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☆ How to generate some return on Costco after a nice rally, without having to sell the stake
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Michael Khouw | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

How I think about Jim Simons' legacy, and a trade on one of the most successful retailers, Costco, follows. First, a contrarian view in Costco: Costco (COST) is one of the best performing retailers over the past year. Last week, Costco released their four-week retail sales results for the period between Monday, April 8th and Sunday, May 5th. There is only one thing I don't like about Costco, the price. The weak form suggests past market prices, which are generally observable, are fully reflected in stock prices.

Persons: Jim Simons, that's, Jim, James Surowiecki, Francis Galton, Eugene Fama Organizations: Costco, Fund Locations: Costco, U.S, New York, Surowiecki

☆ Jim Simons, Math Genius Who Conquered Wall Street, Dies at 86
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Jonathan Kandell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jim Simons, the prizewinning mathematician who abandoned a stellar academic career, then plunged into finance — a world he knew nothing about — and became one of the most successful Wall Street investors ever, died on Friday in his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his spokesman, Jonathan Gasthalter, who did not specify a cause. After publishing breakthrough studies in pattern recognition, string theory and a framework that combined geometry and topology with quantum field theory, Mr. Simons decided to apply his genius to a more prosaic subject — making as much money as he could in as short a time as possible. Spurning financial analysts and business school graduates, he hired like-minded mathematicians and scientists. Mr. Simons equipped his colleagues with advanced computers to process torrents of data filtered through mathematical models, and turned the four investment funds in his new firm, Renaissance Technologies, into virtual money printing machines.

Persons: Jim Simons, Jonathan Gasthalter, Simons Organizations: Street, Renaissance Technologies Locations: Manhattan

☆ Mike Lynch-backed legal tech startup Luminance raises $40 million, capitalizing on AI hype
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mathisworks | Digitalvision Vectors | Getty ImagesLegal technology firm Luminance has raised $40 million in fresh funding from investors to grow its U.S. footprint, capitalizing on the wave of investor interest surrounding artificial intelligence. The company told CNBC that it raised the fresh capital in a Series B funding round led by U.S. venture fund March Capital. "We had lots of interest from lots of VCs," Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Lightbody said that businesses are investing in AI tools like Luminance's to keep a competitive edge, as well as to reduce costs. Luminance is one firm of the many generating buzz from investors thanks to the hype swirling around artificial intelligence.

Persons: Slaughter, Eleanor Lightbody, Lightbody Organizations: CNBC, U.S, National Grid Partners, National Grid, Koch Industries, Hitachi, Yokogawa, Liberty Mutual, LG Chem, BBC Studios, University of Cambridge, Companies, Mistral, Microsoft, Amazon, Investors

☆ Netflix's hit sci-fi series '3 Body Problem' is based on a real math problem that is so complex it's impossible to solve
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AdvertisementWhile Netflix's "3 Body Problem" is a science-fiction show, its name comes from a real math problem that's puzzled scientists since the late 1600s. In physics, the three-body problem refers to the motion of three bodies trapped in each other's gravitational grip — like a three-star system. The three-body problem is over 300 years oldThe three-body problem dates back to Isaac Newton, who published his "Principia" in 1687. Can you solve the three-body problem? Though the three-body problem is considered mathematically unsolvable, there are solutions to specific scenarios.

Persons: Isaac Newton, —, that's, Shane Ross, it's, Ross, Newton, Georgios Kollidas, Henri Poincaré, Yu Guming, Tseng, Maria Heras Organizations: Service, Virginia Tech, Netflix Locations: Swedish

☆ Opinion | Math Is the Answer to More Than One Question
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Alec Wilkinson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I arrived by means of mathematics, specifically simple mathematics — algebra, geometry and calculus, the kind of mathematics that adolescents do. I am only a mathematical tourist, but my experience has led me to believe that mathematics is rife with intimations of a divine presence. For many mathematicians, there is no question that God is somehow involved. Newton, for example, believed that mathematics exemplified thoughts in the mind of God. The first is the question of whether mathematics is created or discovered.

Persons: Pythagoras, Newton Organizations: Mathematicians

☆ teamLab Borderless: Art collective behind some of the world’s most popular museums unveils new Tokyo project
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( David Mcelhinney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Tokyo, Japan CNN —When art collective teamLab opened its flagship Tokyo venue, teamLab Borderless, in 2018, the group wanted it to fundamentally change the way we perceive and think about modern art. teamLab Borderless TokyoSo, it’s perhaps no surprise that a significant amount of hype surrounds the grand return of Borderless, which reopens this week in an upmarket new high-rise in Tokyo’s Azabudai district. teamLab Borderless TokyoKudo’s rhetorical style is circuitous, which is apt in a venue that eschews a linear approach to museum design. teamLab Borderless TokyoWandering around Borderless is more like “shinrin-yoku,” the Japanese art of forest bathing, whereby you let your body react to its environment so that it subconsciously directs your movements. teamLab Borderless TokyoThere may be no centerpiece at Borderless, but when another teamLab member, Sakurako Naka, opened a curtain to the new “Light Sculpture” series, she said the collective is “super excited” about this one.

Persons: teamLab Borderless, Takashi Kudo, “, …, ”, teamLab, motioning, There’s, Sakurako, Kudo Organizations: Japan CNN, Google, CNN Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Beijing, Melbourne , New York, London, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo’s Azabudai district, ichi, Sakurako Naka

☆ Napoleon stranded a bunch of scientists in Egypt and now we have modern archaeology
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Napoleon Bonaparte brought engineers, architects, and scientists when he invaded Egypt. In three stages, these "savants" meticulously illustrated the ruins of ancient Egypt. But one of his lesser-known offenses — abandoning a crew of scholars and scientists in Egypt — led to the unexpected byproduct of formal archaeology as we know it today. AdvertisementIt divided Egypt into ancient and modern times, and launched the modern vision of ancient Egypt as we know it today. The structures, symbols, and images of ancient Egypt became fashionable features of European art and architecture.

Persons: Napoleon Bonaparte, —, Egypt —, Ridley Scott, Napoleon, Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Nina Burleigh, Dominique, Vivant, Denon, savants, Napoleon's savants, Burleigh Organizations: Service, Scientific, Art Media, Egyptian Ministry of Tourism Locations: Egypt, France, Upper Egypt, Kings, Luxor, Karnak, Thebes, Edfu, Upper, Lower Egypt, Egyptian, Europe

☆ A man bought 30 identical lottery tickets for $1 each and won $150,000. It's the second time the strategy has worked for him.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewA Virginia man bought 30 Pick 4 tickets, each costing $1 and using the same combination: 1-1-2-9. The chances of matching all four Virginia Lottery numbers in exact order are slim — one in 10,000. Virginia Lottery said in a Wednesday news release that Bickham did the same thing in May last year, using identical combinations on 25 winning tickets in the same drawing. Reflecting on the most recent win, Bickham told lottery officials: "I thought, 'You've got to be kidding me!'" AdvertisementHe said he intends to save his winnings and perhaps use some to do travel, Virginia Lottery said.

Persons: —, Dana Bickham, Bickham, You've, Mia Jankowicz Organizations: Service, Virginia Lottery, Business, National Lottery

☆ 7 scientific breakthroughs that resulted from Napoleon's invasion of Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Then, after a series of defeats in Egypt, Napoleon returned to France in 1799 and left many of the scientists stranded. At the time of Napoleon's invasion, travelers had long known of Alexandria, Cairo, and other parts of Lower Egypt. Just 21 and a botanist by training when he arrived in Egypt, Savigny collected invertebrates like worms, bees, spiders, snails, and flies. The Rosetta Stone helped Champollion discover how to decipher hieroglyphsFor centuries, no one could read hieroglyphs, the pictorial writing that covered many Egyptian monuments. When the French found the Rosetta Stone during their invasion, they knew it could serve as a kind of translation key.

