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Metrology lesson
The Pew Center has some graphs on the decline of newspapers. They broke a basic rule of metrology. Always put measurements into context. Know the baseline and measure in proportion to the baseline. Pew’s graph of newspaper total circulation (brown line) seems to show that newspapers were starting to lose in 1990, when digital media…
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Wincharger addendum
A few months ago I featured Zenith’s Wincharger wind generator systems, part of the farm electrification movement of the New Deal. Noticed this ad in a 1947 broadcast trade journal: The Wincharger factory was already making short towers for the generators. After most farms were hooked up to the grid, Zenith switched to tall towers…
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Two-headed coins
Stock trading is the exact opposite of real business. A real business makes real things or fixes and maintains real things. Selling and delivering real things are also real businesses. A stock trader doesn’t make or fix or sell anything real. He just makes sidebets ABOUT the people who make and sell. Above all he…
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Might be halfway interesting
Trying to find something positive… Manchin’s retirement and potential candidacy is interesting. He’s unquestionably an old-fashioned industrial Democrat, generally on the side of the worker. He doesn’t smell like an Agent Provocateur or a Pied Piper. He has a little bit of Henry Wallace spirit.
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More on phats
Recently I ran across the peculiar term phats in a union journal and tried to figure it out. Here’s a more specific definition. Phat Man A phat man, found in some offices is a hand compositor who pays to the other compositors a bonus for the privilege of setting the display heads of articles, which,…
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Why the new breed is new
I’ve been watching the new breed of journalists formed by the Sammy trial. These two clips from Carly lead to an observation. Here she’s discussing Sammy’s parents and their failed attempt to manufacture political victories. Carly was finance director for Andrew Yang’s campaign in 2020, so she knows how to run a campaign. When you…
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Old shared lie
Headline: Hillary Clinton warns against Trump 2024 win: ‘Hitler was duly elected’ Classic example of a Shared Lie. This is a valid argument against Trump. It’s ALSO a valid argument against Hillary. Most importantly, it disproves the entire myth of elections. Machiavelli wrote the book. Rulers still follow the book. For a ruler, elections are…
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Status all the way
Spokane had a mayoral “election” yesterday. The results seem to give a majority, not a landslide, to Lisa Brown (D) over Nadine Woodward (R). Brown will continue ruining the city, with a D label instead of an R label. There might be some differences in flavor on the question of homeless camps, but otherwise no…
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Ionopus
Pointed by Denyse as usual, this is the first EKG of an octopus. The researchers are trying to figure out how the eight arm-brains and one center-brain of an octopus communicate. Each arm-brain can operate independently, talking to the other arms without involving the center-brain. This isn’t entirely alien; our kinesthetic sensors in arms and…
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Vaudeville isn’t dead!
A nice Vaudevillian exchange on Twitter: The AMPTP’s “last best final” proposal would allow them to body scan performers making *more than minimum* in TV and features. Performers would get paid once. But studios would be allowed to profit off their AI likenesses without their approval forever — even after they’re dead. Ever Carradine, granddaughter…
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New translation
JFK’s famous Arsk Not slogan is always portrayed by media and schools as a noble declaration. In fact it was a declaration of independence for monstrous rulers, and specifically a repudiation of FDR. FDR ruled by serving. He created a reciprocal moral obligation by HELPING THE PEOPLE first. He starkly constrained the bankers and monopolists,…
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Hard shell
Bloomberg discusses an unexpected development. Junk food, which has gradually become unfashionable in the West, is taking new territory in India. The target is turning out to be highly susceptible, and convenience stores are starting to crowd out the traditional street vendors of homemade fast food. Maybe India will learn from this. India is the…
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Sitters vs Rovers
Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2011 REPRINT: In the last few years the public and scientific understanding of human temperament has been recovering from the grotesquely false egalitarian / chemical mindset of the 20th century. From NYTimes last month: = = = = = But the Zoloft ad’s…
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Alphia would appreciate!
EnidBuzz features an upcoming event called Odd Oklahoma, inviting tarot card readers and other mystics and performers. Alphia Hart would definitely approve. From the start, Enid has been a haven for odd and unique viewpoints. Makes sense from the basic patterns of Sitters vs Roamers. In the 1600s the new continent received the Roamers and…
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Ars brevis
Rushfield at the Ankler is keying into a subject I’ve been obsessing on lately. (Not one of my perpetual points!) = = = = = START QUOTE: There’s massive amounts of waste, unfortunately, left to cull within these new realities: massive bureaucracies serving assumptions that can’t go on. These are bloated, uncompetitive industries, focused on…
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