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Australian Wildlife Series - Eastern Grey Kangaroo

This is one of a series of posters I have had for some time. Each article will reveal one poster at a time. The drawings are from Stanley ...

Australian Wildlife Series - Frilled Dragon

This is one of a series of posters I have had for some time. Each article will reveal one poster at a time. The drawings are from Stanley ...

Australian Wildlife Series - Grey Headed Robin

This is one of a series of posters I have had for some time. Each article will reveal one poster at a time. The drawings are from Stanley ...

Australian Wildlife Series - Spotted Burrowing Frog

This is one of a series of posters I have had for some time. Each article will reveal one poster at a time. The drawings are from Stanley...

Hungry Spider (Not for anachrophobes)

This little spider had a dead fly and was towing it around. I took these pictures of it before it tried to take it up a wall, presumably t...

The Robber Fly

I found this unusual creature on our kitchen benchtop. We had been given some fruit from a friend who has a lifestyle property just out of...

The Intercity 125

Ideas On Places To Travel To

If you like green countryside, here's an idea. Greenland! They say Ch...

Contrasting Statements

Campaigns raise awareness. Education reaches the heart.  There is no such thing as bad weather. There is inadequate clothing.  I do not ...

Stating The Obvious

Is the pope a catholic?  Is the sky blue? Do one-legged ducks swim in circles?  Does Donald Trump shoot from the hip? Can fish swim? Are...

Sayings That Never Quiet Made It

Sayings are a concise way to say something that paints a word picture in our minds and then drives home a salient point. What are some sa...

I Wouldn't Say...But...

I wouldn't say I am a bad singer.... ...but the local bar manager likes me singing Karaoke just before closing. It clears out the s...

Interpreting What Is Said

People say things but what do they really mean? First, the setting (bold type), then what is said and finally (in italics) what they are re...

A Nice Pair

A Nice Pair

Monarch Butterflies

News Headlines

Dietary advice: "Can Beetroot make you run faster?" If you need a laxative, no harm in giving it a try.                       ...

He Could Sell ...

He could sell sand to Arabs.  He could sell scuba gear to a shark.

Bulls,

In the Rangitikei District of NZ (near Palmerston North) is a small town of Bulls. It was named after a settler James Bull but the name la...

UK Car Production : 2013-22 (Jan-Jun)

The UK motor industry has a fine historical record and still is a very important part of the economy but nothing like it once was. W...

Bosnia-Herzegovina Sales : 2022 (Jan-Jun)

Registrations for June were +13% and the first six months of 2022 were +10% on the corresponding period of 2021. The 'Diff' fi...

Europe Sales : 2022 (Jan-Jun)

Registrations for June was -17% and for the first six months of 2022 was -14% on the corresponding period of 2021. The 'Diff...

UK CV Production : 2013-22 (Jan-Jun)

For the first six months of the year, the production of commercial vehicles in the UK is the best going back to 2013. What's not...

Europe Top 50 : 2022 (Jan-Jun)

The VW Golf has been knocked off its perch as the leading model. Of course, there are still six months for that to be rectified. Whi...

Slovakia Sales : 2022 (Jan-Jun)

Registrations for June were -2% and the first six months of 2022 were -+4% on the corresponding period of 2021. The 'Diff' f...

A Chinese Invasion?

In New Zealand, a few attempts have been made by Chinese manufacturers to enter the market. Initial efforts were not successful. here ...

The New Range Rover Sport

A design director at Mazda was recently asked if he liked what others were doing in vehicle design. He said he wasn't and talked a...

The Big Truck Market Down Under

Anyone that regularly follows this blog will know that in this neck of the woods the pickup is very popular. It suits an outdoor lifes...

Russian Car Market New Direction

The Russian car market is protected by import duty so brands with any volume of note had assembly plants. Sanctions came and foreign p...

Russia Model Sales : August 2022

Passenger cars: On the model front, the departure of Western brands is very much having an impact. Russian and Chinese (shaded yello...

Toyota/Lexus Production : 2020-22 (2022 Jan-Jun)

Having to walk to work because the car's not charged. I hate it when that happens. Toyota manufactures cars in many places as we ...

Managing across the Corporate Life Cycle: CEOs and Stock Prices!

One of the big news stories of last week was Jack Dorsey stepping down as CEO of Twitter, and the market's response to that news was ...

US Stocks kept winning in 2021, but…

Leading into 2021, the big questions facing investors were about how quickly economies would recover from COVID, with the assumption that ...

It is Moneyball Time!

Happy New Year, and I hope that 2022 brings you good tidings! To start the year,  I returned to a ritual that I have practiced for thirty...

Back in the Classroom: Time to Teach!

At the start of every semester for as long as I can remember, I have invited people to sit in informally on my classes at NYU or take the...

Inflation and its Ripple Effects!

Inflation numbers have been coming in high now, for more than a year, but for much of the early part of 2021, bankers, investors and poli...

Data Update 4 for 2022: Risk = Danger + Opportunity!

In the first few weeks of 2022, we have had repeated reminders from the market that risk never goes away for good, even in the most buoya...

Back to Earth or Temporary Setback? Revisiting the FANGAM Stocks

It has been a rocky year so far, in 2022, with worries about inflation competing with hopes about recovery for the market's attention...

Data Update 5 for 2022: The Bottom Line!

The proverbial bottom line for success in business is the capacity to deliver profits, at least in the long term. Even though we live in ...

Russia in Ukraine: Let Loose the Dogs of War!

As the world's attention is focused on the war in the Ukraine, it is the human toll, in death and injury, that should get our immedia...

ESG's Russia Test: Trial by Fire or Crash and Burn?

My views on ESG are not a secret. I believe that ESG is, at its core, a feel-good scam that is enriching consultants, measurement services ...

Elon's Twitter Play: Valuation and Corporate Governance Consequences

I am not a prolific user of social media platforms, completely inactive on Facebook and a casual lurker on LinkedIn, but I do use Twitter...

In Search of a Steady State: Inflation, Interest Rates and Value

The nature of markets is that they are never quite settled, as investors recalibrate expectations constantly and reset prices. In most ti...

Risk Capital and Markets: A Temporary Retreat or Long Term Pull Back?

As inflation has taken center stage, markets have gone into retreat globally, and across asset classes. In 2022, as bond rates have risen...

Country Risk: A 2022 Mid-year Update!

It has been my practice for the last two decades to take a detailed look at how risk varies across countries,  once at the start of the y...

A Zomato 2022 Update: Value, Pricing and the Gap

On July 21, 2021, I valued Zomato just ahead of its initial public offering at about ₹41 per share. The market clearly had a very different...

A Follow up on Inflation: The Disparate Effects on Company Values!

In my last post, I discussed how inflation's return has changed the calculus for investors, looking at how inflation affects returns ...

Chia Seed Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

A super tasty cookie to eat for breakfast or a snack.  It's filled with oats, coconut, walnuts, chia seeds, wheat germ and dried cran...

Happy Birthday, Jim Garner!

"Aw, c'mon Dennis!" "Sorry, Jimbo, but I can't help you out this time". This scene played itself out...

Happy Birthday, Jim Garner!

I kept it simple for this year's tribute to my favourite actor, Jim Garner, just drawing one more

Palak Puris and Karnataka Saagu

Palak Puris "LOH compensated for yesterday by churning out excellent:  1. Bottle Gourd Saagu (Sorey kai in Kannada, Ghia in ...

Pasta Pulao

My dad whips up a pretty wicked pasta dish, with lots of veggies, and an Indian twist. When I visited last October, he cooked some fantast...