Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Reprint on clustering
A pretty good article at MindMatters covers the peculiar subjectivity of clustering. The text is solid but the graphics are skimpy, I covered the subject with better graphics a few years ago.
= = = = = START REPRINT:
The recent big lottery brings up randomness again. Lotteries are a very rare case, maybe the only situation in common experience, where a mathematical randomizer shows up in PURE or raw form.
The vast majority of "randomized" events in our lives are THRESHOLDED random.
Let's see if I can illustrate the difference.
This first animation shows some bars rising and falling by a pure mathematical random process. The height of each bar is decided separately at each frame of the movie. Notice that this set of motions looks fully random; you can't see any pattern in it.
Now I've added a THRESHOLD across the bars. This makes the situation far more realistic, corresponding to many random-driven events in ordinary life. From this angle it still looks unpatterned.
Now we're looking at the same THRESHOLDED situation from the top. Now we can see all sorts of patterns! At each moment we can see CLUSTERS of bars that have popped above the threshold, and we can't see the bars that are below. Most importantly, we don't see the continuously variable heights any more; we only see the DECISION. Each bar has turned into a yes-no vote.
Everything we sense is thresholded. These bars might represent sounds coming from all sorts of things (crickets, doors, cars, dogs in your yard, dogs in China, rivers in Argentina.) All of those things are in the air, but you only hear the nearest and strongest. Same with points of light, or weights on your hand, or differences in income and status between you and your neighbor. You only sense values that pop up above your internal threshold.
The most direct analogy for this image might be a field of grass seeds popping through the soil. They are driven by temperature and moisture, so they will tend to sprout within a limited range of time; but each one has a unique micro-climate depending on shadows, bacteria, earthworms, etc.
Another prime example: Cancer clusters. Each bar corresponds to one person, with a varying number of cancerous cells. Everyone has some cancerous cells all the time, but we don't register a case of cancer until the number of cells pops through the threshold of a screening test. Each frame in the animation might correspond to a map of cancer cases in one year. Some of the frames show very definite clusters of cancer cases! Better look for known carcinogens where those clusters formed! Is there a power line? A kerosene lamp? A cell phone? No, it's most likely just random stuff.
Or we could be talking about weather events. Rivers rise and fall all the time, but we don't call it a flood until a river rises above the line of the nearest occupied land. Some of these bars seem to be flooding several years in a row! It's global warming! No, it's most likely just random stuff.
But not always. In some cases a repeated flood is just part of this clustering effect, but repetition is actually more likely than plain clustering would imply. Everything in Nature depends in infinitely complex ways on previous events. If Wildcat Creek floods in March, the ground is still wetter than usual in May, so it takes less rain than usual to bring the creek up to flood stage. The threshold has moved. There are also long-term trends like sunspot cycles and El Nino / La Nina ocean oscillations. If conditions favor big rains this year, the trends are likely to favor big rains next year as well. Probably have to wait several years until the cycles return to a dry phase.
To illustrate, I've moved the threshold up and down in a sine wave. First as seen from the side, just to show what's really happening:
Now from the top. Wow! We got 500-year floods everywhere, for several years in a row! And then we have terrible droughts everywhere, for several years in a row! This can't be random!
Yes it can. The bars are still moving in the very same pattern; the driving forces haven't changed. It's just that the conditions for popping each event above the threshold are changing from year to year as they do in Nature.
People who see life through the prism of statistics have trouble handling thresholds. Abstract academics have to shoehorn life into closed-form real-number equations, and you can't use a threshold in that context. Thresholding is perfectly natural to a binary computer. An on-off choice is easy to write as code, and the computer can handle it more precisely than a continuous number. But this naturalness doesn't penetrate the academic mind. If you can't write a continuous function suitable for a slide rule, you can't begin to think about the problem.
= = = = = END REPRINT:
Now I've added a THRESHOLD across the bars. This makes the situation far more realistic, corresponding to many random-driven events in ordinary life. From this angle it still looks unpatterned.
Now we're looking at the same THRESHOLDED situation from the top. Now we can see all sorts of patterns! At each moment we can see CLUSTERS of bars that have popped above the threshold, and we can't see the bars that are below. Most importantly, we don't see the continuously variable heights any more; we only see the DECISION. Each bar has turned into a yes-no vote.
Everything we sense is thresholded. These bars might represent sounds coming from all sorts of things (crickets, doors, cars, dogs in your yard, dogs in China, rivers in Argentina.) All of those things are in the air, but you only hear the nearest and strongest. Same with points of light, or weights on your hand, or differences in income and status between you and your neighbor. You only sense values that pop up above your internal threshold.
The most direct analogy for this image might be a field of grass seeds popping through the soil. They are driven by temperature and moisture, so they will tend to sprout within a limited range of time; but each one has a unique micro-climate depending on shadows, bacteria, earthworms, etc.
Another prime example: Cancer clusters. Each bar corresponds to one person, with a varying number of cancerous cells. Everyone has some cancerous cells all the time, but we don't register a case of cancer until the number of cells pops through the threshold of a screening test. Each frame in the animation might correspond to a map of cancer cases in one year. Some of the frames show very definite clusters of cancer cases! Better look for known carcinogens where those clusters formed! Is there a power line? A kerosene lamp? A cell phone? No, it's most likely just random stuff.
Or we could be talking about weather events. Rivers rise and fall all the time, but we don't call it a flood until a river rises above the line of the nearest occupied land. Some of these bars seem to be flooding several years in a row! It's global warming! No, it's most likely just random stuff.
But not always. In some cases a repeated flood is just part of this clustering effect, but repetition is actually more likely than plain clustering would imply. Everything in Nature depends in infinitely complex ways on previous events. If Wildcat Creek floods in March, the ground is still wetter than usual in May, so it takes less rain than usual to bring the creek up to flood stage. The threshold has moved. There are also long-term trends like sunspot cycles and El Nino / La Nina ocean oscillations. If conditions favor big rains this year, the trends are likely to favor big rains next year as well. Probably have to wait several years until the cycles return to a dry phase.
To illustrate, I've moved the threshold up and down in a sine wave. First as seen from the side, just to show what's really happening:
Now from the top. Wow! We got 500-year floods everywhere, for several years in a row! And then we have terrible droughts everywhere, for several years in a row! This can't be random!
Yes it can. The bars are still moving in the very same pattern; the driving forces haven't changed. It's just that the conditions for popping each event above the threshold are changing from year to year as they do in Nature.
People who see life through the prism of statistics have trouble handling thresholds. Abstract academics have to shoehorn life into closed-form real-number equations, and you can't use a threshold in that context. Thresholding is perfectly natural to a binary computer. An on-off choice is easy to write as code, and the computer can handle it more precisely than a continuous number. But this naturalness doesn't penetrate the academic mind. If you can't write a continuous function suitable for a slide rule, you can't begin to think about the problem.
= = = = = END REPRINT:
Labels: Blinded by Stats, Carbon Cult
¶ 3:43 PM
Cold. Warm. Simple.
Orlov gets about half of this point.
Looking at history, a different vista presents itself. Since it first came together as a superethnos (Great Rus) around ten centuries ago, Russia has been consistently attacked and invaded from the west. It has been invaded by the Swedes, the Germans, the Poles/Lithuanians, the French and the Germans again. Note that these are all Northern European ethnic groups; this turns out to be important. All of these incursions the Russians managed to repulse. Russia was also invaded from the east, by a large and diverse group of nomadic peoples collectively known as the Mongols (even though actual ethnic Mongols among them numbered no more than a thousand) and this eventually led to integration and either assimilation or peaceful coexistence. Why such a difference? Why are the Russians and the Poles like oil and water in spite of both being Christian, neighbors and speaking a Slavic language. Why did the Russians and the Tatars and other Turkic groups fuse together through intermarriage in spite of vast differences in language, custom, religion and geographic origin? Let us propose a daring hypothesis: the reason is organic.He starts correctly with genetics, but slides into blaming religion and ideology because he doesn't see the entire genetic (and epigenetic) pattern. The pattern is simple. Warm-weather people get along. Cold-weather people don't get along. People who developed over millenia in tropical climates didn't have to work hard to get food, and didn't need to make cultural provisions to store food. Strangers were a minor threat because everyone could reach up and grab their own mangos. Cold-weather people have to work hard to GET and KEEP food, which means they're instantly defensive against the slightest threat to territory and resources. Warmth is the default. We've lived through a brief cold period, and now the earth is returning to default. More heat, more rain, more CO2. It all fits together, and plants love it. Animals also love it because animals eat plants. If we weren't totally lunatized by the CIA GLOBAL WARMING CONSPIRACY, designed to destroy all industry and civilization and siphon all wealth into Jamie Dimon's bank account, we'd also love it because we eat plants and animals. Unfortunately we ARE totally lunatized, and even Orlov was sucked into the CIA CONSPIRACY. While thinking about this, I watched a Russian Insight program discussing Russia's SANE economic principles, but complaining that most people are still dissatisfied. Thanks to the Soviet system, Russia is blessed with low debt and high savings, which is the CORRECT way to live. It's especially correct for cold-weather people. After a brief invasion by Soros, Putin is restoring the Soviet AND Russian AND winter way of doing things. As the discussers bemoaned the Russian dissatisfaction, my automatic snide thought was "Well, of course they're dissatisfied. They're Slavs. Tragedy is a vitamin for Slavs." BINGO. Dissatisfaction is NECESSARY for cold-weather people. Tropical people are happy most of the time despite huge difficulties. If you're satisfied in snow country, you won't work hard during the summer and save for the winter, and you won't maintain your ferocious defenses against external threats.
Labels: defensible spaces, defensible times, Natural law = Sharia law, Natural law = Soviet law
¶ 7:46 AM
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Constant and Variables 126, Realist Russia edition
Thinking about Assange vs Snowden in terms of Russian realism.
Russia applies the same rule with nations. A somewhat parallel pair would be Turkey vs Persia.
Erdogan is like Assange, always trying to have his cake and eat it. For years he's been playing hard-to-get with EU and Russia at the same time. Both are tired of the game. Finally Erdogan seems to have figured out which side he should take, but he still hasn't given up pointlessly "courting" NATO and EU. Russia is responding in kind, cautiously selling weapons but not joyously embracing Turkey.
Persia is like Snowden. Persia picked the correct side a long time ago, and has tried to be a helper for Russia where it counts. Russia has made Persia an integral part of the New Silk Road.
