1) The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy (Forbes) - Judging by how many WSO members survive all-nighters by using 5-Hour Energy, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the founder's a billionaire. But if you thought Steve Jobs was a hippy, Manoj Bhargava is gonna take it to whole new level for you. That the whole company was essentially an afterthought only adds to the mystique of this billionaire monk.
2) Goldman Sachs P.R. Chief’s Accidental Exit Interview (NY Times) - It's hard for a hack like me to imagine Goldman Sachs without the inimitable Lucas van Praag (or LvP, as he's come to be known) at the helm of their public relations department. At least he's going out with his signature snark and wit intact.
3) For the startup generation, Wall Street loses its luster (USA Today) - It seems Wall Street is no longer the hip place to work for today's kids weaned on tales of Internet billionaires. Even more to the point, folks are walking away from Wall Street gigs to play Start-Up Roulette. Could this be the re-alignment of priorities the country has been looking for?
4) Silicon Valley's dirty little secret: The 'Startup Boom' is a disguised jobs fair for big corporations (ZDNet) - Probably not. According to this ZDNet article, start-ups are being acquired by large corporations not because the corporations are interested in the next big thing. They're being acquired just to put the talented founders to work in the software engineering salt mines of the parent company. Sigh.
5) Stanford had secret fund for bribes, yacht: witness (Reuters) - It scares me how much Allen Stanford and I have in common (aside from the private jets, massive yachts, and the world class cricket pitch on an island paradise, of course). As often happens, a trusted confidant is selling the Texas billionaire Ponzi schemer down the river by revealing the SocGen slush fund Stanford used to pay bribes, keep fuel in his jet, and maintain his yacht. Oh well, Al. We'll always have Antigua.
6) “Never Follow Your Dreams”: Mark Cuban Answers Your Questions (Freakonomics) - The Q&A posts have become such a hit on WSO that I knew you guys would want to see this one. Mark Cuban spends a lot of time answering all kinds of questions in this article, and he has some interesting things to say about Wall Street, taxation, and returning the stock market to its roots.
7) The Internet is a Major Driver of the Growth of Cognitive Inequality (Mother Jones) - This piece is worth reading just for the conclusion: the Internet makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter. I'm fascinated by what this simple fact will mean to the evolution of our species. Could we be moving towards a race of smart lazy people? (fingers crossed)
8) We, the Web Kids (The Atlantic) - I consider most manifestos a low form of navel gazing, and this one is mostly no different, but it at least brings up some important points. To wit: the Internet is something that happened to my generation, but it is your generation's whole life. And this is what brings a smile to the face of my inner anarchist: this generational gulf could spell the end of all central government everywhere in the next century.
9) Infographic Of The Day: America’s Strange Attitudes Toward Food (Co.Design) - Anyone interested in diet and nutrition will find this worthwhile. It's not going to surprise anyone that Americans on average consume the greatest number of calories on a daily basis (3,770). What might surprise you is that the rest of the Western world isn't far behind (Europe averages about 3,600). But Americans spend less than half as much per calorie as the rest of the world, and that's why we're so fat.
10) BREAKING: Lohse '12 Reports on Hazing, Kim Inaction, D Leaks to Administration (Dartblog) - Okay, Dartmouth, what the fuck? I threw this one in here just for the shock value alone. How many of you Frat Rats had to swim through vomit, urine, feces, and semen and drink beer from another dude's ass crack just to pledge? Horrifying stuff. Thank you, sir, may I have another?
Which brings us to the Video of the Week. If you haven't seen any of The Gentlemen's Rant, go check 'em all out when you get a chance. But that last bit about Dartmouth frats instantly made me think of this video. Enjoy:
That's it for this week, guys. Have a great weekend and let me know what you think about this week's Bananas in the comments. Especially if you're an ass crack sippin' Dartmouth mo.
Thought this was interesting...
Some good bonus bananas this week.
LOL, Eddie. I just realized that you edit the time of your post. I always pictured you staring intently at a stop-watch, making sure that your blog is posted at 8:00am sharp.
This made me LOL, mostly because that's exactly how we did it for the first couple years before we installed the scheduling module. This post was actually finished on Wednesday.
Holy shit. I have a newfound respect for Dartmouth.
I stopped reading after "I am in favor of a 'Tobin Tax'".
Truer words are seldom spoken.
Dude is incredibly intelligent and much more 'in touch' than I expected.
Holy shit this guy nets 300 million on a billion in sales, nice little business.
Nice post EB really enjoyed these Bonus Bananas Edition
Nice bonus. Thumbs up.
edit: Oh man, that also means that there are people who eat more than 3770 calories every day. What. The. F**k.
MInddddddddddd trippppp.
Fuck, I could eat 3500 calories.. no problems.
@Hamilton The number was pretty shocking to me too, and I'm a fat fuck. When I was doing the Slow Carb Diet, you're encouraged to have one "cheat day" a week where you can eat anything you want and the more the better. I made it my mission to really knock it out of the park on cheat day, but despite my best efforts I was never able to make it to 6,000 calories for the day, and I started feeling really sick around 4,800.
