Apr 7 2024 - Solar Eclipse - The Experience

 

Is it special?  That's the question, isn't it?  There's an Illinois village that will get its second in 7 years.  Sounds lucky.  Or is it?  Thousands are expected to descend of the 600 people to have the "experience".   "You don't see a total eclipse - you experience it" It's the corona, isn't it - the shiny stuff around the dark circle.  The "Ring of Fire" is what happens during an Annular Solar Eclipse - not a total eclipse.    So on to our "experience". The sky is going to change colour/tint.  For the total Eclipse, there will be an umbral shadow.  Look at a white building and ripples or dark and light might appear, also on the ground.  Then there's Bailey's Beads which disappear one after another as the eclipse gets to totality.  Before totality is the Diamond Ring - only a single bead remains.  The last bead vanishes and you remove your solar glasses (an odd term given how flimsy ours are).  With totality is streamers of red stretching up from the chromosphere into the corona.   The big deal is the corona - and whatever shape it has.  Loops and arcs are the shapes identified.  Who else is in the sky?  Venus is expected to become visible just before totality to the lower right of the eclipsed Sun. Jupiter will be at the upper left of the eclipsed Sun.  Even Mercury, Mars and Saturn are possible to see - likely with a telescope.   Then how dark it gets is how close you are to the centreline (and a few other things) - look at the horizon for a sunrise/sunset glow. Then things start to reverse, so that means it is time to put the solar glasses back on for the diamond ring, the Bailey's beads, the shadow bands, and retreating shadow which all happen again.  You are to look at your own shadow on the ground and see that it is sharp - really sharp.  You will see the hairs on your head, for example, for those who have "hairs". Well, that is a lot of experience, isn't it.  So the promise sounds quite real and fun. And then the disconcerting question:  What if it's cloudy?  Seems a dismal story of not having the experience - a dark sky isn't that exciting to me.   I guess that means one will have to start chasing solar eclipses to get the full experience.  Greenland, Iceland and Spain are next in 2026. Isn't this a stylistic interpretation - created this in the kitchen at the last house where I could place a prism and get this intense rainbow effect with the sun.

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Dec 16 2022 - Who is the richest of us all?

 

There was a hint of delight inn CNN's coverage of the news that Elon Musk has lost his position as the richest person on the planet. As CNBC put it, Elon Musk was dethroned by Bernard Arnault and family. Bernard Arnault, co-founder, chair, and CEO of LVMH, is the richest person and the richest man in the world with a net worth of $172.9 billion.  Think Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.  Behind Arnault is co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk. Other billionaires with some of the largest net worths include India's Gautam Adani, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft's Bill Gates. Six of the top 10 billionaires made their fortunes in technology, with Arnault, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Adani Group founder Gautam Adani, and Reliance Industry's Mukesh Ambani being the exceptions. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg dropped off the top 10 list in February 2022. Waren Buffet is #6 and it is noted that he has $1.1 billion in cash. Compare that to Bill Gates who has $55 billion in cash and Bernard Arnault who has $10.3 billion in cash.   There are lots of charts to compare who has how much money.  Here's the world's richest billionaires in the last 10 years, followed by the world's richest countries.    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 9 2022 - Love Live the King

 

It says that there are 2,000 gowns in Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe at the time of her death.   I would expect many more are in the wardrobe archives, preserved for all time.  Especially her coronation dress. “Every look is meticulously planned,” said Hughes. “Angela Kelly is in charge of spreadsheets logging each item of clothing or accessory. It’s done in such a heavy, detailed way that there are no accidents in what she wears.” On why she wears bright colors on royal appearances:  "If I wore beige, nobody would know who I am." The Queen's wardrobe was startling to me.  There seemed to be no subtlety in her outfits.   It is reported that the Queen sent messages with her wardrobe.  The blue and yellow flowers similar to the flag of the European Union on her hat signalled her disapproval of the Brexit vote.  When she visited with Donald Trump, she wore a brooch that was a gift from the Obamas, Not so subtly she drove the Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia around in her Land Rover - it was the first time he had a female driver in his life. It was reported he was scared. For the next 10 days we will have ample time to see many of the thousands of photos of Queen Elizabeth, whether on social media, televised news, or other places - and her wardrobe will be very much on show. Here's a rainbow collage that demonstrates her bright wardrobe colours.     This rainbow picture was possible at our Toronto house at a particular time of year when the light came in through the kitchen and I could set up two prisms to create this effect.  I've tried here in Grimsby, but it turns out to be a magic moment.

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Aug 26 2020 - Rainbow World

 

After yesterday's Rainbow Rose, Brian Cole sent me information about the rainbow wasp.  When given coloured paper, they create a rainbow nest.   What else is there in nature that is a living rainbow?  Here's the rainbow wasp. It is also called the coocoo wasp.     Here's the rainbow ant.  It is known as the pharaoh ant and is small and almost transparent, which makes it seem even smaller.  One can buy a big transparent any nest and feed transparent ants different colours and have a living rainbow! Here is the rainbow shield bug - it is Scuterlleridae and not a beetle. Here it is with water drops. The red-banded leafhopper. The rainbow scarab Peacock Spider We haven't even started on locusts yet.  Here's the Rainbow Milkweed locust Let's move up the animal kingdom - the rainbow snake The rainbow lizard The rainbow parrot This is the Lilac-breasted Roller from Africa At the top of the animal kingdom - the rainbow butt of the Mandrill Are there any rainbow people?  Wikipedia tells me there are:  the Rainbow Family of Living Light.  It has been in existence since around 1970, inspired by the first Woodstock Festival, and is a loose affiliation of individuals.  It has a Rainbow Gathering every year.   Our picture today was captured in Toronto - where the the light through the kitchen window was at an angle that made for great prism images.  I haven't found the same here in Grimsby.

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April 13 2020 - Haircuts

The thing we took for granted just one step behind toilet paper:  hair cuts. There are many pictures of strange and unusual haircuts, and the advice that would have helped if received before the activity was undertaken: 1. Don't cut hair too short 2. Someone else needs to do the back 3. Let the hair on the top of your head stay long 4. Watch out for your ears 5. Don't wear a sweater Australia has reversed a decision to limit hairdressing appointments to 30 minutes following a backlash.  That was on March 26th.  I wanted to know what happened after that, but the press has gone silent on this story. In South Africa, a hairdresser was charged with attempted murder after defying a doctor's order to self-quarantine. Last week, the B.C. daily COVID-19 briefing had the province's top doctors 'apologizing' to her hairdresser after giving herself a home hairdo.   There are Instagram Live and Facebook Live classes for haircutting online.  Here's a schedule of what's offered in the next two weeks: Thursday, April 16 at 2 p.m. EST – Decisions = Destinations with Richard Mannah (Instagram) Monday, April 20 at 2 p.m. EST – Crescent Method with Larisa Love (Facebook) Thursday, April 23 at 2 p.m. EST – Holistic Success with Richard Mannah (Instagram) I wondered what a crescent method might be.  The seriousness of hair comes across with the April 23rd session title 'holistic'. Our image today is another  hosta colouring activity.

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Which National Day is It? That's Right - the Day the Music Died!

That's right - it's the day that Buddy Holly and his band died.  One website says that the name of the plane they were in was "American Pie." Snoops, the famous fact checker says:  FALSE. The song was written by Don McLean. Don McLean himself is quoted as saying: "the growing urban legend that "American Pie" was the name of  Buddy Holly's plane on the night it crashed, is equally untrue. I created the term".  There's another rumour regarding the title that it was chosen because McLean once dated a Miss America contestant, appears to be equally 'spurious', according to Snopes.  Another area of the urban legend is the number of people who "gave up a seat" on the ill-fated flight.  Snoops says this: "... the list of people who “gave up a seat” on this ill-fated flight has grown to rival the list of persons claiming to have been invited to Sharon Tate’s “quiet evening at home” the night the Manson family struck. Although Buddy Holly initially may have asked around to find other tour members...Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup were the only two persons who truly “gave up a seat” on Buddy Holly’s final flight. There's a website - it is in very strange font colours that has a line by line interpretation of the song.  The website home is the Wisconsin Historic Rail Connection and the photography site of Jim Kalrath. The song interpretation is HERE What do you think of today's image? You can see the entire metal panel with the rainbow stain caused by heat. It's been saturated to emphasize the colours.

