First of all, google the word askew. Just for fun.
Currently preparing bible study for tomorrow evening on Blessed are the meek. And as I write that I'm realising I thought I'd finished my draft only to remember I've not looked at the second part of the beatitude: for they shall inherit the earth.
Bother.
Had family around for dinner on Saturday. First time we've been together for a while and it was lovely. It was a last-minute thing so I didn't get carried away and put myself under pressure as I normally do. I even bought dessert - two frozen pies - from Aldi!
Yesterday had a good chat with Younger Son in Italy while he was out checking his bees, so caught up with all the family news.
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Husband and I were talking about AI and deep fakes. He'd been watching a video supposedly coming from Professor Brian Cox, saying some very way-out things. It reminded me of a programme I'd heard on the radio about a fake fly.
The latrine fly was first recorded in 1850 in the collection of HF Loew, a German fly expert. It was encased in amber and was thought to have originated in the Baltic region about 38 million years ago.
It was bought by the Natural History Museum in 1922 then in 1966 the world-famous entomologist, Willi Hennig, made the first detailed study of the fly and declared it clearly identifiable as the same latrine fly as exists now. Stasis is very unusual in the natural world so for this fly to have remained unchanged for 40 million years was remarkable, and caused great excitement in the scientific community.
Then in 1993 a student of ancient insects was studying the fly under a microscope when the heat from the microscope made the amber crack. The student panicked, thinking he'd destroyed one of the great mysteries of science. Then he realised it was fake.
A genuine piece of amber had been cut and a small indentation made in it. The fly was popped in and the amber sealed up.
It seems probable that it was made by a Victorian forger to satisfy the market for unusual specimens. So there's nothing new about making impressive fakes.
Of course it was called the latrine fly because it liked to hang around urinals. Not so many these days but plenty of them in Victorian times.
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I've been sitting here all morning waiting for the cleaner to come. (My old cleaner's starting back after her operation.) I had a good tidy-up in readiness and then nothing. It was unusual because she always messages if something comes up.
Just checked and discovered she's not starting until next week.
And now I am sitting here just browsing and doing nothing. Seem to have stalled. I'll have lunch, that'll perk me up.
14 comments:
That's a fine-looking cabbage with a fine-looking son holding it.
Piltdown Man was another hoax, which fooled a lot of scientists. Ructions when it was found out.
I thought you might caption your picture "son,right, with cabbage" 😉
Hello Liz,
Your son's cabbage is indeed a fine specimen and one that we would welcome into our kitchen. During Covid in Budapest, many things were in short supply, but not cabbage. This meant that we learned to make cabbage soup, which might sound rather dull, but was in fact very delicious, even when it was lunch and dinner [it never had to be for breakfast].
That was quite a story. I am leery of AI fakery. I don’t mind using it to get rid of little distractions in photos, but I think it should otherwise always be identified as AI.
Google 'askew' was fun. Thanks for the recommendation.
The photo of your son's Cabbage Luuuuuuv made me laugh!
Why thank you, Janice.
Yes, this made headline news all over the world. And regarding comment, I thought about it.
I think pickling and, more likely, fermentation are high on the what to do with cabbage list. Don't think my bowels could have coped with too much cabbage soup!
Absolutely but it's getting harder to identify these days.
It was. Google has its critics but they do make stuff fun.
I'm glad! He was very pleased with it.
Impressive cabbage, not a fake is it? 🤣
Definitely not! The only thing he had success with this year. Oh no and his squashes.
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