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.

[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.

[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.