Henry's Webiocosm Blog

2011 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

2011-11-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

We had another successful pumpkin carving contest this year. We had no injuries, no fights, and fair judging. There were only eight entries, all are pictured above. The youngest 2 entrants, both my children had to draw their design and my wife cut the pumpkin from that design. Everyone else did all their own work from start to finish. As always no foreign props were allowed and stencils could not be used either. Members of my household made a clean sweep (below). My wife came in first place with the blazing head (top right). I had the second place pumpkin seen on the bottom with the arms and the crown. My 7 year old came in third with the scowling vomit look on the far left and my 3 year old's was fourth with the sagging left eye (top middle). Thanks to our judges who are new to the neighborhood and are now glad we select different guest judges to help us out every year.

DIY Time-lapse Dolly

2011-09-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a Pico Dolly so I could attempt to make a self-contained time-lapse dolly that I could take anywhere.

Here is the Pico Dolly with the first step complete. I used the rim of a lid that went to an old pill container and attached it to the inside of the wheel. I had to take the wheel off and then replace it using a small hex key.

I used fishing line tied through the spokes of the wheel to attach the lid so I wouldn't damage the wheel with glue or drill holes.

Next I took 2 pieces of plywood and attached them to the dolly using 1/4 inch bolts through the predrilled standard tripod screw holes in the dolly.

Then I attached the pulleys from a motorized pulley set from Hobby Engineering.

The miniature metal gear motor I purchased separately from Hobby Engineering came next.

Finally I connected a rubber bands to the pulleys, a battery pack, and a potentiometer to use as an on off switch and to modulate the speed a little further as needed.

Ultimately I had to attach another rim to the front wheel because I had some trouble getting traction with just one wheel and with the elasticity of the rubber band, the motion needed to be a little smoother. Here is the first video I made with this setup.

The biggest draw backs to this rig are that despite gearing down the rpms, it still moves a little too fast for most natural outdoor scenes. Also it has to be on a relatively smooth and level surface.

UDATE: 11/21/11 - Here is my second version using a chain and sprocket system

Termites and Their Pests, Mites and Nematodes (Roundworms)

2011-09-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

I found some little termites living large on the fringe of my compost heap so I put one under my Celestron digital LCD microscope and this is what I found. These are mites and nematodes (roundworms) which are both known to parasitize temites (or it may be commensalism in the case of the mite). The roundworms were living in the head of the termite.

Here is a study from Florida Entomologist on "Mites and Nematodes Associated with Three Subterranean Termite Species (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)"

My best guess based on the the above paper and not much else is that the organisms here are as follows:
Eastern Subterranean Termite - Reticulitermes flavipes
Mite - Family Acaridae, Genus Australhypopus
Nematode - Family Rhabditidae, Genus Rhabditis

Anyone with more knowledge of these species please feel free to offer corrections in the comments.

And don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!

Head Louse: Pediculus humanus capitis

2011-08-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

I previously posted pics of these human head lice about 6 years ago.

Now I have a new toy sitting in my office waiting for an opportunity to get some better pictures of small critters of this sort. Today I plucked this head louse from the head of a little girl who was brought in to my office to see me for a cold. My astute nurse pointed out the fact that she had lice so I grabbed one to view under my new microscope. The first part is at the lowest power then the final two parts are at a higher power. The final part was done when it was still alive and its innards were still moving. I used a Celestron LCD digital microscope for the video.

And don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!!

An Aphid Live Birth and Predation Time-lapse

2011-07-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

I have previously posted some pictures and info on the mutualistic relationship between ants and aphids, but I hadn't really given any thought to the reproductive cycle of aphids. Neil Bromhall has made an excellent time-lapse video of aphid live birth and subsequent predation of the aphids by hoverfly larvae.

I was surprised to learn that aphids give live birth so I read the Wikipedia entry on aphid reproduction. It is far to complex and variable for me to try to summarize here. I will just say that it is quite amazing an worth a read.

A Sci-Fi Movie Recommendation - Pandorum

2011-07-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a sci-fi thriller called Pandorum (official movie site). I don't recall ever hearing anything about it when it was out in theaters, but it was recommended to me by Netflix based on movies that I had previously rated highly. The movie is set in a 60,000 passenger sleeper ship that is fleeing from the earth as a last attempt to save humanity from a dying earth. The ship is on its way to an earth-like planet, Tanis. Various crew members are awakened from hypersleep to encounter other crew members, awakened at different stages of the mission, and some grotesue huminoid creatures. A full synoposis of Pandorum is available on the Wikipedia, but I don't recommend spoiling the exciting final turn of the plot by reading it. Apparently the movie received poor critical reviews from general audiences but did much better among sci-fi enthusiasts. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it, and would love to see a sequel.

Here is the trailer:

Time-lapse of the Beach in Destin, Florida

2011-07-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice HD time-lapse of the beach in Destin, Florida. It was filmed by napnet a couple of months ago.

From Crabby at The Destin Sandpiper.

Wool Sower Gall Wasp - Callirhytis seminator

2011-05-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago my neighbor showed me these interesting growths on one of his white oak trees.

I thought it probably was some type of gall so after a few minutes research I found that it was a gall produced by a small wasp called a wool sower gall wasp, Callirhytis seminator, which only makes its galls on white oak trees. The female wasp lays her eggs in the plant and after hatching, the grubb induces the gall formation.

In the center of these galls are tiny seed-like structures, which is why this type of gall is sometimes also called an oak seed gall. Each one contains a larva which is protected and nourished by the tree.

I cut of a few of the galls from the tree and brought kept them in my garage. After about 2 weeks they had all made their way out of the gall leaving these neat little holes in the side of the galls.

Here are some close-ups of the tiny wasps.

For More information:
Galls on Oaks - NC State University
Springfield Plateau Wool-sower Gall
Wikipedia - Gall Wasp

And don't forget to check out Friday Ark #340!

Super Bowl XLV Predictions, 2011

2011-02-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

For this year's Super Bowl predictions I will keep it simple. I think the Steelers will slow down the Aaron Rodgers offensive machine just enough to win by a touchdown, with a final score of 28-21. My favorite players in this game are Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward. As for how many times the Fox team will mention Brett Favre during the broadcast, the line at Bodog.com is 2 1/2. I think it will be much higher so I am taking the over.

The Setup for the Decaying Berries Time-lapse

2010-11-27T02:54:00.000-08:00

For my recent time-lapse of a strawberry, blackberries and raspberries decomposing in a petri dish I used a Pentax Optio W90 which seems to be a great camera for shooting time-lapses. It has a built in intervalometer with lots of flexibility in settings. Also it is weather resistant and can be used outside or underwater. It has two macro settings with one of them for use at 1cm. The intervalometer function can be used with multiple settings such as auto flash and macro. To get around the camera's limited battery life, I ordered an extra Pentax D-Li88 rechargable battery that allows me to switch them out periodically and let one charge while the other is being used. Charge time is about 2 hours or less. With my setup, I attached the camera to a sturdy block, with the opening for changing batteries off to the side so I could change the battery every 3-5 days without moving the camera at all. The camera automatically took one picture every 20 minutes and it is played back at 30 frames per second. I used Quicktime Pro to make the movie from all the still shots. I made the music using Sony ACID Music Studio 7.

Time-lapse of the Week #9

2010-11-14T04:45:00.000-08:00

Here is another great time-lapse from neilbromhall of some germinating beans up close and personal and even underground.

And from mtainfo we have some interesting footage of the NYC marathon.

Since I didn't do a TLOTW last week I am posting a bonus video that I found today that is not even a time-lapse and wasn't posted during this week. It is a stop motion video with post it notes from bunliu and it is very cool.

Enjoy and have a great week!

Time-lapse of the Week #8

2010-10-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Since I have been preoccupied with halloween preparations, I haven't really looked for any good time-lapses to feature. Therefore I will gratuitously only show my latest time-lapse which I just posted today. It was a 39 day project. I took one picture every 30 minutes of my compost heap and it is played back at 30 fps. With this being October, halloween is the obvious theme. Enjoy.

2010 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

2010-10-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

This year's pumpkin carving contest was a lot of fun. We had eleven entries. Our original guest judges had to cancel so we ended up getting a couple of different neighbors from down the street to help out. These are the entries from my household. The top left one was my six year olds. It won top honors this year, the design was all his own and he drew the outline but my wife cut it for him. The second devilish Jack-O-Lantern was my entry, it got second place. The top right one was my 3 year old's. He had the marker in his hand and I helped guide his hand for the outline. It was eleventh and last place. Next year he will be all own his own with the drawing. My wife's is the bottom pumpkin, it came in fourth.

Time-lapse of the Week #7

2010-10-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Wow. I almost forgot to post a TLoTW this week and I checked in on YouTube just before going to bed and I got a message from schizzecazzechea to check out this video. All I can say is freaking WOW! I just kept watching over and over and kept on smiling. This just makes me happy.

Time-lapse of the Week #6

2010-10-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice time-lapse of a corn field maze and the evening sky by YouTube user KenScottPhotography.

Of course I have to include my own time-lapse. This is part of my compost heap project. I zoomed in on the pumpkin as it breaks down over a 3 week period. One picture was taken every 30 minutes and it is played back at 30 fps. As of today the compost heap is still being filmed. I am using a Pentax Optio W90.

Time-lapse of the Week #5

2010-10-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here is an unbelievable time-lapse of Fly Agaric and Phallus impudicus growing in time-lapse by neilbromhall .

