Some feel cheated by pricey matchmakers

Some professional matchmaking companies lack personnel and servicesAge: 35. Gender: male. Occupation: working for a sales department at a pharmaceutical firm. Goal: to get married. Soon.Kim Dae-jin (alias) thought he was all set to tie the knot when he gave out his personal information to sign up at Gayeon, one of the better-known matchmaking companies in Korea, next to Duo.He had been skeptical going into the deal, but his matching manager in charge of his blind dates persuaded him otherwise. K

IndustryOct. 9, 2012

Inje Univ. professor wins BMW’s academic award

BMW Korea said Monday that it has named Bae Jin-young, professor of management and international trade at Inje University, as the winner of the 2012 BMW Academic Award for his critical insight into the current global financial crisis. The Korean unit of the German carmaker, together with Korean-German Academy of Economics and Management, has offered the award since 1999 with an aim to accelerate academic exchanges between the two countries. In his recent academic paper, Bae offered a deep analys

IndustryOct. 9, 2012

Study: Learning a language changes brain

(MCT)LUND, Sweden (UPI) -- Intensive learning of a new language can make certain areas of the brain increase in size, Swedish researchers say.Scientists studied young recruits at the Swedish Armed Forces Interpreter Academy who learned a new language at a very fast pace, going from having no knowledge of a language such as Arabic, Russian or Dari to speaking it fluently in the space of 13 months.M

TechnologyOct. 9, 2012

Warcraft playing candidate under fire

Maine Republicans are criticizing a Democratic state Senate candidate for her “disturbing alter ego” in online game ‘World of Warcraft.’The Maine Republican party has created a website, collensworld.com, to compile comments Democratic candidate Colleen Lachowicz, 48, has made while playing or writing about the online game, the New York Daily News reported Monday.“So I‘m a level 68 orc rogue girl. That means I stab things ... a lot. Who would have thought that a peace-lovin’, social worker and de

TechnologyOct. 9, 2012

Florida man eats bugs, dies

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (UPI) -- A 32-year-old Florida man ate dozens of cockroaches and worms to win a contest and then he died, authorities said.Edward Archbold of West Palm Beach went outside after winning the contest at the Ben Siegal Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach Friday and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, The Miami Herald reported.An autopsy was to be perf

TechnologyOct. 9, 2012

Prehistoric spider attack frozen in time

U.S. researchers have found what they say is the only fossil ever discovered of a spider attacking prey caught in its web, a 100 million-year-old “snapshot.”In an engagement frozen in time, the extraordinarily rare fossils of the spider and its prey, a wasp, are entombed in a piece of amber, Oregon State University reported Monday.“This juvenile spider was going to make a meal out of a tiny parasitic wasp, but never quite got to it,” said OSU zoology Professor George Poinar Jr., a world expert o

TechnologyOct. 9, 2012

Glass ceiling still thick in public sector

The glass ceiling most certainly exists in corporate Korea, particularly in the financial sector, recent figures showed.Out of 61 registered executives at the nation’s 10 publicly run financial companies, director Roh Jeong-ran of the Korea Asset Management Corp. was singled out as the only woman, according to a government-run data system on publicly-operated firms on Monday. Further, since 2008, these 10 companies had hired 356 female executives, just one-quarter of the total. In comparison, th

Oct. 8, 2012

Beware Chinese-made counterfeit golf clubs

Chinese-made imitation golf clubs were found being sold illegally on the Internet at up to eight times the original price, the Seoul Main Customs office said on Monday.The office said the clubs ― originally priced at 20,000 won ($18) each ― were being sold for 170,000 won in Korea after they were disguised as clubs manufactured in Japan or the United States. Up to 6.1 billion won worth of clubs were sold this way, officials said. Most of these products were sold by online retailers. One of the c

IndustryOct. 8, 2012

Mahindra chief hints at rehiring Ssangyong workers within year

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. president Pawan Goenka, during a parliamentary hearing here on Monday, hinted that the company could start hiring back Ssangyong Motor workers on unpaid leave within the year.The rare appearance of a foreign executive at the nation’s audit session came amid still escalating tensions between Ssangyong and fired workers since a large-scale restructuring in 2009 before the carmaker was acquired by the Indian company. The Mahindra president said the company was considering

IndustryOct. 8, 2012

Samsung mum on stake in Renault unit

Group yet to clarify if it will keep stake in Renault SamsungSamsung Group has yet to reveal whether it will maintain its automobile brand partnership with Renault Group, while the French automaker dismissed the possibility that Samsung may dispose of its stake in Renault Samsung Motors.Should Samsung Card, a financial unit of the nation’s largest conglomerate, choose to sell off its 19.9 percent stake in Renault Samsung amid lackluster sales, the auto brand name would also change. Currently, Re

IndustryOct. 8, 2012

S&T hosts field trip for ambassadors from Middle East

S&T Group, a local machinery and plant equipment manufacturer, said Monday that it had hosted a three-day field trip for a group of ambassadors to Korea from the Middle East on Oct. 3-5 to present its technology and production facilities. The ambassadors were Jordanian Ambassador Omar Barakat Mnawer Al-Nahar, Iraqi Ambassador Khalil Al-Mosawi, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Ahmad Y. Al Barrak and Kuwaiti Ambassador Muteb Saleh F Al-Mutoteh. During the field trip, the diplomatic officials visited the p

Oct. 8, 2012