Nov 9 2023 - New Islands

 

What questions will we ask today?  Is it going to rain and I should take an umbrella?  Are the bananas ripe enough or too ripe at the store?   We're supposed to be asking these questions: How am I feeling right now?  What are my needs today?  What am I grateful for today?  and so on.   Instead, my question today is how many new islands are there that have created by volcanos, erosion, glacial retreat and such occurrences?  How big are they?   Wikipedia has a list of islands created since the 20th century.  They are HERE,  Tonga has a lot of them, with listings from 2022, 2014, 2009, 2006,1984, and 1927-28.   Home Reef is one of the the volcanoes that gives forth all these islands in Tonga which is located in the South Pacific Ocean. "A big chunk of the Polynesian nation — an archipelago of over 170 islands — owes its existence to volcanic activity, which created its chain of western islands starting thousands of years ago." In December 2014 and January 205, a volcanic island 1 km wide by 2 km long was created.  In 2022, just 11 hours after the volcanic eruption began, a new island had appeared.  It had grown to 8 acres and an elevation over 50 feet above sea level. It might live a short time or a long time according to experts.

Here's Toronto's skyline seen from one of the Toronto Islands.  Their history is a story of wind and sand, depositing the sand into the bay, and eventually taking the shape of a peninsula.  They started history as a series of continuously moving sand-bars originating from the Scarborough Bluffs, and carried westward by Lake Ontario Currents. It was in 1858 that the channel was widened by a permanent storm, making them the Toronto Islands. Like a volcano, Lake Ontario is a busy lake.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Sep 21 2023 - New Words Trending 2023

 

I enjoy new words, so I thought I would get right on it.   Here they are: Micro-Influencer The term “micro-influencer” is one such trendy word that has recently become part of the current language.  JOMO The term JOMO, or “Joy of Missing Out”, has become a popular new English word to describe the pleasure of not having to keep up with the latest trends or activities. Vacation Shaming  Tech Neck Phubbing Goblin Mode  Deplatform  Copypasta  I can't guess what some of these mean.  What is phubbing?  Paying attention to your phone instead of the people you are with. It was coined in 2013.  Goblin Mode: intense focus and productivity when trying to complete a project or task.  The person ignores distractions.  Copypasta - that's copy and paste for large amounts of text online. Let's compare that list with this one: GOAT – Greatest Of All Time Dope – Awesome Sic/Sick – Next Level Cool Lit – Amazing or exciting Gucci – Good or going well Salty – Bitter or angry Litty again – exciting or wild once more Permacrisis – A new word for 2023 that has been created to describe the current state of the world These are from dictionary.com:  Information pollution, jawn, decision fatigue, jolabokaflod, grandfamily, NIL, algo, amalgagender.  There are more HERE.  They describe something called hostile architecture:  design elements of public buildings and spaces that are intended to stop unwanted behavior such as loitering or sleeping in public by making such behavior difficult and uncomfortable. And this one:  it describes a lot of our attitudes right now:  to pessimize - make less good, efficient, fast or functional.  It is the opposite of optimize. As we head into Autumn, there are great views from Moyers Road in Vineland.  there's Toronto on the horizon.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Facebook Twitter Website Email Share Tweet Forward

Copyright (C) 2023;

June 27 2023 - Olivia Chow vs 101 candidates

 

