Dustin T

"A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. Bryson is gifted with words, no depth to this book at all but he covers nearly everything in one fun to read volume.

I would almost expect them to work together more in the future. Shipping containers are pretty standard and at the point that trucks are self driving I expect the exchange of the shipping container to the truck could also be done without an operator. This would shift more of the long haul trucking to train. I think the logistics make this a little more complicated now with the need to schedule around people. I believe the future favors rail.

28.7% Biggest winner of the year IPGP, IPG Photonics disrupting the laser market one fiber laser at a time. Biggest loser DKS, Dick sporting goods wrapped up in the retail tailspin, but still growing and buying back shares.

Surprised Thomas Gayner of MKL isn't on this list. He's 55 and has impressive results as MKL chief capital allocator.

Kansas City, MO

I don't think a public autonomous EV sounds very attractive as a sole mode of transport. I'd love to have one deliver groceries or run errands for me. My car will always be more comfortable then any commercial plane, subway car or taxi, which is inevitably what a public option looks like. I would want my own autonomous vehicle. Knowing it could be outfitted as a mobile office, mobile theatre, mobile exercise complete with spin machine helping add a few watts to the car battery or a dozen other uses. These would all add value to my life and make travel more enjoyable or productive. I've got no doubt sharing something that sits 90% of the time has a lot of economic benefit and many would choose that option. I also think many middle class and many more upper class families will choose a comfortable, convenient and customizable option. They may go from three vehicles to one, but there are many reasons to keep that one.

I'm a Glock guy myself, if Glock was public I would already own it, there is no question that they are the best semi-auto handguns on Earth. But Ruger is a quality company which makes a quality product. No one makes a better revolver, no one. And as far as semi-auto goes, as I said above, I just purchased a Ruger LCP II. Yes if Glock made a .380 of a similar size I would have went with the Glock, but they don't. My main carry gun is a Glock 26 in 9mm, but depending on what you are wearing, it isn't always easy to conceal. Glock has a single stack .380, but it is huge compared to the Ruger, certainly not a gun you can throw in your front pants pocket. For pocket carry .380s there is Ruger LCP & LCP II, Beretta Pico, and a bunch of lower quality guns from other brands. For revolvers there is really no option better than Ruger. Ruger makes a quality rifles as well, although there is a lot of competition in that space. I just don't think it is accurate to say Ruger makes garbage. I concur with that, I think it's just Johnny's crowd and for their purposes it may be true. Glock makes a great gun but so does Ruger. It may not be the equivalent of a high end pistol but the idea that a Ruger is "vastly inferior" to a Glock makes me wonder what their metric is. It's not vastly more accurate, or vastly more reliable. It all depends on what you are doing. For shooters that compete one gun may be vastly inferior to another based on weight, reload time or other factors that wouldn't seem obvious at first. One mans perfection may be another man's junk.

Firearms do wear out. It Depends on the caliber, but its somewhere around 10,000+ rounds so it's usually never reached. Firearms hold their value very well if they are treated properly. Values usually drop 20% when you walk out of the store but then slowly raise with inflation over the years with some models doing better or worse. I own several Ruger's and they make excellent products.

I read it several years ago and liked it. It provides a deeper understanding of a very impactful time that and shows that things were much more complicated then the standard narrative allows for.

A very well written review. I'm going to have to take a look at this book.

But how about Angela Merkel's disastrous refugee policies that changed the lives of so many German people? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve_sexual_assaults_in_Germany 1200 women were raped publicly on the street. Their lives were forever changed. And this is just one incident. Smaller crimes happen almost everyday in Germany now. 1200 sexual assaults** and at least 5 rapes. The president does have power, I didn't say his choices didn't matter. I didn't give much color to that last statement and you guys took it another direction than I intended. Many people buy in whole heartedly when a president speaks of creating jobs and improving the economy or preventing recessions, keeping the world safe, and improving the lives of the poor. A president does effect all these things but I think most people imagine he has more power over their lives than he does.

This thread is great for seeing who has checked their brain at the door and bought all the magic beans being sold by either the left or the right. Keep both eyes open my fellow investors, neither side has all the answers. We all know deep down that high caliber people like Buffett, Munger, or Watsa don't chase after political dreams and are wise not too. It's ok to prefer the clown over the corrupt one or vice versa. It's not very wise to believe that one side will usher in Nirvana if it can only get complete control while the other side is the road to the apocalypse. Most people vastly overestimate the power of the president to alter the economy, world politics, and their own lives.

That is a great article. I think it rings true. I believe we have some of those technologies in front of us now that do get some attention but nowhere near the attention they would get if we understood their future value. Things like mapping the human genome, Siri/Cortana/Alexa, driverless cars, medical advances in too many fields to list. These things get some attention but if we understood how big the impact will be once those technologies are mature we would all be watching intently, pushing for adoption and cheering every advance.

I kind of like the hyperloop tech for intercity traveling at much greater speed than 150mpg (600-700 mph) in evacuated tunnels and drones for intracity short distance travel. This would leave airports for intercontinental travel only, at least until they put hyperloop tunnels under the oceans. I was pretty sure I'd get a hyperloop reply, which I think will be awesome technology if they can figure out the little things like how to actually build a viable working model. I'm not sure whether it would be lower cost than rail, it would seem to be a faster more expensive way to travel. Well worth it over longer or heavily traffic distances. I don't see it totally replacing rail for many things like transporting high volume low cost goods like coal or agricultural products or large/heavy equipment. I was just having fun with my thought experiment mixing drones and fast moving trains, you've now expanded it to include uber-fast trains. I thank you for that. The Hyperloop will now form the arteries of my transportation system, along with High speed rail as the vessels, and drones as the capillaries. You take the Hyperloop to go from LA to NY or maybe just from New York to New Jersey. You ride a drone from your house to hitch a ride on the high speed light rail to get to work.

How about a transportation system that merges rail and drones. The drones lift people or goods to the nearest high speed rail line, built conveniently on the now abandoned highway system. It lands on the train on a specially designed car which is moving at 150 mph and only stops for maintenance or off hours. It then rides until it either needs to hit the air to switch trains or it gets close enough to it's destination to just take the last leg on it's own. The rail network is greatly expanded and may consist of single cars traveling in lightly traveled areas. Trains don't really switch tracks so much as drones switch trains, usually at intersections where they are timed to pass through at the same time with a swarm of drones jumping from one train to the next. Combines what both technologies are good at, cheapest form of overland transportation with drones providing service for the last mile or ten. I'm already invested in Berkshire, I better get invested in Amazon before the world catches on;)