This week I had two close relatives succumbed to Covid in less than 5 days of being tested positive. In Malaysia, this week also witnessed a high infection rate of over 7,000 daily and a death rate of over 100 patients. Other countries, such as Britain, are considering lifting restrictions. In the country, three milestones […]
An article in the London Sunday Times on February 28th, 2021, was an interesting one. It quoted Hermes handbags, made by the French company, Hermes International SA, went up by 17 per cent in price while the FTSE 100 index fell by 14.3 per cent. Aside from being a highly desirable fashion accessories, luxury handbags […]
The share prices of EV start-ups have been rising sharply over recent months. Testa Inc., which produces 500,000 EVs per year is valued at more than US$800 billion. At one point, an EV start-up, Nikola, was worth US$40 billion, more than the market value of the 100-year old Ford Motor. Investors have also taken […]
On February 13th, 2021, the headline of the Times London online was “Britons are at the back of a year-long queue for new Tesla model. Another headline in the Barron’s online reads “Electric vehicles were a non-starter until Tesla comes along. There were a few starts for electric vehicles in the last 100 years. The […]
Occasionally small rats entered our kitchen to sniff out for leftover foods. If they are not lucky, they are caught by my cats, Salina Boy or Charlie. Instead of being considered a pest, a species of rat, the African giant pouched rat, is being trained to detect a disease that is devastating livestock and threatening […]
When I was small, living in a village with many rivers and natural ponds, a favourite hobby was fishing for fresh water fish. We would find larvae of beetles in fallen sago palms and used it as a fish bait. In remote parts of Sarawak in East Malaysia, locals eat these live larvae as delicacies […]
We begin 2021 with an article on a new alternative source of capital for innovators. The first topic of the new year is on SPAC, special-vehicle acquisition company. In the US innovators have taken their companies public by merging with SPACs. Through SPAC owners of start-ups have a different, perfectly legal approach to promoting […]
The first bespoke electric car forecourt was opened on December 7th, 2020, by Gridserve at Braintree, Essex, England. The capital of the county is Southend On Sea at which I studied at a local college in the 1970s. Designed by its CEO, Toddington Harper, the forecourt (which is categorically not a service station) is spacious […]
The London Time s article on 21st November 2020 reported that the thefts of catalytic converters have increased significantly recently. The police had logged in 14,690 incidents across Britain this year, a rise from 2,484 a year earlier and 985 the year before. The rise is believed t have ben driven by a steep rise […]
In the history of marketing, in 1940, Pepsi was credited with an advertising campaign called “twice as Much for a Nickel”. It was based on the fact that Coca Cola was sold in 6-ounce bottles and the new Pepsi bottles were 12 ounces. An article in Wall Street Journal, online edition, on October 27th, 2020, […]