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Omission vs commission
The most effective propaganda is omissive, not commissive. Example: One of the tech-sponsored websites was trying to steer Americans away from Tiktok and Rednote. They highlighted some Americans who ran afoul of Chinese censors banning a thread that was pro-LGBTQA2ABCDEF. See? Red Communist Atheist Godless Marxist China is imprisoned, we are free! What’s omitted: Our…
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Wait for the dust
Trump has written some nice-sounding executive orders, pulling us out of the Paris Climate Hoax and the World Hitler Organization. He revoked the destructive “green” “new” “deal”, which is good, but he ALSO stopped the Biden admin’s quiet unadvertised restoration of some REAL New Deal policies by replacing Lina Khan. The latter action is real.**…
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High-quality joke
Fine joke from upjoke.com. A Baptist preacher sits next to a cowboy on a flight. After the plane takes off, the cowboy asks for a whiskey and soda, which is promptly brought and placed before him. The flight attendant then asks the preacher if he would like a drink. Appalled, the preacher replies, “I’d rather…
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No need to read Machiavelli.
Here’s the end goal of Mach’ian rulers, all wrapped up in one nice little sentence. Do not buy the $TRUMP coin/con. If it isn’t Bitcoin, it is a scam. Brand A scam says “avoid the Brand B scammers, stick with honest Brand A”. Brand B scam says “avoid the Brand A scammers, stick with honest…
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More anniversaries
Jan 20 is one of my anniversary dates. = = = = = PARTIAL REPRINT: When I got out of prison, my first experience with independent life was in this duplex in Stillwater. I restarted college on Jan 20, 1970. My Zenith Trans-Oceanic helped to pull me out of the walls and back into the…
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Same reason as before
Continued thought about Tiktok, Rednote, etc. As I noted yesterday, the net provides REAL opportunities for people in different countries to get to know each other. This has been happening for years, especially on video-oriented media like Youtube. It shouldn’t be a surprise that American and Chinese youngsters are meeting and talking and learning about…
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Satisfying metaphor
A dream this morning formed a metaphor. I had finished one piece of a courseware project … [this is true, not a metaphor] … and told the maid to send out the result. [THE MAID? WHERE DID SHE COME FROM? I’VE NEVER HAD A MAID!] Later I checked the mailbox and saw that the maid…
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Banning humanity
I got curious about the actual “law” involved in banning Tiktok. The Supremes decision starts with some facts that SHOULD make a normal person see why the ban is stupid and wildly counterproductive. = = = = = START QUOTE: TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to create, publish, view, share, and…
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Another notch down
Substack has descended another notch. Now it’s solely occupied by two types of people: (1) Bible quoters who think that a random passage of Begats is an urgent message with universal relevance. (2) Literary snobs who are mourning an actor (or something) named David Lynch. Judging by the picture they’re all using, Lynch’s talent was…
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Can’t sympathize
Taylor Lorenz is bitching that the Tiktok shutdown closes off an important channel for young Democrats. She cites impressive stats about Tiktok’s job share and economic contribution, and complains that the D billionaires aren’t helping to maintain a public voice on their side. Without any doubt the shutdown will destroy jobs, which is of course…
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Materials and Methods
Following on previous item that mentioned the primacy of MATERIALS and METHODS. I’ve hammered this subject repeatedly. Here’s one of the better hammers from 2014. = = = = = START 2014 REPRINT: Reading another stupid “study” on improving nutrition, it struck me that Portion and Serving are extremely peculiar units. They are new instances…
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More anniversaries
Speaking of anniversaries, this year is the centennial of the transistor. In 1925 Julius Lilienfeld patented the field-effect transistor. It looks the same as the much later (circa 1968) FET, and his suggested manufacturing technique is also remarkably similar to the later technique. Wikipedia gives Lilienfeld a slight mention in its article about Big Science…
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The first ‘war of the worlds’
History Today has an article about the radio event that Orson Welles must have been copying. I’ve never heard of this, even though I’ve been absorbed in old British and American radio for most of my life. 99 years ago, in Jan 1926, BBC interrupted its programming and switched to immediate coverage of a revolutionary…
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Fool starting to learn? Nah.
Via Protos: A bitcoiner who works for the Coindesk website had his wedding plans ruined when the fake bitcoin “bank” holding his fake bitcoin “savings” suddenly cut off his account access for several months. He was able to get it resolved BECAUSE he’s a well-known figure who could stir up public attention on Twitter. He…
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Originality compounded
Via Cointelegraph, Trump is strongly favoring the insane idea of a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. As I’ve mentioned a few thousand times already, bitcoin is just a database or spreadsheet. One bitcoin is one row of a spreadsheet. There’s nothing original about strategic reserves. Birds do it, bees do it, even educated cells do it. People…
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