Monthly Archives: July 2021

Another fun week of stargazing is on its way. Though there will be some clouds to fight with by mid and late week both Monday and Tuesday look fantastic for taking in a view of the heavens.

The Planets This Week: Venus remains the highlight of the planets shining brightly in the evening twilight. It passed through the Beehive Cluster over the weekend and remains fairly close to it after sunset this week. It is drawing closer to Mars which can be found just above and to the left. They will be drawing closer to each other over the next week and appear closest next Monday evening. Jupiter and Saturn both appear high in the sky during the late-night and pre-dawn hours. The dimmer planets of Uranus and Neptune, both only visible in telescopes or binoculars, are both up during the pre-dawn hours as well.

Naked Eye Object of the Week-Mars: Mars is slowly sinking in the western sky at twilight so if you want to get out and see it now is the time. It wont be long before it becomes completely obscured by the sun as it moves behind it from our point of view. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is the 4th planet from the sun and the last of the rocky planets. It has been the topic of many a science fiction novel, most notably War of the Worlds written by H.G. Wells. It has also been the object of many NASA missions. The first came back in 1964 when Mariner 4 became the first probe to photograph Mars up close, and the first successful landing occurred just 12 years later in 1976 when Viking 1 made touchdown. The first rover wouldnt come until 1997 when Sojourner would head out on its mission. Probably the most famous of all the probes and rovers to visit the red planet are Spirit and Curiosity. Both these rovers were launched in January of 2004 and both operated many years beyond their expected lifespan. Opportunity worked for an astonishing 14 years just ceasing operation in 2018.

The planet is very rocky with a thin atmosphere. It has regular dust storms, some of which can be planet-wide, and is the only other planet to contain polar ice caps consisting of frozen water. In its early life, Mars was an active planet like Earth. It had large volcanoes (Olympus Mons is the largest in the solar system) and likely even tectonic plates like the Earth, but it has slowly turned into a dead planet with the planets core no longer producing a magnetic field. It is still seismically active, though, with Marsquakes having been reported by NASAs InSight lander. Mars also once had surface lakes and rivers, and it is theorized that some streaks that appear on the surface even today could come from remaining water leaking to the surface. Regardless, the atmosphere is too thin to allow it to exist for long, though the frozen polar ice caps contain enough water to cover the whole planet in over 30ft of water. These polar ice caps can be seen with a medium-sized telescope when the planet is closest to Earth, but right now a stronger telescope would be required.

Mars nickname is the red planet because it appears red. This is because the soil contains lots of iron oxide, commonly referred to here on Earth as rust. The planet has quite literally rusted which gives it its red color. Rovers that have dug into the soil find a lighter color, though still most decidedly red, just beneath the surface. Mars also has two small moons, both significantly smaller than Earths. They are called Phobos and Deimos and are both irregularly shaped moons, much more akin to a large asteroid than a spherical satellite.

Humans may one day set foot on Mars. SpaceX is determined to land and colonize the planet, but that day likely lies far into the future. For now, we will continue to gaze at it from afar. Just step outside your doorstep during late twilight and take a peek. It can be found very close to Venus this week after sunset.

Telescope Object of the Week The Dumbbell Nebula: Last week we took a look at the Ring Nebula. This weeks highlighted object is an even brighter planetary nebula that can be found right in the core of the Milky Way. Our galaxys main spiral arm visible from Earth currently rises as the sun is going down. This puts it high in the sky by 11 PM and it is home to numerous nebula and star clusters. The Dumbbell Nebula is one such object. Much like the Ring Nebula the Dumbbell was once a large star that eventually collapsed. During the end stages of its life, it flung dust and gas off resulting in a beautiful nebula. Like most bright nebula it was first discovered by Charles Messier and was labeled M27 by him in 1764. Planetary nebulae come in lots of shapes and sizes, and the Dumbbell appears as roughly a sphere but looks nothing like the Ring Nebula. When imaged with a long exposure using a high-powered telescope plentiful knots are visible (as seen below). Why these knots form is still unknown and it is a topic of debate and research among astronomers still today!

Finding the Dumbbell can be a bit tricky because it lies in an area somewhat devoid of bright stars, but hopefully, the star map included below will help. Its located above the fairly unknown constellation Aquila in another obscure constellation Vulpecula.

Head out this week and enjoy the warm summer nights!

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The Sky This Week: A red planet and a dumbbell - Now Habersham

My north star(s) for philosophy, management, and politics are "Star Wars," "The Sopranos," and "Game of Thrones," respectively. The Iron Bank (GOT) is a metaphor for today's financial institutions, if present-day banks didn't need bailouts or to inventfake accountsto juice compensation. Regardless, it was well known throughout Braavos thatThe Iron Bank will have its due. If you failed to repay, they'd fund your enemies. So today's Iron Bankers are the venture capitalists funding (any) incumbents' enemies. If this makes VCs sound interesting/cool, don't trust your instincts.

Lately, I've spent a decent amount of time on the phone with my bank in an attempt to get a home equity line, as I want to load up on Dogecoin. (Note: kidding.) (Note: mostly.) If Opendoor and Zillow can use algorithms and Google Maps to get an offer on my house in 24 hours, why does it take my bank which underwrote the original mortgage so much longer?

Read more: I sold Credit Karma to Intuit for $8.1 billion in what was the biggest decision of my career. Here are the 4 most important lessons I learned.

How ripe a sector is for disruption is a function of several factors. One (relatively) easy proxy is the delta between price increases and inflation, and if the innovation in the sector justifies the delta. Think of the $200 cable bill, or a $5.6 million 60-second Super Bowl spot, as canaries in the ad-supported media coal mine.

Another, easier (and more fun) indicator of ripeness is the eighties test. Put yourself smack dab in the center of the store/product/service, close your eyes, spin around three times, open your eyes, and ask if you'd know within five seconds that you were notin 1985. Theaters, grocery stores, gas stations, dry cleaners, university classes, doctor's offices, and banks still feel as if you could run into Ally Sheedy or The Bangles.

It's hard to imagine an industry more ripe for disruption than the business of money.

Let's start with this: 25% of US householdsare either unbanked or underbanked.Half of the nation's unbanked households say they don't have enough money to meet the minimum balance requirements. 34% say bank fees are too high. And, if you're trying to get a mortgage, you'd better hope the house isn't cheap.

Inequity is a breeding ground for disruption, leaving underserved markets for insurgents to seize and launch an attack on incumbents from below. We have good reason to believe that's happening in banking.

A herd of unicorns is at the stable door, looking to trample Wells Fargo and Chase. Fintech is responsible for roughly one in five (17%) of the world's unicorns, more than any other sector. In addition, there are already several megalodons worth more than financial institutions that have spent generations building (mis)trust.

How did this happen? The fintechs are zeroing in on everything big banks aren't.

Example No. 1: Innovation. Over the past five years, PayPal has issued 26x more patents than Goldman Sachs.

Example No. 2: Cost-cutting. " Neobanks " offer the basic services of a bank, with one less expensive and cumbersome feature: the branch. Historically, the branch wasthe bank. But ground-level real estate staffed by people is expensive, and now that money is a digital construct, the "vault" is in our pockets. A traditional bank branch needs$50 million in deposits to generate an adequate return. Yet nearly half (48%) of branches in the US are below that threshold. Not surprisingly, banks are closing branches as fast as they opened them: In 2020 alone, 3,300 bank branches closed, a quarter of all retail closures.

There's a big opportunity for branchless banks to expand. Already, there are at least177 neobanks. Founders frame these offerings as more progressive, less corporate.Dave, a new banking app, offers a Founding Story on its website (illustrated with cartoon bears) about three friends "fed up" with their banking experience, often incurring $38 overdraft fees. As it turns out, "Dave" is/areserial entrepreneurswho sold their last company for $85 million. Dave provides free overdraft protection and has 10 million customers.

Example No. 3: Less inequity. NYU Professor of Finance Sabrina Howell's research found fintech lenders gave 18% of PPP loans to Black-owned businesses, while small to medium-sized banks provided just 2%. Among all loans to Black-owned firms, Professor Howell found 54% were from fintech startups .

Racial discrimination is the most likely explanation, as lenders faced zero credit risk. In addition (my thesis), just as people of color have embraced crypto (48% of Bitcoin buyers are nonwhite) there may be increased comfort among minority groups to deal with technology versus institutions that have a history of racist lending practices. At a base level, systemic racism creates friction on several dimensions. I'm an investor in Better Mortgage, which leverages AI to remove friction from the supply chain of financing a home (e.g., approval in as little as three minutes). This results in lower fees for the borrower and better pay for jobs that have suffered from high turnover. As every CEO tries to channel their inner Bezos, and obsess over the consumer, there's a huge opportunity to mimic Hastings and build a model that achieves something few firms have managed over the last 30 years; give their rank and file workers a raise.

Example No. 4: Serving the underserved. Unequal access to banking is a global botheration. Almost a third of the world's adults, 1.7 billion, are unbanked. In Argentina, Colombia, Nigeria, and other countries, more than 50% of adults are unbanked.

Why? Again, many don't have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements, and it's more profitable to service wealthy customers. However, a lower-cost, technology-driven model coupled with a market that provides cheap capital to growth firms results in a much-needed example of how capitalism is the worst economic system of its kind except for all the rest.

Take Argentine fintech Ual, whose CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri I spoke with on thePod last week. In just four years, more than three million people have opened an account with his company about 9% of the country and over 25% of 18 to 25-year-olds now have a tarjeta Ual (online wallet). Ual recently launched in Mexico, where, as of 2017, only 2.6% of the poorest 40% had a credit card. This is more than an economic issue it's a societal issue, as financial inclusion bolsters the middle class and forms a solid base for democracy.

Chase savings accounts are offering, no joke, 0.01% interest. Wells Fargo? The same, though if you keep your investment portfolio with Wells, they'll double that rate to 0.02%. Meanwhile, neobanks including Ally and Chime offer 0.5% 50x the competition.

There is also blood in the water for fintech unicorns that have created a debit, versus credit, generation: The buy-now-pay-later fintech Afterpay has more than 5 million US customers just two years after launching in the country. As of February, its competitor Affirm has 4.5 millioncustomers.

Unicorns are also coming for payments. The megasaurus in this space is PayPal, which has built the first global payments platform outside the credit card model and is second only to Visa in payment volume and revenue. Square's Cash app is capturing share, and Apple Cash is also a player, as it's Apple.

Square, Apple, and a host of other companies are taking the "partnership" approach, bolting new services onto the existing transaction infrastructure. Square's little white box is a low-upfront-cost way for a small merchant to accept credit cards. It's particularly interesting that Apple teamed up with Goldman Sachs instead of a traditional bank. Goldman is looking to get into the consumer space (seeMarcus), and Apple is looking to get into the payments space this alliance could be the unsullied fighting with air cover from dragons. It should make Wells and BofA anxious.

The Big Four credit card system operators (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express) are still the dominant payment players, and they have deep moats. Their brands are global, their networks robust. Visa can handle 76,000 transactions per second in 160 currencies, and as of this week it had settled$1 billion incryptocurrency transactions.

Still, even the king of payments sees dead people. In 2020, Visa tried to buy Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid currently helps connect existing payments providers (i.e. banks) to finance software such as Quicken and Mint. But it plans to expand from that beachhead into offering a full-fledged payments system. Visa CEO Al Kelly initiallydescribed the deal as an "insurance policy" to neutralize a "threat to our important US debit business." In an encouraging sign that American antitrust authorities are stirring, the Department of Justice filed suit to block the merger, and Visa walked.

Fintech is also coming for investing with online trading apps (Robinhood, Webull, Public, and several of the neobanks) and through the crypto side door (Coinbase, Gemini, Binance). Insurance is under threat from companies like Lemonade (home), Ladder (life), and Root (auto).

In sum, fintech is likely as underhyped as space is overhyped. Why? The ROI on your professional efforts and investing are inversely proportional to how sexy the industry/investment is, and fintech is boring. Except for the immense opportunity and value creation for multiple stakeholders. "Half the world is unbanked, but we need to colonize Mars," said no rational investor ever.

Re investing in fintech: What has, and will always be, a good rap? The guy/gal who owns the bank.

Life is so rich,

Scott

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SCOTT GALLOWAY: Fintechs Are Taking Over the Banking Industry - Business Insider

Blink while playing one of the best city-building games, and youll lose countless hours expanding your city, refining your infrastructure, and focusing your trade. Every game on our list represents hundreds of hours of simulation gameplay, regardless of if you want to build a modern metropolis, conquer strange Viking lands, or terraform the Red Planet.

Although city-building games usually carry a steep learning curve and tons of content, beginners can dive into any option on our list and have a good time. We have a mix of hardcore survival experiences likeFrostpunkand minimalist builders likeIslanders,so theres something for everyone.

Cities: Skylinesis the best city-building game you can play right now. It takes all of the best parts ofSimCity,ignores the bad parts, and expands on the mechanics to create a city-builder thats enjoyable for hundreds of hours. Starting with a small square off the highway, youll build your infrastructure to accommodate new residents, businesses, emergency services, schools, and more.

The base game gives you plenty of challenges to overcome, including managing emergencies, keeping your residents happy, and dealing with the flow of traffic throughout your city.Cities: Skylinesreally comes alive through its DLC, though.Green Cities,for example, gives you 350 assets to build a more eco-friendly city, whileAfter Darkgives you new tourist attractions and an international airport so you can draw more people in.

Plus, theres mod support, so you can add community assets and grab inspiration from custom-built maps.Cities: Skylinesisthecity-building game on PC, and its a must-own if youre a fan of the genre.

Anno 1800puts you at the beginning of the Industrial Age. Starting with a trade port and a small plot of land, youll attract farmers and workers to build your city from a farming village into a modern manufacturing powerhouse. From there, youll make your mark on the world with a network of trade routes, diplomatic agreements, and expeditions around the globe.

Like other Anno games, this one is focused on production and industry. Instead of engaging in war or appeasing your citizens,Anno 1800mainly tasks you with building and maintaining supply chains and then exploiting those supply chains to generate as much revenue as possible through trade. Youll need to fight from time to time, but only to defend your industry.

We choseAnno 1800not only because its the most recent but also because the setting captures the spirit of the gameplay. If youre looking for a different setting, Anno 1404throws you into the age of colonization, and Anno 2070looks forward to near-future industry.

Frostpunkis a city builder under the worst possible circumstances. You are the leader of a surviving colony after the fallout of a volcanic winter. Eruptions and catastrophic weather have wiped out most of the worlds population, and its your job to build a city around a steam-powered engine stuck in the center of a frozen wasteland.

Frostpunkputs on the pressure early and never lets up. Youll have to send citizens out to gather materials, knowing some of them wont make it back, enact laws to extract 24-hour labor, and choose who gets rations and medical treatment first (if at all).Frostpunkis as grim as video games come, but it still provides a riveting experience where building your city feels like just a means to an end.

Eager to settle the Red Planet? SurvivingMarsis for you. Its a traditional city builder where you need to build infrastructure, tend to the needs of your citizens, and grow your industry, but instead of dealing in electricity and housing, Surviving Mars deals in oxygen and space domes. Its one thing to attract people to your colony on Mars. Its another thing to keep them alive.

Surviving Marscomes from Paradox Interactive, the same publisher behindCities: Skylines.That means a lot of DLC. New content is still rolling out, butGreen Planetgives you new terraforming options so you can turn land into sources of water and vegetation, and Space Racethrows you in the center of an international struggle to colonize Mars first.

In a lot of ways, Surviving MarsisCities: Skylinesin space, but even that description sells it short. It combines survival, exploration, and city-building into a neatly defined package that never fails to entertain.

El Presidente is back inTropico 6, giving you another chance to rule, manipulate, and build your own banana republic. If you havent played a Tropico game, they are city builders where youre allowed to do all of the devious, corrupt things youre not supposed to do while building a city. As the absolute ruler of your island, your job is to make lofty speeches to keep your citizens happy while exploiting the land and resources for all theyre worth. The world will know the name of your island for better or worse.

Tropico 6is a joy to play, not only because its so silly but also because its a genuinely fun city builder. That said, it gets even better with DLC. Lobbyistoopens the doors to foreign leaders for some backdoor politics and helps you cover your corruption, andSpittermakes El Presidente a superstar on social media to attract celebrities and faction leaders to your island paradise.

Its hard overstating how much of a joy Tropico 6is to play. If the cold industry of Anno 1800and the hopeless survival of Frostpunkare just too much, giveTropico 6a spin.

Banishedis a city builder that puts your citizens at the heart of the experience. You lead a group of exiled travelers looking to establish their own colony, and unlike a lot of similar games, growing that colony is your sole focus. Banisheddoes away with currency and skill trees; instead, youre tasked with managing the resources your colony can harvest and ensuring that your colonists can start families to keep your colony running into the future.

Banishedis a methodical city builder that rewards thoughtful resource management and punishes rash expansion. Instead of conquering new land, youll focus more on assigning jobs to your citizens, replacing natural resources youve harvested, and growing your city only when theres a need to. If youre looking for a city builder with loads of DLC and mod support,Banishedisnt for you. Instead, its a game that focuses on doing one thing well, and it succeeds.

RimWorld is a colony simulator where almost anything can happen. You lead the establishment of a new colony on a rim world, a planet located on the edge of known space. Your colonists all come with a randomly rolled list of traits, which dictate how they act. You may have a genius who learns quickly but is suspectable to a mental break or someone with bloodlust who gets a mood boost from killing strangers and making clothes out of their skin. Seriously.

All of the traits are tongue and cheek, despite how serious they get (nudists, for example, get a mood bonus while theyre naked). The combination of traits across your colony gives you a wholly unique experience every time you load up the game. Your colonists will interact with each other based on their traits, and thats where much of the basis for gameplay is formed.

On top of that, an artificial intelligence (A.I.) storyteller heads up your experience, providing random events based on your difficulty and game settings. Events can be everything from two colonists breaking up with each other to a revenge assault of animals youve hunted too much.RimWorldis a generator of unique and memorable gameplay experiences, and its one of the best simulation games on the market.

Islandersis a bite-sized city builder about building a city on an island. It does away with skill and research trees, trade, and resources and focuses on the building itself. At the start of the game, you have the choice between different packs of buildings. Regardless of the one you choose, theyll fill your inventory with buildings that you can place on your island. It doesnt cost anything to place them, but youll get a score depending on where you place them.

As you build and raise your score, youll unlock new buildings and refill your inventory. From there, its just a matter of how far you can go. Once you fill up an island, youll have the option to move to the next island and expand your empire. And if you run out of buildings before you can refill your inventory, the game ends.

Islandersis a simple game that anyone can pick up and play, but it rewards players who pay careful attention to building placement and resource management. If youre looking for a city builder that isnt bogged down my menus and systems,Islandersis for you.

Northgardputs you in charge of a Viking clan looking to conquer the mysterious shores of Northgard. Either against A.I. opponents or real-life players, your goal is to expand your kingdom to win. Similar toCivilization VI,Northgardprovides a few different win conditions, including Wisdom, which is awarded for recruiting loremasters and receiving blessings, and Fame, which is awarded for conquering new territory and becoming a king.

The game pushes into the 4X territory of the best strategy games but still manages to keep things accessible. Although conflict with rival clans and beasts is to be expected, Northgardstill includes a jobs system for your Vikings, farming, and trading, so you can build your city the way you want.

The SimCity franchise has been dethroned byCities: Skylines,so there isnt much of a reason to pick up the latest entries in the franchise. 2003sSimCity 4,however, remains a staple of the genre. Its a nostalgia trip that allows you to build a network of cities connected by public transit, summon natural disasters at will, and tend to the varied needs of your citizens as you build a sprawling metropolis.

At the time of publication, however,SimCity 4 is 18 years old and hasnt received the attention it deserves. If youre interested in playing the game, we recommend installing a few mods and bug fixes to get the game running smoothly. Otherwise, youll deal with frequent crashes and/or game-breaking bugs.

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The best city-building games on PC - Digital Trends