Henry's Webiocosm Blog

Formation of Cumulus Clouds From Burning Wheat Fields, Time-lapse

2008-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Time-lapse Burning Wheatfiels, 640x480, .mov, 8.6 mb 51 sec

For the last few weeks, farmers have been finishing their wheat harvest and burning the stubble to prepare the field for the next crop (the value and safety of this practice is debated), mostly soybeans around here. On this hot, humid day I saw some huge beautiful cumulonimbus clouds forming as a result of these burning fields. By the time I was able to get home and get out to our farm to set up for shooting, the clouds were not as impressive. I was impressed, though by the number of distant fields I was able to get, just in this frame, in this hour and a half period. At the top of some of these plumes of smoke, you can see the condensation, which is where they turn fluffy and white, before it cools and drops a bit then evaporates again. This time-lapse video was made last week using my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software with my old Dell laptop. I took 1400 pics at a rate of 1 picture every 4 seconds. I made the music with Sony Acid Music Studio.

For the record, although I was involved with burning a few fields when I was younger, my family's farm hasn't grown wheat in the last couple of years so don't gripe at me if you are opposed to this practice. Here is a somewhat neutral story about the debate over this practice of burning wheat stubble from reflector.com. Also here is a recent letter and thread with some good old down home fussin' about whether to burn or not to burn from DailyAdvance.com in Elizabeth City, N.C.

You can see this time-lapse video of the burning wheat fields at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

Friday Herplogging - Red-eared Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans

2008-06-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

This is a red-eared slider, Trachymys scripta elegans. It is one of 4 subspecies of a turtle known as sliders. This turtle is commonly found in the south central and south eastern U. S. The most distinguishing characteristic of this turtle is the horizontal red patch behind each eye, though they are not actually ears as the name would imply. This one was found in the garage of my neighbor and kept as a pet for a few days by their young daughter who is almost always holding on to some kind of little creature. Red-eared sliders are commonly kept and sold as pets. Because of their size as adults, their longevity and their heavy trade, they are also frequently dumped in both native and non-native habitats and are therefore considered invasive species in some areas such as Florida.

Pictured above is the carapace, which is smooth, slightly domed and hard. The color and markings are usually yellow-green to green and can darken to black with increasing age, especially in males. The rear of the carapace is mildly serrated.

The plastron pictured above is hingeless, and is yellow with dark markings in the center of each scute.

The above picture is a close-up of the serrations along the rear of the carapace.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

This and other animals can be seen anytime at the Webiocosm Zoo.

Tiger, Your're a Freak. Plinko is your game.

2008-06-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's not so much that I love Tiger Woods, but I love drama in sports, and he just caused some spectacular drama. Tiger Woods, just rimmed in a 12 foot birdie putt on the final hole of the U. S. Open at Torrey Pines to force a playoff against Rocco Mediate tomorrow. They both finished tied through 72 holes at 1-under par. I have to say that at this point the U.S. Open is Woods' to lose. I will be following closely tomorrow. What did he say about the wobbly put that went in? He made a reference to playing the game Plinko from 'The Price is Right'. You never know what is going to happen. However, Mediate said he knew that Tiger would hit the shot.
Here is the video on YouTube but it probably won't last long.

Cumulonimbus Clouds, Time-lapse

2008-06-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

I just filmed this time-lapse video a couple of hours ago. It was late in the day and I was out pushing my 6 month-old boy through the neighborhood when I realized that there was an incredible number of cumulonimbus clouds booming all over. I went back home and got all my gear out, but I have such a limited range of viewing from my home due to trees, houses and hills that I was lucky to get this shot between the trees. I was filming the clouds in the first scene when it suddenly got much darker and my neighbors alerted me to the nasty looking clouds coming at us from behind. I turned the camera around and started filming. I should have left everything alone there so the film would have been smoother. Oh, well practice makes perfect. The pictures were taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software. I took one picture every 4 seconds. The movie was made with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps.

You can see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page or you can view my time-lapse and other videos at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

A Mother's Day Time-Lapse for You and Yours

2008-05-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Time-lapse, 640x480, .mov, 8 mb 25 sec.

This time-lapse video took about a week to make. I made it for my wife, the beautiful mother of my two wonderful children. I used beans for the I (heart) U on the top because I knew they would germinate first. I had no idea they would grew out of control. I used some flower seeds for the 'mom' part. Obviously they looked alot better. The music is just a sample piece from the Sony Acid Music Studio stock. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps.

You can see this Mother's day time-lapse video at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

You can also see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page.

How to Make a Time-lapse Video

2008-03-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

No, I am not going to tackle this, but Jay at MIlapse has intiated this undertaking in a YouTube series. Up to this point, he has made Timelapse Guide (The Basics - Part 1) and Timelapse Guide (Compact Digital Cameras - Part 2). So far so good.

Ten Days of Tulips - Time-lapse

2008-03-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Time-lapse Tulips Growing, 640x480, .mov, 9.9 mb 36 sec

I do believe that this is my best time-lapse yet. I just finished the filming a few days after easter. The pictures were taken at a rate of every fifteen minutes when the overhead grow light was on, or every 20 minutes when it was off. It was an attempt to simulate day and night. Finally I just left it on because it didn't seem to make much difference. I was really impressed with how much the plants moved and how the blooms would open in unison, even when there were no apparent changes in this otherwise completely dark room. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pictures back at 30 fps. I created and added the hip hop music using Sony Acid Music Studio. The music seemed appropriate given the movement of the tulips. You can see this tulip time-lapse video at my YouTube player page if you can't view quicktime videos.

You can also see my other time-lapse videos at my time-lapse home page.

Time-lapse March Clouds Over Reservoir

2008-03-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse Clouds, 640x480, .mov, 8.5 mb 38 sec

I am sure that I will eventually get tired of doing time-lapses and move on to something else, but I just can't quit thinking of all the different things I could film. The main thing I want to do with clouds is get some huge cumulonimbus clouds boiling up from a distance, but that will probably have to wait until summer. So in the meantime I am just trying lots of different things for practice, like this one. It was made on a very windy day beside a reservoir at sunset. It took approximately 1 and a half hours. I started at 1 picture per 5 seconds then decreased the frequency to every 4 seconds. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pics at 30 fps. I made the music with Sony Acid Music Studio. The YouTube version of this cloud time-lapse video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Fruit Lapse

2008-03-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse Decaying Fruit, 640x480, .mov, 6.7 mb 39 sec

This is a time-lapse video of some fruit - banana, apple chunks, kiwi, lemon, grapes- deteriorating over exactly 3 weeks. The pictures were taken several times per hour at first then the rate was slowed down to once per hour toward the end. It is played back at 30 fps initially the replayed at a much faster rate. I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software for the video and made the music using Sony Acid Music Studio. I think it turned out fairly well. The biggest problem with this one was that I got tired of the continuous loud whirring of the laptop used to control the camera so I shut it down and just used the intervalometer on the camera to take a picture every hour. In doing so, I unavoidably moved the camera a little which readjusted the focus and caused a few wobbles in the video. This change can be seen toward the end when the banana goes slightly out of focus. The YouTube version of this time-lapse decomposing fruit video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Circus of the Spineless #30

2008-02-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

Circus of the Spineless #30 is now up at A DC Birding Blog, so get on over and check it out.

Time-lapse Sunset Over Reservoir

2008-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Time-lapse sunset, 640x480, .mov, 9.8 mb 19 sec

This time-lapse video was made a couple of weeks ago with my new setup including the Canon PowerShot S3 IS and the Granite Bay Time-lapse software. I think it turned out fairly well for my first try. I made the accompanying music with my Sony Acid Music Studio software. It is kind of eerie, which was not really intentional, it just turned out that way. I had a couple of problems with the video. One was that I took the pictures every 5 seconds, which was too frequent for the mininmal action involved so I had to play it back at 60 fps rather than 30 fps. Also, my laptop ran out of power before the sun was completely down so it was cut short. I did like the contrails left behind as the jets flew over and I enjoy the appearance of the water as the wind died down and the water became perfectly still. The above video is a rather large file for the short time but is of fairly good quality. The YouTube version of this time-lapse sunset video is not quite as good but is a quicker download.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Arhtropod Friday: Triops, Triops longicaudatus

2008-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is a Triops, or Triops longicaudatus. It is in the class Branchiopoda and order Nostraca and is sometimes also referred to as a tadpole shrimp. This little crustacean was raised from an egg along with a bunch of other eggs that came in a kit called "Triassic Triops", which I purchased at a local hobby store. I was hoping to put the eggs in a small container and then make a time-lapse video of these things growing over a week or so. For many reasons it didn't work out but I have had a good time watching the two that made it. They are intersting because according to Wikipedia, Their external morphology has apparently not changed since the Triassic appearance of Triops cancriformis around 220 million years ago. Triops cancriformis may therefore be the "oldest living animal species on earth." They also grow very fast and for the first week or more, a substantial increase in size can be seen from day to day. Having had no prior knowledge of this animal, there are too many fine details about its morphology and habits for me to try to get in to so I will just leave you with a couple of good links from people who actually know these animals. Here is the page of the company that produces the kit I bought. Here is the Triops information page.

The above pics show the size of my triops after 2-3 weeks, what the underside looks like (they frequently swim upside down), and the box that the kit came in.

Here is a brief video of my Triops pair at YouTube or a larger, sharper Quicktime Triops video is here (7.5 mb, 27 sec.).

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

Also visit Circus of the Spineless #30 at A DC Birding Blog for some down home invertebrate goodness.

Super Bowl XLII Predictions Recap

2008-02-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

Well I guess I didn't do to well again this year with my predictions for Super Bowl XLII.
Here is a recap:

1. Final score: New England 34, New York 24.
Way wrong, NY 17, NE 14.

2. Tom Brady will throw for 3 touchdown passes and have 2 interceptions.
Wrong again, Brady threw 1 touchdown and had no interceptions.

3. Randy Moss will catch 1 of those touchdown passes.
Correct, Moss had 1 touchdown reception.

4. Wes Welker will once again exceed what is expected of him and he will catch 2 touchdown passes.
Nope, Welker did lead with 11 catches and 103 yards, but no touchdowns.

5. Laurence Maroney will rush for less than 90 yards but he will run one in for a score.
Woo hoo! I got another one right! Maroney had 36 rushing yards with one rushing touchdown.

6. Manning will not play a perfect game and will therefore lose, but he will make a decent effort throwing for 2 touchdowns with 3 interceptions.
Wrong. Manning did not play a perfect game, throwing 1 interception, but he did have a great effort with two touchdowns including a game winner with less than a minute in the game.

7. Plaxico Burress will top 100 yards receiving with 1 touchdown reception.
Nah. Burress did have a single touchdown reception but only 27 yards.

8. Amani "its not a" Toomer will catch the other touchdown pass.
NO! He did lead the team with 84 receiving yards but no score.

9. Brandon Jacobs will have 100+ rushing game with a single goal line touchdown run.
Another bad guess. Jacobs only had 42 rushing yards and no touchdowns.

As always, my excitement about Super Bowl Sunday will go way beyond the game itself. I will be spending the afternoon with my good friends with whom I have enjoyed many great games leading up to this grand finale. Whether the Giants upset the offensive juggernaut, or the Pats do as expected and go undeafted all the way, it is too late for this game to be anything but a big damn deal.
Yes. As far as I am concerned, this game was a big damn deal and I say congratulations to the New York Football Giants for a wonderful game and to the New Enlgand Patriots for a fantastic season which made this Super Bowl Sunday so exciting.

Time-lapse Colored Water in Melting Ice and a Tulip

2008-01-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

640x480, mov, 4.4 mb 33 sec

For this time-lapse video, I started by freezing water in an ice cube tray. Before the cube was completely solid, I used a syringe to inject some colored water in the center and let it freeze a little longer. Then I placed the cube in the glass of water with the tulip. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software to make the movie. Initially the pics were taken about every 4-6 seconds but I stretched it out to every few minutes once I focused on the flower. I used the Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music.

Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos or all these plus others can be seen at my YouTube player page.

Super Bowl XLII Predictions

2008-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

After the previous two years Super Bowl predictions, it would be reasonable to have low expectations from me, but I can assure you that I have been paying attention this year and things are much more clear to me.

I will get right to the punch, the Patriots will win. It will be a close three quarters, then luckily for the Giants, time run out just as the Pats start to run away with it. Final score: New England 34, New York 24.

For the Winning Patriots:

Tom Brady will throw for 3 touchdown passes and have 2 interceptions.

Randy Moss will catch 1 of those touchdown passes.

Wes Welker will once again exceed what is expected of him and he will catch 2 touchdown passes.

Laurence Maroney will rush for less than 90 yards but he will run one in for a score.

For the losing Giants:

Manning will not play a perfect game and will therefore lose, but he will make a decent effort throwing for 2 touchdowns with 3 interceptions.

Plaxico Burress will top 100 yards receiving with 1 touchdown reception.

Amani "its not a" Toomer will catch the other touchdown pass.

Brandon Jacobs will have 100+ rushing game with a single goal line touchdown run.

As always, my excitement about Super Bowl Sunday will go way beyond the game itself. I will be spending the afternoon with my good friends with whom I have enjoyed many great games leading up to this grand finale. Whether the Giants upset the offensive juggernaut, or the Pats do as expected and go undeafted all the way, it is too late for this game to be anything but a big damn deal.

As for my part in this fantasy football season, I participated in 2 leagues. I won the league, which coincidentally I sponsored. It was more due the fact that I had Tom Brady as my quarterback, than any advantage I may have had as commissioner. Brady was the 37th overall pick in that league. I also picked up Wes Welker in the early mid season who became a steady producer.

I won the loser's bracket in the 2nd league I participated in. How did I get to the loser's bracket? Well I had the 14th pick of 14 teams and came up with Laurence Maroney and Matt Leinart as my first 2 picks. They both were terrible in the early season until Leinart finally broke his clavicle and New England finally started running a little to give Maroney some reps, by then it was too late. Tom Brady was also responsible for some fantasy domination in this league as well. He helped his owner outscore all others for the season on an otherwise mediocre team.

Happy Super Bowl!!!

Time-lapse Ice Melting in a Wine Glass

2008-01-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

click to view video

This Time-laspe video was taken over several hours with my Canon PowerShot S3 IS along with my recently purchased GBTimelapse softwae, Both of which have been very satisfying so far. I took a picture about every 5 seconds during the shooting. The main faults are that I accidentally got my foot hung in a cord and knocked the camera off the table, which is noticealbe at about 13 seconds when you see the glass shift a little. I also was not able to figure out how to turn on the macro funtion with the GBTimelapse software until near the end of the shooting. It is not apparent on the YouTube version due to the degree of compression but you can see it at around the 2/3 mark on the quicktime version. I used my Sony Acid Music Studio software to create the music.

Here is the YouTube version of Ice Melting in a Wine Glass. Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos.

Time-lapse Crystals Growing

2008-01-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

Click to view Video, 6.9 mb, 33 sec, Quicktime

This is one of my first videos made with my recently purchased Canon PowerShot S3 IS. The main reason I chose this camera over the newer Canon PowerShot S5 IS is that I had read that the intervalometer feature was not in the later model and of course it was a little cheaper. I used the intervalometer to take a picture every 4 minutes during the 2 days that I allowed the crystals to grow. I used the "Space Age Crystal Growing Kit" as directed except that I didn't place any rocks in the solution to seed the crystals. The video turned out about okay, the crystals grew, but the visual effect is kind of bland. The quicktime version on my site is much sharper than the YouTube version. I made the music using my Sony Acid Music Studio software.

You can see my other time-lapse and stop motion videos here.

Time-lapse Sunset from the Hancock Tower

2007-11-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

click the pic to view 3.5mb, 7 sec.

This is a brief time-lapse video I made in Chicago while on a visit there back in October. We were up in the bar of the Hancock tower and obviously had an excellent table. I used my good ol' Sony Cybershot, taking each picture about every 15 seconds while resting the camera on the back of the booth I was sitting in. It is a little short because we didn't think to start taking the pics until the sun was almost all the way down.

Here's the video at YouTube.

Other time-lapse and stop motion videos can be seen here.

Bat-O'-Lantern

2007-10-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

This year's family pumpkin carving contest involved nine entries, with these three being entries from my household. My wife did the BOO! pumkin, a very unoriginal performance, deserving its seventh place finish. My official entry was the one on the right, it was supposed to have 3 eyes but its left eye came off when I was removing the part I cut out, I think it turned out just as well anyway. It got fourth place. The middle one was my 3 year old's official entry which I spent most of my time on. It was meant to be a bat; it won first place. I made the ears in a fashion similar to last year's chimp pumpkin. Next year, the quality of my boy's entries will go down, when we will be required to cut his pumpkin from what ever he draws on there without any help.

Friday Herplogging: Red Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum syspila

2007-10-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was out jogging in my neighborhood, when I came across this beautiful small snake on the side of the road right next to my house. After my initial reaction, which was as usual to suddenly leap about 5 feet into the air, I went back to inspect it. I quickly employed a rule of thumb for dealing with snakes having this sort of coloration - "Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black friend of Jack" - to identify this as a nonpoisonous specimen. I knew there were some coral snake mimics around here, but I had never seen any so I grabbed it and took it in for the photo session and identification. I found that this is a red milk snake or Lampropeltis triangulum syspila. Here are the Steps I took to ID this snake using the book The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas by Stanley Trauth et al:

1. Facial pit absent, pupil of eye round, double row of subcaudal scales extending to near tip of tail.

2. Dorsum with red, black, yellow, and/or white bands and rings.

3. Dorsum with red bands not bordered by yellow; red and black bands or blotches touching; bands not encircling the body; no fangs present.

