At my request, my cardiologist sent me some information about why I should be scared about my high LDL levels. I covered one such item he sent me in a previous post, and in this one I'm going to cover another: an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine titled Proof That Lower Is Better--LDL Cholesterol and IMPROVE-IT I have to give the writers of this editorial credit for realizing that just because statins lower both heart attacks and LDL does not mean that lowering LDL would lower heart attack risk. They note that there may be other mechanisms at work "including amelioration of end ..read more

When Alloy Steel's majority owner decided to take the company private at $2.55 per share, I was not pleased and suspected a lot of wrongdoing. So, we sued them. Three years later, we've come to a settlement that was approved by the court. AYSI's buyers have kicked in another $9.5 million, which represents about an additional $2 per share, to make us go away. I worked specifically with attorneys Donald Enright and Jordan Cafritz, and I'm grateful to the whole team at Levi & Korsinsky for doing great work to get this result. I highly recommend you give them a call if you find yourself in a ..read more

Karsan Value Funds (KVF) is a value-oriented fund, as described here. Due to securities regulations, the fund is not open to the public at this time. Should that change in the future, there will be an announcement on this site. For the first quarter ended March 31st, 2024, KVF gained $5.65 per share, increasing the value of each share to $68.50. This represents an 11% pre-tax return, comparing well with the S&P 500's 10% return, the Russell 2000's 5% return, and S&P/TSX's 6% return. Currency gains helped returns by $0.66 per share in the quarter. Multi-baggers Beazer (BZH) and M/I Ho ..read more

I feel great, I work out almost every day, and my biomarkers are all in terrific shape, except for one: the amount of LDL in my bloodstream. My doctor is so concerned that he wanted to put me on statins (a class of drug) and refer me to a cardiologist right away. I wanted to do some research before going on any pharmaceuticals, but I did proceed to meet with the cardiologist who did further testing (ECG, physical checks for cholesterol near elbows and achilles, blood pressure check) but nevertheless echoed my family doctor that I should go on statins right away. So I've been digging into the r ..read more

Hearing statistics of what happened during a genocide doesn't tug on our emotional heartstrings quite like an individual's story does. Maus is one Holocaust survivor's extraordinary tale. I first read this book a couple of decades ago and it touched me a lot. So as I teach my son about this horrifying period in history, it made sense to me to read it again, this time with him. It's written in comic book form, making it very easy for children to follow along. Kids tend to lack perspective, and understandably so: their only experience of life is their own and the few people they know around th ..read more

I've read and agreed with a lot of stuff from Morgan Housel over the years, so I already knew I'd agree with most of what he says in The Psychology of Money. The book discusses a number of factors that individuals should consider as they think about how they save and grow their savings. I skimmed most of it because I was already familiar with most of the concepts. But for beginners to the world of saving, I think this is a terrific book. A number of important concepts are discussed with helpful examples. The reason I don't read more Housel is because I find him wordy. The late great Charlie ..read more

A group of people who have been canceled by the woke mob relocate to a closed society that does not subscribe to the woke mentality. This is the situation in the novel "How I Won a Nobel Prize". I thought this premise was fantastic, but I was disappointed in the author's execution of said premise. It felt a bit like a modern day "Atlas Shrugged", including the overly verbose dialogue. For some reason, the author also doesn't use quotation marks to denote dialogue, which made it a more-confusing-than-it-had-to-be read, at least for me. If one does not read this book, I think one can still liv ..read more

Karsan Value Funds (KVF) is a value-oriented fund, as described here. Due to securities regulations, the fund is not open to the public at this time. Should that change in the future, there will be an announcement on this site. For the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2023, KVF gained $7.06 per share, increasing the value of each share to $62.85. This represents a 15% pre-tax return, which places in the middle of the range of the S&P 500's 14% return, the Russell 2000's 22% return, and S&P/TSX's 11% return. Currency losses hurt returns by $0.24 per share in the quarter. This was a ..read more

Your mind and body are programmable! Once you do something a number of times, it becomes a habit that is much easier for your body to execute. Atomic Habits is a terrific book about how to achieve that state in an efficient manner. There were lots of good tips and tricks in this book, but I already knew most of them from reading other habit books! For example, this was a good one. But if you're new to forming good habits or getting out of bad habits, this book will help you make/break habits, depending on what you need ..read more

I really enjoyed this world history lesson that includes Africa's significant effect on the world. In Born in Blackness, I learned a ton of stuff that is generally glossed over in traditional tellings of world history. Europe's initial explorers were not trying to reach India, as is commonly believed, according to the author. They wanted Africa's gold, and they searched up and down the African coast to get it. What they found were African kingdoms or states with similar levels of institutions as those of Europe at the time. Trade relations grew (European exports in textiles, for example, in e ..read more