July 11 2024 - Calgary Stampede

 

It is the annual Calgary Stampede.  The front page of the Globe and Mail and an inside special highlight the festival.  Rodeos seem barbaric to me.  Action pictures of a horse appearing to struggle wildly in the air.  Seems to me they are in pain, so I look it up and find that pain is "a common culprit in bucking horses".  What I can point to is that over 100 animals have died at the Calgary Stampede over the years.  They suffer broken backs and necks, heart attacks and aneurysms.  So far this year three animals have died after being injured during chuckwagon races and the rodeo.  There are protests but they aren't the highlight - just barely covered, so it would appear that there isn't much sensibility of animal cruelty in rodeos.   I looked up one or two of the contests - here's tie-down roping - "The cowboy must quickly rope the calf, dismount on the run to reach it, turn it on its side, and tie three of its legs. Time is called when the cowboy throws his hands in the air, and the calf is immediately released."  This seems to remind me that I have a city upbringing. Of course I would be squeamish about an event that attacks young calves.   On the other hand, if 80% of Canadians live in urban centres, I might not be alone in my distaste for cowboy traditions. There are 1 million visitors a year - maybe they would still come for the music, art, carnival, and food and they can leave the rodeo behind.   Here's a picture of Gerry and a Cuban steam locomotive.  A much more enjoyable ride.

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Feb 21 2024 - It is Firefall Time

 

Last week a friend showed me the Escarpment hillside covered in orange.  It was a picture from the morning sunrise, and it was blazing orange as though an autumn scene.  But we're in February and the trees are bare.  This was morning Alpenglow.   And it is this time of year when Yosemite has the Firefall display.  This is where the sun catches the water cascading over the Horseshoe Falls to create a fire-effect.  The Horsetail Falls is fed through snowmelt and run-off so it dries up in the summer and disappears.  It is only a few weeks starting in February when it shines brilliantly.  It is 2,130 feet long so that when the sun catches it, it is amazing.   Permits, logistics, reservations have turned this into an exclusive event.  I bet it is packed like some outdoor festival. Here is a picture from their facebook page.  Wouldn't this be something to see live!  There's even a video showing the valley at night with all the visitor activity.   You can see more stunning images on their facebook page - here is the link:  https://www.facebook.com/yosemitenation

Nothing like a steam engine. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 17 2024 - More Animal Stories

 

What makes us think there is such a gap between humans and animals?  In the Odd news is a headline of raccoons stealing Florida woman's DoorDash tacos.  Well, they didn't steal them.  They ate them at her front door where she proceeded to video them and got herself a bit of celebrity on TikTok.  The same day has a story from Britain of an animal rescue officer responding to a report of a fox with an injured leg.  He located the fox and set up his phone for video along with the trap of food. A fox came over and ran off with the phone.  It then took a selfie after it set the phone down. The injured fox was later rescued and treated.   There are a number of straight-forward escaped zoo animals.  Don't prisoners try to escape from prison?   There is a story of a loyal dog coming down to a Dominican jail and pleading for  his owner to be freed.  "This is the first time I handed a prisoner over to a dog."  Perhaps this is the story worth showing the picture.  The toad lived in the shoe for the entire summer before going off to hibernate. Jabba returned the following spring to reclaim the home.  I'd give him wide berth - he's a very big toad.

Here's a Happy Birthday Train Day for Gerry! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 11 2024 - Prop Betting at the Super Bowl

 

Is is the Super Bowl or the Super Bowl.  How did Bowl get in the name? There's an answer for this: It was Lamar Hunt, the main founder of the American Football League and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, who came up on the term “Super Bowl.” As his son, Lamar Hunt Jr., explained, the idea came from his “Super Ball” toy. My dad was in an owner's meeting.They were trying to figure out what to call the last game, the championship game."  Forget all that - it is history.  Today's big bets are on what colour lipstick will Taylor Swift will wear, which Jersey will she choose, whether she'll swear, will she show the heart hands to her fans. And so on. There are a lot of items to bet on.  I consider the best and silliest one is whether Travis Kelce will propose to her post-Super Bowl.   So here are the most popular published ones below. Doesn't it make you wonder how much money will fly about -  it is expected to be $23.1 billion in bets.  In 2013, you could buy El Salvador's economy or Iceland's economy.  Today you can get Warren Buffet-lef Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio.  You can pay out the $23 billion Firtst Nations Child welfare settlement.  And then there's an article on what Alibaba could buy with its $20 Billion IPO.  The article is HERE.  Things like 80,000 tickets to Space or four Apple headquarters.

Remember our visit to the Steam Museum?  Here's a great shot of the steam tractor in winter. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 20 2023 - No News Now

Metroland is the publisher of community newspapers across Ontario - and it is moving to a digital-only model with only six of its papers in print.  These daily publications include the Hamilton Spectator, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Peterborough Examiner, Welland Tribune, and the Waterloo Region Record.  Isn't that an ouch! We'll still have NewsNow in Grimsby as it is independent. But Niagara This Week will join the online group.  And how did I find that out?  Only by looking at Wikipedia.  The other reports from various newspapers and sources did not give a list. And the Globe and Mail?  That print subscription will be heading towards $1,000  in 2024.  It currently is listed as costing $10.99 per week – not including Sunday ($43.96 per month) for the digital and daily delivery. I looked up the subscription rates for the newspapers.  This is hard work.  There are so many different costs listed.  The Toronto Star is $19.90 per week for the digital edition.  The National Post?  Tuesday thru Saturday 1 month at $45.50/month.  The digital edition is $14.00. And finally, the New York Times?  It is hard to figure that one out - there are so many listings of different rates.  In Canada, it is distributed by the Globe and Mail.   All in the span of 50 years - from the zenith of prestige and the elite, to barely existing.  Our steam engine reminds us of how fast technology changes.

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April 18 2023 - Scientists are worried

 

They are worried that the galaxies they keep finding with the James Webb Space Telescope shouldn't exist.  The scientist warned us.  The galaxies were as mature as our own Milky Way and they come from the beginnings of the universe.   There's billions of celestial objects - sounds like an overwhelming panic. And worse: We may be missing some fundamental information about the universe.  Galaxy formation is under the "microscope". There might be something wrong with the dark energy and cold dark matter paradigm that has been guiding cosmology for decades.  Just how do you go about changing your understanding of the cosmos and how galaxies grow?  That's an exciting proposition. Other headlines?   Why do some James Webb Space Telescope images show warped and repeated galaxies?  Does the sun really belong in its family? Astronomers get to the bottom of stellar identity crisis There's a lot going on in this field.   It's a train day today. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 14 2022 - Garages

 

When did garages get built as part of houses?  It really started in the 1940s when cars replaced horses as transportation. Before that  carriage houses and barns are located separately - when one looks at the older heritage homes in Grimsby that's what is apparent.   Somehow garages brought to mind the  1954 movie, Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, where the "garage" figures large in the beginning plot of the movie: "Sabrina Fairchild is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas, and has been in love with David Larrabee all her life. David, a three-times-married non-working playboy, has never paid romantic attention to Sabrina. Since she has lived for years on the Larrabees' Long Island, New York, estate with her father, to him she is still a child. Eavesdropping on a party at the mansion the night before she is to leave to attend the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, Sabrina watches, follows, and listens as David entices yet another woman into a dark and vacant indoor tennis court. Distraught, she leaves her father a suicide note and then starts all eight cars in the closed garage in order to kill herself.  She is passing out from the fumes when Linus, David's older brother, opens the door, discovers her,  and carries her back to her quarters above the garage when she does pass out." The plot seems amusing with a nod towards royal family dealings: David's serious older brother, Linus, who runs the family business is relying on David to marry an heiress in order for a crucial merger to take place.  By the 1950s, North Americans became car owners with their garages.   Our own 1950s built house had a breezeway between the house and garage.  Of course, a garage for one car Here's a picture from our trip to Cuba, with Gerry boarding a steam engine.

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Mar 2 2022 - Keyword Lists

 

What nostalgia!  A headline with the phrase "Keyword List".  That was a phrase from the decades-ago online searching profession.  We had keyword lists galore.  We created keyword lists, and we searched via pre-built keyword lists.  Keyword lists were key to searching.  Today it was a headline from the Guardian (and others) about documents to provide to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capital. The article says keywords include items as simple as "Trump" and "EOP".  I am encouraged that they are using simple techniques - these are typically very successful in retrieving relevance.  And I am entertained that they are accounting for typos - we have so many today.   I did a lot of Thesaurus work in the 1980s and 1990s.  It was fun to build the relationships between words - to take into account synonyms, homonyms, typos, related words and so on. On one consulting assignment, I evaluated thesaurus software for the City of Toronto to integrate pre-amalgamation municipal records given how different the terminology was for the same things.  We think sidewalk is a clear thing - not when it comes to municipalities.  The Guardian does not report whether the keyword list is organized by a thesaurus to ensure completeness.  That would be a fun exercise.   Would you like to see the search term list?  Here it is.  Complete with boolean operators and phrase indications.  As I say, what a nostalgic moment! And our pictures?  We toot our own horn today about our past work. Or are we letting off steam about our current political affairs?  Good fun both ways.

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July 8 2021 - Looking for the Oldest Stuff

 

Continuing on the theme of old, I wonder what the oldest stuff is.  What do we prize and keep? There's a website named oldest.org and it tracks "oldest" things. There are simple things like  the 9 oldest wood schoolhouses, lighthouses  banks, buildings, bridges, and so on. Little did I think that the oldest tattoos would be significant. Ethnographic and historical texts reveal that tattooing has been practiced by just about every human culture in historic times. The ancient Greeks used tattoos from the 5th century on to communicate among spies; later, the Romans marked criminals and slaves with tattoos. Other cultures had sacred messages and symbols. Finding the oldest tattoos entails finding mummies. The oldest?  Ötzi the Iceman from 3400 BCE had tattoos - 61 in 19 groups of black lines. The locations of many of the markings are consistent with traditional Chinese acupuncture points, specifically those that are used to treat back pain and stomach upset. What is intriguing is that Ötzi lived roughly 2,000 years before the oldest generally accepted evidence of acupuncture, and well west of its purported origins in China. X-rays revealed that Ötzi had arthritis in his hip joint, knees, ankles and spine; forensic analysis discovered evidence of whipworm eggs - known to cause severe abdominal pain - in Ötzi’s stomach. It is, therefore, possible that Ötzi’s tattoos did in fact play a therapeutic role, and that acupuncture has a slightly more complicated history than previously believed. Now that is intriguing. It tells us that there is much to learn from old things, antique things and vintage things.  There's a trend to get rid of old stuff these days - things we have just finished using.  It has led to the waning appreciation of antiques and vintage.   That leaves us with National Old Stuff Day. - March 2nd. It is a day to celebrate old things and get rid of old things.  The two live side by side.  Certainly steam locomotives and railroad layouts represent old stuff from a previous time.  I wonder if I would find any tattoos on the figures.  I've never considered looking or asking.  It would be remarkable, wouldn't it.

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April 26 2021 - The Most Surprising Truth

 

What is the most surprising truth?  Is it Daniel Pink on what motivates us and others? He has overloaded the Google search engine so that is our impression.   I took a quick look and it is pretty mundane corporate motivation advice.  On the other hand, here is a surprising truth from the Oscars last night.  "The producers "offered tips" on dress code, saying the usual formal look is fine but please don’t go “casual.” In other words, no Jason Sudeikis hoodies, please. “We’re aiming for a fusion of Inspirational and Aspirational, which in actual words means "formal is totally cool if you want to go there, but casual is really not,” the letter says. That public figures need guidance on dressing.  Likely it is male public figures as here's Wall Street Journal's take in 2018 on slob dressing: "In truth, much of men’s fashion today occupies that intersection between sloppy and sleazy. On the Paris runways, labels like Balenciaga and Acne Studios show gangly sweaters with drooping sleeves and haphazard necklines, while Margiela is peddling distressed sneakers that appear to have been run over by a truck and glued back together...It’s against this backdrop that the slob-ebrity icon has emerged...Are the resulting outfits ugly? They certainly can be." Back to what's important - there is no surprising truth that we are welcoming the gorgeous green of spring - no guidance needed there.  Everyone feeling a little better every day. A train day today. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Feb 22 2021 - Become a NASA employee

 

Google just sent some fireworks across the screen. Was it for the Mars rover landing?   I think so as it repeats every time the search term is retrieved.  You can imagine being involved in that project. The cheering staff in the pictures are referred to as NASA engineers.  That's quite prestigious to me even in comparison to the rocket scientist title of the past.  What about a career at NASA? This is from their website: Career Corner for Students Grades 5-8 Have you ever thought that one day you might work for NASA? Many students have written, asking "What do I need to study to work for NASA?" The fact is NASA needs workers that have a wide variety of knowledge and skills. NASA isn't just astronauts and scientists. NASA has engineers, mathematicians, accountants, historians, writers, computer support technicians, project managers, artists, educators, human resource personnel, public relations managers, physicians, lawyers -- and more. The most important thing for preparing to find a job at NASA is that you study what you like and work hard to achieve your goals. It's true - there are a lot of jobs at NASA.  Here are some of the positions being recruited: Manager of Rocket Propulsion Test Office Director of the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications Extra Vehicular Activity Safety and Mission Assurance Lead Lead Aerospace Engineer Chief Engineer There's 37 jobs listed - everything from Deputy Directors to Branch Chiefs.  Lots of good salaries - up to $190,000 US and the lowest looked like the Administrative Specialist at almost $74,000.   That's 37 jobs listed with a workforce of 17,000 people and it excludes government contractors.  The total NASA budget for 2020 was $22.6 billion.  There are articles praising NASA as a great place to work.  Things like: projects are incredibly interesting, challenging and critical to the success of an experiment or mission.  "Great assignments" - that would be an understatement, don't you think?   This is one of the locomotives from the Kaitangata Line in Otago New Zealand.  This locomotive was donated to the preservation society at Shantytown, near Greymouth where it operates as a tourist train.  These pictures are from our visit in 2009. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April14 2020 - What's in a Name?

There are people who see things in very funny ways.  Here's an example that popped up last week when the bad dog jokes popped up.  Perhaps there was a google humour day in the searching and retrieval algorithm. It makes me wonder about first names and surnames.  We think of surnames as coming about in England.  They were adopted between the 11th and 16th centuries. The aristocracy started the consistent use of surnames. The Domesday Book in 1086 is the marker for the introduction of family names.  That was so they could tax everyone, and know that everyone had been taxed. But much earlier, the Romans had personal and family naming conventions - both a personal name and regular surname. Well, quite complicated, with the tradition evolving over centuries.  But it broke down following the collapse of imperial authority in the west.   Today, we engage in names as a social convention and personality statement. Websites have recommendations for turning surnames into first names.  A great example is Beyoncé:  "The singer's full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter. Her mother, Tina Knowles, chose the name because of her own French maiden name, Beyince."  I put that in quotes, because I wonder if her mother had spelling issues. Johnny Depp?  This is more traditional:  Depp is a surname of South German origin, from a nickname for a 'maladroit' person, or according other sources a comedian.  Ellen Page's surname is traditional - status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French. And 50 cent? This is the personality statement name:  Curtis James Jackson III adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was."   It is a Cumbers and Toltec day - these are from our visit to Colorado in 2017.

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