Tag: NOW I SEE
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Pay structure
In school we “learned” a list of alleged propaganda methods. None of them were real. The list itself was propaganda to distract us from real propaganda. One effective REAL method is distorting verb aspect, treating a permanent or habitual process as something new and unknown. Weather becomes CLIMATE EMERGENCY! Flu season becomes VIRUS PLAGUE! Corruption…
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Answered two questions
On this morning’s walk I took the south loop, passing the Champion Hoarder House. There are other half-baked or temporary hoarders. This one has been packed for as long as I’ve been looking, at least 20 years. He seems to have good taste in cars. For a long time a ’65 Lincoln was parked in…
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The Doctors War of 1838
A substacker who posts strange old newspaper features ran an 1898 item on the Pelee Island Sea Serpent. The location sounded familiar so I looked up Pelee Island. It’s the southernmost bit of Canada, in the middle of Lake Erie between Toledo and Detroit. Large enough to have substantial farms and several lighthouses. Pelee Island…
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Deepstatized
Last month I heard, with great relief, that the ADA mandate was suddenly being extended for a year. I heard about the reprieve from the coauthor who had heard it on NPR. Last year I heard about the clampdown indirectly and MANY MONTHS LATE, when one professor asked the publisher if her books were going…
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What’s missing in blockball
A new thought about the nasty social media algorithms. If you’re paying attention you know most of them are NOT echo chambers. Most of them give you less of what you like and more of what you hate. (There are exceptions.) I’ve noticed that blocking and reporting the DULL REPETITIVE CRAP is sort of satisfying,…
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Who are the customers?
The most basic question about any organization is: Who are the customers? In a small or midsized business the answer is straightforward. Customers are the people who pay for the product or service. A business that wants to succeed must please its customers. Simple closed feedback loop. For larger organizations the obvious answer is usually…
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Wrong in opposite ways
A couple of online comments on the public school system got me thinking. The result of the thought surprised me. One of the criticisms is extremely old. Public schools prepare you for assembly line jobs. The other is a bit newer: Public school trains you to follow instructions, not to complete tasks on your own.…
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It’s mostly offshoring, not automation
Waymo has admitted that its “autonomous” vehicles are mostly remote control, only partly autonomous. The controllers are in low-wage Phillipines. Waymo claims that the controllers only intervene in extreme situations, but I’m sure we’ll get the usual gradual increments of the real truth. Remote controlled vehicles are WAY older than Waymo. Trains had some remote…
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Fusion is real!
This is interesting! Microsoft is building a new fusion reactor for its own purposes, in central Washington near Wenatchee. It will supposedly be turned on in 2028. I didn’t realize fusion was anywhere near practical or commercial, but Microsoft thinks it is. Every new reliable energy source is worth a few cheers, even if it’s…
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From examining to incorporating
I’m always aware of the long history of computing, algorithms and data webs. I’ve made dozens of tech history pieces exploring the history and emphasizing that our “new innovations” are permanent parts of all such systems. This blog could be titled No, it’s not new. Here’s a not new I hadn’t noticed before! This 1977…
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It’s not an algorithm.
We constantly bitch about the obnoxious results of algorithms on the web. New thought: The most obnoxious shit happens when there ISN’T an algorithm. An intelligence, whether you call it a brain or an algorithm or a program, does three things: 1. Take input from the world. Different types of intelligence take input in different…
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Streetpecker
Last night’s big rain must have pushed some bugs and critters to the surface. Squirrels and birds are busy on the soil today. One bird seemed unusual. It was brown with a chevron marking on its chest, and its beak was long and straight. It was pecking FAST in the crack between the curb and…
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Almost sounded good
Normally I skip the Youtube ads for gimmicks like perpetual motion machines. Ended up listening to one when it interrupted a clip I was using as background noise while eating. This one was a miniature air conditioner. The action is unquestionably interesting. Instead of compressing and expanding Freon in a closed set of pipes, it…
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Dream helped to answer a question
A 1980s coal pollution project popped up in a dream recently. Thinking about this project led to an answer. At that time Penn State was eagerly hosting hundreds of Chinese grad students. Universities favor foreign students because they pay full price while most domestic students have discounts. They could afford full price because the Chinese…
Polistra's Mill 