Also here is some cool action with some fruit, (nectarines?) decomposing over three weeks by fookuzz:

Time-lapse of the Week #4

2010-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

This week's featured time-lapse is of 1 tree, 3 people, and 8 hours of cutting compressed down to 2 minutes with some nice zydeco music by Preston Frank and Family. The video was posted by brightcourse .

And now just for fun I'll throw in another great one by Jay at milapse of Keweenaw Peninsula. It is packed with some beautiful scenes. This is by far the best quality that I have seen this week but he is such a pro that I don't really count him as being in the same league as most of the others.

Compost Camera Setup and Preview

2010-09-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most recent photographs of the time-lapse setup for the compost camera. I have added a small watermelon yesterday. I bought it, took a small slice from the middle, then propped it up on the rind of the part that I ate and kept the rest to eat later. The melon wasn't all that good tasting. I probably won't add much new stuff to it except actual waste because the possum you see there has been getting busy and I am not trying to attract any critters of that size. Here is the YouTube preview video of the compost heap.

I am using a Pentax Optio W90 which I bought just a few weeks ago. All things considered, it seems like a great camera for shooting time-lapses. It has a built in intervalometer with lots of flexibility in settings. Also it is weather resistant and can be used underwater. It has two macro settings with one of them for use at 1cm. The intervalometer function can be used with multiple settings such as auto flash and macro. The only 2 things that I don't like about it so far are that even though I have seen statements that an A/C adapter is available, I haven't been able to find one and by looking at the camera itself, I don't see where one would even plug one in. The other thing is that even though the intervalometer can take up to 1000 pictures, the battery runs out way before that, somewhere more around the 300-350 range. I have gone around that by ordering an extra Pentax D-Li88 rechargable battery so I can switch them out each day and let one charge while the other is being used. Charge time is about 2 hours or less. I will say again though that for the price I am happy. Just be sure and download the user's manual to make sure it has the exact specs you need before buying.

I built a little roof for the camera and attached the camera to the stand with a hex bolt through the back of the wood. I also placed 2 screws in the wood sticking out to stop the camera from rotating down and so that I can put it in the exact same position again if I have to take the camera off the stand.

Time-lapse of the Week #3

2010-09-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice time-lapse video of the assembly of a giraffe skeleton in the library of the Santa Rosa Junior College Petaluma campus. This was posted by ThePressDemocrat.

Also, yesterday I posted a brief video time-lapse of the compost heap in my backyard. It is just a brief preview of an ongoing project.

Time-lapse of the Week #2

2010-09-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

This week's time-lapse video is from overthefence47. It has some interesting video editing with good captures and nice music.

and here's another from theodorezac of a log cabin construction:

Time-lapse of the Week

2010-09-11T03:40:00.000-07:00

Here is my time-lapse that I posted on YouTube this week. It is of a small rice field being harvested. The period of filming was about 2 hours. I took a picture every 5 seconds then played them back at a rate of 30 fps.

Here is an awesome video showing the life cycle of the Sara Orange Tip Butterfly using high speed, traditional and time-lapse filming techniques from one of the best, jcmegabyte:

And here is a great one of a construction project from timelapseman:

A Rotoscoped Animation of Rotary Nystagmus Due to BPPV

2010-07-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

A few years ago when I made my claymation version of the Dix-Hallpike and Epley Maneuvers for BPPV, I also made a lame attempt to show an example of rotary nystagmus with a claymation eye but that didn't turn out so well and I forgot about it. I have now returned to the subject but with a new twist. I used some new animation software to create an animation of rotary nystagmus. I also threw in the claymation portion of the Dix-Hallpike video with a few modifications to parallel the test findings. It turned out even better than I expected it to. I used Toon Boom Studio 5 to rotoscopically animate a normal close-up video that I made of a face with one eye in the frame. Then I manipulated the eye layer of the drawing to simulate the rotational movements of the eye associated with BPPV. Here is the final product:

Your Life is Now

2010-06-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

My Fruit and Vegetable Docomposition Video has recently had some spikes in popularity. As a result, I have had an increasing number of positive comments regarding the accompanying music and requests for the song title and artist. Well, I made the music but I didn't give it a name. piterfromwawa in Poland was one of those who asked me for the information so I asked him if he would name it for me. He suggested 'Your Life is Now' because the title will give the listener something to think about while listening to the tune's positive summer vibrations . It sounded like a great name so here it is: "Your Life is Now". The link is to an mp3 version that can be downloaded, its ony about 1.5mb. Thanks for the kind words and the help.

Super Extreme Speed Painting - Amaryllis Flower

2010-06-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

I have a new technique for painting that allows me to save time while creating beautiful works of art so watch closely and enjoy. Be sure to watch until the very end to see how this artwork really comes to life. The artwork is all original and the music was made with Sony's Acid Music Studio 7.0.

Really this is kind of just a spoof some of the speed painting videos I have seen on YouTube. It is not too hard to tell that I used the chroma key effect in making the the video, but then when the time-lapse portion of the flower starts then it is a dead give away. I just used a canvas and covered it with blue paint as evenly as possible while filming. The biggest problem was getting the paint even and trying to avoid shadows. I also should have noticed that the other room in the background was dark and shadowy and parts of it fell within the color range that I was keying out.

I Have Been Touched by His Noodly Appendage!

2010-05-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

I was putting together a time-lapse video of some mushrooms that I found growing in my yard when I saw a miracle. The almighty revealed himself in this video footage. I will admit that it did require the use of Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD and a green screen to coax this miraculous event into existence. Nonetheless, it was a truly life changing and enlightening experience. The main things I learned are that He is full of noodly goodness and that if you want to make the green screen (chroma key) effect work, the lighting and color of the screen have to be perfectly even, you can't have any shadows at all.

Miramar Beach Time-lapse with Fisheye Lens

2010-05-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

I made this video using a fisheye lens with my Canon Powershot S3 IS and GBTimelapse program from the balcony of our condo at Miramar Beach near Destin, Florida. I took a picture about every 20 seconds and it is played back at 30 frames per second. We were there 2-3 weeks ago, just as the oil spill was gaining press. The weather was not so nice due to rain and wind but that didn't ruin our time. The oil stayed away and so far it has not been a problem on the beaches in that area. The local authorities do seem to be making some preparations for if/when the oil moves in. Though my time-lapse video has nothing to do with the oil spill, I'm putting in a link to an animation tracking spread of the oil, since I have digressed to the subject.

Cecropia Moths, Hyalophora cecropia

2010-04-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

Sometime back in mid March, I was fishing at our farm's reservoir and I ran across a large cocoon. It was attached along the length of a small tree branch right on the edge of the water.

Not having any idea what was in it, I tore it open and I found this very large pupa.

I brought them both home, did some research, and found with suprising ease (thanks to this expert) that these were Cecropia moth pupae. Wanting desperately to film the emergence of this moth, I set up my time-lapse rig in my gargage closet and began shooting. I suspected from my reading that it would be about 2 weeks before eclosure so I spaced the photos out to about every 5-10 minutes at first. I waited and waited and waited. after about 3 weeks I got tired of watching time-lapse videos of a moth pupa sitting still, so I added some growing soybeans into the frame and continued the filming. At this point I was shooting 1 picture every 20 minutes. I wasn't prepared for the emergence of the first moth from the intact cocoon, but it came out and sat for a while. I missed the best part of the action of the moth emerging due to the long interval between pics. I did take some great photos of the adult moth before letting it go. Here is the video showing the whole above mentioned process:

Below is a nice pic of the moth after it emerged. It had a wingspan of around 5.5 inches. Here is a large version of my best Cecropia moth photo.

I then rearranged the set up for the exposed pupa and the soybeans and waited for another week or so. I was about to give up on this pupa thinking it must have died from excessive handling when, just before going to bed, I rechecked and saw the pupa moving wildly and realized she was on her way out. I rearranged the set up again for a closer view and changed to 6 second intervals then varied from 6-20 second intervals. I was unbelievably excited about getting this whole event on camera but the excitement faded a little as I realized that her wings were a little deformed and she probably wouldn't fly as the other one had. I am not sure of what caused this. The shell of the pupa remained stuck around its right wing as they unfurled and I eventually had to pull it off between frames, but it may have been too late and that may be at least partly to blame for the deformity of her wings. Here is the video of the emerging moth:

This post and many better ones are on board Modulator's Friday Ark #291 so don't forget to have a look!!

An Amaryllis Growing, Flowering and Decaying in Time-lapse

2010-02-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest time-lapse. This amaryllis was filmed over a period of 24 days. Initially I took one picture every 20 minutes, then I increased the frequency to every 15 minutes about halfway through it. I had no idea the thing was going to get so tall or take so long to flower or I would have set it up differently. As you can see I had to adjust the location of the plant and camera several times, there were even a couple of sequences that I just left out because they stayed in the frame so briefly. I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS along with my laptop using GBTimelapse software to control the camera and I used Quicktime Pro to make the movie from the still shots.

Super Bowl XLIV Predictions, 2010

2010-01-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to me that as I look back to my 2009 Super Bowl XLIII predictions, we are in the middle of an unusual winter storm much as we were at this same time last year. The big difference is that we got much more snow than ice, so we haven't seen the massive power outages that we did last year. It probably also helps that most of the power lines and poles are new due to their being replaced last year and most of the trees and branches that could have threatened power lines already went down and are gone after last years devastation. I also notice that my prediction was pretty good. I picked the winner, Pittsburgh, with the correct spread, 4 points. Each team successfully kicked one more field goal than I had guessed they would.

Enough of that, now its time for my pick. I optimistically think that it will be a close and fun game, with the Colts slipping past the Saints, 30-28. It sounds like the Saints will be gunning for Manning and tyring to put him out of the game (an obvious strategy), but ultimately I think he is too good and will finish the game uninjured.

Dandelion Clock Opening and Flower Closing, Time-lapse

2009-11-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

Here is my most recent time-lapse project. I started by digging up a small chunk of my yard containing this dandelion and placing it in a bowl. Then I set up my Canon PowerShot S3 IS overhead attached to my laptop using GBTimelapse software to control the camera. I originally set it to shoot a pic every 30 seconds but when played back at 30 frames per second, it was too slow and the file size was too large. So I used every 3rd picture making it 1 picture per 90 seconds played back at 30 fps. I used Quicktime Pro to make the movie from the still shots.

2009 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

2009-10-29T14:22:00.001-07:00

A few days ago we had our annual family pumpkin carving contest again. It was alot of fun as usual. The dynamics of the contest changed this year with the expected results. The above jack-O-lanterns were only from members of my household. My wife and I carved our own pumpkins as expected. Hers is the toothy one on the far left. It won first place out of a total of nine entries. Her work has improved greatly over the last couple of years. Mine was the one with the sword through it which was made from the cut out portion of the mouth. It suprisingly only got fourth place. Now here is where things changed from previous years. My five year old drew his design for me to cut out which is the standard of our family for his age. It came in dead last and is the third from the left. Traditionally children too young to understand the meaning of this activity like my 23 month old are allowed to have a parent design and cut their pumpkin. However, this year due complaints from other jealous family members that this gave me 2 entries, we compromised on letting my 5 year old draw the the others while I cut it out. He used the same design as with his but I interpreted it a little differently and the result earned a second to last place finish and is seen on the far right. Happy Halloween to all!

Milky Way Time-lapse

2009-09-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have tried to do some time-lapses of the night sky. Some have been okay, but not really worth showing off. This one from William Castleman is probably the best that I have seen.

You should probably go to his website or his YouTube page and check out the larger HD versions.

Knucks: The Official Handshake of the 2009-2010 Flu Season

2009-09-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while preparing to go a football game, I became excited, thinking about all the old friends I would see. Then I thought about all the hands I would be shaking. After hearing several reports of local influenza activity, I became just a little worried about getting the flu myself. That's when I had the idea; you'll get nothing but a set of knucks from me brother. So I decided to make an image to help spread the idea. I know I am not the first to think of this as a more sanitary version of a greeting or high five, but I couldn't find anything on the web presenting it this way, so here you go. If you prefer the term fist bump, here is a blog sized version and here is the larger version. Feel free to pass on these links or even to hotlink the images if needed.

Please keep in mind, I am not trying to add to the hysteria we are facing with the novel H1N1 (swine) flu (I've already dealt with plenty of that). I just think that during this time of year, it is good to minimize unnecessary contact, wash hands frequently, and to keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth especially when you have been out in crowds.

The Good News of Health Care Reform

2009-08-26T13:30:00.001-07:00

I got the idea for this cartoon after recently attending a statewide conference for family physicians. During one of the gatherings a senator had to field some questions from some of the physicians regarding their patients concerns over euthanasia and 'death panels' as part of the new healthcare system. My initial thinking while formulating the above scenario was mocking the hysterical reactions to health care reform, but it also reflects my concern for the inefficiency we might get if we let the government take over our health care.

Sunrise over the Arkansas River, Time-lapse

2009-08-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

I just shot this yesterday, I think it turned out great. It was made from the top floor of the Double Tree Hotel looking over the Arkansas River in Little Rock Arkansas. The Main Street Bridge, I-30 Bridge and Alltel Arena in North Little Rock are seen in the background.I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and GBTimelapse software. I took a picture every 20 seconds and playback is at 30 fps. It is my first time-lapse done in HD so be sure and check it out on the full screen in HD mode.

Superbowl XLIII Predictions Update

2009-02-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I got what I asked for, a good close game, exciting until the very end.

As far as my sole prediction, I feel like I did pretty good. I predicted the Steelers would win over the Cardinals 24-20. I was on the money with the spread of 4 points for the right team, but with a final score of 27-23 I was off by 3 points for each team.

Congratulations to the six time champion Steelers.

Video of the Game Winning Touchdown

Super Bowl XLIII Predictions

2009-01-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

Due to the extreme ice storm, causing massive power outages, I have had very limited access to the internet for the last several days. This is not a complaint, because so many have had it so much worse than I have. I am just mentioning that as a reminder and as an explanation for why I will only have one prediction this year...........

The Steelers will win over the Cardinals 24 to 20.

I have mixed feelings about this game. I like Pittsburgh and I think they probably are a better team, but I would love for Kurt Warner to go all the way. I mostly just want it to be a close game until the very end.

Enjoy the game!!!!!!!

The Set Up for the Rotting Fruit and Vegetables Time-Lapse

2008-12-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the set up for my most recent time-lapse project. The lights were not initially so close, but when the weather turned cold, I moved one light in closer to keep the temp. up and keep the process going at a better pace.

Fruit and Vegetables Decomposing, Time-lapse

2008-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

This is probably my most extensive time-lapse project yet. I Placed the fruit and vegetables in a large tub in the storage area under my house and took a picture every ten minutes. The playback at 30 frames per second took too long and was not as exciting, so I used a quarter of the pictures, making it 1 picture every 40 minutes. This video spans 74 days. The growth at the end of the video is from the potato. Also, the hundreds or thousands of little specks you see buzzing around are fruit flies. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and GBTimelapse software on a laptop. I used Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music.

2008 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

2008-11-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

This year's family pumpkin carving contest for halloween was pretty exciting. There were 14 entries and all of them were interesting. The jack-o'-lanterns you see above were from my household which again did well. The toothy one on the far left was my 11 month old's entry; it won first place with a little help from dad. The sad one next to it was my wife's second place winner, much better than last year's sorry effort. The hellish jack seen swallowing up a desolate soul which is third from the left was my entry. It got 4th place. I really expected better, but my hat's off to the others. The one on the far right was my 4 year old's, he was deemed big enough to create his own this year; he drew it and I cut it out, hence the very avant-garde final product. It actually placed seventh, not bad out of 14.

Common Housefly Life Cycle In Time-lapse

2008-07-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

Time-lapse fly development, 640x480, .mov, 9.9 mb, 2 min.
Time-lapse fly development, 640x480, .AVI, 9 mb, 2 min.

This is a time-lapse video of the growth and devopment of the common housefly, Musca domestica. I started the project by taking a leftover piece of baked chicken and leaving it outside, in the warm summer sun for a few hours. I then took the container in overnight. By the time I came back the next afternoon, the eggs had hatched. This is where the video picks up. After about 4 days, I moved some of the maggots to the glass container, where it was cooler and dry, so they could pupate, which began taking place a couple of days later. Then, I removed the pupae and placed them in the small bowl containing sand. I left the glass container in view in the back so the remaining larvae could continue to be observed. As an afterthought, I placed a larva that had gotten away on the sand beside the pupae and luckily it stayed in view as it prepared to pupate. You can see the pupae darken as they age, which is typical. After about 5 days the adult flies began to emerge and this lasted for several more days. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and GBTimelapse software on a laptop. Until the adult flies emerged, I was shooting each picture at a rate of 1 picture every 3 to eight minutes. Then I had to speed it up to every 5 seconds because they came out so fast. The movie was then played back at 30 fps. I used Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music. The YouTube version of this video is available here. I also Made a real time video of an emerging fly which can be seen below or a higher quality wmv version can be seen here.

I used the U of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences' web page for the house fly as my resource for the expected timing of the stages of development and other information.

All my time-lapse and other videos viewed from my time-lapse home page or on my YouTube player page.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Formation of Cumulus Clouds From Burning Wheat Fields, Time-lapse

2008-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Time-lapse Burning Wheatfields, 640x480, .mov, 8.6 mb 51 sec

For the last few weeks, farmers have been finishing their wheat harvest and burning the stubble to prepare the field for the next crop (the value and safety of this practice is debated), mostly soybeans around here. On this hot, humid day I saw some huge beautiful cumulonimbus clouds forming as a result of these burning fields. By the time I was able to get home and get out to our farm to set up for shooting, the clouds were not as impressive. I was impressed, though by the number of distant fields I was able to get, just in this frame, in this hour and a half period. At the top of some of these plumes of smoke, you can see the condensation, which is where they turn fluffy and white, before it cools and drops a bit then evaporates again. This time-lapse video was made last week using my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software with my old Dell laptop. I took 1400 pics at a rate of 1 picture every 4 seconds. I made the music with Sony Acid Music Studio.

For the record, although I was involved with burning a few fields when I was younger, my family's farm hasn't grown wheat in the last couple of years so don't gripe at me if you are opposed to this practice. Here is a somewhat neutral story about the debate over this practice of burning wheat stubble from reflector.com. Also here is a recent letter and thread with some good old down home fussin' about whether to burn or not to burn from DailyAdvance.com in Elizabeth City, N.C.

You can see this time-lapse video of the burning wheat fields at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

UPDATE 7/10/08: Here is a good still shot of a cumulus cloud forming from the burning of wheat stubble by professional photographer Judd Patterson.

Friday Herplogging - Red-eared Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans

2008-06-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

This is a red-eared slider, Trachymys scripta elegans. It is one of 4 subspecies of a turtle known as sliders. This turtle is commonly found in the south central and south eastern U. S. The most distinguishing characteristic of this turtle is the horizontal red patch behind each eye, though they are not actually ears as the name would imply. This one was found in the garage of my neighbor and kept as a pet for a few days by their young daughter who is almost always holding on to some kind of little creature. Red-eared sliders are commonly kept and sold as pets. Because of their size as adults, their longevity and their heavy trade, they are also frequently dumped in both native and non-native habitats and are therefore considered invasive species in some areas such as Florida.

Pictured above is the carapace, which is smooth, slightly domed and hard. The color and markings are usually yellow-green to green and can darken to black with increasing age, especially in males. The rear of the carapace is mildly serrated.

The plastron pictured above is hingeless, and is yellow with dark markings in the center of each scute.

The above picture is a close-up of the serrations along the rear of the carapace.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

This and other animals can be seen anytime at the Webiocosm Zoo.

Tiger, Your're a Freak. Plinko is your game.

2008-06-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's not so much that I love Tiger Woods, but I love drama in sports, and he just caused some spectacular drama. Tiger Woods, just rimmed in a 12 foot birdie putt on the final hole of the U. S. Open at Torrey Pines to force a playoff against Rocco Mediate tomorrow. They both finished tied through 72 holes at 1-under par. I have to say that at this point the U.S. Open is Woods' to lose. I will be following closely tomorrow. What did he say about the wobbly put that went in? He made a reference to playing the game Plinko from 'The Price is Right'. You never know what is going to happen. However, Mediate said he knew that Tiger would hit the shot.
Here is the video on YouTube but it probably won't last long.

Cumulonimbus Clouds, Time-lapse

2008-06-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

I just filmed this time-lapse video a couple of hours ago. It was late in the day and I was out pushing my 6 month-old boy through the neighborhood when I realized that there was an incredible number of cumulonimbus clouds booming all over. I went back home and got all my gear out, but I have such a limited range of viewing from my home due to trees, houses and hills that I was lucky to get this shot between the trees. I was filming the clouds in the first scene when it suddenly got much darker and my neighbors alerted me to the nasty looking clouds coming at us from behind. I turned the camera around and started filming. I should have left everything alone there so the film would have been smoother. Oh, well practice makes perfect. The pictures were taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software. I took one picture every 4 seconds. The movie was made with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps.

You can see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page or you can view my time-lapse and other videos at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

A Mother's Day Time-Lapse for You and Yours

2008-05-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Time-lapse, 640x480, .mov, 8 mb 25 sec.

This time-lapse video took about a week to make. I made it for my wife, the beautiful mother of my two wonderful children. I used beans for the I (heart) U on the top because I knew they would germinate first. I had no idea they would grew out of control. I used some flower seeds for the 'mom' part. Obviously they looked alot better. The music is just a sample piece from the Sony Acid Music Studio stock. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps.

You can see this Mother's day time-lapse video at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

You can also see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page.

How to Make a Time-lapse Video

2008-03-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

No, I am not going to tackle this, but Jay at MIlapse has intiated this undertaking in a YouTube series. Up to this point, he has made Timelapse Guide (The Basics - Part 1) and Timelapse Guide (Compact Digital Cameras - Part 2). So far so good.

Ten Days of Tulips - Time-lapse

2008-03-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Time-lapse Tulips Growing, 640x480, .mov, 9.9 mb 36 sec

I do believe that this is my best time-lapse yet. I just finished the filming a few days after easter. The pictures were taken at a rate of every fifteen minutes when the overhead grow light was on, or every 20 minutes when it was off. It was an attempt to simulate day and night. Finally I just left it on because it didn't seem to make much difference. I was really impressed with how much the plants moved and how the blooms would open in unison, even when there were no apparent changes in this otherwise completely dark room. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps. I created and added the hip hop music using Sony Acid Music Studio. The music seemed appropriate given the movement of the tulips. You can see this tulip time-lapse video at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

You can also see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page.

Time-lapse March Clouds Over Reservoir

2008-03-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse Clouds, 640x480, .mov, 8.5 mb 38 sec

I am sure that I will eventually get tired of doing time-lapses and move on to something else, but I just can't quit thinking of all the different things I could film. The main thing I want to do with clouds is get some huge cumulonimbus clouds boiling up from a distance, but that will probably have to wait until summer. So in the meantime I am just trying lots of different things for practice, like this one. It was made on a very windy day beside a reservoir at sunset. It took approximately 1 and a half hours. I started at 1 picture per 5 seconds then decreased the frequency to every 4 seconds. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pics at 30 fps. I made the music with Sony Acid Music Studio. The YouTube version of this cloud time-lapse video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Fruit Lapse

2008-03-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse Decaying Fruit, 640x480, .mov, 6.7 mb 39 sec

This is a time-lapse video of some fruit - banana, apple chunks, kiwi, lemon, grapes- deteriorating over exactly 3 weeks. The pictures were taken several times per hour at first then the rate was slowed down to once per hour toward the end. It is played back at 30 fps initially the replayed at a much faster rate. I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software for the video and made the music using Sony Acid Music Studio. I think it turned out fairly well. The biggest problem with this one was that I got tired of the continuous loud whirring of the laptop used to control the camera so I shut it down and just used the intervalometer on the camera to take a picture every hour. In doing so, I unavoidably moved the camera a little which readjusted the focus and caused a few wobbles in the video. This change can be seen toward the end when the banana goes slightly out of focus. The YouTube version of this time-lapse decomposing fruit video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

UPDATE 7/20/10: Here is my best video of fruit and vegetables decomposing

Circus of the Spineless #30

2008-02-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Circus of the Spineless #30 is now up at A DC Birding Blog, so get on over and check it out.

Time-lapse Sunset Over Reservoir

2008-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse sunset, 640x480, .mov, 9.8 mb 19 sec

This time-lapse video was made a couple of weeks ago with my new setup including the Canon PowerShot S3 IS and the Granite Bay Time-lapse software. I think it turned out fairly well for my first try. I made the accompanying music with my Sony Acid Music Studio software. It is kind of eerie, which was not really intentional, it just turned out that way. I had a couple of problems with the video. One was that I took the pictures every 5 seconds, which was too frequent for the mininmal action involved so I had to play it back at 60 fps rather than 30 fps. Also, my laptop ran out of power before the sun was completely down so it was cut short. I did like the contrails left behind as the jets flew over and I enjoy the appearance of the water as the wind died down and the water became perfectly still. The above video is a rather large file for the short time but is of fairly good quality. The YouTube version of this time-lapse sunset video is not quite as good but is a quicker download.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Arhtropod Friday: Triops, Triops longicaudatus

2008-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is a Triops, or Triops longicaudatus. It is in the class Branchiopoda and order Nostraca and is sometimes also referred to as a tadpole shrimp. This little crustacean was raised from an egg along with a bunch of other eggs that came in a kit called "Triassic Triops", which I purchased at a local hobby store. I was hoping to put the eggs in a small container and then make a time-lapse video of these things growing over a week or so. For many reasons it didn't work out but I have had a good time watching the two that made it. They are intersting because according to Wikipedia, Their external morphology has apparently not changed since the Triassic appearance of Triops cancriformis around 220 million years ago. Triops cancriformis may therefore be the "oldest living animal species on earth." They also grow very fast and for the first week or more, a substantial increase in size can be seen from day to day. Having had no prior knowledge of this animal, there are too many fine details about its morphology and habits for me to try to get in to so I will just leave you with a couple of good links from people who actually know these animals. Here is the page of the company that produces the kit I bought. Here is the Triops information page.

The above pics show the size of my triops after 2-3 weeks, what the underside looks like (they frequently swim upside down), and the box that the kit came in.

Here is a brief video of my Triops pair at YouTube or a larger, sharper Quicktime Triops video is here (7.5 mb, 27 sec.).

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Also visit Circus of the Spineless #30 at A DC Birding Blog for some down home invertebrate goodness.

Super Bowl XLII Predictions Recap

2008-02-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I didn't do to well again this year with my predictions for Super Bowl XLII.
Here is a recap:

1. Final score: New England 34, New York 24.
Way wrong, NY 17, NE 14.

2. Tom Brady will throw for 3 touchdown passes and have 2 interceptions.
Wrong again, Brady threw 1 touchdown and had no interceptions.

3. Randy Moss will catch 1 of those touchdown passes.
Correct, Moss had 1 touchdown reception.

4. Wes Welker will once again exceed what is expected of him and he will catch 2 touchdown passes.
Nope, Welker did lead with 11 catches and 103 yards, but no touchdowns.

5. Laurence Maroney will rush for less than 90 yards but he will run one in for a score.
Woo hoo! I got another one right! Maroney had 36 rushing yards with one rushing touchdown.

6. Manning will not play a perfect game and will therefore lose, but he will make a decent effort throwing for 2 touchdowns with 3 interceptions.
Wrong. Manning did not play a perfect game, throwing 1 interception, but he did have a great effort with two touchdowns including a game winner with less than a minute in the game.

7. Plaxico Burress will top 100 yards receiving with 1 touchdown reception.
Nah. Burress did have a single touchdown reception but only 27 yards.

