Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell, noted author of thought-provoking and sometimes-criticized tomes on human behavior and trends, has a new book out today:

Outliers: The Story of Success

Here’s what NYT had to say in its review:

Malcolm Gladwell’s two humongous best sellers, “The Tipping Point” and “Blink,” share a shake-and-bake recipe that helps explain their popularity. Both popularize scientific, sociological and psychological theories in a fashion that makes for lively water-cooler chatter about Big Intriguing Concepts: “The Tipping Point” promotes the notion that ideas and fads spread in much the same way as infectious diseases do, while “Blink” theorizes that gut instincts and snap judgments can be every bit as good as decisions made more methodically.

“Outliers,” Mr. Gladwell’s latest book, employs this same recipe, but does so in such a clumsy manner that it italicizes the weaknesses of his methodology. The book, which purports to explain the real reason some people — like Bill Gates and the Beatles — are successful, is peppy, brightly written and provocative in a buzzy sort of way. It is also glib, poorly reasoned and thoroughly unconvincing.

The San Francisco chronicle gave the book a glowing review, due to their not being bound to kowtowing to literary snobs, as is the New York Times.

This is a book you should definitely read.

Living the dream

Carlos (9:45AM): so how come you are ‘living the dream’?
Cameron (9:45AM): i’m so busy that i don’t sleep, and i’m helping people every single day.

Big Changes

My bio has been significantly revised after some much-needed soul searching, and the chance to grab an opportunity by the horns.

My latest endeavour is still a secret, but you can catch a glimpse of our project over at findthepearl.com.

Changing Tack

Last week, I was prompted to think about the direction I’m taking professionally. A fantastic opportunity presented itself, in the form of a startup that’s poised to change the way business is done in an industry literally begging for competition. Confronted with this opportunity, managing money just doesn’t seem as alluring to me anymore.

I know that investment management is my calling. I’ll come back to it in the coming years, but for now, I seek a new challenge.

Here’s to changing tack when the winds change.

Is Nouriel Roubini George Soros’ replacement?

Nouriel Roubini predicted, almost down to the detail, our current financial catastrophe:

While the economic sun was shining, most other economists scoffed at Roubini and his predictions of imminent disaster. They dismissed his warnings that the sub-prime mortgage disaster would trigger a financial meltdown. They could not quite believe his view that the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would collapse, and that the investment banks would be crushed as the world headed for a long recession.

Yet all these predictions and more came true. Few are laughing now.

In essence, he is really just copy-catting George Soros.

George Soros was one of the first to bring the concept of reflexivity to the realm of economics and finance. He posited that if one predicts a possible outcome, and then acts so as to make that outcome more likely, their action can cause a snowballing mass of self-reinforcing movement which forces the predicted outcome to occur.

If you predict something, make enough noise about it, and act to make it more possible, then you will have created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

George Soros was the master of executing this in practice.

Soros would find a situation that was abnormal (a propped-up exchange rate between the British pound and the German mark), position himself to profit (selling short billions of dollars worth of the British pound) which in itself changed the market-determined exchange rate, increasing the likelihood that his predicted outcome (the British pound immediately devalued, Bank of England ends futile propping-up of exchange rate) might actually occur (it did, and Soros made $1 billion in a single day when the pound was devalued).

Soros, however, took a break from being an active market practitioner, and spent more time lecturing and writing (good) books.

Messr. Roubini has taken the torch — he’s the new gold standard in creating, and profiting from, reflexive market gyrations.

Nouriel Roubini: I fear the worst is yet to come - Times

Oil Prices and Environmentalism

Environmentalists should be seriously concerned by the recent precipitous fall in oil prices (from $140+ down to $62 a barrel).

Now, that wind energy farm, that solar installation, and that heat-recovery device don’t make anywhere near the kind of competition-relevant financial sense that they did 6 months ago.

This recession is disastrous for Al Gore’s green-tech revolution.

SNL served up a sweet guide to style

Watch it:

Via men.style.com.

