Liberty

Watch out for confirmation bias Care to elaborate on what you mean? I am not comfortable reaffirming things that are know to be true. Especially when it the teaching of Buffett and Munger. i don't know if you have learn their full teachings. but i been having a hard time find a idea that can do 15% over time that passes the four fillers. They are easy to read harder to understand fully and apply in reality. Each time i read their stuff i have been getting new things. Which help me generate a new metal model of the world. In fact some of the new ideas i have come across my self have been said in their past talks that i have looked at a few times before. I have become diligent when reading or listening to their texts since things that seems oblivious and simple are not so. mostly in fear of missing great simple insight. having confirmation bias on top of that is like having free handicaps. Sure, I just don't understand why you wrote that warning to me after I just thanked the poster for sharing.

Everything in every industry is getting more automated, I know. I'm not saying it's a new thing, just that it's impressive and cool to learn about :)

From the Sam Walton book: http://i.imgur.com/ObbQhBg.jpg Would anyone describe Sears' retail operations as mechandise-driven?

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/bed4b2b5a70a Interesting discussion of the tech aspects here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6269148

i've read most of his stuff and second that statement!

Thanks, Gio. you've sold me on Kay, another bunch of books to add to my growing pile :P I was just saying in another thread that I don't read much fiction anymore... Well, maybe this is what I needed to get back on the horse! :)

Thanks for posting, Sanjeev!

Thank you Packer, I'm ordering it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-23/cablevision-clock-ticking-as-paulson-sees-sale-real-m-a.html More m&a speculation.

If my 2008 Mac Pro wasn't still doing a fine job, I'd seriously consider one of these new Pros. The engineering's badass.

But why?? ??? ??? ??? ??? That's the point in the movie when there's a camera shot of Palantir in front of his computer looking like this: http://goo.gl/LgPYpl :D

That's just the common, though. They could probably burn through the 15m pretty quickly if they split it between the common and the two debentures and are lucky finding big blocks. We'll see.

Thanks. It's certainly possible that someone else bought. We'll see on CanadianInsider.com when they report buybacks, I suppose.. But to see such a large block traded 2 days after buybacks begin does make it fairly likely that this is the company IMO. Knowing this right now rather than later when they report doesn't really change anything, though, so this is just idle speculation. But I just would like to see them buy as much stock and debentures as possible before the cogen is operational and thurso finishes ramping up, so the sooner the better.

Thanks, fareastwarriors. Profile of Musk: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200901/elon-musk-paypal-solar-power-electric-cars-space-travel?printable=true&currentPage=1

Question for those more familiar with the TSX buyback rules than I am; Is it standard that companies have the right to buy a big block of stock once a week above what they are permitted daily? ie. you can buy X shares per day, which represents Y% of average volume, but once a week you can buy a big block. I ask because there's another Canadian company that I own, and the CFO told me that it was their only way to buy back as much stock as they wanted. Daily volume are too low, so they could never reach the full amount they were approved for from just those, but once a week they could do a big block (hundreds of thousands of shares at once) and that's how they got most of it. If that's the case, I think FTP just bought back 163k shares :)

Watch out for confirmation bias Care to elaborate on what you mean?

Hey Jeff (Mori's for Morin, right? :) ), I started out reading 95%+ fiction (except for school textbooks and such), and now I'm probably 95%+ non-fiction. I've kept a list of all the books I've read since I was maybe 16, and it starts out with authors like Douglas Adam, Frank Hebert, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, Franz Kafka, Gore Vidal, Vladimir Nabokov, Arthur Miller, Iain M. Banks, Christopher Priest, John Fowles, James Branch Cabell, Steven Pressfield, Alexandre Jardin, Spider Robinson, Mikhail Bulgakov, George Bernard Shaw, Haruki Murakami, Hector Berlioz (his memoirs are great), Charles Bukowski, etc, etc.. And then progressively it turns into Richard Dawkins, Stephen Johnson, Tim Flannery, William McDonough, Daniel Gilbert, Christopher Alexander, Michael Pollan, Yvon Chouinard, William Manchester, Bill Bryson, Dan and Chip Heath, Walter Isaacson, E.B. Sledge, Bruce Schneier, Richard P. Feynman, Thomas C. Schelling, Edmund Morris, Josh Waitzkin, Christopher Hitchens, Steven Pinker, Stephen Ambrose, K. Eric Drexler, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Benjamin Graham, Andy Hertzfeld, some textbooks (molecular biology of the cell, MIT encyclopedia of neuroscience, etc), etc, etc. So there's been kind of a phase change at some point. I still think that good fiction can be a lot more than entertainment; a way to learn about human nature and the human condition and to live things that we'll never live, often in worlds that don't exist. But in practice, I almost don't read any these days. I kind of wish I did, but I can't force it... Maybe I'll get back into it at some point. You have any good fiction to recommend? :D

http://qz.com/98632 Latest speculation on Apple's foray into TV.

Thanks for posting. Nothing new, but always fun to read Buffett. :)

If Lampert wants to do something else than make money, he should probably let Berkowitz know ;) I think he probably initially expected Sears to go like Kmart and make a bunch of money quickly, but it all went wrong and now he's doubling down and biding his time... No idea if he'll be proven right or if value will keep eroding as fast or faster than he can unlock it, but it's a fun show to watch from the sidelines...

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/22/google-ventures-puts-258m-into-uber-its-largest-deal-ever/

On Sears' pension, does anyone know if Eddie is managing how the pension money is invested? If he really can compound at really high rates (even if pension investing is limiting), shouldn't that help? Sorry if question has already been asked, but reading Buffett's memo made me wonder.. http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/160301289/embed?access_key=key-zcgkzjhsy2fzhxnohm9

http://jessicalessin.com/2013/08/22/exclusive-apple-buys-another-map-app-embark/

That sounds good to me. I'd love to better understand how the exchange works/worked and what it's like to be there. I know I'll never work there, but I still find that culture interesting (in the same way that I'd love to read about what it's like to work on an aircraft carrier or whatever). Lately I've been reading The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (great so far!), Sam Walton: Made in America, and re-reading There's Always Something to do (Cundill). Next on the list are Pour Your Heart Into It and The Art of Profitability. After that I'll probably get King of the Club..

Sounds interesting, thanks. Adding it to the list. :)