Category: Uncategorized
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Correction Line Road
Musing about rectangular vs polar views of the world led to an old memory. Once in the 80s I visited a friend who had moved to the country near Dodge City. He lived on Correction Line Road. The name has nothing to do with jails. It has everything to do with the Louisiana Purchase and…
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Idiom oddity
Noticed an odd pair of phrases. In question and out of the question mean more or less the same thing. Walking today is in question. Walking today is out of the question. The second is more certain, but both mean that I shouldn’t walk. Logically the converses, Walking today is out of question. Walking today…
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Watch those hidden assumptions
Poor UI/UX design costs money! I’ve been getting good value from the Canadian website Hub. I tried to set up a subscription to reward value with pay, but their payment service doesn’t accept US addresses. The pulldown includes the 10 provinces but no other nations. I doubt this is political. The Hub has been around…
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No sympathy
I note that the “mayor” in Spokane has joined other “mayors” in a court brief opposing Trump’s cuts to research funding. No sympathy. The corruption of federal funding has been blatantly obvious and perfectly well known inside academia. Everybody knows it and everybody keeps taking it. For christ’s fucking sake, EISENHOWER warned about it in…
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Weird English
When you sign into Twitter it prompts: What is happening? This is WEIRD English. It sounds like a teacher walking into a disorderly classroom: What in the hell is HAPPENING around here???? Other socials use casual phrases like What’s on your mind? Twitter reminds me of the standard prison greeting exchange in Mansfield: What’s happening,…
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Canada and BRICS
Canada is trying to develop a new way of relating to the world instead of letting US be the sole connector. Back in 2017 I imagined a new alignment with Canada joining BRICS. When you see the world from the top, the Arctic Ocean is shared by Canada and Russia. Alaska is there, but other…
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Populism for others
Trump is doing good POPULIST things for other countries, but so far not doing anything new for this country. He forced Canada and Mexico to become populist, to start serving their OWN interests instead of serving Bezos and Fink. Both countries are abandoning the Gaian demonic religion in order to give JOBS and PROFITS to…
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Not a citizen
A couple weeks ago I detailed a Zillow listing in Manhattan that closely resembled the house my family occupied from 1957 to 1962. In bed tonight as a sheep-counting exercise I tried enumerating the neighbors I remember in those two blocks. Somewhat geographically: Adams, fireman. Matthews, city engineer. Danskin, prof of counseling. (Unknown name), Ft…
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Stop and think.
Social Security is one of the FEW parts of government that works well. Medicare also works well, entirely unlike most private “health” “insurers”. THEREFORE Elon is trying to destroy it. He hates things that function, especially if they’re not pumping all of their money into his pocket. He claims that his “auditors” have found “tens…
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Ford for thought
PR Newswire cites the Edelman Trust Barometer: = = = = = START PR: Innovation is accelerating and should be a growth enabler, but it will be stymied if business doesn’t pay as much attention to acceptance as it does research and development. More than two-thirds of our respondents who say innovation is poorly managed…
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Two ways
Two different ways of “fighting Trump”. Canada is fighting Trump by working together. The urban areas are working WITH the agricultural and oil areas, to improve Canada’s own agriculture and industry and petroleum. US is “fighting Trump” by tearing itself apart. The coastal urban areas are continuing to destroy and ruin the agricultural and oil…
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Alibaba was correctly named.
The stats for this blog suddenly showed 1200 reads today, all packed into a short period. Huge numbers like this are always a bot of some kind. In this case it’s Alibaba based in Singapore. Looking it up, Alibaba runs a network of AI bots that roam the web stealing material. Maybe the old story…
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Uniquely powerful cults
The two modern political cults are uniquely powerful. Both of them can vacuum the brains out of previously clear and rigorous thinkers on any subject. A few months ago I saluted historian Robert Sandel for debunking several myths. I liked his work so much that I bought and read his book. Most of it is…
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Not the best use
From a Canadian radio trade journal, August 1945. The Tech Lords were already working on grandiose new projects using military methods for civilian purposes. I’m all for amortizing, but you need to choose the RIGHT existing technology! = = = = = START QUOTE: Until now, television’s main problem has been the question of “bending…
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