The Korea Herald

KTO provides tips for young backpackers

TravelJan 17, 2014

As the a large number of students go on backpacking trips during the winter season, the Korea Tourism Organization is offering freelance travel writers useful travel tips.Experts suggest that backpackers make their own name cards with links to their pages on social networking sites so that the relationships made during the trip can last. Google Maps and GPS systems are handy for travelers concerned about getting lost as they offer the clearest, most accurate directions. Backpackers are not encou
Mosquito-borne virus spreading in Caribbean

TravelJan 17, 2014

KINGSTON (AP) ― A mosquito-borne virus appears to be spreading quickly in the Caribbean during the winter tourism season just weeks after epidemiologists first found local transmission occurring in the French dependency of St. Martin.St. Martin now has as many as 200 cases of chikungunya, a virus found mainly in Africa and Asia that can cause a debilitating but rarely fatal sickness with fever, rash, fatigue and intense muscle and joint pain.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sa
Bukeoguk (dried pollack soup)

Food&BeverageJan 17, 2014

Bukeoguk is a soup made with dried pollack. Depending on the process used to dry the fish, dried pollack is usually called bukeo or hwangtae. You can use either one for this soup. Dried pollack keeps well for a long time and can be rehydrated very quickly by soaking it in warm water. Keep a bag of shredded bukeo (or hwangtae) in your pantry. It comes in handy for a quick soup or side dish. The unique flavor of the dried fish makes the soup very flavorful but not fishy. Dried pollack is a rich so
Around the hotels

TravelJan 17, 2014

Winter oyster festival at Grand Ambassador SeoulGrand Ambassador Seoul’s restaurant Cafe de Chef is offering fresh oyster dishes for the winter season until Feb. 28. Set menus provide a variety of oyster dishes for both lunch and dinner. The Oyster Executive set (66,000 won) includes a choice of appetizers among fresh oyster, oyster cocktails and ginger buttered oyster, as well as an oyster cream soup, a main dish and dessert. The Oyster Dinner Special set (77,000 won) offers a choice of appeti
TV show makes Korean cuisine simple

Food&BeverageJan 17, 2014

Celebrity chef Judy Joo presents ‘approachable’ hansik for international audience
Google tests 'smart' contact lens

HealthJan 17, 2014

Google wants to go in a totally different direction with a project announced today: smart contact lenses that can detect glucose levels via the wearer’s tears and alert them when levels dip or rise, GigaOm reported. (Google)“It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype. We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease,” project co-founders Brian Otis and Bab
30-min exercise to halve diabetes risk

HealthJan 17, 2014

Hour and a half's daily workout could significantly lower risk of Type 2 diabetes by 30 to 40 percent, a study showed Friday. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.(Yonhap)The research team from Harvard University studied 99,316 mid-aged women, who did not have diabetes at the beginning of the study, for eight years to find out if regular workout can help stave off diabetes.Muscle-strengthening activities such as lifting weights, aerobics and yoga had real effects on preventing dia
Health care key driver of tourism

TravelJan 16, 2014

Fourth-largest medical tourism market in Asia aims to move beyond cosmetic surgery to multi-health care provider
3-D tech reduces pain, boosts accuracy in dental surgery

HealthJan 16, 2014

New equipment has reduced the burden of patients while raising their satisfaction.
Drinking linked to faster mental decline in men

HealthJan 16, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― Middle-aged men risk a faster mental decline as they age if they’ve been drinking heavily for years, new research suggests.The study of about 5,000 British civil servants found that over a decade, the added decline was the equivalent of about two extra years of aging for a combined measure of mental abilities like reasoning, and about six years for memory. The heavy drinkers’ abilities were compared to those of men who drank moderately or abstained.It’s no surprise that heavy alc
Premature menopause

HealthJan 16, 2014

Ms. K, 38, was shocked to be diagnosed with premature menopause when she visited her gynecologist. She had experienced irregular periods from 35 years and did not have periods for the past six months. For the last two to three months she had facial flushing, perspiration, insomnia and systemic arthritis, for which she had to see a doctor. Following hormone and bone density tests, she was diagnosed with premature menopause. She was found to have reduced bone density and increased cholesterol. Ms.
Still got it: Kate Moss turns 40

FashionJan 16, 2014

LONDON (AFP) ― It’s been 26 years since the skinny girl from south London was spotted at JFK airport but Kate Moss, who celebrates her 40th birthday on Thursday, is still on top of her game.The British supermodel greeted the landmark birthday in typically rocking style by posing as a bunny girl for Playboy magazine in black stilettos and rabbit ears.She riled a few feminists but it was hard to deny that while the years may be rushing by, she’s still got it.Moss has recently fronted campaigns by
Famed Argentine poet Juan Gelman dies

CultureJan 16, 2014

MEXICO CITY (AP) ― Juan Gelman, a renowned Argentine poet and left-wing activist who was awarded the prestigious Cervantes Prize, has died in Mexico. He was 83. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Wednesday announced three days of mourning in his native country, where writers paid homage to him as one of the most brilliant writers in Spanish of the 20th century. “Gelman worked with words like they were plastic, he modeled them,” writer Vicente Muleiro told reporters. He was widely mourned
Young adult authors Riggs and Mafi an enchanting couple

BooksJan 16, 2014

Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi spend their days in Santa Monica, sitting side by side at a shared desk in identical chairs in their backyard office, wearing headphones, working at their laptops. Across a cool green expanse sits their Spanish-style house, hidden behind a vine-covered wall.“I really loved books about secret worlds, like ‘The Secret Garden’ and the ‘Bridge to Terabithia,’” says Riggs, whose young adult novel “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” was a bestseller in 2011. “St
Spanish-language books flourish thanks to e-readers

BooksJan 16, 2014

For decades, finding Spanish-language books in the U.S. was like tilting at windmills.Booksellers stocked few titles in the language of Cervantes, and those they carried came at a hefty premium. A paperback copy of “Don Quijote” in the original Spanish could easily cost triple the price of a deluxe hard-bound translation in English ― if it could be found at all.Retailers blamed the expense of importing books printed in Spain and Latin America. And U.S. publishers lost faith in the market after b