like it? click away.
it took me one hour to get home. the distance is 12 km.... and that's with traffic police freeing up kifissias avenue. my desperation led me to snap this in my driver's mirror.
feel my pain.
worst of all, it's not unusual.
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12 kph
like it? click away.
it took me one hour to get home. the distance is 12 km.... and that's with traffic police freeing up kifissias avenue. my desperation led me to snap this in my driver's mirror.
feel my pain.
worst of all, it's not unusual.
fallen star
like it? click it!
these sour orange blossoms are everywhere. kids like to throw the oranges at each other for fun -- if they smash, the wonderful scent on the street just intensifies.
from a walk around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon, just before popping over to get the groceries.
paralchemy
... or turning silicon into gold.
if you like it, be a dear and give it a click!
i shot this the other day... along with a few others. this is tiny silicon balls on tinted glass, lit with only low light from a desk lamp.
if you like it, be a dear and give it a click!
i shot this the other day... along with a few others. this is tiny silicon balls on tinted glass, lit with only low light from a desk lamp.
obama shoots with a canon...
from the official white house photostream:
official white house photo by pete pouza. click to source
just adding my pebble to the silly nikon/canon dispute.
official white house photo by pete pouza. click to source
just adding my pebble to the silly nikon/canon dispute.
the most distant discrete object in the universe ever seen
GRB 090423A:
click pic to source
and the bad astronomer gets poetic:
'the light had been traveling a long time, oh, such a long time. it had passed gas clouds, tenuous patches of dust, interstellar and then even intergalactic space. it had blasted through countless atoms and unimaginable stretches of space and time, and now the light had been reduced to a mere echo of its once epic luminosity. but it was enough… after spending the age of the universe careening through it, those few remaining photons finally saw something blocking their path that they couldn’t barrel their way through.
NASA’s swift satellite.'
read more of phil plait's post here.
click pic to source
and the bad astronomer gets poetic:
'the light had been traveling a long time, oh, such a long time. it had passed gas clouds, tenuous patches of dust, interstellar and then even intergalactic space. it had blasted through countless atoms and unimaginable stretches of space and time, and now the light had been reduced to a mere echo of its once epic luminosity. but it was enough… after spending the age of the universe careening through it, those few remaining photons finally saw something blocking their path that they couldn’t barrel their way through.
NASA’s swift satellite.'
read more of phil plait's post here.
sounion alight
like it? give it a click!
this is the last of the sounion sunrise pictures from my overnight-in-the-car there last weekend... for now. this is straight out of the camera, whatever that truly means.
i've added my position to the map on its flickr page.
doodle
i'm normally in the teacher's end of the classroom, but yesterday i became a student again, as i do periodically to keep up with the latest version of autocad.
inevitably, i found myself doodling, as i've done all my school life -- but this is the first time i actually felt good about it.
if you like it, give it a click.
via wired science:
'people may doodle as a strategy to help themselves concentrate," said study co-author jackie andrade, a university of plymouth psychologist. "we might not be aware that we’re doing it, but it could be a trick that people develop because it helps them from wandering off into a daydream.'
and
'it takes a large cognitive load to daydream. that has a big impact on the task you’re meant to be doing," said andrade. "doodling takes only a small cognitive load, but it’s just enough to keep your mental resources focused on the main task.'
so, i doodled, guilt-free.
others were doodling too... i was the only one taking a picture of mine, obviously desperate to get the day's picture. i'm not crazy about it, but it'll do for my 365 project.
inevitably, i found myself doodling, as i've done all my school life -- but this is the first time i actually felt good about it.
if you like it, give it a click.
via wired science:
'people may doodle as a strategy to help themselves concentrate," said study co-author jackie andrade, a university of plymouth psychologist. "we might not be aware that we’re doing it, but it could be a trick that people develop because it helps them from wandering off into a daydream.'
and
'it takes a large cognitive load to daydream. that has a big impact on the task you’re meant to be doing," said andrade. "doodling takes only a small cognitive load, but it’s just enough to keep your mental resources focused on the main task.'
so, i doodled, guilt-free.
others were doodling too... i was the only one taking a picture of mine, obviously desperate to get the day's picture. i'm not crazy about it, but it'll do for my 365 project.
bubbleverse
like it? give it a click, then! (there's a BW version too...)
