Wild wildlife - Photographer of the year

The results are just out on the wildlife photographer of the year. Although the American photographer, Steve Winter won the award with his snow leopard, these eagles fighting over food in Poland, snapped by Antoni Kasprzak is my favourite.
Take a look at the winners and runners-up at the Natural History Museum where they are on display.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

The circle of life

This cartoon caught my eye and seemed worth ripping out of USA Today.
Highlighting the confusion and dissatisfaction being felt in the USA about the infusion of capital vs. the purchasing of preferential stock which most Yanks I spoke to seem to prefer. At least it´s a chance to smile after "yet another" black friday.

GPS systems can seriously damage your car

After each trip to the states or UK I realise how quickly we become dependent on GPS navigation systems (or sat nav) as the people who choose to be different call them.
How intoxicating it is to hear those soft, sexy tones and the understanding voice as she recalculates the route after being ignored. In fact it seems almost impossible to hear a female voice accepting calmly as you go past the turning she instructed, more likely that "Mrs Reality" would be screaming and threatening.

This unfortunate chap in Poland was apparently driving home from a bar and relied a little too much on the sweet voice instructing him to proceed in front. The road had been flooded and become a lake around a year before, but he trustingly followed the advice and ended up sinking fast.

Having had a similar experience in Beverly hills, getting stopped after taking a right turn where it was not allowed but instructed by GPS, I can almost sympathise...except my driver was sober as she explained herself to the nice officer.

100.000th floor please

Reserve a slot in your agenda to attend the "space elevator" convention in Japan, November, hosted by the Japanese Space Elevator Association. Thousands of scientists from all around the world will be there discussing the application of carbon nanotube to Arthur C. Clarke´s dream.

It seems that in around 25 years the first elevator can be ready, with a big tube anchored to the earth's surface reaching tens of thousands of miles into space, connected to a space station which acts as a counterweight and through inertia the whole thing stays straight.

To avoid hurricanes they propose among other options the Galapagos Islands as a potential site however, apart from the obvious turtle issue this seems slightly out of the way for your typical New Yorker/Londoner etc. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/02/space.elevator/index.html

A shame to cover them up

Judging by the recent Martin Margiela show at the Paris Fashion week we seem to have been ahead of the crowd. At the Conarec event in São Paulo we took 4 of the most beautiful models in Brasil, if not the world and put dice on their heads, covering them up with just a space at the front.
The strategy showing the concept of "knowing people behind the data" or "pessoas por tras dos dados" in portuguese caused a stir and high recall, with many participants taking their photo with the girls and compementing the "intervention action".
Good to see that we were first and that this week in Paris this has now been consolidated as a new fashion trend. Here´s the link to see a bit more of Martin´s show.....photos of our models strictly reserved!?! http://content.coutorture.com/2120226

"My name is not Gordon"

For those of us that lived and laughed through the yuppy 80´s there was a glimpse of US desperation today.

We can all remember the classic film Wall Street, where Michael Douglas "Lunch is for wimps", "It´s all about bucks, the rest is conversation" showed us what capitalism was all about "I bought that building for a million dollars, at that time it was all the money in the world, now it´s just a day´s pay".

As he was campaigning against nuclear testing and trying to focus on this important issue, he was asked by some reporters about the condemnation by certain world leaders of the greed ethic. "Are you saying Gordon that greed is not good?" to which he replied, "I'm not saying that, and my name is not Gordon, it was a character I played 20 years ago"

For those of you who remember, greed was not good for Gordon Gecko, the righteous won over, he ended up in jail......with only the pleasure of giving Charlie Sheen a tap on the chin as compensation.

A trip to the butchers

After all this upheavel and volatility in the stockmarket I finally succumbed and thought that there must be some bargains out there. Yesterday I dipped my toes into the market after some sharp declines, bought those cheap retail shares which against all odds managed to drop further.

So as a reasonably mature investor I called up the broker and enquired after a little more, that´s when it hit me. I was going to pump-up on Lojas Americanas or maybe Renner and F. the broker said "You like GVT, it´s just reduced 10% today". "Wow", said I, give me a bit of that, so there I was buying a few kilos of GVT and, why not, a few kilos of LAME4 too as it´s on offer today.

The realisation that buying shares today was a bit like a trip to the butchers, wanted some meat, bought what was on offer to make the most of the special discount and......like meat, have to keep it in the freezer until it´s time to use/sell.

Shouldn´t be too long now, everyone is saying that the Brazil market is a best buy, except for Morgan Stanley....and what do they know after recent performances?!?!

Better off asking your butcher for financial advice.....incidentally GVT is back up a few percent already!!