Author: polistra
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Random grammar thought
Random grammar thought, seems like an interesting correlation at the moment. Among Indo-European languages, the Catholic or Orthodox cultures (Latin, Slavic) prefer reflexive verbs as a way of expressing passive or middle voice. Protestant and Islamic cultures (Germanic, English, Arabic) prefer distinct active and passive forms. Latin started with a distinct passive, then replaced it…
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Thinking about tinking
As far back as I can remember, I was always “making” stuff. Roads and dams in the dirt, complex Tinkertoy projects, electronic stuff. Today I asked whether my friends and acquaintances were also tinkerers. Some were and some weren’t. The line was drawn exactly by father’s occupation. Sons of professors never got their hands dirty.…
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Same kind of “person”
Lawyer Richard Stevens writes a wonderfully clear article about AI and law. Jonathan Turley, a public figure, was specifically libeled by ChatGPT, which provided a false “fact” to several people. The “fact” was totally false and accusatory. Stevens goes through the details of libel and finds that ChatGPT clearly fits three of the standards. The…
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Tremendous assets
In connection with this year’s crowning of Charles, American Radio Library has picked up a 1953 BBC magazine about a similar ceremony. Most of the magazine is about the American extension of the coverage, not BBC’s own. = = = = = START QUOTE: The whole of the scheduled programmes over the CBS-TV network are…
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My what big teeth you have
Now that RFK has turned all the ‘alternative’ vectors back toward Gaia, he’s comfortable in showing his teeth: Come To Boston Park Plaza If You Can April 19 10:30 AM, And Let’s Elect A Candidate Who Opposes Poisoning Americans, Our Children, Our Rivers, and Our Natural World OCD all the way. Gaia all the way.…
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Checking the source 3
Several months ago I read most of the bitcoin C++ code. I wasn’t trying to suss out the plot, just reading for dialect and stage directions. Those are thoroughly familiar, so the author must have picked up programming the same way I did, by absorption and experience, not by Computer Science training. Now, motivated by…
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Dogs hate it
Generative AI is securitized IP. It’s identical to those Mortgage-Backed Securities that blew up in 2008. Suck up a million real houses and farms, mix the debt together into batter, bake it, slice the cake into a million pieces, each containing a hologram of the originals without any way of identifying the original property. Sell…
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Habits form assumptions…
Just figured out something. Reproducing my random “chain” of “thought”: After writing previous item on plus key vs minus key, I started “thinking” about the peculiarity of the standard PC keyboard. Plus is shift-equals, which is clumsy and error prone. The separate adding machine keyboard to the right is more convenient, but for some reason…
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Orphan
Not especially important, just an absolutely perfect instance of the old joke about chutzpah. = = = = = START QUOTE: Fowler pled guilty to numerous counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter last April. A previous set of lawyers withdrew from representing him in November due to unpaid bills…
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One-key rule
Back in 2009 I noticed something. = = = = = START REPRINT: Polistra’s Law of Political Math: For each important question, only one mathematical operation is permissible. When I was an electronic tech at Penn State in the ’80s, I learned this important bit of wisdom from Prof Davis, a pollution researcher. Davis had…
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Quick take on Substack’s Notes
Substack’s UI/UX has been a bit slippery at times. They got it right with Notes. If you’re accustomed to the main site, you can just jump in and immediately catch how it works. No learning curve. But Notes also immediately loses the GOOD PART of Substack. The good part is the connection between subscribers and…
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Pronouns
Surber at Substack, commenting on the idiots at Bud Light: = = = = = START QUOTE: Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade, whose brand endorsements have turned controversial trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney into today’s woke ‘It girl,’ aren’t just virtue signaling. They’re handing out lucrative deals to what were once considered…
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Follow his example
When you start with the worst possible assumption, you’re rarely disappointed or shocked. When you start with Machiavelli and Parkinson, you’re rarely** shocked by government and corporate actions. The real question is: What do you do INSTEAD of shocked outrage and offense? Have fun. I started with the assumption that “free speech” is a trick…
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Eastasia Eurasia Eastasia Eurasia
One of the Wendy Connors UFO collections at Archive.org has a lengthy and informative review, written in 2013. During the earlier years, these reports were taken more seriously than today and public discourse included scientists as well as senior figures in the US military. The panel-show format hadn’t become quite as ossified as it currently…
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More establishment flip
Lately I’m impressed by some ordinary establishment types who seem to be grasping the truth of our predicament, while the alleged independents have either converged to Gaia or veered off into denser and denser underbrush. This ordinary economist, Steve Hanke, SEES the war situation and the public “health” situation with stark clarity. “This war against…
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