Nov 9 2023 - New Islands

 

What questions will we ask today?  Is it going to rain and I should take an umbrella?  Are the bananas ripe enough or too ripe at the store?   We're supposed to be asking these questions: How am I feeling right now?  What are my needs today?  What am I grateful for today?  and so on.   Instead, my question today is how many new islands are there that have created by volcanos, erosion, glacial retreat and such occurrences?  How big are they?   Wikipedia has a list of islands created since the 20th century.  They are HERE,  Tonga has a lot of them, with listings from 2022, 2014, 2009, 2006,1984, and 1927-28.   Home Reef is one of the the volcanoes that gives forth all these islands in Tonga which is located in the South Pacific Ocean. "A big chunk of the Polynesian nation — an archipelago of over 170 islands — owes its existence to volcanic activity, which created its chain of western islands starting thousands of years ago." In December 2014 and January 205, a volcanic island 1 km wide by 2 km long was created.  In 2022, just 11 hours after the volcanic eruption began, a new island had appeared.  It had grown to 8 acres and an elevation over 50 feet above sea level. It might live a short time or a long time according to experts.

Here's Toronto's skyline seen from one of the Toronto Islands.  Their history is a story of wind and sand, depositing the sand into the bay, and eventually taking the shape of a peninsula.  They started history as a series of continuously moving sand-bars originating from the Scarborough Bluffs, and carried westward by Lake Ontario Currents. It was in 1858 that the channel was widened by a permanent storm, making them the Toronto Islands. Like a volcano, Lake Ontario is a busy lake.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Feb 19 2022 - The Caribbean Sea

 

There are 50 seas around the world, and the Caribbean Sea is very close to us - just south towards Mexico and Central America to the west and south west and then the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles and then to the south is the north coast of South America.   So many North Americans are currently longing for their winter Caribbean vacation. The contrast between the monochrome winter landscape outside my winder with its gusts of snow  and the jewel-tones of the water and landscape makes us think of the Caribbean islands as precious gems.   We don't think much about the Caribbean as anything other than vacation destinations, but there are 44 million people who live in the 700 Caribbean Islands (islets, reefs and cays included).  There are so many countries that claim ownership of the islands - the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands, France, Colombia, and so on. Within each "island" or country are many islands.  Take the Bahamas - there are 700 islands, 2,400 cays and 30 inhabited islands.  Cuba has 4,000 islands and cays surrounding the main island.  I hadn't considered how complicated that might be. All these countries having to host the rest of the world's population on vacation: that seems like a dilemma to me.  But then, think of those aqua waters and palm trees of the Caribbean.  Perhaps a good trade-off compared to our many economic opportunities in a landscape of snow squalls, frigid temperatures and blowing snow.    That was a brief but moment visiting the Caribbean via Wikipedia and other websites.  I think the first picture expresses our winter dreams.

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March 31 2020 - Island Homes

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day.  My searches bring forth strange objects from the sea of information.  Pinterest is such a site and full of real and imagined picture stories.  They seem like April Fool's Jokes available year round. Fact check:  viral photo of castle built on rock is just a fairytale, not reality. The doctored image shows a castle on top of a V-shaped rock which towers steeply over the water. A door with a ladder leading down to a boat on the water can be seen carved into the lower part of the rock. The misleading post’s caption states: “Castle on the rock..” with a shocked emoji. News 18 Buzz went about checking the story.  The island is an islet in Thailand's Phang Aga province and known as the James Bond Island as it was in the 1974 film, "The Man with the Golden Gun." The castle is the 19th-century Lichtenstein Castle in southern Germany.  Here are the comparisons: These are photographic hoaxes.  There are a number of amazing pictures of elevated islands with houses on top.     These pictures go off to ads and various lost websites. That's a feature of Pinterest.  One seldom finds the article to read about the topic.   A pretty Dahlia bouquet for today's image.

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Why are Tattoos so Popular?

I ask the question from the point of view of motivation and not history.  Why are people getting tattooed so much today?  I stood in line at the local coffee shop and the young man ahead of me had tattoos on his head, down his neck, and on his arms.   The articles tell me that millennials appear to be obsessed with tattoos.  The United States Navy has had to change its body art policies.  In 2010 about 40 per cent of millennials had at least one tattoo.  In 2017 one in five Canadians had a tattoo. That explains the coffee shop line up.  There were 4 people ahead of me. It doesn't explain the waterfall effect of the tattoos, though.  They seemed to flower from him more like lava than a refreshing spring. The entrance of tattoos into mainstream media shows and on mainstream celebrities has speeded the significant shift towards acceptance.  The theory goes that tattoos are 'an expression of oneself' and they stand for the entirety of that identity.  And when I ask a person about their tattoo, they describe  what the tattoo expresses of themselves.  Tattoos aren't 'accepted'.  They are 'embraced'. The alignment of person with workplace norms is the only remaining question.  The suitability of tattoos is now a past discussion.  The negative views are prevalent for healthcare professionals, police officers, lawyers, financial institutions, and school teachers.  But that's just lead and lag timing question.  When will I see a doctor with a tattoo on a wrist?  That's a prediction to make. I didn't watch the Oscars last night. They have drifted into the past for me - it is a long time ago when they were fun and important - when Bob Hope and Johnny Carson  were the hosts in the golden age of television and movies. I think there should be an article on this topic:  What do the Olympics and Oscars have in common?  That's because the headlines on the Oscars seem to point to the similarities:   Do the Oscars Even Matter Anymore?   The Uncomfortable Truth About the Oscar If the Oscars No Longer Care About the Public, Why Should the Public... The Oscars' Dirty Secret:  Corruption, Bribery, Mafia-style Hit Job Oscar Films:  75 years of bribes, lies and overkill Oscars:  were you always so political? Oscar Record Low Audience But there is a brilliant moment at the Oscars 2019 -  Billy Porter's outfit - it has been named a gown-cedo. He wore an outfit with a tuxedo on top and a black floor length ball gown skirt on the bottom.  It is remarkable.   Toronto Island garden images today.