Taste on X'mas Day

Cropwell Bishop Blue Stilton Cheese serve with Chile Merlot / Shiraz red

Cropwell Bishop makes one of the most consistent award-winning Blue Stilton cheeses available. Each cheese is hand made by methods that have changed little since the 17th century ... more

Compass Behavior at the South Pole

What is the direction the compass would point at when it was used at the South Pole (the magnetic pole)?

Answer:

• There is no fixed pointing direction if the compass was holding flat. Every directions, in the line of great circle, will go through the North.
• It will point at the ground and sky when it was holding upright.

In the words of Physics, the behaviour can be explained by the fact that magnetic fields coming out from the poles are vertical. The compass needle does not interact with the fields which is perpendicular in direction. But if we hold up the compass vertical. Then the needle, in the plan of the fields, will turn to align with the lines of fields.

The South Magnetic Pole is not static. It constantly shifting due to changes in the Earth's magnetic field. As of 2005 it was calculated to lie at 64.53 S, 137.86 E, just off the coast of Wilkes Land, Antarctica. That point lies outside the Antarctic Circle. It is moving north west by about 10 to 15 kilometers per year.

PS: Study shows that the poles have flip-flopped many times over the past four billion years. On average, polarities of the poles swap every few 100,000 years. There have been a number of suggestions that the poles are going to swap within the next 1,000 years.

Ref:

1. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99271.htm
2. http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Magnetic_Pole#Polarity
   

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Words of Taste

Some ways to describe wines
Acid :
Piercing, Thin, lean, stringy, Crisp, Fresh, Soft, Flabby

Tannin :
Astringent, Chewy, Aggressive, Hard, Firm

Alcohol :
Light, Rich, Powerful

Favours :
Dry, Dull, Dusty, Focused, Blod, Complex, Tart, Ripe, Rounded, Oaky, Toasty

Composition :
Supple, Fat, Full, Big, Structured, Steely

• Aggressive - a wine with acid that makes your gums sting or that dries up the back of your throat due to excess of tannin.
• Astringent - a wine in which the mouth-drying effect of tannin is very marked.
• Big - a full-bodies wine with lots of everything: fruit, flavour, acid, tannin and alcohol.
• Blod - a wine with distinct, easily understood flavours.
• Chewy - wine with a lot of tannin and strong flavour, but which is not aggressive.
• Complex - a wine that has layer upon layer of flavours.
• Crisp - a refreshing white with good acidity.
• Dry - not at all sweet
• Dull - a wine with no well-defined pleasing flavours. Often a sign of too much expousure to oxygen.
• Dusty - a dry, slightly earthy taste sometimes found in reds. Can be very attractive if combined with good fruit.
• Fat - full-bodied, unctuous
• Firm - well-balanced, well-defined wine; the opposite of flabby.
• Flabby - lacking in acidity, feeble
• Focused - a wine in which all the flavours are well defined.
• Fresh - young wine, with lively fruit flavours and good acidity.
• Full - a wine with a weighty feel in the mouth.
• Green - can mean unrip. But green leaf flavours are common in cool-climate reds, and greenness in association with flavours such as gooseberries or apples, imples the fresh, tangy flavours found in some white wines.
• Hard - a red with a lot of tannin or a white with too much acid, but uncompromising rather than aggressive. One step beyond firm.
• Light - low alcohol or little body
• Oaky - slightly sweet vanilla flavour, the toastiness and the butteriness a wine acquires from new oak barrels.
• Piercing - usually refers to high acidity. But fruit flavours can also be piercing if they are particularly vibrant.
• Powerful - a wine with plenty of everything, particularly alcohol.
• Rich - full, well-flavoured, with plenty of alcohol.
• Ripe - wine made from well-ripened grapes has good fruit flavour.
• Rounded - any wine in which the flavour seems satisfyingly completed, with no unpleasant sharpness.
• Soft - a wine without harsh tannins or too much acidity, making it an easy-going drink.
• Steely - good acidity and a wine that is firm and lean but not thin.
• Structured - Plenty of structure refers to a wine with a well-developed backbone of acid and tennin, but enough fruit to stand up to it.
• Supple - both vigorous and smooth. A description of texture rather than flavour.
• Tart - a very sharp, acid taste like an unripe apple.
• Thin, lean, stringy - terms for high-acid wine lacking in flavour.
• Toasty - a flavour like buttered toast that results from maturing a wine in oak barrels.

All About Wines

Building Blocks of Wine

Tannin

It is the stuff in red wines that stains the teeth and dries the month. It is also the flavour and texture of the wine. Tannin comes from the skin, stems and pips of the grape. So white wines don't have noticeable levels of tannie. Both tannie and acid act as preservatives can keep wines in bottle for years.

