Ze thinks ou can tell ve how to talk? E is dead wrong.
An annoying trend among useless people studying useless subjects at useless colleges. Not a large problem, except that useless people studying useless subjects at useless colleges often end up in the most useless profession of all: Politics.

Though still in search of mainstream acceptance, students and staff members who describe themselves in terms such as agender, bigender, third gender or gender-fluid are requesting — and sometimes finding — linguistic recognition.

Inviting students to state their preferred gender pronouns, known as PGPs for short, and encouraging classmates to use unfamiliar ones such as ze, sie, e, ou and ve has become an accepted back-to-school practice for professors, dorm advisers, club sponsors, workshop leaders and health care providers at several schools.

In the first place the whole mess is pure fantasy. Only a tiny handful of people, maybe a few hundred, are truly indeterminate. You can't decide after birth to join one gender or the other.

You think you can "change gender" by changing costume? Fine. Let's do it your way. Nearly all Americans are men because nearly all Americans wear pants most of the time. Since we're all men, we don't need your neuter pronouns and we don't need female pronouns either. We can just use "he" and "him" for everyone.

Well then, you think you can "change gender" by getting surgery? Fine. Let's do it your way. In that case a woman who has lost her breasts to cancer is a man, and a man who has lost his testicles is a woman. Surgery is surgery. Angelina Jolie is a man and Lance Armstrong is a woman.

"There is an initial discomfort. I think it's probably hypocritical to pretend there isn't, to say, 'Ok, that's what they want to do' and leave it at that," [writer] Lucy Ferriss said. "The people I know who teach will say 'This is weird and it's cumbersome and it's not going to last because it's not organic.'"

At the same time, Ferris thinks it's a mistake for scholars and grammarians to dismiss the trend without considering whether English and society might be served by less-rigid ideas about gender.

"Mail carrier did not evolve organically and it's a lot easier to say mailman."

Ferris hits the mark with ORGANICALLY. Language develops organically, often by infusion from adolescent in-group jargon. It's normal for adolescents to form cliques with their own way of talking, and it's normal for some of those words to drift into common usage.

Tridelts have their insider words, and Bigenders have their insider words. Same thing. No big deal.

But it's not the same thing after those groups reach adulthood. Tridelts DON'T blackmail governments into FORCING Tridelt words on the rest of us. Bigenders DO blackmail governments into FORCING Bigender words on the rest of us. This IS a big deal, and it requires stern resistance. Government-forced language is the heart of tyranny.
  ¶ 4:38 AM

  Here's how it's done, Latvians.
While I was thinking about those weird Latvians who somehow think they can "learn" by changing their ways instead of reinforcing their errors, BBC gave a quick Jumpstart Guide For Proper Western Learning.

They were discussing complaints they receive from listeners. They said that Climate Change was by far the most frequent subject of complaints. Fairly exact quote: "We know that what we're doing is right, so we sort out the complaints accordingly. We'll ignore a thousand unjustified complaints, but we'll pay close attention to one justified complaint."

See how it's done, Latvia? See the proper way to process feedback? Know in advance that everything you're doing is right. Anyone who wants you to do even more of what you're already doing is JUSTIFIED. Anyone who wants you to stop lying, stop cheating, stop destroying science, stop worshipping Gaia, stop committing mass murder.... UNJUSTIFIED!

Truth is UNJUSTIFIED. Genocide is JUSTIFIED.

It's simple.

Labels: Carbon Cult

  ¶ 4:04 AM

  Weird Latvians
Latvians are weird.

A roof collapsed, killing about 50 people. The collapse was caused by some really stupid Green decisions by someone involved with the building; we don't know yet who decided to put a roof garden on a flat roof, but it was clearly a stupid idea.

Therefore the country's President resigns in shame, claiming that he "takes responsibility" for the disaster.

Everyone knows that "taking responsibility" means saying words about "taking responsibility". Everyone knows that NO executive at any level ever gives up. Latvia needs to look closely at the American way of "taking responsibility", which is obviously the only correct way because it's American.

We had a similar-size disaster (proportionally) a few years ago when two large buildings in NYC collapsed after an encounter with an airplane. This disaster could have been prevented if we had been controlling our borders and immigration properly, and it could have been prevented if the FBI had been paying attention to signals from its own agents. Did our President resign? Hell no. Did he take steps to tighten immigration? Fuck no. He opened the borders. Did he take steps to improve FBI response to signals? Of course not. Instead he started two wars in random countries that were short on feminism and graduate education, in order to bring the wonders of feminism and graduate education to those benighted countries. Those wars killed 5000 Americans and 100,000 foreigners with absolutely no results. No feminism, no graduate education, just dead people. Did the President resign? Fuck no. His position was strengthened! Then some of his friends collapsed the entire economy of America. Did he punish his friends? Did he resign? Fuck no. He poured trillions of dollars into the pockets of his friends.

The next President continued to pour trillions of dollars into the pockets of those friends who run banks and collapse countries for fun and profit. He decided to completely collapse our already broken health-care system in order to pour even more trillions into the pockets of a different set of friends. The people saw that the system was even more broken than before, and they complained. Did he decide to stop collapsing the already-broken system? Hell no. Did he resign? Fuck no. He took responsibility the American way by saying words about "taking responsibility." USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! We're EXCEPTIONAL!!!!!

Latvia doesn't know the first thing about responsibility. If you want to achieve American-size total collapse and total failure and total poverty for everyone except bankers, you need to STAY IN OFFICE.

Just think of the awful consequences of resigning: the government might actually change its ways to avoid losing power again. It might look carefully at the disaster and try to prevent future disasters. Absolutely bizarre and incomprehensible.

These Latvians seem to think that "learning" means "attempting to avoid another mistake." Everyone knows that "learning" means MAKING INFINITELY BIGGER AND INFINITELY DEADLIER MISTAKES.
  ¶ 3:17 AM

  Hall of mirrors again
The media outrage over NSA "revelations" was properly aimed at first. Though the info wasn't new to those of us who had technical connections, it was apparently new to many. It's perfectly appropriate to be outraged at a spy agency with infinite reach, watching absolutely everybody and everything.

Lately the subjects seem to be slipping, and I'm starting to wonder about the whole process.

Today's outrage:

The US authorities have studied online sexual activity and suggested exposing porn site visits as a way to discredit people who spread radical views, the Huffington Post news site has reported.

It published a document, leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, identifying two Muslims said to be vulnerable to accusations of "online promiscuity".

Well? That's pretty much what FBI has been doing with radicalizers for 80 years, rather effectively. It's ALSO what EVERY political candidate from school board to president does to his opponents. Oppo research has spawned a vast industry of private eyes who work for both "sides" in every single election.

At the level where NSA is using this technique, I'd say it's useful and normal. Governments always want to weaken and dissipate the authority of potential revolutionaries. Smart radicals have always understood this, and have found leaders who are difficult to oppo. (Difficult = either squeaky clean or openly and brazenly dirty.) If your leaders can be blackmailed by the government or by other radical movements, you won't last long.

Was this whole set of "revelations" carefully orchestrated to reach this point? Were we first exposed to a large dose of genuine outrage to desensitize us, followed by this info that makes NSA seem normal and justifiable?

I wondered from the start whether Snowden was really an AP, simply because he survived. Real enemies of FBI and NSA have "accidents" before their info can be widely disseminated.
  ¶ 3:52 AM

  Pluperfect =/= future subjunctive.
Political advocates often take an accomplished fact and try to cast it in conditional form to make one side or the other look bad. The classic example is:

"If we let Bush have a second term, he will feel no restrictions, and he will start ripping up the Constitution."

Or identically,

"If we let Obama have a second term, he will feel no restrictions, and he will start ripping up the Constitution."

Idiots. Constitution no longer exists. It lost its authority in 1803 with Marbury vs Madison, and every president since then ripped out huge pieces. Madman Lincoln burned it to ashes along with half the country in his wildly successful project to maximize the profits of railroad barons. A document that died in 1861 cannot be killed any further by Bush or Obama or whoever else you idiotically fear.

Here's a new variation on conditionalizing a plain fact.

Spokane Valley, acting under the influence of a Christian activist, has just passed a law restricting the costumes of 'bikini baristas'. (Note: I think the law is silly, but I don't live in the Valley so it's none of my business. Cultural matters are supposed to be handled at the city level where laws are naturally applied to the same people who want them. Culture is not meant to be at the Federal level where laws are viciously applied to vast groups of people who don't want the law.)

Shane Criddle with the Coalition for Community Values said ... "Flaunting their bodies in public in an area that is easily seen by youth.... That high school youth can come through in their cars and see a nearly nude woman and go to their school sexually charged; we just felt that was wrong."

Criddle must have spent a highly unusual adolescence. If there is any millisecond when a "high school youth" is NOT "sexually charged", I sure as hell don't remember it from my time as a "high school youth." Max charge 24 hours a day, so an increased charge from seeing a bikini is numerically negligible. Eliminating the barista is like avoiding nylon carpets when a thunderstorm is approaching because you don't want to cause lightning.
  ¶ 12:09 PM

  Want it gift-wrapped?
Noticed an interesting article on an unfathomable and completely pointless dispute among mathies. The 'foundational' types seem to be puzzled about the distinction between countable infinities and the continuum. This leads to some kind of irreconcilable thingamajig which must be resolved by either of two mutually exclusive and perfectly unfathomable thingamajigs.

