Tag: Constants and Constants
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Confusion to the enemy
Via NewScientist, a solid but unsurprising bit of research. Why do some mushrooms produce psilocybin, which causes hallucinations in humans? Turns out to be the same reason as many other non-obvious plant chemicals. It kills and confuses insects. The researchers took the direct approach, microdosing fruit fly larvae with psilocybin. Most of them died, and…
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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…
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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…
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Simple cure
The AI missionaries are doing a great job, drawing people in with respect and courtesy. Apparently the bot itself does an even better job, though I haven’t tried it and won’t try it. Predictably the anti-AI people are missing the bet again. The same thing happened 20 years ago with pornography, and the same thing…
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No mother-in law or cliff here!
Trump’s first term set a historical record for maximum evil and genocide. Trump’s second term is mixed bad and good. Trump’s energy policy is PURELY GOOD and CRITICALLY NECESSARY FOR NATIONAL SURVIVAL. Previous admins, both R and D, were moving ahead steadily to make war on this country. Bomb all the dams, cover all the…
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Software isn’t the variable
Digital technology gets too much credit and too much blame. People do what they’re inclined to do, and they use whatever technology is available. Current examples: 1. A Biden admin lawsuit against RealPage rent collusion software was weakened by the Trump admin. It won’t make much difference. Landlords ALWAYS collude to keep rent high. They…
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Another 100 year sync
From Radiocast Weekly, exactly 100 years ago. The editorial mentions that one wealthy gentleman has given a $1000 endowment to his favorite radio station, without any advertising strings attached. It suggests that others should do the same. Instead of endowing a library, let them set aside a fund which will benefit a much larger area.…
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Instant Machiavelli, just add symbols
Abstract people are dividers. From the start in the 80s, the web divided us into two teams. On every subject, religion, politics, cars, electronics, software, sex…. every forum quickly divided into Team A and Team B. If you weren’t on either team you were shunned. Non-abstract people who live in a world of physical things…
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Cancelleds converging as usual
Shocked shocked shocked: Bari Weiss left the old dying media and built a new media empire in the fake “independent” media so she could make more money. Now she has sold her “independent” “Free” “Press” to CBS so she can return to the old dying media with a more lucrative contract. The purpose of the…
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Must be end of the month
How do you know it’s the end of a month? Aside from the increase in drug overdoses when the EBT cards are issued, the most reliable online signal is Substack screwing up its UI. Normally they mess with the CSS formatting so the page looks random and impossible to read. This time they left the…
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Trump is a normal US president.
Canadians are working together to develop a newly designed nation. They’re doing it both officially and personally. It’s a fine thing to watch. MANY countries have been forced to develop their own best skills when we blockaded them. We pulled the same nasty trick on Cuba in 1960, Persia in 1980, and Russia in 2000.…
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Rant on “cybersecurity”
Forcing us to change a password every month is like the old ’50s Loyalty Oaths. The oaths were NOT meant to catch real Russian spies. First, real spies for any country are expert liars. They have no compunction about faking an oath to maintain a cover. Spying is lying. Second, the KGB, like all professional…
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Pick a side.
Canada and EU are both sticking firmly to the irrational hatred of Russia. They won’t be able to achieve full independence from the US monster as long as they maintain the CORE INSANE BELIEF of US imperialism. Europe, of course, has been hating Russia and trying to invade it for hundreds of years. Napoleon, Kaiser…
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All E all the time
Elon owns the conversation. First he owned the conversation in the auto industry, just as GM once did. Every move he made was copied by others, even when it clearly harmed them. The larger companies adopted EVs and lost massive amounts of money, as Elon intended. He also owned the conversation in electronics, as GE…
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Same rule
Note at substack: 4 years ago, I watched some conservative friends join the QAnon cult to find companionship and a community for their children. Today, I’m watching some liberal friends join the anti-Semite cult to find the same thing. Well, if companionship and respect were more available OUTSIDE of cults, cults wouldn’t flourish. Cults are…
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