Author: polistra
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Excellent point.
Somebody on substack made a STRONG point about schools failing to prepare us for life. I hadn’t thought about this failure before. If art classes included drafting, they would have helped future architects and designers and engineers. I was inclined toward architecture. When I visited neighbors or friends, I didn’t waste time in boring old…
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Size = subject
A silly online poll asks how you arrange your bookshelf, and gives four illustrations. By size, by color, by author, or random. The poll didn’t include the way libraries do it, by subject. I arrange books by subject but not intentionally. I sort by size, which also sorts by subject. With only a few exceptions,…
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Another modest proposal
Via NiemanLab: Some Americans still have trust in local news, but they’re unwilling to pay for it. As usual the “journalists” who caused this problem can’t figure it out. Well, send me something worth paying for and I’ll pay. I love to pay for good products and good services. I won’t bother to tell you…
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Modest proposal
If cities were smart they’d adopt Greg Abbott’s ingenious trick. An imaginary smart Spokane would round up all the homeless into prison buses and haul them to the state capitol in Olympia. Drop some of them in the state capitol building and other offices, drop the ones with the longest criminal records in the back…
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They’re mostly right
The wokies are correct when they complain that ‘Western Civ’ courses are irrelevant and false. Some of the wokies want to replace the falseness with a different brand of falseness, some don’t. Nevertheless the complaint itself is correct. Western Civ classes, including all the “history” and “civics” we memorized in high school, are blatant propaganda…
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Reminded me…
Something reminded me of the word ranch. Decided to look up the etymology, since it doesn’t sound like other terms for land. It comes from the French military se ranger, meaning to pitch camp or set up a location, related to arrange. Range, of course, has dozens of meanings in math and biology. It also…
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Full moon.
Lots of craziness tonight, including my own mood. SpokaneNews reports: 4200 South Hatherly Cir, Reported female smashing a vehicle with a golf club. Reported DV incident and now a male is pouring milk on the female. We need new trite sayings! Don’t bring a golf club to a milk fight. Bet on the sourest milk.…
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The biggest divide
Aside from the obvious male vs female, the widest and most permanent divide is risk takers vs risk avoiders. This divide started LONG before humans or mammals, so in the grand scheme it’s deeper than male vs female. Every life form including bacteria has bold and timid types. Men and women can often understand or…
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Hollywood starting to get it?
Rushfield at The Ankler interviews Jon Glickman, head of Miramax, who claims to be optimistic about the future of entertainment. My first thought was: Related to Dan? Yes, Jon is Dan’s son. I met Dan a few times when I was politically active in Kansas in the 80s. I didn’t know that Dan moved out…
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Returning to analog the wrong way
Seen on the post office reddit. Package-claiming scams are universal online. Now somebody is bringing the package trick back to analog! The card looks just like a post office notice of failed delivery, but it wants you to call a non-toll-free number instead of a local post office number. It’s good to see that carriers…
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Return to local
“Journalists” are trying to create new “local” media, which means new copy-paste outlets for DNC and new LBOs for private equity predators. The same “journalists” complain that video media like Youtube and Tiktok are overcentralized. As fucking always they’ve got it backwards. Fortunately humans no longer listen or watch the perfectly centralized “journalists”. We’re too…
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Another smart idea!
Railbuses were fairly common in the 30s as a form of interurban. They had regular tires for roads, and a controllable hydraulic system to lower rail wheels for running on rails. They could jump onto the track at a level crossing, run on the track for longer distances, then jump off and get around town.…
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Why they hate it
For months I’ve been gaining knowledge and inspiration from Sherri Olson’s second book. Recently I bought her first book on the same subject. It’s less interesting for my purposes. The first book is highly quantitative with detailed lists and analyses of peasants who served as jurors or committed crimes or practiced trades. In science jargon…
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A GREAT hero has died.
Via the TV station where he spent his career, Gary England has died. He saved more lives than most politicians and CEOs have killed. He was the first weatherman to use doppler radar, and spent his life educating and organizing people about tornados and severe weather. If there’s a heaven, Gary England is now in…
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Elon = Jim Farley
Listening to old and new podcasts on the Post Office, I’m somewhat immersed in postal lore. The immersion led to a connection. Elon’s role as chief campaigner for Trump is NOT new. More broadly, the Tech Tyrants have replaced the Postmaster General, formerly a ‘patronage’ office. Presidents appointed their chief campaigner as Postmaster. The most…
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