US Geneticist Discusses North Korea Trip With Dennis Rodman 101
sciencehabit writes "If you happened to catch any of the news coverage of Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea last week, you might have spotted in the big man's entourage a white guy with an Amish-style beard, as in clean-shaven cheeks and no mustache. That's Joseph Terwilliger, 48, a statistical geneticist who splits his time at Columbia University and the University of Helsinki. He's now visited North Korea three times with the basketball star. He sat down with Science Magazine for a Q and A about how he got involved with Rodman and whether the trips are helping--or hurting--U.S. relations with the country."
Re:We can learn a lot from NK about ski park desig (Score:5, Insightful)
I then kept moving in the tube and five other Korean men also were knocked to the ground in their effort to stop my tube from going off a 100 foot cliff that was located at the bottom of the bunny slope.
North Korea, the only country where humans are cheaper than a fence.
Re:Meh... (Score:3, Insightful)
I read the whole thing, and it absolutely does.
There was an entire anecdote attempting to describe how nice the citizens were by risking their lives to prevent him from flying off of a cliff while he was having fun sledding. But of course he completely misses the irony that he and the rest of the North Korean elite were enjoying a newly build *ski resort* (quite literally "trampling" the workers in the process) while a significant portion of the population is near-starving, and any citizen who points that fact out is sent to a forced labor camp. If that isn't a perfect metaphor for the North Korean situation I don't know what is.
And of course he makes no mention whatsoever of Kim Jong Un or any of this colossal waste of the little resources NK has because he doesn't want to jeopardize his future fun...
Re:We can learn a lot from NK about ski park desig (Score:5, Insightful)
Also I'd think that the Korean War, economic sanctions, etc., have done more harm to US - NK relations than these visitors ever will.
You're right. After all, we started a war of aggression, attempting to unify the country at gunpoint. Once we were defeated by the free and brave North Korean people we spent the next half century engaging in terrorist attacks against them. We even sent commandos across the border [wikipedia.org] in an attempt to assassinate their President once upon a time. Heck, just a few years ago a United States Navy Submarine torpedoed and sank [wikipedia.org] a North Korean ship on the high seas, killing dozens of innocent North Korean sailors just to make a political point. That's not the only hostile action on the high seas, one time we captured [wikipedia.org] a North Korean ship in international waters, then held the crew hostage and tortured them for nearly a year before releasing them.
The history of American aggression towards North Korea is truly astonishing. Thank you Anonymous Coward for bravely stating the truth, which shall set us all free!
Re:Meh... (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course none of your *ahem* observations while reading the article could possibly be due to personal bias or cynicism?