Persons: Napoleon, —, Napoleon Bonaparte, Egypt that's, Claude, Louis, Berthollet, natron, Werner Forman, savants, Sand, Dominique, Vivant, Denon, Karnak, he'd, Savigny, Jules, César Savigny, De Agostini, Getty Images Savigny, Etienne Geoffroy Saint, Hilaire, Geoffroy, Charles Darwin, Evon Hekkala, Crocodylus, John Vetch, Vetch, Rosetta Stone, Champollion, Rosetta, Jean, François, Nicolas, Jacques Conté Organizations: Service, Institut, West, Universal, Egypt wasn't, Art Media, Getty Images, Getty, Science, Society Picture Library, Europe, France's, British Museum, Fox, Cairo . Science Locations: Egypt, Cairo, France, Natron, Limestone, Wadi El Natrun, Upper, Lower Egypt, Alexandria, Edfu, Thebes, Esna, Paris, Egpyt, Europe

☆ 'Girl math' is toxic and it could be holding women back from growing wealth, says a financial specialist
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Zoe Burt | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

To Burt, the viral TikTok trend #girlmath reiterates the stereotype that women are bad at math. But often it's more overt, as with TikTok's most recent viral trend: "girl math." AdvertisementAdvertisementWhy girl math is a negative trendSeemingly lighthearted, the hashtag plays into a damaging stereotype that women are bad at math. Girl math doubles down on gendering lavish spendingThe #girlmath trend focuses on "feminine" spending habits as lavish — another common stereotype of women and money management. Women's financial literacy is an important issueThe girl-math trend brings women's financial literacy and investing into the limelight.

Persons: Zoe Burt, Burt, —, Caroline Criado Perez, Tamina, Shakuntala Devi, Elon Organizations: Service, Evening, New Zealand, Fiscal Studies, Guardian, Behavior, Organization, Fidelity, Twitter, Invest, deVere Italia

☆ The CEO of a hedge fund that averaged a 66% return for 3 decades spoke about investing, hiring, and sleeping 2,000 nights in his office. Here are the 11 best quotes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Brown had the idea for IBM's "Deep Blue," and has spent over 2,000 nights sleeping in his office. RenTech was founded by Jim Simons, a former MIT math professor and Cold War codebreaker. Peter Brown is the CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a quant fund founded by former Cold War codebreaker and MIT math professor Jim Simons. And the job is so demanding, I really don't see how I could do it otherwise." We don't know any economics.

Persons: Peter Brown, Brown, RenTech, Jim Simons, Goldman, he's, he'd, Peter, we're, we've Organizations: Renaissance, MIT, Service, Goldman Sachs Exchanges, Renaissance Technologies Locations: Wall, Silicon, York

☆ Millionaire hedge fund CEO says he mainly hires people with no background in finance and once hiked a worker's pay so he could call him at 1 a.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A hedge fund boss says he mainly hires people with no background in finance. Peter Brown also said he once offered a worker a pay rise in the early morning hours. Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. During the podcast discussion, Brown also said he gave an employee a pay rise so he could call him in the early morning hours. AdvertisementAdvertisementRepresentatives for Brown did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.

Persons: Peter Brown, Brown, Goldman Sachs, Zers, Jim, we're Organizations: Service, Renaissance Technologies, Goldman, CFA Institute Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ In Ukraine, Mathematics Offers Strength in Numbers
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Siobhan Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a Saturday evening in August, two Ukrainian mathematicians, Maryna Viazovska and Masha Vlasenko, set out on a 19-hour train trip from Warsaw to Kyiv. They were en route to a conference titled “Numbers in the Universe: Recent Advances in Number Theory and Its Applications.” Symbolically, the journey served to plant a flag. The event marked the opening of the International Center for Mathematics in Ukraine, or I.C.M.U., which was established on paper in November. “The goal is to bring the world of mathematics to Ukraine and open, or reopen, Ukrainian science for the world,” said Dr. Viazovska, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. She won a Fields Medal in 2022 and serves as scientific lead on the center’s coordination committee.

