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The biggest divide
Aside from the obvious male vs female, the widest and most permanent divide is risk takers vs risk avoiders. This divide started LONG before humans or mammals, so in the grand scheme it’s deeper than male vs female. Every life form including bacteria has bold and timid types. Men and women can often understand or…
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Hollywood starting to get it?
Rushfield at The Ankler interviews Jon Glickman, head of Miramax, who claims to be optimistic about the future of entertainment. My first thought was: Related to Dan? Yes, Jon is Dan’s son. I met Dan a few times when I was politically active in Kansas in the 80s. I didn’t know that Dan moved out…
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Returning to analog the wrong way
Seen on the post office reddit. Package-claiming scams are universal online. Now somebody is bringing the package trick back to analog! The card looks just like a post office notice of failed delivery, but it wants you to call a non-toll-free number instead of a local post office number. It’s good to see that carriers…
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Return to local
“Journalists” are trying to create new “local” media, which means new copy-paste outlets for DNC and new LBOs for private equity predators. The same “journalists” complain that video media like Youtube and Tiktok are overcentralized. As fucking always they’ve got it backwards. Fortunately humans no longer listen or watch the perfectly centralized “journalists”. We’re too…
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Another smart idea!
Railbuses were fairly common in the 30s as a form of interurban. They had regular tires for roads, and a controllable hydraulic system to lower rail wheels for running on rails. They could jump onto the track at a level crossing, run on the track for longer distances, then jump off and get around town.…
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Why they hate it
For months I’ve been gaining knowledge and inspiration from Sherri Olson’s second book. Recently I bought her first book on the same subject. It’s less interesting for my purposes. The first book is highly quantitative with detailed lists and analyses of peasants who served as jurors or committed crimes or practiced trades. In science jargon…
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A GREAT hero has died.
Via the TV station where he spent his career, Gary England has died. He saved more lives than most politicians and CEOs have killed. He was the first weatherman to use doppler radar, and spent his life educating and organizing people about tornados and severe weather. If there’s a heaven, Gary England is now in…
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Elon = Jim Farley
Listening to old and new podcasts on the Post Office, I’m somewhat immersed in postal lore. The immersion led to a connection. Elon’s role as chief campaigner for Trump is NOT new. More broadly, the Tech Tyrants have replaced the Postmaster General, formerly a ‘patronage’ office. Presidents appointed their chief campaigner as Postmaster. The most…
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United Cheapskates
Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2023 REPRINT: All US automakers of any size had a Canadian division at one time or another. We branched in other countries less regularly. Our Canadian products were different in two ways from our US cars. (1) More variety. (2) More practical and…
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Smart idea
CBC interviewed a Canadian businessman with a sharp idea. Canada should have its own car company. It would help to give the nation a commercial purpose, a source of pride. There’s no technical or physical reason why not. Canadian car factories are still as active as ever, and Canada has steel producers and most other…
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Storefrontizing
I doubt this is a specific policy, but it’s still an interesting development. Via Enid Buzz, the county district attorney is moving into the old Anthonys department store on the downtown square. Anthonys was the only department store where I enjoyed shopping. I still use a kitchen knife bought there in 1974. Anthonys was ruthlessly…
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Cursed weight vs sacred weight, 1 of 2
= = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 3 = = = = = Reading some medieval descriptions of weights and measures, noticed that one weight was prohibited by the king and cursed by the archbishop. It was called auncel or aunsell weight. The permitted or blessed balance was generally called the Roman balance. Why…
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The Foy Rebellion HAS ARRIVED.
Headline: Art majors beat computer majors. = = = = = START QUOTE: For computer science and computer engineering, the unemployment rate in those fields was 6.1% and 7.5%, respectively — notably higher than the national average. Finance majors were 3.7%. By comparison, the unemployment rate for art history majors was 3%, and for nutritional…
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QC for advocates
The opposition party in Canada lost its support when Trudeau and Carney suddenly started doing the right thing. At the time I said that Poilievre should have declared victory and gone home. New thought: With real products, hardware or software, you don’t declare victory after the product launches and starts selling. At that point you…
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It’s all about the schnitzels
CBC interviews an author who spent time among the Tech Tyrants and wrote a book about them. He focuses on yachts as the ultimate status symbol, the ultimate way of competing with other rich fuckheads. They don’t care much about the features, even though most gigayachts have things like saunas and Imax movie theaters. The…
Polistra's Mill
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