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It Is the Rubik's Cube's 40th Anniversary - Can You Solve It Yet?

The Rubik's Cube just had it's 40th anniversary of invention. 

It is, arguably, the world's best-selling toy, having sold over 350 million units.

Here are a few things you might not know about it.

1.  The Rubik's Cube was invented by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture and design, who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry to his students.

2.  The toy was originally named the Magic Cube. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Rubik admitted that it was strange to refer to his creation as a "Rubik's cube" and says that he calls it "my cube." Rubik introduced the toy as the Magic Cube in Hungary, named for his theory of "magic cubology," but the Ideal Toy Corp. dubbed it the Rubik's cube in 1979.

3.  All possible Rubik's cube combinations can be solved in 23 moves. No matter how the cube starts out, its colors can be perfectly rearranged in 23 or fewer steps. See here.

 

Toys aren't just for Kids.

 

CubeStormer 3, built from Lego mechanical and robotics parts and powered by a Samsung Galaxy S4, shattered the world record by solving a Rubik’s Cube in only 3.253 seconds – considerabley faster than the fastest human time of 5.55 seconds.

You can watch the robot break the world record yourself below:

 

 

 via YouTube.

The smartphone acts as the brain of the robot. It uses a custom app that uses the camera to make note of what the scrambled cube looks like, then sends instructions to eight Lego Mindstorm EV3 bricks, which then in turn manipulate the arms of the robot to move the cube.

“We knew CubeStormer 3 had the potential to beat the existing record but with the robot performing physical operations quicker than the human eye can see there’s always an element of risk,” Gilday said in a statement, “In the end, the hours we spent perfecting the robot and ensuring its motor and intelligence functions were properly synchronized paid off. Our big challenge now is working out if it’s possible to make it go even faster.”

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Erno Rubik celebrates the 40th anniversary of his famous cube

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Weekend

In my opinion, facts are not beliefs or opinions.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 10 Famous Geniuses With Truly Weird Secret Habits. (Listverse)
• The Reflex of Character. (Michael Hyatt)
• 10 Jobs That No Longer Exist. (BoredPanda)
• 13 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do On Spotify. (JeoBox)
• 5 Social Media Metrics that your Business Should Track. (TheNextWeb)

 

Trading Links:

• Hedge Funds Have Worst Start Since 2008. (BusinessInsider)
• Will Last Year's Winners Be This Year's Losers? (BlackRock)
• On A 'Rigged' Wall Street, Milliseconds Make All The Difference. (NPR)
• CME Trading Outage Showed That Man Can Still Match The Machine. (Reuters)
• Biggest Credit Bubble in History Flashes Warning – ‘Seek Cover’. (NakedCapitalism)

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Scientists Debunk the Myth that 10,000 Hours of Practice Makes You an Expert. (Neatorama)
• This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened. (JamesClear)
• Do Abstract Ideas Deserve Patents? (NYTimes)
• Why Dogs Spin Before They Poop? [video]. Science (Lifehack)
• Belle Curve: Statistics show the average woman has average looks; the average man doesn’t. (WSJ)

 

Trading Links:

• Bitcoin Itself May Live or Die, But Cryptocurrencies Will Live On. (MIT Tech Review)
• Singapore Aims to Become Southeast Asia's Silicon Valley. (Wall Street Journal)
• Meanwhile, China Quietly Takes Over Zimbabwe. (ZeroHedge)
• George Soros and the Human Uncertainty Principle. (ValueWalk)
• How Rich Are WhatsApp Employees Now? 'Early' WhatsApp Employees Made $160 Million Each (BusinessInsider)

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

Trading pros may not think things are different.  However, the public is reacting to suggestions that Wall Streets may be rigged against them.

 

In this cartoon, Darkow draws the Carnival Midway Game of Wall Street, "Spill the Milk" ... which disguises the super-fast high-frequency stock trading center for insiders only.

The Carny beckons to the 'Little Guy': "Step right up, friend... It's a game of skill. Trust Me!".

This kind of public sentiment often triggers regulatory scrutiny ... which, in turn, triggers new games of 'skill'.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Science of Making Your Story Memorable - Scott Adams. (Dilbert)
• 45 People Share the Best Piece Of Advice They’ve Ever Heard. (Thought Catalog)
• The Best April Fools’ Pranks of 2014. (TechCrunch)
• Meet The Seven People Who Hold The Keys To Worldwide Internet Security. (The Guardian)
• Chicago Police Department Believes It Can See The Future, Starts Warning Citizens About Crimes They Might Commit. (TechDirt)

 

Trading Links:

• Will Last Year's Winners Be This Year's Losers? (BlackRock)
• Goldman Sachs Chief: The Responsible Way to Rein in Super-Fast Trading. (WSJ)
• Themis Trading Response To Goldman Sachs Market Structure Op-ed. (ThemisTrading)
• Technical Analysis Practice: Contrast between Individuals and Professionals. (DragonflyCap)
• Scott Adams Blog: Robot Geniuses are Coming. (Dilbert)

Watch "The Expert" Comedy Sketch Video

Here is a Dilbert-style parody of how a corporate team uses an expert. 

 

 

 

What happens when people don't have a clue about problem solving (or 'definition'), realistic goal setting, or practical reality?

You end up with ridiculous tasks that are literally impossible. And that's exactly what "The Expert" nails perfectly. 

Funny (and sometimes too true).

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

Just got back from a quick trip to New York City.  While there, I got interviewed at the Market Technicians Association annual meeting.
 

 
For what it is worth, the prevailing sentiment there was quite bullish (though most were expecting a pull-back, or correction, soon).

On a side note, I took advantage of the proximity to the Carnegie Deli.
 

 
I only ate half, but didn't want to waste any ... so I had it wrapped, and took it home.

Long story short, even if it doesn't smell bad, you shouldn't eat corned beef that was left unrefrigerated for more than a day.

I lost seven pounds yesterday! 

I'd be an idiot savant if I were good at something enough to be a savant.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 'Impossible' Is Outdated - Here's Why. (Forbes)
• The Dawn of the Age of Artificial Intelligence. (The Atlantic)
• A Day Later, Caffeine Stimulates Memory. (Futurity)
• Japan's Booming Sex Niche ... Elder Porn -. (TIME)
• The Big Bang of Older TV Viewers. Now that the median TV viewer is 54, networks are reworking lineups and rethinking ad strategies. (LATimes)

 

Trading Links:

• A Group of Investors is Buying a Stake in the Next Generation of Geniuses. (BusinessInsider)
• All Time Top 10 Hedge Fund Managers | The Big Picture. (Ritholtz)
• 5 Ways China’s Slowdown Will Ripple Across Globe. (AsianCorrespondent)
• What Happens When The Whole World Is Wired? (FastCo)
• The Future of Jobs. Tech innovation has increased long-run employment. Can things change? The Economist (Economist)

British Scientists Clone Dinosaur

Scientists at Liverpool's John Moore University have successfully cloned a dinosaur, a spokesman from the university said yesterday. 

The dinosaur, a baby Apatosaurus nicknamed “Spot,” is currently being incubated at the University's College of Veterinary Medicine. 

 

 

 

The scientists extracted DNA from preserved Apatosaurus fossils, which were on display at the university’s museum of natural science. Once the DNA was harvested, scientists injected it into a fertile ostrich womb. 

“Ostriches share a lot of genetic traits with dinosaurs,” said Dr. Gerrard Jones, a biology professor at LJMU and the project’s leading scientist. “Their eggshell microstructures are almost identical to those of the Apatosaurus. That’s why the cloning worked so perfectly.” 

Those in the scientific community say the dinosaur cloning – the first ever of its kind – is a milestone for genetic engineering. 

Prior to this, scientists declared that they had put "the final nail in the Jurassic Park coffin". 

