The Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rohe's Glass House

There are two famous Glass Houses in America.  The first was the Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe, a leader in Modernist architecture.  There is a fabulous book review in the Wall Street Journal about the Farnsworth House:  ‘Broken Glass’ Review: Letting the Outside In by Witold Rybczynski, WSJ, March 20, 2020. In the print edition, it is in the Review Section in the Saturday 3/21/2020 edition, page C7.

What a great story!  The owner was Edith Farnsworth and you learn about her and her experiences in having the house built and in living in the house.  It is quite a story.  I'm sure the book is great, Broken Glass by Alex  Beam.  The next best thing is to read the book review!

I'll mention that there is another famous Glass House, the one by Philip Johnson might be better known.

Key words: architecture, glass house

The Farnsworth House in Winter.
 

Nassim Taleb and the Black Swan

Ben Zimmer in the Wall Street Journal wrote a nice description of Nassim Taleb's description of the Black Swan in finance.  Mr. Zimmer gives a very nice description of the how the term "Black Swan" came into our vocabulary and how Nassim Taleb has used that to describe rare events. Here is a link to Mr. Zimmer's article:
‘Black Swan’: A Rare Disaster, Not as Rare as Once Believed by Ben Zimmer
https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-swan-a-rare-disaster-not-as-rare-as-once-believed-11584645612


Key words: economics, finance