Rosepoint Publishing

Natural Wonders of Our Planet Earth

There are so many natural wonders on this planet of ours that is impossible to list or picture them in one short blog. There may be several in your area, as these phenomena can occur in more than one area of the world, while others are located in one isolated area and one area alone, as with a few of the exceptional spectacles in Iceland. Planet bound or skyward, they awe and inspire, difficult to capture on film or digital camera–rare when they are–natural wonders of our planet. Lenticular clouds

Heavenward, our climate makes for some spectacular shows such as water or fire spouts. How about lightning that strikes upward, not down? Those strikes have been captured and authenticated. This is a lenticular cloud–some so alien as to be mistaken for UFOs.

Glorious trees grace our environment. How about the Rainbow Eucalyptus? This tree, also known as the rainbow gum is probably the most colorful tree on the planet. Found in the Philippines and Indonesia, it also grows in Hawaii. The bark starts out as green. Then as the bark ages, it begins to turn color as the chlorophyll is replaced by tannins.

Spotted Lake in BC, Canada, takes on a polka dot appearance in the summer. The water evaporates in the summer leaving large deposits of colorful minerals. Also known as Kliluk Lake, there are numerous videos on YouTube that exhibit its beauty.

Columnar basalt is the result of lava flows that has cooled quickly and cracked vertically. This particular phenomenon is found around the world. The “sailing” stones of Death Valley move hundreds of yards at a time–by themselves over the sand. sailing stones

The planet is 71% water, 29% land. It is filled with so many natural wonders and as harsh, varied and violent as it can be, still is our fragile planet. I am awed every day at the site of new displays of beauty and worried at its ability to withstand the indolence of man. ©2016 Virginia Williams Resource Box

Exaggeration

I’ve written before regarding my author buddy, Michael Reisig. I really enjoy his style of writing, but more than his style of writing, it is the philosophy behind everything he writes. It’s almost poetic and almost always goes straight to my heart. Reisig just seems to nail both the best and worst in man. He understands it apparently, otherwise how could he describe it so eloquently? The following came in his last newsletter, an observation I felt worthy of reprinting. Enjoy!

Exaggeration

By Michael Reisig

I was sitting by the fireplace with a friend yesterday, drinking coffee and trying to keep away from the winter weather, and he was telling a grand story. I suspected that without a deliberate attempt to be deceitful, some of the story had been embellished, and given the situation that was perfectly okay. But the thing about exaggeration is that there’s a fine line between being a grand storyteller and a bald-faced liar, and I think the crux lies in how often and how willing you are to bend the truth.

You might think of exaggeration as a custom peculiar to man, but if you study nature you realize that it’s common in animals and birds as well. Mating rituals are often all about embellishing or magnifying elements of their bodies – fluffing out feathers, exaggerated actions, enormous bellows and roars. Actually that sounds to me like a night at the local watering hole.

But the problem with exaggeration is that it ultimately diminishes distinction, because it becomes the harbinger of disappointment and often cheapens the final appraisal. The lesson here being the more you profess, the more you may be forced to produce. Take resumes for instance: there are few of us that haven’t gone to great pains to create an image there – they’re more like grand embellishments of who we’ve been in the past and a wish list of the qualities we assume would be an advantage to the situation at hand (staying within boundaries that won’t make us look like absolute fools if someone actually checks.)

Let’s face it, many times in excitement or indignation, our conversations seem to take on a life of their own – the colorful embroidery of words are out of our mouths before we can stop them, and in a moments of quiet afterwards we chide ourselves for not correcting such blatant corruptions of the truth. I can’t help but be reminded of the quote by Kahlil Gibran: “Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.” But at the same time, exaggeration is often nothing more than a tool – used by governments, television networks, politicians, and novelists. We inflate situations, or deflate situations to suit our needs, or simply ignore situations with the exaggerated aplomb of the deaf.

But where is the line between exaggeration and lies? Where is that fine line where truth and conscience take a back seat to ego and exigency. The truth is, it’s an individual territory in each one of us, because no one weighs the value of honesty exactly the same as the person next to them. I have certainly met people with whom there was no distinction between truth and lies, and there was no pride or sleep lost over the matter.

In hopes that all your stories carry a gem of veracity, I’ll leave you with a quote by 19^th Century humorist Josh Billings; “There are some people so addicted to exaggeration they can’t tell the truth without lying.”

His last book, “Down the Road to Key West” continues to be a best seller on Amazon. Check out his books or read more about Michael Reisig, the author, here.

Pokémon GO May Not Be Senior Friendly

What is all this hullabaloo about Pokémon GO? Are you one of those “10 years and older” willing to see what the uproar is about? This is not the first time I’ve tried to catch up to the latest craze. Pokémon GO has now hit more than “21 million active daily users.” You’d think there would have to be something really captivating about it. Turns out, it’s Augmented Reality. (That’s AR to anyone older than 10 years.) A few days ago, I wrote about AI (Artificial Intelligence). This game appears to be a long way from intelligence of any kind. T Pokemon Go Ball he whole point seems to be that of throwing a virtual ball at a virtual creature.

Being such a progressive older person, however, I do have a smart phone. And this game is free. (They always start out that way.) But then, here is the catch–there are no instructions. What little print is included must be at 6 pt–WAY too small to read. I assume that’s because Pokémon is totally familiar to our younger generations who still have good eyes (the original Nintendo game is 20 years old), and they are well acquainted with the annoying little yellow creature and need no instructions.

Pokemon turtle But Pokémon GO was only released July 6th and this version is specifically designed for mobile application, Apple iOS and Google Android devices. The game was developed in San Francisco by Niantic and uses the phone’s own GPS to appear in gamers physical locations. WHOA! (That’s the “augmented reality”!) Using the device’s camera, different monsters pop-up, who can range from dragons to crabs (I “caught” one yesterday). They all have these amazingly unique names; don’t ask me what the crab was called. Continue reading “Pokémon GO May Not Be Senior Friendly”

Do We Really Need AI?

I need a new computer.

One that understands me.

One that anticipates what I’m trying to do–and executes it properly the FIRST time.

One that doesn’t flip out every time I breathe hard or brush the wrong key.

One that will STOP fighting what I am trying to do and LETS me do it!

One that doesn’t auto-correct the slang, euphemisms, or abbreviations with words I’ve never heard of.

One that doesn’t have to have the same passage or photo re-entered and saved six times to stay where I put it.

One that doesn’t take a sudden left turn and leave a large block of content unsaved.

And,

One that uses my searches to FIND what I actually want within 15 minutes.

Young Adults Are Into Fantasy

So have I been beating my head against the wall trying to market fiction books in a remotely held genre for years when a little research would have told me quickly and quietly where the trend lies? (Hint: It’s obviously not historical sea or western adventures.) The focus might better shift to romance (the blue line in the Google Trends chart) with a stronger showing for mystery. Most of us love a good cozy mystery. It appears, however, that it is the young adults who are driving the fantasy genre.

Google Trends also shows that Sci-Fi’s are down, which is difficult to imagine given the popularity of J. K. Rowlings and is currently viewed in #4 position according to Thomas Stewart. Of course, he also places fantasy at #4 as well with such books as “Harry Potter.” Holding strong in his #3 position is the Bible and religious or inspirational books. Number 2 would be the mystery category and where does that leave Romance? Number 1–perhaps no secret to most.

Google Trends Chart — Romance, Mystery, and Young Adult

Horror stories are static, but a surprise was the uptrend for the young adult category. So is interest in tablets (the rising star in electronics for young adults), kindles, and cell phones also fueling an interest in..(Gasp!)..reading?

Continue reading “Young Adults Are Into Fantasy”

Amazon Prime Day – July 12th

Member of Amazon Prime? Billed as “Amazon’s Largest Event Ever,” Amazon Prime is preparing for July 12th, their monster sale to attract new prime membership. While my Amazon thoughts always focus on books, particularly for Kindle, there are actually over 100,000 items set to go on “Black Friday” level sales. This one-day only global sale will include everything from books to BBQ’s. This is their second annual Prime Day event where worldwide members “ordered 398 items per second,” last year beating out their own Black Friday sales. Deals will start every five minutes through the day.

Of course, there is a special deal for Kindle Unlimited, which is a $10 monthly subscription service, for up to 40% off. This doesn’t just include books, but ebooks and audiobooks as well. So are we jazzed or what?? Just when I was thinking of offering a sale of Stanley McShane books, they are promoting a monster sale. And yes, these specials extend to the UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria. Love it!

So what could go wrong? Continue reading “Amazon Prime Day – July 12th”

Royalty Free Images? Beat Getty Images!

Embed from Getty Images

Pictures! I’ve touched on the subject before when I posted regarding Flickr and Creative Commons some time ago. The photo on the left above was embedded from Getty Images, and although Creative Commons has a wealth of public domain or free images to tap, Getty Images is getting my attention because of the ease with which their royalty free images can be embedded to your blog. Of course, with any site that offers royalty free images, there are details in the small print, which should not be over-looked for copyright details. Most simply want simple attribution. I chose that doggy picture because it reminded me so much of my own little puppy (now ten years old). In the meantime, I’ve found numerous free image sites. Most want sign-ups or subscriptions at the least.

So whom have I been playing with lately? These are my top six go to sites for Royalty Free pictures: Continue reading “Royalty Free Images? Beat Getty Images!”

The “Artistic Crime of the Century”

America has benefited by some of the most creative and innovative engineers, scientists, and builders on the planet, conceiving modern marvels such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam, Mt. Rushmore, bridges, tunnels, transcontinental railroads, skyscrapers, and, of course, the World Trade Center. It was in 1974 when 24 year old Frenchman Philippe Petit made it his “le coup” to illegally walk on a high wire across the top of the twin towers a total of eight times, the “artistic crime of the century.”

Then the tallest structures in the world, the twin towers stood at just over 1,360′. According to Wikipedia, it was among a complex of seven buildings. The twin towers opened in 1973 and were known as 1WTC and 2WTC.

Petit walked at the 1,350 ft. level at the 110th storey. There was a 200′ gap between

philippe_petit — Philippe Petit: Credit AP

the buildings. The feat is celebrated in a film released in 2015 called “The Walk,” and there is no way to appreciate just how high that really is until you see the picture of the walk with Lower Manhattan buildings well below. Better known is the terrorist destruction of the twin towers on two-eleven.