TN: 2002 Bond St. Eden

What a wine! Fruity upon the open, but on palate, you can feel something underneath. After one hour aeration, it begins to open up. The fruitiness is now companied with chocolate, plum. Another hour later, the wine becomes more spicy. Sweet and chewy. Meaty with emerging hint of coffee. Very long finish. It's a pity we finish it just two hours after decanting. It may show new flavors with more aeration. Can be enjoyed now but not fully developed. Should lay down for another 3-5 years.

On Silver

I am shorting silver, in a middle-term. A safer way may be to long the gold/silver ratio. That is, in another sense, to bet the role of silver as a hedge against inflation is relatively overvalued.

City lights

Taken on a bridge over Shatin River.

Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump其实就是反映了一个人类的本性，老老实实的可以一节一节往上爬，但正是由于在途中经常出现不同的诱惑，甚至同时有多个，玩者举棋不定，难以取舍，反而最终坠落。这也正是从Behavioral的角度解释为什么即便是个体优化，决策集增大表现不一定也是递增。

Mind mapping software

偶然在chrome store看到Mind Meister，回溯回去发现mind mapping软件系列，不少都是开源的。装了一个Freeplane，还不错，使用起来比较简单，将来写paper可以方便一点，也便于和collaborator之间交流。

Chrome apps

It's good. Very handy tools for online browsing. However, Google needs to redesign the Chrome layout a little bit.

单口相声-幸福童年

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/v6vKzxvsctg/

段子包袱抖得挺好，但线索有点乱。方清平的功底还是略显不足，如果换杨议（杨少华五子）说应该也不错，整段有些内容杨少华说起来会更出彩，不过不是全部都适合他的风格。

2006 Chalis La Forest V. Dauvissat

My first bottle of the famous Chablis wine. Really not my type of wine. Great acidity and a long finish. But on palate, there are just undetectable hints of mineral, apple and honey. Maybe too early to open or aeration can help? Will try it next time.

2nd bottle: I opened the bottle and laid it for two days. The aeration does improve it a lot. The acidity fades away and the wine shows more balanced sweetness. Maybe someone may say it has lost its character. But it's more of my wine now.

Dr. Strangelove

An incredible movie.

The future of iPad (and Apple?)

Another article here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/technology/personaltech/03tablet.html?ref=technology

For Apple, like Tomjanovich said after Rockets won the 1995 NBA title, there have been "nonbelievers all along the way." The bears summoned power for every opportunity but only have failed miserably each time (I mean long-time bear, not those quick profit takers). So people may wonder, is this prediction just the beginning of another false alarm?

It may or may not.

I was pessimistic on iPad before its release, but changed my mind when I owned one myself. However, whether a product is successful or unsuccessful does not change the nature the game. In my opinion, either the cost or the technology can help latecomers overtake Apple. Cost advantage did not help them in the battle with iPod, iPhone, then how can it be effective in the iPad battle? As for the technology stuff, I think it's a pretty efficient market, and Apple may even have bigger change for new technology promotion given its dominant market power.

The key is pointed out in the last part of the article, "you need developers."

I have written a paper on the compatibility competition in network market, and I think the same logic applies to iPad, and to the future of Apple. It wouldn't be long for us to see a platform which can seamlessly put application for all tablets which would certainly undermine Apple's "social network" advantage. And I view that as the turning point and the catalyst necessary for me to short AAPL.

老"朋友"

今天刚看了Black Swan，一部表演的有点做作，情节略显单调的电影，然后去搜这类有点神经质的电影，意外找到了一部看过之后印象很深刻但一直没能再看到的电影，Misery。

根据Stephen King的小说改编的电影，里面Kathy Bates饰演的大妈极具压迫感和统治力，堪称神经质型杀手的典范。

Sunset boulevard

A famous old movie, directed by famous Billy Wilder. A plain story with a fantastic ending.

AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes

so familiar. simply listing them here actually doesn't make any sense. only after you watch the movie, know the plot and the actor/actress, you can truly understand them. 

