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The painting is done by Michelangelo in 1511 on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome. Eve, appeared in Adam's left leg. Besides his expertise in arts, his human anatomy’s knowledge could not be under estimate. In 1990, a physician named Frank Lynn Meshberger noted that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain, including the frontal lobe, optic chiasm, brain stem, pituitary gland and the major sulci of the cerebrum. Also, the red cloth around the God has the shape of human uterus and the green scarf hanging could be a cut umbilical cord.
Antoni Gaudi (1852 – 1926) was a famous architect in Spain. One of his famous architecture which is still under development is La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church) in Barcelona. It is declared by UNESCO in 2005 as one of the World Heritage.
The cathedral is the present of Gaudi to God. The architecture resembles a concept of jungle while its pillars are resembles the trees in the jungle. Because of his love of the nature, most of his designs resemble elements from the environment. In order to develop his enormous architectonic work, Gaudí gathered an exceptional set of collaborators, such as architects, sculptors and craftsmen.
In his early years, he spent most of his time in his house by observing the nature and its design because of rheumatism. In his education life, he only able to obtain a mediocre result though it did not stop him from becoming one of the greatest architect for the later part. During his graduation ceremony, his director of the school, Professor Elias Rogent after present him a degree, proclaim,” I don’t know whether we are graduating a genius or a fool.”
Gaudi devoted himself 40 years in the developing of his last and beloved masterpiece, La Sagrada Famila before he hit by a tramway. The most pitiful was after he was hit 
down, none giving out their helping hands to help him to a hospital. Because of his ragged attire and empty pockets, taxi drivers refused to do so for the fear he is unable to pay the fare. Eventually, he was a taken to a hospital but died after 3 days. With his leaving, the masterpiece remained unfinished and the developing is scheduled to complete in 2020.
Correction: Years from base date for Japan should be 1980 and not 1985.
From the graph, it showed that house price in Japan soared 100% from 1980 to 1990. After the bubble burst, Japan suffered from a massive economic depression which lasted 15 years until 2005 which we saw there is a sign of economic recovery. Still, house price in Japan does not recover from its peak. In 2005, it signifies the depression of nearly 40%, this means if you bought a house for $ 200,000 in 1990, your house is worth $ 120,000 in 2005. This is a scenario if you bought with hard core cash. How about the one who highly leverage with housing loan? The consequence is more drastic, the real estate that they invested still in a group of “Negative Equity”, meaning that even you sold off the house, you are still in debt and need to repay back the balance to the bank. That’s the impact of leverage, in contrast to the one who always persuade you for the “Power of Leverage”. They are right in one point: Leveraging could shorten your investment return IF the market is booming; when the market burst, you not only lose all your investment but you would be in debt as well.
While in Australia, Britain and US, the average house price since 1995 registered a handsome return of nearly 150%. If you laid the investment since the beginning of 1995 and bought the house which priced $ 100,000, your investment worth almost $ 250,000 in 2005. The return could be higher if you are buying with highly leverage housing loan. While the house price for the past 10 years gave the investor of that time a handsome return, do you think it will do the same for the next 10 years, or it will show the same trend as Japanese backed to 1990? The answer? Only God knows…
“Any indication for you?”
31st January 2006 marked the fall of the old era and welcomed with the new horizon – Retirement of Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman, Mr. Alan Greenspan who served the post for 18 years.
For nearly 2 decades, he was treated as a man of last resort whenever there is a economic crisis. The crash of Dow in Black Monday, October 1987, 90/91 economic downturn, the collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in October 1998, the aftermath of Tech Bubble after 2000 are few examples. He believed to have magic hands who could turn an economic downturn back on track by using his monetary policy of manipulating key interest rate. The whole world is lead by him whether the economic will be “soft landing”, “hard landing”…etc. The blind faith of whole world that putting on him made him as the “God” who can rescue the world whenever there is something happen. His retirement made us worried that his successor could safeguard us when there is something happen in the future.
While Mr. Alan Greenspan might have his contribution, we need not overstate it. Take an example, few days before the meeting of the bankers to save LTCM, Alan Greenspan had testified to the House Banking Committee that ‘hedge funds were strongly regulated by those who lend the money. With the LTCM debacle, the belief that Alan Greenspan knew whereof he spoke, a central tenet of the Fed’s status, had been put in hazard.
