Liberty

http://lechoabitibien.canoe.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=208251&id=1645&classif=En%20manchettes This seems to say that after some delays caused by bureaucrats being on vacation, FTP is on the verge of acquiring another plant which will be converted to DP production like Thurso. Even a high ranking provincial minister says the deal is almost done.

If you have a google account, you can go to your account page and change the settings so that your +1s aren't public.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/76366076/

I think that's why Amazon will do better than other tablet makers. Because they are NOT going after the iPad. They are offering something with fewer features, but much cheaper and still with a great selection of content. Most other tablet makers are going after the iPad, and they fail the comparison every time. Why would you buy a playbook or TouchPad (at full price) when you can get an iPad for about the same price or a little bit more? Apple has content to sell hardware and Amazon has hardware to sell content, and so they can attack this market from different angles and be differentiated enough to both do well. But if you are trying to compete with Apple yet have worse hardware and worse content than they do, why would anyone buy your stuff?

Out of curiosity, are you saying that you have shorted it? And if so, from what price?

No sure what the rules are in Germany. Anyone from Europe knows?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/altius-minerals-corporation-tsx-als-reports-first-quarter-net-loss-of-1588000-2011-09-29

That was great, thanks!

It's what security expert Bruce Schneier calls "security theater". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater "Security theater is a term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security."

Looks like they've repurchased almost 36k shares last month: http://canadianinsider.com/coReport/allTransactions.php?ticker=als

From memory, recent CR has been rather mediocre at many subsidiaries, but it starts to look better if you look at the average over the long-term. Much closer to 100, IIRC.

Thanks Dazel, good to see that iron ore seems to be holding up relatively well. My ideal scenario is for the market to stay soft a while longer, allowing ALS to deploy cash in undervalued equities and royalties, but not so down that Alderon is put on hold. And then by the time Alderon is getting closer to shipping ore, things start to pick up again.. Best of both worlds :) We'll see how it plays out.

I'm not sure if that is correct. HTC seems to have access to them: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20102903-94/htc-sues-apple-using-google-patents-report-says/ That's a bit ambiguously worded, but I think it refers to some individual patents that Google licensed/bought, not patents from the acquired Motorola patent pool.

Oh boy ::)

http://radian.org/notebook/porsche From 2009, for those who missed it back then. nice move.

I'm impressed by the new kindles. Amazon did better than I expected (from what I can tell - I haven't tried them yet). That's speaking as a content consumer, not as an investor, though...

They don't have access to Motorola patents yet, no? And whatever deals we're hearing about now have probably been going on for a while. I think it's too early to tell if it did anything against the patent trolls.

One of the things that I've internalized about investing is that there are not bonus points for originality. Best idea wins, doesn't matter who came up with it. Trying to be original for originality's sake is just as bad as blindly copying everybody else, IMO. I'm not saying that's what you suggested. Just stating my own general guidelines.

That's what I noted too. Not the specific companies, but how qualitative he is and how important top quality management is.

I just saw it too. Quite good, quite enjoyable, and lots of lessons applicable to investing. Recommended.

Indeed, and it's superficially bad. But beneath the surface, I think they have the right kind of thinking, and that's all that matters to me.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebix-announces-addition-of-steven-n-barlow-as-vice-president-investor-relations-2011-09-27

Sounds good, at least we know it happened. Thanks for sharing what they told you!

TD charges 1.5% between CAD and USD. TD Waterhouse can give you a better rate (below 1%) if you call them, but that's only for larger amounts (like 50k for example). Anyone in Canada has a good way to converted between USD and CAD for smaller amounts (a few thousands)?

Still haven't seen the movie or read the book, but found this: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/moneyball-the-very-good-feel-bad-sports-movie-of-the-year/245536/