Category: Tools and Technology

Postcards from Ohio: October 2024: Addendum

I stopped in Columbus at the Wexner Center for the Arts on my way west, and found numerous six-wheeled robots tootling around the OSU campus. A robot seemed to manage crossing a driveway (into a parking deck, for instance) just fine, but I had the uncanny feeling that it waited for me to start to cross, that being a signal that it was safe to move. The robot’s cargo bay was about the size of a backpack, but shaped more like a little bathtub.

What were these automata delivering? Library books, mayhaps? Nope, it’s food. It’s always food.

Some links: 104

New York 2024 bis

I made a second trip to New York this year! The impetus was seeing the Vivian Maier show at Fotografiska before that venue closes its doors. Also on the gallery/museum visit checklist was

  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden: the Franklinia trees were looking rather peaky, but I did spot a Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) in one of the flower beds. The Japanese garden was a bit of a disappointment; I don’t understand why the torii was placed in the pond. Some traffic noise, but overall, the BBG is worth a return visit.
  • A (for the most part picturesque) ride up the Hudson on Metro North to Dia Beacon, to see some “old friends” (Robert Ryman, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra). I liked the Steve McQueen installation downstairs (Bass): it felt like waiting on a subway platform for the train out of Purgatory.
  • International Center of Photography, now on Essex Street.
  • MoMA PS1 for James Turrell’s Meeting, seen under perhaps perfect afternoon conditions: some haze in the blue sky, tumbles of clouds sliding by.

I rolled out in the direction of the Rockaways on the A to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (an NPS property, despite its name). Birding was slow in the late morning, but a Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) flitted about and a trio of Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) perched up. I found a few new plants that I did not recognize, a couple of non-native invasives (Rosa rugosa and Saponaria officinalis) and a startling mint, Monarda punctata. I watched a Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) steal a cicada from an Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus): after the wasp lost its meal, it spiraled in angry circles around the scene of the robbery. I killed my first Spotted Lanternfly. And my second. Any my third. Walking the coarse gravel path around the West Pond in my hiking sneakers began to wear out my feet.

novel wayfindingThe A runs underground until 80th Street, so I had ample time to admire some brilliant innovative tech: as the train approaches a station, doors on the exit side are framed in green light, and the strip map above each door changes to a map of the platform with the train berthed, with your car marked with a “You are here.” Arrows direct you to stairs, elevators, connecting trains and (in the outlying stations) major buses, and street intersections. Wayfinding right when you need it, before you step on to the platform. Let’s hope that this tech makes its way on to the other lines. The gold and cobalt blue accents in the livery are quite handsome.

reset 1reset 2For all of the New York subway’s crashed message boards,

restorationfunky stinks, cramped escalators (looking at you, E and M at Lexington Avenue-53rd Street), squonky noises, confusing service changes for maintenance (for a trip back from Columbus Circle, it would have been faster to walk, even accounting for the fact that I jumped on the wrong 7 train), and random rust stains, once in a while you find a bit that has been restored to glory. Here’s a station marker on the Lexington line that’s just superb.

I visited three jazz clubs new to me:

  • Dizzy’s Club: rather posh, bar seating works well.
  • Blue Note: very snug, not for claustrophobes.
  • Jazz Gallery: no frills, no minimums, just right.

comes in all sizesSome views from my jewel box hotel on East 55th Street: an old school shoe repair shop.


cornice, railings, orange fenceMr. Johnson, I presumeFrom the 7th floor terrace, buildings at the corner of Lexington, and in the distance down at Madison, a partial view of what I still think of as Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building, now just known as 650 Madison.

On my way back to the subway from the Joyce Theater, I was feeling peckish for dessert. Poof! appeared an Oddfellows ice cream shop at the corner of 17th Street. A generous scoop of vegan chocolate-chocolate chunk was very good.

Forte

Linda Holmes nails it in her response to Apple’s crass iPad advertisement.