The article mentions an alternate approach, first formulated by Aristotle, that makes sense. Just ignore infinity and continuity. Operate as if everything is countable. We don't actually handle infinity as an object or a number; real math works with limits and never tries to resolve the limits. We simply think of 'really really big numbers' and leave it there. Aristotle usually gets things right, while Plato usually leads to genocide.

Much as I hate to differ with Aristotle, I'm going to try. I'd say the simpler solution is the other way around. Set theory is useless. It's not the foundation of anything, though you can pretend it's a foundation. Counting is not the basis and springboard of useful math; counting is just a trick that intelligent animals have mastered.

Why did we animals need to count, and what were we counting before we improved the technique? We were counting Nature's wrapped-up packages. Fruits, trees, flowers, cows, wolves, our own eggs or larvae or babies. In short, present organisms or future organisms.

MUCH later we expanded counting to non-organism things like rocks or houses, and even later (within written history) to abstractions like hours of labor or acres of land. Some tribes still haven't made the first step of abstraction, still have distinct counting methods for living and non-living.

Counting is thus an important product of life and an important tool of life, but not crucial to survival. Counting is life recognizing life. Counting helps us to keep our own eggs or babies safe from predators, helps us to locate the best field to find nectar or the best field to plant alfalfa.

But counting doesn't get us anywhere close to the underlying substance for all living and non-living things. The substance is energy and waves, not particles.

These packages we see, whether fruits or bees or rocks, are made of waves gathered in even smaller packages that we call atoms. We can do useful stuff like chemistry and cooking by counting these packages, but even there we aren't really counting. We're using balances and ratios to measure quantities by mass or volume.

Life uses waves from the sun and gradients of gravitational or magnetic or static force to drive its infinitely complex processes. We have many built-in methods of measuring these waves and gradients: ears, eyes, electrostatic senses, gravity senses. From those we have created a wide variety of differential comparator tools for making refined external measurements, but these measurements are NOT counting. We can paste a list of numbers onto a stick to give us a speakable and writable record of a measurement, but we were able to handle these comparisons quite nicely before we pasted the numbers. Fold the rope in half, fold it again in thirds, ....

Well, what about this activity that I'm doing at the moment... or rather SHOULD be doing instead of maundering about numbers? I should be developing courseware using DIGITAL computers. Aha! Gotcha! DIGITAL means counting! And why SHOULD I be doing this? Because I have the probably false belief that my bankrupt publisher will send me money in return for my labor. Aha! Gotcha! MONEY means units and coins!

Really? The programming, which claims to be about basic countable numbers, is deeply about ratios, with some arbitrary packages involved in the measurement of ratios. I'm doing a lot of trig to manipulate lines and shapes on screen. Pure ratios. I'm using loops to determine when a file has been fully read. Ratios again, with an arbitrary linguistic marker (newline) as the list pasted on the stick. I'm figuring grades as percentages. Pure ratio, turned into linguistic markers for portability. And how does the computer turn ratios into linguistic markers? Balanced ratios of electrostatic charge in CMOS chips, arbitrarily grouped into 1's and 0's for portability.

And what about the MONEY that I may receive if JPMorgan doesn't decide to keep it all because JPMorgan's purpose on earth is to own everything? Coins are countable, aren't they? Yes, but they weren't countable to begin with. Coins arose as a measurable and balance-able weight of gold, serving as a portable carrier of labor. They went through a long phase as strictly countable arbitrary markers, but in the last few decades they've been reverting back into their natural continuity, into balanced ratios of electrostatic charge in CMOS chips, grouped into 1's and 0's for portability.



No matter where you look, you find that COUNTING is a wonderfully convenient trick, invented by life to help us remember and transfer ratios and gradients of energy, but the basic stuff, the universal stuff, is always ratios and gradients of energy. It's all continuum.

= = = = =

Sidenote: There's a parallel to randomness/entropy. In this case the Platonist mathies insist that Number was the primary ingredient of the universe; Number existed before humans came along and decided to use it. Nope, backwards. Number is strictly a product of life. In the randomness case, Platonic physicists insist that the distinction of order vs disorder is a natural part of the universe, existing before humans came along to use it. Nope, backwards. Order is strictly a product of life.

Labels: Danbo, Grand Blueprint

  ¶ 3:27 AM

  Z for impedance or Z for Zener?
Last week I accidentally made an analogy between electrical and political power, in the context of Poland's phase switching. Let's see if I can stretch the analogy past its breaking point....

We can treat various types of responses to government power as types of impedance.

What government wants, of course, is zero impedance. Perfect connection with no loss or backwash. Orders go out, populace obeys instantly and perfectly.

This rarely happens, and it takes ruthless redesign and pruning of the load circuits to assure it. In the modern world only North Korea has zero output impedance and a perfectly linear 1:1 transfer function.

In more ordinary countries the impedance is mainly resistive. Enforcement officers and spy satellites and informer networks and sting operations and Delta Forces use lots of energy, but if you keep them running a normal populace will obey quickly with 80-90% efficiency.

Deliberate impedance by the load can take two forms:

Inductive reactance is a lagging response, as in union go-slow or Blue-Flu responses. We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.

Capacitive reactance is an immediate over-willing hyperliteral leading response, as in the classic 'sergeant-breaker' technique. Sir Yessir! Sir We'll do it your way Sir! Sir In fact we've already done it your way Sir!


But of course human loads are not passive. Each human has his own 'command source' with its own frequencies and amplitudes. He can decide to create voltages that run counterphase with the government's command voltage, to zero out the net current between the two poles. (Such as the Amish insistence on total self-sufficiency, eliminating flow between gov't and people without eliminating the connection.) Or he can create voltages that run strongly in-phase with the government, to maximize the current and burn out the wires. (Everyone would decide to sign up for Obamacare on October 1. A nicely literal example, involving actual electricity as well as government idiocy!)

And finally, the mere fact that I've been treating the circuits in terms of direct power transfer shows how far we've fallen from the proper relationship between these two sides.

Before the invention of the welfare state, the national government was not a source of current for its own population. It was meant to exert power toward foreign governments to preserve the integrity of the organism, but it was only meant to provide a reference voltage to its own population. It provided guidance in matters like contracts and currency standards and weights and measures, and it extracted a small amount of power in the form of taxes to maintain its external operations. Smaller internal governments (eg town corporations or plantations or fiefdoms) would read the reference voltage at their [literal] gates, and would respond accordingly.
  ¶ 5:12 PM

  What's a doooooooooooooooooooormer?
THIS is a doooooooooooooooooooormer. Amazing.
  ¶ 6:51 AM

  Bit late, aren't you?
A writer for a magazine about math has just now sussed out the fact that the Goldman Coup of 2008 was assisted by lots of physics majors. This fact was widely discussed in 2008 and ever since, but I suppose some people are slow on the pickup.

Slow-thinking author asks why physics, and concludes:

The finance industry loves people who can learn a lot of maths very quickly, and quick mathematical response is what Laura was providing in her time on the trading floor as a quantitative analyst (or quant). "I was working with traders and building tools for valuation and risk management," she explains. "It was very exciting. I moved from an academic environment, where I'd have weeks, months, years even, to come up with solutions, to one in which solutions were required in days, hours, or minutes."

But mathematical fluency isn't the only thing that makes physicists attractive. "The specific training in theoretical physics is very similar to what people do as quants," says David Berman ... A physicist's job is to spot patterns in the information reality presents us with and then come up with ways of describing the important relationships, conceptually and mathematically.

Well, yes, but lots of other disciplines are good at math and good at observing reality. Why didn't they primarily hire chemists or civil engineers or biologists or pharmaceutical researchers? Why are physicists best suited for finance?

Easy. Physicists observe fake reality and are comfortable with scams and frauds (dark matter, string theory, multiverses, quantum crap, Higgs Bosons), and are historically comfortable with creating weapons that kill millions of civilians. Those other disciplines are more accustomed to dealing with real reality, i.e. THINGS that help people live their lives.
  ¶ 2:18 AM

  Adulteration and sophistication
Academic research on diet is reinventing a very old wheel.

Item in today's "science" news coverage:

While obesity is a complex and multifaceted problem, much of the strategy behind combating it boils down to healthy eating habits. Taking into account the primary role of subjective appetite sensations in said habits, a group of researchers recently compared the satiety impact of two popular breakfast choices: oatmeal and ready-to-eat breakfast cereal (RTEC). ... The oatmeal breakfast resulted in a greater increase in perceptions of fullness and a greater decrease in perceptions of hunger, desire to eat, and prospective intake in the 4-hour period postprandial when compared with the RTEC,"

This principle was well-known a hundred years ago but forgotten in the interim. Here's a page from 'Air, water and food from a sanitary standpoint' by Ellen Richards, 1900.



Richards distinguishes between adulterated and sophisticated foods. Adulteration is dilution of real food by inert or bad stuff like water or sawdust. Adulteration faded after the Pure Food and Drug Act, but has recently returned as a trick to avoid raising prices. Sophistication is pre-digestion that lulls the digestive system into fatal laziness. Sophistication is much more common now, and still unaffected by laws. (In fairness, I don't see how you could practically regulate it.)

Unfortunately Richards's advocacy failed. The commercial forces of sophistication (love that word!) remain in control, and the idea that the digestive system needs to work for its living is still "new" and "marginal".

Labels: 20th century Dark Age

  ¶ 5:11 AM

  Now squeeze 2
One of today's AOL-mail fillers is a piece about writing, titled "8 grammar mistakes you should never make." I knew before reading it that it would be only minimally about grammar, but didn't expect such perfect wrongness. The "grammar" "mistakes" are:

(1) Affect, effect

(2) Impact as verb

(3) Their, they're, there

(4) Could care less

(5) Irregardless

(6) Your, you're

(7) Fewer, less

(8) Quotation marks

None of those are grammar problems. Some are spelling confusions, some are word usage errors or stylistic preferences. (2) and (4) are perfectly fine for most readers. Impact has been fully verbed. Could care less, though originally felt as illogical, has been common for a century and no longer stirs attention.

However, the writer of the piece makes one actual grammatical error in the second sentence:

"Many business owners stress about writing anything at all, for fear of using incorrect grammar that will be made fun of across the Web."

Stress is still a transitive verb. Using it intransitively leads to confusion. It may eventually grow into both types of usage, but at this moment the reader expects a direct object after stress, as in "Business owners stress the importance of good grammar."
  ¶ 3:09 AM

  Bravo Rouhani, Bravo Kerry.
Persia has done something that UK and US are no longer capable of doing. Persia has ELECTED a leader who takes a DIFFERENT path from previous leaders. Rouhani decided to take the Turkish ZERO PROBLEMS approach. He gave up macho, gave up grandiosity, found a way to make things better for HIS OWN PEOPLE.

And Kerry (presumably representing Obama) has shown the good sense to go along with Rouhani. Remains to be seen whether he will be allowed to do it; our Supreme Ayatollah Netanyahu may require us to welsh on the deal. Spoiled bully Bibi has already started roaring and screeching. The more he roars with no results, the more he shows Israel as an aggressive monster. Another good effect of this agreement.

This is a victory for Obama's steady-pressure foreign policy, and a fulfillment of a campaign promise..... unlike his domestic agenda, which is full of lies and dismal failures. Seems to be a common pattern among presidents. Alleged "liberals", who campaign mainly on domestic reforms, cause disaster domestically while quietly succeeding in foreign matters.

Above all, this is a victory for ZERO PROBLEMS.

= = = = =

Later and clearer thought about Obama: When elected, he had a chance to solve THREE major problems. (1) Banksters. (2) Health care. (3) Middle East wars.

He chose different paths on those three problems, with very different results. On (1) he chose to continue TARP and QE. Chose to continue pouring trillions and trillions and trillions into the Jew Casino instead of closing it and jailing its participants. Result: Continued national collapse. On (2) he chose to give an infinite monopoly to the health insurers, which pleased Emperor Joe Lieberman. He rejected a single-payer plan which would have solved the problem. Result: Continued national collapse. On (3) he chose to displease the Jews. Result: Less war, less tension. Success.

Why is (3) so different? Why does Obama slavishly obey the Jews on domestic matters but disobey them on military and diplomatic matters?

Labels: Turkey

  ¶ 3:06 AM

  Gaia kills
A supermarket roof collapsed in Latvia, killing 52 people. The roof wasn't just any old roof: it had been covered with a garden in an attempt to be fashionably Gaian.

Flat roofs are inherently bad even without a garden. They can collapse under extremely heavy rain or snow, but this event was purely human-caused.

Every roof needs to get rid of water quickly. Flat roofs require much better design and much more maintenance to prevent trapped water; when maintenance of the drains falls short, the roof falls. A garden sabotages proper drainage. Ordinary rain can saturate the soil and create an unanticipated long-lasting load, with no way to get rid of it.

Sidenote: This is being described as the worst disaster in Latvia in many decades. That's a pretty good advertisement for a country. If 52 deaths is an unprecedented tragedy, you must be doing a lot of things right.

Labels: Carbon Cult

  ¶ 5:22 AM

  Time for a fucking reprint
Another fine example of the difference between Gramsci and Marx.

A "sociologist", i.e. Commie satan, went undercover in Philly and wrote a book about her experiences. She documents the complete takeover of the black community by crime, and blames it on the cops. Nowhere in the article does she mention WHY the black community turned toward crime in the 1970s.

It wasn't the cops who created the problem, Gramscian dickhead. It was your elite buddies on Wall Street who created the problem. Feminists, environmentalists, Free Trade advocates, immigration supporters, all working in perfect sync with Goldman and Morgan to REMOVE THE JOBS A BLACK MAN CAN DO.

Before the '70s, blacks and whites with more hand skill than brain skill could find solid well-paid factory jobs. After Goldman Coup 1, those jobs were gone. Because black males are especially hand-oriented, the removal hit them harder than the larger and more varied white population.

A real Marxist would see the problem, because a real Marxist understands that labor is value. A Gramscian can't see the problem, because a Gramscian is just another Goldman front, carefully crafted to sound all rebellious and radical and shit while supporting and assisting all of Goldman's actual operations, like "global warming" pseudoscience, open borders, free trade, outsourcing, feminism, etc, etc.

The Gramscian hates NSA and loves Google. Nuff said.**

Time for a fucking reprint.

= = = = =START FUCKING REPRINT


The Occupy movement is Wall Street's best friend. Our hippieshit and banker characters return today with actual slogans of the latest Blockupy protests in Germany. We'll call the characters RiotGrrl and GoldMaan for convenience.

= = = = =



RiotGrrl: No more fences! No more borders!

GoldMaan: We agree. In fact we've already eliminated borders in Europe, and we've softened them everywhere else. We love it when people and money and labor move freely around the world! It means we no longer have to waste money on wages! We can keep it all in circulation among ourselves, among the financial class.

= = = = =



RiotGrrl: There must be something better than the nation!

GoldMaan: Listen, babe, you're way behind the times. Haven't you noticed? Nations have already been replaced by something better. Something better is, of course, Goldman. All major governments are Goldman divisions, run by Goldman employees, serving Goldman's purposes. People used to joke about the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. Now it's even simpler. The Goldman Rule: Goldman makes the rules.

= = = = =



RiotGrrl: Resist Austerity!

GoldMaan: We don't like austerity either, and unlike you, we've actually done something about it. Austerity means that people save for the future and live within their incomes, with very little borrowing. We hate that! Borrowing is how we make our profit. So we simply stopped paying interest for savings, to cut our costs and to force people into markets where we can make a profit.

RiotGrrl: But you imposed austerity on Italy and Greece!

GoldMaan: Yes, we had to do that so they wouldn't bring down the whole structure. Their bonds were pulling up the interest rate curve, which threatened to provide a non-stock investment choice. Can't have that.

= = = = =



RiotGrrl: Social change, not climate change!

GoldMaan: Agreed on both points.

First, we love it when social structures break down. Religious traditions encourage people to save for the future, to live cautiously, and to enjoy work, community and faith. Broken societies must desperately try to enjoy the present moment with commercially produced stuff and commercially produced entertainment. It never works, so a broken culture is hopelessly addicted to spending and borrowing! Beautiful!

Second, the 'climate change' bubble is one of our proudest creations. We funded fake research and forced governments to set up cap-and-trade arrangements, so we could profit from trading the Indulgences.

Look, babe, I shouldn't be saying this.... but if you really want to resist us, you need to take the opposite side of every sign you've put up. Work for stronger national governments, less free trade, less diversity, stronger religious traditions, more frugality, more nuclear power. Those are the things we hate.


= = = = =END FUCKING REPRINT

**Footnote: I was trying to think of a commercial parallel to "hates NSA and loves Google." I wanted to say "The Gramscian hates XYZ and loves Apple", where XYZ is a big company that has all its factories in America and treats its workers decently. Unfortunately XYZ doesn't exist. And there's the whole problem. You can't even make the comparison now.
  ¶ 3:41 AM

  Less than meets the eye
There's something deeply wrong with this week's London Big Story about "slavery". Supposedly three people were held in "slavery" for 30 years, but they were able to call police and they were able to walk out of the house freely.

After the initial claims fell apart, the authorities are now talking about "invisible handcuffs". Pure nonsense. Raw bullshit. "Invisible handcuffs" are not handcuffs. If you can call out and walk out without being shot, you're not in slavery. You may be in a horrible domestic employment situation, you may need help in getting out of the horrible situation, but it's NOT SLAVERY.

I suspect the story will continue to unravel. It looks like the cops were brought in by some Commie activists with an ax to grind, and the cops found less than they expected.

= = = = =

Later: the cops are using a different description now, which makes more sense given the lack of actual force. It's apparently a religious cult of some kind, not slavery. Kudos to the coppers for quickly eliminating inaccurate language.


= = = = =

And later again: The cult turns out to be a Hindu version of Jonestown!

The two suspects in the south London slavery case ran a Communist collective in the 1970s that worshipped the Chinese leader Chairman Mao... The husband and wife, who are from India and Tanzania originally ... arrived in Britain in the 1960s and were associated with a number of extreme left political groups known to the police and security services.

