informationarbitrage:

…There is one other dimension that hastened LTCM’s decline and why the JP Morgan story isn’t close to being done - market knowledge. Once the market knew that LTCM was in trouble, the leaned hard against their positions until they cracked. Now LTCM’s capital base is a tiny fraction of JP Morgan’s, but what if $2 billion turned into $5 billion? Or $10 billion? Every sophisticated market participant is causing JP Morgan maximum pain, and it is simply a question of high-stakes poker. But let me assure you, JP Morgan is not holding many cards right now. 

Floating Bonsai!!!

Taken with intsagram

The things I get up to when I have no weekend plans…

Taken with instagram

The Hood Internet - Mixtape Volume 6

Another winner. Lately I have been like a teenager, listening to records over and over and over. This one definitely got that treatment at work. Nothings beats electronic, hip-hop dance tracks when you are doing serious data analysis.

Frightening but fascinating.

The fact that I am not a psychopath will keep me from posting this to facebook amidst all the baby pics currently clogging my newsfeed. 

Great article by the Globe & Mail on how price, above all other factors, is what leads to environmental reform.

The author cites Denmark as the test case. While wind makes up 20% of total energy, the rest comes from coal. The real environmental savings have come from reduced consumption, due to high prices. When a car is taxed at 180%, you buy a smaller car, or use a bike. When energy costs 3 times as much as we pay, you put on a sweater. This has allowed DK to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 13%, while ours has increased by 30%.

The solution should be simple, but given that last years provincial election platform featured high energy prices, and that Toronto is actually removing bike lanes, I think the chance of any real reform is slim.

Though I did just get a notice saying my windows would be resealed, patio door replaced and that low flow shower heads and energy efficient light bulbs would be put in- so maybe change is coming. 

Watch three grandmothers watch the Kim Kardashian sex tape.

If this is some sort of viral marketing for an updated version of the Golden Girls, colour me impressed

The amount of unconscious rocking out that comes with this song has garnered many strange looks from my co-workers. 

A visual history of Spadina Avenue (via BlogTO)

Cain’s Arcade

Watch this kid have the best day of his life. So great.

I did this as a kid too, except I set up a cardboard cubicle and pretended to work on banking regulation… living the dream now!

Saw these guys Saturday, have been listening to the album all week

It wont happen under Ford, but this is the type of thing cities should be focusing on.

Alive Inside-  Henry (via Reddit)

Really heartwarming. But I doubt this would work for my generation. I love music, and have something playing for at least a couple of hours every day. But because of the plethora of new music coming out, the ease of access (i.e. my loose morals re: piracy), and the huge spectrum of different types of sounds/genres, I doubt I would have the same emotional reaction. My favorite bands, even genres, have changed so much over the last couple of years. I have over 450 albums, 5200 songs on my computer, and that will only grow. But there is only handful of bands/songs that really get me fired up.

Don’t get me wrong, I think we live in the best, most interesting, time for music. I just think we are missing the passion that scarcity brought. By having to save money, then go to a record store and buy an album, you were sure to listen to that record over and over. A deeper connection was made. 

Then again, we have the advantage of bands touring more aggressively. Seeing an act live can totally change how you listen to an album. So maybe it’s a wash- we’ll have to wait until I turn 80 and they put on LCD Soundsystem - All of my friends to get to the bottom of this.

Feeling better about my walk to work each day

sportsahl:

POTUS shredding the GNAR

All of this 2012 talk is getting old, but, luckily, the X-Games will be here soon enough.

http://hint.fm/wind/

Very cool

Inforgraphic: Your 2012 federal budget explained - The Globe and Mail

The War Against Youth:

The recession didn’t gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that.

The youth vote still supports Obama, but in a chastened, conditional way. In hindsight, Obama’s 2008 campaign looks like an indulgent fantasy in which the major conflicts in life simply don’t exist. There may be no white America and no black America, no blue-state America and no red-state America, but one thing is clear: There is a young America and there is an old America, and they don’t form a community of interest. One takes from the other. The federal government spends $480 billion on Medicare and $68 billion on education. Prescription drugs: $62 billion. Head Start: $8 billion. Across the board, the money flows not to helping the young grow up, but helping the old die comfortably. According to a 2009 Brookings Institution study, “The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget.”

The biggest boondoggle of all is Social Security. The management of entitlement programs, already weighted heavily in favor of the older population, has a very specific terminal point that coincides neatly with the Boomers’ deaths. The 2011 report by the Social Security trustees estimates that, under its current administration, the fund will run out in 2036, so there’s just enough to get the oldest Boomers to age ninety….. More

Via. Esquire