Pictures
drorzel | March 24, 2008Behold, the end of the world is at hand!
They said I was mad-- mad!-- but now they'll pay...
Well, ok, it's not actually a doomsday weapon. It's a shot of the main experiment chamber in my lab, taken in very low light in an attempt to capture the orange glow of the ion gauge inside the chamber. It only looks like an instrument of apocalypse.
Here's a better lit picture:
And here's one showing a bit of the atomic beam line behind the chamber:
The large copper coils in the foreground are for the magneto-optical trap, while the longer coil stretching off to the right is the Zeeman slower. The…
drorzel | March 23, 2008Ladies and gentemen, one of the three worst pictures ever taken of me:
There is, of course, a story behind this. It's not a particularly good story, but there is one...
That's my college ID, from my freshman year at Williams. It's actually the second ID I got, because while I was on spring break with the rugby club, I lost my wallet, and all my ID with it. When we got back to campus, I had to start replacing all that stuff, and the first stop was the Security office, to get a new ID.
I wasn't real happy about this, so the first picture taken by the young woman working the camera looked…
grrlscientist | March 16, 2008tags: WTC, World Trade Center, iron cross, NYC, NYCLife
The iron cross, salvaged from Ground Zero after the World Trade Center
was destroyed by terrorists on 11 September 2001,
is located in Inwood, borough of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
WTC Iron cross plaque in Inwood, borough of Manhattan, NYC.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
drorzel | March 14, 2008
Yet another picture taken by Kate at the National Zoo. When we arrived at the beaver pen, a bunch of keepers were inside, posing for a picture. This little guy clearly thought that humans being in his enclosure indicated that it was feeding time, and was doing his best pathetic begging.
It really just begs to be LOL'ed:
I'm sure somebody else can do better, though, so have at it. Here's a high-res version, if you would like to re-edit it yourself.
drorzel | March 12, 2008
Here's another picture Kate took at the National Zoo, showing one of their pandas (the male, I think, but I'm not sure) chowing down on a big branch of bamboo. As noted previously, they're deeply improbable creatures, but really cute.
Just don't try to hug them.
drorzel | March 10, 2008
A picture from the Small Mammal House at the National Zoo. This is a two-toed sloth (according to the sign on the cage, anyway) that has wedged itelf into a box mounted near the ceiling to take a nap. Tbey had two sloths, actually-- the other had also stuffed itself into a box to sleep. I guess it's a sloth thing.
(Picture by Kate).
drorzel | March 9, 2008
Mandarin ducks at the National Zoo's bird house. These guys were perched on a railing in the fligt area, and didn't move, even though people were passing no more than a few feet from them, taking pictures.
(Picture by Kate.)
drorzel | March 7, 2008Today is the last day of our trip, so here's a shot of Her Majesty showing off her regal side.
Of course, the snow on her muzzle kind of undercuts the dignified affect...
drorzel | March 6, 2008Day three of our vacation, and another Action Dog! shot:
Here, Emmy demonstrates that among her other superlative qualities, she is exceptionally strong and stubborn. This is a good shot of the Kong Wubba, as well.
drorzel | March 5, 2008Another dog picture for you to admire while I'm out of town:
It's a little tough to tell what she's doing here, but this is a play-bow-- she's stretched her paws out in front of her and brought the front part of her body down, but her butt is still up in the air. One of us is just off camera, about to throw the toy she's looking up at.
drorzel | March 4, 2008Kate and I are going out of town for a few days. I may or may not check in and post some stuff while we're gone-- it will depend on how busy we are, and how good the Internet access is in the hotel.
I had intended to schedule some substantive posts to appear during our trip, but that didn't happen. So I'm scheduling dog pictures instead. We'll start off with Action Dog!
If only that bush weren't in the way, this would be a great picture. Oh, well.
grrlscientist | February 25, 2008tags: NYC, glass and sky, Lincoln Center skyscrapers, photography, NYC through my eye
Glass and Sky #3.
(Lincoln Center skyscrapers).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
Yesterday, it was quite cold and breezy in NYC, but the conditions were superb for photographing the city, especially in the afternoon, when I captured some lovely images of Lincoln Center skyscrapers illuminated by the dying sun. This is my favorite of the three "Glass and Sky" images I am sharing with you here. I especially like it because of the contrasting colors of the buildings and their placement in the image…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2008tags: NYC, glass and sky, Lincoln Center skyscrapers, photography, NYC through my eye
Glass and Sky #2.
(Lincoln Center skyscrapers. This particular building is a residence -- either an apartment or condominium).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
Yesterday, it was quite cold and breezy in NYC, but the conditions were superb for photographing the city, especially in the afternoon, when I captured some lovely images of skyscrapers illuminated by the dying sun.
grrlscientist | February 25, 2008tags: NYC, glass and sky, Lincoln Center skyscrapers, photography, NYC through my eye
Glass and Sky #1.
(Lincoln Center skyscrapers).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
Yesterday, it was quite cold and breezy in NYC, but the conditions were superb for photographing the city, especially in the afternoon, when I captured some lovely images of Lincoln Center skyscrapers illuminated by the dying sun.
grrlscientist | February 25, 2008tags: NYC, 72nd street subway station, photography, NYC through my eye
NYC subway stations at 72nd and Broadway (foreground; the 1-2-3 trains stop here).
You can see some snow is still present.
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [larger view].
I captured this image yesterday in the late afternoon. One thing that I find fascinating about NYC buildings is the close proximity of old and new buildings. For example, the subway stations are old buildings along with another one, on the far right (which is being worked on, as you can see), but the buildings to the left and in the center (background) are…
drorzel | February 23, 2008Because I'm a Bad Person:
(Context here, here, and here, Flickr group here.)
drorzel | February 12, 2008I don't get this Internet thing. I was sure that yesterday's dog dialogue about evolution would generate some traffic, if only from biologists whining that I didn't explain evolution correctly. But-- nothing. I guess I failed to include the magic attention-generating phrase-- "Darwin Day" or "Michael Behe is Dumber Than My Dog," or something.
Anyway, I've had a miserable cold that I'm just clawing my way out of, so I've got nothing brilliant to post. I did spend a bunch of time yesterday looking at some old pictures in response to a request related to an alumni wing-ding. I digitized a few…
drorzel | January 13, 2008I'm sitting on the couch, watching tv, when the dog comes in. "Hey, dude, what ever happened with that book, anyway?"
"What book?" I ask, distractedly.
"The one about me. What other book would I be asking about?"
"Oh, yeah. I sent the first draft off to my editor and a bunch of other people, and I'm waiting for their comments."
"Oh. That must suck, huh?"
"What?"
"Waiting. I don't like waiting."
"I've noticed that." She's good for ten seconds or so, but more than that, and she starts creeping forward. "It's not so bad, though. I've already gotten some comments, which have been very positive…
drorzel | January 11, 2008An example of what academics do to blow off steam:
This is a detail of a long whiteboard hanging in the basement hallway near my research lab. Sometime this fall, a colleague divided part of the board into a grid, and wrote "Sheep drawing contest! Rules: Draw a sheep" at the top. Students and other faculty did the rest (this image includes three of my own contributions-- see if you can guess which ones).
Since this was taken, the department technician has added first, second, and third-place prize ribbons on magnets, so people can judge the drawings. We're easily amused.
More pictures below…
drorzel | December 28, 2007In the same basic spirit as yesterday's knit cephalopod picture, here's a sign from Takayama that we really liked:
I'm not sure exactly why the octopus has punched the fish to the moon, Ralph Kramden style, but Kate and I got a kick out of it.
I'm also not sure what it says-- something to do with octopus (the first two characters of the top like are "ta ko" which is "octopus" in Japanese), and the first character of the third line generally means "big," but beyond that it's a mystery to me.