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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…
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Nice graph humor
Here’s a truly funny piece of graphic wisdom. Most graphs violate this rule. More numbers and more lines DO NOT convey more information. The most common example is polls that show percent approve vs percent disapprove, or percent R vs percent D, as perfectly mirrored lines. Only one of the lines is necessary. The mirror…
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No quibble this time
Kirn gets a bit too ethereal at times, but here he’s rigorously and strictly practical: Free speech is a property right. It is the right to bring to market, in a form that can be valued & used in trade, the products of your own thinking & inner life. To unduly inhibit people’s speech is…
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Ran across this
THEY KNOW IT’S A HOAX BECAUSE THEY MADE THE HOAX … has been true for centuries. Machiavelli and Parkinson exposed it, and nothing changed. While looking for something else I ran across this 1960 letter from Theodore White. He deserves RAW VICIOUS CONTEMPT because he knew the whole thing was a fucking fraud and CONTINUED…
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Betaverse
Trying to be charitable again… What’s new about Zuck’s metaverse? The uncharitable answer is that it’s just an advertising slogan, not a real project or activity. Charitably: Even if it’s a real project it’s neither new nor meaningful. Imagined universes have always been part of human experience. From church to sports to books to radio…
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More rambling on UATX
Most of our institutions are stuck in a Parkinsonian positive feedback loop, often without any real reason. Corporations and universities and media channels keep punching and torturing and strangling their customers, and then they wonder why their customers are running away. Life is negative feedback. If the current path is leading to failure, try something…
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Locustation (reprint from 2015)
Ran into this 2015 item while looking for a different href. It’s a BIG thought, possibly correct, and I’d forgotten it entirely. = = = = = START REPRINT: Thinking again about ‘fight like a plant’, and mixing with my observations about the One Necessary War (ie WW2) and the need for hardass propaganda to…
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Process about process
The world of pure abstraction seems to be falling down, at least in the economic realm. No mystery about the cause. Since 2008 all the central banks have been pumping false “value” directly into the stock market, with a final huge blowup “justified” by the fake “virus” holocaust in 2020. Now the central banks have…
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Carver. Carver. Carver.
Listening to Nesbitt’s ‘Passing Parade’ episode on the development of the giant Palomar telescope. Hale was a rich heir who took up astronomy. He used up his father’s money on building bigger and bigger scopes, and then learned how to lobby other rich men and foundations and governments for more and more money to build…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 