Unlike USA STRONG, Russia doesn't require abject supine obedience. Even countries like Belarus and Kazakhstan that never really separated from the Union are allowed to conduct their own affairs and complain about Russian dominance. Russia knows that both will support the side when the chips are down.
Labels: Constants and Variables
¶ 3:27 PM
Easy to see
Mitochondria are the main 'digesters' in a cell, and also get involved in other activities. They're especially numerous in the axon (output) of a neuron, where they help to generate the neurotransmitter chemicals that trigger a response in the dendrite (input) of other neurons.
Because neurons are semi-permanent, only regenerating at certain times and places, they need more maintenance than disposable skin cells. So the health of all internal parts is crucial.
Via ScienceDaily, a new finding by researchers who are focusing on the role of mitochondria in Parkinson's.
Because neurons are semi-permanent, only regenerating at certain times and places, they need more maintenance than disposable skin cells. So the health of all internal parts is crucial.
Via ScienceDaily, a new finding by researchers who are focusing on the role of mitochondria in Parkinson's.
When mitochondria become damaged, they avoid causing further problems by signaling cellular proteins to degrade them. In a new study, scientists report that they have discovered how the cells trigger this process, which is called mitophagy. In cells with broken mitochondria, two proteins -- NIPSNAP 1 and NIPSNAP 2 -- accumulate on the mitochondrial surface, functioning as 'eat me' signals, recruiting the cellular machinery that will destroy them.It's easy to see how this mechanism developed by random selection. The 'eat me' signal was always present on mitochondria, but until the 'eating' mechanism happened to develop by random selection, cells didn't survive.... Oops. Try again. Random selection developed the 'eater' that knew how to read the 'eat me' proteins, and then these cells died because excess unproductive mitochondria piled up, until after billions of years and billions of mutations in these cells that didn't survive in the first place, one lucky mitochondrion learned to produce the particular protein that signaled 'eat me'. This lucky mitochondrion was then immediately eaten, so its lucky talent didn't get passed on to the mitochondria in the cells that didn't exist because they hadn't survived in the first place. Ooops.
Labels: Grand Blueprint, Loughnerian Logic
¶ 2:02 AM
Not a sign, just normal
Commentators are trying to read the Notre Dame fire as a sign of something or other. It's nothing special, just one more indication that Sorosian lands have replaced ORDER by CHAOS.
Remember the most recent big fire in England? The high-rise apartment burned because it was wrapped with ROCKET FUEL to satisfy Gaia's demands.
I'm betting this will turn out the same. The contractors were forced to skip normal precautions against fire because Gaia. I don't know the details, but we can be sure of the reason.
We are INTENTIONALLY bringing chaos INTO our cities and countries. We are forcibly invading ourselves with "refugees" from the insane wars that we fight to preserve Saudi's status as the swing producer. We are INTENTIONALLY eliminating all the jobs that bring order and money into an ordinary life, so Goldman and Bezos can have quintillions and quintillions and quintillions of counterfeit dollars. We are bringing wolves and grizzlies into our cities and farms because Gaia demands it.
ALL ALL ALL of the traditions and procedures and rules that were developed and recorded by 50000 years of civilization have been reversed and SMASHED in the name of TOTAL CHAOS AND TOTAL DEATH.
Labels: Deadthink
¶ 1:06 AM
Monday, April 15, 2019
Got it backwards, idiots
Youtube's algorithms decided that the video of Notre Dame burning was a 9/11 conspiracy and pasted a warning tag.
I saw the tag but didn't notice it until Zerohedge forced verbal attention.
I'm accustomed to being barraged by warning tags from the browser, about the browser, from Youtube, from advertisers, from US dysgovernment, from EU dysgovernment. When there are meaningless barriers in front of the desired target, the optical system fades the barriers and reconstructs the image behind the barriers. This happens all the time for obstacles of all sizes and distances, from floaters in the eye to dirt on eyeglasses to trees and people and plants standing in the way.
This particular barrier has some value. It gives us a window into the thinking of the tech-monsters who DESIGN truth-hiding algorithms.
The code would say something like this: When two matching towers are in focus, and bright areas indicate fire, the image belongs to 9/11 conspiracists and must be degraded and tinfoiled.
The coders have their conspiracies reversed. The usual 9/11 theorists claim that the towers DIDN'T burn. A picture of the WTC burning would be plain old news. A picture of the WTC collapsing by implosion, with no bright fire, would have been created by the theorists.
¶ 3:37 PM
Reichstag 2
Starting the countdown until Macron blames the Notre Dame fire on the Yellowvests.
10-9-8-7-.....
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 10:59 AM
1910 comes around again
I don't keep close track of partisan soap opera, but the picture on this ZH item caught my attention.
AOC.gif vs Pelosi.mp3. Total lively expression vs bronze statue.
AOC.gif is the first national politician who grew up in emoji and Instagram and selfies. Communication solely by facial expression, with optional sound. Her face does all the talking.
Pelosi.mp3 was born in 1940. Newspapers and radio were the main media, plus movies if you could afford them. TV wasn't widespread until Pelosi.mp3 was 16. Her face operates in radio mode. It moves to emit words, but it's not really participating in communication.
Pelosi.mp3's mother, growing up with silent films, probably had more in common with AOC.gif.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 7:40 AM
Testing the paranoia circuits
It was obvious from the start that Trump wasn't a RUSSIAN_BOT. He was just running his sleazy business, trying to open a sleazy casino in Moscow along with everywhere else in the world. Russia didn't like the deal, so Trump stopped trying and moved on to other places. Nothing important, not remotely related to politics.
BUT: If we turn up the paranoia dial and observe results instead of words, we have to ask if EVERYONE in the USA dysgovernment is a RUSSIAN_BOT. All of our actions since 1990 have ended up in total failure, and Russia has been gathering up the failures and recreating the Soviet Bloc.
Are we intentionally failing? It's possible but highly unlikely. The situation is similar to the RUSSIAN_BOT frenzy of the 1950s. We had some real Soviet spies, but they were just spies. They weren't destroying our culture and brains. FBI and CIA were destroying us, with full collaboration from monopoly capitalists and "leftist" activists. The three legs of the Deepstate tripod.
In the current frenzy, there's no need to postulate real Russian sabotage. We are simply following our own infinitely crazy mindless Enlightenment "values", which drive us to conquer the world for "democracy" by bombing the world down to bedrock.
In neurological terms, culture is the cerebellum and cold rationality is the cerebral cortex. The Sorosian lands intentionally melted our own cerebellum with "rights" and "equality". We believe that raw IQ, aided by software, will conquer all "low-IQ" Deplorables. Life doesn't work that way. 99% of what competent adults do is controlled by the brainstem and cerebellum, with rare interventions from the cortex. 99% of what a competent nation does is controlled by the culturebellum, with rare interventions from the official government. When you have a strong culture you don't need a lot of government. Everyone knows his place and his duties without any need for regulations or tasers or SWAT teams.
Russia was damaged in the same way by Lenin, but its culturebellum was strong enough to recover in the later decades of the Soviet era. In 2000 Putin started to restore the culturebellum to full strength, which wasn't hard.
Now Russia is able to form alliances with other countries that still have a culturebellum. Those countries were already DEAD TIRED or just DEAD after 50 years of USA bombing and chaotizing.
Emerson: Things refuse to be mismanaged long. Though no checks to a new evil [initially] appear, the checks exist and will appear. Nothing arbitrary, nothing artificial, can endure.
The first check was Syria, which took too much work because Russia started too late. The check in Venezuela came earlier, before the B52s started dropping bombs.
It's easy to contain a meth-addled zombie. You don't need strategy; you just need to remove all temptation and force him to see that he has no exit. Because he's not eating or reproducing, he will soon die.
It's easy to contain a meth-addled zombie. You don't need strategy; you just need to remove all temptation and force him to see that he has no exit. Because he's not eating or reproducing, he will soon die.Labels: From rights to duties, switchover
¶ 12:33 AM
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Not surprising
At Unz.com, Antony Karlin answers a question I'd wondered about. Why did Assange end up with Ecuador, and not with Russia? The answer is unsurprising. Assange did officially ask Russia for asylum, but Russia turned him down.
Russians are practical and realistic. If they're going to take the serious risk of offending USA STRONG, they want a firm contract and reliable behavior. Assange is the exact opposite of reliable, as Ecuador found out. His response to every promise is total and flagrant violation.
Russia made the right decision with Snowden, who has been a good citizen.
"Rights" vs duties as always. When your duty in life is telling the truth and exposing corruption, you have a secondary obligation to keep yourself alive and functional. You don't have a "right" to offend monstrous governments without provoking a response from monstrous governments. That's PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
You have to take the best arrangement available and try to make it work. Snowden did that, and has continued telling the truth about some things, maybe not all things. Assange insisted that the world must conform to his demands. The world doesn't work that way unless you're Soros or Bezos. Assange isn't Soros or Bezos, so he ended up deleting his duty.
Labels: From rights to duties
¶ 3:18 PM
AMLO vs las Repeticiones Aburridas
Reading AMLO's genuinely original and thought-provoking proverbs focuses my attention on the opposite.
Our "two" political brands have standard infinitely repeated infinitely tiresome "clever sayings".
I've thoroughly debunked the R "clever saying", the Tocqueville largesse 47% shit.
I haven't hit the D "clever saying" hard enough, the "Einstein" insanity shit.
First, it wasn't Einstein. Rita Mae Brown said it.
Second, when normal people do the same thing repeatedly, they aren't expecting a different result. They're expecting the SAME result because the same result is comfortable or pleasant or simply not worth the trouble of changing. When normal people want a different result, they DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Third and most important, when alien political demons do the same thing repeatedly, they aren't GENUINELY expecting a different result. They are obeying one of Parkinson's Laws, pretending to solve a problem by increasing the problem.
Whoops! This year's project hasn't solved the problem yet! We're astonished! Shocked! Unprecedented! Nobody could have expected this! Obviously we need to do MORE of the same thing if we can ever hope to solve the problem! Give us more budget and more workforce and more authority so we can solve the problem next year!
Loop to infinity.
= = = = =
A more relevant saying about expectations skips the whole matter of repetition.
Expecting a PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE result is crazy.
Since 1776 all politicians and "experts" and "scientists" in Sorosia are training us to work toward PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE goals. If you weren't already crazy, attempting to reach a PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE goal will drive you crazy.
And now we're back to AMLO's version of the tiresome Acton shit, aren't we?
Power turns intellectuals into fools, and then the intellectuals drive fools crazy.
Labels: #HowToAdult
¶ 8:14 AM
The best Soroleth
Said this before, seems like a good time to say it again even more precisely.
How will we detect a decent leader, a true non-Soros leader?
Easy.
He will immediately and consistently DISOBEY all "orders" and "laws" and "overturnings" written by black-robed demons.
The demons have ZERO AUTHORITY to make or repeal laws, and ZERO AUTHORITY to countermand presidential orders. The old obsolete constitution is perfectly clear. The blackrobes are JUDGES in the JUDICIAL BRANCH, which means their job is to try cases and NOTHING ELSE. When they find an actual defendant guilty or innocent, they are acting legally. When they handle an actual lawsuit for actual damages, and require the defendant to pay damages, they are acting legally.
EVERYTHING ELSE THEY DO IS A CRIME.
Unfortunately the original obsolete constitution didn't make a clear provision for dealing with judges who become criminals. The stuff about "good behavior" is useless. So there's no official way to jail or execute these criminals, no official way to delete their criminal acts.
Therefore a LEGITIMATE president needs to PUBLICLY AND LOUDLY DISOBEY all such criminal "orders" and "laws", in order to restore the REAL RULE OF LAW. Refuse to become an accessory to such crimes. All presidents since 1803 have blindly obeyed the criminals, thus becoming criminals.
A legitimate president should obey Congress when it makes or repeals a law. This is the correct and legal counterbalance to presidential power. Congress can change a law to remove the effect of an executive order. The president can then try to veto the change, and Congress, if it feels strongly enough, can overrule the veto. The legitimate president must then obey this result.
Labels: Leth
¶ 2:07 AM
Verified
I was fooled by Bannon initially, and then figured out his game. I'm always initially bamboozled by political fakers. I'm a slow learner in that department, but at least I do learn eventually.
Now the suspicion is verified. Bannon is taking the fools who still believe him, and flipping them into STANDARD NEOCONS.
He's working with a pile of pure neocons to create a new think-tank aimed at destroying non-Sorosian countries.
The latest entrant is the Committee on the Present Danger. Represented by former White House strategist Steve Bannon and Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, this is third resuscitation of a foreign policy interest group that has existed in manifold forms since the advent of the Cold War. They’re not alone. They were joined earlier this week at event on Capitol Hill by other heavy-hitters in Trumpland: Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Asia studies bigwig Gordon Chang, to name a few. Brian Kennedy of the Claremont Institute and his own American Strategy Group, is the committee’s titular chairman. “Very much as we had to get organized in the thirties to stop un-American activities…we’re going to go through the same cycle here,” said Gingrich. The Chinese “invest billions in espionage and theft,” implored Sen. Cruz. And Chang sounded the alarm on brain injuries (not officially corroborated by the State Department) suffered by U.S. diplomatic personnel working in Guangzhou.Cruz and Gingrich are not "in Trumpland". They're never-trumpers who opposed Trump totally in order to get him elected. Now that he's openly NYC, they're with him. And not just neocons, lunatics. Spreading the ALREADY DISPROVED "toxic noise" fraud. Here's the key flip:
As Bannon and Gaffney suggest, the encore of efficient authoritarianism is the story of our time, an existential challenge for the West’s way of doing business not seen since the 1930’s.Exactly. The fact that they're defining decent government as "authoritarian" tells you EVERYTHING. That's the standard Sorosian definition. Bannon gained followers by taking the side of decent government. And now he's switched neatly to defending "the West's way of doing business", ie Soros, against decent government. Salvini and LePen detected Bannon's fakeness immediately and rejected him solidly. Most Euro "experts" were fooled, or at least sounded like they were fooled in order to keep the AP game running. Later thought: Actually "Bannon and Gaffney" is the Self-Explanatory Phrase here, the minimal number of words that TELLS YOU EVERYTHING. ¶ 1:22 AM
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Yet more idiocy about Assange
Aaarrgghh. They're still at it, those "independents", yammering about the vital role of a "free" "press" in guarding "democracies" against "corruption".
Total nonsense. We don't need news about national shit. Even if any of it was true, it wouldn't help us to live our lives. We do need news about approaching weather and crime. In the modern era, some places are lucky enough to have forums or pages on NextDoor and Facebook that serve this real purpose. Most don't.
Does a free press lead to better government? HELL NO. The exact opposite. It's a STRONG NEGATIVE CORRELATION.
Which countries have switched from bad government to HIGHLY competent government in this decade? Russia, Italy, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico.
Among those, only Italy has a "free" "press" as normally defined. The others have various levels of official censorship. They gained a new excellent government WITHOUT any help from the media.
Most of the countries with "free" "media" by the usual definition are drowning in Sorosian suicide and despair, with no visible chance of improvement.
True independents who want to achieve decent government in the Sorosian countries need to STUDY how Putin and Salvini and AMLO got into office. The methods are undoubtedly different, per the cultures and structures of each country. The one thing we know FOR FUCKING SURE is that the media will HALT AND MURDER all attempts at improvement. You need to stay under the media's radar.
Labels: Shared Lie
¶ 4:56 PM
More ignorant idiots
All the "independent" types, including RT's commentators, are saying that the arrest of Assange is an "attack on journalism". First they came for, etc.
Nonsense. It's not an attack ON journalism, it's an attack BY journalism.
Journalists are an integral component of Deepstate. Nothing more than stereo speakers carrying the "two" complementary "channels" of Deepstate's output.
Assange, despite his self-defeating tendencies, was COMPETING with journalism by providing an external channel tied directly to reality. The DNC leaks gave us a SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM of the speaker connections, with emails showing commands given by DNC and automatically obeyed by journalists.
Journalists don't like being diagrammed, so they're fully on board with Deepstate's arrest of the diagrammer.
All commerce and politics in Sorosian lands is based on eliminating competition and enforcing monopolies. We make wars to eliminate competitors of Saudi. We make economic policy to eliminate competitors of Bezos. Arresting Assange belongs in the latter category.
Why do these "independent" types make such an outlandish claim? Do they really think that journalists will join them in protesting the arrest, when journalists caused the arrest?
Assange, despite his self-defeating tendencies, was COMPETING with journalism by providing an external channel tied directly to reality. The DNC leaks gave us a SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM of the speaker connections, with emails showing commands given by DNC and automatically obeyed by journalists.
Journalists don't like being diagrammed, so they're fully on board with Deepstate's arrest of the diagrammer.
All commerce and politics in Sorosian lands is based on eliminating competition and enforcing monopolies. We make wars to eliminate competitors of Saudi. We make economic policy to eliminate competitors of Bezos. Arresting Assange belongs in the latter category.
Why do these "independent" types make such an outlandish claim? Do they really think that journalists will join them in protesting the arrest, when journalists caused the arrest?
Labels: Shared Lie
¶ 10:24 AM
Escaping from the Empire
In 1947 BBC, representing England, wasn't happy about India's independence from the British Empire.
Now BBC, representing EU, is worrying that India may be escaping from the EU empire and declaring independence again.
Mr Modi's government has also spent the last four years defending India's multibillion-dollar food-security programme, which many developed countries see as unfair. Under the programme, the government heavily subsidises local farmers so they can provide low cost food for the poor. But, the US and others argue it breaks World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules around subsidy limits. Dmitry Grozoubinski, a former Australian negotiator at the WTO, thinks they may have a point. "India is justifying its agricultural subsidies by claiming their poorest citizens can't afford food, but they're maintaining massive tariff walls that effectively prevent the imports that could bring prices down."The classic bad argument for offshoring, based solely on prices. Amazon and Walmart bring prices down, so they're good for US consumers. DEADLY WRONG. People are PRODUCERS before they're consumers. If you aren't PRODUCING first, you have no VALUE to spend on consumption. You have to borrow from China's bank in order to buy from China's factory. It sounds like Modi is finding a pretty good balance by subsidizing farmers, just as FDR subsidized farmers to maintain their skills and land. India's earlier protectionism wasn't well balanced. It favored state-owned monopolies instead of internal competition. Even so, it worked to keep India growing.
Labels: #DeplorableLivesMatter, skill-estate
¶ 6:04 AM
Natural Law, Natural Grammar, Natural Art
Speaking of idiotic unnecessary suggestions, TAC ran an article about the demonization of Roger Scruton yesterday. I wrote a comment suggesting that they should start a GoFundMe or Patreon to keep Scruton's writing in the public eye. Turns out they did it a year ago. So apologies for my idiotic unnecessary suggestion, and thanks for their decision to support Scruton.
Scruton's latest article includes this evocative sentence;
At first, I thought that the placeless character of modern housing is a matter of style—the modern materials and proportions, the grammarless disposition of windows and doors, the random orientation along cul-de-sacs that join nothing to nothing. But it soon became clear that the style made next to no difference to the effect.
'Grammarless disposition' is a wonderfully precise phrase, and I think it's the key to the problem.
Life is order. Death is chaos.
Civilization is a specific TYPE of order called Natural Law. Natural Law was recorded in God's experimental log book. It was recorded by the civilizations who survived. Sorosians break every provision of Natural Law. We can watch the experiment in supercompressed video now. Sorosian cultures are dying fast from both ends, failing to reproduce and committing mass suicide. Natural Law cultures are reproducing and staying alive.
Language also has a specific TYPE of order called grammar, which develops naturally. I've made two pretty good observations on the subject. (1) Grammar is a trellis that organizes and strengthens civilization. (2) Languages with caseless nouns are easy prey for Sorosian chaos. The latter connects with Scruton's discussion of places. If your language has firm structure of the relations between places and things and people, you have a better defense against Sorosian destruction of borders and connections. A place for everyone and everyone in his place. Firm structure of verbs doesn't seem to help.
Natural grammar is generally unrecorded, so it doesn't have lobbyists or churches to defend it against the chaotizers. The chaotizers, unsurprisingly, started to enforce the invented rigid abstractions of UNnatural grammar at the same time that they started to enforce the rigid demonic insanities of the "Enlightenment". The "rules" of official "grammar" lead to confusion and ambiguity, and make it impossible to express normal thoughts in normal order, just as the crazy abstractions of "rights" and "equality" lead to confusion and ambiguity. Chaotized meaning is well-known, thanks to Orwell. Chaotized grammar is equally important but not often discussed.
