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What’s a door for?
We’re seeing another burst of intentional misunderstanding by economists. This particular idiocy has been going on since the 90s. Economists say that “the economy” is performing beautifully. All of their numbers are going in the correct direction. The Dow is going up to the moon. Bitcoin is going up to the moon. Bezos is flying…
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Hoel’s insight
Now that the OpenAI soap opera has turned out to be solely a Microsoft soap opera, Erik Hoel writes a rigorous economic discussion of the true potential of AI. He reaches two parallel conclusions: (1) The jobs that AI can replace are low-wage jobs or ‘open-source’ jobs like editing Wikipedia or writing drab repetitive music.…
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All themes at once!
Just for fun, here’s a news item that fits all of my current themes at the same time. = = = = = START QUOTE: A northern Minnesota electric cooperative is going after a couple for their alleged plot to siphon hundreds of thousands dollars’ worth of energy for two bitcoin farms. The civil suit…
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Development directions
Completely random and irrelevant thought, stirred by a good sleep. I was pondering the tendency of towns to develop in only one direction. Sometimes the direction is forced by geography like a lake or mountain. When it’s not forced, the reasons are harder to figure out. Ponca and Manhattan both developed in one direction. In…
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REA was Stroybank
Was the New Deal “Soviet”? Yes, in the best sense of the word. FDR tried to adopt parts of the Soviet system because suffering Americans recognized that the Soviet system worked better than ours. The best way to prevent a revolution is to treat the radicals as a corrective signal. Pull the system in the…
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Only the innocent
Here’s a new thought. Start with two of my tiresomely repeated themes. First: Secrecy is the default. The job of language is to maintain secrets. Every module, from cell to organism to family to tribe to guild to corporation to nation, has a set of private SKILLS and FACTS. Language develops to communicate these private…
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Nature’s electrotyping
Pointed by Denyse as always, an interesting speculation about horizontal gene transfer. The researchers are NOT saying this process happens in Nature, only that an experiment shows it CAN happen. = = = = = START QUOTE: Electroporation uses an electric field to create temporary pores in the cell membrane. This lets molecules, like DNA…
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Jefferiad
Jeffrey Tucker writes a proper jeremiad. (Jefferiad?) = = = = = START QUOTE: Such “public health” measures were not even within the range of possibility outside the worst dystopian fiction. And yet it all happened in a flash, all with the assurance that The Science demanded it. None of the institutions on which we…
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More Thiel Questions
Thiel Questions are arguments or views that others don’t share. The last time I updated them was more than a year ago. Time to add a few more. I’ve written about each of these before but didn’t treat them as Thiel. = = = = = (1) Standard “history” tells us that we didn’t offshore…
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Today is Shareware Day!
Today is Shareware Day! Surprised they still mark the day. Shareware was a BIG DEAL for a decade, from 2000 to 2010. Now it’s mostly gone. Where did all the Hundred Flowers go? Gone to Deepstate every one. Like all fake “counterculture” movements, shareware became an integral part of Deepstate. Shareware turned into subscription software,…
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Raw materials
Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START REPRINT: Want to break the “cycle of violence”? Break the media. The press has been running this routine for at least a hundred years. It’s not mysterious or “unintended”. It’s an intrinsic part of their business model. Blood sells newspapers. Blood and chaos…
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Round trip
Suddenly this year, plenty of people who were stoutly defending absolute free speech “rights” have turned into censors. Before October, these “conservatives” had been smashing “liberals” for turning into censors. What makes this particular reversal salient is the round trip. 9/11 turned many “freedom”-loving people into censors against Islam. I was among that crowd. Afterward,…
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Debtoleth = deatholeth (reprint)
Reprinted from last year, edited and sorted. = = = = = I came across an 1883 text on banking with lots of nice clear history on banks, governments, and debts. An extremely simple pattern holds true for a thousand years. Governments use taxes to finance popular policies. People are willing to PAY taxes when…
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Strong point by Batya
I always appreciate Greenwald’s clarity. He’s the only big-time journalist who maintains rigid and precise objectivity about all questions. He has lots of tribal loyalties and biases, but he rigorously separates his private life and private feelings from The News. In this clip he’s talking with Batya and other Jewish activists. All agree that the…
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Timeless guide
In 1949 REA published a guidebook for co-op employees who were assigned to advocate for electricity. It’s a wonderful general guide for activists and advocates and teachers of all kinds. It covers public speaking, demonstrations, dealing with the media, dealing with coop boards, and recording and evaluating your own results. I wish I’d heard some…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 