Tag Archives: pictures

October 27, 2010 · 7:40 pm

OCSC/ No Radio

The Oregon Consumer/ Survivor Coalition had it’s Strategic Planning Retreat last week. In attendance were approximately 40 individuals representing a number of consumer operated organizations and individual members. I’ll do a more involved post soon enough but I wanted to get my pictures from the retreat up while I’m thinking of it.

Also, there will be no MLBM radio show this month. We have been preempted by a Halloween Special on KBOO. Next time, then.

The meeting room before the meeting- notice that it's dark outside.

Deb and Diane prepare to facilitate a PATH plan...

This is what it looked like about halfway through the morning.

Deb worked hard to keep up with the thoughts and ideas generated by the group.

Animated discussion about chickens and the delusion of normal-

Amy and Deb- and this is my best shot of the completed plan. The others were even worse.

Now there sits a man with an open mind. You can feel the draft from here.
Groucho Marx


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October 18, 2010 · 12:34 am

Here is a list of useful constants, etc.:

Length:

  • 1 inch = 2.54 cm
  • 1 mile = 1.6 km
  • 1 km = 1000 m
  • 1 m = 100 cm = 1000 mm = 109 nm
  • Planck Legnth = 1.616252×10-35 m = sqrt (hbar G/c3)
  • Classical Electron Radius = 2.81794×10-15 m = e2/ me c2
  • Proton Radius = 0.83×10-15 m = 0.83 femtometer = 0.83×10-13 cm
  • 1 Angstrom = 10-10 m = 10-8 cm
  • 1 Earth Radius = 6.37814×108 cm = 6.37814×106 m (Equatorial)
  • 1 Jupiter Radius = 7.1492×109 cm = 7.1492×107 m (Equatorial)
  • 1 Solar Radius = 6.959910 cm = 6.9599×108 m (Equatorial)
  • 1 Moon’s Mean Orbital Radius = 384,400 km = 3.8440×108 m
  • 1 AU = 1.4960×1011 m = 1.4960×108 km (Astronomical Unit)
  • 1 ly = 9.4605×1015 m = 9.4605×1012 km (light year)
  • 1 pc = 3.0857×1016 m = 3.0857×1013 km = 3.261633 ly = 206264.806 AU (parsec) = 3.0857×1018 cm
  • 1 Mpc = 106 pc (Megaparsec) = 3.0857×1024 cm
  • DH = c/H0 = 3000 h-1 Mpc = 9.26×1027 h-1 cm (The Hubble Scale)

Angles:

  • 1° = 1 degree = 60′ = 60 arcminutes
  • 1′ = 60″ = 60 arcseconds
  • 1 radian = 360° /2 pi = 57.2957795131° = 206264.806″
  • Area of a Sphere = 41252.96124 square degrees = 4 pi Steradians

Mass:

  • 1 amu = 1.6605402 x10-24 gram = 1.6605402 x10-27 kg
  • 1 amu c2 = 931.49432 MeV
  • 1 Hydrogen Atom Mass = 1.007825 amu = 1.673534 x10-24 gram
  • 1 Helium 4 Atom Mass = 4.00260325415 amu
  • 1 Carbon 12 Atom Mass = 12.0000000 amu
  • 1 Proton Mass = 1.6726231 x10-24 gram
  • 1 Neutron Mass = 1.674920 x10-24 gram
  • 1 Electron Mass = 9.1093897 x10-28 gram
  • 1 kg = 2.20462 lb
  • 1 Solar Mass = 1.989×1033 gram = 1.989×1030 kg
  • 1 Jupiter Mass = 1.899×1030 gram = 1.899×1027 kg
  • 1 Earth Mass = 5.9736×1027 gram = 5.9736×1024 kg
  • 1 Lunar Mass = 7.3477×1025 gram = 7.3477×1022 kg
  • (Proton Mass)/(Electron Mass) = 1836.15
  • Earth’s Mean Density = 5515.3 kg/m3
  • Moon’s Mean Density = 3346.4 kg/m3


Time:

  • 1 Planck Time = 5.39124×10-44 s = sqrt (hbar G/c5)
  • 1 Sidereal Day = 23h 56m 04.09054s
  • 1 Solar Day = 24h = 86400 s
  • 1 Sidereal Year = 3.155815×107 s
  • 1 Tropical Year = 3.155693×107 s


