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WE MUST FIGHT IT'S OUR ONLY HOPE
R.I.P. /pol/ 14 Mar 2014
R.I.P. /pol/ 14 Mar 2014
Update 2024-04-04: Added 5 million mid-2011 posts from the k47 post dump. Browse (mostly) them here.
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Threads by latest replies - Page 2
Quoted By:
I can eliminate the belief any person has in any form of God or afterlife or soul, and spread this message throughout the entire world, but I am worried about what will happen after I die.
Quoted By:
Quoted By:
Buffett's advice: Treat stocks like real estate
NEW YORK - Mr Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, cited a farm he has owned since 1986 to caution individuals against frequent buying and selling of stocks.
Investors should treat their equity holdings like real estate purchases, focusing on the potential for profits over time rather than short-term price fluctuations, Mr Buffett, 83, wrote in an excerpt from his annual letter published on the website of Fortune magazine on Monday.
"Those people who can sit quietly for decades when they own a farm or apartment house too often become frenetic when they are exposed to a stream of stock quotations," Mr Buffett said. "For these investors, liquidity is transformed from the unqualified benefit it should be to a curse."
Mr Buffett has pursued a buy-and-hold investment approach as he built Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire into a US$280 billion company, accumulating the largest holdings of Coca-Cola, American Express and Wells Frago. He has said individual investors may be better off avoiding his approach to picking stocks, instead purchasing a fund that holds every company in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
"The goal of the non-professional should not be to pick winners," Mr Buffett wrote: "The 'know-nothing' investor who both diversifies and keeps his costs minimal is virtually certain to get satisfactory results."
The S&P 500 has returned about 7 per cent annually over the past decade, beating by almost a percentage point the average yearly advance of Mr Buffett's company. He has said he aims to increase Berkshire's book value, a measure Berkshire's book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, more rapidly than the S&P 500.
Mr Buffett's record of profitable stock picks and takeovers has helped make his letters a must-read on Wall Street. He has said he writes them to be understood by his sisters, who do not work in finance. The full document may be released by March 1, along with financial results for 2013.
BLOOMBERG
NEW YORK - Mr Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, cited a farm he has owned since 1986 to caution individuals against frequent buying and selling of stocks.
Investors should treat their equity holdings like real estate purchases, focusing on the potential for profits over time rather than short-term price fluctuations, Mr Buffett, 83, wrote in an excerpt from his annual letter published on the website of Fortune magazine on Monday.
"Those people who can sit quietly for decades when they own a farm or apartment house too often become frenetic when they are exposed to a stream of stock quotations," Mr Buffett said. "For these investors, liquidity is transformed from the unqualified benefit it should be to a curse."
Mr Buffett has pursued a buy-and-hold investment approach as he built Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire into a US$280 billion company, accumulating the largest holdings of Coca-Cola, American Express and Wells Frago. He has said individual investors may be better off avoiding his approach to picking stocks, instead purchasing a fund that holds every company in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
"The goal of the non-professional should not be to pick winners," Mr Buffett wrote: "The 'know-nothing' investor who both diversifies and keeps his costs minimal is virtually certain to get satisfactory results."
The S&P 500 has returned about 7 per cent annually over the past decade, beating by almost a percentage point the average yearly advance of Mr Buffett's company. He has said he aims to increase Berkshire's book value, a measure Berkshire's book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities, more rapidly than the S&P 500.
Mr Buffett's record of profitable stock picks and takeovers has helped make his letters a must-read on Wall Street. He has said he writes them to be understood by his sisters, who do not work in finance. The full document may be released by March 1, along with financial results for 2013.
BLOOMBERG
Quoted By:
Anyone here watch Question time in the house of parliament and discuss our current situations in Australia.
For our government or for the opposition?
Some topics to discuss >Qantas, NBN, mining tax, people smugglers, unemployment rate.
For our government or for the opposition?
