Taiwan’s 96-year-old grad student says cramming works

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A 96-year-old Taiwanese man who will receive his master’s degree in philosophy this weekend said he was able to compete with younger students by pulling all-nighters before exams.

Chao Mu-he, better known to his classmates at Nanhua University in southern Taiwan as “Grandpa Chao,” said he began graduate school after being told he was too old to continue as a volunteer at a local hospital.

“I was bored after I left the hospital,” Chao said Thursday. “I don’t play mahjong or have other hobbies. I felt I had to do something with my life.”

In London, a spokeswoman for Guinness World Records said she could not say if Chao is the oldest recipient of a graduate degree because the company does not keep records in this category.

Chao said the most difficult part of his studies was coping with a poor memory.

“I can’t remember things as well as my fellow students,” he said. “So before a test I would wake up at midnight and study all night. That way, the material was still fresh in my mind when the test began.”

He specialized in the works of Chuangtze, a 4th century B.C. Taoist master.

Census uses foreign language to get numbers, ease fears

What could be a more fitting character to weave into the plot of a steamy Spanish-language soap opera than a … Census worker?

Anything goes this year as companies such as the U.S. Spanish-language networkTelemundo and groups across the nation work with the Census Bureau to cook up creative and quirky ways to get the word out about the 2010 Census.

“It’s one of the most important game-changing events in our history,” says Don Browne, president of Telemundo, about the count of every person in the USA every 10 years. “There are enormous demographic shifts in our country … driven primarily by the growth in the Latino population.”

The network began airing Mas Sabe el Diablo (loosely translated as “The Devil Knows More”) last week. It’s a tale of a professional thief who falls in love with his lawyer, who happens to be engaged to the man he wants to destroy. In the fall, the character of a single mother who gets a job as a Census worker will be added.

“She will be interacting with people who are confused by the process,” Browne says. “This character will help people understand why the system works … to try to really make it clear that this is something positive and constructive.”