Showing posts with label butterfly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label butterfly. Show all posts

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Feb 27 2025 - Meet Meteorological Spring

 

We're coming up to the start of Spring - that's for those of us who follow the weather over the stars.  There's more rain than snow in the coming week's forecast, a good sign that snow will recede.  

Maybe Millie's tidy-up today will stay neater a bit longer than it did in the winter.  While snow is very cleansing when it first falls, it turns to mud in the street and somehow mud clings on longer than wet snow. 

In addition, my dog's hair cut will cost more than my hair cut.  And it will take longer to cut, as well.  

So this would be a perfect occasion to acquaint ourselves with the differences that cause the difference.

 
Here's a Monarch Butterfly in the summer garden.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2024

July 3 2024 - Twist Ties vs Plastic Clips...be it resolved

 

What is it that some bread has plastic clips and other bread has twist ties to close the plastic bag?

"Our research showed moving to bag ties from clips was a cost-effective way to meet consumer preferences,” says David Margulies, a spokesman for Bimbo Bakeries, the mass-market baker that owns the Arnold brand. “So we made the switch during an equipment upgrade last May.”

This is the bakery bag closure and reclosure market.  The plastic clip was invented in 1952.  

"The twist-tie is less expensive, and it gives you a tighter closure, keeping your bread fresher,” says Mitch Lindsey, who’s been selling twist-tie machinery for Burford, the industry leader, for 30 years. 
“And the bag is always secure inside the twist-tie. A lot of times you’ll see a bag that isn’t completely inside the plastic clip, and the clip can also damage or cut the bag.”

Be it resolved The plastic clips have more post-bread uses than twist ties. Or is it:  Be it resolved The twist tie has more post-great uses than plastic clips.  Here is a combined list of post-bread uses:



Are there any birthdays today.  Here's a Happy Birthday card,
 
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Friday, March 15, 2024

Mar 15 2024 - Pi Day Yesterday

 

Yesterday was Pi Day.  What is the news of the Pi Day events?  Pizza Hut had free pies.  Pizza pies.  NASA had a Pi Day Challenge. An Ann Arbor boy can recite 1,300 Pi digits.  I wonder how long that takes?  It doesn't say, but there's a video of the boy in the corner of the news article.  But some other person who is 6 years old memorized 1200 digits and it took 8 minutes. 

And how long would it take to recite all of pi?  Well, that's a silly question, as we now that pi never ends and it never repeats itself.  the first 62.8 trillion digits have been computer by computers and if one digit is said every second, it would take 2,000,000 years to recite all 62 plus trillion.

There follows many people who have recited pi to various numbers of digits.  1,200 is a common choice.

Here's that butterfly from yesterday with a watercolour treatment.

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Thursday, March 14, 2024

Mar 14 2024 - Butterfly for a Day

 

The first butterflies to watch for in the spring are mourning cloaks, eastern commas and Milbert's tortoiseshells.  The adults of these species hide in leaf litter during the winter, emerging to look for mates in spring when the temperature is warm enough.  So while I am tempted to move the leaves around, I have to leave them for a bit yet.  

Our picture today is a Monarch butterfly.  What about the monarch migration?  We are too early for Monarchs to be coming through in March.  There is a  facebook page called monarchs migrating through Ontario - it is about all things Monarch in Ontario and tracks where they are.  

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/711833448865330/

 

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Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Feb 28 2024 - Leap Day Tomorrow

 

If your birthday is tomorrow, February 29th, would you celebrate today or March 1st?  There's a special name for those born on Feb 29th - leaper or a leapling.   It does seem interesting that its been 4 years - since 2020 that a person will be able to celebrate their birthday on its day. 

 Is it a rare birthday?  Yes. There's a one in 1451 chance of being born on February 29th and it is the rarest birthday.  Compare that to June 1st - that is the most common birthday.

When does the person reach legal age?  For example, driving, voting, etc.  Supposedly it is March 1st.  It is considered the legal birth date in non-leap years.  

And what about this tidbit - that February 29th is not considered a "valid day" by many companies and make their leapers choose Feb 28 or March 1 as their birthday.  That seems like a human resource system deficiency to me. 

Anthony, Texas and Anthony, New Mexico both claim the title "Leap Year Capital".  I wonder what having the name Anthony has to do with the declaration.
 

 

This happy Monarch image keeps showing up in search lists.  I guess it is migrating in my files.

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Saturday, November 4, 2023

Nov 4 2023 - COVID Update

 

I got my COVID and Flu shots yesterday.  Today my arms feel twice as long and twice as sore, and my sinuses are clogged.  Which do you think I should attribute this to - Is it the COVID shot or the Flu shot?

And where are we on COVID trends?  There are COVID deaths and hospitalizations throughout Ontario - but the concern is low given the low numbers.  

And what tests are we to use now with the evolved virus? Is it known as EG.5 Eris? that's what Yale Medicine says.  A WHO table shows Omicron has mutated to BA.2.75 and two versions of XBB.1.5, and the article says there is a larger list of mutations and lineages available. 

The outbreaks in our area are in the hospital, retirement homes and long-term care homes.  These places have all changed:  what a difference from before COVID where there was a sign to voluntarily wash one's hands and voluntarily put on a mask.  

For the rest of us, where are the outbreaks?  Anecdotally, people say that taking a trip results in COVID.  Either spread on planes and big events.  

The recent headline on the topic is from Fortune and it says half of Americans will fly between Thanksgiving and mid-January.  Now that will cause an uptick.  

The jokes on COVID aren't funny.  But here's one that is a delight:  We don't see discarded masks all over the place anymore.  What will the rats do?

It is a butterfly day today. 

