Robin Hood Tax - possibility, but unlikely if not unified

In the UK, there has been much discussion about the Robin Hood Tax. What is it you ask? If you know the story of Robin Hood, it is basically to steal from the rich and give to the poor, literally.

This is how it works, a tiny tax estimated at about 0.05%, would be applied on all financial transactions involving foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, and derivatives traded worldwide. Globally, the value of these markets is $3.26 trillion a year. For the UK, they've worked this out to approx 250 billion pounds (that's around AU$400 billion annually) that could be raised. Then the money would go into tackling poverty and climate change. 50% utilised for domestic needs (incl school funding), whilst the other 50% split into both international developments and climate change.

It sounds very simple and sounds like a good idea. However there are so many considerations when it comes to taxes and how the revenue ultimately gets spent.

Will that work in Australia? Well if Britain did introduce it, the reality is that most international banks located in the city would just relocate to another country where their transactions aren't taxed. (that's exactly like the 50% once-off tax which may be being implemented on bonuses above 25,000 pounds? and senior executives may just consider relocating from London to say Zug? hehee well very competitive tax rates it's been said) Therefore unless countries adopt the tax unanimously, no country would adopt it at all.

Watch this video, Bill Nighy (yes that guy from the movie "Love Actually") plays the role of the Banker. It's funny too.

robinhoodtax.org.uk/

Cafe Vue at Heide

The master of fine French cuisine Mr Shannon Bennett had opened Cafe Vue in Heide some months ago. It's located within the premises of Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen. It's one of a few of his cafes, others being Cafe Vue (on Little Collins), and 401 St Kilda Road. These are the little sibblings to the grand Vue de Monde.

Here's the food order, there's 3 of us, one ordered the Menu Du Jour, for 2 courses AU$35 (there is a 3 course option too). This is very nicely priced, considering the food was just wonderful. For entree, there's the Tomato terrine with Serrano ham and Yarra Valley Dairy Fetta. Main was Poussin (chicken) with epice sauce and cauliflower couscous. Glorious, great quality and great presentation.



As always menu is seasonal. Just like the infamous lunchboxes which changes monthly. For AU$15, today's lunch box consists of a wrap, fritters and dip, salad, and a brownie. The novelty of opening this box brings out the child in you again, like opening a new present.. I like it.




We also had another order of a salad which has beetroot, apple and salmon. You can also opt for their own made pies or something as simple as a hot dog, or even a burger. Hot dog you say? Yes, it's Vue style of course.. quality is the key, and it's very good I hear (haven't tried this yet!).


One of my favourite way to dine during the summer is just this way, alfresco style, beautiful sunny day and enjoying a splendid meal. And not forgetting, the elegance that comes with the restaurant, it's the little details, including the way the bread hangs off the table in a satchel, to the beautiful tea cups and ever so lovely silver. I love it.

Go here quickly if you haven't yet.... 7 Templestowe Rd, Bulleen VIC @ Heide Museum of Modern Art. Just be mindful that there's always plenty of people heading there over the weekends and it gets packed out very quickly after 12pm. You may have to stand and wait (that's for outdoor dining). You can only book if you are having the Menu Du Jour. Service, okay it depends on who you get, when you go, and which venue you're at..because it's not always consistent, sometimes the staff are a little funny and weird, ermm that's all I can say. :) For this particular day, the service was lovely overall (the main lady was good, other guy was a little weird, as in he seemed confused and pressured at the same time ehheee). Price wise, well it's the cafe style of Vue de Monde, and for the quality of food served, it's worth the bill.

YumiYumi??

Ermm, this is going to sound weird, but we actually hadn't paid attention to the name of the restaurant and so the name "Yumi Yumi" is just a guess. I cannot even find it from googling. I can tell you the address though, and you should be able to find it easy.

We only ended up going there because the Korean BBQ restaurant we were planning to dine in was shut shop for holidays. So we popped next door because the least is we'd still be having Korean. It's a similar sized eatery and atmosphere is casual.



I am a Beef Bulgogi fan. Korean BBQ serves great beef bulgogi and you get to cook it yourself on the grill. However this unknown restaurant serves it on the hot plate (restaurant doesn't offer the BBQ option). The dish is okay, the marinade is not the same, and beef is not as tender.

