Tony Snow - Passed Far Too Young.

Tony Snow passed away this past week, and his funeral was today. He was one of the good ones, and I'll miss him. From what I've seen of him and what I've read, he seemed like one of the good ones - a very happy warrior in his job, an extremely loving family man, and a devout Catholic.

Many people saw him as the White House Press Secretary or heard his talk show, but he also was an accomplished musician. His band (Beats Working) actually got to play with Skunk Baxter of the Doobie Brothers and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (now THAT's cool!).

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and three children.

Interview With Victor Niederhoffer

Victor Niederhoffer is one of the more colorful figures in the investment world. He earned a Ph.D. from the U of Chicago in the 60s (where he regularly sparred with proponents of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis), was a national squash champion, and has seen it all, from being one of the top investment managers in the country to running a couple of hedge funds into the ground (and bouncing back to start others).

He wrote quite a few pieces on a site he started in the late 90's called DailySpeculations.com. One of them actually got me started on a research project (it didn't pan out, but it was still a good idea). He's also written a couple of very interesting books.

If you'd like to read more about him, here's a very good piece, compliments of NewYorker.com. It's pretty long (12 pages), but IMO well worth the time.