-
Why Hank?
Thinking as usual about Henry Ford. A few very old friends were allowed to call him Hank. I’ve called him Hank in the Hank vs Frank comparison. Wait. How did Henry shorten to Hank? Harry is the more obvious phonetic elision, and the many King Henrys were often called King Harry in literature and song.…
-
No Bud Light in spam
Big corporations weirdly assume that everyone is “non-binary”. They pitch all their advertising toward the 2%, not the 98%. Spammers are realistic. Most of the spam in my inbox is unrelated to sex because most of life is unrelated to sex. The “offers” range from insurance to roofing to supplements. When the spam is sex-connected,…
-
MBS is the answer
Quick take on Polymarket by Ted Gioia, who knows the biz end of show biz: It’s getting harder to earn money in the entertainment business. But it’s getting easier to earn money gambling on the entertainment business—especially if you own the betting platform. The same is true of all industries. At one time the stock…
-
Book didn’t disappoint 2
Continuing random observations on the wonderful Field Guide to American Houses. In the 70s when I worked as a typesetter, I noticed two unavoidable typos. These two words, Commerical and Sante Fe, are unambiguous. Unlike us[e]able or Pittsburg[h], these have only one possible spelling, but the incorrect version is irresistible. Even carefully edited history books…
-
Raking record
Time to start the roof-raking record for this winter. As always, this should be in my private daily worklog, but I started doing it here, so I’ll continue the tradition. = = = = Last winter started late and needed only one raking. First raking this year Jan 8. Depth was 3″, not necessarily enough…
-
Fusion is real!
This is interesting! Microsoft is building a new fusion reactor for its own purposes, in central Washington near Wenatchee. It will supposedly be turned on in 2028. I didn’t realize fusion was anywhere near practical or commercial, but Microsoft thinks it is. Every new reliable energy source is worth a few cheers, even if it’s…
-
LemonADA 5
Basic rule for inventions, genomes and languages: The original version starts with all the needed features. Over time as it branches into different subtypes for different purposes, it simplifies and loses features. While grinding through my courseware data files to insert alt-text for screen readers, I’m bumping into a few vestigial leftovers of a MUCH…
-
Said it before, not quite the same
I’ve said this before in a somewhat different context. It’s doubly true now. Cybersecurity is simply a continuation of pre-computer Deepstate evil. Immediately after FDR died, Deepstate overthrew the government and took over again. It immediately started prosecuting everyone who had helped FDR save the country from Wall Street, and everyone who didn’t want to…
-
Fools are at it again
Fools are chanting NO BLOOD FOR OIL again. This is backwards. I wrote about it in 2014. At that time the neocons were channeling Wilson, claiming to serve “democracy”. In fact we didn’t want more oil, we just wanted to prevent other countries from using THEIR oil or minerals or food. We blew up Saddam’s…
-
Insiderish?
At the moment this insiderish event in the “news” business strikes me as fairly significant. Detroit still has morning and evening papers. They started out independent, then semi-merged in 1989 with a Joint Operating Agreement. The upper levels of management and financing were together while the newsrooms were independent. In the 80s many papers formed…
-
Book didn’t disappoint
Somebody on substack recommended ‘A Field Guide to American Houses’ by McAlester. Recommended books are often disappointing but this one turned out to be splendid, just right for repeated browsing. It’s packed with actual lived-in houses, not architectural dreams. The ‘field guide’ classifies all American houses, starting with the huts and tipis of the old…
-
Today is Carver Day!
Rehashed and revised from this 2014 item on his 150th birthday. = = = = = START REHASH: By most calculations, George Carver was born in January 1864 near Joplin. He was born in the last year of official slavery to a mother owned by a German farmer named Moses Carver. Soon after George was…
-
Constants and variables on libel
Quick take… A fairly obscure Canadian musician named Ashley MacIsaac lost money, and will likely lose a lot more, because Google’s explainer AI told people that he was a sex offender. Apparently there is a known sex offender with the same name. Constants and variables show that AI itself isn’t the main factor here. Constant:…
-
Double significance
Today is Braille Day and also Dimpled Chad Day. Braille is interesting since I’m in the middle of adapting courseware for blind students. After I finish the required but dubious verbal descriptions, I’ll run up a far more useful braille version, making the images directly tactile. There is a (somewhat) standard coding method to feed…
Polistra's Mill
Be your own beacon.
Polistra's Mill 