MH370, Nuclear War, Trading, Book Thieves, Warren Buffett
MH370: The Vanishing
Sean Flynn | Esquire | 2nd March 2015
The loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 revisited. After last week's almost-persuasive argument (http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/jeff-wise-mh370-theory.html) that hijackers landed the plane in Kazakhstan, here's a deep dive into the post-crash investigation, which assumes that the plane was lost in the Indian Ocean, and that most of the subsequent mystery was created by the Malaysian government's attempts to cover up the incompetence of its own air-traffic controllers (6,820 words)
New York In A Nuclear War
Lynn Eden et al | Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists | 25th February 2015
A single 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated a mile above midtown Manhattan would instantly vaporise the buildings below; a blast wave following one second later would flatten every structure in a three-mile radius; within minutes an unsurvivable firestorm would rage across a seven-mile radius; the winds would carry radioactive fallout far and wide. Russia has 700 such warheads, 30 minutes from Manhattan (1,830 words)
What Is A Trader?
Victor Niederhoffer | Daily Speculations | 27th February 2015
"Hundreds of thousands of people trade short term in America. Almost all of them lose. Almost all of them base their trades on mumbo jumbo things that are completely random. The only constant is the vig they pay to the house, which is often 25% of their average gain or loss on the trade. The chances they'll end up a winner is less than the parts in a warehouse spontaneously assembling themselves into a beautiful girl" (1,470 words)
The Book Thieves Of London
Steerforth | The Dabbler | 2nd March 2015
Reminiscences of a bookseller. "Roy’s speciality was art books. He always made two visits to a shop. During the first he would choose the books he was going to steal. After leaving the shop empty-handed, Roy would wait for half an hour and return when the staff were too busy to spot him. It only took Roy a minute to discretely nudge the pile of books into his huge holdall and he was out of the door before anyone had noticed" (1,120 words)
Warren Buffett Explains His Cozy Embrace
Matt Levine | Bloomberg View | 28th February 2015
A theory of America's most-admired investor. He stands back. "Much of Buffett's success is due to being really good at one decision point — entry/exit — and focusing exclusively on that. He famously does not mess with his portfolio companies. Most conglomerate-builders want to meddle, to do stuff, to be in charge. If you can forgo those psychic benefits, you can be rewarded for it in money. Also you can do less work" (1,520 words)
Video of the day: The Last Banana
What to expect: TED-Ed. A short lesson in probability. Two people, two dice, one banana (4'09")
Thought for the day
Cryonics is an experiment. So far the control group isn't doing very well
Ralph Merkle