chaoticutopia | June 25, 2007I watched the translucent white balloon, perhaps escaped from some baby shower or wedding, float against the clear blue sky. If it had been a cloudy day, I might not even have noticed it up there. It was one of those clear Colorado days, with nothing to stop the incessant waves of heat, pouring from the sun. One of those days when it feels so hot that you think your skin might melt (instead of burning crisp and red.) There were no signs of rain or breeze, from horizon to horizon... except that balloon.
If you ask a young child to draw a picture of a balloon, they will draw a circle with a…
chaoticutopia | June 21, 2007
It's summer... right smack in the middle of nearly the longest day of the year. Even though the Front Range is scattered with thick cloud cover, it's hot... just about too hot to blog.
Luckily, I don't need to; you can hop over to SmartGirlsRock.com instead. There, you can read an interview with your resident fractalist... me! Terry McDonald, who conducted the interview, asked some excellent questions, which were both a challenge and a pleasure to answer. She also included some photographs and a few of my fractals. (Someday here, soon, I'll explain the snake pictured at the bottom.)
In the…
chaoticutopia | June 20, 2007There I was, after moping all Monday and trying to catch up on Tuesday,I found myself looking at Wednesday. Somewhere in there, I had planned to get a few posts up. I may suggest to everyone else that life thrives on the edge of chaos (and we ought to ride the waves) but I often forget to remind myself. Things come up, things get procrastinated, and stress begins to surface. But why stress? That is life... just enough chaos to keep us on our toes. We could cite that old adage, better late than never, but the bit from my banner works for me. So, say it with me... "Ride the Waves"
And here's a…
chaoticutopia | June 17, 2007What a busy Sunday... I seem to have a lot of little things to post about, but I didn't want to forget to wish all the dads out there, especially my own, a happy Father's Day. I owe my Dad thanks for many things, including instilling my strong love for science.
I have this early memory of my dad, in a laboratory, surrounded by an elaborate maze of tubes and beakers. I suppose he probably took me through one of his chemistry classrooms when he was a student at the Colorado School of Mines. (I was just a little tot at the time.) Whatever it was, it sticks in my mind as one of the coolest things…
chaoticutopia | June 17, 2007I've had a link to the original zoomquilt on my blogroll for as long as I've had a blogroll. The idea of a collaborative online art project has always intrugied me. Can a dozen plus different artists around the world paint the same canvas, and still have a cohesive work of art? The first zoomquilt was strange, an eclectic collection of surreal and morbid scenes, each blending practically seamlessly into the next. Now, there is a second Zoomquilt available:
Zoomquilt 2: Click to visit and zoom in. (Flash is required.)
Like the first, this Zoomquilt is a montage of bizarre images. The scenes…
chaoticutopia | June 17, 2007I have another game review posted at JayIsGames.com. If you've wondered why I posted lightly over the last week, now you'll understand. Alice Greenfingers sounded interesting at first glance. Just check out the manufacturer's description:
Alice's big dream is to run her own businesss, growing ecological crops and raising healthy animals like in the old days. Her dream is finally coming true as she found the perfect place to rent in the countryside. With the help of a friendly shopkeeper and grandmother's good advice, Alice now begins the hard work of making a living out of growing,…
chaoticutopia | June 15, 2007This is a nice, pretty leech:
This is a not-so-nice-and-pretty, content-stealing leech:
And, of course, when you find one leech, there's probably more lurking around. Sure enough, there are others trying to suck off of the content you see on this page. (You know who you are, COLORADOHOMECLUBINFO and isadamlari.org!) If you are reading this on someone else's blog, and it doesn't say it is "by Karmen", and it isn't making any sort of unique comment on the content, then you are reading stolen words. Please do not patronize these sites; they steal content, often without giving any credit to the…
chaoticutopia | June 15, 2007Here we are, at my 50th Friday Fractal. I have yet to tire of the beautiful spiraling and branching forms of the Mandelbrot set. I've found no shortage of matching forms in nature, either. Even in my own garden, I find lovely fractal shapes, some as delicate as a feather, but as hardy as a weed.
But don't get me wrong... this layered fractal, with a leafy Mandelbrot base, isn't meant to mimic a weed, but one of my favorite plants:
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium 'Moonshine')
I should note, the native yarrow in Colorado is white, not yellow. I picked this one up at the nursery a few years ago…
chaoticutopia | June 13, 2007
Dad and the Dog
I get the feeling that the little girl wasn't posing for this picture, rather, she seems content just to watch her father and the dog create a spectacle for Lillybridge's camera. While the outfits, especially the hats and suspenders, suggest this picture was taken sometime in the 1910s, you could probably find exactly the same scene around Denver today. Frame houses with cottonwood trees, partially overgrown yards, and little dogs are still quite common. Thankfully, so are dads who are willing to act silly, play with the dog, or otherwise make their little girls smile.…
chaoticutopia | June 11, 2007
Nut or Grain Weevil (Probably Curculio, unknown species)
Weevils wobble but they don't fall off the lampshade.
