ESPN interview of Jordan Crawford.

Nothing to be shamed of “being dunked by someone”. The thing to be shamed of is try to hide it.

The bottom line is, I want to see the video. BTW, I am not buying any Nike products these days.

Last year
MySpace/Facebook, Barack Obama (this is probably the bright side, if you believe Barack is a good guy)

This year
Twitter revolution, Iran;

SMS (text message) + online BBS, Urumqi incident (what I call a terrorist attack/organized killing against innocent civilians);

Cyber attacks, notice the recent news South Korea and US gov web sites got attacked, not to mention the endless email from Nigeria says I will receive $10 million dollars if I can him my bank acct;

and there is this great thing many people love (but don’t want to admit), this porn thing (see WSJ video about software to help a guy get rid of bad habbit).

Technology, if used inproperly, or in the hands of evil-minded people, could do real harm.

Because it’s really powerful. That’s why many organizations and people are keen on this: try to beat the other side on this cat and mouse game.

Once in company gym I asked my colleague (he is African American, BTW): you don’t like watch CNN (the CNN is playing in gym at the time)? He said: I don’t, those media try to meditate you. If you watch too much, you will get meditated. I guess same rules apply to the biased media on the other side. In the case of CNN, there are good ones, and there are bad ones too. Sorry I won’t call names

I saw the following article at WSJ “The Real Uighur Story” by REBIYA KADEER. Whenever someone claims “the real something”, I am always careful. Here is my favorite comment for the article

Why did not the WSJ invite Ben Laden to give his opinions?

Dah?

In a way the US did. Remember in 1980s when the Soviets was invading the Afganistan, the US government helped the resistence, and some of those resistence joined Al-Qaeda after Soviets pull out. We all know what happened in Sept 11. In a similar fashion, the middle kingdom helped north Vietnam fight against US invasion in 1960/1970s, and in late 1970s Vietnam (the self claimed world No. 3 arm forces) invaded China.

So what’s my point here? My point is for average guy like you and me, we should be really careful when choosing and listening to the media, monitor what the politicians are doing (in the interest of national security blah blah blah). In that sense, I really liked Mark Stanford, and Sara Palin, at least they are honest, and to some extent, (dare I say) George W. Bush. I used to hate his notion:

You are with us, or you are against us.

In some cases he was right. Although he went a bit too far on Iraq.

Appendix: video obtained bu Telegraph in UK. It looks like a shorter version of the Youtube video I posted yesterday. Again use caution as there are lots of violence (blood) in the video.

(Original) This is Sept. 11 for China. July 5, Urumqi (Capital city of Xinjiang, China), 9-11 style attack happened to innocent people walking on the street, students/workers on the way to home, shop owners attending their customers,… were beaten and some are even killed by some well organized terrorists. I don’t have all the details yet, but the following video from Youtube offers a glimpse of the situation. Warning: some scene are bloody, exercise caution/judgement when watching.

My initial response is anger. This is totally senseless attack against innocent people, just like in Sept. 11 the terrorist using airplane to attack against World Trader Center. Incidentally in recent days I started to appreciate the benefits of second amendment (allow civilian to own guns). Being born in China, I did not understand why so many people still own guns after Columbine tragedy. Now I know. There are instances where a government can not protect its own citizen, and there are instances the government can intensionally do wrong things. Owning fire arms and know how to use it become handy in those cases (self defense).

I also started to appreciate the feeling of Israel people as they constantly under the suicide attack.

There are many other things I would like to say, I will share one article (in Chinese, use Google translation tool “translate this page” if you want to read the machine translated English). The article was written by a guy/girl who grow up in Xinjiang in 1980/1990s.

Chinese restaurant
Lao Sze Chuan (web site here): this is the first Chinese restaurant I visisted in Chicago (2001?). I waited for more than 30 minutes in a hot summer afternoon. The waiting line is much shorter nowadays because there are more authentic Chinese restaurants. It is located at China town. Some of the food (e.g., rabbit meat) are very spicy in my opinion. Get a map here.

Yu’s Mandarin Restaurant at Schaumburg (web site here): I visited this one couple years ago (hosted by friends). This time I found it via GPS, and I read the review from tripadvisor to confirm this is the one. The direction given by Garmin GPS is a bit off (in the end). We found it after a U-turn. The environment is fine, but this time we ordered too much food. I didn’t remember they gave such a big portion for beef, maybe last time we did not order. I remember we ordered some dim sun last time and it was VERY good. Anyway I still recommend visit this one as they have a lot of options.

Three Happiness: the small Cantonese restaurant near the banner (Tian Xia Wei Gong) to China town. The seafood is good. It’s cheaper compared to the two I mentioned above.

Qi Bao: you need to walk a few blocks south after seeing the banner. This one is even more casual eats than Three Happiness. They serve kongee, noodles and wonton. I learned those two places from my friend.

Hong Ta Shan Zhuang: this one offers authentic Yu’nan (southwestern China) food. Remember ordering the Yu’nan Mi Xian there. It’s also in China, though on the new town side (the same side as Lao Sze Chuan).

Web sites
CTA (Chicago Transit Authority, they offers trains and buses, buy a multi-day pass if necessary)

Art institute of Chicago (museum)

Premium Mall (Aurora)

Combo deals:
Chicago CityPass (5 destinations for $69)

Chicago explorer pass (3 destinations for $52)

PT Cruiser
I rent the car from Enterprise near my home, this is a small rental office to serve the Lou Fuze car dealership. I booked an “intermediate”, and they offered the PT Cruiser to me. This is one small mistake I made, I should have booked “midsize” or “standard”. Usually Enterprise has a free upgrade in airport locations, but not this small office, as matter of fact they have to get the PT Cruiser from another office. Initially I was a little uncomfortable about taking this little car to Chicago, but the PT Cruiser turns out to be very good, except one minor problem: there is no guard/screen for the trunk.

GPS

In this trip, we tested out our newly bought Garmin Nuvi 755T GPS system. I have been to Chicago several times before, but thought it would be handy to have this device. It worked for us very well, my wife is especially pleased with the visualization portion. She think that gives her a lot confidence driving to a new place. I think this is largely true, besides one pre-caution: always pay attention to the car and the traffic. GPS is just a little electronic advisor. Process that piece of information along with other important info and make your decesion.

2016 Olympics
Chicago is the only US city to bid for 2016 Summer Olympics. Interestingly St. Louis is the first US city to host one. But nowadays Chicago is the only true international city in the Midwest US, and it has done some face lift to appeal the Olympics committee, e.g., the new Millenium Park, and the new Art Institute building etc. There are also a lot of condo developments along Michigan Ave. and lake.

Public transportation
To avoid the high parking fee at downtown, we parked our car at Cumberland station, and took the CTA blue line. Chicago has a pretty decent public transportation system, the train is not as fancy as the new ones in Shanghai, but they got job done.

Hotel choices
I used to think La Quinta Inn is pretty good, but after travelling and staying at Hampton Inn, Double Trees, Residents Inn (Marriot), I felt La Quinta is just ok. The unlucky part of this trip: they gave us a room near the door and it’s noisy. Slightly better than the room at Hampton Inn where the noise generated by AC/ice machine is unbearable.

Need to verify if a regular room at La Quinta is better.

Stay in downtown or stay in suburban
I stayed near downtown only once: Hyatt at McCormick. That was for CFA test. The downside for downtown is the price (including the parking fees); the upside is obviously close to the action.

Odds and ends
Bring some coins (quarters) as there are some toll roads, and there are no people at some toll exits (exact change is expected).

Did not go to “A taste of Chicago”, arguably the biggest food festival in the US (or world). St. Louis has similar festival which we went once. As I get older, I felt I can eat less and less.

I did not totally forget about stock market yet. This noon when I was in Chicago Culture Center, I hooked up my Nokia 5800 with the Wifi network. Interestingly I saw Exelon (the utility company serves Chicago, also the company is trying to acquire NRG Energy) signs in couple places: the skybridge connects Millennium Park and Art Institute is sponsored by Exelon. Because I own NRG stock, and Exelon is in a proxy fight against current NRG board, I received both letters from NRG and Exelon. Not surprising I voted according to NRG board recommendation, and did nothing on Exelon letter. One thing I noticed is the proposed Exelon board candidate is not really qualified to run utilities companies, they could be the “friends of Exelon” board.

Network
Back to travel, we are staying at La Quinta Inn Schaumburg, most things are ok except this silly network (managed by LodgeNet, a Nasdaq listed company, ticker symbol LNET). One problem I encountered is Google map and Google finance don’t work all the time. It thinks I was doing something fishy and says “in next 10 minutes you will only have 56k speed”. It’s like punish a kid for doing something wrong. Pretty much the much publicized Green Dam project. One thing I am aware of is I am using Mac. But the behavior of network is annoying, to say the least.

GPS

I used GPS once in early 2005. Helps quite a bit esp. on highway. But it does not mean a dummy can drive a car with GPS. To be continued…I will also talk about Chicago 2016 Olympics ambition, lots of condos in downtown (near Michigan Ave. or near lake Michigan), and my visit to Art Institute of Chicago (2nd trip, the 1st since the new annex opened)…

Anyway, back to Detroit. Interestingly I think the first record company Michael Jackson signed was Motown, which was found in Detroit (Yahoo Answer). I visited Detroit in 1999 and 2000, to do presentation before car companies (big 3) for automobile related research project. It was in early March, and I remember it was very cold. But I had very nice dinners at Fish Bone (downtown?) and another Italian restaurant.

Last time I visited Detroit, it was year 2005 and I just stopped by its airport (take NWA flight from DTW to Tokyo NRT).

This time I did not have time to visit downtown, and the Renaissance center. The news was pretty bleak in Detroit these days, but interestingly this Thursday GE is announcing build a research center in Detroit.

Maybe a good sign for change?

Beat it (YouTube).

More videos (powered by YouTube, complied by Trader1688).

Pictures: Michael Jackson Life and Times by Life Magazine.

Heal the world, You Tube link here.

1) The leaders such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) are retreating.

2) CIC is thinking about buying equities again, Renaissance Technologies is one option (last time CIC pulled trigger, it bought Blackstone pre-IPO at top).

3) Goldman Sach is selling. It sold a stake in ICBC recently.

4) Last but not least: US CEOs still pessimistic about economy.

Two leaders in this globe

China: it seems to me a lot of stimulus money flowed into stock market and housing market. Good for short term (bubble), but it did not fix any problem in the economy. BTW, China recently opened the IPO gate (Guilin Sanjin IPO in Chinese; English)

US: it’s still the king. But the market ran up too much in last 3 months. Need to take a break. From valuation point of view, I felt some US companies with global presence are more reasonably valued.

Commodity got killed in this market. Guess that’s why we call those commodity: they are the same no matter who produce it. I think in long term, companies provides non-commodity like product and service have more competitive edge.