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More sleep, more memory
An article at UncommonDescent was mocking sci-fi writers for inadequate imagination. There’s a zero percent chance that aliens would look like humans with only slight differences, like Mr Spock’s ears. I commented that good sci-fi authors did try to imagine genuinely strange aliens, and added that even sci-fi toys were more imaginative than Spock. I…
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It’s a better fit than you think
Skeptics are alarmed this morning about the latest censorship. A small university in England has placed a trigger warning on 1984. Doing just what the book warned us against? Yes, but in a more subtle and deeper way. Orwell emphasized the caste distinction between Inner Party and Outer Party and Proles. We have the same…
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Actions, not words
Listened again to Lindsay MacHarrie’s dramatization of the Cardiff Giant story. In 1869 George Hull, a skeptic with plenty of money, was arguing with a pastor about the Giants mentioned in the Bible. Hull hired a sculptor to make a huge gypsum man, carefully aged it, and buried it on his brother-in-law’s farm. Hull got…
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Sputnik again
Randomly wandering again through the old Computers and Automation mags at Bitsavers. In 1956, ran into a single statistic that activated my Sputnik gene. Statistic: Average number of students in class: USSR 19 or 20 and decreasing. USA 34 or 35 and increasing. = = = = = I can verify that 35 was not…
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Corporate personhood
The fiction that a corporation is a person usually serves to make life easier for evil corporations. Judge Alsup takes it seriously. First, reprinting from 2019. = = = = = START PARTIAL REPRINT: In an age of infinitely fake outrage and fake action and fake every fucking thing, it’s hugely refreshing to see genuine…
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Caring is prelude to slaughter
Saagar is shocked at the horrible cruelty of an NBA billionaire who refuses to care about the fate of Uyghurs. I have no sympathy or empathy for billionaires, but this one happens to be correct. It’s not natural to CARE about people who live halfway around the world. It’s natural to care about our family…
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The stupidest man in the world
Admittedly this is a far larger competition than Sanest Man, but here’s one convincing finalist. A professor in England is worrying about the moral implications of “virtual characters”. The question is actually moot, though. If we create our characters to be free-thinking beings, then we must treat them as if they are such – regardless…
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Sanest man in the world
Reported at Spokane News Facebook page: Sprague and Howard. Reported Male going from pothole to pothole to pothole, licking all of them.
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The real threat to artists
Sailer is appropriately mocking a major museum’s Woke cancelling of Rembrandt. As usual it’s guilt by multi-level association. Rembrandt lived in Holland at a time when Holland was a major colonial power, conquering tribes in the Caribbean and Indonesia. He didn’t conquer or enslave anyone, he just made money from the aristocrats who were profiting…
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Abstractification
Kirn points out that journalism is now purely involuted, purely about other journalism. The trend started a long time ago. It seemed to coincide with the rebirth of Deepstate in 1946. Before the switch, radio news was realistic, and radio entertainment was empathetic. You could recognize real events in the news, and you could recognize…
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Reprint from March 2018.
I linked this item earlier. It’s worth a complete reprint. Note especially the five-letter word beginning with V. = = = = = START REPRINT: Via CNN demon: When John Dowd quit this week as lead counsel on Trump’s legal team and the President made an effort to recruit “deep state” conspiracy theorist and conservative…
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Demonically clever
The D side of Deepstate wasn’t able to take down DeSantis, for unknown reasons. Perhaps it’s practical politics. Half of Florida is NYC retirees and escapees, who are clearly happy to be living under a SANE governor. The D side didn’t want to offend those NYC types. So they assigned Trump to do the job.…
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Neat graph
The Tonga eruption sent out a shockwave in the air as well as an underwater wave. A meteorologist in Iowa created an animated graph showing the wave passing over the entire US from west to east, based on sudden changes in barometer readings.
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The getter
A sharp comment from Greenwald. The monomaniacal focus on Trump – treating him as the cause of all US evils rather than a symptom, pretending nobody before did what he did – created a sort of magical penance: just oppose Trump and all your past evils are washed away and you’re reborn with a cable…
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Arnades of Christmas Past
Looking through American Radio History as usual, trying for some nostalgic connection with WIBW, my nocturnal input in the ’50s. In one of WIBW’s program guides from ’55, found this intriguing brief item. During the recent snowstorm we had an interesting personality visit our staff. Walter E. Divine, with long hair and beard, is riding…
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