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Berkshire Hathaway's net profit triples while stock portfolio bests S&P 500 {Daily Finance}
Nov 7th 2009 5:39PM I bought B shares about 6 years ago, when they were around $2000 a share. Now they are over $3200 a share.
If you look at my IRA since 2007, when the collapse of high-risk mortgages started killing private equity deals and caused credit to tighten, the only thing that is up is BRK.B.
Buffet buys companies that are well run and either need capital to expand or simply are priced too low to pass up. Case in point is BNSF. It was $115 a year ago. It closed around $76 the day before the Berkshire purchase was announced.
Everybody Loves Jeff Dunham -- Or Do They? {Inside TV Blog}
Nov 5th 2009 10:38AM Here's some food for thought. Jeff Dunham is a private pilot. He often does a show at the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-In at Oshkosh, WI during the summer. The show has as large an audience as when the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels perform during the afternoon air show.
Personally, my favorite is Walter. I know a number of men in their 60s and older, and there is a little bit (or in some cases a lot) of Walter in all of them.
But if you like comedians that don't play at all to stereotypes, there is Jim Gaffigan, although he has poked fun at his religion, Roman Catholicism, in his act.
VIDEO: Buick Regal sneak peek shows face we already know {Autoblog}
Nov 3rd 2009 1:48PM Here's the question of the day. Will the Regal come with a wagon? Remember that GM killed the rebadged VUE crossover, so Buick only has the Enclave. It has no CUV from the Equinox/Terrain/SRX platform, which the VUE was built from.
A while back on the Fritz Blog, Susan Dochtery said that Buick was not getting a wagon. Then a few weeks later, after the great reviews of the souped-up Opel Insignia wagon, Dochtery answered another question about a possible Buick Regal wagon with a very coy answer. That leads me to believe that Buick is considering bringing both the Insignia sedan and wagon to market as Buicks.
Self-checkout machines cause 'stage fright' in shoppers {Daily Finance}
Nov 3rd 2009 11:25AM Here's the first problem. Jewel, which is owned by Super Valu, has somewhat older technology. So, it's scanners can't read the bar code on coupons to determine if they have expired. So, if you use the self-checkout, you still have to have a cashier come, verify that the coupons haven't expired, then scan the coupons for you.
Meijer, which competes with Jewel in the Chicago area, has newer technology which can determine if a coupon is expired, without a cashier having to look at the coupon.
The second problem is the item that isn't in a nice flat package, such as cheese that is shrink wrapped. The scanner sometimes can't read the bar code, because the surface is wavy or even scrunched.
The think I hate about self check-out is that you have to put an iten on the conveyor belt before scanning the next item. If you buy, for instance, 6 cups of yogurt, all in the same flavor, the cashier will scan the first cup 6 times, then push all six cups onto the conveyor towards the bag boy.
You can't do that with self check-out, although I've learned to pick up two items, one in each hand, scan the first, then scan the second the instant I put the first on the conveyor.
How to Fix 'The Jay Leno Show' {Inside TV Blog}
Nov 2nd 2009 3:29PM Jay needs to bring back some of his characters, Beyondo, Iron Jay, Mr. Brain, and Billy Bob Tuttle, the fast food guy. Those were bits that were funny.
Remmember that some of Johnny Carson's best stuff was his characers, Carnac the Magnificant, El Moldo, Aunt Blabby, Floyd R. Turbo, and Art Fern, the Tea-Time Movie Man.
Selig's New Blunder: November Baseball {Fanhouse - Jay Mariotti}
Oct 27th 2009 7:10PM Here's part of the problem: the World Baseball Classic.
No one cares, yet it lengthens spring training and pushed back the start of the season.
Even with better scheduling of the playoffs, the World Series would still be way too late in October.
If we're going to have a World Baseball Classic, have it after the season in sunny Florida, Arizona, or California. Personally, I don't give two hoots if our professionals can beat the professionals from the Dominican Republic, South Africa, or Japan. There are only two baseball championships of importance, the College World Series and the MLB World Series.
Ad Rant: Is Al Franken trying to kill off the nightly news? {WalletPop}
Oct 24th 2009 10:52AM My wife works for a heath insurer, and our doctor is a consultant for the insurer. So, they got to talking about the commericals. His view is that as a doctor, there is far more literature about new drugs, new procedures, and new medical devices that he can read.
So, there are times that a patient mentions a commerical for a drug that he's not familar with. He reads the literature before prescribing it, but the fact that the patient mentioned a drug commercial was helpful.
On the other hand, there are the hypocondriacs who think they have everything they see on TV, whether it's a drug commerical or a doctor talking about an illness that some celebrity had.
He simply humors them and sends them home. He doesn't prescribe medication simply because someone saw an ad.
Ad Rant: Is Al Franken trying to kill off the nightly news? {WalletPop}
Oct 24th 2009 10:45AM Cooking shows, whether Paula Deen, Julia Child, or Emeril Lagasse, aren't the cause of America's health woes. People were eating badly and not getting enough exercise long before Food Network went live.
Ad Rant: Is Al Franken trying to kill off the nightly news? {WalletPop}
Oct 24th 2009 10:34AM Usually, the drugs that are advertised aren't yet available as generics. A drug company gets a number of years under its patent to control production. It's when the patent expires that other drug companies can start to produce generics.
Weather Channel to Begin Airing Movies This Month {Inside TV Blog}
Oct 21st 2009 2:28PM TWC shows way too many documentaries and other shows. People tune in to get the weather, particularly if the weather is changing, say rain or dropping temperatures.
Also, TWC has gotten rid of some of its best talent since the NBC takeover, including Dave Schwartz, Sharon Rusalten, Kristina Abernathy, Cheryl Lemke, and Kristen Dodd.
