I‘ve long been an admirer of Greg Mortenson, the author of the phenomenal best-seller “Three Cups of Tea.” The book tells how he began building girls’ schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan after making a pledge to the villagers of Korphe, who had rescued him from a failed attempt to summit the world‘s second-highest peak, K-2.To see his work, I traveled with Greg in 2007 to visit schools he’d built

Han Song marries hanji and natural dyeing to create eco-friendly jeansThe following is the second in a series of articles on the contemporizing of Korean culture -- Ed.In the fickle world of fashion, where trends come and go every few months and new items fill the store racks virtually every week, a designer who devotes years to a singular vision is a rarity.Han Song whose eponymous Han Song Jeans

TOKYO (AFP) ― Hundreds of middle-aged Japanese flocked to a cemetery in Tokyo on Monday to bid farewell to a popular actress amid national mourning for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Yoshiko Tanaka died at 55 last Thursday after a long battle with breast cancer, ending her showbusiness career which began with an all-girl pop group, named the Candies, who took Japan’s younger genera

 

LOS ANGELES ― All grown up, Hansel and Gretel return to the forest to exact revenge on their childhood tormentors. Snow White escapes the Evil Queen and takes up with a group of Shaolin monks. And after leaving Kansas, carnival barker Oscar Diggs remakes himself as a wizard in the Emerald City.Childhood classics as seen through a fun-house mirror? Well, yes. But for the film business, it’s also so

LOS ANGELES ― Jeans for this spring and summer have gone from basic blues and intense indigo to Technicolor versions of playful Crayola shades. It’s all very 1980s a la Esprit or Benetton, but this time there’s nothing junior about colored denim. It’s coming in sleek skinny shapes and cropped lengths that liven up simple T-shirts or button-downs and work well with neutral sandals or flats rather t

Debate rages on which is betterORLANDO, Florida ― The next time you go to the vending machine for a bottle of water (costing 6 cents an ounce) or, instead, sip from the drinking fountain (free), you will be taking part in another debate that touches on the fate of humankind.Because the next time you grab a bottle from a case in the fridge (costing a penny an ounce) or fill a glass from the tap (a

Picture of a backyard (MCT)VIENNA (AP) ― A man turning dirt in his back yard stumbled across buried treasure ― hundreds of pieces of centuries-old jewelry and other precious objects that Austrian authorities described Friday as a fairy-tale find.Austria’s department in charge of national antiquities said the trove consists of more than 200 rings, brooches, ornate belt buckles, gold-plated silver p

Lee Soo-man, head producer and founder of SM Entertainment, gave a Hallyu business lecture at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business on April 19, an SM Entertainment spokesperson said. S.M Entertainment is a K-pop powerhouse, managing groups like TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee and F(x). Lee Soo-man speaks to Stanford MBA students at KnightManagement Center. (SM Entertainm

‘Cinema Verite’ delves into the creation of the first reality television show 40 years agoAt the beginning of the annual congressional shootout over funding for public broadcasting, PBS inevitably launches a barrage of press releases about its storied cultural and intellectual contributions to U.S. culture. One achievement that never gets mentioned: the invention of reality television. Long before

BUDAPEST ― “Hey!” an almost-naked man cheerily called to me.“Um, hey, back at you,” I couldn’t help but giggle as I answered, waving with one hand, my camera in the other.“You take my picture,” he commanded in halting, Hungarian-accented English before a striking a Schwarzenegger-like Mr. Universe pose. Click. Click, click, click. Then, with once last slightly embarrassed glance, I rushed away qui

MILOS, Greece (AP) ― The Greek island of Milos is less well-known than some of the others in the Cyclades group of islands, such as the world-famous Santorini and Mykonos. But Milos, a volcanic, horseshoe-shaped island about 160 kilometers southwest of Athens, is a perfect beach destination, and with no major ruins of note, natural beauty is the main attraction.Otherworldly rock formations decorat

BOSTON (AP) ― Boston’s Museum of Science has exhibits on natural history, dinosaurs, space travel and electricity, all enclosed within four walls.Paul Fontaine, vice president of education, has for years wanted to expand beyond the bricks and mortar. He got his wish this month with the launch of the Museum of Science Segway Experience, an outdoor tour of the area around the museum using the gyrosc

Aren’t we getting sophisticated? The United States last year, despite wars, government deficits and a punky economy, overtook France to become the world’s biggest consumer of wine.We drank 330 million 12-bottle cases in 2010 compared to 321 million for the French, according to California-based industry consultants Gomberg, Fredrikson & Assoc.We’re not ahead per-capita, of course. The average Frenc

SINGAPORE (AFP) ― A baby girl starves to death as her parents raise a virtual child online; a boy scolded for excessive gaming kills his mother then commits suicide ― technology addiction is taking a toll in Asia.With more 100 million smartphones now sold annually in the Asia-Pacific region ― expected to double in five years’ time ― it is the world’s largest market for advanced mobile devices.And

NEW YORK (AP) ― Teenage girls largely live in a lookalike culture, wearing the same styles that they got in the same stores as their friends. On prom night, though, the idea is to stand out, making sure no one arrives to the big dance in the same outfit.To ensure their uniqueness ― after they’ve shopped in faraway malls and tapped into store registries ― girls are using social media to claim dibs

Used toys are notoriously difficult to recycle; most end up in trash binsLOS ANGELES ― Americans bought 2.9 billion toys last year. As I stumble through the house after play dates, it sometimes feels as if my 8-year-old son owns all of them.Our living room is exploding with Lego bricks, Nerf weaponry and rubbery bounce balls. My son’s bedroom is, more often than not, carpeted with Pokemon cards an

Rejection of new interpretations of traditional dishes hamper hansik globalizationThe following is the first in a series of articles on the contemporizing of Korean culture -- Ed. KwangJuYo CEO Cho Tae-kwon holds a special soju drinking vessel that prevents the drinker from overfilling the cup. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)With societies becoming more affluent, food is no longer just about fill

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ― Amid a burst of fireworks and a haze of smoke, a burly showman in a white sequined suit and gold lame cape appears with a flourish. Over the next 45 minutes, he appears to make a Pyongyang bus levitate and wriggles free from a box sent crashing to the stage through a ring of fire.This is magic North Korean-style performed in a show touted as the country’s biggest ever

“People who litter public areas suffer from mental and social dysfunction which makes them unable to achieve success in modern societies,” writes journalist Sandra Brasil in one of the most prestigious Brazilian weekly magazines, VEJA. Harsh words to describe a common but unfortunate behavior pattern of people from all over the world. Littering does not spare any country or culture whether it is G