Thursday, October 31, 2019
  Not the right problem

Via ZH, calling it Orwellian as usual....
Celebrated interfaith activist Lord Indarjit Singh has sensationally quit BBC Radio 4 after accusing it of behaving like the "thought police". He alleges that the corporation tried to prevent him discussing a historical Sikh religious figure who stood up to Muslim oppression -- in case it caused offence to Muslims, despite a lack of complaints.

The Sikh peer, who has been a contributor on Radio Four's Thought For The Day programme for more than three decades, is also accusing Radio Four bosses of "prejudice and intolerance" and over-sensitivity in relation to its coverage of Islam, after he says he was "blocked" from discussing the forced conversion of Hindus to Islam, under the Mughal emperors in 17th century India.
Avoiding controversy is NOT the BBC's problem.

BBC is a public utility in a stronger sense than US networks because it's funded by forced license payments. A public utility should try to avoid taking sides, so the "censorship" of religious statements is appropriate. (As I noted earlier wrt the Fairness Doctrine.)

BBC's problem is the exact opposite of neutrality. BBC ferociously and murderously takes EXACTLY ONE SIDE on all sorts of issues from "climate change" to refugees to Brexit. BBC always obeys Soros. On every subject where Soros takes a side, BBC goes along, ruthlessly silencing all facts and truth.

And on the specific issue of offending Muslims, BBC ferociously supports wars that KILL millions of Muslims, so hesitating to offend Muslims is pointless.

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  11:18 PM
  What if votes were subscriptions?

Tired of getting Repooflican emails urging me to "Defend My President From Impeachment!" The request doesn't even make sense from a Repooflican viewpoint. Impeachment will give them President Pence, a more verbally reliable warmonger who will be able to serve two full terms starting in 2020. Trump would only have one more term. The Repoofs should be crusading FOR impeachment.

Trump is not MY president. He's not what I voted for.

Even though I knew with dead certainty that Trump would turn out to be perfectly identical to Clinton/Obama/Bush, I was in effect signing a contract with a candidate who promised to do SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Instead, as expected, we got Hillary in drag. Hillary without balls.

Here's a modest proposal, along the lines of government running like a business.

If votes were accompanied by payments, they could be treated as purchases of services. Candidates who broke their written promises could be prosecuted for fraud.

Under the current setup, even big payers can't count on getting results. Only the blackmailers in Deepstate get what they want. Money is irrelevant, just as votes are irrelevant.

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  9:46 AM
  @Jack does the right thing

Via BBC, @Jack has decided to ban ALL paid political ads.
It's not credible for us to say: 'We're working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want!
Zuck has taken the opposite path, with typical idiotic hypocrisy. "In a democracy, I don't think it's right for private companies to censor politicians or the news." I suppose his precise statement is technically correct by rigorous symbolic logic. Democracy doesn't exist, so Facebook's total one-sided censorship is just fine.

@Jack is doing the right thing. He has basically rejuvenated the old Fairness Doctrine for public carriers.

The Fairness Doctrine worked.

It's easy for propagandists to mock the FD. I've been listening exclusively to pre-1960 radio and TV for many years now. I realized that the FD gave us better entertainment with much less sneaky propaganda. Entertainers had to avoid stirring up division and chaos. They had to confine their routines to broad commentaries on human nature. The FCC was listening carefully, and the FCC was hair-trigger ready to pull your license if you broke the rule.

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  12:10 AM
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
  Makes complete sense.

Via ZH:

According to stats, the item Americans are spending the most money on this year is recreational vehicles. ZH says "this makes no sense."

Makes all the sense in the world. RVs are apartments. RV = rental property.

Apartments in buildings are unaffordable or unavailable in many places. RVs are the answer.

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  7:10 AM
  Accidentally correct

The "city" dysgovernment made a hugely appropriate GIF to remind us that Tuesday is the deadline for turning in this year's ballots to "vote" for "candidates".

I'm pretty sure the artist was only putting together a couple of images to make a GIF that moves, but the meaning is exactly right. "Elections" are an expensive and uninteresting type of jackoff.

Who gets the pleasure? The winning "candidates" and especially the media. Ordinary people get splashed with goo.

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  6:16 AM
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
  That's a little better, Tulsi

Tulsi is starting to get specific at last.



Based on my own jail experience, most of these steps are good, but she's still missing the key distinction between lifelong criminals and lawbreakers and the need for USEFUL WORK. When we had MANUFACTURING WORK in this country, young men could fulfill their GOD-ASSIGNED DUTY to make things. Now that we only have crime at all levels, there's nothing to do but crime.

Semi-related sidenote: It's odd that Hillary calls Tulsi a puppet of Putin. In fact Tulsi is a puppet of Modi. Her biggest source of funding is BJP. If you want to talk about meddling, there's the meddler.

And if you want to talk about aggression, there's your aggressor. Modi is emphatically NOT a non-interventionist. He recently made a grab for Kashmir, and is threatening a complete ethnic cleansing of the place, moving in Hindus to replace all the Muslims, with a real risk of nuclear war.

It's an interesting distinction. All other candidates are solely and strictly loyal to Israel. Any loyalty other than Israel is treason. The worst treason of all is an attempt to represent American interests. So India is treason for sure, but why does India automatically translate to Russia? India is certainly drifting toward the Russian side, but it's not more firmly linked to Russia than several other countries. India and Saudi are about equal in their eastward drift, but Saudi counts as "American" "patriotism" while India counts as RUSSIAN_AGGRESSION.

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  11:43 PM
  Not the only difference

Twitter item from a Californian:

Leaving my dark, cold house where my capitalist power company can’t keep the lights on to go pay full price for a prescription my capitalist insurance company refuses to cover. Tell me again how socialism is bad.

Well, capitalism vs socialism is exactly the problem in medical care for sure. But it's not the only problem with utilities. Before the privatizing fashion and the Enron laws of the '80s, electric utilities were either municipal ("socialist") or tightly regulated private. Power was more reliable and maintenance was better, BECAUSE IT HAD TO BE BETTER.

But the same comparison divides SHARE-VALUE capitalism from REAL-VALUE capitalism. The comparison shows up around here in the Valley, where SHARE-VALUE Avista covers some areas and REAL-VALUE Inland Power and Vera Power cover others.

Note the comments in this Spokane-News FB item about an Avista outage in the Valley. Inland and Vera customers smugly note that last night's brief and minor windstorm didn't knock out their power. They usually keep their power when Avista goes dark.

Real-value companies seek profit, which means they want live customers. A dead customer isn't paying. Share-value companies seek rising share value, which means they prefer dead customers. A dead customer is a burnt sacrifice to Gaia. A live customer is a NEGATIVE EXTERNALITY.

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  5:56 AM
  We're doing our job, Tulsi.

Tulsi's campaign is emphasizing RESPECT:
One young man in Iowa from the small town of Albia shared that in his town, people can’t even look each other in the eyes at the corner store. He said people have lost friends and even their businesses because of political differences. Conversations that were once casual and friendly have become tense and strained. People are feeling hopeless. Left behind. Bitter with not just the state of politics, but the impact that it’s had on their closest relationships.
Well, this isn't new. It started in the '70s, marked by the Deepstate "Watergate" coup. Deepstate has been intentionally ruining civilization and generating chaos for 50 years now.

Team thinking was the core of NSA's web from the start, in the BBS and Usenet era. Every forum on every subject instantly divided into Team A and Team B, and anyone who tried to express an attitude outside the chalk lines was SMASHED into oblivion.

Nothing has changed since then in the online world. Reinforced by cable "news" and Randian Radio, everyone is NYC.
I really want you to hear this, David: It doesn’t need to be this way. In our movement, we not only respect, but deeply appreciate, that our great nation is made up of a rich diversity of views and attitudes. That progress cannot be made when we fear differences of opinion, resort to cancel culture, or when we allow our leaders and the media to fan the flames of division. On the campaign trail, Tulsi has the opportunity to meet people from across the political spectrum, from all walks of life and with all different (and often very strongly held) points of view. We do our best to ensure that at our gatherings, we create an environment of aloha and respect that is so lacking from our political discourse. We may respectfully disagree, yet we are still able to look each other in the eyes and have a conversation.
It's nice that your bot calls me by name, Tulsi, but frankly I don't see any of that shit in daily life. In this neighborhood, Tulsi, most people mind their own business and treat others with respect and kindness. We are the exact opposite of NYC, which never gives, never pays, never makes, never thanks. We try to yield and tolerate, and we try to be thankful when others yield and tolerate.

Are we really unusual or unique, Tulsi? Maybe, but I doubt it. This area is thoroughbred Deplorable. Lower middle to poor, struggling single parents and comparatively comfortable oldsters. Quite a few homeowners are taking in boarders or hooking up RVs in their yards. Mixed race, about one black family on each block, a lot of NW tribes. No NYC types, no Randians. [The city is dysgoverned by a Randian NYC carpetbagger who has done incalculable damage to the place and the people, but fortunately he doesn't condescend to enter Deplorable neighborhoods.]

