Sep 20 2023 - No News Now

Metroland is the publisher of community newspapers across Ontario - and it is moving to a digital-only model with only six of its papers in print.  These daily publications include the Hamilton Spectator, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Peterborough Examiner, Welland Tribune, and the Waterloo Region Record.  Isn't that an ouch! We'll still have NewsNow in Grimsby as it is independent. But Niagara This Week will join the online group.  And how did I find that out?  Only by looking at Wikipedia.  The other reports from various newspapers and sources did not give a list. And the Globe and Mail?  That print subscription will be heading towards $1,000  in 2024.  It currently is listed as costing $10.99 per week – not including Sunday ($43.96 per month) for the digital and daily delivery. I looked up the subscription rates for the newspapers.  This is hard work.  There are so many different costs listed.  The Toronto Star is $19.90 per week for the digital edition.  The National Post?  Tuesday thru Saturday 1 month at $45.50/month.  The digital edition is $14.00. And finally, the New York Times?  It is hard to figure that one out - there are so many listings of different rates.  In Canada, it is distributed by the Globe and Mail.   All in the span of 50 years - from the zenith of prestige and the elite, to barely existing.  Our steam engine reminds us of how fast technology changes.

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Sep 17 2023 - Headlines in the News - Stupidity Crisis

 

Headline in the Bing News feed - "A neuroscientist explains why stupidity is an existential threat to America | Opinion by Bobby Azarian - a cognitive neuroscientist and author.   He explains that there is both "collective intelligence" and also "collective stupidity" and they have equal influence. His says that stupidity is a scientific concept that refers to a specific type of cognitive failure.  He theory is that it is a failure to use one's cognitive abilities effectively. You can be "smart" and still have a low IQ or no expertise in anything.  He goes on to explain the Dunning-Kruger effect. That's where individuals overestimate their level of intelligence, knowledge or competence in a particular area.  Ignorance of their ignorance. The worry in America is the politicians who are regularly being elected to office but clearly exhibit the Dunning-Kruger effect.  He goes on to worry about a stupidity crisis that is "threatening the nation." The news source that reported this opinion piece?  It is Raw Story.  There are a few articles by Raw Story in the Bing feed.  Who is this news organization? An American progressive news website founded in 2004 by John K. Byrne - they are bringing attention to stories they see as downplayed or ignored by other media outlets.  They are given mixed reviews - maybe because they are left-leaning.   They have won a number of awards for their stories and the big story they predicted/reported before the event - making it a predictive "breaking-news" story? “We’re gonna kill Congress”: Trump’s far-right supporters promise violence at today’s DC protests,” was published the morning of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, predicting exactly what would happen on that fateful day. Considering this, where should I look for stories and reports now that the internet retrieval is controlled by Google/Bing and similar organizations who are seeking revenue and not information? If we were looking for quality news organizations, who would we choose?  A survey was conducted by Gallup/Knight about Americans' perceptions of the least and most biased news outlets in the US.  The article is HERE.  It is a love and hate story that divides between Republicans and Democrats.  Who is the winner?  The Wall Street Journal - both Democrats and Republicans rated it favourably.  The rest are a story of love and hate.   I've been looking for this image and found it today.  It was taken in 2010 or so and from the Loblaw Warehouse on Queens Quay at Bathurst.

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Sep 9 2023 - More Prison News

 

Here's another "who would have guessed this headline?" Yesterday's escaped murderer holding out in Longwood Gardens is still at large, and the Mushroom Festival - Kennet Square is known for its Portobello Mushroom crop, is set to begin.  There are 400 officers in the search team along with multiple helicopters. Because I searched for the escaped prisoner topic, this promo popped up yesterday.   It is for Kingston Penitentiary.  This seems to me to be  surreal - here's the promo: Pumpkinferno at Kingston Pen "Canada’s oldest penitentiary and popular historical site is about to glow in the dark this Halloween season. How, you may ask? Pumpkinferno is taking over Kingston Pen for the first time ever and showcasing the most elaborate, creative, and spook-tacular glowing pumpkin creations. Here’s what to know. Pumpkinferno at Kingston Pen after dark is new for the site and is sure to round up eager attendees for what’s to be an exciting fall event. You’ll surely find yourself mesmerized “as the historic site is transformed into an enchanted wonderland of glowing pumpkins,” according to Kingston Pen Tours. Guests of all ages are welcome to explore the Jack-O-Lantern exhibit and take pictures of the sculptures." Having been on a tour of the Kingston Pen, it remains a haunting experience for me.  I can't imagine it transforming into frolic fun after-dark.   Here's a picture from our tour a few years ago. There's a wall that I can't imagine being scaled in a crab walk.  But who knows?   We didn't get to Durango or Santa Fe on our Denver trip.   I found this image from the last visit in 2017 - the beautiful white aspen trunks cascade down the mountainside and reflect in the lake below.

