Nov 16 2023 - Bimbo, Himbo and Thembo

 

A Bimbo is ... disparaging ... an attractive but unintelligent, foolish or inept young woman Then a Himbo is ... disparaging to a young man And a Thembo is ... disparaging to a non-binary person The definitions leave out the sexualized descriptor for Bimbo.  The term was first used to describe men, and the first officially recorded female dumb blonde was Rosalie Duthe 1748 - 1830.  And what is this all about?  A movement began in 2017 led by Alicia Amira who self-proclaimed herself a bimbo to "empower women to be proud to embrace their femininity."  The BimboTok community on the social media platform TikTok, is where users engage in stereotypical hyper-femininity to satirize consumerism, capitalism, and misogyny. And who has been accused of being a bimbo in the original sense - men were originally the bimbos.  It is none other than Donald Trump. Journalist Stephen Richter accused him of being an unintelligent or brutish male.  This was in response to Donald Trump's  tweet that the moderator of a debate he was in was a bimbo.

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Nov 3 2023 - Thrice

 

It is the beginning of November.  It is November the 3rd - it can never be November the thrice.  What is that word thrice?  It means three times as much or as many, triply, greatly, highly.  It can never be the Thrice of November.  And that's even if we get  the huge snowstorm that is three times bigger than the great Snowvember storm of 2014.  But that is later in November. So while we still say once and twice, we no longer say thrice.  There are many other things to notice about three. Look at this handy chart in Wikipedia:  Cardinal: three     Ordinal: third     Latinate ordinal: tertiary     Adverbial: three times, thrice     Multiplier: threefold     Latinate multiplier: triple     Distributive: triply     Collective: trio, threesome     Multiuse collective: triplet     Greek or Latinate collective: triad     Greek collective prefix: tri-     Latinate collective prefix: tri-     Fractional: third     Latinate fractional prefix: trient-     Elemental: thrin, triplet     Greek prefix: trito-     Number of musicians: trio, triplet     Number of years: triennium And on to jokes with the number 3.Mostly they are bad jokes or not really jokes.  Here's one that includes the number 3 or maybe the number 3 is the punchline.  Conjecture: All odd numbers are prime. Mathematician's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. By induction, all odd numbers are prime. Physicist's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. 9 is experimental error. 11 is prime. 13 is prime... Engineer's Proof: 3 is prime. 5 is prime. 7 is prime. 9 is prime. 11 is prime. 13 is prime ... Computer Scientists's Proof: 3 is prime. 3 is prime. 3 is prime. 3 is prime...

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Oct 17 2023 - Art vs Craft

 

Crafts vs art.  What is the difference? The definition seem to derive from art being painting/drawing and sculpture and craft is the other stuff.   So much confidence in these definitions: "Art and craft have always been closely linked and entwined. We often speak of ‘arts and crafts’ as one discipline or activity." "A craft or trade is traditionally a hobby or an occupation that requires skilled workers to produce an item. Crafts can include weaving, carving, pottery, embroidery, macrame, beading, sewing, quilting, and many other forms." "Crafting always results in a tangible output or item, for example, molding, carving, or sewing. Historically, craft was considered to be a lower form of creativity than arts such as painting or sculpture." Explanations go on to distinguish between the "High arts" and the rest are called the "low arts".  Then things got all mixed up:  Fine artists like Judy Chicago used crafts skills to make artwork that used ceramics, metalwork, and needlework. Chicago’s mixed-media installation artwork “The Dinner Table” is one of the best examples of the use of craft in fine art.  All this is very academic and seems very ernest.   I wondered about it because of all the Pinterest articles on how to paint abstracts using weird objects like window cleaners, pot scrubbers, or balloons.  Here are two examples - aren't they tantalizing.  What is the end result? Who would guess art would go down this path of do-it-yourself fun and games, making a mock of "high art".  And here's a wonderful railroad model.

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Aug 22 2023 - Work from Home

 

I am still thinking about the $500,000 cubicle in Switzerland.   Couldn't they build a live/work community and the workers living space at the campus would allow them to work from home? Wouldn't that be perfect?  But somehow, employees still have to commute every day from their homes to the work place. Could this be a corporate behaviour where the gap between living and working realities must be "hammered in" every day?  Alternately, the executives want to have their palace and what the employees do in between time is their own worry. Let's take Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.  It has an estimate of around 12,000 employees at an estimated cost of $5 billion.  That's $417,000 per employee with 2,3000 square feet each. I return to the notion that this turns out to be a house a person.  That includes research and development facilities as well as office space, so perhaps reduce it a bit for real laboratory work that has to happen vs all those meetings and presentations, etc. What else is there in that 2,8 million square feet of space? A "Main Atrium", 1,000 seat underground auditorium, fitness and wellness centre (how would you get to it give you might be over a million square feet away), cafes and an organic farm, green roof, rainwater harvesting systems, visitor centre, the Steve Jobs Theatre.  They don't mention it, but there is a picture of the Aqua Park.  On site is a hair salon and dry cleaning service.  Many things for every day living, just not the living quarters. And the conclusion?  From its website: "Apple’s massive $5 billion “spaceship” headquarters is a truly impressive building, designed with innovation, sustainability, and employee well-being in mind. With its beautiful architecture, landscaping, and state-of-the-art facilities, it is a fitting home for one of the world’s most innovative companies." So it is a "home for the company" and not what makes up the company - its employees.  The questions on Quora and Redditt are about where Apple employees live while working at the Cupertino facility?  Here's some advice for a person who has just got a job at the Cupertino location:  "Buy a good home in Cupertino. The interest rates are low. You can get a decent house for $2M" We'll be in Denver next week for the railroad convention.  Here's an example of a layout in the competition from a few years ago.

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May 11 2023 - Calling someone dumbbell

 

Calling someone a dumbbell is to call them stupid or foolish.  What is that shape - dumb bell?   early 18th century: originally denoting an apparatus similar to that used to ring a church bell (but without the bell, so noiseless or ‘dumb’);  dumbbell  (dating from the 1920s) is an extended use by association with dumb ‘stupid’.  Dumb has meant stupid for centuries in Germanic languages, so it took Americans a little while to catch up.   The supposed synonyms today are "dunce, ignoramus, fool, blockhead, dimwit" but that isn't current language.   Here's an article with current expressions for this: A Few Cards Short Of A Full Deck  Not The Sharpest Tool In The Shed!  As Smart As Bait  The Light Is On But Nobody’s Home A Few Beers Short Of A Six-pack There’s A Village Missing Its Idiot  One Fry Short Of A Happy Meal  Couple Of Quarters Short Of A Roll  The Elevator Doesn’t Go To The Top Floor  Now that sounds more like it.

A train day today

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Jan 5 2023 - Boat vs Building

 

There have been some architectural oddities announced in 2022 and one that got my attention is the floating city shaped like a swimming turtle.  The architect has estimated a cost in the range of US $8 billion (or $12 billion in other articles).  It is called a terayacht.  "Described as a Terayacht by Lazzarini, (the architect), the Pangeos is named after the Pangea (or Pangaea) supercontinentthat existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It would make even the largest of the current crop of megayachts look like mere dinghies, with a length of 550 m (roughly 1,800 ft) and a maximum width of 610 m (2,000 ft)." "The hull would be built from steel and would feature a turtle-shaped base topped by an oval structure that supports a maximum of 60,000 people, with hotels, shopping centers, parks, both ship and aircraft ports, luxury villas, clubs, and everything else needed to maintain a floating community in the middle of the ocean." "Naturally, a vessel this size would require some hardcore propulsion and the Pangeos would be equipped with nine massive cutting-edge HTS (high-temperature superconducting) motors, each of which would be electric and capable of producing the equivalent of 16,800 horsepower, allowing it to cruise at a stately 5 knots (5.75 mph). The power to run the floating city would come from solar panels, plus electricity would be produced using its large flipper-like structures, which would harness energy from the sea with some kind of wave energy generator system, allowing the ship to cruise indefinitely." Is it a mobile island, perhaps?   Today we go back in the time machine to trains.  Like our turtle yacht, these are models. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 28 2022 - A Change in the Weather

