Sidewalk Drumming

 

I Enjoy Cooking - Especially Soups

When my wife and I retired in 2015, she told me that she was no longer going to cook except for maybe a meal at Thanksgiving and a meal at Christmas.  I was fine with that and started cooking all my food.

I had never really cooked anything except pancakes, waffles, and hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill.  So, it was a new experience for me that I enjoyed as long as I did not have to follow a recipe and as long as I was willing to eat everything I cooked, no matter how bad.

So far, I have not been able to eat only one dish that I made and cannot remember what they was other than it tasted horrible.

When I cook, I make large amounts so that I will have a meal for 5 days or more.  Unless it is really good, 3 days is as long as I want to go with that same meal, so I freeze the last two days to eat later.  I am trying to reduce the amount I make to only 2-3 servings.

While I have cooked almost everything, for some reason I really like soups.  And not those soups that are watery but soups that are thick like chowders, potato soup and/or split pea soup.

I always start with onions, bell peppers, garlic, celery, and mushrooms that I cook in a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  After they have cooked to the point of almost burning, I pour in 1 cup of water or broth.  I let that cook for about 10 minutes on a high temperature.  To that mixture, I might add diced potatoes, Limas, corn or squash/zucchini.

This will slow cook for 3-4 hours until the soupy consistency is thick.

Sometimes, I will cook a variety of vegetables until they are soft (including potatoes) and then blend them up with a submersible blender.  At this point any kind of meat can be added:  chicken, hamburger, ground turkey, beef, hot dogs, etc.

Most every soup I make, I will either add rice, noodles, or potatoes.  Long grain rice, to me, is the best and I use Basmati.

Freerunning

 

Ark Motors Microcar

A London-based EV start-up Ark has launched an electric microcar called the Ark Zero that costs £5995. British media tout it as “the UK’s most affordable electric car.”

The start-up Ark Motors, about which there is virtually no information online, has attracted a lot of attention in the British press with their city get-around, Ark Zero. The microcar designed for cities has a range of just over 50 miles (around 80 kilometres).

The Ark Zero microcar has a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h), which means the vehicle is not meant for the motorway. With only a 3-horsepower- (2.2-kilowatt) battery, the ArkZero has an energy consumption around the scale of two and three-wheelers. The city vehicle has enough room for “two people and a dog,” as numerous news sites quote from the company—one in front and one behind with the dog.

The tiny electric car measures 98.4 inches (250 cm) in length, 47.3 in (120 cm) in width, and 64 in (1,62 cm) in height, and has a 67.7-inch (172 cm) wheelbase. Among the British media, the consensus seems to be that the light electric vehicle is competition for the Citroen Ami, though smaller, less expensive electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular in energy-strapped Europe. For example, Italian car-sharing provider Enjoy recently announced it is adding 100 electric microcars XEV Yoyo model from the Italian start-up XEV with a range of around 150 kilometres and a speed limited to 80 km/h. Renault’s Mobilize also offers microcars, among others.  READ MORE...

Mom and Child

 

I love My Coffee

 I am a coffee drinker.  Not sure when I actually started drinking coffee and I don't remember drinking coffee in high school, so it must have been college.

I remember cutting class to go to the cafe across the street from the campus and have coffee with friends and talk philosophy.  Today, it would be politics but back then it was philosophy, existence, our purpose here on earth, and where did we come from?

None of those issues was ever fully resolved but we did consume a lot of coffee.  It was always regular.  I increase my coffee consumption in the military, especially when we went to sea and I volunteered for the 11pm to 7am shift in the communications shack.

I remember toasting several pieces of bread and putting peanut butter and strawberry jelly on them and taking them up to the communication shack with me, making a new pot of coffee as soon as I got there.  I was the only one on duty.

Returning to college and I slowed down on my coffee drinking as it was only in the mornings before class when I would go to Hardees or McDonalds for coffee (and free refills) for 60-90 minutes to write poetry.

After college, coffee was a prerequisite desire in order to be accepted into management.  At this point I am still drinking regular.  Around the age of 50, I cut back on my coffee drinking because I thought it my help my health and switched to decaf.

At the age of 60, I was turned on to Starbuck's Vanilla Cappuccinos, drinking them as often as I could which was not very often because of their expense.  I cannot remember if it was me or my wife that found sugar free cappuccino mix online and from the time of my first order, I was hooked.

