This is an experiment. I’ve set my stopwatch for twenty minutes and opened a second window. I’m going to whiz through my bookmarks and see how many random unconnected high-quality hyperlinks I can cobble together in the time limit. On your marks. Get set. Go.
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* Seoul is offering to send relief aid to Chile in the wake of Saturday’s earthquake.
* South Korea insists that, regarding the Gaeseong industrial park, the three “tongs,” border passage, customs clearance and telecommunication conditions, must be discussed before any other issues.
* The Hyundai Research Institute predicts that, provided that there’s nothing like the Great Depression in the future (a big “if”), South Korea will join the world’s top ten economies by the year 2020. (Another big “if” is that it’s based on the assumption that the other top economies will not adapt to changing circumstances.)
* Korean products are becoming more recognized around the world. And there was much rejoicing.
* Because of attempted kidnappings, Seoul has issued travel warning to three countries: South Africa, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Guatemala.
* The rate of high school students entering colleges has dropped for the first time since 1990. Also, the number of females who entered exceeded the number of males for the first time.
* The number of so-called “medical tourists” to South Korea leaped from 15,000 in 2008 to 55,000 in 2009. Plastic surgery is popular. Wives of foreign ambassadors expressed high satisfaction with the high quality of medical care.
* Apolo “Oh no!” Ohno may compete at the next winter Olympics.
* It had to happen. Girls’ Generation performed their latest hit on an ice rink. No, they didn’t skate, but I think that they did some of Kim Yu-na’s moves.
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OK, that’s it. Experiment over.
Edit:
I’d like to add that I did all of the above “cold.” That is, I had not read any of the news stories beforehand.
Extra! Korea 