1.有很强的英语水平，英语发音标准。我得承认比王强老师的发音差一点。很多发音恐怖的人也可以是新东方的品牌教师，我不知道为什么要要求这一条，尽管我没这方面的问题。

2.大学本科或以上学历，英语专业者优先。真不喜欢这么势利的条件，这本来应该是实力、马力之流的学校的要求。

3.有过考TOEFL、GRE的经验。GRE我考过两次。

4.有教学经验者，尤其是教过以上科目者优先。教过后来被国家明令禁止的传销课半年。

5.口齿伶俐，中文表达能力强，普通话标准。岂止伶俐，简直凌厉，普通话十分标准，除了对卷舌音不太在意。

6.具备较强的幽默感，上课能生动活泼。我会让他们开心。

7.具备较强的人生和科学知识，上课能旁征博引。除了陈圣元，我在新东方上过课的老师都和文盲差不多，当然他们还小。

8.具备现代思想和鼓动能力，能引导学员为前途奋斗。新东方的学员是最合作，最容易被鼓动的，因为他们来上课的最大目的就是接受鼓动，这个没有问题……

===================================

1.剽悍的人生不需要解释！

2.人生总有几次踩到大便的时候。

3.以前上课时老师们都说女孩子要自立。哦，忘了，你们是考GRE的，考GRE的女生是什么？猛女！

4.好了，笑话讲完了，刚才趴着的同学可以继续睡了。

5.GRE是什么？就是让中国人体验美国人愚蠢程度的考试。

6.在美国的研究生院里中国学生从来不参加课堂讨论，以至于教授都以为他们什么都不会。可是一考试就是第一。一考试就第一，那美国教授不就崩溃了吗？他根本理解不了，于是感叹道：“啊，神秘的东方！”

7.风。冷风。冷风吹。——古龙这样写是为了赚稿费(按行计费)。

8. 你数学不好，还可以去当英国首相嘛(丘吉尔)，不行也可以去当作家嘛(李敖)，还可以去英国作诗嘛(徐志摩)，当然以上的都需要签证。那不行你可以在国内 当作家嘛(钱钟书)，最次你也可以当个老师嘛(罗永浩)，如果你连课都讲不了，你也可以去当个校长吧(俞敏洪)。

============================

1.陈冠希的照片，政府不允许看，但是，我不看我怎么知道不能看啊？

2.一个美籍日本人在中国的境内投了一颗炸弹，炸死了一个站在越南境内的德籍阿根廷人，这件事该由谁处理？

3. 冬天之所以性犯罪少，那是因为人们穿的衣服多，强奸犯操作起来不方便。

4.有些东西每个人都有的，没有就不是地球人了！是奥特曼了。

5.犯罪是一种人类返祖现象。

6.通常的说法是，天才跟精神病人差不多！

7.如果一个人自称自己天生善良，那么他这个人不是至愚就是至奸！

8.每个人都是潜在的犯罪分子！

9.体育是让人合法地发挥自己的兽性！

10.男人可以实施强奸行为，女人也可以，人妖同样可以！

11.我是谁啊？山上下来的啊！

12.我把手伸到你口袋里，当然是要偷你钱啦！难道是想伸进来捂捂手啊？

money and economy

====================

Brian Arthur

Doyne Farmer

D. Eric Smith

[andrew lo]

[Fabrizio Lillo]

[JOHN GEANAKOPLOS]

Michelle Girvan (she’s looking for graduate student, network system. MIT math physics grad)

=========================

eco system

=========================

Erica Jen

Simon Levin

Sander van der Leeuwe

Lisa Curran

SFI Professor Steve Lansing

===================

pattern discovery in human society and beyond using Bayesian reasoning & sex violation during the war

===================

Jon Wilkins

Libby Wood

===================

agent based modelling

===================

SFI External Professors George Gumerman and Tim Kohler and others are simulating ancient societies of the southwest

SFI Professor Steve Lansing is modeling the relation between rule based marriage and genetic relatedness in Bali

SFI External Professors John Miller and Scott Page are modeling complex adaptive social systems using thoughtful agents.

======================

The Dynamics of Civilizations Group

======================

led by SFI External Professors Henry Wright and Doug White

Science Board Member Bob Adams

======================

evolution of human behavior and institution

======================

SFI Professor Sam Bowles , seeks to understand how the institutions that regulate social interactions – such as economic exchange, marital matching, and cooperation and conflict within and between groups – shape the evolution of individual preferences, norms, and other motivations

and in turn how the resulting individual behaviors shape the evolution of social institutions.

Methods include stochastic evolutionary game theory, gene-culture co-evolutionary models, agent-based simulations, and behavioral experiments. To sharpen and discipline the theory-building process

Bowles and colleagues address such empirical puzzles as the innovation, persistence and demise of institutions regulating economic activity and the distribution of wealth. Another important theme is the nature and diversity of other-regarding preferences such as altruism and in-group bias, and their evolutionary origins and contemporary dynamics.

=========================

The Evolution of Human Languages, single super-super language, mama.

=========================

Sergei Starostin

=========================

origin of life – it’s parallel, it evolve, it is self similar in different scales, it form function and divide functionality. construct a von- neumann machine that fit all these property together nicely than that’s life. but i’m afraid we cannot, if world can be infinitely sub divided. just a guess. maybe wrong.

=========================

SFI Professor Eric Smith

External Professor Harold Morowitz

Shelley Copley

=========================

origin of loosely defined life, eco-system in nature and society.

=========================

SFI Visiting Professor Jennifer Dunne

External Professor Mercedes Pascual

SFI Professor David Krakauer

SFI Research Fellow Jessica Flack

After Luisiana and Taxas, the friendly people I met in this hostel is refreshing. The first guy talked to me is a retiree who worked in South Korea for 20 years who operates and air freight terminal for the airforce, and stress he is civilian. In fact I don’t really care that fact but clearly he is cautious about american image among foreigners. He came back to see his sister somewhere in the north and his high school best friend in Austin. I ask him whether he found his friend different from his memory since he havn’t seen this friend for over twenty years, judging from he response it could have been a surprise for him. He is extra courteous and flattering which is a bit excessive and naive for me to take but he is my first friendly encounter after a long while for that I appreciate it. Then at night time when I was sitting at the table pretenting to be using the computer, then this big biking dude I saw came in in the afternoon sit in the table in front of me. He asked me for newspaper which I apparently was not reading because I was using my computer but he still asked me whether I was using my computers with a proper english accent. That is David Bright,  a harvard graduate worked for one of the biggest owner of hotel chain for five years who recently quitted his job and now riding a bike cross america to raise fund for a charity with the name of ‘fat can’. He didn’t told me he went to harvard for undergraduate but when I say I visited Harvard Natural History Museum he rightly pointed out there is no such museum and that because he stay there for four years. It turned out he has a very colorful life. He never saw his father, and he is the only one of his family who graduated from high school. His brother join the gang in NY and have a fight and unfortunately one of the member killed somebody, so the Bright brother went to join the prison for a sentence between 5 years and infinite. Luckily the other Bright Brother with some help from then prime minister of Irland appealled for the second time and the brother came out of the jail after 7 years. The lucky brother in harvard was by then setting out to study terrorism and crime, worked in some hostel in boston at the same time. After graduation, while all the classmate joined investment banks for consulting firms. He joined the hotel holding company and have been travelling around the world since then. There is no irish accent in his english at all which is quite a contrast when later on we sit down drinking beer with the other two irish dude, who I really liked. Which I can understand well. Then  he had the nose bleed which I had as well, and once chased the end of the rainbow which I did as well. And we were both thinking about run a hostel.  It’s interesting to see two guys in their late 20s grown up in totally different location in the world but have very similar experience and shared similar sentiment at those tiny little moment. I feel like david has been an old friend to me. Other illustrous guest of the house includes a journalist and political science phd who lived in perth, incredibly funny and talked as pompous and a colonial administrator. a hilarious mexican who taught online journalist in Madrid whose father is a doctor(pediatrician) for local head of police, which apparently is a big deal in mexico. A 3d Cartoon animator by the name of Chris from San Fran who feel bad that he didn’t go elsewhere other than USA and put up a fight with a swan and got bite. A mexican kid who studied nursery and nutrition and moving back to Austin, unassuming and soft spoken but talk with interesting ideas and substance. A small build pretty single mom wearing a lot of tatoo with her little son and she didn’t want to talk about the father of the boy. A couple from sydney who has been travelling for two months and still have another ten months to go. The boy is a engine machanic and the girl is an interior designer. Ashley, that is the name of the girl, drank a lot and was as friendly and charming as one drunk girl can get, and she have pretty eyes. David came back afterwards and shortly he admitted that he will marry her if she is not already attached. And of course there is this two irish dude as irish as you can imagin. One of them wear irish green football shirt, both skin head and talk with a very strong irish accent and looks like gangster or holligans. They probably found themselves a little out of place but they don’t have the english pretentiousness and joked with each other all the time. Eventually a cowboy who own a ranch in connecticut joined us and welcomed us to USA and hope we enjoy our time. He asked us about our view about USA and talked about white people and black people and draw analogy between his horse and his big black friend (he is not very tall), and claim that ‘ when you show no fear, you can build a good relationship, etc. etc. ‘ I found it an amuzing view for the subject.

Bostonian driver seems don’t have the word patient in their dictionary, half a second too late to move on after red light turn green you will be honked.

We stayed at one Longwood inn which a mile away from Havard medical school. The place is at least hundred year old and is  meticulous kept. No single trace of dust or dirt. The chairs tables sofa in the louge downstairs  is meticulously arranged as if it is for museum display rather than to be used by any guest. At night the office is closed but paper bags containing the keys for coming guests are placed perfectly aligned on a table right inside the entry with number of room marked on it. A notice on the wall wrote in clean typeface saying ‘ the door should not be locked until all the keys are taken away from the table’, solemm as a verdict from  the supereme court.  A big  JFK’s photo portait was hanged on the wall along the staircase to teh second floor, and we learned he was born a couple of blocks away from here.

There is a big table in the lounge covered with table sheet again perfectly flat and aligned. some antique sofa and a tv but it seems as if nobody ever used the table or the sofa is indeed intended to be sit upon to watch the tv. The kitchen is like a display room, with tags of clear instructions about where is what and what should be done if what etc taped on every cupboard doors. It is safe, clean, well arranged, rational, logical but without much hospitality and life.

We visited Harvard business school the next day. The campus sits cross Charles river facing Kennedy School of Government. The buildings are imposing and impressive, inside the hall and lecture theater is well decorated and filled with nice furniture and carpet, better than some of the corporate board room. We even find ‘REN MIN RIBAO’ put along side with wallstreet journal in the lounge, but seems nobody is touching it. We attended one of the lecture and the class welcomed us with a standing ovation! The class and program seems designed to train student to speak out in public and put everyone under limelight for a few moment during hte class.  This I think is a very good training definitely required for a corporate executive. The class room is surrounded by national flags of all the countries in the world and classmates are  all beautiful intelligent confident smart and young and ready to take on the world. Although there is no obvious dressing code in the class but those student are better dressed than their counterpart we saw in other schools. The professor walked all over the place and wrote a lot of words and drew arrows pointing to all directions on the blackboard. The school give me an impression that it is very american style and as the book ‘ahead of curve’ rightly piointed out, in order to understand american corporate and business culture, it is necessary to understand HBS’ training and people who went through it.

We also attended one lecture in Kennedy School of Government. The prof is one very eloquent and loud ex campaign manager, talking about how to run for office. The  class is much diversified than HBS class, not just student but many adult as well. If you are going to run for any public office in USA, you’d better have friend from this class. Law school is closed by the time we visit it, it situated in one very serious and solemn building, old school indeed.You can find Michel Obama’s picture among hall of fame of graduate from this school.

MIT is a typical engineering school, the facade of the entrance is huge, fit for a national museum or momument of equivalent status but inside it’s function and practical. I used to view MIT as a temple but after the visit it is just another engineering school, bigger and better but that’s all, guess a myth is demystified. We visited Sloam school of management whose undergrade building we took mistakenly as MBA building and was greatly disappointed. By the time we reach the decorated MBA building I think both of us don’t have much more appetite for it.

Philidelphia is non-descriptive, and wharton is full of career changers and consultancy analysts, not much a dreamer’s place but they know the accounting very well. we met a group of annoying prospective students and admin officer. Except for a well versed second year indian student, the school is less impressive than expected.

It was impressive for someone shop there for the first time. The store sells not only food, but wholesome/urban/natural/organic/fair traded food. There are multiple ways to define theire business philosophy, but it’s essentially a liberal establishment.

