Marilyn's Photos - Mar 17 2026 - Shamrock Green the Colour

 

Since the internet, technical information abounds - it knows no limits. Take Shamrock Green. It is  #009E60 the hex code in photoshop and similar tools to specify exact colours.  It is a strong, lively green tone.   "In the RBG colour space, it  is 0% red, 62% green and 37.6% blue.  Whereas in a CMYK color space, it is composed of 100% cyan, 0% magenta, 39.2% yellow and 38% black. It has a hue angle of 156.5 degrees, a saturation of 100% and a lightness of 31%. #009e60 color hex could be obtained by blending #00ffc0 with #003d00. Closest websafe color is: #009966." You can see what I mean - lots of technical specifications.  And the details turn out to be fascinating in this article HERE.  This is colorhexa.com.  Perhaps things haven’t got more complicated - they are just more available for us to read and learn about them.  The article includes the simulation of how colour blindness experiences the colour.   Our watercolour class yesterday involved painting pretty little shamrocks in delicate patterns - and the lively Shamrock Green works wonderfully with these pictures. Other pictures?  Not so great. Garish. Shamrock jokes are very corny.  Head over to Guinness World Records and there are records for the largest human shamrock shape, the cultivation of genetically modified plants - 63-leaf clover, and a person in the U.S. with the largest collection - 118,791 clovers. OK so this picture isn’t a Shamrock or an Oxalis.  It is the Jade Vine.  Isn’t this a splendid colour?  I wonder what its hex code might be.

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Marilyn's Photos - Jan 11 2026 - Who's Counting?

 

The “humanoid” robot is here, so they say. That’s accourding to the Consumer Electronics Show 2026.  And by humanoid, they mean serving tea, fixing picture frames, carrying laundry, vacuuming, collecting groceries, and so on. Your butler has been built. Are you counting down the days?  Will we will be saved from the mundane soon? The CEO of 1X says that it is in the “not so distant future.” The humanoid is Neo Gamma. Here are the two pictures - one a sad-eyed, mouthless boy, and the other more menacing - a Star Wars warrior of sorts. You can order the sad-looking “boy” - seems more boy to me with its wide forehead and large chin.  Anyway, the he/she/it is ready for the home market.  For the disabled or elderly in need of home care, this is something to notice.  Here are some of the specifications: “NEO represents a generational leap in humanoid hardware with the addition of Human Level Dexterity (22 DoF Hands) and a head-to-toe soft body made of custom 3D lattice polymer structures. At just 66 pounds (29.94 kg), NEO is capable of lifting over 150 pounds (68 kg) and carrying 55 pounds (24.95kg), and has a noise level of 22dB — making it more silent than a modern day refrigerator. Additionally, NEO possesses built-in communication with WiFi, Bluetooth, and 5G as well as a three-stage speaker in the pelvis and chest area, giving owners a built-in mobile home entertainment system.” And the who’s counting part?  Neo can be purchased on the Early Access program for $20,000 U.S.  or for $499/month. Does that seem like a lot or not?  I asked AI to do a business case - it came back with a “value proposition” that says for a high-income household spending $200 a week, the investment pays off in two years, and then recommended the monthly subscription as a better investment.  The business case brought back memories of MBA assignments. Maybe it has access to some of our old ones from the 1980s. Watch the Keynote video here.   Here’s another happy summer flower picture.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 5 2025 - Supercontinents Below

 

It says there are supercontinents - large low-seismic-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) and they are “lurking” below the surface of the Earth.  Way below - 1,200 miles below.  They are hidden islands inside Earth and reach heights of 620 miles.  Can you imagine peaks like that on the surface?  No, because they would collapse under gravity.  But continuing on the idea, the base would have to be a significant portion of a continent and would be visible from any point on Earth’s surface.  I asked this question of AI and got a pleasant answer.  By that I mean it gave a sense of appearance and scale, environmental conditions, and geological implications.  But, alas.  Can I trust AI to tell me fact?  I did enjoy the fantasy sense of it all.  These two “mountains” are below the Earth and are located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean.  How to study them?  Seismologists look at oscillations caused by massive earthquakes. These LLSVPs are instrumental in shaping the Earth’s surface processes.  I still can’t grasp that the inside of the Earth is a molten core.  And to find out there are supercontinents down in the mantle.   The Earth’s mantle has 1,800 miles of mostly solid rock.  It was thought to be a consistency of thickened caramel that is uniformly blended.  Now scientists find out there are unmixed regions and it isn’t uniform down there.  Won’t they have to redo all those cross-section drawings?   The article refers to  “sunken worlds.”  Isn’t that so mysterious!  Sometimes it is hard to know the purpose of scientific research.  This seems to me to be about understanding the surface plate tectonics, those things that give us the grief of earthquakes.  In all, this is definitely the stuff of imaginative science fiction ideas. Full scientific description and details HERE.  This is another version of the Echinacea watercolour yesterday.  Today’s version has the Echinaceas in a vase.

