Nov 22 2023 - Black Friday Scams

 

I continue with Black Friday confusion.  Isn't it coming up this weekend?  The Toronto Sun news reads:  More than 2 million Canadian scammed on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  that story was yesterday.   The article goes on to say this has happened in the past.  So I guess we can add something new to the big deals and best prices of the year event.  There are more articles today on scamming on Black Friday.  From Consumer Affairs comes the headline:  Hold on, that Black Friday deal on a Rolex may be a scam.  This article found an increase of 66% of scamming urls in the US.  There are so many scams that they are listed by subject: Travel - an increase of 133% in things like fake Airbnb pages Walmart - get a deal on a QLED TV iCloud survey - Apple storage is full Spotify - newel problems HR department phishing - check the staff termination list Here are 9 scams to avoid according to Aura.com.  The 9 Latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday Scams You Need To Avoid: Fake or spoofed online stores  Social media ads for “too-good-to-be-true” deals Fake order confirmation emails Fraudulent delivery notifications Fake charity and fundraiser scams Gift card scams  Bogus coupon and voucher websites Non-delivery scams Sellers asking for non-traditional payment options Maybe Black Friday is going to become more famous for how much is stolen on that single day rather than how much is purchased.   It is this Friday, isn't it? Or is there a scan over when Black Friday actually occurs? Isn't this an incredible model!

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Oct 10 2023 - Keyboard Quirks

 

I coul5dn't5 sign into my comput5er5 this mor5ning.  My passwor5d didn't se5em to wor5k.  You can't5 se5e5 your5 passwor5d.   So then what? If I could, this is what I would have seen - all of these fives showing up in between the letters being pressed.   So I pressed the five key and things have returned to normal.   What will happen if I press it again?  There was a warning problem yesterday.  The keyboard would not capitalize T with the shift key.  So my workaround was to put caps lock on and then off after the T was pressed.   My last keyboard problem was a key cap that fell off and wouldn't go back on permanently - it had stopped making contact as well. I find out that there are lots of other issues that can happen.  "This can happen due to spills, drops, dust, or wear and tear. Some signs of hardware issues are keys that are stuck, loose, or missing, or keys that produce the wrong characters or no response at all. To fix hardware issues, you may need to clean, replace, or repair the keyboard, depending on the extent of the damage." There are software sorts of problems such as input source.  And when Baxter and Millie lie on the keyboard, they can change settings.  Baxter is the more talented at this activity.  Given this was the backup keyboard - that last one couldn't be repaired, I guess there's a new keyboard in the works.  Model layout day today. Love the red tub tacks on the bridge.

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June 27 2023 - Olivia Chow vs 101 candidates

 

From the last day of school to the first day of Toronto's new mayor.  What an excellent headline this morning.  She's the first progressive mayor since David Miller.  She's the first Chinese-Canadian mayor and the third female mayor.  Her presence brings back memories of Jack Layton, a much-beloved NDP politician who died from cancer in 2011.  That was a significant loss to the political scene.  Jack Layton's predecessors were politicians and activities - his great-granduncle William Steeves was a Father of Confederation.  And the family business was Layton Bros. Pianos. That seems a good combination.  Olivia Chow was born in British Hong Kong and emigrated with her parents in 1970. While her parents were schoolteachers and a school superintendent in Hong Kong, in Canada they worked at odd jobs. She was an artist and sculptor in her early career.  She moved into politics in 1986 motivated by indigents of harassment and sexual discrimination. The voting was much higher for this election than the last one. It was about 40 percent of the eligible votes vs 29 percent in the fall election.   Perhaps there was more at stake this time - rejuvenation was needed rather than conservatism.  She promises affordable housing, improved transit,  that Gardiner Expressway revamp at ground level, and says there will be modest increased taxes to pay for the initiatives.  This is different than John Tory's conservative keep taxes low and reduce services strategy. Who is the biggest detractor of Chow?  Doug Ford. What a quote:  "While we're not always going to agree on everything..."   I wonder if there is something or anything to agree on - his initiatives include building houses on the Greenbelt and building a highway across the Greenbelt in Toronto's northern suburbs that will cost billions.   It seems like there will be contention between Ford's highways and Chow's transit plans.   That makes me think off our transit from more than a century ago - from before the dominance of the automobile.   The rail yard is full of activity on this layout.     Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nune 9 2023 - Summer Time Travelling

 

Our air quality has improved, allowing people to get outdoors again.  Let's go for a drive.   Look out, though.  There are 44 closures in Toronto alone on June 9 2023 for roadwork - these are planned.  Highway 400, 401, 404, 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way.  That covers the majority of the major roads in the Toronto area.  Seems like a lot of hiccups along the road. The events closures are ramping up too.  All those cycling fundraisers, runs and walks, and then festivals.  There's Portugal Day, Grilled Cheese Challenge festival and the RBC Open - which ironically has caused closures. Combine that with reductions in subway service for construction and reductions in GO train service. That is followed by an encouragement for residents and visitors to take public transit as a greener, faster and more affordable way of getting around.  Summer can get complicated when it comes to travelling around. What about steam train travel?  Here's a model layout.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 27 2023 - Listverse

 

Metaverse is a trend in words that have verse in them.  I recently found a site named Listverse.com - it is full of lists. How do you keep someone scrolling through lists?  They have to have interesting topics, and there needs to be variety so that you continue to read through them.  The list of lists itself needs to be interesting.  There are subject areas - movies and tv, weird stuff, our world, travel, history, creepy, technology, humans, crime. In the Weird Stuff area, one list is 10 male leaders who had surprisingly high-pitched voices.  They include George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Here's the entry of Adoph Hitler:   When it comes to “shrill-voiced speakers,” a lot of people’s minds probably wander to Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s speeches were characterized by his shrill, angry, maniacal tone as he sought to rile up the crowds and keep them enthralled in his Nazi ideology. He is basically the embodiment of the “screaming dictator” trope. However, Hitler had a secret. He was very careful about making sure that no one recorded him speaking in his normal voice. Despite this, there exists a single known recording of Hitler speaking in a conversational voice. The recording in question involves Hitler speaking to Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the military leader of Finland, in 1942. The recording was made in secret by a Finnish broadcasting engineer. When Hitler’s guards realized he was being secretly recorded, they surprisingly did not demand the tape be destroyed. They instead demanded it be “hidden away, never to be opened.”  The tape was kept from the public for nearly 15 years but was finally released in 1957. In contrast to his crazed, high-pitched voice when speaking to a crowd, Hitler’s conversational voice is deep, even, and almost smooth. Above, you can hear Adolph Hitler’s normal, rarely-heard speaking voice   Wouldn't they have high-pitched voices on a model railroad?  Everything in scale. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Where does Irony come from?  That's a question one finds on google.  As a question, it seem odd - how could a word come from something or a place as though it is a person.   And there is a definition where irony as an adjective means "of or resembling iron" - that's from the late 14th century. Wikipedia's entry is the most quoted: " The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon."  The meaning is: "figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning" (usually covert sarcasm under a serious or friendly pretense), c. 1500, from Latin ironia, from Greek eironeia "dissimulation, assumed ignorance," Irony is much beloved by critical literature authors.  There are many articles on its history and the types of irony.  Irony is beloved by everyone. One article is titled irony - the opposite of wrinkly.   I thought there might be history's great examples of irony. And there are lots.  Here's 135 of the most ironic things that have happened - the list was compiled by BoredPanda voters up-voting the entries, and is based on pictures.  Some are most enjoyable.  Click on the link HERE.   Some ironies for the day: What's ironic about the Bible?  It is the most shoplifted book in America. Charlie Chaplin once entered a "charlie Chaplin walk" contest and came in 20thy. Researchers say that duct tape should never be used for sealing ducts.   I am looking through the archives for a particular picture and found the train layout from near Portland.  A big building completely full of trains, planes, and various models.  It was quite the experience. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 11 2023 - Summer Time coming before Spring Time is here

 

Daily Savings Time is here this weekend.  It seems the change of time is to make summer more enjoyable/productive/save energy/ and sorts of "tangible" benefits.  All these benefits seems to have driven it to start earlier. Long summer evenings aren't arriving for another few months.  It used to be in April, but the US Department of Energy had the idea that there were would energy conservation so moved it to March for more savings.  That seems likely to be a theoretical wish rather than a real gain.   When did it originally start? On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, today's Thunder Bay, turned their clocks forward by 1 hour to start the world's first DST period. Other locations in Canada soon followed suit. On April 23, 1914, Regina in Saskatchewan implemented DST. The cities of Winnipeg and Brandon in Manitoba did so on April 24, 1916. It is up to the legislation in each municipality in Canada to decide on the use of DST. As a result, there are some locations don't follow the DST schedule of their in provinces and territories. For example, while British Columbia uses DST, some locations in the province do not. Since 2007, all provinces, territories, and locations in Canada using DST follow the same start and end dates as the United States. And that's how we got to changing the clocks so much earlier.  I wondered if there was any news on Scott Adams and Dilbert. There's no news.  He is on the Locals website.  It is Coffee with Scott Adams Community...open-minded people who like to learn about persuasion, politics and the operating code for reality while having some laughs. It is here.  You get to see a preview as it is a member only site. We are ignoring all the snow today and concentrating on trains instead. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 5 2023 - Boat vs Building

