choice of much lower medical testing cost

We always complain the steep medical testing cost. Yet, if you check the site of https://www.theranos.com/test-menu, its cost is only 8% (more expensive ones) to 15% (less expensive ones) of the leading player, Labcorp, in the U.S. Founder of Theranos and a Stanford dropout, Elizabeth Holmes, deserves respect for her dedicated mindset to help people stay healthy.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21656193-theranoss-boss-says-her-mission-extends-beyond-making-fortune-holmes-where-heart

melliflous remix

First remix done by Andy.  He tried to pick up his musicality learned in his childhood.   Enjoyable remix with synchronized video and mellifluous audio.  

corollary of Blanche Dubois economy

The "Blanche Dubois" economy in Greece is teetering on the brink of collapsing. Yet, no leadership is accountable but manages to pass the buck to the masses by calling for irresponsible referendum.   
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/world/europe/for-eurozone-a-day-of-dueling-agendas-on-greek-debt.html?_r=0

Adult skill retention vs. PISA score

South Korea has enjoyed a commanding lead in PISA (國際學生評估測驗) in the last few years. However, according to a recent 2014 report, their skill retention is pretty short-lived. Reason: "many university graduates training for white-collar jobs that don't exist"     source:  http://thelearningcurve.pearson.com/reports/the-learning-curve-report-2014  

Borrow for free

Just realized that Amazon allows its Prime account owner to have free download of one of its 960,000 books every month to Kindle eReader with no specified return date. This is very generous. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, himself loves reading and his behemoth bookstore, with aggressive and generous sales pitch, helps to pique Americans' reading interest substantially.  

a sine qua non for millennials

The latest issue of BusinessWeek devoted the whole issue, 43 articles and 30 thousand words to articulate the dominance and ubiquity of coding. Programming skill has become a sine qua non for all millennials.   http://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/bloomberg-businessweek-releases-code-issue-special-multi-platform-package-demystifying-code/

entrepreneurship vs. PPP

生活越優渥，越沒有創業精神。 美國人最富創業精神，日本人最怠懈, 台灣則是跟著世界潮流。在新創業公司工作的員工, 佔全體人口(18到64歲)的比例, 美國13.8% 日本3.8% 台灣8.5% 新加坡11%   

Brevity is the soul of the wit

今天看到因車禍去逝的諾貝爾獎得主 John Nash的一則軼事。 1948年，卡內基大學教授在給John Nash申請普林斯頓大學數學研究所的推薦信裡面，只有短短的一行，"他19歲，今年6月畢業，他是數學天才" John Nash的博士論文也只有短短的27頁. 法國科學家 De Broglie的博士論文雖然"長達"70頁, 但這70頁的博士論文已經足夠讓他在短短的五年之內, 就得到諾貝爾物理獎. 這似乎歸結到莎士比亞的一句名言，簡潔是智慧的靈魂 (Brevity is the soul of the wit)。 學習過程中,要是不能把複雜的觀念簡化成易記的直覺觀念， 那這個複雜的觀念,就不太可能存在腦海裡太久; 甚至永遠不存在.

To be or not to be?

To be or not to be (cramped by the reclining seat in front of you)? With a pair of $22 "knee defender" clips, you can revoke the sacred right of the passenger in front of you to recline the seat. Caveat: prepare for the forthcoming dogfight.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgsWgYeyvw