Machines Controlling WallStreet

Fascinating article on how modern day trading works .. The big unpredictable world of algorithmic trading - http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_ai_flashtrading/all/1

Piracy Games

Intriguing article - http://www.thestreet.com/story/10707445/1/the-pirates-toll-high-stakes-on-the-high-seas.html

Lots of intriguing & ironical sentences "An intrepid Reuters' stringer goes into a pirate stronghold -- "stronghold," with its whiff of the medieval, being a favorite word to describe the places where Somali pirates live -- and comes out with the news that there exists a kind of bandit stock exchange; it's possible -- so the story goes -- to buy shares in a gang of pirates. If your company of corsairs returns to shore with a ransom: dividend yield."


"Before the tube of cash parachuted into the water, ISEC's lawyers drafted an actual contract, signed by both parties, ship-owner and pirate gang. The irony was not lost on anyone: drafting a contract for the release of a thing from the very party that stole it from you."

Criss-Crossing India

An amazing travelogue on India's longest duration train - Himasagar express http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/28185447/En-route-to-elsewhere.html

Has Athletics Performance Peaked ?

Fascinating article speculating about whether we have reached a plateau with respect to individual sports world records http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/01/23/peaked_performance/?page=full

The Social Bubble - II

Call it a cynical view, but I echo these perspectives.. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/a-silicon-bubble-shows-signs-of-reinflating/

" For example, enthusiasm for closely held Facebook shares has run so high that private investors are trading derivatives of it."


We live in interesting times :)

The Social Bubble

A must read article for the facebook generation :)

http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html

Kerala - A truly unique state

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/asia/india/6197.html

Not because I'm a Keralite or communist.. But, this article gives a nice picture of why Kerala is unique.. Prompting me to write something similar, yet deeper