Superbowl XLIII Predictions Update

Well I guess I got what I asked for, a good close game, exciting until the very end.

As far as my sole prediction, I feel like I did pretty good. I predicted the Steelers would win over the Cardinals 24-20. I was on the money with the spread of 4 points for the right team, but with a final score of 27-23 I was off by 3 points for each team.

Congratulations to the six time champion Steelers.

Video of the Game Winning Touchdown

Super Bowl XLIII Predictions

Due to the extreme ice storm, causing massive power outages, I have had very limited access to the internet for the last several days. This is not a complaint, because so many have had it so much worse than I have. I am just mentioning that as a reminder and as an explanation for why I will only have one prediction this year...........

The Steelers will win over the Cardinals 24 to 20.

I have mixed feelings about this game. I like Pittsburgh and I think they probably are a better team, but I would love for Kurt Warner to go all the way. I mostly just want it to be a close game until the very end.

Enjoy the game!!!!!!!

The Set Up for the Rotting Fruit and Vegetables Time-Lapse

Here is a picture of the set up for my most recent time-lapse project. The lights were not initially so close, but when the weather turned cold, I moved one light in closer to keep the temp. up and keep the process going at a better pace.

Fruit and Vegetables Decomposing, Time-lapse

This is probably my most extensive time-lapse project yet. I Placed the fruit and vegetables in a large tub in the storage area under my house and took a picture every ten minutes. The playback at 30 frames per second took too long and was not as exciting, so I used a quarter of the pictures, making it 1 picture every 40 minutes. This video spans 74 days. The growth at the end of the video is from the potato. Also, the hundreds or thousands of little specks you see buzzing around are fruit flies. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and GBTimelapse software on a laptop. I used Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music.

2008 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

This year's family pumpkin carving contest for halloween was pretty exciting. There were 14 entries and all of them were interesting. The jack-o'-lanterns you see above were from my household which again did well. The toothy one on the far left was my 11 month old's entry; it won first place with a little help from dad. The sad one next to it was my wife's second place winner, much better than last year's sorry effort. The hellish jack seen swallowing up a desolate soul which is third from the left was my entry. It got 4th place. I really expected better, but my hat's off to the others. The one on the far right was my 4 year old's, he was deemed big enough to create his own this year; he drew it and I cut it out, hence the very avant-garde final product. It actually placed seventh, not bad out of 14.

Common Housefly Life Cycle In Time-lapse

Time-lapse fly development, 640x480, .mov, 9.9 mb, 2 min.
Time-lapse fly development, 640x480, .AVI, 9 mb, 2 min.

This is a time-lapse video of the growth and devopment of the common housefly, Musca domestica. I started the project by taking a leftover piece of baked chicken and leaving it outside, in the warm summer sun for a few hours. I then took the container in overnight. By the time I came back the next afternoon, the eggs had hatched. This is where the video picks up. After about 4 days, I moved some of the maggots to the glass container, where it was cooler and dry, so they could pupate, which began taking place a couple of days later. Then, I removed the pupae and placed them in the small bowl containing sand. I left the glass container in view in the back so the remaining larvae could continue to be observed. As an afterthought, I placed a larva that had gotten away on the sand beside the pupae and luckily it stayed in view as it prepared to pupate. You can see the pupae darken as they age, which is typical. After about 5 days the adult flies began to emerge and this lasted for several more days. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and GBTimelapse software on a laptop. Until the adult flies emerged, I was shooting each picture at a rate of 1 picture every 3 to eight minutes. Then I had to speed it up to every 5 seconds because they came out so fast. The movie was then played back at 30 fps. I used Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music. The YouTube version of this video is available here. I also Made a real time video of an emerging fly which can be seen below or a higher quality wmv version can be seen here.

I used the U of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences' web page for the house fly as my resource for the expected timing of the stages of development and other information.

All my time-lapse and other videos viewed from my time-lapse home page or on my YouTube player page.

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

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

Time-lapse Burning Wheatfields, 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.

UPDATE 7/10/08: Here is a good still shot of a cumulus cloud forming from the burning of wheat stubble by professional photographer Judd Patterson.

Friday Herplogging - Red-eared Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans

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.