Swans on Tea

How Porsche hacked the financial system and made a killing
Making your own short squeeze.
I don’t think this would work in the US, because I think any ownership above 10% requires public disclosure. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU were contemplating a similar law.

Animated map: Watching the Growth of Walmart Across America
It’s like watching green bacterial goo grow in a US-shaped petri dish.

Doing the Math to Find the Good Jobs
The study, to be released Tuesday from CareerCast.com, a new job site, evaluates 200 professions to determine the best and worst according to five criteria inherent to every job: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.
[…]
According to the study, mathematicians fared best in part because they typically [...]

Who has the worst jargon?
I was recently asked to fill out a questionnaire to evaluate how my place of work was doing in terms of some business metrics. It was hell. Two groups that love their jargon and acronyms, the government and business. I thought that it could have been worse, because [...]

How to copyright a song
Because nobody can possibly steal it if it’s protected by copyright …

Auto Bailouts and the Innovators Dilemna (sic)
By investing in an old idea, and the old guard of the U.S. auto industry, we slow the next wave of change from happening. We enable thousands of people to believe their old ways and skills are still viable, instead of motivating them to seek out new skills, products, [...]

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.

The End
I know it’s been covered to death, but I found this scary and sickening, and yet couldn’t stop reading. Banks making loans they knew [...]

Voting-day giveaways. Krispy Kreme giving away free donuts. Ben & Jerry’s giving away free ice cream (between 5 and 8 p.m.) and Starbucks giving out free coffee. Ostensibly to those sporting “I voted” stickers.
However …
Handy said there is a federal statute that prohibits any reward for voting.
Starbucks’ good deed can be [...]

Because you are a valued customer and your opinion is important to us, we would like to periodically ask you to provide feedback regarding your experience with our hotels. The feedback we collect from our customers is used to make improvements to our hotels and processes so we can better serve you.
However, our records indicate [...]

OK — beg? No, not so much.
Dell deceived customers, judge says
I have no complaint about any alleged bait-and-switch. It’s this:
“Our goal has been, and continues to be, to provide the best customer experience possible,” spokesman Jess Blackburn said in a written statement to CNN.
Cough, splurt. Get on it, please.
I had the misfortune [...]

The monetary density of things
People have been saying that the new industrial grade swimsuits like the LZR Racer are worth their weight in gold. As you can see, this is clearly inaccurate. But such a suit is worth its weight in marijuana or industrial diamonds.
At the high end of this graph is gold (the only [...]

Disciplines of chemistry as retail chains. The IKEA of Chemistry
Total Synthesis- The Wal-Mart of Chemistry. Okay, before I alienate my tot. syn. friends with this one, let’s think about it. Typically, when modern reactions are developed, they are almost immediately put to task in syntheses of natural products, as proof of their usefulness. People [...]