Energy:

  • 1 Joule = 2.39×10-1 calorie
  • 1 Joule = 107 ergs
  • 1 eV = 1.602177×10-12 erg = 1.602177×10-19 Joule
  • 1 Solar Luminosity = 3.826×1033 ergs/s = 3.826×1026 Joules/s = 3.826×1026 Watts
  • Sun’s Absolute Magnitude V = 4.83, B = 5.48, K = 3.28
  • Vega’s Absolute Magnitude V = 0.58, B = 0.58, K = 0.58

Temperature:

  • Solar Surface Effective Temperature = 5770 K

Physical Constants:

  • Avogadro’s Number = NA = 6.0221367×1023 /mole
  • Gravitational Constant = G = 6.67259×10-8 cm3 gram-1 s-2 = 4.301×10-9 km2 Mpc MSun-1 s-2
  • Planck’s Constant = h = 6.6260755×10-27 erg s
  • Speed of Light = c = 2.99792458×1010 cm s-1 = 2.99792458×108 m s-1
  • Boltzmann’s Constant = k = 1.380658×10-16 erg K-1
  • Stefan-Boltzmann Constant = σ = 5.67051×10-5 erg cm-2 K-4 s-1
  • Radiation Density Constant = a = 7.56591×10-15 erg cm-3 K-4
  • Rydberg = RH = 1.09677585×10 5 cm-1
  • Electron charge = e = 4.8032×10-10 esu = 1.6022×10-19 Coulomb
  • 1 Coulomb = 6.24151×1018 e

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October 3, 2010 · 3:10 am

Happy Caturday

Not necessarily cats…

all for today

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September 2, 2010 · 3:41 pm

Briefly

Botswana guitar style.


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August 19, 2010 · 5:58 pm

Day Off

As a State employee I have the perk of getting tomorrow off without pay (part of the Furlough Day program to cut budget deficits). I decided to take today off as well, using a vacation day, to make a 4 day weekend.

Yay!

Anyway, I have lots of stuff to do over the weekend- more than I could do in 2 days. We have a guest arriving from out of town- a long-term guest- and we’re turning part of the garage into a bedroom. There is still much to do and she arrives in a week.

Today I’ll just share some pictures, maybe another thing or two.

The pictures below are from National Geographic, they are free desktop images. You can find these and more at this place. Click for full size then right click to save.

This one makes me think the little guy is saying, “What in the heck has happened to my neighborhood?!”

For my next trick- courtesy of Goopymart–

Nature is amazing, eh? This is from the Guardian:

The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists.

The gruesome hallmark of the fungus’s handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt in Germany, 48m years ago.

The finding shows that parasitic fungi evolved the ability to control the creatures they infect in the distant past, even before the rise of the Himalayas.

The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy.

The fungus grows inside the ants and releases chemicals that affect their behaviour. Some ants leave the colony and wander off to find fresh leaves on their own, while others fall from their tree-top havens on to leaves nearer the ground.

The final stage of the parasitic death sentence is the most macabre. In their last hours, infected ants move towards the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a “death grip” around the central vein, immobilising themselves and locking the fungus in position.

“This can happen en masse. You can find whole graveyards with 20 or 30 ants in a square metre. Each time, they are on leaves that are a particular height off the ground and they have bitten into the main vein before dying,” said David Hughes at Harvard University.

The fungus cannot grow high up in the canopy or on the forest floor, but infected ants often die on leaves midway between the two, where the humidity and temperature suit the fungus. Once an ant has died, the fungus sprouts from its head and produces a pod of spores, which are fired at night on to the forest floor, where they can infect other ants.

Scientists led by Hughes noticed that ants infected with the fungus,Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, bit into leaves with so much force they left a lasting mark. The holes created by their mandibles either side of the leaf vein are bordered by scar tissue, producing an unmistakable dumb-bell shape.

Writing in the journal, Biology Letters, the team describes how they trawled a database of images that document leaf damage by insects, fungi and other organisms. They found one image of a 48m-year-old leaf from the Messel pit that showed the distinctive “death grip” markings of an infected ant. At the time, the Messel area was thick with subtropical forests.

“We now present it as the first example of behavioural manipulation and probably the only one which can be found. In most cases, this kind of control is spectacular but ephemeral and doesn’t leave any permanent trace,” Hughes said.

