Author K.C. Cole writes about physicist and Exploratorium-founder Frank Oppenheimer in Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens. Cole, a friend of Oppenheimer's, digs into FBI files and personal memories to describe the complex man also called the "Uncle of the Atomic Bomb." Originally broadcast Aug. 7, 2009.
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TEL AVIV, Israel—Amram Aharoni has a serious résumé, but he has the mien of a comedian. On Sunday at the Globes' Israel Business Conference, Aharoni, who teaches investment theory and finance at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, ran through his many qualifications—degrees from Tel Aviv University, a doctorate in finance from New York University, many years of experience in the financial sector—before throwing up his hands. "I'm supposed to be a specialist in the capital markets, but I want to confess that many times I know nothing. How can I not foresee the future and any junior analyst can tell me what's going to happen?" In laying out the modern case against active asset management, Aharoni name-checked the efficient markets hypothesis, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan, and ran through a bunch of gems from the behavioralist playbook (like those surveys that show most people think they're above-average drivers). Aharoni assembled a series of analysts' quotes making foolish and wrong short-term market projections, and displayed a chart showing that out of a few dozen Israeli investment funds, only three beat their benchmark indices over eight years.
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Slate article here.
, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book)