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Aug 24 2023 - Forgotten

 

Here are a few things we've forgotten how to do. Memorize ... a phone number Call a family member ... to ask where they are Tell time by looking at the hands on a clock Use a phone book for .... anything Figure out arithmetic in your head Call a theatre to find out movie times Cut things out of the newspaper Look up spelling in the dictionary Use a phone booth Write a letter Sometimes I think we've even forgotten what we did as well as how to do it. And I've had my first experience with Meta blocking news content from Canada.  This is a screen print of a post from the North American Lily Society - it was a link to a news article in Australia about their local lily show.   "News content can't be viewed on facebook"  The new law requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking or otherwise repurposing their content online.  This "hosting of content" without compensation was resolved in Australia 2 years ago where Meta agreed to pay. Since then, it has decided it doesn't want to pay in the range of $130 million annual payments to publishers.  Definitely not Canada. The response is sweeping to my mind. The tech giant has blocked any and every link whatsoever from or to any news organization in any place on the globe.  That must have taken a big work effort to put into effect.     I think this Flexifly image looks like "the eyes of technology" staring at us.

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Feb 25 2023 - Why I Like the Weather

 

The weather is in the more benign range of news these days.  It does have the disadvantage of a lot of ads - particularly windows that pop up and squish out the actual weather news.  And it does have that strange scrolling "news ads" section at the bottom.  But what makes it in the benign range is that it doesn't have the comments section where people with low levels of grammatical literacy and spelling plow their rows of opinion into mountains of emotion.  What makes news sites have comments sections given these toxic levels of comments? Wikipedia says: "The comments section is a feature on most online blogs, news websites, and other websites in which the publishers invite the audience to comment on the published content. This is a continuation of the older practice of publishing letters to the editor." Editors-in-chief say this about commenting:  "Too often they devolve into racist, misogynistic maelstroms where the loudest, most offensive, and stupidest opinions get pushed to the top and the more reasoned responses drowned out in the noise.” Take away the comments, and traffic declines on sites without comments.  The Pynter.orgwebsite says it might be worse to have no comment section than to have one.  They say the New York Times has actually invested in online commenting - moderating comments is a required activity if news sites are going to have comments.   Moderation isn't a simple activity.  Take a look at the Guardian's articles with comments HERE. i picked the article "Ten years ago I won a trip to New York.  If this happened today I'd delete the email."  I took a screen shot of the two Guardian Pick comments. It is tantalizing, isn't it? What better way to get you to sign in to read more. And there we have it - the difference between free-for-all and "managed".   Our comment less forecast: We've got snow and rain ahead in the next two weeks.  Here's a rainy day picture below.  Driving rain against the windows of the bus along a Toronto street.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

November - the Month of Black Fridays

 

I wonder now about how many days there are to Black Friday?  Is November the month of Black Fridays where every day is a Black Friday sale day?  I have to think this might be causing us to be more depressed in November than in previous years and decades.  It used to be for 24 hours on the day after Thanksgiving,  but it is November 13th today and Michael's tells me they have Black Friday Blow-out deals.   It has turned out that Black Friday is at least a whole week or even two weeks.   Google says it can run all of November and beyond.   Yesterday in the Best Buy store, it had signs to say it is Black Friday Month.  It looks like we've moved on from "can" to "does extend a whole month".  That's how we've gotten to Early Black Friday.  Is there a Late Black Friday - no we have Cyber Monday?  And what beyond that? Can you imagine celebrating a sale day based on two people who caused a market crash:  That's the origin of the name Black Friday?  The term "Black Friday" was first coined in 1869 when two investors, Jay Gould, and Jim Fisk, caused a market crash by driving up the price of gold. As a result, the stock market dropped 20%, foreign trade stopped, and farmers witnessed a huge drop in corn and wheat value.  That's the origins. The other story is that  the day after Thanksgiving is  "Black Friday" because stores would go from operating at a loss or being "in the red," to earning a profit or being "in the black."  That came along in the 1980s, and is the one that stuck.  Black Friday has become Brawl Friday - where shoppers become so excited over these supposed discount prices that they fight and brawl.  The Black Friday jokes mostly involve this activity.  And rightly so as there is a Black Friday death count HERE.   It says 17 deaths and 125 injuries.  That seems to be recorded in the news counting. So expect macabre humour in the jokes section: What do Black Friday shoppers and the Thanksgiving turkey have in common? They know what it’s like to be stuffed and jammed into a small space. Black Friday: Because only in America do people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have. Every year on Black Friday I make sure I wake up extra early.  To go on the internet to see all the fights. Looks like our picture of the day is about "Old News".  I am likely very slow in catching up to Black Friday Month. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 4 2020 - Horoscopes Vs Bridge