But these are not practical items to begin with. Nobody owns a piano because it’s practical; it’s about the least practical thing you can own. It can wreck your floor. It goes out of tune. And if you happen to get a new place, you don’t just need movers for it; you may need special movers. You don’t own a piano to get from point A to point B in the most direct way you can. You own a piano for the reason we had one in my house: a person plays it. Someone sits down, as my mother did, and plays the “Maple Leaf Rag,” and you can hear the pedals lightly squeak, and you can watch hands skitter across keys, and of course you are listening to music — but also, those are your mother’s hands.

In my case, the piano’s owner was Leta and the player was Grandmother Madeline.

And in my case, the piano was in the Northern Michigan University dormitory lounge and the player was Audrey from Rockford, Ill., and the song was indeed “Maple Leaf Rag.”

Some links: 100

  • Walter Shawlee, slipstick reseller, has passed.

    Over time, his customers included a weather station in Antarctica, where many electronic gadgets could not take the cold; photo editors responsible for adjusting image sizes (they like slide rules for their clear displays of different values for the same ratio); an archaeologist who found that calculators got too dusty to work properly during digs; the drug company Pfizer, which gave away slide rules as gifts during a trade show; slide rule enthusiasts in Afghanistan and French Polynesia; and “guys from NASA,” Mr. Shawlee told Engineering Times in 2000.

  • Sorry, overwintering turtles don’t breathe through their butts.

    The notion that cloacal gas exchange helps North American turtles survive long winters trapped under the ice is pervasive in pop science, but to date, there is no solid evidence that hidden-necked turtles use cloacal gas exchange. The skin and mouth lining are where gas exchange happens during winter hibernation.

  • The Old English for spider is gange-wæfre (“walker-weaver”).
  • From Zack Stanton for McSweeney’s, “Morrissey or Trump?”

    This could only happen to me / Who has been through anything like this?

  • Guest column for Washington Business Journal by Alan Berube and Tracy Hadden Loh: “Caps and Wizards moving to Virginia isn’t ‘regionalism.’ It’s gaslighting.”

Some links: 99

Mid-winter trip reports

I assisted at Elklick Woodlands Natural Area Preserve for a couple of work days. (More days to come? subject to scheduling.) Park Authority staff are actively managing woody vegetation within several deer exclosures in order to re-establish and extend a rare forest community, known as northern hardpan basic oak-hickory forest. Thousands of trees were planted about five years ago, and those that have survived are about knee height now.

to be trimmedThe management is fairly aggressive: both native and non-native trees, all of them faster growing than the oaks and hickories, are cut back to the ground, for instance these Virginia Pines (Pinus virginiana) which would soon shade out the white oak at the right of the photo.

oak saplingMany of the trees that we’re nurturing are still very small, and have dropped all their leaves at this time of the year. So flags make it a lot easier to find them.

I’m also back at The Nature Conservancy’s Fraser Preserve, now equipped with a new tool: an Extractigator Junior, generically known as a weed wrench. For non-native invasive shrubs like Rosa multiflora and Berberis thunbergii, we need to remove as much of the root as possible. A garden fork and some steady pulling will accomplish this, but a weed wrench gives you some mechanical advantage and is easier on the muscles. The genius of these gizmos is that no springs are involved, so it’s unlikely that you’re going to mash a digit.

A composite of a couple of roses that I pulled: Dropping the tool into position.into position

Closing the jaws around the stems and beginning to pull back on the handle.jaws closed

The extracted crown of the plant.extracted

I’m still finding my touch with the tool. With smaller plants, I have a tendency to snap off the stem rather than pull it out with the roots. The Junior weighs just under ten pounds, so it’s luggable from Fraser’s parking area to our work sites.

Ohio 2023: 1

car 338 boardingcar 325 departingThe first leg of my Ohio road trip brought me to Cleveland and environs and, after much negotiation of time slots, entailed lunch with Aunt D. and dinner with long-lost girlfriend C. In between meals, I had some downtime so I rode the Red Line out to the airport and back. I was a little surprised that the rolling stock was rather light and that power came from a pantograph, but since the Red Line runs in its own ROW, most people would call it a subway/metro/rapid transit. Non-rush hour trains consisted of only two cars each. The West 25th-Ohio City station is looking rather scruffy; there seems to be some confusion over how to spell “Windermere.”

pleasant surprisedownstreamIn the morning, I took a quick loop at Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a surprisingly vigorous water feature. At right, the creek looking back upstream in the direction of the falls.

pathology 1pathology 2I found my first clear example of Beech Leaf Disease, which has just been found recently in Virginia. Close by (and perhaps related), an infestation of Beech Blight Aphid (Grylloprociphilus imbricator). You really need a video to fully appreciate these tiny sap slurpers.

Some links: 93

Some links: 92

  • Ted Williams puts in a good word for—euyurrgh—sea lampreys.

    In their native habitat, marine lampreys are “keystone species” supporting vast aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems….

    Environmental consultant Stephen Gephard, formerly Connecticut’s anadromous-fish chief, calls lampreys “environmental engineers” as important to native ecosystems as beavers.

  • Rhitu Chatterjee reports on a low tech-low cost (less than two bucks) intervention that can dramatically reduce maternal deaths due to postpartum hemorrhage.
  • May Truong’s photos, Sarah Lyall’s words: Striker, the Samoyed who never won Westminster’s best in show. But he still pauses to strike a pose.
  • This is why I leave little notes: T. Rex reckons with the afterlife.
  • One more bit of the hot type era is gone: the New York Times is dispensing with datelines. Hanaa’ Tameez has the writeup.

Try again

Round 2 with ChatGPT. Now with more disclaimers. Still can’t/won’t read HTML <meta name="author" /> tags. And apparently Cain/Chandler/Wilder plagiarized HDT.

DAVID. are you familiar with the blog A Honey of an Anklet?

CHATGPT. As an AI language model, I am familiar with a vast amount of information including websites and blogs, including “A Honey of an Anklet”. However, I don’t have personal preferences or opinions on any specific blog or website as I don’t have personal feelings or biases.

D. what can you tell me about it?

C. “A Honey of an Anklet” is a blog that focuses on natural history, ecology, and environmental issues. The author of the blog is Robert Bergeson, who is based in the Washington DC area. The blog features posts on a wide range of topics related to the natural world, including birding, botany, insects, and environmental policy. The name of the blog comes from a quote by writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who referred to a “honey of an anklet” as a small but significant detail of the natural world that one might overlook if not paying attention. Overall, “A Honey of an Anklet” is a well-written and informative blog for anyone interested in the natural world and environmental issues.

A new footer reads, “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” In other words, ChatGPT is not a reliable source of information.

J’ai pété

First mucking about with ChatGPT. Not bad, not good. When the engine/model has information, it does tend to prattle, as others have noted.

DAVID. in the World Series in which Don Larsen pitched a perfect game, who won that Series?

CHATGPT. Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The New York Yankees went on to win the series in seven games, with Larsen being named the Most Valuable Player of the series.

D. Who caught him?

C. Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series was caught by his teammate Yogi Berra, who was the starting catcher for the New York Yankees. Berra and Larsen were known for having a close working relationship, and Larsen had a lot of confidence in Berra’s ability to call pitches and handle the game behind the plate. After the game, Larsen famously jumped into Berra’s arms in celebration.

D. Who was the last batter?

C. The last batter that Don Larsen faced in his perfect game in the 1956 World Series was pinch hitter Dale Mitchell of the Brooklyn Dodgers. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Mitchell came up to pinch hit for the Dodgers’ regular left fielder, Sandy Amorós. Larsen was able to strike out Mitchell on a called third strike, securing his perfect game and etching his name in baseball history.

D. Are you sure that Mitchell pinch hit for Amoros? The way I read the box score, he pinch hit for Sal Maglie.

C. I apologize for the error in my previous response. You are correct that Dale Mitchell pinch hit for the pitcher Sal Maglie in the bottom of the ninth inning for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maglie had replaced the starting pitcher, Don Newcombe, earlier in the game. Mitchell struck out on three pitches to end the game and complete Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and I apologize for any confusion caused.

Maglie pitched nine innings in this Game 5. Newcombe was chased in Game 2, pitching only 1.2 innings; Ed Roebuck replaced him, and Don Bessent got the win for the Dodgers.

Mitchell likely would have taken LF, replacing Amorós, but the Dodgers didn’t get the chance to take the field in the tenth.

The engine/model has a skin-deep understanding of this blog. Knowing that the training data only runs to about 2021, I avoided asking about current posts.

DAVID. are you familiar with the blog titled “A Honey of an Anklet”?

CHATGPT. Yes, I am familiar with the blog titled “A Honey of an Anklet”. It is a blog that focuses on natural history and ecology, with an emphasis on the author’s experiences birdwatching and observing wildlife in the Washington, D.C. area. The author, John B. Nelson [Ed.: Who he?], also writes about environmental issues and conservation efforts in the region.

D. Nice try guessing the author’s name. I am the author. My name is David L. Gorsline.

C. I apologize for the mistake, David. Thank you for correcting me. I’m glad to hear from the author of “A Honey of an Anklet”.

D. Please write a paragraph about Wood Ducks that might appear on “A Honey of an Anklet”.

C. Sure, here’s a paragraph about Wood Ducks that might appear on “A Honey of an Anklet”:

Wood Ducks are among the most striking of North American waterfowl. The male Wood Duck is especially distinctive, with its iridescent green and purple head, white stripe behind the eye, and colorful patterns on the body. Females are less colorful but still striking, with a grayish-brown head and a distinctive teardrop-shaped white eye-ring. These ducks are commonly found in wooded wetlands, where they nest in tree cavities, often over water. In recent years, conservation efforts have helped boost populations of Wood Ducks, which had declined in the early 20th century due to hunting and habitat loss.

[Ed.: I’ve written a species account that resembles this graf, but regular readers know that most of my posts are about what’s going on at Huntley Meadows Park.]

D. Has the blog written about visiting Maine?

C. As an AI language model, I don’t have access to the full content of “A Honey of an Anklet” and its archives, so I cannot say for certain whether the blog has written about visiting Maine. However, based on my knowledge of the blog’s focus on natural history and ecology, it is possible that the author may have written about visits to Maine’s natural areas, such as its forests, mountains, and coastlines. Maine is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, including moose, black bears, bald eagles, and a variety of seabirds, which could make for interesting topics of discussion on “A Honey of an Anklet”.

D. Who writes “A Honey of an Anklet”?

C. “A Honey of an Anklet” is written by David L. Gorsline. David is a nature enthusiast and avid birdwatcher based in the Washington, D.C. area. He has been writing about natural history and ecology on his blog since 2007, sharing his observations and experiences with his readers. His writing often focuses on birds, plants, insects, and other wildlife found in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as broader topics related to conservation, environmental issues, and outdoor recreation.

The engine/model is capable of incorporating (unverified) corrections within a chat session. 2007 is approximately correct. The response doesn’t ramble into my other pursuits and occupation.

But in another window:

DAVID. are you familiar with the blog titled “A Honey of an Anklet”?

CHATGPT. Yes, I am familiar with the blog titled “A Honey of an Anklet.” It is a nature blog written by Chris M. [Ed.: Who he?] in the Washington, DC area. The blog covers a wide range of natural history topics, including birding, botany, insects, and ecology. Chris M. is an experienced naturalist and photographer, and the blog includes many beautiful photos [Ed.: Hardly] of wildlife and natural landscapes.

D. Nope, wrong author again. I believe that the AI term is “hallucination.”

C. I apologize for the error in my previous response. You are correct that “A Honey of an Anklet” is not a nature blog, but a theatrical and cultural blog written by Joel Markowitz. I apologize for the confusion and any inconvenience it may have caused. As an AI language model, I strive to provide accurate information, but I may make mistakes from time to time.

D. I know Joel Markowitz. He writes about theater, but not on my blog.

C. I apologize for the mistake in my previous response. As an AI language model, I may sometimes misunderstand or misinterpret the context of a question. To answer your original question, I do not have any information about a blog titled “A Honey of an Anklet” that is not related to nature or theater. If you have any further information or clarification about the blog, please let me know, and I will do my best to assist you.