Jane Goodall

This past March I had the priviledge to meet Jane Goodall who is celebrating 50 years of research at Gombe! She was 26 years old when she first started working with the chimpanzees in Africa. Today,
Dr. Goodall travels the world inspiring people to feel responsible and to be responsible for this great planet of ours; to work and to do their part to preserve the environment for today and tomorrow.

One amazing woman.

Kilauea in action Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park

The fissure between Pu`u `Ō `ō and Napau Crater on

Kilauea’s east rift zone erupts lava spatter up to 25 m (80 ft) high.

Press release at the USGS website today:

A fissure that opened on Kīlauea’s east rift zone after yesterday’s collapse of the Pu`u `Ō `ō crater floor continues to erupt lava. Activity along the fissure was sporadic overnight and throughout today, with periods of quiet punctuated by episodes of lava spattering up to 25 m (80 ft) high.

The fissure is located west-southwest of Pu`u `Ō `ō in a remote area of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Due to the ongoing volcanic activity, Park closures remain in effect in this area.

Live views of Kīlauea’s fissure eruption are now possible via a Webcam installed by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) this afternoon. The Webcam images, which are updated every five minutes, can be accessed at http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams.

Remembering Challenger, 25 years

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Like so many, I watched it happen, live, on TV. I was on vacation in the beach house in Brazil, the TV happened to be on. I walked by and stopped to watch, captivated by the moment, the anticipation of the launch. Again like so many people, at first instant I was confused. This does not look right...what's going on?...is part of the shuttle just separating from the main capsule?...where is the shuttle?...what happened?... silence... chaos... more silence... then confirmation came over the air. Yes, we lost Challenger.

No matter where in the world you where, it was a deeply sad moment...

Today we remember Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe.



Photo: NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1850.html
"Maiden Voyage - Astronauts Story Musgrave, left, and Don Peterson float in the cargo bay of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger during their April 7, 1983, spacewalk on the STS-6 mission. [...] Challenger's service to America's space program ended in tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986. Just 73 seconds into mission STS-51L, a booster failure caused an explosion that resulted in the loss of seven astronauts, as well as the vehicle."

Snowflake Bentley

Dentrite Star


Star Crystal


How is it possible that I don't recall ever hearing about Wilson Bentley?! The most incredible snowflake photographer, born in 1865.

This winter, I'll be sure to check out some snowflakes upclose.

For the kid in everyone - Snowflake Bentley is a wonderful biography written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian. The book is sure to captivate the imagination and curiosity of kids and adults alike!

Bentley's photographs are available in the public domain. I love the collection at the Smithsonian: "There are seven basic shapes of snowflakes: the Star Crystal, the Dendrite Star, Columns, Plates, Capped Columns, Needles, and Irregular Forms."

Photos by Wilson Bentley from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 31, Box 12, Folder 17, Negative no. 976 & Negative no. 332.

For a modern microphotography spin it's worth checking out Kenneth Liebbreth's book Snowflakes.

The windows in our computer/guest room have been decorated with snowflakes all year round, courtesy of Kaila. Kaila and I love to make the paper cutouts. It was specially fun and 'refreshing' to have them up through the 100-degree Summer days.

NYC Public Library

Reading room and NYC & Hudson river valley map exhibit.

Oil spill, still going...

For how much longer...

video of the spill by BP/AP

Chaco

Chaco Culture National Historic Park in northwest New Mexico is well worth the visit. I was there for the first time close to 8 years ago - would love to go back and see it again.

"Chaco Canyon was a major center of Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250.
It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area.

Chaco is remarkable for its multi-storied public buildings, ceremonial buildings, and distinctive architecture. Its structural elements combine pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture--one that still awes and inspires us a thousand years later.

The Chacoan sites are part of the homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest."

What do you see?

Earlier this year there was at lot of discussion and controversy around Wikipedia publishing the Rorschach plates and their interpretations.

Well, Daniel's class had a perfect answer to the whole thing with their art project "My Little Alien". They created their own Rorschach plates - or so I say.

This one is Daniel's piece. What do you see?!

Hypnic jerks

Sounds bad, but that's what those "electric shocks or jerks" you get just when you're falling asleep are called. Alternatively one may also use hypnagogic massive jerks - even worse.

See wikipedia for more details...hypnic jerks.

I haven't gotten one of these in a while; at least, not that I remember. They are quite disconcerting and annoying to me, since I always take a while to fall asleep. A hypnic jerk sends me right back to the starting line.

As I put Daniel to sleep a couple of days ago he had a pretty big one. It sure startled me as I sat beside him; but Daniel didn't even budge - asleep he was, asleep he stayed. At the end of the day he is one tired boy.

Optical illusion

This has to be the best optical illusion I've ever seen. The magnitude of the movement perceived in the leaves is incredible!

This picture was part of an article in Woman's Day. The magazine links it to a Flickr account that describes the picture as " found on some academic website". (It's sad and unprofessional that the magazine did not credit the author.)

After a brief web research I was able to track the original author: Akiyoshi Kitaoka. He calls it "Plastic Dongurakokko". For great tutorials on how to build optical illusions and other amazing images visit Kitaoka's website.

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html

Keep Seahorses in the Sea

As a family we took the pledge to keep the seahorses at sea.
Please do the same.

"Seahorses and the places they live face a range of threats in the wild, including destruction of the coral reefs and sea grass beds where seahorses live, fishing techniques which mistakenly catch seahorses, and collection of seahorses for souvenirs or for use in traditional medicines.

Each year, millions of seahorses, corals and other marine animals
are collected alive and dried as souvenirs. These products spell serious trouble for declining seahorse populations. "

Pledge to avoid these sea life souvenirs—and spread the word to friends and family.


http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

Damon Mound

The Houston Geological Society hosted a field trip to Damon Mound this Sunday - a salt dome with a Miocene reef draped over it.

Lots of dragonflies were flying around the pond that sits over the dome.

Good morning star...

Just outside my window early today.

Venus

From The Associatd Press @ Yahoo.news:
The planet Venus appears immediately to the right of a thin crescent moon as seen just after sunset Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, from Tucson, Ariz. The apparent proximity, while not a rare occurrence, made for an especially dramatic view because Venus is at its brightest as seen from the Earth--20 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

More on venus at space.com
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/090306-ns-venus-sun.html