Jurgis

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-22/apple-and-google-face-growing-revolt-over-app-store-tax

You change tires for the winter? :o Yeah, I know my relatives do this in Lithuania where it is required. I think you're the first person I've heard to do this in US.

Being cheapskate value investor I just drank a glass of tap water instead. 8) I am sure I or someone paid for it with our taxes.

WTF :o

Maybe not a bad thread to post this: https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/

There are mandatory vehicle inspections in some states in the US as well. NY and MA have mandatory vehicle inspections and in fact, cars tend to be in a better shape than in CA for example where there are none. I am fairly certain that the average car age is higher when vehicle inspections are absent. What? Of course there mandatory car inspections in CA for emissions ( https://www.dmv.org/ca-california/smog-check.php ) Maybe you mean mechanical/safety inspections? But mechanical inspections are not as strict in MA as in EU and they don't check much. OTOH emission inspections are presumably stricter in CA (not sure about MA) than in (most?) EU.

I'm in EU right now and it's rather funny how different websites try to be GDPR compliant. I am not a lawyer, but I'd guess more than 80% of ones who try are not really compliant (hint: AFAIK, having a banner "Accept our cookies or else" is not GDPR compliant...). OTOH, there are websites that are likely compliant. And you don't see the behavior they present to EU users when you access their sites in US. And then there are sites that clearly don't give a *&%^ about anybody accessing them from EU. Likely no enforcement will be coming... unless the website is big and gets sued or whatever.

Some fun and controversial thoughts, quotes and book references: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/can-economists-and-humanists-ever-be-friends

Wasn't this somewhat how PayPal story went? Much tougher to envision this with TSLA, since Musk has more control, it is much more his baby, and TSLA would lose a huge chunk of aura if Elon was forced out or left. It's zugzwang somewhat. 8)

This reraises the question I had above in the thread. Why not pre-plan and not bump into 5%/10% limits and have to sell? Seems like these guys need some investment planning people or something... (And as above, yeah, in bull market maybe you leave money on the table by taking position that does not bump into 5/10 limits. But you won't always have gains when selling is forced).

You should just take it for a test drive. 8)

I wonder what you guys think about BRK taking (very close to) 5% position in companies and having to sell down to 5% due to share buybacks. Isn't this very short term investing? I.e. they pretty much know the company will be buying back shares and they know that they will have to sell down within a quarter, so their holding time is a quarter or two for that slice of position. Is it a good investment? (Yeah, if there's bull market in that stock, it is, but Buffett would not buy expecting single quarter bull market, would he?). Why not buy 4.8% or some other number where they would not be forced to sell within short time frame? Not that this matters a lot, but I just wonder...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/17/venmo-payments-app-default-privacy-settings-public-information

Darwin would be proud.

Now I know why people don't like my couture. 8)

Another article about biases and de-biasing: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/ Kahneman again. Tetlock again. But also Nisbett (who I haven't seen mentioned before) and some good links and pointers.

OT. Actually there are still some affordable and nice places in CA, especially if you don't need to work. Sinking large part of winnings into Silly Valley RE is probably not the best choice though.

... since they still can't afford a house in San Jose even with the winnings. 8) ;D :P JK, congrats and all that.

Still another good pick of yours. 8)

Salty much. Well, I'm gonna happily continue to use COF credit cards and tell friends to get them too. :P

Looking at http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/best-broker-for-otc-stocks-i-need-a-recomendation/10/ ... it seems that on one hand this may benefit OTCM if companies continue to switch to OTCQX. On the other hand it may hurt it if the broker no-trades goes past no-info stocks.

Looking at this, it might be that most (all?) brokers will join the club of not allowing the purchases of "penny" stocks: I'm pretty sure no brokers want to go through the hassle of (1) for each transaction. They may not want to do the other points either. Of course, YMMV, some brokers may continue to offer the purchases without enforcing (1), etc.

Don't forget friendster..the poor man's myspace. How is Orkut doing these days? Google+?

I'm gonna take other side on this. COF cards are great. We have COF Quicksilver. 1.5% cash back, no foreign transaction fees. Used in Lithuania this year without any issues, any declines, etc. Used in other countries through years too. I think they don't even require to notify them about upcoming trips now. My relative(s) have it and practically live abroad. No issues/declines at all so far. It's my go-to card for international travel since 2%-cash-back Fido Visa has foreign transaction fees. Maybe they just don't like Canadians? :P ;)

Agreed that foreign license plate in Austin, TX is quite unlikely. Overall foreign license plates are very unlikely in US (compared to Europe, for example). Maybe few Canadian ones closer to Canadian border. It's possible though that this was a real incident. Just likely not a trafficking kidnapping but drunken guys trying to pick up (grab) a girl for (likely) rape. This is possible IMO given time and description. And then the details got embellished in the story. Edit: Like writser jokes, there are definitely places/countries where this could happen. So try to be safe. Though I doubt this forum reaches a lot of women who are at risk for such crime...