Jan 22 2022 - Snowflakes vs Raindrops

 

Snowflakes vs raindrops. Snow is gusting past our front garden in little clouds.  Rain doesn't do that very often.  It makes me think how light snow is compared to rain.  I found a wonderful article Raindrops and Snowflakes by Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins - these are excerpts: "The observed behaviour of rain as it falls fits the event referred to by the common verb "fall."  Rather than rain drops "dropping," we actually say rain falls.  Since the "drops" are discrete bits of falling water, we call them rain drops, but we still say the rain falls.  "Raindrops keep falling on my head."  We don't say raindrops are dropping on my head. Likewise, I believe you'll hear the same usage for frozen bits like sleet or freezing rain (which is a mix of frozen and unfrozen bits of H2O).  As the snow "falls" it is a fluffy, irregularly shaped particle.  The noun "drop" applies only to liquids. Thus the action pictured by "dropping" is not appropriate for snow.  The infinitely variable shape is referred to as a flake, due to the generally flat shape and individuality of the particles.  Like a "flake" of something sliced off the larger part, like a flake of soap. Upon arrival, each snowflake just nestles in among its mates, while waiting the arrival of more falling flakes.  The snowflake, likewise, is caught by drafts of air, and thus gravity acts differently than upon a solid compact bit of water or frozen water.  Think of a snowflake as a wind surfer that gradually comes to ground to rest. We don't say rain drops from the sky, but it falls. Note also that in the same way we do not say snow flakes from the sky, but the snow also falls. Thus the nouns for the physical form of the water in these cases, is not the same word as for the verb used in the action." from Raindrops and Snowflakes by Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins I went in search of some funny snowflake jokes, and instead found many insulting political American jokes in which snowflake is a derogatory metaphor for a liberal.  They are easily distinguished by their hatefulness.      I find that GQ.com gives us the recent origin of this - a derisive term used in the movie Fight Club (You are not special.  You are not beautiful and unique snowflakes...).  The article indicates that the actual origins are the 1860s as a person who was opposed to the abolition of slavery.  Today the meaning has swapped and been taken on by the far right:  From cartoonist Ben Garrison:  "The special snowflake is a whining millennial who protests instead of getting a “real job” and cries sexism because she’s upset men don’t find her attractive enough. She believed the liberal arts teacher who told her being unique is a good thing. Have I mentioned that she’s unattractive?" And GQ's conclusion:  “snowflake” has become the go-to for enemies on the left. There is not a single political point a liberal can make on the Internet for which “You triggered, snowflake?” cannot be the comeback. It’s purpose is dismissing liberalism as something effeminate, and also infantile, an outgrowth of the lessons you were taught in kindergarten. “Sharing is caring”? Communism. “Feelings are good”? Facts over feelings. “Everyone is special and unique”? Shut up, snowflake. When I first looked through the snowflake jokes, I found one rebuttal joke: Republicans are the true snowflakes...they're white, they're cold, and if you put enough of them together they'll shut down public schools   Here are some birch bark macros I revisited yesterday.

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Oct 25 2021 - Cities Bursting with Billionaires

 

Do you want to know what a prop gun and a blank are or do you want to know how many billionaires live in each city/state of the US? I am going for the billionaires as a blank bullet doesn't look safe to me at all given a prop gun still is a gun.  Sounds good in theory, but there's still something inside the gun that gets projected out.  I attribute my lack of confidence in blanks to being Canadian.  In Canada there are 35 guns per 100 residents. In the US it is 121 firearms for every 100 residents.   That's the highest in the world.   So on to billionaires.  Money is widely reported on in all kinds of ways, so an article, outlining the richest people in each state is interesting - pretty pictures of each city, and then reporting on the resident with the top net worth.  The article is HERE.   I guessed New York, New York.   New York: New York | Billionaires residing in New York: 86 - Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $446.0 billion - Wealthiest billionaire in city: Michael Bloomberg ($54.9 billion) - Runner-up city: Oyster Bay (2 billionaires; net worth: $7.5 billion)  So then, where does Jeff Bezos' live?  In Medina, Washington - like Bill Gates.  Washington: Seattle | Billionaires residing in Seattle: 8 - Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $252.2 billion - Wealthiest billionaire in city: Jeff Bezos ($183.1 billion) - Runner-up city: Medina (2 billionaires; net worth: $129.6 billion)  Elon Musk?  He lives in Hillsborough, California - between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. His net worth is $220 billion. Mark Zuckerberg? In Palo Alto, California with a net worth of $120.9 billion.  California: San Francisco | Billionaires residing in San Francisco: 41 - Combined net worth of billionaires in city: $173.8 billion - Wealthiest billionaire in city: Dustin Moskovitz ($17.9 billion) - Runner-up city: Los Angeles (25 billionaires; net worth: $98.8 billion)  Oh well, I guess it doesn't add up when you look at the numbers, but it did seem fun. Here are two of nature's abstracts.

