DooDiligence

I've taken another tack, and that is to limit myself to a modest update on the news for the first 7 days of each month. Ditto for Twitter & I found myself not even wanting to visit there this month because it's so full of inflammatory nonsense. Spending nearly a month with your head in the sand is liberating. I highly recommend watching re-runs of Rowan & Martin's Laugh In to see how nothing has changed since the 70's. The absurdities are pretty funny when framed by great social satirists. The Obamas thread was about divorce... and only highlighted the Obamas as a great example of a couple who makes it work. Nothing political about it. I'm not criticizing it as such, however, my post in it regarding Michelle Obama could have turned it into a political thread. Either way, it got moved to the politics section.

I've never posted in the politics section & was glad to see it broken off into its own little corner. I posted a thread in the General section re: ACA because I thought it would benefit those who are interested in healthcare, and as it turns out, the discussion was civil & even included some good natured & humorous banter. The recent Obama's thread (appropriately moved to the politics section) was initially posted in the Generals section (if memory serves) otherwise I'd never have seen it & subsequently made my post regarding Michelle Obama's appearance on 20/20. A well respected COBF member suggests the following to help deal with stress. I've taken another tack, and that is to limit myself to a modest update on the news for the first 7 days of each month. Ditto for Twitter & I found myself not even wanting to visit there this month because it's so full of inflammatory nonsense. Spending nearly a month with your head in the sand is liberating. I highly recommend watching re-runs of Rowan & Martin's Laugh In to see how nothing has changed since the 70's. The absurdities are pretty funny when framed by great social satirists.

Nice, thanks. "We're not out there competing to by RedHat for $35 billion, but we've always been an opportunistic company." ;D Do Malone & Rometty have a history? --- This old interview of Malone by David Faber on CNBC has already been linked here by Liberty but, IMO, it merits revisiting, (starting at minute 06:00 they talk about the Time Warner deal (this discussion is pre-approval.) Malone says this is one of the few diversification deals that ATT has done which makes sense, and then he explains why. I'm not pumping ATT, just saying that I trust this guy to know what he's doing. (I might, however, be pumping Charter and Disney ;) and Comcast to a smaller extent.) It's a fascinating discussion & gets quite deep & wide regarding the entire space. At minute 21:00 he talks about MVNO agreements. He says that a deeper / closer relationship with Verizon is important, but that doesn't mean owning or being owned by Verizon. He doesn't really explain what that "closer" relationship would entail?

You are definitely worth more alive. Thanks, she knows it but I like hearing her say it ;) Simplification of relational polynomials: ( :-X + :-* ) = :) :D

Yep

You are definitely worth more alive. ACA is the Affordable Care Act BCBS is Blue Cross Blue Shield COBRA is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which requires an employer to continue coverage under the same plan, albeit with higher premiums. (the ex-employee is not required to continue paying for the coverage.) --- Bring it on. PM me for the address. Is this "zip" as in not eligible for ACA exchanges because you would qualify for Medicaid and get all your healthcare for free? Not sure about this one, but I think an individual of my age (56) would not qualify for Medicaid unless there was some kind of disability? I know that if you do take Medicaid, it will affect your eligibility for ACA assistance but am not sure exactly how. A really important aspect of the program is to make sure you notify HealthCare.gov of changes in income as this can have a significant impact when you file your next tax return. ACA premium assistance is paid in advance, to the insurer, based on what you CLAIM will be your next years income, so if you make more than you claimed, your assistance will decrease and you will have to pay back the difference. Also, as your income rises, although the premiums for the same plan will not change, your assistance will decrease and your deductible will increase. (Not sure but there's prob some clawbacks here as well.) I'm overestimating my capital gains income but may actually reach the projected amount and will be very forthright with any known or projected changes. --- I have no idea how all of this ACA assistance will affect future generations. --- Apologies for being so defensive at the end of my initial post :-X

My previous employers obligation to provide me with COBRA insurance came to an end on 30 September. Faced with the need to mitigate the potential risk to all that I've worked for & saved, I stopped in at the BCBS service center which is conveniently located right across the street from school. I had been paying Chouest $437 a month for the same great coverage which had previously cost me $104.30 (I thought the higher premium was still a bargain, thank you Gary Chouest!) & I expected to have to start paying the same or more for a significantly higher deductible. Instead, the ACA will provide assistance, which will result in a monthly premium of just $22.55 with no deductible & a $2500 annual max out of pocket expense. If you make less than $12,060 per year you get zip. Passive income counts & I qualify for 2019 with the following projections: $8,200 - Pell Grant estimate $12,000 - expected dividends & cap gains I expect to take advantage of this until May of 2022 when I'll earn a Bachelors degree & get back to work. --- I thought this might interest anyone who has a friend or relative who needs assistance but hasn't yet gotten it. Open enrollment is going on NOW. Anyone who feels like I'm a slacker for doing this should examine whether they enjoy professional musical entertainment after a hard day at the office. (They should also follow me around for a week to see how hard this stuff actually is...)

I loved "Old Man's War." "Ghost Brigades" & "Last Colony" are really good too. If you like the "Old Man" series, try Haldeman's "Forever War". I read "Coraline", "American God's" and "Anansi Boys" & found Gaiman to be entertaining & a little weird. I miss being able to read for pleasure & plan on hitting "Slaughterhouse Five" over the Christmas Holidays. I saw a documentary on Vonnegut a few months ago & was surprised that he was a POW in Dresden during the bombings. Do you have any suggestions along the lines of "Old Man's War"?

