AI in 2025 - What it is actually (somewhat) Good At.

At my advanced age I am allowed some element of curmudgeonism with regard to modern technology.  I've seen a lot of it come and go in nearly 70 years.  Much of it is simply reinventing the wheel.  And the real breakthroughs are often pulled into the For Profit realm rather quickly.  But hey, I'm not such a tortoise that I am still using a rotary dial phone and a slide rule.

So, what is the much vaunted AI "good" at in 2025.

My initial answer is: Images.  Lacking any artistic talent to speak of I am able to come up with ideas for amusing pictures but I can't create them.   Here's an example.  I prompted Gemini - this is the maligned but free Google product - to create an image of a deer sitting at a computer studying trail cam images of hunters.  This is a remote possibility for my slow hunting season (up to gun opener), but you never know.  Here's the first draft:

Now that's not too bad.  But a closer inspection shows a problem.  The hunters are all wearing camo.  And they are all holding fire arms.

Some of the weapons they are hefting look like big sticks, others like generic sub machine guns.  One guy - and admittedly these are blurry images - appears to be holding a stuffed animal!

But for gun hunting season they should be wearing blaze orange.  When I pointed this out and asked AI for an update it said: 

Okay, let's get those hunters in proper safety orange! Here's the updated image:

And here's what it came up with:

Better.  It just changed the one detail and did so competently.  It's a fun image....if you don't look too closely at it.  Behold:

Our friend Mr. Buck has two full cups of coffee.  He's never going to manage the one on the right, not with that clumsy hoof.  But the other side.......  Yikes!  A hideous freak of nature "hand" with a thumb and dark, Goth fingernails.   

This sort of thing has been a problem for AI generation since the get go.  It does some body parts very well indeed.  Others....frightening mutations.  Here's another example.  The basic prompt was to show me a waitress at a German Beer Garden bringing me a stein of beer.

At first glance all is well.  AI does faces nicely.  The back drop is passable.  And, well, as this is a serious study of the matter, AI does breasts with great accuracy.  One minor quibble, that stein looks a bit outsized, unless the waitress is elfin, and it would never do to bring a customer something that is 35% foam!  But do we still have mutant fingers???

Subtle, but yes.  Count the fingertips.  Slightly crooked thumb, 1,2,3....

There seems to be a little parasitic finger grafted onto the back of the ring finger.  

This is a common feature of AI images.  Indeed, weird extremities - hands in particular - are one way photo sleuths debunk controversial AI "fakes".  So how and why is this so?

Here's my theory.

Picture a conference room.  Full of computer nerds.  It's an AI startup and the manager has this to say:

"OK, its crunch time.  Eric, Cheng, Bill, Rashid, Cooper,  get your entire departments working on Boobs.  Divide yourselves up into Left and Right working groups.  Feel free to hire up to 500 freelancers.  Try not to spend more than your usual amount of company time looking at naughty stuff on the internet."

"Oh...I suppose we need to do hands as well.  Where's the new intern?  Melvin?"

"Um, right here.  And its Milton, sir."

"Melvin, our AI informs me that (reads from his phone) the human hand is incredibly complex, and is a main reason why we invented tools and as a species took over the world.  See if you can knock something together this afternoon.  But you still have to sweep up, and don't forget the usual donut runs!"

"Yes sir, I'll do my best."

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So how would AI depict that scene?

About as expected.  I'll make this a big as possible so you can see the Horrible Hands on several figures including Milton!  Maybe he trained the AI to model reality on himself!

Giving Thanks - 2025

Still on this side of the now snow covered landscape.  Everyone growing.  The young generation upward, the older generations perhaps a bit outward.  We also generally grow wiser, each generation starting to see things as their parents did.

A good day.

Not so good to be a turkey of course, or in the case of our celebration, quail.

Rifle Season Review - Deer vs Modern-ish Tech

Crossbows go back to ancient times.  Normal bows, to the stone age.  So deer have had time to adapt.  Humans, those shaggy bad smelling critters, were just one more predator.  At a time when there were all manner of other toothy, hungry things out there we probably did not rank high on their list.

Of course things have changed.  Oh, I still see the occasional bear, wolf or coyote "up north".  But the main things deer need to worry about are cars - just in the last century or so - and the handiwork of Paul Mauser.

People have been hunting Wisconsin deer with firearms for a while now.  The Ojibway were very motivated to trade beaver pelts for muskets going back to the 1600's.  But the availability was low, and the range not much more than a skilled archer.  

Paul Mauser was one of many talented guys who put their effort into making dangerous things in the 1800s.  His innovations were built into the standard rifles and ammunition for the Kaiser's army, and are still the basis for most non fancy deer hunting guns today.  Here's what I use.  Sorry if Google/Facebook etc get unhappy with any sort of fire arm photo! *

This is actually a rather long prolog to a rather short story.

 

Sunrise on opening day of rifle season found me in a box stand on our hunting land.  Basically tree houses built on 15 foot stilts they were constructed by the previous owner.  Who, from the geometry of the window arrangement, must have been about six foot 8 and preferred to stand up the entire time!  Even with a yard sale bar stool to sit on there are areas you just can't see.  There was a beautiful sunrise.

The orange flag is for the edification of the next door neighbor who was hunting some distance off in that direction.  Anyway, after sitting there craning my neck in various ways for 90 minutes I needed a bit of a stretch.  Standing up I saw a buck had approached to within ten paces of the stand right on the trail shown.  A most incurious chap he was still there after I quietly stepped back, took off the safety, lined up a shot......

Expired deer pictures all look the same.  Suffice to say it was a serious task dragging him from the dense underbrush he ran off into.  I had to actually get one of my sons who was hunting elsewhere on the property to come help me.  Even with two of us it was necessary to take breaks getting Bucky back to home base.

And so that's hunting 2025, unless other branches of the family need logistical help or my unfilled doe tag.

Addendum.  A friend hunting on the same spots I've spent so much time on got a nice buck the second day of rifle season.  As a herd management strategy this is ideal, if accidental.  With the mild weather there are  a lot more bucks up and wandering than in most gun seasons.  But they've presumably already taken care of "next year's crop of fawns" business.  So they are less important than the now pregnant does.  And if a year from now there is a mis match?  More does than bucks?  Well, they are not big on either monogamy or faithfulness that lasts more than a half hour or so!

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* Weirdly the United States had to pay the Mauser company a substantial amount of money post WWI for the patent on the "spitzer" ammunition Paul Mauser had invented.  True, it was a complicated legal case and settled out of court, but rather remarkable...paying your defeated enemy for the ammo used to defeat him!

 

Crossbow Hunting - In Review....

How smart are deer?

Exactly as smart as they think they need to be in a given situation.  They have eyes, ears and noses so much more sensitive to ours that if they stayed on full sensory alert all the time we'd never see one.  Of course that's not realistic.  But they can and do dial the filters up and down.

Bow hunting requires you to be fairly close to your target.  I actually will only take a shot that I'm sure will be a good one, as the idea of a wounded deer limping off to die somewhere far away distresses me.  Even though coyotes gotta eat too....

With a cross bow that range is.....  Well at the start of the season I would have said 30 yards.  But one consequence of spending a lot of time out trying to fool a deer is that in the "in between" times that divide up morning and evening "sits" I've been practicing.  I am pretty confident now at 40 yards.  I'd do 45 if the deer was standing still and a big enough target.

North American deer have had a long time to get used to bow hunting.  People have been launching arrows at them for something like 16,000 years, although its likely the Wisconsin deer were left alone until about 10,000 years ago.  

There are plenty of deer in the woods in the fall of 2025.  I see some most days.  That's good.  Also, that's bad.  Often I've been carefully watching one deer while another sneaks up from an unexpected direction, does that curious head bobbing up and down to get a better view, then calls for the general retreat with white tails flipping me off as they disappear into the woods.

I've tried various things.  Being quiet for instance.  Now I am admittedly older, creakier and wheezier than I used to be, but I still do my best.  Deer also have a phenomenal sense of smell.  So I wash all my hunting garb with scent blocker, store it all in a Rubber Maid tub partly full of leaves, spritz on a product that supposedly takes care of any lingering human odors.  Why, I even skip my morning coffee, as I've heard that is a red flag for them.  Nothing.  Incidentally, there is a wide array of scent stealth concoctions.  I hope in a coffee deficient state I never accidently spray on the cinnamon stuff that attracts Wild Hogs! 

I've decided that the two biggest factors in my to date non success are: 1) The deer are not where I can conveniently hide.  And 2) They are really good at seeing anything that was not there yesterday!

Regards the first point, the land we got as a deer hunting preserve is work in progress.  We saw lots of critters there in the spring and summer.  But in the fall they seem to have wandered over to the next door property where everything was logged off a few years ago.  Mmmmm, nice tender buds and shoots.  So the very stealthy box stands that came with the place are mostly looking out over quiet woods and paths.

Of course it is possible to set up elsewhere.  My son uses a climber stand that can shuffle you right up any tree trunk.  This is especially handy in an area we like that is National Park Service and does not allow any overnight stands.  My son seems skeptical that his near 70 year old father should be using such a thing, and I suppose he's got a point.

Other than that it is various forms of ground blinds.  And I think the deer are onto that trick.

Well, its been an enjoyable fall out in the woods, and I have learned quite a bit about deer generally, and about our new hunting land specifically.  In the off season we'll be doing things to improve the deer habitat.  And isn't that why people have cabins, land and so forth?  To go out there and do lots of jobs?

Next up is rifle season.  If the local herbivores have had 10,000 years to figure out humans with bows they've only had about 200 to start figuring out fire arms.  Lets see how they fare with an effective range of 100 yards plus!

Regimental Steins Part Three - Corporal Dolland of the 167th

Another regimental stein that my father acquired in post WW II Germany and brought home.  They are among the many things we found when cleaning up my parent's junk filled house.....

As you can see, this one does not have the cannon on its top, but it is also from an artillery unit.  That unfortunate absence aside, there is a lot going on with this specimen.

It has a name across the bottom.  Or rather a rank and a last name.  

Gef. Dolland.  At least I think that's a D.

Gef. stands for Gefreiter, or Corporal.  Near as I can tell this is a more esteemed rank in the German army than in other armies of the time period.

The dates of initial service are 1905 to 1907.  Given his higher rank and the fact that the Great War broke out only seven years after he did his mandatory two years of service, its likely this fellow ended up back in uniform in 1914.  When the initial rush of August stalled every man with any experience or leadership potential was called up.....

You can see the larger print motto that runs across the top of the stein.  It translates to:  "He who has served faithfully deserves a full glass dedicated to him".

This one has lots details.  Across the lower part of the pewter lid run three mottos in capital letters.

SIEG ODER TODT - VICTORY OR DEATH 

GOTT MIT UNS - GOD IS WITH US

DONNER HEGEL MORD & BLITZ - THUNDER HAIL DEATH AND LIGHTNING.

There are a series of scenes on this stein.  The paint is raised, so I think they are hand painted.  I won't show them all, but here's an example:

A guy with his sweetie sitting on a sofa.  The legend reads, approximately: 

"And so was the (military) service most beautiful."

You can just see the next scene below, or rather I suppose the one that preceded this.  It's a soldier returning to his home after his two years are up.  This one says:

"Open up mother, your son is home and wants a drink"

I feel like I should add an exclamation mark there, but one does not appear on the original.

The unit designation is a little easier to figure out on this one.  Helpfully it has the Regimental number - 167 - displayed.  The scribbly lines near the bottom of the stein give more detail.  

"As a reminder of your service with the (?) company Oberle Regt 167 Kassel.  The word Oberle is cryptic, it probably alludes to where the regiment was recruited, which was in the upper (ober in German) region of Alsace.  Students of history will no doubt recall that this part of the world got traded back and forth between Germany and France.  If we assume this soldier was 18 years old in 1905, then he'd have been born circa 1888.  Alsace had only been a part of Germany for 17 years at that point.  As far as I can tell his regiment served with distinction, but troops from this area were somewhat suspect with respect to desertion over to the French side of the trenches!

As a time capsule this item is impressive.  You get a sense of what life as a recruit was like.  Or at least you get an idealized version of it.  Here, take a look at one final image....

Remarkably these steins had a list of names, the guys you served with.  The list varies in length, anywhere from a handful or as many as a hundred.  This panel feels smooth, so perhaps a stencil was used.  I would not envy anyone who had to hand paint this!

It was apparently a list of the guys from your area that you served with.  Everyone went in as a conscript at the same time.  They came out at the same time.  They went back to their homes and got on with their lives.

Seven years later most of these men would have been called back into service.  How many survived?  I have seen stats that say roughly 15% of German servicemen were killed during the war.  I'd assume that being a somewhat older guy called up near the start of things would make your odds a bit worse.  And of course you had the very many who whose lives were changed by wounds or just the trauma of combat. 

A bit less fun than the jokey stuff shown on this stein, where mom is ready to pour you a drink, where a sobbing young lady is told "Girl stop crying, the recruits are coming", and where a group of nattily clad soldiers clink their beverages and say:

"The Reservists are living High"

The 167th Regiment was part of the 22nd Division.  They actually spent most of the war on the Eastern front.

After 1918 Alsace reverted to French rule...other than the years 1940 - 1944. 

Corporal Dolland, if he survived the First World War, was in for some changes.  I wonder if mementos of German service were something you had to keep on the back shelf....

Regimental Steins Part Two - Reservist Christman

Photographing a one liter beer stein is not easy!  I've rather shortchanged the cool top on this.

Of the two regimental steins my father brought back from Germany circa 1951, this is the one with all the "stuff".  There's a lot to look at, but as we'll see it is a bit more pedestrian than the next one we'll visit.

Presumably that's Reservist Christman depicted in the central image.  It is almost certainly not "him" in an artistic sense, just a generic young artillery man.  These were created with a combination of stencils and paint.  One way to sort it out is by touch.  The base image of the soldier is smooth, so probably stencil.  But the buttons on his uniform and the gilded stuff on his hat is raised, so added by hand!

There is never a first name on these things but the markings indicate he did his active service time as a recruit/conscript between 1898 and 1900.  The spidery, hand applied script indicates he was in the 3rd Company of "foot artillery"* of an artillery regiment based in Mainz.  Unhelpfully I can't be sure of the regiment, but it is probably the 117th, aka The 3rd Grand Ducal Hessian, aka the Grand Duchess regiment.  I am at least sure of Mainz, which narrows it down to three options, and there is a 3 among all the scribbles and abbreviations.

On one side we have this serious image and saying.  It translates to, more or less:

"It is the Artilleryman's job to make a powerful argument"

Around the top is another serious saying:

"Canonen donner ist unser Grufs"**

Cannon thunder is our Greeting.

But this stein is not all cannon thunder and bluster.  It does not photograph well but when you hold the empty stein up to a bright enough light you can see that there is the image of a man and a woman sitting in a tavern stamped into the base in what is known as a Lithophane.  One of the many ways to tell a real from a repro regimental stein is the content of the lithophane.  This one is typical.  Nudes are all fakes.

On the other side is something along the lines of: "Today the last shot was fired because I must go home".  Certainly the kind of sentiment that one would expect at the end of military service.  Being launched homeward by the cannon and waved off by your kamerades seems to fit.

So, what ever happened to Reservist Christman?  Absent a first name we shall never know.  But if he did his main military service on the dates listed here 1898-1900 he would have gone out of the most active reserve status by 1905.  He would have then spent 10 or 11 years in a second line sort of organization called the Landwehr.  So by 1914 he'd have been getting a bit old for soldiering.  Maybe mid 30s.  He'd still be a member of the lowest level of reserve, called the Landsturm, but by the time they got down to calling up those fellows he'd be pushing 40.  Let's hope he was not marched off to the last years of The Great War at that age.  Of course specialized skills were always in higher demand, and he was after all, an artilleryman....

* Foot artillery would be attached to an infantry division.  The guns would in general still be moved by horses.  Horse artillery was much less common, but cavalry divisions did have a few light field pieces they'd haul around with them.

** Among the oddities here is that the "f" depicted is a double s.  So, Gruss, or Greeting.

Regimental Steins - Part One

My dad picked up some antique beer steins when he served in Germany right after the war.  They even appear in the detailed inventory of things he shipped back home.  I find them fascinating.  There's really not an equivalent in our culture.

In Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, almost all men did a period of required military service, then went into the Reserves.  After that they still got together for drills on a regular basis.  It would be other guys from your community, and there were definite social aspects to the experience.  Evidently, near every major training base, there were special military shops where you could order a custom beer stein to commemorate all this.  Specific to branch of service, regiment, even the names of the guys in your company.  They vary a bit in level of seriousness.  As we'll see, they will have the dates of the man's active service as a roughly 18 year old Recruit.  So these were a sort of keep sake of your "Army Days" and something you'd get out when the other guys from your company got together for drinks.  Presumably Old Stories were told over these.

I have two examples.  Each is worth close study and will get its own post.  Here's a couple of teaser pics.....

Although fascinating artifacts these things do not have particularly high value on the antiques market.  They made a lot of these.  And there are many more repros attempting to fool buyers.  For these two the provenance is rock solid, some staff sergeant did a complete inventory of all Lt. Wolter's stuff that was being shipped home in 1948.  These are listed.