Marilyn's Photos - Jan 13 2026 - Ig Nobel Idea

 

The Ig Nobel Prize has been with us for a few decades.  I hadn’t realized that Erich von Daniken, who has recently died, was awarded this “honour.”  I can immediately think of someone who might be awarded this honour in the Peace category.  Do you know who I mean?  The Ig Nobel is a satirical prize and its purpose is to promote public engagement with scientific research. Wikipedia says its aim is to “honour achievements that first make people laught, and then make them think.”  Well, it isn’t clear to me that laughter could be a response to an Ig Nobel Peace Prize.   Most of the Ig Nobels are for genuine scientific achievements with an unorthodox, obvious or humorous slant OR to various fraudsters, politicians, media figures, or promoters of pseudoscience.  That last category was likely the one for Erich von Daniken’s fame. There is a scientific humour magazine - Annals of Improbable Research.  Go to that website HERE now. See the headline:  “The straight poop: New study finds square feces may deliver information” - now that alone is a funny headline. The Ig Nobel Prize money is a whopping 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars ($40.00 US). There is a person who has been awarded an Ig Nobel and a Nobel Prize.  “Sir Andre Geim, who had been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a frog by magnetism, was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for his work with the electromagnetic properties of graphene. He is the only individual, as of 2025, to have received both a Nobel and an Ig Nobel.” Do you think it is more or less possible to see an an Ig Nobel Peace Prize soon given that Google can’t figure out the difference between between the Peace Prize and the other Nobel Prizes - physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature and economics.  Maybe people’s smartness isn’t that unlike Googles. I see a scenario where an Ig Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Trump, and he’s extraordinarily happy - except when he finds out what 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars are worth. Here’s another favourite image - this one in Frank Kershaw’s garden - a beautiful trellis art feature.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mairlyn's Photos - Oct 28 2025 - The Funniest Movie of All Time

 

It took a study in 2016 to determine that the funniest movie of all time is Airplane!  How is the decision made?  It is based on a laugh-per-minute metric. This is very interesting that there is an objective measure for determining how funny something is. The articles say that a comedian should be able to consistently generate an average of 18+ seconds of laughter per minute for every performing minute on stage. So it is easy to find out the funniest movie using this sort of measure.  And the winning movie Airplane has been calculated to get 3 laughs per minute.  The next movie is The Hangover and it gets 2.4 laughs per minute. The third place finisher is Naked Gun with 2.3  laughs per minute.   Here’s the list from Forbes: 1. Airplane! - 3 laughs/minute 2. The Hangover - 2.4 laughs/minute 3. Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! - 2.3 laughs/minute 4. Superbad - 1.9 laughs/minute 5. Borat - 1.7 laughs/minute 6. Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy - 1.6 laughs/minute 7. American Pie - 1.5 laughs/minute 8. Bridesmaids - 1.4 laughs/minute 9. Shaun of the Dead - 1.3 laughs/minute 10. Life of Brian - 1.2 laughs/minute Now that’s the kind of list that should be on everyone’s “bucket list.” We’re coming to the end of the flower season.  Here’s a picture of Butchart Gardens from a few years ago.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mairlyn's Photos - Aug 24 2025 - Gina Lollobrigida vs Sophia Loren

 

