While I am not a fan of most big firm fundamental analysts, over the years, Merrill Lynch has had some sharp guys in their Chief Strategist/Economist positions. (…)

2. Excesses in one direction will lead to an opposite excess in the other direction.

3. There are no new eras – excesses are never permanent.

4. Exponential rising and falling markets usually go further than you think.

5. The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom.


{ Lessons from Merrill Lynch | via Barry Ritholtz | Continue reading }

Antarctica is warming, but not melting anything like as much as expected. In fact, during the continent’s summer this time last year, there was less melting than at any time in the 30 years that we have had reliable satellite measurements of the region. (…)

Melting in Antarctica happens almost entirely in the summers, which have warmed very little, say Andrew Monaghan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Marco Tedesco of the City College of New York. (…)

But Tedesco warns that as the ozone hole heals in the coming decades, the winds will weaken, the continent will become much warmer in summer – and melting will increase.

{ New Scientist | Continue reading }

An iceberg that broke off of Antarctica in 2000 is headed toward Australia. Usually, they circulate around Antarctica due to currents there but this one managed to escape, and is drifting northeast toward Australia’s south-southwest coast. Since it broke off the main ice mass it shrank from 140 square kilometers down to 115 square km. Manhattan is 88 sq km. It would fit comfortably inside that iceberg.

{ Discover | Continue reading }

related { Frozen Britain seen from satellite | Plus: A deluge of overnight snow has left much of Britain paralysed, with airports closed, schools shut, normally-busy roads impassable and train lines all but empty. 10 ways to cope with snow. }

{ A Billboard analysis of 2009 SoundScan data shows a digital slowdown has arrived. In terms percentage and unit change, digital sales growth slowed immensely last year after three years of steady gains. As the graph below shows, annual changes in digital album and track sales have fallen sharply in the last two years. In other words, there are fewer additional tracks and digital albums purchased each year. | Billboard | Continue reading }

The number of visitors to New York City fell last year for the first time since 2001, but declines in tourism elsewhere across the United States made it the most popular destination in the country for the first time in almost two decades, tourism officials said Monday. (…)

Other hot spots were hit harder, making New York America’s No. 1 destination for the first time since 1990, the mayor said. For nearly two decades, that title was held by either Las Vegas or Orlando.

{ Washington Post | Continue reading }

photo { Alex Tehrani }

Bananas are just a fruit, how are they considered a global issue?

Although bananas may only look like a fruit, they represent a wide variety of environmental, economic, social, and political problems. The banana trade symbolizes economic imperialism, injustices in the global trade market, and the globalization of the agricultural economy. Bananas are also number four on the list of staple crops in the world and one of the biggest profit makers in supermarkets, making them critical for economic and global food security. As one of the first tropical fruits to be exported, bananas were a cheap way to bring “the tropics” to North America and Europe. Bananas have become such a common, inexpensive grocery item that we often forget where they come from and how they got here.

{ The Science Creative Quaterly | Continue reading }

related { Why we slip }

‘Pirate Philosophy’ explores how the development of various forms of so-called internet piracy is affecting ideas of the author, the book, the scholarly journal, peer review, intellectual property, copyright law, content creation and cultural production that were established pre-internet. To this end it contains a number of contributions that engage with the philosophy of internet piracy, as well as the emergence out of peer-to-peer file sharing networks of actual social movements - even a number of political ‘Pirate Parties’.

{ Culture Machine | Continue reading }

New York übergallerist Jeffrey Deitch is reportedly being ushered in tomorrow as the newest director of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art. This? Gamechanger.

Electing someone like Deitch, whose clout in the commercial art world is manifest, as head of a major non-profit cultural institution like MOCA, is a bold move by the board. (…)

Deitch is a jack-of-all-trades on the East Coast contemporary art scene, The Godfather of youthful creatives (Kehinde Wiley, Dash Snow, Tauba Auerbach, Ryan McGinness) with a background in corporate business sense (a Harvard MBA, founder of Citibank’s art advisory practice, independent consultant for various well-heeled collectors). He solidified his rep on the downtown arts scene in 1996 with the foundation of Deitch Projects, after running in circles with art world glitterati (Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente) for twenty years. He is, as New York art critic Jerry Saltz noted, the “consummate insider with credibility and real-world skills,” a player who knows how to make money from art.

