Daily Scribble

Volkswagen

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In the current worldwide financial meltdown, almost every stock market is crashing. However Volkswagen defied gravity, went up 500% in a week become the world’s latest company in market capital. Last week, the stock price of Volkswagen shot up to 1000 euros from 200 euros. This rare stock phenomena seems common sense, what is so great about a struggling German car manufacturer. Then I read this week’s Economists and get the picture behind the scene. The jump in stock price is due to short selling hedge fund manager get caught in a short squeeze. They have to buy the shares to cover their short selling at whatever market price and suddenly push up the demand of Volkswagen’s shares.

Porsche wanted to take over Volkswagen and slowly and secretly accumulating the shares. The hedge funds managers are betting against Porsche and short selling the shares. Last weekly suddenly Porsche reveal that it owns almost 3/4 of Volkswagen’s shares which is pretty much all the liquidity on the market. The rest of Volkswagen shares are owned by the government and institutions. The fund managers borrowed shares to short and they hope to buy back the shares at lower price to repay the borrowed shares. When the liquidity dries up, the supply is low while the demand is high, the price goes up. When the price goes up the fund manager has to and buy shares to cover the short position and push up the price even higher. It becomes a infinite squeeze that the hedge fund lost billions of dollars. It is a classic example of how the hedge funds punished by the market.

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California Proposition 2

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In the US election, the voters not only vote for the president. They also vote for many other things. In some states, they vote for senators, in other states, they have referendum on new legislation. In California, proposition 8 snatch many headlines. Over half of the voters made the right decision to ban gay marriage. Homosexual is usually one of my favorite topics, but this time I am more interesting in proposition 2, banning inhumane treatment of farm animals.

Proposition 2 make it a legal requirement to give farm animal more space. Over 60% of California voters agree with the proposition. I always know California is a left leaning country, but I am quite surprise many people actually vote yes on this proposition. The obvious impact of this law would be price hike on meat and egg products. Modern farms operates on lean efficiency of lowering the cost of producing meat, increase space given to animals translate to higher cost. The cost will pass along to the consumers. The current economy is on the blink of recession, any increase on food price will affect the living standard of many people. The voters are unreasonable to vote against their wallet. On the worse case scenario, this law would kill half of the California farming industry as the increase cost make them less competitive against out of states producers. It seems the voters became the victims of brain washing propaganda of the animal rights interest groups. They gotta ask themselves a fundamental question, why is it wrong to have inhumane treatment of the animals? By definition, animals are not human, so they deserve inHUMANe treatments. Animals are our food, we should care how much they cost, are they healthy to us and most important of all, how do they taste. How they are produce should be none of our concern.

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Get Smart 特務S嘜

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Get Smart 近幾年荷里活興炒冷飯﹐重拍以往經典電視片集的電影版﹐《特務S嘜》就是翻炒六十年代的經典特務喜劇。印象中我也看過原裝的電視片集﹐詳細的內容已經沒有印象﹐依希記得開場時要跟紅線行﹐通過很多重門才到總部﹐能低法寶電話鞋和扮樹的無聊特務﹐新電影版當然也一一重視這些經典場面。這類的特務喜劇﹐大慨不乏惡搞《占士邦》來開玩笑。相對Austin Power的笑料低俗不文﹐《特務S嘜》的笑料則老少咸宜。不過劇中有不少笑話太過生硬造作﹐不是所有笑位也達到遇期的喜劇效果。

劇本結構大至上跟隨原裝電視劇﹐美國政府設立特務機關CONTROL﹐用來對付邪惡組織KAOS。故事是非常公式化的特務片﹐KAOS偷了核子彈要暗殺總統。主角Max Smart原本在機關來做文書工作﹐不過因為事出突然所有特務被暗殺掉﹐只好臨危受命當上特務86號去拯救世界。86號笨手笨腳兼食古不化﹐搭擋99號卻是打得又睇得的美女。不過86號雖然撞板多過食飯﹐ 但他有出乎意料的狗屎運﹐每次總能逢凶化吉﹐還有機會上演英雄救美。這套電影明玩特務片的喜劇﹐情節極其跨張搞笑﹐所以不用過問是否合理。故事本身沒有什麼值得一提之處﹐但有幾場戲倒令人捧腹大笑。86號抱起三百磅肥婆同奸角鬥跳舞很有趣。面對追殺他們的大隻佬壞人﹐竟然從打架變成心理輔導﹐壞人投訴工作環境差沒有時間陪家人。最抵死是86號與雙面特務扭鬥﹐原本86號處於下風快要給敵人勒死﹐他竟然用親嘴讓敵人失神的招數反敗為勝。其他的笑料一般﹐覺感是在抄襲以前電視版的笑位。

男主角Steve Carell是SNL出身﹐屬於冷面笑像的類型﹐呆呆笨笨的很適合飾演86號。女主角99號由Anne Hathaway飾演﹐早幾年她還是在演《公主日記》的少女﹐現在看她演性感特女務有點不習慣。不過其實也不算是真正性感形象﹐不過是惡搞特務片公式的性感女郎。每次她有性感鏡頭出場﹐接下來總是變成搞笑場面。這套電影是爆谷片﹐看完笑過便可以忘記﹐我也想不到可以寫什麼更深入的評論了。

Daily Scribble

US election

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After a full day of bombardment of the election news, the US finally got a new president. I am so tired of the US election. There are endless news coverage everyday since the beginning of the primaries almost a year ago. The Americans take really long to make up their mind. The Canadian election system is much more efficient. We only take a month from beginning to finish. The longer the campaign, the more the candidate talking about non-sense and contradicting himself. It does not take much time for the voters to read the policy and get to know the candidate. Throw in a couple of debates among the candidates should give the voters a very clear idea on whom they should vote for. The extra months spent in the campaign are just spending empty wheels going no where. The election news morph into something like a TV drama that everyone follows. Instead of serving its function to select our government, the election degrade to some kind of entertainment.

