Powers of Ten is a cool 9 minute documentary made in 1977 that tries to put into persepective the size of our universe. I first saw it in Astronomy class in 1998. At the end, when they show the carbon nucleus in the man’s hand, I pointed my laser pointer right in the center of the screen as a glowing red dot. The class, mostly sleeping, must not have noticed - but I heard my professor laugh out loud. That laser pointer provided me with endless hours of enjoyment in college, including but not limited to entertaining the class by pointing it on a professor’s arse as he is writing on the chalk board.
Click here to watch the movie on Google Video.

Josh Waitzkin, famous child chess prodigy of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, is also 5-time and current Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands Middleweight National Champion in both the Restricted Step and Moving Step divisions. In 2004 he won the Middleweight World Championship Title in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands (Fixed Step) and became the Middleweight World Co-Champion in Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands (Moving Step) competing in the 7th Chung Hwa Cup International Tai Chi Chuan Championships in Taiwan.

“The most important thing I believe I’ve learned [from chess] is the idea of when you have an opportunity, a gift, whatever it is, you take advantage of it.”

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
Friday’s IPO SPSN should be watched, especially by day traders.
Also a recent IPO, SPWR looks interesting.
SIFY is extremely strong as it makes a new 3-year high.
MYOG is a beauty.
Many traders have now noticed OSUR, which got killed last week.
For the strong up trend to continue, the BBH should find some support at the $200 mark.
Could that have been the blow-off top in HANS? If it is, you heard it here first. If it isn’t, just forget that I said anything about it.
TAL is a recent IPO that is hot, and it is also the name of a great chess master and former world champion.

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A lot of Bobby Fischer’s belongings, once stored in a Pasadena storage unit, are now being sold on eBay after they were purchased six years ago at a Southern California Flea market. Thirty years ago, when Bobby disappeared and stopped paying rent, the landlord sold the stuff off.
The story of Bobby Fischer, now a crazy racist and no longer great at chess, is a very interesting story of a true genius:

Garry Kasparov wrote that of all world champions of chess, the skill gap between Fischer and his contemporaries was the largest in history.

In 1957, Fischer won the US Open Chess Championship in Cleveland, Ohio, on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier. Because of this result, Fischer was given entry into the invitational U.S. Championship. This was controversial because it was believed that Fischer was too weak and would finish last. Instead, he finished first [to become US Champion at age 14].

…in the 1963-1964 championship, which he won with an 11-0 record, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament.

In the 1971 Candidates matches, Fischer had a remarkable streak of twenty consecutive wins, a feat which has been compared to throwing back-to-back no-hitters in baseball.

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

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“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”

–Bruce Lee

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

Michelle Williams, co-star of the new film Brokeback Mountain about two gay cowboys, is the daughter of commodities trader Larry Williams who twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as a Montana Republican. With an 87% on rottentomatoes.com, Brokeback Mountain should be a pretty good movie.
Michelle was legally emancipated from her parents at the age of 15. At 16 she won the Robbins Trading Company World Cup Championship of Futures Trading by turning $10,000 into $100,000, which is the second highest profit in the tournament’s history.
Her father taught her to smoke and drink:

She remembers, in a misguided attempt at aversion therapy, Larry offered his daughter a six-pack of “huge, Slurpee-sized beers,” and told her to finish the whole thing. Instead of throwing up, she began to do cartwheels.

The two bonded at boxing matches with her dad driving to “these really seedy boxing clubs” in New Mexico towns like Albuquerque and Truth or Consequences.

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
Thinly traded COBR is making a move.
BTJ is doing the same.

When I was at the mprize dinner, I spoke to this guy who is an artificial intelligence programmer for Poker Academy. To my surprise, he said that programmers are having great difficulty in making AI that is good at poker. Unlike chess, which programmers now dominate, computer poker playing programs are not very good. He said a simple ‘play the odds’ program can beat weak players, but it will be destroyed by good players who can exploit it. He did mention something about a “game-theoretic optimal nash-equilibrium strategy” that is supposed to be good.

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“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –