No Random Walking!

The index is down about 28% yeat-to-date.

The Index, created by the Halter Financial Group and calculated and distributed by the Amex, is comprised of companies whose common stock is publicly traded in the United States and the majority of whose business is conducted within the People's Republic of China. The Halter USX China Index was created in response to the unique economic opportunities taking place in China, as well as the current dynamics in the United States capital markets. While there is strong demand for Chinese equity, U.S. investors still seek and prefer the transparency offered with a U.S. listing. For a company to be included in the Halter USX China Index it must conduct a majority of its business in China, maintain an average market cap of over $50 million for the preceding 40 trading days, trade on the NYSE, Amex or NASDAQ and be approved by USX Selection Committee. Investors can gain exposure to the Index by either investing in an exchange traded fund (ETF), the PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio (AMEX: PGJ) or by purchasing an actively managed mutual fund, the Halter Pope USX China Fund (Symbol: HPCHX). For more information please visit www.usxchinaindex.com.

kooxoo.com ????), which offers online search for jobs, apartments, train and airline tickets, hotel rooms, ..., in China. Very impressive country-wide coverage and databses.  Foreign investors/partners include Priceline.com.

51.com, which is probably the most popular social-network site except for QQ.com in China. A lot of my younger friends are using the site. Foreign investors include Intel.

Also: "2007?????????100??"

Money is unmistakably flowing into the beaten-down tech stocks. Oil and gold is relatively weak. 

A blog by a westerner who has been living in Korla, Xinjiang, in S.W. China for three years: Link to The Opposite End of China || Xinjiang & Northwest China Blog (?????? || ?? & ??????)

By the way, Korla, where I visited  22 years ago,  is recently selected "the cleanest city" in China.

There are many sites trying to explain the SVM algorithm, but I find the following one the shortest and the easiest to understand without using a lot of equations: Link to Gist SVM Server

Link to YouTube - Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China

It was made by a 20-year-old Chinese student who is studying in Canada. Videos like this are probably much better propaganda than those by the Chinese  government itself. Ironically these videos are blocked in China.

Probably the only western eye-witness is a reporter for the Economist. Here is his account of what happened.

I have to admit that I don't know much about Tibet, but how some of the western media, including the Washington Post and CNN, have been reporting about the recent riot in Tibet is utterly disgusting:

Link to YouTube - Riot in Tibet: True face of western media

Even gold and energy stocks are turning bearish [or close to be bearish] today.  

The overall market is very volatile. Does this volatility signals the bottom for other sections? After all there are so many unbelievably cheap stocks out there ...

By the way, Baidu's new down-trend is confirmed. 

It isn't always a good idea to defer tax payment [legally]. Using the deferred tax for investment has the same effect as buying on margin: it's only good if you make money out of it! Otherwise you may end up losing the deferred money - and still owe the tax to uncle Sam!

A personal story by Isaac Asimov, the famous science-fiction/popular-science author and biochemist.  Try the same test on your friends. Should be fun.

Link to What Is Intelligence, Anyway?

Another funny one on intelligence at Cuddly-Cyborg, a technology-related comic site (click image to enlarge) :