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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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Computer logic
Computer logic is sometimes like Dog Logic. I ordered a unique old gadget from a store in England on Ebay. It was sold by auction, which I normally avoid, but this was so unique that it was worth the trouble (and admittedly a little positive thrill!). The auction finished at noon on Tuesday here. I…
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Error signal
Normally this isn’t my department, but it’s moving into one of my categories. Banning Tiktok was ALLEGEDLY meant to punish China for being one of the 500 countries we hate, but without actually punishing China for being our entire economy. The important fact is that Tiktok was China’s first mass-market BRAND. Before this, China was…
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Safe bet
It’s a safe bet that most of the existing social platforms conspired to ban Tiktok. Substack was instantly ready for the ban. They had a $25K bonus offer ready for celebs coming across from Tiktok. Even more annoyingly, Adam Kuznia noticed that Substack now has a new top-tab category for ex-Tiktokers. Kuznia has been campaigning…
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Will they learn? No.
A big part of the wildfire problem in Calif and Wash is the stubborn refusal to require fireproof buildings. The fancy McMansions built in the middle of the forest have wood siding and wood shake roofs, apparently for “beauty”. This article shows one house that survived the LA fire because it was built to survive.…
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Now we know
Now we know what all the “banning” hoopla was really about. It was just Elon’s way to blackmail Tiktok into selling. Same nasty trick he pulled with Twitter. Classic gangland protection racket. Old versions: “You’re beaten by gangsters. I can stop them.” (Because I’m the gangsters) “Your trucking business is suffering accidents. I can stop…
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Stop, goddamnit.
A long time ago I got tired of people saying We must hold ____ accountable! If you were honest you’d admit that we have NO WAY of holding accountable. No matter how many activists we organize, NOBODY will ever be held accountable. You’re not the Accounts Receivable department. Elon is Accounts Receivable. Larry Fink is…
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Only driven by
Books have algorithms too. The physical aspect of a paper book is its algorithm. The font, paper quality, margins, spacing, and binding determine whether the book can be perused occasionally with difficulty, or kept in a bookholder to read at leisure. I always read books in a bookholder, usually while eating. With an especially good…
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Random peeve
Stupid irritation after trying yet again to follow the time sequence of a news story on a Facebook local group. About two years ago Facebook eliminated time order. You can still pick ‘most recent’, but this only gives you one or two new messages at the top, then continues in Zuck order after that. This…
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Proof of the old rule
After working on a project for a while I develop an internal dialect with some new words to resonate with the newly developed skills. This fits my basic rule: Language is encryption, not communication. Like birdcalls, language is MEANT to be private within a family or tribe or workplace or lodge or church. Language is…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 