Deepfake Satellite Images

This is a different version of deepfake photography than I've seen before, this time satellite images. 

Because people are stupid and fakery exists, I tend to view things as "possibly true" rather than true or false, with various levels of plausibility.  I give more weight to my own observations and to things that can be triangulated across multiple sources.

Iconic Sounds

I'm fascinated by this article about iconic sounds, which are comprehensible beyond language.  Scientists have identified about 30 of them. 

This is interesting because many species have a set of different calls, each of which has a meaning such as "come," "food," or "danger."  Some of these seem to be genetic (standard across all members of the species) while others are learned (thus varying by population groups).  The human set seems to be the genetic version, a fossil rootkit of communication left by our ancestors -- probably very far back in the hominid tree.  They are long gone, yet they live in us.

Gengineering Ethics

Here's an article about gengineering ethics. It raises some interesting points.

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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny with a light breeze.  It is pleasantly mild in shade, considerably warmer in sun.

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, house finches, Bob the Squirrel, and another squirrel.

I cleared 3 places to plant privets in the savanna.  Still need to clear another space; there are 4 privets left.  I was hoping to plant them all today.

However, in our enthusiasm over the Indian curry with mushrooms and black-eyed peas, we neglected to compare its cooking time against our workload this week.  So there goes an hour and a half of daylight, in the kitchen  :/  Also I didn't check the amount in the recipe against the amount in the bag, and presoaked all of the black-eyed peas, which is about twice what we need.  We'll need to cut them in half, then use the rest to make ham-n-beans tomorrow.  We have a bulk bag of prechopped raw bacon in the freezer, so we can use that, and smoky spices to vary the flavor.

EDIT 6/4/21 -- I cleared another space for a privet.

EDIT 6/4/21 -- I planted 3 privets in the savanna, only to discover that there are several extras in the bundle that was supposed to hold 10.  *headdesk*

EDIT 6/4/21 -- I managed to plant the rest of the privets.  They still need more attention, but at least they're in the ground.

EDIT 6/4/21 -- I put covers over the remaining privets and topsoil around some of them.

Tab Usage

This article talks about tab usage, including some different ways people use them or feel about them.
* short-term storage of information (me)
* keep tabs that they know they'll never get around to reading
* a sort of external memory bank (me)
* a manifestation of everything that's on my mind right now. Or the things that should be on my mind right now...
* feeling flustered by having so many tabs open — a situation called "tab overload" — * feeling ashamed that they appeared disorganized by having so many tabs up at once

Also, they sometimes crash a browser or a computer. This is annoying, but some people find the value of the tabs exceeds their risk.

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Today's Cooking

Today we made "Black-Eyed Beans with Mushrooms" from The Food of India (p. 182).  This is a similar recipe.  The results were amazing.  Yes, it took an hour and a half to make, and we had to tweak it a bit, but it was totally worth the effort.  :D  Things we particularly loved about this recipe:

* It cooks the black-eyed peas and the vegetables separately.  This is great because combining those in a dish is challenging, as legumes can be difficult to cook fully while vegetables are easy to overcook.  Separating them makes it easier to get both done to the right level.

* The flavors are downright symphonic.  There's a high bright note from the tomatoes, a floral note from the cilantro, a whole arpeggio of spices, mellow black-eyed peas in the middle, and then the bottom note of mushrooms adding a deep, earthy umami flavor.  It's a pretty typical curry sauce, but the mushrooms make it taste very different.

* If you add rice or naan, you get a complete protein.  It makes a great vegetarian main dish.  I put mine over brown rice.

If you are a fan of mushrooms, I highly recommend trying this.

AI Seasons

This article talks about the rise and fall of artificial intelligence funding.

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