Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Spiders/Snakes, or Need some cheap glasses?

This study surprised me some. I figured we were hard wired to be afraid of snakes and spiders, but it turns out we're just predisposed to learn to be afraid of them very easily, but we're not born with the fear. I would've guessed we were born with it.

Plus I saw this and thought it was a great deal. Need some cheap glasses? Check out this offer from Sears. 2 pair + lenses for $99

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Can a giraffe swim/float?

I saw this question on a science link on Scientific American the other day. "Can a giraffe swim? or float?"

The knee-jerk reaction is to say "of course it can" because can't all animals swim/float? But then I started thinking about it and how tall, muscular and dense they look at the zoo - my next thought was a) in a giraffe's environment when would it ever need to swim? B) if it walked into the water wouldn't it just go in while still walking on the ground and hold it's neck up, and C) if it did get in too deep of water wouldn't it's big neck cause it to be front heavy and make it tip forward like a front-engine car sinking face-first into the water?

For what it's worth, here's a study that attempts to determine. Apparently nobody's ever seen a swimming giraffe - but they haven't put a giraffe in deep water to check either.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Portfolio update 2011 01-07

Haven't posted here in a while. Figured I'd update some changes made in the past few weeks. Essentially have raised some cash and am just hanging out for some more attractive opportunities to buy.

Here's what I hold now in order of position size:

EBIX Ebix (IT)
UFPT UFP Tech (packaging)
CHL China Mobile (telecom)
TEO Telecom Argentina (telecom)
SHOO Steve Madden (shoes)
DO Diamond Offshore (drilling)
CSCO Cisco (internet / routers)
LHCG LHC Group (home health)
MDF Metropolitan Health Networks

I'm about 50% cash - just waiting for pullbacks somewhere and better buy prices. Of the above the only "large" or "big" commitment for me is Ebix. Everything else is a standard to small size position. I still like MSFT/INTC which were twi of my other larger holdings, but sold my remaining at the end of the year due more to the way the charts were behaving than anything. My general feeling was that there was alot of complacency about risk at the end of the year so I liquidated some spots and am just taking a wait/see approach now and am fine holding cash with intent to deploy should good opportunities present.