Carbonfish Redux

I made a couple of small yet significant modifications to the Thruxton

2012-01-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

Can you spot them?

Image source for all three images: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

Well, I did it again! The mid-life crisis takes a new twist.

2012-01-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

I would like to be able to say that it was massive, year-end dealer incentives that pushed me over the edge into buying myself a new 2012 Triumph Thruxton (and in part, it was), but I am sure that there is something much deeper at work here. Now if I can only figure out what and write a self-help book about it, I could quit the 07:30 - 17:00 rat race and live in the manner to which I could become accustomed.

Here are a few photos of the new bike.

Image source for all three images: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

I hope that you all had fabulous Holidays and have a safe and Happy New Year!

Christmas again... how does the time go?

2011-12-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

Image source: http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/

A late Autumn hike up Catherine Creek

2011-12-17T13:55:00.000-08:00

Sonya and I took a hike last Sunday up Catherine Creek, up in the Columbia Gorge on the Washington (State) side. I won't caption these photos. I'll just post 'em. If you have questions, or just want to let me know you're alive and reading the blog, don't hesitate to comment.

Image source for all images: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

I will say that it was cold as you can see from the "frost finger bone" that was heaving out of the ground. But once we got walking we were warm enough. As always, I will remind folks to click on the photos to embiggen them.

The sixteen year reign of Bobo, King of the yard, has ended.

2011-11-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

The King is dead. Long live the King!

Stop the "Protect IP" Act!

2011-11-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

You REALLY need to contact your Congressperson and urge them to do everything they can to derail this legislation.

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

I mean it! Get busy!!

Photo-post time!

2011-10-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

Just one. And it's film! Well, it's not film anymore... but it started out as film. Then it turned into a transparency. Then it got digitized. And now it's here.

Image source: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

It's not easy to visualize the size and scale of space.

2011-10-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

But THIS web page succeeds. When I was in college some years ago one of my astronomy professors attempted to illustrate the scale of the solar system by using a beach ball, a marble or ball bearing (I think) and a football field. It worked fine to give us an idea that, contrary to the persistent notion reinforced by science fiction on TV and movies, travelling to other planets, let alone other galaxies, would require very long stretches of time at very high speeds, or some way to sleep the journey away... or something.

Image source: Phrenopolis

Anyway, the web site in question, Phrenopolis has succeeded in visualizing the scale of the solar system in a way that perhaps only a web page could. The image below is a screen shot of their home page. Click on it to go there. Click on the image of the sun above to get the scale of the solar system in a way that you probably not imagined before.

Image source: Phrenopolis

Ahhh, how I love the internet.

2011-09-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Image source: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

Thank you Internets! I have been tearing my hair out because of the weird (to me) new trackpad gestures in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. They took away the three finger swipe (by default) to navigate back and forth between finder pages and forward and backward in a browser window, as well as changing the functionality of a bunch of other stuff. I have read that Apple's intention was to bring OS X more in line with the functionality of iOS. Well, this just made me insane. I loves my Macs, but I don't have an iPhone or an iPad (by choice), so the move by Apple to standardize the platforms was lost on me. Did I mention that it was driving me around the bend? Anyway, I spent a few minutes in a search engine and VIOLA!

http://www.macworld.com/article/161886/2011/08/restore_snow_leopards_three_finger_swipes_in_lion.html

Don't pay any attention to the article, go down into the comments for the real payoff. One of the commenters pointed out that you can change the gesture functions in the System Prefs. I knew that, but I hadn't noticed the little dropdown menus for most of the gestures that allow much finer-grained adjustments.

It's like a freaking MIRACLE!

You Internets are the best!

So what's up with the Twilight Zone signs?

2011-09-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

So do you ever wonder what people are thinking when they make something common in an uncommon way? Example: Here are photos that I took of what are common road signs, but both of these are worded in a way that is completely at odds with the usual signage.

Image source (both images): K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

In the case of the Speed Hump sign, what the hell were they thinking? Speed Hump?? And then the "Bicycler on Roadway" sign, I just don't even know what to say. Is Bicycler even a word in English? And if so, do they expect bicyclists to only ride on the road one at a time?

This is flying all over the net right now, but what they say is true...

2011-08-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

This video illusion will DESTROY your brain!

I absolutely love this kind of thing. It's so cognitive science-y and yet still seems like hucksterism somehow. I marvel at the fact that our perceptions, while for the most part shared, do not necessarily accurately reflect the reality of the thing we are perceiving.

Just so freaking cool.

I was linked to the illusion through Twitter, which took me to Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Blog. But like I said in the post title, this is everywhere by now (even here). But it's just SO COOL!

I am REALLY loving these illustrations of library life by Wendy MacNaughton...

2011-07-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am sure that many of you know that I spend my working life in libraries. Specifically, medical and academic libraries. Through the convoluted process that is the internets, I was led to Wendy MacNaughton's watercolor sketches of the patrons in a San Francisco Public Library. They are awesome. She apparently writes an illustrated column in the online literary journal The Rumpus. Here is a sample of her work:

Image source: The Rumpus

These are really fabulously rendered snapshots in time and a terrific example of the artist's narrative skill. If you have the opportunity to check out more of her work, by all means do so.

You can see more of Ms. MacNaughton's work in the New York Times Sunday Book Review (even though it's not Sunday yet).

Wonderful stuff.

Certainly for many, meatloaf and mashed potatoes are comfort food...

2011-07-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

But to others, there's nothing like Ramen. A million kinds of Ramen. I have to admit that when I go to our local Asian supermarket I am thoroughly overwhelmed but the incredible variety of kinds of noodles. Here is a screen shot of a blog that up until a few days ago, I didn't know existed.

