A Single Global Currency

http://www.singleglobalcurrency.org/

Come to think of it, now that the markets are kind of in a turmoil and many currency are facing fluctuation see-saws, shouldn't it be time we implement a single global currency? Well, I personally always thought that was a great idea, except for the fact that they actually proposed the currency to be named 'DEY' (taking the initials of Dollar, Euro, Yen). Sounds ugly. -_-"

The pros? For a start, you wouldn't need any more Foreign Exchanges. You could convert that plot of land to a farm; we'll need it. No manpower needed to go and monitor all those numbers on the board and trade around with it.

Locally, the Indian Money Changer uncles would be out of jobs too. Well, after all, they have been capitalizing on the inefficiencies of the currencies for so long... hmm?)

Anyway, I'm all out for this Single Global Currency. Sounds good.

No Immunity

I can't remember who, but I did remembered at one time there were people who were boasting about the fact that the play-it-safe local banks simply won't get hit by the sub-prime crisis. Erm...

Simplified version: Subprime -> Lehman -> DBS

Straits Times: DBS to pay investors 80 Million

Well... one can argue that it was not a must for DBS to cover all those people for the mistake and they chose to do it themselves. But imagine all the goodwill they will be losing if they don't.

I don't work in a bank so I don't know, but isn't some of these troubles caused by the pay structure that they choose to promote aggressive selling?

Hmm... Melamine v Money and Money v Lies? I didn't say anything.

Buuuurnt Out

I'm seriously impressed by how some people in Universities can actually handle school work and CCAs at the same time. I mean... isn't school work crazy enough?

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RECAP

12AM: Studying for Calculus test... Dying... Dying...
2AM: When the heeeeeeell is this going to finish?
3AM: Okay, I'm tapping in. My lovely bed here I come.

7AM: I seriously don't want to wake up...
9AM: Looking at Calculus paper... Gawd, I'm screwed big time.
11AM: Submits Calculus paper. *Praying for miracle.
12PM: Calculus class ends

1PM: Lying on the floor of a Group Study Room (SMU have these study rooms), trying to fall asleep while my friend is doing work.
2PM: Wakes up, have lunch.
3PM: Rushes down to Toa Payoh to carry out this Community Project (SMU have all these compulsory community stuff). We are having this workshop for the uncles and aunties.

4PM: Teaching an uncle to use MS Word, Email, Youtube, CPF... I hate to teach... but the uncle is quite a nice person though...
7PM: Gawd, I'm running late. Having a meeting in school... at 7...? Takes taxi all the way back to SMU from Toa Payoh.

715PM: Surprised that my groupmates didn't murdered me. ^_^". Proceeded on to discuss about project...
830PM: This is going nowhere... everyone's tired and fried...
915PM: Finally... we somehow somewhat managed to get what we needed done. Bad news is I'm doing the powerpoint slides.

1000PM: Home sweet Home. Time to catch up with the times...
1100PM: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index
1200AM: http://www.soccernet.com/
1230AM: Blogging...

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School life... Fun-tastic!

Differentation x Integration = ?

I'm actually taking Calculus in SMU. Yes, Calculus; when I'm a Business student. Anyway, the professor is from China and while he is god-like with his Maths, he totally sucks at teaching to the point I wished I could taser him (sort of). At point one of time, he even taught with his back facing the class. I mean... does any decent teacher do that?

Then came the revelation; the first Calculus Quiz. Almost everyone screwed the quiz so badly that he actually sent out an email as such.

My dear students,

In view of the not-as-good-as-expected quiz 1 results, I would like to make the following announcement.

(1) I’m the ONLY person who should be responsible to the results. So, you do not need to blame yourself too much.

(2) An adjustment was just made in the lesson plan (check the SMUVista for details). With such a change, I hope we can have more time in class to do exercises.

(3) The weight of quiz 1 in the final grade is decided to be 4%. So, the weight for quiz 2 will be 10%.

At last, I would like to let you know, I have a good intension intention and have put a lot of effort in preparing this module, no matter you appreciate it or not.
And, most importantly, I hope it is a pleasant learning experience.

I thought it was pure sarcasm when I first saw it. Only when I attended the first class after the email was sent out, I realized that he did put in a lot of effort to change. However, I don't want to jump to conclusions yet so hmm...

But interesting, ain't it?

BOB: Gobble Gobble

Gobble gobble. You will (not) be missed.

Monkeys Working in Japanese Restaurants: Yes yes yes, monkeys working in restaurants. That's darn cool. What's next? Pigs? I mean they are quite intelligent after all.

Usain Bolt: The most electrifying man in the track and field scene. There are many takes on whether all that celebration should be accepted. I don't know but I for one think it's not too bad to have a bit of celebration. After all, soccer players do that all the time.

Iran Celebrating Global Meltdown: Hmm.. don't they realize that most of their oil they are selling eventually goes to foreign countries? If these countries go into recession, that means they will need less oil and thus Iran will sell less. It doesn't take a PhD in Economics to understand that. -_-"

China: It's okay to be gay?: Interestingly, our supposedly more conservative neighbors up north seems more receptive to gays than we are. And there is even a somewhat legal view from a NUS Don. Quite a mess I must say. There are reasons for and reasons against. Hmm...

Crash IE: Do you want to crash your Internet Explorer? (Why would anyone want to?) Hmm... go www.crashie.com. Don't blame me if your IE doesn't crash though. I heard it might not work for newer versions of IE. Well, if it does crash, you can switch over to Firefox like I am.

Suicide Fears Amidst Economic Downturn: Countries with high suicide rates like Japan are fearing that there will be much suicides to come when the impact of the economic downturn sets in. I wonder if Singapore needs to have such fears. By the way, suicide in Singapore is illegal under section 309 of the Penal Code. It's kind of 'duh' to me though.

JBJ: Too afraid to say anything...

Yikes.

Warning: Ramble ahead...

The only time when I hate my prediction being correct. The SGX ended today at 2,033.61 after going through a 6-7% slide.

Erm... if you are flustered by the free fall of the market despite monetary injections from governments all over the world... Hmm.. may I say that people are finally realizing that equities have been seriously overvalued for a long time? Just a suggestion.

Actually may I suggest something somewhat pompous? Does it really matter if financial markets slide to zero? I mean... what really matters is that real companies in the real world are not forced to stop work because of a lack of funds. Human kind was well alive and kicking without equities. You can somewhat blame the Romans for the system. They came up with it (at least according to the book I read).

Before these equities stuff, factories (of some sort) still ran, people still worked, trade was still active. Hmm.. Just sayin'

[Edit: No, I don't predict that stocks will slide to zero. The only 'guess' I have now is that the market will only bottom out 3-5 months from now.... but that's just a guess. ^_^"]

Freakonomics

The cleanliness of a place can be determined by judging the state of the currency notes they use?

E.g. Singapore v Japan.

I don't really travel. So travelers, please enlighten me...

(Lol. I didn't thought up that theory. A friend's dad did. That's coooool.)

Rambo Jr

Hmm...

(Wonders if anyone could understand the Chinese post...)

Anyway, if this slips the eyes of the local media...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7649876.stm

Erm... all I can say is it's shocking news. At least to me...



Rambo Jr. anyone?

Random(); 疑人不用,用人不疑

Random();

(Well, I thought it was meaningful...)

“疑人不用,用人不疑”,是人们常说的一句口头禅。看似简单,实则含义深刻,深究之,大有学问。
“用人不疑，疑人不用”的典型故事，应该来自于三国，最出色的表现者是刘备，他“弘毅宽厚，知人善任”，从不怀疑忠心耿耿的部下，刘、关、张、赵、诸葛几 乎一起谱写了天下亘古传奇。因而，刘备的家业号称是亲情凝聚的典范。 关羽，可以放弃一切厚禄，过五关、斩六将，历尽苦难回到刘备的穷困旗下；张飞，可以腥风血雨先打下一块小地盘，等着刘备来做主当家；赵云，可以冒生命危 险，抢救刘备的儿子，维护刘备的家人完整；诸葛亮，受刘备临终重托，“鞠躬尽瘁、死而后已”。刘备管理的基石就是信任感重于亲族。

“疑人不用,用人不疑”,这里的“疑”,是不分明，不确定，不相信,有疑心。大概意思是:对感觉靠不住、没把握、不放心或认为有问题的人,不能使用;对感 觉不错的认为可用之人,就放心使用、大胆使用,在使用过程中也不必有疑虑。还可以解释为:怀疑人就不要用人,用了人就不要对人不放心。现实生活是一个万花 筒,千姿百态,千变万化,错综复杂,一切的一切不是说起来这么容易。
一般来讲,企业也好,事业也好,关键是用好人。要做到“疑人不用,用人不疑”,也不是容易的事。首先要根据需要、带着问题招才、识才、用才。做一些调查研 究是必要的,通过诸多人的实践鉴别是必要的,安排一些考验也是对的,通过多方面的观察,才能确定对人才的正确使用。从另一个角度讲,人才来之不易,千军易 得,一将难求,一旦发现人才,可以因人成事,因“神”盖“庙”,开辟另一片天地。
“疑人不用,用人不疑”,“德”和“才”是起决定作用的两个方面。德,是指人的品德,古人讲的仁、义、礼、智、信就概括了这个方面的内容。在一定程度上 讲,“德”比“才”重要。“君子欲以义,小人欲以利”,“君子坦荡荡,小人常凄凄”,是君子和小人的区别标准。德、才兼备,是人才的最高境界,然在现实生 活中,总是参差不齐。一句话,还是要因才使用。蒙牛老总有一句名言:有德有才,提拔重用;有德无才,培养使用;无德有才,限制使用;无德无才,坚决不用。

(Extracted from the China equivalent of Yahoo!Answers, Baidu Zhi Dao... -_-". Original page can be found here.)

Not everything from China is bad I guess. ^_^"