Try it out!

 https://chat.openai.com/chat

Once you sign up for this beta site, you can ask it to do all sorts of things. Better than Siri. Easier than trying to look up facts on Wikipedia, etc. Give it a try. Here are some samples based on questions or commands I created.

Write a poem about a Dada comic called "Frog Applause". It is not about frogs.

Dada comics wild

A feast for the mind and the eye

"Frog Applause" is no exception

With its surreal art and strange tales

It takes us on a journey

To a world beyond the veil

Each panel is a puzzle

A challenge to our senses

As we try to decipher

The meaning of it all

But perhaps that is the point

To embrace the absurd

And find the joy in the chaos

Of "Frog Applause"

So let us delve into the strange

And see where it takes us

On this journey through the surreal

Of Dada comics wild.

Write another poem. Use the words "bathmat factory" and "surveillance pickle".

In "Frog Applause" the comic

We find a world of absurdity

Where the surveillance pickle reigns supreme

In its pages, we explore

A bathmat factory of the mind

Where the impossible becomes real

The artist's pen is a guide

Through a landscape of the absurd

Where anything can happen

Each panel is a portal

To a realm beyond our wildest dreams

A place where the rules don't apply

So let us dive into the strange

And join the frogs in their applause

For the joy of exploring

The bizarre world of "Frog Applause."

Write a three panel comic about two dogs.

Panel 1: Two dog friends are standing in a kitchen, one of them is holding a small, green cactus.

Panel 2: The dog holding the cactus asks, "Have you ever tried cactus juice? It's like a party in your mouth!"

Panel 3: The other dog, skeptical, replies, "I don't think that's how cacti work. Plus, I'm pretty sure my mouth isn't big enough for a party."

Another. Use the words "toboggan," "uvula," and "jellybean."

Panel 1: Two dog friends are sitting in a park, one of them is wearing a toboggan hat.

Panel 2: The dog wearing the toboggan hat asks, "Have you ever heard of the uvula? It's that little dangly thing in the back of your throat."

Panel 3: The other dog, surprised, replies, "No way! Mine looks like a giant jellybean!"

Another. Use the words "mammoth tusk," "oatmeal." and "rhinestones."

Panel 1: Two dog friends are sitting in the middle of a busy street, one of them is holding a mammoth tusk.

Panel 2: The dog holding the mammoth tusk asks, "Have you ever tried oatmeal with rhinestones mixed in? It's a game changer!"

Panel 3: The other dog, shocked, replies, "Uh, I think you might have gotten a little too creative with your breakfast this morning."

What is the rarest and most expensive gemstone?

The rarest and most expensive gemstone is generally considered to be the red diamond. Diamonds are the hardest known natural material and are highly prized for their beauty, durability, and rarity. Red diamonds are among the rarest of all diamond colors and are extremely difficult to find. In fact, it is estimated that only a few hundred red diamonds exist in the world. As a result, they are extremely valuable and are considered to be some of the most expensive gemstones in the world. Other rare and expensive gemstones include pink diamonds, blue diamonds, and black diamonds.

Are there any plants or animals with the name "Teresa" included in the scientific name?

1. Teresa paradoxa, a species of flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae, native to Ecuador.

2. Heliconius teresa, a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, found in Central and South America.

3. Euphorbia teresae, a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae, native to South Africa.

4. Osmia teresae, a species of bee in the family Megachilidae, found in the western United States.

5. Pseudotropheus teresa, a species of cichlid fish in the family Cichlidae, native to Lake Malawi in Africa.

6. Eucyclops teresae, a species of copepod in the family Cyclopidae, found in Central and South America.

7. Anacroneuria teresae, a species of stonefly in the family Perlidae, found in Brazil.

8. Eustalomorpha teresae, a species of spider in the family Eustalomidae, found in Brazil.

   
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In the streets of Tehran

An Iranian named Behnam has attached a camera to himself and is walking through the bazaars and streets of Tehran. These are recent videos. In these videos, you can see that many women have already decided not to wear a hjhab. They are breaking the law, but no one seems to bother them. The prices of food, clothing, and other items are very high. Inflation and high prices are the common complaints of most people, rather than the hijab or any political issues. It's all economics. 