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Marilyn's Photos - Oct 18 2025 - David Attenborough at 99

 

David Attenborough is 99 years old and made history yesterday by winning a 2024 Emmy Award for his show Netflix’s Secret Lives of Orangutans. The article says:  “That makes Attenborough, 99, a hair older than Van Dyke, who was 98 when he won the Guest Performer in a Daytime Drama Series Emmy last year for his appearance on Peacock’s Days of Our Lives.” He’s 25 years older than me and still working.  How is that possible?  There’s always an answer these days. Google says: “his longevity is attributed to a lifestyle that includes a passionate sense of purpose, staying physically active, a plant-focused diet with less red meat, and maintaining a deep connection to nature.” There are many articles on this subject when he turned 99 in March 2025.  Probably we can go back five years and there will be a string of these articles.   He is a popular topic in the press. Other articles outline some medical issues - cardiovascular and mobility issues, including knee replacement surgery and a pacemaker.  We love to keep track of old, older and oldest, and the oldest person is a woman at 116 years old - Ethel Caterham.  It is a little to very late, but let’s all wish him Happy Birthday!

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Marilyn's Photos - Sep 30 2025 - Truth and Reconciliation Day

 

Today is National Truth and Reconciliation Day.  It was started in 2013 and became a statutory holiday in 2021. We are one of 40 nations who have had reconciliation commissions.  South Africa observes the Day of Reconciliation on December 16th - originally the day  commemorating the victory over the Zulus in 1838.   Argentina had the National Commission of the Disappearance of Persons and observes March 24th as the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice.   Sierra Leone, South Korea, and Chile have formed truth and reconciliation commissions to investigate past injustices and make them part of the public record. In total there are 40 countries that have established truth commissions. There are 195 countries in the world.  Mind the gap, so to speak. How many reconciliation commissions do some countries need? One for the indigenous population and one for the Black population if you look at U.S. history.  They had a commission for those interred during the second world war - that happened in 1988 and by 1992 the U.S. government had disbursed over $1.6 billion to almost 83,000 Japanese Americans. Canada had one of those as well.  In Canada, reparations to First Nations and Indigenous peoples is part of the process - both individual compensation and Treaty settlements.  Can you imagine what the compensation will be for treaty annuities dating back to the 1800s that are owing?  What about land "confiscated" and no treaty is in place?  Modern treaties, self-government arrangements, resource and land management rights - there are still so many things to work out.  So much has changed in 50 years.  Back then our education in our primary and secondary school system was from the colonialist's perspective.  Today there is a mandatory Indigenous-focused curriculum for primary and secondary school grades. In our adult world, it is CBC radio and television that give an Indigenous perspective.  My favourite radio show is Rosanna Deerchild's "Unreserved."  Here's part of her introduction to the weekly series: "We are based in what is now known as Canada. Rosanna hails from O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation at South Indian Lake in northern Manitoba, and now lives and works in Winnipeg (Treaty 1)." Can you imagine how much unlearning potential there is in that phrase -  "what is now known as Canada."  If we just started with learning and unlearning place names, we could become fluent in a number of Indigenous languages.  I vote we start with Lake Louise "Ho-run-num-nay. (or Horâ Juthin Îmne), which translates to "Lake of the Little Fishes" in the Stoney Nakoda language. The name reflects the small size of the fish in the cold glacial waters of the lake."   We move on to our picture today. This is what a September garden can look like - annuals are at their peak in September  with lots of vibrant colours on mature plants.

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