Edouard Chazal

A Feminist Version Of The Pirelli Calendar

A great initiative :

The show consists of 24 self-portraits shot by Marshall using a self-timer, 12 of which are glossy, sexually explicit images that channel those you might find in Pirelli or while leafing through the pages of Playboy, while the other 12 are raw, unadorned photos that express a femininity rarely observed in the mainstream media outside the occasional celebrity sans-makeup social media post.

Laid side-by-side, the contrast between these two women—who are in fact the same woman—is jarring. Both an homage to and a critique of the form it inhabits, “The Feminist Calendar” posits that perhaps these two aspects of womanhood aren’t as contradictory they seem.

→ Artnet

Angus Deaton: A Statistician’s Economist

Many different themes run through Deaton’s work – one of which is an emphasis on the importance of measurement. In his view, data collection and economic theory have become too separated, to the advantage of neither the data collector nor the economic theorist. Collectors need the guidance of theory and analysts need to understand the data they work with. Too often, Deaton says, “what we think we know about the world is dependent on data that may not mean what we think they mean”.

→ StatsLife

Playboy Magazine Will No Longer Publish Nude Photo

The Internet has claimed one of its highest profile victims yet: As of March 2016, Playboy magazine will no longer feature fully nude models. This follows on from August last year, when the Playboy website also stopped publishing nude photos and videos. Yes, you’ll now be able to read Hugh Hefner’s flagship publication, which published its first nude centrefold way back in 1953, just for the articles.

Speaking to The New York Times, Playboy CEO Scott Flanders explained the reasoning behind the change: “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.” Basically, Playboy stems from a time when nudity was racy and exciting; today, it’s de rigueur. The circulation figures illustrate that fact nicely: from a peak of around 5.6 million subscribers in 1975, Playboy is now down to around 800,000.

→ Ars Technica

Why Do High-Speed Traders Cancel So Many Orders?

Of course, honest traders change their minds all the time and cancel orders as economic conditions change. That’s not illegal. To demonstrate spoofing, prosecutors or regulators must show the trader entered orders he never intended to execute. That’s a high burden of proof in any market. One helpful fact is if most of a trader’s (canceled) orders were on one side (say to buy) when he was mostly actually trading on the other (selling). For instance Sarao allegedly put in huge orders to sell, so that he could buy a few contracts: All his trading was on one side, but most of his orders were on the other. Then he’d switch a little while later. That seems like a bad sign.

→ Traders Magazine

My Birthday Present

There has been a huge debate about ad-supported websites, following the introduction of content-blockers a few weeks ago on Apple’s iOS 9. From a user perspective, I think this was much needed.

I’ve always valued great contents and I’m more than willing to pay for it.

While many of the people I know get news for free, I’ve accumulated subscriptions to my many of my favorite newspapers and websites.
Sometimes because there was no other way to access their contents or sometimes because I couldn’t feel comfortable not rewarding their work, even though it meant to pay for hefty subscriptions. They don’t come cheap but it’s well worth it. I always felt the need to be connected to information and to rely on trusted sources, anyway.

I guess that my quest is a vanity : such prestigious publications, renowned for centuries are made to enlighten real professionals, people who take action based on these informations (Knowledge To Act —Reuters). Nevermind, even though I may not be the smartest guy around, I keep on educating myself, to broaden my view and stay informed. Always Learning, as Pearson’ tag line says.

Sure, there’s always the free and highly reliable news sources like Reuters or Bloomberg, but the tone in their articles is so different from paid contents, there isn’t the same engagement and it definitely doesn’t feel like being part of the club.

But let’s get back to my blog.

As you may have seen, The Abnormal Capitalist is hosted by WordPress which, by default, force the reader to see some ads, unless using a content or ad-blocker.

So, as it’s my birthday today and because I value my readers, I will upgrade this blog in the coming weeks to a premium package that will hide ads.

Because I’m happy with WordPress and the ease it provides to my workflow, I’m OK to pay a little extra to support Automattic development (home of WP) and deliver my content, ad-free.

Great professional writers do deserve revenues, by any means and unless there’s no alternative to ads, I encourage you to support their work by whitelisting their websites/blogs or by donating to them.

Finally, The AbCap has grown substantially (maybe this is because of Apple News ?) : the past quarter (not including the full month of October) surpassed the whole year of 2014.

Anyhow, I’m not into breaking records, but these stats are really promising, and they encourage me to continue into this journey.

Now let me grab a drink…

Edouard