Pelagic

INTP, guess I'm the odd one out in this crowd.

I remember reading this a while back and it breaks down the average revenue per app and sorts based on ecosystem. Keep in mind the article is over a year old so there have been changes since. http://www.forbes.com/sites/tristanlouis/2013/08/10/how-much-do-average-apps-make/ Obviously averages do little good in this case because a single app that takes off and makes millions drags the average revenue up but it's a starting point.

Frugalchief has made some excellent points, thought I'd add a little from my own experience working in real estate. -Beware the temptation of leverage. A lot of real estate deals look great when you are purchasing the property with leverage, and since it's so easy to get and use why not. Easy access to financing is like picking up girls at the bar after a few too many, they all look good. Does the deal make sense if you're not using leverage, if yes then it's probably a pretty good deal. -Real estate transactions are like a fresh kill on the African Savanna. If you're the lion and you went out and found the deal, rest assured there's a mixed lot of industry professionals scavenging for their share too. You can go out and buy a couple million dollars worth of stock for a couple bucks through just about any of the major brokerages, if you spend that much in real estate you're going to be paying in the tens of thousands to the realtors, lawyers, home inspectors and other professionals involved. Assemble your "team" first, let them know you want to invest in real estate and that you'll stick with them and provide more business if they keep their costs reasonable. Have your team lined up before you commit to a purchase, they should be able to help you find a good deal. -Be willing to get your hands dirty. If you're paying out of pocket for repairs and to have someone else do them that quickly eats into your profits, especially if you only have a couple units. As you scale up its easier and more necessary to have someone else do the little stuff. Take a value investing mind set to real estate and try to keep the costs under control and you'll be fine. Many people jump into real estate because its easy to do and everyone else is doing it without taking a hard and pessimistic look at the deal they're getting. If you still think it's a good deal when you project in vacancy and below market rents and thieves stealing everything from the place, including the kitchen sink >:( then you might be on to something. Buy with a margin of safety and build a margin of safety by finding good tenants that add value to your investment.

The problem here as I see it is "organic" has a rather specific definition which "organic" farmers try to follow to the letter. However, in popular usage "organic" has a broad connotation that doesn't line up with the actual practices "organic" farmers use. Farmers probably do a good job following organic standards but those standards would shock the average organic consumer. I don't think this should come as a surprise to anyone considering how susceptible most people are to marketing and the appeal of choosing organic because it is good for the environment, planet, consumer, etc... Also, Hepatitis B vaccines engineered into bananas... that's frickin cool!!

Thanks for sharing. I'm reading through their take on Imperial Metals now, it's very well put together IMO. I found their reaction to the Mount Polley Mine tailing's pond incident interesting and indicative of how they they make decisions. Fairholme preaches "ignore the crowd" and they certainly did just that in this case, conducting their own environmental assessment within days of the incident and making investment decisions based on it rather than the negative press at the time. http://www.fairholmeonimperial.com/mount-polley-mine

Thanks for sharing. Coal's market share in China is scary item #2. Even as its losing market share of the next 20 years it still represents a considerable chunk of their power generation needs. Global warming arguments aside, you have to wonder how long urban Chinese can tolerate the affects of coal on their air quality. I also think there are at least a couple fortunes to be made in renewable energy in the next two decades. Utility scale wind is already quite competitive with other forms of power generation in certain areas and costs will come down from where they are today. Cheap wind and solar will present an appealing alternative to non-OECD countries because the incremental costs are far lower than hydro, nuclear or even fossil fuels for power generation. It's a lot easier to budget in a couple wind turbines when you have the money available than it is to undertake a large energy project over the course of several years where political considerations, changing economic circumstances and possibly corruption could side track it.

Mr George has also started to add fresh capital to the account governed by the contract, €19.9m last year, helped by a loan from the Swiss arm of a French Bank. (He is a French citizen, but lives in Switzerland). He said the contract terms allow him to add more cash to the pot. “I can take all the money in the world and invest it, there is no limit”. He's just now starting to use leverage ??? I wonder what kind of securities are available for purchase in that account, it must not be individual stocks or heaven forbid futures, options or any kind of leveraged ETF otherwise the insurance company would already be broke.

PBR It has everything you could want to make a stock interesting, corruption, nepotism, shady accounting, a piggy bank for social spending... and it's cheap.

Not an invest-able opportunity but property lawyers in South Florida specializing in "reclaiming" property for Cuban Americans that was appropriated after the revolution will do well. Whether they achieve results is probably immaterial since the process will be dragged out for years all the while billing their clients.

"For example, if Mr. Penchina and 98 chosen syndicate members invest $1 million in a company that is bought later and generates a $100 million return, he would make $15 million from his original $25,000 bet. AngelList would get $5 million, while the remaining investors would divide $80 million." It would seem that the real money is in facilitating the investments. If anyone is more familiar with AngelList, what is their risk in this, why do they get a 5% return on the investment when it doesn't seem they made an investment in the first place.