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REMoleth reprint
I see an Official Credentialed Philosopher has caught onto the idea that dreaming is a good EXTERNAL MEASURE for consciousness. I said it in 2019, but there was no purpose in saying it. Status exists. Non-status doesn’t exist. = = = = = START UNCREDENTIALED LOW-STATUS NOTHING: Article considers the possibility of a Turing test…
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I guess it’s more candid
Ideally: Laws should apply to all people and all companies. Don’t steal. Don’t kill. Don’t defraud. Don’t evade taxes. In practice: Most laws apply to one type or class or religion or political party, or one of two competing companies. The traditional method is sneaky. When you see weird-looking exemptions and requirements in a law,…
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Tipping point?
Sailors on the USS Lincoln have mutinied. Conscription is a natural counterforce to imperial lunacy. Draftees don’t want to be there unless there’s a DAMN GOOD REASON, and unless they TRUST the government. WW2 fulfilled both of those conditions, so the draft wasn’t really needed. Everyone recognized that the government was on our side, and…
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More syntax fun
I was struck by the deep strangeness of a common phrase. If it hadn’t been for the bible in his pocket, the shot would have killed him. If it hadn’t been for those pesky ants, we could have enjoyed the picnic. There are more concrete ways to say the same thing with the same words.…
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The early bird hears the….
Do birds have mental jukeboxes? Do they hear the tune repeatedly in their heads when they’re not singing it? We can’t ask them, but the human analogy is awfully tempting. The repeated tunes in my head are a lot like birdsong in length and pattern. Relatively short pieces, ranging from four notes to one stanza.…
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Nice to see a tradition
Radio Caroline, the tacitly approved “pirate” station, got in trouble by announcing the death of King Charles. A technician was debugging one of the control computers and came across the digital “tape” prepared for the event. Hmm. What is this? Let’s listen to it and find out… He thought he was listening privately but instead…
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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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I’ll never understand politics.
The evacuations were called off Sunday, except for the specific area of total destruction, essentially one neighborhood with about 500 houses. Initially the evac zones included about 20k houses, including some areas that couldn’t possibly be at risk. This neighborhood was never included. By a mysterious coincidence, the constant flow of new arsons stopped on…
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Exception to Manweller
Continuing with Pew and polls. Most Americans, both D and R, dislike data centers, and mobilize strongly to protest data centers in their city or neighborhood. The people agree on this question. Here’s a puzzle. The “two” “parties” actually DIFFER on this question, not just in talking points. Repooflicans force people to accept data centers,…
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Pew proves Manweller
Fun fact from Pew. 15 of the current 100 senators were straightforwardly appointed, not fakely “elected.” Some because the previous occupant was convincingly dead, others because the previous occupant was hired by the executive branch. The former type are often spouses or relatives of the convincingly dead predecessor. Since 1990, 24 senators were appointed, and…
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Electrotyping, part 1 of 3
August 2026: bringing this series up to the front to celebrate a smart decision by Kansas City. As pointed by Robert Bryce, the KC planning commission rejected a proposal to replace the Kellogg bldg by a tall AI data center. GOOD. Ansel Kellogg built a HUMAN data center specifically to keep small country papers alive…
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Electrotyping, part 2 of 3
[August 2026, bringing this series to the front to celebrate KC’s decision to keep the Kellogg Building.] = = = = = Part 1 showed the essential process of electrotyping in a small-scale experimental setup. Real factories like Kellogg’s Patent Insides used bigger machines in mass production. Here again is the Kellogg building in KC,…
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Electrotyping, part 3 of 3
[August 2026, bringing this series to the front to celebrate KC’s decision.] After the type is set into a form, suitable for ordinary printing, the electrotype process begins by smashing the form into a thin layer of wax on a metal plate. The metal plate will become the negative electrode in the plating vat. The…
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Bit of syntax fun
Seen at substack, wasn’t meant to be funny so I didn’t snark it there. Word order is important, and singular/plural agreement is important! Some mayflies live only hours as adults, Kevin McMullen MD writes, after having lived for years as a nymph.
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Candidate worth supporting
Manweller’s rule says elections aren’t allowed to change things, so I’m sure this one won’t work. Nevertheless, Natalie Poulson is a viable candidate for state legislature after this week’s top-two primary. She was a teacher until 2021 when she refused to wear the Trump-Inslee strangulation device and refused to force her students to strangle. She…
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