Marilyn's Photos - Jan 31st 2026 - Counting Winter Months

 

I observe winter as December, January and February - the meteorological definition.   That means that we 2/3 of the way through winter.  With February the month of hearts  and flowers, we can have a sense of optimism and good spirits for the rest of the winter.   However, there was a blow to the garden community’s February.  I found out yesterday  that the Orchid Society is not having their annual show at the Royal Botanical Gardens on February 7th.  Each year, it displays hundreds of special and rare orchids grown by amateurs and professionals.  Sellers fill the atrium with wonderful and diverse orchid plants for sale.   Last year the RBG had the Alice in Wonderland Show with a “competing”  display of Phalaenopsis orchids - thousands of flowers on display and also many for sale. It was unpleasant.  What was the RBG thinking?  It seemed like a competitive show to the Orchid Show weekend or a disregard for the society’s special weekend. We will have to wait until next year to find out if there is a resolution with RBG, or if there will be an orchid show at another venue.  Hamilton’s Gage Park would be fantastic. At least we are 2/3 through winter if you count things meteorologically.  Here’s an orchid from a past show - the background is one of my motion blue images. This is one of the last year’s show displays of Phalaenopsis orchids - the common name is moth orchid, and these are the ones available in grocery stores and very easy to grow.

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Mar 27 2025 - Do this every night

 

If you were in a contest and had to give advice on what things a person should do every night, what would you advise?  My only suggestion:   Brush your teeth.  Am I out of the picture on this. Other people have a whole lot more advice than this:  Prepare Your Breakfast. One of the biggest time-sucks in the morning is preparing breakfast Lay Out Your Clothes For the Next Day. You can save precious time in the morning by … Put Everything You’ll Need by the Door. Pack your bag or briefcase with everything that you’ll...  Review Your Day. You’ve probably heard that journaling for a few minutes is a good way to … There are 6 more things you should do in this top article.  There are 15 things that womensalphabet.com thinks we should do every night.  That's 5 more than the first article.   And which of the following  articles draws your attention? Remember to complete each sentence with "every night" 6 easy cleaning tasks 10 awesome things  12 super relaxing things 11 things successful people do 6 little things sleep doctors actually do 7 things men should do 7 stoic things you must do  5 movements to do  Once you wake up, then there are things you should do every morning: 5 things to do for an amazing day 15 healthy things 30 morning routine ideas for a happy 5 best should and neck stretches 9 morning routine habits for a happier start 10 things highlight successful people do  6 little things sleep doctors actually do  13 things the happiest healthiest women do So you went to bed doing these "n" things, got up and did these "n" things and now the day is underway.  Do these "n" things: 30 things you should do every day to make your life better 74 examples of daily activities 60 daily routines examples 10 productive things 7 life-changing exercises And Google?  It lists 250 articles out of a supposed153,000,000 results in the big cloud database. Its conclusion at that point "There are no results for do this every day during the day."

Orchids at RBG. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 5 2025 =- Starliner Astronauts to return

 

I want the news on the internet to be news.  I guess it is if you like old news.  Then is it news?  I know this from asking the question: "When" will the Starliner astronauts return?  I went through five articles with no return date indicated.  Just a rehash of the past storyline.   The story is in the news because of a new delay - switching out with a new Crew Dragon spacecraft for the mission.  But I still don't see any date in March given in the articles.  Just that March is the month. The team will have been in space for 9 months. Space has a lower gravity field which means time has passed at a faster rate than on Earth.  One hour in space equals about 0.999999999 hour on Earth.  And with the noticeable changes in Suni's appearance  - especially her hair turning white - it seems like time has "flown by" while they've been there. March down here is when the Victoria Blossom Count happens.  That's today. Yes, it is spring in Victoria.  Sydney won last year.  People counted 17,405,364,740 blossoms.  This is a community challenge in Greater Victoria and it is the 50th Annual Count. It started as a tourist promotion.  On the website, they call it a light-hearted event.  Sounds rather Canadian.

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Jan 24 2025 - Robot Bees

 

How would I keep up with science developments without Bob MacDonald's Science show on CBC radio each week.   There are robot bees.  What a good application of robotics.  Not that I want to get rid of bees but we've been losing them at a terrible rate.   "MIT researchers are designing robotic insects capable of swarming from mechanical hives to handle precise pollination tasks efficiently." This is for indoor vertical farming where the environment can be managed.  An MIT article on the subject is HERE.   Aren't there all kinds of questions?  I would guess they don't sting.  What do robot bee hives look like?  All kinds of things to imagine.  And there are robotic beehives for real bees: "Beehome is Beewise’s newly designed beehive that includes precision robotics, computer vision and AI. It enables constant monitoring of the bees, using AI to observe their needs in real-time. Beewise does not alter what beekeepers traditionally do. Rather, it augments their work by upgrading the traditional, 150-year-old beehive." There are threats to beehives from Asian wasps and murder hornets, fires and floods, so keeping our bees safe is important.  A third of food production, more than 70% of crop fertilization - all pollinated by bees. There's more about them in the Forbes article HERE.      This wall of orchids is from a visit to Longwood Gardens a few years ago.  How many flowers would you guess are in the picture?

