Captain Narcissus decides that the thing to do while posing for a group picture during a meeting of world leaders at the UN is to wave at the camera, just like he did in his third grade class photo.  Or, was this the response to the question, "who wants to see President Obama re elected, raise your hand?"  2012 can't come quickly enough.

Tetrachromacy, or the ability to sense color in four dimensions, is common in some organisms (most birds are believed to enjoy tetrachromacy), but very rare in humans.  Our eyes use a cell in the retina called a cone to distinguish color, and usually people can see three primary colors; red, green and blue.  Consequently, we "normal" folk can easily distinguish 100 gradations of color, and about 1 million variations in hue.  With the extra cone, someone with tetrachromacy can see up to 100 million differences in hue!

Someone with this condition is called a tetrachomat.  Such people are thought to be extremely rare,  but so far, only women have been identified as tetrachomats, and in fact for genetic reasons, only women are thought to be able to inherit the ability.

To test yourself in your ability to distinguish hue, try to arrange the graph at the link here by gradation of color.

Not as easy as one might at first think!

Anyway, women, being a tetrachromat would give you a potential advantage as a doctor, or most certainly an interior decorator, like this woman, who is a suspected tetrachromat.

Genetic variation - it's awesome!

A taxidermist in upstate New York enjoys the sensation he causes driving around with this stuffed coyote attached to the tailgate of his truck. 

From a camera fixed to the front of the International Space Station, this is what it looks like to fly over the Earth at night in 62 seconds.

An English windfarm makes a "wind fall" profit when the government pays them ten times what they would make if they had produced energy to stop producing for eight and a half hours.  It seems that gusty winds caused the power managers to fear the grid would be overloaded, a legitimate concern, but ten times the money they would otherwise have made??  Whoever came up with this pricing structure should be shot .... or tied to the blade of a big windmill for eight and a half hours.

The English also discover, to their horror, that in order to provide only a sixth of the nations power needs ( they want to get to 20%), they would need to cover an area the size of Wales with windmills. 

What you see here are two photos of massive sunspot 1289, taken on September 17 by Spaniard Jesus Carmona de Argila.  Jesus used two different filters to accent the spot, with the one on the left taken with an "H alpha" filter tuned to the glow of the seething hydrogen. One can see the enormous magnetic filament trailing the spot's black core using this technique, which would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye..  On the right, the photo is filtered for natural light, which allows us to see the surface of the sun as we could with our own eyes if the sun were not so darned bright.  Currently spot 1289 is on its way over the sun's horizon due to the sun's rotation, and will soon disappear from view.

About 40 miles north of Fairbanks, this monstrous piece of machinery sits beside the freeway, slowly rusting back into the earth. 

What is it?  Nothing other than a LeTourneau Snow Train, and in it's younger days it can be seen working away in this video below.  Apparently it was used to transport heavy gear over roadless country during the winter.  It's kind of like the original ice road trucker, but sometimes without the road.

What an odd piece of American industrial history.   Is it the last of it's kind, at true dinosaur?  Who knows.  A fascinating history of this vehicle and its kind can be found here.

Some random local pictures for a Saturday night.

Below, a quirky residence in Locke, California.

A cactus sprout near Cresci's vineyard.

                              A yellow window attacked in slow motion by a California fig tree.

The other night the 15 year old was standing on the deck just at dusk when he heard a strange noise, like the distant mournful howl of a lost spirit.  When he looked down he saw what he thought was the specter of some animal in the back yard.  After a few seconds, the image dissipated in the gathering gloom, but not before he snapped this picture of it.  Should we be worried?

Saturday porch pictures.

Experience Zero Gravity from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.


Just beyond awesome.  I wish this video was ten times as long.   Be sure to let this bad boy load, then watch it full screen.  What an excellent way to start a Friday!

The Martian moon Phobos, as photographed from the Martian Express spacecraft.  This moon orbits the red planet very close to the surface.  In fact, it's orbit is continually decaying to the extent that it will break up and plummet to the surface in about 50 million years. Based on the way it looks, scientists believe it is probably an asteroid that was captured at some point by Mars.

Things I'm liking right now.

Now I love good cast iron as much as anyone out there, but this is just nuts!  I thought I was going bit overboard with two skillets, a griddle and a number 12 camp oven.

I stumbled across this amazing collection here.