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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…
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Infill coincidence?
On this morning’s walk, after a GOOD sleep that got my brain back in gear, I was noticing a pattern in some of the familiar sights. From 2008 to 2021 there were several Infills in the neighborhood. Vacant houses were expanded into McMansions. Long-vacant lots got new houses, and three big lots were subdivided formally…
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Not that complicated.
Compact Mag, always overthinking, describes Elon’s departure as a failed alliance of two classes against the “clerisy”. Nope. Trump and Elon don’t represent any groups or classes at all. Representing is EMPHATICALLY NOT what a psychopath does. The alliance and its breakup can be fully explained by three qualities of psychopaths. 1. A psychopath doesn’t…
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Didn’t need SEO.
I was singing this song today, and decided to see if it’s available on the web. Sure enough. BC Clark is a brand that doesn’t need a search engine. Everyone in Oklahoma knew their jingle and stored it in our internal playlists forever. The last time I heard it on TV was in 1980. Unsurprisingly,…
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A good result of AI?
I can’t judge if this is true. I’m nowhere near the world of brand influence and SEO. I’m more of an effluencer than an influencer. If this is true, it may be the first GOOD result of AI. The author, a marketer, says that Google’s AI-based search imposes more discipline on companies. They won’t be…
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Latin note
Random language note while I’m thinking of it… Sherri Olson’s books on medieval England are full of quotes from village documents, always including both the actual text and the modern version. The court rolls were mostly in Latin, and church services were also in Latin. Villagers took part in the courts often, monthly in some…
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