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Cue Manweller!
Voters in this “state” decided two important referendums. Both results are good; one is expected and one isn’t. Expected: A hedge fund billionaire sponsored a referendum to repeal the millionaire tax surcharge passed last year by the legislature. The repeal failed, so the tax continues. The tax was wanted by D, so the “supreme court”…
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Daily chore!
Seen at Reddit, this is GENUINELY surprising. A short clip shows a real priest making Holy Water. He fills a plastic garden sprinkler with tap water in the church’s laundry sink, adds a few grains of Blessed Salt from a hand-labeled mason jar, reads the blessing to the garden sprinkler, then fills the church’s Holy…
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Magic words
Madame Polisztra returns after a very long vacation to predict the aftermath of yesterday’s “election”. No action will happen, nothing will improve, nothing will change. Dems will return to their previous magic words, “impeaching” Trump every day and “charging” him with stupid shit that every president does, most of which is perfectly legal. Dems will…
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Was there a troll?
A survey found that EV drivers don’t listen to radio much; they only listen to podcasts. Meaningless bit of data, but got me thinking about a somewhat more relevant parallel. EV = Elon Vehicle. (True in US, not elsewhere). Elon was the Gaian Apostle To The Gearheads. Tesla was an acceptable way to do 0-60…
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Step down and step out
Auto fans know the 1948 Hudson for innovating the stepdown frame, with rear floor several inches below the frame members. Everyone copied the trick because everyone wanted Loooooow and Loooong. Hudson stepped a more important dimension and nobody noticed or copied it**. Here’s the rear compartment in 1940, before the change: The seat was contained…
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It’s all about the weewee
Folks in EU and UK are getting weeweed up over loud public preparations for some unstated catastrophe. Allegedly the US military is also warning bases to be ready for long power outages, which is standard procedure anyway. The whole point of a fort is to withstand a siege. I remember four decades of loud public…
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Little fact buried
Unlike previous galaxy-size item, this one is extremely local. Via Spokesman, the VA hospital in this neighborhood is going through some management turmoil. The hospital is a huge facility, dominating the skyline in this quarter of town. It looks like it could handle several hundred patients, and I always imagined it was handling massive numbers…
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Big fact buried
Via New Scientist: The international bureau that supervises weights and measures has decided to handle the Leap Second differently. Part of the change is driven by increasingly precise technology like GPS. Adding a second every year or so causes frequent changes and frequent errors in those systems. Instead of resetting the official clock itself every…
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Beeyond beelief but true
A Redditor made a video of a bee depositing a LONG chain of stuff, and wondered if it was royal jelly or some other special concoction. Nope, it’s just poop! Amazingly, bees are perfectly housebroken. They never shit in the hive. They hold it in during bad weather. When it’s time to open the door,…
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AI CO
During Bush’s worldwide concentration camp of 2020 through 2022, a few “courts” pulled cruel pranks on normal people who didn’t appreciate being tortured. The “courts” granted INDIVIDUAL exemptions from lockdown but NOT exemptions from torture. Pointless “victory”. You still couldn’t buy food or use the bus without strangling, and you couldn’t get into the places…
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Family candy, niche switch
This story wouldn’t normally fit my range of interest but it hits some of my favorite topics. 1. Niche switches. 2. The exceptional survival of family-run candy companies. 3. When an industry fades, its supply chains also fade, making revival impossible. John Carpenter, producer of many horror movies, recognized that movies are no longer mass…
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Rare agreement
When both “parties” agree on something GOOD it’s a rare and precious event. We know that both “parties” always agree to make war on Russia, or make war on anyone Israel dislikes. Aside from genocide, they usually plan their fake disputes to guarantee perpetual evil. One side will pretend to pass a good law, knowing…
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Always fussing in the wrong place
Seen at Substack. All I want is (world peace and) the universal adoption of the Oxford comma, is that too much to ask?! Grammarrhoids enforce made-up “rules” while missing real rules. The Oxford comma is just a placement that helps clarity in some situations. There’s a straightforward rule about commas vs semicolons. Should be: All…
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More things learned from others
Recently I gathered up some learnings acquired from others. It’s time to add one more, which really should have been part of the previous listing. = = = = = START REHASH: Most of my learning comes from painful experience. I couldn’t have figured out these facts on my own, and I’m grateful to the…
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Solomon
An old-fashioned story with a satisfyingly old-fashioned ending. I hadn’t heard of the Douglass family until this year. Harlan Douglass was Spokane’s only billionaire. He built and owned lots of cheap apartments, the places where you expected crime before the current homeless lunacy. As he got senile his children started playing the classic heir games.…
Polistra's Mill
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