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Investing

Eight great lessons on living a “well-off life” and they don’t include trading.  (Aleph Blog)

What factors matter for forecasting stock market returns.  (Vanguard via Big Picture)

The market for fine wine is getting financialized.  (FT Alphaville)

Business

Why manufacturing is moving back to the US.  (The Atlantic contra Felix Salmon)

How story of how GE ($GE) brought back appliance jobs to Louisville, Kentucky.  (The Atlantic)

Economics

Why economic growth is not done.  (dshort)

Some microeconomists are actually making a difference.  (Economist)

The advantages of autism in the workplace.  (NYTimes)

Prediction markets could be a lot more useful if they weren’t so market-like.  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

Just how is that ‘free’ penny costing you? A lesson in economics.  (xkcd)

Antifragility

How Nassim Taleb gets gamma wrong in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.  (Falkenblog)

Why Taleb is wrong about markets.  (Condor Options)

How to build an ‘anti-fragile’ career.  (Fast Company)

Profiles

A profile of big bond investor Jeffrey Gundlach.  (Businessweek)

A profile of Tony Fadell designer of the iPod and the Nest.  (BBC)

Another profile of Robert Benmosche CEO of AIG ($AIG).  (Institutional Investor)

Companies

How Google ($GOOG) plans to find the UnGoogleable.  (Technology Review)

Can Wal-mart ($WMT) really take on Amazon ($AMZN)?  (Fast Company)

Startups

University technology transfer at work: an MIT lab that has spun off dozens of companies.  (NYTimes)

Super angels are active in the hot Tel Aviv startup space.  (Pando Daily)

Big data≠information≠insight.  (TechCrunch)

What is it about Finland that produces mobile gaming startup successes?  (Pando Daily)

Society

Big pharma has an unusual amount of influence on published research. (WashingtonPost)

What happens next now that the war on drugs has failed?  (NYMag)

It’s time to re-think the charitable deduction.  (Fortune)

Is a $10,000 bachelor’s degree possible?  (The Atlantic)

Science

How “atmospheric rivers” could flood California in the future.  (Scientific American)

Can a jellyfish unlock the secret of immortality?  (NYTimes)

Checking in on the state (and rate) of human evolution.  (Wired)

Physics has a problem: supersymmetry doesn’t work.  (Scientific American)

Why are reports of Bigfoot so persistent?  (Slate)

Media

How they winged it: on the origins of the hit show Lost.  (Grantland)

Charlie Brown is making a (Charles Schulz-free) comeback.  (Time)

What is the future of UFC?  (Fast Company)

Music

The 50 best albums of 2012.  (Paste)

The 50 best songs of 2012.  (Paste)

Books

100 notable books including How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough.  (NYTimes)

The best books of 2012 including Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.  (Esquire)

Slate editors’ favorite books of 2012 including Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt.  (Slate, ibid)

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