Microsoft Fails to Innovate

This isn’t exactly a big surprise, but it looks like — once again — Microsoft is copying an innovative business model from an upstart rival and attempting to push them out of the industry:

As expected, Microsoft announced a Windows-based “cloud OS” during the first day of PDC. Windows Azure offers virtualized computing, automated service management, and scalable storage and will compete against cloud-based offerings from Amazon and Google.

Google built cloud applications like GMail to rip email away from its traditional home on the desktop. Amazon built massive cloud servers to host applications on the cheap, without having to lease your own datacenter.

Microsoft watches from above, clairvoyant, and swoops in with their own copy just in time to sell the solution to all its existing clients (at least, the ones that haven’t already jumped ship to Amazon’s service).

Pitiful. It’d be smarter to resell the Amazon service as a Microsoft-branded solution. Then you save the hassle of development costs, and increase the availability and power (using the network effect) of the solution.

If only Microsoft thought of collaborating with competitors…they’d sure save themselves a whole bunch of headache.

Microsoft has head in the clouds with new Windows Azure OS - Ars Technica

Going Negative

John McCain’s campaign has been increasingly negative in the past month, as he’s attempted to score some direct hits on his opponents and improve his position in the polls (he’s down by roughly 8 points nationally). McCain’s attacks have generated some news flow, but haven’t won him any voters as measured by the polls, which strongly favor Obama.

The McCain campaign is like the drunk girl who tries to make out with you — they’re trying way too hard, and it’s so apparent to onlookers that they’re really just embarrassing themselves. When you try too hard to court someone, you yourself become undesirable.

This is unimaginable coming from John McCain. He’s an American hero who has fought mercilessly to reform Washington, D.C. He has had my strongest respect for a decade.

How has he allowed himself to be associated with a campaign that stoops this low?

So good an idiot can run it.

I’ve heard Buffett say this before, but I think it’s even more relevant right now:

I always say that in investing you want to buy stock in a company that has a business that’s so good that an idiot can run it, because sooner or later one will. We have a country like that.

AIG’s poor management and extensive risk-taking has put taxpayers on the hook for ~$100B.

Recently-retired hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde helped to further Buffett’s point last week when he complained of our inherently dangerous meritocratic system, which potentially puts the reigns of our society in the hands of idiots with degrees from Harvard and Wharton — the same idiots who caused our financial crisis by “innovating” exotic securitized mortgages and complex and risky derivatives.

The silver-lining? Even though we have had and will continue to have idiots running things, their trials and errors will serve to right society’s course, and we’ll improve over generations.

Via Julia Allison.

Collaboration vs. Competition

The last half of the 20th century was really about competition. Coke had its Pepsi, and GM had its Toyota. I think the next century is going to preserve competition, but will require a lot more collaboration.

BMW is ahead of the game:

In March of last year, we heard that Toyota had a mind to create its very own in-car operating system to “boost efficiency and speed up development.” Now, it’s bruited that BMW is asking any automaker who will listen to join hands in order to jointly develop an open source in-vehicle platform. The company has stated that it plans on having an open source system in a vehicle that sells 200,000 or more units within the next five to seven years, and while employees from rivals were on hand when the proclamation was made, no one was rushing to call dibs on first. Still, it sounds as if BMW will be forging ahead with or without any assistance, though bigwig Gunter Reichart did assert that BMW was “inviting other OEMs to join it [and] to exchange with it.”

BMW asks other automakers to collaborate on in-car open source platform - Engadget

Thank you, John Carney

John Carney: I personally don’t get what the problem with letting lehman go bankrupt is. Everyone keeps saying it was a disaster.
[...]
Felix Salmon: …for those of us more interested in saving the global economy and financial system, letting Lehman fail was a bad thing
John Carney: No. I’m trying to save the system, and the main thing we need is less reckless lending.
Your position is that we need more credit to solve problems of debt.
John Carney: A lot of interbank lending is or was innappropriate. For instance, lending to Lehman [now bankrupt].
Allowing insolvent banks to fail creates more confidence that existing banks are solvent.
Felix Salmon: ha!
that’s exactly wrong
John Carney: The view that we make the financial system more stable rather than less by propping up insolvent banks is the real disaster.

Felix just got slapped my a mackerel.

Should Lehman Have Been Rescued? - Felix Salmon

Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life

Andrew Lahde on living: “Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life. [...] I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck,” he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are still “glued to their Blackberries.”

This guy is 14 years ahead of me. His advice: quit your job and live life. I try to work, play, and live all at the same time. Is that zen life-balance possible?

So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks ‘idiot’ traders and retires at 37 - The Guardian

Could we make all politicians wear one, all the time?

Polygraphs proposed for Ind. congressional debate - AP

JASPER, Ind. (AP) — Two challengers for an Indiana congressional seat have agreed to be hooked up to lie detectors during a debate, but an official with the incumbent’s party dismisses the idea as “bizarre.”

Soros Speaks

My idol, George Soros, speaks about regulatory failure, our misguided bailout, and the inability of sloth-like bureaucrats to deal with an imminent crisis. Video link here. Here are some excerpts:

Markets have the ability to adjust and they’re very flexible. There is this invisible hand. But it is also prone to be mistaken. In other words, markets instead are reflecting reality. They always look at reality with a bias. There is always a prevailing bias. I’ll call it, you know, optimism/pessimism. And sometimes those moods actually can reinforce themselves so that there are these initially self-reinforcing but eventually unsustainable and self-defeating boom/bust sequences or bubbles. And this is what has happened now. This current economic disaster is self-generated. It was generated by the market itself, by getting too cocky, using leverage too much, too much credit. And it got excessive.

Unfortunately, the authorities are behind the curve. They are reacting to these crises as they emerge. One thing leads to another, one market after another gets into difficulty. And they react to it. And they don’t quite understand what’s hitting them. So they are not anticipating and not gaining control of the situation.

This housing bubble, when that burst, it was only the detonator that exploded the bigger bubble, the super bubble, which is this 25 years of constant credit expansion using greater and greater leverage. The amount of credit in the economy has been growing at, I don’t know, I don’t know the exact figure, but maybe at least twice as fast as the economy itself. I think it’s more like three. And now, suddenly, you have a contraction of credit. And it’s a sudden thing. And it’s a period of great wealth destruction. And that’s how these poor people in Texas suddenly find that their 401(k) is worthless.
This is the end of an era. And this is a fact.

BILL MOYERS:End of an era? Capitalism as we have known it?

GEORGE SOROS:No. No, no, no. Capitalism will survive. But [it marks the end of] the period where America could run ever increasing current account deficits. We consumed six and a half percent more than we are producing. That had to come to an end. You see, for the last 25 years the world economy, the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer who has been spending more than he’s been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It’s finished. It’s run out of — can’t continue. You need a new motor.

BILL MOYERS:Well, don’t be shy. What do you think the new government should do?

GEORGE SOROS:Well, first of all you have to prevent housing crisis from overshooting on the downside the way they overshot on the upside. You can’t arrest the decline, but you can definitely slow it down by minimizing the number of foreclosures and readjusting the mortgages to reflect the ability of people to pay. So you have to renegotiate mortgages rather than foreclose. Recapitalize the banks.

BILL MOYERS:One of the British newspapers this morning had a headline, “Welcome to Socialism.” It’s not going that way, is it?

GEORGE SOROS:Well, you know, it’s very interesting. Actually, these market fundamentalists are making the same mistake as Marx did. You see, socialism would have worked very well if the rulers had the interests of the people really at heart. But they were pursuing their self-interests. Now, in the housing market, the people who originated the [mortgage loans] earned the fee. And the people who then owned the mortgages–their interests were not looked after by the agents that were selling them the mortgages. So you have an agent principle problem in socialism, and you have the same agent/principle problem in this free market fundamentalism.

BILL MOYERS:The agent is concerned only with his own interests, not with the interest of the people who they’re supposed to represent.

GEORGE SOROS:That’s right.

GEORGE SOROS: Both Marxism and market fundamentalism are false ideologies.

BILL MOYERS:Is there an ideology that is not false?

GEORGE SOROS:Yes: the recognition that all our ideas, all our human constructs have a flaw in it. And perfection is not attainable. And we must engage in critical thinking and correct our mistakes.
That’s my ideology. As a child, I experienced Fascism, the Nazi occupation and then Communism, two false ideologies. And I learned that both of those ideologies are false. And now I was shocked when I found that even in a democracy people can be misled to the extent that we’ve been misled in the last few years.

