The Berkshire Hathaway letters

The Berkshire Hathaway Letters, written by Warren Buffett to shareholders, offer a refreshing perspective filled with specific facts, figures, and timeless business insights. Shareholder Letters

March 26, 2025 · 1 min · 25 words · bjr

How North Korea Will Wash Crypto via Perpetual Futures

The latest twist exploits perpetual futures platforms with deep liquidity and lax KYC, effectively turning ill-gotten funds into legitimate-looking trading profits. This has gotten easier as the trading depths on perps exchanges has grown significantly over the last year. Let’s take a look at exactly how it’s done: High-Leverage Alchemy The core concept is to use extreme leverage on a no-questions-asked futures exchange to deliberately liquidate “dirty” funds, while profiting from an opposite position taken with clean money elsewhere. On these perps platforms, you have exposure to no expiry futures often offering 50x, 100x or higher leverage. At 50x leverage, a price move of just ~2% can wipe out a position entirely, along with the collateral margin supporting it. ...

March 26, 2025 · 2 min · 406 words · bjr

VC startup ownership by valuation

According CARTA, the VC startup ownership by valuation.

March 25, 2025 · 1 min · 8 words · bjr

how much data is stored online?

Digital industries are booming. Data storage business alone are projected to grow by nearly 18% anually, reaching $778 billion by 2030.

March 25, 2025 · 1 min · 21 words · bjr

ai adoption : supercharging modern business

March 25, 2025 · 0 min · 0 words · bjr

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is gaining traction

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard created by Anthropic to facilitate seamless integration of AI assistants with external data sources, tools, and systems. It addresses the challenge of delivering real-time, structured, and relevant information to AI models while ensuring security, privacy, and modularity. MCP is rapidly gaining traction, transforming the way AI connects with external systems. Businesses can now use AI to manage real-time operations, drive data-informed decisions, and automate processes seamlessly. MCP acts like a universal adapter that lets AI models connect to any system using a standard method. Instead of building custom connections for every data source, MCP provides a single plug-and-play interface that any AI model can use to fetch information or execute tasks. ...

March 19, 2025 · 2 min · 414 words · bjr

Venice: A City Built Upon a Sunken Forest

Since 421 AD, Venice has stood atop millions of wooden piles driven deep into the clay bed of the lagoon. Unlike modern cities built on steel and concrete, Venice’s foundations rely primarily on alder wood, with some oak, chosen for its durability in water. This intricate network of submerged timber supports the entire city, allowing it to rise above the water. Over centuries, constant exposure to saltwater has petrified these wooden pillars, hardening them into a stone-like state. This natural preservation process has enabled Venice to withstand the test of time. St. Mark’s Campanile alone rests on a staggering 100,000 piles, while the grand Basilica della Salute required over a million. To create this massive foundation, ancient builders drove the tree trunks into the seabed with precise craftsmanship, forming an immense submerged forest beneath the city. ...

March 16, 2025 · 2 min · 215 words · bjr

The first portuguese serial killer

Diogo Alves was one of Portugal’s most notorious criminals, often considered its first serial killer. Born in Galicia, Spain, around 1810, he moved to Lisbon, where he worked as a servant before turning to crime and leading a gang that terrorized the city. Between 1836 and 1839, he robbed and murdered victims at the Águas Livres Aqueduct, throwing them from a height of over 60 meters. Authorities initially mistook the deaths for suicides, allowing the killings to continue. He is believed to have murdered 60 to 70 people. When security increased, his gang shifted to home invasions and killings. Captured and sentenced to death for murdering a family, he was hanged in 1841. In 1867, Portugal became the first country in the world to abolish the death penalty. ...

March 16, 2025 · 1 min · 179 words · bjr

observability in the a.i. era

The software observability landscape is radically transforming as artificial intelligence becomes deeply woven into our digital infrastructure. Traditional monitoring paradigms—once sufficient for predictable, human-written code—now face unprecedented challenges in an era where system behavior emerges from complex AI interactions rather than explicit programming. From Reactive to Predictive: Entering the AI Era of Observability

March 13, 2025 · 1 min · 53 words · bjr

100 000 year storage site

The oldest human-made structures we know — the pyramids — have endured for a few thousand years. Now, Sweden is constructing something meant to endure for a staggering 100,000 years. Their nuclear waste storage facility is designed to surpass the lifespan of every bridge or building ever created by humanity—by a factor of 100. This facility will store approximately 12,000 tonnes of nuclear waste at a depth of 500 meters in rock that is 1.9 billion years old. The spent fuel will be sealed in corrosion-resistant copper canisters, each five meters long, and surrounded by clay before being buried. ...

March 11, 2025 · 1 min · 151 words · bjr