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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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Murphy for journalism
Undoubtedly a stupid idea, but haven’t heard it anywhere else. I tried to give Newsweek a chance. I know how real fairness sounds from long experience with old radio. Newsweek failed the test quickly and decisively. In real production of cars or soap or software, real companies hire beta testers to wring out the bugs…
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Somebody gets it! /// Edit: Nope.
Finally somebody else recognizes the crucial importance of the Fairness Doctrine! I’ve been railing on this since 2007, and I’ve never seen a correct understanding of the topic let alone an appreciation. From Newsweek’s editor: = = = = = START QUOTE: In the post-Fairness Doctrine era, we have witnessed an unprecedented polarization of American…
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Already scriptable
I enjoy reading Protos accounts of the bitcoin swindlers. Protos started as a pro-bitcoin advocate, then gradually wised up and turned into a more objective reporter. Nice to see a company DIverging instead of CONverging into a crime. Stories about Craig Wright are especially entertaining because nobody takes him seriously by now. There’s no risk…
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