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August 24, 2008

Backyard Wildlife: Great Spreadwing Damselfly

photo of Dragonfly

If you know the what type of dragonfly is in the photo, please add a comment (update: a comment indicates it is not a dragonfly but a Great Spreadwing Archilestes grandis damselfly - I really enjoy getting feedback like this. It appears the most common way to differentiate the two is how the wings are at rest but the Spreadwing is an exception). I had a small preying mantis drop on my head, and then the ground, a month ago in my backyard. But when I got my digital camera I couldn’t find it again. The variety of insects you can see can be amazing, especially if you don’t use poisons and chemicals in your yard.

Photo by John Hunter, creative commons attribution license.

Related: Backyard Wildlife: Sharpshinned Hawk - Backyard Wildlife: Fox - posts on insects

July 19, 2008

Leopard Bests Crocodile

photo of a leopard killing a crocodile

Leopard savaging a crocodile caught on camera:

A series of incredible pictures taken at a South African game reserve document the first known time that a leopard has taken on and defeated one of the fearsome reptiles. The photographs were taken by Hal Brindley, an American wildlife photographer, who was supposed to be taking pictures of hippos from his car in the Kruger National Park.

The giant cat raced out of cover provided by scrub and bushes to surprise the crocodile, which was swimming nearby. A terrible and bloody struggle ensued. Eventually, onlookers were amazed to see the leopard drag the crocodile from the water as the reptile fought back.

Eventually the big cat was able to sit on top of the reptile and suffocate it. In the past, there have been reports of crocodiles killing leopards, but this is believed to the first time that the reverse scenario has been observed.

Related: Water Buffaloes, Lions and Crocodiles Oh My - Far Eastern Leopard, the Rarest Big Cat - Leaping Tigress - Bornean Clouded Leopard

July 6, 2008
June 8, 2008
June 4, 2008

Mars Sunset

photo of sunset on Mars

Photo from 19 May 2005 by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.

Related: Mars Rovers Getting Ready for Another Adventure - Mission to Mars - Solar Eruption

May 7, 2008

Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve Photos

photo of Tree at the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve
The Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve in Ohio is quite a nice short hike. Photos by John Hunter. If anyone knows what the green beetle is, please add a comment.

I visited the preserve last year. Other sites from the trip include: Rocky Gap State Park, Maryland and Coopers Rock State Forest, West Virginia.

More photos: North Cascades National Park Photos - Mason Neck State Park, Virginia - travel photo directory - Olympic National Park - The Cloisters Museum and the Museum of Modern Art

photo of a green beetle
March 20, 2008

Radiation Tolerant Bacteria

metallireducens bacteria

This image is from the Eye of Science web site (which has many great images):

Bacteria: Uranium waste bacteria (metallireducens bacteria) [the green in the image] Electron microscopy… This bacteria is able to survive in radioactive environments and turn the uranium waste from a soluble form (that can contaminate water supplies) to a solid form.

Other species of Geobacter bacteria can eliminate petroleum contamination in polluted water and convert waste organic matter to electricity. Geobacter sp. are anaerobic bacteria (living without oxygen) that use metals to gain energy in the same way that humans use oxygen. Coloured scanning electron micrograph, Magnification: x3,600 and x4,800

Related: Geobacter metallireducens at the microbe wiki - The Art and Science of Imaging - 2006 Nikon Small World Photos - Bacterium Living with High Level Radiation - Art of Science at Princeton (2005) - Get Your Own Science Art

March 18, 2008

Photos by Fritz the Cat

Fritz the cat - photographer

fritz-cam by Fritz the cat:

My name is Fritz [photo of me on the left] and I live at 23 Cat Street [in Germany]. My mistress is an artist, and now it’s my turn to show what I can do. Since September 2007 we’ve owned a Mr-Lee-Catcam

Third time lucky. I went for a long walk with the camera. Perhaps a bit too long, because she was looking for me everywhere. Anyway, she was very pleased when I came home with the camera and a mouse. I’d taken over 200 photos while I was out. Unfortunately the battery gave up the ghost before the final capture … of the mouse, I mean.

Related: The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer - Incredible Cat Cam - Mr. Lee CatCam - Leaping Tigress

photo by cat photo by Fritz the cat

See many more great photos by fritz at fritz-cam.