Twelve bags last me 12 weeks and I don't really care how expensive they are because I am not stopping.  I buy McCafe coffee pods from SAMS in a box of 100 and use 12 ounces of water.  Then 3 tablespoons of my cappuccino mix and I am good to go.

My coffee drinking has gone from drinking regular coffee all day to drinking 1-2 cups of decaf coffee in the mornings.  Maybe a cup at night but there is no coffee, just 8 ounces of water and about 6 tablespoons of cappuccino mix.

Happy

 

Matter Transformation

Physicists at the RHIC are studying phase changes in nuclear matter from gold ion collisions to identify a critical point in these transformations. Their research, involving recreating and examining the transition of quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter present after the Big Bang, suggests that fluctuations in the formation of lightweight nuclei could indicate this critical point. Certain data deviations hint at potential fluctuations, but further research is required to confirm a discovery.

Analysis of lightweight nuclei emerging from gold ion collisions offers insight into primordial matter phase changes.

Physicists analyzing data from gold ion smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, are searching for evidence that nails down a so-called critical point in the way nuclear matter changes from one phase to another.

New findings from members of RHIC’s STAR Collaboration published in the journal Physical Review Letters hint that calculations predicting how many lightweight nuclei should emerge from collisions could help mark that spot on the roadmap of nuclear phase changes. 

Proof of a critical point—a point where there’s a change in the way nuclear matter transforms from one phase to another—is key to answering fundamental questions about the makeup of our universe.  READ MORE...

Using ChatGPT

 

Bruce Lee

 

Publishing House Replaces Jobs with AI

Bild, the German tabloid owned and operated by major European publishing house Axel Springer, is expected to replace over a hundred human editorial jobs with artificial intelligence, a leaked email first obtained by the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) has revealed.

The tabloid will "unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes," the email reads, as reported by FAZ and translated by The Guardian.

According to the report, the email detailed that those who will be replaced by AI include "editors, print production staff, subeditors, proofreaders and photo editors," and that these time-honored human careers "will no longer exist as they do today."

The decision appears to be part of broader cost-cutting efforts across Axel Springer brands, including Insider, which also cut a large chunk of employees amid its own AI pivot earlier this year.

Though several publications across the media industry have experimented with incorporating AI into their workflows, the choice to fully automate hundreds of essential editorial roles with AI feels like a significant escalation. Bild might be a messy, politicized tabloid, but Axel Springer is the biggest publisher in Europe and others could be following suit soon.  READ MORE...

GOOD ONES



On Being Wealthy

 Every once in a while, just before I fall asleep at night, I put myself into a dream like state of fantasy and imagine something happening that had an end result of me becoming wealthy.

One of those fantasies would involve me inheriting not just a fortune of wealth, but private jets, a luxury yacht, and homes in various locations throughout Europe.

Another one of these fantasies would involve me selling the novels I am writing or have written and not necessarily going on book tours and becoming well known, but just receiving more money than I really need. 

None of my dream like fantasies ever are completed as I fall asleep before that happens.  Sometimes, I dwell on too many details as to how something will unfold and falling asleep is delayed.

When I awake in the morning and think about these fantasies, I remind myself that none of them will ever come true and that they are just tools to get me to fall asleep.

While these fantasies are fun to imagine, I do not see myself as the kind of person who should become wealthy.  That may seem like an odd statement but wealthy people start out being greedy.  They then sacrifice everything around them in order to achieve their wealth goals.

Wealthy people need an understanding spouse and they need to have a personality that has little to no compassion for one's fellow man, as those kinds of weaknesses would only stand in the way of what they want to achieve.

I do not have that kind of personality.

Another drawback of mine is that I do not necessarily enjoy the wealthy lifestyle.  I don't have to fly first class.  What I try to do is get a seat at an exit which has plenty of legroom.  I don't drink alcohol, so first class seating only offers me coffee or a soft drink.

I don't like living in a big house with numerous room that are never visited unless there are guest...  And while it is nice to have a cook, I would rather cook myself.  However, the cleaning done by someone else would be acceptable.

I enjoy yard work as it keeps me from being lazy and I don't like playing golf or tennis for my exercise.

An expensive car that can go like a bat out of hell is a waste because you cannot really drive like that without getting a speeding ticket.  After numerous tickets, one loses one's license.

The only thing I would enjoy doing is giving my money away to a variety of charities.

Loving Animals

 

Robots Learn By Watching Videos

Are you among those who often dream of a day when a robot will do all the everyday household chores for you? A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has figured out how to turn your dream into reality.

In their latest study, they proposed a model that allowed them to train robots to do household tasks by showing them videos of people doing ordinary activities in their homes, like picking up the phone, opening a drawer, etc.

So far, scientists have been training robots by physically showing them how a task is done or training them for weeks in a simulated environment. Both these methods take a lot of time and resources and often fail.

The CMU team claims that their proposed model, Visual-Robotics Bridge (VRB), how can make a robot learn a task in just 25 minutes, and that too without involving any humans or simulated environment.

This work could drastically improve the way robots are trained and “could enable robots to learn from the vast amount of internet and YouTube videos available," said Shikhar Bahl, one of the study authors and a Ph.D. student at CMU’s School of Computer Science.

Robots have learned to watch and learn
VRB is an advanced version of WHIRL (In-the-Wild Human Imitating Robot Learning), a model that researchers used previously to train robots.  READ MORE...

Hippie Chick

 

Government

 

American Status: A Corruption of Integrity and Values

1. 
   Wealthy people believe they are above the law
2. Wealthy people believe the rules do not apply to them
3. Wealthy people look down their noses at everyone else
4. Wealthy people believe they are smarter than everyone else
5. Wealthy people believe they are better than everyone else
6. Wealthy people believe they should control everything
7. Wealthy people believe they are never wrong
8. Wealthy people believe everyone should cater to them
9. Wealthy people have no values, integrity, or morals
10. Wealthy people want everyone to fear them and their power
11. Wealthy people have compassion only for themselves
12. Wealthy people only care about leaving legacies behind

When I speak of wealthy people, you must understand there are categories of wealthy people.  These categories can and will vary as there are not as many people in the higher categories:

40  Billion and above

20-39 Billion

10-19 Billion

1-9 Billion

750 Million to 999 Million

500 Million to 749 Million

250 Million to 499 Million

100 Million to 149 Million

50 Million to 99 Million

25 Million to 49 Million

10 Million to 24 Million

5 Million to 9 Million

For the most part, anything under 5 million is not really considered wealthy anymore. And soon this bottom rung will be 24 million.

Members in each financial level LOOK DOWN on everyone below them.  It is not necessarily that they want to but certain financial protocols dictates that they must display this behavior.  Only associate with those that are in you some financial bracket.

This started in the military because OFFICERS will not allowed to associate with ENLISTED when not at work.  Any officer caught doing this would have they personnel jacket flagged and would not receive timely promotions.

It should be painfully obvious by now that as one gets wealthier, one loses more of their morals and more of their integrity as the unwritten rules of wealth begin to kick in.

We can thank IBM for this philosophy.  As their young executives were promoted, they were told they must start driving more expensive cars, wear more expensive clothes, live in more expensive houses that were located in more exclusive communities.  Using this philosophy, management would always have their executives in debt making it more difficult for them to go to another company.

Since I am not part of the wealthy class, I am not sure how they view wealthy musicians, artists, actors, singers, and professional athletes because physical ability should not be confused with the mental ability to make money.  However, once you are in a certain financial level, you get the respect that is due that level regardless of how you got there.

THIS APPLIES TO DRUG DEALERS AS WELL...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Universe Expansion Could be a Mirage

Astronomers use the light from distant stars, such as the Helix Nebula seen here, to measure the apparent expansion of the universe. New resaerch suggests there may be more to the pictue that we're not seeing. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSC)



The expansion of the universe could be a mirage, a potentially controversial new study suggests. This rethinking of the cosmos also suggests solutions for the puzzles of dark energy and dark matter, which scientists believe account for around 95% of the universe's total energy and matter but remain shrouded in mystery.


The novel new approach is detailed in a paper published June 2 in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, by University of Geneva professor of theoretical physics Lucas Lombriser.


Scientists know the universe is expanding because of redshift, the stretching of light's wavelength towards the redder end of the spectrum as the object emitting it moves away from us. 

Distant galaxies have a higher redshift than those nearer to us, suggesting those galaxies are moving ever further from Earth.

More recently, scientists have found evidence that the universe's expansion isn't fixed, but is actually accelerating faster and faster. This accelerating expansion is captured by a term known as the cosmological constant, or lambda.


The cosmological constant has been a headache for cosmologists because predictions of its value made by particle physics differ from actual observations by 120 orders of magnitude. The cosmological constant has therefore been described as "the worst prediction in the history of physics."

Cosmologists often try to resolve the discrepancy between the different values of lambda by proposing new particles or physical forces but Lombriser tackles it by reconceptualizing what's already there.     READ MORE...