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WKF: Koreans owe to kimchi for fewer deaths from Covid-19: French expert
[Photo by Jung Hyuk-hoon]Korea has a low fatality rate of Covid-19 patients because they eat a lot of fermented food represented by kimchi, Professor Jean Bousquet of the University of Montpellier in Paris, said as he joined the World Knowledge Forum session in Seoul to expound on his study on the correlation between fermented vegetable intake and low mortality from the coronavirus. During the WKF session (Is the Globalization of Kimchi Possible?) held on Tuesday, the honorary professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Montpellier University explained that “not only fermented cabbage but kimchi ingredients such as pepper powder, ginger, and garlic relieve Covid-19 symptoms.” Lactic acid bacteria generated during the fermentation of kimchi interact with Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2), an antioxidant system in the human body, to remove harmful free radicals that damage human cells and relieve TRPA1 (pain receptor) activation involved in inflammatory responses, according to the professor. TRPA1 is known to cause cough, nasal congestion, diarrhea, and lung damage. Some Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries have relatively lower Covid-19 death rates than other European countries and this is associated with high intakes of fermented vegetables, Bousquet said. This phenomenon was also observed in some rural areas of southern Italy, parts of Africa, and in the slums of Mumbai, India, where people usually eat lots of vegetables. “The effect of vegetables was also proven in clinical trials where the intakes of broccoli, chilli, and ginger led to the relief of symptoms such as cough and fatigue in just a few minutes,” he stressed. "Kimchi clearly has an effect in preventing Covid-19,” the professor concluded his presentation hoping to conduct a longer-term clinical trial in the future. During the session, Chae-Lin Park, Senior Researcher at World Institute of Kimchi, said that kimchi is fermented food good for health, and it can be globalized faster if its unique taste is well maintained during local distribution with a mild taste for consumers who do not enjoy the spicy flavor too much. By Jung Hyuk-hoon and Minu Kim[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.10.12
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WKF: Korea Should Not Doubt US Alliance After Afghan Withdrawal: Heritage Foundation
[Photo by Han Joo-hyung]South Koreans need not worry about any changes in security alliance with the United States including troop drawdown following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan as the two nations consider one another “brothers and sisters”, according to Edwin Feulner, founder of Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation. “I would like to reaffirm something right here in Seoul,” Feulner said, during a session on “The Heritage Foundation Dialogue in Seoul: Views from Washington” at World Knowledge Forum on Thursday. “Afghanistan [withdrawal] … is a tragedy on personal level and humiliation on national security but it’s very different from what we have here.” Feulner said that the U.S. and South Korea are “brothers and sisters standing side by side with each other” and that “American commitment to bilateral relationship with South Korea is very real and uniformly accepted by both sides.” “We believe in our alliance, friendship,” he said. The session – moderated by Anthony Kim, policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation – was joined by two other think tankers James Carafano, vice president for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, and Reince Priebus, who served as the White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump for seven months in 2017 and chairman of the Republican National Committee. [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]The discussion came at a time when the U.S. has been finger-pointed at for a wide range of issues as world’s largest economy and power under the Biden administration entering six months of office. “He [Biden] came into the White House – supposed to be the guy, not chaotic, not tween bunch of things, very predictable, professional, and experienced,” Priebus said. “People are starting to question policies of President Biden.” With regard to China, Priebus said that the U.S. administration is “offering very little clarity” in its positions and “sort of continuing the Trump administration’s position” in terms of tariffs on products. Trying to figure out and know the unknown will be a big task for the Biden administration. “Consider and think about the effects of withdrawal in Afghanistan to allies, also leadership in North Korea… does it make allies in South Korea doubt the relationship with U.S. when they watch the activity in withdraw in Afghanistan?” Priebus said. The U.S. is committed to Taiwan’s freedom, the question is, Priebus said, “if something happened in Taiwan, and South China Sea, is there a question in Asia in regard to the resolve in U.S.? That’s the risk and result of what Biden did in Afghanistan.” Carafano noted that it is a “good opportunity for the U.S. to worth with allies” and that “the fundamental stability of U.S. as a global power is there.” By Lee Eun-joo[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.10.12
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Metaverse Brings 22nd WKF in Engaging Experience to a Broader Audience
Members of Twenty Twenty Club, a Maeil Business Newspaper membership reserved for readers in their 20s, have become immersive participants to the 22nd World Knowledge Forum as they roam around in their avatars on ‘ifland”, a metaverse platform developed by SK Telecom to listen and join the debates at the WKF sessions. The WKF has been offering six most-anticipated sessions picked by the twenty-something members on the metaverse platform from Wednesday to Thursday. Sessions include ‘Post-pandemic money move’ and ‘ESG investment strategies and solutions by global asset managers’ will be released on Thursday on the virtual platform. [ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.10.12
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WKF: Ethereum 2.0 will be coming soon in ultra-scalable, cheap, safe: Vitalik Buterin
