關於 risks 的一對一的交易，通常是零和遊戲。例如 期貨 (futures) 市場。

關於 risks 的 n 對 n 的交易，其實也是零和遊戲。例如 保險 (insurance)。

In those cases, which party is the consumer, and which one is the seller? And how to calculate the consumer surplus and the like?

任何一個新加入者能否不受限制地參與自由競爭，是一個體制好不好的重要標誌之一。

It's been said that in Silicon Valley, some promising start-ups are siphoning off talents from the big companies.

It grieved me to live my life the way that that university required. I had my own way and plans. Life is short, and time was limited.

Does a company always really have to worry about a miserly growth rate in sales?

There IS a business cost of crime, terrorism (either by the domestic government or the outside forces), and corruption!

And in addition, think about the Western companies having entered the Chinese market.

Option one: "Well, we're busier than she is," J said.

Option two: "Well, we're busier than her," J said.

Both must be correct. But the option one looks more natural to me.

Interestingly, the Chinese versions of the two most prominent business newspapers in the world, which are the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, have been competing quite a lot in China.

And also interestingly, on a related note, an author may get his articles published often at cn.WSJ.com , but never gets them onto WSJ.com .

Some SNS users' recommendations chime with my need to be on top of important things. But they put out dense information too frequently. Sigh.

I've never come to really understand why so many classic music lovers are so Mozartian.

A person's judiciousness usually takes another's wisdom to appreciate. And not only what he's done, but also what he hasn't.

In Montreal, sort of unskillful are some, or many, cooks in Chinese food restaurants and outlets.

The temperance never ceases to amaze me which Americans and Canadians show in their expression of sadness of losing one or more of their dear ones.

It's nearly obvious that even if RIM will manage to survive in the face of the challenges put out by Apple and Google, it will only squeak through, even in the overseas markets.

Well, I've begun to doubt the competence of some economists or analysts on the Bay Street. They're still voicing that RIM's market shares in emerging markets economies have been improving although that in the U.S. has been sagging, and hence RIM is a buy.

Well, isn't it obvious that the consumers in the above mentioned emerging markets will get informed and become to know better and then follow the suit of savvy American consumers and choose iPhone and Android devices over Blackberry?

Gee, those economists / analysts. Were they speaking their personal true opinions?

The two Co-CEOs of RIM have been sidestepping tough questions from investors.

Will Libya's Gaddafi voluntarily observe the West's claim that his regime is no longer legitimate? We can safely bet he won't, can't we?

But we can bet that he will eventually bow his head under the mounting pressures from the West, because Lybia is so strategically important: "Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production" (excerpted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya ).

You sift every information stream which attracts your attention and then decide whether to subscribe to it by some means or not.

I have always been curious about the societal effects which have been caused in the West by the continuous decline of observance of Christianity, coupled with the uprising of sex revolution in the 1960s.

A suburban house can fit more people than its urban counterpart. But the problem is, the number of the people who want to live there has been declining.

They say that kids' sweat glands aren't fully developed so that their body temperatures climb more quickly than those of adults.

Judo (柔道) is derived from Jujitsu (柔術) of the ancient Japan.

What is the relationship, if any, between Jujitsu and Tai Chi Chuan, a sort of Chinese martial arts?

Well, the American people are pious to their country, and many Chinese are pious to the Chinese mentality and people. So when the two countries' interests collide, what will happen?

It will be interesting to watch the sequel of Obama's administration to unfold.

Keep your fingers crossed, Mr. Obama.

Well, Herod the Great, a famous ancient blustering tyrant of Judea, was actually only a client king who submitted to the Roman Empire.

("Idealized, undated portrayal of Herod" / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HerodtheGreat2.jpg)

真理、真相往往要通過 溝通 才能得到。

"Tweetstream" is such a nice word.

Spinoza, the famous ancient Dutch philosopher and a Jewish, intrigues me. For example, how does he view pleasure? And, how does he explain "mind and matter being two incommensurable ways of conceiving the one reality"?

See http://www.google.com/dictionary?source=dict-chrome-ex&sl=en&tl=en&q=spinoza    and    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinoza .

Well, I have to admit that when the Canada Post's unionized workers squealed recently, they did it in a peaceful way. Am I wrong?

It's crucial for men to be capable of recognizing termagants and staying safely away from turning those women into their wives, for the sake of their life.

Some people missed potential opportunities for themselves, big and small, because they knew no better. Anyways, adults are responsible for teaching themselves better ways.

Well, I haven't met a dumbshow that my patience can stand.

It seems that many Canadians live cheque by cheque, no matter how high their incomes are. Why don't they shift their behavior patterns and take EXTRA care of their personal spending?

Don't let popular entertainment drain you of your precious time. Will ya?

Given the finiteness of human beings' life spans, higher education or advanced education is not always an unmitigated good for all individuals.

Boy, in some moments, I really love living in Montreal.

Being sophisticated and eclectic means acknowledging many elements and letting them to mitigate and balance each other. Being doctrinaire means the opposite.

Ideals are best when they are balanced by pragmatism. And vice versa.

Canadians below the age 45 sleep for around 6 or 7 hours per day, on average. At any rate, people don't get enough sleep because there's too much information that costs their time to consume in their daily life.

J's slippers squeak against the kitchen floor during these humid summer days.

Maybe the media and entertainment industries in the U.S. have bred too many groundlings in the world.

In household finance, being illiquid is Okay once in a while, but being insolvent, especially in your late forties or older ages, is just not good at all.

My baby daughter bumped her cheek on the couch frame.

學歷以外的東西才是實力。

In Canada, some Chinese immigrants improve their English skills quite sluggishly, some ASAP, and some posthaste.

I belong to the last category.

How much area does a baby's fontanel overlap with her pate?

On a related note, "fontanel" in English corresponds to "顖門" in Chinese. (“心門” 是民間對 “顖（漢語拼音第四聲）門” 的誤傳。)

I missed that cup of morning coffee. Well, my mind and body are just not as energetic as they should be.

Temperance is an interesting character. It seems that Canadians have it, and Japanese have it.

The clogging up of information channels looks terrible.

It seems that Americans and Canadians dislike generalizations quite a lot.

Well, it would be interesting to see the familial piety is clearly defined somewhere.

I wonder if the legal professionals in Hong Kong still wear periwigs in courts nowadays.

(Photo by ellenm1 / http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/4294807128/ / CC)

Quote:

M. Bachelier, Director of Customs at Lyon 

by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1715
Oil on canvas 

Pierre Bachelier directed the collection of taxes in the city of Lyon, France. Oudry's portrait recalls the official "portrait d'apparat" of his teacher, Nicolas de Largillière, that surrounds the sitter with emblems of his rank and profession. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/4294807128/

Actually, what you don't see behind some entrepreneurial endeavors is that they are already in tatters and just waiting for the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

Will the Olympics torch relay include some space shuttle trips in the future?

Similar with Mathematics, the field of Computer Science is largely a mental construct by human beings. But what are the relationships between them and the nature?

怎樣從 文摘 整理出 情報，是重要的一件事。

很奇怪的是，不管你小時候多麼地不愛表達，在長大後，你必須表達，因為，言 和 思 在這個階段變得如此地密不可分。

Expressing precisely, and profoundly on some occasions, is a way to drive the train of thought further into the unknown.

好吧，我認為，寫程序之所以困難，很大一個原因是 computer memory 裡面的情形我們是看不見摸不著的。

Seriously, I want to know what's going on in the memory. For instance, Java's "class loading" intrigues me.

In a certain programming language, different data types correspond to different memory arrangements.

"Here he comes," J, at the elevator, spoke to F at her door.

Well, the recurrence of the failures of Canadian tech giant companies must be discouraging.

Adieu, you cold-blooded News of the World tabloid newspaper of Britain.

How many thoughts are harbored in people's minds?

Quote: "Our ability to produce media has outstripped our ability to consume it. The average photograph now gets looked at less than once simply because there is almost zero cost and effort to producing one."

(By David Carr at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/media/06carr.html?scp=1&sq=unwatched&st=cse )

Sigh. The solvency issues in Europe have been such a great mess.

