SeniorJunior

  I thought I would illustrate a couple blog ideas with the new illustration/art program Dall-E from OpenAI. (The captions are the words I used to get the pictures.) POWER BOAT Large barges covered with solar panels  "Giant barge covered with Solar Panels" NEW MEXICO DINOSAUR FIND Archeology discovery "Woman in sun dress riding triceratops" (Normally I would use something like this.) Try it out. It's nuts. Dall-E

  2021 * The super soil of the American farm belt has been eroded and washed away, blown away, and degraded by a century of plowing and mono-cropping. More and more fertilizer is required to grow our vast fields of corn, wheat, and soy.  The coming worldwide food shortages -- previewed this very Year of Our Lord 2022 -- are going to get much, much worse if we don't find a way to repair the damage to our topsoil.  Science Fiction to the Rescue! 2030 Conversations were underway with all - literally all in the world - of the credible people on the sargassum plague in the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean. Ocean scientists of every stripe were talking to Lucas about their specialty’s view of the megablooms.  Seagoing vessel designers, marine biologists, satellite analysts, NOAA, Eurocean, Jamstech, Ocean U. and ICOIS sargassum specialists were all in one-on-one conversations with Lucas, responding to his ideas about harvesting megatons of the slightly bitter floating w...

  Good Thing I Like My... TiVo DVRs changed the way we watch TV.  I don't think I could bear to watch commercial-saturated television without a DVR.  We've been a TiVo customer for over ten years. That said, when we had a billing problem, I ran into the impenetrable wall they call "customer service."  After exhausting every other thing on their website, I finally opted for "chat."  HAR!  I might as well have asked for Devine Intervention.  Take a look: (TiVo's chatbot -- and an alleged live agent.  My responses are in YELLOW. ) 12:15 PM Thanks for connecting to the TiVo Support Experience. I’m TiVo's automated virtual assistant, here to help. What are you looking for help with? Unexpected bill for $161.61. Scam? We are current on monthly payments. It sounds like you're inquiring about account billing. Is that right? Yes You can click 'My Account' below to view your Billing and Order History. You can also perform other transactions li...

...Purely Natural Another explanation for Polarization (And another plug for epigenetics) A liberal friend said she was hard-pressed to " ... understand what the Right is so worked up about. In America, particularly right wing America, the issues are not important, the strength of the conviction is key.  They are just bat shit crazy." Thus, her measured explanation of the right’s philosophy is: “Bat shit crazy.” Purely polarized, she is. Crazy.  Batshit Crazy. I say:  Whether one or the other — a person moved by issues or one moved by their own depth of conviction — is in the formulas of their DNA and, more importantly, the formulation of their epigenomes .  As I follow the leading discoveries of epigenetics I am ever more convinced of such previous heresies as heritable environmental influences.  If your peers in your early adulthood (or your parents in your childhood) were fire-breathing happy warriors for some position or the other, you,  and your of...

 It's the Religious, Stupid One of my Conservative pals sent a questionnaire around to a bunch of us fellow old guys. Here's how I answered the 10 questions. (I'm sure you are breathless to hear.) The Abortion Questionnaire Q #1: When does life begin? Olde Scooter: Life is ongoing.  Egg and sperm are both alive.  A fertilized egg is alive.  Moot question, unless you mean that moment when “God places a soul in the zygote,” a purely religious concept, so it depends on what your belief is, and it is only that — a belief. Others have different beliefs, but yours prevail? Q #2: When are human rights (right to life and the protections of the Constitution) conferred upon a fetus? Olde Scooter: A legal question.  Depends on what the applicable laws are in the various political entities. Q #3: Who has the moral and legal right to end that life? Olde Scooter: The mother, or a doctor following either medical necessity or the mother’s decision.  Q #4: Should the 'imp...

 ...a Fierce Frown and Huge Rock Paws & Claws Good thing for you I'm locked in stone. On his back, glaring up from a sweeping bend in the Rio Chubut in the Province of Chubut in central Argentina, this guy looks quite unhappy.  Note his cat ears, his mono-nostril and his formidable claws. He was about 2500 feet tall when he fell back into the molten lava half a million years ago.  Only his glowing eyes did not petrify. OK, I have a bad case of  face pareidolia, and I can't help blogging about what I see: Monster in the PVC Tough Guy with Cigar Eye in the desert Small Head; Big Beard Holy Bird! Pix credit - Google Maps/Satellite "Chubut" pronounced chew-boot, NOT chew butt!