10 Weekend Reads

May 16, 2015 7:00am by

The weekend is here at last! Pour yourself a big mug of steaming black Sumatra coffee, and settle in for our expertly selected long form weekend reads:

• Why Can’t America Have Great Trains? A Washington Mystery. (National Journal)
• Tomorrow’s Advance Man: Marc Andreessen’s plan to win the future. (New Yorker)
• Part 1 of The Rise & Fall of Silk Road: How a 29-year-old idealist built a global drug bazaar and became a murderous kingpin (Wired) then see Part 2 (Wired)
• NBA All Star Allen Iverson Goes Broke, Despite Earning Over $154 million. How did one of the top players in the NBA burn through so much of his fortune in such a short time? (Time)
• Elon Musk’s Space Dream Almost Killed Tesla (Bloomberg)
• That Was Then, This Is Now: How 72 Brands From ‘Mad Men’ Have Changed Since Don Draper Was In Charge (Consumerist)
• Theorizing the Drone: What does the rise of the drone mean for justice, for the ethics of heroism, for psychology? Most important of all, who is dying and why? (Longreads)
• I Was Born Homosexual. I Chose to Be Gay. (Slate)
• Cosmology has been on a long, hot streak, racking up one imaginative and scientific triumph after another. Is it over? (Aeon)
• David Letterman: Happy at Last (Rolling Stone)

Be sure to check out this week’s Masters in Business interview with Bill McNabb, CEO and Chairman of the Vanguard Group.

 

 

 

Volatility For Stocks Stays In Check

Source: WSJ

 

 

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  1. ilsm commented on May 16

    Passenger rail: good for global climate, threatening to US oil cartels. Grossly under invested, AMTRAK got $45B in subsidies since the 1970’s about one years’ tax support for big oil. A carbon tax in the US could put US rail in world class.

    Drones: American Defense Science Board “our enemy is the people”. US uses drones the latest technology to kill enough of them to make “our guy” loved.

  2. theexpertisin commented on May 16

    Left unsaid in the article on Allen Iverson is the dirty little secret of how almost all black sports figures and actors give precious little back to their communities. Sure, they will lend face time to commercials sponsored by their league or team, but this is pissing in the ocean.

    When Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. folks come to this country, they give back, especially helping family get on their feet and encourage them to work hard, get properly educated and prosper.

  4. VennData commented on May 16

    Abu Sayyaf, an ISIS Leader, Killed by US Special Forces in Syria

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/world/middleeast/abu-sayyaf-isis-commander-killed-by-us-forces-pentagon-says.html

    ​There he goes again, Obama overstepping the line.

    The GOP has specifically sat on the funding auth. for Syria because who can trust Obama to make the right decision?​ He’s out of control! This is more of his ends-justify-the-means liberal use of the state.

    Oh and pay back the hedge funds who scooped up unsecured debt days before the GM bankruptcy because “some people say so!” The hedge funds were wronged!!!

    ​You call this leadership?! i call this a prelude to Jade Helm Obama invasion and his demand for a third term. BUY MORE AMMO!​

  6. VennData commented on May 16

    Russian Rocket Carrying Mexican Satellite Fails After Launch

    ​http://time.com/3881656/russian-proton-m-rocket-fails/

    ​But Rudy Guliani prefers Putin to Obama. What a patriot Rudy is.

    http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/rudy_giuliani_unlike_obama_putin_is_“what_you_call_a_leader”/

    Time to strip Rudy and George Bush of any credit for standing around after 9/11.

    I would not mind giving them a special award: “Standing Around in the Right Place at the Right Time and Using the acclaim Given to You for Harm, Divisiveness and Tax Cuts for the Richest.”

    P.S. Yeah Obama caused the 30 year spread of inequality, it had nothing to do with tax cuts for the job creators.

  7. VennData commented on May 16

    Bengazi VIII (The Force Awakens)

    “…The eighth investigation into the tragedy is currently under way. But, as previously expected, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not be called upon to testify, just yet. According to Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, she won’t be asked to testify until the State Department has provided additional related documents…”

    http://news.yahoo.com/benghazi-controversy-explained-katie-couric-151324707.html

    …aka her lead in the polls expands further

  8. Jojo commented on May 16

    Robot Taxis Will Reshape Urban Landscapes
    By Willie Jones
    Posted 29 Apr 2015

    IEEE Spectrum has already reported on the race to build the first robot taxis. We noted in a February article that Google has a working prototype, Uber has begun working on robocars with Carnegie Mellon University, and Nissan has announced plans to work with NASA to “demonstrate proof-of-concept remote operation of autonomous vehicles for the transport of . . . goods . . . and people.”

    Now we know more about how robotaxis might change the urban landscape. A team of transportation scientists at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s International Transport Forum recently released the results of a study [PDF] looking at the possible effects of self-driving cars on urban traffic. What they found is that robocars will have a dramatic effect on cities, allowing significant swaths of land now dedicated to travel to be turned over to recreational and commercial use.

    The researchers imagined what might happen when all human-driven cars are replaced by a combination of shared and semi-private self-driving vehicles in a midsize European city.

    …

    http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/robot-taxis-will-reshape-urban-landscapes

  9. Jojo commented on May 16

    With less pollution, Beijing’s Olympic babies born heavier, says study
    When China curtailed pollution for 2008 Olympics, women in final stages of pregnancies had heavier babies, says study
    April 29, 2015 10:41AM ET

    Women in the Chinese capital in the final stage of pregnancy during the 2008 Beijing Olympics — when officials strictly controlled air pollution — gave birth to heavier babies than in years when the city was smoggier, a study said Wednesday.

    The study, led by epidemiologist David Q. Rich of the University of Rochester Medical Center and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that babies born to Beijing mothers in their eighth month of pregnancy during the 2008 Summer Games were on average 0.8 ounces heavier than those born either a year earlier or a year later.

    It found no significant association for mothers in their first through seventh months.

    …

    The Associated Press
    http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/29/beijing-babies-born-during-olympics-are-heavier.html

  10. hue commented on May 16

    The voice behind Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Ned Flanders is leaving The Simpsons (vox http://bit.ly/1AaCO7p) didn’t realize the Simpsons are still on, release the hounds

    mobile first (http://bit.ly/1Hnw2xV ben evans) part of the andreesen cartel, interesting career starting w/ netscape. mobile is the whole internet(s)

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