Category: Uncategorized
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Engineer joke
Took me way too long to catch this joke, but it’s a fine one. Q: How do you tell the difference between an electrician and an electrical engineer? A: Ask them to pronounce the word unionized. = = = = = Why I should have caught it immediately: I discuss each of those versions OFTEN!…
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IOOF history
After spending some time at the Odd Fellows retirement home in Eureka Lake, Polistra decided to seek out a lodge. She found a typical one in La Cygne** near the southeast corner of the state. Like most lodges it was in a downtown storefront. The building looks like it originally housed a bank. A grocery…
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Monarch without territory
Took a quick look at Columbia “Journalism” Review. A remarkable display of total blindness and convoluted ignorance. They are “preparing for war” against Trump. Trouble is, they don’t have any soldiers. “Journalism” is a dead empire that can no longer draft customers by spitting on them and punching them in the face. Over and over,…
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Union power
I’ve discussed the rise and fall of shortwave often. Shortwave is an abandoned territory ripe for reclaiming, and Mutual Benefit Societies are another abandoned territory that deserves reclaiming. This little item rings both bells at once. In 1933 shortwave was growing but not well explored or understood yet. A 1933 issue of a Gernsback radio…
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Modifying Horatio
It’s time to modify an old proverb. Hamlet said: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Modified version: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There is more in heaven and earth, Horatio, than the things dreamt…
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How to regain trust
Elites periodically engage in fake superficial gestures toward reform. Right now, predictably, we’re seeing a few of these fakes. An editorial in “Nature” magazine shows the fakeness. Science must regain trust by fighting the people who distrust it. = = = = = START QUOTE: Make no mistake, the political assaults on science stem largely…
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It’s all about reciprocity
The key to success for a Mutual Benefit Society is a proper mix of real business and social enjoyment. Starting in the 1920s, the purely commercial insurance firms absorbed and destroyed the MBS movement, leaving only the social side. Without the BENEFIT part it’s just a drinking club. Odd Fellows preserved some of the real…
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Makes great sense.
This new study makes deep sense. Why is it better to take a certain medicine at the same time each day? Because the cells that respond to the medicine LEARN and STORE MEMORIES in the same way that brain cells learn and store memories. The whole body is a brain, and the whole body learns…
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One piece of information!
Information doesn’t mean facts. Information means actionable facts that were unexpected. This is the Shannon definition for technical purposes, and this is also how the nervous system defines information. The eyes and ears have exquisitely tuned active filter mechanisms to turn down predictable inputs and turn up unpredictable and useful inputs. Here’s the first piece…
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You ain’t the muster, mister.
For many years commentators of various stripes have been telling rulers what they MUST do. It’s a perfect waste of words. You’re not the muster, so you can’t tell aristocrats what they MUST do. Aristocrats know who the muster is and what the muster wants, and automatically obey without explicit commands. Bezos and Soros are…
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Important question
In this interview David Sirota makes plenty of sense about the failures of the elite class that led to the Trump victory. Toward the end Krystal asked a question that seemed marginal to me. After she answered it, I can see that it’s pretty much the whole story. Why were the Repooflicans OPEN to takeover…
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When metrology mattered
Reading about the IOOF led to this, but it’s not really related to the IOOF. One article in an Odd Fellows journal around 1920 mentioned Roger Babson as an economist who was in sync with the principles of Mutual Benefit Societies. I looked up Babson and found one of his books, which starts oddly enough…
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One wonderful thing
Yesterday’s election had the usual results here in the “state” of Washington. Crazy monsters and crazy referenda won. With one beautiful exception! Referendum 2066 to protect natural gas from the crazies PASSED. Somewhat narrowly, but still enough to settle the issue. From the official description: The measure prohibits state and local governments from restricting access…
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Got what they wanted
Well, the media and Wall Street got what they wanted. Now they can have fun for four years, and the empire can decay even faster for four years. I hope and pray that harsher rulers and nastier media and more destructive billionaires will speed up the growth of effective alternatives and bottom-up organizations like Mutual…
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More idiocy from book fanatics.
Book Fanatics have reached a new level of arrogant stupidity. Right now they’re ferociously maintaining that hearing a text is hopelessly empty. Audiobooks don’t count as reading. Only seeing a hardback book with your eyes counts as absorbing the material. 1. How did people absorb knowledge before books were common? They obviously had no brains…
Polistra's Mill 