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Longform links: expensive promises

Chimera readability score 57 out of 100, Graduate reading level.

Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. Wherever possible, free links for premium sites are used. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at how close we are to getting humanoid robots.
Quote of the Day
"Social Security’s shortfalls are not driven by greedy politicians or immigrants but rather by a system that promised generous benefits to a very large generation that did not have enough children to finance all of these expensive promises."
(Jessica Reidl)
Books
- An excerpt from “Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World" by Katherine Dunn. (washingtonpost.com)
- Tyler Cowen talks with Joel Mokyr, author of "Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000." (conversationswithtyler.com)
- An excerpt from "A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness" by Michael Pollan. (laphamsquarterly.org)
- A Q&A with Jake Johnson author of "Unstaged Grief: Musicals and Mourning in Midcentury America." (daily.jstor.org)
AI
- Cameron Armstrong, "The frontier labs increasingly seek the privilege and power of a utility without accepting the public obligations that come along with it." (wysr.xyz)
- What brings the AI build out to a halt? (groundbrkr.com)
Medicine
- Is AI going to take over the job of writing doctor's notes? (nytimes.com)
- On the history of the random controlled trial and why big data is the modern equivalent. (asteriskmag.substack.com)
Environment
- Global warming is just one sign of climate change. (bloomberg.com)
- Why carbon capture won't work at scale. (projects.propublica.org)
- Who bears the costs of higher commercial property insurance? (brookings.edu)
Europe
- How Europe grew tired of placating Trump. (wsj.com)
- Europe now recognizes that it needs to handle its own defense. (giftarticle.ft.com)
Society
- It's getting harder (and more expensive) to have fun in America. (bloomberg.com)
- Costco's ($COST) $1.50 hot dog is still the best deal in America. (theringer.com)
History
- How England in the 1860s learned to live without American cotton. (engelsbergideas.com)
- How Amsterdam invented the fire department. (worksinprogress.co)
Longreads
- An in-depth look at how a financial scam worked. (wsj.com)
- Is it harder today for a company to stay 'invisible'? (colossus.com)
- Why the U.S. still can't make nitrile gloves. (bloomberg.com)
- Canadian PM Mark Carney has been thrust into a global role he didn't anticipate. (wsj.com)
- The food truck mafia around the National Mall is brutal. (washingtonian.com)
- A history of the screwworm. (construction-physics.com)
- New generations are becoming less literate. (theatlantic.com)

Sentinel — Human

Confidence

This text appears to be a curated index or newsletter compilation, characterized by high topic diversity and varied source attribution, strongly suggesting human curation rather than pure machine generation.

Signals Detected
low severity: High lexical and thematic diversity mixed with highly fragmented list structure.
low severity: The text functions as a curated collection of disparate links and topics rather than a continuous narrative argument.
low severity: The structure strongly suggests an index, compilation, or newsletter format; the itemized nature implies curation rather than fluid prose.
low severity: The presence of specific quotes and reference to established publications suggests grounding in existing sources, even if presented as a list.
Human Indicators
The inclusion of distinct, varied source types (books, academic articles, news links) points toward a human curator assembling references rather than raw LLM output.
The specific juxtapositions—like linking historical industrial practices to current AI or social security debates—demonstrate thematic intentionality typical of long-form editorial content.