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scrub jay at my feeder
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Monday, October 14, 2024
Robot Killers
Should we allow AI weapons to decide when and who to kill?
The U.S. does not ban companies from making fully autonomous lethal weapons nor does it explicitly ban them from selling such things to foreign countries. Last year, the U.S. released updated guidelines for AI safety in the military that have been endorsed by many U.S. allies and requires top military officials to approve of any new autonomous weapon; yet the guidelines are voluntary (Anduril said it is committed to following the guidelines), and U.S. officials have continuously said it’s “not the right time” to consider any binding ban on autonomous weapons.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Banana walnut scones with a maple glaze and chocolate chips for the wife.
It's a semi lazy Sunday and I decided to bake some scones before I tackle making dinner tonight. I asked Leslie if she wanted blueberry cranberry again and she yawned, said I should come up with something new.
I get it, I was just wanting to use up the frozen blueberries in the freezer and save myself a trip to the store. But it got me to thinking; I have made a lot of scones, peach scones, nectarine scones, ginger scones, apple scones, strawberry scones, cranberry scones, blackberry scones, ollalaberry scones, raspberry scones, bacon scones, just what the heck was left?
And then it hit me, I had never made banana scones before. Did such a thing even exist? Actually, after looking, there are quite a few recipes for banana scones out there and many cooks say it is their best scone. Evidently, people like bananas a whoIe bunch. I amalgamated two recipes I found that deviated substantially from anything I have ever made before.
I went to Northgate and bought two kinds of mini mexican banana, one called a burro, or donkey banana. I bought their bananas last week and they are super sweet and better than you can get at a gringo supermarket.
The recipe did not call for cream or half and half as it usually does and I substituted Greek yogurt. This was supposed to make it less runny. I added more flour and baking powder than usual.
I mashed the bananas with a fork and then added the egg, vanilla and yogurt with just a touch of cream and used my mixer to get it smooth, then popped the mixing bowl in the freezer while I worked the dry ingredients.
It also called for an extra tablespoon of the frozen butter which I grated into the dry mix after adding the walnuts. I omitted any white sugar and added two kinds of brown but kept it fairly light since my yogurt had honey in it.
I plopped it on my silicone sheet and started cutting out the scones, adding chocolate chips to Leslie's, who is an unrepentant chocoholic. Popped it in the 375 oven for 22 minutes and voila!
I took a sautee pan and melted two tablespoons of butter and the rest of the pure maple syrup I had on hand, about a quarter cup. Need to restock or I will catch it from my spouse. I then whisked the bubbly mixture with confectioner sugar and drizzled it over my cooling scones.
I made thirteen but think round numbers sound better so I ate lucky # 13 to give the bake my seal of approval and make things square.
They are certainly delicious, the icing is killer. These will not last long. I am your banana mana.
Fractals and nature's complexity
It was the first really cold day of the year this morning. I welcome it. I wandered out to my garden to see what was up.
There are some unusual and pretty blooms right now.
Or should say, preblooming, because soon it will be sporting a magnificent peppermint colored spike!
Initially the interior leaves turn scarlet red.
This should also be an interesting bloom when it unfurls.
I walked in the preserve this morning, was grokking the white sage when I caught my sneaker on a rock and hurtled forward, catching myself in prone position before I suffered even a minor tragedy.
But it was close.
Same plant, same family.
But then again, you might have a brother or sister that is tall and brunette and you might be short and blond.
I have seen mountain lions almost black or chocolate brown and others that were tawny and pale.
Same wide variety in red tailed hawks.
One plant flowers in May the other says, hey, lets wait until October!
Nature is a trip!
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Stop, don't go
It is Yom Kippor. I am fasting and resting after yesterday's cystoscopy. Things looked pretty good, test results back in three weeks. Fingers crossed.
He has been a Coronado crossing guard for the last 16 years.
I'm not working today, taking the day off to reflect and heal.
I'm also actually live streaming the services from Beth Israel.
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Our power went off yesterday afternoon.
So happy it was restored a few hours later, thoughts of a new freezer full of beef slightly freaking me out.
I have been on a samurai movie jag of late.
When the lights came back, I finished the 47 Ronin story from 1941, Chushingura.
I watched Yojimbo, Seven Samurai and Throne of blood as well last week.
Began Musashi, one of my favorite books, which no movie has ever done justice.
My uncle Eli Rubenstein loved these flicks.
Last week I was watching spaghetti westerns. Fistful of dollars was Eastwood's first Sergio Leone movie, 1964. When the movie came out, Kurosawa sent him a demand letter for 15% of the gate, which he actually paid.
