Interesting Links for 24-11-2021

[andrewducker]

Covid stamp duty holiday cost £6.4bn and helped rich house buyers in south

(tags:housing uk OhForFucksSake )

In simple English, what does it mean for a number to be transcendental?

(tags:numbers )

Americans are struggling to deal with a rising tide of hatred and extremism

(tags:USA hate bigotry school LGBT )

What gets to be a valid word? A linguist's view

(tags:language )

The woman with XY chromosomes

(tags:women genetics )

New licencing laws for short term lets in Scotland

(tags:rental Scotland housing )

The Moral of the Roller-Skating Christmas Pudding - the Significance of the Absenteeism of the Lord Chancellor

(tags:politics law uk )

The Conspiracy Chart

(tags:conspiracy visualisation )

When Americans think each season starts

(tags:time date usa polls )

Striving For Perfection, Rather Than Excellence, Can Kill Creativity

(tags:psychology creativity perfectionism )

Comments

Short-Term Lets in Scotland

[danieldwilliam]

I am broadly content with the new rules on licencing and controlling short-term lets.

As a resident of Edinburgh and the owner of a holiday let in more rural Scotland I think they are about right.

I think I'd like to see more powers to remove licences from owners who run their short-term lets in an anti-social way.

I'd also like to see the control and licencing schemes able to be used to raise some revenue significantly above the costs of administering the scheme.

Re: Short-Term Lets in Scotland

[andrewducker]

I think taxing it for revenue is a good idea, so long as we don't push it too far. I do like the idea of making it easy for people to visit Edinburgh.

Re: Short-Term Lets in Scotland

[danieldwilliam]

There's definitely a balance to be struck. Some areas have too many holiday lets. Some have the right amount. Some areas have quite a strong net positive experience of holiday lets in terms of the economic and cultural benefits. Some areas the marginal benefit of an additional holiday let is probably outweighed by the marginal disbeneifts from lost housing, anti-social behaiour and so one. AirBnB's in Edinburgh could probably stand a bit of taxation. Holiday lets in the Highlands probably less so - or the impact of a tax on holiday lets in the Highlands is likely to raise less revenue than is brought in through the benefits of tourism.

[calimac]

2) That's one of the most perfect mathematical treatises I've ever seen.

3) There's little of that in the liberal community where I live, but I'm watching for it. But there are other things. When a neighbor proposed establishing a day-care center in our residential area, the Two-Minutes Hate that ensued was truly bizarre.

4) Language purists may content themselves with the fact that, if a significant number of people think a usage is wrong, that is itself a noteworthy fact of usage.

5) The weirdness of chromosome irregularities is something I learned about in genetics half a century ago. That includes mosaics (the technical term for a case like this one). The specifics here are very interesting, but the general concept ain't news, and the tendency of sex-essentialists to brush it aside is unacceptable.

7) And this is why turning the House of Lords into a popularly-elected body would be a bad idea. You've already got a legislative chamber filled with careerist politicians, you don't need another one. (In the US we have two, and it doesn't help.)

8) Conspiracies: "Denver Int'l Airport"? Why? What about it?

9) Seasons: I felt a lot less frustrated at continued hot weather once I gave up on the childhood notion that September was an autumn month. By the way, I vote with those who measure seasons environmentally (buds, leaves, temperature) not by solstice/equinox. Solstice/equinox are enabling conditions for the seasons, not the seasons themselves.

[andrewducker]

I agree about the seasons - but luckily for me they map pretty well onto the dates where I live.

As for Denver, there are several: https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/31/definitive-guide-to-denver-international-airport-conspiracy-theories/

[dewline]

3. Noting this paragraph:

We also need to recognize what’s happening locally is part of a far-reaching, far-right political project, and that our resistance locally should be seen as part of a larger nationwide, if not global, anti-fascist and anti-racist movement.

We are indeed looking at a new fascist international here. We see evidence of it in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Russia, and elsewhere. This is a continuing threat to humanity's hope of a liveable future.

[movingfinger]

When I moved farther north, the seasons fell more into line with my expectations. The wider swing in length of days drives my perception more than holidays, and correlates pretty well with natural indicators like leaf color beginning to change and budding. (Spring: February, March, April; Summer: May, June, July; Autumn: August, September, October; Winter: November, December, January.)

Excellent and perfect

[anna_wing]

Not sure if this is just a semantic difference. Plus, it depends on what you're doing, surely.

Re: Excellent and perfect

[andrewducker]

Excellence: Something really good.
Perfect: The one thing which is better than all of the others.

The former will certainly constrain you, but there will (generally) be numerous good answers to a question. Discarding all options which don't feel like the absolutely best one will leave you searching for much longer, if not indefinitely.

Re: Excellent and perfect

[anna_wing]

Ah, I see.

I was thinking about it in the context of the traditional arts, where practice makes perfect, but definitions of 'perfect' can vary. A friend of mine, trained in the Chinese pottery tradition (which emphasises the achievement of errorless mastery), once apprenticed himself to a Japanese master in the hopes of learning and understanding the Japanese approach of perfection in imperfection, using the accidental and the aleatory. After a year or so, both he and his master accepted that his way was the way of seeking perfection in perfection, and that was just the way it was. But the goal in both cases was beauty, not "creativity" in the abstract, so I think it's a completely different context from what the study was looking at.

Basically, being willing to break a hundred unsatisfactory pots for every one that reaches your standards is a feature, not a bug.