A while ago I wrote a series of haiku-type poems related to the island of Kauai, where I spent a lot of time over many years. I called the group of poems "Kauai Haiku Tour" playing off a book called "Kauai Hiking Tour". The poem below seems to compliment your image above:
Sometimes the local fisherman uses poles, sometimes they use nets. Watching a local guy "throw net" is really interesting as they stand on the rocks and survey the ocean, sometimes for a long time, until suddenly, they throw out the net and then haul in a catch.
You've spent a lot of time on Kauai, and saw things I didn't. Beside the beaches did you do some of the things I saw, like go by boat up the river to the Fern Cave, view Waimea Canyon or witness the moaning rock? (Can't remember the name, but it was a rock formation on the coast hollowed out so the waves fill it and cause a moaning sound from the tube that rises to the top).
I've taken advantage of just about everything Kauai has to offer, and then some. I have been on the boat on the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto. I have also kayaked on several rivers on Kauai. I have seen Kauai many times from boats on the ocean. I visited Waimea Canyon many times, and rented cabins at Koke'e State Park farther up the mountain. I hiked into the rain forest and Alaka'i swamp on top of the mountain several times, hiked the Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali cliffs many times, and hiked other trails on the island. I visited various archaeological sites every time I was on Kauai. I did things with my local friends, such as getting up before dawn to go out on the reef when it was low tide to go "squiding", i.e. catch baby octopus. I even took a heliocopter tour one time that landed at a remote waterfall. And, I was at Spouting Horn, which you referred to as "moaning rock", a lot. I had many other adventures on Kauai, too numerous to mention now. My very close local friend, who was born on Kauai, used to love it when I would take him to places on the island that I had explored, but he had never been.
The cedar wax wings came through last week early in the morning. There must have been about 3 dozen in this maple tree in the neighbor's yard. I saw the neighbors talking to a guy yesterday about cutting it down. I'll be very sad to see it go.
Also yesterday a large group of white throated sparrows stopped by at lunchtime.
They are cutting it down soon. The roots are impacting their foundation. The place used to be a duplex, but the lady sold it to her daughter and son-in-law to turn it into a single family home again. It's great, except for the loss of the tree. Maybe I'll but a new tree in on my side.
Wonderful photos. Was not the second one a photo we used in an early discussion about cropping? However, you've added some editing to it that makes it a "showcase" artwork.
Thanks. Yes, we discussed cropping that photo, or a similar one taken at the same location, almost two years ago. Your memory is good! Sometimes, as I learn new things or get new ideas, I like to go back and rework photos I haven't looked at for a while to see if I can do more with them.
The photos were taken in Port Aransas, Texas on the Gulf Coast. Red and I spent every winter there (Jan - March) for six years and saw these birds almost every day. The roseate spoonbill, is, IMO one of the most beautiful birds in the world.
Only ever buy USA, Canadian or Alaskan salmon.. won't touch anything else..
Speaking of seafood this is my coronation tea... Australian King prawns..rather appropriate for the occassion...Because Charles is off like a bucket of prawns in the sun...
The hybrid stripers are the ones that live in freshwater. You can identify them by their stripes being somewhat broken in the middle and shifted, almost like a copy error.
If you caught a 15 lb one, that must have really been something. Those things fight like crazy.
Sometime by October of this year, I'll be heading to the Miami area to fish for Peacock Bass the most aggressive and best fighters of all the bass species.
Yes, they are a good eating fish, very little bone or oil and the meat is white and it's similar to snapper or grouper.
In Florida, it is mostly catch and release since they are very important to the eco system here and heavily fished so their protection is very important. You are only allowed to keep 2 fish and only one can be over 17 inches which helps protect the species.
My latest Microsoft Edge browser update included their new Image Creator app, powered by the DALL-E artificial intelligence. I've been playing around with it and it's pretty cool. You can just type in whatever you want it to make, and when it's done it gives you four options to choose from.
Here I asked for a flying saucer and aliens.
Here I asked for a Gray alien.
Here I asked for a fairy tale castle with cloudy sky.
Here I asked for a medieval village
Here I asked for a meadow with trees and flowers.
It's kind of amazing if you ask me.
If you have the Edge browser you may already have it. Find it by hovering on or clicking the letter b Bing icon in the upper right of your screen and look for the tab in the sidebar that pops up. Hover over the tabs and text will come up telling you what they are.
You should give it a try. It's fun. Ask it to make anything.
I even checked to see if it would make things without a background that could be easily edited out for use in another image. It did. I asked for a dragon with no background and it gave me four options with empty white backgrounds to choose from. It would be easy as pie to erase the white and drop the dragon into another image.