That's right! The Ramen Rater. This is truly what makes the Internet a marvel of our times and well worth the thousands of dollars that it costs me every month. It has been quite awhile since I have been so giddy about anything I can tell you, and my life is a dizzying whirlwind of excitement. So this is really something.

You should go see.

With Christmas just around the corner...

2011-07-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Why the Panda is black and white

2011-05-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

TIJI "COLOUR" HD from AKAMA on Vimeo.

Via

What's that smell?

2011-03-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

I made a little movie. It made me laugh to make it. I don't know how you will feel about watching it though.

Sorry that I have been absent of late...

2011-02-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

See, this is me looking sincere.

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Image source: K.D. Cline. Some Rights Reserved.

Is it food? This flow chart will help you firgure it out!

2011-01-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

I am not a big Huffington Post fan. Not because I disagree with the HuffPo politics or anything, but just because I can't seem to read any kind of politically slanted journalism without getting all worked up. Even if is a position that I would otherwise agree with. Anyway, I guess that I should remember that there are sometimes other things of value on those kinds of web sites. Like this:

Image source: Huffington Post

Since I am sure that a bazillion of you read the H.P., that many of you will have seen this. But I had not, so my hat is off to Darya Pino, Ph.D for the article and the humorous, yet thought-provoking chart.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

As is our New Year's Day tradition, my adorable, patient, and long-suffering wife and I went up to Wyeast (more commonly called Mt. Hood by contemporary mapmakers) and tromped around in the snow. You know, just because. I know that those of you on the East Coast who read this blahg are probably so sick of snow that you are convinced that we must be nuts to go find some on purpose. It's just that here in Portland, because of our local topography it is really hard to get snow. If it's cold enough, it's dry, and if it's wet enough, it's too warm. Lucky us I guess.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos that I took earlier today. I know this is kind of personal and not very generally interesting. But indulge me. Thanks!

Image source (all images) K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

Happy New Year everybody!

New Year's Eve.

2010-12-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

This year I resolve not to eat one of these ducks.

We went and did a little shopping today and although it took great strength of will, I was able to resist them. These ducks will not have a happy New Year, but from all of us here at Carbonfish Redux, we hope you do.

If you would care to, you can click on the ducks (twice) to get a very close look at them.

When I was a boy in the late 1960s, we were shown this movie in school.

2010-12-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the synopsis from the National Film Board of Canada website:

"Based on Holling C. Holling's book of the same name, Paddle to the Sea is Bill Mason's film adaptation of the classic tale of an Indian boy who sets out to carve a man and a canoe. Calling the man "Paddle to the Sea," he sets his carving down on a frozen stream to await spring’s arrival. The film follows the adventures that befall the canoe on its long odyssey from Lake Superior to the sea."

I am not sure how old I was when we were shown this movie. I couldn't have been more than ten or eleven I'm sure. But I found myself thinking about it only a few days ago and here it pops up on the global network of computers all of a sudden. Weird. It came to my attention again through the fabulous Cold Splinters blog/web site.

Enjoy, and since it is about ten minutes before midnight on Christmas eve, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

The Digital Nativity

2010-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

I am not a Christian, but I thought that this was pretty great!

Enjoy! and Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, and to the rest, have a great Solstice!

One can never hear enough Edith Piaf, can one?

2010-12-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

Leonard Cohen and Judy Collins sing "Suzanne" (1976)

2010-12-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

The trail ahead.

2010-12-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

Defying physics with Photoshop.

2010-12-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have those moments when you are trying to realize a certain vision of something, you know, like getting a painting or a photograph to look right, or working on a piece of music or something and having the result turn out different from what you imagined in a way that is at once gratifying and disturbing, or more often, just disturbing? I have more of those moments than I care to admit. My photography has taken on a deeply dissatisfying life of its own, wherein my photographs are turning out badly and when I try to fix them, they turn out interesting, but somehow worse.

Case in point:

Above is an image of Latourell Falls in the Columbia Gorge. It's a nice enough picture I guess (even though it's very soft and the foreground is out of focus). I made it with the Nikon D90 and a Nikkor AF 20mm f/2.8D lens. It was about noon and the sky was overcast. This made the light very flat and the scene pretty pedestrian even though the falls are quite a sight. I thought, well, I guess I could just go BIGGER and make several images in landscape orientation and then stitch them together in Photoshop. That should make things look more interesting even if the light sucks. Well, it made them more interesting all right.

Photoshop decided to align the images based on the trajectory of the falling water, and by doing so, caused the falls to defy the laws of physics as we know them.

Crap.

I have to say though, it is sort of surreal looking even if it's just plain wrong. That said, my photography is causing me some angst lately.

Click on the images to see them embiggened.

UPDATE: Here, I fixed it. :^)

Image source for all images: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

Model Railroaders: A breed unto themselves...

2010-11-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

Image source: K.D. Cline. Some rights reserved.

The guys who built and operate this gigantic model railroad layout (Mt. Hood Model Engineers), like all model railroaders (at least the ones that I've known) are constantly trying to find that balance between obsession for detail and the limits of time, money, and material. These old guys mostly succeed.

I'll bet if they got their hands on the remote for the full-size locomotives that I blogged about a couple of days ago, that they would all simultaneously be struck down by rapturous joy. Their dreams finally realized.

