Nov 8 2023 - X is now on the spot

 

It has been quite a while since Twitter rebranded to X.  That was July.  Yesterday the change of name showed up on my Mailchimp template which you can see below. It is called X, formerly known as Twitter at the request of Elon Musk. After the first reference, the stylebook permits a writer to simply call the service as "X" or "the X platform".  It is from the font "Special Alphabets 4" from Monotype's Special Alphabets font family.  X is Elon Musk's favourite letter.  And the name X has great sentimental value. It was one of his previous companies - was merged with Confinit ywhich was then rebranded to become PayPal.  He subsequently purchased X.com from PayPal, and that was the reason cited - the name had "great sentimental value" to him.  Various faces of the platform, formerly accessible via usernames like @TwitterSupport or @TwitterSports, now go by handles like @Support.   Will X remain?  It is expected that it will be sued over copyright.  There are 900 active trademark registrations in the U.S. for the letter X. The most problematic for Musk is Microsoft and Meta have active trademarks for X.  It turns out to be a crowded space.

It seemed to take a while for Mailchimp to change to the new logo and name. I am expecting frosty leaves in the next little while.  Here's a Japanese Maple from a few years ago.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 16 2021 - Snakes in Christmas Trees

 

The Weather Report has a series of little stories and ads all around the central view of the hourly, daily, weekly, or whatever weather display.  While the ads are irritating in their constant motion, the stories can be bizarre, cute or funny. Here are today's special reports: "Watch as giant clouds 'eat' the land before your eyes on windy day".  That's in Colorado. "Family find deadly poisonous snake in their Christmas tree"  - it is HERE. This happened in South Africa 2 days ago.  "Wild pigs take over neighbourhood causing damage." The wild pigs are in Texas.   This one from last week is interesting: "Climber finds astounding $168,700 worth of jewels on mountain" A climber who found a trove of precious stones on Mont Blanc has been given half of the 150,000-euro ($168,700) haul to keep after authorities couldn't find the original owner. The climber found the emeralds and sapphires on the mountain in France in 2013, and he has now been allowed to keep half of the stones. Gem experts divided the haul equally between the climber and the local council, with each lot valued at 75,000 euros ($84,350), a spokesman for the council told CNN on Tuesday.  The council said the precious stones were being transported on board an Air India Boeing 707, the "Kanchenjunga," which crashed on Mont Blanc in 1966.   Here's a frosty Christmas Tree from a few years ago.

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Nov 2 2021 - It's so Meta

 

Let us have a meta moment together. Facebook has changed its parent company's name to Meta. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company will be called "Meta" to reflect the company's focus on building a larger virtual world beyond the Facebook platform.  The Free Dictionary found 1054 words that contain meta.  You can see them all HERE.  The scope includes the word metal, rather than just meta.  Meta comes from Greek, meaning after, beyond, more comprehensive, transcending. That Facebook has made it its new name may reflect its decent into colloquial usage as in "It's so meta". Meta in this fairly recent, casual context is supposed to mean self-referential, or recursive in some way.   Here are a few. of our contemporary usages and products: MetaVoice is a patent pending system that creates an accurate mathematical model of human speech. Unlike conventional voice compression methods which condense the audio waveform to reduce bandwidth, MetaVoice models every element of the human voice including resonance, pitch, timbre, timing, and character. Metalife is a supportive online community with incredible life advice. Here's an instagram post:   3 New Videos up now! (LINK IN BIO!) We understand that times are tough right now but we have to make the most of it! This is a great opportunity to focus on taking care of yourself and making deep connections with those closest to you.  Metamood is a term used by psychologists to refer to an individual’s awareness of their emotions. It can be described as being caught up in any emotion and then becoming aware that you are being swept away by it.  Summary by The World of Work Project MetaGo is a way to move your cursor to a position quickly and without using your mouse/trackpad. Here's a quick preview to see what MetaGo can do... Metaword - A word, such as a search keyword or dictionary headword, that stands for itself as a word rather than having a meaning and a context.  a word which describes, classifies, or refers to another word. Metaliving - Our journey to find and add life's missing puzzle pieces, as we awaken to transcend the boundaries and beliefs of mere existence. These Japanese Maple frosty leaves were from quite a few years ago.  The conditions have to be perfect for this kind of frost on this brilliant colour.

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Nov 5 202 - How Much Does a Grecian Urn

 

Earlier in the week, I was researching decorative outdoor urns for the month of November.  This would be something in the conifer blue tones such as Juniper. This picture popped up so I checked it out. It is carved from a single block of carrara marble. This particular photograph was taken by Sir Cecil Beaton.  It is Queen Elizabeth posed in front of the Waterloo Urn at Buckingham Palace in 1938.  The urn is still there today. This garden urn is 15 feet tall and weights 40 tons. Napoleon lay claim to the block of stone when he was travelling through Tuscany on his way to make war in Russia in 1812. It is expected he intended to have victorious scenes carved on it to commemorate his victories.  However, he was defeated, and the 'vase' was presented unfinished to the Prince Regent in 1815, who became George IV, and had the sculptor Richard Westmacott commemorate the Battle of Waterloo and other various scenes.  The urn proved too heavy for the Waterloo Chamber in Windsor Castle for which it was intended, and was presented to the National Gallery. In 1906 it was restored to the monarchy and placed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, where it  no longer dwarfs its surroundings. Extraordinarily large vases or kraters (a mixing vessel) originated in Athens and Rome. Famous is the Borghese Vase, a monumental bell-shaped krater sculpted in Athens from Pentelic marble in the 1st century BC.  It is now in the Louvre.  Another monumental marble bell-shaped krater was the Medici Vase - sculpted in Athens in the 1st century AD.  It is now in Florence. These have always been outdoor "garden" elements - even from their beginnings. My own version of the big urn comes from the Niagara Falls Botanical Garden.  This picture comes from a winter visit to the Butterfly Conservatory.  As for frosty leaves, I would be very pleased if we got some frost like this.  This is a few years ago - and coincided perfectly with the fallen Japanese Maple leaves.

R

11-11-11

We are expecting a major winter storm.  Snowvember occurred a few years ago on Nov 13 - 21, 2014. This is where the Niagara escarpment and Lake Ontario came together with lake-effect snowstorms of such sizable proportions that the 2014 storm buried houses leaving people stranded in their homes, trapping motorists, and depositing enough snow to make a record.  One place had 88 inches.  The forecast is for snow to start in the early morning, and I can see white roofs now, but no snow flying.  I expect the snow today will be a lesser a problem for Remembrance Day ceremonies than it might have been. We are very aware of Remembrance Day and its purpose to commemorate the moment armistice became effective in the first world war.  It is remarkable to consider the millions of people who will participate in silence.  This  will move through Commonwealth countries, along with others such as France and Belgium.  Each with its time zone will stop and remain silent at 11:00am.  Queen Elizabeth has already laid the wreath at the Remembrance Day ceremony.  The news stories say it was an emotional service for her, with her shedding a tear.   Our pictoral stories today show the fallen leaves of November and the Peace Lily.

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Unwrapping Christmas

What comes to your mind with the title "Unwrapping Christmas"?  It might include the playlist for radio stations, the title of a sermon for a church website, the name of a movie, a novel or two, etc. The most interesting one? It is repeated over and over..."Canadian Man Finally Opens Christmas Gift..."  It appears that everyone over the globe knows about Adrian Pearce had refused to unwrap a Christmas gift given to him in 1971 because his girlfriend dumped him at the time. CBC.ca has covered the story over the last few years, giving it global reach.  The story starts with 47 years of non-opening and concludes on the 50th anniversary.    The picture of the gift shows it is clearly a small book.  Here's the article  in which he has found the girlfriend and there is a plan for his wife or the former girlfriend Vicki to open the gift - he vowed he would never open it himself.   The CBC article on the  'opening ceremony' article is HERE. What is the name of the book in the package?  "It turned out to be a collection of comic strips called "Love is…" by artist Kim Grove. The single-frame strip, inspired by love letters from Grove to her husband, each includes a caption with ephemeral descriptions of love below a scene with the same recurring couple." And what did the former girlfriend have to say about this 48 years old story?  "I think that's a long time to hold a grudge. Really, it's a little worrisome. But I'm glad he did," she said with a smile. "I don't think there's anything he could have done differently that would have made me happier than what he's done with this." Let's engage in the wonders of the natural world for our Christmas image:  this beautiful frost happened in the greenhouse in 2015 the we had extremely low temperatures.