You see he had stolen the story directly from Yojimbo. Like Magnificent Seven was pilfered for Seven Samurai. The TMC channel has a pretty good Criterion collection of these flicks.
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Jeff sent this northern lights shot from Fairbanks. He said that he has never seen red in the aurora before.
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Killing solar in Ohio.
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People with TDS like me will enjoy the Trumpy Trout video. Thanks for sending it over, Ralph.
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Why people think they are always right.
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You know people like me that think that they know all the answers? Well, sometimes they just think they do, even when they only have half the information. Interesting new study, The illusion of information inadequacy.
...in the bias of naïve realism people assume that their subjective construal of a situation represents objective truth. The present study adds an important assumption to this list of biases: the illusion of information adequacy. Specifically, because individuals rarely pause to consider what information they may be missing, they assume that the cross-section of relevant information to which they are privy is sufficient to adequately understand the situation. Participants in our preregistered study (N = 1261) responded to a hypothetical scenario in which control participants received full information and treatment participants received approximately half of that same information. We found that treatment participants assumed that they possessed comparably adequate information and presumed that they were just as competent to make thoughtful decisions based on that information. Participants’ decisions were heavily influenced by which cross-section of information they received. Finally, participants believed that most other people would make a similar decision to the one they made.
On a similar topic, Cognitive biases and brain biology explain why facts don't change minds.
Facts First” is the tagline of a CNN branding campaign which contends that “once facts are established, opinions can be formed.” The problem is that while it sounds logical, this appealing assertion is a fallacy not supported by research.
Cognitive psychology and neuroscience studies have found that the exact opposite is often true when it comes to politics: People form opinions based on emotions, such as fear, contempt and anger, rather than relying on facts. New facts often do not change people’s minds.
Partly to blame is a cognitive bias that can kick in when people encounter evidence that runs counter to their beliefs. Instead of reevaluating what they’ve believed up until now, people tend to reject the incompatible evidence. Psychologists call this phenomenon belief perseverance. Everyone can fall prey to this ingrained way of thinking.
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People who know it all are actually quite dumb and often wrong - study.
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Why incompetent people think they are superior - The Dunning Kruger effect.
The basic idea behind the Dunning-Kruger effect is this: if you don't know something, you also don't have the ability to recognize that you don't know it.
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Have a good weekend.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Watching The Wheels
I was listening to this acoustic version of Lennon's Watching the Wheels the other day when I couldn't help notice how much his guitar work on the track sounds like Neil Young.
I can't think of another Lennon song where he uses hammer ons and pull offs like this, it is really nice, very Sugar Mountain to my ear. Lot of elaborate fingerstyle that I can't recall him ever indulging in again. Classic Harvest/ After the Gold Rush style picking and playing.
And its sort of funny because if the nexus I suggest is accurate, not all the Beatles liked Young, in fact George despised his playing. They all loved the equally facile Apple signee James Taylor but not Neil.
Here's George:
In 1992, While Harrison was in the studio working on a recording of his 1975 song “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)” from Extra Texture with Eurythmics‘ Dave Stewart, Bob Geldof was in the studio and brought up Young and “Around the World,” which Harrison shot down.When Geldof asked Harrison if he heard the live version of “Around The World,” Harrison said “I’m not a Neil Young fan. “I hate it. Yeah, I can’t stand it.” Geldof mentioned that he liked Young’s 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, and Harrison added, “It’s mainly his [Young’s] voice. I liked some of his songs but I hated the sound of his voice, his singing is even worse than me.”Harrison then imitated Young’s guitar style and added, “It’s good for a laugh,” then referenced his 1992 Bobfest performance with Young, Clapton, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn on Dylan’s 1964 “My Back Pages.”“We did this show with him [Young],” said Harrison. “I saw it from the other side of the stage and looked around, I looked at Eric and said ‘What’s going on?’ He did the solo in the middle then he kind of looked at me like – ‘Don’t look at me. It’s not me.’”
John Lennon was a heck of a guitar player, one of the best rhythm players ever and he could play a biting lead. So is Paul. And John once said that he thought he was a better player than George. I say they are both great.
And so is Neil, no matter what George thought.
Can you hear the influence or connection here or am I crazy?
David McCullough
I got the sad news this morning that my old friend David McCullough from Taos had passed away. Horsley texted me first and then Linda Cook.
It sounds trite to say that somebody was the nicest guy in the world but Dave truly was. I knew him for a long time, what, twenty five, thirty years? Who knows at this point. We did a lot of antique shows together.
Dave sold art and antiques, he worked with David and Linda Cook from Denver for a long time. Always smiling, had the best attitude. Came up with the Anna Keener estate and helped get a monograph published.
I have looked for his picture for two hours. I know I have one, thought I took a picture of everybody but can't put my finger on it so you get bell peppers for now. It will be a placeholder until I can find one. My paean to Weston.
He was a handsome fellow for sure, with a hearty laugh. An enthusiastic man. Movie star good looks but the humblest of attitudes. When I first saw Dave this summer I went into shock. My jaw dropped. He had aged so much, not hard to see that he had been in terrible pain and distress.
It was obvious that he was in liver failure and in horrible shape. Jaundiced and distended. But try to navigate the health system today, especially when you live in a little town without access to good medical services or are saddled with a bad insurance plan.
I thought that he might pull through, I am sorry to say he could not. He leaves a wife and two children. Much too young to leave our planet, it is tragic and depressing. He will be greatly missed by all who had the good fortune to make his acquaintance. So long, compadre.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Rambler
As a side note, a major storm in northern Florida could wreak havoc on the country's epicenter for sexually active senior citizens who like to swing and who incidentally have one of the highest rates of STDs in the entire country.
Forget the endangered Florida panther, how about a little love for the old Florida cougars facing extinction in this major storm.
Tampa STD rates even surpass the randy and notorious Villages in the sexually transmitted disease metric.
So it may not be just food, water and beds that these people require, how about sending a little lube and some anti-biotics in case things suddenly get hot and heavy in the shelters.
Show them you care.
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On an entirely different topic, Heidi and Kent have just come back from Kruger and South Africa. Looks like a great trip, wish they had a better camera. I have been to Africa once if I ever return I am going to get some shots of a lifetime with my good gear.
This hornbill is cool.
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I was walking in the Los Jilgueros preserve the other day when I saw this orange tree fruiting, something I don't recall seeing down there. I was part of the initial plant of the preserve way back when and I don't remember orange trees on the property. Kind of cool.
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I think I may be a touch obsessive compulsive on this meat thing. I bought a new chest freezer at Best Buy in Murrieta yesterday, ran home, unpacked and installed it and then went to Costco with Dr. Neo and bought about $400 dollars worth of choice and prime ribeye subprimals.
I
I went over to Neon's and Deb's and butchered the beef.
Now I have a freezer stocked with beautiful steaks for the cold Fallbrook winter.
Candidly, I think I need professional help.
Speaking of neon, he had this cool early orange label on his wall that I have never seen before.
Beth and Beth are back from Scotland.
I talked to Beth I this morning.
They breathlessly watched the coronation of the new Porridge King, wielder of the Golden Spurtle.
Bravo to you both, may your gruel never be lumpy!
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Peter sent me this. I like Steely Dan as much as the next guy but I go to these audiophile group sessions where Aja and Gaucho are played so incessantly that I could scream.
I'm like hey, throw in a little Royal Scam or Pretzel Logic, will you?
I think that is all I got.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Leslie Sommers for FUESD
I am proud of her for wanting to give back to her community and take an active role that will require a lot of time and energy and also confident that if elected, she will do a great job.
She is very intelligent and has lived here for well over three decades and been a retailer on Main Avenue for over twenty years.
Leven Jester called yesterday and said that he just voted for her on his mail ballot.
She has received several key endorsements.
Please give her your vote and support.
Stay in touch
The blog has been around for what, seventeen years now? Sometimes I wonder about the old regulars that have drifted off, do you ever still come back to check in or lurk around maybe, without commenting?
People like KJ, Grumpy, Window Dancer, Randy Walters, MMWB, or the old guy up in Oregon maybe, among others? You guys still around?
Would be nice to now that you are still alive. The guy in Oregon was old, he probably passed. You never know. I am getting to that point in my life where a lot of people in my contact list are no longer with us.
Can't bear to erase their names from my phone.
But if you don't see it or hear about it, you assume everything is copacetic with people.
When they are gone, they are gone. Keep them in your hearts. And stay in touch.
"Those people" are at it again...
“Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” Gandalf - Lord of the Rings
"I am no weather-master, nor is aught that goes on two legs."
Tom Bombadil
“Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Marjorie Taylor Greene
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I guess that we are back to the Jewish space laser thing. Our ability to control the weather is now out of the bag.
Check out today's Washington Post, Officials face antisemitic attacks over Hurricane Helene response.
Top officials in North Carolina and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency responding to Helene are being subjected to a flurry of antisemitic attacks, causing some of them to fear for their safety as they prepare for another hurricane to strike Florida.
