CONVERSATIONAL photos on Flickr

PIED KINKFISHER // CERYLE RUDIS (25cm) by tom webzell

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EXTREMELY VOCAL, a squeaky conversational kittle-te-ker chatter delivered, found in almost every aquatic habitat. An opportunist fish feeder, diving conventionally from a perch, from the Kotu bridge in the Gambian, you would be very unlucky not to see three or four at any given time. Just love them to bits.

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THANK YOU for your visit and kind comments, the weekend is coming on strong, enjoy, but stay well and safe, God bless you..........................................Tomx

PIED KINGFISHER // CERYLE RUDIS (25cm) by tom webzell

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GAMBIA TOUR feb 2020

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EXTREMELY VOCAL, a squeaky conversational kittle-teker delivered whilst perched or in flight and a rapid chicker-kerker uttered in a frequent threat or foraging disputes. This is a female as it has incomplete chest band, while the male has a complete unbroken band. Have spent many hour just looking at these Kingfishers, this one just back from a unsuccessful dive !

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THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND, hope you enjoy Easter as much as you can in Isolation, but a time to reflect on the true story at this time, Jesus dying on the cross, for mine and your sins, and his resurrection from the grave, to live and reign over us forever...................Thank you Lord for sending your only son to die, that I may live.

God bless you all......................Tomx.

PIED KINGFISHER // CERYLE RUDIS (25cm) by tom webzell

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EXTREMELY vocal, a squeaky conversational kittle-te-ker chatter delivered whilst perched or in flight and a rapid chicker-kerker uttered in a frequent threat or foraging disputes. Seen eagerly searching the estuary for fish.

Zoom in for more detail.

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THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND, love reading your comments, will look forward to seeing your latest posting.

HANG in in there my dear friends, very difficult times, keep your chins up, and keep the prayers going, even if churches are closed, God bless, stay safe and well....................

............................................Tomx

PIED KINGFISHER // CERYLE RUDIS (25cm) by tom webzell

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GAMBIA FEB 2019

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OPPORTUNIST feeder, diving conventionally from perch, or plunging for prey from hover, has been known to hunt shallow marine surf along sandy beaches. Found at almost every aquatic habitat, extremely vocal, a squeaky conversational kittle-te-ker delivered, you also get a lot of squabbling about the best position, and hotly contested chases over a caught fish. Love watching them, and the Kotu bridge would not be the same without them. Zoom in for more detail.

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THANK YOU for being a friend, please leave a comment, a fave and run is no good to anybody. Stay Well and Safe, God bless........................................Tomx

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JESUS LOVES YOU ! "Ask him into your life today!"

Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis - Pair by BARBARA EVANS

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This pair of Fulmar seen on a nesting colony on Lunga (near Mull) were performing a noisy greeting ceremony which included excited head waving and conversational cackles and chuckles interspersed with gutteral crooning purrs. Fulmars mate for life and return to the same breeding site each year protecting it against intruders with projectile vomiting. This sticky stomach oil can be deadly on predatory birds as it water logs their feathers.

Thank you all for your kind responses.

Oriental Magpie-Robin or Doel-Pakhi (in Bengali)! by SHANTANU DUTTA

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Madagascar Magpie-Robin or Oriental Magpie-Robin.

Males are bluish-black and white. Females are brown and buff. Both sexes show a white slash in the wing. There is regional variation: western birds have white in the tail and more white in the wing; northeastern males have a black belly. Common Madagascar endemic that is found in the understory of all forest types, as well as in scrub, plantations, and gardens. Pretty song is a conversational phrase of whistles, whines, and rattles. Much larger than African Stonechat, and usually doesn’t sit in the open. Females separated from female rock-thrushes by their white wing patch.

Meet Nova by Ellsasha

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Meet Nova, she is a year-old Husky who is totally in love with her Dad. We were discussing my upcoming visit to the wolf sanctuary, not sure if she resented the conversational topic, or just didn’t like Dad paying attention to anything other than her. She is in training and her jealousy is harmless just endearingly exuberant.

Nanday Conure Inceville Pacific Palisades California 062-1 by Pekabo

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They were loud. As a good friend says, conversational. Walking towards the Los Liones Canyon amphitheatre I could see a big baby Nanday slowly bobbing its head begging to be fed.

There must have been 40 birds in several Sycamore trees.

We often see them cruising across the sky but this day they were in reach of my lens.

Leaving Swag! by Paul Ellis

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When I worked in Sweden in the early 1980’s, I taught several groups of managers and technical staff at LM Ericssons, the Swedish telecommunications concern, in their factory at Karlskrona on the South Baltic Coast. Apart from teaching advanced general and conversational English, I also had quite a few staff from the technical section who had more specialised needs.

When I eventually left to return to England, one of the leaving gifts was a set of playing cards, neatly printed Ericssons!

Conversational Wood Duck by Mark Schocken

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A male wood duck vocalizing at a pond in central Florida. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful ducks in the world.

This photograph/image is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without my permission. If you would like to use it, please contact me via Flickr mail.

Thanks for visiting and for your faves and comments.

One has a quite exceptionally clever and conversational cat — and one tells one's friends. They come to call — and are confronted by.... by ira tucker

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an animal who appears to be not entirely right in the head. It stares at them blankly. "Me? I'm just a poor stupid pussy-cat." And goes away to laugh in some quiet corner :-)

Pam Brown, Utterly Gorgeous Cats, 2006

Happy Caturday!

Frida, one of our 2 adopted Maine Coons, cary, north carolina

❣ I NEED A SHOT OF YOU ❣ by Emerald Ishtari

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❣ ESCAPE ❣

🎶 ♫ I feel like the girl at the bar who’s been there too long! Can’t stand up! I should be gone but I just can’t get enough, yeah! Fumbling, giggling, silly as ever I get like this after one too many, but right now I ain’t even been drinkin'! He approached me and asked for a minute, which turned into five, then turned into ten and right now I don’t know how to say when! So can I get a refill? Can I get a refill? Can I get a refill? Yeah, of your time, cause you’re intoxicating my mind...feel like a conversational lush cause I don’t know how much is too much, yeah!

Wishin' and hopin' that I don't blow it I'm nervous as hell! I don’t wanna show it! And right now I don’t even know what I’m saying! I've never had game, no never! I don’t wanna sound like a broken record! But until you say goodnight...all I know is that I’m staying! So can I get a refill? Can I get a refill? Can I get a refill? Yeah, of your time cause you’re intoxicating my mind! Feel like a conversational lush...cause I don’t know how much is too much, yeah!!! I feel like the girl at the bar who’s been there too long!!! Can’t stand up! I need a shot of you on the rocks cause I’m down to my very last drop! ♫ 🎶 — Elle Varner

See also

Books by Emel

conversational english by minions & myrmidons

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Table For One by Dom Haughton

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“Chippy’s closed. On a Saturday. Can you believe it? I’d have stopped at Penzance if I’d known.”

(A sympathetic smile) “What can we do for you?”

“I’m hungry. Can I have something to eat please?”

Conversationally speaking, I’d missed the fairway with the first statement I’d made, and the second one had landed in a bunker on the last hole. Quite why I felt the need to share this unwanted information with the waiting staff at the restaurant I’d just walked through the front door of, I can’t say. The follow up question made me sound as if I were begging for scraps from the kitchen. It was one of those moments where I really needed to stop speaking, ask if they had a table free and then allow myself to be led to a quiet corner where I wouldn’t cause any more trouble by ranting about the fact that the local fish and chip shop wasn’t open. I ordered the first thing on the menu, which happened to be a banana blossom curry, and was persuaded into a bottle of Rattler with almost no resistance. Then I sat and waited, sipping cider and looking at my watch. Sunset was at nine, high tide around half an hour earlier. It was a little after six. I had plenty of time. Hmm, it was only a small bottle of Rattler, but I’d come to tackle the Ledge of Doom once more. But the conversation tells you that Mr Brain had long since departed in the direction of the chippy. When you think you’re having fish and chips, anything else is a disappointment. “What on Earth is banana blossom curry?” I wondered, as I took another draught from the glass. It was too late now. I hadn’t even looked at the rest of the menu. I messaged Ali to tell her where I was. “We’ve got curry for tea tomorrow,” came the reply. “What have you ordered?” I lied in response.

Of course you’re probably scratching your head too by now. Why is he drinking cider when he’s planning to cross a narrow ledge, offering a near vertical drop on either side? And even more importantly, what’s the chippy doing closed on a Saturday? I mean it’s only August, the middle of the holiday season in Cornwall, which for those of you who aren’t familiar with the area I live in, is one of the hottest hotspots in the country for tourism. The waitress told me she thought they had staffing problems, but I was still in mourning on the subject. I’d even wandered aimlessly round the Co-op, hoping for inspiration, but the only thing that came was an endless succession of tourists blocking the aisles. I’d stopped outside the Chinese takeaway, considering a house special, but in my mind’s eye I saw my better half, thirty miles away at home, shaking her head in silent reproval and muttering about monosodium glutamate. At least the restaurant I chose was almost empty at this early hour, the food came quickly, I remembered not to ask where the chips were, and I made appropriately suitable noises about how much I’d enjoyed my banana blossom curry afterwards. I’m still not sure what it is.

And so onward I went, making a note never to allow myself to cross the threshold of that chippy again, not even when it’s open, and covered the final mile to the Edge of Eternity. The storm that had brought down my daughter’s buddleia earlier in the day had eased, and the grey skies had been replaced by blue sky and sunshine. For a while I sat above the ledge, watching the sea, feeling a little flat that it wasn’t quite as tempestuous as I’d hoped it was going to be. I’d been thinking this was at last going to be the time that I crossed on hands and knees, just as I’ve been threatening to do for some time when the conditions called for it, but there wasn’t any need for it by now. It really was a small bottle of Rattler you know. I headed to my favourite rock and sat there for an hour and half or more, watching the visceral ocean at play in this space I’ve come to love so well. Now and again, a sequence of waves piled in, one after the other, the next sucking back the white water from the one that preceded it in a pattern that always mesmerises me in this beautiful Atlantic cauldron.

Just before sunset, I decided I was done, and that I really ought to get across the ledge before the light started to fall, as I’d forgotten my tent again. But as I made my way back up the rocks, I turned around, just to look at the view, and then saw something I’d never spotted before. A natural frame of rocks encircling the Crown Houses and the cauldron, which continued to froth away excitedly on the now receding tide. It was noticeably darker as I set up the tripod and dragged the camera from the bag one last time. With no idea whether it was going to work, I framed up and took the shots. On reflection, I think it was worth it.

As I climbed to the top of the rise, I realised that my position had hidden the start of the blue hour from me, and that I still wasn’t finished quite yet. Suffice to say, the colours were looking rather exciting. But that’s another story.

"Gabba, gabba hey". by John McNally (urban imagery)

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Bus life, a conversational candid.

Traffic congestion by Lefteris Kevrekidis

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Biopic "The Riot Girls": Skye by ڰۣ-ღ ƛMƁƦЄ MƠƠƝԼƖƓӇƬ ڰۣ-ღ

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♫♫ Orianthi - "Light It Up" - Official Music Video

♫♫

Skye's entry into “The Riot Girls” was purely serendipitous, a fortunate accident in the grand theater of virtual existence. Ronnie, a soul seeking refuge from the relentless cacophony of the outside world, found solace within the velvet embrace of the BlackHouse club. It was there, amidst the swirling digital smoke and pulsing rhythms, that fate orchestrated a chance encounter with Skye. Initially, their connection was a fragile seedling of friendship, tenderly nurtured by shared laughter and whispered confidences, prompting Ronnie to move to Skye's Sim, where she presided over a bustling rental enterprise, a vibrant tapestry woven with the threads of commerce and camaraderie. Their bond deepened over time, like roots intertwining beneath the soil, growing stronger with each passing season.

Skye's captivating conversational skills, a veritable symphony of wit and wisdom, instantly charmed Ambre, elevating her to the status of one of her dearest friends. Mornings often found Ambre and Skye entwined in animated discourse over steaming cups of coffee, their voices dancing through the air as they delved into the kaleidoscopic tapestry of diverse topics, exchanging tales of the vibrant happenings that painted the canvas of their SL life. Given Skye's undeniable passion for music Ronnie extended an invitation to join the band. Their collaboration proved to be a period of unparalleled joyous creativity, a symphony of collaboration where individual notes harmonized to create a masterpiece of collective expression.

Skye distinguished herself as a gifted rhythm guitarist, her fingers dancing across the fretboard with the grace of a seasoned maestro, her rhythmic precision and chordal command captivating audiences, weaving spells of sonic enchantment that left them breathless and yearning for more. Regrettably, as life's unrelenting demands tightened their grip, pulling Skye back to the mundane realities of the physical world, her participation in concerts became impossible, a bittersweet farewell to the stage that had so readily embraced her talent. However, Ronnie and Ambre will forever cherish the treasured memories of performing alongside their dear friend Skye, a radiant star, a constant reminder of the power of friendship, creativity, and the enduring magic of "The Riot Girls."

(To be continued)

Devoted to "the Riot Girls" Rock Band

Medusa and the stone customer by The SL Hotel Inspector

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Nestled on the second floor of The Continental Club and Hotel lies one of my favourite areas, the Members' Bar.

Pull up a stool, and you'll be greeted by Medusa and Euryale, two engaging bartender sisters who seem very eager to chat. Just be sure to address them by name to unlock their full conversational potential.

You might also notice a peculiar patron – a stone figure who seems to have been enjoying the bar for quite some time..

Continental landing point (SLURL)

Reivew of the Continental (though a lot has been added since then)

Whiteside Mt. by John Pendley

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Whiteside Mountain is between the western North Carolina towns of Highlands and Cashiers. Its 700 ft. cliff is a favorite haunt for rock climbers. The top of the mountain is accessible from the highway between Highlands and Cashiers, on the other side of the mountain from this vantage point in Horse Cove. By some trick of acoustics, I've stood at the base of the cliff and heard people on top talking in conversational tones.

Levee Park by dennis dahn

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Red Wing, MN

Happy Bench Monday

Last year this park along the Mississippi River underwent a complete renovation including rebuilding the docking area to better accommodate the large river cruise boats. And this conversational seating arrangement of several new benches also.

HBM

Northern Anteater by Kenyan Traveller

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A chunky, dark thrush-like bird. It often looks black, but good lighting reveals a dark gray-brown coloration. Large white panels in the outer wing are inconspicuous or invisible when perched, but conspicuous in flight. Found in grassland, open savanna, and farmland, often in areas with lots of termite mounds. Somewhat similar to Sooty Chat and White-fronted Black-Chat, but easily distinguished by the large white patches in the outer wing. The song is a repetitive mix of conversational phrases. The call is a single pure “chwee.”

ebird.org/species/noacha1

The anteater chat or northern anteater-chat (Myrmecocichla aethiops) is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae.It is found in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Tanzania. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, and subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Common Eiders by themadbirdlady

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Quite a crowd of these in Pittenweem Harbour today. Socialising - lots of ooing and cooing going on and conversational little grunts from the females - a lovely sound

360/365 - The unoriginal damn hell hospital corridor mirror. by auntsmack4u

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Todays conversational highlights

- en route to the hospital

mom : they say its going be very windy today.

me: okaaay

mom: you will want to drive with both hands on the wheel.

( you have to remember that these are conversations from a jewish mother/daughter duo..think seinfeld)

- in the hospital

(how we know dad is doing much better today)

me: dad, why are you tapping on your heart - are you having alot of pain right now?

dad: no, i wasn't feeling any thing so i thought i was dead.

-tonight at my bro's house

Ethan: aunt sue, i love when you have dinner here.

me: Ethan, i love you. you are my #1

Ethan - you are #2

- - melting....

** thanks for the support and im glad to say that dad is rallying today .. so he still has some fight in him and he was coherent and fighting today! .. Im going to try to get caught up with your streams shortly..thank you for you support and best wishes.

Conversational Tone by Rich Border

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This might be my favorite b&w (of mine) of all time. Take a minute and take this one in. So many lines, textures and the gray scale is as good as it gets with digital. The scene is special to me as Tonia and I were enjoying the same moment as we were booted out of the hotel and spent the day waiting for the boat to take us back to the U.S of A. Beer at ten a.m.? Yes please!

Japanese chef by Mario Aprea

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My attention is often lost in these small izakayas, where in tiny kitchens very courteous and conversational chefs prepare food for the customers.

I was about to shoot when the chef appeared, who as soon as she realized she was framed offered me a shy smile that I will try never to forget.

La mia attenzione si perde spesso in questi piccoli izakaya, dove in cucine minuscole degli chef molto cortesi e colloquiali, preparano da mangiare ai clienti.

Stavo per scattare quando è apparsa la chef, che appena si è accorta di essere inquadrata mi ha offerto un timido sorriso che cercherò di non dimenticare mai.

359/365 - coping by auntsmack4u

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todays conversational highlights:

Me: i didn't sleep much last night, had a drink, chatted on the phone and email. I was up at dawn.

Mom: I had some wine, chatted to so and so, but I was up 2, 3, 4, etc..I should have took that tylenol pm.

Me: Why didn't you mom?

Mom: I didn't want a hangover!

- on the way home from the hospital

Mom: I have to say one thing

Me: yeah.. ..

Mom: You are going much faster than you are suppposed to

Me: yeah...

Mom: I just thought you should know that I know.

Me: okay

- my brother and i call my folks "The Seinfelds" and sometimes "The Castanza's" . We still are able to find the humor. . thats a good thing

Watching the Watchman by Kevin Benedict

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Some hours into enjoying this famous view of the Watchman from the roadway bridge over the Virgin River--a vigil made even more enjoyable in this case by many other waiting photographers in a conversational mood--we found just a little pink breaking through the blue hour after sunset, Zion National Park, Utah.

I'm sure the lot of us waiting on the bridge that evening all hoped the clouds would blaze with color before sunset as beautiful golden hour light still washed the west face of the Watchman, though the highlight of the show turned out to be much less dramatic as you can see, but today is a good day to step back from the photographer's sometimes high maintenance hopes of nature and to just be thankful for the health and opportunity to enjoy and share some of these beautiful vistas from time to time however nature paints them on any given day.

This is one of those images that's likely really suitable only for smaller format viewing such as here on flickr since it has some technical issues stemming in part from the late hour long exposure with the pretty heavy traffic that time of day rolling over the bridge not more than a few feet from our tripods, but I wanted to share a glimpse of the beauty here regardless.

Thanks for visiting.

conversational grouping by The 10 cent designer

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A windy day - Dancing olive tree. by Karol

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Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. Oscar Wilde. The Decay of Lying. Essay. Title explanation see below.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular playwrights in London. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts, imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46.

Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. A young Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, Wilde read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.

As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Source Wikipedia.

Title explanation

Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life". In the essay, written as a Platonic dialogue, Wilde holds that anti-mimesis "results not merely from Life's imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy."

What is found in life and nature is not what is really there, but is that which artists have taught people to find there, through art. As in an example posited by Wilde, although there has been fog in London for centuries, one notices the beauty and wonder of the fog because "poets and painters have taught the loveliness of such effects...They did not exist till Art had invented them." Source Wikipedia.

The Decay of Lying - Oscar Wilde

public-library.uk/ebooks/27/54.pdf

TD: 0.5 f/8 ISO 100 @26 mm

Conversational shadows by Harvey Smith

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L'amour artificiel by Philippe de Feluy - PdF

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Faut-il consulter ChatGPT après un rendez-vous galant ?

Des chercheurs de plusieurs universités américaines ont fait analyser les conversations de 964 rendez-vous de speed dating par des humains et une intelligence artificielle, puis ont comparé les comptes-rendus avec le ressenti des participants.

L’étude publiée en juin 2024 révèle que ChatGPT peut détecter une attraction romantique et même prédire si deux personnes échangeront leurs coordonnées.

Pour arriver à une telle conclusion, les chercheurs ont organisé une douzaine de rendez-vous de quatre minutes entre 187 étudiants. Dix-huit juges humains et l’agent conversationnel d’OpenAI ont visionné ensuite les vidéos et les retranscrits des échanges entre jeunes.

Les résultats ont montré que les programmes d’intelligences artificielles avaient dés conclusions similaires aux humains pour décider si une personne était prête à proposer une seconde rencontre.

Les humains étaient meilleurs pour « interpréter » des réactions ou des gestes des étudiants, mais ChatGPT était plus concret pour décider si les deux volontaires allaient échanger leurs coordonnées à la fin du rendez-vous.🤔

__________________PdF_____________________________

Should You Consult ChatGPT After a Date ?

Researchers from several American universities had humans and artificial intelligence analyze the conversations of 964 speed dating dates, then compared the reports with the participants’ feelings.

The study published in June 2024 reveals that ChatGPT can detect romantic attraction and even predict whether two people will exchange contact information.

To reach this conclusion, the researchers organized a dozen four-minute dates between 187 students. Eighteen human judges and OpenAI’s conversational agent then viewed the videos and transcripts of the exchanges between young people.

The results showed that the artificial intelligence programs had similar conclusions to humans when deciding whether a person was ready to propose a second date.

Humans were better at “interpreting” student reactions or gestures, but ChatGPT was more concrete in deciding whether the two volunteers would exchange contact information at the end of the meeting.🤔

Young Swan by Simon Corble

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On the River Wye, below Monsal Head. This is a double-page in the book, White Light White Peak, between September and October.

White Light White Peak, the live show, is a personal journey through a year in the White Peak told through poems and projections.

“a beautiful work of art in every one of its facets – poetry, photography, stagecraft, soundtrack.”

Jim Marriott – Buxton Festival Fringe review.

"Summed up in one word - mesmerising." (Caroline Small, events manager at The Green Man Gallery, Buxton).

If you want to book the live show for your venue or group, then please email me corblesimon@gmail.com, Suitable for all kinds of spaces that can provide some level of blackout.

Starting in the depths of a snowy winter, this is a poetic journey through a White Peak year, including encounters with the weather, wildlife and people; some amusing, some thought-provoking and many involving a Springer Spaniel...or two. The poems are told from memory and in a conversational style; more like miniature short stories at times, complete with twists and some happy endings.

The White Light is all in my monochrome photography: Atmospheric landscapes, wildlife shots and enigmatic moments, reflecting the images and moods heard in the poems and projected onto a large screen throughout the performance. With the occasional soundscape, (captured locally - and in all weathers) the whole is a highly immersive experience; the culmination of five years' work.

"White Light White Peak", the book, is published by Fly on the Wall press - order a copy here: www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk/shop Copies for sale at a discount (and signed!) at the live event if you buy the programme, which contains a supplement of seven poems with photographs.

A review of White Light White Peak – The Book:

“A joyous book - one to be slowly savoured. The black and white photos are truly atmospheric, the snippets of prose down-to-earth and gently humorous, while the poems are a wonderful celebration of nature. Simon Corble produces a little bit of magic in White Light White Peak, capturing the ethereal beauty of England's first national park. This is a book to keep and cherish.”

Helen Moat, freelance travel writer and book reviewer - author of "The Slow Guide to the Peak District".

Prairie Dog in Copenhagen Zoo by Knud Hald

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Copenhagen Zoo, a verdant oasis in the heart of Denmark's capital, is home to a diverse array of animal life, from majestic elephants to playful penguins. Among its many captivating residents, the prairie dogs stand out as particularly endearing and endlessly fascinating. These small, highly social rodents, native to the grasslands of North America, bring a surprising slice of the wild prairie to the urban setting of Copenhagen.

A Glimpse into Prairie Dog Life

Upon approaching their enclosure, visitors are immediately struck by the sheer energy and intricate social dynamics of the prairie dog colony. These aren't just animals in a cage; they are a bustling community, constantly engaged in a flurry of activities. One might observe them meticulously digging, their powerful claws sending sprays of earth into the air as they expand their elaborate underground tunnel systems. These "towns," as they are aptly named, are not merely burrows but complex networks of chambers and escape routes, vital for their survival and a testament to their engineering prowess.

Beyond their architectural endeavors, prairie dogs are masters of communication. Their distinctive barks, chirps, and yips echo through the enclosure, each sound carrying a specific meaning within their complex vocalizations. A sharp alarm call sends the entire colony diving for cover, demonstrating their innate vigilance against potential predators, even in the relatively safe confines of a zoo. Conversely, a softer, more conversational series of barks might accompany social grooming, a crucial bonding activity that reinforces their strong communal ties.

Social Structures and Charm

What truly captivates observers is the prairie dogs' rich social structure. They live in family groups called "coteries," where individuals share responsibilities for foraging, sentinel duty, and caring for the young. Pups, emerging from the burrows in spring, are an absolute delight, tumbling and wrestling in playful antics that often draw gasps of "aww" from onlookers. Their curious nature and endearing interactions with adult prairie dogs provide a constant source of entertainment and a valuable lesson in animal cooperation.

In Copenhagen Zoo, the prairie dogs serve as more than just an exhibit; they are ambassadors for their wild counterparts, raising awareness about the importance of grassland ecosystems and the challenges faced by these remarkable creatures in their natural habitats. Their presence reminds us that even in the most urbanized environments, there's a wildness to be appreciated and protected. Watching them, one can almost feel the vast North American plains, a testament to the zoo's success in creating an environment where these captivating animals can thrive and enchant.

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