Author Archives: beth

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About beth

Ann Arbor-ite writes about enjoying life with all of its ironies and surprises.

universal declaration.

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on united nations day

debate night.

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(asking for a friend)

New Yorker Magazine, Detroit Public Television

hum.

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Now you can hum to search Google for songs you can’t remember, but can’t forget. If you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head but can’t remember enough lyrics to search for it, Google has a solution: hum to search.

Google unveiled a new search feature Thursday that lets users search for songs by humming a few bars, in an attempt to help you identify music. This is now part of Google’s mobile app and Google Assistant, where you can say “what’s this song?” (add a “Hey Google” first on Google Assistant) and then hum, whistle, or sing for 10 to 15 seconds. The results will include several probable songs, along with the search engine’s estimation of how likely it is that each is the one you’re looking for.

Google said the feature will be available first in English on Apple’s iOS and in over 20 languages on Google’s Android mobile platform. Users don’t need to have perfect pitch in order to get the feature to work, according to Google.

Hum-to-search isn’t a brand new idea, though it is new to Google. Like many of Google’s search offerings, the feature uses machine learning: Essentially, software analyzes the tune you hum (or sing or whistle), turning it into a sequence of digits that can then be compared with tons of digitized songs to find a few that appear similar. The company has been working on using artificial intelligence for music recognition for a number of years.

The feature may be in high demand:  Google’s vice president who introduced it during Google’s streamed event on Thursday, said people ask Google “what song is playing” nearly 100 million times each month.

“but you make me sing like a guitar humming…”

-neil diamond

Credit: Rachel Metz, CNN Business

away.

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the end of a wonderful, relaxing weekend away
 
 
 
“babies don’t need a vacation but i still see them at the beach. 
i’ll go over to them and say, 
“what are you doing here, you’ve never worked a day in your life!”
-stephen wright
 
 

minnehaha.

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seeing the bones of this ship on the shores of lake michigan

washed up on the camp arcadia beach

and wondering how they came to be here.



The Minnehaha, built in 1880 by Linn & Craig in Gibralter, Michigan, was a 4-masted, 200 foot, wooden schooner used to haul cargo in Great Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. On October 13th of 1893, the steam barge Henry J. Johnson was towing the Minnehaha from Chicago bound for Point Edward at the south end of Lake Huron with 58,000 bushels of corn when facing 90 mile per hour gale force winds, the ship was lost to the sea.

“the sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope.

now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning:

we are all in the same boat.

-jacques yves cousteau

http://www.arcadiami.com/index.php/hidden-exhibits/hidden-shipwrecks/hidden-minnehaha

credits: maritime history of the great lakes, bowling green state university, camp arcadia

spectacle.

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there is one spectacle grander than the sea,

that is the sky; 

there is one spectacle grander than the sky,

that is the interior of the soul.

-victor hugo

Arcadia Dunes, C.S. Mott Nature Preserve, on the shores of Lake Michigan, hiking Old Baldy Trail – October 2020

renewed.

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a blustery autumn day

on the shores of lake michigan

the wind and the sea so full of life.

as wave is driven by wave

and each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead

so time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,

always, forever and new, what was before

is left behind: what never was is now:

and every passing moment is renewed.

-ovid

lake michigan, arcadia, michigan, usa – october 2020

done.

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even brave dragons

have their moments

when they sit down

between the goal posts

the football sits down

on the ground 

and

 they are just done.

“by letting it go it all gets done.

the world is won by those who let it go.

but when you try and try

the world is beyond the winning.”

-lao tzu

astonishing.

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image credit: pictoral arts journal

fingernail.

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when i was a little girl

one of my sisters used to bite her nails

when i’d look out the window

see the sliver of a moon

i thought that was her nail up there

wanting endlessly

to think of a way to get it back for her.

“it’s like we’re on a rocket ship that we were just painting,

and suddenly it took off

and we’re holding onto the ship with our fingernails.

Esteban Contreras