Tag: defensible times
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Reprint on science as entertainment
From Dec 2020. = = = = = START REPRINT: Science is simply a form of entertainment, and we should treat it as entertainment. We should fund it the same way we fund sports or museums or orchestras or ‘serious’ theater, via season ticket holders. Big media is NOT entertainment and doesn’t fall into this…
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Gold rushes and calligraphy
Following on my musings about cattle drives. The 1850s gold rush populated and shaped California, and also created another temporary development before the railroads pushed through. Look at the Copperplate cursive on these letters sent back East by prospectors. Almost indecipherable to modern eyes but highly expressive. These men were not poor or uneducated. It…
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Make your own holiday day!
Today is Make Your Own Holiday Day! In keeping with multiple narrative levels, Polistra declares BE YOUR OWN BEACON DAY! = = = = = START REHASH: After seeing a picture of the Elgin Observatory and realizing the building still exists, I had to animate it. Because it’s a National Historical Landmark, there’s a document…
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Templargraph
I was looking for info on an interesting story told by Ripley, and ran into this instead… The Knights Templar used hawala-style full reserve banking to finance Crusades and pilgrimages. A pilgrim could leave his cash at Temple Church in London, and withdraw it in Jerusalem. Instead of carrying money, he would carry a letter…
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Always hoard your work.
I pulled another forgotten tool out of my pre-made Poser toolkit and saved a lot of tiresome labor. Now that I’m old and burned out by the “virus” torture, it’s nice to have the stored work of a younger and smarter ancestor on hand. AMORTIZE, AMORTIZE, AMORTIZE! ALWAYS HOARD YOUR WORK, EVEN IF YOU CAN’T…
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Audits and edits
FDIC is like an insurance company, but one crucial aspect of real insurance is missing. Real insurers can raise rates or halt coverage for a driver who has accidents, or a business that allows too many thefts, or a homeowner who allows methies to squat in his garage. Real insurers, especially at the business level,…
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The power of a name
Reading a brief biography of Lavoisier in the 1901 volume of La Nature. The biography emphasizes the role of his wife Marie-Anne. Both were born rich, both were educated early and strongly to favor their own peculiar talents. Antoine’s father recognized that the family name would be best honored by letting Antoine serve science instead…
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Anyone could own?
Last week I was trying to show that one individual has always been powerless against the rulers, but an organization or union has always been capable of pushing back against demons. 4. Before Hollerith, record-keeping and calculation were partly mechanized by printing presses and typewriters and abacuses and cash registers. Anyone could own an adding…
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Depression?
A 1933 aerial photo of Enid’s square, shortly after the old courthouse burned and before the WPA built a new one. Note especially the solid rows of parked cars. What depression? This goes along with my earlier personal and numerical observations on the non-depressed parts of the country.
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Close but no FET
Pointed via UncommonDescent, this article by Tomasz Durakiewicz is on the side of the angels but misidentifies some earlier demons as angels. In a 1675 letter to Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton wrote the famous phrase “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Newton paraphrased earlier uses of that…
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Pierce trucks 2
We’re looking at an old tourist court, with a shady-looking truck and trailer parked in one of the spaces. It’s a 1915 Pierce truck, with some unique features. The four-speed transmission had a semi-freewheeling device. When you pushed the clutch down all the way, the input shaft of the gearbox was slowed down, allowing a…
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More air world
I’m tickled and astonished by the huge variety of air-driven devices around 1912. This one wasn’t replaced by electricity until 2010! = = = = = START QUOTE: The Chadwick Automatic Road Guide performs the functions of directing the motorist and furnishing information as to approaching road conditions automatically. This instrument consists of a dial…
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Air world
In tracing the air starter and related devices, I found several cars that made broader use of the compressor, to inflate tires or push the fuel up into the engine. A dozen cars had air systems in 1912, and another dozen had acetylene starters. Most cars already had an acetylene tank for the lights, so…
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Karen guide
From Motor Age July 1922, a guide to customer service for Karens. 100 years old, still excellent advice. Well, my dear girl wouldn’t work now, but the rest is perfect.
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A craft that adapted
Looking for more info on old trucks and such, came across the American Blacksmith journal from 1917. Real work and real creativity adapt smoothly to changed circumstances. The evil Innovative Disrupters cackle at the “obsolescence” of buggy whips and blacksmiths, because the evil Innovative Disrupters are demonic genocidal murderers. In fact blacksmiths simply broadened their…
Polistra's Mill 