eu-jin’s posterous

I've been to Yosemite a fair number of times to climb and hike, and it's gotten to the point where I've stopped bringing my SLR along for these trips. Then once in a while, I see something stunning that makes me wish that I had brought my camera along after all, but I never seem to learn my lesson.

A few weekends ago, I brought friends from Boston to Yosemite and we drove around the valley floor and headed up to Glacier Point where we saw a young black bear wandering around for a good half an hour. I felt a minor twinge of regret that I'd left my SLR at home for this trip.

On the way back down to the valley floor, we stopped at Tunnel View where I noticed that a storm was moving through the valley. At least I brought my G10 along for the trip.

I knew that pro athletes were notoriously bad at managing their finances but I didn't know it was this bad.

"Sixty percent of the NBA's often extremely well-paid players are virtually penniless within five years of retiring, according to a recent Sports Illustrated report. The numbers are just as bad, if not worse, for the NFL, the magazine says, with 78% bankrupt two years into retirement."

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090626_130035.htm

Turns out that saying positive/encouraging words to people with low self esteem actually makes them feel worse!

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13815141

Summary of interesting research showing which professions and what degrees result in the biggest financial penalty for taking extended time off work. Apparently MD's are the most flexible careers later in life after residency. When reading about the lifestyle of the MD's given as examples in the article, I can't help but think perhaps that is part of the problem why health care costs are so high in this country; when you have highly paid MD's working so little after residency, you'd need more expensive MD's to cover the same number of hours, and hence staff costs increase. It's great if you're the MD, but not great if you actually have to pay the cost of that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/business/economy/27leonhardt.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

This article on bling in the recession has many many hilarious quotes including

- Rapper 50 Cent has relished the chance to accuse his musical adversaries of not glittering like gold. During a radio interview, the artist, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, taunted rapper Rick Ross for wearing faux and rented jewelry.

- Mr. Dang's "grillz" sales also have fallen off 60% in the recession. He and his business partner, the rapper Paul Wall, helped popularize the bejeweled dental retainers earlier this decade, when diamond-laced varieties molded with platinum were selling for tens of thousands of dollars. Now the recession has so damped the extravagance that a Web site called sellyourgoldteeth.com is doing brisk business buying grillz for meltdown value

- "If you admit you wear fake jewelry, it is over for you. It's like bragging you drive a Lamborghini when you really drive a Toyota."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329128994052323.html#mod=article-outset-box

I didn't realise that the Russian diamond company Alrosa is now the world's biggest producer of diamonds, overtaking De Beers. What I found interesting about the article is how the people the nytimes interviews for the article openly (a few times in the article) admit that diamonds have no real value and they have to prop up the price.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/business/global/12diamonds.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all

I visited the El Tatio geyser fields back in 2005 while I waiting to cross over to Bolivia from Chile. I remember having a good time at the geyser field waiting for sunrise, and then having eggs boiled in the geysers. The hot springs were pretty nice too. Unfortunately it looks like the geysers will soon be tapped to generate geothermal energy for the nearby copper mines. Visit while you can.

http://www.economist.com/daily/columns/greenview/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13522111

Some of my engineer friends from undergrad entered MBA programs a couple of years ago hoping to switch careers from computer software/hardware to business/management/i-banking/consulting after graduating. My undergrad class unfortunately graduated in the middle of the dot com bust as well. This article talks about the people who join MBA programs hoping for career changes are now being forced to return back to their original careers, possibly at the same level minus tuition fees.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026550135236597.html

Discussion by the Economist on why it seems that Asian politicians are generally engineers whereas US politicians are often lawyers.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13496638

As a tea and coffee drinker, I've never liked piping hot drinks unless I'm outside and it's cold. Turns out that temperature of your favourite beverage may be linked to esophageal cancer.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-cancer28-2009mar28,0,2309950.story