Tag: North Korea

Tough Crowd: Forecasting In North Korea

kimmetoffice

Blown forecasts are the bane of a meteorologist’s existence. Painful! I’d bow my head in shame and speak in a softer than normal shout after a miss.

I’ve apologized for blown forecasts more than once. Everyone knew.

Some of you have personally made sure I understood your anger. Not easy to deal with.

However, I’ve never had Kim Jong-un as my boss&#185. In North Korea he’s the last word in everything.

Quoting the BBC:

Kim Jong-un says there have been “many incorrect forecasts” because the Hydro-meteorological Service’s methods aren’t “modern or scientific”, state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reports.

Ooh. Bad employee review.

The North Korean leader says weather service staff must “fundamentally improve their work”, because good forecasts are needed to “protect the lives and properties of the people from disasters caused by abnormal climatic phenomenon”

Must I explain how downsizing works in North Korea?

After a bad forecast I’d try not to go out in public too much. Seriously. No one wants to subject themselves to that!

But North Korea. Tough crowd.

&#185 – The lovely and talented Ann Nyberg often called his late father, Kim Jung-“Mentally”-Il.

I Like The Internet

I have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. I read the web constantly.

It’s no secret I enjoy my time on the Internet. The Internet was made for me.

The big surprise for me is the remarkable education available on line. There has never been a time when so much information was available to so many people with so little effort!

There is access to every newspaper, every magazine, every fact, fable and lesson. If you’re willing to look it is here.

I have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. I read the web constantly.

There’s no doubt I visit some sites who political leanings match mine. I love Crooks and Liars, a left leaning political site with clever writing and video choices.

I visit Drudge a few times every day. The site upsets me. Its coverage is so unfair it is scandalous. It’s not how far right he is. It’s how mean spirited he is. The truth be damned… or at least the whole truth be damned.

Mostly I do what makes the web so powerful–follow hyperlinks. I often start on tech sites like Reddit, Digg and Hacker News and just roam.

I have listened to radio from small towns in Australia and followed political scandals in cities I will never visit. I have watched video of people unboxing and assembling their own computer systems and a zillion video tutorials.

Last month I read a long series of incredibly detailed posts recounting a train journey from Moscow to Pyongyang! It was done as a paying passenger on a line that neither Russia nor North Korea officially acknowledge as existing. It was only on the Internet.

Some countries see fit to filter and monitor the net. That’s wrong. They make believe it’s a benevolent gesture toward the sensibilities of their population. Please.

I’m a good searcher. People sometimes come to me to search for them. Knowing how to find stuff pays off for me.

If the Internet didn’t exist I’d have to go out and invent it.