Why’s this such a big deal? MOCA—which only survived complete financial meltdown in 2008 thanks to a $30 million infusion from financier Eli Broad—is making a high-profile gamble by appointing Deitch. No other major museum in the United States has tapped a gallery owner as its resident dictator, a position that traditionally relies on an academic tradition of patronage, politics, and presentation. Can someone so skilled in the market sector of the art world switch horses midstream and solicit donations? Can he be accountable to the needs of the board, museum staff, donors, and public at large? Can he helm an exhibition canon that makes art both accessible for the masses and transcendent to the cognoscenti?!

{ Gawker | Continue reading }

The co-chairs of the board of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art say they were aware from the start that hiring Jeffrey Deitch as MOCA director would raise questions about possible conflicts of interest.

After all, Deitch has made a 30-year career of buying and selling art, turning the inspirations and labors of artists and the desires and calculations of collectors into a lucrative business.

As MOCA’s director, he’ll have the ultimate say over which artists get exhibited — potentially boosting their prestige and asking price. And when MOCA borrows privately owned pieces for its shows, there’s the possibility that being in the public eye in the company of other notable art will make those works more marketable and valuable.

While Deitch has agreed to end his commercial art activities by June 1, when he starts his new job, there’s nothing to stop people from speculating about his decisions.

After helping to introduce Deitch at a news conference at the museum Tuesday, co-chairs Maria Bell and David Johnson said that Deitch is a man of integrity. He would also be violating his employment contract, they said, if he were to use his position to improperly benefit himself or his friends and former business associates.

{ LA Times | Continue reading }

photo { Julie Atlas Muz, Jeffrey Deitch, and Bambi the Mermaid }

For many years now, neuroscientists have been telling the subjects of experiments something like this: “Please lie in the MRI scanner and relax. When you see the task instructions come onto the screen in front of you, do your best.” The researcher would then use the brain’s activity during the “lie there and relax” period as a mere control condition; the object of scientific interest was always what “lights up” when a subject reads, makes financial decisions or performs some other task.

That has changed. It is now appreciated that the mind never rests.  (..)

For the first time, functional measures of the resting brain are providing new insights into network properties of the brain that are associated with IQ scores. In essence, they suggest that in smart people, distant areas of the brain communicate with each other more robustly than in less smart people.

{ Scientific American | Continue reading }

related photo { How to train the aging brain }

{ 1,5 gram bag of Playboy-branded heroin, $10, NYC, 1990s | scanned from Colors }

A gigantic, bullet-scarred black bear with a hankering for human food and a knack for breaking and entering has been terrorizing homeowners on the north shore of Lake Tahoe and deftly outmaneuvering gun-toting rangers, bear dogs and traps.

The burly bruin - a male that weighs an estimated 700 pounds, roughly twice the poundage of the average adult black bear - has broken into and ransacked dozens of homes in Incline Village since last summer, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and more than a few sleepless nights. (…)

Lackey said the bear is unusually smart. He has eluded the Karelian Bear Dogs that were put on his trail and waltzes right by bear traps. He even knows the garbage pickup dates in certain neighborhoods and routinely shows up to feast when cans are full, Lackey said.

The bear often leaves a humongous, smelly deposit as a kind of calling card.

{ San Francisco Chronicle | Continue reading }

In November 2002, an obscure Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman caused a sensation in the mathematical community when he posted the first in a series of papers proving the most famous unsolved problem in topology: the Poincaré conjecture. He caused another sensation four years later when he was awarded the Fields medal - the “mathematics Nobel” - for his work, declined to accept it, and then left mathematics altogether. When last heard of, he was living a reclusive existence at his mother’s home in St Petersburg.

