Tag: Metrology
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Zinger
I haven’t been reading MindMatters for a long time. Busy with work, health troubles, didn’t see a lot of interesting stuff there. Checked again today. Denyse O’Leary has written a world-class zinger. She knocks out Ethan Siegel, a world-class contemptuous asshole, and by extension all the academicians, politicians and journalists who play the same obnoxious…
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Having fun
Trying to break away from the fire crap. Altman is invading the world with theft, and the world is doing a pretty good job of fighting back now. Locally, Avista was negotiating with an unnamed prospective customer, then sensibly decided to halt. Al French, a long-lasting county commissioner who is usually rational, was trying to…
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Simple measuring tool
The current fad of AI quibbling strongly resembles Walker Percy’s smartphone apocalypse in ‘Love in the Ruins’, the perfect dystopia for our times, written in 1971. The devil invents a little hand-carried imaginator that can see into everyone’s head. He distributes a bunch of them for free, then watches the accusations turn into a war.…
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Just be Pew
There’s a lot of pointless soul-searching by the humanities: anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc. They’re wondering why normal humans no longer want to pay for the fine points of quasi-post-Rawlsian pseudo-Carnapism. The natural conclusion is that normal humans are illiterate non-self-aware numbskulls, so the humanities need to crank up our name-dropping and arrogance to a more…
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Life in the cracks (honorary)
I’ll declare today Honorary Life in the Cracks Day, though it’s not the real thing.. I make the same storetrip every week and wait for the bus in the same places on each end, so I have time to look closely at houses, plants and cars. The weekly interval lets me calibrate changes. Google Streets…
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What happened to Flash?
Somebody on Substack showed a 2005 online issue of The Onion, done entirely in FLV and SWF. The issue was a prophecy of 2025. They missed the basic point that Flash itself would be “outlawed” by the tech lords. I’ve never understood why Flash needed to be “outlawed.” Allegedly it was “vulnerable”, but we know…
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Pleasant surprise
Interesting article on the recent deplaneting of Pluto. In 2006 a group of official assholes decided for no obvious reason to change the definition. Since then, science writers have automatically forgotten Pluto, rubbing it in by headlining new discoveries of a ninth planet. GODDAMN IT, WE ALREADY HAVE A NINTH PLANET, AND IT’S CALLED PLUTO.…
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Version I
Somebody on substack was semi-joking about receiving a B in college because she refused to use Claude. I commented: If I were still teaching at this late date I’d make a new Inverted grading scale, “Version I”. FI = Fucking Intelligent (best) DI = Damned Intelligent CI = Could be Intelligent (if you try harder)…
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Should have the same argument
From Hieber on linguistics, How to use a dictionary: ❌ “What’s the One True Meaning™ of this word?” ❌ “What’s the One True Pronunciation™ of this word?” ✅ “What are some different ways this word is used?” = = = = = Prescriptive vs Descriptive is a VERY old argument in language, and it was…
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Metrology Day and Bee Day 2026
I noticed that today is both Metrology Day and Bee Day, so I’ll remix closely related items that fit both themes at once. = = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 1 = = = = = This year I’m focusing on the medieval way of thinking as illuminated by Sherri Olson. Medieval villages embodied…
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Third Shift Workers Day
Today is Third Shift Workers Day. I often worked the graveyard shift, and worked it reliably and solidly. I was completely useless on 8-5. This oil clock was developed in the 1600s as a timer and light for scribes and illuminators working through the night. It provided light for scribal work, and simultaneously measured the…
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Tab-ulation
This item was spawned by thinking about Tabs, Tabulations and Tables. I’m leading toward a specific point, but first need to spit out some Graphic Juice that I’ve been holding during this long unimaginative ADA work. = = = = = For several months I’ve been making and testing courseware blind-style, using only the keyboard.…
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Luminous and numinous
Every now and then I notice a clear night and check to see if the aurora is likely to be visible. Nothing happening tonight, but SpaceWeather.com has a sight more beautiful and luminous than an aurora: = = = = = START LUMINOSITY: This is an AI Free Zone: Text created by Large Language Models…
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We’re not using what we have
The local paper has an article about a recent bus crash. A driver was following the computer instead of his eyes, and crashed one of the new double-decker buses into a railroad overpass. I’ve been riding STA buses for 35 years, so I know something about the setup. I’ve been programming for 45 years, so…
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Worse than Altman’s eyeball
Noticed via New Scientist, which properly considered it as a candidate for the next Ig-Nobels. You thought Altman’s soul-stealing Eyeball was intrusive? How about a new industry devoted to wearable fart detectors? The fartup sees an oppootunity in the well-known hianus of infartmation. Most people aren’t aware of their actual fartquency**, either under or overstating…
Polistra's Mill 