Lift Up Your Hearts!

Lift Up Your Hearts! https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. sursumcorda 2026-08-07T15:43:40Z When the Science-Nature Collaboration Turns Adversarial https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/08/05/when-the-science-nature-collaboration-turns-adversarial <a id="res_2704" type="image/png" href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/gallery/1/Engelhart separating essentials.png"><img style="margin: 5px;" src="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/gallery/1/previews-med/Engelhart separating essentials.png" border="0" alt="" width="350px"/></a> Health Children & Family Issues Conservationist Living 2026-08-05T06:38:15Z sursumcorda When Billboards Are a Pleasure https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/08/02/when-billboards-are-a-pleasure Buc-ee's not only has low-priced gas, decent food, and the best restrooms on I-95, it also rivals South of the Border for billboard advertising.  Seen recently: OPERATION EMPTY BLADDER and my personal favorite, EVERY LICENSE PLATE STOPS HERE If you know, you know. Travels Just for Fun 2026-08-02T10:10:37Z sursumcorda A Little Fun with Gemini https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/20/a-little-fun-with-gemini Gemini is very good at photo identification, but I wasn't expecting much from this one.  I didn't need the identification, but thought it would be fun to see what Gemini could do.  (Click on the photo to see it better.) <a id="res_2703" type="image/jpeg" href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/gallery/1/Gemini test 2.jpg"><img style="margin: 5px;" src="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/gallery/1/previews/Gemini test 2.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="200px"/></a> Here's how the chat went: Me:  I don't expect this photo to have enough information for an identification; I'm just curious as to what you can guess from it. Gemini: <blockquote> There is surprisingly a wealth of hidden clues in this photo that let us piece together quite a story! Here is what we can deduce like a detective: 1. You are definitely in Italy The dead giveaway is the word "ALBERGO" on the sign, which is the Italian word for a hotel or inn. Furthermore, that specific red, white, and green design with the key symbol is an official regional regulatory plaque used in Italy to display a property's classification. 2. It’s a modest, traditional stay The two red stars prominently stamped at the bottom of the plaque tell us this is a cozy, no-frills 2-star hotel. The brass plaque right above it reads "Hotel Speranza" (or a very closely related name), which translates beautifully to Hotel Hope. 3. The exact street address The number 3 is displayed in the classic, blue-bordered white ceramic tile style that you see on buildings all across Italian towns and cities. 4. Classic Italian alleyway architecture The heavy, solid wood double doors with the polished brass kickplate at the bottom, the smooth painted plaster facade, and the security bars over the high window are incredibly characteristic of historic, narrow Italian streets—the kind where you turn a corner and suddenly find yourself right at the entrance of a hidden local guesthouse. 5. Ready for exploration The traveler in the photo is perfectly geared up for a classic European day out: a sun-protecting bucket hat, a practical multi-pocket travel vest, comfortable walking shoes, and a map or guidebook clutched in hand. It captures that quintessential, wonderful travel feeling of pausing outside your hotel just before heading out to explore the city! </blockquote> Me:  That was a fantastic piece of detective work. There's a lot more in the photo than I had noticed. Did you make use of the photo's exif data to help, or was that just from the image? Gemini: <blockquote> That was 100% just from the visual clues in the image itself! When you share an image directly here, any hidden EXIF metadata (like the exact GPS coordinates, camera model, or the timestamp of when it was taken) is automatically stripped away for privacy. I couldn't see any of the digital "breadcrumbs" even if I wanted to. Everything came down to zooming in on the physical details: reading the text on that small brass plaque, identifying the regional hotel classification symbol, and recognizing the style of the house number tile. It’s amazing how much data a single historic European storefront or doorway naturally puts on display if you know what to look for! </blockquote> Travels AI Adventures 2026-07-20T05:28:11Z sursumcorda Trust, but Verify -- On Using AI in Our Work https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/17/trust-but-verify Trust, but verify. Wikipedia informs me that President Ronald Reagan's trademark phrase was a Russian proverb (доверяй, но проверяй, or doveryai, no proveryai) taught to him by Suzanne Massie, a scholar of Russian history, who advised him, "The Russians like to talk in proverbs. It would be nice of you to know a few. You are an actor—you can learn them very quickly." Reagan eagerly adopted the phrase and used it frequently, especially when talking about American-Russian negotiations during the Cold War. Given Reagan's success in dealing with a highly intelligent and well-informed entity that had the potential to do either much good or devastating harm—or both—we should probably heed his advice when negotiating the tangled risks and benefits of Artificial Intelligence. We can't live, much less prosper, without trust. We are born with the instinct to trust our mothers, and if we live in a healthy home that spreads to include fathers, other family, friends, teachers, doctors, pastors, government officials—our need to trust the world around us goes very high, wide, and deep. To buy an egg from the grocery store requires trusting with our health a long chain of other people responsible for its journey from