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Digital Cameras - Nikon D800 Test Images
Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon D800 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!
This is our new "Still Life" test target. We're combining some of the elements from previous shots (DaveBox and Res Chart) into this and the "Multi Target" shot below, plus added a number of elements that are very revealing of various camera characteristics and foibles. Here's what to look for in this target:
Our new "Multi Target" was first put into use in April, 2009, replacing the earlier "interim" design. This target incorporates a number of elements that combine aspects of the previous Multi target, as well as the previous Viewfinder Accuracy or "VFA" chart. Here's some of what you'll find in this target: Framing marks: This chart evolved from the earlier Viewfinder Accuracy chart, so one of its major uses is to measure viewfinder accuracy. (See notes in the Viewfinder Accuracy section, at the bottom of this page, for more information on this.) USAF resolution targets: An important use of this target is in evaluating lens quality, looking how well sharpness holds up as you move from the center to the corners of the frame. The little "USAF" resolution targets arranged at the center, in the corners, and along the diagonals are very useful for making fine judgements about blur, flare and aberrations in the image. We generally show crops of a USAF chip from a corner of the target and from the center, to show how lenses hold sharpness at wide and telephoto focal lengths. Alignment "bullseyes:" We find these graphics from the graphic arts world (used to align sheets of film in the old film-based prepress days) very useful for seeing chromatic aberration in lenses. The bold black/white elements are good for seeing the colored fringes caused by CA in the corners of the frame. MacBeth ColorChecker Chart: This is about as common a color standard as you can get these days, very widely available for only mildly exorbitant cost, and quite well controlled in its production. It thus serves as a good basis of comparison between cameras and between test setups. Imatest also understands the MacBeth colors very well, and uses them to produce its color accuracy map that we feature in all our reviews. MacBeth ColorChecker SG Chart: The ColorChecker SG chart provides a wider range of colors, to give a more detailed map of a camera's color handling. We haven't begun using this chart in the color-accuracy graphs we routinely offer, but expect to do so at some point in the future. In the meantime, we sometimes refer to this chart internally, to get a more complete idea of what a camera's color map looks like. Log C/F Target: The progressive resolution pattern located just below the center of the target is a Log C/F (logarithmic contrast vs spatial frequency) chart. Digital camera noise reduction routines work by looking at levels of local contrast, flattening-out detail at progressively lower spatial frequencies as the local contrast decreases. (This is very commonly seen in human hair, grass, foliage, and other subjects with subtly-contrasting fine detail.) This chart lets Imatest analyze just how a camera makes the tradeoff between contrast, detail, and image noise. Color Starbursts: The six circular starburst elements arranged around the target are intended to reveal de-mosaicing artifacts and color-dependent resolution issues. The six starbursts provide examples of each combination of RGB colors intersecting each other. (That is, red, green, and blue against black, plus red against green, green against blue, and blue against red.) Given that the most common sensor RGB color filter pattern (the so-called Bayer) pattern has twice as many green pixels as red or blue, you'll generally see that the green/black starburst shows the best resolution, while the blue/red one shows the worst. The effects of different sensor geometries and color filter array patterns will be revealed here. Musicians Image: Synthetic test patterns only tell you so much. While we have a lot of pictorial images in our other test targets, we thought it would be useful to include a small "natural" image here as well.
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Part of the impetus in developing the new Multi Target in April 2009 was to switch to using a new 2x target for the resolution measurements, since the original ISO 12233 chart we'd used since the site first began in 1998(!) had become inadequate for testing the highest-resolution cameras. We'd for quite some time had a "homemade" 2x target, employing a shrunk version of the ISO 12233 chart, shot at 1/2 size. The resolution numbers on that chart all needed to be doubled to convert to the actual values, though, so we decided to go with a commercial 2x target to eliminate possible confusion on the part of our readers. Numbers on this new 2x resolution chart now read directly in hundreds of lines/picture height. (Because almost all of the area of this new resolution chart is now meaningful for resolution measurements, there was no longer space on it to overlay the MacBeth and other color targets on our prior Multi chart; hence the simultaneous change in our Multi target.)
"Sunlit" Portrait: The lighting in this shot is deliberately awful, about what you'd expect from noontime sunshine here in the Atlanta, GA area. (In fact, the color balance has been chosen to pretty well match the hazy sunshine here in mid-August.) The reason for the harsh lighting is to provide a real "torture test" of how cameras handle conditions of extreme contrast; and in particular, how well they do holding onto highlight detail. Look for:
To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +1.0 EV, see files D800OUTBMM4.HTM through D800OUTBMM1.HTM on the thumbnail
index page.
Indoor Portrait, Flash
This shot duplicates indoor shooting conditions in most US homes, with fairly bright incandescent room lighting. The challenge here is for the camera's flash to blend naturally with the room lighting, and produce good, neutral color overall. - Some cameras will be overly affected by the room lighting, even with their flash enabled, and the result will be a strong orange cast. Another common failing is for the highlights from the flash to take on an unnatural bluish cast. Finally, exposure is important here, and frequently a tough challenge for the cameras. The model's white shirt is central in the scene, reflecting a lot of the light from the flash right back at the camera. As a result, most cameras underexpose this shot, and require some positive exposure compensation to produce a good result. - And that's an important consideration in itself: Does the camera even permit adjustment of its flash exposures? Many do not. These photos are a tough exposure challenge, if they come out OK, the camera in question can probably be coaxed into delivering a good flash exposure of any subject within its range. Note too, that the normal flash shot (as opposed to the slow sync one, if the camera offers that feature) will be sharply rendered, any subject or camera movement frozen by the quick pop of the flash. That makes this shot a good one to look for the effect of over-aggressive noise suppression in the model's hair. To view the exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV in the normal flash mode, see files nikon-d800INBFP0.HTM through nikon-d800INBFP2.HTM on the thumbnail index page. To view the same series in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files nikon-d800INBFSP0.HTM
through nikon-d800INBFSP2.HTM on the thumbnail index
page. |
Indoor Portrait, No Flash:
The incandescent lighting used in most US homes actually has a very strong yellow color to it. Our eyes have an amazing ability to ignore color casts like this, something digital cameras struggle to emulate. The incandescent lighting used for this shot is thus not only very common here in the US, but also very difficult for most digital cameras to deal with. While we probably want a little yellow color to remain in the image (to convey some of the mood of the original scene), too much will look unnatural and distort colors. Most cameras' auto white balance systems have a great deal of difficulty with this shot, but many incandescent white balance settings struggle as well. (It seems that many cameras' incandescent settings are actually calibrated to the tungsten lighting used in professional studio systems, which isn't nearly as warm-toned as typical household lighting.) If you intend to do much shooting indoors after dark, pay careful attention to this test, as cameras vary widely in this regard. To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files D800INBMM1.HTM through D800INBMP2.HTM on the thumbnail
index page. ISO Series: One additional note about this particular test series though: Because these images are shot under household incandescent lighting, the camera has to boost its blue-channel signal quite a bit to get back to a neutral color balance. Since the blue channel is generally the one with the most noise, this makes this shot a real acid test of noise performance. Noise levels in high-ISO shots taken under daylight conditions usually won't show as much noise. (See the "Far Field" test for examples of high ISO shots captured in daylight.)
