10 Weekend Reads

Good Saturday morning. Pour Draw yourself a double expresso, and settle in for our longer form weekend reads:

• What is code? If you don’t know, you need to read this (Bloomberg)
• The Secret History of SEAL Team 6: Quiet Killings and Blurred Lines (NYT)
• The Dating Business: Love on the Rocks (WSJ)
• The Story of How In-N-Out Made it Big Will Make You Love it Even More (Mic) see also The rise and fall of Subway, the world’s biggest food chain (Washington Post)
• The Examined Lie: A meditation on memory (American Scholar)
• Growing Body of Law Allows Prosecution of Foreign Citizens on U.S. Soil (NYT)
• Mastermind: The evil genius behind the migrant crisis (Newsweek)
• The Agency: From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities. (NYT Mag)
• The Complete History Of The NBA (fivethirtyeight)
• Studies link childhood lead exposure, violent crime (Chicago Tribune) see also When Bail Is Out of Defendant’s Reach, Other Costs Mount (NYT)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with the father of Behavioral Economics, University of Chicago Professor Richard Thaler.

 

Percentage of employees who drink or use illicit drugs by profession

Source: WonkBlog

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. VennData commented on Jun 13

    Leon Cooperman another self-proclaimed Socially liberal Fiscally conservative Republican.

    http://wallstreetweek.com/watch/?cat=full-episodes

    LOL. You GOP donors CREATED these right wing nuts because you can’t get pro-business, science minded people to support you. YOU funded their creation, Leon Cooperman.

    You think you didn’t, Leon? You don’t even know that BUSH created TARP not Obama.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/leon-cooperman-audited-by-irs-2015-6

    You my be rich but your a simpleton politically. You want tax cuts for yourself, special deals for your shorter term investments, Fund right wing anti science nonsense.

    You funded Nixon, Reagan, the Bush’s and just like their wars that left the enemy with all that great US weapons tech, YOUR giving to the Republicans have left them with an army of clueless voters.

    • VennData commented on Jun 13

      On a related note free trade hangs by a thread.

      http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/how-pelosi-broke-with-obama-118961.html

      GOP could have this one following their guiding principle of the Dennis Hastert Rule (Weird that a political party would be operated by a principle named for an alleged child molester, but hey, anything for more tax cuts for the rich…. anything.)

      So you Republican donors CREATED the Tea Partiers who can’t trust Obama to negotiate a free trade deal.

      Nice work.

    • Crocodile Chuck commented on Jun 13

      VD

      Its not a ‘free trade deal’. Tariffs with the US’s trading partners are already < 5%.

      Its about cementing increasing corporate control over governments, replete with the disgusting ISDS provisions [if you don't know about this, put on your glasses & look it up].

      & if its so great, why is it completely secret, from both 'citizens', and their elected representatives in Congress?

      & why are YOU for it?

    • VennData commented on Jun 13

      And the funny part is the “Angry” Democrats. Angry at “the way” Obama spoke to them telling them they would look like the Tea Party they said was the problem.

      And the President was right. The House Democrats DO look like the Tea Party.

      So why are they angry? Why are you angry at Obama for telling you the truth, House Democrats?

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Jun 13

      They’re angry because their constituents are angry at this secret agreement that allows unelected corporate councils to overturn laws and levy fines on elected bodies that dare to make laws that Obama’s corporate masters don’t like. TPP is good for no one but the multinationals.

      Everything that comes out of Obama’s mouth isn’t gold, Venn. Some of it is vomit.

  2. VennData commented on Jun 13

    Dallas Police Targeted in Shooting Outside Headquarters

    ​​”…Gunmen attacked the police headquarters in downtown Dallas from inside an armored van early Saturday morning, shooting at officers and leaving bags filled with pipe bombs around the building in a brazen overnight assault that led to a standoff that is continuing…”​

    ​http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/us/dallas-police-shooting.html

    Texas is a loony farm.

    • rd commented on Jun 13

      Its just Texans using their Second Amendment rights to defend themselves against tyranny. Perfectly normal and understandable.

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Jun 13

      Actually, I was surprised to see that Dallas has a black Chief of Police.

  3. ste4ve commented on Jun 13

    Not to be dickish on a Saturday morning, but I don’t think you “pour” a double espresso. You can draw one; you can make one; you can have someone else draw your shots and make it . . . but you can’t pour one. Cheers!

  4. rd commented on Jun 13

    Lead is likely to return to the headlines over the next couple of decades and the cities become gentrified. Once white upper-middle class families that have moved back into the urban core figure out they have a “poor black people’s problem” (lead poisoning), the politicians will react.

    Detroit has been bull-dozing abandoned homes. It is likely that many of those were filled with lead paint. It will be interesting to see if the reduction in lead poisoning from the housing stock will be one of the biggest long-term benefits of Detroit’s economic woes.

    My wife has had a number of kids in her inner city elementary classroom with known lead poisoning issues. It is virtually impossible to teach them anything, even if they are well-behaved, as they simply don’t absorb the material and retain it, no matter how hard they work.

    • VennData commented on Jun 13

      …work… WORK!?

      That’s the problem, All the government giveaways breed contempt for authority, laziness and build no willingness to work.

      If kids were made to pay for the education, you’d see a whole ‘nuther society

      EX: Look at how all of the Koch Brother’s ethanol subsidies have made them so anti-government!

  5. VennData commented on Jun 13

    California Water Crisis…

    “…It’s the first time since a 1977 drought that California has directed a significant number of senior water rights holders to stop pumping because of drought and amounts to the most widespread cuts ever among those with some of the state’s strongest water rights…”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/californias-relentless-drought-has-taken-a-dire-turn-2015-6

    Wasn’t 1977 the last time Carly Fiorina’s was running for something and complained about the out of control environmental regulations making the rain stop.

  6. Jojo commented on Jun 13

    Re: What is code

    I read half of it in BWeek mag and was disappointed. What an awful rambling mess of unfocused writing! I don’t think many people are going to understand computer code from this. Bloomberg should ask for a refund for what ever they paid Ford. Whew…

    • Iamthe50percent commented on Jun 13

      I have over thirty years of experience in the field and I only stopped reading because there was nothing new. However, there was nothing wrong either. Just too basic for me.

      If you don’t understand what he wrote, you need to read it again more leisurely.

    • Jojo commented on Jun 13

      I also have over 30 years of tech experience, including a BS in computer science, dabbled in languages like Fortran, Cobol and programmed professionally as a system programmer in IBM Assembler, PL/1 on IBM & compatible mainframes. And messed around with more modern languages a bit also. Also worked as a vendor systems engineer and in direct sales.

      I am confident I understood what he was TRYING to communicate. Unfortunately, IMO, he failed miserably at making the subject clear to people who don’t have real technology/programming experience.

      You might want to check the Slate conversation over here:
      http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/06/11/bloomberg_businessweek_s_38_000_word_piece_on_code_just_try_coding_yourself.html

      I am sure there is probably more relevant critiquing at Slashdot and other places.

  7. Jojo commented on Jun 13

    California Is Literally Sinking Into the Ground
    And it’s going to cost taxpayers big time.

    —By Nathan Halverson
    Wed Jun. 10, 2015

    California is sinking—and fast.

    While the state’s drought-induced sinking is well known, new details highlight just how severe it has become and how little the government has done to monitor it.

    Last summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years. This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink.
    Some places in California are sinking more than a foot per year.

    But the extent of the problem and how much it will cost taxpayers to fix are part of the mystery of the state’s unfolding drought. No agency is tracking the sinking statewide, little public money has been put toward studying it and California allows agriculture businesses to keep crucial parts of their operations secret.

    The cause is known: People are pulling unsustainable amounts of water out of underground aquifers, primarily for food production. With the water sucked out to irrigate crops, a practice that has accelerated during the drought, tens of thousands of square miles are deflating like a leaky air mattress, inch by inch.

    http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/california-sinking-drought-ground-water

Posted Under