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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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New automotive feature
Car dreams aren’t rare. Many of the items on my bedtime playlist are auto dealer films with tech details about cubic inches and suspensions. Those details inevitably leak into dreams. In this morning’s dream I was trying out a very specific car, a ’66 Plymouth Belvedere wagon, like this except dark blue: My wife [who…
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Good for Spain!
A Spanish company and an Italian company have teamed up to help Venezuela maintain and expand its petroleum production. It’s good to see Spain playing its old role as genuine neutral. It joined the Sorosian crowd for a while after 2017. Spain and Portugal, formerly huge imperialists, learned a lesson and stayed out of the…
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Used to be called 2
Via Nieman, a survey of journalists in Austria has one interesting conclusion. It’s correct for USA, but I don’t know Austria so can’t judge if it’s correct there. This paragraph is phrased in the alien language of journalists. It needs some translation into human thought patterns. = = = = = START QUOTE: Meanwhile, perceptions…
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Used to be called 1
Via Protos, the big digital betting casinos like Kalshi and Polymarket are making profits from bets on assassinations. Some of the bets are phrased indirectly, but everyone knows what it means. You win when a politician is killed. It appears that many of the bettors are politicians with an obvious motive. Before the Wall Street…
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Life in the Cracks Day (reprint)
From the National Days website: The Festival of Life in the Cracks Day on March 10 celebrates the sprouting of greenery in the cracks of sidewalks and walls to commemorate the coming of springtime. This annual event acknowledges the complexity of the cycle of life and how renewal and rebirth are integral parts of it.…
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Positive signs from the neighborhood (redated)
Jan 13, 2026: For 20 years a vacant apartment building was the worst thing in the neighborhood, constantly squatted and constantly visited by cops who weren’t allowed to do anything. This situation was NOT understandable. The property was owned by an LLC who could afford to fix things if they wanted to. In 2017 the…
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Earbird 2
Taking out the trash this morning, I brushed against the overgrown windbreak. As usual, thought I should try to trim it back. Suddenly noticed I was face to face with a TINY bird in the branches. He didn’t seem bothered by the closeness, just continued walking along the branch. TINY: less than two inches long…
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Is it the Silk Road?
I’ve been wondering why China hasn’t responded to our evil attacks on Venezuela and Persia, two of China’s biggest suppliers. Possible answer from Lile Mo, who is writing a long series of explainers on China’s complex strategy. The internal parts are identical to the New Deal as narrated by Lilienthal of the TVA. The external…
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Same old shit
Via Spokesman-Review: The DEA proudly announced a huge drug seizure in the Kennewick area. The ringleader had set up a network with residences in several cities and salesmen all over the place. He was not only a repeat offender, he was on probation after early release from a previous huge drug trafficking sentence. As fucking…
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FBIOS
Max Blumenthal tells the latest chapter in a very old story. FBI has been creating “terrorists” since 1908. The branding of “terrorists” changes over time, rotating from Communist to German to Islamic to Christian Nationalist. Other brands appear briefly, but these are the old repeated favorites. Communist is the solid default. Blumenthal traces the latest…
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Self-answering question
While I was editing the previous item, WordPress blocked part of the editing area with a ChatGPT popup: “What can we do to improve your WordPress experience?” Answered: “Don’t interrupt me with popups like this!” = = = = = More broadly, people might be less annoyed by AI if it actually improved our experience.…
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Should call it an earbird
Most people call an inner musical repeater an earworm. I call it my mental jukebox. It has a few old scratchy records that the drunk at the bar tiresomely plays every night, plus a much wider row of records that play spontaneously for no obvious reason. Some of these records drop onto the turntable after…
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Worse than Altman’s eyeball
Noticed via New Scientist, which properly considered it as a candidate for the next Ig-Nobels. You thought Altman’s soul-stealing Eyeball was intrusive? How about a new industry devoted to wearable fart detectors? The fartup sees an oppootunity in the well-known hianus of infartmation. Most people aren’t aware of their actual fartquency**, either under or overstating…
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Moore’s Law? No, Less’s Law.
I’ve always figured my own income tax. A long time ago when I had a circle of friends, I often figured taxes for friends because I enjoyed the work. Now I hate it. Why did I enjoy it then and hate it now? Easy. Paper vs computer. Even for a relatively simple situation, tax involves…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 