Author: polistra
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Odd correlation
The US Commerce department wrote this book in 1929. It’s an impartial description of radio systems and radio advertising in every country of the world, for the guidance of American advertisers who want to reach foreign markets. There’s a STRONG and backward-seeming correlation between advertising and government style in Europe. The countries that we called…
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AI is like…
AI is a lot like dreams, or more precisely the semi-dream crap that sometimes pops up just before sleep, and forces you to wake up from cognitive dissonance. As I was drifting toward a noon nap just now, this snippet of text in printed form popped up: … is equally valid because Hollen is a…
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Another victory for coal
This demonic move wasn’t well publicized. I hadn’t read about it until today. The demon states are already banning natural gas appliances in new construction, and the feds are getting ready to do the same. They’re using an insane tiny pseudo-“correlation” with asthma, based on one small “study”, to “justify” the ban. THESE ARE THE…
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Hardwired doesn’t need marks
This is intriguing but dubious. Researchers looking closely at some cave paintings of elk and antelope have been puzzled by periodic markings around the animals. These researchers see a correlation between the 13 months of the lunar calendar and the mating cycles of the animals. First: When people are intensely interested in a set of…
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Sharp observation
One of the anticoin Redditors sees the early signs of a switchover. So apparently personal finance YouTubers/Influencers are now doing AI-related schemes/scams where supposedly this magical AI software can predict which stocks will be best. If NFTs and high yield accounts are what sparked the 2020/2021 bubble, I’m guessing that something related to AI could…
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Where’s the effect?
Stoller is extolling a new decision by the Federal Trade Commission to ban non-compete agreements. FTC claims this will raise wages by $2000 for an average worker. This doesn’t make sense. Non-compete agreements have been around for a long time. They were always used for executives and salesmen, and apparently they’re now used in other…
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Who invented the earth?
Multiple choice quiz. Who invented the earth? A: God, 4004 BC. B: Random quantum fluctuations evolving atoms and molecules and planets, at a quantum indeterminate date and time. C: Carl August Steinheil, 1837. Correct answer is C. = = = = = Steinheil was a physics prof who got interested in the new sport of…
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Rats leave sunk ship
Protos continues to track a semi-local connection to the Sammy story: Moonstone Bank chief legal officer Joseph Vincent, a former top banking regulator, has left the financial firm, after being with the bank for just eight months. Vincent joined Moonstone, one of the smallest banks in the country, which gained national attention late last year…
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Unbash when deserved
I’ve bashed TheFederalist a couple times lately, so I should unbash when unbash is due. In this podcast on the idiotic soap opera of Congress, they get down to HARDASS realism. They recognize that the “political” parts of the federal government, including “elections”, have been completely nonexistent and nonfunctional for several decades, and they also…
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What if PO had bought it?
From previous item, Morse ran the first real commercial trial of his system for the Post Office, but they decided it wouldn’t be profitable enough for full implementation. If the PO had bought Morse, many things would be different. After our PO turned him down, Euro POs made better offers, and most of them quickly…
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Birthday gift for Carver!
Today is Carver’s birthday.** Neurologists have given him a nice gift today: a newly found structure that redesigns our understanding of the circulatory system. = = = = = START QUOTE: The tissue is a thin membrane encasing the brain that keeps newly made cerebrospinal fluid – which circulates inside the brain – separate from…
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Reprint: Trying a question
Looking at Statcounter for the old blog, noticed several of my semi-regular readers are looking at this item about plant intelligence. I can’t tell if they’re mocking it or discussing it, but it’s definitely one of the better things I’ve written. I was highlighting and extending what Francis Darwin and Dorothea Pertz were saying in…
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Reprint on pay vs value
Linked in previous item, worth a reprint. From 2018. = = = = = START REPRINT: Yet another proposal to counteract big money in politics: At their heart, political campaigns are no different than any other organization: they need to raise revenues and then spend it to meet their objectives. Organizations are responsive to who…
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Never hear the question
Random observation connected to my long-lasting theme on government as a business. Real businesses, at least when seeking profit, try to keep existing customers and bring back missing customers. Now that QT is starting to restore the profit loop, we should see more of this attitude. Even before QT, online businesses routinely detect that I’ve…
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What’s worse than DDT?
Reading a Reddit thread about sounds we used to hear. Modems, rotary dials, antenna rotors, the 15750 horizontal flyback in TV (interestingly, the thread has 15,700 comments right now!), dial tones and busy signals. I’m mostly analog, never switched from landline to cellphone, so some of these are still common for me. One steady theme…
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