Category: Uncategorized
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TRELLIS OF WISTERIA
A trellis of wisteria, a sight to behold It stands in the garden, its beauty ever so bold Vines of deep purple, its leaves of soft green It stands in the sunlight, a beauty to be seen It’s sweet aroma fills the air A reminder of beauty and peace to fare The delicate blooms of…
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE SYSTEM
We live in a world where energy companies make a fortune when there’s an energy crisis, the military industrial complex makes a fortune when there’s war, and pharmaceutical companies make a fortune when there’s a pandemic. This is something comedian Russel Brand said on episode #1949 of the Joe Rogan podcast. Whatever you think of…
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IRAN DISCOVERS WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST LITHIUM RESERVE
Iran seems to be a country very lucky when it comes to natural resources. We all know they make a lot of money selling oil. But they now found what’s believed to be the second largest reserve of lithium in the world (#1 is Chile with 9.3 million metric tons). The newly discovered Iranian reserve…
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HOW WIRED WILL (AND WON’T) USE GENERATIVE AI
WIRED magazine announced how they’ll use AI, and while the entire article is worth reading, there’s a few things that were of interest to me: If you read the entire piece, you’ll find that this is a very thoughtful and balanced approach to the use of AI, probably the best I’ve come across from major…
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AI MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS? YUP, AND IT’S PRETTY GOOD
Turns out AI is also good at recommending movies for you. I don’t mean the terrible Netflix recommendations, but I just discovered a site called Movie Deep Search which allows you to type in a phrase like “strong storytelling movies with a plot twist” or “funny movies with good writing” and it spits out a…
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SHOWER TEMPERATURE CONTROL
One of the most common first-world gripes is getting the water temperature right when taking a shower. It’s a common experience that the water is too cold, you move the shower handle a tiny little bit to make it warmer, and suddenly instead of slightly too cold, you now get way too hot water. Ben…
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Myeong-yi Namul (명이나물)
Myeong-yi Namul (aka myeongi namul, 명이나물) is the Korean name for for pickled leaves of Korean mountain garlic. Now it’s not really garlic as far as I can tell, it’s called like this because it tastes a bit like garlic and grows mostly in the mountains. My (so far unconfirmed research) shows that this plant…
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RICHAT STRUCTURE: THE EYE OF THE SAHARA. ATLANTIS?
No idea how substantial this is, but I thought it was incredibly interesting, even if just for the Richat Structure, aka The Eye of the Sahara, or Guelb er Richât, which I didn’t know about. He also mentions an ancient Mauretanian king of the name Mansa Musa, who some claim was the wealthiest man in…
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SHINE MUSCAT GRAPE
Shine muscat grape are a special cultivar of grapes that was developed in Japan in 1988, but is still a rather exclusive type of grape that most people have never tasted. And the only reason why I write about it here today is because I’ve just tasted it for the first time—and it’s a remarkably…
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BAKING BREAD IN SAND AND ASHES: TAGUELLA OF THE TUAREG
The Tuareg have a special way of baking bread, which is called taguella. It’s a simple flat bread baked in the embers of a fire, basically the hot sand and ashes of a little bonfire. It’s typically made of wheat, millet, or semolina I love this way of making bread. It’s very efficient if you…