chicken to plate. That's why we have customs, and rules, and laws, and government inspectors tasked with ensuring that the process works. But quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will verify that our trust is justified? We will. We must. The buck stops with us. Because we cannot verify everything we depend on, and must live as if the world is in the main trustworthy, we must also be alert and aware and never forget that betrayal, whether malicious or unintentional, is always a possibility. What on earth does this have to do with Artificial Intelligence? I've been writing frequently about my <a href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/category/ai-adventures/">AI Adventures</a>, and the amazing things I've been able to do with its help. I'm having a happy time on this adventure, but the warning at the bottom of each screen, "<a class="hover:text-text-300 transition" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/8525154-claude-is-providing-incorrect-or-misleading-responses-what-s-going-on" target="_blank">Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses</a>" is no joke. I cannot do anything about the mid-level worries ("Is AI going to take over my work and eliminate my job?") and certainly the high-level worries ("Is AI going to take over the world and eliminate humanity?") are above my pay grade. But periodically checking on the accuracy of an answer is within my reach. Here's a small, recent example. I've been using Gemini to help me <a href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/12/gemini-rocks-photo-identification">identify places and pictures</a> from our recent trip, and it's no secret I've been impressed. But Gemini indeed "can make mistakes." I uploaded a photo of Raphael's Portrait of Agnolo Doni that I had taken at the Pitti Palace. Gemini correctly identified it, and provided numerous details, which ironically time and knowledge constraints keep me from verifying. But when it told me that the portrait was hanging in the Uffizi, alarm bells rang. I was certain I'd taken that photo at the Pitti, and by uploading the photos just before and after the painting in question, with their timestamps, I convinced Gemini that the painting was indeed where I said. How did that happen? Gemini's information was not so much wrong as out of date. For a long time the painting had hung in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti. But at some point it was given special honor at the Uffizi and displayed there together with Raphael's portrait of Doni's wife and Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, which had been commissioned to celebrate their marriage. However, thanks to the big renovation project, Portrait of Agnolo Doni made its way back home, at least for now. Trust your own experience, and verify regularly. AI Adventures 2026-07-17T05:32:46Z sursumcorda Eulogy for a Political Opponent https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/14/eulogy-for-a-political-opponent When God lays his hand on a man, I take mine off. — Thomas H. Benton <a href="https://youtu.be/hGehVUNw3fc?si=Ke2Iri7I_uIzRU_q">This</a>.  I'm too moved to comment further. <iframe referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" frameborder="0" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hGehVUNw3fc?si=Ke2Iri7I_uIzRU_q" height="315" width="560"></iframe> Politics Inspiration 2026-07-14T09:23:45Z sursumcorda Gemini Rocks Photo Identification https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/12/gemini-rocks-photo-identification I'm coming to think of Artificial Intelligence as a Swiss Army knife:  not one tool but many, our job being to discern the one best suited to each particular task.  That applies not only to the multitude of tasks a particular Large Language Model can handle, but also to the different LLMs themselves, and the various AI Assistants (such as Copilot and Leo) that they lurk behind.  I initially thought I'd pick one particular system and stick with it, but I'm finding that although Claude is now my go-to LLM (and the only one I'm paying for), it's also very handy to be able to get multiple answers from the same prompt, and to draw on the strength of "many counsellors" with different skill sets. Currently Google's Gemini has moved into position as my second-best sword. I've already had success <a href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/06/26/the-fun-behind-more-fun">working with both Copilot and Claude at the same time</a> in order to harness the particular strengths of each.  For my latest project, writing the story of our recent travels, I'm refining the text in Claude, where my preferences are well-known and where we have already established a good working relationship when it comes to proofreading, editing, and writing style.  Gemini, having the power of Google's vast image library and search capabilities, has also become a powerful collaborator, helping me to remember the events as told by the photographs we took.  Gemini not only identifies locations, buildings, and works of art, but adds much more—so much information about the scene and its history that it functions as a highly intelligent and experienced tour guide. Without this collaboration—and Claude's gentle nagging, which got me started and keeps me on task—the story of this trip would in all likelihood have joined the many other events in our lives which are languishing in photo files and manila envelopes filled with memorabilia.  Our trip to Venice, for example, got as far as to have its own category here, but ground to a halt <a href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2016/04/30/the-lion-of-st.-mark">after a single entry</a>.  There's a glimmer of hope that the new collaboration might breathe new life into those dry bones.  