8. Amani "its not a" Toomer will catch the other touchdown pass.
NO! He did lead the team with 84 receiving yards but no score.

9. Brandon Jacobs will have 100+ rushing game with a single goal line touchdown run.
Another bad guess. Jacobs only had 42 rushing yards and no touchdowns.

As always, my excitement about Super Bowl Sunday will go way beyond the game itself. I will be spending the afternoon with my good friends with whom I have enjoyed many great games leading up to this grand finale. Whether the Giants upset the offensive juggernaut, or the Pats do as expected and go undeafted all the way, it is too late for this game to be anything but a big damn deal.
Yes. As far as I am concerned, this game was a big damn deal and I say congratulations to the New York Football Giants for a wonderful game and to the New Enlgand Patriots for a fantastic season which made this Super Bowl Sunday so exciting.

Time-lapse Colored Water in Melting Ice and a Tulip

2008-01-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

640x480, mov, 4.4 mb 33 sec

For this time-lapse video, I started by freezing water in an ice cube tray. Before the cube was completely solid, I used a syringe to inject some colored water in the center and let it freeze a little longer. Then I placed the cube in the glass of water with the tulip. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software to make the movie. Initially the pics were taken about every 4-6 seconds but I stretched it out to every few minutes once I focused on the flower. I used the Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music.

Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos or all these plus others can be seen at my YouTube player page.

Super Bowl XLII Predictions

2008-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

After the previous two years Super Bowl predictions, it would be reasonable to have low expectations from me, but I can assure you that I have been paying attention this year and things are much more clear to me.

I will get right to the punch, the Patriots will win. It will be a close three quarters, then luckily for the Giants, time run out just as the Pats start to run away with it. Final score: New England 34, New York 24.

For the Winning Patriots:

Tom Brady will throw for 3 touchdown passes and have 2 interceptions.

Randy Moss will catch 1 of those touchdown passes.

Wes Welker will once again exceed what is expected of him and he will catch 2 touchdown passes.

Laurence Maroney will rush for less than 90 yards but he will run one in for a score.

For the losing Giants:

Manning will not play a perfect game and will therefore lose, but he will make a decent effort throwing for 2 touchdowns with 3 interceptions.

Plaxico Burress will top 100 yards receiving with 1 touchdown reception.

Amani "its not a" Toomer will catch the other touchdown pass.

Brandon Jacobs will have 100+ rushing game with a single goal line touchdown run.

As always, my excitement about Super Bowl Sunday will go way beyond the game itself. I will be spending the afternoon with my good friends with whom I have enjoyed many great games leading up to this grand finale. Whether the Giants upset the offensive juggernaut, or the Pats do as expected and go undeafted all the way, it is too late for this game to be anything but a big damn deal.

As for my part in this fantasy football season, I participated in 2 leagues. I won the league, which coincidentally I sponsored. It was more due the fact that I had Tom Brady as my quarterback, than any advantage I may have had as commissioner. Brady was the 37th overall pick in that league. I also picked up Wes Welker in the early mid season who became a steady producer.

I won the loser's bracket in the 2nd league I participated in. How did I get to the loser's bracket? Well I had the 14th pick of 14 teams and came up with Laurence Maroney and Matt Leinart as my first 2 picks. They both were terrible in the early season until Leinart finally broke his clavicle and New England finally started running a little to give Maroney some reps, by then it was too late. Tom Brady was also responsible for some fantasy domination in this league as well. He helped his owner outscore all others for the season on an otherwise mediocre team.

Happy Super Bowl!!!

Time-lapse Ice Melting in a Wine Glass

2008-01-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

click to view video

This Time-laspe video was taken over several hours with my Canon PowerShot S3 IS along with my recently purchased GBTimelapse softwae, Both of which have been very satisfying so far. I took a picture about every 5 seconds during the shooting. The main faults are that I accidentally got my foot hung in a cord and knocked the camera off the table, which is noticealbe at about 13 seconds when you see the glass shift a little. I also was not able to figure out how to turn on the macro funtion with the GBTimelapse software until near the end of the shooting. It is not apparent on the YouTube version due to the degree of compression but you can see it at around the 2/3 mark on the quicktime version. I used my Sony Acid Music Studio software to create the music.

Here is the YouTube version of Ice Melting in a Wine Glass. Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos.

Time-lapse Crystals Growing

2008-01-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

Click to view Video, 6.9 mb, 33 sec, Quicktime

This is one of my first videos made with my recently purchased Canon PowerShot S3 IS. The main reason I chose this camera over the newer Canon PowerShot S5 IS is that I had read that the intervalometer feature was not in the later model and of course it was a little cheaper. I used the intervalometer to take a picture every 4 minutes during the 2 days that I allowed the crystals to grow. I used the "Space Age Crystal Growing Kit" as directed except that I didn't place any rocks in the solution to seed the crystals. The video turned out about okay, the crystals grew, but the visual effect is kind of bland. The quicktime version on my site is much sharper than the YouTube version. I made the music using my Sony Acid Music Studio software.

You can see my other time-lapse and stop motion videos here.

Time-lapse Sunset from the Hancock Tower

2007-11-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

click the pic to view 3.5mb, 7 sec.

This is a brief time-lapse video I made in Chicago while on a visit there back in October. We were up in the bar of the Hancock tower and obviously had an excellent table. I used my good ol' Sony Cybershot, taking each picture about every 15 seconds while resting the camera on the back of the booth I was sitting in. It is a little short because we didn't think to start taking the pics until the sun was almost all the way down.

Here's the video at YouTube.

Other time-lapse and stop motion videos can be seen here.

Bat-O'-Lantern

2007-10-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

This year's family pumpkin carving contest involved nine entries, with these three being entries from my household. My wife did the BOO! pumkin, a very unoriginal performance, deserving its seventh place finish. My official entry was the one on the right, it was supposed to have 3 eyes but its left eye came off when I was removing the part I cut out, I think it turned out just as well anyway. It got fourth place. The middle one was my 3 year old's official entry which I spent most of my time on. It was meant to be a bat; it won first place. I made the ears in a fashion similar to last year's chimp pumpkin. Next year, the quality of my boy's entries will go down, when we will be required to cut his pumpkin from what ever he draws on there without any help.

Friday Herplogging: Red Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum syspila

2007-10-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was out jogging in my neighborhood, when I came across this beautiful small snake on the side of the road right next to my house. After my initial reaction, which was as usual to suddenly leap about 5 feet into the air, I went back to inspect it. I quickly employed a rule of thumb for dealing with snakes having this sort of coloration - "Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black friend of Jack" - to identify this as a nonpoisonous specimen. I knew there were some coral snake mimics around here, but I had never seen any so I grabbed it and took it in for the photo session and identification. I found that this is a red milk snake or Lampropeltis triangulum syspila. Here are the Steps I took to ID this snake using the book The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas by Stanley Trauth et al:

1. Facial pit absent, pupil of eye round, double row of subcaudal scales extending to near tip of tail.

2. Dorsum with red, black, yellow, and/or white bands and rings.

3. Dorsum with red bands not bordered by yellow; red and black bands or blotches touching; bands not encircling the body; no fangs present.

4. Snout blunt (rostral scale not enlarged), venter with irregular clusters of dark scutes.

5. Dorsum of head red; lateral blotches greatly reduced or absent.

After the pictures were taken I let the snake go of course. With further research, I discovered a few interesting facts:

1. Another variation of the rhyme mentioned above is "Red touches yellow, kill a fellow. Red touches black, venom lack."
2. The Texas Coral Snake, Micrurus tener tener, the snake I was intending to avoid playing with by using the above rhyme, is the only species of coral snake that lives in Arkansas and is only in the southwestern part.
3. Those rhyming rules only apply to coral snakes living in North America as I found by unsuccessfully applying the rule to these coral snakes.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

This red milk snake has been added to the Webiocosm Zoo.

Updated 4/17/2010, Just for fun, here is a depiction of the coral snake by the South Park gang:

An Ode to Floaters

2007-09-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have had floaters for long as I can remember, but they have never really been that bothersome until my last visit with my ophthamologist. My prescription was increased a little and since then, it seems like my floaters have been getting in the way just a little more often. That is what made this scene from Family Guy especially funny to me when I saw it for the first time a few nights ago. It is from the fifth season, episode 11: The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which first aired on 2/18/07. This is one of the many scenes from this show that have me convinced that the writers of this show are geniuses.

Here is another link to the scene if the YouTube version goes down.

stylin' with CSS

2007-08-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

I am now attempting to build web pages using nothing more than code I type using the web page editor provided by my web host at the domain Webiocosm.net. This will be a slow process since I will have to split my already very limited "computer time" between checking my many e-mail accounts and working on multiple other half-baked internet diversions. Since everything I have done relating to publishing websites has been self-taught, I have chosen a book called, stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide by Charles Wyke-Smith. Here is the starting practice page. I am not sure just yet if I am going to archive these stages of development or if I will just let it disappear. I realize that this is probably only interesting to me, but I am linking these pages here so the crawlers will find them. This is just in case anyone out there wants to see what I am doing, or at least wants to find a reference to the book, which I like so far.

BrainGate's First Test Subject Dies at 27

2007-07-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

I hadn't heard any big news lately on BrainGate, which is a type of neural interface system mentioned several times here previously. That is until a few days ago when I saw that someone had come to this site with the Google search term "Matt Nagle cause of death". Then I followed that same path and found an obituary from the Boston Globe, stating that he had died on July 16 from sepsis. There are no other details relating to the cause of death. The article does mention that the brain implant had previously been removed, from that statement I only assume that his death was not related to that particular experiment, but more likely to one or some of the many comorbidities of quadriplegia. It appears that his death is now being investigated as a homicide.

