Love quotes for him

[Steve Jobs]The Steve Jobs Way: Can it work everywhere?

2012-12-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

“You can certainly look retrospectively at that kind of success that companies with leaders like Steve Jobs enjoyed during their tenure. I think that those kind of leaders are most effective in those kind of circumstances, as well as what that leaders are made of,” Mark V. Mactas, president and chief operating officer of Towers Watson, said in an exclusive interview with BusinessFocus held at the global consulting firm’s Seoul office on March 7.

“My guess is that whether it’s Steve Jobs or anybody else, the nature of their leadership over time has evolved. So it wasn’t one formula, when he made his company into what it is today,” he added.

His message is that a leader should not necessarily be charismatic and it may not be in the best interest of some companies to have a single, charismatic leader, suggesting that a Steve Jobs type of boss can fail as a CEO in other companies in different circumstances and cultures.

“Historically, there is a picture of the right leader being charismatic, a very dynamic personality leading an organization. It might have a place in industries and companies at some point in time. But I don’t think there are many more leaders like that,” he said.

Leadership

The veteran consultant, who was chairman of Towers Perrin before it merged with Watson Wyatt in January, 2010, pointed out that although there is no ideal leadership model, there are a set of requirements and roles that a leader should have to become successful.

“Some say that management is power by position, and leadership is power by influence. Both are equally necessary. For me, viewing leadership as power by influence means first, that a leader’s ideas matter and that they must have merit; and second, that a leader must be able to get people to follow him or her,” he said.

“In addition, effective leadership provides direction, builds confidence, and helps people execute for their organization’s sake as well as their own,” he added.

Finding DNA

Asked how Korea’s world’s top class manufacturers, such as Samsung and LG, can turn into innovators from fast-followers, Mactas said that Korean players should focus on indentifying their core DNA.

“Some are fast followers, while others are good at supply chain management, business model improving and other areas. So I think that it’s important for (Korean) firms to know what they are really good at or what their DNA is and to leverage it. And maybe leverage it in different ways so when it is exhausted, they can look for alternative DNA to become innovators,” he said.

“Companies have challenged themselves to do things in different ways. Historically, they did these usually by necessity. Because when companies are successful they tend to do tomorrow what they did yesterday, to break that habit can be difficult. I think this requires self-examination.

Fate of Those Living Near Power Plant Raises Concerns .

2012-12-25T04:30:00.002-08:00

Residents of Okuma, home of the troubled nuclear complex, are evacuated to Aizuwakamatsu on Sunday.

Concern is mounting about the long-term fate of people who remain close to the country's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant.
Kyohei Takahashi, the 72-year-old head doctor at a hospital in Minamisoma, a mostly abandoned city some 25 kilometers north of the plant is still at his post though fewer than 10 of his 25 staff remain, and many of his patients were evacuated to reduce their potential exposure to radiation. The hospital now relies on donations of instant noodles and curry from volunteers and Japanese soldiers to serve those who come looking for care. Some of them feel panicked; others have stopped talking, he says, with all of them worrying about friends and family, including some who were likely swept away by Japan's March 11 tsunami.

Radioactive water from Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant continues to leak into the ocean as workers scramble to seal a cracked chamber. WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Yumiko Ono discuss Japan's game plan.

"What kind of doctor would I be if I fled over something like this?" he said.
The plight of Mr. Takahashi and other residents nearby is becoming a pressing question in Japan's nuclear drama, as authorities struggle to regain full control of the embattled Fukushima Daiichi plant. Trapped in a no-man's land between areas with potentially dangerous radiation and those without unusual readings, they are agonizing over whether to stay or to abandon communities they may never see again in normal times.
Yasuhiro Abe, 47, was working at Fukushima Daiichi when the quake hit. After the ceiling of his office collapsed, he borrowed a bicycle and rode two hours to his home in the Minamisoma area, where he found his 8-year-old son and wife, and fled the area.
He said he has heard that truck drivers are afraid to enter the city with supplies. But he also has heard some evacuees have returned to the city as their employers, such as a local power company, call them back.
"I myself would like to go back before security becomes tighter. I would like to check on my house and pick up summer clothes, as I only have winter closes here," he said. If the school for his son resumes, that will be an indication of safety, he added.
Some have disregarded the government's urging to relocate, and say that scare-mongering over radiation is making it harder to convince companies to deliver food, medicine and other supplies. Other residents say more food and water have arrived in recent days but that their communities' fates remain precarious as fears of radiation intensify.
Authorities have ordered all residents within 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles, of the plant to evacuate, while people between 20 and 30 kilometers away are being encouraged to stay indoors or leave voluntarily.
Just after the March 11 disaster, authorities evacuated thousands of residents to shelters by bus, with no indication of when they would return. Yet a handful of people—29, according to the government on Friday—have remained within the 20-kilometer exclusion zone, while thousands are in the area between 20 and 30 kilometers out, with many more coming in and out during the day to check on property, pets and friends.

The Japanese government monitors radiation levels around the country. Track these measurements over time.

The area in the next 10 kilometers, stretching out to the 30-kilometer boundary, is busy, with at least 20,000 of its 140,000 residents still there. Most are in the city of Minamisoma, parts of which are within the 20-kilometer to 30-kilometer zone, parts of which are outside. In recent days, authorities have acknowledged they may need to extend the size of the evacuation area, potentially encompassing all of the city, while American authorities have for some time suggested people stay 80 kilometers away from the facility.
Over the weekend, radiation levels in the air immediately outside the Fukushima Daiichi plant varied from 55 microsieverts to 800 microsieverts per hour, depending on locations and times. In the 20- to 30-kilometer radius, readings ranged from 0.4 microsieverts per hour to 17 microsieverts.
Minamisoma city, which does its own readings, on Sunday measured 0.9 microsieverts per hour. That level translates into 7,884 microsieverts per year, which is little more than that received in a chest CT scan. Experts say that level doesn't pose an immediate health threat.
Reliable reports about life in the 20-kilometer no-go zone are difficult to obtain. The United Nations and Japanese media have said there could be scores of victims' irradiated bodies left behind in the area, but details are unknown.

A spokesman for the joint chief of staff at Japan's defense ministry said about 500 soldiers, prefecture workers and volunteers are working within the buffer zone to offer support services. Soldiers visit houses and businesses when they receive reports about people who stayed behind, to make sure they are comfortable, but they haven't done a comprehensive door-to-door operation.
Nearly all the city officials in Minamisoma are working. A city official who declined to be named said workers were worried initially, but were reassured when they saw radiation levels weren't as high as in some neighboring towns, and that radiation in tap water wasn't at unsafe levels. Some banks and shops are open, and the city uses vans with speakers to let people know when and where supplies and fuel will be distributed.
Outside the zone, many people are torn over when, or whether, to go back in.
At Takano Hospital in the city of Hirono, about 26 kilometers south of the reactor—one of the few hospitals still operating in the 20- to 30-kilometer zone—office administrator Miyo Takano said the facility faces more risk from false rumors and unclear government guidelines than from radiation.
Some staff at the hospital have chosen to stay to care for 36 medical and psychiatric patients too fragile to move. The hospital's head doctor, who uses a Geiger counter to check radiation levels every day, said he hasn't encountered any dangerous readings so far.
But the government hasn't made any efforts to support rebuilding in the area, Ms. Takano said, making it nearly impossible for life to return to normal.

[ Mona Lisa]Hunt is on for possible Mona Lisa model

2012-12-25T04:30:00.000-08:00

Italian researchers said they will dig up bones in a Florence convent to try to identify the remains of a Renaissance woman believed to be the model for the “Mona Lisa”, reported the AP on Tuesday.

If successful, the research might help identify the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452 – 1519) masterpiece—a mystery that has puzzled scholars and art lovers for centuries and created countless theories.

The project aims to locate the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo.

Tradition has long linked Gherardini to the painting. Giorgio Vasari, a 16th century artist and biographer of da Vinci, wrote that da Vinci painted a portrait of del Giocondo’s wife.

Gherardini was born in 1479. A few years ago, an amateur Italian historian said he had found a death certificate showing she died on July 15, 1542, with her final resting place being the Convent of St. Ursula in central Florence.

“That’s where the digging will begin later this month,” said Silvano Vinceti, an art historian and the project leader.

This research will use CSI-like methods in art history to find out about an artist’s technique, discover hidden details in a painting or even learn about an artist’s life or death.

Vinceti says the artwork is likely not the physical portrait of one single model but the result of several. “Gherardini might have been an early model,” he said. “We can put an end to a centuries-old dispute.”

However, there are voices of skepticism as well. “Several experts believe that remains from several hundred years ago cannot be the decisive evidence,” added Vinceti.

[turtle]100-year-old revered Vietnam turtle caught

2012-12-25T04:29:00.000-08:00

HANOI ― Thousands of onlookers cheered in central Hanoi on Sunday when rescuers captured for treatment an endangered and ailing giant turtle revered as a symbol of Vietnam's centuries-old independence struggle, according to AFP Monday. On the first attempt to snare it in polluted Hoan Kiem Lake one month ago, the feisty old animal broke free from a net.

This time about 50 rescuers took about two hours ― and three nets of varying sizes ― to finally bring the turtle under control. Some of the workers swam with the netted reptile, leading it into a cage which was escorted by two boats to an islet where its condition is to be assessed.

