June 9 2024 - What Coconut Crabs Had for Dinner

 

The headline worth sharing today:  Crabs  'The Size of Cats' Said to be Biggest in the World May Have Eaten Amelia Earhart  The fact that it comes from Knewz tells me that the headline is the highlight and the rest will be a slide downhill into disappointment.   But not today.  That's because the story actually came out in 2017 and is replicated in many places.   "According to this unproven theory, coconut crabs on the island of Nikumaroro may have come upon Earhart's body after she crash-landed and dismembered her remains. Parts of a skeleton whose measurements "matched the description of Amelia Earhart" were discovered on Nikumaroro by a British colonial officer in 1940, and then lost to history."   That source is Newsweek.  They provide the rebuttal in their article:  "Every credible historian says Earhart's Lockheed Electra ran out of fuel and sank in almost 20,000 feet of water. It's expensive and difficult to look in the deep ocean, but I promise you that's where she'll ultimately be found."  And concludes with:  Whether or not the Earhart theory is correct, the idea has kept an incredible, terrifying creature in a strange kind of limelight. Go check out the long list of headlines on this topic.

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Nov 10 2023 - Pareidolia

 

thought Pareidolia was something ordinary - we find faces in everything, especially the example below of the moon's surface.  That's a famous example. "A psychological phenomenon in which the mind perceives a specific image or pattern where it does not actually exist, such as seeing a face in the clouds. Pareidolia can be used to explain a host of otherwise unexplained sightings. E.g. Alex was sure he saw a human face on the moon’s surface, but it was more likely to be pareidolia." One definition says "think of the Rorschacht inkblot test".  It is now considered part of normal human experience rather than a mental disorder.   The EarthSky website asks this question:  Did pareidolia lead to the creation of the constellations? Their answer: "To a certain extent, the definition of pareidolia can explain why the ancients connected the dots and came up with the patterns we know as constellations. It does not take a great deal of imagination to see a lion in Leo, a scorpion in Scorpius, or a mighty hunter in Orion. To be honest, many other constellations, such as Cancer the Crab or Capricornus the Sea Goat, stretch the pattern recognition idea a bit far, making the naming process more one of contrivance than of pareidolia."

Here are examples of Pareidolia from an article. The study found that faces are more often thought to be male rather than female. The chart shows the supposed age of the faces as well.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Oct 24 2023 - Naked Wardrobe

 

OK - we're at a realization moment.  There's an ad for Naked Wardrobe - this is skin-tight, shiny bodysuits, dresses, biker- shorts and similar other things. Elle magazine used this expression "late-night-ready pieces".   The Elle article asked a number of questions of the three designers.  Here's my favourite: "When people hear Naked Wardrobe, what type of woman do you want them to envision? Shideh: Every woman. It’s the woman going to the club, going on a date, going to the store, or even the one at the gym.  Shida: Well that’s your interpretation. When I think about the girl who wears Naked Wardrobe, I think about a fabulous, sexy woman who also loves to be comfortable. She’s your everyday girl who loves to look amazing while doing her day-to-day tasks.  Shirin: She’s just a bad bitch. Simple." When you look at the clothes - take a look HERE at the dresses.  I think they are called body con dresses. They are worn by a girl with a rather large behind.  I would expect one of the Kardashians might be an inspiration for this clothing style.   You won't be surprised to find out it is Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Beyonce wear the clothes.  The clothes definitely belong at something that is very late-night.

Here's a beautiful flower - Brugmansia or Angel's Trumpet.  It has a beautiful scent at night.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 31 2023 - All Fired Up

 

With climate change we now have to learn the fire verbs.  It snow, it rains, but it doesn't fire.  Lately we see the verb to blaze, and that's equivalent to blizzard.  I wonder if there will be a meteorological word for wild fires. So far there is burn, rage, deviate and blaze.   I checked out the wildfire glossary - it is from British Columbia and is HERE.  There are no fire-related words starting with A, but B has blow-up - a sudden and unexpected major increase in rate of spread... Can meteorologists help fight wildfires?  It seems they can.  As Incident Meteorologists, they camp out with fire crews and help fire crews to plan operations.   On the other hand, there have been a number of meteorologists "fired" for various reasons.

This is one of Floyd Elzinga's works - it looks like the hills are "ablaze".