[Photo by Han Joo-hyung] The upgraded Ethereum 2.0 backed by Proof-of-Stake (PoS) “will be coming soon” in secure, user-friendly and scalable blockchain, ready for employment in finance, enterprise and non-fungible tokens (NFT), said co-founder Vitalik Buterin of one of the world’s widely used blockchain protocols. “The PoS beacon chain has already been running successfully for more than nine months. So over the next, maybe six months or a little bit less or a little bit more, it’s time to fully retire PoW and let the PoS beacon chain run the entire Ethereum ecosystem,” said Buterin at the 22nd World Knowledge Forum that kicked off on Tuesday in Seoul. Last month, Ethereum activated London hard fork, a major change consisting of five Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) including EIP 1559 to double the block size so that gas fees can stay stable. Through the largest protocol changes, Ethereum goes to an upgraded, overhauled system Ethereum 2.0 that would have PoS mechanism, in which cryptocurrency miners can mine or validate block transactions based on the amount of coins they hold, from current proof-of-work (PoW) mining system that requires a lot of energy with miners receiving tokens as rewards for their computers’ solving of complicated algorithmic puzzles. Users will barely notice the transition as the Ethereum chain will be embedded inside beacon chain blocks. Existing applications do not need to do anything around the merge, he said, adding that “Everything after the merge will work very similar to how it works before the change.” [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]Buterin noted that the algorithm merge will solve Ethereum’s energy efficiency problems by reducing the energy use by around 99.9 percent. Through this, it will be able to get free from criticism that cryptocurrencies consume a huge amount of electricity on concerns about its massive carbon footprint. The issuance rate will reduce, while the security against attacks will increase. PoS is not the only thing Ethereum is working on. PoS solves Ethereum’s energy efficiency problems and makes the system more secure, but there are also other important problems in Ethereum that it needs to solve and is solving, which is “scaling,” according to Buterin. He said the success of NFT shows Ethereum has “great value beyond finance” and thus, the financial applications need to lower the transaction fees to and for non-rich people, everyday regular users and those outside the wealthy countries. Ethereum has already started scaling, he said, explaining “sharding,” the process of splitting a database horizontally to spread the road and reduce network congestion to improve its scalability and capacity. To wrap up the presentation, Buterin emphasized that none of these proof-of-stake or scaling ideas are just theory. They are already having at least a test implementation and they are coming soon, he added. By Lee Ha-yeon [ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.16
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WKF: Hot U.S. inflation likely to tame sanctions on Chinese imports next year: Yifu Lin
Top economists – Peking University National School of Development Professor Justin Yifu Lin, University of Tokyo Professor Sawada Yasuyuki, and KDI School of Public Policy and Management Professor Cho Dong-chul – join World Knowledge Forum session on “Global Economic Outlook 2022” on Wednesday. [Photo by Han Joo-hyung] Inflation hovering at 5 percent level could turn the United States softer on restrictions on Chinese imports next year, a top Chinese economist forecast on Wednesday. “The situation (U.S. restrictions on China may continue” amid the rivalry between China and U.S. in trade, according to Justin Yifu Lin, professor of National School of Development at Peking University, during a virtual session on “Global Economic Outlook 2022” at World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. But the conflict could be moderated next year due to the boiling “inflation rate in the U.S.” The economist claimed that there might be no other country than China to offer goods at cheaper prices. Lin discussed post-pandemic global economic order with two leading economists from Seoul and Tokyo – Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management Professor Cho Dong-chul and University of Tokyo Professor Sawada Yasuyuki. Lin was senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank in 2008-2012 and is councilor of the State Council and member of the Standing Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference. Although uncertainties surrounding Covid-19 remain will persist, the global economy will fare better next year, they agreed. Cho projected global economy to expand 6 percent this year from last year and about 5 percent next year. “Economic growth rate will slow down in terms of numbers because we’re not going to have a base effect, but I think next year’s economic growth rate will be higher than the pre-pandemic normal growth rate,” the professor said. Others echoed his view, with Yasuyuki noting that the outlook under Asia Development Bank’s growth forecast for the vast economy will be “positive.” He forecast 4.4 percent growth for U.S. next year and 5 percent this year and Europe 4.3 percent this year and 4.2 percent next year. [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]Lin expected China’s GDP to grow about 8 percent this year and 6 percent next year, far above International Monetary Fund’s growth projection of 4.9 percent for global economy next year after 6 percent this year. The top economists expected the impact of the ongoing pandemic will be “far smaller especially for those countries fully vaccinated,” Cho said, “mostly advanced countries.” “Developing countries will have difficulty in overcoming the pandemic next year,” he said. Policy is also going to be important part of the economy next year, with the U.S. Congress talking about their second round largest-scale stimulus package. The package will likely have a spillover effect to other countries, Cho noted. Digital, technology-related non-face-to-face industries, and e-commerce industries will remain strong while entertainment and tourism sectors will likely rebound from pandemic fallouts. By Lee Eun-joo [ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
2021.09.16
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