The photo you are looking at is just a tiny piece of this layout. It takes up the whole basement of a pretty good-sized building in Southeast Portland (Oregon). I made a lot of pictures, but I won't post any more of them because either you're into model trains or your not, and I'm not. I love my trains full-size. That said, I really respect these people's passion for their thing.

Sad and beautiful rub shoulders in our hearts.

2010-11-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

I think of the Summer days that I have walked past, and sometimes through this fountain. The sun reflecting off the water onto the buildings that surround the courtyard that the Lovejoy Fountain sits in.

In the Winter this fountain sits empty of water but full of my memories.

Did you know that they run real, full-size trains by remote control?

2010-11-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

Take THAT radio controlled model car and plane enthusiasts!

The only thing I have to say about this is, who in the hell is operating the remote and where the hell are they remotely operating from? I don't see any cameras or control towers anywhere (and I looked!).

I'll say one thing for sure. At this intersection I'm looking both ways TWICE!

For those who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving.

Just a photo post.

2010-11-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

Image source: K.D. Cline

I made this photo on the 14th of this month. Almost all of these leaves are gone already. Sad really.

The spirit of Christmas reverently and tastefully displayed...

2010-11-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

It's reassuring to know that in my part of the country people don't buy in so much to the crass, overly commercialized Christmas hype and instead offer simple and heartfelt displays of the true meaning of this special time of year.

Be sure to click on the image to fully appreciate the depth of solemn introspection that must have gone in to the creation of this masterpiece.

(Just to be fair, my wife and I saw the gentleman and a person who I will assume was his offspring while they were putting up some of this stuff and they seemed to be having a great time. Also, everyone that I saw driving by while I was making these pictures was smiling from ear-to-ear.)

UPDATE: I drove back out to the house where I made the above image so that I could get a shot of the yard at night... just so your experience would be complete.

Image source: K.D. Cline

It's been a little while since I posted something specifically photographic.

2010-11-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

You see, this is the problem with getting ever more sophisticated photographic equipment. Once you get the stuff you have to spend the rest of your life trying to figure out how it works. And in the case of lighting equipment, you also have to figure out how it works with your cameras and other lighting equipment. It just gets worse and worse...

Image source: K.D. Cline

Autumn in a town well dressed for the season.

2010-11-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

Dick Van Dyke saved from a watery grave by friendly porpoises!

2010-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

By now this is pretty old news, but still worth a visit.

According to the website Guardian.co.uk, actor Dick Van Dyke fell asleep on his surfboard during a trip to his local beach and drifted out to sea far enough that he could no longer see land. Van Dyke relates how he "started paddling with the swells" when he "saw fins swimming around me." At this point, the 84 year old Van Dyke feared the worst. That is until the fins turned out to be friendly porpoises. Mr. Van Dyke stated that the porpoises "pushed me all the way to shore", certainly saving Van Dyke a great deal of effort if not his very life.

Image source (both images) Wikimedia Commons. The above images are not reportage images. These are not the porpoises that saved Mr. Van Dyke as far as I konw.

According to the Guardian, the porpoises could not be reached for comment.

Clara Rockmore plays "The Swan" (Saint-Saëns) on the Theremin

2010-11-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

Fabulous, and she definitely looks every bit the theremin virtuoso (virtuosa?). Love the turban / scarf-y thing on her head!

I could watch films like this all day.

2010-11-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

"Linotype: The Film" Teaser from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

(via)

Michael Hearst obviously gave more than a minute writing the music for this video.

2010-11-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am not sure who is behind this "local projects" video (and I'll admit that I haven't taken the time to find out), but Micheal Hearst has written the perfect music bed for it.

Awesomeness.

Worth watching...

2010-11-03T20:02:00.001-07:00

I recommend that you watch it in full screen mode.

That is all.

(via)

"It is my love for you that keeps me away..."

2010-09-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Not really. It is a motorcycle that keeps me away. Sorry that I haven't posted in a long, long time, but last month I went out and got this, and, well, you know...

A not brand new, but new to me, 2007 Moto Guzzi Norge 1200

Is this the result of some kind of mid-life crisis? Maaaaaaaybe. But hey, I'm still young enough and strong enough to pick the thing up if I drop it!

As you can see, the speedo goes to 150 m.p.h. Since I know that both my wife and my mom read this blog occasionally, I will honestly state that I have not pegged the speedometer (yet).

In the near future I promise less blogging about me and the stuff that catches my eyes, and more blogging about things that might be interesting to you.

Cross my heart.

One Ring Zero... Planets... Venus!

2010-08-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just found out I'm not lazy... I'm just "Slow Blogging"!

2010-08-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

Cool!

Image source: K.D. Cline. Some Rights Reserved.

According to the social bellwether that is Neatorama, there is an actual movement amongst bloggers away from making a million vapid posts per day, and actually trying to see how long they can go between posts without losing all of their readers (too late for me on that score). It's called "slow blogging", and it's all the rage amongst the blogging elite.

HERE is a link to the Neatorama story.

I feel sooooo much better!

(Oh yeah, the picture doesn't have anything to do with this post. It is a self-portrait that I made using my mad "strobist" skills, to show how astonished at my good fortune I was to get my copy of the new One Ring Zero album, "Planets" and all of the cool collectible swag that Michael Hearst sent me, along with the album.)

I will not blatantly steal the headline from Space.com...

2010-08-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

I will wait for the body of the post... like NOW!

Excellent Perseid Meteor Shower Expected Aug. 11-13

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Tonight through the night after tomorrow, the Perseid Meteor Showers are supposed to be the best in a long time. Last year, the moon got in the way with its brightness, but this year, not so much.

Head over to

to get the scoop.

Oh yeah, this is the one-hundredth post at the new and improved Carbonfish Redux!

Bunnyman loves/comforts/consoles the dog...

2010-07-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

Image source: K.D. Cline

I don't know the actual name of this sculpture or the artist who made it, but it is fantastic in every sense of the word. I looked for a plaque, but didn't see one anywhere. If anybody in the Portland area knows who made this sculpture let me know in the comments.

Black and white distant Jesus tram gondola...?

2010-07-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Made with a roll of ISO 400 Tri-X Pan that had been in my freezer for science-knows-how-long.

Before his redemption, it was a troubled Darth Vader that wandered virtually unnoticed among the crowd...

2010-07-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Darth was often tortured by reminders of his betrayal and murder of the youngling Jedi, and his failure as a father. This was especially true at public gatherings.

10 Engines

2010-07-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

~~I don't know the origin of the name of the blog~~ As it turns out, according to one of 10 Engines other web pages, the name of this blog showed up in a dream, and even though I have had a link in my bookmarks for quite awhile (way over a year I think) and have visited at least a couple of times a week, I don't know if I could even begin to characterize the site... Is it fashion, nostalgia, photography, society, variety, vintage? I guess it's all those things and more. I don't know anything about James either (the person behind the blog) except that he appears to be from the East Coast, also appears to be a film maker, also has an intriguingly minimal web site HERE (with what looks like a Husqvarna logo about the number 10), and makes a hella interesting blog. Interesting to me anyway.

Here is his logo with a link hidden under it, followed by a picture of an illustration that he posted a few days ago.

Image source: 10 Engines

Cool stuff.

Hey Portlanders, come out to the park and look for the invisible Klingon Bird of Prey!

2010-07-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, there probably won't be an invisible bird of prey, but there will be

Image source Atomic Arts.org

What is Trek in the Park? Trek in the park is the recreation of the timeless, ever-classic Star Trek TOS episode "The Space Seed" recreated by live actors in the open air. The productions are being put on by the good folks at Atomic Arts (with what looks like some support form Portland Parks and Rec. and several other local organizations) and promises to be great fun. AND IT"S FREE!

Click on the poster to go the the Atomic Arts web page to learn more.

Oh yeah, the good people at Atomic Arts have been very careful to recognize that all things Star Trek are registered trademarks of CBS. So be sure to wear your best, officially endorsed Star Trek cosplay stuff. I won't be wearing any, but I'll bring a couple of cameras with me just in case the rest of you are.

Holy Science! Has it been two weeks already?

2010-06-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that before all this web x.y crap, where everybody is tripping all over themselves trying to make web pages all flashy (pun intended) and interactive, that almost every website used to have a certain lovely, predictable cheesiness... all of them except the ne plus ultra of the truly functional web pages, that is, those that were barfed right out the some Apache server as nothing but an index.

Check this out:

The screen shot is of a fascinating index of world license plates... I'm not kidding! WORLD LICENSE PLATES!!

Oh for Darwin's sake, just click on the image and go see. I bet you can't tear yourself away.

Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

2010-06-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

Season 1, episode 1. Need I say more?

Another week has gone by...

2010-06-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

I just got a new job (I start on Tuesday), so as you can imagine, I have had quite a bit going on, what with the interviews, etc. Anyway, here is a little placeholder photo that I made a few weeks ago when we were hiking up in the gorge.

Once I get settled in to the new library, I promise that the posts will be more frequent, and hopefully, more interesting.

KC

I can't watch the oil spilling into the Gulf any longer. I am removing the widget.

2010-06-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

The PBS oil disaster tracking widget is really starting to bum me out and make me feel helpless (well, not the widget, but the disaster itself), so I am removing it from the sidebar. If enough people comment that they want it back, I will restore it and just turn it off when I am working on the blog. I have put a link to the live video feed behind the picture of the widget in the original post from last week, so if you want to see how much (or how little) progress BP is making at slowing/stopping the leak, you can just go back to that post and find out.

Since this was depressing me, I thought that I would post something that never fails to cheer me up:

Image source: Sreen shot from http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

Go ahead, click on it. You know you want to.

The Nikon FM2n in basic black...

2010-06-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

After years of looking for a black FM2n in excellent condition and failing to find one at the same time I could afford to buy the damned thing, it finally happened. I had to do some wheeling and dealing, and put the silver and black one that I've been using for the last couple of years (see my Flickr photostream) up for sale, but I finally got this one.

Image source: K.D. Cline

From the Wikipedia page about the FM2 and FM2n:

"Like its predecessor, the FM, the FM2n has a long-standing reputation for reliability and durability. It has an extremely strong body of copper silumin alloy. The FM2's film transport consists of high-strength hardened metal gears and moving parts, mounted on clusters of ball bearings. The camera's precision-tapered, high-strength vertical metal shutter blades were fabricated originally of lightweight titanium (later production FM2 shutter blades were made of aluminum), while the mirror/shutter mechanism rides on self-lubricating bearings. The mirror linkage uses the same mechanism found on Nikon's professional F2, with some modern improvements designed to further reduce effects of vibration and mirror bounce. The FM2 also features Nikon's famous close tolerance assembly and minimal space lubrication, meaning that it will reliably operate in temperature extremes of −40 °C to +50 °C.
The major improvements in the FM2 compared to the FM were silicon photodiode light meter sensors, limited automatic dedicated electronic flash control and, most famously, a mechanically-timed vertical metal shutter (bearing mounted for reduced friction and extended life) reaching a top speed of an unprecedented 1/4000th second, with an X-sync of 1/200. This shutter was able to reach such ultra-fast speeds because its titanium honeycomb curtains had a travel time of 3.3 milliseconds, half of typical vertical travel metal-bladed focal plane shutters of the time. The improved titanium-bladed shutter from the Nikon FE2 was adapted to the FM2 in 1984 and X-sync increased to 1/250th second. The new camera was renamed the Nikon FM2n (New FM2 in the Japanese market), but remained marked FM2. The only external differences were the red 250 setting on the shutter speed dial and the N serial number prefix. Advances in metallurgy proved the suitability of high-strength aluminum as a substitute for the expensive titanium used in the shutter, and was adopted for the FM2n in 1989. The only way to identify the different versions is to inspect the shutter—the early FM2n had honeycombed shutter blades and the late FM2n had smooth blades. Many professional photographers continue to use the FM2 as a backup camera, both because of its ruggedness and because it is capable of full mechanical operation with all features except the light meter, even without a battery."

Awesome astronomy-related college prank, scraped from the pages of io9

2010-06-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

As many of you who have followed this blog (or the old Carbonfish) know, I am a sucker for all things astronomical. News, photos, trivia, pranks...wait, did you say pranks?

Image source: io9

I'm not sure of the primary source, but as the good people over at io9 related,

"Students at Minnesota's Carleton College today unveiled an awesomely elaborate prank. They turned the campus astronomical observatory into a giant R2D2."

I don't know about you, but I want to hang out with those guys/gals.

The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's wellhead is an environmental tragedy so horrific...

2010-05-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

I can hardly think about it, let alone articulate my sadness, horror, anger, and the manifold other feelings that flood me every time I think about it. I have installed a widget in the sidebar that the good people at PBS have built and made available for embedding. Here is a screen shot so you'll know it when you see it (plus, I hate to make a post with no images).

Come back often and look on in horror.

EDIT: I have put a link to the BP live video feed under the image up above.

Wow, long time no see!

2010-05-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

I won't even try to explain why I haven't posted for the last two weeks.

You know, I am really happy with the results that I get from my relatively high-end photographic equipment, but sometimes it's pretty satisfying to know that if a person has been making photographs for a while, they can sometimes make good pictures with low-tech equipment. I made this with my cell phone...

Image source: K.D. Cline

Malevolent supernatural beings cause killer vortices in the Earth's atmosphere!

2010-05-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Alright then, it wasn't really malevolent supernatural beings. The image below, courtesy of Wired.com, is of an atmospheric phenomena called a von Kármán vortex street.

Image source: Wired.com

From the Wired Science page:
"The crazy-looking swirls in the image above may be one of the weirdest cloud formations that can be seen from space. The pattern is known as a von Kármán vortex street, named after Theodore von Kármán. First noticed in the laboratory by fluid dynamicists, it occurs when a more-viscous fluid flows through water and encounters a cylindrical object, which creates vortices in the flow."

(Thanks CB!)

NASA science news from NASA Science News.

2010-05-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

"May 13, 2010: This weekend, Venus and the crescent Moon are gathering in the western sky for a spectacular conjunction, and they're not alone. The International Space Station and, very likely, space shuttle Atlantis will join them for a rare four-way meeting of spaceships and planets over many locations."

Image source: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/13may_planetsandspaceships/

This is not a photo of the conjunction. This is a double flyby of the ISS and space shuttle Discovery over Lumby, British Columbia, Canada, on April 20, 2010. Photo credit: Yuichi Takasaka.

If the sky is clear where you live, get out in the dark and spend some staring at something other than a screen for goodness sake.

Ancient two-headed baby found alive in pharaoh's tomb!

2010-05-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. Have I mentioned Square America yet? I covered so many cool web sites on the old Carbonfish blog (now deceased), that I often forget whether I shared my enthusiasm for a particular site on the old blog, or the new and improved Carbnonfish Redux, upon which you are feasting your eyes at this very moment. But I digress... Have you been to Square America yet?

Since I have a special affinity for all things photographic, and especially "vintage and vernacular" photography, I like this site a lot. I'm sure that you will find something that is right up your alley.

Click on the link, or just click the screenshot for the jump.

Michael Hearst's cat's tail.

2010-05-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

When Michael Hearst (of One Ring Zero, Songs for Ice Cream Trucks, & more fame) makes a video of his cat's tail, he does it better than anyone else I can think of...

Enjoy

One more picture of the old Hawthorne Bridge...

2010-05-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Anybody else see the cats?

Hint: They're pretty-much in the center of the frame and don't have any fur.

I photograph this bridge a lot...

2010-05-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

One of the blog's regular readers asked a question about the bridge structure, so I thought that I'd update this post with a little more info.
According to Wikipedia "The Hawthorne Bridge is a truss bridge with a vertical lift that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, joining Hawthorne Boulevard and Madison Street. It is the oldest vertical lift bridge in operation in the United States and the oldest highway bridge in Portland. It is also the busiest bicycle and transit bridge in Oregon, with over 4,800 cyclists and 750 TriMet buses daily." The Wikipedia article about this particular bridge is HERE if you're interested.

As usual, click to embiggen.

Where have all the good times gone?

2010-05-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Got a late model MacBook or MacBook Pro? Henge Docks might Just be the docking solution you've been looking for!

2010-05-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Check this out.

Image source: http://www.hengedocks.com

Henge Docks look like a docking solution that will work in almost any environment to easily change your MacBook into a flexible workstation or entertainment center with no modifications and no fuss. I haven't tried one (of course, if the fine folks at Henge Docks wanted to send me one to review, I'd be happy to!), but from the video, it looks great.

Click on the image to jump to the main page and look for the video links, etc.

TRON Legacy. Coming soon to a theatre near you...

2010-05-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

I don't go see many movies, and I didn't go to the theatre to see the original TRON (I waited until the videotape came out), but I'll admit that I'm a sucker for a compelling trailer.

Plus, it's pretty cool to see the Dude in a beard.

Alien abduction leads to naked co-ed bloodbath!

2010-04-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, just kidding. Hey did you know that National Geographic Magazine online has a Map of the Day page?
Really, I think that this is one print publication that will never have to worry about obsolescence.

Image source: National Geographic

I wish I had enough time to investigate all the web sites of my favorite print publications, just to see how they compare to the standard that the magazine has set over the years. Fortunately, you are all out there to help me find out where the cool stuff is and the places I should avoid. Nat'l Geographic has a Map of the Day page that never fails to grab me and suck me in. I found out about this through the fine Cold Splinters blog.

Astounding Solar Prominence video from NASA

2010-04-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

I normally wait a while before I post something that is all over the nets, but... even though this was on Neatorama today (and I'm sure about a million other blogs too), since I am a huge solar astronomy enthusiast, I thought this should be posted here as well:

From NASA's Flickr page description:

"A movie of the March 30, 2010 prominence eruption, starting with a zoomed in view. The twisting motion of the material is the most noticeable feature. The viewpoint then pulls out to show the entire Sun."

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS/SDO

Michael Specter's TED talk is the unvarnished, rational truth.

2010-04-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

I won't set this up or explain what it is, I will just implore you to watch it.

(via)

Okay, you probably want to know why I haven't been posting more often...

2010-04-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's because my darling, adorable wife is constantly distracting me with websites like

Yeah, I know...

Right now, she's sitting here giggling uncontrollably at the poop cartoons. Example:

Image source: SmellyPoop.com

I don't even know what to say, except that I'm sorry. Go to the poop site though. It is fun and informative. Be warned, there are a metric crap-load of user submitted pictures of real poop, and they are disgusting. Apart from the disgusting pictures though, there are a lot of sort-of cute drawings (like the one above) and some information about poop that sounds pretty well researched.

If you really want to go out on that second date... brush your teeth!

2010-04-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love is available now!

2010-04-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

The video up above is just a taste of the wonderfulness that you will find on/in this album. You can get more info., or buy the album in several iterations HERE if you are so inclined. I highly recommend it (and I guess I should apologize for taking over a week off, but the explanation of why is just too long to post, so you'll just have to forgive me and we can move on).

Spring in the Pacific Northwest...

2010-03-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Almost 20 degrees Celsius yesterday, and things looked something like this:

Image source: K.D. Cline

Well, right now it's closer to 10 degrees (Celsius again. All measures on this blog will be metric), and looks like we're in for a whole week of Winter-like weather.

Oh well, at least it's not snowing.

I guess when I was out making pictures today I was still thinking about spirochetes.

2010-03-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

No matter where I looked I found spirals and helices.

Image source: K.D. Cline

See?

More Facebook = Higher incidence of syphilis?

2010-03-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

I usually stay away from passing on news(?) stories that are statistically questionable, or have more than a faint whiff of tabloid to them, but I couldn't resist this one from the Telegraph in the UK (also blogged on Neatorama).

Image source: CDC.gov

From the article on the Telegraph webpage:
"Cases have increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular. Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, claimed staff had found a link between social networking sites and the spread of the bacteria, especially among young women."

So from reading the article, I guess that the way this works is that people use social networks to hook up, and because these social networks make meeting for casual sex more efficient, it also makes the spread of sexually transmitted diseases more efficient? No Kidding?!

Anyway, I thought that it was amusing that anyone would happen to find this particular correlation so surprising and newsworthy that they would spend serious time and money on it.

The PBS program Nature comes directly through the intertubes to a laptop near you.

2010-03-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

Image source: PBS.org

I love this program and don't even own a television.

To watch full episodes click on the banner.

If you're having one of those days when you feel like old age is creeping up on you...

2010-03-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

Imagine what you'd feel like if you actually were five hundred, or a thousand years old. Or how about immortal? What if you could could revert back to an immature animal from an adult and back again, essentially having an unlimited lifespan? Well, there are quite a few organisms on the planet that apparently can, and do live amazingly long lives, and at least one that may be immortal!

Click on the banner to jump to a Mother Nature Network photo essay all about just such creatures.

(Thanks CB!)

Crowdsourcing is such a weird and wonderful thing...

2010-03-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Wikipedia has a page devoted to nothing but unusual articles? I didn't either until just a day or two ago (sorry about not posting yesterday by the way). From the page itself:
"This page is for Wikipedians to list articles that seem a little unusual. These articles are valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are a bit odd, whimsical, or something you would not expect to find in Encyclopædia Britannica. We should take special care to meet the highest standards of an encyclopedia with these articles lest they make Wikipedia appear idiosyncratic."

Image source: Google images

Click on the Wikipedia logo above to get to a page that is guaranteed to suck up a ridiculous amount of time.

St. Patrick wasn't Irish? He was actually born in Britain and enslaved by the Irish...

2010-03-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. My Irish readers are going to be livid about me slandering their patron saint like this, but I didn't make it up. I got it straight from History.com. At first I thought that I could embed the St. Patrick video from History.com as well, but it turned out to be too time consuming to figure out how to scrape it out of the html, so I opted for a link to the video instead. Sorry. I know that any true technology/web wonk would have done the hard work, but I just didn't have it in me. Here's the link:

St. Patrick

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

I encourage you to go to History.com to learn more about this wonderful holiday and its rich cultural underpinnings (I just said that and made so many links to History.com so that the History Channel people, and/or the Irish, don't send me hate mail for my treatment of St. Patrick's Day).

Image source: Wikipedia

Just when you thought that William Shatner has washed his hands of sci-fi forever...

2010-03-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

He decides to start / front a sci-fi social network thingy.

Image source: MyOuterSpace.com

I'm not really sure exactly what this is all about, but here is what the home page says:

"MyOuterSpace.com is a Sci Fi Social Network for those with a passion for the arts. Whether you are a fan of Sci Fi, Horror or Fantasy or seeking a career in the Science fiction industry MyOuterSpace.com has much to offer. Register on the planet that host your talent, fill out a profile and connect with others in your field. Submit your resume for a Starship project that needs your talents. Whether you are an actor, writer, animator or gamer MyOuterSpace.com has a home for you."

I guess if you are a creative type, with a passion for the sci-fi industry, get over there and sign up.

Click the image for the jump.

Via io9

Another photograph of the Pacific Northwest you ask?

2010-03-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Why yes, yes it is!

Image source: K.D. Cline

I know, I know. You're wondering where the "real" content is. Well, sit back and gaze at this beautiful photograph. Can't you just hear the wind trying to push me off of the ridge while I was making this picture? Can't you feel the biting cold? It was wonderful.

The natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest is only rivaled by the difficulty in climbing to see it.

2010-03-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

I made this photograph today on the way up Hamilton Mountain in Washington State (in the Columbia Gorge).

Image source: K.D. Cline

This is three images stitched together in Photoshop. Other than the photomerge, they are unprocessed. Be sure to click on it to see it embiggened.

Okay, I showed you in an earlier post how to find any ship at sea, but what if you wanted to find a plane?

2010-03-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

No problem. FlightAware will show you the position in near-real time of any flight in the air, including non-commercial flights from agencies like NASA. Here is a screen shot showing all of the United Airlines flights in the air over the continental US at the moment that I pressed the buttons:

Image source: FlightAware

I won't try to tell you about the features, you'll have to play around with the page yourself. Suffice to say that it is every bit as entertaining as most television (at least to me). As usual, the image is the link. The link that I provided is for the UAL tracking map, but I'm sure you will figure out how to track any company, agency, or flight you want.

Okay, this is just CRAZY! Where is the Indian equivalent of OSHA?

2010-03-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

Via: Arbroath

Waiting for your important cargo to arrive, but not sure where the ship is?

2010-03-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well then, MarineTraffic.com is the site for you. You can check the positions of passenger vessels, tankers, cargo vessels, high speed craft, pilot vessels, and more. The maps are updated in near-real time and since they are an overlay of Google Maps, they have all of the Google Map feature goodness. Here is a screen shot.

Image source: MarineTraffic.com

I don't often find myself waxing nostalgic about old TV shows, but every now and then...

2010-03-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

I can't help thinking that TV was more exciting before there were 600 channels, with each one tailored to a different genre and/or demographic. Not so very long ago, you could only choose between three, or maybe four channels, and you usually had to wait a week to see the next episode of a program that you really liked, but it always felt worth it. I remember when I was a kid, I waited every week to see if No. 6 would escape from the Village (and really have escaped), and at the end of the show I could already hardly wait for the next episode. Now with TV on cable, satellite, and the internet, nobody has to wait.
*sigh*
Oh well, if you're the kind of twenty-first century human who hates to wait, click on the image below to go to the home page of The Prisoner Classic Series on amctv.com. No waiting, but no wonderful ache of anticipation either.

Image source: amctv.com

I know that everybody says this, but I LOVE Project Gutenberg!

2010-03-09T21:56:00.000-08:00

The little banner just below this paragraph will take you to one of my favorite websites on the whole of the Internets. Project Gutenberg is a bastion of the free collection and distribution of ideas in a world gone commercially haywire. Think of it as a kind of public library filled with ebooks and audio books that you can download and read on your kindle, PC, Sony Reader, or other device, or play on your personal music player, all for free*.

From the "About" page:
"Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today."

How cool is that?

Click on the banner to get to the catalog.
*They will gladly accept donations, no matter how small, to help buy and digitize more books.

I love collaborative web efforts, especially when they work this well.

2010-03-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

From the Tree of Life Web Project home page:

Image source: Tree of Life Web Project

"The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history (phylogeny).
Each page contains information about a particular group, e.g., salamanders, segmented worms, phlox flowers, tyrannosaurs, euglenids, Heliconius butterflies, club fungi, or the vampire squid. ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life. Starting with the root of all Life on Earth and moving out along diverging branches to individual species, the structure of the ToL project thus illustrates the genetic connections between all living things."

So much to see. As usual, click the image to jump.

Have I mentioned Oobject yet?

2010-03-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

No? Well, Oobject describes itself as a "design blog all about technology." And states "We create hundreds of lists of unusual or interesting gadgets which are ranked by user votes, much like music charts."

They not only create hundreds of lists, they create hundreds of really great lists, like this one:

Image source: Oobject

Twelve of the most interesting scrap yards that you've ever seen. Click on the picture of the planes to get there.

It took me all these years to figure out why runway models look so surly and unhappy...

2010-03-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

It's because fashion designers make them look ridiculous!

Image source: Getty via Jezebel

Nuff said? I think so.

Do you find that your artforms require too much technology?

2010-03-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

Want to get back to basics? Maybe you should think about hikaru dorodango!

