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

Dec 30 2023 - Taking pictures of money

 

Can you make money taking pictures of money?  I bet you can.  How many pictures of money are on the internet?  Getty says there are 2,731 Canadian money stock photos.  Pixabay says there are 10,000 plus money images and pexels says browse 5,000 plus best money photos.  iStock has 3,268,449 money photos. Make money?  There are so many of them that say "free for commercial use". I like the picture of paper bills folded into an airplane.  I would guess there are some "weird" money images.  What pops up?  Pictures of dogs and cats with money. There's weirder stuff:  man eating coins from a plate, man with dollar bills in mouth like a tongue hanging out, man vomiting money, man eating bills like a sandwich.  Moving on to pretty pictures with money in them - these are cute girls/women set against pastel backgrounds with paper money fanned out in their hands, or putting a coin in a blue or pink piggy bank. Photographing banknotes is complicated with legal requirements. It has both copyright and counterfeiting issues. You cannot reproduce a banknote at 75% to 150% of actual size and in colour and with both sides showing.  How does one get a hold of all that money for the pile of money pictures?  Does one scan in the money, then print it, and then photograph it? Maybe there's a props company who can rent out "piles of money". There is a pile of money in Breaking Bad, and Quora has entries on what the $ value of the pile of money - $80 million was the estimate.  Wiki gives the answer as well. That's a lot of props money.  Maybe there are some standard props for all the movies that want to have "piles of money" and they go and rent the piles: The Dark Knight and Joker are just two in the list.   The picture of the day is a result of trying out various photography creative software yesterday.  My creative filters from Topaz don't work on the new MAC operating system.  I find that what's available in filters/plugins are geared for iPhones and iPads.  They are unsophisticated.  This one did turn out nicely.  Another orchid picture.  Corel Draw is what looks like is next, and that's because everything else has been trialed.  Wish me luck.

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Dec 29 2023 - Grooming the dog and grooming the snow

 

Grooming seems to be too extensive in its application - cleaning and maintaining the coat and appearance of a dog or horse is vastly different from being a bridegroom.  And then what about dogs, horses, people vs snow hills and trails?  I guess I am not used to seeing groom, groomer and grooming on the front page of the Globe very often.  Their article was about grooming snow trails.  The one that pops out for me is bridegroom. Man newly married or about to be - bryd "bride" and guma "man" - but the literal meaning back then is "bride's lord".  Which makes more sense given how many centuries ago that was.  For his partner, a bryd is a woman newly married or about to be.  Grooming dogs and horses, and people grooming - typically their "hair" - I would think it is the brushing that counts.  I hadn't thought of "brushing" the snow, though.  It looks like compacting snow is involved.  There are pictures of corduroy trails for skate-skiing.  Very pretty pictures.    And grooming jobs?  Here are the extracts from a search:  Flight attendant:  are proud to wear our uniform, follow all grooming standards and maintain an impeccable standard of personal grooming.  Animal Care Attendant:  administer medication, vaccines, basic medical care and grooming. Personal support worker:  Assist or provide total care to residents with bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, transferring and feeding.  HR Associate: Maintain professional company standards in grooming and uniform Mostly it seems that a lot of people care how their employees look on the job. I think it is a happy orchid day - this plant from the RBG Orchid show in February 2023.

A boxing day picture.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

May 8 2023 - Epic!

 

"Good evening Your Majesties.  Good evening Windsor!" That was quoted as William's introduction.  That seems a highlight of the Coronation.   Now that the weekend is over, what will the news focus on?  There are all kinds of articles on King Charles and Camilla being "star-crossed lovers."  That's what Bing had going today.    There are lalternate views - with The Guardian carrying the story "The people against King Charles." The royal website has this introduction for him:  "King Charles III, formerly known as The Prince of Wales".  Indeed, he was the longest-serving Prince of Wales.  The New Yorker article dated April 29, 2023 quotes Charles:  “Nobody knows what utter hell it is to be the Prince of Wales,” he has reportedly complained. That tradition continues with gossip that Harry spent his Coronation day complaining about his family - those lip readers were watching him.  And this New Yorker aspersion: "Until the birth of Prince William, in 1982, the world was just one helicopter accident or foxhunting tumble away from the prospect of King Andrew I." The New Yorker seems to have set a tone going forward.  There are many possibilities of irony, satire and sarcasm to come.  I wonder if the Royal Family's news popularity will start to wane now that Coronation Day is concluded and the ivory silk and gold outfits have gone to the archives.    A pair of beautiful tropical lady slipper orchids. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca