Oct 9 2024 - How to lose belly fat

 

There are so many helpful people.  Belly fat seems to be one of our major complaints.  And how many ways can we count to reduce belly fat?  Bing offers this new breakthrough:  Japanese Insoles that Help You Lose Belly Fat How many more are there? AliExpress has the bottles of pills: Keto Capsules, Ben Fat Fat Blocker, Reduce Body Fat Slimming Cream Belly Fat For BURNER Sweat Enhancer Burning Weight Loss  Amazon has an Official Site for belly fat burning There are at least 15 products on Temu: Sauna Sweat Lifting Belly Tummy Slimmer Waist, Leg, Arm trainer Waist Trimmer Tummy Wrap Order a Size Up Trimmer for Women Temu always has big-breasted women modelling whatever it is selling.  Look at the difference between the Men's fat burning accessory and the women's version.  I guess these alternatives are more appealing than the health foundation advice.  It looks way more work than pulling two belts tight. "This bodyweight interval circuit can help reduce a beer gut, and it can also help you prevent getting one in the first place. Do these 8 exercises 30 seconds at a time with 30 seconds of rest in between. That equals 4 minutes of work and 4 minutes of rest. Do 3-5 rounds with a 2-minute rest at the end of each round. 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest:  Jog in place  Push-ups  Jumping jacks  Front plank  Jog in place Squats Jumping jacks  Walking lunges" This is what gym class is like.  This explains why I go to the Y.   I would never do these exercises voluntarily on my own.  When Branden tells us to do theme, it seems fun.  I guess Branden is worth the admission.  Take a look at these pictures.  Below are three images.  The first was taken at Toronto Botanical Gardens.  The first is the original.  The next two are expanded views created through Photoshop's AI generation.  It is now part of the crop tool.  You expand the canvas and it fills in the scene with three alternatives to choose from.  What do you think?

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Apr 25 2024 - Retirement Regrets

 

What are those big item purchases that retirees try out?  Supposedly retirement often brings on a purchase of something one has always longed for.   Here are a few of them from an AARP article: The Boat - maybe  a sail boat to travel somewhere challenging or a speed boat for the weekends.  "Before you know it, what was supposed to give you joy and freedom is tying you down. “The two best days are when you buy and sell the boat." Recreational Vehicle - What better way to travel than with an RV?  “If you are going to use an RV once a month or three times a year, do you really need to buy an RV? Of course not. A lot of those things that make retirees feel good can add up.”​ Dream House - "Doing an upgrade here and an upgrade there, home improvement enthusiasts may soon find they’ve blown through a big chunk of retirement cash. That dream dwelling suddenly becomes a money pit at a time when less income is flowing in, leaving owners “really stressed out and frustrated,” Manske says. “It’s a really big one that retirees regret.” Resort Living - " For lots of people it’s a fabulous idea in the first year, but after that, the novelty can quickly wear off, Manske warns. They realize that all the things that gave them value and purpose and were fulfilling are back where they used to live, he says." And there's more - Giving to adult children can leave one destitute later, Buying a time share, Expensive musical instruments, Fancy cars. So many possible ways to dwindle one's retirement income. Here's some advice to a person starting their retirement.

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Jnan 292023 - Ancient Mummy X-rays

 

It was a century ago in November that Howard Carter opened the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun. vHe found gold and jewels, furniture, clothing, and the famous gold face mask. The finding that was extraordinary was a dagger in the mummy's bindings.  It was made of iron, before a time when the Egyptians learned to smelt. It could have come from the ancient Hittite Empire but that turned out not to be the case.   The dagger was analyzed with X-rays and found to be made of meteoric iron.  The meteorite is known as Kharga.   The investigations have continued, and it is considered a possible wedding gift to Amenhotep III by the king of Mitanni. This was bolstered by the fact that the team found the gemstones in the gold hilt had been attached with lime plaster. Although lime plaster was commonly used in Mitanni at the time, Egyptians preferred to use gypsum plaster. More X-ray activity has been occurring recently.  Here's a headline: "Scientists unwrapped the secrets without unraveling the mummies."  They used "The Advanced Photon Source"  X-ray machine.   What did it see? The preserved remains of what is likely an ancient Egyptian girl about five years old. "Experts dated this particular mummy back to the Roman era (beginning in 30 B.C.). It was discovered in Hawara, Egypt and excavated in 1911, eventually making its way to the library of the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on Northwestern’s Evanston, Illinois campus. In 2018, the mummy became the centerpiece of an exhibition on campus, joining a series of Roman-Egyptian mummy portraits, representations of people embalmed within mummies that were excavated from areas near Hawara." There are many X-ray projects now.  We'll never get tired of Egyptian Mummies.  They represent a universally fascinating and compelling time in history. My version of gold - captured reflections of the sunset on water. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 10 2022 - Newfoundland's Old Coin

 

We definitely know the meteorite is older than the gold coin found this summer in Newfoundland.   Edward Hynes, a well-known local amateur historian reported it to officials - it dates from the 1420s and the reign of Henry VI.   It was found on the south coast.   In 2021, a silver coin minted in the 1490s, was found at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site.  At that time, it was considered the oldest English coin ever found in Canada.   "There's been some knowledge of a pre-16th century European presence here for a while, you know, excluding Norse and so on," he says. "The possibility of perhaps a pre-16th century occupation would be pretty amazing and highly significant in this part of the world." "That’s about 70 years before John Cabot landed on Newfoundland’s shores in 1497 after setting sail from the English port of Bristol.  But the coin’s age doesn’t mean someone from Europe was on the island before Cabot, Brake said. For example, it could have been part of a later settler’s collection. It’s unlikely that it was in circulation when it was lost, he said, adding that it was worth quite a lot of money in the 1400s." How much was a significant amount? I search to find out what it might be, but so far don't think 1 shilling 8 pence in the 1420s is only worth 4 days wages.  I used the national UK archives to convert it.   We know that this artifact can have a home in a Canadian museum without controversy of repatriation. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

September 23 2020 - Head Lines in the Headlines

 

I don't think this would be considered helpful to the people arranged in it. Its title is: Hollywood's Leading Men, Arranged in a Helpful Graphic.  Moreover, it weighs in at the low end of the height scale of 5 fleet tall and ends at 5'9".  What is wonderful is that the graphic puts all these people on one page at one time for us to marvel at the different heights.     Here's the alternate way of considering this graphic with more celebrities  and the concentration at the high end of the scale this time.  What makes this so much fun is that when we are watching movies we don't know who is the tallest or who is the smallest.  Hollywood does its magic with the camera and the lens.     This is one of those Google-curated retrievals - with the first few pages carefully put together to retrieve articles by paid sponsors.  By page 4, the retrievals go "off-topic" and turns to the shortest celebrity marriages in Hollywood.  My assumption is that these are also sponsor-paid retrievals. There are one or two articles on height related to income analysis but mostly these are jaunts through Hollywood with breezy and witty commentary that is very engaging. The interest in this topic is substantial as there are many variations on the theme.  Here's one:  short actors who appear taller - e.g. Tom Cruise, Gillian Anderson, Dave Franco.   We learned about camera lenses and their impact on the appearance of width/weight.  They also relate to height and articles assert that shorter actors are easier to film than tall ones.   As we enter Fall, this is the time of checking reflections in the water.  This is the case at Toronto Botanical Gardens, where there is great colour next to a stream at the perfect time of day.

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Did You Stop?

“Pedestrians are considered traffic,” writes Ontario Ministry of Transportation spokesman Ajay Woozageer.  That was a most interesting statement - it seems to have two messages - 'pay attention drivers', and then 'look out pedestrians.'  The statement was made in response to a Globe and Mail question and answer article on whether cars should (are required to) yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk.   What I so enjoyed about the Toronto Islands was the lack of crosswalks - there are no cars on the Islands.  And in Grimsby Beach where the Painted Ladies are, the streets are 'lanes' so narrow they are effectively one-way streets in whichever direction the car is going.   Today's pictures again showcase TBG's Wilket Creek.  I was at Grimsby Beach yesterday, and wished for the golds and oranges to reflect in Forty Creek.  But alas, there aren't any Autumn colour reflections so far.

Lifehacker Thursday

The Cannas have finished blooming for the year, and the tubers are tucked away till next spring.  The leaves are a significant size.  That  means light in combination with the lines on the leaves make for wonderful abstracts. And I found this with the news today: There's a Top 10 website called Lifehacker.  In April, it celebrated its 10th anniversary and posted its most popular top ten lists of everything.  Take a look HERE.  With the website's success, Thursdays are known as "Lifehack Thursday".

Front and Back - At the Aga Khan Museum

Today we're looking at a hanging in the Aga Khan Museum.  We were asked what it is made of.  We thought it was silk.  It isn't.  We were told to look at the back and we saw these little gold pins. The hanging is made of 1.2 million gold and silver pins, all placed by hand.  The exhibit Your Way Begins on the Other Side was commissioned by the museum and is the work of Aisha Khalid from Lahore. Her Facebook page has a March 22 post with a video on the piece. Here is the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/aishakhalid72?fref=photo   Facebook Twitter Website Blogs at:

Fall For Fall

We have great autumn colours in Niagara.  This was a little farther north, in Guelph.  I have the newly released Topaz Impressions and this image has a painterly effect from the software.

What Metal Has to Say

Rust, when it is new, is like molten gold.  That's what the abstract below is - newly rusted metal.  It isn't any ordinary metal, but found in the workshop of Floyd Elzinga, metal sculptor, whose studio is nearby in Beamsville.  

Colour On and Off

Can you imagine if we had selective vision naturally?  Looking at these ties made me wonder what the experience would be like.  Do the images below make you wonder what colours the other ties are?

I want to selectively bring back the colour as an unfolding story.  It'll take a little time as I return the scene to its original state.  Here's the story as it starts...

Sunsets Coming Our Way

Hi everyone,

As we move towards spring there will be great views of the the sunset at Port Dalhousie pier.  These images are of the Oregon Pacific Coast in the autumn.  What could be a better dog's life than daily walks along the beach!

Autumn in Niagara

The escarpment forests were beautiful over the last few weeks.  Here's what was found below Brock University on the Niagara Escarpment.

Traversing the Garden...continues

With so many varieties of hosta in the garden, it is wonderful to see the variations in fall colours.  Here's a golden hillside.

Winter Water

While I was at Humber Nurseries last week, I visited the wintering Koi in their water tanks.  Here are a few abstracts from that visit.

Enjoying the Weather Whatever it is

It was cold in Toronto last week, and this week it's warmed up with a mix of sun and cloud. Today was a very overcast day with rain. It makes all the colours stand out so much - the trees look luminescent. Here in the city, I don't see great sweeping landscapes. I see small vignettes and beautiful close-ups. Here are some photos from this week in my neighbourhood at Royal York and Blook. I hope you enjoy the colours wherever you live!