We also had the rice cake (pictured above), it's very spicy but still a good accompaniment to have. Always order some steam rice regardless, it balances out the rest of the dishes. Now just a note about rice cakes, normally the ones served in Chinese restauarants (I'm referring to China Chinese... not HK Chinese, Malaysia Chinese etc, you get the gist) will be standard, it's just Korean style tends to spice up things. Just remember to order some water!!! I'm not great at spicy, love it but terrible at it..!! I think I had 3 glasses of water and some Korean tea. hehee


The winner of the evening belongs to the restaurant's specialty, spicy squid served with tofu. The photo tells the story eh?

If you are wanting very casual, attire being 'dress down' (that's how I was dressed since the aim originally was the BBQ Restaurant next door thinking my clothes will smell from smoke), and a relaxing cheap good Korean meal, then it's the place to go. Service is 'rushed', with staff having poor English (the usual), seating is crammed, but definitely worth checking out if you enjoy Korean.

Located on Bank St, Box Hill VIC (it's sits between Korean BBQ Restaurant and Good Morning Hair Studio)

Porgie + Mr Jones... and The Green Grocer

Alright... I better seriously start food blogging. I think you guys have been waiting to see some of these pics too! : )

As usual I have rejoiced in great food during my xmas and new year holidays, which now seems like a million moons ago.


Let's start with Porgie + Mr Jones. Like my previous blog about how fortunate people are in Balaclava to have one of the best cafe cultures around Melbourne, well I'm sure Porgie + MrJones makes any Hawthorn resident proud.



The very first photo I had taken with my brand new camera Canon 500D (very excited) was captured in this cafe/restaurant. It's the photo of a skinny latte seen above. heh. Then came the food, I had Mr Jones' golden folded scrambles w/ fresh herbs & holy goats cheese on wholegrain toast. Hungry yet? Well, typing that whole line explaining the dish itself makes me hungry. And it really is VERY Good.

What makes this place great however, is probably from the comfort feeling once inside, appearance is hip in a nice way rather than showy, from the cafe out the front with that rustic wooden table (very cool) to.. a lovely courtyard at the back. Although known for their glorious breakfasts, these days the restaurant does dinners on Fri and Sats too. The dining area is charming.. perhaps due its cosy size. This place is definitely worth a return just to see whether their dinners match their breakfasts.

Very happy. Service. Food. Coffee. Atmosphere. Price. Tick all boxes. Find it on 291 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn VIC.

Next, let's head to North Fitzroy, and enter the everything organic The Green Grocer. What makes this place homey is probably because as you enter, the front area allows you to shop for organic groceries as though you're in a market, but nicer in a whole lot of ways. Has a courtyard/herb garden too. I know that I've had this discussion with some of you guys about organic blah blah.. but you CAN taste the difference. I do drink organic, eat organic, ... sure it's not all organic but certain products I do swear by.




Service is super. Food is very good (organic, taste it once and you know). Juices are freshly squeezed, the way juices should be served. Atmosphere comfortable. Price can be $ if you start adding a bit more extras to your eggs (like I did). And I prefer my eggs poached, and this was nicely done. But everything else on the menu is very reasonably priced. Menu is also seasonal, and for anything less than 70% organic (I think that's what the lady said), it'd be stated. A place I would return to any day. Find it on 217 St Georges Rd, North Fitzroy VIC.

CEO of the Decade - Steve Jobs, Apple and iPad

Fortune Magazine has named Steve Jobs as the CEO of the Decade. And he rightly deserves it. On its Nov09 cover it states, he defied downturn, cheated death, changed our world.

Jobs started Apple in 1976 (that's a very important year, plenty of great things happened then, heh. private joke). 34 yrs later, 2010 Financial Q1 earnings is $15.6B Revenue., which equates to $50B revenue annually. It is now the largest mobile devices company in the world (bigger than Sony's camcorders, bigger than Nokia and Samsung).

He defied death, going through pancreatic cancer in 2004, tumour was successfully removed that year. And in 2009, went through liver transplant. Just watch the video clip though, he looks a bit gaunt in the Jan2010 keynote on iPad.

He has indeed changed our world, things Apple have done to revolutionise the computer world ahead of its competitors, and continuing with the official launch of iPad.

