Are aliens edible? It gives a whole new meaning to "Gray" Poupon.
Do the xenomorphs from "Aliens" produce that sound lobsters make when boiled?
Help find the answers to these and other culinary E.T. queries.
I'm pondering the creation of new blog for this very topic. If anyone reads this, let me know what you think and if you'd like to participate.
23 August 2008
05 August 2008
Weather hysteria
I just spent an hour photographing everything I would hope our renters insurance would help us replace in the event of a terrible storm.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore alerted me to the possibility of severe storms overnight. He even had some new name (to me) for this particular type of storm, describing it as potentially worse than pinpoint tornadic events because of it's hundreds of miles wide front of high winds. To my ears he was describing this as something worse than the more common 'bow echo' of a storm, which usually indicates a concentrated area of high damaging winds.
As usual, these storms could produce lightning, strong winds, and damaging hail, and according to the panic mongers, er... weather reporters (some even full-fledged Meteorologists), these storms had already wreaked havoc through northern Illinois and Indiana. Local news, WHIO specifically, was quite subdued (for once), probably because they expect far fewer people to be watching this late at night.
Just as I was taking all this in, the wanted to go outside, so we leashed up and headed out. I hoped she would take care of her business before the storm came through so she wouldn't face the distress of having to wait it out. I urged her to go, but she was more interested in trying to spot one of the local stray cats that constantly trouble her thoughts and haunt her dreams. Also, the sky was lighting up like the Las Vegas strip was floating overhead. The entire horizon, my complete field of view, peripheral and all was outlining the leading edge of the oncoming front. The flashes were growing noticeably brighter by the second, the temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up. Since the dog had gone number one and showed no interest in anything more even though she was overdue for number two, I urged her back inside.
Shortly, I heard rain begin to fall. The lightning intensified and the thunderstrikes became more urgent. I was in a bit of a fit. Thunderstorms themselves don't bother me too much. I used to sit and try to photograph lightning with my old Casio QV-11 camera. That camera was slow enough that by the time the split second of lighting registered on the sensor, I had already had time to hit the shutter button, having seen the flash with my own eyes. Success depended on me watching the storm intently and trying to have the camera pointed in the right direction. I had a nice collection of lightning shots, but lost the best in a hard drive crash, before there was such a thing as free online storage... heck, before broadband was available in my area... about 10 years ago. Anyway, it's not the thunder and lightning that bother me, it's the wind. Wind is the thing that commonly leaves the most evidence of it's passing.
So I spent an hour documenting as many of our possessions as I could in as much detail as possible at the time. I wasn't going to get the serial numbers because there wasn't time for that much detail and I didn't want to risk playing with the wiring during a storm.
Why I've never felt the urge to do this before is anyone's guess. But a couple of things inspired me. Ever since the tsunami a few years ago, I've been aware of an intriguing concept. Digital media survives disasters.
Cameras found at the site after the disaster were ruined, their owners were likely deceased, but the memory chips, solid wafers of circuitry, remained intact and simply had to be dried and slipped into a card reader to retrieve what may be the first pictures ever seen by the public-at-large of the ocean as it withdrew from the shoreline just before the tsunami struck. Supposing you are the person on the beach at that time taking such pictures, it was probably the last thing you ever saw, unless you happened to be lucky enough to be taking such pictures from a helicopter or something. But your pictures survived and serve to show the world just what it was like. Thank you for clicking that camera, whoever you may have been.
I was reminded of this digital media survivability just last night while reading an old issue of WIRED, in a story about an amazing team of salvagers who bring cargo ships and other large seagoing vessels back from the brink of disaster. Near the end of the article the tsunami was mentioned reminding me of those camera chips. So, that's most likely what urged me to document our living room, dining room, kitchen, counter appliances, dinnerware, glassware, furniture, computers, peripherals, audio/video system, gaming equipment, other electronics, and our libraries of DVDs, CDs, Laser Discs, and, naturally, books. I even took photos of the contents of the pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator. I took wide angle shots of the rooms to illustrate the whole of our possessions, I narrowed it down to desks, shelves, the entertainment center, to show things in context. I then snapped shots of individual items such as the DVD player, the TV, my printer and scanner. I finished it off with close-ups showing the make and model logos.
The storm passed before I finished. I finished anyway so I could do the serial numbers in the future when things aren't so pressed for time.