From the last day of school to the first day of Toronto's new mayor.  What an excellent headline this morning.  She's the first progressive mayor since David Miller.  She's the first Chinese-Canadian mayor and the third female mayor.  Her presence brings back memories of Jack Layton, a much-beloved NDP politician who died from cancer in 2011.  That was a significant loss to the political scene.  Jack Layton's predecessors were politicians and activities - his great-granduncle William Steeves was a Father of Confederation.  And the family business was Layton Bros. Pianos. That seems a good combination.  Olivia Chow was born in British Hong Kong and emigrated with her parents in 1970. While her parents were schoolteachers and a school superintendent in Hong Kong, in Canada they worked at odd jobs. She was an artist and sculptor in her early career.  She moved into politics in 1986 motivated by indigents of harassment and sexual discrimination. The voting was much higher for this election than the last one. It was about 40 percent of the eligible votes vs 29 percent in the fall election.   Perhaps there was more at stake this time - rejuvenation was needed rather than conservatism.  She promises affordable housing, improved transit,  that Gardiner Expressway revamp at ground level, and says there will be modest increased taxes to pay for the initiatives.  This is different than John Tory's conservative keep taxes low and reduce services strategy. Who is the biggest detractor of Chow?  Doug Ford. What a quote:  "While we're not always going to agree on everything..."   I wonder if there is something or anything to agree on - his initiatives include building houses on the Greenbelt and building a highway across the Greenbelt in Toronto's northern suburbs that will cost billions.   It seems like there will be contention between Ford's highways and Chow's transit plans.   That makes me think off our transit from more than a century ago - from before the dominance of the automobile.   The rail yard is full of activity on this layout.     Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 12 2023 - Self-Checkout and the Banana

 

There is a recent strong rally cry that artificial intelligence leads humans to immoral and unethical behaviour. But the path to decline has been widely demonstrated with the simpler intelligence systems.  In particular, self-checkout.  There are articles dating from 2012 highlighting how cheating at checkouts turns us into a nation of self-service shoplifters. And it came up immediately in 2007 articles describing the introduction. The Banana - that lowly fruit - plays a key role in the headlines  - manually punching in the code for cheap products such as bananas when weighing expensive ones like steaks.  And the internet amplifies the "cheat the system" supporters: “Anyone who pays for more than half of their stuff in self checkout is a total moron,” asserts one of the many anonymous comments on a Reddit discussion about self-checkout cheating." “There is no moral issue [in the view of cheaters] with stealing from a store that forces you to use self checkout, period. THEY ARE CHARGING YOU TO WORK AT THEIR STORE.” Articles are keen to describe the motivations. There's the thrill factor: “Shopping can be quite boring because it’s such a routine, and this is a way to make the routine more interesting [for] risk-taking, stimulation-seeking people.” Articles describe up to 7 methods of scamming.  Here are some of them: 1. Buy a large quantity of the same item but scan/pay only for a portion 2. No security guard?  Walk through the self-checkout and leave the store 3. Pass-around - just pass the item into the bagging without scanning 4. That banana trick - change the scan sticker for a cheap item - a variation is the switcheroo where cheaper item of the same weight is scanned, but the expensive item goes in the bag. 5. Accidentally forget things at the bottom of the cart  "Cheat the system" seems to be right at the core of the issue. And that's been around as long as there are people.  Look at all the variations there are for the activity:  there are 135 synonyms, antonyms and words related to beat the system.  If you look up the word cheat, there are 267 words.   "Gaming the system (also rigging, abusing, cheating, milking, playing, working, or breaking the system, or gaming or bending the rules) can be defined as using the rules and procedures meant to protect a system to, instead, manipulate the system for a desired outcome." We conclude with a bit of Toronto retail history - Honest Eds.  I wonder how much cheating there would be at self-serve checkouts if the store was still with us.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Facebook Twitter Website Email Share Tweet Forward

Nune 9 2023 - Summer Time Travelling

 

Our air quality has improved, allowing people to get outdoors again.  Let's go for a drive.   Look out, though.  There are 44 closures in Toronto alone on June 9 2023 for roadwork - these are planned.  Highway 400, 401, 404, 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way.  That covers the majority of the major roads in the Toronto area.  Seems like a lot of hiccups along the road. The events closures are ramping up too.  All those cycling fundraisers, runs and walks, and then festivals.  There's Portugal Day, Grilled Cheese Challenge festival and the RBC Open - which ironically has caused closures. Combine that with reductions in subway service for construction and reductions in GO train service. That is followed by an encouragement for residents and visitors to take public transit as a greener, faster and more affordable way of getting around.  Summer can get complicated when it comes to travelling around. What about steam train travel?  Here's a model layout.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 22 2023 - Day-Timers Gone By

 