It will also make things in known styles if you ask for it, like "in the style of Vincent van Gogh."
Hey, we don't need cameras any more. We can all be artists and create images that compete with the famous painters. However, are WE creating the images, or should credit be given to Microsoft Bing Image Creator?
I suppose credit should go to the AI and any artists or photographers whose work was used to train the AI. I don't know how they would do that, though. According to the articles posted by G below, people are raising concerns about that.
I imagine they'll figure something out. All we probably need to do here is make it clear that it's AI generated.
Pretty cool, Dig. I like the one with the flowers in the meadow. The medieval village and the castle look very Disney-like.
There is a lot of controversy about AI generated art, as you probably know. Here are a couple links that discuss some of the issues:
A friend of mine just used an AI app to write some song lyrics. I thought the result was rather pedestrian and not too creative. He also said you can write new lyrics and apply them to old tunes, which, of course, creates copyright issues depending on the age of the original tune.
There is a lot of controversy about AI generated art, as you probably know
Hopefully they'll work the controversy out, because I think it's cool as all get out.
A friend of mine just used an AI app to write some song lyrics. I thought the result was rather pedestrian and not too creative.
Yeah, a while back I was playing around with the Bing chatbot that's based on ChatGPT and having it write short stories. It was very fast, which was impressive, but not very complex or imaginative. Still fun, though.
About a month ago I saw on the news that students were using ChatGPT to write papers for them. I thought that was funny and sad at the same time. Schools were able to detect it at the time, but I don't know how they'll combat it in the future as AI gets better and better. I mean, with the speed it's developing, imagine it in 10 or 20 years.
The AI companies may need to encode some kind of micro watermark in text produced by their technology. That might do it. Teachers could just put it under a magnifying glass to check. But kids will probably find a way around that, too; like having AI do the actual work, and then copying the result by re-typing the text themselves. It might turn out to be an unsolvable problem. Maybe papers will become a thing of the past, in lieu of in-class work only or something.
I tried to open the image creator, but unfortunately I was told this: "Image creation is coming soon to your region". What I wanted to create to see how it works was an image of the White House in a Chinese architectural style in a Chinese setting and then I wanted to create the image of the Toronto skyline in the painting style of J.M.W.Turner. Can you do those two for me?
A photographer took a picture just as this couple threw ashes into a river. He asked who it was. As they answered their dog. The photographer asked for permission to edit their photo and this was the result
First-things-first. Check the article at the link below.
Thanks for that.
As for the photo, the only thing missing in mine is the sunrise or sunset, and the only think missing in yours is the Heineken.
A while ago I wrote a series of haiku-type poems related to the island of Kauai, where I spent a lot of time over many years. I called the group of poems "Kauai Haiku Tour" playing off a book called "Kauai Hiking Tour". The poem below seems to compliment your image above:
Pole fishing local
catches the first ray of dawn
at Maha’ulepu
(© G. Gam)
Sometimes the local fisherman uses poles, sometimes they use nets. Watching a local guy "throw net" is really interesting as they stand on the rocks and survey the ocean, sometimes for a long time, until suddenly, they throw out the net and then haul in a catch.
You've spent a lot of time on Kauai, and saw things I didn't. Beside the beaches did you do some of the things I saw, like go by boat up the river to the Fern Cave, view Waimea Canyon or witness the moaning rock? (Can't remember the name, but it was a rock formation on the coast hollowed out so the waves fill it and cause a moaning sound from the tube that rises to the top).
I've taken advantage of just about everything Kauai has to offer, and then some. I have been on the boat on the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto. I have also kayaked on several rivers on Kauai. I have seen Kauai many times from boats on the ocean. I visited Waimea Canyon many times, and rented cabins at Koke'e State Park farther up the mountain. I hiked into the rain forest and Alaka'i swamp on top of the mountain several times, hiked the Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali cliffs many times, and hiked other trails on the island. I visited various archaeological sites every time I was on Kauai. I did things with my local friends, such as getting up before dawn to go out on the reef when it was low tide to go "squiding", i.e. catch baby octopus. I even took a heliocopter tour one time that landed at a remote waterfall. And, I was at Spouting Horn, which you referred to as "moaning rock", a lot. I had many other adventures on Kauai, too numerous to mention now. My very close local friend, who was born on Kauai, used to love it when I would take him to places on the island that I had explored, but he had never been.
When I was there I thought of it as the closest thing to paradise.
I'll have to go back, I missed a few of those adventures. Did see Waimea Canyon, so beautiful.
