Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Forget that lunatic Oakland preacher’s new deadline for the Rapture; the cyber doom of both Japan and South Korea may be this Monday! Yes, apparently South Korean internet users are using the occasion of Gwangbokjeol, the holiday which celebrates Korea’s independence from Japanese colonial rule, to implement a massive attack against Japanese websites which say unfavorable or damaging things about South Koreans and their country. (Wait, didn’t we just report a story about tensions between Japan and Korea? Oh yeah, that was yesterday, when the controversy was about too many Korean dramas on Japanese TV.) Anyway, in response to the anticipated Korean cyber-attack, Japanese internet geeks are planning a counterattack, also massive, against South Korean government and civic websites that advocate for South Korean sovereignty over the hotly-disputed Dokdo (Takeshima in Japanese) Islets. Whatever the reasons each side has for cyber-attacking the other, it looks like the next three days are going to be a huge mess on the parts of the internet connecting Japan and Korea. Oh, and did we mention one of the reasons for this dust-up is a female Korean mixed martial artist got beaten up by three Japanese comedians on live TV? It’s never easy between South Korea and Japan, is it? (The Korea Times – Japan-Korea Cyber-War This Monday) For details on the Korean martial artist vs. Japanese comedians incident, click over to New American Media.
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On July 20th, we reported the story of a foreign blogger in China who discovered a fake Apple store in Kunming, China. A week later, we brought you the breaking story that there were, in fact, five fake Apple retail spaces in Kunming. Now, several weeks later, it turns out that there were not five Apple stores in Kunming, but twenty-seven. Yes, a two followed by a seven. Okay, we know Apple makes great technology and its portable consumer products, like the iPad2, are really hot right now. But this is quite literally ridiculous. For one thing, it shows a serious lack of originality, which has actually never been much of a concern in China’s shanzhai (fake goods) trade. China’s Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) has, of course, ordered all the stores to stop using Apple’s logo and its variants. This was after Apple China complained to the government yesterday, August 11th, about copyright and trademark infringement. Unfortunately, news reports cannot say at this time whether the fake Apple stores have been selling counterfeit Apple products, or legitimate products which have been smuggled into the country. The AIC has guaranteed that it will increase its vigilance in monitoring illegal Apple stores, and set up a complaint hotline to address the problem. In the meantime, still no word on whether Steve Jobs is putting on his angry face and hopping a plane to China. (Reuters – 27 Fake Apples in Kunming)
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Andy Frazer is normally an unassuming software professional down in California’s Silicon Valley. But due to a passion for photography and a series of interconnected events, he has taken up a very special cause and turned it into a project centering on Japanese-American World War II internees. Frazer, a Caucasian man, became interested in internees in 2006 after photographing San Jose’s annual Day of Remembrance event, which commemorates Roosevelt’s 1942 executive internment Order 9066. After meeting numerous internees at the Day of Remembrance, Frazer began to learn more about the wartime internment, and developed a strong interest in internees’ lives and stories both during and after the war. The result is his web-based story archive and image gallery called Kioku: Portraits of Japanese-American Internment. Employing visual style similar to that of Richard Avedon’s “In the American West”, Frazer has compiled a striking set of portraits of Japanese-American internees as they are today. But some of their faces seem to reflect how they felt as younger men and women unjustly imprisoned by their own government. At the link, you’ll be able to learn more about the project, and read in interview with Frazer. (Nichi Bei Weekly – Wartime Internee Portrait Project) And the pictures and stories in Kioku: Portraits of Japanese-American Internment can be seen and read here.
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Special Uglydolls at the US OPEN Tennis in New York. Special narrative!
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Unfortunately, there is nothing new about animosity between Korea and Japan. The two countries have had a troubled relationship for centuries, although much of the current tension is the result of deep resentment over the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Ironically, the latest dustup between the countries is due to a sort of reverse invasion of Japan by Korean TV dramas and pop-music idols. The controversy reportedly started in the last week of July, when Sousuke Takaoka, a popular Japanese actor (“Battle Royale”), used Twitter to voice his criticisms of Fuji TV and the high number of Korean dramas the network shows. Part of Takaoka’s rant was the claim that Japanese people truly want traditional Japanese drama programming. For his trouble, Takaoka was fired from his talent agency on July 28th, which is reportedly the reason he issued an apology for his anti-Korean TV programming remarks less than 24 hours ago. Nevertheless, the actor’s Twitter-based outcry against Korean TV shows opened up a floodgate of anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. On Sunday, August 7th, for example, roughly 500 demonstrators assembled outside Fuji TV’s Tokyo headquarters to protest pretty much the same things Takaoka did last month. The unfortunate rumor about the protest is that it was either started, or heavily attended, by Japanese ultra-nationalists. No violence or injury was reported from the Fuji TV protest, but demonstrators did apparently call for the Japanese government to revoke Fuji’s broadcast license for showing too much Korean TV programming. Another protest against Fuji TV is planned for August 21st. This is a sad development, we think, because the cross-pollination of the Korean and Japanese entertainment industries might be the best way for the two countries to finally come to understand one another and at least try to get along with each other. (CNNGo – Japanese Korean TV Protest) There are additional details about this story on Tokyo Times. Excerpts from Sousuke Takaoka’s August 11th apology can be read here.
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