BUSINESS/INVESTING:
- Microsoft’s cloud continues to grow as it chases Amazon (WaPo) "Cloud growth drove the bulk of Microsoft's success in its latest quarter, solidifying its second-place position in the market. While Microsoft doesn't provide dollar figures for each product, it said that revenue from Azure itself jumped 98 percent."
- How Amazon Rebuilt Itself Around Artificial Intelligence (Wired) "It took a lot of six-pagers to transform Amazon from a deep-learning wannabe into a formidable power. The results of this transformation can be seen throughout the company—including in a recommendations system that now runs on a totally new machine-learning infrastructure. With its machine learning overhaul in place, the company’s AI expertise is now distributed across its many teams—much to the satisfaction of Bezos and his consiglieri."
- The Perils of Investing in Index Funds (Kiplinger) "In the 12 months through June, eight out of the 12 actively managed fund categories that Morningstar tracks beat peer index funds. That marked a massive turnaround, given that only one out of the 12 categories of active funds beat similar passive funds in 2016. ... investors wary of market distortions should consider broader-based choices, such as Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX) or its exchange-traded cousin (VTI)... Fidelity Total Market (FSTMX) is another good choice. The Vanguard and Fidelity total market funds both include modest exposure to midsize and small companies. With bonds, consider sticking mainly to active funds in the current market, in which rising rates and other challenges call for flexibility and nimbleness."
HEALTH:
- Is Mindfulness Meditation BS? (Wired) "What starts out as a meditation practice with modest aims can easily, and very naturally, go deeper. There is a kind of slippery slope from stress reduction to profound spiritual exploration and radical philosophical reorientation, and many people...are further down that slope than they realize."
MORE SMOKE:
- Republicans concede key FBI 'footnote' in Carter Page warrant (Politico) "But in an appearance on 'Fox & Friends,' Nunes was asked about reports over the weekend that the FBI application did refer to a political entity connected to the dossier. It is unclear precisely what language the application might have used. Nunes conceded that a 'footnote' to that effect was included in the application, while faulting the bureau for failing to provide more specifics."
- The Memo Doesn’t Make Its Case (National Review) "... after reading the memorandum, I’m struck by the fact that I literally cannot objectively discern whether there’s a scandal here. After all, it’s not by itself scandalous to review political opposition research — a politically motivated person is no more suspect than the terrorists and criminals who routinely provide information used to support even the most intrusive warrants."
- Inside the FBI Life of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as Told in Their Text Messages (WSJ) "Texts critical of Mr. Trump represent a fraction of the roughly 7,000 messages, which stretch across 384 pages and show no evidence of a conspiracy against Mr. Trump. Rather, a broader looks shows an unvarnished and complex picture of the lives of an FBI agent and lawyer who found themselves at the center of highly charged probes."
NEWS:
- Robert Mueller Is No Ken Starr (National Review) "This history is relevant because it shows the forgetfulness of Donald Trump’s critics, who seem to believe that it’s unprecedented for a special counsel to attract the ire of a president’s defenders. In an often abnormal time, the most normal thing that’s happened over the past six months is that attitudes toward the Mueller investigation have broken down along partisan lines."
- Supreme Court refuses to block Pa. ruling invalidating congressional map (WaPo) "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month ruled that the state’s Republican legislative leaders had violated the state Constitution by unfairly favoring the GOP. Although there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state, Republicans hold 13 of 18 congressional seats."
- The Last Two Weeks of Polls Have Been Great for Republicans. Do They Signal a Shift? (NYT) "The question isn’t really whether Republican standing has improved recently. It has. The question is whether anyone should care: Is it just one of many blips and bumps along the road, or does it say something meaningful about the midterm elections? The last two weeks of polls have gone further than a reversion to the mean. They’re arguably the best two weeks of polls for Republicans since the failure of the Senate health care bill in July. A highly sensitive poll average — like the FiveThirtyEight tracker — might put the Democratic lead down to roughly six points, basically the lowest level since the spring."
- Congress should censure Nunes. Just like McCarthy (WaPo) "Let us stipulate that Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is not exactly the second coming of 'Tail Gunner Joe ': that dubious honor more properly belongs to the conspirator in chief, President Trump. But for his deceptive, demoralizing and dangerous assault on the FBI — an institution that, like the Army, is dedicated to defending America — Nunes, too, deserves to be censured by his colleagues and stripped of his chairmanship. Like Trump, Nunes would be more dangerous if he were more competent. But just as Trump must be held accountable for his attempts to obstruct justice even if they don’t succeed, so, too, Nunes must be held accountable for his misuse of a congressional committee to pursue a partisan vendetta against the nation’s premier law-enforcement agency."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Intel is making smart glasses that actually look good (The Verge) " From the outside, the Vaunt glasses look just like eyeglasses. When you’re wearing them, you see a stream of information on what looks like a screen — but it’s actually being projected onto your retina. It works over Bluetooth with either an Android phone or an iPhone much in the same way your smartwatch does, taking commands from an app that runs in the background to control it." and Get smart about smart glasses: here are 15 companies building futuristic AR eyewear (TechCrunch)
- Solar power and Tesla batteries will create the world’s largest “virtual power plant” in Australia (Quartz) "Where South Australia’s program differs is that, after the initial rollout, the state will open up the program to 50,000 homes in the state. In this phase, homeowners can either buy the equipment or lease it from an investor. In both cases, the solar panels and batteries will be connected to the grid. That said, batteries are only capable of handling variations in daily consumption."
- AI Won't Be Quite the Revolution You Expect (Wired) "There have been remarkable advances in AI, after decades of frustration. But there are many things that people can do quickly that smart machines cannot. Natural language is beyond deep learning; new situations baffle artificial intelligences.... None of these shortcomings is likely to be solved soon. Once you’ve seen you’ve seen it, you can’t un-see it: deep learning, now the dominant technique in artificial intelligence, will not lead to an AI that abstractly reasons and generalizes about the world. By itself, it is unlikely to automate ordinary human activities."
TRUMPTEL:
- Trump Accuses Democrats of ‘Treason’ Amid Market Rout (NYT) "His remarks came in a rambling, discursive speech at a factory in Ohio, during which he celebrated his revival of the American economy as the stock market plummeted by more a thousand points. 'Can we call that treason?' Mr. Trump said of the stone-faced reaction of Democrats to his speech. 'Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.'"
- Is Trump Serious About "Treasonous" Democrats? (National Review) "The real problem here is not that Trump is going around actually calling in deadly earnest for his political opponents to be prosecuted for treason (something Democrats do to Trump and his family and advisors literally every day, by the way) but that he’s basically openly mocking the idea that words in politics mean anything at all."
WINTER OLYMPICS:
- 5 Big Stories to Watch at the Winter Olympics (Time) "Russia’s kinda-sorta ban. New Winter Olympics events. Age is just a number. Six nations making Winter Olympics debut. Frigid temperatures.
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- A chemical found in McDonald’s french fries may lead to a baldness cure (Fast Company) "No word on whether rubbing McDonald’s french fries on your head will work, so you may as well give it a try."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Even the Losers (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
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