March 31 2025 - Novel New Food

 

Every year the CNE has its strange foods that attract attention - rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches, pickle ice cream, and so on.  But RethinkX - the future think tank organization - doesn't mean weird and strange food when they use the term "novel foods." They are talking about PF and CA.  PF is precision fermentation - the claim is that it will make protein production five times cheaper than existing animal proteins by 2030, and 20 times cheaper by 2035.  CA is cellular agriculture and it will create food-as-software.  Can you imagine the ReThinkx prediction?  That by 2030 these modern food products - like "milk" will be higher quality and cost less than half as much to produce as the animal-derived products they replace?  That is five years away. On one hand, plant-based milks are a normal feature in grocery stores. But plant-based milks are only around 10% of total milk sales (that was in 2022.)  That seems to me a long way to go in such a short time.   There are news stories that reinforce the plant-based movement.  Maybe there are a lot more we don't know of:   "A Canadian dairy producer has reopened a former milk processing plant as a plant-based milk facility. Lactalis Canada will now use the site to produce unsweetened, high protein oat, almond, and hazelnut milks under its new brand, named “Enjoy!”. Lactalis shut down the Ontario plant in 2022 after six decades of processing milk there. At the time the company cited the “decreased profitability and economic sustainability” of producing milk in the facility. Dairy products remain the core business of Lactalis, which is the world’s biggest dairy company. But Nathalie Cusson, General Manager of Lactalis Canada’s Fluid Division, said in a statement that “Enjoy! responds to a growing consumer demand for plant-based options that taste great and have positive health impacts.” There are so many pressures today. Our eyes are on the tariff wars.  Could it be that Science leaps over politics when it comes to dairy farming in Canada.   The supply management system was designed to protect farmers and produce a stable and predictable prices for dairy, poultry and eggs. It has been under criticism from the U.S. and now the tariff wars have added more. I wonder how things will play out.  We might be watching the tariff wars only to realize that is  PF and CA developments that replace dairy cows.   I can buy a 3d cake printer on Alibaba.com now.  How much would that price have to come down to make it worthwhile.  It is priced at $1,299.  And are there any eggs in a 3d printed cake? Here's one answer from Smithsonian Magazine: "Their printer-friendly recipe requires seven ingredients—graham cracker paste, peanut butter, strawberry jam, Nutella, banana puree, cherry drizzle and frosting. The technology built the slice by squeezing each element out of a syringe in thin lines, forming the layered dessert."

This is the house at the end of Elizabeth Street in Grimsby where Forty Creek flows into Lake Ontario.  Isn't this a garden picture from a time  long ago?  It is hard to find quaint fences and garden gates these days.  Not to mention such gorgeous roses.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 19 2025 - Brain and Brains

 

We all have a brain, but are we the brains of something - maybe a family or a group?  And do we have the brains to succeed? It seems like we need a plural of brain to succeed. The brain is the organ inside the head.  It controls thought, memory, feelings and activity.  As in the command:  "Use your brain."  What other organ are we going to use.    But when it comes to intelligence, we most often use brains.  Here's a few funny expressions:  "The poor child inherited his mother's brains and his father's looks." " He's got brains but he's too lazy to use them."  "Pick someone's brains"    And don't forget this one -  "\Shit for brains" There are lots of brain and neuron jokes: What happens when your brain sees a friend across the street? “It gives a brain wave”. Why did the brain refuse to take a bath? “It didn’t want to be brainwashed”. What do you call a human skull without a hundred billion neurons? “A no-brainer”. What kind of brain images do dogs and cats like best? “PET scans”. And then what about our minds?  Where do they fit in?  Ha, ha.

So we'll switch from winter to a Shakespearean summer's day with some sweet-smelling roses on a fence in Grimsby.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 11 2025 - Chocolate vs Schoolchildren

 

Schoolchildren.  Two words but joined as one. Everything involving school seems to grab the noun next to it and join it at the hip.  The Free Dictionary says there are 65 words in total that start with school.  Here are a few of them: schoolchildren schoolcraft  schoolbook schoolboy schoolchild schoolday schoolteacher schoolhouse schoolrooms What about words ending in school, like home school or homeschool?  Which is it?  It looks like it is one word too.  There are 10 words ending with school and don't they look odd when put into a list?  Interesting that these are all in capital letters, as though some significance is at play - likely something to do with Scrabble.  Could it be that scrabble players might not recognize lower case letters? DESCHOOL HOMESCHOOL INTERSCHOOL MINISCHOOL NONSCHOOL PLAYSCHOOL PRESCHOOL  RESCHOOL  SCHOOL SUPERSCHOOL In comparison, something that everyone loves, Chocolate, has no words ending in chocolate, and only a few beginning in chocolate.  Only 3 - chocolate, chocolates, chocolatey, but I also know there's a chocolatier.  School has likely  been around a lot longer in our social consciousness than chocolate.  It originates from Ancient Greek, explaining the spelling.   We haven't even considered all of the synonyms fort school - 73 similar words.  I can't imagine there being anything similar to chocolate but chocolate itself.

I have to keep track of all these hearts.  This one was done in the watercolour class and is a demonstration that everyone can paint...something.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 12 2024 - The Latest - AI Beauty Pageants

 

We could have had animated cartoon beauty pageants.  But perhaps it is the combination of visual and written word that makes AI favour having beauty pageants now. this from euronews.com: "Amidst the concerns that AI is threatening job security and artistic professions, Fanvue World AI Creator Awards have announced their Top 10 shortlist for the first-ever ‘Miss AI’ award. And they've all got mortifyingly clichéd bios." "We reported that the Fanvue Miss AI pageant, which aims to demonstrate “a shift in how we perceive beauty and creativity within the realms of artificial intelligence”, brings together AI creators from across the globe to showcase their digital creations vying for the Miss AI crown." They were picked from 1,500 applicants submitted by AI content creators worldwide The judges are human and droids (what is a droid?). The author of the article finds the entire project "cringe-worthy."  Going through the pictures and bios, it seems to reveal a cliche view of women - young, buxom and thin.  Surprise! You can see the lineup HERE.  At the heart of the contest is that the entrants are social media influencers.  Do we want influencers to really look and act like humans or be somehow better?  The creators of Aitana Lopez earn thousands of dollars a month in income from brand partnerships.  Compare that to millions earned by top human influencers.  Here's another quote:  "Mohammad Talha Saray, a member of the team in Ankara, Turkey, that created one of the Miss AI finalists — the red-haired, green-eyed Seren Ay, said they came up with the AI model five or six months ago as a brand ambassador for their jewelry e-commerce company because human influencers they approached cost too much money and were too demanding. Saray said his AI avatar is cheaper, more flexible and doesn’t talk back."

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June 2 2024 - Roses

 

June is the traditional month of roses.  That was when they had one bloom and were finished.  Hybridizing cleared up that problem and floribunda varieties bloom all season.   How popular are roses?  I think that the number of cultivated varieties being 30,000 says the answer.  We can't get enough.   And the most famous rose hybridizer in our time?  David Austin from England.  He worked hard to bring scent back to hybrids that are all-season bloomers.  And he does create beautiful colours and shapes.   There is a rose hybridizer association.  I don't know of a lily hybridizer association or of other plant-specific plants who have a separate hybridizer association.  They are generally incorporated into the society.    I was looking for some information, google not only autofills questions it shows a list of trending questions.  What is the top one today?  Pink grasshoppers.  A family in London, Ontario found a pink grasshopper on their walk home.  Known as a Carolina locust, it was named Bubbles by the family.  The hot pink colour is explained in this article HERE.  The oldest rose garden in North America is the Portland Rose Garden.  Here's an example of the kinds of pretty roses it has on display.