There's a Paradox

What about Paradoxes?  Paradoxes have been a central part of philosophical thinking for centuries.  For example, Achilles and the Tortoise comes from the 5th century BC.  I went to Mentalfloss.com and browsed through the best-known paradoxes.  I chose the discussion on the Raven Paradox for today.  At buzzfeed.com  they're presented with cartoons, so are quite fun. THE RAVEN PARADOX Also known as Hempel’s Paradox, for the German logician who proposed it in the mid-1940s, the Raven Paradox begins with the apparently straightforward and entirely true statement that “all ravens are black.” This is matched by a “logically contrapositive” (i.e. negative and contradictory) statement that “everything that is not black is not a raven”—which, despite seeming like a fairly unnecessary point to make, is also true given that we know “all ravens are black.” Hempel argues that whenever we see a black raven, this provides evidence to support the first statement. But by extension, whenever we see anything that is not black, like an apple, this too must be taken as evidence supporting the second statement—after all, an apple is not black, and nor is it a raven. The paradox here is that Hempel has apparently proved that seeing an apple provides us with evidence, no matter how unrelated it may seem, that ravens are black. It’s the equivalent of saying that you live in New York is evidence that you don’t live in L.A., or that saying you are 30 years old is evidence that you are not 29. Just how much information can one statement actually imply anyway? Here is Wikipedia's summary of the Raven paradox:  Raven paradox: (or Hempel's Ravens): Observing a green apple increases the likelihood of all ravens being black. I was in Toronto yesterday, and found this reflective material on the side of the umbra store near Queen Street West.  I had thought I might find some pink water reflections, but this material created prism/rainbow reflections. The first picture shows the photo without adjustments, and the next few show the finished result, with the pavement turned to black.

Nick of Time

Sometime round about the 1580s the phrase in the nick or in the very nick began to be used for the critical moment, the exact instant at which something has to take place. The idea seems to have been that a nick was a narrow and precise marker, so that if something was in the nick it was precisely where it should be. 'Nick of time' came to my mind yesterday when I raked the leaves under the grand maple out front.  It is the 'last tree to drop' in the entire neighbourhood. Everything is bare, and only willows keep their leaves longer than this one maple.  It still has leaves today.  So yesterday's raking could be a critical moment - especially if a snow storm ensues today.   There are many references to critical moment  - from analysis of conversation and communication to sports athletics. Fascinating is the title of the 2010 book 'The Critical Moment.' It was attributed to the former Chinese Premier, Li Peng, covering the events leading up to and shortly after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.  The publication was withdrawn due to copyright concerns as it was supposedly from his diaries. I wondered about Christmas critical moments, as Santa coming down the chimney and flying across the sky seem to involve an enormous number of these.  I did find a vintage print from Harper's Weekly with critical moment in the title. I guess we have our own version of this with Guinness records: The largest human Christmas tree consists of 4,030 participants and was made in India on December 19, 2015, of school children from the village of Chengannur.

Countdown to Christmas - Winter Solstice

Today's countdown marks the WInter Solstice which occurred yesterday.

“Solstice literally means 'Sun Stands Still', for a few days around the time of the winter solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky in that its elevation at noon does not seem to change.


The winter solstice date is normally considered to be the 21st of December in the northern hemisphere, however at the winter solstice the position of the sun remains the same for three days.”