Marilyn's Photos - Aug 10 2026 - Energetics

 

We talk about energetic people - lots of energy - go, go, go!  And then what would the energetics industry be?  Today's Globe and Mail headline "From flax to firepower" was a surprise. "Energetic refers to chemical substances or mixtures that possess a large capacity for storing chemical energy, which can be rapidly released through reactions triggered by external stimuli such as mechanical or thermal shock waves." Who would guess that flax can be processed into products that end up being explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnics.  Normally we think of commercial applications. I  think of flax seed as a tasty addition to granola.  And also of flax being woven into fabric. The flax stalks are high in cellulose and are normally a waste product.   But they can be processed into solid biofuels in the form of pellets and then used as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels.   The Globe was highlighting that flax straw can be processed to derive nitrocellulose and this is an ingredient in propellants and energetics used for modern artillery shells.   There's a long history of the use of flax in fire and ballistics.  Flax fibres are strong enough that they were used to string bows and crossbows, and were woven together to be vest protectors against arrows and swords.   Who would guess there would be interesting stories of fax harvesting.  I found an Australian story from WWII where flax was harvested for coats, parachute harnesses, ropes and tarpaulins.  The Flax Mill had caught fire. The process of putting the fire out was described.  Here's what got my attention the most:   "to save further destruction two men mounted on motor cycles with a wire stretched between them, rode either side of the burning stacks, bringing them down." The full story is HERE.  Here's a battle scene:  Turtle vs water lily.  And the winner is... the turtle. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 9 2026 - Billionaires' Reading List

 

How many books do billionaires read?  Is it 5, 10, 15, 246? And what happens when I find out which books these are?  And then what happens when I read these books?  Mark Cuban says he has chosen specific books deliberately.  This comes from Blinkist, an app that gathers the key insights from nonfiction books into 15 minute reads and listens.  Each book is highlighted for its contribution and the reading time is indicated.   For example, Cuban's number 1 book is Principles by Ray Dalia, 15 minute reading time, "A landmark guide to decision-making from one of the world's most successful investors, built on the radical idea that clear principles, honestly applied, beat intuition every time.  Cuban has cited this as essential reading for anyone serious about building something that lasts." Doesn't it make you wonder what happened to Cole's Notes? Being a Canadian company, it is now owned by Indigo Books, and students who used to buy those yellow and black booklets (like wasps to me) now use SparkNotes and AI tools.  You can have a nostalgia moment and go find them on Amazon or Indigo Books online.   And then there were "For Dummies" series.  They were beginner-friendly books covering many topics.  But that seems to be gone now.  It is about money.  Of billionaires, by billionaires, for billionaires.  Become a billionaire. That is the model of the US government according to Bernie Sanders.   Lincoln said the government was supposed to be run that way - of the people, by the people, for the people - in the Gettysburg Address.  Today that we can get a real time list of Billionaires from Forbes who calls it the three-comma club. I suggest The Three-Comma Book Club is a good name for the billionaires' reading lists.  Another watercolour and pen drawing.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 8 2026 - Earthworms are Cute

 

Earthworms are cute.  That's because they are small.  I saw one in the bottom of a pot that was filled with water and got it out, despite its substantial wiggling.  An earthworm can survive submerged in water for several days up to two weeks, provided there's enough dissolved oxygen.  They breathe by taking in oxygen through their skin via diffusion.  So I guess in my pond they can live longer as there is water flowing into it constantly.  In that pot, it wouldn't last as long.  Now consider the giant worm, giant Gippsland earthworm.  It can reach lengths of 3 metres or 10 feet, and there are reports of larger ones. It is native to Australia - and Australia has a lot of earthworms - more than 1,000 native species.  In comparison, there are 120 native species in the U.S. and Canada.   I took a screen shot and the first image was in the article I read. So this is the actual size of the worm. It is hard to know now what is a real picture and what is AI-generated - sometimes the pictures show earthworms that look like Anacondas - 30 feet long.  It looks like there are giant earthworms in South Africa as well.  The Australian earthworm only surfaces when there is heavy rainfall, which can drown it. It is known as a noisy worm.  It makes a gurgling sound as it moves quickly through its burrows, sounding like water draining out of a bath.  Wouldn't we jump if we heard a noise like that below our feet.  I found this image with the Jimmy Van Heusen quote.  I looked up his biography as this seems like a most delightful quote.  He says that he took song writing seriously when he discovered girls.  And like his close friend Frank Sinatra, he spent a lot of time chasing and being chased by women throughout his life.  Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marilyn's Photos - Aug 7 2026 - Moon Crash

