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Journalists Doing Science Right

Via a comment to an earlier post, here's an example of a journalist doing science right: NPR's Sarah Varney looks at "cleansing" foot pads, and finds them wanting. She took a set of the pads, tried them out, and then brought used and new pads to a laboratory at Berkeley, where chemists studied the composition to see if the greyish black goo on the pad contained heavy metal toxins, as the ads claim. They didn't. Then she tested an alternative hypothesis, that moisture and warmth cause the color change, by holding a clean pad over a pot of hot water. The pad turned black. What she did wouldn't…

Uncertain Principles Radio

Well, OK, not really. You can, however, hear what I sound like by listening to a couple of official Tor podcasts made from the panel I did at Worldcon with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Adam Rakunas, Paul Cornell and Yoshio Kobayashi. The panel was back in September, but I haven't seen the files on Tor's web page until just now. You can access them directly, if they move off the index page, using these links: Part 1/2 Part 2/2 It's a pretty wide-ranging discussion, and a couple of funny things get said. The sound quality is pretty good, especially given that it was recorded by a single Tor…

links for 2008-01-09

PHD Comics: Research Diagram/Research Reality No schematic survives its first encounter with the apparatus. (tags: silly comics science experiment) Teens find the benefits of not having sex decline with age "The greatest change in attitudes was among teens who became sexually experienced during the study period. For those teens, the percentage who said that not having sex resulted in only positive experiences dropped from 40 percent to 6 percent." (tags: sex news science psychology society) New nanostructured thin film shows promise for efficient solar energy conversion "When compared…

Neutral Bohmian Mechanics?

Another Jonah Goldberg moment-- can anybody recommend a reasonably neutral discussion of Bohm's non-local hidden variable version of quantum theory? A little Googling turns up this encyclopedia article and a tutorial dialogue on the arxiv, but I'd like to see a fairly complete treatment of it that doesn't go to great lengths to make proponents of other interpretations sound like clueless goobers who are just too dim to perceive the obvious correctness of the Bohmian approach. This isn't critical by any means-- the hour and a half I've just spent reading these pieces is really more cat-…

Precision Measurement Hits Cable

I didn't see it live, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can see Tom O'Brian of NIST talking about measurement on the Rachel Maddow show last night: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Tom used to have an office not far from the lab I worked in at NIST, and has a background in laser stuff, so he's got to be a good guy for this. This was in honor of World Metrology Day, celebrating the hundred-and-mumbleth anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Meter yesterday. Ironically, all the numbers Tom cites are given in English units. So,…

Let the Bickering Begin!

A few weeks ago, the Modern Language Association released a report calling for changes in the tenure process for language and literature faculty. The report was a stirring call to action, and the members of the MLA quickly sprang into action, doing what faculty do best: arguing about stuff. [A]lthough no one is challenging the main approach of the MLA panel, there are serious quibbles. At a session Thursday, for example, a dean questioned a proposal to give tenure candidates more of a say in which outside experts will analyze their work. And there was grumbling from some rhetoric and…

A coming quiet time

Any day now could be the start of a quiet period on the blog as my wife and I are expecting our daughter. I have to confess that the general excited anticipation became a bit more nervous when we went to the local hospital and saw this: Yes, that is an actual typewriter! I have not seen one in action for decades so it does not exactly qualify as state-of-the-art technology anymore. Now, in my own defense for not having bolted and booked us tickets on the next train out of our undisclosed eastern european location, they do have computers and ultra-sound machines and excellent birthing beds…

Utah wants to count Mormon Missionaries in census.

But they can't, because they don't freakin' live in Utah. But I wish they did. Hey, has anyone noticed a marked increase in these drones from Utah in South Minneapolis lately? What do they think they are goig to accomplish there? Anyway: SALT LAKE CITY - The U.S. Census Bureau has told Utah's elected leaders it won't count Mormon missionaries serving overseas in the nation's next head count. Census Bureau officials, rejecting Utah's lobbying efforts for the better part of a decade, say there's no way to reliably count the overseas missionaries. Utah leaders say the omission cost the…

Human Trafficking Report Issued by US State Department

"The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America's own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking." --Secretary Clinton, June 16, 2009 Highlights: There were over 5000 prosecuted cases of trafficking globally…

The dumbest thing I've seen all day.

