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Why did you have to spoil it?
A speech by Sulzberger of the NYTimes, summarized by Graham Lovelace. In general Sulzberger verifies my feeling that publishers are the best defense against AI. Publishers don’t need to apologize for hating technology! Publishers started modern technology in 1455, and have been at the forefront ever since. Publishers also understand what’s especially new and especially…
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Bucky was a fucking idiot
Reprinting from 2016 because I’m in a mathy mood. = = = = = Cool people have always admired Bucky Fuller, and academic mathematicians spend lots of time dealing with optimal packings of shapes in space. Mathy packings always have a Bucky flavor. Fancy polyhedra jumbled in fancy ways. In THEORY a sphere uses less…
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Used to be odd
Old newspaper and radio features poked fun at absurd elections. Somebody ran a wooden cigar store Indian against a judge, and the Indian won. President Atchison slept through his entire (one-day) term in a drunken stupor. Weird stuff! Now most of Congress is like President Atchison. If they actually died we wouldn’t know the difference.…
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1891 teeth
The British government has ruled that Google must allow publishers to opt out of being eaten by AI. This is a good move, but it’s only one company and one country, and it DOESN’T REQUIRE PAYMENT for the gobbled-up material. It’s time for a new international agreement with enough teeth to bite back. A similar…
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Impersonate Authority Day
Today is listed as Impersonate Authority Day. Most listed Days were either invented by some NGO to “raise awareness” for their cause, or invented by the prolific publicist Adrienne Koopersmith. This day uniquely invites you to commit a serious crime! One of the Official Day websites says: This one I have tracked back to Holidays…
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Ha ha ha, nastyass fuckheads!!!!!
Via Shepstone: In 2021 Princeton decided to “punish” the Trump-loving peasants by divesting its endowment from oil and gas stocks. This year, under pressure from overall demographics and economics, they quietly decided to reinvest. HA HA HA. TAKE IT UP THE ASS, ELITE MONSTERS! In the first fucking place, divestment doesn’t even accomplish its pretended…
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random stupid thought
I noticed that Spokane News forgot to capitalize the street name in a report of a fire. 29400 North schwachtgen Rd, structure fire reported Are there any streets named after e e cummings? What if e e cummings road was a horizontal street, divided into e e e cummings and w e e cummings? the…
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Damn, this is an INTERESTING question.
Via USA Today, the pope’s official statement on AI could cause some Conscientious Objector cases in workplaces. James Paul, a labor and employment litigator with the law firm Ogletree Deakins, told USA TODAY he is “bracing himself” for an influx of religious accommodation cases related to AI because of the comments. …”People are drawing the…
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Kirby and the Moore Method
I mentioned my freshman calc teacher Bill Kirby in previous item. I didn’t know much about him. I only knew his attitude and method represented everything I hated about American math teaching. In my own later teaching and courseware I’ve been trying to counteract those bad American tendencies. Found Kirby’s obituary. Nothing about politics, nothing…
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Division again
Previous mathy item was a topic that should have been familiar to me but wasn’t. I had to think about it for the first time, and I’m not satisfied with my thinking. This topic is thoroughly familiar but still benefited from a rehash. A peculiar online argument about Marx’s math is raging. The usual sides…
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Guild certified?
Continuing this week’s Missed Points theme. The Authors Guild offers a ‘union seal’ that you can place on your work to certify no use of AI. Something like this is probably needed. After reading I decided regretfully that it isn’t the right something. 1. Commercially, I don’t need it because I’ve already certified to my…
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Back to the 50s
NOT this week’s theme of Missed Points! Some new neighbors (not next door) have been taking advantage of pleasant weather in a pure 1950s way. The whole family is outside playing around, making happy noises, and barbecuing. Kids are walking and biking. Tonight they’re SINGING ALONG WITH THE RADIO IN HARMONY!!!!!! By god, I haven’t…
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Dividing by a fraction
I just finished the latest stage of ADA courseware with an especially hard and fast race to the end under pressure, and my mind needs to work on SOMETHING DIFFERENT for a while! This article on math teaching caught my attention. I used to teach math as part of teaching electronics. Fortunately we didn’t need…
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Impressive system
This monster has been SLOWLY rotating and SLOWLY sliding eastward for several days without weakening or breaking up. Thursday night it gave us an unusually strong storm with plenty of lightning and isolated big gusts. Fortunately the gusts didn’t hit my neighborhood this time. The central cyclone is clear. Right now the monster spans all…
Polistra's Mill
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Polistra's Mill 