4. Snout blunt (rostral scale not enlarged), venter with irregular clusters of dark scutes.

5. Dorsum of head red; lateral blotches greatly reduced or absent.

After the pictures were taken I let the snake go of course. With further research, I discovered a few interesting facts:

1. Another variation of the rhyme mentioned above is "Red touches yellow, kill a fellow. Red touches black, venom lack."
2. The Texas Coral Snake, Micrurus tener tener, the snake I was intending to avoid playing with by using the above rhyme, is the only species of coral snake that lives in Arkansas and is only in the southwestern part.
3. Those rhyming rules only apply to coral snakes living in North America as I found by unsuccessfully applying the rule to these coral snakes.

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.

This red milk snake has been added to the Webiocosm Zoo.

An Ode to Floaters

2007-09-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I have had floaters for long as I can remember, but they have never really been that bothersome until my last visit with my ophthamologist. My prescription was increased a little and since then, it seems like my floaters have been getting in the way just a little more often. That is what made this scene from Family Guy especially funny to me when I saw it for the first time a few nights ago. It is from the fifth season, episode 11: The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which first aired on 2/18/07. This is one of the many scenes from this show that have me convinced that the writers of this show are geniuses.

Here is another link to the scene if the YouTube version goes down.

stylin' with CSS

2007-08-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

I am now attempting to build web pages using nothing more than code I type using the web page editor provided by my web host at the domain Webiocosm.net. This will be a slow process since I will have to split my already very limited "computer time" between checking my many e-mail accounts and working on multiple other half-baked internet diversions. Since everything I have done relating to publishing websites has been self-taught, I have chosen a book called, stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide by Charles Wyke-Smith. Here is the starting practice page. I am not sure just yet if I am going to archive these stages of development or if I will just let it disappear. I realize that this is probably only interesting to me, but I am linking these pages here so the crawlers will find them. This is just in case anyone out there wants to see what I am doing, or at least wants to find a reference to the book, which I like so far.

BrainGate's First Test Subject Dies at 27

2007-07-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

I hadn't heard any big news lately on BrainGate, which is a type of neural interface system mentioned several times here previously. That is until a few days ago when I saw that someone had come to this site with the Google search term "Matt Nagle cause of death". Then I followed that same path and found an obituary from the Boston Globe, stating that he had died on July 16 from sepsis. There are no other details relating to the cause of death. The article does mention that the brain implant had previously been removed, from that statement I only assume that his death was not related to that particular experiment, but more likely to one or some of the many comorbidities of quadriplegia. It appears that his death is now being investigated as a homicide.

I give my condolences and best wishes to his family and friends.

New Bulletin Board and the First Forum, Time-lapse Videos

2007-07-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I purchased the domain webiocosm.net through a different provider with hopes of finding a system of running not just my blog, but also the entire website without an expensive or obsolete program like Front Page. I am still mainly using the domain webiocosm.com at this time, but I am looking to employ or at least test some of the features readily available on this new service. As a result I have started the Webiocosm Bulletin board to promote discussion about topics that I and other readers find important. Here is the first Forum, which is about Time-lapse videos.

Update 08/16/07: Forget the Bulletin Board, it is too much trouble keeping the porn and medication peddlers off of there.

Arthropod Friday: Common House Centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata

2007-07-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

click to enlarge

This is a common house centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata. I saw several of them and took this picture 2 days ago while cleaning out a storage area under my house. They were very fast moving and made me jump when I first saw them. Animals like this don't usually bother me too much, but I was already in a heightened state of creepiness because of all the brown recluse spiders I had been seeing. After the photo session, I killed a few of them but a couple got away. I began to regret that a little after reading about their feeding habits, because they eat alot of household pests such as spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish. I have never seen one of these in my living space, so I am not too worried about them bothering us. Apparently they can bite humans and sometimes deliver some venom but the bite is about equivalent to a honey bee sting.

The house centipede, when fully grown, has an average of 17 pairs of long legs, which allow them to run faster than other centipedes, up walls and along ceilings and floors. Young centipedes have four pairs of legs when they are hatched. They gain a new pair with the first molting, and two pairs with every subsequent molting.Its body is yellowish grey or brown and has three dark-colored dorsal stripes running down its length; the legs also have dark stripes. They also have well developed faceted eyes unlike most other centipedes.

Sources: Wikipedia, ADW

Don't forget to check out Modulator's Friday Ark.