I haven't thought much about the grammar of art and architecture, but it fits the same pattern. Utopias of "rights" and "equality" always break down natural symmetry and resonance. It's most obvious and literal in music, where movements like atonalism and Twelve-Tones obliterated resonance and rhythm.
Labels: defensible cases, From rights to duties, Natural law = Sharia law, Patient things
¶ 12:34 AM
Friday, April 12, 2019
Both are idiots.
The 'libertarians' and Repooflicans are mocking AOC for suggesting that the IRS should figure your taxes for you. They assume, of course, that IRS will steal all your income, which is what AOC supposedly wants.
In fucking fact the IRS will ALREADY figure your tax for you, if you have ordinary W2 wages and no itemized deductions. AOC's suggestion is ignorant.
It's on page 38 of the 1040 instructions.
Do you want the IRS to figure the tax on your taxable income for you?
See chapter 29 of Pub. 17 for details, including who is eligible and what to do. If you have paid too much, we will send you a refund. If you didn't pay enough, we will send you a bill.
And in fucking fact the IRS is honest and mechanical. They won't overcharge or undercharge. They don't have the time or manpower to cheat on hundreds of millions of returns. (The division of IRS that approves requests for tax-exempt organizations DOES have the time to play political games.)
Both "sides" are uninformed idiots.
Both "sides" think they're making a point, but they're only telling us that they've never figured their own taxes, never tried to be honest. They've always paid an accountant to guarantee ZERO TAX ZERO TAX ZERO TAX.
¶ 4:21 PM
A tale of two adolescents
Two idiotic impasses caused by the same underlying problem.
Assange's adolescent insistence on "rights" finally ended. He broke one basic rule of adulthood.
When you've got a good deal, roll with it. Don't fuck it up.
Assange had an outstandingly good deal from Ecuador and he kept violating the terms of the agreement. They weren't trying to silence him, they only asked him to avoid a couple of specific sensitive issues. He hammered on those sensitive issues. Finally Ecuador lost patience**.
= = = = =
The other impasse will probably run forever. UK's adolescent dysgovernment is breaking another rule of adulthood.
When a job needs doing, or a problem needs solving, do it NOW.
The people assigned them a job. It's a SIMPLE job. Delete all references to EU in treaties and laws. The job could have been completed carefully and thoroughly in one month. Instead, the adolescents have been partying and drinking for three fucking years now. There's no chance of relief from the other side, because EU is deliriously happy to have UK's dysgovernment in perpetual meaningless chaos. Soros LOVES meaningless chaos. Chaos is death.
= = = = =
** Irrelevant sidenote: I lost patience with Assange earlier. First, he refused to give the source of the DNC leaks, which turned the leaks into an ADVANTAGE for Hillary. Without public knowledge of the real source, Satan's media were able to state firmly that the source was Russia. If the source was Seth, the source was already dead and couldn't be hurt. If not Seth, the Wikileaks organization was rich and large enough to protect the source until things settled down. When a leaker is publicly known, the Clinton mob's hitmen have a much harder time arranging a "suicide" or "accident". Second, he insisted on supporting Catalunya's independence movement AFTER it was clear that the movement was a Soros project. Either Assange was also a Soros project, or he was too fucking stupid to recognize that he was helping the enemy.
= = = = =
Later highly relevant sidenote: The focus on mythical "rights" causes people to seek goals that are PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. Adults recognize that some paths are IMPOSSIBLE, and instead compare the REAL AND AVAILABLE CHOICES. After the USA dysgovernment declared that Assange is a witch, the choice of freedom was NOT AVAILABLE. No "laws" or "trials" could possibly lead to freedom. Assange had exactly two REAL AND AVAILABLE choices. Try to stay in the embassy, or go ahead with the arrest and trial, after which he would be in a Federal prison for several years. Federal prisons are pretty decent places, with free medical care and nutritious food and fresh-air exercise. The embassy had none of those provisions, and required Assange to pay for room and board. Federal prisons also allow access to lawyers and visitors and entertainment, which the embassy didn't allow. So Assange has now wasted several years in an unhealthy situation. If he had taken the other path, he could have been living a healthy life, and might even be finished with the sentence by now.
Labels: #HowToAdult, From rights to duties, Sorosia
¶ 12:37 AM
Thursday, April 11, 2019
JITters
Switzerland has always been sane. Part of sanity is STORAGE, and the Swiss are fanatical about storage. Storage is self-defense, just as a gun in every house is self-defense.
Now the idiot Swiss government is abandoning sanity and moving toward the Just-In-Time attitude, which is another name for Helpless-And-Vulnerable.
The Swiss idiot government is trying to remove a stockpile of coffee which began in the '30s. It's an especially stupid decision because the companies that import coffee are responsible for maintaining the storage, at no cost to the government. The importers are happy to continue because they're NOT stupid. Maintaining an inventory is NORMAL and SMART business practice with a commodity that is vulnerable to weather and wars.
The idiot government says coffee is "not necessary for human survival."
Best headline:
Switzerland Decides People Don’t Need Coffee to Live, Misses the Point of Life
Amen and Amen.
Amen and Amen.Labels: defensible spaces, defensible times, storage
¶ 5:10 PM
Bipedal bugles
Via Eurekalert, an interesting finding with an overstated headline.
Headline: Birds' surprising sound source
Well, the syrinx itself isn't the surprise. The surprise is a beautifully simple explanation of why the syrinx is so flexible and effective.
Default mammals, with spine and head horizontal, have very little resonance. The larynx is immediately followed by the mouth, which is typically** open on both sides. There's no cavity or tube or column after the larynx.
Humans, with spine and head vertical, are built like a pipe organ or train whistle. The pharynx is a closed Helmholtz resonator above the larynx, with the mouth branching off and providing another closed resonator.
Birds, as per Titze's finding, are bugles. The mouthpiece or reed is at the bottom of a long resonator with muscular control. The beak is open on both sides like a cat, but the beak isn't needed as a resonator.
= = = = =
** Typically, but when a dog wants to make a long-distance signal, he closes the sides of his mouth and howls. You can hear harmonic phase-locking in a howl.
Now, a team that brings together physics, biology, computation and engineering finds that the syrinx confers an advantage: by sitting so low in the airway, the syrinx can produce sound with very high efficiency. "I'm always excited when something is counter-intuitive," says Ingo Titze, director of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah and a co-author of the study. "Most people would say 'Put the sound source right by the mouth or the beak, and you'll get the sound to the listener.' But that's not what we're finding." "In the old days we used to think that the sound source just produces the sound and the airway just modifies the sound," says Titze. "Our research has shown that there is strong dependence on both the tube, or airway, and the sound source. Where the sound source is in the tube makes a difference, whether it's in the middle, front or back."Ingo Titze has been around a long time, and has always been an original thinker who doesn't fall into orthodox traps. The main point is simple: Putting the 'reed' down near the lungs gives the bird a long resonator. A long resonator makes it possible to tune a wide range of frequencies. A trumpet mouthpiece on its own sounds like an untuned fart. A trumpet mouthpiece coupled to a long tube produces strong and tuneful sound because the resonator phase-locks the vibrator. With the tube connected, the trumpeter's lips are forced to vibrate at harmonics of the tube. This may partially answer a question I've been asking. Why do birds and humans share the ability to remember and produce music, while other mammals don't share the ability? I wondered if upright bipedal position was relevant. The partial answer is Yes. Here's a suggestive picture.
Default mammals, with spine and head horizontal, have very little resonance. The larynx is immediately followed by the mouth, which is typically** open on both sides. There's no cavity or tube or column after the larynx.
Humans, with spine and head vertical, are built like a pipe organ or train whistle. The pharynx is a closed Helmholtz resonator above the larynx, with the mouth branching off and providing another closed resonator.
Birds, as per Titze's finding, are bugles. The mouthpiece or reed is at the bottom of a long resonator with muscular control. The beak is open on both sides like a cat, but the beak isn't needed as a resonator.
= = = = =
** Typically, but when a dog wants to make a long-distance signal, he closes the sides of his mouth and howls. You can hear harmonic phase-locking in a howl.Labels: Asked and partly answered, Entertainment, Grand Blueprint
¶ 7:27 AM
Pretty good article
A pretty good article on meritocracy by Clifton Mark.
Main point:
This is surprising because impartiality is the core of meritocracy’s moral appeal. The ‘even playing field’ is intended to avoid unfair inequalities based on gender, race and the like. Yet Castilla and Benard found that, ironically, attempts to implement meritocracy leads to just the kinds of inequalities that it aims to eliminate. They suggest that this ‘paradox of meritocracy’ occurs because explicitly adopting meritocracy as a value convinces subjects of their own moral bona fides. Satisfied that they are just, they become less inclined to examine their own behaviour for signs of prejudice.It's not a paradox. Meritocracy was INVENTED by aristocrats to defend their own position in the Luddite conflict around 1700. Locke was a 'personal physician' in the household of various aristocrats, basically a 'life coach' in modern terms. His philosophy followed his paycheck. The official enshrinement of meritocracy by the 1776ers served the same purpose. Their job was to keep NYC finance and northern sweatshop slavery in power, and to eliminate all other economic and political forces. The older Natural Law view was best expressed in Sharia. Quoting again:
The Almighty has created this world as a trial and test for man; every person has therefore been made to depend on others for his living. No one in this world can live independently as regards his needs and requirements. A person of the highest rank turns to the most ordinary to fulfill them. In other words, every single person has an important role to play, without which this world cannot continue. This role depends upon his abilities, intelligence and inclinations as well as upon his means and resources, which vary from person to person. In fact, it is because of this variation that a society comes into being. Consequently, laborers and workers, artisans and craftsmen, tillers and peasants are as indispensable as scholars and thinkers, savants and sages, leaders and rulers. Every individual is an integral component of the society and contributes to its formation according to his abilities. By creating various classes of people, the Almighty is testing whether the big and the small, the high and the low create a society based on co-operation and respect or create disorder in the world by disregarding the role each person has been ordained to play.Focus on: This role depends upon his abilities, intelligence and inclinations as well as upon his means and resources, All of these are predetermined. Abilities, intelligence and inclinations are genetically predetermined; means and resources, what we call 'luck', are externally predetermined. Let's look at GW Carver. Genes gave him a rare combination of talent and passion and mental stamina. But without the 'luck' of being born in 1865 in the household of Moses and Sarah Carver, his genetic endowments would have been totally meaningless. Shortly after George was born, thieves kidnaped his mother. Moses ransomed the mother and child, but the thieves didn't return the mother. So Moses and Sarah raised George as their own child, even though he no longer had any economic value. They recognized that he was physically small and intellectually big. Instead of putting him to work in the fields, they taught him to read and placed him in charge of the kitchen garden, where he immediately started improving the plant breeds by hybridizing and crossing. His unique talent met a uniquely perfect situation. Moses and Sarah passed the Almighty's test, and deserve special credit.
Labels: Carver, From rights to duties, Natural law = Sharia law
¶ 1:26 AM
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Uniformity
A 1996 issue of Collectible Auto included a letter from a fellow who had written an article for some car club newsletter back in 1958. He had gone to the trouble of asking all the governors of US states and Canadian provinces about their official and personal cars.
The results show a remarkable uniformity, but not really surprising for '58. Lincoln had never been a serious maker of limos, Packard stopped around 1950, and Chrysler stopped after '54. Caddy was the only choice unless you could afford custom-built.
Official cars of governors:
Cadillac 29
Buick 5
Lincoln 4
Olds 4
Imperial 3
Chrysler 2
Ford 2
Chevy 1
Mercury 1
Packard 1
Nash 1
Personal cars of governors:
Buick 9
Caddy 4
Chevy 4
Ford 4
Chrysler 3
Olds 3
Edsel 2!!!
DeSoto 2
Imperial 2
Austin 1
Hudson 1
Lincoln 1
Mercury 1
Nash 1
Packard 1
Rambler 1
Willys 1
A couple of safe bets: The official and personal Nash were in Wisconsin. The Austin was in Canada.
Missing major brands: Studie and Pontiac and Dodge and Plymouth. Studie is understandable, but Pontiac and Dodge were both considered 'appropriate' cars. I'd expect to see them on the personal list.
Two Edsels are surprising, since it was new in '58 and immediately recognized as an undignified choice for a respectable man. Driving a cunt on wheels wasn't a reliable way to get votes. I'd like to know who owned the Willys. Was it a Jeep or an Aero?
The US govt had limos of all three major brands, Caddy, Imperial and Lincoln, because the Secret Service was willing to spend billions and liked to hedge its bets. Ike mostly used the '50 Lincoln.
Ike didn't own a personal car, but used a Crosley as a golf cart!
¶ 3:09 PM
Symmetrical misattribution
Via ZH:
Fresh off her now-infamous sparring match with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Chairwoman Maxine Waters started the hearing by reading a litany of the fines paid by the big banks since the crisis, and their tendency to treat the fines as "a cost of doing business" while achieving massive profits...remarks that, we imagine, have set the tone for the rest of the hearing.
= = = = =
Via Marketwatch:
“It is true that too many people are not getting a fair opportunity to get ahead,” he wrote. “We must find ways to help them move up the economic ladder, and everyone — business, government and nonprofits — needs to play a role.”
= = = = =
Precise symmetry.
Maxine blames Jamie for the satanic deregulation that Congress created.
Jamie blames government for the satanic hell he created.
Labels: malign misattribution
¶ 6:45 AM
AMLO y las mariposas
AMLO is a unique character. He thinks deeply AND he gets shit done.
No USA politician has ever done both. FDR unquestionably got ALL THE RIGHT SHIT done, but he was a practical thinker, a political mechanic, not an intellectual.
AMLO sometimes offers little tidbits of thought-food. Today's treat:
En tiempos de la 4T es oportuno y aleccionador este poemínimo, que dedico a quienes solo ven el árbol y no miran el bosque.
In the times of the 4th transformation, this poemínimo is instructive, dedicated to those who only see the trees, not the forest.
[Fourth Transformation is AMLO's name for what he's doing, parallel to New Deal. Poemínimo is an elegant portmanteau.]
= = = = =
MMMH!
Hubo una vez un reino
en el cual la ley principal decía
SERÁS SECTARIO
Resultado?
Las mariposas se negaron a trabajar con las flores
y sucumbió la primavera.
Mauricio Redoles
= = = = =
Google Translate seems to get it right:
There was once a kingdom
in which the main law said
THOU SHALT BE SECTARIAN
Result?
The butterflies refused to work with the flowers
and the spring succumbed.
¶ 1:53 AM
¶ 1:53 AM
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
A reminder
This 1920 ad is a powerful reminder that VACCINATION WORKS.
1920 death toll: 150000 deaths per year, and many more permanent semi-invalids.
Current death toll: 500. Most of those are HIV patients. Refusing vaccination is voluntary HIV.
Our current laws are completely backward. A parent who refuses to protect the health of her kids with vaccination is just fine. A parent who surgically removes or adds organs to her kid to satisfy her own peculiar political delusions is just fine. But a parent who trains a kid with a well-timed swat is DEAD.
¶ 1:14 AM
1920 death toll: 150000 deaths per year, and many more permanent semi-invalids.
Current death toll: 500. Most of those are HIV patients. Refusing vaccination is voluntary HIV.
Our current laws are completely backward. A parent who refuses to protect the health of her kids with vaccination is just fine. A parent who surgically removes or adds organs to her kid to satisfy her own peculiar political delusions is just fine. But a parent who trains a kid with a well-timed swat is DEAD.
¶ 1:14 AM
Monday, April 08, 2019
Another landmark
Frank Gilmore, head of Actors Equity, mentioned in previous item, didn't leave much of a trail in online references. I found a similarly stupid and self-destructive quote from him in a union journal for Elevator Maintenance, and then found a vastly more important item in the same journal.
This is another landmark. 1923, the LAST TIME anyone in DC understood and defended the Constitution.
I think it's worth a verbatim copy-paste. Robert Owen was Okla's first senator after statehood. Like most Okla politicians, Owen was part Cherokee and all Populist.
"The constitution of the United States does not give to any court — district court, circuit court or supreme court — the right to pass upon and declare unconstitutional the acts of the sovereign assembly of this nation," declared Senator Owen of Oklahoma, in discussing a provision in the ship subsidy bill that recognizes the court's power. The lawmaker quoted an early decision by Chief Justice Marshall to support this view, which the chief justice afterwards changed in the Marbury case when he held that the supreme court has the right to pass upon acts of congress. "The congress of the United States ought then and there to have impeached John Marshall," said Senator Owen. "He was guilty of a violation of the true meaning of the constitution; he himself, in that act, as a judicial officer, violated the spirit and purpose and meaning of the constitution and he assumed the sovereign power over the legislative agents of the people of the United States. "No civilized nation permits the judges on the bench to declare unconstitutional or void the acts of their parliaments. Great Britain, on February 6, 1700, declared that judges should hold their offices 'while they behaved themselves well,' subject alone to removal by resolution of parliament. This control of the judges sufficed. That is what I proposed in 1911 for the United States. I thought the time had then come for that rule in the United States." "France does not permit the laws of her parliament to be set aside by the French judges. No French judge would dare to declare an act of the French parliament void or invalid in part, as this bill proposes to permit." "Italy in her written constitutional law, provides that the judges shall not set aside an act of parliament." "Austria does not permit judges to set aside an act of the Austrian parliament." "Germany does not allow the judges of Germany to set aside an act of the Reichstag." "Belgium does not permit her judges to set aside the laws of Belgium." "Denmark does not permit her judges to set aside the laws of the legislature of Denmark." "Australia does not permit it; New Zealand does not permit it." "I speak of these things because the civilized world, which has considered government by the people, has all agreed upon this doctrine, and there must be sound reason for this unanimous opinion of mankind. It is not an accident; it is written out of the blood and tears of centuries."The last dying gasp of the Constitution's spirit, audible for the last time 120 years after the document itself had decisively died. Mark.
Labels: Alternate universe
¶ 5:47 AM
Not a sudden trend
Continuing again from here. The 'confidence' poll in the mid 70s showed that Labor was rapidly losing public support, for good reasons. Big Labor was no longer protecting the workers from predatory capitalists. Big Labor was working WITH the capitalists to lower the quality and skill of work, and ultimately to eliminate real work entirely.
The robber barons KNEW what they were doing. They were replacing factories and workers by pure Share Value and Share Buybacks. The labor barons didn't seem to understand what they were doing.
This problem was starting to show in the '20s, as evidenced by a 1926 article in Billboard.
The article notes a landmark in the history of entertainment. The implications were clear to some people but not to Labor.
From the article:
The sudden falling-off of business in the theaters Iast night is being blamed on the broadcasting of John McCormack and Lucrezia Bori from a group of high-powered radio stations between the hours of nine and ten. It was the first program of music arranged by the Victor Talking Machine Company in a series which will enlist the services of many well-known artists. The concerts are to be broadcast every other Thursday night.Commercial radio was only five years old and networks hadn't yet formed. Radio was already claiming high culture territory, and the audience loved it. Actor and producer William Brady gets it:
"I am seated now in a room with a group of people, and we are enjoying, free of charge, a musical program over the radio that I can only describe as gorgeous. [And it's still gorgeous 93 years later!] Why in the world should we go to the theater and pay money? Why should anyone be foolish enough to go to the theater in these circumstances? The trouble is not with the people who sit home and hear McCormack and Bori sing; the fault is entirely with the men who control the theater. The plain truth is that we of the theater are headed straight for ruin, and one of the reasons that we cannot do anything about it is that the theater is not organized for concerted action. By quarreling and squabbling among themselves the managers broke up their organization and made any concerted action impossible. "Everyone in the theater knows that the holiday business in New York and all over the country ... has been the worst In the history of amusements. And we are all sitting back, like a lot of dunces on a Humpty-Dumpty bench, ruining ourselves. The motion pictures have got Will Hays to look out for their interests, and baseball has got Judge Landis, but the theater, because it is controlled by a lot of conceited ignoramuses, has got nobody."Frank Gilmore, head of the Actors Equity union, didn't get it.