I loved "Old Man's War." "Ghost Brigades" & "Last Colony" are really good too. If you like the "Old Man" series, try Haldeman's "Forever War". I miss being able to read fiction & plan on hitting "Slaughterhouse Five" over the Christmas Holidays. I saw a documentary on Vonnegut a few months ago & was surprised that he was a POW in Dresden during the bombings. Do you have any suggestions along the lines of "Old Man's War"?

What a great resource to identify physicians that they do & DON'T want in the BRK/JPM/AZN system. Are they only operating in NY? Seems like insurance, in general, is a great business to own, for identifying risky businesses to avoid.

Short squeeze on toothpaste next week ;D

;D ;D ;D :o no weed?

I have a 93 in math for my midterm & expect to raise that before the end of the semester. We just covered factoring of polynomials, east peasy. Try extracting cadences & non-harmonic tones from melodic snippets, especially when the key is given but there are modal changes within the piece & then talk about liberal arts majors who don't understand the world. I said nothing about liberal arts majors not understanding the world. I am one myself and would urge my children to as well. I was just pointing out the phenomena of people who think math isn't relevant to them, and therefore make little effort to use it. Sorry, I read your post wrongly & took offense. I think that certain media outlets are hiring people who are relatable to the demographic they're trying to reach. Also, if your reporters are inarticulate, marginally literate and more importantly, innumerate, you can get them to say whatever you want AND pay them less. (We talked about irony today in Comp 2 and I'm practicing my chops with this last statement.)

Exactly. The problem is the concentration of ownership & subsequent segmenting of news for individual demographics. Playbook: Explain the world to your audience within their own limited frame of reference. Hammer your explanations repeatedly even if they contain half truths & fuzzy logic. Find a segment of the population for your audience to hate (bonus points if you can make them love that same segment later.) Relentlessly pander to the fears & biases you've instilled in your audience. Excite their emotions by pushing the buttons you've created (bonus points if you can excite misogynists with sexy female personalititties & they don't stop hating women.) Don't be afraid to change your audiences fears & biases, they'll never notice. Above all, remember, the truth is overrated, ratings are EVERYTHING.

I have a 93 in math for my midterm & expect to raise that before the end of the semester. We just covered factoring of polynomials, east easy peasy. (edit: I need to pay more attention in spelling class.) Try extracting cadences & non-harmonic tones from melodic snippets, especially when the key is given but there are modal changes within the piece & then talk about liberal arts majors who don't understand the world.

For the past few months, I've been occasionally watching old episodes of Rowan & Martin's "Laugh In" on Amazon Prime. They lampoon the same issues which cause such a stir today (no mention of mass shootings unless you consider Vietnam.) They crack on health care, war (Vietnam), corrupt politicians (Nixon AND Agnew), taxes, etc (the same junk as now, but with different characters.) The big difference today is the consolidation of media ownership & cross ownership of the different media types. --- Big brother (government) and his loud, ever present, pervy old uncle (media owners.) "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls!" --- I haven't watched the news since the hurricane came through & haven't been on Twitter since then either. I'm simply going about my business & paying attention to what's within my circle of influence (also paying attn to COBF bc it is sooo helpful.) I plan on hitting a bit of national news & glancing in on Twitter for the 1st 7 days of each month & then I'll stick my head in the sand again until the next month (from now until?) I'm placing my faith in those stalwart individuals like Jake Tapper, and others within the media & politics, who are willing to ferret out the truth & do battle with douchebags. --- I couldn't be happier & have never been more busy & effective.

For a while now, I've noticed quite a few of them mispronouncing words which have pretty common & obvious pronunciations. I used to think that it was designed to elicit critical responses from listeners & that the producers had some elaborate metric they were measuring. Now I think we're simply approaching Idiocracy.

Another very nice reinforcement of these ideas. Sounds like Marks again, "protect yourself from downside & the upside should take care of itself." I hear Tesla & $hitcoin fairytales from these young kids at school on a regular basis & I try to describe these ideas to them. I feel like an idiot when one of them tells me how their 1 share of OUAT (Once Upon a Time) rips up for a TEMPORARY happy ending. It's hard to argue with an immediate gain like that without LOOKING like an idiot too, so I congratulate them & ask if they've booked the profit. However, they never say anything when OUAT tanks & none of them can tell me what's actually going on at the company. I still have hopes, & will continue to repeat to any of them who ask "know what you OWN, OWN what you know", and "day trading is for suckers."

5G threat maybe ;) Seriously though, what browser are you using? I use Safari & am not having any problems. According to the MS forum post linked below, John is correct & Parsad would need to renew the certificate but since it's only happening to some & not others ??? https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/all/security-certificate/4cf6ca23-59f0-47be-a19c-ec66ef01a081

Nice! I like Marks too. Not saying that I'm able to do what he says, but I'm trying. I also like that "value vs momentum" statement (a lot.)

Looks interesting / complicated. I haven't done anything but a shallow dive. Would you be interested in sharing your thoughts, particularly with regards to what they'll be doing with the FlipKart cash? http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/npn-naspers-limited-(jse)/msg345451/#msg345451

lol, ref. "Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style." http://uglymule.com/images/sloth.gif

Ice & snow are really pretty too. Smooch!

I'm buying 2 tickets on the way to a beachside study session. (hedging my bet by keeping up with class work.)

It's up to $1,600,000,000 now! I hope one of those "will work for food" dudes wins & puts all the money into a crypto hedge fund & then does a Reddit thread about the results.