Sep 14 2022 - The Most Bridges

 

The Queen's funeral plans were code named Operation London Bridge.  That seems interesting to me. and matches up to the expression "rainbow bridge" as the passing from this life to the next - mostly relating to pets.  Niagara  has its Niagara River bridges, and bridges over the Welland Canal.  The Burlington Skyway is quite impressive.  But these are few compared to other places where bridges abound. Did you know that Pittsburgh is known as the "City of Bridges" and has 446 bridges, with the claim of more than any other city in the world.  But then New York City has 788 bridges, so I wonder how they made the decision.  And then Amsterdam has 1,281 and finally the city with the most - Hamburg Germany has more than 2,300.  If you were appreciative of bridges, Hamburg would be the place to visit.   If you look through the pictures of tallest and longest bridges, the winner is China.  But the compelling pictures are the bridges that are strange and weird.  And there are lots of them.  These vary in shape and purpose and some are just bizarre.    And who thought there would be the thinnest bridge in the world?  And it is made of glass.   There's the bridge that goes underwater - that's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.   Mostly, one can find pictures and pictures of the weirdest bridges.  Here's one article.   We in Canada have the distinction of the world's tiniest international bridge. Zavikon Island is home to the world’s tiniest international bridge, measuring just 32 feet in length. In the middle of the Saint Lawrence River, it links a Canadian island with an American one. Bridges are beloved - they are considered great feats of human achievement.  I went searching for the meaning of life as represented by bridges and this essay explains it: "I am constantly fascinated by bridges, not just because they are such a marvel of engineering, but also because they are a metaphor for so many things in life. For me they are a way to transition between the highs of life, a way to get over the valley of darkness." from Om Malik, San Francisco writer.   Here's one that caught my attention -  the Magdeburg Water Bridge.   The picture is below.  Our own Welland Canal is ordinary in comparison.

Here's the Martindale Pond Bridge across 12 Mile Creek (I think) with little Dezi as the focal point. This is the site of the Old Welland Canal so some structures are still there, along with the Creek as it runs into Lake Ontario.  This is in nearby Port Dalhousie.   Here's a remnant of the Old Welland Canal - just beside the footbridge. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 16 2022 - How Does a dog fall asleep so quickly (and snores)

 

Millie's head hits the pillow and snoring starts.  Well, that's a figurative pillow.  Could she really fall asleep that quickly?  My question has been asked:  Do dogs fall asleep instantly? Here's one Quora answer: They don’t have anything to worry about. And dogs don’t have a REM sleep cycle so their sleep is light and lengthy. A non-working dog will typically sleep about 20 hours per day. This seems like a stupid answer to be posted:  The question isn't answered, goes off in another direction than the question, and it takes up all the retrievals - coming up over and over, the way Reddit answers do.   I find out that Quora's questions and answers come from anyone as long as they get hits and comments. Here's the story on how this works.  It is HERE.  (And I've corrected the grammar.) "I joined Quora about the Year 2020 with no intentions to make money out of it. Asking Questions just felt natural and interesting to me. So I asked about 20 Questions that I thought I needed an answer. After about 2 months from the point I started, I got an Email from Quora that said I was invited to be added as a Quora Partner. As a Quora Partner you get a share of ad revenue from your questions. Unfortunately the program is invitation only. So you need to be one of the lucky ones to get invited. Soon I started asking questions daily and my daily earnings went from 0,1 to 8 dollars a day in about 1 month."   "The amount you make on Quora can vary greatly, but on average I get is $40-$50 for 100,000 views. Factors like keywords and topics can go into how much ads pay, but the best way to make the most out of your question is to present it in an interesting and intriguing way." So back to Millie snoring - I know there's a  difference between her nose and Dezi's - she has what is known as a snub nose and that's a snoring dog nose. How she falls asleep so quickly and starts snoring, or just simply snores while awake, that remains to be solved another day. I am not searching any more - I am definitely not giving any more money to people who ask questions and answer them in a silly way in a mostly grammar-free zone. Compare the cute little noses of Dezi and Millie.

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Oct 16 2020 - The UN Knows if you are old

 

Many people my age don't want to be old. Boomers don't want to be called or named 'old'. - preferring 'older'.  However the United Nations has agreed that 65 and older is denoted as old age.  That is the age nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings.  So when first world boomers think that 80 year olds should be defined as old, perhaps they are correct.  In Africa, old age is defined as 55 years old.  What Wikipedia does say is that it is not a biological stage and varies culturally and historically. What if being old has a social definition to  I look to our world of jokes to provide us with some signs that others might decide whether a person is old:  Kidnappers are not very interested in you. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first. No one expects you to run...anywhere. People call at 9 pm and ask did I wake you? People no longer view you as a hypochondriac. There is nothing left to learn the hard way. Things you buy now won't wear out. You can eat supper at 4 pm. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge. You sing along with elevator music. Your eyes won't get much worse. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service. Today's pictures illustrate my interpretation of the contrast between cat-come- when-called and dog-come-when-called.  Baxter looks like he's coming over and will decide whether to hit me with that intense look.  Millie wants to know if I'll still love her when she reaches me.

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Feb 10 2020 - Doggie Talk Bubbles

How would my little dog Dezi's words look in 'talk bubbles'?  Would she speak in Comic Sans?  Vincent Connare, the inventor of Comic Sans wrote the casual script typeface for Microsoft.  They wanted something that would work with cartoon bubbles for children. It became one of the default fonts in Windows 95, much to his surprise.  It was extensively distributed - by Apple, and others. In an interview with CBC on Saturday, he didn't complain about not receiving any special compensation. He said it was unusual to have a job as a typeface designer and that he loved his job at Microsoft.  He was young - the font came out in 1995.  He was born in 1960, and currently lives in France.  So he's made enough to retire on his various typeface creations. His website is quite brief - it is HERE. Comic Sans is loved and hated -  its intended use was specific - to be casual in informal documents and children's material. The CBC interviewer asked - should Rudy Giuliani use Comic Sans as a font in one of his submission letters to the Department of Justice?  Connare laughed and then responded that there are restrictions on the fonts that can be used in legal documents.  Comic Sans MS is not likely not allowed anywhere. Could it be used for a sandwich shop sign?  He found that a curious choice. Not a typical use. It got me thinking. Which font would Dezi and Baxter speak in if I were to write a story?  Baxter's tail tells many stories. He swooshes and wags his tail often - he is most curious about things and attentive to all movements in the yard.  I interpret his swooshing as friendly and dominant.  You can look up cat charts that show variations of cat speak. Dezi's tail wags a lot but doesn't swoosh that I've seen.  I don't know of any dogs who swoosh their tails.  Supposedly wagging to the right is friendly and wagging to the left is trepidation or anger.  And then they have lots of things to say with their body positions, ears, and mouths, and their various wiggles.  It seems they have lots more to say than cats do. This makes me think they each need their own font. Our Valentines continue today in graffiti and grunge findings.

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Baxter My Cat as Post Master

Google's doodle today celebrates Moliere as being widely considered the world's foremost comic dramatist and perhaps the greatest artist in the history of French theatre.  I would guess that William Shakespeare is the world's greatest dramatist of all genres.   Which guide book will we look to as the authority on things like this?  There are so many online guide books to everything now.  Bestlifeonline.com says this:   "One of the downsides of living in the Information Age? It feels impossible to keep up! We’re awash in information all day, every day. The good news, of course, is that some things are worth knowing a lot more than others. The name of the second baseman for the ’92 Mets? Probably not important. But tips for living a better life? Well worth committing to memory. (Note: Apologies to baseball buffs.)"  You can read their tips HERE.   Despite this wonderful introduction promising us the 'guide-book of all time' most of these articles - whether sharing  10, 50, or 88 must-know things - turn out to be frivolous, trivia-ridden articles. And they are entertaining and fun. The entry on mail delivery is my favourite: "Over the years, humans have used many types of animals to deliver mail. Delivery by dogsled was once a thing in Alaska and Canada; Alaska also gave reindeer a try. Horses powered the Pony Express, of course, and pigeons have been used to deliver messages since ancient Greece. In the 1870s, a Belgian village attempted to train a fleet of 37 official mail cats to deliver letters.  Safety? Maybe. Rapidity? Definitely not. Though one enterprising cat made it to his destination in less than five hours, the others took up to a day to deliver the mail to their own homes—it would seem the cats were not terribly interested in relaying messages in a timely fashion. It should come as no surprise that the service was extremely short-lived." As proof there looks to be a 1876/03/04 article from the New York Times extracted  HERE.  Would Baxter our cat, come hurling out of the bushes to deliver me letters?  More likely, Dezi our dog, will bring us some mail. We see Dezi on the beach in Florida in 2016.

Hyphenated-Specialist or Chief Chatter Officer

We are in the age of creativity where convoluted jobs and job titles  are a mark of prestige.  What would you be doing if you were the Chief Chatter?  You'd be the Call Centre Manager.  What about an Animal Colourist - the person who dyes animals for movies and marketing campaigns. A Digital Overlord is a website manager.  A Cheese Sprayer - someone who sprays cheese or butter by hand on popcorn. Here are job titles that the author could not figure out and labelled indecipherable: 43.  Under Secretary to the Sub-Committee – ????? 44.  Hyphenated-specialist – ?????? 45.  Second Tier Totalist – ?????? 46.  Actions and Repercussions Adviser – ?????? 47.  Professionalist International and world-wide optical and vision-focused tenured professorship – ?????? 50.  Chief Biscuit Dunker – ?????? An in-depth article comes from Fortune.  It identified 20 ridiculous job titles in well-known companies held by real people.  Here are a few in the article HERE.    Paranoid In Chief  Company: Yahoo  Description: Let’s be honest — Paranoid in chief sounds much more intriguing than plain old “chief information security officer.” And it makes sense: Yahoo’s entire cybersecurity division is known as “the Paranoids.”  In-House Philosopher Company: Google Description: This title is proof that your philosophy degree could land you a job at Google. Even the search giant needs someone to turn to when it has a question. The company literally employed someone whose job is to solve engineering problems using “a humanistic perspective.” Chief Executive Unicorn Company: PowToon Description: Because there aren’t enough unicorns, there’s one over at PowToon as well. Ilya Spitalnik is CEO (or CEU) of the company that sells software to make animated explainer videos. However, it looks like Spitalnik may have recently changed his title to “Chief Renegade Scientist.” I wonder what Dezi's job title is in the vineyard at Legend's Winery, located on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Wasp Songs vs Dezi House Rules

We had to have a wasp nest removed - it was in the soffits at the back porch where people walk.  A tiny hole was their entrance door.

A wasp's stinger is smooth, like a needle, so it can sting your skin many times.  Why would it have that capability? It preys upon other insects for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae.  The venom in wasps contains a pheromone that causes other wasps to become more aggressive and so many stings can happen.

The only wasps that survive the winter are young fertilized queens.  They emerge from overwintering in the spring to build new nests.  Initially the queen lays up to a dozen eggs and when they hatch into larvae she feeds them until they become workers. The workers then forage for food, feed the new larvae and defend the nest.

In late summer, the colony produces males and new queens.  They fly away to mate and the queens then find a place to hibernate.

In the world of wasps, here are a few jokes:

What is a wasps favourite film?
– Sting-ing in the Rain!

Who is a wasps favourite singer?
– Sting!

What is a wasps favourite song?
– Sultans of Sting!

What sport do wasps play?
– Sting-pong!

What is a wasps second favourite film?
– Lord of the Stings!

Dezi doesn't have anything to say about wasps in her house rules.

Luckier than seven

"I'm a great believer in luck. I've found that the harder I work, the more I have of it."  Thomas Jefferson. Lucky Seven's summary on Google seems a bit skewed:  "In the creation story, God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. Scholars have found that the number seven often represents perfection or completeness in the Bible. In Judaism, there are seven heavens. ... Seven is also a prime number, which means it can only be divided by itself and one". So I searched on for more about the story of luck and lucky.  It is much more wide-spread than the creation story.  There are hundreds  of things considered lucky.  Here is just the start of the lucky story: Lucky Four-Leaf Clover Charms. Lucky Horseshoe Charms.   Lucky Dice (Fuzzy or Otherwise) Charms.  Ladybugs as Good Luck Charms.  Lucky Number Seven Charms.  Lucky Number Eight Charms.  Lucky Rabbit Foot Charms. There are many more good luck charms than these, according to exemplore.com.  Here is an article on 50 good luck charms from around the world.  There seems to be a lot of good luck to be found:   Animals Plants Objects Gems Turtles (protection from black magic) Four-leafed clover Horseshoe (open end up, for protection) Cat's eye Cricket (to alert when danger is near) Acorn (protect from lightning) Coins (in a new jacket pocket) Sapphires Dolphins (for protection) Bamboo An axe (for success) Amber Pig (for wealth)   Wheels   Red bat (for long life)   Ladders (but not when leaning against a wall)     What Do Lucky Shapes and Objects Mean? Ankh eternal life Heart love and wisdom Axe success Horn strength, power, abundance Circle good fortune Key access to love and the gods Crescent lucky for young children and mothers Ladder access to heaven Cross Tree of Life Triangle cycle of life Hand good luck Wheel Buddhist cause and effect If we keep track of all that is lucky we also keep track of who is lucky.  Would you like to know about the top 10 luckiest people in the world?   This is number 10: When his car collided with a truck and he was crushed under the impact, everyone thought it was the end of the line for Australian Bill Morgan, even the doctors. Declared legally dead for more than 14 minutes, he was somehow revived and managed to survive after only 12 days in a coma, even after family removed life support. But his luck doesn’t end there. To celebrate his survival, he bought a “Scratch It” card and won a car worth AUS$17,000 (now worth about AUS$25,000). When the local news station heard about him and all his good fortune, they were so impressed, they did a segment about him on the show. They asked him to reenact the scene by scratching off another card, only for him to win a whopping further $250,000 again during the live show.” Number 1 is Frank Selak of Croatia. He has eluded death 7 times and won a million dollars in a lottery.  The lucky 10 stories are HERE.  Dezi is peaking out from below a hemlock today.

Lucky?

Perhaps yesterday's unpopular names was a story about luck of the draw - what our parents choose to bestow. This is a definite example of luck - "success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions".  We wish each other luck quite often - typically on an event. But wait!  Here's "The Luck Factor" by psychologist Richard Wiseman.  It is his write up of an 8 year scientific study into what luck actually is. He identifies 4 (I think) traits of the personality which add up to making a "lucky" person. He investigated thing such as whether people are born with it, can catch it, can change it... The traits are along the lines of: - relaxed attitude - trusting your intuition - optimism and perseverance - ability to turn bad luck into good luck It demonstrates that if you consider yourself unlucky then all is not lost. By changing your attitude and/or behaviour then you can become "lucky". The "Unlucky" are covered in this article by Cracked.com.  The first story is of a couple who have experienced three terrorist attacks while on vacation - September 11, London transit strike, and a third in Mumbai.   The "Weird Luck" are covered in this article in ODDEE.com.  I think this is the most intriguing and seems to go beyond luck. The first is the curse of James Dean's car.  It includes: the doctor who bought the engine and put it into his racing car, was killed shortly afterwards, and another racing driver was killed in his car, which had James Dean's driveshaft.  When James Dean's Porsche was later repaired, the garage it was in was destroyed by fire.  And more.  What about the falling baby, saved twice by the same man? Three suicide attempts, all stopped by the same Monk.  Mark Twain born on the day of Halley's Commet's appearance and died on its next appearance. Two brothers were killed by the same taxi drive, one year apart, riding the same moped, carrying the same passenger. My picture shows Dezi checking out the Cobra Lily - these are the arums that smell like rotting flesh.

Better photo 2nd Place Winner - Dezi!

One of the most intriguing, yet easy to accomplish adventures from yesterday's top 100 was to: Send a message in a bottle So I found the 10 most famous floating note discoveries and here's what the article says: "People have been putting messages in bottles for much longer than a century: in 310 BC, Greek philosopher Theophrastus put sealed bottles into the sea as part of an experiment to prove the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing Atlantic Ocean. Oceanography is a common reason drift bottles are thrown overboard, but there are also some romantic and surprising stories of sending messages across the sea throughout history.  I've copied the top 3 most famous floating note discoveries: 1. FOUND BY: Konrad Fischer in the Baltic Sea, 2014 SENT FROM: Richard Platz in the Baltic Sea, 1913 TIME AT SEA: 101 years A message in a bottle tossed in the sea in Germany 101 years ago, believed to be the world's oldest, was presented to the sender's granddaughter, a Hamburg museum has said. A fisherman pulled the beer bottle with the scribbled message out of the Baltic Sea off the northern city of Kiel in March, Holger von Neuhoff of the International Maritime Museum in the northern port city of Hamburg said. Mr Von Neuhoff said researchers were able to determine, based on the address, that it was 20-year-old baker's son Richard Platz who threw the bottle in the Baltic while on a hike with a nature appreciation group in 1913. 2, FOUND BY: Scottish skipper Andrew Leaper near the Shetland Isles, 2012 SENT FROM: Captain C. Hunter Brown near the Shetland Isles, 1914 TIME AT SEA: 97 years and 309 days A drift bottle released out to sea on June 10, 1914 by Captain C. Hunter Brown was recovered by UK fisherman Andrew Leaper almost 98 years later, on April 12, 2012. Brown was a scientist at the Glasgow School of Navigation studying the currents of the North Sea, and the bottle was one of 1,890 released on June 10, 1914. It is the current Guinness World Record holder for oldest message in a bottle. The message inside read: "Please state where and when this card was found, and then put it in the nearest Post Office. You will be informed in reply where and when it was set adrift. Our object is to find out the direction of the deep currents of the North Sea." The bottle was discovered 9.38 nautical miles from the position it was originally deployed. 3. FOUND BY: Matea Medak Rezic in Croatia, 2013 SENT BY: Jonathon (identity unknown) from Nova Scotia, Canada, 1985 TIME AT SEA: 28 years A 23-year-old kite surfer, Matea Medak Rezic, stumbled across a half-broken bottle while clearing debris from a Croatian beach at the mouth of the Neretva river in the southern Adriatic. Inside the bottle was a message from Jonathan, from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, who had written it 28 years earlier, honouring his promise to write to a woman named Mary. The message reads: "Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985." The bottle would have had to have travelled approximately 6,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Mediterranean Sea, and then drifted into the Adriatic Sea. Jonathan and Mary's identity, and how the two knew each other, is unknown. Looking across the Twelve Mile Creek bridge towards Port Dalhousie, our 2nd place winner in the BetterPhoto contest.