I give my condolences and best wishes to his family and friends.

New Bulletin Board and the First Forum, Time-lapse Videos

2007-07-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I purchased the domain webiocosm.net through a different provider with hopes of finding a system of running not just my blog, but also the entire website without an expensive or obsolete program like Front Page. I am still mainly using the domain webiocosm.com at this time, but I am looking to employ or at least test some of the features readily available on this new service. As a result I have started the Webiocosm Bulletin board to promote discussion about topics that I and other readers find important. Here is the first Forum, which is about Time-lapse videos.

Update 08/16/07: Forget the Bulletin Board, it is too much trouble keeping the porn and medication peddlers off of there.

Arthropod Friday: Common House Centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata

2007-07-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge

This is a common house centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata. I saw several of them and took this picture 2 days ago while cleaning out a storage area under my house. They were very fast moving and made me jump when I first saw them. Animals like this don't usually bother me too much, but I was already in a heightened state of creepiness because of all the brown recluse spiders I had been seeing. After the photo session, I killed a few of them but a couple got away. I began to regret that a little after reading about their feeding habits, because they eat alot of household pests such as spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish. I have never seen one of these in my living space, so I am not too worried about them bothering us. Apparently they can bite humans and sometimes deliver some venom but the bite is about equivalent to a honey bee sting.

The house centipede, when fully grown, has an average of 17 pairs of long legs, which allow them to run faster than other centipedes, up walls and along ceilings and floors. Young centipedes have four pairs of legs when they are hatched. They gain a new pair with the first molting, and two pairs with every subsequent molting.Its body is yellowish grey or brown and has three dark-colored dorsal stripes running down its length; the legs also have dark stripes. They also have well developed faceted eyes unlike most other centipedes.

Sources: Wikipedia, ADW

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Purple Pill Stop Motion Video

2007-06-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is a brief video I made using my good old Sony Cybershot. I wanted to make a video running at 30 frames per second and to use my Sony Acid Music Studio software for a video. This was the first time I used the music software to make a tune and synchronize it with a video; it was surprisingly easy to do. I used quicktime pro to make the initial video from all the stills. Then I converted the video to AVI format for use with Windows Movie Maker, with which I added the titles. Next, I opened the video with the acid music studio software and created the music from about 7 or 8 sample loops, then I saved the audio file and added it to the video using windows movie maker.

The star of the video was a promotional purple pill clock given to me by a Nexium representative. It had been lying around the house and my kid had claimed it as his own, but he let me borrow it for the production. Nexium is a medication in a class of medications known as proton pump inhibitors which are very effective for symptoms of GERD and problems related to gastric acid secretion.

Click the above picture or here to see the small version (1.6 mb, .wmv, 32 sec), large version (3.6 mb, .wmv, 32 sec), or you can see it on YouTube.

This video and my other stop motion, claymaion and time-lapse videos can be seen here.

Friday Herplogging: Western Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma

2007-06-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is a western cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma. This species is found in the southeastern United States and is sometimes also called water moccasin. Just about any aquatic situation with a vegetated shoreline and objects for basking prey is a potential home for it. However, that doesn't mean that any snake found near the water is a cottonmouth, like many (or most) assume. Many unrelated, nonvenomous water snakes are found in these same areas and are much more common. This particular cottonmouth was killed by my father, after almost accidentally stepping on it near a rice field. It struck his boot several times, but was unable to penetrate, before he stepped on it, rolled it over and shot its underside. It is about 30 inches long. The species is in the family Viperidae, also known as pit vipers, which also includes rattlesnakes and copperheads. The pit is a heat sensing organ for locating prey. Cottonmouths are well known for their tendency to stand their ground with their whitish mouths gaping wide open when approached or threatened, hence the name cottonmouth.

Though I already new the Identity of this species when I got it, I went through the key in the book, The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas by Stanley Trauth et al to point out its distinguishing characteristics. Here are the steps I took:

1. Facial pit between eye and nostril (black arrow, above); eye pupil elliptical (and vertical); single row of subcaudal scales extending to near tip of tail (yellow arrow, above)...Family Viperidae.

2. Tip of tail lacking a rattle or button...Genus Agkistrodon

3. Dorsum lacking hourglass-shaped crossbands, but rather dark brown or black bands; head black with dark stripe behind eye, pale labial stripe (red arrow, above)...western cottonmouth

Below are pictures of the snakes long retractable fangs. Here is some more information about bites from these snakes and their venom.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Circuit-Bent Speak & Spell

2007-05-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I was finally able to get a reasonably priced 1978 Texas Instruments Speak & Spell from ebay. Shortly thereafter, I was fortunate enough to find the time to tear it up. I wouldn't really say I tore it up because it still works like new; I just modified it to make it better. I pretty much went by the plans for circuit-bending this model laid out by Reed Ghazala in his book on the subject (Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments). This is also called an incantor and the instructions for building one are laid out in this article by Reed Ghazala except that it uses a Speak & Read.

Here are some before and after pictures of my project:

Here's how it looks on the inside:

The main ways my incantor varied from the plan in the book was that I could not get the potentiometer to control the pitch. The circuit he described and every nearby point either did nothing or it locked it up. Hopefully I can work that out soon; I would appreciate some suggestions. Here is a close-up of my board:

While trying to find a pitch control circuit, I did find a different bend that turned out to be really good. I put a rollerball switch on the inside and ran it through the potentiometer, so that it takes effect only when the machine is turned over or shaken. The pot doesn't really make much noticable difference.

Here is a demo of the performance of this Speak and Spell Incantor. I have more posted and some links on my circuit bending page.

My only advice at this point is to keep in mind that this activity is for small battery powered electronics only. Also if you are planning on buying a soldering tool, a battery powered one may not be the best choice. I used a Weller BP645 and I noticed that I only got a few good hits on it then it wouldn't get hot enough and caused some sloppy soldering. I had to replace the batteries (3 AA), which were still fine for other uses, three times before finally going and buying a regular one with a cord.

Update 6/4/07: I have added some downloadable normal and bent sounds from this speak and spell incantor in both mp3 and wav format.

Curlin Wins Preakness Stakes!

2007-05-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

Although this is not a sporting news service, I cannot help shouting the headline. I feel vindicated after posting my pictures of this crazy fast horse from the Arkansas Derby with the expectation that he would win the Kentucky Derby. It looked like Street Sense had Preakness in the bag after he pulled ahead during the final turn, but then Curlin cranked it up in the final stretch and won by a nose, tying the Preakness Stakes record with a time of 1:53.46. This record was previously set by Louis Quatorze (1966) and Tank’s Prospect (1985). What a race!

Snakes Eating Things

2007-05-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend while I was fishing with my family, we ran across this water snake eating a fish. I made everyone move away and fish elsewhere while I filmed. The footage is a little sketchy because it was taking so long and I knew I would run out of memory on my digital camera if I let it run continuously. The total time from when I began filming to the end was 24 minutes. In the second to last segment, if you listen closely, you can hear my wife cheering for my 2 1/2 year old son as he catches his first fish ever all by himself. Of course, I took a scolding for filming the snake and fish scene instead of that precious moment, but what is a fella to do?

Here are a couple of pictures of the scene that are a little more clear:

I found this next video while getting ready to post my own. This is a snake eating a toad, essentially from start to finish. There is a little more action in this video, but it lasts 10 minutes. The dialogue from the "camera crew" makes it a little more worthwhile as well.

Good job fellas.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!

Herp Friday: Broadhead Skink, Eumeces laticeps

2007-04-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

enlarge

This broadhead skink, Eumeces laticeps, has been seen hanging around my house several times in the last few weeks. I was able to get some extreme close-ups of it one day when it was cool outside and he was a little sluggish. I had a fairly easy time identifying it simply based on its appearance, but to be certain, I used the key to the lizards of Arkansas contained in the excellent book, The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas by Stanley Trauth et al. Here are the basic steps I went through (not numbered here as in the key but as the number of steps I took):

1. Four legs present.
2. Body scales smooth, shiny and overlapping. (That places them in the family Scincidae).
3. Frontal scale rectangle shaped; supranasal scales present (see below); lower eyelid without transparent disk. (not pictured)
4. Dorsal and lateral scales in parallel rows with the long axis of the body (2nd picture above).
5. Chin with 2 postmental scales. (not pictured)
6. Eight or nine upper labials; no postlabial or if present one or two small postlabials, the sixth labial is the first to contact the orbit (see below); maximum SVL over 85 mm (didn't measure)........Broadhead skink, Eumeces laticeps

enlarge

These are relatively large lizard for this area. The adults are usually tan or brown except for the head which may turn red or orange in males during breeding season. This lizard's home range is essentially the southeastern quarter of the U.S., which overlaps with that of the Five-lined skink. These species have very similar appearances as hatchlings and can easily be confused. Some people incorrectly call broadhead skinks "scorpions", probably because they may bite if mishandled, though their bite is not poisonous.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Saturday Night Live, Internet Celebrities

2007-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last night's episode of SNL had a skit involving a talk show with the stars of some of the more popular viral videos present as guests. I had seen all but one, and was able to round up the links from my saved emails so here they are for you under one roof:

The first one can be found on YouTube as Worst Commercial Ever, another key phrase that might get you here would be, "Its just like a mini mall".

