Socotra Island - An Alien Looking Place

My friend emailed me some of the following photos and they have prompted me to look for more information on this unique island.


Socotra is part of the Republic of Yeman. The island was recognized by UNESCO as a world natural heritage site in July 2008.


The island is a little over 130 km long east to west and about 33 km north to south. Population of about 42,000, predominantly Arab.

The island is very isolated, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. The climate is harsh, hot and dry. One of the most striking of Socotra's plants is the dragon's blood tree



A strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. Its red sap was thought to be the dragon's blood of the ancients, sought after as a medicine and a dye.


Other endemic plants include the cucumber tree.

Desert Rose that can grow on rock

Desert rose

Flower of incense tree

One of its kind beach in Socotra. Look at the sand

Halah Cave

Town

For more photos and information, please visit Summer Land Hotel



(images credit: Jan Vandorpe, Marco Pavan and Summerlandsocotra.com)

Asset Bubble?

The Federal Reserve, said it will buy $600 billion of U.S. government bonds over the next eight months to drive down interest rates and encourage more borrowing, spending and investment by homeowners, consumers and businesses.



Another bid to reduce unemployment, avert deflation and encourage growth by Bernanke.


A look at the Federal Reserve Balance Sheet is worrying. In 2008 the figure went up from around 900 billion to almost 2.25 trillion within a short span of a few months before end of 2008. The action managed to stabilized the financial system and Dow managed to move from its low of 6,457 in 2009 to Thursday close of 11,434, but unemployment remains high at around 9.6%, consumption remains low and housing crash continues.

The next wave of currency printing will definitely weaken the US dollar further. Commodity price will go up, the price of everything (food, energy, services, material....) in US will shoot up, inflation will set in. But I think inflation is what the Fed desperately wanted in order to solve the real estate problems.

An important question here is, what will happen if/when this dollar liquidity started to flow to emerging markets, will it trickle a global currency war?

Recently China, India and Australia have increased their respective interest rates higher to control inflation. Brazil and Thailand have imposed taxes on capital inflow to prevent asset bubble forming. Japanese authority has started to intervene in the currency markets to prevent the yen from appreciating too much. I am not too optimistic about all these development.

A little bit on Malaysian Society

This is an interesting article from the blog of a young Malaysian, John Lee. Please click Infernal Ramblings.

Toy Story 1 - Renee

Renee is my daughter's favorite since those carefree days. I guess Renee is more than a toy to her. Renee is made to be a reindeer but to me, she looks more like a dog with a pair of fake antlers.



She will not forget to bring Renee along with her whenever and wherever she is needed to move.



For most of the time, Renee stayed in her favorite spot in my daughter's car, a small compartment in front of the armrest console box.

So, when my daughter went over to London last September (study lorr), she followed. This is not her first oversea trip.

There she was, on my daughter’s bed in London, looking at Bobo. I guess Bobo was having serious jet lag problems. Bobo reached London 3 weeks later than Renee. Why? That is another long story to tell.

My daughter emailed me the other day :

……… Oh yeah, I found a boyfriend from York for my Renee. He looks a bit stupid. ........

From the photo, it appears to me that she likes him very much.

..... He is actually filled with wheat and can be put into the microwave to be heated up, it is like a hot water bottle, for cold winter nights..........

Well, that should keep Renee warm during winter. By the way, he is Larry.

Dow - wave iii continues

Must believe in Sifu

Courtesy of www.humortadela.com


Dow

Dow is currently forming its sub-wave 7 of its wave iii


Inch Kenneth

A potential ending point for wave 3 of major wave (V). Unless wave 3 has nine sub-waves. Under such scenario, there will be sub-waves vi, vii, viii and ix after the sub-wave v.

Wave 3 can have nine sub-waves i,ii,iii,iv,v,vi,vii,viii,ix, so do sub-wave v, it can also have nine mini waves i,ii,iii,iv,v,vi,vii,viii and ix.

Karambunai

It is waves (i), (ii) and sub-waves i, ii if prices move up from this level to form sub-wave iii.

However if prices start to move down from this level, then it is waves (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).

Wah Lau Eh
On Tuesday 2nd November 2010

Waves of Clark Little

Courtesy of darkroastedblend.com

The amazing surf photographer Clark Little inside a wave with his camera. His ability to have a fantastic shot with stunning angle, perfect timing and natural lighting to produce a breathtaking piece of work is non comparable and is very unique and rare by itself. Let's enjoy some of his collection














For his other collection, please visit Clark Little Photography.

Miscellaneous

Wave of Clark Little


QS Asian University Rankings 2010

Transparency Index 2010 Rankings

Karambunai - Other possible wave counts

It is learnt that the project may look like Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.

Is this a rumours ?????

My previous wave count for Karambunai was wave (i) - (ii), sub-wave i,ii,iii,iv as shown above. At this stage sub-wave iv has completed its a-b-c-d-e form by last Friday. This wave count remains acceptable if its stock price can start to move up strongly with high volume on Monday or Tuesday, the latest. Failure which, if its stock price continue to drift side-way next week, it is more likely that its wave pattern may take the following form.



The wave count will take a more bullish form of waves (i) - (ii) and sub-waves i - ii as shown above.

If the side way price movement continue into a much longer period, its pattern may develop into a waves (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) wave form as shown below.



This is a good example to demonstrate how the wave forms of stocks or indices such as Dow can change with further price development and with time. The final form is the resultant of a mixture of news and human behaviours/reactions to the news.

There may be a few possible wave counts for Karambunai, I personally feel that upwards price movement is not over yet based on its double bottoms formation as shown in the 10-year long-term chart, assuming that the stock markets especially Dow can hold up long enough for Karambunai's double bottoms to complete its form. Chart pattern can fail with changes to the overall market condition.