Giant Ginkgo

Yesterday I came across this article about one of the most famous and mysterious finds of ancient technology: Baghdad's Batteries. These batteries were discovered in 1938, and are capable of creating up to several volts of output. Beyond that, very little is known.

Another example of amazing and thoroughly unexpected technology is the ancient greek 'computer,' which was discovered in 1901. It appears to be a machine for calculating the motion of the stars and planets...

I hope that other treasures like that surface from the wrecks located in the bottom of the Meditteranean.

This picture came out exactly how I wanted it to look. It was taken in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, near the skating rink and Michigan Avenue.

A couple of days ago Lake Michigan was covered in ice from horizon to horizon. The ice by the shore was comprised of thin sheets that had been completely shattered into countless pieces. The lake looked like it was made out of broken glass instead of water; I'm guessing that the winds were strong enough to blow the larger icebergs into the shore to create the fragments.

   

I discovered the ice while I was walking home at night, I came back the next morning hoping to have some direct sunlight so that it would glow. That didn't happen, but I did get some moody pictures of a sullen and mean looking lake. At the end of the breakwater somebody had hauled a large and heavy old television out, and apparently smashed it in some sort of ritual fashion. It wasn't there when I checked it out the night before.

This morning the sun was out so I returned to take some more pictures. Unfortunately most of the ice had drifted away during the last 24 hours, leaving a much smaller area to see. The ice glittered like diamonds from some angles, the shards provided a much richer range of contrast in the bright light. I've added the photos to my Chicago Winter album if you want to check them out.

Topping my current list of movies that I really want to see is Winged Migration, a documentary about birds. The cinematrography looks absolutely breathtaking, the camera is flying with the birds providing a POV that humans have never really experienced.

The film has limited narration, allowing the camera and the birds to tell the 'story' through most of it.

Tonight was a really cool night of weird weather in Chicago. A strong frontal winter storm blew through this evening, with blinding snow and 50 mile an hour winds. I am sure that if it happened during the spring we would have seen some tornadoes.

I left work late tonight, so I decided to catch the 'L,' since the 147 probably wasn't running. The walk to the train was quite difficult, due to the incredibly strong gusts of wind that pummeled me every time I entered an open area. I managed to get to the stair case at Grand just in time to catch this small Asian woman who was literally being blown across the sidewalk. The slush was too slippery and she was quickly heading to the road!

I took a few pictures tonight, and finally set up a gallery of some of my Chicago Winter night time pictures...

   

I visited my favorite hangout, the Chase Cafe and managed to catch the end of a cool fundraising event to preserve the area's uniqueness, and keep the shoreline the way it is. The event ended with a beautiful fire dancing performance, which I took some cool shots of the the dancers and their arcing fire.

This is my silly cat hanging out in the bathroom sink. Apparently it is very cosey!

Masamune Shirow's manga series, animated movies and current TV series 'Ghost in the Shell' show characters using a type of camouflage that makes the wearer nearly invisible. (The movie 'Predator' and the last James Bond film also show variations of this idea.) The basic principle is a refinement of the World War II vehicle cloaking technology that was pioneered by the United States (and possibly Britain). The early experimental trucks would measure the value of light on one side of the vehicle and reproduce the intensity on the other side using a grid of lights, at a distance the vehicles would blend into the horizon. The practicality of armored vehicles covered in light bulbs deterred any sort of real use for the technology.

In recent times there have been rumors and rumblings about American experimental stealth aircraft that possess a more advanced variant of the optical camouflage, utilizing an advanced fiber optic skin to produce a similar effect. Whether or not this is factual remains unknown at this time.

A couple of days ago a story broke about a real, rudimentary form of personal optical camouflage being shown by a researcher at Tokyo University. While it is quite dependent on the exact viewpoint of the observer, it is a pretty amazing acomplishment...

Columbia exploded while coming down to land today, killing all seven astronauts on board and leaving wreckage over Nacogdoches, Texas.

I still remember clearly when the Challenger exploded during take off back in 1986. It was the first national tragedy that I can remember clearly, I was in middle school and we all just watched the news in disbelief. My condolences go out to the families and friends of the astronauts and everyone else involved in the shuttle program.

It can even be seen on radar...