1) Death of a Madman (Slate) - Obviously bin Laden is the story of the week. This is Christopher Hitchens's take on it, and he asks what I've been wondering since the news broke: are we to believe that Pakistan didn't know he was there all along?
2) Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg buys house in Palo Alto (Contra Costa Times) - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, described by Tyler Winklevoss as "the poorest rich person I've ever seen in my life" due to his affinity for rented housing found on Craigslist, has finally purchased his first home. He bought a 5,000 sq ft pad 10 minutes from the new Facebook headquarters for a cool $7 million.
3) Peter Thiel's College Bubble Theory Gains Few Believers (Huffington Post) - While we're on the subject of Facebook, Paypal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel is paying kids to drop out of college. You read that right. He set up a foundation to offer 20 college students under age 20 $100,000 to drop out of school and become a tech entrepreneur. Escalating tuition costs combined with degree dilution has more than a few people thinking twice about college today.
4) How Many Calories Would You Burn If You Switched to a Standing Desk? (LifeHacker) - Could you imagine standing at your desk for 12-18 hours a day? Well, if you need to lose some weight maybe you should. Here is a handy calculator for figuring out how many calories you'd burn by switching to a standing desk.
5) Commodities the next CMOs? Money managers square off. (Investment News) - Do you think commodities are a bubble? Or do you think we're in for permanently higher commodity prices? This is an interesting discussion of the two schools of thought and how money managers are positioning themselves to take advantage of the moves.
6) Topless sunbathing goes out of style (The Local) - I've mentioned this on the site before, but it bears mentioning again as we head into the warm summer months and many of you are planning European travel. The days of topless dime pieces littering Mediterranean beaches are over. For some reason (this article blames it on all the pervy guys), the younger generation of women have no interest in going au naturel. But the older gals still strip off, so if that's your thing fair play to you.
7) Funding SETI’s Antenna Operations (Continuations) - Okay, I'm going a little off the reservation here, but Albert Wenger makes a compelling case as to why we should be looking for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe (because God knows there's not enough of it here). Plus he introduces the nifty term "long tail species risk". Check it out.
8) An American Commando in Exile (Men's Journal) - This is the story of Xe (née Blackwater) founder Erik Prince and the various and sundry problems that led him to abandon the United States for Abu Dhabi. Seemed fitting on the week that actual US military personnel (you know - the guys who don't do it for the money...) achieved a 10-year objective to spotlight the guy who leads the for-profit war machine we've come to rely so heavily upon.
9) 10 More Reasons You Need to Quit Your Job Right Now! (Altucher Confidential) - Another great piece from James that accompanies his recent appearance on the Daily Ticker. It's not aimed at the 10% of you who love your job, but at the 90% of you who hate it.
10) Spend It Like You Stole It From The Fed (Forbes) - A follow up to Matt Taibbi's skewering of the TALF deal set up by John Mack's wife. More important, the article brings up MIT's Billion Prices Project, which is a much more accurate measure of inflation than the CPI. According to BPP, we're already tracking 7.4% inflation over the last three months. Scary.
The video for the week this week is a little on the puerile side, but what can I say? I'm a kid at heart, and dick and fart jokes still get me. The Change-Up is another in a long line of done-to-death Freaky Friday switcheroo movies, but this one looks like it actually has potential. Plus, where else are you gonna hear the line, "I've got freckles on my taint! How awesome is that?!" Enjoy:
Have a great weekend, guys!
Too much to comment on right now. But on one issue...
I used to have my monitor and keyboard set up on an arm that could rise up if I chose to stand and work. Incredibly useful. Also forces you to think from a different perspective.
Yeah these college bills are extremely expensive and what makes it worse is when you don't have a rich parents and you have to take loans. You essentially have a mortgage that your paying for the next 10+ years.
Christopher Hitchens? I'm disappointed Eddie. He's a worthless hack if there ever was one.
At least inflation is high enough to beat down college debt ;)
I've always said, it finally became more politically valuable to them to just 'give' him up than it did to continue blindly turning an eye to his whereabouts. Of course they knew about his location, he was in a former/current Pakistani special forces stronghold. If that doesn't scream government sponsorship or protection, or at the very least passive support, I don't know what does.
How is this newsworthy? I understand the celebrity hoopla, but I don't see why someone's home purchase needs to get reported on.
Interesting to see his formula. By that logic, how many kids on here shouldn't be in school? If we're assuming $120,000 on average out of school, getting anything less than a half-ride to school means you're violating Thiel's rule.
Phenomenal read, that's all I can say.
6) Come to Barcelona and you'll see that certain traditions are alive and well
Thank God. I've got a villa booked in Barcelona for the end of June.
It's an incredible city, and you'll get perfect weather in late June. I've been fortunate enough to live here for a few months so if you need any recommendations on bars, restaurants, clubs, tourist spots, day trips, etc shoot me a PM.
1 is great. Hitchens is an insane writer.
$7M for a billionaire? What's with that guy?
He's only a billionaire in paper. It only becomes liquid when he cashes out which he (supposedly) has no plans of doing.
What's he actually got, liquid?
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