Suji Kwock Kim's “Generation” and the Ethics of Diasporic Postmemory

Regarding her highly acclaimed first book of poetry, Notes from the Divided Country, second-generation Korean American poet Suji Kwock Kim has stated that she considers the representation of the traumatic experiences of the Korean War as “the responsibility that one has, in terms of using the imagination as a means of compassion, and understanding things one couldn't have experienced.” If Notes from the Divided Country is a work created from a sense of ethical responsibility, we could perhaps also see it more specifically as a project of ethical memory and ask, along with ethnic studies scholar Jodi Kim, “What does it mean to want to represent or ‘remember’ a war that has been ‘forgotten’ and erased in the U.S. popular imaginary, but has been transgenerationally seared into the memories of Koreans and Korean Americans, and experienced anew every day in a still-divided Korea?” Notes from the Divided Country in many ways grapples with this very question and can be seen as an effort to remember the “Forgotten War” through vivid, chilling, moving poems that depict the enduring trauma of wartime violence from the perspective of diasporic postmemory. Taking Hirsch's work on Holocaust photos as a point of departure, this article reads in the poem “Generation” the poetics of postmemory and the ethics of memory from the perspective of diasporic subjectivity

Redefining Diaspora through a Phenomenology of Postmemory

This article seeks to intervene in the debates about the definition of diaspora by attending to the way in which it is a phenomenon, rooted in a particular kind of experience and consciousness. This approach seeks to move beyond ontological definitions based on categorical criteria toward a more phenomenological definition that can help us better understand the lived experience of diasporic subjects and the formation of diasporic communities. While these groups do not exist as entities that have some common essence or nature, I insist that they do exist phenomonologically. Rather than an objective, prescriptive definition of diaspora, this essay explores the subjective, descriptive quality of diaspora when approached from the inside, as an experience. A phenomenological approach, therefore, can rescue the term diaspora from its overextensions and case-specific limitations. A key consideration will be the role of memory in creating the phenomenon of diaspora. Diaspora must be understood as a phenomenon that emerges when displaced subjects who experience the loss of an "origin" (whether literal or symbolic) perpetuate identifications associated with those places of origin in subsequent generations through the mechanisms of postmemory

Risk Assessment and Management for CO2 Transportation Pipelines

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies are still in its initial stage in Malaysia so the existence of CO2 pipeline network relatively small which leads to the unadequate understanding of risk associated with CO2 release. In this project, risk-based approaches are used to evaluate the possible risks may occur when carbon dioxide (CO2) is transported in pipelines from its source to desired destinations. There are two case studies are presented. The first one is the risk analysis of CO2 pipeline network onshore and the second one is about the comparison study of risk between the CO2 and natural gas pipeline in order to raise awareness of the order of magnitude of CO2 risk. It is found that CO2 pipeline may represent significant risks once a large amount of CO2 is released close to dense population. This project also proposes some mitigation methods of the relevant risks regarding the current practices

Corporate Real Estate Holdings and the Value of the Firm in Korea

This study investigates the relationship between changes in real estate prices and the value of firms. The main hypothesis is that changes in the value of firms caused by expectations of increasing real estate prices will be smaller in magnitude than these in the value of their real estate holdings since there will be a loss in the value of the firm occasioned by the perception of future growth opportunities forgone. The secondary hypothesis is that the loss in value caused by growth opportunities forgone will be proportional to the amount of debt financing used. The findings using a yearly cross-sectional test during 1987-91 indicate that the proportion of a firm's real estate holdings to its total assets had no significant effect upon the return-on-investment in its stocks. However, the higher the debt ratio of the firm, the lower the coefficient of the real estate holdings, implying that the value loss of the growth opportunities forgone becomes larger as the firm uses more debt. Also these results are not observed in size analysis. Accordingly, a debt effect is regarded to be clearer than a size effect in the impact upon stock returns of the real estate holdings.

Vacuum-isolation vessel and method for measurement of thermal noise in microphones

The vacuum isolation vessel and method in accordance with the present invention are used to accurately measure thermal noise in microphones. The apparatus and method could be used in a microphone calibration facility or any facility used for testing microphones. Thermal noise is measured to determine the minimum detectable sound pressure by the microphone. Conventional isolation apparatus and methods have been unable to provide an acoustically quiet and substantially vibration free environment for accurately measuring thermal noise. In the present invention, an isolation vessel assembly comprises a vacuum sealed outer vessel, a vacuum sealed inner vessel, and an interior suspension assembly coupled between the outer and inner vessels for suspending the inner vessel within the outer vessel. A noise measurement system records thermal noise data from the isolation vessel assembly. A vacuum system creates a vacuum between an internal surface of the outer vessel and an external surface of the inner vessel. The present invention thus provides an acoustically quiet environment due to the vacuum created between the inner and outer vessels and a substantially vibration free environment due to the suspension assembly suspending the inner vessel within the outer vessel. The thermal noise in the microphone, effectively isolated according to the invention, can be accurately measured