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Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Turkeys don't often have happy Thanksgivings ...

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Are You Doing The Wrong Things Right - or the Right Things Poorly? (Forbes)
• Will Artificial Intelligence Destroy Humanity? Here are 5 reasons not to worry. (Vox)
• A Manifesto for Playing God with Human Evolution. (New Scientist)
• The Divorce-Proof Marriage. (The Atlantic)
• This Website Will Tell You Which Stores Have the iPhone 6 in Stock. (Time)

 

Trading Links:

• Inside The 2014 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America's Wealthiest. (Forbes)
• Raising Capital: The Advice Andreessen Horowitz Gives Its Founders. (A16z)
• CyberCriminals Eye Financial Markets for a Better Return On Investment. (FT)
• Banks Agree Not to Blow Each Other Up Too Quickly. (Bloomberg View)
• Images Showing How Surprisingly Small One Year's Worth of Mined Commodities Is. (BusinessInsider)

Surviving Our HealthCare System

I'm very thankful for the quality of our medical care and the state of medical technology.

Many news cycles talk about ObamaCare and how our medical system is broken. However, I had surgery last week, I was impressed with the process and the outcome.

I'm still a baby, after all these years. I didn't want to get surgery.

 

 

I put it off as long as I could.  I don't like needles ... and I didn't like the idea of diminished capabilities, potential loss of strength or feeling (or dozens of other excuses).

I had something called a "trigger finger". What that means is that if I shut my hand, my left index finger wouldn't reopen. It was painful and inconvenient.

For what it is worth, I remember some distant uncle who had a finger like that when I was young.  I remember, because when I would shake hands with him, one of his fingers was tickling my palm ... It felt like a secret handshake.

Fixing it was easier than I expected; I was at the hospital, for the actual surgery, for less time than it would take to see a movie.

On one hand, it was relatively minor surgery. On the other hand, see for yourself.

 

 

Pretty cool, actually. I'm already using the hand to open doors, hold my phone, and wash my hair.

As bad as things may be regarding the state of our healthcare system, it is still pretty awesome. Kind of like Democracy. Perhaps it sucks a little; but it is still a good bet to beat the alternatives.

Time-Lapse Maps That Show How Fast and Much the World Has Changed

Human have a huge impact on the landscape. 

For example, take a look at Dubai in Google's Earth Engine.  It is easy to see the incredible coastal expansion.

 

 

 

We are literally terra-forming the planet.

The Earth Engine brings together trillions of scientific measurements dating back over 40 years (based on Landsat satellite imagery).

You can explore some of these time-lapse maps here.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Sometimes the News cycle is worse than the news itself.

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Google's 'Perfect Human' Project Isn't Evil, It's Business. (TheVerge)
• Human Workers Report Feeling Most Productive When Led By Artificial Intelligence. (PBS)
• How the NSA Built Its Own Secret Google. (First Look)
• Welcome to the New U.S. Digital Service: Geeks wanted, no stodgy suits required. (GeekWire)
• Software Shows What Children Will Look Like In 70 Years, With Unprecedented Accuracy. (Popular Science)

 

Trading Links:

• Wall Street's Revenge of the Nerds Means Fooling All The People All the Time. (Guardian)
• Crazy Prediction. Why You Should Expect More Quantitative Easing. (Joe Fahmy)
• Whopping 35% Have Debt in Collection in America: Where Is It? (GlobalEcon)
• Microsoft Has Lost About $1.7 Billion On Surface - So Far ... (CiteWorld)
• Goldman Sachs - On Crash Risk: The Simple Reason We're Probably Not About to Have Another Huge Crash. (Business Insider)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Alibaba's IPO debut roared ... and its shares soared 38%. 