Last night's Turner Classic Movie was Gina Lollobrigida's Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.   I remember seeing it at the movie theatre in 1968 or so when it came out. What a strange trio of male leads - Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford and Telly Savalas.  I mean that genuinely as they paled in comparison to the beautiful, glowing Gina.   She was called the most beautiful woman in the world at the time.  And that made me think of Sophia Loren, who was considered very beautiful.  There was a supposed feud between them on this theme.   If one were to search the archives carefully, there was lots of nasty insults supposedly tossed back and forth.  For example:  "Sophia Loren plays peasants.  I play ladies." This comparison of beauty seems to remain current - there are lots of reddit sorts of opinions on who was more beautiful. And that seems to be her legacy.  Not her photography and sculptures and photojournalism in the 1970s and beyond.  And she died in 2023 at 95, so a long life after movies. I decided to find out a bit more about her and whether her artistic life was being suppressed because of the glitz of the movies. Reading her obituary by the BBC, the legacy of celebrity beauty seems very understandable. She led a celebrity life of famous men courting her constantly.  This romance-filled life even had a strange wedding scandal.   "Disastrously, she met Javier Rigau y Rafols, a charming Spaniard who was 34 years younger. They announced their engagement in 2006 - but soon called it off, citing frenzied press attention. Rigau, however, went ahead with the wedding - allegedly using an imposter to play Lollobrigida. According to her account, she only discovered her marriage by chance when she found documents on the internet. She took legal action; Rigau produced witnesses. He insisted Lollobrigida had agreed to marry him by proxy using a power of attorney she had once granted.  She lost the ensuing court case, but the marriage was annulled in 2019 with the blessing of the Pope." And that was only one chapter of her busy romantic life.  I didn't find any great philosophical quotes as one does with Marilyn Monroe.  There are lots about men. Even in her photojournalism activities where she interviewed and photographed Castro, the quote is that she related to Castro as a man.   So after reading about her exotic and romance-filled life, maybe Gina Lollobrigida's legacy of being the most beautiful woman in the world is suitable.

I found this bit of tabloid history Gina and Elzabeth Taylor in the same dress at a gala event.   And below that?  A pretty little house in Buffalo - too bad about the Buffalo Garden Walk being in Buffalo.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - Nuts to You

 

TikTok-famous chocolates are in the news.  The ones with pistachios have been recalled over salmonella concerns.  Salmonella poisoning of pistachios can happen before, during or after harvest - there's lots of opportunity.  The articles give us the details, making this seem even worse.   The dilemma with pistachios is that they are dry and salmonella survives very well in dry foods.  When salmonella is incorporated into chocolate it can survive the stomach acid so relatively low doses can result in sickness. And then the shelf life of nuts is very long - stored up to two years. That means these infected pistachios could be out there for a while.  This is the Dubai chocolate craze where there are now shortages of pistachios - due to the millions and millions of active TikTok viewers.   The milk chocolate bar is filled with "silky" pistachio cream, earthy tahini and crunchy shards of knafeh pastry. The original Dubai chocolate was launched by Dubai-based FIX Dessert Chocolatier in 2022.  That's where the Dubai reference comes from.  It is Belgian or Swiss chocolate.  And what is knafeh?  It is shredded phyllo dough. It does sound yummy, don't you think?

This is the Trillium garden of the week.  It is around the corner from me, and is most enjoyable to drive past on a regular basis.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos - June 7 2025 - Learning from Calculators

 

Our immediate past gives us insight into where AI is going with children's mental abilities.  I am thinking about is calculators. Calculators came into their own in the 1970s.  So by the early 1980s, I used a financial calculator in the MBA program  where probability calculations are a part of marketing strategies. I remember what a labour-saving tool it was.   Calculators became ubiquitous in the 1990s in classrooms.  There was doubt that students could maintain a high level of skill while relying on calculators to do basic arithmetic. That controversy still exists.  Articles say progress has not been made in integrating calculators with mental arithmetic.  Studies show that heavy reliance on calculators leads to declines in student mathematical skills.   So I went searching for more and found a edutopia article on using calculators to deepen students' engagement with math HERE. I found it engaging for me, too.   "PERCENTAGE In this lesson, I always begin by telling students that I’m going to give them several percentage problems as well as the answers. The first thing students wonder is why I would give them the answers. Aren’t they supposed to figure those out? Not in this case, I tell them: The goal is not to get the answer, but to figure out how the answer was gotten. The first problem we tackle is pretty simple: What is 50% of 24? The students can usually shout out “12!” before I finish writing the problem on the board. “Excellent!” I respond. “Now, how could you figure that out on a calculator?” At that moment, students grab a basic four-function calculator. I walk around and have students show me their methods, and I tell them that dividing 24 by 2 is not what I wanted. “But 50% is half,” they protest. “So you divide by 2.” “Certainly,” I say. “But we’re not always going to have something as nice as 50%, so we have to find a different way.” Exasperated, my students try to figure out what I want. After letting them engage in productive struggle, I guide them toward the idea that we can use the numbers 50 and 24 to reach 12. Soon, they’re getting ideas like multiplying the numbers, resulting in 1,200. “That’s kind of like 12,” someone will say. “But I have to get rid of these zeroes.” My students start figuring out that to reach the answer, we can multiply the percent by the whole number and then divide by 100. Some students even propose that you just turn one of the numbers into a decimal before multiplying (50 times 0.24 or 0.50 times 24). Others say that you put a decimal point into both numbers, but only one digit in each (5.0 times 2.4). Some suggest using the % button on the calculator, which would also turn their number on the screen into a decimal. I then have students provide conjectures about why all of these strategies work and what they have in common. Soon, my students are engaging in a mathematical discussion about relationships between decimals and percents, how the number 100 is inherent to all of the calculations, and how 50%, 0.50, and ½ are all the same thing. I continue the lesson with more complicated problems. Trying to solve something like 17.35% of 8.4 using paper and pencil is overwhelming—but with calculators, my students approach even seemingly scary problems like this with confidence, armed with the knowledge that the relationships remain constant regardless of the complexity of the numbers. Using ideas like percent-decimal equivalence—as well as efficient algorithms like “% × n ÷ 100”—my students develop, with the help of calculators, conceptual understanding and procedural fluency."   Isn't this a masterful sculpture on the landscape.  This is at the Week 1 winning Trillium garden in Grimsby.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 23 2025 - The Smallest Towns

