Why does Stephen study whale earwax?

A psychologist with wide-ranging interests, Stephen Trumble studies everything from rats to zebrafish, but these days whale earwax is taking over his Baylor University lab. There are already 30 pieces of it lined up, each requiring about a year’s worth of analysis — and he hopes to obtain five times as many. He’s doing this because hidden in all that wax is information that could tell us how life has been changing for whales and the Arctic in the past 100 years or more.

Last year a hedge-funder, Daniel Loeb, attacked what he called a disconnect between Mr. Buffett’s words and his actions. "He thinks we should all pay more taxes but he loves avoiding them," he said. Mr. Loeb was right; Berkshire’s tax payments have shrunk relative to its profits. Last year the actual cash it paid to the taxman was equivalent to 13% of its pre-tax profits — this is probably the fairest measure of its burden — making it one of the lightest taxpayers among big firms.