elaterite

elaterite, 4 months ago to random

Our society is broken.

At CES, I read everything is "AI"--confirming my suspicion that AI is all about marketing and not about intelligence, especially in the consumer.

Among the "AI" products on display are: AI pillows, AI vacuum cleaners, AI refrigerators, AI bird feeders, AI shoes, AI belts, AI dog bowls, AI baby strollers, AI plant pots, AI mirrors, AI baby cry translators, AI BBQs, AI toothbrushes, and so on. Oy.

#CES #CES2424

elaterite, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Testing this phone camera again. Out for a walk at Virginia Lake Park in Reno. Last phone camera shot I took looked awful. Way over-processed. On this one I turned off the faux-AI BS. It's a Motorola Moto. Also, I can barely see the screen. (Update: Now that I'm home and can view this on my computer, it's much nicer than the one I took the other day with that AI garbage turned on. This is an acceptable photo. Maybe I'll use it for some social media posts on upcoming hikes I'll be doing.)

elaterite, 29 days ago to california

I decided to roll the dice, that my CV joint on my car wouldn't blowup, for a run up north out of city lights to see the aurora--& I'm so glad I did! Two shots from northern California: First is from Doyle & the second is from Frenchman Lake. What an amazing display! For a time the aurora covered a 180 degrees from east to west & was overhead & could be seen in the south! I shot these photos with a 15mm f/2.0 30sec ISO400.

#Aurora #California #Lake #Solar #Sky #NightSky #Photography #Darktable

Color photo of an aurora. The landscape is forested mountains with a tongue of a lake going from the lower left to lower central frame. A distant body of water can be seen past the tongue. In the sky there are stars. On the horizon, just above the low mountain ridge line, is a band of yellow-green. Blue is above that. Then red. Then purple. There are numerous vertical streaks as well.

elaterite, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to boulder

National Park Service needs help identifying public land vandals at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. If you can help ID these clowns please contact the Park at 702-293-8990. #Nevada #LasVegas #LakeMead #HooverDam #Boulder #Desert #Hiking #Outdoors #Camping #Boat #Boating https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1245062311/lake-mead-rock-formations-destroyed

elaterite, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

I had forgotten that last winter my old snowthrower was having drive problems. So when the first snow hit a couple of weeks ago my snowthrower barely worked. I thought it only needed a simple adjustment, or maybe a belt, but it turned out that the driveshaft was worn out. The driveshaft is no longer available & nearly worn out ones sell for ~$200 on eBay. Since I have a lathe & welder, I made one. Fortunately, new fiction drive wheel assemblies are still available. Now it's good as new! #Maker

elaterite, 1 year ago to space

A two frame composite of the Milky Way and my kitty "Ding" waiting for me to join him in the freezing cold tent. Ding loved to go camping with me. I sure do missing Schrödinger, the Kampin' Kitty 💔. (Photo: Massacre Rim, International Dark Sky Sanctuary, Nevada (5/23/2020).)

#AstroPhotography #MilkyWay #Astronomy #Camping #CatsOfMastodon #Photography #LinuxPhotography #Darktable #GIMP

elaterite, 2 months ago to Astronomy

A waxing gibbous moon framed in the fork of an eroded branch of a Pinus longaeva (Great Basin bristlecone pine) at ~3,048m (10,000ft) in the White Mountains of California. (This is a single frame photo made by a human, #notAI.)

#BlackAndWhite #Moon #Botany #Astronomy #AstroPhotography #Trees #Photography #Darktable

elaterite, 1 month ago to AncientHistory

So this is the pictograph to the left of the really crisp one seen in my last post. Sadly, this one has not fared well over the centuries. The left side of it has mostly been washed away by water running down the cliff face. I enhanced this one quite a bit so we could see some of the detail. When it was fresh, I think this one would have really been spectacular! It has many more elements to it than the last one I posted.

#Archeology #Desert #Canyon #RockArt #Photography #Darktable

elaterite, 1 month ago to random

Welp, guess I should get out of bed. I have to walk down to the auto parts store to get a rear wheel bearing & hub assembly for my car. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to install. Removing the old one took several hours though. I wish manufacturers would put a little grease on mating surfaces where rust occurs over time. And stupid auto parts stores these days have far too many choices of parts. I don't know which is good & which isn't. I'd go to the dealership but it's too far to walk.

elaterite, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Camping

Car camping night #2. On the edge of forever. Tomorrow it's enter the San Rafael Swell in the US state of Utah. (Phone photo.)

#Camping #Utah #CanyonCountry

elaterite, 1 month ago to AncientHistory

I'm not sure who that old coot is photo bombing this cliff dwelling, but I saw him free climb down into the canyon from the mesa top. Silly old guy must have went up the wrong canyon looking for this ruin, climbed out, walked across the mesa, & then climbed down into this, the right canyon with its really cool cultural site. There's rock art decorating the canyon walls, pottery shards, 800-year-old corn cobs, & pressure flakes everywhere!

#Archeology #Ruin #Abandoned #Desert #Canyon #Darktable

elaterite, 16 days ago to random

Finally received the replacement for the replacement axle & installed it on my car today. Now I've got 2 vehicles since I had to get my converted electric motorcycle running so I had wheels while my car was down. It had been so long since I drove my car there were cobwebs between the wheel well & garage floor! I'm finding that people are mechanically challenged nowadays. So far, no one has said, "Oh, what a nice conversion," just, " Cute sticker," not realizing there's no engine on the bike. o_0

elaterite, 1 month ago to Battlemaps

Where I woke up yesterday morning.

#Desert #Geology #Landscape

elaterite, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Battlemaps

Love this abandoned gas station. Always stop to make a few photos.(Phone photo.)

#Abandoned #Ruin #Desert #Roadtrip

elaterite, 1 month ago to Astronomy

What's this boring looking thing? It's anything but boring, although its mission is like watching grass grow until it's hit by an ultrahigh energy cosmic ray! This is an element of the Telescope Array Cosmic Observatory west of Delta, Utah. It's one of 507 scintillator detectors that are spread across ~270^2 miles. Since 2008, 30 ultra-high-energy cosmic particles have been detected. Thus far, there's no explanation for their extreme energy or their origin.

#Astronomy #AstroPhysics #Desert

elaterite, 2 months ago to email

I have a question about spam. I have been de-Goolefing my life as much as possible. I've shifted my email from gmail to my personal domain email hosted at HostGator. My domain registrar is Hover. I'm using Thunderbird, in plain text mode, on a Linux box. An email, containing no links, sent to a Yahoo address ended up marked as spam. Any thoughts on why? I've never used my domain to send emails, therefore, I assume, it can't be listed in any spam filters as a spamming domain, right? #email

elaterite, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Trains

It's alive!

A week ago today, Friday, at the Northern Nevada Railroad in Ely, Nevada, it was a rare--gloriously steamy day due to rain and high humidity.

#Trains #Railway #Steam #BlackAndWhite #Photography #Darktable

elaterite, 1 month ago to Utah

Quick edit of a very cool pictograph I saw today!

#RockArt #CanyonCountry #Utah #Desert #Canyon #Photograph

elaterite, 22 days ago to motorcycles

Lol--after 15 years I finally resurrected my 1978 Kawasaki KZ400 "Reloaded"! I put nearly 50 miles on it today but for some reason the battery wasn't charging so I had to park it and put it on charge. I wonder what's wrong with it? ;)

#Motorcycle #EV #Classic #ElectricVehicle

elaterite, 1 month ago to random

Home for this night. Of course, the inside always looks about the same. It's what's outside that changes! (Phone photo .)

#Camping #TentLife #Tent

elaterite, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Out for a walk on a nice day in Reno, Nevada, today. (Phone photo.)

elaterite, 1 month ago to Utah

A close crop of an earlier post from a couple of weeks ago. Also, since I'm on my home computer, I slightly enhanced it using a parametric mask in Darktable to reveal a bit more detail.

#RockArt #Canyon #Utah #Desert #Photography #Darktable

elaterite, 2 months ago to random

Comet 12P Pons-Brooks is now a naked eye object, if you can see it through all of the Starlink satellites. Photo by Richard Schrantz in Nicholasville, KY USA. Schrantz writes: "I tried to image comet 12P Pons-Brooks on 3/28/24. Even though the field of view is just 1.75 degrees wide, I was carpet-bombed by satellites! This represents only 25 minutes of exposure. Thanks Starlink (and/or other satellites). Sheesh. Epsilon 180 ED, ST10XME camera." Posted at https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=03&month=04&year=2024 @sundogplanets

elaterite, 28 days ago (edited 28 days ago) to random

Here's the aurora through conifer trees & sunspot complex 3664 that produced the solar storm. (Large dark area on the right limb of the sun). It's 17x larger than the Earth! Richard Carrington made a drawing of a similar spot in 1859 that produced a solar storm which lead to the Carrington Event. A Carrington Event today would severally damage satellites, power grids, & communications. In 1859, it caused fires in telegraph offices & the aurora was so bright people could read by it!

#Aurora

elaterite, 1 month ago to Camping

Taking today and tomorrow off from property hunting to do a little hiking and visiting some of my favorite spots. This is Sleeping Ute Mountain in the far SW corner of Colorado My campsite view for this evening. (Phone photo.)

#Camping #Mountain #Canyon #Desert