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Oct 11 2022 Castles in Canada

 

How many castles are there in England?  There are over 4,000 castles.  There many that are famous and spectacular - think Windsor Castle and Tower of London.   How many castles in Canada?  There are 12 castles or maybe 15 castles to visit.  Think Casa Loma, Dundurn Castle, Castle Kilbride.  Quite a different scale than in England and many in use as hotels, so sort of castles.  And the Canadian list on Wikipedia with more than 60 includes mansions.   There are pictures of them so you take a little trip around Canada's great residences of the past.   The one of interest, the Midlothian, is not on the Wikipedia list.  It is located way north of Toronto.  I consider  north of Huntsville to be way up there.  It is famous for the owner, Peter Camani's sculptures named Screaming Heads.  These are sculptures on the grounds which seem to all have an expression of screaming.  His website is HERE.  Each year, he holds a Harvest Festival in September.  The U.S. has Burning Man and Canada has Screaming Heads. It is very entertaining to look at the images of Screaming Heads on bing.com.  Lots of Peter Camani's iconic massive sculptures, and then some stupid and silly stock images.  Here's a video on the sculpture gardens HERE.  There are more than screaming heads there. I took this multiple exposure picture of sumacs yesterday.  The colours were so bright and intense that a little desaturation was needed.  Reality outdid photoshop for once.

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Aug 25 2022 - DIY

 

DIY - Do It Yourself.  This had to start after the advent of television.  Before that, we did things ourselves.  We made things like clothes, furniture, canned food, and anything that could be done without paying money.  There wasn't surplus money for things.  In fact, there was rationing after the war in many countries.  So people did without many things. But the boom of the 50s and 60s saw the advent of consumerism where DIY gave status to the common person.  When I was young we sewed our clothes, canned food, made basic furniture.  Those were things that people who didn't have enough money did.  If we had enough money, we went out and bought most of those things. the self-worth and creativity of a person was demonstrated through their DIY .   Basic DIYs were taught to children in school.  They were called home-making and shop skills. There was no DIY phrase in home-economics when I was a child in the 1950s.  We passed or failed making aprons, skirts, dresses, and cooking mint peas and blanc mange.   My sense is that while DIY began in the U.S. in the 1950s, it was the 1960s counterculture with the "back to the land" movement that made it very popular in the media.  It was that Whole Earth Catalog in late 1968 that cemented the self-sufficiency ethic as a prestigious movement. The media got a hold of how to present home economics and shop as a DIY activity on steroids.  I think ofThis Old House and Martha Stewart.   None of us would do what Bob Villa did -  all those massive renovations. But it was fun to watch Bob explain them all.  Where did it go?  It evolved into blogs and websites  and everyday Hacks by the common man.  What insights do our DIY jokes bring?  Not many, and mostly mediocre, but here are a few: I wanted to buy some literature on DIY shelving.  Sounds easy, but try going into a book store and asking if they have "any books on shelves." I tried to build a DIY Stair Master...The instructions were only a few steps, but they went on forever. I bought a few pieces for my DIY orchestra today - some ensemble required. A man was doing some DIY work on his gas stove, when it all of a sudden blew up and sent him flying through his roof and up into the sky.  On his way up he passed a man falling down from the sky and asked him: “Hey, you know anything about gas stoves?” The guy falling responded, “Nope, you know anything about parachutes?”

These are canna leaves.  This is the time of year to find them and get abstract prints like these.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

March 31 2022 - The Slap Trending Now

 

Let's say something in the news has got your attention. You could participate in moment by moment action on that topic given how news is delivered non-stop today. And wouldn't the news be  "The Will Smith Slap".  Or is it "The Will Smith Smack?" Everyone has weighed in with their opinions.   The latest is Whoopi Goldberg, on the Academy Board with the headline : "Will Smith 'overreacted,' according to Whoopi Goldberg, who believes the actor will not accept his Academy Award."   "Now, comedian Whoopi Goldberg has spoken out, stating unequivocally that Will’s award will not be rescinded by the Academy. The 66-year-old co-host said on Monday, March 28, on an episode of ‘The View,’ that Will Smith, who won the award for Best Actor for his performance in ‘King Richard’ shortly after abusing the host on stage, is keeping it. “We’re not taking his Oscar away from him,” she added." And so on...and on and on because she co-hosts the American "conversation" show The View. The impact on ratings of "The Slap" was another headline.  Viewership for the Oscars on ABC grew by 511,000 viewers during the 15 minute time span that featured Will Smith slapping... and then spiked to 614,000 viewers during his acceptance speech.  And how will this get monetized?  Absolutely - the Will Smith Slap Token - a newly-created cryptocurrency named "Will Smith Slap Token." And will this benefit Chris Rock?  Absolutely - Chris Rock's ticket sales doubled after the Will Smith Slap.  He received multiple standing ovations in his first appearance after "The Slap".  The report says:    "He spent much of the night skewering celebrities and politicians. Among them were the Duchess of Sussex, the Kardashians, as well as President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and former President Donald Trump.   Outside the venue, a fan showed off a T-shirt featuring the “G.I. Jane” logo and Pinkett Smith’s face. Another had a shirt he made that showed Smith's face and displayed a crude joke about the couple's relationship." Such a tornado, a whirlwind, a tsunami of responses and coverage.  Is this the number 1 trend on Google?  No - that goes to the public announcement of Bruce Willis' diagnosis of Aphasia made public.   Will Smith's slap is now being referred to as "Slapgate." This seems to imply an ongoing situation to be investigated and analyzed for a long time to come.   I blasted apart some of my images of The Ladder - I found a filter on Flexifly that turns a picture in 72 pieces.  Then the two images were merged in Photoshop.  I like the effect - it seems to match the Slap story.  What do you think?

