In 1965, James Baldwin, by then internationally famous, faced off against William F. Buckley Jr., one of the leading voices of American conservatism, in a debate hosted by the Cambridge Union in England. The debate proposition before the house was: “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.”
Nicholas Buccola’s “The Fire Is Upon Us” tells the story of that intellectual prizefight as well as the larger story of Buckley’s and Baldwin’s lives.
Feom a Barron’s online interview article:
Right now, you tend to have investment advisors for retirees, and insurance advisors or salespersons for retirees, and it’s fairly rare to go to somebody who can sell you annuities or invest your money and has no financial incentive to tilt one way or the other. Ultimately, what I’d like to see are people who have knowledge of both annuities and investments, and who are compensated in a way that doesn’t influence the decision.
The idea is that you segment your money. It’s similar to using “buckets” but with a time component. A retiree might have a box for 2020 and a box for 2021, and 2022, etc.
Nobel Prize–winning economist William Sharpe has spent most of his career thinking about risk. He’s behind the Capital Asset Pricing Model for gauging systemic risk and the eponymous Sharpe ratio, which captures risk-adjusted return.
A few decades ago, Sharpe turned his attention to what may be the biggest risk of all for most Americans—running out of money in retirement. The professor of finance, emeritus, at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business created a computer program that eventually covered 100,000 retirement-income scenarios based on different combinations of life spans and investment returns for a retired couple. Sharpe has made this program available in a free ebook, Retirement Income Scenario Matrices.
To read more: https://www.barrons.com/articles/william-sharpe-how-to-secure-lasting-retirement-income-51573837934
Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including whether public impeachment hearings are making President Trump more or less vulnerable, what stood out about the witnesses who testified so far, whether Trump’s Ukraine dealings are surprising or “in character” and the latest dynamics among 2020 Democrats.
From an Interesting Engineering online review:
Wi-Charge says it has a solution to the problem. Its technology allows users to power small devices, such as smartphones, smart fire alarms, and smart locks, from several feet away without any wires.
The technology works by sending out a thin beam of infrared light. A receiver on the enabled device then converts the beam into electricity.
Electronic waste is expected to exceed 50 million tonnes by 2020. That number simply isn’t sustainable.
One company is aiming to get rid of one of the main culprits in e-waste: the electronic cable. Wi-Charge has created a method for powering devices wirelessly using safe and efficient infrared technology.
Aside from having the potential to end a great deal of waste, the company is also aiming to meet a growing demand for power that will only increase with the advent of 5G.
More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result. In addition, nearly 223,900 people in the United States required hospital care for C. difficile and at least 12,800 people died in 2017.
Germs continue to spread and develop new types of resistance, and progress may be undermined by some community-associated infections that are on the rise. More action is needed to address antibiotic resistance. While the development of new treatments is one of these key actions, such investments must be coupled with dedicated efforts toward preventing infections in the first place, slowing the development of resistance through better antibiotic use, and stopping the spread of resistance when it does develop to protect American lives now and in the future.
CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019 (2019 AR Threats Report) includes updated national death and infection estimates that underscore the continued threat of antibiotic resistance in the United States. New CDC data show that while the burden of antibiotic-resistance threats in the United States was greater than initially understood, deaths are decreasing since the 2013 report. This suggests that U.S. efforts—preventing infections, stopping spread of bacteria and fungi, and improving use of antibiotics in humans, animals, and the environment—are working, especially in hospitals. Vaccination, where possible, has also shown to be an effective tool of preventing infections, including those that can be resistant, in the community.
To read the report: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/threats-report/2019-ar-threats-report-508.pdf
Vineyards in Colorado are mostly nestled in the temperate, high elevation river valleys and mesas of Mesa and Delta counties, with some acreage in Montezuma county. Colorado’s grape growing regions range in elevation from 4,000 to 7,000 feet and are thus among the highest vineyards in the world, resulting in hot days accompanied by cool nights.
The ‘continental climate’ in these regions create day to night temperature variations topically ranging from 25 to 30 degrees during the grape maturation months of August and September. The long warm daylight hours of intense high-altitude sunlight mature the fruit completely and build the natural sugars. The cool evenings cause the grapes to retain the acids so vital to premium winemaking. However, the high altitude can also present a challenge to grape growers, in that the average frost free growing season ranges from 150 to 182 days.
Website: https://coloradowine.com/the-tradition/
Read Wall Street Jouranl article on young winemakers: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wines-to-buy-this-thanksgiving-a-guide-to-americas-up-and-coming-regions-11573836307
An obscure think tank in Boston is getting drug companies to lower their prices – using something called a QALY. WSJ’s Denise Roland explains what a QALY is, and why it’s controversial.From a GroceryDive.com online review:
The 12,000-square-foot store is packed with in-store dining options, a scratch bakery, coffee bar and a curated assortment of fresh and local products. An additional 8,000 square feet is dedicated to prep space and a kitchen where employees make prepared foods and from-scratch items using Brothers Marketplace’s own recipes.
Roche Bros.’ Brothers Marketplace banner opened its newest store in Cambridge, Massachusetts Tuesday. It’s the banner’s fifth location to open since the concept debuted in 2014, and joins other Brothers stores in Cambridge, Duxbury, Medfield, Weston and Waltham, Massachusetts.
A full-service butcher counter allows customers to place special orders, make requests or order preferred cuts. The butcher sells only antibiotic-free and hormone-free meats and poultry, and includes selections like certified Angus Prime Beef as well as pork sourced from Niman Ranch, and Bell and Evans chicken. The counter also offers ready-to-cook options such as marinated meats, kabobs and house-made sausages.
To read more: https://www.grocerydive.com/news/inside-the-store-brothers-marketplace/567372/
From a Country Life online article:
First published in 1897, Country Life is itself a late-Victorian institution. What could be more appropriate, therefore, than to celebrate this anniversary with a collector’s issue of articles and photographs from the magazine’s archives?
An opening timeline offers an overview of the Victorian Age, but the focus of what follows is exclusively architectural. The coverage of country houses has always been central to the magazine, but it can also claim to have been a pioneer in the study of Victorian architecture through the work of two former Architectural Editors, Mark Girouard and Michael Hall.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, respectively in May and August, 1819. Their marriage 21 years later in 1840 was long arranged and, after a difficult beginning, grew to be unexpectedly happy. With perfect symmetry, it lasted 21 years, until Prince Albert’s early death in 1861.
During that time, the couple established a completely new mode of Royal Family life and redefined the role of Britain’s constitutional monarchy. All of this happened as Britain developed at an astonishing speed into the most powerful nation in the world. When the Queen died in 1901, there was no question that a remarkable age of British history had come to a close.
Read more at https://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/focus-greatest-victorian-houses-britain-featu:red-magnificent-one-off-magazine-207774#cLqLhWZ6ouDLuAM1.99
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