Image source: www.dorodango.com

From the website:

"Hikaru dorodango are balls of mud, molded by hand into perfect spheres, dried, and polished to an unbelievable luster. The process is simple, but the result makes it seem like alchemy.

A traditional pastime among the children of Japan, the exact origin of hikaru dorodango is unknown. The tradition was dying out until taken up by Professor Fumio Kayo, of the Kyoto University of Education, as a means to study the psychology of children's play. In the course of his research, Kayo developed a simple technique for creating dorodango. With the help of Japanese media, Kayo has revived and extended the popular reach of this tradition to the point where it is now an international phenomenon."

I posted about this on the old Carbonfish years ago and got quite a favorable response, so I thought I'd revisit it. The link to the very cool website, and the complete instructions for making your own, is under the photo.

I am having some network issues tonight that are keeping me from happy blogging.

2010-03-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

And I simply refuse to blog unhappy...

Image source: http://asktheadmin.wordpress.com

Got science?

2010-03-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

The Carnegie Institution for Science has one of the most interesting web pages around. With a host of department pages, which include Embryology, Geophysical Laboratory, Observatories, Plant Biology, and many more. Be sure to click on the department pages and then check out the news and external links tabs, etc.

Image source: Carnegie Institution for Science

Click on the Superconducting Hydrides to get there.

For some, Sunday is a day of rest. But not for the weird animals of the world reporter...

2010-02-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

Found on the always interesting pages of the Scientific American (web site):

Image source: Scientific American

"CLIONE LIMACINA: Clione limacina is one of the centimeter-long creatures that live both in the Arctic and Antarctic. The shell-less snail resembles an angel, but hidden within its mouth are six feeding arms and a tongue that looks like a chain saw. It uses this apparatus to reach into the shells of other snails and devour them. Scientists are puzzled by how specialized ice-water creatures like these could have crossed warmer waters to reach the opposite point on the planet."

Don't have the time or money to pursue your academic dreams?

2010-02-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

That doesn't mean that you can't continue to educate yourself. What if you could virtually attend lectures by some of the most highly respected educators, from the best schools in the world... for free?

Well, you can.

Image source: Academic Earth

"Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education."

From the Academic Earth mission statement:

"As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, we ask ourselves, what are the real barriers to achieving a world class education? At Academic Earth, we are working to identify these barriers and find innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning.

We are building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars. Our goal is to bring the best content together in one place and create an environment in which that content is remarkably easy to use and where user contributions make existing content increasingly valuable."

Knowing what I paid (am still paying) for my degrees, I truly appreciate what an amazing resource this is. I hope that everyone with the time and the curiosity will take advantage of this marvelous opportunity.

I'm just sayin'.

"Woman's size-D breast implants save her from gunshot"

2010-02-26T23:09:00.000-08:00

There is no way that I could keep myself from posting this. The primary source is the L.A. Times, but since news travels fast, I scraped it from the Telegraph. co.uk site.

Image source: Wikimedia commons

"Lydia Carranza was working in the office of a dentist in Beverly Hills, California when a gunman ran in and opened fire. He aimed the weapon directly at her heart but one of her silicone implants took the force of the blow, stopping bullet fragments from reaching her vital organs."

For the whole bizarre story, click on the image of a couple of potential life savers.

EDIT: Ha! Beat Neatorama to the story by a whole day!

I'm probably not going to make mystery photos a regular part of the new Carbonfish...

2010-02-26T22:30:00.000-08:00

But for the sake of nostalgia, and because I am going to be really busy this weekend, and because I really don't have it in me to come up with a real post or two, here is a photo that I made last Summer using no special equipment, a standard lens, and no Photoshop. Someone tell me how I made it.

Image source: K.D. Cline

Good luck.

EDIT: Okay, you have stewed long enough. I made the photograph by shooting the reflection made in the chrome side of a taco truck parked on the street. The side panels had a diamond pattern embossed into the sheet metal before (I presume) it was chromed. Anyway, it made a cool reflection, no?

I'm afraid all there is tonight is this photo of an oak in Winter

2010-02-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

Image source: K.D. Cline

Hope you like it.

Hostile environments often create the most spectacular visuals...

2010-02-24T22:08:00.000-08:00

The following photo is of Taylor glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. That bloody looking ooze is water flowing out of the glacier from a small body of water that was trapped under the glacier some two million years ago.

Image source: Atlas Obscura

The Atlas Obscura states that "(r)oughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within."

Striking.

(Thanks CB!)

Everybody knows about Shorpy, right?

2010-02-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

Shorpy is a fantastic historic photo archive that consists mostly of photos extracted from the Library of Congress research archives, and then adjusted by the fantastic Shorpy webmaster (Dave) through a painstaking and time consuming series of processes, that essentially restores the images to a condition that is in many cases better than when the originals were made. The link in this text takes you to a page that shows just how dramatic those adjustments are. Here is the most recent photograph (as of this minute).

Image source: Shorpy

One of the coolest parts of the whole thing, is that you can view the images full size, which means that you can see the past in amazing detail. Another great feature is that all of the images are tagged and searchable. So if your are a steam engine fanatic, like yours truly, then with a quick search you are in locomotive heaven.

Click on the banner to go take a look. Oh yeah, feel free to comment on any post that you like, or to suggest content, or whatever. I'm starting to feel a little lonely around here.

No matter how big you think it is, you're wrong. It's bigger!

2010-02-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

I saw this over at Retro Thing and knew instantly that I had to embed it myself.

Thanks James and Bohus for the inspiration.