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Polistra's Mill

Polistra's Mill

Be your own beacon.

  • Old trick still around

    Seen in Reddit’s silly software department. It’s nice that programmers are still using 99999.99 as a debug marker or unattainable max. The trick dates back to decimal registers and COBOL in the 1950s.

    polistra

    August 30, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Patient things
  • Didn’t earn her pay

    Another day, another arson. A homeless female ignited a garage in a residential area, in the middle of a rainstorm. Residents and neighbors got it under control and she was arrested quickly. Her Altruism wasn’t very Effective. Her Polymarket employers will be disappointed. Trying to be charitable though I’m not in the mood… She could…

    polistra

    August 30, 2026
    Uncategorized
  • It’s not just the tech monsters

    A moment of clarity or something. Effective Altruism says the biggest bet is the only bet. Normal bets on stock prices or football scores or arson or assassination are pocket change. The only bet worth making is 50% odds on obliterating the world. Abolish jobs and business, bulldoze the bipeds. If you think there’s a…

    polistra

    August 30, 2026
    Uncategorized
  • Economics as a verb

    Rehash of my 2012 Economics As A Verb, modified for current relevance. = = = = = START REHASH: We get locked into booms and busts, inflations and deflations, because we forget that our measuring unit is only a measure. In Alan Watts’s famous metaphor, a carpenter wouldn’t stop work because he “ran out of…

    polistra

    August 30, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Equipoise, natural law = sharia law, natural law = soviet law, skill-estate
  • Trump, Taft, Truman

    In terms of parallel logic, Trump should have renamed Lake Ontario to Lake New York, not Lake America. It isn’t called Lake Canada! The parallel is deeper than logic. Populism means localism above all. Real populists are loyal to their own place first, then secondarily to nations and not at all to planets. A real…

    polistra

    August 29, 2026
    Uncategorized
    defensible spaces, defensible times
  • Counterexample reprint

    Trump is playing the rename game again, Lake Ontario to Lake America. I wrote about a similar move last year when he tried to rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. The counterexample I used is even more relevant to this week’s Canada rename! The big point is ALWAYS the same. Psychopaths are predictably…

    polistra

    August 29, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Fairness Doctrine, jail mode
  • More Polymarket bets

    Via Spokane News, a new arsonist. He was downtown near the interstate, a traditional homeless area but not close to the Catholic Criminalities apts. Kudos to the cops and the witness for catching him fast. No kudos to the crime-aiding “judge” who will release him after a few hours. (That’s a sure thing, no bets…

    polistra

    August 28, 2026
    Uncategorized
    #bluelivesmatter
  • Throwing the gAIme

    Betting touts and tip sheets are an ancient form of corruption. Bets on pope elections in the 1500s featured fake tips. Sports betting and the stock market are always packed with fake info, paid to change the odds so the payer can win bigger. So it’s no surprise that Polymarket and Kalshi are using AI…

    polistra

    August 28, 2026
    Uncategorized
  • Nonbark is better clue

    Somebody posted an AI-made picture with a poll under it. The picture was supposed to be a cafe in 1975. What’s the one giveaway? First thought: Obvious. A little black rectangle on the table. Second thought: Well, the rectangle was just black, without a picture or screen. It could have been a leather cigarette case…

    polistra

    August 27, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Nonbark
  • Out of the box

    Following on the self-pecking Skinner box. Real humans, especially da yoots, are seriously trying to escape from the Skinner box. Deepstate has provided handy fake “outside” routes like Bitcoin, Qchan and Bluesky, specifically designed to cultivate “freedom fighters” without leaving the web. The outsiders can only succeed if they work entirely outside all electronic channels.…

    polistra

    August 27, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Constants and Variables, Foy Rebellion
  • A spoonful of music, reprint

    Rehashing from last year. Miss Girard was doing the RIGHT kind of teaching, and I didn’t appreciate it when I was young. = = = = = START REHASH: Something reminded me of La Cucaracha, so I started singing it the way Miss Girard taught it in 6th grade. La cucaracha, la cucaracha, ya no…

    polistra

    August 26, 2026
    Uncategorized
    experiential education
  • It’s just Parkinson

    Carefully planned arson seems to have halted after the big fire paid off the bet on Farinacci, but we still have the usual intentional fires from homeless vagrants. And the demonic “city” continues to catch and release so the criminals can continue ruining the world. The motivations of the criminals are mixed. Some are crazy,…

    polistra

    August 26, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Carbon Cult, NOW I SEE, Parkinson
  • From Ayer to AI

    Many people are noticing a huge shift in web traffic this year. I’ve noticed it in my blog stats. Nearly all of the web’s bandwidth, sending and receiving, is occupied by AI criminals now. Bot READS are as old as publishing, but this is the first time that bots have been the ONLY readers and…

    polistra

    August 26, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Constants and Variables
  • Plutonism vs Platonism

    20 years ago the platonists kicked Pluto out of the planetary pantheon. They’re still defending the ruinous decision, still oblivious to the need for trust and communication. = = = = = START ASSHOLE: For people who absorbed that version of the solar system as children, the 2006 decision required replacing something that had been…

    polistra

    August 25, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Real world math
  • The answer is work, rehashed

    The Spokesman newspaper has a strong and fair article on the homeless crime perpetrated by government and Catholic Criminalities. They look at all sides, especially normal businesses and normal people who are terrorized and ruined by the mess. Of course the “mayor” doesn’t see any problem. She is firmly pro-crime and pro-chaos. She only sees…

    polistra

    August 24, 2026
    Uncategorized
    Fairness Doctrine, Henry Wallace, jail mode, natural law = soviet law, skill-estate
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