rkbabang

IIRC Sanjeev had to delete many of his postings and even entire threads because they got nasty.

Many great books have memorable first lines (i.e. "Who is John Galt?", "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", etc), this great work is no exception. "I always knew that the people of Planet Earth would need me one day."

An IQ of 100 is just average (50th percentile), where 120 is well into the above average category (89 percentile). I'd believe that someone with an IQ of 120 would do measurably better in most tasks which require some amount of analytical analysis, such as investing. No one would find it surprising if a study found that on average investors with a 100 IQ beat investors with an 80 IQ. But when you are talking about the difference between an investor with a 130 IQ and one with a 160, both of which are above the 90th percentile already, I think the increased intelligence doesn't matter as much. I think once you are "smart enough" (being above some minimum threshold) having the knack for finding good investments isn't something that is measured by an IQ test. It can only really be measured by your returns over a long period of time.

What would be a good way to do it would be a link that takes you to a site, where you put in your COBAFF username and the password: "COBAFF" or something (just to keep random people from the web from voting even if they find the page. Then it takes you to a form, where you have 2 columns of 10 rows. You have 100 points to spend. You put in a stock ticker in column 1 (or a $ for cash) and the amount you wish to put in it in column 2 for up to 10 stocks. Then hit submit. If your points you assigned are greater or less than 100 it tells you to try again. The site then compiles all of the data and lists the stocks and the percentages of points that they have received by everyone who's voted. That way you could do something like this (not my real choices): $5 TSLA29 BAC2 AAPL11 FRFHF1 BBRY52

I have no doubt that there is a bubble and it has probably topped out for the time being, but there are a lot of new gun owners out there as a result. I took my kids the the range on Sunday and the place was full of first timers looking for instruction on how to use their new guns. I work with a number of people who are all gun owners for the first time as well. The promising thing about this is that in non-bubble times the thing that most gun buyers have in common is that they already own guns. More gun owners can only be good for future sales. Not too many people own just one gun. Also in your first post you mentioned a question about the "replacement cycle". I'd argue there really is no replacement cycle with firearms. Most guns last a lifetime and are passed down to future generations. It is more about adding to your collection than it is about replacement of broken or worn out items. A good strategy would probably be to buy these in the middle of a republican administration then wait for a democrat to be elected and cause another panic. This cycle has happened exactly this way before and probably will again.

Another problem is weighting. I might pick 5 stocks thinking that my #1 pick is 10 times better than my #5 pick, but you are going to weight them equally. You might assign each person 100 points and let them distribute those points to as many ideas as they wish.

Have you purchased it? It does seem pretty cool My situation is complicated by a few factors: 1) I'm not a homeowner so I'd need the landlord to be a cosigner for the loan or agreement (not happening) 2) I'm exploring have a carport built later this year and having the solar installed there (I have a purchase option so the house is going to be mine in 3 years) 3) I want to look into the cost efficacy of using batteries to buy power at night and spend it in the day. Might be better than buying solar panels, but the company (BYD) refuses to answer their email (two weeks now, two tries at different departments). BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Wouldn't solar panels with net-metering accomplish almost the same thing? You would be using the power you generate during the day when it is expensive to buy, and selling any extra to the utility during the day when it is expensive. Buy a few more panels than you need so that you sell back electricity everyday. Then you would only be buying power at night when it is cheap and your credits have run out. The only exception to this would be on cloudy days. BYD not getting back to you would be disconcerting to me if I were a shareholder. How do they expect to make any sales in the US with customer service like that?

This is an amazing video from the Grasshopper test yesterday. "On August 13th, the Falcon 9 test rig (code name Grasshopper) completed a divert test, flying to a 250m altitude with a 100m lateral maneuver before returning to the center of the pad. The test demonstrated the vehicle's ability to perform more aggressive steering maneuvers than have been attempted in previous flights. Grasshopper is taller than a ten story building, which makes the control problem particularly challenging. Diverts like this are an important part of the trajectory in order to land the rocket precisely back at the launch site after reentering from space at hypersonic velocity."