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Jan 29 2022 - Do Birds Get Cold Feet?

 

When I look out at the birds on the feeder, I see those tiny little legs and funny little feet and want to know how their feet don't get cold.  Various sources tell me that they do get cold feet. "In the winter, as feathered friends flock to your feeders, it’s hard not to wonder about what happens to their little, unprotected feet, especially when they cling to snowy branches and metal feeder perches. Do songbirds get cold feet in the winter, and if so, are their toes in danger of frostbite? Or worse? The short answer is yes. However, unlike humans and other animals, cold feet don't pose a problem for birds. In fact, birds' feet and legs are designed to offer them some protection when the temperature drops. There are two main reasons that birds aren't affected by cold feet: 1. Blood circulates through the legs and feet of birds very quickly, and blood vessels in this part of the body are positioned closely together. Because of this, blood doesn't have a chance to cool enough in their legs to cause discomfort or distress. Due to this quick circulation, their blood is quickly warmed in their core before being sent back to the feet. 2. Bird legs and feet have very few pain receptors and little fluid. The surface is dry and scaly, with no moisture, which means they don’t have to worry about their feet freezing and getting stuck to metal perches, even on a cold and snowy day." That's from lyricbirdfood.com I do know that birds don't pee - instead they poop that white pasty messy stuff - it is uric acid. And as we now from having received a bird gift,  it doesn't dissolve in water easily to wash off. It sticks just like white plaster. In the meantime, these fascinating facts about Hummingbirds attracted my attention:  The average man would need to eat around 285 pounds of meat per day if they had the metabolism of a hummingbird.   hummingbirds weigh less than a nickel.  Hummingbirds are so small that they have fewer than 1,000 features - compare that to the Whistling Sea with 25,000 feathers.   They are the only bird that can fly backwards but they can't walk or hop. A flock of hummingbirds is known as a bouquet, a glittering, a hover, a shimmer or a tune. A hummingbird and a scientist walk into a bar... Nah, just kidding, hummingbirds can't walk. Two colourful abstracts today to distract from our white winter wonderland.

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Oct 9 2021 - Singing like Sweet Adelines

 

Choirs are returning to practice.  There are special masks for singing. The website choralcanada.org has information on them.  There is a mask on the Broadway relief project website and it is available there.  The Singer’s Mask was developed by singers FOR singers by Broadway professionals to help contain droplets while allowing space around the mouth to sing comfortably. There's information on the mask HERE. You can buy music and masks from the same sites now - JWpepper.com has lots of masks.  There are also masks for various wind instrument players.   So this seems extremely encouraging - as though choir singing can begin again this Fall.  But that doesn't seem to be the case - there's a very cautious set of guidelines in Ontario. The Region of Halton published this update of Ontario COVID guidelines/requirements on September 17th: Adapt or suspend singing, choirs, and the playing of wind or brass instruments. Consider audio or video recordings instead of live singing or wind or brass instrumental music.  Group singing is strongly discouraged. The number of persons singing should be limited to the fewest possible. Anyone singing or playing wind or brass instruments should be separated from others by a barrier and should maintain two metres (six feet) distance from others. The conclusion seems to be that safe masks for singers will be for professionals, and us amateurs have a while to wait. The important key indicator of when singing would be safer is having fully vaccinated singers.  Canada has over 80% of the eligible population fully vaccinated, but that isn't the case in the US at all.  So websites that are dominantly US are negative on singing. Our image today is titled "Bubble Up".