Acid and Sugar

Both are present in the juice of grape. Most of the sugar is turned into alcohol during fermentation, but some remain. Right proportion of acid makes the wine intense and refreshing.

Alcohol

It balances other flavours, for example softening the attack of the acid, and contributes to the intensity of the experience of the wine in the mouth.

(OZ Clarke's - Introducing Wine)

Red Wine Wheel

Black fruits
Blackcurrant, blackberry, dark plum and black cherry flavours.
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (Bordeaux is its homeland), Merlot (Chile's is good).

Red fruits
Soft flavours of strawberries and raspberries and sharper hints of redcurrants and red cherries.
Grapes: Point Noir

Herbs/spices
Wild flavours of herbs; peppery and aromatic spices; tastes such as chocolate or liquorice.
Grapes: Syrah(France) or Shiraz(Australia)

Styles of wines

Silky, strawberryish reds - RED FRUITS. Beyond Burgundy in France, the best Point Noir comes from California and New Zealand.
Food: red meat in rich sauce, roast or grilled red meats.

Intense, blackcurranty reds - BLACK FRUITS, maybe with a touch of RED FRUITS or HERBS/SPICES.
Food: roast or grilled red meats - especially lamb, duck and goose.

Juicy, fruity reds - RED or BLACK fruits, with light to medium intensity. This style has its birth in the New World and Chilean Merlot is the benchmark. The best wines are in the age of two years old.
Food: roast or grilled red meats, roast or fried chicken.

Spicy, warm-hearted reds - HERBS/SPICES, many combines this with RED FRUITS or BLACK FRUITS. Australian Shiraz is the wine to try.
Food: peppered steak, warming herby stews.

Mouthwatering, sweet-sour reds - RED FRUITS and HERBS/SPICES. Almost all hail from Italy and have a character that is distinctly different from international mob.
Food: Pizza and tomato-based dishes, (tannic) rich game dishes and roast or grilled red meats.

White Wine Wheel

Oaky
Wines with the toasty, buttery flavours that come from oak barrels.
Grapes: Chardonnay, Semillon (Bordeaux and Australia).

Fruity
Peachy, tropical fruit or honeyish flavours without the buttery overlay of oak.
Grapes: Chardonnay

Crisp
Fresh, clean flaovours with a bite, like lime, goosberry or green apples.
Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand).

Aromatic
Wines with intense floral or exotic fragrances such as lychees and rose petals.
Grapes: Gewurztraminer

Styles of wines

Intense, nutty whites - OAKY wines; the best are intense but subtle. Top-quality oaked-aged Graves and Pessac-Leognan from Bordeaux are Semillon blended with Sauvignon Blanc.
Food: creamy and buttery sauces, plain grilled white fish.

Ripe, toasty whites - full of OAKY and FRUITY flavours. The style was virtually invented in Australia, but it is also the hallmark of most Chardonnay in the USA and South America.
Food: grilled or baked salmon and tuna, creamy and buttery sauces.

Bone-dry, natural whites - the lightest wines in the CRISP zone. Won't find this stlye in the New World. Muscadet from the Loire Valley is the most neutral of the lot. Unoaked Chablis from Burgundy is the adaptable Chardonnay grape in a dry, minerally style.
Food: plainly cooked fish and shellfish, grilled chicken breasts.

Green, tangy whites - CRISP wines, but shading into FRUITY and into AROMATIC styles. Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand has tangy, mouthwarming flavours by the bucketful. Chile makes similar. The Loire also produces sharp-edged wines from Chenin Blanc.
Food: anything in tomato sauce, including shellfish, pizza, sushi.

Aromatics - they are AROMATIC zone, some are OAKY too. The best is by Gewurztraminer from Alsace. It packed solid with roses and lychees, face cream and a whole spice cupboard. It is wonderful drink with the Chinese spicy food.
Food: Thai and Chines food, smoked fish, pork.

中國畫的構圖

虛實
虛實有致是使畫面靈動的藝術手段，虛實之間可以相生相補: 太虛則無力、無所歸依，必須以實補之定神; 太實則畫面凝重阻塞，難有喘息之地，要以虛來調節緩冲。一般來說，空疏、輊薄、淡漠、稀少、遙遠、浮動等為虛; 密集、凝重、濃厚、繁多、近景、穩定為實。又有靜者、次者為虛; 動者、主者為實。

開合
也叫“分合”。開即展開、開放、開始，合即收起、合攏、結尾的意思。開與合在畫面上是一對矛盾的協調體。畫中有貫穿全局的大開合，同時還有若干小開合，小要服從大的指向，并起到豐富晝面構成的作用。開合處理得好，畫面才具有完整性。

空白
留白是中國畫構圖非常重要的形式美追求之一。空白之產生是跟中國畫觀察方法素有遺貌取神的特點有關 - 不追求客觀物象自然屬性的完整，而致力于主觀精神的傳達，因此，往往只是將物象最本質的特征、最能表達主題思想的形體作精心的取捨安排，而將可有可無的、與主題無直接關聯的內容完全刪除。所以空白不是“沒有”的意思，而是同形體、線條、色彩一樣，是構成畫面的有機組成部分，它不僅襯托主體，同時也擴大了畫面的意境，形成可視形象的外延聯想，把不盡如人意的部分代之以可以和主題相聯繫的、自由但卻是虛擬的聯想空間。因此它既是無形，也是有形，是一種“藏境”的手法，是筆不到而意到，意不到而神到。如果空白是作為物象之外的虛化處理手段，那麼，白也可以是黑。

空白有兩種基本性質 - 形象性和非形象性。形象性是指空白可以根據與空白相聯繫的物象進行直接聯想的形象空缺。形象性可分為單一性和多重性。

根據主體和形式美的需要，空白的安排一般有如下幾種方式 ：

• 天地的地方
• 雲霧、水流的地方
• 過於繁密的地方
• 主體周圍
• 不畫背景
• 形式美的需要

Vitamin & Nutrition

• Info link

Thiamine (B1)
Sources: Yeast, Pork, Legumes, Cereal grains, Rice (Whole grain)

Vitamin B₁₂ (cobalamin)
Sources: Meat & dairy products

中國畫的色彩

隨類賦彩
- 色彩以固有色平塗為主，物像固有色不受特定的時間和光暗的影響，其色彩變化，實際上只是在一色中或是突起部位用淺色，深凹處着重色，以表現物體的陰陽向背;或是凸出部分着濃色，以表現物象的強烈固有色，其餘部類則約略之。

對比調和
- 因强調固有色，所以不計中間色、環境色、光源色等，固常用兩種或以上對比色和近似色組合搭配，通過墨跡和留白的調節作用，使對比色在交匯中空間混合調和。

色不碍墨、墨不碍色
- 歷來主張以筆墨為骨，色彩為輔，互不干擾。傳統畫論有謂“以色助墨光，以墨顯色彩”，“色墨交融”。以此強調墨和色彩的對比關係。

艷而不俗，淡而不薄
- 受色料性質决定其用色，不能像油畫用很厚色。過厚反顯得薄相。所以講究一遍遍簿塗，追求淺中、薄中見深厚，主張艷而雅致，麗而不過，濃不堆垛，淡而有味，輕不黯然，淺中求神，薄中求厚。

Risk Management of Fixed Income Securities

Valuation is a process of finding the fair value of a security at a particular moment in time in a specified economic environment. Good valuation depends on the ability to reverse-engineer its cash flow structure (cash flow uncertainties, optionality, and path dependency) as a function of time-based systematic risk factors. According to the option pricing theory, the fair price of a security is defined as a mathematical expectation of all conceivable discounted future payoffs.

Because valuation models use information from the current economic environment (yield curves, foreign exchange rates, observed market prices, implied volatilities, and various credit spreads) as input. Therefore, prices of fixed income securities would change due to the inputs fluctuate. In this case, the job of risk management is to assess the risk associated with the market moves. Here, the knowledge of probability associated with potential losses is combined with the estimates of their magnitude to arrive at a "worst-case loss." In contrast to valuation that attempts to model the bulk of the probabilistic distribution of future returns, risk management is concerned with potential losses which found at the left tail of the future distribution of random returns.

Traders in the market use Taylor series expansions to study the price sensitivity of fixed income securities. The first-order approximation of the price/yield function is known as delta, or duration (as elasticity measure). The second-order approximation is called delta-gamma or duration-convexity.

Modified duration - a measure of price sensitivity of a fixed income security to changes in its yield-to-maturity. It is linked to the first-order term of Taylor series expansion. Modified duration is defined as the negative of the percentage change in price, given 100 basis point change in yield:

Modified Duration = - (1/P) (dP/dy)

Modified Convexity = 1/P (d²P/dy^2,) - estimates the degree of nonlinearity of the price/yield curve.

Macaulay Duration = (1+y) x Modified Duration - measure price volatility, i.e. larger the Macaulay duration, the more volatile the price of the bond. This simply implies higher risks for securities whose cash flows are concentrated in the future.

For n-year bond that pays fixed annual cash flows CF₁, ..., CF_n and its yield-of-maturity,

P = SUM ( CF_t / [1+y]^t) t=1..n

Modified Duration = 1/ (P x (1+y)) x SUM ( (t x CF_t) / [1+y]^t) t=1..n

Approximation of percentage change in price for a given change in yield is given by:

delta P / P ~= -Modifed Duration x delta y + Modified Convexity / 2 x (delta y)².

Extension of modified duration methodology uses annualized spot rate r_t at time t rather than yield-to-maturity. Even so, the fair value may still be different from that on the market because of the numerous assumptions built into the generation of static cash flows. In order to reconcile the values, practitioners introduced the concept of zero volatility spread (ZVO), defined as an additional constant element of discounting that forces the fair value to equal the market price:

P = SUM ( CF_t / [1+r_t+ZVO]^t) t=1..n

Liquidity risk is important among the most potent sources of market risk. However, due to the over-the-counter nature of the majority of fixed income markets, machanisms for recording completed transactions do not exist. Thus, traders use subjective judgement to set the bid/ask spreads for each asset class.

Eat the Rainbow

Look for the colors to eat is the way of rainbow diet. Some people believe that colorful food can strengthen the immune system and make the body fit. Studies show that pigments that confer the color to fruits and vegetables are laden with phytochemical compounds and antioxidants. Inside our body, chemical changes in the cells that use oxygen give birth to free radicals. Antioxidants, in theory, counteract and neutralize these harmful radicals.

There are five colors to eat (not necessary to has them daily):

1. RED pigment – find in red peppers, pimientos, tomatoes, apples, pink grapefruit, watermelon, etc. It contains the lycopene antioxidant, from the carotenoid family of pigments, which helps improving short and long term memory, protects and prevents from heart disorders and some types of cancer, e.g. breast and prostate cancer. Besides the antioxidant properties, lycopene is also a detoxifier of the waste in the body and inhibits cholesterol formation.
   
2. Yellow-orange pigment - find in in pumpkins, pears, carrots, saffron, oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, pineapples, bananas, mango, etc. It is given by the betacarotene, improves eyesight and helps heart to function accurately, strengthens the immune system, prevents against cancer and is an anti-aging and anti-wrinkling agent for the skin. Betacarotene is a photopigment usually related and connected to the vitamin A in plants. It is stock-piled in the epidermis, most precisely in the membranes of skin cells and in the subcutaneous fatty tissue. It absorbs the UV rays radiation (Carotene can also be stored in the liver and, when the body needs it, converted into vitamin A).
3. Green pigment – find in cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, endives, asparagus, spinach, nettles, kiwi fruits, green apples, beans, peas, parsley, pepper grass, green tea, etc. It is given by lutein, that improves eyesight, the bone system and also the teeth, protects and prevents our organism from cancer. Lutein is found all throughout our body, but it is very concentrated in the macula of the eyes. Moreover, the chlorophyll in green plants has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects and also purifies the blood from toxins and other waste.
4. Blue-violet pigment – find in grapes, plums, red cabbage and red beet, currants, figs, all kinds of berries, etc. It contains anthocyanines, which inhibit the cholesterol level in the blood and helps maintaining the flexibility of the blood vessels. Mixed with the beneficial effects of vitamin A or C, anthocyanins improve visual accuracy, improve blood circulation to the eyes and the nervous system.
5. White pigment – find in garlic, onion, mushrooms, celery, parsley root, cauliflower, etc. It contains one or more of the antioxidants mentioned before, depending in the fruit or vegetable. White plants have an anti-infalmmatory and anti-allergenic effect and also prevent cancer.
   

Money and Inflation

Money is nothing but a stacks of papers and numbers before you use it to buy things or services. Therefore, the value of money is equivalent to its purchasing power. A fall in the value of money is the same as a general rise in price of goods. We measure the changes in the value of money by observing changes in prices of a basket of goods which are commonly bought by the majority of people over given periods.

Inflation happens when purchasing power increases faster than the output of goods and services. The result leads to a general rise in prices. In HK, Consumer Price Index (CPI) relates to inflation of consumer goods and services affecting households. But CPI is different from the cost-of-living index in the effect of substitution. Due to the effect, people tend to buy more of the goods and services with relatively smaller price increases [or relatively larger price decreases] and less of those with larger price increases [or smaller price decreases]. Therefore, CPI tends to show larger price increases and smaller price decreases than the cost-of-living index over time.

Census and Statistics Department of HKSAR compiles four series of CPI based on the expenditure patterns of households in the relatively low, medium, and high expenditure ranges. Expenditure component and weighting:

• Food - 26.94 (26.67)
• Meals bought away from home - 16.86 (16.39)
• Other foodstuffs - 10.08 (10.28)
  
• Housing - 29.17 (29.91)
• Private dwellings - 23.93 (24.59)
• Public dwellings - 2.49 (2.07)
  
• Electricity, gas and water - 3.59 (2.98)
• Alcoholic drinks and tobacco - 0.87 (0.94)
• Clothing and footwear - 3.91 (4.13)
• Durable goods - 5.50 (6.24)
• Miscellaneous goods - 4.78 (5.70)
• Transport - 9.09 (9.01)
• Miscellaneous services - 16.15 (14.42)

Note: Figures in brackets refer to the corresponding year-on-year rates of change computed from the old 1999/2000-based CPI series.

The latest values are calculated from the base (=100) of Oct 2004 - Sept 2005.

The CPI(A), CPI(B) and CPI(C) respectively cover some 50%, 30% and 10% of households in Hong Kong. The Composite CPI (CCPI) accounts for 90% of the households with monthly expenditure ranging from $4,000 to $59,999.

The monthly household expenditures (in HK$) of these groups in the base period (i.e. October 2004 - September 2005) were $4,000 - $15,499, $15,500 - $27,499 and $27,500 - $59,999 respectively. The values for 1999/2000-based CPI series were $4,500 - $18,499, $18,500 - $32,499, and $32,500 - $65,999 respectively.

Taking into account the impact of price changes since the base period, the monthly household expenditure ranges of the CPI(A), CPI(B), and CPI(C) adjusted to the price level of 2006 are broadly equivalent to $4,100-$15,800, $15,800-$28,200 and $28,200-$61,500 respectively.

Inflation reduces the real value of money by reducing its purchasing power. This affects its role as a store of value. With further increases in the inflation rate, its role as a standard for deferred payments is underminded - difficult to get loan because lenders will demand a large forward rate for the risk.

There are five major causes of inflation that are operating in HK now:

1. Strong public demand for loans from financial institutions and households - money supply increases. (China)
   
2. Heavy government spending to reflate the economy, in order to finance budget deficits - if the increased output does not match up with the increased demand. (USA)
   
3. Successful and continuous demand for higher wages by the trade unions. (HK)
   
4. In times of rising inflation, an 'inflationary psychology' motivates people to spend savings quickly to avoid further decline in their money value. (China, HK)
   
5. Under fixed exchange rate - imported inflation through the price chain, raises the domestic price level. (HK)
   

Life is not a job but it is of buying and buying in HK.

Sony Ericsson P1i

Finally, I trade in the Motorola E6 for Sony Ericsson P1i. P1i using UIQ 3.0 based on the Symbian OS 9.1.

• The size of the built-in memory is 160MB as read from the specification. If read by Storage Wizard of the phone. Then the size is 134MB. P1i supports M2 Memory Stick 4GB max.
• Camera has built-in autofocusing system. When pressing the camera button half-way, the system will lock the focus.
• The phone already ship with Quickoffice ver 3.6.60.0 ZBRA-UIQ31 for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint viewing and editing. And PDF+ (ver is 1.69(78)) is the pdf file reader.
  
• Although not stated in the catalog, there is a pre-installed CN-EN & EN-CN Dictionary inside the phone.
• The video player support 3G H.264 movie format.
  

Symbian OS is a proprietary operating system produced by Symbian Ltd. It is a descendant of Psion's EPOC and runs exclusively on ARM processors. Symbian is currently owned by Nokia (47.9%), Ericsson (15.6%), Sony Ericsson (13.1%), Panasonic (10.5%), Siemens AG (8.4%) and Samsung (4.5%).

Symbian OS is built for handheld devices with limited resources. With Symbian-specific programming idioms such as descriptors and a cleanup stack and together with other techniques, the OS can keep memory usage low and memory leaks rare. Similar techniques are used for conserving disk space. Moreover, all Symbian OS programming is event-based, and the CPU is switched off when applications are not directly dealing with an event (through a programming idiom called active objects). Correct use of these techniques helps running longer battery life.

The structure of the OS is: base components (microkernel - scheduler and memory management), system libraries (character set conversion, a DBMS database, and resource file handling), networking and telecommunication subsystem (includes Bluetooth, IrDA, and USB), UIKON (OS's graphics, text layout, and font rendering libraries), Application Architecture, and other things like SyncML, J2ME, etc. For Application Architecture, there is a selection of application engines for popular smartphone applications such as calendars, address books, and task lists. A typical Symbian OS application is split up into an engine DLL and a graphical application - the application being a thin wrapper over the engine DLL. Symbian OS provides some of these engine DLLs.

OS 9.1 was first released in 2005. It includes many new security related features, particularly a platform security module facilitating mandatory code signing. OS 9.2 released Q1 2006. Support for OMA Device Management 1.2. S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 phones have Symbian OS 9.2. Nokia phones with Symbian OS 9.2 OS: Nokia N75, Nokia N76, Nokia 6120 Classic, Nokia E90, Nokia N95, etc. OMA DM is a protocol specified by Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) for Device Management (DM) purposes. It is a sub-set defined by SyncML. It support the following uses: provisioning, configuration of device, software upgrades, and fault management. OS 9.3 released on 12th July 2006. Upgrades include improved memory management and native support for Wifi 802.11 and HSDPA.

UIQ , previously known as User Interface Quartz, support touch screens with a resolution of 240x320 (ver 3). Depending on the phone, the color depth is 12-bit (4096 colors), 16-bit (65536 colors), or 18-bit (262144 colors) on some newer phones. UIQ v3.1 is the latest version of the platform. In addition to the pen-based UI, it also support one handed operation and a number of significant enhancements.

MathML

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Show Me the Money!

Money Supply
Hong Kong's three-tier Banking System comprised of banks, restricted license banks, and deposit-taking companies. Hong Kong has three measures of money supply:

1. Money Supply definition 1 (M1): The sum of legal tender notes and coins held by the public plus customers' demand deposits placed with banks. HKMA maintain separate measures of Hong Kong dollars and foreign currency and add them together to measure M1. Here, foreign currency does not refer to foreign coins and notes. It counts the banks' holding foreign currency deposits.
   
2. Money Supply definition 2 (M2): M1 plus customers' savings and time deposits with banks plus negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs) issued by banks held outside the banking sector.
3. Money Supply definition 3 (M3): M2 plus customers' deposits with restricted license banks and deposit-taking companies plus NCDs issued by these institutions held outside the banking sector.

Restricted licence banks may take time, call or notice deposits from members of the public in amounts of HK$500,000 and above without restriction on maturity. Restricted licence banks generally engage in activities such as merchant banking and capital market operations.

Deposit-taking companies are restricted to taking deposits of HK$100,000 or more with an original term to maturity of at least three months. They engage in a range of specialised activities, including consumer finance, trade finance and securities business.

Data and chart from HKSAR Monthly Statistical Bulletin:





Question: Why there is a negative growth of domestic credit in May 2007? According to HKMA, M1 exhibits a significant seasonal pattern, whereas there is no strong evidence of seasonality in broad money (M2 & M3).

Liquidity Preference Theory
Keynes's liquidity preference theory emphasized the sensitivity of money demand to changes in interest rates. Keynes hypothesized that people allocated their wealth between two assets: money and "bonds". The expected return on bonds is determined by the interest rate on bonds adjusted for expectations of capital gains or losses. For money, defined as the sum of currency and checkable deposits (M1), Keynes assume the return is zero (if interest rate is going to rise and hence expect a capital loss on bonds, then the zero return may outweigh the negative return on bonds).

The demand of money can be expressed by

M/P = L(i,Y,X)

M/P - real money balance = amount of purchasing power people wish to have on hand. In other words, it represent the purchasing power of money holdings.

where
M = amount of dollars that people wish to hold
P = price level
i = general level of interest rates
Y = real income
X = other factors such as the availability of money substitutes, political stability, etc.

In general, M/P decreases as interest rate increases. M/P increases as Y increases. On the other hand, consider P remains unchange, the increase of nominal money supply M will shift the money demand curve so that interest rate will fall. Finally, for constant supply of money M, the price level increases will cause the interest rate to rise.

Before Keynes, in the early 1900s, Irving Fisher introduced the term velocity of money V in his model of money demand. V represents the average number of times a dollar is spent in the economy each year on a purchase of goods and services. Fisher described velocity using transactions, rather than income or output. [Gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of output. But it is not a perfect proxy of transactions because it does not count the purchase of assets such as bonds, mortgages, installments, etc.] Fisher defined the velocity of money as

V = PY / M,
where Y is the aggregate income, and the total spending on goods and services is P x Y.

Equation of exchange MV = PY, states that the quantity of money times the velocity of money equals nominal spending in the economy. Assume that V is constant, then the demand for real balances is proportional to the level of transactions.

M/P = (1/V) Y

As the real incomes of households and businesses increases, they will conduct more real transactions. Therefore, the public's demand for money rises with real income. Putting this into Keynes's liquidity perference theory and rewrite the equation of above we have

V = Y / L(i,Y)

Because of the elasticity of Y, it does not change as the interest rate change. Then, V will change as the interest rate i change.

Question: What will happen to Hong Kong if USA start to cut the interest rate this year?
Follow the argument of above, we can see if interest rate fall then the real money balances will increase. If Y does not change (assume there is no wealth effect on stocks rising). Then V will decrease.

What time is it?

What time is it?

codes:

onclick="alert('Do you know you are the best! Today is ' + Date())"

Price Bubbles in Laboratory

Overreactions, Momentum, Liquidity, and Price Bubbles in Laboratory and Field Asset Markets
The Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets, 2000, Vol. 1, No. 1, 24–48 by Gunduz Caginalp, David Porter, and Vernon L. Smith.

