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More Quirn Quibbles
Kirn’s latest pithy point: How many times have I heard it argued that God’s apparent silence argues for his non-existence? Well, mountains exist & they are silent, mostly. Indeed, I’ve come to feel that the most silent things around us exist more durably than the noisy ones, which merely come & go. Yes, but mere…
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Not always obvious…
Via Protos, a largely pro-bitcoin aggregator. Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s PAC of choice infused a record-breaking $11.3 million into political candidate Carrick Flynn, whose dramatic loss to Andrea Salinas in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s new 6th congressional district illustrates a hard-learned truth in American politics: wealth cannot guarantee political success. Just ask Michael Bloomberg,…
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Reveal was only half
Last year I did a series of posts on the lovable Metropolitan. In one item I focused on the door dip, which Nash called the ‘reveal’. = = = = = START REPRINT: A sharp rebuke from Lulu Meservey, one of the Substack executives. Technology is magical. But the language of technology has become generic…
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Brits understood demons
The Brits formerly understood the reality of bureaucracy and the nature of psychopaths better than we did. Parkinson was British. Orwell was British. Even the writers of TV and radio shows painted an accurate picture of demons. Brits are more honest about caste, and they aren’t blind to the FACT that PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT. Our…
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Make it look horrible
Kirn points out the cover of the latest Economist, which has returned to “Climate” Emergency as a brief break between “Virus” Emergencies. The cover is a stalk of wheat with skulls instead of grains. Horrible. (Kirn wasn’t really talking about the art itself, but some of his commenters brought out the connection.) This crystallized a…
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Metrology day 2022, AI version
Today is Metrology Day, but I’m trying to go for Entertainment and Enjoyment this year, so here’s a gathering of AI-generated nonsense from CookingFlavr.com. Is A Meter Long? A meter is a unit of length that is used to measure the distance between two points. The meter is also used as a unit of weight.…
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The muddlers are worse than the cancellers 3
Following on earlier item… The professional anti-cancel forces are at it again, turning a dubious case into a morality play. Some cancels may be genuinely unjust. When an exec has been following the CURRENT rules all the time, and gets fired for failing to predict TODAY’S craziness 30 years in advance, it’s unjust. But as…
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WPA spirit is still alive
Living in a Nazi state, I find it hard to imagine that any government can do anything constructive. Absolutely all state and city projects here are totally pointless and utterly destructive, even before the “virus” hoaxocaust. It’s good to be reminded that the sane Dixie states are carrying on the FDR tradition. Enid is building…
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Who invented the Like Button?
I’ve been pointing out that radio, especially shortwave, made it harder to constrain expression. SW always sneaks around borders and walls and jammers. But radio also made it harder to run a pay-for-value business. Subscriptions and customer service require either printed magazines sent to specific addresses, or a hard-wired communication system. Telegraph and telephone and…
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Elon notices detemporation
One of the things that Elon wants to fix in Twitter (if he’s serious, which is still a totally open question) is detemporation. I’ve been pointlessly whining about detemporation for quite a while. Facebook and Twitter aren’t the worst offenders, but they would be the easiest to fix. FB formerly showed all threads in time…
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Did you know?
Janelle at AIweirdness.com pointed to this endless cup of computerized silliness. CookingFlavr.com is a set of human questions answered by AI. Judging by the language and focus of the questions, it’s probably made in India. The top menu is food-oriented, but if you click on any of the questions you’ll see more categories, which are…
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Bravo for STRUCTURE.
I’ve been bitching about the 1990s switch from rational organized discourse to random chaotic psychopath discourse. In the modern torture chamber ordinary people are flayed. We’re accustomed to these rapid whiplashes, and our responses are also chaotic. Mainly we’re just numb, but when the cat-of-infinite-tails bashes one of our raw nerves, we screech and bite.…
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Harmless hooey
According to the date guide, today is Skeptics Day. Hmm. Is that right? I looked it up and first found sources saying that the real Skeptics Day is Jan 13. Hmm. Is that right? Other sources say the real Skeptics Day is Oct 13. Hmm. Is that right? The fact turns out to be more…
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Old saying
Wolf has been discussing and expertly graphing the boom and bust cycle. The central banks have finally reversed their boom-machine after 14 fucking years of insanity. Today he notes that the supply chain is starting to loosen up. It’s just the old saying, High prices are the cure for high prices. … But the saying…
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Literal underground communication
Sixth and last in a vaguely defined series on obscure spy tech, after SCR-268 and Tenzor and Peilempfänger and Kleinstpeilempfänger and Keinpeilempfänger. = = = = = Encryption and secrecy are the natural default for language. We communicate with our family or tribe or army, and we DO NOT WANT other families or tribes or…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 