Evening....this is how we do it.
Emptying trucks so the wood chips can be loaded on to the ships..
The cedar wax wings came through last week early in the morning. There must have been about 3 dozen in this maple tree in the neighbor's yard. I saw the neighbors talking to a guy yesterday about cutting it down. I'll be very sad to see it go.
Also yesterday a large group of white throated sparrows stopped by at lunchtime.
Evening evil...we have sparrows here as well but they have all brown colours..never seen one before with the yellow markings. Like yours better..
Hope they don't cut the maple tree down, love those trees in Autumn..
I've had a maple tree or trees at almost every home I lived in
They are cutting it down soon. The roots are impacting their foundation. The place used to be a duplex, but the lady sold it to her daughter and son-in-law to turn it into a single family home again. It's great, except for the loss of the tree. Maybe I'll but a new tree in on my side.
Morning evil..well I guess there is no choice in that respect...our gumtrees do the same thing and renowned for getting into water pipes and sewers...
You should sell admission tickets to birdwatchers.
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At Sedlec Ossuary, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
View of Kutna Hora
Wonderful photos. Was not the second one a photo we used in an early discussion about cropping? However, you've added some editing to it that makes it a "showcase" artwork.
Thanks. Yes, we discussed cropping that photo, or a similar one taken at the same location, almost two years ago. Your memory is good! Sometimes, as I learn new things or get new ideas, I like to go back and rework photos I haven't looked at for a while to see if I can do more with them.
The photos were taken in Port Aransas, Texas on the Gulf Coast. Red and I spent every winter there (Jan - March) for six years and saw these birds almost every day. The roseate spoonbill, is, IMO one of the most beautiful birds in the world.
These photos were taken off the internet.
Morning... stunning birds.. thought they were Flamingos for a second then realised they were Spoonbills..
The head of the spoonbill looks like a character from the Star Wars movie series.
Since fish and fishing is the theme of the day here are a couple for you.
Pelican Lake, northern MN.
Ottertail Lake, northern MN.
LOL. There you go holding the fish forward close to the camera lens to make them look bigger. You can't fool me.
LOL, Those were what we call half pounders. Actual weight around 2 to 3 lbs. I'll post some photos of 10 lbs later today which are called Hawgs.
Fascinating images.
jumping fish
original image
© A. Mac/A.G.
Up in the mountains where internet connection is hit or miss, but everyone here is looking good!
Fish that run without legs - quite unique.
Arvo.... Salmon..yum!
Only ever buy USA, Canadian or Alaskan salmon.. won't touch anything else..
Speaking of seafood this is my coronation tea... Australian King prawns..rather appropriate for the occassion...Because Charles is off like a bucket of prawns in the sun...
They look like the ones I've been eating here. I wonder if they're being imported.
Arvo buzz..if they are King or Tiger prawns good chance they are from here..but I doubt it..we only export crayfish far as I am aware...
Just another usual sunset in Stone Creek, Ocala, FL.
Watch out!!! That could be an Israeli space laser.
Dammit, those fish are fast.
Photo by the Stone Creek Photo Club.
Here you go, Buzz. A Hawg a bit over 11 lbs Largemouth Bass.
Clear Lake, Northern California.
Reeling that one in must have been a blast.
Have you ever caught a Hybrid Striped Bass, Kav? Those are some of the best fighters I've ever laid into.
It was a blast, Dig. you don't forget that size largemouth.
I've caught a lot of striped bass not sure what you mean by Hybrid striper though. The biggest stripper I've landed was a 15 lb at Lake Mead in NV.
Here is another big boy. A 6 lb smallmouth caught at Lake of the Woods.
The hybrid stripers are the ones that live in freshwater. You can identify them by their stripes being somewhat broken in the middle and shifted, almost like a copy error.
If you caught a 15 lb one, that must have really been something. Those things fight like crazy.
OK, Lake Mead is overrun with striper and there is no limit on them since they have done a lot of damage to the largemouth population.
The lake record for Mead is 52 lbs and 15 lb'ers are not unusual.
That is amazing. I can't even imagine landing a 52 pounder.
Sometime by October of this year, I'll be heading to the Miami area to fish for Peacock Bass the most aggressive and best fighters of all the bass species.
Pound for pound a smallmouth on a fly rod, even one under a pound will excite!
Awesome. I didn't know there were Peacocks in Florida. I thought they were only in Brazil. I bet that'll be fun.
That 6 lb smallie I posted above was a real battle.
Mostly around the Miami area the only other place in the US that has them is a Lake in Hawaii outside of Honolulu.