... almost. This is the Solar Birdhouse. The idea is that the bird house sits there and collects energy from the sun all day and stores it in a battery, then at night, there is a kind of nightlight that lights up the perch on the front of the birdhouse. According to the ad that was mailed to me: Why would only humans make use of eco-friendly technology? Studio OOOMS designed a birdhouse with a solar panel on it's roof. During the day sunlight feeds the solar panel , charging a small battery inside. At twilight the transparent stick will light up and cast a tiny light on your garden. This…

Knowing More Languages = Good

American politicians, some parents, and a few others have previously expressed the concern that learning more than one language muddles the mind. This is, of course, absurd, and it is hard to believe why anyone really thought this. In fact, it could be said that having more than one language under your belt makes it easier to learn yet another language, a demand Americans often place on foreigners or immigrants to the US which is less often placed on the Americans (see this discussion). Now, to support the idea that having more languages is good for the mind is being demonstrated at the…

Impeach Judge Jay Bybee

In one of the more nauseating passages, [of the recently released torture memos] Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary. These memos are not an honest attempt to set the legal limits on interrogations, which was the authors' statutory obligation. They were written to provide legal immunity for…

Economy + sucks = Linux 4TW

As has been predicted, with the economy in a down turn, businesses (and everybody) are abandoning sucky proprietary software for free and excellent OpenSource software ... A February survey of IT managers by IDC indicated that hard times are accelerating the adoption of Linux. The open source operating system will emerge from the recession in a stronger data center position than before, concluded an IDC white paper. Sixty-five percent of the 330 respondents said they plan to increase Linux server workloads by 10% or more this year. Sixty-three percent said they will increase their use of…

Someone on the internet agrees with me

... regarding the likely response by Coleman following the certification of the Minnesota Senatorial Race tomorrow (Monday) by the Canvassing Board. No matter who wins, either party can lodge a legal challenge, potentially pushing the election results out quite a period of time from now. In 1969, Minnesota was unable to certify their Senator until well in to March. But this isn't the 1960s, and Norm Coleman surely knows that. Just because he challenges the election, which is something he's well poised himself to do, it doesn't mean the outcome will change. If he fights tooth and nail to…

Minnesota Wins!

We got on another one of those lists of the mostest or the bestest. Let's see, what did we do this time... Oh. Never mind. It seems that our congressional representative from the Sixth District, Michel Bachmann, has gotten on the list of the Most Embarrassing Re-elected Members of Congress, a list maintained by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew). Oh, but this is good ... the list is not ranked, but it is Alphabetical! So we get to be on the top of the list: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-…

Life is good

... or at least much improved. Two packages arrived today. One containing samples of the Cafe Press merchandise that I created in order to provide a suitable award for the 20 thousandth commenter on this blog plus or minus one. The central commenter and her/his standard deviates will each receive a hat or a mug or whatever. Right now I'm sitting here wearing my iThink hat and my iThink shirt and sipping a cappuchino from my iThink coffee mug. But who cares about any of that. The other package contained my Avant Stellar keyboard! My original Avant Stellar keyboard totally crapped out…

Webster Cook Second Impeachment Trial Is Over!

As you know, Webster Cook was Impeached by his school government for his role in Crackergate. Then, the impeachment was overturned. But this meant that he would be re-impeached ... the appellate system does not really overturn an impeachment in this case, but rather, sends it back. So Webster Cook was Re-Impeached. And moments ago, I have received word from Benjamin Collard, Webster's friend, that the Re-Impeachment of Webster Cook has results in .... ... Acquittal!! Below the fold: Links to the earlier stories on this. 24 hours of silence August 13th: Webster Cook Acquitted August 14th…

Florida Teacher = Racist Pig

The Jackson County School Board has taken action against a teacher who apparently made racial commentary on presidential candidate Barack Obama. According to parents and students in Greg Howard's seventh-grade social studies class, Howard on Friday, Sept. 26 asked the class a question regarding Obama's call for change, and proceeded to write out what the letters C-H-A-N-G-E stood for. "She told me that he wrote on the board 'Can You Help A (expletive) Get Elected, and then laughed about it," said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard's students. Jackson County Superintendent Danny Sims…

Is This The Great Commission In Action?

