Which stocks are predicted to perform best in 2015?

Ok I'm not going to lie, I watched Modern Family reruns all night and now I'm tired and don't want to put any effort into this post. So I'll just send you here.

I will say that I am happy to see two businesses I frequent (always a factor when I invest) and am very unhappy to see two companies that make massive profits making weapons using federal tax dollars. 

The Long Song of the Garden Warbler (Day Thirteen)

As someone who cares slight-to-none about ever being a birdwatcher, today's featured article on Wikipedia expanded my breath of knowledge beyond that which I would not have migrated to on my own. (Hence, the benefit of this blog!)

The garden warbler (Sylvia borin) "is a widespread small bird that breeds in most of Europe. It is a plain, long-tailed typical warbler with black upperparts and dull black underparts; the sexes are similar and juveniles resemble the adults. Its two subspecies differ only slightly and inter-breed where their ranges overlap.... The garden warbler's rich melodic song is similar to that of the Blackcap, its closest relative, which competes with it for territory when nesting in the same woodland."

As well, "[t]he preferred breeding habitat in Eurasia is open woodland with dense, low cover for nesting; despite its name, gardens are rarely occupied by this small passerine bird.... The garden warbler is strongly migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa." 

Even though one will not find me at a National Audubon Association meeting anytime soon, I am avid student of natural selection, biological or otherwise. So, here is my greatest takeaway from this article:

The genus Sylvia, the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae. Fossils from France show that the genus dates back at least 20 million years. The garden warbler and its nearest relative, the Blackcap, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus, between 12 and 16 million years ago. In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the Blackcap in subgenus Sylvia and the garden warbler in Epilais.

And as a reminder of the blunt ignorance of the pre-Darwin world, Aristotle considered in his History of Animals "that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap."

For an informative YouTube video on other differences between the Garden Warbler and the Blackcap, click here.

What were the top-performing stocks of 2014?

Well, it turns out that two airlines were on the list, and most still believe the market is overvalued.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-best-performing-sp-500-stocks-of-2014-2014-06-02

Flying with the Royal Australian Air Force: No. 1 Squadron (Day Twelve)

Today's post is short, since I am especially short on time this afternoon.

According to Wikipedia's feature article today, No. 1 Squadron "is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. Controlled by No. 82 Wing, it is equipped with Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighters. The squadron was formed under the Australian Flying Corps in 1916 and saw action in the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns during World War I.... Disbanded in 1919, No. 1 Squadron was re-formed on paper as part of the RAAF in 1922, and re-established as an operational unit three years later."

And as of September 2014, "a detachment of Super Hornets deployed to the Middle East as part of Australia's contribution to the military intervention against ISIL."

What was Stephen Sondheim like as a boy?

With Into the Woods such a resounding success this season, Stephen Sondheim, the writer of the play as well as West Side Story and Sweeney Todd, has been in my thoughts. Other than his masterpieces on the stage, he has a special place in my heart as the mentor and hero to one of the men I most admire, Jonathan Larson, the writer of Rent. So in that sense, he is my grandhero.

I wanted to ask a creative question about Sondheim, to perhaps understand him from a unique angle. Sondheim was born in 1930 to wealthy parents in New York. His mother was a dress maker and negligent, psychologically abusive caretaker to young Stephen, who felt highly isolated as an only child, deserted by his father at age 10. Stephen hated his mother, and did not attend her funeral in 1992.   


I found the following from Wikipedia illuminating:

"In his interview with Meryle Secrest, Sondheim explained that he was 'what they call an institutionalized child, meaning one who has no contact with any kind of family. You're in, though it's luxurious, you're in an environment that supplies you with everything but human contact. No brothers and sisters, no parents, and yet plenty to eat, and friends to play with and a warm bed, you know?'"

I think it is a beautiful thing when someone can live a difficult life, betrayed by those who gave him life, and make it into something beautiful and empowering to so many. What a great man. I wonder if he has seen Into the Woods yet.

The Great and Little Remembered Life of Sir John A. Macdonald (Day Eleven)

Today's featured article on Wikipedia focuses on the life of Sir John Alexander Macdonald (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891).  Macdonald "was the first Prime Minister of Canada(1867–1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. Macdonald served 19 years as Canadian Prime Minister; only William Lyon Mackenzie King served longer."

Macdonald was born in Scotland, third of five children, and "[h]is father was Hugh Macdonald, an unsuccessful merchant..." And,

when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the colony of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario). He articled with a local lawyer, who died before Macdonald qualified, and Macdonald opened his own practice, although not yet entitled to do so. He was involved in several high-profile cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston...

When in 1864 no party proved capable of governing for long, Macdonald agreed to a proposal from his political rival, George Brown, that the parties unite in a Great Coalition to seek federation and political reform. Macdonald was the leading figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the British North America Act and the birth of Canada as a nation on 1 July 1867.

Macdonald was designated as the first Prime Minister of the new nation, and served in that capacity for most of the remainder of his life, losing office for five years in the 1870s over the Pacific Scandal (corruption in the financing of the Canadian Pacific Railway). After regaining his position, he saw the railroad through to completion in 1885, a means of transportation and freight conveyance that helped unite Canada as one nation. Macdonald is credited with creating a Canadian Confederation despite many obstacles, and expanding what was a relatively small country to cover the northern half of North America. By the time of his death in 1891, Canada had secured most of the territory it occupies today.

Yet, in Canada today, Macdonald remains mostly as a passing thought: 

Unlike his American counterpart, George Washington, no cities or political subdivisions are named for Macdonald (with the exception of a small Manitoba village), nor are there any massive monuments. A peak in the Rockies, Mount Macdonald (c. 1887) at Rogers Pass, is named for him. In 2001, Parliament designated 11 January as Sir John A. Macdonald Day, but the day is not a federal holiday and generally passes unremarked. Macdonald appears on the present Canadian ten-dollar bill.   

Nevertheless, "Macdonald's biographers note his contribution to establishing Canada as a nation. Swainson suggests that Macdonald's desire for a free and tolerant Canada became part of its national outlook: 'He not only helped to create Canada, but contributed immeasurably to its character.'" 

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