Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson

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Five O'Clock with Theral Timpson

Good evening. It's Five O'Clock (somewhere). Let's relax. And contemplate the mystery.

07/19/2024

The Ant and the Giant

A giant found an ant So adorable, so small And delightful, so interesting. For instance, he thought, it gets along So easily with other ants. Without Talking, it can lead the others to food. We giants think we're strong, He said to himself, but we Do not carry 50 times our body weight! The ant's leg...

07/12/2024

The Cowboy

A short story

Perhaps all of us American men have something of the cowboy in us. We might trade stocks on Wall Street or research molecular biology in a large lab at Harvard University, but the American male is still happiest when he’s alone in nature. At least that’s what I’ve heard a scholar argue. Campfi...

06/27/2024

Two Hands Philosophy: An Extended Dialectic

Rodrigo Vanegas and I have just launched a new podcast and YouTube channel called Two Hands Philosophy. As you may guess, it is dedicated to philosophy. Rodrigo is one of the best thinkers I know and is earnestly committed to the dialectic way of doing philosophy, as best represented by Plato's dial...

06/21/2024

The Justification Burger

Wine tasting in Paso Robles and a summer recipe

Wine tasting in Paso Robles and a summer recipe

06/14/2024

De Deorum Natura: A Brief Personal History of God

Who or what is God? The pompous-sounding Latin title heading this article, “On the Nature of God,” is me flippantly pretending to be an academic. Pop quiz: What’s the difference between academic and non-academic writing? The correct answer gets an “A."

06/06/2024

Traditional Indigenous Foods with Chef Sean Sherman

Sean made news with his restaurant in Minneapolis, Owamni, which won the James Beard Award in 2022 for best new restaurant. The restaurant uses only “pre-colonial” ingredients, food basics that existed in America before Columbus: wild rice, berries, fowl, and bison.

Sean was honored with the Julia Child Award in 2023.

“Control your food, and you control your destiny.”

We’re on vacation this week, so we’re rerunning a podcast from early last summer with Native American chef, Sean Sherman. For those of you who are into fine cuisine, Sean could inspire you in using local and natural ingredients.Sean made news with his restaurant in Minneapolis, Owamni which won ...

05/31/2024

He now vividly remembered the happy moments earlier this morning when he encountered the stunning new images from the Euclid Space Mission online. The close-up of a galaxy cluster sent high soprano notes into his imagination. It was as though he could zoom out there into the night sky on his own voyage. It was called the Dorado Group, one of the thickest galaxy groups in the southern hemisphere.

Jaipur was nineteen when he discovered he had a rare form of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL. It was a subclass of AML, or acute myeloid leukemia. In this leukemia, promyelocytes—a precursor to white blood cells—build up in the bone marrow. There is a genetic component. Gene...

05/24/2024

Is ChatGPT Inherently Platonic?

OpenAI has released a new version of ChatGPT with new capabilities for text, video, and audio. Along with the new version come persistent questions about the new AI. Last night, I had a chat with the new ChatGPT about how AI works and how good it is. (I do the same with people. How do they work, and...

05/18/2024

Beaujolais, Marriage and More

A friend of mine just took a wine-tasting trip to Beaujolais, France, and we had a great conversation when she returned. I asked if she would be open to turning on the mic and recording the conversation for a podcast, but she declined, which is cool. Having a friend like me who wants to record your....

05/10/2024

Do Polygamists Have Minority Status in America?
With Shirlee Draper, Former FLDS Member

Chapters: 0:00 Take us back 4:55 A “domestic refugee” 8:20 Vision of Cherish Families 11:05 A big problem with the word “escape” 19:40 The term “cult” creates more harm than good 22:35 Is it fair to use the word “minority?” 25:55 Should polygamy be legal?

05/03/2024

Righteous Indignation

Homosexual, le***an, gay, Pervert, fa**ot, q***r, Friend of Dorothy . . .

04/26/2024

Words!

Ineffability is the quality of something, some state, some awareness that goes beyond our ability to express it in language.

Ineffability is the quality of something, some state, some awareness that goes beyond our ability to express it in language. Examples include the color red, the taste of watermelon, and the joy at the sight of one’s children. Some don’t believe there is anything ineffable. They may argue that, i...

04/19/2024

The "New" Return to a Classical Education

Thank you, Professor. That was really terrific! Ladies and gentlemen, the second part of the evening will be a conversation between the learned doctor and me, at the end of which I promise to save some time for audience questions. “I’m looking forward," said the professor, the star of the evenin...

04/15/2024

This is a sweet article on history of news in the area from our local media.

ST. GEORGE — Today with smartphones and the internet, it’s hard to imagine a time when the world wasn’t at our fingertips. Yet it was not that long ago when it took days to get news outside our hometowns, or when we might have used a barbed wire fence to make a telephone call if […]

04/12/2024

The sun is setting on the perfect day here in Southern Utah. We hit the 70s for the first time this year.

I sat in the sun for an hour, listening to the returning songbirds. Now I’m listening to Bill Evans's “Peace Piece.”

The sun is setting on the perfect day here in Southern Utah. We hit the 70s for the first time this year. I sat out in the sun for an hour listening to the returning songbirds. Now I’m listening to Bill Evans, “Peace Piece.” There’s no way to describe Spring really. But this Bill Evans piece...

