It's one of those perfect spring days here. All the Claritin in the world won't help.
TIDAL - a new app from Brendan Conway
1 day ago
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 04, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over
Space Shuttle Discovery DC Fly-Over - I teared up. I'll miss the shuttles. Let's keep exploring, on Earth and in space.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
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.
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?
Sunday, April 01, 2012
I hope this protects them from climate change
Film maker and writer Terry Jones discovers a colony of penguins, which are unlike any other penguins in the world.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
driving across Australia, west to east
A friend of mine is driving across Australia, and taking photos as he goes. He'll go through the area where I lived, briefly, an amazing area that reminds me a lot of central California, too. This shot is of the Nullarbor Plains, a vast desert, with one of the longest, straighest stretches of road and railroad track in the world.
More of his pictures are here, including the huge goldmine right on the edge of the town of Kalgoorlie: pics
More of his pictures are here, including the huge goldmine right on the edge of the town of Kalgoorlie: pics
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday, March 09, 2012
Visual weather report for Fremont, CA 94538
Visual weather report for Fremont, CA 94538 March 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
owenP1030270
.@giagia @angie_coiro having an 11-month-old toddler is a huge job, but he is fabulous.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Saturday, January 07, 2012
over the Palace of Fine Arts
As much as I hate having to schlep across San Francisco to get there, the Palace of Fine Arts and its lagoon are among my favorite places in the area. It's just lovely, and has neat history, and I've been visiting it most of my life. I'll be sad when the Exploratorium moves to the waterfront at the Embarcadero, just because fewer people will incidentally be exposed to the Palace of Fine Arts.
Here's a neat video from the air, from a little bitty airship, so you can see how lovely it is.
Here's a neat video from the air, from a little bitty airship, so you can see how lovely it is.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
San Francisco is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Instead, I just live very near there.
Stephen Fry likes it, in part because it's near so many beautiful places:
That's one of my favorite things about Northern California in general: It's a short drive to the High Sierra, some of the most beautiful parts of California's coast, to farmlands, to really great urban advantages, to the Golden Gate Bridge, to science museums and art, because there is open space and nature everywhere -- visionaries began preserving it here more than a century ago -- and because we have the climate to enjoy it year-round. (That is true for most places depending on what climate you like; with my tendency to get really sick in hot humidity, I can't bear those climates in the summer.)
I don't want to live in San Francisco though. I have before, but now, I want a yard for my dog, and I want not to have my house actually touching other houses (it's just a fire danger worry, house fires there can displace a few families), and San Francisco proper gets a bit cold and windy for me off and on all year, what with water on three sides. And I'm a gimp, and SF has a lot of uphill and downhill.
But it's a nice place to visit, and I'm glad I get to do that a lot. I discover new things there on a regular basis, though I've been visiting for nearly 50 years, and I'm glad I get to raise my child so near such a treasure.
Stephen Fry likes it, in part because it's near so many beautiful places:
That's one of my favorite things about Northern California in general: It's a short drive to the High Sierra, some of the most beautiful parts of California's coast, to farmlands, to really great urban advantages, to the Golden Gate Bridge, to science museums and art, because there is open space and nature everywhere -- visionaries began preserving it here more than a century ago -- and because we have the climate to enjoy it year-round. (That is true for most places depending on what climate you like; with my tendency to get really sick in hot humidity, I can't bear those climates in the summer.)
I don't want to live in San Francisco though. I have before, but now, I want a yard for my dog, and I want not to have my house actually touching other houses (it's just a fire danger worry, house fires there can displace a few families), and San Francisco proper gets a bit cold and windy for me off and on all year, what with water on three sides. And I'm a gimp, and SF has a lot of uphill and downhill.
But it's a nice place to visit, and I'm glad I get to do that a lot. I discover new things there on a regular basis, though I've been visiting for nearly 50 years, and I'm glad I get to raise my child so near such a treasure.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
The Very Special Book Project
Here are some amazing cloud pictures, then I will tell you about my new project:
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in clouds. Aren't those gorgeous? They're just unworldly. And I love the Van Gogh association.
