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Regeneration reprints, 3/4
Why am I focusing so heavily on analog gadgets with minimal automatic controls? It has to do with defensible spaces. Benedict spaces, if you will. In any important technology you can trace a path of gradual automation. At each step the machine does more for you, which is GOOD for most people UP TO A…
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Regeneration reprints, 4/4
I’ve been discussing manual regen controls, manual chokes, manual ignition timing. This line of thought originated from a specific conversation with Grandpa in 1962. Grandpa was dying early from alcohol and tobacco, and the family went to visit him one last time. As we hung around Grandpa’s house, or visited nearby parks, Grandpa kept saying…
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The latest phone-home
For several years I’ve been trying to disconnect from the ever-increasing Github auto-updates and phone-home “features”. In some cases I simply rolled back to the last unconnected version of a program, in other cases I’ve been able to write my own Python or EXE to serve the same purpose. The latest to fall is Gomplayer.…
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Rare miss
In contrast to previous item about the Federalist atypically hitting a point, Taibbi atypically misses. He has done proper reportorial legwork on one bitcoin-related “loan company”. He found and documented its connections to Wall Street. But many commentators (ahem!) recognized the problem 10 years ago, and many good reporters have already followed the trails to…
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Gedankenexperiment rides again
Listening to Hoeg’s detailed presentation of the latest turn in Elon vs Twitter. I’ve been puzzled by the importance of the bot count. Why is this the absolute deal-breaker? The political to gangster transform answers the question. Change the characters from political gangsters to old-fashioned non-political gangsters to spot the underlying pattern. Twitter is a…
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Rare truth
Every now and then I peek at the Federalist to see if they’re still hopelessly lost. In general they meet my expectations. Today I noticed a positive exception to the rule, on an unusual subject. The shitty quality of teacher training is NOT a subject that normally gets into the media or websites. Even websites…
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Useful Gedankenexperiment
Yesterday I proposed a sort of thought-experiment or useful metaphor: Constants and variables: When non-political gangsters are shot, our media and historians never play the crazed gunman game. We correctly assume that a rival non-political gangster hired the hitman. But when political gangsters are shot, we go directly to the random wacko myth and NEVER…
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Convergence is a big word
Kirn’s love for the Beats is misplaced, but his mention of the science-based conformity of the 50s is a solid and strong point. Conformity in a tech context means losing old information and old devices that were valid and functional. The scientific consensus of the ’50s was good on “climate” and excellent on viruses and…
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More Zirn Zibbles
Kirn is praising the Beats again: All the worst bland utopian conformist “scientific” aspects of 1950s culture which the Beat writers eloquently reviled and Hollywood and popular music then spent decades satirizing are present again today at stultifying levels. But where are the peers of those writers? Absent. More than a quibble again. The premise…
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Will be interesting to watch
Japan’s former PM Abe has been shot and killed while making a campaign speech for his political protege. We constantly jabber about Historic Firsts and Unprecedented Events. This is the real thing, and this is going to throw a monkeywrench into a lot of global calculations. Abe was the perfect globalist and neocon in some…
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He was right
Time to break out the refreshing Chateau Schadenfreude again! Musical accompaniment. My father always said you should vote Democrat if you want Republican policies, and vote Republican if you want Democrat policies. Not strictly true but pretty damn close. Headline: DHS Secretary approves border wall projects. Trump didn’t build the wall. Biden built the wall.
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Showing how knowledge changes
It’s important to show how knowledge changes. In an era of Never Explain, Never Apologize it’s crucially important to show and (at least implicitly) apologize for previous ignorance. In previous item I mentioned that I gave up on Boris when he joined the Ballgag Brigade. It was actually a bit earlier. Here’s an overlong and…
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Who’s royal?
I gave up on Boris when he joined the Ballgag Brigade. Previously I was something of an Anglophile, keeping close track of British stuff. Here’s an event that caught my attention again. Apparently Boris is expected to resign today, or at least make a dramatic statement. Two of his top ministers publicly mocked him in…
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WTF is wrong with insurers, part 541679
I’ve been asking this question since ZIRP started in 2009. Insurers and pension funds are required to stick with dependable interest-bearing investments. When ZIRP started, anyone could see that insurers and pension funds would either collapse or force the banks to retract the terrible decision. But insurers didn’t lobby for changes in their restrictions, and…
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It’s just QC
Chart from the latest Gallup poll: This is a good sign of sanity on the human side. Most people understand who’s human and who’s demon. There’s some predictable R/D difference on media, since media is part of DNC. But even Ds are mostly negative (30% confidence) on newspapers and TV. Last week I was puzzling…
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