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Old joke
Dario was bragging to his friend one day, “I know everyone worth knowing. Just name anyone, and I know them.” Tired of his boasting, his friend calls his bluff, “Okay Dario, how about Tom Cruise?” “No problem, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it.” So Dario and his friend fly to…
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Parody was prophecy
Reddit’s stupid computer tricks section often shows Google AI answers like this: No, Cleopatra did not live in sand dunes. As the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII lived in luxurious royal palaces located in the13516515151515151515….. [looped on 15 forever] This reminds me of a VERY OLD parody of our Robot Overlords. From the era of…
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Version I
Somebody on substack was semi-joking about receiving a B in college because she refused to use Claude. I commented: If I were still teaching at this late date I’d make a new Inverted grading scale, “Version I”. FI = Fucking Intelligent (best) DI = Damned Intelligent CI = Could be Intelligent (if you try harder)…
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The sizzle matters
Social animals respond to symbolic actions, including attention and reputation. Duane Jones, the old master of advertising, slammed this point repeatedly. You need a good product FIRST. If you want to succeed, you also need the right kind of attention and reputation. An adman can’t help a bad product. Two current lawsuits deal with this…
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Should have the same argument
From Hieber on linguistics, How to use a dictionary: ❌ “What’s the One True Meaning™ of this word?” ❌ “What’s the One True Pronunciation™ of this word?” ✅ “What are some different ways this word is used?” = = = = = Prescriptive vs Descriptive is a VERY old argument in language, and it was…
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Welsh, not English
One of the linguistics types on substack mentioned that Kalshi is having a kerfuffle about English grammar. I looked it up. It’s not really about English, it’s about Welsh[ing]. Gambling and stock trading are absolutely alien to my mind. I can’t BEGIN to see why you’d want to exchange money because something happened or didn’t…
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He’s doing the boomer thing!
Via Spokane News again: Here’s a modern dude more in line with the boomer spirit! Not calling the Fire Dept, just being a normal young fool. East Sprague and South Dishman Rd, Police Activity Reported for a male climbing the billboard pole and railroad overpass. #Update reported a male trying to impress a female with…
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It’s a mystery.
I’m sort of clinically fascinated by the incurable self-destructive stupidity of the Dems. Today’s news item is an “autopsy” or analysis of their failed elections. The DNC chairman assigned an aide to write it a year ago, then kept it secret until now. He only released it because CNN had already leaked it. (Bravo to…
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Got to do the boomer thing
Via Spokane News: 7500 East Buckeye, Reported teens climbed up on the roof of the school and now one requesting the Fire Department to help them get down. Even if we wanted the fire department we couldn’t reach them in a tricky situation. We KNEW help wasn’t available, so we DIDN’T get into tricky situations…
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Near?
More stupid “cybersecurity” tricks. Every time you clear the browser cache and re-login to sites, some of them will send you pointless emails asking if you just logged in. OF COURSE I just logged in, otherwise I wouldn’t be in Gmail receiving the pointless email reminding me that I’m in Gmail. And I didn’t log…
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Opening a view
This is an ordinary urban view of an ordinary unkempt backyard. The view is important to me because it wasn’t available for several years. From 1991 until 2008 I used the back door often. In 2009 a renovation made it harder to open, and I gradually stopped using it. This year my old washing machine…
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Rapture Party Day
I notice today is Rapture Party Day, “honoring” the 2011 rapture predicted by Harold Camping. Are there any NON-rapture dates, never picked by a cult leader as the guaranteed end of the world? I suspect the rapture calendar is pretty crowded by now. I paid some attention to the Camping rapture in this blog. On…
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Could this be invented?
Nieman covers the growing rebellion against Archive.org by newspapers. Over half of all papers are now blocking all bots that seem to be serving Archive. The article also brings up the relevant pre-AI history. Archive was founded in the hacker culture with the motto that everything should be free, which means that people shouldn’t expect…
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Are they learning?
China and EU are trying to diminish touchscreens and bring back knobs and levers in cars. This fits the theme of previous item. We’re not built to move things by pushing or touching. Our limbs and senses are strictly radial, not linear. Kinesthetic sense relies on limb angles, not two-dimensional XY location. Even physical pushbuttons…
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Metrology Day and Bee Day 2026
I noticed that today is both Metrology Day and Bee Day, so I’ll remix closely related items that fit both themes at once. = = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 1 = = = = = This year I’m focusing on the medieval way of thinking as illuminated by Sherri Olson. Medieval villages embodied…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 