World

Han Kang Wins The Nobel Prize For Literature. She’s The First South Korean To Do So

Published

1 month ago

2024-10-11

STOCKHOLM – South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for a beautiful and frightening body of work that, according to the Nobel committee, “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Han, a slow-burning international literary sensation who has won numerous accolades in South Korea and Europe, is the first Asian woman and South Korean writer to receive the Nobel Literature Prize. She received awards for books like “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts,” which examine the anguish of being human and the wounds of Korea’s violent history.

Anna-Karin Palm, a Nobel literature committee member, stated that Han writes about “trauma, pain, and loss,” whether individual or collective, “with the same compassion and care.”

Han Kang Wins The Nobel Prize For Literature. She’s The First South Korean To Do So

“And this, I think, is something that is quite remarkable,” Mr. Palm added.

Anders Olsson, the Nobel committee chairman, complimented Han’s “empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters.

“She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead,” according to Olsson.

Han is the second South Korean to earn the Nobel Prize. The late former President Kim Dae-Jung received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to restore democracy in South Korea under the country’s previous military administration and improve relations with war-torn adversary North Korea.

Han told the Swedish Academy over the phone that she had just finished dinner with her son at home in Seoul when she received the news.

She stated that she was both “honored” and shocked to be South Korea’s first Nobel literature laureate.

“I grew up with Korean literature, and I feel very connected to it,” said Han, whose father and brother are both novelists. “So I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers and my friends, writers.”

She added, “I’m going to have tea with my son and I’ll celebrate it quietly tonight.”

Han receives the Nobel Prize at a time when South Korean culture is gaining global traction, as seen by the recent success of films such as director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” the Netflix survival drama “Squid Game,” and the global recognition of K-pop groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK.

Han, 53, won the International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English in 2016 for “The Vegetarian,” an unnerving novel about a woman who decides to stop eating meat, which has disastrous effects.

Accepting the honor, Han stated that creating novels “is a way of questioning for me.”

“I just try to complete my questions through the process of my writing and I try to stay in the questions, sometimes painful, sometimes — well — sometimes demanding,” she told me.

Han began publishing as a poet in 1993, followed by a short story collection in 1995 and a novel, “Black Deer,” in 1998.

“Greek Lessons” — about the interaction between a woman who can no longer speak and a teacher who is losing his sight — “Human Acts” and “The White Book,” a poetic novel based on the loss of Han’s older sister shortly after birth. “The White Book” was a nominee for the International Booker Prize in 2018.

“Human Acts,” described as “witness literature” by Nobel committee chair Olsson, is based on the real-life death of pro-democracy protestors in Han’s hometown of Gwangju in 1980. The novel earned Italy’s Malaparte Prize in 2017.

Her most recent novel, “We Do Not Part,” will be released in English next year. It also addresses a period in South Korea’s 20th-century history that saw the country go through war, the separation of the Korean peninsula, and tyranny. The story is about a 1948-1949 revolt on Jeju, an island south of the Korean peninsula, in which thousands of people were massacred.

Anders Karlsson, a lecturer at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies who has translated Han into Swedish, said he was “overjoyed” with the Nobel award.

He reported that Han’s “poignant, condensed” style has the ability to explain “difficult and dark passages in South Korean history … in quite open and inviting language that engages and does not deter the reader.”

Han Kang Wins The Nobel Prize For Literature. She’s The First South Korean To Do So

The literature prize has long been criticized for focusing too much on European and North American writers of style-heavy, story-light prose. It has also been male-dominated, with Han becoming only the 18th woman among its 120 laureates.

Six days of Nobel announcements began Monday, with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine award. The physics prize went to two machine learning pioneers, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. On Wednesday, three scientists who discovered strong tools for decoding and even designing novel proteins received the chemistry prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be revealed on Friday, followed by the economics award on Monday.

The prize includes a financial reward of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a gift made by the award’s originator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates will collect their honors at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

SOURCE | AP

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World

A Court Filing Reveals Elon Musk Flatly Rejected OpenAI’s ICO in 2018.

Published

1 hour ago

2024-11-15

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – Elon Musk, the billionaire and CEO of Tesla, claims in a subsequent court filing that was submitted on November 14 that he was successful in stopping OpenAI from doing an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.

According to the filing requirements, this information was disclosed.

Musk and his legal team have claimed that two of OpenAI’s founders, Greg Brockman and Sam Altman, tried unsuccessfully to create a token in early 2018 to help the company grow. To the best of our knowledge, this was the founders’ intention.

Elon Musk accurately described the scenario.

Elon Musk made the remark during the pertinent time period, according to the lawsuit’s accusations.

This, in his opinion, would lead to a significant decline in trust in OpenAI and everyone involved in the initial coin offering (ICO). These statements are extracted from his initial declaration.

A unique project backed by Altman, Worldcoin launched a token twenty-three years ago with the goal of creating digital identification for verified individuals.

Furthermore, the company in charge of token distribution was Worldcoin. Through the use of the token, Worldcoin was able to authenticate individual identities.

When OpenAI was first founded, it was a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI).

In this context, the acronym AGI stands for artificial global intelligence. “Musk has continuously voiced concern about the grave threat that these sophisticated systems pose to humanity,” his attorney wrote in the complaint. These sophisticated technologies represent a serious threat to humankind.

“Musk remains apprehensive regarding this threat.” “Musk regards these threats with the utmost seriousness.” “Elon Musk has harbored these concerns for an extended period.”

This led to Musk joining OpenAI’s board of directors and continuing to serve as co-chair of the board. Furthermore, he was appointed to that board of directors post.

Elon Musk contributed $44 million to the enterprise.

OpenAI declared in a March 5th news release that it was imperative that the company adopt a profit-making structure in order to obtain the necessary funding to achieve its objectives. In order to enable OpenAI to fulfill its objectives, this transition was necessary.

According to both the OpenAI statement and the amended filing, Elon Musk advocated for the combination of OpenAI and Tesla to help the artificial intelligence startup with its financial issues.

The aforementioned measures were implemented to mitigate the challenges that the organization was facing at that specific moment. Musk submitted his resignation as an OpenAI employee in February 2018.

He founded his own artificial intelligence company, which he named XAI, in the ensuing years. His efforts directly led to the achievement he achieved.

We are deeply disappointed that our friendship with someone we have always held in the highest respect has deteriorated.

As we started to make significant strides toward OpenAI’s goal on our own, this person, who had previously motivated us to achieve greater heights, abruptly predicted that we would fail, established a rival company, and filed a lawsuit against us, according to the group’s press release.

In August of this year, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEOs, Altman and Brockman, claiming that they had violated federal RICO statutes, engaged in unfair competition, and committed fraud. OpenAI is the target of legal action taken by Elon Musk.

According to Elon Musk, they have engaged in additional illegal activity. Microsoft was named as one of the defendants in the dispute in the updated complaint, which was submitted on November 14.

It’s being presented as a case at the moment. Microsoft and OpenAI started working together in 2019, and Microsoft committed $1 billion in the partnership.

In July 2023, OpenAI’s native cryptocurrency, Worldcoin (WLD), was made available to the general public. Not too long ago, an article published by The Block disclosed this knowledge. When the market closed on November 15 at 11:36 p.m. Eastern Time (16:36 UTC), the price of a share of WLD was $2.21.

SOURCE: TB

World

Trump Appoints Robert F. Kennedy Jr to Head HHS

Published

19 hours ago

2024-11-15

Geoff Thomas

Trump Appoints Robert F. Kennedy Jr to Head HHS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

President-elect Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) to run the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), sending Democrats and Big Pharma allies into a tailspin.

“I am delighted to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and medicine firms, which have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation regarding public health,” Trump stated in his announcement.

“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important role of any administration, and HHS will play an important role in ensuring that everyone is safe from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to this country’s overwhelming health crisis.

Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to gold-standard scientific Research and Transparency traditions, stopping the Chronic Disease Epidemic and making America Great and Healthy Again!” Trump added.

Reactions to RFK Jr HHS Appointment

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare, Medicaid, and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy is a former environmental justice lawyer who has recently started an anti-vaccine nonprofit. He ran for president as an independent candidate in 2024 but dropped out to join Trump’s closest circle.

House Republicans have reacted to Donald Trump’s nomination of former presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary.

