@MichaelAArouet Debt to GDP is like Mortgage to Annual Salary, it's not a very good indicator. We should also look at Interest Payment to GDP, and Debt to National Wealth. When the nation gets wealthier, the Debt to GDP will keep growing.
Joel Greenblatt compounded at far over 40% (!) from 1985 to 1994.
He was famous for exploiting special situations.
As a Professor at Columbia, he taught a class on how he did it.
Here are the Investing Gems from Greenblatt's Columbia Class👇🏼
Some artists create intricate drawings or paintings by carefully igniting controlled explosions of gunpowder on a canvas. It's a unique form of pyrotechnic art.
https://t.co/QRp6AvcOc9
This lock can be opened with 1 lock: no matter which one.
It's a real life example of a brunnian link, a nontrivial link that becomes a set of trivial unlinked circles if any one component is removed.
How Japanese have produced wood for 700 years, without cutting down trees.
Daisugi is an ancient Japanese forestry technique developed in the 14th century originally used by people living in the Kitayama prefecture, because the territory was extremely poor in saplings.
They planted cedars pruned in a special way to produce shoots that eventually would become perfect, straight, knot-free lumbers.
The shoots are gently pruned by hand every two years leaving only the top boughs, allowing them to grow straight. Harvesting takes 20 years and old 'tree stock' can grow up to a hundred shoots at a time.
There was actually another reason why the technique was developed: fashion. In the 14th century, a linear, stylized form of architecture known as sukiya-zukuri (数寄屋造り) became popular, and every prominent samurai or nobleman wanted a house built in this way.
There were simply not enough raw materials available to keep up with demand, so daisugi was developed to produce more wood in a shorter time.
The wood produced with this technique has also impressive qualities: it's 140% more flexible than standard cedar and 200% denser and stronger. And, it's extremely durable.
November is here, so let’s fall back and see how the leaves are falling on this most unusual market cycle. Below is the periodic table through October. Performance ranked top to bottom; years left to right.
This vein visualization technology uses near-infrared light, which is absorbed by blood but reflected by the surrounding tissue, to locate veins up to 15mm deep, and then projects the results back on the skin.
I asked chatGPT to create 8-bit/pixelated interpretations of famous artworks in DALL·E 3. The results are lovely.
1. “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat