The entire world ran without the internet until a few years ago.

London had something like ten mail deliveries a day before the telephone was invented.

“The Man In The Iron Mask” talks about the French semaphore towers.

I remember a trailer where they show you the elevator doors and a narrator talks about Stephen King and the genius of Kubrick and then the doors open. Nothing else.

[off topic?]

Ever seen ‘Time Bandits?’ The original, not the one with Kudrow

There’s nothing particularly nsfw in it, but I think a couple of young girls would find it very cool.

The situation today is nowhere near as bad as the Cold War.

Think of it this way. All of the 0.01%ers in china, USA and Russia share the same tastes and values. Think any of them are really hot to blow up their nice places on the Rivera?

[off topic]

There’s at least one store I know of in New York City that’s been making money off of doing VCR repairs for decades. A lot of companies invested in big video displays back in the day and it would cost far more to replace everything than it does to keep the antique tech going.

Some people are still learning Cobol.

https://www.cio.com/article/240709/why-its-time-to-learn-cobol.html

If you can find a niche tech like that it would make sense.

William Gibson pointed out that during the Depression someone could buy a workshirt for about 35 cents and wear it every day to the coal mine, until it was time to pass it on to their kid.

I kind of think that lloyd’s of London starting as a coffee shop sort of proves that argument.

Nice story. Thank you for posting it

Years ago I picked up the book ‘Gone Girl.’ I got about twenty pages into it and put it down because I couldn’t stand the smug, entitled yuppie narrator.

Later, I watched and enjoyed the movie, and read some of the author’s other books.

It made me realize what a good writer she is; she made me hate a character so much that I couldn’t read the book.

Older than you are and worth looking at. [available on Youtube]

The Prisoner. Imagine if Ian Fleming and Franz Kafka got together to do a TV show. A government official resigns and is immediately kidnapped. He wakes up in The Village; a lovely little place with nice views, great food, plenty of fun things to do, and no possible escape.

I, Claudius. A very young Patrick Stewart is the least reason to watch this reenactment of the first five Roman emperors.

Connections. Non-fiction. Wonderfully entertaining and informative. The creator’s premise is that scientific progress is almost never straight forward. Coffee houses open in London = coffee houses become popular places to do business = coffee house customers join together to invest in ships to the New World = the new ‘companies’ begin looking for ways to make their ships safer = they start to invest in making pine tar to protect the ships = add two hundred years and you have insurance companies and the chemical industry

It was amazing, then got weak after Dalton left. mho

As long as Asimov’s Three Laws are built in, I’m okay with it.

[off topic]

Back during the 1976 Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garde, the NYPD said it would arrest any unescorted woman near the place. Feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan organized middle class white ladies to show up and demand they be arrested for being ‘unescorted.’

I’d try an actual tech site. I’m still using a tower with a CD drive and banging rocks together to send messages.

Anecdote

Boss says he called twenty people in for an interview at 7 am. Hired the one person who stayed until 9 pm because they showed persistence.

People in comments said he hire the person who was most desperate.

The flip side is that workers are getting treated worse.

I hear about people having to go through three or four rounds of job interviews, and having their social media scoured. There are fewer and fewer non-corporate jobs, and forget about a boss who pays you off the books.

Not even going to start on the fact that money is pretty worthless

Just a guess, but I’d think that a smart person who is ESL will read more good books than their native language peers. When you write you imitate the style of the people you’ve read. The native speakers are reading comic books and the ESLs are reading the classics.

Again, mho

My favorite Jolie story.

Lauren Ridloff is deaf. She was having problems with her cues in ‘The Eternals.’ Jolie told the director to use a laser pointer and then clean it up in post-production.

Also, they had to use her own kid in Maleficent because she was scaring all the other children.

Don’t compare your blooper reel with other people’s highlights.

Also, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie split up about twenty years ago and that relationship is still creating drama

As long as sex work is illegal, it will be easy for people to find ways to abuse sex workers.