Years ago, the director of the incredible little child-respecting school where I was teaching gave me a copy of the book, "The Sense of Wonder," by Rachel Carson. The book wasn't really finished when Carson died, and is sort of journally, and I love it. My copy was published by The Nature Company, which also died a few years back, and had beautiful pictures. In 1996, my apartment flooded slightly in one of Sacramento's "we've really got to upgrade our storm drains" neighborhood floods, and everything on the bottom couple of shelves of my bookcases was ruined, including that book. I actually rescued it, dried it out, and saved it, but it's not very readable, sort of warped and puffy.
More recently, I found a copy at a library book sale, but like every other recent version I've seen, the pictures are so-so compared to the Nature Company's edition.
So for Christmas this year, my mother-in-law Pat, Casey's mom, gave me a homemade version, with photos taken from my own flickr stream as well as, with permission, work from a couple of photographer friends of mine, Joe Decker and Lisa Ellis.
It's just lovely, and a treasure, and so incredibly thoughtful. Pat pointed out to me a couple of days ago that she had loose-bound the book, rather than had it permanently bound, so that I could continue it with our adventures in nature with Owen. Wow, I hadn't thought of that. But now I have been thinking:
I'm going to continue to use Geographile for geography posts as often as I am able, but I'm going to start a specific project of recording our adventures with Owen. I'll post them here (with photos), link it from our family blog, and print out versions as well to bind into our Sense of Wonder book. I'll keep that up as much as we can, over the years, with no hard goal -- once a week, once a month, whatever I can manage -- until it feels done.
I can give it to Owen when it's time, whenever that ends up being. Maybe he'll want to continue it himself.
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in clouds. Aren't those gorgeous? They're just unworldly. And I love the Van Gogh association.
Years ago, the director of the incredible little child-respecting school where I was teaching gave me a copy of the book, "The Sense of Wonder," by Rachel Carson. The book wasn't really finished when Carson died, and is sort of journally, and I love it. My copy was published by The Nature Company, which also died a few years back, and had beautiful pictures. In 1996, my apartment flooded slightly in one of Sacramento's "we've really got to upgrade our storm drains" neighborhood floods, and everything on the bottom couple of shelves of my bookcases was ruined, including that book. I actually rescued it, dried it out, and saved it, but it's not very readable, sort of warped and puffy.
More recently, I found a copy at a library book sale, but like every other recent version I've seen, the pictures are so-so compared to the Nature Company's edition.
So for Christmas this year, my mother-in-law Pat, Casey's mom, gave me a homemade version, with photos taken from my own flickr stream as well as, with permission, work from a couple of photographer friends of mine, Joe Decker and Lisa Ellis.
It's just lovely, and a treasure, and so incredibly thoughtful. Pat pointed out to me a couple of days ago that she had loose-bound the book, rather than had it permanently bound, so that I could continue it with our adventures in nature with Owen. Wow, I hadn't thought of that. But now I have been thinking:
I'm going to continue to use Geographile for geography posts as often as I am able, but I'm going to start a specific project of recording our adventures with Owen. I'll post them here (with photos), link it from our family blog, and print out versions as well to bind into our Sense of Wonder book. I'll keep that up as much as we can, over the years, with no hard goal -- once a week, once a month, whatever I can manage -- until it feels done.
I can give it to Owen when it's time, whenever that ends up being. Maybe he'll want to continue it himself.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
fracking walken
My friend Rakesh says that in View to a Kill, which I find hilarious because of the way they play fast and furious with science in terms of seismology and relevant San Francisco Bay Area geography, Christopher Walken tries to destroy the Silicon Valley (then, not long past being "Santa Clara Valley"), with fracking.
I laughed. But it's only meaningful once you've seen the movie.
I laughed. But it's only meaningful once you've seen the movie.
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