I'll bet the Hindu Commie "anti-slavery" activists who brought this case to police attention are conflicted now and may be regretting their actions.
  ¶ 3:07 AM

  0.04 cheers!
Glad that someone finally broke through the idiot filibuster shit. I don't give a fuck which set of monsters chose to do it. Apparently it was the D-label monsters who did it. Fine. Apparently the R-label monsters are screaming about "ripping up the Constitution". Okay, let them scream so we can see what grotesque ungodly fantastically ignorant entities they are. If the labels had been reversed, we would be able to see what grotesque ungodly fantastically ignorant entities the D-label monsters are.

The Senate was NEVER meant to be a Hall Of 100 Supreme Emperors, each one capable of halting the entire country with a single piece of paper. Veto power was solely assigned to the President, who was supposedly elected by the whole country.

Originally the Senators were delegates from the STATE GOVERNMENTS, representing the interests of the STATES AS UNITS. In that mode it would have made sense for one STATE GOVERNMENT to have significant blocking power, but not a veto of every single action.

The idiot 17th Amendment destroyed the original mode. Now each Senator represents only his own filthy super-rich cancerous drunken crack-smoking brain-dead ass.

Ideally the 17th Amendment should be repealed, but that ain't gonna happen. Even more ideally, DC should be bombed down to bedrock, but that ain't gonna happen unless we can get Putin pissed enough to do us a favor.

This little repeal of a recent rule is the best we can expect; actually it's more than I expected. So I'll give roughly 0.04 cheers for this modification.
  ¶ 5:41 PM

  Watch out, engineers. Satan is invading your ranks.
Satan dba "Erin Cech" is attempting to SMASH UP engineering education, which up till now has been straightforward and good.

[Satan] used survey data from four U.S. colleges to examine how students' public-welfare beliefs change during their college engineering education and whether the curricular emphases of their engineering programs are related to students' beliefs about public welfare. The study found that engineering students leave college less concerned about public welfare than when they entered.

That's the best possible recommendation for engineering schools. Non-engineering students are converted into mass-murdering genocidal wacked-out servants of Lenin and Satan. It's reassuring to know that engineering curricula are still sane.

[Satan], an assistant professor of sociology who has B.S. degrees in both electrical engineering and sociology, said that many people inside and outside engineering have emphasized the importance of training ethical, socially conscious engineers....

Ethical = Orthodox Stalinist.

Socially conscious = Mindless robot receiving all of its "thoughts" from mass media.

However, [Satan] said, it appears that there is something about engineering education that results in students becoming more cynical and less concerned with public policy and social engagement issues.

More cynical = more sane, more in touch with facts and reality. How could any sane person fail to be "cynical" about modern Western governments and cultures?

Please, please, please, engineering schools! Don't listen to the siren song of conformity! You're the last bastion of sanity and the only discipline that saves lives instead of destroying them.

Labels: Ethics

  ¶ 8:41 AM

  In case
In case you were still wondering whether Bitcoin is a government tool.......

NPR feature on "strange" bedfellows.

Despite the criminal case, bitcoin seems to be gaining legitimacy in the eyes of federal officials. There were not one but two Congressional hearings on bitcoin this week. And an official from the Justice Department said that "virtual currencies in and of themselves are not illegal, we've all recognized that innovation is important."

First of all, despite always means because. In this case "despite the criminal case against SilkRoad..." means "because SilkRoad was a sting operation...."

And "virtual currency is not illegal?" Tell that to Bernard von Nothaus, who is now serving time for creating his own currency.

What they really mean is:

"Virtual currency created by COOL people is legal. Virtual currency created by UNFASHIONABLE people is illegal."

Or more likely:

"Virtual currency created under our supervision to serve as a false-flag device is legal. Virtual currency created without our collaboration is illegal."
  ¶ 6:23 AM

  Random memory about arsking
If JFK said "Arsk not what your country can do for you, arsk what you can do for your country" today, he would be instantly squashed and perpetually demonized by the media and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He'd be impeached.

Think about it. What happens today when a white man makes the same point? "It's a dog whistle." "It's institutional racism."

In 1960 the hellhounds of Die-Versity hadn't yet been set loose, so he could say it without being squashed.

In fact the quote was nearly meaningless at the time. Very few people were arsking what the country could do for them, so he was simply expressing a common feeling, not preaching against a dangerous trend. When welfare became an official way of life a few years later, the satans who made it into an official way of life (LBJ, Cloward and Piven) were hardline Soviet agents who liked to quote JFK while destroying the civilization that he more or less liked.
  ¶ 2:45 AM

  Random memory about brakes
During the '60s and '70s I lived in Okla, Kansas and Ohio. In all three states I owned and drove a lot of old cars, foreign and domestic. All old cars have problems, but the old cars in Okla had ONE specific problem that was rare in the other states.

Okla cars had bad brakes. Nearly all of them needed pumping and failed often. It's amazing that anyone survived!

If this was a real difference, why? Was it the dust? Did Okla gas stations distribute inferior brake fluid? It's not a matter of inspection; Okla had a yearly inspection law and the other two states didn't. Admittedly the inspection law was easy to 'work around', but still it must have been used honestly on some occasions.


Hmm. I just admitted that I always cheated on inspection, didn't I?
  ¶ 5:10 PM

  Counterintuitive works again
Sometimes intuition is wrong.

Every now and then I'll get water in one ear while showering. Usually the water will bubble out fairly soon, aided by head-shaking. Last night it didn't pop out on its own; it stayed there and made life miserable. Bone-conduction effects made everything sound clangy and bongy.

Still there in the morning. Tried intuitive solutions like poking rolled-up toilet paper into the ear. The paper came out wet, but the eardrum was still firmly stopped.

Well, what the hell. My intuition about bodily stuff is usually wrong, so let's go the other way. Instead of removing water, INSERT water.

Tipped my head sideways and used a washcloth to splash some hot** water directly into the stopped ear. Instant result! Didn't have to toss the new water out; didn't take time to dissolve some kind of blockage; just returned to normal NOW.

Aaahhh. Great relief. The world has two sides again!



**Footnote on hot water: Never put lukewarm water in your ear. You'll get dizzy!

Labels: TMI

  ¶ 4:29 PM

  Securitized strangers
Along with millions of others, I've been ranting and raving about Romneycare forcing me to pay $200 extra each month for "benefits" that I physically CANNOT EVER USE.

Yesterday I heard that one of my graphics-world acquaintances was more or less begging for help to avoid bankruptcy, because his wife had gall-bladder surgery and they were uninsured. My response was instant and basically unemotional. I paid them some money.

Later I noticed the comparison. Mutual aid is automatic and dutiful, requiring very little thought or emotion, when there's a real mutual connection. I know these folks; they're not exactly friends, but they're members of the tribe. They've been quietly providing a service to the community for a long time, keeping old material for sale while the big vendors practice planned obsolescence. Sort of like the graphics-world equivalent of a Studebaker Parts Dealer.

When helpful members of the tribe need help, help is given automatically. When securitized strangers need help, you'd better make a fucking good case for it. And Obama hasn't made the case.

As always, the MOST infuriating thing is that Obama had a FUCKING GOOD OPPORTUNITY to FIX THE FUCKING SYSTEM. He could have switched to the French system, where everyone contributes 13% of their income, everyone gets the same service, and insurance companies are NOT INVOLVED AT ALL. Instead he kept the horrible American system and made it twice as horrible. If he had gone French, my health insurance would have gone DOWN from 32% of income to 13% of income. Under Romneycare, my health insurance is going UP from 32% of income to 42% of income, with absolutely no improvement in service.
  ¶ 2:07 AM

  Special language update!!!! Breaking!!!! Urgent!!!!


Professor Polistra is BELEAGUERED and EMBATTLED by BELEAGUERED and EMBATTLED!!!!

These words are suddenly ubiquitous. Crack mayor Rob Ford is BELEAGUERED and EMBATTLED!!!! Obamacare is BELEAGUERED and EMBATTLED!!!! The Oregon state healthcare website, which hasn't even started to work, is BELEAGUERED and EMBATTLED!!!!

What did these words originally mean? They imply that an innocent person or organization or country is being attacked on all sides by vicious enemies armed with spears and catapults and crossbows.

What do they mean in current usage? They mean publicly exposed, by its own actions, as a total failure.

The original connotation is sneakily imported along with the words, to infect the public with a sense that these complete failures are innocent little bystanders being overrun by filthy Visigoth hordes.

Labels: Language update

  ¶ 5:30 PM

  Break those grids!
Poland has taken a major step to protect its own industries from wacked-out Krauts. They have installed phase-changing systems at the link points between the Polish and Kraut electric grid, so the Polish operators can avoid enforced purchase of Kraut power.

Changing phase on one branch of a circuit is a way of decreasing flow by adding reactance, without the heat and waste of adding resistance. I don't know how this particular grid is built, but presumably the Polish grid operator can restrict current coming from Kraut loops that are mainly sourced by unreliable solar and wind subsidy-suckers.

I was surprised to find that modern phase changers are still analog devices, involving a multi-tap transformer that effectively 'rotates' the secondary by changing the active part of the coil. I figured it would be done with digital wave regeneration, but obviously it's not.


Poland has spent the last millenium trying to fend off the manic phases of Kraut insanity, often unsuccessfully. Remains to be seen whether this new reactive phase-damper will work; it's a bit late in this century's Kraut manic phase, and the symptoms are pathologically advanced. Krauts have already built the usual debt-slavery tentacles into the Balkans, and have already implemented the usual wild-eyed Environmental Purity rules.

Nevertheless, Polistra salutes Poland!



Decoupling power grids is a necessary part of breaking EU and other TBTF monstrosities. Power systems worked better when they were smaller. Banking systems worked better when they were smaller. Trade worked better when it was strictly bilateral. Clearly there's a lower limit on size as well, but we're far beyond the upper limit now, and a whole lot of shrinking is needed before we approach the lower limit.
  ¶ 4:11 AM

  Canadian cues
I like to look at Canadian pictures and figure out what makes them Canadian. In architecture it's simple. Everything is the same except the windows. Streets, lawns, siding, house forms, colors, roofs, all the same on both sides of the border; but Canada has some British windows mixed with the American styles. T-shaped or asymmetrical casements.

This picture of Toronto's official crackhead Rob Ford in the middle of a football crowd shows the difference in people. Again it's subtle. Hair, clothes, body forms, colors, hats, all the same; but Canada has Scottish lips. Even at a ball game, all lips are frugally pursed. (And again some British-style windows, i.e. eyeglasses.)
  ¶ 5:39 PM

  Contractual legislation
Idiot "governor" Inslee talked the idiot "legislature" into approving a huge set of tax exemptions for Boeing, as an inducement to keep production of the latest airplane here. Then the IAM union thugs rejected Boeing's contract offer, which means Boeing will likely move production elsewhere regardless of the state's efforts.

Now the innocent state taxpayers are stuck with the bill for a bet that didn't pan out.

This is purely wrong. The problem is obvious. States have to make permanent laws as bargaining chips in a game where the other parties are conducting normal contract negotiations.

It's like a real estate deal where one party has to amputate his legs to make an offer, while the other party can just name his price.

Solution is simple. Empower the state gov't to make law contracts or conditional laws. These would take effect instantly when the other party fulfills its side of the contract, and would be erased if the other party decides not to fulfill.
  ¶ 5:04 PM

  Mobius award
Well, I thought the American partisans were unbeatably twisted, but you just can't get ahead of the current Brit politicians in the infinite-dimensional Mobius department.

The UK Independence Party is “unpatriotic” and guilty of a “betrayal of the national interest” for wanting to leave the European Union, Nick Clegg has said.

Wanting to HAVE A NATION is "unpatriotic".

Wanting to HAVE A NATION is "betrayal of the NATIONAL interest".

Eagerly submitting to the Kraut jackboot is "patriotic".

Nope, can't beat Clegg.
  ¶ 8:12 AM

  Blob specification
A regional misunderstanding showed up in a local news segment this morning. KXLY, the local ABC station, was taking their assigned slice of a national reporter's time, discussing the Peoria tornado. National man was pointing out that Illinois TV stations do a good job of warning people. He went on to make a sensible-sounding comparison: "I'm sure your local weathercasters have the same ability. They can show the big red blob advancing toward each neighborhood, and they can specify exactly when it hits each street."

Well, he's right about the technology. It's been around since the early '80s, and Midwestern TV has been using it since the early '80s. (Bless you, Gary England!)

The bad part: He assumed that the Midwestern level of competence applied everywhere. Wrong. Some of our weathercasters can't even read radar, and none of them use the hi-tech stuff he described.

The good part: Our weathercasters don't really need to use the tech, because we very rarely have red blobs. Lots of green blobs and blue blobs, but only three or four red blobs in a typical year. Blue blobs (i.e. snowstorms) are the main problem here.
  ¶ 6:33 AM

  MMT missionary
Midmorning, from about 8 to 11, has always been my best time for programming and graphics work. During heavy brainwork I like to have semi-interesting talk radio running in the background, to mask tinnitus and provide a sense of fake companionship. Among the available choices I've settled on the local Money-Talk station. Unlike NPR or ClearChannel, the Money-Talk yakkers are not obtrusively partisan and don't raise my blood pressure. They have a sensibly cynical attitude toward The Market, as in "It's a fraudulent mess, but you can make money if you follow our advice." Since I don't gamble, I don't need to think about buying their advice, so it's a pure spectator sport.

Recently the Ray Lucia show split off into two segments. Ray kept the first hour, and his younger sidekicks picked up the second and third hours with a livelier show. The sidekicks have been quietly pulling away from Ray's pro-Market and generally Repooflican attitude, but I didn't realize until Friday how far they intended to pull!

They spent one full hour happily interviewing Stephanie Kelton, one of the UMKC economists who are trying to restart economics on a more factual** basis. The Lucia sidekicks showed that they've been following the Bill Black / Kelton viewpoint for a while. Kelton did a good job of explaining the UMKC slant on money and deficits.

This could get interesting. Until now the UMKC brand has been known in academic and leftist circles but has never been introduced to a 'regular' mass audience.

= = = = =

**Footnote on Factual: UMKC economics may be a slight improvement over the infinitely evil mass-murdering satanic Bernanke/Krugman version of econ, but it's unnecessary. The Islamic version has been around for 1300 years and is the only factual and scientific system. No new theories needed. Just open it and use it.

And a footnote on Money-talk: Though this format doesn't get my blood boiling, it does sometimes interfere numerically with work. I'm testing and debugging, trying to remember "On line 413, Vpx needs to go down by .03 and Vpy needs to go up by 3.2" ------ and at the same time the radio is saying "On futures at 4/13, EPX is down by 1.4 and ETY is up by 3.7".

  ¶ 7:22 PM

  Ha ha? No.
I was thinking about the unspeakably bizarre and long-lasting crossover in American politics, whereby both JFK and Obama are heroes to the Left and villains to the Right.

JFK, the first president to oppose the USSR, an out-of-control heterosexual who used and tossed women like toilet paper, a great tax-cutting friend of big business. JFK, Hero of the Left.

Obama, an old-fashioned husband and father, the greatest protector of fraudulent and monopolistic banks and insurers since Harding, a great expander of oil drilling and nuclear power after years of Gaian restriction by Bush. Obama, Hero of the Left.

Why isn't this the funniest joke ever written? It fits strictly into the 'exploded incongruity' category of humor, which involves building a little world, then seducing the listener into occupying the world, then exploding the world.

Trying to explore this, I bumped into something that doesn't solve the problem but maybe illustrates it better than I could.

This PDF about PDQ is a scholarly disquisition on Peter Schickele's musical humor. Sample paragraph:

Interestingly, the transgression does not arise by introducing some musically bizarre deviation. In fact, Schickele's succession from supertonic to tonic in a weak-to-strong metrical context is musically banal. The supertonic to tonic transition is the most frequently occuring melodic movement from supertonic with a probability of 0.33. By contrast, Beethoven's original melodic movement to the raised dominant is the rarest continuation from supertonic in Western music with a probability less than 0.0007.

It's EXACTLY the same humorless soulless analysis of music that Schickele set out to parody in the first place. Except this humorless soulless analysis is applied humorlessly and soullessly to Schickele's parody of humorless and soulless analysis.

Why is this hugely annoying instead of funny? Because it's never resolved. Not into the supertonic or into the raised dominant with 0.0007 nonBayesian correlation. The author never realizes what he's doing. The dissonance just hangs in the air.

Same with American politics. The wildly dissonant convoluted multi-layered inversion just hangs there, consuming our thoughts and souls for 50 years.



= = = = =

Sidenote: The opposite side of this twist, the leftist hatred of Comrade Nixon and Comrade Bush, is even stranger. I wanted to focus on the humor aspect here, so kept it simple.

Labels: Danbo, Loughnerian Logic

  ¶ 7:00 AM

  Squalls? OK!
I was checking the Weather Bureau to see if any serious snow was expected. My eye got snagged on this:



Presumably an instrument problem caused the 89. Maybe rain caused a power blink, or maybe someone bumped the anemometer.

I can imagine the software calmly analyzing this: "Hmm. I see 89 MPH. That's a SQUALL. Does ConditionName == Number? Yes. Quality control: OK!"

NWS does apply human checking sooner or later, so I'm sure this bit of amusement will be fixed.
  ¶ 6:00 PM

  Neat trick.
Now Obama has "promised" to extend the deadline on switching or cancelling old LOUSY (i.e. good enough) health plans. This "promise" is just as false and disingenuous as the original promise.

Here in Wash, Insurance Commissioner Satan Kreidler has already ordered insurers to continue steaming toward the iceberg. Lash down that wheel, boys! More coal! More coal! More steam!

The order is redundant because the insurers LOVE the idea of offering NONEXISTENT extra "benefits" for double the price.

