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Fiendishly wrong
Headline: Dimon Likens AI’s Transformational Impact to Steam Engine The analogy is intentionally backwards. The steam engine performed tasks that humans COULDN’T do well. AI performs ONLY tasks that humans can do best. Engines didn’t replace workers. Engines replaced teams of horses. Human workers can’t lift several tons or move freight at 60 mph. AI…
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Carver vs Substack
I’ve been bitching that Substack is a self-contained universe for its own writers. Stop! I’m a writer inside another self-contained universe, which is quite a bit larger than Substack. Decided to look around the universe where I’m a participant and let it talk to me. WordPress is apparently trying to be more like a community,…
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Best eclipse sighting
EnidBuzz asked for local pictures of the eclipse. Enid wasn’t quite under the path, so most pics show a quarter of the sun eaten away. This one is the all-time champion.
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New way is better
Most modern practices are tremendously worse than pre-1970 practices. Here’s an exception. In the past, big-name fictional characters spawned versions in every possible medium. Dick Tracy started as a comic strip and spawned radio, movie and TV versions. Ellery Queen started in books and spawned the same three branches. Boston Blackie started in movies and…
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Substack is an MLM.
Over the last year I’ve been watching Substack lose its value. It started as an advertised REFUGE from mainstream idiocy, and now it’s just an alternate channel of mainstream idiocy. At first I couldn’t spot the exact trouble. For sure, clickbait and partisan teams are taking over, crowding out the more subtle writers. Is it…
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Harlow misses the Product
Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2014 REPRINT: Since I’m thinking about ad jingles….. One local business has produced an absolutely brilliant jingle. Most radio jingles have a brief version, a full version and a concerto version. The brief version is 5 or 10 seconds long, just the first…
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Brilliant technique
This Ford dealer training film is a BRILLIANT application of a classic training technique. It’s a “play inside a play”, with the actors trying to read an organized script while all sorts of crap goes wrong. An actor is missing, forcing the director to skip a scene. Union workmen bust in and start setting up…
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The bigger question is…
The tranny mess is gradually self-dissolving. Invading women’s sports was the final step, the moment when the torch burned the torch-bearers. If women posing as men had ALSO invaded men’s sports, you could conceivably argue for Die-Versity. But nobody has invaded in that direction, because they couldn’t win and thus couldn’t cheat. The invaders have…
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Another historic first
DailyMail wants us to be SHOCKED that rich assholes are losing their houses to erosion. The pictures tell the whole story. The houses were built on the EDGE OF A CLIFF MADE OF SAND. Of course nobody ever imagined that this could conceivably happen, not in a trillion years. Maybe sometime in the future somebody…
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No, wait
As usual I was doomscrolling, noting that many colleges are dropping “humanities” courses, which really means torturer training courses. I was pissed because all the online writeups were bemoaning the loss, blaming Deplorables. No, wait! WHY AM I PISSED? THE ACTUAL TREND IS MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. The bitching from well-paid devils is a…
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Just tickled
Just a trivium that tickled my fancy. In 1958 Chrysler made only two special racing-equipped 300Ds. One was bought by famous racer Norm Thatcher, who souped it up even more and set several major speed records. The other was bought by Herbert Magee, a California chiropractor with no known connection to racing. He picked it…
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Fine. When will you start?
Yet another survey finds the public no longer trusts “journalists”. This one was done by something called the Reuters Institute, which is apparently not quite the same thing as the dying Reuters “news” agency. It polled US, UK, Brazil and India, and found the same distrust in the first three, while India still trusts its…
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Packard’s cheapness
Packard missed many chances to display quality in its cars and its advertising. This isn’t enough to explain their failure; more likely they should have done the smart niche switch after WW2. Their unique skill at that point was aircraft, not autos. Cadillac OWNED the luxury market, so there was no room for another luxury…
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Credit where due
Now that the courseware world is mostly turning to Canvas, my publisher set up a paid testbed account, which was a long and tangled process. Canvas is the fussiest of the various learning systems, so a fully usable testbed there will be sufficient for the other more resilient systems. I no longer need the generic…
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If you have to verify…
Dembski writes about his experience with LLM crap. He claims that AI is a “useful assistant”, which means he’s already addicted to the crap. He admits that it’s only useful if you take the time to verify all of its claims and citations, most of which are fantasy. Well then, why bother? The old-fashioned secretary…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 