Fly Me To The Moon.. and Bremain in the EU

As the weekend descends on us and our thoughts turn towards some form of relaxation, it’s good to lie back, drift away and let your imagination run wild.

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Imagine flying to the moon, or even more far-fetched, setting up a base there. We can but dream! However, as we all know, dreams can sometimes become a reality.

Which brings us onto the subject of our first reading recommendation for the weekend…

3D Printing in Space

This week I’ll suggest you read “Want to build a moon base? Easy. Just print it” by Morgan Saletta over at The Conversation. I have been following the futuristic development of 3D printing technologies for years out of pure interest and recently had to look at its more practical aspects to help with a creative project my wife is working on.

Much can and has been written about 3D printing regarding possibilities that are still very far from commercial use, like 3D printing human hearts, nanobots and 3D printers that can print more 3D printers and so on.

I like this article because while discussing a subject that easily lends itself to wild imagination, it is very realistic and lists many actual developments without being too long.

And now back to some more earthly matters...

The Big Short

A Yahoo Finance article caught my eye this week about Scion Asset Management, which depicted a scene with Hollywood actor Christian Bale – who played the role of the firm’s real life fund manager Dr. Michael Burry – in the movie ‘The Big Short’ which chronicled the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

According to the Yahoo Finance article, Scion Asset Management unloaded a number of bank stocks during the first quarter of 2016, as per regulatory filings, yet any ‘short’ positions the firm holds aren’t required to be disclosed on the 13-F filings – adding to the curiosity if another big short is in development.

I had come across this news as Finance Magnates covered relevant subjects, including the six US Federal agencies that proposed a new rule this week to lessen systemic risk by curbing excessive risk that is incentivized by compensation (including in lending and securities firms), and following the abrupt departure of LendingClub’s founder Renaud Laplanche over such concerns which have now put the spotlight on Fintech companies within the lending space.

Bremain More Likely than Brexit

We conclude by briefly re-visiting the subject of Brexit which we focused on last week. Boris Johnson’s ice-cream magic may have worn off somewhat as it now looks as though the Bremain campaign is taking off in a big way. A bit of a turnaround to say the least, but well, anything can happen in politics!

The Bremain campaign is hitting new highs amongst pollsters, with the opinion that the United Kingdom should continue to be a member of the European Union picking up speed. With a massive lead, the latest telephone poll is in

favor of the camp that sides with EU membership.

We can clearly see a big discrepancy amongst online and telephone polls with the former narrowly favoring a Brexit, whilst the latter favors a continuation of the current status quo.

With gaming site Betfair putting the odds of the UK staying in the EU at 76 per cent, the likelihood of a leave vote seems to be diminishing in tandem with a massive rally of the British pound today.

We can only wait and see.

On behalf of the contributing editors at Finance Magnates, we hope you found our reading suggestions worthy of your attention. Feel free to share your views in the comment section and any recommendations of your own.

Check out our previous posts here:

Brexit: Ice-Cream Magic Or An Artistic Defeat

Virtual Reality and the Dark Side of Shaming

Insider Trading and the Dude Driving Istanbul Mad

On Valley Life and Opening Up AI