Put it into a different context. Let's say you're looking for a new sofa. You find that all the furniture stores are suddenly charging double for sofas because the new sofas are all child-size. They're two feet tall, built to fit toddlers. The salesman tells you this is is a "benefit." The old LOUSY sofas were too big for toddlers and lacked seatbelts and rollbars and airbags. You walk out and try to buy a regular adult-size sofa, but you find it's impossible. All the regular sofas have been scrapped. You go home, sit on your old threadbare but comfortable sofa and drink a beer to soothe your anger, but not for long. The Sofa Police break down your door to confiscate and scrap your old LOUSY sofa. They bring in a new baby sofa and force you to pay for it. No comfort allowed in Wall Street's New America!



From the viewpoint of the furniture makers, this is Heaven. Make smaller products, charge twice as much, force everyone to buy. Sheer perfection!
  ¶ 3:24 AM

  What comes after
I suppose it should be humorous, all these Wizards still shouting orders to the masses after Toto has pulled back the curtain. I can't see the humor.



We have the intel types like Clapper in US and Lobban in UK, still claiming that NSA and GCHQ are fine law-abiding cautious underfunded agencies. Some of us have known better for 40 years. Now everyone knows.

We have the Obama loyalists still spouting the company line about LOUSY and CRUMMY health plans, even while millions of Americans know perfectly well that our plans were perfectly satisfactory before the rules were changed by Romneycare. (We also understood that the whole system was broken, and that Romneycare was guaranteed to break it even more, but that's not a wizards-and-curtains issue.)

We have defenders of Free Trade constantly claiming that all sides benefit, even while average Americans have known for 40 years that Free Trade is evil.

And of course we still have Gaian wackos pleading for more money money money money money to feed the infinite appetites of Jew stockbrokers and Asian dictators, even after several major governments!!!!! have pulled out of the Gaian maelstrom. (Thank God for that!)

= = = = =

Sorry, wizards. You've been decurtained.

40 years ago you could safely spout your satanic nonsense because the sane people were safely coated with tinfoil. Now the tinfoilers, assisted by heroes like Manning and Snowden and the still-anonymous Mr Foia of Climategate, have thrown off our foil chains.

What comes after decurtained? Defenestrated. It's time.
  ¶ 2:22 AM

  HM / PY
From an article on a competition to find the most efficient wood-burning stove.

Wood and pellet stoves hold tremendous potential as a carbon-neutral, renewable energy resource, according to the Alliance for Green Heat.

Wood releases carbon dioxide when it’s burned, but most U.S. firewood comes from trees that are already dead, Ackerly said. Removing the dead wood allows new tree growth to occur, which will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“Burning wood is 70 to 80 percent energy efficient with these modern stoves,” he said. “Even if you don’t accept it as carbon-neutral, you come out very carbon-positive.”

Removing dead wood absorbs carbon by allowing new trees to grow???? Huh? I suppose this calculation makes sense to a Gaian, just as the calculation of HailMarys per PurgatoryYear makes sense to a Papist. It's religion. Or maybe it's economics, like the "logic" of Quantitative Easing, in which moving counterfeit money from one column to another supposedly creates jobs. In either case it's utterly crazy.

Why not simply talk about avoiding waste? You're burning trees that otherwise wouldn't be turned into anything useful. Would you rather heat a house or feed termites? That's logical.

If we're going to talk about real pollution, woodstoves are unquestionably dirty and noisy. The smell is usually nice, but most high-tech woodburners emit a siren-like sound that I can hear from 500 feet away, even with my dull elderly ears.

Labels: Carbon Cult

  ¶ 4:08 AM

  Zoning
We tend to think of zoning codes as minor annoyances. Serious mistake. Zoning codes and building codes are probably the most important laws.

This realization started with a WUWT article on the likely replacement of "global warming" pseudoscience by water usage as fashionable tyranny. Most of the WUWT commenters recommended More Libertarianism. More Hayek. Let The Market Clear. NO! Exactly wrong! Water usage has been the subject of laws for thousands of years, and the data is complete and definitive. You can't let "the market" handle water. When you allow Las Vegas and Phoenix to expand without limit, you get tremendous problems.

Then I read a Then vs Now feature in the local paper. Featured a small informal settlement under the Monroe Bridge, which had become a semi-permanent neighborhood in the 1940s even though it was on public land and had no streets or utilities. My first thought was that it was a nice piece of spontaneous organization, and shouldn't have been torn down. Then I expanded the notion and realized why it had to go. If you allow spontaneous settlements to grow without limit, you end up with favelas.

We think of zoning and building codes solely in neighborhood terms. When they work properly they prevent situations like this:



which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which structure you own!

In fact zoning codes are genomes. They are descriptions of the various purposes that must be served by the parts of a civic 'organism', sometimes accompanied by specific descriptions of the structures. They are at least as important as other kinds of laws, maybe the most important laws of all. Good zoning can solve many problems, and bad zoning can create unnecessary disasters.

Good zoning isn't necessarily strict zoning. In some cases the law should stand back and let Nature work or Let The Markets Clear; in other cases the law should firmly restrain Nature and Markets.

Examples:

School massacres. Gun-free zones. Lethally bad zoning.

"Endangered" "species" actions that reinsert predators like wolves and grizzlies. Civilization depends on zoning the predators far away from livestock and humans. Cows here, wolves there. Forcing wolves into cow zones is Satanic sabotage of civilization.

Free trade. Intentional sabotage of natural economic zoning. People and countries have sorted themselves by skill and preference into industrial and professional and agricultural zones. Free trade arbitrarily moves entire zones into cheaper countries, leaving poor people in rich countries with no zone where their skills are usable.

Die-Versity laws. Also intentional sabotage. Die-Versity arbitrarily forces people into workplaces and neighborhoods where they will fail, causing tragedy for both the intruders and the intrudees. Without the forcing, these things tend to sort themselves out. They don't sort into the categories required by Betty Friedan's theories or Derrick Bell's theories, but that's good because those theories are Satan. Natural sorting moves toward an optimal situation, with most people doing what they do best. (Obviously it never reaches optimum, because life never does.)

Insane folks on the streets. 'Patient rights' and deinstitutionalization are bad zoning. Asylums are good zoning. When crazies are in asylums, everyone is safer and happier.

Natural disasters. Many are pure zoning problems because their boundaries are perfectly well known IN ADVANCE. If you build below sea level, you WILL get whomped by typhoons. If you build in a flood plain, you WILL get flooded by rivers or downpours. If you avoid those places, you WILL NOT get flooded.

Increased forest fires: Predictable zoning problem. Build inside forests, guaranteed destruction. Keep forests and houses separate, and the forests are free to do their own thing.

Other natural disasters are less geographically predictable, but good building codes can still help. Proper construction can save your life in a tornado or earthquake.

Crime: Partly solvable by zoning and codes. Note the Bratton approach to policing, the Broken Window Effect. By filling the streets with good people and filling intact lighted windows with watching faces, you can make a neighborhood nearly immune to crime.

With all of that in mind, it's amazing that we pay so little political attention to zoning. We should pay more... WAIT! NOOOOO!!!! Zoning often works pretty well. It works well EXACTLY WHEN it happens quietly. It works BECAUSE we don't shout about it in terms of R-label and D-label slogans. Leave it alone!

Labels: Grand Blueprint

  ¶ 3:37 AM

  The API doesn't hold
Since my publisher finally provided clear guidance, I've been working on the new 'platform-independent' version of my courseware.

It's a different universe.

When building an EXE for use in Windows, you can count on a consistent set of API rules. The native Win functions are well defined, and the workings of C++ are well defined. Provided you understand both of these rule sets and use them correctly, you can predict what will happen when you write something like

MoveToEx(this->hdc,NewPt.x,NewPt.y,NULL);

When you put all those pieces together into a self-contained EXE, you know it will run on the Win versions that were specified in the rules. If there are problems, you can be 99% sure the problems are your own fault, even though you'll always waste time by blaming Windows first.

In the new world of HTML5 and CSS and SVG and JS, none of those certainties exist. All of those standards are only partly standardized and constantly changing, and you can't count on a package running on all common platforms. If it runs today, a version change by Firefox or Chrome may blow it up tomorrow.

In other words, 'platform-independent' really means 'excruciatingly platform-dependent.'

The platform-makers obviously love this, because they have finally reclaimed the power they lost when Windows owned the universe.

= = = = =

Comes down to this pair:

When the rules are stable, ordinary people can function.

When the rules are changing all the time, only the rulemakers can function.

= = = = =

I've already discussed this in the context of behavior, in my tribute to math prof Lysle Mason. Ideas are fragile. They can only thrive when decorum stops intellectual bullies. Leninists gave us the hippie era to break down decorum so Leninist bullies could censor all other ideas.

Same thing in art and technology. Creativity functions best when you can count on the platform or medium to hold still. You can't paint on the wind with a cat.

Same thing in economics. You can't run a business, you can't save for the future, and you can't count on working for a stable business, when Bugsy Bernanke and Jamie Dimon are doing everything possible to void the basic rules of economics.

Same thing in every conceivable field of life. All of the central controllers are busily engaged in breaking the ground, moving the goal posts, and snatching away the horizon.

If you have a health plan you like, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!
If you have a religion you like, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!
If you have a job you like, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!
If you have a house you like, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!
If you have money you like, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!
If you have life, you can keep it. PeriodHAHAHAHAHAJUSTKIDDING!


= = = = =

I was going to write this on the basis of central vs decentral, but it doesn't really match those categories. Some of these disasters result from lack of central control and others result from trusting the central control too much. I'm still inclined to think the problem reduces to centrality vs subsidiarity, but I don't see how it fits.

Here's the only thing that fits: Whatever it takes to infinitely enrich the Chosen Ones and kill everyone else, that's what we'll do.
  ¶ 7:06 AM

  Unbreakable template
When looking at historical technology, I always use a template about prerequisites. I always assume that mechanical stuff was invented before electrical stuff, and more complex electrical stuff came after simpler electrical stuff.

This assumption is almost always wrong, but I never surrender it!

Nice example:

A military portable radio set from WW1. My template is puzzled! Why does the generator have a V-shaped padded thing between its parts? How does that fit on a car or truck?

Oh. It fits on a horse.
  ¶ 4:08 AM

  Parody is impossible
Gonzaga "University", a festering pustule of unspeakable infinite Satanic evil and hyper-Maoist genocide, has outdone itself yet again.

When a Gonzaga University student chased a belligerent homeless man from his front door at gunpoint, he and his roommate didn’t imagine the incident might result in their expulsion.

But seniors Erik Fagan and Daniel McIntosh may both be kicked out of school after they were found in violation of the school’s weapons policy, which prohibits students from having guns in any university-owned building. The students live in student housing at 207 E. Sinto Ave., apartments owned by the university even though they’re considered to be off campus.

... Fagan opened the door to see an apparently homeless man demanding money. Fagan offered the man a blanket and a can of food but refused to hand over any cash, he said. The man became agitated and combative, showing Fagan what appeared to be an ankle bracelet around his foot. “He told me, ‘You don’t want to do this,’ ” Fagan said.

The man kept coming toward him, shouting at him, Fagan said. The narrow entryway prevented him from shutting the door without injuring himself. He shouted for McIntosh, who came running downstairs holding a loaded 10 mm Glock pistol. ... “I draw on him,” McIntosh said, lifting his arms into the air to demonstrate. “As soon as he sees me, he decides he doesn’t want to deal with me. So he takes off.”

The men called police and campus security; both arrived within minutes. McIntosh told the police officer he’d chased the man off with the pistol, for which he has a concealed weapons permit, he said.

And now the students are facing expulsion and possible criminal charges for defending themselves.

Not really surprising for any "Catholic" "university" under the evil misrule of Antichrist Francine. Gonzaga is among the most ferociously Satanic, harboring a "Department of Hate Studies". No, I didn't make it up. They have a specific department where students can learn how to be Satanist Inquisitors persecuting normal Christians and censoring "hate speech", i.e. all normal Christian and human activities.

Any Christian parent who sends his kid to Gonzaga "University" is equally Satanic. Any alumnus who sends any money to Gonzaga "University" is equally Satanic. Ignorance is inexcusable for those two categories.
  ¶ 2:51 AM

  Self-extinguishing sentence
In today's news:

“Stop carping about this,” Reid scolded GOP senators on Thursday. “Get over it. It’s the law. It’s the legacy of Barack Obama and always will be. Let’s get over this and stop the mischievous, misfortunate speeches out here every day about how bad it is.”

Idiot Harry. He thinks he's defending His Lord And Savior Barack Romney. Doesn't even realize that he's done far more than the Repooflicans to damage His Lord And Savior.

In the first place, Dems who wanted their own party to have a proper and successful legacy should have read the fucking law and realized it was the worst of all possible worlds, designed to amplify all the evils of American health care to infinity.

In the first place, Dems who wanted a legacy should have totally rejected Mitt Romney's health plan written by the Heritage Foundation and supported by Wall Street. Dems who wanted a legacy should have stubbornly insisted on Medicare For All, which was and still is the best available solution.

Now they're stuck with Romneycare, because America never repeals, never revises, never changes course. Steer toward the iceberg, helmsman! Full speed ahead! More steam! More steam! More national suicide! More trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions for Goldman! More! More! More! More! More! USA! USA! USA! We're EXCEPTIONAL!

Now Exceptional Idiot Harry explicitly declares this absolute debacle is the "legacy of Barack Obama and always will be."

Yes. For once you're exactly right, Exceptional Idiot Harry.


= = = = =

Meanwhile in Australia, PM Abbott is showing dramatically that an old-fashioned Parliamentary system CAN change course by 180 degrees. No piddling around, no tiny .0000001% adjustments and epicycles! Abbott is REMOVING ALL expensive self-destructive scams and frauds and mass-murdering monstrosities from his government. ZERO PROBLEMS! BRAVO!

1776 delenda est!
  ¶ 3:17 AM

  The wonders of Romneycare
Just for fun, showing the effect that Romneycare will have on my monthly budget. (Excel here.)



Health insurance was already the biggest item in the budget at 32% of monthly total. Now it becomes even more elephantine at 42%.

I've been paying $314 a month for a LOUSY plan that covers only the boring dull LOUSY stuff I actually need. Under new improved wonderful miraculous Romneycare, I will have the privilege of paying $505 a month for all sorts of holy marvelous SWELL stuff like pregnancy and drug rehab and child dental and vision care that SOME CRACK WHORE needs.

I wouldn't mind paying 200 SWELL dollars per month toward the support of a crack whore if I got a few SWELL fucks in return. Fucks for bucks is fair. This isn't fair.

Punchline: In France, a similar citizen would be paying 13% of his income (in tax) for a very similar health plan with deductibles and copays, instead of 42% of his income. Fucking idiot Obama had the fucking OPPORTUNITY to enact a fucking French system in 2010. He chose instead to enact this fucking Wall Street monstrosity, making everything even more costly and even more complicated. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools. I told you so, you fucking fools.

  ¶ 5:35 PM

  You didn't build that.
Tim Berners-Lee, who gets the credit for "inventing" the web, is complaining that NSA shouldn't break encryption.

Silly boy, you didn't invent the web. NSA invented the web. The web was actively used for all sorts of academic and commercial purposes between 1970 and 1993. You invented a very good protocol that made the web easier for non-professionals to use.

NSA invented the web so they could see everything. You can't blame them for continuing to use their invention to see everything. And since decryption is the basic job of any spy agency, no matter what kind of communication, you can't blame them for decrypting what they see.

Timmy, you're a spoiled brat.



Basic rule, true for thousands of years: If you want communications to be private, don't communicate in public. Don't use systems that are controlled by others. Everyone who needs secrecy ... spies, illicit lovers, criminals, revolutionaries, armies, scientists, inventors ... has always understood this.
  ¶ 2:59 AM

  Self-explanatory stupor
Polistra hasn't been able to collect any new self-explanatory sentences lately. Mayor Ford of Toronto has finally given us a goodie:

"Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine .... in one of my drunken stupors."

A complete life elegantly contained in a few words. Self-explanatory sentence.

Ford's appearance is also self-explanatory. He looks like a 300-pound aneurysm that's ready to pop any second. Men who look like heart attacks were common in public life before 1980, but rare now.

We have a lot more 300-pounders now, but the apoplectic type has nearly disappeared. Compare Ford with Chris Christie, who is about the same size and looks generally healthy and solid, not overpressurized.

Alcohol is probably the main factor. Before 1980 the boss typically consumed prodigious amounts of alcohol and tobacco and pills. Now he may eat too much but he doesn't drink or smoke.
  ¶ 5:07 PM

  Demand-side
As stunningly tiny numbers continue to emerge from Romneycare, maybe it's time to ask a non-technical question.

Murkowski announced today that the Alaska version of the Romneycare Connector has so far enrolled EXACTLY THREE customers.

The federal version is still successfully enrolling DOZENS of people toward a presumed goal of 47 million.

Is this a technical problem? Supply restricted by website problems? Or is it simply that NOBODY WANTS THIS WHOLE FUCKING MESS?

Romneycare was NOT passed in response to popular demand. I had assumed that the insurers wanted it, but more recent info shows that they weren't excited about the idea. Only Joe Lieberman wanted it, and he doesn't need it.


Somewhat parallel to the criminal justification for QE and TARP and all that. Supposedly those counterfeiting projects were meant to loosen up credit, but borrowing for business investment hasn't increased despite zero interest rates.

Among the many absurd assumptions of economics is the notion that "everything will sell at the right price." This is obviously untrue in real life. Some houses and cars and jobs and employees and spouses remain untaken regardless of price or inducements.

ZIRP and Romneycare are good examples of the failed assumption. Even at zero interest, businesses don't want to borrow. Even with LOW! LOW! LOW! subsidized rates for "the right customers", people don't want this type of insurance. I sure as fucking shit don't want my ENTIRE FUCKING MONTHLY EXPENSES TO INCREASE BY 20 FUCKING PERCENT FOR EXACTLY NO FUCKING BENEFIT.
  ¶ 5:13 AM

  Dumbest idea of the century
A French scientist with the unlikely name of Herve This is pushing the stupidest idea of the century. He's synthesizing food from raw elements, mixing all sorts of things together to create the nutrition, flavor, and consistency of something more or less edible.

I'm going to call him Soylent Green because his actual name is too grammatically confusing in English.

Mr Green claims his food is the solution to an overpopulated world.

Incorrect from 4 different angles, Mr Green.

(1) In the big picture, the world can't be overpopulated. It's physically impossible. When the population in one area exceeds the food available in that area, people will die or move until pop = food again. Harsh but logical.

(2) Those areas where pop > food are extremely poor areas where technology hasn't reached 1920 yet. They don't have plumbing or tractors or kitchens or electricity or blenders or DNA replicators. Therefore your super-high-tech compounding is light years away from their comprehension or capacity. Your products would have to be shipped in, but there's no road system or storage system or retail store system for such products, so you'd have to build those systems first. Before you could build those systems you'd have to build electrical and water infrastructure and keep it away from the poor people so your electric trucks and stores and compounding facilities could use Just Enough Resources. And then you'd have to create a private army to protect the electrical and water infrastructure.

(3) By definition, poor people don't have money. How would your vast industry be funded? Would you allow the poor people to barter real chickens and real bananas for your fake chickens and fake bananas? Why in the fuck would they want to do that?

(4) In richer areas, ordinary REAL food is overabundant and wasted. Most people enjoy ordinary REAL food, and the richest people are the fussiest about avoiding GMOs and Gluten and anything that sounds artificial to their delicate ears.

In short, Soylent Green wouldn't solve any problems for the poor and it wouldn't be attractive to the rich, except maybe a handful of super-tech-fetish types like Elon Musk.
  ¶ 3:33 AM

  522 loses solidly
The only moderately important item in this year's Wash election came out right. GMO labeling loses.

Somewhat surprising, but not entirely. Commie Seattle always dominates statewide elections, but even Commie Seattle has both Libertarian tendencies and Gaian wacko tendencies. In this case the Libertarian dislike of any new gov't requirement beat the Gaian bloodthirsty psychopathic hunger for total destruction of all living things.

Seattle's mayor choice shows the same tendency: they rejected a Commie who had emphasized his genocidal Gaian orthodoxy, and replaced him with a Commie who has emphasized his sodomite credentials. Good luck with that, comrades. Spokane already tried the fagboy route with Gayor West about 10 years ago. Didn't work.
  ¶ 1:19 AM

  SNOW!

We got SNOW! Big-ass flakes.

This has been a pure step-function year. No transitions, no teasers, no trailers, no overtures, no encores.

Pure summer.

CLICK!

Pure autumn.

CLICK!

Pure winter.

= = = = =

Next day: Total snow was 2 inches, slightly unusual for this early in the season. Some kids near Shadle squeezed the maximum fun value from 2 inches of snow, making four kid-sized snowmen with proper faces and clothing. I suspect they raided neighboring yards to acquire enough snow.

Labels: Heimatkunde

  ¶ 7:03 AM

  Bravo Nethercutt!
Nethercutt writes that the 'pork-busters' and their unceasing campaign against earmarks have led us into the current total gridlock.

I've made the same point plenty of times. When you remove commerce from politics the only thing that remains is pointless symbols and words. A politician who gives actual value in return for votes and contributions is engaging in a direct transaction with the voter. He is providing a custom-made service or product, creating two-way respect.

When you can't make those transactions, you have to spout centralized and standardized and absolutely meaningless phrases about ZERO TAXES or BENGHAZI or COLLECTIVE BARGAINING or WAR CRIMINAL BUSHITLER. You're no longer talking to the local hearts of your own voters; you're only talking to the TV and radio networks, and via them to the securitized ears and eyes of voters everywhere.
  ¶ 6:21 AM

  Seemed like a good idea
I've got my life nicely arranged at this late stage: sleeping, dumping, diet, exercise, mood, art "work" and real work all fitting together into a virtuous circle. When the idiot DST change comes along, it throws off my nice narrow little life. At the last two seasonal switchovers my sleep pattern somehow switched the wrong way and took a few weeks to realign.

This time I decided to simply ignore the change. Only one piece of my life needs to sync up with the outer world's clocks: bus trips to Safeway. The rest is strictly independent. So I left all my clocks on Old Time and allowed the computer's screen clock to switch into New Time for bus reference.

But I forgot about non-clock cues. Though I don't plan my life around certain radio programs, I found that the radio and the comings and goings of the nearby school had become unconscious signals. Hunger and sleep patterns had been phase-locked to those audio inputs, and they pulled against my attempted stable oscillator.

Now I've switched the wrong damn way yet again!

Labels: TMI

  ¶ 6:06 PM

  Constants and variables 6
Alan Massie in UK Tel makes the drearily predictable argument against regulating the media....

In the present argument about control, or regulation, of the press, philanthropy is represented by the Hacked Off campaigners, disgusted, with reason, by the behaviour of newspapers. Let us admit that some of the behaviour of which they complain has indeed been disgusting. Yet the door they have opened in search of a remedy leads into territory which is more dangerous for the public good, territory where the ability of the press to call to account the excesses of officials, politicians and the state may be first threatened, then curtailed. Bring the press to heel and the power of the official is enhanced. Is this desirable?

We have a nice balanced experiment. Compare US and UK.

British press has traditionally been more firmly regulated, with stiffer libel laws and a semi-official Commission to watch for lies. American press fiercely guards its supposed "1st amendment rights".

Which press has been more effective? British, by a long shot and for a long time. UK press has several active sides, which means there's always one major side available to oppose the current government. US press is rigidly uniform and perfectly Soviet, with 100.000000% of newspapers sharing the same set of perfect lies. US press does "call to account" governmental officials when the officials have an R on their shirt. US press blindly follows and religiously praises governmental officials when the officials have a D on their shirt.

Which press is supinely enslaved to The Party? The less regulated press.
  ¶ 3:06 AM

  Language update for fall


Professor Polistra, regretting the low frequency of these updates, nevertheless perseveres. She brings us another bucket of linguistic shit, some old and some new.

= = = = =

Efit:

New Brit term for computer-generated police 'sketches'. A good coinage, but demonstrates that e-xxxxx works better when xxxxx is a longer word. When the part after e is one short syllable, it's harder to feel the e as a prefix.

= = = = =

Olfactive:

Refers to the use of smell for commercial purposes. Interesting because the coiners correctly distinguished it from olfactory, which refers to the sense itself. Humans don't pay much attention to smell, and we're extremely short on words in this area. Any new addition, even if it's only a suffix, is welcome!

"Olfactive branding is a natural and powerful extension of the brand’s existing marketing strategy. If the brand has a strong, unified vision, it becomes much easier to translate the brand’s identity into a scent. ... The key is to know what your brand represents aesthetically, emotionally and commercially within your market space."

Lots of jargon there, but gets the point across.

= = = = =

Sequacious:

A fine old word that's worth reviving.

From a 1902 essay on fashion: "At a distance they look so much alike that it is quite amazing. ... Even if it's only due to the sequaciousness of the human being, especially the female, it is a phenomenon worth study."

= = = = =

Transparent / transparency:

Tiring and meaningless. Not a worthwhile goal, and always a perfect lie. Still, the correct syntactic use is surprisingly subtle. A recent radio ad by a candidate for Coeur d'Alene mayor showed exactly how it shouldn't be used:

"If you want a transparent and truly accountable mayor, vote for me!"

No, no, no! I don't want The Shadow! An accountable mayor has to be a visible mayor!

= = = = =

Backslash:

This has been developing for quite a while, and has reached completion. Now the distinction between [forward] slash and backslash has fully disappeared. Both symbols are read as backslash 100% of the time, even though 98% of the actual symbols are forward slashes.

It's a Pyrrhic victory for the name, because the actual backslash is fading fast. Old Mr Backslash is still hanging around in Windows filepaths, but normal users haven't needed to type or read a real backslash for many years. If they bother to navigate their files at all, they navigate via the lists and buttons of Explorer. No typing.

Though annoying, this is still better than the early British pronunciation of web symbols. Ten years ago, BBC was reading its web address like this: "H T T P Colon Forward Oblique Forward Oblique B B C Full Stop C O Full Stop U K Forward Oblique N E W S."

= = = = =

Untooled:

Heard from a financial education specialist:

"Financial literacy is important and many people are untooled for that."

He used the word three times in five minutes. Seems to like the word!

= = = = =

Loadal:

From City of Spokane notice about annual leaf pickup:

Loadal Crews 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Packer Crews 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Hand Pick Crews after 10 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.


Unnecessary. Loading already exists.

= = = = =

LOUSY:

A 1940's word that has come back into Orwellian style among the defenders of Romneycare. They blindly quote their Lord And Savior Barack Romney in describing perfectly decent medical plans as LOUSY. A policy that was good enough, covering likely events with appropriate deductibles, suddenly becomes LOUSY because it doesn't cover events that WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

I will never become pregnant, and I will never get into a situation where I need to pay for pregnancy. I will never use "mental health" care because I know it's crap. I will never need to cover child dental care because I will never become pregnant. My old LOUSY policy covered ONLY the problems I may actually encounter, and had a high deductible for routine stuff because I can afford routine stuff.

You can't reclaim a word after Satan sinks his bloody claws into it, but we can always try:

LOUSY = Leaves Out Unneeded Services for You.
LOUSY = Less Overhead, Uniquely Suited to You.

Labels: Language update

  ¶ 4:45 AM