University of Geneva

Wow. University of Geneva was founded by John Calvin! It's almost surreal for me. He created it.

U of Geneva must be a significant keeper of the precious original documents of the John Calvin canon, I guess.

Elegant Geneva, Switzerland and its monkey business of private banking

Geneva, Switzerland is never a vapid and rapid city like some others are. Pretty scenery, gourmet foods, tasteful cultures, high science establishments such as CERN, ... They have it all.

Now the private banking biz of Geneva, which has been always under lock and key for decades and decades, is prone to cracking and rupturing, due to the public leak of the tax evasions scandal. All the nations' governments, I believe, must have gotten enchanted and enraptured by the case and be watching or involving in the development of it closely. Well, that should be "bliss" for the banking industry of Switzerland.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and the likes constitute an elegant range of e-book readers for consumers to choose from. People do need the kind of raptness when they read a good novel or something. And that's why James Patterson's fictions have been such hot commodities all these years.

All the same, the sordid DRM things will kill some businesses here and there.

News - Security Council rejection a deep embarrassment for Harper

Is this news article cunning enough? I'm waiting for The New York Times to try its hand at reporting and analyzing the causes of the particular fiasco.

Not being inside the UN Security Council would leave Canada's successful defense

Bern, Switzerland

(Image from http://bit.ly/a8OmE6)

I haven't been aware that Bern, or Berne, is the capital of Switzerland.

Ah, the zesty and tasty Europe. Asia's developing countries have seemed to be held so rapt with the U.S.A. They're not quite aware of Europe's strengths and richness, for my money.

On a different note, the edict of secret banking services offered by Switzerland is intriguing and loathsome to other nations, if you will. Think about the current scandal of discovered tax evasions by some HSBC Private Banking clients residing in Canada, France, U.K., etc.

Exceeding - Music video - Two songs by Elliott Smith

"Miss Misery"







"Miss Misery" Live








"Fond Farewell"
(Unfortunately, no good live version of "Fond Farewell" is to be found on the web for the time being.)




And their lyrics are:
http://bit.ly/a2hrYK (I especially appreciate the part "That you left lying around" in it.)
    &
http://bit.ly/7zSyMI

Elliott Smith with his art, vis-a-vis vices, is too tragic. His savage death is juxtaposed with his beautiful art.

These two songs are a blast from the past for me. I go into poignant raptures about Elliott Smith every time I listen to them.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier - The Man with the Silver Tongue - The Canadian Experience

A part of transient politicians became portly statesmen in a nation's history and heritage. Mr. Wilfrid Laurier is one of them for Canada. It would be an odious wrong for the state-of-the-art generations

Totally engaging - Blitzkrieg - Wikipedia

Panzer! The Third Reich took the whole Earth with its Blitzkrieg by stupefaction!

The quick and sharp movements of panzer divisions, and the tank bombs' blasts thrust bloody ways for Germans in the European battlefields. In those early years of panzer which were full of successes, Germany's military officers must be

McMansion

I almost always view California with rapture. It's in the vanguard of almost everything. Silicon Valley, alternative energy, the mammoth movie-making industry, Stanford U., UC Berkeley, Caltech, the sophisticated San Francisco,

English learning - Wife beater, sweatpants, and sweatshirt

Do you know the gal in the picture? Man, that's Britney Spears, in her unphotogenic wife beater and sweatpants. No, I don't mean she beats her wife. The upper outfit she wears is called "wife beater" in English. A provoking name, isn't it?

O.K. Here comes some eye candy in a wife beater, and this Ms. Keeley Hazell sends British men into raptures:

Video - Hot case - Above Suspicion - the fifth estate

It's the real hot case of Colonel Russell Williams of Canada's Air Force.

Here's a groovy documentary video by CBC: Above Suspicion - the fifth estate.

What a shocker. Now that RCMP is tarnished by leadership struggles, and this ugly incident happens with a top officer in the Canadian army. What is wrong with Canada's public forces?

