DAILY PHOTO: Desert Village
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PROMPT: Changed Your Life
What’s a song that changed your life?
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I like music as much as the next guy, but “changed your life” is a pretty high bar — unless one was rocking out so hard that one ran into a telephone pole, and I can’t say anything like that has ever happened to me.
I have been working up the nerve to listen to that Hungarian song, Gloomy Sunday (Szomorú Vasárnap,) that supposedly causes a disproportionate number of listeners to commit suicide, but I guess I don’t really want a song to change my life that much — though my curiosity has been known to get the better of me.
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DAILY PHOTO: Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon
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PROMPT: Cryptocurrency
What are your thoughts about cryptocurrency?
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Cryptocurrency is the ultimate symbol of the absurdity of our species. People are using tremendous amounts of electricity to “mine coin,” running up everyone’s electricity bills and hastening climate disruption for a something that can lose value in an instant in any number of ways from governments enforcing a monopoly on minting money to buyers realizing that not everything that is kept scarce has inherent value. (One-armed juggling midgets are rare, but there’re not any giving Elon Musk (Vladimir Putin?) a run for his money for the highest net worth slot.) It will have a prominent role in the second great depression, mark my words. Ballooning pseudo-value may kill us all.
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DAILY PHOTO: Young Zebra at the Scratching Post
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PROMPT: Life Philosophy
If you had to sum up your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?
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No one understands what life, or this world, is well enough to be intolerant or angst-ridden.
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DAILY PHOTO: Karon Beach, Phuket
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PROMPT: A Few Recent Shots
Share a few recent shots from your camera roll, no context needed.
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BOOK: “Reinventing the Bazaar” by John McMillan
Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Norton
This is a highly readable overview of markets: how they work, how they fail, what they’re good for, and what they aren’t. It’s an objective accounting of markets that neither cheerleads nor condemns but rather seeks to get at how markets form a system that is at once both the best of worlds and the worst.
The key to this book’s success is the selection of case studies, many of which are fascinating. While the subtitle, “A Natural History of Markets,” might lead the reader to think that this is a much bigger and more boring book than it is, McMillan actually picks a case or two to illustrate each of the seventeen topical chapters. Topics include: the peculiarities of markets for information, approaches to auctions, issues around intellectual property, inequality, governance and policy interaction with markets, etc.
It’s not easy to enjoy reading a book about economics, but this one certainly draws the reader into its web. I’d highly recommend this as a go-to guide for anyone who wants a compelling and objective introduction to markets.
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DAILY PHOTO: Kok Jaiyk Valley
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