Forbes Magazine has released its "30 under 30" for 2011. 

Distruptors and Innovators in the field of Energy include Danielle Fong, Zizhou Zhou, Eden Full, Javier Fernandez-Han son of Peter Han, the president of NGO, Inventors without Borders, Inc., and Alexis Ringwald. Congratulations! 

If you know Rain, BoA (shown left), and Sistar, then you already know K-Pop, Korea’s contemporary pop music and its artists.

K-Pop music is one of the fastest growing music genres in the world, and along with Korea’s popular TV drama serials, films and comic books are a growing source of export revenue for Korea.  

The growing global fan base of Korea's entertainment and cultural offerings, known as "Hallyu" or the "Korean Wave" feels more like a tidal wave in some countries. In France, for example, fans mostly in their youth sold out a concert in Paris reportedly in fifteen minutes. Several hundred fans who missed out on tickets held a rally and danced to K-Pop music in front of the Louvre Museum campaigning for a second concert. They got their wish for a second concert which also sold out in minutes. Aflash mob as witnessed by this YouTube video shows hundreds of fans from all ethnicities crowding the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris last June, 2011 to welcome their favorite K-Pop artists. (image right)

On December 31, 2011 Korea's Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choe Kwang-shik announced a 2012 policy to expand support of Hallyu, to help keep the wave of Korean pop culture surging across its borders. The Korean government also hopes to attract more Hallyu fans into the areas of food, tourism, fashion and other cultural and entertainment offerings.

January 17, 2012

by  Suzanne Joe Kai

Update:

July 17, 2012

Goodbye New York, Hello Houston! 

After weeks of speculation, Tuesday night the New York Knicks announced it would not match the Houston Rockets' offer.

Emotions have been running high with Knicks fans. To quote writer Ian O'Connor at ESPNNewYork.com, "Jim Dolan just made one of the dumbest moves of his basketball life"...

Meanwhile, Lin remains a gentleman, thanking the Knicks and showing enthusiasm for Houston. 

Twitter comments: (@JLin7)

For the latest on Jeremy Lin:

ESPN.go.com

July 5, 2012

This afternoon Jeremy Lin agreed to a multi-million dollar offer sheet by the Houston Rockets. Numerous sources say that the Houston Rockets' offer is reportedly a four year $28.8 million deal with Lin. The contract cannot be signed until after the NBA moratorium ends next Wednesday, July 11, 2012, then the New York Knicks have three days to match the Rockets' offer or let him go. 

This story is evolving day by day, and in some cases hour by hour.

(Video image by Suzanne Joe Kai at a press interview with Jeremy Lin in the NY Knicks locker room at Madison Square Garden March 11, 2012)

 
Update: March 26, 2012

The first of eight soldiers implicated in the death of 19-year-old Army Private Danny Chen will be tried in military court April 4 at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Travis Carden, 25, from Fowler, Indiana, will appear before a general court-martial, to face charges of violating lawful general regulation, maltreatment and assault.

The trials of seven other soldiers will be scheduled once their charges are referred to a court-martial. The Organization of Chinese Americans New York Chapter has launched a grassroots campaign including a video and a petition demanding a thorough and transparent investigation, and urging the trials to be moved to the United States.

On October 3, 2011 U.S. Private Chen was found dead of a gunshot wound to his head in a guard tower. Just hours before, his family said Private Chen had been dragged out of his bed by fellow soldiers, dragged across the floor, forced to crawl, pelted with rocks, ordered to do pull-ups with water in his mouth, and insulted with ethnic slurs. His family said he was accused of forgetting to turn off the water heater after taking a shower.