Category: Uncategorized
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Spot the bot
Two signs of computer-driven fakery: 1. When you see an exponential pattern you know it’s done by computers, not humans. The real world doesn’t do exponential. The real world follows either a sine wave driven by sun and moon, or a tanh shape driven by life. Both are somewhat obscured by random noise, but usually…
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Missing the divide
Via NiemanLab, a survey tried to distinguish active vs passive news consumers. Do you spend money and time seeking out news, or do you happen to hear about things? The separation is clear, though the author didn’t seem to catch it. Upper status people spend money and time seeking “news”. Lower status people don’t bother.…
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Work done, for now
The latest courseware is finally DONE and submitted. I’ve been aiming for maximum quality this year, which meant more work and more refined proofreading. My big goal this year is all three parts of the KSTP motto in the top icon: Laugh at your ills, pay your bills, behave yourself. The first part is the…
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Not entirely predictable
This is one of the EXTREMELY RARE cases where journalists actually work both ways. Via Nieman, journalists have universally derided Trump’s Napoleonic effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This, of course, is more predictable than gravity. Journalists NEVER go along with anything ordered by Official Wrong Party. Locally, journalists…
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Canada does it FIRST.
I’ve been darkly watching China, Russia, and India zoom ahead with nuclear while the WEFtern “countries” deprive ourselves of clean power. We bomb our hydro dams and turn off our nukes. We started to plan small reactors in 1954 under the Rural Electrification Admin, created by Henry Wallace. Then we dropped all reactors and clean…
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SOE and Studie
Here’s a new thought after rereading the history of Studebaker for the 100th time. Albert Erskine took over as CEO in 1918. Under his rule Studie prospered and handed most of the prosperity to shareholders. Erskine believed in paying the stock criminals first and letting the company (facilities, workers, development) have the leftovers. Some of…
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More on Desistance
Lately I’ve been thinking again about Desistance. The idiot politicians who claim to be Resisting Trump are actually Assisting him. Everything they do creates more reasons for normal people to want the opposite. If this is “democracy”, give us a king. Resistance is Assistance. I handled Desistance in a deeper way in 2021 when the…
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Followup
Nice followup to previous item. The Spokesman lists results of a survey conducted for several years. = = = = = START QUOTE: About 70% of survey takers said they lacked confidence in their local government to effectively address their concerns, still better than 80% in the last survey in April. Respondents rated their quality…
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More Democrat campaigners for Trump
Deadpan reporting from SpokaneNews: 22300 East Appleway Ave, caller reports a naked male in the parking lot. Reported the male has entered the business and is refusing to leave. Stating he had a venomous snake thrown on him One in custody = = = = = If this is “democracy”, we need a king.
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Go with the flow
Nobody seems to be reading what I’m writing now, but for some reason this older item is getting a few reads. Might as well go with the flow and REwrite what AI bots are “reading.” The item was posted in 2022, but most of it was originally written in 2016 before the Bush/Trump “virus” torture…
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Linked discoveries
NewScientist summarizes a neatly constructed experiment on the parallels between birds and humans. Cuckoos and a few related species are brood parasites. They lay their eggs in other nests and let other birds raise their kids. The researchers noticed birds making a unique ‘whining’ sound when brood parasites were around. Other members of the species,…
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Unhappy 50th, “global warming”
Unhappy 50th, global warming! Or Climate Crisis or Climate Emergency or Climate Chaos or whatever you’re calling yourself at this hour. Before October 26, 1975, actual scientists (and government and media and schools) UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY that the weather is an infinitely complex set of local, global and solar cycles and random changes. Before October 26,…
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Trade can be mutual
I’ve been trying to track the Russian/US alliance before we went permanently crazy in 1946. It’s frustrating! Clearly there were commercial connections after the Revolution, but official documents and most online info either miss or downplay the commercial side, emphasizing our undying hatred for Russia whether it’s called “communist” or “authoritarian”. We hate Russia because…
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Keeping up a tradition
Keeping up a tradition of commenting on big frauds and thefts. Most sources seem to be missing the best explanation of last week’s Louvre job. They think the thieves will melt down the gold and diamonds to sell the raw materials. Highly unlikely. Diamonds like these are well documented and recognizable. The amount of gold…
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Loyal campaigners, continued….
Continuing from a few days ago…. All ‘mainline’ institutions are making a basic mistake in advertising and messaging. They claim to be appealing to Da Yoots, the supposedly valuable 18-34 demographic. In fact they are only appealing to one particular type of 70-year-old. After 20 years of bankruptcies, why do they still hold this weird…
Polistra's Mill 