A Gentleman Declares War: A Guide

There comes a point in the sublime existence of even the most textbook of gentlemen when he has to offer a sincere apology for his aggressive, bar-brawling actions. [...] We all have to agree that over the course of a spirits soaked evening – where stakes are increased, webs of lies spun, vocal sparring tripled and rounds rapidly disappearing as if the imbibers were in fact magical wizards – gentlemen are capable of losing their heads and lashing out at dear friends from time to time.

Via The Foggy Monocle.

The McCain Challenge

I just challenged my mom, a staunch liberal, to come up with one good thing that she likes about both John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin.

It remains to be seen if she can undo decades of liberal programming and be objective, seeing McCain as just another man instead of “the enemy”.

John McCain is a great American: his stance against pork spending, his ability to cross the aisle to get things done in the Senate…I could go on.

I’m not going to vote for him (though I would’ve voted for him over Gore in 2000).

I think it’s key to have the objectivity to praise politicians for their fine qualities, even if you don’t plan on voting for them. I challenge each and every one of you to expose yourself to more objective media: just say no to FOX News, Air America, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and liberal bastions CNN and MSNBC. Say yes to the wire services: AP, Reuters, and UPI, where you can get undigested reports and make up your own mind; or, if you prefer a slightly more subjective material, check out the BBC, Christian Science Monitor (I swear to god this is the most unbiased news organization on Earth and I have no idea how they ended up like that), and The Economist.

I also challenge you to find some positive characteristics in an opposition candidate. It’s through understanding like this that we can break the partisan system that strangles our reasoning abilities and paints everything in black and white, friend and foe.

Planning vs. Freedom, Black vs. White

An old university buddy of mine sent me a cryptic note yesterday that only an economist would understand:

“Keynes vs. Hayek 2008?”

He was referring to the pending government bailout of financial institutions, which economist Friedrich von Hayek would surely denounce as socialist and anti-freedom. John Maynard Keynes, on the other hand, would surely favor the bailout. He reasoned that the economic instability brought on by a prolonged recession could birth another Hitler or Stalin via social upheaval. Such an outcome would be infinitely more damaging than a government bailout worth a measly 1/20th of our annual GDP.

Keynes’ philosophy of planning and action to circumvent financial crises was definitely in favor among politicians in the 20th century. Friedrich von Hayek’s laissez-faire economics had its tradition carried on by conservative economists such as Milton Friedman, and they became became popular among libertarian-conservatives throughout the world in the late 20th century and remain popular today.

Commentators have compared this battle of ideas — action versus inaction — to an ideological war in which we will see one victor. The truth is, neither idea is correct. The world is not always so black and white, right or wrong. The ideal solution lies somewhere between the two extremes, and not exclusively in one or the other.

Every once in a while, the market does require government action to circumvent recession. However, these actions need to be measured so as to only support the market system, and not overly interfere with the market’s function (in this instance, the market’s essential function is to punish banks and investors for taking undue risk, and punish homeowners for buying more home than they could afford). This process must play out in order to revive stability in the long term. If we don’t change the system, we’ll be struck again and again by the same problems further in the future.

The current government bailout under consideration is too large, and places too much emphasis on health of the banks. Some of these banks SHOULD fail!

The Treasury is listening to Keynes, and pretending Hayek doesn’t exist. Why don’t you listen to both dead economists, Mr. Paulson?

Religulous

Here’s a trailer for a new documentary on religion starring Bill Maher that I’m surely going to see on opening night:

Religulous - LionsGate

Judge’s Ruling: ‘No more kids’

This is awesome. A judge has ruled that, as a condition of her 10-year probation sentence, Felicia Salazar bear no children.

Salazar, 20, admitted to failing to provide protection and medical care to her 19-month-old daughter, who suffered broken bones and other injuries when she was beaten by her father, Roberto Alvarado, 25, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Laycock, the Michigan law professor, said that in a past Wisconsin case, a father of nine who was convicted of intentionally failing to pay child support was ordered to have no more children as a condition of probation. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin upheld that condition.