Persons: Maryna Viazovska, Masha Vlasenko, “, ”, Viazovska, Jean, Pierre Bourguignon Organizations: International Center for Mathematics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, European Research Council Locations: Warsaw, Kyiv, Ukraine, Lausanne, London

☆ 34 high-paying jobs for people who don't like stress
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

O*NET scores job characteristics like stress tolerance on a scale from 0 to 100, where a 0 means stress tolerance is not at all necessary for an occupation, and 100 suggests a job with a very high-stress environment. We ranked occupations from most to least stressful using O*NET's stress tolerance score, with lower scores indicating less stressful jobs. For instance, postsecondary economics teachers had a stress tolerance score of 63 and had an average annual wage of $122,750. This job had a stress tolerance score of 51 and an average annual wage of $77,310. For instance, a few high-paying occupations had a stress tolerance score of 68, such as geoscientists and postsecondary mathematical science teachers.

Persons: Andy Kiersz Organizations: Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics Locations: Wall, Silicon

Here are the meanings of the least-found words that were used in (mostly) recent Times articles. 1. pellicle — a thin skin or film:Chestnuts, a holiday favorite, don’t make it easy for us to cook them at home. The pellicle, its sticky inner skin, clings to the nut and can give it a bitter taste. This is achieved less by rethinking motivations than by burrowing into the language, far richer than I imagined. — The Best Coffee Break Is an Affogato (Aug. 11, 2021)The list of the week’s easiest words:

Persons: pellicle, chyme, Jimmy, yecch, ’, Brunie, McDermott, ‘, ”, Forest Simmons, Michael Starbird, Su, dotard, Seana McKenna, Ben Carlson, cortado, Maillard, enby, Taylor Mason, Asia Kate Dillon, —, clayey, bombe Organizations: Charter, Education, Andersen, Russian Locations: New York, Ontario, Copenhagen, Morningside Heights, Manhattan

☆ I took a chance and wrote my college essay about wanting to be like Barbie. I was accepted into one of the world's top film schools.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Lauren Trippeer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When I wrote my college-admissions essay, I took a risk and wrote: "I want to be like Barbie." I thought about what I liked; I liked film. Barbie chose all of her dreams, and through pursuing film as a career, I could too. With help from Barbie, I consistently chose it all, and through film, I could bring my ballerina-astronaut dreams to life. Now, two years later, I'm entering my sophomore year of studying film and television production at Chapman University, one of the world's top film schools.

Persons: Barbie, She's, Seuss, Barbie —, I've Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Chapman University Locations: Wall, Silicon, Southern California

☆ Darktrace shares pop 26% after EY concludes report into accounting allegations
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — Shares of British cybersecurity firm Darktrace surged 26% Tuesday after the company said that auditing firm EY had concluded a review into the company's financial processes and controls. The cybersecurity firm said its sales got a boost from client interest in generative artificial intelligence. EY conducted a "thorough review" of its policies, processes and controls, Darktrace said. Copies of the EY report are being voluntarily shared with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Reporting Council, Darktrace said. "We call upon Darktrace to fully unveil the details of the EY review and facilitate an open dialogue on its findings," Quintessential said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Persons: Darktrace, EY Organizations: British, Capital Management, CNBC, Financial, Authority, Twitter Locations: New York

☆ A.I. Is Coming for Mathematics, Too
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Siobhan Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For more than 2,000 years, Euclid’s text was the paradigm of mathematical argumentation and reasoning. “Euclid famously starts with ‘definitions’ that are almost poetic,” Jeremy Avigad, a logician at Carnegie Mellon University, said in an email. But by the 20th century, mathematicians were no longer willing to ground mathematics in this intuitive geometric foundation. Eventually, this formalization allowed mathematics to be translated into computer code. In 2019, Christian Szegedy, a computer scientist formerly at Google and now at a start-up in the Bay Area, predicted that a computer system would match or exceed the problem-solving ability of the best human mathematicians within a decade.