 

They figured out where the SpaceX rocket part crashed on the moon.  The picture has a little black spot with a white spot and a yellow arrow.  It is near the Einstein Crater.  The crash was "unintentional but full anticipated" - which sounds disconcerting.  The resulting crater was estimated at 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep.  With lower gravity on the moon the plume of debris was viewable through telescopes, and was observed for 5 to 10 minutes after the impact.   Scientists can now investigate the lunar dust and debris and the Moon's geology below the surface. There is also the expectation that a detectable seismic event occurred.  There aren't any instruments on the moon to record this.  That is a gap compared to the previous NASA era of crashing rockets into the moon on purpose. The astronauts placed seismometers on the lunar surface to record the moonquakes and vibrations of the rocket parts they crashed to the Moon.   The articles usually lead to commentary on the amount of junk in space.  How much junk space is there?  There's 13,000 tonnes of it in the area between the Earth and Moon. AI is now used to help satellite operators avoid collisions, which I gather is a very frequent possibility. This comes from the Painters' Palette Series where I took pictures of the watercolour palettes and then modified them into collages, etc.  Doesn't this look like a Moon Strike? Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com

Marily n's Photos - Aug 6 2026 - The Library of Alexandria

 

There's an address for the Library of Alexandria in Egypt.  It is located at 6W49+PQ7, Al Azaritah WA Ash Shatebi, Bab Shar', Alexandria Governorate 5423021, Egypt. There's a myth that the library was destroyed in a single fire and that event plunged humanity into the Dark Ages.  Wikipedia tells me a different story: Ceasar's Fire in 48 BC burned thousands of scrolls in a warehouse at the docks.  In the 3rd Century the Romans damaged the royal quarter where the main library stood.  Then Christian leaders destroyed the Seapeum temple in 391 AD. The Islamic Conquest Myth was that the Arab leader burned the books to heat baths - this is considered a false story.   There's a legend that we would be centuries ahead in our technological world if the library had remained.  Now, historians don't think that the library held secret advanced knowledge to prevent the Dark Ages or propel us sooner into space with advanced technologies and scientific knowledge. The prevailing theory is that the library decayed over centuries due to lack of interest, reduced funding and shifting politics: Egypt became a Roman province, moving political power and funding away.  There was a shift from classical pagan scholarship toward Christian theological debates by the 4th century AD, and commercial survival predominated over an expensive, royal research archive. I see a parallel today.  Trump and the MAGA movement in the U.S. today have an anti-education, anti-science, anti-intellectual bias that can dismantle all the education and technology institutions.  This doesn't seem that unlikely many centuries later.  How long does it take to now for something to fall into decay and disappear? The size and scale of the library is so substantial. Somewhere between 400,000 to 700,000 papyrus scrolls is the estimate of the collection - containing famous epic poetry, the ancient Greek plays, science, mathematics, astronomical charts, engineering and medical information, philosophy and history and even foreign translations of Persian, Hebrew and Indian works.  Absolutely nothing remains of the Library.  No architecture, columns, foundations.  It is believed that the library is beneath modern Alexandria or submerged in the harbour.  There are no intact scrolls or documents.   But that doesn't mean that the works were all lost.  Ancient texts were regularly copied and shared with other locations - Constantinople, Rome and others.  That is the most predominant explanation for why historians consider the world would be similar to what it is today with or without this ancient library.   The address above?  It is the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria.  It does seem comforting to know there is a physical place for this legend. I don't have any images tagged with library, and only a few with book.  I did like this picture - a blank slate moment. Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.com