Stock Pickers, Chat GPT, and Interest Rates

Wednesday morning articles

• Most stock pickers underperformed in 2022’s ‘stock picker’s market’  In a report published in 2021, SPDJI found that only 22% of the stocks in the S&P 500 outperformed the index itself from 2000 to 2020. Over that measurement period, the S&P 500 gained 322%, while the median stock rose by just 63%. (TKer)

• The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it: Conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon. (MIT Technology Review)

• Slack’s new ChatGPT bot will talk to your colleagues for you: Like Microsoft and Google, Slack owner Salesforce is shoving an AI chatbot into its workplace software to automatically write simple messages and summarize meetings. (The Verge)

• Market Timing & Interest Rates: Short-term interest rates continue to charge higher as the economy remains stronger than anticipated. We’re looking at 5% yields across the board for short-term government bonds. Some people will still scoff at these yields by reminding you that inflation is still 6% but let’s be honest — right or wrong, most investors think in nominal terms, not real. (Wealth of Common Sense)

• Are you short Jim or long Jim? It’s gimmicks all the way down as investors are apparently willing to pay 1-per-cent fees to trade against Jim Cramer as a bit. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ (Financial Times)

• Corporate Pension Funds Lobbied for a Rule Change. Now It’s Coming Back to Haunt Them. Rising rates have radically shifted how corporate plans calculate discount rates. (Institutional Investor)

• Hot Dogs Can Explain How Our View of Inflation and Employment Changes With the Seasons: Routine adjustments based on time of year can dramatically change how economic figures are perceived. (Wall Street Journal)

• Six Things the Investment Industry Can Do to Change the World: What can be done to restore trust and promote personal integrity? (CFA Institute)

• Contrary to latest claims, there’s still not a speck of evidence that COVID escaped from a Chinese lab: Almost from the start, the lab leak theory has been reliant on conjecture and fueled by Trumpian ideology that has infected, like the pathogens in all those zombie movies and TV shows, the entire Republican Party. For them, the claim that the pandemic escaped from a Chinese laboratory to infect the world is a convenient weapon to wield against China and perhaps hobble its ability to challenge America’s global economic primacy. (Los Angeles Times)

Interest Rates Hold Steady, Bull Markets, and Elon Musk

Wednesday morning articles

• Bank of Canada holds interest rate steady First time Canada's central bank has decided not to hike in a year (CBC)

• The Rich List: The 22nd Annual Ranking of the Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers. Although the market rout caused a large portion of long-short and long-only managers to lose money last year — with many performing even worse than the S&P 500 index’s 19% decline — 2022 was a very good year for multistrategy, macro, trend-following, and fixed-income managers. (Institutional Investor)

• It Turns Out Money Does Buy Happiness, At Least Up to $500,000: Forget what you heard about there being no benefit once income reaches $75,000. (Bloomberg)

• A bull market is in full swing – and most of us are in denial: It’s part of a routine behavioral phenomenon I have long called the “Pessimism of Disbelief.” It forms bull markets’ very ramp upward – parallel to but different from the “wall of worry” that bull markets climb. (New York Post)

• Wall Street Concedes There Is Finally an Alternative to Stocks: TARA, TAPAS and TIARA are battling to replace TINA as traders’ favorite investing mantra. (Wall Street Journal)

• Twitter can’t protect you from trolls any more, insiders say: Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk. (BBC)

• Musk’s Twitter is getting worse: Links aren’t working on Twitter due to an “internal change” that had “some unintended consequences.” (Vox)

• Blue Chip Classic Car Prices Soften at Amelia Island Auctions: While the sales volume was way up, due to more cars being on offer, many sold for underestimates or not at all. (Bloomberg)

• How to Take Back Control of What You Read on the Internet: Social-media algorithms show us what they want us to see, not what we want to see. But there is an alternative. (The Atlantic)

• The Build-Nothing Country Stasis has become America’s spoils system, and it can’t go on: The Build-Nothing Country: Stasis has become America’s spoils system, and it can’t go on. (Noahpinion)

• Why Are We Still Arguing About Masks? All this time later, their utility is in doubt. (The Atlantic)

