you need your camera for this one...

I noticed something this weekend about Bill and my picture taking styles, and now I'm taking a poll...

Which eye do you use when you take pictures with an SLR? I've always used my left eye (which is now causing a problem as I get nose grease on the display screen of our digital SLR - obviously made for people who use their right eye). When I pointed this out to Bill he thought I was crazy and that all people used their right eyes when looking through the view-finder.

I am wondering if using different eyes accounts for the differences in the photos we take as well. So we sat down and picked out some photos that we thought were typical of our style.

Here are some of Bill's:







And here are some of mine:







The differences are even more apparent when we take pictures of the same subject, such as DC's panda statues that were all over town:

Bill:



Me:



I did some searching around and found info from the American Psychological Association that gave this background in an article:

...prior research, which has indicated that the left hemisphere is adept at processing visual "parts," while the right hemisphere is more adept at analyzing visual "wholes."

Bill likes wholes:



And I go for parts:



Now this seems contradictory as we know the left side of your body is controlled by your right brain, and this is the opposite of our apparent styles (unless in art you are looking for something to explain what your brain is lacking?). But this might be an oversimplification - this site (Figure 3) has some info and so does photo.net.
Our vision can be broken into four parts - left and right sides of left eye and left and right sides of right eye. What you see from the left side of each eye goes to your right brain and the right sides of each eye go to your left brain. So maybe I favor the right side of my left eye?

I really want there to be something cool in all this, so I'm taking a poll...

Which eye do you use when taking photos and how would you describe your photographic style? (And show us some pictures to prove it)

Bug Juice

An insect pest that causes millions of dollars in damage might turn out to be a cheap source of fuel.

Termites eat wood and, unlike most animals, they can extract energy from it. But they don't do it alone. A variety of bacteria living in theinsect's gut do the work. Some of them break down wood fiber and produce sugars for the termite. That process produces hydrogen as a byproduct,which is then used by other bacteria in the gut. Falk Warnecke is a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute in California.These microbes make termites the most efficient hydrogen producers on the planet: From a single sheet of printer paper, a termite can produce two liters of the valuable gas.

The trick is to figure out which bacteria make hydrogen, and which enzymes they use to do it. With this information you could replicate those enzymes in mass quantities to produce hydrogen on a commercial scale. What's more, you could fuel the process with agricultural and industrial waste -- lumber-mill tailings, scrap cardboard, and the endless tons of corn husks and sugarcane stalks that are burned or discarded because they're too tough for farm animals to eat. "It's kind of recycling, making use of what's already there," says Warnecke.

SOURCES: U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute; online at:http://www.jgi.doe.gov/

"Bug Juice: Could termite guts hold the key to the world's energyproblems?" in the Eastbay Express (September 7, 2005); online at:http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2005-09-07/news/feature.html

How they play it on the West Coast...

Only because I posted the Chronic-WHAT-cles of NARNIA!!! video a while back, here's the West Coast response... let the rap battle commence!!!!!!!

Favorite Place: US Virgin Islands National Park

Our favorite National Park....

The island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands is a nature lovers
playground.



St. John and the rest of what we now know as the US Virgin Islands were named by Christpoher Columbus while on his second voyage in 1493. Originally settled byw he native Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks, the islands underwent several changes of European management until they became Danish colonies in 1754. During World War I, The US purchased the islands from Denmark, fearing that they would otherwise become a German submarine base. By the 1930s, St. John had built a reputation as "the untouched jewel" of the Carribean. Seeing this a Rockefeller boutht up most of the land on the island and built a resort at Caneel Bay. The rest of the land ,some 5000 plus acres I believe, including the most desireable north shore beaches, was then transferred to the US government for use as a national park, thus ensuring that the Caneel Bay resort would have minimal competition and the island would remain pristine.



The US Virgin Island National Park now occupies over 60% of St. John and extends well off shore to protect the coral reef communities. During his last days in office, President Clinton, seeking greater protection for coral reefs, established the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, which includes 12,708 acres (51 km²) of federal submerged lands within the 3 mile (5 km) belt off of Saint John.

We visited St. John last April, and will do so again this coming March, and perhaps we will every year! While there, we camped in the National Park at the Cinnamon Bay campground. The campground (named for the native cinnamon trees) provides sturdy, semi-permanent tents (with 4 cots each), picnic table, propane lantern, stove, dishes, linens, etc. for as little as 55.00 a night. They also have bare sites if you choose to bring your own tent and gear for much less, and rigid cabin type accomodations with electricity and ceiling fans for a bit more. Getting
to St. John requires a 5 hour flight from DC to St. Thomas (STT), followed by a 20 minute cab ride to Red Hook or Charlotte Amalie, and a 30 or 45 minute ferry ride to Cruz Bay on St. John. Figure on it taking 8 hours to get to the park from the East Coast, but with airfare for as low as 99.00 per person each way from DC, it is highly affordable. Getting around on St. John is very easy and affordable, by "taxi", but you can also rent a 4x4 jeep very easily from one of the many local
rental shop in Cruz Bay for a few days and tool around a bit yourself (can be scary... steep, windy roads)


Activities - Once you get there, pretty much involve being outside. Hiking (tallest point on the tiny island is at ~ 1800 feet - climb to the top!), searching for wild oranges / coconuts / mangoes, etc..., birding, chasing anoles and iguanas, talking to donkeys and mongoose, lounging around, checking out the archeological sites ( ruins of 17th and 18th century sugar plantations ) drinking rum, but mostly...
snorkeling. The snorkeling is superb, largely due to the protections the island has historically enjoyed. There is a guided underwater snorkeling trail at Trunk Bay, which is considered to be one of the 10 finest beaches in the world. This beach is also the busiest beach, by far. It can become quite populated with cruise ship tourists on excursions from their ships that have made port at St. Thomas. Watching them can be amusing though! Elsewhere on the island, it is not difficult to find an empty beach. Even at Cinnamon Bay near the campground, there will be very few people at the beach, and it is not uncommon to be the ONLY
person on the beach!!!




Some of the best sorkeling we saw was around Waterlemon Cay. It's here that we saw barracuds, a 5 foot shark, several stingrays, a spotted eagle ray, and a green sea turtle, and giant sea stars, all in water that was 10-40 ft. deep with a forest of different corals and thousands of different fish. It is also here that a mongoose unzipped our backpack and ate our lunch. It is also here than a donkey tried to take our pretzels, the only part of our lunch that the mongoose left us!



It was for us, a trip of pure relaxation; wake up, go snorkeling on a deserted beach, have some lunch, take a hike, go snorkeling some more, watch the stars, go to sleep. If you are turned off by the megadeveloped Carribean cruise ship destinations, I would highly suggest checking out St. John and the USVI National Park. You can spend an entire week there for only ~$1000.00 per couple, airfare included!

St. John is so wonderful, I could go one all day. For a short video clip of some activites (mostly us standing around..., drinking rum) in St. John, click HERE.

Ants teach

This is cool.

Ants Are First Non-Humans to Teach, Study Says

...they raced along a tabletop foraging for food -- and then, remarkably, returned to guide others.

Time and again, followers trailed behind leaders, darting this way and that along the route, presumably to memorize landmarks. Once a follower got its bearings, it tapped the leader with its antennae, prompting the lesson to literally proceed to the next step.

The ants were only looking for food, but the researchers said the careful way the leaders led followers -- thereby turning them into leaders in their own right -- marked the Temnothorax albipennis ant as the very first example of a non-human animal exhibiting teaching behavior.

I once read, but have not been able to verify, that if you look at a species brain size in proportion to the rest of their body that ants have a bigger brain than any other speices, including humans.

Favorite City

Bill is going to post on my favorite National Park in a bit. And my favorite “off the beaten path” kind of places are dynamic. So I'll take a stab at favorite city -- with the disclaimer that Arlington is a county and not a city. Therefore, while I really love where I live, I can't vote for it.

Two summers ago Bill and I took a week to drive around the south to see where we would end up. Our first stop was Savannah, GA where we spent two nights – one in a campground and one in a hotel with air conditioning. The campground very hot which might explain why a little snake that we met (not more than 2 feet long) was so active. We can't positively ID him, but Bill considers him a baby garter snake, even though he was the most aggressive little thing we'd ever seen – including the lazy alligator we met at a nearby wildlife refuge (see video).

We spent some time biking around Savannah's squares (see Forrest Gump) and looking at all the old houses and Spanish Moss which make the city very moody. We ate at Clary's Cafe (read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) for breakfast and I tried grits, which were gross. For dinner we stopped in a little cafe and I had scallops to die for and the best summer drink known to man...a mint julep. I don't know how I lived life without them for so long and I've considered moving to the deep south in order to really enjoy their amazing restorative powers. Mmmmm.

Savannah was also the first place where I've ever had a drink while walking down the street. There are no open container laws so you can go to a bar and get drinks to go!! At night we went to the tourist area where street performers play by the river and gift shops sell the hokiest things you've ever seen. But its all very nice when you take it in with a slushy alcoholic drink in your hand!

My favorite part was when we were on our bike ride and it started to rain. I loved sitting under a tree in a square with ridiculous humidity while listening to church bells chime and the rain fall. Savannah rocks!

Favorite Place

I have started working again on my "to go" list of places that I would like to visit/spend time in at some point. Chris and I used this format when we lived in KY and made a list of all the places nearby that we wanted to get to while we lived in that part of the country. Then when we had time for a trip, we picked a place of the list based on distance, time, etc.

Lately we've noticed that there are a lot of places in NY that we have not explored yet. So I started new list of places local and beyond. Its a growing list, but I could use other input and recommendations.

I would love to hear what everyone's top 3 favorite places are- Categories are:
1) National Park/Forest/Etc.
2) City
3) Rural town/off-the-beaten path


Thanks!!

Photos of Gettysburg or Bellingham, Washington or the Mount Baker region?

I have a friend from high school who works for a company that publishes travel guides. On occassion she needs additional photos for the books they publish and she sends out a call for help. Currently, she is in need of picts from Gettysburg and Washington State. You don't get any money for your photo, but you would get a free copy of the book and you'd get to see your name in print! If you have any photos of the sort, let me know and I can put you in contact with Jen.

If anyone is interested I can post any of her future requests here too. She sends them out every couple of months.

Cheers!

Meme of the week:

You may have all seen this already, this week's meme brought to you by SNL:

Mr. Pibb plus Red Vines = CRAZY delicious!

Blogger Web Comments for Firefox

Just testing this out....

A new firefox plugin compiles blog comments about any webpage you are on and displays them in a little box on the lower right.

I'm adding a comment at the moment and am curious as to how it will appear on our blog. Looks like it's got a few kinks still (this little box is odd ) but it could be cool...

Read more at www.google.com/tools/fi...

Good Start to 206

Just wanted to say that Kevin and I had a really good time with everyone this New Year! It was very nice to relax in good company and not have to thinking about what we left behind. I always enjoy the conversations, laughter, and good food. Thank you, JoAnna and Bill, for setting it up this year and thank you to all of you who were great cooks. Hope everyone has a good week back at the desk.