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Odd gimmicks
I’ve been enjoying the Jam Handy Chevrolet newsreels lately. Nice mix of features. Each episode includes pretty girls, activity in Death Valley, fishermen, unusual pets, school safety, and big construction projects. This 1937 episode focuses on trailer living, which was one solution to Depression unemployment. The text doesn’t overly glamorize the lifestyle, making it clear…
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Sidetalkers
Saagar and Krystal agree on the absurdity of ‘open letters’ and ‘petitions’. Why bother sending an open letter to the president telling him to do what he’s already doing? Or the opposite? Presidents don’t read petitions. This is a fine example of the Sucker Filter Corollary that I heard from some political strategist back in…
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More on C-Tactile
First, reprinting from a month ago: = = = = = START REPRINT: Yasuko has produced a huge number of tutorials using acupressure and similar methods to improve mood and health. This one turned out to be surprisingly effective: Is C-Tactile proper science? Yes. Exactly. = = = = = START QUOTE: The human equivalent…
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Used to be a job
Listening to the new breed of journalists covering Sammy. They had to get along without their iPhone mental prostheses. They’re doing a fair job of taking notes on paper, but they admit that they can’t keep up all the time. This used to be a standard job for shorthand stenographers. I wonder if anyone thought…
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Comparison
Comparing Sammy vs Elizabeth. Initially I treated both of these fraudsters as the same personality type: Professional Criminal. I’ve understood this type since prison taught me in 1969. The pro criminal MUST do everything the cheating way, the dishonest way. If there’s an honest way to do a task that takes one minute and costs…
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True and important
EnidBuzz has a meme: A southern goodbye is saying bye 20 times and standing around talking for another half hour while slowly inching your way toward the door. True and important. I noticed this as a child but didn’t associate it with broader culture. I thought it was just the way our family did things.…
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WordPress hacks
Since this blog is on WordPress, I should pass along this notice from Protos. A malware hack is using WordPress blogs, or more specifically websites based on WordPress with their own logins and storefronts and so on. The hacker presents a popup that seems to be coming from your browser (Firefox, Chrome, etc) asking you…
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Master class
In this live segment Tiffany is unintentionally giving a Master Class in real journalism. She illustrates the correct characteristics and behaviors and forms of thinking. Wide open about her own biases and preferences, willing to get deeply personal with sources, always keeping the facts STRICTLY separate from all personalities and preferences. If any professional journalists…
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Losing the argument
Greg Lukianoff works for FIRE, the defender of free speech on campus. He’s on a crusade to convince skeptics that cancel culture is unique and special. I’m in the skeptical camp on that point. I know that censorship is normal, and I also know that many of the “canceleds” were either fired for other reasons…
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The hologram
Reprint from Nov 2016, shortly after Trump was “elected”. Nothing has changed except that I’m older now and exhausted from three years of TRUMP’S Nazi torture and strangulation, so I can’t write as well now. = = = = = START REPRINT: I’m still impressed by the fireworks aimed at a shimmering hologram of “Trump”.…
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SAG, UAW, DAC
The Ankler notes frustration by two old labor activists who are unexpectedly members of SAG. Nader complains that he wrote letters to Fran and she didn’t answer, which seems cranky and whiny. He’s warning that AI is a serious threat, which is redundant because SAG is already treating AI as deadly serious. I don’t see…
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Not worth the price.
Kirn and associates have started up a printed newspaper. Since I’ve been mouthing off about real printing and real newspapers for a long time, decided to put my moneying where my mouthing is. Got the first issue. It’s nicely wrapped and nicely printed, but it doesn’t have ANYTHING I couldn’t find on the web. No…
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Radartoons
Haven’t done one of these in a while. We’re being invaded by the entire Western Hemisphere, starting with snow from Canada! And here’s the bombing in progress. First snow of the season.
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Newtonian politics
The current spate of canceling academics for holding balanced and objective views is being compared to McCarthyism. In a general sense this is valid but it misses the important TIMELINE of the HUAC/McCarthy period. HUAC started its inquisition in 1947. ALL of Congress was on the same side. It wasn’t Joe McCarthy’s “indecency” vs the…
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I started with Foy.
This is a clever approach to Big Data. The researchers realized that data compressors like ZIP and MP3 work by predicting what comes next. They developed a simple prediction engine, just a few lines in Python, by using GZIP to generate the predictions. No need for a giant LLM, no need to pay Satan Sam…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 