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Getting there 50 years late
Via KHQ: Spokane is FINALLY setting up a vocational high school. Maybe they had one much earlier, but not during the 35 years I’ve lived here. Manhattan, Bowling Green and Enid had vocational high schools in the ’60s. All are much smaller than Spokane, but they recognized the need for REAL education. Until now Spokane…
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It’s not an algorithm.
We constantly bitch about the obnoxious results of algorithms on the web. New thought: The most obnoxious shit happens when there ISN’T an algorithm. An intelligence, whether you call it a brain or an algorithm or a program, does three things: 1. Take input from the world. Different types of intelligence take input in different…
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Why is it a mismatch?
Via Verge: Google’s branch in Japan has a habit of releasing annual silliness, more or less an April Fool gag. The latest is interesting from a tech history viewpoint. It’s a computer keyboard with a set of rotary dials. You have to locate the letter on the circle and pull your finger around to the…
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Less crazy
Another fine deadpan report of drug-induced craziness. = = = = = 600 North Riverpoint Blvd, trench rescue reported for a Halloween display that has collapsed and has people stuck underground. Caller reports he is digging to get to the people Reported to be two people about 4ft underground Reported fire is on scene with…
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Not inadvertently!!!!!!!!
Anti-monopolist Stoller sometimes misses the point, but this time he hits it properly and comprehensively. Except for one important word. He’s discussing the post-1970 destruction of the New Deal by both D and R politicians. In agriculture the worst destruction was by Carter and Clinton. Trump is continuing the process, even more brazenly destroying life…
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Rule works only one way
One of my frequent hammerpoints: Inventions wait for materials and methods. The latest clip from the Soviet auto podcaster illustrates what Edmund Berkeley was describing in 1957. Soviet engineers were properly trained with experience and teamwork, and therefore had passion and creativity. They were given the resources to act on their creativity, and were rewarded…
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Happy 68th, Sputnik!
I’ve saluted Sputnik many times, focusing on a different topic each time. Today is the 68th birthday. I’ll repeat the 2021 version, which seems most appropriate now. = = = = = Browsing through more of the ACM magazine. From Nov 1957, a remarkably sane and objective IMMEDIATE response to Sputnik. Author Edmund Berkeley gets…
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Bezos vs civilization
The Post Office is in direct competition with FedEx, UPS, Amazon, etc. Now the competition has turned violent in Everett, part of the Seattle metro. National “news” garbles the story as usual. Here’s a more direct report from Everett. The postman was delivering to a set of boxes for an apartment building. Following rules, he…
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If they really wanted….
NiemanLab cites a new survey that accurately pins down what people want from local news. We want LOCAL reporting of WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE. Crime, troubles, power outages, fires. We do not want “investigative pieces” that always just happen to “investigate” Repooflicans while celebrating Democrats who commit exactly the same crimes. This pattern is constant from…
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Streetpecker
Last night’s big rain must have pushed some bugs and critters to the surface. Squirrels and birds are busy on the soil today. One bird seemed unusual. It was brown with a chevron marking on its chest, and its beak was long and straight. It was pecking FAST in the crack between the curb and…
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Big switch
You know the world has flipped when the default assumption, the side that doesn’t need explaining, has turned upside down. From an article about a young reporter who has abandoned print for TikTok: But besides that, I kind of let the conversation evolve. There are a lot of people who love to comment on TikTok.…
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He also recognizes
Continuing the theme of State-Owned Enterprises, the latest Post Office podcast is an interview with new Postmaster General Steiner. The first part of the interview is the usual biography and corporate buzztalk about logistics and execution. The salient part starts around 20 minutes, where Steiner points out the unique qualities of a regulated monopoly or…
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Rererereprint on real value
Reprinting this for the thousandth time after mentioning the Soviet reliance on REAL VALUE in previous item. This one piece encompasses everything I know and believe. = = = = = START EVERYTHING: Robert Shiller is arguing that economics pays too much attention to theories and numbers. Perfectly correct. He’s also arguing that real economies…
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Hard currency?
The ex-Soviet auto history podcaster often mentions that trade between the US side of the world and the Soviet side was difficult because the ruble wasn’t a ‘hard currency’. I used to hear that phrase in the news and didn’t question it at the time. The news told us Soviet money wasn’t hard, so it…
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Coal is back!
Via Shepstone, Trump’s Dept of Energy is taking a huge number of general and specialized actions to stop the abandonment of coal and restore some recently closed coal power plants. The actions also reinforce a secondary use of coal in the processing of steel. If the coking plants are gone, we can’t reshore steel. Trump…
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