Read — 2014/07/15

Today’s selection of articles includes:

  1. “Race to cut taxes fuels urge to merge“, by Liz Hoffman & Hester Plumridge (Wall Street Journal). M&As are up this year as U.S. firms look to reduce their tax bills via inversion, in which a domestic firm “buys a foreign target and adopts its lower tax rate or establishes a holding company in a country with a low tax rate”.
  2. “Our bees, ourselves“, by Mark Winston (NY Times). Pesticides are superadditive.
  3. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Talent“, by Benedict Carey (NY Times). Despite the provocative title of this NY Times article, the actual study (“Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: a meta-analysis“) suggests that the portion of expertise explained by deliberate practice is less than previously argued — 20% instead of 80%. In particular, the researchers do not claim that the residual percentage is due to innate talent. Expert expert Dr. Anders Ericsson argues that the measure of “practice” used by the study is imprecise.
  4. “Because science: having a rival makes you run faster“, by Ana Aceves (Fusion). So does being chased by a lion, other researchers find.
  5. “9 stylish up-and-coming French actresses to know: the new wave of chic“, by Edward Barsamian (Vogue).
  6. “Not everyone is beautiful“, by Nathan Biberdorf (Mindless Productivity). Why you should never again utter a consolatory “You are beautiful”.