HK - the land of construction

Originally drafted in July 08, but not tended to until now. Here is a photo of how nonstop Hong Kong construction is. They dig up the concrete of the Tram (electric train which costs 25 cents to ride), WHILE the tram is live. When the Tram approaches, they gather their equipment and move the earth-mover to the side. Upon moving forward, (which is where I took the pic from), they resume digging!

Japan in Taiwan

Taiwanese have an affection for all things Japan, probably due to their close "history" (Japan occupying Taiwan). Here you see a Baskin Robbins inside a Matsusei supermarket (large enough to have its own parking lot) - note the Japanese writing below "Baskin Robbins".

The Proof is in the Pudding: Google's YouTube ad revenue short of expectations

Google's $1.65 Billion-Dollar-Baby, named "YouTube", just disappointed investors with an unexpected revenue shortfall. They did bring in $200 Million in sales, but this was less than expected. Have they even earned a single cent for Google since the acquisition in October 2006? Who knows... doubtful, when you have a business model that's predicated on illegally-obtained web traffic. They themselves recently decided not to place ads within the videos of copyright-violating videos (that means that they are aware of and know exactly where copyright-violating videos are). This however does not mean that they will not sell site ads which run while illegal videos run on the site.

Nugget: Google's stock closed at 429 on 10/9/06, the day of the announcement, and now trades at about 540. 14% annualized return, which isn't bad given Nasdaq fell about 2% during the same period. But who knows what it would've been without having ingested that fat, illegal, baby.

Burn.

Wii Game: Fishing Master

This is a Japanese Wii game, called Fishing Master. After you catch a fish, this is the type of screen the pops up, with the fish animated, swimming about. Stunning, just stunning.

Expensive Jelly

Food: Loquat Jelly
Origin: Japan
Store: Citysuper Times Square, Hong Kong
Cost: HK$ 25 (about 3 USD)
Rating: 2/5 stars - there was a decent amount of fruit in here, whole pieces. However, the fruit had a grainy texture, not sure if that's just an inherent feature of the fruit. The jelly was.... well, jelly.

Another small win against copyright infringer YouTube

Another small victory in the fight against behemoth online video host YouTube, as the Law has ruled in favor of plaintiff Viacom (the lawsuit was combined with a similar case filed by a British soccer league and other parties) that parent company Google provide the data which will show whether YouTube viewers are viewing IP-protected videos disproportionately more than other videos. Viacom is seeking over $1 Billion in damages. This ruling will give Viacom full access to YouTube's non-personally identifiable viewer histories.

Fight the Power!