I don’t like short people.

I don’t like short people.

They look up to you and they try to smile. It makes them look like some aliens.

I was waiting at a counter at a store and this short woman looked up and smiled at me.

My evil mind thought it was disgusting but I cannot say that here, I mean, then I would cause a controversy.

I appreciate the gesture but it freaked me out. Really. The way they look up and expect you to look down.

So if you are shorter than 6′ please keep your distance.

Laughable Korean Media: The Stephen Colbert Controversy

I don’t hide the fact that I am a big fan of Stephen Colbert. He seems to be more talented than Jon Stewart and I also believe that he has more variety in his comedy than Steve Carrell, to whom Colbert was an understudy.

In case you don’t know, here’s the summary of what happened:

In 2007, Rain made it to People’s Most Beautiful People list for the first time, in its “First-Time Beauties 2007″ section. In a press release, Rain stated that he was honored to be on the list, and also noted that it will be a great boon to his efforts to raise his public awareness in the United States. Also in 2007, Rain topped Time’s open online poll; however, many believe he was voted in by over-zealous fans that voted others down. As a result, he beat Stephen Colbert by 100,000 votes; Colbert jokingly retaliated by producing a parody of Rain’s music video for “Ways to Avoid the Sun”. The singer was not included in the magazine’s actual list.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_%28singer%29

Korean media reacted badly, quoting from sources calling Colbert to be a racist.

This is an outrage. What Colbert did (videos are available on-line, I will not link it here) was simply a satire. I wonder what would happen if Chris Rock was actually a Korean! I know, setting Chris Rock as limit of comedy is hardly responsible, but people are forgetting few things.

1. Stephen Colbert is in CHARACTER in his show.
2. EVEN IF HE WAS NOT IN CHARACTER, the comedy can be considered perfectly sensitive.
3. Colbert has never crossed the line in terms of tolerance.

I find this bit sad because this shows that Korean public is not yet ready to adapt to a global setting. I know that Koreans were hardly aware of what Colbert actually does, but South Korea is widely considered one of top economies of the world. Taking Colbert’s satire as racism is too naïve at that level, I feel.

I waited a long time for Colbert to react to this and he did so in good manner today. Even Bill O’Reilly was fine with Colbert taking his microwave – why does Korean media always react badly to these things?

I always knew that a big chunk of Korean media (especially print) was just full of illiterate, anti-journalistic people, but this one disappointed me even more.

We can construct it; so it must be true?

I get into a lot of arguments with people.

Being an armchair logician, I notice many mistakes people make, which naturally makes me furious. I am somewhat guilty here too, however, since I use this one a bit – whenever I want to end an argument in an easy way.

EXAMPLE: We can construct an example, so it must be possible, so it must be true somewhere in a perceptively infinite setting.

If you put it like this, it seems obviously false – but people still do it all the time! Listen to this childish conversation:

A: Aliens surely exist.
B: Why?
A: Time is infinite, and everything should be possible during that time.
B: Nonsense.
A: Oh? Then how do humans exist?
B: Do enlighten me.
A: Humans are of such complexity, so universe with its infinite time will produce another kind of intelligent lifeform.

Yes, now I see it’s little different from the original error I wanted to elaborate on, but it does the trick.

Humans are always uncomfortable with the idea of randomness. Although I don’t watch the show, Charlie from NUMB3RS makes good point here:

I believe this sort of behaviour is the general version of what I addressed in the beginning, but I don’t have enough strength to elaborate. Maybe next time.

(In fact, in the video above, Charlie is wrong: A and B both represent raindrops since they occur with same probability. But I think we all get the point here. Also, why is Charlie, a mathematics prof, teaching statistics? The university must surely be very understaffed.)