"The Equity is unfortunately limited in any action that it might take. We have passed a resolution that if a microphone is placed in the theater for the purpose of broadcasting the performance, the manager shall be charged by the actors for an extra performance. We realize that this is not a very drastic provision, but it was adopted solely to make broadcasting expensive for the manager. I have heard plays broadcast, and I do not believe that anyone who hears a play in this fashion will ever want to go see the play. Plays emerge very badly over the radio, and I am sure that such performances keep many people away from the theater."Gilmore missed both points. (1) Radio wasn't ruining the theater because radio performances gave people a bad example of performance. Radio was gaining because it was offering BETTER quality at a lower price. (2) Punishing the manager for adding a larger audience is a good way to lose the support of the manager, who is likely to give up live performances and stick to radio. Labor continued to miss both points, especially in the auto industry. (1) Toyota wasn't gaining customers because it gave people a poor impression of cars. Toyota was gaining customers because Toyota showed people what a GODDAMN GOOD CAR felt like. (2) The way to defeat Toyota wasn't by raising wages even higher to drive manufacturing OUT of America.... which made the capitalists happy because they were just waiting for a chance to eliminate manufacturing entirely. The correct path was to organize the auto industry toward better quality to meet the competition. Among the capitalists, only Romney understood the problem and tried to be Judge Landis. But he failed, and was long gone by the '70s. Radio didn't need an independent 'office' like the Hays Office, because the FCC enforced HARDASS quality control until, surprise surprise, 1971. = = = = = Update next day: We're still not learning the lesson. Verbatim repetition of the same Gilmore stupidity:
Actress Helen Mirren has had enough of Netflis, and she's letting the world know. The actress, who is most famous for roles in in “The Queen” and “Gosford Park,” recently said on stage in Las Vegas: "I love Netflix, but fuck Netflix. There's nothing like sitting in a cinema."Well, what are you doing about it? Are you making movies that humans can watch? No. You're making movies FOR, BY AND ABOUT your own infinitely evil caste of hyperhypersatanic alien NYC monsterblobs. Are you trying to improve the experience of sitting in a cinema? No.
Labels: Alternate universe, Entertainment, skill-estate
¶ 2:52 AM
Sunday, April 07, 2019
One look at the 1974 coup
Previous item got me thinking again about the 1974 coup. What were the immediate results?
A 1976 document by Dept of Commerce included lots of info on demographics. One table showed 'Confidence in the people running selected institutions'.
I used Excel, clumsily as usual, to form a graph from the survey.
Within each category, the four bars are data from 73, 74, 75, and 76. Each bar is differential satisfaction, specifically "A great deal of satisfaction" minus "Hardly any".
Essentially the Watergate coup destroyed Nixon and displaced the people's confidence to EVERYTHING BUT Nixon. The only oddities are the press, which didn't seem to gain or lose, and Congress, which lost a bit. Everyone else either gained big in '74, or didn't lose as much as they would have lost by the trend.
It's tempting to compare this to Mueller's attempted Watergate, but I don't think the comparison works. The media's motivation is the same. Raw hatred and psychopathic omnicidal murder toward ordinary Americans. The motivation of politicians is the same. But Trump isn't Nixon, and the public attitude toward media and politicians started from a vastly different baseline this time. Most of us know now that the media is Satan and all politicians are grotesque monsters. Partisan bots are blindly loyal to their respective "sides", but they're not the majority or the norm.
= = = = =
What was Nixon's crime? Trademark usurpation. He copied LBJ's dirty tricks. He copied LBJ's war and welfare policies, and added many leftist goals (EPA, negative income tax, affirmative action, abortion) that LBJ hadn't managed to achieve. He crashed our economy to serve Israel. All of those actions were SUPPOSED to be D actions, but Nixon did them while wearing the R label. He had to be obliterated.
¶ 6:27 AM
Essentially the Watergate coup destroyed Nixon and displaced the people's confidence to EVERYTHING BUT Nixon. The only oddities are the press, which didn't seem to gain or lose, and Congress, which lost a bit. Everyone else either gained big in '74, or didn't lose as much as they would have lost by the trend.
It's tempting to compare this to Mueller's attempted Watergate, but I don't think the comparison works. The media's motivation is the same. Raw hatred and psychopathic omnicidal murder toward ordinary Americans. The motivation of politicians is the same. But Trump isn't Nixon, and the public attitude toward media and politicians started from a vastly different baseline this time. Most of us know now that the media is Satan and all politicians are grotesque monsters. Partisan bots are blindly loyal to their respective "sides", but they're not the majority or the norm.
= = = = =
What was Nixon's crime? Trademark usurpation. He copied LBJ's dirty tricks. He copied LBJ's war and welfare policies, and added many leftist goals (EPA, negative income tax, affirmative action, abortion) that LBJ hadn't managed to achieve. He crashed our economy to serve Israel. All of those actions were SUPPOSED to be D actions, but Nixon did them while wearing the R label. He had to be obliterated.
¶ 6:27 AM
Constants and variables 125, trailing racket edition
I occasionally receive emails from an academic open-source outfit carrying PDFs of various articles about criminology. Most are pure shit, but today's offering had a bit of useful info that helped to solve half of a puzzle.
Our media formerly helped us to recognize and defend against rackets and scams. Sometime around 1974 this emphasis faded. Now that everything is a racket, we're not supposed to defend ourselves.
Today's article explains how and when the media emphasis started. Around 1940, "social" "science" decided to start examining white-collar crime in the same way as ordinary crime. "Sociologists" were behind the trend, since FDR had already formed the equivalence in real laws and regulations.
From the emailed article:
Sutherland’s approach in White-Collar Crime (1949) helped move the field beyond the legal formalism that Sellin critiqued by arguing that regulatory violations could also constitute a type of unlawful, yet not necessarily criminal, behavior – thus justifying a criminological analysis. Considering these unlawful behaviors to be white-collar crimes was important because of their propensity to produce social harms capable of exceeding traditional crime. Indeed, it is the truly social nature of these harms that make them particularly dangerous. As Sutherland suggested, the financial loss from white-collar crime, great as it is, is less important than the damage to social relations. White-collar crimes violate trust and therefore create distrust, which lowers social morale and produces social disorganization on a large scale.FBI's radio outlet echoed this text in a 1952 episode:
Occasionally it is possible to remove the ill after-effects of a crime. When a criminal is apprehended after a burglary, for instance, and his loot is returned intact to the victim, nobody is penalized except the lawbreaker. Such complete restitution is never possible in the case of one particular criminal: the impostor. He usually works with forged credentials or false letters of introduction from well-known people. Even after the impostor is apprehended, he leaves in his wake a wave of suspicion, a feeling by his victims that never again will they be able to believe anyone.After quoting Sutherland, the author descends into typical modern ratshit about privileging and social constructs, so the rest of the article is useless. The start of media concern about white-collar crime was a trailing variable. FDR clamped down on NYC in the '30s, and the "social" "scientists" picked up the ball in the '40s, followed shortly by the media. Was the end also a response to government shifts? I don't think so. The point of inflection in culture and "science" and media was 1974, marked by the Watergate coup. After 1974, the Maoists (who later became Sorosians) owned everything. The media was at the leading edge of this change. Government enforcement agencies like SEC and FTC partly surrendered in the 80s, then finally in 1999. Now white-collar crime is required, not prohibited. When agencies are given a chance to respond to obvious violations of their own regulations, they put on reasonableness pants instead.
Labels: Constants and Variables, defensible spaces, defensible times
¶ 1:05 AM
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Why we can't trust "science", part 558435348758475843
"Science" constantly and loudly instructs us that ONLY high-profit Shkreli pharmaceuticals are capable of curing disease. Any use of low-profit non-Shkreli "supplements" is quackery.
Well, this isn't entirely wrong... "supplements" are often useless. But not always!
Via Eurekalert: Chili peppers slow down the progress of lung cancer.
In experiments involving three lines of cultured human non-small cell lung cancer cells, the researchers observed that capsaicin inhibited invasion, the first step of the metastatic process. They also found that mice with metastatic cancer that consumed capsaicin showed smaller areas of metastatic cancer cells in the lung compared to mice not receiving the treatment.Capsaicin is a common ingredient in supplements, but oddly enough I don't see slowing cancer among the claims made by the "quacks". Mostly they're talking about losing weight. In other words, capsaicin is BETTER than the "quacks" say it is. ¶ 4:56 PM
Latholeth
Continuing from here....
Rehashing the main point. From 1880 to 1920, beadboard served as a caste signal. When you were in the Beadboard Zone, you were working or serving. When you were in the Plaster Zone, you were in the leisure class, being served.
I've used a lot of beadboard in my digital models from those years.
Here's the typical use inside a business building:
And inside the little Box Depots:
Here's an example of the typical use on a house:
= = = = =
On a house, the Beadboard Zone, even when built at the same time, was lighter and looser than the Plaster Zone. Usually the Beadboard Zone was on concrete blocks or piers, while the Plaster Zone was on a real basement.
Because it was an add-on, it's hard to find Beadboard Zones in old books of house plans. I have lots of Dover plan books, and I've only found two examples.
Here's the typical add-on, sold separately by Aladdin:
And here's a unique experience-based plan from a book of 1910-ish plans:
An architect wouldn't design a building this way. If the store was intended to have a storage room on the back, an architect would include it in the main walls. This plan must have been drawn from a real structure 'as built'.
You can see the different thickness of the walls:
And the accidental 'roof garden' on top, which wouldn't have been set up by an architect.
And inside the little Box Depots:
Here's an example of the typical use on a house:
= = = = =
On a house, the Beadboard Zone, even when built at the same time, was lighter and looser than the Plaster Zone. Usually the Beadboard Zone was on concrete blocks or piers, while the Plaster Zone was on a real basement.
Because it was an add-on, it's hard to find Beadboard Zones in old books of house plans. I have lots of Dover plan books, and I've only found two examples.
Here's the typical add-on, sold separately by Aladdin:
And here's a unique experience-based plan from a book of 1910-ish plans:
An architect wouldn't design a building this way. If the store was intended to have a storage room on the back, an architect would include it in the main walls. This plan must have been drawn from a real structure 'as built'.
You can see the different thickness of the walls:
And the accidental 'roof garden' on top, which wouldn't have been set up by an architect.
Labels: Leth
¶ 10:30 AM
Suicidal point-missing
Idiot DiMaio continues to serve his party instead of the nation, even though he's nominally in charge of the nation.
He's complaining that people with unfashionable beliefs are supporting Salvini's Lega.
This is a good sign, not a bad sign.
Look back at the '30s. FDR knew that the inequality spawned in the '20s and expanded by the crash had left large parts of the population vulnerable to radicalism. He faced major movements with "left" and "right" flavors, both tending toward revolution.
FDR solved the radical problem by solving the REAL problem.
He relieved the inequality and provided USEFUL WORK for ordinary men. The movements of both flavors faded away. Americans, INCLUDING UNFASHIONABLE PEOPLE, were loyal enough to voluntarily fight a hard war to defend the country.
Salvini is taking the same approach. Italy has problems with inequality, plus Sorosian invasions of migrants explicitly intended to spawn radicalism so Juncker can slaughter the Deplorables. Many people were NATURALLY turning radical and acquiring revolutionary beliefs, because THIS WAS JUNCKER'S PURPOSE.
Salvini is solving the REAL problems of Soros invasion and Soros inequality. He has already halted the invasion, and is expanding Italy's trade connections away from EU to break Juncker's monopoly.
Result: Radicals are starting to support the government instead of preaching revolution.
Shouldn't be surprising. A leader who SERVES HIS OWN PEOPLE AND GETS SHIT DONE inspires loyalty. When 2/3 of the people are with you, there's much less room for revolution.
= = = = =
The best way to GUARANTEE a revolution is to mock and suppress unfashionable beliefs.
The best way to AVOID a revolution is to give unfashionable people a REASON for loyalty.
Labels: #DeplorableLivesMatter, 2/3
¶ 7:16 AM
Friday, April 05, 2019
1.4 = 9
DW is reporting on unrest and demonstrations in Pakistan. Not likely to bring down the government, so it's not clear why DW is emphasizing the story.
What caught my attention is the NUMBER.
Imran Khan's government was elected in 2018 with a promise to eradicate poverty. However, with inflation at its highest since November 2013, patience among voters is wearing thin.
After that headline, you expect to read about Maduro-style 1000000% hyperinflation.
Nope, the current inflation in Pakistan is 9.4%. Uncomfortable, but within the range of normal variation in a flexible economy.
More important:
USA INFLATION IS ALSO NINE PERCENT.
We aren't protesting about it because we aren't allowed to know it. Our satanic dysgovernment and satanic dysmedia feed us FAKE NUMBERS.
We argue whether the Fed ought to allow inflation to rise from its "current 1.4%" or keep it at its "current 1.4%".
NO, YOU VILE FILTHY GROTESQUE DEMONIC TURBOLIARS.
The shared lie is an extension of the flat assertion. Debating about the benefits of a number reinforces the number in our minds. The only available sides are "1.4 is good for us" and "1.4 is bad for us". Nobody is allowed to say "1.4 is fake".
Pakistan's government has the courage and confidence to allow REAL NUMBERS, so it needs to be congratulated by foreigners. DW is helping to bring it down as punishment for honesty.
Labels: Real World Math, Shared Lie
¶ 11:56 PM
Unspecialized idiocy
Trite but true.... When you've actually done something, or actually lived in a place or situation, you can instantly spot nonsense written by people who haven't done it or been there. This rule normally applies to specialized job skills, but occasionally works for a perfectly ordinary experience.
For instance, this sneaky piece pretending to argue against cashless payment systems.
Cash is cumbersome, dirty and increasingly too tangible for our digital desires. And while we’ve already given it up to a fair extent for the credit and debit card--it still means we have to wait in lines, and that’s so 1990s. In an effort to cut costs and avoid long lines in front of the cash register, a small-but-growing number of retailers have stopped accepting paper currency entirely. Over the past couple of years, some retail stores and restaurants in large cities have simply ceased cash operations. But the problem is that while it may be safer and more convenient to pay without cash, banning the use of cash could be discriminating against low-income individuals without credit or bank accounts because of the fees and minimum balance requirements.CUMBERSOME? STILL MEANS WE HAVE TO WAIT IN LINES? AVOID LONG LINES? SAFER AND MORE CONVENIENT? This idiot has never been in a grocery store, or else has never OPENED HIS FUCKING IDIOT EYES when he was in a grocery store. ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL PRECISELY 100.00000000% of the delays in a checkout line are caused by card transactions. Every transaction with paper cash goes smoothly and quickly. THEORY KILLS. EXPERIENCE SURVIVES. [Footnote for clarity: There are other sources of delay, like a price check on an unlabeled and embarrassing item, or a customer who plops down a pile of expired coupons and then argues about each one; but I'm talking here about delays caused by form of payment.] ¶ 2:24 AM
Plink plank plunk
Researchers are finally catching up to the obvious fact that memory is wave-based, not spatial like a filing cabinet.
One question that hasn't been answered yet: Music. How does the brain keep dozens of LONG pieces of music active and available and separate forever without any DRAM-like refresh?
Specific example: Some radio show used Leroy Anderson's Plink plank plunk as background music for a trivia quiz. They didn't identify it by name, just described it as the theme from Garry Moore's old I've Got a Secret show. After hearing the first couple bars, my internal jukebox played the whole thing. Just for fun I tried to recall other Anderson pieces. The Typewriter immediately popped up, and internal jukebox played the whole thing.
Until this week's few notes of Plink, I hadn't heard or thought about those pieces since 1960. How did they stay active for 60 years? Each piece is about 2 minutes long, leaving out repeats. If each is contained in a sort of tape loop, each has played 15 million times so far without degradation. (I'd guess the storage is more like MIDI than tape, with each notation calling up the sound when I hit Play.)
Sleigh Ride is also active but not so mysterious, since it gets DRAM-refreshed by Muzak every Xmas season.
Incidentally, modern performances of the Typewriter are a lot of fun. Orchestras compete for the best parody of the Virtuoso Typiste.
A related question that could help to answer the first one: Humans share this ability with birds. No other mammal recognizes or remembers or produces long structured sequences of tones. How did this happen? I've previously speculated that music might share a gene with bipedal configuration.
Labels: Asked and unanswered, Entertainment
¶ 12:44 AM
Thursday, April 04, 2019
The age of reasonablenesspants
More reasonableness pants!
Via ZH:
Obeying the law is illegal. Obeying Soros is required.
Reasonableness pants.
¶ 3:40 PM
In light of President Donald Trump’s executive order on free speech, Erwin Chermerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law, and Howard Gillman, Chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, penned an op-ed in which they state that the executive order does not help protect free speech on college campuses and that it is even "unconstitutional."Got it. Requiring federally funded colleges to obey the constitution is unconstitutional.
Obeying the law is illegal. Obeying Soros is required.
Reasonableness pants.
¶ 3:40 PM
We have the greatest respectablenesspants for the SEC
The SEC ever-so-gently tried to put an official restraint on Elon. Instead of restraint, the "judge" put on something else.
So Polistra and Happystar decided to join the reasonableness parade with their own reasonableness pants and reasonableness shoes and reasonableness shirts and reasonableness hats.
Nathan says that she has "serious concerns" that her ruling won't resolve the controversy. "My call to action is for everyone to take a deep breath, put your reasonableness pants on and work this out."Well now. Our Tesla-loving techmonster character is ALREADY wearing reasonableness pants, as seen a couple weeks ago:
So Polistra and Happystar decided to join the reasonableness parade with their own reasonableness pants and reasonableness shoes and reasonableness shirts and reasonableness hats.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 3:10 PM
Harley = Farhad
This comment on Tesla by Farhad Manjoo shows a rare ACCURATE understanding of status and perception.
That is a crazy theory. Demand for a expensive-ish car with a whole new kind of drivetrain for most people is not infinite. Also I think there’s an effect where the more you see them the less you personally want one, because if doesn’t stand out. That’s sort of how I feel ...Within the auto industry, Harley Earl had the same accurate understanding and used it to advantage. Nobody else came close. Other carmakers used theories instead of experience. THEORY KILLS. EXPERIENCE SURVIVES. = = = = = Harley also deeply understood a fact that I've just recently grasped. Entertainment is a major purpose of life. He used the word explicitly: There should be entertainment on all sides of the car. He specifically meant, and built, the interplay of light and shadow with the static surface to create a moving image in the mind. Chrome strips and intaglio and paint forms were built to set up edge-patterns and spatial anticipations. You can see all of it on this picture of a '41 Chevy. Gemstone shapes, intaglio, multiple lines creating anticipatory perceptions. A motion picture without physical motion. As with radio, your brain creates the motion, which makes the motion YOURS. Some of the entertainment involved human actors along with abstract perception.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 6:49 AM
Debunk, rebunk
Via Eurekalert, a study on reintroducing wolves and grizzlies finds that the supposed purpose is nonsense.
For years, scientists have assumed that when top predators are reintroduced to an ecosystem, the effects are predictable: The ecosystem will return to how it was before the predators were wiped out. Now, University of Wyoming researchers have published a study showing that there's little evidence for such claims. This has big implications for wildlife conservation in places such as Yellowstone National Park.The usual story is that the wolves formerly ate the deer who ate the plants. When the wolves were removed (because they were ALSO eating sheep and cows and dogs) the deer would then overpopulate and eat "too many" plants. This study found that the wolves were simply replaced by other deer-eaters, because deer are yummy and easy to kill. The researchers also realized that the base assumption of "historical conditions" was often mythical. There's no reason to assume that the condition when wolves were present was OPTIMAL. Excellent! Now maybe we can stop INVITING these enemy soldiers to destroy our own agriculture! Nope. Immediately after debunking the Gaian gospel, these researchers REBUNKED the Gaian myth from a different angle. When an apocalypse fails, believers have to reschedule the apocalypse.
"We also think that large carnivore reintroduction should be pursued for its own sake," Alston adds. "Large carnivores are great, but using their effects on ecosystems to justify reintroduction might not hold up to scrutiny and could be counterproductive in the long term.FOR ITS OWN SAKE????????? THAT'S NOT SCIENCE. THAT'S RELIGION. And large carnivores aren't "great". Wolves are great for wolves. We're humans. Wolves are NOT great for humans. And I can hear your DON'T FEED THE TROLLS message clearly. You regret stating the truth because the wrong sort of people might use the truth to deny Holy Gaia. = = = = = Natural Law. NEVER ATTACK. ALWAYS DEFEND. Nature knows what's optimal. We don't. As a species, our first DUTY is to DEFEND our own skills and way of life. Civilizations have ALWAYS removed grizzlies and wolves from areas where humans are living or raising livestock. This was the HISTORICAL CONDITION of civilization until very recently. At the same time we shouldn't ATTACK the natural condition by claiming territory we don't need. We shouldn't spread our cities into the middle of forests. We should keep our cities compact, preferably using land that isn't suitable for agriculture. This was the HISTORICAL CONDITION of civilization until very recently.
