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What’s the half-life of loyalty?
Marketers don’t have a political or cultural slot for the majority of people. I was a standard neocon Repooflican from 2001 to 2008. The shock of 2008 made me start looking in different places. Soon I switched to pure New Deal, and haven’t switched back. My writing here and elsewhere has been pure New Deal,…
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Why not use the British soul?
I’ve been puzzled by the locations Hudson used for their promo pics. They knew the ad agency would retouch the photos, inserting pleasant upscale backgrounds. But why did they make the retoucher’s job so hard? In the 30s they photographed cars near the factory, often with an even drabber factory in the background. In the…
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Not unique
Some people have already become dependent on specific AI systems. This week they were rudely awakened when Anthropic’s system was turned off by government order. This is NOT unique to AI or unique to Trump! Software has been moving into the subscription arena for the last 10 years. When your tool resides in a distant…
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50% action, 0% buzzwords
Sharp contrast with this week’s atrocious garble from the demonic “city”! = = = = = Via Spokesman Review. Avista, the regional electric utility, previously said it was negotiating with a HUGE data center customer who would waste a large percentage of the company’s power. They got considerable feedback from public opinion, presumably from People…
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Suits dilute
Via Courthouse News: Some ambulance-chasing lawyers are building a class action suit against the WaPo. Not for anything remotely related to 50 years of bias. Nope, they’re suing because the WaPo charges different prices for subscriptions at different times. What’s wrong with charging different prices? That’s BUSINESS. Newspapers are not utilities like water and electric…
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0% action, 100% buzzwords
The demonic “city” has done its trillionth meaningless “task force” on the most basic functions of government, and it still hasn’t done any actual WORK. This “task force” was assembled after a previous “task force” wrote an intentionally failed “referendum” designed to guarantee that nothing would improve. Three years later, the “stakeholders” are congratulating each…
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Manors vs non-manors
Random thought spawned by calling the western part of this state Bezos Manor. Bezos unquestionably owns Seattle and thus the state in a personal way. He is lord of the manor, residing in the manor. In old German terms he is Jeff von und zu Seattlesburg. Before he claimed the manor in 2010, it was…
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Pride and skill
Unions are a NECESSARY feedback system in capitalism. A union is a bank for human skills, exerting bullypower against the Share Value banks. We lost unions 40 years ago along with all the other countervectors. UNLIKE the other losses, I can’t blame Wall Street. Industrial unions fouled their own nests by helping Wall Street to…
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First, second
Reading about somebody (“admittedly a technophile”) who uses AI for everything in life. She uses it to plan parties, to tweak cocktail recipes, and to diagnose the failed motherboard in her wine cooler. FIRST, WHY DOES A WINE COOLER NEED A COMPUTER?????? JUST PUT THE BOTTLES IN THE FUCKING FRIDGE. Second, a truly intelligent pattern…
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Good law, still missing a big point
Both parts of the NY state legislature have passed a clear and well-written bill to constrain Altman. The human side was crafted by the writers and actors unions, who know what they’re talking about. The technical side also shows unusual clarity, which makes me curious about the source of the expertise. On the human side:…
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The Doctors War of 1838
A substacker who posts strange old newspaper features ran an 1898 item on the Pelee Island Sea Serpent. The location sounded familiar so I looked up Pelee Island. It’s the southernmost bit of Canada, in the middle of Lake Erie between Toledo and Detroit. Large enough to have substantial farms and several lighthouses. Pelee Island…
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I’m not worried about…
As often repeated, I’m not worried about AI output taking over the world. I’m pissed that it STEALS COPYRIGHTS WITHOUT PAYING, regardless of what the output is doing. So far it’s not doing much, and some early adopters are realizing that it doesn’t help. It just gives them a new excuse to raise their Share…
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First new idea!
Via Spokesman-Review: Bob Chase, one of the current state legislators from the Spokane area, has proposed a different way of separating Bezos Manor from the potentially legitimate State of Washington. Instead of creating two new states, which is UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE, he proposes two semi-autonomous ‘regions’ without changing the federally recognized state. His bill doesn’t specify…
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More pointless pondering on Ponzi
Ponzi has lost its meaning, partly because we’re unwilling to distinguish between Professional Criminals and incidental Lawbreakers. The majority of situations we call Ponzi are NOT repeats of Carlo Ponzi’s original intention and method. Social Security is not a Ponzi. It’s a well-designed investment fund, which was ruined for many years by Demon Bush’s demonic…
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Inadequate story
Via LiveScience. Students at a tech school in Rome had been exploring under the school for a long time, as students will do. Last year they finally told their Latin teacher. She brought in archeologists who excavated more of the filled in parts. Turns out the caverns were once an above-ground mansion owned by the…
Polistra's Mill
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Polistra's Mill 