A modern day Tom and Barbara Good, attempting self sufficiency during trying times.
"Magic" Beans
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From all appearances, we're predicting a pretty small crop of beans from our mid-August planting.
That said, I have every confidence that if we walk around with them in our pocket, and see some random punk leading a cow, we can make a trade. We'll just tell him that they're "magic" beans, and he'll go for it.
Toho's Mechagodzilla While the cluster of technologies captured under the marketing term “ artificial intelligence ” has positive, legitimate uses, it is vitally important that we also consider its limitations and the - in many cases - unacceptable consequences of its proliferation into every aspect of our lives. Today, “AI” is in desperate need of regulation to contain its toxic effects on the environment - including energy use, carbon emissions and water use - the spread of misinformation, its vulnerability to censorship, and the ways in which it damages human intelligence (which are just now coming to light). This is not a Luddite tract claiming that the technology needs to be completely eliminated. It is an argument for getting beyond the hype about its supposed capabilities, and for creating reasonable rules around its use. Terminology: “Artificial Intelligence” is an umbrella term for a series of technologies that automate decision making, classification, recommendation, t...
It is harvest time. One thing the illustration above does not show is the large number of football-sized zucchini that are making their appearance. While I love a purple pole bean, I won't exactly be heartbroken when they slow down. This week's harvest newcomers are tomatoes. We've just pulled in the first few. The vines are laden with many more to come. This has necessitated some innovations on the "how will we eat all of this" front. Made a double batch of zucchini bread yesterday. Made more refrigerator pickles. Gave away more cucumbers. Vacuum-sealed more pole beans and tossed them in the freezer. It is time consuming. But this is what it is all about. All that work raising the seedlings, the planting, the weeding. Time to reap what was sown. And we are getting some delicious stuff. The weather has been wet, hot, and humid. Over the past few days we've had about three inches of rain, and more storms are on their way tonight. It doesn't really rain, so...
It is an exceptional year for garden productivity. I'm currently reading William Alexander's Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World , and learned that some in Renaissance Europe would refer to the reviled tomato as "Galen's wolf peach," a poisonous fruit described by Galen of Pergemon [the second century AD doctor who expounded on Hippocrates' theory of "humors" and human disease] as a lost, poisonous fruit...possessing strong smelling yellow juice. Tomatoes are a much loved food here. But we now have so many of them, that we were forced to buy a deep freezer to process them. As soon as you get one batch processed, another one comes in. In spite of eating tomato sandwiches, tomatoes as snacks, tomatoes with mozzarella cheese, more just keep on coming, like hordes of orcs at the siege of Helm's Deep, only much more delicious. Same thing with zucchini. And beans. And banana peppers... No more time to write. Time to harvest.
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