 

“I used to think this kind of thing could only happen in the movies,” said Dr. Gemma Sheridan, a LJMU chemistry professor. “But we’re making it happen right here in our lab. It’s astounding.”

 

The cloning attracted the attention of a wide variety of animal rights activists and religious groups. They claim that animal cloning is unethical and immoral. 

PETA President Craig Farmer criticized the scientists for performing potentially life threatening threats on a new species. 

“These scientists brought an animal from the Jurassic age back to life – just to watch it suffer!” he said. 

But Dr. Sheridan doesn’t seem to be bothered by the activists’ quibbling. She says that the opportunities afforded by dinosaur cloning are endless. 

Within ten years, we could repopulate the world with dinosaurs,” she said. 

As of press time, the dinosaur is in stable condition. Scientists plan to run more tests on him today.

 

Oh yeah, April's Fools.

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

First they will laugh ... Then they will copy.

 

 

Don't give up. 

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."   ~  Thomas A. Edison

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Do Entrepreneurs Have an Optimism Bias -- Or Do You Have a Pessimism Bias? (HBR)
• Why Positive Encouragement Works Better Than Criticism, According to Science. (Buffer)
• 'Hey Dumbass, Say Something Nice to Your Wife' — There's an App for That. (Mashable)
• 21 Awkward Cards For Your Confusing Modern Relationships. (HuffingtonPost)
• You'll Be Surprised How Many Donuts worth of Sugar Are in These 10 Everyday Foods. (BI)
  
  

 

Trading Links:

• That Viral Chart Predicting Another 1929 Stock-Market Crash? It's Absurd. (The Atlantic)
• This Good News Might Actually Be Bad News: Americans Are Borrowing Big Again. (Quartz)
• Do Stress Hormones Fuel Volatility In Financial Markets? (LATimes)
• The Average Successful Startup Raises $41M, Exits at $242.9M. (TechCrunch)
• Accidental Tax Break Saves Wealthiest Americans $100 Billion. (Yahoo Finance)

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

We just passed the five-year anniversary of economic stimulus.

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Are We Alone in the Universe? (NYTimes)
• Some of the Most Plausible Scenarios for Alien Civilizations. (Io9)
• Lockheed Martin Working on a Spy Plane that Can Fly Anywhere on Earth—in an Hour. (Newser)
• The Future of Health Tech Is Going to Try to Improve Your Life In 2014. (TechCrunch)
• Six Famous Thought Experiments, Animated in 60 Seconds Each. (Brain Pickings)

 

Trading Links:

• Are Banks Obsolete? (Forbes)
• How close are we to the self-driving car age? (The New Yorker)
• Drone Deliveries May Be a Sideshow to Amazon’s Real Ambition for the Skies. (Quartz)
• Why colonize planets when you can colonize outer space? (Dvorak)
• A “Future-Hunter” Examines the Dangers of Stock Trading at the Speed of Light. (ScientificAmerican)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

As the Olympics unfold in Sochi, countries continue to compete in the global economy.  This chart, by the Economist, shows how ‘thin’ the Emerging markets really are.  For example, the market cap of Google equals the market cap of all 379 Brazilian stocks.
 
 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Is Your To-Do List Actually Just A Productivity-Killing "List Of Shame"? (FastCompany)
• It's All in Your Head: 9 Reasons You Can't Resist a List. (Hubspot)
• Multi-Vitamins Won't Boost Health, Waste of Money. Research finds no health benefits. (CBS)
• The Scientifically Best Times to Drink Coffee During the Day. (PopSci)
• Why Did Russia Choose Sochi? (NYReview)

 

Trading Links:

• China Surpasses US as World's Largest Trading Nation. (Wilmott)
• How Much Value Does The Financial Industry Create? (The Week)
• Can Robots Manage Your Money Better Than You? These Startups Think So. (NPR)
• Decoding the Myths of Managed Futures. (Voices)
• Big Commodity Trading Advisers were profitable in 2013 after two straight years in the red. (Institutional Investor's Alpha)