SoTier

Why did somebody resurrect this thread after 3 years? The OP himself hasn't posted on TBD in 2 years.

Haboobs, the big walls of dust that are created when desert thunderstorms collapse, can be seen approaching from a long way away -- if you're in relatively flat terrain and happen to be looking in the right direction. Otherwise, they seem to come out of nowhere. My guess is that this was something similar to a haboob, only far removed from any real deserts because of the western drought. In the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, dust storms became fairly common on the Great Plains because of the extreme drought conditions at the time.

Skepticism is a good trait for any investor. You could use more of it since you seem to have bought into some significantly faulty information.

Contrary to the headline, these days $125k is a pretty paltry purse for a stakes races. On the same day as the Los Alamitos Derby, there were at least 7 stakes races run around the country worth at least $250k, topped by the $1 million Belmont Derby and the $700k Belmont Oaks Invitational (which are both run in New York where Baffert can't run his horses). On Sunday, Belmont ran 3 non-stakes races with purses over $90k each. Churchill Downs, which finished its meeting a week ago or so, has a purse structure similar to the big NY tracks Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga.

It's not social media that needs to be regulated but cryptocurrencies to limit the exposure of all investors to shady practices. Other than that, all the "good" information in the world isn't going to deter people who view investments as get-rich-quick schemes because those people only listen to what supports their schemes and dismiss warnings about the risks.

Glad you had a good time!

Thanks for the links. If I understood the article on asset backed cryptocurrencies correctly, they don't seem to be quite ready for prime time investing by John Q Public. While they offer more stability than other cryptos, they still have some significant problems that make them much riskier than more traditional investments. At present, the advantages of asset backed cryptos -- namely, the ability to buy tiny shares of expensive assets and the ease of liquidity -- can be had by individual investors using traditional investment vehicles like mutual funds that invest in assets like real estate or precious metals, so asset backed cryptos seem to be redundant and riskier.

^^^ Crypto mining techies aren't going to make quick fortunes investing in gold and silver. They will make big $$$ selling their versions of crypto to the "world economy is going to tank tomorrow" crowd who wouldn't be interested in "mainstream" crypto like Bitcoin.

My guess is that even more people are killed -- and certainly injured -- by horses, which were likely the second species that humans domesticated after the dog, sometime more than 5000 years ago, and have been used all that time as close partners to humans. Raising domestic bison for meat (and hides, I suppose) used to be popular. There was a big bison "ranch" out by Salamanca/Ellicottville in Catt County, and bison meat could be found in supermarkets. I visited with my stepmother. They used railroad ties as fence posts and industrial sized metal gates. I think they didn't herd them much but called them in with food. People never got into the pens with them (like they sometimes do with cows) but moved and/or separated them using chutes.

Large or venomous snakes, like many other exotic animals that some people think are "cool" to make into pets, should be left in their native habits because they can become dangerous as adults, primarily because of size and/or temperament. Once these animals become habituated to and dependent upon humans, they can rarely be returned to the wild and always have to live in captivity for their own safety and for the safety of people who cross their paths. Too often, when the animals become problems for their owners, they get dumped. Many exotic pets are collected illegally from the wild and smuggled into the US without regard for the animals' health or the possibility of spreading disease. The only way to truly stop this illegal trafficking is to dry up the market so that it's not worth it to smugglers to bring the animals into this country. Hopefully this snake is an escaped pet that can be reunited with its owner.

One attraction that hasn't been mentioned is the Erie County Fair in Hamburg for about 10 days in mid/late August. It's one of the largest county fairs in the US (I think that Los Angeles County Fair may be larger) and is larger than some state fairs. It has a massive midway, top grandstand shows, all kinds of shows, exhibits, and/or demonstrations -- conservation, historical, agricultural, and cultural.

The difference between gold and "digital gold" is that gold has a track record; it's been desirable for at least five thousand years. As long as others view crypto as "digital gold", your investment has value. If too many others decide that something else is the new "gold" digital or otherwise, crypto may go the way of the Dutch tulip in the 17th century.

