Having Coffee Breaking Bad Style

I like a good cup of coffee. Who doesn’t? Having traveled the world and seeing the many different ways coffee is made has turned me into a bit of coffee nerd. I have the traditional drip filter machine, a Breville expresso machine, a Vietnamese coffee maker, a French press, an Italian espresso maker, and now a syphon coffee maker. Now you might ask which one is the best? It’s really how you like your coffee and the type of beans you use. Use good high quality water and the best beans available. Most people underestimate the importance of these two key ingredients and blame the machine when a cup of coffee is not good.

Here is my latest experiment. If you watched Breaking Bad, you have certainly seen the hyper cool over the top coffee machine in the lab. I was able to import something 1/100th the size to replicate the feeling of knowing something about coffee making.
The machine: Hario TCA-3 Syphon / Siphon Vacuum Coffee Maker

The seller: Japanese Poppin Culture
At first, I was highly skeptical since he was a new seller on Amazon and his price for the machine was $20 dollar lower then everybody else for the same machine (I got it for $70, others: $90+). The store also only charge $5-6 for shipping from Japan which gave me the feeling “too good to be true”. So I went against my gut feeling and bought the machine anyway. It turned out to be a great buy and I made my first brew. I must say that the experience was awesome and the coffee was excellent.

Here are some pictures:

Developed Markets vs Emerging Markets vs Frontier Markets

Here is a nice chart from Emerging Global Advisors on developed vs emerging vs frontier.

Developed vs emerging vs frontier

Asia Gambling Brief – Article Comments

I was recently asked to comment on Entertainment Gaming Asia (Nasdaq:EGT) 2nd quarter results and the gambling situation on the Cambodia borders.

The article is available in pdf form, my comments are highlighted in yellow: Asia Gambling Brief – Article Comments By Brian Langis

The original article is written by Simon Lewis and is available at: Asia Gambling Brief – Cambodian Dreamworld off to slow start By Simon Lewis

Although I gave him a page of material, only a few talk points were used.

NagaCorp – The Action Is In This IndoChina Casino

NagaWorld on the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers Source: NagaCorp

Reposted from Seeking Alpha
By Brian Langis

Editor’s notes: NagaCorp has a monopoly on the Cambodian gambling industry and is poised for continued growth. 20% upside as it continues to play a winning hand.

NagaCorp – The Action Is In This South-East Asia Casino

NagaCorp Ltd. (NagaWorld, Naga) (NGCRF.PK)

3918:HK

Note: NagaCorp’s primary ticker is 3918 on the Hong Kong Exchange, its principal trading venue, but Seeking Alpha does not permit linking to Hong Kong tickers.

Note: Dollar amounts are in US$ unless mentioned otherwise. USD-HKD 7.75 Price of 1 USD in HKD

NagaCorp runs a monopoly on gambling in Phnom Penh. Share of the casino operator has been on a bullish tear since its 2006 IPO and is up +81% year-to-date. In 2006, NagaCorp raised US$95 million with a Hong Kong stock offering at a price of HK$1.43 per share. Since then shareholders have been well rewarded; today shares of casino are trading ~HK$6.90, a whopping 383% not including dividends and special dividends.

The focus of this article is to determine if NagaCorp’s rally will continue. Is NagaCorp undervalued in relation to its intrinsic value? Rest the rest of the story here.

Bill Clinton Crushing George H. Bush in a Debate

I think President George H. Bush got schooled on that one. It’s very important to listen and give your undivided attention. Here is a lesson in listening and being slick.

Income Gap in North Korea Widens

I ran into this article regarding North Korean news. It provides an interesting insight on the inner workings of the party and some of the big name companies running the show. The kind of information that our current media wouldn’t run.

The Economist also ran an article back in February, also a nice read.

Reposted from The Chosunilbo
As scattered green shoots of a market economy pop up all over North Korea, the gap between rich and poor is also widening in line with capitalist trends. Wealthy people in the capital Pyongyang control profitable businesses through the support of the regime, while farmers in remote areas survive or not at all.

Socialist Tycoons
In March last year, American investor Jim Rogers went to an international coin fair in Singapore and snapped up 13 rare North Korean gold coins each valued at 2,500 Singaporean dollars, as well as hundreds of silver coins worth 70 Singaporean dollars each.

Advice on how to live your life

I could not agree more.