Category: Uncategorized
-
Normalcy is a dirty word
Every job worth doing leads to completion. This is how we judge real talents and interests. If you enjoy DOING a task, it’s not necessarily your best talent. If you enjoy COMPLETING a task, you should pursue this path. As I listen to these 1950s industrial films, I’m constantly reminded of the intended COMPLETION of…
-
Flat wrong.
From EvoNews: = = = = = START QUOTE: The advancement of science is one of mankind’s greatest triumphs. And who could be against it? Deploying the raw power of rational analysis, science exponentially increases our understanding of the natural world and leads to wonderous applications to improve the human condition. = = = =…
-
Not trying
Happened to notice the moon landing by a private company, watched a few minutes. NASA isn’t trying hard to reinvigorate trust. The “announcers” are badly animated, and they’re mechanically reading a poorly written script that could have been done better by ChatGPT. If NASA wants to bring back public interest and trust, this won’t do…
-
Classic example
This headline is a classic example of journalistic language abuse: Today’s ATT outage is just a preview of what can happen when cell service goes out. No. Cell service going out is what happens when cell service goes out. It’s a tautology, like Three = 3. Treating it as a warning of a potential trouble…
-
For once the admins are right
Via KREM: A group of WSU faculty is complaining about the current university president, saying that he needs to bring in more money. They want a new admin that will: = = = = = START FACULTY: Will implement effective strategies that bolster the academic and research excellence of WSU, along with its associated reputation…
-
Grandma’s salience rule
One of my base rules for writing comes from Grandma. Around age 60 she was acutely conscious that most old folks repeated the same dull story over and over. She declared: If I can’t say something new, I’m not going to say anything at all. Salience or silence. I always try to follow Grandma’s rule…
-
Reprint on analog/digital
Linked in previous, definitely worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2013 REPRINT: Noticed an interesting article on an unfathomable and completely pointless dispute among mathies. The ‘foundational’ types seem to be puzzled about the distinction between countable infinities and the continuum. This leads to some kind of irreconcilable thingamajig which must be…
-
Text snappers
I’ll often get a strange contradictory semi-dream after a few minutes of drift. The semi-dream snaps me into wakedom, which is a good thing in an intended brief ‘reset’ nap. It’s not a good thing at the start of an intended full sleep. Example from 2017: I was hiding inside the upholstered front seat of…
-
Who are they fooling?
The current disconnect on economics is weird. At this point many of the ‘establishment’ types recognize that ordinary people are suffering. Even Bloomberg News, heart of the ‘establishment’, describes reality pretty well. Meanwhile, the alleged ‘leftist’ and ‘radical’ economists stubbornly stick to the crazy official numbers. An article by Dean Baker in the Nation asks…
-
Pay for value works
TIL week. This one is a genuine surprise. In 1916 we BOUGHT the Virgin Islands from DENMARK. We’ve never had any trouble from the Virgin Islands. Pay for value usually works. Stealing territory by armed conquest or Color Revolution never works. I hadn’t thought much about those islands, but if asked I would have guessed…
-
One sober man
From the 50s to the early 70s, the big three automakers were running on alcohol, not gasoline. By all accounts their top execs were falling-down drunk all the time, making uninhibited random bad decisions and generating stupid ideas which were forced on their companies. Mormon Romney was the only sober man in the industry, and…
-
Old trick
A reddit item was discussing the old HIGH cost of long distance. I can verify. In 1967 I made the mistake of talking for an hour to a girlfriend on the other side of the country, and got a $135 phone bill. The redditors mentioned a trick that people used to transfer a free message,…
-
Foy on film
Jeff Childers, a lawyer who writes on the anti-vax side, has a lawyerly observation about the progress of AI. = = = = = START QUOTE: Soon, AI will not just be able to create millions of made-up videos, but it will also easily modify existing, ‘real’ video, of real people and real events, changing…
-
Makes sense
An RFK supporter who knows the innards of D politics thinks that Michelle will be the replacement for Biden if the party can work up the guts to replace him at all. The author sees the other choices as Superdemon Newsom and Demon Whitmer. He thinks Newsom would have the same personality problem as DeSantis,…
-
Cargo cults
Following on the unsurprising Newsweek disappointment… When dinosaurs grow big and arrogant, mammals will take over one way or another. After sensing the threat, a dinosaur will try two different responses, both of which will ultimately fail. One is suppression, and the other is fake adaptation. Fake adaptation has a cargo cult flavor. The dinosaur…
Polistra's Mill 