Author: polistra
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Problem solved!
Our noble leaders are warning us to be VEEEEEEEEEEEERY PATIENT, because it takes a VEEEEEEEEERY LONG TIME to count votes. Obviously we need a technical fix. Polistra has a fresh Innovative Disruptive idea! We need a machine that works something like an abacus, except a whole lot faster. She realizes that this is WAY beyond…
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Eirx
We often signal our orthodoxy by using the “native” spelling of a country or tribe we’re supposedly defending. The signalers don’t worry about actual “nativity” when they invent lunacies like Latinx or Womxn. They’re trying a bit harder with Ukraine, but the result is still absurd because the Ukrainian “language” is a dialect of Russian.…
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Raking record
Time to start the roof-raking record for this winter. As always, this should be in my private daily worklog, but I started doing it here, so I’ll continue the tradition. Last winter was EASY. Only three rakings, and the first was 12/31/21. This winter is likely to be harder than average. We started with a…
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Reprint on jail and jobs
First written 11/1/17, linked in previous item, worth a reprint. = = = = = START REPRINT: An article in Aeon starts with an excellent and evocative question: Should life in jail be worse than outside, on principle? Author Chris Barker is a prof at a small POST-Christian college (Methodist) in Winfield. You don’t see…
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Parkinson, not cheating
Via UncommonDescent, suspicion falls on the work of a Nobel-winner in genetics. Several research articles co-authored by Nobel-prizewinning geneticist Gregg Semenza are being investigated by publishers after internet sleuths raised concerns about the integrity of images in the papers. Journals have already retracted, corrected or expressed concerns about 17 papers over the past decade, and…
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Another non-fix
Continuing the theme of the opportunity cost and wasted passion in the bitcoin realm. Here’s another misplaced non-solution. NFType proposes using NFTs to clean up the messy copyright situation of digital fonts. Or at least I think that’s what they’re proposing. The website and the Twitter version are totally uninformative and incomprehensible. Font licensing is…
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Why 1907 needed scrip
Enid Buzz posted this ad from an Enid clothing store in 1907. On account of scarcity of currency reminds us that the Panic of 1907 was a huge but brief Innovative Disruption, sponsored by Innovative Disruptor Edison. Scrip was born in this depression, and resurrected in 1933 when FDR broke the banks to restore the…
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Not enough Parkinson
The data-gatherers are still somewhat innocent of the way the world works. In response to demon Emily Oster’s announcement that there will be an amnesty, the data-gatherers are invoking “rights” and “laws” and “morality”. None of those myths can possibly affect the behavior of demons. We’ll never have a Nuremberg. The original Nuremberg was enforced…
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Alien beeings
Latest research on bees and charge: For about three minutes, part of the migrating swarm passed over the electric field monitor. This revealed a net positive field intensity of 100 volts per meter at peak density. This effect was not observed in a second control meter positioned in the open field 50 meters away from…
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Whole lot of Paid Pipers
Pied, paid, all the same. Now that Elon has bought Twitter, both “sides” are bringing in the people that Deepstate wants to monitor and cultivate. The “right” is directly inviting them, and the “left” is inviting them by mocking them.** Both sides are conveniently skipping over Elon’s LONG connection with Deepstate. His SpaceX and Starlink…
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Introview squared!
A few months ago I coined the word introview for an interview conducted by an introvert. Here we have a double introview! Lots of real Shannon information, real news that breaks up standard ideas. Even though I’m a solid introvert, a double exposure of non-eye-contactors in a show business situation is disconcerting and hard to…
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Easy answer
Evolution News asks if there’s a way to bring back Aristotle’s PURPOSE in a scientific and testable way. Easy. Negative feedback. A loop always has a goal variable. Loops are observable in action, and the simpler loops can be seen physically as neural pathways or mechanical or hydraulic systems in the organism. Inanimate objects can…
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The ultimate rejection
Facts of life: (1) A woman would rather be ruined by a cool man than helped by an uncool man. (2) A man would rather be ruined by a cool woman than helped by an uncool woman. Civilization tried to mitigate these facts by encouraging a division of labor and judging mates by their respective…
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Random on HA
Random additional thoughts about the long-overdue loosening of cartel regs on hearing aids. The regulations never made sense. Aside from building your own, there were many hearing assistance devices available openly without prescription or license. Bell offered amplified telephones since the 1920s. Zenith offered amplified TVs with special headphones in the ’50s. The FDA was…
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Dow is all? Not new.
I’ve been bitching that ALL “news” sources and commentators, whether “left” or “right”, start with the assumption that Wall Street is the entire economy. When the central bank gives Wall Street an orgasm, ALL “news” takes it as good for the country. When the central bank gives Wall Street an ouchie, ALL “news” takes it…
Polistra's Mill 