Seriously, I hope this type of order (to not procreate) becomes widespread. Got a domestic violence conviction? You shouldn’t be able to have kids — or adopt — for 10 years. Also, you should get a psychiatric evaluation before getting the OK. I think we should have the same restrictions on alcoholics, drug addicts, and crazy people. Why should we let them procreate and increase the number of children born into broken homes?

Travis judge tells woman to stop having kids - Austin-American Statesman

Tip

When referring to the homeless, bring some cheer into the picture and instead call them “outdoorsmen”, as San Diegans have begun to do. It makes the failure that is their life seem just that much more pleasant! They’re not hooked on drugs or drink, they just prefer being next to nature!

(Thanks, Monica.)

Brita Tip

Filling my Brita water-filtration pitcher is a pain — it takes fully 30 seconds to fill under the kitchen faucet’s meager flow.

Solution: Put the pitcher in the bathtub, and fill it out of the bath faucet. Takes about 3 seconds. Booyah.

Hillary Supporters: Obama ‘Too Skinny’

When you thought Hillary Clinton supporters couldn’t go any lower (or get any dumber), here they go again (from The Wall Street Journal):

“He’s too new … and he needs to put some meat on his bones,” says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

“I won’t vote for any beanpole guy,” another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

The first woman, I understand. She’s a housewife from Corpus Christi, which is as good as braindead. But this second person …how do you attain such grand wisdom so as to think of choosing political candidates based on the size of their gut? Isn’t this sort of discrimination-based-on-physical-characteristics thing supposed to be drowned out of use, along with racism and sexism?

Seriously.

I got this phishing scam in my email box today, and, I must admit, if I was some poor idiot and didn’t notice the numerous grammatical errors, I’ probably would’ve clicked on it:

From: Internal Revenue Service
to: Cameron Newland
date: Jul 29, 2008, 12:34 AM
subject: Tax refund (28371231) $620.50
You have get a Tax Refund on your Visa or MasterCard.
Complete the formular, and get your Tax Refund.
(Your Refund Amount Is $620.50)
http://REDACTED-IP-ADDRESS/www.irs.gov/portal/
Copyright © 2008 - Internal Revenue Service. All rights reserved.

You’d have to be completely retarded to even think about clicking through on this.

A few evenings ago, I was dining at Nordstrom Grill with my girlfriend and there was a table full of young Russian wives, mostly in their early thirties. They were AMAZED, just AMAZED at one woman’s suggestion, that you should never click on links in your email that appear to come from banks because it was obviously a phishing scam targeting your personal information. (Banks often note that they will never ask for your personal information in an email.) This realization was some sort of surprise to some of these women.

Never underestimate society’s insatiable need for mindlessly communicating information that we already know. Just look at Oprah and Dr. Phil. They make their living doing exactly that.

THIS JUST IN! Don’t let your kids meet strange adults on the internet. Exercise and eating well may improve your health. Don’t give out all your personal info if an email requests it. You don’t say!

Bashing Dr. Phil and Oprah for raising awareness among the braindead masses is a little misguided. After all, if it wasn’t these two clowns telling us how to live our lives, we’d probably be taking advice from prescription-drug-swilling talkshow host Rush Limbaugh, the adulterer Jessie Jackson, or, GASP, Bill O’Reilly.

The service that Dr. Phil and Oprah provides is unquestionably positive, I just wish people would be intelligent enough to reason on their own so that they wouldn’t need to rely on television personalities for their conversation material.

Seriously.

Pope Hypocritical on Sustainable Humanity

Pope Benedict, speaking to the people of Australia, said today that the world’s natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of “insatiable consumption.” What he didn’t tell you was that his position on family planning ensures that our world is less sustainable than ever.

“Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption,” he said.

The Pope failed to note that his policy of denying condoms and birth control to developing nations allows for irresponsible and unsustainable population growth, which increases human resource usage and damages our planet. Such irresponsible policy simply forces our future generations to deal with the problem of environmental destruction, though they will be even less able to act because of their untenable population.

“The concerns for nonviolence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity,” Benedict told the crowd.

My question has always been, “why does the Pope support this garbage population policy that only destabilizes humanity and brings us closer to the demons the church so opposes?”

The answer lies in plain sight. First, the Church thrives off instability. Those who have nothing often come to the Church as a last hope and seek salvation, which the Church is only so happy to provide –in exchange for complete devotion.

The second reason that the Church supports unsustainable population growth is that doing so furthers its own means. Membership has risen exponentially in the last 200 years. In 1970, the Church counted some 654 million adherents. In 2007, due to a lack of family planning in church ranks, membership now numbers 1.131 billion — a 73% increase.

What the world needs is reason, and little or none of it is coming out of the Catholic Church. To them, it’s like the Enlightenment never happened!

Pope says world’s resources being squandered - AP

Roman Catholic Church - Membership

World Population Day

July 11th is World Population Day!

In 1968, world leaders proclaimed that individuals have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. Forty years later, modern contraception remains out of reach for hundreds of millions of women, men and young people.

This year’s World Population Day reaffirms the right of people to plan their families. It encourages activities, events and information that will help make this right real – especially for those who often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as marginalized populations and young people.

When people can plan their families, they can plan their lives. They can plan to beat poverty. They can plan on healthier mothers and children. They can plan to gain equality for women. Plan to support World Population Day this year!

(emphasis mine)

This is my most-favored cause, and I strongly recommend you give to the UNFPA, as it’s extremely underfunded.

Hedge Fund Legitimacy

As some of you might have heard, Samuel Israel bilked investors for $400M in a ponzi-scheme posing as a hedge fund.  He recently faked his own death only days before he was due to begin his 20-year jail sentence.  He’s on the run and considered armed and dangerous.

His victims could’ve protected themselves if they’d only looked out for a few red flags:

His business card has an AOL email address.

Obviously, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

When investing in hedge funds, you should demand professional quarterly audits to confirm the performance claimed by the manager, and you should call the auditor to confirm the numbers given to you by the fund are accurate.  Also, have your lawyer scrutinize the offering document and add considerations to protect you against fraud.

Israel and Iran Battle It Out

Thomas Friedman writes something worthwhile!:

People vs. Dinosaurs - The New York Times

…in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million [...]. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.

So who will be here in 20 years? [...] I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.

(Thanks for linking to this article first, Barak).

Reversal of Fortune

Huntington Hartford inherited The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, a 16,000 locations-strong national retailer akin to a modern-day Wal-Mart.

He’s more known, however, for squandering his fortune on a series of unfortunate investments. He bought what is now Paradise Island (that of Atlantis fame) and then sold it at a loss. He built the Gallery of Modern Art in New York City, and spent similarly large amounts trying to get his laggard magazine Show off the ground.

At one point, Hartford declared bankruptcy, but had a $500,000/year trust to keep him living the good life.

Yesterday, Mr. Hartford died at 97 years of age in the Bahamas.

Curiously, the man who successfully developed Paradise Island into what it is today, Sol Kerzner, has had just about the opposite life experience as the often failing Mr. Hartford.

Kerzner began life not as an heir but as the youngest of 4 children in a family of Jewish Russian immigrants. He put together a successful hotel chain, Sun International, and then got into development of gambling resorts. Since, he’s put together some of the most successful on earth, including Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun and Paradise Island’s Atlantis, in addition to building a luxury hotel portfolio with his One&Only hotels group (famous for their Cabo San Lucas resort of the same name).

He’s had 4 marriages, including former Miss World 1974 Anneline Kriel, and his current wife, the stunning Heather Murphy.

Great life for Mr. Kerzner, but quite the polar opposite of the first developer of Paradise Island, Mr. Hartford.

Just goes to show that it’s not about what straw you draw, it’s the fight inside you that determines your contribution in life.

A.& P. Heir Famous For Losing All His Money Dies At 97 - Luxist

Vatican: Aliens Are A-Ok

The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

This meshes well with their followers, who institutionalize “childish superstition” and use a book of “primitive legends” as a guide to their way of life rather than resorting to modern reason. (Quotes from the previous statement are attributed to Albert Einstein.)

Aliens? Really? Catholicism will soon make Scientology look downright rational in comparison.

Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens
Belief in God ‘childish,’ Jews not chosen people: Einstein letter