'we are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. but we can understand the universe. that makes us something very special.
- stephen hawking, der spiegel (17 october 1988)
what if you're wrong... and other myths
like it? give it a click!
'what if you're wrong?'
- liberty university student
'what if i'm wrong? i mean, anybody can be wrong. we could all be wrong about the flying spaghetti monster and the pink unicorn and the flying teapot.
you happen to have been brought up, i would presume, in the christian faith. you know what it's like not to believe in a particular faith because you're not a muslim… you're not a hindu.
why aren't you a hindu? because you happen to have been brought up in in america, not in india. if you had been brought up in india, you'd be a hindu. if you'd been brought up in denmark at the time of the vikings, you'd be believing in wotan and thor. if you had been brought up in classical greece you'd be believing in zeus. if you had been brought up in central africa, you'd be believing in the great juju up the mountain.
there's no particular reason to pick on the judeo christian god in which, by the sheerest accident, you happen to have been brought up, and ask me the question, what if i'm wrong? what if you're wrong about the great juju in the bottom of the sea?'
-richard dawkins
beer and a movie
like it? give it a click!
friday night, at the mall in maroussi. we saw duplicity. i thought it was fun, especially the twist at the end.
overnight at cape sounion
it must've been past 2am when we arrived at sounion saturday night. star trails were out of the question because the clouds refused to dissipate.
we parked across the temple and decided to rest, as i was just too tired to risk driving back. in the middle of the night, i woke up and peered over, and saw that they'd turned off the lights that showcase the temple. the moon had made its appearance, shining through the overcast sky. it looked very spooky, so i decided to capture it with a long exposure.
spooky sounion:
like it? click it!
that moon moves fast! i initially saw it just over the hill, but by the time i'd set up the tripod and camera, i could just barely fit it into my frame.
i stood outside for a while, enjoying the quiet -- there weren't even any cars passing by at that hour so all i could hear was the sound of light waves. feeling tired again, i threw my gear inside and entered the warmth of the car for some more shut-eye.
thank goodness i'm a light sleeper and woke up in time to capture first light.
first light at sounion:
like it? click it!
our position is geolocated at the images' flickr page.
we parked across the temple and decided to rest, as i was just too tired to risk driving back. in the middle of the night, i woke up and peered over, and saw that they'd turned off the lights that showcase the temple. the moon had made its appearance, shining through the overcast sky. it looked very spooky, so i decided to capture it with a long exposure.
spooky sounion:
like it? click it!
that moon moves fast! i initially saw it just over the hill, but by the time i'd set up the tripod and camera, i could just barely fit it into my frame.
i stood outside for a while, enjoying the quiet -- there weren't even any cars passing by at that hour so all i could hear was the sound of light waves. feeling tired again, i threw my gear inside and entered the warmth of the car for some more shut-eye.
thank goodness i'm a light sleeper and woke up in time to capture first light.
first light at sounion:
like it? click it!
our position is geolocated at the images' flickr page.
sunrise at lavrio
like it? give it a click!
i spent saturday night sleeping in the car across sounion temple (no danger -- i dragged company along). i wanted to catch the morning colors.
i started to drive back in the morning, all the while looking at the wonderful colors in the sky and the sea. i couldn't resist going to lavrio's harbor to take something like this.
i hope to post a couple of more shots from that sunrise (same sunrise as this) over the next few days.
i added this to my sounion set and its location on the map linked on its page at flickr.
pale blue dandy
like it? give it a click!
there was an interesting article yesterday by trey ratcliffe, a photographer whose work got me started with HDR a year ago, and who has had the honor of having the first HDR image displayed by the smithsonian institution, about his submission this year being disqualified because it was digitally enhanced.
