Mar 5 2024 - Virgin Births

 

Virgin births?  We only think of one, don't we?  Here's the story of a stingray's virgin pregnancy, "Scientists think the pregnancy of Charlotte, a stingray living in a tank without any male rays, is an example of parthenogenesis, a miracle of life more common than most people think. "Speculation about the stingray has racked up more than 12 million views for a TikToker. The talk show host Jimmy Kimmel weighed in on Charlotte’s apparent immaculate conception with a segment about the ray, which resides at the Aquarium & Shark Lab, in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  There was speculation that the shark did it.  But that was dismissed as they are far apart genetically - 350 million years apart. Shark scientists were shocked by such an idea.   "Feldheim said he’s counted 15 species of elasmobranchs where parthenogenesis has been observed by scientists since then.  The phenomenon has been observed in every class of animals, except for mammals, which have a mechanism that prevents parthenogenesis." "Burns said it’s possible parthenogenesis is a response to environment feedback. It’s also possible it’s just a happy fluke of cell division and a reminder of how life can bring gifts of random chance and little explanation. " These extracts come from this article HERE.  I am hoping we get to tour the greenhouses this spring.  This picture is from the last tour - and this was a vast Gerbera crop.

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Feb 24 2023 - Astronomy News

 

There is continuing news from scientific astronomers because of the James Webb Space Telescope.  And it is good news always.  The headlines usually start with "James Webb Telescope's latest marvels" or  "James Webb is about to take us to the 'edge of time'"with massive galaxies discovered near cosmic dawn.  They call this "universe breakers".   Can you imagine the excitement - they could be rewriting astronomy textbooks soon.   "An international team of astrophysicists has found six candidate galaxies hiding in data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that are so old and massive they can’t be explained by current cosmological models. The galaxies are thought to date back to around 500 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. According to current cosmological models, galaxies at this point in time should be in their infancy and be made up of only a few stars. However, all six of the newly discovered candidate galaxies are gigantic and contain a similar number of stars to the modern-day Milky Way, which is much older." "...the team were able to date the candidate galaxies back to just over 13 billion years ago and determine that they contained tens to hundreds of billions of Sun-sized stars worth of mass. This means that they would’ve had to have formed stars at an astonishing rate due to their short lives." Read about it HERE. It brings to our attention the astonishing discovers that are happening in the world today. At the bottom of the article are more tantalizing headlines and their links.   I think it would be worth doing the work to be an amateur astronomer.  I expect it would take a lot of education - astronomy and physics. But then it would exciting every day to read the science news. The Bing political headlines  are doom and gloom stories and they never finish scrolling. We are astonishing in our coverage of all things negative.  On with science! Let's admire a Gerbera daisy today.  I think they are a close second to Dahlias in being photogenic.       Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 25 2022 - Do horses come home?

 

Bing has a picture of Emerald Lake in BC, with the description that it was discovered in 1882 by guide Tom Wilson, who accidentally stumbled upon the lake by gathering horses that had gotten away.   To put it correctly,  go to the Wikipedia entry and it says: " The first non-indigenous person to set sight on Emerald Lake was Canadian guide Tom Wilson, who stumbled upon it by accident in 1882. A string of his horses had gotten away, and it was while tracking them that he first entered the valley." As to Wilson's naming of lakes.  it turns out that the entry for Lake Louise says:  "However, this was not the first time Wilson had named a lake 'Emerald'.  Earlier that same year he had discovered another lake which he had given the same name, and that name even appeared briefly on the official map. This first lake however, was shortly renamed Lake Louise. What made Wilson's string "get away?" That seems like the horses were not happy to be with him.  I don't have any personal experience with horses, so I take that from the horse.com  as it says that horses often run away to avoid an unpleasant experience.   And were these domesticated horses going feral or were they wild species being tamed?  Supposedly, wild horses went extinct in North America 11,000 years ago.  Mustangs are considered an "invasive" species and not from North America.  Scientists argue otherwise - that despite the local extinction, it is the same species of horse that was in Europe, with the same genetic lineage. This has been proven by The Original Horse Project .  So we might never find out about feral vs wild.  We can start to correct our historical writings and acknowledge the original Indigenous name of Emerald Lake.  It is Rainbow Lake.   And Lake Louse?  What was its original name?   It was first named Horâ Juthin Îmne (translating to lake of little fishes) by Stoney First Nations people that were the first inhabitants of the area. In 1882 a Stoney First Nations person led a Canadian railway worker named Tom Wilson to the lake.

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July 20 2022 - Peaches

 

What is the most popular fruit?  Is it bananas?  Actually it is tomatoes - but we don't treat them as fruit.  For what we consider fruit, it is in fact bananas.  But would we guess watermelon in the number 3 spot and apples number 4 after that?  Then we have oranges, grapes, mango and guava, pineapple, peaches, pears, pumpkin, papaya, plums, dates and in 15th spot strawberries.   The consumption of bananas is 116,780, 000 tons vs strawberries at only 8,885 tons.  Bananas are such a countable thing - over 100 billion bananas are consumed a year - that's 75% of the annual tropical fruit trade.  Our current fruit is peaches - they are ripe in Niagara.  The earliest ones are not freestone.  I wonder what variety I bought yesterday - the popular ones are listed as fantasia, harblaze, garnet beauty, harrow diamond, and red haven.  There are fifteen different varieties grown in Niagara.   But you don't find orchards with the names of varieties at the rows - not like grapes where the variety is nicely displayed. With all these varieties of peaches we don't seem to purchase by  cultivar - not like apples.  The pint, quart and 4-quart baskets all say "peaches."  Maybe there isn't a lot of taste difference between the varieties.  You can compare the peach picking spots in Niagara.  and some of them list their varieties.  To pick your own peaches today comes with an entrance fee of $4 per person - I guess that's the "selfie-fee".  I go to the fruit stands in my area - they are all listed in this article on Niagara's fruit stands HERE.  It is nice to see them showcased and appreciated. Today's floral abstract is a Gerbera.

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Catch the Gingerbread Man

Do we eat gingerbread cookies all year round?  Not at all.  It is special to Christmas.  The ancient Greeks and Egyptians considered it special too - they used it for ceremonies. Being a tropical plant, it came to Europe in the 11th century with the crusaders.  But it wasn't applied to desserts until the 15th century.  Elizabeth 1 is credited with the idea of decorating cookies - she had them made to resemble the dignitaries visiting her court.  They became  the highlight of Gingerbread Fairs.  The role of gingerbread cookies as a love token is shown in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost:  "An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy ginger-bread" Somehow gingerbread men and gingerbread houses became a major tradition of Christmas - the gingerbread house is linked to the Hansel and Gretel story in 1812.  Gingerbread men were made exclusively by gingerbread masters who kept their recipes secret and the cookies eventually became a staple of Christmas fairs. Those times are past, and we happily all can make our own houses and gingerbread cookies.  Get cracking! There are dozens of gingerbread jokes: When should you take a ginger bread cookie to the doctor? When it feels crummy. What does the ginger bread man put on his bed? A cookie sheet. Why do basketball players love gingerbread cookies? Because they can dunk them!  Today's picture is a close-up of a Gerbera flower.

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A Bell Boy's Hat

There are various reasons for wearing a hat.  We had the weather reason yesterday.  But we could wear hats for ceremonial reasons, religious, safety or fashion.  Social status was an important determinant in hats in the Middle Ages.  Status increased as the height of the hat increased. Hats communicated visually - and at a distance.  They clearly indicated what status, what type of work, how important a person was, all kinds of things.  Think of the headwear of the Roman Catholic church and its complications.  Women were required to wear chapel veils to Mass while men were required to remove their headwear.  So many rules for what was on the head. I wondered about hats -  a bellboy appeared in my dream last night. Bellboy hats seem particularly demeaning to me.  Is that the case? It is part of the uniform of a 'bellhop' The bell-boy hat is based in the 19th century military drummer boy's cap.  This hat has a long history in the military. Similar to me are the forage caps - also peakless caps in the military.  They were considered undress, fatigue or working headwear. And what about sailor hats?  They seem close to bellboy hats.  I looked at pictures of them. They still have a brim, which seems to have more status.  Even the dixie cup hat of the U.S. shows a 'peaked' sort of edge. Back to our bellboy.  In comparison, doormen had peaked hats, wore special coats and  even the buttons could distinguish which hotel they worked at.  Quite a lot was said by the hotel right at the door. Let's see what our weather brings us today.  Yesterday, I cooked dinner on the stove in the dark due to a power outage.  Today's advisory has freezing drizzle, fog, wind, and rain in the evening.  Something of everything today.

New York's Newest Monument - Vessel!

Vessel is a new project in New York - intended to be a stunning experience of space.  The YouTube article is HERE.  There are two immediate visual comparisons for me - the first is the idea of Tower of Babel.  The second is Floyd Elzinga's Pinecone sculptures.  But we'll stay with the Tower of Babel today. Here's Vessel Here's the Tower of Babel The major difference is that New York's 'staircase' is an upside down structure - small at the bottom and large at the top.  The website hudsonyardsnewyork.com has a great set of pictures and story describing what they call New York City's next public landmark. Created by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio – Hudson Yards presents a uniquely interactive experience, a monument meant to be climbed and explored. Comprised of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs—almost 2,500 individual steps— and 80 landings, the centerpiece will literally lift up the public, offering a multitude of ways to engage with New York, Hudson Yards and each other. This larger-than-life art piece will be New York City’s next public landmark.   You can read about all of the Hudson Yards projects at their website - The High Line, the Public Square and Gardens, The Shed, and more.   And what are today's photos?  The beautiful Gerbera flower in the commercial growing greenhouses in Grimsby. It came to North America in the 1920s. It was hybridized into a plant suitable for gardens and widespread commercial production in the 1970s.  Today it is a staple of the florist trade.