For many of us, it is the rocket fuel that gets us going first thing in the morning. But one expert has argued that to get the maximum effect of caffeine, it's better to hold on a few hours - because coffee is most effective if consumed between 9.30a…

Early one morning last week I queued outside Sri Gopi Iyengar Coffee and Tiffin Center, a coffee bar just outside the monumental Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. My long wait under a scorching sun was rewarded with a small glass…

Chinese author Lao Ma has a simple approach to his short stories: In the face of life, everything is funny. Mr. Lao, the pen name of Renmin University of China professor Ma Junjie, says there are plenty of laughable things in daily life that fuel his…

The conference call is one of the most familiar rituals of office life -- and one of the most hated. ritual:典礼,宗教仪式 Abuses are rife. People on the line interrupt others, zone out or multitask, forgetting to hit 'mute' while talking to kids or slurpin…

If you’re a writer or artist, you understand the power of location when it comes to creativity and finding inspiration. Looking for a place that will get your juices flowing? Here are 15 common places that can inspire your creativity. 1. Libraries an…

Opening up a Korean restaurant among the rice fields and limestone karsts north of Hanoi might seem a risky business, but Le Thi Huyen is doing a roaring trade at her bistro here. bistro:小酒馆 The reason? Samsung Electronics Co., the South Korean firm,…

Margot Carmichael Lester loves making good-natured jokes at work. As owner of The Word Factory, a Carrboro, N.C., content-creation company, she looks for employees with a sense of humor. 'I only want to work with people who can take a joke.' Sometime…

Getting up the nerve to order in a coffee shop used to be difficult for 16-year-old Georgiann Steely. Speaking in front of classmates was unthinkable. The high-school sophomore overcame a crippling case of social anxiety as a patient in the Child and…

Billions of dollars are flowing into online advertising. But marketers also are confronting an uncomfortable reality: rampant fraud. rampant:猖獗的,狂暴的 About 36% of all Web traffic is considered fake, the product of computers hijacked by viruses and pro…

China has tried your form of government and found it wanting. That was the message delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping during an expansive address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, this week that capped off his first visit to Western…