Shadow In Shadow by Alex Mukensnable

This is an awesome view of the lunar eclipse as seen from Hawai'i within the shadow cast by Mauna Kea on the distant atmosphere. I found it on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

And the full movie from Alex's site. Very nice.

Shadow In Shadow from Alex Mukensnable on Vimeo.

Yellowstone National Park Live Web Cam

This is a webcam live from Yellowstone National Park. Most of the time it should be aimed at the Old Faithful Geyser. I caught the last eruption that occurred at 10:58 AM PST today; pretty cool. If you watch it long enough, you'll see lots of people and animals including Bison walk by.

The video might take a little time to buffer so be patient. Also, you might get an ActiveX request since I'm using "x-mplayer2" (basically an embedded Windows Media Player).

Oh, and one final item, while this post is on the front page, I'd suggest that if you still have dial up, don’t get upset if you don't get any video at all. Time to upgrade.



Edit (February 14, 2008): It looks like the feed changes paths periodically so once this moves off my front page, I will not be updating it (all you'll get is a blank screen). In that case, just use the link at the top to visit their site and see the camera from there.

Green Lake: Inner Loop

The other day I went out with the camera and grabbed some shots of Green Lake.

Here is a panorama of the lake from the eastern shore.

The cool thing about this place is that there's a lot of eye candy to keep the mind occupied. On those days when people are scarce, I can still enjoy the great views of nature as evident in these images.

For those interested, here's a map showing the route I now take when running around Green Lake.

One final point of interest was this short vid I took of some dude out on the lake (yes it was freezing out and he was in shorts).

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

What the...?

So I'm minding my own business trying to keep warm while getting a little breath of fresh air and suddenly this big white thing falls from the sky and hits me on the head. "Great," I think, "another one of those birds just got me." Then I notice that there are an awfull lot of white things falling from the sky; enough to cover the ground. Pretty weird I know, but believe you me, it's true; I even have this picture to prove it... see!

You know what? This stuff actually turns into really cold water when you pick it up in your hand; yeah, I know, you're asking why I felt compelled to pick bird shit up with my bare hand. Don't ask me 'cause I don't know why!

Anyway, Seattle has some pretty strange stuff but this one has to be the strangest... I think I heard a neighbor call it "snow." And here I thought snow was that stuff on your television when the channel is not tuned correctly.

You Mean It's Not Unnatural? Oh The Horror!

Mitch Reardon / Lonely Planet Images

News article: ...A first-ever museum display, "Against Nature?," which opened last month at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum in orway, presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality. ... ...Scientists say that homosexual activity among giraffes is, in many cases, more common than heterosexual activity. ...

It's about time this is dealt with by the public. Too many times conservatives who oppose all things homosexual do the George Bush thing and throw out untrue “facts.” Usually, the first excuse for discrimination is that it’s “unnatural” which is always shot down as being incorrect by proponents. The next step is to change their excuse for discrimination to something else; which, again, is always shot down by facts.

I guess living with “Flat Earth” believers in the world makes for interesting discussions. Facts vs. Fantasy.

Anyway, aren’t those gay giraffes cute... look, they are showing tenderness. I guess that is a dirty word in some religious circles.

Snow Lake

Hiked up to Snow Lake with a friend yesterday. Nice sunny warm day for it as well. As usual, brought the old camera along.



While at the lake, we were entertained by the group next to us. One gentleman had it in mind that he wanted to jump in the lake. That, by itself is not too much to think of (other than the fact that it is a snow fed lake and quite cold; but hey, knock yourself out!). However, there was a catch... he stripped to his birthday suit and took the plunge. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of a big rock so there are no pictures to show.

So the guy gets out, climbs down to his friends totally naked (very nice body but still, no pictures) and lays down to sun bathe.

A bit later, a ranger comes by and asks him to put his clothes on because this was not a "clothing optional area." LOL, gotta love America. The human body is something to be morally opposed to but killing is no problem. Instead of getting all upset about "wardrobe malfunctions," we should be geting upset about the "weapon malfunctions."

OK, so his was not a "wardrobe malfunction," but hey, it was not bothering us. Oh well.