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Friday, October 23, 2020

Oct 23 2020 - He Dangled Over Niagara Falls

 

This week's obituaries are diverse.  Today I read that James Randi, Canadian-born magician has died at age 92.  He was known as the Amazing Randi. His daredevil tricks included escaping from a locked coffin submerged in water and from a straitjacket as he dangled over Niagara Falls.  There's a picture of him dangling over the Horseshoe Falls.  I would think a side-effect would be a person could go deaf from the vast sound of the Falls.

He was famous for his skepticism of the paranormal and supernatural.  "Everything you have seen here is tricks," he would say. "There is nothing supernatural involved."

Starting in 1964, Randi offered cash — in the form of a “$1 Million Paranormal Challenge” — to anyone who could prove supernatural or paranormal abilities. He never had any takers.


He had much to say about God and Faith:

We amuse Him as we flail about vainly trying to appease Him. I vote that we dump Him.

I am probably right. But I'm always only probably right. Absolutes are very hard to find.


Sir, there is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.

Magicians are the most honest people in the world; they tell you they're gonna fool you, and then they do it.

Today's picture is a composite - both taken at the Butterfly Conservatory quite a few years ago.  The beautiful flowers are Clerodendron.  Our butterfly is sitting on a Canary Island Lavender flower.
 

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Monday, March 23, 2020

Mar 23 2020 - The 96 year old lady sells house and guess what's inside story

The NY Times today:  "If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt."

There is one of those 'leadlines' that has been appearing and reappearing for months - like"Best Lawyers in Grimsby." The picture was a decaying American farm house overgrown with trees and weeds, or a witch-like old woman close-up.  So I didn't pay attention.  Then yesterday, the picture was a nice house that looked like a Toronto house.  So I searched and got the dailymail.co.uk story.  I checked it out, as the daily mail is a newspaper and not one of those sites with names like this:  dailymotion.comdoyouremember.comlittlethings.comfinance101.comtrend-chaser.comtravelfuntu.com, and so on and so on - pages and pages.  Its own industry of ads.

The story was in 2014, and the house is in Bloor West Village, one article says the house is on Jane Street.  That's my shopping neighbourhood when I lived in Toronto and I still visit.  The picture of the house in the collage shows a typical Toronto two-storey - located all over Toronto - and considered a nice house to live in.

The story is about the interior as a time capsule of the 1950s/1960s, specifically, a pink palate interior, with a little turquoise thrown in.   Every room is perfectly decorated in the time period - completely and totally.  It was extremely well-maintained,  so one walked into a time capsule.  The article starts:  "It's as if I Love Lucy could have been filmed in any room."  Other articles say:  "Opens front door to reveal masterpiece lost in time."  

 


So our "open the door and guess what they found" is revealed.

Time capsule homes - this is a popular trend now:  finding homes that are time capsules of decorating styles.  
Here's an article with an extensive gallery of examples, including our pink palace above. Each one has a name - Retro ranch, Illinois, 1960's fab four-bedroom house New Jersey, 1970s Palm Springs relic, 1960s holiday cottage, Australia.  I never got to the end, there were so many.

Amongst these was an article with another 1960s time capsule home in Toronto - built by Toronto architect Gardiner Cowan.  This one was quite splendid, of natural materials,  grand spaces and light pouring through windows. It was listed for $2 million.  It wasn't far from Jane Street - Edenbrook Hill - just north of where we lived - two time capsules so close and so different.  The Edenbrook Hill house is on the Google Map and does not appear to be replaced with a grand modern house.   Our Jane Street house was listed at $699,000.  I wonder what the interior is now.  I like the pink breakfast nook, complete with pink African Violets.


Our pictures today take on the time theme. The first comes from the Chinatown district along Broadview in Toronto.  The calendar was used to block the front door window.  And the second reminds us of Carl Sagan's words:  “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Beenormous

The biggest bee in the world has recently been seen.  The last sighting in the field was 1981.  While there have been numerous attempts to rediscover it, there were no results.  It is known as Wallace's giant bee, Megachile pluto. It has jaws like a stag-beetle.  Here is the picture to show how big it is.  This bee lives in Moluccas, an archipelago within the Banda Sea, Indonesia.  Here is the comparison shown in the article that's on the weather network site.
 

There are more big bugs - really big bugs.  For example, the largest beetle is Titanus giganteum.  It is 6.6 inches long, so is the size of a human hand.  It can easily snap a pencil in half.  The longest insects on the planet are stick insects.  They can grow as long as 2 feet in Southeast Asia where the longest variety lives. 

I consider it lucky that we did not see a Giant weta in New Zealand.  They can weigh more than a sparrow and are among the heaviest insects in the world.  They are about 4 inches long. Their name means "God of the Ugly Things'.  While they are really ugly, another big insect is the beautifully marked black and white Goliath beetle.  They can grow to over 4 inches.  

A wing span of 1 foot and a total wing area of 60 square inches is what an Atlas moth's size is.  They have cocoons that are occasionally used as purses in Taiwan.  Grown for their fagara silk, all that has to be done is install a zipper. In comparison to this month, the largest butterfly is Queen Alexandra's birdwing - it has a wingspan of more than 1 foot, and is found in Papua New Guinea. 

If you want to see pictures of all of these the MNN (Mother Nature Network) site has them HERE.  One that isn't covered in the article is the longest earthworm.  It is native to the southeaster state of Victoria in Australia, and is 3.3 feet long and 2 inches in diameter.  They can live 5 years, so have been known to grow to 9.8 feet long.  And what about when they stretch?  The 3 foot worm can stretch up to 12 feet.

Our picture today is a pretty swallowtail butterfly in the garden.