nodnub

Have you tried reading it via a RSS reader on your mobile device?

thanks, just had my first belly laugh of the day :)

if anyone doesn't use itunes, these are also here: http://videolectures.net/yaleecon252s08_financial_markets/

that is pretty funny. but then I thought of how much time mankind has collectively wasted in plotting out charts of past price performance and labeling various patterns and support levels. And that made me kind of sad.

no, http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=byddy&ql=1 is 6.01 on Yahoo. it is byddf that is quoted on yahoo at 3.01. different adr ratio.

changing your password is smart, but the problem may continue. Once spammers get ahold of a real address that sends a lot of legitimate email, they can spoof that From: address and send out junk to anyone. This helps them get their junk past some of the spam filters, because they are using your legitimate, established email address that hasn't been flagged as a spam sender. This is possible because email servers generally don't verify the sender, they just trust that the email in the from: field is really where it came from. You can see an example of spoofed email when it says from: *@gmail.com but when you look at the email header information it says that it was sent via yahoo.com servers.

I think everyone knew that Vancouver wouldn't sweep it in 4 games but this was embarrassing. The upside is that it is nice and quiet in the city. I haven't heard a horn honk all night :)

Thanks Woodstove, I really like your perspective on that.

Hey, I already bought the book this week (I blindly buy books that are recommended by Buffett, Watsa & others and almost always find great value in them.) but thanks for the link anyway. What did you personally think of it? Tom, It was about 7 years ago that I looked at it. I don't think I read the entire book so I may not have gotten the full benefit. I had a hard time reading some of it. I felt a little like I was being force-fed in some of the sections. I think that some people will learn from the book and improve their life or relationships, or achieve great things. Others will be take the ideas too far in the wrong directions and end up wasting their life pursuing something they thought they wanted. To the outsider, those people might still be viewed as successful. Teachings like this are kind of like religion. It can be a force for good or bad depending how it is used. It makes me reflect on this quote: "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get." -- H Jackson Brown

Tom, you can read it for free here. it's in public domain now. Yes, it seems a lot of the stuff in "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne was copied from Napolean Hill. http://www.archive.org/details/Think_and_Grow_Rich

Interesting. I hadn't really given much thought to how the rewards are accounted for. So I guess by implicitly paying for my reward with each transaction, I'm really not gaining anything at all. I'm just moving my own money to improve Aeroplan's business. But then, I guess I'm gaining more than if I just had a regular no-rewards card. Too bad there wasn't an option for "give me no rewards but give me lower transaction fees". VAL, By using a rewards card you are still gaining something relative to no-reward card users and cash buyers, all of whom pay the same price as you, but get no rewards. Did you know the merchants pay a lower fee for customer transactions with no-reward cards? The rewards recieved by gold card users have a cost, which the cc passes to the merchant in higher fees for gold card transactions. but the merchant does not pass the higher fees onto the gold card users alone... those costs are recovered through higher prices, affecting all customers. So in most businesses, the customers using cash or non-rewards cards are subsidizing the rewards that gold-cardholders receive. The pathetic thing about Aeroplan or gold reward cards is that the merchant is charged a fee of perhaps 3.5% or higher for the transaction, but the customer reward benefit is only equivalent to about 1% of each dollar spent. Overpriced rewards items, flight booking restrictions, and time wasted looking through these reward catalogues etc, further reduces the value of the rewards. If you have to pick rewards items from a catalogue, I've calculated that most of the "rewards" are valued at twice as much as they are on amazon.com. The implied points value of the reward items is also more expensive than in local retailers. If you use a rewards card, in my opinion it's better to stick with a card that offers cash back so you can stop wasting time with all of flight restrictions or overvalued crappy rewards programs.

I agree most customers have no idea of how high these processing fees are. I also think that a lot of small business owners don't completely understand the fees they pay either.

I think this is only for the cost of credit card processing for the amount of the tip. i.e. if you get a $1.00 tip via credit card, then you only net $0.98 after the processing fee (on the tip amount only!) is deducted. I've worked as wait staff in the past. I really don't think this is a big deal. Ask yourself--why should the business subsidize the portion of the credit processing fee that would be attributed to the employee's tip?

My wife has a hotmail account linked to her YouTube account. Today she got an email from service@youtube.com requiring her to link her YouTube account to a Google account (she doesn't yet have one). "Don't be Evil" How is requiring Youtube account members to shift over to a Google account evil? If you're going to criticize GOOG for being evil, you should go after them on the privacy front. txlaw, I think this is the privacy front. Google wants to be able to collect all the data they can on you and associate with a single user account. Wait for Google ads to show up on random web pages related to the types of videos you watch. They want to be able to compete with facebook's rich database of user information. If you dislike targeted marketing as much as I do, then you might call it evil!

I'm not a Johnson&Johnson heir. Given the station in life I was born into, I think my fair federal tax burden is right where it would be if I were still employed at Microsoft. I took a huge risk and I feel strongly that the reward is mine. Nobody would have shared in my losses. ericopoly, I can't figure out what you mean here. The reward is yours, but so are the tax liabilities. How else should it be? Are you just making a statement that you would prefer a flat tax system?

It seems unfair that the person that started the thread can delete the entire conversation and debate that many board members contribute to. A lot of valuable discussion is lost in this manner. Can this be adjusted so that no one except the forum administrator can delete a thread?

Hi TO.RaptorsFan, How do you think Harper will be good for Canada? Or how will the Conservative majority be good for you personally? I would like to try to get past any personal bias and see the other side of the coin, so I would like to hear your answers. Thank you,

Looks like a great evening. Lots of familiar names from this board and other value investing faces. -- Myth, you and I will both have to splurge on the airfare and experience it for ourselves some day :)

cwericb, I agree, it is all about perception. The funny thing is how differently people can perceive the same thing. Personally, I often choose the dull apple because it means that it is not commercially waxed, and an unwaxed apple that looks half-decent is usually from the recent/fresh crop (they haven't been sitting in cold storage for months). Waxed apples often look much better than they taste. I would say that this is the basic idea behind value investing - be willing to buy something for what it is, rather than what it looks like. A salesman I worked with traded in his Porsche for a Volkswagen because he perceived that he was losing business--clients thought he was a bit too successful and that he was making too much money from their deals. I don't agree that Fairfax's current or past website is the equivalent of a salesman arriving in a beat-up car and an ill fitting suit. It's not flashy, but perhaps it appeals to the type of people that they want as business partners and shareholders.

I am guessing that you are all equally unimpressed with http://www.berkshirehathaway.com ;) The Fibrek situation was quite different--and I feel criticism was warranted. Fibrek/SFK had no functional website at all for a long period of time.

I found the following links in the comment section interesting: read the first two highlighted excerpts here about "shark loans" http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/07/ponzi-shark-loans-fuel-chinas-housing.html and http://www.hturning.com/index.php?action=topic&id=44

hi opi. I should have stated more clearly that my post above was just conjecture (rational, I hope). I'm not sure how it works either.

thanks Liberty, I found that very interesting.

this is an interesting question. Since you state that this is a distressed buyout, my first thought is that the purchase price is going to pay off or partly reduce the debt load to a manageable level. After the transaction the organization would be operated as a for-profit business by the new owner.

If you read the poll results, you could see that the answer is no. Only 20% of 29 voting boardmembers abstain from alcohol. Of course, it is unlikely that any of us will replicate WEB's success in investing regardless of what we pour in our drinking glass.