bicycling - a part of your life

02.19.12: Life is short. Let's try not to make it shorter.


An excellent video on bicycling augmenting a healthier lifestyle.


Makes me want to get out there right now.


For those of you without a bike, you should buy one - will last the rest of your life.


For those of you with an unused bike gathering dust, get it ready for spring and start with small rides.
Or you can buy an inexpensive indoor trainer and practice before spring arrives! 


I have found it to be the least painful method of lowering hypertension. 
Not quite as good as jogging, for stomach weight reduction.


And make sure the saddle fits!

the thinking man's approach

12.02.15: 


This is a real classic soccer game! Thx Barry.


 Probably one of the best I have seen in a long time. 
You will probably remember a lot of the players.


Be patient. It does take a while...


THE thinking man's soccer game

Parking at Pearson

02.10.12: It is always a task to find cheap parking ar Pearson for the week or month.

We have taken cabs but the cost has been around $160-180 total.


Parking can be reasonable near the airport, if you look for it.


Right now, Skypark Self Park is offering seven days for $56.22 total (14-30 days for $89.95 total).


Park 'n Fly Toronto Economy is offering a seven day rate of $72.05 total (14-30 day rate is $96.09 total).


A third provider is Skyway Park Self Park and their seven day rate is $55.00 total (14-30 day is $100.00 total).


All three are within 7 minutes (via shuttle) of Pearson. Use directions (above).


Skypark Self Park - 50 Fasken Drive, Toronto, 800.969.8032 


Park 'n Fly Toronto Economy - 626 Dixon Road, Toronto, 905.677.9143


Skyway Park Self Park - 60 Skyway Ave, Etobicoke, 800.474.3820

CPP Changes

02.10.12: Harper's group is now making changes to the CPP program.


Surprisingly, it may be for the better.


It certainly will provide him more $s to use for G8/G20 projects, more prisons and funding more activities to encourage China buy our climate-impacting shale oil... 


Looks like it might be best to wait till 70, if you haven't already started to collect.


When we elected to start CPP at age 60, it would take living until 78 to be more beneficial to wait till 65 to begin.


The new plan will mean a reduction of 36% (instead of 30%) if you start at 60.


If you wait until 70 years of age to start, you will receive an increase of 42% (instead of 30%).


There is no impact to those already on CPP.


If you are healthy and have good genes (or really need/want to work longer), it looks quite beneficial to wait until 70.


Many more details in the Star article.

Super Bowl 2012 ads

02.09.12: 


For those who missed the ads during the super bowl on Sunday.


Here they are!

Mark Cullen - weekly Toronto Star section

02.02.12: If you weren't aware, Mark is one of the good local guys.


He has a weekly gardening section in the Toronto Star. 
On this site, you can ask Mark any gardening questions you might have.


He also has a time slot on 680 Toronto radio and Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver are starting up.


He also has a push website you can sign up for.  

Facebook IPO

02.02.12: It appears Facebook had to file with the government, as they have more than 500 investors. This probably precipitated the IPO.


One of the risks of the Facebook approach is over half its users are mobile and there is no mobile advertising. IMO, as long as most users continue to use their PCs, Facebook should prosper.


BBC News Feb 2, 2012:

Facebook is poised to sell shares in itself, the first social network to do so.

Facebook said it would seek to raise $5bn in the stock market flotation, valuing the company at between $75bn and $100bn.

The company's has now revealed many of the facts behind all the pokes, likes and friends for the first time.

What have we learned from the paperwork Facebook has filed with the US authorities?

THE BIG PICTURE

• Facebook is an advertising company. Of its total revenues of $3.7bn in 2011, 85% came from advertising. And that is down from 98% and 95% in the previous two years.
• The company makes $1bn in pure profit.
• Facebook has a total of 845 million monthly users and 483 million daily users.
• Of its monthly users, half have used Facebook on their mobile. (But there are no ads on its mobile site, so it makes no money from them.)
• The majority of its money comes from the US, but the majority of the users are outside the country.
• And the majority of its non-US revenues comes from western Europe, Canada, and Australia.
• The company generates 2.7 billion "likes" and 250 million uploaded photos everyday.
• Zynga, the games maker behind FarmVille, single-handedly accounts for 12% of its revenues.
• The company has 3,200 employees.
• Lady Gaga may have the most popular page on Facebook - with 47 million "likes".
• Facebook's ticker on the stock exchange will be "FB".

