Tag: answered better than asked
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Good context on a big fraud
This excellent Canadian documentary on the Maria Duval “psychic” fraud starts with a much broader context and an important statistic I didn’t know. Mail-order business started in the 1880s with Sears and Wards. We naturally assume it peaked before the suburban era when everyone had cars. Other parallel practices like grocery and laundry delivery peaked…
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Best answer
Enid Buzz asked one of those standard questions: Q: What’s a word most people pronounce incorrectly? After the usual suspects, mostly dialectal instead of wrong, one commenter hit it. A: Incorrectly. = = = = = Reminds me of Q: What rhymes with orange? A: No it doesn’t.
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Picture worth a million deaths
SpokaneNews repeats a press release from a nearby county. They arrested a fentanyl salesman. Do fentanyl salesmen know what they’re doing? The picture answers the question. Along with the usual bundles of cash and pills, one pill container has a jolly psychedelic deaths-head as its cover. Open the skull and dispense death. They know what…
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It’s just neurology, twice
Two puzzles solved by simple neurology. = = = = = (1) Journalists and politicians wonder why we’ve stopped listening to them. On the D “side”, Repeat JANUARY_6_VIOLENT_INSURRECTION thousands of times, and it becomes a background hum. Repeat EXISTENTIAL_THREAT_TO_OUR_DEMOCRACY thousands of times and it’s no longer salient. On the R “side”, Repeat ZERO_TAX thousands of…
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What’s the inverse?
In previous item I distinguished Tech Talk and Patron Talk, which turned out to be a useful variable. = = = = = START REPRINT: When we see absurd crap floating around the media and ask Do they really think we’re stupid? we’re asking a meaningless question. We don’t count. We aren’t in the loop.…
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Probably right
Earlier I noticed that the Trump cult’s email spam resembled the incessant calls from a moody menopausal ex-wife. Do you still love me? Why haven’t you responded? I would never expect this from YOU! Kirn has noticed the same thing, describing it from a different angle: A lot of the political $$$ solicitations I’m getting…
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Answering a different question
One phrase in Henry Wallace’s speech on the Red Menace wants more explanation. He called Herbert Hoover the Engineer of the Great Depression, and observed that Hoover was part of the cabal who were engineering the permanent Red Menace in 1948. Conventional history says that Hoover was a ‘fall guy’ for Wall Street, accidentally allowing…
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Good question, better answer
Good question from Kirn: How do gerontocracies take hold? Because it’s hard to get those in power to negotiate their own extinction early. Why should they make any bargains at all? They have nothing to lose, as they are about to lose everything anyway. You have to remove the very ground they stand on. =…
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Simple Terms
Headline on a Bloomberg podcast: Demystifying NFTs, Blockchains, and Web3 in Simple Terms Here, I’ll help. NFTs are a fraud. Blockchains are a fraud. Web3 is a fraud.
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Hard answer to soft question 2
EnidBuzz asked about best vacation memories. Most were default: Grandma, Beaches, Disney, Branson. Second prize: We ran a farm. What’s a vacation? First prize: Watching squirrels eat my sister’s birthday cake. = = = = = [Previous hard answer contest]
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Hard answer to soft question
I don’t think there’s a ‘rhetorical’ name for this technique. It’s effective and often creates a significant shockwave in the minds of readers and listeners. Good example. The Enid Buzz FB page asked What’s the coolest prize you ever won? Lots of money prizes, small vacations, side of beef, pizza for a year. The best…
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Updating the Thiel questions
Updating the list of Thiel questions again. Sorting into categories and adding two new ‘exclusives’. The strict question as originally stated: How would you respond if PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel asked you his favorite interview question: “Tell me something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.” My sloppy variation is more like true…
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Revising a conventional guess
In previous item about a strangely primitive tube-based spy rig, I casually dismissed transistors as not ready for prime time. That was true in the early ’50s, but Russian equipment famously stuck with tubes long after transistors were generally reliable and consistent. Sputnik used submini tubes while our satellites used transistors. Sputnik got there first,…
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