February 2011
1 post
WatchThe Linguistic Genius of Babies: States essentially the same as Barbara Zurer’s “Raising a Bilingual Child”, which has been of immense help for me, but it’s cool to see it well presented in a video.
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
6 posts
On energy, its sources, storage and uses
This is a conversation that I have a lot. Usually with smart, curious people that are interested in our eternal “energy dilemma”. There are A LOT of fundamental misconceptions in our public energy debate, most of them perpetuated by interested parties.
One glaring example is the promise of the so-called hydrogen economy. Let’s cut to the chase. One very easy and convenient way...
Claudio CC →
If you want to read interesting stuff written by a very smart, no-nonsense, shouting nerd, go ahead: click.
Christmas lights, billionaire style
1 tag
November 2010
1 post
October 2010
5 posts
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WatchI want to be Han Solo for Halloween.
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Fall
Here it is! At long last, summer ended. In a few days we’ll have Halloween, Thanksgiving and then we’re off for holiday season, the best part of the year. And sometime between all that, Samuel will be born and change our lives forever.
A few days ago a friend from work gave us a bag of chestnuts she had picked in the country. And today being cooking day, and a nice autumn day, we...
The Human Connectome Project
This is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting big-science projects going on right now.
The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a project to construct a map of the complete structural and functional neural connections in vivo within and across individuals. The HCP represents the first large-scale attempt to collect and share data of a scope and detail sufficient to begin the process of...
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September 2010
4 posts
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“It is extraordinary to me that the idea of buying dollar bills for 40 cents...”
– Warren Buffett
We call it Sunday morning
The cooking morning! So far today, we’ve prepared:
Octopus sautéed with red peppers and onions
Tuna, egg and tomato pasties
Curry & ginger chicken legs with mushrooms
Icelandic cod with zucchini and tomato
Pork loin with prunes, almonds and beer
Lettuce, green apple and smoked cheese salad
Yummy!
Zero to Three →
ZERO TO THREE is a national, nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. Their mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers.
August 2010
8 posts
1 tag
Bruce Berkowitz interview
Here’s a very good WealthTrack interview with one of my favorite investors: Bruce Berkowitz, manager of Fairholme Funds:
We don’t time (the market). We price.
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“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own...”
– Thomas Jefferson
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AutoTram
I’ve always argued that a modern fleet of buses is a superior public transport solution for a city than a surface tram network. Underground is a completely different story, but on the surface? I think there’s no contest. If your city already had a tram network then fine, use it, update it, make the most of it. But building new tram networks from scratch? that’s just nuts, sorry.
...
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SPORE
Science Magazine established the Science Price for Online Resources in Education (SPORE)
To encourage innovation and excellence in education as well as to encourage the use of high-quality on-line resources by students, teachers and the public.
The price has been awarded to MIT’s OpenCourseWare, one of my favorite places on the Internet.
At OCW you can find an astonishing amount of...
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Objects of desire
Rado Centrix: High tech ceramics and classic subdued style. I’m in love.
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The A Team
Here’s a list of big company executives that I admire the most (in no particular order):
Allan Mulally: CEO at Ford and former executive vicepresident at Boeing. In my mind, he’s saved two American industrial icons and inspired a lot of other American business in an era of uncertainty and chaos.
Tim Cook: COO at Apple and the actual show runner over there. Jobs inspires, sets the...
July 2010
18 posts
2 tags
Charlie Rose interviews Jeff Bezos
Fantastic conversation, as usual, between Charlie Rose and Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
Bezos is among the best businessmen of our time and a sharp thinker for whose intellect I have a great deal of admiration.
Like Steve Jobs, he has the courage of following his convictions against the conventional wisdom and prevailing opinions. Unlike Jobs, though, he is not an insufferable jerk...
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Wooohoooooo!!!!!
I just learned that I’ve passed the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English with an A!!
Wooooooooohooooooooo. The exam was very hard and demanding but I managed to pass!!
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WatchCalatrava’s $3.2 billion WTC Train Station
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Amazing services: Interactive Brokers
[Amazing services is a continuing series here at bidatzi.net where I write about extremely good services I use online. I’m not paid to write about this stuff, I’m just a happy user]
Interactive Brokers is an online brokerage service usually described as a discount broker and thrown in the same bag as e-trade, scott-trade, etc. It’s nothing at all like those other services.
...
WatchCameron Herold: Let’s raise kids to be entrepreneurs [TED]
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41 years ago, this day
July 20th 1969, somewhere near Sabine Crater in Mare Tranquilitatis:
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A doughnut odyssey
Arguably as American as apple pie, improving cops’ bellies all over the land and making breakfast sweet for millions of people, doughnuts come in as many flavors and varieties as one can imagine. Everybody has a favorite one.
Aside from the more known doughnut chains like Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons, America is full of local doughnut paradises that every self-respecting turist ought to...
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Thanks New York!
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“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized...”
– Murray N. Rothbard
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Current Portfolio
Here’s the list of stocks I currently own (in no particular order):
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (NYSE:BAM)
Astrotech Corp. (NASDAQ:ASTC)
ATP Oil & Gas Corporation (NASDAQ:ATPG)
Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (TSE:FFH)
Hawkins Inc. (NASDAQ:HWKN)
KHD Humboldt Wedag International (FWB:KWG)
Contango Oil & Gas (AMEX:MCF)
Terranova Royalty Corp...
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In Congress, July 4th 1776
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America:
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of...
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KidsDoc Symptom Checker
Healthychildren.org is an excellent resource for parents offered by the American Academy of Pediatrics. They’ve recently launched a very useful tool called KidsDoc Sympton Checker. From the AAP press release:
Users enter their child’s symptoms into the interactive tool and receive up-to-date advice about how to treat minor illnesses at home, or when to call the doctor immediately. The tool...
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June 2010
13 posts
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Top Colleges by ROI
The always interesting Real Time Economics blog at WSJ.com reports on a study by PayScale where they rank colleges according to the expected ROI of the cost of college (tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies). So, which one is first?
MIT (12.6% over 30 years)
Nonetheless, most top notch colleges rank quite close, all above 11% ROI:
CalTech, Harvard, Dartmouth, Stanford,...
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LearnEnglish Kids (British Council) →
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the...”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t...”
– Ronald Reagan
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Samuel
שְׁמוּאֵל, Shmu’el, Šəmûʼēl, Σαμουηλ, شموئيل
People keep asking… why did you choose Samuel as your kid’s name?
Here it goes:
1) Our family’s deep and heart-felt sympathy for the Jewish people.
2) We like the name, and it’s common in many languages.
3) It’s the name of several historical figures that we hope can inspire our son:
Samuel Longhorne Clemens,...