The weekend is a great time to catch up on some long-form links you missed during the week. We think this should also include our new book, Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere. Enjoy.

Hedge funds

Sam Jones, “The contradiction between popularity and recent performance points to a profound reshaping of hedge funds and their place in the financial ecosystem.”  (FT)

Alexander Ineichen makes the case for hedge funds.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Investing

Which risk matters to you: relative or absolute risk?  (IndexUniverse)

Three investors who are trying to make a go at it full-time.  (Marketwatch)

Society

In praise of disconnecting.  (NYTimes)

In praise of human taste vs. algorithms.  (GigaOM)

Economy

The new economy highlights the rise of women as primary breadwinners.  (NYTimes)

Social science is undergoing a data-led revolution.  (Edge via The Browser)

Innovation

Is Silicon Valley finally ready to crack the education market?  (Washington Monthly via MR)

How Andreessen-Horowitz exemplifies the new world of venture capital.  (Techonomy)

The US patent system is a mess.  (FT)

Research

On the science of poker.  (Scientific American)

Some clues on where Indo-European language originated.  (Economist)

On the neuroscience of twenty-somethings.  (Scientific American)

Space

How Iridium made a big bet on SpaceX and won.  (GigaOM)

Why the passing of Neil Armstrong feels so substantial.  (New Yorker)

Sports

Joe Moglia, the former CEO of TD Ameritrade is the new head football coach at Coastal Carolina.  (Grantland)

How science is transforming the sport of MMA.  (PopSci via The Browser)

How ESPN became a virtual money machine.  (Businessweek)

Media

How Buzzfeed is changing the way campaigns are covered.  (TNR)

Arguing that we are in the golden age of children’s television.  (New Yorker)

The best book reviews money can buy.  (NYTimes)

Books

An excerpt from Peter Marsh’s The New Industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalization and the End of Mass Production.  (beyondbrics)

An excerpt from Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman’s The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation.  (Freakonomics)

Neil Barofsky’s Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street will feed your distaste of government.  (Stone Street Advisors)

A new chapter on the financial crisis from The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford.  (Tim Harford)

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