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0% action, 100% buzzwords
The demonic “city” has done its trillionth meaningless “task force” on the most basic functions of government, and it still hasn’t done any actual WORK. This “task force” was assembled after a previous “task force” wrote an intentionally failed “referendum” designed to guarantee that nothing would improve. Three years later, the “stakeholders” are congratulating each…
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Manors vs non-manors
Random thought spawned by calling the western part of this state Bezos Manor. Bezos unquestionably owns Seattle and thus the state in a personal way. He is lord of the manor, residing in the manor. In old German terms he is Jeff von und zu Seattlesburg. Before he claimed the manor in 2010, it was…
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Pride and skill
Unions are a NECESSARY feedback system in capitalism. A union is a bank for human skills, exerting bullypower against the Share Value banks. We lost unions 40 years ago along with all the other countervectors. UNLIKE the other losses, I can’t blame Wall Street. Industrial unions fouled their own nests by helping Wall Street to…
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First, second
Reading about somebody (“admittedly a technophile”) who uses AI for everything in life. She uses it to plan parties, to tweak cocktail recipes, and to diagnose the failed motherboard in her wine cooler. FIRST, WHY DOES A WINE COOLER NEED A COMPUTER?????? JUST PUT THE BOTTLES IN THE FUCKING FRIDGE. Second, a truly intelligent pattern…
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Good law, still missing a big point
Both parts of the NY state legislature have passed a clear and well-written bill to constrain Altman. The human side was crafted by the writers and actors unions, who know what they’re talking about. The technical side also shows unusual clarity, which makes me curious about the source of the expertise. On the human side:…
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The Doctors War of 1838
A substacker who posts strange old newspaper features ran an 1898 item on the Pelee Island Sea Serpent. The location sounded familiar so I looked up Pelee Island. It’s the southernmost bit of Canada, in the middle of Lake Erie between Toledo and Detroit. Large enough to have substantial farms and several lighthouses. Pelee Island…
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I’m not worried about…
As often repeated, I’m not worried about AI output taking over the world. I’m pissed that it STEALS COPYRIGHTS WITHOUT PAYING, regardless of what the output is doing. So far it’s not doing much, and some early adopters are realizing that it doesn’t help. It just gives them a new excuse to raise their Share…
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First new idea!
Via Spokesman-Review: Bob Chase, one of the current state legislators from the Spokane area, has proposed a different way of separating Bezos Manor from the potentially legitimate State of Washington. Instead of creating two new states, which is UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE, he proposes two semi-autonomous ‘regions’ without changing the federally recognized state. His bill doesn’t specify…
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More pointless pondering on Ponzi
Ponzi has lost its meaning, partly because we’re unwilling to distinguish between Professional Criminals and incidental Lawbreakers. The majority of situations we call Ponzi are NOT repeats of Carlo Ponzi’s original intention and method. Social Security is not a Ponzi. It’s a well-designed investment fund, which was ruined for many years by Demon Bush’s demonic…
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Inadequate story
Via LiveScience. Students at a tech school in Rome had been exploring under the school for a long time, as students will do. Last year they finally told their Latin teacher. She brought in archeologists who excavated more of the filled in parts. Turns out the caverns were once an above-ground mansion owned by the…
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Less, not more
I’ve been trying to argue, from a fairly expert viewpoint, that AI can’t improve programming. Most of the front-facing web code is already programs generated by programs. The big platforms like browsers and operating systems DO NOT NEED MORE CODE OR MORE FEATURES. Windows desperately needs VASTLY LESS FEATURES so it won’t slow down workflow.…
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Popymarket
History Today has a feature on the long-lasting Italian industry of Pope betting. It focuses on the 1500s, a time with way too much history packed into the tiny geography of the Vatican. The church had reached a peak of secular control and wealth, then a series of wars and secessions broke it. Meanwhile, Italian…
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Pleasant surprise
Interesting article on the recent deplaneting of Pluto. In 2006 a group of official assholes decided for no obvious reason to change the definition. Since then, science writers have automatically forgotten Pluto, rubbing it in by headlining new discoveries of a ninth planet. GODDAMN IT, WE ALREADY HAVE A NINTH PLANET, AND IT’S CALLED PLUTO.…
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Why they fail
Via Nieman. A husband and wife spent 10 years building up a children’s story hour broadcast on WBUR, the educational station of Boston University. They’re leaving after a decade of frustration. Repeatedly the university refused to give them what they needed, even though their program was a major revenue source for the station. The couple…
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We could
Long quote from David Lilienthal’s magnificent little book on the TVA. = = = = = There is a grand cycle in nature. The lines of those majestic swinging arcs are nowhere more clearly seen than by following the course of electric power in the Tennessee Valley’s way of life. Water falls upon a mountain…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 