Author: polistra
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Almost sounded good
Normally I skip the Youtube ads for gimmicks like perpetual motion machines. Ended up listening to one when it interrupted a clip I was using as background noise while eating. This one was a miniature air conditioner. The action is unquestionably interesting. Instead of compressing and expanding Freon in a closed set of pipes, it…
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Priority list
If governments want people to listen to crap about “climate” and “diversity” and “zoning”, they will have to do ONE THING first. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control crime. Control…
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Thanks, weather gods.
Just exercising gratitude. Last year we got too much heat. This year is a strictly average summer (so far). Mostly 80s, some scattered 90s, couple of 100s. Only a couple of storms, versus LOTS of storms last year.
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Not the only choices
Paul Vigna proposes frequent debt jubilees. He says there are only two motivations in an economy: greed and morality. He complains correctly that we’ve organized our economy on greed and debt. To favor morality more, he wants occasional debt jubilees, saying that ancient governments realized it was the best way of restoring stability and giving…
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More non-news from “news”
I keep watching to see if any of the powerful institutions have figured out what’s wrong. So far I’m not seeing any understanding here in US. Mexico and Canada have OFFICIALLY figured it out and started doing the right thing, which is the FDR thing. Will we ever get there? I suppose it’s possible. Until…
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X et XII, pars I de II
Discussions and school lessons on Roman arithmetic are solely about integers. In reality the Romans, and the medieval merchants who continued the tradition, handled fractions all the time using a sophisticated notation. Integers operated on a pair of 5s, not a simple base 10. Fractions operated on a pair of 6s, not a simple base…
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X et XII, pars II de II
After covering the Addiator I was curious to see if there were similar devices in earlier times. Rome used primitive abacuses, just stones sliding in grooves on wood. Not really a device. Googling medieval abacus led solely to this gadget: There’s only one source for the picture and description, a 1682 encyclopedia of ancient things…
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Machiavelli works
While I’m doing poll type stuff, here’s an unsurprising but worthy Gallup poll. Who owns bitcoin and related frauds? Men. More specifically, wealthy “conservative” men from 18 to 50. About 25% in this group own fraud, and 37% of all men. Only 17% of all women own fraud. Partisan advertising works for frauds like politics…
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Lowe’s perfect word
The “two” “sides” are pointlessly arguing about the network decision to drop Colbert. One side says the network was cowardly, the other side says it was brave. (I hardly know who the dude is, since I haven’t watched any TV since 2010 and never watched the late night “comedy” shows either on TV or on…
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Original jurisdiction
In April I was called to serve on a jury for a fraud trial. I got out of the box honestly, which saved my health. Fortunately the jury reached the correct conclusion without my dubious help. Sentencing was originally scheduled for July 23, but it hasn’t happened yet. I keep checking the court calendar. Today…
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Tag reminded me…
I decided to add a Thanks Post Office tag since I’ve been defending the PO from Elon and Trump lately. When I used the WordPress editor to apply the tag to all items about the PO, I found about 30 posts over the three years I’ve been in WP. I looked in the old Blogspot…
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Praying for Powell
Jerome Powell is the bravest man in the top layers of government. In 2022 he turned away from crime and began carefully restoring HONEST ECONOMICS and REAL BUSINESS. Clinton, Obama and Bush had replaced honesty with crime, giving free money to the stock criminals and charging zero interest for criminal activities. When Powell went straight,…
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Fordist wins
Interesting article on local newspapers that still succeed. The top 25 by circulation, mainly digital now, include a few in the expected places like LA and Chicago, but the list is dominated by much smaller cities. The author notes that several of those smaller city papers are owned by the Newhouse chain, including Harrisburg. When…
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Must be summer now
The neighbor across the street, who enjoys hot weather, is out all the time now. Plus: He finally unplugged his Xmas lights, flashing every night since November. I enjoyed the lights, a little bit of color in a drab world.
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Happy 250th, Post Office!
The Post Office deserves a special celebration this year, with Demon Elon and Demon Trump conspiring to destroy it. Elon’s Destruction Of Government Excellence is explicitly defunding all the GOOD and USEFUL parts of government while expanding the BAD and EVIL parts. Admittedly there are a couple of mixed cases. Department of Education originally served…
Polistra's Mill 