March 9, 2008
February 1, 2008

Great Self Portrait

photo of astronaut's faceplate reflecting earth

Photo by, and of, Astronaut Clay Anderson, Expedition 15 flight engineer. He used a digital camera to expose a photo of his helmet visor during the mission’s third planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) on the International Space Station (15 August 2007). Also visible in the reflections in the visor are various components of the station and a blue and white portion of Earth. During the 5-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, Anderson and astronaut Rick Mastracchio (out of frame), STS-118 mission specialist, relocated the S-Band Antenna Sub-Assembly from Port 6 (P6) to Port 1 (P1) truss, installed a new transponder on P1 and retrieved the P6 transponder.

NASA provides their content, photos etc. online in an open access spirit. When linking to content (especially images) it is best to provide context (and with the internet the easiest way to do is so is relevant links). You can find many low resolution pictures of the image above around the internet. Trying to find the context around the image is not so easy - it took me quite awhile to do so. I try to provide the context and links. Lately some more sites will link to some original sources but this is still done far to infrequently.

There are also still far too many pointy haired bosses (PHB) making decisions to break the web by killing pages: web pages must live forever. Those PHB’s decisions do reduce the great benefit of linking but it is still worth doing for those cases where web sites are managed by people with the knowledge and ability to manage an internet resource properly.

Photo: NASA - high resolution version

Related: Van Gogh self portrait - Mars Rovers Getting Ready for Another Adventure - NASA Robotics Academy

January 26, 2008

Elbaite with Albite

photo of
Photo of Elbaite with Albite, Na(Li, Al)3Al6(BO)3)3Si6O18(OH)4, at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC, by John Hunter.







Related: Malachite - Library of Congress photos - The Cloisters Museum and the Museum of Modern Art photos

January 24, 2008

Fancy Camera Flash Trigger

Some neat discussion of the engineering behind the RadioPopper P1 is included on the site:

The RadioPopper was designed to solve specific problems faced by event and wedding photographers. Most of us already own a pair or more of the various pro flash units from our camera manufacturers. These flashes are tied closely to the metering systems of our cameras

Radio flash triggering devices allow a more consistent triggering means - but they lack any ability to dynamically adjust the flash power as the situation changes.

With RadioPopper you’re no longer forced to choose between usability and reliability. Enjoy all the utility and features built into your existing Canon and Nikon flash units while overcoming the single weak link of the wireless system - the “line of sight” infrared communication setup.

The radiopopper blog has interesting posts and discussion. Via: Engineering for the People - Radio Triggers

Related: Camera Fashion - How Do Wii Game Controllers Work?

January 14, 2008

Crystal Growth - Manganese Oxides

photo of Manganese Oxides - Dendritic crystal growth

Photo of Manganese Oxides - Dendritic crystal growth, MnO2, at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC, by John Hunter. Related:Science and Engineering Web Search - Boston Science Museum photos

January 7, 2008

50 Species of Diatoms

photo of 50 diatom species

Photo of diatoms by Randolph Femmer.

A photomicrograph depicting the siliceous frustules of fifty species of diatoms arranged within a circular shape. The image has been inverted to white on black to bring out details. Diatoms form the base of many marine and aquatic foodchains and upon death, their glassy frustules form sediments known as diatomaceous earth.

Related: 2006 Nikon Small World Photos - Art of Science 2006 - Scanning Electron Microscope Rose Art

July 24, 2007

New York City Travel Photos

Photos from my trip to New York City last year are now online. Photos include: The Cloisters (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - though located far uptown) art and architecture of medieval Europe, the remodeled Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building and Flatiron Building.

Related: New York City Photo Essays - Paris Travel Photos - Pacific Northwest photos - Curious Cat Travel Photos

photo of stained glass window - The Cloisters, NYC Rockefeller Center - New York City

June 24, 2007

Backyard Wildlife: Fox

Fox in Virginia

This photo shows a fox in my backyard from a few months ago. It liked to rest on that tree stump for a couple days - I have not seen it since. Other wildlife spotted include: possum, raccoon, rabbits, turtle, many birds including hawks and/or falcons, robins, starlings, doves, butterflies, bats, lightning bugs, all sorts of bees, ants, praying mantis, and many more birds. And I see several cats prowl the yard frequently. Maybe I can view CatCam photos of the cats prowls :-) I added a Cat category to the blog today: showing all the cat related posts.

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