Scott Yang's Playground

Looking at Dow Jones and ASX this week was painful. It goes down, and down, and down like there is no tomorrow. Fortunately market is closed on weekends so people can take a breath — thinking about when it is going to end. It’s a bit like taking kids for a long flight. “Are we [...]

Do we need another tax cut? According to the latest promise from the Coalition, it seems to be a good thing for all Australians. No doubt that it is more likely the Coalitions need it more than the Australian tax payers, as November 24 the election day draws closer, but looking at the benefits — [...]

Saw it on Twitter: jjprojects: Honestly, you feel like you are being watched by snipers out there, which is probably the case. Warlach: @jjprojects http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugosharp/… thanks to @hugosharp. Yes. Watch out! There might be a sniper on your roof! (Credit to Hugo Sharp. Trying hard not to make any Team-Fortress/Counter-Strike inspired jokes) APEC 2007 has [...]

Herald Sun: Futures trading halt ‘lead to big stock fall’. From the report, “ASX halted futures trading about 12:45pm to address an urgent ‘hardware rectification’, and that lasted until about 2pm. In the meantime it left traders with no where to hedge risk, so they took to selling physical stocks instead.” If it is really [...]

The content of this post actually came up around 2 weeks ago at the dining table with Vivian… First we have the Dan Brown‘s Da Vinci Code, where Jesus married to Mary Magdalene the “Holy Grail”, had kids before he was crucified on the cross, and Jesus’ descendants moved to France to form their own [...]

SMH: Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin, inventor of instant noodle, died. He died in a good old age of 96 — does that say anything about the instant noodle? Moreover I think universities should conduct a 3 minute silence in memory of him. Just think about how many students would fail to finish their [...]

Last year was Peter Jensen, this year RBA’s ex-boss Ian Macfarlane is on ABC Radio’s Boyer Lectures, on the topic of Searching for Stability. Very interesting talks, looking at Australia economy from after WW II to the recent years. A bit heavy for my engineer’s head, but it does give me some new perspective on [...]

Via SMH, Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin reported dead. But not by a snapping crocodile nor a biting snake. “The 44-year-old is believed to have been killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest” I guess he will be missed. One of my favourite Colin Buchanan’s video was his parody “Beware of Sin” on [...]

Another round of interest rate raise yesterday which triggered lots of news yesterday. I found Ross Gittins’s simplified view on economies very interesting: The key to understanding economies is to realise that keeping them on an even keel involves a balancing act. Managing the economy is like walking a tightrope. It’s possible for skilled performers [...]

An interesting article in 27th June issue of Southern Courier (article can be viewed on-line with appropriate plugin). Article titled “Hillsong poll queried” on page 9, reporter questioned the result of the poll related to Hillsong buying the former RTA property at Rosebery, and how would that affect the neighbouring residents (corresponding article see Southern [...]

At work. Cranking out source code. Then my old Nokia beeps. Missed call. I brought out the caller ID, and it read 0284042215 Aargh. Not again. Someone might call them spams, but I’ll rather call them scams. They call you up — usually with a 03 or 028 number — but then hang up after [...]

Like last time, Peter Costello has done it again in his 11th budget. Personal tax cut for all, well, almost all workers anyway. Here’s the new rates: Current New from 1st July 2006 Income thresholds ($) Tax rate (%) Income thresholds ($) Tax rate (%) 0 – 6,000 0 0 – 6,000 0 6,001 – [...]

The Epoch Times: 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners jailed, murdered and organs harvested for black market. Very sad story. And it is all happening when Howard and Wen happily signed the Uranium deal together for their “win-win” deal. Pray that Falun Gong practitioners can see the light and worship the true God. Pray that the Chinese [...]

SMH: Judas redeemed — A fifth gospel challenges one of the basic Christian beliefs. Basically a manuscript of “the Gospel of Judas”, a gnostic writing dated in the 300-400 AD has been released, where it stated Judas “the good guy” betrayed Jesus on Jesus’ ordered, the beloved disciple of Jesus is not John but Mary [...]

SMH: $1,551.78 toll for taking the Cross City Tunnel. It seems that that deserted tunnel is the only place in the Sydney CBD where you can drive at 125km/hour, and for the first six months of operation it has already generated $594,950 of revenue in speeding fines. Sounds like an alternative income for the operators [...]