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Natural networks
Working on courseware about brain networks makes me focus on connectivity elsewhere. It turns out that I already did a feature on brain networks several years ago, and didn’t remember the terminology. I’ve also done features on plants connecting via fungal networks. Curbside Classic ran some personal pix from its readers for the holiday. This…
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I would love…
The activists are cheering at Trump’s appointment of Bhattacharya to NIH. Bhattacharya is good in a lukewarm way**. Trump appointed plenty of good people in 2016, serious populists and non-interventionists who could have made a difference if he had let them. He didn’t. He quickly fired all of the good people and let Deepstate grow…
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The modern way
I see Spokane is getting an early start on thanksgiving celebrations! Fifteen overdoses in less than 24 hours.
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New pointless thought
Continuing my pointless crusade against using quotes instead of SAYING IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS. New variant on the pointless crusade: If you’re letting Plato or Einstein or Franklin or Hayek or Rothbard or Tolkien do your thinking for you, then you can’t argue against people who let ChatGPT do their thinking for them. Both…
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Checking an idea
For a long time I followed the standard economist line that price controls are always bad. I’ve applied this to interest rates, where it unquestionably works. But in some areas it’s clear that price controls are needed to block the destruction by Wall Street monsters. Henry Wallace made a strong case for price controls, perhaps…
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Instead of messaging…
Continuing from previous item on persuasion. I’m talking to the Democrat party now. You don’t need to persuade or message better. You don’t need to find a Blair or Clinton “third way”. The “third way” is exactly why you’re losing now. You only need to COPY your own best president. COPY the only president who…
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The fad of messaging
I see a resurgence of the idiotic Messaging theme again in politics and science and “journalism”. First, it’s fake. Evildoers issue these pleas for better advertising on occasion, then don’t change their actual advertising. They continue insulting and mocking and deriding the lowly peasants. Second, even if they meant it, it wouldn’t work. When conditions…
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Living graph
The Weather Bureau shows how to bring graphics to life. The chart lists snow on Thanksgiving for the last 70 years, using a turkey for each day. No snow = brown turkey, some snow = white tailfeathers, lots of snow = white turkey.
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Sales and service
Philco was an interesting company, showing an attitude that no longer exists in big business. They needed customers, not shareholders. Their slogan was Sell merchandise that doesn’t come back to customers who do come back. A newly added 1937 Philco catalog shows their attention to both sales and service. Philco made a full line of…
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Interesting strategy
This is interesting. The biggest shift in world politics this year is Saudi jumping the fence and running toward BRICS. Saudi has been the keystone of our petrodollar power for many decades, and the keystone of British oil power before we took over the oil realm. We tolerated their attack on NYC in 2001 because…
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Even California!
Goddamn! Even CALIFORNIA is learning from a decade of Soros and Bloomberg crime! A referendum to increase sentences on crime passed with 68% to 32%, in ALL the counties. Even SF and LA voted solidly for it. Unfortunately it won’t make much difference if the same Soros prosecutors and Bloomberg mayors and demonic governors and…
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Boring thought, new thought
Yet Another Quora vs Substack comparison. I was running through Substack Notes with very little pleasure. Most of the items were either partisan political hackery or quotes from the usual boring quotables. Bible, Constitution, CS Lewis, GK Chesterton, JRR Tolkien. What’s the point of quoting if you aren’t saying anything? Then I went to Quora…
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Observation from abroad
A revealing cultural difference, observed by expat Mark Simon, cited by Kirn. = = = = = START QUOTE: Been 30 yrs in Asia. Always amazed how in US, who we consider elites, the professional class, are usually regarded as hired hands by an Asia that makes things. Education is greatly respected, and employed, but…
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No sympathy but still wrong
Since I’ve been sort of tracking this case, might as well continue. The fraud trial of Bill Hwang has ended with a long 11-year jail sentence for Hwang. I have ZERO sympathy for rich fuckheads, but Hwang simply wasn’t engaging in classic fraud. He didn’t take money from any humans. Though his fund was set…
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Policlicks
I know I’m writing solid stuff when I have exactly zero readers for a long time. The only items that get readers are the occasional stupid mentions of political crap. The rule is getting more and more solid. In the last two weeks I’ve written several pieces about Mutual Benefit Societies, and some historical items…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 