Latest news with #Korea
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Research team develops game-changing device to fight dangerous toxins in water supply: 'Demonstrated exceptional robustness'
Scientists have developed an affordable, real-time algal bloom monitoring system, as relayed by Its optical sensors achieve high accuracy, outperforming complex AI models. The device could revolutionize how we protect our water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, are a serious environmental issue. Rapid growth of algae can produce toxins dangerous to humans and animals. They can contaminate drinking water and deplete the oxygen in water. Water without oxygen is known as a "dead zone," which kills fish and other aquatic life. Traditional detection of HABs is expensive and not suitable for continual, on-the-ground monitoring. Satellite imaging or drone remote sensing, for example, makes it difficult to get early warnings and quick responses. The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology tackled this challenge. A research team led by Dr. Jai-Yeop Lee created a compact, sensor-based probe. The device integrates readily available ambient light and sunlight sensors into a microcontroller. It analyzes lux (brightness), ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light. These readings help categorize water surface conditions as "algae," "sunny," "shade," or "aqua." Lee and his team produced a system with an impressive 100% prediction accuracy. This is possible due to an enhanced Support Vector Machine classifier with a sequential logic-based algorithm. The system surpassed standard AI models like Random Forest and Gradient Boosting. Intelligent design like this is effective for real-world deployment in low-power, field-based systems. The device can also quantify Chlorophyll-a concentrations, a key indicator of algal blooms. The promising monitoring system is a means to protect reliable, clean water. Low-cost, real-time detection alerts authorities to potential HABs much earlier. Issuing public health warnings and treating affected bodies of water can be done more efficiently. How often do you worry about the quality of your drinking water? Never Sometimes Often Always Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Preventing the spread of algal blooms is the device's main purpose. It reduces exposure to toxins, safeguards potable water, and preserves aquatic ecosystems. As a result, the system protects public health and supports fishing and recreation. "The logic-based framework demonstrated exceptional robustness and interpretability, especially for real-time deployment in embedded systems," said Dr. Lee. Making this technology accessible empowers communities to better manage their water resources. Improved detection marks a significant step forward in affordable water quality monitoring. Simple, responsive algal bloom detection — without the need for expensive hardware or extensive data — will keep our waters safe and our environment healthy. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Forbes
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘People And Meat' Introduces Three Hard To Forget Characters
In 'People and Meat' three seniors enjoy a meal they cannot pay for. The central characters in the 2025 Korean film People and Meat might fade into the background on a busy street in Seoul. Two of the characters are old men collecting discarded cardboard to sell. It's a wearying job that requires scouring the neighborhood for old boxes and their work barely earns them pocket change. The third of these characters is an old woman crouching by the vegetables she sells on the sidewalk. Passers-by might easily dismiss any of these characters. They are poor. They are old. They are nondescript. And yet these characters, the film's protagonists, deliver a touching and often funny meditation on life that makes them difficult to forget. They first get involved with each other when a fight breaks out between neighborhood newcomer Ui-sik (Jang Yong) and Hyun-jong (Park Keun-hyung), a longtime neighborhood resident. When they start fighting over cardboard Hwa-jin (Ye Su-jeong), the vegetable seller tries to shoo them away. She has no idea they will change her life. Ui-sik and Hyun-jong quickly make up. They share some tea and talk about the indignities of old age. They nostalgically reminisce about beef and radish soup and plan to make some together, roping in Hwa-jin because neither of them knows how. Then Ui-sik proposes a radical idea. Hyun-jong, played by Park Keun-hyung, collects cardboard to make ends meet. What they need is to nourish themselves with some delicious meat in a restaurant. He invites them to dine, but when it comes time to pay confesses he has no money and instructs them to dash out without paying. It's a bolder thing than Hwa-jin has ever done. She's been a law-abiding citizen all her life. However, that meat was delicious, satisfying their taste buds after many meals of cat food or worse. Dining and dashing gives them something to do, a chance to interact, and provides a touch of drama in their uneventful lonely lives. Although dining and dashing is not a victimless crime, it's hard to fault these seniors for wanting to have a decent meal. Unwise life choices, but also random accidents, have left them alone and in limited circumstances. A decent meal seems like a small thing to begrudge them. They see other seniors enjoying their golden years, dining out, and playing golf while they continue to work every day and still don't have enough to eat. The free meals they share are enjoyable, a chance to feel part of the wider world, so their small crime spree continues. There are many films—from Babette's Feast to Fried Green Tomatoes to Ratatouille that use food to propel the plot and in this film the stolen meals become a metaphor for the nourishment these characters derive from engaging with each other. The film also becomes a wistful poem about life and aging, one that observes the injustice of old age with humor and kindness. Defying the law is risky and there are consequences, but the film seems to say that there are also consequences to a life not lived, to not making the most of the rest of your life, whatever age you are. All three actors imbue their roles with a quiet dignity. Park has appeared in dramas such as Island and The Good Detective, while Jang had roles in the dramas Hold Me Tight and Avengers Social Club. Ye's prolific career includes roles in the films Project Silence and An Old Lady, and dramas such as ,The Worst of Evil, Jirisan, One The Woman and Mine. Yang Jong-hyun directed the film written by Lim Na-moo. People and Meat had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival.