Obama has won, just as everyone expected. If I were an American, I would vote for him too. Not because I like his policy, given that the The US policy is pretty much bounded by actual domestic or foreign constraints. The president may dress the policy with different rhetorical, but the content can’t deviate too much from the reality. I vote for him because he is black. It is cool to see a black US president. A black man gain the top job in America would be the perfect illustration on the end of racial discrimination. It shows the meritocracy system that is the founding US ideology really works. Obama shows the foot steps to the blacks about how to raise to the top. Forget about the so-call black culture, embrace the mainstream elitism culture. Other than his skin color, there is no cultural difference between Obama and the traditional ruling elite. A minority become the president is only feasible in American’s melting pot cultural policy. In a country with multicultural policy, a minority will always be a minority because he is encourage to become part of the mainstream.

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 奪寶奇兵之水晶骷髏國

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Indiana Jones 4 一連兩天都寫福伯夏理遜福的電影﹐昨天評論過他二十多年前的舊作Blade Runner﹐今天評論他最新的作品《奪寶奇兵之水晶骷髏國》。《奪寶奇兵》三部曲可以說得上是冒險電影的經典﹐今次佐治魯卡斯與史提分史匹堡再度攜手合作﹐讓我對《奪寶奇兵》第四集有很大期望。沒錯這套電影依然是《奪寶奇兵》﹐有鐘博士的招牌動作﹐ 有驚險刺激的追逐大場面﹐特技鏡頭和場面設計悅目好看。福伯雖已年過六十仍然打得睇得﹐比在戲中飾演他兒子的靚子更有型。可惜與以前的《奪寶奇兵》相比﹐今集的故事失色過份牽強胡扯﹐成為鐘博士重出江湖的一大敗筆。

故事內容實在太過無聊﹐鐘博士先忽然跑了個兒子出來﹐又忽然跑了個老相好舊情人出來。年輕時鐘博士的對手是納粹德軍﹐年老了則換上冷戰時期的蘇聯。美國軍方的保安寬鬆得過份﹐那個基地的貨倉看來堆滿寶物﹐竟然連衛兵也沒有多個﹐任由整隊紅軍自出自入。電單車橫衝直撞那一場戲﹐非常有史匹堡的風格﹐讓我聯想起《回到未來》那場滑板追逐戲。最精彩那場動作是阿馬遜大逃亡﹐單是看那十幾分鐘的場面已值回票價。鐘博士一行人和蘇聯美女博士﹐從美國到南美追了半個地球﹐只不過是為了個外星人留下來的水晶骷髏頭。嚴格來說這次鐘博士不是去尋寶﹐而是要把寶物物歸原主。到了結尾解開謎團時﹐我差點以為自己是在看衛斯理而不是看鐘博士﹐虧魯卡斯想出南美古城藏有外星人的飛船這種老套的橋段﹐這種級數的故事給X-Files也嫌無聊過時。外星人的飛船看似威力強大﹐怎樣這麼多年什麼也不做﹐就是在乾等個有心人把水晶骷髏送回來。不見了個骷髏頭﹐不會自己派機械人去找回來嗎。人家好心把失物送回來﹐連多謝也不說一聲就走人﹐這些外星人真的很沒禮貌。

以前幾集《奪寶奇兵》的故事﹐不止是尋寶冒險這麼簡單。第一集的約櫃傳說力量﹐第三集保護聖杯的騎士團﹐皆與尋寶的過程有密切關係。寶物本身是吸引觀眾的重要元素﹐從電影開場便佈下伏線﹐讓觀眾跟隨著鐘博士一路解開寶藏的謎題。今次的寶藏與電影故事本身沒有連貫性﹐電影中段忽然出現的水晶骷髏﹐結尾又忽然出現的太空船﹐讓觀眾完全摸不著頭腦。當寶藏變成一個可以任意取代的符號﹐成為讓導演賣弄動作場面的藉口。這個外星人水晶骷髏頭寶藏﹐比Nicolas Cage《國家寶藏》系列的寶藏還不如。《國家寶藏》的寶藏雖然很被動地躺在那裏等人找到﹐至少能恰如其份作一個寶藏應有的功用。其實《奪寶奇兵》一直也是尋找聖經寶藏﹐先後然摩西的約櫃和最後晚餐的聖杯﹐與其故弄玄虛攪外星人的水晶骷髏﹐倒不如繼續源用聖經寶藏﹐尋找刺十架上耶穌的朗基努斯之槍﹐至少有關這槍的傳說比無厘頭的水晶骷髏引人入勝多了。