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Harry Potter Party Time

At yesterday's Grimsby Festival of Arts meeting, we were in agreement that Harry Potter activities would be popular with the children. I found the pottermore.com site and then the harrypotter-games.net - these are big, commercial sites.  So I moved on to the trivia and quiz sites. Finally I checked out Harry Potter Party Supplies and Harry Potter party games.  There are 31 ways to throw the ultimate Harry Potter Birthday Party according  buzzfeed.com - a fun article. Are there Harry Potter jokes? There are lots of Harry Potter jokes: On a scale from one to ten, how obsessed with Harry Potter are you? About nine and three quarters. Why did Professor Snape stand in the middle of the road? So you'll never know which side he's on. What do you call a Hufflepuff with one brain cell? Gifted. What do you call a Hufflepuff with two brain cells? Pregnant. How many Muggles does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One. It is the only thing they are good for. source: http://www.jokes4us.com/celebrityjokes/harrypotterjokes.html (We could start on Lord of the Rings jokes: What do you call a hobbit party? A little get together. )   Today's pictures are colour interpretations of tree bark and come from the landscape of Pasadena.  I wanted to create a sense of precious stones and metals.

Best of Youtube

The most famous youtube video of all time so far is  "Gangman Stuyle" by Psy with over 2.7 billion views as of December 2016.  He's the pudgy South Korean pop singer whose "amusing" dance moves have become a style of their own. I think that amusing might be a code word for silly at times and overtly sexually at others.  It does seem to be funny and fun - it has horse galloping and rope spinning moves that are very catchy. Here's the official "PSY-Gangnam Stylel" If you want to see the Top 10 of Everything of 2016, then head over to Time Magazine's 2016 Rundown.  There are lists for entertainment, technology and pop culture.    What if you just want to know what the "Top Ten Everything" is, then listverse.com is full of strange and interesting stuff.  I enjoyed the list of 10 totally bizarre holes in the earth. For a bit of relaxation, here is the New York Port's Yule Log available till the end of the year. Our Year in Pictures continues with some favourites from Nature's Details and Nature's Impressions.

Poinsettias in Niagara

Today's pictures traverse the landscape of the Poinsettia.  I went to Sunshine Express yesterday, and the sky was perfect with filtered overcast light so that the saturation was at an all-time high.  It seemed almost blinding to be in the greenhouse with the endless sea of reds, whites, and pinks, and even the orange ones.  These leaves show the lines and textures - puckered and billowy with wonderful colours. There appear to be no Poinsettia jokes for Christmas - I guess we take our plants seriously or not at all.  Here's the start of the Christmas humour:   Entering Heaven Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates. "In honor of this holy season," Saint Peter said, "You must each possess something that symbolizes  Christmas to get into heaven." The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. "It represents a candle," he said. "You may pass through the pearly gates," Saint Peter said. The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, "They're bells." Saint Peter said, "You may pass through the pearly gates." The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's glasses. St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolize?" The man replied, "They're Carol's."

On the Surface of Things

Whenever I go to conservatories and to Florida, I seem to take many pictures of the surface of palm branches, trunks, and other tropical plants.  They are unfamiliar and interesting.  They have so many patterns and designs.  Their textures are often in a horizontal pattern, compared to our northern trees which have more in the way of vertical patterns. Today we look at Palm patterns, with a Eucalyptus at the bottom.

The Outer Limits

Topaz Labs provides software filters for post-processing images.  This one creates little fibres and liquid lines.  So here we are today with our mushroom shapes turned into landscapes and alien forms.

The Lotus - Deep Inside

The Lotus

The Lotus Today's images are close-ups of the inside of lotus flowers. "The Pink lotus is considered the supreme lotus, generally reserved for the highest deity, sometimes confused with the white lotus it is the lotus of the historical Buddha."  The colours that are distinguished in symbolism are the white, red, blue, pink and purple.  I would like to photography the blue lotus this coming summer.  What would be interesting is the contrast of the yellow interior with the blue petals.