I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, (I haven't seen it). Here is Musk's Hyperloop proposal. It's an interesting read. http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf

Don't worry, someday you'll be able to upgrade your memory and maybe your processor as well, so that you'll be able to handle the increased speed. Being 40 I'm personally long overdue for a memory upgrade myself.

An interesting article, they guy has a few minor complaints, but mostly positive. Life With Tesla Model S: Owner's Report After 5,000 Miles "The Stubborn Vampire Big Problem No. 2 is the Tesla's "vampire" thirst for kilowatts even when it's turned off and parked. I've measured idle power losses of around 4.5 kilowatt-hours a day, for a total of about 750 kWh during the time that I've owned it. That's almost half the electricity I've used to drive the car! The 15,000-odd Model Ses now on the road collectively squander about 60 megawatt-hours of electricity a day. That's the equivalent of about 50,000 60-Watt light bulbs left on 24 hours a day for no reason--what a waste."

I have to slightly disagree with Buffett's assessment on who the "ablest CEO in America" is. Bezos is great, but this guy may be one step better! Bezos revolutionized retail...Musk may make the world a better place for your grandchildren. Cheers! This is something I'd agree with 100%. I think because of Musk your great-grandkids may vacation on Mars or even chose to live there. My prediction is that when all is said and done Bezos may be remembered as someone who built an industry, but Musk has the potential to be someone who changes our society at a more fundamental level (transportation, energy, spacefaring, ...)

Some of these were already mentioned, but the books my kids loved to read over and over were: [amazonsearch]Knuffle Bunny[/amazonsearch] [amazonsearch]What Color is your Underwear[/amazonsearch] [amazonsearch]Green Eggs and Ham[/amazonsearch] [amazonsearch]I love you Stinkyface[/amazonsearch]

If it was Germany the ads would have naked women in it.

On the bottom of the brochure for that system lists the contact info as: BYD North America 1800 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 09915, USA Tel: +1-213-748-3980 Email:bydenergy@byd.com

He says in the article that management does not work for the shareholders. If the shareholders own the corporation then management does work for the shareholders. I know there is a legal fiction called a corporation, but it is a fiction, there is no consciousness that can make decisions there are only people. If I tell you that you work for a unicorn that I own, but you do not work for me, it doesn't make it so. Something needs to actually exist in reality to make a decision about what to do with assets.

The company's assets belong to the company which belongs to the shareholders. That's like saying your marital assets don't belong to you nor your wife, only to the organization of your marriage. This has got to be one of the worlds dumbest articles. The owners don't own it, the management doesn't own it, the board of directors doesn't own it, the fictional "organization" does? Huh? And he goes around calling others stupid.

Of course we all have a bad impression of taxis, but that impression is due to government interference in the marketplace. In most cities you need a license or medallion to drive a taxi. There are so many problems with this that I'm sure people have written books on the subject, but briefly they limit the number of these so that gives the existing holders a sort of guaranteed monopoly on the market and they are less likely to need to innovate. 2nds they are expensive and highly regulated, the issuance of them is a political pull issue, not at all an issue of who will best serve the public. And in many cities the medallion is tied to the vehicle itself, meaning companies will be driving these vehicles long past the time they should or otherwise would. All of this (and more) virtually guarantees that you will not get good, quick, affordable, reliable, friendly service in a clean vehicle by an innovative company determined to please you. If government (city, state, or federal) heavily regulates autonomous cars, none of these predictions will pan out in any way shape or form.

That is my suspicion too. I almost hope it turns out that way, because that will mean there are a ton of companies competing at each others throats to serve us better and lower costs.

