Not the best of times.

Not the best of times right now. Violence across the globe, religious strife, economics turmoil and I'm not feeling too good either (and not just about my single status too).

First of all, my knee feels sore. The alarming thing is that happened suddenly without any warning. So I'm thinking if this still hurts tomorrow, I'll go and see a doctor. Hopefully, it's not a big deal and I'll feel better when I wake up.

Next piece of bad news is about my bank. JPMorgan recently came up with a deal to purchase Bear Stearns. I read on the Economist that JPMorgan agreed to guarentee $1 billion of Bear's $30 billion most illiquid assets. If Bear Stearns can't get rid of them, I'm doubly screwed. Once via JP and once more via the Fed(since I'm a taxpayer). I hope it doesn't come to this. Ugh. Also from the article is the following.

The bank is heavily exposed to rising corporate defaults. It is also big in home-equity loans, which are souring at an alarming rate. More importantly, it is a giant in the over-the-counter derivatives market, and number one by a long way in credit-default swaps. With such a large derivatives book, the bank can withstand losses of only 15 basis points (hundredths of a percentage point) across its positions before eating through its regulatory risk-based capital, according to Institutional Risk Analytics (IRA), a research firm. These positions are, like those of America's housing giants, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, too big to hedge effectively, IRA says. It also calculates that JPMorgan needs almost five times its current capital to cover its economic risks.

I want to comment about Tibet, but it's late and I'm tired. So I'll leave you a link to pics about how foreign (i.e. non-chinese) people have protested against Chinese action against Tibetans. You don't need to read Chinese, just look at the pictures and form your own conclusions about "westerners".
Lastly, this is a conversation with a relative in China about her opinion on the whole matter. Some editing for space and formatting.

Her: 西藏我没去过. 不过哪个地方是很多人都很想去，特别是中国人.我有几个朋友说一定要去西藏，哪的文化很浓，地方也很好，海拔很高，很多人梦想去哪，特别是搞艺术的，做设计之类的对这个地方很感兴趣
Me: ok.对西藏人要独立的事又有什么看法？
Her: 这次事件搞的满大的，独立我想不太可能的.做为中国人当然不希望他们独立
Me: 那你对“做人不能太CNN"这句话又有什么看法？
Her: 我们做人要实事求是，要厚道.比较同意以上说法，哈哈. 中国人做事也好，我感觉都很有原则，实事求是，做人，做事脚踏实地. 这次事件对中国影响很大的，我同事有去过西藏的，大该去一下，在中国要花1.5万人民币，现在可能又少一点，过去的人都说很好. 像这样地方，去的人一般都是喜欢冒险的，哈哈，不过铁路通了以后，旅游的也很普便了

She says she doubts that Tibet will become independent and that she doesn't wish for independence. On the issue of Western Media Bias against the Chinese government's actions, she says that Chinese people are principled and practical and that everyone should be like that. I guess that's not really answering the question, but I want to sleep already and that's as far as I will get.

Ok. Night all.