Sometimes history doesn't just rhyme
Well, it appears that we are actually OUT of Afghanistan.

This is a positive event whether it was deliberate or not. I was assuming that Biden would do the usual fake pullout "justifying" a massive new war. So far there's no evidence of the latter. We're just OUT.

Every exception to Parkinson is a good thing. Every breakdown in perpetual idiocy is welcome.

Orlov undoubtedly appreciates this specific event. He pointed out that the Soviet failure in Afghanistan precipitated the final death of the USSR. Now the US failure in the SAME Afghanistan is helping our collapse. Not a metaphor, not a rhyme. The same failure in the same place for the same stupid reason.

The media on "both" "sides" are decrying this good event. The R side is predictable, since everything done by D is bad in R's eyes and vice versa. The D criticism is more interesting. They're quoting Bush Junior verbatim, repeating his original idiotic justification for the war, warning that the "terrorists will follow us home."

= = = = =

I want to add a couple of earlier rhymes that aren't generally recognized.

In 1918 we invaded and occupied part of Russia. We were propping up the Mensheviks. When we pulled out, the Bolsheviks immediately won BECAUSE THE MENSHEVIKS WERE SEEN AS FOREIGN OCCUPIERS.

In 1946 we occupied part of China. We were propping up Chiang. When we pulled out, Mao immediately won BECAUSE CHIANG WAS SEEN AS A FOREIGN OCCUPIER.

The same happened in Vietnam.

Now the same has happened in Afghanistan. We invaded and occupied and propped up our own puppet. When we pulled out, the Taliban immediately won BECAUSE OUR PUPPET WAS A FOREIGN OCCUPIER.

103 years of miserable infinitely stupid infinitely deadly poetry.

And I need to add an external rhyme that may be relevant. Bush Junior is coming back into popularity on "both" "sides" of the media. The very same Bush Junior who LAUNCHED THE VIRUS HOLOCAUST IN 2005. Are we seeing a behind-the-scenes coup?

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, infinite STUPID, Parkinson

  ¶ 4:47 AM

  Three Parkinson workarounds
One major problem, maybe the deepest problem and source of most other problems, is the Parkinson loop. Governments and corporations seek only GROWTH, not SERVICE or SOLVING.

When an institution has a healthy negative feedback loop to its customers or citizens, it works to gain more customers and to make the customers richer and better. Seeking profit forces a business to treat its customers and employees well. Loyalty is the key to profit.

Henry Ford, who was NOT a nice altruistic man, expressed this loop clearly. He wanted his employees to be able to buy Fords. So he treated them well, paid them well, and tried to improve their lives. In return they stayed on the job, improved their skills, and performed more efficiently. Loyalty for loyalty, respect for respect.

Now corporations seek GROWTH, so they move fast and break things to maximize SHARE VALUE.

Parkinson is most obvious in bureaucracies, which create problems in order to justify more power and budget to create more problems.

= = = = =

How do we break out of Parkinson? I've discussed two ways extensively.

= = = = =

A strong leader who genuinely wants to solve problems and improve the company or country can break up the structures that maintain the death loop.

FDR knew exactly what he was doing. He was facing the three legs of Deepstate: Banks, Intel agencies, and Activists.

1. On his first day in office he started breaking and constraining the banks.

2. He then repealed Prohibition, which removed the Parkinson loop from FBI and ATF. Those agancies could no longer build gangs to provide "problems" that would be aggravated by building more gangs.

3. He then started to solve the overall economic problem, which relieved the stresses that were driving millions of working-class men into fascist and socialist activism.

= = = = =

I've also discussed an unusual and perhaps unique exception to Parkinson. Trinity House was founded by Henry VIII and still operates with its original purpose intact. In 500 years it never lost track of its PROBLEM-SOLVING goal, never descended into pure growth-loop.

Trinity House succeeds because its income depends strictly and precisely on SOLVING one particular problem. Its purpose is to keep ships safe. It maintains lighthouses and radio beacons, and it has sponsored research in fog warnings, radio communication, and optics. Trinity House is funded by a tax on every commercial ship that docks in Britain. If ships are failing to reach port, its funding decreases. So it runs on a pure and simple profit loop, like a non-stock business.

= = = = =

Yesterday I noticed a third workaround while thinking about Brahe's work.

Tycho thus fits firmly into the tradition of Follies that serve science. Follies fade quickly after the rich owner dies, but the contributions to the work of other scholars remain and grow.

An institution that fades can't undergo the Parkinson process. Unlike bureaucracies and foundations, it can't turn to crime and corruption. The product grows without interference from the now-corrupt institution.

This is Nature's way of avoiding Parkinson. A person or a company or a bureaucracy dies when its purpose is done. The influence, if carefully cultivated by heirs and successors, can remain and grow, seeding more service and solving.

We've been blocking two of those natural deaths. We no longer allow a major company to go bankrupt when it loses its connection to customers. We maintain the loop by bailing out the worst and most destructive companies. And we never repeal a bad law or dissolve a bad agency. We just keep pumping more money into the evil monsters.

And we partially block the function of personal death by keeping old monsters in office long after they should have retired. Within an institution, retirement breaks the personal blackmail loop of a demon. Younger executives take his place, starting fresh on blackmail. Occasionally one of the new executives may even turn out to be a problem-solver like FDR or Putin.

Labels: Parkinson

  ¶ 8:03 AM

  Might be worth reading
Review of a book that might be worth reading. 'Speechless' by Michael Knowles.

From the review:

In abiding by such speech codes for the sake of politeness, Knowles argues that conservatives unwittingly cede the core of their arguments to progressives.

Not sure about this. PC censors have always been around, and there's always a way to state the truth without breaking a speech code. Especially true now when most censorship is done automatically by AI. When you use forbidden words you will be censored AUTOMATICALLY and nobody will get to read what you say. When you say it without the forbidden words, you stand a better chance of being published. AI is literal and mechanistic. AI doesn't get metaphors and fables. (Come to think of it, human censors were always literal and mechanistic. Metaphors and fables have always been workarounds.)

Stronger point:

To undermine political correctness, Knowles urges conservatives to move toward a more muscular form of argument capable of accusing the Left of more than mere hypocrisy. “Politically correct radicals have committed a greater offense than hypocrisy,” he writes, “they have redefined vice as virtue and virtue as vice.”

Consider the Right’s response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dinner at the French Laundry in violation of his own coronavirus guidelines. Newsom was certainly hypocritical to violate his own lockdown regime, a fact that conservatives were quick to acknowledge. More important than pointing out Newsom’s hypocrisy, however, was stating that the governor’s guidance inflicted untold social and economic misery on the residents of California. The conservatives who focused on Newsom’s hypocrisy to the exclusion of the underlying principle at stake ironically helped to validate the governor’s lockdowns.

Well, it's not ironic. The Repooflican cowards clearly want the lockdowns just as much as Newsom and Inslee and Whitmer. Bezos is a LIBERTARIAN, not a socialist. Repooflicans understood that their Randian hero Bezos was the main economic beneficiary of the lockdowns. Some legislators also received nice juicy bribes to maintain their approval.

Knowles does hit the important point. Lockdowns and muzzles are a HOLOCAUST designed to destroy immunity and confidence, and to destroy real science and real medicine. A perfect reversal of vice and virtue.

I've been pointing out that these off-camera moments illustrate KNOWLEDGE, not hypocrisy. The rulers KNOW that the lockdowns and muzzles have nothing to do with viruses, and they KNOW that there's no real epidemic or real risk. They live according to their ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE, not according to the murderous rules they impose on the peasants.

THEY KNOW IT'S A HOAX BECAUSE THEY MADE THE HOAX.

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, endless hell

  ¶ 12:40 AM

  Good question.
A good question seen on Quora:

Can our immune system kill insects?

Obvious answer: No.

But when you step back and ask why not, the question gets more interesting.

Plants have an immune system that does repel and kill insects, in complex and effective ways. When an insect starts chewing on a leaf, the plant sends toxins through its circulatory system to repel the bug. And then the plant tells its neighbors to start fighting this type of insect. The signal goes through stolons or through fungal 'wires' or through the air, depending on how the plant is connected up.

Why do animals lack a similar ability?

I can only think of one reason, which is unsatisfying.

Mammals and birds can shake off an insect, or knock it off with a leg or tail or beak. But this doesn’t seem nearly as effective as the plant method.

Labels: asked and worth asking again, Grand Blueprint

  ¶ 10:32 PM

  Astrometeorology 7, Brahe's Star Castle
In the 1500s Europeans were starting to pull away from Rome's monopoly on power and thought. Tycho Brahe was a rich aristocrat who became fascinated by Arab and Persian astronomy. He shared the Islamic motive of learning how the universe ticks (literally) so we could predict and align our activities better with the universe. His aristocratic rank enabled him to get a commission from King Frederick of Denmark to build an official observatory, initially to improve timekeeping.

From David King's history:

He became interested in astronomy after observing a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the cause, he thought, of the great plague in 1563. He found that planetary tables were in error by several days, and there and then decided to make their improvement his prime concern.

In 1576 Tycho started building his Star Castle, following Islamic architecture and Islamic instruments as seen at Maragha, but with improved and enlarged instruments for better accuracy.







The function of the domes is unclear. King says they housed some of the instruments, guarding against wind and weather.... but the drawings from Tycho's book seem to show solid roofs, not retractable or glass roofs. Two of the circles have semi-open 'gratings' over them, which would probably be sufficient. The big dome has a semi-open chamber at the top, but the ribs would block practical use.

The floor plan of the underground part is clear. An adit on the left led downstairs to the rectangular middle part, which served as a residence for the technician. Passages from the middle led to the observation chambers, which might have housed instruments.



I've included several of the instruments aboveground for visibility.

First, the default structure was just a rotatable globe with some kind of mounting on top. The globe was protected by a cone when not in use. Experimental instruments could be mounted on the globe and rotated to various angles. An astronomical breadboard.



There were several armillary spheres, mainly for calculation and visualization, not for sighting.



The Islamic instruments had alidades instead of lenses. Tycho continued the practice, and improved the accuracy with a vernier marking on top, anticipating the tick marks in later sidereal time instruments.

One of the Maragha instruments:



Tycho's version of a simple altitude sight:



This machine had a fine worm-gear crank to adjust with greater precision:



The Quadrant Magnus, with both altitude and azimuth adjustments:



Quadrant in use, sighting a star through the alidade:



The Sextant had three axes of adjustment, altitude and azimuth and a separate rotation of the alidade.



The Sextant in use:



An equatorial instrument pivoted on a 23 degree axis, anticipating the more complex equatorials of the 1800s. It had two independent alidades, for use in opposite directions.



Polistra thinks this instrument would have been hard to use!



What happened to the Star Castle? Again from David King:

Tycho had an imperious and fiery disposition which made him many enemies among the nobles of Denmark, especially those who envied him his large estate and high salary. After his benefactor's death, these individuals naturally counselled the young King Christian against his father's astronomer, already in some disfavour for having ill-treated one of his tenants.** After the coronation of King Christian in 1596, Tycho found his allowances gradually curtailed, even to the pension, so that he felt, as never before, that both he and his work were unwanted.

Eventually, his troubles became so acute that he was happy to leave Hveen, taking with him servants, students, instruments, and printing-press. After a short stay in Copenhagen, he left Denmark for ever, seeking safe domicile in Rostock, Wandsbeck, and Wittenburg until, worn out in body and spirit, he settled in Prague.

The castle's decay was hastened by his successors, who appear to have pulled down some parts in order to provide building material for new dwelling-houses. By 1652, there was scarcely any trace of the original buildings.

Tycho thus fits firmly into the tradition of Follies that serve science. Follies fade quickly after the rich owner dies, but the contributions to the work of other scholars remain and grow.

An institution that fades can't undergo the Parkinson process. Unlike bureaucracies and foundations, it can't turn to crime and corruption. The product grows without interference from the now-corrupt institution.

= = = = =

** Footnote: Can you imagine a modern aristocrat receiving disfavor for ill-treating one of his tenants? Now it's the other way around. Aristocrats lose Share Value when they accidentally treat their tenants and employees decently. Only ill-treatment is allowed.

= = = = =

Keeping track of the links so far:

Intro: Opening the doors again

2: James Ferguson

3: From Ferguson to Kepler

4: Maragha and astrolabes

5: Qibla

6: Back to Europe

7: Brahe's star castle (this item)

Labels: 2000=1000, Entertainment, Equipoise, Metrology, Parkinson

  ¶ 2:09 PM

  Another meme that hits the point

Labels: 2000=1000

  ¶ 1:33 AM

  Afghanistan weirdness
Biden fakely pulled out some of our troops so we could justify sending more troops back in. This was drably predictable. Parkinson. Create a problem so we can waste more money creating it again.

We never leave a country after we invade it. We always occupy forever. Leaving is unthinkable because leaving ends the flow of money to the Pentagon and mercenaries. Parkinson.