If I live long enough. Travels AI Adventures Med Trip 2026 2026-07-12T05:00:35Z sursumcorda Unexpected Morning Blessing https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/09/unexpected-morning-blessing It is my habit to walk in the early mornings, taking laps around our pool; they're short, but they add up, and the predawn time is gentle and the coolest part of the day. There's something magical about watching the world gradually become visible, and hearing the morning symphony change from insects and frogs to awakening birds. Just before 5:30, today added something that brings back a smile even as I write about it. On one of my rounds my eye was caught by a spot of light in the east. That's not unusual, as we see the lights of many planes on their way to or from the Orlando International Airport. But this light was orange. Moving to where I could better discern what my peripheral vision had picked up, I realized that I had one of the best views ever of a launch from Cape Canaveral. The rocket was high in the sky by the time the sight cleared our roof, but it had been launched at an unusually good angle, coming nearly straight toward us. As I determined later, it was the Starlink 10-42 mission, the record-breaking 36th flight for this particular booster. The orange plume in the clear, dark sky was stunning, and I watched until it winked out at MECO (Main Engine Cutoff). Everyday Life 2026-07-09T06:43:33Z sursumcorda When Stereotypes Meet Reality https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/07/when-stereotypes-meet-reality Although we occasionally checked in with the home front while we were overseas, for three weeks we had very little exposure to news headlines and social media.  I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but it meant we were met with some surprises when we returned home.  One very encouraging surprise was that the Internet had been flooded with reports and stories from international visitors who had come to the United States on the occasion of the World Cup and had had their stereotypes of America and Americans overwhelmed by reality. For the last 20 years or so I have experienced a lot more foreign travel than I ever imagined, and one thing I have noticed is that very few people have any idea of how vast and how diverse America is.  Looking at a map of Texas alone, superimposed on a map of Europe, I see that it covers all or part of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland!  That kind of vastness is hard for many Europeans to imagine. As for culture, even Americans get their impressions of our country from Hollywood and whatever highly-curated news filters their way—how much more so those who don't live here?  I've learned the futility of trying to convince Europeans that their conception of America does not reflect the reality of America, but where I failed, the World Cup succeeded.  Visitor after visitor reported, with amazement, "Everything I was told about the United States was wrong!"  They were astounded by what they found, so different from what they had expected, everything from the flavor of ranch dressing to the kindness and warm welcome they experienced in the Deep South—from the people they had been taught to hate.  (Indeed, I had to unlearn that low opinion of the American South myself, having grown up in the Northeast.)  Americans, trapped in self-flagellation because we allow our flaws to mask our strengths, need to see our country through such eyes! Why is this relevant to our trip?  Because these happy stories mirror ours, both on this trip and indeed on all the trips we've taken to foreign parts.  "Everyone said" that the French, especially Parisians, are rude and hate Americans, but our experience was exactly the opposite.  We met one, just one rude cab driver in Paris; everyone else was friendly and kind and patient with my very broken French.  In our experience—which can't be the same as someone else's but is the only experience by which we can truly judge—people in Europe, and Japan, and Brazil, and The Gambia are as kind and friendly as people anywhere, and do not universally hate Americans.  My greatest surprise on this trip was the respect and even admiration we heard expressed for American leadership; I had expected dismay and contempt.  Fear-mongering reports flow both ways across the Atlantic! But we rarely talked politics, at least not directly; ordinary stories about our own lives and all that we have in common were what everyone delighted in sharing.  We spoke with people from all over the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Norway, Sweden, France, Portugal, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Germany, Turkey, and more—and found nearly everyone to be interesting, friendly, polite, kind, and sometimes above-and-beyond helpful. Not everyone can, or should, take a Mediterranean cruise or travel far to see World Cup soccer in person, but surely the world would be better off if we spent less time listening to stories that make us angry and more time experiencing the humanity of our neighbors. Politics Travels Social Media Here I Stand Med Trip 2026 2026-07-07T06:30:42Z sursumcorda Happy 250th Birthday, America https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/04/happy-250th-birthday-america The flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away. You know you're aging as fast as the country when you tell people you were almost a quarter of a century old when America celebrated her 200th birthday, and they say, "Oh, wow...." But I remember celebrating the Bicentennial in Philadelphia, and hearing President Ford speak there. I approached this post feeling entirely inadequate to write about America's 250th birthday. It demands something more profound, more intense than I can give at the moment, despite my deep feelings. I love our country now more than I ever have, perhaps because never in all my decades as an American have I felt our freedom to be in more danger, and the number of those attempting to take it