There's a commonplace misconception among some young people, especially among many young Chinese.

They make themselves sort of believe their employer companies' glamour is their own, but the truth almost always remains to be that the latter is only a changeling of the former.

Given the mentality of Quebecois, it wouldn't be reasonable to predict that the months long massive student protests in Montreal will be easily smashed by the Quebec government.

See this news interview with the spokesperson of CLASSE: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/face-of-quebecs-student-protest-surprised-by-its-power/article2425572/.

Although some media sources said that this protest is about the government's austerity measures, personally I would say it's perhaps also about intergenerational equity. The young generation in Quebec, maybe also in the whole Canada, has their dissatisfaction with the generation of baby boomers.

Signet rings are interesting, as well as coats of arms, in the eyes of mine, a Chinese Canadian who had been brought up in a closed China.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signet_ring#Signet_rings.

Vintage music video - 虹 - 齐秦 - At The Salem Music Awards Show in London, U.K. in 1989

齊秦 1989年赴英國倫敦參加第一屆Salem Music Show亞洲音樂節，同行的包括香港張國榮，內地崔健等等。
齊秦演唱『紀念日』專輯中的歌曲『虹』（英文被翻譯為RED，XD），
...
特別感謝新加坡榮迷的無私奉獻，
才得以看到如此珍貴的視頻。
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw2cGB92dmM


Lyrics:
虹
演唱 : 齊秦

我夢到天邊有一道的彩虹
在泛白的東方幾度的出現
我夢到天邊有一道的彩虹
在泛白的東方幾度的出現

洗過的天空
沒有一片的雲彩
那天邊的驚虹
彷彿訴說古往今來的故事

在我的心中有一道的彩虹
在年少憂愁裡幾度的出現
在我的心中有一道的彩虹
在無知歲月裡幾度的出現

迷惘的人群
沒有一絲的真情
那心中的驚虹
彷彿嘲笑自己幻滅的人生

What happens in the U.S. doesn't only stay in the U.S, generally speaking.

RIM's currently booming overseas market share, such as that in Indonesia, will eventually be smashed and taken away by iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Plus, the market share of Windows Phone devices is rising quite aggressively.

I love the effervescent sunshine.

The historic thread of thought that one's life is ordained by the God or fate has never really disappeared.

But I've rarely heard that sort of thinking from native Americans and Canadians. It's got something to do with the influences of the American Puritanism, I just guess.

The combination of chicken and onions make relatively good toppings for pizza.

Antsy for the summer, the sun hangs out in the sky.

The historic sinking of the legendary Tudor warship Mary Rose is sort of reminiscent of how complexities encumber and even fail the continuous operation and deployment of large software systems.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose#Causes_of_sinking .

By the way, the Mary Rose warship of Tudor has a romantic name, doesn't it?

Which lingua franca will the increasing internationalization of Montreal lead to?

Some of China's politicians are good at putting out flowery speeches. But I guess Chinese people care more and more about facts.

We can see many Asian companies commit to buying energy in the forms of crude oil, natural gas, and so on, from Western energy companies.

And we can see how energy-hungry Asian countries and industries are.

Ideas have been percolating in my mind. And I've been gradually executing and evolving them.

The true power only comes from the above second sentence, not the first one.

Historically, Russia sent tributary wealth twice to the Qing Dynasty, the then China. How history turned drastically afterwards, regarding the relative levels of power of the two countries.

Besides, one thing I don't quite understand is why Great Britain sent tributes to China for four times between 1793 and 1816, given that Great Britain must have become one of the super powers in the world back then.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tributaries_of_Imperial_China#Qing_Dynasty.

Among the most crucial tasks which higher education needs to accomplish are to develop in students a knack of thinking deeply and to pass on to students the value system which regards intellectualism highly.

Nevertheless, the two above tasks often fail. We can see the traces of that failure in some people who hold university degrees.

Ice isn't a traditional foodstuff. But if you can find a machine to mash it nicely and then infuse some delicious cold drink into it, then you've made a good potential drink for hot sale.

And that's how fast food chain restaurants and coffee houses serve their customers in the summertime.

Iced cappuccino is an example of such at Tim Horton's.

An excellent quote

"Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords."
--King Richard, as in King Richard II by Shakespeare

"Couscous" is a unique name, I think.

I don't know how much trepidation China actually holds for the following mounting problem. But I think it should hold some.

The increasing aging demographic is a global phenomenon. For countries like the U.S. and Canada, it's not really that threatening, I guess. After all, developed countries which are not very crowded, which the U.S. and Canada are, can always just loosen their immigration threshold a little bit, and more young immigrants, potentially from all corners of the world, will just file in due to the attractiveness of many aspects of building a life in those rich countries.

But China playing the immigration card? Isn't the Middle Kingdom already quite crowded? Can it really attract many young immigrants from abroad?

And, with the ubiquitous domestic feeling that the living costs in China have climbed so high and to almost unbearable levels, coupled with the lack of good social welfare programs targeting to help families raise their children, can China spawn enough young people by itself?