Weekend links March 21st 2014

I’ve read plenty of ridiculous articles about the missing Malaysian plane, and I call them ridiculous because of their sensationalist nature, and how easy it is to see that a lot of publications are writing what they think the readers want to hear, not what the readers need to hear.

In that context, I really liked Wired’s startlingly simple theory about the Malaysian airline jet, which was not sensationalist, and did a good job of going into the details of a theory that might actually be substantive.

On a related note, I’m worried at how many people I know who think it is more likely that the plane got sucked into a fourth dimension than it is that it’s buried deep in the ocean.

The Economist on the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The tone is a bit dire, and I’m unable to decide if they are over-reacting, or if I don’t understand the situation fully myself. I must admit though that till about a week ago, I would’ve agreed with the tone but then I met with a a Ukranian woman who belongs to a region close to Russia, and she pretty much said it is justified, and that people’s lives in those areas are in danger, and that changed my view of the situation a bit.

I was surprised to hear that Turkey has decided to ban Twitter, I’m fairly certain this ban would prove futile, and will embarrass the government, but it is sad to see that even a seemingly progressive country like Turkey can try such tactics.

More surprising was Britain’s plan to vote on a law that can strip a person of their citizenship as a form of punishment. It seems that such a law already exists and they have used it on 16 people since the current government came to office; all of them probably linked to terrorism.

I liked reading this post about behavioral finance: Financial Decision Making: A slap on the face. 

I quite enjoyed reading Magnus Carlsen’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.

Finally, the Amreekan Desi excellently summarizes everything I feel about Arvind Kejriwal. 

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