July 8 2023 - Past Lives

 

Some days I find fascinating topics and other days I seem to be in a swamp of junky information. Today was the swimming in the swamp day - the phrase past lives has been overtaken by a movie.  Reviews, trailerss and clips, wikipedia entries, the songs, everything. I keep thinking of the revenue that Google makes from paid retrieval listings. After three pages, the spiritual organization named Eckankar shows up.  We're now in the second set of paid-for retrievals. This is intriguing: I've never heard of this and find out it is a religious spiritual group founded in 1965 in the U.S with Harold Klemp as its community leader. Its platform is that all people are eternal spiritual beings currently existing in a physical realm.  Well, that sounds familiar for our religions.  It believes in reincarnation and karma.  Soul Travel and Hu Meditation are two of its practices.   There is a Living Master, isn't there?  The Living ECK Master, or Mahanta, is currently Sri Harold Klemp, who took on the position in 1983. The previous Mahanta was Darwin Gross, and the founder of Eckankar was Paul Twitchell.  One scrolls past all of the ECKANKAR listings and then the cult articles start.  These are things like:  "Eckankar Survivor Speaks Out."  In these articles this religion is referred to as a cult.   Do you know how many cults there are today? In the range of eleven, thirteen, fifteen, twelve and so on.   This is an interesting experience in terms of keyword searching. How things have changed in the keyword search realm.  It is fluid, not at all consistent.  Who pays to be retrieved drives what I get to see. Unless I am very specific and focused. This is my experience naming photographs, too.  Expressions and words are co-opted into commercial movies and religions with trademarks and copyrights. Take down notices pop up and I have to defend the use of words like "demure." Past lives is a common phrase related to reincarnation and has been studied scientifically for 50 years. So one would hope for something more balanced in retrievals.   I am curious, though, and find the University of Virginia - the one academic institution which undertakes reincarnation research.  They have studied 2,500 individual cases of childhood past-life memories.  The article is HERE.  It concludes with this:  "the idea that consciousness is merely a product of brain activity, like software on a computer, does not have much empirical or philosophical support."   And the best headline in my search today - a true example of irony:  "Past Lives:  Advance Screenings" Here's a Flexify manipulated image of a lily pond.  Makes me think of consciousness.  What would it look like visually? Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 21 2023 - Fat Tuesday

 

Who would think a holiday named Fat Tuesday is a religious holiday? Mardi Gras is French and translates to Fat Tuesday.  It is the last day to feast before the fasting of lent.  That's why it is always 43 days before Easter.   When I look up gras French to English, the translation says bold, but as an adjective it is fatty, greasy and oily.  So it could be Greasy Tuesday or Oily Tuesday.  I like Fat Tuesday a lot better, but shouldn't it be Fatty Tuesday?   Another tradition of Mardi Gras's meaning comes from Frenchtoday.com:“Mardi Gras” comes from the tradition of using up all the food before Lent begins. And another translation: "Gras is also what we use to say “bold” as in font type." There are a lot of Mardi Gras in Europe and all of them have the same name which translates to Fat Tuesday.   For the rest of us, Shrove Monday is the day before Fat tuesday - it is the day of pancakes.  I guess we missed that yesterday.  New Orleans has a big festival - the schedule seems to go from January till after today.  It is HERE. Why did the chicken cross the road during Mardi Gras? To get to the other parade! Here's a print from 2018 that I named Carnival. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 6 2023 - Official State Aroma

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The sweet smell of green chile roasting on an open flame permeates New Mexico every fall, wafting from roadside stands and grocery store parking lots and inducing mouth-watering visions of culinary wonders. Sen. Bill Soules’ visit with fifth grade students in his southern district sparked a conversation about the savory hot peppers and the potential for New Mexico to become the first state in the nation to proudly have an official state aroma, a proposal now being considered by lawmakers. For New Mexico, chile is more than a key ingredient for every meal. It’s life. It’s at the center of the official state question — “Red or green?” — and is one of the state’s official vegetables. Read more about it HERE.  An update on Groundhog Day: consider this for your next vacation: "In real life, like in the movie, the Victorian is actually a bed and breakfast, and you can stay there still! The Cherry Tree Inn bed and breakfast sits in Woodstock, Illinois not Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The spectacular house is worth a stay if you find yourself in that suburb of Chicago.  344 Fremont St, Woodstock, IL 60098" If you'd prefer Home Alone, it is located at 671 Lincoln Ave, Winnetka, IL 60093 Here's a favourite Dahlia picture from a few years ago. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 6 2022 - Its Marathon Day in NY NY

 

The biggest cities have the biggest and longest races. Boston, Berlin, London, Chicago, and today it is NY NY.  As one article says:  "If you want, you can starting running in Zurich at midnight sharp into the year 2022.  You can  also run in Tromsø, north of the Arctic Circle, in the dark and in wintry temperatures. But there are also warmer alternatives, for example in Hawaii, India, Bangladesh or Cambodia. "  Many articles explain why people run marathons.  And how many people do?  It says 1.1 million a year.  And how many will be in NY NY today?  There are over 98,000 applications and  up to 50,000 competitors.   There is a spectator's guide to the NY Marathon.  It goes section by section with a preview of what will be there.  And then there's the explanation of how to get around.  The Finish Line - I wonder how many people pack into the last three miles in Central Park?  Advice I wouldn't never think of:  "If your runner has their name on their shirt, use another name (last name or nickname) to yell at them when you spot them. There will be so many strangers yelling out their names that they may not pay attention when someone they know is cheering for them." Here are the traditional jokes: My friend Ty came in first in the Beijing marathon, but he wasn’t given the gold medal. The Chinese refuse to recognize Ty won. Why did the marathon runner end up in jail?  For resisting a rest. I kept telling a pun to the passersby during a marathon. It was a running joke. The most repeated punchline?  "It was a running joke."   We've had too much wind for this year's version of Virginia Creeper against the block walls at Mariner Bay.  This is from 2020.

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Oct 11 2022 Castles in Canada

 

How many castles are there in England?  There are over 4,000 castles.  There many that are famous and spectacular - think Windsor Castle and Tower of London.   How many castles in Canada?  There are 12 castles or maybe 15 castles to visit.  Think Casa Loma, Dundurn Castle, Castle Kilbride.  Quite a different scale than in England and many in use as hotels, so sort of castles.  And the Canadian list on Wikipedia with more than 60 includes mansions.   There are pictures of them so you take a little trip around Canada's great residences of the past.   The one of interest, the Midlothian, is not on the Wikipedia list.  It is located way north of Toronto.  I consider  north of Huntsville to be way up there.  It is famous for the owner, Peter Camani's sculptures named Screaming Heads.  These are sculptures on the grounds which seem to all have an expression of screaming.  His website is HERE.  Each year, he holds a Harvest Festival in September.  The U.S. has Burning Man and Canada has Screaming Heads. It is very entertaining to look at the images of Screaming Heads on bing.com.  Lots of Peter Camani's iconic massive sculptures, and then some stupid and silly stock images.  Here's a video on the sculpture gardens HERE.  There are more than screaming heads there. I took this multiple exposure picture of sumacs yesterday.  The colours were so bright and intense that a little desaturation was needed.  Reality outdid photoshop for once.

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Sep 19 2022 - Regimental Colours

 

Is Imperial red on display today?  Imperial red is a representation of the red color of the Imperial Standard of Napoleon I.   It turns out to be scarlet.  That is what is in the Regulation Colours - the standard colours used in the armed forces of the countries falling under the Commonwealth of Nations.  United Kingdom military units usually carry two Regulation Colours: the Regulation King's Colour and Regulation Regimental Colour. These are often referred to as the standard or ensign. Scarlet is a bright red with a slightly orange tinge. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, scarlet and other bright shades of red are the colors most associated with courage, force, passion, heat, and joy. In the Roman Catholic Church, scarlet is the color worn by cardinals, and is associated with the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs, and with sacrifice. The Canadian flag's colour of red is Gules.  But our Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform is consistent with British regimental red and is scarlet.  When it comes to the funeral procession from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch today,  Mounties from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will lead the procession, with members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and servicemen and women from the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth joining NHS workers in the procession. They will wear the Red Serge  jacket of the dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It consists of a scarlet British-style military pattern tunic, complete with a high-neck collar and blue breeches with yellow stripe identifying a cavalry history. And that's our look at Military red today.

This amazing display happened in  2011 on University Avenue.  Thousands of mourners packed downtown Toronto streets and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Tuesday, Jan. 18 to show their respect for fallen Toronto Police officer Sgt. Ryan Russell.   I wonder if this size of gathering will ever happen again.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 31 2022 - Walking on Mercury

 

I remember mercury balls rolling around in one of the science classes.  It isn't clear then that we realized how toxic it is.  Or maybe our science teacher was using a pure Hg.  I got to thinking about how heavy it is. The element's atomic mass is 200.59 grams per mole and its specific gravity is 13.5 times that of water. It is the only metal to remain liquid at room temperature. What colour is it when it is put in water?  It is red.  If Mercury were not toxic and we could go swimming - we would float on it.  It is incredibly dense.  A 2 litre jug of mercury weighs more than 50 pounds.  Professional experimenter CodyDon has done quite a few activities with mercury.  One of his videos is his attempt to stand on liquid mercury.  It is HERE.  Another of his experiments is floating a 50 kg anvil on mercury.  Liquid mercury is denser than an anvil so the anvil floats.  Tungsten is denser than the steel anvil and would sink in liquid mercury.   And what about toxic vapours?  Cody's lab has the question posted 3 years ago.   Question: Does cody have poisoning from all the mercury he handles?   Answer: Last blood test says my levels are below average. And another answer has this information:  The mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland is actually a victim of mercury poisoning, because they used to brush mercury into the felt of top hats to make them shiny. They also probably followed none of the sensible precautions Cody does to avoid being poisoned. And another answer: Cody deals with elemental (pure Hg) mercury, a relatively unharmful substance. The mercury you may be thinking of is called organic mercury (ex. dimethyl mercury), and this is the possibly lethal and therefor very toxic mercury. Simply put, this stuff=bad news if handled in the way cody handles his elemental mercury.

This looks like a science experiment of some sort with all these splash splashes.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Aug 25 2022 - DIY

 

DIY - Do It Yourself.  This had to start after the advent of television.  Before that, we did things ourselves.  We made things like clothes, furniture, canned food, and anything that could be done without paying money.  There wasn't surplus money for things.  In fact, there was rationing after the war in many countries.  So people did without many things. But the boom of the 50s and 60s saw the advent of consumerism where DIY gave status to the common person.  When I was young we sewed our clothes, canned food, made basic furniture.  Those were things that people who didn't have enough money did.  If we had enough money, we went out and bought most of those things. the self-worth and creativity of a person was demonstrated through their DIY .   Basic DIYs were taught to children in school.  They were called home-making and shop skills. There was no DIY phrase in home-economics when I was a child in the 1950s.  We passed or failed making aprons, skirts, dresses, and cooking mint peas and blanc mange.   My sense is that while DIY began in the U.S. in the 1950s, it was the 1960s counterculture with the "back to the land" movement that made it very popular in the media.  It was that Whole Earth Catalog in late 1968 that cemented the self-sufficiency ethic as a prestigious movement. The media got a hold of how to present home economics and shop as a DIY activity on steroids.  I think ofThis Old House and Martha Stewart.   None of us would do what Bob Villa did -  all those massive renovations. But it was fun to watch Bob explain them all.  Where did it go?  It evolved into blogs and websites  and everyday Hacks by the common man.  What insights do our DIY jokes bring?  Not many, and mostly mediocre, but here are a few: I wanted to buy some literature on DIY shelving.  Sounds easy, but try going into a book store and asking if they have "any books on shelves." I tried to build a DIY Stair Master...The instructions were only a few steps, but they went on forever. I bought a few pieces for my DIY orchestra today - some ensemble required. A man was doing some DIY work on his gas stove, when it all of a sudden blew up and sent him flying through his roof and up into the sky.  On his way up he passed a man falling down from the sky and asked him: “Hey, you know anything about gas stoves?” The guy falling responded, “Nope, you know anything about parachutes?”

These are canna leaves.  This is the time of year to find them and get abstract prints like these.  Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 13 2022 - Beach Glass

 

Stones along the beach in Charles Daley Park are always interesting and intriguing.  It got me thinking about how we used to collect beach glas.  There isn't nearly as much as there used to be, and I presume that has to do with pollution prevention and waste recycling.  I found a fascinating article explaining this HERE.   Below are two excerpts: "The reasons so much glass has got into large bodies of water vary. For millennia, glass entered the water from shipwrecks whose cargo spilled across the ocean floor.  Until the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution was implemented between 1972 and 1975, ocean dumping of municipal waste was essentially unregulated. Until well into the 20th century, many towns and cities maintained municipal dump sites on or near lakes or oceans: the famous Glass Beach near Fort Bragg, California, a favourite tourist destination for coastal visitors, received tons of glass from local landfills operating between 1906 and 1967."   "Toronto might seem an unlikely place to find beach glass. But much of the city’s contemporary shoreline consists of land filled in with construction rubble and waste; in addition, some 141 former dump sites dot the city, many along now-filled-in ravines. In the decades before public recycling programs began, glass was a significant component of the waste stream, and over the course of a century, quite a lot of it washed into Lake Ontario. Conditions in Lake Ontario near Toronto — including good “fetch” (wide stretches of open water sufficient for significant wind-generated waves) and strong longshore drift currents — are also conducive to producing good beach glass." It is still possible to find beach glass, but not in the quantities of the past.  If we head over to eBay, one can buy lots  beach glass in single or mixed colours, just like you combed the beach yourself.

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Feb 3 2021 - February Reds

 

There is a lot of summary coverage of yesterday's groundhog declarations of spring early/late.  Our own prediction from Wiarton:  Wiarton Willie (Groundhog) - shows a novelty outfit that Mayor Janice Jackson is wearing. The movie Groundhog day comes to life or is based on real life! There are lots of predictions so I asked how many Wiarton Willie's there are.  You might have guessed it: there are lots and lots.  The most famous one is Punxsutawney Phil (PA) of Groundhog Day movie fame.   There's a website listing all the known groundhog day celebrations by town/state and it lists what each 'groundhog' is - Check out the full list HERE  and find out that Harrisburg's is a dog dressed as a bear pretending to be a groundhog. There are/is taxidermied groundhogs, stuffed groundhogs, Gophers, Hedgehogs, Nutria, Skunk, White Squirrel, Armadillo (TX), Chicken (NY), Duck, Bullfrog, Aardvark, Owl, sock puppet, Beaver, and Otter.  I wonder what makes us call it Groundhog Day.   Typically the month of February has a colour palette themed around red.  I particularly like the Mardi Gras Colour Palette below, as it has an alternate palette with more colours in it.  The Colour trends for winter 2021 keep referencing Ultramarine Green and Sheen Green.  So who knows where February will get to during Pandemic winter 2021?   It definitely is colourful and that's great for a white winter wonderland outside.     Our image today has two hearts perfectly full of February reds.  Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 18 2020 - Avarice and Greed

 

Avarice and Greed - are they different from each other? As nouns the difference between avarice and greed  is that avarice is excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity while greed is a selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of money, wealth, food, or other possessions. That comes from wikidiff.com - another of the many parts of Wikipedia.  So let's find out some avarice and greed jokes.  Here's the first from upjoke.com, the website where jokes are voted to the top. Why did the chicken cross the road? DONALD TRUMP: I've been told by my many sources, good sources - they're very good sources - that the chicken crossed the road. All the Fake News wants to do is write nasty things about the road, but it's a really good road. It's a beautiful road. Everyone knows how beautiful it is. What do you get when you combine corporate greed, sleazy politicians, and willful ignorance? A climate crisis! The Stanley Cup final will feature a morally bankrupt city, that is built on corruption, greed, and deceit... Against Las Vegas.  I found this short, thin stick covered with flammable chemical at one end.I rubbed it firmly against a rough surface. Suddenly I felt completeness and purpose in life. All the negative feelings such as bitterness and hate melted away. I started to see divine beauty around me and I was able to forgive everything. My mind was still. As I looked around me, I noticed there was no more fighting, envy, war or greed. Peace at last! Love conquered the world. What I found was...a match made in heaven. Isn't this curious how the the jokes are sort of about greed (as compared to avarice) except for the Donald Trump joke.  Seems to make sense, though, doesn't it. Today we start the cross-over to Christmas colours from the Fall leaves.

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