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Feb 2 2024 - Roses

 

I went to a gallery opening yesterday - it was an art show at the Museum kicking off Black History Month.  The artist is black - a graphic designer and the show on Artificial intelligence generated images.   Sean is young, so his young friends were there - all from the arts community along with his family and relatives. There were lots of young black people present. I didn't look like Grimsby with a retired population - it made me think of when we lived in Toronto where the population is diverse and multicultural.  Grimsby doesn't have much diversity. Grimsby's most recent wave of immigration is post-war with the arrival of the Dutch so there is a substantial population of tall, slender, European descendants.  The Grimsby distinction to me is how tall they are. I was reminded of how filtered our experience of the everyday is.  Without us realizing it or thinking about it.    So I went to check on what we look like: "Males make up 48.6% of the population, while females account for 51.4%. Locals over 65 years old represent the largest age group in Grimsby (6,165 individuals), followed by those aged under 14 (4,680 people). The population density in Grimsby is 2595% higher than Ontario The median age in Grimsby is 7% higher than Ontario In Grimsby 1.68% of the population is South Asian In Grimsby 1.08% of the population is Black In Grimsby 0.66% of the population is Chinese When I looked at that density number, I can tell you it will be well over 3000% soon as we densify every bit of land.  Cole's - once a garden centre of plants will become a 7 storey condo filling the space.  That alone can push us past the 3000% mark.  Of course, the comparison is with all of Ontario and there's a lot of empty space in the North - that is empty of population.  What about this roses collage to advertise the garden club's speaker in February.  Aren't roses a delight!

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Oct 1 2023 - Oud

 

I think most of us know the scent of Jasmine.  It is one of the top perfume ingredients.  I would have thought that rose is also.  And it shows up in various lists.  The lists have ingredients that are unknown to me.  Second on the list, for example, is this one: "Oud, referred to as liquid gold, is another expensive yet essential perfume ingredient. There is no in-between for the scent of oud - people either love it or hate it. The scent is derived from resin that results from fungus growth on the wood of the Aquilaria tree. Agarwood is another name for the resulting product with the distinct smell we know as oud. The oud scent is strong enough to influence other notes in a perfume. Fragrance experts take care in the selection of paired notes. Those who love oud find the smell to be irresistible and attractive with bittersweet and woody hints. The earthly tone is heady and sexy, meant for daring personalities. The longevity of the scent is dependent upon: type of oud resin used the duration of its aging the quantity used in a brand From an age-old perfume element in Arabic and Indian cultures, oud has made its way into the west as a high-demand item. Synthetic versions retain the woody and leathery qualities, yet the original smooth balsamic and warm touch of oud is only specific to the real ingredient." The fascinating list of perfume ingredients is HERE at the fragrances website. Thousands of years of work have gone into the making of such an extensive list and its underlying knowledge.    I wonder what fields of Jasmine would smell like.  These fields of roses are grown to be sold as plants and not harvested for their flowers.

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July 1 2023 - That most famous iceberg found

 

The fame of the Titanic can only be matched by the iceberg that it hit.  The iceberg was distinctive with three peaks. There are photos of the iceberg taken by the chief steward of the SS Prinz Adalbert with a streak of red paint along the iceberg's base.  That had gotten his attention along with the three peaks.  And the history of icebergs is astonishing: "The iceberg began its slow journey to the North Atlantic over three thousand years ago. Again, we can only guess at the exact details, but the story likely began with snowfall on the western coast of Greenland somewhere around 1,000 BCE. After a few months, this snow has been turned into a more compacted form called firn, which then over subsequent decades is compressed into dense ice by the weight of newer snow on top of it. The frozen water in these glaciers is slowly forced further westward toward the sea. When they finally reach the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the lapping tides break off chunks of the ice, and icebergs are calved from the glacier, some 30 centuries after their source water was first deposited. The iceberg that sank the Titanic began its journey as a rough contemporary of King Tutankhamun, entire civilizations rising and falling while it made its slow march to infamy." Yesterday a CBC radio item said that it is now known that icebergs migrate north and south, living on average 100 - 200 years. And a team of scientists say that they have found the famous iceberg with paint on the side, along with a tea cup.  And sufficient compositional analysis to confirm the identity. The tea cup got my attention. I realized that the segment might have been on the This is Thatshow - an entertainment show that fabricates the issues.  So it seems unlikely that the Titanic iceberg will get towed into Halifax any time soon. It has likely passed on. This is the rose arch at Longwood. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 26 2023 - Last Day of School

 

The Ministry of Education's calendar says that Thursday June 29 is the last day of instruction for secondary and June 30 for primary school.  Not only that on June 30, students are dismissed 90 minutes early in Halton. And what do you do on the last day of school?  Here are some highlights from WikiHow for the students: Prepare with your friends. Before the last day of school, gather your closest friends and plan some fun stuff. You all could do something crazy, or on the other hand, you could plan to do something that is more subtle. Here are some ideas for things to do on the last day to make it really stand out. Throw toilet paper around the school Break out in song during class Wear something that is unique to your friend group Create a collaborative painting during free time. Bring small gifts for your favorite teachers. Small gifts are a good way to say "I will miss you" to a friend or to a favorite teacher. Some good gifts for your favorite teachers include: Handwritten cards Home-made jewelry Cute keychains A candle Flowers. Give out gifts to your friends to cherish the time you all had together. Give out little candies or cute stuffed "graduation" animals in little bags. Maybe take a few snapshots with your camera of this day and send them to your friends later via Internet.   This is followed by saying lots of goodbyes to everyone.  Then there are are 29 unexpected last-day-of-school activities your students will love for the teachers. Things like stage classroom Olympics, trivia tournaments, take a meaningful walk, let the students teach,  end of year bingo, and so on.  I thought the making ice cream and paper airplane contests would be fun.  I thought that creating a summer bucket list was detrimental.  here's the rose arch entrance at Longwood Gardens. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 03 2023 - Roses Ahead

 

As June started, the roses started in the garden.  First one, and then another.   Soon it will be roses ablaze.  The Rose Tree Museum in Tombstone AZ considers itself to have the largest rose in the world. It is a Banksiae, one of the popular roses in Britain. It spreads over 8,000 square feet and was planted in 1884. If you want to find the largest rose farm n the world, it is in Ethiopia.  Between three and four million roses are transported to the Netherlands each day.   The company is Afriflora Sher. For the largest rose collection ion the world go to Germany where the rose garden in Sangerhausen has 8,600 varieties and species, growing since 1903. There is a thousand-year-rose growing in Hildesheim, Germany.  "More of an out-of-control tree than the lilting flower the name might suggest, the Rose of Hildesheim, otherwise known as the Thousand-Year Rose, is thought to be the oldest living rose on the planet."   Here's our own rose-growing crop in Niagara near Brian's lily hybridizing field. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 4 2022 - The Longest Weekend

 

There are long weekends and then there are the longest weekends - this past July 1st weekend seemed to go on extra days.  And people are still celebrating today on the Monday.   That's known as a four-day bridge weekend.  In countries where Monday is the first day of the week on the calendar, a long weekend is often known as an oval weekend - you have to draw an oval to reach around the days rather than a circle.   What about next year?  It's on the Saturday - so which day will be the off of work day?   In 2024 it is on Monday and in 2025 on Tuesday.  Those years are simpler and Tuesday would mean a four-day bridge weekend again.   What I've noticed is that in both Canada and the US, the holiday has a number of protests.   In Canada we had the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa on July 1st.  That made non-news, being a heavily policed and ticketed event so was orderly.   There were no updates after the warnings in the early morning of the 1st.   Today is the U.S. holiday and the big protest is over the loss of abortion rights.  This is going to get lots of  coverage.  That is additional to the anti-Black racism and indigenous activities protests on this day every year, so a lot is going on this year.  I wondered how many protests there would be in the U.S.  There were no numbers  or  statistics on the CNN website.  Not very good coverage in my view, and I've started to think that CNN has sort-of articles in order to present the extensive gallery below full of click bait advertisements for Empty Alaska cruise Cabins, Stars you probably didn't know were twins, New seniors apartments coming to Grimsby (looks like Colorado ski lodge houses to me).  I did notice how many of these gallery headlines were travel-related - it is a fever in our consciousness now:  Here are the highlights:   Put your luggage in the hotel bathtub tip  - Snopes says TRUE mostly.  But you won't find out by going through  30 pages  that mention nothing about luggage. Snopes research gives the reason:  bedbugs.  And the technique is for those who are fearful of bedbugs rather than a precaution for all.  You are supposed to search the room for signs of bedbugs and then bring the luggage in if it is all clear.  (Yuk!) And why would we put coins in the bathroom sink?  To stop the sink in order to fill it up to wash clothes.  (Travelling too light? Another Yuk} And then always put a towel under the hotel door.   To keep out noise and light (perhaps a college graduation party hotel). These are like silly jokes that I could never guess the punchline for.   And they are superior to hotel jokes which turn out to be repetitively the same 5  sexist, racist, and lewd jokes.   There should be a joke that starts:  What does Jesus, a photon and an American Indian have in common?  They all show up in horrible hotel jokes.  On to the beauties of summer. These are roses in the Bakker's growing field. This year there is a field  on Seventh Street just south of the QEW exit.   Can you imagine how many plants are growing here?  They will all disappear in the fall -  dug up as bare root plants and off to new gardens in the spring sales.

June 9 2022 - Dr. Biden

 

Which spouse of a head of state has a doctoral degree?  Would it be Boris Johnson's Carrie Symonds, Doug Ford's Karla Ford, Melania Trump or Jill Biden?  It doesn't take a lot of effort to figure it out.  Dr. Jill Biden has a bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in English and Education,  and a doctoral degree in Education.  She has founded many charity organizations and is an advocate for education opportunities.  She's published a memoir and two children's books. She has a lengthy entry of accomplishments in her Wikipedia entry.  Karla Ford is Doug Ford's wife who bio entries say things like: "She is not much active in politics, but her husband is. Her husband Doug Ford has won the premier election again. Has become the Premier of Ontario again."   Unlike Jill Biden, Karla Ford doesn't have her own wikipedia entry.  The various biographies of her cover her height, weight, net worth, age, kids and so on.  All of them cover her children because of their names - Karla's daughters are named Krista, Kayla, Kara and Kyla. Pictures of Karla show her in body-building poses.  There are pictures of one of her daughters in body-building poses - lots of muscles.  Melania Trump is another world altogether when it comes to a wikipedia entry. There's a very lengthy and complicated entry. It covers her modelling starting at 5 years of age.  The sexually explicit photos and nude photos are all listed.  It highlights her businesses with a jewelry and skin care line where the manufacturers terminated their relationship with her in 2017.  It notes that she and Donald Trump gained attention in 1999 when they gave a lewd interview with shock jock Howard Stern.  There are all kinds of gossipy stories about her in the entry.  It just goes on and on.   In comparison to Jill Biden's authorship, Melania Trump's authorship is challenged.  She was "promoted" to have written a pamphlet where she contributed a paragraph in the introduction. Accusations of plagiarism followed. I also wondered about Boris Johnson's wife.  He's been in the news so much lately with the COVID party scandals and boorish behaviour. She was a Conservative Party media official and senior advisor to the ocean conservation charity Oceana.  Her biography seems somewhere between Jill Biden's and Melania Trump's. She was a victim who testified against John Worboys who drugged and sexually assaulted women. In relation to Boris Johnson, the entry indicates she had an affair with Boris Johnson while he was married and then they married secretly.  Is there any through-line in the biographies of these wives? There is so much contrast today.  What trends would we see in political heads of state spouses if we did a full analysis? Maybe it is chaos.  What do you think? The roses are starting to bloom in my garden - this is the Royal Botanical Garden's rose display last year. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 10 2021 - Rose in November

Roses start blooming 6 to 8 weeks after the leaves first shoot, and stop blooming when the temperature goes to 0 degrees celsius.  With our warm weather this fall, many roses are still blooming here in Niagara.  Here's a question that people are asking: "Q. Even though winter is just around the corner, I’ve been noticing white rose bushes that are covered with medium-sized flowers still blooming freely. The bushes are 2 to 3 feet tall and very bushy. Do you have any idea what variety it might be? A. While there are many white rose varieties, I suspect the one you have been admiring is a floribunda rose variety called Iceberg. This variety was introduced in 1958 and is a favorite landscape plant throughout the country." Iceberg is one of the most widely planted white roses.  Why?  Because it blooms and blooms from summer into late fall. Here in Niagara, we'll have hard frost and then freezing temperatures, and there will be frozen little rose buds on the bushes.  We'll know the plants are dormant for the winter.  There's no snow in California, except for the mountains.  If we were in California, what would we do to make sure our roses go dormant for the winter?   You would strip off the old leaves in late December, so your plants are asleep until spring. And blooming peak season is April in southern California.  Now that's a tantalizing thought for us in Niagara, where April is daffodils and tulips, and the peak blooming month for roses is June.

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