Sunday, April 22, 2012
Nothing new
More 1901-ish wanderings. This time from the Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy, a textbook published by ICS in 1913. (These pix are from a chapter that runs from page 404 to 416 in the PDF.)
= = = = =
First, an interesting echo of a fact that recent tech-historians have pointed out. Namely, Lee DeForest didn't understand his own invention.
This is the Audion used as a detector. Note that it's not used as a triode; the grid is effectively the cathode, so the triode isn't doing anything more than a diode.
= = = = =
Second, a 'Nothing New Under The Sun' item. Valdemar Poulsen's invention of the wire recorder is familiar, but its earlier variations take a couple of roads not retaken until much later.
This is the Poulsen wire recorder in its 1913 form, under the confusing title of 'Telegraphone', which fortunately didn't stick around. Bigger and more open than later commercial versions, but basically the same.
= = = = =
Here's a variant with a steel loop instead of a wire, intended as a 'multiplexer' to transmit a single conversation to many locations. Seems like a dubious application, which became unnecessary after amplifiers using the Audion were perfected. But you can see a premonition of the reel-to-reel tape in this setup, and this device would also have served as a DAF machine or a broadcast delay loop.
= = = = =
Think the magnetic disk was invented in the '70s? Nope. Here's a disc version of the wire recorder!
= = = = =
Think the answering machine was invented in the '60s? Nope. Here's an answering machine based on the wire recorder!
= = = = =
First, an interesting echo of a fact that recent tech-historians have pointed out. Namely, Lee DeForest didn't understand his own invention.
This is the Audion used as a detector. Note that it's not used as a triode; the grid is effectively the cathode, so the triode isn't doing anything more than a diode.
= = = = =
Second, a 'Nothing New Under The Sun' item. Valdemar Poulsen's invention of the wire recorder is familiar, but its earlier variations take a couple of roads not retaken until much later.
This is the Poulsen wire recorder in its 1913 form, under the confusing title of 'Telegraphone', which fortunately didn't stick around. Bigger and more open than later commercial versions, but basically the same.
= = = = =
Here's a variant with a steel loop instead of a wire, intended as a 'multiplexer' to transmit a single conversation to many locations. Seems like a dubious application, which became unnecessary after amplifiers using the Audion were perfected. But you can see a premonition of the reel-to-reel tape in this setup, and this device would also have served as a DAF machine or a broadcast delay loop.
= = = = =
Think the magnetic disk was invented in the '70s? Nope. Here's a disc version of the wire recorder!
= = = = =
Think the answering machine was invented in the '60s? Nope. Here's an answering machine based on the wire recorder!
Labels: 20th century Dark Age
¶ 5:42 AM
Drought? No, incompetence. 2
Dramatic news from Africa:
The "scientists" had to fuck up the announcement by putting it in the context of the monstrous criminal mass-murdering tyrannical falsehood of "global warming", which leads me to doubt everything else they say. Nevertheless, if there's any truth in this at all, it would be an unrealized resource that could lead to very different outcomes for Africa. ...
More realistically, it will lead to wealth for China. Africans have never been able to do anything. Colonial powers have always made use of Africa's resources. In this century, China is the only colonial power. If these aquifers are truly usable, China will buy up the Sahara and turn it into farmland for China. (China is already buying a lot of land in Africa, but it doesn't appear to be over these aquifers.)
Later in the piece is an even harsher indictment of African incompetence:
And I thought England was missing its own water potential!
Nobody can beat Africans in this department. ¶ 3:27 AM
Huge reserves of underground water in some of the driest parts of Africa could provide a buffer against the effects of climate change for years to come, scientists said.
Researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London have for the first time mapped the aquifers, or groundwater, across the continent and the amount they hold.
‘The largest groundwater volumes are found in the large sedimentary aquifers in the North African countries Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan,’ the scientists said in their paper.
They estimate that reserves of groundwater across the continent are 100 times the amount found on its surface, or 0.66 million cubic kilometres.
The "scientists" had to fuck up the announcement by putting it in the context of the monstrous criminal mass-murdering tyrannical falsehood of "global warming", which leads me to doubt everything else they say. Nevertheless, if there's any truth in this at all, it would be an unrealized resource that could lead to very different outcomes for Africa. ...
More realistically, it will lead to wealth for China. Africans have never been able to do anything. Colonial powers have always made use of Africa's resources. In this century, China is the only colonial power. If these aquifers are truly usable, China will buy up the Sahara and turn it into farmland for China. (China is already buying a lot of land in Africa, but it doesn't appear to be over these aquifers.)
Later in the piece is an even harsher indictment of African incompetence:
Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi .... said the focus of efforts to improve water supply should be on better collection and storage.
‘The fact is that there is already a tremendous amount of water available for Africa but it is rarely collected’.
A study by UNEP and the World Agroforestry Centre found there is enough water falling as rain over Africa to supply the needs of some 9 billion people.
‘Ethiopia, where just over a fifth of the population are covered by domestic water supply and an estimated 46 per cent of the population suffer hunger, has a potential rainwater harvest equivalent to the population needs of over 520 million people.’
And I thought England was missing its own water potential!
Nobody can beat Africans in this department. ¶ 3:27 AM
Saturday, April 21, 2012
AMAZING!
This morning on the "More or Less" program, BBC debunked the myth of biodiversity!
Significantly started by mentioning that the 'Convention on Biodiversity' was passed by the same bunch of rich-ass Stalinist-Satanist tyrannical dickheads who passed Kyoto. Then interviewed the usual UN Satanists who gave the usual nonsensical counterfactual numbers. (Billions and billions and billions!!!!!! Dying every second!!!!!)
BBC then interviewed a Calif prof named Stephen Hubbell who has carefully looked at the numbers and reached FACTUAL conclusions. Namely, there's nothing special happening on the extinction front. Among the larger animals and plants that we can reliably count, there are perhaps one or two species lost per decade. This has, of course, been obvious to any non-professional who bothers to look up a few ACTUAL FUCKING FACTS.
Hubbell said that he had trouble publishing his results, but had to keep trying in the name of real science.
BBC then went back to one of the all-destroying mass-murdering UN Satanists and pressed him to name some of the thousands of species per year that he claimed were dying. He could name only one, and wasn't sure about that one.
Bravo to BBC for breaking out of fashion-shit pseudoscience in this one subject!
Especially since "Biodiversity" seems destined to be the Next Big Genocidal Fashion after "Global Warming" fades.
Who knows, maybe they will start looking for facts in other subjects?
Significantly started by mentioning that the 'Convention on Biodiversity' was passed by the same bunch of rich-ass Stalinist-Satanist tyrannical dickheads who passed Kyoto. Then interviewed the usual UN Satanists who gave the usual nonsensical counterfactual numbers. (Billions and billions and billions!!!!!! Dying every second!!!!!)
BBC then interviewed a Calif prof named Stephen Hubbell who has carefully looked at the numbers and reached FACTUAL conclusions. Namely, there's nothing special happening on the extinction front. Among the larger animals and plants that we can reliably count, there are perhaps one or two species lost per decade. This has, of course, been obvious to any non-professional who bothers to look up a few ACTUAL FUCKING FACTS.
Hubbell said that he had trouble publishing his results, but had to keep trying in the name of real science.
BBC then went back to one of the all-destroying mass-murdering UN Satanists and pressed him to name some of the thousands of species per year that he claimed were dying. He could name only one, and wasn't sure about that one.
Bravo to BBC for breaking out of fashion-shit pseudoscience in this one subject!
Especially since "Biodiversity" seems destined to be the Next Big Genocidal Fashion after "Global Warming" fades.
Who knows, maybe they will start looking for facts in other subjects?
Labels: Carbon Cult
¶ 4:00 AM
Friday, April 20, 2012
Was Bell working on television?
Still running through old Google Books looking for details to use in digital models. Came across an issue of Bell's quarterly 'Journal' from 1925. Holds a variety of articles about the system's progress, finances and research.
The research section includes a couple short articles about hearing by Fletcher. This wasn't a surprise; working around speech and hearing I've often used Bell's abundant information, and Fletcher's acute observations are still a foundation for current perception research.
But these two items did surprise me:
Sure sounds like Ives was working on a television system in 1925. If Bell had proceeded along the lines implied by these two summaries, they might have reached a color system with something like an LCD screen. They got scooped in '27 by Baird at BBC, then by Zworykin at RCA. I presume they gave up the quest. ¶ 5:48 PM
The research section includes a couple short articles about hearing by Fletcher. This wasn't a surprise; working around speech and hearing I've often used Bell's abundant information, and Fletcher's acute observations are still a foundation for current perception research.
But these two items did surprise me:
Sure sounds like Ives was working on a television system in 1925. If Bell had proceeded along the lines implied by these two summaries, they might have reached a color system with something like an LCD screen. They got scooped in '27 by Baird at BBC, then by Zworykin at RCA. I presume they gave up the quest. ¶ 5:48 PM
Well, no
Seeing today's pix of George Zimmerman in the courtroom, it's easy to see why the prosecution and media quickly flooded the air with an older (maybe photoshopped?) picture that made Zimmerman look like the FBI's default suspect. Pudgy, square-faced, pasty. Just like Richard Jewell, like Bruce Ivins, like every other Southern redneck type falsely prosecuted by FBI.
It's also easy to see why Obama jumped in to say that Trayvon could have been his own son.
Exactly not. Judging purely by appearance, Zimmerman could have been Obama's son, and Trayvon couldn't. Without any information outside this courtroom picture, most people would think the real Zimmerman is a light-skinned black man, and most people would say he looks like a son of Barack and Michelle.
The media had to eliminate all facts and valid impressions immediately, in order to insure absolute pure raw bloody injustice.
As always.
The only question is why the defense didn't counter this. They presumably knew Zimmerman didn't look like the picture, and they also presumably had the 'smoking gun' picture of his cut and bruised head immediately after the incident. Why did they allow the media and feds to incite riot by flooding the country with the standard vicious visual lies? ¶ 5:18 PM
It's also easy to see why Obama jumped in to say that Trayvon could have been his own son.
Exactly not. Judging purely by appearance, Zimmerman could have been Obama's son, and Trayvon couldn't. Without any information outside this courtroom picture, most people would think the real Zimmerman is a light-skinned black man, and most people would say he looks like a son of Barack and Michelle.
The media had to eliminate all facts and valid impressions immediately, in order to insure absolute pure raw bloody injustice.
As always.
The only question is why the defense didn't counter this. They presumably knew Zimmerman didn't look like the picture, and they also presumably had the 'smoking gun' picture of his cut and bruised head immediately after the incident. Why did they allow the media and feds to incite riot by flooding the country with the standard vicious visual lies? ¶ 5:18 PM
When you control the language
A new calculation of the motions of nearby stars finds that the bizarre hypothesis of 'Dark Matter' doesn't work.
Hmm. Nothing needed but OBSERVED AND MEASURED STUFF.
In REAL SCIENCE this shouldn't be a surprise; this should be the EXPECTED RESULT, and any other hypothesis should be considered fiction.
But our "scientific" establishment no longer practices real science. Only the most bizarre and anti-scientific hypotheses are considered to be normal and expectable. "Scientists" spend their lives whoring after the wildest and most fantastically counter-factual shit, and ruthlessly silencing every actual fact. Their only standard is status and fashion. If the counter-factual shit is high-status shit, we must spend trillions of dollars and kill millions of people to "prove" it. Just like Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, except Hilton and the Kardashians don't kill anyone.
Note the language in the headlines:
"Dark Matter" is seen as plain reality, just as "Global Warming" is seen as plain reality. Any attempt to assert OBSERVED AND MEASURED FACTS against these supposed "realities" is seen as weird and crazy and dangerous.
Trite but true: He who controls the definitions controls the world. ¶ 6:29 AM
The team based their findings on the motions of more than 400 stars up to 13,000 light-years from the Sun. From this new data they calculated the mass of material in the vicinity of the Sun, in a volume four times larger than ever considered before.
"The amount of mass that we derive matches very well with what we see - stars, dust and gas - in the region around the Sun," said team leader Christian Moni Bidin, from the Universidad de Concepción, Chile. "But this leaves no room for the extra material - dark matter - that we were expecting. Our calculations show that it should have shown up very clearly in our measurements. But it was just not there."
Hmm. Nothing needed but OBSERVED AND MEASURED STUFF.
In REAL SCIENCE this shouldn't be a surprise; this should be the EXPECTED RESULT, and any other hypothesis should be considered fiction.
But our "scientific" establishment no longer practices real science. Only the most bizarre and anti-scientific hypotheses are considered to be normal and expectable. "Scientists" spend their lives whoring after the wildest and most fantastically counter-factual shit, and ruthlessly silencing every actual fact. Their only standard is status and fashion. If the counter-factual shit is high-status shit, we must spend trillions of dollars and kill millions of people to "prove" it. Just like Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, except Hilton and the Kardashians don't kill anyone.
Note the language in the headlines:
"Dark Matter" is seen as plain reality, just as "Global Warming" is seen as plain reality. Any attempt to assert OBSERVED AND MEASURED FACTS against these supposed "realities" is seen as weird and crazy and dangerous.
Trite but true: He who controls the definitions controls the world. ¶ 6:29 AM
Nice to see the truth for fucking once
A dangerous lunatic named Zwick, turned wacko by the Carbon Cult, has finally come out in public and admitted that the Cult is a genocidal religion, with no connection to "science".
This is a moment of clarity. In major publications, the Cultists have pretended they're talking about "science".
Now Zwick says EXPLICITLY that HERETICAL THOUGHTS break the climate, and that heretical thoughts must be punished by burning the house of the heretic. Straight out of Bradbury.
The Cult's internal communications, and their publications in safe leftist channels, have always been viciously inquisitorial. Heretics (i.e. real scientists) have been trying to bring the internal murderous intent out into the open by hacking emails and republishing the 'safe channels', but that's not very effective. When a pure tyrannical Carbon Cultist says these things directly in a major magazine, the unconvinced will be more able to understand what's going on.
Putting it another way, Zwick has saved the FOIA types a lot of work. No need for hacking when the tyrants straightforwardly reveal their own murderous intentions. ¶ 4:21 AM
This is a moment of clarity. In major publications, the Cultists have pretended they're talking about "science".
Now Zwick says EXPLICITLY that HERETICAL THOUGHTS break the climate, and that heretical thoughts must be punished by burning the house of the heretic. Straight out of Bradbury.
The Cult's internal communications, and their publications in safe leftist channels, have always been viciously inquisitorial. Heretics (i.e. real scientists) have been trying to bring the internal murderous intent out into the open by hacking emails and republishing the 'safe channels', but that's not very effective. When a pure tyrannical Carbon Cultist says these things directly in a major magazine, the unconvinced will be more able to understand what's going on.
Putting it another way, Zwick has saved the FOIA types a lot of work. No need for hacking when the tyrants straightforwardly reveal their own murderous intentions. ¶ 4:21 AM
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Better late?
Pope says GM needs to stop making the Corvair. Pope says the Beatles are shameful exhibitionists. Pope says President Nixon is a crook. Pope says hippies need to be restrained before they start demonstrating. Pope says beehive hairdos are overly sexual. Pope says nuns are carpet-munching radical Stalinist-Satanist lesbians.
Well, I lied. He only said the last one, but all of them are phenomena that were well-known and clear in 1968.
There is one difference: the other 1968 phenomena have all gone away, while nuns have continued to be carpet-munching radical Stalinist-Satanist civilization-hating lesbian bullbitches. So his observation is still valid, but it's 44 years behind the times.
Please, Rome, hire a Pope who didn't personally watch the crucifixion. Apostolic succession means the leader receives a chain of authority from the apostles. It doesn't mean the Pope has to be one of the apostles. ¶ 5:29 PM
Well, I lied. He only said the last one, but all of them are phenomena that were well-known and clear in 1968.
There is one difference: the other 1968 phenomena have all gone away, while nuns have continued to be carpet-munching radical Stalinist-Satanist civilization-hating lesbian bullbitches. So his observation is still valid, but it's 44 years behind the times.
Please, Rome, hire a Pope who didn't personally watch the crucifixion. Apostolic succession means the leader receives a chain of authority from the apostles. It doesn't mean the Pope has to be one of the apostles. ¶ 5:29 PM
More common sense!
News item:
PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan is trying to pull out of the stupidest territorial war in history! India has also been attempting to stop or calm the conflict.
This war has been going on since before I was born. I remember looking at world maps when I was 5 years old, trying to understand why India and PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan wanted to possess this miserable and useless territory of Kashmir. I couldn't understand it because it made no sense. Still makes no sense. Kashmir has no industry, no oil, few people, very little agriculture. None of the practical reasons for a territorial dispute. It's just a big bunch of square miles. But ever since the 1947 partition, PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan and India have been semi-fighting, and on one occasion came close to throwing atom bombs at each other.
Two dogs growling over a rotten bone that would be inedible if either dog finally got it all to himself.
Now that PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan has shown it's possible to pull out of a nonsensical war, will we learn by example from our Valued Friend And Ally?
Nope. We're fucking EXCEPTIONAL. We learn only the opposite. When experience tells us to stop, we drive faster. When experience tells us to turn on the windshield wipers, we throw mud on the glass. ¶ 5:44 AM
PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan is trying to pull out of the stupidest territorial war in history! India has also been attempting to stop or calm the conflict.
This war has been going on since before I was born. I remember looking at world maps when I was 5 years old, trying to understand why India and PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan wanted to possess this miserable and useless territory of Kashmir. I couldn't understand it because it made no sense. Still makes no sense. Kashmir has no industry, no oil, few people, very little agriculture. None of the practical reasons for a territorial dispute. It's just a big bunch of square miles. But ever since the 1947 partition, PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan and India have been semi-fighting, and on one occasion came close to throwing atom bombs at each other.
Two dogs growling over a rotten bone that would be inedible if either dog finally got it all to himself.
Now that PawkEeStawnTheCountryFormerlyKnownAsPakistan has shown it's possible to pull out of a nonsensical war, will we learn by example from our Valued Friend And Ally?
Nope. We're fucking EXCEPTIONAL. We learn only the opposite. When experience tells us to stop, we drive faster. When experience tells us to turn on the windshield wipers, we throw mud on the glass. ¶ 5:44 AM
Congress does something right!
Via Bloomberg:
NOAA wanted to set up a new Gaian Crystal Cathedral called National Climate Service. This official Court Of Prophetic Fulfillment would officially attribute every single bad event to Evil Carbon, and would predict that everything bad in the future will also be caused by Evil Carbon.
Congress actually had the guts to eliminate the budget item!
Needless to say, Bloomberg and the other tyranny-loving money-grabbing all-consuming mass-slaughtering genocidal Satanists of Wall Street are unhappy about this small omission.
I'm happy! Congress gets something right once a year, usually by accident; this time it appears to be halfway intentional!
= = = = =
Later: Why in the hell doesn't Congress tell us about its occasional good deeds? I didn't hear about this from any Repooflican politician, only from the Satanists who dislike it. Congress might gain a few points of respect if it would publicize these rare moments of common sense, these brief lucid intervals when it does its fucking job. ¶ 4:38 AM
NOAA wanted to set up a new Gaian Crystal Cathedral called National Climate Service. This official Court Of Prophetic Fulfillment would officially attribute every single bad event to Evil Carbon, and would predict that everything bad in the future will also be caused by Evil Carbon.
Congress actually had the guts to eliminate the budget item!
Needless to say, Bloomberg and the other tyranny-loving money-grabbing all-consuming mass-slaughtering genocidal Satanists of Wall Street are unhappy about this small omission.
I'm happy! Congress gets something right once a year, usually by accident; this time it appears to be halfway intentional!
= = = = =
Later: Why in the hell doesn't Congress tell us about its occasional good deeds? I didn't hear about this from any Repooflican politician, only from the Satanists who dislike it. Congress might gain a few points of respect if it would publicize these rare moments of common sense, these brief lucid intervals when it does its fucking job. ¶ 4:38 AM
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Constantly amazed 2
And I'm constantly amazed by the complete incomprehension of what Breivik is doing. From the Guardian's Helen Pidd:
Nothing contradictory at all. Standard tactic of any activist group that wants to succeed. Invented by Lenin, perfected by the black activists and Friedanites of the '60s, and formalized by Alinsky.
Sure enough, he got exactly what he wanted. The alleged 'moderate conservatives' have been running a hardline jihad against the real nationalists.
The one part of Breivik's mindset that strikes me as unusual (but not contradictory) is this: His agenda is closer to the standard Western government than to the standard Nationalist type. He strongly favors Israel and hates Muslims. Same as any Western government, same as most Western media. The difference is that Breivik treats the Muslim-hatred seriously and consistently, while the Western gov'ts play all sorts of idiotic games with it. After every supposed attack by supposed Muslims they tell us to watch 'suspicious behaviors', implying that we should beware of Muslims; but when anyone actually reports suspicious behavior by an actual Muslim, the authorities come down HARD on the complainant.
Makes me wonder: Is this another part of the Alinskian tactic? Intentionally forcing the authorities into cognitive dissonance by applying strict logic to their idiocy? They're certainly showing all the signs of CD. ¶ 3:39 AM
Some on Twitter this morning have queried an assertion I made in my main story on Tuesday in which I wrote that Breivik never "fully articulated" the threat on which he was so fixated.
....
But what made Tuesday such an arduous day in court was not just the hateful nature of his testimony, but the fact that so much of it was completely contradictory.