Tesla, Elon Musk, and Drive to Survive F1 in America

Tuesday morning articles

• A 120-Year-Old Company Is Leaving Tesla in the Dust: Tesla had me convinced, for a while, that it was a cool company. fundamentally, its cars had no competition. If you wanted an electric car that could go more than 250 miles between charges, Tesla was your only choice for the better part of a decade. (New York Times)

• Tesla Offers an Unprecedented Look at the Bench Behind Elon Musk: In a clear response to investor criticism, the CEO shared the stage with 16 other executives last week. (Bloomberg)

• The Boom Time for Farmers Can Last. Who Will Reap the Rewards. Agriculture is getting its biggest tech upgrade in generations. Deere, AGCO, and other industry giants stand to benefit. (Barron’s)

• Loose Monetary Policy and Financial Instability. Fed working paper finds that long periods of easy money leads to financial instability. This may not be surprising to financial market participants, but this is the first time I have seen a Fed working paper coming to this conclusion. (FRBSF)

• A Dozen Questions for Jerome Powell, Fed Chair: We can expect a series of useless questions, posturing for sound bites, and self-aggrandizing speeches that pretend to be questions. And as poor as the questions are, the Fed chief will work very hard to not say anything at all. Here are some btter alterantives (TBP)

• Silicon Valley’s AI frenzy isn’t just another crypto craze: It isn’t theoretical. Millions of people are already using apps like ChatGPT to write books, create art, and develop code. (Vox)

• Why the Recession Is Always Six Months Away: Continued strong hiring and consumer spending are complicating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s campaign to tame inflation. (Wall Street Journal)

• The permanent recession that never arrives: According to public opinion, the U.S. is seemingly in a semi-permanent recession, and the Fed has failed to improve matters. (Axios)

• Food fight: FDA is redefining ‘healthy’ and food industry is pushing back: Less saturated fat, less sodium, less added sugar; manufacturers say almost no packaged foods would qualify under the agency’s new rules. (Washington Post)

• The bewildering descent of Scott Adams and ‘Dilbert’ ‘I shook the box intentionally,’ Scott Adams told The Post about the comments that prompted newspapers to drop his comic strip. (Washington Post)

• How ‘Drive to Survive’ remade Formula One for America: Ferrari and Mercedes sat out Season One. But they soon realized this wasn’t going to be a show about front wings, telemetry analysis and tire degradation. It was an opportunity to engage with fans who had no prior knowledge of motor racing, by focusing on the characters. (The Athletic)

• What the NBA Can Learn From Formula 1: To be fair, F1 is still my side fling; the love of my sports life is the NBA. While my Milwaukee Bucks are doing fantastic — 14 straight wins as I write this — the NBA as a whole isn’t doing so hot. The All-Star Game is the league’s pre-eminent regular season event, and the only thing worse than the desultory action on the floor was the ratings. (Stratechery)

• The timeless innovations of De La Soul, now (finally) available for the streaming generation: Before De La Soul, says Hank Shocklee, “‘beautiful’ and ‘rap’ weren’t two words that went together.” (MSN)

Tech Stocks, Interest Rate Cycles, and One Hit Wonders

Monday morning articles

• Silicon Valley Confronts the End of Growth. It’s a New Era for Tech Stocks. Silicon Valley could use a reboot. The biggest players aren’t growing, and more than a few are seeing sharp revenue declines. Regulators seem opposed to every proposed merger, while legislators push for new rules to crack down on the internet giants. The Justice Department just can’t stop filing antitrust suits against Google. The initial public offering market is closed. Venture-capital investments are plunging, along with valuations of prepublic companies. Maybe they should try turning the whole thing on and off. (Barron’s)

• Why It’s So Hard for China to Shake the ‘Uninvestable’ Tag: In 2021, Goldman Sachs said the word was starting to feature in a number of client conversations about the country’s stocks. When JPMorgan Chase analysts last year described Chinese internet companies as “uninvestable,” their report helped erase about $200 billion from US and Asian markets. (Bloomberg)

• A Short History of Interest Rate Cycles: A lot of investors fell in love with the idea of long-term bonds over the past 20-30 years because they generally provided much higher returns and cushioned the blow during most stock market sell-offs…until last year that is. (A Wealth of Common Sense)