BBC News
5 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
K-League to end rule banning foreign goalkeepers
Foreign goalkeepers will be allowed to play in South Korean professional football from next year when a ban on signing them is ended after 27 years. The ban has been in place since 1999 and was introduced to help develop homegrown keepers by ensuring they received enough playing there were only 10 professional clubs in South Korea 26 years ago, compared to the current 26 in the country's top two divisions."Starting in 2026, clubs will be permitted to register foreign goalkeepers," said the Korea Professional Football League."The K-League previously restricted their participation beginning in 1996 and introduced a full ban in 1999 to encourage the development of domestic goalkeepers, as most clubs at the time relied on foreign players in the position."
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Executions, forced labour and starvation persist in North Korea, UN official says
A decade after a landmark UN report found North Korea guilty of crimes against humanity, many abuses continue, a UN official has said. James Heenan, the UN human rights official, said that while North Korea has engaged more with some international bodies, it has tightened control over its population. Mr Heenan said he was still surprised by the continued prevalence of executions, forced labour and reports of starvation in the authoritarian country. Mr Heenan, who investigated rights in the isolated state, told Reuters in an interview that 'the post-Covid period for DPRK means a period of much greater government control over people's lives and restrictions on their freedoms', referring to North Korea 's official name (Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK). A follow-up UN report by Mr Heenan's team at the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in DPRK is expected later this year. North Korea has repeatedly rejected allegations of human rights abuses, claiming that the UN and foreign nations are using such accusations as political tools to undermine its government. The 2013 UN report into the human rights situation in North Korea stated: 'We heard from ordinary people who faced torture and imprisonment for doing nothing more than watching foreign soap operas or holding a religious belief.' 'Women and men who exercised their human right to leave the DPRK and were forcibly repatriated spoke about their experiences of torture, sexual violence, inhumane treatment and arbitrary detention. Family members of persons abducted from the Republic of Korea and Japan described the agony they endured ever since the enforced disappearance of their loved ones at the hands of agents of the DPRK,' said Michael Kirby, the then-chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK. A 2023 Reuters investigation revealed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kim Jong Un focused on constructing an extensive network of walls and fences along the once loosely controlled border with China, later extending similar barriers around Pyongyang. According to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Covid-19 spread in North Korea for over two years before the regime acknowledged its presence in May 2022, mishandling the crisis in ways that restricted basic freedoms and forced much of the population to survive without adequate support. In March this year, Human Rights Watch and Transitional Justice Working Group claimed Pyongyang implemented excessive and unnecessary measures to tackle Covid that made the 'already isolated country even more repressive'. On Wednesday, SI Analytics, a satellite imagery firm based in Seoul, reported that North Korea is renovating a major prison camp near the Chinese border, likely in reaction to global criticism, while also tightening physical control over inmates, disguised as infrastructure upgrades. Mr Heenan said that interviews with over 300 North Korean defectors revealed deep despair, with some even hoping for war to change the situation. 'Sometimes we hear people saying they sort of hope a war breaks out, because that might change things,' he said. Several of those interviewed will share their stories publicly for the first time next week. 'It's a rare opportunity to hear from people publicly what they want to say about what's happening in the DPRK,' Mr Heenan said.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Executions, forced labour and starvation persist in North Korea, UN official says
A decade after a landmark UN report found North Korea guilty of crimes against humanity, many abuses continue, a UN official has said. James Heenan, the UN human rights official, said that while North Korea has engaged more with some international bodies, it has tightened control over its population. Mr Heenan said he was still surprised by the continued prevalence of executions, forced labour and reports of starvation in the authoritarian country. Mr Heenan, who investigated rights in the isolated state, told Reuters in an interview that 'the post-Covid period for DPRK means a period of much greater government control over people's lives and restrictions on their freedoms', referring to North Korea's official name (Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK). A follow-up UN report by Mr Heenan's team at the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in DPRK is expected later this year. North Korea has repeatedly rejected allegations of human rights abuses, claiming that the UN and foreign nations are using such accusations as political tools to undermine its government. The 2013 UN report into the human rights situation in North Korea stated: 'We heard from ordinary people who faced torture and imprisonment for doing nothing more than watching foreign soap operas or holding a religious belief.' 'Women and men who exercised their human right to leave the DPRK and were forcibly repatriated spoke about their experiences of torture, sexual violence, inhumane treatment and arbitrary detention. Family members of persons abducted from the Republic of Korea and Japan described the agony they endured ever since the enforced disappearance of their loved ones at the hands of agents of the DPRK,' said Michael Kirby, the then-chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK. A 2023 Reuters investigation revealed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, Kim Jong Un focused on constructing an extensive network of walls and fences along the once loosely controlled border with China, later extending similar barriers around Pyongyang. According to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Covid-19 spread in North Korea for over two years before the regime acknowledged its presence in May 2022, mishandling the crisis in ways that restricted basic freedoms and forced much of the population to survive without adequate support. In March this year, Human Rights Watch and Transitional Justice Working Group claimed Pyongyang implemented excessive and unnecessary measures to tackle Covid that made the 'already isolated country even more repressive'. On Wednesday, SI Analytics, a satellite imagery firm based in Seoul, reported that North Korea is renovating a major prison camp near the Chinese border, likely in reaction to global criticism, while also tightening physical control over inmates, disguised as infrastructure upgrades. Mr Heenan said that interviews with over 300 North Korean defectors revealed deep despair, with some even hoping for war to change the situation. 'Sometimes we hear people saying they sort of hope a war breaks out, because that might change things,' he said. Several of those interviewed will share their stories publicly for the first time next week. 'It's a rare opportunity to hear from people publicly what they want to say about what's happening in the DPRK,' Mr Heenan said.
