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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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Electrotyping, part 1 of 3
[Redated and slightly revised after I decided to continue the subject. This was originally a single free-standing item.] = = = = = Electrochemistry was the first practical use of electricity. The first attempted telegraphs used electrolytic bubbles in water as the indicator. Stereotyping was already mature in 1840, as an industrial process involving papier-mache…
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Electrotyping, part 2 of 3
Part 1 showed the essential process of electrotyping in a small-scale experimental setup. Real factories like Kellogg’s Patent Insides used bigger machines in mass production. Here again is the Kellogg building in KC, placed in my down-home scene. Most of the Kellogg building was devoted to electrotyping, with hot-lead composition and the writers and researchers…
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Electrotyping, part 3 of 3
After the type is set into a form, suitable for ordinary printing, the electrotype process begins by smashing the form into a thin layer of wax on a metal plate. The metal plate will become the negative electrode in the plating vat. The form is placed face down on the wax layer forming a sandwich.…
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The Yahoo example
Redditors are discussing a news item where Marissa Mayer says Yahoo should have bought Netflix. The commenters come at it from various angles, some citing Yahoo’s downgrading of Instagram. This one says it all: = = = = = Yahoo is used in many business schools as examples of self sabotage. At one point they…
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Simple recipe for trust
This is hardly new, but seems to be forgotten and reversed in recent decades. If you want to create trust, you need to solve problems. If you want to solve problems, you need to start at the FIRST AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY. I learned this lesson when I was teaching. To maintain discipline and trust, you need…
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More than a baby step
Jeffrey Tucker catches a BIG step in the backaway from the “virus” hoaxocaust. = = = = = START QUOTE: New York Magazine is featuring an article called “COVID Lockdowns Were a Giant Experiment. It Was a Failure.” The authors are two excellent journalists, Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean, who have also written a new…
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Can’t CONverge when you never DIverged.
Headline from latest Taibbi “independent” “news”: New Twitter Files Story Raises Question: Is It Hoaxes All the Way Down? Susan Schmidt’s dive into the Twitter Files is the latest to show ties between a growing number of fake news schemes involving Russian bots. How many frauds are there left to discover? Nice to see that…
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