Here's a charming story for your Friday afternoon: Be careful what you post on Reddit. It may just get you canned. Earlier this week, an Applebee’s waitress posted a photo on Reddit of a receipt from an alleged pastor who, instead of leaving the suggested 18 percent tip, wrote “I give God 10%, why should you get 18.” Now, after the bill went viral, Applebee's has fired the waitress, according to Consumerist. “I thought the note was insulting, but it was also comical,” the waitress, whose name is Chelsea, told Consumerist. “I posted it to Reddit because I thought other users would find it…

Faith in the Higgs?

I have a new post up over at HuffPo. I discuss, and find wanting, the argument made by Daniel Sarewitz in this op-ed from Nature. Here's a taste: Sarewitz' argument backfires in that it calls our attention to the key difference between science and religion. It is sometimes said that religion answers questions about meaning and purpose, but this is not accurate. The correct formulation is that religion makes assertions about meaning and purpose. Sorely lacking is any reliable method for establishing the correctness of those assertions. Science's contribution to these conversations is a set…

The BECB Discussed on Think Atheist Radio

I recently had a conversation with Greg Gorey of Think Atheist Radio about my book Among the Creationists. We discussed the history and cultures of creationism, the problem of evil, methodological naturalism, my experiences socializing with creationists and several other things besides. From my end I can honestly say it was one of the most interesting conversations I have had on these topics, so I hope you enjoy it. The discussion is fifty minutes long. So go have a listen and let me know what you think! At the bottom of the web page linked above, there is a crawl at the bottom showing…

Random Question: SciFi Actors

Hey, Im hanging out in Lima, Peru for some reason right now, and I want to ask you all a weird question: Okay, you know how we are all pretty loyal to our SciFi actors. Yeah, 'Firefly' got canceled, but we will watch/support any new shows that cast Summer ('Sarah Connor Chronicles') or Nathan ('Castle') or Morena ('V') or are ideas out of Joss Whedons head (even if they are confusing and borderline nonsensical, like 'Dollhouse'). We like to see 'our' actors working. But someone recently asked me who my favorites were in the ~20-year-olds range. My response was 'Um... Summer Glau... and...…

Winter Summer Solstice!

When I first found out I was going to Antarctica, I was super excited because I was a MAJOR ASTRONOMY NERD when I was little, and Ive never been to the Southern Hemisphere before, so I was like "OMFG THERE ARE SO MANY STARS IVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE WARBLEGARBLE!!!" But there was something wrong. There was something I was forgetting... tugging at my subconscious... ... WINTER SOLSTICE! **SHAKES FIST ANGRILY AT THE SKY!!** Except its the Southern Hemisphere, so, SUMMER SOLSTICE!! **SHAKES FIST ANGRILY AT THE SKY!!** 24 hours of sunlight means no stars! DAMMIT. But, still, this is gonna be…

Dan Barker at OU!

Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation is going to be speaking at OU this Friday! November 20 6:30 pm Dale Hall I-35 is Hell in the evening rush hour (last time I went to Norman we were going 15 mph. on an interstate. RAAAAAAGE!!), plus its a Friday, so all you OKCers make sure you leave early enough to get there on time! Dan is going to be speaking on 'How to be good without God'. Know what will be funny? If CFI cancels their invitation cause they insist Dans speech be pre-approved, and he wont change stuff they dont like, and then he shows up anyway, and we all beat-up/mace…

Is the Monty Hall Problem Harder than Quantum Mechanics?

Thanks to David Killoren for directing me to this excerpt from Bloggingheads. Science writers John Horgan and George Johnson spend a few minutes disucssing the Monty Hall problem. Johnson recently reviewed Leonard Mlodinow's book The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, which contains an explanation of te problem. After Johnson gets frustrated trying to explain the problem to Horgan, the following exchange takes place: Johnson: I thought I understood this when I wrote the review. It's already eluded me again. Horgan: This is like explaining the two-slit experiment in quantum…

Uncertain Dots 16

For the sixteenth episode of Uncertain Dots, we decided to bring in some guests, Andy Rundquist and Kelly O'Shea for a conversation about standards-based grading. This came up because I'm playing around with this using the same tiered scheme I talked about back in January. This was a fun conversation, and some interesting ideas came up. I remain kind of boggled by the amount of oral exam time Andy puts in, and I find the notion of goal-less problems intriguing, but I'm not sure I could implement it here. Some links: Kelly on goal-less problems Direct Measurement Video So, anyway, that was…

