Author: polistra
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When Sailer writes what he knows
Sailer writes best when he writes about California. He lives there and PAYS ATTENTION to both current events and local history. He doesn’t blow up verb aspect by conflating permanent with temporary or vice versa. = = = = = START SAILER: In Los Angeles, Hurricane Hilary, the first since 1939, has been a summer…
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Even more Wallace
Last month I transcribed a long passage from Henry Wallace’s 1948 speech on inflation. It’s time to add a second section. Wallace saw the development of PERMANENT CRISIS as the guarantee of permanent monopoly by the Men Of Monopoly. Again, here’s the speech itself in mp3 form. = = = = = START WALLACE first…
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Incongruous?
From a 1966 Record World: Sitarist Sri Harihar Rao was signed as a featured artist by Peer-Southern Music. A wailing song and a good sitar, the only things that I understand, Krishna Krishna, the only things that I understand. Well, maybe it’s congruous after all. Indian music is country music, and much of it is…
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Both sides play the game
Reprint from a few months ago. = = = = = START REPRINT: Now we have more “Chinese” UFOs. After I obediently gave Deepstate the snap reaction it wanted, I turned up my input filters and baseline sensors. This is clearly a rather low-quality fake THREAT, and the repeat is designed to create a new…
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Unsurprising, surprising
Browsing through old books looking for more weird clocks to animate. This book contained an unsurprising verification of my observation that censorship is universal and natural. = = = = = START QUOTE: Upon the introduction of printing it was found that the facility with which the copies of books could be multiplied might occasion…
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Note on two-part sleep
Addendum for recent item on two-part sleep. For fun, tried looking for “first sleep” in Googlebooks. Only one definite mention, in a book on the Franciscan monks. = = = = = START QUOTE: In course of time S. Francis came to this place, and in the evening, after compline, he lay down to sleep…
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RAIN!
This rain is especially welcome since it frustrates the ARSONISTS who have been starting hugely destructive fires around here. Not all the fires are arson, but at least three arsonists have been seen, and two have been arrested. Of course the Sorosian monster prosecutor releases all criminals instantly, but at least the cops will know…
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Makes no sense at all.
Bari Weiss interviews Will Hurd, who call himself a “moderate Republican”. Since I’ve been mentioning previous interviews in this series, I should continue. In the first place he’s CIA. That’s all. End of story. = = = = = Still, I gritted my teeth and got past his proud “service” to the Enemy Of The…
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Thaler loses again
Pointed via the Ankler, a fed judge rules against Monster Thaler yet again. = = = = = START QUOTE: A federal judge on Friday upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection. The ruling was delivered in an order turning down…
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Another pointless “what missed”
Partisans are always writing columns about “what the Dems missed” or “what the Repoofs missed”. If only we had done X instead of Y, we would have won election Z. If onlys are utterly meaningless, but here’s a fresh one. Trump knows how to run a cult. Putting it another way, he knows pro wrestling.…
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What’s the diff?
Via NewSuperstitionist: Researchers find that Chat wants to agree with the questioner. = = = = = START QUOTE: This tendency, which the researchers call sycophancy, can manifest as agreement with left or right-leaning political views, thoughts on current affairs or any other topic raised in conversation. In some tests, the team created simple mathematical…
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Another Bantam
Keeping up a tradition of showing Bantams whenever found… From an Oct 1939 radio trade journal. KDKA was introducing its ‘experimental’ TV station, and promoted it with the KDKA Special Events Car. The back seat passengers are Miss Pennsylvania and Miss America.
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Worth reading
Denyse at MindMatters points to an eminently wise essay on AI. Denyse: Others are worried that ChatGPT will detract from a “love of learning” and “critical thinking,” according to Bloomberg. The new AI tool has cast a wrench in plagiarism detection and poses even philosophical questions about what education should be FOR. According to college…
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Real AI vs Altman’s AI
This is pure fraud. Computers have been optimizing routes for 60 fucking years, long before the current generation of “creative” AI. The traveling salesman problem has always been a major part of computer science, a major force in developing PREDICTIVE big data, and it was mostly solved in the ’50s. Here’s a 1969 book on…
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The Exeter clock
This is a quickie, just a graphics project to pull my mind through the recent hot spell. The Exeter Cathedral clock was built in the 1300s and remodeled around 1890. It’s a geocentric orrery with a 24-hour dial, numbered as two sequences of 12. It’s not a freestanding clock. I’ve mounted it on a flat…
Polistra's Mill 