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Opposite of news
In previous item I made a note about my attempt to favor information and avoid repeating the repeated. This shouldn’t be strange; this is exactly what our nervous system does at all levels. Find and focus on the new and unusual. The old definitions of news were also natural. The word itself is just a…
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It’s Pi Day!
Polistra and Happystar celebrate National Pi Day with a formal proof! = = = = = Sidenote: After this I posted a sort of followup to the Phlogiston item with some old info about eclipses that struck me as an interesting ‘debunk’. After more thinking, I realized it wasn’t interesting and didn’t disprove any conventional…
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Constants and variables 171
On 3/11/2022 Obersturmbannführer Inslee started another brief reprieve from ballgags. Finishing the current two-year contract, 3/11 to 3/11. It doesn’t matter a whole lot to me, because the buses are still strangling me, and the stores weren’t enforcing the rule. The change does allow a better measurement of public insanity. Previously, Obersturmbannführer Inslee gave us…
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Phlogiston wasn’t stupid at all
I hope Google doesn’t start censoring its Books department. All VALID ideas and CORRECT facts were written before the 20th century. Pretty much everything written since 1906 is either trivial or intentionally murderously false. Censoring new ideas is usually a net gain of real knowledge, whether the new ideas are ‘establishment’ or ‘independent’. Before Googlebooks,…
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When industries submerge
This British Youtuber covers some of the same old tech areas that I cover, with the same general attitude. He doesn’t go as far back in time, but he goes much deeper than I do. In this clip he tells about the mysterious re-emergence of tape cassettes in recent years. How did they get underway…
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New GenRad toy, 1/2
I started collecting GenRad equipment as a sort of tribute to proper analog measurement, and as a specific apology to GenRad itself for favoring Bruel & Kjaer during my time in academia. GenRad equipment was solid, rugged, easy to handle. BK was Danish, with the typical Kraut qualities. More precise than anything else under precise…
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New GenRad toy 2/2
Last year I bought an incomplete GenRad octave analyzer, as part of my overall move back to analog stuff. This machine is especially rare and useful, so it’s worth fixing. The microphone is missing, and I’ve been watching Ebay since then, hoping to grab up the mic or another ‘parts car’. So far no mic,…
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Nature wants us to match wits
Via UncommonDescent, a spider develops fiendishly clever strategies for catching and eating another spider. One group of jumping spiders, Portia, lures female spiders of another species (Eurytattus) to their deaths by mimicking the way a courting male spider shakes her nest and then attacking. They also attack web-building spiders by mimicking the tug on the…
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Always more
There’s more than meets the eye in every story, and “journalists” rarely get down to the real story. This has ALWAYS been true; it’s vastly worse in the current purely partisan era. This is ESPECIALLY true in every firing of a teacher or executive. There’s always a real reason behind the “ideology” or “sexual harassment”…
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Partial answer to Harding question
I’ve been asking over and over how we got OUT of perpetual war and Deepstate tyranny in 1920. From 1920 to 1940, Deepstate was NOT creating “terrorist” groups, and both the media and the government were firmly non-interventionist. Harding started the trend and FDR solidified it. How was Deepstate suppressed? Deepstate has three legs: (1)…
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Deeper itch
After randomly mentioning Tablet Magazine and Kirn yesterday, I ended up watching this long and splendid interview again. Kirn and Liel Leibovitz are talking to young elites who are just now realizing they’ve been swindled by their own leaders. The solution is to fuck the Establishment and find your own way. Kirn’s praise for the…
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Kirn and McIntyre, even closer
A while back I compared Walter Kirn with Oscar Odd McIntyre. = = = = = START REPRINT: It struck me that Kirn’s short takes on Twitter are a close modern equivalent of McIntyre’s short takes in print. I tried to find more of McIntyre’s real columns, without luck. Though part of his work was…
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We need a Nuremberg.
I was stupidly hoping that TSA would actually keep their promise this time. Back in August they extended the ballgags until March 18, 2022. In January they reconfirmed March 18. As the deadline approached, I prayed and hoped that they wouldn’t push it out again. Hope is poison in Hell. NAZI TORTURERS never keep a…
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Is this a new trend?
In my WPA series I mentioned that the Post Office formerly provided banking services, which were heavily used by poor people because the PO was more convenient and less snobbish than actual banks. Via Vice mag, Congress has just passed a law that will IMPROVE the post office, allowing it to offer a range of…
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Interesting idea but needs improvement
In politics, Big Tent usually means rigid orthodoxy. Tablet magazine is starting up a subscription service for people who want to ask detailed questions about religion. They’re calling it The Tent, but so far it’s a mighty narrow tent. Their answerers include 4 rabbis, 3 Muslim chaplains, 2 Episcopal priestesses, 2 Hindus, 1 Orthodox priest,…
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