Category Archives: Photos

Photo: Girl at Angkor Wat

Posted on July 29, 2010 | 3 Comments

This little girl was waiting for her mother to finish work and was much more interested in the orange slices than the crumbling history around her.

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Posted in Cambodia, Photos

Photo: Ferris Bueller Reenactment

Posted on July 27, 2010 | 6 Comments

Taken May 31, 2008

Everyone who was a teenager in America since 1986 knows Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which beyond being an awesome movie involved a lot of shenanigans around the city of Chicago.  One of my favorite scenes from that movie is when Ferris and his friends visit the art museum, which is of course the Art Institute of Chicago and Cameron faces off with A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jette.  After admiring the famous painting for ourselves my brother and I couldn’t help but pay homage to one of our favorite movies.

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Posted in Illinois, Photos

Photo: The View on Santorini

Posted on July 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

Hot here today, almost as hot as the visit to Santorini!  These churches and houses are basically perched on the edge of a giant volcanic caldera that last erupted a few thousand years ago, which is a blink of an eye in geologic terms.  In fact, there is archeological evidence that that the fabled lost city of Atlantis was on Santorini pre-explosion- lots of beautiful artifacts in the museum here- which would have wiped everybody out in a giant tsunami.  They’re still excavating the site several decades after discovering it though, but I’m hoping someday I can return to this island and to see the ancient Greek version of Pompeii!

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Posted in Greece, Photos, Science!

Photo: Japanese Bicycle and Cat

Posted on July 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

Taken January 18, 2009

This picture was taken on my first full day on my round the world trip in Tokyo, Japan.  I still have to wonder- how does this guy convince his cat not to jump out?!

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Posted in Japan, Photos

Photo: Mount Washington Boat and Mountain

Posted on July 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Off to New Hampshire in a few minutes for the long weekend (4th of July for the non-Yanks who read these pages).  Fireworks, lake, family, what more could one want?

The boat above is called the Mount Washington, named after the snow-capped peak behind it which is the tallest peak in New England and the site of the world’s biggest wind ever recorded at 216mph.  Trust me, it’s a lot bigger when it’s not so far away!

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Posted in America (United States Of), New Hampshire, Photos

Photo: Ham Radio Contest

Posted on June 26, 2010 | 2 Comments

Taken November 16, 2008

So you people don’t know this, but I actually live a life of secret celebrity.  The issue is to quote my brother it’s in a hobby that’s probably up there with accordion playing so you’ve never heard about it.

In short I have been an amateur (Ham) radio operator since the age of 16, and because there’s a greater gender disparity than a physics department and I happen to be good at operating- think I set a new record for the Great Lakes region in our last contest good- most people who hear me on the air immediately know “the YL [young lady] from W8EDU,”  the callsign of the Case Western Reserve University station. (I have my own callsign too of course, KB3HTS.) Or maybe they looked up amateur radio operator on Wikipedia, whatever.

Anyway so what is Ham radio anyway (is it kosher?) and why do I like it?  In short, you take an exam and get a callsign and get on the air and talk to people- Hams are the ones who will get on the air when disaster strikes and all other communications are knocked out, so you’d better be nice to us.  What I always loved most about it though is the broadcasting- I know lots of people must think the Internet got rid of the intrigue of talking to people in faraway lands (and to be fair for many it did), but there’s definitely a romantic magic to getting your station on the air and knowing anyone from San Francisco to Swaziland might call back over the cackle of static.  For someone who loves to travel, there’s something amazing about knowing my voice has traveled to every US state and Canadian province and nations spread over five continents, even if the rest of me never did.  I’ve talked to people in war zones and remote Atlantic islands, people sailing from California to Hawaii and even heard the astronauts chattering above.  How could the Internet replace that?

Anyway, I’m wrapping this up now because I’m heading off to see the USA-Ghana game in a sec and then going out for the biggest Ham radio contest of the year- 24 hours simulating emergency conditions, which means generator power and temporary antennas (and believe you me, when the tornadoes sweep through our area people are glad someone knows how to do this).  Wish us luck!

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Posted in America (United States Of), Ohio, Photos, Science!

Photo: Sand Dunes in Sossusvlei, Namibia

Posted on June 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

Taken June 28, 2009

Before anyone accuses me, I swear this is not Photoshopped and this is actually what the sand dunes looked like.  Deep in the Namib desert, the oldest desert on the planet, the sand dunes can get up to 350 meters high which makes them the tallest in the world.  The dunes are so stark that the area is said to be a popular landmark for the astronauts in fact!

The amazing thing is how when driving here the sand just shows up in clumps on the ground as if a giant’s child dropped scoops from his sand pail until the dunes dominate the horizon.  How did it get here?  Amazingly from the Atlantic Ocean over 50km away- the mighty Orange River deposits so much land that a mere tributary created the second largest canyon in the world, which is deposited on the land and picked up by the wind.  Over time, some geologists have estimated tens of millions of years, the sand is deposited here.

A final interesting detail though is how in the winter (when this picture was taken) the direction of the wind changes so it comes off the mountains located leftward in this picture, so the sand dunes shift accordingly.  See how the dunes in the distance lean towards the right?  It’s because the wind blows the sand up the straight side of the dune over the crest and then finally settles on the far side due to the wind shade, giving the dune its normal shape.  In a few months the wind will change direction and the crests will face the opposite direction, ensuring that these dunes don’t move very much over time and can get so tall.

Oh, and the dunes are orange because of iron oxide, the same reason Mars is red.  But you knew that, right?

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Posted in Namibia, Photos, RTW #1, Science!

Photo: Painting Retouch, Royal Palace in Bangkok

Posted on June 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Taken February 9, 2009

The Royal Palace in Bangkok is filled with amazing artwork like the mural above, but time and the extreme humidity can’t do good things to the paintings!  This artist was busy at work retouching the gold- you can see how much he’s done, and how much he still had to do…

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Posted in Photos, RTW #1, Thailand

Photo: Capri, Italy

Posted on June 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Taken March 2009

This helpful advice is brought to you by the port authority on the island of Capri in Italy, proving that Engrish is not an exclusively Asian commodity.  Though I won’t make much fun of them because c’mon, it’s sensible advice!

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Posted in Italy, Photos, RTW #1

Photo: Franz Joseph Glacier, New Zealand

Posted on June 16, 2010 | 7 Comments

Taken May 25, 2007

Pop quiz hot shots: if you ever find yourself on a glacier hike in New Zealand (and you should, it’s great fun!) what makes the ice blue instead of the white we’re used to?

Answer: it depends on the light that’s reflected.  Atoms interact with wavelengths of light differently causing some to be reflected and some to be absorbed, so for example something is black when it absorbs all the light hitting it (and why black objects get hot!).  Everyone’s favorite life-sustaining molecule, H2O, vibrates in a way that absorbs light towards the red side of the spectrum, leaving the blue color you see above.

So why is ice and snow usually white then?  For the simple reason that virtually all the light you see hitting a snowy surface is scattered a few times and eventually reflects back, giving white, and this overwhelms the faint blue color water normally has.  It’s only when the light is absorbed by the water (you usually need around a meter of it) that the blue makes it through, similar to how coffee looks light when poured but much darker in a cup.

And that is why glaciers look so damn cool.  The more you know…

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Posted in New Zealand, Photos, Science!