Boss Gives Employees Money for Vacations 美国老板掏钱让员工度假 □ Linda Bart Lorang may be the best boss ever.
The CEO of Denver?based Internet company Full Contact API said we are in a market that is competitive for top talent, and he wants to keep his employees happy and refreshed.
The boss offers his employees [S] 7,500 for what he calls “paid, paid vacation,” but there are rules. “One, you actually have to take a vacation to get the money,” Lorang said. “Two, you have to disconnect from work, so that means no calls, no e?mails, no tweets, no work of any kind.”
Not surprisingly, employees said they loved having the company pick up the cost for their vacations.
Too Few College Graduates in 2020?
2020年全球大学毕业生或短缺？
□ Ivy
By 2020, there will be about 38 to 40 million too few college and university graduates to satisfy the demand of the global labor market, a report issued recently has found.
At the same time, there will be a surplus of up to 95 million low?skill workers globally, according to the study, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute.
The report bases its estimates on the projection of a global work force of 3.5 billion by the year 2020, compared with 2.9 billion today.
“Unemployment for less skilled workers is currently running two to three times that of those skilled workers with university or post?graduate degrees,” said Richard Dobbs, one of the authors of the report.
China will have to increase its educated work force in order to fulfill its need for 23 million high?skilled workers by 2020, the report said.
Kaifeng to Restore Historical Image
开封拟复古城原貌
□ Harry
The local government in Kaifeng, an ancient city in Central China’s Henan Province, plans to restore the city’s historical appearance of its downtown.
The city was the capital of seven dynasties, including the Northern Song Dynasty（960-1127AD）, when China’s economy boomed and society thrived.
“The government plans to restore the city’s historical outlook of its peak period in the Northern Song Dynasty,” said Wang Xuejie, vice mayor of Kaifeng in a recent report. The project aims to boost the ancient city’s tourist industry and exhibit the prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty.
“The project will require more than 34,000 families to move from their homes by the end of the year,” said Wang. And the restoration is estimated to cost at least 100 billion yuan （[S] 15.7 billion）.
Man Walks in Shoes Weighing 300 Kilograms
一男子穿300千克鞋走路
□ Eda
A man wearing a pair of huge iron shoes attracted attention in Sichuan Province. The man called himself Wukong, after the Monkey King in Journey to the West. He claimed that the footwear weighed 300 kilograms.
“I set the Guinness record by wearing a pair of iron shoes that weighed 200 kilograms last year,” said Wukong. “And this pair is 100 kilograms heavier. I’m going to challenge the Guinness record with them once again.”
Wukong then began to walk, making loud bangs with every step. Two bystanders tried and failed to carry the shoes after Wukong took them off.
Wukong said he worked up to this feat by running with sandbags fastened to his legs. He added to the weights gradually until he was strong enough to wear iron shoes.
Some experts warn that this kind of weight training doesn’t suit everyone since some people may suffer severe injury from this practice.