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They also understand
At least in writing and movies, Brits understand the psychopathic type, while Americans don’t. It’s reassuring to see that Canadians also understand. Kirsten Hillman, Canadian ambassador to DC, grasps the type perfectly and accurately, and best of all she knows the right way to HANDLE a psychopath. Don’t respond to every new insult and switchback.…
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Nash trivia
1. Nash built 4wd vehicles three separate times. First from 1916 to 1920. When Charles Nash bought Jeffery to start his own company, Jeffery’s best-selling product was the unique Quad truck, with 4wd and 4-wheel steering. The military bought plenty of them for WW1, and Nash kept production going under his own name until the…
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Hack-proof is impossible.
Supposedly China has used “quantum” computing to set up a hack-proof satellite linking China with South Africa. (The C and S of BRICS.) There’s no such thing as hack-proof. There are thousands of well-established ways to encrypt a message. None of them are hack-proof if the channel can be physically intercepted. Avoiding physical interception is…
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Fucking up everything
In previous item I mentioned that the Hudsons Bay Company had been the first explorer of the Columbia basin around here. Now it turns out that Trump is fucking with the Columbia along with every other damn thing. The Columbia starts in BC and flows into Wash, then turns west toward the ocean. Water is…
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Landmark dies
Hudsons Bay Company, a historical landmark, is closing down. Another victim of the endless march of globalizing and financializing. HBC is the oldest company in North America by definition. At the start it WAS the British part of North America. Most of Canada and US except the east coast were controlled by HBC. It was…
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Grocery analogy
Thinking about social media vs other selective experiences. Substack is absolutely tiring, and I only spend a few minutes at a time before I can’t take it any more. Quora is much less tiring. Both have lots of crap I don’t want and a little valuable reading material. Why is one better? Comparing with other…
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Itemizing national pride
Interesting piece at TheHub on how Canadian wine drinkers can stop buying US wine. His first suggestion is excellent. The rain-shadow zone of BC is identical in climate and soil to the rain-shadow part of Washington. Any grape that grows around Wenatchee will also grow around Kelowna. The author says BC does have some vineyards…
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Same thing but more specialized
What Trump is doing now is the same sort of thing he did in 2020, but much more narrowly specialized. Both times he ruined normal people and rewarded devils. In his first term, especially in 2020, he shut down everything except the tech tyrants and enriched the tech tyrants. The effect was broad, including Bezos…
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Wish I’d said it…
Saw a splendidly succinct proverb in an online meme: The opposite of depression is expression. I normally say it two ways, both less succinct. MAKE. WALK. Men need to make things. If they can’t make things they will break things. Graybill said it in ornate 1880 style: The people of Free-Trade countries are therefore driven…
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We need equipoise
I linked these items as examples of professional criminals misusing math as a culprit. Rehashing both together. = = = = = START 2022 REHASH: Bitcoiners constantly say they’re letting math rule. Math is god, math is supreme, math is unarguable. Nope. They’ve kicked math out of the house. Math is always formed in equations.…
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More Hudson trivia
A couple more Hudson trivia items. 1. I was wondering if Neals Motors in Australia was just a dealer who modified the cars, or a manufacturer. They definitely modified some trucks into Aussie-style utes. The answer is here. Neals was an assembly plant with a large factory. Presumably they didn’t cast and forge the parts,…
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Canada keeps doing the right thing
New PM Mark Carney is enacting some changes immediately to aid Canada’s industry and consumers. He’s repealing the destructive Carbon Tax. Carney is a pure bankster and WEFoid, and he strongly supported the Carbon nonsense before, but now he’s getting rid of it. Commentators point out that Carney won’t necessarily be in office for long;…
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Judge doing his job for once!
JUDGE Alsup of the District Court in Calif has summarily ordered the Elon administration to retract its firing of all federal workers. Alsup is the only JUDGE. He knows the law and applies the law, no matter which side wins. JUDGE Alsup blocked Green loonies when they broke the law, and he blocks Elon when…
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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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Don’t spoil a good thing
A grammarian type on Substack is complaining that da yoots are calling LP records “vinyls”. I used to worry about such things because I’m a natural proofreader, and I used to “correct” people. I finally learned to stop. “Correction” is ALWAYS counterproductive. It doesn’t work and it only irritates the pig. You can’t apply logic…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 