Sunday, July 10, 2022

Errors, omissions and commissions will be corrected later. Not yet proofread. Proofreader is traveling. I'm off to the pool. 

"Word for the day": HIMARS.

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The Apple Page

Apple: performance and pricing staggering (in a good way; prices have actually decreased significantly).

Third anniversary of Apple discontinuing the 12-inch MacBook: link here.

• that same day three years ago:  refreshes to the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro 
• price for that 12-inch Macbook started at $1,299 
• today:the new MacBook Air with M1 chip: $999 ($300 less expensive than the MacBook three years ago)
• the new MacBook Air with M2 chip: $1199 ($100 less expensive than the MacBook three years ago)

Benchmark speed for MacBook Air with M2 chip: link here.

• scores almost equal to the MacBook Pro ($1199 for the new MacBook Air vs $1299 or $1999 for the MacBook Pro depending on screen size )
• outperforms the base model Mac Pro tower:
• base model, Mac Pro tower: $5,999
• rack: $6,499
• does not include keyboard, mouse, monitor

Comment: The result also confirms that the M2 MacBook Air outperforms the base model Mac Pro tower with an 8‑core Intel Xeon W processor despite costing nearly $5,000 less. While that is not an apples-to-apples comparison, it is nevertheless a testament to the impressive performance of Apple silicon chips in more affordable Macs compared to Intel.

Again, best bang for the buck for most (all/) high school students, all college students and most (all?) post-graduate students: the M1 MacBook Air ($999) or the brand new, flying off the shelf M2 MacBook Air ($1199). 

Social media: Intel continues to fall behind. AMD stumbles. TSMC/Apple firing on all cylinders. Of course, for the average user, these "specs" don't mean much. Non-Apple computers easily compete with Apple computers on average user experience. However, when one considers the entire Apple ecosystem, there really is no comparison.

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Atmospheric CO2

The very first time I posted atmospheric CO2 on the blog was back in December 22, 2016, for data for the previous month, November, 2016:

Most recent data, data for May, 2022, almost six years later:

If the y-axis was zero to 1,000, the change would not be seen by the average viewer.

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Investing

Billionaire investor Howard Marks published memos for 32 years. "MnkeDaniel" posts Howard Marks' key concepts over at twitter today.

Here are the first two:

1. Absence of disaster:

• the best foundation for above-average returns is the absence of disaster.
• while most people seek phenomenal returns that outshine every other investment, a little above average is the secret.
• the longer your time horizon, the more important this gets
• I would add that a "divorce" should be included as an example of a "disaster."

2. The role of demand

• in economy theory, the "homo economicus" is a rational investor who makes risk-based decisions.
• in reality, this is rarely the case. Investors are irrational.
• investors get overexcited and frustrated.
• and since demand drives prices, this is an opportunity.

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More Advice

From Jose Chalhoub @ globaloil risks: read good books and learn foreign languages. Period. 

I remain on schedule to read one book each week this summer. Current list maintained here. Two new books arrive from Amazon this week. 

And, I have a 655-day streak with Duolingo learning Spanish. I have not missed one day of at least ten minutes with Duolingo since starting the program 655 days ago. That's all Duolingo recommends: at least ten minutes each day. 

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Covid: Long Haul

This is huge; these two stories broke over night.

From The Boston Globe, July 8, 2022: researchers may have found a / the (?) biomarker for long Covid.

• discovered by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. 
• I'm lovin' it. I have strong emotional links to Mass General.
  
• Brigham and Women and Mass General have recently merged, now one entity, and is advertising heavily on the PGA tour.

From CNBC, July 8, 2022: high stakes, $1.2 billion study, has enrolled nearly 40,000 patients for study of long Covid.

• study to be called: Recover
• to complete enrollment by year-end
• multiple hospitals involved
• it appears the first "beneficiary" of an earlier study was New York University Langone
• no doubt Big Pharma will be involved
• a google search of covid study recover will lead readers to hospitals involved in the study

Long haul: already show to affect public service employees longer and worse than private service employees -- sources. 

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Joke For The Day

Remember: with Norm MacDonald, it was never the punchline. It was the journey.