"This is one of the most endangered animals in the world and there's very little known about it," said Tim McCormack of the Asian Turtle Program, a Hanoi-based conservation and research group. McCormack said the animal, which is likely more than 100 years old, is one of only four Rafetus swinhoei turtles known to be in existence. Two are in China and one lives in another Hanoi-area lake, he said.

Local media reported that the critically endangered soft-shell turtle, which weighs about 200 kilograms (440 pounds), had been injured by fish hooks and small red-eared turtles which have appeared in the lake in recent years.

The animal's status in Vietnam stems from its history and its home in Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Returned Sword), rather than its rarity.

"It's very important culturally here," said McCormack.

In a story that is taught to all Vietnamese school children, the 15th century rebel leader Le Loi used a magical sword to drive out Chinese invaders and founded the dynasty named after him.

Le Loi later became emperor and one day went boating on the lake. A turtle appeared, took his sacred sword and dived to the bottom, keeping the weapon safe for the next time Vietnam may have to defend its freedom, the story says.

The turtle has generally surfaced only rarely ― its sightings deemed auspicious ― but has been seen more often in recent months as concern mounted over its health.

Its plight caught the attention of Hanoi's city government, which created a "Turtle Treatment Council" of experts led by a senior veterinarian in the agriculture department, the Vietnam News Agency said.

Vietnamese refer to Hoan Kiem's legendary resident as "great grandfather turtle", but its sex is unknown.

The islet where it was to be examined holds a small temple-like structure called "Turtle Tower" that is commonly featured in tourist pictures. It will be held in a special tank with filtered water instead of soupy-green contaminated lake water.

"A lot of people have been saying the pollution in the lake has been a serious factor in the animal's health," said McCormack, whose organisation was among the experts advising authorities on how to help the creature.

Spectators hoped the treatment will succeed.

Nguyen Le Hoai, 31, said she spent all day lakeside waiting for the turtle's capture because it "is the symbol of the country, and the symbol of this lake." according to the report.

[eduHookups]Hook-up website expands to include other colleges

2012-12-25T04:28:00.001-08:00

It has only been online for a month, but a University of Chicago students website, that allows users to hook up for casual sex, has expanded to other colleges.

News of the site spread fast. After attracting national and international media attention, it has 800 registered members, with a higher proportion being male, reports said.

eduHookups.com -- formerly UChicago Hookups.com -- now welcomes members from Northwestern University and Columbia College Chicago. The site will also be open to Brown University students from April 4.

Users must have an .edu email to register on the site, but can post listings requesting anything from romance right through to "no strings" sex and even affairs.

A message on the site explains that it was initially intended as a project and learning experience by a small team of University of Chicago undergraduates to change the old belief that UChicago is a place were "fun comes to die’ and ‘the squirrels are cuter than the girls and more aggressive than the guys."

“eduHookups was, is, and always will be targeted towards students who believe working hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive,” the statement continued.

Officials at the university have not yet commented on the establishment of the website.

[Brazil school]12 children killed in Brazil school shooting

2012-12-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 12 children, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, ``I'm going to kill you all!''

   It was the worst school shooting in Brazil _ and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, who said the man then fell down some stairs and shot himself in the head.

   Images taken with a cell phone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood.

   Rio de Janeiro state's Secretariat of Health and Civil Defense said in a statement on its website that at least 12 other students were injured, many by gunfire, and taken to hospitals. At least two were in grave condition. Officials earlier reported 18 injured.

   The dead included 10 girls and two boys, plus the gunman, according to the Health and Civil Defense department. Those killed were between the ages of 12 and 15. One of the boys died at a hospital about 12 hours after the shooting.

   ``He came in shooting,'' said Andreia Machado, recounting what her 13-year-old daughter, Thayane, told her before going into surgery.

   Thayane was hit by three bullets and lost feeling in her legs because one hit her spine, said her mother. Crying as she spoke, Machado wondered if her daughter would ever be able to return to school _ or walk.

   ``She's such an active child,'' she said. ``That's the biggest fear I have, her not being able to walk again. But we have to trust in God.''

   The gunman was identified as 23-year-old Wellington Oliveira, who had once attended the Tasso da Silveira school in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio.

   No motive was known, but authorities said the shooter left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

   The letter also explained in detail how Oliveira wanted his corpse to be cared for _ bathed and wrapped in a white sheet that he left in a bag in the first room where he said he would start shooting. The letter also states that the gunman should not be touched by anyone who is ``impure'' unless they wear gloves.

   ``If possible I want to be buried next to my mother. A follower of God must visit my grave at least once. He must pray before my grave and ask God to forgive me for what I have done,'' read the letter, portions of which were posted on the Globo television network's website.

   Edmar Peixoto, the deputy mayor of western Rio, said the letter also stated the gunman was infected with the AIDS virus.

   The public school was in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary, and students' handmade posters commemorating the day could be seen through school windows.

   Rio Police Chief Martha Rocha said that when Oliveira first entered the school he told staff members he was there to give a lecture.

   Shortly afterward, he opened fire. Rocha said he was carrying two pistols and an ammunition belt. He fired off at least 30 rounds.

   Rio is a city rife with drug-gang violence in its vast slums, but school shootings are rare. The gunman had no criminal history, Rocha told a news conference.

   About 400 people were inside the school when the shooting began about 8:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. EDT, 1130 GMT). The school serves grades one through eight.

   ``What happened in Rio is without a doubt the worst incident of its kind to have taken place in Brazil,'' said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert at the University of Sao Paulo.

   Jade Ramos, a student at the school, said the gunman repeatedly yelled ``I'm going to kill you all!''

   ``He had already killed a lot of children in the first floor and in the yard,'' she told the Globo television network. ``He kept telling the kids to face the wall and was shooting at their heads.

The children kept begging, 'No, please!' There was a lot of blood, children agonizing on the stairs.''

   Ramos said she escaped by running into a classroom, where a teacher then locked the door and barricaded it with tables.

   Police were alerted to the shooting when two young boys, at least one with a gunshot wound, ran up to two officers on patrol about two blocks away. The officers sprinted to the school and at least one quickly located the gunman on the second floor and traded shots with him.

   ``He saw me and aimed a gun at me,'' said officer Marcio Alves.

``I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head.''

   Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said life at the four-story, pastel yellow and green school was turned into a ``hellish nightmare.''

   ``This day would have been so much worse if it weren't for the hero policeman,'' Paes told reporters at the school.

   Authorities closed the school temporarily while they investigate, but Paes said it would reopen.

   Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral called the shooter a ``psychopath'' and said there were no indications anyone else was involved in the shooting, but that the investigation would continue.

   ``We have to investigate where he got the weapons and where he learned to use them,'' the governor said.

   Terrified parents rushed to the school in the Realengo neighborhood. Television images showed them crying and screaming for information about their children.

   Zilda Nunes, 67, lives across the street from the school and said three of her grandchildren were inside when the shooting began.

   She screamed for help when she heard the gunfire, but didn't enter the building. As students fled, she offered them sugar water to help calm them down, she said.

   ``There were so many children shot, so much blood,'' Nunes said.

``People were asking for help, but what could I do?''

   Three helicopters were landing and taking off from a football field next to the school, ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

   Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, attending an event in the capital, Brasilia, lamented the deaths of ``defenseless children.''

   ``I ask for one minute of silence for these children who were taken so early from their life,'' she said, her voice cracking and eyes welling with tears. ``It's not in the nature of our nation to have these types of crimes.''

A policeman stands guard outside the Tasso da Silveira school in the western region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 7, 2011. A campus shooting here on Thursday morning killed 11 people and injured at least 22 others, the city's health chief, Sergio Cortes said.

A woman reacts outside a school after a shooting at the school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday April 7, 2011. Brazilian authorities say that a gunman opened fire in an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro and at least 13 people are dead, including the gunman.

Moving past distraction to inner peace

2012-12-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

‘Rid yourself of distracting thoughts by concentrating on the five senses and you will feel happiness return.’

Our lives are filled with distractions, yet it is difficult to rid ourselves of distracting thoughts when they enter our minds. We think about yesterday’s failures or our worries about the future and then exaggerate these ideas, which

bring us unhappiness. That, in turn, increases our regret and worry and the cycle begins again.

But for thousands of Koreans, a young Japanese monk is providing some sage wisdom about how to free themselves from the cycle. His name is Koike Ryunosuke, 33, and his book, “Practice Not Being Angry,” sold 70,000 copies in Korea just 10 days after it was released in March.

“Rid yourself of distracting thoughts by concentrating on the five senses and stay in the present moment,” Ryunosuke said. “You will feel satisfied with your life and happiness will return.”

Ryunosuke graduated from Tokyo University and currently teaches Zen Buddhism in Japan.

In his book, he teaches people to discard unnecessary thoughts through focused meditation and lays out a series of practical steps one can take to achieve peace in their daily lives.

His Five Senses Meditation method is rooted in pre-sectarian Buddhism, which is sometimes called “original,” or in Japan “early,” Buddhism and is oriented around the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, its founder. Ryunosuke teaches that by focusing on the five senses, it is possible to overcome the distractions of daily life, which he says have only increased in the information age.

His previous book “Practice Emptying Your Mind,” appeared on bestseller lists after it was published in September and has sold over 370,000 copies.

The sales figures are unprecedented in Korea, where it is unusual for two books by a foreign author to be on the bestseller list at the same time.