I can understand much of what this speaker is saying, but there are many words and phrases that I don't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfLqjlWIQFs

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP_oHVsAbgc

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XWHb6CF4A

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Dave Whamond - Christmas card 2022

Dave Whamond sent me this Christmas card that he designed for 2022. Dave is as friendly and funny as he is talented, so that's saying a lot.

"Reality Check"  https://www.gocomics.com/realitycheck/

"Day by Dave"   https://www.gocomics.com/day-by-dave/

Political cartoons by Dave:  https://politicalcartoons.com/cartoonist/dave-whamond

Website:  http://davewhamond.com

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Yes, lame, lame, lame!!!

 

What isn't lame these days?

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Naming laws in China

Naming laws in China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) are based on technical capability rather than the appropriateness of words (as opposed to naming laws in Japan, which restrict the kanji which can be used based on appropriate taste, as well as readability by all people). Although it is advised for parents to name their children so that others are able to easily read their names, there are no restrictions on the complexity of Chinese characters used, provided that there are no technical issues in doing so (see below). The use of simplified characters is advised over traditional Chinese characters; however, this is not strictly enforced.

Read more here.

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"Frog Applause" December 22, 2022

Sometimes the intended version of "Frog Applause" doesn't load as hoped. I changed my mind BEFORE this cartoon appeared, but it had already been queued up so... too late. There was a time when merely uploading a new version, even AFTER it was already on my FA page (great when there was a typo, such as recently with "Velveeta," but, alas, that doesn't happen anymore. Eventually, one of my replacements will catch up... but that usually requires some circumstance that I'm not sure about. Anyway, this was supposed to be today's version of "Frog Applause." Still lame, but slightly lamer on my scale of lamé.

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Building a house in winter

I never grow tired of watching people using their skills. I particularly enjoy anything to do with carpentry or masonry. 

You have to go to YouTube to view this video. The owner has disabled it offsite. That's okay, Misha. It's worth the click.

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Spit cake

A spit cake is a European-styled cake made with layers of dough or batter deposited, one at a time, onto a tapered cylindrical rotating spit. The dough is baked by an open fire or a special oven, rotisserie-style. Generally, spit cakes are associated with celebrations such as weddings and Christmas. The spit can be dipped in a thin dough, or the dough can be poured or rolled on the spit.

This cake group may have originated in the classical era, around 400 BC, when similar large cakes were prepared on spits for Dionysiac feasts. In the Deipnosophistae, the Ancient Greek writer Athenaeus (c. 170 – c. 230) describes some of the bread, cakes, and pastries available in classical times. Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom-shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit.

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I can't get past the name. A spit cake sounds about as appetizing as a urinal cake.

P-22 (R.I.P.)

P-22 (c. 2009/2010 – December 17, 2022) was a wild mountain lion who resided in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, on the eastern side of the Santa Monica Mountains. P-22 was first identified in 2012 and was the subject of significant media attention, including as the subject of numerous books, television programs, and other works of art. P-22 was often recorded prowling in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was monitored by a radio collar. P-22 remained in Griffith Park for 10 years until he was captured and euthanized on December 17, 2022, after suffering traumatic injuries consistent with being hit by a car in combination with several longer-term health issues.

Read more here.

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Classic TV Dance Party

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Apologizing for Everything

Yao Xiao 要烧

If you're anything like me, you might find yourself apologizing for everything, even when it's not your fault. While often portrayed as a female issue, the tendency to put yourself down or unnecessarily assume blame isn't relegated to women; the Independent's blog indy100, for example, points out "there are 15 British apologies for every 10 American ones."--Rebecca OConnell

Read more here.

http://www.yao.nyc

Being a serial apologizer, I can relate. One of my "Frog Applause" readers recently pointed out my proclivity to overapologize in my LLLs and in my other emails.--Teresa

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Tom Lehrer

https://tomlehrersongs.com/.

DISCLAIMER STATEMENT
I, Tom Lehrer, and the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions:
All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain.

The latter includes all lyrics which I have written to music by others, although the music to such parodies, if copyrighted by their composers, are of course not included without permission of their copyright owners. The translated songs on this website may be found on YouTube in their original languages.

Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.

In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.

Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.

In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.

So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.

NOTICE:


THIS WEBSITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AT SOME DATE IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, SO IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING, DON’T WAIT TOO LONG.

Tom Lehrer
November 1, 2022

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Thanks to Randy_B.

Beulah Ream Allen

Beulah Ream Allen (January 26, 1897 – March 17, 1989) was an American nurse and physician. During World War II, she volunteered as a civilian surgeon for the United States Army and was stationed in Baguio, where she was responsible for the care of nearly 30 soldiers, while the rest of the Army retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. Taken prisoner in 1941, she was held in three internment camps before being liberated. Returning to the United States, she resumed her practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1960, she moved her practice to Provo, Utah, where she served as the dean of the Brigham Young University College of Nursing until 1964. Allen retired in 1979 and in that year married and relocated to Mesa, Arizona, where she lived until her death in 1989. This photograph shows Allen being awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1946 for her service.

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Some of the most valuable items

 

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Arctic Sinkholes

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Cops Arrest Blind Man for Having a Cane

 

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Bazooka Joe

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Dirt

Someone I respect and admire recommends this book. It does sound intriguing.

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Biochemical assassinations

Assassination is usually defined as politically inspired murder. The term is probably derived from the Arabic word for hemp (Hashish), which was apparently used by Hasan-ban-Sabah (c. 1034–1124) to induce motivation in his followers. These "hashishins" or assassins were assigned to carry out political and other murders, usually at the cost of their own lives. Thus, at the etymological level, there is already a connection between assassination and compounds derived from nature.

Biochemicals in the context of assassination involve mostly plant-derived drugs or toxins. They can be organic compounds such as alkaloids, diterpenes, cardiac and cynogenic glycosides, nitro-containing compounds, oxalates, resins, certain proteins and amino acids. A selection of these biochemicals were effectively used in assassination attempts throughout history.

The ancient civilizations of the Near East, Greece and Rome developed the use of poisons in political homicide to a high degree of efficiency. In classical Rome, mushroom poisons were expertly administered by Agrippina (a.d.16–a.d. 59.), wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Nero. She successfully disposed of several political rivals, including Marcus Silanus who was to succeed Claudius, and eventually Claudius himself. Agrippina probably employed the properties of the amanita species, which contain amanitin polypeptides that produce degenerative changes in the liver, kidney, and cardiac muscles. In ancient Egypt, Queen Cleopatra in her search for a suitable suicide compound became familiar with the properties of henbane (Hyoscyanus niger ) and belladonna (Atropa belladonna ), although she judged death by these plants to be rapid, but painful. Cleopatra was also disappointed with Strychnos nux-vomita (a tree whose seeds yield strychnine). Strychnine causes stimulation of the central nervous system, produces generalized convulsions, and distorted facial features at death. The latter did not suit Cleopatra, who eventually settled for the bite of an asp (Egyptian cobra), which produced a more serene and prompt death worthy of a queen.

Hemlock is another notorious biochemical used in political murders. The hemlock plant contains coniine, an alkaloid, and was used to execute the Greek philosopher Socrates (c.479 B.C. –399 B.C. ). The drug causes progressive motor paralysis extending upwards from the extremities until death results from respiratory failure. Some of the deadliest political poisons were concocted by the alchemists of the Middle Ages. La Cantrella was a secret assassination weapon used by Cesare Borgia (1476–1507) and Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519) to despatch their enemies. Even today, its exact composition is not known, but it was most probably a mixture of naturally derived copper, arsenic and crude phosphorus.

Read rest of article here.

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Getting caught

Date of ad unknown

Getting caught with a marijuana plant in your home can land you in jail for several years with a felony conviction.

Marijuana smokers are no longer arrested in eight states. The U.S. Congress and many other states are considering similar reforms.

But growing any amount of marijuana remains a serious crime in most states and under federal law. It means that 15 million regular smokers are forced to support an illicit market.

This doesn't make sense to us.

Smokers should be permitted to grow their own marijuana.

Cultivation for personal use should be decriminalized. A proposal to do just that is pending in California and will soon be introduced in Oregon.

Write your state and federal elected representatives. Tell them you support decriminalizing private marijuana cultivation for personal use.

Help make the new marijuana laws come out right side up.

JOIN NORML.

Money is needed to finish the job once and for all.

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Looking for a ufologist?

You've come to the right place. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ufologists

Four out of dozens:

John Keel (birth name: Alva John Kiehle) (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009), journalist, investigated the famous Mothman Sightings in West Virginia in 1966 and 1967.

