abqtommy
abqtommy's JournalCBC*: Falling for fall: Explore Canada amid its autumnal colours.
*Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/photos/canada-fall-photo-scroller-1.6219614
This photo collection highlights the diversity of the natural beauty of Canada and is a
welcome and instructive diversion from all the doom-and-gloom world news that
shows up online even on a Sunday.
DISCLAIMER: Yes, at least half of my family ancestors came to the U.S. from
Canada but that has not influenced my appreciation of its natural beauty.
The Guardian: How to retrain your frazzled brain and find your focus again.
This is an interesting and informative long read. Here's a little bit of it:
"Are you finding it harder than ever to concentrate? Don’t panic: these simple exercises will help you get your attention back.
Picture your day before you started to read this article. What did you do? In every single moment – getting out of bed, turning on a tap, flicking the kettle switch – your brain was blasted with information. Each second, the eyes will give the brain the equivalent of 10m bits (binary digits) of data. The ears will take in an orchestra of sound waves. Then there’s our thoughts: the average person, researchers estimate, will have more than 6,000 a day. To get anything done, we have to filter out most of this data. We have to focus.
Focusing has felt particularly tough during the pandemic. Books are left half-read; eyes wander away from Zoom calls; conversations stall. My inability to concentrate on anything – work, reading, cleaning, cooking – without being distracted over the past 18 months has felt, at times, farcical.
The good news? We can learn to focus better, but we need to think about attention differently. It is not something we can just choose to do. We have to train the brain like a muscle. Specifically, with short bursts of daily exercises."
There's much more at the link:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/22/how-to-retrain-your-frazzled-brain-and-find-your-focus-again
From The BBC: Your pictures of Scotland: 15-22 October (2021)
I reward myself for reading through the International News by viewing this and other
photo collections. I'm sure we can all benefit from these distractions. And the punster
who writes the photo captions here is in fine high form today!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-58957716
From The BBC: Africa's week in pictures: 15-21 October 2021
Here's another great photo collection featuring Africa and Africans.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58994122
This afternoon I'm enjoying the 1996 movie "The Curse Of Inferno". It's
showing on my cable ScreenPix channel and I've never seen it before. The only
info I'll give you is that it had me from the start due to the soundtrack that features
a LOT of slide guitar work. The fact that I like that and this movie is no recommendation, of course. You can make up your own mind(s).
Allan Sherman song "Signs" that I remember from my youth. When I was 12
or 13 years old I heard this and have always remembered it. Here's a link to the
audio plus other associated links because Allan was a very funny guy.
https://www.elyrics.net/read/a/allan-sherman-lyrics/signs-lyrics.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sherman
Full Moon Fever is coming tomorrow, October 20, 2021, at 8:56 AM U.S.
Mountain Daylight Saving Time.
"October: Hunter's Moon
Every three years, the Hunter's Moon is also the Harvest Moon. Traditionally, people in the Northern Hemisphere spent the month of October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering and preserving meats for use as food. This led to October’s Full Moon being called the Hunter’s Moon, Dying Grass Moon, and Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon. However, this should not be confused with a Total Lunar Eclipse – Blood Moon."
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/full-moon-names.html
I appreciate websites like timeanddate that keep me from being confused so that I
can focus all my attention on the beauty of the moon.
October 17, 1956, Mae Jemison, first African-American woman in space, was born.
From The Good News Network. Here's one of the important things I've learned today so far.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/events061017/
"Raised in Chicago, Dr. Jemison earned a degree in chemical engineering along with a medical degree—and learned Russian, Swahili, and Japanese. She was elected to serve as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-47 launch. She orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992, and conducted a bone cell research experiment during her 127 orbits of Earth.
Jemison was a doctor for the Peace Corps in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 80s and practiced medicine as a general practitioner, before pursuing becoming an astronaut, and applying to NASA.
Jemison left the agency in 1993 and founded a technology research company, and, later a nonprofit foundation—and appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also authored several children’s books, and an autobiography, Find Where the Wind Goes."
There's a bit more text and some great photos at the link.
CBC*: How a Manitoba motorcycle club is changing perceptions of the Sikh faith
*Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/riding-with-pride
This photo essay has a lot of photos and a lot of text. For me it's a pleasant
distraction from all the doom, gloom and violence I find on my international news
sites even on a Sunday. Who knew? Now I do!
"Rajwinder Singh Sandhu stands in front of a mirror and suits up for an afternoon motorcycle ride through the country roads south of Winnipeg. He winds a fuchsia-coloured turban around his head and slips on a black leather vest adorned with a large blue and yellow patch on the back that identifies him as a member of the Sikh Motorcycle Club of Manitoba.
The club's insignia includes a khanda, a symbol of the Sikh faith and a sign that what unifies him and his fellow motorcycling enthusiasts is more than a love of the open road.
For more than two decades, Sikh riders in Canada have fought for the right to be exempted from the helmet requirement that motorcyclists are obliged to follow so they could wear a turban. In Manitoba, they won that right in 2000, shortly after the first exemption came into effect in B.C. in 1999.
"Whenever we ride wearing turbans, it already gives out a positive message in society, that we are very proud Canadians and part of this society, we are in a free country," said Singh Sandhu, the club's spokesperson."
There's a lot more text and photos at the link above.
From The BBC: Africa's week in pictures: 8-14 October 2021
Here's another photo spread showing the diversity of Africa and Africans. Enjoy!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58909966
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Sep 26, 2008, 10:10 PMNumber of posts: 14,118
