What caught my eye this week.
Naturalists have been surprised by the sight of thousands of 10-inch pulsating penis-like creatures wriggling about on a windswept beach.
The story was originally reported in the journal By Nature [1], which shared a photograph of one of the worms:
[2]
In taking up the story, the Guardian explains [3]:
These penile figures typically burrow under the sand, far beneath the feet of beachgoers.
But the recent storms brought on some waves that swept away the layers, leaving them exposed.
Here’s a photo from Instagram [4], which gives a sense of the landslide:
[5]
Pretty disgusting, eh? Hope you weren’t eating!
Have a great weekend.
From Monevator
Lars Kroijer on tax efficient withdrawals and on the climate emergency – Monevator [6]
What order to put things into an ISA or SIPP – Monevator [7]
From the archive-ator: Review of How To Make A Million – Slowly – Monevator [8]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!1 [9]
Online dealing platforms struggle to cope with post-election result trading frenzy – CityWire [10]
Trapped Woodford fund investors will begin to receive money in January [Letter, PDF] – Link Fund Solutions [11]
Paul Volker, the legendary US Federal Reserve chief, dead at 92 – [Audio] BBC [12] and Klement on Investing [13]
Investors grit their teeth for a ‘low return’ decade [Search result] – FT [14]
[15]
Get ready to gasp: ‘I order takeaways six nights a week’ – BBC News [16]
Products and services
ThinCats joins LandBay in closing retail peer-to-peer platform ahead of new regulations – Alt Fi [17]
Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter [18]
Thousands were paid to use extra renewable electricity on recent windy weekend – Guardian [19]
Comment and opinion
The myth of over-diversification – Allan Roth [20]
Four investment adages that don’t make any sense – Morningstar [21]
The best way to invest is the one that works for you – Abnormal Returns [22]
Durn Furriners [US perspective but relevant] – Humble Dollar [23]
Don’t expect the roaring ’10s for US stocks stocks to be repeated in the ’20s – Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance [24]
Pulling your retirement levers [US tax and social security, but rest relevant] – Can I Retire Yet? [25]
This is how dangerous ‘dollar-cost ravaging’ can be for your retirement – Marketwatch [26]
Over-weighting REITs: Why don’t more experts recommend it? – Oblivious Investor [27]
A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life-cycle of a typical retirement blog – RiversHedge [28]
When financial dreams fade and change – The Simple Dollar [29]
Naughty corner: Active antics
Putting private equity ‘dry powder’ into perspective – A Wealth of Common Sense [30]
What machine learning will mean for asset managers – Harvard Business Review [31]
Seed investors should ‘index’ into every credible start-up to do best – AngelList Blog [32]
The social subsidy of angel investing [Mostly a San Francisco thing, but echoes in London] – Alex Danco [33]
Politics
How class, turnout, and the Brexit party shaped the general election [Search result] – FT [34]
This was a stunning victory for the bullshit-industrial complex – Marina Hyde [35]
An example of the bold, innovative tactics that riddled this election – sock puppets exposed via Twitter [36]
Merryn Somerset Webb: The UK voted for capitalism – now go out and buy it [Search result] – FT [37]
Will the election result bring a bounce for house prices and shares…? – ThisIsMoney [38]
…and what does it mean for landlords? – ThisIsMoney [39]
Super-rich family buy £65m house after Johnson’s victory – Guardian [40]
Classic Dom clicks his fingers and the celebrations begin – Guardian [41]
We are leaving… at last! – DIY Investor (UK) [42]
Tide turns for Polish emigres, lured home by booming economy after Brexit jolt [Search result] – FT [43]
Kindle book bargains
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou [The Theranos story] – £0.99 on Kindle [44]
Mastering The Market Cycle: Getting the odds on your side by Howard Marks – £0.99 on Kindle [45]
How To Have A Good Day: The Essential Toolkit for a Productive Day at Work by Caroline Webb – £0.99 on Kindle [46]
Off our beat
Is ‘arrival fallacy’ affecting your happiness? – The Stylist [47]
Stop believing in free shipping [aka delivery] – The Atlantic [48]
Trade-offs: The currency of decision making – Farnham Street [49]
The influencer and the hitman: A years-long domain name feud ended in a bloody shootout – One Zero [50]
Why Instagram killed tabloid star – New York Times [51]
Go outside – Seth Godin [52]
Third base – Scott Galloway [53]
And finally…
“We’re right 50.75% of the time . . . but we’re 100 percent right 50.75% of the time,” [Robert] Mercer told a friend. “You can make billions that way.”
– Quoted by Gregory Zuckerman, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution [54]
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- Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”. [↩ [60]]