Tag: Metrology
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Ockham, Machiavelli, Kernighan
Following on previous item with the simple advice DON’T PLAY. Watching the coiner idiots respond to the total collapse of their project is fun. Instead of running away, they continue arguing about PRECISE DETAILS AND PRECISE NUMBERS. Side A: This is an opportunity to 12.59347% short XTJIOERJY and long 36.78946859% UUEYHHGNOTC. Side B: No, FUD…
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It’s all in the baseline
MindMatters nicely handles Jeffrey Tucker’s confused and incomplete realization. Tucker admits that information was useless, but he still takes the aristocratic side, treating peasants as dumb cowardly beasts. MindMatters (probably Denyse but not bylined) gives Tucker a healthy kick. I’ve gone through the same process of realization, starting from a different baseline and with a…
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Zen doesn’t cut it
Substack’s leader McKenzie tweeted: I’ve seen a bunch of writers on Substack become millionaires from subscriptions now. Lots of half-millionaires too. It’s thrilling to me. When we started this company, “Writers are getting rich” wasn’t a trend. Most respondents were unhappy with the vagueness. If you’re going to talk about money you need to be…
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All the fine old swindles
I enjoy watching the bitcoin idiots “rediscover” and fall for all the old scams. A bitcoin thingy called Solana made a big deal of keeping perfectly accurate time “on the chain”, which is obviously necessary because obviously there are no other clocks in the world. Just like grasshoppers are the only living things that can…
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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.…
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Amazing graph
Cited by Batya, this is an AMAZING graph. It’s the percent of NYTimes headlines occupied by each president from Wilson through Biden. Most of the chart is rational and expectable. Presidents who made more news (wars, depressions, scandals) got more headlines. Unexpectedly there’s not much D vs R difference**. Aside from the regularity, the chart…
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Keinpeilempfänger
Fifth in a vaguely defined series on obscure secret electronics, after SCR-268 and Tenzor and Peilempfänger and Kleinstpeilempfänger. = = = = = American Radio Library has uploaded new issues of the British Post Office Engineering Journal. Why did the GPO have an engineering research facility? Because the GPO managed ALL communication in Britain. It…
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Bellyaches and quakes
One of the stories in Frank Edwards’s non-UFO books illustrates how real science gets suppressed or forgotten, then turns out to be correct in the light of later discoveries. He tells about Bob Barr of Oakland, who reliably predicted earthquakes by his belly. Bob could distinguish a specific kind of activity in his gut that…
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Winged metrologists
I bought several of Frank Edwards’s books on UFOs and other subjects. Near the end of his short life he was following the model of Hix and MacHarrie and Nesbitt, producing a set of books and short radio features on historical and scientific oddities, well beyond UFOs. All of these ‘Fortean’ writers were presenting known…
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Peilempfänger
Part 3 of a vaguely defined theme on obscure spy equipment. Part 1 was the first American radar. Part 2 was the Russian Tenzor portable spy rig. Today I’m featuring a Kraut portable direction finder or Peilempfänger. (Peilen = take a compass bearing; Empfänger = receiver.) It’s not as interesting as the other two, so…
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Always a thrill
Coral and Jim Lorenzen developed a network of independent UFO observers across USA and South America. Their organization knew what was happening, and thus knew when the media was choosing not to report what was happening. Immediately after Sputnik a large number of media reports came to the surface, and the media went supernova after…
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Constants and variables 171
On 3/11/2022 Obersturmbannführer Inslee started another brief reprieve from ballgags. Finishing the current two-year contract, 3/11 to 3/11. It doesn’t matter a whole lot to me, because the buses are still strangling me, and the stores weren’t enforcing the rule. The change does allow a better measurement of public insanity. Previously, Obersturmbannführer Inslee gave us…
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New GenRad toy, 1/2
I started collecting GenRad equipment as a sort of tribute to proper analog measurement, and as a specific apology to GenRad itself for favoring Bruel & Kjaer during my time in academia. GenRad equipment was solid, rugged, easy to handle. BK was Danish, with the typical Kraut qualities. More precise than anything else under precise…
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New GenRad toy 2/2
Last year I bought an incomplete GenRad octave analyzer, as part of my overall move back to analog stuff. This machine is especially rare and useful, so it’s worth fixing. The microphone is missing, and I’ve been watching Ebay since then, hoping to grab up the mic or another ‘parts car’. So far no mic,…
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The muddlers are worse than the cancellers 2
Following from here. This morning the anti-cancellers are weeweed up about: Apparently it wasn’t a real cancel, just a postponement of class coverage, so again this is more muddling than cancelling. Fact: FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS A MYTH. Censorship is permanent and normal. If you go back 1000 years in Russia and in England/America, you’ll…
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