes in Korea. The talk concerned the impact of technology on society and presented an assessment of the challenges faced currently by the young generation.

The students are from around Asia, but includes a large number from the Middle East. We entered into a very lively discussion about technology after the talk.

 

 

 

Review of Winslow Wheeler’s book on defense spending “The Wastrels of Defense” (article)

Here is Emanuel’s review of Winslow Wheeler’s book on defense spending “The Wastrels of Defense” as it appears on the site of the Center for Defense Information

 

“Rebels Within the U.S. Federal System ”

Emanuel Pastreich

January 10, 2006

 

Casually observing the mainstream media in
the United States gives one the impression that conservatives support the
administration of George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress. Nothing could
be further from the truth. In fact, the most strident and damning attacks on
the “neo-conservatives” come not from “liberals,” but
rather from conservatives themselves. Moreover, although many Americans
foolishly buy into the argument that they should be afraid of “government,”
in reality, those in government have provided the strongest resistance to
corruption and corporate manipulation.

An excellent example of the rebellion
against the present rule of money and privilege in America is Winslow Wheeler.
Like the Democratic senator John Murtha, who recently called for U.S. troops to
be withdrawn from Iraq unconditionally, Wheeler is an insider with strong ties
to the military and the institutional culture that has dominated the U.S. for
the last 40 years who decided things have gone too far and has taken a stand.
He has written at length about the corruption in the military procurement
system, which is so deep that it poses a serious security threat.

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“Korean Technology Beyond Motherboards and Displays” (article in Korea IT Times)

KOREA IT TIMES

Korean Technology Beyond Motherboards and Displays

Taekwando and Oriental Medicine at the Center of Korea’s Future

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Emanuel Pastreich

http://www.koreaittimes.com/story/18156/korean-technology-beyond-motherboards-and-displays

The term “technology” demands our special attention because the challenges we face require us to move beyond the rather limited significance assigned to the word. “Technology” generally refers to applied techniques for design and the fabrication of parts for the electronics industry, and to a lesser degree to mechanical engineering, energy generation, and biotechnology. But rapid changes in society such as the environmental crisis and the aging population are putting great pressure on us to expand the definition of technology to allow for new and novel solutions. As Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Technology also must be taken up to another level.

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Yale Vice President for West Campus visits Kyung Hee University

Professor Scott Strobel, Vice President of Yale for West Campus, visited Seoul National University Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology and Kyung Hee University on November 4, 2011. At Kyung Hee University he delivered a fascinating talk about Yale’s West Campus project and how a group of far-sighted

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AICT Holds ConTech conference “A Smart and Humane World” at KOEX

AICT (Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology) at Seoul National University hosted the CONTECH international conference “A Smart and Humane World” on convergence technology on November 3, 2011, bringing together experts from around the world to discuss the implications of the convergence of technological fields for our world. Emanuel served on the international advisory board for this event. Several themes are related to the Kyung Hee University-AICT research project for which Emanuel was co-researcher.

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The Korean Hangul script as a global phonetic system

A fascinating article by Professor Sin Buyong, Director of KAIST’s new “Hangul” Engineering Institute” in which he argues for the broad application of the Korean hangul script globally. Korea is starting to expand the concept of technology to include many new applications, and this concept of hangul as a universal script that can more accurately, and more simply, represent all languages is particularly striking.  What is new here is the Koreans are not merely proposing more people in the world should learn Korean, but also that they could better write their own languages using the hangul script.

Professor Sin presented in a previous article an input device employing hangul and demonstrates how hangul is better than the Roman script for inputting English. I am not sure how realistic this example is, but it does suggest a new self confidence and creativity which is most welcome.

Demonstration of the greater efficiency of Hangul script over Roman script for inputting English.