An MBA or a MBA

I have always struggled a bit whenever I have to say I have an MBA degree, or I have a MBA degree.  I always ended up saying I have an MBA degree, because it sounds more correct, but I never understand why. Today I came across a useful and delightful style guide from the UK newspaper Guardian which explains that abbreviations should be guided by sound (of a vowel). So in the case of MBA, it sounds like "em-bee-ay" so we should put 'an' in front of the abbreviation, but 'a' in front of Master of Business Administration degree.  (I should have known that, because I do know that I have to put 'an' in front of a silent H.)

Then I scrolled down the page and realized I have not been using my capitalization correctly.  When I scrolled to 'no doubt that' and 'no question that', I have thought the two meant the same. What a mistake!  To quote: "No doubt that, no question that are opposites. 'There was no doubt that he was lying' means he was lying; 'There was no question that he was lying' means he wasn't, although the two are routinely confused."  (I was careful with my usage of single or double quotation marks here.)

I think we can all learn some from the guide or be reminded of some.

Meditation on joy

I had Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations for years and today I rediscovered the book when I was cleaning up my place.  Sister Wendy Beckett is a South African-born British art expert and Britain's most famous hermit nun, who came to fame in the 1990's when BBC filmed three celebrated series - Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, Odyssey and Story of Painting.  Her tremendous insights into and knowledge of the paintings, coupled with her outspoken and character of steel, gained her instant favour as an art critic among British and also American households.

When my eyes landed on the page which contained the following painting, Baby in Red Chair c.1810-30, I smiled from my heart.  The unknown American artist painted this baby whom he saw in Pennsylvania.  The baby looked completely contented and showed pure joy, basked in the love of her family with absolute confidence. 

Though life offers its many challenges, we should not forget the feelings when we are protected and loved, and more importantly, we should not forget to love ourselves.

The Virtual Choir by Eric Whitacre

It is simply heaven when beautiful music is combined with technology.  As Eric said, people will go at length to connect with each other.

The Virtual Choir Presentation by Eric Whitacre

How did they do it?

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How many shopping baskets do 100 Euros cost around the world?

Every four months, the global team at ING look at the relative prices of a basket of goods all around the globe - their measure of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).  The shopping basket consists of 25 products or services including food, non-food consumables, energy and services.  Looking at how many shopping baskets 100 Euros can buy will give us a sense of which local currencies are cheap or expensive.

Using this measure, emerging market (EM) currencies such as Mexican Peso, Indian Rupee, Chinese Renminbi and Polish Zloty look cheap while Brazilian Real and Turkish Lira look expensive.  In addition, Chinese Renminbi is subject to appreciation pressure because of its positive current account plus foreign direct investment balance while Turkish Lira looks even more vulnerable with a negative current account and foreign direct investment balance.

ING also calculated that while in early 2004,  the 100 Euros would buy on average 40% more shopping baskets in EM countries than in the U.S.; currently that difference has shrunk to 20%, indicating the strengthening economies and currencies of EM countries versus the depreciating dollar during this time.

Going forward I still like holding a basket of emerging market currencies versus the USD, especially countries with positive current account fundamentals with rising interest rate trend.

Which coupon sites?

Image via CrunchBase

The group buying sites seem to have all sprung up in the last couple of years, and their popularity no doubt has increased as many people are watching their budgets like a hawk as many economies are still fighting back (or just barely surviving) from the global financial crises.  Everyone probably enjoys a good deal or two in general. 

I have enjoyed using Groupon quite a lot due to their different products or services (and the relevancy and usefulness), city and now country coverage.  However, some people do complain that they prepay all these services and products upfront but end up not using them, thus wasting a lot of money.  Recently I came across this Scoutmob site which has a completely different model.  You can email the deal to your PC or phone or if you have a smart phone, download the app and then view the deals on your smartphone.  When you are at the location, then you open the email or the app to view the deal, and then show it to the restaurant so that the deal can be applied to your final tab.  It is that simple - no prepayment or waste of money.  The deal lasts for about 3 to 4 months. This I think is a brilliant model that would attract a lot of new converts, especially when they expand their cities and their types of services beyond food and drinks. 

Companies such as Walmart is combining the Facebook "Like" button idea with group buying. 

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