A Cloud of Amaryllis

Yesterday's Amaryllis seemed like a gathering, a drift, or a cloud.  There is a wealth of creative collective noun names for birds - yet flowers which are plentiful have only a few collective nouns. There are bunches, bouquets, sprays, gardens, beds, patches, drifts,  clumps and nosegays.For something that is so prominent on the planet.  Here's a few of our familiar collective nouns and what they describe: Bevy - of girls, ladies, swans, doves, beauties Caravan - of merchants, pilgrims, travellers Cluster - of grapes, islands, nuts, stars, rings Colony - of people, ants, badgers, beavers, penguins, rabbits, rats, seals, frogs, gulls, vultures Flight - of aircrafts, arrows, bees, birds, insects, locusts, stairs, steps Herd - of cattle, deer, swine, antelope, boar, buffalo, chamois, chinchillas, donkeys, elephants, elk, giraffes, gnus, goats, hippopotami, horses, kangaroos, llamas, moose, oxen, pigs, seals, swans, walruses, whales, yaks, zebras (when pasturing or driven together) And in reverse, we can see some of the collective nouns that describe something. Crows: Murder, congress, horde, muster, cauldron Soldiers - army, brigade, company, division, platoon, squad, unit Trees - forest, grove, orchard, stand, thicket Birds - flock, flight, parcel, pod, votary, brace, dissimulation Buffalo - a herd, group, gang or obstinacy Cats - a chowder, pounce, kindle, letter, intrigue, clutter, comfort, chowder, colony Someone has 'gathered' these collective nouns together for our enjoyment.  It is James Lipton - An Exaltation of Larks - The Ultimate Edition More Than 1,000 Terms. (free delivery worldwide from Britain) The back cover copy is a delight in itself: An "exaltation of larks"? Yes! And a "leap of leopards", a "parliament of owls", an "ostentation of peacocks", a "smack of jellyfish", and a "murder of crows"! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar "pride of lions" and "gaggle of geese" were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century. When Mr. Lipton's painstaking research revealed that five hundred years ago the terms of venery had already been turned into the Game of Venery, he embarked on an odyssey... Our image today was taken during the polar vortex a few years ago - frost on the conservatory glass in the shape of nature's own patterns - a Christmas tree.

Snow Wells

Yesterday Dezi and I visited Vineland Research Station where she runs around chasing the scent of squirrels and rabbits. Occasionally she chases the actual squirrel. I noticed that the trees have grass around their base rather than snow.  I had thought that tree roots give off warmth so the snow is melted around their base.  However, askanaturalist.com tells me that it is because snow has been suspended in the branches and melts into the air.  The tree trunk does get warm and radiates some of that head back out, and melts snow around the base.  It can create a 'snow well'. "This phenomenon occurs under deciduous trees that have dropped their leaves, and even more under evergreens because they catch more snow, and the dark color of their needles helps them absorb more heat, compared to deciduous trees, which are generally lighter colored. In fact, in northern evergreen forests that get large amounts of snow, the “snow wells” around trees can be two meters (6 feet) deep or more. This represents a serious danger to hikers and skiers who sometimes fall into the wells and can’t get back out." Our frost today comes from February 2015 during one of those polar vortex events.

Our Marshmallow Year

Welcome to the New Year. We celebrate endings and beginnings and things fresh and new.  We make resolutions for new beginnings. So it is time to consider our resolve, according to PBS last night.  They pointed to the landmark study  - the Stanford marshmallow experiment.  It was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores, educational attainment body mass index, and other life measures. It has been repeated over and over again as the decades passed.  Here's a video of that 15 minutes for a number of the tiny participants. So our ability to make and not break our New Year's Resolutions is symbolized in a marshmallow.  It would be wonderful to have a marshmallow at the New Year's table each year:  but there is no association of marshmallows with New Year's. However, National Toasted Marshmallow Day is August 30th - so maybe that's when the resolutions that failed can become 'toast'.

Heat Wave - Cooling Thoughts

Heat warning ahead today.  The weather says another day of feeling like 40.  The sun is an orange glow in the sky - it is perfect light for picture-taking. Today's image may have a cooling effect.  This is an amazing frost pattern in the conservatory greenhouse in January 2015.

The Solar Day

Solar Day

This was one of the Polar Vortex images from last year.  The temperatures were so low that frost built up in complicated patterns on the conservatory glass.  These pictures were taken at the end of the day when the sun was low over the escarpment and starting to set. 

The image has been processed with a new filter available from Topaz Labs named 'Glow'.  It creates squiggly and electrified lines.  

I hadn't thought of this before - if we lived in the southern hemisphere today will be their summer solstice.  The solstice has a time occurrence - this year 11:03pm UTC when it seems to stand still at the Tropic of Capricorn and then reverses its direction.  

So this picture celebrates the Solar Day and the return of the sun thereafter.

Frost Fantasy - A Betterphoto WInner

During the polar vortex in January there were unusual frost patterns on the conservatory greenhouse glass.  To me, these looked like fantasy gardens of plants reaching for the sun.

Here is the first place winner in the Betterphoto contest in January.