 

There have been some architectural oddities announced in 2022 and one that got my attention is the floating city shaped like a swimming turtle.  The architect has estimated a cost in the range of US $8 billion (or $12 billion in other articles).  It is called a terayacht.  "Described as a Terayacht by Lazzarini, (the architect), the Pangeos is named after the Pangea (or Pangaea) supercontinentthat existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It would make even the largest of the current crop of megayachts look like mere dinghies, with a length of 550 m (roughly 1,800 ft) and a maximum width of 610 m (2,000 ft)." "The hull would be built from steel and would feature a turtle-shaped base topped by an oval structure that supports a maximum of 60,000 people, with hotels, shopping centers, parks, both ship and aircraft ports, luxury villas, clubs, and everything else needed to maintain a floating community in the middle of the ocean." "Naturally, a vessel this size would require some hardcore propulsion and the Pangeos would be equipped with nine massive cutting-edge HTS (high-temperature superconducting) motors, each of which would be electric and capable of producing the equivalent of 16,800 horsepower, allowing it to cruise at a stately 5 knots (5.75 mph). The power to run the floating city would come from solar panels, plus electricity would be produced using its large flipper-like structures, which would harness energy from the sea with some kind of wave energy generator system, allowing the ship to cruise indefinitely." Is it a mobile island, perhaps?   Today we go back in the time machine to trains.  Like our turtle yacht, these are models. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 3 2022 - Selling the Haunted House

 

Halloween themed stories abounded last week, and one of them was how to know if the house you are interested in buying is considered "haunted".  According to various surveys from 20% to 60% of North Americans believe in ghosts.  And one in 10 Canadians say they have seen ghosts.  Selling haunted houses is relatively easy.  There is no requirement in Canada to indicate such a "state'. No tick box  titled haunted house?  So it is buyer beware and if the purchaser is worried about this, then they have to put the clause in the contract about ghosts and hauntings.   There's an entry in Wikipedia about "stigmatized property".  You can imagine how many these there are.   Hauntings come under the "Phenomena stigma". Are haunted houses popular to buy? There are lots of articles on how and why to buy a haunted house.  And then there are lots on how to avoid buying a haunted house.  Haunted houses are a great topic.   I tried to find a video of a ghost in a haunted house.  I tried.  I found this story about the Amityville house:  "Famous homes, such as those used in television productions or filmmaking, can also be stigmatized by increased traffic from fans wanting to see the house in person. One example is the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York where Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murdered his family, later made famous by best-selling book The Amityville Horror and numerous film adaptations. The Lutz family claimed the house was haunted by evil spirits who drove them out. Their claims are supported by paranormal investigators such as Ed and Lorraine Warren and Hans Holzer, but dismissed as fraudulent by skeptics such as Robert Carroll. Since the film's release, the house has been renovated and the address changed in an attempt to prevent sightseers from disturbing the neighborhood." And I found these funny haunted house jokes.  Q: What do young ghosts sell on the front lawn of their haunted houses? A: They have a demonade stand. Q: Why did the haunted house scream? A: From window pain. Q: Who greets you at the door of an old haunted house? A: The ghost host. Q: Why didn’t the 10 ghosts let any more ghosts live in the haunted house? A: It was their terror-tory. Q: Why are haunted houses so tall? A: They have hundreds of horror stories. Q: How do you open the door to a haunted house? A: With a skeleton key. It is time for railroad stories today.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

March 24 2022 - National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

 

Which do you choose to celebrate today?   1. National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day 2. World Tuberculosis Day And for the month of March? 1. National Women's History Month 2. National Umbrella Month USA Today published an article on March 14 2020 where the author proclaimed:  "If someone ever wanted to completely waste their whole life but didn’t know how, they could simply strive to devote themselves to the careful observation of every single day of inane celebration and inadequate awareness." "In response, I propose that we create a “National Day Against National Days” to raise awareness and protest bad and unnecessary “national days” for one day every year. Please use #NationalDayAgainstNationalDays on social media and observe how national days are ruining not only our timelines but our lives." This nationally published plea did not work as there are only two posts for the hashtag and the latest is this article.  So there must be a lot of people with a stake in one or some of those nearly 1,500 National Days, National Weeks and National Months.   There are massive financial implications in these days. Consuming the products being celebrated is the main activity so increased sales is the goal.  The company that runs the National Day Calendar website receives 20,000 applications a year for new celebrations.  Only 25 applications are accepted.  I don't know what makes them limit the number.  It seems that people want more opportunities to talk about silly and inconsequential things.  Avocados turned out to be very popular as a national day. The two days that have been astonishingly successful are Amazon Prime Day in the U.S. and Singles Day in China.  They generated $17 billion in sales.   And there's the draw in these days.  Mostly it is fun and inconsequential things that take the centre stage for a day, with a few monumental celebrations sprinkled in.  Today's?  March 24th 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB). And our pictures today are part of the lead-up to our next celebration of National Model Railroad Month on Tuesday, November 1st 2022.

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Feb 6 2022 - Convoys across the world ... Canadians say Sorry

 

There is a picture on the cbc.ca website from the Ottawa truck protest.  One of the signs has the headline - "Honk if You Failed Civics"  The caption says these are counter-protesters opposed to the demonstration.   Satire is excellent as a weapon.   In Toronto it was reported that the police succeeded in keeping a truck convoy away from the provincial legislature and University Ave. hospitals.  They clogged Bloor Street and Queen Street.  The National Post published a picture with a man holding a sign that said: IM NOT A SACRAFICE FOR THE "GREATER GOOD."  I would suggest there be a counter-protest sign that says "Honk if you failed English" or perhaps "Honk if you failed Spelling".  Perhaps it is optimistic to hope the protestor got as far as English. Given protests are all across Canada, the world news sites are covering the events. CNN, USA Today, The Guardian, ABC News, National Observer, Los Angeles Times, the Time of India, and the Times of Israel all have coverage.   And it seems this might be catching on in other countries.  Australia has its own freedom convoy in Canberra.  It too has GoFundMe funds being questioned and frozen.   There are plans to do the same in Austria.   A person in New Zealand was interviewed as having seen the Canadian truckers and deciding to start her own convoy.  In New Zealand, she'll have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to get on the ferry to go the North Island.  Not a great trend to have started in Canada.  We can give the Canadian response to this:  Sorry. It is a model train day today.

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Jan 30 2022 - Question of the Day or Two

 

I hadn't seen this site before - vocm.com with the Question of the Day.  This is a St. John's,  NL news media organization, so the questions are primarily topical/political.  Today's question is:     You can answer it and look through past questions and see the results HERE.  If we were little people perhaps preschool, our question of the day might be: Are you wearing red today?  Or perhaps: Does your name have the letter Aa in it? At the other end of the adult spectrum, the gratefulness.org site has a daily question and today's is:  What does it mean to live wholeheartedly?  You don't give a yes/no answer, but a "reflection".  Yesterday's question:  My body is a miracle of arts science, and mystery.  What is it teaching me?  There were 47 reflections for that one.  You can find the questions HERE.  We conclude with the book by Al Katkowsky titled Question of the Day.  Life has answers. Make sure you're asking the right questions.  Are you searching for meaning? Or maybe you just want to really get to know someone. This book can help! Perfect for spending time with friends, family or even co-workers, Question of the Day is fun, enlightening, surprising, and revealing—ideal as an ice breaker among willing acquaintances or as a source of deeper conversation among old friends. Get the book HERE.

Jan 12 2022 - A Fishy Story

 

The Globe and Mail had a story on page 2 yesterday - Goldfish learn to drive a robotic car on land.  You can go HERE to see the video of the goldfish.  This is the NBC story with the video and the story starts with this joke: Two fish are in a tank and one says, "Do you know how to drive this thing?" The camera in the “fish-operated vehicle” uses motion sensing technology to send a signal to one of its four wheels whenever a fish swims close to a side of the fish tank. Over time the fish learned that their movements would correspond to the movements of the vehicle. The Globe says:  Some fish are smarter than others.  This brings to mind the mention of the popular myth that a goldfish's memory lasts only a few seconds.  It reminds us of misinformation and disinformation that Snopes is in pursuit of reducing. While Snopes does not address the 3 second attention span of Goldfish, others do. From live science magazine HERE:  "In reality, goldfish have such impressive memories, they're often used as a common model for studying memory and learning in fishes, Brown said. As a result, "there are thousands of studies [on goldfish] that show fish have excellent memories," Brown said. "And the rate of which these studies are being published is growing exponentially." There is always something Snopes has on hand.  Here's their fact-checking item on goldfish:  A 9-pound “goldfish” was caught in a South Carolina lake during a routine electrofishing survey.  TRUE And compare that with a 280-pound catfish caught in Italy in 2015.  There are enough photos of that one to look like it is true.  Two goldfish are in a tank. One turns to the other and says “It’s a bit wet in here” The other says “Wow! A talking fish!” A man walks into a cafe with a goldfish under his arm He asks the owner “do you sell fish cakes?” The owner says no The man says “That’s a shame. It’s his birthday today.”   A railroad scene from Gerry's layout.

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