Author: polistra
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Blind faith
Everyone has a weak point, an area of Blind Faith. We have two similar instances of Blind Faith among auto writers this morning. Wolf Richter is a hardass realist about nearly everything, but has Blind Faith in EVs. He wrote a piece about the Utopian Success of EVs and banned comments, citing backlash from “EV…
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BEST cartoon of the year
Jectoons has drawn (by hand) the BEST analysis of AI vs skill! Says it all.
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Extinct principle
An ad from American Motorist in 1912. Seems like an odd choice of subjects. Muslims were not common or newsworthy or familiar at that time. Maybe they were trying to say discreetly that Protestants shouldn’t be trying to convert Catholics by rough methods? Those conversions were common and controversial. After 2001, this ad would cause…
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Truly effective altruism
The brand name of EA is just a fake philosophical way of “justifying” theft and murder. Gangsters steal money from peasants and give it to their buddies, and gangsters KILL massive numbers of peasants to appease the Climate Gods. The FTX bankruptcy trustee is GENUINELY and EFFECTIVELY altruistic. Justice by recompense is real altruism. Government…
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Live axles
Advertisers took the phrase literally! The first one seems to be a proper limited-slip differential, 50 years before it became common or standard. = = = = = And one more animist ad for a product invented 50 years before it was common. Steel-belted tires.
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Thanks, algo!
Among the social platforms, Medium is especially bad and especially sticky. Good old partial reinforcement. When you start with a good experience, you keep hoping for another one. I started with some good reads by Avi Loeb, and Medium continued to provide about 1 out of 20 interesting pieces. The other 19 were aggressively harmful.…
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Early adaptation
Neat example of handicap adaptation from Motor Age 1922. The Ford T was already closer to all-hand than most cars. Early Ts, and the predecessor model S, were fully footless. The hi/lo/neutral control was a lever instead of a pedal. Only the brake and reverse were pedals, and the brake was always duplicated by the…
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Weather humor
The local Weather Bureau has finally figured out that you don’t gain trust by constantly screeching imprecatory prayers to Gaia and her Prophetess Greta. Cuteness works better. This is cute and educational at the same time. Science should be entertainment, not torture.
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Correct present, wrong history
This piece by Terry Mattingly is frustrating. He accurately describes the current atrocity of total unabashed bias in all media, but he’s wrong about the history. Basically, the world’s most influential newspaper is moving away from the old free-speech liberalism of what historians call the “American model of the press,” with little public commentary about…
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Rererereprint with rerererereaddendum
From 2017: = = = = = START REPRINT: How do you know which side of a “debate” is good? “Scientists” jail you for questioning “science”. Astrologers don’t jail you for questioning astrology. == MDs force you to follow orders by withholding life-sustaining prescriptions. (In any other context this would be called extortion.) Alternative healers…
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Karen guide
From Motor Age July 1922, a guide to customer service for Karens. 100 years old, still excellent advice. Well, my dear girl wouldn’t work now, but the rest is perfect.
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Satanic limbo
Still looking for a newspaper replacement. One author on Medium mentioned NewsBreak so I looked at it. NewsBreak is a pure aggregator, sensing your location and picking up “stories” from a variety of “local” media. It picks the most sensational, the best inducers of fear and panic. It also features national “stories” as seen from…
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When was it invented?
From Motor Age in 1919, a brand new and clever method for ‘working a car into a small space’. “Not one driver in a hundred knows how to work a car into a small space to get near a wall or curb.” Still true after 100 years of required driving tests.
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Not worried
Headline at Bari Weiss’s neocon opinion page: The rise of deepfake porn: AI can turn anyone into a porn star without their knowledge. That reality should frighten us all. Well, that’s one AI threat I definitely don’t need to worry about. Guarangoddamnteed.
Polistra's Mill 