How Should We Call it, ‘Sengaku’ or ‘Diaoyudao’?

Sweden
Who are awarded the Nobel Prize?

The Nobel foundation was founded in 1900 according to Alfred Bernard Nobel’s will. Every year since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and for peace. The 2012 Nobel laureates were announced. The Novel Prize in chemistry 2012 was awarded jointly to Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobika for studies of GPCR (G-protein-coupled receptors). GPCR, which is kind of protein located in cell membranes function as sensors. People can taste, smell, and see everything around them due to GPCR. It is important to study how to activate or control GPCR for developing new medicine. These two Novel prizewinners laid the foundation-stone of GPCR study, and developed it. T he Nobel Prize in literature 2012 was awarded to Mo Yan who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary. After Red Sorghum based on Mo Yan’s novel was awarded the Golden Bear in the Berlin International Film Festival, his novel became known worldwide. Also, EU was awarded the novel peace prize. The committee chose EU due to contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe for over six decades. On December 10th, The Nobel award ceremony will be held in Stockholm, Sweden. On the same day, the Nobel peace prize ceremony will be held in Oslo, Norway.

Spain
Economic Crisis in Spain

As Europe’s economic crisis has extended over a long period of time, Spain, which had been the fourth largest economy in the Euro zone faces economic collapse. The Spanish government presented a draft budget for 2013 which involved cuts in wages of the public sector, education, medical benefits, and social services. The government announced that the budget will be reduced by 13 billion euros (16.7 billion dollars). However, these austerity measures led to street demonstrations. Thousands of protesters, who gathered in Madrid, demonstrated against the austerity measures and the high rate of unemployment. Spain’s unemployment rate is two times higher than that of the EU average. Serious financial difficulties and unemployment continually spread to the Spain.

China - Japan
Sengaku vs. Diaoyudao

Currently, the relationship between China and Japan is becoming perilous because of the dominion of the Sengaku Islands (in Chinese, Diaoyudao). The conflict ignited when a Chinese fishing boat was captured near the Sengaku Islands by the Japanese on September, which resulted in China’s restriction of exporting rare-earth elements to Japan. Rare-earth elements are an essential resource used in the IT industry, 36% of the reserves of which are in China. Moreover, the conflict started to deepen when China started to insist their dominion over the Sengaku Islands. The main reason the island became so controversial is because of the fact that it is known to be over an enormous amount of oil deposits. Anyway, this conflict got worse on the 27th of September, in the UN session. On this day, Japan and China had a heated discussion. Both sides asked for their rights to speak and each claimed that the land was theirs. Foreign minister of China said that Japan has stolen Diaoyudao and claimed that there is clear evidence in response to Japan who said that there shall be no compromise on the matter of Sengaku the day before the meeting. The foreign minister of China even said that Japan is a “thief” trying to get hold of the land. Japan, on the other hand, feverishly insisted that Sengaku was legally added into the territory of Japan in 1895 during the Sino-Japanese War. This argument was rather exceptional in the UN session, and caused an obvious effect on the China-Japan relationship. Citizens of all over China are firing up anti-Japanese demonstrations. They expressed their uncomfortable feelings toward Japan through burning Japanese flags demonstrating in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Even the famous Japanese automobile, Toyota had to reduce its exports because of the stagnation in selling new automobiles in China. The similar situation went for Nissan. On the other hand, in Japan, a huge bullet was delivered in an envelope to the Chinese embassy with the name Noda Yoshihiko (prime minister of Japan) written on it. The Japanese police are currently on the search, but it is read as a sign of negative feelings toward China on the issue of the Sengaku dispute. As the conflict between the two countries is running to extremes, the roles of neighboring countries have become more important and they are now trying to seek a peaceful resolution.

United States
Warm Mars?

Space.com, which is a space-related U.S website that updates astronomy news, reported that the sojourner that NASA sent, Curiosity, which landed on Mars on the 5th of August, is enjoying the warm sunlight on the afternoon. According to the report, the weather research craft attached to Curiosity sent signals of temperature above 0 degrees celcius during the half of the day of Mars, Sol. This is rather peculiar in that the location which Curiosity landed was currently supposed to have been winter. Most of scientists thought that Mars is not an appropriate environment to live on, but if the temperature rises through the spring and summer, things might change. NASA insiders say that if the tendency to remain warm maintains, it is hopeful to expect a temperature above 20 degrees, which is a livable environment for creatures. However, he included that when the night comes, temperature still falls below -70 degrees Celcius. This is a temperature cold enough to make carbon dioxide freeze and become dried ice. However, people are still hoping for some possibility of creatures living in Mars and the report of ‘Warm Mars’ surely got their hopes up.

Lee Kim Seulgi, Oh Lee Yeon