Some days I do a search on what is the daily news.  I know the news today so don't really know what made me search for   "News today June 4 2020."  The top retrieval will be coronavirus.  What was the second one?  It was the daily horoscope,  and just down the page is this surprise: Bridge: June 4, 2020 - The Mercury News.  Playing today's four spades, he ruffed West's ace of diamonds and took the A-K of trumps... Like a horse race, I wonder if bridge has made it to the front of the line. But don't underestimate the horoscope as news;  there are two more horoscope headlines.  So for today, it looks like horoscope wins by at least a head, and maybe a neck.    How popular is bridge if we compare it to horoscopes? Worldwide 200 million people play bridge.  25 million people in the U.S. are bridge players. The American Federation of Astrologers put the number of Americans who read their horoscope every day as high as 70 million, about 23 percent of the population. So wouldn't that mean that horoscopes has won by 3 lengths in the horse race of news.  Or maybe it is much more.  Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths - an astonishing record that will remain for decades. It takes skill to play bridge while it only takes basic reading for a horoscope. So much easier to play at horoscopes.  And we have a lot more invested in what's going to happen to us each day.  So my bet stays with horoscopes as winning by a lot. Our pictures today are courtesy of special effects software by flaming pear  - flexifly for bending and twisting images and flood for creating wave reflections.

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May 6 2020 - Horoscopes or Sinkholes - News today

Searching for news today?  Your horoscope comes up on top. Can a horoscope be news?   The Times of India thinks it is and is predicting some long distance travel.  The Chicago Sun Times horoscope has a "Moon Alert" which is:  We have the all clear to shop and do business.  The moon is in Scorpio.  Should we thank the moon in Scorpio for opening up the stores? On the other hand, there is real news in terms of it being sinkhole season.  Spring and summer are the worst because frozen water underneath the surface will start to flow again.  A sinkhole in Central Saanich B.C. was in the news yesterday.  You know the headline:  It just opened up!  That's because that's what sinkholes do. There are permanent world wonder sinkholes.  The one that comes to mind is the Great Blue Hole - a giant submarine sinkhole in Belize.   Here's a picture of the Great Blue Hole - just over a thousand feet across and 407 feet deep and within a massive reef that can be seen from space.  It was made famous by Jacques Cousteau in 1971 who brought his ship, the Calypso to chart it.     The top fives is a YouTube channel with video of 5 sinkholes - two of the videos are real-time with the sinkhole consuming a dump trunk, and then opening up in a highway full of cars.  The video is Here.  Today's picture is a calmer sight, and was taken last Friday in Queenston.  This is the historic town of Laura Secord who saved the country, and William Lyon MacKenzie whose printing press is the oldest in Canada. Here's one of its prettiest  heritage houses with an ancient Magnolia tree in the front.

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Help Me Headlines

Why do parrots make such great news?  We just don't expect them to make the headlines with a desperate cry to help.  But wait, today I again saw the "Help Me" headline - so let's see what it's about. CNN recently carried a story of concerned drivers who called police in California after seeing a child hold up a sign with a plea for help - "Help me, she's not my mom!! Help!!"   Poor mother got stopped by police in Sacramento,  who found out it was "a hoax" and "a joke".  The police quote: "This is a reminder that parents need to keep an eagle eye on their children." That was it for children hoax news.  There weren't any other articles like this. What I did find, though, was the "Momo Challenge Hoax" which was covered widely in the press.   The 'Momo Challenge" -  the stories about 'momo' were that she would appear on children's phones unexpectedly and set dangerous challenges to harm themselves.  She's a zombie looking doll figure with bulging black eyes and the body of a chicken. (The original figure has been traced to a Japanese special-effects company Link Factory).   It turns out to have been images that has been found edited into unofficial copies of children's cartoons on YouTube.  Snopes investigated it and identified it as "far more hype or hoax than reality", but warned the images could cause distress to children. Here's the BBC Story on it. On our immediate horizon is the call for a 5 to 10 centimetre snowfall, followed by rain today.  It has dropped from the earlier warning level of 15 cm. In comparison, Newfoundland experienced 51 cm of snow yesterday and today is getting more - up to a total of 75 cm is expected. This will include gusts of wind as high as 120 km per hour.  They are in a state of emergency. So to bring things around to calmness, I found a wonderful image of Notre Dame Cathedral that I'd taken 15 years ago - of course with a new sky.

