Marilyn's Photos - May 27 2025 - AI Self-Diagnosis vs dump a friend

 

The CBC interviewed a doctor who cautioned about using AI for "self-diagnosis."  The study had given medical exam multiple choice questions to AI, and it failed some simple ones.  There are many articles on the comparison of AI chatbot and human medical diagnosis.  It seems like a game of chess - sometimes AI wins, sometimes the doctors.  I wonder which side is keeping score. Are we keeping score? At the other end of things AI being used for writing is even more popular.  It shouldn't be as hard.  However, take the popular example that people are writing about.  An AI chatbot writing the email to dump a friend.  Like medical diagnosis, the success levels are similar.  Some successes and other failures with there being too many signs of a bot at work.   You can put text into an AI detector and get a probability rating that it is AI-created.  Some of these "expose" articles have done this to find out they weren't from the 'author." I have started to check garden images on Fine Art America. Last week, I was surprised when I put some images through HIVE AI detection.  Gardens with little angels carrying daisy bouquets seem sufficiently saccharine as to be AI generated.  And there are lots of AI-generated images of this sort.  What did I find?  0% AI.  This work is entirely original and the artist is "renowned".  Perhaps the originator for all the copies I see. Here we are in the some successes and some failures at figuring things out. Pinterest, though, seems to be a magnet for AI-.  The AI-generated garden, flower, plant, etc images.  In my tests, I've found that more than 50% of the garden-related images are deemed AI-generated.  So many gardens, plants and flowers with that "saccharine" quality.  In flowers and plants there is too much symmetry, sunlight, and unusual colours. Too many blossoms on one plant, and so on. Here's a great example - a hosta with the wrong flowers and strange-coloured leaves.  99% probability AI-generated. A "log-garden" that is 99% probability AI-generated. Should we be taking stock every so often to see the progress?  Or will one day it happen and "in a bound Biggles was freed."  And we all are in an AI-generated world. What do you think of this field of rapeseed and clover? I saw a few of these along Fourth Avenue on Saturday.  This was at Fourth And Jordan Road.   What do you think of this field of rapeseed and clover? I saw a few of these along Fourth Avenue on Saturday.  This was at Fourth And Jordan Road.

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Aug 1 2023 - Most

 

How many is most?  Most of the time, most people, the most iconic photographs, the most...pick a topic and you can find a headline that starts with this word. The greatest in amount, quantity or degree. It is a determiner, a pronoun and an adverb.  It forms a superlative -  "the most important event of my life".   And what percentage is considered most?  Quora commenters weigh in on this one:   "While “most” literally just means more than half, it is best used to mean something like 60% to 90%. Below 60% you should consider terms like “more than half” or “a small majority”. Above 90% you get in the territory of “almost all” or “a large majority”. Of course, this depends on context." But most isn't really a percentage word, is it?  Not anymore, it seems.  Looking at the headlines, it is a boasting word, a bragging term.  At the least it is a comparative based on opinion and draws our attention to it.   That's why I think we are so attracted to headlines with most in them.  There aren't any movies, songs, or websites named "Most".  There is a city in the Czech Republic, but none in the US or Canada.  Don't expect to find it recommended as a baby name. By itself, it doesn't have much to say. A search on the single word - most - reveals a lot about us it comes up with:  most beautiful women, most attractive men, most expensive cars and most beautiful places in the world.  There are lots of other mosts, but these are the top ones. Here's an iconic flower of summer - the sunflower.

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June 2 2022 - So you love a parade

I seem to be confident that this Platinum Jubilee Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II is the last one of any Monarch.  Ever.  Monumental that it is here now.   This is something to mark even if you aren't among the thousands and millions who will celebrate. It seems astonishing to have something in the future be assured to be the final one of its kind.  Young people here in Canada have a lukewarm interest, if any at all.  It is the older generations who have some sense of the significance. CNN is covering this live.  Just 14 minutes ago, the official Buckingham Palace account tweeted a picture from the royal rooftop. Prince Charles is inspecting the troops!  Cheering is underwa! There are pictures of people are wearing garish Union Jack outfits (eeks!) and others wearing masks of Queen Elizabeth and her dog. Union Jack hats abound.  Greetings are pouring in - even the Pope sends greetings (ha!). There are pictures of the very young Queen Elizabeth being greeted by a royal salute and inspecting the troops. She has been at every ceremony throughout her reign, except the two years of the pandemic and in 1955 due to a general strike. Did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend? A spokesperson said they would.  Tomorrow?  Thanksgiving service. Saturday? Epsom Downs racecourse. Sunday? street parties will be part of the Big Jubilee Lunch. The finale is the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.  There will be a "River of Hope" with 200 silk flags parading down the Mall like a river, and a who's who of Britain's most famous faces.  Can you imagine a field of flowers like this?  This is near the Strasburg Railway in 2013.  I've not seen a field like this since.  Nor the perfect moment of a horse. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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June 4 2021 - Trufficulture