Not only does Breivik claim that he had copied al-Qaida's strategies in order to protect the west from the Islamist threat, but he also insisted that his goal (in the short to medium term) was to make pariahs of Europe's nationalists – the very people with whom you might expect him to feel kinship.
"I thought I had to provoke a witchhunt of modern moderately conservative nationalists," he said.
...
The effect of this "witchhunt", said Breivik, would be to increase "censorship" of moderately nationalist views, which would "increase polarisation". The effect of this, he said, would eventually lead to "more radicalisation as more will lose hope and lose faith in democracy". Ultimately, he said, these new radicals would join the war he has started to protect the "indigenous people" of Norway and western Europe.
Nothing contradictory at all. Standard tactic of any activist group that wants to succeed. Invented by Lenin, perfected by the black activists and Friedanites of the '60s, and formalized by Alinsky.
Sure enough, he got exactly what he wanted. The alleged 'moderate conservatives' have been running a hardline jihad against the real nationalists.
The one part of Breivik's mindset that strikes me as unusual (but not contradictory) is this: His agenda is closer to the standard Western government than to the standard Nationalist type. He strongly favors Israel and hates Muslims. Same as any Western government, same as most Western media. The difference is that Breivik treats the Muslim-hatred seriously and consistently, while the Western gov'ts play all sorts of idiotic games with it. After every supposed attack by supposed Muslims they tell us to watch 'suspicious behaviors', implying that we should beware of Muslims; but when anyone actually reports suspicious behavior by an actual Muslim, the authorities come down HARD on the complainant.
Makes me wonder: Is this another part of the Alinskian tactic? Intentionally forcing the authorities into cognitive dissonance by applying strict logic to their idiocy? They're certainly showing all the signs of CD. ¶ 3:39 AM
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Constantly amazed
I'm still constantly amazed and disgusted by the extent of ignorance about America's "election" process. On any talk show, most experts and most callers on both sides operate from the idiotic assumption that every vote matters.
This was never true. From the start most states have given all the electors to the candidate who won in that state. At first the choosing was done by the state legislature; gradually it shifted over to direct votes. The source of the choice doesn't matter, only the method of proportioning the electors. All-or-nothing, which has been the default most of the time, guarantees that most states will be 'safe' for one party.
So the usual babble about the Electoral College compensating for large-state advantage is intentional propaganda. Size is irrelevant. Only 'safeness' versus 'swinginess' matters. As political operatives have grown ever more expert at locating and manipulating voters, the focus on swing states, swing districts, and swing precincts, has grown tighter and stricter.
This means that you DO NOT EXIST unless you live in a swing precinct. Your interests, no matter how widespread, DO NOT EXIST unless they can serve as a focus-grouped wedge for TV advertising in a swing precinct.
Medicare Part D says it all. A trillion dollars wasted by everyone to buy the votes of 700 rich widows in West Palm Beach. Would have been vastly cheaper to bribe them directly. ¶ 9:31 AM
This was never true. From the start most states have given all the electors to the candidate who won in that state. At first the choosing was done by the state legislature; gradually it shifted over to direct votes. The source of the choice doesn't matter, only the method of proportioning the electors. All-or-nothing, which has been the default most of the time, guarantees that most states will be 'safe' for one party.
So the usual babble about the Electoral College compensating for large-state advantage is intentional propaganda. Size is irrelevant. Only 'safeness' versus 'swinginess' matters. As political operatives have grown ever more expert at locating and manipulating voters, the focus on swing states, swing districts, and swing precincts, has grown tighter and stricter.
This means that you DO NOT EXIST unless you live in a swing precinct. Your interests, no matter how widespread, DO NOT EXIST unless they can serve as a focus-grouped wedge for TV advertising in a swing precinct.
Medicare Part D says it all. A trillion dollars wasted by everyone to buy the votes of 700 rich widows in West Palm Beach. Would have been vastly cheaper to bribe them directly. ¶ 9:31 AM
Henry wasn't alone
Polistra lionizes Henry Ford for his eminently sane approach to industry and labor.
Turns out, though, Henry didn't originate the trend. Around 1901 there was a lively movement within industry and ... AMAZINGLY ... also among academic economists!!!! ... to restore the human element to work and business.
I bumped into this accidentally while looking for some detailed pictures of 1901-ish electrical instruments as sources for digital models. Looking for Weston galvanometers, ran across 'Social Economics of the Weston Instrument Co.' This little 1905 pamphlet described the plant and working conditions of the Weston Co, toward this purpose:
Caught my attention. Looked further, and found quite a few similar industrial statements and a whole branch of economics that bloomed around 1900, then apparently died.
For instance, Gunton's Principles of Social Economics, from 1891.
From the preface:
Later, Gunton shows that Smith's "invisible hand" is fully illogical, and begins to lay the foundation for an employer's regard for his workers:
Henry's assembly line workers came from the poorest and least skilled segments of the population, and his Sociology Department trained the workers and their wives in those basic notions of hygiene. Now, of course, Die-Versity prohibits us from assuming that poor people need training, and Capitalism prohibits us from spending any money to improve their lot. So the poor have returned to the condition described by Gunton. The only difference is that TV and McDonalds make it much easier to avoid fresh air, sunlight, exercise and wholesome food.
= = = = =
Social Economics marked the end of Gilded Age v 1.0. The application of Social Economics by Ford, E.W. Marland, and many others led to America's true Golden Age, the period when an ordinary man could support an ordinary family in a civilized way, the period when both employers and workers were trying to advance the interests of the working man in order to maintain prosperity and stability for all.
