Dubai Signage

Here we have two non-PC signs in Dubai:


All I have to say is that this was taken in Dubai...

YouTube (STILL) has no business model

Two years and $1.65 Bn later (not including operating expenses for the last 2 years), YouTube and daddy Google still have not figured it out yet.

Popppppping

Clip of girl doing her popping...

Spain's Basketball team of Bigots

I guess it's not all that surprising to read that the Spain's entire olympic basketball team posed for a photo while posing as Chinese, stretching their eyes to look "Chinky". What can you expect from a bunch of jocks? I'm glad it wasn't the US team, although this reminds me of how Shaq made "ching-chong" sounds when talking to Yao Ming years ago. But still, they are at the largest sporting event in the world, so they should have some sensibility. By the way, the Spanish women's bball team posed for a similar photo.

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.