In 1985 people in China consumed about 40kg of meat per person. It's projected that in 2008 they'll consume about 55kg of meat per person.

It takes 8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef. That's not very efficient. How about we eat less beef/meat in 2008?

If you fill an SUV's tank with corn ethanol, you'll have used enough corn to feed a person for a year.

"The best place to hide something is in your parent's bedroom."

- TC

We depend on others to be mirrors for us.

Do you trust enough to be trusted?

- Lao Tzu, from Understanding The Mysteries

"How can you say you were born in the Philippines if you don't eat intestines!?"

- GS to AP

The annual sales of erectile dysfunction drugs in Brazil is about HK$230 million. In China it's about HK$15 million. What can you conclude from that?

La Moustache is a 2005 French film about one man's existential crisis when he shaves off his Mustache, but nobody notices.

They may not remember what you say.
But they will remember how you made them feel.

The idea of "Asian Chicken Salad" is pretty interesting. In Asia uncooked vegetables are traditionally only served as garnishes.

By no means is this meant to put down the West. The East is also guilty of creating & marketing food in international ways. "Singapore Fried Noodles" is actually a Hong Kong recipe and not found in Singapore.

I received a "Happy Holidays" email from a society for a deadly disease, asking for donations. It's the most subversive, guilt-inducing "Happy Holidays" greeting I've ever received.

"I'd respect you if you were black, brown, yellow, pink with blue stripes..."

- something I heard

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

- George Eliot (1819-1880) English Novelist

When someone is on the offensive never just back away. Backing away is never a good strategy in itself. Only back away if you will move or counter in some other way.

What work should people be doing? Making "Out of Africa" for $20 million, earning $19 million and winning at Cannes? Or, making "Deuce Bigalow" for $30 million and earning $280 million?

Caution: This show may be a suffocation hazard because you can't poke holes in my arguments!

- Stephen Colbert

Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

- Oscar Wilde

Yesterday he was a boy, and today he thinks he can ignore us?

I don't want my relatives thinking this. It's not something they've expressed, but I wonder if it's the case. I wonder if they interpret the long gaps of silence that way. I live far away.

I've flown over 200,000 miles just with United (and it's partners). That's 8 times completely around the world.

What's more interesting is that's only since I turned 18. Before 18 my mileage wasn't counted. On average, I more than circle the world each year!

Despite the concerns over the contribution of car exhaust to global warming, most carbon dioxide comes from smokestacks, not tailpipes.

The book, Coffee, Tea, or Me?: The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses led to the portrayal of flight attendants as sex objects in advertisements for airlines.

In 1971 JWT ran a "Fly Me" campaign for National Airlines. I saw one of the posters. In it there are just the words, "I'm Cheryl", her face and "Fly me" at the bottom.

A huge number of hot dogs are consumed in NYC each year. Securing a spot for a hot dog stand outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art costs about $300,000 a year. How many must those stands sell each day just to break even?

Caffeine is present in over 60 plant species worldwide.

An ounce of dark chocolate can have more caffeine than an 8 ounce cup of green tea.

I have a bad habit of not answering questions directly. Maybe that's why I ended up picking psych & philosophy as my majors. I prefer questions that don't call for direct answers.

My world seems lighter now that I am not in possession of a 40lb weighted vest. There's a good feeling that comes when passing on objects that aren't personally important any more.

Someone thought I was a college junior and asked me if I was. When I looked at them funny, they then asked if I was a freshman. It's good and bad that I can pass for being 8 years younger than my age. Overall I am happy about it. Thank you genes! And martial arts.

Hard times and rough circumstances are not excuses for degrading others or allowing oneself to be degraded. In fact, they’re not excuses for anything, except to try harder.

- Bob Herbert, NY Times

At the height of the British Empire, India contributed 20% of the world's trade. Now it contributes 2%.

Tea is the 6th most popular drink in the US, but the 2nd most popular in the rest of the world.

80% of the tea consumed in the US is iced.

Tea seeds were brought to Japan by a Chinese monk. It's really only indigenous to China, India and Thailand.

All tea comes from the same plant species. What people do to tea leaves after plucking makes it either green, black or oolong.

A cup of black tea contains about half the caffeine as a cup of coffee.

I should make a list of where in the world people are inviting me to go. I was just invited to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo. Will I go? Probably if there were two of me.

Submitting a big expense form (over $2000) feels similar to coughing up and spitting out a lot of phlegm. In both cases, my system feels a lot better afterwards. I've rid myself of a burden I don't need to carry around. Of something which, if it stays in my system, doesn't do me any good.

Be thankful you don't have everything. If you did, what would you look forward to?

In law, if you lie and don't gain advantage from it, it's not counted against you. If it's ok to lie if we don't get a clear advantage, that would change a lot in society. I think that would be terrible.

Jet lag + beer = nausea

Koreans are 20 times more likely than other people to develop liver cancer.

New York is an ugly town, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.

- John Steinbeck

It is a triumph of life that old people lose their memories of inessential things, though memory does not often fail with regard to things that are of real interest to us. Cicero illustrated this with the stroke of a pen: No old man forgets where he has hidden his treasure.

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

You look bemused.

According to a survey, mobile phones are our 3rd most important possession, behind keys and wallet.

But soon our phones will also become both our keys and wallet...

Han Solo - ultimate alpha
Luke - ultimate potential

Contentment is a great virtue, though it may not attract one's attention at first. Those who are truly content are usually quiet about it. It is a pleasure to be in their company, because they are full, peaceful, and generous.

[Forgot where I saw this]

Talking takes us away from the music.

To get something done, give the task to the busiest person.

"Don't play what you know, play what you hear."

- Miles Davis

A blind man doesn't fear snakes.

Idi Amin: You are British.
Nicholas Garrigan: Scottish. I am Scottish.
Idi Amin: Scottish? Ha! Ha! Why didn't you say so?... Great soldiers. Very brave. And good people. Completely. Let me tell you, if I could be anything instead of a Ugandan, I would be a Scot.
Nicholas Garrigan: Right... Really?
Idi Amin: He. Except for the red hair, which I'm sure is attractive to your women, but which we Africans, we find is quite disgusting.

- Last King of Scotland

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

-Tao Te Ching

European smoker at a restaurant: "Do you have an ass tray?"

Gotta love accents.

Satyagraha is not passive resistance or weakness, but direct action, the purpose being to confront an opponent with the demand that he make a choice. It assumes the oppressor can change over to your way of thinking. You too learn, by examining your own motives, whether they are worthwhile or not. It ends in mutual liberation.

- M J B, Ganesh

I find that for Asians and for the middle-aged-upwards, a calm mind is essential to happiness. It's the mask of well-being.

What makes more sense:

Love is how you spend your time
or
Time is how you spend your love

?

"It's true that men - they respond to beauty... it doesn't end for them, this... concern with beauty as a physical actuality in the world - and that's clearly imprisoning and it infantilizes... but it's true... "

- ZS

Don't worry about being interesting. Be interested.

"Hello" comes from an abbreviated Hungarian phrase, which approximately means can you hear me? The assistant of Alexander Graham Bell used to say it - he was Hungarian.

Transactional listening - what is he saying?

Real listening - where is he coming from?

We sleep 20% less than we did 100 years ago.

"I love her but I love karate more"

- Masutatsu Oyama (founder of Kyokushin) in Karate Bullfighter

Permit me to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket.

- Jack Sparrow

We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

- Anais Nin

Here's another one on aging:

Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel

It's not what you pour in, it's what you plant.

"I have no time for insights."

- RMW, first year NYC lawyer

"Sometimes my rings turn, encircling my fingers and, for a brief moment, I believe I feel your fingers moving them . . ."

