Photos of Interest

Well, it is not the traditional flower, but it happens to be what is blooming right now.  The crocuses and daffodils are pretty much spent; the lilies and allium haven't blossomed yet. title="IMG_2414.JPG by Joseph j7uy5, on Flickr"> src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4491077180_73260f0c80.jpg" alt="IMG_2414.JPG" height="375" width="500"> These are blossoms on a claretcup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus).
We had little squall clouds today, such that there was interesting light and shadow in the yard.  This made for a nice opportunity to photograph the nectarine tree blossoms.  Emotionally uplifting, I would say.  The only problem is that we now have to watch for frost warnings, then run out and cover the tree if it might freeze. 
James Gunn, the director for the movie href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slither_%282006_film%29">Slither, seems to be enthralled by creepy crawly things.  He also has a blog-like website, on which he posted href="http://www.jamesgunn.com/2009/07/02/evolution-fucked-your-shit-up-the-worlds-50-freakiest-animals/">Evolution Fucked Your Shit Up: The World's 50 Freakiest Animals. (HT: href="http://charlierb3.blogspot.com/2010/02/friday-lists_19.html">Interesting Pile.) The creature pictured above, by the way, is an ajolote.  The term ajolote can refer to either the href="http://…
Thanks to a tip from a reader, for this one.  A photographer named href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky">Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) made glass negatives in the early 1900's that could be used to create color images.  He did this by inventing a camera that would take three different frames of the same scene, with different color filters (red, green blue) for each.  He displayed the pictures via projection, using the same filters.  Even though the negatives were only grayscale images, the result was comparable to that obtained using a color slide…
Visiting with Kevin, went hiking in Soledad Canyon.  The light was crazy, alterating between awful for photography, and interesting, but always challenging.  When it stopped snowing and the wind wasn't blowing me around, I was able to get some decent pictures. style="display: inline;">
From Shorpy (Always Something Wonderful), this is a photo of the href="http://www.shorpy.com/node/2119">Christmas tree at the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright, in the year 1900. style="display: inline;">
This is a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=41500">high-resolution photo of Pearl Harbor (click to enlarge). When I saw that it had been posted to the NASA Earth Observatory, I wondered -- momentarily -- why they would post a photo of Pearl Harbor. Then I remembered: December 7th. style="display: inline;"> My father was 14 on 7 December 1941. He studied in high school, got good grades, and enlisted when he turned 18. Didn't think about it. There was nothing to think.  Every able-bodied young man did it, unless there was a compelling reason to do otherwise. He…
While we have a cold, dreary rain here: a photo of brighter, hotter times: style="display: inline;"> This is from September 2007.  It is a desert spiny lizard ( href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sceloporus_magister">Sceloporus magister) on a desert willow ( href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilopsis_linearis">Chilopsis linearis) with some desert marigolds ( href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baileya_multiradiata">Baileya multiradiata) in the background.  The local weather station report indicates that it was 84.2 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees C) when the photo was taken.