 

A town in Newfoundland is known as  the "smallest town in Canada".  With only 4 people left, I wondered if that is the case.  How does a place with 4 people get to call itself a town.  There would be no mayor or councillors and where would the emergency services like fire and police be?   It has made the news everywhere as the last inhabitants are leaving.  The many repetitions of the article say nothing of that.  They talk about how Tilt Cove, Newfoundland has dwindled since the copper mine closed in 1967.   The nearest towns are Shoe Cove and Snooks Arm.  Shoe Cove is closest at 13 km and 16 minutes away.  There's a small grocery store in Shoe Cove and 10 minutes away from there is La Scie (population 820) with shopping. Are there other smallest towns around the planet?  The list comes up with Hum, Cratia with 30 inhabitants, as a widely recognized smallest town.  A town gate, cemetery, two churches and a restaurant.   Then there is Monowi, Nebraska - a town known for having a single resident. Next up is Mazar, Kansas with a population of five.   Who keeps the lights on and the water running?  I guess I am a big town and big city person - I can't fathom what services aren't likely available.

Here's a great :Longwood Garden scene at the entrance.  It is unlikely we'll get there this year, given the border issues. But one can enjoy the pictures of the past.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 8 2025 - 51st of Anything

 

I wonder this question about being 51st.   As a ranking, what if the U.S. is 51st at various things in the world?  You know, those economic and social surveys that show where the countries stand in comparison to each other - education, health, housing, and so on.  It would be ironic to find all the places where they rank 51st. But instead one retrieves all the 51st State stories.  How Canada would rank as the 51st state.  I think 51st has made its mark and will become a metaphor for a long time. So let's take a look at the things that have named themselves 51st. What are we competing with? The number 51 retrieves Chinese characters.   The 51News client is a mobile news client created by 51.com  Its goal is to provide Canadian Chinese users with a brand-new mobile reading experience.  There are a few more Chinese apps with 51 in the name.  51 is a lucky number, so a very popular name. In mathematics, fifty-one is a pentagonal number as well as a centred pentagonal number and an 18-gonal number.    Brings the Pentagon to mind, doesn't it? Another website is the51.com - "building the financial feminist economy.  Content and events, news and discounts, members-only networking opportunities.  this is a Canadian organization."  All the principal directors are listed with their resumes, but there doesn't seem to be a description on how the name originated. There doesn't appear to be any association with the Chinese-Canadian community.  And then the dark side of things - Area 51 Air Force base - this looks like a movie.  "Welcome to the future". We conclude with the mundane - take bus route number 51 - that's Leslie Northbound.  Wouldn't that be ironic for there to be a metaphorical Highway 51 - for Americans escaping north. Wouldn't it be great to be in Victoria at Butchart Gardens, counting the spring flowers in the Annual count.  Mind you, there's a severe weather warning for Salt Spring with an atmospheric river of rain coming.  Avalanche danger in B.C.  But for now, we can enjoy Butchart's brilliant summer display.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca