Picasa and memory lane

So I have discovered picasa will allow me to select photos and directly publish to the blog... This is pretty cool.

Soooo, here are some to take us all down memory lane.

The first one is from the SC backpacking trip. Mud, horses, Maple zigzaging after rabbit scents, rain, rain, and did I mention the rain?

Kevin practicing for Karate Kid 4, although he doesn't look serious enough...

The next picture is from the first Algonquin canoe trip that was "ambitious." 17 beaver dam crossings (actually 34 because we went back the same way) loons, solitutude...

And finally, the Halloween run at Green Lakes SP. I think that one was on our fridge at Planet 504 for a while.



 

MPV - multipurpose vehicle?

 

I was reading the latest Bicycling magazine which has an article about small cars that are friendly bike-carrying, and they mentioned the MINI. So I feel compelled to post this picture of Bonnie hauling a kayak from our August canoe trip. Ahh, canoeing... While I wouldn't drive excessively fast, or corner like I want to, it is duable. So are three bikes or three people and a weekends worth of backpacking gear (as long as one is willing to be somewhat (really) cramped.

However, I can't hose out the inside. You need a jeep or element (preferably in Galapogos Green) to do that. 

crazy dog

I don't know why this is playing on the weather channel web site- but its funny

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=3393&collection=videocoll8&from=vid_brws2&tab=3&nav=118

Heres a good stumpie post

Check out this map of solar energy available

Sometimes when I stop and look at the big picture I have to ask WTF are we doing? And those numbers are from using photovoltaic cells, the worst of the bunch!

This rant came from my big plans with Kevin to build a stirling engine generator in the silo. I love wikipedia.

Canoeing pics

Check em out: http://theroadtohere.blogspot.com/2006/08/st-regis-canoe-area-adk.html

How Syracuse Are You?

My 10 Year High School reunion was this summer, and although I did not attend I am now on the mailing list serve and get a number of emails from a lot of people I have not seen in quite a while. This one was funny... I am not sure what it means, but almost all the questions are true for me- is that good or bad?! :)

______
Think you escaped Syracuse forever? Try this quiz and find out "How Syracuse are You?" http://www.quizie.com/test.php?testid=479387

Random Post: What is this?

Does this kind of art make any sense? I don't get it. It's the album cover from Joeseph Arthur's Come to Where I'm From. I guess album covers in general don't make much sense.

 

Strange Behavior by Polar Bears

Author: Bradford Lystra

The ice that covers the Arctic Ocean has been shrinking as the Earthgrows warmer, and that's making it harder for polar bears to hunt.Scientists have seen three recent examples where polar bears found foodby stalking, killing and eating other polar bears. The scientists havebeen studying polar bears in the Arctic for more than 30 years, and thisis the first time they've documented this sort of cannibalism.Steven Amstrup leads polar bear research for the US Geological Survey atits Alaska Science Center. He helped write a report that was publishedthis spring in the journal Polar Biology. He says the bears might besuffering from changes in the Arctic climate."The sea ice has been changing dramatically. It has pulled away from thenorth coast much farther then it used to. This may place polar bears ina disadvantage nutritionally. They're either stuck on land where thereis essentially nothing for them to eat, or they have to go offshorewhere hunting opportunities may be more limited. These animals might bestressed and some of them might turn to cannibalism to survive."Polar bears occasionally kill each other and even eat each other, butthose incidents occur during fights over food or mating. Amstrup sayscannibalism is different. He says these bears were intentionallystalking and killing other polar bears.Amstrup says the loss of ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is a loss ofhabitat for the polar bears"It's critical to understand that polar bears are entirely dependent onthe sea ice for their nutrition."Environmental groups recently signed a petition to ask the U.S.government to list the bears as a threatened species. The U.S. Fish andWildlife Service is responsible for making a decision.


---------------Earthwatch Radio is a public service of the Sea Grant Institute and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Here I come...

Oo this is gonna be a big one I can just tell: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/115550.shtml?5day

Photos

A couple of considerations for those who collect desktop backgrounds: 1) a picture by Dr. James Gibbs of an area where he held a "bio-blitz" or something like that this past summer, and B) A picture of a falling lake from Plitvice Nat'l Park in Croatia.


 

Hot. Wish I had some popsicles. Hope y'all are staying cool today. Forecast temp here is 100 degrees. In honor of the heat, here are some pretty bad jokes that I found HERE. and other places...


You Know It's Hot Outside When...

You've been getting hot flashes, and you're a man.

The hot-dogs sold outside Yankee Stadium are actually hot.

You need a spatula to remove your clothing.

When the beer gut and big butt don't keep you from wearing shorts.

You notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.



Be cool.

oops

Has anyone ever typed in "stumpies.com" instead of stumpies.blogspot.com?
What IS that?

new music

I'm in search of new music. What have you all been listening to lately? I'm in a contemplative Garden-State-Soundtrack kind of phase.

A few days ago I heard a Jerusalem by Dan Bern and have been obsessed with it since. It's rather old, so you may know it already, but if not give it a listen.

Does anyone have any music recommendations?

Long time, to writie

So, it has been a little while since kev and i wrote anything. All is well in Albany. Session is over (thank goodness) and Kev is enjoying the summer golf league! We signed up for a stained glass class that starts in July. Here is a potpourri of pictures from the past few months. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer sun!! Cheers!

Bees

The new house is actually a small farm, with a barn and lots of pasture, a silo, an old apple orchard, etc. We'll post some pics of the outside soon but we already have a beehive and below are some pics kelly took.



 

We closed on our new house in Lafayette a couple of weeks ago, we finally have some pics to share. First is the kitchen (with some of the sellers crap left behind), and then the kitchen after me and my dad and Jon got done with it this weekend (obviously the new tile floor, cabinets, and appliances are not in yet). Maple and Jingles love the place now, horses to chase next door, pigeons to chase in the back yard, a big barn to run around in (with tasty manure still in it), and no crazy cats (yet). We hope to move in at the end of the month.



 

ESF's willows

http://www.news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=70056&

A Texas company is looking for NY farmers with land to plant and harvest willow shrubs.

Finally posting some drunk picts...

These are photos of photos, so the quality is a bit icky -- but the memories (or lack thereof) are good!






There was a lot of giggling going on.

Yellow, anyone?

From HappyNews.com

Fashion-wise, yellow is the new black this season in Thailand. Yellow shirts, honoring the country's beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 60th anniversary of his ascension to the throne, are so popular that there aren't enough to go around....Suppliers say they're running out of shirts, and buyers complain they are being gouged by sellers.

Perhaps Kevin can send them some extras?

A goodie from the photo archive...

First New Year's Celebration on Rainbow Lake.

Name that bird...

We don't have many pics from the WSB, here's our mystery bird from Brig. A simple cormorant? A Great Cormorant? An Anhinga? ...you decide.

Random post...

Ladies with red hats in the gardens at Mount Vernon...

Trillium in Bloom

ESF on Science Friday

I saw this ESF Insider or something but almost forgot about it.

ESF is hosting Science Friday with Ira Flatow today. You can listen online starting at 2:00.

It's very exciting.

USS Oriskany

Saw this in WaPo this morning.

My favorite part:

It took just 37 minutes for the 888-foot USS Oriskany to slip beneath the waves of the Gulf of Mexico.

As hundreds of veterans looked on solemnly, the Navy blew holes in the retired aircraft carrier Wednesday, sending vessel to the bottom of the sea and creating the world's largest manmade reef.

The rusted hulk became completely submerged about 4 1/2 hours faster than predicted, after more than 500 pounds of plastic explosives went off with bright flashes of light and clouds of brown and gray smoke.

Boy did someone get those calculations wrong...

WSB 2006

Our full photobook is here, but below are some snaps from our WSB event in the Garden State. We saw 75 species of birds, a pod of dolphins, some overtly zealous birding groups, and various other wildlife.


 

Here's a cause big enough for my appetite

May is eat local month.

Kyoto, Iraq and Irony

Saw this online and wanted to share:

Is Kyoto Cheaper than Iraq?

University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein thinks so. He makes the case in today's Washington Post:

For the United States, the cost of the Iraq war will soon exceed the anticipated cost of the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement designed to control greenhouse gases. For both, the cost is somewhere in excess of $300 billion. These numbers show that the Bush administration was unrealistically optimistic in its prewar prediction that the total cost would be about $50 billion. And the same numbers raise questions about the Bush administration's claim that the cost of the Kyoto Protocol would be prohibitive, causing (in President Bush's own words) "serious harm to the U.S. economy."

