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Do these entities have robot servants?
Elon certainly knows how to play the Delphic Black Box routine. Create a stir, make it ambiguous, watch the response. He walked into Twitter HQ carrying a bathroom sink. 99% of the media described it as a kitchen sink, following the standard cliche. Admittedly the usual two-bowl kitchen sink is harder to carry (but not…
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An entirely different story!
American Radio Library has added a large set of ‘Phonoscope’, a rather elegant magazine about the phonograph and movies and similar amusements. The August 1898 issue includes an entirely different account of Edison’s invention. The usual story is that Edison was trying to develop a visual telegraph recorder, and suddenly realized its potential. This version…
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Pay for fucking value, goddamnit.
Pollsters are trying to figure out how to bring more people into their samples. I’ve got a weird radical idea. PAY. For some reason certain kinds of services have always been unpaid. Blood donors are unpaid, leaving tremendous profits for Red Cross. Organ donors, who give VASTLY more than anyone else, are unpaid, leaving tremendous…
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Long-lasting ladies
NYC media have never REMOTELY quasi-micro-pico-understood the rest of the country. NYC constantly hammers the myth of a Man’s World. Pure nonsense. The northeast is MUCH more of a Man’s World. When I moved to Pennsylvania in the ’80s, I was genuinely shocked by the domesticity of women in that part of the country. In…
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Field swap?
The “two” “parties” switch ideologies every few decades. Like the present orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field, the present party inclination is overdue for a switchover. I wonder if Fetterman vs Oz is the first indication? Both men are outside their niche, and it shows. Fetterman was a tough-on-crime prosecutor, now running as D. Aside…
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More WordPress erosion /// Edit: No, it’s not WP.
Last week I noticed an odd gradual “erosion” in some of my GIFs posted here. The sender in the original Morse prototype was being erased in an oddly analogish way. The result looks like a printer smearing ink. Now another set of erosions shows up. Instead of fixing and reposting, I’ll just link to this…
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Anyone could explain it…
As Elon’s “final” deadline for purchase approaches, Reuters notes that Twitter’s management doesn’t understand its own problem. Topics that have traditionally made Twitter a popular platform for its millions of users are now in decline among the most active English-speaking users, the documents show. Twitter is also losing a “devastating” percentage of heavy users who…
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Same old trick
Government “investigations” are always coverups. When the government “investigates” a subject, it tries to frame and blame the wrong people for a government crime. If the subject isn’t a crime, the “investigation” sucks up the remaining truth and replaces it with toxin. Activists who call for an “investigation” to “hold the government accountable” are either…
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What the world needs now
Is not love, sweet or otherwise. The real tragedy of the bitcoin/NFT/DAO crap is identical to the real tragedy of the hippie crap. Both were motivated by youthful idealism, and both ruthlessly exploited the idealism to gain more power and money for demons who were ALREADY wealthy and powerful. The ideal of the hippies was…
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Universal Parkinson
Parkinson’s Law applies to all levels of life. Cells are meant to work. When they aren’t allowed to work, they go rogue, creating arthritis or IBS or lupus or cancer. Humans are meant to work. When they aren’t allowed to work, they go rogue, turning to crime or suicide. And of course Parkinson’s original point:…
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Not nice but funny as hell
The usual Spokane daily crap, followed by the usual nice responses, and then……
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From Galton to Bezos
This piece in Medium is worth reading. Author Jules Evans traces the history of arrogant psychopathic eugenics from Galton through the fad in the 1920s all the way to Bezos and Elon. Tim Leary was the main connector between the earlier and later eugenicists. Leary ruled the high-status hippies, who were NOT thinking loosely and…
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Fishbowls
Cultural circles are never measurable from the inside, because the baseline is invisible. Old Soviet joke: In the midst of the Cold War, the CIA sends its best spy into Russia. He has spent the last 10 years learning how to blend in with the locals. He speaks perfect Russian, he can dance the kalinka…
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Sticks the landing!
I suppose political consultants and operatives have internal names for the athletic moves politicians make under the guidance and training of the consultants. Tulsi has pulled off a beautiful Roadrunner Dauphine! In 2019 she PiedPipered left-populists into her “independent” candidacy. Then at the last moment she swerved into the waiting arms of Biden and allowed…
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Print equivalent
My bedtime OTR playlist has changed its form over the years, partly from available material and partly from my tastes. In the ’90s when I started pulling away from current toxic crap and seeking older and better entertainment, the only available tape cassettes carried the Big Shows like Fibber and Jack Benny. After the early…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 