A Truth Table Day

I find out that Einstein created a series of riddles.  What is interesting is that in Einstein's time he considered only 2% would solve the riddle below.  In our time the creation of a logic grid (like a truth table) to manage boolean logic is common. Basic boolean logic dominated computer and information management disciplines by the 1970's.  Computer spreadsheets in the 1980's made possible the analysis and display of row and column data. It made complicated oral descriptions simple.  In fact, it seems to me that we completed the move from the oral tradition to the visual tradition with computer spreadsheets.   The Einstein riddle comes from brainden.com.  "It is said that this quiz was made up by the famous physicist and according to him 98% will not solve it. There is a row of five different color houses. Each house is occupied by a man of different nationality. Each man has a different pet, prefers a different drink, and smokes different brand of cigarettes. The Brit lives in the Red house. The Swede keeps dogs as pets. The Dane drinks tea. The Green house is next to the White house, on the left. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill. The man living in the centre house drinks milk. The Norwegian lives in the first house. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer. The German smokes Prince. The Norwegian lives next to the Blue house. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water. Who has fish at home? Are you one of the 2%? Further Discussion" Let's complete our 'truth table' with its metadata row along the top:  Occupant nationality, House colour, Cigarette brand, Drink type, Pet type. Our garden pictures today come from the Denver Botanical Garden, so I guess our first picture would be titled Botanical Bunny.

A Note from Einstein

It was JazzFM that brought this story to my attention - a note written on a Tokyo hotel official paper in 1922 by Albert Einstein sold at an auction in Jerusalem, October 24, 2017 for $1.5 million. The headline of this interesting story:  Einstein's Note on Happiness Sells for... "While in Japan, Einstein stayed at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. During his stay, a hotel worker came to Einstein’s room to make a delivery. Einstein found himself without any money to give the man as a tip for his services. So, instead of money, the famous scientist handed the hotel worker a signed note with a sentence he wrote in German. It read: “A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it.” He gave him another note that read: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He advised the bellboy to keep these notes as they would become more valuable than a tip.  We look at two elements in the garden today - a birch tree creatively displays bird houses in a Grimsby garden and bamboo leaves seen through the conservatory plexiglass window at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Fall's Last Flowers

Yesterday was a bird day in the garden.  Little birds were flitting about and a flock of Robins was eating these berries on my Beautyberry bush.  This is its moment in the sun - these gorgeous purple berries on red stems with yellow-green leaves.  Its latin name is Callicarpa.  Mine seems to be the largest I've ever seen.  The variety is Callicarpa dichotoma Early Amethyst.    With this year's rain, it is over four feet tall and five feet wide.  Obviously the Robins could spot the many berries very easily.  So I don't know if I will get to see the yellow foliage with the contrasting Amethyst flowers. We're at the very end of the Morning Glories.  Even though the weather isn't cold, the leaves are dropping and that makes the beautiful blue flowers stand out. We'll keep the roses until the hard frost comes. They've bloomed until Christmas in my Toronto garden. And if you have Victoria Salvia, Snapdragons, and Alyssum, these will bloom past the first frosts.

Decew

Decew House is the final destination of Laura Secord.  There is a new monument there.  It was designed by Douglas Cardinal and celebrates the First Nations peoples. Secord encountered First Nations warriors in nearby Decew's Field.  They escorted her the final kilometre to the British headquarters at Decew House.  The monument is located 5.3 km from the site of the Battle of Beaver Dams, which was fought and won almost entirely by Kanahwake Mohawk and other Native allies. About the monument: "The distinctive design of this compelling architectural sculpture is consistent with Douglas Cardinal’s designs elsewhere in North America, including the iconic Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau and First Nations University in Regina. Its flowing circular organic form is carved out of blocks of solid limestone, nested firmly in the surrounding landscape. The circle is a powerful symbol of welcoming, inclusion, and protection in Native cultures, and the curved walls of the monument are abstract symbols of Haudenosaunee longhouses that open to the East and West.  A central hearth, surrounded by seating, is represented by a translucent glowing glass sphere symbolizing the sun. The sphere was handcrafted by world-renowned master glassblower Angelo Rossi, a Niagara Falls, Ontario based artisan. Embedded in the walls of the monument are two graphic wampum belt symbols - the Hiawatha Wampum Belt, which expresses the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, and the William Claus Pledge of the Crown Wampum Belt, which symbolizes the restoration of peaceful relations among Native allies and the British following the War of 1812. A pathway from the monument will lead to a circular garden planted with a single white pine tree – the symbolic Tree of Peace of the Iroquois nations. Three white cedars will also be planted onsite to honour the abiding strength and importance of First Nations women." Our first picture shows the foundations of the Decew House - this is all that remains today.

