Word: swanning
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...centuries, Europeans believed that all swans were white - until black swans were discovered in Australia. A possibly minor moment in ornithology, but one that for Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former trader turned philosopher, perfectly illustrates how poorly our past experience of the world can prepare us for sudden, unexpected, epochal events. His 2007 book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, gave rise to a new name for these moments, both positive black swans (the rise of the Internet) and negative ones (the 9/11 attacks). Taleb has argued that much of the recent market turmoil has been...
...said that this current market crisis isn't necessarily a black swan event. People did see this coming.It is a white swan, but very few people saw it coming, I guarantee. Nobody saw the real cost. And let me tell you the problem. The system used to analyze risk is completely defective, and actually could not keep up with the complexity of the financial products that are involved. You have what I call a geometric or exponential increase in risks. For example, if the market drops 10% you lose $100 million. But if the market drops...
...elegantly inside, shrouded in a Cruella de Vil-like fur cape. Bachelors in penguin suits escorted bachelorettes with wonderful gusto. As Prince Charming, Nelson Madrigal had all of the second act to lament in a style reminiscent of Prince Siegfried’s melancholy soliloquy in “Swan Lake.” Though lacking overwhelming charisma, he made up for it with his superb partnering of an audacious Cornejo. Her abrupt, instinctual shifts in direction as she leapt at his shoulder felt as though they could hardly have been agreed to in the rehearsal studio. The climactic...
...documentary Westway to the World. The book reveals fresh anecdotes that aren't in the film, and affords a fuller recounting of others, such as Strummer's ham-fisted attempt at rioting during London's 1976 Notting Hill Carnival: "We were standing around this car with a box of Swan Vesta [matches] and it's one thing to say, 'Burn the cars and burn the ghetto,' but you try setting a car alight...
...Israel's occupation of Gaza. Yet for the last year, at the tragically belated coaxing of the Bush Administration, Olmert, who replaced the ailing Sharon in 2006, has been quietly engaged in a revival of negotiations with Arafat's successor. Like Olmert's willingness to enter those talks, his swan song amounts to an admission that Israel never went quite far enough in accommodating the Palestinians' basic requirements for peace...