Marilyn's Photos - Sep 25 2026 - Latest AI News

 

Did you know about the big controversy in September in the mathematics field?  OpenAI claimed its AI agents solved part of the million-dollar Millennium Prize math problem - the Navier-Stokes problem.  There were rumours of an imminent human breakthrough by Tristan Buckmaster and Levent Alpogue.  They were actively working on a solution to the problem and considered themselves months away from a solution. All of a sudden OpenAI puts 10,000 AI agents onto the problem and comes up with a solution in 88 hours. Buckmaster "accused" OpenAI of focusing attention and speeding up activity on the problem. What he also worried about was that they could have stolen from the human researchers who had been using OpenAI as an aid in the research and storing results there.  While OpenAI denies it would have stolen research directly, the researchers realized that they didn't opt out of OpenAI having access to their prompts as training input.   There's a frustration with AI companies treating important fundamental mathematical research as a media tool.  This is the sort of thing that increases share value.  Attention is distracted from the hacking, run-amok stories that make the headlines.  Supposedly OpenAI wasn't going to claim the million dollars.  I wonder why not?  Why bother when they are about to hit the trillion dollar mark in corporate value and preparing for a "flotation" that could get it to the trillion dollar level.  The Mathematics community was very upset. An Open Letter was published by 25 Fields Medal winners who worry that the genuine pursuit of understanding is getting brushed aside in the pursuit of corporate victories.  Having "the answer" isn't the same as showing how the answer is figured out.  And to what else can be learned by studying it.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 24 2026 - Harvest Moon This Weekend

 

The NASA website tells me that the Moon will guide you to a few celestial landmarks.  One of them is the Teapot, a group of stars in Sagittarius that resembles a teapot, complete with a handle, lid, and spout.  "If you are under an especially dark sky...you may see hazy steam rising from the Teapot's spout.  Follow the steam to its thickest part, and you'll be looking toward the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. " Here's the diagram and then the picture. I know you are really supposed to see a teapot, but like most of the constellation shapes, I find it notional at best.  And all the rest?  Orion, the hunter, Cassiopeia, The Queen/W Shape, Scorpius, Cygnus, the Swan/Norther Cross and the Big Dipper Ursa Major.  The articles all say they are easily recognizable due to their distinctive shapes.   In comparison, we really can see a Harvest Moon.  Its peak time will be on Saturday at 12:49pm - that doesn't sound like we'll see it at its peak.  It will be viewable both Saturday and Sunday evenings.  The moon will rise in the eastern sky.  Where would we stargaze to see the moon on Saturday? Definitely Niagara Falls.  Here's a picture below of the Harvest Moon over the Falls in 2019.  It comes from a Facebook site called Geographical Features so I hope it is a real photo.  It does look wonderful, though.   Here's one of my grunge collages - it looks like a moon up there on the horizon. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's PHotos - Sep 22 2026 - Autumn Late

 

This was a late astronomical start to Fall, and late in the day yesterday as well.  And all of a sudden here we are with temperatures that definitely say Autumn.  What do we expect in Autumn?  The word is "crisp" with mornings and evenings being and feeling colder.  With that, we end up in sweater weather. And we get some of the best foods in Autumn - not only delicious but fragrant - apple and pumpkin pies, roasting potatoes, squash and chicken or turkey.    These are great times.  But they are short, and definitely shorter than the best days of summer.  The Meteorologists say each season is getting shorter except summer.  Summer is 30 days longer compared to the 1960s.  That is six to eight days per decade change.  It starts earlier and ends later. That's the temperatures.  Add to that the placement of Victoria Day and Labour Day which expanded our "idea" of summer this year.  It is always educational to read the Weather Network - each province is given a "personality" and Ontario's Autumn this year is "unhurried" - the extended version of fall.  It also says to watch for a "fall fake-out"  - that an early season chill doesn't spell the beginning of winter.  That was accurate for today's morning temperature. Compare Ontario's personality with Quebec's - it says it will be "reluctant" - summer left early, but winter is in no hurry.  It is as if there are now meteorological poets out and about.  It is only September and this is still a flower season - lots of flowers blooming,  This is Sweet Autumn Clematis.   Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 22 2026 - Stuff vs Things