When is IV IIII?

Do you ever panic when you see the end of the movie scroll and you can't read the Roman Numerals?  Yesterday's clock tower in Kingston had Roman Numerals to mark the hours.   Names of monarchs and popes use what is called regnal numbers which are Roman Numerals  Generational suffixes - you could be John Smith VI Year of production of films - and was the story goes was started by the BBC News "in an attempt to disguise the age of films or television programmes" Hour marks on time pieces where the traditional IIII rather than IV is prevalent as in our picture yesterday Buildings - the year of construction  Page numbering of prefaces and introductions Book Volumes and chapter numbers Outlines that use numbers to show hierarchical relationships Occurrences of a recurring grand event - none other than the Olympic Games Then there are uses within specific disciplines - music, astronomy, chemistry, computing, theology, and so on.  It seems Roman Numerals show up in many places. So we might be presented with the issue of how to represent zero.  It does not have its own Roman numeral.  And fractions seem to be complicated.  The Romans used a duodecimal system for fractions.  And then what did they do for large numbers? The system Apostrophes was developed for these. So while the system declined, it has remained with us in quite a few small ways. Our Autumn pictures come from last year - there's little colour to see this year so far - the wind has swept many leaves away.  There was no show of colour as we drove down the road past Morningstar Mill at Decew Falls in St. Catharines.  Just down the road is Decew House where Laura Secord ended her 32 km walk from Queenston.

Surfacing Attention

Surfaces and Textures are an interesting theme for photography.  There are so many kinds of surface structures, details, shapes, and textures as the subject of the image. The photographer's task is to showcase the surface and texture itself.   There are so many places to find these - everywhere - in the grain patterns of wood, the surface of stones, crystals of snow and ice, water, fabric, metal, leaves, sand, woven objects, clouds.  Included are urban decay surfaces such as rust and decay where scratches and dents create surface structure, texture, detail, and colour. Textures can occur at all level – including aerial photography and landscape views. The types of surfaces and textures include: rough, ragged, gritty, bumpy, spiky, sharp, fuzzy, slimy, slick, slippery, smooth, soft, silky, scaly, coarse, burl, knot, slub, abrasive, scratchy, shaggy, bristly, prickly, spiny, thorny, burnished, glossy, polished, powdery, and fine grain. So I went to two of my own portfolios to see what was there - Surfacing Attention and Nature's Impressions - and clipped the thumbnail image displays.  We see the array of surfaces and textures all around us.

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles. Wikipedia says: "It is likely that the term originated in popularity of polka dance at the time the pattern became fashionable, just as many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the polka name." This is around 1834 and was a dance craze until the 1890's. Polka dot patterns got their name capitalizing on the polka craze - polka was added to the names of a wide variety of products. Polka dots today find themselves on informal sorts of things - cup cakes and candy, children's clothing and toys, and fanciful house ware and women's clothing.  Definitely cakes and dresses lead the way for polka dot expressions. And then there is the Polka Dot Queen - this is a different realm of polka dot expression.  The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is known as the Polka Dot Queen because of her repetitive dot patterns in all her work.  Her museum in Tokyo was recently opened, and included large polka dots on the exterior.  Inside are her works with their polka dots on canvases, sculptures, and more. She has  mirrored installations where visitors are immersed for 20 to 30 seconds to "replicate the sense of infinity".  This is astonishing and creative work.  Her room of polka dot pumpkins is mesmerizing. Our picture today uses the Topaz Glow software on the fanciful Fusion lily.

