Just watched this superb documentary about Jackie and David Siegel who build a 90,000 sqft house because they are outgrowing their 20,000 sqft house.  Just like you can sometimes understand the physical world better when you study extremes (subatomic particles smashing into each other at millions of miles per hour), you understand humans better when you observe them at their most extreme. Here's the story of people wanting a big house. A really big house. Insane? Yes. But I've seen ordinary people spend way too much money buying way too big a house. What would happen if they were just a little bit crazier and a whole lot wealthier?

Great side story on the timeshare business that is the source of their wealth. The upshot: Don't buy a timeshare; stay at the Holiday Inn.

From IMBD:
"The Queen of Versailles is a character-driven documentary about a billionaire family and their financial challenges in the wake of the economic crisis. With epic proportions of Shakespearean tragedy, the film follows two unique characters, whose rags-to-riches success stories reveal the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. The film begins with the family triumphantly constructing the biggest house in America, a 90,000 sq. ft. palace. Over the next two years, their sprawling empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis. Major changes in lifestyle and character ensue within the cross-cultural household of family members and domestic staff."

Just noticed that three of the top-ten most e-mailed articles in the New York Times right now is about economics.

#1. Economists David Autor and David Dorn on how they expect technology to affect jobs.
#3. Economist Paul Krugman on tech companies, network externalities, and monopoly.
#10. Philosophers Alex Rosenberg and Tyler Curtain diss economics.

It blows my mind that 30% of the most popular articles in the New York Times today is (1) about economics, and (2) written by fusty academics. Yikes!

Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler White on "Breaking Bad" has an op-ed in the New York Times about the unpopularity of her character. Apparently there are Skyler White hate clubs on the interwebs. I'm surprised. Skyler is my favorite character on the show. Also, Anna's acting is superb--the best on that show and one of the best I've ever seen. She does subtle emotions perfect.

New York Times: I Have a Character Issue

She's the school clerk who saved the day. The grace under pressure and the genuine empathy she displays towards the gunman is astonishing.

911 Tape Shows Just How Amazing Ga. School Clerk Antoinette Tuff Was Under Pressure

An interesting take in the last paragraph.

New York Times: A Quest to Make Gruff Service in France More Gracious

In my book, I talk about how redistributing directly is often preferable to redistributing through minimum wage laws, import barriers, and such. Here's a charity that believes in direct redistribution. It just sends $1,000 to poor people in Kenya--no strings attached.

New York Times: Is it Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?

Watched Hunting the Elements on the treadmill over the last few days. David Pogue presents in his funny,  nerd-cool style that is a welcome relief from the overdramatic canned voiceovers of the National Geographic videos.

"Where do nature’s building blocks, called the elements, come from? They’re the hidden ingredients of everything in our world, from the carbon in our bodies to the metals in our smartphones. To unlock their secrets, David Pogue, the lively host of NOVA’s popular "Making Stuff" series and technology correspondent of The New York Times, spins viewers through the world of weird, extreme chemistry: the strongest acids, the deadliest poisons, the universe’s most abundant elements, and the rarest of the rare—substances cooked up in atom smashers that flicker into existence for only fractions of a second."