Dec 29 2022 - goodgoodgood

 

There are a few good news websites, and I guess there are quite a few.  I found this one -goodgoodgood.co - it must have had trouble find a "good" website name. What was the good news of 2022?  I found it hard to figure out so abandoned that when I saw these children's t-shirts for the nth time in the last few days.   They are creepy optical illusions, I suppose. There are good news websites, and I guess there are quite a few.  I found this one -goodgoodgood.co - it must have had trouble find a "good" website name. What was the good news of 2022?  I found it hard to figure out from the website.  I abandoned that when I saw these children's t-shirts for the nth time in the last few days.   They are creepy optical illusions or perhaps the latest in aliens arising.    This may be the new t-shirt trend.  Will it become on the the top seller in 2023?  What are the most imports T-shirts historically.  Here they are: Kiss Me, I'm Irish‍. I “Heart” NY. I'm With Stupid. Keep Calm and Carry On. The Rolling Stones. Vote For Pedro. Jurassic Park / Ghostbusters‍ Charlie Brown‍ What about those Kevin t-shirts I see around?  Which Kevin is this?  Is it one of the 25 famous people named Kevin - e.g. Kevin Hart, Kevin Durant, Kevin Gates, Kevin Alvarez, or Kevin Joans.  Lots named Kevins.   Could it be Kevin's Famous Chili?  This is a popular scene from The Office.   But I suspect this Kevin falls a distant third to the most famous fictional Kevins.   I  think the contest for the top Kevin is between Kevin in Home Alone vs Kevin the Minion in Despicable Me.   Kevin in Home Alone has a fashion designer for a mom and a securities company executive for a dad (or maybe a day trader).  There's a Home Alone family tree.  That's how important Kevin is.  He's like Royalty. Kevin the Minion has the occupation of "henchman".   His family tree is listed as the Gru Family.   That's the father and children - I guess the Despicable One Family.  What about the Minion Family - they are a males species of fictional yellow creatures.  Can they have a family tree?  How important is Kevin, the Minion?  While we know they left their home country of Switzerland in favour of a new life in America during the late 1960s,  they have in fact existed since the beginning of life on Earth. Which t-shirt to get - the creepy puppy t-shirt or a Kevin  t-shirt? This is a carved  stone pathway at Bellevue Botanic Garden, outside Seattle.  I colourized the sections to bring out the surface textures.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Aug 26 2022 - Those Hunger Stones

 

From Snopes: “Hunger stones” are geological inscriptions found on river stones in Central Europe that serve as records of past droughts. According to Reuters, some were indeed visible in Germany’s River Rhine as of mid-August 2022, indicating drought conditions there. The above-displayed tweet, though, was misleading: The photographs of that stone in Děčín were actually taken during a different historic drought, in 2018, according to a reverse image search. According to science and technology news site Ars Technica, there are multiple carvings in the Děčín stone that serve as traces of historical droughts. Carvings in the stone commemorate droughts going all the way back to the 1400s.  But, based on our research, it was unknown whether that particular stone was visible in August 2022 and, if so, why.  Ars Technica noted, “It’s actually possible to see this particular stone some 126 days out of the year, thanks to the construction of a dam that was built on a tributary of the Elbe in 1926.” The Wikipedia entry describes hunger stones more fully - a type of hydrological landmark common in Central Europe serving as famine memorials and warnings.  They have been seen during droughts and there seems to be lots of them over time.  The one that's shown up in articles and social media is one of the most famous and the oldest in the Elbe river.   There's a long list HERE in the Wikipedia article. It still is spooky to see the declaration "If you see me, weep".

My pictures of carved stones are from Mount Pleasant cemetery in Toronto. I imagine that this beautiful palm frond symbolized death and eternal peace, referencing Palm Sunday.    Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

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Nov 25 2021 - Self-Made in Stone

 

