John Hjorth

Post by Jeff [ @DooDiligence ] in the Novo Nordisk topic about the Danish Gefion project, including a video, double posting the video to here : Here is another video with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang at the same gathering about the Gefion project :

Novo Nordisk Foundation just invested approx. DKK 700 milion, together with the [Danish] Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, the fund contributing DKK 100 milllion, in a public-private partnership about Denmarks first AI supercomputer : Novo Nordisk Foundation - News [October 23rd 2024] : Denmark’s first AI supercomputer is now operational. Subtitle : New supercomputer built on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD will accelerate research and provide new opportunities in academia and industry. - - - o 0 o - - - In need of hosting for messing around with AI? - Call Novo Nordisk Foundation! -We will likely see much more of such in the near future, I think. The first 'renters' are immediately ready!, ref. the article content. ['Those who have the ability to do it, also have the obligation.'] I can't come up with a name of a Danish hosting company, that I know of, able doing something like this.

Bloomberg - Markets [October 25th 2024] : Luxury Fortunes Lose $58 Billion as Pandemic Era Splurge Ends. Pesonally, I speculate, we by now not are near the point of maximum pessimistic sentiment for this sector yet. We'll see. - - - o 0 o - - - I did not know that Salma Hayek is the trophy wife of Francois-Henri Pinault.

Reuters - The Wider Image [October 10th 2024] : Ukraine's vast forests devastated in hellscape of war. Please see the airail video of a village that was destroyed by fighting in the Sviati Hory National Park almost at the bottom of the the article. To call it a hellscape isen't an exaggeration. Imagine not being able to enjoy the spring colours of threes and forests, in the autumn, before leaf fall, one of the precious joys of of life, that are free. This is not like cleaning up the mess in cities, villages, fixing infrastructure etc. after this calamaty has come to an end, which basically is all about economic resources, no matter how one tries to fix this damage after the war, it will take centuries for scars in nature to heal. A rule of thumb is that a forest is about 200 years to mature and heal after something like this, depending on tree species. There no way to ask the nature to hurry up [, while it is still possible to help it for a new start by tree planting in the beginning of the healing process, though]. It reminds me of : 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens and The 1908 Tunguska Event in Russia. - - - o 0 o - - - Edit : While it's already evident that the Ukrainian economy is kept artificially kept alive by oxygen provided by it's allies in steady and plenty amounts, without which it likely already would have collapsed totally, the war economy for Russia is now really beginning to take its toll on the Russian society : Bloomberg - Economics [October 25th 2024] : Russia Raises Key Rate to Record 21% as Inflation Persists. Bank of Russia - News [October 25th 2024] : Bank of Russia increases the key rate by 200 bp to 21.00% p.a.. Bank of Russia - News [October 25th 2024] : Statement by Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina in follow-up to Board of Directors meeting on 25 October 2024. Now even the hardballer Russian Central Bank govenor Elvira Nabiullina is starting to look just a wee bit tired and worn out.

It reminds me a bit of an old Carlsberg ad : YouTube - Saatchi & Saatchi Copenhagen : Classic 90'er Carlsberg - The Housing Collective. The foreman welcoming new resident, explaining all the ground rules : Everything is shared and common, the dog named Mao, the shared and common TV, where it is shared and common not to pay licence, shared and common bathroom, shared and common toothbrush, the new resident then asking : 'So the beers must also be 'ours'!?'. Foreman to new resident : 'Whoa! whoa! - You just keep the chops away from them, man, the beers, they're mine!' Certainly rhymes with the Russian confiscation of Carlsberg Russian assets.

@Castanza is mean today, attempting to kill us all! - Great entertainment! Yeah, Greg [ @Gregmal ], some of those persons having their whole investable part of their net worth [and controlled by themselves] parked unproductive on a bank account, because 'everything else is 'too risky'', perhaps being a bit 'entrepreneurial' by also having some long term morgage bonds [Danish phenomen & thingy] , where the bond owners get fleeced if just the interest rates move, does not matter if it's up or down. And then there are the headwinds from inflation and taxes in varying degrees over time, - but, by principle, day in, day out.

In a way, to me personally, reading the posts above by @thowed and @Sweet, partly triggered by questions by @Dinar is to me so enriching with regard to self-insight as a Northern European citizen. Right now I'm reading 'The Logic of The War' by a Danish military [navy] captain and phd fellow [[public] funding secured!] by the name Anders Puck Nielsen - he is gradually gaining more and more media traction here these days. In his explaining of 'why are things as they actually are by now in Europe?' and 'Why are the Western Europe in this actual situation now?' his modus operandi - in all his self promotional activities - includes a very interesting concept of 'the peace dividend' - the fact that many of the European countries in budgets and spending have gradually allocated less and less - over years - on and to the defense budgets, simply milking defence budgets as some kind of cash cow, to make ends meet [in stead of suggesting unpopular actions], because politically, 'there really hasen't been an adversary in this century', after the implosion and collapse of the Soviet Union. That, combined with 'everybody' just leaning up against 'Big Brother' [USA] footing the bill on all that - in an alliance - like some cute puppy seeking attention, looking up, leaning into someones legs. Eventually, reality arrives. - - - o 0 o - - - For my part, I'm buying the above logic, and it is a - perhaps then again,- not so material living condition in my recent past, but I'm certainly not going to whine about paying relatively more Danish taxes going forward than in the recent past because of that. While reading this, please take into consideration, that I can't rule out it may be because of my existing - built up over now many years -, intentionally - ability to pay more taxes. To give a d**n about it, thereby to adopt and adapt, one has to be able to pay in the first place.

The Economist, October 19th 2024, p. 14, section 'Letters' : Don't look so glum "Fashion photography jolts the viewer out of the grim and the quotidian", you say ("Very in vogue", October 5th.) Yet most fashion models themselves look grim. On the catwalk and on the page they hide any evidence of enjoyment in the clothes they wear. They be- coming unsmiling, agressive posing machines daring the viewer to look them in the eye. They become coat hangers, their humanity lost to art. ROBIN LAURANCE Oxford - - - o 0 o - - - 'Coat hangers' <- ? , Robin! - - - o 0 o - - - https://www.dior.com/en_dk/fashion/womens-fashion/haute-couture-shows/autumn-winter-2024-2025-haute-couture-show

This is to me so true. There are delusional geriatrics involved in running Europe or European countries many places, who think they still have appeal to, and think they also can deceive the inbumbent European youth, with their out of date, obsolete *BS*. *BS* from such geriatrics, directed at a very well informed and generally well educated European youth, with the geriatrics' perception of a long gone actual reality, and their ideals, by now not any longer tied to any kind of actual reality for the youth. It's never going to work onwards. [And I'm tempted to say : Thank God for that!] Those delusional geriatrics have never grasped the concept of that we all have our prime time, and that the prime time for most of us ends a long time before our passing. This is the definiton of anachronisms, be it Mr. Thibaut, or the incumbent ruler of also that part of Russia being located to the west of the Urals, thereby generally accepted as that part being a part of Europe. -Less power to the delusional and conceited geriatrics - and more power to the youth!

Reuters [October 18th 2024] : North Korean troops in Russia readying for combat in Ukraine war, S.Korea says. Concerning information indeed. I have no idea about what this might cause or bring in the future. Letting ones imagination and fantasy stray about it is a really unpleasant mental exercise.

I personally agree wholeheartedly with @UKs post above, a post I think is very good and nuanced, including that there are a lot of national and local shades and nuances to the overall picture, that are important. I have already by specific examples [specific European companies] proved, so proof by several counter examples, that despite all that has been posted here in this topic about Europe, there is absolutely no institution, organ or entity here in Europe that is able in any way to hold down to the ground, stop and/or passivate European true innovation, simply because the people involved in it don't give a f**k about bureaucracy and stupidy in regulation, with a good deal of help by the press exposing it by examples, putting bureaucrats and politicians on overwork for correcting doing and waisting time etc. of others on dumb and stupid things. However I personally give in on that we in Europe have a major problem about absolutely meaningless and crazy subsidies to agriculture and food production from the EU, financed by state contributions to the EU finances and budget, that actually works as one huge redistribution mechanism, keeping European agriculture and food production businesses alive, that should go bankrupt and get closed as non-competitive and unprofitable, almost like in former Russian plan economics under the communism. - - - o 0 o - - - Australia years back also had such a bad system, sick, like a form of cancer, where Australian politics at a point in time decided to clean it up, by simply removing all subsidies and let prices on products steer by markets mechanims. Naturally, living hell broke loose, creating a carnage doing so, but after a short time, all things eventually stabilized, and efficicient and skilled farmers regained their independence and dignity by actually as selfemployed making their own money, the really good of them really big bucks, also to invest in their businesses for the future, in stead of all of them having a false status as selfemployed, while in reality living on state welfare, defined by a sick and crazy regulatory environment.

Now I'm taking a break from Samuel Rachlins book "I, Putin' and switched to start reading the following book by Anders Puck Nielsen [the man introduced upstream in this topic by @Spekulatius ] : 'Krigens Logik' [which translates from Danish to English by 'The Logic of the War'. I think of it as 'The Warfare's ABC'. To me, very good and educational for a western citizen ignorant related to real warfare, like me. Unfortunately for this book, there also exists a language barrier here, because the book is only available in Danish language. This book also introduces the original book - 'bible' - of warfare by former general Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz [1780 - 1831] of the Army of the Preussian pricipality Magdeburg, which book still by its basic concepts and principles applies to warfare in our times, the book called 'Vom Kriege', originally written in German, translated from German to English by 'On Wars', and this book also available in English language, in several versions, at various prices, and also in other languages, among those, Danish. This one I'm about to order today, and with this one I'm taking it on in it's original German language [great brain exercise to revive an inactive and dormant language, in which I as a young person at a time once was actively fluent in speaking].

Minus one, or plus one, Charlie [ @dealraker ] ? [I can't really see it.] - Making it a minus one would certainly be a new creation, a missed opportunity for someone!

'Delegation verging to abdication'.

Thank you, @Dalal.Holdings, It reads as if things are on their way overboard in all kinds of regulatory *BS*. I wonder if this is about EU lobbyism by the European forestry industry. [I don't know.] - - - o 0 o - - - I personally think the forestry industry as such is interesting long term going forward. The Swedish subsidiary Holmen AB, controlled by the Swedish investment holding company L. E. Lundbergföretagen AB, has released a physical book, available for free [not even p&p charged], called 'Future-smart forests' about the industry and it's modus operandi, for those here on CoBF interested.

@Dalal.Holdings, What's the source for your screen shot? Is this about wood?

It will eventually happen, @Dalal.Holdings, and things will be corrected. The stubborn truth by now however is that many socialist or communist European politicians aren't willing to give up and give in, confronted with the reality, which they aren't able to understand, based on their out-of-date assumptions about the function of society.

I'm in the same camp as @73 Reds and Mike [ @boilermaker75 ]. I seldom look at the stock [the B] in our investment banks user interface. I did sving by it today, based on this ongoing discussion. *Gulp* with regards to records of unrealized gains thrown my/our households way, after starting buying the first shares at 86.64 back in September 2012. Like mentioned by @Xerxes for Canadians today, so for Danes, one can only defer taxes on tax deferred accounts for so long, at some age you are subject to 'forced, controlled' liquidation of your account, generating taxation of the payments to you, withholding taxes on the payment. As @Viking has already said, live with it, and get over it, because it's a luxury problem. Enjoy the 'deferred' party as long as it lasts, and be content to actually see and enjoy the token of all your work over many years getting a tax cut for the best of the society in which you live. Edit : It may require some mental exercise to get to that conclusion. It is pretty simple, actually : "Those who has the ability, has the obligation" [In Denmark, it's called 'skatteevne' : The ability to pay taxes, also meaning "It does not make any sense taxing those who cannot pay", simply because they can't - and don't - pay. Rule #1 in societal design. Don't cheat yourselves in the state budget by recording income there, that your state will never receive.

Off topic: Mike [ @boilermaker75 ] and @Xerxes, Thank you for sharing your exchange here. Ordered 'The House of Morgan' today.

@Masterofnone, Here are some data : Liquid assets at Berkshire holding company level : That's USD 21.706 B at YE2023. Then we have dividend restrictions [without prior regulative approval] in the insurance companies [where most of the money is] at about USD 31 B : Then we have the shares outstanding at July 21st 2024 : A shares : 533,234 B shares : 1,325,192,509. A USD 20 dividend per B share thus expropriates USD [[533,234*1,500]+ 1,325,192,509] * 20 = USD 2,125,044,509 * 20 = USD 42,500,870,180 [USD 42.5 B] of cash in the group system. - - - o 0 o - - - I'm not ruling anything out here. But I consider it highly unlikely. - - - o 0 o - - - Also, I try - speculatively, yes, - to visualize, inside my head, a meeting between Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, Abel telling Jain, that now is the piggy bank getting slaughtered for the sake of a dividend, so that the underwriting capacity in the insurance companies is getting limited going forward. I think [speculate] that Jain in such scenario would pack his personal stuff, turn in his resignation, leave office, and call it day, after now almost 40 years at Berkshire.

Thank you to @Hektor and @Xerxes for digging up that interview again. It's an important one, I think.

@Masterofnone, If you look at the Berkshire financials, have you then ckecked if this [a USD 20 per B share dividend] is even a feasible action? I mean where are all the money?

There are parts of Elon Musk's personality, that I would categorize as behavioral weaknesses. There has been at least one instance of letting a friend down, as an example. Think poor Starman. Me to ChatGPT : "How does Starman get his Tesla Roadster software updated?" ChatGPT to me : "Starman, the mannequin inside the Tesla Roadster, launched by SpaceX doesn't receive software updates like a regular Tesla. The car was intended as a demonstration payload, and since it's in space, it won't be able to connect to Tesla's network for updates. Thus, it remains with the software it had at launch." Imagine maneuvering in the Asteriod Belt or in the Kuiper Belt without regularly map updates, after being a bit 'overshot' by a friend. Now that is cruelty for a friend.

@Xerxes, Thank you, I have read the piece on the Economist website, too : The Economist - Europe [September 19th 2024] : Aland is lovely, weapon-free and too close to Russia. Personally, I can relate to the sentiment expressed in the article by people living there, and the thinking about what to do? Deadlock it is. Nato [<-?], EU, Europe, Western World here has to do with a mad man and his doings, based on delutional ideas inside that mans head, rooted in the past greatness of Russia. It's deeply concerning. On the TV Channel National Geografic a series [Title : 'Defence Europe'] of the war / military history of each European country is rolled out by now, one piece, one country, one session per week, transmitted late in the evening here on Sundays [, but doesen't really matter, because our household has access to it as a streaming service]. The first three pieces has been about Finland, France and Poland. I somehow succeded in missing the Poland session last night, but I will get to it, eventually. Great mental fodder for an old historical ignorant like me, I would say. The history of France's perpetual disagreements with Germany during history is just so striking and mind provoking, like a never ending story. Yet, somehow the world has become a better place to live, since the war ax was burried last time between those two countries. The war history of Finland is similar towards Russia. I did not know before, that the people of Finland back in the '60's decided to build an 'undergound city' - carved out under central Helsinki [Wikipedia : Asematunneli] as a precaution towards possible agressions from the - from to times to times - agressive neighbour to the East.

This piece of information about Elon Musk from Wikipedia cracked me up dearly! Trying to buy ICBMs from Russia, getting a 'No' because considered a novice What a head wind pattern! Reminds me of the prisoner sentenced to death by shooting: The executioner to the prisoner : 'Up against the wall!' The prisoner to the executioner : 'There is no wall!' The executioner to the prisoner : 'Then build one!'