i can understand having a separate category for digitally altered images -- those that change the original content of the picture.
my opinion on this is that digital photography is, by definition, digitally enhanced and that a pixel has a long journey from RAW file to JPG.
to start with, various makes of cameras create different types of RAW, and RAW is subsequently converted differently by varying types of software.
it's up to the photographer's discretion whether he/she wants the image straight out of the camera or tweaked here and there -- or processed greatly -- in order to convey thoughts, emotions, or even to more accurately convey what the human eye saw at the time, which is often way more than a camera can possibly grab.
there's nothing inherently superior or inferior to an image that's SOOC and it says little about the skill of the photographer.
color enhancement is not the same as color replacement or adding / subtracting elements to a picture -- and there certainly is a difference in requirements between photo journalism, and photo art / personal expression.
so someone will have to show me one digital image that was not effected by software.
additionally, i'd like to see one film image that was not a result of decisions in the darkroom by burning, dodging, by choice of paper, etc., etc., etc.
finally, what is more important -- what a piece of equipment sees -- or what the photographer wants to show?
more reading here, here and here.
the above file was taken by a canon 40D camera in RAW (CR2) format. i then decided to change the white balance to fluorescent (thus the blue tinge) and sharpened up the image with a filter. it's not SOOC. but it's exactly what i want it to be.
i'd appreciate your thoughts, especially if i haven't understood something, or just for fun.
finally, the image's title is because yesterday was earth day and because pale blue dot is prominent in my mind.
don't give up on me
like it? click it!
sometimes i drive around in search of interesting things to photograph but there's nothing like a leisurely stroll -- you spot the details.
this bit of fence had dropped off and somebody thought of hanging it over its original spot. i don't know if they intend to re-attach it, and i kinda wish they don't.
complex molecules in space
on bbc news:
'astronomers have detected two of the most complex carbon-rich molecules ever found in interstellar space.
their models suggest even more complex await to be discovered, including amino acids - which are essential for life.
the results were presented at the european week of astronomy and space science meeting being held in the uk.'
read on...
via RD
'astronomers have detected two of the most complex carbon-rich molecules ever found in interstellar space.
their models suggest even more complex await to be discovered, including amino acids - which are essential for life.
the results were presented at the european week of astronomy and space science meeting being held in the uk.'
read on...
via RD
'biblically correct'
she wanted to be a biblically correct, bigoted miss america: 'it’s not about being politically correct; for me, it was being biblically correct.' - prejean
thankfully, the judges didn't think it would do:
“i want [a miss usa] who is going to be politically savvy, and that means saying things that will make everyone feel welcome. she’s a christian, but i don’t want her talking about jesus, jesus, jesus, because that’s offensive to all of the jewish americans, all the muslim americans, to all the atheist americans.' - hilton
via msnbc
EDIT just to add: replace same-sex marriage with interracial marriage or blacks drinking from a water fountain.
thankfully, the judges didn't think it would do:
“i want [a miss usa] who is going to be politically savvy, and that means saying things that will make everyone feel welcome. she’s a christian, but i don’t want her talking about jesus, jesus, jesus, because that’s offensive to all of the jewish americans, all the muslim americans, to all the atheist americans.' - hilton
via msnbc
EDIT just to add: replace same-sex marriage with interracial marriage or blacks drinking from a water fountain.
richard dawkins honored in valencia
'the university of valencia (spain) has honored richard dawkins by appointing him doctor honoris causa, the highest honorary degree, last march 31st. the university of valencia, the only university in the world that celebrated the first centenary of the birth of charles darwin in 1909, has a great group of activities related to popularize darwin and evolutionism. this award to richard dawkins, 100 years later, is perfectly located in the year 2009.'
this is a video of dawkins receiving the honorary doctorate... complete with hat:
via RD
also of interest is darwin's rottweiler, an interview of dawkins by scott lafee, featuring the following precious exchange:
Q: have you ever heard an anti-evolution argument that caused you to reconsider?
A: no.
also via RD.
this is a video of dawkins receiving the honorary doctorate... complete with hat:
via RD
also of interest is darwin's rottweiler, an interview of dawkins by scott lafee, featuring the following precious exchange:
Q: have you ever heard an anti-evolution argument that caused you to reconsider?
A: no.
also via RD.
gold
click to its flickr page -- and a link to the map
yesterday we drove over to loutraki, a seaside town about an hour's drive away from athens -- people were enjoying the last remnants of their easter vacation strolling across the length of the beach (some dipped in), having a lazy coffee and a few (like me) taking pictures.
the beach is pebbly, the water is cold and clear, and the dominant color is blue -- until the sun bids goodnight.
'if we revere the golden rule, why is it so rare in the games we teach our children? '
-from the rules of the game by carl sagan
sunrise / earthrise
like it? give it a click, then!
everyone loves a sunrise or a sunset -- but lately, when watching one, i get keenly aware of my position on the earth and in relation to the sun...
i took this yesterday morning at cape sounion (more about that later), looking towards the sunrise, and i remembered the wittgenstein anecdote:
wittgenstein and his companion are on a stroll through cambridge.
‘i’ve always wondered why’, says Wittgenstein, ‘for so long people thought that the sun revolved around the earth.’
‘why?’ said his surprised interlocutor, ‘well, i suppose it just looks that way’
‘hmm’, retorted wittgenstein ‘and what would it look like if the earth revolved around the sun?’
candles in the dark
orthodox christians celebrated the resurrection of christ last night.
at midnight, the news of the resurrection is spread via the holy light, transferred from jersusalem by plane to churches worldwide and then distributed from candle to candle. people shoot firecrackers, just to make sure everyone hears the news.
some people attend the entire service, but most people arrive 5 minutes before and leave 5 minutes later with their cheerfully decorated, lit candles (or lampadas) to hurry home and have a light dinner -- which includes dyed eggs and magiritsa.
this celebration frustrates me. i love the symbolism of the passing of the flame but i don't share the christian interpretation. in fact, mine is the complete opposite.
it was fairly late in my life that carl sagan expressed the feelings i had when watching this ceremony since i was a child, when he named his book a demon haunted world: science as a candle in the dark
unfortunately, we didn't have magiritsa last night. but the eggs were good.
you can also view this series of pictures on flickr.
the 50 most brilliant atheists of all time
brilliant -- as in brilliant at their craft...
1. democritus
2. diagoras of melos
3. epicurus
4. theodorus the atheist
5. andrew carnegie
6. ivan pavlov
7. sigmund freud
8. clarence darrow
9. richard strauss
10. bertrand russell
11. jawaharlal nehru
12. linus pauling
13. paul dirac
14. ayn rand
15. katherine hepburn
16. jacques monod
17. subrahmanyan chandresekhar
18. alan turing
19. francis crick
20. claude shannon
21. richard feynman
22. noam chomsky
23. james d. watson
24. peter higgs
25. warren buffet
26. john searle
27. steven weinberg
28. carl sagan
29. david suzuki
30. george carlin
31. bruce lee
32. leonard susskind
33. stephen jay gould
34. richard dawkins
35. daniel dennett
36. stephen hawking
37. mick jagger
38. richard leakey
39. david gilmour
40. brian eno
41. david sloan wilson
42. steve wozniak
43. douglas adams
44. steven pinker
45. pz myers
46. jodie foster
47. russell t davies
48. david chalmers
49. sean carroll
50. mark zuckerberg
i've marked in green the ones that are most prominent in my mind... and i'd probably change the order a bit.
do you agree with this list or not?