Being "self-made" - what is that about? To put it into a sentence wouldn't it be:  I made me myself.  Wikipedia's got an answer and it is a phrase distinctly American and imbued in American culture over time.  the moment of its arias is marked in history:  "Self-made man" was coined in 1832 by Henry Clay in the United States Senate, to describe individuals whose success lay within the individuals themselves, not with outside conditions.  It is rugged individualism that has been idealized in America.  Benjamin Franklin was considered the first and the greatest of the self-made men.  He became an inspiration for many men who described themselves as self-made and were inspired by his life and the qualities biographers felt he had.  The expression took off - a series of lectures that went on for decades kept this in the American consciousness.  The expression had charisma -  It means an individual who arises from a poor or otherwise disadvantaged background and achieves success in financial, political or other areas through noble qualities, particularly perseverance and hard work, rather than achieving these goals through inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges.  That's Clay's description.    In simple terms it is a "rags to riches" scenario.  "One cannot be made by the help of a father, teacher, mentor, but must rise by one's own grit, determination, discipline and opportunism".   My sense is that Americans would like this to be a real "myth" - a traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. -The other definition seems more accurate - a widely held but false belief or idea.   The traditional story and history aspect is that writers over time identified men who achieved financial and political success, and then "inducted" them into the "Self-Made Hall of Fame" by categorizing them as self-made.  Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, P. T. Barnum, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie are looked as a kind of royalty in the Self-Made Man Hall of Fame.   Who else would you guess?  I looked at this list HERE on the artofmanliness website and found a variety of men listed - all of them achieving financial or political success.  Most of the presidents are considered self-made - Ronald Regan, Barak Obama, and so on.  All the great inventors are in the club - Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney.  And the wealthy are there - John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and others..  Those who say this is a false belief "myth" focus on cooperation over individual effort, along with the sense of self-glorification of describing oneself as "self-made".  Take the example of Donald Trump - he described himself as self-made at least 8 times on one PBS show.  His father described himself as self-made also.  Can there be generations of self-made men?  Doesn't that contradict the definition?  This is just one of the disparities one finds when reading about the topic.  The self-made man has a statue to celebrate his status.  I imagine that Trump's own Hall of Fame might include such a statue with his head on the muscular body with hammer held high to beat out his physical being in stone.   Aren't these great examples of "mighty determination"? Bobbie Carlyle's sculptures are mostly portrayed below.  She started making the self-made man in the late 1980s.     Our picture today?  Hammer in hand - chiseling on the Railroad.

Aug 30 2021 - Highway 8 - The Stone Road

 

Today our federal, vs provincial vs regional vs municipal levels of government go about giving each other responsibilities. Mostly downloading vs uploading responsibilities.   In the time of way-back, the government took over responsibilities.  Our Highway 8 is an example.  Originally the Iroquois Trail from ancient times, the province's Department of Highways of Ontario assumed jurisdiction the road between Hamilton and Queenston in 1918.  This road travels the entire Niagara region along the escarpment. One of the distinctions in Grimsby is the change in route so that the historic Nelles Manor (built in 1792) no longer faced the road, but backed onto it.  It rebuilt itself to have an appropriate grand entrance for the new front of the house. It was previously known as the Grimsby and Queenston Stone Roads.  Taking responsibility for it meant it was upgraded and by the early 1920s was paved. It became the King's Highway 8A in 1930.  Before that it was a "stone road".  I got to wondering about "stone roads".  There's a Niagara Stone Road that goes into Niagara-on-the-Lake.  That too was an ancient road and intersected with the Iroquois Trail. That had a long history of development from the 1830s onward so that wagons could travel on it better.   The name Niagara Stone Road came about when it was macadamized - single-sized crushed stone layers are placed in shallow lifts and compacted thoroughly.  It had a binding layer of stone dust, was rolled, and covered with a binder to keep dust and stones together.  That's the "Stone Road" designation of all these roads.  The Niagara Stone Road goes from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Homer - where the Homer Bridge is over the Canal, the name all that's left of the town.  I realize that I take roads for granted.  I hadn't thought about roads and their technological development in the last century.  A transformation ihas taken place in materials and methods used to build them. That's what infrastructure is like - we don't think about it very much, but depend on it all the time. Some model railroad images today.

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April 8th 2020 - How Clean is Clean Enough?

