Links: Week of 27 Jan 2025
Why Is Homeowners Insurance Getting So Expensive? by Brian Potter via MR: A great piece objectively exploring a question getting a lot of coverage after the recent LA fires. There’s so much I love about this link. Original, deep analysis of an important question debunking the popular narrative (climate change, see next two links). Also, a great blog on Construction Physics? With 51K subscribers! Isn’t internet the best?
Gell-Mann Amnesia: First described by Michael Crichton and apparently nothing to do with Gell-Mann. He just gave it an important sounding name to have it taken seriously.
Gell -Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
I should make a spaced repetition card for this.
Bjorn Lomborg: A good follow if you want to see less depressing news about climate change, for instance that polar bear population has been increasing since the 1960s or that the Great Barrier Reef is doing just fine. Do note that his work is also subject to Gell-Mann Amnesia.
Only reason I am posting this is because I am right now in the land of the great UFO scare of 2025, New Jersey. Trump appointed CIA Director? On Fox News? Former Texas Congressman? There should be an emoji for that. Here’s a palate cleanser (via Alex Tabarrok at MR).
MVCIA Director John Ratcliffe:
UAP/UFOs:
-Exhibit “technologies that we don’t have and, frankly, that we can’t defend against” (!)
-“Are difficult to explain”
-*Tracked by multiple sensors, including satellites*
KEY: “I believe there should be more transparency on this issue.”
Jokic. Watch till the end for the reaction.
Is it better to bribe Trump by purchasing his memecoin or his stock? Not financial advice.
No AI in the links at least, although I cannot confirm or deny if an AI was involved in the selection of these links.
Programming note: Since I am traveling for the next few weeks, some of those letters may only contain the links section.