I'm on vacation for the next month, so this is the last Bonus Bananas you'll see for a few weeks. Hope you dig 'em!
1) Deutsche Bank denies report its CEOs' jobs are at risk (Reuters) - Wow. I guess you can't fail the CFA Level I when you're the CEO of Germany's largest bank. Who knew?
2) The Astounding Conspiracy Theories of Wall Street Genius Mark Gorton (Gawker) - Zoinks. Somebody's been staring at a computer screen for too long. This is a good read, guys.
3) Study: We Peak at Age 24 (Newser) - I wish to God this weren't true, but I can attest that it is. 24 is the golden age; it's all downhill from there.
4) Is Mark Zuckerberg Too Old to Run Facebook? (ValleyWag) - Case in point: at 29 years old, Zuck is over the hill and needs to hand the reins to somebody fresh out of high school if he wants his little computer company to survive.
5) A SILICON VALLEY DISASTER: A 21-Year-Old Stanford Kid Got $30 Million, Then Everything Blew Up (Business Insider) - This is the MUST READ of the week. How the hell could everything go so wrong?
6) US Is an Oligarchy Not a Democracy, says Scientific Study (Common Dreams) - I don't think it's news to anyone that we're a democracy in name only. Sure, we vote. It's our version of King For A Day. But no one with any brains thinks anything other than money pulls the levers of government in the US.
7) FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States (The Onion) - I thought this dovetailed nicely with #6. Yeah, it's The Onion. But it could just as easily be the New York Times.
8) Borgata casino lawsuit: Gambler cheated, won $9.6M (Yahoo! News) - Phil Ivey's in some hot water, and he could really use a good HFT apologist to explain his situation (maybe @"NorthSider" is available?). In essence, all he did was a little pattern recognition and use the house's own equipment against them. How dare they call that cheating?
9) THE WORLD'S LARGEST CHRISTIAN TV NETWORK HAS A LOT TO HIDE (VICE) - I remember the first time I stood in St. Peters at the Vatican. I remember looking around, trying to take it all in, and thinking to myself, "What the hell would a carpenter and fisherman have to say about this place?" And so it goes for the modern Christian mega-churches and media outlets. Jesus is their business, and business is damn good. At least we get Monday off.
10) Man ruins Game of Thrones with series of novels full of spoilers (Underground Magazine) - I'm gonna just give you a minute to think about this one.
Video of the Week:
This might come as a shock to some of you, but I'm not a big fan of musical theatre. (You see what I did there with the re? Better recognize.) That being said, I'll watch anything directed by Clint Eastwood and this trailer for Jersey Boys looks pretty great. Plus it's such a uniquely American story, which I've always thought was cool about the music from this era. I grew up listening to 33 (and even some 78) rpm records on our living room phonograph, and it was always music like this, so I guess it makes me a little nostalgic to boot. Anyway, it looks good, so check it out:
That's it for a whole month, fellas. Have a tremendous weekend, and let me know what you think about this week's Bananas in the comments!
Great list. I read #5 a few days ago and lol'd, then realized how depressing it is this dude could get $30m (for moar paymentz).
I love that he brings in an industry rockstar, the guy looks around and says f this and doesn't last a day. That says a lot.
7 isn't really that far-fetched. Attack the US again and unite everyone together for a common cause? Nah, we'll just step aside and let you guys do you..
3) I turn 24 in 3 weeks, so good to know it's all down hill from there
8) While noticing the defect was a good move, asking for the cards to be flipped and then shuffled only by the automatic machine probably wasn't the best way to go about it. He should maybe just stick to being the best poker player in the world, that's worked out for him so far
When you're given that kind of edge, though, it'd be extremely hard to walk away from that opportunity. It was literally money just sitting on the table waiting to be taken.
For as much as I love gambling I should probably know this, but shouldn't the dealer be a bit reticent if you are instructing him to flip cards in particular ways? That just screams to me that something is amiss. Then again, if you are busy and he is dropping mad money you probably don't get a say.
You'd probably be really surprised what high rollers get away with. The casinos want their business so bad that they bend over backwards for them. A couple months ago I linked to a story about one guy who negotiated a bunch of advantages up front that would never be afforded to regular players and he took the place down for millions.
Casino's are just rich toddlers. When they win they are happy, but GOD if they lose watch out for the biggest tantrum in the world.
re: #5 what a little bitch
The study uses the phrases "economic elites" and "organized interest groups." The former could be a publicly traded corporation, not necessarily a HNW individual. Just because corporate money has sway doesn't mean that that corporation is owned by a billionaire. And as far as the latter, well, that could be powerful unions or AARP or the NRA. Granted, interest groups have money, but describing a powerful union as a "super-rich person" is inaccurate. This aspect of Washington seems to be often overlooked or misunderstood.
Led to some shenanigans when Goldman tried it, too.
Phil Ivey should be given a medal, not a lawsuit.
3) is a joke. Just because some people younger than the age of 24 win at a video game does not mean its all down hill for everyone after their 24th birthday. Case in point: Reed Hastings founded Netflix when he was 38. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon at age 30. The Wright Brothers made their first flight at ages 32 and 36. Mikhail Kalashnikov created the AK-47 when he was 28. Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart at age 44. Howard Schultz did not get control of Starbucks until he was 35. Walt Disney came up with Mickey Mouse at age 27. Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy at age 27. Ray Kroc started working with the McDonald brothers at age 52. John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola at age 55. Henry Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company at age 40. Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity at age 26. Marcus Goldman did not start his bank until he was 48. While there may be kids who are pretty sharp, there's plenty of time to fuck up or hit it out of the park.
Sounds like somebody's over 30...
4 looked interesting but I don't really agree with the points raised. Age is not really a factor in these things.
Great articles this week
3) I think it's pretty absurd to base an idea of human "peaking" off a Space craft 2 game (whatever the fuck that nerd shit is). Perhaps all this article shows is that the peak age for playing highly intricate nerdy video games is 24.
I'd like to see a similar competition done with NES classics like Super Mario 2 or Tecmo Superbowl.
Brain speed might peak around 24 but I'm guessing brain capacity and problem solving ability would peak at some point later. Also, physically humans peak at later ages for many sports and skills, probably attributable to Gladwell's 10,000 hours being easier to achieve during 30's than 20's.
5 It is crazy that after all this he has $20 mn more to burn. I wonder if it will be the pets.com of our time.
Enjoy your time off, Eddie!
Yeah, re: #5, he'll probably end up serving time for fraud of some sort or another. He sounds no different than the pump-and-dumpers trying to keep everyone in on the "next big thing".
A hefty chunk of your articles are part of the same overaching principle.
6 relies on #3 and #9, with a net cultural effect of #7. Translation? Youth are energitic but easily manipulated, people become blinded by belief systems, leading to stagnancy that doesn't rock the boat for elites. Inevitably, stagnant systems either collapse or are conquered by more progressive ones.
The cycle repeats over and over in human history, and one need only look at the end of the 'Gilded Age' in order to get an idea of what to expect next...the mechanisms may vary, but the result will be the same. The key to moving forward starts with understanding that history rhymes, and that we must better ourseves. It's not just a matter of "Science, bitches", at stake is our long term survival, and perhaps the human race will one day outgrow the tendancy to take their own future for granted.
In the age of information, ignorance is a choice, and on top of that you are being deliberately lied to.
3 is embarassingly misguided. Better media outlets have uncovered deeper and wider research that actuall indicates the top age as something along the 40s.
The Atlantic did a pretty good article a couple months ago focused on inventions and the ideas that would earn Noble prizes in the future. For pure knowledge the age is probably even older since we tend to learn more than we forget - bar mental health issues and lazy people.
High level Starcraft is much closely related to reflexes than deep cognitive thinking. And even in that area the research is inconclusive (previous research pointed at 30 as the age for optimal reflexes).
Speaking of age, #4 is also pretty stupid. Zuckerberg would do better to invite his grandpa instead of a kid to run Facebook. Teens will always be trending into the next new thing - the safest cash flows in FB right now are the moms and grandmas all over there. All else equal, older customer segments are more stable customer segments. Teens are expensive and a pain in the ass if your company is maturing.
On a side note, only americans and american haters think US is coming closer to being a bad country in any way. US homeless are still pretty close to being in the world's 1%.
LOL that 40 is the prime age of your life is the shit that women's magazines peddle their readership, I hope none of you are actually buying that.
I would say peak for women is around 20-22, peak for men is 26-28.
Peak for what activity??
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