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What we assume
Most of what we semiconsciously assume about the past is wrong. We assume that electric power must have come before telegraphs and telephones and radio, because all of those systems need electricity. In reality the grid started long after telegraphs and slightly after telephones, and wasn’t really complete until the 1950s. We also assume that…
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Why lawyers?
Thinking about those lawyers who write on Quora. Why do I appreciate them? Because they’re OBJECTIVE. Other professions sometimes write ‘out of character’, but other professions never manage the same degree of objectivity. Academics never bash tenure outside the ivied walls**. Politicians never reveal real secrets. Journalists never tell the truth about the permanent idiocy…
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Never thought I’d say this…
Quora is a better reading experience than Substack now. Quora hasn’t changed. It’s still a few interesting writers (mostly lawyers!) and a jungle of pointless bot-questions about math and IQ. The pointless bots are easy to spot and ignore. The interesting writers don’t feel obligated to join meaningless disputes. Substack has changed since it introduced…
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Maico Chromalyzer continued
A few days ago I noted with amazement an old spectrogram displayer that was used for training deaf speech. The Maico Chromalyzer was made in 1954 but probably didn’t gain much success. I couldn’t resist modeling and animating it, using my guess about its innards. This version shows 5 horizontal bulbs, each responding to a bandpass filter.…
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First real micronuke!
Via MSN, a new microreactor developed by Westinghouse is being actually installed in Saskatchewan. Supposedly it will go online in 2029, which is still way too slow but better than the INFINITE amount of time taken by other vaporware reactors in this fucked part of the world. This one is truly micro, powering only a…
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Okay, you win.
Computer has been doing weird things for the last few days. It finally showed up as a virus that blocked AVG’s attempts to remove it. I used Eset’s online scan, which detected and removed several ‘suspicious’ items related to the programs that were behaving weirdly. After that I tried to buy and install Eset properly,…
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Learned something from clickbait
Microsoft Edge fills its base page with clickbait. I haven’t managed to turn it off yet**, so I’m irresistibly clicking. This story caught my attention because I visited Muncie in 1968 while campaigning for Gene McCarthy. I remember Muncie as a pretty place, with an especially wonderful park by the river. I learned several things…
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Part of a trend
Via Denyse as usual, Dembski analyzes what Google is really doing. = = = = = START QUOTE: As Google characterizes its mission, it is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” And how better to make it universally accessible and useful except to repackage it and present it as…
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No, it’s not neofeudalism
I’ve made this point before. It’s worth repeating. Everyone is referring to the gig economy as neofeudalism. The personalities are unquestionably feudal, the same insane inbred incestuous imbecilic aristocrats who ruled Europe for 500 years. The system is the exact opposite. Feudalism was based on TWO-WAY OBLIGATIONS. The lord was required to support his serfs…
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Maico Chromalyzer
Here’s a puzzle. This industrial newsreel profiles Maico hearing aids, among the earliest adopters of transistors.** Like Zenith, Maico made both audiometers and hearing aids. Around 17 minutes, the film shows an interesting gadget that I’ve never heard of before. The Maico Chromalyzer was used for training deaf speech. The teacher spoke sample words and…
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Three layers
There are three layers of customers, requiring different business approaches and different levels of risk. Bottom: Poor people. Poor people don’t have money. They can’t buy big items. Selling at this level is hugely risky, and only the biggest and most predatory firms can survive. There are two paths to success at this level: subsidize…
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Not surprising
Another item from Eurekalert. Careful experiments show that the often-repeated blue light keeps you awake claim is not a correlation. I’m not surprised. Blaming the physical characteristics of the technology is an INTENTIONAL DISPLACEMENT. It’s a frame-up. McLuhan misunderstood television in a similar way. He thought the dots in the picture caused TV to be…
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Year-end shit
Not gonna bother with a complete list. Mostly I’m just tired and used up this year, after three years of defending my soul from the “virus” monsters. Trying to step away from the keyboard into a more analog life. For my own records, this item from February is probably the best new understanding of the…
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ELEGANT!
Via Eurekalert, an absolutely brilliant measuring technique for a long-established measuring tool. Balloons have been gathering info about weather conditions and radiation from the sun and stars for 120 years. These Japanese researchers used the old tool plus several fiendishly clever tricks: = = = = = START QUOTE: Based on the high sensitivity of…
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Fuck the “informed citizen”.
Lately some folks on both “sides” are complaining that nobody worries about conditions in other parts of the world, or conditions in other social classes. Everyone is focusing on our own “lived experience” and ignoring Ukraine and Israel and Yemen and Elections and The Soul Of Democracy and The Environment and Official Economic Statistics. Lived…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 