Tag: variables and variables
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Good work.
Good is good no matter who does it. Bad is bad no matter who does it. In 2020 Trump committed the most hideous crime since 1945. Now he’s doing some unquestionably good things in the energy realm, and some unquestionably bad things on the foreign war front. On the energy front, Chris Wright is working…
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Big switch
You know the world has flipped when the default assumption, the side that doesn’t need explaining, has turned upside down. From an article about a young reporter who has abandoned print for TikTok: But besides that, I kind of let the conversation evolve. There are a lot of people who love to comment on TikTok.…
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Shocking but didn’t seem right
Saw this pair of graphs, credited to NYTimes. Industry was dominant everywhere in 1990, now healthcare is dominant everywhere. First response was Yup, that’s exactly what happened. Then I stood back and compared with what I know from tech history and experience. On the 1990 end, industry was never dominant in most states. It was…
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Didn’t really need proof.
Canadians are unquestionably less noisy and less violent than Americans. Lit firework thrown in Waterloo is a HEADLINE. If one day went by WITHOUT some asshole tossing a lit firework and starting a brush fire, it would be a banner headline here. Unrelated: The streetcar tracks in the video caught my attention. Does Waterloo have…
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The biggest divide
Aside from the obvious male vs female, the widest and most permanent divide is risk takers vs risk avoiders. This divide started LONG before humans or mammals, so in the grand scheme it’s deeper than male vs female. Every life form including bacteria has bold and timid types. Men and women can often understand or…
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Reality vs reality TV
“Conservatives” are reading the script of Trump’s fake reality TV show, parroting Dear Leader’s fake criticism of China. In fact we handed China our mines, factories, engineer training, and business training. Then we shut down our own mines, factories and schools. China was BOUND to succeed when it owned all the ingredients that formerly led…
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Papal elephant
Interesting to see all the blind men examining the new elephant. Analog fans like me are surprised and happy. Chicagoans are happy. Vax obsessers are not happy, accuse him of “vaccine boosterism”. Trads are cautious but hopeful. Catholic neocons are pissed. Earlier they were hoping for a “cold war pope” who would lead the new…
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Does free speech work?
Everyone says that freedom keeps the gov’t honest and “holds it accountable”. Free speech is necessary to prevent dictators. Well, does free speech improve the govt’s behavior? Not much correlation. I can think of one good positive and three negatives without trying. The positive is, of course, the only REAL positive in the last century.…
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Romantic vs engineer
Someone posted a picture of a snowy mountain with a dense pine forest in the background, and a railroad track with a freight train in the foreground. He described it as a beautiful Nature scene marred by an ugly human artifact. I see the EXACT OPPOSITE. The train is BEAUTIFUL because it’s a crucial and…
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In medieval terms
Substack is full of booklovers and “classical education” fans. They insist that reading more books is the solution to all problems. We have forgotten how to think in complex ways because we no longer read Melville and Milton and Cicero. Exactly backwards. We read and write INFINITELY more than ever before. The web is text.…
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Two ways
Two different ways of “fighting Trump”. Canada is fighting Trump by working together. The urban areas are working WITH the agricultural and oil areas, to improve Canada’s own agriculture and industry and petroleum. US is “fighting Trump” by tearing itself apart. The coastal urban areas are continuing to destroy and ruin the agricultural and oil…
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Status inversions
Earlier I noticed that leather reversed its status rather suddenly in the mid 30s. Buggies had leather seats because leather is waterproof. The earliest automobiles were buggies plus motors, and continued as fully open vehicles with leather seats. As closed cars became more common in the 20s, cloth upholstery became the sign of status. The…
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One frustration
One frustration of aging, for a logical type like me, is the loss of causality and correlation. In younger years, when I missed sleep or had a bad mood or various aches and pains, I knew what caused it. Fixing the cause fixed the problem, pretty consistently. If the cause was external (job situation, dentist…
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April is the sweetest month
Will wonders never cease? The EU passed a law to restrict “asylum” fakers. They said it would fast-track asylum procedures at the EU’s border, impose tough new screening systems and return people who do not qualify for international protection to their countries. Sorosian devils hate the law, which tells me all I need to know.…
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Common factor
Politicians refuse to solve problems because a solved problem means no budget and no talking points for campaigns. Every single problem must grow and grow and grow to provide more budget and more campaign funds. The sole purpose and goal of politics is endless pointless argument. If an argument might conceivably lead toward cleaning up…
Polistra's Mill 