Chip Roy, a Texas congressman, calls it “great news”. He tells me, “We need disruption throughout the federal government.” He’ll be fantastic at HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] to do that.”

Roy adds that he expects Kennedy’s candidacy will clear the Senate.

“There’s been a few Kennedy’s in the Senate in the past so maybe there’ll be some legacy there that they will want to move him through,” he speculates.

South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman concurs with Roy on Kennedy’s confirmation in the Senate: “I believe he was an excellent choice by the president, as have all of them. Kennedy is interested in, and passionate about, the medical industry. He will do a terrific job with it.”

According to Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group focused on consumer protection, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “is a clear and present danger to the nation’s health.”

He should not be allowed to enter the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone be appointed director of the nation’s public health agency.”

“Donald Trump’s mishandling of public health policies during the Covid outbreak resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. “By appointing Kennedy as secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another policy-driven public health disaster,” the organization continued.

Apu Akkad, an infectious disease physician at the University of Southern California, described the statement as a “scary day for public health”.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical stocks such as Pfizer and Moderna plummeted following news of Kennedy’s nomination for HHS Secretary, as investors considered his potential impact on vaccine sales.

Novavax and BioNTech finished down more than 7%, with almost all losses occurring when word of the selection broke—Novavax shares fell to $7.22, and BioNTech shares fell to $103.56.

Moderna’s stock closed 5.6% at $39.77, reaching its lowest point of the year.

Sanofi’s stock fell 3.4% to $47.82, continuing a weeks-long share price decline that began after the company’s latest earnings report last month.

Pfizer lost less than its competitors on Thursday, closing down 2.6% at $26.02, despite having its sharpest drop of the day immediately following the RFK Jr. announcement.

What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

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World

UK Police Visit Journalist Allison Pearson Over Old Tweet

Published

20 hours ago

2024-11-14

Geoff Thomas

On Remembrance Sunday, at 9:40 a.m., two police officers went to Allison Pearson's home.

Police in Essex, England, have been criticized for sending two cops to the home of Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson over an X tweet that was more than a year old.

On Remembrance Sunday, at 9:40 a.m., two police officers went to Allison Pearson’s home to inform her that she was under investigation and asked for a voluntary interview.

She was informed, however, that officers were not permitted to discuss the exact focus of an investigation. They stated that the claimed offense was being investigated as a criminal matter under Section 17 of the Public Order Act of 1986.

Despite Pearson’s claim that she was told it was an alleged non-crime hate incident, the police have emphasized that it is not being examined as such. Since the terrible occurrence, the Essex Police have been under intense global scrutiny for their actions.

Elon Musk and key British lawmakers are leading a rising protest against the police for probing a Telegraph journalist’s social media remark.

Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter/X, spearheaded the reaction, calling it “crazy”.

Crazy https://t.co/sgfqogullh

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has also stated that this is Orwellian. I’m disgusted that Allison Pearson and others like her have to live in fear for months without knowing what has been said against them.

The former prime minister, Boris Johnson, tweeted that it was “appalling.”

This is appalling. How can Starmer’s Britain lecture other countries about free speech when an innocent journalist gets a knock on the door – for a tweet? Our police have their hands full of burglaries and violent crime. They are being forced to behave like a woke Securitate -… https://t.co/HaXc1tsokW

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) November 13, 2024

This is appalling. How can Starmer’s Britain lecture other countries about free speech when an innocent journalist gets a knock on the door – for a tweet? Our police have their hands full of burglaries and violent crime.

They are being forced to behave like a woke Securitate – and it has to stop!

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss described the incident as “yet another affront to free speech,” adding, “We must speak out and fight back against this appalling bullying of Allison Pearson.”

Meanwhile, the Home Office announced that it was evaluating how police record non-crime hate incidents to ensure that they are “proportionate” and preserve free speech, following the controversy surrounding an investigation into a Telegraph journalist.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman stated that it is critical that police record non-crime hate events where “proportionate and necessary” to help prevent severe crimes from occurring in the future.

He did, however, disclose that the Home Office was examining current instructions for police officers on recording non-crime hate events to maintain people’s right to free speech while not diverting officers’ attention away from other crimes.