There's a book with the title The Germ Code and the same author has written The Germ Files.  Jason Tetro is a microbiologist. The Germ Code's Amazon Intro: Since the dawn of the human race, germs have been making us sick. Whether the ailment is a cold, the flu, diabetes, obesity or certain cancers, the likely cause is germs. Our ancient enemies have four families - bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa - and many names: Ebola, E. coli, salmonella, norovirus, gonorrhea. Human beings are engaged in a "war on germs," in which we develop ever-more sophisticated weapons and defensive strategies. But it is a war we can never win. Our best plan for staying as healthy is to choose our battles carefully, and try to co-exist with germs as best we can.  In comparison, The Germ Files will answer your questions about everything from preventing flu to selecting probiotics, while constantly surprising you with revelations about the miraculous workings of the microscopic world. Here's some of the everyday advice we can take from him in an article HERE. Towels:  It depends on the room. Bath towels become loaded with bacteria (including staph and fecal) and if your towel doesn’t fully dry, that bacteria can grow. Plus, dandruff-causing fungi can also grow in them, Rapinchuk recommends swapping out bath towels every other day. Your kitchen towels collect bacteria every time you handle food and wash your hands. Tetro recommends washing those weekly, unless you handled raw meat. In that case, wash the towel immediately. Doorknobs:  Once a week (in some rooms). Though doorknobs accumulate a lot of bacteria, they need only need to be washed infrequently, says Rapinchuk. However, doorknobs in the bathroom and the kitchen are bound to catch a lot more bacteria, so disinfecting them at least once a week might be a good idea, especially if there’s an illness in the house. Sinks:  Every day. Even if they look clean, sinks can get really gross — Tetro says the bathroom sink accumulates fecal matter (from washing your hands after you use the bathroom). Also, bacteria from food, like E.Coli and Salmonella, can contaminate the kitchen sink, especially if you’ve been handling raw meat. When water splashes back up onto your hands, they’re contaminated, too. To stay on the safe side, wipe down your sinks daily. Today's picture comes from Fine Art America, where I have a gallery.  It was taken at Salt Spring Island, where sand and stone meet at the beach to create an abstract image.

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Boxed Up

Boxes. Part of our everyday storage and movement of stuff. Ubiquitous for us.  But today,  it is the tie to the Christmas Box that makes this of interest. There isn't much in the way of history of the box available on search engines.  The first date is 100 BC in China during the Han dynasty, and then in 105 AD - that a paper-making industry was established, and started producing paper, and subsequently cardboard boxes. The first commercial paperboard box came into being in England in 1817 and in the same year in Germany. The key is that they were made from a single sheet of card.  Perhaps before that there were card boxes made of several parts.  There are no descriptions of the the boxes or reference to storage boxes in past times. What were Christmas boxes before then made of? Would it be wood, tin, or a woven basket?  The term is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary for December 19, 1663.   And where have we North Americans taken the Christmas box?  To the land of Christmas Lunch Box Jokes - the perfect easy thing to throw in your kids' lunch boxes if they aren't already excited about Christmas.  Examples below. Why didn't Rudolph get a good report card? Because he went down in history! What are Christmas trees to bad at sewing? They are always dropping their needles. Where do you find reindeer? It depends on where you left them. The news competing with Boxing Day history is the asteroid that went whizzing past at 27,500 miles per hour and about 4.5 million miles from our planet early this morning. And there's the last solar eclipse of 2019 on December 26th only to be seen in parts of Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Australia. Our picture comes from our trip to Vienna and France in 2005.  I think this is Beynac castle - with its castle carved into the cliff.

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May 26 - Roadmapping

What do you think of this roadmap of American living?  In my work, strategic roadmaps helped organizations transition and transform.  This one is a current state map that contrasts the political and social status of the U.S.   There is a wide spectrum of visual representations, aka maps, now.   We can go to visual complexity.com and find all kinds of projects.  I looked for ones that might reveal things about U.S. politics but didn't see anything that general.  What I did find was a diverse collection of visual representations.  Every one of these pictures expands and shows the results of analysis through visual representation.  You can read about the project and author HERE.  Here is the author's introduction: VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.   We found these two historic stone buildings in Delaware, near Mount Cuba.

Portals

I guess portals have been with us for centuries.  These two are at The Guild Inn, in Scarborough, ON, and would've originally been in the downtown financial district.  The first is imposing and decorative  and likely an entrance to a bank building. A portal is:  "a doorway, gate, or other entrance, especially a large and elaborate one."  It also has a meaning of a magical or technological doorway that connects two locations, dimensions, or points in time.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery - Rest Assured

These are the front entrance gates at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Yonge at St. Clair, Toronto Ontario Canada.  A combination of stone and brick, they are ornate and imposing.  The sign out front says Rest Assured - There's Space