What caught my eye this week.

Naturalists have been surprised by the sight of thousands of 10-inch pulsating penis-like creatures wriggling about on a windswept beach.

The story was originally reported in the journal By Nature, which shared a photograph of one of the worms:

In taking up the story, the Guardian explains:

These penile figures typically burrow under the sand, far beneath the feet of beachgoers.

But the recent storms brought on some waves that swept away the layers, leaving them exposed.

Here’s a photo from Instagram, which gives a sense of the landslide:

Pretty disgusting, eh? Hope you weren’t eating!

Have a great weekend.

From Monevator

Lars Kroijer on tax efficient withdrawals and on the climate emergency – Monevator

What order to put things into an ISA or SIPP – Monevator

From the archive-ator: Review of How To Make A Million – Slowly – Monevator

News

Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!¹

Online dealing platforms struggle to cope with post-election result trading frenzy – CityWire

Trapped Woodford fund investors will begin to receive money in January [Letter, PDF] – Link Fund Solutions

Paul Volker, the legendary US Federal Reserve chief, dead at 92 –  [Audio] BBC and Klement on Investing

Investors grit their teeth for a ‘low return’ decade [Search result] – FT

Get ready to gasp: ‘I order takeaways six nights a week’ – BBC News

Products and services

ThinCats joins LandBay in closing retail peer-to-peer platform ahead of new regulations – Alt Fi

Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter

Thousands were paid to use extra renewable electricity on recent windy weekend – Guardian

Comment and opinion

The myth of over-diversification – Allan Roth

Four investment adages that don’t make any sense – Morningstar

The best way to invest is the one that works for you – Abnormal Returns

Durn Furriners [US perspective but relevant] – Humble Dollar

Don’t expect the roaring ’10s for US stocks stocks to be repeated in the ’20s – Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance

Pulling your retirement levers [US tax and social security, but rest relevant] – Can I Retire Yet?

Over-weighting REITs: Why don’t more experts recommend it? – Oblivious Investor

A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life-cycle of a typical retirement blog – RiversHedge

When financial dreams fade and change – The Simple Dollar

Naughty corner: Active antics

Putting private equity ‘dry powder’ into perspective – A Wealth of Common Sense

What machine learning will mean for asset managers – Harvard Business Review

Seed investors should ‘index’ into every credible start-up to do best – AngelList Blog

The social subsidy of angel investing [Mostly a San Francisco thing, but echoes in London] – Alex Danco

Politics

How class, turnout, and the Brexit party shaped the general election [Search result] – FT

This was a stunning victory for the bullshit-industrial complex – Marina Hyde

Merryn Somerset Webb: The UK voted for capitalism – now go out and buy it [Search result] – FT

Will the election result bring a bounce for house prices and shares…? – ThisIsMoney

…and what does it mean for landlords? – ThisIsMoney

Super-rich family buy £65m house after Johnson’s victory – Guardian

Classic Dom clicks his fingers and the celebrations begin – Guardian

We are leaving… at last! – DIY Investor (UK)

Tide turns for Polish emigres, lured home by booming economy after Brexit jolt [Search result] – FT

Kindle book bargains

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou [The Theranos story] – £0.99 on Kindle

Mastering The Market Cycle: Getting the odds on your side by Howard Marks – £0.99 on Kindle

How To Have A Good Day: The Essential Toolkit for a Productive Day at Work by Caroline Webb – £0.99 on Kindle

Off our beat

Stop believing in free shipping [aka delivery] – The Atlantic

Trade-offs: The currency of decision making – Farnham Street

The influencer and the hitman: How a domain name feud ended in a bloody shootout – One Zero

Go outside – Seth Godin

Third base – Scott Galloway

And finally…

“We’re right 50.75% of the time . . . but we’re 100 percent right 50.75% of the time,” [Robert] Mercer told a friend. “You can make billions that way.”
– Quoted by Gregory Zuckerman, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution

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1. Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”.