The weekend is a great time to catch up on some longer items that we passed up on during the week. Thanks for checking in.

Investing

Day trading is too fun to be profitable.  (Monevator)

The safe asset shortage is still in full force.  (FT Alphaville)

An interview with Marc Heilweil portfolio manager of the Marathon Value Fund.  (BeyondProxy)

Personal finance 101 may be too advanced for many.  (Crossing Wall Street)

Research

What sell-side analysts really do for a living.  (Total Return)

Why Africa is still a potential portfolio diversifier.  (SSRN)

The winner of the 2013 NAAIM Wagner Award for advances in active investment management.  (NAAIM)

Finance

A Quantitative Finance reading list.  (QuantStart via @marketfolly)

On the decline of the spot oil market.  (FT Alphaville)

Cure or curse?

How should we as a society deal with the “technological curse“?  (Interfluidity)

Is technologically driven abundance the solution to our problems?  (The New Republic)

Economics

How did the rich get that way?  (Businessweek)

A profile of Janet Yellen, Bernanke’s potential successor.  (NYTimes)

Bitcoin

How to explain Bitcoin to your Grandmother.  (SuitPossum)

What if Google ($GOOG) launched its own virtual currency?  (Phil Pearlman)

Why gold and Bitcoin make lousy money.  (MacroMania)

Technology

Reed Hastings CEO of Netflix ($NFLX) on the future of Internet TV.  (AllThingsD)

Can we use big data to hire and manage better workers?  (Bits)

More and more of our life is driven by algorithms.  (More Intelligent Life)

The Nest thermometer is getting cooler over time.  (Fast Company)

Social media

Justin Fox, “The media have gone pro-am.”  (HBR)

Good tips for the new Twitter user.  (Dart-Throwing Chimp via @dandrezner)

How to crowdsource a manhunt.  (New Yorker)

Startups

Mark Suster interviews Clay Christensen.  (A VC)

Most services require too much “cognitive overhead.”  (TechCrunch)

Do entrepreneurs matter?  (voxEU via @markthoma)

Science

The Earth’s core is much hotter than previously thought.  (BBC via Digg)

What is methane hydrate and why it matters to the world’s energy situation.  (The Atlantic)

The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was worse than previously thought.  (Newsweek)

How much math do scientists need to know?  (Math Babe)

Cities

Chicago is great but it is not a “truly global tier one city.”  (New Geography)

Why more cities need to get on the fiber bandwagon.  (Pando Daily)

Society

What it’s like to truly disconnect?  (HBR)

Does a complex world need simpler rules?  (Farnam Street)

The strange experience that is the Top Chef cruise.  (Eater via @longreads)

Sports

The MBA program that hopes to get NFL players on the right business track.  (GQ via Longform)

The economics of college athletics are under fire.  (Economist)

Books

Are you looking for a good read this weekend? Hardcover copies of my book Abnormal Returns: Winning Strategies from the Frontlines of the Investment Blogosphere are on sale now. Check it out.

An excerpt from Michael Pollan’s Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.  (Medium via Marginal Revolution also Daily Ticker)

Sonja Lyubomirsky, “The Queen of Happiness,” on The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy, but Does.  (NYTimes)

Adrian Raine, author of The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime on what genetics and neuroscience can tell us about criminal tendencies.  (WSJ)

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