David M. Jacobs (b1942), alien abduction researcher.

Michael D. Swords, biophysicist at Western Michigan University, prominent ufologist for the Center for UFO Studies.

Bob Lazar (b. 1959), owner of a mail-order scientific supply company who claims to have worked from 1988 until 1989 at an area called S-4 (Sector Four).

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Bracken ferns

The bracken fern:  It tastes like asparagus and almonds you can pick it wild on hillsides, open pastures, burned-over areas, in woodlands and other shaded places.

The young immature fronds of bracken ferns are known as fiddleheads and were widely consumed by Native Americans in the U.S. for centuries as well as in other regions of the world.  They are still consumed by millions throughout the world today, are considered more of a delicacy in the U.S.now, but are very popular and commonly in Japan and Korea.

Bracken ferns are thought to have the widest distribution of any fern in the world, are most prolific herbaceous plant in North America, with the exception of Antarctica, are found on every continent and in every environment except for deserts.  They’re also one of the oldest ferns in the world with fossil records going back 55 million years.

Read more at source here.

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Heirloom seeds

I am in the heirloom seed-trading business. Not for money, but because I enjoy gathering and sharing seeds. I have an agreement with a US-based heirloom seed company to trade my seeds for theirs. I have connections in West Africa (in particular, Mauritania, Malawi, and Senegal). My seed partner and neighbor, Mohamadou, who is as excited about seed-gathering as I am, is helping me get okra and a variety of vegetable and herb seeds from West Africa so I can share his seeds with the seed company's seeds. It's somewhat in dispute, but it is believed that okra, for example, was first grown in West Afria, so the okra seeds used there are hundreds, if not thousands of years old.

Do you have connections in other countries such as Africa, South America, or Southeast Asia... and can get your hands on various seeds? Knowing about their provenence is important, as is an idea of what the mature plant looks like. Knowing the scientific name would also be helpful.

Overseas seed-sharing isn't exactly legal, I believe, particularly when traveling through international mail or airports,  but we haven't had any problems so far. For my readers living in Equador, Brazil or the Phillipines, for example, would you be able to get your hands on some viable/indigenous okra or other vegetable seeds for me (namely: melons, watermelons, eggplant, cucumbers, basil and other herbs, edible/decorative gourds, winter/summer squashes?) I know this is an odd request, but I would be grateful for whatever you can do to help me.

In exchange, this seed company (I prefer not to mention their name, but Martha Stewart buys from them), will trade any seeds I want to share with my friends back in West Africa as well as for me to use. I am particularly interested in all kinds of okra... particularly the red varieties.)

The heirloom varieties of many vegetables are widely available online in various parts of this country, but it's hard to find seeds used in other parts of the world, particularly less-developed mostly rural areas of the world.

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Mushrooms and Santa

According to the BBC, the shamans of the indigenous Sámi people of Lapland consumed small amounts of Amanita muscaria in their visionary rituals and drank urine from their reindeer, who eat the iconic red-and-white mushroom as part of their diet and metabolize its toxins without harm, excreting a fluid still full of psychoactive compounds but free from toxins. One of the known psychedelic effects of Amanita muscaria on humans is the sensation of flying, which might explain the origin of the myth about the man clad in red and white soaring through the sky on his reindeer-drawn sled, dispensing tokens of love to the world. 

A decade after the BBC first brought this speculative theory to the popular imagination, filmmaker Matthew Salton set out to reenvision Christmas as a celebration not of capitalism but of shamanism in a wonderful op-doc for the New York Times, lensing the theory through the work of two scholars — Boston university classicist Carl Ruck, who studies ancient shamanistic traditions and ecstatic rituals, and mycologist Lawrence Millman.

https://vimeo.com/248496167?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=5619280

For more on Amanita muscaria and its chemistry, its cultural myths, and its scientific promise, ethnobotanist Rob Nelson of Untamed Science has an excellent (and beautifully cinematic) primer:

--Maria Popova

Subscribe to her great newsletter.

I've been subscribing to Maria's newsletter for years (It used to have a different name.) Maria's writing is phenomenal. Maria has a true gift for digging out a compilation of unique, weird, and wonderful odds and ends and tying them together into something truly worth reading.

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