Notable Ariticles (Mar-31-2014)

The 25-Year-Old at the Helm of Lonely Planet: Last year, a media-shy billionaire bought the flailing Lonely Planet travel-guide empire, then shocked observers by hiring an unknown 24-year-old former wedding photographer to save it. He has been at Lonely Planet's helm for 9 months, during which time he has invested heavily in a digital revamp and laid off nearly one-fifth of the workforce. What’s next is to solve a billion dollar riddle: Can the new Lonely Planet tell a traveler what he should be doing right now? -- based on time of day and where he is and the weather and a million other factors? A lot of people have made headway in that space but hit a wall because they didn't have enough information. Well, LP has tons of information—all of Lonely Planet's historic content. And they need to build really great technology to analyze that content and understand all the ways you can put it together.”

And here’s an example of how it will work: "You're in Rome, standing by the Colosseum. It's 3 P.M. on a Thursday in summer. You open your phone, and it says, 'Hey, glad you enjoyed the Colosseum, which was on the itinerary we helped you make. We know you love coffee. Time for a cappuccino! The best cappuccino place in Rome is two blocks away. Here are walking instructions. And while you're walking, you should know: Don't order a cappuccino in the afternoon in Italy; they only drink them for breakfast, and they're going to think you're a stupid American. So you should get a macchiato. And this is how you ask for it.”

Note: So a personalized, professional tour-guide that brings one experiences that crowd-sourced ideas can’t. Pretty neat…Source: http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/The-25-Year-Old-at-the-Helm-of-Lonely-Planet.html?utm_source=Longreads

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt: Michael Lewis’ new book. As per the description: Flash Boys is about a small group of Wall Street guys who figure out that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and that, post–financial crisis, the markets have become not more free but less, and more controlled by the big Wall Street banks. Working at different firms, they come to this realization separately; but after they discover one another, the flash boys band together and set out to reform the financial markets. This they do by creating an exchange in which high-frequency trading—source of the most intractable problems—will have no advantage whatsoever. Title to be released today…Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393244660/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393244660&linkCode=as2&tag=abnorretur-20

David Rosenberg’s chart of business/market cycle:

Source: http://pragcap.com/where-we-are-in-the-cycle-connecting-the-dots

Rick Barry and the free throw style that made him a basketball legend.: http://www.sportsonearth.com/video/v31664817/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-underhand-free-throw

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: President Barack Obama: In case you haven’t see nit already. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18e820ec3f/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obamaQ