~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (564)

1. The $19 strawberry. 2. Writing for the AI is paying off. 3. You’ve quoted Gerhard Richter as saying that a good picture “takes away our certainty,” and suggested (Philip Guston) that doing so enables us to “begin to see the push and pull of impulse, recanting, and reconfiguration that constitute painting and, by extension, life itself.” From […] The post Saturday assorted links appeared first on...

After years of decline, the Christian population in the United States has been stable for several years, a shift fueled in part by young adults, according to a major new survey from the Pew Research Center. And the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, which had grown steadily for years, has also leveled off. Here is […] The post USA fact of the day appeared...

I believe you can get through the gate by registering.  A very good and accurate piece, first-rate photos as well, including of Spinoza too, here is the link.  Here is one excerpt: I asked Cowen – it is the kind of question you come to ask him – what were the criteria for a perfect […] The post The Economist 1843 magazine does a...

1. Insightful Bob McGrew tweet on GPT 4.5.  And Andrej.  My remark from a group chat: “I am more positive on 4.5 than almost anyone else I have read. I view it as a model that attempts to improve on the dimension of aesthetics only. As we know from Kant’s third Critique, that is about […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: As usual, however, the devil is in the details. There is a good chance Trump’s proposal could work out well — and a chance it could severely damage the nation. One worry is selection effects. The $5 million fee means the program […] The post A $5 million gold card for...

I do broadly align with utilitarian/consequentialist ideas, and I particularly like the formulation Richard Y Chappell calls Beneficentrism, which is simply the claim that one very important thing in life is to try to help others, including those who are very different or distant from ourselves. I think that in that formulation, you address in one […] The post Matt Yglesias on morality appeared first...

Street lighting is often believed to influence street crime, but most prior studies have examined small-scale interventions in limited areas. The effect of large-scale lighting enhancements on public safety remains uncertain. This study evaluates the impact of Philadelphia’s citywide rollout of enhanced street lighting, which began in August 2023. Over 10 months, 34,374 streetlights were […] The post Can Enhanced Street Lighting Improve Public...

In Leningrad’s embrace, midwinter’s chill, A prodigy was born with iron will. The chessboard’s call, a siren to his mind, Young Boris Spassky left his peers behind. A crown he claimed in nineteen sixty-nine, Against Petrosian’s force, his star did shine. Yet Reykjavik’s cold winds would soon conspire, With Fischer’s challenge, stoking global fire. The […] The post Boris Spassky, RIP appeared first on...

This paper examines the spatial and temporal dynamics of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in the United States, leveraging county-level data on AI-related job postings from 2014 to 2023. We document significant variation in AI intensity across counties with tech hubs like Santa Clara, CA, leading in adoption, but rapid growth occurring in unexpected, suburban, and […] The post The uneven spread of AI appeared...

1. Paul McCartney will be publishing a history of Wings. 2. Trump and his lawyers. 3. Dean Karlan resigns from US AID, and tells his side of the story. 4. AIs are turning some people sane. 5. David Perell + Dana Gioia, three hour conversation on writing. 6. Tax increase pending on Harvard? 7. New […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

The Trump administration is targeting universities for embracing racist and woke ideologies, but its aim is off. The problem is that the disciplines leading the woke charge—English, history, and sociology—don’t receive much government funding. So the administration is going after science funding, particularly the so-called “overhead” costs that support university research. This will backfire for […] The post The Trump Administration’s Attack on Science...

Alain Mabanckou, Dealing with the Dead.  Most African fiction does not connect with me, and there is a tendency for the reviews to be untrustworthy.  This “cemetery memoir,” from the Congo (via UCLA), connected with me and held my interest throughout. Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

Across all of history, which human being has been seen, in-person, by the greatest number of people? Pope John Paul II?  Mick Jagger?  A baseball player with extreme longevity?  (Cal Ripken?)  Here is o1 pro, top guess is PJPII. The post Nick Freiling asks appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsPele by carlosplnBetter question is who has rocked the most faces. Clearly Jon ......

1. What was feudalism? 2. Technicolor is finally being wound down. 3. Atlantic profile of Aella (salacious text, otherwise safe for work). 4. Show notes from Curt Jaimungal.  And his Substack on physics. 5. Ed Leamer, RIP. 6. The budget package passed by the House. 7. Outmigration predicts AfD support pretty well (NYT).  It is […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

We study the link between exposure to anger and performance, something that to our knowledge has not been studied before.  We exploit the US version of the nationally syndicated television cooking competition MasterChef and collect data on every instance in which judges objectively demonstrate anger to individual participants in each of the episodes in ten […] The post Method in the Madness? appeared first...

An intriguing but speculative hypothesis: We document, in the past decade, a reversal in the trend of increasing wage inequality and declining labor mobility patterns across occupations. This is despite a rapid increase in technological progress and increase in technical skills demanded as evident in online job advertisements. We argue that rapid technological progress over […] The post Are different jobs becoming more alike?...

I have been thinking a lot about this. Have been experimenting like a madman for two months A few unhinged thoughts: – It’s a huge advantage to have a past body of work and style in terms of fine-tuning and training. It can help you understand your own style and keep evolving that over time […] The post Paul Millerd on AI and writing...

Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with him.  I loved his forthcoming book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs.  Ian has done other things too, but for the time being those don’t matter.  This will be a Beatles episode, and also an episode about artistic collaboration. So what should I ask him? The post What should I ask Ian Leslie? appeared...

Waymo factory in Phoenix, AZ. 2000 cars and counting. Hat tip: Brian Potter. The post It’s Happening! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Phil S.. This is a sojern, a German ode. This ... by EquineIn reply to RAD. There's something wrong, if the cost of the ... by Mark BahnerIn reply to Geopolitical Bill. If even just half of Americans...

1. Ethan Mollick on the new Claude.  Here is Nabeel’s review.  Here is Chubby. 2. New movie about Leibniz? 3. Government by LLM? 4. More on the legality of the NIH indirect cost changes. 5. Therapists are trying to keep AIs out of their markets (NYT). 6. Short presentation on the new Microsoft chip. 7. […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

Partisans are divided on policing policy, which may affect officer behavior. We merge rosters from 99 of the 100 largest local U.S. agencies—over one third of local law enforcement agents nationwide—with voter files to study police partisanship. Police skew more Republican than their jurisdictions, with notable exceptions. Using fine-grained data in Chicago and Houston, we […] The post Do Republican policemen differ from the...

1969 was a big year for me.  Most of all, we left Fall River and moved back to New Jersey, but this time to Bergen rather than Hudson County — Billy Joel comments.  I’ll cover Bergen County another time, here were three other developments of import in my seven-year-old life in 1969: 1. The United […] The post 1969 appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION....

Let’s dive into the latest evidence on how the roughly one million Syrian migrants are faring in Germany, focusing on employment, crime rates, and any other relevant data that sheds light on their integration. As of today, February 24, 2025, the picture is a mix of progress and challenges, shaped by economic realities, social dynamics, […] The post Grok 3 on the Syrians in...

1. Prophets of the Marginal Revolution (POTMR). 2. The best Texas barbecue is increasingly urban (New Yorker). 3. Good, appreciative Hilary Leichter NYT review of the Solvej Balle series.  These are a definite recommend from me. 4. Which Germans supported AfD?  That alone should show you they are not the good guys. 5. Who are the […] The post Monday assorted links appeared first on...