04/05/2024

There is nothing more human than the creation and appreciation of music, says today’s guest, Richard Timpson.
A few years ago, as part of his undergraduate degree, he wrote a thesis entitled Modeling Expressive Musical Performance with Transformers.
Today, Richard is a software engineer working at Salesforce with a passionate interest in AI music generation. He also happens to be Theral's nephew.

Chapters: 0:00 Thesis: Can AI be expressive? 7:40 How do you measure the quality of performance? 13:15 The “deterministic” canonical representation 20:19 Three samples: AI or human? 26:25 Will we ever “get there?” Is everything just data? 31:30 Does AI work better with language than music?

03/27/2024

The Joy of Cooking Leg of Lamb

Irma Rambauer's recipe with a twist

Irma Rambauer's recipe with a twist. Widely considered America's favorite cookbook, Joy of Cooking was first published privately in 1931 by Irma Rombauer, the daughter of German immigrants and a homemaker in St. Louis. The year before, her husband had committed su***de and left her $6,000 in savings...

03/21/2024

Are Democrats Too Woke?

Listen in to a fascinating conversation at the restaurant the other night.

The other night at my favorite Italian restaurant, I overheard a conversation that one couldn’t help but overhear. In this age of ultra-partisan disagreement, I was pleasantly take aback by the mostly decent conversation. “Democrats have become too woke! This is why I moved out of California,”...

03/12/2024

Blood Knowledge and the Preludes of Chopin

These little treasures are Chopin’s unique musical innovation, bold and glorious.

Chopin's philosophy seems to be directly acknowledging and expressing the feeling, the perception.

He insists on pure music, on getting in touch with his feelings as the source of reality

In 1837, Frederic Chopin learned from the mother of Maria Wodzinska that her daughter would not be following through on her engagement to the composer. The next year, Chopin took a lover, the author George Sand (Born Aurele Dupin). Chopin was no Don Juan. He was slight and sickly, and his music cont...

03/07/2024

Some pre- satire

From Climate Change to Economic Growth, Developing the Democratic and Republican Party Platforms

A satiric take on America's two parties

03/01/2024

Why Philosophy? What practical value will it have?

The Story of Philosophy, by the historian Will Durant, begins with an introduction devoted to why we do philosophy

I’m often asked why one reads philosophy, what practical value will it have? Why must everything have practical value is a good question itself. I’ve read many views on why philosophy, the best of which I think came from the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin. He told journalist Bryan Magee in hi...

02/24/2024

Jack Asks Jill for Wine Recommendations on their Annual Trip up the Hill

Jack and Jill are two friends who like to reconnect each year by hiking a certain hill. “I love your hiking shoes,” comments Jill as they began their most recent trek. “Oh thanks, they’re super comfortable! My sister gave them to me for Christmas. She was like, Jack, you’re all the time hi...

02/15/2024

Check out this piece on "good" and "bad" bacteria from our sponsor, Zbiotics.

by Team Zbiotics Human cells are accompanied by a staggering number of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, that perform essential biological processes and greatly impact our overall health. Despite what you may see in popular media or the news, labeling microbes like yeast and bacteria “go...

02/15/2024

Chum Chats:
Theral pushes “record” during another chat with friend Sean Tanamera.

From current events to rapping ancient poetry, relax to the rhythm of amicable conversation.

Theral pushes “record” during another chat with friend Sean Tanamera. From current events to rapping ancient poetry, relax to the rhythm of amicable conversation. Special Offer from the Sponsor: Let’s face it, after a night with drinks, I don’t bounce back the next day like I used to. I have...

02/08/2024

Easy Fresh Baguettes

This recipe is such an easy lift; you won't believe it.

This recipe is such an easy lift, you won't believe it.

02/02/2024

A Poem for Friday

When I’m with folk who in the country stay, I play one smart, cosmopolitan, urbane. But when with those who in the city dwell I play the dunce, the peasant. I treat 'em like hell. When with the philosophically inclined, I get emotional and dole the smallest morsels from my mind. When I am with the...

01/26/2024

Has AI Hit a Major Roadblock?
. . It is one of the most important legal questions of the century: “Will copyright allow robots to learn?”

Several lawsuits claim the new generative AI infringes copyright.

01/19/2024

City or Country? Urban or Rural?

It was five o’clock, almost sunset on January 2, 2020. We were excited to have the special combination lock number form the realtor which would open the front door of the house without a realtor dictating our walkabout. The from door took us directly into a spacious living room with a cathedral-va...

01/16/2024

Quality Healthcare Should Not Depend on Which Book Club You Attend:
Listen to Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post

Karen Tumulty, a political writer for the Washington Post, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She was told she had five years to live. Then she went to book club with friends and came out about her diagnosis—that changed her life. Someone in attendance happened to be the President of the Persona...

01/11/2024

We are helping you out:

New Year's Resolutions and a Dichotomy

The Marginalian put out some very nice New Year’s resolutions. This is a weekly blog written by Maria Popova who’s mission is to remind us of the poetry of life. I’ve subscribed for years and heartily recommend it. I list a few of her suggestions here and then muse about one of the authors she...

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