Sunday, September 30, 2012

2012年9月29日 事有QK 時窮節乃見 (DBC 數碼大聲台) 黎則奮、陳海琪

節目主持: 黎則奮、陳海琪,節目版權為「香港數碼廣播公司」所有。



Saturday, September 29, 2012

火星發現古老河流證據 (原載《明報》)

【明報專訊】「我在火星找到一條古老河牀的證據,跟地球上的河牀很似。」美國火星探測車「好奇」號前日在Twitter上宣布。美國太空總署(NASA)表示,在「好奇」號上月降落的火星隕石坑發現有古老河牀碎石,證明火星表面曾經有急流。科學家過去也發現過火星曾經有水的證據,但發現河牀碎石乃是首次。

圓石證曾有急流
這些河牀碎石是在蓋爾隕石坑(Gale Crater)北緣與夏普山(Mount Sharp)之間的區域發現。根據「好奇」號傳送回來的圖片,碎石大小介乎沙粒至高爾夫球之間。「好奇」號科學家威廉斯(Rebecca Williams)說,碎石曾被外力運送,但以石頭的大小研判,這種外力不會是風,「我們認為碎石是被一條急流、用水力運送的」。科學家估計水流速度約為每秒3呎(約0.9米),水深在人的腳踝到膝蓋之間。因為不少碎石都是圓形,所以太空總署認為碎石是經過一條叫Peace Vallis的河道運送到蓋爾隕石坑。

另一名「好奇」號科學家迪特里希(William Dietrich)說﹕「這是我們首次真實地看到經水流運送過的火星碎石。」但他不確定這條火星上的河流到底存在了多久,他說﹕「很難知道這條河流了多久,估計可能是幾千至幾百萬年。」

「好奇」號於上月6日降落在蓋爾隕石坑中心山脈的山腳,旨在探索火星過去及現在是否有適宜生命存在的環境。美國加州理工學院科學家格勒青格(John Grotzinger)說﹕「火星是否適宜居住,不是有水無水這麼簡單。當然有水,生物就有可能生存。」

Market Up And Down With No Direction

As equity stock market is buoyed at a level close to all-time high, there are speculation of market direction in both upside or downside movement. In general, market participants have little confidence in stock market. On the other hand, investors have plenty of capital but are worry of the economy, therefore in preference of safe haven of cash or equivalent to other form of wealth assets.

The financial crisis has passed for four years. While many people are still staying away from equity stock market, it has slowly recovered back to the level before the financial meltdown in 2008. During this recovery period, the economic growth is only mild but the stock market rebounds strongly back to pre-crisis level. Therefore many investors does not believe that market can sustain at current level and remain on the sideline with cash.

Stock market capitalization has almost recovered the value before the financial crisis. Economic activities in monetary term shrinks because the population is more cautious on spending due to uncertain economic environment thus fear on income stability. This explains the pessimism of individuals in the financial market which triggers the collapse of financial assets. The confidence in financial assets would not be restored until job growth resumes to the level when economic activities is growing at the rate before the financial crisis.

The financial crisis froze capital liquidity suddenly. The consequence is that both individuals and corporations are now very cautious on financial management and thus constrains economic activities. But as technology and innovation drives the economy on the whole, increase in productivity results in more wealth generation. As a result, although economic activity stalls, it generates wealth at record amount. Unfortunately, income inequality and concentration of wealth leads to uneven distribution. The rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer. Since the wealthy elite constitutes only a small portion of the population, market sentiment remains weak despite record level of global wealth.

Performance of equity stock market is not as expectation of the general public. The demand for equity stocks as wealth asset is weak from households in general. On the other hand, global wealth is growing fast. Surplus capital is flooding the financial system with hot money on speculation. Smart money began to accumulate stocks of large corporations since the bottom of financial meltdown. The buying strategy for long term investment has been successful. As broad market index is approaching to all-time high level, market participants begin to worry of lagging behind with too much cash on hand. The growing amount of cash on investors hand generates upward pressure on large cap stocks with dividend.



Stay Long Stocks and Pray for a Dip: Macke
With a week left in the third quarter the bulls are winning 2012 in a blow-out. The S&P500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average are up more than 15%, 20% and 10% respectively. The advance is twice the gains foreseen even by the notoriously perma-bull strategist camp which was collectively looking for about a 7% gain when polled last December.

With a week left in the third quarter the bulls are winning 2012 in a blow-out. The S&P500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average are up more than 15%, 20% and 10% respectively. The advance is twice the gains foreseen even by the notoriously perma-bull strategist camp which was collectively looking for about a 7% gain when polled last December.

The tape has been climbing this wall of worry all year. In the attached clip my Breakout co-Host Matt Nesto says it's time for investors to come back to earth. Ticking through much of the above Nesto says he thinks the "market is weird right now and it's very difficult to invest in."

The world is lousy but not getting much worse. Fund managers are way behind and individuals have money on the sidelines and a growing sense they're missing out in equities. It's not a great bullish thesis but it's the best one we have for now. Investors should be so lucky as to get a dip.

Goldman Sachs: 'Cliff' to Hit Stocks Next Quarter
Goldman chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin writes that the S&P 500 should fall sharply after the election when investors finally realize that there is a possibility that the so-called "fiscal cliff" will not be resolved smoothly. He says the majority of investors expect to see the fiscal cliff avoided in the lame duck session of Congress, but Goldman sees a one-in-three chance that Congress will fail to address the issue.

Kostin expects the S&P 500, starting this week at 1,460, to fall to 1,250 by year end and then rise back to be at 1,350 in 12 months. Meanwhile, many big investors lag the S&P's 18 percent advance year-to-date, with the typical levered investor seeing a return of just about 6.7 percent. Only 8 percent of hedge funds are outperforming the S&P, he notes.

When Stocks Might Hit New All-Time Highs
It's a bit of a puzzle: The U.S. economy is weak, Europe is close to a recession and there are a number of other things that could go terribly wrong. Yet stocks have been inching higher and are getting close to peaks last attained in 2007, before the Great Recession knocked them down.
So Wall Street analysts are starting to ask a daring question: What will it take for stocks to reach and exceed their prior highs?

As always, there's plenty that could disrupt this optimistic scenario. One way Washington could avert the fiscal cliff is to simply put off the day of reckoning on which tax hikes or spending cuts will go into effect. That would provide some breathing room for the economy, which may not be ready for such austerity measures. But it could also lead to further downgrades in the U.S. credit rating if there's no plan to address the mushrooming national debt.

The last time that happened, in the summer of 2011, investors shrugged it off and nothing really changed about America's ability to borrow. That could happen again. But every downgrade will bring the U.S. government closer to a crunch point at which investors may lose confidence in Uncle Sam and start to demand higher rates to loan America money. At some point, higher borrowing costs could be the thing that triggers a bona fide debt crisis.

Then there are the usual worries, such as a Middle East war involving Iran or other countries, and a chaotic breakup of the euro zone. But investors have been digesting those sorts of risks for a while, and have learned to take them in stride. There's always something that can go wrong, but you have to prepare for things going right, too.

Wall Street Is Evil Just Like You, Ex-Trader Explains How to Deal
Wall Street versus Main Street. Us versus Them. The 99% versus the 1%. The "entitled" 47% and the wealthy refusing to pay their "fair share." The 2012 election is about class warfare. Far from trying to bring the two sides together the media and politicians on both sides are fanning the flames, hoping to get another vote with every angry soundbite.

"You have to understand that on the trading floor we incentivize these people to take risk," says Terri Duhon, author of the book How the Trading Floor Really Works. What she means is that traders get paid to take risk with other people's money. That's how banks work. When the risk goes right the client makes money and shareholders cheer. When the risk goes south, it's an entirely different matter.

Honeymoon Over as Markets Brace for Volatility
The message from this week's sell off in global stock markets could not be clearer: the summer time rally, fuelled by optimism over central bank stimulus measures, is now over and it's time to brace for a period of renewed volatility and uncertainty, analysts say.

The U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 8.1 percent in August, has remained stubbornly high and analysts say a sustained fall in the rate is one thing investors, who appear to be moving to the sidelines, will be watching out for before they move back into equities.

"There's too much uncertainty for investors at the moment so many are sitting and waiting," Jill Cuniff, Portfolio Manager at Edge Asset Management in Hong Kong told CNBC on Tuesday.

Investors Warned: Step Away From the Kool-Aid
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi has said he will do "whatever it takes" to defend the euro and Ben Bernanke's Federal Reserve has gone to infinity and beyond in an attempt to revive the U.S. economy, but a growing number of market watchers are beginning to doubt unconventional monetary policy will actually work.

Analysts at Barclays believe the ECB and Fed are sending investors a "buy risk" signal and believe that even with stocks high, central bank action will be as well received as it was when the Fed and ECB intervened in December 2011.

"Weak but stabilizing global growth, excessive macro pessimism, light positioning, and elevated uncertainty about the policy outlook should give risky assets a boost, possibly beyond Q4," said Guillermo Felices, the head of currency strategy at Barclays said on Thursday.

Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Don’t Stimulate the Economy: Report
In less than a week Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama will face off in the first of three debates. The focus is domestic policy, and taxes will undoubtedly be a key topic.

President Obama wants to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all but those earning more than $250,000. Romney wants to extend those tax cuts for all including top earners, cut individual rates another 20%, and eliminate the capital gains tax, making up for all revenue losses by closing loopholes.

Both plans assume that tax cuts help boost economic growth but a new report released by the Congressional Research Service questions the impact of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The nonpartisan CRS says cuts in the top marginal tax rate and top capital gains tax rate "do not appear correlated with economic growth."

The report says cutting top tax rates don't appear to boost saving, investment or productivity, or the size of the economic pie, but do seem to increase disparities in income.

S&P 500 to Hit Record High in 2013: Strategist
With three months to go in 2012, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's head of U.S. Equity and Quantitative Strategy Savita Subramanian is one of the first on Wall Street to make a call for 2013.

She's forecasting the S&P 500 (.spx) will hit a record high in the year ahead and top out at 1,600. The current all-time high for the S&P 500 was set on October 9 2007 when it hit 1,565.
In a note from the firm, she says: "our 2013 year-end target of 1,600 implies a ten percent return where most of the appreciation can be attributed to earnings growth of seven percent."

Subramanian also worries that consumer spending will drop in the fourth quarter and that the U.S. could be in for another credit downgrade.

Friday, September 28, 2012

DBC吊命 下月定生死 (原載《爽報》)


香港數碼廣播有限公司(DBC)將於下月9日召開股東大會,屆時會為DBC的去留作最後了斷。對於有員工辭職,DBC表示尊重,但本周日不會有新聞報道,而下周一以後的運作亦會受阻滯,但承諾會盡量維持正常服務,希望觀眾見諒。

DBC行政總裁何國輝稱,今天召開的董事會是善意舉動,亦確定了會支付9月所有支出和員工薪金。他亦指,從不把電台當生意看待,認為是社會責任,而自己這兩天均度日如年兼非常掙扎,因公司負面消息不斷,令廣告商卻步,生活癱瘓。

創辦人之一的鄭經翰(大班)則指,一直以來均盡力支撐,現要靠觀眾支持,甚至有聽眾送錢到電台,為此感到非常慚愧,同時又諷指自己「半隻腳踩了入獄」。

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

紀曉風: 大班「被禁制」今突封咪 DBC停播CY被指黑手 (原載《信報》)


昨日起開始進入停播前最後100小時倒數的香港數碼廣播電台(DBC),幾乎肯定已是「1比99」,即只得1%機會,卻是九成九肯定會因以股東黃楚標為首的一方拒絕注資,最終陷入財困,在正式啟播僅一周便即停播收場,同時成為香港史上最短命的電台。

停播在即,DBC創辦人兼台長兼大股東鄭經翰,昨早在其個人節目《風波裡的茶杯》中忽然爆料,直指DBC被政治打壓停播,幕後黑手實乃特首梁振英,而一直被 誤中副車的是中聯辦,「5月尾開董事會佢(黃楚標)仲同意注資,但一個月後CY上場,佢哋即時反面」;據悉,中聯辦曾透過不同人士向「大班」傳達訊息,表示並沒有參與打壓DBC。

至於梁振英,特首辦發言人就指有關說法並無事實根據,不予評論;不過,他打壓電台疑早有前科,特首選舉期間,他就被踢爆早在2002年前,因不滿商台處處跟政府打對台,欲透過行政手段打壓商台,把電台牌照由12年大縮至3年,多年後雖然舊事重提,惜最後也不了了之。 然而,當年在商台續牌風波中淪為「受害人」的「大班」,卻經歷悲劇重演!他當時一度被迫短暫封咪,而最新消息,黃楚標已在昨日傍晚向法庭申請禁制令,禁止大班再談論DBC事件,令大班在今早節目結束後,將再踏上「被封咪」舊路。

DBC停播在即,創辦人兼台長「大班」鄭經翰,昨早就在個人節目《風波裡的茶杯》中忽然投出一枚甚令人震驚的政治炸彈,爆料指原來DBC最終落得停播下場,是因有股東在執行政治任務,然而幕後黑手,卻非一直由他宣之於 口的中聯辦,反而是在上任後民望與誠信同樣破產的特首梁振英。

大班把矛頭直指梁振英,如此嚴重的指控,焉能無的放矢?他在節目中就娓娓道出指控的理據。據大班透露,DBC在今年5月中試播,他跟一眾城中重量級名嘴組成「復仇者聯盟」主持陣營,讓《風波裡的茶杯》重現大氣電波;同月底,DBC 召開董事會,會上黃楚標等人對電台營運方向並無異議,同時更同意各股東一同於6月底前再向電台注資5000萬元,「如果當時係唔滿意,就已經出咗聲啦,唔使之後忽然轉軚」。

據悉,跟中聯辦熟稔的黃楚標當時在董事會中,不單未有對節目風格表示不滿,甚至大讚大班「把炮」,指他擁有很廣的人脈,甚至連中聯辦副主任李剛都支持他開咪。

老紀問過大班,他未有評論是否真有其事,但就直言之前指中聯辦是幕後黑手的說法是誤中副車,「應該唔關中聯辦事」。老紀向政圈打聽,消息人士就透露,其實前特首曾蔭權亦曾向「大班」轉達訊息,表示打壓DBC一事,跟中聯辦主任彭清華(據引述消息,有人曾在電台董事會中不同意DBC聘用某主持人,原因是彭清華不滿意)無關。

至於指控幕後黑手為梁振英,大班就解釋,第一個原因是CY早有打壓電台的前科,更重提在特首選舉期間,梁振英被踢爆在 2002年時,於行政會議中,曾提出在商台續牌申請一事上,利用行政手段把牌照年期由慣常的12年大減至3年,以「回報」商台當時處處狠批董建華政府的作風。就此,梁振英的選舉對手唐英年,當時出任工商及科技局局長,亦為行會成員之一,在選舉論壇中證實有關消息,當時梁振英更指對方誹謗,並稱會對唐英年採取法律行動追究,但最後不了了之,而事件亦被淡忘,「唔關中聯辦事,咁仲有邊個可以在背後發功?梁振英當年不滿我同毓民的節目惹火批評政府,想封殺我,現時十年後捲土重來,手法仲變本加厲,我認為表面證供已經成立,可以提堂」。

大班推測,被打壓跟有人未上任已民望低迷不無關係,「中間成個6月,發生好多事,我哋全部鬧得好勁,好似林鄭月娥講丁權我哋話佢係『吹水娥』,仲有李旺陽事件同CY自己僭建,CY知道自己弱勢,再咁被人鬧法唔掂」。

老紀翻查資料,以史上最低民望當選特首的梁振英,確如經歷「六月飛『傷』」,因為整個6月份,幾乎每星期都被捲入負面新聞。先有6月頭六四鐵漢李旺陽「被自殺」,他處處作迴避不欲回應;及後他為求令「五司十四局」能在7月前上馬,竟無視程序公義,強行想讓架構重組議案在立法會上「打尖」;之後就有林鄭月娥為丁權問題解畫,指自己只是「吹水」;至6月底,梁振英再被揭發不單隱瞞家中有多處僭建,在回應時更大話連篇,令外界嘩然,令他的民望進一步插水。

對於大班的指控,老紀問過特首辦,發言人指有關說法並無事實根據,故不予評論。不過,梁振英最近在回應新界東北發展計劃時,就計劃目的是為促進深港融合,雖然有數之不盡的官方文件證實,但一樣指有關說法沒有事實根據,加上當日最終難以證實的商台續牌事件,梁振英是否幕後黑手,相信只有天知、地知及他本人才知。

不過,大班再淪為「被害人」,卻是必然的事實。大班日前曾發出最後通牒,向黃楚標一方表示願以半價出售己方陣營的四成股權,又或願以半價購回對方的股份,通牒限期為昨日傍晚六時,最終黃楚標一方並無回應,DBC今天下午三時將再「嘗試」召開董事會,商討電台的下場,但大班已打定輸數,直言意興闌珊,早已預計自己會封咪。

其實,黃楚標一方亦非全無「回應」,只是回應方式,是向法庭申請了禁制令,禁止大班再談論DBC事件。大 班向老紀表示,禁制令由黃楚標單方面發出,「傍晚先通知我,我想抗辯連機會都冇」!有關禁制令被安排今早10時開庭處理,大班直言,如禁制令落實,他若違 反隨時換來坐監收場,所以極大可能被迫封口,在今天早上主持可能是自己最後一次的節目後,將會「提早封咪」。據悉,有關禁制令是針對大班早前接受傳媒訪問,其中披露了董事會的會議內容,大班批評:「有人都有接受訪問話我亂噏,既然係亂噏,又使乜出禁制令?」

翻查資料,鄭經翰對於「被封咪」 似乎經驗甚豐,連同今次共有六度封咪紀錄,勢成為香港主持人的歷史。早在1989年時,於商台主持《高談闊論》,因大談六四事件,在曹廣榮的壓力下首度要封咪;然後,在1995年時,與黃毓民等主持亞洲電視節目《龍門陣》大受歡迎,及後因言論惹火,再被迫封咪;及後,他獲俞琤邀請轉投商台主持早晨政論節目《風波裡的茶杯》,獲得「十點前特首」的稱號,但影響力亦令他受到襲擊,在98年時因被斬傷而被迫短暫封咪。

2002年,商台爆出續約風波,大班當時為息事寧人好令商台順利續牌,曾向商台申請休假以自我封咪;至2004年5月,他又以受到壓力為由,宣布暫時休假,期間俞琤突宣布解僱他,令他第五度被迫封咪,而他就轉投政界參選2004年的立法會選舉,更成為當屆九東票王。

對於DBC面臨被停播,鄭經翰又指幕後黑手是特首梁振英,老紀就此向商務及經濟發展局查詢,該局發言人回應,指留意到香港數碼廣播的事件是股東之間的爭拗,政府在這方面沒有角色可扮演。但老紀獲悉,十分詭異的是,昨日下午三時,大班曾親往商經局,當面向局長蘇錦樑交代事件,及至傍晚六時,已收到黃楚標的律師通知,將會申請禁制令禁止他再談DBC事宜。老紀曾聯絡黃楚標,惟至截稿時仍未獲回覆。

2012年9月22日 事有QK 中年危機 (DBC 數碼大聲台) 黎則奮、陳海琪

節目主持: 黎則奮、陳海琪,節目版權為「香港數碼廣播公司」所有。





Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Apple Co-Founder Wants to Be Australian Citizen


Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, would like to become an Australian citizen, The Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday, citing the rollout of Australia's national broadband network as one of the reasons for the move.

The idea behind Australia's $38 billion National Broadband Network is to allow all Australians to have high-speed Internet access by 2021.

"It's one of the reasons why I actually like this country and want to become a citizen," the publication reported Wozniak as saying. "I live in a country where we don't have any regulation of telecommunications."

Wozniak told the Australian newspaper that his home in California was not connected to a broadband service, referring to the options available to him as a "monopoly."

Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Jobs and created the original Apple computer. He left Apple (AAPL), now the world's most valuable listed company, in 1987, and is an author and philanthropist.
According to the Review, Wozniak, who was in Australia last week during the launch of the iPhone 5, told a local radio station that he was "underway to become an Australian citizen."
"It turns out I can keep my American citizenship. I intend to call myself an Australian and feel an Australian, and study the history and become as much of a real citizen here as I can," the newspaper quoted Wozniak as saying.

Wozniak lined up outside the Apple store in Chermside, Brisbane, on Friday to buy the iPhone 5, the Review reported.
Earlier this year, Facebook's (FB) co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship. Saverin is a citizen of his native country Brazil, but is a permanent resident of Singapore, where he has lived since 2009.

Monday, September 24, 2012

數碼廣播董事會取消 鄭經翰稱電台隨時倒閉 (香港電台)


數碼廣播原定下午召開董事會,但大股東兼台長鄭經翰表示,另一股東黃楚標等沒有來開會,會議取消。他說,已沒有錢支薪給員工,電台可能隨時倒閉。

鄭經翰說,目前的狀況難以經營下去,要與員工開會商量。他又表示,黃楚標等提出改星期三開會,但認為對方沒有誠意。

數碼廣播的股東早前出現注資分歧,已遣散大部分員工,電台本月初舉行員工大會,表示會削減開支維持經營,電台之前屬於試播,其後已按照發牌條款,在上星期五正式啟播。

Saturday, September 22, 2012

【漫畫奇俠】吳大維 王祖賢 (YouTube)



【尹光-少理阿爸】(MTV) 及二次創作【少理老蕭】(兒童不宜)





釣島鬧雙胞 蘋果地圖災難 被轟為求趕絕Google犧牲質素 (原載《明報》)


搶地圖定位廣告商機 遭揶揄講酷不實際

【明報專訊】蘋果新推出的地圖錯誤愈揭愈多,變成公關形象災難。有亞洲用戶發現,地圖裏竟然有「兩個」釣魚島,愛爾蘭一個農場被誤標成機場,更引來官員抨擊危及公眾安全。眾多用家批評蘋果為了趕絕對手Google,寧可轉用質素較差的地圖產品,《華爾街日報》更直指「蘋果轉錯了」。專家形容今次是蘋果近年罕有的產品錯誤,不易解決。


迅速認衰 聘專家補鑊
面對外界狠批,蘋果昨迅速「認衰」,表示會努力改善地圖軟件服務。蘋果在最新的iOS 6作業系統中,放棄自iPhone面世以來就使用的Google地圖,改為使用資料來自荷蘭TomTom公司的地圖系統,但系統自周四正式推出後劣評如潮,錯漏問題包括小鎮失蹤、地名搞錯、串錯字和資料不詳等。最近成為中日主權爭議焦點的釣魚島亦有錯誤,蘋果地圖中可以找到「兩個」釣魚島。大中華用戶輸入「釣魚島」搜索時,地圖會用英文顯示名稱,所點位置為釣魚島附近海中心;當輸入日本的稱呼「尖閣諸島」時,手機會在其中一個釣魚島上顯示坐標,但沒有名稱。

不過外國傳媒報道指出,日本當地民眾以「釣魚島」時搜索,地圖僅標註了坐標和方位信息,以「尖閣諸島」搜索時,相應位置則會顯示出這4個字,詳細說明更標註出「尖閣諸島」屬於「日本沖繩縣石垣市」,顯示不同地方的地圖版本,會在爭議地域上有不同取態。
農場當機場 恐釀空難
蘋果舊有的Google地圖中,地圖上會在同一地點,同時標示「釣魚島」、「魚釣島」、「釣魚群島」、「尖閣諸島」等中日兩國各自使用的名稱。有用家戲言,蘋果新地圖今次出現「兩個釣魚島」,是蘋果為中日爭議「提供外交解決辦法」。

新地圖的錯誤亦可能影響航空安全。愛爾蘭首都都柏林外圍一農場,在地圖內被標示為機場。愛爾蘭司法部長抨擊,若小型飛機機師遇上緊急情况又缺乏其他資訊下,有可能視農場為降落地點。除標示錯誤,部分地名亦張冠李戴,英國「Doncaster」(唐卡斯特)誤串成「Duncaster 」;三藩市的金門大橋與實際位置相差4英里,英國倫敦大型火車站帕丁頓(Paddington)不知所終,芬蘭赫爾辛基火車站則變成一座公園,依賴新地圖導航的旅客隨時迷路。
地圖錯誤百出引來全球用戶炮轟,有用家特意開設「神奇的iOS 6地圖」網誌諷刺蘋果,並讓用戶「舉報」錯誤。用家斥蘋果即使知道地圖有缺陷,但為求趕絕對手Google,寧可犧牲用戶。改用iOS 6的iPhone用戶,現只能透過手機瀏覽器用Google地圖。
專家﹕問題廣泛難修正
消息指早在iPhone 5推出前,蘋果已發現地圖有問題,在上周已刊登多個招聘廣告,盼聘請熟悉電子地圖的工程師「補鑊」。專家形容,今次是蘋果近年罕有產品問題,理論上雖可透過更新糾正地圖的錯誤,但由於問題太多又廣泛,加上蘋果的專長並非開發地圖,要解決問題非易事。《華爾街日報》也直指,蘋果作了一個罕有的錯誤策略決定,今次「蘋果轉錯了」。

iPhone 5開售 首日炒價漲四成 (原載《明報》)



來自深圳的王先生(左)即場在蘋果專門店外,向本地水貨客(右)以港幣8000元現金購入一部原價5588元的16GB iPhone 5。王自言新機只是自用,不會轉售 …

【明報專訊】蘋果iPhone 5昨日在港開售,一如以往,首批新機成為中港兩地水貨客爭奪對象,以2500元至3000元的溢價向首輪買家收購,至昨晚收購價仍然堅挺未見下跌;蘋果專門店外,內地客收機價格明顯較香港水貨客高,有本地水貨客收集新機後更是直接向內地水貨客大批兜售。有內地水貨客直言,早上收購約20部手機後,下午即有接頭人乘飛機送到北京散貨。

內地水貨客聚蘋果店外 即日飛北京散貨
國金二期的蘋果專門店今次改變排隊售機做法,改為安排買家先在網上登記,再抽簽派籌,收到確認電郵的客戶可以訂兩部新機。昨日網上有流傳香港蘋果網站的網上訂機網頁有設計漏洞,令客戶訂機的頁面可被其他人輕易進入,然後取消訂單,但昨日不見有人到蘋果專門店投訴。有蘋果員工解釋,客戶訂機後公司會有紀錄,不會因網頁再被登入而取消訂單。

昨晨7時,近百名被抽中的「果粉」已在蘋果店外排隊,有保安及警員維持秩序,經確認買機資格,8時正入店內取機。排頭位的張小姐笑言,前日以個人身分證號碼登記一次,就成功訂購一部白色iPhone 5,感覺「猶如中大獎」,但由於自身是忠實「蘋果迷」,遂無意將其變賣。而抽中兩部32GB黑色iPhone5的張先生卻稱,因新機功能無甚驚喜,會盡快格價放售兩部電話,免價位太快滑落。

雖然新機設計被評無驚喜,「炒情」亦一度被唱淡,但昨現場所見iPhone 5仍有價有市。早上9時起,蘋果店外開始湧現30至40名收機買家,有本地亦有內地水貨客,都帶着大疊現金準備收機。僅一句鐘,銷情最好的16GB新機已由原價5588元被炒至7600元再到8000元,漲價逾四成,最高價至8500元。

銷情理想 先達店日收180部新機
來自深圳的水貨客透露,因眾人「互爭生意」以致不斷抬價吸引賣家,更着記者有興趣可親自到深圳關口,與接頭人鄭先生放機,每部16GB的新機可售7000元人民幣(約8600港元)。他又叮囑要在下午2時前交收,因鄭要馬上搭機到北京散貨,但未知當地機價。在旺角先達廣場,昨午一直有人聯群結隊放售iPhone 5。零售商數碼匯負責人阿勇稱,全日約收180部新機,但因16GB機種早被搶購一空,所收新機多為32GB或64GB。整日銷情相當理想,至黃昏已轉售出九成即近160部,客戶不乏兩岸三地人士,多數一次買入5至6部又不拆封檢驗,估計會再轉手至內地。另亦有小量俄羅斯及日本人問價。

Friday, September 21, 2012

Hot Money On Speculation Buoys Market

Equity stock market ends flat for the week. After the surge on QE3 news in the previous week, market appears to lose direction. On one hand, market speculators finally confirm the third round of quantitative easing. On the other hand, market participants are worry of a sudden market collapse which will cause investors to run for the exit door. Therefore market participants are keeping the core portfolio to benefit from market appreciation which is now close to record high. But the majority portion of portfolio remains in cash, treasuries, and corporate bonds.

As global wealth is growing at a steady pace, capital flow creates turbulence in wealth assets. But investors continue to avoid equity stocks. However, the growing capital base prefers to park in the safe haven of money market. Investors with more risk appetite would allocate capital in corporate bonds. As market is hovering on hot money, investors are gaining confidence and the demand for stocks of large corporations are increasing because of stable growth and attractive dividend.

While broad market index stays atop, investor confidence remains low. Individual investors are still waiting for market collapse to pick up bargains. Therefore trading volume is relatively low. However, day trading activities have increased due to more participation from institutional investors and hedge funds as well as market manipulators. As mentioned in earlier posts, market stays on a slow upward trend while economic woes cause oscillations, hence opportunities for speculators.



Fed Juices Stocks--but Bears Are Sniffing
Stocks could stay on an upward trajectory for the time being, while bruised bears sniff out the next trouble spot for markets.

The Federal Reserve's new round of quantitative easing and promise to keep policy easy well into the future propelled stocks and other risk assets higher, putting the Dow less than five percent away from its all-time high in the past week.

"For a period of time, the markets will give the central banks the benefit of the doubt," said Barry Knapp, head of U.S. equity portfolio strategy at Barclays. "You would expect the downside would be limited over the next six weeks or so, but there's some major questions about the effectiveness, from a macroeconomic standpoint."

Stocks have racked up double-digit gains since June, despite prognosticators' expectations that the market was heading for a summer sell off.

Fears of the fiscal cliff - the year-end expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and automatic spending cuts - top the list of lingering concerns that could halt the market's climb. But there are others, including earnings slowdown. The weakening dollar, however, could help the earnings of multinationals.

"By our reckoning, the third quarter is going to be the trough," said Richard Bernstein, CEO of Richard Bernstein Capital Management. "The rates of change should actually run more positive unless we hit a profit recession ...The problems that you're seeing I would argue are more related to the dollar and weakness around the world. Domestic companies seem to be doing okay." Bernstein said he remains bullish and does not see warning signs of a bear trend.

For now, he is also looking for an increase in volatility and a minor pullback, of about five percent after the summer run-up. "I don't think now is the time to be chasing this rally," he said.

How Fed's 'Shock & Awe' Will Affect Investors: O'Neill
The Federal Reserve delivered more than expected last week and in doing so changed the way investors will have to look at the economy, Goldman Sachs investment chief Jim O'Neill told CNBC.

Under normal circumstances, the central bank has what is known as a "dual mandate" - the responsibility of using monetary policy to ensure both maximum employment and price stability.

But the move to implement quantitative easing until unemployment stabilizes means the Fed, which announced the move Thursday, is focusing far more on jobs than it is worrying about the inflation that critics worry QE will cause, O'Neill said.

Study: Tax Cuts for the Rich Don't Spur Growth
Cutting taxes for the wealthy does not generate faster economic growth, according to a new report. But those cuts may widen the income gap between the rich and the rest, according to a new report.

A study from the Congressional Research Service -- the non-partisan research office for Congress -- shows that "there is little evidence over the past 65 years that tax cuts for the highest earners are associated with savings, investment or productivity growth."

In fact, the study found that higher tax rates for the wealthy are statistically associated with higher levels of growth.

The finding is likely to fuel to the already bitter political fight over taxing the rich, with President Obama and the Democrats calling for higher taxes on the wealthy to reduce the deficit and fund spending. Mitt Romney and the GOP advocate lower marginal tax rates for top earners, saying they fuel investment and job creation.

There is one part of the economy, however, that is changed by tax cuts for the rich: inequality. The study says that the biggest change in the distribution of U.S. income has been with the top 0.1 percent of earners - not the one percent.

The study said that "as top tax rates are reduced, the share of income accruing to the top of the income distribution increases" and that "these relationships are statistically significant."

In other words, cutting taxes on the rich may not grow the economic pie. But the study found that those cuts can effect "how that economic pie is sliced."

Earnings Magic? Big Rebound in Profits May Be Coming
Corporate earnings are expected to be just short of awful in the third quarter and then stage a a fairly dramatic turnaround the rest of this year-and analysts believe the rebound will last into 2013.

Analysts, in fact, are betting that a confluence of factors - the ending of what some hope is just an economic soft patch, an influx of newly minted money from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, and a presidential election, to name three - will help change the earnings story.

That has come amid worries over persistent economic weakness as unemployment stays above 8 percent, consumers retrench and geopolitical troubles in Europe and Washington continue to boil.

Yet earnings projections say the slowness will be short-lived.

While this quarter could see earnings per share declines of 2.1 percent, growth is expected to hit 10.2 percent in the fourth quarter and 11.7 percent for 2013, according to Reuters estimates.

But Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG in New York, cautions against reading too much into the earnings projections as a signal of economic strength.

Instead, he says, the numbers are inflated by "base effect," which simply means that because growth was so weak a year ago - particularly in the fourth quarter of 2011, when earnings barely moved - this year's numbers have a very low bar to clear.

For their part, companies continue to take down their third-quarter expectations, though the negative ratio has come down some over the past four months. Currently, a net 10.2 percent of the S&P 1500 companies have issued negatively revised forecasts, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

That isn't stopping investors from buying into the notion that the stock market can keep rising even if earnings don't quite meet their lofty expectations for future quarters.

"You're at the point in the cycle where earnings growth slows down. That's undeniable," Greenhaus says. "But even moderate earnings growth is still earnings growth, and that's the point of the cycle in which we find ourselves."

What This Rally Needs Now Is Fresh Converts to Buy Into It
Oh baby, what an awesome party that was. Like a two-week wedding in a remote Mediterranean village, the recent seven-session market feast just kept bringing out the food and wine. But now what? How can we ever top that? Like most events, improving on them means making them bigger, and in the case of this market, that's going to require fresh blood (e.g. money) to get in the game.

Given that investors have been pulling money out of stocks in favor of bonds all year, the new era of anything goes central banking may be just enough to win some converts.

"I think you're going to see those outflows largely slow down to a trickle and possibly reverse," says Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Group, in the attached video. "If that does happen, that will add fuel to the fire, give more buoyancy to the market, lift the tide and give the market a push into year end."

To that point, Kenny says the key indicator to watch is the money, or more specifically, the money flow. Any decrease in the retreat, so to speak, could mean we've turned the corner and not only gotten some burnt bears to surrender, but to join the chase.

"At the end of the day, money flow is what smart money looks at," Kenny says. "We're at one of those inflection points where you might see money starting to come back in."

High-Frequency Trading: It's Worse Than You Thought
High-frequency trading, which already has a sullied reputation, is even worse than the critics have charged, a new survey shows.

The Federal Reserve of Chicago recently asked 30 firms associated with the industry -- traders, exchanges, vendors and others -- to evaluate where HFT stands in the wake of a series of high-profile blowups.

A broader question, though, could be why the nation's central bank is so concerned about irregularities in the stock market.

Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx in New York, suggests one answer: That the Fed's quantitative easing programs hinge on an efficiently functioning market.

The Fed last week announced the third round of QE, an open-ended program to purchase $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month until the economy recovers enough to drive down the unemployment rate.

Central to the Fed's easing policies is the "wealth effect" created by rising stock prices.

"The upshot is that the Federal Reserve is right to be concerned about market structure, in that a strategy of boosting stock prices is predicated on the notion that people believe them," Colas said in a research note. "The Federal Reserve probably needs to rethink how stock prices 'transmit' information to consumers and businesses. The game is changing. Quickly."

Near Perfect Conditions Suggest 30% Rally for Stocks in Next 12 Months: Hays
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear," Mark Twain once said. For investors, Twain's words seem particularly timely right now, given the transitioning state of unease that has been gripping the stock market for the first full week of the post-QE3 era. In fact, if you talk to veteran strategist Don Hays, of Hays Advisory in Nashville, he'll say that what we need right now is a little more fear and the conditions would be absolutely perfect.

"We've looked at the last 50 years, and when you have conditions very similar to today — with monetary policy extremely positive, valuations extremely positive, and psychology a little queasy here — you still have very high odds that in the next 12 months you're going to make money," Hays says in the attached video.

In fact, 50 years of analyzing these three variables has shown that when they do all line up, there's an 84% chance that stocks will be higher in the next 12 months by an average of 26%.

Monday, September 17, 2012

2012年9月15日 事有QK 一個人的生活 (DBC 數碼大聲台) 黎則奮、陳海琪

節目主持: 黎則奮、陳海琪,節目版權為「香港數碼廣播公司」所有。



Sunday, September 16, 2012

傅家俊信心爆棚爭入主賽圈 (原載《東方日報》)


傅家俊近況甚弗,加上對手實力一般,晉級機會樂觀。

總獎金高達40萬英鎊(約510萬港元)的上海桌球大師賽今日開打,上演8場賽事,香港「一哥」傅家俊及「長青樹」戴維斯均在最後一圈外圍賽上陣,迎戰中國「二打六」對手爭入32強。(now637周一下午2時30分及晚上7時30分直播)

高手列陣卡士強勁
上海大師賽為今年開季以來最具分量的排名賽,儘管「火箭」奧蘇里雲高掛免戰牌,但參賽陣容依然星光熠熠,除衞冕的「一哥」沙比外,還有「75雙傑」威廉斯和希堅斯、「花花公子」卓林普、中國「神童」丁俊暉及剛訪港獻技的「墨爾本機器」羅拔臣等。

早前在英國獲得PTC(球員巡迴賽)亞軍的傅家俊,今午2時半亮相與中國小將呂昊天交鋒,上周六飛抵上海、昨更抽空走訪龍華寺的的Marco,坦言PTC賽已提升起狀態和信心,希望打出水平爭勝。傅家俊若躋身正賽32強,翌日(18日)晚就要火併北愛球星麥克艾倫。

假波案戴維斯證實清白
不久前涉打假波的戴維斯則對中國新丁朱英輝,由於世界桌球總會宣布:「找不到任何證據,故戴維斯沒有賭波嫌疑。」看來「老球王」可專心應戰。

同日還上演兩場首圈賽事,分別由威廉斯對麥克戴維斯、史提芬斯對佩利。

Saturday, September 15, 2012

彌敦道驚現「露鳥男」 (原載《東方日報》)


【本報訊】旺角彌敦道熙來攘往,驚現裸男。互聯網及網上討論區昨日出現一名男子公然在鬧市裸露下體,但途人視若無睹的片段,警方表示無收到有關報案,但會跟進了解事件。

片段僅長十多秒,應是在巴士上層居高臨下拍攝路面情況,只見一名穿上黑色衫男子裸露下體,公然站在旺角彌敦道一間茶餐廳門前翹起雙手。雖然行人如鯽,但有些途人只是望一眼,大部分人更似乎並未察覺,無人理會他。在香港討論區,網民「蒼海飛絮」說:「一個男人最悲哀的事莫過於此,露咗都無人睇得到。」、「sam1682828」回應說:「太細,睇唔到。」

有信貸評級機構調低美國評級

信貸評級機構 Egan-Jones 將美國信貸評級由 AA 下調至 AA-,主要考慮到聯儲局推新一輪量寬措施可能會損及美國經濟。

評級機構指,量寬措施出台會推高商品價格,繼而抑制企業的盈利能力,以及令消費成本上升,削弱消費者的購買力,這將不利美國經濟,影響信用質量。

Friday, September 14, 2012

維園亞伯文生大起底 (轉載)

話說71遊行後, 小弟7月4回LA, 7月5 半夜兩點幾 在Arcadia 的24 hours Fitess center 的 sauna room, 見到維園亞伯文生, 於是扮唔知佢係乜水, 同佢吹下水索下料.

summary 如下:

- 原來文生 97 前己全家移民, 做左美國人, 佢全年祇有 summer 才回LA, 其餘時間都在HK.
- 文生在油麻地做小販 出身, 現在HK 住九龍塘, 車位租出去已夠交管理費
- 佢識上海街成安記 (楊x成老豆) 同 莊靜x (李超人外父)
- 在Arcadia 買左間 house, 在HK 擁在多間出租物業
- 兄弟姊妹97 前己全部移民英, 美, 加
- 佢話一年前己收到料話梁振英會做特首
- 明報, 信報都信唔過, 每日一定要睇新報
- 詹培忠及葉劉上次投票唔聽話, 所以9月冇得做議員
- 問佢點解會移民, 佢掩半邊嘴細細聲在我耳邊講 "話就話一國兩制, 共產黨信唔過架!"

喊足17次 roll得一次機 梁思浩控訴被星爺玩謝 (原載《蘋果日報》)


周星馳貴為香港影壇一哥,幾乎人人對他俯首稱臣,不過他出名得罪人多,梁思浩昨日接受now訪問,大爆當年拍戲曾被星爺虐待,不但問他:「死過老竇未呀?」更要他喊足17次卻只roll一次機,思浩發誓以後就算乞食,都不再拍星爺的戲。

周星馳最近被舊愛于文鳳追討7,000萬佣金,昨日梁思浩接受now的《娛樂審死官》錄影訪問踩多腳,大爆94年拍《國產凌凌漆》時被星爺虐待,他說:「98年喺無綫已經識佢,當時大家都係TVB藝員同事,我哋合作拍劇集《大都會》,佢做我哥哥,之後大家做咗朋友,佢第一架車都係我賣畀佢,大家感情幾好。」

寧做乞兒唔再拍
94年,星爺開拍電影《國產凌凌漆》,當時思浩在天津拍劇,收到星爺劇組人員的電話,基於兩人交情,他特地返港助星爺,講明是一萬元一組戲,他說:「去到片場見到周星馳,以為我哋係好朋友,就叫佢做星仔,點知佢冇理我,工作人員話要叫佢導演,我走埋去問佢:『導演,你要我點拍呢場槍斃打靶戲?』佢好大聲答:『喊呀,你識唔識喊呀做演員?』」

當時思浩不以為意,還指自己在圈中出名喊得,星爺聞言即說:「咁勁呀!哦,好呀,而家講你打靶,拍啦!」思浩再問他要點喊?星爺竟說:「死老竇呀,死過老竇未呀?死老竇咁喊俾我睇,唔使對白,1、2、3、4咁數數到100。」結果思浩喊到聲嘶力竭,怎知星爺都不收貨,還發火勁鬧:「唔得呀,我要你死老竇呀,死兩次嗰隻呀!」結果他喊足17次,由朝早10點喊到凌晨5點。

拍完後,導演李力持走過來跟思浩說:「除咗第一take外,之後都冇roll機。」思浩才知被星爺當馬騮玩,他眼泛淚光說:「雖然喊咗成晚,但收工我都喊住走,我同自己講,就算將來做乞兒,我都唔會再拍周星馳啲戲。」故幾年後有製片找他拍《食神》,思浩都寧願推掉。

Wealth Effect Triggers Market Rally

Market continues to surge as market participants chase equity stock assets. Market rebounds strongly after long term investors unload portion of the portfolio in the previous week. There are not many traders that want to dump stocks to take profit. The majority of market participants are rich on cash and are waiting for buying opportunity.

During the last pullback, long term investors unload portion of the portfolio. But the shares are quickly absorbed by investors waiting with cash on the sideline. The news push market to advance further. After only a few days, long term investors realize that they have sold the shares cheap and are not willing to sell more shares even though at a considerably higher price.

Although market reaches highest level in four years, there is no symptom that market manipulators are going to short sell the market. Back in last year, market manipulators loaded up with stocks and began to dump stocks after reaching year peak. But currently market manipulators are sitting on mostly cash with little stocks to dump. It seems that short selling is prone to high risk of short covering rally. Therefore the risk of market crash is significantly reduced as market manipulators are used to be the initiator of panic selling.

Institutional and individual investors see that the threat of market crash is decreasing and investors are attracted by higher return of equity stocks. Since the pullback in the previous week, capital is flowing into equity stock market and moves broad market index to multi-year high. The flow would continue as investors are herding on speculation.

Although market manipulators have not successfully created any panic selling in this year, there are still uncertainties in the economy. While market is buoyed at a level within a few percent of record high, market participants remain very cautious and cash or equivalent and corporate bonds are still preferred over equity stocks in the wealth portfolio. However investors are holding large amount of cash and are worry about the shrinking purchasing power of paper money. Therefore the pool of hot money looking for return is increasing. Besides the core portfolio, traders are holding stocks only for short term gain on market speculation.



Earnings Growth Has Peaked But Stocks Can Still Do Well: Liz Ann Sonders
One of the big fundamental concerns about the stock market right now is the level of corporate profit margins, which are at a 60-year high.

Thus, some investors are concerned that today's super-high margins will soon correct to more normal levels, taking earnings down with them. And if earnings drop, the theory goes, stocks will tank, too.

Liz Ann Sonders, the Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, has looked at this question in detail.

She found the following:
•U.S. corporate profit margins are indeed at nearly 60-year highs
•Part of the reason for this is that American companies are now getting a big percentage of their profits from international operations, so the profit-margin-to-US-GDP is less meaningful than it once was
•Domestic profit margins are also high as a percentage of GDP, but not as stretched as overall profit margins
•Most importantly, stocks can still do well even when earnings growth rates are falling and margins are peaking


Sheila Bair: More Fed Easing Won't Make Banks Lend
Additional easing from the Federal Reserve won't result in more bank lending, Sheila Bair, the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday.

"If I had any confidence [that] it would help lending support real economic activity, I would say go for it, but there are significant risks," Bair said.

She said central banks have become the only game in town in both Europe and the U.S., but "QE is not resulting in more lending."

Instead of the Federal Reserve, Bair said it's Congress that should be working on policies to address unemployment and the country's fiscal issues.

Without congressional action, the Fed is in a difficult position, Bair noted, adding "I don't think QE3 is going to help, and I think there's a risk to it."

She also sees issues with big banks being able to substitute long-term funding with cheaper insured deposits. "I want the big bank funding costs to go up, because they had implied subsidies before the crisis," she said. "But the problem is the Fed is letting them roll out the long-term debt onto insured deposits which are explicitly guaranteed by the government."


Markets' Next Bogeyman? Looming Inflation
Creeping inflation could be the next big swing factor in equity markets, particularly if central banks continue to inject more liquidity into the markets, a number of economists and strategists have warned.

Food price fears have been heightened around the world after extreme weather affected farming in the U.S. Midwest.

In China, there are also worries about foreign companies moving production back home, rather than outsourcing it to China because of the country's rising wages.

The blame for rising inflation has been placed squarely at the feet of central banks' and governments' response to the financial crisis, particularly the focus on additional liquidity and bailouts of troubled economies and companies.

"The central problem is that there is $8 trillion of excess leverage in developed markets and $10 trillion more government debt today than in 2008," analysts at Credit Suisse wrote in a research note.

According to Credit Suisse, this could have a positive impact on equities, "given that inflation expectations are the main drivers of valuation multiples."

The bank believes that equities could function as a "hedge on inflation" - until expectations rise above 4 percent.

Saxo Bank's Jakobsen argued that the U.S. Federal Reserve should not announce the expected third round of quantitative easing.

"The Fed don't need to do QE3 but I think they will. Doing nothing is what we need now," Jakobsen said.

"They've done too much and got entrenched in the macro. We're forgetting that the micro is doing well."


Moody’s, S&P fighting last, wrong war
To hear Moody’s Investors Service tell it Tuesday, if Congress and the White House don’t get their act together, the risk of holding U.S. debt will intensify.

Of course, one can argue that a struggling U.S. economy would lead to less tax revenue for the American government, therefore worsening the fiscal condition of the U.S. government. Yet no serious expert is actually making that case. The CBO, for instance, says the budget deficit would shrink by nearly $500 billion in just the first year if the fiscal cliff is triggered. From a current 7.3%, the budget deficit will shrink to just 0.4% of gross domestic product by 2018 if the fiscal cliff path is taken.

