Author: polistra
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Kellogg and Batya
A Reddit thread about ‘secrets of jobs’ delved into some interesting details about political staff. The fact that staffers run everything is NOT a secret. It’s well known and often discussed, but never mentioned in mainstream media or advertising. Successful politicians start as staffers, then move up to the “elected” role as manager of staff.…
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Writing and editing
Since I’m talking about writing and editing this week… Sohrab Ahmari is a wonderful writer and speaker. I always try to catch every interview and podcast because he always teaches me something new. Every interview has several Aha! So that’s why! moments. He publishes Compact Magazine, and I eagerly tried reading and subscribing for a…
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Loyalty is lethal
Good long interview with a striking actress and a striking writer for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pittsburghers have put together their own Strike Paper where they can continue practicing their craft, but for some reason they haven’t DIVORCED themselves from the paper. They already have the new marriage with their CUSTOMERS, so they don’t need the…
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Two definitions
Controversial Conspiracy Theory: A belief shared by 80% of Americans. Mainstream Consensus: A belief shared by 100% of Jeff Bezos and Larry Fink.
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The other writers strike
Speaking of original spy plots, the plots developed by the “left” and “right” activists are getting dull. Both “sides” are drifting out into ever more complex theories about the EXACT SAME witchy invisible substances like nanoparticles and 5G. The “left” attributes the nanoparticles to Monsanto and Koch Brothers. The “right” attributes the nanoparticles to Pfizer…
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First plotted dream
This morning I had the first original plotted dream since the possible “end” of the NAZI TORTURE CAMP. All interesting dreams were on hold during the camp, as per Del Giudice’s hypothesis. Only an occasional ‘memory dump’, with a pile of unrelated details and unbridgeable gaps. This was a spy story, which was a fairly…
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It’s not hard
More silliness on UFOs. Everyone seems to be stuck on the mystery of instant acceleration, which is impossible for a massive body. Instant acceleration is NOT impossible for electrical charge, including a visible bundle of electrical charge. Nature uses fast-moving bundles of electrostatic charge all the time and everywhere, from nervous systems to earthquakes to…
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Puppets
Rob Lowe’s latest piece at the Ankler is about the total disconnection from SKILL at all levels. Hollywood doesn’t pay for skill, it pays for the PRESENCE OF A BODY. In pre-tech eras when the studios were more functional, executives and writers and actors were all expected to use the SKILLS appropriate to their position.…
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Just before audions
Found what seems to be the first electrical analog computer, or at least the first to be described as such. It’s in this 1909 physics journal. The Arthur Wright Electrical Device for evaluating Formulae and solving Equations wasn’t really a practical device and it wasn’t especially new. Wright was using modified versions of the Wheatstone…
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Reprint on Russian tech
Reprint from 2015, linked in previous item. Keyloggers and Lysenko Interesting discussion at ArsTechnica about a clever keylogger bug that KGB implanted in the Selectric typewriters at the US Embassy. The bugs remained in place from 1976 to 1984, when someone finally spotted them. The commenters are more interesting than the article. A few showed…
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Not an ideal world
Caitlin Johnstone points out that Vivek is not totally antiwar. He wants to make more war against China and less war against Russia. Yup. Can’t argue. In an ideal world I’d prefer total isolationism, as we had with FDR. We’ll never get another FDR, so in the world of universal monsters we need to support…
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What would Kellogg do?
Substack serves the same purpose as the preprint or Patent Insides services. Substack makes it economically feasible for small writers and publishers to reach a large public without the massive overhead needed for a separate website with its own SEO and payment methods and publicity spreaders. Web services often make weird changes at the start…
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Legacy and copyright again
Branching off from the Kellogg patent insides, I started reading histories of stereotyping. 1. From Gutenberg’s movable type through the long line of inventors who repeatedly REdiscovered stereotyping, a pattern emerges clearly. Each inventor tried to keep the process secret through oaths (NDAs) and patents and copyrights. When the inventor died the process died with…
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The father of boilerplate
Previously I covered the Army Press, a simple manual press that could handle newspaper-size stock. The Army Press helped country weeklies to survive until they could afford more automatic presses. Reviewing the Army Press: It looked like a proof press. On the proof press, the paper is clamped to the roller, which rolls and slides…
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Meaningless observation
Pundits in 2016 and this year are noticing a difference between the two parties. I observed this strongly in 2016, but I’ve been paying too little attention this time. (2020 was too fucked to observe anything.) In both 2016 and 2024, the R campaign had a real choice of candidates who were claiming to represent…
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