KFRCanuk

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10842 I found him hard to understand and not very engaging. It might have been because I was doing something else at the time. What did you think of the interview.

Back in the 80's 60 Minutes ran a story about unintended acceleration in Audi 5000's. Sales of 5000's collapsed over night. It took audi 15 years to get back to the same sales levels. The 5000 name had to be abandoned. I think it's going to take a while. Not 15 years though. On the geekish side of things, the Woz seems to have found a bug with the cruise control on his prius http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10445564-64.html

I wonder what will happen if a vaccine for TB or AIDS is found with the funds from this donation. Will the vaccines be patented? "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"--- Jonas Salk

I also got $10.475CDN in my CDN TD Waterhouse Account.

http://www.westaim.com I wonder how much pain they will have with the acquisition. If it's going to be their TIG/CRUM and bog them down for a couple of years.

Here is another article on the potential buyers. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/streetwise/canwests-woes-haunt-auction/article1432040/ No mention of FFH.

60 minutes http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=60Xvrz7IZ83xKQO3ISlQawCKbdHt1504&vs=homepage&play=true

She passed away.... http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/04/johnson-and-jCasey Johnson, an heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, has died .. TMZ has learned. She died in L.A. We're told the body was discovered this morning. She was 30 years old. Her father is Woody Johnson -- owner of the New York Jets. Johnson was arrested in November for grand theft -- the alleged victim was a former girlfriend. Johnson was reportedly engaged to Tila Tequila. We spoke with Tila a few minutes ago. She says they were fighting last week and that Casey stayed at Tila's house on the 28th. Tila tried contacting Casey on the 29th because Casey had left her dogs behind. Tila says Casey's phone has been shut off since the 29th and she was not able to make contact. Johnson -- who tweeted frequently -- last tweeted on December 29 at 1:13 AM. The cause of death is undetermined.

These were the dates and amounts of the dividend payouts in past years Jan 8, 2002 $1.00 Jan 9. 2003 $1.50 Jan 12, 2004 $1.40 Jan 12, 2005 $1.40 Jan 3, 2006 $1.40 Jan 23, 2007 $2.75 Jan 5, 2008 $5.00 Jan 16, 2009 $8.00

Anyone following Domino's Pizza? I find two things interesting in the recent past. 1) There was a youtube video of employees doing disgusting things to the ingredients. see http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2009/04/dominos_pizza_y.html for more info. The company dealt with the issue immediately and used social networking to get the word out. 2) They have overhauled their pizza recipe in all their locations in the USA. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-12-16-dominos16_ST_N.htm It could be all marketing saying that their old product was crap but it will be interesting to see if there is a turn around story there. I can't remember if DPZ was discussed on the old board ir not.

I was watching a PBS documentary a couple of months back. I found it fascinating to watch Paulson progression from inflexible conservative at the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis to his total reversal and capitulation to bailouts. I wonder what would have happened to society in the USA when all credit remained frozen. Would there be riots or a revolution? How would Canada have been affected? What steps would the Canadian government have taken? We will never know.

Here are the amounts of the years past Date Paid Amount Jan 8, 2002 $1.00 Jan 9. 2003 $1.50 Jan 12, 2004 $1.40 Jan 12, 2005 $1.40 Jan 3, 2006 $1.40 Jan 23, 2007 $2.75 Jan 5, 2008 $5.00 Jan 16, 2009 $8.00 This year it wasn't announced until January 6th http://www.fairfax.ca/Assets/Downloads/Press/fpr2009-01-06.pdf

There is also the coming dividend. I'm not sure if that factors into large investors decision making process.

I don't have a facebook account and I'm glad I don't. Those who do, may might find this Electronic Frontier Foundation on the December 2009 privacy policy change interesting. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/facebooks-new-privacy-changes-good-bad-and-ugly Jason Calacanis thinks that the recent facebook changes were deliberate http://calacanis.com/2009/12/13/is-facebook-unethical-clueless-or-unlucky/ Also, You may want to try the ACLU facebook quiz to find out how locked down your information is. http://apps.facebook.com/aclunc_privacy_quiz Who would have guess that when someone completes a quiz all their friends private information is transfered to the quiz master no matter what the privacy policy is.

Article on the dilution http://www.examiner.com/x-7944-Warren-Buffett-Examiner~y2009m12d14-Wells-Fargo-TARP-repayment-to-dilute-Berkshire-Hathaway-stake

I liked the following quote from the article

Happy Holidays!

In the past I have transferred shares from SunLife to TD Waterhouse DB. I have mostly done "in kind". The last time I did it was 2 years ago. The transfer process wasn't the fastest in the world but the shares did get into the account.

No steak n shake though. Vancouver has a mild climate. There has always been talk about Turks and Caico(Caribbean Island) joining Canada.

Another NY Post article http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/ex_pal_mom_cuts_casey_off_dL6K8Lrg3PXyfr9ayBOSCP "Her house on Mulholland Drive is a mess. The electricity is off, there are rats, the pool is green. She was supposed to be evicted and her Porsche is being repossessed."

Only 2 million? That's a butt load of money to most people. I would retire on that amount if I had it right now. I think it boils out to 60K/year for 25 years.

What is also interesting is that Jamie Johnson (Another heir) to the JNJ fortune made a couple of documentaries about being Born Rich He also made another doc on the top Once Percent in which Nicole Buffett appears. Nicole is Warren's former x-granddaughter through Peters marriage(now divorced).

Kinda off topic http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/heiress_in_theft_scandal_wpIr6Dz4lDG2USQpMGqz0K So if I buy JNJ for my 1 year old son's RESP, I guess I'm supporting her lifestyle in some small respect?

Maybe you were specifically mentioning Vancouver in this case. You go to the bank, ask for a mortgage. If you don't have 20% down, the bank will require that you have your mortgage insured with cmhc. You can see the schedule cost here: http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/buho/hostst/hostst_002.cfm#premium It's also worth noting that the federal government has reduced the requirement of having 5% down to 0% down in recent years for 1st time home buyers. If you are dealing with a well funded credit union, they may not require you to have your mortgage insured. The credit union will self insure the mortgage. Anyway, that is my 2 cents.

http://www.fairfax.ca/Assets/Downloads/Press/fpr2006-07-26.pdf So in the legal Documents, his name is John D. Gwynn. I think if I can find out what the D is then I should be able to find the obituary.