- KLM

Decades of escapism in Bollywood films has quite possibly obliterated the desire for realism. Too often I see song numbers that have one singer, but TWO actors lip-synching (together or alternately). Doesn't it raise eyebrows that the two actors have EXACTLY the same voice when they are singing? I guess people don't care.

"The Irish have always been victims of negative stereotypes... so now people think we're all drunks and brawlers.... and sometimes that gets you so mad... all you wanna do is get drunk and punch somebody!"

- adapted from a friend's away message

"Why didn't you talk to Annie?"

"...."

Desire has such a mysterious nature.

"May the wind always be at your back, the sun upon your face, and may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars."

- from Blow

Today was the event that I've had in mind for the past 2 years. The big test. It was and wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I endured and came out intact. Another significant step in the journey accomplished.

"You've probably been responsible since you came out of the womb - you need a wild side."

- A construction worker to me

Someone in China imported my YouTube video onto a website. I feel flattered. The video has only been up for a couple of days. Too bad I can't understand anything on that site.

I don't mind that taxes are higher in the U.S. than in Hong Kong. There's an intangible value in being here. I can't really talk about it. But often it flips and becomes tangible.

I want to stay as close as possible to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you can see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Goodbye.

Inspiration gives no warnings

A man who has no skills can be taught. A man who has no honour, has nothing.

I bled on 2 people.

A close relative routinely says "New York" in 1 syllable. I can't decide if this is fascinating or annoying.

Even though the other person can't see you, use gestures when talking on the phone. It affects your tone in a good way.

A rising tide carries all ships.

It's not our birthright. We have to earn it each year.

- Coach K on Duke's 1st round loss in the NCAA tournament

Pai Mei: [punches through a block of wood from three inches away] Since your arm now belongs to me, I want it strong. Can you do that?
The Bride: I can, but not that close.
Pai Mei: Then you can't do it. What if your enemy is three inches in front of you, what do you do then? Curl into a ball? Or do you put your fist through him?

People are more interesting than their opinions.

After setting off in grand style, can you retreat to less without anguish?

We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.

- Emerson

Life cannot be grasped, only lived.

When your legs feel like coiled springs it's hard to stay seated and more or less stationary. At times I feel like creating a whirlwind.

What do you do when someone keeps trying to hand you the keys to an empire?

A friend who hadn't seen me in about 7 years said that I'm now more elegant. So what does that mean I was before? Gangly?

I was at a police station recently (getting a report), when a man walked in and approached the main counter. He turned in a tazer, which he had found in a taxi that morning. He thought it was a cell phone or blackberry when he saw it, and when removing it from its case he burned his hand.

After he left a policeman accidentally shocked himself with it. The batteries were then removed. Even after that, another officer was shocked by it too. There was residual charge.

Why do they make things like this? I guess I'm a firm believer of the good ol' fist to the face.

People that aren't walking in a straight line throw me off.

"Red is my lucky number."

"Have you been hit on the head too many times today?"

A check for 24 cents??!?

"Milk in your tea? You must not be from around here."

- said to me

"I don't mind a lie... if it's interesting."

- from Rashomon

Here we are in your dream.

You have the basic skills but your eyes give you away. Become unpredictable, strike from your subconscious mind. Let your moves flow out from your individual essence. Even the most masterful opponent will fall from a strike that has no history or reference. The moves created from your own unique individual essence may surprise even you.

- from Afro Samurai

Not too sure why the men's bathroom in my office smelled like gin & tonic today. Could it be the air freshener? Or someone trying to relieve some stress?

"Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time."

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If you wish to have beautiful eyes you must gaze upon beautiful things.

My best creative thinking occurs when I'm in the bathroom, not when I'm at my desk.

"To this moment, and the moment yet to come."

- James Bond, Man with the Golden Gun

Will you train harder than your opponents will today?

Should I accept that it might be impossible and endure the consequences that I set myself up for? Even if my spirit is indomitable... there may be limits to what is possible.

Moved by the symbolism of being woken up by a crying baby on the first day of the infant year.