Betterphoto Winner

Wake Up on the Bright Side What were the best April Fool's jokes in the news yesterday?  According to the bbq they included  1. Trump buys Irish high-rise If you believe the Irish Times, Dublin is to get its very own "Trump Tower". "Trump Dublin is expected to be completed by the end of 2018," it exclusively revealed.  Extra credit should go to whoever completed the joke with a fake tweet from Donald Trump: "Bought a small tower in Dublin, Ireland. We are going to build an awesome hotel in Dublin. It will be totally great. Love Ireland! Great country! #trumpdublin". 2. Russian hackers on demand Inspired by claims that Kremlin-sponsored hackers tried to rig the US election, Russia's foreign ministry shared "a new answering machine for Russian diplomatic missions abroad" on Facebook. 3. Germany to go GMT The scamps at the UK's German embassy tweeted that Germans would shortly vote to "leave, or remain in" Central European Time (CET). "A replica of the Shepherd Gate Clock in Greenwich would be placed atop the World Time Clock in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, in a frivolous symbolic gesture," the writer deadpanned. The clues were there for linguists, however - the surname of the "government spokesperson" quoted - Frau Sommerzeit - translates as "Summertime". Our images today were the two that placed in last month's betterphoto contest - the Magnolias were second place, and the calla lily a finalist. From Betterphoto:  With over 3900 entries in the contest, it is a big honor to be selected among the winners. To see your winning image - Spring Reverie - and the other excellent winning photos, visit:http://www.betterphoto.com/contest/winners/1702.asp View this email in your browser

Better photo 2nd Place Winner - Dezi!

One of the most intriguing, yet easy to accomplish adventures from yesterday's top 100 was to: Send a message in a bottle So I found the 10 most famous floating note discoveries and here's what the article says: "People have been putting messages in bottles for much longer than a century: in 310 BC, Greek philosopher Theophrastus put sealed bottles into the sea as part of an experiment to prove the Mediterranean Sea was formed by the inflowing Atlantic Ocean. Oceanography is a common reason drift bottles are thrown overboard, but there are also some romantic and surprising stories of sending messages across the sea throughout history.  I've copied the top 3 most famous floating note discoveries: 1. FOUND BY: Konrad Fischer in the Baltic Sea, 2014 SENT FROM: Richard Platz in the Baltic Sea, 1913 TIME AT SEA: 101 years A message in a bottle tossed in the sea in Germany 101 years ago, believed to be the world's oldest, was presented to the sender's granddaughter, a Hamburg museum has said. A fisherman pulled the beer bottle with the scribbled message out of the Baltic Sea off the northern city of Kiel in March, Holger von Neuhoff of the International Maritime Museum in the northern port city of Hamburg said. Mr Von Neuhoff said researchers were able to determine, based on the address, that it was 20-year-old baker's son Richard Platz who threw the bottle in the Baltic while on a hike with a nature appreciation group in 1913. 2, FOUND BY: Scottish skipper Andrew Leaper near the Shetland Isles, 2012 SENT FROM: Captain C. Hunter Brown near the Shetland Isles, 1914 TIME AT SEA: 97 years and 309 days A drift bottle released out to sea on June 10, 1914 by Captain C. Hunter Brown was recovered by UK fisherman Andrew Leaper almost 98 years later, on April 12, 2012. Brown was a scientist at the Glasgow School of Navigation studying the currents of the North Sea, and the bottle was one of 1,890 released on June 10, 1914. It is the current Guinness World Record holder for oldest message in a bottle. The message inside read: "Please state where and when this card was found, and then put it in the nearest Post Office. You will be informed in reply where and when it was set adrift. Our object is to find out the direction of the deep currents of the North Sea." The bottle was discovered 9.38 nautical miles from the position it was originally deployed. 3. FOUND BY: Matea Medak Rezic in Croatia, 2013 SENT BY: Jonathon (identity unknown) from Nova Scotia, Canada, 1985 TIME AT SEA: 28 years A 23-year-old kite surfer, Matea Medak Rezic, stumbled across a half-broken bottle while clearing debris from a Croatian beach at the mouth of the Neretva river in the southern Adriatic. Inside the bottle was a message from Jonathan, from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, who had written it 28 years earlier, honouring his promise to write to a woman named Mary. The message reads: "Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985." The bottle would have had to have travelled approximately 6,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Mediterranean Sea, and then drifted into the Adriatic Sea. Jonathan and Mary's identity, and how the two knew each other, is unknown. Looking across the Twelve Mile Creek bridge towards Port Dalhousie, our 2nd place winner in the BetterPhoto contest.

Betterphoto 2nd Place Winner

Betterphoto's contest for February had 4700 entries.  My image of Peacock Feathers is one of the Second Place Winners this month int eh Details and Macro category.  Here's a link to all the contest winners. Looking at the calendar, what might we expect today on April Fool's Day? Here are two food jokes offered up on the internet: 1. Buy oreos for the office - then laugh at the bewildered and disappointed faces when they realize you've filled their cookies with toothpaste. 2. Replace the custard filling in donuts with mayonnaise. If you are inspired to participate and looking for jokes, this link has lots of possibilities here. View this email in your browser