Saturday September 6
19:13
N Korea’s Kim Died In 2003; Replaced By Lookalike, Says Waseda Professor
So who did I have tea with then when I visited North Korea?!
The second Kim-Koizumi summit, in 2004, lasted all of 90 minutes. Scheduled meetings with other foreign dignitaries were abruptly canceled. Kim’s retreat from the public eye was almost total. State television in October 2003 showed him touring a collective farm, but mention of the date of the visit was conspicuously absent.
Kim’s family, meanwhile, was in a state of upheaval. His wife died—of breast cancer, said official reports; assassinated, according to persistent rumors. His favorite sister, a high-ranking Communist Party official, suddenly moved to Paris. Her husband lost his post. Clearly something was afoot.
In the spring of 2006, says Shigemura, American spy satellites succeeded in photographing Kim. An analysis of the photographs led to an astonishing conclusion: Kim had grown 2.5 cm!
“Recently,” Shigemura proceeds, “someone who was in contact with a Kim family member told me he heard the family member say, ‘There’s been a promise not to decide on Kim’s successor so long as the current shogun is alive.’”
“‘Shogun’ was Kim’s nickname,” Shigemura explains “If Kim were alive, the family member would simply have said, ‘the shogun’—not ‘the current shogun.’ The stress on ‘current’ seems to suggest that the person in question is someone other than Kim Jong Il.”
Full story.
Friday September 5
15:20
What Is Going On?
187.918
No doubt it will be back up again before I can take advantage of it with my next pay check!
Wednesday September 3
23:40
Su-f’n-goi Mate
After booking flights to Australia I just found out I need a visa to go there. What is this, the dark ages?
More to the point, what about all the god-damn Aussies that are boozing about the UK on “let’s pretend to be an IT contractor” alcohol holidays that get no-questions-asked 1 year work permits - yet us Brits need to pay for a god-damn holiday visa to set foot in the country.
Bloody criminals.
Wednesday September 3
18:20
In Perspective
With the Nikon D90 and the Canon 50D being released and both having a greater ISO range than my Nikon D40x, it’s tempting to think about trading up. Ken Rockwell’s ISO 3200 comparison put everything in perspective though.
I shoot a lot at high ISO - not just in dark situations, but for freezing action and for creative effect. Not until full frame becomes affordable or DX sensors significantly improve am I going to get the quality I want.
