The Wordsmith's Forge

People are trying again to kill the penny.  Just to add insult to injury, the law would require all prices to be rounded up. 

Never give up anything that makes you happy just because other people think it is silly or childish.  Especially never give up an effective coping skill!  Yes, I have stuffed animals.  I am currently most fond of Snoozimals and Squishmallows for practical use, but we also have a weird stuffy collection for artistic merit.  


 

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen several sparrows and house finches, a catbird, and a phoebe. 

I put out water for the birds.

I set out the flats of pots and watered them.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I did a bit more work outside.

I've seen a female cardinal.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I potted up 2 pink-flowered 'Toscana' strawberries, each in its own pot.  I filled another pot with a purple-and-white striped 'Wave' petunia, a 'Dusty Miller' artemesia, and 2 white sweet alyssums.  I put these on the tall metal planter and tied them in place.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- We moved 2 bags of composted manure to the old picnic table.

I've seen a young fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I potted up the last of the Shithouse Marigolds and Charleston Food Forest marigolds, each in its own pot.  These are the last of the ones I grew from seed.  All winter-sown pots sprouted at least one marigold, and many sprouted several.  That makes this a good approach to repeat.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I sowed a pot with passionflower seeds.  No idea if they'll actually fruit here, but it's a host plant for multiple butterfly species who only need the leaves.  I've never tried to grow these before, and bought them on a whim when I saw the seed packet in a store, knowing that they are a valuable host plant.

I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I sowed two pots with nasturtiums. 

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I took pictures of the pots where I sowed seeds earlier.  Of the 10 pots of Little Bluestem that I sowed on 2/24/25, five of them sprouted healthy little clumps of grass.  I planted these five in one of the strips of the prairie garden.  While 50% is not a great success rate, it is a useful rate particularly with native plants that are expensive to buy in pots.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I did a bit more work outside.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches along with several mourning doves.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Thanks to a donation from lone_cat, you can now read the beginning of "In the Heart of the Hidden Garden."  Lawrence and Stan look for their classrooms at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

fuzzyred is hosting a pool for the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics. Comment on the pool post there if you wish to join the fun. You can name your own targets if you wish, but the pool targets are starting with these Shiv poems:

If I have enough interest, I would like to purchase one of the three giant Shiv epics, or open one for microfunding if there is a good start but not enough to buy it outright. If there is not enough interest, I have two other Shiv poems in mind instead.

Giant Epics
"The Release of Human Potentialities" $568 (q.p. $284) OR
"Shopping for College" $639.50 (q.p. $319.75) OR
"The Bones of Chihuly" $618 (q.p. $309)

Cheaper Options
"The First Swath Cut by the Scythe" $106.50 (q.p. $53.25)
"So Monumental and Still" $162 (q.p. $81)

Wild orangutans show communication complexity thought to be uniquely human

Researchers have found that wild orangutans vocalize with a layered complexity previously thought to be unique to human communication, suggesting a much older evolutionary origin.


All the great apes have more sophisticated linguistic capacity compared to other primates.  I wonder how long it'll take scientists to figure out the rest.

This poem is posted as a birthday present for Anthony Barrette.


"A Walking Song"


I walk in the morning, the sun at its rise.
I walk up the hill, and I there feast my eyes
On gardens and fields, and the grass growing green:
The loveliest sight that I ever have seen.

I walk in the midday, the sun at its peak.
I walk through the valley to find all I seek.
I pick the sweet berries, I taste the green leaves,
I gather the nuts underneath forest eaves.

I walk after lunchtime, the sun heading west.
I walk by the river, where fishing is best.
I catch a few catfish to hang on my string
And forage some cattails where young blackbirds sing.

I walk in the evening, the sun sinking low.
My baskets are full, and my heart is aglow.
The fireflies flicker, the fox and deer roam;
I walk down the hill toward the lights of my home.

Today is sunny and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a catbird, a starling, and a young fox squirrel.  I heard a blue jay screaming but didn't see it.

I put out water for the birds.

I put out the flats of pots and watered them.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- We went shopping.  I have 2 new water pans for the giant pots, 4 new large-ish pots, and 2 bags of composed manure.  I still need to get more of the Evergreen potting soil, though.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I took a few pictures of flowers.

I've seen two young fox squirrels chasing each other.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I trimmed grass where I will put one of the giant pots.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I filled the giant pot with half composted manure and half potting soil, then planted a pot of 2 zucchini plants.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I trimmed grass where I will put the second giant pot.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I filled the giant pot with half composted manure and half potting soil, then planted a pot of 2 straightneck yellow squash plants.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I watered the giant pots and the picnic table garden.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/19/25 -- I sowed Shithouse Marigold seeds in the new giant pots and several others that didn't already have marigolds.

I watered the marigold seeds and some other plants.

I saw the first bat of the season!  :D

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
 

The following poems from the May 6, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

( Read more... )

Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents

As Business Insider first reported, the results were dismal. The best-performing model was Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which struggled to finish just 24 percent of the jobs assigned to it. The study's authors note that even this meager performance is prohibitively expensive, averaging nearly 30 steps and a cost of over $6 per task.

Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash, meanwhile, averaged a time-consuming 40 steps per finished task, but only had an 11.4 percent rate of success — the second highest of all the models. The worst AI employee was Amazon's Nova Pro v1, which finished just 1.7 percent of its assignments at an average of almost 20 steps.


While corporations may wish to replace human employees with software, it is not yet feasible for complex tasks.  Only the simplest jobs are really at risk.