Tag: Entertainment
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Getting into the act
I’ve been reading Ruth Moore’s wonderful book about fossils and fossil-gatherers. Today the weather decided to participate in my reading. Weathermen like to talk about historic storms… here’s a prehistoric storm. Despite the scary appearance, it didn’t DO much. No actual rain or lightning, just a nice cool breeze.
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Legacies
EnidBuzz posted a ‘memory’ picture of two ladies dressed up in silly style, riding banana bikes to work. Both worked at Sears, and they were doing the annual Crazy Day in 1968. Commenters had positive memories of the ladies and Sears. This one wins: I worked at Sears back in 1976 and knew Lucille, she…
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Just before the terror
Looking into the Clavecin Oculaire led to a broader view of French science just before the terrorist revolution turned “science” into the horrible unstoppable god of torture and war. The clavecin was a PLAYFUL USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE. The musicians and scientists who tried it out were HAVING FUN. Several other scientists and writers…
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Sharing is meaningless
At least Evolution News isn’t playing the fake surprise game. They acknowledge that the habits of academia are permanent. Scientific progress is being impeded by a culture in which scientists jealously guard their research instead of sharing it. Keas says the problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years but isn’t a new one.…
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Clavecin oculaire
I haven’t been “inspired” to do a tech history piece for a while. This instrument came in through one of those offerings from Academia.edu. I’m surprised that I’d never encountered it before; it stands at the intersection of everything I’ve been doing for the last 20 years. Louis Bertrand Castel invented the color harpsichord or…
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Renewing the pledge
Polistra and friends stand in solidarity with SCIENCE AS ENTERTAINMENT, attempting to form a counterbalance to the endlessly renewed tyranny of SCIENCE AS DEMONIC TORTURE AND HOLOCAUST. Science as entertainment was first presented here.
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Neighborhood puzzle
A week ago I heard an odd noise around 5AM. Sounded sort of like a skateboard but not quite. I peeked out the window. It was a young man pulling an office chair down the street. I could see a piece of paper on the chair. AHA! I’ve done the same thing a few times.…
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Numbers all the way dooooooooooooown
Musical accompaniment. Time for a sip of Chateau Schadenfreude, now that the Holy Bitcoin has dropped off the scale at $20k. This number is not just a ‘chartist’ threshold. Some crucial loans and margin calls were designed to be triggered at this number. When your fake “economy” is built on Magic Numbers All The Way…
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Not a plan, just an intention
Kirn’s latest pithy point: Simulating all aspects of the Creation so that they can be monetized — and destroying those that can’t — is pretty much the whole of the evil plan. True, but it’s not a very effective plan. A vast pile of money and effort and influence is going into the Metaverse. Zuck…
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Already done
UncommonDescent reviews some new CGI of dinosaurs. It’s impressive visually, but the audio is stuck in the Godzilla era. The dinos emit hoarse roars. Birds are little dinos. So the ancient huge birds would have the same type of vocal mechanism with a VASTLY longer resonant cavity. They would sing complex songs in the same…
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
An idiot paid THREE MILLION DOLLARS for an NFT of Jack’s first tweet a year ago. He tried to sell it this month. He was hoping to get FIFTY MILLION. The best offer was $277.
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Sunroof mystery
One of the little mysteries of auto history is the soft spot in roofs. Metal shaping technology wasn’t up to the task of pressing out a complete rooftop without wrinkling and stretching the middle. GM finally perfected the ‘deep-draw press’ in 1935, and others soon copied. I’ve been puzzled by the continued use of crude…
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Reveal was only half
Last year I did a series of posts on the lovable Metropolitan. In one item I focused on the door dip, which Nash called the ‘reveal’. = = = = = START REPRINT: A sharp rebuke from Lulu Meservey, one of the Substack executives. Technology is magical. But the language of technology has become generic…
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Metrology day 2022, AI version
Today is Metrology Day, but I’m trying to go for Entertainment and Enjoyment this year, so here’s a gathering of AI-generated nonsense from CookingFlavr.com. Is A Meter Long? A meter is a unit of length that is used to measure the distance between two points. The meter is also used as a unit of weight.…
