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Is it cheaper?
Now that I’ve found the Duane Jones book again, I’m reading it again. He was writing in the early 50s when radio and magazines were established but TV was too new to quantify. He was mostly discussing household products sold by radio soap operas and magazine ads. He calculated the advertising cost to acquire one…
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Another rerereprint
Originally from 2010, with a few celebrity names and topical words modernized. = = = = = Three types of knowledge: How, What, Who. All three types are necessary, and everyone uses all three types all the time, but the dominant type strongly influences the form and the success of a culture. = = =…
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Nice to see verification
Lately I’ve managed to pin down the vestibular stuff (probably Menieres) to spring and fall, and then more specifically to convective days. When wind is coming and going, and when popup storms are forming and moving around, the balance and tinnitus and general icky feeling are also moving around. Looking back on the daily journal,…
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Rererereprint
First written in late 2020.. = = = = = Berenson: Now they have frightened us into giving them massive power (I’ve been reading up on the swine flu vaccine fiasco of 1976, when something similar happened)… and we are going to have to figure out how to take it back. = = = =…
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Theories
This is what happens when you get involved in theories and theologies and philosophies. Religion Unplugged writes about a survey of Army chaplains, revealing a peculiar and outright evil function served by the chaplains. The survey was dealing with the perceived morality or legitimacy of software-driven drone warfare. It turns out that chaplains ADVISE GENERALS…
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Are they starting to learn?
Somebody on Substack noted, with figures to prove it, that NYTimes is quickly becoming more of a gaming company than a “news” company. Fits with something I’ve seen lately. NYTimes occasionally sends me email spam. Most of it was the usual FUCK TRUMP! PEASANTS ARE HORRIBLE! In recent months the usual is gone, and the…
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Riddle
Before 2020 flipped the script, fake doctors used to be called quacks. Q: What do you call fake freedom fighters? A: Quacks. = = = = = Via Protos, with caution as usual: Bing’s search engine went down for most of yesterday, and Google later snarkily thanked them for the added business. The article includes…
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Yeah, I was fooled too.
Saagar apologizes for falling into a fake news story that Red Lobster was bankrupted by its own stupid mistake. I fell for the story too, so I also apologize! It turns out to be a textbook LBO crime. The private equity thief finds a company in trouble, offers it a fake cash infusion in exchange…
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It’s still feedback
Yesterday I bitched that the government totally lacks negative feedback. The people want the EXACT OPPOSITE of what government is doing on all issues. If a control input from the people was connected, government actions would flip back and forth for a while, then settle down into an equilibrium as popular satisfaction calmed down the…
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Better name
Responsible people are quite properly worrying about AI’s habit of hallucinating. We’d have a clearer conversation if we called it dreaming. Everyone dreams. The process is the same whether it happens in sleep or drug-induced haze or ChatGPT. A system assembles facts and images and sensations in ways that don’t occur in real life. We’re…
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This is crazy.
Via Protos: A British court has sentenced a whistleblower to 10 months in prison for exposing Craig Wright’s forgery. A few days earlier, a British court convicted Wright of forgery, partly using the documents found by the British whistleblower. He also exposed some chicanery in a German bitcoin gang named nChain. Caution: Protos sometimes gets…
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When Harry met Herbie
Another pretty good article from Ryan Zickgraf at Compact. He’s making the case that some unions were against Vietnam while unions are not joining the current antiwar movement. I won’t argue with the few cases he cites, but I was there at the time and we certainly didn’t feel any support from the working class.…
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Would be a good business!
One of the news aggregators mentioned that Uber is tamping down fake rumors about an Uber ‘walking buddy’ program. Uber isn’t doing it, but somebody should! It would be a good business, especially in big cities. We have dog walkers, why not person walkers? Extroverts would walk more if they had company, but can’t find…
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Gap
I wanted to reread Duane Jones’s wonderful little book. I thought it was in the top shelf of my ‘actively used’ bookcase, but it’s not there. Started looking through other areas. Finally looked through a little stack of magazines in a basket next to the dining table. When a magazine or catalog comes in, it…
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