Some topics to discuss >Qantas, NBN, mining tax, people smugglers, unemployment rate.
Quoted By:
Make decisions
Debating the 'best' decision can lead to actually deciding nothing. Good decision making is often a 'teams and timing' thing.
Good decision makers seem to have three key abilities: they gather the appropriate evidence (and ignore irrelevances), weigh it up correctly and make the decision at just the right time.
Sometimes decision making is a solo activity - say, when you are the only person with all the information necessary to make that decision. On other occasions, we can reach a better quality decision by involving others. In his book The Wisdom of Crowds, columnist James Surowiecki explores how large groups of people can consistently deploy their pooled wisdom to outstrip individuals - no matter how brilliant the individual - in solving problems, fostering innovation and coming to wise decisions.
When it comes to making the decision at the right time, there is obviously no 'one-size-fits-all' moment. Every decision has to be assessed in its own context. Generally speaking, you'll find it's more important to make the right decision than the 'best' decision. Every decision involves a level of risk, and some decisions are more critical than others to get absolutely right. If there are a number of ways of doing something, and it looks like most of them would work well enough, there's little value to be gained - and much time to be lost - in agonising over finding the best possible solution. On those occasions, just be pragmatic: implement a perfectly satisfactory solution - even if it's not absolutely optimal.
Ken walks past an clothing shop.
Ken : "OMIGOD, THAT COMMEDES GARCONS SUIT IS LOVE!! IT'S ON SALES?! ONLY £450!!!
BUT MY CREDIT CARD IS ALMOST MAXED OUT...ON THE OTHER HAND, THE AGENCY WILL PAY ME THIS FRIDAY..."
Shop Owner : "UM, SIR? WE'RE CLOSING NOW -"
Ken : "NOT UNTIL I BUY THAT SUIT!! HERE TAKE MY MONEY!! TAKE IT!!"
Debating the 'best' decision can lead to actually deciding nothing. Good decision making is often a 'teams and timing' thing.
Good decision makers seem to have three key abilities: they gather the appropriate evidence (and ignore irrelevances), weigh it up correctly and make the decision at just the right time.
Sometimes decision making is a solo activity - say, when you are the only person with all the information necessary to make that decision. On other occasions, we can reach a better quality decision by involving others. In his book The Wisdom of Crowds, columnist James Surowiecki explores how large groups of people can consistently deploy their pooled wisdom to outstrip individuals - no matter how brilliant the individual - in solving problems, fostering innovation and coming to wise decisions.
When it comes to making the decision at the right time, there is obviously no 'one-size-fits-all' moment. Every decision has to be assessed in its own context. Generally speaking, you'll find it's more important to make the right decision than the 'best' decision. Every decision involves a level of risk, and some decisions are more critical than others to get absolutely right. If there are a number of ways of doing something, and it looks like most of them would work well enough, there's little value to be gained - and much time to be lost - in agonising over finding the best possible solution. On those occasions, just be pragmatic: implement a perfectly satisfactory solution - even if it's not absolutely optimal.
Ken walks past an clothing shop.
Ken : "OMIGOD, THAT COMMEDES GARCONS SUIT IS LOVE!! IT'S ON SALES?! ONLY £450!!!
BUT MY CREDIT CARD IS ALMOST MAXED OUT...ON THE OTHER HAND, THE AGENCY WILL PAY ME THIS FRIDAY..."
Shop Owner : "UM, SIR? WE'RE CLOSING NOW -"
Ken : "NOT UNTIL I BUY THAT SUIT!! HERE TAKE MY MONEY!! TAKE IT!!"
Quoted By:
Quoted By:
Develop a high-performing team
Improve your group's performance with the SCORE framework
IN THEIR groundbreaking 1993 article The Discipline Of Teams in the Harvard Business Review, Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define a team as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."
That definition lays down the discipline that teams must share to be effective.
Katzenbach and Smith discuss the four elements - common commitment and purpose, performance goals, complementary skills and mutual accountability - that make
teams function.
They also classify teams into three varieties - teams that recommend things, teams that make or do things, and teams that run things - and describe how each type faces different challenges.
Most executives advocate teamwork. And they should.
Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage listening and responding constructively to views expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support, and recognising the interests and achievements of others.
Such values help teams perform, and they also promote individual performance as well as the performance of an entire organisation.
But teamwork values by themselves are not exclusive to teams, nor are they enough to ensure team performance.
Building high-performing teams
Teams have become a principal building block of the strategy of successful organisations.
With teams at the core of corporate strategy, your success as an organisation can often depend on how well you and other team members operate together.
Yet not all teams are created equal. Some fail to perform, or they perform below expectations. Some start out well but later lose their focus and energy.
It is critical for managers and team leaders to find ways to ensure their teams are working effectively and are achieving results. When a team becomes aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and individual energies harmonise.
Members have a shared vision and an understanding of how to complement each other's efforts. As jazz musicians say: "You are in the groove."
SCORE characteristics
A high-performing team demonstrates a high level of synergism - the simultaneous actions of separate entities that together have a greater effect than the sum of their individual efforts.
It is possible, for example, for a team's efforts to exemplify an equation such as 2 + 2 = 5!
High-performing teams require a complementary set of characteristics known collectively as "SCORE".
These qualities are described below:
Strategy and purpose
High-performing teams with a cohesive strategy and team purpose articulate a strong, uniting purpose that is common to all team members.
They will describe how they work together by defining team values and ground rules or team charter. Finally, they will be clear about what they do by defining key result areas.
Clear roles and responsibilities
Successful teams determine overall team competencies and then clearly define individual member roles and responsibilities.
High-performing teams realistically examine each individual's responsibilities in terms of personality, interest and ability, resulting in an accurate understanding of each member's accountability and contribution to the team.
Open communication
Communication is the key component in facilitating successful team performance; its lack limits team success.
Effective communication relies on the proper use of communication channels such as e-mail and voicemail.
Rapid response
A high-performing team is adaptable and responds quickly, as necessary, to changes in the environment, using creativity and "outside box" thinking.
When faced with a problem, these teams brainstorm possible solutions and create innovative resolutions.
Exemplary and effective leadership
An effective team leader is able to adjust his style as necessary, depending on the task at hand and the skill level of each team member performing that task.
The team leader also plays a critical role in raising morale by providing positive feedback and coaching team members to improve performance.
Flexible leadership
In high-performing teams, leadership shifts during the stages of team development based on team needs.
Unlike organisational leadership, which remains somewhat constant, team leadership can shift from directing, when the team is being formed, to more delegating, when the team is functioning effectively.
To transform into a high performing team, an easily implementable framework such as SCORE would assist in achieving that end goal.
Improve your group's performance with the SCORE framework
IN THEIR groundbreaking 1993 article The Discipline Of Teams in the Harvard Business Review, Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define a team as "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."
That definition lays down the discipline that teams must share to be effective.
Katzenbach and Smith discuss the four elements - common commitment and purpose, performance goals, complementary skills and mutual accountability - that make
teams function.
They also classify teams into three varieties - teams that recommend things, teams that make or do things, and teams that run things - and describe how each type faces different challenges.
Most executives advocate teamwork. And they should.
Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage listening and responding constructively to views expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support, and recognising the interests and achievements of others.
Such values help teams perform, and they also promote individual performance as well as the performance of an entire organisation.
But teamwork values by themselves are not exclusive to teams, nor are they enough to ensure team performance.
Building high-performing teams
Teams have become a principal building block of the strategy of successful organisations.
With teams at the core of corporate strategy, your success as an organisation can often depend on how well you and other team members operate together.
Yet not all teams are created equal. Some fail to perform, or they perform below expectations. Some start out well but later lose their focus and energy.
It is critical for managers and team leaders to find ways to ensure their teams are working effectively and are achieving results. When a team becomes aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and individual energies harmonise.
Members have a shared vision and an understanding of how to complement each other's efforts. As jazz musicians say: "You are in the groove."
SCORE characteristics
A high-performing team demonstrates a high level of synergism - the simultaneous actions of separate entities that together have a greater effect than the sum of their individual efforts.
It is possible, for example, for a team's efforts to exemplify an equation such as 2 + 2 = 5!
High-performing teams require a complementary set of characteristics known collectively as "SCORE".
These qualities are described below:
Strategy and purpose
High-performing teams with a cohesive strategy and team purpose articulate a strong, uniting purpose that is common to all team members.
They will describe how they work together by defining team values and ground rules or team charter. Finally, they will be clear about what they do by defining key result areas.
Clear roles and responsibilities
Successful teams determine overall team competencies and then clearly define individual member roles and responsibilities.
High-performing teams realistically examine each individual's responsibilities in terms of personality, interest and ability, resulting in an accurate understanding of each member's accountability and contribution to the team.
Open communication
Communication is the key component in facilitating successful team performance; its lack limits team success.
Effective communication relies on the proper use of communication channels such as e-mail and voicemail.
Rapid response
A high-performing team is adaptable and responds quickly, as necessary, to changes in the environment, using creativity and "outside box" thinking.
When faced with a problem, these teams brainstorm possible solutions and create innovative resolutions.
Exemplary and effective leadership
An effective team leader is able to adjust his style as necessary, depending on the task at hand and the skill level of each team member performing that task.
The team leader also plays a critical role in raising morale by providing positive feedback and coaching team members to improve performance.
Flexible leadership
In high-performing teams, leadership shifts during the stages of team development based on team needs.
Unlike organisational leadership, which remains somewhat constant, team leadership can shift from directing, when the team is being formed, to more delegating, when the team is functioning effectively.
To transform into a high performing team, an easily implementable framework such as SCORE would assist in achieving that end goal.
Quoted By:
How would the U.S. become socialist?
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Fresh controversy over comfort women
Military brothels 'a fact of wartime', says new NHK chief
TOKYO - Japan should not be singled out for criticism over the use of military brothels during World War II, the new chairman of Japan's influential public broadcaster NHK was quoted as saying in remarks likely to spark widespread anger.
The comments by Mr Katsuto Momii, 70, who has just taken over as chairman of NHK, are also likely to become an additional diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe is already faced with deteriorating ties due largely to territorial disputes with China and South Korea, two nations that suffered from Japanese aggression before and during the war.
The issue of "comfort women", as those forced to work in the wartime brothels are euphemistically known in Japan, is a flashpoint in Japan's relationship with Asian nations, especially South Korea. Many of the 200,000 Asian women forced to work in the brothels were Korean.
China and South Korea have yet to comment on Mr Momii's remarks. But the Global Times, Beijing's mouthpiece, yesterday accused him of making "false statements".
"Japan's refusal to face up to history and shoulder responsibility for its atrocities has deeply hurt the feelings of people from the victim states," it added.
Asked about the issue at a news conference on Saturday, Mr Momii said such things happened in every nation at war during that time, including France and Germany.
"The issue of 'comfort women' s bad by today's morals," Mr Momii - believed to be Mr Abe's favoured candidate for leading NHK - was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun. "But this was a fact of those times.
"Korea's statements that Japan is the only nation that forced this are puzzling. Give us money, compensate us, they say, but since all of this was resolved by the Japan-Korea peace treaty, why are they reviving this issue? It's strange," he said.
Japan says the matter of compensation was closed under the 1965 treaty that normalised diplomatic ties between the two sides.
Mr Momii said he was only his personal opinion but, when reporters noted that he was speaking as a public figure, Mr Momii then said he retracted his remarks, the Asahi reported.
He also said it was "only natural" for NHK to take the Japanese government's position in international broadcasts on things such as territorial disputes with China over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
"International broadcasting is different from domestic," he was quoted as saying. "If the government says 'left' we can't say 'right'."
Japanese politicians have repeatedly drawn fire for their remarks over the military brothels.
Mr Toru Hashimoto, the populist co-leader of a small right-wing party, sparked a storm at home and abroad last year when he said such brothels had been "necessary" at the time and Japan had been unfairly singled out for practices common among other militaries during wartime.
Mr Momii's comments have already sparked an angry response within the government, the Asahi said, quoting an unidentified Cabinet minister as saying the remarks were unacceptable from the head of national media and that Mr Momii should resign.
Mr Momii, who was vice-president of trading house Mitsui & Co, is set to serve as NHK chairman for three years. He denied that his appointment was in connection with Mr Abe.
Analysts said NHK's reputation could well take a hit.
"His comments that NHK should be hewing the government line on foreign policy matters demonstrate how out of touch he is with media norms and values," said Professor Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University's Japan Campus.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Military brothels 'a fact of wartime', says new NHK chief
TOKYO - Japan should not be singled out for criticism over the use of military brothels during World War II, the new chairman of Japan's influential public broadcaster NHK was quoted as saying in remarks likely to spark widespread anger.
The comments by Mr Katsuto Momii, 70, who has just taken over as chairman of NHK, are also likely to become an additional diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe is already faced with deteriorating ties due largely to territorial disputes with China and South Korea, two nations that suffered from Japanese aggression before and during the war.
The issue of "comfort women", as those forced to work in the wartime brothels are euphemistically known in Japan, is a flashpoint in Japan's relationship with Asian nations, especially South Korea. Many of the 200,000 Asian women forced to work in the brothels were Korean.
China and South Korea have yet to comment on Mr Momii's remarks. But the Global Times, Beijing's mouthpiece, yesterday accused him of making "false statements".
"Japan's refusal to face up to history and shoulder responsibility for its atrocities has deeply hurt the feelings of people from the victim states," it added.
Asked about the issue at a news conference on Saturday, Mr Momii said such things happened in every nation at war during that time, including France and Germany.
"The issue of 'comfort women' s bad by today's morals," Mr Momii - believed to be Mr Abe's favoured candidate for leading NHK - was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun. "But this was a fact of those times.
"Korea's statements that Japan is the only nation that forced this are puzzling. Give us money, compensate us, they say, but since all of this was resolved by the Japan-Korea peace treaty, why are they reviving this issue? It's strange," he said.
Japan says the matter of compensation was closed under the 1965 treaty that normalised diplomatic ties between the two sides.
Mr Momii said he was only his personal opinion but, when reporters noted that he was speaking as a public figure, Mr Momii then said he retracted his remarks, the Asahi reported.
He also said it was "only natural" for NHK to take the Japanese government's position in international broadcasts on things such as territorial disputes with China over uninhabited islets in the East China Sea.
"International broadcasting is different from domestic," he was quoted as saying. "If the government says 'left' we can't say 'right'."
Japanese politicians have repeatedly drawn fire for their remarks over the military brothels.
Mr Toru Hashimoto, the populist co-leader of a small right-wing party, sparked a storm at home and abroad last year when he said such brothels had been "necessary" at the time and Japan had been unfairly singled out for practices common among other militaries during wartime.
Mr Momii's comments have already sparked an angry response within the government, the Asahi said, quoting an unidentified Cabinet minister as saying the remarks were unacceptable from the head of national media and that Mr Momii should resign.
Mr Momii, who was vice-president of trading house Mitsui & Co, is set to serve as NHK chairman for three years. He denied that his appointment was in connection with Mr Abe.
Analysts said NHK's reputation could well take a hit.
"His comments that NHK should be hewing the government line on foreign policy matters demonstrate how out of touch he is with media norms and values," said Professor Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University's Japan Campus.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
