This week’s highlights: A Heckler called out at Wimbledon, New Belgium Brewing, and the world’s most expensive handbag.

Fifteen on Friday – 07/21/17 – Issue 245

Happy Friday to All!   Despite most things being in the summer doldroms, we have found a number of interesting pieces this week to hopefully liven your weekend a bit.

One more freebie beyond our normal Fifteen is this excellent piece Chalkbeat published this week – How one Nashville school uses classic novels to get young students ahead in reading, highlighting Nashville Classical Charter School’s efforts around reading.  “According to the STEP assessment designed by the University of Chicago, 91 percent of the school’s students read at or above grade level.”

Results like these, alongside the tremendous and thoughtful effort by the team there, are among the reasons why my wife and I send our first grader to Nashville Classical.

Food for Thought:

1. Aeon – Before you can be with others, first learn to be alone
2. BothSides – I Only Have 7 Trips Left. On Managing Work / Life Balance, Love & Family
3. NYT – The Lawyer, the Addict – Credit PF – A high-powered Silicon Valley attorney dies. His ex-wife investigates, and finds a web of drug abuse in his profession.
4. Outside – Did Airbnb Kill the Mountain Town?  Living the dream has never been easy in the West’s most beloved adventure hamlets, where homes are a fortune and good jobs are few. But the rise of online short-term rentals may be the tipping point that causes idyllic outposts like Crested Butte, Colorado, to lose their middle class altogether—and with it, their soul.
5. Youtube – Wimbledon fan pulls on a white skirt to face a Kim Clijsters serve.  A man was pulled from the crowd during a women’s invitational doubles tennis match and given the chance to try to return a serve from four-time major champion Kim Clijsters. He was given the chance after Clijsters could be heard on court asking where she should serve to win the point. Calling from the crowd the man suggested “body line”. Taking his suggestion on board, Clijsters invited the fan down to the court so he could play the point.

Business/Economics:

1. ZH – There Has Been Just One Buyer Of Stocks Since The Financial Crisis – Credit JC
2. Bloomberg – Insurance Is the Hot New Way to Avoid Taxes.  The new hot thing in tax avoidance has a boring old name: insurance dedicated funds.
3. Reuters – Jawbone’s demise a case of ‘death by overfunding’ in Silicon Valley – Credit DH –
4. Forbes – Once A Craft Beer Darling, New Belgium Brewing Is Struggling To Go From Niche To National
5. BoF –  The Cost of Dead Inventory: Retail’s Dirty Little Secret.  Among the many problems facing today’s retail market, unsold stock might be one of its biggest handicaps, argues Haley Smith Recer.

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. NewYorker – George Strait’s Long Ride – Credit GR – For decades, he’s been country’s most consistent hitmaker. Can he keep holding on?
2. TheCut – The Hermès Broker Who Sold the World’s Most Expensive Bag
3. Wired – AI is Making It Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat – I would actually disagree with the conclusion about cheating.  I think the bigger implication here is that memorization of problem solving technique is now commoditized.  The onus is now on teachers to teach applied problem solving – a much harder task.
4. Lifehacker – Interactive Periodic Table Shows the Uses of Every Element
5. Motherboard – Ravens Are So Smart, One Hacked This Researcher’s Experiment  Researchers had to remove the bird because they were worried it’d teach the others.