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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2021 22:04:24 GMT
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Post by richardsok on Aug 20, 2021 23:55:13 GMT
I love this guy. NYU biz prof and his blog ranges from business to everything including being a father. It's sometimes very personal and poignant. www.profgalloway.com/This week's Galloway post is about China. Also, Beyond the Khyber Pass; author, John Waller. Brits in the region in the early/mid 1800's. Current events kind of stuff. Thank you. Looks like an interesting website on my first run-through. I've saved it and will give a couple of the articles a serious read. Let me throw two back at you..... takimag.com one of my favorite websites. They have a team of contributors with really electrifying and sassy stuff, especially skewering contemporary sacred cows. Not to be missed, IMO. I think you will like it. The editor is an interesting guy; wealthy playboy, former jet-setter. tennis champion, karate champion, world-class skier and skirt-chaser with lots of opinions on the new Europe and modern world. Absolutely fearless, irreverent articles. zerohedge.com in-depth geo-political, investing, economics, politics. Some of the economics discussion get too sophisticated for my paygrade, but there's a lot worthwhile here.
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Post by richardsok on Aug 21, 2021 0:41:09 GMT
Hello, frank -- This is definitely the summer I returned to interests in Greek history and literature, dovetailing nicely with self-imposed avoidance of air travel. I'm not familiar with the titles you mention, but they're certainly timely. It should be interesting to see how Parotti handles special favors emanating from Olympus and how your generals deal with the gods' interference with their plans -- prayer? sacrifice? fatalism? As far as I could tell, no god ever changes his mind in the war. Hera, remember, wouldn't rest until the Trojans were dead after Paris picked Aphrodite over her as the most beautiful goddess of all. And even Zeus wouldn't ( or couldn't ) change Achilles' destiny of a young death. Well, anyway ... Thank you.
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Post by bb2 on Aug 28, 2021 16:52:47 GMT
Lots of history buffs here. For good "historical fiction", try Barry Unsworth. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_UnsworthEspecially if you're interested in Ottoman Empire stuff. His books generally have a dark feel to them. Sacred Hunger, (slavery), won the Booker. And he had other nominations. Pascali's Island was his. I've read them all.
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Post by richardsok on Aug 28, 2021 19:46:12 GMT
Lots of history buffs here. For good "historical fiction", try Barry Unsworth. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_UnsworthEspecially if you're interested in Ottoman Empire stuff. His books generally have a dark feel to them. Sacred Hunger, (slavery), won the Booker. And he had other nominations. Pascali's Island was his. I've read them all. Thanks, bb. I was hoping someone else would post here; I don't want to appear trying to dominate the thread. My feelings and understanding of the Ottomans were largely shaped by Crowley's 1453: the Fall of Constantinople, a riveting history that left me feeling deeply depressed over the horrors that followed. I have a bio of T.E. Lawrence on my shelves I've never gotten around to reading. Will probably crack it open when I'm exhausted with the ancient Greeks. Have just started Parotti's "Greek Generals Talk" fpajerski suggested. The more pages I turn, the further behind I get.