{ NewScientist | Continue reading }

Russian math prodigy Grigory Perelman should be a celebrated millionaire. Instead, he is a poor recluse who lives with his mother.

In 2006, Sir John Ball, the president of the International Mathematical Union, travelled to St. Petersburg hoping to convince Grigory Perelman to accept his place as the most celebrated mathematician alive.

Ball spent two days there, locked in an increasingly desperate argument with Perelman, a haughty, dishevelled 39-year-old. Ball asked Perelman to accept a Fields Medal, the highest award for achievement in mathematics. The Fields is given out every four years, to as few as two recipients. Perelman, the man who had solved the insoluble Poincaré Conjecture, refused the award. Four years earlier, he had turned down a $1 million prize for the same solution.

Ball first tried to convince Perelman to travel to Spain for the ceremony. Since Perelman rarely left the dilapidated flat he shared with his mother, that went nowhere. Ball suggested Perelman skip the ceremony, but accept the award. He declined again. Eventually, Ball left, baffled and frustrated. The prize was awarded to Perelman anyway.

{ The Star | Continue reading | Perelman in a Subway [pics] }

related { It may be no accident that, while some of the best American mathematical minds worked to solve one of the century’s hardest problems—the Poincaré Conjecture—it was a Russian mathematician working in Russia who, early in this decade, finally triumphed. | Wall Street Journal }

A year ago, we planned to do the entire construction of our new home in 12 months. Everyone told us it was an impossible deadline. Well, almost everyone: Our builder told us from day one that we would be hosting our family in the new home on Christmas day. We didn’t know if he was the last optimist in the world or the best builder in the universe. But we liked his
style.

There have been complications along the way. Man, have there been complications. Every step has been like planning a walk on Mars. For example, the power company wouldn’t give us electricity until the city’s
building inspector approved the home for occupancy. And the building inspector wouldn’t approve the home until the power was on. (Huh?) Now multiply that problem times the 400-or-so people who worked on the project, either directly or indirectly. And imagine Shelly and me trying to pick everything from the color of the outlets to the curvy shape on the top of the baseboards.

For the past month, dust was literally rising from the construction zone. Workers were on top of each other. Our builder, who is the most gifted project manager I have ever witnessed, was solving a seemingly unsolvable problem every ten minutes. All knowledgeable observers told us we wouldn’t be in by Christmas. It simply wasn’t possible. It wasn’t even close to possible.

We scheduled the movers for the weekend before Christmas, and e-mailed party invitations to family members for Christmas eve. We didn’t want our builder to be the last optimist in the world.

Ten days ago, we didn’t have a driveway. Rain was forecast. Lots of it. The sky turned grey. Neighbors saw worker’s trucks lined around the block. They knew we were serious about getting in by Christmas. They also knew it was impossible. The rain alone would be enough to stop us. You can’t move
furniture over mud. You need a driveway.

We started packing our boxes.

The rain came. The driveway guys had huge plastic tarps. They worked between wet spells. The sound of drilling, sawing, and some of the most creative cussing you have ever heard emanated from the property. I guess no one told the crew working on the project that finishing by Christmas was impossible.

About a week ago, in the evening, I got a voice mail from our builder, Dave. He said, in construction lingo, that the panel was hot. We had power. It was the last major obstacle to occupancy. Inspections and approvals would follow quickly.

I can’t fully describe how the news made me feel. It was powerful. When the house became part of the electrical grid, it was if it became alive. The HVAC units rumbled and the structure breathed. Warm water circulated throughout the floors of the home to keep it at the perfect temperature. Soon after, the equipment rack in the wiring closet lit up, and the house had a brain. The brain connected to the Internet and became part of the world. It was a stucco baby delivered by 400 doctors. (…)

The movers estimated that we had 17,000 pounds of furniture and boxes to move from our old home and my old office. We thought we might have time to unpack some of them before our 35 relatives arrived and wondered what they were going to eat for Christmas Eve. We would need to lift and push and pull that 17,000 pounds ourselves about three more times after it got inside the house, and we needed to do it over a weekend. It was clearly an impossible task. Then Shelly told me that we were going to get a Christmas tree and decorate that too. That’s how we roll. If it doesn’t seem at least a little bit impossible, we’re not interested.

{ Scott Adams | Continue reading }

Eric Rohmer, the French critic and filmmaker who was one of the founding figures of the French New Wave and the director of more than 50 films, including the Oscar-nominated “My Night at Maud’s,” died on Monday in Paris. He was 89.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

“The Moral Tales” and the cycles that followed — the six “Comedies and Proverbs” in the 1980s and the “Tales of the Four Seasons” in the 1990s — are the essential Rohmer. Other filmmakers manufacture sequels or burrow repeatedly into genres. His cycles are unusual in the way that they arrange self-contained narratives around themes, ideas and suggestive anecdotes. They don’t make arguments so much as offer slightly different views of similar problems. What happens when we fall in or out of love? How do accidental occurrences impinge on our plans and ambitions? What happens next?

These are not necessarily timeless questions, at least not in the way that fundamental problems of philosophy are. But they are always part of life, and framing them — in language and in pictures, the constituent elements of Mr. Rohmer’s movies (he rarely used music) — is what art does. Classicism is an approach that takes up these problems as they occur, without worrying too much about their contemporary relevance or their permanence.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

video { Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse, 1967 | See also: Ma nuit chez Maud , 1969 }

‘Vampire Leader’ sentenced for threatening to torture, dismember judge.

The couple who share their bed with a deer.

Study suggests that staring at women’s breasts is good for men’s health and increases their life expectancy.

Boy, 12, robs store with a toy gun.

New airport scanners break child porn laws.

Ex-soldier, 41, who had sex with 13-year-old girl spared jail as woman judge says teenager ‘did most of the running.’

Detectives linked him to a rash of unusual burglaries at dental clinics and dental laboratories in Seattle. Prosecutors allege that Carlson would steal gold fillings and raw gold used to make fillings and turn around and sell it at a tidy profit.

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

Scientists are studying the babble of monkeys and apes in the hope of finding the key to how human communication evolved.

Antisocial fish are more likely to invade new environments.

The recession was less calamitous than many feared. Its aftermath will be more dangerous than many expect. Plus: America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels.

The Federal Reserve earned $45 billion in 2009. Essentially all that $45 billion was earned by one profit center, the New York Fed.

Major U.S. banks paid out $145 billion in compensation in 2009, up 18% from 2008.

In May 2004, I was hired for an unusual job: The U.S. State Department contracted DynCorp International, a private military company, to build Liberia’s army. I was tapped as an architect of this new force. Today the stage is Afghanistan. The lessons of Liberia may help.

As we all know, time flies when you’re having fun. But according to a study in the journal Psychological Science, the reverse is just as true: we enjoy ourselves more when we think time passes quickly.

Morbid warnings on cigarette packs could encourage some people to smoke. Related: Weight gain from quitting smoking linked to diabetes.

Scientists look to tobacco leaves for biofuel.

The intriguing smile of the Mona Lisa was the result of very high levels of cholesterol, according to a medical expert.

Computer algorithm identifies authentic Van Gogh. Previously: 902 letters from and to Van Gogh.

This article in the Los Angeles Times informs us that there’s an art blog that spoofs paintings by posting alternative captions.

The most important medical breakthroughs of the 2000s. Plus: The top 10 stories of the last 4.5 billion years.

Can sex offenders have children? Why have I never seen a female gas station attendant? Unanswered Questions From 2009.

2010: a prediction. We won’t cure cancer or AIDS or poverty. We won’t win the war on drugs. On terror. On adult illiteracy. On unemployment. We won’t win. The year of more of the same. [More] Related: The 10 worst predictions for 2009 and the decade in logos.