Morning..very nice looking fish..I assume it is eatable??
A good eating and fighting fish here is the Barramundi...found up in the northern part of Australia....
Also a favourite food of the crocs...
Yes, they are a good eating fish, very little bone or oil and the meat is white and it's similar to snapper or grouper.
In Florida, it is mostly catch and release since they are very important to the eco system here and heavily fished so their protection is very important. You are only allowed to keep 2 fish and only one can be over 17 inches which helps protect the species.
That's the first time I've ever seen or even heard of a "Peacock Bass". It's colours make it a pretty patriotic fish.
My latest Microsoft Edge browser update included their new Image Creator app, powered by the DALL-E artificial intelligence. I've been playing around with it and it's pretty cool. You can just type in whatever you want it to make, and when it's done it gives you four options to choose from.
Here I asked for a flying saucer and aliens.
Here I asked for a Gray alien.
Here I asked for a fairy tale castle with cloudy sky.
Here I asked for a medieval village
Here I asked for a meadow with trees and flowers.
It's kind of amazing if you ask me.
If you have the Edge browser you may already have it. Find it by hovering on or clicking the letter b Bing icon in the upper right of your screen and look for the tab in the sidebar that pops up. Hover over the tabs and text will come up telling you what they are.
Here the address for the app on a full page as well: Image Creator from Microsoft Bing
Amazing photos, Dig.
Beautiful beyond belief!
You should give it a try. It's fun. Ask it to make anything.
I even checked to see if it would make things without a background that could be easily edited out for use in another image. It did. I asked for a dragon with no background and it gave me four options with empty white backgrounds to choose from. It would be easy as pie to erase the white and drop the dragon into another image.
It will also make things in known styles if you ask for it, like "in the style of Vincent van Gogh."
For example, here I asked for a stone bridge with arches in the style of Vincent van Gogh.
Hey, we don't need cameras any more. We can all be artists and create images that compete with the famous painters. However, are WE creating the images, or should credit be given to Microsoft Bing Image Creator?
I suppose credit should go to the AI and any artists or photographers whose work was used to train the AI. I don't know how they would do that, though. According to the articles posted by G below, people are raising concerns about that.
I imagine they'll figure something out. All we probably need to do here is make it clear that it's AI generated.
Pretty cool, Dig. I like the one with the flowers in the meadow. The medieval village and the castle look very Disney-like.
There is a lot of controversy about AI generated art, as you probably know. Here are a couple links that discuss some of the issues:
A friend of mine just used an AI app to write some song lyrics. I thought the result was rather pedestrian and not too creative. He also said you can write new lyrics and apply them to old tunes, which, of course, creates copyright issues depending on the age of the original tune.
Hopefully they'll work the controversy out, because I think it's cool as all get out.
Yeah, a while back I was playing around with the Bing chatbot that's based on ChatGPT and having it write short stories. It was very fast, which was impressive, but not very complex or imaginative. Still fun, though.
About a month ago I saw on the news that students were using ChatGPT to write papers for them. I thought that was funny and sad at the same time. Schools were able to detect it at the time, but I don't know how they'll combat it in the future as AI gets better and better. I mean, with the speed it's developing, imagine it in 10 or 20 years.
The AI companies may need to encode some kind of micro watermark in text produced by their technology. That might do it. Teachers could just put it under a magnifying glass to check. But kids will probably find a way around that, too; like having AI do the actual work, and then copying the result by re-typing the text themselves. It might turn out to be an unsolvable problem. Maybe papers will become a thing of the past, in lieu of in-class work only or something.
I'm not sure the issues presented will ever be fully worked.
I think my friend did the song lyrics using the same thing you used to write short stories.
I tried to open the image creator, but unfortunately I was told this: "Image creation is coming soon to your region". What I wanted to create to see how it works was an image of the White House in a Chinese architectural style in a Chinese setting and then I wanted to create the image of the Toronto skyline in the painting style of J.M.W.Turner. Can you do those two for me?
I'll go try.
That didn't take long at all. It gave me four results for each request, but I'm just going to post a couple for each. I hope that's alright.
Two versions of the White House request...
And two versions of the Toronto and J.M.W. Turner request. I have no idea is this matches the painting style or not, being unfamiliar with it.
FANTASTIC!!!
I can't wait for it to be available here.
I did this one myself … regardless of whether or not my intelligence is artificial, real, or, non-existent.
© A. Mac/A.G.
I'd say it's real, lol. That looks great.
Saw this and had to share. I thought it was something different...
Another hour or so … then see everyone Thursday night.
Thanks to all.