After 1980 we abandoned Gunton and Ford, and suicidally returned to the Gilded Age principles that had so dramatically failed before. Now a few lonely economists (eg John Médaille, Yves Smith) are attempting to rebuild a more humane view of labor and capital. Maybe they don't need to start over from scratch.......
Turns out, though, Henry didn't originate the trend. Around 1901 there was a lively movement within industry and ... AMAZINGLY ... also among academic economists!!!! ... to restore the human element to work and business.
I bumped into this accidentally while looking for some detailed pictures of 1901-ish electrical instruments as sources for digital models. Looking for Weston galvanometers, ran across 'Social Economics of the Weston Instrument Co.' This little 1905 pamphlet described the plant and working conditions of the Weston Co, toward this purpose:
Caught my attention. Looked further, and found quite a few similar industrial statements and a whole branch of economics that bloomed around 1900, then apparently died.
For instance, Gunton's Principles of Social Economics, from 1891.
From the preface:
Later, Gunton shows that Smith's "invisible hand" is fully illogical, and begins to lay the foundation for an employer's regard for his workers:
Henry's assembly line workers came from the poorest and least skilled segments of the population, and his Sociology Department trained the workers and their wives in those basic notions of hygiene. Now, of course, Die-Versity prohibits us from assuming that poor people need training, and Capitalism prohibits us from spending any money to improve their lot. So the poor have returned to the condition described by Gunton. The only difference is that TV and McDonalds make it much easier to avoid fresh air, sunlight, exercise and wholesome food.
= = = = =
Social Economics marked the end of Gilded Age v 1.0. The application of Social Economics by Ford, E.W. Marland, and many others led to America's true Golden Age, the period when an ordinary man could support an ordinary family in a civilized way, the period when both employers and workers were trying to advance the interests of the working man in order to maintain prosperity and stability for all.
After 1980 we abandoned Gunton and Ford, and suicidally returned to the Gilded Age principles that had so dramatically failed before. Now a few lonely economists (eg John Médaille, Yves Smith) are attempting to rebuild a more humane view of labor and capital. Maybe they don't need to start over from scratch.......
Labels: 20th century Dark Age, the broken circle
¶ 2:49 AM
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Cursive formants
Nice story in today's Spokane paper about the fading of cursive, and some attempts to bring it back.
One comment from a teacher at a Catholic Montessori school struck me as perfectly beautiful. It's just my sort of idea and I'm embarrassed that I'd never thought of it!! (I discussed cursive last year but didn't make this wonderful connection.)
YES.
We don't form speech from separate letters. Each word is a continuous flow, and the things we call 'consonants' are not distinguishable at the moment when they happen. Instead, our ears distinguish between the various 'consonants' by the shaping of frequencies in neighboring vowels. (Discussed earlier here.)
= = = = =
A quick demonstration. I spoke the meaningless word 'abagada' with as much consistency and flatness as I could muster. The waveform is below, and the spectrogram above. (Click here for the awful sound.)
Spectrograms show the frequency patterns vertically; where the red is denser, that frequency was emphasized more by the shaping of the mouth at that moment. Focus especially on the range between 4k to 6k cycles per second. Our ears actually sense the difference between b,g,d by reading the frequencies in this range as they slide up and down, appear and disappear. Note how each shape is present both before and after the pause that marks the 'consonant'. Our ears get very little information from the actual pauses, except that we may distinguish voiced (b,g,d) from voiceless (p,k,t) by the length of the pause.
There's never a dull moment; the tongue and lips are always moving, so the frequency emphasis is always changing, always transitioning smoothly from one shape to the next.
All four vowels are written as a, but in fact each one is quite different, carrying the base formant pattern for 'ah' along with the constantly changing transitions between the momentary consonants.
In cursive the same thing happens. The transitions carry a remnant from the previous letter, and smoothly turn toward the shape of the next letter. Your hands and eyes get a chance to remember the previous and anticipate the next; the whole word is FELT as a whole when you write it and SEEN as a whole when you read it.
Muscle memory. Experience. All you need.
One comment from a teacher at a Catholic Montessori school struck me as perfectly beautiful. It's just my sort of idea and I'm embarrassed that I'd never thought of it!! (I discussed cursive last year but didn't make this wonderful connection.)
Saint Dominic School, Immaculate Conception Academy and most Montessori schools use what’s called a cursive-first philosophy.
“Cursive writing better corresponds to the nature of the language,” [Immaculate Conception teacher] Temple said. “It shows children immediately that words are unities, not simply groups of disconnected letters; it shows that sounds combine to form precise and definite words, which in turn represent ideas.”
YES.
We don't form speech from separate letters. Each word is a continuous flow, and the things we call 'consonants' are not distinguishable at the moment when they happen. Instead, our ears distinguish between the various 'consonants' by the shaping of frequencies in neighboring vowels. (Discussed earlier here.)
= = = = =
A quick demonstration. I spoke the meaningless word 'abagada' with as much consistency and flatness as I could muster. The waveform is below, and the spectrogram above. (Click here for the awful sound.)
Spectrograms show the frequency patterns vertically; where the red is denser, that frequency was emphasized more by the shaping of the mouth at that moment. Focus especially on the range between 4k to 6k cycles per second. Our ears actually sense the difference between b,g,d by reading the frequencies in this range as they slide up and down, appear and disappear. Note how each shape is present both before and after the pause that marks the 'consonant'. Our ears get very little information from the actual pauses, except that we may distinguish voiced (b,g,d) from voiceless (p,k,t) by the length of the pause.
