N. Korean leader regrets test?

According to this report, Kim Jong Il is sorry. Not half as sorry as he’ll be later on. Probably much less than half, since it sounds like the familiar, “Oh, did I do that? Sorry.” I wonder what the original report says — did he say, “pardon this unfortunateness,” version of sorry, or the “I apologize,” kind. Oh, damn. He said it to someone from China. So who knows what language it was said in.

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Bucheon (Images From the Past)

In the comments section of this post, bulgasari provided this link to pictures of Bucheon city in the good old days, for several definitions of “good old days”. Very neat. My first comment was that there was less litter in the good old days. But it’s just neat to see this place, that long ago. One of the pictures is about 20 years old, another probably 25, and it looks really different from today. Thanks, Bulgasari!

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The Best Cabbie Ever

Coming home this evening, I was crammed into a subway car so tightly that, seriously, I could not move without pushing someone over. It was horrible. This is life in Seoul. Sometimes, it makes me think back to the days of taking cabs and cycling back in Jeonju. Man, there were some interesting cabbies back then. Much better than the Lebanese cabbie I had the one and only time I remember taking a cab in Montreal… he was unstable, and his girlfriend was eating stinky food in the car — which was all but killing my drunk/food-poisoned friend beside me– …

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