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Woke or rogue?
The tiny handful of realists who are ALSO realistic about Bitcoin are having a grand old time with the rapping Power Couple who hacked and laundered a massive quantity of Bitcoin. Theoretically the amount they moved would be worth 4 billion dollars if you could convert it to actual money, which of course you couldn’t.…
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Too late
Batya: Do not normalize what we’re seeing here: the leaders of democratic countries casting striking workers and nonviolent protestors as terrorists and using state violence to break up a nonviolent labor strike in order to protect commerce. Too late. It may not be normal but it’s a deep American tradition. Lincoln created a new “normal”…
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Non-stupid philosophers!
Here’s a nice contrast to the stupid philosophers mentioned previously. Most discussion of consciousness is based on utterly meaningless wordsalad like “There is something it is like”. This discussion of insect awareness gets down to a definable and measurable concept of subjective experience, which is not the same thing as simple consciousness. What does the…
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Someone, not Something
I linked this 2016 observation in previous item to illustrate the sense that SOMETHING was moving in 2015 and 2016. This wasn’t the best illustration of my vague sense, but it turns out to be a prophetic view of the SOMEONE who was returning to power. The SOMEONE is perfectly obvious now. = = =…
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Good old 1975
There are several major inflection points in the history of Deepstate. 1913 was the birth of modern Deepstate, as Wilson brought the existing corporate Deepstate into government, funded it, and endowed it with lethal force. In 1921 Harding paused the growth but didn’t break the power structure. In 1933 FDR broke all three pillars of…
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Extinct chords
Singing used to be universal. Everybody knew how to sing, and performers could count on an audience to sing together accurately if not in complex harmony. When competence starts early, extreme expertise gets a head start. I was discussing this point in journalism, and it also applies to music. With skills that require practice, a…
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A sharp rebuke to drabness
A sharp rebuke from Lulu Meservey, one of the Substack executives. Technology is magical. But the language of technology has become generic and sterile: “User” “Creator” “Device” “Content” We should go back to the days of Greek and Latin: “Television” (far-seeing) “ Automobile” (self-moving) “Facsimile” (made alike) Words that sound magical. = = = =…
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Who’s dumber?
Who’s dumber, philosophers or tweakers? Finalist for the philosophers: The “philosopher’s zombie” is an imagined creature exactly like you or me, but with a crucial ingredient – consciousness – missing. He does everything he is supposed to do but experiences nothing inside. In step two, Chalmers argues that if you can conceive of the zombie,…
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From an extremely different era 17
A 1950 ‘meet the press’ style program had 5 reporters talking with Betty Hutton. Atypically the preserved recording is an uncut version, with frequent ‘offstage’ pauses where the reporters try to figure out who goes next, or check with Hutton to see if a question is acceptable. She had an interesting life. Like most reporters…
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Returning OJT
Batya’s message about the failure of modern “journalism” is focused on Experiential Education. She tirelessly repeats that journalism was previously a TRADE, learned on the job. Since the Watergate Coup journalism has been a THEORETICAL ABSTRACTION learned in grad school. I’ve been tirelessly repeating the same historical switch in the field of science. The change…
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Ringing words
A good sharp paragraph from Kirn: There are things against which even the concerted leveling of brute force is powerless. Beauty. A mystical epiphany. True prowess in some difficult endeavor. The ring of the right word. It’s those things which civilization must protect if it’s to be worthy of the name. I’ve been saying a…
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Random thought about Vimeo
As I watch various platforms competing for the Rogan crowd, I started wondering what happened to Vimeo. It was big before Youtube, and remained a solid contender and competitor for a long time. In the early years Vimeo had a reputation for independence. Vimeo was THE place where offbeat producers could stay online after Youtube…
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Nash puzzle
Found in a 1947 radio station brochure from WKNE in New Hampshire. The article is about a local Nash dealer who uses radio ads to advantage. The front car is unquestionably a new ’47. The car behind is harder to see. Some Googling leads me to think it’s a ’38 Ambassador, mainly because of the…
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Sort of halfway self-solving
Wolf’s latest item about credit includes some disheartening stats. Earlier it appeared that Americans were taking advantage of the Federal blood money to reduce their credit card debt. Now they’re doing the opposite. Wolf also includes a simple chart of college debt. Unlike most graphs that go exponential under the demonic influence of the exponential…
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Constants and Variables 169
More from the trust-inducing 2/2/51 news report, which was ordinary mainstream CBS output at the time. This story deserves respectful verbatim transcription. Note the literary level as well as the content…… = = = = = With all the troubles that beset us, and perhaps more to come, this is an inevitable corollary. The AP…
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