 

Well, we arrive at a change in the weather.  We'll have above freezing temperatures for two weeks, with rain coming.   I wonder what that will do in Buffalo. I think of icebergs floating down main streets.  With this drastic "change in the weather" I wonder if  it one of the 12 common weather phrases?  It doesn't appear to be.  Here are a few: Under the weather - nautical Right as rain - Under debate but thoughts are straight as an arrow Take a rain check - American baseball game rained out Head in the clouds - before flight, considered impossible Every cloud has a silver lining - cloud formation   The calm before the storm - meteorology Red sky at night, sailor's delight - sailing Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning - sailing When dew is on the grass, rain will never come to pass - meteorology Mares' tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails - sailing Dog days of summer - lazy dogs panting vs Greek dog star Sirius  It's raining cats and dogs "One of the best weather phrases there is… and one with many possible explanations. The most common, although with a few variations, is about a proliferation of stray animals. When homes featured thatch roofs, stray dogs and cats would often hide in them for shelter and for temperature regulation. But if it rained hard enough, these animals would either be washed out of the roof, or would jump out on purpose to look for better shelter. Along the same lines, in times when door locks weren’t as common, strays would push their way inside to get out of heavy rain. There is even a darker thought that strays would be washed away in the gulleys on the sides of old streets in a heavy rain, also contributing to the look of it actually raining these animals! Finally, there is some thought that within mythology, cats often had powers over storms, and dogs including the Norse god Odin had influence on storms and windy conditions, so people referenced the cats bringing the rain, and dogs bringing the wind!" They are all explained HERE at weloveweather.tv But wait, there are more - these from preply.com HERE  A tempest in a teapot A bolt from the blue Come rain or shine Raindrops in the drought Get wind of A ray of hope Railroad Day. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 22 2022 - The Longest Night Shortest Day

 

This is the year that I realized something about the expression "pagan".   To me it is a religious version of colonialism.  It is  like  "eskimo".  Everyone before the Roman Catholics was considered a pagan.  And here we are just having experienced Winter Solstice. And so our Longest Night of the year is a celebration originating with the pagans.  As compared to what or who?   Wouldn't it originate with any humans who could track the days and nights.  So wouldn't it be the Babylonians?  Yes, The festival began in Babylon with the birth day of the first sun god Tammuz on the ancient winter solstice on December 25th.The article continues: "Pagans still celebrate this original solar deity birth." And then continues with:  "The most important time of celebration for pagans (i.e., earth worshipers) is the Winter Solstice (Yule, Saturnalia or Midwinter). Yule is the northernmost point of their Wheel of the Year, which is a Witch’s Wheel that’s an annual cycle of seasonal festivals that serves to tether people to earth and earthly things."  This comes from sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com and it is one of many like this.  At the other end of the spectrum, similar to secular Christmas descriptions: "The occasion is marked with sweet and traditional winter solstice rituals—from brewing mulled cider and eating winter solstice foods, to lighting lanterns, reciting winter solstice quotes, striking special yoga moves, and setting intentions for the season ahead." And in between are articles on the winter solstice celebrations that have been traditions for hundreds and thousands of years - the Hopi Indians of Arizona, the Persian festival Yalda, Into Raymi in Peru, and Dong Zhi in China.   So here we are finding our own balance in a diverse world. And the conclusion?  Most of us are just happy the dark days get shorter as the days go by.   Our picture today is the only winter layout I've ever  seen. Today's picture has to be the surprise abstract of the year.  This looks like an ocean beach landscape to me, with the waves on the shore.  The actual object is the entrance sculpture at the Horticulture Garden Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls.  It was a bright sunny day and the sun and clouds were reflecting in the wall.   The second picture shows the wall with the  the Niagara River in the background.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 1 2022 - At least 20,000,000,000,000,000

 

Continuing on my thoughts on how much the things on the planet weigh, I wondered about ants versus humans.  There are a lot of ants on the planet.  I wondered if there are enough of them to weigh more than humans.  It turns out that just this year,  scientists have  figured out just how many ants there are and how much they weigh.. As recently as 2014, a BBC wildlife presenter claimed that the the total number of ants weighed as much as humans, with the estimate then of the total number of ants being 100 trillion.  At the time the top-down method of calculation was used assuming ants comprise about 15 of the world's estimated insect population. This time,  a bottom-up approach used standardized methods for collecting and counting ants.  Not many details were given on this activity, but it does seem extensive to me to get representative samples. "... next step was to work out how much all these ants weigh. The mass of organisms is typically measured in terms of their carbon makeup. We estimated that 20 quadrillion average-sized ants correspond to a dry weight or “biomass” of approximately 12 million tonnes of carbon. So we humans weigh 316 million tonnes compared with 8 quadrillion ants.  For every human there are 2.5 million ants." I can barely imagine a  trillion.  So 20 quadrillion is 20,000 trillion.  Written out - the number is  20,000,000,000,000,000.  I hope that's correct as I copied and pasted it in. One of the scientific conclusions is that the weight of the world's ants exceeds that of all wild birds and mammals combined.  It is equal to one-fifth of the total weight of humans.  So that's our answer of the day to who weighs more - humans or ants. Here's a quote from one of the articles:  "It's very easy to weigh an ant. You buy a small electronic balance, and you place the ant on the balance," says Ratnieks. But he advises you refrigerate it first. "That way it doesn't run away."   Today we see the detail modelling of some wonderful layouts. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 25 2022 - Pumpkin Pie

 

I didn't know this story.  There was no record of pumpkins being served at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The two written records of the event list a menu of Indian corn, barley, fowl, deer, parsnip, carrots, turnips, onions, melons, cucumbers, radishes, beets, cabbage and colewort (a brassica like kale). Not one word is mentioned of pumpkins.   That article also relays how pumpkins were cooked then:  The first pumpkin “pies” were whole pumpkins with their tops cut off and the seeds scooped out. The pumpkin was then filled with a savory porridge of stewed pumpkin, bread crumbs, apples and eggs. The top was placed back on the pumpkin and the whole thing was baked in an oven. (actually most accounts say cooked in the ashes). A sweet pumpkin pie of this era would have been a pumpkin stuffed with only apples and baked whole. In 1651, the French chef Francois Pierre la Varenne wrote:  Tourte of Pumpkin – Boile it with good milk, pass it through a straining pan very thick, and mix it with sugar, butter, a little salt and if you will, a few stamped almonds; let all be very thin. Put it in your sheet of paste; bake it. After it is baked, besprinkle it with sugar and serve.  That means pumpkin made its way across the ocean quite quickly.   Skipping ahead to 1796, the first American cookbook was published by Amelia Simmons, and her pumpkin puddings were baked in a crust and similar to present-day pumpkin pies.  Their term for crust then is "paste". Looking back through history is much easier than looking ahead to the day's news. This is the most frenzied shopping day of the year - Black Friday.  There are already updates on the events.   Are you looking for jeans amongst the crowd? I find this article on the  labelled sizes vs. actual measurements of jeans today. It reveals sizing no longer follows industry standards.  It is now about vanity sizing to suit the ego of the wearer.  This seems in line with our current social norms.   Here's the chart from the article.

And today's photos is some nostalgia with a beautiful trestle bridge and town.

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Nov 20 2022 - Thanksgiving Ahead for Americans

 

It is time to look ahead a week to imagine Buffalo's Thanksgiving under six feet of snow.  There is only one holiday a year where Canadians can be smug, so it is time to experience this fully.     While there were towns on the Canadian side that had lots of snow this weekend, there's a sturdiness that has been built up over time.   And what might we expect for Canadian sports with that kind of accumulation? Here's one that might be found in the Ikea parking lot.  What a nice contrast to see a railroad layout. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca