AI identifies flowers quite well.

So I downloaded the App Google Lens onto my mobile phone. It can use the camera or look at gallery pictures and take a stab at identifying what it "sees".

1: Alchemilla mollis
2: Alium schoenopreum
3: Clematis jackmanii
4: Rosa damascena ???
5: Digitalis purpurea
6: Paeonia lactiflora
7: Delphinium elatum
8: Clematis viticella ???
9: Salvia nemorosa
10: Paeonia lactiflora again.
11: Philadelphus coronarius
12: Digitalis purpurea again.
13: Centaurea montana
14: Paeonia lactiflora again.
15: Cosmos sulphureus
16: Bellis pereniss
17: Bellis pereniss again
18: Mysotis (one of several types) ???

So it got 15 right and 3 it was not sure about :-) In practice if you were trying to identify plants in the woods, you might not have adequate internet access due to the trees blocking the signal. So it is better to take photos and do the identification back home. Repetition with different views does not confuse it. It admits if it is unsure. So, pretty good. Well done Google Lens.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on June 29, 2025 permalink Comments Email

SWMBO's flower garden

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So, just mail me your numbered guesses and I will tell you how many you got right in the comments. Then I'll ask an AI and see how many it gets right ;-)

Admittedly these photos are not up to e.g. Doug Alder's standards, but give it a try anyway.

Comments(1)
Cop Car wrote " .....SWMBO does well in her gardening. I do recognize most of the flowers, but am not the gardener that she is. That I grow flowers, at all, is amazing to me. For decades I maintained that growing anything that I could not eat was a waste of time and energy. Happily, SWMBO does not subscribe to that theory." We no longer have a vegetable garden. Too much work for my bad back.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on June 20, 2025 permalink Comments Email

Superstition?

But back to Friday the 13th last week. So I looked to see what bad things happened that day. Personally, nothing new. My back pain is permanent now, so no change there. Globally, we have a war between Iran and Israel as the Israelis seek to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. Afaik, Iran has enough Uranium now to be enriched into about 9 atom bombs. Israel already has about 200 nuclear warheads, afaik.

On holiday in Denver, a local woman had been given a tandem parachute jump present by her hubby, 12000 feet, but on the way down BOTH chutes failed to open. She was 48.

Off planet, there is bad news too. The ISS has a gas leak which needs to be stopped before more cosmo- and astro-nauts go aboard. The ISS is already 27 years in orbit and so subject to micrometeorites and material degradation on seals and gaskets.

More worrying is that on a Friday 13th in 2029 (just 4 years away) the asteroid Apophis has a low probability of hitting Earth. If it does so, and hits the Pacific, the west coast of the USA and east coast of Japan will get hit by a major tsunami. Similarly, if it hits the Atlantic, the eastcoast of the USA and the west coast of Europe will get inundated. We are 800+ feet amsl, but goodbye Holland, NY, DC , Maro Lago, etc. Alternatively, Easter Sunday 2036. But both unlikely as the gravitational keyhole is so small.

Comments(3)
Billions of Versions... wrote " I used too treat Friday the 13th as a lucky day. I would only focus on the good things that happened and dismiss the bad. Happy happy happy! And then Saturday the 14th would come along. I would notice every bad thing or little annoyance all day. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I don't do that anymore." Each to his/her own.
Jenny (E) wrote "You explained 17 well, now do 13 please." Easy. There were 12 disciples, including Judas. Plus Jesus makes 13 at the last supper. Thus 13 is declared by the OTC to be unlucky.

Jochen (D) chided "Why nothing about the huge storms on saturday?" Well, we had torrential downpours. The main lecture hall (audimax) of the university in Paderborn was flooded. And the cellar below where the orchestra store their instruments. So all the wooden instruments incl. a Steinway, were ruined. The metal roof of the printing works was torn off. Altenbeken village even had a tornado. Ourselves, we had rain driving horizontally from the south and into the small gaps in the terrace door, so the living room carpet got a bit wet, otherwise OK. Bulldog Clara barked at the thunder to make it go away ;-)

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on June 17, 2025 permalink Comments Email

Full moon tomorrow

This implies that every 18.6 years the moon is at its lowest in the sky as we see it at night. And that night is tomorrow. So you can watch the full moon almost roll along the horizon tomorrow. And because it is so low, it appears subjectively to be much larger. Objectively it stays the same size of course.

When the moon is between the sun and Earth, we call it a new moon. And when the Earth is between the sun and the moon, we call it a full moon. So , cloud cover permitting, get out your binoculars and/or a telescope, and go observe the low moon on the 11th June. If the seeing is bad here is my photo.

Our "other" moon is 3753 Cruithne. Actually a co-orbital object (with a 1:1 orbital resonance), an asteroid taking 770 years to complete its horseshoe shaped movement around Earth. But it is only about 3 miles across, so you would need a 13 inch reflecting telescope to see it, but mine is just 8"; the scope that is ;-)

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on June 10, 2025 permalink Comments Email

Want a job ?

The current CEO, german guy Jochen Zeitz, wants to retire this year but has agreed to stay on until a successor is found. Back in the last quarter of 2024 head hunters started looking for a successor. No luck so far afaik, and no internal promotion considered.

It is a difficult job. Turnover has fallen over the past few years. US buyers are very conservative, wanting mostly big but underpowered V-twins, old style. The introduction of the line of electric motorcycles, known as LiveWire , has flopped, probably due to poor range figures. Harley riders are getting older too, dying off, not so many youngsters want those heavy V-twins. And the EU reciprocal tariffs (a reaction to Trumps tariffs) are making them even more expensive here.

If you are up for a hard challenge, but think you could do a turnaround, polish up your resume´, and write to Harley asap. I just turned 81, so I'm not interested.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on June 9, 2025 permalink Comments Email