House Shot:
Like several of our tests, these images are actually photos of a high-resolution poster, shot under studio lighting. The shots for this camera were captured with our third-generation House poster, which was assembled from 45 separate 11-megapixel images, shot with a very high-quality lens, and then stitched together into a single image. The resulting image amounts to about 450 very high-quality megapixels. This should have sufficient detail to comfortably challenge cameras up to at least 80-100 megapixels. (And even with higher-resolution cameras, we believe that the camera lenses themselves would be more likely to limit resolution than would the detail in the poster.) Why did we choose to shoot a picture of a picture? The idea was to show a typical subject (a house and surrounding foliage) in a way that would be absolutely consistent from camera to camera. Any outdoor subject is going to vary considerably from day to day, as the lighting changes with the weather, atmospheric conditions, and season. Shooting a poster lets us compare images from cameras shot weeks, months, or even years apart, with the sure knowledge that nothing has changed from one shot to another. Things to look for here are fine detail, as seen in the foliage and tree limbs against the sky, sharpness in the corners, and the preservation of subtle detail in the shaded brick patterns. - Many cameras with overactive noise suppression severely blur the brick patterns that are in shadow. |
Far-Field Test 2 While the House poster in the shot above provides absolute repeatability from test to test, it doesn't offer the range of brightness (dynamic range) that the original scene had, nor does it contain the nearly infinite range of fine detail found in nature. For these reasons, we shoot an outdoor photo of a building, to provide a more challenging (if more variable) subject for the cameras. Until Summer of 2011, we used the original house from the House poster for this "Far Field" shot, but the ever-encroaching trees made it less and less useful. The coup de grace for that subject was when the neighbor across the street relandscaped his yard so we could no longer shoot from our original position. In place of the original house, we've switched to using the Roswell, GA City Hall building, which offers many of the elements of the original Far Field subject, but in a setting where we're guaranteed access into the future, and without the threat of trees eventually obscuring the building. In this shot, we look at how the camera handles rendering of subtle detail (the bricks, both in the sunlight and in the deep shadows under the entryway roof), how it handles bright highlights (the white columns and reflections from the dome), and shadow detail (in the dark areas beneath the shrubs on either side of the steps). Note though, that because this is shot outdoors, the character of the light is unavoidably going to change quite a bit, depending on the atmospheric humidity and the time of year. - You thus shouldn't rely on it for absolute comparisons between cameras, since it's unlikely that conditions will be exactly the same from one test to the next.
Pine Our current Far-Field shot lacks one feature that we found invaluable in the original one; namely the pine foliage that was in the background of the old subject. The pine foliage provided very fine detail that we could also count on being the same year-round. No other shots we capture provided this combination of fine detail at a distance, so we added a new shot ("PINE" in all the filenames) of a large pine tree near our office, shot at roughly the same scale as the pines in the old Far-Field shot, so comparisons can still be made against older images. Use this shot to see how well each camera handles really fine detail, both in high-contrast situations (the needles against the sky) and in low-contrast ones (the needles against each other). The tangles of small branches against the sky are also very revealing. The combination of the FAR2 and PINE shots provide a wealth of information about cameras' image-rendering prowess with natural subjects shot at "infinity," filling testing needs that can't be entirely met with studio shots alone. |
"Davebox" Test Target Because most of its various elements are now contained or represented in the combination of the Still Life and Multi Target shots, we no longer routinely shoot the Davebox by itself, as would normally appear in this space. (We do however, still use it for our low light test below.) |
Low-Light Tests Low light photography is an area where there are really enormous differences between digital camera models. This test starts at a light level about equivalent to typical city street lighting at night (one foot-candle), and then progresses down from there, each successive test being at half the light level of the preceding one. You may also see the effect of poor low-light autofocus in some of these shots, although we use a different test setup to check autofocus performance more directly. (The results of which are reported on in the main Test Results section.) Things to look for here include:
(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels
for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one
foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and
Viewfinder Accuracy Viewfinder accuracy is an important parameter, especially for shots where framing is critical. The optical viewfinders on most digital cameras match the (poor) accuracy of those on film cameras, typically showing only about 85% of the actual final frame area. It's likely that this is a deliberate design choice by the camera engineers, to help avoid users accidentally cutting off the heads of their subjects. We disagree with this approach, or at least feel that it should be mitigated a bit, perhaps by increasing the accuracy to 90 to 95%. Unlike the optical viewfinders, the LCD viewfinders on most digital cameras tend to be quite accurate. There are exceptions though, and it's unfortunately not uncommon to find an LCD monitor that only shows 90% or less of the final frame. Things to look for on this test chart are:


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Copyright year: 2006Publisher: Read BooksBinding: Perfect Pages: 140Size: 5.50" wide x 8.25" long x 0.50" tall Weight: 0.396Language: English
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SOLID - 9ct Gold Italian Bevelled Edge Curb Chain - 7mm - 22"
This stunning Italian-made, solid, beveled edge curb chain is crafted from 9ct yellow gold. This chain measures 22 inches in length and each link has a width of 7.5 mm. This beautiful piece features solid perfectly aligned links throughout.
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This item also comes complete with a certificate of authenticity and insurance valuation. The appraisal value for this document is £ 1,460.00.
Length (inches) | 22 |
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Jewellery Weight (grams) | 21 |
Precious Metal Colour | Yellow Gold |
Metal Purity (Ct) | 9Carat |
Hallmark | Stamped with a full British hallmark, London Assay Office |
Fast Delivery
Fast & Insured to your door. When it comes to online shopping, we understand that buyers want their orders as quickly as possible. With this in mind, we dispatch all orders that are made before 3 pm (GMT) on the same day. Customers who spend over £100 will enjoy FREE "next working day Delivery" before 3 pm. All our postal services are fully insured to your door, giving you total peace of mind.
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A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals such as platinum, gold, silver, and palladium. All products from Hatton Jewellers carry the British Hallmark.
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Hello Jazz, healthy and wealthy
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10385 Grande Vista Court, Lone Tree
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Copyright 2024 METROLIST, INC., DBA RECOLORADO® -- All Rights Reserved 6455 S. Yosemite St., Suite 300 Greenwood Village, CO 80111 USA
Listing information last updated on July 24th, 2024 at 7:03pm MDT.


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Give your peepers an enchanting transformation with Pollyeye's Sea Sprout Green Contact Lenses. With a natural look that includes a soft limbal ring to add definition, these Circle Lenses will give your eyes a mermaid-like sparkle. They're colored contact lenses made with a unique seaweed green pigment for a beautiful, subtle change of eye color. Show off your new look with confidence — Sea Sprout Green Lenses will make you stand out from the crowd!
Water content: 38%
Thickness: 0.08mm
Texture: Polymacon
Base curve: 8.60mm
Diameter: 14.00mm
Period of use: 12 months
Packaging: 1 Pair (2 lenses)
8 Benefits of Wearing POLLYEYE CONTACTS - Colored Contact Lenses
Blue Light Filter
which absorbs more than 98% of the blue light emitted from your laptop, computer, iPad etc. This improves your focus and reduces eye fatigue while viewing your screen, especially in a dark environment.
UV Protection
Pollyeye circle lenses effectively block the damage caused by ultraviolet rays to your eyes, and provide multiple protection for your eyes.
All-Day Comfort & Sharp Vision
Super thin and smooth edge are designed for easy insertion, all-day comfort and crystal clear vision.
Silicone Hydrogel Materials
Pollyeye prescription colored contacts ensure a higher oxygen permeability which allows a significant amount of oxygen to pass through the lens to the cornea, which will help to maintain a high level of moisture of the eye, thus avoiding dry eyes and improving comfort. You can barely feel them.
Advanced Sandwich Painting Tech
By using this advanced technology, the coloring layer can be embedded between the other two layers of lenses, thereby effectively preventing the pigment from contacting with the cornea, ensuring both safety and beauty.
Non-ionic Raw Material
Made of high-quality materials, which can effectively avoid protein precipitation and make the lens soft and comfortable to wear.
FDA and CE approval
All of our products carry the CE mark and are approved by the FDA to comply with international qualitative medical standards.
Yearly Disposable
The high standard allows our lenses a durability of up to 12 months with the comfort comparable to daily disposable contact lenses.
Healthy Guidelines for Wearing Contact Lenses
Inserting Your Contact Lenses:
Wash Your Hands
Before handling your contact lenses, wash your hands using plain soap without moisturizer or perfumes, rinse well, and then dry with a lint-free towel.
Rinse Your Contact Lenses
Rinse the lens well with fresh multipurpose or saline solution approved by your eye care professional.
- Never rinse your lenses in water from the tap. There are two reasons for this:
- Tap water contains many impurities that can contaminate or damage your lenses and may lead to eye infection or injury.