So triggering the fiscal cliff is actually a better, not worse, way of reducing the deficit.

Now, Moody’s notes that the fiscal cliff actually would be preferable to a deal that doesn’t stabilize, and then reduce, the ratio of federal debt-to-GDP. (By preferable, it says it would keep the Triple-A rating with a negative outlook rather than downgrading to Aa1.) But the rating agency isn’t willing to acknowledge the simple math that, in fact, the fiscal cliff is the best way of doing so.

Stung by their failures in assessing the risk of mortgages, the rating agencies seem to be taking it out on sovereign governments. With a yield of 1.68% on 10-year bonds, the market already has given its verdict: Wrong.


Wall Street rises before Fed, Dow near first-year high
Stocks rose on Tuesday and the Dow industrials climb to the highest in nearly five years on expectations the Federal Reserve will offer more stimulus to prop up a sagging economic recovery.

Some investors have concerns, however, that a lot of the good news has already been priced in, exposing markets to a decline should the Fed disappoint. In addition, action by the Fed could distort market prices and would not be beneficial.

Investors are keeping an eye on big-cap bellwether technology names because of their role in global business spending. Techs fell on Monday following Intel's warning last week that reduced demand will hurt its third-quarter results. Shares were up 1 percent Tuesday.


Markets Doubt More Fed Easing Will Boost Hiring: Survey
Markets overwhelmingly are looking for the Federal Reserve to announce a new program of asset purchases as soon as Thursday to try and boost the US economy, according to the latest CNBC Fed Survey.

But Wall Street is expressing considerable skepticism that the Fed's actions will do much good to bring down the unemployment rate.

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, actions by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi have eased at least somewhat the European financial crisis.

Despite expectations for QE, investors are fairly pessimistic that it will help the job market. Chris Rupkey at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, notes that the stock market is rallying "on hopes for QE3 even as investors believe QE3 will have virtually no effect. The market does not seem to know what it wants, but the Fed is going to give it to them anyway."

Amid the considerable skepticism about Fed policy, recent pledges by the ECB to purchase the bonds of troubled nations under certain circumstances look to have calmed market nerves somewhat.


That Threatened Moody’s Downgrade… Somebody Else Made That Happen
As markets coldly blow off Moody's threatened downgrade of its AAA credit rating on the U.S., it's easy to see why investors and politicians might not be all that motivated to develop "specific policies that produce a stabilization and then downward trend in the ratio of federal debt" that the rating agency is looking for.

In fact, that apathy alone, is what Michelle Girard, senior economist at RBS, considers to be the one of the most ''worrisome'' aspects of this looming credit cut, in that politicians have not only seen it all before, but the last time, doing the wrong thing actually worked in our favor, as borrowing costs went down.


The New Tycoons: How Private Equity Owns the World
If you think private equity is a secretive industry that operates in the shadows, just look around: Companies from Dunkin' Donuts, J. Crew, Dominoes, Del Monte, Toys R Us, Miramax, Michael's Stores, Burger King and countless other 'household' names are either currently or were previously operated by private equity firms.

What is clear is that when private equity firms get involved "it does tend to have an impact on workers," he says. "Things are going to change if a private equity company buys the firm you work for. They don't tend to do nothing."

Sometimes that "something" means layoffs or even shutting companies down; but it can also mean expansion and more jobs created. Kelly says it's "maddening" but there's no definitive data on the industry's track record when it comes to jobs. Many private equity firms don't even keep track of the jobs created or lost by their investments, he notes.


For Investors, Information Overload Creates New Risks
Advances in information technology and the proliferation of open networks are having a profound impact on the world, ranging from transforming communication and commercial marketing practices to enabling political change.

There is a compelling part to this story, however, that has garnered less attention: that these same technological forces are decentralizing and democratizing financial markets, where traditionally a select few institutions have dominated in large part because they had unique access to information and trading platforms. By expanding access, this process is revolutionizing how transactions are executed, information is processed and disseminated, and capital is allocated. This shifting landscape carries with it significant risks to market stakeholders, including individuals, corporations, and governments — but also opportunities for those who adapt.

All of this may sound like unalloyed good news as investors will be able to make reasoned and informed investment decisions without paying hefty service and transaction fees. Upon closer inspection, however, the view is not quite as rosy. For individuals and regulators alike, this new world will create major headaches as trading platforms, services and opportunities are unbundled and decentralized. Retail investors now have access to complex investments and hybrid assets without necessarily understanding the risks to which they are exposed.

Consider, for example, the failure earlier this year of the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short Term Exchange Traded Note (TVIX) — an ETN created by Credit Suisse to return two-times the movement in the VIX (the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index). When Credit Suisse ceased issuing and redeeming TVIX shares -- a process that helps to keep the share price in line with the share net asset value -- its price became unmoored from the underlying VIX index. The price of TVIX was cut in half.

Consider, too, that in a low-rate environment, many inexperienced investors empowered with new trading technologies are able with the click of a button to chase yield by investing in high-yield bonds, dabbling in volatile currency markets, trading options, assuming short positions, and (soon) investing in high-risk startups through securities crowdfunding. Meanwhile, the proliferation of algorithm-based, automated, and high-speed trading, which now accounts for more than half of all daily trading volume, pose additional risks to market stability and investment strategies that are not yet fully understood.

In the brave new world of electronic investing, those investors who understand the new risks will be the best positioned to capture new rewards.


Credit Swaps in U.S. Fall to Five-Month Low After Fed Decision
A gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk dropped to the lowest level in more than five months after the Federal Reserve said it will expand its holdings of long- term mortgage securities in a bid to boost growth.

The measure declined as the U.S. central bank said it will make monthly purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt in a third round of quantitative easing. Steps to boost the economy may curb investor concern that companies will have difficulty repaying debts.

The Fed needs to find new methods to encourage companies to take risk, as "the transition mechanism has been severed for some time," Noel Hebert, chief investment officer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Concannon Wealth Management LLC, said in a telephone interview. "It has not really been translating into the real economy."


Stocks likely to fizzle Friday, history of big 'Fed days' suggests
It was fun while it lasted.

The Federal Reserve's announcement Thursday got the big thumbs-up from investors, as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 soared more than 1% to late-2007 highs.

History -- as much as it's any guide -- suggests investors will take those profits and run Friday.

Bespoke Investment Group calculated that the average change on the day after "big up Fed days" has been negative at –0.32%. The S&P 500 turns in a gain less than 50% of the time, according to the firm, which crunched data back to 1995.

"Overall, though, the near-term returns aren't great following big upside moves on Fed Days," Bespoke concluded.


Why Traders and Investors Can Coexist in ETFs
One of the great things about ETFs is that short-term traders and long-term investors can peacefully coexist, unlike mutual funds.

The ETFs appeal to the retail investor, as they give them access to special niches in the market, access to several stocks at a decent price and trade with the ease of one transaction. Further, institutional investors like them because of their tradability, and use of shorting or hedging the market.

In this two-sided market, retail investors are the buy-and-hold investors and traders and market makers are getting their jobs done. After all, ETFs are a favorite tool of institutions that short the market, since it is easier to trade a basket of share rather than 50 different stocks.

The benefits of ETF investing must be taught and investors need to be further educated by financial advisors so that the risks are known.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

生態環境惡化 濫捕魚苗大減 日本鰻魚列紅色瀕危物種 (原載《星島日報》)

【星島日報報道】日本環境省人士透露,由於生態環境惡化,加上過度捕捉,令日本鰻魚魚苗數量大幅減少,水產廳決定把日本鰻魚列為「瀕危物種紅色名錄」,指鰻魚數量已減少至會絕種的危險水平。

  水產廳表示,目前日本鰻魚魚苗年捕量不到十噸,與上世紀六十年代高峰期的二百三十噸相比,大幅減少。成年鰻魚的年捕量也由六十年代高峰期近三千四百噸,銳減至不足二百噸。雖然專家們仍未能解開日本鰻魚的生態之謎,但已緊急研究保育方法。有專家分析鰻魚數量銳減,除了生態環境惡化,以及過度捕捉,洋流改變也是原因之一。

魚苗年捕量不足10噸
環境省的前身環境廳,一九九一年首次制定日本全國紅色名錄,名錄專門列出瀕臨絕種的野生動物。但紅色名錄沒有法律約束力,即使日本鰻魚被列為瀕臨絕種的物種,捕捉和買賣也不會受限制,但民間要求減少和禁捕的呼聲勢必高漲。

  由於日本鰻魚數量銳減,魚苗價格急升。在二○○六年,日本鰻魚魚苗每公斤的價格只是二十六萬日圓(約二萬六千港元),但六年間卻狂飆八倍,價格漲至二百一十五萬日圓的歷史新高,令鰻魚成為奢侈品。由於鰻魚價格不斷上升,日本至少有五十間老牌燒鰻魚店近來不堪成本高漲,要關門結業。

  日本人極愛吃鰻魚,認為鰻魚料理有消暑功效,甚至將每年立秋前十八天的大暑日列為「鰻魚日」。但由於真鰻魚太昂貴,群馬縣太田市一間餐廳推出外觀與口感與鰻魚飯類似的「仿鰻魚茄子飯」。茄子飯的做法是首先去掉茄子皮,然後像燒鰻魚般把茄子放在鐵板慢慢燒烤,再淋上燒鰻魚的醬汁。由於茄子飯售價比鰻魚飯便宜得多,甚受食客歡迎。

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

關淑怡人間蒸發 留言自殺 (原載《東方日報》)


昨日凌晨關淑怡突然留言想自殺繼而「潛水」,令友人非常擔心。(資料圖片)

九十年代樂壇天后關淑怡昨日凌晨突然在facebook留言尋死,有傳她最近與唱片公司斟洽觸礁而心情低落,但據知真正令她萌生自殺念頭的是被多年深交朋友出賣,最終壓力爆煲。


記者在關淑怡的愉景灣寓所外守候,仍未見其蹤影。

現年46歲的關淑怡育有一名十歲兒子關浚賢,惟她一向情緒飄忽,盛傳近年積極再戰樂壇,更以300萬港元加盟新唱片公司,在事業再起步之際,關淑怡於昨日凌晨4時許,在facebook留下四字:「我想自殺!」

不足一小時後,關淑怡又留下近200字的告別書:「不想活!一杯水冷暖自知!我問心無愧。所有人。樂壇,公司、朋友、同事!家人、記者!我能決定,我不會再回來。我不想再見任何今生與我有緣的人。除了我的兒子。」言詞間她似受到人情冷暖而萌起輕生念頭,令人猜測屢傳她與唱片公司傾約「撻Q」,事業頻頻受阻滯而陷入低潮。

在告別書中,她亦暗示被人出賣:「誰出賣我誰是值得我尊敬的人。我心水清!我不再想受到不公平待遇!不想再見!好自為之。」

阿倫出面勸勉
至於曾與關淑怡合唱的譚詠麟(阿倫)聞得此事後,在微博留言勸勉:「剛聽說你最近不如意,心情非常低落,人也不知所終,令所有關心你的人也非常擔憂。其實人在這世上沒有解決不了的事,只有自己的腳步讓自己走入胡同;請再現身讓你的朋友及愛護你的人一起分憂及解困。」

雖然在截稿前本報未能聯絡上關淑怡,但昨晚9時,其經理人王敏慧稱已聯絡關淑怡胞妹,她說:「工人話佢出咗街,大家都搵緊佢,佢唔開心係可能因為畀一個識咗10幾年嘅朋友傷透心,可能係一時感觸先留言,應該冇事。」王敏慧指三日前跟她聯絡後,未有再聯繫,而留言曝光後,不少關淑怡好友如周慧敏等亦致電關心,她又指一直與關淑怡密謀出新碟及開演唱會。

不懂表達自己
另一邊廂,據關淑怡身邊閨中密友透露,兩人經常飯聚傾心事,又指真正令關淑怡鑽牛角尖的原因:「佢抵受唔住輿論壓力,加上又冇一個平台畀佢宣洩,所以搞到鬱埋自己。」該密友又指未察覺關淑怡有輕生念頭:「我只係知佢唔開心,唔覺得佢想死。」其實,關淑怡在上周五已有自殺先兆,在facebook留言一段約300字的英文文章,大呻早在寶麗金年代已不懂得表達自己,以及沒有人明白自己。

黃洋達就最近事件澄清 (轉載)


早前一張截圖在廣傳,截取片言隻語,指我們與人民力量反面。小弟想澄清一下,我們在私人組群內商討,我們整個選舉團隊,往後的發展及工作,其中的片言隻語,被截圖流出,引起各方猜測,本人現作出以下澄清:

1,本人當然支持激進政治力量進入議會,尤其黃毓民的政治路線。然而,當「人民力量」政黨化,由本來的選舉陣線,發展成政黨,本人則不希望加入。經過這場選舉,我們發現,不論是我和秀慧,或者我們的團隊,往後並不適合加入政黨政治。

我們理解「人民力量」是一個選舉陣線,我們當然也支持今次參選的共同綱領,亦很感激支持人民力量及我們團隊的朋友,義工, 支持者,但我們不希望政黨化後加入,希望大家不要截取一句半句大造文章。

我們支持進步民主力量進入議會,然而我們不想參與政黨工作,僅此而已。

2,選舉結果塵埃落定後,我們相信仍可以有其他發展方向,參與社會運動、從事社區服務及媒體工作。

3,我們與黃毓民商討過後,決定「熱血公民」往後會重點參與普羅政治學苑的工作,進行政策研討及舉辦座談會。(按毓民說法,人民力量政黨化之後,普羅政治學苑也將會獨立運作)

4,因為一個斷章取義的留言截圖流出,惹起所有人民力量支持者及大眾的疑惑與困擾,本人深感抱歉。此事也為毓民惹來不便,特此致歉。

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

黃洋達﹕我根本不支持人民力量


立選前,人民力量參選者曾一起造勢,包括黃洋達(右起)、陳志全、劉嘉鴻、黃毓民、麥業成(其後退出人民力量自行參選)及陳偉業。 (資料圖片)



敗選的黃洋達(左)聲言自己只是黃毓民教徒,壓根兒不支持人民力量。資料圖片

【明報專訊】立法會選舉甫落幕,打人民力量旗號出選九龍東的黃洋達,落選後在網上留言﹕「我從來只係黃毓民教徒,我根本就唔支持人民力量」,惹來人力成員非議。出選新東的袁彌明留言有人在選舉後現形,是「反骨仔」,「選舉期間我忍,宜家唔會再比面」。本報昨曾致電黃洋達、黃毓民以及人民力量主席劉嘉鴻查詢,但至截稿前未有回應。

袁彌明不點名批「反骨仔」
除了黃毓民,黃洋達其實與人民力量其他人關係一般,選舉名單成員亦只有其妻陳秀慧,沒其他人力成員。另外,黃洋達為部署參選,自行成立「熱血公民」義工隊,亦似為自己壯大聲勢,選舉時盡量不用靠人民力量的義工。

立法會選舉翌日的人力記者會,不見黃洋達現身,即使人力在立選取得3席佳績(黃毓民、陳偉業及陳志全),但他對自己在九東落敗感失望。對於有支持者在網上留言鼓勵﹕「呢四年和慢必裏應外合。」黃洋達回了一句﹕「才不會!」之後其中一名「熱血公民」Carl Leung問他:「我仲會唔會係人民力量?」黃洋達回應說﹕「我同毓民傾傾再算。個人立場﹕我從來只係黃毓民教徒,我根本就唔支持人民力量。」

人力粉絲失望:不支持應早講
其後,人民力量執委袁彌明於facebook不點名留言:「反骨仔選舉過後馬上現形。根本唔支持自己個政黨都講得出。選舉期間我忍,宜家唔會再比面。契弟即係契弟。」亦有人力支持者在黃洋達的facebook留言表示不滿,稱若黃不支持人力便應早講,更稱自己與太太選前曾到九東為其助選,對黃在選舉後便與人力反面表示失望。

本報記者昨日訪問袁彌明,她透露,黃洋達及其支持者早前已不時在facebook一個私人群組談論其他人民力量人士的壞話,「也不止(攻擊)候選人」,甚至人身攻擊,有人看不過眼,截圖轉發他們。袁彌明稱雖然不滿,但強調和陳志全(慢必)等從沒反擊,在選舉中各區有各區工作,選舉前更曾一同到九東為黃洋達助選。她對黃洋達公開表示不認同人民力量感震撼,認為這情下雙方難再合作,「他根本不認同,如果要合作,太委屈他了」。她表示人力執委正討論此事。陳志全亦稱對黃的言論感詫異,「他都有喊過『人民力量、遍地開花』」。

是次立法會選舉,人民力量5區均有派人參選,據悉,人力有贊助選舉開支,因此內部有人質疑黃洋達參選時才認自己是人力的成員,是為了資源,只是想不到選舉甫結束對方便劃清界線。

Monday, September 10, 2012

2012 年立法會選舉結果

地方選區:香港島
--------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
1   許清安              2,980

2   單仲偕*            40,558
    楊森                    
    柴文瀚                   
    鄭麗垰                   
    梁淑楨                   
    許智峯                   

3   勞永樂             16,900

4   劉嘉鴻             18,667
    蕭若元                   
    歐陽英傑(星屑醫生)            

5   鍾樹根*            33,901
    丁江浩                   
    周潔冰                   
    龔聣祥                   
    顏尊廉                   
    李均頤                   
    鄭志成                   

6   吳榮春               422

7   何秀蘭*            31,523
    鄭司律                   
    鍾松輝(鍾輝)               

8   葉劉淑儀*           30,289
    黃楚峰                   
    謝子祺                   

9   王國興*            27,336
    潘佩璆                   
    朱天樂                   
    何毅淦                   
    陳智恒                   

10  陳家洛*            70,475
    陳淑莊                   

11  何家泰(事旦男)          343

12  曾鈺成*            36,517

13  劉健儀             17,686
    邵家輝                   
    李鎮強                   

14  吳文遠              3,169

地方選區:九龍西
--------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
1   黃以謙             3,746

2   黃碧雲*            36,029
    張文光
    李耀基
    袁海文
    莊妙嫦

3   譚國僑             30,634
    廖成利
    莫嘉嫻
    黃志勇
    吳寶珊

4   黃逸旭             2,399

5   蔣麗芸*            47,363
    葉傲冬
    鄭泳舜
    陳偉明
    林心嶎

6   黃毓民*            38,578
    嚴達明
    周峻翹
    劉鐵煒

7   林依麗              859
    何家權
    區耠豪
    李家威

8   梁美芬*            34,548
    楊永杰
    韋海英
    梁文廣

9   毛孟靜*            37,925
    王德全  

地方選區:九龍東
--------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
1   梁家傑*            41,669
    譚文豪            

2   黃國健*            40,824
    簡銘東            
    莫健榮            
    何擧明            

3   陶君行             27,253

4   嚴鳳至             3,263
    陳向然            

5   胡志偉*            43,764
    莫建成            
    韓家銘            

6   陳鑑林*            47,415
    黎榮浩            
    洪錦鉉            
    柯創盛            

7   謝偉俊*            38,546

8   黃洋達             36,608
    陳秀慧            

9   譚香文             5,440

地方選區:新界西
--------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
1   梁志祥*            33,777
    曾憲強            
    呂堅             
    李美辰            
    黃煒鈴            
    徐君紹            

2   麥美娟*            35,239
    陸頌雄            
    陳文偉            
    葛兆源            
    鄧焯謙            

3   陳樹英             25,892
    黃偉賢            
    李洪波            
    黃麗嫦            
    何杏梅            

4   陳偉業*            44,355
    陳素玲            
    黎樂民            
    湯詠芝            

5   麥業成             2,896

6   曾健成(阿牛)          9,280

7   郭家麒*            72,185
    余若薇            

8   田北辰*            37,808
    張慧晶            
    黃卓健(阿力)        
    何建昌            

9   何君堯             10,805

10  陳一華             11,997

11  梁耀忠*            43,799
    黃潤達            

12  陳恒鑌*            36,555
    潘志成            
    林琳             
    陳振中            
    羅崑             
    梁嘉銘            
    曾大             

13  陳強              16,767
    丁衍華            
    蘇嘉雯            
    鄒秉恬            
    鄧家良            
    潘小屏            
    Gurung Raju         

14  李永達             32,792
    林立志            
    黎敬瑋            

15  李卓人*            40,967
    譚駿賢            

16  譚耀宗*            43,496
    龍瑞卿            
    葉文斌            
    巫成鋒            

地方選區:新界東
--------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
1   梁國雄(長毛)*        48,295

2   葉偉明             24,458
    黃宏滔                   
    程岸麗                   
    簡兆祺                   
    曾勁聰                   
    張國和                   

3   劉慧卿*            37,039
    柯耀林                   
    林少忠                   
    林耠然                   

4   梁安琪             1,077

5   龐愛蘭             23,988
    譚領律                   
    羅光強                   
    陳國添                   
    蘇俊文                   
    林松茵                   
    梁家輝                   
    陳敏娟                   
    鄧永昌                   

6   葛珮帆*            46,139
    莊元苳                   
    李世榮                   
    李家良                   
    董健莉                   
    祁麗媚                   
    黃冰芬                   

7   陳志全(慢必)*        38,042
    袁彌明                   

8   邱榮光             5,717
    湯寶珍                   
    陳灶良                   
    彭樹穩                   
    劉偉倫                   
    成國柱                   
    文春輝                   
    鄧光榮                   
    駱水生                   

9   陳克勤*            40,977
    劉國勳                   
    黃碧嬌                   
    藍偉良                   
    胡健民                   
    姚銘                    

10  張超雄*            39,650
    郭永健                   

11  蔡耀昌             10,028
    區鎮樺                   
    麥潤培                   
    鄺美娜                   

12  范國威*            28,621
    任啟邦                   
    梁里                    
    梁永雄                   
    關永業                   
    丘文俊                   
    鍾錦麟                   
    張國強                   
    容溟舟                   

13  田北俊*            31,016
    周梁淑怡                  
    梁志偉                   
    廖國華                   

14  黃成智             21,118
    羅世恩                   

15  湯家驊*            32,753
    楊岳橋                   

16  何民傑             2,875

17  龐一鳴             6,031

18  方國珊(哪吒)         24,594

19  陳國強             2,327

功能界別:漁農界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
何俊賢*                 105
陳美德                   18

功能界別:教育界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
何漢權                 15,170
葉建源*                46,535

功能界別:法律界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
郭榮鏗*                2,528
王桂壎                 1,970

功能界別:會計界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
梁繼昌*                7,701
黃宏泰                 1,335
陳普芬                  896
林智遠                 6,538

功能界別:醫學界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
謝鴻興                 2,205
梁家騮*                4,541

功能界別:缳生服務界
----------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
李國麟*                15,861
曹聖玉                  5,006

功能界別:工程界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
黎廣德                 1,952
盧偉國*                2,811
陸宏廣                  392
何鍾泰                 1,625

功能界別:建築、測量及都市規劃界
----------------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
劉秀成                 1,607
吳永輝                 1,464
謝偉銓*                1,668

功能界別:社會福利界
----------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
陳義飛                 1,113
張國柱*                9,078

功能界別:旅遊界
--------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
葉慶寧                   403
姚思榮*                 523

功能界別:金融服務界
----------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
林德明                   5
甄文星                   25
張華峰*                 208
李君豪                  202
鄧予立                   24

功能界別:體育、演藝、文化及出版界
-----------------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
蕭思江(惜華生、惜花生、惜玉生)    109
馬逢國*                1,106
周俊輝                  477

功能界別:紡織及製衣界
-----------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
鍾國斌*                1,076
陳亨利                  843

功能界別:資訊科技界
----------

候選人                所得票數
---                ----
譚偉豪                 2,063
莫乃光*                2,828

功能界別:區議會(第二)
------------

名單  候選人            所得票數
--  ---            ----
801 何俊仁*           228,840
    鄺俊宇            
    林紹輝            

802 涂謹申*           316,468
    趙家賢            
    區諾軒            

803 白韻琴(白姐姐)        61,321

804 劉江華            199,732

805 馮檢基*           262,172
    許錦成            

806 李慧垰*           277,143
    洪連杉            
    陳學鋒            
    朱立威            
    顏汶羽            

807 陳婉嫻*           246,196
    梁子穎            
    黃潤昌            
    
* 當選

Saturday, September 8, 2012

屈40萬 撩開房羞辱 超儀剷龍心:我要切咗你! (原載《FACE 東周刊》)




超儀同龍心食過飯,但之後龍心喺 Instagram鬧爆超儀,不過超儀唔介意,佢話:「嘻,佢係咁㗎啦!咪由得佢囉,唔使認真喎!」


超儀同龍心玩 咗成晚,片尾仲同龍心擺 咗個 rock姿勢作結尾!但之後龍心再性騷擾超儀,他說:「你係咪想我啷啷先!」不過超儀都冇理佢。(網上圖片)

今年 4月 喺維園胡言亂語後,被搜到身上有 0.21克大麻草,上週二( 28日)上庭,被判罰 1,000元,離開法庭後,龍心 喺門外揮動東洋刀。《蘋果日報》圖片

狠切陽具
超儀上載一張疑似被切下的假陽具相片,暗指龍心( egofightclub)的陽具在佢手。而龍心則回應超儀,問超儀係唔係佢國王要求佢切下,繼續語無倫次。(相片經黑白處理)網上圖片

由維園是但,到被邀拍 online game廣告,「維園霆鋒」龍心(原名林克霖)憑癲上位,最近更被愛玩另類 嘅何超儀中,搵佢參演自己投資、將於年尾開拍的電影《羽毛球》。普通人可能飯應,偏偏癲狂龍心唔會咁易就範,除了要求超儀請食飯兼跪低拜師,更要超儀犯法燒銀紙。

咁都未算,龍心仲獅子開大口要求 40萬片酬,如果冇就要用鑽石或者其他騎呢條件當片酬,甚至開口撩超儀開房上床玩「 6P」!被辣㷫的超儀連日來跟龍心於 Instagram展開罵戰,更激動到揚言要切下龍心陽具。本刊得悉,龍心原來仲手持多段跟超儀自拍的未曝光短片。皇牌在手,唔怪得龍心大膽挑戰賭王女啦!

35歲維園霆鋒龍心,自今年 4月於維園《城市論壇》發癲後,癲行一直有增無減,經常出席遊行博出鏡。雖然網上人氣已有點滑落,不過癲出一條血路,先有 online game《 3D古龍群俠傳》搵佢做代言人(現已改為八両金、 Rainbow同 Cammi代言),最近連何超儀都想斟龍心拍電影。

獅子開大口
據知這套名為《羽毛球》的新片,由何超儀主演及投資,內容講述香港低下階層的發憤故事,《羽》片以喜劇包裝,何超會搵去年在金像獎大出風頭的《打擂台》導演郭子健執導,還屬意龍心飾演「謝霆鋒」,角色騎呢,老闆超儀於是頂硬上,透過好友 Kevin仔(獨立樂隊 Hardpack鼓手)搭路搵龍心。

上週三( 29日)盂蘭節正日約龍心食飯,但其實龍心一向對超儀嗒糖。飯局前更於 Instagram聯絡超儀,當晚二人與 Kevin於尖沙咀食飯,其間龍心繼續語無倫次,之後帶埋超儀到海傍燒溪錢同真錢。當晚龍心更要求超儀畀 40萬作為片酬,超儀以冇錢為由拒絕,但龍心竟然要求鑽石及其他騎呢物件取代金錢。

多段超儀短片揸手
上週五( 31日)超儀出席活動時,對本刊表示:「年尾套電影想搵龍心拍囉,但導演要我 confirm佢(龍心) 喺片場受控先。(同佢難唔難溝通?)要 啲時間囉,又唔係想像中咁難!」

不過據知當晚超儀被龍心點到陀陀擰,席間更被龍心拍下多條短片及撩「上床」,超儀當然一口拒絕;但超儀勢估唔到龍心竟將當晚其中一段片放上 YouTube任人睇。超儀一怒之下便上載了一張假陽具相到 Instagram,揚言:「切咗你!」把龍心下體切下來。

雖然超儀火燒心,但仍要買龍心怕,原來龍心仍有多段跟超儀自拍的短片揸手未公開,連日來二人繼續於 Instagram展開罵戰,不過超儀亦唔敢太過分,事關龍心仍未答應接拍《羽毛球》,而據知超儀本人亦覺得龍心「有啲料到」,所以仍希望新片有龍心份。

本刊問超儀會否覺得「揦屎上身」?佢笑笑口話:「 𠵱家邊個係屎都未知,分分鐘係佢揦屎呢!」賭王女面對癲人羞辱,都仲識得講笑,果然與當年那個在街頭向記者怒潑咖啡相比,道行高曬喎!

Friday, September 7, 2012

After Waiting, Market Surges

After a calm period of market participants waiting, market surges on European Central Bank announcement. Investors remained on the sideline after long term investors took some profit on the table. Since selling was very limited, market participants were not attracted by the minor pullback. Bargain hunters are waiting for a more severe drop before buying in the market.

On the other hand, there is tremendous hot capital around the globe. Some impatient investors began buying on news and created a herd of nervous buyers. Seeing that market have strong support, long term investors are reluctant to sell further.

The sudden surge in market signals to market participants that buying interest in equity stocks is rising as confidence in the economy is slowly returning as well as rise in global wealth. As market is buoyed by hot money, market participants are looking for investment return and the risk appetite drives the demand for risk assets. Market is expected to move sideways with oscillation while more buyers will lead more investors back into equity stock market. In short term, market will move in a slight uptrend.



What's Behind This Tech Season's Launch Blitz?
In the modern age of computing-that is, in the last couple of decades-we've never seen a launch season like this. There are billions of dollars in profit at stake over the next 12 weeks alone.

Nokia, until recently the biggest name in phones, launches a must-win smartphone lineup Wednesday. A couple of hours later, Google, the biggest name in Internet services, is expected to stage its first major device launch since taking over Motorola Mobility.

On Thursday Amazon, the biggest name in online retail, will take the wraps off a new line of Kindle tablets and e-readers. And next week Apple, the most valuable company in the world, will launch the latest version of the iPhone, the product that earned it the title. Also expect to see new iPods, and next month, a smaller iPad.

Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world, late next month will launch Windows 8, the most radically redesigned version of its flagship operating system in 20 years. At the same time it will launch its first tablets-a risky move that could either put it on the map in mobile, or start unraveling the partnership with hardware makers that helped Bill Gates define the PC era.

There are more, but you get the idea.

Why the crush of product announcements?

The best explanation I've heard came from Paul Jacobs, the CEO of mobile chip powerhouse Qualcomm, supplier to practically all of these companies. When I sat down with him late last week during one of his trips to Silicon Valley, he pointed at Apple. Apple became the envy of the tech industry, he said, by coming out with devices that knit together hardware, software and services in a cohesive package. Now everyone else is launching mobile hardware to try to keep Apple from eating their lunch.


He's right, of course-and there's more to it than that. Apple leveraged the iPod's success to make the iPhone, and the iPhone's success to make the iPad. Given the iPad's growth rate, and the PC's decline, Apple could soon start sucking the majority of the profit out of the PC business that Microsoft and Intel have traditionally ruled.


European Stocks Could Correct Up to 20%: Faber
European stocks, which have been in a broad upswing for the past three months, could retreat by up to 20 percent, presenting an opportunity to move back into the market, says Marc Faber, author of "The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report."

Faber, often referred to as Dr. Doom because his commentary generally veers on the negative side, said his investment decisions were based on his view of a collapse in the global financial system.

If troubled peripheral members of the euro zone leave the currency bloc, investors could position for this by buying European shares, he said.

"In the worst case scenario that the euro collapses and Spain and Italy for example exit the euro zone, the markets of these countries will adjust to the upside," Faber said.

Faber said he also favored holding physical gold, an asset that was likely to hold some value in the event of a collapse in the world's financial system.

"I would hold physical gold with a country that has a culture with gold such as Australia. In a collapse, the gold price could fall 50 percent, but if everything else falls by 90 percent, then you are relatively well off. So I would hold some physical gold regardless of the economic outcome," Faber said.


Home Builders' New Problem: Too Few Workers
After losing 70 percent of their business in the housing crash, the nation's home builders are breaking ground again. New orders for homes are rebounding strongly, and housing starts have shown sustained growth over the past year. The demand is there; unfortunately, in some areas, the workers to build these homes are not.

Dykstra sees buyers taking advantage of low interest rates and low home prices. He is building about forty houses a month now, but says he would build sixty if he had enough labor and contractor support.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

大班肥佬黎開咪為民主一笑泯恩仇《爽報》


壹傳媒老闆肥佬黎噚日突然現身DBC數碼電台,同「大班」鄭經翰握手一笑泯恩仇,唔少人起哄嘩然,乜佢兩個唔係有牙齒印0既咩?點解會突然冰釋前嫌?

哦,原來同狼英有關。肥佬黎話今次立法會選舉對香港民主未來好重要,所以決定放下成見,主動搵大班合作,希望幫泛民打贏呢場硬仗。

佢未來兩日會o係大班台開咪,拍住大班一齊做節目。狼英大敵當前喎,肥佬話就算大家之間有乜不和,都應該打贏9月9日呢場仗先再算。

睇《爽報》仲可以睇埋大班電台騷!讀者只要o係《爽報》網頁,或直接o係《爽報》掃描QR code,可以即刻聽到睇到數碼台精選節目!

大班直播室,逢星期一至星期五7:30am至10:00am,爽網有得聽有得睇。

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Planes Over Hong Kong 1998 (YouTube Video Clip)

This is a compilation of short snippet videos shot from Kowloon City under the approach path to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport in 1998.

After the Higgs: The new particle landscape (Nature 488, 572–575, 30 August 2012)


Physicists are planning the powerful accelerators they will need to study the Higgs boson and its interactions in detail.

When particle physicists around the world woke up on 5 July, the scenes of joy, relief and tears were still fresh in their minds — along with a huge unanswered question. The memories were of celebrations the previous day, when researchers announced that a new particle very much like the long-sought Higgs boson had at last been found in data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory outside Geneva in Switzerland. The question promised to define their discipline's whole future. Is the particle a Higgs boson of maximum simplicity, as predicted by the 40-year-old standard model of particle physics? Or is it something more complex and interesting that will point towards a deeper, more complete theory?

Physicists hope and expect that the LHC will give them some answers over the next few years. But they are already honing their sales pitches for a machine to follow the LHC — a 'Higgs factory' that would illuminate such a theory with measurements far more precise than the LHC can provide.

“We know that there must be new physics beyond the standard model,” says Barry Barish, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. That's guaranteed, he and other physicists argue, by the existence of phenomena that don't easily fit into the model, such as the invisible scaffold of 'dark matter' suspected to comprise a quarter of the mass density of the Universe, or the ability of particles called neutrinos to 'oscillate' from one form to another. Barish heads the global consortium that is designing the International Linear Collider (ILC), one of the candidates for the next big machine. Even if no one yet knows what the new physics will involve, he says, “our strategy is to be ready in the event things fall in place”.

The cost, timescales and capabilities of the ILC and other candidate machines will be scrutinized at the European Strategy for Particle Physics workshop in Krakow, Poland, on 10–12 September, which will set out the priorities for this field in Europe for the next five years. American particle physicists are planning a similar exercise at a meeting at Snowmass, Colorado, in June 2013.

But plans are one thing; reality is another. Funding any new machine, particularly in an economic downturn, will be a “daunting task”, says Christopher Llewellyn-Smith, director of energy research at the University of Oxford, UK, and director of CERN at the time when the LHC was approved. “It will depend on what other new particles the LHC finds, on whether the new facility is unanimously supported by the community, and on its cost,” he explains. “Even if the physics case is as strong as that for the LHC, and the cost is such that it can be done with a constant global high-energy physics budget, it will still be tough.”

The LHC lives on
A key issue under discussion at the Krakow workshop will be how far the LHC teams can go in measuring the properties of the new particle. The physicists working there can expect much more data, plus major upgrades over the next ten years.

They already have one piece of good news: the mass of the Higgs-like particle — roughly 125 billion electron volts (GeV) in the energy units favoured by physicists — turns out to lie towards the light end of the range that theorists had estimated. This has two important consequences: it means that a relatively modest new collider would be sufficient to produce the Higgs in bulk, and it gives the new particle a rich variety of decay modes that will make it easier for physicists to study its interactions with other standard-model particles.

One priority, for example, is to check the standard model's prediction for how the Higgs interacts with standard-model fermions: entities such as electrons, muons and quarks that have an intrinsic angular momentum, or 'spin', of ½ in quantum units. The probability of an interaction with each particle is supposed to be proportional to its mass — not least because, in the standard model, interaction with the Higgs is what creates the mass.

Another priority is to verify that the new particle's own intrinsic spin has the standard-model value of 0. The LHC physicists can already say that the new particle is a boson — meaning that its spin in quantum units is 0, 1, 2 or some other integer — and that the integer cannot be 1; both conclusions follow from the particle's observed decay into pairs of photons, which are spin-1 bosons. Physicists do not have crazy theories involving bosons with a spin greater than 2, says CERN physicist Albert de Roeck, a scientific coordinator for the team working on the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the LHC, so their task now is to determine whether it is a spin-2 or a spin-0 'scalar' boson as predicted.

The LHC will settle the spin question, says CERN's director-general Rolf Heuer, but it is less clear how far the LHC can go in testing the new boson's couplings to other particles — in particular the 'self-interaction' by which the Higgs gives itself mass. At present, all the LHC physicists can say is that the new boson's interactions with other particles are consistent with the standard-model predictions within the present measurement uncertainties of 30–40%. According to de Roeck, the collider should get those uncertainties down to 20% by the end of this year, and conceivably down to “a few per cent” over the next 10–15 years.

But that, for many physicists, is precisely why they need a next-generation machine. A truly stringent test of the standard model, which would reveal tiny deviations that could point the way towards better models, demands that researchers measure the Higgs's interaction with other particles to within 1% uncertainty, possibly as little as 0.1% should the precision of theoretical predictions also improve in the next few years. And that is a level the LHC is unlikely to reach. The machine is like a sledgehammer: it crashes together beams containing hundreds of billions of protons at energies that will eventually reach 7 trillion electron volts (TeV) per beam. This is good for discovering new massive particles, but less so for making precision measurements, because protons are chaotic seas of quarks and gluons that make the collisions messy.

Instead, every proposal for a next-generation machine calls for some form of lepton collider (see 'After the Higgs'). Leptons, a group of light particles that includes electrons, muons and neutrinos, sidestep the messiness by not participating in the strong quark–gluon interactions that produce it. Leptons are elementary and interact only through the relatively feeble electromagnetic and weak forces. As a result, lepton machines are more like scalpels than sledgehammers: their collisions can be tuned to the mass of a particular particle and the spray of particles created would be comparatively clean and simple to interpret.

Muons or electrons
A relatively cheap option, argue some physicists, would be to place the tubes of a new accelerator alongside the LHC in the existing tunnel, and use them to collide opposing beams of electrons and antimatter electrons (better known as positrons). This proposal, known as LEP3 in honour of the Large Electron–Positron (LEP) collider that occupied the tunnel before the LHC's construction began in 2000, emerged only in the past year as preliminary evidence for the new particle piled up. LEP3 could produce Higgs bosons with just 120 GeV per beam — a total energy of 240 GeV — only a notch up from the original LEP's maximum of 209 GeV. Its production would be boosted further by recent technological advances that would allow for a collision rate, or 'luminosity', some 500 times greater than LEP could have achieved.


“we know that there must be new physics beyond the standard model.”

Building LEP3 in the LHC tunnel could allow some of the LHC's particle detectors to be reused, as well as making use of CERN's existing infrastructure for power, maintenance and data-taking. Such savings bring LEP3's estimated cost down to between US$1billion and $2 billion, far lower than the LHC's $6-billion price tag. “The idea is there to kill,” says LEP3 advocate Alain Blondel at the University of Geneva, who points out that there should be room to build the new lepton collider without removing the LHC: the tunnel was originally intended to have both types of collider running simultaneously.

For all its advantages as a high-output Higgs factory, LEP3 would not be able to study anything much heavier than the Higgs. And that could be a problem if, as many particle physicists hope, the LHC ends up discovering heavier new particles that theorists are predicting from ideas such as supersymmetry, or even finding extra dimensions. Stepping up the energy of LEP3 to study the heavier particles would be virtually impossible because of losses from synchrotron radiation — the stream of photons emitted when any charged particle moves along a curved path. This isn't so much of a problem for the LHC's protons, because energy losses from synchrotron radiation fall off dramatically for particles of higher mass, and protons outweigh electrons by a factor of nearly 2,000. But losses in LEP3 would be severe. The only way to increase the accelerator's energy would be to increase its radius, which would require a new tunnel. Some physicists have talked about drilling a new tunnel stretching out beneath Lake Geneva, and installing an 80-kilometre circular electron–positron machine, although that's not something for the foreseeable future, says Heuer.

Meanwhile, physicists around the world have been exploring concepts for an alternative Higgs factory that would be much smaller than LEP3, perhaps as little as 1.5 km in circumference. By colliding beams of muons, electron-like particles with 207 times the mass of an electron, such a machine has negligible synchrotron-radiation losses and could produce tens of thousands of Higgs bosons from a total collision energy of just 125 GeV, as opposed to LEP3's 240 GeV. It would also be capable of going to much higher energies, to study heavier particles (see Nature 462, 260–261; 2009).

But a muon collider faces major hurdles of its own, not least the fact that muons decay into electrons and neutrinos with a mean lifetime of 2.2 microseconds. That's a very long time in the subatomic realm, where particle lifetimes are often measured in fractions of a trillionth of a nanosecond. But in engineering terms, it is practically instantaneous. Muons for an accelerator would have to be produced by slamming a proton beam into a metal target; then 'cooled', or lined up into an orderly beam; and finally accelerated to the requisite energy, all in a time frame considerably shorter than the blink of an eye. That challenge is being addressed by the muon ionization cooling experiment (MICE) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, UK. MICE is expected to conclude its studies by 2016, at which point the cooling technology may be advanced enough for CERN to use it to build a neutrino factory — a stepping stone to a muon collider — that would fire beams of muon neutrinos through Earth to a detector thousands of kilometres away, such as one proposed in Finland.

Nonetheless, many physicists are sceptical. “I doubt I will see a muon collider working in my lifetime,” says Brian Foster, a physicist at the University of Oxford. “We've been trying to cool muons for more than ten years, and it is just extremely difficult.”

Foster is the European regional director for the rival concept of a linear electron–positron collider. This type of machine would essentially be a long, straight electron accelerator firing right down the barrel of an equally long, straight positron accelerator, with their beams slamming together in the middle. The lack of curvature would eliminate synchrotron radiation losses. And the accelerators could always be bumped up in energy by making them longer on the back end.

Ideas for a high-energy linear collider began to emerge in the 1980s, and eventually converged on two concepts. The ILC, developed by a worldwide consortium of laboratories and universities, would be some 30 kilometres long, and would use proven superconducting accelerator technology to reach energies of 0.5 TeV, with the possibility of upgrading to 1 TeV. The ILC team is soon to publish a technical design report and the cost of the project is currently estimated at $6.7 billion. The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), championed by CERN, would be almost 50 kilometres long, but would use novel acceleration techniques to reach energies of 3 TeV. CLIC's costs are less clear than the ILC's because only a conceptual design report is available, but its higher energies would open up new realms for discovery as well as for precision measurements.

The performance of either design has been extensively studied theoretically, but in practice is a “wide open question” according to Blondel, current spokesperson for MICE. He points to the performance of the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) at Menlo Park, California, which achieved energies of nearly 100 GeV. “The SLC finally worked very well, but it never quite produced the luminosity that they wanted. It was a very tough machine, and now with the ILC or CLIC we're discussing something that is much more difficult.”

Nevertheless, for many, if not most, particle physicists, some form of linear collider seems like the best bet. In June, the International Committee for Future Accelerators, headquartered at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, brought the ILC and CLIC together under a single Linear Collider project, headed by former LHC director Lyn Evans. His aim is to deliver a proposal for a single linear collider by the end of 2015.

A sensible plan, thinks Evans, is to build a linear collider starting at 250 GeV to probe the Higgs, and then boost its energy in stages until it reaches 500 GeV. At that point it could produce pairs of Higgs bosons and allow researchers to explore how the Higgs couples to itself and also interacts with the heaviest particle of matter, the top quark. Going to higher energies is technically feasible, he says, but requires more electricity — as much as a medium power station's worth. In practice, he says, “I think an upper limit in power [on the hypothetical new site] is the maximum that can be supplied to the CERN site, which is 300 MW.”

Technology aside, the multi-billion-dollar question is who would host the next lepton collider. A rule of thumb is that the host country puts up half the cost in expectation of long-term economic returns, says Foster. But this is not a good economic period to be making that case, especially not for a project that, from a politician's point of view, has no short-term benefit to voters.

Going global
If a linear collider is to be approved in the next few years, says Evans, it will probably not be built at CERN. Despite the European lab's wealth of technical and political infrastructure, it has its hands full with the LHC, which isn't even scheduled to reach its design energy of 7 TeV per beam until 2014 and is also scheduled to undergo a luminosity upgrade around 2022. “I'd bet that the highest priority of the European strategy workshop will be continuing to exploit and upgrade the LHC,” says John Womersley, chief executive of Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council, which controls the country's spending on particle physics.

The United States is also an unlikely site for a new collider, says Fermilab director Pier Oddone, who is chair of the International Committee for Future Accelerators. “Something drastic would have to change,” he says. After the closure of Fermilab's 2-TeV Tevatron collider, the energy frontier crossed from the United States to Europe. So the current US strategy is to concentrate on the 'intensity frontier', studying rare particle interactions produced by, for example, intense beams of neutrinos. And yet, says Oddone, “we had a fairly severe budget cut at the beginning of this year and had problems fitting in a facility [a long-baseline neutrino experiment] that costs one-tenth of the ILC”. Oddone says that it would also be “very difficult” at this time for the United States to contribute much to a lepton collider built elsewhere.

Many observers think that by far the strongest candidate to host the next project is Japan. After all, notes Evans, Japan made a significant contribution to the LHC in the mid-1990s when the project was under financial strain. “Perhaps it's time for Europe to return the favour,” he says. The Japanese premier made positive references to the ILC in December 2011, just after the first preliminary sightings of the new boson were announced. There is a scent of extra funds, because the new accelerator is being discussed as part of a broader economic plan to boost regions devastated by the March 2011 earthquake; the idea is to make it the hub of an 'international city' comprising other research laboratories, industrial zones and education centres. And as Japanese particle physicists update their five-year roadmap this year, the ILC remains at the top of their new-project wish-list. Specifically, explains Atsuto Suzuki, director-general of the KEK laboratory in Tsukuba, the community's recommendation was that “Japan should take leadership of the early realization of an electron–positron linear collider should a particle such as a Higgs boson be confirmed at the LHC”.

So is an ILC finally looking like a safe bet? “Good god, no!” says Foster, “but this is the best chance that we've had in a long time.” Womersley gives odds of the ILC being built as 50:50 at best. “We shouldn't take it for granted that money is available just because the Higgs has been found,” he says, pointing out that there are also strong cases for next-generation neutrino experiments, for example. It would take around ten years from breaking ground to operating an ILC, estimates Oddone, plus the preparatory time. “You're talking 2025 at the earliest, but do you launch such a major project before you know what else the LHC might find? There could be things much wilder than the Higgs.”

For many particle physicists, the dream scenario is the LHC exploring the high-energy frontier in Europe; multiple neutrino experiments exploring the intensity frontier in the United States; and a new lepton collider in Japan pinning down the details of all the exotic new particles that so far have not turned up in the LHC's collisions. “I would love to see us going in that direction, if countries put their weight behind the programmes in each region,” says Terry Wyatt, a physicist at the University of Manchester, UK, who works on the ATLAS detector at the LHC.

As always in the world of big science, however, making such dreams come true is a question of making the sale to outsiders. “These things would probably be solved outside the particle-physics sphere,” says Oddone. “It might be a phone call between a president and a prime minister that decides it.”