City Lights of the United States 2012

City Lights of the United States 2012
Originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

I stared at this for about an hour last night. I was most fascinated by Appalachia, with the lights arranged down the folded valleys, and how griddy the Midwest is.

The closer I looked at it, especially east of the Rockies (i.e. away from where I live), the more I got lost, the less I could figure out where I was from the surrounding pattern.

California was easy, but then, I live here.

And the Gulf of Mexico outside the Mississippi River Delta, wow. Those are all lights from oil platforms, no?

Click through to Flickr to see this NASA image, and to find the giganto-version.

reason 100 to like our neighborhood: neighborliness

reason 100 to like our neighborhood: neighborliness
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

I love our neighborhood.

Our next door neighbors are renters who have lived here for a long time. They really never go in their backyard, which is overgrown with random yard stuff including a couple of citrus trees and a big apple tree planted by the previous renters a long time ago.

Our neighbor across the street moved into his house when it was built, when he was a boy in the mid-fifties. He worked in local orchards, some in this block, for pocket money, but they're gone now.

Today I went out back to see why our guard-dachshund Fritzy was losing his head and found the across-the street neighbor in the next-door neighbor's yard (with permission) harvesting apples. He called me to the fence and gave me as many as I could hold.

They are so crunchy and sweet and huge.

Done

Done
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

Gorgeous fall afternoon

Gorgeous fall afternoon
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

The first hints of seasonal color are showing up, green just starting to dust the hills.

Farewell, sweet Endeavour

Farewell, sweet Endeavour
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

This must be one of the best Earth from the ISS pics ever

This must be one of the best Earth from the ISS pics ever
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

This must be one of the best Earth from the ISS pics ever.

Don Pettit, one of my favorite scientist astronauts, took the picture. It's (c)NASA, they usually allow sharing of their photos for (at least) noncommercial use with attribution.

It is, of course, a long exposure to get those star trails, the little blue flashes below are almost certainly lightning, which is flashing in and above the clouds constantly in at least a few places at any given time all over the earth.

NASA Sees Tropical Storm Isaac and Tropical Depression 10 Racing in Atlantic

NASA Sees Tropical Storm Isaac and Tropical Depression 10 Racing in Atlantic
Originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

evening light on Mission Peak

evening light on Mission Peak
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

I love how, in this part of California, a neighborhood can happily contain Washingtonia palms (native to southern California's desert oases), coast redwood (native to the coast from Big Sur to slightly into Oregon), citrus, stone fruit, persimmon, and wild nearby, all the bay laurel and California oaks and endemic California sycamore and walnut and big leaf maple and chaparral plants that have been so well preserved in this less eucalyptusy corner of the bay area.

chatting with a friend

VIDEO0185 a video by marymactavish on Flickr.

.... about our trip with the family, today, on Niles Canyon Historical Railway:

Geographilic bit bolded:


miche: So you spent the time pointing to native plants out the windows while Owen went ZOOOMZZZZZZ
mary: well yes ;) Casey followed the zoomz.
micheinnz: :D
micheinnz: You guys are just SO adorkable, the four of you.
mary: :D
mary: all four grandparents also came along - was awesome :)
mary: must teach kid about native plants :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/42614915@N00/7713144724/
micheinnz: Okay then, the eight of you are SO adorkable.
mary: and just in case you thought you were joking http://www.flickr.com/photos/42614915@N00/7713242848/
mary: :D

I'd look this up but I'm on my phone

I'd look this up but I'm on my phone
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

I'd look this up but I'm on my phone. Anyone know what this plant is? Buckwheat relative? Toxic?

diversity

As you might have noticed, I have been sending geographilic photos I've taken from flickr to this blog, but not a lot else lately.

I've got the toddler running me exhausted, and though I said I was going to post "sense of wonder" kind of things here, he's mostly wondrous about garbage trucks these days, so I'm trying to decide how to frame that.

In the meantime, there's this fascinating spread of language video. It's mostly visual, so not vision-impaired friendly, but works well without sound:

I love this sort of thing.

I note that on the phoneme map, though Africa has high diversity for the most part, Madagascar doesn't, which makes sense given it was mostly populated from southeast Asia.

Audrey, my family-member-for-whom-there-is-no-real-label, my son's other mother, my husband's other partner, gave me a membership with 23andme for my birthday this year, and it's fabulous and fun. I found out that the brownness on my mom's side of my family didn't come from Africa, South Asia, or the Americas, but my entire gene pile seems to be European. This doesn't really solve a mystery, as I still wonder why she was so brown, as was my grandmother, but it does clear up "where does the brown come from?" a bit, in that we know where it's not from, now.

western bluebird at Ardenwood

western bluebird at Ardenwood
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

western bluebird at Ardenwood @ebrpd

.@seismogenic measures Hayward Fault creep

.@seismogenic measures Hayward Fault creep
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

.@seismogenic measures Hayward Fault creep

first contact!!!!

first contact!!!!
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

now entering Redstate, California

now entering Redstate, California
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

#USGSopenhouse

#USGSopenhouse
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

San Francisco Bay from Richmond-San Rafael Bridge

San Francisco Bay from Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

It's one of those perfect spring days here. All the Claritin in the world won't help.

Sunol Wildflower Festival 2012

Sunol Wildflower Festival 2012
Originally uploaded by EBRPD Public Affairs.

Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over

Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over
Originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over - I teared up. I'll miss the shuttles. Let's keep exploring, on Earth and in space.

Over nachtelijk Europa.

Over nachtelijk Europa. Op deze momenten kun je ISS zien. Beneden nog/al donker, zon op het station. www.heavens-above.com of volg @twisst
Originally uploaded by André Kuipers.

Western Europe from the ISS, by André Kuipers, Dutch physician and ESA astronaut.

I really don't know why my first thought was the campfire song, Barges:

"Out of my window looking through the night I can see the barges' flickering lights.
Silently flows the water to the sea and the barges too flow silently.
Barges, I would like to go with you, I would like to sail the ocean blue.
Barges, is there treasure in your hold? Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?