- You might lose the lens down the drain.
Inspect Your Contact Lens
Place the contact lens on your index finger and make sure it's clean. The lens should appear as a bowl. If the edges flare out, the lens is inverted.
Place Your Contact Lenses
- Hold your upper eye lashes (not your eye lid) to prevent blinking.
- Pull your bottom eyelid down.
- Focus on a steady point with your other eye.
- Gently place the lens on your central cornea, not the side
Check and Confirm
After your contact lens is fully in place, move your fingers away from your eye slowly and gently blink. This will help prevent the lens from moving away from the cornea (the transparent surface that covers your pupil and iris).
Removing Your Contact Lenses:
Wash Your Hands and Inspect Your Contact Lenses
- Thoroughly clean your hands with plain soap
- Look straight ahead into a mirror.
Remove Your Contact Lenses
- Confirm that the lens is resting squarely on the cornea
- Look up and gently slide the lens down
- Carefully squeeze it between your thumb and index finger to remove the lens.
Clean and Disinfect Your Contact Lenses
Your contact lenses must be cleaned and disinfected every day after you wear them. To do this:
- Place one lens (always the same lens first to avoid mix-ups) in the palm of your hand with a couple of drops of fresh multipurpose solution or daily cleanser on it.
- Then, rub the lens back and forth with your index finger for 15 seconds.
- After rubbing, rinse the lens using multipurpose or saline solution.
- Finally, place the lens in multipurpose solution or hydrogen peroxide solution to disinfect the lens as prescribed by your eye care professional.
Store Contact Lenses
Fill your contact lens storage case with fresh, prescribed care solution—never top off any old solution with new. Place your clean lenses into the case, following your eye doctor's recommendations. Also, be sure to rinse out your case after every use, storing them open and upside down in a dry, clean place. Replace your contact lens case at regular intervals.
Adverse Reactions (Problems And What To Do)
If you notice any issue with your contact lenses such as eye stinging, burning, itching, eye pain, comfort less than when lens was first put in, abnormal feeling of something in the eye, excessive watering, unusual eye secretions, redness, reduced sharpness of vision, blurred vision, rainbows or halos around objects, sensitivity to light or dry eyes you should.
- Immediately remove your lenses.
- If the discomfort or problem stops, then look closely at the lens. If the lens is in any way damaged, do not put the lens back on your eye. Place the lens in the storage case and contact your eye care professional. If the lens has dirt, an eyelash, or other foreign body on it, or the problem stops and the lens appears undamaged, you should thoroughly clean, rinse, and disinfect the lenses; then reinsert them. After reinsertion, if the problem continues, you should immediately remove the lenses and consult your eye care professional.
- When any of the above problems continue, a serious condition may be present. You should keep the lens off your eye until your eye care professional can identify the problem. Always use fresh, unexpired lens care solutions.
- Regular check-up examinations by your eye care professional are an important part of wearing contact lenses. We recommended that you follow your eye care professional's directions for follow up examinations. Be sure to keep all appointments for your check-up visits.
Colour may vary depending on existing eye colour/skin tone/eye shape/lighting. Colour is not guaranteed to look the same as this photo. Lighting makes a huge difference. Please do thorough research, and feel free to email us for any questions.
Estimated delivery times:
Delivery times will vary depending on your location. The average delivery time with express mail is:
Countries | Delivery Time (Natural Days) |
USA,CA | 8-15 natural days |
DE,AU,UK,FR,NL | 6-12 natural days |
Other European countries | 8-15 natural days |
Asia | 10-20 natural days |
Middle East & UAE | 10-25 natural days |
Other Countries | 8-30 natural day |
All parcels are placed in the customer's mail box when delivered. Please ensure you check your junk mail in case tracking information which is emailed to you has gone there instead of your inbox.
Important information:
Please note we have a 48 hour processing time once an order has been received. The above shipping times are estimations only and we can not give a guaranteed time frame as once an order is shipped it is purely dependent on the destination country's handling time and customs clearance. You will receive tracking information once your order has been shipped via email which will provide you with your tracking ID and a link to track and monitor the status of your order. If you do not receive an email with your tracking information in your inbox, then please check your junk mail as it may have gone there instead.
1. Before the first time wearing, please soak the lenses in multi-purpose contact lens solution for at least 6 hours.
2. Please take off your lenses before sleeping.
3. Please do not attend any water sports when wearing lenses.
4. Always wash your hands before wearing, removing or handling your contact lenses.
5. Rinse and scrub your lens every 2-3 days to prevent protein precipitation which is not good for eyes.
6. Insert lenses before putting on make-up around eyes, and take off lenses before removing make-up.
7. Contact lenses are not one size fits all, please check with your Eye Care specialist to make sure whether the parameters are suitable for your eyes before purchasing.
Example contact lens prescription | |||||||
Date of exam: 2020/12/31 (date of your check-up) | |||||||
Expiry date: 2021/12/31 (expiry date for your prescription, usually a year) | |||||||
Base Curve (BC) | Diameter (DIA) | Power / Sphere (SPH) | Cylinder (CYL) | Axis (AX) | |||
OD (Left Eye) | 8.5 | 14 | -1.5 | -1.25 | 10 | ||
OS (Right Eye) | 8.5 | 14 | -1.25 | -1.25 | 10 | ||
BC | Determines to meet the curve of your eye; written in numbers or words: flat, median or steep. | ||||||
DIA | Indicates your contacts' width to make sure they'll cover your cornea properly. | ||||||
SPH | Uses "+" for farsightedness (hyperopia)(Which we don't support for now) and "-" for nearsightedness (myopia)(Which we support). | ||||||
CYL & AX | The two parameters are required to correct Astigmatism (which we don't support for now). |


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SQL injection vulnerability in findagent.php in MYRE Real Estate Software allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the page parameter.
The product constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component.
Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
Myre_real_estate_software | Myrephp | * | * |
Without sufficient removal or quoting of SQL syntax in user-controllable inputs, the generated SQL query can cause those inputs to be interpreted as SQL instead of ordinary user data. This can be used to alter query logic to bypass security checks, or to insert additional statements that modify the back-end database, possibly including execution of system commands. SQL injection has become a common issue with database-driven web sites. The flaw is easily detected, and easily exploited, and as such, any site or product package with even a minimal user base is likely to be subject to an attempted attack of this kind. This flaw depends on the fact that SQL makes no real distinction between the control and data planes.


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All Fields are Mandatory.
*Once you upload the prescription, our representative will contact you to update you on the availability and prices of the prescribed medicines/tests and to schedule the delivery for the same.
Regular price Rs. 230 Kaer Price Rs. 207
Product of: ALEMBIC OSTEOFITComposition/Details: OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS + VITAMINS + MINERALS


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Get ready for your games to begin betflik online, the Justice Department overturned its long-time stance on online gambling. The Justice Department announced at the end of December that many of online gambling is now legal. This is in the form of non-sport gambling. Some limitation will still apply but incredibly this will give states a to be able to raise money various other ways.
Also, away their first time deposit bonuses and reload bonuses. That they seem to great to be true they probably might be. So pick a casino by using a better than average deposit and reload bonus, but a realistic one. Also read up on how to redeem these bonuses. Usually you just make a real money deposit and play to all of them. Last don't shy far away from a free chip or timed free play being a bonus. These are usually pretty good bonuses and allow you to play the casino an individual deposit.
To fill out an application for an online casino membership is a somewhat simple concept. Each and every casino can have a short membership application that if at all possible need to fill away. It should only take you a few minutes to fill in a variety of the open spaces, and thereafter the casino will post you an email that always be be a certain.
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gambling first began as submit form of activities. And for the greater degree it remains just that today. Granted, there are the type people who, for one reason or another, won't be able to stop and keep thinking additional exercise . more hand or an additional handful of quarters will win them their fortune. It never does cause just prolongs their drug addiction. But these people comprise a very tiny number belonging to the total gamblers — in the region of 25 per cent. Stop and look in the other 75 % who act responsibly must only use it to gambling. These are the market . benefit essentially the most from gambling as those people. Being able to handle it the activity, as compared to an addiction gives them the opportunity realize more enjoyment from gambling.
