Masayoshi Son may be the oddest of the oddball billionaires
A new biography sheds light not just on his hit-and-miss methods
A team of researchers found a way to make money legally from online bookies. But then their troubles began.
‘Here I Can Be My Own Dictator’
By ANDREW HIGGINS
The Kremlin’s plan to hand out plots of land in Russia’s Far East, long a magnet for dissenters, idealists and oddballs, has attracted some unusually freethinking settlers.
China's maritime strategy is at odds with protestations of peace and mutual co-operation embodied in the Belt and Road InitiativeJeb Bush is to announce today that he has officially entered the American presidential race as a candidate for the Republican party. If the past is any guide, Mr Bush has a good shot at winning, and indeed he remains the bookies’ favourite. Today’s #Dailychart shows a timeline of previous Republican presidential candidates’ withdrawals from the race http://econ.st/1LbGTZQ
A small peaceful protest was all demonstrators could muster near to Tahrir Square to mark the fourth anniversary of Egypt’s revolution, and even that faced lethal force: before long, a 32-year-old activist from a new left-wing party had been fatally shot in the back with birdshot. The country's tentative economic recovery has not been matched by political progress http://econ.st/1AvnFg3
"Stephen, you've been taking a lot of shots at my job, I decided I'm going to go out and take a shot at yours.”
"De-diversification" is an ugly word, but the concept has become an attractive strategy among big miners. BHP Billiton, the world's largest and once the leading exponent of diversification, looks like it has finally succumbed to the trend. On August 15th the Anglo-Australian company confirmed rumours that it was considering getting shot of some of its less glittering assets http://econ.st/1mW1kNs
Amazon.com ReviewWellington claimed that the Battle of Waterloo was "won on the playing fields of Eton." For Gerald Tyrwhitt, the 14th Baron Berners, however, a war was fought on those self-same fields. Born in 1883, Berners grew up in the twilight years of the Victorian Age, a time when the scions of gentry were expected to excel at sports, marry advantageously, and settle into a quiet life of shooting parties and gentleman's clubs. Young Gerald, however, was made of different stuff, preferring art to sport and nurturing an unholy passion for opera. In the first volume of his autobiography, First Childhood, Baron Berners recounts his early years from birth through the end of grammar school. In A Distant Prospect, he takes the reader through the Eton years up to his 16th year--a time composed equally of terror and self-discovery. Berners, who as an adult would garner a reputation for eccentricity, began his career as an oddball youth. It can't have been easy growing up an aesthete and a homosexual in that social class or era, but Berners offers up his life story with both humor and honesty. This coming-of-age tale never strays into mawkish sentimentality, and provides a crystal-clear window into both a vanished era and a remarkable life in the making.
Syrian Rebels Hone Bomb Skills to Even the Odds
By C. J. CHIVERS
The attack that killed at least three of President Bashar al-Assad’s most senior aides aligned with the rebels’ swift and successful adoption of makeshift bombs.
Lauren Greenfield/Institute
‘The Queen of Versailles’ and Its Lawsuit
By JOE NOCERA
After the filming of a documentary about an American Dream home and
conspicuous wealth, the director and her subjects, David and Jackie
Siegel, above, are at odds.
Inventors gather in Geneva for a shot at the bigtime 到日內瓦盛會碰運氣
About 60,000 visitors flocked to the International Exhibition of Inventions
in Geneva this week. Exhibitors from 45 countries have been displaying
1,000 new innovations, trying to convince manufacturers and financiers to
market their new designs. Contracts worth more than 27 million euros were
negotiated on the sidelines of last year's event. This year's crop of
inventors are hoping for even more.
The DW-WORLD.DE Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/
Woody Allen may have pioneered the oddball New York comedy, but he has never quite been its master. With "Mistress America" Noah Baumbach has come along to show him how it should be donehttp://econ.st/1NNjRwN
The noun oddball has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a person with an unusual or odd personality
Synonyms: eccentric, eccentric person, geek
Peter Thompson for The New York Times
Mr. Pisani, who sells and installs home gutters, became fascinated with Futuros, and began researching their history after he bought his own.
"It made me feel good to know that wasn't just some oddball piece of junk but part of a serious attempt at mass housing," he said.
Urban Camouflage
- The fact that such ideas were greeted with straight faces, or even appeared at all, underscores Japanese society's fondness for oddball ideas and inventions.Photo: Torin Boyd/Polari, for The New York Times
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English selfsame, from earlier selve same, equivalent to self + same or self- + same. Compare Old High German selbsama ("selfsame, identical"), Danish selvsamme ("selfsame, identical"), English selfsome. More at self, same.Adjective
selfsame (not comparable)Quotations
- For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
shot 機會
A critical or hostile remark:Paul tried one last shot—‘You realize what youwant will cost more money?’
informal An attempt to do something:several of the competitors will have a shot at the all-round title
Informal.
at odds
(ŏdz) informal An attempt to do something:several of the competitors will have a shot at the all-round title
- An attempt; a try: took a shot at losing weight.
- A guess.
- An opportunity: gave him a fair shot at the part in the play.
- A chance at odds; something to bet on: The horse was a four-to-one shot.
pl.n.
- A certain number of points given beforehand to a weaker side in a contest to equalize the chances of all participants.
- The ratio of the probability of an event's occurring to the probability of its not occurring.
- The likelihood of the occurrence of one thing rather than the occurrence of another thing, as in a contest: The odds are that she will get the nomination on the first ballot.
- Games. A ratio expressing the amount by which the stake of one bettor differs from that of an opposing bettor.
- An amount or a degree by which one thing exceeds or falls short of another: won the contest by considerable odds.
- In disagreement; in conflict: "The artist and the self-critic . . . are, with a few felicitous exceptions, forever at odds" (Joyce Carol Oates).
- In every possible way; unquestionably: By all odds it is the best film of the year.
[Pl. of ODD.]
bigtimeor big-time (bĭg'tīm')
Informal.adj.
Significant or important; major: a bigtime comedian.
adv.
To an extreme degree; very much: Sales are expanding, big-time.
oddball
(ŏd'bôl')
n. Informal
A person regarded as eccentric.
沒有留言:
張貼留言