Persons: Euclid, Jeremy Avigad, “, Avigad, Christian Szegedy Organizations: Getty, Carnegie Mellon University, Google Locations: Los Angeles, Bay

☆ A war between 2 billionaire hedge-fund founders spilled out into the open in an alarming filing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

John Overdeck and David Siegel created hedge-fund giant Two Sigma, amassing billions in wealth. Here's the relevant section of the filing:There have been a variety of management and governance challenges at the Adviser. These disagreements can affect the Adviser's ability to retain or attract employees (including very senior employees) and could continue to impact the ability of employees to fully implement key research, engineering, or corporate business initiatives. Nor can it agree on the org chart, the management structure, corporate governance, or succession plans. These disagreements might hurt Two Sigma's ability to retain and attract star employees, and those employees' ability to actually implement research, tech, or business initiatives.

Persons: John Overdeck, David Siegel, Juliet Chung, Gregory Zuckerman, Chung, Zuckerman, Jamie Nash, Kleinberg Kaplan, I've Organizations: Sigma, Bloomberg, Wall Street, Management, Management Committee, Chief Investment Officers

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - A Miami-based digital marketing firm was behind a series of covert political influence operations in Latin America over the last year, Facebook-owner Meta (META.O) said this week, a rare exposé of an apparent U.S.-based misinformation-for-hire outfit. "It's a classic pattern that you tend to see with for-hire influence operations," said Ben Nimmo, Meta's Global Threat Intelligence Lead. Meta says it regularly takes down disinformation and misinformation operations in order to maintain the integrity of its platform. Twitter said in a September 2022 blog that it had shared datasets about influence operations with Cazadores. Former Twitter employees told Reuters in January that most of the staff involved in the TMRC had since left and Reuters could not determine if it was still operational.

☆ The hat: Mathematicians invent 'einstein' tile that never repeats
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Jacopo Prisco | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Called “The hat” because it vaguely resembles a fedora, the elusive shape is an “einstein” (from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone”). “I’m not really into math, to be honest — I did it at school, but I didn’t excel in it,” Smith said. “The hat,” however, is an aperiodic tile, meaning it can still completely cover a surface without any gaps, but you can never identify any cluster that periodically repeats itself to do so. How ‘The hat’ worksThere’s nothing inherently magical about “The hat,” according to Kaplan. “We’re not trying to protect it in any way,” Kaplan said.

☆ The Jobs Most Exposed to ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Lauren Weber | Lindsay Ellis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Accountants are among the professionals whose careers are most exposed to the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence, according to a new study. The researchers found that at least half of accounting tasks could be completed much faster with the technology. The same was true for mathematicians, interpreters, writers and nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, according to the study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI , the company that makes the popular AI tool ChatGPT.

☆ Elusive ‘Einstein’ Solves a Longstanding Math Problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Siobhan Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An aperiodic tiling displays no such “translational symmetry,” and mathematicians have long sought a single shape that could tile the plane in such a fashion. “I’m always messing about and experimenting with shapes,” said Mr. Smith, 64, who worked as a printing technician, among other jobs, and retired early. But he has long been “obsessively intrigued” by the einstein problem. And now a new paper — by Mr. Smith and three co-authors with mathematical and computational expertise — proves Mr. Smith’s discovery true. (Mr. Smith often sports a bandanna tied around his head.)

☆ ChatGPT will most likely impact your job if you work in tech, went to college, and make up to $80,000 a year, research says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Most American jobs are at risk of being impacted by AI like ChatGPT, researchers found. Educated, white-collar workers making up to $80,000 a year will be most affected by AI, per the study. Some jobs likely to be impacted include financial analysts, accountants, and writers. More specifically, the researchers wanted to find out which jobs are most likely to be "exposed" to the model's capabilities. The impact of AI on jobs increases as salaries gets closer to $80,000.

☆ Cybersecurity firm Darktrace hires EY to review financial processes after damning short seller report
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — Cybersecurity firm Darktrace on Monday said it has appointed auditing firm EY to review its "key financial processes and controls," in a bid to soothe investor fears after a short seller accused the company of manipulating its accounts. "The Board believes fully in the robustness of Darktrace's financial processes and controls. EY will report to the chair of Darktrace's audit and risk committee, Paul Harrison, Darktrace said. Darktrace shares rose more than 2% Monday on the heels of the announcement. The firm said it was "deeply skeptical about the validity of Darktrace's financial statements" and believed sales and growth rates may have been overstated.

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