What a great name for a calendar company - Day-Timers.  Do you know when they went out of business?  Likely not.  They didn't quite go out of business.  They merged with MeadWestvaco, laid off staff and moved locations to consolidate, and laid off a lot of people.  The original company, started in the 1940s was a family-run printing press hobby business changed forever. Everyone who worked in corporations had a day-timer in the 1970s to 1980s. That's just one story of a product that I used to be intimate with every day and now is gone.  There are many such companies that have disappeared over the last 10 years and we notice or don't notice them.  Do you know that Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus is gone - that was in 2017.  Just the Museum is there to remind us of their greatness. The A&P Supermarket - something familiar across Ontario - closed in 2015 and sold its locations. That was the Jane Parker in-house brand.  We enjoyed the spice cake my mother used to buy and pack in our lunches. Toys R Us - that familiar huge retail brand covering the front of the stores is gone - it had its ups and downs and finally was gone in 2017 - with $5 billion worth of debt and closing 800 locations.   We might have used a Compaq computer - gone in 2013 retired by HP after being acquired in 2002.   And all those neighbourhood Blockbuster video stores - that was 2010. There seemed to be one in every neighbourhood in west-end Toronto.  I guess I got to wondering about all of the change that seems to happen so often that I don't notice as last week Nordstrom announced it was selling its fixtures and furniture along with all its stock.  In the Eaton Centre it seems to me that it had the entrance to the subway food section.  I wonder what will happen there.  Here are the pictures - and the keywords tell me it is Saks 5th Avenue and not Nordstrom.  Something to find out.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Photo of the Day - March 3 2023 - Toronto Sewer Story

 

What is one of the Bing stories this morning?  In our old neighbourhood in Toronto on Old Mill Drive, sewer workers are trying to recover the $3-million micro-tunnelling machine which got trapped near Bloor Street last year.  You can't imagine how the residents are responding, Old Mill Drive is a prestigious street.  There's noise, mud and daily floods of constructions vehicles.  That would not be a happy place.  The plan was to go 18 metres down to get below the subway.  But on the way down it hit underground steel tiebacks which had been part of a nearby condo building construction.  Oops.  The headline says $9 million is being spent to rescue the boring machine.  When I look at the google map for Old Mill Drive, the pictures were taken in November 2021 and all the trees lining the street are boxed for construction.  I would assume that's because of the new vast condo that went in on the corner of Bloor West.  That would have been its own mess.  As we google down from 43 to 54 Old Mill it suddenly turns to June 2021 with those beautiful leafy trees overhanging the street.  Such a lovely street that goes down to and over the Humber River and on past the Old Mill, once an historic heritage building.   I hadn't thought about it but Old Mill would be a problem for flooding.  It was one the areas hard hit by Hurricane Hazel, and has a memorial to it.  The Humber River has significant changes in water levels at various times of year.  It was a primary route to get into Lake Simcoe and from there to Georgian Bay. It was called the Carrying Place Trail. The evidence of archaeological digs shows that human settlement has been there for almost 10,000 years.  The Humber River watershed is the largest river system in the Toronto region, covering over 900 square kilometres.  What do you think of our Spring display?  This was at RBG last weekend in the conservatory.  Packed full of beautiful spring blooms. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 3 2022 - Princes' Blvd

 

I know we're not at the end of summer yet, but I was interested in great exhibition/fairs. The Canadian National Exhibition happens at the end of August and represents and celebrates Canada in its festival of food, fun, agriculture, cars, sports, and just all kinds of stuff.   There is a bigger state fair.  The biggest state fair is Texas with 2.25 million visitors, then Minnesota with 2 million, then the Big E - Eastern States Exposition held in Massachusetts with 1.5 million, the Great New York State Fair at 1.2 million visitors.  So the CNE would squeeze in there ahead of the New York State Fair with its approximately 1.5 million visitors. Its location is 100 Princes' Blvd. and it is interesting that the street has a "possessive" name.   The grand structure of the Princes' Gates was opened in 1927 - to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation and the visit of the Prince of Wales who later became King Edwards VIII, and his brother Prince George who was the Duke of Kent.  I don't remember ever taking a picture of the Princes' Gates.  It is such a busy spot - it would be a "drive-by shoot".  Here's a glorious gate on the grounds of the Guild of All Arts.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 5 2022 - Augusta Ave Toronto