In addition to record sales in Korea, both books have had an impact in Japan, where sales of both books have reached 120,000 and 300,000 copies, respectively. Through his Web site, he reached out to the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami there and provided advice on how to overcome the anguish they felt.

The JoongAng Sunday interviewed Ryunosuke via e-mail to learn more about the book and his teachings.

Q. In your book, you teach people to meditate by focusing on the five senses in order to empty the mind. Could you describe this method in greater detail?

A. My method of meditation is not exactly new. I’ve just adapted existing methods and focus on the five senses.

When you inhale, you can feel the air come in through the nose and flow into the body through the throat. If you concentrate on the movement of the breath as it circulates through the body, you can separate yourself from distracting thoughts. My Five Senses Meditation method is rooted in pre-sectarian Buddhism, which recognizes only that which can be verified.

Could you talk more about pre-sectarian Buddhism as a religion and how it figures into your meditation practice?

I do not consider Buddhism a religion, and I do not believe in anything. I pick out the elements of Buddhism that can be used as tools to survive in this chaotic society and deliver them in a way that can be understood by contemporary people. This kind of approach makes people less dependent on religion.

If there were a basis for what I do, it would revolve around the question “Does it increase or decrease agony?” For example, if you feel anger, you should get to the root of it. Only by doing that can you rid yourself of it. Stay positive and avoid unnecessary distractions.

So do you think relying on an omnipotent God is anachronistic? What do you think about the idea that people tend to turn to religion after natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan?

If we considered natural disasters a punishment by God or Buddha, he would be a very egoistic and violent being.

Siddhartha Gautama did not talk about God or Buddha. Regarding things that cannot be verified, like God, he said that it is best to turn inward and cultivate oneself, rather than focus on an external being. He said: “Rely on yourself, stand on your own two feet.”

On your Web site, you say that victims of the earthquake and tsunami can avoid “secondary damage” by controlling their reactions to the events. What did you mean?

In Buddhism, we react to things in this way. First, you record an event in your mind using the five senses. Then you interpret the event with your own knowledge and experiences. Based on your interpretation, you either feel pleasure or displeasure and finally your emotions kick in.

For example, you see images of the earthquake and tsunami with your eyes. Then within a split second you analyze it and conclude that the event is greater than any disaster you’ve ever seen and begin to feel pain. Finally, you become sad or anxious. If you are able to separate your reactions to real events from the actual events themselves you will begin to realize that you are the source of your own sadness and anxiety, and you can let these emotions go.

You say in your book that art, entertainment and economic prosperity have nothing to do with happiness. What did you mean?

With the belief that economic development is essential to happiness, people compete with one another, which has created a lot of unhappiness.

Everyone rushes around without thinking and their minds eventually become barren, unstable and, eventually, unhappy. This system in which people mass produce and mass consume what they want in pursuit of pleasure has reached its limit.

I wish we could produce and consume only what we need to live, instead of products that stimulate desire. These include only those things essential to living, such as food, clothing and shelter.

You say in your book that the pursuit of originality is one cause of stress in today’s world. That goes against the contemporary values of originality and individuality. How can we reconcile our desire for peace with our contemporary values?

Our obsession with originality produces a lot of stress in contemporary society. But in fact, nothing is original. Yet the media and schools teach that one cannot succeed in life without originality. This makes people try desperately to differentiate themselves from others, by buying products or doing things that no one else has, producing stress. But in reality we are not very different from each other. And in striving to be original, the concept of originality has lost its meaning.

In the realm of employment, the desire for recognition, which is why many people work, is also one of the agonies. Once people begin to pursue their passions, they start to obsess about them, which makes them less happy. Instead, people should do what they can and have to do and learn to draw happiness and fulfillment from reality.

That sounds very strange. Are you saying that we shouldn’t have any ambitions or dreams?

Not necessarily. The impetus for doing something fun or interesting comes from dopamine, a chemical found in the brain that delivers feelings of pleasure. The brain can produce dopamine based on the satisfaction that comes from having achieved something. But the pleasure does not last long. You immediately begin to feel anxious and lose serenity. So you set a new goal. When you achieve it, you search for another, repeating the cycle again and again to feel pleasure. This cycle of anxiety and relief for momentary pleasure comes from the West. But it destroys composure, objectivity and morality and ultimately leads to dissatisfaction instead of fulfillment.

In contemporary society, we have replaced real happiness with dopamine. People think they are working to be happy but in fact they are all unhappy from the effect of dopamine leaving the system.

On the contrary, if you do work that is unrelated to ambition or pride, you mind will become calm. This peaceful state comes from serotonin. When the brain produces serotonin, the mind becomes clear and the heart is stabilized. Walking, eating slowly or focusing on inhaling and exhaling the breath helps release serotonin. Simple and repetitive work like this is ideal.

In your book you say that our desire for recognition is another major source of stress. You also say that social networking services such as Twitter enlarge the ego and thereby feed that desire. Do you think these services are useless?

These services simply exploit loneliness and disturb a person’s inner balance. People try to gain recognition by posting messages on social networking services, but in most cases it is only established celebrities who are able to attract widespread attention. When people realize this, it creates anguish, frustration and a negative self-image. But because our society values recognition, people continue to seek it, and that is how the services continue to feed our desire for it.

Whenever you receive pleasure from the feeling that someone responded to a message, you are stimulated by dopamine, and dopamine is addictive. If you are exposed to an excessive amount of dopamine from frequent recognition by others, you will soon become addicted to dopamine and lose your feeling of inner peace.

For your own well-being, it would be best to quit using these services altogether. But if that is not possible, try to limit the amount of time you spend with them. Don’t get on the Internet in the mornings and at night and exercise instead or set fixed intervals between log-ins. This will lessen the addiction by giving you sufficient time to recover from the effects of dopamine and ultimately set you free.

3D artist paints stunning tiger from hidden, crouching women

2012-12-25T04:26:00.000-08:00

3D artist Craig Tracy chose a canvas with a difference for his striking three-dimensional picture of a tiger, dailymail.co.uk reported Wednesday.

Three naked women spent an amazing 24 hours as his subjects as he assembled his masterpiece to raise awareness about the plight of endangered creatures, the report said.

His next project might need to be in aid of sufferers of back pain.

Tracy, 43, from New Orleans, created the breathtaking piece to raise awareness about the endangered animal.

He assembled the women on the floor of his studio and then used paint specifically designed for human skin.

Throughout his career Craig has painted a staggering 400 bodies, including women at the Rio carnival and his home towns' Mardi Gras.
And he admits that he has enjoyed his brush with fame, according to the report.

He said, “The rich and famous seem to enjoy my work in due proportion. I have sold some works to them for up to $1,200, but I could never say which ones.

“But it isn't just celebs who love my work, people from all walks of life love it.

“I've never had a negative interaction regarding what I paint or how I paint it.”

The self confessed art nut believes this particular work is his most successful and important of his life.

He added, “The South China Tiger image is certainly one of my favorite images so far.

“I love what it represents and all of the good that it has done to help save the tiger.”

[space]The beauty of space

2011-04-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

The surface of Mars is seen from the NASA’s Exploration Rover Spirit on Jan. 28, 2004. The prospect of ever hearing from the stuck Mars rover Spirit is fading after it failed to respond to repeated calls from Earth.

The surface of Mercury was captured by Messenger, the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury on March 29, 2011.

NASA’s Messenger probe captured the southern hemisphere of Mercury when it flew by the planet in September 2009.

NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope captures Saturn with the rings edge-on and both poles in view, offering view of its fluttering auroras on March 22, 2011.

The full moon is seen as it rises near the Lincoln Memorial, Saturday, March 19, 2011, in Washington. The full moon was called a "Super Perigee Moon" since it was at it's closest to Earth in 2011

Russian space agency rescuers help Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri shortly after their landing near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 16, 2011. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely Wednesday in the snowy expanses of central Kazakhstan after spending a five-month stint on the International Space Station.

Portions of the Martian surface are seen in unprecedented detail from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Jan. 14, 2011.

An enhanced photo image of Mercury from NASA’s Messenger probe

[Kauli]複数のアドネットワークで広告収益の最大化

2011-04-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

複数のアドネットワークで広告収益の最大化

Kauliの配信ロジックは、訪問者ごとに最も高い収益が見込めるアドネットワークを自動で選択して広告を配信することにより、広告の収益を最大化します。お好きなアドネットワークを設定することもできますし、今後登場するKauli公式対応のアドネットワークならチェックするだけでカンタンに複数のネットワークを配信できます。

Kauli アドネットワークのご案内

概要
Kauliは、ご自身のブログやウェブサイトと、それを閲覧するユーザに適した広告を掲載することで、広告収益を得ることのできる、サイトオーナー様向けのサービスです。
ご利用手続きは簡単です。　ログイン後の画面でご提供するタグをコピーしてご自身のサイトに貼り付けるだけで、広告が配信が開始されます。
Kauliでは、サイトを構成するコンテンツ分析や、ユーザがサイトにアクセスする際の情報分析、その他の複数の要素を用いて、ユーザがサイトを閲覧しているその瞬間に起きている「コンセプト」を抽出し、それに最適な広告を配信する「コンセプトマッチ」タイプの広告ネットワークです。（特許出願中）
また現在、「Kauli紹介キャンペーン」を行っており、これにより更なる収益向上が期待できます。

