Moon Jellies, from the Monterey Bay Aquarium: “These alien-looking creatures are named for their translucent, moonlike circular bells. Instead of long, trailing tentacles, moon jellies have a short, fine fringe (cilia) that sweeps food toward the mucous layer on the edges of the bells. Prey is stored in pouches until the oral arms pick it up and begin to digest it.” Nikon D70, 18-55 f3.5-f5.6, 18mm, f5.6, 1/4 sec, ISO 400. 2-25-10, 3:17:19 PM PDT. Read More →
The Big Picture (from Boston.com): Dakar Rally 2010. (37 photos total) The 31st running of the Dakar Rally is being held in South America for the second year, instead of the traditional African route, due to ongoing security concerns. This year’s race began and will end in Buenos Aires, covering a looping 9,000 kilometers between Argentina and Chile over 14 stages. 362 Teams began the race with 176 motorcycles and quad bikes, 134 cars, and 52 trucks. The race is just over halfway completed... Read the rest of this entry »
Spot Prawns are the largest shrimp on the west coast of North America. I stuck a ruler in the photograph at the left so you can see that these shrimp are no shrimps. They are over 8 inches (20 cm) long. The Spot Prawn (Pandalus platyceros) have four white spots on the abdominal segments – you can see one of them in the photo near the top of the first segment. A few of these happen to have roe, also. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, “Spot prawns change sex as they grow. They spend... Read the rest of this entry »
I got a nice Black Friday deal on a JETBeam RRT-0 flashlight from the people at LightJunction.com. I read bondr006’s great review on Candlepowerforums and it looked like a really nice little light. The main feature of the JETBeam RRT series is the ability to adjust the brightness to different levels by turning the Rapid Response Control Ring at the base of the head. The RRT-0 is also versatile because it can use 3.0V CR123 primary batteries, 16340 3.7V rechargeable Lithium batteries, 1.5V... Read the rest of this entry »
I follow @twisst on Twitter. twisst gives you alerts from its Twitter account when the International Space Station (ISS) will be passing over your exact location. The International Space Station AND the Space Shuttle (STS-129) flew over our house tonight at the same time. I made a 30 second time exposure and the ISS and the Shuttle each made their own track. There’s a bigger version on Flickr. Read More →
A few years ago, I was remembering Buzz-A-Rama, the slot car track in Brooklyn and some of my slot car experiences in New York. I found this nice video by Rahul Chadha on Buzz and the track in Brooklyn. It looks like it’s still supported by parties for kids. I didn’t see any indication of organized racing, e.g., USRA (United Slot Racers Association) or ISRA (International Slot Racing Association). The track was never on those circuits when I used to go there. I wondered how Buzz could... Read the rest of this entry »
Dubrow’s Cafeteria, 515 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, circa 1983 Read More →
On my drives from New York City to the Catskills to go fishing on the Beaverkill River, I always took Route 17, because it was a little more interesting. Off the George Washington Bridge, I’d take Route 4 in New Jersey and then NJ 17 near the Garden State Plaza. Once I crossed back into New York near Suffern, the surroundings started to change from urban to rural. On Route 17 in Southfields, New York, was The Red Apple Rest. I probably first went by there in the late 70’s. I took this... Read the rest of this entry »
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