The next was the one that I hadn't seen. It is posted to YouTube as Grape Lady Falls, which is exactly what happens. After you watch that one be sure to check out the Grape Lady Music Video.

The third one was probably the one you would have a little bit more difficult time finding it you hadn't seen it and saved the link. It is on YouTube as Little Superstar. It is beyond description. It has over 5 million views on that site alone.

The last one has made it around the block a few times, This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the words viral video. It is none other than the Star Wars Kid. The one shown here is the original unedited footage. If you go to YouTube to view it, you can see the limitless spin-offs in the sidebar.

Thoroughbred Thursday: Curlin

2007-04-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

This fine specimen is Curlin. He is a breed of horse, Equus caballus, known as a thoroughbred. I took this these pictures at the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas last weekend where he blew away the field and set a record for the greatest margin of victory in an Arkansas derby. He led the second place finisher, Storm in May, by 10 1/2 lengths. It looks as though this undefeated racehorse will be a favorite at the Kentucky Derby on May 5. The weather was just almost too cold for watching the races outdoors, but I managed to get outside for most of them. Luckily the rain had already passed through the day before. We had a great time. I saw Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones several times during the course of the day and even got a picture. As far as the betting goes, I didn't win but I still had some money left in my pockets on the way home so I call that a good day.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Toy Torture and Bad Karma

2007-04-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

After gaining a greatly increased workload over the last few months, I began looking for ways to blow off some steam. One day, while browsing YouTube videos, I found a new pastime, called circuit bending. This is a process by which LOW-VOlTAGE, BATTERY OPERATED, electronic audio devices are short-circuited to create new musical devices or sound generators. A fellow named Reed Ghazala is one of the pioneers of this practice, he has even written a book called Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments, which is a very worthwhile read if you are interested. Some of the instruments of choice are old Speak and Spells, and Casio keyboards. I have an old Casio keyboard which I was fully prepared to exploit, but it wouldn't even turn on, so that was out. I have saved it to harvest some of its switches,circuits and potentiometers for later projects. The poor toy in the above video was my child's. It was useful to him about two years ago, but hasn't been seen since then, until I raided the storage room looking for something to tear apart and practice on. All I did was take the back off, lay out the circuit board and go along with a screwdriver in each hand (holding them by the metal parts) touching separate wires with each screwdriver, while holding a button down. When I found a good connection where the sound was altered, I soldered a wire to each spot. Then I took each wire and soldered the opposite ends to the bolts that I had screwed into the case. Now by varying the pressure, body surface and moisture level to the "body contacts", I can change the sound drastically. This is a very very simplified project compared to what other people are doing, but was still a very enjoyable waste of time. Now you ask, 'what does circuit bending have to do with bad karma?' Well, posting this video to YouTube was one of the last things I did with my laptop before it decided to bend its own hard drive ciruits in a fatal show of solidarity for its fallen electronic contemporaries.

Oil and Colored Water Time-lapse

2007-03-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

play video, quicktime, 2.5 mb, 70 sec

I made this stop motion video by taking a picture every time a drop was added, enlarged, or popped and more frequently during times of rapid change. The water used initially was pure. Then, I began adding saline with or without the coloring to see how it would diffuse. Later I used pure water again to see how the diffusion differed. The bubble sounds were dubbed in later. I also uploaded the video to YouTube but the soundtrack didn't keep time with the bubbles following the conversion so it is not as good as the QuickTime version.

A larger version of this video and other Time-lapse and Stop Motion videos can be seen here.

Grand Rounds Is Up

2007-02-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Grand Rounds volume 3 number 22 is now up at Pure Pedantry, presented in excellent fashion with an Oscars theme so go check it out.

A Dizzy Diagnosis: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

2007-02-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

click to view video

BPPV is a disorder of the inner ear which is a cause of vertigo in approximately 20% of patients who present to their doctor with this complaint. This occurs when otoconia are dislodged from their usual position within the utricle and they migrate over time into one of the semicircular canals (the posterior canal is most commonly affected due to its anatomical position). This Diagnosis can be made using the Dix-Hallpike Test and is frequently treated by use of the Epley Maneuvers.

In my practice, I make this diagnosis more often than many of my peers, mostly I think because I look for it. To me, it is about the only bright spot when dealing with the chief complaint of "dizziness". This is because treatment is so effective and no medicines are required. Patients have called back in a day or two just to tell me that it worked because they are so surprised. Honestly, when I first started doing it, I was surprised as well. It seems like most of the family practitioners that I talk to have heard of this simple procedure, but most of them never try it because for some reason it seems too magical or tricky. For that reason I have created this claymation video to serve as a visual aid for those who are interested. Keep in mind that this is not my specialty, this is not intended to replace a visit to your doctor if you experience vertigo, and you shouldn't try this if you don't have the training to know when you shouldn't do it. This is just a fun little video to give you very basic idea of how it is done. I will gladly accept any criticism of the technique, but don't expect me to change the video because the patient has been thrown out. Enjoy.

Claymation Eye Movement

2007-02-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

7 sec., 1.5 Mb, QuickTime

This video was made during the same session as the Dix-Hallpike and Epley Maneuver video was made. I was going to try to demonstrate Rotary (torsional) nystagmus which becomes apparent with a positive Dix-Hallpike test. However the clay was too soft and the toothpicks in the back of the eye kept moving around instead of the eye moving properly, so I just did the best I could at making the eye look around and look as real as possible.

3 Days After The Snowfall, Time-Lapse

2007-02-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

This was made over a period of 3 days following the winter's only snow so far. This was just before the 2007 Super Bowl. The pictures were taken every 6 seconds with a webcam and laptop from my bedroom window. They were initially played back at 30 fps but I increased it to four times that speed to make it more interesting.

Super Bowl XLI Predictions Recap

2007-02-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

My Super Bowl predictions were pretty terrible, just like the Bears performance. I really don't feel like rehashing it but here it is as promised.

1. Chicago Bears 33-24
-Way off, Colts 29-17

2. The Bears defense will perform well, but not as great as many think will be necessary for them to win.
-I'm not exactly sure how to judge this vague prediction. The second part is definitely correct but I don't really think I can say the defense played very well after the Colts ran the ball like they did.

3. The good Rex Grossman will show up today and get 2 passing touchdowns, only one interception and 1 fumble.
-Nope, he had 1 passing TD, 2 interceptions, and 1 lost fumble. 1 of his interceptions was returned for a TD toward the end of the game which is what really broke their backs. He only had 165 yards passing.

4. Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson will both top 75 rushing yards. With Jones getting a rushing TD.
-Wrong again. Benson went out early after an injury and -1 rushing yard. T. Jones did have 112 rushing yards but no TD's

5. Robbie Gould will kick 4 field Goals.
Man, I suck at predictions. Gould was 1/1 on field goals.

6. Peyton Manning Will have 2 passing TD's, 2 interceptions and a fumble.
-No, He only had 1 pass TD, 1 interception, and 1 fumble.

7. Joseph Addai will have the Colts only rushing TD and will go over 100 yards rushing.
-Nah, He only had 77 yards rushing and no Td's. He did have 66 yards recieving though. D. Rhodes was the game's top rusher.

Before the game I didn't realize just how badly I wanted the Bears to win it all. I was very down about it and have only just now recovered enough that I can discuss it. Altogether it was a fun day though. There is always next year.

Congratulations to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.

Super Bowl XLI Predictions

2007-02-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

Following last year's Super Bowl XL predictions, I don't think I can do much worse, so here are my confident predictions for Super Bowl XLI.

Most importantly, the winner: The Chicago Bears 33-24, The magical power of "The Bean" is just too strong, even with them all the way down in Miami.

The Bears defense will perform well, but not as great as many think will be necessary for them to win.

The good Rex Grossman will show up today and get 2 passing touchdowns, only one interception and 1 fumble. He has been way up and way down this year, but the bottom line is that they made it to the big game with him leading, and he will get the job done today. He is that kind of player.

Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson will both top 75 rushing yards. With Jones getting a rushing TD.

Robbie Gould will kick 4 field Goals.

Peyton Manning Will have 2 passing TD's, 2 interceptions and a fumble.

Joseph Addai will have the Colts only rushing TD and will go over 100 yards rushing.

As you can probably tell, I not only think the Bears will win but I am also rooting for them. However I find it difficult to go against an all around champ like Peyton Manning, so if the Colts win I will have the consolation of knowing that he will finally have his Super Bowl victory and we can unreservedly place him on that pedestal of all time great players.

Enjoy the Game, I'll be back later to review these predictions.

Happy Second Birthday Webiocosm, and Time-lapse Candles Burning

2007-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

click to show the video

Tomorrow will be the second birthday of Webiocosm. For the celebration, I present the above time-lapse video of two candles, stuck in half an apple, burning all the way down and then reversing and unburning to the point at which they were lit. I made this a few months ago with no thoughts of this website's birthday, but when I got ready to show it, I realized it was coming up so I decided to wait. Enjoy.

The rest of my time-lapse videos and stop motion animations can be seen here.

Name This Structure!

2007-01-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

(01/10/07) Hint #1: This picture was taken on New Year's Eve 2006, in Chicago.

Update 01/11/07: Cindy got it. This is Cloud Gate, aka "the bean", in Millennium Park.

Are You Into SLOMming?