1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Rhett Butler Gone with the Wind

2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." Don Vito Corleone The Godfather

10. "You talkin' to me?" Travis Bickle Taxi Driver

13. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Jennifer Cavilleri Barrett Love Story

17. "Rosebud." Charles Foster Kane Citizen Kane

21. "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." Hannibal Lecter The Silence of the Lambs

22. "Bond. James Bond." James Bond         Dr. No[7]

23. "There's no place like home." Dorothy Gale         The Wizard of Oz

25. "Show me the money!" Rod Tidwell        Jerry Maguire

31. "After all, tomorrow is another day!" Scarlett O'Hara          Gone with the Wind

37. "I'll be back." The Terminator          The Terminator

40. "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Forrest Gump Forrest Gump

41. "We rob banks." Clyde Barrow Bonnie and Clyde

49. "It's alive! It's alive!" Henry Frankenstein Frankenstein

50. "Houston, we have a problem." Jim Lovell           Apollo 13

55. "La-dee-da, la-dee-da." Annie Hall             Annie Hall

57. "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." Gordon Gekko Wall Street

58. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." Michael Corleone The Godfather Part II

59. "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." Scarlett O'Hara    Gone with the Wind

85. "My precious." Gollum The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

94. "I feel the need—the need for speed!" Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Lt. Nick "Goose" Bradshaw Top Gun

95. "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." John Keating Dead Poets Society

Salame

超市打折，半价买了Antica Macelleria Falorni的两条Salame：Salame di cinghiale（野公猪）和Salame di cinta senese brada（Cinta senese是Tuscany特有的一种猪品种）

折扣价后基本和本地售价一样。在我试过的salame当中，Falorni的算是非常不错的，不是像某些大批量生产的salame那样用咸味或者香料去麻痹你的味觉，而能感受到浓浓的肉味，加上脂肪，呈现出甘甜的味道，有嚼劲，回味十足。配上红酒，面包，以及一些酸黄瓜，足矣。

Amadeus

一部出色的影片，有一点歌剧风格，由Milos Forman执导 (也是飞越疯人院的导演)。

一部好电影总是综合了很多因素，但也会有一个让人印象最深刻的风格---让画面说话，比如Godfather，James Cameron，张艺谋；让情节说话，比如Chris Nolan，Hitchcock，Quentin Tarantino，黑泽明；让演员说话，比如Woody Allen，The Shawshank Redemption。而Amadeus就是一部用音乐说话的电影。

Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/us/17mandelbrot.html

"Instead of rigorously proving his insights in each field, he said he preferred to 'stimulate the field by making bold and crazy conjectures' — and then move on before his claims had been verified."

Wall street: money never sleeps

Calcium in the brain, definitely calcium in the brain

Movies to watch

Try to find time to watch the following movies:


Inside Job
Wall Street: Money Never sleeps
Toy Story 3
Mission London
Animal Kingdom
Despicable Me
Shutter Island
The Town

Inception

Have watched it some time ago but haven't got time to write a review. So now I finish it before I forget. 

First of all, I like the movie. The story is catching, which reminds me of the works of Hitchcock. If we describe a movie as a building, then there is no structural problem. Every part is closely related and presented in an elegant way. 

But there is one thing I feel unsatisfied, probably just my personal taste. Like the dream it discusses, the movie lacks details. Not the plot details I am talking about, but some delicacy I feel missing. I refer to another two my favorite movies, Godfather and Seven Samurai. These are two movies I can appreciate every day. There are always some delicacies that I can amplify and enjoy. However, I do not have the feeling that I should watch Inception for a second time. Still using the building analog, Inception is like a modern skyscraper. Magnificent, fully functional, but not enjoyable. Maybe I shouldn't complain too much, and this is just Nolan style. 

A serious and nice movie, anyway. 

A nice article on virtual screening application to drug design

http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v9/n4/full/nrd3139.html

I am not an expert, but most of the points in this article do no require expertise to understand. As far as I know, the author does have a point. For example, the advancement of MD simulation is not just a matter of computation power. It requires a deeper understanding of the behind-the-scene mechanism.

Going a little deeper, I have been thinking the herbal medicines. Why can we find cures from those herbs? Can we find some intrinsic and more traceable connections other than philosophical and ecological explanations? I am not sure if there is an answer to this question, but if there is one, that may be the ultimate solution to drug design problem.