Galilean thermometer in the sun

Galilean thermometer in the sun
Originally uploaded by battyden

My friend Den posted this pretty danged awesome time-lapse video of a Galilean thermometer slowly warming up and moving in the sun.

I have no idea how these work. Are you willing to explain to me, or shall I look it up? ;)

the sky is falling

Here's some fascinating video from Yosemite Park, showing and discussing the process of rock falls:



Geologists discuss the rock falls, and their effect on park visitors, and there's some great video from a park visitor.

The video's a granite-lover's dream, with obligatory spectacular views of Yosemite as well.

I'm feeling less inclined to scramble in the talus looking for pikas than I might once have been.

Does the information in this video affect how you would use Yosemite, or whether you would visit the park or similar areas?

it's like alabaster

NEM ACREDITO QUE TIREI ESSA FOTO
Originally uploaded by JOSÉ LOPES.

What a lovely photo of our moon. When I was little, I thought the daytime moon was translucent, like the little alabaster elephant lantern my grandmother had on a table in the hallway.

death by clam?

That's a horrible and fascinating phrase.

I have no idea when this short National Geographic web exclusive on Hulu.com will last, but it's here now:





I'm a big fan of molluscs, I find them endlessly fascinating. (I also find them occasionally tasty. I'm about 99% vegetarian, but small bivalves rock my culinary world.)

I didn't really know much about giant clams. I guess I assumed that they lived in the deep sea (they don't), and that they were a lot like large versions of normal clam species. But they have nifty skin not unlike a squid's (less shiftingly chromatophoric*), and I had no idea about their relationship with algae!

Also, let it be said that the diver at the end of this clip is a doofus. Don't go messing with sea animals or coral reefs, Doofus Diver.

*It's amazing what blogger labels as incorrectly spelled. What, that's not a word?

I am surrounded by bad influences

cern_aerial
Originally uploaded by riowight.

My husband and his friend Andy discuss CERN placement:

Andy: I wonder why it's specifically on the French-Swiss border.
Casey: Probably more to do with geography than politics
Casey: CERN is a pragmatic bunch.
Andy: I mean, won't that sloow the particles down? They have to whip out their little particle passports and go through particle customs twice per loop.
Casey: Sorry, didn't see the joke coming, you must have sent it faster than the cluons could reach me.

Around the world

Found via Design is Mine, a gorgeous collection of globular glory.

flickr friday : around the world.
Originally uploaded by indierocket.

I spent hundreds of hours in my childhood poring over globes. I loved the relief globes best, ours at home was worn over the Alps and Andes and Himalaya and Rockies where I'd run the tip of my index finger over the ridges time and time again. I'm currently smitten with a globe I saw in a catalog a couple of years ago that has your basic political map on it until the light inside is turned on, when it becomes a star map. Our local plastic-epoxy-and-stuff store, mostly used by sign-makers and fiberglass-molders, sells inflatable globes that are only so much vinyl and poppable, disposable stuff, and what would I do with one? But I want one.

I think my favorite globe-fact, over my life, has been that if the relief on my favorite kind of globe were true scale, I wouldn't be able to feel them.

Get under the pool table, dude

It goes dark, but listen to the end, or almost to the end. I'm not sure I'd be as copacetic.

Solstice is serious business

Four years ago, at a friend's Solstice celebration, I caught a shot of my dear friends Kimberly and Sue trying so hard not to giggle during a quiet moment that they were nearly crying.



How could they explain that from their angle, they could see a cat trying to find a use for the sand in the bottom of the straw man at the center of the ritual?

The cat, apparently, had missed the memo about rituals being serious business.

Multitouch Mapping Exhibit at Oakland Museum of California

Multiotuch Mapping Exhibit at Oakland Museum of California
Originally uploaded by ideum

The Oakland Museum of California has been one of my favorite places since I first visited in the eighties. It's always been a relatively simple, lovely, open museum, with a California focus. The top floor had art from California artists, sculpture and furniture and huge, gold-framed oils showing Yosemite waterfalls in the 1800s. The second floor was a rather overwhelming but comprehensive walk through California history.

The bottom floor, my favorite, was all about the California natural history, the river otters and acorn woodpeckers and bivalves in the bay mud.

There was a gigantic relief map, and a huge whirling globe (in my icon!), and outside a koi pond with a big acrylic sculpture in it.



The green central (roof?) area sometimes hosted musical events, small festivals, wine-tastings. The lecture halls had a regular schedule of California-relevant educational events. The cafe was lovely, inexpensive for fairly good food, with a window above the pond, looking out into the peace.

Then it closed for awhile, for a deep remodeling. At first I was fussed that I couldn't attend, then I sort of forgot about it. When it half-reopened (the natural history section is due to open next year), I sort of forgot to go back.

Looking around for maps on Flickr tonight (I am a special kind of nerd) I found this little video about Ideum's interactive historic map display at the museum. OMG. The internet is indeed for (map) porn. I'm checking my schedule for the next week or so to find out when I should go to the newly reopened Oakland Museum of California.

smart, but not always well-spoken

The Raging Grannies have an opinion

Okay okay one more! But I promise content just as soon as I finish dinner dishes.

srsly

1999 ad.

Now I need to get working on content. Too much fluff and image-linking lately.

Ah, Kansas

(Yes, I know this is from the Onion. But still, Kansas. And Texas. Nuff said.)

Irony

(via MoveOn on Twitter)

geocake!

Oh, the things we find on Tumblr!



Geocake!

I'm back from vacation in Alaska and will write some bloggy stuff about it very soon, as soon as I rest.

That might be as soon as the SF Bay Area gets over this uncharacteristic combo of heat and humidity.

South What?

This oil leak is almost exhausting to think about

Oil and gas stream from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico:



Of course, this is wreaking havoc on animals and ecosystems in the area. Tuna have no eyelids, you know? They can't protect themselves from the oil. Dolphins and birds are becoming hurt, many are dying.

There are many ways to help, including advocating for an end to offshore drilling, for alternative energy sources, and by working to help clean up beaches and marshes, and to take care of animals.

Here's one:

layers on blended layers

I've had this picture of my friend Heather's yarn up in a tab for hours because I keep coming back to stare at it. It reminds me so much of the layers of the Earth.

Geography Girl

Geography Girl
Originally uploaded by brentdanley.

I love that this geography picture keeps getting new notes appended. It reminds me of my urge to decorate a family room in maps, with globes and orreries and and old navigation tools everywhere.

Now all I need is my own family room, with a house to put it in.

(Click through to the photo on flickr to add your location to her maps.)

World back-up

World back-up
Originally uploaded by Daniel Montesinos.

Randomly found while looking for old California maps. I have nothing to say about this (except that I'd spend my life having detail added).