New Sistar 19

Sistar 19 = Hyorin + Bora


Gone Not Around Any Longer (?) - Sistar 19

Ken Fong Project

SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to Shirley Liao, Len Tamura, Jason Chu, Bosco Tung, Tony Chi, Stephen Kim, Heidi Riddlesperger and Joy Cheng!!!

— kenfongproject (@kenfongproject) January 23, 2013

TD Ameritrade and Apple

I got an email promotion from TD Ameritrade for Apple gift cards. If you open a new account or deposit money into an existing account, they will give you $xxx in Apple gift cards.

$50k-$100k = $100 or 0.2%
$100k-$250k = $200 or 0.2%
$250k-$1m = $400 or 0.16%
>$1m = $2000 or 0.2%

Assuming you're maximizing your returns on Apple gift cards, you would fund enough to get to each tier. Unless you have a million dollars, you would fund either $50k or $100k to get a $100 or $200 gift card, respectively. Since you have to fund the account at that level for one year, the annual return is a measly 0.2%. That's probably more than a regular bank account but you can easily get 0.8% from an online savings account.

So for $50k, I can either put it into TD Ameritrade for a year and get a $100 Apple gift card, or put it in Discover Bank (for example) and get $400 in interest (before taxes).

Girl's Day

This group has been around for a few years but has gone through a few member changes. Now they're a 4-member group.


Don't Forget Me - Girl's Day

EXID

Another one... they debuted earlier in February of 2012.


Every Night - EXID

Does every girl group need a rapper?

SPICA

Another new K-pop girl group. They seem to have some talent.


I'll Be There - SPICA

What's up with the cow DJ?

沒辦法

沒辦法 (Traditional characters) literally means "no way to do" and is heard a lot in China, normally when you ask someone to do something they should be doing anyway. In reality, it just means that the person saying 沒辦法 is too lazy or wants a kickback.

There's an article in The Nanfang about zoo patron abusing animals at the Shenzhen zoo:

Zoos are supposed to be designed to protect people from animals, but sometimes they need to work the other way around.

Only two crocodiles are left alive of over a dozen that were placed in Rural Grand View Garden, a zoo in Shenzhen’s Guangming New Zone, Shenzhen Evening News reports. The cause of their death? Visitors throwing stones at them and polluting their habitat with garbage.

Visitors, particularly children, have been unimpressed by the hibernating beasts.
A journalist who visited the zoo this week reported that, as crocodiles hibernate during the winter, a lot of visitors have been shouting, spitting and throwing things at them to make sure they are alive.

Because the manmade lake in which they lived was full of garbage thrown by visitors, staff from the zoo went in to clean it this week but discovered that only two were still alive.

The zoo has issued warnings about such behaviour but staff say they have little power to stop it, for some reason.

I can just hear the chorus of 沒辦法s being said at all levels of zoo management. This is stupid. The answer is very simple... kick out anyone caught throwing crap at animals. No appeals, no refunds. When I go to the San Diego Zoo, I don't throw stuff at the animals. First, it a horribly wrong thing to do, but I also know that I'll get called out by other zoo patrons or forcibly ejected from the zoo.

I've only been to the Chengdu zoo and thankfully I didn't see dead animal exhibits.

Korean Bee Gees

How Deep Is Your Love - Jinusean

I just heard this for the first time on a K-pop Internet radio station, even though this came out in 1999. Junisean = Jin-woo Kim + Noh Seung-hwan and they were part of YG Family. Jinu was featured in this music video from SWI.T.