Interest rate on 3-month Treasuries: 0.02%;
Interest rate on high-yield bonds: 20%;
Interest rate on AAA corporate bonds: shooting through the roof;
Expected inflation: what inflation?
Citi is selling itself;
Auto Three didn’t get bailout.
Conclusion:
This is gonna be a really long and really cold winter…
第一次接触到这部被誉为20世纪最伟大的美国文学著作之一时我刚来美国，在华盛顿DC附近一所80%以上的学生都是黑人的初中读八年级。上课的时候会有人偷偷把我的文曲星字典藏起来；体育课时他们会欺负我听不懂老师说的话故意不让我一起做集体游戏；他们问我，Are you my friend？我小声说Yes，他们却说，My friend is my dog。
十年级。山中小镇里白人居多。英语课上的一个白人同学与学校里一个黑人同学发生争执，闹得挺大的。那白人小孩之后愤愤不平地说，that’s not fair!! Why is it that they can call each other n*ggers all the time and nobody cares, and when I did it only accidentally I ended up going to the principal’s office？
大学一年级，我去学校附近贫民窟里的一所小学做义工。三个十多岁的黑人小朋友围着我。其中一个问我，Are you Asian？我说Yes of course，然后反问，Can you name a country that’s in Asia？小朋友们开始绞尽脑汁地想。一个说Greece！我摇头。另一个说Turkey！我又摇头。最后一个突然喊到：Philadelphia！我无奈得心都疼了……他们五年级了；他们就生活在全美第五大城市Philadelphia的市区里，却会认为Philadelphia是一个国家。后来偶然认识一位校友，当时正在西费的一所公立高中教数学。他说，整个Philadelphia school district前一年AP Calculus考试上只有4名学生考到3分以上（满分五分）。我无语。我上的也是公立高中，也在宾州境内。我的高中每年至少100人参加AP Calculus考试，其中一半以上都能拿到5分。
是谁杀死了知更鸟？
“Folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates ‘em. You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”
— Harper Lee “To Kill A Mockingbird”
“Anthony: Look around! You couldn’t find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here, it’s us: We’re the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren’t we scared? Peter: Because we have guns? Anthony: You could be right.”
— “Crash (2004)”
Racial tension是个太严肃也太复杂的问题，实在不想多说。这次选举，虽说很多人都说democrats当选是势在必行，不管是Obama或是任何其他的人都是一样的。This could have very much been true, but there’s no point in arguing about this now. Although I have doubts about the magnitude of change that this new legislature can eventually bring, I’m still happy that it was Obama who won the election and not McCain. It was definitely one of the most heartwarming moments to see the Obama family standing on the stage, smiling and waving gracefully at the rest of us.
“Guillaume Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French musician and composer known internationally for composing the score to the Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie Amélie. His music is recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments in relatively minimalist compositions, often with a touch of either European classical music or French folk music, using primarily the piano, accordion or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, ondes martenot, harpsichord and typewriter. He has been compared to musicians Chopin, Erik Satie, Phillip Glass and Michael Nyman.”
Éric Tabarly (July 24, 1931 in Nantes – June 14, 1998) was a notable French sailor.
A former officer in the French navy who is often considered the father of French yachting, Tabarly was a record-setting distance sailor who won several notable races aboard his boats, all named Pen Duick. He was lost at sea when struck by a gaff during heavy swell and knocked overboard from his yacht near Wales while on his way to the Fife Regatta in Scotland. His body was recovered five weeks later off the coast of Ireland by a French fishing trawler.
Tabarly was a two-time champion of the OSTAR, winning in 1964 — for which he was awarded the Légion d’honneur — and 1976. He also competed twice in the Whitbread Round the World Race, finishing second in 1973 and seventh in 1993.
Coldplay — “Yellow”
(2nd single of their debut album Parachutes)
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.
I came along,
I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called yellow.
So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all yellow.
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
You know, you know I love you so,
You know I love you so.
I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.
Cos you were all yellow,
I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all yellow.
Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know for you,
Id bleed myself dry for you,
Id bleed myself dry.
Its true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine.
Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.
You and me will be lying side by side
Forever forever
Underneath this adolescent sky
Together together
And you will hold my heart inside your hand
And You’ll be the one, the one to tell me
Oh, we’ve got a long, long way to go
To get there
We’ll get there
But oh, if there’s one thing that we know
It’s that we will not grow old
You made me swear that our hearts will never die
No never, no never
Cause no one seems to believe that we can fly
Forget them, forget them
Oh, you told me
Oh, we’ve got a long, long way to go
To get there
We’ll get there
But oh, if there’s one thing that we know
It’s that we will not grow old
Oh, how could we know that day, it came with age
That oh, the feeling would fade…
