Getting Closer to Thorne Miniature Room

The Thorne Miniatures at the Art Institute of Chicago Are Incredible

Narcissa Niblack Thorne was born in 1882.  She fell in love with her childhood sweetheart, James Ward, and they married.  He was the heir to the Montgomery Ward fortune, one of the biggest in the world at the time thanks to a chain of department stores that were once as ubiquitous as Target or J.C. Penney.  A graduate of art school, the Chicago socialite wasn’t content to sit around and make small talk all of her life.  She began designing and orchestrating these incredible one-foot-to-one-inch scale historical replicas of different architectural, interior design, and furniture styles throughout history to serve as models of how homes and spaces had changed over the years.  She was meticulous and insisted upon accuracy (e.g., the wood, down to the grain direction, of the tiny furniture had to be made in exactly the same way as the model piece upon which it was based.)

Joshua Kennon Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report 2014

Thoughts on Berkshire Hathaway’s Intrinsic Value – 2015 Edition

Surveying the most recent ten year period, the increase in Berkshire Hathaway’s economic engine has been breathtaking.  The Great Recession of 2008-2009 gave it the opportunity to lay out billions upon billions of dollars in cash it had been storing for years prior at terms that were unlike any deals we’ve seen in decades.  Convertible preferred stocks, warrants, private buyouts … the firm got its on hands highly lucrative securities, many of which were privately negotiated and offered return enhancers not available to average investors …

Data Driven Decisions Can Help End Negative Feedback Loops

Data-Based Decisions Are the First Step to Escaping Negative Feedback Loops

Shortly after Blue Fairy gives life to the eponymous wooden puppet in the 1940 classic animated film Pinocchio, she instructs him that he must, “Always let [his] conscience be [his] guide”.  Were she a rationalist, she might have added an important addendum: “And make decisions based upon objective, high-quality, third-party-recorded data to remove your own bias as much as possible…

The Poisoned Watermelon

The Poisoned Watermelon

There is an old joke that goes something like this… Not so long ago there was a watermelon farmer.  In June, during peak watermelon season, he began to notice that someone was stealing his fruit.  Slowly, but steadily, melons would disappear, along with it his profits. He tried everything until one particularly fine morning, he had an idea.…

Nestle Dividend Day 2015 Nescafe

We Are Approaching the Nestlé ADR Dividend Date!

Now that the dividend has been paid on the Swiss shares (April 22nd), the stockholder meeting concluded (April 16th), and Citibank is working with the Swiss Tax Authorities to distribute all of those beautiful Swiss Francs shipped over from Vevey to the United States for holders of the ADR to receive their U.S. dollar equivalent payouts later this month on May 29th when the process has completed (can you believe it’s already been a year since the last time we had this conversation?), I wanted to write about Nestlé.

CSS Redesign Code

The Site Will Be Migrating to a New Theme and Undergoing Tests for a Couple of Weeks – Please Don’t Mind the Mess

Google has written me, once again, saying that because I refuse to offer a responsive, mobile-friendly theme for the blog, they are dropping JoshuaKennon.com from the search results shown to people using devices such as phones and tablets.  Given that I hate mobile versions of sites, this puts me in the uncomfortable position of having to find something that satisfies their technical requirements while deviating very little from the desktop experience to the point that I wouldn’t call it a meaningful change.

Obesity and Waist-to-Hip Ratio

Female Porn Stars, Waist-to-Hip Ratios, Gay Neurological Patterns, Morbid Obesity, Fat Shaming, and Poop Sticks

I’m going to regret that title tomorrow.  I know it. Two of the books I’ve been meaning to delve into sometime this year are about evolutionary biology; how the incentives that lead to reproductive and social success (which itself is a facilitator of reproductive success) shape everything from our government institutions to the popularity of…