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Halfway meaningful
You may be a winner! We get a constant flow of notices for class action payouts. Most pertain to some product we never used. This one is somewhat relevant. Anthropic AI reached a settlement with a class group of authors, paying everyone whose book was in LibraryGenesis. I’m coauthor of two books in this group,…
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Small and large mother-in-law / Cadillac
Small MIL/Caddy: Trump to Close Voice of America’s Overseas Offices and Radio Stations. The push to close the offices appears to contradict a federal judge’s order from April, which required Trump officials to resume operations at V.O.A. Cadillac: I hate to see any shortwave station abandoned. I used to enjoy shortwave. Mother-in-law: VOA never fulfilled…
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Cover, not grooves
Headline at NewScientist: We can finally hear the long hidden music of the stone age. First response to the headline: I’ve wondered about this for a long time. There’s some evidence that pottery made on wheels preserves sound made while the pot was being shaped. The pot is basically a dictaphone cylinder and the thumbs…
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Monthly fuckup
It’s the start of a new month, so NATURALLY WordPress is required to fuck things up by injecting a new bug cocktail. New bug injections are mandatory for tech firms. Every month they come up with a new way to frustrate and annoy the PAYING CUSTOMERS. This time WP has decided to leave out the…
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XII gaming
Seen at Substack, verified by an archeology book. These mysterious dodecahedrons were fairly common in the northern part of the Roman empire, from Britain to Germany. Theories abound but nobody is certain of their purpose. They were about 4 inches in diameter, with 12 sides. Each side had a hole, each a different size. My…
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That’s exactly the problem
Columbia Journalism Review takes an inside look at Kirn’s ‘County Highway’ publication. They focus on the close connection with RFK, which happened after I stopped reading it. I subscribed at first, hoping it would have the qualities of a real newspaper. After reading the first two editions, I decided it fails the test in every…
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Winter is here!
Winter is here! Caught me by surprise. Fortunately all the current errands are done.
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Dogs hate it (reprint from 2023)
Generative AI is securitized IP. It’s identical to those Mortgage-Backed Securities that blew up in 2008. Suck up a million real houses and farms, mix the debt together into batter, bake it, slice the cake into a million pieces, each containing a hologram of the originals without any way of identifying the original property. Sell…
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Not convinced it’s better
After one week with this new Win 11 computer, I’ve managed to work around SOME of the stupid shit, but it’s still a worse machine in every way than the old Win 7 computer. Every program starts slower, runs slower, and places more obstacles in my path. Linux is not the answer. My most important…
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Miniature orrery
Here’s a rare and wondrous example of science as Carver defined it. Look closely at the THINGS THAT ARE HERE. Notice something new. Let it talk to you. Don’t look at abstractions in your own mind, or abstractions in the religious beliefs of your funding agency. Abstractions are not THINGS and they are not HERE.…
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Reprinting Ferguson’s orrery
Reprint from 2021, triggered by previous item about ancient mitochondria. Are mitochondria the sensors for universal magnetic influence? Is Solarion the original orrery? = = = = = Picking up from previous post on James Ferguson. Previously I showed a couple of science entertainments using static fields to drive gadgets. Ferguson’s main focus was orreries…
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Shovels
The Genesis Mission is touted as a new A-bomb project. Not a good comparison in either direction. On the destructive side: We used the actual bomb twice on Japan, where it did less damage than our old-fashioned firebombing. Thermite destroyed far more of Japan than uranium. The Tech Tyrants want us to see AI in…
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For the 1000000000000000000th time
Random thought on my endlessly repeated theme. I was writing this as a comment elsewhere, then decided to write it here instead. The bolded part seems like a new way of phrasing the WINNING combination. None of our idiot politicians can REMEMBER their own best example, the most electable president in history, the only president…
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Same principles
Lile Mo is building a book at Substack, deriving lessons for civilization by telling how each Chinese city used its own resources and skills to monopolize an area of commerce. From her latest note: The highest value land is not found; it is made. This transformation is not accidental; it is the result of the…
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Software isn’t the variable
Digital technology gets too much credit and too much blame. People do what they’re inclined to do, and they use whatever technology is available. Current examples: 1. A Biden admin lawsuit against RealPage rent collusion software was weakened by the Trump admin. It won’t make much difference. Landlords ALWAYS collude to keep rent high. They…
Polistra's Mill
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