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Artificial Intelligence

I thought about artificial intelligence today while the pathfinding algorithm in my brain directed the car. This was on my drive home from the office, naturally.
Here is a short list of interesting AI and AI-like applications I have worked on, or just come across:
1. A Behavioral application:
Take a look at these behaviors first modeled [...]

Insurance Primer

A while back you will recall I wrote an article for a local real estate broker.  Plenty of time has passed, so I am now making it available to my loyal readers.  Do enjoy Insurance Primer for Residential Real Estate Investors.  But make a pot of coffee… this one runs about 11 pages.
For the browsing [...]

Marvelous new blog

Only I would get excited about this, but here goes. Despite multiple requests from my readers to stop posting things about business and insurance, and to post something more entertaining (oh how you nag me… I will think of something funny and exciting to YOU in my own time people), I find I must announce [...]

Smooth Transitions

Check out the following articles I wrote for The Florida Insurance School News.  The first discusses rewriting businessowner's policies in the wake of mass non-renewals.  The second is a followup to the first, almost a sidebar:
Smooth Transitions in the Post BOP Era, Florida Insurance School News, v.10, 3, May 2007
Additional Considerations When Rewriting BOPs, Florida [...]

New article coming

For those who did not see my article written for The Florida Insurance School's newsletter, I am happy to announce that another one is in the works. I will be writing a piece on insurance for investors for Home and Income Realty. They will use it in a pamphlet to hand out to their investment clients.
The [...]

All County - site updated

There is lots of new copy on All County Insurance's web home. In particular, I tried to document clients that the agency has done very well for. I also wanted to add more valuable free information for people who have businesses or homes and want to know more about the types of insurance they might need, [...]

Dungeons and Dragons - Who knew?

Apparently word got out that I was once a Dungeons & Dragons 'Subject Matter Expert.'  This never would have occurred to me, but I did play the game for many years when I was younger.  As a D&D SME I was asked to make videos to teach a new generation of bored kids how to [...]

Diamonds and Insurance

I discovered today that the price of diamonds has risen significantly over the last few years.  Most affected are the larger stones. 
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a high value personal inland marine policy. Included in the schedule of jewelry was a ring with one stone over 9cts.  The piece originally [...]

• welcome

  You have entered 'start your head on fire,' housed at www.robertbeverly.com. 'start your head on fire' is the blog of Robert Beverly. It is not a very serious blog. Mr. Beverly writes most of the news items, but you will also see us (Debbie and Secretia) posting from time to time to clarify things. We are his "blog secretaries."

• View Robert Beverly's profile

• who?

  Rather than publish a biography or ask Mr. Beverly to record his memoirs (which would be dull), we thought we would post a summary for anyone who was wondering. He said we should do something like this because that's what other people's blogs have on them. Mr. Beverly goes by Rab, which is a common name for Scotsmen and their dogs. We call him Mr. Beverly in person because we're trying to talk him into a raise, but you can really call him Rab. Rab drinks gallons of coffee daily and makes jokes that we usually don't understand. We laugh politely because he writes the paychecks for Debbie and I (he hired us both as blog secretaries back in October 2006... we didn't even know what a blog was before this). Mr Beverly goes to the gym a lot, which is why he doesn't have time to type in his blog entries, and he does all kinds of weird exercises like Kung Fu and Yoga (NEVER ask him about this unless you want to hear all about martial arts). He enjoys literary analysis and esoteric reading and games like "Go" (the ancient Japanese strategy game) and chess, not to mention those weird "role playing" and "strategy" games he designs himself, all of which account for why we do not to start conversations with him. (Secretia here... what the hell was wrong with Yahtzee, I ask you?!) We like talking about peekapoos and the best grocery store sales, but we don't get to talk about that here.

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• starting your head on fire

  Delivers oxygen to your brain faster than all other methods! Proven in double blind placebo controlled studies.

• Places to Go

  • The Cato Institute
  • The Florida Insurance School, Tampa and Tallahassee, FL
  • All County Insurance, Tampa FL
  • Florida Insurance School Continuing Education, Tallahassee FL

• Blogroll

  • Cato @ Liberty - Cato is a libertarian research foundation. If you wish to stay informed on public policy, you can not ignore the Cato blog. Pay them a visit.
  • Greg Lincoln
  • Modo Vernant Omnia - Tampa local with many topics of interest to my readers. As you might imagine, I could not resist blogrolling a site that has tags as diverse as: economy (with views similar), spinning (as in wool), ancient Greek stuff, and occult.
  • Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Fooled by Randomness - The Economist turned me on to Mr. Taleb, a trader turned philoisopher (as described by Forbes). His writing and his thinking are quite interesting, and certainly more worthwhile than anything you will find here.
  • Ouralexander.org - Site discussing informed consent in pediatric medicine, by a family that experienced the worst possible tragedy.
  • RiskProf - An Insurance Blog - A truly marvelous blog. I know risk & insurance are less interesting to most of you than organizing your sock drawer, but this is excellent writing. Besides, if you understand insurance you have the right to complain about it.
  • Schneier on Security - This will be your favorite security blog. Bruce Schneier exposes “security theatre” and proposes realistic problems and solutions. Stay up to date on security policy and IT risk management with CRYPTOGRAM, his email newsletter.
  • The Goodly Mr. Plotkin - My excellent friend Richard Plotkin. Read his musings and insights, or wander through the social network of MySpace users. Several of his blog-friends are people I went to school or knew other ways… I wonder if they will Google me and say ‘hi.’
  • Worlds Healthiest Foods - I love this website. It is all about the nutritional value of foods that are considered ‘healthy,’ with tons of sources cited.