The incidence of the two costs is not equivalent. Iraq is funded from general tax revenues while any Kyoto-style policy would be likely to increase energy prices. For some, these distributional differences may matter. Moreover, Kyoto represents but a tiny downpayment toward an emission stabilization policy. (Of course, one might say the same about Iraq and its relation to the overall war on terror.)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the EU's fledgling carbon trading market has experienced tremendous price volatility, due in part to an over-allocation of emission credits. Europe has yet to impose real limits on its own carbon emissions, and questions remain how effectively its carbon trading market will reduce the cost of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The comments on the post bring up some tired points about China and India, but also point out some flaws in the logic of the costs not being equivalent. I don't really know much about Kyoto as a specific program, but I have been reading about Europe struggling to meet its goals.

The more interesting connection to me, is what we are willing to expend financially and in terms of American and Iraqi lives to not change our current lifestyle. And that a bulk of our decision to go to war over oil, rather than reduce our use of the product is due to the rhetoric and marketing of some oil men.

Any thoughts on this or the original blog posts comparison of the two costs?

Jingle Pictures

WSB lists!!!

Well, as promised, here is our list from last year, when it was just us and Jon, I do believe. The amazing paper plate, which has been in the back seat of the car for nearly an entire year!

For those of you interested in the list from 2004, you can find it at the end of the video below. Compare what we've seen with the comprehansive list of 321 NJ species available HERE.

Digiscoping Whiteface Mountain

Here's a sample digiscoping pic from the New Years house. Can pic out the skiers that are a few miles away. The atmospheric distortion over several miles really limited the resolution. Taken with (our former non-waterproof) Nikon Coolpix 4600 and the 90 mm Mak -cassegrain scope that I had up there. 1/193s, f/4.9, ISO 50.

Designer Porta-Jons

Hello everyone,
I came across this link today for designer Porta-Jons for wedding and other "upscale" events. I thought they were funny. http://www.blacktieservices.com/Products/products.asp

Kevin

Bird-a-thon

Has anyone tried this digiscoping thing? Kelly and I read about it in that book about the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker (lame book) written by one of the birdathon regulars for the cornell team. It seems you look through one lens of your binoculars at the bird and hold your digital camera up to the other lens? Apparently it ranges from that simple to very expensive setups with spotting scopes, attachments to the camera, etc.

Anyways it will be fun to try for this years's birdathon, eh? We gonna meet at High-point state park again? I promide not to attack any bears... but if the park rangers come around and make me dump my booze again I may attack one of them (Whos got my back on THAT one?)

We must formulate a driving strategy to get to different parts of the state this time. And I am gonna make up a huge vat of mac and cheese to keep me going all day.

Moskals, do we have the species list from last time?

Crazy Rabbits...

Monster Rabbit Stalks U.K. Village (But No Sign of Wallace or Gromit)
t's a scenario straight out of a Wallace and Gromit movie: An enormousrabbit is laying waste to vegetable plots in an English village, accordingto reports.The news was first dismissed as an April Fool's joke. But residents ofFelton in northeast England have confirmed that a huge, floppy-earedcreature is leaving behind giant paw prints and a trail of destroyedcarrots, leeks, onions, and turnips following nighttime raids...............
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0411_060411_rabbit.html


Carnivorous rabbits running wild on island
Robben Island museum should call in Wallace and Gromit.While the island doesnot have any of the Were-Rabbits - which the clay duo fought off sosuccessfully that they won an Oscar - it appears the island may beharbouring something even scarier: hundreds of flesh-eating rabbits.Although there is no hard evidence...............
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20060411020211453C629808

Just in time for this lovely cold front, we're finally posting some pictures from our trip to St. John last month. It was much different this year than last because we were there during spring break. We didn't think college kids would be interested in the park because it's hard to get to and there isn't much to do besides snorkeling and hiking once you get there. But there were lots of spring breakers around -- college kids and families with school aged kids.

We only took our small digital camera this year and we had a waterproof housing for it, but on the day with the best snorkeling the housing started leaking (Murphy's Law of underwater picture taking?) So we don't have very many pictures (or a small digital camera anymore) but here are a few.








There was also a neat incident with a donkey. They are like bears in the National Park and enjoy eating camper's food. Last year we didn't see any at the campsite, but they must have been brought in by the large population of campers this year. We were sitting at our campsite playing cards when we heard a crash and realized that the donkeys had pushed our neighbors food bin off their picinic table and started munching on all their goodies. It was a mom and her baby -- perhaps she was teaching her offspring how to find it's own food? Our other neighbors said a donkey had poked it's head inside their tent earlier in the week while they were in bed and tried to break into their food bin.

Happy Friday!

Friday is like pizza, how can you have a bad friday? Well, here's one way:

It's tourist time in the city

It's spring here now and the tourists have invaded. If it's still snowy and cold where you are, have hope -- warm weather is coming your way eventually.