I'm not against investing in rental real estate but it does have risks like all investments. No matter how good your property is, you cannot dismiss the reality that tenants can be problematic. They may suffer economic reverses of their own which can make formerly top rated tenants unable to pay their rent. Certainly a house fire could easily keep your house empty for months and probably cost you tens of thousands in repairs beyond whatever insurance covers. A tornado can level even the best built and maintained house or apartment building. No investment is perfect for everyone or without risk. It's best to spread your investments among various types of investments.

This is a very simplistic view of investing for building wealth. Contrary to your rosy scenario, there are numerous pitfalls in real estate investing, not the least of which is that real estate is perhaps one of the most difficult assets to liquidate. It's also prone to disastrous hazards that can wipe out most of the investment in minutes: fires, earthquakes, floods, etc. Real estate investors also have expenses that simply don't apply to stocks or crypto or precious metals, namely they have to maintain their properties even when they aren't bringing in rents. IOW, investing in rental real estate has some real drawbacks and not for everyone. Your observation about the 1% club isn't correct. Making great fortunes in real estate generally involves speculation or the development of real estate rather than long term ownership of residential or commercial units for rental income.

Maybe the dude has abandoned all financial transactions based on USD. Probably not the wisest move since crypto isn't accepted for most ordinary purchases.

I agree. I remember that pick six -- it was just like so many of his picks in college. Whether carelessness or poor vision, Darnold isn't good enough to be a NFL QB not only because the talent level in NFL is much higher than in college, but also because the talent between the best teams and the worst teams is miniscule compared to the talent differences between top collegiate teams and bottom collegiate teams. There are no Ball States or Western Michigans or UBs for the top tier teams to fatten up on in the NFL.

Darnold was the one QB from the 2018 draft that I absolutely didn't want the Bills to draft because his college game had a couple of big red flags despite his stats and publicity: he checked down too often and he threw stupid INTs with regularity. He has done the same with the Jests and with the Panthers. I suspect that he doesn't see the field as well as he needs to in order to be a good NFL QB, so he not only doesn't see open receivers, he too frequently doesn't see defenders.

For the ordinary person, I'm guessing that's unlikely. Market timing in the stock market has never proven to be an effective long term strategy for individual investors, so I can't see the much more volatile crypto markets being better. There are people who make good livings as professional gamblers at casinos but the average joe who wanders in off the street loses a lot more often than he wins.

Crypto in the 2020s seems to be where the stock market was in the 1920s: an unregulated investing "Wild West" where fortunes can be made overnight -- and lost in hours. A wise investor might put a very small percentage of his/her funds into it but in its present unregulated state, crypto seems about on a par with gambling at a casino or race track. Maybe the crypto collapse will put the brakes on the recent push by some financial companies to push crypto "investments" for 401ks and Roth IRAs.

I think that Mayfield simply hasn't grown professionally. He started out at a high level (for a rookie QB) but he really hasn't upped his game significantly since his second season. Is that on him or on the Browns? I don't know. What I do know is that it's not uncommon for highly drafted QBs to fail to improve significantly after their first or second year as a starter.

Is there some point to your continuing attempts to "prove" Rob Johnson wasn't a crappy QB? I mean, other than your need to argue contrarian positions that aren't supported by facts in order to demonstrated your superiority to everybody else.

IMO, Rob Johnson is more of a Trent Edwards "doppelganger" than a Josh Allen "doppelganger". Johnson and Edwards suffered from the same issue: they couldn't read defenses well and couldn't process what they did see fast enough to be effective. That's why they were inconsistent, mostly playing poorly but sometimes looking like they were actually competent QBs when playing against crappy defenses or when defenses went into "prevent" mode or when, like the proverbial blind squirrel, they luckily found a nut. They were both sacked so often because they held the ball too long. No amount of physical talent can make up for the lack of a QB being able to recognize defenses quickly and accurately and make good decisions based on what they see.

True believers don't need backup plans.

I have catbirds coming to one of my suet feeders that I located close to my tall arborvitae screen. The starlings either don't like the location or they haven't found it since it's on a combo feeder and faces the trees. They do clean up the other suet feeders in short order.

LOL. The doomsday prepper crowd has been warning "disbelievers" like me about "the manure hitting the fan" for the last couple of decades, most loudly back in the Great Recession. I've made a lot of money over that time by ignoring guys wearing tin-foil hats, so I see no reason to start listening to them just because the stock market has been down recently.