 

Is that Al Waxman's statue in Bellevue Park on Augusta Ave. in Toronto?  It is creepy.  The statue is wider, with a bigger head than normal humans, but shorter.  It is disconcerting.   He is known as the King of Kensington, for his role in the show of the same name. He's been gone more than 20 years, and the statue has been there quite a long time.   The picture below comes from Wikipedia.  It is a pleasant sort of representation.  Not like mine - which is without the greenery of summer and shows how strange his facial expression is. The park itself was full of teenagers playing on the swings, the smell of cannabis, and one person doing exercises of some sort for a long time.  Kensington and Augusta Ave. are near Bathurst and College.  I was taking my brother, Brian to the big hospital on Bathurst for the clinic appointment following knee replacement.   Augusta Ave was filled with the smells or low-end restaurants often called Cheap East, and patios were filling up.  Tripadvisor says it is the bohemian heart of Canada.  "You can find any food on the planet in Kensington Market."  Their suggested duration was 2-3 hours.  That seems generous to me.  I was happy when my brother was finished his appointment at the hospital and we could make our way back to his quiet west-end residence. No graffiti to be found there.     Here's the Kensington Ave entrance sign, and a definitely bohemian advertisement for piano lessons. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 5 2021 - McDonald's vs My World

 

I've been in a world of my own that excluded McDonald's my entire life.  In fact, I could say we are worlds apart.  But somehow McDonald's has popped up as a topic.  It turns out I now have the best of both worlds with all these crazy stories about McDonalds.  So today is a short trip through the mashed.com archives of McDonalds rumours, stories, and false facts, and true lies. What made McDonald's get rid of Ronald McDonald? McDonald's announced its mascot Ronald McDonald would be taking a hiatus in 2016. It followed a disturbing craze which saw pranksters jump out at people dressed as spooky clowns. Some wielded weapons to spread terror and the trend travelled across the globe.  This doesn't mean that Ronald McDonald has been 100 percent erased from the brand - Ronald McDonald represents the Golden Arches at least one day out of the year - Thanksgiving and his appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Remember the hot coffee lawsuit that put a "fast" million dollars in Stella Liebeck's hands.   "But the reality is actually quite different. Stella Liebeck, the plaintiff in Liebeck vs. McDonald's Restaurants, was not driving, nor was she a scammer. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a stopped car when she attempted to remove the lid off of a cup of coffee she had just ordered. The cup slipped, spilling scalding coffee (around 190 degrees Fahrenheit!) all over her, causing third-degree burns on her lap, buttocks, and genital area. Lieback was hospitalized for eight days, during which she had skin grafts and debridement treatments. She was permanently disfigured as a result of the accident.  Initially she only asked McDonald's for $90,000, but McDonald's countered with a paltry $800, so Liebeck rightfully sued. In the end, she was awarded an undisclosed amount (under $600,000) for her pain and suffering." There is a famous story that their french fries are only one ingredient. "McDonald's sells approximately nine million pounds of french fries every day at its locations all over the world. But contrary to popular belief, McDonald's  fries are not a one-ingredient wonder. And while spuds are the main ingredient, there are actually a total of 19 ingredients in their fries, including vegetable oil (comprised of canola, corn, soybean, and hydrogenated soybean oils, as well as milk- and wheat-derived natural beef flavoring), dextrose (for that golden, yellow color), sodium acid pyrophosphate (to prevent color changes when frozen), citric acid (for freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane (to reduce foaming), and salt (for flavor)." There are dozens of stories about the various rumours of beef and chicken ingredients, many are rumours or false facts about pink slime ingredients, non-dairy milkshakes, non-beef burgers and various strange tales.  Find many of them HERE.   Here's a view across Lake Ontario from Beamsville.  There's a McDonald's in Beamsville with a very tall sign that one can see while driving along the QEW.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca