Sportgamma

Is this for real?!

Well, perhaps you didn't exercise enough...influence. ;)

Does anybody have any knowledge as to whether Sitestar management complied to the demands of Jeff and co? If I am not mistaken they had until the 11th of June.

Native Americans selling Manhattan?

Sure, Thats me in the middle pushing my car/residence with a couple of friends on my way to a hot date: http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/3/2/0/1/pinpinade_1566205965_lada.jpg

FRMO

I beg to differ. The way I see it, the hedges are based on their conviction that equity market multiples in NA are too rich and will correct. The CPI trade reflects their view on Europe too a larger extent and they are a bet on a dragged out deflationary environment. Perhaps that scenario is already priced in the eurobank investment. IMO the cpi trade does not imply that they are betting on a crash.

In retrospect, when I weight the time and effort I´ve spent in trying too understand macro, timing or anything concerning the general market, I´m convinced that the benefits in terms of idea generation and investing performance has carried far less benefit than the time and effort spent, in my case. My best decisions have come from studying individual companies. The way I see it, if I were only to focus on the biggest exchanges in the US, Canada and Europe I would still have a choice of thousands of listed securities. Currently I am invested in 17 securities and I have never been as diversified. A substantial portion of those securities are small/micro cap. Does it really matter if the general market is under- or overvalued? What is the likelihood of all of those securities being overvalued at once? If my method is to is to identify cheap securities and sell them when their value approximates fair value, do price ratios for the general market matter? I just does not seem to have that much relevance to me and my particular style. If all of my investments were in private securities, it would sound strange if I would use the Russell 2000 index (or any other) to determine wether I would want to hold or divest any particular private investment. In fact, I make an effort not following price ratios of indices.

Any idea when the slides from the meeting will be made available?

I agree. When you meet people in person they don´t come with a rating attached, but once you get to know them you develop your own opinion of them. I don´t see any reason for having a ratings system. I always find it funny when I´m reading something here and I´m thinking to myself "that´s typical Eric/Kraven/Parsad/Gio/Packer/etc." about guys I´ve never even met.

Is he aiming at taking it public?

Martin Whitman - They Just Don't Get It

So, I had problems with the chat thing today. I would really appreciate if some of you who were able to follow could share the most insightful points, in order to quench my curiosity until I get the transcript.

Holliday greetings to all from snowy Iceland. Gísli

This comes to mind: http://ycombinator.com/munger.html

I only used hijacked in connection with pirate. I am also aware that Jeff is not a real pirate...

Congratulations to board member Jeff Moore: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sitestar-announces-appointment-board-member-154641526.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

These are a few points that I have come to learn by trial and error: 1. When you meet, go for a touch directly (f.e. kiss on the cheek) 2. Do not talk about work (and change the subject if she starts talking about hers) 3. Talk about interesting stuff that you have done but do it in a way that you won´t sound arrogant ("I was up in place X and I did this unbelievably stupid thing Y). 4. Ask her silly questions that will make her share her opinion ("are you supposed to floss or brush your teeth first?") 5. Keep on making friendly touches throughout the whole date 6. Don´t compliment her on her looks, just don´t 7. When you ask her questions, do it in an assertive way ("so, tell me..." instead of "can I ask you...") 8. For the rest, I think the best filter is just being yourself. Your trying to find somebody who fits you, not vice versa

"Incontrovertibly" Thank you Sardar for exposing me to some fine English words that I otherwise never would have known existed.

Damn you Aperam Stainless Steel!

Wow. Would not want to meet someone with that name in a dark alley, would you?

Where did you get the 10-11 year timeframe? In the annual report they say the lease was extended by 40 years in 2009.

How could a company have no incentive to mine it if mining and selling the coal is economical? I obviously don't know the specifics of the situation, but hard for me to see how there can be no incentive. The company is paid some flat fee, they don't get paid more to mine more, so they mine what that need and that's it. I think the company is Central Natural Resources, I should look into them again. So in 10 years the contract will expire and they'll contract someone to extract the $4b worth of coal, guess this is probably worth considering. how sure are you about this. For this kind of money at stake i am sure a lot of things can be done to unlock value How sure? Do two things, first read their annual report, it discusses their coal reserves. You can figure out how much they're worth based on current prices. Secondly call the CEO and ask why they haven't developed those reserves and you'll hear about the contract. No one is allowed to develop the reserves except for the company under contract right now. I'm not disputing that it can't be developed, the CEO stated it could, it's just that the structure of the contract means the current miner will never do it, so investors/the company needs to wait until the contract expires. PROPERTIES: Mineral Ownership (Coal) Currently, coal deposits in Sebastian Co., AR and LeFlore Co., OK totaling approximately 84,000,000 tons are leased to Wilkem, Inc., an assignee of the original lessee of the lease made in June 1969 for a period of 40 years (hereinafter referred to as the “Coal Lease”) which was renewed by the lessee in 2009 for another 40 year term (through June 2049). In 2006, the current lease was amended so that, in addition to the $90,000 per year minimum annual royalty, the Company may receive an additional payment in the amount of $79,375 annually from Wilkem to be treated as part of the minimum annual royalty under the Coal Lease, dependent on payments Wilkem receives from a sublessee of a portion of the subject property. Should the subject property be successfully developed by the sublessee, the Company may also receive an additional amount up to $190,625 per year as a further minimum annual royalty amount. Certain other changes in the Coal Lease were made that will not materially change directly and immediately any payments received by the Company. Since the inception of the lease in 1969, the Company has received minimum annual royalty payments which may be credited against future royalty payments owed by the assignee for coal mined and shipped. In 2010, a new sublessee purchased the bankrupt entity and is now operating the mine. As the mine property contains coal owned by Central (leased to Wilkem as explained above), as well as coal owned by other parties, including the sublessee, it is often the case that little to no coal owned by Central is being produced for sale despite ongoing mining activity. This scenario existed at the end of 2012, resulting in 2 minimum production and sales of the Company’s coal from the property during the year. Since royalties due on production and sale amounts in the past two years was less than the minimum annual royalty payments, the prepaid credit toward future royalty payments increased over the time from 2011 through 2012. Even if mining should increase, there is no guarantee that coal will be produced in sufficient quantities to exhaust the prepaid royalty amounts that have accrued since the inception of the lease. Coal deposits aggregating approximately 92,000,000 tons in place with a net balance sheet carrying value of $722,402 at December 31, 2012 are not presently leased or producing coal in commercial quantities. Detailed and updated descriptions of the Company’s coal properties are available on the Company’s website at www. centralholdings.com. http://centralholdings.com/files/CTNR_2012_AnnualReport.pdf

"the appearance of variety is an optical illusion" Forbes article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/07/02/ray-ban-oakley-chanel-or-prada-sunglasses-theyre-all-made-by-this-obscure-9b-company/?partner=yahootix 60 Min. coverage: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7424700n

That was a beautiful post Nate...