So I say yet again that RESPECT is nice, but we're already there. We're doing our job, Tulsi. Talk is cheap, and the old uniter not divider shit is the cheapest of all.

When will you start doing your job as candidate, Tulsi? When will you tell us something we don't already know? When will you tell us what you PLAN TO FUCKING DO?

= = = = =

Later, looking at social media, it appears that lots of people had similar reactions. Don't tell us to be kind and tolerant. You're in a position of power right now, Tulsi. You can DO something about these problems. We can't. Start DOING it, and then we'll be more inclined toward kindness.

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  12:57 AM
Monday, October 28, 2019
  Doesn't get it

Tesla's fake solar "roof" is supposedly manufactured in Buffalo. The Buffalo newspaper is finally realizing that the "product" can't possibly work.

The article basically lists previous attempts at solar roofs and says that none of them worked. Okay, but that doesn't prove Elon's idea is useless. Elon's idea is useless for several specific physical reasons, mainly ICE AND SNOW.

How can a Buffalo writer miss ICE AND SNOW? Jesus.

Reprinting my earlier item on the subject:

= = = = = START REPRINT:

A closeup picture of Tesla's fake "solar roof", made in Buffalo.

Look at it!

Every shingle has its own control box, with a cable and a plug leading to the next column of shingles. Hundreds of PLUGS capable of wiggling loose and losing contact through corrosion. Hundreds of CONTROL BOXES capable of failure and hacking and lightning damage. Each shingle rests precariously on the box, with no support or glue around the rest of the edge.

Because of the control boxes, each shingle is about one inch above the sheathing, leaving room for bugs and water and ice and mice to invade. Guaranteed ice dams. Ice and wind can pry up the entire roof.

Currently available solar panels leave the regular roof intact and have only one cable to go wrong. Also, a free-standing solar panel can be angled for best 'reception', which the Tesla idiocy can't.

Perfect contrast with previous item about Buffalo. EXPERIENCE SURVIVES, THEORY KILLS.


= = = = = END REPRINT.


Later thought: The deepest problem comes before the physical engineering stuff. A solar roof is simply UNNEEDED. A solar backup power supply can be useful. This problem is already solved with freestanding panels. Roofs are definitely useful. This problem is already solved in many different ways by shingles or metal surfaces or tiles. ANY attempt to mix those two devices is guaranteed to lose the value of both. Nobody NEEDS to have the two functions mixed.

It's like a flying car. Combinations of car and airplane have been tried for 100 years, and most of them did sort of halfway work; but the compromises needed to mix the two functions make them nearly useless in each type of travel.

Solar roofs and flying cars are toys and status symbols. Nothing more. Unfortunately they can cause real damage and real deaths, unlike a fidget spinner or a Picasso.
  5:36 AM
  Gets it.

Here's somebody who knows how the world works.

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  5:17 AM
  Not saluting yet

I'm halfway tempted to salute Argentina for electing Kirchner. Peronistas have a reputation as the quintessential Populists. But after looking at the actual careers of Kirchner and Fernandez, I'll withhold judgment. Both of them have been in the government before, and both of their actions were closer to Sorosian globalism. We'll wait and see what they do this time. Both are smart, adaptable, and experienced in politics, so their leadership is likely to help Argentina whether I want to call it Populist or not.

One thing for sure: Latin America is splitting into several sharply distinct paths. Peru and Ecuador are total Soros. Peru even has a member of the Soros family in its government. Mexico and Cuba and Bolivia are pure left-populist with competent and visionary leaders. Venezuela is left-populist with an incompetent or subverted leader. Brazil and Colombia are solid neocon, pure colonies of USA Deepstate. Chile is neocon, but its leaders are quickly changing path in response to protests. (Unlike Hong Kong and France.) Argentina and Uruguay had elections today and their new paths are uncertain at the moment.
  12:38 AM
Sunday, October 27, 2019
  Need a word for it

Most of the tech-bubble 'unicorns' are not exactly frauds, but there isn't a proper word for them. A lot of strawman arguments result from this mismatch.

There's a common factor in several of them.

1. Tesla is a very fast car that you can't use for a long trip, and a self-driving car that doesn't drive itself.

2. WeWork is an "office" space that you can't use as an office.

3. Uber/Lyft is a taxi that you can't call from a landline.

4. Bitcoin is "money" that you can't spend.

5. Beyond Meat is a fake meat product meant to be sold in regular meat counters, where real vegetarians will never buy it.

= = = = =

These are not strictly frauds, because the product or service exists. But they are fraudulently described as Superior Disruptive Innovations, when in fact each is a LIMITED OR RESTRICTED VERSION of the old technology. Each of them is LESS USEFUL than the original.

Some related products are simply frauds. Theranos was pretending to develop a machine that couldn't possibly work, and its engineers knew it couldn't work. Elon's tunnels are prototypes for a system that can't possibly work.

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  2:56 PM
  Blank slates are easier to cover with lies

One of the single episodes preserved at Archive.org is an inconsequential 1945 program from WMCA in NYC. It's the usual 'breakfast' format, a man and woman casually discussing events and slipping in product plugs.

They're talking today about tax collectors.....
...Reminds me of another story that happened in a village in Borneo. All the villagers were followers of the prophet Mohammed, and they were Mohammedans. And they must bathe, you know, every day. But they had to bathe in a river with crocodiles.
The rest of the joke is about a crocodile eating a tax collector. It doesn't make much sense, but that's not the point.

The point is this: In 1945, Mohammedans were not an enemy or an ally. We didn't know much about them because we didn't need to. But what we did know was CORRECT. The breakfast lady casually mentions that Mohammedans have to bathe every day, assuming that it was common knowledge. (Most Americans didn't bathe every day in 1945, so the religious requirement was salient.)

Now Mohammedans are the official enemy, so we know a lot about them, and all of it is WRONG. Look at any combox in any "conservative" website, and you'll find the same old shit about stone age primitives, never wash, never saw a wristwatch, etc, etc, etc.

We're transitioning the official enemy toward Russia again, and again everything you read in media and comboxes is WRONG. Some of the official shit was true in Stalin's time, but that was several generations ago. It was already false by 1968.

It's easier to inject false propaganda on a blank slate. Most Americans had little contact with Islam, and little contact with Russia, before the official lies started.

But what about full slates? In 2001 I knew quite a bit about Muslims. I'd known several of them, and I generally felt positive toward them. They were smart and sophisticated, and lived by rules that made sense.

Even so, the shock of 9/11 served to inject the standard negative shit. I knew better, but the injection destroyed my knowledge. You can see it in the first few years of this blog, before I started to question the shit. I swallowed every bit of it and begged for more. I didn't truly reject the lies until 2011 when I unplugged the TV.

The latest injection of RUSSIAN_AGGRESSION shit happened after I unplugged the TV, so I'm able to reject it immediately and easily. I'm still trying to disentangle many decades of earlier injected shit.

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  8:59 AM
  The only interesting

Apparently we've "killed" the leader of our ISIS branch again. I think this is the fourth time for this particular man, and the hundredth time for generic "number one" of our ISIS division.

The only interesting fact is that nobody gives a fuck.

The first time we "killed" Osama it was properly treated as news, because it was a new event. We hadn't "killed" him before. On the hundredth fake, even the MSM doesn't give a fuck.

The only interesting question is why we keep playing this game. Who are we trying to impress? Who still gives a fuck? Is the announcement aimed at Saudi princes? Bibi? Adelson? Saudi and Israel know that it's a game, because they're directly involved in funding and organizing and arming the ISIS game. They aren't impressed. Is Adelson senile enough to believe it's real?

Game is the key word. Compare with the wargame patch that I noted yesterday when looking for Soviet medals and such:



This patch was fairly old, not from the Clinton/Obama/Trump era. Our GAME with Russia is old.

It's all a classic Parkinson technique. Bureaucracies create problems so they can pretend to "solve" the problems by making the problems worse, which justifies more budget for the next pretend, etc.

Unfortunately these military games have monstrous real-world consequences. MILLIONS of real Muslims have been ACTUALLY killed in our demonic videogame. Those MILLIONS never make the news because their deaths are real. Only fake "deaths" make the news.

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  6:58 AM
Saturday, October 26, 2019
  Unsurprising surprises

More on the life and death of Chappe, from a 1929 ITT Journal of Electrical Communication:
The continual stress imposed by the new project severely tried Chappe. Nor was it only troubles arising from the work that undid him. In 1797 the usual cruel annoyances to which inventors are subjected by those who claim to have anticipated a successful device, had a disastrous mental effect upon him. He took up the challenge of those who claimed priority. This action was followed by the customary exchange of letters of incrimination and revenge. Then came the end. He had gone to study upon the terrain emplacements for further stations on the line to Lyons. He became restless and irritable and manifested symptoms of hysteria. At the completion of the work he returned to Paris, declaring that an attempt had been made to poison him in a village near Lyons. Finally he fell into a state of melancholy that no distraction could cure. On January 23, 1805, in a garden, his friends found his body at the bottom of a well.
In 1929 the 'cruel annoyances' were familiar. The ITT author knew that the sole purpose of patents is to STOP innovation and KILL inventors. He was ruefully unsurprised to find the same situation in 1797. Nothing has changed. Patents still serve to halt and impoverish real inventors.

