Early in my medical career, I had a middle-aged male patient who smoked a pack a day. He was an overweight businessman with high blood pressure. Being a neophyte, I constantly reminded him to stop smoking. After his third visit, he told me bluntly, “Hey young man, don’t tell me to stop smoking. I’m older […]
In April, 450 AD, Emperor Tai Wu Di (太武帝) of the Wei (魏) state ordered the arrest and execution of the minister of justice, Cui Hao (崔浩). Cui had displeased the emperor when he presided over the writing of Guo Ji (國記), The Record of the State, in which he insisted on the principle of […]
It is bad enough that drug suspects were found cramped in a makeshift tiny secret jail cell inside a police station in Manila, but it became worse when high-ranking Philippine National Police officials defended its existence. Acting on information from relatives, officials from the Commission on Human Rights paid a surprise visit to the Raxabago […]
On a warm and humid spring day in Southern China’s Guangzhou, a routine performance of the Yueju Opera (粤劇) is staged at the Tongle Restaurant – the only surviving tea house devoted to the traditional performing art form in Guangdong province’s capital city. When the play reached its climax, some audience members approached the stage […]
The earliest ancestors of modern humans may have evolved in central China, not North Africa, as previously thought. Remote ancestors of humans may have lived 45 million years ago in Henan, Jiangsu, Shanxi and Yunnan provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This theory is based on discovery of prehistoric Eosimiid primate fossils between 1985-1994, which […]
China has unveiled plans for Xiongan New Area, an economic zone about 100 kilometers south of Beijing. It will span Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei province, eventually covering 2,000 sq km. By comparison, Metro Manila is 613 sq km. Hebei says it welcomes international bids to plan and design the new urban area’s […]
The world’s first decimal calculator was not electronic at all. Bamboo slips more than 2,300 years old were officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s earliest decimal calculation tool. Each of the 21 slips, made around 305 BC during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), is 43.5 cm long and […]
The entrancing lights of the Aurora Borealis, a natural phenomenon in the sky in northern climes, will be shown twice daily beginning May until Oct. 30 at the Hong Kong Space Museum’s Stanley Ho Space Theater. The 27-minute show – “KAGAYA’s Aurora” – displays the dancing lights of the auroras, which occurs in high-latitude regions […]
When spring breezes blow, colorful paper kites rise easily into the sky, dotting the heavens with cheerful shapes and bright hues. Beijing kite maker Liu Bin turns out airborne works of art, each one a masterpiece that soars above the earth. The handmade kites in his shop come in shapes of swallows, goldfish, dragons, the […]
Two government workers were released by their Abu Sayyaf kidnappers in Sulu on April 30 amid relentless military operations against the bandit group. Driver Alidznur Halis and his helper Aljima Ahari, employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways first engineering district in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, were recovered by government troops […]