The attacks, which include wild claims that Jewish officials are conspiring to orchestrate the disasters, sabotage the recovery or even seize victims’ property, are being fomented largely on Elon Musk’s X. Antisemitic tropes have commingled on the site with false rumors and conspiracy theories amid the chaos of the recovery effort, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
The online vitriol is compounding the challenges facing emergency management officials dealing with the aftermath of Helene and readying a response to Milton, a Category 5 hurricane barreling toward Florida. The volume and virulence of the X posts have dismayed experts who warn that they risk undermining lifesaving response measures.
A lot of the misinformation is coming through X, of course. And they refuse to either pull the posts or comment.
The report focused on 33 recent viral X posts that spread misinformation about Helene, which made landfall in Florida as a major hurricane last month and caused at least 231 deaths and widespread devastation in six states.
The posts collectively attracted 159 million views, even though their claims were thoroughly debunked by local residents, FEMA, the White House and other government officials. Ten of the posts contained antisemitic sentiments and collectively drew 17.1 million views.
The report noted that antisemitic sentiments were largely directed at three individual officials: FEMA director of public affairs Jaclyn Rothenberg, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Asheville, N.C., Mayor Esther Manheimer. Many came from accounts that have also trafficked in other forms of misinformation on X, including false claims about Haitians eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, the war in Ukraine, and the 2020 presidential election.
As of Monday evening, X had not removed any of the 33 posts, three of which received “community notes” appending fact-checks or additional context to the original post, according to ISD. While X’s rules prohibit hateful tropes or personal attacks based on ethnicity or religion, the company, previously known as Twitter, has pulled back on content moderation and reinstated prominent accounts banned for violating those policies since Musk bought it in 2022.
Another reason never to buy a Tesla. Or vote for certain candidates that knowingly promote false information.
Monday, October 7, 2024
Buon Appetito, Amici
Leslie and I had a busy day yesterday. She made me a wonderful breakfast of ribeye and eggs and then we drove down to Ocean Beach to pick up a large Millard Sheets watercolor of Hawaii that I just bought.
I had told Lena that we would stop by her house and she was a little irked because she was waiting around and I was a lot later than I had expected to be.
But we were starving by this point in the afternoon so I suggested that we go out for a bite.
Lena assented, Ron was into football and she grabbed a really nice bottle of chianti.
We went to Buona Forchetta in Encinitas. I had never been there and Lena loves it. I was thinking Il Truli or Devanti Enoteca but hey, try something new.
We got there at the perfect afternoon time, practically had it to ourselves. Started off with foccacia and garlic.
We ordered a margarita pizza with porcini, and their homemade pappardelle with the eponymous buona forchetta (good fork) cream, egg yolk and tomato sauce.
We also ordered a brussels sprout pancetta thing.
I think they get their flour from Italy. The crust was perfect, the pasta was rich. What a great meal!
We had planned on bringing food home to Ron.
An empty box.
We thought we had ordered so much food but we managed to polish it all off.
We felt bad and ordered him his own pizza.
Damn, do I look happy or what?
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Raspberry, cranberry, blueberry, walnut and ginger.
I know it sounds like overkill but think of a really good fruitcake.
And to top it all off, I stuck a bunch of chocolate chips in Leslie's because she loves chocolate!
Hate to say it but they are darn good. Very moist with all the raspberry juice but I kind of like it.
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Today I went to Photastic for stir fry. For a place that used to suck, it has become a go to. All sorts of great things on the menu. If you haven't been before, give it a try! And the new owners have a wonderful attitude.
We are lucky to have them in our town. From the Bahn Minh sandwiches to the pho, the vermicelli and the broken rice dishes, I have not had a bad meal there yet.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Hairpipes and birds
I received this email today:
Morning Robert. Haven’t seen a blast since June. I look over P’s shoulder from time to time to read and look at your pic’s. Any reason why I’m not on the list anymore?
Curious minds
W
I responded:
I have no idea. It is pretty random, will get you back on. Sorry.
all the best,
R
The truth is that I pick names to send the blast to randomly, there is no master list. Why? I guess that I do it by feel. I don't want to burn people out by constantly hitting them over the head with this and I can be so prolific that it can quickly descend into overkill.
I have conservative readers and liberal readers and if I am on a seriously political jag I may let up on the gas and miss a few partisans from time to time that I don't want to offend. Or I just forget.
Anyway the other reason is that I can't always remember who wants to keep receiving this and I figure that people can always follow or bookmark and just check in from time to time so as not to miss out on anything. Good chance you will see something new.
But W, rest assured you are back on the blue heron bus. Seven million views will be here before we know it at the viewership rate we are at, which is huge. Blowing up in Manchuria, I hear.
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I have seen them up at Waterwise in Bonsall.
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My brain has been quite active of late, throwing out bad puns and jokes with reckless abandon.
Soon to be playing at the Sapphire Lounge at a Ramada Inn located at a freeway offramp near you.
Turnpike 23.
Anyway I was cracking wise with myself yesterday and came up with these:
My friend called and said that the doctor called and said he had prostrate cancer.
I told him not to take the news lying down.
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I need to buy a new bicycle tire pump but there's really no pressure.
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I'm at Grocery Outlet yesterday and the elderly lady behind me has a plastic box of baby spinach. "I can't buy that," I solemnly intoned. "To deprive them a chance to mature and live a long, healthy life." Checker tried to her best not to lose it, lady cracked up too.
It never stops. Unfortunately.
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He has the big telescope.
The draconids start tonight and there is a very slivery moon to capture.
Maybe next time.
Not going out by myself to get lost again.
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I was looking at my photo outflow from 2022, so many great shots and excursions, I really have not been in a productive photo zone for so long.
Hurts really, have to find that muse again.
Been too busy with work.
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Stagecoach Sunday tomorrow at the Los Palomares House. 11 to 3.
Fallbrook Land Conservancy is the best group in Fallbrook.
I have to go to San Diego and pick up a Millard Sheets painting and will miss it but would like to be there.
This one.
Go buy it really cheap, for a good cause.
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| Red Cloud, Oglala |
Hairpipe necklaces and breastplates were popular apparel among Native Americans from about 1878 to 1910. They started in the Southern Plains but eventually reached all the way west, though rarely ever east of the Mississippi with the exception of the Chippewa. There are even photographs of Pueblo natives wearing hairpipe pieces.
Originally made of shell they eventually were made out of hollowed out bone.
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| Quannah Parker (Comanche) with hairpipe necklace |
Mine has padre beads on top and has old American coins dangling from the bottom, many indian head, the newest dating from 1910.
The story of the hairpipe bead is that a trader named Joseph Sherburne introduced them to the Ponca Indians of Oklahoma and Nebraska in 1878.
This was right after their own "Trail of tears."
This nation comprised the modern-day Ponca, Omaha, Kaw, Osage, and Quapaw peoples until the mid-17th century when the people sought to establish their nation west of the Mississippi River as a result of the Beaver Wars. By the end of the 18th century, the Ponca people had established themselves at the mouth of the Niobrara River near its confluence with the Missouri River, remaining there until 1877 when the United States forcibly removed the Ponca people from the Ponca Reservation in the Dakota Territory to the Indian Territory. This event, known as the Ponca Trail of Tears, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Ponca civilians and the splintering of the nation.
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| Pablino Diaz - Kiowa |
He sold them corncob pipes. The natives threw away the cob and kept the pipes which they fashioned into these magnificent creations.
The natives loved them and traded them and soon a New York firm named S.A. Frost started making the hairpipes in bulk to keep up with the great demand.
While only men wore the breastplates, both men and women of the Sioux tribes wore the necklaces. And contrary to the Smithsonian author, there are many pictures extant of men from other tribes than the Sioux wearing the necklaces.
In contrast with the breastplate, which was always a man's ornament, the necklace of hair pipes continued to be worn by both men and women in the period 1880-1910. Of the tribes of Plains Indians known to have worn hair-pipe necklaces in earlier days, photographic sources illustrate their use by Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Mandan, Oglala, Osage, and Sauk and Fox after 1880. Among all these tribes except the Oglala the necklace is shown as a woman's ornament.
From the Smithsonian:
In the period of general economic depression among the Plains Indians following the extermination of the buffalo, during which they subsisted largely upon Government rations, possession of an elaborate hair-pipe breastplate or necklace was a coveted symbol of greater-than-average prosperity among these proud people. Not only did the Indians wear these ornaments when they attended ceremonies and participated in traditional social dances on their own reservations, but they wore them when they dressed to visit the Great White Father in Washington, when they took part in wildwest shows, such as the famous one organized by William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) in 1883, and when they appeared in costume at national, regional, State, and local exhibitions or fairs.
The cessation of intertribal wars after the Plains Indians were settled on reservations was followed by a period of increased friendly contacts between neighboring tribes formerly hostile to one another. Visits back and forth among these Indians were accompanied by the exchange of gifts between members of different tribes. These conditions encouraged diffusion of hair-pipe breastplates and necklaces during the Reservation Period.
My friend has one of these necklaces similar to mine with a Peace Medal hanging off the bottom.
This is the first one I have ever owned. It is quite lovely.
Try to stop by and check it out before it is all gone.
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