Saturday’s Forum
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Just a peach of a guy.
I played a bit with Microsoft’s Copilot AI image generator, and I found a big flaw.
My first attempt turned up a good enough first attempt for the image I was trying to get. Cool. I figured I’d then ask it to modify the image.
It didn’t.
Instead it came up with a completely different image, related to the first but only vaguely.
Next up, I’ll attempt a longer description, more detailed, and see what it comes up with.
TIL: the guy who invented leaded gasoline and caused huge amounts of environmental destruction and health problems and the guy who invented CFCs and caused huge amounts of environmental destruction and health problems WERE THE SAME GUY!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
Some news on a less soul-crushing note: The NY Times has an article about the 13-year friendship between a fisherman and a stork.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/world/europe/turkey-stork-yilmaz-yaren.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
On a lighter note, it’s a sad day when you’re this lit, or when you have this much extra product. You’re supposed to share with the less fortunate.
From KOIN.com
https://www.koin.com/local/washington-county/deputies-find-giant-bag-of-weed-during-roadside-trash-pickup/
Don’t bogart that joint, my friend…
It seems there’s no way to make actual ice cream, or even sorbet, of any liquid mix without adding sugar to it. All my three attempts are the right texture right off the machine, but they freeze into solid, albeit lumpy, ice when placed in the freezer.
So next I’ll try mixing pineapple puree with coconut milk, as well as some milk, yogurt, or cream.
We’ll see what happens.
@OzarkHillbilly: If this is the type of quality conservative scholar that is underrepresented in academia…
@Stormy Dragon:
I’m not saying we should be grateful for polio, or cheer the cases that popped up in NYC a year or two ago, but… given Midgley’s previous work, and that he was young enough that he could have had a third big idea, I think we can’t be too harsh on it. More of a mixed bag than you would assume.
Today on Cleveland.com, the editor of the site and of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has a very good piece up.
Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts: Letter from the Editor
There’s more at the link. Definitely worth a read.
Now, this sounds like a reason not to fly JetBlue across the Atlantic.
Not the engine loss and diversion. That can happen to anyone, and it’s not dangerous most times. But read the end: “The flight is currently showing delayed by 28:50 hours.”
Ouch!
Usually the AvHerald notices include the time the passengers arrived at their intended destination, often saying whether a replacement plane was required. The wording suggests the passengers were really very delayed.
This may not be the case, but I’ve found no info one way or another. I’ve no idea, either, whether JetBlue has the spare capacity to send a replacement (which might involve cancelling some other flight or several flights). They may not have enough ETOPS certified A321s to do so.
Well, look who’s talking now: John Bolton claims Lardass hasn’t got the brains to helm a dictatorship.
Well, duh. We know he lacks the brains to helm a toy boat in a bathtub*.
And where was Bolton when Congress asked him to testify in the first impeachment inquiry?
*Actually, we’re being verbose. A shorter sentence should suffice: Lardas hasn’t got the brains.
@Kathy:
Back a millennium ago, we had employees flying in/out of various Alaska locations. One tech demanded I get him out on the FIRST flight — which happened to be Reeves Aleutian Airlines. They were flying old DC4s. He told me he was looking out the window when the engine & nacelle dropped off the wing and dropped into the Gulf of Alaska. He never complained about waiting for a “regular” flight again.
My personal horror story was flying into King Salmon AK in December in a single engine float plane
@Kathy: We had an old-timey ice cream churn for a while because I had some allergy-related issue with commercial ice cream. The ice cream freezing as you described wasn’t uncommon that I could recall. I don’t think it has to do with lack of sugar as ours wasn’t low sugar at all.
Ours didn’t turn to ice, per se, but it froze to an unscooppable and grainey texture.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
First flight in 1942, so the design is over 80 years old (though it might have been newer a millennium ago). But at least it has four engines. Losing one shouldn’t be disastrous, even if it’s terrifying.
@just nutha:
I phrased it wrong. I mean watery, ie non-dairy, liquid. Today I made chocolate ice cream using milk (liquid), and cream (also liquid). It went perfectly well.
I recall we used to get artisanal berry sorbet long ago. It was harder to scoop the next day after bringing it home, but it didn’t freeze. It had loads of sugar in it.
Just the same, for next week I’ll try pineapple puree, coconut milk, and maybe a bit of cream or milk. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Meantime, the solid ice I got would go well with coconut water.
@Kathy: Without actually advocating it, I’ll note that using a proportion of corn syrup in place of sugar as your sweetener in sorbets and granitas gives something that is much creamier and less prone to crystallization and granularity when frozen.