Labels: Carbon Cult, From rights to duties, Natural law = Sharia law
¶ 12:29 AM
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
Signs that Satan has finished work
Two signs that Satan has finished his job on this utterly fucked former "nation". His workweek is over. It's Happy Hour. TSIF. Now he's just amusing himself. We're just entertainment for Satan now.
1. First openly homosexual candidate for president: Peter Buttigieg.
2. First openly homosexual gayor of Chicago: Lori Lightfoot.
There have been several gayors of big cities so far, but no aptronyms. The gayor of Portland had a boyfriend named Beau Breedlove, but the gayor himherself had an ordinary name.
Labels: Aptronym Alert, Entertainment
¶ 6:04 AM
Thanks Ralph 124, ZERO TAX edition
It's great fun to watch Repooflican eunuchs screeching about "censorship" by Zuckerberg and Bezos.
These are the same eunuchs who ENABLED THE RISE of Zuck and Bezos by chanting ZERO TAX ZERO TAX ZERO TAX. The same eunuchs who fight against states that try to charge PERFECTLY LEGAL state sales tax on internet purchases. The same eunuchs who promised that unregulated monopolies would bring us into the Golden Tech Utopia where everyone has infinite money and infinite leisure. The same eunuchs who are STILL defending Bezos against the surprising rejection of his proposed NYC branch.
Needless to say, the tech utopia is identical to previous unregulated monopoly utopias. The barons get infinite money, and we work infinite hours for zero pay.
And now Bezos and Zuck are guillotining the idiots who created them. As always in utopias.
Thanks, Ralph!
Labels: Emersonian justice
¶ 12:36 AM
Tuesday, April 02, 2019
Massive transposition
Kudos to my dream scripter, which just pulled the most extreme transposition ever. Normally it picks up bits of audio input and places the words onto different characters in different locations.
During this afternoon's nap the radio input was a MAXIMALLY PROSAIC stock show. The exact opposite of poetry and music and art in every possible way. Unstructured mumbling of drab numerical nonsense. An auction with an autistic auctioneer. It's good nap noise because there's never anything remotely interesting to grab my attention.
... And Facebook, 341.56, this is a Gartley spread since last February 21, 231.65 pretty amazing ... massive shorting ... bottom line ... Major weighting component of FTX ... 1123.51, forming AB = CD structure ... Shanghai 3342.67 let's see ... high value top 2231, no that was 2165.14 ... bottom line, pretty amazing... Tesla new highs 345.12 ... pretty amazing...
The dream scripter somehow transposed this into watching a florid Baroque opera.
Bottom line, pretty amazing....
Lately I've been outputting a lot of structure and a bit of art in the form of courseware, with too little input of structure and art. The dream scripter, sensing the hunger for entertainment, decided to generate some of its own. Like consuming body fat when food is short.
= = = = =
Footnote: I picked the clip of Dido and Aeneas above because it looked like the opera in the dream. I wasn't especially familiar with Dido, so I checked the story. According to Wikipedia, Purcell was engaging in Swiftian subversion. Dido, representing England, was swayed by the witches, representing Rome, to marry Aeneas, representing Roman James II. Purcell was making a nationalist point, warning against foreign influence. The opera was first performed for James II, then never performed again until the manuscript was rediscovered around 1895. Apparently James understood the point. Sounds mighty familiar.
Labels: $ROMEQ, Entertainment
¶ 3:07 PM
The real deniers
The REAL deniers of science are in charge of everything.
So far they haven't made truth a full-fledged crime in USA, but Canada and UK are already there.
A Christian activist has been fined $55k for calling a man a man.
What could break this nonsense? One possible scenario would at least provide a brief moment of difficulty for the tyrants.
A man who "identifies as womxn" gets prostate cancer. Womxns don't have prostate glands, so the doctor couldn't possibly diagnose or treat a nonexistent disorder in a nonexistent organ.
The doctor would have to choose between "deadmanning" the patient or "deading" the patient. A rational doctor would instantly pick the latter, because all of the "laws" and "ethics" boards would be on his side. If he chose to "deadman" the patient and treat the nonexistent disease in the nonexistent organ, he'd spend the rest of his life in jail.
Labels: Ethics, infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE INFINITE lunacy
¶ 12:42 AM
Bolsonaro = Bolton
Bolsonaro is a faker just like Trump. He posed as a populist, then after taking office became a standard neocon.
Now he's declaring Brazil to be a wholly-owned colony and servant of Israel, just like USA.
So far I can see one important difference. Brazil's military is continuing in the normal populist tradition of previous rulers, and stopped Bolsonaro's attempt to join our invasion of Venezuela.
I'm strongly tempted to switch Brazil into the Sorosian category on my map, but I'll wait until we get a more widespread signal on other issues. I'm especially watching for a "transition" to Gaia.
Labels: Sorosia
¶ 12:31 AM
Monday, April 01, 2019
Cochlear implant coulda happened 80 years ago
Science mags in the '20s and '30s often featured speculative inventions to aid the deaf. Gernsback was especially heavy on the subject, but most of his ideas were impractical. Here's an invention from a British mag that started serendipitously and actually worked. Unfortunately the inventor didn't grasp what his device was really doing, so didn't take it any farther.
From Wireless Magazine, June 1931, p 520 of the PDF. Found, of course, in the immensely valuable American Radio History library.
Pasting some of the text:
Pasting some of the text:
It has long been known that those who are hard of hearing as a rule are fairly good at telephoning. Sound vibrations reach the nervous centres of their ears (providing these be intact), independently of the tympanum or eardrum, through the intermediary of mechanical vibrations set up in the bony part of the skull.Bone conduction has been used by conductively deaf people for a long time, before it was formally developed into a type of hearing aid. Beethoven had a stick fastened to his piano, and gripped it between his teeth. Must have looked like he was smoking a huge noisy pipe!
While engaged in an investigation of this phenomenon and in an attempt to use it in connection with a radio, Dr Eichhorn was struck by another idea eventually embodied in a special piece of apparatus. The principle underlying its construction may be described as follows: The human body is connected up to the anode circuit by a device consisting of a piece of insulator or rather half-conductor, such as cellophane, coated with metal on one side, and the opposite side being applied to the ear, or any other part of the skull close to the acoustic centre of hearing, so that there is actual contact. These facts strikingly show that the skin or any other soft parts in immediate proximity to the ear are, by an electrostatic effect, set vibrating, these vibrations being transmitted direct to interior parts of the organ of hearing.Clearly this didn't work by mechanical vibration. Soft tissue wouldn't move enough to achieve bone conduction. This was a direct electrostatic transmitter, sending an oscillating field into the skull. The waves were then setting up impulses somewhere in the auditory system, possibly in the cochlea, possibly in the auditory nerves and brainstem. If this had been understood properly, the cochlear implant could have been developed much earlier. The current design, with dozens of frequency bands independently feeding electrodes in the cochlea, wouldn't have been practical because a tube-based frequency splitter would be room-sized. But two or three electrodes could have been fed with only a bit more complexity than the early tube-based hearing aid.
Labels: Alternate universe
¶ 5:07 PM
Inventive dream
Tonight's dream featured an interesting but pointless invention.
I was in a restaurant waiting to have my thermos filled with ice tea. This part was not original. One of the old radio episodes in my bedtime playlist has a scene about filling a thermos with ice tea. As usual, the dream scripter lifted the words into an entirely new location, not the same location I normally "see" when listening in waketime.
As I waited, I looked at the pinned-up notices on a bulletin board in the lobby. Among the 'Services Offered' section of the bulletin board this one caught my attention:
Braille books
Night books
Braille ledgers
Squarebox ledgers
My thoughts (inside the dream) while reading this notice:
Braille books: He's offering to transcribe books into braille.
Night books: Braille books for non-blind people to read in the dark.
Braille ledgers: Transcribing ledgers for blind bookkeepers.
Squarebox ledgers: I didn't know for sure what this meant. Perhaps it was braille ledgers organized with bigger sections for easier reading.
= = = = =
Night books would be a worthy invention IF you could learn Braille easily. Unfortunately it's not easy, so wouldn't be worth the trouble. The ledgers are a purely stupid idea.
At any rate, here's Polistra and Happystar enjoying their night books:
[I never do April Fool stuff, but in this case the dream scripter handed it to me on a platter, so I had to use it.]
[I never do April Fool stuff, but in this case the dream scripter handed it to me on a platter, so I had to use it.]Labels: Entertainment
¶ 5:54 AM
Encouraging poll, encouraging result.
An encouraging Pew poll on science. Not "science", science.
The form of the poll itself is encouraging and astonishing. NONE of the questions are about "climate change". Not one.
Normally the word "science" in the context of polls means EXACTLY PRECISELY SOLELY THE FOLLOWING:
= = = = =
Gaia is the only Goddess, and Al Gore is her prophet.
Do you agree, or do you need to be killed?
= = = = =
Even more encouraging, Pew picks the CORRECT ANSWER for this question about scientific method:
One other question, not included as part of the scale, asked survey respondents which of two statements best describes the scientific method: That it produces findings meant to be continually tested and updated over time, or that it identifies unchanging core principles and truths. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say the scientific method is designed to be iterative, producing findings that are continually tested and updated, while 15% say the method produces unchanging core principles and truths, and 17% say they are not surePew astonishingly treats the iterative answer as correct, and I'm even more astonished that 2/3 of Americans ALSO treat it as correct. We are CONSTANTLY BOMBARDED with the unchanging core principles answer. Exactly 100.000000000000000000000% of all public discussion of "science" instructs us VIOLENTLY AND LETHALLY that theories are absolute facts. When official "science" reaches a conclusion, it is DEFINITIVE AND FINAL AND ETERNALLY UNCHANGING, and anyone who doubts even the tiniest picopicofragment of ABSOLUTE TRUTH must be sent to the ovens NOW. The poll result will be DIScouraging to the public voices of "science", who must work even harder to pack the ovens with deniers. This astonishing persistence of rationality harmonizes with other polls showing that 2/3 of Americans want public schools to treat evolution vs creation in a balanced way.
Labels: 2/3, Carbon Cult
¶ 1:14 AM
