Tag: skill-estate
-
Could temper my hatred
I hate NYC. It has bombed the country many times to enrich the rich. Wall Street has done INFINITELY more damage to us than Japs or Krauts or Saudis or Russkies, especially since the Russkies never even tried to attack us. But a few more articles like this could temper my hatred! This short piece…
-
First halfway effective law
While everyone is busy disputing the wrong questions about apocalypse, one Congressman hits the correct end of the problem. I don’t know if it will get through Congress, but it certainly looks like a partial solution. Darrell Issa has introduced the American Copyright Protection Act, narrowly aimed at foreign copyright pirates. It misses the threat…
-
Respect for craft
Bitcoin scammers nabbed 250 million from easy targets without leaving their computers, then splashed the cash all over the place, guaranteeing fast capture. No damn pride! I have far more respect for this year’s string of art thefts like the Renoir theft in Paris. The workers had to understand the building, alarm system and security…
-
Economics as a verb
Rehash of my 2012 Economics As A Verb, modified for current relevance. = = = = = START REHASH: We get locked into booms and busts, inflations and deflations, because we forget that our measuring unit is only a measure. In Alan Watts’s famous metaphor, a carpenter wouldn’t stop work because he “ran out of…
-
The answer is work, rehashed
The Spokesman newspaper has a strong and fair article on the homeless crime perpetrated by government and Catholic Criminalities. They look at all sides, especially normal businesses and normal people who are terrorized and ruined by the mess. Of course the “mayor” doesn’t see any problem. She is firmly pro-crime and pro-chaos. She only sees…
-
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…
-
Drip Gas reprint
Mentioned in previous item on waste water. Reprinted from 2016. = = = = = START REPRINT: Let’s go back to Polistra’s Cave Gas station, the location that represents Patient Things. Where would a Patient Gas Station get its gas? In the earliest days of cars and fuel, some gas stations got their gasoline directly…
-
Above its weight
Random note while I’m thinking of it. Modern Italy punches WAY above its weight in many areas. Between 1895 and 1950, Italy was a major influencer in automotive engineering. Early US auto founders visited Italy and France for inspiration, not Germany and England, despite our much closer cultural and economic ties with the latter. The…
-
Normal everywhere else
I’ve been watching the case of the Jamaican writer who won a literary prize for alleged AI writing. It’s not a big deal but it seems to be an inflection point. My first thought was: Pick a side. His output isn’t the ‘pedestrian ordinary slop’ that supposedly indicates AI. His output is wild and incomprehensible,…
-
Sweet and sour largesse
Tech demons are hammering us with Sweet and Sour sides of an argument. The Sour tech demons, aided by Philosopher MacAskill, tell us straight out that we must lose our jobs and die for the good of future generations. We must be exterminated because we are non-self-aware inanimate objects. After we have been disinfected from…
-
This is SMART.
I enjoy seeing people use what they have. Too often businesses will bet on billion-dollar expansions or billion-dollar subsidies to accomplish something that they shouldn’t be doing in the first place. Via Nieman, newspapers and magazines have been abandoning book reviews for 20 years, LONG before Trump or AI. Most complainers want to get rid…
-
It’s not a balance
Saw a title: Why nobody’s listening to new music, part 2 Well, I can fill in both parts without reading it. Why nobody’s listening to new music, part 1: It’s Why nobody’s listening to new music, part 2: Shit. The same goes for new literature, new art, new movies, new philosophy…. anything in the field…
-
Skill matters more than facts
Via Reuters. A hacking group has exposed a huge batch of “secret information” from Novo Nordisk, the Ozempic company, asking for $25 million ransom. Apparently they worked through a Github area where Novo stored some of its code. The usual sides are saying the usual things. Lawyers are setting up class action suits to “compensate”…
-
Pride and skill
Unions are a NECESSARY feedback system in capitalism. A union is a bank for human skills, exerting bullypower against the Share Value banks. We lost unions 40 years ago along with all the other countervectors. UNLIKE the other losses, I can’t blame Wall Street. Industrial unions fouled their own nests by helping Wall Street to…
-
Good law, still missing a big point
Both parts of the NY state legislature have passed a clear and well-written bill to constrain Altman. The human side was crafted by the writers and actors unions, who know what they’re talking about. The technical side also shows unusual clarity, which makes me curious about the source of the expertise. On the human side:…