It's not photoshopped, and it really was for the Windows 7 launch. style="display: inline;"> The picture was taken in Sietes, Spain, which had been decorated for an advertisement for the event.  In point of fact, the href="http://www.spanishnews.es/20091012-tiny-spanish-village-has-the-attention-of-microsoft/id=1255/#more-1255">people of Sietes are not a particularly good customer base: The tiny village of Sietes Spain will be the new location for an advertisement from Microsoft about Windows 7, which is slightly ironic given the software giant has chosen a place that only has one…
In general, I try to be respectful of cultural groups, even ones that are rather aberrant.  Somehow, though, I find it exceedingly difficult to muster any sympathy or respect for Scientology. By now, you probably have heard that Scientologists were fined $600,00 Euros in France: href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iB4zZrgJt9_M4ltYiwOwQxcAnMmQ"> href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iB4zZrgJt9_M4ltYiwOwQxcAnMmQ">Scientologists convicted of fraud in France ...The Paris case followed a complaint by two women, one of whom says she was manipulated…
The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photography competition winners have been announced. (The spelling, Environnement, is correct; it's a French company.)  The competition is operated by the Natural History Museum (London) and BBC Wildlife Magazine, sponsored by Veolia Environmental Services. The overall winner is this one (click to enlarge) My favorite is one of the Highly Commended photos in the 10-years-and-under age category: The photo of the leaping wolf was href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8318226.stm">written up on the BBC news website: Jose Luis Rodriguez…
Sometimes I think I have difficult patients.  Then I saw this: style="display: inline;"> Yes, it is a gorilla in a CT scanner.  The poor animal had href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001034.htm">mastoiditis; the scan was used prior to surgery.  The surgery was successful.  See The Big Picture at the Boston Globe for the href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/world_animal_day_2009.html">original, from a series on World Animal Day 2009. (HT: href="http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/9vbdl/gorilla_in_a_cat_scan_no_really_pic/">Reddit user Micah)
The people of Obama are selling jellyfish candy.  Really. style="display: inline;"> The photo shows a diver next to a specimen of Nomura's jellyfish, href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomura%27s_jellyfish">Nemopilema nomurai.  These creatures occasionally href="http://scienceblogs.com/guiltyplanet/2009/07/another_year_another_giant_jel.php">swarm off the coast of Japan, where they are a nuisance.  Some creative souls have responded by href="http://scienceblogs.com/shiftingbaselines/2008/02/more_jellies_fill_your_belly.php">finding ways to eat them.  Now, schoolkids in the…
Poets on Prozac is the short title of a book by psychiatrist-poet Richard M. Berlin, MD.  The full title is: Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment, and the Creative Process.  Berlin was an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; now he's in private practice, and a Senior Affiliate at U Mass.  And a writer.  His personal website is here.  A sample of his work is href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/296/7/737">here; After Reading Music From Apartment 8 for John Stone, MD When I started out in medicine, before I married and…
Botanical names drive me nuts, sometimes.  Every plant that is worth anything has many names.  The supposed gold standard, the (Latin) Linnaean taxonomical name, gets changed every so often.  So there is no constancy.  You'd think it would be easier to research something if it has an unusual name that you can use as a keyword.  But that is not always the case.  Especially if the names are changed. Last week, I noted that I am familiar with one kind of tree, called a mimosa tree.  This tree has blossoms of an unusual color.  But that color is not mimosa.  There are other trees, also called…
The Knowsley Safari Park wants their visitors to know that the babbons are smart.  They have figured out how to open car-top cargo carriers. This is not actually a candid photo.  It was staged, in order to educate the visitors about his potential problem with their Papio anubis population. Source: Cellar Image of the Day Video HT: href="http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2009/07/baboons-steal-underwear-from-rooftop.html">The Presurfer
We grow catnip in the garden outside the home-office window.  Our cat likes to lay in front of the window, and stare wistfully at the catnip. style="display: inline;"> But today, he saw something unexpected.  The neighbor's cat was laying in the catnip.
Went for a Sunday drive.  Saw this: White Sands National Monument Drove a little farther, saw this: Odocoileus hemionus You might have guessed, I did not take the first picture.  It is a view from Earth orbit.  The second picture, I did take; it is a view through my windshiled.  The two locations are about thirty miles apart.
One of the strangest things I've ever seen.  The photographer's identification is tentative:  Vespula pensylvanica.  Personally, I'd never try to identify an unfamiliar insect.   One summer, I took classes at the UM Biological Station near Pellston, MI.  My cabinmate was an entomologist.  Watching him it the field, I got the impression that the identification of these little creatures is a black art.  Anyway, here's the photo: alt="Vespula pensylvanica?" title="Vespula pensylvanica?" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3487769182_05b7e78c4d.jpg?v=0" border="0" height="500" width="…
The NASA Earth Observatory site is holding a photo contest to celebrate and popularize their 10th anniversary.  It is a contest in which users vote for their favorite images-of-the-day.  Here's my favorite: style="display: inline;"> This is an image from the href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html">Cassini mission; it's a view of the earth, with the rings of Saturn in the foreground.  This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist's creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165…