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Post by richardsok on Aug 29, 2021 21:02:02 GMT
IT'S SUNDAY NIGHT. WHAT'S GOOD TO WATCH? Last year, over on M* I suggested THE DAWNS HERE ARE QUIET, a five-part series on youtube.com with English subtitles. A couple of posters tried it and liked it, so I'm recommending it here. Like me, you're probably doubtful of any film coming out of Russia, but I think you will discover it's very watchable; a surprisingly intense and well-produced story with good acting and beautiful cinematography. There's a remote anti-aircraft battery north of St. Petersburg, commanded by a sergeant who can't handle his men -- a bunch of drunken, brawling louts. So he's sent replacements, and then ---------- Here's the first link. The other installments are easy to find on youtube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v8v1GUjwLc&t=1712s
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2021 4:57:58 GMT
richardsok .... you want to get further behind?, let me strongly suggest the 20 Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian, whose setting is the Royal Navy during the Napoleanic Wars. These novels have been acclaimed by many as the best historical fiction ever written (excluding The Illiad) ... and I think that's an understatement. There's an extraordinary writing style here with incredible attention to historical detail and character development. I set aside a month every five years to reread these. These novels were "discovered" in 1991 via a NYT review archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/obrian-plank.html . To quote from this review: " .... O'Brian reconstructs a civilization. The Royal Navy at the beginning of the 19th century was a world of extraordinary breadth and complexity. Its hundreds of ships, the larger of them regular floating cities with close-packed populations of 1,200 souls, allowed Britain first to survive and then to prevail in a struggle whose cost and size would have been unimaginable only a generation earlier. These sailing ships -- today reduced to quaint and soothing images on wall calendars -- were in their time the most complicated machines on earth, and the deadliest. Patrick O'Brian presents the lost arcana of that hard-pressed, cruel, courageous world with an immediacy that makes its workings both comprehensible and fascinating. All the marine hardware is in place and functioning; the battles are stirring without being romanticized (this author never romanticizes); the portrayal of life aboard a sailing ship is vivid and authoritative. But in the end it is the serious exploration of human character that gives the books their greatest power: the fretful play of mood that can irrationally darken the edges of the brightest triumph, and that can feed a trickle of merriment into the midst of terror and tragedy. O'Brian manages to express, with the grace and economy of poetry, familiar things that somehow never get written down, as when he carefully details the rueful steps by which Stephen Maturin falls out of love. " some references: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_O%27Brianen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_serieshmssurprise.org/and if you have an appetite www.amazon.com/Lobscouse-Spotted-Dog-Gastronomic-Companion/dp/0393320944/And I'll refrain from further complicating your life by not noting some foreign films from the 40's and 50's and 60's that I finally have viewed. No guns or fights, just the exploration of human and family development and relationships: The Apu Trilogy - India see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apu_Trilogyfilms by Yasujiro Ozu - Japan in particular, his "Tokyo Story" sometimes polls ahead of "Citizen Kane" as the greatest movie. " Ozu's films from the late 1940s onward were favourably received, and the entries in the so-called "Noriko trilogy" (starring Setsuko Hara) of Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1951), and Tokyo Story (1953) are among his most acclaimed works, with Tokyo Story widely considered his masterpiece. Late Spring, the first of these films, was the beginning of Ozu's commercial success and the development of his cinematography and storytelling style. These three films were followed by his first colour film, Equinox Flower, in 1958, Floating Weeds in 1959, and Late Autumn in 1960. " --- Frank
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Post by saratoga on Sept 5, 2021 15:08:30 GMT
In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio by Andrew Lo and Stephen Foerster, 2021
This book is a treat. It profiles 10 financial economists (Markowitz, Sharpe, R. Merton, Scholes, Fama, Shiller, Siegel) and practitioners (Bogle, Ellis, Leibowitz): their personal backgrounds, the backgrounds of their ideas and their contributions, and what their contributions mean to perfect portfolio design. I appreciate the most the expert summaries of their ideas/models by the authors. This is a book that I will enjoy re-reading slowly. Both experts and non-experts in the investment field will find something new and interesting in the book. Do not expect to find a perfect portfolio there, however.
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Post by Chahta on Sept 5, 2021 16:01:01 GMT
I wonder what constitutes the perfect portfolio.? I will say here and now it is the portfolio that allows one to accomplish one's goals.
