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Habits form assumptions…
Just figured out something. Reproducing my random “chain” of “thought”: After writing previous item on plus key vs minus key, I started “thinking” about the peculiarity of the standard PC keyboard. Plus is shift-equals, which is clumsy and error prone. The separate adding machine keyboard to the right is more convenient, but for some reason…
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Orphan
Not especially important, just an absolutely perfect instance of the old joke about chutzpah. = = = = = START QUOTE: Fowler pled guilty to numerous counts of bank fraud, wire fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitter last April. A previous set of lawyers withdrew from representing him in November due to unpaid bills…
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One-key rule
Back in 2009 I noticed something. = = = = = START REPRINT: Polistra’s Law of Political Math: For each important question, only one mathematical operation is permissible. When I was an electronic tech at Penn State in the ’80s, I learned this important bit of wisdom from Prof Davis, a pollution researcher. Davis had…
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Quick take on Substack’s Notes
Substack’s UI/UX has been a bit slippery at times. They got it right with Notes. If you’re accustomed to the main site, you can just jump in and immediately catch how it works. No learning curve. But Notes also immediately loses the GOOD PART of Substack. The good part is the connection between subscribers and…
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Pronouns
Surber at Substack, commenting on the idiots at Bud Light: = = = = = START QUOTE: Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade, whose brand endorsements have turned controversial trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney into today’s woke ‘It girl,’ aren’t just virtue signaling. They’re handing out lucrative deals to what were once considered…
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Follow his example
When you start with the worst possible assumption, you’re rarely disappointed or shocked. When you start with Machiavelli and Parkinson, you’re rarely** shocked by government and corporate actions. The real question is: What do you do INSTEAD of shocked outrage and offense? Have fun. I started with the assumption that “free speech” is a trick…
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Eastasia Eurasia Eastasia Eurasia
One of the Wendy Connors UFO collections at Archive.org has a lengthy and informative review, written in 2013. During the earlier years, these reports were taken more seriously than today and public discourse included scientists as well as senior figures in the US military. The panel-show format hadn’t become quite as ossified as it currently…
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More establishment flip
Lately I’m impressed by some ordinary establishment types who seem to be grasping the truth of our predicament, while the alleged independents have either converged to Gaia or veered off into denser and denser underbrush. This ordinary economist, Steve Hanke, SEES the war situation and the public “health” situation with stark clarity. “This war against…
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Waiting for water
This winter was especially hard on plants. Nov and Dec brought heavy snow, which didn’t get a chance to melt until late March. My front “lawn” was mostly killed by the snow and the shovel-thrown salt from the sidewalk. Yesterday I noticed a few barely visible sprouts in the dirt. Overnight we had 1/3″ of…
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Wrong product
Article in Catholic Thing discusses adapting to a smaller church. The stats are clear and drastic. Catholics are dying and leaving fast, except in Mexican parts of town. And even there, evangelical churches are taking over from Rome. Example: In my working-class mixed race neighborhood, there are four Evangelical churches within easy walking distance. Each…
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Speedrunning = speedreading
From 1905 to 1945, most Americans had an accurate idea of how to get wealthy. We understood the Machiavellian truth. Power and wealth are earned by evil and crime. Busting this truth was a MAJOR part of Deepstate’s project after 1946. Massive media and school-based propaganda attempted to restore the lies of “equality” and “meritocracy”.…
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Bright idea!
News or something: Bud Light’s vice president said she wanted to update its ‘fratty’ branding with ‘inclusivity’ days before Dylan Mulvaney’s partnership was unveiled. Hey guys! I’ve got the best idea in history! Let’s aim all of our ads solely at a dozen super-rich super-hoitytoity OCD Vegans who would never never never condescend to drink…
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I shouldn’t even try
Discussions of Sammy’s rise and fall repeatedly hit a point that I can’t grasp. Supposedly Sammy was a hypnotic figure. Supposedly he had a magnetic appeal to everyone he met. I don’t get it. I can sort of see the appeal of Elizabeth Holmes. She’s pretty and lively and radiates a sense of mission and…
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What would Steinbeck think?
Peter Biles at MindMatters uses an old literary interview with Steinbeck to speculate on Steinbeck’s views of AI. Biles concentrates on the way an author writes, and concludes that Steinbeck would dislike the way AI writes. There’s a much bigger and simpler answer. I was reading Steinbeck constantly for most of my early life. I’m…
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Sucker filter fails!
When an extreme Sucker Filter fails, it’s a sign that the suckers have left the table. Via Protos, four of the Big Names in bitcoin crime tried to start up a new “exchange” specializing in securitized bankruptcy claims from other failed bitcoin crimes. This is like viaticals, securitized pre-bets on life insurance. Blood money. Just…
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