Best Line I Have Read This Morning

"做人唔係壞人已經開心"

Who said this?

Wong May-wan, wife of newly minted Nobel Lauerate (Physics) Charles Kao. The line is taken from this story.

For those who do not read Chinese, let me try to translate this line:

"One should be thankful for being a good person."

So you want to know more about the Subprime mess?

This first legi volume on the Subprime mess has essays written by a very strong lineup of economists including Charles W. Calomiris, Mike Bordo, Guido Tabellini, Carmen Reinhart...

Even better is the fact that it's FREE, download it here.

Transformers, They Are Cool

Lately, my five-year old son and I have started collecting figures of different robots which have appeared in the movie Transformers. First, we learn about who are the good guys (Autobots) and the bad guys (Decepticons), then we learn about the different heros within the good guys camp and follow that up with learning the different characters in the bad guys camp...and finally we are after those hard to get figures like Target and Wal-mart exclusives.

Check out the picture above, isn't it cool? That's Stealth Bumblebee in robot mode, see more for yourself here. It is due out soon, stay tuned.

Hokkaido

My family went to Hokkaido for a few days. We were staying at the Club Med there. One thing my wife and I both notice is the substantial improvement in Japanese people's ability to communicate in English.

That was something we did not feel back in our trip to Osaka in 2000.

What's going on?

Has the wave of globalization finally pushed Japanese people to brush up their English language skills or is it a case of sample bias, in other words, we just happen to meet a bunch of Japanese who are good in English. My wife and I tend to believe that the second answer is more plausible.

BTW, the picture above is the view from our room's window.

Black Hawk Down in Music

Life and Death

"There's a limit to how many times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are," he says, "but I'm not there yet."

Here is a sequel to an earlier post. Do pass it on, may be you would be able to help other folks.