Lu Lan
Overview
 
Lu Lan is a female badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

 player from the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

.
In 2004 she won the Polish Open
Polish Open (badminton)
The Polish Open in badminton is an international open held in Poland since 1975.In the years before 1990 they were one of the few meeting places of the badminton players of the Eastern Bloc countries. The tournament belongs to the EBU Circuit....

. In 2006 she won the Korea Open
2006 Korea Open
The 2006 Korea Open in badminton was held in Seoul, from August 21 to August 27, 2006.The prize money was USD$300,000.-Men's singles:-Women singles:- Men's doubles :-Women doubles:-Mixed doubles:...

 and finished the year in the 5th position in the BWF World Ranking.

In 2007 she won the Denmark Super Series
2007 Denmark Super Series
-Seeds:# Zhang Ning# Xie Xingfang# Zhu Lin# Wang Chen# Lu Lan# Pi Hongyan# Xu Huaiwen# Yao Jie-Results:-Seeds:# Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan# Fu Haifeng / Cai Yun# Koo Kien Keat / Tan Boon Heong# Jens Eriksen / Martin Lundgaard Hansen...

, and was a bronze medalist at the World Championships in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

, losing to the eventual champion Zhu Lin
Zhu Lin
Zhu Lin is a female badminton player from the People's Republic of China.-Career:One of international badminton's leading singles players Zhu Lin's titles include the Thailand , Indonesia , and Malaysia Opens, and, most notably, the 2007 BWF World Championship in Kuala Lumpur. She is a member of...

 in the semifinals. In November of that year she reached the third place in the BWF World Ranking.

In 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, she lost to Xie Xingfang
Xie Xingfang
Xie Xingfang is a female badminton player from the People's Republic of China who has twice won women's singles at the BWF World Championships....

 21-7, 10-21, 12-21 in the semi-finals and was then upset by Maria Kristin Yulianti
Maria Kristin Yulianti
Maria Kristin Yulianti is a women's singles badminton player from Indonesia. She is one of the most successful female Indonesian badminton players, along with Susi Susanti and Mia Audina.- 2005 :...

 from Indonesia 21-11, 13-21, 15-21 in the bronze medal match.
Quotations

Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. Men of bright fancies may in this respect be compared to those angels whom the scripture represents as covering their eyes with their wings.

A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume, Book 1, Section 4, p.225

Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.

Introduction to Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers by Richard Rorty, Volume 3, 1998.

The conception of the necessary unit of all that is resolves itself into the poverty of the imagination, and a freer logic emancipates us from the straitwaistcoated benevolent institution, which idealism palms off as the totality of being.

Our Knowledge of the External World by Bertrand Russell

The true function of logic,... as applied to matters of experience,... is analytic rather than constructive; taken a priori, it shows the possibility of hitherto unsuspected alternatives more often than the impossibility of alternatives which seemed prima facie possible. Thus, while it liberates imagination as to what the world may be, it refuses to legislate as to what the world is.

Our Knowledge of the External World by Bertrand Russell

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

Poetry and Imagination by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1872.

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.

Introduction to Men at War by Ernest Hemingway, 1942.

There is no life I knowthat compares to pure imaginationLiving there you'll be freeif you truly wish to be

Pure Imagination|Pure Imagination by Gene Wilder, 1971.

Impossibility is only the figment of an insufficient imagination.

The Song Of Sin by Phil Duncan, 1998.

 
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