Photo of the Day

Damselfly

This one is not a closeup. I was not equipped with a macro lens that day as I was out shooting birds with a telephoto lens. This beauty stopped by on the top of a wall by the sea and even though I was very close to the minimum focusing distance for the lens, I had to get a picture.

Photo of the Day

Royal Tern

Photo of the Day

Royal Tern

Photo of the Day

Royal Tern

Photo of the Day

Royal Tern

When pelicans dive

These are two pelicans doing this over and over. It is not easy to shoot as they dive so fast (under 3 seconds from top to bottom). They are certainly fun birds to watch.

Location: Bal Harbour jetty, Florida.
Nikon D300 w/300mm f/4 lens.

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Hope you like them!

What’s the perfect length for your man?

 

YouTube link

Photo of the Day

Royal Tern

My system is back on working order. Had a 3-year old GeForce GTX 8800 graphics board quit on me. Have coasted for a week with barely some low-res graphics, and the second monitor off. The new GeForce GTX 480 replacement is not cheap but a wonderful addition. Took longer to get because after overnight delivery, I found they had changed the pin configuration on the power cables from two 6-pin cables to one 6 and one 8-pin. I had not noticed this discrepancy in the specs, as I had only paid attention during my research to graphics compatibility (SLI and slot issues) and that the power supply I have was sufficient (these boards are power hogs). The current power supply only provides 6-pin cables so I had to find a cable converter, then wait a few days for the brown truck to arrive.

Back in working order. Now I can start processing my backlog of photos with this one today as the start.

One advantage to all this is that come winter I will not need a heater. This card comes with one for the same price!

COLBERT REPORT: Father Guido Sarducci on Glenn Beck

Father Guido Sarducci comes on the Colbert Report to reveal that he was the one who told Glenn Beck his work is "wildly important."

(Via Gotcha Media)

Photo of the Day

A view of downtown Philadelphia, from my short trip last month.

Photo of the Day

Great Blue Heron at Merritt Island NWR
From the archives

Photo of the Day

Snowy Egret at Viera Wetlands, FL
From the archives

Mark Fiore on “Trust me, what can possibly go wrong?”

Mark Fiore is a great cartoonist. One of his latest is worth passing along:

Permalink at Mark Fiore’s site

Fellowship of the Vuvuzela

YouTube link

(Via Cynical-C)

I’m enjoying World Cup

Having a ball with Argentina, and watching as many games as I can. Happy with all the South American teams, doing well, from powerhouses like Argentina and Brazil to Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.

Speaking of football, John Cleese wants to make a clarification:

YouTube link

Photo of the Day

Cormorant at Viera Wetlands, FL
From the archives

Yeah, like that is going to work!

Who are these yokels that pass as elected politicians? It is time they get to work, tightening the requirements, regulations, and inspections, for oil production in State waters, and pushing the Federal Government to do the same in federal jurisdiction.

From CNN: Louisiana lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster.

State senators designated Sunday as a day for citizens to ask for God's help dealing with the oil disaster.

"Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail," state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week's unanimous vote for the day of prayer. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us."

As Prof. P.Z. Myers says in “Louisiana gives up on the Gulf”:

“Instead of wasting your effort in making pleas to the nonexistent, go down to the beach with an eyedropper and a thimble, and pluck up a little globule of oil — and you will have accomplished more.”

Enough said.

Father’s day gift

Photo of the Day

Portuguese Man-O-War
I have been having computer problems for the past few days. The video board died and while waiting for UPS to bring a replacement (not cheap!) I am unable to process new photos. This one is from the archives.

Robin Ince on Creationism

YouTube link

Flying as low as it gets!

YouTube link

Photo of the Day

Ft. Lauderdale from the air. Looking North at I-95 from I-595
Shot this one from a commercial aircraft with clean windows. A rarity, I know.

Le Café

Gotta have coffee

YouTube link

How many planets are in the galaxy? Turns out, lots!

Ethan Siegel,  a theoretical astrophysicist with one of the coolest science blogs, named “Starts with a Bang”, has posted a great article on the newly revealed information from NASA’s Kepler mission, which is on a search for habitable planets. They released their first results with more than 700 new planets found! They now estimate there are more than 1.4 Billion planets in the galaxy! (this is a low estimate). Surely a few of those could be our size and habitable. Some may even contain life.

(Picture: Artist conception of Bellerophon, by Debivort from Wikipedia)

Photo of the Day

This is my friend Charlie 35, as his foot-tag attests
He's always there at the jetty. I've known him for years.

Photo of the Day

Old town Philadelphia

Save the Internet – now!

The savetheinternet.com coalition is more than a million everyday people who have banded together with thousands of non-profit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom. Some internet stars come out to show you why it’s important. You may not know all of them, besides Whil and Adam but that’s not important. The freedom to allow us to create, post and say what we want is very important and has to be defended.

Watch the video then go to savetheinternet.com to learn more.

YouTube link

Photo of the Day

Lilly at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami

Photo of the Day

Banana spider at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami

Photo of the Day

Colorful Agama at the Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami