JBird

Elon compares building AI to summoning the Demon. http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/26/elon-musk-compares-building-artificial-intelligence-to-summoning-the-demon/

Isn't it something like a 7 year yardstick now? I thought he changed it when 5 years didn't work so well. Maybe I'm wrong. Still 5 years. I know because I was at the meeting when he said it hasn't changed.

I'm not far behind you.

We haven't seen Lukoil's profit materially decrease because of Putin's madness. So I don't yet see a reason to decrease my valuation. If all out war breaks out in Russia, the market price goes to hell, but Lukoil continues making 9+ billion a year, why should my valuation go down?

When I started that thread I wrote And then people responded by saying Putin is a maniac. And of course they were right. So I'm not sure what you're talking about.

+1 for Black Fig

I'm happy to join up for lunch afterwards as well.

LOL! Not unlike Buffett, it wasn't GEICO that he managed to control, but Berkshire Hathaway. He retained the name to remind him what an awful purchase it was. Our circumstances are very similar...it wasn't Russell Breweries that we managed to control, but a distressed business where intrinsic value was considerably underwhelming like Berkshire in its original state. We will keep part or all of this company's name in the future to remind us of the same thing. I will give you one anecdote that will illustrate the culture we are trying to create. I've refused a CEO's salary, because I denied our controller a pay raise. Instead, I've told the board that I would like to get paid $500 less than our controller annually, and will not take a pay raise until he gets one. I will give you one further anecdote to illustrate the type of people we are trying to retain and hire. When I became involved with the company's finances a few months ago, our controller had not been paid for 10 weeks...in fact, none of the core employees had been paid for 10 weeks, but they kept on working! We've caught up on all of their salaries after I became involved, and retained those employees. They could not be happier and morale could not be better. I told them I cannot believe they did not leave and promised them they would always be paid every pay period going forward. Cheers! This is really good stuff. Excited for the future.

That's great work! Really well written.

Hahaha yes!

Thanks Nate. Great post as always-- bought the book on your recommendation.

You do not need to be a shareholder. You do not need to RSVP. And I did also call and check-- Munger is the only one speaking. If you're flying in I really recommend looking at an Uber cab. Cheaper than a rental car and you don't have to worry about parking. Netnet, my flight lands at 8:10 at Burbank if you want to carpool. I have a Uber gift card so my trip is already going to cost something like $7.

I'm 26 too and I've been doing this for a few years now. I have a spreadsheet that tracks my "balance sheet" and I update it every 2 weeks. I keep track of three things, the balance sheet, investment returns, and ordinary income. At the end of the year, I sum up what happened that year in a paragraph. Each year's paragraph gets added to a running word document. My idea is that over the years I'll be able to go back and catch a little snapshot of what happened that year and the financial results. I've come to really enjoy the process.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/billionaire-musk-chooses-south-texas-site-for-spacex-launchpad.html

I found that Burbank is 16 miles away and 23 minutes(non rush-hour), whereas LAX to the meeting is 20 miles and 32 minutes (non rush-hour). I found a flight that lands in Burbank at 8:10 am so I'll have 90+ minutes to go 16 miles. Even in rush hour that should be enough. After the meeting I'd love to meet up with some boardmembers and eat somewhere. My flight back to Phoenix doesn't leave until 7:10 pm.

Time is the friend of the wonderful business. Thanks for posting.

The meeting is at 10 am Pacific time.

Boom! As always, thanks for posting.

+1 The operating business is now valued at 30x earnings.

Nexen Tire preferred has return 60% since that post and is still trading at 6x earnings. Some news: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/23/nexen-tire-europe-idUSL4N0P41OF20140623

On the design of a spacecraft that warps Spacetime in order to travel faster than light. Sponsored by SpaceX.

buying using stolen credit cards? I was curious why there were so many gift cards on sale at 80-90 face value. Then I learned hackers were laundering stolen gift cards using these gift cards reselling sites. The discount is warranted because any stolen cards have some possibility of being cancelled. That makes it clear why cards should sell at a discount, but the one I linked was selling at a premium. The face value was $50. It sold for $162.50.

Gift cards going for curious prices: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=231251221870 And seller is charging $2.32 for email delivery...

How do you value a bond except by DCF?