The authors concluded that

• Futures markets, dividend certainty, and low liquidity tend to dampen the bubble
• Margin buying and limit price change rules tend to exacerbate the bubble
• All other treatments examined (e.g. short-selling, capital gains taxes, brokerage fees, and call markets) were neutral in their effect on the bubble

HKEx Announces Plans to Suspend the Tick Rule in its Securities Market (Aug 3, 2007)
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announced today (Friday) that its securities market's tick rule will be suspended in the fourth quarter of this year, subject to the approval of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

The tick rule bars short sales below the best current ask price. It constrains trading activities and thus undermines market efficiency and price discovery. Related short selling restrictions require that a short selling transaction must be automatically struck through the electronic trading system, AMS/3, during the Continuous Trading Session.

How small can you see?

For most people, the closest comfortable viewing distance, termed the near distance for distinct vision is approximately 25cm (10in). A comfortable viewing distance is also one at which the angle of view is approximately 60°; at a distance of 25 cm, this corresponds to about 30cm, approximately the diagonal of an 8×10 inch (25 x 20cm) image.

Circle of confusion diameter limit (“CoC”) is defined as the largest blur circle that will still be perceived by the human eye as a point when viewed at a distance of 25cm. At this distance, a person with good vision can usually distinguish an image resolution of 5 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm), equivalent to a CoC of 0.2mm in the final image. In this case, a circle is indistinguishable from a point if it is of ~0.03mm (1/850in) diameter or less on the print.
[Note: if an 8x10 inch original image is contact printed, there is no enlargement, and the CoC for the original image is the same as that in the final image. However, if the long dimension of a 35mm image is enlarged to approximately 25 m (10 inches), the enlargement is approximately 7 times. The CoC for the original image is 0.2mm/7, or 0.029mm.]

Resolution lp/mm (1000:1) / Grain RMS
Fuji Reala 100 -- 140 / <4
Fuji Superia 100 -- 125 / 4
Fuji Superia 200 -- 125 / 4
Fuji Pro 400H (NPH) -- 125 / 4
Fuji Astia 100F -- 140 / 7
Fuji Velvia 50 -- 160 / 9
Fuji Velvia 100 -- 160 / 8
Fuji Velvia 100F -- 160 / 8
Fuji Provia 100F -- 140 / 8
Fuji new Sensia 100 -- 140 / 8
Ektachrome 100vs -- 100 / 11
Ektachrome 100 -- 100 / 11
Ektachrome 200 -- 125 / 12
EliteChrome EC 100 -- 100 / 11
EliteChrome 200 -- 125 / 12

Diffraction limit of lenses
At 50% contrast between detail and background, the resolution power is limited by the diffraction limit. The diffraction limit (lp/mm), by approximation, is given by 1000/n where n is the aperture. For example, the value of an f/8 macro lenses is 1000/8 = 125 lp/mm. With the criterion for resolution of 5 lp/mm of above, the largest enlargement factor will be 125/5 = 25.

With modern films and lenses we can enlarge the image 20 - 25x of the original, i.e. in the size of 29 x 19 - 36 x 24 in.

Hyperfocal Distance
The nearest distance of acceptable sharpness = 0.5H; furthest distance = infinity.
The hyperfocal distance of a lens is calculated by

H = F² / (30 x f), where

the value is calculated using a "circle of least confusion" of 0.03mm and
F = focal length (mm), e.g. 28mm wide-angle lenses
f = aperture f/ stop value, e.g. at f/16

Sunny f/16 Rule
Films are designed to give correct exposure with the sun high in the sky (e.g. on a bright day in the northern hemisphere) when the lenses aperture is set to f/16 and the shutter speed at 1/ISO rating. You can fine tune / check the camera's meter by adjusting the offsets of f/16 when the speed is at 1/ISO. For example, for ISO 100 film, f/16 +/- 1/3 at 1/100.


Reference:
Diffuse RMS (root mean square) measures the size of dye clouds, or grain as it was called with black & white film. RMS is simply a measurement of the variability in density using a densitometer trace across an area of even tone. Film with RMS 5 is twice as grainy as film with RMS 4. Resolution is lower in dark (low-contrast) areas than in bright (high-contrast) areas, so is measured at 1.6:1 and 1000:1 contrast levels, specified in line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm); double this number to get dots per millimeter. Sharpness is measured by MTF (modulation transfer function) at different values of lp/mm; numbers show where MTF crosses below 100%.

Liquidity Premium

In equity markets with limited arbitrage, liquidity also matters. Liquidity denotes the ability to trade in large quantities quickly, at low cost and without moving the price. Because the prices of long-term securities are more sensitive to interest rate movements. Therefore investors will be willing to hold them only if compensated with a premium for the lower degree of liquidity.

Stocks, also referred to as equity securities, have no maturity and therefore serve as a long-term source of funds. Equity securities differ from debt securities in that they represent partial ownership. Investors can earn a return from stocks in the form of periodic dividends and a capital gain when they sell the stock.

Interest rate movements have a direct influence on the market values of debt securities, such as money market securities (Treasury bills, CDs, Commercial Paper, Federal funds, Repurchase Agreements), bonds, and mortgages (capital market securities), and have an indirect influence on equity security (stock) values.

Loanable Funds Theory - net demand for funds (ND) is the difference of the aggregate demand for funds (D) and the aggregate supply of funds (S).

ND = D - S > 0, interest rate rise; < 0, interest rate fall.

D = D_h + D_b + D_g + D_f ; S = S_h + S_b + S_g + S_f
where,
h = household demand/supply of for/of loanable funds
b = business demand/supply of for/of loanable funds
g = government demand/supply of for/of loanable funds
f = foreign demand/supply of for/of loanable funds

Money - Water and the Financial Crisis

Below is a very good comment by Buffett on the financial crisis induced by the default of subprime in USA

Marking to Myth
Many institutions that publicly report precise market values for their holdings or CDOs and CMOs are in truth reporting fiction. They are marking to model rather than marking to market. The recent meltdown in much of the debt market, moreover, has transformed this process into marking to myth.

Because many of these institutions are highly leveraged, the difference between "model" and "market" could deliver a huge whack to shareholders' equity. Indeed, for a few institutions, the difference in valuations is the difference between what purports to be robust health and insolvency. For these institutions, pinning down market values would not be difficult: They should simply sell 5% of all the large positions they hold. That kind of sale would establish a true value, though one still higher, no doubt, than would be realized for 100% of an oversized and illiquid holding.

In one way, I'm sympathetic to the institutional reluctance to face the music. I'd give a lot to mark my weight to "model" rather than to "market."

Warren Buffett
Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway
(Aug 17,07)

Financial markets provide liquidity for us who hold financial instruments but are in need of money for making payments for goods and services. In the world, only money in your pocket / wallet is the thing that holds perfect liquidity. In general, money earns the lowest rate of return of all assets traded in the financial markets, and its value can be eroded by inflation easily.

Business firms, banks, and thrifts rarely can perfectly match the maturities of their assets and the maturities of their liabilities. In other words, volume of cash flowing in rarely matches flowing out.

Financial institutions use two methods to meet their liquidity requirement:

1. Asset Conversion - selling selected assets, such as deposits or government securities, that holds to cover a pending cash need.
2. Libability Management - calls for borrowing enough liquidity. The borrowing institution uses interest rates to bid in the financial marketplace for cash it needs. Among the most popular source of borrowing liquidity are selling deposits, borrowing in the money market, or from the central bank.

Nikon New DSLRs 2007

NEW size formats

D3 switches between the FX and DX format automatically depends on the lenses mounting to the body.

It is interesting to note the following differences:

• Both camera do not have ISO 100 or below
• The image size of the FX format is smaller than the DX format
• D3 has dual CF card slots that can function simultaneously in different modes (e.g., one RAW, one JPEG)
  
• Both camera support CF Type I/II, UDMA Mode 2
  
• D300 has self-cleaning senor unit for dust-reduction but D3 does not
• D300 storage system support TIFF (RGB) but D3 does not
• Both camera support HDMI 1.3a output to HDTV
  
• D3 is ~$20,000 cheaper than Canon EOS-ID Mark III
• Canon EOS-1D Mark III support UDMA Mode 3 (note: UltraDMA Mode 2, specified in ATA/ATAPI-4, the max transfer rate is 33.3MB/s. UDMA Mode 3 which is specified in ATA/ATAPI-5, the max transfer rate is 44.4MB/s)

A detailed comparison table has been prepared. However, there is a page gap when the table was formatted by my customized CSS. Please scroll to read the contents.

DSLR

	D3	D300
Effective Pixels	12.1M (4256 x 2832)	12.3M (4288 x 2848)
Size Format (CMOS Image Sensor)	FX (36 x 23.9 mm), new 5:4 (30 x 24), and DX	DX (23.6 x 15.8 mm)
Sensitivity	ISO 200-6400 [Lo], can be set to ISO-equivalent 25,600 [Hi2]	ISO 200-3200
Continuous shooting	9 fps [FX, 5:4], 11 fps DX]	8 fps DX
Response Time	0.12s startup, 37ms shutter-release time lag	0.13s startup, 45ms shutter-release time lag

NEW size formats

Apple in the Dark

If the world is dark, do you know the apple is falling off when there is no sound?
Half falling? Half hanging?

Another question is : Does it exist? ...