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Jan 17 2020 - In the Parrot News Today

I hadn't realized that parrots make great news headlines and stories.  Here are a few: "Let Me Out" Neighbours call cops after hearing a woman scream  "Let Me Out" from man's house, turns out it's his pet parrot. According to the man, the bird, who is now 40 years old, has been with him since he was a kid.  He also revealed that he taught his pet to scream like that just to annoy his mom and dad.  Little did he know that it would get him in trouble years later Freddy the parrot makes it back to zoo after being stolen, shot and bitten by snake An Amazonian parrot called Freddy Krueger has made headlines in Brazil after managing to find its way back to the zoo from which it was stolen while recovering from a four-year nightmare that saw it shot in a gun battle, abducted by armed thieves and bitten by a snake. Freddy was first brought to the zoo about four years ago, having been severely injured in a shootout between police and gangsters during a raid on the drug den where he had lived with his villain owner. Freddy’s ordeal was far from over. Earlier this month, the parrot was reportedly bitten on the leg by a snake – thankfully of a non-venomous variety. Freddy bled profusely but survived, only to be stolen days later when three armed raiders burst into Cascavel’s zoo, overpowered its security guard and made off with two parrots and a cylinder of gas. Two days later, however, Freddy returned, discovered by zoo staff at the foot of a pine tree beside his cage.  The details of Freddy’s comeback remain murky, although drops of blood found near his former abode have fuelled speculation that the notoriously aggressive parrot bit his way out. Police seize 'super obedient' lookout parrot trained by Brazilian drug dealers According to reports in the Brazilian press, the bird had been taught to alert criminals to police operations in Vila Irmã Dulce, a low-income community in the sun-scorched capital of Piauí state, by shouting: “Mum, the police!” London parrot makes online purchase by mimicking owner A pet parrot managed to place an online shopping order by mimicking its owner on a voice-controlled smart speaker, a British newspaper reported Wednesday.  Buddy the parrot ordered a £10 ($16.67) set of gift boxes via Amazon's Alexa voice-controlled system, The Sun reported. Addicted parrots raid poppy farms Poppy farmers in India are saying their crops are being damaged by parrots that have become addicted to the opium in their plants. Our sky replacement continues today.  These images are from Charles Daly Park a few years ago.  Willow trees show their best colours in late November. We had a hard frost before the middle of November this year, so missed out on this show.  The moisture-laden sky in November brings out the beautiful colour of the tree.

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News of the Weird

There is a News of The Weird.  Here are two recent stories:  You’re Screwed If you’ve experienced one (or more) flat tires in Sherburne County, Minn., over the last few weeks, News of the Weird is now able to tell you why. Jeffrey Caouette, 63, of Elk River admitted to authorities in late August that he had purchased 55 pounds of sheetrock screws (that’s more than 12,000 screws) and scattered them on local roads to “slow down” a person he believed was in a relationship with his ex-girlfriend. Specifically, KSTP reported, he put the screws on the road where he believed the man lived and on the roads between that house and the ex-girlfriend’s house, among others. The arrest complaint notes that Big Lake police have received more than 100 reports of damage from the screws, including to three of their own vehicles. Caouette was charged with first-degree property damage.  Eye of the Beholder In downtown Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, someone left a plate of macaroni and cheese, complete with fork, sitting atop a steel road barrier on Tuesday, Aug. 27, which caught the interest of a Reddit poster. No one knew where it came from or if someone would be back to retrieve it, but a day later, an anonymous citizen made it into an art installation, reported CTV News, by adding a museum-like tag beside it: Abandoned Snack (2019)—macaroni and sundried tomato on ceramic—Unknown Artist, reads the placard. Today we get a mid-shot of the Arbutus tree and its peeling bark.

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