 

 

In many ways, the IPO was surprisingly big.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Can Technology Really Change Your Habits? (FastCompany)
• The 10,000 Hours Myth: Practice Predicts Only 12% of Performance. (Spring)
• The Man Who Created The First Pop-Up Ad Says 'Sorry'. (TheVerge)
• Do Dogs Really Feel Shame and Guilt? (Psychology Today)
• China Says New Supersonic Sub Would Reach San Francisco In 100 Minutes. (Sploid)

 

Trading Links:

• Apple's Secret War Against Samsung is Working. (MacObserver)
• Microsoft Still Doesn't Get Why the iPhone Succeeded. (TUAW)
• The Dark, Disturbing World of the Visa-For-Sale Program. (Fortune)
• U.S. Hikes Fee to Renounce Citizenship By 422%. (Forbes)
• Here's How Much Aid The U.S. Wants To Send Foreign Countries In 2015, and Why. (INFOGRAPHIC)

Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies

Gartner Group's latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies is out. 

Last year, Big Data was at the “peak of inflated expectations.” 

This year, the Internet of Things is at the top of the hype cycle.  

A new entry to the Hype Cycle this year is “data science,” projected to reach the plateau in 2 to 5 years. It’s more a discipline for dealing with big data then a specific technology or set of technologies, so it’s interesting to note that big data is still considered by Gartner to be 5 to 10 years away from reaching that stage.  

 

Source: Gartner, August 2014

Gartner's Hype Cycle Special Report highlights “the four Nexus of Forces (social, mobile, cloud and information),” which were highly correlated with items that had changed most significantly on the peak portion of the Hype Cycle. Two trends Gartner called out especially as having an impact at earlier stages of the Hype Cycle were digital business and the Internet of Things.

The 2014 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies marks the 20^th anniversary of the report.  

 

For more, see this video, which talks about the Hype Cycle as a tool for tracking how innovations and their business impact evolve over time and what is new about the 2014 version.

 

This Is Why I Let Machines Trade ...

Humans make baffling decisions.  And fear is a powerful motivator. 

My shoulder has been inflamed since having surgery a few months ago.  I've tried being patient, rehab, etc.  However, nothing seemed to work.

I joked that I would try anything.

I don't like pills, needles, or doctors (fear is a powerful inhibitor too).  Nonetheless, I'm trying accupuncture.

 

 

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.  It seems to be working.

Watch out, though, I think one of the side-effects is that it causes hair growth.

"Humans Need Not Apply" - Video about Automation and Humanity

Here is an interesting video about automation and what it will do to jobs and humanity.

 

 

via YouTube.

The point is to anticipate (and be prepared) for what is coming.

Half the Word's Population Lives in 6 Countries

As of this month, the world’s population is now 7.2 billion.

According to U.N. data, half of the people around the globe (3.6 billion) live in just a half-dozen countries. China has the world’s largest population (1.4 billion), followed by India (1.3 billion). The next most-populous nations – the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan – combined have less than 1 billion people.

 

via Pew Research.

 

The demographic future for the U.S. and the world looks very different than the recent past.

For example, the U.N. projects that during this century, the number of people living to at least age 100 will increase more than 100-fold, from 181,000 in the year 2000 to over 20 million in the year 2100.

Related articles

Global Population Estimates by Age, 1950-2050 | Pew Global Attitudes Project

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Why are vacations so stressful?

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Negative Side of Positive Thinking. (Explore)
• The Dalai Lama’s Ski Trip: What you can learn in the slush with His Holiness. (Slate)
• The Not-So-Distant Future When We Can All Upgrade Our Brains. (TheAtlantic)
• Scientists Just Discovered How To Regrow Teeth Using Laser Beams. (DigitalTrends)
• The Odd (And Effective) Routines of Famous Minds like Beethoven, Maya Angelou, and Francis Bacon. (FHWW)

 

Trading Links:

• U.S. Household Net Worth Hits Record High On Stocks, Property. (ChicagoTribune)
• Super Zips. Map highlights the highest ranking zip codes based on income & education. (WP)
• China's Ghost Cities In 2014 - The Problem Is Getting Bigger. (BusinessInsider)
• Here Comes a Decade of Crummy Stock Market Returns. (Society Generale)
• Why Investors Love Hedge Funds. (Bloomberg)