via no.45
1. democritus
2. diagoras of melos
3. epicurus
4. theodorus the atheist
5. andrew carnegie
6. ivan pavlov
7. sigmund freud
8. clarence darrow
9. richard strauss
10. bertrand russell
11. jawaharlal nehru
12. linus pauling
13. paul dirac
14. ayn rand
15. katherine hepburn
16. jacques monod
17. subrahmanyan chandresekhar
18. alan turing
19. francis crick
20. claude shannon
21. richard feynman
22. noam chomsky
23. james d. watson
24. peter higgs
25. warren buffet
26. john searle
27. steven weinberg
28. carl sagan
29. david suzuki
30. george carlin
31. bruce lee
32. leonard susskind
33. stephen jay gould
34. richard dawkins
35. daniel dennett
36. stephen hawking
37. mick jagger
38. richard leakey
39. david gilmour
40. brian eno
41. david sloan wilson
42. steve wozniak
43. douglas adams
44. steven pinker
45. pz myers
46. jodie foster
47. russell t davies
48. david chalmers
49. sean carroll
50. mark zuckerberg
i've marked in green the ones that are most prominent in my mind... and i'd probably change the order a bit.
do you agree with this list or not?
via no.45
nightfall at sounion
it has stark, minimalist beauty. it's in perfect harmony with its surroundings.
if you visit on the off-season, you can sit there for hours, enjoying a quiet sunrise or a sunset or stay through the dark and watch the stars above.
it connects me with our past, it showcases our cosmos.
at sounion, i feel at one with the universe.
click here to embiggen the series and to find a link to its geolocation:
drove to the other side and caught it on black:
edit: i've made this one clickable as well.
more pictures from sounion here.
if you visit on the off-season, you can sit there for hours, enjoying a quiet sunrise or a sunset or stay through the dark and watch the stars above.
it connects me with our past, it showcases our cosmos.
at sounion, i feel at one with the universe.
click here to embiggen the series and to find a link to its geolocation:
drove to the other side and caught it on black:
edit: i've made this one clickable as well.
more pictures from sounion here.
chamomile for my cousin
like it? click to see two more images
every 5 meters there's a sign to not feed the animals. one sign said that an animal had actually died because it choked on something someone had fed her.
...and, sure enough, people were feeding the animals. i got mad and told off a couple of groups. i'm vocal like that.
my daughter decided to offer flowers instead of food -- one little monkey loved the game very much... he'd eagerly reach for each chamomile blossom, chewing on the first and then sniffing the rest.
as i left the zoo, i remembered that, sometimes they cage up the wrong primates.
geometry in the skies
no... i didn't take this -- wish i had!
click on the thumbnail to see this amazing image... on atmospheric optics!
click on the thumbnail to see this amazing image... on atmospheric optics!
trina hoaks interviews richard dawkins...
...and reports on her (highly enviable) adventure in three wonderful installments:
part 1: the prelude
part 2: the man behind the image
part 3: the interview
my favorite bit was the report of dawkins' impersonation of thebananaman:
'he has an absolutely splendid piece of monty python comedy of… (at this point, richard fell into character, accent and all, and held up an imaginary banana) “well, mate, you have a banana, and you peel it, and it fits in your hand, and it’s curved toward the face for ease of eating.” (we laughed.)'
more information (and hemant mehta's favorite bit) at my source, the friendly atheist.
part 1: the prelude
part 2: the man behind the image
part 3: the interview
my favorite bit was the report of dawkins' impersonation of thebananaman:
'he has an absolutely splendid piece of monty python comedy of… (at this point, richard fell into character, accent and all, and held up an imaginary banana) “well, mate, you have a banana, and you peel it, and it fits in your hand, and it’s curved toward the face for ease of eating.” (we laughed.)'
more information (and hemant mehta's favorite bit) at my source, the friendly atheist.
christopher hitchens vs douglas wilson: a collision of lives
a facebook friend just linked to christopher hitchens vs douglas wilson: a collision of lives, a darren doane film, in facebook:
click image to source
here are two trailers from the page itself:
this is not the first time they've debated -- i've seen them repeatedly alone or in wider panels, and a full debate at westminster theological seminary from october 2008 can be found here.
click image to source
here are two trailers from the page itself:
this is not the first time they've debated -- i've seen them repeatedly alone or in wider panels, and a full debate at westminster theological seminary from october 2008 can be found here.
jaipur
like it? click it!
another shot of something i see on my way home from work -- a restaurant with little lights in its windows.... so tempting to stop and shoot.
it also looks like a perfect spot to try custom shaped bokeh.... hmmmm.....
combined operational load bearing external resistance treadmill
click pic to source
'williams: everybody will know, every day, someone will have to jump on the COLBERT to work out, so those will be the words that will be passed down from the space station to the ground: "it's time for me to jump on COLBERT."
colbert: (looks amazed): wow.
...
colbert: you know, i think the treadmill is better than the node. you know why? because the node is just the box for the treadmill. nobody says, "hey, my mom bought me a nike box." they want the shoes that are inside.'
from the planetary society blog
lilacgasm
like it? click it and be rewarded with 8 more images.
the sense of smell is primitive and it registers in the most ancient structures of the brain. a scent is almost never forgotten -- it can bring back memories and emotions that overwhelm you with intensity.
i don't know when i first smelled lilacs -- i must have been a toddler -- but every spring the first whiff stops me in my tracks, and i look around to see where it's coming from.
this year, i was looking forward to taking pictures of lilacs with my new lenses but, disappointingly, my immediate area seems to have almost none. i had to actively go looking for them and i was lucky to find a neighborhood with slightly older homes and an abundance of my favorite flower.
in greek, these lovely blossoms are called πασχαλιά (pr. pas-ha-liA) which means easter flower.
so, anyway, forgive me for overdoing it and posting so many, but at least they're all in one page -- and i had to get it out of my system.
these pictures are taken with a canon 40D and 350D and my 100mm f/2.8 macro and 50mm f/1.4 lenses.
|X|X|X|X|✿
like it? what are you waiting for? click it!
you can see an alternate choice on the original flickr page.
brian cox on carl sagan
on BBC4 radio:
click pic to listen to the source of the program
'physicist and broadcaster brian cox presents a tribute to his science hero, the american astronomer carl sagan, the man who many people describe as the greatest populariser of science of all time. his landmark television series cosmos was seen by more than 600 million people worldwide and inspired a generation of young scientists to regard the universe with wonder and awe.'
thanks to the bad astronomer
click pic to listen to the source of the program
'physicist and broadcaster brian cox presents a tribute to his science hero, the american astronomer carl sagan, the man who many people describe as the greatest populariser of science of all time. his landmark television series cosmos was seen by more than 600 million people worldwide and inspired a generation of young scientists to regard the universe with wonder and awe.'
thanks to the bad astronomer
he wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
like it? well, then, click it!
yesterday was a difficult day -- i spent it supporting a friend who was hurt.
my camera kit's always with me and i found a patch of yellow flowers across the street from her home, so i snapped a few.
orthodox christians, such as greek, celebrate easter next week. for me, that means that i can look forward to some time off next weekend, and that today can be a very lazy sunday.
neil degrasse tyson on PofI
click pic to source
on point of inquiry, neil degrasse tyson discusses, with dj grothe, the issues of how to teach about the solar system, how science gets to the truth, and controversies: pluto and/or intelligent design.
listen to this gifted communicator of science.
dawkins vs harries
oxford university hosts a debate between professor dawkins and anglican bishop harries, mediated by jeremy paxman, in 6 parts:
the thing that made the things for which there is no known maker
'the thing that made the things for which there is no known maker and that causes and directs the events that we can't otherwise explain and which doesn't need to have been made and is the one thing from which to ask for things that no human can give and without him we can't be fully happy and is unlimited by all the laws of physics and never began and will never finish and is invisible but is actually everywhere at once and who is so perfect that even if he killed millions of people, including babies, he still would be perfect and who is so powerful and magical that he can even make a virgin pregnant if he wanted to...'
via RD
via RD
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