There's never a dull moment; the tongue and lips are always moving, so the frequency emphasis is always changing, always transitioning smoothly from one shape to the next.
All four vowels are written as a, but in fact each one is quite different, carrying the base formant pattern for 'ah' along with the constantly changing transitions between the momentary consonants.
In cursive the same thing happens. The transitions carry a remnant from the previous letter, and smoothly turn toward the shape of the next letter. Your hands and eyes get a chance to remember the previous and anticipate the next; the whole word is FELT as a whole when you write it and SEEN as a whole when you read it.
Muscle memory. Experience. All you need.
Labels: Experiential education
¶ 11:37 AM
Friday, April 13, 2012
No duh
A "study" reports that for some mysterious unknowable inscrutable incomprehensible reason,
I am shockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nay! Nay! This cannot be true! We all know that companies hire temps to raise the pay and improve the working conditions of everyone! Companies outsource to China to raise the pay and improve the working conditions of everyone! Creative destruction benefits everyone! Free trade benefits everyone! Illegal immigrants benefit everyone! These facts are indisputable... or at least they're never disputed by people who want to remain alive!
How could this noble action have backfired so horribly?
Fuck. ¶ 4:49 AM
Temporary workers who come and go as they please drive down the wages of permanent staff by as much as 5%.
Not only do temps spoil wage rates, they make you work harder, too, the report said. Companies that use temps are generally more cut-throat and cost-conscious than those who do not – generating more profit for the bosses but making employees work harder as a result, researchers said.
I am shockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshockedshocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nay! Nay! This cannot be true! We all know that companies hire temps to raise the pay and improve the working conditions of everyone! Companies outsource to China to raise the pay and improve the working conditions of everyone! Creative destruction benefits everyone! Free trade benefits everyone! Illegal immigrants benefit everyone! These facts are indisputable... or at least they're never disputed by people who want to remain alive!
How could this noble action have backfired so horribly?
Fuck. ¶ 4:49 AM
Friedan down, Hoodie up
I noted recently that Betty Friedan's peculiar brand of sadistic grotesque civilization-destroying tyranny seemed to have moved down a notch on our Toxic Totem Pole Of Suicidal Status, replaced by the alternate civilization-destroying tyranny of We All Hoodie Now.
Decisive proof yesterday in the little flap about Misteromney's spousal unit. Some insane Jew Friedanite knocked Romney's wife for not working, and a hard response came from all sides.
Response from Repooflicans was tribal and meaningless, defending Romney only because It's His Turn. Repooflicans usually take Friedan's side on this issue because vulture capitalists want absolutely everyone working 24 hours a day, earning zero wages, borrowing at infinite interest, and consuming Chinese-made shit. There has always been a quiet but firm alliance between the all-consuming capitalist vultures and the all-consuming Friedanites on the question of female employment. The Friedanites want women working for Stalinist reasons; the vultures for zero labor costs. And so between the two of them they lick the country clean.
Much more meaningful response from Obama himself, and Obama's spousal unit.
When a Dem president AND his wife speak out firmly against a Friedanite on a 'core issue' of Lesbo-Stalinism, you know the game's over. ¶ 3:24 AM
Decisive proof yesterday in the little flap about Misteromney's spousal unit. Some insane Jew Friedanite knocked Romney's wife for not working, and a hard response came from all sides.
Response from Repooflicans was tribal and meaningless, defending Romney only because It's His Turn. Repooflicans usually take Friedan's side on this issue because vulture capitalists want absolutely everyone working 24 hours a day, earning zero wages, borrowing at infinite interest, and consuming Chinese-made shit. There has always been a quiet but firm alliance between the all-consuming capitalist vultures and the all-consuming Friedanites on the question of female employment. The Friedanites want women working for Stalinist reasons; the vultures for zero labor costs. And so between the two of them they lick the country clean.
Much more meaningful response from Obama himself, and Obama's spousal unit.
When a Dem president AND his wife speak out firmly against a Friedanite on a 'core issue' of Lesbo-Stalinism, you know the game's over. ¶ 3:24 AM
Thursday, April 12, 2012
We do not
"We do not prosecute by public pressure or public petition."
Well, half right. No prosecutor ever gives in to WHITE public pressure, because whites don't riot. Every prosecutor always gives in to BLACK public pressure, because blacks riot.
Result: Perfect injustice.
Moral of the story: If you want relative peace and sanity, follow the example of white liberals. Live in a cold place with near-zero black population, a place Al Sharpton doesn't find interesting.
= = = = =
Later thought: Actually the riot/don't riot distinction above is obsolete.
In the last 20 years (specifically since 1992) nearly all mass killings with a political flavor have been done by whites or Orientals. School massacres, vigilante action, Afghan civilians killed by soldiers. Since 1992 black violence has been widespread but 'ordinary', not riotous or political.
Authorities should be reading an error-correction signal from this switchover.
Signal: Whites and Orientals are sensing accurately that the government, culture and media are biased against them. Blacks are sensing accurately that the government, culture and media are serving their ends quite nicely.
Instead of trying to pull out of this skid, the authorities are continually increasing their habitual bias in favor of blacks. Positive (bad) feedback as always. ¶ 7:11 AM
Well, half right. No prosecutor ever gives in to WHITE public pressure, because whites don't riot. Every prosecutor always gives in to BLACK public pressure, because blacks riot.
Result: Perfect injustice.
Moral of the story: If you want relative peace and sanity, follow the example of white liberals. Live in a cold place with near-zero black population, a place Al Sharpton doesn't find interesting.
= = = = =
Later thought: Actually the riot/don't riot distinction above is obsolete.
In the last 20 years (specifically since 1992) nearly all mass killings with a political flavor have been done by whites or Orientals. School massacres, vigilante action, Afghan civilians killed by soldiers. Since 1992 black violence has been widespread but 'ordinary', not riotous or political.
Authorities should be reading an error-correction signal from this switchover.
Signal: Whites and Orientals are sensing accurately that the government, culture and media are biased against them. Blacks are sensing accurately that the government, culture and media are serving their ends quite nicely.
Instead of trying to pull out of this skid, the authorities are continually increasing their habitual bias in favor of blacks. Positive (bad) feedback as always. ¶ 7:11 AM
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Mexican influence
On Point featured a lively history of Mexican food in the USA, with some surprises about its early popularity. Callers narrated their first experience with Mexican food, which pinged me into a memory that was nearly lost.....
I'm pretty sure my mother served canned chili and canned tamales, but she was a terrible cook and everything was the same tasteless mush with different names.
Around 1960 we went out several times to a fairly genuine Mexican restaurant in a little stucco building at Pottawatomie and Manhattan Avenue, next to the Hunter's Island bridge. I'd bet the place had been a just-outside-city-limits roadhouse in earlier times. The interior was dark and grimy, but the food was an absolute epiphany; especially the chili, which was completely unlike anything we had at home. The gustatory equivalent of suddenly seeing in sharp color after a life of blurry B&W, or hearing Schütz after a life of Lawrence Welk.
When I started cooking for myself in the '70s I quickly figured out how to make chili-like concoctions.
Through the '90s and '00s (pretty much my TV-enslaved Republican period) I was trying to eat in a more carnivorous style. Now that I've finally come back to the older pox-on-both mode in thought and the older meatless mode in food, I've also returned to the sensations of that Pottawatomie chili.
They say addiction is a form of nostalgia: you're always trying to recapture that first puff, that first beer, that first love.
By that standard this is undoubtedly nostalgia but it's not addiction. Every spoonful is just as satisfying as the original.
= = = = =
Artistic note: Logically speaking Mr Sun is the one cartoon character, among all conceivable characters, who doesn't need and can't use a sombrero! (How can it protect him from the sun?) But I like the way it looks, so art overrules logic. = = = = = Later: A better map here.
I'm pretty sure my mother served canned chili and canned tamales, but she was a terrible cook and everything was the same tasteless mush with different names.
Around 1960 we went out several times to a fairly genuine Mexican restaurant in a little stucco building at Pottawatomie and Manhattan Avenue, next to the Hunter's Island bridge. I'd bet the place had been a just-outside-city-limits roadhouse in earlier times. The interior was dark and grimy, but the food was an absolute epiphany; especially the chili, which was completely unlike anything we had at home. The gustatory equivalent of suddenly seeing in sharp color after a life of blurry B&W, or hearing Schütz after a life of Lawrence Welk.
When I started cooking for myself in the '70s I quickly figured out how to make chili-like concoctions.
Through the '90s and '00s (pretty much my TV-enslaved Republican period) I was trying to eat in a more carnivorous style. Now that I've finally come back to the older pox-on-both mode in thought and the older meatless mode in food, I've also returned to the sensations of that Pottawatomie chili.
They say addiction is a form of nostalgia: you're always trying to recapture that first puff, that first beer, that first love.
By that standard this is undoubtedly nostalgia but it's not addiction. Every spoonful is just as satisfying as the original.
= = = = =
Artistic note: Logically speaking Mr Sun is the one cartoon character, among all conceivable characters, who doesn't need and can't use a sombrero! (How can it protect him from the sun?) But I like the way it looks, so art overrules logic. = = = = = Later: A better map here.
Labels: Heimatkunde
¶ 7:57 PM
Spring
Finally some warmth after a month of steady rain and chill.
This morning is one of the few times I almost want a camera, though I'm not sure a camera would catch the effect.
Every blade of grass bears a single drop of dew on its tip. The sun is just popping above the housetops. From one angle the grass looks like a field of diamonds. From other angles each drop prisms the sun into a unique and bright color.
This doesn't capture the beauty either, but at least it's a visual image in case the verbal was unclear. Polistra seems to like it. ¶ 7:16 AM
This morning is one of the few times I almost want a camera, though I'm not sure a camera would catch the effect.
Every blade of grass bears a single drop of dew on its tip. The sun is just popping above the housetops. From one angle the grass looks like a field of diamonds. From other angles each drop prisms the sun into a unique and bright color.
This doesn't capture the beauty either, but at least it's a visual image in case the verbal was unclear. Polistra seems to like it. ¶ 7:16 AM
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Green hurts poor. Sun rises in morning.
Australian TV reports that the evil carbon tax will eliminate the Salvation Army's tradition of gathering and selling old stuff to employ the homeless.
As usual. Enrich the rich, ruin the poor.
Are you idiot Repooflicans listening? No, you're still going to insist that Green shit is "redistributive" and "socialist". Fuckers. Monsters.
As usual. Enrich the rich, ruin the poor.
Are you idiot Repooflicans listening? No, you're still going to insist that Green shit is "redistributive" and "socialist". Fuckers. Monsters.
Labels: Carbon Cult
¶ 7:02 PM
