Author: polistra
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Opposite kind of “music”
Archive has a few episodes of Herb Shriner Time, which is the opposite of other old variety programs. Most have splendid music and crappy comedy. Shriner is a splendid comedian with atrocious “music”. The “music” was outputted by an entity called the Raymond Scott Quintet. Example: Powerhouse. This piece is mechanistic and ugly, in the…
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Go all the way
Wesley Smith is complaining about the movement toward “rights” for inanimate things like rivers. He wants to reserve “rights” only for humans. In the first place, “rights” are a recent and destructive invention. God never said anything about “rights”. In all the old scriptures, God talks about duties, not “rights”. In the second place, you’ll…
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Interesting question
From Reddit: For reference I’m 34. From what I can tell, when my parents were younger, it was just accepted that you could get a burger and milkshake at your local drug store. That’s not intuitive if no one told you it was a thing. But by the time I was a kid, the practice…
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Unrealistic
TheFederalist makes a somewhat valid point: In a world where the left has achieved near-total dominance of the cultural space, finding an openly conservative artist can feel like tracking down an endangered species. Unfortunately, like poachers in the jungle, the left is on the hunt. While leftist artists can openly spew their bile for the…
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Strong point
Pithy point from Kirn: One “superstition” I was invited to laugh at as a youngster was the aversion of certain traditional and native peoples to having their pictures taken and to photographic imagery in general. But I don’t laugh at this now. Sometimes I even ask myself how in the world they knew. I’m not…
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Just for fun
Extracted from a 1944 episode of Fountain of Fun, performed by the Pratchett Sisters. Fast-moving complicated rhythm and intense harmony. Tuesday at Ten. As far as I can tell there isn’t a vocal version of the song online. Youtube has a couple of good instrumentals. Also by the same sisters, Surrey.
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Legacies and genes
Previous item triggered a random metaphor. Art Bell married a Filipina, and other Pinoys in the immigrant community were pissed at the wife for marrying outside the clan. This closely resembles copyrights and patents. The purpose of IP is to block people outside the clan from using your knowledge. When other companies can’t use the…
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Art Bell and the FBI
John Greenewald at BlackVault has some new FOIAs from FBI’s investigations of Art Bell, the longtime host of late-night radio programs about UFOs. There’s not much text left after redactions, but the pattern and dates are pretty clear given previous knowledge. I was listening to Art in those years, and he often talked about threats…
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AI is like …. 2
Last month I observed that AI sometimes resembles the semi-dreams that pop up just before full sleep. Total nonsense in a plausible atmosphere. Fresh example from noon nap today. I was sitting in an aluminum folding chair on a beach. I was busy with mass-production piecework, wrapping little plastic objects in woolen socks so they…
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Goal achieved
Well, it looks like Sammy’s social engineering won the whole prize. Regulators and legislators and JPMorgan and Goldman are all going full speed into “blockchain”. Bribery and blackmail always work nicely. The fake “anticoiners” like David Gerard and Molly White also won. I hope they appreciate their billion-dollar rewards. Classic case of the Machiavellian two-sided…
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Never give the sucker a choice.
Yahoo just featured the “presidential” campaign of Nikki Haley, playing her first TV ad. Theme: MORE WAR! Why? Leaving aside the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, there’s an actual difference between Trump and other recent presidents on the subject of imperial aggression. Starting in 1990, every president except Trump started a new pointless unwinnable permanent war…
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Still chewing on this….
I’ve been trying to untangle the two factions of opposition to the “virus” tyranny. I was never bothered much by vax. It’s the ONLY part of this monstrosity that belongs in real medicine and real public health, and the ONLY part that may actually work against a real virus if there is one. Taking one…
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Familiar old tune
The tune was already familiar in 1912! Gasoline is going up to 12 cents a gallon! Inflation! Horrors! I’m really marveling at the clever graphics. Now we’d just mix a video to get this effect. In 1912 films were silent, and mixing technology hadn’t invaded phonograph records yet. (All mechanical, no electronics.) This artist and…
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More techtonic motion
When ArsTechnica argues against Deepstate, the techtonic plates have definitely shifted. Normally ArsTechnica and Wired and TechCrunch are eager to defend ABSOLUTELY EVERY CRIME committed by CIA/NSA/Pentagon. Now Ars is showing healthy skepticism about the recent pro-UFO tack by Deepstate. I was generally impressed by the 1950’s disks and acorns. Those were NOT obvious artifacts,…
Polistra's Mill 