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The opposite of self-liquidating
Lately I’ve been somewhat fascinated by the use of interactive quizzes and ‘self-liquidating premiums’ in radio and other advertising. Smart marketers were able to gain permanent conversion to a product by offering small tokens or premiums, which were fully paid by the customer. NFTs are so horrible that they can’t serve as a self-liquidating premium!…
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Mao in action
From Canada: It’s official. Trudeau’s meeting with provincial agriculture ministers wrapped up yesterday. He is moving forward with a 30% fertilizer reduction. Farms will fail, land will he purchased by billionaires/the government, and people will starve. Farmers are rising up today. = = = = = This is pure explicit genocide, pure Mao, pure Pol…
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Double miss
Somebody on Twitter quoted Chomsky. [I don’t know if this is accurate, just copying what I read…] Chomsky: The US is living under a totalitarian culture much worse than Soviet Union. Soviet Russia could access BBC, Voice of America, German TV. Today Americans are not permitted to hear what Russians are saying. The US has…
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Entertainment spawns entertainment
From Gerard and Castor’s record of bitcoin idiocy: But Zhu and Davies have been telling the public — especially their creditors — how they lost money too, how they fear for their lives, and how they are so overwhelmed that they can’t turn over banking information just yet, but they’ll get to that soon, for…
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Intersection of old and new
Latest upload at American Radio Library is some 1978 issues of Practical Computing, the British equivalent of Byte. I was struck by the intersection of old and new. The technical new in 1978 didn’t really go anywhere. Commodore, Atari, Sinclair, Cromemco, Z80, Basic, Pascal. Contrary to the official myth written by Jobs, none of those…
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Where’s the advertising?
I’m genuinely puzzled about this mismatch of advertising and reality. Not disingenuous or sardonic. Some writers claim to see an incipient shift in establishment Repooflican politics, moving toward real FDR-style populism. Industrial policy, limiting immigration, encouraging one-income families. Supposedly some of the existing figures like Rubio and Hawley are moving in this direction. If this…
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Reprint on cultural dominance
Linked this 2017 piece in previous item. Worth a reprint if only because it’s smarter than anything I can write now. = = = = = START REPRINT: A couple days ago I tossed in a techy sidenote on UNARY VARIABLES, just as a random pointless pun: ANTI-WAR is the key. Left and right, liberal…
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Old problem, old solution
Denyse offers zero sympathy for the “problems” of Twitter: As we just saw, state attorneys general are suing Twitter for engaging in censorship. Meanwhile, Twitter is suing the government of India because it demands more censorship than Twitter is prepared to provide. In fact, governments worldwide had pressured Twitter to censor more, according to its…
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Clavecin oculaire, more ‘honest’
In the first item about the Clavecin Oculaire, I noted that my simulation was ‘dishonest’. I was simply coloring the individual strips of a display screen. This was physically impossible in 1740. It’s also too digital and precise. Writers who described Castel’s instrument disagreed on mechanical details, but agreed that the colors blended like music.…
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Getting into the act
I’ve been reading Ruth Moore’s wonderful book about fossils and fossil-gatherers. Today the weather decided to participate in my reading. Weathermen like to talk about historic storms… here’s a prehistoric storm. Despite the scary appearance, it didn’t DO much. No actual rain or lightning, just a nice cool breeze.
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Carrying AI in wheelbarrows
What’s going on here? This Thaler dude claims to have an AI system that creates inventions. Since 2019 he’s been filing lawsuits EVERYWHERE, from Germany to England to EU to South Africa to Australia to US. Thaler wants to be the owner of the patent himself, but wants the AI to be listed as the…
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The important story
Here is the important news story this week. The central bank of the EU has turned off the free money spigot. End of ZIRP and NIRP and QE. When money is loose, crime proliferates. It’s obvious at ground level: gold rushes, oil booms, cattle drives, postwar booms, Vegas. Whenever you have crowds carrying extra UNEARNED…
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Github and OCD
Random thought after wrestling with Audacity yet again. Every new version of every major program gets fussier and fussier about handling the STUFF IT’S SUPPOSED TO HANDLE. Browsers reject more and more file types and websites for “security”, even though I know AVG will handle REAL malware for me. I just tried to use Audacity…
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More delicious Chateau Schadenfreude
The headline is enough: Blockchain-powered Carbon Offset Company Starts 35000 Acre Forest Fire in Spain Musical accompaniment. Land Life is a carbon offset company that focuses on reforestation, and speaks about its “autonomous planting, remote monitoring and blockchain verification”. ‘Autonomous’ means ‘Equipment started fire with nobody on scene to put it out.’ ‘Remote monitoring’ means…
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Legacies
EnidBuzz posted a ‘memory’ picture of two ladies dressed up in silly style, riding banana bikes to work. Both worked at Sears, and they were doing the annual Crazy Day in 1968. Commenters had positive memories of the ladies and Sears. This one wins: I worked at Sears back in 1976 and knew Lucille, she…
Polistra's Mill
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