Temperance in eating is a virtue needed by many people.

Just take one less bite, please.

There's one thing conspicuous about Japanese action cartoons. In the fights, the figures typically saw the air elegantly and suavely. Well, why do they have to entertain their enemies' eyes so diligently? :-)

Video - Jig by Riverdance - Eurovision Song Contest 1994 Dublin

Jig dance, a.k.a. clog dance, is a type of Irish folk dance.



"
Riverdance was first performed during the 7-minute interval of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Point Theatre, Dublin on 30 April 1994. It received a standing ovation. Later that year, the BBC commissioned a repeat performance of the act for the 1994 Royal Variety Show, when it was introduced on stage by Sir Terry Wogan. At Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest it was named as one of the most popular interval acts in the history of the contest.
"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverdance#Success

The birth pangs of a capable and mature man take many years to complete.

Well, we don't know how Greece can stay solvent, do we?

Hours and hours escape trippingly.

More and more information goes unwatched. What people really need is intelligence, in lieu of information.

Well, can a person provide intelligence, instead of information?

"How're you doing?" G said. "As usual. Nothing much." J replied.

I'm positive that some people won't succeed, and some other will.

This thought may make people slightly out of sorts. An employee doesn't own the job. Instead, he just occupies it, according to the mutual consent of the employer and the employee.

Is the almost fire-sale prices of labor going to last long?

In terms of philanthropic engagement, the rich in the U.S. whop their counterpart in China.

什麼是高階人力? 博士學位擁有者就是嗎?

產業界、商界、和 知識界 的標準是不一樣的。

Love your friends? Some people's feelings don't tend that perfect way.

Sometimes people tend to brood over things whose importance gets blown out of proportion in their own minds, which makes them pennywise yet pound-foolish.

Why would someone challenge the pious Muslim people by burning Quran? That's not a wise revenge, even looking from the burners' side.

科舉文化氛圍下的歷代中國讀書人，大都是用青春來 買櫝還珠。我不要也和他們一樣，做一個 還珠樓主。盡量用年華來買一些 學問和 know-how 的珠 吧。

You know better than to throw money into sitting expensive ESL classes, don't you?

Many Chinese immigrants in Canada want to parlay their positions in and knowledge of Canada and China into commercial, particularly in international trading, successes.

You must judiciously choose to read less and think more.

"Come on, Mr. dopey," the white man said, dragging the neck belt on one of his two dogs.

Tim Hortons seems to have always been in favor with Canadians.

By the way, "Tim Hortons" is a smarter choice of brand name than "Tim Horton's", which had been the preceding one, I think.

Relatively speaking, your possession of fundamental knowledge, such as Literature, Math, and human languages, is your illiquid assets, while your possession of applied knowledge, such as your trade skills, is your liquid assets.

How do you combine them and manage them?

Among female entertainment stars, there are two levels of wantonness. Nicole Kidman is one level, and Britney Spears the other.

Coffee is provided at no extra charge at that little Greek restaurant.

"Her gum is all bumpy. Her teeth are coming out," D said.

You saw those satellite dishes on top of house roofs? English literacy is like those, but in a person's head, hardly clearly visible but advantageous.

(billrdio / http://www.flickr.com/photos/billrdio/3973362866/ / CC)

OOP is just a layer, or dimension, of software creation. So are other whatever-oriented programming methodologies.

They are models, obviously. But are they also theories?

Our life is short. Amble along the beck, though.

In the future, what will possibly drain the massive wealth accumulated by China's government over the past decades? Wars?

So they'd better not to be involved in serious wars.

"Jack and Coke. Simple drink. There's nothing to it." the bartender said.

It must feel bitter for a CEO to be dismissed from his or her job. Given that CEOs get sacked quite often, why do so many people want to climb the corporate ladder and become a CEO or something? :-)

To go and work / study in a better place, be it Canada, the U.S., Harvard U., Princeton U., Stanford U., Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, or Google Inc., doesn't automatically turn a person into a successful one.

Thinking that it would automatically happen is a pious hope, or even a pipe dream.

Sometimes knaves are fools because they think others are fools.

Faye / Fay is an interesting name.