The media response to this predictable move is NOT predictable. I don't watch regular media, but Quora typically gives a good echo. Quora bots are flooding the zone with messages favoring a hard and heavy return to Afghanistan to obliterate the Taliban. A verbatim repeat of Bush's idiotic message in 2001. If we don't wipe out the terrorists, the terrorists will follow us home.

In Persuasion, Jonathan Rauch defends our 20-year occupation and says it was worth the effort. Rauch has been a clear and objective observer of politics for a LONG time. He has been uniquely correct about many important trends. But he's missing the point on this one.

I'm VASTLY less wise than Rauch. I take entirely too long to figure out political crap. But this particular piece of crap was obvious even to my dull mind, four years before I got rid of the whole anti-Islam poison.

Later: I've been narrowing down my input too much. Mental OCD, trying to ward off all hints of tyranny. Broadening the horizon and looking at some comments on other videos about Afghanistan, it's clear that the vast majority of people understand the futility and stupidity of the war. Many of them are seeing it in Parkinson terms. Experts who try to defend the war are given no slack.

Later again: Now I'm seeing some Quora questions that openly idolize Bush by name. Makes me think these are generated by an organization serving the Bush family. In other words, CIA.

Labels: Bemusement, Parkinson

  ¶ 8:10 PM

  New record for converging to orthodoxy
Saagar and Krystal started their Breaking Points show about one month ago. They made a good start in the direction of independence, bashing CNN and MSNBC and FOX equally. Today they converged to MSNBC. As fucking usual. I wasted $10 on a subscription, always hoping to get value for money. Should have known better. Independence is always fake. Canceled.

This really fits into the category of editing and selecting. The converging episode wasn't their own work, it was some other asshole. They selected it as suitable for their brand.

When people pay for a magazine or a show or a food product, they are paying for a container of a specific substance. When the jar is labeled as gluten-free, the jar shouldn't contain wheat. When the jar is labeled CNN-free and FOX-free, the jar must NEVER include anything that could be seen on CNN or FOX. Otherwise why bother paying for the jar?

Labels: Editors, infinite STUPID

  ¶ 1:54 PM

  Breeds, not species
Previous item mentioned the Neanderthal tribe. Here's a new DNA finding about the Denisovan tribe.

Neanderthals seem to have become most of Europe, especially around modern France and Germany. Denisovans seem to have become part of Polynesia, in the Phillipines and New Guinea.

Viewing these groups as tribes or breeds is more logical and 'orthogonal' than the standard Darwinian species division.

Breeds happen as a result of selective breeding. They're not stages on a timeline.

Thinking in dog terms removes some of the overlay. Denisovans are Labradors. Nice, loyal, always aiming toward friendship. Neanderthals are German (of course) Shepherds. Strict, organized, hierarchical.

Other major groups would be Oriental, Middle East, Siberian/American, African. These would have been forming in the same era as the Denisovans and Neanderthals from an earlier 'wolf' stock.

Dog breeds were formed by the EXTERNAL influence of human culture. Human breeds were formed by the INTERNAL influence of human culture.

In this view, each of the groups was formed BY CULTURE, through assortative and selective mating.
  ¶ 6:38 AM

  Dropping wells
UD has mentioned again the 'color fountain' that seems to have been a religious or cultural focus for humans of the Neanderthal tribe. On the previous mention I connected the material of red ochre with its long religious and cultural significance.

This time the 'color fountain' reminded me of something else. The Dropping Well of Harrogate, which was beautifully dramatized by Hix in 1940.

An older reference to the well leads into a specific religious and cultural connection that didn't seem important when I had discussed the well before. In 2017 the well's petrification talents seemed more important. Now the colors seem more important.

The first in importance is the Harrogate Dropping Well, the most remarkable spring known in Great Britain. Situated in what is known as the Long Walk, and close to a part of the river's course where the intermixed charms of rock, wood, and water, combine to render the scene one of great beauty, the tourist whilst wending his way to this noted spring, enjoy that sequestration and repose which, according to local tradition, proved so fascinating to that celebrated Yorkshire sibyl, Mother Shipton.

Mother Shipton is reported to have been born near the Dropping Well in July, 1488, and here is still shown the cave in which she is said to have worked her charms, composed her rhymes, divined her mysterious prophecies, and told credulouis folk their fortunes.

Here's a strongly written biography of Mother Shipton.

When Nature displays beauty that seems to have significance, humans will always try to read it and seek its advice, directly or through a paid translator.

Beacons are crucial in crazy times like 1488 and 2021, when imbecilic insane demonic rulers smash civilizations for their own perverse pleasure. Some seek beacons in the stars, others seek geological beacons.

Labels: 2000=1000, Equipoise, Metrology

  ¶ 11:02 PM

  Restoring sanity....
I took an extra walk to clear out the NAZI DEMON vapors and restore sanity after the NAZI STOMP.

Normal humans, both black and white, are sitting on porches and doing lawn work. Nice sanity. I should resume the habit of extra walks, which I stopped in June when afternoons got too hot.

A neighbor has a brand new Subaru with a bumper sticker:

Destroy the patriarchy, not the planet

Well, let's see how the purchase accomplished the goal. Subaru is a Japanese company, and Japan is one of the few remaining real patriarchies in the world. Women have specific subordinate roles. Buying a new car uses vastly more materials and energy than keeping an old car. Driving a car uses oil from Saudi, another REAL patriarchy, and oil from Texas, viewed as a patriarchy by the hippie idiots. We don't buy any oil from 'progressive' countries or states.

Good work! Subsidizing an actual patriarchy and wasting material and energy!

This is an old and tired trick. Back in '68 my rich roommate drove his Mercedes to an Alpo dog food plant, along with many other rich hippies in Cadillacs, to protest the "fact" that poor people had to eat Alpo. Aside from the obvious irony, canned dog food is more expensive than Campbell's Soup, so poor people DON'T eat dog food.

Fortunately this type of slogan is so stupid that even the hippies eventually realize what they're doing.

Labels: Bemusement, Equipoise

  ¶ 9:08 AM

  NAZI DEMONS ADVANCING
The muzzle situation in stores hasn't really changed despite Demon Inslee's latest "recommendation". The signs still say Muzzle Encouraged, and the customers are still mostly unmuzzled.

This morning the muzzle situation on the bus abruptly got worse.

For 14 fucking months I've been obediently wearing my homemade muzzle, which does everything a muzzle is "supposed" to do. This morning an officious FEMALE (of course) DEMON suddenly decided that only official muzzles are allowed. I had to pull out one of their official ballgags and put it on. I cussed at the demon, who disapproved of the cussing but didn't toss me off.

The official muzzle actually doesn't cover the nose and mouth as well as my homemade version, so there is (of course) no reason to prefer it except RULES RULES RULES RULES RULES.

NAZI DEMONS. NAZI HOLOCAUSTERS.

FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES, FORCE OBEDIENCE, CHANGE THE RULES,

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, endless hell, infinite infinite infinite evil, Jackboot stomping forever

  ¶ 7:38 AM

  Not me? No, me.
For several years Academia.edu has been teasing me with 'mentions' of my name. A few months ago I finally bought a membership, which has proved TREMENDOUSLY valuable in finding interesting historical works that aren't available elsewhere. My current astrometeorology stuff is based on material found through Academia.

With membership comes the ability to see those mentions up close, and mark which of them are really me. Today's batch of 'mentions' finally includes some definite NOT MEs along with some recognizable cites of my work.

The doppelganger has the same last name and the same first initial, a highly unusual combination. I can't see the first name, which may be different. The team and the location are people and places I've never known.

And then I looked more closely at the team, which initially seemed to be all unfamiliar. The lead author was a Korean who had been in the Penn State acoustics lab when I was working there, and the project itself was familiar, even though it was written up later in a different place.

Me after all. No doppelganger.
  ¶ 6:26 AM

  More accuracy
I'm encouraged when I see hints of a trend away from holocaustal orthodoxy. Last week I noted this James Hankins essay on the decadence of philosophy.

Nathan Smith writes on the decadence of economics as an academic field. He slams the mind-destroying effects of tenure:

Moreover, it remains hard to open people’s eyes to the stupidity of much empirical economics, because the econometrics treadmill is useful as a make-work and credentialing program for tenure seekers.

“Publishing” is really the wrong word for what journals do in the age of SSRN. They certify work, for a fee, the return on which may consist in a “peer-reviewed” publication leading to tenure.

If journals are sometimes as boring to read as a stack of resumes, that’s because they largely serve the same function. Job applications masquerade as science because perverse customs make original scholarship—however trivial, wrong, and/or unread that scholarship may be. That’s the price of admission to a career explaining demand, supply, and market equilibrium to undergraduates.

Job applications masquerading as science. On the fucking dot.

Concluding, Smith approaches my theme of science as entertainment, attempting to rebuild science as a hobby outside of the OFFICIAL TEMPLE OF WAR AND GENOCIDE.

What do you do when the emperor has no clothes? Other people need to step up and provide leadership. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Enlightenment sprang not from established universities, but from gentleman soldiers and courtiers and statesmen, popular writers and clergymen, bohemians and sponges, who boldly called themselves philosophers and lived up to the name. Today, similarly, economics’ best hopes lie in uncredentialed economists from business, journalism, and government, abetted by academic mavericks.

Now that we see where the Enlightenment led, it's time for a counter-enlightenment. The enlightenment bred the myth of Free Will and Meritocracy, which allowed psychopathic monsters to justify their holocausts. It began immediately with the French Terror in 1789, and continued seamlessly through the "Virus" Terror of 2020.

The pre-1700 idea of reality was accurate. The universe has unchanging resonances. Our job is not to defy the universe and create chaos. Our job is to find and measure the real resonances and try to swing with them, joyfully and loosely.

LOOK ABOUT YOU.
TAKE HOLD OF THE THINGS THAT ARE HERE.
TALK TO THEM.
LET THEM TALK TO YOU.

Labels: Carver, Entertainment, Equipoise

  ¶ 10:03 AM

  Seen unbeauty
This outfit has been advertising its "services" lately. They're latching onto the trend of super-rich securitization of "art". As usual they're trying to suck in some not-so-rich suckers.



ART?

No actual designer would ever produce this shit, even on his worst day.

This is evidence of serious brain damage. That's all you can say about it.

The real tragedy is that THOUSANDS of EXCELLENT artists are working their hearts out, trying to sell in places like Etsy, and making small amounts of money. Some are able to survive full-time, most aren't.

All the money and power belongs to brain damaged bloody psychopaths.

This is a definitive and comprehensive diagnosis of our current situation.

Labels: Editors, Sucker Filter

  ¶ 6:05 AM

  Unseen beauty
Continuing the AMC theme. Dick Teague took over Rambler styling from the clumsy Ed Anderson, and immediately started to improve things. The '63 Rambler was perfect.

The '70 Hornet and Gremlin were neat and respectable but not beautiful. Respectable is what Rambler buyers wanted, so the Hornet lasted 17 years through rebranding as Concord and Eagle.

Every designer has bad days, and the Pacer was Teague's only major bad day.



This is the '79, already failed in the market. Ugly was only part of the problem. It failed to fulfill the AMC brand promise. Small but overweight. Poor gas economy. Poor use of space. The extreme outside width didn't help the interior dimensions, and the engine compartment lumped into the passenger area. (I rode in a Pacer often in '76 while carpooling to work, and it felt cramped. There wasn't enough room for your head or your feet.)

You can't blame designers for a bad product. You have to blame the managers who should have been sensitive to the needs of their specific customers. Smart managers would have known that Teague could do better, and would have urged him to try a different way.

At the same time Teague was improving the Hornet/Concord into a perfect design that I've never seen in real life.



This Concord hatchback is PERFECT and TIMELESS. Every shape is perfectly harmonious, every piece of trim and color and texture is just right. I'm hesitant to dethrone the '53 Studie goddess, but this just might do it.

Only a few of them were sold, for good reasons. AMC was struggling, and needed to focus tightly on the somewhat successful Hornet and Jeep lines. No spare money to push a sporty type.

Labels: Editors

  ¶ 11:39 PM

  More zombies
Random note while I'm thinking about those skeletal burning ascetics, and thinking about Chicago.

I happened to notice a picture of the current mayor of Chicago. THIS IS A ZOMBIE. A skeleton kept "alive" by a BURNING NEED TO EAT BRAINS.

More important random note, thinking about Bush Junior's original orders to Mecher along with the ascetic zombies. Chertoff was head of the Homeland Gestapo at that time. Another skeleton. Did he play a major part in initiating the holocaust? He doesn't seem to be mentioned in Lewis's hagiography, but that doesn't mean much.

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, Asked and unanswered

  ¶ 10:42 PM

  Constants and Variables 166, Hazel edition
Woke fuckheads have always been around. Ascetic utopian reformers who need to PURIFY their own bodies and PURIFY the world of all heresies and heretics and People We Don't Like.

That's the constant.

The variable is how the rest of society responds to these demons. Today's Cancel shit is the worst possible response, mechanically granting their every insane wish.

Here's a good example of a SANE response from 1944. In this episode of 'It Pays to be Ignorant', Shirley Booth is the special guest. Later, of course, Booth became famous on TV as Hazel. In '44 she was typecast as a sassy Joisey Goil.

She announces that she has invaded the program on behalf of All American Womanhood, To Protest The Unfair And Inhumane Treatment Of Regular Panelist Lulu McConnell.


Booth: "The things you say to, and about, Miss McConnell, are a slight to American Womanhood."

Host: Well, Miss Booth, let me ask you, have you ever met Miss McConnell?

Booth: No, but nobody could be as fat and homely and dumb as you say Miss McConnell is.

Host: I see. Well, that's Miss McConnell sitting there beside you.

Booth: Huh? Oh..... So it is..... Perhaps we were a little hasty.


The point is simple. Utopian fantasies and utopian indignation are harder to sustain when you're faced with plain reality.

Giving utopians a dose of plain old reality still works pretty well.

Labels: Constants and Variables

  ¶ 10:12 PM

  Nonbarking Cuomo
Just carrying on a tradition of noticing nonbarks. Cuomo's resignation seems to have caused a remarkably small ripple in the media world. Admittedly I no longer accept direct media input, but my indirect echoes "should" have been picking up louder sounds.

Krystal and Saagar had been focusing intensely on the gradual erosion of Cuomo's authority. So far they haven't uploaded a piece on the actual resignation. The usual Twitterites are also paying little or no attention.

Maybe it's the old 'Buy the rumor, sell the news.' Rumors and potentials stir more anxiety than completed events, so rumors are bigger stories.

Or maybe the resignation is closely related to brother Chris, who is a 'star' on CNN. Media would be circling the wagons to protect their own.

In general a resignation "for sexual harassment" is a front for other reasons that can't be stated publicly, or wouldn't look important enough to list publicly. In bureaucracies a "sexual" firing usually means the official simply didn't get along with his superiors and subordinates. At the level of governors and presidents, the real reason is more serious.

Labels: Bemusement

  ¶ 2:24 PM

  Mecher and risk
Lewis's hagiography of Savior God Supreme Angelic Lord Carter Mecher only answers part of the important historical questions, but has some useful insights about personality.

The unique power of PERSONALITY became lethally clear in 2020. I was already well aware that status and popularity and good and evil are innate, but I still had some illusions that systems and structures could constrain personality. 2020 proved that innate personal power is ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. No system intervened to stop the holocausters. No system prevented the rare GUTSY opponents from opposing. It was ALL about innate character.

As told by Lewis, Mecher's rise to power was classic psychopath. He was BORED STIFF in environments without extreme danger and extreme risk. He found his calling as an emergency room doctor. Soon he got bored with single emergencies and wanted to be around #Whole-of-society emergencies. He found his calling as Bioterror Commander, creating fake worldwide risks and exerting personal power to kill everyone and eliminate the fake risk.

The ultimate psychopath job within the medical realm.

= = = = =

I'm thinking back to the '70s and '80s when I was involved in hippie-type causes and projects, and more generally involved with people.

I figured out the innateness of status a long time ago. I hadn't connected it with risk until the Lewis book bridged the gap.

Low-status people are low-risk people. High-status people are high-risk people.

Highs are constantly taking risks and inviting Lows to go along. Lows, if they know their own limits, refuse to go along. Highs then mock Lows as cowards.

The correlation is clear, but the causation isn't. I think it's partly learned. When I was younger I did sometimes take 'heroic' risks to help others. The result was drably predictable: Lectures and punishment. I stopped taking risks and stopped trying to help.

At the same time I saw the Highs doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING IN THE SAME SITUATION and getting rewarded and admired instead of punished and lectured.

This is somewhat parallel to the Cinderella prank. Highs write myths that convince Lows to attempt the risk of romance, knowing full well that the Low will be shunned and punished for his attempt. The High can then move in and do EXACTLY THE SAME THING, gaining even more respect and sex by comparison with the miserable intolerable SAME ACTION by the Low.

Labels: #WholeOfSociety, From rights to duties

  ¶ 7:09 AM