-
Finally a match!
I’m constantly bitching that nobody ever reads the blog items I put some craft into. Putting together a tech history or neuroscience piece takes research and graphics work. I’m accustomed to seeing all readers skip the “good stuff” and read the random shit. Finally a reader in Las Vegas is hitting, with remarkable accuracy, only…
-
Henry Wallace is smiling
Alexandra Fasulo has been starting up a small farm, and reports frequently on Substack about problems and blessings. She finds the USDA is a huge blessing, ready to provide all sorts of material assistance and information to new and old farmers. Henry Wallace would be proud. He built the USDA into a massive servant of…
-
YAFS
Via Protos: Yet Another Fake Satoshi. This one is low-budget and low-effort compared to the fantastically industrious superliar Craig Wright. = = = = = START QUOTE: A London businessman accused of fraud in Singapore was ‘revealed’ today to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto at a £500-a-ticket unveiling event in Central London. Stephen Nour Mollah…
-
Indirect salute
Old folks have trouble with a slow-moving gut. Normally I can keep things going well enough with good diet and walks. The long hot summer messed with the diet and walks, and then a series of closely spaced difficult dental appointments built up tension to the point of definite constipation. I tried lots of different…
-
Mysterious Fairmont
While looking at old maps around Manhattan, I noticed another area that always seemed mysterious. It occasionally appeared in dreams. Next to the highly formal city there were a few highly informal rural areas with scattered houses and undefined streets. Just across the river to the southeast was an area called Fairmont on maps. It…
-
Mutual is NOT dead.
While researching IOOF for Eureka Lake I realized that the IOOF is NOT dead yet. It hasn’t devolved into a drinking club or sold out to commercial insurance firms like most other societies. It still runs modern retirement homes in at least three states, and has active lodges and new members in many cities. Trinity…
-
More basic sales rules
Speaking of physical vs virtual…. I randomly noticed a substack thread of Dem campaigners. They’re tired and discouraged because nobody will listen. They’re mainly worried that Trump will implement Project 2025 which is a world-ending apocalypse in their minds. Phone banks are simply useless, but door-to-door CAN bring results if you’re clearly offering something that…
-
Does this sound familiar?
The 1923 issue of the Fraternal Monitor is appropriately alarmed at the threats to the movement from commercial insurance. An article points to another threat, which sounds mighty familiar today. = = = = = START QUOTE: Radio adds another agency for entertainment and instruction. In this way it is comparable to the phonograph and…
-
Stoller has a point
Dems are screeching after Bezos refused to let his pet newspaper endorse Harris. From my viewpoint this is a small return to something like objectivity, a small move toward normal business where you try to sell stuff to EVERYONE, not just to an exclusive club. Stoller, the monopoly dude, sees it differently. At first I…
-
Anniversary
The Odd Fellows were a prominent Fraternal Benefit Society. After returning to the topic I started looking up info again. Turns out today is an anniversary of the movement. From the Fraternal Monitor magazine in 1918: = = = = = START QUOTE: In 1918 the fraternal benefit system will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of…
-
Eureka Lake
In 1966 I was exploring the Manhattan area. Southwest of town I found a huge brick building with a nice porch, fronting a peaceful little lake. The building looked like a hotel. On a nearby corner was a little country general store. Checking maps, I found that the building was the Oddfellows nursing home, and…
-
New thought on universities
An article on men losing interest in universities pulled my attention back to one of my basic themes. Universities were NEVER meant for everyone. They arose from two parallel institutions, the monastery or seminary for priests, and the finishing school for aristocrats. Both have the same function. Both refine and certify elites, religious or secular.…
-
It’s just Keynes.
Thomas Hoenig, the only central banker who STEADILY called for a return to real business and honest economics, has given a speech where he describes the problem and prescribes the solution. PRECISELY CORRECT ON BOTH ENDS. = = = = = START HOENIG: The question is, can we reverse these trends? Of course we can.…
-
Delicious!
Via Protos: Sam Altman’s literally satanic dream of owning everyone’s souls has failed miserably. = = = = = START QUOTE: Sam Altman’s nightmare fuel crypto project Worldcoin is rebranding to World Network, or World for short, less than a year after missing its 2023 sign-up target by a whopping 99.4%. Altman announced the branding…
-
Platonism
Saw this letter to the editor in New “Scientist”. = = = = = START QUOTE: Research has shown that if you show two dogs an unequal treat, they know and react with anxiety. So isn’t basic morality hardwired in some species? Wouldn’t we be one of these? As soon as we appreciate quantity, we…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 