Tag: coot-proofing
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Buying Canadian without knowing it
When my skin started doing weird things this summer I went to the doctor several times, got two different diagnoses and a variety of different pills and creams. Eventually I decided that it fits the description of eczema, and the usual recommendations for eczema seem to handle it better than the special prescriptions. Controlling stress…
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Work done, for now
The latest courseware is finally DONE and submitted. I’ve been aiming for maximum quality this year, which meant more work and more refined proofreading. My big goal this year is all three parts of the KSTP motto in the top icon: Laugh at your ills, pay your bills, behave yourself. The first part is the…
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I’m slow.
After 25 years of using AOL mail, I just now realized that it’s possible to BLOCK a repetitive spammer instead of marking it as spam or attempting to unsubscribe.
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Aphid Day 2025
Aphid Day is Oct 9, 2025. I’ve been seeing a few aphids in previous days. Today they gave a nice clear signal that summer is over, swarming as soon as the sun came over the horizon. I’m especially glad to see them. This summer wasn’t hotter than average but it was harder than average on…
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I’m simple.
I’m basically a primitive invertebrate with one organ. Good dump = good day. Bad dump = bad day. Always true to some extent, gets truer as I get older.
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No surprises
New Scientist has a big section this week on How to live to be 100. Beneath the headline there’s nothing unusual. If you do the well-known right things you’ll live longer, but reaching 100 is all in the genes. One study cited in the article gives the hard facts. Somebody tested a group of 500…
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Should be simple
It’s hardly news that tech algorithms are insane, designed to drive us insane. Here’s an outstanding example. I wrote a glowing Yelp review for the taxi service I use when I’m not in good shape. He does a splendid job of dealing with my elderly slowness, and always remembers everything. (Similar to mail carriers in…
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How to feel old
Somebody at Substack was trying to think of new ways to fund science now that the Feds are PROPERLY cutting off some funding. I don’t give a fuck if Demon Trump and Demon Elon are doing it; letting EVERYTHING depend on politics was always an atrocious idea. I’ve been hammering on it in this blog…
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MASA
The RFK followers do the exact opposite of ‘make healthy’. They focus ever more intensely on every conceivable disease process. Every molecule and atom makes you unhealthy. One atom of anything is enough to kill you. They are making themselves sick. Exactly the same sin committed by the Trump/Fauci monstrosity in 2020. I understand this…
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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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AI means Artificial Imagination
It’s not Intelligence. Big data has been Intelligent (in the logical sense) for 70 years and gets smarter every day. The LLMs have proven to do a poor job at Intelligence, which makes the rationalists feel superior. Wrong measurement! LLMs are excellent at imagining. Most of what they do is dreamlike, NOT intelligent. Perfect example…
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Waggles and rods
= = = = = = VECTOR MEASUREMENT PART 1 OF 2 = = = = = Following from the Medieval Metrology series last month. Medieval land measures were vector, not rectangular. The base unit was time and work, not distance and weight. With land as with money, the base was one day of work…
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Here’s the real misinfo
Social platforms are constantly censoring “misinformation” and “disinformation”, two fancy names for heresy. They DON’T censor genuine fakery, some clearly illegal, in their ADS. Been seeing this one on various sites. Anyone with sense will know this isn’t the Social Security Administration. Unfortunately many old folks are either naive or mentally fading, and won’t know…
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Work done.
Finished the current edition of courseware this morning, pending some checks and testing. I’ve been adding more value and beauty when possible, partly inspired by medieval history reading. The previous edition of this book was sort of rushed and hasty, with too many shortcuts. In a nap after finishing, the dream-scripter rewarded me with a…
Polistra's Mill 