Thanks Giving

Our Thanksgiving holiday weekend celebration completes, and next is Halloween and its traditions.  Our Thanksgiving tradition came about in 1957 with the declaration of a holiday.  The date varied before then. Unlike the Americans, there isn't a "First Thanksgiving".  But it seems to me theirs varies too.  The "First" is said to be October 1621 and lasted three days - and is about the Pilgrims (who were not Puritans).  However, there is a Shrine of the First Thanksgiving at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia.  The date of that Shrine is 1619.   Our pictures today show our current decorative traditions - a 'country' scene displaying the pumpkin and squash harvest, corn stalks, and chrysanthemums in harvest colours. These were taken at Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Burlington. The last picture is in Hendrie Park across the road from the greenhouse display. The entrance gates are beautiful and the plaque beside indicates the dedication to the Hendrie Brothers.  William Hendrie, a Scottish immigrant, purchased the land in the 1870s for his racehorse farm. In 1931 his son George donated the property to Hamilton Parks Board as a memorial to William and his brothers. Ten years later the property became part of RBG. I await the light this morning to 'see' the fog - there's a fog advisory that says visibility may be near zero in some places.

School Days

It is still named Dramatic Arts, but it doesn't look like the spaces, equipment and classrooms of 50 years ago when Brock's Dramatic Arts started and we were there. Funny to say there was a brand new theatre for the students back then - Thistle Theatre.  Now it is the new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts facility in downtown St. Catharines. We toured the facilities yesterday -  "four rehearsal and performance studios (two with lighting grids, one with production booth, one with adjacent wet lab), a scenography studio, coach/scene work room, the new Marilyn I. Walker Theatre: a flexible 285-seat venue with adjacent green and dressing rooms, scene shop, costume shop, production lighting and sound shops. DART courses are also taught in the venues of the adjacent FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre." The differences reminded me of the song "School Days" with its reference to the basic education and the method of teaching: School days, school days Dear old Golden Rule days 'Reading and 'riting and 'rithmetic Taught to the tune of the hick'ry stick We were the hippie generation - we experienced an informality that was unprecedented.   Yesterday I got present to this difference.  There was 'business' in all aspects of university functioning with things very much managed and controlled - quite a different control than the hickory stick. The picture today is taken in one of the video spaces.

Waifs and Strays Society

I saw a shadow on the wall and the shape made me think of a 'waif' - a child with dishevelled hair, big wide-open eyes and a heart-shaped chin. In the 1800's, homeless people and children were known as 'waifs and strays' - the definition has a few possibilities: 1. a person, especially a child, who has no home or friends. 2. something found, especially a stray animal, whose owner is not known. 3. a very thin, often small person, usually a young woman. 4. a stray item or article: to gather waifs of gossip. 5. Nautical. waft. It likely is the Miserables poster that made the look so familiar.  And also Annie.  The start of waif look in modelling can be attributed to Twiggy in the 1960's. "Twiggy’s large doe eyes, long mascara-coated lashes and waif-like frame defined the era.  Her leggy androgynous look became the ideal mannequin for mod fashion and is still referenced today on the runway and in editorials." So one might expect to see techniques for creating 'those huge eyes'.  Of course, Google has an answer for that question.  There are a few answers - varying between 8 and 11 ways to make your eyes look bigger. Here's how. Define your brows. ...  Add dimension to your crease. ...  Add shimmer at the inner corner of the eye. ...  Use light, neutral colors on the lid. ...  Line the inner rim of the lower lid with a flesh-toned pencil. ...  Apply mascara to lower lashes. ...  Curl your eyelashes. ...  Apply mascara to top lashes. Apply false eyelashes