多棱镜

Bosss Blog Bites

Everyone has had a bad boss—lazy， hateful， arrogant. Zhang Ming， a manager at the Shandong Jiahua Culture International Travel Agency， is a bad boss. It came to light in mid-August that this man was fining his employees for not reading his Weibo posts—which is certainly a contravention of his workers human rights. Employees who didnt like or comment on their glorious masters blog were fined 50 RMB. More than 200 employees had been fined. Why the employees have not risen up to slay him in a righteous fit of anger is as yet unknown. After the story hit， Zhang was quick to hit out with yet another blog post explaining why staying up-to-date with corporate culture is an important aspect of a successful business. The more than 4，000 comments on his post were largely...skeptical of this approach. Still， they say theres no such thing as bad press. - TYLER RONEY

Butt Out

A guy from Liaoning Province surnamed Wang got a lot more hospital service than he ever needed or wanted when his wife was giving birth to their child. Doctors called him from the hallway and led him into a room， and there they proceeded to tell him to take off his pants. Naturally， he asked why on earth they wanted him sans-pants. The doctors， apparently not the most perceptive physicians in their field， impatiently told him to just take off the pants. Oddly enough， Wang did， then he got on the operating table. After knocking him out， they proceeded to go hunting for hemorrhoids to remove， having mixed him up with someone else. The doctors claim that it turned out Wang really did have hemorrhoids， but one wonders whose ass they are really covering here. In any case， they paid him 5，000 RMB in compensation for a case of mistaken butt. - David Dawson

Adopt an Athlete

A South Korean court swatted down a rather transparent attempt to nab a Chinese athlete when a couple approached the court seeking to adopt a 19-year-old Chinese ping pong player. Aside from the fact that the woman is 19， there was also the fact that the athlete had been raised in China by her birth parents， went to university， and was hardly a troubled orphan. The rationale seemed to be that the player would have a better chance of honing her skills in South Korea， where there is less competition for resources than in Chinas state-run system. Apparently this had been one of a number of similar cases. In a rather dry tone， South Korean media reported that the judge said helping the athlete compete as a South Korean “was not an appropriate reason for adoption”. - D.D

17-month pregnancy？

Media breathlessly reported on a new Guinness World Record reached by a woman in Hunan， who was supposed to give birth in November 2015 but still hadnt as of late August 2016， and was planning a C-section in September. Apparently， at 14 months， doctors had told her that the fetus still wasnt mature enough but was otherwise healthy （remember， theyre supposed to come out after nine months）. The thing is， Guinness World Records staff havent done any checking and were pretty confused about the whole shebang. It would seem like early reports in the Peoples Daily perhaps werent careful enough in phrasing that it “would” be a Guinness World Record if proven true. In that second part， local media are now reporting that hospital documents proving the whole thing have yet to materialize. There are hospital documents， but none dating back that far. - D.D.

62nd times the Charm

Sun Haiyan has taken the civil service examination 62 times since 2008. Every year since he was 21， the Henan Province native would take the test and travel to other locations in order to take it again. The way he saw it， the higher the score， the better the civil service job offer he might get—once he had that， he would be set until retirement. “After failing the first dozen times or so， my family didnt really support me. It wasnt until around the 40th time did my dad understand，” Sun told the Southern Metropolis Daily. He eventually settled for a job as a legal officer in Zhejiang Province. - D.D.

Rat Armor

Locals in Nanning， Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have a weird problem. Their cars keep getting broken into—but not by humans. Rats keep climbing aboard to gnaw on the wires. Naturally， theyve done what anyone would do： craft armor for their cars to keep the rats out. Dubbed “skirts” in Chinese media， the armor is basically a ring that goes around the cars. Made of fabric， wire， bamboo or a combination of the above， they arent always effective as sometimes the rats simply gnaw right through them. Netizens have suggested they use cats as a deterrent instead， but others claim that the province is famous （or infamous） for its consumption of dogs and cats as evidenced by the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. - D.D.