MONEY MEN AND WOMEN

• Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive, has 28% of the company - 533.8 million shares - which are worth $28bn based on an overall valuation of $100bn. He is 27 years old.
• But Mr Zuckerberg is the controlling shareholder because of proxy voting rights. All in, he controls 57% of the shares.
• Mr Zuckerberg's base salary last year was $483,333 and, with bonus, he was paid $1.49m.
• From 1 January 2013, Mr Zuckerberg's annual salary will go down to $1.

RISKS

• Mr Zuckerberg was memorably portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie, The Social Network. The Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, are not named in the filing after settling their legal battles with Facebook. Neither is Eduardo Saverin, his former friend and classmate.
• Napster founder and early investor Sean Parker is mentioned - but his shareholding is not declared.
• Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer, owns 0.1% of the company. She is the best compensated director at Facebook. With her salary and stock awards, she made $30.87m last year. But with her stock options and depending on the share price, she will still become one of the world's richest women. She has 38.1 million shares that have not yet vested that will do so from October.
• David Choe, a graffiti artist, decorated Facebook's first offices and took stock instead of cash as compensation. The New York Times reports the stake could now be worth about $200m.
• The singer Bono is also rubbing his hands. Elevation Partners, an investment firm he co-founded, spent $210m buying Facebook shares in 2009 and 2010, which could now be worth $800m.
• Mr Zuckerberg's friend and co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, has almost 8%, or 133.8 million shares.
• The company has listed other social networks as possible threats - including Google's relatively-new Google+ and its older Orkut service, South Korea's Cyworld, Japan's Mixi and vKontakte in Russia.
• Facebook has no legal presence in China - but there are already established social networks such as Tencent and Renren that locals can use.
• Besides China, Facebook is currently restricted in Iran, North Korea and Syria.
• The company also cited the "uncertainty" over evolving legal protections across the world on consumer privacy. It cited a revision to the European Union's privacy laws, specifically.
• Facebook said that potential advertisers could decide not to advertise with them and instead just use a Facebook page.
• Fame is fleeting on the internet. "A number of other social networking companies that achieved early popularity have since seen their active user bases or levels of engagement decline, in some cases precipitously," Facebook said. "There is no guarantee that we will not experience a similar erosion of our active user base or engagement levels.

02.01.12: Is it the next Google?


Remember Google when it IPO'd? It started at $85/share...


Will Facebook do better? 


In my opinion, it is a good investment, if you can buy shares the first day.


Facebook generated revenues of $3.7B in 2011 and $1B in profits.
They are expecting to raise $5B with the IPO.
Analysts had predicted a $10B round of funding from the IPO...


How to buy into an IPO - it isn't easy as the first investors allowed in on an IPO are company executives, venture capitalists, and the banks involved in underwriting the deal.
In the past, it has been risky being first in. Out of a dozen internet/social media IPO's that came public in 2011, the average decline was 12% from the IPO price, and a 34% drop from where the shares closed the first day's trading.
However, I suspect Facebook may be different. Lets see what happens.




If it raised $10B in the IPO, it would:


1. be the 6th largest USA IPO ever.
2. be the 15th largest IPO in history.
3. have an IPO more than 6 times Google's IPO.
4. have a per-share valuation of $100+. Apple started at $22/share. Google started at $85/share...surging to $100+ by the end of the first day for a mkt cap of $27B. Will Facebook do better?
5. have a mkt cap larger than Disney or GM. Google is now $187B, Microsoft is $248B and Apple is $422B.


It officially announced the IPO late today. 


If we were to be treated to a good IPO (don't think it has ever happened), we would know who was able to by at the IPO price.
I would be surprised if the average buyer will be able to purchase at less than 200% of the IPO price.


Let's see what happens ...