Now that the storm has passed and there is no fear of another cropping up while I sleep, I've taken the dog out and she's done the whole of her business. There's still some lightning to the southeast, the ground is wet, with the sounds of water dripping off the roofs and crickets, and I found this:
It seems my fear of wind damage wasn't totally unfounded after all.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore alerted me to the possibility of severe storms overnight. He even had some new name (to me) for this particular type of storm, describing it as potentially worse than pinpoint tornadic events because of it's hundreds of miles wide front of high winds. To my ears he was describing this as something worse than the more common 'bow echo' of a storm, which usually indicates a concentrated area of high damaging winds.
As usual, these storms could produce lightning, strong winds, and damaging hail, and according to the panic mongers, er... weather reporters (some even full-fledged Meteorologists), these storms had already wreaked havoc through northern Illinois and Indiana. Local news, WHIO specifically, was quite subdued (for once), probably because they expect far fewer people to be watching this late at night.
Just as I was taking all this in, the wanted to go outside, so we leashed up and headed out. I hoped she would take care of her business before the storm came through so she wouldn't face the distress of having to wait it out. I urged her to go, but she was more interested in trying to spot one of the local stray cats that constantly trouble her thoughts and haunt her dreams. Also, the sky was lighting up like the Las Vegas strip was floating overhead. The entire horizon, my complete field of view, peripheral and all was outlining the leading edge of the oncoming front. The flashes were growing noticeably brighter by the second, the temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up. Since the dog had gone number one and showed no interest in anything more even though she was overdue for number two, I urged her back inside.
Shortly, I heard rain begin to fall. The lightning intensified and the thunderstrikes became more urgent. I was in a bit of a fit. Thunderstorms themselves don't bother me too much. I used to sit and try to photograph lightning with my old Casio QV-11 camera. That camera was slow enough that by the time the split second of lighting registered on the sensor, I had already had time to hit the shutter button, having seen the flash with my own eyes. Success depended on me watching the storm intently and trying to have the camera pointed in the right direction. I had a nice collection of lightning shots, but lost the best in a hard drive crash, before there was such a thing as free online storage... heck, before broadband was available in my area... about 10 years ago. Anyway, it's not the thunder and lightning that bother me, it's the wind. Wind is the thing that commonly leaves the most evidence of it's passing.
So I spent an hour documenting as many of our possessions as I could in as much detail as possible at the time. I wasn't going to get the serial numbers because there wasn't time for that much detail and I didn't want to risk playing with the wiring during a storm.
Why I've never felt the urge to do this before is anyone's guess. But a couple of things inspired me. Ever since the tsunami a few years ago, I've been aware of an intriguing concept. Digital media survives disasters.
Cameras found at the site after the disaster were ruined, their owners were likely deceased, but the memory chips, solid wafers of circuitry, remained intact and simply had to be dried and slipped into a card reader to retrieve what may be the first pictures ever seen by the public-at-large of the ocean as it withdrew from the shoreline just before the tsunami struck. Supposing you are the person on the beach at that time taking such pictures, it was probably the last thing you ever saw, unless you happened to be lucky enough to be taking such pictures from a helicopter or something. But your pictures survived and serve to show the world just what it was like. Thank you for clicking that camera, whoever you may have been.
I was reminded of this digital media survivability just last night while reading an old issue of WIRED, in a story about an amazing team of salvagers who bring cargo ships and other large seagoing vessels back from the brink of disaster. Near the end of the article the tsunami was mentioned reminding me of those camera chips. So, that's most likely what urged me to document our living room, dining room, kitchen, counter appliances, dinnerware, glassware, furniture, computers, peripherals, audio/video system, gaming equipment, other electronics, and our libraries of DVDs, CDs, Laser Discs, and, naturally, books. I even took photos of the contents of the pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator. I took wide angle shots of the rooms to illustrate the whole of our possessions, I narrowed it down to desks, shelves, the entertainment center, to show things in context. I then snapped shots of individual items such as the DVD player, the TV, my printer and scanner. I finished it off with close-ups showing the make and model logos.
The storm passed before I finished. I finished anyway so I could do the serial numbers in the future when things aren't so pressed for time.
Now that the storm has passed and there is no fear of another cropping up while I sleep, I've taken the dog out and she's done the whole of her business. There's still some lightning to the southeast, the ground is wet, with the sounds of water dripping off the roofs and crickets, and I found this:
It seems my fear of wind damage wasn't totally unfounded after all.
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