We bring you another edition of the awesome TBB Best of Web links: Introduce you to the greatest art thief, meet the future of basketball branding, teach you that there are no investing laws, talk about the future and where we are going, see the top global brands since 2000 and watch The Boat, no it is not the Love Boat!
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Every Sunday I pick the best reads that blew my mind in the previous week. It can be…anything! I like to be eclectic and despise salesy/clickbait/sameold content you read…everywhere else!
As always, click on the headline to be taken to the original source. Sometimes I insert my incendiary comments on article excerpts between [brackets].
The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief
Wow…what a story about this guy! When you just can’t quit doing something…you know, it’s like blogging lol. But this one is, well, criminal! So much time in jail…only to get out and go back to stealing art. So sad to find out what happened to it at the end, so sad! I am not going to ruin the story for you, take some time to read it. If you are interested. It’s a freeee country!
I see a movie coming…
Stéphane Breitwieser robbed nearly 200 museums, amassed a collection of treasures worth more than $1.4 billion, and became perhaps the most prolific art thief in history. And as he reveals to GQ’s Michael Finkel, how Breitwieser managed to do all this is every bit as surprising as why.
Naked Brands: The Future of Basketball
If you are into the NBA, branding, social media, marketing, fashion and whatever turns you on these days…this IS the read, wow!
On social media, people want to connect with people — not companies. Likewise, people increasingly want to connect with stars — not teams.
History will remember The Decision as a decade-defining event, a pivotal moment, destined for a permanent spot in the history books. [Really? I am going to remember it as one of the biggest douche bag events ever instead!]
The NFL and MLB have doubled down on piracy and copyright restrictions. They go after sites and social media users who post video without permission. The NBA though, does the opposite — the floodgates are an astute marketing strategy. Instead of issuing copyright restrictions, the NBA uses YouTube technology to identify game highlights, and when they do, they profit from the advertising. It’s a win-win for fans and the league. [Well, is it a coincidence then that the NBA is blowing every pro league away lately? Nope!]
Today, the NBA is led by a clever social media usage and a roster of shining stars with worldwide appeal. That, though, wasn’t always the case. [We undervalue the importance of leadership in building a great brand. Case in point? TBB…Bwahahaha. No, okay, seriously. Article goes through NBA’s history and how far it has come! Same goes with the quality of leadership in leading countries like Venezuela, Greece, etc and of course companies…]
No Laws, Only Tendencies
If you are interested in the world of personal finance and investing in general this is a must read! It opens with an amazing excerpt from an interview of “famed investor” Howard Marks:
You have to understand that there are no physical laws at work in investing. And the future is uncertain, and vague, and random. And psychology dominates.
Richard Feynman said, “Physics would be much harder if electrons had feelings.” You come in the room, you flip up the switch, and the lights go on. Every time! Why is that? Because the electrons flow from the switch to the lights. They never flow the other way. They never go on strike. They never fall asleep. They never say, ‘Ah today I don’t feel like flowing from the switch to the light.’ That’s physical science.
You have to understand the distinction between your field [architecture] and the field of investing, where there are no laws. There are only tendencies.
I plead ignorance when it comes to market predictions! I always make the same one “It will fluctuate” and I am right 100% of the time woohoo! When another market guru/moron comes out and shouts that a crash is imminent I always counter with “Day and time please!”. Which is of course never answered so I then tell them to STFU! 🙂
Marks’ comment highlights how there are no secret laws at work in markets. X will not always cause Y. Old patterns break, new patterns emerge, then those patterns break. Rinse. Repeat.
So what are these tendencies?
Stocks Will Provide Long-Term Positive Returns
Higher Returns Do Not Come Without Volatility
Markets Occasionally Crash and Recover
Cheap Stocks and Rising Stocks Tend to Outperform The Rest
A few more excerpts that stand out:
…stock markets experienced at least one annual decline of at least 37%. More importantly, world equities, which represent a diverse set of countries, declined by 41% in 2008.
Large crashes and volatility help explain why equities have a positive real long-term return. You are being compensated for taking risk.
…the only law in investing: everything is determined by your own behavior. Everything comes back to how you react to information. This isn’t about numbers, it’s about psychology. [YEEEEEEEES!]
The Future According to the Author of Sapiens
This is an interview with Yuval Noah Harari.
Just a few years ago Yuval Noah Harari was an obscure Israeli historian with a knack for playing with big ideas. Then he wrote Sapiens, a sweeping, cross-disciplinary account of human history that landed on the bestseller list and remains there four years later. Like Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, Sapiens proposed a dazzling historical synthesis, and Harari’s own quirky pronouncements—“modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history”— made for compulsive reading. The book also won him a slew of high-profile admirers, including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg.
There is A LOT here. It makes for a very interesting reading. I am not going to post videos here cutting up food items with credit cards so I can pump you with them plastic affiliate links or pretend I am so excited about some moronic shocking video to get you to click to increase my page views/advertising/MONEY…My blog is just NOT that type of blog okay! At the same time one day I am going to get tired doing all this on a what amounts to be non profit humanitarian basis but…lets leave the whining for a post midweek okay 🙂
To give you a glimpse of what the interview is about, here is the first question and answer:
What’s different about this moment in history?
What’s different is the pace of technological change, especially the twin revolutions of artificial intelligence and bioengineering. They make it possible to hack human beings and other organisms, and then re-engineer them and create new life forms.
And it just continues, enjoy!
The Top 15 Global Brands 2000-2018
This is my kind of shocking video. Okay, animation that is!
Push the play button, sit back and watch, it will blow you away!
The amazingly fast progress of Facebook, Apple and Amazon are, well, shocking indeed!
Where we were at the end of 2018:
And now a bonus link for you!
The Boat
This is one those rare finds you find that just blow you away. Not sure how to describe this…animation, comics, web wizardry? Whatever it is…it is a gut wrenching story. With an extremely sad and also powerful, and shall I say, hopeful ending about humanity. And immigration. It all came together in the end. In an era of assholes singling out immigrants smh.
I am going to spare you content like “69 reasons I like the CSP card”…
Enjoy my labor of love while it lasts…
And I leave you with this…Please don’t try this!
TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
DML says
Good links today! Thank you.
TBBTheDude says
First in the comments and first in March for a cc conversion!
Thank you.
Biggie F says
These art-thieves-with-emotional-attachment-to-their-thefts articles are becoming a 2019 trope.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/the-french-burglar-who-pulled-off-his-generations-biggest-art-heist
TBBTheDude says
This one has been on my queue for a while but for some reason…never made past it…yet 🙂
Carl Pietrantonio says
Good stuff today as usual! Plus, Bronze! For the Pacific North West!
I don’t know how you do this, George, but please keep on doing it!
Thanks!
Carl Pietrantonio says
I gotta add this! Just found it in today’s My Comics Feed. Get a laugh out of this one, George!
https://www.gocomics.com/andertoons/2019/03/10
TBBTheDude says
Lol…good one!
The self proclaimed thought leader Gary is says one week left for the the 75k United Business Explorer card and, you know, everyone must huuuuuury!
ABC says
A slightly old story “The girl who executed Nazis after seducing them in bars dies aged 92 ”
she blew up bridges and railway tracks with dynamite, smuggled Jewish children out of concentration camps and executed as many Nazis as she could, using a firearm hidden in the basket of her bike.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12131326
TBBTheDude says
Nice find, thanks!
Elin Lam says
I m not sure where to talk about this but it appears that Emily Jablon has left MMS too. What? Was there a blog post where she said goodbye? Also a number of blog post she wrote in the past was deleted from the site.
TBBTheDude says
Yes, I reported this when it happened…in the BLOG BUZZ section of my blog.
Must have left in bad terms…to have them wipe out everything…
so the founding couple is nowhere to be seen…what a legacy…I am sure their pocket books are doing fine 🙂
Katye says
Where is the link when you first reported it? I am interested in finding out when it happened.
TBBTheDude says
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/airline-innovations-hawaii-big-island-residential-land-values-falkland-islands-where-is-emily/