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Feb 29 2024 - Technology Luddites

 

There are numerous articles  that tell me the original tech luddites were skilled machine operators.   "In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, what they objected to were the specific ways that tech was being used to undermine their status, upend their communities and destroy their livelihoods. So they took sledgehammers to the mechanized looms used to exploit them." I had thought of Luddites as in the same classification as Flat Earthers. But that's not the case.  Luddites were protestors with a noble cause.  I can claim confusion because there is a common question being asked today:   "Is it OK to be a Luddite?"  There's a Wired article in which the title is "Everyone is a Luddite Now".  Or what about the new version - "Neo-Luddites".   All of these articles talk about the "good" use of technology as in the original protests vs the bad use.  The very specific area I had been wondering about those people who still haven't learned email or various simple word processing,  spreadsheet and slide show computer programs. I was on a call last evening in which we were dealing with technology issues that arise each meeting for a garden club.  There seems to be issues every meeting.  They point to so many people who don't know how to use their computers and their software. Is it something more serious than disinterest or laziness - something that could be named Technophobia.  Other kinder expressions are technologically changed, or technologically inexperienced.  After 25 years of email availability, can that be the case that a person is still inexperienced.  Can you imagine someone happily boasting that they don't drive a car and know nothing about cars?  An 80 year old in the pharmacy boasted that she didn't use email or online systems to the pharmacist.  This topic of technophobes makes me wonder if this problem will increase and not decrease over time? Is it just the difference between 20th and 21st century technology and the age of people now?  I ask that question because I meet people 10 to 20 years younger than me who are technically inept or disinterested,  This is something I wouldn't have predicted - I guess there are sociological studies out there now looking into this.

White on white orchid from last week's Orchid Show at RBG. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 26 2024 - Anarchist Piano Lessons

 

Who would most approve of anarchist piano lessons?  Bach, Beethoven or the Beatles?  It is actually advertised as Anarchist Piano Lair - Kensington Market.  The piano lessons are rule-based and free improvisation at the piano in Kensington Market.  Go to adamgold.ca and you find the University-Rosedale Candidate for Toronto City Council.  There is a long list of topics along with piano lessons.

the annual orchid show was at the Royal Botanical Gardens yesterday - a great spring-like experience. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Jan 4 2024 - Untouchable Number Year

 

What is special about the number 2024? There are a lot of things if you are a mathematician.  I had no idea just how many things there are.   And I don't know the meaning of pretty well all of them.  We know what a prime number is, what a diver is, but a Cunningham number, a betrothed pair, a palindrome, and what about a polite number?  Aren't these all so curious and fascinating.   Here they are from Numbers Aplenty HERE: 2024 = 23 ⋅ 11 ⋅ 23   2024 has 16 divisors (see below), whose sum is σ = 4320. Its totient is φ = 880. The previous prime is 2017. The next prime is 2027. The reversal of 2024 is 4202. 2024 = T1 + T2 + ... + T22. 2024 = 23 + 33 + ... + 93. It is a Cunningham number, because it is equal to 452-1. 2024 is a nontrivial binomial coefficient, being equal to C(24, 3). Together with 2295 it forms a betrothed pair. It is a Harshad number since it is a multiple of its sum of digits (8). It is a plaindrome in base 9 and base 15. It is not an unprimeable number, because it can be changed into a prime (2027) by changing a digit. 2024 is an untouchable number, because it is not equal to the sum of proper divisors of any number. It is the 22-nd tetrahedral number. It is a pernicious number, because its binary representation contains a prime number (7) of ones. It is a polite number, since it can be written in 3 ways as a sum of consecutive naturals, for example, 77 + ... + 99. It is an arithmetic number, because the mean of its divisors is an integer number (270). 22024 is an apocalyptic number. It is an amenable number. It is a practical number, because each smaller number is the sum of distinct divisors of 2024, and also a Zumkeller number, because its divisors can be partitioned in two sets with the same sum (2160). 2024 is an abundant number, since it is smaller than the sum of its proper divisors (2296). It is a pseudoperfect number, because it is the sum of a subset of its proper divisors. 2024 is a wasteful number, since it uses less digits than its factorization. 2024 is an odious number, because the sum of its binary digits is odd. The sum of its prime factors is 40 (or 36 counting only the distinct ones). The product of its (nonzero) digits is 16, while the sum is 8. The square root of 2024 is about 44.9888875168. The cubic root of 2024 is about 12.6494070868. Adding to 2024 its reverse (4202), we get a palindrome (6226). It can be divided in two parts, 202 and 4, that multiplied together give a palindrome (808). The spelling of 2024 in words is "two thousand, twenty-four", and thus it is an iban number. Divisors: 1 2 4 8 11 22 23 44 46 88 92 184 253 506 1012 2024

This is a watercolour interpretation of Orchids at the Royal Botanical Orchid Show. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca