Chinese medicine

Compared to Western medicine, Chinese medicine is definitely a cheaper option for an aging population in Hong Kong. Conspiracy theory? I sometimes wonder how Chinese medicine can prove its efficacy in prolonging one's life. I even suspect that people who rely too much on Chinese medicine are taking in a lot of "poison". Likewise, Western medicine. Perhaps having better nutrients and regular sleep and exercise is the best option after all.

Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles

Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me (She's All That official music video)

William Wordsworth - Solitary Reaper

论政团体

政党若不跟从民意。最后只会沦为论政团体。

轉變

轉變需要勇氣，而變好或是變壞則視乎智慧與學識。

Dialogue with a good friend

I always take things with a grain of salt. Perhaps I am too "scientific". My favourite book is "What is this thing called Science?" (year 1 text book in philosophy back in Sydney Uni). Ever since I started googling things on the internet, I always played the devil by googling the "opposite views". For example, if one theory is supported by 1 million articles, and if one keeps googling, all the articles will repeat themselves. In fact, many are just quotes on quotes. And then if I search the "opposite views", most likely I will find another 1 million articles that say otherwise. In short, the truth is out there. Only logic prevails. Research is hard work. And ever since Socrates gave his first lectures on philosophy, the world almost never agreed on anything. That is how free societies progressed, riding on disagreements as well as agreements. That's how we now have modern medicine, fridges, TVs, telephones, computers, rockets etc, thanks to this thing called science. Of course, we also bear its side-effects as manifest in many ways.

The morning news is instructive : They found it traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than light. That's sixty billionth of a second, a time no human brain could register.

Einstein's theory of relativity may be toppled by this new finding (subject to more experiments). That is what I meant by "falsification". According to the above book I quoted, science opens new realms by way of falsification. If a statement can be falsified, then new knowledge emerges, and human progress. Until then, it remains on our school books as is. If something cannot be falsified, it falls outside the realm of science (according to that book). Of course, this is also debatable. For example, is Freudian stuff part of science? This can be an emotional question.

Not that your views are wrong. I remain open. What I mean is that the subject itself is a bit unconventional, and is subject to debate and further research in the academic world. The standing of a theory can "normally" be measured by the standing of the journals in which it is published. Sometimes personal experience counts too, but whether personal experience can be totally shared is another question, e.g. different health conditions and life habits.

港元會否人民幣化

「如果香港不負所望，成功落實李副總理的挺港措施，其投資收益，小則利港利民，大則興邦强國，甚至改變整個世界的金融秩序 ...」 (K.C. Au / I-Money 20.8.2011)

港元與人民幣掛勾指日可待？
還是港元會逐漸人民幣化？

博研

博研說最好是身長脚短 因為站起来高 坐下来也高

選民素質

在電視上看見暴徒不是幫助受傷的青年，而是從他的背囊拿東西 ... 西方的政治、社會及經濟同樣出了問題。

貨幣操控

美國實施政策市
操控貨幣
比其他國家更甚

選民的智慧

這是否選民的智慧？選了一個民主黨的總统、一個共和黨的眾議院（下議院），及一個民主黨的參議院（上議院），好一個「三權分立」，天下大亂。

無錢不行

無錢不行 当年李嘉誠日夜趕工 於97年71前起好特派員公署 但政府以Tender 起總部又怎会不遲?

巴士與港鐵

巴士與港鐵均受惠於某種利潤保證安排 又如何競爭呢?

A caring society

Injecting $5B (care) + $50B (medical insurance) in good years is an ingenious move: (a) to "circumvent" the principle of keeping the expenditure within the limits of revenues in bad years (BL107)?; and (b) to maintain a low tax policy by squeezing the local tycoons but not the foreign companies (BL108)? Is Hong Kong becoming a welfare state?

Health insurance

The age / risks banded premiums are highly commendable, similar to car insurance, which is rational and fair.

Insurance policies (e.g. life insurance), if bonded (mixed) with investment / savings and other types of unrelated policies, are usually difficult to understand, and once bonded, cannot be separated (e.g. even when the investment return is poor, the investment portion cannot be dropped, unless the entire policy is canceled).

Under the proposed legislation, please do not allow such bonding. And if bonding is unavoidable, please make it separable, and if not separable, please ensure that the contents should be decipherable (e.g. the annual investment return should be calculated against the investment portion (compound interest should also be accounted for), instead of muddling the figure against the entire policy amount including the life insurance portion).

As it now stands, the life insurance market is far from transparent. For portability, please allow carrying over the entire policy, including the top up portions. As I see it, the proposal is an ingenious way to partly privatize health service for the middle class to private insurers, in the hope that medical costs can be contained through private efforts while maintaining a public system for the poor and needy. This can only be achievable through genuine competition among a fair number of private insurers.

Many specialists have left the public system to enter private practice. This may imply higher costs for the middle class in the long run. Please consider adopting the Australian Medicare model by reasonably capping the amount a doctor may charge / claim under this voluntary insurance scheme. In so doing, consumers as a whole will have more bargaining power.

If a doctor / hospital chooses to charge more than the standard rate, some consumers may choose another doctor / hospital who charges the standard rate or less. In other words, service / equipment charges should not be standardized under the scheme, but competitive pricing be allowed. This will help control the price of medical care in the long run, which otherwise may be inadvertently fueled by similar medical insurance schemes in other countries.

Get well prepared for your retirement!

Picture this: supposing you have worked for 35 years, and by the time you retire (say more or less at 60) you wish to maintain the same living standard for the remaining 35 years (with better medical care and nutrition, the average lifespan will probably be 95 during your retirement), then it is logical that you should have saved at least 1/2 of your salaries from the 35 yrs while at work, for the 35 yrs w/o a job. The moral is that if you don't save 1/2 of your salaries and invest in order to catch up with inflation, you will not be able to maintain your living standard. Some people will thus end up on social security, and some may work till 75. If you save less than 1/2 of your salaries, you need to have good investment skills (if you wish to maintain the same living standard during retirement).

The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin´67

Portia and Bryan

Tonight after seeing Portia and Bryan perform in Hello Dolly at school, I had the feeling that they had grown up quite a lot. It was only 5 years ago when I started this blog and I was teaching them while they were listening to me attentively at McDonald's. They still do to a large extent these days, for which I am grateful; and I hope they will remain so for some few more years. I believe that God has taken care of so many things in the past year(s); and I saw miracles happening, even today, God's message is so strong.

Break, break, break

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

2009