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Ucc- where do you come up with your figure for exposure to Ireland, et al.? According to Morningstar RBS has >$40B exposure to Ireland via Ulster Bank (RBS subsidiary).

This is basically the rationale for my no-sugar habit, based on a steady stream of remarks from my wife (a physician) on my former favorite habit of eating a gigantic (six inch diameter!) chocolate (oh man it was delicious) cookie (oh how I miss it sometimes) from the local co-op. Daily habit. Sometimes twice daily habit. So now no sugar, I no longer crave those damn cookies and I am dropping weight consistently and have more energy. Going dancing right now, in fact. 8)

To me, the interesting thing about the food supply as far as meat is concerned is that what Americans eat today is far removed from what we (as a culture) ate 35 years ago. The vast majority of beef today comes from factory farms (as opposed to grass fed beef of yesterday, which is "premium" today) and the cattle are fed corn because it is a lot cheaper than grass thanks to subsidies, but also because it creates the marbled fat that people have come to like. So someone who hasn't changed his diet in 35 years is eating *a lot* more unhealthy fat than he was back in the day. Also, the antibiotics and hormones required to keep cows from being constantly sick on this diet are enormous, because their digestive system is custom designed for grass. I don't know how this contributes to the chronic disease correlation, but it barely resembles what our fathers ate back in the day.

Sanjeev - I want to take a moment to appreciate your attitude. It is the attitude that I aspire towards but have not yet achieved fully. I am currently reading "The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks (excellent book) and he talks about the inevitability of all sorts of cycles in the market, and how basically you will never be able to predict the future, but you can be sure that the pendulum of the market is always in motion and that somewhere people are always overreacting to that natural motion, which is what creates the greatest opportunities for the investor who can truly keep his emotions in check. Over simple? Maybe, but there is an acorn of truth that is impossible to ignore.

EXXI -5.69%

Me neither. As far as I recall (it has been a few months..), there is nothing graphic at all in the movie. I ate a bowl of Thai food while I watched it in the movie theater.

I listened to this Wealthtrack interview with Bill Paul (energy analyst) about the smart grid yesterday and was still thinking about it this morning - http://www.wealthtrackextra.com/full-episode-archive/tag/berkshire-hathaway-and-the-smart-grid - very interesting topic that I am just beginning to understand. Has anyone else here come across good reading or business research on the smart grid? It sounds like it will affect pretty much everything eventually. He mentions MXWL as one company to look at, which I plan to do this weekend. The analyst talks about a Microsoft exec (?) who thinks that the smart grid will dwarf the internet in terms of it impact on Microsoft.

I saw Forks over Knives in Portland a few months ago and was also impressed. I was similarly fascinated by (the book) The China Study by T.Colin Campbell, which essentially compares eating habits in the US with eating habits in China and then compares chronic disease patterns in the US and in China. It is an eye opener. Seems to me that one of the most significant shifts in terms of healthcare, use of resources (especially water, but also topsoil and feed), not to mention ethical treatment of animals - would be a shift to a less meat-centered diet in the US. Few people realize how significant an impact it has on our economy.

Nice one on DTG. Congratulations.

I recently noticed that I was up to a weight that was easily the heaviest in my life, so I decided to quit eating anything with any form of processed sugar in it. No muffins, "health bars" with cane sugar, tea with sugar - nothing (I still have been eating fruit and other foods / drinks with naturally occurring sucrose or fructose) and I dropped 9 lbs in about 3 mos. I had no idea how many things have a secret dollop of sugar in them. I also have a lot more energy.

I would like to open an Australian bank account - the interest rates are much better than in the US, the banking system is stable, and the AD seems likely to continue to strengthen. However, it is fairly difficult to open an Australian bank account as a US citizen because of their taxation system. Has anyone else had success with this?

I like how Moynihan is taking responsibility and running the company with an eye to creating a long-term sustainable profit machine instead of milking the next earnings report for a pop in the stock price. It is the same thing that I like about Google's current strategy, which basically ignores the short term and is making a solid bet on the long term.

Anyone else picking up more BAC.WS.A at this price? I think that Moynihan is doing some interesting things in his management of the MBS problems and long term vision. If he is even moderately successful, the A warrants are a screaming deal at current prices.

Berkowitz addressed this concern on the conference call. His take was something to the effect that his fund is invested mostly in what he became well acknowledged for to begin with (financials).

The audio quality on this call is awful. Has anyone come across a transcript?

Seems to me that respectful disagreement is the cornerstone of any valuable debate, and that ignoring someone is the opposite of respectful. If you think that a certain poster is full of it, why not just say so? An ignore function creates a web of hidden possibility in that you're not really sure if someone is reading a message or not because they may have had the ignore function set. Just my $.02...

Having been in the search engine business indirectly for more than a decade, I think of Google like Coke or Wrigley's. It is the brand name that everyone knows and goes to. It is their organic (non-paid) search results that provide the moat because of the quality of those results. Everyone knows this either consciously or otherwise. It is the reason that they beat Yahoo! and AOL back in the day and continues to be the reason that most people use them as a search engine. MSFT may have some small success in eroding that moat, but my guess is that it will be mostly people who don't think or know to change their default search provider from an OEM PC. With 60% of market share, and no competitor having even 10% Goog is not going anywhere...

I agree wholeheartedly. Slow and insightful is much better than the usual...

I just got an email from them on an unrelated matter last week. They're definitely still in business, just slow...

I live in Portland, OR and get these kinds of books (including the Steve jobs biography) from our library system all the time. I can request interlibrary loans online from their website, which means I can get pretty much any book in publication at no cost. The only book I've ever requested and not received is klarman's margin of safety. . I can also access value line and morningstar paid sites through the library website, as well as a very good selection of audio titles. I don't know if this is an amazing exception to most library systems in north America or not. Maybe worth a look at your local library system?

I thought that this was pretty funny: http://www.barelkarsan.com/2011/04/value-in-growth-netflix.html

All 12 of these videos are in one place here: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/03/buffet-on-squawk-box/ Enjoy!

The site is running great Parsad. I notice that SMF (the forum software) is making some improvements also. I truly appreciate your dedication in running this site. It is an excellent ongoing conversation. Much faster, thanks. But I'm willing to help pay for the site with cash donation if people choose to block your ads. Microsoft's new enhancement to their browser: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2013616394_microsoftaddsdonottrackliststointernetexplorer9.html The new tracking protection will allow anyone to create lists of websites users can permanently ignore. Those sites will not be able to send cookies or other tracking software to the user's computer.The sites have implications for online advertisers and website designers. Many websites that people visit include content from other websites that serve Web ads, for instance. By blocking those other websites, users could eliminate those ads on site they're visiting. So, buh-bye doubleclick!! I take it all I have to do is feed it this URL: http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net Firefox has had similar technology available for 4+ years as a community add-on, and there is also a "filterset" available that will anticipate most advertising URLs. 44% of web users use Firefox now compared to 28% for IE, for reasons similar to this. Google Chrome (20% of browser market share) also offers this functionality.

Do you have anything specific in mind? I am taking a long road trip over the holidays and would appreciate having some good lectures on my iPod. I often load it up with interviews from Youtube (or more recently with lectures from khanacademy.org , which is quite good). Thanks - Pablo

aha Thanks for the tip. FYI this was available through my local public library (as is Value Line (all online editions including Special Situations)).