I agree with most of what you're saying, but the one contrasting point I'll make is that I think the saturation levels in terms of public and private transport are so high in some cities now that perhaps a far more efficient and vastly more affordable system does finally make sense even if it clearly didn't 60 years ago. It isn't all about being more efficient, although that can be part of it. I don't ride on buses, because I don't like to be in a vehicle with that many other people who I don't know. The only reason I ride on commercial aircraft is that I can't afford Netjets or even charter, so economy wins out in that case. A Taxi has almost the same problem as a bus, you need to deal with people you don't know. Getting in an autonomous vehicle alone or with your friends/family without strangers around is still just as independent feeling as driving yourself. The other issue is cleanliness, I'd pay a lot more for a service that detailed their cars a few times per week and looked more like a personal car and less like a bus or a taxi. That isn't to say that there won't be discount services out there which will operate vehicles that look, feel, and smell like today's taxis. It will be up to you which level of service you'd like to pay for.

The other thing to consider, and I think this is the future of transportation, is that there is no way to have an investing thesis based on this model today. You can't know how it will look or what companies will be involved. People outside the cities may own their own self-driving cars, as well as human controlled vehicles. Maybe Hertz licenses tech from Google and buys from GM, or maybe those companies don't end up being involved at all. Look 20 years into the future and it could be something no one would predict today. Maybe the 2 major car manufacturers are Tesla and Apple, and they not only have their own auto-drive systems, but they also rent cars by the minute which will pick you up in 3min or under anywhere in the US when you call it from your communications device, as well as manufacture cars, and sell cars direct to consumers who want to own them outright. Who knows at this point. Here were my thoughts on this from a little over two years ago in the google thread: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/goog-google/msg44185/?topicseen#msg44185

I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with Feedly or use InoReader, there are things I like and dislike about each. But one thing I discovered which made it easier to try out InoReader was that you can export all of your feeds from Feedly in OPML format then import them into InoReader (and likely any other reader as well). This is necessary, because logging in with your Google ID no longer does it now that Google Reader is gone. To export from Feedly go here http://cloud.feedly.com/#opml , select all of the text on the page and copy it to the clipboard, open a text editor and paste it in. Then save the file as feedly.opml You can then import this into InoReader in the settings. You will have all of your feeds organized into all of your categories.

We're all cheering on the inside! We'd be cheering on the outside if the government would somehow seize all of his assets. This guy will just become another Milken when he gets out. Do your time and then come out and show the world what a great guy you are, while the snake oil salesmen personality is never too far away. Same thing with Sam Antar. How many people at the SEC listen to him? Yet this is one carnivorous bastard who keeps plugging along embracing his convicted felon moniker. How about fan favorite Jim Cramer, who somehow shaped himself into the Louis C. K. of business! These assholes always come out on top, unless you take away their money and influence. The government doesn't seem to ever go far enough! Cheers! Why should the government take the money? It wasn't the government these people got their money from. Why is it not possible for these people to be sued into the poorhouse by their victims?

There's google docs, google maps, gmail, etc. All work very well inside a browser without an app. Google's Chrome browser for iOS now has a full screen feature which makes using it almost as good as using an dedicated app for most things on the iPad. There are many cases where I like a web interface better than the dedicated app. There are some exceptions, such as the gmail app, which I find the app better. Although I don't see why google couldn't make its gmail web interface more like the app.

Let's not kid ourselves. World War III will start as the result of a "preemptive" strike by the U.S. on some country or stateless region we've bullied into hating us. Yep, but the original comment is still correct as this will be either in the Middle East or Asia. Unfortunately as long as states* exist large scale war will always be a possibility. *states defined as organizations with the "legitimized" power to levy taxes to fund wars and run by relatively few people who are always the most power hungry con-men in any society, and therefore the most likely to wish to engage in wars. And run "education" systems which take children from their parents in their formative years and indoctrinate them in "patriotic" state-worship, such as the daily ritual of holding of their hands over their hearts and pledging allegiance to a piece of colored cloth representing the symbol of the state, making them more likely to agree to fight and die in wars.