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Entertainment spawns entertainment
From Gerard and Castor’s record of bitcoin idiocy: But Zhu and Davies have been telling the public — especially their creditors — how they lost money too, how they fear for their lives, and how they are so overwhelmed that they can’t turn over banking information just yet, but they’ll get to that soon, for…
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Intersection of old and new
Latest upload at American Radio Library is some 1978 issues of Practical Computing, the British equivalent of Byte. I was struck by the intersection of old and new. The technical new in 1978 didn’t really go anywhere. Commodore, Atari, Sinclair, Cromemco, Z80, Basic, Pascal. Contrary to the official myth written by Jobs, none of those…
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Where’s the advertising?
I’m genuinely puzzled about this mismatch of advertising and reality. Not disingenuous or sardonic. Some writers claim to see an incipient shift in establishment Repooflican politics, moving toward real FDR-style populism. Industrial policy, limiting immigration, encouraging one-income families. Supposedly some of the existing figures like Rubio and Hawley are moving in this direction. If this…
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Reprint on cultural dominance
Linked this 2017 piece in previous item. Worth a reprint if only because it’s smarter than anything I can write now. = = = = = START REPRINT: A couple days ago I tossed in a techy sidenote on UNARY VARIABLES, just as a random pointless pun: ANTI-WAR is the key. Left and right, liberal…
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Old problem, old solution
Denyse offers zero sympathy for the “problems” of Twitter: As we just saw, state attorneys general are suing Twitter for engaging in censorship. Meanwhile, Twitter is suing the government of India because it demands more censorship than Twitter is prepared to provide. In fact, governments worldwide had pressured Twitter to censor more, according to its…
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Clavecin oculaire, more ‘honest’
In the first item about the Clavecin Oculaire, I noted that my simulation was ‘dishonest’. I was simply coloring the individual strips of a display screen. This was physically impossible in 1740. It’s also too digital and precise. Writers who described Castel’s instrument disagreed on mechanical details, but agreed that the colors blended like music.…
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Getting into the act
I’ve been reading Ruth Moore’s wonderful book about fossils and fossil-gatherers. Today the weather decided to participate in my reading. Weathermen like to talk about historic storms… here’s a prehistoric storm. Despite the scary appearance, it didn’t DO much. No actual rain or lightning, just a nice cool breeze.
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Carrying AI in wheelbarrows
What’s going on here? This Thaler dude claims to have an AI system that creates inventions. Since 2019 he’s been filing lawsuits EVERYWHERE, from Germany to England to EU to South Africa to Australia to US. Thaler wants to be the owner of the patent himself, but wants the AI to be listed as the…
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The important story
Here is the important news story this week. The central bank of the EU has turned off the free money spigot. End of ZIRP and NIRP and QE. When money is loose, crime proliferates. It’s obvious at ground level: gold rushes, oil booms, cattle drives, postwar booms, Vegas. Whenever you have crowds carrying extra UNEARNED…
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Github and OCD
Random thought after wrestling with Audacity yet again. Every new version of every major program gets fussier and fussier about handling the STUFF IT’S SUPPOSED TO HANDLE. Browsers reject more and more file types and websites for “security”, even though I know AVG will handle REAL malware for me. I just tried to use Audacity…
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More delicious Chateau Schadenfreude
The headline is enough: Blockchain-powered Carbon Offset Company Starts 35000 Acre Forest Fire in Spain Musical accompaniment. Land Life is a carbon offset company that focuses on reforestation, and speaks about its “autonomous planting, remote monitoring and blockchain verification”. ‘Autonomous’ means ‘Equipment started fire with nobody on scene to put it out.’ ‘Remote monitoring’ means…
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Legacies
EnidBuzz posted a ‘memory’ picture of two ladies dressed up in silly style, riding banana bikes to work. Both worked at Sears, and they were doing the annual Crazy Day in 1968. Commenters had positive memories of the ladies and Sears. This one wins: I worked at Sears back in 1976 and knew Lucille, she…
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Just before the terror
Looking into the Clavecin Oculaire led to a broader view of French science just before the terrorist revolution turned “science” into the horrible unstoppable god of torture and war. The clavecin was a PLAYFUL USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE. The musicians and scientists who tried it out were HAVING FUN. Several other scientists and writers…
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Possible answer
Convective thought, triggered by the ascendance of Sunak as Boris’s replacement. Fact 1: In the last 10 years, immigrants from India have been filling the elite slots that were formerly held by Anglos and Jews. This is happening in NYC banking, in Silicon Valley tech, and in some parts of academia. Now the new elites…
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Sharing is meaningless
At least Evolution News isn’t playing the fake surprise game. They acknowledge that the habits of academia are permanent. Scientific progress is being impeded by a culture in which scientists jealously guard their research instead of sharing it. Keas says the problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years but isn’t a new one.…
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