2006-12-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

My wife saw this ad on television today and fell for it, then she dragged me into it and I went to the above the influence website before actually seeing the ad to find that it was a spoof to grab our attention. I'm pretty sure I would have figured it out if I had seen the ad first, but I'll never know now. Anyway, it is pretty funny and I think it deserves a little more play so if you want to get SUCKED into the latest fad click here to view the video.

Ferocious Friday: White-tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus

2006-12-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus. They were taken by a friend's Cuddeback game cam.

I am not a hunter at all, but deer and duck hunting are huge around here. These pictures don't remind me so much of "bringing home the big one". They remind me more of an event that happend when I was about 10 years old. My brother and I were out by a cornfield next to our house, shucking corn to feed our chickens. We saw a deer about 75 yards away and my brother said, "Hey Henry, look at that pretty eight point buck". We froze so we wouldn't startle it, and watched in amazement as it began walking toward us. When it got about 20-30 yards away and it was still approaching, we realized that something was not right. I began walking back and came to an electric fence and started to step over right as he attacked. This electric fence obviously wasn't the big chain link kind that makes your skin sizzle like you see in the movies. It was just a single small piece of wire about 3 feet high that would give you a good solid jolt when you held onto it. It was the kind of fence a young fella's dad might tell him not to pee on, knowing that would be the next thing he would do as soon as he could, just to see what happens when you pee on an electric fence. Anyway back to the attack, as I was stepping over, he hit me and got me down on the ground. Somehow the fence was between us, so I was simultaneously being gored in my midsection by a buck and repeatedly shocked by an electric fence. Luckily my brother took his bucket of corn and whacked the deer over the back with it. At that point the deer got off me and pinned him down on the ground and pushed him back a few yards. I was able to get up and find safety in a hog trailer. He was able to get up and get away to the house. He went to get his gun as my mom came out with a broom, but by the time the gun was ready the deer was gone. He ended up with just a few scrapes, and thats about all I had too except for an additional minor 2-3 cm wound on my abdomen from the antlers. I still have a scar to show from that one. We later found out that the deer was a semi-tame captive of some neighbors who lived a few miles away that had gotten loose. It made sense that he would be fighting with humans during rut, with whom he was more familiar, rather than his own kind.

You can see more animal pictures and stories at Modulator's Friday Ark

Yellow

2006-12-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

As you may be aware (or more likely not), I have been somewhat fascinated with various media applications lately. While researching for some potential projects of my own, I found this video from Youtube. It did just happen to be the first video I watched after seeing some random list of recent videos, but it was funny enough for me to stop and post it here. If you don't think its funny, don't worry, you are not alone. I was just chided by my wife for even looking at it, she didn't think it was funny at all.

Ivy Growing On A Tree, Final Version

2006-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

12 sec. Quicktime, 3.6 Mb

This is the final version of the time-lapse video of the ivy growing on the tree in my back yard. This was made by taking two pictures per day from 7/08/06 to 10/20/06. I then used Quicktime pro to convert this to a video. I thougt this would be a hefty file, but I was able to preserve the quality and large size of the picture, while compressing it to a easily downloadable file size. About 4 seconds into the video you can see that I cut the ivy at the bottom of the picture and new buds begin to take off. The latter part of the video was made during a relatively wet period and the ivy hit a rapid growth spurt.

My other time-lapse videos can be seen here.

The post about the previous videos is here.

Beck on Saturday Night Live, Clap Hands!

2006-11-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have previously only been a minor fan of Beck, but after his appearance on SNL last Saturday night, I will have to reconsider. I missed his first song, but their second time out was outrageous. As far as I am concerned this might be the best SNL musical performance ever.....that is of course next to Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo doing 'Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes' back in 1986. Anyway here is the video of Clap Hands. Somebody please let me know if this performance becomes available for download in mp3 format because the version from his album, Guerolito, is not quite as rousing.

UPDATE 11/04/06: You can get the mp3 version and more from Culture Bully.

New Update 11/11/06: The SNL version has been removed, but it lasted longer than I expected it to. Here is a version from German television, it is a little shorter, and there is no harmonica as in the SNL version, but it is still okay. The mp3 version of the SNL performance is still available from Culture Bully.

Update 8/12/07:It looks like the SNL episode was replayed last night because people are on the net looking for it. It has been reposted on YouTube so I changed the above link to the active one. Get it while it lasts!

My Chimpumpkinzee or Ape-O'-Lantern

2006-10-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

enlarge

Here are three of the 10 entries in my family's annual pumpkin carving contest. These three were from my household. The ape-like jack-o'-lantern in the middle was mine; it placed third. When I decided what I wanted to do, I couldn't find anything of the sort on the web, so I am posting this one for anyone who may be looking to do something similar. To that end I am going to throw in the phrase monkey pumpkin, which is a search phrase I used, with only two relevant results seen here and here (halfway down).

I am particularly proud of how the ears turned out. I cut out the ear holes using the desired shape of the ears with a squared off peg on the back, which just plugged right into the cut out portion. Happy Halloween.

Claymation Water Drop

2006-10-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

4 Sec., Quicktime, 780 kb

Back in July when I made my first claymation video, I thought I was going to make a ton of them, but since there aren't enough hours in a day, I haven't made another one until yesterday. I tried to produce a realistic slow motion video of a water drop falling into a bowl of water using one of my sons bowls and his blue play-doh. I only took 66 pictures and created a movie sequence using Quicktime pro. The video is not too realistic looking but it turned out better than expected. I spent about 2 hours and 15 minutes on the entire project. The above movie is small but good quality for a quick download. You can go to my time-lapse video download page to view the large version and a small WMV/AVI version.

Friday's Insect: Green Lacewing

2006-10-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

enlarge

This is a green lacewing from the order Neuroptera and family Chrysopidae. I found this specimen on my front door last spring. For the sake of giving it a home in my zoo, I will leave it at the family level, since I found very little information on identifying various green lacewing species. Here is some info on the common lacewing, Chrysoperla rufilabris.

According to Wikipedia, the family of green lacewings is very large with 87 genera and about 1300 species. Lacewings are considered beneficial because their larva feed on many pests including aphids. In fact lacewing larvae are sometimes referred to as "aphid lions", though I haven't seen any feeding on my aphids. Perhaps the ants had something to do with that.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!

Bumper Sticker of the Day

2006-10-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

enlarge

I took this early in the summer while sitting in the parking lot at Walmart. The bumper sticker of interest reads: "Get a Taste of Religion. Lick a Witch."

Friday's Insect: Walkingstick

2006-10-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge

This is a walkingstick from the order Phasmatodea. More specifically I believe it is a Northern Walkingstick, Diapheromera femorata. I found this nice creature in my backyard lurking among the ivy. Its body was 3-4 inches long which typical for this species. To make use of their camoflauge, walkingsticks can straighten out their antennae and front legs and stay motionless for a long time, as is seen in the top picture. The bottom pic is the tail end of this individual. Walkingsticks can also grow new legs if they are knocked off.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!

Fish Friday: Flathead Catfish, Pylodictis olivaris

2006-09-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

Enlarge

These are flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, from the family Ictaluridae. My brother-in-law caught these by hand in a reservoir that was being seined. He caught these by hand using a technique that I would call hogging, except that this was not really so much of a sporting situation since their habitat was compromised. The sport of catching large catfish by hand is also called noodling, grabbling, graveling, hogging, tickling, dogging and stumping. The entry in Wikipedia states that this method is only legal in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Georgia with a an experimental open season in Missouri. Arkansas has an open season for legally hogging catfish as well. The largest of the above pictured fish was 38 pounds. I did not get to eat any of his catch, but he said they were great.

To get a better idea of what this sport is all about, check out this promotional video for Girls Gone Grabbling (available at CatfishGrabblers.com)

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Spider Friday

2006-09-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

Enlarge

Enlarge

Here are a couple of spiders for the weekend. The first was just sitting in some uncut grass outside my house. I don't know the species but I really like the coloration.

The next spider is a species of jumping spider. I noticed the rolled up leaf several feet out of above my head. While grabbing the limb to pull it closer for inspection the spider jumped on my arm which is where I took the first picture. The next pic was on my fence after its release.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark!.

Time-Lapse Video: Ivy Growing on a Tree

2006-08-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

7 sec. wmv, 3.2 Mb

This video was made from a series of photos I took roughly twice daily over a period of about 7 weeks. A little past half-way through, after the tip had grown out of sight and there wasn't much new change, I decided to cut the ivy at the bottom. If you slow the video down, you can see the knife in the left lower corner in one frame. Also you can see short segments missing at the bottom of the shoots. I was about to call it quits for this project when I noticed the left one had a new bud growing just below where I cut it, so the extended version of this video is still in the making. It will probably be in the form of a higher quality, larger file. The Windows media version can be seen by clicking the above picture, the quicktime version and other time-lapse videos can be seen here.

This little project also led to some interesting photographs of ants herding aphids on the ivy.

I guess this would be a good place to mention to anyone looking for good time-lapse videos, a recent video of a monarch caterpillar transforming into a chrysalis at Burning Silo.

Friday Bird Blogging: Owls

2006-08-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

These are a couple of young owls my brother-in-law photographed on top of a damaged grain bin. I am not very familiar with the various owl species so I can't say what kind they are. If I had to guess I would say great horned owls. Hopefully someone can help me fill in the blank here.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Home Depot Bucket

2006-08-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

Radio Flyer

2006-08-21T13:31:00.000-07:00