 

Trufficulture: What does this word signify?   Growers in Ontario will be producing Burgundy truffles, a rare variety that matures in the fall, compared to other truffles that mature in the winter or in the summer.  There are some native truffles in Ontario, and when found in the wild, are very valuable.   Adam Koziol is the owner of EarthGen, a propagation nursery company located in Dunnville/Wainfleet. It uses unique methods to speed the development of trees. They have been able to inoculate hazelnut and oak tree roots with Burgundy truffle spore from Spain.  This is the nursery that supplied the native trees for our Garden Club Earth Day sale.  Truffles grow in several places in Europe, but mainly France, Italy and Spain. France and Italy closely guard their truffle spores and won’t allow their export. Spain, however has allowed some export. It is expected that Niagara is a viable region for truffle production. It can take 6 to 10 years until both the hazelnut trees and the truffles mature.  Hazelnut trees can earn up to $3,000 per acre.  And then there are the truffles.  There are a few years to go yet, as the original coverage of the topic was in 2018. But on the West Coast, truffles have been growing longer.  There, Grant and Betty Duckett have been growing truffles since the 2000s and even have Lagotto Romagnolo dogs for truffle hunting.  They are focused on growing black Periogord truffles.  While their website is a bit out of date, they do say that they have passed the operation on to their family.  Let's hope this endeavour continues. Here in Niagara, Earthgen's website - says they are scheduling tours for interested hazelnut and truffle growers.   Could you have guessed there would be hazelnuts and truffles in Niagara? This picture was taken on a ride on the Strasburg Railway almost 10 years ago - what a field of flowers!

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March 12 2020 - Hash it Out

#FlowerCount is over in Victoria.  We're waiting for the final count. Number sign - now called hashtag -# - is with us many times a day. And what an inconvenient spot on the typewriter.  I assume that was because it was  hardly ever used so got relegated to the number row. Maybe if you were writing music and needed to write something in a key with sharps. Or Possibly pounds - but then we use lb as an abbreviation for pounds and that's where it started in Rome- meaning pound weight.. It is also used in proof-reading to indicate that a space should be inserted, and a few lesser uses.  The telephone keypad has the symbol and got a special name for it - Octothorpe. Special characters have a history of being adopted for special meanings in computer languages.  I assume this comes out of its use in mathematics. Our first word of our post, though, gives us the clue to how we got to using # so many times a day. The hash tag got the stratosphere boost with Chris Messina to create topics of interest. Look at all these other uses: tic tac toe, crosshatch, (garden) fence, mesh, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, crunch, punch mark, sink, corridor, capital 3, and waffle.  Plus all those others in computing.  Shouldn't there be some jokes?  Perhaps, but what pops up are #jokes and not jokes about #'s.  Here the only two that relate so far and can be included without profanity. I got an interview and told them I was proficient in C and C-sharp. Turns out that wasn't good enough to be a pianist A lot of people call # a Hashtag but back in my day it was the pound sign Which makes the movement #MeToo a bit awkward This is a picture of Brian's Lilycrest Gardens lily hybridizing field.  It was taken a few years ago when his field was at its peak.  Isn't that a sight of lilies!  Let's hope to see it on the screen at RBG during the Plant Faire, coming up at the end of April.

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Lighting the Christmas Tree

Wondering about the interesting news of 2019, a "Noel" retitled "Noeel" Christmas story popped up:     "An electric eel in Chattanooga, Tenn., is sparking a little holiday cheer.  Every time Miguel Wattson the electric eel releases a jolt of electricity, a festively-decorated Christmas tree next to his tank at the Tennessee Aquarium flickers and glows.  "There is a sensor directly in his exhibit that picks up when he produces electricity," Aquarist Kimberly Hurt, who cares for the electric eel, tells NPR.  The aquarium had already connected the sensor to a soundboard and a light board to correspond with Wattson's bursts, says Hurt. "It'll light up the board. It also does make some noise so people can hear when he's producing electricity." So it wasn't a huge leap to also have Wattson's sensors connected to a Christmas tree, for a seasonal spin on the display." More on the story and video footage of the electric eel here. Brian's lily field faces a farm house and garage. I got to wondering what it might look like with a scenic view - facing west to mountains.  Here's an interpretation.

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Glittering, Glittering!

Do you know about glitter?   I read the New York Times article in December 2018 explaining what glitter is and I still am perplexed by it. It is all over the floor of the Museum, the result of many trees of decorations.  There will be more as the trees are taken down tomorrow and Wednesday.  I quote the second paragraph of that entertaining NY Times article HERE to give you a sense of its presence in our lives today. "Aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate settles over store windows like dazzling frost. It flashes like hot, molten gold across the nail plates of young women. It sparkles like pure precision-cut starlight on an ornament of a North American brown bear driving a car towing a camper van. Indeed, in Clement Clarke Moore’s seminal Christmas Eve poem, the eyes of Saint Nicholas himself are said to twinkle like aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate (I’m paraphrasing). In homes and malls and schools and synagogues and banks and hospitals and fire stations and hardware stores and breweries and car dealerships, and every kind of office — and outside those places, too — it shines. It glitters. It is glitter." I hope you hop over and read about this strange and amazing substance that is now completely part of Christmas.  I found a joke to brighten up our Monday morning:   I saw on the news that a truck carrying almonds collided with another truck carrying glitter. Apparently the road was covered with with almonds and glitter. And I thought, "That's pretty nuts" This 'field' of red Gerbera's makes a nice December picture.

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A Z Generation

Shalini Shankar was on CBC yesterday being interviewed about her book which studied Generation Z children involved in spelling bee competitions. “Bee kids are the bellwethers of Gen Z kids,” Shankar said, according to a news release. “Gen Z kids are learning to thrive in a highly competitive world, with great access to the internet and digital tools, and higher expectations of professionalism at a much younger age.” In doing her research, Shankar discovered that South Asian-American parents, in particular, have enrolled their children in the spelling bee. Balu Natarajan (Weinberg ’92, ’96 MD, ’99 GME), who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, was the first child of immigrants to win, according to the release. The last 11 trophies have gone to Indian-American winners. And a few days before that I heard an interview on the winning strategies of Brad Rutter, Jeopardy Champion.  The story was how future contestants were training based on his style to become better at the game.  The buzzer seems to be the number 1 item - being able to hit the buzzer really fast.  Another was his aggressiveness that scares competitors.  He seems very willing to talk about his approach and strategies.  The spelling bee group keeps their methods proprietary. Look at this field of buttercups in Strassburg, PA.  Fresh buttercups in the field can cause blistering of the mouth or skin, so are rarely eaten by animals in the field.  It makes me wonder if this horse is digging deeper and finding some simple grass.

Carrots and Carots

Five interesting facts today include the following:  before the 17th century almost all cultivated carrots were purple.   This turns out to be a tremendous year for Queen Anne's Lace - a wild carrot - Daucus carot   Growing along road sides and in unused fields, there are clouds of white everywhere. This is considered a companion plant to crops, and was introduced to North America, as it attractive wasps to its small flowers in its native land.  It is documented to boost tomato plant production, and can provide a microclimate of cooler, moister air for lettuce. Other times it is considered a noxious weed:  It likely is a noxious weed here, given the volume of it. The story of its common name in North America is that both Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and her great grandmother, Anne of Denmark, are taken to be the Queen Anne for which the plant is named. It is so called because the flower resembles lace, prominent in fine clothing of the day; the red flower in the center is thought to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. I didn't remember that is is an edible plant - and that the flowers are sometimes battered and fried.  And people ask if Queen Anne's Lace is hogweed and is poisonous.  They bloom at the same time, but hogweed is cow parsnip - Heracleum maximum.  And Queen Anne's Lace also looks similar to Angelica - which is Wild Celery. I recall one of our summer activities as children was to put the flower stalks in jars of coloured water and the white flowers would turn colour.