On a different note, it strikes me profoundly that one's private life and work/public life can be shockingly inconsistent.

Connecticut, U.S.A. - Wikipedia

Connecticut, U.S.A. is a nice place to be in. It's got a moderate weather. You don't expect encounters with winter blasts like you do in Montreal, Canada, do you? And it's got the highest per capita income in the U.S. It's nigh the fantastically sophisticated and cosmopolitan New York City. Moreover, it's home to Yale U., whose faculty and students are rapt and tasteful learners, in my humble opinion, and the also prestigious Wesleyan U., which not many mainland Chinese know of, I suspect.

Windows Phone 7 - Wikipedia

Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 are worthy of keeping tabs on. Now with dapperer products, is Microsoft gonna be able to turn the tables on Apple and Google?

HP cuts full year outlook - Reuters

Here's a piece of news in 2009: HP cuts full year outlook | Reuters. Facing the fierce competition from Acer and Lenovo, HP's PC biz isn't above suspicion of collapsing in the upcoming months, for my money. Where's "the HP way" now for average consumers? Smart phones and tablets made by HP?

At the same time, it'll be intriguing to see the fate of Dell.

Mutterer

No wonder he likes night
He comes out of it
No wonder he fusses with night
No one distracts him at it

No wonder he gets enraptured by night
He does things at it
No wonder he mumbles about night
He misses the moodiness of it

Brief video - Brazil Boom Continues

A piece of video at Yahoo: Brazil Boom Continues (in 2010):

Brazil Boom Continues

Fri Oct 1, 1:20PM ET - CNBC 4:04 | 198 views

The emerging world is hungry for resources, and Brazil is happy to feed that appetite, with William Landers, BlackRock portfolio manager.

Investors who hold Brazilian equities must be in rapture these days. The Brazilian economy's been doing so well in a world blitzed by turns after turns of slipping of GDPs.

On a different note, the comments of the wily financiers are typically dry, aren't they? "The market will see some volatility", "the interest rate hike will make investors alert", etc., etc.


P.S. The aircraft in the above picture was manufactured by Embraer, the third largest airplane company in the world, which is headquartered in Brazil. Now I start to worry over the future of Bombardier, which I suppose has a higher cost structure than Embraer.

Goldman Trust - The New Yorker

There is an article on the elegant New Yorker website: Finance Dept.: Goldman Trust.

The overly complex phantasms of financial products dragged down the highflying Goldman Sachs (a.k.a. 高盛集团). Begone, the legendarily easy money-making. Welcome, Wall Street malcontents.

Wall Street Smarts - NYTimes

Article from NYT: Wall Street Smarts.

The fantasies and tricks of financial products know no bounds.

Introduction - The novel "The Catcher in the Rye"

The Catcher in the Rye, my friend, is a famous fiction. Its title is translated as "麥田守望者" in Chinese. The specific novel gets mentioned, recommended, or read time after time across the entire English-speaking world.

I perused the novel the other month. For one thing, the protagonist berated those phonies in the American society while possessing a heart of gold, if you will. The tale is elegant, and the language accessible and suave. Highly recommended.

Always wonderful - Moscow State University - Wikipedia

Introduction at Wikipedia: Moscow State University (a.k.a. 国立莫斯科大学)

Quote:

Moscow State University has educated 8 future Nobel laureates, 5 Fields Medal winners, as well as a number of writers, philosophers and politicians. The university is alma mater for the famous writers of the 19th century, such as Anton Chekhov and Ivan Turgenev, mathematicians and physicists of the 20th century, such as Boris Demidovich, Vladimir Arnold and Andrey Kolmogorov.

Speaking of academic prestige, Moscow State University is in fact on a par with McGill U., UToronto, and UPenn and the likes. But all these higher education institutions, are well behind the, ah, formidable yet munificent Havard University, with which around 75 Nobel laureates and a few Fields Medal winners are affiliated.