April 25, 2024 a thought for today, The stew that boils much loses flavour. Spanish Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “nature”. My go-to for nature always is trees and sky, with maybe some animal life here and there. This is a tree I planted over forty years ago. 

The next one for yesterday was “2 colours”. This is a scarf/hood I am working on for myself. I crochet things for my great grand children. This one is for myself. 

The third image for the 24th is “panorama”. This is my neighborhood. I am beginning to get “hooked” on this panorama way of generating an image. Nevertheless, I think it has to fit a purpose. 

Life today. It is mid afternoon now as I write.....somehow I have lost control of my to-do list. I am working on it in bits and pieces. First, after the usual virtual visits. I got things together and left for church for the printing of the bulletin and the newsletter and the insert. I multi tasked as the printing was going on by downloading the information from the memory card to the back up drive. Also, multi tasked by opening things for the morning group that arrive about 8:30. While I was almost done with the printing, the copier stopped giving me a message to replace ink dust canister. So I searched for the canister, didn’t find it. Just as I was moving on, Patti came in. Together we found the necessary canister and replace it. I finished the printing. Tomorrow Dorothy and I will finish the newsletter. On the journey through the sanctuary to place bulletins, I also inserted the memory card back in the camera. Then on with the distributing the bulletin. I placed a copy of the newsletter on the downstairs bulletin board. 

On the way home I made a stop at Kroger to mail the church things, pick up my meds and a couple of other things. Leaving there and moving on, I searched for the photos I need. I didn’t find any until I got to my own back yard. 

The first of today’s images is “pastel”. This is my snowball bush as the snowballs are “babies” before they become their full-blown white color. 

At home I got back to the computer, the letter and photos. I took a break from that to help Sue find out how to send a package back to Amazon. Then I started the laundry. 

Update on: Sweet Pea. She is holding her own with her crippled leg. We are both getting use to the changes. When I picked up a refill on her meds the vet prescribed another new supplement. It has Glucosamine in it and will help her joints and bones. I hide it in her food. 

The next up load for today is “favorite flower”. As with many favorite things, my ‘favorites’ change by time of day, mood and other variables. Most recently my favorite flower is my Lenten Rose.

The word today is credit.  Credit is like a looking-glass, which when once sullied by a breath, may be wiped clear again; but if once cracked can never be repaired. Sir Walter Scott.  He only seems to me to live, and to make proper use of life, who sets himself some serious work to do, and seeks the credit of a task well and skillfully performed. Sallust.  Men are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent. Horace Walpole.  Remember that credit is money. Benjamin Franklin. Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that. Charles Dickens. Credit is a system whereby a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay. Charles Dickens.  The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant. P.T. Barnum. Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship. Benjamin Franklin.  It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit. Francois de La Rochefoucauld. 

This last upload for today is “nighttime”. This image was taken a few years ago when I worked  downtown and got to work before the sun was up. This is one of Columbus Ohio’s first “skyscrapers” just as “night” was ending and day was beginning. 

Article: This is a fairly new subject of conversation. Maybe it would be good to study several sides to the subject. The subject is AI generated images. It was written by three professors of Research and Emerging technology. It started mentioning that in the past six months on Facebook there have been “photorealistic images that are too good to be true: children holding paintings that look like the work of professional artists, or majestic log cabin interiors that are the stuff of Airbnb dreams.” It farther mentioned images that are “just bizarre”. One such “bizarre” incident that was mentioned was of the pope in a puffer jacket shown in May of 2023. They are becoming a “bait”. The professors writing this story put together a plan to “explore” this new technology. They found pictures of images generating babies, kitchens and cakes for “a range of reasons”. It seems they were created by people “looking to grow their followings with synthetic content”. This study also found scammers using stolen materials, and spammers that “led” people to “websites filled with advertisements, which allow the owners to collect ad revenue.” Scammers and spammers are not new to the internet targeting senior citizens and others posing as Medicare representatives and so on. Also, scammers/spammers targeted people wanting to lose “belly fat” and some to places to learn new languages. The scammers/spammers seem to gain more traction in their creativeness when people respond to the images they have uploaded. Apparently AI generated images are not “flagged” as such but there are occasions when some alert observers warn others about scams or spams. There are companies attempting to find ways to deal with AI-generated content. The article mentioned that “In May 2024, Facebook will begin applying a “Made with AI” label to content it can reliably detect as synthetic”. In closing it was mentioned that “the devil is in the details”. How accurate can the detection be, what will “slip through”. In closing, it was stated that Facebook was the focus in this article however, there are “broader implications” such as videos “targeting kids”on YouTube, TikTok and other social media. “But the challenge of assessing what’s real is only heating up.” 

I am making something I saw on facebook....Chicken Stuffed Crescent Rolls. 

Joy

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