 

Isn't that so interesting!  Can you say one stuff, two stuff, three stuff more.  No.  But you can count "things" - one thing, two things, and so on.  So stuff is more general - uncountable and collective.  An undefined mass or mixture of objects, materials, or tasks. That's why there is an academic project to catalogue all the physical objects - it is called things-initiative.org and there's nothing for that mass and jumble of miscellaneous items. It makes me think thats why we often see what we own as being referred to as stuff.  A moving company would know how much "stuff" we have - between 1,500 and 3,000 individual items beyond clothes, books, and kitchen drawer stuff for two adults in an apartment.  That would translate into about 500 to 1,000 cubic feet of volume and fit in a standard 10 foot to 15 foot moving truck.   Make that a detached house and there is now 3,000 to 5,000 individual items. Your garage alone has between 100 to 300 items for lawn care, cleaning, and so on.  Now add two children and you have 10,000 to 15,000 individual items. There are 9.000 to 14,000 pounds of belongings.  There's a category named hidden storage - garage, basement, closets - which accounts for 30% of total volume. My guess is garages hold more than 300 items.  Equipment and gear sound like they have purpose.  But consider hobbies like collecting vinyl records, model cars, vintage items.  A collection of 13,201 frog-related items makes collecting stuff an activity that gets one fame in the Guinness Book of Records. That's a small collection compared to the Guinness Records for other things - 60,000 Star Wars Memorabilia collection.  Or video games - over 24,000.  Someone has more than 18,500 Barbie Dolls.  How do you store the largest fossilized poop collection?  There are 1,277 pieces.  And they have to be catalogued and photographed so become "things" being managed. The distinction of "stuff" is that it resists being counted, being discrete and individual.  "Things" are discrete and individual and possess an identify.   Here's the joke to sum up this topic: I went to a seminar on how to organize my things. Halfway through, I realized I didn't have organized things—I just had an overwhelming pile of stuff. George Carlin spoke wonderfully on the subject - the link is HERE.  And when I did a search for "stuff" in my picture database this image came up - file it under "funny stuff."   Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 21 2026 - What about my hair?

 

There's a headline in the New York Times this morning and it indicates that there was a shooting near Ontario, Canada.  I found this a humorous moment.  There's an awful lot of places near Ontario, Canada. Let's ask AI what's near Ontario, Canada.  It says Manitoba, Quebec, James Bay and Hudson Bay, and then Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Those are the land masses.  Then it goes on to include The Great Lakes - Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and then it identifies inland waters like the Ottawa River and Trent-Severn Waterway.   That last bit seems strange - why would it have inland waters like the Trent-Severn Waterway? It connects Lake Ontario to Lake Huron and is entirely inside Ontario.   It seems to me that we shouldn't count on AI to complete primary school homework. AI accuracy on factual questions is supposedly over 90%.  It seems a low number to me that after scouring all the dictionaries and encyclopedias, it remains at this level.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has an error rate of near 5%, so why not just get the answers from the Encyclopedia? The Canadian Encyclopedia got the answer of what's near Ontario correct, so why not just reference it?  I ask too many questions when I am looking for answers. So back to our memorable New York Times place reference.  The actual location of the synagogue attack was in Belleville.  I wonder what place the New York Times considers Belleville near to - it has to a place that Americans would relate to.  And the only place would be Toronto.  We were in Belleville last year - it is a very pretty town east of Toronto.  I visited a heritage home/museum.  I took this picture because it was so strange to me - it is made of human hair from members of a family and the hair is woven into pretty shapes such as flowers and butterflies - a common practice in Victorian times.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com