Series P(Review): Game of Thrones

I do not care about Game of Thrones, but since my Twitter feed is full of people counting down, I decided, let's see what it's all about. The ad has been running on my Facebook profile for an entire week now, titled, Winter is Coming (in which world). But the most interesting thing I saw was a 3-D starting video of the show; I could tilt my phone side to side, and the scene was 3-D.

A series full of weird people, talking weird languages; one even talks to a dragon. It's interesting how much effort goes to create these shows that keep us entertained.

But why is it so important? Why do people love the show so much? Perhaps it is because of the amount of death. The screen writers kill everyone, some characters viewers have come to love are taken off air suddenly. Instead of revolting us, we are invigorated by the danger.

Image courtesy: http://freshinfos.com/

What is even more interesting is the f act that we know the movie is basically a bunch of lies; a writer's imagination brought to li(f)e using computers and green screens. And yet we still watch it. We are a funny bunch we humans, are we not?

Well, let's see how the "Winter is Coming" will play out. Whoever you are rooting for, I hope they survive the season... Mhahahaha (evil 2-ndururu worth of laughter)

Comments

Opportunities and challenges presented by the AfCFTA

President Kenyatta joined other African heads of state on March 21 in signing the #AfCFTA. What does this mean for Kenya? It means that Kenya's goods and services could have a broader market to sell to. It also means that locally made goods and services will face increased competition from similar products in the African market, especially if other countries have a comparative advantage. What is the projected net effect of these two sides of trade? Well, it's difficult to predict. It depends on which goods are on the schedule of reduction of tariffs both for other countries and Kenya. Pres. Kenyatta signs the AfCFTA Image courtesy of PSCU Looking at other similar regional pacts such as North America's #NAFTA or the EU, we can see that trade between countries increases many fold. But as in the case of Mexico which saw the bankrupting of peasant farmers due to cheap corn and other agricultural produce from subsidized American farms, the aggregate effect might be po...

Day 2: To Bali, New Year's Eve

We spent most of new year's eve in transit. We left Ibis Styles Hotel at 10.30am, got to Jakarta international airport, got our tickets to Denpasar (in Bali) and left for Bali about 2.30pm (about 30mins late due to air traffic density at the airport) In transit at Jakarta Airport domestic departures; after check-in on the way to Denpasar Photobombed by Tom Hilde and Tom Jones We arrived in Denpasar around 7pm, where we met with Sunday who had arranged our transportation to Ubud. It took us the next hour and a half weaving through ever narrowing roadways towards Ubud, which is our home for the next six days. The driving in Bali immediately reminded me of Nairobi. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but driving a car involved checking both sides of the mirror because scooters, mopeds and motorbikes weave in and out of lanes at breakneck speed, with little warning or caution. Further, while passing huge vehicles like buses and lorries, our drive honked twice to let the other car know...

Analyzing a carry trade proposal: Short USD, go long on bitcoin

I recently completed an assignment for an International Economics Policy class which entailed designing a carry trade. A carry trade is a financial transaction that involves borrowing (short) in a low interest currency, and lending (go long) in a high interest (yield) currency. For instance from Bloomberg 's rates for bonds, this would involve borrowing in Swiss francs (rate is -0.15 percent) and lend in New Zealand dollars (rate is 2.83 percent). All else remaining equal, the carry trade would yield a rate differential of 2.83+0.15 = 2.98 percent. Note: this is an unusual case where the interest rate we are borrowing from is negative; usually, this would involve subtracting the first interest rate from the second. For instance, borrowing in Japanese yen (0.04 percent) and lending in Kiwi dollars (at 2.83 percent) would yield 2.79 percent as profit. My carry trade in this case involves borrowing in USD at a rate of 2.33 percent, and buying bitcoins. But, what, you may ask, is the...

Munene, the journey...

Search This Blog