In a new series I have decided to post an entry every week about thigns that I have learnt in work. Well I say every week, I meant to start this a few eeks ago, hence the ‘recently’ in teh title but I am sure I will do it every now and again. So with out further ado I present the first in a series that might last for one post only but what the hell.

Things I learnt from the Korea JoongAng Daily...recently.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile is the International Furniture Fair of Milan, it’s the largest decoration trade fair in the world and this year Fabio Novembre designed a bookcase that looks like a robot.

Which I now want.

Andre Berto may have recently lost to Victor Ortiz for the WBC welterweight title but he takes a good picture.

British newspaper, The Times ranked Sheikh Mansour as the sixth most powerful person in sport, citing Mansour's approximate £750m investment in every area of Manchester City and a £1 billion investment in the area around the City of Manchester Stadium as contributing factors.

Still Manchester though.

Cho Yong-pil, the “King of Korean pop,” has kept his promise to return to a lonely island.
The 61-year-old singer and songwriter held a concert on Sorok Island, Goheung, South Jeolla, recently for victims of Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy.

Yes folks that’s right Korea has a sort-of-living and sometimes-breathing leper colony! The island had been one of the world’s last remaining leper colonies and was literally cut off from the mainland until a bridge opened there in 2007 so now you can walk there.

“Many brides visit emergency rooms during their honeymoons due to bladder infections, widely known as honeymoon cystitis. Therefore examining your body and being treated beforehand is important and highly recommended,” The follow up research revealed that traumatic cystitis is probably the most common form of cystitis in the female and is due to bruising of the bladder, usually by abnormally forceful sexual intercourse. This is often followed by bacterial cystitis, frequently by coliform bacteria being transferred from the bowel through the urethra into the bladder.

Something about Wales I didn’t know is that we (particularly the North Welsh) used the javelin as one of our main weapons. During the Norman and later English invasions, the primary Welsh tactic was to rain javelins on the tired, hungry and heavily armoured English troops and then retreat into the mountains or woods before the English troops could pursue and attack them! This tactic was very successful since it demoralized and damaged the English armies while the Welsh ranks were barely damaged at all. Up there for thinking and down there for dancing. And back there for chucking javelins, apparently.

Koreans take a cancer report that was recently published too far and apparently start bulk buying makgeolli.

Korea’s production and consumption of makgeolli surged after research by the state-run Korea Food Research Institute found that potent anti-cancer agents in makgeolli are 10 to 25 times higher than beer and wine.

Sounds good so far but how good is it, can you put a figure on it? You can! Great!

The research showed that people would gain anti-cancer benefits if they consumed 5 to 7 milligram of farnesol per liter of makgeolli.

5 to 7 milligrams, that’s not a lot, should be easy to consume that much. What’s that?

A bottle of makgeolli contains between 0.15 and 0.5 miligrams of farnesol per liter.

Oh.

Critics said a person would need to drink 13 bottles of 750 milliliter makgeolli to gain anti-cancer benefits suggested by the research.

“A person’s health condition would be worsened if he tried to prevent cancer [with makgeolli],” said Sung Mi-kyung, a nutrition professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, because it would involve a high ingestion of alcohol, which has many negative side effects.

What, alcohol has negative effects? But I feel great and generous when I’m drunk and I can perform incredible feats of agility. I do often wake up with cuts and bruises all over and vague recollections of this bloke who looks a bit like me turning up every time I get pissed and telling people to “Fuck off” and shouting at taxis for...driving. He usually does something stupid and when I wake up in the morning he is gone. And he has usually taken all of my money with him.

But surely if you tried hard you could come up with a positive slant to drinking that much makgeolli couldn't you?

And there is another benefit.

Phew.

“Makgeolli’s calories are much lower than other drinks,” Kim said. “While 100 milliliters of wine has a heat value between 70 and 74 kcal and 141 kcal for soju, makgeolli has 46 kcal per 100 milliliter.”

Great so you won’t get fat, you could prevent caner but you will likely die from alcohol poisoning. Decisions, decisions.

Peloton, from the French, literally meaning little ball or platoon and also related to the English word pellet, is the large main group in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close (drafting or slipstreaming) near and, particularly behind, other riders. The reduction in drag is dramatic; in the middle of a well-developed group it can be as much as 40%.

If only that worked walking down the street in Seoul I would get to work early.

They’re a long way from being the next Spice Girls or Pussycat Dolls but five Asian women are hoping to take the world by storm in what is being billed as the first pan-Asian girl band.

“Blush” is made up of five girls from the Philippines, India, China, Japan and Korea who beat hundreds of other pop star wannabes during a talent search across Asia last year.

Can’t wait for their greatest hits album. Oh wait, I actually can wait 6 months. I meant I can’t wait for them to disappear into obscurity and for the Korean media to proclaim that the Korean one is the best. At everything. Oh and it isn’t right that she should be in a group with an Indian girl.

Britain and the British Empire (including the eastern part of what is now the United States) adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, by which time it was necessary to correct by 11 days. Wednesday, 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday, 14 September 1752. Claims that rioters demanded "Give us our eleven days" grew out of a misinterpretation of a painting by William Hogarth. After 1753, the British tax year in Britain continued to operate on the Julian calendar and began on 5 April, which was the "Old Style" new tax year of 25 March. A 12th skipped Julian leap day in 1800 changed its start to 6 April. It was not changed when a 13th Julian leap day was skipped in 1900, so the tax year in the United Kingdom still begins on 6 April.

The Korean national pension fund’s stake in Samsung of 5 percent was larger than that of Chairman Lee’s 3.38 percent stake. The Federation of Korean Industries, the largest industry lobby in Korea, which claimed the move would inevitably lead to increased control of private firms by the government. The FKI described the proposal as “pension fund socialism” that violated market principles.

So the FKI are opposed to nationalising companies for the benefit of the majority, never to God.

Optimizing when you wake up might be the answer to improving the quality of your sleep. The $0.99 Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app is designed to reduce the likelihood that your alarm will go off during a period of deep sleep. It analyzes the different stages of your sleep and begins determining the best time to wake up in the 30 minutes leading up to the time you have set your alarm to wake you. For example, if you set an alarm to go off no later than 8 a.m., the app will monitor your physical movement from 7:30 a.m. using its accelerometer. The alarm will go off when you begin to move during that 30 minutes. The app does not help you to have a deep sleep but if you are feeling tired during the day you can at least confirm a bad night’s sleep by looking at the fluctuating graph of your sleep cycle.

This actually sounds good. Not sarcasm or stupid comments. I just need to be a douche with an iPhone!

Wearing a blue jacket, beige pants and white sneakers, Kim Tae-ho, the lawmaker-elect of Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, was standing in front of Changwon Tunnel and bowing to cars that passed to thak people for voting for him.

“I have bowed 5,000 times every morning for this victory,” Kim said, as he continued his bowing. “This is the greatest asset of my political life and I have earned it during the past 50 days.”

Twat

The ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Formerly the USS Phoenix (CL-46), she saw action in the Pacific theater of World War II before being sold to Argentina. After almost 31 years of service, she was sunk during the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas) by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives. Losses from the Belgrano totalled just over half of Argentine deaths in the Falklands War.

The “Formerly the USS Phoenix (CL-46)” was the “What I learned part.”

Yeonggwang is famous for its large production of Small yellow croaker which Korean people choose as one of the best presents to give to other people. It is called Yeonggwang gulbi (meaning dried croaker) among Koreans, and it is nicknamed "rice thief" because of its wide popularity.

They originated from the Goryeo Dynasty. Yellow croaker move northward from the East China Sea, where they spend the winter season, to Yeonpyeongdo Island, to spawn at the start of the thawing season. They spawn at sea in front of Chilsan, near Beopseongpo in Yeonggwang, between April 10 and 30, while moving northward.

Now you know what to buy the Koren that has everything. They also have a nuclear plant so one day you might be able to buy huge, mutant croakers!

Not to be confused with Yonggwang in North Korea. If you go there asking for croakers you will be in deep shit. If you go asking for depleted uranium, however, you might be in luck.

Before the composition of Aegukga, the lyrics of Korea’s national anthem were sung to Old Lang Syne until composer Ahn Eak-tai composed a new melody to the existing lyrics. Like Japan and Taiwan, it is now used in South Korea as a graduation song and a farewell song to friends or at funerals.

Hannover 96 (nickname Die Roten or 'The Reds')

Need I explain this one.

The scorpions are from Hannover! Die Scorpions.

You see what I did there?

Andreas Wolf (Russian: Андрей Андреевич Вольф; born 12 June 1982 in Leninabad, Soviet Union) is a German footballer who plays as a defender for 1. FC Nuremberg. He has played at the club since 2002 and is the team captain.

I wonder how many people ask what the time is and then piss themselves laughing? Not many people in Germany but God help him if he ever plays in England or Wales. Do Scottish and Irish people like to ask wolves the time?