Mindanao bleeding-heart dove
Miami Metrozoo
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Photo of the Day
More from the foggy morning (as posted yesterday). This one is on the jogging path along the beach in Surfside.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Simba
Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Carol Burnett in a parody of the 1966 movie Born Free.
(Via Miss Cellania)
What Do You Really Know About Copyright Law?
As a photographer (a software developer), I am always aware of protecting my rights under copyright laws. Although not too difficult to understand, I know there are many misconceptions. Note that it is different for the software world, especially when you are working as an employee of a company. What I am concentrating about is for the photography side, which works as creative work, and where your original work of art is protected the moment it is created a “fixed in a tangible medium of expression” (be it printed on paper, or posted in the web). As for the web, there are conflicting ideas and comments on it being considered “published” when posted.
There are always some good questions you may ask
- Does a message saying “copyright by XYZ” is enough? Do I have to use the little (©) symbol and the year the work was created?
- Do I have to register the work with the “Federal Courts?
- What if I post my copyright inside a digital image’s metadata such as the International Press Telecommunications Council Photo Metadata (IPTC) data or Exchangeable Image File format (EXIF)?
I am not a lawyer and will not be able to give you a long rundown of it, but want to point out a nice recent article by Digital Photo Pro magazine that answers all these questions and more.
(Thanks Mark!)
Photo of the Day
It seldom, if ever, gets foggy in South Florida, but two days ago we had a rare foggy morning. This was the view around Bal Harbour. No wind at all, a serene environment.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
How Tides Work
Ethan Siegel from Starts with a Bang blog writes a very nice explanation of How Tides Work. If you ever wandered, there’s your answer.
Here’s an article about it in Wikipedia.
Bay of Fundy at low tide
(image credit Samuel Wantman)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
At the Dentist Office
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Rocket launch blows away the sky
The Solar Dynamics Observatory launched into space last February 11th on top of an Atlas V rocket. About a minute after leaving the Earth, the rocket did two things: it passed the speed of sound, and screamed past a sundog, a rainbow-colored optical effect in the sky caused by ice crystals.
The Bad Astronomer has a video of it. A wonderful sight!
Run it at 720p.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Darwin Day
(Water-color portrait of Charles Darwin painted by George Richmond in the late 1830s. from Origins, Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin)
It's Charles Darwin's birthday today, and we all have reason to celebrate. I’ll be at the Darwin’s Day festivities in South Florida tomorrow.
A brief history of everything in flipbook form
Art student Jamie Bell created this impressive flipbook animation depicting the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present:
This is the final piece for my AS art course, a flipbook made entirely out of biro pens. It’s something like 2100 pages long, and about 50 jotter books. I’d say I worked on and off it for roughly 3 weeks.
(Via Neatorama)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
FSX: Piper Cub - Caloundra airport flight
Here’s a nice video of the A2A Simulations Piper Cub in FSX Flight Simulator, using the Caloundra airport scenery by Orb’x (Caloundra is in Queensland, Australia) and ORBx’s FTX Gold region scenery. The guy is a little hard on the Cub’s tail wheel but the video is nice and shows how far flight sim technology has advanced in realism. FTX’s Caloundra area is one of my favorite place to fly in FSX.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Amateur with talent
Lasse Gjertsen did all of this by video editing.
An old one but I’ve never posted it before.
YouTube link (if you can’t see the embedded video)
(Via Miss Cellania)
Beaker tries Dust in the Wind
Beaker tries for You Tube fame but it’s harder than it looks
YouTube link (if you can’t see the embedded video)
(Via Neatorama)
Stephen Fry speaks about Catholicism
This is a powerful speech about the Catholic Church.
I leave you with the words of Minesotastan:
A remarkable 20-minute lecture at The Intelligence² Debate. After a few introductory disclaimers about having no objections to piety or religious belief in general, Fry proceeds to lambast the Catholic church for its historical (and current) dogmas and dictates, especially regarding their policies about sex (his analogy about food/sex aberrancies at about 16:00 is particularly striking).
Fry does not mince his words. It's a powerful presentation, and depending on your own beliefs, you will know whether you want to hear this talk or not.
YouTube link (if you can’t see the embedded video)
(Via TYWKIWDBI)
Monday, February 08, 2010
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Night Photography tutorial
A colleague of mine, Alister Benn at Available Light posted a very good - and rather long – tutorial on Night Photography. If you are serious about trying night photography and have a film or DSLR camera that can do long exposures, and a tripod, this tutorial will prove invaluable.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Incredible modeling and photography skill
Michael Paul Smith, a modeler and photographer in the US, has posted his skills on Flickr. Being an old modeler myself and a photographer I can only marvel at his talent, and patience.
(thanks Navman!)
Friday, February 05, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Flight Simulation. What a difference a package makes!
One of my favorite places to fly in Microsoft Flight Simulator is Australia. Why? Because of a company named Orbx that puts out wonderful sceneries that make VFR flying a joy in the sim world.
Take for example the airfield at Cessnock, in New South Wales. A colleague of mine known as “HercFan” had to reinstall FSX and did a wonderful comparison of the scenery at Cessnock, before and after adding Orbx’s FTX package.
1. FSX (Acceleration) default:
2. After FTX 3.0 install:
3. And finally, with the FTX/Cessnock add-on:
Now you see why I love to fly in Orbx’s world in Flight Simulator FSX.
(all images by HercFan – posted with permission)
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
YSTW Tamworth scenery in FSX
As many of you know I am a Microsoft Flight Simulator hobbyist. I use FSX exclusively which with the newest crop of commercial scenery packages, like Orbx’s Tamworth (one of my favorite airports) is very realistic and a joy to fly in.
Check this video out and see for yourself.
What do you think?
YouTube link (if you can’t see the embedded video)
Wonderful FSX flight
This is a wonderful flight recorded by my friend Patrick (aka "Jigsaw") in the new Carenado Cessna 185F, through some ruggedly beautiful terrain from Scar Creek to Tsuniah Lake in British Columbia, using a beta of the soon-to-be-released Pacific Northwest (PNW) scenery from Orbx. Enjoy!
YouTube link (if you can’t see the embedded video)
Photo of the day
The night before I went to downtown Miami on the photo club outing (see yesterday's post), I visited the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach. I have visited there many times but never before shot at night.
It is a very moving experience.
Monday, February 01, 2010
President Obama’s NASA budget unveiled
Phil Plait, PhD has written a scientist’s view of the new NASA budget just unveiled today. It has some good news and some bad news. As was already expected, Constellation and Ares I are cut, but there are some good points on new investment in science projects.
Read Phil’s whole analysis here.
Then there is also another astronomer I respect, Ethan Siegel, who blames NASA for most of their problems and he has a point.
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