Uncertain Dots, Lucky Number 13

We had a couple of weeks of unplanned hiatus due to sick kids and day care closures, so the superstitious among you might've thought we would never get to the 13th episode of Encertain Dots. Rhett and I are scientists, though, so we powered through: Given the time of year, this is mostly about end-of-academic-year stuff: exams, intro course curricula, and undergrad research. The undergraduate research symposium I mention a few times is the Steinmetz Symposium, a Union tradition that will happen for the 24th time this Friday. This cancels a day of classes, which is a little annoying, but it's…

Cute Kid Composite

I'm giving my talk about blogs as a tool for science outreach again on Monday, and need an updated version of the cute-kid picture screenshot I use in that. So here's a composite of the two kid pictures I posted a week or two ago, because it should all fit on screen, even on my laptop. I probably should do something more directly productive, but I drove down to NYC yesterday to do an interview and meet up with some folks from the TED@NYC event back in October, and got stuck there because the attendants at the lot where I parked my car didn't warn me that they would lock the place up before I…

Ending the Year on a High Note

I am on the mailing lists of a number of creationist organizations, including the Access Research Network. A few days ago I received a postcard from them. It opens with the following, encouraging paragraph: The economy has taken its toll on us here at ARN with our donations and product sales this year less than half of what they were two years ago. In order to cut costs we are mailing out this post card rather than our Annual Report. It made my day to read that. Of course, one suspects it is not just the bad economy that has cut into their sales and donations. It is also the fact that…

Scholarly integrity

Homer Jacobson wrote a paper 52 years ago in which he speculated about the chemical conditions underlying the origin of life. After discovering that the paper is frequently cited by creationists, and after reviewing the work and finding multiple errors, he has retracted the paper. Good for him. It won't matter to the creationists, though; this paper will continue to get cited and mangled and misused. The writeup makes an excellent point. It is not unusual for scientists to publish papers and, if they discover evidence that challenges them, to announce they were wrong. The idea that all…

Hey to Uganda

I mentioned a few times that one of our physics graduates from 2008 was spending a year in rural Uganda, working at a clinic and school there as part of a college-run fellowship program (with Engeye Health Clinic. Steve is back in the US now, and headed to graduate school in Seattle in Atmospheric Sciences. Steve's replacement in Uganda turns out to be another physics major, Tom Perry, who is now in Uganda and blogging about it. This is purely coincidence, by the way-- there's nothing physics-specific about the position, we just happened to have two really good physics majors in consecutive…

Links for 2011-01-01

How can I be a more awesome crackpot? "Let me begin by saying that the vast, vast majority of the emails and questions I get are really good. But every now and again, I'll get an email where the implied question (if there is any) isn't so much,"Is this theory any good?" but: How can my crackpot theory be more awesome? While I've gotten a few that admit of no correction whatsoever, there are a few that still need a bit of work before making it to crackpot greatness. As a public service (and as a bit of a respite after my last few relatively hardcore columns), let me tell you what separates…

Obligatory Civic Duty Reminder

If you're in the US, go vote. Preferably for a candidate who isn't barking mad, but ultimately that's between you and your conscience. If you're not in the US, or you've already voted, enjoy some cute, as SteelyKid is first skeptical about the idea of lots of kids in masks visiting the house: Then happier once she heard about the candy: (She's home sick today, and thus somewhat less cute than these pictures from Sunday. But, you know, even when sick, she's pretty cute.) These are also another flash/no-flash pair, which is a slightly better comparison than the previous round, given that they…

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Big in the Commonwealth

A couple of nifty bits of news from the British Commonwealth: The BBC's Magazine Monitor blog noted my Seed article. Better yet, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog makes Smriti Daniel's list of "the best books to emerge in 2009" in the Sunday Times of Sri Lanka. The other books on the list: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple, Drood by Dan Simmons, and Unseen Academicals by some guy named Pratchett. That's pretty awesome company to be in... So…

Thursday Baby Blogging 110509

For this week's Baby Blogging, we have a shot of Kate helping SteelyKid with her new favorite game: It's called "Take off my shoes, and put them back on." She can play this for hours. It would be even cuter if she could do the putting on and taking off herself, but alas, she's still kind of unclear on the solidity of objects, and doesn't really grasp that her feet can only get into the shoes from the open end. She'll get there, though. SteelyKid officially moved out of the infant room at day care this week. She's now in the next age/ development group, termed "Waddlers" (an intermediate step…

Opinions on WebAssign?

I'm teaching the intro mechanics course next term, starting on Monday, and my colleagues who just finished teaching it in the Winter term used WebAssign to handle most of the homework. They speak very highly of it, so I'm probably going to use it next term. I'm curious to know what other people think, though. The reasons my colleagues give for liking it sound good from a faculty perspective, but I'm not sure how well it would go over with students (for one thing, it's another $15 on the price of the text). Does anybody have experience with using WebAssign, either as a student or as an…

Why Do I Bother?

I generally enjoy Gregg Easterbrook's football writing-- he gets a little repetitive, and the shtick is starting to overwhelm any insight, but he makes some good points, and is usually entertaining. For example, I really enjoyed his take on the Dallas Cowboys at the end of this week's column (schadenfreude is a powerful thing). Easterbrook's problem is that he insists on using his football column as a platform from which to launch bizarre digressions in all sorts of directions. See, for example, this week's weird and pointless foray into cosmology. Or, better yet, his lengthy excursion into…

links for 2008-07-13

Thin-film dyes boost solar cells - physicsworld.com "Scientists in the US have shown how to multiply the power output of photovoltaic (solar) cells by up to ten times using organic dyes to concentrate sunlight." (tags: science physics optics chemistry energy environment news) Swans on Tea » The Right Tool For the Job See also: Five-Minute-Epoxy. (tags: physics science experiment silly) Not Exactly Rocket Science : Scientists heart journalists? Plus a quick guide to dealing with the media "[F]or readers who are keen to get the most out of your flirtations with the press, here's a quick…

Built On Facts

Every now and then, I look at the huge list of blogs and news sources in my RSS feeds, and say to myself "You really need to thin these out..." How can I make any progress, though, when there are always great new blogs being created? The latest new blog to ctach my interest and increment my subscription total is Built On Facts by a grad student named Matt, which was linked to by Tom. It features everything from a discussion of shaky physics in the new Indiana Jones movie to discussions of the physics or marksmanship, to an entire category of worked problems, with equations and everything. OK…

links for 2008-05-21

FemaleScienceProfessor: The Five Stages of Proposal Writing Six, if you live in a trailer park. (tags: academia science economics) slacktivist: Bacchanal "I haven't seen Prince Caspian yet, but since it was the "No. 1 Movie" this weekend, let's revisit what that wonderful little book was about: Prince Caspian is about beer." (tags: books movies literature religion politics food) Phoenix Lander Is Ready for Risky Descent to Mars - New York Times "Although the Phoenix lander, a conglomeration of parts from two earlier failed missions, has been tested and rechecked to correct all known…

Cut and Paste Error of the Year

EurekAlert provides a sort of firehose feed of press releases, some of which contain really hilariously awkward phrases. This release about a graphene-based measurement of the fine structure constant is one of the all-time greats, though: Prof Geim, who in 2004 discovered graphene with Dr Kostya Novoselov, a one-atom-thick gauze of carbon atoms resembling chicken wire, says: "Change this fine tuned number by only a few percent and the life would not be here because nuclear reactions in which carbon is generated from lighter elements in burning stars would be forbidden. No carbon means no life…

links for 2008-03-04

Shtetl-Optimized » Blog Archive » Penrose's Gödel argument in rap "About as logically sound as the original, and with a somewhat better backbeat" (tags: math music silly) (Don't Taunt) The Reaper: 26 tempting but inappropriate funeral songs | The A.V. Club "What able-minded young person hasn't thought about drafting a will for the sole purpose of demanding that a particularly funny, appropriately inappropriate song be played at his or her send-off?" (tags: music silly) Physicists roll out nanotube paper - physicsworld.com "Invented by physicists at Tsinghua University, China, the new…

Two Views Of Neuroscience

Back in 2004 I href="http://trots.blogspot.com/2004/05/functional-neuroimagingintroduction.html">blogged about a study of functional neuroimaging.  That was one view: the technical/scientific side of things. Today, I got another view.  On the blog Brian Kerr, Brian wrote about a project he and some others have started: href="http://assistivemedia.org/">Assistive Media.  Their idea is to have volunteers read magazine articles, then make the recordings available to blind persons (podcasts, MP3, Realplayer).  One of the articles came from the Ann Arbor Observer.   href="http://…

The wingless hangingfly

Apterobittacus apterus, California I lived in California until a few years ago, and one thing I enjoyed about the Golden State was the unique insect fauna, full of bizarre and relictual creatures.  One of the oddities was the wingless hangingfly, a leggy mecopteran that lurks in the coastal grasslands. The insect above was photographed indoors.  I made a makeshift studio out of various bits of debris lying around the lab: a matte black notebook for a backdrop, a jar to hold the grass upright, and the white lid to a styrofoam cooler propped a few inches above the insect.  An off-camera…

Ladybirds Flying

Coccinella septempunctata This weekend's project: to shoot a beetle in flight.  I chose ladybirds not because they are pretty, but because they are the slowiest, clumsiest beetles I could find in any number.   An easy target. I had a cast of several beetles from two species, the seven-spotted ladybird Coccinella septempunctata and the multi-colored ladybird Harmonia axyridis.  I placed the beetles inside a whitebox with a backdrop of leaves, along with my Canon 550 speedlite flash, and tried to capture the beetles as they launched themselves into the air.  The timing was tricky, as it…

A wasp in intricate detail...

Heterospilus sp., head & compound eye, Costa Rica Here are some shots from my training session this morning at the Beckman Institute's Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).  I haven't used SEM for years- wow!  Great fun.  Click on each image to enlarge. Heterospilus sp. mesosoma Heterospilus sp., ovipositor For contrast, here's a photo of a wasp in the same genus taken with my standard Canon macro gear: Heterospilus sp. Costa Rica, taken with a Canon 20D dSLR & macro lens We'll be deciding over the coming months which type of images to use for our project.  As you can see,…

Friday Beetle Blogging: Clown Beetle

Hololepta Clown Beetle (Histeridae) Arizona If Oscars were awarded for Most Aesthetically Pleasing Sculpturing on an Insect, hister beetles would make the short list. Especially Hololepta, which not only shows the trademark histerid shininess but also has a flattened, paper-thin body. Michele Lanan, who collected this beetle for me, noted that it seems designed to inhabit the pages of a book. In case it isn't obvious from those killer mandibles, Hololepta is predatory. This one was found in a rotting cactus in the Arizona desert, where it likely hunted fly larvae. photo details: TOP…

Bug Dreams...

In an earlier post about flash diffusion, I wrote about camera flash being a necessity of the trade-off between depth of field and shutter speed. Most insect photographers- myself included- work hard to improve the depth of field in our photographs, trying to bring as much of our diminutive subjects into focus as possible. This means we use a lot of flash. However, that's not the only way to take insect photos. If one is happy to throw depth of field to the wind, one can dispense with the need for flash and produce photos from the ambient light. The effect is dramatic. One doesn't get…

Things to come...

Light posting over the last couple days, I'm afraid. Our kitten Mingus came down with a little kitty fever this morning of 106º (That's 41ºC for the Fahrenheit- impaired) and is spending the night in the pet hospital, enough of a distraction to derail my blogging schedule. Don't despair, though, there is freshy bloggy material on the way. I've been writing drafts on a number of photography topics in the background. Things to come include: Image post-processing (what happens after a photo is taken) The importance of backdrop Photographing uncooperative insects Cameras and lenses for…

One year as cobloggers - yay!

It was one February ago, as in one year ago in February, that I abandoned my old pseudonymous blogging pad, and threw my lot in with the formidable Science Woman as a new coblogger. We were both working our ways through our first year of tenure-track, and I think each struggling a bit with keeping up the blogging (particularly on my end). She invited; I accepted; and as of now we have survived year 1. I'm so very grateful to have been invited, and to have been welcomed by all Science Woman's readers. To Science Woman: thanks for a good year of blogging together, and even more for becoming…