We can sit around and take part in the "What If" game constant and research signs of immoral behavior, then just be sure to regulate things. My question has always been this: If The year progresses to work and make money, whose business which can be if I decide to gamble with my revenue? Who decides if gambling would consider wasteful or immoral? Why would we need to give an individual the chance to decide as wasting our money? Allow me to understand this, if I spend $1500 in a poker game and lose my money, am I breaking the law because I am wasting my money? How about the one that won my money? Did they also break legislation? I have a brilliant philosophy! How about this! "Stay the hell out of my wallet, and i want to decide what, where that you just I in order to spend my money. We are going to try ?
The online casino bonus will attract you for certain and search for not means to resist it. Also, check the wagering conditions and games under those bonuses. A firm does not need to bear losses, and they generally provide bonuses on games the risk is more.


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The 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display delivers an amazing 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution. Designed specifically for the creative professional, this display provides more space for easier access to all the tools and palettes needed to edit, format and composite your work. Combine this display with a Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, or PowerMac G5 and there's no limit to what you can achieve.
The Cinema HD features an active-matrix liquid crystal display that produces flicker-free images that deliver twice the brightness, twice the sharpness and twice the contrast ratio of a typical CRT display. Unlike other flat panels, it's designed with a pure digital interface to deliver distortion-free images that never need adjusting. With over 4 million digital pixels, the display is uniquely suited for scientific and technical applications such as visualizing molecular structures or analyzing geological data.
Offering accurate, brilliant color performance, the Cinema HD delivers up to 16.7 million colors across a wide gamut allowing you to see subtle nuances between colors from soft pastels to rich jewel tones. A wide viewing angle ensures uniform color from edge to edge. Apple's ColorSync technology allows you to create custom profiles to maintain consistent color onscreen and in print. The result: You can confidently use this display in all your color-critical applications.
Housed in a new aluminum design, the display has a very thin bezel that enhances visual accuracy. Each display features two FireWire 400 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, making attachment of desktop peripherals, such as iSight, iPod, digital and still cameras, hard drives, printers and scanners, even more accessible and convenient. Taking advantage of the much thinner and lighter footprint of an LCD, the new displays support the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) mounting interface standard. Customers with the optional Cinema Display VESA Mount Adapter kit gain the flexibility to mount their display in locations most appropriate for their work environment.
The Cinema HD features a single cable design with elegant breakout for the USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and a pure digital connection using the industry standard Digital Video Interface (DVI) interface. The DVI connection allows for a direct pure-digital connection.
Unrivaled display performance
- 30-inch (viewable) active-matrix liquid crystal display provides breathtaking image quality and vivid, richly saturated color.
- Support for 2560-by-1600 pixel resolution for display of high definition still and video imagery.
- Wide-format design for simultaneous display of two full pages of text and graphics.
- Industry standard DVI connector for direct attachment to Mac- and Windows-based desktops and notebooks
- Incredibly wide (170 degree) horizontal and vertical viewing angle for maximum visibility and color performance.
- Lightning-fast pixel response for full-motion digital video playback.
- Support for 16.7 million saturated colors, for use in all graphics-intensive applications.
Simple setup and operation
- Single cable with elegant breakout for connection to DVI, USB and FireWire ports
- Built-in two-port USB 2.0 hub for easy connection of desktop peripheral devices.
- Two FireWire 400 ports to support iSight and other desktop peripherals
Sleek, elegant design
- Huge virtual workspace, very small footprint.
- Narrow Bezel design to minimize visual impact of using dual displays
- Unique hinge design for effortless adjustment
- Support for VESA mounting solutions (Apple Cinema Display VESA Mount Adapter sold separately)
Technical specifications
Screen size (diagonal viewable image size)
- Apple Cinema HD Display: 30 inches (29.7-inch viewable)
Screen type
- Thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD)
- 2560 x 1600 pixels (optimum resolution)
- 2048 x 1280
- 1920 x 1200
- 1280 x 800
- 1024 x 640
Display colors (maximum)
- 16.7 million
Viewing angle (typical)
- 170° horizontal; 170° vertical
Brightness (typical)
- 30-inch Cinema HD Display: 400 cd/m2
Contrast ratio (typical)
- 700:1
Response time (typical)
- 16 ms
Pixel pitch
- 30-inch Cinema HD Display: 0.250 mm
Screen treatment
- Antiglare hardcoat
User controls (hardware and software)
- Display Power,
- System sleep, wake
- Brightness
- Monitor tilt
Connectors and cables
- DVI (Digital Visual Interface)
- FireWire 400
- DC power (24 V)
- Two-port, self-powered USB 2.0 hub
- Two FireWire 400 ports
- Kensington security port
VESA mount adapter
Requires optional Cinema Display VESA Mount Adapter (M9649G/A)
- Compatible with VESA FDMI (MIS-D, 100, C) compliant mounting solutions
Electrical requirements
- Input voltage: 100-240 VAC 50-60Hz
- Maximum power when operating: 150W
- Energy saver mode: 3W or less
Environmental requirements
- Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
- Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)
- Operating humidity: 20% to 80% noncondensing
- Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet
Agency approvals
- FCC Part 15 Class B
- EN55022 Class B
- VCCI Class B
- AS/NZS 3548 Class B
- CNS 13438 Class B
- ICES-003 Class B
- ISO 13406 part 2
Size and weight
30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display
- Height: 21.3 inches (54.3 cm)
- Width: 27.2 inches (68.8 cm)
- Depth: 8.46 inches (21.5 cm)
- Weight: 27.5 pounds (12.5 kg)
System Requirements
- Mac Pro, all graphic options
- MacBook Pro
- Power Mac G5 (PCI-X) with ATI Radeon 9650 or better or NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT DDL or better
- Power Mac G5 (PCI Express), all graphics options
- PowerBook G4 with dual-link DVI support
- Windows PC and graphics card that supports DVI ports with dual-link digital bandwidth and VESA DDC standard for plug-and-play setup
Style | |
Style | Sleek |
Composition | |
Ingredients | Aluminium |
test 1 | 30GB |
Processor | |
Clockspeed | 100mhz |
Unlimited Blocks, Tabs or Accordions with any HTML content can be assigned to any individual product or to certain groups of products, like entire categories, brands, products with specific options, attributes, price range, etc. You can indicate any criteria via the advanced product assignment mechanism and only those products matching your criteria will display the modules.
Also, any module can be selectively activated per device (desktop/tablet/phone), customer login status and other criteria. Imagine the possibilities.
- Stock: In Stock
- Reward Points: 100
- Model: Product 15
- Weight: 12.50kg
- Dimensions: 1.00cm x 2.00cm x 3.00cm


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That the ones we hurt, are you and me
-Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (aka Coolio)
I'd like to sincerely thank Warren Buffet for so clearly making many of the points I've been trying to make lately in his most-recent submission to Fortune magazine. If anyone hasn't read it yet, it's called 'Why Stocks Beat Gold and Bonds' and you can read it here. Of course, with the King of Bonds himself ringing the closing bell on the bond market just last month, I'm guessing that Warren was aiming at gold more than at bonds with this piece. Bless his heart. Yo Warren B, you're so OG (but your aim ain't quite what it used to be)!
Alrightythen, let's just tear into this juicy carcass and have us a feast!
Warren B: Investing is often described as the process of laying out money now in the expectation of receiving more money in the future. At Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) we take a more demanding approach, defining investing as the transfer to others of purchasing power now with the reasoned expectation of receiving more purchasing power -- after taxes have been paid on nominal gains -- in the future. More succinctly, investing is forgoing consumption now in order to have the ability to consume more at a later date.
Indeed it is! And "saving" (unlike Warren's "investing") is the forgoing of consumption now in order to PRESERVE that purchasing power for a later date. The difference between a saver and an investor is that saving is the passive activity of most people while investing requires a tolerance for the risk of loss and active, specialized knowledge and focus. As I wrote in both Glimpsing the Hereafter and The Studebaker Effect:
"A saver is different from an investor or a trader/speculator. A saver is one who earns his capital doing whatever it is he does, and then aims to preserve that purchasing power until he needs it later. Investors and traders aim to earn more capital by putting their already-earned capital at risk in one way or another. This takes a certain amount of specialization and focus."
Warren B: From our definition there flows an important corollary: The riskiness of an investment is not measured by beta (a Wall Street term encompassing volatility and often used in measuring risk) but rather by the probability -- the reasoned probability -- of that investment causing its owner a loss of purchasing power over his contemplated holding period. Assets can fluctuate greatly in price and not be risky as long as they are reasonably certain to deliver increased purchasing power over their holding period. And as we will see, a nonfluctuating asset can be laden with risk.
Very good! Yes! Risk is the reasoned probability that you will lose purchasing power over a period of time. Listen up if you happen to be a Berkshire Hathaway investor reading this. I have been spending the last three years working out the reasoned probability that you will lose purchasing power in the near future with your BRKA investment. And over that same holding period, physical gold in your possession is "reasonably certain" to deliver a massive increase in purchasing power. Warren is correct, nonfluctuating assets can be laden with risk while at certain times, the very safest asset will be revalued. Again, as I wrote in both Glimpsing the Hereafter and The Studebaker Effect:
"Today the system is in transition, so you can throw your ideas about these differences out the window. There is no safe medium for simple preservation of purchasing power when the entire system shifts from the old normal to the new normal. When systems implode, the safest place to be pays off big time!"
Warren B: Investment possibilities are both many and varied. There are three major categories, however, and it's important to understand the characteristics of each. So let's survey the field.
Investments that are denominated in a given currency include money-market funds, bonds, mortgages, bank deposits, and other instruments. Most of these currency-based investments are thought of as "safe." In truth they are among the most dangerous of assets. Their beta may be zero, but their risk is huge.
Over the past century these instruments have destroyed the purchasing power of investors in many countries, even as these holders continued to receive timely payments of interest and principal. This ugly result, moreover, will forever recur. Governments determine the ultimate value of money, and systemic forces will sometimes cause them to gravitate to policies that produce inflation. From time to time such policies spin out of control.
Yay! Warren and I agree again! Investments denominated in currency may be nominally safe—if you expect to have a million dollars after a given holding period, you WILL have a million dollars at that future time, but you may only be able to purchase a single roll of toilet paper with that million—but their risk in real terms (purchasing power terms) is HUGE… especially today! It almost seems like Warren has been reading some FOFOA. In any case, here are a few applicable posts that he might have studied:
Deflation or Hyperinflation?
Big Gap in Understanding Weakens Deflationist Argument
Just Another Hyperinflation Post - Part 1
Just Another Hyperinflation Post - Part 2
Just Another Hyperinflation Post - Part 3
Warren B: Even in the U.S., where the wish for a stable currency is strong, the dollar has fallen a staggering 86% in value since 1965, when I took over management of Berkshire. It takes no less than $7 today to buy what $1 did at that time. Consequently, a tax-free institution would have needed 4.3% interest annually from bond investments over that period to simply maintain its purchasing power. Its managers would have been kidding themselves if they thought of any portion of that interest as "income."
Yup! Warren's been around for a long time, alright. And it just goes to show how tough it has been during our entire lifetime for a saver who simply wants to preserve her purchasing power. She has to chase a 4.3% yield every year just to stay even! Crazy, isn't it? What if there was a way to perfectly preserve your purchasing power over any time horizon without chasing a yield? To what percentage of the population do you think that would appeal? Better yet, to what percentage of Warren B's clients do you think that would appeal? Just sayin', what if?
Warren B: For taxpaying investors like you and me, the picture has been far worse. During the same 47-year period, continuous rolling of U.S. Treasury bills produced 5.7% annually. That sounds satisfactory. But if an individual investor paid personal income taxes at a rate averaging 25%, this 5.7% return would have yielded nothing in the way of real income. This investor's visible income tax would have stripped him of 1.4 points of the stated yield, and the invisible inflation tax would have devoured the remaining 4.3 points. It's noteworthy that the implicit inflation "tax" was more than triple the explicit income tax that our investor probably thought of as his main burden. "In God We Trust" may be imprinted on our currency, but the hand that activates our government's printing press has been all too human.
Word. The one-time tax on nominal gains is bad enough, but the vanishing of savers' purchasing power through inflation is the real killer over long time-frames. But why you gotta conflate the issues of real income from an investment and simply protecting one's purchasing power with the least risk, OG? Is this part of your game? Why yes, I dare say I think it is!
Warren B: High interest rates, of course, can compensate purchasers for the inflation risk they face with currency-based investments -- and indeed, rates in the early 1980s did that job nicely. Current rates, however, do not come close to offsetting the purchasing-power risk that investors assume. Right now bonds should come with a warning label.
Holla, G! Maybe the warning label should read – Nothing about this bond, packaging or color should be interpreted to mean safer? How 'bout this one for Berkshire Hathaway – Savers beware, we will try to do more than preserve your purchasing power at the risk of losing your purchasing power, but either way, I was in first, I'll be out first and I always get my cut?
Warren B: Under today's conditions, therefore, I do not like currency-based investments. Even so, Berkshire holds significant amounts of them, primarily of the short-term variety. At Berkshire the need for ample liquidity occupies center stage and will never be slighted, however inadequate rates may be. Accommodating this need, we primarily hold U.S. Treasury bills, the only investment that can be counted on for liquidity under the most chaotic of economic conditions. Our working level for liquidity is $20 billion; $10 billion is our absolute minimum.
I will only note here that, although the link leads to data about bonds, Warren specifically wrote bills which usually means a duration of one, three or six months. Since there is no FDIC protection for cash accounts with $20 billion, T-bills are the guaranteed cash equivalent. This, of course, brings to mind OBA's Time-Currency Theory referencing the subzero-bound $IRX as well as my conveyance of his theory over the years.
Warren B: Beyond the requirements that liquidity and regulators impose on us, we will purchase currency-related securities only if they offer the possibility of unusual gain -- either because a particular credit is mispriced, as can occur in periodic junk-bond debacles, or because rates rise to a level that offers the possibility of realizing substantial capital gains on high-grade bonds when rates fall. Though we've exploited both opportunities in the past -- and may do so again -- we are now 180 degrees removed from such prospects. Today, a wry comment that Wall Streeter Shelby Cullom Davis made long ago seems apt: "Bonds promoted as offering risk-free returns are now priced to deliver return-free risk."
Ah, now here we start getting a glimpse of Warren's actual game! Notice the word "mispriced" in the above category. This is a key to Warren's strategy, which begins to expose the reasoning behind why he would choose to share this part of his shareholder newsletter with the general public. I realize he's talking about bonds here, but this principle applies to stocks as well (although not necessarily to gold).
Warren likes to buy and sell things that are "mispriced". That is, he knows better than the market the true value of things. And if they are "mispriced" he is, in fact, making money off of the mistakes of others if he turns out to be correct. Bear in mind that I'm not judging him on this issue per se, but simply exposing his game in a way that was most definitely concealed in this latest "newsletter".
Warren, like his lieutenant Charlie M, wants you in the same paper he likes to buy and sell so that he can capitalize on your "mispricing" mistakes. As I wrote in The Value of Gold, price and value are two different things, and that's Warren B's game:
"Probably the most common misconception is that price and value are the same thing. They are not. They are related but different. Price can be precisely known, but true value can only be estimated or guessed. And because price changes, price is always wrong while true value is always right, even though it is unknown. So price and value are always different. Value is always either higher or lower than price."
Warren will tell you that it's not just about capital gains. Warren LOVES yields, be they high rates of interest or dividends from stocks. But the thing about chasing yields is that the more people chasing, the lower the yield goes, and that's when Warren strikes. That's when things become mispriced. If he was only after yields, he would not want to let the world know what he's doing. But since he's publishing his drive-by on gold in Fortune magazine, I can only assume he's really after the capital gains that will come from the mispricing that will result from millions of people following his "advice".
Warren B: The second major category of investments involves assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer's hope that someone else -- who also knows that the assets will be forever unproductive -- will pay more for them in the future. Tulips, of all things, briefly became a favorite of such buyers in the 17th century.
This type of investment requires an expanding pool of buyers, who, in turn, are enticed because they believe the buying pool will expand still further. Owners are not inspired by what the asset itself can produce -- it will remain lifeless forever -- but rather by the belief that others will desire it even more avidly in the future.
What Warren is referring to here are sometimes called "hard assets". They are durable, physical items that generally hold their value well because people always seem to want them. Like well-preserved classic cars, quality antique furniture or rare baseball cards, hard assets do not generate yields like stocks and bonds. And so Warren is invoking the greater fool theory with regard to hard assets (before even revealing to you the specific one he's targeting) to lay the foundation that YOU are the fool if you think these are a wise way to store your savings.
In fact, if you click on the greater fool link above, you'll find Warren's name right there in the last line. You might also want to click through and read the Keynesian beauty contest principle of stock investing. Warren tells us later just what beautiful stocks look like. They look like Coca-Cola and See's Candy. But if too many people chase those yields, they disappear and even great stocks like that can become mispriced. And that, my friends, is when OG sells!
For example, Berkshire just sold out of its entire position in ExxonMobil after the price surged 17%. Berkshire also sold off Johnson & Johnson and Kraft shares. Fine companies with lots of earnings, so why sell? As for Coca-Cola, that's one of Berkshire's biggest holdings right now! Just sayin'.
Warren B: The major asset in this category is gold, currently a huge favorite of investors who fear almost all other assets, especially paper money (of whose value, as noted, they are right to be fearful). Gold, however, has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative. True, gold has some industrial and decorative utility, but the demand for these purposes is both limited and incapable of soaking up new production. Meanwhile, if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end.
AMEN! Thank you brother. "If you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end." Warren's words, not mine. But I'll bet you that I will be milking this quote for a long time to come!
Remember earlier I asked, "What if there was a way to perfectly preserve your purchasing power over any time horizon without chasing a yield? To what percentage of the population do you think that would appeal?" Well, what if physical gold, that singular hard asset that is also held by central banks (precisely BECAUSE it has the fewest industrial uses), was on its way to becoming the singular global reference point for purchasing power, instead of the dollar with everyone chasing a 5.7% annual yield making it harder and harder to catch?
"If you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end." In other words, perfectly preserved purchasing power. See? Please read my post Reference Point Revolution for more on this transition that's already underway.
Here is what I am suggesting. That Warren Buffet is the one, regardless of his protestations to the contrary, who is practicing the greater fool theory and the Keynesian beauty contest principle of investing while we, my friends, are the ones who are smartly front running the network effect (aka demand-side economies of scale) and the focal point transformation of the biggest thing in a thousand years.
Warren B: What motivates most gold purchasers is their belief that the ranks of the fearful will grow. During the past decade that belief has proved correct. Beyond that, the rising price has on its own generated additional buying enthusiasm, attracting purchasers who see the rise as validating an investment thesis. As "bandwagon" investors join any party, they create their own truth -- for a while.
On the contrary, homey, it's that the dollar is so overvalued because of the sheer weight brought on by the fact that all dollar "wealth" has a counterparty, and that those counterparties in aggregate can't POSSIBLY perform to expectations in real terms, that a massive adjustment is not only inevitable, but long overdue. EVERYTHING is mispriced right now because the dollar is so massively overvalued at present. And while I can't speak for all gold investors, I'm not buying gold because I think the ranks will grow. In fact, I think the ranks will ABANDON "gold" at the worst time in all of history.
As I wrote in a recent comment, "My scenario… ALL TRADERS dump ALL gold, paper, physical, whatever, in my scenario. It has nothing to do with insiders. It has to do with traders and weak hands." But that's a difficult concept to wrap your head around. If you'd like to try, I wrote about it in my 2010 post, The Shoeshine Boy. The point here is that the true gold thesis is not "the belief that the ranks of the fearful will grow." That is simply Warren Buffet's unfortunate misunderstanding of the gold thesis.
Warren B: Over the past 15 years, both Internet stocks and houses have demonstrated the extraordinary excesses that can be created by combining an initially sensible thesis with well-publicized rising prices. In these bubbles, an army of originally skeptical investors succumbed to the "proof" delivered by the market, and the pool of buyers -- for a time -- expanded sufficiently to keep the bandwagon rolling. But bubbles blown large enough inevitably pop. And then the old proverb is confirmed once again: "What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end."
It is so incredibly striking to me that "the best of the best," the Oracle of Omaha himself, is still reciting these same tired old arguments. It simply defies logic that Warren Buffet is comparing gold to the housing and dot-com bubbles to save you out of the goodness of his heart. If he doesn't want you engaging in a "bubble", it's only because he wasn't there first. In fact, there are plenty of gold bugs who actually THINK gold will eventually be a bubble, and that's precisely why they're in it. But not me.
More than two years ago I debunked the ridiculous and shallow comparison of gold to past bubbles in Gold: The Ultimate Un-Bubble:
"And since gold production cannot be ramped up to meet demand like it can in bubblicious items, there is no reason for gold to fall back. Gold mining does not debase gold in the same way that dollars, tulips, homes, Dot Com IPO's or government bonds are debased through production. Mine production is taken from known reserves that are already valued, owned and traded, and all gold on the planet Earth is a fixed amount, the same fixed amount it was a million years ago. All we do is move it around, like poker chips on a table, to those savers that value it the most.
Furthermore, the price of gold is completely arbitrary. This means that gold can go as high as the people of Earth want to take it without EVER exceeding objective valuations by common metrics like earnings, interest or the sum value of its component elements. Gold IS the element. It cannot be broken down further, except perhaps by the LHC.
One of the most common criticisms of gold's use as an investment is that it cannot be valued the way stocks, bonds and real estate can. They are all commonly valued by their yields, and gold has no yield, therefore it cannot be fairly valued, or so the argument goes. But if we invert this argument then gold can never be OVERvalued either, whilst those other things can, and are... in a bubble!
The price of gold is arbitrary, ergo, there is no such thing as a gold bubble."
Of course that is not the whole story, it's only a teaser from the post. But the point is that if Warren Buffet is truly avoiding gold because he thinks it's a bubble like Pets.com or Miami condos, you should really question EVERYTHING that comes out of his mouth. Now I will admit that PAPER gold is a bubble, but physical gold? Never!
Warren B: Today the world's gold stock is about 170,000 metric tons. If all of this gold were melded together, it would form a cube of about 68 feet per side. (Picture it fitting comfortably within a baseball infield.) At $1,750 per ounce -- gold's price as I write this -- its value would be about $9.6 trillion. Call this cube pile A.
Let's now create a pile B costing an equal amount. For that, we could buy all U.S. cropland (400 million acres with output of about $200 billion annually), plus 16 Exxon Mobils (the world's most profitable company, one earning more than $40 billion annually). After these purchases, we would have about $1 trillion left over for walking-around money (no sense feeling strapped after this buying binge). Can you imagine an investor with $9.6 trillion selecting pile A over pile B?
No, and neither can I imagine a saver with a regular job, a life to live, an aversion to risk and a desire to merely preserve his purchasing power wanting to own a bunch of oil and farming companies. Besides, if Exxon Mobil is so profitable, why did Warren just sell his entire stake in it? Could it be that even profitable companies become mispriced (overvalued) when everyone is chasing a yield?
