One of the gratifying aspects of blogging on a regular basis is seeing certain items pop back up on your radar screen. We suspect we are like every one else out there in that we need to be exposed more than once to a concept to actually grasp it. Here are few items that came to our attention that have some connection to prior posts.

We looked at the parallels between a natural phenomenon, rogue waves, and the risks inherent in the stock market. John Hussman at the Hussman Funds uses the idea of how tornadoes tend to strike in the presence of tornado warnings. Hussman believes that the stock market, at present, has all the signs of “tornado friendly” weather.

We previously examined the effects of a flood of money into timberland. Ashish Kelkar at Seeking Alpha re-examines the case for timber investing. Specifically Kelkar looks at two publicly traded timber REITs that are often put forward as proxies for timberland investing. Given the pullback in their stocks this may provide an entry point for those looking to add some additional diversification to their portfolios.

In a prior post we looked at the effect “excess choice” can have on model building. Science Blog examines a study that shows the role freedom of choice can have on happiness. In situations where one’s options are roughly equal, those who had a choice of an item were no happier than those who were randomly assigned an item.

Adam Warner at the Daily Options Report finds a “teachable moment” in a comment on his blog. Warner, like us, is not in the prediction business. The strength of his blog is that he is the “education” business. Readers who are trying to divine specific recommendations should probably look elsewhere:

But I am more about *the process* here than actual “buy this, sell that” ideas. Unless you have a service with actual ins and outs, and/or a model portfolio or something, it’s really just a fluke whether someone can read a call of yours and make or lose money.