RitaLin's Comments RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.comuser/104879/comments http://seekingalpha.com/article/175570/comments?source=feed#comment-806035 806035 BTW, I think you should turn this comment into an Instablog post of it's own - it's so well written, easy to read and thought through (unlike Dubai's economy ;-)


On Dec 03 10:23 AM Mad Hedge Fund Trader wrote:

> asi Who did Dubai’s emir, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, think he
> was kidding? He launched one of the biggest construction booms in
> history, erecting the Burj Dubai, which at 161 stories is the world’s
> tallest building. He built artificial islands in the Persian Gulf
> with lofty names like “The World” that are so big they are visible
> from space. He bought the legendary Queen Elizabeth II, a ship that
> holds many fond memories of transatlantic crossings for me, to convert
> into a floating hotel at unimaginable expense. The spending didn’t
> stop there. His spending binge went global, taking a partnership
> role in the Las Vegas City Center, which became the worst commercial
> real estate project since the Tower of Babel. The problem is that
> all of these acquisitions were done on credit, with only a fig leaf
> of equity, and the wind is now blowing with hurricane force. Dubai
> property values have slid 50% in a year, and the plunge shows no
> sign of abating. No surprise then that development arm Dubai World
> has defaulted on $59 billion in debt. The spendthrift emir spent
> way too much time on horse racing and not enough on research. Sure,
> turning Dubai into the next Hong Kong was a laudable goal, but did
> anyone think this through? While the former crown colony is backed
> by the sweating masses of China, tiny Emirate is surrounded on two
> sides by 2,000 miles of sand and on the other two by the not so friendly
> maritime neighbors of Iran and Iraq. Oil, you may ask? My Caesar
> salad has more oil than Dubai. Haven’t they heard of peak oil? I
> always thought Dubai would revert to a ghost town once the neighborhood
> ran out of Texas tea. Now that Dubai’s debt has been correctly marked
> down to junk the big question is who else this hubris gone wild is
> going to take down. The shareholders of the UK’s Standard Chartered
> Bank and HKSB, the lead lenders, are going to take a body blow, and
> a rash of hickies will spread among the many syndicate members. Greece
> and Ireland could be next, as the premiums for their credit default
> swaps have skyrocketed. Things could get ugly in Dubai when the country’s
> 360,000 migrant Indian workers find out they aren’t going to get
> paid. How do you say “domino theory” in Arabic?]]> Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:11:57 -0500 BTW, I think you should turn this comment into an Instablog post of it's own - it's so well written, easy to read and thought through (unlike Dubai's economy ;-)


On Dec 03 10:23 AM Mad Hedge Fund Trader wrote:

> asi Who did Dubai’s emir, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, think he
> was kidding? He launched one of the biggest construction booms in
> history, erecting the Burj Dubai, which at 161 stories is the world’s
> tallest building. He built artificial islands in the Persian Gulf
> with lofty names like “The World” that are so big they are visible
> from space. He bought the legendary Queen Elizabeth II, a ship that
> holds many fond memories of transatlantic crossings for me, to convert
> into a floating hotel at unimaginable expense. The spending didn’t
> stop there. His spending binge went global, taking a partnership
> role in the Las Vegas City Center, which became the worst commercial
> real estate project since the Tower of Babel. The problem is that
> all of these acquisitions were done on credit, with only a fig leaf
> of equity, and the wind is now blowing with hurricane force. Dubai
> property values have slid 50% in a year, and the plunge shows no
> sign of abating. No surprise then that development arm Dubai World
> has defaulted on $59 billion in debt. The spendthrift emir spent
> way too much time on horse racing and not enough on research. Sure,
> turning Dubai into the next Hong Kong was a laudable goal, but did
> anyone think this through? While the former crown colony is backed
> by the sweating masses of China, tiny Emirate is surrounded on two
> sides by 2,000 miles of sand and on the other two by the not so friendly
> maritime neighbors of Iran and Iraq. Oil, you may ask? My Caesar
> salad has more oil than Dubai. Haven’t they heard of peak oil? I
> always thought Dubai would revert to a ghost town once the neighborhood
> ran out of Texas tea. Now that Dubai’s debt has been correctly marked
> down to junk the big question is who else this hubris gone wild is
> going to take down. The shareholders of the UK’s Standard Chartered
> Bank and HKSB, the lead lenders, are going to take a body blow, and
> a rash of hickies will spread among the many syndicate members. Greece
> and Ireland could be next, as the premiums for their credit default
> swaps have skyrocketed. Things could get ugly in Dubai when the country’s
> 360,000 migrant Indian workers find out they aren’t going to get
> paid. How do you say “domino theory” in Arabic?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/news/market_currents/post/34732?source=feed#comment-760720 760720 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:30:19 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/229565-boaz-berkowitz/26825-new-updates-to-the-seeking-alpha-website-this-week?source=feed#comment-683255 683255 You are absolutely right, but we are doing exactly what you suggested already: An aggregate rank of a Commenter is positive comments minus negative comments. Check out the right side-bar on your "Comments" page.
Best,
Rita


On Sep 09 12:53 PM Plant the seeds wrote:

> Net comments could mean that you get credit for making popular comments.
> Shouldn't you look at total comments (positive and negative)]]> Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:53:06 -0400 You are absolutely right, but we are doing exactly what you suggested already: An aggregate rank of a Commenter is positive comments minus negative comments. Check out the right side-bar on your "Comments" page.
Best,
Rita


On Sep 09 12:53 PM Plant the seeds wrote:

> Net comments could mean that you get credit for making popular comments.
> Shouldn't you look at total comments (positive and negative)]]> http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/229565-boaz-berkowitz/26825-new-updates-to-the-seeking-alpha-website-this-week?source=feed#comment-683254 683254 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:45:07 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/104879-ritalin/18054-an-ode-to-instablog?source=feed#comment-599007 599007
Going backwards - a move worth a notion!
That way your book will get insta-promotion ;-)

BTW, as a designer, i gotta say your book cover is really sharp - and i've even used it on our internal mock ups as a example of a great looking author image. ]]> Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:34:38 -0400
Going backwards - a move worth a notion!
That way your book will get insta-promotion ;-)

BTW, as a designer, i gotta say your book cover is really sharp - and i've even used it on our internal mock ups as a example of a great looking author image. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/36191-lookingconfident/10814-reply-to-thomas-jower-s-own-how-to-fix-microsoft-for-5-billion?source=feed#comment-590375 590375 I was just wondering about the first sentence of your post: "(Unable to reply directly to his [and other's] fine thoughts, I'll do so here......)" - did you mean that you couldn't find an appropriate feature on the site to reply to or comment on other's articles / posts / StockTalks?

Cheers

RitaLin ]]> Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:14:42 -0400 I was just wondering about the first sentence of your post: "(Unable to reply directly to his [and other's] fine thoughts, I'll do so here......)" - did you mean that you couldn't find an appropriate feature on the site to reply to or comment on other's articles / posts / StockTalks?

Cheers

RitaLin ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/660-mick-weinstein/1452-yahoo-ceo-bartz-drops-the-f-bomb-in-discussing-yhoo-product-development?source=feed#comment-472543 472543 Having that said, kudos for the courage, Carol Bartz. Many companies (IMHO) grow too large for their own good and tend to get sucked into bureaucratic swamps - admitting that, is a big step towards recovery.
]]> Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:35:19 -0400 Having that said, kudos for the courage, Carol Bartz. Many companies (IMHO) grow too large for their own good and tend to get sucked into bureaucratic swamps - admitting that, is a big step towards recovery.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/140201-mr-man/916-my-first-instablog?source=feed#comment-470728 470728 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:12:42 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/341510-mad-hedge-fund-trader/1042-billions-will-die-in-the-impending-famine-buy-ags?source=feed#comment-469611 469611 Yeah, that sounds about right - when facing a threat of massive famines, global destruction & death of billions, our main concern should be packing our portfolios with "agricultural plays" because "Food prices will skyrocket, and billions could die."]]> Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:30:55 -0400 Yeah, that sounds about right - when facing a threat of massive famines, global destruction & death of billions, our main concern should be packing our portfolios with "agricultural plays" because "Food prices will skyrocket, and billions could die."]]> http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/106099-dor-kalev/1129-the-new-threat-to-smarthpones?source=feed#comment-468122 468122 Looks like it really is "cool-cool" and tiny - which go hand in hand these days.
So basically you can use it as a cellphone without jackets, in it's most miniature form (the one you took such a lovely - and tired - picture with), right?
p. s. And next time you get your hands on such a cool and easy to steal toy...well enough said (implied ;-) ]]> Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:34:12 -0400 Looks like it really is "cool-cool" and tiny - which go hand in hand these days.
So basically you can use it as a cellphone without jackets, in it's most miniature form (the one you took such a lovely - and tired - picture with), right?
p. s. And next time you get your hands on such a cool and easy to steal toy...well enough said (implied ;-) ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/news/market_currents/post/21779?source=feed#comment-464131 464131 I'd like to thank you on behalf of Ginger (the orange kitten), who until recently used to be our employee - as the team mascot and a valuable member of the SA design team. One day he decided he was old enough to take on the world and just moved on...hopefully to a better career ;-)
Anyhow, i guess these were his 15 minutes of glory (well, more like 5 hours ;-). It was nice to know they didn't go unnoticed, but we'll do our best to make sure Ginger doesn't get that much "screen time" again.

Cheers,
R.L.

On Apr 15 04:08 PM lemoneater wrote:

> I liked the cute orange kitten. It made a much nicer out of order
> message.]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:48:42 -0400 I'd like to thank you on behalf of Ginger (the orange kitten), who until recently used to be our employee - as the team mascot and a valuable member of the SA design team. One day he decided he was old enough to take on the world and just moved on...hopefully to a better career ;-)
Anyhow, i guess these were his 15 minutes of glory (well, more like 5 hours ;-). It was nice to know they didn't go unnoticed, but we'll do our best to make sure Ginger doesn't get that much "screen time" again.

Cheers,
R.L.

On Apr 15 04:08 PM lemoneater wrote:

> I liked the cute orange kitten. It made a much nicer out of order
> message.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/117906/comments?source=feed#comment-383508 383508 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:40:55 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/105246/comments?source=feed#comment-302894 302894 www.youtube.com ]]> Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:44:26 -0500 www.youtube.com ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/62795/comments?source=feed#comment-114495 114495 It's actually my first time commenting, so be gentle ;-)
(i guess it took TSCM's re-design to pull me out of my shell, which already means they've done a good job ;)

1. It's really important for me to know what our readers think about the site design, how usable and friendly they find our way of presenting the content and if there are any suggestions for improvement/requests. So, to everyone who's taken the time to comment here, or in any other article: Thank you. Knowing what actual users think really helps to improve the user-experience.

2. TheStreet.com Redesign - in terms of aesthetics, readability and layout (which are pretty much all the terms i'm certified to judge by) it looks pretty good, in any case much better than before.

An episode:

Today i was about to show a new designer in our team what I think of as the worst designed financial site on the web, for which purpose i naturally chose thestreet.com. But when i pressed "return" on my keyboard, the effect was ruined...and as i was staring, surprised, into the screen, the new designer said: "Not only is it not as ugly as you promised, i think there's some stuff that actually work better then on ours'..."]]> Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:46:25 -0500 It's actually my first time commenting, so be gentle ;-)
(i guess it took TSCM's re-design to pull me out of my shell, which already means they've done a good job ;)

1. It's really important for me to know what our readers think about the site design, how usable and friendly they find our way of presenting the content and if there are any suggestions for improvement/requests. So, to everyone who's taken the time to comment here, or in any other article: Thank you. Knowing what actual users think really helps to improve the user-experience.

2. TheStreet.com Redesign - in terms of aesthetics, readability and layout (which are pretty much all the terms i'm certified to judge by) it looks pretty good, in any case much better than before.

An episode:

Today i was about to show a new designer in our team what I think of as the worst designed financial site on the web, for which purpose i naturally chose thestreet.com. But when i pressed "return" on my keyboard, the effect was ruined...and as i was staring, surprised, into the screen, the new designer said: "Not only is it not as ugly as you promised, i think there's some stuff that actually work better then on ours'..."]]>