Another seahorse; this one was in the same tank as the Dwarf Seahorse from last week (in the Splash Zone exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium). Problem is I am not sure whether this is another dwarf seahorse, or perhaps either a longsnout seahorse or a cape seahorse. Anybody know for sure from this photo? If so, please leave me a comment letting me know.
I have been wondering what, if anything, to say about this week’s cowardly attacks in London. In the end, I think the message that I took away from the many posts I’ve read on news websites, and perhaps more importantly blogs, is that London has demonstrated to the world exactly how to deal with terrorist attacks: pause to treat the injured & respect the dead, support their families & friends, and then calmly resume life.
In addition to the photo reproduced here which I believe captures what I see happening (albeit from 6000 miles away) in London almost perfectly, I also recommend London Bombings: Personal Reflections at PhotoSydney, A Letter To The Terrorists, From London from the London News Review, a posting at The Triforce that starts “A funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning. My tube blew up.” and a posting at Casino Avenue.
Finally Flickring the London Bombings at the Daily Irrelevant ends with: Yesterday, the reaction from Brits seemed to be “Eh, fuck yeh, we’ve been through this before. I’m going down to the pub for a pint.†‘Nuff said.
A leopard shark cruises through the kelp forest exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or don’t go online much), you’ve probably heard of Skype, but have you heard of the Gizmo Project? If not, check it out. It is very similar to Skype in concept, but it has one big difference: it is standards based.
It is built by the SIPphone.com folks, so when you register you’ll get a SIP telephone number as well as your username. That means that people using other SIP phones, even on other networks in many cases since they peer with each other, can also call you, and vice-versa.
Although the software itself is still in beta, it seems pretty stable on the Mac at least. Since the network underneath it is very stable, the call quality is great. I have made computer-to-computer calls and a transatlantic call from San Francisco to the UK.
So, download it and try it out (you get $0.25 of free credits so you can test call-out calls too). If you do try it, call me (Gizmo name: john94501). I don’t have it on at work yet (the Linux client is still in development), but leave me a message and I’ll call you back 🙂
Currently housed in the Splash Zone exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium, the leafy sea dragon is perhaps the most unusual animal on display.
Related to the seahorse, these are found in the rocky reefs off South and Western Australia. As you can see from the photo, they are very effectively camouflaged among the seaweeds and seagrasses.
This is a dwarf seahorse, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s Splash Zone exhibit
Dwarf seahorses live in areas of sea grass. As the one in the photo demonstrates, they use their long tails to attach themselves to blades of grass, then they eat tiny animals that the currents bring their way.
Another jelly shot from the Monterey Bay Aquarium‘s Outer Bay exhibit.
I took a lot of shots with the Canon EOS 20D while there, all hand-held and at either ISO 1600 or ISO 800. I will add some more over this week (and I promise that they’re not all jelly fish!).
Despite being a member, I hadn’t been down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in a long time. Sunday, we made the two hour journey down there and spent some time walking around both the new and old exhibits.
One of my favourites is the jelly fish display in the Outer Bay exhibit. While the new “Jellies: Living Art” exhibit is interesting for the variety of species it contains, I still find the amazing orange jelly fish contrasting with the deep blue of the tank more impressive.
Another shot from old town Sacramento. This is the head & shoulders of a full size wooden statue standing outside one of the stores.
Another photo from the visit to Sacramento; this one is the front of the capitol building. For some reason there was a handful of photographers with medium format cameras on tripods all lined up along the footpath in front of the building – don’t know whether it was a photography club, a group of students or pros who all decided to get shots of the capitol building on the same day.