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Post by richardsok on Sept 5, 2021 17:21:18 GMT
Frank -- I've had P O'Brien on the dim outer edges of awareness -- the sort of author I might pick up out of the "remainder" box or on a whim from a cheap used book shop to throw into a suitcase for some future vacation. Will keep a closer eye out now. Am afraid Japanese cinema is beyond my taste -- greatly enjoyed "RAN" though. I'm stuck with more accessible stuff, I guess. I wonder if you or anyone here has ever seen "The Duellists" ? Enormously underappreciated and, for its time, extraordinary cinematography. Based loosely, I believe on a tale by Joseph Conrad wherein one chap pursues another over decades during and after Napoleonic era. Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Albert Finney -- all young actors in their prime. Here are two brief clips..... www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ksvHXBHH0www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfTgXJpc3VA------------ Saratoga -- Am pretty well settled into my investing tactics, but always interested in anything readable which might offer an edge. Thank you.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2021 3:34:36 GMT
richardsok .... Thanks for "The Duellists" note. Added it to my to-view list, especially as this 1977 film is 1) a "historical drama" with good reviews/awards and 2) was Ridley Scott's debut effort. At this late stage in life, my list was from the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die" book, but I found myself overwhelmed by this number. I'm now using Ebert's two "The Greatest Movies" books as a more focused guide, and I like his reviews too. Also, TCM has several "must-see movies" books which have been helpful. And there are some genre's to wallow in for personal satisfaction as well, such as "samurai" movies ... and deep in this genre is, of course, the 26 "Zatoichi - The Blind Swordsman" movies of 1962-1989!! It's amazing how much time one now has for this stuff after finally getting investments consolidated and mostly on auto-pilot plus not typing aimlessly away in online forums daily. And let me come back at your helpful suggestion in turn with "Black Robe", details/trailer at www.imdb.com/title/tt0101465/ . And if that type looks of interest to you, then check out "The Mission" www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/ . --- Frank
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Post by richardsok on Sept 24, 2021 2:47:17 GMT
If you have Amazon Prime Video you might want to take a look at THE COURIER, starring that Cumberbatch (sp?) actor who did so well portraying Smiley's young assistant in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." Wynne Greville, an English businessman, and rank amateur, is enlisted by MI6 to run smuggled documents out of the USSR from the spy Penkovsky during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The more Greville travels back and forth from London to Moscow, the closer the KGB watch him.
A true story and utterly gripping.
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Post by steelpony10 on Sept 24, 2021 10:46:15 GMT
I wonder what constitutes the perfect portfolio.? I will say here and now it is the portfolio that allows one to accomplish one's goals. Easy one. FD1000 has the perfect portfolio that easily allows continual deft management as a bonus. 🤑 I’m reading “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich. The story of last years GameStop run up, short squeeze. Horribly written but it’s a users guide on how to live on investments. Needless to say I do it differently. Lol.
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Post by chang on Sept 24, 2021 12:24:45 GMT
If you have Amazon Prime Video you might want to take a look at THE COURIER, starring that Cumberbatch (sp?) actor who did so well portraying Smiley's young assistant in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." Wynne Greville, an English businessman, and rank amateur, is enlisted by MI6 to run smuggled documents out of the USSR from the spy Penkovsky during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The more Greville travels back and forth from London to Moscow, the closer the KGB watch him. A true story and utterly gripping. Many years ago I read “The Mole” and “The Spy Who Saved The World”, both about the Penkovsky affair. Or maybe Popov — there were two spies. I think the KGB burned Popov alive and made a training video of it. Gruesome.
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Post by richardsok on Oct 17, 2021 12:44:05 GMT
OK -- I'm going to throw another film out there: THE CROUPIER. Watched it last night right on NETFLIX.
A darkly amoral film noir set in modern London. Struggling young chap is getting nowhere with his novel and is compelled to take a job as a casino croupier -- much to his girlfriend's dismay. She believes he shouldn't waste his talent. But our cold, calculating anti-hero finds he enjoys the work; enjoys the skilled-hands precision, calculating odds, counting -- enjoys helping the rubes lose every night.
As plot unfolds, no one is who they seem. Anyone might be crooked. Even the plot twists are twisted. Is EVERYONE dirty? Funny scene where hero accidentally bumps into his publishing agent at a book stare -- but the agent has no time to talk just then. He's eagerly setting up a book-signing event for his promising new star; a Middle East terrorist who has just written a tell-all.
And then comes the bribe offer.
Quote from Hemingway, "The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places but those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too. But there will be no special hurry. "
Look, I'm pounding the table here, fellas. If film noir is your thing, see this before Netflix yanks it.
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Post by bb2 on Oct 17, 2021 16:43:03 GMT
Clive Owen is great. I saw it long ago but may have to watch it again.
Just started a book, "The Pay Off", about how payments works. I missed the fintech investing opportunity because it never made any sense to me; I'm too old to get it, I suppose. I bought gas with cash the other day, as always and saved 10 cents a gallon. The guy next to me swiped his phone near the pump and paid 10 cents more than me, about a 2.5% fee. Maybe because I spent 2 years programming check sorting machines and systems that posted payments in the billions each night for a big bank. Paypal seemed like such a kludge and it ended up on my credit card anyway. What was the point?
So I thought I needed to learn more about payments and this new book got great reviews. I'll post back but after just 30 pages, I'm having a tough time picking it up again. So badly written. These authors, Gottfried Leibbrandt, an ex-CEO of SWIFT and Natasha De Teran, also from SWIFT are no Michael Lewis.
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Post by richardsok on Nov 3, 2021 19:52:49 GMT
Bumping this thread up with a few words on a movie I saw last night on Netflix. It was "OUTPOST", a gripping dramatization of the book by Jake Tapper on the desperate defense of Outpost Keating and the vicious little battle of Kamdesh. Interesting to learn that some of the actual battle veterans were employed as extras and bit players for the film. No real stars or Hollywood moral theme or sentimentality in this terrifying white-knuckle fracas; you get the idea the director and producers just wanted to say, "Yes, this is just how it looked and how it really went down." Not for the faint of heart, but highly recommended.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 14, 2021 21:44:48 GMT
Douglas Murray. "The Strange Death Of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam." He makes a good case for NOT being so enthusiastically welcoming with wide-open arms, because the gigantic, gargantuan numbers of new arrivals are coming from places that do not necessarily share liberal Enlightenment values, the equality of the sexes, and the sort of mutual tolerance we otherwise take for granted. Many or most of these newcomers deliberately do NOT integrate into the larger society. In some cases, there are good intentions: when, for example, a North African father, a new arrival with his family, deliberately will not permit his daughter to dress in the latest "fashion," which is just plain obscenely revealing.....
It is the radical crowd, among the fundamentalists, which present the most pressing problem: suicide vests, using vehicles as weapons, bombs here and bombs there, machine guns. All in the name of Allah.
Murray further asserts that Europe is doing a very bad job of policing illegals from the legal immigrants. Some of the very worst perpetrators have managed to very easily flee and move across borders. Many economic migrants --- who could not reasonably claim to be coming as REFUGEES --- have learned some tricks: one Muslim fellow to whom Murray spoke had landed in Spain. No papers, no identity documents.He candidly told Murray that he had already deliberately mailed his passport to his relatives in France, so the passport could not be confiscated if he were to be stopped in the mountains at the Spain/France border in the Pyrenees.
Also, The countries of Europe seem unable to say anything good about their own heritage and culture: Art, Music, Literature, science..... Today, bending over backwards to be "multi-cultural" translates to an unwavering acceptance of anything and everything, and at least tacitly denigrating Europe's own contributions to the world. .....(Yes, even while admitting the atrociousness of the World Wars and the former colonialism.)
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Post by richardsok on Nov 15, 2021 1:38:10 GMT
alvin--
As a reader of several of his books, I admire Murray enormously. Here, however, he's quite late to the topic. Mark Steyn, among others, addressed the issue in compelling fashion twelve years ago in his LIGHTS OUT ... Twilight of the West, as well as in numerous essays. The warnings are all for naught, though. Except for a few middle European countries like Poland, Hungary and the Baltics, the continental ruling class has evidently chosen its suicidal course forward and isn't about to take steps to preserve their culture, defense or energy sources. When I was younger and studying history I'd frequently come across comments decrying Europe's blind indifference to the rise of National Socialism in Hitler's early days. It is interesting to see similar shoulder-shrugging in my own lifetime as democratically elected leaders once again serenely opt for passivity and suicide. True, most of the tourist areas are kept relatively presentable -- but even constant police patrols can't put a dent in packs of Eastern pickpockets in Rome or Paris and it was almost amusing to see police chasing aggressive African panhandlers round and around the Coliseum. Middle class European women, once among the freest in the world, know only too well the lamentable changes in most major suburbs. And defense? NATO support continues spotty and listless. Germany has practically no tactical air combat capacity left at all. Germany and France are actively phasing out nuclear power and imagine they can get by on wind, solar and the kindness of Russians. The churches are empty and their mosques are full.
But not to worry. Western Europe has flirted with suicide before. By now they're quite adept at it.
So I won't be reading Murray's book. I already know what he's going to say and I already know nothing will be done. It's all too depressing.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 24, 2021 9:45:35 GMT
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 24, 2021 9:53:20 GMT
richardsok, I watched that one, too. Utterly gripping. "The Outpost." RECOMMENDED. But I guess everything on this thread is recommended...
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Post by chang on Nov 24, 2021 10:53:26 GMT
Taking a breather from serious reading, and whizzing through every one of P. G. Wodehouse’s “Blandings Castle” novels. Just finishing the 5th one now, I think there’s another four or five to go.
The greatest humorist who ever lived.
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Post by richardsok on Nov 24, 2021 12:39:55 GMT
Taking a breather from serious reading, and whizzing through every one of P. G. Wodehouse’s “Blandings Castle” novels. Just finishing the 5th one now, I think there’s another four or five to go. The greatest humorist who ever lived. PGW is terrific! I prefer reading him in small doses; days with the blues, after a quarrel with my daughter, bad stock market days, stubbed toe days.... Inane diversion & consoling yucks await right on my book shelves. Enjoy.
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Post by shipwreckedandalone on Nov 24, 2021 16:16:02 GMT
Watching Get Back 6 hour Beatles documentary starting tomorrow on DIS+. It is amazing Let It Be was created in 4 weeks time. The 60 hour of video has never been shown .....Let It Be sessions.
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Post by bb2 on Nov 24, 2021 17:25:12 GMT
Someone on M* forum recently suggested the Beatles doc on Dis+ would juice subs and the stock price. Asked my wife last night and she said many of her friends have mentioned it - something noncontroversial to watch on Thanksgiving? Something other than football?
Ed: Sorry to bring a fun thread to business.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 24, 2021 20:32:11 GMT
Ah, yes. It was always a tradition to watch the Lions lose, no matter the opponent. Matthew Stafford was an upgrade for that team, and my niece knew him from U-GA. Now, I understand, he's with the Rams.
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Post by Chahta on Nov 24, 2021 23:16:50 GMT
Watching Get Back 6 hour Beatles documentary starting tomorrow on DIS+. It is amazing Let It Be was created in 4 weeks time. The 60 hour of video has never been shown .....Let It Be sessions. Thanks for the heads-up. I will be watching. The McCartney series a few months ago was great too. I remember getting the Let It Be 8-track tape for XMAS.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 27, 2021 7:14:31 GMT
Douglas Murray. "The Madness of Crowds." Addressing political correctness with attention to gender, identity, race. Very early into the book, already his "take" is quite clear: not only are we supposed to learn and evolve and be more accepting, but if you dare to not go along with the "woke" crowd and its (new) dogmas, there must be something wrong with you. You ignorant bigot! I'm inclined to agree. We need to be open to new knowledge. But we surely DON'T need any Attitude Police.
Additional edit: Though I substantially agree with him, I'm finding the book tedious because it's really very predictable. I'm going to skip to the New Afterword.
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Post by johntaylor on Nov 27, 2021 15:35:40 GMT
Yep, when social media outlets serve as state actors, it turns the First Amendment into a dead letter.
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Post by alvinthechipmunk on Nov 27, 2021 20:22:15 GMT
Screaming Eagles!
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