Whales

On one of my stop-overs in Cairns, Australia on the way to PNG (See Palms of Kikori, PNG), I took a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef to have a look at the coral and sea life.  During the trip out to the reef, a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) breached the water several times and started slapping it's massive flukes on the ocean surface.  I managed to get my video camera out in time. 

Heirloom Tomatoes

We found a bunch of old seed packets in one of the kitchen cabinets when we bought our house.  We planted them this spring. Got some delicious cucumbers, nice squash, and a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes.  This has been a great year for tomatoes, and I eat sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaf salad several times a week. Building the raised bed in the backyard was a good idea (thx, Elysa).

Mordant

Indonesian weaver from Flores Barat (see Threads of Life) coming out of the forest with a load of loba (Symplocos spp.) leaves.  The leaves are used as a mordant to fix the natural dyes that they use to color their textiles. Like the one that she is wearing. She has a big smile on her face because loba trees are quite rare where she lives, and she is usually forced to buy the leaves at an exorbitant price in the market. [NOTE: The bundle that she is carrying easily contains enough mordant for several years.] 

Logging Chains

Close-up of  logging chains in the back of one of the old trucks at NohBec in the Selva Maya of Quintana Roo, Mexico (see Selva Maya, Selva Maya II, and Radiator Cap). I got some funny looks when I took this picture. 

Field Books

Dr. Ninh Khac Ban from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (see Which Rattan is That? and An Unusual Rattan) arrived in New York last week. He brought with him 15 orange field books (shown above on the floor of my office) filled with inventory data from six Nature Reserves in the Central Truong Son Mountains of Vietnam (see Rattan Workshop and Glimpses of Transects). Over a period of eight months, our inventory crews completed 960 rattan transects, and counted, measured, identified, and spatially referenced 175, 295 rattans. This is arguably the largest quantitative inventory of rattans ever conducted. [NOTE: I am giddy at the possibilities here].

Mauk Chee Kyein

Close-up of the fruits of Calamus flagellum var. flagellum collected along the Ledo Road in Kachin State, Myanmar (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey). The species, which is rarely used, is known locally as mauk chee kyein, or monkey poop rattan. The dried fruits, apparently, look like monkey scat.

We Are Just a Star

The lower left of the image above shows the Earth, as well as the much smaller Moon to Earth's right.  The image was taken by NASA's Messenger spacecraft at a distance of 114 million miles from Earth. Just another dot in the sky. Puts a lot of things in perspective. [CREDIT: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington].

Module 33

This is a clip of Nik Bärtsch's Ronin live at the 2006 Berlin Jazz Festival. The Swiss pianist and his talented quintet play an entrancing brand of minimalist, ethnic jazz that has been termed "Zen funk". Additional videos and music clips can be found here. Nik Bärtsch has been getting a lot of play in my lab this summer. [NOTE: Yes, he is palm muting the piano]. 

Catskill Still Life

Black and white shot of the oil tank and furnace shed behind one of the buildings at Camp Deerpark (see Elias Drops a White Pine and Diverging Paths). [NOTE: I love the stovepipe, hand pump, and tiny windows].

Mile 7 Camp

I found this image after yesterday's post. This is what the basecamp at Mile 7 on the Ledo Road looked like. I was camped in the little blue dome tent on the far right.  I had climbed up the hill to visit the monkey at the military camp. [NOTE: The logical flow in these posts can be a bit like a Möebius strip, at times].