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Aug 2 2021 - When sports isn't fun

 

It is weird to me is that there is no time limit on sports events.  I found an article on all the longest occurring sports events. There's a tennis match that took 11 hours covering 3 days. A baseball game in 1981 started at 7 pm and continued until 4 am and it wasn't finished. That game was stopped and started back up in two months and had 32 innings. In the Olympics, the notable record is for the longest wrestling match in the history of the games. It took more than 11 hours.  Alfred Asikainen vs. Martin Klein (1912) is considered one of the most epic of sporting battles. It had a political sub-plot: Estonian wrestler Martin Klein (who had decided to represent Russia) met Finland's Alfred Asikainen at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Despite Russia having dominion over Finland, the Finnish were allowed to fly their own flag, much to the chagrin of the Russians.  When the two wrestlers met in the semi-finals, neither wanted to let their respective motherlands down. Their 11 hour and 40 minute duel was almost inevitable. In the end it was the Russian who came out on top.  Klein was so exhausted he couldn't fight in the final the next day, automatically handing the gold medal to a Swedish wrestler. Asikainen, on the other hand, returned home a nationalist hero. Today we have an interpretive lily picture - the lilies have mostly finished blooming in the field. The tomatoes take over our attention now.

Oct 28 2020 Halloween Colours - A Retail Decision?

 

What makes for Halloween's black and orange theme colours?  It seems obvious:  pumpkins and fall colours, along with the darkest night of the dead and ghosts arising ancient ritual.  There's a website to answer this question:  Isle of Halloween.  I took a look and it doesn't say much more.  I guess the commercialization of Halloween cemented the colour combination.  The Irish are credited with bringing Halloween traditions to the US in 1840. Postcards and die-cut paper decorations started in the 1900s and costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s and my generation remembers candies available in the stores in the 1950s.   What the Daily Mail calls a 'department store invention' seems to be the standard development of all of our purchasing holidays.   The marker for Halloween is Anoka, Minnesota, known as the Halloween Capital of the  World since 1920. It is the first city in America to officially hold a Halloween celebration, in an effort to divert kids from pulling pranks like tipping outhouses and letting cows loose to run around on Main Street. The town organized a parade and spent the weeks prior planning and making costumes. Treats of popcorn, peanuts and candy to any children who participated in the parade, followed by a huge bonfire in the town square. The event grew over time and has been held every year since 1920.  So here we are in the COVID year, finding out that Halloween turns out to be the most popular celebrated holiday of the year. More of the leaves images today.  The scanner is immense fun and very restrictive in space.  It demands simplicity in design.

Oct 27 2020 - Halloween and the Darkest Night Fun

 

NASA is going to share an exciting new discovery - it is something about there being more water on the Moon than previously thought, including water in a sunlit region.  The announcement is at noon today. At the other end of the spectrum, we have this weekend's celebration of the darkness of the haunted corn mazes and farms in Ontario.  They are open after dark for a night full of Halloween terror.  Fonthill boasts the Howell Family Pumpkin Farm.  I found it by accident one year on a drive for fall foliage.  There were hundreds of cars parked along the country road and in the field with people everywhere.  They are open this year - they have removed the live show and the hay play but have kept the corn maze, train ride, and jumping pillow. You will see lots of little children and families at this attraction. Niagara Falls is lit up for Halloween this year with vivid orange illumination.   Niagara Falls tourism includes a number of Lundy Lane attractions on the scary theme. Even Niagara on the Lake has Ghost Walks and Ghost tours of Fort George. Our picture is Witch Hazel leaves  on the scanner.  They look like flames of fire.

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Are You Professional?

The five traditional professions are architecture, clergy, engineering, law and medicine (in alphabetical order). They are also considered the most prestigious  - perhaps over thousands of years, prestige and respect have accumulated. A profession has special characteristics - advanced qualification and training is important.  Also attributed to top professions is a sense of service with the implication of a broader meaning involving moral or ethical foundations and practices.   So where are we today in terms of the top professions? Have things changed? The World Economic Forum has an article on the world's most respected professions around the world.  Here's their top ten list: 1. Doctor 11.6 2. Lawyer  9.5 3. Engineer 9.1 4. Head Teacher  8.1 5. Police Officer  7.8 6. Nurse 7.4 7. Accountant 7.3 8. Local Government Manager 7.3 9 Management Consultant 7.1 10. Secondary School Teacher 7.0 I wondered about the difference between third world and first world countries.  I  went in search of an American Poll and found a 2014 Harrison Poll indicates that American adults identify doctors, military officers, firefighters, scientists, nurses, engineers, police officers, clergy, architects and athletes.  There is another Harris Poll that includes a few new ones: video game developer, entrepreneur, chef, musician, EMT, journalist, and veterinarian. So a little variation is coming forward now. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) has determined that out of 800 occupations,  chief executive or general administrator, public administration top the list.  Manager, medicine and health is second.  You can see the article HERE.   In my search I found some funny answers and websites: one is called askmen - astronaut tops their list over doctors. Prestigious and exclusive. I've been looking over at the cemetery with the Japanese Maple that surrounds a tombstone.  I haven't taken any pictures as the colours are not great this year - maybe colours will come later, or maybe the leaves will fly first. These pictures are from last year.

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