Sunday roundup

One of the concerns about the privatization of science funding is the focus on targeted innovation rather than on the basic research that so often lays the groundwork for innovations no one knew to look for.

"The Hard Thing about Hard Things" looks to be full of useful insights.

Some background information to help you understand tomorrow's announcement on gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background.

Contrast the Times story about inherited wealth with Michelle Singletary's piece on the financial woes of millennials. Guess which is the source of this:

The same story plays out a thousand different ways: Hardscrabble grandfather makes the money, Junior sustains the business while living well all his days and then the Third, softened by a charmed life, fails in his duties as scion. “There’s a phrase: ‘Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations,’ ” says John Davis of Harvard Business School, who studies family wealth. “I’ve worked with families in 60 countries. They’ve all got some version of the same saying.”

The Times' ethicist takes on the Woody Allen conundrum.

Take the Russia analysis you see with a grain of salt, especially that of the "I told you so" or "look at me!," i.e. "when I was at this big important meeting..." variety. I actually do find the Five Myths about the Cold War helpful and fact-based.

The deal with Ecuador.

Well, that's one (NSFW) use of pi I've never seen before. BTW, on Friday night, I accidentally (and, ironically--since I'd just tweeted about how everyone had another 92 minutes to get pi out of their systems) discovered that my Droid has pi on the keyboard; tonight, I found that my iPad does not. Just sayin'.