May 2010
19 posts
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“Followers of obsolete unthinkable trades, doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs...”
– William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, from “The Black Meat” sequence.
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“Remember this: Your growth always lies on the other side of your discomfort....”
– Brett Steenbarger, PhD, author of the TraderFeed blog, upon announcing the upcoming cessation of his active posting.
An important point he made in a subsequent post:
I look back on the opportunities that have come from the blog—the books and book sales, the coaching opportunities, the valuable...
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“The basic economics of bookmaking dictate that every bookmaker will occasionally...”
– Dan E. Moldea, Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football
Two points:
I’ve always been fascinated by arbitrage—whether in the financial markets or the arena of sports gambling—at least to the limits of my math skills. Something about how the availability of...
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Edward G. Uhl, Co-Developer of the Bazooka, Dies...
The New York Times reported the death of Edward Uhl earlier this week, who had the following revelation while working on anti-tank weapons for the U.S. Army.
An enlistee, he served in the Army from 1941 to 1947, becoming a lieutenant colonel in its Ordnance Corps. There, along with Col. Leslie A. Skinner, he invented the bazooka, named after an improvised tubular musical instrument that the...
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“So when I started working on my young adult novel Ship Breaker, I knew I wanted...”
– Paolo Bacigalupi, on his novel, Ship Breaker, at John Scalzi’s Whatever.
His The Windup Girl, which picked up a Nebula this weekend, was excellent.
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Trading Firms Put Their Money on Poker Experts... →
It’s long been my assertion that people who consistently make tens of thousands of dollars a month playing online poker probably have the discipline and instincts to make hundreds of thousands as traders of stocks, commodity, currency—whichever is the best fit for their skills and temperament. This piece in the LA Times bears out my hunch:
Chris Fargis thought his big job interview was...
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The Importance of Having Poker Buddies (and Doing...
Or golf buddies, or fellow boardgamers, or a tight roleplaying game crew, or whatever your fun-bunch does, who might be able to help in a pinch and get your career kickstarted:
Then, at their [the producers of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, who ran out of money after months of editing] moment of maximum desperation, another group of Austin politicians got involved. Henkel had confided his...
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“The way Hooper remembers it now, the inspiration for Chainsaw occurred at...”
– Tobe Hooper on his inspiration for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, in “They Came, They Sawed” by John Bloom (aka, “the” John Bloom, aka drive-in maven Joe Bob Briggs), Texas Monthly (Nov. 2004).
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“Four people tell you that there was a typo on the third slide in your...”
– Seth Godin, “Sentences, Paragraphs and Chapters”
“Editor” derives from the Latin for “to bring forth or produce.”
Editors do more than delete. We reroute, direct, suggest, and clarify.
I’d call this quote a spiritual third cousin, in terms of finding...
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“Uninvite the devil’s advocate, since the devil doesn’t need one,...”
– Seth Godin, “Where Do You Find Good Ideas?”
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Putting the "Au" in "Automated Teller Machine" →
An Abu Dhabi hotel now sports an ATM that dispenses gold:
With gold prices at record highs amid fears that the EU’s rescue package will drive inflation higher, the ATM monitors the daily price of gold and offers small gold bars that weigh up to 10 grams with customized designs. (CNBC)
I assume this has at least a dozen security cameras trained at it, if not a security guard or three....
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“That was what happened in Houston with the Dolphins’ Paul Warfield, widely...”
– (Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl” (1973), The Great Shark Hunt.)
My football acumen is as deep as a Dixie Cup, but I have always loved the way this careful sketch of wide receiver Warfield makes seeing film of such a play nearly superfluous.
Thompson had a...
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Max Palevsky, Financier, Engineer, HST Footnote,... →
Dotted through the works and letters of Hunter Thompson, careful readers will find references to Max Palevsky:
But by noon the crisis had passed, and somewhere sometime around one he [1972 U.S. Democratic presidential contender George McGovern] arrived with his praetorian guard of eight Secret Service agents at Max Palevsky’s house in Bel Air, where he immediately changed into swimming...
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"Was That Blob in Your Kitchen Born in the Gold... →
The care, feeding, and occasional Frankenstein-like resurrection of sourdough starters:
It’s difficult to prove one way or the other whether starters legitimately bear the legacies they claim. But the baking world is divided by a deeper question: Is it possible to make San Francisco sourdough bread without a starter that first came to life in San Francisco?
In one camp are bakers,...
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Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies... →
The most surprising part of this story was that Buck, who had no artistic background, crafted the design himself.
Mr. Buck’s cup was blue, with a white meander ringing the top and bottom; down each side was a drawing of the Greek vase known as an amphora. (“Anthora” comes from “amphora,” as filtered through Mr. Buck’s Eastern European accent, his son said.) Some later imitators depict fluted...
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"Betting on a New Demographic for OTB": NPR →
In honor of the 136th Kentucky Derby. With bonus appearance by Pat Cooper, whose delivery is well worth the click on the audio archive:
The die-hard regulars, like comedian Pat Cooper, say that’s not going to stop them from gambling. To him, placing money on a horse is the ultimate turn-on.
“I’m not being fresh with you,” Cooper says. “I’m going to tell you honestly. Some...
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"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" →
In May 1970, 40 Derbys ago, the seed of gonzo journalism was planted:
Later Friday afternoon, we went out on the balcony of the press box and I tried to describe the difference between what we were seeing today and what would be happening tomorrow. This was the first time I’d been to a Derby in ten years, but before that, when I lived in Louisville, I used to go every year. Now, looking...
