The Advance of Technology

First, I should amend my earlier post to say that Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka was a female Asian leader who was not the daughter of a big important man. She was, however, the widow of a big important man. So there is still a quasifeministic tradition for Park Geun-hye to potentially continue.

Now, on to technological progress. I have discovered something that may already exist in North America, but if it does I was unaware of it. In every convenience store here you can buy cups full of powdered instant coffee; just add hot water and you have cheap, low-quality coffee. I've discovered you can buy cups that contain, not low-quality instant coffee, but low-quality coffee grounds. And they come with little coffee filters, and you turn the sieve-like lid of the cup upside-down and put the filter in the lid and put the grounds in the filter and add hot water and you've got actual drip coffee! It's not all that good, of course, but it was still a concept that was totally new to me. Neat!

Also, this week I saw my first Segway here driven by an ordinary person. I'd seen them before, usually in heavily trafficked areas downtown as part of promotional campaigns, but never a privately-owned one.