Author: polistra
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Not ideas
Sailer observes that foreign ideologies are making more headway in US thanks to international conversations on Twitter etc. I don’t think ideology is a major import. And I don’t think international conversations on modern social media are spreading any ideas or changing any minds. Most foreigners on Twitter and Reddit have a boringly predictable standard…
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60/40 odds
Via NewSuperstitionist: Coin flipping is controlled by the flipper. = = = = = START QUOTE: Researchers theorised that when a coin is flipped, the flipper’s thumb imparts a slight wobble to it, causing it to spend more time with one side facing upwards while in the air and making it more likely to land…
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More Rushfield sanity
Another nice bit of clarity from Rushfield at the Ankler. Main point: Everyone is watching a screen all the time. Hollywood’s business is screens. Yet none of Hollywood’s products are appearing on everyone’s screens. = = = = = START QUOTE: Today, I want to turn to — as Hollywood hopefully, sooner or later, steps…
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Simpler answer
Denyse notes an article showing that research grants are already being written by ChatGPT: = = = = = START QUOTE: A 2023 Nature survey of 1,600 researchers found that more than 25% use AI to help them write manuscripts and that more than 15% use the technology to help them write grant proposals. Some…
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Rebantamized
Curbside Classic featured an Argentine descendant of Willys that I hadn’t seen before. The Brazilian variants are well known, pictured in all the usual books and websites. The pictured Rastrojero is a sort of four-door ute. It’s clearly an original design, not a modified Aero, but it did use the Go-Devil four and the doorhandles…
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Huge explanation
Tiffany’s recount of Nishad Singh’s testimony includes one huge explanatory fact. Sammy spent unspeakably huge amounts to buy endorsements. Michael Kives was the agent, a “one-stop shop” for other celebrities. Sammy paid 500 million to Kives. Kives then paid for the most important endorsement of all: Satan’s pet author Michael Lewis. Satan’s pet wrote the…
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Even more useless logic
Via Protos: Sammy’s lawyers are trying every tool in the box, which is their job. Now they’ve filed a motion for mistrial because Sammy hasn’t been able to get his “required” dose of Adderall, allegedly needed to fix his alleged ADHD. Also via Protos: Sammy hasn’t bothered to show the symptoms of ADHD during the…
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Better useless analogy
There’s no way to stop warmongers with logic, but nevertheless there is one easy analogy. Why do we get involved in SOME domestic disputes between other countries and not OTHERS? Ukraine is not a good comparison with Israel. We started the Ukraine conflict, first by breaking up the USSR in 1990 and then by color…
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Five things learned from others
Recently I gathered up four learnings acquired from others. It’s time to add another very recent learning. = = = = = START REHASH: Most of my learning comes from painful experience. I couldn’t have figured out these four facts on my own, and I’m grateful to the people who revealed them. 1. Manweller’s Rule.…
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Philosophical dream
A rare plotted dream tonight. I was wandering through the woods with a Chinese hermit who had made little shelters for himself from piles of tires. At the end of the dream he told me: “If you don’t want to be rich you have more freedom. It’s the same in every system.” Not wildly dramatic…
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Meaningless word peeve
Political spammers keep asking me if I’m proud of Biden or proud of Trump or proud of America. In the first fucking place, I have nothing but hatred toward all excrescences of the national government, with the possible exception of Jerome Powell. In the second fucking place, proud can’t possibly apply to these entities, even…
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More thanks for advice
Continuing in thanks for good advice mode…. Noticed this while browsing Substack. The Bob Brinker financial advising firm is still around and still advising, and now it’s recommending Series I bonds again. Brinker retired a long time ago and died earlier this year; the firm is carried on by his successors. Back in 2001 I…
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Hollywood is not learning
Continuing from here. Hollywood isn’t trying to regain our trust. They’re listening to this grotesque academic asshole. He correctly identifies the Four Horsemen of the AIpocalypse as Thiel, Zuck, Xlon and Andreesen. Why does he think they’re evil? NOT because they squash every business they encounter. NOT because they steal every idea they can grab.…
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Africa is the future.
Discovery Institute, the ID advocate, just finished a long lecture tour in Africa, with 65 lectures in South Africa and Kenya. = = = = = START QUOTE: Four lectures to over 1,300 students at the University of Eldoret, located in Eldoret, the fifth-largest city in Kenya. Here, we were greeted with — no joke…
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What for?
Tara Henley, former CBC reporter who turned independent, interviews Eric Kaufmann. He’s trying to set up a School of Heterodox Social Science within an existing British college. He offers a balanced and rational approach to the whole mess of Cancel and Woke and such, recognizing that censorship and orthodoxy are permanent in academia. As I…
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