• On Wall St., ‘Socially Responsible’ Is Common Sense. In Congress, It’s Political. Lawmakers are trying to restrict these investment choices in workplace retirement plans, but big fund managers are trying to give shareholders a voice. (New York Times)

• The Perks Workers Want Also Make Them More Productive: The pandemic, combined with a strong labor market, means even more changes could be coming. Many U.S. states are moving towards mandatory, paid family and sick leave for all workers. Meanwhile, companies are flirting with a four-day workweek in pilot programs worldwide, including in the U.S. (FiveThirtyEight)

• When Suburbs Go to War With Transit: A battle over building a housing development near a Baltimore light rail station illustrates why it’s so hard to make viable public transportation in the suburbs. (CityLab)

• No More Passwords: How to Set Up Apple’s Passkeys for Easy Sign-ins Introduced in iOS 16, passkeys eliminate passwords for supported apps and websites, instead letting you sign in with Face ID or Touch ID. (PC Mag)

• How does the brain age across the lifespan? New studies offer clues. Our brains are built to change over our lifetime, meeting the challenges set by every life stage. (Washington Post)

• When covid politics collides with covid science, public health loses: Quick takes about what works and what didn’t obscures the inherent uncertainty of the scientific process, eroding trust in science. (Grid)

• The Best One Hit Wonders Of The ’90s, According To Reddit: Nostalgia for the 1990s has hit an all time high, and Reddit wanted to remember some great songs from artists who never had another hit in their careers.  (Digg)

Friday Mega Article Drop

Friday morning mega article drop

• All the recessions that didn’t happen. The future doesn’t always cooperate with the present because whatever is going to happen hasn’t happened yet. So forecasters are frequently wrong. They’ll never stop forecasting, but their recent track record should make you skeptical every time you hear somebody predicting a recession. (Yahoo Finance)

• What Everyone Got Wrong About the Economy—and the Ominous Implications for the Fed: The central bank’s efforts to tame inflation haven’t worked yet. More pain, and a harder landing, could lie ahead. (Barron’s)

• New York City’s Luxury Housing Is Now More Expensive Than London’s: A post-pandemic surge of super-prime real estate deals has left the UK capital playing catch-up, according to a new report from Knight Frank. (Bloomberg)

• ‘Don’t buy eggs. Buy TVs.’ Electronics prices are defying inflation. It’s a great time to buy a TV, phone or laptop. Here’s advice on getting a good deal. (Washington Post)

• The Furniture Hustlers of Silicon Valley: As tech companies cut costs and move to remote work, their left-behind office furniture has become part of a booming trade. (New York Times)

• The 17 Best EVs Coming in 2023: Electric vehicles went mainstream in 2022, so 2023’s designs will be bold, weird, and wonderful. Here are a few flashes of inspiration. (Wired)

• How a shipping error 100 years ago launched the $30 billion chicken industry: The accidental origins of the chicken on your plate, explained. (Vox)

• You may have heard of the ‘union boom.’ The numbers tell a different story: Despite a stream of headlines last year about unionization drives throughout the nation, the share of American workers in unions fell to its lowest level on record. What’s going on? (NPR)

• Why you don’t trust the media: More competition means it’s better than ever, but you hear more about the flaws (Slow Boring)

• How Ben & Jerry’s Ended Up at War With Itself: The activist ice cream brand made the controversial decision to pull out of Israel’s occupied territories. Instead of a humanitarian win, the company set off a legal battle with its owner, Unilever. (Businessweek)

• Meet the con man who sold America on ‘fake it till you make it’ Today, “fake it till you make it” has come to represent the scrappy, optimistic mind-set of American hustle culture. But as Turner’s saga shows, there’s a dark side baked into the “fake it” mentality: the fakers who attempt to win success through fraud, then never make good on their promises.(Washington Post)

• Zantac’s Maker Kept Quiet About Cancer Risks for 40 Years: Glaxo says the heartburn drug doesn’t cause tumors. But the company was warned by its own scientists and independent researchers about the potential danger. (Businessweek)

• Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count: Inside Twitter 2.0, turmoil leaves employees stretched to the max. (Platformer)

• Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first: After his Super Bowl tweet did worse numbers than President Biden’s, Twitter’s CEO ordered major changes to the algorithm. (The Verge)

• Fear Made John McAfee Rich. It Also Ruined Him: The cybersecurity pioneer’s long, strange saga started in Silicon Valley and ended in a Spanish prison. An exclusive story and podcast. (Businessweek)

• Diversifying the toy industry didn’t solve entrenched anti-Blackness in America: Studies show that children of color still prefer white dolls — and that speaks volumes to how much anti-Blackness is baked into our society, say experts. (Grid)

• Cancel Culture A Story of Highschool Teens (The Cut)

• No More Spring Trainings: John Jaso walked away from Major League Baseball at 34, potentially leaving millions of dollars on the table. The sea was calling. (New York Times)

• Ranking the Best Moments of LeBron James’s Career: The King is officially the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Where does Tuesday’s record-breaking moment rank in his illustrious career? (The Ringer)

• What the sports world says about LeBron James, NBA’s new scoring leader: ‘An iconic figure’ (The Athletic)

Recessions, ESG, and Joe Montana

Thursday morning articles

• It’s a Richcession, Not a Recession. Most economic downturns hit lower-income Americans hardest, but this time is different. The stock market’s winners and losers will be different too. Here’s your investing playbook. (Wall Street Journal)

• From Math Camp to Handcuffs: FTX’s Downfall Was an Arc of Brotherhood and Betrayal: Gary Wang and Sam Bankman-Fried are offering dueling accounts of the FTX fiasco and of who’s ultimately to blame. (Bloomberg)

• If You Bought Crypto Because of Larry David and Matt Damon, I’m Sorry: Tallying the losses after last year’s Super Bowl crypto-advertising bonanza. (Slate)

• Guess Who Loses After Florida and Texas Bar ESG Banks? Banning Wall Street’s biggest municipal bond underwriters has foisted a hidden tax on their residents totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. (Bloomberg)

• Al Gore’s Struggles With ESG Show the Messiness of Green Investing: If the former veep’s Generation investment firm has trouble meeting lofty environmental and financial goals, who can? (Businessweek)

• New Skyscraper, Built to Be an Environmental Marvel, Is Already Dated: One Vanderbilt, in the heart of New York City, is built to be especially climate friendly. But the design landscape and city rules have changed quickly. (New York Times)

• ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web: OpenAI’s chatbot offers paraphrases, whereas Google offers quotes. Which do we prefer? (New Yorker)

• How Google Ran Out of Ideas: The company thinks it’s an innovator. In fact, it’s an imitator—and not the best one, either. (The Atlantic)

• How scientists are kept fed and happy in one of the most remote places on Earth: Princess Elisabeth, a polar research station in the Queen Maud Land region, faces wind speeds of up to 155 mph (249 kph) and temperatures as low as -58°F (-50°C). A flair for comfort food is understandably a requisite skill for any chef working in this environment. (CNN)

• Joe Montana Was Here: Brady praises Montana as “a killer” in public, but Joe’s friends feel like he’s made little effort to get to know the older player in real life. They have each other’s phone numbers. Something about Brady specifically seems to irritate Montana — friends say he’d be happy if Patrick Mahomes won eight titles — but the truth is, the two men are similar, driven by similar emotions to be great. Ultimately Montana may not care about a ring count, but watching himself get knocked down a spot fires deep powerful impulses and trips old wires even now. (ESPN)

BC Foreign Buyers Tax and Moving to BC from the U.S.?

People moving to B.C. from the U.S. often ask us about buying property ahead of a move. The never-ending run-up in property prices across Canada and especially B.C. has created a political hot potato issue that has enacted some new laws around “foreign” buyers. The word foreign can have a few different meanings when it comes to people moving to Canada so I want to clear up some misconceptions about who does and does not fall into this category.

Currently in B.C., the foreign buyers’ tax applies to foreign nationals, foreign corporations or taxable trustees. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus just on foreign nationals. These are neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents of Canada. If a foreign national purchases a property that is located in one of the designated areas in B.C., an additional 20 per cent property tax is levied at the completion date. This B.C.-based tax might be replaced with a Canada-wide foreign buyers’ tax that the Liberal government has proposed for January 1, 2023, but that is a separate issue.

Many Canadians living in the U.S. and planning to move back to B.C. are under the assumption that they are foreign buyers just because they reside in the U.S. This is not true. If you are a Canadian citizen, you can purchase a property in Canada without being exposed to the foreign buyers’ tax if your intent is to move back to Canada.

There is another exemption for the foreign buyers’ tax. If you fall under the BC Provincial Nominee Program, you are exempt from the tax. This program is rather broad and covers various situations. Usually these jobs are designated as highly skilled in demand workers and experienced entrepreneurs.

What about those of us who are moving here waiting on a permanent residence (PR) approval? This is where it gets slightly different. Until your PR application is approved, you are technically not a permanent resident of Canada, and the foreign buyers’ tax would apply. However, if you receive your PR card within 12 months of the property registration date, you may apply for a refund of the foreign buyers’ tax. You do, however, need to move into the property and make it your primary residence within 92 days of it being registered with the land titles office. Current wait times for PR applications made outside of Canada are about 10 months. You can check this thread for up-to-date information on processing times.

There is another group of homeowners also affected by the recent changes. Those are people who own vacation homes in Canada jointly with a non-Canadian spouse. For these homeowners, they are exposed to the foreign buyers’ tax if the Canadian spouse dies first, hence leaving their 50 per cent ownership to the surviving non-Canadian spouse. This would trigger the foreign buyers’ tax on that 50 per cent share not based on what the homeowner paid for the property, but the current appraised market value. There are probably some workarounds for this tax by “disclaiming” the interest in the home and effectively pushing that to the estate of the deceased. But that is above my pay grade.

Navigating the constantly changing real estate rules for foreign buyers is not for the light of heart. The speculation/vacancy tax issue is another thorn in the side of many non-Canadian homeowners. Working with someone who is versed in all these rules/regulations is critical when making the move back to Canada. Don’t make the mistakes we made.

Stock Market Rally, the Economy, and LeBron James

Wednesday morning articles

• Five Clues This Isn’t Just a Bear Market Rally: The S&P 500 is up 17% from the October lows, the same magnitude as the 17% rally we saw last summer. Back then, stocks rolled back over and made new lows, something most strategists on tv are saying will happen again. Well, the facts are changing for us, and as Keynes told us in the quote above, we had better change our minds as well. So here are five clues that this rally is on firmer footing and will likely continue. (Carson)

• Don’t believe what anyone says about the economy. Including me.  It’s the best of times, the worst of times, the spring of hope, the winter of despair. Everyone is looking at the same set of numbers and somehow coming to opposite conclusions. (Washington Post)

• One plausible explanation for this too-good-to-be-true economy: The most plausible explanation of all is that the pandemic and subsequent recovery were so unusual that the normal rules of economics don’t apply. (Washington Post)

• Container Shipping Costs Plunge as Consumer Spending Declines: “The price of shipping goods on vital global trade routes has fallen 85% below its peak as the cost of living crisis hits consumer spending + pandemic-related supply chain disruption eases.” (Financial Times)

• You Could Live to 100. The Trick Is Not Running Out of Money. You Could Live to 100. The Trick Is Not Running Out of Money. (Barron’s)

• New Cars Are Only for the Rich Now as Automakers Rake In Profits: With pandemic-era chip shortages fading, manufacturers are keeping inventories low — and prices high. The shift to EVs will make things worse. (Bloomberg)

• Bosses want to pay you more but give you less: A growing number of workers are going freelance, taking higher wages over benefits and job security. (Vox)

• ‘I’ll call an Uber or 911’: Why Gen Z doesn’t want to drive. Zoomers are shunning cars and driver’s licenses. Will it last? (Washington Post)

• 10 rules of productive online communication – gen Z edition: A decade from now, this piece will most likely become outdated. I’m excited to see how it will be renovated in the future. (Many One Percents)

• Is an Arctic ‘Cold War’ coming? How climate change and the war in Ukraine are driving tensions. Melting ice and geopolitics are making for a dangerous mix at the “top of the world.” (Grid)

• The Many Ways LeBron James Can Score: The Los Angeles Lakers star’s game has evolved over the past 20 years, making him a threat from all over the court — no matter how old he gets. (New York Times)

Wall Street, Unemployment, and Roger Federer

Tuesday morning articles

• Inside Wall Street’s gloom-and-doom racket: If an ‘expert’ is warning you that the market is about to crash, check their math: Admittedly, stocks haven’t done well over the last year, but instead of providing clients and the general public with clear-eyed views, a new ecosystem of hackneyed, alarmist analysts is relying on low-quality data to push people away from steady investments into an alternative ecosystem of products of dubious quality. (Business Insider)

• Stop treating unemployment as a necessary evil to curb inflation: An economist explains why it’s time to rethink popular assumptions about layoffs. (Vox)

• If You Have to Have a Recession, Make It a Rolling One Mild slumps that ripple through the economy can slow inflation without putting too many people out of work. (Businessweek)

• The Super Bowl’s Most Reliable Stock Market Indicator? The Ads: The Eagles and Chiefs will play second fiddle to the commercials for many Americans, but investors looking for ideas should brace for an upset. (Wall Street Journal)

• Comeback in Factory Jobs Appears to Be for Real: After decades of employment declines, manufacturing is looking like a growth sector — if it can find enough young people willing to work in it. (Bloomberg)

• Bing (Yes, Bing) Just Made Search Interesting Again: Google has stiff competition now, after Microsoft integrated powerful A.I. technology into its search engine. (New York Times)

• We’ve always been distracted: Worried that technology is ‘breaking your brain’? Fears about attention spans and focus are as old as writing itself. (Aeon)

• The Last Mustard Maker in Dijon: Nicolas Charvy is bringing a culinary art back to its ancestral home. (Atlas Obscura)

• How Roger Federer Became The Only Billionaire In Tennis History: Roger Federer is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He turned professional at just 17 years old and won 20 Grand Slam titles over his 24-year career. And off the court, he’s even better. He only played in one tournament last year but still made more than $90 million, putting him as the 7th highest-earning athlete in the world — last year, more than other superstar athletes Tom Brady, Kylian Mbappe, Canelo Alvarez, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. (Huddle Up)

Investing, Rental Markets, and the Oscars

Monday morning articles

• How to Print Money: Cash may seem old-fashioned these days — but in much of the world, cash is still king. The process of making money requires teams of experienced designers and engravers who etch the plates with portraits, vignettes, lettering and ornamentation. The designs are crafted with both aesthetics and security in mind. (New York Times)

• Apartment Rents Fall as Crush of New Supply Hits Market: Declines signal tenants may be maxed-out on how much income they can devote to rent. (Wall Street Journal)

• US Housing Market Posts $2.3 Trillion Drop, Biggest Since 2008: San Francisco and New York are slumping as the pandemic boom fizzles out, but migration to Florida has boosted Miami. (Bloomberg)

• Does Long-Term Investing Work Outside of the United States? The MSCI World ex-USA dates back to 1970. These were the annual returns1 from 1970 through January 2023: S&P 500: 10.5% MSCI ex-USA: 8.4% (Wealth of Common Sense)

• I’m not Sure Speculation Is Gone: Jim Chanos, president and founder of Chanos & Company, believes the level of silliness and speculation seen in 2020 and 2021 marked an important moment for valuations. He talks about the biggest fraud which is hiding in plain sight and why he believes Tesla has a long way to go down. (The Market)

• Welcome to the 5% World, Where Yield Chases You: The dark cloud of rising interest rates comes with some significant silver linings (Wall Street Journal)

• What You Can Learn From Warren Buffett’s Mistakes: The incessant talk in Berkshire’s shareholder letters about what went wrong may have a purpose.  (Bloomberg)

• To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The disposition of money unmasks humans. Charlie and I watch with pleasure the vast flow of Berkshire-generated funds to public needs and, alongside, the infrequency with which our shareholders opt for look-at-me assets and dynasty-building. Who wouldn’t enjoy working for shareholders like ours? (berkshirehathaway)

• Awards are meaningless: From the Oscars to best in business, why do we do awards for adults? “Plenty of things are deeply wrong with America today; being nice to 6-year-olds isn’t super one of them…” (Vox)

• How inflammation in the body may explain depression in the brain: Inflammation is a pathway to depression — and a potential avenue for treatment, research suggests. (Washington Post)

• We’re living in an age of small creatures: 340-pound penguins were once normal—and maybe they will be again someday. (Slate)