Okay Warren, can I imagine an investor with $9.6 trillion buying all the gold in the world? Of course not. No choice could be more stupid if such a person could exist. As I have written many times, gold would be completely worthless if one person (or even just a few people) owned it all. Gold's greatest value comes from its widest distribution amongst savers, and the greater the value, the more efficiently gold performs its primary function. It is a virtuous and self-sustaining feedback loop. From Relativity: What is Physical Gold REALLY Worth?:
"One of the unique characteristics of gold that sets it apart from commodities is that its primary use - store of value - has no weight or mass requirements. In commodities, where industry is the primary user, weight is critical.
One ounce [of gold] could do just as good of a job as 100 ounces. In fact, one ounce would do a BETTER job than 100 ounces! The less gold it takes to store your value, the better it does its job. This particular "gold dynamic" sets it apart from all commodities.
One ounce would store your value more efficiently and stably than 100 ounces because A) your storage and security costs would be lower (efficiency), and B) if one ounce is worth $100,000 then that infers gold is being valued by many more people relative to when it was $1,000 per ounce. This wider distribution brings with it a more stable base of valuation and less relative volatility in price (stability).
Comparing this "gold dynamic" to any industrial or food commodity we can see a stark difference. What commodity could perform its job BETTER at a price 100x higher than today? Can you name one?"
And from a comment in 2009:
"Gold would not be valuable if one person owned all of it. It is most valuable in its widest distribution possible, the wealth reserve, which requires a much higher valuation than it has right now. A higher valuation denominated in hard assets, not just fiat currencies!"
And another comment from 2010:
"Just look at the BIS' own gold actions. Their owned gold hoard has shrunk from 194 tonnes to 120 tonnes over the last 6 years, as has the entire Eurosystem's hoard over the last decade (from 12,576 tonnes down to 10,833 tonnes). Most gold movements in Europe have either been lateral reshuffling or dishoarding and encouraging citizens and other entities to start hoarding physical gold themselves.
I have written this before... if you were King of the World with 35,000 tonnes of gold in a world of 160,000 tonnes, you would gladly - happily - reduce your "stash" to 10,000 tonnes if that reduction came with a 50x revaluation. Trying to get ALL the gold into your hoard is a fool's strategy."
Like I said, Warren, buying all the gold in the world would be about the dumbest thing such an investor could possibly do, kinda like a doctor owning an oil company and calling it savings.
Warren B: Beyond the staggering valuation given the existing stock of gold, current prices make today's annual production of gold command about $160 billion. Buyers -- whether jewelry and industrial users, frightened individuals, or speculators -- must continually absorb this additional supply to merely maintain an equilibrium at present prices.
Hahaha! B's worried about who's gonna buy up the annual physical gold production? How about who's gonna keep buying the annual paper production bearing dubious counterparties in the upper left-hand corner? I think it's Warren B who is worried about who's gonna keep buying the stuff he's into.
With well over $100T in cash, cash equivalents, debt and equity investments posing as savings for the risk-averse, I think it's more than safe to say that ANOTHER had it exactly right when he said that the paltry $160 billion flow of gold is (and has been for a long time) cornered. Heck, nearly a third of that is going to India alone, and they aren't even one of the surplus nations like Saudi Arabia, Germany or China!
Warren B: A century from now the 400 million acres of farmland will have produced staggering amounts of corn, wheat, cotton, and other crops -- and will continue to produce that valuable bounty, whatever the currency may be. Exxon Mobil (XOM) will probably have delivered trillions of dollars in dividends to its owners and will also hold assets worth many more trillions (and, remember, you get 16 Exxons). The 170,000 tons of gold will be unchanged in size and still incapable of producing anything. You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.
Fondle the cube? Alrightythen, no more Mr. Niceguy here either. Once again, Warren, why did you sell Exxon if it's so great and saving money is all about dividends and earnings rather than taking (OPM) money from the greater fool? What a hypocrite! Is it also possible that companies can be mismanaged, like, say, BAC?
Here are a few other "good companies" that Berkshire dumped since it (BRKA) took a 50% nose-dive in 2008 (actually late 2007 to early 2009): Nike, Comcast, Lowes, Home Depot. And in case you are still under the illusion that OG is all about solid, benevolent analysis rather than political monies for OG's pocket, his company is still the largest shareholder in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and "he has practically bought at any chance he gets." Nothing against Wells Fargo (I have an account there) but this, combined with his drive-by assault on gold (the hard asset preferred by those who actually produce stuff) should settle any debate about whether or not he carries a bias in his baggage.
Warren B: Admittedly, when people a century from now are fearful, it's likely many will still rush to gold. I'm confident, however, that the $9.6 trillion current valuation of pile A will compound over the century at a rate far inferior to that achieved by pile B.
"Pile A" does not compound. It simply remains. Remember? "If you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end." That said, there's no guarantee that pile B will be worth more than pile A in 100 years. A lot can happen in 100 years, wars, hyperinflations, companies go bankrupt… If you were to be put into a deep sleep coma-like state for a century, and you had trillions in wealth, which pile would you pick to shuttle your wealth through 100 years?
Warren B: Our first two categories enjoy maximum popularity at peaks of fear: Terror over economic collapse drives individuals to currency-based assets, most particularly U.S. obligations, and fear of currency collapse fosters movement to sterile assets such as gold. We heard "cash is king" in late 2008, just when cash should have been deployed rather than held. Similarly, we heard "cash is trash" in the early 1980s just when fixed-dollar investments were at their most attractive level in memory. On those occasions, investors who required a supportive crowd paid dearly for that comfort.
And finally, here's the argument that only Helen Keller could believe, that today's contrarian is staying as far away from gold as possible. Especially that physical gold. Look at the lines to buy gold at the dealers. They wrap around the block. You can't find a place to eat these days without having some dolt at the next table talking about gold. Heck, even the shoeshine boy can tell you what coins are best and where to buy. It's obviously a bubble. Yeah, right.
Warren B: My own preference -- and you knew this was coming -- is our third category: investment in productive assets, whether businesses, farms, or real estate. Ideally, these assets should have the ability in inflationary times to deliver output that will retain its purchasing-power value while requiring a minimum of new capital investment. Farms, real estate, and many businesses such as Coca-Cola (KO), IBM (IBM), and our own See's Candy meet that double-barreled test. Certain other companies -- think of our regulated utilities, for example -- fail it because inflation places heavy capital requirements on them. To earn more, their owners must invest more. Even so, these investments will remain superior to nonproductive or currency-based assets.
By superior, he means that he views investing as superior to saving. He is, after all, an extraordinary investor. But most of his audience is, in fact, made up of savers. As far as savings go, for the near future (i.e., the transition period) gold will be far superior to Warren's investments as the transition brings REAL gains of tremendous value to those who hold the goods. And in the distant future, physical gold will be a far superior savings medium as it will be the very benchmark of purchasing power everywhere. In that future, owning companies will potentially bring you real returns whereas gold will not. But it will also carry risks and responsibilities. And if you carry gold from here into that future, you will be one of the fortunate few faced with that choice.
Warren B: Whether the currency a century from now is based on gold, seashells, shark teeth, or a piece of paper (as today), people will be willing to exchange a couple of minutes of their daily labor for a Coca-Cola or some See's peanut brittle. In the future the U.S. population will move more goods, consume more food, and require more living space than it does now. People will forever exchange what they produce for what others produce.
Absolutely true! In fact, this is the Debtors & Savers Zone he is describing. The part of the pyramids occupied by everyone!
What's missing in his description is what the savers will trade amongst themselves to perfectly preserve their purchasing power during periods of deferred consumption. Sure, someone will own all those companies OG loves so much. And like I said, if you carry some of that physical gold from here into that future, it might just be you!
Warren B: Our country's businesses will continue to efficiently deliver goods and services wanted by our citizens. Metaphorically, these commercial "cows" will live for centuries and give ever greater quantities of "milk" to boot. Their value will be determined not by the medium of exchange but rather by their capacity to deliver milk. Proceeds from the sale of the milk will compound for the owners of the cows, just as they did during the 20th century when the Dow increased from 66 to 11,497 (and paid loads of dividends as well).