A few distinctive features whole food has compare to a typical walmart/carrfour: first of all, they hire cool young hippies, employees wear funky dress and bear tattoo, the type of people you will find in an apple store or some starbucks coffee;

Food is arranged in a very dense and packed way, leaving an impression of abundance and wide variety;

The packaging of the food is colourful with a great emphasis on design, a personal remark about the product can often found besides the normal nutrition content and calorie numbers;

products from some exotic place set whole food further away from walmart, like this icelandic chocolate and serbia mushroom:

and not just for their cosmetic value, whole food is the only place I found mustard graph so far in USA, and it’s from Chili:

there is some twist in the price tag as the well, e.g. the price tag for liquid not only display the per article price but the per gallon price as well, comparing the per gallon price of fruit juice and soda is somewhat fun here, 11 dollars a gallon honest tea is 5 times more expensive than gasolin:

if apple won over all the rest of pc manufacturer by design, I think it’s the same case for whole food over walmart/carrfour. To what extent is this victory is yet to be found out, but the fact that I can found a whole food store in every major city and people are talking about it tells me it’s on the winning side.

You can even drop you letter into this box on your floor without going downstairs.

And the postman suppose to collect it from here on the ground floor, kindaof 20th century state-of-art information technology:

Less than two hours along interstate 95, we arrived at Yale town:

Robert Rubin was having a talk at Yale yesterday:

Interestingly most of the financial talk was hosted by Yale Law school, in association with business law, but not S.O.M. We happened to meet up with two partners from Mavarick Capital (interesting co-founder Sam Wyly),  Michael Lyons (MS financial analyst, maga cum laude UPenn, ivy league track champion, etc. talk about how they discovered subprime problem in early 07) and  Steven Galbraith (MS CIO, columbia value investing prof, used to be one of the top analyst, son of vice president of MetLife), more impressive profile than the talk itself.

Yale is impressive in a sense that it is able to attract some very relevant people to give talk at law school, e.g. Dinial Doctoroff ( CEO of BB), BOA co-head of global litigation, Sullivan & Crowell LLP partner;  WSJ editor, CNBC anchor, Lucas Praag, GS head of communication. Alan Schwartz, CEO of Bear Sterns; Richard Thaler (U Chicago Prof, author of winner’s curse)

Compare to Columbia students, SOMpeople are quiet and polite. I wonder whether they can really handle the real business world’s push around? or they will have it their way?

Yale campus reminded me of Cambridge in UK which I visited a few years ago. Undergraduate life centered around their respect college/dorm. At midnight, I saw students wearing cloak and mask walking around campus, ghost like figure ligering around mysterious fraternity house without name, freshman kneeled in front of of senior murmuring some secret oath in empty courtyard, status of dead used to live in certain dorm being dressed up by imcumbent as if it’s a ritual to bring dead back to live or establish a connection with the past. Myth, death, ritual, secret society, these are the elements you can always find in a place or event associated with power. Transparency and power are just a pair of antonym.

I visited Yale’s school of art and architecture at night, the restroom in that building is by far the best design I’ve seen.

The school visit event was well organized. Yale prepared personalized schedule well designed and properly printed out. We were received by a few first year student in the morning and three second year students in the afternoon, one Jessie ex-marine iraq/afganistan veteran JPMorgan MnA associate going-to-be, one ex-yalie compaign manager for 5 years in washington, and one somebody. The morning class was one about option pricing, the afternoon class discussed corporate governance and Yahoo-MS deal. Again the profile of is more impressive than the substance.

We had dinner with Tracy (who we met at SOM) and her boy friend (who study breast cancer at medical school) with company of president of Yale chinese graduate student Union Miss Gao. (who is from 南京外国语学校). We talked about micro finance, yale endowment fund, and some finance for PhD (which is really worrisome). The pretty waitress is a classmate of Mr. boy friend, who wear self-made ear ring which made of an alloy of copper, aluminium and nickle, who attended us well. Around 7 o’clock we headed off for boston.

This saturday is a particular cold day, wind blow through the avenues and streets with no obstacles on its way and come to you from any directions. Dispite the cold, New York can be quite lovely on a sunny april morning: blue sky in the background, smooth facade of neoclassic style skyscraper, beautiful type-face of inscriptions on the wall or copper name plate of some institutions, the contrast between shadow and light, colored banner and blue sky with no single trace of cloud.

An artist friend of a friend told me about Tehching Hsieh’s one year performance two months ago in Singapore. There is a exhibition on his work at MoMa.

Another interesting exhibition at MoMa is its industrial design, I found the original design of lighter by one french designer in 1974, it hasn’t changed much since 30 years ago, the orginal has a nice color combination and finishing, looks extremely mordern for a 1970s’ design.

Sony TV, 1954:

Temperature is anything but normal this year. But when it’s warm and sunny, central park is absolutely packed. Tourist, cyclist, street performer, fund raiser, it is more a bazaar than a park.

