중앙데일리

Don’t panic

Chris Gardner (of “The Pursuit of Happyness” fame) was so poor that he could not graduate from college. Bear Stearns, a leading global investment banking, securities and brokerage firm, was the only company that recognized his potential. The firm was…

Mar 18,2008
Cottage diplomacy

Historic summits at Camp David started after World War II. The mountain retreat was originally designed as a place of relaxation for the American president. Opening the presidential retreat to a visiting foreign leader is a particularly friendly gest…

Mar 17,2008
Code of life

Code is crucial terminology in the following fields: communication and information technology. It means a promise to convert one signal series into another. For example, Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information as a way to chan…

Mar 15,2008
Bogus complaints

There are four types of bogus medicines that have no therapeutic effect. If they are listed in their order of creation, the oldest one is a placebo. A placebo looks like ordinary medicine, but has no pharmaceutical effect. It has more of a psycholo…

Mar 14,2008
Monkey business

“Journey to the West” is a masterpiece of Chinese classical literature, a work of fiction that lies close to the hearts and minds of the Chinese. Why? Because the book’s characters ― Monk Huanzang; the mythical Monkey King, who was created from a mys…

Mar 13,2008
The golf handicap

In April 2006, the China Golf Association and the National Palace Museum declared that a game called chuiwan, similar to today’s golf, was popular during the Northern Song Dynasty in the early 12th century. They even presented restored wooden balls a…

Mar 12,2008
Nominal humility

Toshio Doko (1896-1988) was chairman and CEO of Toshiba Corporation and a chair for Nippon Keidanren. Despite his lofty position in society, he chose to live a frugal life, refusing to use a luxury car with a driver. One day, prosecutors showed up a…

Mar 11,2008
King Coal is back

A small city in Hokkaido, Japan is famous as the backdrop for a film, “The Yellow Handkerchief.” In reality, Yubari, the name of the city, has come to denote major misfortune. Due to a mountain of debt that amounts to over 25 million won per citizen…

Mar 10,2008
Snob? Get over yourself

A snob is a person who adopts the view that people are inferior to him for reasons of intellect, wealth, education or ancestry. A snob adopts the views and lifestyle of a social class of people to which they aspire but do not yet belong. The word i…

Mar 08,2008
Rivers of fire

On June 22, 1969, Americans were shocked to see a river on fire on the TV news. The fire, which started when a blowtorch ignited debris and oil floating on the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, spread to become a major conflagration that consumed seven bridges…

Mar 07,2008

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