Of course they will, Warren! No one at this blog is predicting the collapse of modern society. The gold thesis discussed here is about that which is mispriced (overvalued or undervalued) coming back in line with reality. The dollar is overvalued and physical gold is undervalued. I described it as a seesaw in The Studebaker Effect:
"Devaluations play out like a seesaw. There is a force (the crisis devaluation), a fulcrum (what is being devalued against), and a load (the beneficiary or the winner)."
That fulcrum is the physical plane of goods and services in aggregate. Everything is mispriced today, some things more than others. But if we look at how Warren's favorite investments, company stocks, carried through past devaluations, we find that while they obviously do much better than currency or currency-based investments like bonds, they don't do quite as well as hard assets and they don't even preserve purchasing power. Perhaps it's because an overvalued currency also tends to overvalue its economy.
Here's a bit from my post Greece is the Word on how Warren's equities might fare during the currency devaluation he expects:
"But what about the stock market? Someone emailed me saying,
"During a currency crisis in the western world, we may see a very powerful stock market rally as equities are a form of real asset. Better to own a piece of Procter and Gamble than a unit of currency that can devalue quickly. Look to the Argentina general equity market MERVAL index during the peso crisis. It shot up – although not as much as the 3:1 currency devaluation."
The writer answered his own point. The stock market shot up LESS than the currency devalued. So while the stock market in Argentina performed MUCH better than debt fixed to the value of the currency, it only chased - and lagged - actual inflation. (Actually, short term hyperinflation.)This is partly because the economy is usually in shambles at the time of a currency devaluation. So while you would expect real things like real companies to compensate for a falling currency, you must also weigh in any previous bubbling that might deflate and any economic factors that might reduce company profits.
But Argentina is still a good example for us to look at. In January of 2002 the currency devalued 3:1. At the same time the stock market rose in response to the devaluation and then stayed up (because the currency stayed down). But what is interesting about Argentina is that just prior to the devaluation, in December of 2001, inflation dipped into negative territory (deflation?) and the stock market dipped as well. Then they almost immediately exploded out of this head-fake in an unexpected devaluation. See the charts. The first is the MERVAL and the second is CPI:
Hmm... look familiar?
Bottom line: The stock market, because it represents equity not debt, will fare much better than the rest of the paper world. But the stock market does suffer from dilution, manipulation and bubbles. Expect the stock market to languish in economic chaos as it chases real inflation only to fall a little short.
But gold is different. The system desperately needs a counterweight, and gold is it. The counter is already in place, only the weight is yet to come. And once we have seen the reset in gold as it performs its phase transition from commodity to wealth reserve, it will then chase (hyper)inflation along with the rest of the "non-dollar" world, only it will be the ONE AND ONLY THING that will be immune to the economic mess that will still need to be worked out."
So what we can do is to place Warren's favs just to the left of the fulcrum on the seesaw. They won't devalue much in real terms, but they also won't fare even as well as boring old hard assets like antique furniture (I'm sure he'll just love this one):
Warren B: Berkshire's goal will be to increase its ownership of first-class businesses. Our first choice will be to own them in their entirety -- but we will also be owners by way of holding sizable amounts of marketable stocks. I believe that over any extended period of time this category of investing will prove to be the runaway winner among the three we've examined. More important, it will be by far the safest.
And thus ends Warren B's drive-by assault on gold. What do you think? Did he hit his target?
So where is Warren coming from?
Try to imagine a bizarro world where we simultaneously encourage everyone to consume as much as possible through debt (because, ldo, consumption is the engine of the American economy) and also to save that same debt through ERISA and 401(k)s. What you end up with is a whole society of people deferring consumption (saving) on the one hand, and pulling into the present that very same future consumption they saved on the other. You end up with underwater homeowners with negative net-worths and hundreds of thousands sitting in their 401(k) or IRA.
With everyone chasing a yield, be it through interest rates on currency investments or dividends from equities, you eventually drive all those yields to zero. Luckily for the Warren Buffets of the world, most of that "savings" knows no better than to float around in Warren's world, where Warren not only gets his management cut, but he can also make amazing capital gains as those "savings" slosh around mispricing one thing after another.
Now think about that person, let's call him Bob, with $201K in debt and also a $200K pension or IRA through work. In essence, he could be almost debt-free were it not for his "savings". But then if that were the case, Warren wouldn't have that $200K sloshing around in Warren's world. This is, of course, only a mental exercise in how inane (or should I say insane?) the Western financial system really is.
Which camp do you think Bob is in? The Debtors or the Savers? And what would be the state of Warren's company valuations were it not for all this additional "savings" sloshing around? How about the yields available for real savers? Perhaps there would be some yields to be found were it not for Bob and his "savings"?
The point is that companies are not de facto good investments just because they make things. They can become overvalued when chased by too much money and that's when Warren sells. Warren talks a good talk about compounding dividends, but what he's really after is your money. Either you're with him (investing in BRKA) and he takes his cut while using your financial weight as his own, or you're against him out there on your own. And then he's looking for areas where you've mispriced something so that he can buy it from you or sell it to you.
I can tell you which camp OG is in. He's in the easy money camp (the debtors)! He's in debt to easy money:
Warren Buffett is on Squawkbox right now defending the bailout, which he wrote an op-ed about in today's New York Times.
Then he dropped this line, which sounds like an exaggeration: "If the government hadn't acted, I would be eating Thanksgiving dinner at McDonald's."
(Business Insider)
Perhaps he wasn't exaggerating:
A good chunk of his fortune is dependent on taxpayer largess. Were it not for government bailouts, for which Buffett lobbied hard, many of his company's stock holdings would have been wiped out.
Berkshire Hathaway, in which Buffett owns 27 percent, according to a recent proxy filing, has more than $26 billion invested in eight financial companies that have received bailout money…
…It takes remarkable chutzpah to lobby for bailouts, make trades seeking to profit from them, and then complain that those doing so put you at a disadvantage.
Elsewhere in his letter he laments "atrocious sales practices" in the financial industry, holding up Berkshire subsidiary Clayton Homes as a model of lending rectitude.
Conveniently, he neglects to mention Wells Fargo's toxic book of home equity loans, American Express' exploding charge-offs, GE Capital's awful balance sheet, Bank of America's disastrous acquisitions of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs' reckless trading practices.
And what of Moody's, the credit-rating agency that enabled lending excesses Buffett criticizes, and in which he's held a major stake for years? Recently Berkshire cut its stake to 16 percent from 20 percent. Publicly, however, the Oracle of Omaha has been silent.
So maybe you are starting to see why Freegold is not such a welcome development for an OG like Warren B. But don't worry too much about Warren. He'll still be a multi-billionaire come Freegold. And if you follow him, at least you won't be broke (see the seesaw above). I suppose there might even be something altruistic about leaving the Freegold revaluation windfall for others. But that's not Warren's motivation.
Warren's power comes from keeping as much of other people's savings as possible in the stock market where he plays. It doesn't matter if it comes in through his company or on its own, just that it's in there. And that's why he wrote this piece trashing gold. Because when you buy a tube of gold coins and put it in your sock drawer, it's out of OG's reach.
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Today is May 4, unofficially known as Star Wars Day — seemingly for the lone reason that it presents an opportunity for people to tell one another, "May the Fourth be with you." But fans of the George Lucas films are also using the day as an excuse to break out costumes and photos, and generally let their Jedi flag fly.
You can find "full coverage" of the day over at the Star Wars website, which has launched a "microsite" to commemorate May 4. Back in February, the Walt Disney Corp. said it plans to release several new films in the franchise in the coming years, beginning with director J.J. Abrams' Episode VII in 2015.
If you're hankering to dive into the world of Star Wars all over again, you might like to check out the work of Jamie Benning, who has spent years compiling background information and alternative takes into compelling "filmumentaries" based on the original trilogy.
Released under the pseudonym Jambe Davdar, the videos contain "DVD Extra" material such as behind-the-scenes stories and outtakes. But they are decidedly "unofficial," and that means they're routinely deleted from YouTube and other sites. One of them, "Building Empire," is on Vimeo.
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