“The question now is, what are the triggers that push a parasite not just to kill its host, but to take over its brain and muscles and then kill it.”

He added: “Of all the parasitic organisms, only a few have evolved this trick of manipulating their host’s behaviour.

Why go to the bother? Why are there not more of them?”

Scientists are not clear how the fungus controls the ants it infects, but know that the parasite releases alkaloid chemicals into the insect as it consumes it from the inside.

On the subject of Zombies, Zombie nuts!

Saddest photo ever-

Unrelated nonsense-

At the place I work they are hiring a new Superintendent. I know some people who having worked in this place for many years are on the verge of quitting. I just hope this guy lives up to the hype.  I can hardly stand to lose more people who support the good things. So far, all the news is good. We meet him next week.

Bye for now,

-Rick

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August 10, 2010 · 3:57 am

New Post- still early August 2010

Hodge-podge:

  • is a word used to describe a confused or disorderly mass or collection
  • a “mess” or a “jumble”
  • a type of mutton soup
  • of the Discordians. The Sacred Chao is a symbol used by Discordians to illustrate the interrelatedness of order and disorder. It resembles a Yin-Yang symbol

YOU decide.

Mostly pictures I’ve run across. Some other stuff. Click for big- as per usual.

Go here.

1950

Short story- Gold Coast- MacPherson

bye for now,

Rick

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July 22, 2010 · 3:01 am

Better post something before the next full moon

Pete Townsend – There’s A Heartache Following Me

Click when you want bigger size- some of these are biiig. Click sound thingys where they appear. Click click click. This is just for fun. Obviously.

Abandoned- top > down

Sub Base
In a bay on the northern shores of the Black Sea, the Soviet army maintained an elaborate submarine base throughout much of the Cold War. Now a museum, this abandoned submarine base is in the town of Balaklava, Ukraine. One picture.

Detroit
Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre explored some of Detroit’s dying landmarks for their photo series The Ruins of Detroit. As the industrial revolution came to a close and race riots crippled a once bustling city, many buildings throughout Detroit fell into disrepair and eventual abandonment. Three pictures.

Beelitz Hospital
It is rare that a ruin like this should decay so gracefully and without the marks of vandalism. The Beelitz Military Hospital in Berlin is in great condition for a ruin, perhaps for the history it represents. In 1916, a young Lance Corporal Adolph Hitler recuperated here after taking a bullet in the Battle of the Somme during the First World War. One Picture

NYC City Hall Subway Station
Under the busy streets of New York City rests a perfectly preserved monument to that city’s transportation history. The City Hall Subway Station was first constructed over 100 years ago, a part of New York’s earliest underground transport network. It was shut down in 1945, where it lay dormant and untouched until a one night public exhibition on the station’s centennial. Two pictures- present and past.

Ryugyung Hotel
The Ryugyung Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea is one of the 20th century’s greatest architectural failures. Initially designed as a beacon of progress and power, the Ryugyung Hotel was unable to sustain construction when the North Korean government ran out of money. Ground was broken in 1987, construction was halted in 1992. One picture.

Pripyat
Pripyat, Ukraine. In a span of sixteen years, the population of Pripyat grew from zero to 50,000 and back down to zero, following the greatest nuclear power disaster in human history. Pripyat was billed as an atomic city, built into the forests south of Kiev in 1970 to house the families of workers at the Chernobyl nuclear facility. One picture (but you can gopogle many others).

Waterpark
A massive, indoor water park was planned for the children of Russia, one towering many stories high with a myriad of rides within. Before this park could be completed, the developer went belly up and couldn’t afford its completion. One picture.

Sea Forts
During the Second World War, the British Royal Navy constructed a series of sea forts for an advanced line of defense against inbound air raids and potential sea invasions from the Axis powers. The Maunsell Sea Forts still stand today, abandoned a few meters above the North Sea. One, however, remains inhabited, now a nation of its own referred to as the Principality of Sealand. These sea forts are a favorite of maritime explorers. One picture.

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June 20, 2010 · 10:50 pm

Father’s Day, 2010

Happy Father’s Day, all you fathers. May your day be sweet. May you forgive yourself for all the things, big and small, that cause you shame and suffering. May you be at peace.

In My Life, part 1

Father's Day has always been a little uncomfortable for me

My relationship with fatherhood is complicated. It’s complicated in origin- my dad was a good man plagued by bad demons. He could not be the father he wanted to be.  It’s complicated also in it’s fruition of the parenthood experience- I am the parent of a dead girl, a suicide. I can’t claim to have been the father I wanted to be.

My dad struggled. He was deeply guilty, shamed by his mistakes. For many years I resented him. It took me a long time to see him as a “man”- subject to error and utterly worthy of absolution. I am so glad I came to understand that before he died. I am so sorry he died so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to really tell him. In the end, I was proud of him for everything he endured and overcame. I pray he is at peace.

My sons would probably disagree with my eligibility to wear the above button. I would have to say that over all, I’ve done a good job; certainly the best I knew how. Still, in my heart, I feel that I have failed deeply in ways that are both vital and obscure.

Maybe we all fail. Maybe none of us can claim honestly

to have passed every test.

But wait! There’s more! In truth I have gained more peace as time moves along. Not just the peace of dimming memory but peace that comes from perspective. I see the essential rightness of even my worst mistakes. Like I said,

It’s complicated.

Tripler- click for full size, as usual

I was born in Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. My father was in the US Navy. He served aboard the class of ships referred to as “Destroyers”. His job, as a Gunner’s Mate and later a Chief Gunner’s Mate, eventually killed him. (He died over 30 years later from Mesothelioma). My dad was often gone during the first 5 years of my life. He would be “at sea”. That left my mom, bless her heart, to care for the 4 of us kids. She was tired. It was hard. It was probably harder and more tiring because she drank. Drinking enabled her to tune out my incessant crying (“colic”- my dad says I had the 6 month colic for 3 years but that it didn’t affect him much because he “would be at sea”.) My earliest memories are of standing in my crib, crying, and no one would come to pick me up or hold me. My oldest memories of my mom are of her seated at our cheap dining room table with a glass and a bottle of wine. Anyway, the thing is (this is the thing), I’ve been wanting to do some storytelling. As a subject, I find my life to have been extraordinarily interesting. This most likely means that it has been remarkably average.  As average stories go, it has been chock full of twists, drama and dark humor; all the elements of a reasonably good strory. This is the start.

I just got a call from my oldest son. He lives near San Fransisco. He called to say “Happy Father’s Day”. I really can’t fault myself too much. He is the nicest, best, most gentle man I know. My younger son is also wonderful- smart, funny, creative and caring. They are both excellent men.

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June 19, 2010 · 4:06 am

Miscellany

No problem.

*

*

Big Pharm

10 Search Engines you’ve never heard of

that will open up a whole new world of information

that you never really needed anyway

Very Bad Idea:

Van Gogh Cake:

Medical afflictions-

The following is a short story by the American novelist and short story writer Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941). It was included in The Best American Short Stories of the Century (John Updike-Editor)

“I am in love with my wife,” he said–a superfluous remark, as I had
not questioned his attachment to the woman he had married. We walked
for ten minutes and then he said it again. I turned to look at him. He
began to talk and told me the tale I am now about to set down.

01-02 The Other Woman – Sherwood Anderson

(click on above to download audio book/ short story of

The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson)

Click below for full size-

Little Lulu cartoon: Chick and Double Chick

Error
This video doesn’t exist

The Great War caricature map- click for full–

Greek Myths- click 4 big

updated classic-

Listen up, settle down, chill out

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June 19, 2010 · 12:20 am

Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park

“The Bemaraha National Park, situated in the west of Madagascar, has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. And for good reason… 752 km² of breathtaking scenery with this incredible stone forest known as the Tsingy.
From the Malagasy word “mitsingitsignia”, which means ‘to walk on tiptoe’, the term Tsingy has been accepted in common language to denote the exceptional topography. This topography of eroded limestone may exist in other areas around the world, but nowhere as tall, slender and extensive as the spires here.
Beneath this apparent austerity, an extraordinary world of forest canyons, humid caves and burning karst karren is inhabited by fundamentally differing plants and animals who thrive in close proximity.”
some links:
National Geographic-
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/stone-forest/shea-text
wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingy_de_Bemaraha_National_Park
google maps-
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-18.763554,44.826715&z=12&t=h&hl=en
(type Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park into Google Earth- wowza)

click for full size

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