Well, how about the Soviet system? We know that the USSR treated scientists better. They were trained properly, and they were given tremendous respect and comparative freedom to think and work.

Did inventors get similar treatment? The patent situation is unfamiliar. Fortunately I found a 1973 US trade document aimed at increasing trade with Russia:
By facilitating imports of Soviet machinery and industrial products, the United States might reap an unexpected benefit from expanded trade ties with the Soviet Union, namely, the acquisition of new Soviet technology in a few industrial sectors. In certain high-priority industries, the Soviet Union has devoted considerable resources to research and development. Some Soviet industries have made important technological innovations which could prove very valuable to US firms. The steel and aluminum industries and certain mining industries are examples of US sectors which could benefit from such an exchange of technology.
As with the 1968 Commerce dept document I cited earlier, our government knew about Russian superiority even while it was telling us the opposite. Our government knew that Russia had kept its own industries and developed its own skills while we were offshoring electronics, killing metals and mining with EPA rules, and dumbing down students.

Specifically on patents:
Soviet patent law, however, is quite different from Western laws. Under Soviet law, an inventor is given the option of receiving a patent or an inventor's certificate for his innovation. The foreign inventor who submits an application to the Soviet Union is given the same choice.

The certificate gives the inventor recognition for his achievement and assures him of a predetermined financial reward, but vests in the state all rights to use, develop, and exploit the invention.

The Soviet patent is similar to its Western counterpart; the patentee gains the right to exploit his invention for his own personal profit, up to a ceiling established by law. As an innovation by a Soviet citizen can generally be exploited only by a state enterprise, the incentive to own a patent is reduced. Moreover, legal requirements for obtaining a patent and various tax benefits and compensation advantages for certificate holders induce most Soviet inventors to apply for certificates.
If we had the choice, sane and sensible inventors would also go for the certificate. A guaranteed payout, even if small, is VASTLY BETTER than going deep into debt for lawyers and development costs, only to watch a giant corporation snatch the invention away.

= = = = =

I got curious to see if Ebay had any of those certificates. Only a couple:



Looks impressive. I widened the search and found more interesting evidence of the respect given to science students, even in vocational schools. Ebay is packed with badges like this:



And the same search turned up more unsurprising evidence of OUR attitude toward Russian invention and sanity:



A patch worn by the "Aggressors" army in some sort of war game.

Nuff said.

= = = = =

Later followup: I bought one of those Inventor Certificates.

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  2:26 PM
  Define 'civilization'

Civilization.
  9:52 AM
  Surprisingly missing

Looking at the world from the North Pole helps to clarify the stupid Columbus arguments, and also clarifies why the New Silk Road is both important and efficient.

A few days ago I noticed an eye-opening map of the world emphasizing the southern hemisphere. The map showed how Brazil is shipping crops and livestock to China. When you see the world from the usual NYC to London focus, you believe the simplest route would be through the Mediterranean and Suez; or through the Caribbean and Panama. Lots of bottlenecks and war chokepoints. Why bother?

From the south-centered angle you can see clearly that South America is considerably farther south than Africa, so shipping from Rio to Singapore around Capetown is almost a straight line with no chokepoints.

Next question: Singapore has been China's port to the West for a long time. There must be a strong railroad connection from Singapore to China.

Nope.

There are several railroads in that general direction, but surprisingly none of them are fully connected. The New Silk Road is finishing those connections.
  7:50 AM
  Nature restores

Reading the interview with Idiot Bloom sucked out some of my resonance. I needed a walk to re-sync the brain. Along the way, Nature gave me a nice bonus: a paper plane laying in the street. Classic triangular form, not the inefficient trapezoidal form.

Good to know that parents are still training REAL knowledge of HOW TO MAKE THINGS.

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  7:26 AM
  Non-random thought about "intellectual" idiots

Spiked does an interview with an entity called Harold Bloom.

Bloom allegedly wrote something about the 'closing of the American mind'. I hadn't paid any attention to him before, and now I wish I hadn't bothered to read this interview. His mind is perfectly closed, perfectly locked in perfect lockstep with TV.
My mission as a teacher and a writer is to try to get people to stop satisfying themselves with lesser stuff and to look at more difficult and more rewarding and more mind-enhancing pleasures like reading Shakespeare or Cervantes or Proust or James Joyce. That is to say, something that teaches you how to think. If you don’t know how to read properly, and if you do not read or absorb the best that has been thought and said, then you will never learn to think properly. And if you don’t know how to think properly, then you get the disaster of our current society. We could not have this monstrous, evil, mindless president and this horrible debasement of all our humane values if people were properly educated.
1. People who have learned how to think don't spew verbatim repetitions of Soros talking points. People who have learned how think can recognize and reject manipulative propaganda.

2. "This horrible debasement of humane values" was ENTIRELY CREATED by monsters educated at Yale and Harvard, monsters who consumed all the "more difficult" crap that Bloom advocates. The "more difficult" crap taught them how to cheat and steal and extort and slaughter and torture with maximum efficiency.

Jesus. What a total idiot. Maybe he was smarter when he was younger, but I doubt it. Most people get wiser with age, not stupider.

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  6:00 AM
Friday, October 25, 2019
  Random thought about intellectual heroes

As I learn about visual semaphores, I'm gaining a huge respect for French thinkers and engineers. Claude Chappe and Louis Braille had the same deep and broad sense of MEANING, and found unusual ways to communicate MEANING. Both picked up rather clunky systems that had been meant for military secrecy, and both turned the systems into efficient sound-based visual and tactile signs, capable of reading faster than speech.

When telegraphs changed to electricity, the French line of parallel chordal communication was lost. Michela tried to carry it on, but didn't get anywhere.

Morse simplified the system from parallel to serial, which may have saved money on wires at the time, but Morse didn't have a sense of efficient communication. His original code wasted lots of time and hand-muscle, ignoring earlier serial codes that were better fitted to language and natural rhythm. Later revisions gained some efficiency and 'music', but never regained the chordal nature of Chappe and Braille.

Parallel sending restarted after tone-multiplex telegraphy was possible, and again it was French thinker Baudot who established the code, with some help from Danish-French LaCour.

It's not clear why this strong lineage faded out. French engineers played a major part in developing automobiles, but that was the end of the line. Not much activity since 1910, not much in radio or computers. What happened? Was it the futility of WW1 that switched France from Chappe to Sartre?

= = = = =

A little Poserendipity. I've been using this scene to form and test the python code for Chappe alphabets. I'd been focusing closely on the wings, and hadn't zoomed back and fully rendered it until just now. The water is nicely appropriate for today. Need to turn down the turbulence before releasing the scene.


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  2:00 PM
  Is Tulsi finally getting serious?

Tulsi has decided not to seek re-election to Congress. Will this allow her to speak more plainly, without fear of losing local voters? Hope so, but remains to be seen. She undoubtedly has a clear purpose and mission. So far her words have been bland and purposeless, never specifying what she will DO.

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  6:48 AM
  Hey fuckhead!

Another fashionable fuckhead seeks grants and status instead of knowledge:
The associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is studying the toll climate change may take on aging U.S. infrastructure, which includes over 600,000 bridges.
Hey fuckhead. I've got a better idea. Why don't you study ways of getting governments to MAINTAIN the bridges?

The genocidal "climate change" fraud is designed to blame oil companies for failures in every other kind of business and government. When governments know they can blame Evil KKKarbon for busted pipes and bad roads and deadly bridges, they are free to stop maintaining the structures.

PGE is a beautiful example. With collusion by the hyperdemonic incalculably wicked California and federal dys"governments", it avoided all maintenance for many decades, assuming it could blame KKKarbon and Exxon when its busted old powerlines dropped into trees it had failed to cut. Now, instead of doing what it should have done for the last 40 years, it is simply shutting down and reverting to Zimbabwe-style power.

I love to watch the Tesloids suffering the consequences of their own holocaustal monster religion, but unfortunately some humans are also suffering. PGE has carefully trimmed the outages so they mainly affect the Deplorables who pay for electricity, leaving the COOOOOOOOOOL shareholder and solar subsidy demographic fully powered.

Classic share-value operating mode. Slaughter actual customers who actually pay. Slaughter actual employees who actually work. Lavish infinite gifts on NYC, which never pays, never gives, never works, never thanks.

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  12:10 AM
Thursday, October 24, 2019
  Not rare but still cute

I like to find Bantams and American Austins used for commercial purposes. In USA the Austin was a novelty, so the van was even more unusual. It attracted attention, which smart businesses used for promotion.





Here's a similar example in England, where the Austin Seven was ubiquitous and small cars were the norm.



The van must have looked equally cute to British tastes.

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  11:38 PM
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
  Where are the goddamn philosophers?

Continuing from previous item on the power of a forceful definition.

In previous I wrote:

= = = = = START REPRINT:

I wonder what Sam Johnson would think of this. He defined a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. Modern lexicographers are mass murderers. Words have always been weapons for propaganda, but the genocidal power of a single definition is relatively new.

When a man is a woman, he can commit all sorts of crimes with impunity. When a country is a failed state, we can wipe it off the map with impunity.

= = = = = END REPRINT.

These weaponized is verbs are a new grammatical form.

Discussing this in the realm of grammar would get hopelessly confused and meta-ish, so I'll use math and programming to explore the criminal nature of this weapon.

In normal language is carries the same structure as the equals sign in an algebraic equation. It expresses the equal force, or equal meaning, or equivalent characteristics, of the items on both sides of the balance. The items, and their characteristics, exist before we write the is or = sign. We are merely making an observation.

A country is a bounded geographical region with one government.

12 * c = (3 * c) + (9 * c)

You can replace a country with any entity known to be a country, and the is will hold true.

You can replace c with any ordinary number, and the = will hold true.

Balance signs work both ways. You can replace 12c by (3c + 9c) if it's more convenient. You can replace (3c + 9c) by 12c if it's more convenient.

Here Storekeeper Polistra is using a balance to OBSERVE that the jar of craft beer is the same weight as the calibrated standard.


= = = = =

Our new forcible is resembles the computer use of = for assignment.

When you start a program by declaring some constants for convenience, as in

const FloatTwo = 2.0

you are not simply observing that the two sides of the sign have the same properties; in fact they don't start with the same properties. You are FORCING the box labeled FloatTwo to carry the properties of 2 in floating-point form.

In a simple free-standing program this does no harm. But if the forced assignment alters the properties of a global variable that exists before we make the assignment, serious harm can result. Changing Pi to 365, or changing DaysPerYear to 3.1416, will ruin an engineering or financial calculation, with potentially deadly results.

Modern computer languages take great pains to avoid this type of piracy. The compiler won't let one module assign a new value to a global that has already been defined as a constant. Computer viruses often make this sort of change in a running program after it's been compiled.

Here Storekeeper Polistra is ASSIGNING the beer to coffee. From now on, everything in the barrel is coffee. Everything in the barrel was always coffee. Anyone who claims that the coffee tastes like beer, or claims that the coffee violates their religion, is an Unperson who must be exterminated.


= = = = =

There is no compiler protecting the world against Sorosian monsters.

When Soros assigns that a specific man is a woman, the official arbiters change all of the legal properties of this man. She is a woman, she always was a woman, and every law and rule and custom must operate on the assumption that she is and was a woman, even when the result is physically impossible.

When Soros assigns that Guaido is the president of Venezuela, the official arbiters change all the legal properties. Every law in the world must now operate on the assumption that Guaido has always ruled Venezuela, even though Maduro is still the actual physical ruler of Venezuela.

= = = = =

In computers, and well-designed circuits and mechanisms, enforced modularity prevents this form of imperial destruction. In the real world there is no simple way to enforce modularity. At the moment Putin, carrying on the traditional Russian role of mediator and peacemaker, serves as a compiler for a few situations where Russia has a proper modular reason to mediate. But even if Putin wanted to exceed his modularity, he wouldn't be able to stop most of these viral violations of modularity.

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  11:13 PM
  Not just Bolivia

I observed yesterday that Deepstate is preparing the redefinition of Bolivia that always precedes an invasion. Evo is an illegitimate usurper, and we have the moral "right" and "obligation" to remove him before he does any more good for his people.

Now the process is starting for Mexico. AMLO hasn't been fighting drug gangs firmly enough, and our DEA-sponsored drug gang recently defeated the police. Deepstate, via The Israelist, has redefined Mexico. Mexico is a failed state.

An eye for an eye, a definition for a definition. Our redefinition of Venezuela didn't work, and we've finally been chased out of Syria by the long hard efforts of the sane side of the world. Two definitions down, so we need two new definitions and two new obliterations.

I wonder what Sam Johnson would think of this. He defined a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. Modern lexicographers are mass murderers. Words have always been weapons for propaganda, but the genocidal power of a single definition is relatively new.

When a man is a woman, he can commit all sorts of crimes with impunity. When a country is a failed state, we can wipe it off the map with impunity.

Continued and expanded in next item.

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  3:38 PM
  Chatley semaphore

I think this is the last one in the set. I've now included all the types of semaphore that were actually used. Next I'll start buttoning up the set for release.

England was slow to follow Chappe's lead, partly because of Not Invented Here and partly because of plain old fog. Visual semaphores were usable less than half the time in England, while the massive Chappe system in France had the advantage of a more continental climate and lower latitude.

I've already illustrated the first English system, with six flaps or shutters that flipped up and down. Chatley used the more common two-flag setup, based on the older all-human systems with two actual flags or just two arms.



The two signal arms have 8 positions each, theoretically capable of 8 * 8 = 64 combinations, but the Navy seems to have used only a subset for UC and numbers. The short lower flag served two purposes. (1) It was an alarm to warn the watchers that a message was coming soon, so the watchers didn't have to be constantly alert. (2) It always flopped out to the right, so a watcher from either side could tell which way to read the signals.

Chatley is the only semaphore building in England that remained intact through two centuries of disuse. This webpage by Landmark Trust was written for a crowdfunding effort to restore Chatley, and includes most of the history. The crowdfunding appears to have reached its goal, and restoration has started.

The semaphore chain served the Navy from 1822 to 1842, when electric telegraphs replaced it. Fog is the mother of invention.

= = = = =

Links to the illustrations so far:

Russian 1850s

Chappe clock system and wing system

Dupillon (French) [I snuck this into an older item without properly describing it]

Six shutter (English)

More discussion of Chappe

Chatley (English)

= = = = =

And finally, here's the finished set at ShareCG.

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  2:40 PM
  Still speaking of Skinner.......

The unpopularity of safety is well known. Seat belts were available and familiar in '34, but not installed in cars until the government forced the issue in '67. Even then, Detroit made the seat belts aversive and punitive.

The unpopularity of security is not discussed often.

I noticed this theftproof '34 Ford truck in a Collectible Auto article:



This theft-proof ignition lock was standard on Ford products and Nashes through the 30s and 40s. Maybe a few others, but never GM or Chrysler cars.

Ford gave it up in '49, and Nash in '50. Through the '50s and '60s all American cars were open invitations to thieves. A simple hotwire clip, plus a little dexterity, could start any car in a few seconds. GM made the thief's job super-easy with semi-lockable ignitions on Chevy and Buick. You could drive without a key if you wanted to, so the thief didn't even need a hotwire.

Euro carmakers recognized the American preference and dumbed down their cars for American use. My '63 R8 had a steering-lock ignition ...



... but the steering-lock mechanism was removed in the US edition. VW had a similar lock for Euro drivers, but placed the ignition in the dashboard for Americans.

Why go to all that trouble? Making the same lock for everyone is cheaper.

Was this a law? Or just a recognition that thieves OWNED AMERICA?

The '49 dividing line may be significant.

After the Deepstate coup in '46, government and media focused intensely on "rising crime" which wasn't really rising. We were supposed to let FBI handle the "rising crime". More precisely, we were supposed to let FBI handle rising the crime.

We know that FBI's real job is creating crime and spawning criminals. Parkinson. Make a problem and "solve" it in a way that accelerates the problem so you can "solve" it in a way that accelerates the problem so you can "sol

Was the elimination of car security an official part of this Parkinson positive feedback loop? Or did Euro carmakers simply recognize that USA has always been owned by pirates?
  2:30 AM
  Well, I guess it makes sense...........

Headline:

Massachusetts Democrats are pushing a bill to make it a crime to call someone a "bitch," with offenders facing prison time

I guess this makes sense as a job-matching scheme. Placing people with a certain skill in the situation where they can use the skill constantly and profitably. This is the exact opposite of punishment as defined by Skinner.

Ideally the government's response to crime should accomplish two things:

1. Above all distinguish between professional criminals and temporary lawbreakers. Keep the professional criminals away from society permanently, by execution or life sentence.

2. For lawbreakers, Skinner punishment. Figure out what will cause the lawbreaker to avoid this offense in the future. In most cases a change of situation is enough. Useful employment to engage his sense of duty, and removal from bad influences. Prison as a backstop if he backslides.

In earlier and saner times we did a pretty good job of 1 but failed on 2. Now we're failing both.

Crime is INFINITELY rewarded. Crime pays MAGNIFICENTLY, and the worst imaginable crimes pay BEYOND INFINITELY. Honesty is suicide.

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  1:10 AM
Monday, October 21, 2019
  Traditionalists

Taibbi dissects the current witch hunt rationally:
Neoconservative-turned-#Resistance hero David Frum blasted Trump for defending Stein and Gabbard, noting sarcastically, “He was supposed to pretend they were not all on the same team.” Ana Navarro on CNN said, “When both the Russians and Trump support someone, be wary.” An MSNBC panel noted, in apparent seriousness, that Gabbard “never denied being a Russian asset.” CNN media critic Brian Stelter tried to suggest Hillary only seemed wacko thanks to a trick of the red enemy, saying, “It feels like a disinformation situation where the Russians want this kind of disinformation.”

(The “Russians caused us to say that crazy thing about Russians” meme has been a recurring theme. When Luke Harding of The Guardian was criticized for a thinly-sourced report that Julian Assange had met with Trump aide Paul Manafort in the Ecuadorian embassy, an anonymous CIA official penned an editorial in Politico suggesting that if the story was fake, “the most logical explanation” was a Russian disinformation effort to discredit journalists.)
Sounds familiar.

From Lea's history of the Inquisition:
This sufficiently shows that the new beliefs had completely conquered the old. The question had passed beyond the range of reason and argument, and everywhere throughout Europe the Witches' Sabbat was accepted as an established fact, which it was dangerous to dispute. Jurists and canonists might amuse themselves with debating it theoretically; practically it had become the veriest commonplace of the courts, both secular and ecclesiastical.

That the details of the Sabbat varied but little throughout Europe is doubtless to be ascribed to the leading questions habitually put by judges, and to the desire of the tortured culprits to satisfy their examiners, yet this consentaneity at the time was an irrefragable proof of truth.


The only real difference is that we now call the torturers "social scientists".
  11:35 PM
  Didn't need to ask

Now that Morales has won re-election, I wondered whether Bolivia is the next regime-change target.

Before Evo, Bolivia was a CIA cocaine colony, devoted solely to supplying the genocidal "needs" of our internal chaos-generating gangs like DEA. Morales got rid of Graybill, nationalized the mining industry, and created a modern self-sufficient country from scratch.

INTOLERABLE UNACCEPTABLE ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE.

Needless to say, the OPTIONS are already being activated, even before the election is verified.

BBC declares the election invalid because the counting was slow, and begins the Guaido process of defining the opposition as the real government. Now we must invade and bomb Bolivia down to bedrock to exterminate the "illegitimate" Morales.

Update next day: Now Rubio has joined the regime-change chorus. Fuck you, Rubio. Fuck you up the ass for the rest of eternity. You and Hillary and Trump and all the other regime-changers. Fuck you.


There's an important difference between Bolivia and Venezuela. Evo, like AMLO and FDR, is highly competent and is GETTING SHIT DONE. He's easy to defend. Maduro apparently wants to work for his people, but he's so utterly incompetent (or subverted?) that it's hard to defend him. At every step he fails to make the correct move.

Labels: , ,

  11:03 PM
  New smarm vs old smarm

Old cop shows made a big point of clean sports. Preserving the sanctity of baseball was important, and cleaning up boxing was a huge crusade.

Lengthy example from a 1952 episode of This is your FBI.

= = = = =

Sanctimonious announcer:

Tonight's case prompts us to ask the question: when is gambling not gambling? The answer is, when there is no risk involved. The dictionary defines gambling as "to hazard something on a chance". And that's exactly what thousands who place bets with bookmakers do NOT do; for in far too many cases the events they place bets on have been fixed, the winner already chosen. Not only does the innocent bettor throw his money down the drain, but he debases the very sport he's interested in.

Smarmy Agent Taylor is talking with a boxer who is involved in the case.

SA Taylor: Are you George Putnam?

Putnam: Uhhuh.

SAT: I'm Smarmy Agent Taylor. Here are my credentials.

Putnam: Hi!

SAT: You know where Mr Archer is?

Putnam: He ain't been here all night.

SAT: You haven't heard from him?

Putnam: No.

SAT: Well, there was a holdup last night in the arena, and we understand Mr Archer was seen going up the stairs just before it happened.

Putnam: You think he done the stickup?

SAT: That's what we're trying to find out.

Putnam: Nah, he ain't that kind of a guy.

SAT: Well, it leaves a basis for suspicion.

Putnam: Look mister, just because he fixes a couple of fights don't mean he'd stick up a joint.

SAT: [SHOCKEDSHOCKEDSHOCKED]: Archer fixes fights???????????????????

Putnam: Sure. Last night was a bag job but it went wrong. I was supposed to get flattened in the third.

SAT: How did you happen to win last night?

Putnam: Morgan knocked himself out. He threw a Mary Ann** from way back here. Missed me by a foot!

SAT: Besides Archer, Franklin and yourself, who knew the fight was fixed?

Putnam: Everybody, I guess.

SAT: Do you make arrangements like that often?

Putnam: Sure, sure. It's better that way.

SAT: Better for whom?

Putnam: Everybody! Fans get to see a good fight, and I know how I'm gonna do.

= = = = =

And the boxer is right. A boxing match is not a jury trial, it's just entertainment. The fans get to see a good fight, and the boxers can minimize injuries by knowing when the fake "knockout" is meant to happen. Bettors who don't understand the fix have only themselves to blame.

But now the sanctimonious tone has reversed, because the latest form of cheating is FORCED by the smarmy ones. When a big muscular man "is a woman" by the insane definition of the smarms, he is fully qualified to enter an event with actual women. He is guaranteed to win because he's a man. Bettors can bet on a sure thing, and anyone who dares to complain is in SERIOUS AND DEEP TROUBLE.

This is even crazier than the old smarm.

= = = = =

** Footnote: I'm pretty sure he says 'threw a Mary Ann', but can't find anything that sounds similar in online sources old or new.

Labels:

  2:29 PM
  Reverse the saying

Rehashing the Shared Lie:

Deepstate always wants us to argue about meaningless details. Names and numbers. Divide and conquer, even within the individual. Cognitive Dissonance and Room 101 keep our brains internally divided and incapable of asking proper questions.

The cure for Deepstate is to stand back, ignore the details, avoid taking either of the assigned "sides" in Deepstate's puppet show, and simply do our duty. Make more life, more value, more beauty. We don't have a duty to ask bigger questions, but the bigger questions are at least possible when we ignore the details.



The devil is in the details validly describes the 80/20 structure of completed jobs.

The details are in the devil tells us how to handle a shared lie or a flat assertion.

On the other side, we could use more details, or simply more concrete realism, from people who claim to be working against the shared lie. Tulsi asks the right questions, but she's not just a blogger. She's interviewing for an executive job, and she doesn't seem to understand the job. We could use more 80/20. We could use a broad sense of what she will work on first. As I've mentioned before, we have three Users Guides for breaking Deepstate. Harding, FDR, Ike. From an outside view we can see that each of them subdued Deepstate and enforced non-intervention. As a current member of Congress and the military, Tulsi has access to better information. She could have assigned staff to analyze the methods that ACTUALLY WORKED in the past, and develop a broad plan of action.

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  5:21 AM
Sunday, October 20, 2019
  Morales wins again

Speaking of defending a country's own people....

Evo Morales just won re-election. Not really surprising. He broke Graybill's Law. Bolivia had been one of our captive cocaine colonies. Evo decided to develop Bolivia's HONEST skills instead of CIA's criminal skills. He nationalized the mineral industry and used its profits to build infrastructure and services for his people. Bolivia's economy is thriving and growing, on its own terms for its own people.

Evo and AMLO are similar. Both of them talk like Gaians and act like FDR.



Deepstate doesn't like breakaways, especially when they succeed. Will Bolivia be next, now that we screwed up the coup in Venezuela?

More personal question: I wonder how it feels to live in a country where the government is trying to improve the lives of ordinary people? I wouldn't know. I was born in USA after 1946, so I've always lived in a country where the government ruins and mocks and slaughters ordinary people. The water in the fishbowl is cyanide.

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  5:09 PM
  A little late for Pronoun Day but still appropriate

Via ZH,
“Our administration’s been very clear,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive Friday interview, published on Sunday. “Israel has the fundamental right to engage in activity that ensures the security of its people. It’s at the very core of what nation-states not only have the right to do, but an obligation to do.”
Does Russia have the fundamental right to defend its people? No. Does Venezuela have the fundamental right to defend its people? No. Does Cuba have the fundamental right to defend its people? No. Do Persia and Syria have the fundamental right to defend their people against ISRAEL? FUCK NO.

Well then, what does Pompeo mean? Like the old Soviet joke, the secret is in the referent of the pronoun. "The security of its people" does NOT mean "the security of each nation's OWN people." "The security of its people" means "The security of ISRAEL'S people." Thus every nation-state has the right and obligation to defend ISRAEL'S people, not its own people. Perfectly logical.

= = = = =

Fussy grammar sidenote: This particular joke wouldn't actually work in Russian, which has a commonly used 'self' pronoun. The sentence would be "Israel has the fundamental right to defend itself's people." Applied to other countries, the other countries would also be defending self's people, not ambiguous its people.

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  10:51 AM
Saturday, October 19, 2019
  Getting tired?

I try to ignore the "political" soap opera as much as possible. Occasionally I notice a tiny deviation from Official Orthodoxy that may indicate a larger crack coming.

BBC covers the Tulsi vs Hillary feud with a slightly non-standard tone. It sounds like BBC is getting tired of Hillary's endless false accusations. They quote some of the antiwar types who were previously ignored.
  8:21 AM
  Constants and Variables 141, big mistake edition

Constant 1:

Boeing is stupid in exactly the same way that Tesla is stupid. Both are making real-world machines using a software-world mindset. Both assume that the real laws of Newtonian physics are just arbitrary Social Constructs which can be overcome by the Will Of Software.

Constant 2:

Both are major players in Share Value. Boeing is a big part of the Dow, and Tesla is a big part of NASDAQ. Both are focused primarily on satisfying NYC investors. Keeping customers alive is not even secondary; more like thousandary on the list of priorities.

Variable:

Tesla has vast armies of religiously motivated trolls who instantly smash all truth and logic.

There are no pro-Boeing trolls.

At most there are establishment types who defend Boeing's stupid explanations as authoritative, but they don't throw feces at the antis.

Conclusion:

Boeing's big mistake is its failure to develop a cult. Even though it claims to be a "tech company", it's not a religion.

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  6:58 AM
Friday, October 18, 2019
  Why are books bound horizontally?

Convective thought.

Why are books horizontal?

The rule seems to be:

Writable things are up-down (with some exceptions).

Readable things are left-right, at least in the world of paper.

There's absolutely no advantage to the left-right arrangement of pages for writing or reading. Up-down has all the advantages in both modes.

Think of a legal pad or a drawing pad. Up-down. You flip the pages over and out of the way when done with each page. You can lay it flat on a table or clipboard, and your hand (left OR right) can write consistently across the flat surface.

Think of a hardback book. Left-right. You flip the pages leftward, and the used page is always trying to spring back, so you have to hold it. Worst of all, your eyes have to deal with an inconsistent distance and inconsistent angle and inconsistent glare, which is opposite on the left and right pages.



When the paper is flat, the eyes and brain have a simpler task.

History doesn't seem to justify the left-right arrangement. We first wrote on clay tablets, which are not bound in either direction. Then we used scrolls, which are continuous up-down. Sometime in the Middle Ages, scribes started binding pages left-right, and the habit continued through the print era.

Computers developed from an up-down tradition.

Typewriters scrolled the paper vertically. Teletypes, starting around 1910, used a continuous roll to avoid constant manual paper insertion. Computers began by using existing teletypes as output, then developed various forms of printers, still with a continuous scroll. CRT monitors started as direct copies of the teletype output, with printed lines scrolling upward just like a roll of paper.

In the web era, a looser range of shapes and formats are possible, but the scroll continues to dominate. The preferred vertical aspect of iPhones forces vertical scrolling.

Despite the total dominance of vertical pages in digital, and in writable paper media, readable paper continues left-right.

= = = = =

Did we ever have up-down hardbound books? Yes, but only in a peculiar niche.

The textbooks we used in typing class in high school were up-down.

When closed, the book laid flat like any other, except that its aspect ratio was inverted.


The front cover had an extra 'hinge' so that it could flop over the stand fully, and the pages were sewn instead of glued into a wide and flexible spine so they could flop easily.


The only disadvantage of this setup is that you couldn't have printing on the back of each page, but the longer aspect ratio meant that each page contained the same number of lines as two normal pages.

= = = = =

Graphic sidenote: Polistra is typing on an early piano-style telegraph sender.

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  11:49 PM
  Asked and De-answered

Another asked-answered combo from RealClearScience.



Had to make up a new tag for this one.

If you say that "evolution" tells you something, you have just proved that you are NOT intelligent life. Only an irrational blind follower of idiotic fashion uses "evolution" as a guide for "thinking".

Even if "evolution" could tell us anything, there's no way it could prove that Life Form X is the only intelligent life form, or that Planet A is the only location capable of developing intelligence. Those claims are classic religious claims, and not even rational or provable within the bounds of mature theology.

So the mere phrasing of this statement pre-empts and prohibits all intelligent answers, both secular and sacred.

A shining example of NewThink.

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  10:21 PM
Thursday, October 17, 2019
  Slime mold or Disney? /// EDIT: Slime mold.

Reuters has a tantalizingly brief news item about a new life form exhibited by the Paris Zoo. The description and video closely fit slime mold, except for the number of "sexes" or reproduction categories.

Checking France24, I see a headline for the same item:



but clicking the headline simply leads to the main website of Disney Films.

Zoos don't normally exhibit fungus-like organisms. Zoos exhibit big semi-familiar animals.

Is this a hack or a misdescribed slime mold or a genuinely new find?

Later: France24 fixed the link which now provides better info. It is in fact a type of slime mold. Slime mold is unquestionably one of the weirdest and least understood life forms, but not a brand new discovery.

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  11:48 PM
  He's not that stupid.

The latest Irons podcast features McAfee. Mac is making some really STUPID arguments for Bitcoin. He's not that stupid. He wants to make the suckers stupid.

His biggest argument is the old "decentralized ledger" which "can't be stopped by governments".

Raw ratshit. Bitcoin is NSA. It exists because it's useful to NSA. If it ever stops being useful, it will stop existing.

Irons isn't making a strong enough counterargument. He's arguing for gold against Bitcoin. That's not the choice. The choice is paper currency against Bitcoin. Paper currency has none of the problems. When your web connection fails, or you forget your password, or the power is out because of a windstorm, you can still spend paper. You can also spend paper without NSA tracking the transaction, while NSA tracks EVERY Bitcoin transaction.

This is tiresome. All of these fake arguments have been definitively debunked for at least six fucking years.

Mac also makes a really dumb supply/demand argument for the value of Bitcoin. He says that the total number of "coins" is firmly limited. Untrue. Debt ceilings and credit limits ALWAYS push up when approached. He also says that about 20% of the "coins" already mined have been lost due to failed computers or lost passwords. (Which destroys his other argument, but let it go.) Because the supply is necessarily decreasing, the price must go up. Here he's acknowledging that Bitcoin is a collectible like vintage wine, not a currency. Unfortunately, collectibles don't necessarily go up when they grow rare. The demand side is equally important and much less predictable. Sometimes people lose interest in baseball cards or '64 Mustangs or Banksy paintings. Fashion is fickle. There's no real collector demand for Bitcoin in the first fucking place, so assuming it will be constant is crazy.

Even in his own department he's making a stupid argument. He says antivirus doesn't do anything. Maybe HIS antivirus doesn't, but AVG works perfectly against hackers damaging or locking up the computer. It doesn't stop NSA, but that's not the fucking purpose. I gave up on McAfee antivirus many years ago because in fact it DIDN'T stop viruses, it only stopped my computer. AVG stays out of the way and halts malware.

Ping! That's the key. Everything Mac does, from his "antivirus" to his "coins", is a total brazen open transparent fraud. Everything is designed to harm the sucker and enrich Mac. He doesn't bother to hide it. The ultimate infinite Sucker Filter.

Labels:

  5:07 PM
  Ought to be charged with plagiarism

This proposal for genocide by the climate holocausters isn't especially original. It's an academic proposal for Newspeak, EXACTLY AS ORWELL DESCRIBED IT.

According to the Gaians, we need Newthink and Newspeak to break up our natural pattern recognition skills so the Gaian priestesses can implant Correct Thoughts every microsecond via Github.

Orwell's estate would have a clear cause for an infringement action in a sane world.

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  8:01 AM
  JUSTICE! BY GOD! FINALLY!

VIA ZH,

THE BEST FUCKING THING THAT HAPPENED IN MANY FUCKING YEARS. HUMANS HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF GAIAN HOLOCAUSTERS IN LONDON, AND DRAGGED THE HOLOCAUSTERS OFF THE TOP OF A SUBWAY TRAIN.

JUSTICE! JUSTICE! JUSTICE!



One thing that stands out in the videos of this JUSTICE is the total absence of police. The Gaian holocausters announced their violent sabotage in advance. It wasn't a surprise. The police ignored it because they're too busy arresting and jailing normal people for using the wrong pronoun.

And later, needless to say, the police are arresting the justicers and lionizing the holocausters. I'm sure the UK dysgovernment will reinstate the death penalty for the justicers, and reinstate official sainthood for the holocausters.

Meaningless suggestion: Nov 5 is Guy Fawkes Day. Oct 17 should become Gaia Fucked Day.

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  6:13 AM
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
  Emoji d'or, troll d'or

Latest item at KSHS is wild, and their writer seems to have been impressed by the wildness.
How did a French coin weight from the late 1700s come to be deposited at a late 19th- early 20th-century archeological site in Smith County? One side of the coin weight depicts the coin it represents, a French Louis D'or from 1785 to 1792. The reverse of the coin weight depicts a hand of Antwerp, indicating it was used in Antwerp, Belgium, markets. Understanding how and when artifacts came to be deposited at a site and what an artifact's association is with other artifacts at a site are questions archeologists ask in order learn how people are interacting with their landscapes. In the case of this small French coin weight, the answer is still being sought.
In modern terms the coin weight would be described as UI/UX with automatic localization. There's no wording, just the image of the coin on one side and the hand (fingers up, palm forward) on the other. Anyone involved in commerce would know what it meant, where it was used, and what it weighed.

Hand of Antwerp? Huh? Not explained by KSHS, but it's even wilder:
The most wonderful cities in the world are founded upon a myth, and Antwerp is no exception. Legend has it that, to cross the Scheldt River, you first had to pay a toll to a fearsome giant, named Druon Antigoon. Whenever sailors on the Scheldt river refused to pay the toll to the giant, he punished them by cutting off their hand. A Roman soldier named Silvius Brabo slayed the giant, cut off its hand, and tossed it into the Scheldt River. Given that the Dutch for "hand thrown" is "hand werpen", the city’s name was born. So, the "hand" has become the symbol of Antwerp and it is looked upon like an official shield of Antwerp. There are excellent cookies and different types of chocolates in the shape of a hand.
Druon Antigoon. Wonderful name for a giant troll. Even better, the coin weight looks just like a chocolate cookie. (Unfortunately it's a square cookie, so I can't use d'Oreo in the title.)

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  4:48 PM
  Aphid Day 2019

On 9/26 I wondered if the aphids were going to miss their chance this year. At that point it looked like there wasn't another warmish day coming.

Nope, they didn't miss. This afternoon, 3PM 10/16, we hit 66 by my thermometer, and the aphids are just now massively swarming.

No chance of another 60, at least by Weather.com predictions:



So here we go after all!

[This is the tenth time I've noted it here. Aphid Day in 2010 was the first of Oct, in 2011 it was the end of Oct, in 2012 the first of Oct, in 2013 the last part of Oct, in 2014 (with an actual picture) the end of Sept, in 2015 end of Sept, in 2016 end of Sept, in 2017 near end of Oct, in 2018 around mid Oct, and now in 2019 around mid Oct. ]

= = = = = BELOW HERE IS REPRINT of the original.

Every year in Spokane the end of summer is marked by the swarming of tiny white-winged flies.

Insects don't waste much time in adulthood; lots of bugs live several years as larvae and only a few days as adults.

These flies take it to an extreme. Adults are minimally equipped to get in the air and reproduce. They don't have as much brain power as other flies, nor do they have hard shells. Instead of flying purposefully, they drift with the wind like seeds, and die as soon as they bump into anything even at near-zero drifting speed. Result: for a couple of days, your face and clothes are covered with semi-liquid insects.

Despite their lack of navigation, they must have some kind of superior instinct or 'community intelligence', because picking the last warm day is much harder than picking the first warm day of spring. Termites and ants don't need to calculate their swarming day; they only need a simple neuron to detect when temperature rises past a certain threshold, plus an emitted pheromone to trigger the avalanche.

But how do these flies determine that today is not just warm, but the last warmth for their generation? They must be sensing something besides temperature.

At any rate, they serve as a reliable sign for us, even if our supercomputers can't match their calculations.



Polistra has put it into folk-wisdom format:

White flies swarming, no more warming.

= = = = =

[Artistic note: the swarm in the animation turned out nicely, but Polistra's head looks steroid-swollen and South-Park-ish for unknown reasons. Maybe she's allergic to the bugs.]

[Technical note: According to some sources, these bugs are smoky-winged ash aphids, Prociphilus americanus.]
  2:54 PM
  What is Tulsi up to?

The question gets stronger every day. She started out as the torch-bearer for the MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE, war vs peace, intervention vs minding our own fucking business.

Now she's focusing on a vague and meaningless question of "fitness". It's not age that matters, it's "fitness", whatever the fuck that means.

Age does matter. I'm 69, and I know how the body and mind start to decline. Many other wrinklies have expressed the same experience-based judgment. We see Biden struggling with words, Bernie having a heart attack, Hillary falling more than walking. Some old folks are still going strong at 80, but most aren't, and our political examples are in the latter category.

Beyond that, Tulsi still hasn't specified what she will DO to suppress or break the war machine. She hasn't spilled any beans from the classified briefings she gets in Congress, hasn't offered any solutions to the problems that she accurately describes.

Dammit, WHAT WILL YOU DO?

We had three Presidents who DID SOMETHING about war and Deepstate. Harding, FDR, and Eisenhower. We don't have public information on HOW those three managed to subdue Deepstate and GET SHIT DONE, but a member of Congress would have access to the information. A serious and sincere non-interventionist would be finding and reading those three Users Manuals, and figuring out how to apply the methods to the current hyperlunatic monstrosity.

We also have a very recent partial example. Obama obeyed Deepstate during his first term, letting Hillary start a new war every week. In his second term he fired Hillary and took a couple of hesitant steps away from universal permanent war, loosening the blockades of Persia and Cuba. Obama wasn't explicitly punished, but Hillary took revenge by installing Trump, who promptly resumed universal permanent war.

At this point the best conclusion is that Tulsi is just another Pied Piper like Trump, an attractive trapper who gathers up peace-loving people and neuters them, absorbs their energy in nothingness. Like what mucus does to bacteria, except that Tulsi is prettier than snot.
  5:37 AM
  Snot superpowers

A perfect example of Carver's rules. Via ScienceDaily, researchers decided to LOOK ABOUT THEM and TAKE HOLD OF THE SNOT THAT IS HERE. When they removed their theory goggles and started looking closely, they found that plain old mucus is a Master Counterspy.

Obviously mucus protects surfaces from dust and microbes and acids, just by being a gooey film. But wait, there's a whole lot more!
A new study from MIT reveals that glycans -- branched sugar molecules found in mucus -- are responsible for most of this microbe-taming. There are hundreds of different glycans in mucus, and the MIT team discovered that these molecules can prevent bacteria from communicating with each other and forming infectious biofilms, effectively rendering them harmless.

"What we have in mucus is a therapeutic gold mine," says Katharina Ribbeck, the Mark Hyman, Jr. Career Development Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. "These glycans have biological functions that are very broad and sophisticated. They have the ability to regulate how microbes behave and really tune their identity."

Ribbeck thought they might play a major role in the microbe-disarming activity she had previously seen from mucus. To explore that possibility, she isolated glycans and exposed them to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Upon exposure to mucin glycans, the bacteria underwent broad shifts in behavior that rendered them less harmful to the host. For example, they no longer produced toxins, attached to or killed host cells, or expressed genes essential for bacterial communication.
Nature beats us to the punch every time, in ways that we haven't even BEGUN to explore. Life is infinitely amazing, and we owe a duty to its creator.

On a more prosaic level, this new knowledge leads to new guidance. For instance, think twice before using mouthwash. Clearing out the goo feels good, but the goo is doing much more to control bacteria than the mouthwash.

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  2:10 AM
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
  What's the Italian word for Berwick-upon-Tweed?

A highly interesting feature on a little exclave caught between Switzerland and Italy. Campione d’Italia was handed back and forth by princes and bishops in the Middle Ages, and later ended up as a haven for spies of all sorts. Why did the spies like it?
A casino was first set up in Campione in 1917, designed as a way to listen in on foreign diplomats cutting loose there. Its status as a quasi-neutral playground prompted the OSS, the CIA’s precursor, to set up a base there briefly.


I've been noticing the role of casinos as a power base for a long time, and I've also discussed the ties between casino-owning ethnic gangs and Deepstate.

But I hadn't thought about the intentional USE of a casino as a trap for spies. It makes sense, and it completes the circle.

Bloomberg is reporting on Campione because of a new exclavian back-and-forth. The casino went bankrupt a few years ago, so the town is in economic trouble. The new post-Salvini government in Italy is going all in for Soros and EU, leaving no stone unturned in its murderous efforts to destroy all vestiges of Italy. Thus the new government wants to eliminate some traditional exemptions that had given Campione an economic advantage. Campione's leaders believe that neutral Switzerland would do a better job of maintaining its unique in-between status. Switzerland apparently likes the idea, so it's not just talk.

= = = = =

Stupid sidenote: Given these connections, I'm surprised Buckley never wrote a spy novel titled The Well-Tempered Exclavier.

= = = = =

Geographical sidenote: A little googlestreeting shows that Campione is built on a sharp hillside with lots of switchbacks in its streets. Sort of like a high-class version of Logan, WV.

With casino money:



Without casino money:



Casinos are evil, but if my small town faced that choice, I'd fight to keep the casino.

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  10:51 AM
  Mixed-up beans

In the latest O'Keefe videos focused on CNN, we see CNN executive Christian Sierra sprawled arrogantly on a sofa, hands behind head, feet up.

He's spilling the beans, but in fact he seems to have LESS beans than outsiders do.

He states the obvious fact that media demons cover shootings in elite locations and ignore shootings in black neighborhoods.

But Sierra thinks the purpose of this bias is simply racist. Black victims don't matter.

He's missing the point entirely. The purpose of the bias is to create a climate of "terror" based on "white supremacists", ie Deplorables.

The bias is based on the shooter, not the victims. If the shooter is black, nothing to see here. If the shooter is white, we got a story.

The same principle applies to "hate" crimes and "hate" speech. In all cases the content or behavior is not the variable. The speaker or actor is the variable. If the speech or crime comes from a Deplorable, it's "hate" speech or "hate" crime. If not, no story. Media is all about WHO, not WHAT.

= = = = =

Later: This series of videos is sort of reassuring on the basic human level. The hidden reporter is showing us that LOTS of CNN employees, both technical and on-camera, are disgusted with the total loss of objectivity. CNN was always Democrat, like 100% of media including Fox, but back in the '90s CNN occasionally allowed a fact to slip through the filters. Now the censorship is total and personal. It's not broadly Democrat as before. Everything serves Hillary.
  8:48 AM
  Bad, by satan

Via the Bush family website Politico, several "conservative" and Repooflican pundits have met with Zuck. All of them accepted Zuck's NDA requirement, and all are obeying Zuck's NDA and remaining silent.

Knowledge is Power. In earlier centuries priests had power and privilege because they heard confessions. The modern Weblords have even more power because they operate a much more complete confessional. Zuck has direct access to the private lives of everyone, and politicians know it.

God's rule is simple in a situation like this. The only reason to meet with Satan is to spill the beans. Opening the confessional and breaking the seal decreases Satan's blackmail power. By accepting Zuck's terms and conditions these "conservatives" have become an integral part of Satan's team.

It's possible that Zuck is making genuine compromises toward a more objective policy, but we can't know that unless you tell us EVERYTHING. When you allowed Zuck to be the sole provider of information, your meeting was totally pointless. Satan retains ALL the knowledge and ALL the power.
  6:34 AM
  Good, by god.

The first open acknowledgment that we're ACTUALLY ending a war and ACTUALLY moving troops out.

Via ZH:
A stunning development in the key northern Syrian city of Manbij — the Pentagon has confirmed a planned handover to Russian military forces is underway amid a Turkish military assault on the region. This also hours after President Trump tweeted that Assad "wants naturally to protect the Kurds" and that the problem should be left to local powers.

Late Monday the main US base in Manbij was filmed empty of US forces, and American convoys were also spotted hastily pulling out of the city as Syrian national forces entered
Blogger Trump sometimes makes noises about ending a war and sometimes makes noises about starting new wars. Blogger Trump is not in charge, so his noises are meaningless. This confirmation from the military is meaningful.

This means that our real bosses in Israel and Saudi are losing force. Bibi is in a parliamentary stalemate, and MbS is moving cautiously toward the Russian side. Without clear guidance from both bosses, we no longer have a clear reason to destroy Syria.
  6:01 AM
Monday, October 14, 2019
  Shit or get off the pot, Tulsi.

First she said she will boycott this week's "debate", which seemed to me like a dubious decision. Today she says tersely and minimally "I will be attending the debate."

No reason or motive given, no purpose. Up and down, back and forth, whipsaw, chaos.

This feels too much like Bush behavior, especially Bush Senior. He made cryptic remarks and short speeches, clearly meaningful to other Deepstaters but puzzling and de-communicative to humans.

Knowledge is power. Tell us everything or go home.

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  9:12 AM
  Constant Russia

As mentioned in previous item, I don't know enough to guess the validity of Martin Sieff's BIG hypothesis that Saudi is about to collapse.

One part of the article raises two questions that fall within my department.
In a time without speed of light communications, telegraph wires, radio or Internet, the fall of the British Empire in America still rocked the entire world. It was celebrated and welcomed from the Emir of Kuwait to the Tsarina Catherine in St. Petersburg.
First question:

Successful revolutions are always backed by foreign governments. Not all foreign-backed revolutions succeed, but revolutions without assistance always fail.

Our NYC-based revolution was strongly backed by Louis in France, and we then rewarded him in typical NYC style by sponsoring the revolution that killed Louis. But what about Catherine? At that time Russia owned and occupied Alaska plus part of BC, and made a dubious claim to the entire West Coast. Russia certainly had interests on this continent. Did Catherine fund the revolution, hoping for a weaker power here?

Morris, as always, answers the question: [p269 of the PDF]
France, it is well known, went into the war for the sole object of severing America from England, and she came out of it with no other gain, than the independence of the United States. In all the secret overtures for a separate treaty, that were made to Count Vergennes, (and they were several) by emissaries from the British Court during the war, he invariably insisted on the recognition of American independence as a preliminary step. When Russia and Austria proposed to mediate between England and France, Count Vergennes accepted the offer, but imposed as a condition, that commissioners should be admitted from the United States, and take part as the representatives of an independent power in the negotiations for peace. He maintained the same ground when Spain came forward as a mediator.
Then as now, Russia was a mediator, not an aggressor.

= = = = =

Second question:

The mention of telegraph wires raises a different question, also in my department. Electric telegraphs began around 1830, but visual semaphore systems were widespread in Europe and Russia around the time of the Revolution. In those countries, news traveled much faster than horseback but somewhat slower than electricity. Why didn't USA copy the idea? For 50 years those systems were well known and highly functional, but we didn't use them. We made do with horses and runners until Morse and others persuaded the government to try the electric system.


= = = = =

And this in turn raises a subquestion. Why were semaphores slower than electric telegraphs? The obvious answer is because electricity... but that isn't the real answer.

Two reasons, one of which could have been solved with existing technology.

(1) The moving parts of semaphores were big and heavy, requiring considerable strength and time to overcome inertia. The keyboards of the first electric telegraphs acted easily and instantly, with negligible mass and momentum. This could have been solved with the compressed-air technology of pipe organs. The English six-panel system would be best because its action was binary. Each key would valve air into its own combination of pistons, each flipping one panel. When the key was released, the spring-loaded panels would snap back to default.

(2) More subtle but unsolvable. The first telegraphs were NOT significantly faster than semaphores. The Chappe system, with a dense network of stations and highly skilled operators, was able to send a message from Calais to Paris in three minutes under ideal circumstances, and one hour in typical usage. Early telegraphs shared the limitation of frequent human intervention. Batteries at each station had to overcome the resistance and reactance of long wires. The message might travel about 5 miles to the first receiver, where the operator would have to copy the complete message and then resend it. This is identical to semaphores except for the inertia and momentum. Telegraphs became instantaneous after the invention of the relay, which automatically transferred the information to a new circuit with its own batteries. Relays act instantly, so a well-formed and well-maintained line could send a message through unlimited distances instantly. There was no conceivable way to develop a relay for visual systems. It would be possible right now using video cameras and OCR technology, but it wouldn't have been possible even 20 years ago.

A telegraph system solely USING compressed air would have been possible in 300 BC. The Romans could have built long concrete pipelines, running along aqueducts and roads in the same way that telegraph wires ran along railroads. Air relays work the same as electric relays, and would have been feasible with Roman tech. This setup could have spanned continents with the same speed as electric telegraphs. There were a few attempts at compressed air telegraphy during the semaphore era, but they didn't get anywhere.

And let's take one more step, probably off the cliff.... An air-based telephone system would also be possible. A delicate leather sender diaphragm with a needle valve could modulate a very small flow, which could then modulate a larger flow. The larger flow could easily move a leather receiver diaphragm. Fluidic amplifiers were possible in 300 BC.

More broadly, why didn't any of these developments happen before electricity? You don't need special instruments to detect the movement and pressure of air. You can feel and smell and hear it directly, and you can make the wires and resistors and amplifiers from wood and leather. Surely someone must have tried these ideas during the 2100 years from 300 BC to 1800 AD??? Even the phonograph, a simple mechanism that could have been built in the Stone Age, didn't happen until Edison was fiddling with ways to record electrical telegraph signals.

Since I'm already off the alt-history cliff, one more step. If clay-disk phonographs had been developed in 3000 BC, would clay-tablet writing have been necessary? I think the answer is Yes, because writing didn't start with words. Writing began as bookkeeping and soon found ways to specify the items being bought or sold. You can't talk in columns.

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  1:15 AM

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