Fear & Looting in Las Vegas

Isn't it ironic that 'fear and looting' retrieves 'fear and loathing' in google,  but that 'fear and loathing' is transformed to 'fear and looting' in spell checking.  That was in yesterday's story. There is such a thing as 'fear and looting' - in America, in Peru, in Egypt, the French Caribbean, in St. Martin, ini Johannesburg, and 'sex' is added to the article about stories of the Blitz.  One can play Fear & Looting at casinos as well. Is there anything to loot in Las Vegas?  Supposedly the Looting in Las Vegas article is about the 9% room tax to fund the convention centre and that there shouldn't be such a tax.  Then there is a more intriguing article about casino owner, Ted Binion's murder and the looting of his $3.5 billion coin and ingot collection buried in underground vaults. Real looting certainly happens in Egypt.  The underground global economy of illicit antiquities has been estimated at $2 billion per year. Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama counted 10,000 looting pits using high-resolution imagery from space.  She has done all kinds of discovery with satellite imagery - she used satellite imagery to detect possible remains of a Norse/Viking presence at Point Rosee, Newfoundland.  Parcak is an Egyptologist, and has been documenting tombs and collecting images and GPS coordinates to assemble a database to answer questions about ancient Egyptian life. National Geographic partially funds Parcak's work for the database. Her discoveries include the tombs at Lisht. She was  recognized with the 2018 Lowell Thomas award and is a 2016 TED Prize winner.  She has helped locate 17 lost pyramids, more than 1,000 tombs and more than 3,100 potential ancient settlements in Egypt.  Egypt's Minister of Antiquities denies these numbers. Her website says: "She aims to revolutionize how modern archaeology is done altogether, by creating a global network of citizen explorers, opening field schools to guide archaeological preservation on the ground, developing an archaeological institute, and even launching a satellite designed with archaeology in mind".  Here's her website HERE.  She invites us to become an explorer. My recent explorations on holiday were focused on Arbutus tree bark.  Here are a few of them.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com

Harry Potter Party Time

At yesterday's Grimsby Festival of Arts meeting, we were in agreement that Harry Potter activities would be popular with the children. I found the pottermore.com site and then the harrypotter-games.net - these are big, commercial sites.  So I moved on to the trivia and quiz sites. Finally I checked out Harry Potter Party Supplies and Harry Potter party games.  There are 31 ways to throw the ultimate Harry Potter Birthday Party according  buzzfeed.com - a fun article. Are there Harry Potter jokes? There are lots of Harry Potter jokes: On a scale from one to ten, how obsessed with Harry Potter are you? About nine and three quarters. Why did Professor Snape stand in the middle of the road? So you'll never know which side he's on. What do you call a Hufflepuff with one brain cell? Gifted. What do you call a Hufflepuff with two brain cells? Pregnant. How many Muggles does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One. It is the only thing they are good for. source: http://www.jokes4us.com/celebrityjokes/harrypotterjokes.html (We could start on Lord of the Rings jokes: What do you call a hobbit party? A little get together. )   Today's pictures are colour interpretations of tree bark and come from the landscape of Pasadena.  I wanted to create a sense of precious stones and metals.

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".

Abstracts of Autumn

As Autumn colours emerge, the abstract landscape develops also.  Here are some images done with motion blur - moving the camera with a slow shutter speed.  

The Autumn Orchard

Blood Grass - In Flames