2010 predictions for Google and Apple.

Apple vs. Google. Who’s going to win the great mobile-phone war? Related: Part of my main issue with Android, and this applies slightly less to HTC Sense UI handsets, is that there’s practically no human emotion with Google when it comes to technology. Plus: Waterproof case and integrated waterproof headphone system lets you enjoy your music on your iPod shuffle while you swim.

Google threatened to pull out of its operations in China after it said it had uncovered a massive cyber attack on its computers that originated there. And: Google’s threat echoed everywhere, except China.

What my parents did not realize was that they could have nearly eliminated those charges if they had set up their (in this case) iPhone and BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile Internet calling services: That $1.29-a-minute charge would have gone down to a much more reasonable 2.4 cents a minute (or nothing at all if they were on a Wi-Fi network).

Lady Gaga has signed a multiyear deal with Polaroid — not only to be a face for the instant-photography brand, but also to help the company develop new cameras and accessories.

Courtney Love unveils her new flower tattoos.

Examine Netflix rental patterns, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a dozen cities. Plus: The weirdest zip codes on the New York Times Netflix map.

The year of the paywall. Newspapers will try to persuade online readers to pay in 2010.

NYU bought the Forbes building in Manhattan, the publishing company said Thursday, part of the Forbes family’s continuing efforts to offset steep advertising declines at its namesake magazine.

Mag+, a concept video on the future of digital magazines.

The translation gap: Why more foreign writers aren’t published in America.

What the Burj Kahlifa—the tallest building in the world—owes to Frank Lloyd Wright.

The truly original thing about ”Rapper’s Delight.”

Steroids make you big and strong. Do you know what else happens? A firsthand account from a man who will never do it again.

Here’s the deal: Not only does the G-spot exist, it is very easily found.

New ‘lifelike’ sex doll is still weird, not lifelike.

Using children’s stuffed animals in an adult boutique campaign? Maybe not the right way to go.

Artist’s prize-winning work is destroyed. (It’s what he wanted.)

Surface area of the Earth [pie chart].

People playing chess on roller coasters. [pics]

One year in 120 seconds. [video]

Start walking, build up momentum…

Spiderman missed his train.

Self portrait w/ self portrait.

Faces. Related: Paper Surgery.

…you guys have the same last name?

{ 1995you }

People rarely say what they mean when targeting a goal because the indirect route is usually more efficient in the context of working within a collective where others have competing goals, and so selectively emphasizing process or results to the act or the rule, allows a great deal of rationalization.

{ Falken blog | Continue reading }

In the latest edition of Mind Matters, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli and John Gabrieli of MIT outline some interesting new research on the link between resting state activity - the performance of the brain when it’s lying still in a brain scanner, doing nothing but daydreaming - and general intelligence.

It turns out that cultivating an active idle mind, or teaching yourself how to daydream effectively, might actually encourage the sort of long-range neural connections that make us smart. At the very least, it’s time we stop discouraging kids from staring out the classroom window, because mind wandering isn’t a waste of time

{ The Frontal Cortex/ScienceBlogs | Continue reading }

photo { Christophe Kutner, Road trip 2 }

{ John Richardson photographed by Mark Heithoff }

For once, social scientists have discovered a flaw in the human psyche that will not be tedious to correct. You may not even need a support group. You could try on your own by starting with this simple New Year’s resolution: Have fun … now!

Then you just need the strength to cash in your gift certificates, drink that special bottle of wine, redeem your frequent flier miles and take that vacation you always promised yourself. If your resolve weakens, do not succumb to guilt or shame. Acknowledge what you are: a recovering procrastinator of pleasure.

It sounds odd, but this is actually a widespread form of procrastination — just ask the airlines and other marketers who save billions of dollars annually from gift certificates that expire unredeemed. (…)

But it has taken awhile for psychologists and behavioral economists to analyze this condition. Now they have begun to explore the strange impulse to put off until tomorrow what could be enjoyed today.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }