Marilyn's Photos - May 5 2025 - Obsidian

 

Thank you Mark Carney for being elected.  The CBC will stay with us.   And what made me more thankful?   listened to Bob Mcdonald on the radio Science show on Saturday.  I learned about the sharpest thing - obsidian. It is made when lava cools.  It has been known to be the sharpest thing for how many years?  The answer is thousands.  Wikipedia says evidence of usage dates to 700,000 BC.  That means indigenous peoples knew a few things.  What they knew was that obsidian is the sharpest cutting edge of anything - only three nanometres thick.  Obsidian is volcanic glass used to make super-sharp tools. It is found as artifacts from chips to blades to arrowheads at hundreds of sites across the Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia, dating back thousands of years. However, there are no volcanos in the area so archaeologists are using this volcanic glass to chart Indigenous trade routes through North America. New research, led by Timothy Allan of Ember Archeology, has traced the obsidian's point of origin to a site nearly 1,000 kilometers away, suggesting the material travelled over long distances and passed through many hands. The research was published in the Journal of Field Archaeology. These amazing people - travelling hundreds of kilometres to exchange or find this precious tool.  And when we look at the picture, don't you think it is interesting, strange, and weird?

Couldn't this Maple trunk be called Obsidian?  I guess not as it is gone now.  When I first saw it in 2012, it was still growing, but by 2023 it was hollow, and then last year, it was gone.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marklyn's Photos - May 4th 2025 - Long Ago

 

It does seem like a long time ago and far, far away. It was a spontaneous greeting with the release of the 1977 movie.  It appeared in a British political ad in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher won the election to be prime minister on May 4th.   I don't think we saw the film on May 25th its release date, but we saw it within a few weeks.  It was as line-up movie, as were most good movies in Toronto at the time.   Should we look up star wars actors who are still alive or actors who have died.  I don't know - some of the actors show up on both lists.  But that's how long ago and far away the original movie seems to be.   Such a delightful time for movies, it seems now. What a shock yesterday when I went to this cherry tree on Niagara Street in St. Catharines and it has finished flowering.  The hot weather last week has demised a lot of orchards' blossoms.  There were a few blossoms on the tree, so I still got an image or two.  And of course, I have a decade's worth of images to draw on.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 3 2025 - Bored?

 

Haven't we all been bored sometime?   Lots of money to be made enticing bored people to PLAY.  Like this screenshot below when I typed in bored and got sent to "Bored?  Press the Bored Button!" website.  We must have a lot of boredom in our society, as there are hundreds of websites that will help one reduce, remove, and banish boredom.  And there are lots of websites dealing with it socially and psychologically.  And consider this:  there is medical language too  - "to cure boredom."   Is it a medical condition?  Well, here's something I never knew. There are medical origins and implications.  Healthline says there are physical causes: inadequate rest or nutrition low levels of mental stimulation lack of choice or control over your daily activities lack of diversified recreational interests poor perception of time Look at that last one - having a poor perception of time.  It is termed "time blindness" where a person has difficulty in perceiving how quickly time passes and in managing time effectively - lateness, trouble estimating tasks, difficulties in planning or meeting deadlines. And there are medical causes:  ADHD, autism, depression, neurological impairment due to brain injury, cognitive processing differences.  And this medical term?  Dyschronometria.  It is a condition of cerebellar dysfunction where an individual cannot accurately estimate the amount of time that has passed.  Things can be complicated, can't they? And I had thought it was closely related to existentialism, life's purpose, etc.  But the roots of boredom are ancient - the Greeks had the word acedia. Who do we credit with popularizing the word boredom?  Charles Dickens and his novel Bleak House.  Wouldn't that be an experience?  To read Bleak House and A Christmas Carol at the same time - you know, something like 5 pages of Bleak House, 5 Pages of Christmas Carol?  That would be a good way to scramble the mind. My theory was that we would pinpoint the industrial revolution as bringing in alienation on top of boredom. And that flowed into existentialism. It is closely tied to boredom - listlessness seems quite equivalent to meaninglessness and that was at the heart of the existentialist movement of the mid-20th century.  However, existentialism really dealt with freedom and purpose and the struggle for self-creation.  Where it got to today seems odd to me.  Every threat to "being alive" is considered existential. We've reduced it to a simpler thing from the angst of the 20th century. And that's what I see on the internet with boredom.  It now is a simple story - play a game.  Maybe we prefer it that way.

There's no alpenglow images of Niagara's escarpment.  You'd think with its span of 725 kilometres, someone would have gotten a good shot of alpenglow.  Especially at the Bruce Peninsula.  But that's not what's available on the internet. There are lots of sunrise and sunset shots of Niagara Falls - and they are amazing.  Doesn't this look as good as alpenglow?   As I looked through the images, some aren't correct - the falls are not "falling" as they should be.  So I look closer at the image and what do I see?  It says AI-generated.  I am confused how an AI-generated image copying something has got it so inaccurate. Isn't this an amazing ground cover with its contrast of colours and shapes?  This was in Christchurch, New Zealand in the botanical garden.

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Marilyn's Photos - May 2 2025 - Niagara Alpenglow

 

Have you seen Alpenglow?  It is "a captivating optical phenomenon where mountain peaks appear to glow with warm colors (like pink, orange, and yellow) at sunrise or sunset. This occurs because the sun's light is refracted through the atmosphere and then filtered by the mountain slopes, causing the warm colors to be more prominent.  That was yesterday morning - the Escarpment view out the office window was a brilliant orange as one might see in the fall with autumn colours on the trees.  And then within five minutes, it was gone. Here is a mountain version - can you imagine seeing it from above like this? With the vast resources on the internet, we can travel vicariously and go experience the best alpenglow.  My vote goes with Yosemite.  But what about the Matterhorn?  The answer says that it is the Dolomites in northern Italy that are known for exceptional alpenglow.  Next is Yosemite and then Mt. Timpanogos in Utah, and Finally Tibet's Meili Snow Mountain.

There's no alpenglow images of Niagara's escarpment.  You'd think with its span of 725 kilometres, someone would have gotten a good shot of alpenglow.  Especially at the Bruce Peninsula.  But that's not what's available on the internet. There are lots of sunrise and sunset shots of Niagara Falls - and they are amazing.  Doesn't this look as good as alpenglow?   As I looked through the images, some aren't correct - the falls are not "falling" as they should be.  So I look closer at the image and what do I see?  It says AI-generated.  I am confused how an AI-generated image copying something has got it so inaccurate.

So without going anywhere, I had a little version of these colourful experiences.  Here's the view of the escarpment from our front yard.   You can see how saturated an orange it is.  Too bad there was no time to get to a better location.   And then it was gone.  Just like that. Maybe the fleeting nature makes it all the more exciting. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Marilyn's Photos May 1 2025 - Gull Calling

 

Out of 8 billion people, we can expect silliness and humour every single day.  Today's enjoyment is the "seagull boy" who has retained his screeching title of mimicking the call of gulls.   From the BBC:  A 10-year-old British boy has defended his European title for mimicking seagulls - seeing off competition, this year, from his little sister. Cooper, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, took the marine bird imitation world by storm when his high-pitched impression of a gull saw him soar to victory in the 2024 EC Gull Screeching contest.   Now he has become the first screecher to retain the juvenile category crown in the competition's five-year history. His seven-year-old sister Shelby, now known as "Sea Gurl", made it a high-flying weekend for the family by landing fourth place. And notice they've used the term "seagull." It is a colloquial term but is incorrect.  There are just varieties of gulls.  Who is to worry at this point in the gull screeching competition?  If you listen, it just seems a bit tacky But we'll take any humour these days, won't we? Here's a gull in the Canadian Tire parking lot way back in 2011.  Perfectly placed with a Canadian flag.

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