Now think about that - for the average to be 3,700 a bunch of people have to be consuming ~5,000+ per day. I am a seriously fat fuck but couldn't do it one day a week without feeling sick. That just staggers my mind.
An 'Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon Burger Super Sized Value Meal' is 1610 calories or about 43% of that 3770 number. I can definitely some fat fucks out there eating that volume of McDonalds in one sitting on a disgustingly regular basis.
A big breakfast with hot cakes and a large coke is 1400 calories.
Large White Castle Chocolate Shake is 1680 calories alone.
I need a shower just typing this, it makes me feel gross.
As a skinny guy 3,500 sounds like a ton. 5,000 a day every day and i think i would collapse.
Jesus fuck, I'm 5'10", 19 years old and gain weight on anything more than 2000 calories or so. Currently on a 13-1500 calorie per day diet to lose some weight.
I'm calling bullshit on the 3770 number. ANY adult will gain a ton of weight on that, literally all of America would be obese. That's like 3 chipotle burritos per day. Nearly impossible. Especially since your metabolism slows down as you age.
EDIT: I found this:
The reason the United Nations FAO number is higher is because it includes not just the calories Americans are eating but also the calories wasted to "spoilage, plate waste, and cooking". See the USDA Agriculture Factbook.
this has been said elsewhere, but the Dartmouth hazing allegations are from the same Lohse that was caught doing lines of coke off his house composites. his last (moderately successful) attempt to get attention was attacking bridgewater's campus recruiting program. now he's moved on from bandwagon riding to shock value.
Calories are actually irrelevant in determining weight loss / gain. If the whole "eat more calories than you burn then you get fat" hypothesis were actually true, we would all be morbidly obese or completely emaciated. Think about it. One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. Thus if you were to eat only 20 calories too many per day (which is like 3 potato chips), you would gain roughly 2 pounds of body fat per year, so in 25 years you would have gained 50 pounds of fat. And that's if you were only off by 20 calories, which is pretty damn close to a perfectly balanced energy equation.
The only thing that matters is carbohydrate intake. Eat no carbs, get lean; eat carbs (particularly starches and sugars), get fat.
This logic is...wrong.
You eat 20 calories more than maintenance each day- you slowly gain weight. Your number of maintenance calories increases (the heavier you are the more calories you expend, even when at rest). If you continually eat 20 cal/day over maintenance that means you are eating more and more food every day, perpetually. This is a pretty good way to put on 50 lbs of fat in 25 years.
Thanks for trying.
You do realize how few calories 20 is right? We're not talking about eating a second slice of pizza every meal. We're talking about a sip of orange juice or a couple potato chips. You really think people that don't gain weight have their calories in / calories burned equation balanced down to the bite?
Ed, thanks for posting number 1. I am in the middle of working on a start-up. Mr. Bhargava's story is beyond inspiring.
Good luck, man. I spent some time at Launchpad NOLA yesterday, and it's impossible to come away from that and not be really jazzed. It also hammered home what a cynical dick I've become. It was really good to see the founders of start-ups with really great ideas and a perfectly reasonable expectation of success. Made me wish I were 20 years younger.
If you eat 20 calories over your total required, you won't gain 50 lbs in 25 years. You would keep gaining weight until your maintenance calories is plus 20; then you would stop gaining weight. And calories are everything in determining weight loss/gain. If you eat more, you gain weight; if you eat less, you lose weight.
Really? You really think if you didn't eat carbs for a few days you'd be headed for your death bed? It's actually quite the opposite. There's a reason there is no such thing as an "essential carbohydrate." It's because your body doesn't need them. If you are in a state of ketosis, ketones supply 3/4 of the energy to the brain (and work just fine), and the rest of the brain's required energy comes from glucose synthesized from amino acids or glycerol, a compound that is released when triglycerides are broken down into fatty acids.
Carbs fuck with your kidneys because they make the kidneys hang on to salt which in turn causes your body to retain water and bloat you out. So no carbs is actually better for your kidneys and your overall water balance.
You missed my point with the 20 calories example. My point was that it is basically impossible to perfectly balance the calories in / calories out equation so if the calories-determine-weight gain / loss-crowd were right then even missing by an infinitesimal amount on a consistent basis (which WOULD happen) would add up over the long run. 20 calories is like 2 potato chips. That's a pretty slim margin for error. Let's assume you're right and after a year of eating 2 extra potato chips a day, your weight "resets." So what if now you take an extra sip of Coke in addition to the two potato chips? I guess you're back on the road to weight gain? Keep in mind we are talking about 20 calories - most people would miss by hundreds if not thousands of calories per day. Eddie's example had Americans consuming 3,770 calories per day. If we're only supposed to be eating 2,000, then by your logic most Americans should be gaining a pound of fat every two days. I know we Americans are overweight, but I'm pretty sure most people are not putting on 182.5 pounds of fat per year.
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