My Blog

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For more information about what I'm interested in, see the Ponding pages.

Spring is coming (slowly....)  18 Mar 2003 I saw three fish today through the hole in the ice in the bottom (large) pond. One of them was dead and lying on the bottom. However, when I tried to get it out with a net, it swam away. It brought to mind the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they are collecting dead bodies. However, I couldn't see anything in the top pond. Anyway, I'm just hoping for spring to come soon so that I can get the camera back in the water, and the waterfall going!

People want my photographs!  15 Mar 2003 It suprises me, but multiple publishers (two) have now asked me for permission to use some of my photographs in books (a children's book and a science textbook). Whether these projects ever see the light of day, I do not know. If they do, you can be sure that I'll publish the Amazon link so that you can buy them (not that it'll do my pocket book any good). This chas caused me to think about using one of the Creative Commons licenses for this entire website, photographs and all. My current feeling is the 'with attribution, non-commercial' license. However, I don't want to put off commercial people -- to whom I will probably grant a zero cost license. Is this a trend on the Internet? Is this a way to get images rather cheaper than using stock photography? Or is it just that the Google image search engine gives better results than Corbis? I'm not sure that it is much cheaper -- the going rate for this type of image from a commercial organization would appear to be $100 - $200. I only ask for photo credit and a copy of the resulting book -- though I have yet to receive anything! Just in case you wondered, one was interested in pictures of Hydra and the other, water meters!

Trying to keep an airhole open in the pond  8 Mar 2003 It has been mighty cold here recently. My two air pumps driving airstones have been doing sterling service keeping a small hole open in the ice (and thereby preventing a buildup of noxious gases under the ice). The bad news is that when it snows and/or gets very cold, then the hole is covered over, and then the air stops flowing, then the airline freezes, and then I have to take some action! I decided to try an internet recommendation -- put a large flowerpot over the ice hole to protect it from snow and radiative cooling to the night sky. So far, my experience has been that one flowerpot worked so well that it enlarged the ice hole and fell into the water. The other flowerpot sank into the ice and then froze solid. So I can't call this experiment a 100% success.

Discovering old negatives  8 Jan 2003 I discovered a bunch of my father's old negatives that were taken during the 1920s. It turns out that they can still generate a reasonable image, and the fun really begins when you try and work out the story behind the picture. For the full story and some of the images, see My Father's Negatives. This is very much a work in progress.

Wild Animal Tracks  28 Dec 2002 On 27th December, my daughter and I went to a class Holed Up for Winter at Mass Audobon at Broadmoor. We spent most of the class looking for tracks in the new snow. We ended up finding White tailed deer, Coyote, Squirrels, some type of mouse, domestic cat, and people tracks. When we got home, we had to go and explore outside. Somehow tracks are much more difficult to identify when the expert is not around! We did identify squirrels -- in particular they were digging holes in the snow and then soil underneath to find their food stores. We also found where a bird (possibly a hawk) had caught a mouse. There were many other tracks not identified!

Digital Cameras  27 Dec 2002 People keep asking me what features are important when buying a digital camera. I am not an expert, but I feel that the following should be considered: Battery type: I prefer a camera that takes AA batteries -- or some reaonably standard off-the-shelf part. Otherwise you will be on a beach in Greece when your battery dies, and you cannot replace it. Optical zoom: You need at least a factor of three. Ignore digital zoom as it isn't worth anything. Megapixels: 5 is better than 3 is better than 2. Any increase of less than 50% is not really useful. Other features: the ability to rotate the display independant of the lens. This allows you to hold the camera at waist level and take pictures. It also allows you to look over the heads of a crowd. Merry Christmas!

Pond winterization  13 Nov 2002 I finally put the pond to bed for the winter this last weekend. We took all the plants out and cut them back. Most were put back in the bottom of the two ponds, but some ended up in Rubbermaid tubs in the basement. Unfortunately one turned out to be cracked which necessitated an emergency trip to Home Depot to get a replacement. The pondcam came out of the pond as I was nervous about ice breaking the glass and letting the water into the electronics. I've changed the display to show video that I recorded a few days ago. The fish were moving pretty slowly as it was cold. Of course, the weather then warmed up....

The big freeze came!  15 Oct 2002 On Monday night, there was a major frost warning, so we pulled in most of the tender plants. This included the papyrus, canna and the elephant ear (taro). We are intending to keep all of these going as house plants during the winter. The only problem is finding space to put them all. We had to hack a few bits off the papyrus to get them to fit in the pots (16 inch - emergency buy at the brand new local Home Depot). I expect that these bits will grow as well, so I have to pot them up.

Bullfrog eviction (again)  2 Oct 2002 This evening -- it was warm and damp -- I decided to try and evict the bullfrogs again. I used the trick of a bright flashlight to confuse them, and I got two monsters in the net at once! Total weight of frog was 8 ounces. I managed to get another small one and then drove the three of them 1.5 miles to a stream. I hope that they don't find their way home. I have already evicted one of these guys before, but I only took him a few hundred yards, and he hopped back within 24 hours.

Innumeracy a tale of $2.09  10 Sep 2002 I bought a small power connector in Radio Shack for $1.99. It came to $2.09 including tax. I initially handed the clerk $2 and a quarter which he entered into the cash register. I then handed him another four cents for a total of $2.29. This completely floored him, and it took some explaining that I now wanted 20 cents in change. On to BJs for a few items -- one of which was a gallon of milk. The checkout person managed to give the milk to the person in front of me, and charge her (on her credit card) for it. The checkout person was completely flustered (I think that she had not been working long). I offered to give the $2.09 (for the milk) to the person in front of me as that would solve the problem. This solution was agreed. However, as I'm walking out, I observe that I have been charged for the milk as well (on my credit card). At this point, I decide to write off the money and give up. John Allen Paulos has written a wonderful book called Innumeracy that deals with the poor state of arithmetical knowledge in the general public. Definitely recommended.

Topic:  All Internet Radio Phone Pond Weather

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The Doc Searls weblog -- he seems clueful and I read him.