Private Thread - Keep Out!

Dorsetmike

Dorsetmike

Member
jhnbrbr said:
The robot saxophonist doesn't have "soul" but is that just because the software/harware isn't yet sophisticated enough? Or is "soul" an indefinable somthing which a machine can never have? It's an interesting question.
Click to expand...

I'm always telling step son that the "drums" on his electronic music (which he raves about ) are about as subtle as a pile driver, I've yet to hear anything electronically produced which has any feeling at all.

[rant mode]
Come to that a lot of modern composers' "music" doesn't have much soul/feeling or whatever it takes, more like musak you hear in lifts, repetitive bland rubbish (e.g. Einnaudi) or atonal cr@p (e.g. Gorecki), I wish I could programme the radio to mute when some of that is announced, save me having to switch off or change channel
[/rant mode off]

Sorry for mentioning music here John, forgot where I was for a moment or two.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
In the UK, if you say the word "inventor" the two names most likely to come to mind are James Dyson (cyclone vacuum cleaner) and Trevor Bannister (wind-up radio) but somehow I can't get very excited about either of these. The cyclone was already in use in industry for extracting dust from air, all Dyson really did was to make it smaller for domestic use, and it goes without saying that if a device runs off electricity, you can generate the electricity however you please. I was far more impressed by an invention mentioned in the TV documentary series "Coast", dating from the Second World War. The problem was to come up with a cheap and cheerful method for detecting a German submarine lying off the British coast. One ingenious solution was to have a floating container towed behind a small boat, packed with dead fish. Mounted on top of the container there was a mock-up of a U-boat's periscope. Needless to say the container would attract the attention of seagulls who would associate the periscope with a free meal. Then, when a real U-boat happened to pop up its periscope, you could guarantee it would be surrounded by a large flock of disgruntled, squawking seagulls. Now that is what I call lateral thinking!
 
Mat

Mat

Sr. Regulator
Staff member
Sr. Regulator
Regulator
jhnbrbr said:
The robot saxophonist doesn't have "soul" but is that just because the software/harware isn't yet sophisticated enough? Or is "soul" an indefinable somthing which a machine can never have?
Click to expand...

The latter.
 
Dorsetmike

Dorsetmike

Member
I wish for a time where we live in a more harmonious world, ....................................



..................so that a chicken can cross the road without it's motivation being questioned!
 

jhnbrbr

New member
Nice one Mike - I was letting this sleeping thread lie - she's a cruel mistress! But now she's awake here's another piece of lateral thinking:

If you go for a hike with a friend, wear each other's rucksacks. It's far easier to get something out of your rucksack if it's on your friend's back.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
A joke just for organists

Monday morning, the village organist was on the phone to the organ tuner.

"Yesterday's service was a disaster. Every time I used the swell pedal there was this awful squeaking noise."

"Really?" said the organ tuner. "Well what I suggest you do is this. Set a stepladder up in front of the swell box, and work your way along the shutters giving each one a squirt of oil."

Later in the week, the tuner rang back to see how the organist had got on.

"It was quite difficult actually," complained the organist. "There wasn't enough room to get the oil can in between the swell shutters. The one at the end was a bit easier. I managed to give that one a good squirt."

"I know exactly what you mean," said the tuner. "Oils well, that end swell!"
 

jhnbrbr

New member
I really liked the look of the Aptera car. The robot was very human-like, I wonder if it can do anything useful. Not sure whether DIY dna is a good idea or not.
 
Dorsetmike

Dorsetmike

Member
I still prefer cutting my own slices on the rare occasions I eat slices of bread, nowadays I mostly have bread rolls, being on my own I find a loaf goes mouldy before I'm halfway through it unless I separate it into bags with about 4 slices in each then freeze it.

Part cooked, frozen, small baguettes (bag of 9 for £0.99 from Lidl) suit me fine, 10 minutes in the oven on gas Mk4, half hour to cool down enough so the butter don't melt too much, nothing beats fresh, just cooked, bread.
 
marval

marval

New member
Hi Mike

I much prefer rolls, and you can't beat home baked bread. The usual sliced loaves have very little taste.

My mother would always bake her own bread, there was always a plaited loaf on Friday evening we called pully bread, because you just pulled a bit off. Saturday breakfast was always warm home baked rolls.


Margaret
 
marval

marval

New member
Well John, it looks a lovely shop. We have a Greggs bakers where I go to shop, the smell is always so inviting.


Margaret
 

jhnbrbr

New member
Overheard ...

Adult to talkative child: Don't you ever stop to breathe?
Talkative child: I breathe through my bottom.
 

jhnbrbr

New member
Don't get your MIMF members confused ....

... remember one Matt has one t, and the other Mat has two t's.

:confused:
 
rojo

rojo

(Ret)
^ Cute :grin:

Did you ever notice how similar the notes of the melody in the opening bars of What a Wonderful World are to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Just take away the first two notes, and...
 
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