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.

BlackBerry's PlayBook

After having read some hype over the official announcement of the still phantasmal Blackberry Playbook, I've concluded RIM made a move that's not too smart. Eventually RIM will be toast, under the management of the seemingly prodigal Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who seems to be always wanting to buy a hockey team. Think about it, what real needs of customers will the BB Playbook be able to satisfy? Not quite much.

On the front of the consumer market, Playbook seems to be lackluster in comparison with iPad and the increasing slew of Android tablets, in my opinion. And on the front of the enterprise market, I suppose, only few people have a workspace larger than a typical desk, and they don't need a tablet beside their work desktop computer; as for those field sales reps, when they hit the road, they mostly only want to carry a more portable smart phone, not a somewhat clunky BB Playbook; and as for those executives with their own little offices and couches, there's a bad omen for RIM, which is 50% of the Fortune 500 executives have been reportedly considering deploying iPads within their companies.

I understand that RIM's been a little desperate lately and scrambling hard. But to launch Blackberry Playbook isn't a very suave move. RIM will continue going south, but it will survive for a long time notwithstanding. And that prediction isn't a fantasy only owned by me. I don't want to bash RIM all the time, seriously.

On the article "亲子教育，从接纳孩子的情绪入手"

Here goes a superb article: 亲子教育，从接纳孩子的情绪入手-心理健康与家庭教育-搜狐博客.

Well, the ideas expressed in the article are subtle and complex. I don't think the author did a suave job expressing the set of and logical relations among the ideas.

My take is, for one thing, as following:

看来，喜、怒、哀、惧，这人类的四种基本情绪中，怒、哀、惧在童年不被父母无条件接纳的话，从此通通会转化成变形的“怒”的情绪能量。但是，如果“怒”的本能在童年被抑制被消灭的话，怒、哀、惧就会转化成“哀”、“惧”中的两种或一种。


Nonetheless, the article is an eminent piece, for my money.

Quebec - The most corrupt province (in Canada) - Macleans

Article from the Macleans magazine: Quebec: The most corrupt province (in Canada)

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Well, Quebec's politics is obviously pedestrian. Posses of politicians slink and siphon off sums and sums of public money. Look at what truthful services some public servants have rendered.

Is it a fantastic project to get Quebec politics clean? Or more cynically, is politics clean from money always just a phantom, in the human world?

Updated - Netflix has finally arrived in Canada!

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

Here's a piece of new news from NYT: Netflix Faces New Competition in Streaming.

For one thing, most U.S. companies have been fantastically sluggish coming to Canada. Is the Canadian market too small for them? You bet!

In addition, Google TV is noteworthy, for my money.

***
My old post just few days ago:

Netflix has finally arrived in Canada! Here it comes: Netflix Canada - Unlimited TV Shows Online & Movies Online

Well. Netflix, an American giant business and a Johnny-come-lately into Canada, are sweepingly blasting the hitherto remaining phantasms of relatively inefficient video rental stores. Somewhat poignant, eh? I'm wondering if the phantom limbs of the Blockbuster video rental stores will sheerly rent games, in lieu of movies, in the forthcoming years, if not months.

博客來書籍館>IBM老總教你1500字溜英語(上)：跨國主管的英語反而最簡單(附mp3)

Introduction from the web: 博客來書籍館>IBM老總教你1500字溜英語(上)：跨國主管的英語反而最簡單(附mp3)

/
Perhaps the Globish language that the French author preaches is sheerly a new watered-down and valueless version of the elegant English tongue, or perhaps it is surrogate English which

Books of The Times - The Human Behind the Heroic Pose - NYT

Article from NYT: Books of The Times; The Human Behind the Heroic Pose

Simon Bolivar used to have a fantastic dream of assembling the then largest country in the world by uniting the South America. He for sure failed and lamented, "America is ungovernable". How can a person distinguish realistic dreams from fantastic dreams? It's one of the hardest questions every human being ever faces.

The Greenroom » History Written By The Losers

An article from the web: The Greenroom » History Written By The Losers

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It's interesting to look at Obama, who's used to churning out cunning speeches, from the side of his enemies. Speaking of his management of the slippery U.S. economy, people're never going to know whether the assumed economic catastrophe without mammoth fiscal stimulus packages will be phantasmal or not. Or are they?

On a different note, I've been wondering if the whole world will regain their confidence in the economic U.S. It's probably just a fantastic project, if the United States of America can't get their loathed Wall Street straight.

In the end, for the majority of the American population, let's hope all's well that ends well.

Stratford-upon-Avon

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

Stratford-upon-Avon is Shakespearean all the way! It's marvelous that the matchless Shakespeare had been born in this seemingly pedestrian town.

Like someone once put it, "Shakespeare... familiarizes the wonderful". But not too many people nowadays read Shakespeare, to my knowledge. Is it fantastic to peruse Shakespeare in this modern era?

Switching from iPhone to Android

Here's an excerpt from Switching from iPhone to Android - Computerworld Blogs:

The iPad was a game-changer for me in my relationship to the iPhone, and not in a good way. Most of the things I used to do on the iPhone are now things I do in the iPad: Reading, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Web browser. The iPad has made the iPhone a lot less important in my life.

And it got me thinking. The fact that the iPhone with iOS is a pretty closed platform is just unmeet for the majority of the consumers population. That kind of systems means potential deep lock-in. I doubt that iPhone will ever grab a fantastic amount of market share, even sheerly in the developed world.

Curiously, I'm waiting to see the next moves of Nokia, which has become largely phantom in the U.S. and Canada. And, ah, there's Samsung, whose products I personally regard to be a little shoddy but have been extremely popular among consumers nevertheless.

Music video - New Slang - The Shins

Its lyrics is here.


Oh, I love The Shins. For your information, the song's been quite popular and received just well by a great many discerning music fans.

It's a blast from the past for me, isn't it? I for one hold it dear. Its lyrics are a little labyrinthine. Just the same, those're excellent English, for my money.

Music video - Cara Dillon - Bonny Bonny

&

The song's lyrics

Beautiful English is showcased in Cara's lyrics.

Ah, what bliss! Just an exalting piece of music, lyrics, and singing, by Cara and her husband! I simply can't keep myself from being fond of it.

However, the video illustration uploaded by someone to YouTube isn't terribly tasteful, for my money.

On a different note, Ireland, the once poor country, has spawned so many poignantly wonderful creative singers such as U2, The Corrs, and Cara Dillon.

It's sad to see the particular nation's economic prospect, which had been rosy in the not so distant past, got blasted by its own folly and the current global recession.

Last but not least, sorry for my wordiness. :-)