I found this little guy wandering helplessly in circles around the top of my lamp. His long, skinny snout is a handy tool for boring into nuts and acorns. Typically, in a forest, that's fine, as there are plenty to go around. In the suburbs, on the other hand, there aren't many nuts lying about, so the weevils bore into other tasty treats, like bags of flour. So, even though they don't bite or carry deadly diseases, these little critters are considered pests. I wasn't too concerned…
chaoticutopia | June 9, 2007On June 9, 2006, a large group of us joined ScienceBlogs at once, along with a facelift for the site at large. So, in celebration of our one year anniversary, I decided to pour through the archives of the last year, looking for common threads and patterns. Perhaps not so coincidentally, my
first post here alluded to cause and effect; a strange chain of reactions leading to a moment of enlightenment. So now, 365 days since that post, I believe I can sum it all up in one word, or even less, if you'll look closely at these waves of grass:
Emergence
Ok, so, I've just been outside playing in…
chaoticutopia | June 8, 2007It seems that cephalopods, from giant squids and octopi to camouflaging cuttlefish, are all the rage these days. As I've shown before, cephalopods can be quite fractalish (or fractals tend to be tentaclish, take your pick.) I'm not exactly sure why these creatures are so loved these days, but who am I to disagree with popular opinion?
So, for this week's fractal, I took two Carlo Julia sets, and colored them with different variations of epsilon crossing. I then layered these atop a Mandelbrot set, and some fBm "plasma". In other words, this fractal includes just about everything and the…
chaoticutopia | June 7, 2007
Strong winds rustle the grass along the dam at Calkins Lake in Colorado.
Don't see the lake in this 360 degree panorama?
Well, that's because it isn't here anymore. In this small patch of open space, the prairie is being reclaimed. This land was once plowed by a farmer named Henry Calkins. In order to keep his fields as green as you see in the video, he had to store water in a small reservoir. Calkins dug a ditch from the nearby Farmer's Highline Canal (shown here on Monday) and built a dam from locally produced brick and concrete.
The lake may have once been calm and still, but it wouldn't…
chaoticutopia | June 6, 2007
Now who was supposed to keep this park clean?
While gathering in a Denver park, picnickers pause to pose for Charles S. Lillybridge.
Photographer Charles S. Lillybridge lived along the Platte River near the Archer Canal, by the Alameda Avenue bridge, in Denver, Colorado. In the early 20th century, he took thousands of pictures of his working-class neighborhood. Today, the Archer Canal has been replaced by Interstate 25. Supermarkets have replaced small shops. Something about the people, however, remains the same. It is still a working class neighborhood, and the same trees grow along the…
chaoticutopia | June 5, 2007
Better Homes and Gardens recently listed 10 Easy Ways to Go Green in a slideshow on their website. While the ideas are accompanied by classy pictures, none of them are especially novel or revolutionary. However, they are excellent ideas, and most of them can save money around the house. (BHG details just how much with each slide.) Here are their suggestions, written by Kelly Tagore, along with my comments:
10 Easy Ways to Go Green
Change a Light Bulb
BHG recommends changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). We changed all of our light bulbs well over a year ago, and…
chaoticutopia | June 4, 2007
Raindrops fall into the Farmer's Highline Canal in Westminster, Colorado.
Here, cottonwood trees, coyote willows, and town homes sprout along a canal, once primarily used for agricultural purposes, now supporting these suburban communities. Not too long ago, this was a dry ridge, and the only cottonwoods in the area were found along Big Dry Creek below.
All photos by the author, unless otherwise noted.
chaoticutopia | June 1, 2007Today, you can create your own fractal. (Don't worry, I'll still include one of my artistic fractals at the end of this post.) You don't need to download any programs, or learn any new techniques. In fact, the only thing that you need is probably already sitting on your desk: a single piece of paper. (It can be any size, fresh or scribbled on; it doesn't really matter.)
Before we begin, take a look at the surface of the paper. How many dimensions does it have? (For this exercise, we're just looking at the surface, disregarding the edges.) Like the image here on your computer screen, it is 2-…
chaoticutopia | May 31, 2007
Poling along the South Platte River in a Flood
This photo was taken in the early 1900's by Charles Lillybridge, during a flood that very likely threatened his own studio. I haven't been able to pinpoint the year of this particular flood. Once upon a time, the river, meandering naturally through the plain, flooded quite frequently. The surrounding prairie wasn't disturbed; rather, the local wildlife flourished after such an event. The nomadic people who originally lived along these banks were able to adapt to the changing waters of what they called the Moonshell River. By the late 19th…
chaoticutopia | May 29, 2007I've been reading For Better or For Worse since I was a little kid. Still, I can't recall the last time I sympathized with Lynn Johnston so much:
Also, Rob Balder of Partially Clips got to me again this week, with another philosophical comic:
chaoticutopia | May 28, 2007It's been far too nice of a Memorial Day to come inside and blog. I can share this photo, at least. I took it while on a bike ride along Standley Lake, pausing to see the changes at my bioblitz site there. The area where I caught a poacher stealing goose eggs was rather overgrown, so I couldn't spot the nest. I looked for the pair of geese, and found they'd made some friends:
A flock of Candaian Geese (Branta canadensis) at Standley Lake
All photos by the author, unless otherwise noted.