But still, anybody can find his moment of peace at some corner facing the lake:

Longitude:   73°56’54.99″W

Hostel on the northern side of central park, very packed place, almost full like most hostel in NY city and one of better quality. There is around 420 beds in this brown stone building, two or three blocks linked together. The owner initially want to renovate it into a few condominiums but due to the market and neighourhood eventually turned it into a hostel. 6 beds room cost 30~40 dollars/night/bed, price also fluctuates. some rough calculations:

Condominium sales:

40 flats

500,000/flat

20 millions

Condonimium rental:

5,000 flat/month

40 flats

200,000 dollars/month

100 months break even.

10 years

if consider renovation depreciation occupancy etc.

Hostel rental:

420 bed 80% occupancy rate

average 30 dollars/bed/night

goss income 300,000 dollars/month

after wearing and tearing and overhead 250,000/month

7 years to make invest back

Financiing the deal:

Down payment 3 million for renovation.

interest payment for the mortgage 8% rate

20,000,000*0.08/12 = 140,000 per month

gross profit 140,000

Most hostels in NY are fully booked (?), why they advertising then?? the scale is relatively small and condition appalling. this is almost like a sure win deal.

What need to be done for the deal will be:

1) real estate expert to identify potential property, renovation plan

2) advertising agency for booking, marketing

3) management team to run the franchaise, security, logestics, amenity etc. etc.

4) financing, secure mortgage.

5) back up plan for reconvert it into condominium, sold back into rental market or sell it back total into secondary market.

According to words on the street, this is one of the best hostel in Newyork. The surrounding community is all black, inside it’s mostly loss hair white adolecents.

I came accross a few quite blunt black New Yorkers. The discontent against wall street is ubiquitous and what people feel lack most is what they demand most, in this case it’s respect.

Alex: ‘ sorry, I try to use the ticket but the machine say just entered…’

Metro lady: ‘ where you come from? are you using the unlimited card? ‘

Alex: ‘ yes, it’s seven days unlimited pass. ‘

Metro lady: ‘ have you just used it??  you have to wait for 18 minutes to reenter.’

Alex: ‘ 18 minutes? is there any way to get around that? ‘

Metro lady: ‘ get around what? so you work in big corporation (I was wearing a shirt and black jacket), will you pay me for that?… ‘

Alex: ‘ ….’

bought a jacket from gap who offer to sell me half price if I enroll in their memebership but need my social security number, they ask for zip code as well. and here is one Denial Sinclaire:

Time  Square is visually where everything comes together, and a lot tourists as well. The big guy in orange raincoat is a penjabi(?), anybody come to USA can become obese if they want, my taxi driver is a penjabi(?) as well.

• The biggest players in the market are: enterprise, Hertz, Budget, Aviz etc.
• They will quote in exculsive price, that means for the final payment you will still need to take into account of sales tax(around 15%), insurance cost(liability, accident), and DLW(damage loss waiver around $9/day).
• Check out for coupons , weakly, one way, drive out Florida etc.
• Economy 101, tourist destination is jammed with one way in traffic, so drive out of Florida can be as cheap as $3++/day, west coast is in general more expensive then east coast, e.g. Hertz econ class cost $1150/m  in San Fransico but $970/m in JFK, $890/m in  Chicago and only $750/m in North Carolina
• DWL differs from states to states, for example it’s $8/d in NY but $23/d in North Carolina
• SUV is much too expensive to drive, mid size SUV going to cost me almost $5000 for two months.
• JFK has a pretty steep ‘term structure’, while on the econ end price is not much different between JFK and Chicago, in mid SUV category Chicago(or DC) is much cheaper than JFK ( toyota rv4 1130/m in Chicago v.s. 1739/m in JFK)
• Enterprise has free mileage limit 2500 mile, for extra they charge 0.25/mile. Hertz doesn’t have mileage limit
• If you want to rent a car in NY, cross the bridge to Jersy city, normally you will find it 30% cheaper
• Well, it turns out it’s even cheaper 40 miles away from NY at princton. Toyota rv 4 @ 982.4/m Toyota highlander @ 1088.4/m. I’m going there!
• well, well,  it turns out to be difficult to find an arbitrage opportunity. The trick is in DLW in the small print, in Princton, most agents quote 27/d, in Jersey they quote 17/d, in downtwon JFK/Manhatten it’s 9/d. If you see a 1000/m quote for mid size SUV, and 1300/m at Jersey city, and 1600/m at JFK. IT’S THE SAME. DAMN IT.