Kendal, an engaging girl who looks about 11 years old, is wearing a koala bear hat in the video she uploaded to YouTube. In it, she looks straight at the camera, explaining that “I just wanted to make a random video seeing if I was, like, ugly or not, because a lot of people call me ugly and I think I am ugly.”In the time it took me to watch the video, titled “Am I Pretty or Ugly?” 13 new answers to her question appeared, including this one: “ugly, kill yourself.” The crowd-sourcing of Kendal’s

This has been one of the worst fortnights in the increasingly unhappy 10-year Afghan war for NATO and, above all, the United States and its ally, Britain.First there was the burning of the Korans at Bagram air base, which unleashed a wave of religious fury and revenge killings of U.S. troops. Then came the deaths of six British soldiers, incinerated by a giant Taliban bomb two weeks ago, which pushed the British death toll in the war over the symbolic 400 mark. Support in Britain for an increasi

It is well known that elections are both benevolent and malevolent. They are benevolent because politicians can suddenly become extremely generous and come up with all sorts of rosy promises. For example, facing elections for the National Assembly and the office of the president this year, politicians have made promises ranging from a 400 percent increase of pay for drafted soldiers to incredibly beneficial welfare policies. If one listens to the plethora of fantastic promises being made, one ma

Jeju Island is one of Korea’s most attractive tourist destinations for Koreans and foreign visitors. Its reputation of unique beauty and majesty has been widely known for a long time.Indeed, Jeju is a special place. Its distinct traditions, diverse flora, magnificent landscapes and what could only be described as playful remnants of nature’s most creative formations are harmoniously mixed to become the home to nine of the world’s 66 UNESCO Global Geoparks. Even Mr. Robert Redford, not so long ag

Politically, the great contraception debate appears to have been a wash. Republicans saw their message on religious liberty enveloped by the crude misogyny of radio host Rush Limbaugh. Democrats, anticipating a polling boost from outraged female voters, appear to have experienced nothing of the sort. Instead, in a Bloomberg News poll, three-quarters of respondents, including the majority of women, said the issue has no place in the debate. Politics, however, is not all there is to political deba

Your March 9 editorial “No more delay for Jeju base” has said we should not delay the construction of the proposed Jeju naval base any more. But I think it should also have considered whether the base is actually needed and whether there are no problems with this project.As you know, Jeju boasts beautiful nature and an affluent ecosystem. The coast of Gangjeong Village, in particular, is UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves, and a Korean government-designated ecosystem and cultural asset preserv

The Cold War had Americans worried about a “missile gap.” Should the rise of China have us nervous about a neodymium gap? It’s a question President Barack Obama is taking seriously, as he showed Tuesday in asking the World Trade Organization to look into China’s manipulation of the global market in so-called rare-earth elements. We wish the U.S. Defense Department would show an equal amount of concern. Neodymium is one of 17 rare-earth metals that have become vital to industrial production and n

By now, you’ve probably heard of Americans Elect, the political-reform group funded by a collection of Wall Street executives (some of whom remain anonymous) who hope to field a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2012. Americans Elect has been amply, but poorly, covered. The part of its strategy that generates the most attention is also the part that’s most wrongheaded: an effort to nominate a bipartisan superticket to contest for the presidency in 2012. This sort of thing is a perennial fantasy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected five years ago by promising to modernize France’s societal infrastructure and bring it more into line with America’s: less government reliance, more freedom in life and work. It was a tall order, but his mandate was overwhelming, with a six-percentage-point win over Socialist rival Segolene Royal. Sarkozy was full of vigor and free-market, limited-government ideas imported directly from across the Atlantic.But then something got in the way: France. It

Apparently, when Greg Smith arrived at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. almost 12 years ago, the legendary investment firm was something like the Make-A-Wish Foundation ― existing only to bring light and peace and happiness to the world. Smith, who was executive director and head of the firm’s U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, does not go into details in his already notorious op-ed article in Wednesday’s New York Times, “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” But one imag

International parents and students considering an undergraduate education in the U.S. frequently consult one or more of the big three ranking publications ― the Shanghai, QS World and Times Higher Education World University rankings reports. Emphasizing research publication productivity and the accompanying reputation, these reports tend to filter out all but the top tier research institutions in any country. With hundreds of high quality yet sub-top tier institutions in the United States, these

Last week, Harvard Business School hosted a conference in New York to talk about how the U.S. could continue to support “high and rising living standards for Americans” in the face of global competition. It was a lively discussion, leading to many good, if familiar, economic-policy ideas for increasing productivity in the U.S. Unfortunately, this conversation largely ignored the key constraint to many of the policy recommendations: the rise of hyperpolarization in Congress. If business leaders w