I have been a lifelong fan of Apple and a loyal Apple user. I even used Atari when I was a kiddy, that's when Steve Jobs was designing computer games for Atari. Although one thing I really should have done was buy Apple shares a decade ago. It had dropped to about USD16? Today it's in excess of USD240. Bummer.


The pic here is one of Apple's NY stores, located in Manhattan. Look at the amazing architecture - the store is a Glass cube, A few years ago, I remember talk about Apple opening a glass cube store on Chapel St, South Yarra, sadly that never eventuated, and at present we only have standard stores mainly in shopping centres.

The recent launch of iPad (I blogged about this 28Dec09 and thought it would have been called iSlate after Apple registered that name), but iPad is definitely the better name. If you watch the keynote speech, the interface is amazing and it's such an interactive display. You can think of it as a larger sized version of the IPodTouch.

I am even more happier Jobs used Up as an example for show for the iPad! Remember my blog in Dec dedicated to this enchanting film? Go read it if you haven't yet! He also showed the start of that 10min bit which I so love. And he loves the movie too, awww, very proud Pixar.

One of the new apps which I found exciting cos it relates to a favourite pasttime is iBooks. Here you can order your book on the iBook Store, read reviews, and once ordered, you can read the book on your iPad. Downloads literally takes seconds! Even more amazing is that you can change font size and font type. I was gobsmacked. Currently 5 big publishers have allowed Apple to utilise their books via apps and I'm sure more companies will signup with Apple (if they want to take advantage of marketshare) and how more and more people are really buying books online (incl me). One day, you'd be seeing students reading textbooks using an iPad right there on the trains on the way to school. Amazing.

I'd say, go out and order one today, will be out end Feb-early March 2010. If you start with a 16gb one it'd set you back just under AUD600. Anything up to 64gb would be closer to AUD1,000.

Full keynote speech:
events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1001q3f8hhr/event/index.html

World Economic Forum - 3 Discoveries

There had been some good things coming out of the Ideas Lab in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland recently.. I thought this presentation by Richard Levin, an economist who spoke about some discoveries that Yale University had is definitely worth sharing..

The 1st discovery was about the breakdown of plastics. Do you know what Endophytes are? It's basically microorganisms living inside plants. There's a million species of Endophytes however only 20% are identified or isolated so far. Somehow they had discovered some of these endophytes is able to degrade plastic.. that's right breakdown polyurethane. You know all those supermarket plastic bags which we are trying to reduce usage of? ...and carry reusable Coles/Woolly's green bags? Or how plenty of these rubbish can also been seen in oceans?? ..... : (

The 2nd discovery was to do with isolating the human 'exome', being the 1% of DNA that contains this particular known gene. The 99% are junk. Once this is isolated through sequencing, somehow you can find out more about the disease itself. And following that one is able to 'personalise medicine' to enable cures for human diseases. They tested this with a Turkish 5 month old child whose siblings had similar patterns of illness however was unable to survive. However by discovering one of the nuclear types being A instead of a G (don't ask me to explain this since I'm not a biologist) somehow they figured what was wrong with the child and was able to successfully cure him. Amazing.

Discovery # 3 was to do with the future of computing, how we have doubled processing speed every 2yrs over the last 30-40 yrs, however this cannot continue forever, it's all to do with circuit elements that are being shrunk... blah blah. Anyway, quantum physics takes over, and the people at Yale have managed to base quantum principles that a single atom can be in 2 states, 0 and 1 and sometimes both states simultaneously, and build a quantum computer 2 bits, and very small in size.

How does this work? Okay with a Classic Computer standard search, let's say to find a red card, it takes 2.25 guesses on average. However with quantum computing, the search peaks simultaneously under the card at the same time, so it takes much less time in one try to find that red card.

Or find prime factors - cryptography
10 949 769 651 859 = 4 220 851 x 2 594 209

Result?
250 digit number, 1 million years on a PC
1 second on a quantum computer

Levin finalised his speech stating "who knows what these applications can lead to.. but it's exactly like laser when it first developed, who knew it was going to be used for eye surgery." And I've known a few people who have lasered their eyes to get that perfect eyesight, and it really is just the best feeling they have felt being able to regain one of their senses back to normality.