メディア会員登録

広告の配信ついて
会員登録後のログイン画面にて、簡単なタグをコピーしてご自身のサイトに貼り付けるだけで、広告の自動表示が開始されます。
表示される広告は、ご自身のサイトやサイトを閲覧するユーザにとって適した広告が自動的に選別され表示されます。

広告の表示方法について
表示する広告の種類（形・大きさ）を、さまざまな種類からサイトのデザインにあったものからお選びいただけます。また、広告の背景や枠、テキストの色もご自由に編集可能です。

報酬のお支払い
ご自身の未払いクリック成果報酬が5,000円に達したら、いつでもご登録した銀行口座に振込ご請求することが出来ます。
※Kauli紹介プログラムの紹介報酬（アフィリエイト報酬）につきましては、ご自身の未払いクリック成果報酬が5,000円に達しない限り、振込ご請求は出来ませんのでご注意ください。
報酬が5,000円に達するまでは、お支払いは留保されます。お支払いは、振込ご請求をされた月の末日締めで、翌月末日にお支払いいたします。
報酬の振込手数料はメディアパートナーのご負担となります。

Kauli紹介プログラム（アフィリエイト）
Kauliをご自身のサイトで紹介することで、報酬が得られます。ご自身のサイト経由でKauliに新たなメディアパートナーの登録があると、その新たなメディアパートナーの成果報酬が5,000円に達した時に、2,000円の紹介報酬（アフィリエイト報酬）をKauliから受け取ることが可能です。
例えば、50人のメディアパートナーをKauliに紹介して登録された場合、50人 × 2,000円　＝　10万円の紹介報酬を受け取ることが出来ます。
メディアパートナーの獲得数に制限はありません。早く始めるほど、大きな収益が期待できます。

手続きは簡単です。ログイン後の「広告設定」＞「アフィリエイト」にて発行される、ご自身専用のタグをコピーして、ご自身のサイトに掲載するだけです。これによりサイトに掲載されるテキストリンクを経由して、新たにKauliに登録されたメディアパートナーの収益が紹介報酬の対象となるよう、システムが自動的に認知・計算してお支払いする仕組みとなっております。
なお、Kauli広告内の最下部に表示されるテキスト「Ads by Kauli」も、自動的に上記と同じリンクになっています。このため上記のタグを設置しなくても、広告の掲載を開始するだけで、ご自身のサイトに掲載される広告の「Ads by Kauli」を経由してKauliに登録したメディアパートナーも、紹介報酬の対象となります。
※ ご自身のクリック成果報酬が5,000円に達しない限り、アフィリエイト報酬の振込請求が出来ません。
アフィリエイトリンクは、Kauli広告掲載と合わせてご利用ください。
※ アフィリエイト報酬のご確認は、上記にご説明したお支払い基準に達した際に、「報酬管理」ページにてご確認頂けます。
上記お支払い基準に達するまでは、アフィリエイト入会者数のご確認等の機能はございませんので予めご了承ください。

Kauliオンライン広告主紹介プログラム（広告主アフィリエイト）
Kauliに広告を出稿する広告主を紹介する事で、報酬が得られます。
ご自身のサイト経由でKauliに新たな広告主の登録があると、その新たな広告主のご利用金額（広告出稿料金）が10万円に達した時に、3万円の紹介報酬（広告主アフィリエイト報酬）をKauliから受け取ることが可能です。
広告主アフィリエイト報酬の支払いは、先着100件で終了致します。早くはじめるほど、大きな収益が期待できます。

手続きは簡単です。ログイン後の「広告設定」＞「アフィリエイト」にて発行される、ご自身専用のタグをコピーして、ご自身のサイトに掲載するだけです。これによりサイトに掲載されるテキストリンクを経由して、新たにKauliに登録された広告主のご利用料金が紹介報酬の対象となるよう、システムが自動的に認知・計算してお支払いする仕組みとなっております。なお、Kauli広告内の最下部に表示されるテキスト「Ads by Kauli」も、自動的に上記と同じリンクになっています。このため上記のタグを設置しなくても、広告の掲載を開始するだけで、プログラム参加が可能です。

・広告主の紹介件数に制限はありません。例えば3件の広告主を紹介し、3件ともご利用金額が10万円に達したら、3万円の報酬は3回支払われます。
・報酬支払いは1広告主につき1回です。1度10万円に達して3万円の報酬を獲得したら、以降はその広告主についての報酬は発生しません。
・報酬支払いは、先着100件で終了する限定キャンペーンとなります。　おひとりで複数回の報酬獲得は可能ですが、報酬支払い件数が伸べ100件に達した時点で、本キャンペーンは終了致します。
・ご自身のクリック成果報酬が5,000円に達しない限り、アフィリエイト報酬の振込請求が出来ません。アフィリエイトリンクは、Kauli広告掲載と合わせてご利用ください。
・アフィリエイト報酬のご確認は、上記にご説明したお支払い基準に達した際に、「報酬管理」ページにてご確認頂けます。上記お支払い基準に達するまでは、アフィリエイト入会者数のご確認等の機能はございませんので予めご了承ください。

メディア登録方法
下記の新規会員登録より、オンラインで、数分で完了できます。
ご利用規約に同意のうえ、必要事項を記載して登録すると、
ご案内メールがすぐに送信されますので、そこに記載されたURLをクリックして、登録完了です。

メディア会員登録

ご利用規約にも記載していますが、問い合わせを多く頂いている点について、以下に具体的な禁止事項を纏めました。

広告設置やクリックに関する禁止事項

「よろしかったら、クリックしてください」など、広告に興味のない人にクリックを誘う文言を記載してはなりません。
動画プレイヤーの再生ボタンや「次へ」のボタンなど、クリッカブルなオブジェクトのすぐ側に広告を設置してはなりません。
例:動画プレイヤーの再生ボタンすぐ下に設置

このような広告タグの設置は、間違えによるクリックを誘発させる広告設置行為と見なされます。スペースや罫線を引くなどして、間違えによるクリックが起きないような広告の設置をするようにして下さい。

メディア登録者自身によるクリックや、仲間内で相互にクリックするような行為は詐欺行為と見なし厳しく取り締まっています。このような行為によって、誘導先の広告主サイトにて成果（購入・資料請求・クリック等）を全く生まないメディアは、自動的に品質の低いクリックのみ発生させるメディアとして扱われます。

アフィリエイトリンクの禁止事項
※ 以下のようなサイトには、アフィリエイトリンクを掲載することができません。

オークションの紹介文など、ご自身が管理・運営を行うことができないサイト
mixiや各種SNSなど、特定の人しか閲覧できないサイト
そのほか一切の広告活動を禁止しているサイト
アダルトサイト、もしくはアダルト画像やアダルト広告などにリンクを掲載しているサイト

メディア向けサービスのご案内

日本国内初！RTBの報酬で多くの広告収益を獲得

RTBとはリアルタイム・ビッディングの略称で、広告主が訪問者の属性情報に合わせた広告をリアルタイムに入札できる仕組みです。
RTBに対応するためには、訪問者ごとにリアルタイムで広告料の入札を処理しながら、その他のアドネットワークを含めて最も適切な広告を配信する技術が要求されます。Kauliでは従来から培ってきた収益最大化ロジックと広告配信技術によって、国内で始めてRTBに対応することができました。
メディアパートナー様はKauliの広告枠を利用することで、RTBにより高い広告料を提示した広告主からの広告を配信することができます。もちろん、各アドネットワークから支払われる広告料がRTBにより掲示された広告料より高い場合は，従来どおり各アドネットワークの広告を配信することができます。
リアルタイムで最も広告料の高い広告を配信することが見込めることで、メディアパートナー様はより多くの広告収益が獲得できます。

複数のアドネットワークを使って広告枠の収益を最大化

Kauliは、Kauli アドネットワーク以外に他社のアドネットワークを加えた複数のアドネットワークの広告から、最も収益が見込めるアドネットワークの広告を配信するので、広告枠から得られる収益を自動的に最大化できます。

フリークエンシーベースの予測eCPM曲線

この収益を最大化する配信は、Kauliの広告枠管理ページで、他社アドネットワーク広告タグを設定するだけで可能になります。もっとカンタンに配信できる公式アドネットワークを利用するには、管理ページでチェックを入れるだけです。
eCPMによるローテーションを旧来のアドサーバーは採用していました。Kauliではこのような空き枠管理と異なり、国内の主要なアドネットワークの特徴を元にして、Kauli独自のロジックで、訪問者のフリークエンシーベースで予測収益を計算するため、予想収益が最大となるアドネットワークが自動的に選ばれ、収益が最大化されます。

日本語サイト、国内から利用に強みを持つ最適化ロジック

Kauliアドネットワークにおけるノウハウや独自のマッチングアルゴリズムは、広告枠が設置されたウェブページ内容を解析して、高度に特徴を抽出することを可能にしました。つまり、収益最大化のためにウェブページや訪問者の属性を利用することができるのです。
例えば・・

商品を紹介するブログ、FXに関する記事、ニュースサイトの新着記事など、 URLやドメイン単位で、コンテンツ内容や訪問者の閲覧を解析する
リファラーキーワードを解析する
アクセス元IPの都道府県の判定する
過去にクリックしたユーザーに、リターゲティングを優先する

など、海外製の収益最大化ソリューションでは難しい最適化ができます。

アドサーバーからもご利用可能

Kauliでは、純広告管理のアドサーバー機能は提供していませんが、他社アドサーバーの空き枠にKauliのタグを使っていただくことによって、フィラーの収益を最大限に高めることができます。
純広告主体の広告枠を運用なさっている優良メディア様では、この方法をお試し下さい。もちろん純広告主体の広告枠をご利用になられていない場合でも、直接Kauliのタグをメディアサイトに設置いたけば利用いただけます。

ご利用は全て無料

最大インプレッションの制限なく、全て無料でご利用いただけます。但し、メディア様のご希望により、フィラー含めKauliアドネットワークを選択せずご利用する場合には有償でのご提供をおこなっておりますので、弊社営業までお問い合わせ下さい。

継続利用で収益性が更に向上

訪問者がおこなう広告のマウスオーバーを「想定クリック」として計測して、メディア様によって設定がなされたアドネットワークにおける、訪問者の興味や嗜好を評価するための仮想クリック値として扱います。「どのアドネットワークが、どの広告閲覧回数で、どのくらい興味が持たれているか」を学習して、より効果の上がる配信が可能となる仕組みです。本ロジックはKauliの独自技術となっています。
つまり、未知のアドネットワークでも、最適な配信が行えるようになっているのが強みです。

広告枠のインプレッション数について

本プロダクトでは、実際に広告を配信した結果を合計インプレッション数として計測しています。この配信数はクローラーなどの訪問についてKauliで定めた数値を排除した数値となりますので、各社のアドネットワークの基準によっては実数が異なる場合があります。
メディア登録方法
下記の新規会員登録より、オンラインで、数分で完了できます。
ご利用規約に同意のうえ、必要事項を記載して登録すると、
ご案内メールがすぐに送信されますので、そこに記載されたURLをクリックして、登録完了です。

メディア会員登録

[Lady Gaga]Japan quake strikes a chord with celebrities

2011-03-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

US celebrities are rallying their fans to raise money for survivors of the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan, with Lady Gaga leading the charge and raising $250,000 in 48 hours.

The larger-than-life pop icon announced her plan Monday to raise money for Japan by selling red and white wristbands bearing the message "We Pray for Japan(日本の為に祈りを)" for $5 a piece via her online merchandise website.

Forty-eight hours later, Gaga posted a new tweet praising her fans for ordering 50,000 of the wristbands.

"Monsters: in just 48 hrs you've raised a quarter of a million dollars for Japan Relief," Gaga said Wednesday on Twitter.

On the same day that Gaga launched her wristwear, rock band Linkin Park began taking orders on its website for T-shirts to raise money for Japan, where 13,000 people are dead or missing after a 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami.

Both the shirts were designed by band member Mike Shinoda, whose father is Japanese-American. One featured an origami butterfly against a black background and the other has the words "Not Alone," the name of a song by Linkin Park.

The T-shirts cost $25 each and 100 percent of proceeds from sales will be donated to Music for Relief, a group of artists, industry professionals and music fans that works to support disaster relief, Shinoda said on Twitter.

Shinoda tweeted that he is also working on a single to raise money for Japan.

Popstar Katy Perry joined several celebrities who have tweeted to their followers to either pray, shop or donate money for relief efforts in Japan.

Perry tweeted to fans in Germany ahead of a concert there on Tuesday, urging them to buy a light-up wand at the show's merchandise stand.

"All proceeds will go to #Japanredcross. And when I play Firework, let's ignite the light for them tonight," she wrote.

Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber tweeted within hours of the quake on Friday: "Japan is one of my favorite places on earth...it's an incredible culture with amazing people. My prayers go out to them. We all need to help."

The television and cinema worlds are also mobilizing for Japan, with Warner Brothers pledging part of proceeds of DVD sales of its movie "Hereafter" to relief funds for Japan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The movie starring Matt Damon and Cecile de France was pulled from cinemas in Japan after Friday's quake because it opens with scenes of death and devastation caused by a tsunami.

Other movies have also been deemed inappropriate for screening in Japan in the wake of the disaster that has hit the country, including one called "Aftershock," directed by Xiaogang Feng and originally due to be released next week.

The movie is about the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck the city of Tangshan, China in 1976, killing a quarter of a million people and reducing most of the city to rubble.

Meanwhile, hip-hop stars the Black Eyed Peas have appended a message to the end of their new music video, urging fans to donate to the Red Cross to help victims of the catastrophe in Japan, according to US media reports.

The video for the Black Eyed Peas' song "Just Can't Get Enough" was shot in Japan a week before Friday's massive quake.

"Our heart goes out to all of the Japanese people who have been affected by this natural disaster," Black Eyed Peas' Fergie was quoted as telling the Entertainment Tonight television show, which will air the new video on Thursday.

Celebrities have the potential to raise millions to help the victims of the quake and tsunami in Japan by harnessing their fan bases.

If every one of Lady Gaga's eight million-plus Twitter followers were to buy one of her wristbands and if every Linkin Park follower bought one of Shinoda's T-shirts, $47 million would be raised for Japan.

[Dreadfully]‘Dreadfully’ yours, Jane Austen fans

2011-03-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

The further they get from Jane Austen, the better the zombie mash-up books become.

Enter “Dreadfully Ever After” by Steve Hockensmith, book three in a zombie trilogy that started with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which was a combination of Jane Austen’s classic novel of manners set in the early 1800s and contemporary zombie movie mania.

The first in the series was “Dawn of the Dreadfuls” by Hockensmith. Here the five Bennet sisters became trained in the ninja arts to protect England from brain-chomping zombie hordes known as “dreadful.”

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” follows and is more directly based on the Jane Austen novel. Here, not only do the sisters do battle but they try to find husbands. Elizabeth Bennet meets Lord Darcy ― a scion of a notable zombie-battling clan ― they fall in love and marry.

“Dreadfully Ever After” is more a sequel to “Dawn” than to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” Also written by Hockensmith, “Dreadfully” covers what happens next.

“Dreadfully Ever After,” by Steve Hockensmith is the last book in a trilogy that combines Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and zombie mayhem.

Since Jane Austen did not write a sequel to her classic novel, Hockensmith has a free hand to do what he wants with the characters from the original. And what he does is entertaining.

Taking up the story four years after Elizabeth Bennet has married Lord Darcy, we find the relationship having its rough spots. Darcy worries that his wife is dissatisfied with him; she is reluctant to admit that she’s not interested in having children and wants to go back to fighting.

All this is forgotten by the end of the first chapter when Darcy is bitten by a zombie, thereby dooming him to hunger for bloody flesh and oozing brains as he slowly rots away.

Is there a cure? Told that there might be one, Elizabeth and her sisters ― since it quickly becomes a family affair ― go to London to find the antidote. In the meantime, Darcy goes back to his home where his aunt, the fearsome zombie killer Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and her daughter Anne will keep him as human as they can until Elizabeth returns with a miracle.

Nothing is as it seems in either place. Toss in a royal coronation, a partitioned London with zombie-filled and zombie-free zones, various crazed aristocrats, a “Man in a Box” who has a history with the Bennets, and a huge rabbit called Brummell, and you have a romp of a Regency romance laced with graphic descriptions of meals unfit for human consumption.

As for the happy ending? That depends on your point of view. Chomp!

[Maxine Koo]Maxine Koo wants to become an actress in Korea

2011-03-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Despite being born to an affluent family, speaking seven languages and having a superb educational background, a 26-year-old Hong Kong woman wants to become an entertainer in South Korea, Korean media reported.

Maxine Koo, who majored in economics and English literature at Cornell University, expressed her strong desire to nurture her acting career here.

“I liked Korea ever since watching the drama ‘My Name is Kim Sam-soon.’ I really like Korean entertainers and therefore want to become an actress here,” she said.

Koo starred in a fashion program “Launch My Life,” where she serves as a translator for Yoo Ah-in, a popular Korean actor playing the program’s title role.

In 2009, Koo starred in “Global Talk Show,” a popular KBS program that featured a panel of foreign women talking about their experiences in Korea.

Last year, Koo played one of the main roles for the seventh season of a hugely popular “Bad Girls’ Diary,” a reality cable show depicting a luxurious lifestyle of girls born to the wealthy families.

Koo can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghai dialect, English, French, Japanese and Korean, partly due to her experience of living in different countries including Canada, the United States, China, France and Japan.

Koo came back to Korea after working at a firm on Wall Street in the U.S. and Lehman Brothers in Japan.

“People think I have everything but having a good background doesn’t mean you have a happy life. Without my background, I am just the girl next door. I want to make my dreams come true and live in Korea for a long time,” said Koo.

[caesium]Radiation spike in sea near Japan nuclear plant

2011-03-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

SENDAI, Japan (AFP) - Radiation levels have surged in seawater near a tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Japan, officials said Saturday, as engineers battled to stabilise the plant in hazardous conditions.

Urgent efforts were under way to drain pools of highly radioactive water near the reactors after several workers suffered radiation burns while installing cables as part of efforts to restore the critical cooling systems.

An aerial view taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) in 1998, shows TEPCO's Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant and its drainage gate to the Pacific Ocean at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture. Radiation levels have jumped 10-fold in days in seawater near Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant. The iodine-131 level in the Pacific Ocean waters just off the Fukushima plant was 1,250 times above the legal limit on March 26, 2011.

The new safety worries further complicated efforts to bring the ageing facility under control, and raised fears that the fuel rod vessels or their valves and pipes are leaking.

"It is becoming very important to get rid of the puddles quickly," said an official at the nuclear safety agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama.

One of the worst-case scenarios at reactor three would be that the fuel inside the reactor core -- a volatile uranium-plutonium mix -- has already started to burn its way through its steel pressure vessel.

"Highly radioactive water is flowing inside the buildings and then into the sea, which is worrying for fish and marine vegetation," said Olivier Isnard, an expert at France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.

"One hypothesis is that the reactor vessel is breached and highly radioactive corium is coming out."

Fire engines have hosed thousands of tons of seawater onto the plant in a bid to keep the fuel rods inside reactor cores and pools from being exposed to the air, where they could reach critical stage and go into full meltdown.

Several hundred metres offshore in the Pacific Ocean, levels of iodine-131 some 1,250 times the legal limit were detected on Saturday, a tenfold increase from just days earlier, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

Drinking a half-litre (20-ounce) bottle of fresh water with the same concentration would expose a person to their annual safe dose, Nishiyama said, but he ruled out an immediate threat to marine life and seafood safety.

"Generally speaking, radioactive material released into the sea will spread due to tides, so you need much more for seaweed and sea life to absorb it," he said.

Because iodine-131 decays relatively quickly, with a half-life of eight days, "by the time people eat the sea products, its amount is likely to have diminished significantly," he said.

However, TEPCO also reported levels of caesium-137 -- which has a half life

of about 30 years -- almost 80 times the legal maximum. Scientists say both

radioactive substances can cause cancer if absorbed by humans.

Government assurances did little to lift the gloom that has hung over Japan since a 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11, sending a huge tsunami crashing into the northeast coast in the country's worst post-war disaster.

The wave easily overwhelmed the world's biggest sea defences and swallowed entire communities. The confirmed death toll stood at 10,489 as of 9:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday, Kyodo News said, citing the National Police Agency, with 16,621 listed as missing.

The tsunami knocked out the cooling systems for the six reactors of the Fukushima plant, leading to suspected partial meltdowns in three of them.

Hydrogen explosions and fires have also ripped through the facility.

High-voltage electric cables have since been linked up to the reactors again and power has been partially restored in two reactor control rooms.

Worried about the salt buildup in the crippled plant, engineers have started pumping in fresh water into some of the reactors. The US military is supporting the effort by sending two full water barges from a naval base near Tokyo.

"I believe we have prevented the current situation worsening, taking steps towards real progress such as resuming power and injecting water," chief government spokesman Yukio Edano told reporters.

Radioactive vapour from the plant has contaminated farm produce and dairy products in the region, leading to shipment halts in Japan as well as the United States, European Union, China and a host of other nations.

Singapore extended a ban on food imports from Japan on Saturday, suspending imports of all fruit and vegetables from the whole Kanto region, a large area including greater Tokyo.

Higher than normal radiation has also been detected in tap water in and around Tokyo, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the plant, leading authorities at one stage to warn against using it for baby milk formula.

Japan widened the zone around the plant from which it suggests people evacuate to 30 kilometres -- still below the 80 kilometres advised by the United States.

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace started its own monitoring near the plant, saying "authorities have consistently appeared to underestimate both the risks and extent of radioactive contamination".

The campaign group said it would provide "an alternative to the often contradictory information released by nuclear regulators".

[Steve Jobs]The Steve Jobs Way: Can it work everywhere?

2011-03-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Apple Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs has become the iconic figure of innovation as his iPhone and iPad products have entirely changed lifestyles in the 21st century. His leadership has also been in the limelight after he brought the struggling tech giant back to the throne.

Many people both at home and abroad have become enthusiastic about the ailing but innovative leader. The 56-year-old CEO has inspired many of us with his classic charisma and fiery personality, and business leaders around the world are busy trying to learn his leadership and innovative management skills.

Here is a simple question. “Does every company need a Steve Jobs?” Many would answer “yes” without hesitation, but a world-renowned HR consultant replied “no,” saying there was no single ideal model and leadership styles change over time.

“You can certainly look retrospectively at that kind of success that companies with leaders like Steve Jobs enjoyed during their tenure. I think that those kind of leaders are most effective in those kind of circumstances, as well as what that leaders are made of,” Mark V. Mactas, president and chief operating officer of Towers Watson, said in an exclusive interview with BusinessFocus held at the global consulting firm’s Seoul office on March 7.

“My guess is that whether it’s Steve Jobs or anybody else, the nature of their leadership over time has evolved. So it wasn’t one formula, when he made his company into what it is today,” he added.

His message is that a leader should not necessarily be charismatic and it may not be in the best interest of some companies to have a single, charismatic leader, suggesting that a Steve Jobs type of boss can fail as a CEO in other companies in different circumstances and cultures.

“Historically, there is a picture of the right leader being charismatic, a very dynamic personality leading an organization. It might have a place in industries and companies at some point in time. But I don’t think there are many more leaders like that,” he said.

Leadership

The veteran consultant, who was chairman of Towers Perrin before it merged with Watson Wyatt in January, 2010, pointed out that although there is no ideal leadership model, there are a set of requirements and roles that a leader should have to become successful.

“Some say that management is power by position, and leadership is power by influence. Both are equally necessary. For me, viewing leadership as power by influence means first, that a leader’s ideas matter and that they must have merit; and second, that a leader must be able to get people to follow him or her,” he said.

“In addition, effective leadership provides direction, builds confidence, and helps people execute for their organization’s sake as well as their own,” he added.

Finding DNA

Asked how Korea’s world’s top class manufacturers, such as Samsung and LG, can turn into innovators from fast-followers, Mactas said that Korean players should focus on indentifying their core DNA.

“Some are fast followers, while others are good at supply chain management, business model improving and other areas. So I think that it’s important for (Korean) firms to know what they are really good at or what their DNA is and to leverage it. And maybe leverage it in different ways so when it is exhausted, they can look for alternative DNA to become innovators,” he said.

“Companies have challenged themselves to do things in different ways. Historically, they did these usually by necessity. Because when companies are successful they tend to do tomorrow what they did yesterday, to break that habit can be difficult. I think this requires self-examination.

[NCsoft]Sci-fi Epic From NCsoft Due in Fall

2011-03-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

After six years of trial and error, NCsoft and Richard Garriott are finally satisfied with the quality of their ``Tabula Rasa'' project. The company opened the closed beta testing of the new sci-fi online computer game in the United States last week, with a plan to launch the final product around this fall.

The start of closed beta marks the game's final development stages and NCsoft isn't hiding its high expectation on it. NC has been running out of fresh ideas after the success of the ``Lineage'' and ``Guild Wars'' series. Its ``Lineage 3'' project also looks dubious at this point after the whole developing team left the firm earlier this year amid conflict with the management.

Garriott, who oversees the ``Tabula Rasa'' project from Austin, Texas, is one of the greatest pioneers of the role-playing game genre. He is best known for creating the legendary ``Ultima'' game series, including the first commercially successful massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, ``Ultima Online.

A son of a NASA pilot, Garriott also showed special interest in the fledgling industry of zero-gravity traveling and operates his own space traveling agency, Space Adventures. Reflecting on such experiences, he tries to place players of ``Tabula Rasa'' in an epic sci-fi story where they will be challenged by dynamic and fast-paced adventures on alien worlds. Garriott even created the new language system of Logos for the game, introducing a whole set of new symbols and grammas.

In an e-mail interview with The Korea Times, Garriott said that such new ideas will be ``staples in MMOGs of the future.'' The game should be launched in the United States and Europe in fall. NC is yet to decide whether to release it in Korea.

A scene from "Tabula Rasa,'' which is due out in fall in the United States and in Europe.

Korea Times: I can imagine that how eagerly the NCsoft management in Seoul including CEO Kim Taek-jin has been waiting to see the final product of ``Tabula Rasa.'' What is his expectation on TR, and what is your expectation on it?

Richard Garriott: You'll need to ask TJ about his expectation for TR. But I can't imagine it being much different from our own, which is to develop a next generation MMORPG that appeals to a broad base of players. We are innovating on the current MMORPG model as I described above and believe our ideas will be staples in MMOGs of the future.

KT: What (who) inspired you to create TR? Is it relevant with your successful space adventuring projects?

RG: It's no secret that I have a keen interest in areas related to space and space travel. My father is a former NASA astronaut and I've collected many space-related items over the years. And just recently I've been training for a journey to space and you may have read about my flight on the Zero-G plane with Dr. Stephen Hawking taken this past week.

That being said, many of us on the TR team have a deep fantasy background. I think what you're seeing is that most every MMOG has been a retooling of the fantasy genre. We set out at the beginning to create as fresh a new reality as possible. We felt a future fantasy offered us a lot of fresh ideas! And we're extremely happy so far with the results.

KT: The pictograms you have invented look very enchanting, intriguing, and complex. Do you have any prior knowledge in linguistics?

RG: The Logos language we've created for TR was actually years in the making. I did a lot of research which involved reading many books on various symbolic languages, pictographic languages and languages from other cultures and eras. I spent months figuring out a language that could make sense for multiple cultures, not just western, but eastern as well.

I would take vacations and spend my spare time and that of my girlfriend, Kelly Miller, writing symbols on little pieces of paper and mixing them around to come up with combinations that worked. I believe that what I arrived at is certainly plausible and fits within the context of TR.

The team has been working with it for several months now and can decipher and translate with ease. I think it's something that the players will pick up on quickly and will enjoy. We've also worked the symbology of Logos into a physical science system within the game. So collecting these symbols will enable the player to acquire new powers.

KT: During your visit to Korea in 2005, you had said that TR would be released by the end of 2006. Now that the final product is yet to come, could you explain why it took another year to complete game, and what sort of changes you have made?

RG: As in most cases involving game development, you're never really certain when a game will be ready for launch until you get much closer to the date you've set as a goal and the game has been properly tested both internally and publicly.

The movement to the latter part of this year is nothing more than a need on our part to spend the proper amount of time to meet our expectations for TR and what we believe will be the expectations of our player base.

KT: Do you believe that it would be difficult for TR to appeal to both Western and Eastern audiences?

RG: The two markets are moving closer and closer together, more than they are pulling further apart. But there are still many differences in how, for instance, Korean people play online games versus how American people play online games.

There are still differences in the expectations that each culture holds for online games. In the early years of our relationship with NCsoft, we tried to create a game that would appeal to both territories at the same time, but determined that along the way, we were failing to appeal to ourselves. So we've moved to an idea where we make a game that will be first and foremost one that we would love to play, and thus we know that we will succeed in the west.

After we have that version well in hand, we will see what additions we may need to make to maximize our appeal in the east.

KT: Both FPS games and MMORPGs are already abundant (probably too abundant) in the market. Is Tabula Rasa really going to be something new and fresh?

RG: First of all, we firmly believe that there is still a lot of growth ahead in the MMOG market. In North America the MMOG market continues to grow even as more and more products come on line. What's needed is a game that really adds something different, something unique.

That's where TR comes in. Many of these innovations are things that we believe will be adopted by other MMOGs. For example, Tabula Rasa uses a real time fast action and tactical combat system, that remains an RPG (not a FPS) by giving players the immediacy of one click _ fire your weapon _ coupled with sticky targeting to avoid being an arcade game, coupled with the use of cover and position to modify the RPG probabilities of damage via the attributes and equipment of characters. This creates a real time tactical RPG game play that is fast paced, thoughtful and highly rewarding instead of the plodding DOT (damage over time) turn based combat of other MMOGs.

TR also has dynamic play environments. NPCs and players will take and hold territory, such that creature spawning and NPC availability change significantly over the hours and days of game play. TR allows players to save and clone their characters at any time, thus players can easily explore all the options of character development without starting over to try new classes and roles.

Finally TR has a far deeper and relevant story line, where decisions players make along their quests are more important and lead to more relevant wins than in previous MMOs.

KT: Do you have plans to transplant TR to video game consoles, or making it a Hollywood movie?

RG: Not at this time.

KT: There was a small turbulence in the Korean stock market in March when you sold some of your NCsoft shares, since other investors thought it as a bad omen for the company.

RG: That was nothing more than me converting some shares for personal reasons. People should not read any more into it than that.

[Galaxy Tab]Samsung hopes to upset Apple in tablet bout

2011-03-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Samsung Electronics has high hopes for its new Galaxy touch-screen tablet computer that it plans to release soon but Apple’s iPad 2 will be a tough act to follow.

Samsung Electronics has cut the price of its 7-inch Galaxy Tab on the heels of Apple’s launch of the iPad 2.

The decision is also aimed at easing the Korean firm's inventory ahead of the launch of its 10.1-inch Tab.

Samsung moved 2.5 million Tabs up to March 6 both domestically and abroad. Of those, Samsung sold 500,000 to SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.

The Tab is selling at 896,500 won domestically, down from 995,000 won, minus subsidies and contracts with carriers.

Galaxy smartphones are also available to Korean consumers at a discount, according to carriers and Samsung.

"Samsung is feeling heat from the iPad 2 and a price cut is set for a battle with Apple in the nascent market," said a high-ranking Samsung source, asking not to be identified.

"It's a smart move. Samsung is reconsidering its price strategy on the next Galaxy Tab with a 10.1-inch screen."

A Samsung spokesman said the price cuts were "expected" and don't mean anything more.

KT, the first carrier to sell the iPhone and iPad is planning to launch the iPad 2 in the next couple of months, according to KT sources. KT spokeswoman Kim Yoon-jeong declined to confirm this.

SK Telecom, now the second Apple vendor here, is expected to release the new Apple tablet following the launch by KT. A SK spokeswoman Kim Ji-won declined to comment.

Samsung released its 8.9-inch tablet at a technology exhibition in Orlando, the United States, which opened Tuesday. The Tab's third version has a slim profile at 0.33 inches, similar to Apple's iPad 2

Samsung's dual track of aggressive pricing for 7-inch Galaxy Tab and caution in pricing its forthcoming 10.1-inch tablet reflects a fierce fight that is looming between the two market leaders.

Samsung sources told The Korea Times that an internal consensus has been reached that its 7-inch tablet has been well accepted.

Apple said it sold over 14 million iPads last year, easily outperforming Tabs.

Samsung believes it is finding a springboard to further narrow the gap with Apple with its strategic alliances closer with top global carriers.

"It's not been fixed yet but Samsung is considering pricing the upcoming Galaxy Tab at the level of the iPad 2," said another Samsung source on the condition of anonymity.

"The lower pricing is litmus test ahead of its pricing decision for the Galaxy Tab 2," added the anonymous source.

Samsung plans to make more updates on its software applications for the new tablet as part of its strategy to soothe concerns over its late response for software-related updates.

Samsung said it is aiming to increase the sale of its tablets fivefold to 7.5 million throughout this year from last year's 1.5 million, the Samsung spokesman said.

Inspired by the iPad’s success, Motorola, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, LG Electronics, Toshiba of Japan and Acer of Taiwan are other major players that have confirmed their strong appetites for tablets.

But JPMorgan warned that the global tablet market might face an oversupply due to limited growth in demand.

The U.S.-based investment bank expects 81 million tablets to come onto the market by the end of this year, while just 47.9 million, or some 40 percent will go to end users, resulting in a possible supply bubble.

[sex scandal]Taiwanese actress linked to sex scandal

2011-03-26T11:04:00.000-07:00

Taiwanese production company and entertainment agency officials, fearing that they would be easily found out in their own country, took models abroad to receive sexual services in return for favors, China’s media reported Tuesday.

Typically, they were taken to Hong Kong or Las Vegas and were paid starting at 380,000 won, the report said.

Taiwanese supermodel and actress Lin Chiling was said to have been given four billion won for one night, it said.

Lin was allegedly with men in Las Vegas and collected the large sum of money.

She has yet to comment on the allegations.

This has led to wide speculations among Internet users. “If you are innocent, explain yourself,” “Why are you keeping quiet?” and “I can’t believe these services have prices attached,” were some of different responses to the scandal.

Recently, the Chinese and Taiwanese media went public with the news of sexual services being priced according to the actresses’ popularity.

[UFO]Bigger-than-Belgium UFO detected

2011-03-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

An enormous unidentified object (UFO) that is larger than Belgium has been sighted.

This donut-shaped UFO had appeared on satellite weather images in central Europe but disappeared in the blink of an eye. Experts explain that these donut-like formations are significantly different from normal natural phenomena, such as clouds or hurricanes.

Recently, a similar appearance had been seen over the lower southwest corner of western Australia.

The unusually shaped UFOs, captured on government weather radar, have been gathering attention from Internet users all over the world.

[Japan nuclear]Global food scare widens from Japan nuclear plant

2011-03-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Countries across the world have shunned Japanese food imports as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo.
The grim toll of dead and missing from Japan's monster earthquake and tsunami on March 11 topped 26,000. Hundreds of thousands remained huddled in evacuation shelters and fears grew in Tokyo over water safety.

The damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant from the tectonic calamity and a series of explosions has stoked global anxiety. The United States and Hong Kong have already restricted Japanese food, and France wants the European Union to do the same.
Facts: Japan's food exports

Russia ordered a halt to food imports from four prefectures -- Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi -- near the stricken plant some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
Moscow also quarantined a Panama-flagged cargo ship that had passed near the plant and put its 19 crew under medical supervision after detecting radiation levels three times the norm in the engine room.
Australia banned produce from the area, including seaweed and seafood, milk, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables.

It said, however, that Japanese food already on store shelves was safe, as it had shipped before the quake, and that "the risk of Australian consumers being exposed to radionuclides in food imported from Japan is negligible".
Canada implemented enhanced import controls on products from the four prefectures.
Singapore suspended imports of milk products and other foodstuffs from the same four prefectures, as well as all food products from two more -- Chiba and Ehime.

The city-state's move came after officials found "radioactive contaminants" in four samples of vegetables from Japan, though the authorities stressed the radiation levels in the produce were still very low.
The Philippines banned Japanese chocolate imports, and Indonesia asked that Japan certify its exported processed foods as radiation-free.

"Food safety issues are an additional dimension of the emergency," said three UN agencies in a joint statement issued in Geneva, pledging they were "committed to mobilising their knowledge and expertise" to help Japan.

Japan was taking the right actions, said the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization, and Food and Agriculture Organization.
In greater Tokyo, an urban sprawl of more than 30 million people, strong aftershocks served as uncomfortable reminders that Japan's capital itself is believed to be decades overdue for a mega-quake.
Scene: Hotels deserted in Tokyo amid nuclear scare
The anxiety was compounded by the Tokyo government's revelation Wednesday that radioactive iodine in the drinking water was more than twice the level deemed safe for infants, although it remained within safe adult limits.

The news triggered a run on bottled water in shops and the city's ubiquitous vending machines, while the Tokyo government started to give families three 550-millilitre (18.5-ounce) bottles of water per infant.
Scene: Japan parents spooked by tap water scare
A measurement on Thursday was in the safe zone for infants again, officials said, but this was not enough to calm all parents of young children and many bought up what bottled water they could.
Authorities in Chiba, Tochigi urged parents not to give infants tap water after finding levels of radioactive iodine breached the safe limit for babies.
Japan's government has also halted shipments of untreated milk and vegetables from Fukushima and three adjoining prefectures, and stepped up radiation monitoring at another six, covering an area that borders Tokyo.

The health ministry has detected 82,000 becquerels of radioactive caesium -- 164 times the safe limit -- in the green vegetable kukitachina, and elevated levels in another 10 vegetables, including cabbage and turnips.
At the source of the radiation -- the Fukushima plant located on the Pacific coast -- white smoke was seen wafting from four of the six reactors.
Fire engines again aimed high-pressure water jets at the number three reactor, a day after a plume of dark smoke there forced workers to evacuate, in a bid to avert a full meltdown that would release greater radiation.

Highlighting the risks taken by the emergency crew, three workers were exposed to high radiation -- at least 170 millisieverts.
Two of them were sent to hospital after they stepped into a puddle of water that reached the skin on their legs despite their radiation suits.

Engineers have now linked up an external electricity supply to all six reactors and are testing system components and equipment in an effort to restart the tsunami-hit cooling systems and stabilise the reactors.
On Thursday, they partially restored power to the control room at reactor number one.
Facts: State of Japan's stricken nuclear reactors
The grim statistics from Japan's worst post-war disaster kept on rising, with 9,811 now confirmed dead and 17,541 listed as missing by national police.

Scientists at the Port and Airport Research Institute meanwhile found that the tsunami that swallowed entire towns was even bigger than first thought. In devastated Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, it topped 23 metres (76 feet).

[Alertpay]I use Alertpay to send Money, Pay and Get Paid!

2011-03-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

You might think that PayPal is the only company that offers online money transfers because they’re the one that’s most widely-used and advertised. But there are options to PayPal that you should be aware of, especially if you’re someone who does a lot of online businesses.

AlertPay won’t topple PayPal off the the top of mountain anytime soon, but they’re growing fast and gaining market share. AlertPay is a privately owned company that was founded in 2004. Although they’re headquartered in Canada, they are registered in the United States.

AlertPay users won’t experience high chargeback rates like they will when working with other online money transfer companies. Generally, AlertPay’s fees come in under fees for 2checkout, which makes them a great alternative.

If you’re an online merchant, you should take a good look at AlertPay, because their merchant rates are extremely competitive and they don’t charge outrageous up-front costs that normally come when setting up a merchant account. In addition, AlertPay is a superb alternative for small, web business owners because gateway fees, SSL certificates, shopping carts and web site integration aren’t cost effective for business owners that are just getting started.

One worry that many people have when it comes to online money transfers is the safety of their funds, and with AlertPay, you can rest assured because money that’s placed in a registered AlertPay account is insured by the FDIC and the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation.

AlertPay also employs a policy called, Know Your Customer. This policy ensures that each account is secure by maintaining the identity of the account holder private.

If you’d like to give AlertPay a look, or want to register a free account (“Personal Pro” account is free and has the best Terms & Conditions.) that lets you send money at no charge, head to their website at www.alertpay.com.

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2011-03-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

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[晚秋]湯唯與韓國演員玄彬人氣倍增《晚秋》

2011-03-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

湯唯之前宣傳《晚秋》的時候穿了醬紫色的不對稱斜肩禮服，此衣來自LANVIN 2010秋冬。

唯最近頻繁的出現在大家的實現，新戲《晚秋》在韓國受到熱烈反響，人氣也忽然暴增，有著一張東方臉孔的湯唯，穿衣打扮也十分的優雅，熟女的魅力盡情釋放。

《晚秋》湯唯攜手韓國演員玄彬，講述了發生在異國他鄉的一對陌生男女之間的戀情，湯唯在戲中是演一位假釋的女犯人，所以她幾乎是素顏出演本片，海報中的卡其色風衣倒是很有造型感。

湯唯韓國之行的戰衣很多，還有這件鵝黃色的曳地長裙，《晚秋》男主角玄彬很紳士的照顧湯唯。

《晚秋》的VIP試映會，湯唯攜手玄彬走過紅地毯，一身碎花連衣裙裝扮的湯唯，稍顯活力，優雅的長發披肩，氣質優雅。

湯唯再次換了一件紅色斜肩禮服，同樣是Lavin 2011春夏新品。

[湯唯]玄彬 vs. 林秀晶 vs. 湯唯，三位俊男美女，你會投誰一票呢？

2011-03-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

玄彬早前參加柏林影展時，一身的千金機場時尚使人目不暇給。雖然最後在柏林影展未能得獎，不如看看他和拍擋美女們在柏林的盛況吧﹗

當地時間2月17日，玄彬及林秀晶為電影《愛，不愛》走紅地毯，以黑色情侶裝亮相。玄彬穿上Giorgio Armani的黑色Tuxedo, 繼續「一針一線」的傳說，剪裁俐落的西裝顯露了玄彬的完美身材，額前的瀏海全部Gel起，突顯了玄彬的成熟和幹勁。不似《秘密花園》中的闊少，這樣的玄彬很有男人味﹗

扮演玄彬妻子的林秀晶，則穿上Hexa by Kuho量身訂造的黑色長裙。前面感覺高貴典雅，後面卻是性感的大露背﹗ 配Hexa by Kuho Spring 2011的閃石戒指和黑色坡跟鞋。黑色長裙大方得體，露背的內斂式性感，一點也不過份；加上大熱紅唇，實在是太完美了﹗ 唯一的是坡跟鞋，和高貴的長裙格格不入，其實一對簡單的黑色high heels已經綽綽有餘。不過，在長長的裙腳覆蓋之下，你還會特別留意她的鞋子嗎？

若說《愛，不愛》的紅地毯是嚴肅認真的，那麼接著的《晚秋》記者會便是浪漫奔放。

身為男主角的玄彬，海軍藍西裝外套X白色長褲blue jacket，比起肅殺的「晚秋」，感覺更像生機處處的春天……Stop! Pencake是非常非常排斥這個match。

帶點老土的花紋西裝，上身的內裡和外套撞哂直間pattern……vintage過火到有點「老餅」吧？

比起玄彬的失手，湯唯的deep red晚裝便是大獲全勝﹗ 斜背design的晚裝並不特別性感，單是湯唯的美艷和紅色的熱情，讓人感受到夏天的熱情奔放~很誘人呢﹗

玄彬 vs. 林秀晶 vs. 湯唯，三位俊男美女，你會投誰一票呢？

[汤唯(Tang Wei)]玄彬＆宋慧喬散了湯唯是「小三」？

2011-03-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

玄彬與宋慧喬（喬妹）戀情日前宣布分手，經紀公司8日對外宣稱，兩人於今年1月分手，原因是工作太忙、聚少離多，加上戀情多次被唱衰造成過大壓力，因此選擇分手。不過，據揚子晚報報導，湯唯和玄彬合拍電影《晚秋》時傳曖昧情愫，是介入兩人感情的「小三」！

據報導，玄彬和宋慧喬2008年合拍電視劇《他們生活的世界》結緣，其後公開戀情得到祝福和支持，但忙碌的兩人儘管小心維持戀情卻屢次傳出分手的消息，但總是遭玄彬否認，甚至到7日玄彬入伍，喬妹也以「工作忙」而不現身送行，但仍未爆分手，兩人的分手一直忍到玄彬入伍後才公開。

金童玉女分手，引來議論紛紛，有人甚至從《晚秋》首映時玄彬和湯唯的親密互動，以及影片中玄彬和湯唯的三分鐘熱吻中找到靈感，猜想湯唯可能是「第三者」。報導說，兩人在該片上月10日的首爾記者會上互動親密，玄彬不時深情凝視湯唯，還細心手扶她下樓，因此報導直指湯唯是玄彬與喬妹分手的導火線，而玄彬體貼舉止，更被網友笑說是「倒貼男」。只不過消息傳回南韓，玄彬經紀公司斥無稽之談：「實在很好笑，根本是捏造的故事。」

在玄彬與喬妹正式發表分手宣言後，韓國媒體指出，3月7日玄彬入伍前還與喬妹互通慰問電話，堪稱是好聚好散的典範；不過日本周刊「女性seven」卻指出，宋慧喬常和合作的男星傳出戀情，是「魔鬼一樣的女人」，非常擅長誘惑男人。但奪走男人的錢和心後，發現對方沒有利用價值，就像扔垃圾一樣扔掉。

不過此說法，引來網友反駁，網友指稱，「喬妹那麼清純，日本媒體在亂寫什麼啊？」還有網友斥責日本八卦周刊是在喬妹的傷口上撒鹽。但也有網友表示，從喬妹過往情史包括李秉憲、Rain、宋承憲等人來看，她確實是太容易跟合作的男星在一起了。

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[汤唯(Tang Wei)]玄彬＆宋慧喬散了 湯唯是「小三」？

[汤唯(Tang Wei)]玄彬＆宋慧喬散了湯唯是「小三」？