Until we know the 2009 Nobel winner in Physiology or Medicine

Portrait of the 2005 Nobel Laureates (the two insightful Australian “Mad Scientists”) in Medicine (8 minutes)

A presentation of the lives and work of the 2005 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

More info on the 2005 winners: Doctors Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren

Kempton’s CIFF picks for Fri, Oct 2

The following 2 screenings are my Calgary International Film Festival CIFF picks for Fri, Oct 2,

A SXSW screened film “My Suicide, 7:15pm, Eau Claire” (Here is a Variety review of the film in case you are interested. I am testing if I am young at heart and can I stand “the editors’ riotous pacing, which never rests for more than 30 seconds on a shot and comprises a barrage of manipulated footage, 1950s public-service docus, animation and forever-shifting video images.”)

Passenger Side, 9:30pm, Eau Claire

Twisted Architecture

I love architecture so I quite enjoy this blog entry “Twisted Architecture” even I don’t understand much of it. If and when I have to dig deeper, I will know where to look.

Flight Operational Safety Analysis

I used to work in an air traffic control project, so this is quite a cool video for me to watch “Landing a Solid Model: Flight Operational Safety Analysis with Mathematica“. [via Mathematica]

David Letterman’s Apology

I think Letterman gave an effective apology and did the best he could last night and will likely not hurt him in the long run. [Remember: Letterman is a victim in this a crime of extortion here, being blackmailed for $2 million by a CBS news producer that does crime investigation and should know better!]

We are all humans and will make mistakes from time to time. If these mistakes are serious enough, the best approach is not to hide but to come out and admit the mistake and face the music.

People Magazine, “David Letterman’s Accused Blackmailer“.

Here is an insightful report form Huffington Post with additional source info.

And a brilliantly written article by AP’s Lynn Elber on this matter. For the record.

“Letterman creates brilliant hour of TV from woes“
By LYNN ELBER (AP) – 55 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES — It was business as usual for David Letterman and CBS’ “Late Show.” The band played. The host, dapper as always in a well-tailored suit, recited his monologue; some jokes hit, some missed.
Then Letterman proceeded to take viewers, and television, on an extraordinary journey that was part confessional, part entertainment and wholly, if jarringly, hypnotic.

A $150 banknote question

My reply in this blog entry lead me to this question:

If someone pays good money, for example $280, for a $150 legal banknote which they most likely (say 99.9%) will NEVER use, is it the same as thinking that 99.9% of these banknotes have been burned? How does these affect the bank’s obligation?

(note: burning a legal tender (a banknote) is most likely illegal in most country)

(By the way, most Post Offices around the world deals with this issue all the time as they frequently issue new stamps and collectors would buy these stamps and NEVER use them. Or will buy the stamps and immediately get the post office to stamp it on the day of their first issue.)

China shows military might at 60th anniversary celebration

For the record,

Standard Chartered Bank selling banknotes ($150 notes at $280)

The Standard Chartered bank is selling banknotes,

The banknotes will be offered in three different packages. These are single HK$150 notes at HK$280, “four- in-one uncut” notes at HK$1,888 per set, and “35-in-one uncut” notes at HK$18,888 per set. [Kempton: I suggest you do some quick math to see how much money the bank is making on this gimmick. No one is going to spend the $150 notes that they pay a minimum of $280 for (even higher for those "35-in-one uncut" notes.]

Standard Chartered has also selected 100 notes with special lucky serial numbers for public bidding and another 10,000 pieces for which the public can pick a serial number of their choice.

There are three categories of lucky number notes, with minimum bid prices of HK$10,000, HK$6,000 and HK$3,000. The “single self-selected serial number” notes will be offered at HK$888 each by lottery.

This kind of “speculation”/”investment” in money is better than those stupid tulips! Pure craziness and speculations! Fortunately, these are volunteered “donations”!

“Net proceeds will go to the bank’s community foundation in support of local community projects and charities.”

Supreme Court Week (C-Span)

Supreme Court Week will air on C-Span starting this Sunday Oct 4th.

Check out this Justices in their own words clip, “Justice Sotomayor On The Call From President Obama“. Let us never forget the justices are humans too and are not always right. What we hope they will try to be is to be fair, impartial and look at the cases without prejudices.

Dalai Lama in Calgary

Dalai Lama talks peace in Calgary (CBC News with video)

Dalai Lama sports cowboy hat in Calgary (CP)

Making a Face

Here is a video of Oscar winning animator Chris Landreth making a face live (video sped up).

Dragons’ Den Season 4 episode 1 review

• Very nice new intro to season 4 Dragons’ Den.
• Good to see all Dragons back healthy and breathing serious fire!
• note: I am not going to comment on the non-businesses as the “fun” factor for me to review them has dropped to practically zero. I see little point in beating up ill-thoughtout businesses.

Mistura Beauty

I don’t know much about cosmetic so I won’t comment on Mistura Beauty much other than to say the cosmetic industry is one that takes a lot of marketing and advertising dollars to build and not an easy industry to build a reliable and solid business in. I see Brett has a few other related business and getting into the cosmetic business may make sense to him.

“We Buy Gold”/”The Gold Network” (website??)

Potential problems with Tim Wallis’ “We Buy Gold”/”The Gold Network”:

Trust is one big challenge in this business. Can Mr. Wallis be trusted? I don’t know Tim at all so I don’t know. Can the whole network of retailers be trusted to do the business fairly and honourably? In the age of online social media, it only takes a few bad apples to expose frauds and problems and breaking any public trust. Even Ontario Lottery has problems with its retailers.

May be I am too old school for this type of business but I value my business reputation deeply. So while the “gold” business may be a short run cash machine, it has one major problem. The problem is if some of these “retailers” decide to do business less honest than they should, the financial liabilities will be rest on the well-known Dragons/investors. And if the Dragons/investors wish to keep their reputations intact, they will have to pay up (even legally they don’t need to).

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As a reminder for myself, here is a quote about Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) from the Warren Buffett insightful bio Snowball (pg 655),

“We thought they [the LTCM people] were very smart people,” says Munger. “But we were a little leery of the complexity and leverage. We were very leery of being used as a sales lead. We knew others would follow if we got in.” Munger thought Long-Term wanted Berkshire as a “Judas goat.” “The Judas goat led the animals to slaughter in the stockyards,” he says, recalling Omaha. “The goat would live for fifteen years, and of course the animals that followed it would die every day as it betrayed them. Not that we didn’t admire the intellect of the people at Long-Term.”

Quote of the day

From Alice Schroeder’s Bloomberg column “Gold Tells You U.S. Bubble Hasn’t Popped Yet“. Quote (see highlighted),

Our recent real-estate bubble wasn’t like tulip mania, in which the inflated asset had only a tenuous connection to the economy it came to dominate. The real-estate bubble swelled on the genuine beliefs among consumers about their future prospects and earnings. To be sure, some of those prospects and earnings were exaggerated to the point of fraud.

Thus the bubble burst when credit-card junkies had spent the last dollars they could justify, and the final peanut brain had been unearthed who could be persuaded to sign up for a negative-amortizing mortgage.

H1N1 Rap

H1N1 Rap by Dr. Clarke. More info at Flu.gov.

[via Whitehouse]

Family Photo

Are You Gay? (The Internet Would Like to Know)

Another great episode from TVO’s Search Engine (mp3),

“Gaydar” software from MIT and queer-bashing Islamist radicals trolling Iraq’s chatrooms are making it increasingly difficult to hide one’s sexuality, and increasingly dangerous to be gay. Also: how CIRA, the non-profit “dot-ca” domain people get 10 million dollars a year. Post your comments on the Search Engine blog:http://www.tvo.org/searchengine

Goodbye Saturn?

“Penske backs off buying Saturn“

“Saturn faces full eclipse, now ‘all but dead’“

I attended one of these local Saturn parties way back then. Looking back, Saturn may be a sad example of how a once lovemark failed.

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Oct 2 Update: Saturn Dealers, Owners Shocked Over End of Brand