- Tepco admits three reactors melted down (Source)
- 300 years of list-making (Source)
- The Opulence Bubble (Source)
- Fairholmes Bruce Berkowitz Is Beating Hedge Fund Managers At Their Own Game (Source)
- Experimental Physics and The Limits Of Human Knowledge – We Are Crossing the Boundary Between Knowledge and Belief (Source)
- Joplin, Missouri, tornado: Warnings pale in season of violent twisters – CSMonitor.com (Source)
- Pics: Grimsvotn Volcano Erupts in Iceland (Source)
- Keeping tabs on the Grímsvötn eruption as the ash spreads towards Europe (Source)
- Greece, the unbearable heaviness of debt (Source)
- Radio host says Rapture actually coming in October (Source)
- Federer Is No Longer the Focus at the French Open (Source)
- Extreme weather on Mt Everest (Source)
- The most awesomely savage Stars Wars review ever (Source)
Latest Stories
Field Notes: Lists, Opulence, Physics, Grimsvotn, Federer, Star Wars, etc.
By · May 23, 2011 · ·
Serial Bubble-Callers R Us
By · May 23, 2011 · ·
We drive through capital markets using rearview mirrors. As a result, we spot the last bubble… [cont.]
Money Is and Has Always Been a Problem
By · May 23, 2011 · ·
Interesting and perceptive comments on money’s rise and fall from Square’s… [cont.]
Who Backs the Patent Trolls?
By · May 23, 2011 · ·
Who backs Intellectual Ventures? We now know:
… last week, following a ruling in a patent suit brought by programmable chipmaker Xilinx Inc. IV has filed a list of investors. As earlier reported by the blog patentlyo.com, IV counts among its investors Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings Inc., Apple Inc. (AAPL), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), EBay Inc. (EBAY) and Google Inc. (GOOG) as well as universities such as Stanford University, the University of Texas, northwestern University and Brown University.
via bloomberg.com
Fun With Very Large Numbers
By · May 23, 2011 · ·
Reminds me of when I used to sit in engineering class idly finding formulas, like 69!, that came as close as possible to exceeding the mantissa limits of my old IT calculator. Good times.
Fun With Very Large Numbers
Authors: Robert Baillie(Submitted on 19 May 2011)Abstract: We give an example of a formula involving the sinc function that holds for every N = 0, 1, 2, …, up to about 10^102832732165, then fails for all larger N. We give another example that begins to fail after about N ~ exp(exp(exp(exp(exp(exp(e)))))). This number is larger than the Skewes numbers.
via arxiv.org
Weekend Reading: 05/22/11
By · May 22, 2011 · ·
Welcome to Weekend Reading. Some economic activity to watch next week:
- Earnings reports… [cont.]
Why We Don’t Take Care of Ourselves
By · May 21, 2011 · ·
Interesting new paper puzzling over why we don’t take better care of ourselves as we age. It comes to some intriguing conclusions about our confuson with respect to growing older.
On fatalistic long-term health behavior
Abstract
Many adults have an overly pessimistic view of old age because they fail to correctly predict their ability to hedonically adapt to old-age health related problems. A standard utility model where the marginal utility of health is higher at a lower level of health predicts that this overly pessimist view raises the incentive for healthy behavior. But this is at odds with empirical research that indicates that people with more negative aging stereotypes tend to adopt less healthy practices, transforming this negative view into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The aim of this note is to show that this fatalistic behavior can be explained through prospect theory by modelling this overly pessimistic view of old age as a failure to predict the change in the reference point due to hedonic adaptation. Given the diminishing sensitivity in the loss domain, people undervalue the future marginal value of health investment and may therefore underinvest in health as long as loss aversion is not too strong.
More here.
Rogue Waves Captured
By · May 20, 2011 · ·
Freak waves that swallow ships whole have been re-created in a tank of water. Though these tiny terrors are only centimeters high, a devilishly difficult mathematical equation describing their shape may help to explain the origins of massive rogue waves at sea..
via sciencenews.org