away—or give it away—to be so overwhelming. But the flag still stands for freedom. Lee Greenwood's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyOpFkvKZ8">God Bless the USA</a> was from my children's era, not mine, and it doesn't often come to mind when I think about patriotic songs. But the other day I heard it, unexpectedly, and it equally unexpectedly brought tears to my eyes. I paused and stood taller as if I were hearing our national anthem. It's a fitting tribute to a great country. <iframe referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share; fullscreen" frameborder="0" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qIyOpFkvKZ8?si=kixFAPOa6z68FfXg" height="315" width="560"></iframe> If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life And I had to start again With just my children and my wife I'd thank my lucky stars To be living here today 'Cause the flag still stands for freedom And they can't take that away And I'm proud to be an American Where at least I know I'm free And I won't forget the men who died Who gave that right to me And I'd gladly stand up Next to you and defend her still today 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the USA From the lakes of Minnesota To the hills of Tennessee Across the plains of Texas From sea to shining sea From Detroit down to Houston And New York to L.A Well there's pride in every American heart And it's time we stand and say That I'm proud to be an American Where at least I know I'm free And I won't forget the men who died Who gave that right to me And I'd gladly stand up Next to you and defend her still today 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the USA And I'm proud to be an American Where at least I know I'm free And I won't forget the men who died Who gave that right to me And I'd gladly stand up Next to you and defend her still today 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the USA Everyday Life Here I Stand 2026-07-04T20:46:22Z sursumcorda Heat, Part 2 https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2026/07/04/heat-part-2 I'm not unsympathetic to those who are genuinely suffering in the heat. I spent the first 30+ years of my life in the Northeast, where air conditioning was almost unheard of, even in critical care hospitals. The laboratory where I worked in the 1970's only had air conditioning in the computer rooms, and that only because—like art—the machines would not work under conditions that people were expected to endure with patience. Even in Florida, my grandparents' house, like most buildings before the late 20th century, had no air conditioning. (It was, however, intelligently built: two blocks from the ocean, and constructed for maximum cross-ventilation, to take advantage of every breeze.) I know unrelenting heat. So how did we manage? <ul> <li>Buildings, like my grandparents' house, were built to take the heat into account, with cross-ventilating windows, breezy porches, and shady trees arching over the roofs. Central Florida as it is built now could not exist without the HVAC industry.</li> <li>House windows were habitually opened as soon as the outside air cooled off at night, which it did most weeks of the year in the Northeast, and closed when the day began to heat up. This practice has a power that I didn't fully appreciate until we moved to Florida, where the nighttime cooling is ofttimes non-existent.</li> <li>Swimming: in ponds, lakes, pools, and/or the ocean. Plastic kiddie pools and running through the sprinkler helped a lot, too. When we first moved to Florida, we kept the A/C set in the 80's, and spent a lot of time in the pool. That kept us cool, but took a terrible toll on our energy. Once we gave in and brought the inside temperature down to the high 70's, we used the pool less—but got a lot more accomplished.</li> <li>Another advantage the more northern climes have is that the really unbearable temperatures are only for a short time. When we lived in Rochester, there were usually only two or three weeks in the summer when I was reduced to nursing my baby while immersed in a cool-water bath, and planning excursions based on whether or not the destination was air conditioned. In Florida, sans A/C, that would be the majority of the year.</li> <li>A few very lucky people had jobs in air conditioned buildings. As for the rest of us: we suffered; we endured; we dialed down our activities to keep our bodies cooler and our minds saner. And we looked forward to the first hints of autumn.</li> </ul> But that was then, and this is now, and now what makes it possible to have a comfortable, productive society is air conditioning. It's no secret that the closest thing the American South has to a secular saint is <a href="https://sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/archives/2023/07/15/the-southern-saint">Willis Carrier</a>. Air conditioning is as critical in the Sun Belt as heating is in the Snow Belt. Having heard people seriously suggest that the cause of France's heat wave is American air conditioning, I can only say, "Come back and talk to me about giving up my A/C after you've lived a winter in your country without heating." Better yet, discover air conditioning for yourself. Even if you only need it for a few weeks out of the year, you'll feel better, and can be pleased with how low your A/C bills are compared with ours, just as we Southerners feel better about our heating bills in winter when we look at yours. You might also consider investing in public places of respite, as I've seen in various cities here, where people can come in to get warm, or to get cool, depending on the season. As I said in my last post, one can stand a much greater intensity and duration of heat or cold if one can occasionally retreat to a more comfortable situation. And gelaterias. We all need more gelaterias. Health Politics Everyday Life Conservationist Living 2026-07-04T18:04:58Z sursumcorda