Thanks for this link. I enjoyed reading her story. It reminded me of my own time spent in canyon country of the western US where pictographs and petroglyphs were commonly found deep in the most sheltered locations and a random walk across the landscape would turn into a discovery of a building that had been constructed 100's of years earlier by people who understood how to blend their structures into the landscape. In many, their handprints were still bold on the bricks and in the mortar as if they had only recently walked out for a smoke or a jug of milk.
One time as I walked a wooded area the archaeologists had flagged as having archaeological value due to artifacts or other signs of precolonial occupation, I felt a stillness take hold and silently settle over the bowl I was traversing. I could faintly see motion in my peripheral vision as I walked among the juniper and oaks. Strangely enough, the winds that usually swept up out of the canyon a hundred yards in front of me were absent though it was hot down there and the thermals were normally aggressively carrying that heat from the Green River below up and out of the canyons, upslope to the La Sals a few miles distant where, on a good day you could watch the clouds form and break away to trigger a flash flood somewhere downwind in canyon country.
I played cat and mouse with the thing that was shadowing me about 25 yards distant. Stealing quick glances by slightly turning my eyes as I walked without ever looking directly at it I determined that it was a coyote. I didn't sense any danger from it, it felt more like curiousity so as I walked behind a large boulder between us I ducked and instead of doing the predictable thing and walking out the other side, I circled around behind it to a large juniper growing at the base and while crouching, I watched the coyote. It was there about 20 yards away and it had not seen me at the juniper. For a moment it stood but then it cocked its head as if trying to understand why I hadn't appeared on the other side of the boulder. Then it started to approach the boulder, moving slowly and still surrounded by the surreal silence that had enveloped the boulder-strewn bowl we were in that constituted the archaeological site.
It approached the boulder slowly and deliberately, every foot placed carefully with all its attention focused on the far side of the boulder. I slowly moved along the ground to the outside edge of the juniper. I was at this point only about 10 yards from the coyote, easy rock-chunking distance, and I rose from my spot until I was standing. While rising, the coyote saw the motion and as it turned its head to identify the source I could see its eyes widen and it became intensely focused on me. I stood still in my best non-confrontational posture and we stared at each other for a minute. I had tricked the trickster.
As he stared during that long minute, the coyote cocked his head back and forth and finally decided that he understood whatever he had been curious about. He slowly turned around and began to walk back along the track he had followed, this time stopping and looking back at intervals. I guess he needed to make sure that I was not following. Maybe he wanted me to follow. I'll never know. After 50 yards or so he melted back into the vegetation and was gone from my sight.
I was carrying a 110 camera with me that day and as he walked off weaving around boulders and junipers I snapped a couple of photos. Anyone who has ever tried to document something important with a 110 camera will understand the frustration that I felt when the developed photos came back and all I had of the encounter were memories related here today and a couple of photos with a grainy, grey-tan blob near a grainy juniper.
Interestingly enough at the time, and maybe even today, as that coyote wandered away satisfied that I was not important enough for it to waste any more time stalking, the hot winds picked up from the canyon floor and I could once again hear dry leaves rustling as the breeze carried the scent of juniper from the valley floor below. I walked to the rim of the canyon and took in the view - magnificent stratified red and tan sandstones, shales and limestone outcrops with a thin thread of river far below. Though I took the same path back to the truck I didn't see any other sign of coyote.
I suspect that instead of them "giving" the photos to the facial recognition firm they sold them. Those photos and the PII data associated with them are the only things of value that a site like OKCupid controls.
> But even if they had no “commercial agreement,” Zeiler [Clarifai CEO] told the Times that his company gained access to user photos because some of OkCupid’s founders invested in Clarifai.
And
> In September 2014, the CEO of Clarifai, Inc. e-mailed one of OkCupid’s founders requesting that Humor Rainbow give Clarifai, Inc. (i.e., the Data Recipient) access to large datasets of OkCupid photos. Despite not having any business relationship with Humor Rainbow, the Data Recipient sought Humor Rainbow’s assistance because each of OkCupid’s founders, including Humor Rainbow’s President and Match Group, LLC’s CEO, were financially invested in the Data Recipient.
Lawyers: Besides whatever issue the company(ies) and investors might have with that behavior (self-dealing?), could it also let wronged individuals pierce the corporate veil, to go after personal assets?
Could this be the backstabbing surveillance capitalism incident that finally gives pause to tech executives?
I get the idea that the OkCupid founders & investors did as well as they could with their dating business, and as a "byproduct" they built up a valuable representative database along the way.
Money was already being made off the dating alone, and the accumulating facial data was a no-cost item from the beginning.
Even though the data is mainly just a working foundation for the dating service, eventually the database got so big that lots of value could be extracted in other ways.
It would be difficult to put an exact dollar figure on the value of a database like that itself for sure.
And selling it could be considered unethical in some peoples' eyes, so those in control could very well have decided to start that adjacent facial recognition company in response. After all, regardless of an inaccurately valued asset, OkCupid is not passing the data on to a different company for good. The dating company is not losing anything nor getting any compensation for it. OkCupid just keeps on going like normal while the new face-recognition company springs up.
This is AI. This "limited" facial recognition approach doesn't require ownership of the data, they just needed to "borrow" it for a while.
No way to get any information about any of the sites that I searched in the US. They have odd names and you can click to Google maps to find a description if there is one or pop to streetview but basically, unless you know something about the building or local point of interest you won't find it in this app.
Give them another option after they vacate the nest in the fall. You likely have the materials that they would use but they are not in prime locations for carpenter bee nests so they choose your home with a nice morning sun exposure and pre-existing nests. [0]
I have carpenter bees, mason bees, bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, etc including bees of every size. I also have planted my property in native plants and wildflowers to make sure these native insects have a place to hang out. I provide water for insects and wandering animals using washtubs with stacked rocks and solar powered fountains to discourage algae. I think that you could improve your chances of keeping the bees without them destroying your siding or trim if you follow the guidance about bee house placement.
You can make a bee house block or buy one that will attract multiple native bees and they will use it for years. Here is one option with additional info about carpenter bees.[1]
The holes in the bee house need to be about 1/2" (12-13mm) if you are attracting carpenter bees. For mason or orchard bees they should be smaller, 3/16" to 5/16" (5-7mm).
At some point you were part of that group that you are labeling a mistake. At another point, your children are or will be if you have any. Locking all of these productivity tools in one generation is a recipe for failure. You should think outside the box that you are currently trapped in.
Yes it does. So does my old HP-11C calculator I used to write the first programs, in RPN for oil well log analysis, that I ever wrote outside of a class assignment.
All of those routines were reprogrammed originally in a flavor of BASIC and it soon became obvious that ASCII log displays from digitized published materials were marginally useful as interpretation tools. Tabular data was far too dense. We needed pictures. Therefore we chased graphical methods of displaying data leading us to C and then C++ for the graphical routines that made it easy to display all of the data from an oil well log and to scroll the logs while zooming in and out.
We started all that in some flavor of DOS and as time went by and everyone dumped their latest OS incarnation, we moved thru MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, etc until MS finally got with the GUI environment plan like Apple's Mac and produced a near worthless GUI called Win386 and later Win95. For a time it was fun.
Linux, the old new kid on the block, still works great from the command line too. The GUI exists to streamline some of the things that are more easily digested in graphical formats. It has nothing to do with anyone's intelligence or ability to pick up skills they don't have today.
The iNaturalist.org map tab could help you determine whether it has been found in your area. [0]
I was hoping it had not made it to Texas since it was reported mostly in the NE US but it looks like some people have started cultivating it here and it may have escaped cultivation sometime during the last few years.
Considering that it is an invasive fungus that is known to degrade all the natives in the area it should be no surprise that the questions about whether the fungus was found growing on a grow block are rarely or never answered in the Texas reports. This could be due to the questions being asked by researchers trying to identify spread mechanisms from posts that are several years old. The original poster may not respond either because they don't remember or they are not as active as they used to be.
I think there are 8 reports in the state today and at least one is obviously in a grow medium of sawdust. [1] The fact that people placed most of their sitings on parks instead of home gardens when more than one case clearly shows a residential setting may suggest that they are growing something that they know can escape but they would like others to think they found it in the wild so it isn't their problem.
I have a great natural environment for them with several live oak widowmakers standing dead for around 25 years. I have not seen any yellow mushrooms though, yet. I think the native mulch industry in Texas will probably be their main spread vector since hardwoods are mulched locally and sold all over the state. As far as I know there are fewer restrictions on mulch sales from infected areas than there are on firewood sales across county lines. I think mulch may incorrectly be classified as compost in this case where the assumption is that there has been large scale degradation sterilization of weed seeds, fungal spores, etc due to decomposition temperatures.
Hm, that's a good point. I totally did not think of that as a possibility. But what are the chances? I mean, it's just a cute little pit bull we're talking about here! It's not as if it's even a big dog, like a golden retriever, or a nice friendly alsatian.
>...I now have more trust in something labeled as a conspiracy theory than in official news.
I think that is the goal. Destroy trust in formerly trustworthy sources so that the reality you see every day more closely aligns with one of the many conspiracy options.
Well, that's the conspiracy. Both in theory and practice. People conspire all the time, even those claiming they don't. If something is a conspiracy, doesn't mean it's not true. Or false.
Bought a service (2018) and changed the model to one where it was collecting compromising adult-oriented content from random people. That content can be used to try to shame them into avoiding the limelight later in life. I guess with Epstein out of the way (2019) they needed something else for blackmail material.
Made billions from OnlyFans and then made a large donation to AIPAC. Wouldn't admit it.
The Reuters story linked is substantially the same as this one but omits the AIPAC link. I wonder why.
Interesting stuff. It is strange to me seeing how patronizing some of the correspondence ends up being with all the profuse thanks to the recipient for taking them in, under their wing, being a friend, etc. The subject matter in some ranges from scientific, to reminders of payments due, to questions in French about whether the Italian women are as attractive as English women.
For example: Letter from Benjamin Abbott to Michael Faraday, 1814.[0]
Both comments are at the tail of the letter in French and their translation is in the footnotes.
I think Faraday was pulling Abbott's leg here so that he wouldn't be inclined to travel south to find out for himself. Like a fisherman would in protecting his favorite fishing holes.
One time as I walked a wooded area the archaeologists had flagged as having archaeological value due to artifacts or other signs of precolonial occupation, I felt a stillness take hold and silently settle over the bowl I was traversing. I could faintly see motion in my peripheral vision as I walked among the juniper and oaks. Strangely enough, the winds that usually swept up out of the canyon a hundred yards in front of me were absent though it was hot down there and the thermals were normally aggressively carrying that heat from the Green River below up and out of the canyons, upslope to the La Sals a few miles distant where, on a good day you could watch the clouds form and break away to trigger a flash flood somewhere downwind in canyon country.
I played cat and mouse with the thing that was shadowing me about 25 yards distant. Stealing quick glances by slightly turning my eyes as I walked without ever looking directly at it I determined that it was a coyote. I didn't sense any danger from it, it felt more like curiousity so as I walked behind a large boulder between us I ducked and instead of doing the predictable thing and walking out the other side, I circled around behind it to a large juniper growing at the base and while crouching, I watched the coyote. It was there about 20 yards away and it had not seen me at the juniper. For a moment it stood but then it cocked its head as if trying to understand why I hadn't appeared on the other side of the boulder. Then it started to approach the boulder, moving slowly and still surrounded by the surreal silence that had enveloped the boulder-strewn bowl we were in that constituted the archaeological site.
It approached the boulder slowly and deliberately, every foot placed carefully with all its attention focused on the far side of the boulder. I slowly moved along the ground to the outside edge of the juniper. I was at this point only about 10 yards from the coyote, easy rock-chunking distance, and I rose from my spot until I was standing. While rising, the coyote saw the motion and as it turned its head to identify the source I could see its eyes widen and it became intensely focused on me. I stood still in my best non-confrontational posture and we stared at each other for a minute. I had tricked the trickster.
As he stared during that long minute, the coyote cocked his head back and forth and finally decided that he understood whatever he had been curious about. He slowly turned around and began to walk back along the track he had followed, this time stopping and looking back at intervals. I guess he needed to make sure that I was not following. Maybe he wanted me to follow. I'll never know. After 50 yards or so he melted back into the vegetation and was gone from my sight.
I was carrying a 110 camera with me that day and as he walked off weaving around boulders and junipers I snapped a couple of photos. Anyone who has ever tried to document something important with a 110 camera will understand the frustration that I felt when the developed photos came back and all I had of the encounter were memories related here today and a couple of photos with a grainy, grey-tan blob near a grainy juniper.
Interestingly enough at the time, and maybe even today, as that coyote wandered away satisfied that I was not important enough for it to waste any more time stalking, the hot winds picked up from the canyon floor and I could once again hear dry leaves rustling as the breeze carried the scent of juniper from the valley floor below. I walked to the rim of the canyon and took in the view - magnificent stratified red and tan sandstones, shales and limestone outcrops with a thin thread of river far below. Though I took the same path back to the truck I didn't see any other sign of coyote.
That's all I have for you today.
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